Quicksilver zoomed across the city, Magneto's furious orders still ringing in his ears as he darted down the deserted streets, empty except for Masterminds illusions patrolling them, terrorizing the former citizens to keep out of their way. He didn't like relying on the radio to keep in contact with Wanda, but the Brotherhood was stretched thin as it was, as the phantom soldiers could only do so much to enforce their new rule, and as the fastest of the group, it fell to him to keep the occupation informed. And right now, his goal was finding out what the hell had caused an impact big enough to be felt all the way to the other side of the city.
However, despite Magneto telling him what he had seen from the palace, Quicksilver did not expect to run into a goddamn iceberg in the middle of the tropics.
He skidded to a halt, slipping slightly on the grass which had already begun to grow wet from the runoff of what was standing in front of him. A cluster of trees, forming an outcropping of the forest surrounding the southern part of San Marco, stood frozen, sealed completely within a massive block of ice which was already beginning to slowly melt in the heat of the afternoon, tiny rivers of pure water dripping out into the grass.
Blinking at the sight, Quicksilver slowly reached for the radio at his belt, raising the device to his mouth and clicking the button "Lord Magneto? This is Quicksilver. I'm here, as you ordered. What the hell is going on?!"
"Nevermind that, boy! Just tell me what you see!"
"It's... like you said. There's an iceberg here. Somehow. How..?"
He winced at the sudden screech of static from the radio, pulling his head back to avoid the interference. Finally, it cleared, and the voice came through. "-on my way there! Just keep your eyes open, because if one X-Man is there, then I'm certain the rest of Xavier's annoying brood will be skulking around as well! If you see any of them, do not hesitate, take them out as fast as you can!"
The radio cut off, leaving Quicksilver alone with only the sounds of the jungle around him once again. He looked around slowly for anything hiding in the shadows of the trees. X-Men? Magneto had spoken of the group often, but he'd never encountered them in person. It did explain where the ice had come from, there was a boy on the team who could conjure ice from the air around him and shape it however he wanted. Quicksilver sneered at the thought, what a waste of potential. Such a magnificent power, bestowed upon a pathetic, brainwashed do-gooder who cared more about the humans opressing him than he did about his own kind. Fine, it didn't matter how strong the other mutant was, Quicksilver had been trained to use his powers by Magneto himself! Let him throw around all the ice he wanted, it wouldn't do a damn thing to help him against true speed!
But the question remained; where was the ice mutant? Why would he freeze a bunch of trees and then just run off again? And... now that he thought of it, the iceberg didn't explain the explosion that had preceeded it. So what-
He froze as something caught his eye. Just beyond the ice, deeper into the forest, there was an area where the foliage had been damaged. No, not just damaged, flattened! Trees lay broken and crushed on the ground, the grass was dusty and torn, as if something had landed on it. Something BIG. But what the hell could have done that kind of damage? And more importantly, where was that something now?
The trees suddenly shook, a flock of birds rising in a panic from the treetops as something began moving within the foliage, and Quicksilver was only saved by his superhuman reflexes when a massive shape came thundering out from between the trees with surprising speed, barreling right towards him! Darting out of the way, Quicksilver was too busy staring at the enormous, green thing that had just tried to run him down to look where he was going, and suddenly found the ground beneath him seemingly disappear, his feet losing their grip on the grass as he slid forward uncontrollably, sending him stumbling over and skidding clumsily across the grass before bouncing off a broken tree, and landing in a bush. He winced in pain as he felt the thorns tearing into his skin, but even as he struggled to free himself from the brambles, a huge shadow fell over him. Quicksilver looked up, and found himself staring at a monster.
"HULK SMASH RUNNING MAN!"
...
From above, the source of the shockwave that drove him out here is all too clear, there is an impact crater at the edge of the jungle canopy, the mark of something very big, and very dangerous striking the ground, followed by a trail of destruction carving it's way through the trees. And the cause of the destruction, a massive, green abomination that Magneto takes an embarassedly long time to recognize as the so-called Incredible Hulk, is currently standing over a downed Quicksilver, the speedster staring up at the creature like a wild rabbit caught in the headlights of a speeding truck.
A fitting analogy as any, Magneto supposed.
He'd never seen the Hulk in person of course, few people had, being limited to second-hand accounts from the hysteria-prone human media who quivered in fear at yet another threat to their fragile little bubble of superiority, even if those kinds of stories had lessened in recent months, ever since the monstrosity had somehow found himself allied with the Avengers. Though jaded from a lifetime of trauma and harship, even Magneto had to admit to himself that The Hulk was something right out of a nightmare, he could see how someone like Quicksilver, despite his own difficult life, could find himself frozen at the sight.
It did not however excuse the boy slipping on the icy grass like a buffoon from a theatrical comedy short.
"Well, fancy meeting you here, Mags!" A youthful voice said to his right, and Magneto turned in the air to see a slightly built figure, seemingly made of snow, standing on top of a ramp of ice that certainly hadn't been there a second ago.
"Iceman..." Magneto sneered at the boy in front of him "I assumed this was your handiwork, but I didn't expect to find you in the company of the monster below us. Has Charles finally grown so careless about the lives of his students he sent you off alongside this abomination, or is he truly this desperate to stop me?"
"You know, you shouldn't say nasty things about people behind their backs, Mags. Especially not when they have super senses!"
Iceman's retort puzzled him for a second, until his own reflexes kicked in, and he pulled together a magnetic shield around himself, in time for an uprooted tree to slam into the field, making him stagger in the air. Below him, The Hulk was already reaching for another projectile, his face a mask of rage.
"HULK WILL SHOW YOU MONSTER, MAGNET MAN!!"
Seeing his foe distracted, Quicksilver jumped back to life, zipping away from the Hulk and quickly ascending the ice ramp Iceman was standing on, taking care this time to not slip and fall on the slick surface. Catching the other mutant approaching, Iceman raised a hand and conjured another track of ice and slid away from his opponent, quickly darting away, with Quicksilver hot on his heels. Ignoring the two, Magneto turned his attention back towards the rampaging beast below, dodging to the side as a boulder sailed through the air towards him.
"You are not facing the paltry armies of the human world, creature! Your rage is nothing in the face of the Master of Magnetism, you may have the strength to strike fear into the weak and cowardly, but I have one of the fundamental forces of the universe at my disposal! You are but a spark of ember in the face of a raging inferno!!"
"MAGNET MAN TALK TOO MUCH!!" And with that, The Hulk took a massive leap into the air, both fists raised as he flew towards his enemy... only to find himself repelled as Magneto pushed his magnetic energies into his shield, sending the behemoth flying backwards, and crashing into the trees.
"Disappointing..." Magneto said, though inwardly he winced at the unexpected exertion. The Hulks blow had been a good deal stronger than he had expected, though it hadn't been anywhere close to a real threat. Still, he'd be a fool to underestimate the creature...
"I don't know what your purpose in MY country is, Hulk! And I don't care! You stand no chance against me and my Brotherhood, so forget whatever aimless wandering has brought you here and leave, or you'll regret it!" His only answer was several other broken trees and stones being launched at him from below.
"So be it!"
...
"You can try to slip away all you want, you insufferable icecube, you're not getting away from me!" Quicksilver snarled as he zoomed along the path of ice his opponent had created, sliding along as he kept adding to the ramp in front of them. Despite his bravado, the run was a lot more difficult than he let on, the slippery surface of the ice made it hard to use his speed to it's fullest, or he'd already have caught up with the X-Man who still managed to keep ahead of him in the chase, much to Quicksilvers frustration. He wasn't used to people keeping up with him, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Maybe you should chill out a bit, eh, speedy? Give those feet of yours a chance to cool off?" Iceman said with annoying smugness, before suddenly turning around and sending a blast of ice towards Quicksilvers feet, attempting to freeze them over. Seeing the attack coming, Quicksilver managed to dart out of the way, precariously keeping to the edge of the path as the blast missed him.
"Pathetic, that's the best you can do?!"
"As a matter of fact, no." And that's all the warning Quicksilver got before the ice track suddenly dipped sharply, and Iceman dropped out of view as he slid along the decline in the path. Rather than plunging off the sudden drop in front of him, Quicksilver jumped, leaping from the edge and with superhuman grace, managed to land in the grass below with only a slight stumble. He quickly darted out of the way as another blast of freezing air froze the grass where he had been standing a moment ago.
"Give it up, snowflake, you're never going to hit me with those ice blasts of yours! I'm the fastest mutant on Earth, trained by Magneto himself! And I promise you'll get tired long before I do!"
Iceman came to a halt, stopping the ice track in the middle of the air as he stared down at Quicksilver. "Maybe so, but I don't need to hit you! I just need to keep you busy while a friend of mine does the hard work!"
"Wha-" and that's when a bulky shape dressed in blue and yellow darted out from the trees, and a massive shoulder slammed into Quicksilvers back, sending him sprawling across the grass. Before he could regain his senses, he felt a horribly cold on his legs, chilling him to the bone, as a layer of ice grew over them, covering his limbs up to the knees. "Fuck!!"
The mutant who had hit him from behind, a hulking, muscular man with massive bare feet, reminding Quicksilver of some sort of hairless gorilla rather than a man, looked up at Iceman and gave the boy a thumbs-up with one huge hand. "Good work, Iceman! We got him all wrapped up!"
"Not just yet, Beast, get out the cuffs that- Wait, what's he doing?"
Grimacing from the painful numbness in his legs, Quicksilver focused, his superhuman muscles beginning to vibrate as he forced speed into them, his legs beginning to vibrate quickly, the friction making the ice holding them begin to crack and warm, and finally, shatter! Jumping back to his feet, stumbling slightly at the partial numbness still present in his feet, Quicksilver backed up a few feet, before suddenly zooming off in the other direction.
Iceman stared blankly at the trail of flattened grass where Quicksilver had disappeared. "Did he just run away? Does this mean we won?"
Beast was about to reply, when his world exploded in pain, as an elbow slammed into the side of his face from out of nowhere, sending the hulking mutant stumbling, clutching his face in pain. Before he could even see his attacker, another blow struck him, this one breaking his nose, and sending him sprawling on his back. Trying to focus through the blood seeping from his nose, Beast could just barely see the form of Quicksilver standing over him.
"As I said, X-Men, Magneto trained me to use my powers. And that training did not include using them to run away from my inferiors!"
...
"I hope the others are doing alright..."
Janet was the only one to voice it, but I think it was a concern all of us shared. The fight taking place outside the city involved most of the heavy hitters from both our teams, but they were still going up against Magneto, and while his power level had been inconsistent to say the least in the comics, I was willing to bet he was still one of the strongest metahumans around even here. And Quicksilver, while not even close to the same league, was still not someone you should underestimate.
"We can't worry about that right now, Wasp" Cap said as he stood at the edge of the roof, staring down at the illusion troops filling the streets "They have their part of the plan to play, and we have ours." He'd pulled out a pair of binoculars, surveying the bustling crowd of soldiers with a grim face. "I can see how this Mastermind is able to keep the citizens subdued, if I didn't know better, I'd be fooled into thinking these soldiers were real too..."
I hate to admit it, but Cap has a point. While the illusions littering the streets don't look the least bit real to me, fading into indistinct, humanoid shapes if I just focus a little, they still move around like people, hanging around, talking to eachother, like you'd expect idle soldiers to do. I even catch a few of them smoking and sharing cigarettes. "Yeah, I honestly didn't think Mastermind had the imagination for this kind of detail. No idea if he's doing this himself, or if he's just copying the real mercenaries."
"Speaking of which, do you see any of them down there?"
I lower my sunglasses and squint, letting the illusions fade, and making the real ones stand out. "Yeah, there's a few of them down there. 10-12 of them, I think. Magneto probably have the others on assignemnt inside the actual buildings somewhere."
"Most likely, if I were to guess, he probably has the bulk of his non-Brotherhood forces out, trying to make sure the Santo Marco militia is disabled." Cap stands up, the binoculars disappearing back inside the pouch on his belt, just as the sound of wings from above heralds Angel's return.
"Angel, you're back!" Cyclops says as his teammate lands gracefully on the rooftop "How's the battle going, is Iceman and Beast okay?"
Angel nods, fluttering his wings "They're holding their own, though Quicksilver is putting up a fight. Hulk's struggling a bit though, last I saw Thor and Giant-Man were still waiting in reserve in case the fight goes badly for him."
Cap nods "The important thing is to keep the Brotherhood divided for the moment. Sunshine, are you ready?"
Alright, showtime. I crack my knucles dramatically before stepping over to the edge of the roof, holding up both my hands over my head, and begin to focus my powers "This is going to get really bright, so everyone shield your eyes until it's over. Trust me, you'll know when it hits." I take a deep breath, and slowly, a small sphere of light begins to build between the palm of my hands, growing larger and larger with every second. I can feel the warmth of sunlight running through my skin, pumping into the sphere. And finally, it's done. A ball of concentrated sunlight, about the size of a baseball, is hovering over me.
I'm stealing the name of this move from a franchise that doesn't exist yet.
"Liiiight Grenade!"
And I throw the sphere down, into the gathered mass of the illusion army.
...
Wanda did not appreciate Pietro leaving her behind, and she liked being forced into looking after Mastermind even less. She'd never cared for the other Brotherhood member, the man had an oily, unpleasant demenor that always made her skin crawl whenever he looked at her, but what was far worse was the man's casual sadism and cruelty. He genuinely relished in the pain and fear the Brotherhood was causing, and unlike Lord Magneto, who atleast kept up the pretense of it being for the good of all mutants, though that was a story she'd grown increasingly distrustful of in recent weeks, she doubted Mastermind even understood the concept of doing anything for reasons other than sating his vulgar appetites. But she had little choice in the matter, as Mastermind's illusions was a lynchpin in their leaders plans for conquest, leaving her his minder as he kept the projections active outside the palace. She glanced in distaste at the man, who'd been audacious enough to sit on Magneto's throne while he was gone, his eyes staring into nothing as he focused, his mouth drawn into a cruel smirk.
By chance, she happened to glance downwards, and something strange caught her eye. Her shadow, stretching across the marble floor, seemed to grow darker somehow. As if the sun was growing brighter outside the windows. As if...
The torrent of light blinded her for a moment as she covered her eyes, trying to shield them. And Mastermind screamed behind her.
Blinking and rubbing her eyes, trying to clear the spots from her vision, by the time she could see clearly again, the sight in front of her stunned her. Mastermind laid senseless at the foot of the throne, his eyes blank, and twin trails of blood seeping from the corners of his eyes, and his nose, his mouth open in a silent scream.