Chapter 39: Chapter 38: Apocalypse

Note: I forgot to post yesterday so....here's another chapter!

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Chapter 38: Apocalypse

All over the world, people began to panic once the message in their heads ended.

They didn’t understand what was happening but the fact that someone…or something…managed to deliver such a message to the whole world in their minds…it scared them.

The Avengers assembled quickly and held a meeting.

Sadly, two of their most powerful members, Captain Marvel and Thor, weren’t present. But they still have to do what needs to be done.

Benjamin also got a call from Major Johnson to hold a meeting as well with the EPD quickly.

Benjamin turned to Rogue and handed Mystique to her.

“Stay here and help them out. I’ll go back first.”

“Okay. I got this. Go.”

Nodding, Benjamin didn’t delay anymore and opened a portal back.

There, most of the EPD members were already waiting for him.

“Give us the order Capt.”

Daredevil said and everyone also looked to Benjamin for orders.

“You all heard the message. It’s inevitable that some people might get tempted and cause chaos in this situation. Remain on patrol and apprehend any that causes trouble. Wanda, Pietro, you’re with me.”

Actually, Benjamin was confident about taking Apocalypse on his own. Especially after his recent power-ups.

But Benjamin figured that this may be a good training experience for the two who are new to the whole hero thing.

Wanda especially. Her powers have not even begun to scratch the surface.

As for Pietro, he runs headfirst into trouble without thinking things through. This is a common habit of a speedster in any universe…

“Jake. You’ll be running comms. You’ll be managing everyone’s position depending on the situation.”

“Got it.”

Jake nodded and didn’t joke around as he knew that the situation was serious.

After handing out a few more orders, Benjamin turned to Wanda and Pietro who was already suited up.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Benjamin had made them special suits as well which bore some similarities to their comic counterparts in his previous life.

Of course, it looked more natural and not like something straight out of a comic book.

Unlike Felicia’s, it didn’t have a lot of functions but it is still durable and resistant to damage.

“Let’s go. We’ll meet up with the Avengers first to see the situation.”

The two nodded and followed Benjamin through the portal.

The next moment, they appeared within the Avengers Tower where the rest of the Avengers are standing around a display table, showing holographic images of a pyramid with floating metal structures around it in Cairo.

“Ben, you’re here.”

Natasha saw Benjamin arrive and greeted him. The others also nodded to him.

Benjamin took a look at the current members.

Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon, Bruce Banner, Vision, and Bucky Barnes.

Benjamin looked at them awkwardly.

This…most of them had metals…

“Apart from Hulk, Black Widow, and I guess Captain America…the rest can’t go.”

“Huh? Why?”

Iron Man asked.

“Because Magneto is on the enemy’s side. And last I checked, most of you here are wearing something with metal. For Capt., you’ll need to remove the metal buckles on your shield. He won’t be able to control pure Vibranium.”

After hearing that Magneto was involved, everyone looked at each other awkwardly.

Most of them are indeed wearing metal…

Iron Man mutters.

“I really need a pure Vibranium suit…or anything that’s just not metal…”

“You can use plastic. You’ll be called Plastic Man in the future.”

War Machine laughed which made Iron Man roll his eyes inside the suit.

Hawkeye sighed.

“My arrowheads are mostly metal. I could replace them but it will take some time.”

“How about Vision? He’s mostly made of pure Vibranium. Can’t he go too?”

Bruce asked and Vision nodded.

“While it is true that I am not all pure Vibranium, I can still offer some assistance from afar.”

Vision said as he touched the Mind Stone on his forehead.

Wanda looked at the stone curiously.

Before today, Benjamin had some time with Wanda and Pietro as he trained the two of them in his free time.

In fact, Benjamin had also started teaching Wanda some magic which she excelled more than Felicia did.

Benjamin also explained to them that although the Mind Stone had caused their powers to appear, their powers did not originate from it and that they had long had these powers hidden deep within them.

This Mind Stone that HYDRA had used to experiment on them in the past is now embedded on a sentient robot…

All this made them look at Vision weirdly.

Benjamin smiled and shook his head.

“Magneto’s powers had most likely been enhanced. Even from afar, he will still be able to control you. Don’t worry, it’s not like you all will be benched. We’ll first take out Magneto. Once he’s gone, I’ll open a portal for you all to join the fight.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Captain America nodded.

Everyone also sighed as the least they wanted was to be benched and there was nothing they could do.

At this moment, Rogue called and said that the X-Men are ready so Benjamin opened a portal for them and had the X-Men arrive in the Avengers Tower as well.

From the portal arrived Charles, Jean, Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Rogue walked out.

Beast and Colossus stayed behind to watch over the rest of the students.

The Avengers all turned to look at Mystique and frowned.

“Isn’t she with Magneto and his so-called Brotherhood? Mystique, was it?”

Black Widow asked.

Mystique nodded and didn’t hide it.

“Indeed…I was with him before…’he’ appeared…”

“He?”

“He calls himself the first mutant. Ages way back ancient Egypt…En Sabah Nur…otherwise called the Apocalypse.”

“I don’t care what he calls himself. What does he want now?”

Iron Man asked irritatedly.

He was still annoyed that he’ll be benched for a short moment thanks to Magneto.

“He wants a world where mutants reign over humans. And Erik joined him…you don’t understand. Erik is just confused. The situation with mutants is already getting better thanks to the existence of the EPD but Erik, he…”

Mystique sighed.

“He just needs to be reminded of what we were fighting for…please help me save him. Before he causes more destruction that he won’t be able to return from…”

Mystique spoke in a tone that was almost begging.

“So you heard. Frankly, I still don’t like the guy. But we can always use some more heavy hitters.”

Wolverine added.

The X-Men had basically already agreed to this before they came. Now they just needed the Avengers’ thoughts.

“If I may.”

Vision suddenly interjected.

“A single Magneto had caused most of the Avengers to be…unusable. Having him as our enemy is not wise.”

“...”

Suddenly, another voice sounded out.

“I agree with the robot. Alien forces are closing in on us as we speak. We can use some more heroes.”

“Jesus! Nick! Since when have you been hiding in that corner!?”

Iron Man complained when Nick Fury suddenly appeared.

And another voice answered.

“Quite a while actually.”

“Coulson, you too!?”

“I was considering if I should’ve brought popcorn.”

“...”

Everyone was a bit speechless at the two.

Finally, Captain America nodded.

“Ally or not. We can settle that later. Right now, we still need to take him down along with that Apocalypse.”

“Straight to the point. I like it.”

Benjamin gave him a thumbs up and opened up a portal.

“Wolverine, you should stay as well. We’ll call you all to join once Magneto’s taken care of.”

“Grr…better not keep me waiting, Bob.”

Wolverine growled in annoyance but didn’t refuse.

The rest then went through the portal with him and they soon appeared in front of the pyramid where Apocalypse sat at the very top.

Sensing their arrival, Apocalypse sneered and turned to his horsemen.

“They’re here.”

“Hehe. Time to crush some skulls!”

“Grrr…I don’t smell Wolverine in the area…did he chicken out?”

“He’s probably aware of Magneto’s involvement. I sense Mystique among them.”

“Mystique…”

Magneto muttered but didn’t say anything else.

Mesmero smiled and closed his eyes.

“There seems to be a lot of them. Let me even out the odds first.”

With his hypnotic powers enhanced, it won’t be an issue to hypnotize some of the Avengers or X-Men to turn on their allies.

However…

Excluding Benjamin, there were three other telepaths in their team.

Charles was the first to notice it and frowned.

“Mesmero. He’s trying to hypnotize us. Jean, help me block him off.”

“I’ll also help.”

Wanda volunteered and the three of them sat on the ground in a circle as they locked onto Mesmero’s mental attack to try and force him into a mental battle with them.

Mesmero frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

Magneto asked as he noticed his expression.

“I underestimated them. Charles and Jean I expected to try and block me but…there’s another telepath with them…more powerful than the two of them…”

With Jean still not fully awakening the Phoenix force within her, Wanda is indeed more powerful than either Charles or Jean.

Seeing the three of them immobile, Mystique turned to the others.

“It’s said that Apocalypse would often arrive with four horsemen. One is Magneto, another is Mesmero. There’s two more we need to be wary of.”

“Then we better get going. Hawkeye, get on top of that building and stop anyone that’s trying to approach them. Widow, you also stay here to protect them.”

Captain America said.

On the X-Men side, Storm was the one to issue commands since Charles was preoccupied.

“Cyclops, stay here as well and protect them.”

Cyclops didn’t complain as he was more worried about Jean.

The rest of the team then continued to move on.

It didn’t take long for them to meet the rest of the horsemen.

Sabretooth and Juggernaut…these two are indeed a bit troublesome to deal with.

The fights began.

Quicksilver and Hulk faced off against Juggernaut.

Storm and Nightcrawler faced Sabretooth.

Captain America, Rogue, and Mystique dealt with Magneto.

As for Benjamin…he didn’t go all out yet and only showed his Earth Manipulation abilities to help trap Magneto.

The reason was that he was still wary of Apocalypse.

Although he knew that he can overpower him, he didn’t dare to underestimate him.

It was still important to keep a few cards hidden for the final battle.

Besides, who’s to say that guy won’t sneak attack them while they are fighting his horsemen?

As they fought, Mystique didn’t stop shouting at Magneto.

It was the usual talk-no-Jutsu that you’d often see in the movies or anime…basically, the ultimate move to defeat an enemy without actually defeating them!

Since it seemed like this won’t be over anytime soon, Benjamin had already run out of patience and attacked a bit more seriously.

Touching the Necklace of One, he dropped a few drops of blood on it and spoke.

“Constraint!”

“Huh?”

Instantly, seemingly out of nowhere, chains appeared and wrapped around Magneto’s body, constraining him and stopping him from being able to move at all.

What’s more…he found out that he can’t actually control the chains at all even though they looked like it’s made of metal!

“Sleep.”

“What…is…happening…zzz”

“...”

Captain America, Rogue, and Mystique were speechless.

It was…over? Just like that?

“Couldn’t you do that sooner?”

Rogue rolled her eyes.

“I thought I’d let you guys have a try first. I can only use the same spell once with this thing after all. I wanted to save some words just in case it’s needed in the future.”

Benjamin shrugged as he explained briefly.

“I’ll wake him up later. For now, let’s call the others.”

Benjamin didn’t waste any more time and opened up a portal to call the rest of the Avengers plus Wolverine.

The moment Wolverine appeared, his eyes immediately locked onto Sabretooth.

“Grrr…Sabretooth…”

“Wolverine! You’re finally here!”

The two immediately crossed blows with Storm and Nightcrawler providing Wolverine some support.

After all, with Sabretooth enhanced by Apocalypse, he needed some help to deal with him.

War Machine and Falcon also helped them while the rest helped Quicksilver and Hulk deal with Juggernaut.

Vision came to Wanda’s side and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Allow me to be of assistance.”

The Mind Stone on his forehead glowed and amplified the three telepath’s powers.

It didn’t take long for them to completely defeat Mesmero, leaving him on the brink of being braindead.

Apocalypse looked at Mesmero’s dazed expression and frowned.

“Useless.”

His hand glowed and an energy blast shot out, instantly killing Mesmero.

Once he was dead, Apocalypse finally stood up from his throne and teleported outside.

Seeing the unconscious Magneto and the others nearly defeated, he frowned even more.

“Useless…all of you.”

Apocalypse spoke coldly as he lifted his head to look at everyone.

“Since my horsemen can’t deal with you all…I’ll just do this by myself.”

“Get ready!”

Captain America quickly reacted and lifted his shield.

Everyone also got into a battle stance.

They knew the decisive battle is about to begin.