28 Chapter 28 - Hearts and Minds

Mikael reappeared by the plane as he walked up the ramp towards the cockpit. Every eye in the vessel locked onto his form as he walked past the group of mutants. He stopped next to Hank, who was currently sitting in the pilot's seat as the engines came to life.

"Take us home Hank." Mikael said as he patted Hank on his shoulder. The plane lifted off the ground, the ramp closing shut as the reporters were approaching from the distance. With a jolt the plane shot forward as they began the trip back to New York. Mikael stepped back into the cabin as he looked over to the horsemen. Eric was looking at a silver ring that hung at the end of a chain around his neck. The rest of the horsemen however were doing their best to avoid direct eye contact with Mikael.

Two hours passed in relative silence before the plane began to touch down in the hangar of Xavier's mansion. One by one everyone stepped off the plane to see Xavier waiting at the bottom of the ramp. Mikael stepped out looking over the group, he group that went with him had proud expressions on their faces while most of the horsemen stared down at the ground with Eric looking at Xavier in silence.

"Pick your heads up. You made a mistake. Accept it, move on and don't make it again." Mikael said attracting the attention of everyone in the room. He looked towards each of them as their looked up to meet his gaze before stopping on Eric.

"I'm trying to make this world better for all mutants. For all of you. A world where no one else should have to suffer what you have." Mikael told them as he looked towards the ring hanging around Eric's neck. He paused for a second before he continued. "You don't have to tell me your story if you don't want to. All I ask is that you give me a chance. If you want to go your own way after that? I won't stop you."

"There's a much larger world out there. A galaxy, a universe filled with incredible things you can barely even begin to imagine." Mikael said as he tucked his helmet under his arm. Mikael walked off the ramp to stand in front of the group. He stood in silence as he looked over each of their expressions before he spoke up again.

"Think on it. If you want to accept my offer, come find me at the Argent Tech building in Manhattan." Mikael told them as he left the hangar leaving the group to their thoughts. As he stepped into the hall he heard the sounds of footsteps running after him. He turned his head to see Jean coming up to his side.

"Can I talk to you?" She asked as he turned around to look at her.

"Sure, Let's walk." Mikael said before motioning for her to join him.

"Why are you doing all of this?" Jean asked as they began to walk down the hallways.

"I do a lot of things. You should be more specific."

"Making things better for mutants. For us."

"Do you know the story of Apocalypse? Of how he became who he was?"

"No, but what does that have to do with this?"

"When he was born, he was abandoned because he was different. Left to die as an infant, hated and feared because of his appearance and abilities. Do those circumstances seem familiar to you?" Mikael answered as he looked at her.

"It's what we're going through now. But how do you know all this?" Jean responded as they stepped out of the mansion.

"It's one of my…abilities. I have seen visions and pictures of the past and the future. Of war, death and the end of days. Several different possibilities. And I won't let it come to pass. I won't let another Apocalypse come to be. I can't." Mikael answered as he looked into the reflection of his helmet's visor and as the late afternoon sun shined upon it, it was as though he could see images of his parents turning to ash.

Jean watched as Mikael's expression changed from his usual carefree attitude to one more solemn, more heavy. For the first time since she met him, she saw it. Underneath all the power he held and underneath the confident and carefree visage he wore, he was just like the rest of them, he was just like her. She stepped in front of him and pulled him into a hug.

"You don't have to do it alone. It's not your responsibility to." Jean said quietly as her head rested against his chest. The sudden embrace caught Mikael off guard for a moment before he gave in and accepted it as he placed a hand on her back. They stood there frozen in the sunlight before Mikael cleared his throat and finally broke the silence.

"So are you planning on keeping me here or what?" Mikael teased as Jean quickly let go and stepped back.

"N-no sorry. I didn't mean to do that." Jean answered, her cheeks now matching her hair in color.

"Thanks Jean. For that." Mikael said with a smile. Jean returned a smile of her own when she saw him return to his more carefree self. Mikael caught the sound of familiar running footsteps heading towards them as he stepped past Jean. He placed a hand on her shoulder as he leaned in close.

"By the way, you're blushing." Mikael whispered with a smile as he vanished in a swirl of blue mist leaving Jean to deal with her overly energetic friend that just stormed out of the building.

Mikael rushed back to his building and entered his office through the balcony. He quickly headed to his personal suite in the building to get cleaned up and change into a normal set of clothes. He came out of the shower and sat down on the couch as the holographic monitors came to life. He scanned through the numerous phone calls and messages that had built up over the last couple days, sorting and deleting those that held no importance.

"Trash, trash, Hammer Industries? Trash." Mikael spent nearly ten minutes sorting through everything before he leaned back in his seat and let out an exasperated sigh. "Note to self, I need a secretary."

Mikael closed his eyes as the different news channels popped up on the screens. His lightsaber was softly rotating above his palm when a number of reports caught his attention. He opened his eyes as he turned down most of the channels until one was left.

"We have reports coming in from Cairo, Egypt where authorities are cleaning up after a battle tore apart a pyramid and laid waste to the surrounding area. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, the battle having taken place in a part of the city that had already evacuated when the freak tornado first appeared. Witnesses were unable to see who exactly was fighting but they all seem to agree that one side had to be extraterrestrial in nature. We've managed to get a few video clips from a few of the witnesses that we will share with you now."

Mikael watched as they showed shaky cellphone footage of his battle with Apocalypse. The large ship was floating in the air above them as Mikael fought the larger blue skinned creature. Footage of the ship's supposed destruction played on the news as the form of Mikael slammed back to the ground. The footage zoomed in close to show him in greater detail, his cloak flapping in the wind, the surface of his chest plate and helmet that was now covered in dust and sand.

"It seems that maybe Bolivar Trask might not be so crazy after all. But that leads to the question who are these mysterious defenders? Where did they come from? Who do they work for? And who is this Archon that seems to be leading them?" Mikael turned off the news channels as he relaxed in his seat.

"Well I do look good." Mikael said as he stood up and headed to his workshop. The space now fully equipped and customized to his requirements lit up as he entered the workshop. As he walked a number of different projects floated in front of him, some were designs from his memories and others were his own creations inspired from various other sources he remembered. He looked over each of them before waving his hand, bringing the projects for prosthetics and medical equipment in front of him.

"I need to finish the prosthetic prototypes. Also need to test the formulas for bacta and adamantium." Mikael said to himself as he sat down at a bench and got to work. He spent the whole night working on the first prosthetics and by the next morning he had completed several prosthetics for each limb. Lab testing had been completed, the few miniature prosthetics for animals worked as expected and now all he had to do was find volunteers for his human trials. As Mikael finished reaching out to different hospitals and veteran centers he received an alert from his security systems.

Mikael waved a hand as a screen displaying Jean and a couple other individuals waiting in the lobby. Mikael pressed a button before sending Jean a message. He watched as a couple seconds later the group got into an elevator and started making their way up. Mikael continued to finish his work as the elevator opened and the automated voice echoed through his workspace.

Jean stepped out of the elevator closely followed by most of the other mutants. They looked around his workshop in awe as they made their way towards him. Hank seemed astounded by the technology he was seeing in use.

"You should really get a receptionist." Jean said as she stopped in front of his desk.

"And a secretary. I'm aware. It's on the list." Mikael said as he looked over the final prosthetic he was finishing.

"Is that a prosthetic? I've never seen one like that before. How's it work?" Hank quickly asked as he examined the finished piece.

"It uses a synth-net neural interface to connect to organic tissue to provide control and sen-" Mikael started to explain before Raven quickly interrupted him.

"Hey save it for later. You asked us to come so here we are. What's the plan Mikael?"

"As you might have heard already, Bolivar Trask has recently discovered that super powered individuals are the reason Earth hasn't been invaded by extraterrestrial forces." Mikael started to explain.

"Yeah, how'd you get him to believe that lie?" Logan asked.

"That's just it. It's not a lie." Mikael answered as he looked over each of the group.

"What?!"

"It's not lie. I did bend the truth and falsify the evidence he saw but the fact of the matter is everything he stated and 'discovered' is true." Mikael continued as he waved a hand causing a number of screens to fill the area around him. Each screen had an image representing each of the major civilizations in the galaxy.

"What you see now are the Kree, Skrulls, Xandar and the chitauri. Each civilization has technology far beyond our own but fortunately Xandar isn't a hostile one. I'm not 100% on Skrulls at this moment, I need more information on that one. But anyway none of the civilizations have dared to invade us for one real reason. It's not worth the cost." Mikael explained as he waved his hand changing the screens.

"See, each of these civilizations has to pool its resources to create even just one super powered individual. But here on Earth? Super powers are like a natural resources. Abundant. They don't invade us because we don't have anything they want. At least not that they know of." Mikael waved his hand again as the screen revealed as close a representation of Thanos as he could create.

"This is the Mad Titan, Thanos. The chitauri serve him. And his goal? Is the death of half of the entire universe." Mikael looked at each of the group as their face seemed to darken.

"Why? Why would he want that?" Jean asked in shock.

"Who knows. Maybe he wants some weird sense of balance. Or maybe he's just obsessed with Death. Does it matter?" Mikael responded.

"This is why I asked for you to join me. Because one day he will come for us. And when that day comes, Earth cannot afford to be divided."

"So what do you want us to do?" Hank asked.

"I want you to help me win hearts and minds."