Chapter 29: Requim Part Two

Chapter 29: Requim Part Two. 

"This is Cat Grant, with Daily Bugle Communications, bringing to you the latest, on the Green Goblin and his…."

The reporter's sentence was stopped in mid-stream as the Green Goblin himself circled around her in the air on his glider, his malicious intentions obvious for all to see. The blonde followed his progress with wide eyes as she watched him in abject horror.

"The Green Goblin…."

"Yes, you rang!" The Goblin shouted in a crazed voice as he dropped down to face the young reporter causing the blonde to take half of a step backwards. "No, no, continue, please."

The blonde swallowed the lump in her throat as the Green Goblin grabbed her hair then yanked up off her feet by it quite roughly leaving her dangling from his hand about a foot off the ground.

"This is the kind of exclusive that makes the life of a reporter, Miss Grant," The Goblin remarked as a malicious grin spread over his face. "Now, don't be scared, I know you want to find out what I'm up to."

Cat's expression was filled with wide eyed terror and the Goblin's grin was wide as he focused on the horrified face of the young reporter.

"Go ahead, ask me, what am I up to?" Green Goblin asked as Cat was shaking in terror but she attempted to maintain a stance that was bold and daring despite the fact she thought she was going to die any moment now.

"Well um what are you…..what are you up exactly?" the frightened reporter asked in an extremely shaky voice full of agony.

The Green Goblin offered her a mock pondering expression as he tapped his chin thoughtfully with the finger of his free hand as he stared down the reporter who swallowed the lump in her throat as she waited to see what this mad man would do next.

"Well, that's a good question. A really good one but the thing is, this entire city, it's ripe for the taking; so I'm going to take it!" The Green Goblin told Cat as tightened the already rough grip he had on her causing the reporter to flinch even harder. "Calm down! We're going for a ride."

Cat froze up for a moment before she started to desperately struggle in an attempt to break free of his hold.

Cat froze up and she desperately struggled.

"And what I can't take, I'm going to break," Goblin whispered creepily in her ear. "Because that's just how I roll."

The Green Goblin maintaining the grip he had on her head was about to haul her up onto his glider for a very long trip into the air that would be followed by an extremely long fall.

A blur shot out from out of nowhere and grabbed Cat out from underneath his grip. The blonde reporter felt her entire life flash before her eyes as she got sprinted away, her heart beating rapidly as her breathing quickened. The young man sprinted her away over a great distance before depositing her gently onto the ground.

Cat Grant realized who she'd been saved by and her eyes widened. Of course, she heard the words of the police to get out of there and so she did.

Arcane looked up and saw the Green Goblin perched on his glider high above him. Three pumpkin bombs were thrown at him but Arcane blocked them with a shield and deactivated them with a flick of his wrist. The bombs rotated into the air and blasted apart into dust. He used his heat vision to deactivate the glider.

'Rogue, you're up,' Harry thought to her through the link, hoping that she was ready.

Sure thing, Sugah,' Rogue commented as she came from above the Green Goblin and nailed him with a super powerful punch to the side of head. She continued to rock the Green Goblin with a series of punches to the head, trying to back him off as much as she could.

'Kitty, Kara, catapult,' Harry coached them, as he tried to get some kind of control on the ground but he was confident that the girls would be able to do something without any direct interference.

"And you didn't think that the Goblin would come out to play without your friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man showing up to the party!"

Spider-Man propelled himself up into the air and knocked the Green Goblin off of his glider. Harry smiled as the Green Goblin shot an energy blast from his hand. The Web Slinger dodged it easily and hurled a huge piece of the debris back at his attacker.

"You're an insect and not worth my time!" Green Goblin yelled as he hurled pumpkin bombs at Spider-Man but the web slinger ducked it.

"You must be off your nut Osborn!" Spider-Man yelled as he bounced back and knocked the Goblin for a loop. A double kick nailing the crazed criminal right on the top of his head. "Everyone knows that spiders aren't insects, they're arachnids…."

"They squash just the same!" the Green Goblin howled as he hurled another pumpkin bomb at the Web Head but he dodged the attack then kept ducking and weaving any follow up attempts. "Come out Spider, come to the parlor and meet your destruction meet the…"

The Green Goblins mad declaration was cut off by Kitty hurtling through the air towards him. The brunette mutant closed her eyes as she passed through the Green Goblin's body. Osborn looked around in surprise and there was a second where he paused, wondering what that was supposed to accomplish.

He got that answer in the form of Kara's fist plowing into the top of his head. The Goblin was rattled as he nearly driven into the ground, his eyes going cross eyed as the blonde Kryptonian followed that up by knocking him across the face for an extremely heavy loop causing his head to be thrown back from the force.

They would like to say that this was a mission accomplished but they knew better, oh boy did they ever know better.

The Goblin's head reared back and Harry continued his scan on the man, it was just as he thought. A life model decoy and a distraction in general.

"And we've been tricked, haven't we?" Spider-Man asked Harry and the wizard offered a slight smile along with a nod.

"Yep, pretty much," Harry told the web slinger and Spider-Man threw his heads back in a sigh.

"I figured as much but what was Osborn…..what was he doing?" the web slinger asked Harry and Harry smiled.

"He's trying to keep us off his trail, he left us a false one, intelligent of him," Harry said as he paused his eyes as he eyes fixated on the LMD. It appeared that Osborn had some connections that could hook him up with SHIELD tech.

That did beg the question of where the real deal was. Harry and his team had their work cut out for them.

X-X-X

"There was a noise complaint down here a couple of days ago but when people went down and investigated, it stopped so the police chalked it up as a nuisance call," Chloe told Gwen as the two of them made their way down the stairs of the school. They were actually here for their graduation but Chloe was not going to pass up a chance to investigate and stick her nose somewhere it didn't belong, today of all days.

Gwen raised an eyebrow and offered Chloe a teasing expression. "Just before graduation, bit keen aren't we?"

Chloe shook her head. "Not really, in fact, graduation would be the perfect time to commence with any kind of evil doings."

Gwen offered a sigh, about to say something but then she perked up. She felt an acute ringing in the back of her head and it was getting louder and louder. The blonde's eyes shifted towards the door in front of her.

"What is it?" Chloe asked.

"There's…..there's….there's something behind this door," Gwen offered. Her powers had been acting weird the last few days with both the random Marauder attack and then the Green Goblin's return. Gwen did hope that Peter made it back in time for graduation because he ducked out fairly quickly.

"Okay, this is….sounds like someone wasn't nuts," Chloe offered Gwen and Gwen nodded at her. Gwen tried to open the door but it would not budge. "I wish that I could hear this."

"How….how….how can you not hear that?" Gwen asked. The machine and the noise it was making was starting to drive her up the wall. The blonde closed her eyes and tried to focus.

"I don't….maybe…." Chloe started but she trailed off. She might not have heard the machine but she did in fact hear something.

Gwen was about ready to stop her attempts to open the door but Chloe pulled her into the shadows and the two of them bumped into a figure that made their way around the corner.

The two blondes were about ready for a fight only to see one Lois Lane standing before them or rather she fell backwards onto the tile floor before them.

Chloe had to ask the obvious question, looking at her cousin with a suspicious glint in her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Lois fired back as she stared Chloe down but the blonde's stubbornness radiated for all to feel.

"Well, it could be because of the fact that I go to school here and I'm graduating today," Chloe offered to her with a smile.

"Yeah….I know that and that's why I was here but I thought that since the ceremony isn't for a few hours, I'd do some snooping around for a story," Lois said as the two of them continued to stare at each other, they were definitely interested in what she was saying now. She was about to say how her source told that there was rumors of a humming. "You know, they could be building some kind of Doomsday device underneath the school…."

"Oh that would be about right, someone trying to blow up the school on graduation day, probably saw too many episodes of Buffy or something," Gwen offered with an exasperated sigh.

"Something tells me….no it's not that…."

"You ladies are a bit far from where you should be, are you?"

Gwen, Chloe, and Lois turned around and they saw Milton Fine standing there in the hallway.

"Wait….I saw you for the rest of the teachers, there's no way that you could be here," Gwen offered to him but Fine's smile grew wider.

"Your smart, Miss Stacy, too smart for you own good," Fine offered with a twisted grin as he held his hand on Gwen's shoulder and this caused her to feel a tiny bit dirty but she closed her eyes and sighed. "If you were a bit smarter, you would have known to keep your nose out of my business."

"Hey, let the two of them go, they didn't…."

"Oh, they're children, they're innocent, is that what you're trying to tell me, Miss Lane?" Fine asked as he turned around towards Lois and she backed up, swallowing a lump in her throat. "I know that they have the ability to be as meddlesome as you are."

"Well, I know what you are, I know who you are, you're the other one, and I also know….you won't be too happy when I use this!" Gwen yelled as she pulled a chunk of green rock out from a box that she had in her purse and Milton Fine recoiled back.

Fine's eyes glazed over in pain and he managed one pained declaration.

"Get them!"

However Gwen, Lois, and Chloe had already fled from the scene.

"What was that?" Lois asked.

"It's called Kryptonite," Gwen said quickly and Lois raised an eyebrow but Chloe helpfully chimed in with a few words of her own.

"That's a meteor rock from the planet Krypton," Chloe said and there was a few seconds where Lois looked at her. "You know, the same planet where the Star Child's from."

"Oh, Har-Rell," Lois said in a distracted voice as her mind was filled with growing dread. There was something that was causing to lose her mind.

"That won't slow him down, not for a long, we need some help and we need it now," Gwen stated as she pressed a button on her watch.

Lois knew all about the Star Child, naturally but that was neither here and now. She stopped with a skid before she shook her head.

"Don't look now….but Doctor Fine has gone all T-1000 on us," Lois stated as the silver liquid appeared before Fine popped up in front of her.

"So that fool Jax-Ur couldn't hold you, it seems like I'm going to have to do the job myself," Fine stated in a monotone but this Fine was different than the other one.

They knew this better than anyone else when the tentacles shot out and wrapped around their bodies. The girls tried to escape but the tight grip they were in held them helpless and unable to move.

"Fine…you're…."

"The Milton Fine you knew was merely a puppet, a scientist known as Jax-Ur, who commissioned my creation, he thought those fools in the Council were too weak willed to run the planet," he said in creepy monotone.

"Great, another fanatic, wonderful," Gwen groaned as she tried to reach for the Kryptonite but found that she could not.

"I would not bother," he said dryly as his eyes glowed. "Jax-Ur did not have the imagination, not like I had. I grew and learned from alien races, becoming stronger, smarter. But the true face of Krypton was exiled. He could have saved them."

"And by saved, you mean enslaved," Gwen managed in a strangled voice as she felt the crushing force of the tentacles tightening around her.

"Better think of something Extremis girl, before we become extras in a hentai," Chloe whispered to Gwen.

Gwen frowned, the blue prints of this thing….well they were complex, even more so than Ultron. She wished she had gotten a chance to study Kryptonian technology more, but she did recognize a few bits and bytes. And he had been augmented with technology from other races.

"The BrainInteractive Construct will bring forth the true face of Krypton once more," he said as he held them tightly within it's tentacled grasp.

A beam of heat vision shot out and a blonde appeared at super speed, knocking the second Fine so hard against the closet wall that it cracked under the impact.

Kara was the one who showed up to rescue the group and Chloe, Gwen, and Lois eyed the blonde nervously.

"Not the Kryptonian I was expecting," Gwen breathed but she pulled herself up. She felt her head ringing as she could not make heads or tails of this technology. "But thanks for the rescue."

"Where's…..um…."

"Never mind where the other is, we've got problems, big problems, that's the BrainInteractive Construct, he was the thing that helped bring my planet down along with…."

"The daughter of Zor-El," he dead panned as he turned around, the artificial skin peeling off of his face.

"So any suggestions?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, run," Kara stated dryly as she focused her eyes and shot heat vision against him. She burned a hole through him with her most intense blast.

Fine healed his body, as the other version of Fine appeared. Kara jumped into the air and used her ice breath to freeze Jax-Ur in place.

"You will not pass," Brainiac stated as he tried to blast Kara but she dodged behind him.

Yeah, well I'm doing a pretty good job of doing so right now," Kara commented to him as she swayed in the air, a smug smile never leaving her face.

"Insolent…."

"Yeah, I'm insolent, what are you going to do about it?" Kara taunted.

The footsteps of SHIELD agents could be heard as they moved in.

Gwen, Lois, and Chloe slipped out of there.

"Well here come the men in black, so we know this situation is getting serious," Lois said as she watched everything.

"You girls better leave," a man with dark hair dressed in a uniform.

"And who are you…."

"Agent Phil Coulson, of SHIELD," he stated to them as he stared down the three girls and Lois was the one that was about to protest the most. "We've heard word that there's a dangerous device being built in the basement of this school but you need to get out of there, classified information and all that."

"Right, out of here, although word of advice, you might be out of your depth with that thing," Gwen warned him as the girls were ushered out.

Kara was blasting her enemy with a series of rocket buster punches.

"You know what's a shame?" Brainiac asked her.

"That your face is so ugly?" Kara asked blandly.

"It's a shame that your cousin will be destroyed at the hands of Zod," he stated.

"Clear out, this might hurt!" Coulson yelled to Kara and she looked over her shoulder, seeing the really big energy cannon that he was packing. The blonde got the hit that it was time for her to go up, up, and away and get out of there. She cleared out as fast as she could go.

'Okay, here goes nothing,' Kara thought as she mentally crossed her fingers as she heard the rumbling of the cannon firing to life.

"Do you really think that's going to be…."

The energy blast ripped through the air and connected with his chest.

Coulson took a deep breath as he took in the fruits of his labor but he realized that was not going to ding him, not even a bit.

"Now, that Supergirl is out of here, we're going to have to…."

"Supergirl, is that what we're calling her?" one of the agents asked.

"Do you have a better name?" Coulson asked in a tense voice as he watched them. "Fury wants this thing….whatever it is, cleared out of here yesterday. Team Omega is clearing out the students and their families, the last thing we need is to incite a panic."

"The BrainInteractive Construct will not be stopped by your futile human weapons."

"And let's shut Brainiac up," Coulson added to them and there were a few raised eyebrows but he paid him no mind. "Fire, give him everything that you've got."

SHIELD gave him everything but suddenly Jax-Ur was able to break free from the ice he'd been contained within.

"Do me a favor and make sure the weapon is secured, we must commence with the time table," Brainiac stated to him and he went off at super speed.

"GOT IT!"

Hawkeye shot a few arrows which blew up the ground in front of him but Jax-Ur flew up, up, and away and made his escape.

Sinister watched from the shadows, along with Osborn.

"Soon, soon, he will be released," Sinister said but Osborn said nothing, other than to smile.

Sinister knew one thing, the Stacy girl's genetic code would be the perfect way to circumvent the third and final key needed to open up the crypt to release Apocalypse.

X-X-X

"Mr. Osborn has lost his mind Sir, you might not be safe," Lionel's bodyguard stated to him but Lionel chuckled in response blowing off the warning.

"Nonsense, I know how to handle Norman when he has one of his psychotic breaks, trust me on this one," Lionel said to the man before him and he decided not to press the issue. "We'll figure this one out, together, both of us. Trust me on this one."

"What you think and what you know, may be two different things, Lionel."

He turned around in time to see the Green Goblin hovering on the glider.

"I'm keeping an eye on that fool Essex and I'm keeping an eye on you, isn't technology grand?" Norman asked him.

"Now, Norman, don't be hasty….we can…."

Lionel was grabbed around the throat and Norman pushed him back against the wall. There was a few seconds where it seemed Osborn was trying to contemplate what he wanted to do with Lionel.

"I'm sure you're going to tell me that you can get me with help, well the kind of help I got caused me to lose control of my company, now I'm going to take control back!" The Green Goblin yelled out as he threw a pumpkin bomb at the ground, causing it to slowly break apart.

The ground cracked underneath them and there was a huge echo that indicated that there another pumpkin bomb had been hurled. The Green Goblin lifted his hands into the air and sent out a huge swath of pumpkin bombs that caused Lionel to try and back away due to his panic.

The Green Goblin spun around and saw another group making their way down the hallway. Lionel stepped back and tried to grab the alarm handle but Norman grabbed Lionel's around the wrist, causing it to snap from the force he exerted.

"Not….not…going to happen!" Green Goblin sang as he hoisted up Lionel and looked outside the window.

"Now don't be….don't be, don't be…."

"Yes Lionel, they're words, you use them to speak, but full sentences are conducive to having a conversation, so you have about five seconds to figure out what the fuck you want to say or you will be taking an extremely long trip out of a very high window," The Green Goblin said.

"If you want your company back I can…."

The Goblin grabbed his hand and twisted his already broken wrist, causing him a huge burst of pain to resound through his body. He closed his eyes tightly as Lionel pushed him back and tried to run away.

"Mistake," Goblin commented as he fired an energy blasted at him as he heard a signal from his other self that caused him to smile. "Sorry, Lionel, I've got to wrap this up soon so you've got to go and you're going to go, hard."

The Green Goblin picked up a pair of pumpkin bombs and hurled them towards his half brother, causing a loud explosion to resound. Lionel nearly fell through the floor but Osborn grabbed him.

"Not yet, it's not that easy," Green Goblin said but there was the sound of footsteps behind him. A frown crossed his face as his eyes flashed with anger and malice. "So, you think that I'm going to allow this to happen that easily."

Lionel was shoved off to the side as the SHIELD representatives made their appearance.

"You tried to take me out the first time and it didn't work so well," Osborn asked them in a taunting voice as he looked at them. "Do you really think that it's going to work out any better this time?"

There was sense they paused before they fired. Osborn made his way around, jumping up, and he threw razor bats across the room at the agents of SHIELD.

Osborn whipped his head back just in time to duck a blast from across the room. He flew around the room, swerving, ducking, and weaving throwing pumpkin bombs the whole while.

BAM, BAM, BAM! The Green Goblin caused explosions to resound from every direction and threw his head back to give his malicious laugh. He saw that Lionel ran off in the other direction. He looked over his shoulder and flew backwards, tapping his fingers on the edge of the glider, before he blasted a large hole through the door.

He was going to keep on going and he saw two of the SHIELD transport vehicles.

'The day has come,' stated his contact.

Osborn smiled, he knew that the day had come, all he had to do was seize the moment and the day would be his. He made his way further and his eyes peered as he held his pumpkin bombs in his hand, leaving a trail of destruction behind him.

His laughter became even more insane as he made his way towards Midtown High.

'Hello,' Green Goblin stated as he saw Lois, Chloe, and Gwen, amongst others who were moving in a panic.

Gwen had that nervous feeling going through her body and she heard the Goblin glider she knew the reason why.

"GOBLIN AT TWELVE O CLOCK!" Gwen yelled and the Green Goblin dive bombed through the air.

"MOVE!" Lois yelled as she shoved Chloe out of the way and took the brunt of the hit.

She was down but not out, as she flew backwards with a huge impact.

Gwen rushed back and picked up one of the energy blasters that the SHIELD agents dropped and she aimed it, blasting him over and over again. He shrugged off the attacks like they were spitballs.

"You're spirited, I'll give you that, too bad I'm going to have to crush that spirit into dust!" The Green Goblin howled as he grabbed her around the throat and hoisted her up.

Gwen started to kick her legs as the Green Goblin held her up in the air by her neck.

"Oh, you want to call your little hero?" The Green Goblin mocked her as he reached towards the signal watch and pressed it in. "Here, the more the merrier."

"Are you insane?" Gwen asked him as the Green Goblin had her.

"Well, yes….what are you doing?" Green Goblin asked as Gwen closed her eyes and began to lock onto the guidance system of his glider.

"Leveling the playing field," Gwen said as she kicked him the balls causing him to let go of her and she dropped down to the ground, her powers causing the goblin's glider to crash into the roof with the guidance system jammed thanks to her hacking into it. She got back to her feet, and picked up the bag of pumpkin bombs.

"NO!"

Gwen hurled a pumpkin bomb at him and caused the Green Goblin to back off but Gwen was grabbed around the shoulder and driven to her knees by Sinister.

"Your distraction is much appreciated, now we must move onto the next stage of the plan."

X-X-X

Harry's team was not the only person that picked up something. Magneto walked to the edge of the temple, followed by his Acolytes.

"Stay alert, Essex and his minions are around here, and there's no clue as to where Norman Osborn scurried off to," Magneto told them. Apocalypse threatened them all and Magneto had to remain vigilante for if he was not, it would be game over for them all.

"Right about that…."

"I know what we need to do and we'll do it," Domino stated as she nervously looked over her shoulder.

"It's just us," Cyclops said as he walked forward, with Nightcrawler, Beast, and Storm, with Xavier also being wheeled in to the picture.

"That doesn't exactly help my confidence," Domino replied dryly but Magneto gave her a warning look and she backed off.

"Siryn are you…."

"I'm here," the young girl stated as she walked forward. She had long red hair that framed the pale skin of her face. She had a smattering of freckles and she was fairly busty with a green top wrapping around her bust, showing a fantastic deal of cleavage. She had tight black plants as well. "There's nothing back there, nothing in the tunnel."

"I'm surprised Harry and his team haven't gotten here yet," Kurt offered to them but them he grew tense. "Unless they're already here…."

"Where's Drake?" Scott asked.

"Here….and keeping it cool," Bobby remarked to them with a smile on his face which got more than a few groans and he looked innocent or at least what passed as innocent for Iceman. "What, what did I do?"

"You opened your mouth icecube, now stick your nose out there and see what's up," Wolverine ordered as he walked inside and took a sniff. "Something in here smells off."

"Don't need the nose for that, there is something off, the energy reading is off of the scales," Beast said as he linked up the portal computer he had on him but it started to short out. "Well, that could be a problem."

"Could be?" Logan asked him and there was a secondary pause before Beast stuck his neck out.

"Yes, I believe it could be," Beast stated as the tension around them seemed to heighten even further.

"Stay alert," Storm warned them as she felt there was something going around them.

Cyclops saw that the golems, for lack of a better term, beginning to march their way down the hallway towards them. He tensed up and flipped his visor back, causing an energy blast to fire at these enemies. The golems were backed off for a second before they kept advancing forward.

"I'll take them down, my friend," Gambit stated as he prepared his playing cards and shuffled the deck, throwing them up into the air.

They bounced off of the golems but it allowed Colossus to stampede towards his enemies. His body shifted into organic steel and he lifted his arm back. There was a thunderous crunch but there was nothing, not even a scratch.

Nightcrawler threw himself into the air and dodged out of the way of the attacks. He landed up and down into the air with a pop.

More pops echoed as the mutant tried to avoid the attacks.

"Got it!" Iceman stated as the creatures, now they saw something more then shadows, they were ugly, stone, and had carved faces, lurched forward. The mutant lifted his hands in the air and he blasted a burst of ice that caused them to be stuck in place.

"You merely slowed them down," Magneto told him coldly but there was a few seconds where there was a hum on the other side.

"The Marauders," Cyclops managed.

"Very good, you have brain cells, that's encouraging," Vertigo commented as she stepped forward and exerted her powers. "Too bad I'm going to have to scramble them."

She lifted her hands up and caused the vertigo effect to resound through them, it rattled them and caused them to become dizzy. They were trying to push themselves back to their feet but Vertigo exerted more power.

"Take them down," Vertigo ordered Blockbuster, who nodded and took a step forward.

Cyclops tried to push himself up but Riptide grabbed him and hurled him against the wall.

"Time to fight fire, with….fire," Siryn managed as she tried to lift her head up in order to face them. "And….cover your ears, you've got to….cover your ears."

"Right, covering my ears!" Iceman shouted and the others nodded in agreement as Siryn turned her head around and opened her mouth up wide in preparation to use her powers.

An ear splitting scream echoed outwards knocking the Marauders backwards but a pumpkin bomb hurled out at them, nearly blowing up half of the temple. There was a loud explosion that resounded around all of them and the humming continued to escalate even further.

"Got it!" Green Goblin yelled as he circled them like a bat out of hell. "One side, Chucko!"

Magneto lifted his hand and pieces of metal began to fly around. The Goblin dropped down and avoided being impaled before he knocked Magneto out.

Stunned did not even begin to describe how everyone felt.

"YES!"

"No fucking way. Is this….is this the real deal?" Storm asked in complete and utter disbelief as she moved around out of the way.

"Hit it with lightning and find out!" Pryo suggested in frustration.

"I…."

"JUST DO IT!" Pryo yelled at the top of his lungs as he was about to lose his mind and Storm cued up the lightning but a force knocked her out from behind.

That force was Mister Sinister, who turned to his Marauders.

"Make sure the tunnel is clear, I'm going to release Apocalypse," Sinister stated to them as he held Gwen's half-conscious body under his arm.

Gwen was trying not to betray the fact that she was not knocked completely out. She was attempting to figure out what the technology was around her and trying to tap into it. The blonde's eyes were screwed shut in concentration.

"Stall them, two minutes, that's all we need, Mystique, get in position, Osborn…."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you get everything that's coming to you," Osborn offered with a grin across his face.

X-X-X

Harry, Kara, Kitty, Rogue, Wanda, and Betsy made their way down the tunnel. M'gann, Laura, and Amara were waiting elsewhere. This was going to be a dangerous mission.

"Gwen's down here, we've got to be careful," Harry whispered.

He could track her but he wanted to see what was going to happen.

"I wonder if…."

"No Rogue, this is going…..we didn't expect this, not at all but….you know what, we're going to keep going, as if….Gwen will be fine," Harry said as Kitty looked at him, the brunette raising an eyebrow.

"You're nervous aren't you?"

Harry gave her a few seconds before he spoke. "How did….how did you know?"

"I see it in your face, it isn't difficult to see," Kitty told him with a shrug of her shoulders. The brunette decided to add as an afterthought. "Plus you never babble like that."

"Yeah, Har, you're always calm and collected," Kara said as she stepped forward a little bit. The blonde's eyes focused. "She's down here."

"Down in the next chamber but the X-Men and the Acolytes are above us," Harry informed them and the group nodded. "But they can deal with the Marauders, they can hold their own, we've got something else to deal with."

Harry paused and he felt goose bumps appear on his arm. This was most certainly one of those situations where he could get extremely nervous. His eyes focused on the situation before him and he felt his stomach clench a tiny bit as he kept walking forward.

"Problem, Harry?"

Wanda felt the energies in the temple and she looked towards him.

"I think that there's a big problem although I'm not sure what that might be, although I'm trying to figure that out and now," Wanda added as she placed her hands on the top of the wall and shifted it forward.

"You should have not come here."

The familiar voice of Sinister could be heard and Harry smiled at him. It was not a friendly smile but one that caused him to stare him down.

"You have thirty seconds," Harry said to Sinister and the girls nodded.

"I don't need to defeat you, I merely need to stall you for my cohorts," Sinister stated and Harry smiled.

"Yes and while you're yapping, the real Harry's on his way to the temple to stop your little plan," Harry commented and Sinister watched him before it clicked.

"Martian," Sinister growled and M'gann lashed out, grabbing Sinister around his head in a huge telekinetic vice.

'Jean, little help,' M'gann thought as she tried to push back a little bit.

'Just there M'gann hang on,' Jean thought as Sinister struggled against their double team grip.

Harry sped his way down the temple and reached the end. He caught the energy barrier and Gwen was being lead over by Mesmero and Mystique. He smiled and thought outside the box.

He burst through the ground beneath him with super strength and came out on the other side.

"You!" Mystique yelled as she tried to pull out a dagger that gave a green glow. She fired a shot at Harry but he dodged it and blocked her again and again.

"That weakness has been purged a long time again, Raven," Harry told her as he dodged the attacks. He blocked her kick and twisted it around.

Harry knocked her down but she rolled out of the way of his attack.

Mystique dodged the attack and suddenly, Gwen broke free from the mental control and knocked her into the wall with a violent throw.

"Bitch!" Mystique yelled and Gwen was pulled out of the way by Harry.

Harry went around her and started circling her, lifting her hand up into the air and about ready to leave but Milton Fine showed up.

"I knew that you couldn't be trusted," Harry stated to Fine. "But the question remains, who are you? Are you Jax-Ur or are you Brainiac?"

"I'm Jax-Ur, the BrainInteractive Construct has other matters to attend to," Jax-Ur informed him as he sent his heat vision towards Harry who dodged it.

"You're a thinker, not a fighter," Harry concluded.

"Very good, Har-Rell, but I don't need to defeat you," Jax-Ur stated but Harry knocked him out.

Mystique pulled herself up off the ground and she saw it, her chance. Should Apocalypse be freed, her debt with Sinister was settled. Mesmero saw her and the dagger she had in her hand.

Harry saw Mesmero and took him out before he could try anything. A huge punch knocked the man down to the ground. He had a strong mind but his jaw was made of complete glass.

Mystique slammed the dagger into Jax-Ur's arm and pushed him back, his strength that of a mere mortal due to his weakness being present. The Kryptonite dagger penetrated his skin and caused blood to drip onto the pedestal.

The blood of the Star Child could release Apocalypse and the blood of another like him appeared to do the job just as well.

"He's coming now you can't…."

An energy blast engulfed Mystique and turned her into stone as she had her hands placed upon the glowing pedestal.

Harry looked up and saw the gates crack open as a levitating crypt was released into the temple. He heard an eerie hum around him.

He tried to rush at it at super speed but the energy field repelled him back at ten times the force he exerted.

Apocalypse was rising.

Jax-Ur smiled, phase two of the plan was complete, it was now onto phase three of the master plan, and the resurrection of the true face of Krypton.