21 Asteroid 2

Chapter Twenty One: Asteroid Part Two.

"I bring before you, the wave of the future," Magneto declared, and Harry shrugged his shoulders, automatically skeptical about everything that the Master of Magnetism had stated. On the other hand, Magneto had not attacked him yet, and had called off the Brotherhood dogs, so Harry was not clear about what he wanted to do.

It was that tense moment before battle where Harry stood there and just kept a close eye on Magneto, barely allowing himself any time to blink. One of the most important lessons to learn was to never take one's eye off of an enemy that was what Harry was going to take to heart, until the bitter end.

Harry decided to wait this one out to stall for time as long as he could until he had managed to figure out some kind of plan. He was skeptical about what Magneto was selling for a number of reasons far too numerous to state here.

"I was just about to explain to my young friends Scott and Alex about the procedure which would boost their mutant powers to their full potential, and eliminate all flaws with them," Magneto continued, his eyes surveyed upon Harry, and once again, the young wizard seemed to be extremely skeptical by what Magneto was selling. "Do not underestimate what I can do, or what I can offer those who are worthy, and among those who are worthy include you."

Scott walked over, with this young man, Alex, Harry presumed, and shook his head, hoping that Scott would not buy what Magneto was selling. Another giant orb popped up, and it opened up to reveal the nasty face of Sabretooth.

"Ah, so you have proven your superiority over Wolverine, well done," Magneto declared, and Sabretooth nodded with a toothy grin, cracking his knuckles whilst he did so. "As I was saying, this machine will restore your powers."

"And how prey tell are you going to do this?" Harry asked, his eyebrow raised slightly, and then Magneto true to form had proceeded to explain the procedure.

"With this," Magneto informed him, and with another motion, he held it up into the air, a glowing red gem that Harry recognized immediately from his studies with the Sorcerer Supreme.

"The Gem of Cyttorak," Harry told him, and Magneto responded with a nod. "They once were believed to have mystical properties that could unlock hidden gifts among people, and amplify their strength to a tenth degree."

"Yes, and one of them empowered our good friend, the Juggernaut," Magneto chimed in at that moment, holding the gem for all to see. "Whilst the gem is not as potent in mystical power as it once was, it still has some uses, and one of them is a huge amount of radiation that it emits that will unlock mutant gifts."

Harry was now extremely skeptical, and wondered if what Magneto perceived as radiation was really unstable magical energy that could blow them all to smithereens if it had been used the wrong way. The new kid, Alex, seemed to think among the same lines, or at least had seemed to be rather skeptical about how the lethal amounts of radiation could help them.

"I don't know about this man, radiation just seems to be a bit…you know," Alex replied, waving his hands, and shook his head from side to side. "Unstable, and rather dangerous."

"I can assure you that I have fine-tuned the procedure to be perfectly safe," Magneto informed them, and Alex and Scott exchanged a skeptical raise of their eyebrow, before they nodded. "As a gesture of faith, I will allow one of my own to enter the machine first."

The Brotherhood seemed to be eager at this point for the power, but Magneto proceeded to turn his attention in another direction, far away from them.

"Sabretooth, head to the machine," Magneto told the dangerous mutant, and Sabretooth just gave him a toothy grin, walking over to the machine, as Magneto installed the crystal he had removed for demonstration purposes. Sabretooth stepped into the machine, ready to unlock his full potential. "Now, behold the future."

Harry stood before Magneto, and watched him pull the switch, trying to figure out what the process was to do this. He could see Sabretooth bombarded by high levels of energy that flowed throughout his being, and the mutant gave a pained grunt whilst being bombarded by the energy, with more and more enveloping him with each passing moment.

The light stopped after a couple of moments, and the machine opened to allow Sabretooth to stumble out, apparently empowered, but still mean and ugly as ever. He gave a mighty growl, and turned to the group that was watching.

"Oh, what a rush," Sabretooth said in a low growl, and he jumped forward, causing the members of the Brotherhood to stagger backwards in fear of this particular monster eating them.

"And now, who will volunteer next?" Magneto asked at that moment, looking to the group, and the Brotherhood seemed to be having second thoughts, but that was beside the point, with Scott and Alex stepping up at that point to raise their hands. "Ah yes, two brave souls who wish to do what they can to ensure their future evolution. Step into the machine boys, and face your destiny."

"I don't think this is a good idea," Harry answered suddenly, and Scott turned to him, a suspicious expression on his face.

"And why don't you think it's a good idea?" Scott asked, peering at him from beneath his ruby red visors.

Harry adjusted his stance, and looked Scott directly in the eye. "Magneto has dangled a carrot underneath your nose, and like a sap, you're taking it. There's a catch with everything, there always is."

"I want to be able to see in a color other than red," Scott replied, unable to see reason, and Harry just sighed, he was going to have to learn the hard way. The truth was that he did not understand why the machine was a bad idea, just that it was, and he was trying to divine more information with the scanning spells. "You might know a lot, but you don't know everything, and I'm sorry that all of us don't have the great natural leader instincts that you do. I can lead this team better without a handicap getting in my way."

Harry felt a supreme amount of agitation coming his way and he decided to hit Scott with a dose of reality.

"Your problem is not any handicap, the problem you have is your mind, and you're unable to really think outside the box, like a true leader should. And if you follow Magneto, then you surely aren't any leader of this team, or even fit to lead a group of girl scouts."

Scott paused at that moment, hearing Harry's statement, but at the same time, he blocked it out of his mind. Alex paused, and was having second thoughts, but the pain through his hands when he fired those blasts mandated that he would have to do something, and soon to alleviate the tension.

Without another word, Scott and Alex stepped into the machine, and Magneto, with a stoic expression, pulled the switch.

The energy bombarded them, but for some reason, it seemed different to Harry than the energy that Sabretooth had been bombarded with just a few minutes previously. Suddenly, it struck Harry of what Magneto was trying to do, a few moments too late, and all he could do now was fight them all.

He knew Xavier, Storm, and Jean were on this ship, but the question was where were they at? Harry did not have much time to ponder on that fact, when the doors of the machine opened, and Scott and Alex exited, looking like rejects from a biker gang, and Scott had his eyes opened wide.

"I can see," Scott answered at that moment, and Magneto had a look of triumph on his face, as Harry braced himself for a fight.

"So how about it Harry, do you see where the future lies?" Magneto asked at this moment.

Harry decided to keep Magneto talking for as long as he could before he tried to pinpoint a way to lower the defenses. There were many.

"You see, we are a superior race and you should step forward to join your brothers in arms," Magneto continued.

"You know, the last time someone had prattled on about a master race, that didn't really end so well for a lot of people," Harry responded as he looked Magneto dead in the eye. The Brotherhood had grew tense and about ready to attack. "Do you really want to be compared to that particular individual?"

Magneto's eye twitched before Harry had braced himself for a fight. No one fought, at least not for the moment, for another problem had presented itself, and the side of Asteroid M was being attacked by several ships in space. Magneto had the shields up, but the Master of Magnetism wondered how long they would hold against Fury's assault.

Harry used that distraction to make his plan to hopefully give the X-Men a way inside. He never thought he'd say this but God bless Nick Fury.

Kitty popped back up at the Mansion, followed by Rogue and Kurt, and she looked around, a frantic expression spreading through her eye. The young brunette mutant yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Ororo! Professor Xavier! Is anyone here?"

It turned out someone was here, and it was Mystique who was perched from the rafters, dropping down from the ground. Rogue caught her immediately, and spun around, trying to slam Mystique into the wall. Mystique turned the tables, and swept the leg underneath from Rogue, before slamming her down onto the ground.

"I did not come here to fight, but rather to give you information," Mystique answered, and Kurt just looked at her, raising a skeptical eyebrow, and Kitty scoffed immediately at this moment. Rogue on the other hand, one could say that she was mad, but she passed the point of mad a long time ago. She was beyond mad.

"Better here what she's going to say before we knock her down."

Logan popped up at that moment, but he also was holding Quicksilver by the shoulder, roughly shoving him into the mansion. The young mutant looked to be positively agitated with the situation that he was in, and a smile cropped up over Logan's face.

"Found him lurking outside the mansion, figured that I didn't want to let him get picked up with the rest of the trash."

Quicksilver dropped to the ground before Mystique, and a look of surprise appeared on the shapeshifter's face before she bent down to check on Quicksilver.

"It was Pietro who was left behind, strange I would have assumed Toad," Mystique answered, and Pietro crossed his arms with a scowl, thinking about how demeaning this was to be left behind, and Toad and Blob had managed to make the cut. "But never mind that, I know what Magneto is up to. He is using an ancient mystical gem to brainwash your leader into working for him, also amplifying his powers in the process."

"And you expect us to believe that," Rogue answered, and Mystique decided to twist the knife a bit further.

"And if young Mr. Potter is as brazen as I think he is, he would call Magneto out on that fact before too long, and then he would be locked away temporarily before Magneto elected to destroy Potter."

Rogue and Kitty exchanged a panicked expression, Harry could be in trouble, and whilst they both knew he could take care of himself, there were situations that he had gotten in way over his head. Mystique saw that her statement had gotten the desired response, shifted her stance to look at Wolverine, and pressed on with the information that she gave him.

"I can take you to Magneto's base, if you have a method of transport that does not have any metal."

It was at that point Wolverine just cracked a smile, given the number of times that they ran into Magneto, they made it a worthy investment to establish a modes of transport that did not have the item that Magneto attracted. Still, Wolverine's face twisted into a look of skepticism, he would not be able to trust Mystique as far as he could throw you.

"I don't trust you," Wolverine voiced in a short and concise way.

A calculating expression appeared on Mystique's face, wondering if Logan had understood the lesson that had be unwittingly learned before his memories had been removed all of those years ago. At one point, he did trust Mystique, and it had cost him dearly, but that was for Mystique to remember.

The shape shifting mutant had a little bit of pride on the line, and her expression shifted into a smirk, when she looked at Logan.

"You need me, for you couldn't bypass Magneto's security without me," Mystique answered, and Quicksilver nodded by Mystique's side.

"Guess, you do need us, what do you have to say about that, huh, huh, huh, huh?"

With each huh, Quicksilver had went behind a different member of the X-Men at super speed, until Mystique had offered him a nasty expression, and he fell back into line.

Logan on the other hand, waved his fellow teammates over, and Kitty, Kurt, and Rogue joined him, with their senior team member just grunting an order to them.

"Look, I don't like it, you don't like it, but we're going to have to deal with it, because she does have a certain amount of inside information. We're going to have to work with Mystique."

Kitty and Kurt both nodded in a reluctant manner, and Rogue responded with a nod as well, not liking it, but having to go along with it for the good of saving Harry in case he got in over his head. She offered a distrustful glance to Mystique, and Logan turned around, talking to the shapeshifter.

Mystique cut him off before he could speak, a nasty expression flashing through her eyes. "I know you don't like me any more than I like you, but we have to work together. And believe me, when this is done, all bets between our teams are off."

"Lady, I wouldn't have it any other way," Logan responded, not taking his eyes off Mystique for one moment, knowing from experience that was a good way to get a knife planted in his back. Healing factor or not, that tended to be a bitch and a half.

"Keep hammering the shields with everything that you've got men, and put a dent in them at least, so we can slip through."

Nick Fury had ordered this declaration in a barking manner, causing his subordinates in SHIELD to falter just a little bit. There was a moment where all of them shuddered at the thought of how Fury was behaving at this moment, but they had to do as he said for the fate of the world depended on it.

The scorecard was something that caused Fury a great deal of frustration, and he ticked down all of the problems that this situation caused.

The first, and biggest problem was that Magneto was able to smuggle all of this equipment on the Asteroid under the nose of SHIELD. Despite the fact that Fury was hard-nosed, and detailed oriented, security was anything, but perfect. Magneto proved this fact when he got the equipment up there, and flaunted it as well. This mocked Fury and disgusted him.

The second problem was that Magneto could have easily had weapons up there, that he could fire upon every major city on Earth should have chosen to. The asteroid was not picked for the size, or even the view, Fury calculated that there was a strategic motive to Magneto's madness.

That meant that Magneto did have the potential to be a terrorist, and for that, Fury was going to shut him down with extreme prejudice. The Director of SHIELD gritted his teeth, and watched several of the highest weapons that they had firing into the side of the shield. Nothing seemed to work, and everything seemed to bounce off.

Commander Nick Fury would not be denied, and he chewed on the cigar he was smoking, before he offered a barking command. "Keep it up, don't let up, keep pounding them hard!"

Fury shook his head, things were just about to get worse and worse, before they got better, and Fury felt his ulcer getting an ulcer.

Suddenly, as if on cue, a booming declaration broke through the SHIELD frequencies, and Magneto's voice could be heard by all on the ship. Fury leaned in closer, to see what this powerful mutant had to say, but had a feeling that it would not be to his liking.

"Your attempts to break through my defenses are rather quaint, but I would suggest that they cease. You are just waiting valuable resources, and pretty soon those resources will include the humans on the ship if you push my patience. What makes you think that you could break through my defenses, once you couldn't even detect me setting up this base until it was too late?"

Fury gritted his teeth, and clutched his fists, Magneto did opt to go straight for the heart, but he was not about to back down. He had stared some of the worst people one could imagine in the eye, and did not blink, for Nick Fury feared no man, and certainly he feared no mutant.

"Do you hear me, Magneto, we'll find a way to shut you down!"

Fury wondered if Magneto had even heard this declaration, but if he did, the mutant elected not to respond to it. Still Fury had said his piece, and just waited for the other shoe to drop, whatever that might have been. The SHIELD commander checked on the status of the shields around the base of that mutant's and could have cursed out loud.

The shields were not damaged, not even the slightest dent had been put into them, and Fury slammed his fists down on the metal part of the console, taking his frustrations out on it. The SHIELD commander turned, and took a moment to check himself, before continuing in a resolved, and calm manner, or at least what passed as calm.

"Increase your barrage, keep firing, do not let up for any reason whatsoever, and if weapons get fired, switch your attacks to them. Take them all out, and make sure Magneto does not take any innocent human lives with whatever his mad plan is!"

Fury fixed his eye on the scanner, when another presence had made themselves known, and the Director of SHIELD could hardly believe it, things were about to get interesting.

The X-Men had arrived in their little plane, and with that bit of information, Fury just stepped back to enjoy the show. Somehow, he doubted that they would be able to penetrate the defenses, which was surprising because his men had had little luck.

Somehow, by a miracle, their little plane had made its way through, and Fury threw his cigar down on the ground, before he stomped it out. He offered the only statement that made any lick of sense at the moment.

"Well, I'll be a son of a bitch."

That was a sentiment that was echoed by all, and Fury just decided to see how this little situation would play out at least for the moment.

"Sir, we're picking up trace amounts of radiation, and it's becoming rapidly unstable."

Fury could have sworn out loud for the entire world to hear at this little tidbit of news that he was given, and now the Commander of SHIELD dedicated himself to finding a way to mitigate the risks for this particular problem. One thing was for certain, this may have been a day that would be getting far worse before it got better, but that was just an average day on the beach for Nick Fury.

"I believe the humans now understand what is on the line, and now it comes your turn to make a choice, Harry Potter," Magneto told him, a sadistic grin spreading across his face. It was now time to see whether or not this boy had the ambition to take the next step forward. "Do you step into the machine, and join the future, or would you be crushed by it? There will be no more need for training, for you will have achieved your full potential."

Harry would be a liar if he would have said that he was not tempted, but there was too many variables, plus the slight hiss that he heard from the machine, and the rather blank cold stares that was coming from the eyes of Scott and Alex had made him a bit gun shy on such a thing. Among many other reasons that Harry could list and there was a fact that certain people important to him would not be part of this new world that sealed the deal.

The two Summers brothers resembled catatonic zombies and that was far from a good thing in Harry's book. He supposed that sense was beyond them and now he had to quickly work on to reverse what was happening.

"Get bombarded with radiation that could bend my mind, and make me obedient to you?" Harry asked, and he took a step forward to face Magneto. "Sorry, but I'll pass."

Harry at that moment tried to fire off a spell, but Magneto summoned a huge sheet of metal to block it. The spell dented the metal, but Magneto sent several more at Harry. Harry was forced to transfigure the metal into plastic and blast away the pieces of metal, but Magneto had moved from the location, and turned to Scott and Alex.

"Cyclops, Havok, he intends to destroy the machine, and thus destroy the future, protect it with all your worth."

Harry turned to Scott and Alex who seemed to be beyond all reason, so he was not going to bother reasoning with them. Without any pause, Scott fired a beam of optic energy at him, but with expert precision and swift reflexes, Harry dodged the attack, and it ricocheted off of the wall. Alex did the same thing with his hands, but Harry dodged that attack again and again.

This was getting to get bothersome and Harry was reaching the end of his already thin patience, trying shake off what was happening. Their powers were enhanced beyond what he had been used to and Scott's powers unchained were not something that were pleasant.

"Snap out of it, or I'll snap you out of it!" Harry yelled, and he fired a high impact banishing spell to Alex, knocking him back. Scott fired back with the attack, and Harry dodged it, causing the doors to be blown open.

Harry peered over his shoulder, and saw Jean, Professor Xavier, and Storm caught up in stasis pods of some sort. He moved over to go and free them from the pods, although how he had no real idea.

"Oh no you don't!" Avalanche yelled at the top of his lungs, and he began to rock the ground underneath Harry, but Harry flew up over the ground, and thus above the pull of Avalanche's attacks.

Toad took a step back, hiding behind the Blob, but his eyes followed the progress of the young mutant in the air. The fact that Arcane could fly was both awesome, and kind of scary. The young mutant looked up, and the stasis pods bust open, before Jean, Ororo, and Charles had been released.

"Don't look now, but the odds just got a lot worse," Toad groaned, feeling like this was going to hurt, and sure enough, he jumped out of the way. He did not want to find out what happened when a toad got struck by lightning, but the slimy mutant had a feeling that he would not like the results.

"Thanks a lot Alvers, saved me from doing it myself," Harry responded, and Lance's eyes widened, before he realized what happened, and realized that his powers weren't as useful for engaging a Harry Potter that was airborne.

"Come back on the ground and fight like a man," Lance growled, the ground shaking and he put more power, but Harry's face just spread into a smug grin, as he peered down towards Lance.

"I prefer to stay up here, and fight like a winner," Harry retorted, and he had his hands out, before causing Avalanche's own attack to be repelled back towards him.

Lance learned from what happened last time, and forced more of his power against Harry's reversal. He was not about to be shown up, but Blob and Toad had been caught off guard. Jean held Blob in place, and Storm had caught Toad in a whirlwind, taking him down. Toad screamed when he was flung around from side to side. Blob on the other side tried to fray his arms and legs, and kept pushing out.

"You're…not stronger than me!" Lance grunted, trying to force more of his power into the attack, but Scott stepped aside, and shot a beam of optic energy at Harry.

Harry dodged it immediately, and it repelled against the ceiling, cracking it slightly. Another blast, but this time Harry flicked his wrist and repelled it back, stinging Scott's own eyes for a moment. That would allow him time to move and he dropped on the ground, where Avalanche tried to make his move. However, this was a feint by Harry, and Avalanche gritted his teeth at this point.

Magneto saw that the equipment was becoming unstable from the fighting, and Avalanche rattling the base. The Master of Magnetism saw his beautiful plan slip away, but he could still salvage it, he was not a quitter, he was a winner, and this future would be his. It was time for him to take control.

"Cease at this moment!" Magneto yelled at the top of his lungs, but the doors cracked open, and the rest of the X-Men had appeared, along with Mystique.

"And again I say, the odds got a lot worse," Toad grumbled, when he looked up to see the pair of X-Men.

Jean's eyes were focused on Scott, when she automatically gripped him around the head telekinetically, causing him to drop to his knees. Scott struggled as Jean tried to get through his thick skull to wake him up.

'Scott, listen to me, this isn't you, Magneto messed with your mind,' Jean thought.

'Jean's right,' Xavier managed at that point. 'Let go of the power upgrades, you and Alex both, and now..."

Scott screamed, he would not let go of the power, he needed this power, when suddenly, a large blast of blue light shot out of Harry's hands. The spell was to purge the body of negative energies, and Harry hoped that it would work on Scott. Scott suffered a lot of pain when he was blasted hard, but it was better to suffer a lot of pain then be someone's puppet. At least that's what Harry thought.

"Compliments of the Sorcerer Supreme," Harry answered, and Scott fell to the ground, his arms and legs twitching. No sooner did that happen, was when Kitty had hugged Harry from behind in a surprising fashion. Harry felt the warmth and welcomed embrace of his own of his girlfriend's and gave the oh so casual statement of, "Hi Kitty."

Harry relaxed in the arms of his brunette girlfriend, and Rogue stood next to them as well, when suddenly they spotted Mystique, who had knocked out Sabretooth on the ground with a well-placed kick, and dove at Magneto with a jagged piece of wood, murderous intentions dancing in her eyes.

"DIE!" Mystique practically snarled, trying to jab Magneto with the piece of wood, but the Master of Magnetism dodged the attack, pushing it back, and knocking Mystique backwards, but not before she managed to stab him once in the leg with the jagged piece of wood. The glancing blow was a moral victory before metal cables wrapped around Mystique's legs and snapped her back off of the podium.

Magneto gimped away from the battle, summoning all of the metal that he could, but blood had poured down his leg. Mystique was devious enough to stab him with a piece of wood with no metal in it for him to magnetize.

Mystique smashed against the machine, and suddenly it activated, bombarding her with a heavy dose of radiation. She screamed out loud, feeling her body change and contort, and also sparks began to fly from the machine. Mystique lit up like a Christmas light, screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs.

Quicksilver picked his moment to show up, seeing his fellow Brotherhood members laid out on the floor, and he looked down at them. The fastest mutant alive blinked several times before he addressed his associates in the Brotherhood in typical motor-mouth fashion talking a million miles a minute.

"What are you doing here, lollygagging or something, there's escape pods in the other room, this place is going to blow, knew you'd be in trouble without me, so come up, let's go, try and keep up, let's go, move it, hurry it up now!"

Pietro had said all of these words without taking a breath, or a break and Toad, Blob, and Avalanche did not need to be told twice, for they followed Pietro from the room, and there were several more sparks flying. The base was coming down, and everything that Magneto had built so carefully was crumbling to nothingness.

Scott got back up to his feet, as did Alex, both of them shook their heads, and immediately Xavier turned his attention to his team. He surveyed the situation and they could all agree that it was not good at all.

"The Brotherhood have decided to escape this place, and I would suggest that we do the same," Xavier declared in a firm voice, and the X-Men did not need to be told twice, all of them made their way to the transportation, which Logan had started up immediately, and the jet flew from the exploding base.

Mystique and Magneto still were trapped on the Asteroid as it exploded, but there was no time to save them. The jet passed the SHIELD vehicles that had been trying to break through the defenses, but once they saw the carnage, they did an about face, and there was a huge explosion that resounded on the asteroid.

"No one could have survived that!" Jean managed in a gasp, her eyes following the explosion and hearing everything rumble at that point, with debris flying into space.

Harry just rolled his eyes, and chuckled. He sat in the backseat with Kitty resting her head on his lap, and Rogue resting her head on his shoulder. Harry decided that it was his duty to enlighten Jean on a few truths. "The less of a chance someone has in surviving something, means the more of a chance that they actually have of surviving."

Jean blinked trying to wrap her head around the logic that Harry had just thrown down on her, but Logan had just nodded slowly as he continued to pilot the vehicle away from the wreckage and back to Earth.

"Kid's got a point," Logan offered, knowing all too well, and he knew that his old pal Sabretooth was very likely to have checked his own way out, as much as he would have liked that see that bastard perish.

But as always, one could not get everything in life, and that was true, even if someone was the best in the world at what they done.

Scott seemed to allow the awkward atmosphere to sink in and realized how wrong that he was. It seemed that no matter what, he could not make the right decision and he had made the wrong one. Harry warned him and if Scott did not listen to Harry, what made it was that Professor Xavier had warned him as well. That fact along was an extremely bitter pill to swallow.

"Scott, all things considered it's good to have you back to your normal self," Harry remarked in a casual voice and Scott offered a stoic nod, hating when Harry took the high road. It just made Scott look so much worse.

"Yeah, and to think it was Harry who saved the day yet again," Kitty remarked in a pleased voice, and Scott just seemed to flush at that statement, but said nothing.

"He really did come through for us, didn't he, Scott?" Alex asked, and Scott turned, crossing his arms, but nodded, knowing full well that some knives cut deeper than others. He sighed, once again he had been outclassed in the leadership department.

And what was worse was that Jean did not seem to be meeting his eyes. What happened in there really made her disappointed in there and Scott felt the desire to punch something hard.

Something that Harry said really was getting to him, and that was the fact that he was not fit to be a leader. He had jumped to the chance to get his powers fixed, and the quick fix. His powers had now been back to normal, and that much gave him a little bit of heart ache for he was only going to see the world in red for the foreseeable future.

Scott mulled that over, as they returned to the Institute, and realized that it had been a long day for all of them.

Xavier had broken the silence when the team was back safely on the ground.

"Alex, if you would like to stay, there is a place for you at the school," Xavier told the young mutant. Alex offered a mild amount of interest at that point. "I believe we can work together in allowing your powers to become a bit more bearable."

"I…I need to think about it, Professor," Alex responded, and Xavier nodded, not wanting to pressure anyone into joining. They would need to join on their own accord and on their own time.

Xavier did fear that the news media would pick up what happened with the Asteroid above the Earth, and hoped that some kind of damage control could be carried out. The world was not ready to accept mutants, perhaps one day that might be, but that day was not coming. Xavier just feared the fallout from the time where they would find out.

Mystique was not having a good day at all, and most of it, scratch that all of it had to do with Magneto's grand plan. He should have offered her a spot as part of his new world on the onset, and not have made her pass some kind of trial. This caused her a great amount of rage and that rage was not lucky to get her killed. Mystique bitterness stewed for a few moments, after all she had done with Magneto, and this was how she repaid her. It just showed how much gratitude Magneto showed those who had put their best years of their life on the line for him.

Of course what happened with Magneto was something that barely scrapped the iceberg, and Mystique turned around, getting a close look at the predicament that she was currently in.

Right now, Mystique was in quite the pickle, given that she was currently in a dark lab, on a surgical table of some sort. That was never a good sign, given she had been strapped to a surgical table many times in her day, and very few of the times were happy, fun, and joyous memories, that much she was certain of.

Mystique shook her head, waking back up, and she took a deep and prominent breath, trying to get back to life, and back to reality. A feeling of incoming dread filled the mutant shapeshifter and she wondered what was going to happen now. The heart thumped across her chest at that point.

"You have sustained quite the ordeal, have you not, Raven?"

Mystique's eyes blinked a few times, and she heard a deep voice in the background, and a pair of hands had unstrapped her from the surgical table. She was relieved and also rather suspicious by this kind gesture. She figured that there was some kind of motive, but the question was what. At this moment, the blue skinned mutant swung her legs to the side and pulled herself to a sitting position, clearing the mental fog from her head.

"You are in optimal health, but at the same time, in my debt. Magneto had taken the final escape pod, leaving you for dead, but thankfully I had intervened."

"I suppose you want me to get on my knees, and thank you for your kindness," Mystique answered in a sullen tone, but the mystery man in the shadows responded with a cold and high laugh. The laughter caused chills to go down Mystique's spine and that was quite a feat given all that she had seen. The woman's blood ran cold and a frigid sensation tingled through her body.

The décor in the lab did not help either; it appeared to be positively Victorian, coming out of some madman's torture chamber in the ninetieth century. The laughter ceased and Mystique listened for what else her captor had to say to her.

"Perhaps we can visit that particular option at another time, but as of now, we have a matter of business to discuss. Magneto's plan was sound, but at the same time did lack a certain amount of ambition. That is something that I will endeavor to correct when I unleash my plan."

Mystique's heart thumped against her chest, and she wondered what kind of madman's game she had been sucked into this time. Ever since her days as a member of Weapon X, Mystique had gotten herself into many tight fixes, and the arrangement she had with Magneto was just merely one of them. And she had a shrewd suspicion that this was another situation where she was in a tight fix.

The creepy man in the shadows had decided to dangle a rather enticing carrot in front of Mystique's nose.

"I can give you your daughter and your son back, save them from the influence of Xavier and Potter, just do all of what I say, and follow my plan to the tee. I intend to unleash something that will weed out the weak and only allow the strong to survive."

"And just who are you?" Mystique asked, squinting to see the dark features of this man in the shadows, and once again the man offered a thunderous round of laughter. Once again, it was not the kind of laughter that invited jolly fun, but rather the kind of laughter that made a person's skin crawl.

"I am called many things, but you may call me, Sinister."