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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:42:17 GMT -5
The Uncanny X-Men #3
The Brotherhood Written by Thomas Edited by Aaron Martel Charles Xavier was once a physically fit young man. He could even outrun his stepbrother, but after an unfortunate incident he was never able to walk for the rest of his life. He was bound to a wheel chair. Although his body was crippled his mind obtained power beyond those of mortal men. A single mutated “X” gene gave ordinary people extraordinary powers, but this one difference was frowned upon by the rest of the human race. These “mutants” were deemed as unholy creatures and social outcast because of differences they never even accepted. Years after this controversy between homo sapiens and homo superior started Charles met a friend and fellow mutant named Eric Lensherr. Together they built the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It was meant to be both a safe house and a school for young mutants. Charles aimed to tear down the imaginary wall that was built by a simple genetic mutation, but Eric, already having his people persecuted in the Holocaust, thought that mutants were the next step in evolution and were destined to rule over the normal humans. With this, Eric deemed himself Magneto, and left to form his own group of mutant terrorists: the Brotherhood. |
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:46:53 GMT -5
The X-Man known only as Logan propped himself against the wall, a cigar dangling from his lips. His enhanced hearing picked up the faint sound of young students stumbling toward him. He opened his eyes as the door beside him burst open and a dozen mutant children rushed out. He watched in anticipation as a young, beautiful red-headed woman stepped out of the room.
“Hey, Red,” he said as smoke billowed from his lips.
“Logan.” Jean Grey nodded in response.
“If yer done playin’ teacher for the day howse about a drink?”
They heard someone clear their throat behind them. Logan turned to stare into a pair of ruby quartz sunglasses.
“Summers.”
“Logan, do you mind if I talk with Jean for a second?” Scott Summers said.
“Not a problem.” Logan stepped aside, mirroring a butler. Scott scowled at him as he walked passed, and tripped over Logan’s foot.
“That’s it!” Scott turned to the giggling Logan. He adjusted his glasses. A red light glimmered along the edges.
Snikt! The claws along Logan’s knuckles popped out. “Bring it, Summers. Let’s see what has more punch; your one eye or my claws.” He modeled his claws for Scott.
Suddenly the two were slammed into opposite walls.
“That’s enough.” Jean said sternly. “I’ve had enough of your quarrels.” She walked off in a huff. As she left the two got back to their staredown. As Scott was about to give Logan a taste of his full optic blast he was interrupted by the voice of their mentor entering their heads.
>>X-Men, please report to the Danger Room for a training session.<<
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:47:59 GMT -5
On a small island off the coast of Madagascar rested a small village. To the north of the village rested a monumental castle, its form cast by pieces of scrap metal. The ruler of this nation sat staring out the window. Eight figures were lined up behind him. One stepped forward as he addressed his ruler.
“When do we strike, Lord Magneto?” he asked.
Magneto rose his hand to his chin, pondering. “Soon, very soon.”
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:50:10 GMT -5
The X-Men were locked in battle with millions of humanoid robots. It seemed like every time they destroyed one hundred another two hundred robots were there to take their place. The X-Men were backed into a corner.
“Ready?” Their field leader, Cyclops, motioned for them to get in formation. “Now!”
With a click of the remote control in his palm, Cyclops’ visor opened up, letting an optic blast pummel a group of robots in his line of sight. On Cyclops’s word the one known as Storm flew up to the top of the enclosed silver room. Her eyes crackled as she built up the power of the storm in her body. She released a powerful lightning bolt, destroying some of the robots in the process. Marvel Girl used her telekinesis to take out a few robots herself. Both Wolverine and Colossus charged at the army. Colossus’ flesh was soon replaced by organic steel and Wolverine sprouted claws from his knuckles. Snikt! Wolverine began thrashing at any robot he saw. Colossus, utilizing a little more tact, used one robot as a bat against the others. Shadowcat laughed as she glided through the herd, short-circuiting them along the way, while Nightcrawler used his agility and teleportation to drop countless robots on top of one another. Iceman took his time freezing the crowd. He was enjoying this, but, unbeknownst to him, he was being approached by an android.
“Iceman, watch your back!” Cyclops yelled to the young mutant.
Iceman turned to see the mechanical monster looming over him. As fast as he could he raised his arms to protect himself. The robot opened fire. Explosions surrounded Iceman. His teammates looked on in horror hoping that, when the smoke cleared, the Iceman would still be in one piece. Their looks of fear turned into smiles as they saw a glint of ice and Iceman emerged from the smoke, in one piece and fully “iced up”.
“Ha, ha. Look what I can do,” he bragged.
The team was watched over from above by Professor Charles Xavier. He watched his students prevail over the computer simulation within the Danger Room. Only half of his mind was on the training session; the other half was on the activities of his former friend.
It has been almost three weeks sense Eric made his claim, he thought to himself. I know Eric; his retaliation isn’t far away. His thoughts were interrupted when he sensed a new mind enter the room. He turned to see a young girl standing at the opened doors.
“Hanna?” he asked curiously.
“I’m sorry, Professor, but there’s trouble.” Almost on cue the alarms of the sub-basement rang out. The Professor furiously typed on the console, ending the simulation.
>>X-Men, we have a new mission.<<
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:51:11 GMT -5
The X-Men entered the X-jet, battle ready. The Professor and Cyclops took the positions in the pilots’ seats. The others cramped in the hangar behind them. Wolverine, for the first time, felt the rumble of the jet’s propulsion. The ceiling above them split, and within seconds, they were launched into the air. Once the aircraft was stable Professor “X” switched the autopilot on and his seat automatically swung around to face his team.
“X-Men, we have word that the Brotherhood of Mutants are attacking our nation’s capital. I want you in teams of two; an older student with a younger.” Charles eyed both Cyclops and Wolverine after his comment. “Wolverine and Iceman, Storm and Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl and Colossus, and Cyclops and Shadowcat.”
“Great,” Wolverine sighed, “I’m with the ice pick.”
As Wolverine finished his quip the X-jet had reached Washington D.C. and the landing sequence was started. Once the X-Men were safely on the ground they divided into their teams and set out.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:53:18 GMT -5
Wolverine and Iceman made their way along the Reflecting Pool towards the Lincoln Memorial. Wolverine tried his best to block out the constant babbling of the young mutant, but with his enhanced hearing he was forced to hear every word. A familiar stink filled the air. Wolverine lifted his hand to silence Iceman.
“What’s up, Logan?” Bobby Drake, alias Iceman, asked.
Logan’s claws popped out. “Something smells.”
They heard a large, cackling laugh like a hyena. “You’re one to talk, shortie!”
The X-Men glared up at the memorial. Standing beside a pillar was a beast-like man. He wore the skins of other animals as a primitive, makeshift uniform. His glaring teeth and fingernails shimmered in the sunlight. Something about this man gave Logan a horrible headache. Images flashed in his head of a lab somewhere. “You don’t recognize me, short stuff!” he mocked.
“That’s too bad.” Came an Australian accent beside them. Bobby looked over to see another young man dressed in a hooded sweatshirt with flames encrusted on it. A strange device was hooked up to his back and ran up each arm. Click! Flames shot out of the nozzles attached to his wrists.
The Iceman quickly reacted and froze the nozzles. “Cool it, Heat Miser!”
The Australian smiled. “You’re one to talk, Jack Frost.” He brought a lighter out of his pocket and lit it. With a flick of his wrist the flame danced off it. It formed into a ball and flew at Wolverine, hitting him on the side of the head and burning him.
“Pyro,” the animal snarled. “Wolverine’s mine!”
Pyro looked up at his partner. “Sorry, Sabretooth, but I just couldn’t pass it up.” He reformed the flames from the lighter and used them to melt his frozen nozzles.
More visions streamed into Logan’s head. “What do you know about me?” he growled.
Sabretooth crouched down. “How’s about you come and find out.”
Wolverine launched at Sabretooth, the burn marks disappearing along the way.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:55:35 GMT -5
The wealthy, fat politicians of the capital ran for their lives from two figures. One was dressed in a body suit with a single bolt of lightning streaking across his chest, while the other was dressed in the manner of a traditional witch.
“Enough playing, sister; we have a job to do,” the lightning bolt one said.
“Who’s playing, Pietro? I’m just making these men what they are: elephants and asses,” the other smirked back as she transformed two men into animals.
>>That’s enough, Wanda!<< The voice of their enemy, Marvel Girl, boomed in their heads.
“That’s Scarlet Witch to you, X-Man!” The witch raised her hand and released a shimmering blast into the air. Marvel Girl dodged it, but she felt the heat of it. Colossus followed close by on foot.
“Looks like they recruited another,” Pietro smiled at Colossus.He disappeared in a blur, only to reappear behind Colossus.
“What did they promise you?” the speedster taunted the metal man.
In anger Colossus took a swing at him but to no avail.
“They didn’t bribe me,” Colossus said sternly.
The “Quicksilver” zoomed past again, leaving an echo of his voice. “Impossible.” He stopped in front of the metal man. “No one makes a contract with Xavier without some kind of catch.”
“Don’t listen to them, Peter!” Marvel Girl shouted from above.
The Scarlet Witch looked up to the red head. “Stay out of this and shut up.”
She sent another “hex bolt” at Jean. Jean had no time to dodge and it hit her squarely on the chest. She fell and landed in Peter’s outstretched arms.
“Don’t worry. They’re not getting to me,” Colossus reassured Jean. And with that, he charged at the siblings.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 0:58:30 GMT -5
Nightcrawler felt the ground quake as he looked down from on top of the Washington Monument. He saw a figure standing at the base of the monumental obelisk.
“What you lookin’ at, blue boy?” Nightcrawler turned around to see an ugly face staring back at him. He jumped backwards and accidentally fell off the monument, but he reacted quickly and teleported back to the top.
“You’re one to talk, toad face,” Nightcrawler quipped back.
“That’s my name; don’t wear it out.” The self-proclaimed Toad jumped down to his pal below to alert him of the X-Man’s presence.
From the sky above, Storm descended upon the three others. She almost immediately summoned up a lightning bolt to strike at her enemies down below. Within an instant of the strike, Toad jumped out of the way, allowing the bolt to target his ally. But suddenly a tremor shook the ground, followed by a wave of earth that diffused the lightning strike.
“Nice try, Storm, but no cigar,” the second figure laughed at the sky.
“Avalanche!” Storm shouted back. And with that, she rode the air currents down to face Avalanche.
Toad jumped and scampered back up to the top of the monument. “Come on,” he challenged Nightcrawler, “Let’s fight.” And with that he leapt towards the ground.
Nightcrawler prepared to teleport, but a long, slimy tonuge erupted from the villain’s mouth and slung over the Washington Monument. He used the monument as a base and swung around, hitting nothing but a cloud of brimstone. Toad landed back on top of the monument, coughing. A scowl spread across his face as with a “bamf!” Nightcrawler appeared behind him, laughing.
“Need to do better than that, mein fruend.” Nightcrawler taunted.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:00:17 GMT -5
Cyclops and Shadowcat stood on the banks of the Potomac River. Cyclops sighed as he looked along the water’s edge. “No sign of the Brotherhood.”
He turned to Shadowcat behind him and became silent. Shadowcat started to become nervous, not knowing what his eyeless expression meant. Then she turned to see what appeared to be a huge blob flying at them. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw Cyclops rolling out of the way.
“Kitty, phase!” he shouted at her. In obedience she focused and became intangible as the enormous blob fell upon her.
“Ew!” she shuddered as she passed through the pile of flesh.
“You’re one to talk, kitty-cat,” the “Blob” mumbled under folds of fat. The earth shook as he stood himself up, and he chuckled as he loomed over the little girl. But then he felt a little sting on his back.
“Leave her alone, Blob!” Cyclops demanded.
“Or what? You can’t move the Blob,” the fat villain bragged. “Besides, two against one is a little unfair, don’t you think?”
Cyclops sensed something approaching rapidly. On a dime, he turned and opened his visor. As his optic blast erupted, it collided with a similar beam. The beams disbursed revealing a familiar man with dirty blond hair. Scott knew this person, but he had been presumed dead for almost fifteen years.
“Alex?” Scott asked, astonished.
The man shook his head. “Havoc.”
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:01:32 GMT -5
Iceman tangoed with Pyro across the half-frozen Reflecting Pool. He was freezing Pyro’s fire creatures as soon as the evil mutant could make them. Even in his fully iced-up form he was getting tired. He glanced over his shoulder to see Wolverine and Sabretooth literally tearing at each other’s throats.
“Wolverine!” he shouted, trying to keep his attention focused on freezing the flaming creatures.
“Yeah, ice pick?” Wolverine rasped through his healing vocal cords.
“I’m getting tired.”
“Wrong thing to say, munchkin,” Pyro said as he formed a huge flaming dragon.
“Let me get that monkey off your back!” Wolverine yelled as he plunged his claws into Sabretooth’s gullet and threw him straight into the Reflecting Pool.
Iceman barely felt the next few moments as Wolverine charged passed him, straight into Pyro’s flame, and cut the cords connecting Pyro’s machinery. Iceman watched as Wolverine let out a long, smoky breath, and decided to return the favor. He turned onto the stumbling Sabretooth and let one final ice blast go, freezing the behemoth in his place. He waited for thanks, but it never came.
“Geez, I thought I was the one with the cold shoulder,” Iceman muttered as Wolverine passed him.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:03:21 GMT -5
Shadowcat was ducking and covering from Havoc’s blasts while Cyclops was facing off with the Blob.
“I may not want to hurt my brother, but you’re something completely different,” Cyclops gloated with confidence.
The Blob laughed. “Good luck movin’ me.”
“Well, let’s not fall into the river, shall we?” Cyclops smiled as he blasted the area around the Blob’s feet.
“That’s all you got?” the Blob asked. He took a step forward and started to lose his balance. “Whoa.” And with that final word, he fell into the cold water.
“Open spot,” Havoc muttered as he took aim and fired at Cyclops. The blast hit full force, but it didn’t have any effect. The two brothers looked quizzically at each other.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:05:55 GMT -5
Bamf! Bamf Bamf! No matter where Nightcrawler teleported Toad followed with persistence. He began to have double vision as he saw Toad leap at him yet again. He looked over to see Storm having as much luck as he had as she tried to penetrate Avalanche’s shell.
“Frau Storm!” he shouted. “Nothing is working!” After he muttered those last words he was grabbed by his tail and whipped into the nearest building.
Storm saw her comrade fall out of the corner of her eye, and slowly but surely she devised a plan. She lifted her hands to the heavens and formed rain clouds. With a final mental push she felt the cool, refreshing rain fall on her face.
“That’s your plan?” Avalanche asked. “Get me wet?”
Storm smiled. “Surely you know that a soaking toad on high ground is more conductive than you?”
Terror filled Avalanche’s eyes as he stared at his doomed partner. Suddenly, a lightning bolt came from above and struck Toad squarely, electrocuting him. When the initial shock faded, he peeled from the monument and freefell into his friend’s arms.
Bamf! Avalanche smelled the horrid smell of brimstone before he entered the world of darkness.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:07:10 GMT -5
Marvel Girl tried her best to keep up with the rain of hex bolts coming from the Scarlet Witch. It was getting old fast.
“Wanda,” she spoke up. “I’ve had about enough. I know one place where your reality warping abilities are no good: the Astral Plane.”
“Sure, you can take me out, but with a few more high-speed punches from Quicksilver, your friend won’t last too much longer, either.”
Jean looked over to see Colossus being pounded by blurs coming from all directions.
“Yeah, but your brother can’t run if he has no ground,” said Marvel Girl.
Scarlet Witch watched as her brother’s figure appeared and began to levitate in the air. Almost immediately Colossus smacked him across the head, knocking him out.
“No!” Wanda shouted as she flew down to her brother. “Monsters!” she shouted, clutching her fallen brother.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:09:27 GMT -5
Professor Xavier sat in the X-jet keeping psychic tags on his students. Suddenly, he heard the metal of the jet start to bend. He quickly turned to the hangar door to see it burst open and his old friend emerge.
“Hello, Charles.”
“Eric.”
Magneto smirked as he floated closer to Charles. “I have to say I’m quite impressed, Charles. Your X-Men seem fully functional.”
“Is that all it was? A test?”
“You seemed surprised, Charles. I thought you were a well-accomplished telepath.”
“Eric, please call off your test.”
“For you, Charles.” Magneto smiled as he tapped a button on his gauntlet and a portal opened behind him. He passed through it and disappeared in a flash of light. He heard static over the speakers of the jet as his X-Men signed in.
“Professor.” The voice of Cyclops came over the static. “The Brotherhood. They’re…”
“Gone.” The Professor finished his first student’s sentence. “X-Men, report back.” The worry carried on in his voice. He was worried why Magneto would do this.
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Post by fan4 on Feb 19, 2007 1:10:58 GMT -5
Bolivar Trask entered the Oval Office. “Mr. President,” he said sternly. The chair in front of him twirled around to reveal President Graydon Creed.
“Yes, Trask?”
“I’m here to go over my proposal again.”
“Trask, you’re my Secretary of Defense, but I see no need to enforce anything against the mutant population.”
“Have you been watching the news, sir? Those mutants practically destroyed the city with their gang fights. Mr. President, what’s to stop them from attacking every other major city in the United States? There would be chaos; millions could die, and my program can help prevent that by controlling the mutant population.”
A look of worry come over the president’s face as he removed his glasses and slumped down in his chair. He finally looked up.
“You have my approval, Trask, but if things get out of hand I’ll have your head.”
“Yes, Mr. President.” Trask nodded and left the office. As soon as he entered the hallway he drew his cell phone from his pocket. He dialed a number and walked on as it rang. He smiled when someone finally answered.
“It’s Trask. Yeah, he approved. Jumpstart Project Sentinel. Don’t worry.” He entered his office and glanced over to his television that showed a security group obtaining the frozen Sabretooth from the Reflecting Pool. “I found some mutant DNA.”
With that, he closed his cell phone and grinned.
To Be Continued…
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