Subject: Brotherly Hate 10/10: A Tale of the AOA Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 01:57:49 +0000 From: Snowlock Organization: Corporate Communications Newsgroups: alt.comics.fan-fiction Well, it's over. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Lestat, Shawn, and Sunfire, I will be emailing you copies of the entire story on wendsday. Take care, everybody, this was truly fun! One last time: All characters copywrite of Marvel and used without permission. Snowlock. _________ Brotherly Hate Chapter Ten Soldiers are running in every direction in an attempt to get away from the hundreds of thousands, millions maybe, of these green armored horrors. A few run by the seemingly dead Colossus. They step closer, these humans, pausing to check for signs of life, despite the Infinites roiling above them. Soldier #1: Is he... ? Soldier #2: Boize moi!! As the Soul Skinner digs deeper, his psyche begins to gain dominance over Pitor. As such, his physical form begins to mainifest itself as well over Colossus's. Armored fingers end in yellow fingernails, his black hair turns green and grows, his face elongates and his teeth become fangs. And worst of all, the thing that makes the soldiers run away, the eyes turn buring red. He yells out for the first time since his collapse. Colossus: Aaargghhh! Inside. Skinner: Yes, Rasputin, yell. Yell for your mother and father, and yell for your brother. Yell for your sister too, and for Alexi Vahzin, Renee Majcomb, Philip Moreau. Yell for Weapon X, Nightcrawler and the rest of your precious X Men. Yell for God, for the devil. Yell for me, Colossus, for you will soon be mine. The Soul Skinner is gaining momentum, now. He throws wide barrier after barrier; his distrust of Magneto, his love for the lost Scarlet Witch, his jeleousy of Quicksilver for being the most popular. The Soul Skinner laughs as he goes, digging ever deeper. Piotr's attraction to Rogue, his resentment of his sister for not saving their brother, his hatred of himself for not doing it either. Doors collapse, walls burst, and the Soul Skinner digs further. Guilt for abandoning his family to see America, revulsion of Nightcrawler's appearance, respect for Weapon X's savagery. Finally the Soul Skinner stops. Here is the final door. Locked behind its gilded frame is the reason for Piotr Rasputin's existence. The Soul Skinner gathers his strength, for surely this door will prove the toughest obstacle, but oddly, this door opens on its own. The Soul Skinner enters and encounters... A dream. It is an old dream, the dream of a dead man. It is the dream that mutants and humans, people of all races, colors, and creeds can live together in harmony, free of subjugation, discrimination and hatred. It is a dream even older than this dead man. It is a dream that says all men are created equal in the eyes of God. And the Soul Skinner quakes in fear, because despite the dream's dreamers, this dream will not die. Now it is the Soul Skinner's turn to scream, for this dream has an unusual effect on him. The dream seems to infect him, it enters his mind, and begins tearing through Yuri Illeitich Androv's own defenses. He drops to his knees, gnarled hands covering his hideous face, and in the next instant, is gone. "We'll take them yet," Von Strucker thinks to himself. His Hydra have inflicted serious losses on this knot of MLF soldiers, but they have taken serious losses themselves. Still, they fight on, fanatic Hydra troopers versus fanatic mutant soldiers. Hand to hand, cheek to cheek, blood for blood, neither side will ever give up. One Hydra soldier impales a mutant on his bayonet, then is in turn blasted into eternity by an energy weilder. Strucker himself empties his Schmessinger into it. Strucker: Hail Hydra! Cut off one limb and another takes its place! He breaks his submachine gun over the head of another enemy and then draws his Luger, putting the barrel to the mutant stunned mutant's temple. The pistol is abruptly destroyed by a high energy plasma blast, its explosion badly burning Von Strucker's hand and throwing him on his butt. Frantically, he struggles to climb back to his feet. Two mutants, a male and a female, walk up to Strucker as he dazedly struggles to raise. He knows these two, he thinks. They are very familiar, the must be twins, their aryan features are so similar. They are holding hands, joing them together, and from this union, a nimbus of energy radiates between them. Their names are Andre and Andreas Strucker, and they have come to wish their father auf wiedersehen. Andreas: Oh, father, so good to see you again. Strucker: W-who are you? Andre: We are you kinder, papa, do you not remember us? Strucker: I would never _spawn_ such as you! Strucker draws a smaller pistol from his boot and aims it at these two mutants. He is not nearly fast enough. Andre and Andreas, the Fenris Twins, gather to them a fearful amount of energy. Before the man who was once their father can pull the trigger, that energy is unleashed and he is no more. With the death of their leader, the bulk of the remaining Hydra soldiers decide they would give up no more limbs of their organization, and like many of the other defenders, turn and run. Death pursues them, death in the form of the Fenris Wolf. Piotr is barely alive, his mind is nearly mush. Still, he knows he must rise, he must fight on. He must be an X Man, even if that means his death. He reaches one knee before he collapses. Strong hands grasp him, and he is roughly pulled to his weary feet. Colossus: Mikhi? Mikhail: Be still, X Man, Androv was none too gentle with you. Colossus: Mikhi, Mikhi what has happened. Mikhail: I have chosen, Colossus. I belong to En Sabah Nur, now. Colossus: No, Mikhi. No. Colossus begins to pull himself away from this traitor, this man who was once, and will always be, his brother. Mikhail: Do not fight me, Colossus. Androv has gone after your sister. You must stop him. Colossus: _My_ sister? Is she not yours as well? Mikhail: I have no ties to any but those loyal to En Sabah Nur, Colossus. Rage floods into Piotr Rasputin, and that rage invigorates him. Roughly he pushes himself away from Mikhail. Colossus: Let me go, traitor! Let me go! He falls again to his hands and knees. Mikhail: Do not resist me, X Man. Just save Sno... Just save your sister, if that is what you want. Mikhail's teleportation disk appears between these two who were once brothers. Colossus looks long into Mikhails eyes, but he can find no life there, no spark. As the sky above Apocalypse's newest recruit turns violent orange from the fires of burning Kiev, Piotr steps through the portal. Ivan Petrovich Bezhukov is a bloody mess. Those flying robots penetrated deep into the city early, deep into the Free Council's headquarters itself. Bezhukov and his guards fought long and hard, but there were just too many of them. When the front doors burst, and the MLF poured in, news spread thought the HQ that the Mandarin had died, and that Mikhail Rasputin was a traitor. With this bitter news, Ivan knew he and his men had to begin what would become their long, costly battle to the nuclear bunker's lift. He has finally reached it, but at the cost of all of his cadre of guards, and perhaps his own life. He has been shot at least twice, he cannot even move his left arm, and blood flows freely into his eyes from a fearful gash above his forehead. Grimly, he punches in the access code, and the lift doors opens. If he had not collapsed inside, he may have noticed the very young mutant, a boy really, surreptiously sneeking toward him, and then once he was inside and the lift doors close, melt through them. This young mutant, this neophyte, then rides down the shaft on top of the elevator car, Bezhukov oblivious to the stowaway inside. Illyana Nikolovina Rasputin is not alone anymore, though perhaps she wishes she were. As soon as the battle started, she and many other refugees had been directed to an underground fall-out shelter. Down there, she had put her hands to her ears and tried to image she couldn't hear the explosions rocking the city above. Of course, she could not. When Mikhail finally broke and attacked the human defenders, his manipulation of the earth caused Illyana's bunker to crack and cave in. Miraculously, she survived, clawling out of the rubble into the dank corridor beyond, only a small solitary light bulb a hundred feet up the corridor provides any light at all. She was the only survivor. She was alone in the dark. Things have changed. Oh, it is still dark, but she is no longer alone. "Illyana," the voice calls out of the darkness, and the fearful girl backs against the wall. "Illyana," the voice calls out again. Illyana: Leave me alone! Suddenly, the shadows coalesce and the Soul Skinner is standing before her. She screams. Skinner: Come now, you don't really want to be alone, do you? "She is not alone, demon." The Soul Skinner whirls around and finds himself again facing the X Man, Colossus. Skinner: Back for more? He leaps at Piotr, and the two smash into the wall behind them, the force of their impact causing the already damaged roof to crack some more; dirt pours into the corridor. As they struggle there, Colossus trying to keep the Soul Skinner's from again sinking into his skull, Illyana curls herself up in a ball, slowly sinking to the floor, drawing her knees up to her chest, and then wrapping them in her arms. She has to help, but what can she do? Colossus screams as the Soul Skinner again sinks his hands into Rasputin's skull. Skinner: This time I shall do more than peel away the layers, tovarisch. I shall flay your brain! When I'm done, you will be nothing, a vegetable, if you even live at all! Colossus legs weakly kick as the Skinner begins his task. Illyana knows she has to do something, but what!?! She wishes the monster was gone... No, that's not enough, he would just come back. She wishes he were dead. And as is often the case with mutants, even young ones who don't know they have power, dreams can become reality. The Soul Skinner's attention is suddenly pulled away from his task. He turns his horrific face toward the little girl: You are a mutant!?! She doesn't answer, she's so scared. She just wants him to leave her brother alone, and the only way he'll do that, she intuitively knows, is if he is dead. Suddenly, the Soul Skinner doesn't feel so good. A pain begins in his chest, and rapidly it grows. If Illyana Rasputin could one day grow old enough to learn about her powers, she would realize what she is doing, how she is killing this mutant. Her power is the creation of teleportational disks. This is what she is instinctively killing the Soul Skinner with; she is creating a teleportation disk inside of him, and growing it outward. Slowly. The Soul Skinner's eyes bulge in fear and pain as the disk grows, and then he explodes. Colossus would be shocked, were he awake. As it is, he misses, for the third time, the manifestation of Illyana's mutant power. A mile beyond Kiev's ruined walls, four figures limp out from the surrounding underbrush. They look toward the city with dread and sadness. They see the dim specks of the Infinites flying through the smoke and flames. They see the buildings, the skyscrapers, burn. They see thousands of refugees fleeing the shattered walls, trying to escape the culling; few will. If the survivors of the Minsk infiltration team could contact Colossus, or even more difficult, Alexi Vahzin, they could explain why the might of the Red Army was never brought to bear against Kiev. Nightcrawler: They're all dead! Indeed. It is a vast panorama of massacre. When the Infinites came, they swept down on the Red Army like a scythe through hay and slaughtered these unsuspecting soldiers who had been given told to stand down and await orders. The soldiers were so happy to be spared the nightmare that was Kiev, they became lax in their vigilance. They paid with their lives. Wave after wave of Infinites crashed into the Red soldiers, who were too shocked at the attack or to even pick up their weapons. Tanks and helicopters were destroyed unmanned, tents were burned, the men still in them, officers killed before they could organize their commands. In fact, it wasn't until a full two-thirds of their force were gone that the Russian generals realized it was Apocalypse attacking them, not some unlooked for rebel counter-attack. Barton: Looks like Apocalypse just brought 'em here so he could get 'em all in one place. Ya know, ta slaughter 'em with Scimitar. Gryich: Yep. A wounded, dying soldier looks up and sees Weapon X and his companions walking through the carnage. He weakly raises a bloody, ravaged arm. Soldier: Help me! Weapon X leans down to him: Okay. *Snikt* Ivan Bezhukov has lost a serious amount of blood. As he steps out of the lift, he leave a smear on the wall of the car he had rested against. The guards in front of the bunker door rush over to their general and delicately grabbing him under each arm, carry him into the bunker. Inside, the guards leave him in the care of other soldiers and return to their posts. Bezukov reaches out weakly to the targeting technician. In his hand is a key. Bezukov: Take this, open the safe. Outside the room the two guards notice movement in the lift car. Guard #1: Hey, who's there!? A young boy steps out of the shadows. Guard #2: Come here, son. How did you get down here? The neophyte walks over and before the guards can react, draws a small high-powered silenced pistol. *thut!* *thut!* The adamantium bullets pierce the guard's armor with ease, their shocked, dying expression hidden behind their opaque visors. The technician takes the key from the dying Bezukhov and opens the safe. Inside are two more keys and a hard plastic red case. He snaps the case in half; inside is a piece of paper. Launch codes. The technicians lower lip is quivering: Comrade General? Bezukhov waves a bloody hand in the young man's direction. Bezukhov: D-do it, boy. Go on, insert the keys. On the consol in front of the technician is two ignition switches, one for each key. He inserts them both and turns one clockwise, the other, counter-clockwise. On his screen flashes a password prompt. Bezukhov: Glastnost. The tech types in the password, tear flowing freely now from his eyes. The next prompt calls for the launch codes. He enters these from the slip of paper he got from the safe. Once ther’re entered comes the launch command. A simple "yes" will irretrievably send one hundered missles, each equipped with ten thermo-nuclear warheads, sailing toward their targets in America and the Soviet Union as soon as they are fully prepped in their silos. All is quite in the bunker now. The guards, Bezukhov, the other technicians, all focus on this one young man that, with the press of a button, will change the world forever. Technician: I-I await your command, comrade General. Bezukhov: What is your name, comrade? Technician: Georgi, sir. Georgi Piotreivitch Halenov. Bezukhov: Georgi Piotreivitch, in the name of Mother Russian, i-in the name of our lost Rodina... Launch. Georgi Piotreivitch presses the button that sends the electrical command to the missles silos giving a green light to launch. It will take about ten minutes. He won't live to see it. The neophyte phases through the door, through the guards, actually, and both drop dead, the nervous circuits scrambled. He solidifies and pumps two round from his pistol into Bezukhov. He then turns on the three techs, killing them as well. The Neophyte keys his comlink: Young Wolf to wolfpack, the hen's nest is empty, over. In the next instant, the face of the computer expert, Hardrive, appears on the screan previously showing Georgi Piotreivitch's passcodes. Hardrive: Good job, Young Wolf. Now get out of here. The neophyte phases back through the wall and is gone. Inside, Hardrive has completly compromised the targeting computer. Hardrive: Hardrive to Sinister, come in. Sinister: Sinister here. Hardrive: Retargeting, sir. Sinister: Proceed. It is only three minutes before the missles will streak into the sky, to their destiny, when Hardrive begins making changes in their launch codes; changing their targets. New York is switched to Chicago, capital of Free America. Military bases in the Dakotas, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and numerous sites in Central America are targeted, sparing the occupied eastern seaboard. For the missles tasked to take out sites in Russia, these too are reassigned. The oil fields of the Mid-east, the tropical rain forests of South America, the mineral rich Canadian north, London, Paris, Berlin, and finally, Kiev itself were instead made the targets; with barely thirty seconds to spare. Hardrive: Hardive to Sinister; mission accomplished. Sinister: And the missle targeted for Kiev? Hardrive: It will not be launched for ten hours, sir, to give your troops time to evac. Sinister: Very good. Sinister out. Illyana Rasputin is too worried about her brother to wonder at the Soul Skinner's death. Colossus is curled up in a ball, his legs and arms twitching. By bracing her back against the wall and pusing with her feet, Illyana manages to roll him over. His eyes are open but blinking rapidly, and his pupils are rolled back in his head. Illyana: Oh, Piotr, what has he done to you?! Of course he doesn't respond. His mind is a shambles, the Soul Skinner's work, the damage he caused, though far from complete, is still extensive. Colossus will live, he will even be able to fuction normally again, but he will never be the same. The earth shakes, unbeknownst to her caused still by her brother's fury, and Illyana looks up at the ceiling. More cracks appear, and as she watches, widen. The tunnel will soon collapse. She's got to get him out of here! Yet another teleportation disk manifests itself, this time right under her brother, and he falls through, senseless. Illyana doesn't weep. She isn't afraid to be alone anymore. She vows never to be afraid again. Moments later, the tunnel collapses. The killing field. Standing the center of the slaughter of the Red Army, Weapon X, Nightcrawler, Clint Barton, and Henry Peter Gryich watch in awe as two missles rise from hidden silos beyond the city and streak into the air. Gyich: I don't believe they actually did it. Weapon X: Believe it. Nightcrawler: What now? Weapon X: We go get Colossus and vamous. Barton: What about his brother? Weapon X: You think all this would'a happened if a guy as powerful as Rasputin didn't want it too? The missles are now gone from view, only their vapor trails remain. Gryich: This is it, then, ain't it; Armageddon? Barton: Not Armageddon, Hen. Apocalypse. Suddenly, a circle of light appears before these men, and through it falls the armored form of their comrade. Nightcrawler: Colossus! Weapon X kneels down next to him: He's in rough shape, somethin's wrong with his brain, he's havin' siezures. Barton: We gotta get him outta here. Weapon X: 'Crawler, take him on ahead, port as far as ya can inta tha bush. Wait fer us there. Nightcrawler or course cannot pick up Colossus's dead weight, so he drops to one knee next to him and then 'ports away. Gryich: Where to now? Weapon X: We got three choices, head fer Europe, head fer China, or head fer Iran. None'a these're good choices, but them's our options. Barton: I say Europe. The High Council may not be aware'a what's happened here. They gotta be informed. Weapon X: We better get movin' then. Hours later. Kiev has been destroyed. The buildings have toppled, the very ground warped, the inhabitants, defenders and refugees all, killed; culled. In what is left of the central square of the city, a crowd of MLF troops has gathered. They have come to see the architects of their victory, they have come to accept a new member to the fold. Sinister: Rise, Mikhail. Rise and be welcome. Prelate Mikhail Rasputin stands before his horseman and accepts his badge of office, pinning it to his tunic. Cyclops takes his hand, and Havok gives him a pat on the back. Mikhail: Thank you, lord. This is most generous an offer. Sinister: Indeed it is, Rasputin. Execute your duties to your master, En Sabah Nur, effectively and dillegently, and remember, of all else, our creed; survival of the fittest, always, forever, eternal. Mikhail: Always, forever, and eternal. Sinister: Very good, Nikoleivitch... Cyclops? Cyclops: Yes sir? Sinister: Begin the evacuation of the city. A rather large bomb is set to drop on it in just under five hours. We must be well away by then. Cyclops: Yes sir! Cyclops and Havok turn away to begin organizing the evacuation. No prisoners will travel with them. Sinister turns to leave as well, but halts when a hand squeezes his soulder. Sinister: Prelate? Mikhail: Excuse me, Lord Horseman, would you hear a request? Sinister: What is it? Mikhail: The name Nikoleivitch. Please let it be known I go by that name no longer. It is a name from the past, a human past, one that is best forgotten. Six Months later. Summer has returned to Mount Wundagore, but neither the bright sun nor the warmer days has brought better weather. America has fallen, its government destroyed in a nuclear holocaust the laid waste to the Mid-West and much of Canada. Central America actually disintegrated, the sheer amount of the nuclear missles following on what Apocalypse feared would become a haven for rebels, actually erradicating the soil. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans have been made one. London, Berlin and Paris are rubble, though the missle defenses around the British capital spared it from total annhiliation. The rich oil fields of the middle east are now craters, and with their destruction, so too was destroyed the humans capacity to make any concerted effort of defense. China has been invaded and soon to fall. Experts figure a year a best before Japan his sacked. Magneto has again come to his former home. He is again awaiting tidings. With a *bamf* two figures instantaneously appear before him, they are the seasoned Nightcrawler and the newest X Man, Paris Bennet, code-named Exodus. Nightcrawler: She's alive. Magneto: Where? Nightcrawler: The Core, Portland. She is a slave there. No one suspects. Exodus: I have done as you requested Magnus. I psionically implanted a inhibitor in her brain. Even when puberty hits, and the instances of her mutant ability become subject to her conscious control, she will not know they exist. For all general purposes, she is a flatscan. Magneto: What about genetic scanners or telepaths? Exodus: The girl is still pre-pubescent. Without a concerted scan, mechanical or psionic, both the blocks and the mutant ability itself are undetectable. What I have do is completely undetectable to the cursory scans employed at the Core. Magneto: Very good. Nightcrawler: How's Colossus? Magneto: Recovering. It took Jean a long time, but she has managed to repair the damage done to him by Nicodemus's prelate. Nightcrawler: How will he react to knowing his sister is alive, and at the Core? Magneto: He won't. When Jean was in his brain repairing the damage, I instructed her to erase the memories of how he was teleported out of Kiev. He has no recolection of anything after the Soul Skinner's attack. He has been told you teleported into the city and rescued him. He is eternally gratefull. As far as our Colossus is concerned, Illyana Rasputin died in Kiev. Nightcrawler: And what about Illyana, the Core is not much safer than Kiev was, mein freund. What if she's killed there? Magneto: It is a chance I am willing, I have to take. I must only pray that he never learns what really happened, for I fear our young Russian friend would destroy himself in an effort to rescue her. Nightcrawler: He would destroy more than himself, Magnus. He would pobably destroy you. Magneto: Then, Kurt, he must never learn the truth. fin. ________ If you liked this story, be sure to watch for "A Chance Encounter", coming soon!