Ch 36: Old Man

The Neo were already preparing to leave so they could have returned to Genosha within three days. It was actually getting the Neo community prepared and set up that took longer.

Although Magneto ruled over the island nation, many parts were destroyed in the civil war that occurred. Some areas still needed to be repaired and have their living conditions such as gas and water restored. It took a week to get an area cleared out for them.

When the Neo arrived, Ruler was surprised by how... normal the place looked. Last time, they only arrived at Magneto's citadel and did not pay attention to the city around them. Now that they were living there, he noticed besides a few upgrades for mutants with special physiques, everything else was pretty standard.

'Guess I have an overactive imagination.'

After making sure all of the Neo were settled, Ember, Slash, and Ruler made their way to the central citadel. As members of the Inner Circle, while they had residences in the Neo community, they were required to go to the Citadel most days to deal with official matters.

Since they just arrived, they would each be put under a more experienced member of the Inner Circle to learn how to manage certain areas or groups before being placed in charge of their territory. The 3 would be placed in charge of the Neo community after their training was done but could request another area if they wished to expand later.

Each member's territory was different. While each had to follow the laws of Genosha that Magneto set up, territory leaders could also make rules for their own territories. For example, Toad did not allow anyone to eat fried foods in his territory while Mystique required at least one hour of combat training per week in hers.

There were currently 18 members of the Inner Circle including the 3 new Neo. They were: Pyro, Avalanche, Blob, Sabertooth, Mastermind, Destiny, Toad, Mystique, Polaris, Havok, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Astra, Lady Mastermind, and Magento.

Ember was placed under Pyro for training, Slash under Lady Mastermind, and Ruler was given to Magneto directly under the surprised gaze of everyone. No one questioned it and simply moved on with their meeting.

While Ember and Slash would be getting leadership training, Magneto wanted to bring along Ruler to help him kill off some of the rebels that escaped during the civil war. Ruler had no issues with this.

He was already learning the ways of being a leader from, arguably, the best leader to ever exist. He also heard about what the humans of Genosha had done before Magneto took over so did not feel the need to show them mercy.

The duo, along with several low-level feral-gene mutants, made their way to the edges of the city atop a large metal disc. Magneto and Ruler were to be the main firepower of the group while the others were there to find any rebels.

On their way there, the group was discussing plans and countermeasures for anything that may occur. Even though Magneto could handle most of their weapons, the humans also had some non-metal weapons that could kill them. But Magneto said something that surprised everyone.

"What is your relationship with my youngest daughter, boy? I don't want any infighting because of her."

Everyone except Ruler looked shocked and immediately turned away. They also began hating their mutations for the first time in a long time due to their enhanced senses causing them to be unable to ignore the conversation even if they wanted to.

"We are just friends. I simply felt like bullying her boyfriend a bit and plan to continue to do so in the future. If he can't handle a little teasing from me, he is not worthy of Lorna."

Magento looked at Ruler surprised. He guessed what Ruler was referring to but his next sentences confirmed it.

"I read up on you. You have suffered. You are thought to be a villain by many and insane, and sure you wanna kill people when you have your episode, but yours don't occur often.

Lorna on the other hand is also bipolar and her episodes are less severe but occur more often. I joked about it before but I realized that I was actually right. Both of you are really bipolar.

I just want to see how his temper is. I won't take it too far. Plus, I need to strike fear into the hearts of anyone to warn them what will happen if they break my best friend's heart."

Magneto paused for a moment before nodding. He knew that what Ruler said was correct and in the end, he really did not go overboard. He was watching Ruler closely ever since Ruler looked into his eyes.

'He only gripped the hand back harder after Havok did. As for his words, he simply messed up his name and taunted him about Lorna's lack of information given about him. *sigh* Too many of my Inner Circle are children.'

His last thought was really true. Including the 3 Neo, 7 members of the Inner Circle were under 21. Most were truly children compared to Magneto.

"*Sniff sniff* I got something. Southeast, at least 200 humans, and I can smell some gun powder. 500 meters away."

Ruler nodded at the words before jumping off the disc and releasing his wings. They had grown over the past 2 years and he now had a wingspan of 3 meters. The large, scaled wings created a strong wind behind them as Ruler flew towards his target.

"Try to catch up, old man."

'He is not as scary or as bad as he seemed. No wonder so many mutants love him.'

Magneto maneuver the disc to follow behind Ruler and try to catch up to him.

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Author's note:

Made an auxiliary chapter with all the servants and more detailed information on them that is better than the one in chapter 12