A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
"Bold text": Shadows,
[ ] : System,
| | : Artificial Intelligence.
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Location: Earth, Indian Ocean, Genosha, Hammer Bay
July 24, 2006
Erik Lensherr POV
A month had passed since I and Charles visited Ashwani, and now I am waiting alongside my Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in my palace. Mystique was wearing her white suit without any disguise, armed with only a pistol. Small, unassuming, and yet, still deadly, as she has always been.
Toad, Juggernaut, Sabretooth and Blob stood around me in wait. Sabretooth picked at his teeth with his claws, Toad sat on a chair near one of the windows, Blob gorged himself on a freshly cooked ham, and Juggernaut simply sat on the floor in silence.
"So, how long are we going to wait for your little Golden Boy?" Sabretooth asks, his voice still dripping with contempt. I do hope that he stops thinking of Ashwani like this, before he is eventually forced to do so. Shortly after he asks that, however, purplish sparks appear in the middle of the room, spinning until they open up as a portal.
A foot clad in black armored shoes stepped through the portal, and the atmosphere in the room shifted. A boy, no, a man, dressed in pitch black armor that seemed to absorb all light around it, a cloak that seemed like an abyss over his shoulders, and… a milkshake in his hand.
Shaking off my speechlessness, I smile at him. "Welcome to Genosha, Ashwani. Although, when it comes to you, I guess "Welcome back." is more appropriate." I say, welcoming our newest comrade. "Yeah, thanks. Sorry about being late, by the way. Had to get some sugar in me. You know, growing boy and all that." He says, then takes a slurp from the milkshake while looking around the room, as the portal closes behind him.
"Toad." He says, greeting Toad with a nod. "Fred, I see that you're still eating well. That's good." He says with a smile, as he greets Blob. He then walks over to Juggernaut. "Cain Marko, glad to see you're part of something more impactful than brute force bank heists." He said, referring to Juggernaut's past.
"That was a waste of the power you received from Cyttorak, if you ask me. I mean, you became the avatar of an entity of destruction and chose to become a thief. But it's good to see you here now. I hope to keep seeing you, and that you let go of your grudge against Charles." Ashwani said with a smile.
"Hey, Raven. I've been doing fine, so there's no need to feel so worried anymore." He said with a smile, and Raven's shoulders seemed to relax. It surprises me a bit, because although I have known her to be caring of the younger ones of our kind, this is the first time that I've seen her seem so invested in one. "That's good to hear, Ashwani." She said, her voice holding much less tension than before.
He then turned to look at Sabretooth, and I could almost feel the hostility emanating from his body. "Victor." He said the name, his voice deceptively calm. But even with that, it was clear that Sabretooth noticed his hostility. "What? Does Little Death have something to tell me?" Sabretooth says with a snarl, as he towered over Ashwani.
Ashwani looked at him blankly and raised his free hand, then quickly swiped his index finger to the right. Following the movements of his hand, Sabretooth's head spun a full 180 degrees, and his spine broke. "Woah!" Toad and Blob shouted at how fast things had escalated.
"Victor. You really need to learn how to pick your fights." Ashwani says, raising Sabretooth's body with his telekinesis, before slamming him belly down onto the floor, causing the sound of breaking bones to ring out. I would have stopped him, but it would do Sabretooth some good to be humbled so that he doesn't get himself into a worse situation.
"Victor, don't take this the wrong way, but you've gotten pretty rusty. Then again, when you spend most of your time killing people who are defenseless in comparison to you, I guess it's just to be expected." Ashwani says, his violet eyes glowing as he looked down at Sabretooth. "If you were to face someone who even had the slightest capability to beat you, you'd very likely lose. This isn't an opinion, Victor… it's a fact." He says with a low voice.
"Take this, for example." He said, lifting Sabretooth into the air, then twisting his neck back. "Say you met someone else who has powers from the Darkforce dimension, you probably wouldn't know that they could do this." He says, then quite literally puts his arm through Sabretooth. There wasn't any pain on Sabretooth's face from this. Intangibility.
"Or this." Ashwani says, then pulls his hand out of Sabretooth, leaving a hole where his arm was. Toad, Blob and Juggernaut look at this with confusion, but I felt… understood what he had just done. When he pulled his arm out, the flesh that was there just got erased, like his arm consumed it. "This is a light attack. If I chose to, I could erase every bit of your body. I wouldn't even need to stop your regenerative factor to kill you."
With what Ashwani had done, I felt that it was enough and moved to pacify him. "Oh, and if you think I used my telekinesis to do this to you because I'm not physically strong enough, think again. I just didn't want to have to deal with a mound of mangled flesh." He says, then releases Sabretooth.
"Now, if we're done with this, shall we get down to business." He said, then began manipulating darkness to form a highly detailed globe. "I've got a few sites that experiment on our kind that we can hit, but right now, this is the most important one." He says, pointing to a mountain range in New York.
"What's there?" Mystique asks him. "A production facility. The last metahuman that was still alive there died 3 days ago." Ashwani says, and I clench my fist, only able to imagine what they could have gone through before dying. "They were being experimented on to develop a machine capable of detecting the X-gene, as well as one to kill those with the X-gene." His words cause the atmosphere of the room to become heavier.
"While they've finished producing the detector, they were still in the process of assembling the other." He says, then reformed the darkness into a humanoid robot. "This… is a Sentinel. And it was made by this man…" He says, reforming the darkness into a man about 5'10" in height. "Bolivar Trask. Renowned scientist and robotics expert, highly prejudiced against our kind and wants to develop a way to… 'manage' us." The words cause a feeling of disgust to well up inside me.
*Bolivar Trask*
"The Sentinels are the answer he came to after that train of thought." He says, shrinking the figure of Trask and forming another one of these… Sentinels, as he called them. But this time the size difference between the two was stark. "Why the difference in size?" I ask him, not hopeful that the answer he'll give will be pleasant in any way.
"It's for scale. The Sentinels are each three stories tall, and to make things worse for you guys, aren't made of metal." If that is still true, then those machines must absolutely be gotten rid of as soon as possible. "The only good news we have now is that he's not yet gotten the details of this particular pet project of his to the government. So, he can be taken out before he has a chance to actually go big." He said, then absorbed the darkness into his shadow.
As he did that, I noticed that his shadow flickered, and it didn't seem like he controlled it to do that, but rather that it was alive in some way. Perhaps he had gotten some soldiers. If so, I would be interested in seeing what his soldiers are capable of.
"Considering all that, how would you feel about a little… presentation of sorts?" I raised an eyebrow at his question, wondering what exactly he intended to do. "You see, in the last month, I've gotten quite a few soldiers, and they haven't had the chance to properly stretch their legs… so to speak." He said, and his shadow flickered again, but this time, multiple purple eyes glowed from within it.
For a short moment, I wanted to tell Ashwani to wait and be patient, that if all he had said was true, then he should keep away from such danger. But as I looked into his eyes, I saw something powerful… and sinister, almost as if those purple orbs held the pure force of retribution within.
"When do you plan to commence this… presentation, as you called it?" I ask him. "As soon as possible." He says and flicks his hand, and at the door of the room, a portal large enough for all of us to walk through opened. "Now seems like a good time." He says, then begins walking towards the portal.
All of us understand his intent and follow him through the portal, even Sabretooth, although with muted growls that I believe Ashwani heard. As we emerged on the other side of the portal, we readied ourselves to join him and destroy the place, but it seemed that he had other plans.
…
Omniscient POV
Location: Earth, North America, USA, New York, Adirondack Mountains
In the midst of the numerous trees that are a part of the large mountain range, a portal opened, and Ashwani, Raven, Erik, Victor, Frederick, Mortimer and Cain stepped through it. Ashwani was dressed in his armor, which like every other bit of gear he had, was made from his nanomachines. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were all dressed in their most iconic costumes.
*The Brotherhood*
After they all stepped out, Ashwani's head was enveloped by a helm. This was the last part of his Nano Suit, which he had edited to look reminiscent of Ashborne's armor and helm. With the different abilities he added to the suit, on top of its base abilities, his stats climbed to almost double his current stats.
Before he went over to Hammer Bay, he used all of the bonus stats he had accumulated over the 30 days that he had completed his daily quests, increasing all of his base stats to 165 points. And for the details of the Nano Suit, they were sufficiently powerful.
[Item: Nano Suit
Item Class: EX
Type: Armor
Reduction in physical damage: 95%
Defense +1,500
Vitality +150
Strength +150
Perception +150
Agility +150
Intelligence +150
Effect 1 'Absorption': Absorbs energy upon collision.
Effect 2 'Omniadaptive': Adapts to all environments.
Effect 3 'Jet Flight': Allows for flight & possesses thrusters for extra propulsion.
Effect 4 'Auto-Battle': In the event of user's incapacitation, Nano Suit will autonomously control the body to fight.]
With that on top of his Abyss Cloak and Black Rift, Ashwani's stat board now looked like this.
[Level: 48
Strength: 440
Vitality: 465
Agility: 505
Intelligence: 315
Perception: 465
Reduction in Physical Damage: 95%]
Within merely a month of his time with his abilities, he had reached similar levels of strength to Sung Jin-Woo at the time of Rakan's attack on South Korea's Hunters. However, he also knew that this was the bare minimum for him to get proper footing, before he moved on to larger things.
As he closed the portal, he began walking to a large rock formation that was about 10 yards from where he brought them. While most of them remained silent, Magneto let out a small hum, as he noticed a discrepancy between the rock and the rest of the environment. "Despite looking like granite, there's a considerable bit of metal here." He noticed.
"That's because this is the entrance. Now, if you'll excuse me… I'm going to knock." Ashwani said, cocking his fist back then punching forward. The impact of his fist hitting the rock was a massive explosion of force that destroyed the rock and mangled the metal within it. Ashwani used Ruler's Authority to clear the area, revealing a staircase that led down into the Sentinel production facility.
Sabretooth and Juggernaut wanted to rush in, but stopped as Ashwani raised his hand. "Come out." He said, and a second later, his shadow expanded outward form him, spreading like ink in clear water. Rather than bring out all of his shadows, he only brought out his Shadow Ninjas. "Go in and eliminate everyone. As for Bolivar, leave him to me." He commanded. ""Yes, our Liege!"" They said, their voices coming out layered, then rushed into the facility.
"Garou." He said, calling out his current strongest shadow soldier. Garou emerged from Ashwani's shadow, 15 feet of shadowy lycanthropic menace with clawed hands that glowed violet, and he knelt before Ashwani, as a knight would before their King. "Your will is my command." His voice rand out, distorted and gravelly.
"Take all the Lycans and Brigas, scour this entire mountain range for anyone that may have escaped this facility. If they are a metahuman, bring them here. If they are more perpetrators of this atrocity, end them. But make sure that you aren't seen by anyone else." Ashwani commanded, his Shadow Lycans and Shadow Brigas emerging from his shadow, and Garou bowed his head even lower.
What no one noticed was that Ashwani was also sending nanomachines into the ground to infiltrate the facility's systems, even as he dished out his commands. To make sure that his actions underfoot wouldn't be noticed, Ashwani had the nanomachines under Stealth.
But even if they had noticed, they would have been too preoccupied with either being in awe or fear of Ashwani's soldiers, especially Garou. Sabretooth, who was the closest to a more primal human, could practically smell the power, and therefore, the danger coming off Ashwani's soldiers. Right now, he was internally reprimanding himself for daring to mess with the person that could command all of them as if it were normal.
"Well, let's go in." Ashwani said to the Brotherhood, then walked down into the facility. As they walked in the hallways of the facility, there were corpses strewn all over. Headless bodies in tactical gear, some with guns that had been cleanly sliced through, others lacking arms as well, were amongst them. A few bodies, similarly headless, wore lab coats over formal shirts and slacks.
Mystique and Sabretooth were impressed with the efficiency with which Ashwani's Shadow Ninjas took out the multiple… soldiers? mercenaries? They weren't sure what exactly the kitted-up corpses were, but they were sure that they were put in their current state with inhuman ease.
"
"Hmm. It seems that getting here today was a better decision that I thought." Ashwani said, amidst the quiet hum of the facility's electricity. "Why do you think so?" Magneto asked him, as he floated beside him. "These guys weren't Bolivar's subordinates. Sure, they worked to help him, but they answered to someone else." Ashwani said, his voice carrying a grim realization.
"Why would they? You said it yourself that he is a scientist and roboticist of great renown. Couldn't he use his own fortune and clout to recruit mercenaries and like-minded scientists?" Mystique asked him. "He could have, but not with these guys. Their loyalties were with someone who is arguably worse than Bolivar, but undoubtedly more powerful." As he spoke, they started to notice that despite the assault, there were no alarms or indications of a lockdown, but they didn't ask any questions.
"That person is none other than General William Stryker. Unfortunately, he isn't here today, otherwise, I would've taken him out as well." He said with a sigh, while Sabretooth was shocked at the identity of the person backing this facility.
It wasn't that he didn't believe that the William Stryker would involve himself in projects that maliciously exploited metahumans. On the contrary, that was expected. Sabretooth just didn't think that Stryker, who had utilized other metahumans would involve himself in this particular project that sought to exterminate them.
However, his thoughts stopped when they came across something… curious. It looked like the top half of a large head that had been cleanly cut off. And at that moment, it clicked – this was part of a Sentinel. "Looks like he had at least completed some prototypes. They're much smaller than the plans for the final product showed." Ashwani said as they came across more and more parts that had been sliced off.
Eventually, they reached a hallway where Ashwani's Shadow Ninjas were all waiting on either side, all bowed on one knee, making it look like a noble's procession. At the end of the hallway was a metal door, which Ashwani identified as an adamantium alloy, most likely provided by Stryker. And everyone knew that behind the door, Bolivar Trask remained trapped, only capable of waiting for his death.
"Good job." Ashwani said curtly. ""Your words are too kind, our Liege."" They responded in union. Ashwani put his hand out, pushing Ruler's Authority to envelop the door, then slowly clenched his hand. Piercing sounds of metal being crushed rang out, and everyone watched as he reduced an 8-foot-tall door to a ball of metal 1 foot in diameter.
In the room behind the door, Bolivar Trask watched his last line of his defence get torn out. He hadn't originally been in this panic room, but rather, he was checking on his Sentinel prototypes. Due to the fact that ELITE had already infiltrated the systems of the facility, the alarms were silent, but the gunshots from Stryker's soldiers alerted him and the other scientists to the presence of intruders. And the abrupt cessation of those gunshots shortly after helped him know that the soldiers had died.
Fearful for his life, he activated the Sentinel prototypes and headed to the panic room, which had a secret door which led to an escape passage, but when he tried to use the door, it was unresponsive – courtesy of ELITE's interference. He tried reaching out to Stryker to let him know about the intruders, but any signal he could have gotten was fully blocked – once again, ELITE's doing.
He felt that he had time to think of a way out, since after all, the door to the panic room was made with an adamantium alloy, which could very well be indestructible. What he didn't expect was for the material that has been lauded as being indestructible to be treated like Play-Doh.
"Hello, Bolivar. Now, goodbye." Ashwani said, then flicked his middle finger at Bolivar. A concentrated telekinetic blast hit Bolivar's torso, and the force it carried pulverized everything from his neck to his thighs, leaving only his extremities untouched. The speed and prejudice with which Ashwani eliminated Bolivar surprised the Brotherhood, as they had expected him to at least torture Bolivar or do the telepathic equivalent.
"Well, I know why Stryker chose to collaborate with him. He wanted inhibitor collars for those with active X-genes." He said, then looked pointedly at what was left of Bolivar. "Arise." Following Ashwani's command, a shadowy hand emerged from the ground, and following it was a complete shadow soldier of Bolivar Trask, now living through death.
"You may have contributed to our kind's suffering while alive, but now you have all of eternity to restitute." Ashwani said. "Yes, master." Bolivar's shadow responded, much to Ashwani's shock. Originally, when he raised his Shadow Ninjas, they were unable to speak, but now, someone as weak as Bolivar spoke when raised as a shadow soldier. He had attributed the Shadow Ninjas' inability to speak to the chasm of power between him and them, but now he thinks that the reason they couldn't speak then was because he wasn't all that strong.
"Well, that's all good…" Ashwani began, then snapped his fingers, recalling all his shadow soldiers that were within the facility. "…but it's best that you all get to a safe distance." He finished, opening a portal after speaking. "Why? I don't sense any attacks coming this way." Magneto said. "Yeah, I know. I'm telling you to leave because I'm going to destroy this place, and make sure that there's nothing left of it." Ashwani replied, and darkness began spreading out from him like flames in a sea of gasoline.
Wanting to not get caught in the destruction, Magneto and the others walked through the portal, which dropped them on a mountain overlooking the area where the facility was. For two minutes, they didn't see any activity, but once those two minutes elapsed, they saw exactly how Ashwani intended to destroy the facility.
In the area where the facility was, a massive dome of darkness erupted from underground, then rapidly spun and compressed. When the darkness vanished, the only things left in that area were Ashwani, who was hovering in the air, and a smooth crater that looked like the earth there had been cleanly gouged out.
…
Two minutes ago
Ashwani POV
Finally, they're gone. I know I said that I was going to meet up with them today, but their presence has been limiting what I can actually do without sparking unnecessary suspicions. "ELITE, have you got it?" I ask my resident voice-in-head. |Yeah, Boss. The Master Mold is about 5 metres underground, and I've been able to isolate it.| She responds.
With a short breath, I turn intangible, moving through the ground to the area where the core of the Master Mold – the central AI that was meant to control the Sentinels, was being kept. I waste no time trying to make the Master Mold turn away from its directives or understand humanity but instead, set ELITE on a path of destruction and assimilation, tearing down the Master Mold until it is no more than rudimentary binary code.
In less than 30 minutes from our arrival at the facility's hidden door to this particular moment, I had gotten rid of one of the greatest threats to metahuman kind on Earth. "Well, I said that I'm destroying the place. So, let's get to it." I say, and practically a microsecond later, nanomachines surge from my body to consume everything in the facility, biotic or not.
As the nanomachines move, I send out Darkforce, fuelling its spread with mana, and shaping it with my proficiency in umbrakinesis and the Domain of the Monarch skill, forming a sphere that would go over a dozen metres aboveground, with myself as the centre. Once I was sure I had covered the entire area where the facility was, I turned my hand, causing the sphere of Darkforce to spin and compress, consuming everything in its path and pushing my nanomachines back to me.
Once I had finished up, I looked down, just to make sure that nothing truly remained of the facility. In place of the vegetation, rock formations and the subterranean facility, there was now a large smooth crater. Luckily for the wildlife that would have been there, the presence of my shadow soldiers had already scared them off, so I didn't have to worry about that.
Speaking of my shadow soldiers, they were all coming back, after killing a few soldiers that were also a part of Stryker's private army. Apparently, the ones they killed were on patrol, which seeing it now, I should have expected. But the last time any of the soldiers involved with Trask's pet project died was about 6 months ago, so I didn't put any trust towards the information I had from their memories.
As far as eliminating the worst threats to metahumans, this is going to have to suffice for now. As for Stryker, his day will come, and by then, I'll be much stronger than I am now. For now, though, I'm going to start placing the foundation for us to integrate into society.
…
Omniscient POV
Ashwani flew back to the Brotherhood, leaving the Adirondack Mountains scarred. As he reached them, he noticed that the way they looked at him had changed. Magneto no longer had that sliver of doubt in his eyes. Blob, Toad and Juggernaut looked at him with respect. Sabretooth lost any bit of hostility in his gaze, most of it replaced by animalistic caution. And Mystique no longer had the worried look one would have when dealing with a child out of their depth.
Ashwani told them that this was going to be adequate for the time being, as no one else quite had the combination of Trask's brilliant mind and his intense hatred for metahumans. The ones that had the smarts to create Sentinels not only had other priorities, but they would also need the years of research, trial and error and background deals that Trask had accumulated. And the ones that were as eager to eradicate metahumans were for the most part, not as mentally gifted.
After a few more minutes of pleasantries, Ashwani opened a portal back to Hammer Bay, leaving them with a few messages. "When the time is right, I'll call on you. And Victor, it's best you tell your Marauder buddies to keep their nose out of anything harming metahumans, otherwise, they'll have to deal with me." He said, then closed the portal behind them, but not before placing a single Shadow Ninja in each of their shadows.
After the departure of the Brotherhood, Ashawni opened a portal to Kamar-Taj to prepare for his next major move.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 4,271
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