THIS IS A SPECIAL REPORT FROM ABC NEWS. PLEASE STAY TUNED!
DISCLAIMER: The following is a live broadcast being transmitted from the presidential palace in Santo Marco. ABC News would like to apologize in advance for any disturbing imagery and speech that may occur, as the broadcast has not been edited or censored in any way. Sensitive viewers please be adviced.
[SCREEN]: The screen shows the front of a large, opulent building, the camera focusing on a wide balcony on the fourth floor where a massive flag is hanging from the railing, carrying a giant stylized "M" in the middle. A group of people are gathered on the balcony, a young man with white hair, a pretty young woman with dark hair and a strange headpiece, a man in his 30's with greasy hair and a thin moustache, and a much shorter, misshapen man with a hunched back just barely visible over the railing. The group parts as another figure steps through the open balcony doors in the background and walks towards the edge of the platform, staring down at the assembled crowd beneath before looking right at the camera.
MAGNETO: "I am Magneto, the Master of Magnetism, leader of the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants, the savior of mutantkind and the new ruler of Santo Marco, and I have a message to the so-called world leaders watching this! Know this, human scum, your ill-gotten rule of this planet is coming to an end, and much sooner than you think! For far too long, you have plundered this world of it's resources, abused and enslaved your fellow men, massacred countless millions in your pathetic squabbles over land and God, and now, you will reap what you have sown. Me and my Brotherhood are but for the first of a new breed of men that will rise to claim our rightful place as the rulers of this Earth, and you will all be swept aside to make room for your superiors! Your attempt at avoiding your inevitable extinction by oppressing and disenfranchising us is doomed to fail, because Santo Marco is merely the first step of our glorious ascendance! I, Magneto, hereby proclaim this to be the future capital of our soon-to-be mutant homeland, from which we shall spread out across the world and claim what is rightfully ours!
To my fellow mutants watching this, hiding away their natural abilities for fear of discovery and rejection by a world that hates and fears you, I say shed your former identity, leave your past behind! Your families will never accept you, they will never see you for what you truly are, their replacements! Rise up, all of you! Rise up, and join me in overthrowing our human oppressors! Leave your old lives behind and become part of my Brotherhood, become what you were meant to be!
Remember always, my fellow mutants! Humanity will never accept you, because they are the lesser beings! Only here, under my banner, will you find what you seek! A future, a future that belongs to us! A world for mutantkind!"
...
"Jesus fucking christ, just turn it off, would you?"
The video screen shuts off with a flicker as Pym flicks one of the switches on the plane's control panel. I pull off my sunglasses and tug down my bandana, letting me rub my hands over my face as I try my best to process the utter idiocy I just witnessed. Goddamnit, Eric, or Max, or whatever the hell you call yourself in your head. Just... god-fucking damnit... I knew it was going to be bad, I knew he was a fucking lunatic at this point in time, but seeing that speech he just made, I think it hammered home just what we're going to be facing today.
"He's insane. He's completely out of his fucking mind..." I say tiredly, running a hand through my hair before I put my mask and glasses back on. In the seat next to me, Steve nods, concerned.
"I know his type, and it was one I had hoped we'd left behind in the war. I suppose it was foolish to hope that Zemo was just a relic of our era..."
"Yeah, sorry Steve, but I really don't think people like that hooded creep, or this lunatic, were really exclusive to any particular time" Wasp says, her arms draped over the backrest to Steve's chair "You know, I'm almost starting to miss the kind of bad guys me and Hank fought when we were just starting out. Thieves and crazy scientists and evil aliens, those kinds of things. Now it seems like every day there's some new psychopath trying to cause a genocide..." She almost looks sad at the thought "It's weird the stuff you get nostalgic about."
"I wouldn't say I'm nostalgic about it, especially since we've only in this line of work for a bit over a year, but yeah, I suppose I see your point, Janet" Pym agrees as he checks over the controls for the jet "I wasn't expecting to be fighting wars against mutant supremacists when all of this started, but then again, I hardly expected to fight aliens either. I'm still not entirerly sure about what this Magneto character is trying to accomplish either..."
Janet shrugs "I'd say that speech he made was pretty clear, don't you think?"
Pym shakes his head "No, that's not what I meant, from what I understand, he believes that mutants are somehow... the next step in human evolution, yes?" He glances towards me, looking for confirmation and I just give a half-hearted wave with one hand.
"Basically, though I'm pretty sure evolution doesn't work the way he seems to think it does..."
"It absolutely does not work like that!" Pym says, his voice rising "Evolution doesn't work in steps like that, that's a popular misconception, and what little information I've been able to find on this kind of human mutation doesn't make any more sense either, it seems to just have appeared in random spots worldwide, it goes against everything we know about genetics!"
"To be fair, I think everyone present in this plane goes against everything we know about genetics as well" Banner says from the back of the plane. He's wearing a sleeveless black jumpsuit made from a black material I don't recognize, something Stark handed to him before we left, apparently designed to let the Hulk run around in something other than bicycle shorts. I notice he's still barefoot too, gotta be cold to walk around like that in December. "There's no reason for any of our abilities to work the way they do, you and Janet alone violate the conservation of mass every time you use yours. I studied the Super Soldier serum during my graduate program, and there seems to be little reason for why it works as well, and even if there was, a serum would have worn off long before Captain Rogers ever found himself in the ice. And even if we ignore the fact that mutation doesn't make any scientific sense, there's no reason for why Sunshine's abilities work at all, there's no biological process that could possibly allow the human body to process and utilize sunlight the way he does!"
Pym throws his hands up in frustration "Yes, alright, fine, I get your point, Dr. Banner! It's just..." he sighs "I just feel like, if I could just make the man see sense-"
"You won't, he'll never listen to you" I interrupt him. "Magneto is a fanatic, his ideology might as well be gospel as far as he's concerned. If facts mattered at all to him, we wouldn't be off to fight a war against him." The worst part is that I know WHY he's like this, a survivor of the Nazi jackboot slowly turning into something just as bad as they had been, but it's not something I can share with the other Avengers, because there is no reason for me to know who Eric Lensherr or Max Eisenhart is. Though I could probably refer to my so-called future vision again... No, that can wait, it's not relevant to the mission at hand. What IS relevant on the other hand...
"Magneto tried to recruit me three months ago."
THAT gets the attention of the team.
"...why are we only hearing of this just now?" Steve asks, the first to snap out of his shock.
I shrug "It was right after the Avengers fought the Space Phantom, and before I dug you out of the ice. To be honest I just didn't think much of it at the time..."
"You didn't think much of being contacted by a wanted terrorist?" Hank says incredulously.
"Actually, no, not really. I'd already been visited by the X-Men that same day with their own recruitment pitch, I figured I might get a visit from the other end of the mutant spectrum too. And frankly, I was like a week into this line of work at the time, so I didn't really have a go-to reaction for running into one of the FBI's Most Wanted. It's not like calling the cops would have done any good."
"But why didn't you tell one of us?" Janet actually looks almost upset that I hadn't run to the nearest Avenger for support. "We would have helped!"
"I didn't need HELP, Wasp. Magneto left once he realized I wasn't interested in joining his little secret club of racial supremacists and it'd be more trouble than it was worth to try and fight me over it, and I haven't seen him since. If I knew he was planning something like this, you bet I would have said something!" Of course, I actually did know that he was eventually going to try this, problem was I had no idea WHEN it would happen, otherwise I would have tried to set something up to atleast give some warning. The original story sure as hell didn't take place on Christmas, that much I do know, and I didn't even remember the name of the country until today.
In retrospect, my handling of Magneto and the Brotherhood is probably not the highpoint of my hero work.
"I think we may be overlooking an opportunity here" Banner says "Other than Magneto himself, the intel we got was pretty bare bones, but if Sunshine has actually met these people in person, maybe he can help fill it out a bit."
"Good thinking, Dr. Banner!" Steve says, before turning back to me "Sunshine, you remember anything else from that meeting?"
Now THIS is something I can help with.
"Well, I didn't catch many names, but there's this one guy with a creepy pedo moustache who dresses like a Victorial serial killer, and I'm pretty sure he uses illusions..."
...
There's a whoosh as the door to the plane is opened, and Thor appears in the opening, standing on the stairs to the tarmac.
"The X-Men have arrived, friends. The eve of battle is upon us!"
Steve nods, pulling his hood down over his face and grabs his shield on the way out the door "Alright, Avengers, time for the rendevouz. Pym, is the plane ready for takeoff?"
"Ready when you are, Cap!"
Me and Janet follow Steve down the stairs and out on the field, just in time to see a group of people approach us from across the airfield. It's a little past 1 PM, but the heavy grey clouds above completely covers the pale winter sun, and a light snow has begun drifting down. Five figures dressed in blue and yellow costumes, their faces covered with blue hoods, meet us halfway to the plane. Angel looks the same as he did when I met him back in September, but this is the first time I've actually seen Cyclops in uniform. Behind him, a girl who can only be Jean Grey shuffles nervously, trying to put on a brave face, and it's hard to imagine that the teenager in front of me is going to be one of the most powerful psychics on the planet. Beast would normally look strange with his giant feet and bulky proportions, but as someone who's been hanging around the Incredible Hulk, it's not as weird as it would have been once.
The same can't be said for Bobby Drake, who currently looks like an ice sculpture wearing boots. I never got why he can't seem to use his powers without draping himself in them like a reverse Human Torch.
To no surprise, Cyclops steps out in front, ever the dutiful team leader. "Captain America, sir. It's an honor to meet you."
Cap simply offers his hand and Cyclops shakes it after a moment of hesitation "It's good to meet you as well, son. I've read up on the work you and your group have been doing out there, dealing with threats the authorities might have difficulties with. I understand you've dealt with Magneto once before?"
"Er, yes. Yes, sir." Cyclops answers, seemingly surprised at being met with anything better than hostility from a non-mutant authority figure "We fought him at Cape Citadel earlier this year, our first fight as a team actually. Just wish he hadn't managed to get away, or we wouldn't be dealing with the mess we're in now..."
"Nonsense, the man has, what, 20 years more experience than you, at the very least? Besides, this time you'll have a good deal more backup than your last meeting. I believe some of you have already met one of our members, Mr. Sunshine?" Steve motions towards me, and Cyclops glances over at me, his lips drawing into a frown.
"We've met."
Wow, good to know Summers isn't at all still pissy about me turning down Xaviers pitch at our last meeting. "Cyclops, good to see you again! Still protecting a world that hates and fears you? Tough job, but someone's gotta do it, right?" I give Angel a nod, who waves back awkwardly "Hey, Angel, what's up?"
"...anyway, the lady next to me is The Wasp" Janet smiles and shakes Cyclops hand as well, followed by Jean, who gathers up the courage to greet her. "The rest of the team is waiting aboard the plane to go over the plans before we head into Santo Marco. I doubt I need to tell you that this isn't going to be easy, especially now that Magneto has a team of his own. Are you ready?"
Cyclops nods "Lead the way, Captain."