Hello folks, this story is a sequel to my former Marvel Universe
story - Herald Of Armageddon - which in turn was a sequel to my X-Men
story - Something Sinister This Way Comes. The story is rather large,
and if you miss a chapter or nine, just request them from me, the author,
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Age Of Onslaught
Part 35/37
"This isn't good," said Rogue.
"No," said Gambit,"I say dat be an understatement."
They had been approaching the Stronghold, Rogue and Banshee
flying them in... and then they were in the Stronghold.
"I dinnae like it," muttered Banshee,"I didnae even get a sense
of being teleported, we were just here suddenly."
The stood in a giant chamber, at the center was a raised dais
with a large pile of dust on it.
"I think," said Banshee,"That this is Apocalypse's Throne Room....
but without the throne."
"Neither," said a deep, rasping voice,"Is Apocalypse."
They stared grimly at the back of the room, where the voice had
come from. The speaker emerged, seemingly from the very shadows, and
towered over them.
"Do you know who I am?" boomed the voice.
"Aye," said Banshee,"You look almost like Magnus."
"I am more now than Magnus," said the voice,"I am your
deliverance, I wiped out Apocalypse, his stain no longer spreads over
the land."
"What are you saying?" asked Nightcrawler, staring up at him
and feeling a sense of revulsion... and familiarity?
"I am saying," said Onslaught,"That you should bow them before
me, for I am your God!"
Banshee stared up at him with mouth wide open, transfixed upon
the giant, crimson armored figure. And then a smiled crossed his lips
and he started laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" snapped Onslaught.
"A God?" laughed Banshee.
"No," growled Onslaught,"Not a God, THE God, I am the only God!"
Banshee bent over double laughing.
"Try not my patience!" growled Onslaught.
"Remy," whispered Rogue to Gambit,"Who is this guy?"
"I don' know, chere," he replied,"Somet'ing familiar about him,
but not just de armor."
"He is the source of this lands sickness," whispered a voice in
their ears, they turned about and found themselves facing Shaman of
Alpha Flight.
Onslaught was furiously glaring at the laughing Banshee, he did
not seem to notice Shaman.
"This is not my body," said Shaman,"But an astral projection,
the sickness does not seem to be able to detect beings on the mystic
plane."
"So what is it?" asked Rogue,"It's not just the 'sickness in the
land' embodied...is it?"
"I sense that it is not truly a being," said Shaman,"It is made
up primarily of the darker parts of two men's souls, and it holds captive
four others, one a child. It feeds off their strengths like a leech."
"Magneto gotta be involved," said Gambit,"Else why would de armor
be so similar?"
"And he has psychic powers," replied Rogue,"Do yah remember that
Jean told us the X-Man sent that distress call from Israel? He must have
been defeated by this thing and held captive... who has the psychic power
to beat X-Man?"
"No one," replied Gambit,"But only one man got de skill to do it."
She nodded,"Xavier."
"The Professor?" asked Nightcrawler, who had silently moved
over to them. Onslaught continued to warn Banshee to stop laughing at
him.
"After all, during that whole thing when Magneto got the cosmic
powers (*)," said Rogue,"Xavier disappeared and the Mansion was destroyed,
and Ah never really brought that whole story about Magneto being burnt
up in the Earth's electro-magnetic spectrum. Maybe this creature here
was somehow behind it all?"
"But how?" asked Nightcrawler,"Surely someone powerful enough to
defeat Xavier and Magneto both would not have just appeared one day?"
"I believe," said The Shaman,"That the creature is the product
of the joining of the darker sides of the two men's souls. At some point
they must have been linked on a mental, emotional and mystical level
which allowed this to occur."
"Perhaps when de Professor took over Maggie's mind and blasted
him into space?" (**) surmised Gambit,"De Professor fell into a coma after
that and after he got brought out he had all them weird dreams about
Magneto."
"Forgetting that," said Rogue, glancing behind herself
at Banshee,"Shouldn't he have at least noticed us?"
"This conversation has taken place on a spiritual level," replied
Shaman,"The actual time of the conversation has been an eyeblink, but
when you go back he will be aware something has transpired, be prepared,
this thing is dangerous and powerful."
He faded into blackness.
"ENOUGH!" roared Onslaught,"I WILL NOT BE LAUGHED AT!"
Banshee stopped laughing, he opened his mouth to speak and blood
flowed down his chin in a small trickle. Then he collapsed onto his
face.
"What did you do to Banshee?" yelled Rogue.
"He is not important," said Onslaught,"Only I, and to a lesser
extent you from my world, are important."
"So you do come from the real world?" asked Nightcrawler,"And
are you a union of the darker halves of Xavier and Magneto's souls?"
Onslaught laughed.
"You have not reached that conclusion yourself, Kurt Wagner,"
he leaned forward, his head tilting at a peculiar angle,"But I shall
tell you, I am The Onslaught, my will is law, my word is reality. I
am more than the sum of my parts, I am the new evolution of man and
mutantkind."
"Impressive," remarked Rogue,"Consider us daunted."
"I will not be mocked," growled Onslaught,"Even now I am
singlehandedly holding off your fleet, and at the same time I brought
you here."
"Why?" asked Gambit,"Dat's what I want to know, why did you
bring us here?"
"Because you are a reminder of the old world," said Onslaught,"You
are a symbol of hope to people, you would make them question my absolute
rule."
"Wouldn't that be terrible," Blink said sarcastically.
"Yes," replied Onslaught,"Free will is a privilege, not a right,
humanity had it's chance to live in harmony and peace, now I will force it
upon them... for their own good."
"You're worse than Magneto," said Nightcrawler, stating a fact.
"Actually," said Onslaught,"I am more than Magneto ever could
have hoped to be."
"You told us why you brought us here," said Rogue,"Now what are
you going to do to us?"
Onslaught's expression couldn't be read, but they sensed that it
was smiling.
"Why, I brought you here to kill you, of course."
And at that moment a sleek, birdlike ship smashed through the
wall and into Onslaught.
-
"I was not expecting that," said The Silver Surfer.
"Be patient," said Warlock,"I will take us there when we are
needed."
"How?" asked The Surfer,"You never had the ability to slide
others in and out of these spaces between spaces before, that was strictly
Pip's motiff."
"Yeah," muttered Pip,"I kinda feel like a third wheel."
"Obviously Eternity gifted me with new abilities," replied Warlock
simply, and left it at that.
-
Onslaught's attention was diverted for a second as the plane
smashed into it. As the creature was pushed to it's knees the telekinetic
fleet disappeared for a second.
Regaining it's feet, Onslaught instantly recreated the fleet and
sent them back into battle. But it was a tremendous strain on
the mysterious creature, who had had no chance to rest itself and replenish
it's energy.
It instantly came under attack from Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler
and Blink, taking advantage of it's sudden vulnerability.
The Thing had crashed the ship in the hopes of
surprising Apocalypse, he wasn't sure what to think of this giant, armor
plated thing but saw X-Men fighting it.
"That's the bad guy, I think," he said, pointing through the
viewscreen at it,"I guess we better help out."
"YOU ARE DEAD!" screamed Onslaught,"STUPID SHEEP!"
It blasted the X-Men away with a huge flash of psionic energy,
and then prepared to finish them off. Captain America's shield smashed
into it's back, surprising the creature who had assumed the plane was on
a suicide run and the occupants were dead.
For a supposedly omnipotent being it was making a great deal of
oversights.
An invisible battering ram smashed into it's face, a giant, rocky
fist smashed into it's side, bright fireworks blinded it, the smell of
brimstone assailed it's senses as another Nightcrawler bamfed all about
it, punching and kicking furiously in scores of different places at
once.
"Gott in himmel," muttered Kurt Wagner, seeing his
genetic duplicate.
- ENOUGH! - roared Onslaught in their minds, freezing them in
place in a psionic grip, - I WILL NOT SUFFER YOUR INSOLENCE ANY
LONGER! -
A powerful optic blast knocked it off it's feet.
"WHAT!" it screamed.
"Whatever mindmagic you worked on us is over," growled Weapon X,
crouching in the dark entrance to the throneroom, Cyclops, Jean and the
others from below were with them, including Shaman, Madrox and a confused
Robbie Robertson,"We woke up and after some explaining from Jean on
what had happened, decided to come up here and kick your ass."
"The boss got that right," growled Marrow.
"IMPUDENT FOOLS!" roared Onslaught,"ENOUGH OF THIS....!"
A huge burst of silvery light smashed into the creature, knocking
it flying back across the room.
"Fear not," said Dr Doom, appearing from the shadows,"Your savior
is here."
"NO!" screamed Onslaught,"YOU ARE IN MADRIPOOR MAKING INEFFECTUAL
SPEECHES TO WEAK-WILLED FOOLS!!!"
"Fool," muttered Doom contemptuously and blasted the silver
energy from his gauntlets, knocking Onslaught down,"My armor is
extensively psi-shielded, my own psychic shielding more advanced than any
you might know. It was a simple matter to create a Doombot to make my
prepared speech, by not telling the fools I had allied myself with my
true plan, you had no inkling I was coming."
He blasted Onslaught again, knocking the creature down,"I am
Doom, and while I am not arrogant enough to think myself above God, I
know I am above you," he blasted Onslaught again,"When Magneto returned
to Earth with the cosmic powers imbued in him by Galactus, (*) and they
were subsequently drained by Thanos, I took half the absorbed power
and kept it for such a moment as this."
"I WILL NOT BE UNDONE BY A HUMAN!" screamed Onslaught, struggling
against the blasts of cosmic energy.
"No," replied Doom,"You will be undone by a better," he turned
his helmeted face to the collected members of the remnants of the X-Men,
Avengers and Fantastic Four,"Don't stand there gaping like fools, attack
this abomination."
They did, blasting at Onslaught with optic blasts, invisible
forcefields, with huge fists, adamantium claws, bone clubs,
bright fireworks, blink knives, unbreakable shields, kinetically
charged cards, powerful punches, lightning bolts, laser weapons,
sonic screams, offensive forcefields, superspeed, hexbolts and bamfing
blows.
With a roar, Onslaught threw them all back with a magnetic blast,
they were all pushed back but Doom, whose armor contained an
electro-magnetic mesh protecting him from EM pulses. He blasted the
creature again with cosmic energy, but the blast was diminished now,
fading as he used up his limited supply.
"How long can your stolen power last?" growled Onslaught,"How
long till I peel your armor open and torture you till you beg for mercy?"
"Long enough," replied Doom,"Now, Warlock."
(*) In Herald Of Armageddon, available upon request at :
dimitri_resides@yahoo.com
(**) In Something Sinister This Way Comes, also available at :
dimitri_resides@yahoo.com
-
Warlock nodded.
"Okay, now."
"You're working with Doom!?!" cried The Surfer.
Then they were gone from the space between spaces.
-
They appeared with a bright, purple flash.
"Stop him," Warlock said, pointing at Onslaught as it rose to
it's feet, it now stood no more than eleven feet tall.
The Silver Surfer began blasting it with cosmic energy, knocking
it back.
"How goes it, Doom?" asked Warlock.
"The Eurasian Fleet keeps the full force of it's power in check,"
replied the Monarch,"We have it on the ropes."
"It really only has one chance," said Warlock, speaking
conversationally to Doom as if Onslaught wasn't there,"But I doubt even
it has the power to go back in time and prevent X-Man sending the signal
that brought the four of us here."
A lie that Onslaught couldn't read, Warlock's mind was not readable
by even one as powerful as it, and Doom's was protected by his
psi-shields. Warlock had been brought to this Universe by accident, Doom
by design.
"FOOLS!" laughed Onslaught, letting the telekinetic fleet fade
into nothingness,"YOU HAVE SEALED YOUR OWN DOOM!"
It released it's psionic hold on them, then disappeared as if
it had never been there.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" roared Rogue,"YOU"VE GIVEN IT THE KEY
TO DEFEAT US!"
"Calm yourself woman," replied Doom,"I have sealed it's fate."
They twisted about as, almost on cue, a large figure leaped
through the huge hole created by The Thing's ship.
"Mr. Creed!" cried Blink.
Sabretooth just growled at them, more animal than man.
"We have no time for this," growled Doom and blasted the mutant,
knocking him unconscious.
"Come," said Warlock,"Onslaught is preparing the temporal vortex
to go back to the moment of Xavier's death, mistakenly believing that
is when The X-Man sent the signal that brought you all here. We must be
there to stop Xavier's death."
He closed his eyes slightly and teleported everyone from the
real world away, leaving the AOA'ers behind... except for Creed, whose
hand Blink had been holding at the time.
"Where'd everyone go?" asked Jubilee.
"I am not sure, liebchen," said Nightcrawler, looking about,"But
I get the strangest feeling that we've seen the last of any of our self
imposed dictators."
"Hallelujah," muttered Robbie.
-
The Hulk, Thor and Spiderman disappeared in a flash of purple
light, brought by Pip's space gem to join the others from the real world.
The Doombot went on making a speech as if nothing had happened,
no one noticed the missing heroes.
-
"Come!" cried Doom, standing at the vortex which Onslaught had
already gone through. They were far beneath the citadel, where the
bombs of The Eurasian Fleet could not be felt,"We must go through now
while The Surfer holds the temporal vortex open!"
The Silver Surfer was pouring cosmic energy into the vortex,
keeping it from collapsing in on itself.
They didn't hesitate, the devil they knew was better than the
devil they didn't.
They all rushed through, except Blink who still held onto Creed's
inert form.
"Leave him, child," muttered Doom,"He has no place in the real
world."
She stared at him defiantly, and then with a blink she and Creed
disappeared, reappearing in the vortex.
"Headstrong child," muttered Doom, then he, Warlock and Pip
stepped through the vortex. A second later Silver Surfer stopped pouring
cosmic energy into it and leaped inside.
Then the vortex faded.
And the crystallization wave washed over the Universe once again.
------------------------------
Isreal - Twenty Years Earlier.
------------------------------
Bishop drops from the crystal into a past all too familiar.
"If I kill you now, Magneto, things will have to be better in
the future!" screamed Legion, standing over a young, still innocent
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr.
In his mind, Bishop has relived this temporal terror a thousand
times. He knews the next sound he hears will be the screams of Charles
Xavier who lunges to sacrifice himself for the life of his friend!
Only Bishop can affect what will happen next.
THWAP, a hand grabbing his shoulder.
ONLY BISHOP.
"Hold it right there!" cried the other Bishop, looking incredibly
innocent despite everything he has seen in his life as a soldier of the
future to this Bishop who has lived through twenty years of The Age Of
Apocalypse.
"I don't know who you are, but..." started the young Bishop.
"Don't you?" asked the older Bishop.
This time, Onslaught ignored them both. The first time it had
come here it had flash fried their minds, but now it had returned with
another mission.
It had merged minds with it's past self, an easy enough thing to
do when you were a living paradox, a creature that was alive with no
soul of it's own.
- I must see to it that Xavier dies, and also block the message
when The X-Man sends it. -
"Goodbye Erik Magnus Lehnsherr," growled Legion,"I hope that in
death, you'll find the peace you've been missing in life... sayonara."
"NO!" screamed Xavier, unaware of the more important drama occurring
only meters from where he stood.
For Charles Francis Xavier, there was never a choice.
Today, all his perceptions of reality were ripped away and he
saw a glimpse of what his life might have been. Four noble men and women,
mutants, like him, who, in his name, were willing to risk their all to save
a man who would become their enemy... and one desperate madman willing,
almost eager, to kill in that name.
HIS name.
His friend.
CHARLES FRANCIS XAVIER could not ALLOW that, and in one desperate
move, his future - his LIFE - are SACRIFICED.
For there was NEVER a CHOICE.
Leaping in front of Magneto, Legion's psi-blade flashed forward
to penetrate the mind of the man who would grow to be his father's most
hated enemy. The two Bishops were frozen in place by the smallest possible
fraction of Onslaught's power. It watched eagerly as Xavier leaped in
front of Magneto and prepared to take the brunt of the attack.... and
David Haller's hand was stopped before he could deliver the killing blow.
"WHAT!" cried Onslaught.
"Boy," said Adam Warlock, clutching Legion's wrist,"You are a
fool."
The soulgem burnt into the young man's brain, cutting through the
multiple personalities to the core of his being, showing him what he
had done wrong.
"NO!" screamed Onslaught.
"Charles!" gasped Erik, looking in shock at the golden skinned
man and the huge, armor plated figure just beyond him,"What are they?"
"I do not know, Erik," replied Xavier,"More homo-superior perhaps?
Like us?"
"I warn you, Onslaught," said Adam, still holding the wrist of
the now babbling, crying Legion,"Do not attempt to harm any of these
men, return to your own time... or do you want me to turn my soulgaze
on you?"
At the depth of it's being, Onslaught was an empty creature, it
had no soul. It tried to fill this void by capturing the most powerful
of the worlds mutants, hoping that with their collected power it could
create for itself a soul. It could not dare the soulgaze, it was beaten.
"You will pay for this," it growled at Warlock, then another
temporal vortex opened and it stepped through.
"Now," said Warlock.
The others, hidden by the cloaking device Doom had used to get
into the stronghold unseen, reappeared. Once again the Silver Surfer
held the vortex open with his cosmic energy and the others rushed through
it, then Pip, leaving The Surfer, Warlock and Doom.
"Go Doom!" cried The Surfer, straining to hold it open.
"I think not," replied Dr Doom, smiling beneath his mask,"With
The Surfer occupied, only you and I remain Warlock."
"What are you thinking, Doom," replied Warlock angrily.
"I shall take Onslaught's place, it will be a simple matter to
construct a time-platform after killing Xavier. I will return to a
present with Apocalypse conveniently out of my way thanks to Onslaught,
and I shall rule in an Age Of Doom."
"And you think I won't stop you?" growled Warlock.
"You can try, but believe me your precious Soulgaze won't work
this time, and I'm more than a match for you in a physical confrontation."
Suddenly, Doom began walking towards the portal.
"WHAT!" he cried.
- Hello, Doom, - said a voice in his head, - Do you remember me? -
"It's you!" he growled.
"Who is he talking to?" cried The Surfer.
"Himself," replied Warlock with a smile.
- Yes Doom, - said the voice of Victor Von Doom, Monarch of
Madripoor, - Me, the man whose life you took away. -
"But you're dead!" cried Dr Doom, struggling to keep from walking
towards the vortex.
- You should know as well as me that death is not the end, I
transferred my consciousness to you. Your armor prepared you for psychic
attacks and physical, and your own training would have protected you
from mystical attacks... but your mind did not recognize mine as
a threat. -
"YOU IDIOT! WE COULD RULE THE PLANET TOGETHER!"
- Why would I want to rule the world? - asked Doom, - With my
wife dead there is no point in living, at least in this case she gets
to stay alive. -
"But as your... my enemy!"
- Better than nothing, - Doom said into his duplicates head, and
then they were inside the vortex. The mind of Madripoor's monarch ceased
to exist, but Dr Doom was already inside the vortex and traveling ahead
twenty years.
"Good," said Warlock,"I knew the man couldn't be trusted, but
I thought I could handle him myself... that was lucky."
Warlock looked up and smiled as he saw the older Bishop merge with
the younger, he saw that the four timelost X-Men that had been here the
original time Xavier died were still trapped in Legion's psionic hold.
He moved to step into the vortex, leading Legion by the wrist, but
Xavier cried out to him.
"PLEASE!" he yelled,"I must know, what just happened here?"
Warlock just smiled at him, then turned and, without a word,
stepped through the vortex with Legion, the young son of Xavier
disappeared the moment they entered the vortex. A second later The
Surfer leaped through as well and the vortex closed.
With a tearing noise Iceman, Psylocke, Storm and Bishop were
torn out of time and space, gone, all gone except for the shocked Xavier
and Erik.
"Charles, what's happening?" asked Erik,"I feel as if I'm being
pulled... backwards....?"
"It's the timestream, Erik! Somehow, it's rebuilding itself!"
cried Xavier,"That young man...."
".... said something about being my son, Charles. Someone did,
I'd swear to it," said Gabrielle Haller, in the lawn of the hospital.
"And yet," returned Xavier, slightly perplexed,"There's no one
here," he paused, as if unsure whether he should ask this next question
of her,"Do you remember being in any danger, Gaby?"
Erik looked at them both as they stared into each other's eyes.
"I...," started Gabrielle,"No, all I feel, really.... is
a loss.... almost maternal..... that I can't explain....."
------------
X-Men Prime.
------------
The newly crystallized Universe sat perfectly still, no noise
or movement. Then it collapsed under it's own weight, falling away to
reveal the return of the old Universe.
End Part 35/37
Compliments, Criticism's or Requests to me, the author, at :
dimitri_resides@yahoo.com