The Eygptian Desert, west of Abydos

The old man cursed as his Jeep hit yet another bump. He grumbled to himself, again, that he would never again lend it to his nephew. The idiot boy had somehow managed to ruin the suspension forever.

Looking at the clock, he estimated that he had about three hours until dawn. That would give him enough time to finish his business, and still return in time for morning prayers. He wasn’t a particularly devout man, but knew that he had to maintain his standing within the community.

He looked at his GPS unit, then at his map. It was around here somewhere…

There! he thought to himself. He aimed the jeep over another dune, then floored the gas to outrun the cascade of sand that followed him as he descended onto a dead-flat plain.

His contact was standing in his usual spot, right in front of what looked like an early attempt at a pyramid. It wasn’t in very good shape, the old man decided. The desert winds had obviously been wearing away at it for centuries.

Parking the Jeep, the old man stepped out and approached his contact. "Salaam."

"That is far enough," he was told, "and peace is not my goal this night. Have you made the arrangements?"

The old man winced inwardly. As usual, this customer had no sense of manners. The rewards more than made up for it, though… "And the matter of my final payment?"

A sack was picked up and negligently thrown to him. Bending down with a grunt, the old man opened it, and promptly gasped.

Gold. Pharonic gold. The falcon of Horus, the Eye of Ra, and the cats of Bastet all looked at him. The sack weighed a good thirty kilos, and the old man had to struggle to get it into the Jeep.

Standing up straight again, he took a cell phone out of the car and activated it. "Said, it’s Uncle Gamil. Deliver the packages. Come home on the next available flight." He rolled his eyes. "No, I don’t want any souvenirs." He shut the phone off. "Idiot."

"They will be placed at the locations I specified?"

"Yes, Inshall-"

"I am willing," was the snapped reply. "That is all that is necessary."

The old man blinked. "Of course. Do you require anything more of me?"

"If I do, I will contact you. Go." He glanced upwards. "A storm is coming."

Noting that there were, indeed, signs of an approaching sandstorm, the old man hurried into his Jeep. "Can I give you a ride into town?" he offered.

The old man shrugged, started the truck, and drove off. The storm hit full force just as he made it back over the dune. Glancing into the rear-view mirror, he saw the pyramid seem to disappear into the blowing sands.

But why, he thought to himself, did it seem to sink?

"Henry?"

"Yes, Will?"

"And?"

"There’s a pile of test tubes and flasks in the sink."

"Oh. That."

"Yes, that. Am I going to have to scrub the kitchen down with bleach?"

"Oh, no, they were just dusty. I’ll get to them right after this show."

"I need the sink to make lunch."

"It’ll just be a few minutes…"

"Do I need to put unscented Nair in your shampoo?"

"I’m moving."

After Henry left the room, Will sat down and changed the channel. Let’s see what Norm’s building this week…

Just as the show ended, he heard the front door open. Craning his neck a bit, he could see Rogue, Ororo, and Topaz entering, each carrying several shopping bags full of clothes. "Did you leave anything for the other customers?" he asked.

"They have plenty of overcoats to look through," Ororo assured him.

"How generous of you."

"Started lunch yet?" Rogue asked.

"As soon as Henry’s finished." He blinked as his phone began to buzz. "Maybe not." Taking it out of his pocket, he saw the caller and grimaced. "Hawaii."

"Who’s on duty?"

"Meggan and St. John." He activated the phone. "Riley. Where? They called us? Damn, must be bad. Give us fifteen minutes. Ask them for a topographic map of the area, and tell them we’ll need as many medical supplies and personnel as they can spare… with at least a few English speakers among them. Okay, out."

"Where?" Topaz asked.

"China. Flooding along the Yangtze caused a mudslide that’s buried at least three villages." He turned towards the kitchen. "Hank…"

"I heard," Henry yelled back. "I can manage lunch, and I’ll inform Charles."

"Thanks." He jumped off the couch. "Let’s suit up."

The Three Gorges Dam, designed to control the annual flooding of the Yangtze River, was one of the largest feats of engineering ever attempted by man. The Chinese, facing a ravenous need for energy to feed the hypergrowth of their economy, tended not to notice those whose homes were displaced by the construction. Many of the workers lived in hastily-built shantytowns along the banks of the river, ignoring the fact that they were living on what was essentially a silt bed.

The collapse of one side of the valley was so sudden that it took the better part of an hour for news to reach the proper levels of the bureaucracy. Another three hours of discussion made it obvious that the government’s superpowered units did not have the needed skills for the situation.

It was a mid-level minister, one whose son had a fascination with the superhumans of the West… particularly the women… who proposed the idea of calling on the new team. They professed to being non-political, and so would likely not report what they saw to any government. Their array of powers seemed well-suited for the task, as well.

If the plan succeeded, the minister could expect rewards. If not… well, someone had to do that census of camels in the Gobi Desert…

Ecologix came through a Door about one hundred meters above the flooded area. Domenic spoke for them all.

"Dear God…"

The entire southern bank of the river had collapsed, and what looked like two or three cubic miles of silt and mud had buried dozens, if not hundreds, of buildings. The roofs of some of them could barely be seen. There wasn’t a person to be found.

Will forced himself to stay focused on the practical. "Meggan, there should be a Peoples’ Army unit headed this way. Can you see them?"

Meggan looked around, casting her vision forward. "Yes. They’re about five kilos north of us."

"Okay. Go intercept them. We’re going to need a map of the villages, and somebody who can translate for us. We need to know where the civic buildings were. That’s the most likely place to find survivors."

As Meggan sped off, Will instructed Topaz to descend. "Domenic, how much can you do with this soil?"

Domenic stretched out his hands, testing the ground’s reaction to his influence. "Not much," he said in frustration. "It’s so waterlogged that anything I do is gonna fall apart a few seconds later."

"I could freeze it," Bobby suggested.

"I’m not sure it would help. We’d still need somewhere to put it."

"I’m hoping that the unit coming this way can help with that," Will said. "We might get lucky and have a sand or gravel pit nearby."

"Let’s hope."

Meggan returned a few minutes later, with a young woman in the classic Red Army uniform cradled in her arms. "This is Lieutenant Shen. She’s the unit’s translator."

"Good evening, Lieutenant," Will said briskly. "We need someplace to move the debris. Is there an area nearby that’s been abandoned? A mine or pit somewhere?"

Shen frowned and looked at her map. "Yes. A gold mine, about thirty kilometers due east."

"Can you get the area evacuated?"
"Give me a moment." She spoke rapidly into her cell phone for a minute or so. "It will take about twenty minutes."

He nodded. "Topaz, do you have a way to ‘tag’ Rogue or Meggan, so that I can track them? I want to start moving this stuff the second I know the area’s safe."

Topaz nodded. "Rogue, give him your belt." Once Rogue did so, Topaz clasped the hand that Will held the belt in and muttered a few short phrases. "There. You’ll be able to sense its direction and distance from you."

"Once I’ve got a fix on the area, get back here," Will told Rogue as she slipped the belt back on.

"Right." She turned to Shen. "Which way?"

Shen pointed. It’s a large area. You won’t miss it."

"Okay, here’s the plan," Will told the rest of them as Rogue flew off. "Iceman, you’ll set up some ice dams that will surround the main buildings." He looked at Shen. "Where’s the school?"

"Here," she pointed.

"Okay, we’ll start with that. Once we have them isolated, we can clear out the mud and evac one building at a time." He turned to Domenic. "While we’re doing that, you and Storm will be working together to clear out the lion’s share of the mud."

"How?" Ororo asked.

"I’ll set up a large Door… not too tall, but very wide. He’ll get a wave of mud heading towards it, and you’ll use gusts of wind to keep the wave moving. Hopefully, you’ll be able to clear off the top layers fairly quickly.

"Pyro, you set up the triage area. Once Iceman has the buildings surrounded, We’ll start draining the mud… I’ll open up a Door near ground level. Once we can get access to the roof, we’ll make our way inside and start moving them up here. Just try to keep any injured stable until the medics get here."

Shen, who was listening intently, nodded as Will finished. "Can I have a moment to inform my commanding officer of your plan?" When Will nodded, she activated her cell phone and spoke quickly into it in Mandarin. She then listened, he face becoming angry and distressed. She spoke tightly, appearing to argue with the person on the other end of the line. She closed her eyes, reigning in her temper, muttered "Shi," and turned the phone off.

"What is it?" Will asked.

"The school is not your priority," she said tightly. "This is." She stabbed a finger at another area of the map.

"What’s there?" Shen didn’t reply. "We’re not doing a damn thing until I get an answer," he informed her.

Shen grimaced. "It’s the local Party headquarters."

"And who’s there?"

"Executives from the company working this site. And their Party liaison."

Will’s lips set into a tight line. "We will rescue the children first. They will be next. If they don’t like it, they can go to hell."

Shen blinked, then grinned. "Can I quote you on that? I want to see if I can hear my commanding officer’s head explode over the phone."

"I like her," Topaz commented.

"I’ll leave it to you to word in more diplomatic language, Lieutenant. Right now, we have to get to work. Iceman, if you’ll begin…?"

Bobby nodded and took a few steps away from them. A moment later, the air around him steamed as he shifted to his ice form. He walked towards the area above the school, the mud freezing beneath his feet.

"No slide?" Domenic asked.

"The ground’s too unstable, "Bobby replied. "Nothing to anchor to."

He sent a small streamer of ice into the mud, moving it around until it hit something solid. "I found the building. Is it the only one around here?"

"Check the size," Shen said, looking at her map. "It could be the tool shed."

"No," he said after a second, "it’s too big for that. Let me get the outline."

Continuing along, Bobby followed the outline of the building, leaving a frozen path behind him. After about four minutes, he returned to where he had started. An outline of the building was visible on the ground. "You guys might want to take a step back," he advised.

Once the others were a safe distance away, Bobby reached out and started building an ice wall underneath him, angling it slightly so that it avoided directly touching the building. He made another circuit around the school, then increased the mass and density of the wall until it was about half a meter thick.

"Rogue to Archetype," the communicator on Will’s lapel chimed. "I’m in position."

"Just hold still for a few seconds," he advised. He concentrated for a few moments, then looked to his right. Rogue appeared about half a meter off the ground.

"I was right above the mine shaft," she told him.

"Good." He looked down, and the mud began to drain away. As he neared where he estimated the top of the building was, he stopped. "I don’t know exactly where the structure is," he explained, "and I don’t want to take out a wall by mistake."

"You’ve got about a meter to go," Bobby told him. "Open another Door… a small one… near the edge of the wall, about two meters down, and you’ll be below the top of the roofline."

Will nodded and concentrated. The roof became visible about a minute later. "Rogue, Topaz, Meggan, you’ll shuttle to kids to the high ground. Take the Lieutenant with you to translate. Iceman, you and I have the Party members next." He took the map from Shen, and he and Bobby moved towards the next target.

Rogue pried off part of the school’s roof as gently as she could, and Topaz lifted the children out about ten at a time, while Meggan and Rogue took one in each arm. Shen stayed behind to coordinate with the teachers. Bobby and Will returned a few minutes later, and a new Door sped up the pace of the evacuation considerably.

Rogue noticed that Bobby was grinning widely. "What’s so funny?"

"We may not be invited back any time soon."

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "What’d he do?"

"Once we got the government stooges out, one of them started yelling and getting in our faces. Was ranting about how big he was in the Party, so much more important than a bunch of kids. Will finally got sick of it and decked him. Then he said, ‘You’re welcome.’."

Rogue turned to Will, who had the grace to look guilty. "You’re incorrigible," she told him.

"Then stop incorriging me," he said lightly. He turned to Shen. "How many more?"

"Another two classes. About one hundred or so."

"Residential units, over there?"

"Five hundred."

He sighed. "That’s going to take forever."

Meggan tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. "I think they can help."

Will turned and nodded in approval. The rest of Shen’s unit had arrived.

After a discussion with the unit’s commander, Major Li, the rescue plan moved forward. Bobby froze a path thick enough to allow the military trucks to travel safely, and the soldiers followed Ecologix to the housing area. Li ordered his men to break up into squads. As each housing unit was uncovered, the squad would do the last of the digging, and evac the civilians onto the transports. This allowed Ecologix to do the bulk of the heavy work. Rogue righted collapsed walls, which Bobby reinforced. Meggan calmed upset survivors. Topaz sensed where the injured were, and stabilized those who were worst off. Ororo, Domenic, and St. John each joined a medical team and assisted with the first aid.

"Where’s the nearest large hospital?" Will asked Major Li at one point (with the assistance of Lieutenant Shen).

"About fifty kilos from here," was the reply. "I called for helicopters twenty minutes ago, so they should be another ten minutes or so. Another squadron is coming from my base. If Iceman can build us a landing field, we should be able to stagger landings to every five minutes."

"How big do you need it?"

"About a hectare."

A quick discussion with Bobby got the landing field prepared, and the choppers were soon transporting a dozen at a time.

Even with Bobby and Domenic’s help, it was slow going, since the depth of the mud made walking slow and difficult. At one point, Rogue collapsed against Will in a mock faint. "I so need a bath," she moaned.

"Count your blessings," he told her chidingly. "Think of how much you’d have to pay for a mud bath like this back in New York."

"Yeah, but there I’d be naked."

"I won’t say anything if you won’t."

"Okay. I’ll just sneak behind that house over there."

"Just let me get my camera."

"You two flirting again?" St. John asked as he walked over.

"Nah," Rogue told him, "we decided to skip the flirting and get straight to the smut."

"Fair enough. More choppers in two minutes."

"How’s the sweep of the houses going?"

"Already done. Amazing how quickly a search goes when you have a full brigade doing it."

"Remind me to thank Major Li personally," Will asked Rogue.

"Right. What’s the body count?"

"Just one," Pyro said. "Heart attack from the shock. She was dead before we got here."

"We got off easy," Will concluded. "Everyone was inside and sheltered when the bank collapsed."

They turned to see Lieutenant Shen moving towards them as quickly as the mud would allow. "Yes, Lieutenant?" Will replied.

"I just heard something that you should know."

"What is it?"

"I was asking the residents if they had seen anything unusual recently. One of the subcontractors we use at the dam is an Egyptian firm… they worked on the Aswan Dam, I think. One of their men was seen wandering around by the southern bank yesterday."

"Good. You have a possible suspect."

"But he was also seen at the northern bank."

Will felt a cold knot form in his stomach. "Iceman! Build a dome over everybody! Thick as you can make it!"

Bobby blinked. "What…"

"Do it! Now!" He looked to Rogue. "Get us to the wall."

Rogue grabbed him, and they sped towards the other side of the river, where the retaining wall for the bank loomed over them. "Where!?" she shouted.

"Near the base. Maximum damage."

Meggan appeared beside them, straining to catch up. "What is it!?" she yelled to them.

"Another bomb!" Rogue yelled back. "Can you find it?"

Meggan threw her senses forward, then grimaced in frustration. "I need to get closer!"

"No! Will snapped. "Stay nearby. We go in as a group." Meggan nodded, and started shifting her skin to something denser.

As they neared the northern bank, Meggan detected a small electrical field. "Found it!"

"Don’t go near it," Will ordered. "It may have a proximity trigger. Here." He reached into his coat and pulled out the laser sight for his gun. "Point at it."

Meggan nodded and took the sight. Activating it, she aimed it towards a point near the base, almost dead center to the retaining wall. "It’s buried."

"How deep?"

"Can’t tell."

Will thought frantically for a few seconds. "Okay, here’s what we do. Meg, you stay here and keep an eye on it. If anything about it changes, you yell. Rogue, you and I hit the ground and approach on foot."

"Turn on your amulet," Rogue advised.

Will nodded, raising the wards as they descended. They landed about fifty meters away from the area that Meggan had indicated. A quick glance of the area revealed a spot where the soil was somewhat looser than the surrounding area. Wiping away the soil gently, Rogue exposed a smooth metal cylinder, about the size of a golf bag. "You could pack a lot of plastique into this thing," she said in a whisper.

"It might be a shaped charge," he murmured back, "aimed to wipe out the dam." He looked the cylinder over. "I don’t see any place to access it. Not even any seams."

He stepped closer to the device, only to land on his ass as he walked directly into what felt like a solid wall.

Rogue blinked. "What the hell was that?"

Will, who was slightly dazed, shook hi head to clear it. "I don’t know. Some kind of force field?"

"Then how did I get through?"

"Maybe it’s directed against magic?"

"No, I doubt it. Maybe it let me through because I’m… a…" Her voice trailed off.

"Rogue?"

"It’s because I’m a mutant," she told him quietly. "X-Factor’s old ship had something similar." She looked up at him in growing horror.

"It was Apocalypse’s ship, once."

Will hesitated for only a moment. "Get away from it. Now." As he finished speaking, the object began to emit a low hum, which gradually grew higher in pitch.

"Move!" he yelled, as he started backing away.

Rogue ran after him, grabbing him and taking to the air as quickly as she dared. As she did so, Will slapped his communicator.

"Ecologix, it’s a trap! Repeat, it’s a trap!"

Meggan flew over to them before she could be warned off. "What’s…"

The next sound heard was a deafening explosion. A heartbeat later, it was followed by the rumble of the bank collapsing, and the onrush of a wall of water and mud nearly twenty meters high.

Will’s mind worked frantically. "Meggan," he snapped, "get ready to catch Topaz." Two seconds later, Meggan had the younger woman cradled in her arms.

"I need you to boost me," Will told Topaz. "Everything you can give me."

Topaz looked daunted for a moment, but gathered herself together quickly. "Brace yourself," she warned. She clenched her fists, crossing her arms over her chest, and seemed to coil inward for a moment.

Will writhed in Rogue’s grip, then composed himself through sheer willpower. His eyes, blazing with power, fixed on the approaching deluge. He crossed his arms in a manner similar to Topaz, then screamed in exertion as he drew them apart.

A Door, easily one hundred meters across and thirty wide, opened underneath them, acting as a drain to collect the water. "Where’s it going?" Meggan asked.

"Who cares!?" Rogue snapped back. "Iceman, copy!"

"Get your butt to my location now! Neither of them can keep this up for long," she told Meggan. "We have to seal the dam before they’re both brain-fried."

"Ororo can keep the air temperature down. Anything Bobby does should last longer."

"Bobby froze the Empire State Building. He can manage this."

Bobby arrived about twenty seconds later, and got right to work. Moving forward on his slide, he sent down a stream of power so cold that it froze the onrushing water in a heartbeat. As he approached the retention wall, he reconfigured the ice into a massive dam, which sealed the gap created by the explosion. He then reinforced the wall, not stopping until it was nearly five meters thick.

Once the flow of water stopped, Rogue shook Will a little. "Will, stop! It’s safe!"

Will gasped, pitching forward for a moment as the Door slammed shut. Topaz twitched for a few seconds as well, then passed out.

"Rogue," Will whispered, "you’ve got command. Get the team together so I can get us home. I can’t stay awake much longer."

Rogue nodded, then slapped her communicator. "Storm, turn command over to Major Li. We’re returning to base immediately."

Two days later, Will was still recovering from exhaustion. Topaz had been able to prevent him from aging too severely, but the effort had wiped her out as well. Light meals, paired with backrubs from Bobby, seemed to help her, but Will still remained fitfully asleep.

The Chinese government, once they were convinced that the destruction of the retaining wall was sabotage, had immediately expelled the Egyptian engineering firm, and was publicly considering expelling all foreign workers on the dam project.

Their attitude towards Ecologix, however, was far more conciliatory. The team’s efforts in the rescue, and the lengths they had gone to in protecting the villagers and troops, had made a very favorable impression on the upper levels of the Party. The minister who had suggested contacting the team was promoted onto a committee to form a similar unit composed of Chinese nationals.

His son later received what would become his prized possession – an autographed picture of the team.

The Party representative who had yelled at Will was reassigned. To camel census duty.

By the time Will had finally awoken, the story had hit the international news. He, however, was not in a celebratory mood.

"We were played," he growled. "Don’t they get that?"

"The government wants to keep any mention of the bomb out of the press," Ororo told him. "They don’t want to run the risk of a copycat."

"They’ve asked us to grin and bear it," Bobby added. When Topaz took me back to reinforce my dam, they said that it was the best spin they can put on it for now."

"Wonderful," Will spat. He was about to say something more when his phone buzzed. "The Mansion," he said, looking at the number.

"Yes?" he asked upon activating the phone. After a moment, he sighed. "Look, Xavier, this team is still fried, and we’re not going to be of much use for… what showed up?" He listened for a moment, his face hardening. "We’ll be right there," he said quietly, closing the phone.

"What is it?" Ororo asked, shifting into leader mode.

"I’ve received a package. From Egypt."

"It arrived by messenger service about fifteen minutes ago," Scott told Will as soon as he had stepped out of a Door and onto the front yard of the Mansion.

‘It’ was a simple wooden crate, about a cubic meter in size. Will eyed it suspiciously. "You’ve analyzed it?" he asked Henry.

"Yes. There’s no technology of any kind."

Will nodded, then glanced at Topaz. "Any magic?"

"None."

Will thought for a moment, then stepped towards the crate as Scott handed him a small pry bar. "Jean, could you set up a shield, just in case?" A heartbeat later, both Will and the crate were enclosed in a telekinetic bubble.

A few seconds of work proved sufficient to remove the lid of the crate. Will dug through a thin layer of straw until he felt something solid. Tossing the straw aside, he looked into the box. His expression, if anything, became even grimmer. With a few snaps of the pry bar, the sides of the crate clattered to the ground. What was revealed could be best described as a small stone monument, with inscriptions in several languages… the prominent one being Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Will looked at Topaz. "Can you read any of these?"

Topaz circled the edge of Jean’s shield, studying the stone. "Yes. This part’s in Sanskrit."

"Translate, please."

Topaz nodded. "’Greetings, my enemy. By now, you will have recovered enough wits to realize that you were duped.

"’I must admit to some amusement when I heard of your grand plans. They seemed so arrogant. You, a defender of nature? You were unable to protect your family, or the woman you profess to love. How could you possibly hope to do so on a global scale? What truly shocked me, however, was that the weak sheep of this world actually accepted your delusion.

"’I decided that it was necessary for the world to be reminded of the true reality of nature: that it is a crucible through which the weak and unfit are removed, and the strong tested.

"’My choice of target was, I must admit, a whim. I was offered an insult there during the Zhou Dynasty, and never took action against the people. Consider the scale of this attack compounded interest.

"’You behaved as I expected you would, seeking out the weak and helpless. It never occurred to you that the purpose of my strike was to draw you in.

"’Now you have been humiliated and disgraced before one of the world’s great nations. Your noble goals have been thwarted, and you have been shown, once again, to be helpless against me.

"’I am fit. I survive. And I remain your better, and inevitable master. En Sabah Nur, the High Lord Apocalypse.’"

As Topaz finished speaking, Will, who had been glaring at the stone, glanced up at her to confirm that she was done. His eyes then moved to Jean, who lowered her barrier. Without speaking a word, he went inside.

His time spent in the Hellfire program would set an all-time X-Men record.