[Age Of Apocalypse] – The War Is Here
* WHOOSH *
Val landed in the garden of the X-Mansion and looked around. His eyes landed on Angel, teaching kids with flying powers how to regulate their flight and hover in the air, and he thought, 'Hmmm... she would help me.'
He walked to Angel, who noticed him approaching, and Angel stopped teaching and walked to Val.
"Hey, Val.", Angel said, "What's up?"
"Hey," Val nodded and asked, "Where's the Professor? I need to talk to him."
"Oh, he's not here," Angel replied and said, "You can check the Cerebro. That's where he would probably be."
"Thanks!" Val nodded and walked away.
He entered the school and responded to the students, who greeted him with a smile and a nod. He quickly descended the stairs and walked down to the X-Floor. He went past the training rooms and the labs and stopped in front of the room leading to the Cerebro. He entered the password, and the door opened. As he entered the Cerebro, he saw Charles wearing the helmet, and the Cerebro was powered up. He looked around and saw Hank and Havok standing beside Charles, staring at the holograms of people before them.
Val approached them, stood beside Havok, and asked, "What's going on?"
Havok was surprised to see Val and asked, "You're here too?"
Val nodded and replied, "Yeah. What's happening?"
"We're looking for Magneto," Hank replied.
"Magneto?" Val was confused and thought, 'I didn't think they would search for Magneto first.'
He glanced at the holograms and saw one of them shining and had a few people around it. Others were shining among them, too.
He asked, "Where is he? What happened?"
"That's the problem, we don't know," Havok replied, "We can't pinpoint his location."
"I can't see his mind in the sea of minds," Charles said.
Val was silent, not saying anything. He didn't have any intention of telling them where Magneto was.
Suddenly, he heard Charles mutter, "Something's wrong..."
"What is it?" Hank asked and approached Charles.
"I can't see Erik," Charles said.
"Yeah, we know. So?" Hank was confused.
"No," Charles shook his head, "I mean, I can't see him anywhere on this Earth. It's as if... his mind doesn't exist. Or, maybe, he's..." he trailed off, not daring to complete his sentence.
Hank and Havok's eyes widened.
"Maybe he's... dead?" Havok said, voicing his thoughts.
Charles shook his head and said, "No, that's impossible. I can still feel the link with him. But, it feels different than before."
"How's it different?" Hank asked.
"Before I could see him in the sea of minds, and he would appear among the holograms," Charles pointed at the holograms around them, "But, now, he doesn't. It's as if something's blocking me."
Val said, "Let him go, Charles. Maybe he just doesn't want to be found. Don't try to force him to come back."
"No, I'm not trying to bring him back," Charles said.
Val raised an eyebrow and thought, 'Really? Then, why is he searching for him?'
Charles continued, "I'm worried. It's the first time that something's preventing me from finding him. It's like I can't find him."
"What?!". Both Hank and Havok exclaimed, shocked.
Val narrowed his eyes and stared at the Professor with curiosity.
Charles removed the helmet, and the Cerebro switched off.
"It's the same feeling as before. Someone's blocking me," Charles said and then turned toward Val and said, "Could it be that the same person who is preventing me from controlling Jean is also responsible for preventing me from finding Magneto?"
"Who knows..." Val replied, and a slight smirk appeared on his face.
"Charles, you should go and rest," Hank said, "Let us handle it. I'll look into this matter and see if there's anything new."
"Yeah, Charles," Havok nodded, "Let us worry about it. You should take a break and let us know if anything changes."
Charles sighed and said, "You're right. Okay, I'll take a break. You can contact me anytime."
"Sure," Hank nodded and said, "Let's go."
However, before anybody could do anything, Charles suddenly screamed, "ARGH!" and put his hand on his head.
"Professor?!" Havok exclaimed.
"Charles, what happened?!". Hank asked, shocked and confused.
"S-Someone's in my head!" Charles shouted.
His eyes widened in fear, and he hurriedly shouted, "D-Destroy the Cerebr—"
Suddenly, a small portal appeared in front of Charles, and Apocalypse's hand came out of it and gripped his throat.
"Argh!" Charles grunted as the hand was strangling him.
"CHARLES!!" Hank and Havok shouted simultaneously and ran toward him, but...
Val was faster. He appeared beside Charles and grabbed Apocalypse's hand.
The portal enlarged, and Val could see Apocalypse with Storm, Archangel, Psylocke, and Magneto standing behind him, and he thought, 'The lineup's ready?'
Apocalypse frowned when he saw Val and spoke disdainfully, "What are you doing, a coward who runs away from a fight? Why are you here?"
"A coward?" Val smirked, "Who's the one who had to sneak up on him through a portal? You're the coward."
"Don't test me, fool!" Apocalypse gritted his teeth and squeezed harder.
"Argh!" Charles grunted, and his face turned a bit red.
"You should stop.", Val said.
Apocalypse narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why? What are you gonna do if I don't?"
An evil smirk appeared on Val's face, and he said, "This."
He shot an energy beam from his other hand through the portal.
* SHOOM *
However, Psylocke constructed a psionic barrier around herself and the others, protecting them from the beam.
* SIZZLE *
* BOOM *
Apocalypse scoffed and said, "Is that all?"
He looked at Charles and said, "I've found my next host, and I'm going to let him go."
His eyes glowed eerily purple, and he shot forth an energy beam from his other hand.
Val's eyes widened, and his other hand blocked the energy beam.
* WHOOSH *
* BOOOM *
However, under the guise of the beam, Apocalypse quickly pulled Charles into the portal, which closed instantly after he passed through it. At the same time, the energy beam struck Cerebro, blowing it up.
* KA-BOOM *
Hank and Havok closed their eyes and tried to shield themselves from the explosion. They expected to feel pain and be burnt, but instead, they felt nothing.
"Huh?" They thought and opened their eyes.
Val had absorbed the explosion, although the clothes on his upper body were burnt to a crisp. He turned around, patted the debris off his body, and asked, "Are both of you okay?"
"Y-Yes!" Hank nodded.
"We're fine," Havok said, asking, "What happened to Charles?"
"Apocalypse took him," Val replied.
"Who?" Havok asked.
Val sighed and said, "That doesn't matter. What DOES matter is..." he looked at them seriously and continued, "The war is here!"
* * *
Kurt, Scott, Jubilee, Emma, and Jean walked out of the theatre, discussing the movie they had just watched.
"Hey, Jean?" Jubilee said, "You should have watched the movie with us. It was good."
"Yeah," Scott nodded and said, "There was a lot of action, drama, and comedy. And, it was an original story."
Jean shook her head and said, "Sorry, I couldn't. I didn't feel like watching a movie. I'm not in the mood."
Kurt asked, "Why? What happened?"
"N-Nothing," Jean said while averting her gaze, "It's just that... I'm tired, and I didn't feel like it."
"Really? But y—" Kurt was saying when suddenly...
"Ahh! Help!"
They turned around and saw an old woman lying on the ground. She pointed at the man running away and shouted, "Somebody help! He took my purse! He's a thief! Catch him!"
They glanced at each other.
Jean was the first to speak up, "I'll do it!"
She raised her hand and was about to telekinetically grab the man when suddenly, she felt a strong wave of air hit her lightly from the right.
* WHOOSH *
Before she could even blink, she heard a voice from her right, "Everything's done, Miss."
She blinked and noticed the thief lying on the ground, knocked out, while the woman had her purse in her hand and looked around in confusion.
Jean looked to her right and saw a silver-haired boy wearing weird goggles and a black and silver jacket.
The boy removed the goggles from his eyes and placed them on his head. He looked at Jean's confused face, smiled, and said, "The name's Pietro. What's yours, Gingerbread?