Hell on Earth - Part 2
Posted on Fri Apr 4th, 2025 @ 9:33am by Scott Summers & Connor Bruin & Bobby Drake & Hank McCoy & Kurt Wagner & Hayden Davis & Jean Grey & Kennedy Kelly & Maeve MacKenna & Jennifer Bryant & Drew Williams & Desmond Greene & Pietro Maximoff & Aurora Essex & Kayleigh Marshall
Edited on on Fri Apr 4th, 2025 @ 11:25am
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 6: X-Fernus Agenda
Location: Genosha/Limbo
Timeline: December 10th, 1990
Kennedy fired arrow after arrow into the grubby horde of goblins that attempted to claw and cling to her legs. The close quarters and nearby allies made it hard for her to openly fire on the demons of Limbo. So when Connor gave the word to spread out as chaos unfolded around them, she knew exactly where she wanted to be.
“Nightcrawler!” She called out to Kurt now that Aurora had moved on to administering widespread destruction over barbed banter. “Can you get me up high? On the mountain side.”
Nodding at Kennedy's request, Kurt sprang into action. Endless hours of Danger Room training were about to be put to the test. "Make ready!"
Kurt coiled his tail around Kennedy's waist as to keep her hands and arms free. A puff of smoke wafted in their wake before they reappeared atop the nearby ridge.
"Fire as many as you can," Kurt said. "I vill return momentarily and take you to anosther spot so zhey cannot track you." And with that, he was gone again, jumping to another teammate's assistance amidst the swarm of Limbo's invasion.
“Perfect,” Kennedy replied but her attention was on the swarms of goblins below them. Finally free to use her powers without restriction, she created a brilliant, golden arrow that crackled and glittered with how charged it was. Aiming for the mouth of the portal, Artemis fired and the explosion that followed sent dozens of broken and shattered goblins flying through the air.
The black storm clouds. The cyclone of sleet. This was it, this is what Hayden needed. The sharp, exhilarating mix of rain and snow sent a rush of energy through her. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes, letting the sleet hit her face. She took deep breath, a slow grin creeping across her lips, shifting into a smirk as she opened her eyes. They had changed like before on the ocean, except now they mirrored swirling storm clouds.
Thanks to the weather mutant, and a tempest even Prospero would envy, Hayden summoned long, powerful water whips from the churning clouds and sleet. They coiled and lashed like living extensions of her arms, flowing with the force of her will. The moment they solidified, she struck, the whips cracking against armor and searing hellish flesh like lightning striking water.
A faint gleam flickered in her storm-filled eyes as she stood her ground, defending her friends. "Back to Hell with you!" she screamed. "One way or another!" Hayden whipped and beat until she cleared a decent sized area around herself. She then left her 'storm fury' mode, eyes going back to their blue color. She morphed her water whips into the pressurized water jets and continued cutting at the enemy.
The Windrider looked down at the accumulation of water surrounding Hayden with an affront on her face. Although her piercing white eyes never softened, a smirk played at her lips.
"N'astirh!" Aurora cried out from the air. "Deal with this weather witch!"
A draconian demon took flight into the air and confronted Windrider, leaving the Goblin Queen free to lead the battle rather than engage in a direct duel.
Drew looked up at the weather mutant. The storm had the air charged with power for both Hayden and Jennifer. He glanced at Jennifer. "You stay close to the weather witch. I'm going to try and reason with Aurora one last time. Hopefully there's still some part of her humanity left." Part of him knew it was a fool's errand to try, but he was a believer that a person could turn away from the wrong path. They just needed a friend to show them the way.
"Be careful," Jennifer said, worried at how this might go. But, staying close to the weather controlling mutant, with so much lightning flying about, Jennifer felt so much more ready for this tight. She lifted into the air herself, her eyes flashes with electricity, as bolts shot out. Knocking down a goblin here. Another there. Lightning struck her and only fed her power.
Turning her attention to the militia group who were mowing down her goblins with deadly force, Aurora cast a wave of fire that sent them ducking for cover. A few militiamen were caught in the flame, letting out the screams of the damned while dark fire consumed them to the bone.
Screaming his Apache war cry, John Proudstar lunged out from behind cover. He was more than just a powerhouse. The Thunderbird was the spirit of his people, strong as a bison and swift as an eagle. His powerful legs gave him great speed and powered his forward lunge, sending him sailing through the air.
Aurora had underestimated the Thunderbird's abilities, misjudging him as a mere soldier. She paid for her hubris as the man tackled her in mid-flight.
"Gotcha!" Proudstar boasted as his gigantic hands wrapped around her throat. Together they plummeted toward the earth with Aurora rotated in their freefall to cushion the landing. Proudstar pushed the air out of her lungs, letting his girth crush the much smaller woman.
"I'm sending you back to Hell," he grunted, pulling out twin knifes that he held crossed against her throat, "one way or another."
And with that, he opened her neck in a fatal twin stroke. Rather, that is what he had expected. The crimson streak of blood never flowed. In fact, the lacerations closed up nearly as fast as they had opened. Aurora let out a wicked cackle.
"What..." Proudstar was dumbstruck. Not only was his attack completely nullified, his surprise was compounded when he looked down to see Aurora's arm sticking into his chest. White-hot pain exploded throughout his chest cavity as intense pressure pushed and pulled his internal organs around while Aurora rooted through his torso. Searing pain shot across his body from head to toe and the ends of his fingers before finally centering around his head. Vertigo overtook him then and the world began to wash out as if he were viewing it while underwater. The last thing he saw was his still-beating heart in Aurora's hand.
"How dare you?" Aurora asked with an almost whimsical tone to her indignation. "I am a Queen!"
A spurt of flame rose up from her palm and turned John Proudstar's heart to ash which she threw to the wind. A smattering of it fell across his now pall face, his dead body strewn on the ground.
"AURORA." It was Connor. He had been near the Genoshan militia and his uniform bore the scorch marks to show for it. "THIS SENSELESS VIOLENCE IS NOT WHO YOU ARE. IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO END THIS."
For a moment, Aurora almost hesitated. Connor had been her one true friend once upon a time. But times changed. "You should've stayed in New York." Fire shot out from her hand and spiraled toward Connor's chest. If Proudstar had been shocked by the reversal Aurora had done on him, then Aurora was downright astonished with Connor now. Her glowing red eyes grew wide. "What?!"
Connor caught her fire in his hand and let it flow across his body in a flaming sheen that his body absorbed to harmless effect. Aside from the wispy red that eked from his eyes like a bright morning fog, there was no sign of her attack on him. The eldritch energy of her pyrokinetic blast rendered Connor impervious to it, even absorbing the energy to heighten his already considerable strength and agility.
~You are not the only one who has grown stronger~ No stranger to telepaths, Connor knew Aurora would know his thoughts. They used to converse telepathically once upon a time. ~You must believe that we need not fight. What has befallen you, my friend, that you would turn so cruel? Tell us and we may yet work together again as we always did before~
A montage flooded Connor's mind at his question, a series of events beginning with Muir Island, progressing to the violent C-section and theft of her baby, her banishment to Limbo, the years she spent there being corrupted by its diabolical environment into the warped and wicked creature that now stood before him. She had watched over her child and in his name had gleefully become the Goblin Queen. But she had come here with a mission.
~What is your purpose?~ Connor pressed. ~Wanton bloodshed is not an end, only a means. What is it that you seek?~
"If you wish to serve among my minions, then prove your loyalty!" Aurora bellowed to one and all. "Bring me the artifact that Moreau kept from Lord Belasco. It must be nearby, as it is of great power and was used to open the Great Portal. Retrieve it before my goblins do and I will be merciful!"
While they spoke, the battle raged. N'astirh and Windrider dueled in the skies above while S'ym pounced to and fro with his mighty flaming axe, seeking whom he may crush. And all the while, more and more demons flooded out of the portal.
Maeve hurled rock after rock, boulder after boulder at the onslaught of demons that just seemed to flood the landscape in front of her. A sea of horrible little creatures with a mindless obsession for killing, maiming and just destroying anything in their path. She was already tired, exhausted from the last couple of days, the lack of sleep and food catching up with her. Her body running on poor adrenaline at this point but that was enough to keep her alive a little longer.
A small hole in the invading force had formed around Desmond. With the smaller kin destroyed, a large brute had found its way to face Desmond. A face covered in scars, half its teeth uncovered due to its cheek torn away. It rivaled Desmond in height, and twice as broad. It's only weapon was a length of heavy wrought-iron chain. It swung it in a circle, then launched it at Desmond. The chain wrapped around the arm, and Desmond was pulled at the brute hard.
With a grunt Desmond found himself at the feet of the red-skinned brute. It grinned a wicked grin as it brought its foot down on Desmond's head. Desmond caught it in time in both his hands. And with a savage roar, Desmond twisted the foot half a circle. The brute screamed and lost its balance. With a speed that belied Desmond's size, the X-man to be pounced on the brute, and in the mounted position Desmond pounded on its skull until movement ceased.
As the battle continued on the mountain side, the goblins and demons of Limbo made their way into the city. Once its walls had been breached a new wave of terror and urgency took hold of the citizens. The weak and defenseless were killed immediately, only the strong managed to run. Those who were stupid enough to stay and fight were dragged back to the fiery portal of hell, their fate in Limbo unknown.
The carnage added to the strain the X-Factor team on the dock experienced. No longer merely organizing evacuations, they were now divided and having to defend the innocent bystanders trying to board the cargo ships.
Pietro moved in his trademark blur of silver as he carried children or the elderly to the docks. Thanks to his amazing speed it almost felt like he could be in two places at once, allowing him to fare the best when attempting to divide his efforts.
Ty and Tandy worked as the inseparable team they were. Tandy held the line with her daggers of light while Ty held open a portal to the Darkforce for individuals to escape through. Once an area was emptied they appeared together on the dock, evacuating everyone onto the hull of a ship. They continued like this, back and forth over and over again as they tried to save as many people as possible.
Hank’s efforts with the medical team quickly dissolved as the goblins unleashed their brutal attacks. Instead he performed calculated attacks and amazing maneuvers as the triage team loaded up as many as possible onto the limited aircraft that was available.
Jean was the only one who remained stationary on the docks. Floating high in the air, she telekinetically moved shipping containers through the air and dumped their contents into the sea or upon a storming front of goblins. Once empty she stacked the containers for people to be loaded into them. She only stopped when the soldiers of Limbo got too close, then she would telekinetically block or bowl them over.
But she felt the loss and the fear that filled this island. Genosha was already haunted and the devastation and death that followed made this place a nightmare for the telepath. Jean felt the strain of blocking out the past and present death along with the physical toll her abilities took on her.
* Let me free * The voice that called to Jean reappeared, as it so often did when a situation was dire. * Darling Jean, take my hand and we will end this travesty. Blood soaks the earth, souls ripped across dimensions. This land is corrupted and needs to be cleansed. *
“No!” Jean shouted to the voice only she could hear. “I will not take lives, I will not be another source of death and pain.” She winced as she felt her psyche crack from the strain of it all.
Windrider thrashed and clawed at the leathery hands of N'astirh as the storm she provided raged around them. But her efforts were not match for the Prince of Limbo and she was soon limp and lifeless in his talons. With a hellish, animalistic cry, N'astirh flew back into the portal of Limbo, taking the Omega level mutant with him.
As if her demise was an offering to an ancient god, a surge of power shuttered through Genosha before the island began to ripple and shimmer with even more dark magic. Across the land portal after portal began to open. Creating even more locations for the army of Limbo to invade through. Soon all of Genosha was flooded with goblins and demons, adding even more urgency to the X-Men’s efforts to find and stop whatever power source was controlling the portals.
Aurora, Goblin Queen, turned giddy as she watched the fresh wave of soldiers while they swarmed the island from every angle. “Foolish X-Men! Did you think you could thwart me and my loyal subjects? You will die here unless you kneel to me - your Queen.”
Shock changed Maeve's face as she watched N'astirh take a motionless Windrider away with him. Surely nothing could take that woman down and there was a worry in the back of her mind that if she was taken down what chance did the rest of them have. However, Maeve was never one to kowtow to tyrants and bullies, in fact that got her into plenty of trouble growing up and even more so now. "I will never kneel to people like you." Maeve commented as she dug deep and rose up an army of golems behind her. This would increase numbers and they were much harder to slow down, to kill, than their flesh and blood counterparts. "Ionsaí! (Attack!)" she yelled as the colour in her eyes began to fade.
Drew had been in a running battle against the forces from Limbo. He was tired, bloody and sweaty from not just this battle, but all the battles fought since arriving on the island nation of Genosha. He reached Aurora finally and stopped five paces in front of her. His expression was calm as he locked eyes with Aurora. "Is that what you want Aurora? The team, the citizens of Genosha hell, the whole damn planet to kneel before you? I won't be a slave to someone I care about, someone I wanted to help." He raised his right hand. "I won't kneel before you, but I will offer you a hand in friendship. Please, just call off this attack and come home to the people who want to be friends of Aurora and not slaves to a heartless Queen."
Aurora's laughter rang out across the battlefield, high and cruel like glass shattering. Her crimson eyes gleamed with a manic, otherworldly light as she looked at Drew, amused by his sincerity, almost offended by his hope.
"You still don't understand, do you?" she purred, fire trailing from her fingertips like silken ribbons. "The blessed relic—Moreau's dirty, little secret, it was never meant for his filthy mad science. It belongs to Limbo and I am not leaving without it."
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And once I have it... once I secure the tether... I will return the prisoners. I give you my word, Drew.” She tilted her head, lips curling in mock compassion. “See? I can be merciful.”
Drew didn't believe her. It was clear the Aurora they had known was no more. All that was left was the Goblin Queen. Drew turned and zipped away to find Connor and the others.
A thunderous boom echoed as all the minor portals across Genosha suddenly flared wide—ripping into full-scale breaches that mirrored the Great Portal’s yawning maw. The sky rippled and tore in a dozen directions, warping reality itself. Structures crumbled. Shadows twisted. Each smaller portal grew tall and wide to match the size and ferocity of the original Great Portal. The landscape itself was distorting as Limbo itself was breaking into the island.
And then the flood began.
Demons poured through every rift—howling, cackling, snarling—each wave more grotesque than the last. Some dragged chains, others flew on batlike wings, and all of them bore weapons seething with infernal magic. What had once been a battle was now an invasion. Genosha trembled beneath it.
Connor took a defensive stance, his voice sharp. "WE MUST LOCATE THE RELIC. IF WE CUT THE TETHER, WE MAY BE ABLE TO COLLAPSE THE GATEWAYS."
Scott stepped forward, his visor gleaming with blast after blast. "No. We fall back. This isn't a battle anymore, it's a war zone and it's not one we can win like this."
Connor hooted and thumped his chest in visible disagreement.
"Caveman!" Scott’s voice was firm. "We have to regroup and figure out how to shut this down without losing everyone in the process."
Returning to the sky, Aurora watched from above, wreathed in flame and glee, her cape billowing with infernal wind. “Run,” she called sweetly, stretching her arms wide as Limbo’s sky swallowed the stars. "Run, little X-Men. And when you come back, bring me what's mine."
Drew found the others. He glanced at the ruined site that was once the Flesh Factory. He turned to Connor and the team. "We have to find this Relic, what ever it may be, and destroy it." He turned to Maeve. "Can you sense anything? Some sort of metal or mineral that's otherworldly?"
"I bet it's got to do with Moreau's Machine!" Desmond shouted between grunts of effort. He had been driven back from his outer perimeter. "That thing blew up, and all of a sudden the red headed weirdo is here!"
Connor nodded. That stood to reason. "AND THE MACHINE WAS AT GROUND ZERO OF THE EXPLOSION THAT CREATED THE PORTAL." He looked at Kayleigh who was huddled in the rough circle formed by the rest of the team, cowering from the pitched battle erupting all around them. "EMBER, COME WITH ME. VELOCITY, RUN AHEAD TO GROUND ZERO. WE WILL FOLLOW."
Drew nodded and took off at a full sprint. Time was of the essence. They had to find the Relic before any of the minions of Limbo did. Then destroy it or get it as far away as possible.
Trembling but nonetheless resolute, Kayleigh fearfully acknowledged. "Yes... Yes, sir." She was at a loss of what to do besides follow orders, so she ran after Connor like a greyhound chasing a rabbit.
"Iceman! Get everyone out of here!" Cyclops ordered. "Nightcrawler, help him and then come back for Caveman and everyone who went with him. The day is lost."
"I can be the last to leave," Maeve said, her voice a little deeper than usual. She had forged rock and stone all around herself, being a bigger golem than the rest of her army. The eyes shone white from the sockets too showing the difference between her and those she commanded. "I can hold them back as best I can whilst the rest of you get to safety. If I leave now all my golems fall and we lose half our numbers. Kurt can come back for me." Her stone head moved to look at him as tiny pebbles fell in the turning of her head and body.
Things had changed rather quickly. Hayden thought that the whole island might break up and either sink into the ocean or be pulled into the various portals. And with the weather mutant gone, the amount of water had decreased. But there were still enough clouds and molecules in the air for her to form water and continue the battle.
She shook her head as she heard the orders to evacuate. She knew there wasn't much else they could do since the Goblin Queen had this unending army coming at them, but it still saddened her that all these people were and would be gone. She continued defending with various water attacks until either Iceman or Nightcrawler picked her up.
Jennifer looked around. She was scared. She wanted to retreat. Cyclopes had even said to. But she didn't have it in her to leave Drew, even hoping Nightcrawler might get him later. "Dammit, Dr...Velocity," she said, even as she ran after him, Kayleigh, and Connor.
Kennedy remained alone high up on the mountain edge, her role of sniper and crowd control was still needed as the few remaining X-Men approached ground zero. She would wait until Kurt came back for her but she also knew she was a lower priority thanks to being free from immediate danger. Until that time came, she would attempt to hold back the horde of Limbo buying them more time to search for the relic that would hopefully close the portals.
The draconic prince who had hauled Windrider through the portal returned on hell's wings. His vertical eyes narrowed on the sight of Kennedy's charged arrows firing off the mountainside. Diving toward Kennedy, the breath of his mouth deflected arrow after arrow, leaving Kennedy helpless before his broadside charge.
"Not today, der Satan!" Kurt appeared in mid-air, the sword he had from the previous battle glimmered in the hellish twilight right before it impaled N'astirh in the left flank.
Roaring in pain, N'astirh barrel-rolled to shake away the wily Nightcrawler. While he was successful, the blade slipped free and lacerated the full length of his wing. N'astirh crashed down to the ground in a tailspin. Despite the impact, the demon prince was already stirring, and his broken wing straightened, hale and whole as if nothing had happened.
A puff of smoke appeared at Kennedy's side. Kurt flashed her a weary smile. "Time to go," he said, short of breath. Without further warning, Kurt took Kennedy by the shoulder and teleported her away.
Drew made it to Ground Zero and immediately began searching for anything that would remotely look to be what Aurora and her Army was after. He didn't even want to think about the fight he was in for if the Goblins or a Demon Prince arrived before his team mates. Picked up handfuls of rocks and shoved them in his pockets. They would be useful as as high velocity shotgun blasts if the enemy arrived first.
Once he skidded to a halt atop the cracked and blackened rim of the crater that used to be the Flesh Factory, Drew's boots crunching glassy fragments of slagged metal and scorched stone. Smoke clung to the floor of the newly formed canyon like a living thing, lazily coiling in lavender tendrils around glowing, violet veins that pulsed beneath the wreckage. The ground radiated heat and humming pressure—not from fire, but something deeper, foul, and wrong.
Though didn't see the relic, he did see movement.
At first it looked like a mass of melted steel and flesh dragging itself up from the deepest pocket of wreckage. Limbs—or what passed for them—scrabbled for purchase on the ground that buckled and undulated in the ultraviolet pulses. A swollen, distended tongue lolled from a jagged maw lined with too many teeth. Gigantic red eyes blinked in different directions, and wiry tufts of hair jutted from greasy patches of purple skin. What remained of a presidential coat clung to the square torso in soiled tatters, barely recognizable against the sinewy grotesquery that rose now with a slathering hiss.
The creature opened its maw and sucked in a wheezing, rattled breath through misshapen nostrils. Then those giants eyes locked on Drew.
"You..." the creature rasped, voice wet and twitchy, like teeth grinding sugarcane. "Mutie... I know what you are... I SMELL you... hotblooded little sprinter... 'fore the fire, before the bang..."
The creature shuffled forward on legs much smaller than the bulky four arms that stretched out in front of him.
"Took my artifact, didn't ya? Took my work. Think you're a big damn hero now, huh?!" The long, prehensile tongue slithered out again, saliva sizzling and sparking where it struck molten ground. "No, no, no—see, I make you better. I can remake all of you! Every X-Gene born on Genosha, every little godling in a Magistrate uniform, it was MY MACHINE that mapped your sins!”
It lunged forward suddenly, crawling with spidery grace despite its bulk. The smile that split its cheeks was too wide. Too hungry.
"TAKE SOME SUGAR, LITTLE MUTANT!" it shrieked in maddened delight. "IT WILL MAKE YOU BETTER!"
Behind Drew, Connor and Kayleigh arrived just in time to see the twisted figure, glowing with infernal light, rise above the rubble with eyes full of madness and recognition.
And not a relic in sight.
Not unless this thing was the relic. Or the reason for it.
Kayleigh screamed in horror, drawing the horrific monstrosity's attention away from Drew.
Drew pulled a handful of stones from his pocket and reared his arm back. He kicked his super speed into high gear and sent stones flying into the face of the creature. In the blink of an eye he dug more stones and bites of metal and sent them flying into the face of the monstrosity that had once been Moreau. He dashed around the crater and retrieved a disc shape piece of metal. He hated the idea of killing another human being, but what Moreau was now couldn't be considered human. He took aim and let the sharp, jagged edged disc fly. Hopefully a killing shot that would cleave the creature's neck and behead Moreau.
Once that the monstrous thing that had once been Moreau—now a bloated, hunched mass of sinew and mutation—reared up fully from the rubble, the sight was unlike anything Connor or Kayleigh had seen, even in their most warped nightmares.
A grotesque tangle of limbs and bulk, its hulking torso was supported by two squat legs too small for its upper mass. Four massive arms sprouted from its sides like parasitic growths, each tipped with warped claws and veined with glowing, hellish energy. But it was the head that dominated the grotesque picture. It was oversized and bulbous, ringed with a jagged-toothed grin that stretched from ear to ear and somehow past it, splitting the lower half of his face with warped joy. In truth, it was difficult to tell where the giant head ended and the body began, for they were one and the same.
The rocks Drew launched were a blur even to Kayleigh's trained eye—but when they struck, they simply bounced off the monster's tough, rubbery hide with a thunk thunk thunk before scattering harmlessly into the steaming ruin around them.
"Yeah, that's it, motor mouth!" Moreau howled gleefully, his voice thick and frothing as his tongue snapped with an electric crack toward the whirling disc. "Buahahaha!"
It struck with a hiss—the saliva igniting on contact—and then BOOM! The disc burst in midair in a concussive fragmentation of molten metal and acidic sparks. Shards rained down like deadly confetti.
"DOWN!" Connor signed fast, barely getting his arms around Kayleigh before hitting the ground and shielding her with his body as flaming fragments embedded themselves into the rubble around them.
One jagged spike seared across Connor's forearm, but he barely flinched. From his position in the ash, he threw up his hands in a flurry of sharp signs and his speech-generating device called out to Drew from cover.
"VELOCITY, DO YOU SEE THE RELIC? WE DO NOT."
From behind the veil of smoke and falling ash, the mutated Moreau rose again, unfazed.
"Broke my Machine and stole my artifact and my glory?" His mouth opened wider than physically possible, his voice devolving into a laugh so vile it echoed across the crater like a siren from hell. "Oh, no, no, no-ho-ho-ho-hoooo! There's more sugar in the jar, baby!"
Drew scanned the area at super speed. He took a long look at Moreau in case the artifact was now fused to his grotesque transformed body. It seemed like half a minute to him, but it was barely a second. He didn't see anything that remotely resembled what they were looking for. He sped around behind Moreau and then raced into the crater to the pit Moreau had scrabbled his way out of. The relic had to be still down there. If he could find it and escape with it good, if not, he was dead.
The laughter from the monster that was Moreau died the moment Drew zipped past him.
"What’s this?" it snarled, his grotesque tongue lolling lazily over his jagged shark teeth. "Still diggin' in my backyard? Lookin' for my treasure like a sticky-fingered rodent? Somebody beat you to it but I'll squash you all the same!"
He turned his massive head, following the shimmer of Drew's afterimage around the edge of the crater. The tongue, thick and ridged like a wet whip of cable, recoiled. Twitched. Tensed. Crack.
The tongue snapped forward with a sonic boom like a rifle, catching Drew just as he angled toward the pit—too fast to change direction, too late to dodge. The tip of the mutated appendage hit him square in the forehead with enough force to drop a Sentinel.
WHAP!
Drew's body ragdolled mid-stride and crumpled, bouncing once before skidding to a limp stop at the edge of the crater, dust cloud billowing around his unconscious form while his skin began to sizzle from the corrosive contact.
Moreau's mutated tongue retracted as he began to boast.
"HAHAHAHAHAA! That's what you get for messin' with the COOKIE JAR, ya little gnat!” he roared, arms flailing as he loomed over Drew's fallen body. "You don’t get to pick through my scraps! Now you can be the first subject in my new, improved Magistrate program!"
Jennifer ran after them towards the crater, dodging bits of falling molten slag. There was dust in her eyes and heat everywhere. It felt like every muscle in her body was aching. Maybe she should have just gone with Cyclops. That was the proper thing to do, right? But she followed nonetheless. She finally caught up with the group, pulling herself over the edge of the crater, just as the transformed Moreau, not that she recognized him as such, was reforming and Drew was looking for the artifact. She took a deep breath. She had fallen a little behind but she wasted no time getting into the action. What power she had left, she shot directly into the mutated Moreau in a concentrated bolt. "Let's see if you can shrug this off."
That bolt of lightning ripped through the air and struck Sugar Man square in the chest, sending him reeling backward into the Machine's debris at the center of the crater. Eldritch tendrils and molten wreckage writhed like living wire, seizing hold of him like a metallic drosera sundew plant. The impact exploded in a spray of dark sparks and unholy smoke.
"GAAAAARGH!!” howled the monster, limbs flailing as his form sizzled and sparked. "YOU LITTLE SPARKY BITCH!" he shrieked. "I'LL FOLD YOU INTO A CUBE AND STIR YOU INTO MY GODDAMN TEA!"
By then, Connor had left Kayleigh behind cover and retrieved Drew who was still unconscious. Draped across his shoulders in a fireman's carry, Connor did his best to sign clearly.
"RETREAT. FAILED. RETREAT."
"Because I'm so sweet?" Jennifer tried to snark at the monster. She held her hands up, sparks flaring defensively, but the truth was she didn't have much juice left. She was also painfully aware of Drew's unconscious form. Her heart seemed to fall at that sight. So she stepped back with Connor, trying not to fully turn her back on a dangerous enemy, but she knew they had to get out of there.
By chance or by fate, Kurt appeared in front of them. "Come on!" he urged, reaching out for the group. "Zhere is no time to argue!"
Connor nodded. He should have listened to Scott before anybody had gotten hurt. Together, Kurt evacuated the three X-Men out of the smoldering ruins of the Flesh Factory and the Machine it had contained.
The scene at the Hammer Bay docks was chaos incarnate—yet it was organized chaos, like a desperate symphony conducted by necessity, survival its sole refrain. Waves crashed violently against the quay, sea spray mingling with the smoke and ash blown in from the inland inferno. Massive cargo vessels, repurposed for evacuation, groaned under the weight of thousands of Genoshans scrambling up gangplanks and ladders, their eyes wild with terror, their arms full of children, food, whatever they could carry. It was like the evacuation of Dunkirk, except rather than German Nationalsozialisten forces, the gates of Limbo were nipping at their heels.
Pietro darted in and out of the incoming crowd like a silver blur, guiding panicked civilians into boarding lines with shouted instructions and a firm grip. His uniform was torn, soot-streaked, and his platinum hair was matted to his forehead with sweat.
"Left line!" Hank bellowed at him, seeing the speedster guiding a dazed family stumbling in from the market district. "That freighter's still got room! Go! Go!"
Ty and Tandy stood shoulder to shoulder near a cargo container that had been flipped on its side and turned into a makeshift barricade. Ty's cloak billowed outwardly, absorbing strikes from the occasional flying demonling that broke through the defensive perimeter. With each impact, he shuddered but he did not fall.
Tandy, radiant with dazzling light, hurled daggers of energy at the snarling creatures that threatened the crowd. She didn't stop moving, didn't stop smiling—because light smiting evil was pent up and a long time coming for her.
Hank jumped atop one of the container towers, his massive blue form silhouetted against the crimson sky. Every few seconds he would jump down to reroute a stampede or pluck a stunned civilian from danger.
Beside him, Kurt emerged from a flash of indigo smoke. His chest rose and fell with ragged breaths, and his velvety skin was matted with soot and blood. He hesitated a beat too long before vanishing again in a wisp of sulfur. "Mein Gott..." he rasped before disappearing again.
Once the wisps had faded, Scott walked forward heading straight for Jean. There was no mistaking her location, with or without their psychic rapport.
Jean stood near the edge of the dock, her eyes glowing faintly as she projected a wide telekinetic shield between the evacuees and the growing ranks of advancing hellspawn. Her face was calm, resolute, but her hair whipped around her like fire in the wind, and she could feel the fringes of great power stirring again in her bones.
"Aurora is out there at the head of this invasion and she is not letting up," Scott said, adjusting the controls on the side of his visor. "She's throwing everything she has at the team. Several of them won't give up and a few are even pushing forward—we tried to pull them back, but they won't come even after I gave the retreat order." His jaw was set, voice strained. "I won't leave them, not if there’s a chance we can still end this. But if that portal doesn’t close soon..."
He didn't finish. Instead, they stood together, side by side on the blood-stained docks of a dying nation, shielding what they could, sending off who they must, while behind them—the fire rose higher, and the sky broke open even wider with flashes of black lightning.
And Kurt, jumping from one teammate to the next, kept bamfing into the fray. Even as his limbs trembled, even as the sulfur thickened in his lungs, because nobody was getting left behind.
The demon horde grew even thicker along the docks, though, relentless in following their command to capture the denizens of Genosha and feed them to the portal. Only X-Factor stood between them and the fleeing ships, though the X-Men teammates teleported by Nightcrawler helped shore up the defense.
Hayden poofed into place on the docks and barely had time to squeak out a thanks before Nightcrawler disappeared again. After a few seconds of gathering herself, she looked around. There were so many people...so many...trying to escape with mostly just the clothes on their backs. And screaming in terror, crying, fear...chaos.
It was then that she felt the gritty spray of the sea and heard the waves crashing. When she turned to look, she saw Scott and Jean a ways off. She ran towards them, arm extended towards the ocean and fingers splayed, sensing the raging torrents. "I can help!" she screamed as she approached. "I can try to calm the waves around the quay and the freighters, keep the spray down and the ships from bobbing too much for easier loading and stuff. Hopefully. I might even be able to use the waves to give 'em a push out when they're ready." She paused a second to catch her breath. "But I'll need to be up high so I can see. Like on a stack of containers."
“Anything you can do to help them board and then get them as far away from the island as possible is appreciated.” Jean replied to Hayden but her eyes remained fixed on the crowds. The telepath was calm but there was strain in her voice as she continued to switch between aiding with the evacuation and attacking the goblin soldiers, this was a losing battle and the best they could do was buy time so more might escape.
“Go back and get them,” Jean agreed with Scott’s remarks as they attempted to defend for as long as possible. “It’s getting worse and I don’t think we will be able to hold this dock for very much longer.” She paused and looked up at him, her voice softening to a more tender and intimate tone. “Just be careful Scott, Aurora’s mind is fractured and broken. She’s not who she once was… I hardly recognize her anymore. Her time in Limbo has twisted her, she cares not for us.”
Battlefield
Hearing the small cackles of the demons around her Maeve felt the hairs on the back of her neck, hell her whole body stand on end. She was inside her own golem rock suit but she could feel them on top of her trying to chip their way inside. She felt a large thud on her mid section as she stumbled back but did not fall. Regaining her focus she could see a demon that rivalled her in her current size of nearly 8 foot tall. Her other golems only stood about 7 foot so it was easy to tell who their master was. Her army of rock people were doing their best with two directives, attack that demons and protect the retreat. She wanted to give as much time as she could to save as many as they all could.
A light extinguished as she felt one of her golems fall into dust and she lost concentration as a blow to her head came from the larger demons axe-like weapon. It jarred her head and she could taste iron in her mouth, blood. She must have bit her lip of something, otherwise that hit was harder than she thought. Another swing aimed at her and she caught it in her hands before beginning the wrestling match with her latest foe.
At her side was Bobby, throwing up ice walls and shielding Maeve from the fiery blasts the more mystically inclined demons were lobbing her way. "We can't hold out forever!" he shouted.
In answer, a wide crimson arc cleared away the front line of attackers. Scott strode up to his side with an exhausted Kurt at his heels. "You don't have to! Everybody is at the docks. Fall back so we can evac!"
Bobby nodded. "Come on, babe. We've done all we can."
"Run, run, as fast as you can," Aurora taunted from the air in sing-song. "You can't stop me, you're only an X-Man!"
"I would say you were a bad wife," Scott called up to her with his hands cupped against his mouth, "but you weren't ever really one at all!"
The four mutants bamfed away just in time to avoid the molten geyser that erupted below their feet.
Aurora screamed at the futility of her attack. "KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!"
To be Continued...
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