“Here they come!” Ever yelled as the gates of the camp opened unleashing the mutants of Darkstar’s, Apocalypse Dawn division upon them. You could hear the crashing of the two armies meeting. There was much yelling and the smell of sweat filled the air.

A short green mutant sneaked up behind Ever and jumped on the former Morlock’s back. Electricity immediately flowed through Ever’s body and since he was made up of mostly brain matter tissue the pain inflicted on him was all the greater. Ever fighting through a great amount of hurting reached back and grabbed the horn headed of the mutant. With a strong arm he slammed the mutant into the ground. On the instant it hit the ground it broke up into a hundred smaller little green freaks.

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Ever sighed as the little monsters laughed hideously. Suddenly, they all unleashed long electro-whips from their horns wrapping them around the body of Ever. Unable to move all Ever could do was scream as the electricity coursed through his body.

Mutant Forger was overhead as he saw the distress Ever was in. He flew immediately to the point where he could see the green midgets and with a swipe of his hand his telekinesis imploded all their heads in. Ever fell to the ground on hand and knee as smoke rose from his body. Just as Mutant Forger was about to get Ever to his feet a massive blue energy blast hit him knocking Forger out of the sky. He hit the ground with a hard thump. The blast had come from Radian who was about a hundred yards away. The Dark Riders had arrived.

While the arrival of the Dark Riders became evident to everyone else on the battlefield Ever struggled to recover from the attack he had just suffered, but he knew he had to stay strong because he was needed. Every last man was needed in this battle.

“You killed Littlestar!” a large, brutish looking mutant with tattered brown clothes yelled as he hit Ever square in the face. Before Ever could even hit the ground he was floating in the air. In front of the big mutant was Proteus and he was highly upset.

“I remember you,” Proteus said his eyes and voice full of rage. Osman sat Ever gently on the ground saving him from too much damage that the mutant’s punch might have caused. Quickly thinking Proteus was distracted the large mutant tried to ram into his foe’s chest. He faded through Proteus as if he was nothing.

“Reality is like clay to me and I mold it how I see fit. And right about now I feel a grisly death coming on,” Proteus said as he turned all the oxygen into the mutant’s lungs into sulfuric acid. Agonized screams came from the mutant as his inner parts burned away.

Proteus relaxed and turned to check on the fallen Ever. Instead he found the hand of Payne land right in the center of his face. Every nerve in Osman’s body was on fire and as Payne pulled his hand away all Proteus felt was blackness.

Payne shook his head as Proteus’s twitching body hit the ground, “You’re much too powerful to have around for the rest of this battle.”

Meanwhile across the battlefield Joseph was surging towards the Dark Rider, Radian. His magnetic energy knocked anyone that tried to get in his way a good distance as he pummeled towards the blue silhouette of energy that was Radian. Joseph wasn’t going to be stopped and he wasn’t going to be denied this battle. Radian was probably the most powerful of the Dark Riders and if he could be taken out quickly they would be dealt a swift blow.

Within five feet of Radian, Joseph launched a barrage of magnetic blasts. Radian compressed himself into the size of a basketball so that all of the blasts passed harmlessly by. Joseph took advantage of this by grabbing the blue ball of energy and overwhelming it with magnetic pulses. You could hear Radian’s muffled screams, but just when Joseph thought victory was near he was blown away by Radian unleashing a massive wave of energy. The son of Magneto maintained his composure and stopped himself from being flung into a nameless mutant on the battlefield. As the smoke from the energy blast faded away Joseph saw that Radian was very much ready for battle.

“Lucky shot,” Radian said as he split into three shorter versions of himself. Then all three voices said in unison, “It won’t happen again!”

The three little Radians moved at high speeds around Joseph dealing out punches, kicks, and energy blasts. Confusion overtook Joseph because he could barely see the three Radians let alone a way to stop their attacks. All he could do now was try his hardest to maintain his magnetic forcefield because if any of the little Radians managed to get to his skin then Joseph could consider himself dead.

Radian’s plan was working and he breathed a sigh of relief as it did. He almost thought Joseph had him there for a second. Suddenly, all three Radians find themselves unable to move. What had Joseph done now?

“Too bad Radian. Might have had me there for a sec,” Joseph gloated. It took him a couple of minutes to do it, but he had managed to give his magnetic forcefield the right polarity to keep the three Radians stuck to his forcefield.

“You won’t get beat me,” the three Radians said in unison.

Joseph smiled as he said; “You like to split yourself up huh? Well, then let me give you a helping hand.”

Suddenly the three Radians were wrapped in magnetic bubbles and launched forward ten feet in front of Joseph. With his magnetic abilities Joseph began to pull on the three Radians. At first he split then in half, then in quarters, and he split each quarter down into quarters themselves. He did all this in a second and he kept on splitting at the same rate for a minute. Eventually, all of Radian’s being was scattered energy and at that moment Joseph unleashed his magnetic grip.

The instant he released Radian the mutant assembled him back together again. The effort was great and you could see blue smoke billowing wildly from Radian’s body. Joseph received an intense stare from Radian as he said, “You don’t have any idea how much that hurt, but you’ll soon find out!”

Radian launched himself at Joseph at such a fast speed that his opponent didn’t even have time to think. Stopping only inches away from Joseph, Radian stretched himself around Joseph making his body into the shape of a large sphere.

Joseph battered the sphere with magnetic energies, but to no avail. He could hear Radian’s boasting laugh all around him. Suddenly streaks of energy blasts began to hit Joseph from every direction. The blasts were slowly breaking down his magnetic forcefield and he couldn’t pull the same trick as he had before since each blast was of a different frequency. Joseph hadn’t once been an X-Man for nothing though and he quickly thought up a plan.

“Feeling” with his magnetic powers Joseph ripped out three large chunks of iron from the human camp wall. Using his magnetic powers Joseph shaped the chunks into spikes and ionized them in such a way that they would naturally seek out energy. Then by propelling the spikes with magnetic fields they landed right in the sphere Radian had created.

“ARGHHH!!!” Radian yelled out as the spikes drained away his power and scrambled the very energy within his body. He quickly formed back into his humanoid form and fell to the ground out for the count. Joseph had triumphed, but he was extremely tired so when he landed on the ground he didn’t even see Payne come up behind up.

“I never liked Radian anyway,” Payne whispered in Joseph’s ear just before his hand wrapped around the mutant’s throat. The result to Joseph was much the same as what had happened to Proteus.

Payne smiled to himself at how easy taking down Sinister’s people were. Too bad Radian had to take the brunt of Joseph’s power. Out of nowhere, Payne found himself up the air being held by some unknown force.

“That’s two of my people you’ve hurt today Payne. There will be no more,” Mutant Forger said as he held Payne up in the air with his telekinesis. Methodically, Forger broke both Payne’s arms and legs. Then he proceeded to dislocate the mutant’s shoulders and hips. And for the final insult Mutant Forger threw Payne right into the human camp wall at a speed of 100 mph. Suffice to say Payne wasn’t going to be back in the fight.

Mutant Forger dusted his hands off in achievement. As he was about to rise up into the air to survey how the battle was going he suddenly lost feeling in his legs and hit the ground with a hard thump. Upon turning himself up Mutant Forger was staring at a beautiful looking black woman with seductive red eyes. Then he lost feeling in his arms and the rest of his body. As his sight faded away all he saw were those seductive red eyes. It was highly dubious he was going to get back up again.

“Cheap trick bitch!” Gaia cried out as she punched the woman in the face sending her to her knees. Quickly, Gaia kicked the woman in the stomach making her double over. Ruthlessly she began to stomp on the mutant’s head and the blood began to flow.

“The cheaper the trick the better the hit!” Craze yelled as he leaped up behind Gaia and yanked her into the ground by her purple hair. With his other massive hand he grabbed Gaia’s face and began to slam it into the hard rock below. Over and over again under the muffled screams of Gaia he slammed her.

“Once I get through with you I’m going to depopulate Sinister’s people a bit,” Craze grinned as the screams of Gaia ceased. After a couple more minutes of slamming Craze got bored and leaped off to where there was some more excitement. He left behind a barely alive and bleeding Gaia.

Somewhere else on the battlefield Omega Red was in conflict with Tusk. His cords were wrapped around about ten of Tusk’s Tusklings and he was pumping them full of the Death Spore Virus.

“You can pump my Tusklings full of your virus all you want, but they’ll just keep coming at you until you’re overwhelmed. Here’s no way out of this!”

Omega Red threw aside all the Tusklings and leaped into the air kicking Tusk square in the face. He wrapped his cord around Tusk’s legs as he did this. While the two mutants were in mid-air Omega Red spun his body and slung Tusk into a group of battling mutants. Tusk quickly pulled himself out of the pile of mutants and rammed into Omega Red with his shoulder.

Arkady hit the ground hard, but through quick maneuvering wrapped this tentacle’s around Tusks’ mid-section. The death Spore Virus quickly began to pump itself into Tusks’ system. Craze saw this from afar and with one giant leap landed square in the middle of Omega Red’s chest. A crater formed and the tentacle around Tusk went limp, but nonetheless the Dark Rider fell to the ground unable to get up. Craze stood over his kill proudly, but almost immediately Omega Red thrust his legs upward and his feet landed dead in Craze’s face sending the mutant back a few feet. Omega Red did a back flip getting him out of the crater. He quickly turned around to face Craze who was already throwing himself at Omega Red. Rossvich ducked and Craze flew clear over his head. Omega Red launched his tentacles outward wrapping them around Tusk’s legs. Now having Craze in his grip Omega Red began to spin his body around fiercely. Craze was soon spinning in the air uncontrollably. He could Arkady’s smile as the tentacles loosened their grip-launching Craze upward into the sky at a high pace. Once Craze began his dissent back to the Earth, Omega Red wrapped his tentacles around the neck of a random mutant and began to spin her in much the way he had done to Craze. The green behemoth knew exactly what Arkady as doing and dreaded it. He could hear the mutant woman’s scream as Omega Red released her. All on the battlefield could hear the impact between the woman and Craze. It was enough to knock out Craze and enough to kill the woman. Rossvich couldn’t help but to smirk at the impact Craze made when he collided with the ground.

Deus saw the defeat of Craze, but decided he was ultimately unable to do anything about it. He had to focus his power on Post, Fontanelle, and Pyro. Gloria was carrying a large laser rifle and blasted it directly at the purple telekinetic field Deus had erected around himself. Pyro was barraging with his trademark flames and Post was using his power pods to generate energy discharges that could hopefully break Deus down.

“Do you really think you three can stop me? Try all you might, but I won’t budge. Maybe you should just lie down and let me kill you quickly,” Deus laughed. His three attackers weren’t hearing any of Deus’s babble. They weren’t backing down and they weren’t quitting.

Post shot off three of his pods at Deus and on impact they backlashed the mutant’s abilities at him. Deus’s own telekinesis and telepathy began to attack him. He began to double over in pain and that’s when Post leaped into the air and slammed both his large blue gray fists into Deus’s head sending the mutant colliding into the ground…hard.

“I believe you took him out mate,” Pyro said putting a ring of fire around the guy just to make sure he didn’t pull any surprise tricks.

“The Dark Riders may be out of the fight guys, but this is battle is far from over,” Fontanelle reminded pointing at the approaching six Dawn members.

“You beat Deus, but Vicestar isn’t so easily handled,” the Dawn member said as he turned into a wave of water and smacked Pyro, Post, and Fontanelle to the ground. The water all around the three mutants formed into three water bubbles that had them trapped. Vicestar was going to drown them and do what the Dark Riders couldn’t.

Pyro tried to use his fire and Post his pods to escape from the bubbles, but it seemed like the water nullified their mutant abilities as well. There was no escape for them until two carbondium tentacles ripped through each of the bubbles freeing Tremain, Allerdyce, and Dayne. The water quickly reformed itself into the Mexican man that was Vicestar. Before he could even launch another attack Omega Red’s tentacles were around his neck and the necks of three of his other comrades. Arkady didn’t even use the Death Spore Virus, but instead snapped their necks.

That left two Dawn members for Omega Red and the rest to fight. Seeing how outmatched they were they retreated from the battle.

Sinister walked towards Darkstar’s tower with trepidation. His eyes were constantly scanning for any threats or Dawn members that might be within the vicinity. Essex knew well enough that Darkstar was after him and that he was on Apocalypse’s priority threat list. As he was within only a few yards of the tower a large purple portal opened that Darkstar and seven of her Dawn members stepped through. Sinister prepared himself for anything. He knew all too well what Darkstar was capable of doing.

“Hello Essex. I’ve bought my part of the deal,” Darkstar said as two metallic pods floated out of the still opened purple portal. Essex had put in a pair of contacts that were very much like genetic scanners so Darkstar couldn’t pull any tricks. He had learned from Stryfe that metal containers could be full of surprises. So with a quick scan he found that indeed Colossus and Sunfire were within the two containers.

“So I see Darkstar and I’ve come here all alone just as you wanted,” Sinister replied.

“Yes I know! I can’t believe you’d be such a fool!” Darkstar said as all around a large pink haze began to overtake the landscape. Sinister felt his powers slipping away and then just like that he could feel his powers return once more.

The world had completely changed. Darkstar’s tower was no longer where it had stood, her Dawn members were no longer by her side and Laynia was on the ground crying her eyes out. The two mutants Sinister had sought to gain, Colossus and Sunfire, where next to Darkstar unconscious.

“It appears the Twelve have been successful in toppling En Sabah Nur. What a wonderful development! It appears creating Nathan was a success after all, but just not in the way I desired. No matter, he played his role. Now as for you Laynia,” Sinister said as he used the slight telepathic abilities he possessed to knock Darkstar out. Then he lifted the large Colossus and Sunfire on his shoulders.

Sinister smiled as a terrasect portal opened in front of him, “Ahh how good it feels to go home.”

Author’s Notes

I had a blast writing this mini-series. I got the chance to write characters I’d probably never have normally have had an opportunity to handle. Joseph, Pyro, and Darkstar especially. I mean there is practically barbwire around these guys. More so for the last two, but hey I’m just glad to even have had the chance to write. Big props to Brad for letting me use the guys. And of course I have to give major props to David Wheatley and Mike Shirley for taking their time out to make the logo for the mini, editing the issues, and publishing them. It’s the little things that keep a site running and the duo of Mike and David do a lot of that. They don’t get thanked often enough.

Well, I guess I better give everybody a little something to chew on I guess. How about some of my original ideas and what not for A2K?

Originally I was going to do a story centered on War who was going to be pretty much the overlord of South America and his former teammates were going to be at war with him along with a few others (Juggernaut, Sauron, and Phantazia were some I believe). But, after trying to press this idea into something solid it failed. So I Brad told me that David was going to be doing something with the Apocalypse Dawn when I told him I had an A2K mini in mind dealing with the Dawn. So I talked to David and he was completely cool with me using the Dawn. That’s just the type of guy he is and to top it off he even let me use Darkstar. That really surprised cuz I thought I would get Darkstar when hell froze over, but he let me use without even the slightest bit of trepidation. So I of course was extremely pleased. Now before I even got started on this mini I was a good bit into my post-A2K Exiles issues. So I decided I’d use A2K as a launchpad for the things I was going to be doing in Exiles.

Now as for the future of the characters in this series I can give out some details and the obvious for some. Pyro and Joseph are going to be appearing in X-Men Omega. Expect big things from Joseph. Post is going to be appearing in Avengers where he’ll play a role in that title’s first two story arcs and possibly beyond. If there are plans for Omega Red I’m not aware of them. The same goes for Radian. Now down the line I know Tusk, Deus, and Craze are going to be appearing in Bishop once the new writer takes over. And of course Gaia, Proteus, Fontanelle, Ever, Mutant Forger, and Sinister are all going to be doing their thang over in Exiles. Expect big things from all of them. And what about Sunfire and Colossus you ask? Well, Sinister is going to keep them secret for a good bit, but you can best believe once Exodus finds out Essex has them all Hell is going to break loose. You have been warned.

Signing off,

Brent C. Lambert