The ocean was calm for about three seconds. Then a diagonal tear split the air above the island with a sharp crack as Doctor Doom stepped through the portal and hovered over the treeline. His cloak rippled behind him. He raised one gauntleted hand and released a colossal blast of green magic.
The beam hit the island's protective barrier with a deep whumm! that shook the ground. The barrier flickered, groaned like glass under a hammer, and finally shattered like a giant mirror. Shards of dying Celestial energy scattered in every direction before dissolving into dust.
Doom opened a second portal on the cracked soil below.
His team stepped out one by one. Elsa Bloodstone lifted her rifle and cracked her neck. Quicksilver flicked his fingers in annoyance, already impatient. Ghost faded in and out of visibility like a glitch in reality. Doc Ock's mechanical appendages scraped the ground as he scanned the jungle. Killmonger rolled his shoulders as his vibranium suit covered his body instantly. Abomination pressed his feet into the dirt hard enough to split it.
The island reacted almost instantly. The ground shook with a low rumble and a fissure opened at the base of the mountain. Apocalypse's Horsemen stepped out along with a pack of augmented mutants. War led the charge, his armor glowing with unstable kinetic energy that pulsed like a heartbeat made of explosives.
Caliban followed behind. Dark aura swirled around his newly upgraded celestial augmented body.
Angel streaked overhead with enhanced wings that cut through the sky like blades.
The remaining mutants snarled and moved in a loose formation.
War wasted no time. "Haaaaa!!" He slammed his fists together with a concussive boom. The blast wave tore through the sand, uprooted trees and launched Quicksilver off his feet.
"Too slow," Quicksilver recovered lightning-fast, skidding to a stop and giving War a quick smirk before he blurred forward. His fists struck War's armor in a rapid flurry, each impact landing with a sharp tak tak tak. War absorbed the blows, stored the kinetic force and released it in a single pulse that blasted Quicksilver across the clearing. "Fuck!" He crashed into a rock wall with a heavy crack.
Elsa stepped forward and fired an explosive round directly at War. The shot hit him with a bright whump. Smoke billowed into the air, but the Horseman marched through it unfazed.
Caliban advanced with eerie silence. His eyes glowed faintly as he absorbed the fear radiating from the lesser mutants around the battlefield. Ghost swooped in from above, phasing through a tree before striking for his throat. Caliban caught her by the arm, his grip cold and impossibly strong. She tried to phase again, but Caliban's Celestial augmentation disrupted her ability.
"I can smell your fear." A sickening grind of pressure made her wince as Caliban squeezed.
Doc Ock barreled toward them, his mechanical arms snapping like metal whips. One limb smashed into Caliban's ribs with a solid thunk. Caliban slid back several meters, releasing Ghost, who immediately phased out of reach.
"Careful, girl. He has some serious technology," Doc Ock said as he narrowed his eyes at Caliban.
Angel's wings released a flurry of sharpened feathers that sliced through the air with a high whirr. Killmonger dodged and rolled behind a fallen trunk. Elsa shot several feathers out of the air with quick pop pop pop bursts.
Abomination roared and charged into a cluster of Apocalypse's mutants. The collision sounded like boulders colliding. Bones cracked. Something splattered. He swung an arm and sent three mutants flying into the surf with a loud splash. Another mutant tried to leap onto his back, but Abomination grabbed him by the ankle, swung him like a club and smashed him into the ground with a messy thud.
Blood and gore splattered and rained around Abomination as he continued to slaughter. The mutant's abilities had almost no effect on him thanks to Doom's enhancement magic.
Overhead, Angel dove toward Doom's group. Doc Ock's arms lashed out, but Angel twisted midair, sliced through one mechanical limb with a clean shnk and spiraled into a second attack. Doc Ock staggered back as sparks rained over him.
Doom remained above the battlefield, perfectly still. He watched the chaos unfold without moving a muscle.
Apocalypse's forces pressed forward.
War unleashed another kinetic detonation that ripped a trench through the sand with a violent vrooom. Quicksilver zipped behind him and grabbed his helmet, pulling it aside for Elsa to take a precise shot that struck War in the temple with a loud crack. But it was useless against someone who controls and amplifies kinetic energy. But before he could unleash his energy, Abomination kicked him high up into the sky like a football.
Doom simply flicked his finger, sending a tiny beam of purple energy at War, "Absorb this."
Sadly, for War, he exploded as soon as he absorbed the energy beam. He was strong, yes. Stronger than Power Gem's energy beam? Nope.
Caliban rose from the dirt with a deep, guttural growl. Telepathic sickness radiated from him in waves, warping the air with a faint buzzing sound. Ghost flickered in and out of visibility as she dodged the assault. Doc Ock pinned Caliban's leg with a metal arm, only for Caliban to tear it off with his bare hands. The severed limb hit the ground with a metallic clang.
Angel swooped low, slicing open Abomination's back with a clean arc of metal. Abomination roared and grabbed a boulder, hurling it upward. The rock collided with Angel in a booming whud, sending him tumbling through the air before he caught himself with ragged wingbeats.
However, before he could fly away, Killmonger jumped up into the air and grabbed his throat, smashing him down on the ground. "Going somewhere? Chicken?"
Angel smashed his metal wings at Killmonger, but it wasn't enough to cut through the vibranium armor. "Get your filthy hands off me."
Killmonger simply smiled as he released the excess kinetic energy from Angel's attack, splattering him on the ground. But not before Angel shot a metal feather at Doc Ock at a blinding speed that pierced through his head, killing him instantly.
Suddenly, a loud voice boomed through the island.
"You disturb my sanctuary."
A massive wave of energy swept over the island.
Doom flicked his finger, teleporting Elsa, Killmonger, Quicksilver, Ghost and Abomination out of that place.
The remaining mutants on the island fell to their knees, screaming in agony as their life force was forcefully extracted.
Within 10 seconds, all died.
Then the island cracked apart like a broken plate. Sand split open. Trees collapsed inward. The entire landmass shuddered and then simply disintegrated. A rolling cloud of dust swept outward as the ground liquefied beneath it and the last fragments of soil crumbled into nothing.
The ocean water swept over...
Only two figures remained above the chaos.
Apocalypse rose into the sky, wrapped in a thin Celestial barrier that pulsed with steady blue light. His eyes glowed red.
Doom flew closer to meet him, cloak rippling in the violent updraft.
For a moment, they just hovered there.
Then Apocalypse spoke.
"You trespass. You bring your mongrels. You defile my sacred ground. For this, I will reduce your atoms to silence."
Doom replied with his arrogant tone. "You lost your Horsemen. Your army lies dead. And your sanctuary just turned into powdered landscaping. Now, it's your turn. Knell before me and hand over the Gem and I shall spare your corpse. Resist and you shall meet your doom."
Apocalypse dropped the barrier and shot forward in a blur.
He punched.
The air cracked. The shockwave bent light.
Doom caught the punch with one hand. His gauntlet flared with green magic sigils that absorbed the kinetic impact before redirecting it downward. The redirected force blasted a crater into the ocean below, steam erupting outward.
"So, you've chosen doom. So, be it," Doom said loudly.
Apocalypse snarled and shifted.
His right arm mutated, bones stretching and twisting into a thick, hardened club. His left arm elongated into something that looked annoyingly close to an organic power drill. His muscles expanded. Armor plates formed across his skin like volcanic rock cooling in fast motion.
He swung the club.
Doom raised a circular spell shield. The blow struck with a deafening crack, sending a shockwave across the sky. The shield flickered but held.
Apocalypse stabbed with the drill-arm.
Doom teleported a few feet back with a blink of green energy. The mutated spike missed by inches and tore open the air, leaving a faint ripple of warped space where it passed.
"A pest, no matter how many tricks it shows, it will always remain a pest," Apocalypse said as he opened his arms. "I'll show you what reality looks like."
...
..[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS]...
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