May the reader beware!  This story will occasionally contain scenes of a 
semi-violent nature.  If that offends or disturbs in any way, please do 
not read!  The very recognizable characters that are all through this 
story are most definitely the property of DC Comics and Marvel Comics.  
I am simply borrowing them and lay claim to none.  The story however is 
most definitely MINE and I very energetically copyright that.  Any 
questions, comments, etc. please post them or email them to: 
JaseHawke@worldnet.att.net

CrossCurrents: Angels and Demons  --- Part 5/5
by: Jase Hawke

	The Batman dropped down over the Joker's prone form like a sleek 
night predator.  His cape descended a moment after to form a leathery 
shroud about them both.  After a pause, Batman stood and walked away 
from the now handcuffed Clown Prince of Crime.
	Silently, the Dark Knight scrutinized the optical chip in his 
hand until an explosion from the front of the mansion drew his 
attention.  Ghostlike, he drifted among the shadows to the corner of the 
mansion.  A few scant yards away, Magneto grabbed Rogue and slammed the 
young woman into an unaware Cyclops, who had attempted to rise where he 
had fallen a moment ago.  A few feet from where Magneto stood, Professor 
Wayne carefully shook his head as he regained consciousness.  With 
another curious glance at the optical chip, the Dark Knight turned and 
melted into the long shadows.

	Magneto jarred Wolverine with an explosive pulse of raw 
electromagnetic energy just as the Canadian mutant leaped to join in the 
fray.  Logan grunted and landed hard next to the Professor who had 
pulled himself to his overturned wheelchair.  Cyclops groaned and slowly 
climbed to his feet next to an unconscious Rogue.  
	"Your fight is futile, if not pointless."  Magneto growled.  
"You know in your hearts that what I do is right and just.  Stop 
fighting me and let me do what must be done!"  In a swift move Magneto 
turned and raised an electromagnetic shield that Cyclops's optic blast 
exploded harmlessly against.  
	"The murder and enslavement of millions in favor of your 
tyrannical ideals?" Cyclops yelled.  "Never!  Mutants and humans were 
meant to work together! One was not meant to enslave the other!"  
Lehnsherr backed up a step as Wolverine got to his feet and crouched low 
to leap again.  Rogue likewise had regained consciousness slowly and 
took to the air.  Next to his chair, Professor Wayne reached out and 
touched the rage-filled mind of the man called Magneto.  In the span of 
a thought, Wayne saw what Lehnsherr was about to do.
	-: No my X-Men!  Wait! :- He telepathically broadcast.
	A second before any other reactions could occur, fury exploded 
within Magneto.  "FOOLS!"  With the exclamation came a dome-shaped blast 
of pure, unrestrained electromagnetic energy that tore outwards at the 
speed of light.  Screams of agony and rage filled the air as the 
Professor and his three X-Men on the mansion's front lawn were thrown 
backwards several feet.  As the electromagnetic shock wave subsided, 
Magneto lowered his arms in exhaustion as silence settled over the 
grounds.  "Very well Bruce ... since they share your naive dream ... 
they will share your penance.  Now, I will finally stand unopposed to my 
destiny."  Magneto sighed and coughed as the poison raced in his veins. 
 With a grimace, Lehnsherr turned to slowly take flight.
	"Funny thing about a man's destiny ... " A rough, grated voice 
whispered harshly upon the night wind.  With slow, exhausted breaths, 
Magneto lowered himself to the ground to conserve his strength and 
stared off into the night.
	"And what is that?"  Magneto asked quietly.
	"To one man it's a golden dream ... to another, it's a psychotic 
nightmare."  Batman replied coldly as he stepped out of the shadows and 
into the night.  
	Magneto turned as explosive fury rose in his eyes while the 
Batman continued.  "I've read much about you, Lehnsherr.  Militant 
activist in favor of a tyrannical regime with Homo superior as rulers 
and Homo Sapiens as slaves.  Though, I'm curious, why the Joker, 
Lehnsherr?"  Batman asked quietly.  "He may be quite homicidal, but he 
is also no mutant."
	"It was a momentary lapse of judgment."  Magnus replied coldly. 
 "He approached me with a proposition.  A proposition where I would kill 
you and he would kill the X-Men so neither you or them would realize 
what is happening."
	"And the prize would be the mutant locator chip that Wayne 
invented."  The Dark Knight interjected.
	"Correct."  Magnus withdrew an optical chip from his belt for 
Batman to see.  "This optical chip to be precise.  With this chip, I can 
recruit mutants to my cause ... or ferret out traitors."  He finished 
with a hard look at Batman.
	The moonlight glinted off a small object in the Dark Knight's 
hand.  "Or is it this chip?"
	For a moment, the space of a skipped heartbeat, Magnus froze.  
Batman drifted closer, almost spectral-like.  "You see, the Joker may be 
clinically insane, but he is never stupid.  He double crossed you, 
Lehnsherr.  Did you think that he walked in the front gate through 
stupidity or lunacy?  And what about the helicopter that just landed?  I 
also found plastic hypodermic needle ammunition for a small pistol in 
that helicopter.  Plastic, Lehnsherr, the one substance to make 
ammunition from that you cannot affect."  Batman gently moved his free 
hand in a brief motion in front of the optical chip.  When his hand 
completed the movement, the Dark Knight held both hands aloft to show 
them empty.  "Did he pull a switch on you?  Can you be so certain that 
is the correct chip?"
	With a roar, Magnus surged with power as he tossed the chip 
away.  From his apparently helpless position, Batman dropped in a blur 
of motion to one knee as Magnus looked down and directly into the angry 
eyes of Professor Bruce Wayne whom the Batman had injected with a 
healing stimulant moments before.  
	In a rage born of frustration and pain, Professor Wayne 
telepathically attacked Lehnsherr's mind with all his psi-ability.  With 
a scream Magnus reeled and collapsed to one knee and looked up as Batman 
stepped forward.  In a split second of telepathic communication, Wayne 
exchanged control to Batman.  
	Exhausted, wide-eyed with fear, Erik Magnus Lehnsherr screamed 
in pain when he felt the greatest psionic power he had ever imagined 
touch his mind with one thought.
	-: Hello, Mr. Lehnsherr, welcome to my mind. :-  Batman spoke 
quietly in Magneto's mind just before a flight of bats rose from all 
around and blocked even the light of the large full moon in the night 
sky overhead.

	An hour later, Jean gently tended the wounds Scott had suffered 
at the hands of Magneto while the X-Men assessed the damage to the 
mansion.  Professor Wayne watched quietly as his students busied 
themselves with all their tasks and plans for tomorrow.  With a fatherly 
smile, he telepathically turned his wheelchair and hovered outside to 
stop just short of the shadows on the lawn.
	"We owe you much..."  The Professor spoke quietly to the night. 
 "I owe you much."
	"As I do you."  A dark, ominous voice replied from a deep 
spectral shadow just beyond the light.  "You will see that Magneto and 
the Joker are dealt with?"
	The Professor nodded.  "Yes, Magneto will be in intensive care 
for some time due to the Joker's poison and the authorities will, I'm 
sure, know what to do with the Joker himself."
	The dark, cowled figure nodded slowly.  "Yes, Joker will be 
returned to Arkham Asylum ... if only for awhile ... before he begins 
again.
	After a moment, the Professor took a deep breath.  "I know about 
your secret, I know you're a mutant.  You realize that you do have a 
well-earned place here among us."
	At that a low, deep laugh moved fluidly among the black trees of 
the estate.  "Here ... helping to teach a generation of mutants to learn 
to use their gifts for the betterment of the world and mankind ... 
Perhaps, in another time, in another life ... possibly."
	The dark figure turned with a wistful smile on his face.  "No, 
that's not my place.  You and your X-Men are for the light of day.  I am 
for something else.  I am a creature of the dark.  I am the night."
	The wind drifted silently across the damp grass and black trees 
as the figure of the Batman vanished from sight.  In a few moments, 
Wayne watched as a sleek, bat-like jet soared over the Winchester area. 
 
	"... Yes, maybe in another life ..."  Professor Wayne muttered 
thoughtfully before he turned to rejoin his X-Men inside.

THE END.
.