To Battle

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1st September 2005, Bayville

(Jean Grey POV)

Scott just released his glasses, making his eyes released a concussive blast towards them, to Dr. McCoy's protest, who yelled out, "No!!"

The purple ball closed up and disappeared before the beam could reach them. Instead, it hit Cerebro, causing an explosion that engulfed the whole floor.

The last thing she saw was the fire going towards her, and then darkness. It seems like she won't be getting her answers today.

When Jean woke up, she had one of the biggest headaches she ever had. She hadn't even opened her eyes yet and her head was killing. When she actually did open her eyes, her vision was extremely blurry and she blinked in an attempt to clear it. Slowly, the previously blurry picture started to sharpen into a familiar ceiling. She was in the infirmary.

It was something that was quite normal for her, especially after a training session with Logan. The feral mutant worked her until she could barely stand anymore, and sometimes she would collapse from the fatigue. Although that might be because of her mild case of malnutrition. What the hell was she thinking when she decided to start dieting? Oh yeah, she got the idea telepathically from her cheerleader friends that were obsessed with their figure. Dear lord, she was participating in most of the school's sport teams and her X-men training – especially Logan's torture sessions that he calls physical training – the fact that she wasn't a skeleton with skin is a miracle.

Every realization she makes about the effect of the Professor's bindings on her life causes her sick in her stomach. Suddenly, voices assaulted her. Damn it, she though she had her telepathy under control. She closed her eyes, imagining the giant speaker in her mind and connected the voices to it like Ms. Sayre taught her to do. She then slowly decreased the volume until there was nothing but a blissful silence in her mind. Whether Ms. Sayre was trustworthy or not, Jean would always be grateful for her tutelage of that little trick. It's been only one day and it had already changed her life.

She still needed to speak to the professor. Oh yeah, he was taken. Slowly, the events before she fell unconscious, played out in her head. This was bad, whoever the two people that kidnapped the professor were very powerful. She could feel it in her gut. The inevitable mission to rescue the Professor wasn't going to be an easy one. And she wasn't sure that her teammates would be ready for something of this caliber.

This was so going to suck.

She sat up, holding her head; her headache still wasn't gone. Looking around, she determined that she wasn't alone. The moment she was up, Scott ran up to her, "Jean are you alright? Does anything hurt?"

What the hell? What's wrong with him? The guy turns psychotic whenever something happens concerning her. Does he not understand the concept of personal space?

"I'm fine," she replied, "what happened?" Jean wanted to change the subject.

Logan was the one that answered her question, "Chuck's been taken. We need to get him back."

"Who were these people?" Jean asked.

"We don't know about the blue man but the man in red is called Magneto. He's one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. He's Mystique's leader which means he's also the one responsible for the little Brotherhood at your school."

"What?" Scott protested, "why didn't we know about this. This is information that we needed."

Logan growled at him, "Bub, you're a kid and Magneto is way above your paygrade. You can barely handle the kids at your school. You're not ready for the big leagues, let alone someone like him."

"Then why are we training? Why do we work day and night, mastering our powers, helping mutants? We're the X-men, fighting people like him is what we're supposed to do," Scott replied heatedly.

Logan sighed, "Kid, the X-men isn't ready for someone like him. He isn't your normal mutant and your team is young, inexperienced. You fight him directly, you die. He might spare you out of pity because you're a mutant but believe me, if he took you seriously, you won't last a minute. The missions you've been on so far are simple ones where you've been fighting inexperienced mutants, who haven't developed their powers to their full potential. Fighting Magneto is something you should avoid as much as you can."

That shut Scott up, finally. The guy really needs to stop being entitled. He's acting like a spoiled brat. Being the team's leader doesn't mean that he was on the same level then Ororo or Logan. He's just a student like the rest of his teammates, but Jean always thought that he acted like he was superior, even outside of training of missions.

"We still need to find the Professor and we still have no idea who the blue man is." Doctor McCoy said, relieving the room of its tension.

"Perhaps we can help with that." A voice came from the entrance of the infirmary.

She turned to take a look at the intruder. It was Mystique in all her glory. She had bright blue skin, red hair cut to her shoulders, extending slightly in the back, and pale yellow eyes with no pupils. She had a triangle shaped gem on top of her forehead. She wore her usual sleeveless white dress with a high neck, purple skinsuit under her dress, thigh-high white boots, and white gloves which reached nearly to her shoulders without covering her fingers.

Behind her were the rest of the Brotherhood, Lance Alvers also known as Avalanche, Toad, Blob and Pietro Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver.

At the sight of their rivals, Scott straightened up, glaring at them. His hand was on his glasses, ready to fire a concussive blast at a moment's notice. Logan released his Adamantium claws and pointed it at Mystique in a threatening manner. Ororo stayed as impassive as ever but Jean could see her furrow her eyebrows at the shapeshifter.

Mystique just smirked and raised her hands, "Peace, I'm not here to fight. We need your help and you need ours. What do you say about a little temporary partnership?"

Jean sighed; this was going to be a long night.

"Why would we need your help?" Scott yelled out, "Your leader is the one who kidnapped the Professor in the first place."

Mystique just looked at him like he was an idiot, "Magneto is missing. We detected the signature of a powerful mutant in Egypt, and when I'm saying powerful, I mean monstrously so. We had never seen anything like it before so Magneto went to investigate or maybe even recruit this individual. We haven't heard anything from him since. The attack on Xavier was the only sign we have about what happened."

"So, we have nothing except the fact that he can teleport somehow." Jean answered.

"Actually, we do," Beast interjected, a laptop in hand, "I just cross referenced the abilities we have witnessed so far and his appearance and created a search algorithm focusing on the data originating from Egypt in a hope that their government had any idea what was happening. I didn't get anything recent but I still got something."

At their expectant look, he continued, "It's old, like thousands of years old, but I found mentions of a god in human form. He had blue skin, like the intruder. He was known as the king of Egypt in ancient times. He was worshiped as a god and was said that the desert itself was under his command. There are references on the fact he could disappear in a purple sphere, but they thought it was some sort of godly power. Somehow, it's said that the people rose up from his tyranny and imprisoned him somehow. As far as I could tell, the abilities he portrayed are possible for a mutant to have. He has a lot of abilities. There's even something about 'the world being clay that he shaped at his leisure'. We're not dealing with a god but with a mutant. Quite possibly the oldest mutant, and probably the most powerful mutant to have ever existed."

All of them paled at the prospect of fighting someone like that. They stayed in silence for a solid minute but it was Mystique that spoke up, "Are you sure we could trust this. It's thousands of years old and the facts can be distorted."

Doctor McCoy answered, "Maybe, but there are a lot of sources about this. This isn't any normal myth; it was an entire religion. There are historians that based their entire lives' work on this. There are still cults in Egypt worshiping him, praying for his return. As much as I hate this, it is entirely possible that he's the one we're up against."

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Logan asked.

"Yes, he tended to gather the four strongest people in his kingdoms, mostly mutants as well, and had them as his enforcers."

Jean spoke up, "What was his name again?"

Doctor McCoy looked her in the eye and said, "Apocalypse."

The name sent a chill through all their backs. It was like the world itself was warning them against this mutant.

"What a cheery name." Pietro commented and Jean couldn't help but agree.

Logan stood up, "This isn't getting us anywhere. We need to understand why they took Chuck."

"Maybe he's recruiting," Jean thought out loud, "Maybe he wants to find the strongest mutants around. Maybe he wants to recreate his Horsemen. Magneto could be the first one."

Mystique interrupted her reasoning, "Magneto would never serve under anyone. I can't see him agreeing on following orders."

"Maybe he doesn't have to agree," Storm interjected for the first time, "It's entirely possible that he could be under Apocalypse's control. If he has so many powers, mind control could easily be one of them."

"It's not possible to mind control him," Mystique replied, "His helmet stops any mental attacks from reaching him."

Logan summarized the situation, "So, we have a three thousand year old mutant who is so powerful he could be a god who kidnapped the world's strongest telepath and one of the strongest mutants who may or may not be under mind control. Alright, Hank, I want a full list of Apocalypse's abilities so we could strategize a way to kill him. Do a satellite search in Egypt for anyone with blue skin and for any anomalies in the weather."

"Why Egypt? He could be anywhere in the world. And why weather pattern?" questioned Beast.

"He just woke up from thousands of years of imprisonment. The world is strange for him; he should try to stay somewhere familiar. You said that the entire desert was his to control, which means he could manipulate sand. Chances are, he would use it which would cause weather anomalies on a large scale. It is a shot in the dark, but it's the only thing we have. We need to find the bastard as soon as we can."

Suddenly, Jean's mind was assaulted by a powerful presence. It was some sort of psychic attack and it went through Jean's meager shields. It was the Professor. {Jean, I don't have much time. You need to stop him! Stop Apocalypse! I don't know how long I could keep fighting him. He already has Eric. He's so strong! So powerful! You're our only hope, Jean. I'm sorry!}

After the message was over, some coordinates appeared in her mind, probably from the Professor. She knew where he was.

When the message had ended, Jean found everyone at each other's throats. "EVERYONE STOP!" she bellowed. They all quieted down, looking at her in surprise.

"Just stop," she continued, "The Professor just contacted me. We're in trouble. He said something about him having Eric," Jean noticed that Mystique paled when she said this, "he said he was fighting him somehow and that he was losing. Doctor McCoy is right, it's Apocalypse and I know where the Professor is."