Storytime #2: Master of Magnetism!
HeroBoltsy
Member Posts: 785 ★★★
You already know many stories of the Battlerealm. The tales of how one Summoner entered the Contest of Champions. How they overthrew the Maestro of the Contest, and stopped the Mad Titan Thanos. How they defeated both the Collector and the Grandmaster, in due time. And how, every step of the way, the Summoner was aided by their loyal, faithful Champions.
This is not one of those stories.
No, this is a tale of a band of heroes, wandering the edges of the Battlerealm. Who sought the refuge of Magneto, Master of Magnetism in his lair, Asteroid M. Who now perhaps find themselves in more danger than they sought to escape...
* * *
"I can keep you here no longer than a week. It would not be safe for me... or you," Magneto warned, looking back over at Warren and his group of heroes, as they walked into the main hall of Asteroid M. It was a stark, white, clean place, so unlike the chaotic, dark, and rocky Battlerealm around them, fairly well lit but by no means the most welcoming environment. Warren, looking around, could already tell that his group would be hard-pressed to find enough space - they numbered in the several dozens, and, aside from the Sentinels that now flanked the group, it seemed only Magneto resided in this asteroid.
Even as his charges spread out across the hall, and some of the most energetic young heroes ran up the stairs to explore Magneto's base, Warren could not stop himself from wondering, If there is not enough space for us here, or if he has to choose between his safety and our own... what will he do? It would be all too easy to get rid of the weakest among us to make room, but... that would not be right.
Then, suddenly, a voice called out from the top of the stairs, "Warren?"
Surprised to hear a voice he had not heard in many, many months, Warren looked up at the approaching Hank McCoy, dressed in a lab coat, and looking decidedly human. Though he lumbered down the stairs with his characteristic agility, he was no longer covered in blue fur, nor did he have the most beastly of his former features.
"Hank!" Warren cried, smiling for the first time in what felt like weeks. "What are you doing here? Why... why are you here?"
"Well, I..." Hank began, going up to his old friend, before looking around - it was only then that the sheer breadth of Warren's group hit him. "Oh my stars and garters," he said, taken aback by the volume of champions that now found themselves inside Asteroid M. "We should find a place for all your friends first. And I would suggest perhaps sending some of your best fighters out, to keep watch for the Adaptoids and such that are surely on the hunt for you as we speak."
"Oh, we're being hunted by no Adaptoid party," Warren replied gravely, leaving it at that. "But that sounds like a good idea, Hank. Perhaps we'll catch up later, after we get everything sorted out."
* * *
Hours passed, and finally Warren, Hank, and Magneto managed to find a place in Asteroid M for every last champion. There were a few large bedrooms, one of which Hank himself was staying in, and Magneto offered these gladly to each of the mutants among Warren's number. But he was more than happy to allow the rest to find their own places, and though this did cause some discontent among the gang's number, there was nothing that could be done. This Asteroid M simply hadn't been built to accommodate this many people, and they had to make do with what they had.
Once Warren's gang grew exhausted and retired for a while (for who among them truly knew whether it was night or day?), Warren, Hank, and Magneto met in the hall to discuss among themselves. Hank asked Warren what brought them to Asteroid M in the first place, and Warren, though unhappy to retell the tale, obliged. It took him a while, but he finally concluded, "We've been running ever since. We're looking for the strongest that there's ever been among us, to defend us against the Collector and his minions. That's why we're heading this way. So, Hank, how's your Battlerealm life been?"
"I was... in a crystal most of the time I've been here. I was freed one day, only to be returned to my crystal soon after. Apparently, those above me saw no use for me, and put me in a collection of other crystals, of other people. I could see them, and they could see me, but we could not say a word to each other," Hank recounted, sitting down and staring at the floor sullenly. "And for months, that was my entire existence."
"As was mine, for many months," Warren replied, remembering those dreadful days when he had been stuck in a red-tinted crystal, able to see hundreds of thousands of others around him and unable to do anything about it.
"The... Collector, who I remember had captured me, one day decided to... buy me back. I saw the transaction take place in front of my eyes - I was handed over, for nothing more than a few scraps of gold and a few shards of crystal," Hank recalled. "That was the value of my entire life, to those..."
"Vile humans," Magneto suggested, while Warren stated, "Summoners."
"Yes. I suppose so. But it came at the just the right time. Just as the Collector took my crystal, intending to lug me back to the hall from whence I'd came, there was... a shaking. The Summoner's entire collection shook, and me along with them, and the two of them dashed away," Hank stated, a bit of hope seeping into his voice. He chuckled, remembering the moment, and then continued, "They'd already unfastened my crystal from the wall, but took no care to put me back before they ran away to whoever knows where. And as the collection shook, my crystal fell, shattering onto the ground into a thousand different orange fragments."
He reached into his pocket, and held out a little pointed shard of crystal. "I knew I didn't have much time - what if the Collector reappeared just as quickly as he had disappeared? So though it pained me to leave the others in the collection, I ran. I gathered a few shards of crystal as I went, hoping to study it, and I was doubly lucky - almost as soon as I'd left the collection, I found Asteroid M in front of me. I knew I had no better option, and Magneto and I struck a deal. So I stay here while I work on enhancing mutant abilities, and try to figure out how to recreate some of the most... fascinating potions I'd seen the Summoner use," Hank finished, gesturing over to his lab, just down the hall.
Taking all this in, Warren felt a burst of hope - if Hank had escaped his prison, maybe there were other free heroes wandering the rocky plains of the Battlerealm. Maybe there were others that needed his help. And maybe, if there were enough of them, they could find a way out, or free themselves!
"What about you, Magneto?" Warren asked. "What are you doing here? How are you free?"
"Of course you know there are hundreds, thousands of... me running around this horrible place," Magneto stated. "I... was not like the others. So the Collector cast me out. 'I will return to you one day, Erik,' he told me. 'One day, you will have a purpose. But not yet.' I have been trying to figure out a way to liberate the mutant race from this loathsome Contest, and that's where Hank comes in."
Hank nodded, pulling out a little yellow square, no bigger than the palm of his hand. On it, a little spiral of DNA was etched, and he explained, "I think I've managed to recreate one of the items I've seen the Summoner use. They called this a... Boost, I think. I have a few of them. In simplest terms, it's a sort of potion that gives us strength beyond what we normally have. Makes our strongest moves even stronger."
"It only works on mutantkind, though," Magneto added on. "Which is why I want to make you a deal, Warren.You have two dozen mutants among you - Cyclopses, Wolverines, the like. Hank tells me that this could empower all the Mutants on Asteroid M - but none of the others. There is more than enough room in this Asteroid for two dozen mutants, but not enough for all of your kind. So here is the deal. I want your numbers, and I am willing to offer you perpetual refuge here. I will even let you keep a few of your most... beloved humans. I saw Dr. Banner among your ranks - he would be a great asset in Hank's research. But the rest have to go."
"What?" Warren replied, stunned. "No! Letting them go - that's practically certain death. Right now, they're under my protection, and I'll continue to protect them. I won't just let most of my men go out into the wild like that!"
"But your party is so large," Hank pointed out. "You can't protect them all. And to travel the Battlerealm with that many would surely risk discovery, sooner or later. You don't have to run. We can stay and figure out a way to solve this Contest problem together, but... there's just not enough room for all of the others."
"Hank, have you gone crazy?" Warren shouted. "We can't just let fifty people go out into the wilds of the Battlerealm! What about Xavier's dream-"
"Charles isn't here," Magneto replied coldly. "Sooner or later, the humans will fall behind. Then you will have to make this same choice. Why wait?"
"I won't," Warren refused. "Look, thank you for letting my group stay here, Erik. But I can't accept this deal. I just can't."
"Oh, but you will," Magneto stated, beginning to levitate off the ground a little. "You either take the deal - turn over all your humans for the safety of your mutants - or your whole group goes back to the Collector."
"What?! You can't do that!" Warren shouted back, getting to his feet and facing Magneto defensively. "You can't call the Collector on us. Who knows what he'll do to us?"
"Well, you'll find out, won't you?" Magneto replied.
Suddenly, the hall was flooded with glaring bright light, and Warren raised an arm to shield himself from the light. He couldn't see just what was outside, but Quentin Beck's call from upstairs told him all he needed to know. "Warren! Helicarriers!" Beck shouted. "Everyone up! They've come to us!"
Whereas moments before the Asteroid had been silent save for three old friends talking, now there was a frantic fury about, heroes getting up and preparing themselves, confused. Walking slowly towards the front door, Warren looked outside, to the asteroid's horizon, and indeed there were three gigantic Helicarriers, surely larger than Asteroid M itself, parked just outside, flooding the place with light. A whole army stood atop them - comprised of what soldiers, Warren could not tell.
There came a voice on a loudspeaker from the centermost Helicarrier - "Archangel and gang, this is Agent Philip J. Coulson. Please surrender at once! You will be taken into SHIELD custody and delivered to the Collector himself. Resistance will be met with the deadliest force we have at hand."
He turned back to Magneto, and accused, "You did this! Do you have any idea what you just did? You've sentenced us all to death!"
"Not quite. The Collector has offered leniency for me, Hank, and any Mutant who will join us in exchange for the others' lives," Magneto answered, floating up in the air and crossing his arms authoritatively. "He told me one day I would have a purpose in this Battlerealm.. and now, I have found it. Choose, Warren."
* * *
Once again, I hope you enjoyed reading this! I know this might have been a lot longer than last time, there was just a lot I wanted to get through. I really hope you enjoyed this new dynamic between the three classic X-Men characters, and especially the introduction of Hank McCoy, not quite the Beast anymore, as well as Agent Coulson's little cameo there at the end. (Don't worry, he'll be back.) Let me know what you thought down below, and next time - we get some real action, in Storytime #3: X and SHIELD!
Thank you for reading, everyone!
This is not one of those stories.
No, this is a tale of a band of heroes, wandering the edges of the Battlerealm. Who sought the refuge of Magneto, Master of Magnetism in his lair, Asteroid M. Who now perhaps find themselves in more danger than they sought to escape...
* * *
"I can keep you here no longer than a week. It would not be safe for me... or you," Magneto warned, looking back over at Warren and his group of heroes, as they walked into the main hall of Asteroid M. It was a stark, white, clean place, so unlike the chaotic, dark, and rocky Battlerealm around them, fairly well lit but by no means the most welcoming environment. Warren, looking around, could already tell that his group would be hard-pressed to find enough space - they numbered in the several dozens, and, aside from the Sentinels that now flanked the group, it seemed only Magneto resided in this asteroid.
Even as his charges spread out across the hall, and some of the most energetic young heroes ran up the stairs to explore Magneto's base, Warren could not stop himself from wondering, If there is not enough space for us here, or if he has to choose between his safety and our own... what will he do? It would be all too easy to get rid of the weakest among us to make room, but... that would not be right.
Then, suddenly, a voice called out from the top of the stairs, "Warren?"
Surprised to hear a voice he had not heard in many, many months, Warren looked up at the approaching Hank McCoy, dressed in a lab coat, and looking decidedly human. Though he lumbered down the stairs with his characteristic agility, he was no longer covered in blue fur, nor did he have the most beastly of his former features.
"Hank!" Warren cried, smiling for the first time in what felt like weeks. "What are you doing here? Why... why are you here?"
"Well, I..." Hank began, going up to his old friend, before looking around - it was only then that the sheer breadth of Warren's group hit him. "Oh my stars and garters," he said, taken aback by the volume of champions that now found themselves inside Asteroid M. "We should find a place for all your friends first. And I would suggest perhaps sending some of your best fighters out, to keep watch for the Adaptoids and such that are surely on the hunt for you as we speak."
"Oh, we're being hunted by no Adaptoid party," Warren replied gravely, leaving it at that. "But that sounds like a good idea, Hank. Perhaps we'll catch up later, after we get everything sorted out."
* * *
Hours passed, and finally Warren, Hank, and Magneto managed to find a place in Asteroid M for every last champion. There were a few large bedrooms, one of which Hank himself was staying in, and Magneto offered these gladly to each of the mutants among Warren's number. But he was more than happy to allow the rest to find their own places, and though this did cause some discontent among the gang's number, there was nothing that could be done. This Asteroid M simply hadn't been built to accommodate this many people, and they had to make do with what they had.
Once Warren's gang grew exhausted and retired for a while (for who among them truly knew whether it was night or day?), Warren, Hank, and Magneto met in the hall to discuss among themselves. Hank asked Warren what brought them to Asteroid M in the first place, and Warren, though unhappy to retell the tale, obliged. It took him a while, but he finally concluded, "We've been running ever since. We're looking for the strongest that there's ever been among us, to defend us against the Collector and his minions. That's why we're heading this way. So, Hank, how's your Battlerealm life been?"
"I was... in a crystal most of the time I've been here. I was freed one day, only to be returned to my crystal soon after. Apparently, those above me saw no use for me, and put me in a collection of other crystals, of other people. I could see them, and they could see me, but we could not say a word to each other," Hank recounted, sitting down and staring at the floor sullenly. "And for months, that was my entire existence."
"As was mine, for many months," Warren replied, remembering those dreadful days when he had been stuck in a red-tinted crystal, able to see hundreds of thousands of others around him and unable to do anything about it.
"The... Collector, who I remember had captured me, one day decided to... buy me back. I saw the transaction take place in front of my eyes - I was handed over, for nothing more than a few scraps of gold and a few shards of crystal," Hank recalled. "That was the value of my entire life, to those..."
"Vile humans," Magneto suggested, while Warren stated, "Summoners."
"Yes. I suppose so. But it came at the just the right time. Just as the Collector took my crystal, intending to lug me back to the hall from whence I'd came, there was... a shaking. The Summoner's entire collection shook, and me along with them, and the two of them dashed away," Hank stated, a bit of hope seeping into his voice. He chuckled, remembering the moment, and then continued, "They'd already unfastened my crystal from the wall, but took no care to put me back before they ran away to whoever knows where. And as the collection shook, my crystal fell, shattering onto the ground into a thousand different orange fragments."
He reached into his pocket, and held out a little pointed shard of crystal. "I knew I didn't have much time - what if the Collector reappeared just as quickly as he had disappeared? So though it pained me to leave the others in the collection, I ran. I gathered a few shards of crystal as I went, hoping to study it, and I was doubly lucky - almost as soon as I'd left the collection, I found Asteroid M in front of me. I knew I had no better option, and Magneto and I struck a deal. So I stay here while I work on enhancing mutant abilities, and try to figure out how to recreate some of the most... fascinating potions I'd seen the Summoner use," Hank finished, gesturing over to his lab, just down the hall.
Taking all this in, Warren felt a burst of hope - if Hank had escaped his prison, maybe there were other free heroes wandering the rocky plains of the Battlerealm. Maybe there were others that needed his help. And maybe, if there were enough of them, they could find a way out, or free themselves!
"What about you, Magneto?" Warren asked. "What are you doing here? How are you free?"
"Of course you know there are hundreds, thousands of... me running around this horrible place," Magneto stated. "I... was not like the others. So the Collector cast me out. 'I will return to you one day, Erik,' he told me. 'One day, you will have a purpose. But not yet.' I have been trying to figure out a way to liberate the mutant race from this loathsome Contest, and that's where Hank comes in."
Hank nodded, pulling out a little yellow square, no bigger than the palm of his hand. On it, a little spiral of DNA was etched, and he explained, "I think I've managed to recreate one of the items I've seen the Summoner use. They called this a... Boost, I think. I have a few of them. In simplest terms, it's a sort of potion that gives us strength beyond what we normally have. Makes our strongest moves even stronger."
"It only works on mutantkind, though," Magneto added on. "Which is why I want to make you a deal, Warren.You have two dozen mutants among you - Cyclopses, Wolverines, the like. Hank tells me that this could empower all the Mutants on Asteroid M - but none of the others. There is more than enough room in this Asteroid for two dozen mutants, but not enough for all of your kind. So here is the deal. I want your numbers, and I am willing to offer you perpetual refuge here. I will even let you keep a few of your most... beloved humans. I saw Dr. Banner among your ranks - he would be a great asset in Hank's research. But the rest have to go."
"What?" Warren replied, stunned. "No! Letting them go - that's practically certain death. Right now, they're under my protection, and I'll continue to protect them. I won't just let most of my men go out into the wild like that!"
"But your party is so large," Hank pointed out. "You can't protect them all. And to travel the Battlerealm with that many would surely risk discovery, sooner or later. You don't have to run. We can stay and figure out a way to solve this Contest problem together, but... there's just not enough room for all of the others."
"Hank, have you gone crazy?" Warren shouted. "We can't just let fifty people go out into the wilds of the Battlerealm! What about Xavier's dream-"
"Charles isn't here," Magneto replied coldly. "Sooner or later, the humans will fall behind. Then you will have to make this same choice. Why wait?"
"I won't," Warren refused. "Look, thank you for letting my group stay here, Erik. But I can't accept this deal. I just can't."
"Oh, but you will," Magneto stated, beginning to levitate off the ground a little. "You either take the deal - turn over all your humans for the safety of your mutants - or your whole group goes back to the Collector."
"What?! You can't do that!" Warren shouted back, getting to his feet and facing Magneto defensively. "You can't call the Collector on us. Who knows what he'll do to us?"
"Well, you'll find out, won't you?" Magneto replied.
Suddenly, the hall was flooded with glaring bright light, and Warren raised an arm to shield himself from the light. He couldn't see just what was outside, but Quentin Beck's call from upstairs told him all he needed to know. "Warren! Helicarriers!" Beck shouted. "Everyone up! They've come to us!"
Whereas moments before the Asteroid had been silent save for three old friends talking, now there was a frantic fury about, heroes getting up and preparing themselves, confused. Walking slowly towards the front door, Warren looked outside, to the asteroid's horizon, and indeed there were three gigantic Helicarriers, surely larger than Asteroid M itself, parked just outside, flooding the place with light. A whole army stood atop them - comprised of what soldiers, Warren could not tell.
There came a voice on a loudspeaker from the centermost Helicarrier - "Archangel and gang, this is Agent Philip J. Coulson. Please surrender at once! You will be taken into SHIELD custody and delivered to the Collector himself. Resistance will be met with the deadliest force we have at hand."
He turned back to Magneto, and accused, "You did this! Do you have any idea what you just did? You've sentenced us all to death!"
"Not quite. The Collector has offered leniency for me, Hank, and any Mutant who will join us in exchange for the others' lives," Magneto answered, floating up in the air and crossing his arms authoritatively. "He told me one day I would have a purpose in this Battlerealm.. and now, I have found it. Choose, Warren."
* * *
Once again, I hope you enjoyed reading this! I know this might have been a lot longer than last time, there was just a lot I wanted to get through. I really hope you enjoyed this new dynamic between the three classic X-Men characters, and especially the introduction of Hank McCoy, not quite the Beast anymore, as well as Agent Coulson's little cameo there at the end. (Don't worry, he'll be back.) Let me know what you thought down below, and next time - we get some real action, in Storytime #3: X and SHIELD!
Thank you for reading, everyone!
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