Title:  Hawk - From the wreckage...
Author: Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson

This just about sums it all up:
The x-mansion is in ruins, Magneto has returned and is now orbiting the earth onboard "New
Avalon", an armed space fortress even more terrifying then the original Avalon. The X-force
digs up the X-Men and Generation X:ers only to find one of them dead... After discovering that
Magneto destroyed the academy as well, they have to find somewhere to seek shelter. That place
turns out to be an abandoned underground base belonging to a world-wide organization with
access to nuclear weapons. While Generation X heads off towards Muir, the X-Men and X-Force
prepares to attack and destroy New Avalon. Unknown to them, the world-wide organization has
also launched a ship with a strikeforce intending to take over New Avalon.

My x-fanfics:
Hawk series:( X-Men )
-First Flight
-Leaving the nest
-Dark Jubilation
-Broken wings
-A quick bite
-Deception
-When in Rome...
-Crowded airspace

The Cook series:( Generation X )
-Foodfight

-Several birds with one stone ( Northlight's challenge )
-Dark secret ( Oberon's challenge )

Le Mat series: ( Dark Future / Sci Fi )
-Ad Astra ( Guest appearance by X-Men and some GenX'ers. )

Radek series: ( Fantasy )
-Radek and the X-Men ( In Swedish but I am translating... )

Coming x-fanfiction:
-The clone war (Hawk/The cook/Le Mat/Lois&Clark/Highlander/Vampire crossover)
-Jubilee - With a license to kill (X-men/spythingy crossover)
-The knights in shining spandex... (Hawk/Radek crossover)
-Minds in conflict... [NC-17]

***** Disclaimer *****
The regular stuff, most of the characters in this fanfic belongs to Marvel
and the rest are a result of my sick'n twisted'n hyperactive imagination.
I do not make any money on this and I don't have much of it to begin with
so please don't bother suing me. You won't get much out of it.
***
This series started just before Onslaught, some things are different
though as you will see. Joseph have joined the team, Rogue is back. The
age of some characters have also been tampered with. Like there's no way
that Jubilee is 13 years old and Penance fourteen, I've added a couple
of years to these characters. Cecilia Reyes have joined the X-Men after
finding out that she's a mutant. Jubilee's use of a power-restoring
device on Hawk caused his powers to become unstable, his powers change
now and then without warning. The teenage Illyana returned from her
imprisonment in Limbo after First destroying her former realm, resulting
in the loss of her magic powers as well as a more violent attitude.
***
I'm not to graphic (most of the time...), but there are some references to
sex and violence in almost all my stories, this one is no exception. ;D I
trust that you won't be too offended, it's all a part of life and I won't
start edit things like this out of my stories just because some people
don't like reading about it. You have been warned...
***
I'm from Sweden so English is not my native lingo, please forgive
any grammatical, spelling or whatever other errors I've made. Feel free
to send me corrections if you want, my knowledge of foreign accents
is also rather non-existent so some of the dialogue might seem strange.
***
I love getting e-mails, feel free to send me comments, requests
for other stories, "bug-reports", your VISA-card number ( ;D )
or something else to cheer me up at:
iamhawk@yahoo.com
or
hawkgts@hem.passagen.se

For my latest stories and a daily dairy, check out my homepage at:
http://hem.passagen.se/hawkgts/
or "Hawk's Fanfiction Lair" at:
http://w1.194.telia.com/~u19402038/index.html

Niklas "Hawk" Jonsson.
***** Stop reading this shit and move along to the rest *****


*strong*        = I *hate* you!
/thoughts/      = /I wonder what's for breakfast today?/
*/telepathy/*   = */Scott! Watch out!/*
~translation~   = ~A translation from a foreign ( or alien... ) language~


If not stated otherwise, the fairies always speaks in this manner...
Cipi speaks First, Sipi then jumps in and after that Tipi blurts out something.


"Cable, look!" yelled Siryn and Nathan got up from the comfortable chair to walk forward into
the cockpit. He let out a gasp when he saw the mansion, it had been completely smashed by
something. Siryn landed as quickly as possible and they all stormed outside where they stared
at the wreckage. Nathan lashed out with his mental powers.
*/Hello! Anyone in there?!/*
*/Nathan?/* came a weak reply from Xavier. */I've located everybody, here they are.../* he
transmitted the locations of everyone and then faded away. Cable swiftly got everyone working
in digging their way through the debris. The First one they uncovered was Rogue, she was heavily
bruised but more or less all right even if they couldn't take their time to give her a proper
examination. She winced in pain but she got up and helped them tear up the ruins in order to
uncover more people. She told the little she knew, something had crashed down on top of the
mansion and pressed it into the ground. She had used all her might to push it upwards but
failed miserably. The next one they found was Skin of Generation X, apparently the kids had
been at the mansion when it happened. Skin was unconscious, bruised and he had a few cracked
ribs as well as a broken bone. They eventually got everyone out, including the girl he had
sent Niklas to charm the knowledge out of. Except for Niklas, everybody was alive. He didn't
breathe, didn't have a pulse and was clearly dead. Cable shook his head, considering the damage
done to the mansion, he was suprised that they had found any live ones at all.
"Cable! There's someone talking down here!" yelled Shatterstar from the wreckage. Nathan ran
over along with the others and listened.
"Ow!" whimpered someone.
"My head hurts!" complained someone else.
"What happened?" asked a third. Nathan didn't recognize the voices but there clearly was people
down there. He, Sunspot and Shatterstar prepared to lift away some of the wreckage but before
they were able to, Illyana used multiple of her teleporting disc's to remove it. It fell out
of a disc a little ways off and clattered down on top of other debris. They all looked on in
silence as she dug her way down until they could all see a patch of bare skin.
"Halleluja!"
"Let there be light!"
"Move your fat asses, you're crushing me!"
"Aw, shut up Tipi!"
"Yeah, you're always complaining!"
"I am not! Why are you always ganging up on me, it's not fair!" X-Force all stared in silence
as three little females walked out of the ruins, they looked like mirror images of each other
except for the hair. One had golden blonde hair, another silvery curly hair and the third
completely black hair that seemed to suck in all the light around it. Something even more odd
was the fact that they all had wings on their backs.
"Thank you!" said the one with the golden hair.
"Pleased to meetcha!" exclaimed the one with the silver hair.
"Where are the... Ohshit!" yelled the dark-haired one and shot up into the air, carried by her
small wings. She hovered anxiously over the injured. "Get your butts over here, they're hurt!"
The other two also shot up into the air and X-Force followed them in silence.
"What... Who are you?" asked Cable sternly.
"Fairies."
"I thought that was obvious!"
"Let's dance, now!" Even Nathan fell silent as the three fairies took each others hands and
twirled up into the air, spinning around as they sang softly. Words that he could feel sizzling
through the air, take a direct path into his brain where they triggered all his pleasure centers,
overwhelmed him with all sorts of emotions and then rushed through his body. He had never felt
anything quite like it and from the looks on the faces of the others, neither had they. He
looked on in silence as glowing sparks started to fall from the fairies and settle on the injured
people. The sparks seemed to melt and seep inside the flesh where it followed the blood around
through the body, it was possible to see the sparks rushing through the veins, still glowing.
Cable was unable to move anything except his eyes as the fairies moved through the air, letting
their sparks land on all the injured ones. When everybody had been sprinkled with the sparks,
the fairies song reached a climax where their voices shot up into the sky and softly came to
an end. They released each other and landed on the ground, they staggered up to Niklas and
looked down on his face.
"He's not breathing!"
"His heart is not beating!"
"But he cannot be dead! I can still feel him!"
"How am I supposed to stay dead with you screaming right into my ears? You could wake up the
dead with your screaming." said Niklas softly and sat up. Cable looked at his face as he
looked at the people around him, seemed to remember something and then started to breathe
again. The others also started to stir, Nathan saw how bleeding wounds had closed, bruises
had vanished and Emma Frost who had gotten a huge wooden splinter through her left eye once
again had a completely unharmed left eye. Everyone cheered as various X-men and Generation
X:ers got up on their feet, apparently unharmed. Niklas carefully picked up the fairies who
had passed out, he gently cradled them all in his arms. "Thank you." he whispered and kissed
the top of their heads.
"What happened?" asked Cable. Charles Xavier, supported on one side by Logan and on the other
by Scott Summers replied.
"Magneto." was all he said, his eyes blazing with anger.

They had planned to pull back to the academy but when they arrived, they discovered that the
academy also had been visited by Magneto. It hadn't been flattened, it had been torn apart from
the within. Every single building had been razed, nothing was left standing.
"Great." muttered Robert Drake. "Now where will we go?"
"I know of a place..." said Niklas slowly after a quick search through the files of HawkTech
facilities all over the world. He hoped that Erik wouldn't mind too much, the base he had in
mind had never been finished. It had been put on hold, abandoned until the funds could be
raised to complete it. It was unmanned and he could turn off the computer controlled defense
systems with his Mioplant. He walked up to the cockpit and gave Elisabeth and Bishop the
directions without saying what this 'place' was. He returned to his seat and waited in silence,
ignoring all questions directed at him as he tried to think. He finally got up when Bishop
shouted for him, he walked back into the cockpit and looked out.
"Where is this place? The coordinates you gave us is right below now. It's a hilltop!"
"Good." said Niklas and sent the signal for the entrance to be opened through his Mioplant. He
waited until it was completely open and then reached out to grab the controls. The Blackbird
loosed height as it dropped like a stone, Bishop reached out to retake the controls but stopped
as they entered the shaft. Niklas closed the doors and turned on the lights. He halted the
decent and softly landed the Blackbird in the empty landing strip. 
"Where are we?" asked Elisabeth in awe as she stared out through the window at the enormous
empty area.
"A place Magneto has no way of knowing anything about, somewhere we can be completely safe
until we find somewhere better to stay." said Niklas silently. He had seen the blueprints, he
had read the information but he had never imagined it like this. He knew Erik built these
enormous underground complexes all over the world, but somehow he never imagined them to be
this big! The chamber here, only intended to be used as a landing strip and hanger, had enough
space for ten space shuttles and it would still be large enough to keep a few hundred jets,
tanker trucks and three or four runways long and broad enough to land a jumbojet if there was
any way for a jumbojet to fly down the shaft. The doors opened and they all walked outside,
leaving the Blackbird behind. "The living quarters are finished, but almost no other parts of
this base have been finished according to the information I have. There is a fully stocked
medical center in the living quarters, there's electricity and stuff. We have to shop for food
though unless you want to eat dry rations." explained Niklas as he used the blueprints in order
to lead the others to the living quarters.
"What is this place?" asked Charles when they were starting to get near the living quarters.
"It was never finished, the funds ran out. Until more money can be found, it's deserted. It
has advanced defense systems that might even give Magneto a run for his money if he does manage
to find us. The defense systems, the generators, the water and these living quarters is all
that is operational, the rest is under construction." said Niklas. "It's meant to become a
underground safe heaven, a bunker for parts of a huge world-wide organization."
"How did you know about it?"
"I know everything, well, more or less anyway." said Niklas jokingly and opened a door. "This
is the living quarters for the top bananas, it doesn't get any better then this. One bedroom,
one bathroom, one living room each, find yourself somewhere to crash and I'll see if I can locate
bedclothes, towels and stuff. It should be here somewhere." said Niklas and walked off with
Bishop and Hank as handymen. There was storage's and depots marked on the blueprints but the
inventories had never been finished so there wasn't any way of telling what they contained.
Niklas opened the door to one of them and quickly closed it again. "Nothing of interest here!"
he said and walked onwards. Bishop opened the door though and gasped as he saw rack after rack
with weapons, boxes of grenades, canisters of lethal gas, ten large craters with a nuclear
warning symbol painted on them, boxes full of ammo and battle armor lined up along a wall. Both
Bishop and Hank entered the room and Niklas followed, this was *bad* he thought and wondered
why in gods name they had weapons in a unfinished complex. The defense systems would blast
anyone who tried to enter without the correct codes, but it was still stupid. He opened one
of the craters marked with the nuclear warning symbol and winced as the Mioplant supplied him
with the data on the nuclear warhead inside. /750 megaton! Holy shit!/ Bishop picked up a rifle
from one of the racks and studied it. "I'd be careful with that if I was you. That is a ImpR
rifle. ImpR stands for Imploader Ray. A beam is shot out through the rifle and where it strikes,
it implodes everything within a meters distance into one single atom. This releases enough
energy to take out a city block. It is not intended to use indoors, an explosion in here
would probably take out the entire complex." said Niklas carefully and Bishop winced as he
put the rifle back in the rack. "I suggest we get out of here and I'll find some way of
locking it, the stuff in here is not something I'd like to see leave this complex, ever!" Bishop
and Hank nodded and they all walked out of it and moved onwards to the next storage where they
did find bedclothes, towels, tablecloth and stuff for the living quarters. Niklas sent Bishop
and Hank back to the living quarters and then explored the other storage's himself. He found
another one with weapons but this was of the more conventional kind, ordinary weapons, rifles,
guns, grenades, anti-tank missiles and stuff. He left it all and found one with long-lasting
supplies like freeze-dried food, powder, cans, medicinal supplies, synthetic meat, synthetic
fruit and lots of other crap that looked edible, even delicious, but it would probably taste
like wet paper. He soon found a cart and he loaded it with various supplies, he didn't think
anyone was in the mood for shopping at the moment, he knew that he certainly wasn't. This way,
they would be able to rest for a day or two without starving to death. He mentally added up
everything he took and saved it on a file in his Mioplant, he would have to pay Erik for all
this crap as well as donate a few bucks for the use of the facilities. But with his enormous
bank accounts, he could afford donating a few million dollars to his cousin. The food was
greeted with cheers, especially the synthetic fruit and meat. Niklas warned them about it
though, it may have looked like the real thing, but it was artificially made to last for years
without any special treatment. They managed to whip up some pretty good stuff though even if
the fruit was revolting. The meat was rather like the real thing though. Niklas soon retired to
the rooms he had picked for himself and flopped down on the bed. The fairies were sleeping on
a couch in the living room, they hadn't stirred even once since they had healed them all
back at the mansion. He didn't get to rest very long though. Charles, Scott, Nathan, Emma, Sean
and Ororo who stood behind the others, obviously not liking what the others were up to.
"Niklas... We have to know what this place is, who it belongs to and why it has got enough
weapons in storage to rip apart the Northern hemisphere." said Charles and Niklas nodded after
a while and sighed as he sat up in his bed.
"This is a construction site, when this place is finished, it will be an impenetrable fortress.
It will be completely self sufficient, it can be entirely shut off from the rest of the world
and exist without any contact with the outside world for decades. The air is recycled, water
can be recycled if the outside supply should be contaminated or dry up, there's enough food
down here to last for at least a decade and enough chemicals to mix up more synthetic food to
last at least five more decades. It will have hospitals, factories, farms, living quarters,
police, fire department, recreation facilities, a TV station... An army, an airforce... Enough
ICBM's to wipe out more then 70% of humanity, a space shuttle. You name it, it's like a country
of it's own. When or perhaps if is a better word, if this place is ever finished, it will also
be connected to other bases just like this."
"Other bases? Already *finished* bases? Bases as big as this one?" asked Charles.
"And smaller, and bigger ones as well."
"Just how many of these are there?!" asked a panicked Scott.
"This is base 12, there's 9 that are fully operational, two that are just about finished and
then this one where work was abandoned until more money could be raised. 3 bases in northern
America, 4 in Europe, 1 in Russia and 1 in Japan. 1 about to be finished in Australia and another
1 almost ready in Brazil. All of them capable of sustaining a population of 2-5 million people
for at least 5 decades. All of them with defense systems that is capable to rip the earth
apart if necessary."
"Jesus Christ..." said Charles and went pale.
"No, not really. I don't think he has got much to do with this."
"Who built them?" asked Nathan.
"The First ones were built by contractors that were forced to retire and settle down with their
families in the First bases in order for the secret of the bases existence to remain a secret.
The ones after that has been built by robots, sometimes aided by the workers who built the First
bases."
"Who has got the money and power to built something like this all over the world?" asked Scott.
"How come you know about all this?" asked Charles. "Are you involved in all this?"
"I know about all this, because I'm the greatest hacker alive. There 'aint a computer in the
world I cannot break into sooner or later. No, I'm not involved in all this." replied Niklas.
"Who paid for all this?" asked Scott. "How did they get permission to build something like this?"
"Did you really think they asked for permission? 'Hello, I'd like to build a underground base
with nuclear missiles in it? Can I do it?' Yeah right... As for who paid for it all, it's a
organization known only as HawkTech."
"Your company is called HawkSoft... There seems to be some slight connection between the names."
said Emma coldly. "I've done my research Niklas, you're one of the richest men alive. Your
company has got connections in all the right places, you might just be the leader of this
HawkTech organization."
"Yeah right, and on Sunday he rested." said Niklas sarcastically.
"Emma does have a point, you could be involved in all this." said Charles and Niklas shrugged.
"I do have one connection to HawkTech, I bought some high-tech equipment from them once."
admitted Niklas. "Other then that, my company has got nothing to do with HawkTech. Although
I guess that a percentage of my employees are spies, paid by HawkTech. I haven't bothered to
check though, there wouldn't be any point in it."
"You have spies in your company, but you haven't bothered to check?" asked Scott in disbelief.
"The goals of HawkTech are noble, some of the means they use are wrong, but mostly it's nothing
wrong with what they do."
"They possess a nuclear arsenal!"
"So do many others and some of them are *clearly* unsuitable for it. HawkTech isn't."
"How do you know that? Some things aren't always on computers!" said Charles and Niklas nodded.
"Sometimes it isn't, sometime it is. In this case it doesn't really matter if it is or not, I
judge HawkTech depending on what they do, not the fact that they have more nuclear warheads then
Russia. Just take a look at Greenpeace, do you know that more then 65% of their funding comes
from HawkTech with companies and individuals acting as buffers between HawkTech and Greenpeace?
Or why not Amnesty, same thing there. More then 50% of their funds comes from HawkTech. Do
you know why the Gulf War stopped so quickly? Because HawkTech sent a small taskforce into Iraq
that captured Saddam Hussein and held him hostage until he agreed to end the hostilities. Did
you know that HawkTech agents have prevented five assassination attempts on the current
President?"
"Your cousin is a part of HawkTech, isn't he?" asked Emma suddenly. "I did a fair amount of
research on him as well. Even richer then you are, spent a year away from the world in order
to live with natives all over the world, played the infamous assassin Le Mat in a movie, he spent
half a year in the US airforce before he was kicked out for almost killing a superior officer,
but only after First learning to fly everything the airforce had, to perfection in just those
six months. He spends a lot of time in Japan but nobody knows were, he is wanted for murder back
in Sweden. For a while he lived here with a fake identity but he recently reassumed his real name
for unknown reasons."
"You're good! I thought the airforce had buried everything about that event. And you're partly
right, he does have contact with HawkTech. They consult him in many different issues, in fact,
I think he helped to design this base." said Niklas calmly.
"Why would anyone help an organization such as this?!" asked Scott.
"Who wouldn't? Erik has all the money he needs, but there are other things they can offer him.
Like technology that's far from anything else on the market, information, contacts in high
places. Like China for instance, they refused to allow Erik's software into the country. As
payment for one of his jobs for HawkTech, China suddenly turned a full 180 and Erik soon had
most of the computers in China running his programs on his Operating System."
"I remember that, the papers and TV ran several specials on it. It was widely believed that this
would mark a new era, the beginning of a new openness from China, but they just allowed Erik's
software in and everything was back to normal again." said Scott slowly.
"Erik could be the leader of HawkTech..." said Emma slowly and looked carefully at Niklas, he
felt a slight brush against his mental shields and smirked at her as she pulled away. She
didn't stand a chance against his shields and that was something he was very pleased about
for the moment.
"Yeah right, he's my age for crying out loud. Have you seen the size of this base, imagine then
how long it must have taken for the others to be prepared and then built. It's not some little
dime a dozen organization here, we're talking world-wide bigtime business here." said Niklas
and thanked all higher and lower powers for his mental shields. Without them, he never would
have been able to lie to these people. He knew that Erik had founded HawkTech just a year or
so after he arrived in the USA, he knew that at First it had only been a loosely connected
band of mercenaries and assassins. But within a year, it had changed into a tightly knitted
organization that Erik used to take over the world. The bases had been planned and the
construction had started within a few months of the organizations founding. The nine that
was finished had been finished less then three months earlier, the last one only two weeks
ago. It was the final stages in the First part of Erik's plan, fortify the earth, grab it
by the balls and prepare to twist them at the First sign of resistance. The middle part, the
space program had been started. Preparations were already being made to launch supplies and
construction material up into space where they would begin the construction of a space station
orbiting the earth. Then came the last stage, colonize the solar system. Erik's longtime dream,
Niklas had his feet planted firmly on the earth while Erik aimed for the stars.
"Who is the leader of HawkTech then?" asked Nathan.
"Nobody knows for sure, all orders to the executive council is given through a computerized
screen, the screen gets it's feed from a private satellite that nobody knows how or when it
was put into orbit. Attempts have been made to track the signal, but all who have been a part
of those attempts have been killed, so they stopped trying to track it."
"How do you know that they can be trusted?" asked Charles.
"Because Erik examined them back and fourth, up and down and sideways several times over with
different sources before he agreed to work for them. When he claims that they're OK, I tend to
trust him."
"How do we know that we can trust you on this? You could be making it all up!" said Nathan
firmly and Niklas nodded.
"I might be and since you cannot enter my mind without my permission, you cannot be sure that
I'm telling the truth. I won't give you that permission either, but I am going to let you have
a looksie at my computer if you want to."
"That was destroyed with the mansion."
"The one I had there was most likely destroyed yes, I don't doubt that. But the one I have at
home is still working, or should be anyway. I can get you access to it from here and you can
look over my files on HawkTech." said Niklas calmly while he worked like a madman to write
files covering HawkTech on his Mioplant and then sent them through his satellite uplink, through
the Internet to his computer at home where he deleted the real HawkTech files and replaced
them with the new ones he had written during the conversation. "Would that persuade you that
I'm telling the truth?"
"It would certainly be a few steps in the right direction anyway." replied Emma. Niklas nodded
and walked up to the combined, TV/computer/telephone in the wall, started a telnet program
and punched in his IP address. He entered his username and the ten different passwords needed in
order to access anything, five of them was changed every day. When he was logged in, he stepped
away from the keyboard and spread his hands out wide.
"It's all yours." he said and crossed his arms over his chest. Emma took the keys before anyone
else could get there and she went back and fourth through his system like an old pro. Niklas
blushed slightly as she entered the directory "priv8/mystories/x-fiction/" and opened one of
them.
"Oh my..." said Emma and closed it, swiftly cruising around his system. After a while, she
stumbled upon his new HawkTech files and looked them through with the others peeking over her
shoulders. The printer underneath the computer started spitting out papers like mad, Niklas
noticed that when she had gotten prints from all HawkTech documents, she went back to his
x-fiction and printed all of them as well.
"Ummm, those haven't really got anything to do with HawkTech you know..." said Niklas.
"Oh I know, I just thought it might be amusing to read sometime." said Emma and Niklas shrugged.
"I only ask one thing, make sure Rogue doesn't get a hold of 'Rouge unleashed'!" he said fiercely.
"Because if she does, I'm going to have a little chat with Robert Drake..." threatened Niklas
and Emma paled until she was almost as white as her clothes.
"She won't." said Emma coldly and walked out with the others to study the printouts. Niklas
sighed in relief and disconnected from his computer at home. He had pulled it off, all they
had on those papers were things showing HawkTech off like an organization mostly full of saints
with a few rotten apples thrown in so it wouldn't look as a total fake. Erik as a consultant for
various innocent projects like their space program, the design of the bases, a cure for Cancer
and watering the deserts, feeding the hungry and preserving the environment in general. He just
hoped that they would by it. It was all truth, he just left out most of the bad parts like
various pre-prepared plans to blast ICBM's out of the skies, killing off leaders of several
large nations and step in to replace them in the case of a nuclear war. All in all, he hoped
that it would look like a peaceloving organization that always planned for a worse case scenario
by keeping records of mercenaries in case of war breaking out and nuclear weapons to destroy
huge asteroids if one of them happened to came straight at the earth. But he could only hope
and wait, he wouldn't be able to affect what they though at the moment. He lay down in the
bed again and absently tossed his clothes off, throwing them onto a chair.

Jubilee sneaked in through the door and hung her robe on the same chair as Niklas had his
clothes lying on and carefully slipped underneath the covers. She put her head on his left arm
and gently blowed out some air at his face. He twitched but didn't wake up. She slowly let her
left hand stroke his chest and he opened his eyes and looked over at her.
"Hello." she whispered and leaned over to kiss him.
"Hello indeed!" he whispered back and chuckled silently. "Well, this must be one of the most
pleasant wakeup calls I've ever gotten. So, what's on your heart?"
"Oh, just thought we could use some exercise..." she replied and kissed him again.
"Have mercy!" he whispered and pulled the cover over the two of them.

"Wow." was all Hank said as Niklas herded him and Cecilia into the medicinal center in the
living quarters.
"Yeah, I thought the two of you might like this. Our generous hosts spend a *lot* of money on
R&D in this field."
"Some of the stuff here looks even more advanced then the things Erik sent us!" said Cecilia
and walked over to a regenerator.
"Where did you think his scientists got the idea? Reversed engineering my friends, reversed
engineering... If you see anything you like and would like to have in the mansion when it's
rebuilt, grab it before we leave and I'll pay for it." said Niklas and stepped into one of
the regenerators and turned it on. He shivered as the machine did it's work, he wasn't using the
regenerating functions right now though, he was just checking his condition. The Mioplant had
reported that his decay had not only been halted, but completely healed. He wanted to find out
for sure, these machines have more precise instruments then his Mioplant and now he found out
exactly when it had happened. His decay had been completely cured when the fairies sprinkled
him with their fairy dust after the mansion had been destroyed. Now it was free to maintain his
blood supply even more efficiently as well as heal any wounds faster, he smiled happily, he was
due for a few good news. Another thing that had changed was that the Mioplant had forced more
parts of his brain to jump into action, he wasn't sure but he thought that it might mean that
his temporary blackouts when he couldn't keep his mind on what he was doing might be over. He
hadn't been having any problems with that lately, not since shortly after he had the Mioplant
installed as a matter of fact. He stepped out of the machine and sighed in contentment, now
all he needed was a proper workout. He walked over to the gym and looked as X-Force made full
use of the facilities. He shrugged and looked into the shooting range, that was empty. He walked
over to the conventional armory and selected a M16A2 for his practice along with a bunch of clips
for it. He also stuffed a Beretta 92F into a pocket along with a few clips since all his weapons
had gotten buried underneath the mansion when Magneto attacked them. He emptied the clips for
the M16 and prepared to use up the ones for the pistol as well when Charles "called" him.
*/Niklas. Can I see you for a few moments?/* it sounded a bit faint though. /Sure Charles. Why
do you sound so faint?/ */There's a mental blanket overlaying this entire facility./* /But
that's not a part of the defenses of this base. There's nothing indicating anything of the
kind on any of the blueprints./ */Well, trust me, there is a mental blanket. It wasn't one
yesterday, but today there is one./* Niklas shrugged. /I'm coming./

"First of all, I read the prints. It looks like you told the truth after all. But that's not
what I wanted to talk to you about. It's the mental blanket, I need to know how it was made,
for what reason and why it was activated."
"Well, give me a few minutes and I'll see what's going on." said Niklas and stepped up to the
TV/phone/computer in Charles room. He swiftly tapped into the security and defense systems.
"It's nothing that's native to the base, it's generated on the outside."
"Why?"
"How should I know?" replied Niklas and searched the area around them without finding anything
of interest. "I cannot find anything, so it's probably generated from afar."

"What is that?" asked Magneto and looked on as the computer generated visualization of a force
field spread out all over the world.
"It is a mental blanket, telepaths will have severe problems using their powers from now on.
The ones with a *lot* of power might be able to use their powers over short distances, but
nothing more. It's not at it's full power yet, it will take a day or two for the generators
to get the power up to the necessary level."
"Why?"
"Since you so rashly destroyed the mansion in the belief that Niklas was a member of Generation
X and could be found at the academy, I will have to look for the two of them myself. Idiot,
destroying the mansion when both the X-men and Generation X was there! Why didn't you check
*before* you smashed it?!"
"Don't question my actions alien, you live only because I allow it!" hissed Magneto.
"Be silent! You are a worm compared to me, a worm!" snarled the alien. Magneto clenched his
fists in wrath.
"Our cooperation is over, sniveling bastard!" he snapped and tried to surround the alien with
a magnetic forcefield. He almost panicked as he couldn't use his mutant powers.
"Something missing?" asked the alien in contempt. "Did you really think that I would allow your
powers to work in my presence? It is true that my powers won't work on you, but since I can
render your powers worthless, they don't have to. You're helpless Maggie, accept it and do as
you're told." Magneto leaped at the alien and smacked his left fist right into one of it's
five eyes and landed a solid right uppercut in it's stomach. The alien bent over in pain and
Magneto slammed his fists down on top of it's head. While the alien was squirming on the
floor, whimpering in pain, Magneto picked up a futuristic looking soldering iron, turned the
heat up and rammed it into the skull of the alien. It shuddered for a few moments and then
it groaned as it finally died.
"Magneto is never helpless." he said and kicked the alien corpse in it's head. "The flatscans
shall tremble at my return, mutants shall rule the world!" he shouted to himself and listened
to the echo as his roar bounced around in the large fortress.

"I've finally figured out where the blanket is coming from and I don't think you're going to
like it." said Niklas as he stormed through the door into Charles rooms.
"Well?"
"It's coming from a space station, the mental blanket isn't just covering this base, it's
global!" exclaimed Niklas. "I directed a HawkTech spy satellite at the station and through a
window I saw someone, a human... Or well, a mutant actually. Magneto!" Charles sighed.
"I've long suspected that Joseph wasn't the real Magneto, when the mansion was smashed, I
was almost certain that I felt the brainpattern of my old friend just before it happened. Now
we've got proof."
"Well, not really. Anyone could wear a red bucket and dress in a red outfit. It could be a fake,
I don't really think it is, but it could be."
"If he has built another Avalon, I'm inclined to assume that it is the real Magneto. That raises
another question though, who is Joseph?"

"I'm not Magneto? Then who am I?!" asked Joseph imploringly.
"I don't know." admitted Charles. "I'm not sure yet either, there's no way to be sure either
until I've met the man in the space station."
"You're going?" asked Joseph.
"Yes... But I'm taking the X-Men and X-Force with me, Sean and Emma will stay behind with
Hank, Cecilia and Generation X. The rest of us are all going, I just thought I should talk with
you First, warn you that you might not be the man we all thought you were."
"But... If I'm not him... *Who*?!"
"That is something we're going to find out if it turns out that what I suspect is true."

"Magnus?" said Charles Xavier into the microphone. "Magnus, are you there?" /Damn that blanket!/
he cursed in his mind as he once again tried to reach Magnus through the radio in the Blackbird.
"Charles. What an... unpleasant suprise. How are you?" replied a voice and Charles went stiff.
/It's him! It's Magnus!/
"As well as I can be, would you mind turning off the mental blanket covering the earth?"
"I would if I could Charles, but I fear that I shall have to leave it as it is. I do not find
the prospect of having my mind assaulted again very amusing. I'm sorry if this offends you, but
I fear that your actions have forced me to use such a drastic measure."
"Magnus! This is an act of war, the UN will never stand for it. According to my sources, USA
and Russia are talking over various actions they might take against you at this very moment!"
"So be it then, let the mighty ones crumble before me and the rest of the world will find out
what it means to defy Magneto, the savior! Mutantkind will hail me as their savior, flatscans
will fear my wrath, you and your students will serve me as the New Acolytes!" Charles shivered
as he heard the unmistakable note of madness in the voice of his old friend. "I fear that this
conversation is at an end Charles, I have a fix on you now. I will come, prepare for your
journey to New Avalon!" he shouted and the communication was suddenly broken.

"He's coming here?" asked Scott. "Is that why you sent Sean, Emma, Hank, Cecilia and the kids
away to Muir in the Blackbird?"
"Yes." replied Charles. "If something happens... They will be safe." he finished and steeled
himself. "We on the other hand, we are going to stay here, defeat Magneto and find a way to blow
his 'New Avalon' up." Niklas remained silent, he had sent a e-mail to Erik from his Mioplant and
told him about "New Avalon". He had phrased it as a simple warning, but he knew that Erik would
see the station as a golden opportunity to make HawkTech's space program really kick off. He'd
probably send a team to conquer the bloody thing, if he didn't, he most certainly wouldn't
want having Magneto over his head again. HawkTech had been struck pretty bad when Magneto
released a EM pulse all over the world when he still was orbiting in 'old' Avalon. HawkTech
would either take the station or blast it out of the sky. The only thing left to worry about was
Magneto.
"Niiiiiiiiiklas!" yelled Rogue and he turned around to see her holding a bunch of papers. He
went from standing to running like a madman in less then a tenth of a second. /Well, maybe
one or two other things as well./ he thought and ran as fast as he could, turning corners and
lowering blast doors behind him. He entered a storage and waited behind the door, he had lowered
a blast door further down in the corridor and after a while he heard Rogue beating down the
last one before the section he was in now. He heard her beating on the blast door further down
in the corridor, he opened the door and ran back as silently as he could while she kept on
beating on the blast door barring her way. He walked back to the meeting and wished that he
could lay his hands on Emma Frost.
"Why is Rogue upset?"
"Did you scream at her?!"
"Boy, she was screamin' mad or what?!" Niklas turned to the fairies and hushed at them.
"Don't hush me!"
"Yeah, we're not your slaves!"
"So don't come telling us to... He's getting the knife! Ahhhh!"
"We'll be silent!"
"I won't say a word!"
"I'll be a *good* fairy!"
"I'd prefer if you'd all be silent fairies..." mumbled Niklas and shoved the knife back in it's
sheath strapped to his left wrist. He hoped that the knife would work as deterrent for a long
time still, sooner or later they were bound to learn that he didn't ever do anything with it,
he just held it in one of his hands and looked at them. Rogue returned after a while, a whole
lot calmer but she did stare at Niklas and mouthed "We'll 'talk' later..." and clenched her
right fist in front of her face. He sighed and wondered if he would have time to get a hold of
and wear one of the armors he had seen in the unconventional weapon storage before the "talk"
with Rogue.

Niklas sighed as Rogue stalked out of his room, a bale of papers in her hands from all the
fanfiction writers who ever had written *anything* unfavorable about her as well as their
e-mail addresses. He smiled at the thought of the soon-to-be *very* suprised fanfic writers
who soon would get a mail each from her rogue@xmen.gov e-mail address. Apparently Val Cooper and 
Nick Fury of Shield had provided the X-men with a xmen.gov a few years back. Niklas had even
gotten his own hawk@xmen.gov address when he joined the team. The thought that some people had
written even more insulting fanfiction then Niklas made Rogue furious, Niklas would love to
see the faces of the people who suddenly got a "I'm goin' t'kill ya!" e-mail from Rogue because
he had searched for, found and printed the stories he thought would be the ones most likely to
take her mind of his. She yelled at him for a while and threatened to slap him but she hadn't
made good on her threat, something Niklas was very grateful for. He really missed his old
invulnerability, that had been fantastic. But it was no use crying over what couldn't be changed,
now he would have to mentally prepare himself for fighting against Magneto, someone who Niklas
sympathized quite a lot with. Magneto also believed in a more forceful way to ensure that mutants
would be safe, Magneto was a little bit extreme though. Niklas didn't believe in threats, assaults
against innocent humans and stuff like that, Magneto was a admirable person, but the ways he
used to reach his goals were anything but admirable. He sighed as a beep went off inside his
head, indicating that his powers had changed again. He swiftly checked on the constant health
surveillance system and the data it supplied him with. He now had some sort of energy emittance
power that seemed to work through his mouth. He carefully blowed down on the floor hoping that
it would be as simple as that. Nothing happened and he sighed, he would have to experiment again
to find out how to use this new power. He listened to Charles and Scott as they discussed tactics
and previous encounters with Magneto, some others also contributed with any and all information
they had on the man in question. Niklas who hadn't faced him in combat before, listened with
care and committed it all to memory, both his natural memory and the one in his Mioplant, just
in case.

Niklas huffed and puffed against the wall of the huge hangar, trying desperately to find out how
his new power worked. It took him about half and hour to discover that he transformed kinetic
energy into sound that he emitted through his mouth, sort of like Banshee and Siryn. He kicked
the floor a couple of times, about half of the kinetic energy was absorbed and converted into
sound, the rest caused his foot pain and scratched the floor as well as his boot. He took a
deep breath and yelled, causing a wave of sound and light to burst out and sizzle away against
the wall in the far end of the hangar. It struck in a burst of sparks and a detonation, whatever
it was sure could cause a lot of destruction even with relatively small amounts of kinetic power.
He absently stomped his feet on the floor and slammed his fist into the walls as he walked back
towards the others, slowly charging himself up for the coming battle against Magneto. He
never got back though, Illyana came walking in his direction and dragged him back to the hangar
for a session in unarmed combat. When they were finished, he had quite a lot of stored energy
ready to be used against Magneto or any other enemy they might encounter. They both walked
back towards the others but Niklas walked pass the unconventional storage and sighed, he supposed
they all would be safer if he brought some stuff out of it. He almost shivered at the thought of
how much money he would have to donate to Erik in return for the use of the stuff in it. He
reluctantly put on one of the armors and grabbed a Tasp, one of the more humane guns in the
large armory.

"Now where did you find *that* Halloween outfit NJ?" asked Robert as he saw Niklas enter the room
dressed in a futuristic looking armor. Niklas looked over at him.
"I'm *so* glad you asked Drake, I'll use you when I demonstrate some things I would like you all
to think about wearing and using if or when Magneto shows up." he said and grinned. "First of
all, the armor." he said and pointed at the thing he wore. "It soaks kinetic energy, cancels out
heat up to 750 degrees Celsius, has a built in auto-injector that can and will administer
painkillers as well as drugs that speeds up the healing if the user is harmed and it is capable
of protecting the wearer against projectiles from guns and rifles all the way up to anti-tank
rockets, a anti-tank rocket will make the armor unusable, but the wearer will have a good chance
of surviving a direct hit. Anyone who want's one, can grab one, I will refund HawkTech when or
if we get back from this." he explained and looked over at Robert and grinned again. "Next we
have these, Tasp 16 guns. A very humane and at the same time, not humane weapon. It won't kill
the one hit, it will do something far more pleasant and at the same time unpleasant to the one
struck by a beam from it. It will trigger all the pleasure centers in a humans or mutants brain,
causing them to experience an orgasm. It can be fired several times for multiple orgasms. That
will sooner or later cause unconsciousness and if a Tasp is used overly much over an extended
period of time, it will cause addiction, making the person in question a complete fanatic,
searching for pleasure all the time. It works like this." said Niklas, aimed at Robert who was
unable to react in time before he suddenly collapsed to the floor, shaking in ecstasy. "As you
all can see, it's very effective, completely disarming anyone, leaving them completely unharmed
when the effect is over." said Niklas and grinned as Robert struggled to get back on his feet,
very aware of a sticky mess in his pants. Robert panted and shook his head to clear away the
fog in his mind, he still trembled at the memory of the intense pleasure he had felt for a while
and he could completely understand how people might become addicted to this. "So, who wants an
armor and a gun?" asked Niklas and smiled, winking at Robert who was the First to raise his
hand. He definitively wanted a gun, the armor he could live without but he *really* wanted one
of those guns! "A word of warning though, each gun can only be fired five times, it takes about
two hours to reload and the maximum range is ten meters. So aim well and don't fire unless you're
sure that it will do any good. Oh, it works just as good against friend as foe, so don't miss."

"Oh yeeah!" said Scott as he rolled away from Jean, both of them holding a gun each in one of
their hands.
"You don't say!" exclaimed Jean and tried to lift her hand from the bed without succeeding.
"I'm not going to hand over this baby!" said Scott and patted the gun lying on his stomach.
"Me neither." said Jean. "If I have to, I'll pay whatever is necessary to get one of them!"

"Oh Warren, that was... amazing!" Elisabeth mumbled where she lay on top of Warren.
"You can say that again..." whispered Warren and put the gun down on the floor, Elisabeth had
seen the image of what Scott and Jean planned to do in Scotts mind and they had rushed off almost
as fast as the married couple to try it out.

"The goddess preserve me..." mumbled Ororo and hid something underneath her pillow.

"Oh mah god!" whispered Rogue and kissed the gun before she carefully put it down on the table
beside her bed. 

"Niklas... Are you sure that it was a good idea to distribute the guns to everybody?" asked
Charles after he had found the young man in question in the hangar where he sparred against
Illyana. Niklas dived underneath a swift kick from Illyana and pulled back a few meters.
"Why not? Why do you ask?" asked Niklas as he moved closer and aimed a kick for Illyana's head
that came dangerously close. Charles winced, he preferred controlled sessions in the Danger room,
sparring against each other without any safety whatsoever seemed like an unnecessary risk. His
students where in mortal danger all the time against horrible opponents, student against student
putting each other in mortal danger didn't seem right to Charles.
"My telepathy is a little dull, almost unusable at the moment, the little I have been getting
since you handed them out, is ecstasy. They're using the guns on themselves!" said Charles and
Niklas burst out into joyous laughter.
"Well, I though that they would at least be able to hold out until the danger was over!" he
managed to squeeze out between the gales of laughter. Even Illyana's lips quirked up into a slight
smile and she patted the gun in it's holster, making sure that it was still there. She launched
a roundhouse kick that almost managed to hit Niklas in his chest but he avoided it by sucking in
his chest and responded at once with a sweeping kick that knocked Illyana off her feet. Niklas
struck downwards as she fell but missed as she fell into a teleporting disc. Niklas dived and
rolled around on the floor just in the nick of time as Illyana fell out of a stepping disc above
where he had been standing half a second ago with her feet First. She leaped after him but found
herself fooled as he spun around, grabbed both her wrists with his left hand and chopped downwards
on her neck with his free hand. "Whack! You're dead." he said and helped her get back up on her
feet.
"Could you really bring yourself to do that in a real battle?" asked Charles curiously. Niklas
shrugged and spread his hands out wide.
"Dunno. Although I must confess that my previous problems with hitting women vanished rather
quickly after she gave me three swift kicks between my legs a while ago. But I don't know if
I could bring myself to kill a woman, I don't want to find out either. I prefer living in
ignorance about that, trusting that I would be able to do it if I had to, hoping that I won't
ever have to." replied Niklas and spun around with his left foot First, attacking Illyana without
warning. She backed into a disc and appeared behind Niklas, landing a hard kick against his ribs.
Charles winced as he saw Niklas ground his teeth together, ducking underneath a left hook and
spinning around with a right uppercut that threw Illyana backwards even though Charles could tell
that Niklas had been holding back, avoiding to use his full strength. Illyana spun around, landed
on her feet and kicked the legs out from underneath Niklas. He twisted, landed with his hands
First and pushed himself up into the air, landing on his feet with his hands raised to parry a
kick from Illyana that would have struck him in the head otherwise. Charles stared in fascination
as Illyana made her Soulsword appear and swung it at Niklas with the flat end aimed at him. He
halted the sword with the palm of his hand and threw himself at her with his left shoulder First.
She grunted and dropped the sword as she fell backwards, taking her opportunity to kick away his
legs as she fell. The Soulsword appeared in her hands once again and she stabbed at him, halting
the sword just as she began to draw blood.
"You're dead." she said simply and got back at her feet. He nodded and jumped up into a standing
position once again.
"You're getting better and better all the time 'Yana, it's almost enough to make me suspect that
you also have memories of this floating around in your head." he joked and looked sadly at his
torn shirt. "If I wasn't expecting Magneto anytime now, I'd consider buying some clothes."
"Well, X-force are the only ones whose clothes haven't experienced a mansion crashing down on
them." replied Charles and looked down at his own torn clothes. He was glad that Niklas had
managed to dig up a wheelchair somewhere because being carried around definitively lost it's
charm very quickly.
"Those of them that wear any..." mumbled Niklas and was rewarded with a slap in the back of his
head in return for that comment. "Ouch." he said with a smile and winked at Illyana. Charles
nodded to himself, Illyana wore a minibikini of unstable molecules in a completely black color.
It had a few dark red splashes on it from dried blood, a silent reminder of the fact that Illyana
had changed a lot because of her long imprisonment in Limbo by Lord Chaos.

"All right you lazy sod's! Move your butts!" screamed Jim Lee as he watched his team march aboard
the experimental ship, all of them dressed in combined armor and space suits enabling them to both
fight and survive in space. All of them were armed for any eventuality, all of them the very best
in their field, all of them had trained for years and all of them would be easy prey if Magneto
discovered them before they were onboard his fortress. Jim was just about to go march into the
ship himself when a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"You have to stay here Jim." said a calm but commanding voice. Jim sighed and turned around to
face his commander, Erik Jonsson AKA Le Mat.
"But boss... They don't have any leader! They'll be slaughtered!" he hissed after First making
sure that his comlink was turned off.
"No they won't, I'll lead them." replied Erik calmly and Jim noticed that he was dressed in the
space combat armor, he just didn't have his helmet on.
"Oh..." There really wasn't any good reply, asking to be allowed to go as well would only make
the impression that Jim didn't trust his commander. Trying to stop the commander from going
was hopeless, there wasn't any use trying. Jim would like to think that he would be able to lead
his men better, but the truth was that nobody would be able to lead them better then Erik
himself. Erik didn't say anything, he put the helmet on and raised the Anti-Venom rifle he
held in his left hand up towards the sky before he marched onboard. Jim turned on the comlink
and listened while the ship prepared for takeoff.
"Okaaaay. Jim won't come along, I'm in charge now. Anyone who wishes to argue my right to command
this mission, take one step forward!" screamed Erik and Jim winced. /Why couldn't he just say
who he was instead?/ thought Jim who suspected what would happen.
CLONG!
CLANG!
Jim mentally added the sounds up, the First was an armored fist hitting armor, the second was
someone's armored body being slammed against the wall of the ship.
"Anyone else?" asked Erik and was greeted by complete silence. "Good. I'm Erik Jonsson, your
supreme Commander. You will obey my orders, you won't come with silly arguments and you will
fight like devils! Because if you don't, I'll kill you before Magneto gets his chance!" Jim
made a face, the legend of the Supreme Commander would grow if they made it back alive. He
looked on in silence as the ship took off, flying straight up and reaching escape velocity
within a few seconds. "Someone help that man off with his helmet and get him a towel to dry
himself off with." ordered Erik. "The rest of you, if you feel the need to vomit, please do so
in a bucket or bag, not inside your sealed armor."

"The Blackbird is back and Magneto has still not arrived, because of that, we're going to launch
an attack on New Avalon ourselves instead of waiting for him to show up." said Charles and both
teams cheered and rushed off to make themselves ready. Niklas walked away towards his rooms and
thought about the three fairies. Cipi was standing on his neck, resting her arms on top of his
head, Sipi was sitting on his left shoulder and Tipi on his right. He didn't especially like the
idea of bringing them along but Charles had asked him to, they might be needed to heal someone's
injuries if the battle didn't go as planned. He hoped that he would be able to get them all
to stay in the Blackbird while the two teams launched the assault. They really didn't have a
place in a battle, they carried their little bows and tiny swords, but he couldn't see them
being useful in a combat. Niklas slowly put his armor on while the fairies studied his body,
commenting everything in whispered voices. He was used to it by now, as soon as he undressed,
they seemed to appear as if by magic. He put the Tasp 16 into the holster on the right side,
a ImpR gun on the left and then he strapped knives all over his body. He also put a MP5
and a Beretta 92F on his back, just in case. He then added the cost of everything up and shivered
as he realized that he would have to fork out at least 132 million dollars to his cousin in
return for all the stuff they had taken, he decided to give Charles a few bucks as well,
rebuilding the mansion would be a lot cheaper then staying here. He hoped that he would be able
to persuade the others to return the armors if they were in good shape afterwards, they would
cost him 2 million dollars each. The guns he didn't think he'd be able to get away from them
and he had thrown Bishop a plasma rifle to replace the one he had lost when the mansion collapsed
upon them all. He supposed he could afford everything, but he still didn't feel comfortable
spending this much money in such short time.
"Why doesn't I have muscles like that?"
"Why would you want them?!"
"I think I remember something about that, humans stuff themselves full of steroids in order to
get strong. Perhaps he can give you some of his steroids?"
"I do not use anabolic steroids." sighed Niklas although he supposed that the drug he consumed
that increased his physical abilities might be considered to be one. He ignored that though,
it worked great, didn't mentally affect him and no other side-effects had been noticed so far.
His intense workout sessions with Illyana, Logan and Shatterstar pushed his body to it's limits,
but the drug increased his limits all the time, faster then even Erik had suspected that it
would. He got stronger, more dexterous, his stamina increased and his senses were heightened
even more. His reflexes were several times faster now, his brain worked faster and used more
of it's resources and his healing factor now had more spare time left to heal the body when it
didn't have to spend most of it's resources preventing his internal organs from decay and the
rest of them making blood. Some of them were still spend making blood, but most of the resources
were now free to handle the healing of any injuries. He put on the helmet and walked away in
silence, the fairies once again settling down on him so they wouldn't have to spend their
energy flying around. They complained a little about how uncomfortable the armor was, but he
ignored them. Soon he would have to fight Magneto, the X-Mens oldest foe and one of the most
dangerous, dispite the fact that Magneto wasn't as powerful as some of the others. He just hoped
that nobody would die and that the guns would put Magneto out of action without killing him.
Niklas was firmly convinced that making Magneto take a more gentle path down the road of life
was one of the best chances Mutantkind had if they wanted to survive. It didn't matter how much
good the X-Men did if Magneto walked free to reinforce people's belief of how dangerous and
crazy mutants were. Magneto either had to be persuaded to act more gentle, be killed or at least
taken out of action for good. At any rate, he couldn't be allowed to run free acting the way
he acted now.

"... aaaaand there we are, one alien computer system hacked." exclaimed Niklas from where he sat
with a laptop in his knees even if it wasn't that he used for the task at hand. "A little block
here, a little worm there and a little innocent polymorphic virus here. The front gates are open
and Magnus won't be able to do anything about it for a few minutes. Go for it." said Niklas and
leaned back in his seat. Charles nodded, Bishop and Scott who piloted the Blackbird made it
speed forward and they entered the fortress without being stopped.

"Boss! There's another ship entering the fortress!" screamed a soldier.
"Did they see us?" asked Erik calmly.
"No way, we're running full stealth. The only way to see us is with the naked eye."
"Good, take the same route as they did. Get me a scan on them." ordered Erik.
"craft identified: blackbird, several humanoids onboard, identifax: x-men and X-force." said
a computer generated voice from the speaker system.
"Oh goodie, we'll get company!" said Erik sourly. "What are they doing here?"
"Do you want me to take them out? I have a lock on the Blackbird and two missiles armed." said
one of the pilots. Erik considered it for a few seconds and then shook his head.
"Naw, let them be. They can act as a distraction for our strike, they'll keep Magneto busy
while we take the fortress."

They all jumped out of the Blackbird and rushed off with the pre-determined groups, Niklas was
a part of Team 4, with Cable as the leader. The others were Bishop, Wolverine, Shatterstar,
Magik and Feral. Niklas didn't know if Charles had placed the most bloodthirsty ones in one
team on purpose or if it was just a fluke. He was prepared to believe that it was purpose though.
They swiftly moved onwards, into the fortress. They had been assigned to head off towards what
looked like living quarters on the scan they had made of the fortress.

Ororo carefully lead her Team 3 onwards, closely followed by Psylocke, Angel, Domino, Siryn and
Caliban bringing up the rear. They had been assigned to check out a large confusing area, an
enormous room that didn't seem to have any purpose, perhaps a storage chamber of some sort. She
nodded to herself as she felt a faint residue of Niklas through their emotional bond, it had been
growing weaker all the time since it was established. She understood why Scott and Jean were so
fond of their mind-link, having the constant sense of closeness that the emotional bond brought
24 hours a day, it was a sensation beyond description.

Scott looked briefly back at his Team 2, it didn't feel exactly right, Warpath, Meltdown and
Sunspot seemed so out of place next to Jean and Bishop. Half of his team was made up out of
X-Force members, he didn't know them as well as his X-Men so he almost hoped that they wouldn't
encounter anyone. He felt really bad because he hadn't foreseen a situation like this and trained
more with simulations of X-Force just in case he'd ever have to bring them into combat. The others
thought that he was always as sure of himself as he looked most of the time, in reality it was
because he had taken his team into battle against just about all their enemies and some others in
Danger room simulations many times over in many different environments. He always seemed sure
because almost all battles felt like something he had done before.

Robert moved silently forward on a slide of ice, carefully looking in all directions while he
pondered on Team 1 and Charles reasons for picking out the team as he had done. Charles himself
was the leader, moving as silently as possible in his wheelchair. Gambit and Moonstar brought up
the rear, Cannonball and Joseph moved forward on either side of Robert himself while Rogue scouted
up ahead for any sign of life.

Erik silently directed his team by sending his commands out from his Mioplant. The others didn't
have Mioplants, but their helmets did have HUD ( Head Up Display ), so they got all sorts of
information from the armors suit. The Mioplant gave him a map, exactly proportioned with the aid
of data from his sonar and the tracers in his teams suit displayed them all as flashing blue
dots. All other signs of life was displayed as flashing red dots, he kept his team out of the
way and moved on into the center of the fortress.

"Acolytes, we have visitors." said Magneto calmly and got up from his throne. His four loyal
servants nodded and prepared themselves for action, ready to obey his every command. He looked
down at them, the First of his new Acolytes. The black-haired, green eyed Monsun, a small man
but with a very useful power. He could launch gusts of wind from his hands, mixed with water and
the occasional lightening if he was in a foul mood. He moved on to Kali, a African woman who had
been born with four arms and a greatly enhanced strength. The waist-long black hair had long
tails and in the end of them all were sharp little knifes, each of her four hands held double
edged, long swords that she twirled around herself in complicated patterns. Jumbo got up from
his seat in a pile of pillows and yawned, absently growing a few inches without noticing it.
He scratched his blonde hair and his blue eyes sparkled at the thought of some action. The
enormous Hippo moved from the wall he had been leaning against, his steps sounding like thunder
as he moved his extremely dense body closer to the others. He wasn't fat, he didn't even look like
he weighed a lot, but he did. His body was so dense that he weighed about 5 tons. Hippo smirked,
his oriental face almost glowing and his blue eyes curiously piqued as he would finally get his
chance to prove his worth in battle. Magneto walked down and sealed off all but one entrance,
whenever someone was stupid enough to enter his throne room, the idiots would learn to fear
Magneto, the savior of Mutantkind.

"Why did he say we had to wait here?" asked Cipi and toyed with her sword.
"I dunno!" replied Sipi with her overexcited voice.
"Did he say that?" asked Tipi curiously. "I don't remember that." Cipi thought about it, why had
she seemed to recall him saying something about staying where they were.
"I'm... I'm not sure. I *thought* he did, but I don't remember..."
"Oh well, he probably didn't then!"
"It's boring here anyway, let's go *exploring*!"
"Good idea Tipi!"
"Yay! We're goin' to explore, we're goin' to explore!"
"Well, what are we waiting for?"

"Scanners indicates life on the other side of this wall." said one of the soldiers after placing
a motion sensor against it. Erik nodded, he placed his ear against the wall and thought he heard
someone saying "Acolytes". The scanner indicated five humanoid life forms, he moved his left
hand up to a ventilation shaft and used a extra sonar transmitter/receiver in his little finger
to check it out more closely.
"One of them is wearing cape, a metal armor and a bucket on his head. Must be Magneto, the other
four are probably his Acolytes." said Erik calmly and tore away the grating in front of the
ventilation. Two soldiers gave him a lift, he slipped inside and put his feet against the sides
of the shaft as he looked into the room on the other side of the shaft. /Definitively Magneto, I
don't recognize the others though./ thought Erik and sent images of them over to the HawkTech
database for identification. A soldier was lifted up to the shaft and Erik took the screwdriver
he offered and swiftly unscrewed the grating on the other side but he left it where it was. He
didn't want to alert Magneto and the others. He sent half of his team, ten well-trained soldiers
away to find another entrance in one direction and the other half in another while he stayed where
he was. His First thought had been to ignore Magneto altogether but after seeing the computers
in the room he looked into, he realized that the fortress command center was in this very room.
As long as Magneto had access to that, it would be outright foolish to leave him alone where
he was. Erik didn't know what sort of defenses the station had, but he guessed that there were
quite extensive. He wondered why Magneto didn't keep an eye on the monitors, Erik saw how one
half of his team were captured on a video camera before they discovered and destroyed it. Magneto
and his team seemed totally focused on a door in the far end of the room. When Erik got the
reports from his team, he understood. Magneto had sealed all other entrances with his magnetic
powers, only making the room accessible through that one door. Erik smirked and poked out one
finger through the grating, he had forgotten to seal of the ventilation. Erik sent out his orders
and waited while his team located and entered the vents.

*/Any signs of anyone yet?/* asked Charles, spread out as they were, the only ones he could
speak mentally with was the other telepaths.
*/Not a thing/* replied Phoenix.
*/Nothing./* from Psylocke.
*/Logan says that Magneto either wears an armor or isn't here alone, people in armor have been
walking around here. He has also found two scents that he doesn't recognize at all./* replied
Cable. */We're going to snoop around a bit, perhaps we can track them down./* Charles mentally
accused himself, he should have thought about Wolverine's sense of smell and taken him on his
own team, but he had placed the ones most likely to use deadly force in one team and sent them
off on a wild goose chase to keep them out of the way until they were needed. He shrugged and
silently moved forward, his hands turning the wheels as fast as he could. He felt a faint brush
against his mind, someone else with mental powers. Magnus had mental powers. /Got you!/ thought
Charles and smirked as he changed direction and headed down into another corridor, mentally
advising Rogue that they were going another way.

Erik felt something brush against his mental shields and he wondered who it might be, a mental
shield was covering the earth, mental powers were useless. At least, that was the impression he
had gotten. His own were totally wiped out, but it might just be possible that some telepaths
with a *lot* of strength might be able to retain some measure of power. The X-Men had a fair
number of powerful telepaths, this might be one of them. Or it might be one of Magneto's
acolytes, there was no way of telling.
"Boss! There's a group of X-men and X-force dudes walking pass in the corridor here, shall I
drop a grenade on them?" asked Mariko Tanaka, one of his captains. "By the way, they're wearing
HawkTech combat armor V1.9."
"How many and who?" he sent from his Mioplant, his message showing up on the visor of her
helmet within the blink of an eye. /Where in gods name did they get hold of HawkTech equipment,
did someone make a mistake when I sent them the regenerators and stuff?/
"Professor X, Gambit, Iceman, Rogue, Joseph, Cannonball and Moonstar."
"Only seven? Where are the others?"
"They're not here at any rate."
"Commander! There's a team of x-people sneaking by at our position." whispered Ben Cameron,
a corporal at another position. "They're also wearing HT ca1.9 armor."
"How many and who?" transmitted Erik. /I have to check this out, this has to be a mistake./
"Cable, Wolverine, Shatterstar, Magik, Feral and Hawk."
"All groups, hold your positions. At my command, enter the room with Magneto, take him and his
toadies out of action, don't harm the others. Use non-lethal force only if you have to in order
to protect yourselves." ordered Erik.
"None of us have brought any weapon configured for non-lethal force." replied Mariko after a few
seconds of silence.
"Oh well, shoot to wound then." whispered Erik, abandoning his radio silence.

Niklas pushed at the door and shook his head.
"This one is blocked as well." he whispered and held up the wad of plastique and the detonator.
"Are you sure you don't want me to make a door?"
"The arrogant bastard must have left at least one opening." whispered Cable back and they all
moved out again. "Besides, I can feel Charles nearby, if he's here, I'll bet anything that
Magneto isn't far away." Niklas nodded, the more he thought about it, the more he was certain
that Charles had sent the others in all directions because he wanted to handle Magneto on his
own. For a moment he thought he heard a faint flapping noise so he turned around, he studied the
floor and the walls but he didn't see any fairy-shaped shadows so he supposed that it had been
just his imagination running wild.

Belinda looked at the open door of the Blackbird, the fairies had vanished and the door was open.
She had been told to stay in the Blackbird, not to set foot on the fortress. She didn't know if
the others were just nervous about her safety or if they feared that her Sentinel core would
turn her against them in the heat of battle. Because she also feared that, she had obeyed the
order to stay on the Blackbird. But with the fairies away... She had a reason for walking outside,
an excuse if they found out about it. She shifted into her Sentinel form and blasted away, the
rockets in her legs pushing her down the corridors with great speed.

"Well, this door seems to give in when I push anyway." said Niklas and Cable stepped up to
confirm it. He pushed a telekinetic forcefield between the door and the doorway.
"Yep, there's no shield on the other side. This one is open. Everybody get ready, but don't do
anything, I'll notify the others." said Cable and concentrated, sweat appearing on his forehead
as he contacted the other telepaths. "Charles ordered us to wait..." said Cable, shook his head
and kicked the door open, rushing in with his rifle blazing. Niklas smiled, pulled out his 
Tasp 16 and leaped inside, rolling to the side to get a good look of everything.
"Monsun, we have visitors. Please show them the door." said Magneto coldly and one of the four
persons in there with him raised his hands. Cable, Wolverine and Magik were all thrown backwards
and flew out of the room. Feral and Shatterstar had thrown themselves aside in time, they now
rushed at their opponents and Niklas followed their lead. One of their enemies suddenly started
to grow, swiftly increasing in size until he reached the roof ten meters above the floor. He
didn't have much time to ponder upon that because a black woman suddenly leaped at him. He
just stared at her. /She has got four arms!/ He leaped backwards because he realized suddenly that
all four hands held swords. He avoided them all and leaped aside only to be nicked several times
when she shook her head. Her hair had hidden blades in it, making it almost as dangerous as her
swords. He aimed at her and fired.
"*Ooooouuuhhhw*" she moaned as she collapsed on the floor, her whole body erupting in spasms and
trembling as she moaned out loud. He pointed the gun at Magneto who probably was the most
dangerous one but before he was able to pull the trigger he was suddenly hit by a gust of wind.
He slammed into the wall and stared at the one called Monsun, his arms were pointed at Niklas
and from them erupted winds, rain and Niklas whole body shook as a lightening bolt shot away from
the mans hands and struck Niklas in his chest. Feral was suddenly there though and slashed at
his chest. Niklas dropped to the floor and struggled to get up on his feet. He noticed how Feral
slashed a second and a third time before she kicked Monsun out of her way. She didn't get any
further though because the gigantic one bent down and slapped her into another wall. Shatterstar
leaped at a third and stabbed with both his swords. They didn't penetrate the skin of his enemy
though and before Shatterstar was able to do anything, he was flung aside by Magneto. Cable,
Wolverine and Magik leaped out of a disc and landed in the middle of the room. Cable blasted the
giant who fell backwards and struck the floor with a echoing thud. Magik took on the fourarmed
monstrosity with Logan, only to find themselves seriously outmatched against the four twirling
swords and the obviously enhanced strength of the woman. Logan soon lost his claws and was
forced to strike out with his hands and legs instead of his claws. Illyana's soulsword wasn't
of much use either, only the splendid armor saved their asses from being handed to them as
their enemy's swords didn't manage to penetrate the sturdy armor. Niklas downed the one who seemed
invulnerable with the Tasp and managed to squeeze off a round at Magneto who dropped to the floor.
He spun around to help Logan and Illyana only to find that Feral already had dived in and raked
her claws at the back of ms.4arms legs, cutting off the tendons. Without being able to stand,
she soon lost consciousness as Logan kicked her in the back of her head repeatedly. Shatterstar
slapped Monsun over and over again with the flats of his two swords, slowly beating him into
unconsciousness. Niklas turned around and aimed at Magneto again, preparing to keep him sedated
until reinforcements arrived. But the giant had recovered and swiftly doubled in size, becoming
twenty meters long. His feet slammed into Niklas who dropped the gun and was thrown backwards.
Niklas slowly got up only to see the giant lying on the floor, slapping away the X-dudes and
dudettes trying to get at him. Niklas reluctantly pulled out the ImpR gun but didn't have to
use it as Charles wheeled in with his team. Rogue dived at the giant and tackled him with all her
might. His eyes glazed over and his head dropped to the floor. Rogue tried the same thing with
the invulnerable one but he managed to grab a hold of her as he was thrown backwards, pulling
her with him. They started to fight it out, rolling around, throwing punches wildly without
seemingly being able to knock each other out. Cannonball blasted in and knocked out Monsun whom
Shatterstar still was trying to knock unconscious.
"Well fought, but now you die." said Magneto who had gotten back on his feet. Niklas dived to
the floor just in the nick of time, what must have been an electromagnetic forcefield slammed
into the wall behind him. Everybody except Rogue who was still fighting against her invulnerable
opponent got the same treatment, most of them not able to avoid it. Feral dived away in time,
Logan dodged it and Joseph protected himself and Xavier in his wheelchair with his own magnetic
powers. "Well, if it isn't my degenerated clone. How do you do?" asked Magneto and ignored all
others in order to attack Joseph. Niklas dived for his Tasp, Feral was faster, pulling up her gun
and emptied it at Magneto who buckled over after being struck five times. His body shook, he
grunted, moaned, panted and mixed them with incomprehensible words. Everyone slowly gathered
around Magneto, several Tasp's being directed at the master of magnetism.

"Hey boss?"
"Yes." replied Erik with a whisper as someone broke the radio silence.
"I located the mind-blanking device you told me to find." said the voice in the other end and
Erik recognized it. M'luk Abonda, a corporal and a darn good soldier. "The problem is, some
x-dudes are in the same room, searching and looking at high-tech looking stuff."
"Ignore them, lob a grenade or put a few holes in the device, then get the hell out of there."
"Sure thing boss."

"Down on the floor!" screamed someone and automatic fire went over their heads. Ororo dived to
the floor and spun around, preparing to blast whoever threatened them with a lightening bolt or
a gust of wind. It was a man, dressed in the same sort of armor they were wearing, carrying a
rifle that would be able to compete with Cable's in the 'largest rifle in the world' contest.
He lowered the gun and blasted away over them all, none of them were invulnerable so Ororo was
not alone on the floor. Ororo heard clanging, metallic tearing and glass shattering from behind.
When the man was satisfied, he turned around and ran, covering his retreat with a smoke-bomb.
*/My telepathy!/* exclaimed Psylocke in their minds. */It's back!/*

"One blown up mind-blanket generator, anything else?"
"Nice work sergeant."
"I'm only a corporal."
"Not anymore, consider yourself promoted." said Erik and relaxed as he felt the minds of everyone
around him, most of them were shielded, but it was a relief none the less.

"Elisabeth just called in, the mind-blanket is gone. A unknown soldier fired over their heads
and blew something up when they were taking cover, he vanished and they haven't been able to
find him." said Charles calmly.
"What are we going to do with him?" asked Niklas and pointed at Magneto who was still shaking all
over, rolling around on the floor.
"We're going to blow this fortress up, bring him and his Acolytes with us and then... If they
cannot be reformed, I'm going to send them to the Vault where they can be locked up." replied
Charles firmly. Cable, Domino, Meltdown, you place the explosives. The rest of you are going to
bring these people back to the Blackbird."
"Um, how are we going to move this fellow?" asked Robert Drake, standing on top of the giants
stomach.

Erik slipped out of the vent and told his men to stay out of sight, Mariko joined him on his
orders. She had gotten extensive training in disarming bombs, she was almost as good at it as
he was. He had Mariko follow Domino and kept after Cable himself, he kept a mental tag on
Meltdown so he would be able to follow her path and get rid of the bombs she placed out later.
He suddenly remembered something and shook his head, he used the Mioplant to move their ship
out of the fortress. It slipped behind it so the X-folks wouldn't see it when they came back
to the Blackbird.

Niklas was suddenly flung aside along with everyone else as Magneto made his move. He cursed
because he hadn't considered the fact that such an experienced enemy as Magneto might be
faking it, recovering but keeping up the act just to get a chance to take them all by
suprise. Niklas managed to unsteadily aim the Tasp at Magneto who noticed it and stared coldly
at him.
"Oh no you don't." he said and snapped his fingers. The gun was crushed along with Niklas right
hand as a magnetic forcefield closed in around it and shrunk. Niklas screamed in pain but he
could still hear the bones breaking, being grinded into powder. Niklas grabbed for the ImpR
gun but Magneto struck a electromagnetic blow at his left shoulder, breaking bones and bruising
flesh. Niklas was unable to move his arm, it just wouldn't respond to anything he did. Magneto
ignored him, turning towards Joseph and Charles. Joseph had managed to protect the two of them
somewhat, they were both standing, Charles leaning on Joseph because his wheelchair had been
destroyed. They were both bleeding from cuts and scrapes, but they were far better off then
anyone else in the room.
"Well Charles, here we stand again. Mutant against mutant, brother against brother, locked in
an eternal fight." said Magneto in a tired voice. "Go Charles, leave me alone. You may fight
in your way, I will fight in mine. You have my solemn oath that I will not try to harm you or
any of your students, just go." he said and sighed.
"You know I cannot do that Magnus." replied Charles and coughed up some blood that he spat out
on the floor. "Your way... You fight for a noble goal but your way is paved with the lives of
the innocent, innocent just like your child, innocent just like Magda. You cannot keep doing this
Magnus!" said Charles firmly.
"I'm not Magnus, I never was." replied Magneto. "My way is paved with the innocent you say? How
about yours? Because of your and your students refusal to see the truth, you have been killed,
rendered powerless, trapped in time streams and only god knows what else! Because of your
arrogance! Your stubbornness Charles! You are responsible for the lives lost fighting for your
'dream'!" spat Magneto and the area around his hands glowed with electromagnetic raw power.
Charles didn't get a chance to reply though because Magneto was suddenly thrown backwards
as Scott rushed in with his team, blasting Magneto with an optic beam.
"Give it up Magneto!" screamed Scott and ran forward to stand protectively in front of Joseph
and the professor. Magneto slowly got up on his feet, a shield had protected him from being
seriously injured, but he hadn't anchored himself so he had been thrown into the wall.
"I offer you all a chance to leave in peace, going back and never have any trouble from me
ever again... And you answer with hostilities? Against me, the savior?" Niklas scrambled back
on his feet and spat.
"Savior? Some Savior!" he said and approached Magneto, his left arm hanging useless from his
shoulder, his right hand a mess of flesh, bones and electronics. His body was slowly healing but
this wasn't bruises, this was shattered bones and torn flesh. Magneto obviously didn't think
that he was looking at any sort of threat so he ignored him, a *big* mistake. Niklas screamed
and his current power kicked in, sending a flood of sound and light against Magneto. It struck
with a horrible explosion that knocked everyone off their feet, everyone except Magneto that is.
He was still standing, protected behind a magnetic forcefield, this time it was anchored so he
didn't even budge.
"Impressive... It didn't do any good, but it was impressive none the less." said Magneto coldly
and slammed Niklas back against the wall without even looking.
"Leave him alone!" screamed someone and Niklas looked in the direction of the sound, seeing
Belinda in her Sentinel form, hovering in the doorway. "*kzrkt* identified *bzrkt* magneto.
*bst* countermeasures taken. *zrkt*" Niklas feared the worst and healed himself, using up a lot
of blood in the process. /I thought I'd neutralized the Sentinel in her!/ he thought as he got
back up into a standing position. She launched herself at Magneto who trusted his shield to
take care of any threats, but it turned out that it didn't as Belinda neutralized it as she
got close enough. Her weapon systems wasn't back on-line so she pounded on him using nothing but
her fists. Fists made out of metal, driven forward by powerful engines and aimed guided with a
database full of information on where it was most effective to harm a mutant. His helm was
dented and fell off him, his armor caved in where she struck and he was unable to defend himself
without his mutant powers. Niklas rushed closer and threw himself at Belinda, tackling her off
the now unconscious Magneto.
"That's enough Belinda." he said and hoped that she wouldn't turn against him, it certainly looked
as she would. Her cold Sentinel eyes looked at him for a few seconds and then she turned back
into a human shape.
"Sorry..."
"Don't be, you saved all our asses. But killing him wouldn't be right, not like that anyway."
said Niklas and smiled faintly at her. "But I wonder if you could do us a small favor, lock onto
that one and neutralize his powers?" asked Niklas and pointed at the giant. She smiled weakly
and nodded, reassuming her Sentinel form. The giant shrunk and they managed to move everyone
back to the Blackbird just as Cable, Domino and Meltdown got back, followed by the fairies who
had gotten lost while they were exploring the fortress. They took off, leaving New Avalon
behind and then Cable brought out the detonator to the bombs they had hidden.
"On three." he told Tabitha and they counted down together. "Three... Two... One... Zero!"
They all stared out of the window and saw the great explosion, unfortunately it wasn't the
fortress that blew up. A small craft had shot out of it a few seconds before the blast and it
went out with a bang as all the bombs detonated. "What the..." said Cable and they all stared
in silence for a while.
"Did you place all the bombs in one place?" asked Robert Drake incredulously.
"Of course not, you moron!" snorted Domino and shook her head.
"Someone must have disarmed them, carried them over to that escape pod and then sent it out just
in time." said Cable and stared at the station. Niklas winced, he had a slight suspicion, he
feared that he knew exactly who might be responsible for what he just had seen.
"I think that someone might have been a HawkTech strikeforce." said Niklas.
"Why do you say that?" asked Scott suspiciously.
"Because that wasn't an escape pod, it was a HawkTech spaceship."
"How in hell can you see that from here?" asked Robert. "I can barely make out the fortress!"
"Because I have a computer in my head, I can magnify the image even better then the most advanced
binoculars on the market." admitted Niklas. "I also have tasers built into my hands as well as
a radio up in my head."
"When and where did you get that? You didn't have it during your last examination at any rate!"
said Ororo and everyone stared at him.
"You know when I was missing for a couple of days? Well, that was spend in surgery and recovery.
Where? In a HawkTech facility. You know when I said I bought some high-tech stuff from them? Well,
this was the high-tech stuff I bought..."

"Do we really want to inflict him upon the world, isn't it better to keep him close where we can
keep an eye at him?" asked Nathan when he, Charles, Scott, Ororo, Sean, Emma, Kurt and Moira
talked when they had landed at Muir island.
"Oh yeah, that really worked out good before. He got surgery, went behind our backs and he might
be a spy working for an organization with access to nuclear weapons. Keeping him close haven't
exactly helped so far." snorted Emma Frost.
"Well, he has done a lot of good things as well. Jono has his face, Yvette can talk, Illyana is
back, Rachel is back, we know about OZT and I can go on a while longer if it's really necessary."
said Nathan and tried to keep himself from screaming. He knew that Ororo and Sean was on his side
more or less openly, Charles and Emma was the two major opponents in this issue. Scott and Moira
seemed more or less neutral even if he knew that Scott *really* disliked that Niklas used weapons.
Nightcrawler hadn't said anything either for or against him but Nathan knew that he had been as
thrilled as the rest of Excalibur when Rachel returned through Niklas actions.
"Emma is right Nathan, I'm not sure that he can be trusted anymore. I was at First, but now...
I am not so sure anymore. I think it would be for the best if he left the X-Men, at least
for a while."
"Do you realize what you might be doing here Charles?" asked Ororo. "Jubilee and Yvette absolutely
adores him. Paige and Jono have him to thank for Jono's face and their relationship. He saved
Angelo's life and I know that Monet used to have crush on him. Illyana and Shatterstar are also
truly fond of him, if he leaves... Generation X and some of the others might follow him, I know
I would consider that option..." admitted Ororo calmly.
"What?!" asked Scott and staggered backwards. The professor just stared at her in shock, Nathan
nodded, Sean nodded and Nightcrawler crossed his arms over his chest.
"Rachel would do almost anything for him, for her sake, so would both Kitty and I." said Kurt.
"Would you leave the X-Men?" asked Charles and looked at Ororo.
"I am not sure Charles, perhaps. I know that his eyes are affecting me, clouding my judgment,
but I am still not sure how I would act if he left."
"If Jubilee goes with him, would Logan stay with the X-Men?" asked Nathan and saw how they all
started to get hesitant. He didn't have to like Logan, but he respected him and knew how valuable
he was to the X-Men. If he left, it would shake them all up pretty hard. If they lost Ororo at
the same time? It would be devastating!
"All who are in favor of Niklas leaving the X-men, raise their right hand." ordered Charles.

Charles finally found Niklas, staring through the door of a cell, the one Magneto had been
placed inside of. An inhibitor field was keeping him from using his powers, the only way out that
was large enough for a human was the door. Charles, Moira, Hank and Cecilia had examined him
and found out that he had become slightly more insane, developing a second and perhaps a third
personality. He had switched between what Charles considered his "Magneto" personality, the
"Sarcastic and ironic" personality and what could be another personality or just a pretense,
it was a "Understanding and remorseful" personality. He had switched between those three back
and forth during their examination, even his bearing changed slightly, how he held himself,
what manner of facial expressions he used. It was highly disturbing, but if the possible third
personality could be cultivated, put in charge... Charles shook his head, he had tried that
before, putting the New Mutants and to some extent even his X-Men in Magneto's charge and look
how that worked out. He learnt all their weaknesses, he stole Shi'ar technology and eventually
he left them. /But if he could be reformed... What an asset!/
"So, you've all decided to kick me out huh?" asked Niklas without turning around. Charles
shivered, his hoverchair didn't make any noise, he hadn't made any and Niklas wasn't a Psi
anymore so he couldn't be feeling a mind approach either.
"Actually... No." admitted Charles. "Nathan convinced us all that it would be better to keep
you here then to send you out on your own."
"That's twice I owe him..." mumbled Niklas.
"I think you repaid him more then enough when you brought Illyana back. He claims that since her
arrival, X-Force has become more disciplined and morale has gone through the roof. Her former
comrades in the New Mutants was overwhelmed with joy when she returned, now when Moira has got
the vaccine to halt the spread of the Legacy, Rahne Sinclair have been thinking of joining the
team as well."
"They're going to become larger then the X-Men professor, there's a lot more mutants out there
who'd have an easier time to adapt their thinking to X-Force's way then the X-Men's."
"Do you wish to leave and join X-Force Niklas?" asked Charles and looked as Niklas seemed to
consider the idea.
"No. Not yet at any rate professor. I'm still innocent or perhaps foolish enough to believe that
your dream deserves to be fought for in a more peaceful manner. However, I also realize that there
will be times when it won't be enough. That's why I carry the firearms, knives and swords. That's
why I'm glad that there is an X-Force and Magneto out there." he said and looked sadly through
the glass window in the door. "If he only didn't take such extreme measures, if only he could turn
his attention to his real enemies instead of the innocent..." said Niklas and sighed. "But I'm
probably boring you, talking about your worst enemy as if he was some kind of saint to be." said
Niklas and shrugged, seemingly going from 8 on a ten scale depression to 9 on a happiness scale,
his smile lighting up his whole face.
"Not really, I've been thinking along those very same lines for years... Did you know that I
once left my X-Men and New Mutants in the care of Magneto?"
"You did what?!" asked Niklas in suprise and then looked thoughtful. "Why... I did know, but I
didn't realize that I did until just now. These memories floating around really suck sometimes."
said Niklas and sighed "What brought that arou... Oh, you were dying." said Niklas and fell
silent. Charles shivered at the memory but he got himself under control before Niklas was even
able to notice it. He couldn't show any weakness around his students, it might make them think
less of him.
"Yes." replied Charles silently. "He did great for a while, but now I can't help but wonder if
he was just pretending all along so he could infiltrate, get to know our weaknesses and steal
our technology." admitted Charles.
"I didn't! I reformed, did my best to protect your precious 'students'!" yelled Niklas and then
slammed a hand in front of his face. "Ooohh shit..." he said and sat down to the floor with his
back towards the door. "What's d'matter Chuck? Leave the ol' canuckle alone!" snarled Niklas and
his face twisted in confusion. He buried his head in his hands and he seemed to concentrate.
"Are you all right?" asked Charles and sent out a mental alert to some of the X-Men, just in
case. Niklas looked up, slowly rose to his feet and shook his head.
"Not really... But I'm okay for now." replied Niklas. "I... lost myself, other minds..." he fell
silent and Charles nodded, he had suspected something like this would happen sooner or later.
The human mind wasn't prepared to contain all that information, sooner or later the dams would
crash, the other minds he had copied would intrude. Charles shivered, Niklas had some of the
very dangerous minds in his head. /Who knows what might come out of this?/ he wondered as
Niklas excused himself and wandered off towards his room.

Joseph stared through the glass at Magneto. /Not me.../ he thought and saw the similarities
between the two of them. /I'm just... a clone of this man. A degenerated clone he called me./
Joseph pulled up his sleeve and looked down on the dark spots on his arm, it had already
started. His body was running wild, his flesh decomposing, his cells twisting. Without the
regenerators they had in the mansion, he was unable to stop the spread of the decay. Muir had
some pretty amazing stuff as well, but nothing that came close to the regenerators. The man inside
seemed to sense that someone was looking at him even though he couldn't see through the glass
from inside the cell. He walked up to the door, looked at the glass that would be completely
black at his side and looked, his cold eyes blazing.
"Well, if it isn't the clone. I can feel you, you knew that didn't you? You filthy little bag
of shit, halfmeasure and faint copy of the original! You will set me free, oh yes, you will
set me free 'Joseph'..." said the man in the cell and started to laugh. Joseph clenched his
fists and ground his teeth together. /This is the man I was cloned from?/
"Better a faint copy then the disgusting original." he said coldly and Magneto fell silent.
"Really? Will you think the same once you start degenerating? It might already have started,
you are slowly falling apart and I am the only one who can stop it! I am your only hope, the
only one who can save your pathetic little body from decay! Magneto, the Savior!" Joseph raised
his hand, intending to unlock the cell but he let it fall.
"No. You will not be liberated because of me, you will grown old and perish in this cell." said
Joseph and walked away, wincing as his arm started to hurt again, he pulled his sleeve down,
he didn't want to see the decay spreading.

Charles hovered out of the Blackbird and stared at the ruins of the mansion. He nodded and
Butch Walbrock, put his men to work. Charles looked on for a while and then hovered back into
the Blackbird, Joseph and Jean had torn everything up and taken out everything that could
compromise things. The lower levels had survived and they were now sealed, protecting the areas
the workers couldn't be allowed to see. Butch, the mans actual name, had promised to have the
mansion rebuilt in just three weeks. He had four teams that would be working day and nigh until
it was finished. Parts of the mansion was assembled at other places and would be transported here
when they were finished, speeding up the process significantly. Niklas had arranged it all and
even forked out some of the money for it all even if most of it came out of Charles pockets. Yet
another group of teams were working on rebuilding the academy for Generation X, the workers were
all very professional, skilled and worked like madmen. When Charles had asked Niklas about it
all, he had answered that all of them had built HawkTech underground bases. He had contacted
HawkTech and asked to hire the workers, they didn't come cheap, but as Charles saw how fast the
mansion progressed, he couldn't help but to think that it was worth every cent.
"From the wreckage, we shall rise again." mumbled Charles without knowing where he had heard
that particular expression before. He hovered back to the Blackbird, he wanted to get back
to Muir. He rarely got the chance to see his old students Kurt, Katherine and Piotr and he
didn't want to waste this opportunity.

"The ratings are falling o disgusting blob of lard." said Major Domo. "Not even the X-babies
X-travaganza manages to maintain their old ratings."
"Oh the horror! The ratingsaredroppingcostsarerisingwe'redoomeddoomedItellyouweneedsomething..."
blabbed Minor Domo until she fainted. Major Domo carefully prodded her with his left foot and
then moved around her.
"I know! We'll do a two-week Mojo documentary about me!" exclaimed Mojo and smiled. "All of my
loyal subjects will learn to love and cherish me like never before, we'll call it 'In bed with
Mojo the magnificent!' and everybody will love it!"
"We did that last month o overwhelming stench of decay."
"Then we'll call it 'In bed with Mojo the astounding!' you boring pole of complaints!"
"We did that four months ago."
"Shut up! Then we'll do another X-Men special, we'll send them off to... Middle Earth! They can
be the Hobbits and I will play Aragorn!"
"Marvelous o disgusting ball of venomous birddroppings, but the X-babies have already played
the part of the Hobbits in five movies set in Middle earth."
"That's it, from now on you may not insult me! You shall call me, 'Mojo - lord and master'!"
commanded Mojo.
"WHY NOT SEND THEM OFF TO THIS LITTLE WORLD? 'THE X-MEN VS ARAWN', DOESN'T THAT SOUND LIKE A
NICE TITLE?" asked a booming voice and a miniature world appeared in front of Mojo who looked
closely at it and started to laugh.
"'The X-Men vs Arawn' filmed in Mojovision with Mojocolor and Mojo surround stereo! I like it!
The voice was nice Major Domo, you shall always use that voice in the future!"
"But o revolti... Mojo - lord and master, I didn't say anything!" protested Major Domo. They
both looked around, searching for the source of the voice without finding any. Mojo soon forgot
about that and looked at the globe hovering in front of him, this would be perfect, his ratings
would be higher then ever!

THE END!