CHAPTER 79-THE DROWNED ARRIVAL
The hovercraft cut across black water, its engines humming like a tired insect. Night air rolled sharp and salty over the X-Men, clinging to their bruises from Cassidy Keep.
Colossus leaned against the railing, arms crossed. 'Feels strange, he rumbled. "Like storm before storm."
"Bad luck's all it is," Sunfire snapped, arms folded, chin tilted high. "Machines fail. That's the way of things."
The machine answered him with a scream.
Metal shrieked like a dying beast, a tearing sound that froze every head. The deck pitched hard. Sparks shot from the consoles.
Nightcrawler clutched the ralling, eyes wide. "Mein Gott-the hull, it-"
Logan crouched low, nostriis flaring. The stench of hot metal, twisted by intent. Not accident. Not wear, "This ain't bad luck. Someone's hand is in this."
Steel ripped down the middle like paper. The hovercraft groaned once more, then died beneath them.
"Into the water!" Banshee roared.
The sea swallowed them whole.
Cold knifed their bones as they kicked for the surface. Storm's cloak dragged at her shoulders, Colossus rose like a gleaming buoy, Sunfire cursed in Japanese through the spray. Logan hit the surface snarling, cigar stub gone, his claws twitching to be unsheathed though useless in the sea.
Minutes later, drenched and half-drowned, the leam clawed their way up the island rocks. Every breath was ragged. Nightcrawler shook himself like a dog, tail whipping water.
"Next time," Thunderbird spat, "I fly the damn boat."
That cracked enough tension for a few laughs, but only just. They stood in dripping silence until Storm pointed ahead.
A silhouette rose on the island's spine angular, towering, cold as the moon. A lab. A fortress.
Banshee squinted, wiping water from his eyes. "Saints preserve us.. Moira? My Moira runs this place? PhD, head of a bloody research complex?" His voice caught between pride and disbelief.
"She never told you?" Logan muttered, water dripping from his sideburns. "Guess secrets run deep.'
They climbed toward the cliffs, boots crunching against wet stone. But the path ended abruptly.
Thunderbird scowled and moved first, slamming shoulder-first into open air. The invisible wall sent him reeling. He cursed and punched it again, useless.
Nightcrawler pressed a hand against the shimmer. "A force field... Gott, yes. It is like glass without glass.
The ground shivered. The island itself answered.
With a roar of stone and iron, the cliff beneath them heaved upward, carrying them like ants
on a rising slab. The field pressed closer,
closer, forcing them toward the lab wall as though to smear them flat.
Storm cried out, wind tearing around her cloak. "It will crush us!"
"Only way's THROUGH!" Logan snarled.
"All together, now!" Banshee bellowed. "Or we're dead men!"
They struck as one. Lightning, fire, fists, claws,
sonic scream-all slammed against the shimmering barrier. Cracks spidered, light
burst outward. With a final detonation, the
wall of the lab shattered inward.
The slab of land hurled them forward. They
smashed across cold flooring, coughing, sprawled in the wreckage. Alive only by seconds.
Banshee staggered upright, chest heaving. His eyes darted around the ruined lab, horror rising in his throat.
"Sweet Mother of God... these tricks... these powers.... only one man in the world commands such things."
He shook his head, refusing to believe. "But it can't be... he was a child, no older than a babe...'
A hiss cut through the silence. The steel door at the far end began to glow. Orange heat bled across it. Metal bubbled, warped, screamed.
"Move!" Logan barked.
The X-Men scattered as the door exploded inward. Shards of molten steel tore the air.
Through the smoke, a shadow stepped. Cloak billowing. Eyes cold as the abyss.
Magneto.
His voice thundered like a verdict. 'I AM EARTH'S RIGHTFUL LORD. AND THE AGE OF MAN IS AT AN END.