"Retreat!" Professor X screamed the order but it seemed a bit late.
Colossus charged forward, his metal form gleaming in the twisted light. He'd always been their tank, their unstoppable wall of protection. Now he paid the price for his courage.
Apocalypse touched him.
Colossus' metal body began to change. His organic steel warped and twisted, becoming something unstable and wrong. He screamed as his own power turned against him, his form shattering like glass under impossible stress.
Jean reached out to help, but psychic chains wrapped around her mind. She found herself trapped in a prison of her own thoughts, unable to access her telekinesis or telepathy. All she could do was watch as her friends fell.
She had tried using her telekinetic powers, tried to bring down the entire city on Apocalypse's head.
Buildings tore free from their foundations, metal twisted into deadly spears. For a moment, it looked like it might work.
Then Apocalypse smiled.
With a wave of his hand, everything she had thrown reversed course.
Instead it buried some weaker mutants under rubble.
Cyclops fired another blast, but this time Apocalypse didn't even bother blocking. The optic beam bent mid-air, redirecting into a group of X-Men trying to help those who are injured.
Scott watched in horror as his own power struck down his allies.
"No!" he screamed, but the damage was done.
One by one, the strongest mutants on Earth fell.
Beast lost an arm trying to fight the corrupted technology. Nightcrawler got impaled on a spike of twisted metal and barely managed to teleport away, leaving a trail of blood in the air. Professor X tried to reach Apocalypse's mind, to find the person Charles Xavier once knew buried somewhere inside that ancient consciousness.
The mental backlash shattered Charles' thoughts like a hammer through glass.
---
Apocalypse walked calmly through the devastation he'd created. His eyes landed on two specific mutants: Colossus and Wolverine. Both were injured, both were vulnerable.
Both were perfect.
"You will serve," Apocalypse said simply.
Celestial energy poured from his hands, wrapping around the two mutants like liquid light.
"Damn it!"
Logan fought it, his healing factor trying to burn away the corruption.
"I shall not be your slave...ahhh!"
Colossus tried to resist, but his damaged metal form couldn't hold against the power of an actual god.
The transformation was horrifying to watch.
Colossus' organic steel was reforged, infused with adamantium and Celestial metal. His body became completely indestructible, a walking monument to death itself. His eyes, once kind and full of compassion, turned cold and empty.
Wolverine's healing factor twisted inside him. Instead of just healing himself, his body became a carrier for a mutant-only virus. Every claw strike would now spread infection, turning friend into enemy with a single scratch.
The Four Horsemen were complete.
War—Magneto, able to manipulate planetary-scale magnetism.
Famine—Storm, whose weather control now spanned the globe.
Death—Colossus, rendered completely indestructible.
Pestilence—Wolverine, spreading corruption with every attack.
They turned on their former allies immediately.
"Logan, no!" Nightcrawler teleported in, trying to reach his old friend. Wolverine's claws found him anyway, piercing through Kurt's side. The teleporter screamed and vanished, leaving only blood behind.
Mystique barely dodged as Magneto—her former ally—tried to crush her with a wave of metal debris. She shape-shifted and ran, tears streaming down her blue face.
Several lesser-known mutants died in the chaos. Good people who'd fought bravely but couldn't stand against corrupted gods.
Captain Marvel rallied the survivors. "Fall back to Rally Point Omega! Move, move, move!"
Captain America cursed, "Damn it all!"
The retreat was a nightmare. Heroes carried wounded allies while dodging attacks from people they'd once called friends. Spider-Man webbed up Beast's injuries, his young voice cracking as he tried to stay calm. Thor summoned lightning to cover their escape, his face grim with determination.
He actually wanted to charge straight at apocalypse but he isn't fighting alone.
He is no longer the immature prince that cared not for the implications of his actions on those close to him.
Apocalypse made no attempt to chase them so they retreated successfully.
But in dejection.
But they were alive. Barely, but alive.
---
In his fortress, Apocalypse activated the Ascension Device.
The machine was massive, built from a fusion of Celestial technology and Hydra biotechnology. It pulsed with sickly green energy, ready to remake the world in Apocalypse's image.
Baron Strucker watched from the command center, his expression growing more horrified by the second. He'd served Apocalypse because the ancient mutant promised Hydra a place in the new world order. A world where Hydra ruled alongside mutantkind.
Now he understood the truth.
"This... this will kill all humans," Strucker said slowly. "Everyone who fails to evolve will die. You're going to wipe out billions of people."
"Yes," Apocalypse said simply. "Only the strong shall survive. Only those worthy of evolution."
"But Hydra—"
"Hydra is human. Weak. Temporary." Apocalypse turned to face Strucker, and the ancient mutant's eyes held no mercy. "You served your purpose. You helped me build this device. Now you are obsolete."
Strucker realized he'd been played. Hydra had thought they were using Apocalypse to conquer the world. Instead, they'd helped him build the weapon that would destroy them.
The Ascension Device hummed to life, its energy signature visible from orbit. Across the globe, humans began to feel it—a pressure in their genes, forcing change or death.
Earth had minutes left.
Human minutes.
Nick Fury looked at the large screen with a grim expression.
'Where the hell is Stark when I need him...'
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