Prague

Captain America grips his circular vibranium-adamantium shield in his hand and flings it into the battlefield. The Horseman known as War simply bats the shield away, causing it to spin and roll on the ground like a bottle cap. The green goliath known as Hulk jumps through the air and lands on top of Pestilence. The large, techno-organic being seems to squeal as it struggles to regain its true form.

"I am a far more intelligent being you have ever come across, Pestilence," Hulk responds in a deep, confident voice as he jams his massive fists into the face of the Technarch. "Once I find your weakness, I will exploit it!"

Pestilence's visage begins to transform into that of Bruce Banner's drunk, abusive father, {{Exploit this!}} Pestilence opens his mouth and out pours thousands of transmode virus spores. Hulk coughs as he tries to bat them away from his mouth and nasal cavity.

Invisible Woman concentrates, using her invisible shield as means to form an offense against Famine. The woman formerly known as Rogue smiles wildly, like a mosquito against glass, waiting for the instant to strike.

Fighting Death are the rest of the interim team of superhumans, Spider-Man, Quicksilver, and Thor. Thor extends his arm into the air, calling forth a whirlwind which causes Death to lose her step. She telekinetically hovers in the midst of the localized hurricane and holds out her fist. Spider-Man and Quicksilver are thrust backwards violently into a park bench. Thor holds his ground against the telekinetic assault. Focusing his willpower, he holds his mystical hammer of Asgard in the sights of Death.

"Methinks thy master does not know the power of the Odinson!" Thor bellows. Death shrieks as millions of volts of electricity is pumped into her system. Thor is not finished there, however. His stay on Midgard has been unpleasantly made difficult. An Asgardian prince deserves better. He reels back his fist and rams it into Death's face, breaking her jaw.

Meanwhile the Twelve, as well as their Gatherer, Cable, his sister, Rachel, and veteran X-Men Nightcrawler, Psylocke, and Gambit, simply wait in wonder and shock. They have only recently returned to Earth through one of Blink's portals from a liberation in Limbo.

Phoenix stands motionless, she does a telepathic scan, "They don't remember anything before Apocalypse's reality warp."

"Yet, they're here, still fighting the good fight," Havok observes. He sighs, "I should be used to all these surprises by now."

"What do you mean?" Polaris asks him.

"Nevermind, Lorna," Alex mutters. "Just nevermind."

"Pietro is with them, Cable!" Wanda, the Avenger known as the Scarlet Witch, observes. She and her twin brother, Quicksilver, have always had a tight sibling bond which can never be broken.

"So's my mommy!" Franklin cheers. He has tears of happiness rolling down his cheeks.

Cable stands motionless. He could have Blink teleport everyone to Apocalypse's Citadel in an instant and this could all be over. But what if the "Avengers" perish? What then? The Horsemen, these Horsemen, are almost ridiculously embued with strength and power. Apocalypse spent time on genetically tweaking these former allies into agents of evil.

"Cable, we gotta help them!" Franklin shouts, grabbing hold of Cable's hand, yanking it as he jumps up and down as five year olds do when they get antsy.

As Cable peers into the deep blue eyes of young Franklin Richards, he can't help but cringe up inside. Here he is, this boy has the power to be more powerful than the Celestials, and yet this boy still knows what it means to be human. Cable blinks a few times and sees his foster son, Tyler. He had same blonde hair as Franklin.

You have damn good parents, Franklin. Damn good. Nathan sighs deeply, "All right, everyone, listen up. You've all got a power boost. All of your mutant powers are resonating with each others'. Put it to use and put these Horsemen down. Don't pull any punches, or the world continues on a downward spiral."

"He's right," Cyclops speaks up.

Phoenix nods in confirmation, "Believe me, you're lucky you didn't see it." *

(* Cyclops and Phoenix experienced the future under Apocalypse's rule 2000 years in the future in The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix -- Brad)

Rachel sighs deeply as a tear sheds from her eye, "...or that you didn't have to live through almost eighty years of it."

Iceman converts his entire molecular structure to ice, "Don't worry, guys. Let's consider everyone here an extension of the Summers family and kick some apocalyptic ass...er, butt! Sorry, Franklin." Havok shoots Iceman a sharp, intense look. "On second thought, forget the extended family thing...that's just way to confusing."

"Let us go!" Storm shouts as she takes to the skies. Suddenly, there is an explosion of energy as a small meteorite crash-lands in front of the band of mutants. The force knocks all of them back. Storm is forced to fall as not even the winds can keep her aloft.

Apollyon's eyes begin charging with energy as he is the first to rise to his feet. He peers into the crater and sees a strange, glowing mass. Suddenly, the mass grabs his throat and lifts him into the air, leaving the Son of Apocalypse gasping for air.

The arm grasping Apollyon is revealed to be that of Holocaust. He smiles, "There can be only one heir, you insignificant twip!"

Cable leaps to his feet and extends his Psimatar to full length as his eye pulses with energy, "Apollyon! Try not to move, I'll--"

"Don't worry, I can handle it," the young mutant says within his mind. "The raging emotions Holocaust is brewing up is supercharging me. He's a bug on my windshield."

Cable pulls his psimatar back and smiles slightly. He looks back at the others, "Take the Horsemen and help the heroes!"

Apollyon grimaces as he generates a massive telekinetic pulse of force fueled by the negative emotions of Holocaust. Holocaust, being on the receiving end, is flung high into the air.

Iceman peers at the result of Apollyon's power display, "What exactly are his powers?"

Phoenix smiles, as if by pride, "He has strong psionic powers, but they are only triggered by the emotions he picks up."

"So he's kind of like a solar panel of emotions, unlike Scott," Iceman jokes.

"Hey! Standing right here," Cyclops grumbles. "You should check if Apocalypse is hiring any 'comedic' bar tenders, by the way."

"Touche, One-eye. Touche," Bobby says with a smile as he generates an ice slide to jump into battle.

Pietro Maximoff has the ability to think and move at superhuman speeds. Unfortunately, during the split-second Famine touched him, so can she. Having speed as a power is also beneficial, as the effects of Famine's touch don't hamper Quicksilver's hyper-metabolism.

"You and Apocalypse will pay for putting my sister in Limbo!" he shouts, lunging for Famine with his super-fast fists.

Famine laughs, blocking each advance with her nigh-invulnerable forearms. "You always know what they say...kids will tire themselves out eventually. You, you're like the pink rabbit. No matter how much I absorb from you, you come back for more. You must really like your sister, if you catch my drift."

"Incest, no. Brotherly love...YES!" Quicksilver grunts as his frustration over not being able to land one punch is starting to rise to a boiling point. "Argh! No one is faster than me! No one!!!"

"I'd have to disagree," Famine sneers.

"What are the odds that you lose fine motor control to act at superhuman speeds?" Scarlet Witch asks, dressed in skintight leather that is the Limbo prison uniform. Her hands are surrounded by large glowing pink orbs. Famine turns around, shocked, "You...you're..."

"The Witch is back," Wanda smiles slyly. She thrusts her arms forward, hitting Famine with her hex. Famine actually screams in pain.

"What? That...hurt?" Famine wonders.

"Not as much as fists flying at you at 100 miles per hour," Quicksilver smiles as he knocks Famine out with two-hundred good hits in about thirty seconds.

He sighs, hugging his sister, "I knew you'd make it out of there."

Wanda shakily wraps her arms around Pietro's back, staring down at the unconscious Famine. It was a shame, how both Rogue and Quicksilver were an item before all of this happened. Both of them were pitted against each other like it was some kind of cock fight. Now, more than ever, Wanda had a reason to truly hate Apocalypse.

"Hey!" Death shouts. Phoenix looks above, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Yeah, you. The Debra Messing look-alike contest winner!"

Jean can do nothing sees a blur of green come pouncing on top of her. Death reaches behind her and pulls out two Assyrian blades. She twirls them in her hands so the tips point downwards. Madelyne's smile is hidden by the scarf that covers much of her face. She drives the blades downward, but she should know better than anyone that's not the way to win in a fight against a telekinetic.

An aura of a firebird engulfs Jean's body as the two blades are flung from Death's grasp and vaporized. Jean's voice is eerie with power, "I am really getting tired of doing this obligatory template-fight-clone, clone-fight-template bit."

"Oh shut up and have another ten kids, cow!" Madelyne spits. "Come on, fight me."

"I seem to recall only having one sprung from my loins, thank you very much," Phoenix informs as she hovers into the air. Death follows her.

"I lied," Death says as she folds her arms. "You don't look like Debra Messing, you look like Judy Garland at age 40." Madelyne begins to laugh, but she is suddenly stopped by feeling a sharp pain in her jaw. "ARGGH! Damn it, Thor broke my jaw earlier...it was just starting to heal and you--AHHH!!!!"

Phoenix smiles as her hair appears to be on fire, "Me fight you? Looks like your own nervous system is fighting you. That's me moving your jawbone around."

"Ggrrraahhh!" Death shouts. "Why do telekinetics like you always have to say what they're doing?! I mean, quit stating the obvious!" Madelyne brushes past the pain and punches Jean in the face, putting a stop to her telekinetic assault. To Madelyne's surprise, Jean returns the favor with a right jab.

Pulling her scarf away, revealing her pale green face, Madelyne forms telekinetic brass knuckles around her fists and delivers a left hook to Jean's temple. A few exchanges later, and Death tackles Jean to the ground. Nail-scratching. Hair-pulling. It's a catfight.

War twirls his sword around, slashing Hulk in the chest. Hulk reels in pain, but the wound instantly seals itself. "You'll have to do better than that!" Hulk shouts as he grabs the floating Exodus by his dark red cape and slams him into the ground, causing an impression in the asphalt. As Hulk jumps at least twenty feet into the air to stomp into War, the Horseman generates a massive telekinetic bolt into him. Hulk falls just short of War.

Hulk's massive reach grips around War's waist. His savage persona was starting to take dominance. Hulk pulls War up to his face, his nostrils blowing wind into his face. War's eyes light up as he telepathically invades the sanctity of Hulk's mind. "You have a lot of personas locked up in there...let's see you deal with them all."

Hulk's eyes grow wide as he shouts in agony, dropping War on the ground. His massive, 7-foot, 1000-pound body shrinks to that of Bruce Banner as he struggles on the ground, practically naked, dealing with all of his various personas at once. "I can't...I can't...not all of them...no....!"

War smiles, but is suddenly rammed into with an invisible shield, courtesy of Sue Richards. The blonde woman had what appeared to be regular civilian garb, however, her body looked malnourished. She was having difficulty handling the stress of her abilities.

Exodus hovers to his feet and generates his psionic Medieval sword, "Looks like Famine got a taste of you, metahuman."

"Not nearly enough...," Sue says, appearing to be short of breath. She forms a staff out of her invisible shield. "Not after what you bastards did to my son...putting him in that Hell dimension!"

"Mom!" Franklin yells, running up to his mother.

For a moment, Sue is distracted and doesn't see War's sword coming down on her. At the last second, Invisible Woman blocks the molecule-thick edge with her staff. War is too fast, however, and he is already going for another killing blow. Sue blocks the sword again, but War kicks her in the left knee, causing her to fall to one knee. He kicks Sue in the stomach, causing her to collapse on the ground and vomit.

War smiles, his eyes glowing red, as he holds his sword behind him like a baseball bat, aimed for the back of Sue Richards' neck, "To your grave..."

"NO!!" Franklin shouts. Franklin Richards has about as much power as a god. It's debatable, but his power could even rival that of the denizens of the Fifth Dimension. In his five year old mind, however, he has no idea how to comprehend the power that he really has. He has mental blocks on his brain, made possible by his genius father, Mr. Fantastic.

Unfortunate for War, those blocks have been overridden by the event before Sue Richards' beheading. The sword appears to be going in slow motion as it comes closer and closer to his mother's neck, but Franklin is able to hold out his hand at normal speed. Energy surrounds him as his powers kick into overdrive, causing War's body to literally explode.

The plasmafied atoms of his body then magnetically rejoin to his corporal form. War stands motionless as he falls to his knees, then flat on his face. Sue gasps in shock. She instinctively grabs the back of her neck and immediately examines her hand. She does this again to feel for a deep cut in the back of her neck. No blood. Nothing. She was saved.

"Mom!" Franklin shouts again as he runs up to his mother. Something tells him he shouldn't hug her and kiss her on the cheek, not just yet. Sue is slow to get up to her feet. She looks over at the boy, her son, who saved her life. She begins to sob as she picks Franklin into her arms. "Franklin, oh God. Are you okay, honey...?"

Franklin, tears in his eyes, whimpers, "Yeah...Where's dad an' baby Vicky? Where's Unca Ben an' Johnny?"

Sue smiles, tears running down her cheeks as she buries Franklin's head into her shoulder, "They're okay, honey...they're okay."

"How cute," War says, suddenly standing before the mother and son, with his sword pointed at them. "You won't be cute with your intestines all over the street..."

*THUK*

War looks down at his left breast, a glowing pink javelin was stabbed through his armor, into his chest. He looks up in shock and sees Blink, her right arm still thrust forward from the follow through. Without warning, War's body takes the punishment of being disassembled and reassembled once more as a blurring effect of pink energy engulfs his form. Exodus slumps onto the street, hard. Smoke rises from his form as his molecules cool down.

Blink smiles at Franklin, "Told you I would protect you."

Pestilence's techno-organic form spews various tentacles as he shatters Iceman's ice slide, causing the former X-Man to be sent flying into the glass window of an old Czech antique store. Iceman returns the favor by generating multiple shards of ice at once, piercing Pestilence's hide like a plush doll. Pestilence's white body glows with heat as the shards melt. The wounds left over from the shards appear to wrench themselves back into place.

"Neat trick, Pest," Iceman says with a wink.

"I am Pestilence!" Warlock shouts.

"No, you're Pest. Didn't you get the memo from Apocalypse? He changed your name, Pest," Iceman smirks.

Pestilence growls, forming his arms into two sharp blades, stretching them towards Iceman, "I AM PESTILENCE!!"

Iceman shouts as he dodges out of the way as Warlock slices into the store's entrance. Bobby does a somersault and hops onto his feet as he causes his ice form to bulk up with mass. "All righty then, you're Pestilence. Don't tell Apocalypse, though...he still thinks you're Pest."

"INFIDEL!!" Pestilence shouts as he spits millions of techno-organic spores through his mouth at Iceman. Bobby had no time to dodge it. He coughs like he just had a pack of cigarettes and inhaled a can of spray paint.

Warlock smiles insanely. Iceman rises to his feet, shaking his head, laughing, "Pesty, Pesty, Pesty. Viruses can't survive in subzero temperatures."

"Thanks, Iceman, that's all I need," Cable says, standing behind Pestilence. He jabs his psimatar though Warlock's back, tarring a hole through his body. Cable quickly throws in a small detonator and takes off running in the opposite direction. "...3...2...1...!"

*BOOM*

Techno-organic material is splattered all over the streets and buildings. Iceman and Cable stand in pride, surveying the situation.

Iceman asks, "So, how are the others doing?"

Cable closes his eyes, his telepathy flaring to life, "Famine, War, and now Pestilence are all out of commission. Jean is still handling Death. Blink is concentrating on preventing any other teleportation wavelengths from coming through. Gambit, Rachel, Nightcrawler, and Psylocke are helping evacuation of the civilians. The Avengers are tending to their own. Apollyon is still fighting Holocaust. And the rest of the Twelve are looking for any survivors in the area to get them to safety."

"A 'fine' would have been good, too," Iceman says.

Giza

Apocalypse stands at the top of his Citadel, the roof retracted to reveal the outside. He looks down at the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphinx, hundreds of feet below. He remembered seeing the structures in their splendor, having polished limestone finishes. They glowed in the Gift of the Nile. Now the Citadel was the most magnificent architecture in the world. His world.

Apocalypse turns to the viewing screen on his computer, next to the set of stairs that leads to his throne. He grips his chin, appearing to be unaffected by the status of the Horsemen. He was surprised to see that all of the Twelve and Cable were still alive. His overconfident son, Holocaust, rushed off to help the Horsemen without his approval. He'll get himself killed, Apocalypse was sure of it. The Twelve were just too strong now.

En Sabah Nur looks over at the pedestal in the middle of the throne room, where the M'Kraan Crystal shard hovered on its edge, producing a slight hum. Concentrating, he causes the piece of the Nexus of Realities to float into his hands.

Apocalypse peers into the reflection of the Crystal, seeing multiple realities at once. "In some worlds, I come to power...and I am defeated. So very few worlds exist where I have succeeded this long," he mutters to himself. He smiles, "I truly am one of the fittest...even to myself."

Apocalypse's smile fades, "I will have to prove myself, more than ever."

Prague

Cyclops rushes over to meet up with Apollyon, who is still toiling with his "brother," Holocaust. Holocaust has taken a lot of punishment from the young mutant, but Apollyon's powers have a limit, also.

The young teen collapses on the ground of exhaustion. Cyclops simply looks at him and steps over him, walking towards Holocaust, who was fifty yards away, having a trail of torn up pavement and concrete in front of his limp body.

The glowing skull under the crystal life-support armor looks up at Cyclops, "You will...not survive this...X-Man." His breathing is labored. Energy in the form of sputtering bubbles of glowing bio-nuclear sparks leaks from cracks all over Holocaust's armor.

Cyclops inches his index finger towards his visor, sighing, "I don't know whether to kill you to end your suffrage now, or let you die slowly. You've been one big pain in the ass, Holocaust. Why couldn't you stay in your own dimension and die there?"

"Is this about Exodus and I destroying Avalon...?" Holocaust asks with a weakened laugh.

"You mean the fight which you started?" Cyclops asks. He presses the release button on his visor, opening up the ruby quartz lens, unleashing a concentrated optic blast into Holocaust's chest.

Holocaust growls in pain as his armor starts to crack under the pressure.

"Cyclops, wait!" Apollyon shouts, grabbing his shoulder. Scott quickly closes his visor to look behind him.

"Stay out of this, kid," Cyclops growls.

Apollyon's eyes glow brilliant violent. He smiles, "I'm just saying I can finish this bastard off a lot faster than you can."

"Who says I was trying to finish him off?" Cyclops asks. "What are you insinuating? I'm not some mass murdering Ancient Egyptian fanatic like your father!"

Apollyon shrugs with a little smile as he directs his emotional-reinforced telekinesis towards Holocaust, blasting him clear across the horizon to the point where he is traveling at over 17,000 mph, Earth's escape velocity.

"To your left, you will see Holocaust, Earth's other natural satellite besides the Moon," Apollyon jokes. He playfully jabs Cyclops in the stomach. "Sorry about riling you up, man. I only did it so I could get juiced enough to blast that son of a bitch into orbit."

Cyclops folds his arms in disagreement, "His armor was cracked pretty badly, he was dying anyway. That whole thing was totally uncalled for." Scott seems distracted, "Hold on, I'll scold you later." He fires an optic blast at Death, who was still fighting Phoenix.

Apollyon draws a dagger from his belt and quietly inches up behind Cyclops.

Do it...

Kill him...

All the pain he inflicts on the innocent...

He's dangerous...

That man sleeps in the same bed as your mother...

Think of your mother, Apollyon...

The voices have a strong hold on the son of Apocalypse. Apollyon shakily raises his arm to drive the knife into Cyclops' neck and be done with it. He has a devilish grin on his face. Suddenly, he regains his composure and drops the knife on the ground.

Cyclops whips around in shock, "What the hell...? What...you little bastard, I knew it. No better than your goddamn rapist of a father." Cyclops' hand rushes to his visor, but a voice stops him.

"Whoa, Cyke. Come on, now," Cannonball shouts as the load whooshing sound of his blast field buzzes as he hovers in midair. "You two can kill each other later."

Cyclops glares at Apollyon. "I'm sorry, I don't know--," Apollyon begins.

"Save it. Just...save it," Cyclops mutters. "We have to defeat Apocalypse. We're the Twelve."

Death jabs her knee into the bloodied face of Jean Grey-Summers. Madelyne and her template's psionic powers were exhausted, the two broke it down to hand-to-hand in the final round. Maddie licks her lips and sees Havok pulling a civilian corpse away from the tussle. She smiles as she telekinetically lifts him off his feet, dragging him on his back towards her.

Death steps over Havok and leans down, straddling him. She smiles, "You want a quickie...for old time's sake, cowboy?"

"For you case, I sincerely hope not," Polaris says as green energy radiates from her body. She generates a massive EMP into Madelyne's cranium, pulling a full polar reversal on Death's brain. Death screams in pain, gripping her skull, digging her claws into her scalp as she slumps over.

Polaris grabs Alex's hand, pulling him up, "You okay?"

Alex sighs, not able to deny he was aroused, "Yeah...fine." Polaris is shocked at how cold that statement was. She really wanted to know what happened after the plane explosion.

Cable approaches Alex and Lorna, followed by Cyclops, Apollyon, Iceman, Archangel, Franklin in Scarlet Witch's arms, Blink, Cannonball, and Storm helping Phoenix walk upright.

Captain America limps slightly as he shakes Cable's hand, "Thanks for the help, soldier. The Avengers couldn't have defeated the Horsemen without you."

Cable's telepathy flares up, as he takes Cap's hand, a message from Rachel. "They've just been teleported away...probably by Apocalypse," Cable says, relaying the message.

"That's a damn shame," Cap says with a weary smile. "There are other heroes, operating independently out there. Sometimes we forget just how many of the good guys are out there."

"How are the others?" Cable asks.

"Well, Hulk's still recuperating. He had a pretty bad psionic attack. One of yours, Psylocke I think her name is, she's helping with him. Spider-Man got a pretty bad concussion. He should be fine," Cap responds. "We'd appreciate if your people joined the Avengers--"

"We can't," Cable says bluntly. "Well...I mean, um..."

"What Cable means," Phoenix says, her face still has a large scrape across her forehead, "is that the twelve of us, including Cable, have an important mission."

"De others," Gambit says, approaching them along with Psylocke, Rachel, and Nightcrawler, "we can join ya. Help out where we can."

"Ja," Nightcrawler nods. "We can do much better helping you, Captain, I believe."

"I've yet to complete the psionic treatment to Dr. Banner, so I should stay," Psylocke says.

"I...it isn't my place to go with the Twelve," Rachel says as a single tear falls down her face. "I've done my part." She walks up to Cable and hugs him. Cyclops and Phoenix reluctantly embrace their children as well.

Cable fights back the stinging behind his eyes with his gruff voice, "Don't worry, Rachel. Remember the old saying, 'Mi uaha guak ol fasna, fasna.'"

Rachel smiles, "What is, is." She takes the phoenix medallion around her neck and places it around her brother's neck. "This is yours, I think."

Cable can't help but shed a tear, "Rachel, I just want you to know...I...I love you. I don't know if I ever told you that."

Rachel says shakily, "You didn't have to...I just knew."

Cable looks up at Scott and Jean, and then back at Rachel, "Could you make sure Irene is okay?"

Rachel nods wholeheartedly, "I will."

"Use Greymalkin if you have to, if it's still operational," Cable says.

"You come back to us, Stormie," Gambit says as he blows her a kiss.

Ororo smiles, "Count on it, Remy."

"I'll miss you Franklin. Cable told me what the twelve of you have to do...," Sue says as she kisses her son on the forehead. "We'll pray for you. Dad, Vicky, and I, and your Uncle Ben and Johnny, okay? We'll all pray."

"Momma...?" Franklin whimpers.

"I'm sorry, Franklin," Sue says as her voice becomes high-pitched as she begins to sob, "I just...can't..."

After a short good-bye, the Avengers and their new members take off through a shadow-portal, courtesy of Psylocke.

Franklin buries his head into Wanda's chest, his own chest heaving as he sobs, "Momma..."

Cable wipes his own tear away and gets back into warrior mode. He walks up to Wanda. She gives him a look of "what else can I do?"

Cable rubs Franklin's blonde mop, "Don't worry. You won't be hurt, you've got everyone else including me to watch your back. When in doubt, just use your powers like you did with War."

Franklin wipes his nose as he looks back at Cable. His voice filled with phlegm, "O-okay..."

Cable looks at the Twelve and can't help but think this was for all the marbles. As he stares into their eyes, Nate knows he can't guarantee all of them will come back alive. But that's the risk you take as a soldier. Sometimes, you just have to put your life on the line. You just have to.

"All right, people," Cable begins. "This is it." He turns to Clarice. She was still seriously fatigued from the jump between Earth and Limbo. Cable places a reassuring hand on Blink's shoulder, "Are you ready?"

Blink nods and lets out a meek, "Yep..."

"Take us to the Citadel," Cable commands.

Blink's eyes light up as a portal forms below the Twelve. She raises her arms as the portal passes through each of them, teleporting them to Giza...

"Because you have kept my message of endurance, I will keep you safe in the time of trial that is going to come to the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming quickly." -- Revelation 3:10