A distance of dozens of kilometers across desert terrain might take ordinary people two or three days to cross on foot. But for mutants, this presented little challenge.
If there was enough metal available, Magneto could fly the group across. Jean Grey, whose telekinesis had significantly evolved, could also carry them with her powers alone.
However, the team ultimately chose to use Shin's Float-Float Fruit ability. It required minimal physical exertion and offered far greater comfort.
Shin raised a large slab of earth and flew with the group for about half an hour. In the distance, the outline of the pyramid emerged on the horizon.
This was the Egyptian desert. To block out the sunlight, Storm summoned a massive formation of clouds. From below, to the human slaves and scattered mutants near the pyramid, it appeared as though a dark cloud was soaring across the sky.
Shin observed the situation below and turned to Storm. "Ororo, let's clear out the ordinary soldiers first. Then we'll have the reserve members descend and maintain order."
As he spoke, Shin activated his chakra, drawing on the combined forces of the Azure Dragon Fruit, the Float-Float Fruit, and his innate elemental control. The once-ordinary-looking cloud began to expand rapidly.
Ororo nodded at first but then glanced over in surprise. "Kevin, you can manipulate weather too? That's not a mutant ability… and it doesn't feel like magic. Is that your superpower?"
While she spoke, she began channeling her own mutant power.
Their abilities were fundamentally different. Storm didn't merely manipulate wind and rain, her power made all things flow. How else could she conjure solar storms at the peak of her strength? Her control resembled the mechanics of the Float-Float Fruit.
Shin's arsenal was more complex. The Float-Float Fruit governed airflow, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit manipulated electric charge, the Azure Dragon Fruit influenced the atmosphere, and chakra gave him command over Wind and Water Release. Together, these powers gave Shin mastery over the elements comparable to Storm's.
Their abilities worked in tandem, allowing each to sense and intuitively understand the other's force. While born of different origins, their techniques complemented each other, and there was much to be learned through mutual observation.
Though Egypt's skies were typically clear, they turned ominously dark as the two exerted their full strength. Though it was nearly noon, the desert's brightness dimmed to the level of midnight. Gale-force winds screamed across Cairo.
The enslaved civilians quickly ducked into shelter. The mutants, more perceptive, moved even faster. This wasn't an ordinary storm. It was a hurricane.
"Strange... I could've sworn the forecast said it'd be clear today."
"Who cares? With ancient gods popping up again, weird weather is par for the course."
"You still think he's a god? He's just another mutant, like us."
A group of mutants huddled inside, chatting nervously. Though mutants were more numerous than in Apocalypse's original era, so much so that their wide variety of powers overwhelmed the senses, he could still easily find abilities worth stealing.
But the proliferation of mutants had diluted the significance of the term. With humanity more enlightened and perspectives broadened, few saw Apocalypse as divine anymore.
Unless he wielded something on the level of the Phoenix Force or had a reality-warping mutant power like Franklin Richards, no one would consider him a god.
God? Ridiculous. Even Thor, a literal deity, had been dismissed as an alien upon first arriving on Earth. What chance did a blue-skinned man have?
This wasn't just the opinion of humans. Mutants shared it too. They never truly saw themselves as gods. If you called them "evolved humans" or "homo superior," they might agree. But gods? Please... everyone had graduated middle school.
This reflected Apocalypse's current predicament. While his mutants followed him, motivated by fear of his overwhelming might or by the incentives of power enhancements, they were far from loyal.
The ideological gap was too wide. On the surface, everything seemed fine. But at the first sign of trouble, they'd scatter like leaves in a storm.
Unlike the time he'd been sealed in the pyramid, no followers were willing to die for him now.
Boom! Crack!
Lightning exploded in the sky, startling several mutants. Soon, they saw bolts of searing energy raining down from the heavens.
"What the hell?!"
"Wait—it's an attack!"
They'd finally realized, this wasn't just an intense storm. It was an assault.
But by then, it was too late.
Despite their mystical or bizarre abilities, most mutants, except for those with reinforced bodies, had the durability of ordinary humans. No one in their right mind would run into a storm like this.
Electricity surged through the ground, spreading like wildfire. Mutants collapsed en masse, rendered unconscious by the indirect discharge alone.
But this was only the periphery. The true target of the lightning was the pyramid itself.
Storm couldn't directly generate lightning. Her power allowed her to create weather conditions that produced it, and then channel its force. In contrast, Shin, wielding the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, could manipulate the electrical charge itself, drawing it from the storm clouds to his will.
Together, their efforts created a massive dark cloud that stretched across half of Egypt. From it, Shin condensed the entire charge into a single, brilliant lightning sphere, glowing like a miniature sun in the sky.
The energy pulsing from it was impossible to conceal. Even civilians could spot it, its light bathing the desert in searing white.
Cradling the lightning sphere, Shin extended his Observation Haki, probing for threats. Though mutants varied widely in nature, those with strong life force signatures always stood out in his sensory field.
With a flick of his finger, a bolt of lightning shot down and obliterated a target, knocking out a particularly dangerous mutant. Shin played whack-a-mole from the sky, pinpointing and striking the most resilient lifeforms one by one.
But before long, a transparent energy shield enveloped the pyramid, halting Shin's next strike.
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