As Alex's voice came through the line, Sam quietly listened, the weight of it sinking in. The café around him seemed to fade into stillness—muffled background noise falling away as each word from Alex struck like a metronome in his ears.
"I knew this world was twisted," Sam finally said, voice low. "But I didn't think it'd be this broken. Alex, you know me and Dean followed up on the leads you gave us—about Captain America and the Red Guardian?"
Alex already had a hunch, but still asked, "What did you find?"
"It's a mess," Sam sighed. "We tracked down an old World War II museum in the South. There were remnants of the Howling Commandos... but the Super Soldier Program? It never succeeded. Captain America never existed. Dr. Erskine died too early. And that one change? It spiraled into everything being... wrong."
Another collapsed timeline. Another nightmare-origin universe.
Alex thought silently. Maybe this was how the higher-dimensional realm contaminated the multiverse—by denying the very foundations. All it took was a slight deviation at the root, and heroes became myths, failures, or worse—absent.
"That doesn't surprise me," Alex muttered. "Logan and I talked about the war. He didn't remember any super-soldiers. From that moment, I had a bad feeling."
Then his tone shifted. "What are you and Dean doing now?"
Sam suddenly snapped back to the present. "Right! That's why I called. Dean and I ran into a berserker-class mutant on the way to track down a HYDRA cell. He's different—there's something buried in him. And get this—he knew I wasn't from this universe."
Alex's voice sharpened. "What did you just say?"
"He said he saw someone. A man."
Alex frowned, tension growing. "You're telling me this mutant actually saw whoever brought him to this universe? And they spoke?"
Sam nodded. "That's what he claimed."
Alex pressed, "Did he describe the man? Was it... a group of bald men, with glowing blue eyes?"
"He didn't get the chance," Sam admitted. "Some guy named Pierce showed up—he had a whole squad of mercenaries with him. Took the mutant down hard. Dean and I followed them to a supposedly 'shut down' medical facility. I stayed behind to track the building, Dean took another route."
But then Sam paused. Something Alex had said earlier had triggered a realization.
"Wait. The bald men with blue glowing eyes—you don't mean—?"
"Stop," Alex interrupted quickly. "Don't say their name."
His voice dropped to a grim whisper.
"They're sensitive to being named. That might be enough for them to notice you. And right now, you're still in the shadows. Keep it that way."
Sam instinctively clapped a hand over his mouth, his heart skipping a beat. He'd nearly spoken the name. Whatever those beings were—Alex clearly feared them. That was enough to keep Sam quiet.
He just hoped Dean stayed out of their line of sight too.
As fear gripped Sam, a deeper understanding of these beings' terrifying power settled in. The idea that someone could sense your presence just by hearing your name—what kind of monstrous force was that?
"Don't be too surprised," Alex said calmly on the other end. "I can do something similar now. Beings who've transcended the multiverse… their names carry a strange and potent energy. It might be tied to divine power or belief—maybe it's encoded in the very laws of the universe. I don't fully understand it either. But what I do know is this—summoning awareness through a name isn't as simple as it sounds."
He paused, letting the weight of that statement sink in, then continued. "Not every utterance is heard. But we can't take any chances. Especially not you and Dean."
"Got it," Sam nodded firmly. Then he hesitated before asking, "So now that we've identified who we're dealing with, do we still need to infiltrate this place? The Essex Group's facility looks seriously locked down."
Alex understood the tone. Sam wasn't the type to back out of anything. If he was asking this, it meant even he didn't feel confident about going in without backup. Which meant the risk was real.
It made sense. Sam and Dean had been operating since 2005—a time when smartphones were still a novelty, and surveillance tech was primitive at best. But this world was different.
This wasn't their timeline filled with ghosts, demons, and shadowy cabals. This was decades ahead—a future where tech had leapfrogged wildly. Sure, the world around them might seem just as broken or even more outdated in places, but the surveillance? The security? That was cutting edge.
This wasn't just sneaking past a few cameras or bribing a guard. This was infiltrating a corporate fortress backed by high-tech systems and shadowy benefactors. The rules had changed. And Sam knew it.
The Essex Corporation stood at the top of the technological food chain. Trying to sneak into their experimental facility was far from simple—it wasn't just dangerous, it was borderline suicidal.
After a moment of deep thought, Alex finally spoke.
"No. You and Dean have a different mission to focus on."
— — —
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of New York, hidden within a dense forest, a large group of mutants had gathered. Most of them bore visible injuries, and their numbers easily exceeded several hundred.
"It's no use…"
A man known as Longshot closed his eyes, frowning slightly. After a few moments, he opened them again with a sigh of disappointment, then turned to face the armored middle-aged man standing beside him.
"My King, I'm afraid Pyro won't be making it. He was ambushed on the highway by humans armed with advanced tech. They've captured him."
The man addressed as "King" wasn't just anyone—it was a younger version of Magneto. Upon hearing the news, his face darkened.
"Fools," Magneto muttered coldly.
The situation had been dire from the moment they arrived in this twisted version of Earth. From the instant they crossed into this world, they had been met with human hostility. Although the initial ambush caused little harm, what followed next nearly annihilated them:
A Wild Sentinel.
A massive, towering machine, one far more advanced than anything the X-Men had ever encountered, appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It didn't just attack—it hunted mutants. It targeted them with terrifying precision.
The devastation was unlike anything they'd faced before. Dozens of less experienced or weaker mutants were wiped out before they could even mount a defense. It was a massacre. And it was something Magneto—Erik Lehnsherr—could not forgive.
Letting out a heavy breath, Magneto stepped onto a platform—one he had forged from surrounding metal debris—elevating himself so that all the weary and wounded mutants before him could see him clearly.
"My brothers and sisters,"
Magneto's voice rang out, grim and resolute.
His gaze swept across the entire gathering. An overwhelming presence burst forth from him, a sharp and burning intensity in his eyes that made many of the mutants below instinctively avert their gaze.
"I know most of you are not from the same universe as I am."
"I know… when you arrived in this unfamiliar world, you felt fear… and helplessness."
"And I also know—each and every mutant who's appeared here was ripped from their timeline just moments before death. Or to put it plainly—you were all sent here right before you died."
There was a pause.
"That includes me as well," Magneto said, his voice lowering for a brief moment.
But then, his voice roared to life.
"But!"
"Why can't we see this as our second chance!?"
He raised his right hand, pointing toward the sky.
"Those… beings who sent us here—did so with intent. They made promises. They offered us a world where mutants could thrive. As if it were a divine gift… a god's mercy to mortals."
Then, Magneto turned and pointed toward the distance.
"But what did we receive when we arrived here?"
"Our comrades—slaughtered."
"We were hunted by humans!"
His face darkened with fury, and those nearest to him could see the veins bulging on his forehead.
"Tell me, my brothers and sisters—is this the fate we mutants are destined for?"
"No," a few mutants murmured from the crowd—most still silent.
But Magneto wasn't discouraged. He pushed forward, voice like iron.
"We are mutants. We are the next step in evolution! We are Homo superior. We were born to lead humanity into a better future."
"But what have we received in return?"
"Prejudice for our superiority. Persecution for our power. We're forced to hide our gifts, our identities, to fit in—to survive."
"And even then, the humans still won't leave us alone!"
"They fear us. Yet they covet us. Those monsters in human skin—they capture our kin, slice open our flesh, rip through our insides, and dissect our genes."
"So…"
"My brothers and sisters…"
"Answer me this—no matter what world we exist in, must we always suffer this inhuman treatment? This endless hunt?"
There was a beat of silence.
And then—an eruption.
"NO!!!" roared the crowd, a wave of fury shaking the forest.
Magneto's eyes blazed with light as he stared down at his people.
"Should we continue to let a lesser species define who we are? Who we're allowed to be!?"
"NO!!!" the crowd screamed.
"Remember this! We are the apex of evolution! The ones at the top of the pyramid!"
"We were never meant to be prey—never meant to be vermin—not then, not now, not ever!"
"Failure in the past proves only one thing—that we've been too merciful! That our kindness has become their license to oppress us!"
"We've never struck first. But they? They made war on us! They drew first blood!"
"We've already lost once…"
Magneto's lips curled into a wicked grin.
"Now… who among you will rise with me and build a new set of rules for this world?"
...
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