Chapter 29 Heavy is the Head part 4

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Where he was with the main force Guardian frowned looking over at Cyclops as Diamond and Jean informed him they had just fought off a telepathic attack. Not like he needed that information, Phoenix's hair suddenly flaring with telekinetic fire and her eyes behind her small mask flashing the same way had told him something was going on. It had been several hours since they had left the port, and he was actually been surprised it had been this long. "How powerful do you think he is?"

"Powerful, but not very skilled. He's definitely strong though, and I doubt either of us could get through his defenses alone. I'll try if I get the chance but don't expect anything there. He can't use his power to find us though, his telepathy doesn't work like that I don't think, his mind is too closed off for his telepathy to work like ours." Phoenix shrugged her shoulders. "But Magneto knows somethings up for certain now."

"Great…" Nodding his head, Guardian used the microphone that was part of his mask to signal Storm and Vanguard. Wendy's team would not be contacted like this, even with Reed interfering with their opponent's communications it would still be too dangerous for them. Even to the other two his message was short. "Magneto knows we're coming, be ready."

OOOOOOO

Unbeknownst to Guardian the Flyers which had gone ahead of his main force had already spotted the opposition. Several dozen miles above and in front of the far slower moving main force, they were out of range of aid and eye, but still following the same route.

The Klienstock brothers were three triplets who could all fly and fire energy beams of varying strength from their hands. The mutant powers weren't very powerful individually, but for some reason when they acted close together their powers amplified one another allowing themselves to be decent long-range and short range combatants.

The three of them were now leading the tribe Pteradon people into the air, heading towards the port. Normally Sauron would be leading them, but not now, given he was still in conference with Lord Magneto.

The Pteradon people were among the most numerous tribes of the Savage Land, and were very warlike, aggressive and antagonistic to everyone who they saw as weaker than they. They had not changed physically for the most part due to the mutation process but had lost somewhat in intelligence, not that grunts like them needed much in the way of brain power.

A few of them had developed the ability of echolocation, which Harry hadn't thought of when he was casting spells over his flyers to keep them from being seen until they could finally attack the citadel.

Worse, they weren't total idiots. Instead of shouting that they saw enemy flyers in the air, they passed the word quietly, spreading out slightly so as to fully envelop the enemy air force.

Unfortunately for them, Storm was very paranoid. She noticed the group ahead of them in the air, and had pulled her own group upwards and back so that they had the height advantage, continuing to do so as the enemies began to try to envelop them.

"I think they see us somehow," she said dryly as the flyers once again ascended to the same altitude that she and the others were on. "I think we have to start the party now regardless of what we wanted."

"Fine by me! Yawooo!" Johnny shouted before rocketing forwards, moving far faster than his illusion spells could handle. A pillar of flame appeared from his hands, streaming forward, slamming into and through several of the Pteradons, burning their wings off and sending them plummeting down to the ground. Since Morph had told them all the Pteradons and the Amphibians of the Savage Land had agreed to go through the mutation process and the fact that it was irreversible had removed the last barrier to using lethal measures the Fantastic Four let alone the Custodes Mundi had in dealing with their enemies here.

Behind him Cannonball, Polaris and Banshee shot forward in turn.

Cannonball shot ahead, slamming bodily into one of the three human looking individuals among the enemies. That impact threw the young man backwards, cartwheeling through the air losing all of his forward momentum but still retaining some control, coming to a slow halt in midair as Cannonball continue to roar forward, slamming into more of the Pteradons, hurling them aside.

Sending out a blast of ice, Storm froze a Pteradon then ascended into the air raining down lightning and blasts of razor fast wind even while reaching up to one temple to tap her communicator. "Guardian, this is Storm, we are engaging a force of flyers that somehow spotted us despite our spells. Nothing we can't deal with just yet, but be aware we won't be scouting ahead of you for a bit."

Ahead of them, more and more Pteradons flew toward them from the distant mountains. Storm however was undaunted, and began to use some of the spells Harry had been teaching her.

The new flyers also had hi-tech gear, which Polaris gleefully tore apart, turning each gun into so many flechettes, tearing their users apart. At the same time Banshee and Darkstar began their own attack runs. Dark Matter power based beams of destructive force lashed out as did wide area sonic blasts.

Storm began to spout orders, pairing up the flyers, always ascending in groups of three, ordering them all to begin to loop all around one another, always in position to guard one another's back while constantly moving save for Cannonball. Sam's kinetic shield kept him from being injured so long as he was moving.

Polaris worked with Banshee and Darks Stall providing long range cover while Storm aided Cannonball and the Human Torch up close and personal. The attackers might have had numbers, but they didn't have organization, and even the Klienstock brothers couldn't keep their fire on Storm and the others long enough to get through their Orihalcum protected suits.

For now the numbers on the Acolyte's side was keeping the battle going but skill stood with Storm and her fellows. It remained to be seen which would win the day, but Storm consoled herself with the knowledge that her group was at least keeping the flyers from attacking the main force on the ground.

OOOOOOO

Nor was the flight team the only group that had run into trouble. While Magneto was busy gathering his forces, some scout groups beyond the flyers had already been sent out.

Vanguard and his group had ditched the buggies when they began to run into dense jungle flora. They were moving on foot was slowing their advance considerably of course, but Vanguard and Carol had decided it was better for them to be slow than for them to run into anything they couldn't handle.

This was why Vanguard was the first to spot some movement through the forest ahead of them. Stopping quickly he held up a hand clenched in a fist then motioned downwards with that fist opening into a palm for moment indicating everyone should go to ground.

The only one who didn't recognize the signal understood quickly enough when everyone else fell prone, their rifles out and searching the area. Morph looked over at Wanda, who he was now sharing a bush with, a thought with such connotations that it almost made him cackle aloud. "So, what did that mean?"

"The fist means stop, the open palm going down means go to ground, he saw something." Scarlet Witch said with a shrug. Cyclops had drilled her and the other newcomers in such communication after they had started training with the X-men.

"Which also means you should be quiet," Carol growled from nearby, sweeping her sector of the forest through her sniper scope. "No hostiles in my sector," she murmured into her communicator.

"Four enemies incoming to the left and right of our line of advance," Vanguard murmured into his own communicator, built like Guardian's into his mask. "Wait, numbers going up… at least twelve. All mutates apparently, they look like Swamp Men almost, only bigger and some of them have spots of scales, fur and claws, and more than one of them have four arms. All of them are armed, some kind of blaster it looks like, but don't look as if they are expecting trouble."

Morph leaned in close to the Scarlet Witch, make certain to whisper but just loud enough to be heard by her microphone. "Is one of the four armed ones wearing an Acolyte uniform?"

"Wait one." Vanguard replied, pushing himself backwards deeper into a bush as he pulled out his rifle, citing along the sniper scope towards the back of the group. "Negative, why?"

Morph scowled angrily. "The boss of that group, Barbarus he and his cronies sold out his people, the Swamp Men, to Magneto. At the time everyone was happy with it, he wasn't willing to fight us. But when we learned the mutate processwasn't reversible, and what it did to most of their minds, well that was sort of the last straw for me."

The others nodded, and Vanguard waited while the group of Swamp Men made their way through the forest ahead of them, moving to the left from their current position. He didn't think they were making for the port, not along that route anyway but he didn't know one way or the other.

"I want to be clear on this," Nikolai murmured, "The mutate process isn't reversible, and that this lot will fight for Magneto regardless of anything else?"

"Yes and Yes. Part of the mutate process makes them obey orders from 'Lord Magneto' without question. They and all the other second-tier mutates are supposed to be cannon fodder in the war to come." Morph said, his voice going falsetto on 'Lord Magneto' before becoming serious.

"Alright. Everyone in position?" Vanguard waited for a few moments until the other snipers were in position, and Morph had moved to join Nightcrawler. The Scarlet Witch's powers wouldn't be necessary for this, but would be needed to renew the cloaking spells on them afterward. "Light them up."

With that the jungle's verdant foliage was lit by two plasma guns and two gauss rifles, the bolts zooming forward unerringly accompanied by the 'FZZARRK' of the gauss rounds. Three heads and one chest on four of the Swamp Men mutates exploded in gore, and the others began to scatter. Before they could, Ghigau took a second one in the back. Whatever durability the mutate process had given them wasn't up to stopping a gauss round. After that the snipers swiftly rolled away from their previous hides, moving to new positions.

Before the Swamp Men could ready themselves or even figure out where the attackers were in the dense jungle, Nightcrawler and Morph popped into their group. While Morph wasn't the martial artist Nightcrawler was, he was still strong and his shape shifting ability gave him a major advantage in hand to hand. Not even a minute after the ambush began it was all over.

"Move!" Vanguard shouted into the com, gesturing the others to follow him away. Rule one of any sort of ambush was to get away as quickly as possible so you couldn't be hit in turn.

He kept his team moving at a brisk pace for ten minutes, racing through the jungle to put some distance between them and the ambush site. After that they began to move silently once more, with their cloaking spells renewed by the Scarlet Witch. But even with that and Vanguard's caution they ran into trouble.

It was Carol who spotted it this time, but the danger wasn't in the form of individuals this time. "Trip wire," Carol said, moving back and leaning down to stare at the trap. It wasn't just a single trap either, but a series of them. "What the heck…"

"Retrace our steps, whatever this is we'll go around it. Morph any ideas?" Vanguard ordered, motioning Ghigau, who had taken up the rear, to lead them backwards and away.

"Probably a holdover from the war against the rebellion. Ka-zar and Wolverine were nightmares to fight out here in the jungle, and both sides made use of such traps. I'd watch out though, if they are still here we might be near some of the active patrols looking for Wolverine."

"Right." With Ghigau and Vanguard both leading the way now in a double file, they moved off, everyone looking out into the forest warily. Moments later they came upon one of those active patrols. By Vanguard's estimate they were heading back to the citadel, but he might be wrong.

The patrol consisted of several more mutated Swamp Men, but there were a few others among them this time. Once of which looked like a frogman, standing upright but with froglike features and wide red eyes. Another was a giant of a man standing as tall as Colossus though not as wide.

His eyes were opaque, seemingly blind but he stared toward the hidden team of snipers as if he could see them despite the cloaking spells and their having taken up hiding positions beyond that. "Invaders! Kill them for Lord Magneto!" With that he raised a large hand blaster he carried at his side firing at Coyote.

Boxed in his hide Coyote was forced to use his teleportation device, hopping to the top of a small hump in the jungle's floor nearby, rolling as he came out of the teleportation. Kicking out Coyote steadied himself against a tree trunk rolling onto his stomach and pulling his sniper rifle around, firing back.

His bullet whizzed over the large man's head as he ducked underneath it, turning quickly in the direction of the shot as more of Magneto's troops appeared from beyond the patrol. It was evident at least two, possibly three active patrols had joined together before returning to the Citadel. And though much of the numbers consisted of Swamp Men mutates, there were others there, mutates who had taken to the process better than their fellows for one reason or another.

One of them was the four armed mutate that Morph had mentioned before, Barbarus. He held too large handguns in to two of his arms, while the lower arms held large trench knives.

The second was a tall man in a black suit under a normal Acolyte uniform, his eyes slightly larger than normal seeming to glow slightly as he looked around the clearing. That gaze caught Nightcrawler before he could teleport away, and Nightcrawler immediately fell to his knees as a wave of vertigo hit him, worse than the after-effects of any teleportation Harry had ever put them through.

It was all he could do to keep his stomach down, and he was practically helpless for a few moments before Morph grabbed him and dragged him into cover at Vanguard's orders while the leader put a gauss round through the head of a mutate who stood between him and the mutant who had targeted Nightcrawler. The man had ducked behind a rock before he fired though, so the gauss shot missed wide, taking both that unlucky mutate and another out of the fight, hitting the second in the side and tearing out his guts.

Morph didn't meet the other man's eyes firing blindly around a tree at him with a blaster Vanguard had given him ("I always have a spare") before rolling to cover. His legs morphed into a giant spring, pushing him forward faster than their opponents could couple with. Morph's eyes disappeared into his skull, and his ears enlarged to almost resemble that of a bat as he slammed into the man, bearing him down. One hand rose turning into a hammer which he brought down with a sickening crunch.

While the first two groups went to ground and began to return fire, Vanguard began to order his men around, ordering the snipers to keep their distance for now, and for the Scarlet Witch to wait until the enemies clumped up before using her magic on them. They slowly began to envelope their enemies from multiple sides, cutting down several of the grunt type mutates.

But the battle changed again as more people rounded a giant tree, several dozen of the mutated Swamp Men and a woman. She had the complexion of light chocolate and looked to be around middle age despite a hair style that looked better suited for a teenager. But Morph, spotting her as he bore the first man to earth realized she was the real threat. "Take her out quick, or else she'll capture us all!"

The woman raised her hands and some kind of energy emanated down her arms and out towards Morph and Vanguard, who were the closest Custodes to her position. Only Ghigau, with her telepathy-based powers could see it, and realizing the woman had some kind of telepathic power herself Ghigau turned her rifle on her. A gauss round caught the woman in the shoulder despite being hidden behind a tree. The gauss ripped right through her arm and out away through the jungle, showing the woman had little to no enhanced durability to speak of.

"GAHHHH!" the woman yelled, falling to the jungle floor as she screamed, holding the ruins of her shoulder.

"Leash! Damn you, kill the traitor!" Barabarus howled, turning his guns toward the shape shifter who leaped away from his own victim, who was now a bloody broken mess himself.

"Carol, Coyote fall back to our right flank and lay down cover fire. Ghigau, fall back to Nightcrawler, get him back until he recovers, Scarlet Witch, cover Morph with defensive spells. Keep your offensive spells in reserve." Vanguard said smoothly, his own round smashing one of the mutates back minus his head as the others continued to return fire with limited success. Every one of their suits had Orihalcum plates in them, it was only their joints and faces that didn't, save in the case of Ghigau, Coyote and Carol, whose helmets and armor had been even more reinforced.

The forest floor rang with explosions and blasts from their various weapons, the normal 'FZZARKK' noise ringing out for a few more moments. However the mutates continued to try and close the range, using the leapfrog technique to do it, some of them laying down cover fire to keep Vanguard's team from firing on their fellows as they advanced. And during this maneuver, Vanguard lost track of five of the brute type mutates.

He turned in shock as they flanked his team, laying down a blistering array of fire, solid shot and energy. The giant who had first spotted the Custodes led them, and he charged in, eager to come to grips with the enemy.

"Cover me," Vanguard ordered, breaking out of cover himself. He charged towards this flanking group, his shield in front of him taking several blasts of laser light from the enemy's weapons as he closed leaping into the air over the first Swamp Man who dropped his rifle to reach forward eager to grapple with the red-clad man. As he cleared the man, Vanguard struck down with his shield the edge of it slamming into the back of the Swamp Men neck.

The Swamp Man didn't fall instead he merely twitched, turning towards his foe but Vanguard pulled out a handgun and shot him in the face, while he hurled his shield away towards another Swamp Man. That first Swamp Man fell, his eye and brain pierced by the plasma bolt, while the shield slammed into the second taking him off his feet but that was all.

Two more fell to bolts of pure magic from the Scarlet Witch. Further magic lights went off, blinding more than half of the attackers from the front, who had taken this time to close to near hand to hand range.

That concentration would have cost her have without Vanguard's intervention. The first giant was blind and her strobing lights did nothing to him so he was free to line up a shot on the Scarlet Witch. But Vanguard's shield had rebounded to him and he hurled it low on the ground, taking the man's leg out from under him, causing the shot to go high.

The bolt of energy slammed into a tree right above the Scarlet Witch's head, which wasn't armored as much as the rest of her. And Wanda's own magical shielding wasn't up to stopping that kind of attack.

Next to the Scarlet Witch Ghigau whirled, firing at the giant only to curse as a random enemy blast hit her rifle shattering it. "Fuck! Fine, I never liked the thing anyway!" Throwing the ruined rifle down she pulled out Sigyn's Gift, which morphed into a spear as the giant hurled himself to his feet, lunging toward her instead of turning to deal with Vanguard.

Blocking this attack, Ghigau then slipped her spear butt between the fellow's legs, twisting and sending him to the ground when he ignored the spear, assuming it would break like a normal piece of wood might have. The giant rolled away from her downward stab, flipping up with a trench knife in his own hand, and Ghigau dodged around it, watching as the blow shattered the tree behind her.

Inside her mask Ghigau gulped lightly, but wasn't dissuaded and kicked out with her hover boot. Pushing into the air off the giant's face, doing no damage but heading up into the jungle canopy, she landed lightly on a large tree limb above the battlefield at present.

To one side she noticed that Coyote had done the same thing elsewhere, raining down heavy fire on several of the mutates around Vanguard. Carol was also dueling with that first Frog-like man, who had hopped up into her tree, slamming the individual backwards.

"Little rat, you're an idiot if you think that can save you!" The giant bellowed shattering the tree's trunk with a single blow before backing away and firing with his handgun up into the foliage as the colossal tree fell.

But Ghigau hadn't been idle, Sigyn's Gift changing into her bow. As the tree fell she carefully pulled an armor piercing arrow out of her bag of holding and waited.

Below her the giant smashed several tree branches coming toward him into pieces, grinning as Ghigau fell through the air, seemingly losing her footing as the tree continued it's descent. She fell forward, then flipped, and his smile faded for just a second then he knew no more. No matter his body's durability, it wasn't up to stopping an arrow with a velocity rivaling most rifle rounds through the eye.

Near the front of the battle Barbarus had closed with Morph, who changed his hands into maces matching the other man's trench knives. His rifles had been dropped somewhere along the way, but he had pulled out two further trench knives, forcing Morph to change his form again to match him, four arms against four.

"Man Barbie, you don't mind if I call you Barbie do you, with that hair and how little I see you away from Gaza, and he's more Ken with that hairstyle. No judgements here, just saying. Anyway, I see why you like this Barbie, having four arms is really handy! Get it, handy?" Morph quipped, even as his mace-hands slammed the other man's knives

"Silence traitor! You will die and your new allies with you. No one can stand against Lord Magneto!"

"Barbie, Barbie, Barbie, you should've listened to the rumors about why we were all here in the first place. Lord Magneto ran here dude, Guardian, only I think he was just known as Potter then, beat him! Sent him running away with his tale between his legs." Morph laughed.

Nearby Amphibian realized the battle was lost. Only five of his former tribesman beside himself and Barbarus were on their feet, two of them rushing to his iad now while the others exchanged fire with two of the attackers. Looking over to where they had left her Leash had seemingly bled out from their wounds as well, making this a costly fight already in terms of real mutants.

The irony of that statement did not register in his mind as he ducked under a blow from Carol shouting, "Barbarus, we must retreat!"

"Nien mine friend, I think not!" No longer feeling the vertigo that had seized him, Nightcrawler teleported forward slamming down with all of his weight into the Frog-man's face, burying him into the ground as suddenly his hands were filled with two sabers that he whirled in either direction, cutting into the chests of two nearby Swamp Men.

Their durability however made the sabers simply skitter over their chests not wounding them at all. He was forced to pop away while the two of them turned their weapons on him.

Carol instead took the brunt of their weapons as the frog-man got to his feet. The impact of the energy weapons hammered Carol backwards before she could teleport away in turn, and she crashed against a tree, uninjured but with her head ringing slightly in her helmet.

Her boot slipped on a bit of moss at the base of the tree, and she heard a click. She looked down but wasn't fast enough to activate her teleportation device and one of the traps they had spotted earlier went off. Well, shi-AHhh!" the claymore exploded to her side, sending her rocketing backwards, her life only saved by the protection of her suit.

Even so, her head slammed into the ground several times as she flipped end over end from the impetus of the explosion. A second after she stopped moving, her body disappeared, her suit's emergency portkey activating.

"Scarlet Witch, gloves are off!" Vanguard shouted into his mike, turning and moving to help Morph against Barbarus. Coyote, Nightcrawler and Ghigau, finish off the frog ублюдок! (bastard)!"

The four armed mutate held them both off for a time, until one of his arms disappeared from a gauss rifle shot from Coyote, whose group had quickly finished off the frog man and the two mutates with him. Retreating had been the smart thing to do, but it had simply allowed the snipers more range to gun them down.

Even as Vanguard blocked two of his remaining trench knives the man fell back screaming from that wound only to gasp as Morph's arm suddenly changed into a stiletto, slamming into and through his mouth and up into his brain.

Morph stared as the dead mutate fell off his slowly reforming hand and Vanguard looked at him. Morph shook his head slowly, looking down at the body, his voice suddenly serious. "He betrayed his people, betrayed them into servitude, sterility, and brain damage. I hated him and the other willing mutates for that, and hated Magneto because he rewarded him for it. Yet, why do I feel so bad now?"

"If you didn't, there be something wrong with you." Vanguard said, putting an arm around the other man's shoulder turning him back towards the others. "Report! Did Carol teleport out okay?"

"Apparently, at least her emergency portkey activated, but you know we can't contact Camelot from here. Personally, I'm just happy the portkeys work as expected." Coyote replied, shrugging his shoulders. "What do we do now? Do we continue?"

"Let's get away from here at least," Vanguard ordered, gesturing into the woods and away. "We'll change our rout to go further around Harry's, that is Guardian's, straight ahead route towards the citadel. We'll rest up, go slow and avoid contact for an hour or so, until we're in a position to launch a few of our own."

As the others moved off Vanguard shook his head castigating himself fiercely. Dammit, should've done better here. With a sigh he looked down at his shield, rubbing one finger onto the white star on the red background. "Sorry Captain, I'm not certain I'm worthy of this just yet, but I'll do better from now on."With that he moved off his eyes determined.

OOOOOOO

The battle in the air petered out after the death of the second Klienstock brothers, joining more than three dozen of the Pteradons. The remaining flyers retreated in disarray towards the citadel. But Storm forced the others with her to fall back instead of continuing the fight, not wanting to get too far ahead of Guardian and the main force.

Holding still for a moment Storm recast the spells hiding them from detection, thankful that Diamond and Phoenix had apparently been able to beat off the enemy telepath. Diamond's report on that individual however was grim as was the lack of a larger reply from Magneto.

Scowling Guardian shook his head. Bucket head's playing this cagier than I expected, which makes me even more certain I don't want to attack him in his center citadel. Time to up the ante. "I think the time for guile has passed." Looking over at Cyclops in the other truck, he bellowed. "They know we're here, I'm going to cancel the cloaking spells on us. Instead of looking for a place to set up the battlefield we're going to play target for bit."

OOOOOOO

Instead of striking out with all his power at the flyers his own people had reported, Magneto continued to gather his forces back towards the citadel, emptying several of the nearest barracks, while ordering the other barracks, both Brotherhood only barracks, to empty bolstering his forces. Then he began to arm the Sun People, who provided the largest number of troops along with the mutates, though as they also formed the majority of his base personnel and workforce they didn't normally go around arms.

After ordering Zaladane to continue that process he murmured to Exodus, "You and I will remain apart from the main battle for now. If that telepath tries an attack, respond but otherwise remain aloof for now."

"Why master?" Exodus asked. "Between the two of us we could slaughter any enemy!"

"Not if Guardian is here along with the others that he's gathered under his shortsighted vision of equality. I want their attention divided between the rest of our forces and us before we strike. Even you my friend would have trouble with Guardian and Phoenix at the same time. We have to separate them move them away from any ability to reinforce one another."

At Exodus's surprised expression Magneto elaborated. "I have made a study of everything Brainchild and Milan have been able to discern of Guardian's fight with the alien, and with some other rumors in the world abroad, putting it together with my own contest against him. Guardian's magical power could well be a match for all of your own abilities, and even I would be hard-pressed by him alone."

"As for Phoenix, some of what I've seen recently about her powers worry me almost as much as Guardian." And then there's Munroe and her new ability to use magic as well judging from the evidence from that American embassy in Armenia, he thought coldly. Alone none of them would be a match for me and Exodus together, but all three combined, they could well overwhelm us, or maybe even both of us at once if you throw in that unknown telepath.

As Exodus bowed his head Magneto nodded formally then turned away quickly looking over at the communications officer, a young mutate who had gone through the process without any apparent loss in higher intellectual functioning but also no show of mutant power. "Have you been able to cut the port out of our communications net yet? And has Milan reached the port?"

"Negative to the first, positive to the second Milord," The young mutate responded, looking up his face creased in worry. He was one of the Cat People, one of their youngest actually. The Cat People had long been a thorn in Magneto side, siding with Ka-zar's tribe in his rebellion, but the few who had been put through the new mutate process had surprisingly taken very well to it.

"Whoever is on the other side of the communications net has been able to crack all of our communications protocols, whereas I can't crack theirs. Perhaps they captured Mastermind and made him talk?" The youth went on.

"Hmm, send for Brainchild, get him up here to help you. I want our communications free of enemy interception, and their own communications cut out of the net." Magneto ordered frowning realizing he had been… less than wise in sending Milan out with so small a force, underestimating the threat, but with no com net to reach that far he couldn't call them back.

Still, Milan's loss is negligible in the short term. Moving over to study the map of the Savage Land, Eric put that thought out of his mind with ease, wondering where the main force of his enemy was. The Flyers could not be all of it after all. "Where are you Potter?"

OOOOOOO

Milan had two mutates as guards on his fact finding mission. The two mutates were among those who looked somewhat like Amphibian, one of those among the first batch that had gained much from the initial mutate process. The only difference was they didn't have his intelligence and their heads more resembled a cross between frog and fish rather than simply looking like a frog.

Because of this they travelled underneath the water with the two mutates pulling along Milan in a small electromagnetic force field within the water. Because of this they were able to enter the port without Mr. Fantastic or Diamond noticing their presence at first.

They moved through the silent port, becoming more and more freaked out by the fact that there weren't anyone around, not even the bodies of the individuals who should've been here. That and the droids destruction worried Milan, who wasn't a combatant by any means. He was simply here to gather information.

Closing on Mastermind's quarters they founded the first sign of someone, though Milan gasped at the sight. It was Mastermind himself slumped against his chair, his throat neatly cut execution style. The site made him shudder and he was about to open his communicator to relay this to Lord Magneto when a voice came over the intercom nearby. It was a female voice, cultured and urbane, but controlled

"Attention the three of you, we know you're here. Mastermind was executed for being a serial rapist and murderer a few times over. Both Basilisk and Slither were merely captured, without undue distress. They will be tried and if guilty of crimes elsewhere will be turned over to various world governments I believe, but those who aren't not guilty of any serious crimes will be allowed their freedom eventually. Surrender now, and you'll be given the same treatment."

"W-who am I speaking to?" Milan said as the two mutates made for the door exiting quickly. In his hands his communicator opened and began to record at no physical signal. That was his power at work: called electropathy he was able to mentally connect with electronic devices, and even translate mental thoughts into projected electronic signals.

The answer came not through the intercom but through a voice out in the hallway. "I'm Mr. Fantastic pleased to make your acquaintance." The two mutates were smashed back into the room with Mastermind's body and Milan turned just in time to see a massive rubber fist slamming into them hurling them backwards.

Milan gaped as Mr. Fantastic appeared in the doorway, a small electronic device in his hands. Before he could bring his power to bare on it, there was a hiss, a sizzle and he fell to ground shocked into unconsciousness.

Mr. Fantastic looked down at the young Milan, smiling slightly. He had not been happy when Harry had confirmed Diamond had executed Mastermind, but given what she had found in his head he couldn't really say it hadn't been justice. He should've been tried, but the other prisoners would eventually be, and many of them like this young man would be given their freedom at least here in the Savage Land in the future. Harry's rules of engagement were very clear, and he was thankful to follow-through them in this case.

"Three down several dozens more to go."

OOOOOOO

Several hours after leaving the port Wendy and those with her had reached the barracks she knew most of her friends had gathered in.

Entering the barracks she was met almost immediately by one of her friends, a young man named Neophyte. He was a little on the short side, with brown hair, and light blue eyes, and a caring expression completely at odds with the Acolyte uniform he wore. "Stinger! We've been expecting for hours! Have you heard what's going on, you must've left the port just the right time."

"Not exactly," Wendy said with a slight wince. "Who else is here?"

Neophyte looked at her askance at her tone, but answered easily enough. "Myself, Scanner, Orator, Chrome. Projector, Spoor and Gambit are here as well. One or two others might be around the place, but those are the only ones I've seen in the last few hours."

Among the Brotherhood and the Acolytes, very few people used their real names. Lord Magneto had ordered it so, that they be known by what set them above humanity, that they be reborn from their lives before joining him.

"Spoor?" Wendy winced again or an entirely different reason. Spoor's ability was to manipulate pheromones, generating feelings of hate and anger in other people, making them go crazy. He couldn't direct it at specific targets very well when he had to do anything else, like when he was under fire, but it was a devastating support attack. He was also very strong and almost bestial in nature.

"Could you gather them all in the rec room? I have something I need to talk to them about."

"You're acting a little weird… but sure." Neophyte said reaching over to slug her shoulder in a friendly sort of way before moving off.

Behind him, Wendy made to follow whispering to her cloaked protectors. "If anything happens take out Spoor first, he'll be the aggressive hairy bastard."

Moments later all of them were gathered, and Wendy smiled rather wanly at them all.

"If this is about Lord Magneto not calling us in just yet, I was told we should wait another 20 minutes or so for Lord Magneto to figure out where he wanted us. Apparently a few of today's patrols haven't returned, so the officers are wondering if we should be sent out to find them or join the gathering troops at the citadel." Said Spoor sternly, staring at Wendy from under his shaggy brows. In fact shaggy was a very good way of describing everything about him.

"Though he didn't know you were here Stinger. Exactly how did you get out of the port before whatever happened there happened?" He asked, standing up and slowly reaching for a gun he had on his belt.

Chrome reached out a hand, grasping Spoor's wrist lightly. "Let her talk," he said looking at Wendy. "Stinger's a friend, remember, a fellow Brotherhood member. We're all friends here right?"

Around the room three other Acolytes who Neophyte hadn't told her were here nodded, but made no move to threaten Wendy, simply looking on. Anne Marie Cortez was smiling lightly at her and Wendy smiled back if somewhat wanly. The older girl had been going through a rough time since her brother's treason had been found out, but the other blue-haired woman had not been part of that, and been cleared by Exodus, not Mastermind.

But Wendy had no idea at all how she would jump despite being closer to her than any Acolyte save Morph. She was friendly, and the two of them had bonded over having the same color hair, but Anne was a true believer in mutant superiority, even if she took little pleasure in violence. Or she had been, before Fabian's attempted coup.

Behind her stood Katu, his cybernetic arms gleaming. Another one who was a true believer he spoke English with a slight Croatian accent, and hated all things Russian. Beyond that, Wendy knew nothing about him. Across from him at the pool table was Kamal, a middle-eastern man whose hate for all things Islamic was a burning pyre within him, and fueled his fervent love for Lord Magneto.

Licking her lips, Wendy began. "Well, the first thing I have to tell you is those rumors about mutant/norm, er, flatscan equality being on the rise, they're true." Wendy started, quickly using the derogatory term they all used to talk about normal humans. "The Custodes Mundi, they've been doing what we should've been doing all along, fighting the good fight for other mutants not just on the ground, but also through laws and economic pressure, though I'm not really clear about that aspect."

From there she put a video into the video player which Storm had provided just before her team had left. She was silent as it played, watching their faces.

Gambit's cagy face was inscrutable as always where he leaned against the door frame. He always acted as if he was one of the smartest people in the room, or like he had some secret or something, suave and rather flirtatious Wendy had liked him initially, but he was flirtatious with everyone, and a little too fake for her to really like him. He also felt himself a little bit above most of the other Brotherhood members, since he had long been considered a candidate to be raised to the Acolytes. It was only his effort in battle holding him back

Surprisingly Katu and Anne were among those also looked neutral, or at least as if they weren't going to attack her, which was all she wanted right now. Wendy was suddenly realizing she didn't know anything about Psylocke and Shadow Cat's combat abilities, and realizing the four women were very much out of contact here.

Of the others Projector looked noticeably angry, shaking his head angrily several times, almost speaking out but silenced by the others around him. Spoor looked contemplative, but there was something in his eyes that scared Wendy. Kamal also glared at her as if she was dirt on her shoe.

Chrome, Scanner and Neophyte though were looking conflicted. Wendy knew the feelings going through them all too well, having wrestled with her own feelings about this topic before. They were happy that such progress had been made in terms of mutant equality, wondering if maybe that was a better, more peaceful future than Lord Magneto's vision of mutant supremacy, and feeling very guilty having realized the war they'd fought here might have had no point in the long term.

"Um, so, uh I guess it should be obvious that the Tech Squad didn't come up with this." Wendy said as the video came to a stop, suddenly realizing she hadn't thought this plan all the way through. "Um, Crucible's team was hunted down by a force of Custodes, and they figured out a way to follow us here. Guardian is offering us places in his, I guess faction is the best way to describe it. Um, but he doesn't want us to fight for him or anything, just not fight against him right now."

Scanner and Neophyte shared a glance, and suddenly Wendy remembered the persistent rumors the two of them were involved. Scanner was an important member of the Brotherhood, whose ability to find mutants in an area by a sort of radar scanning power had helped Magneto bring in a lot of the Brotherhood, despite its short range. Her distaste, even loathing for combat however limited her utility. Neophyte had been among those who were trained for information gathering and espionage, his phasing skill invaluable in that area though having little combat potential.

The others were still looking conflicted but before anyone else could speak up Projector launched to his feet, his hand glowing. The tall man thrust his fist forward, and a Force Field generated around his body launching forward from the end of his punch towards Wendy. "You're a traitor Stinger, a traitor to your own race and Lord Magneto! And you all know what we do to traitors!"

Wendy ducked to one side and the force-field fist slammed into the TV, smashing it into pieces. That however seemed to be the signal, and suddenly everyone had chosen a side.

"Sorry cher, the Mexico might have a temper and have no idea how to treat a gal, but he's right." Gambit went from leaning against the wall to hurling one of his energy packed cards toward Wendy, but she could combat that. Her hand glowed with electricity as she summoned up one of her stingers, batting the card aside into a wall where it exploded on contact with the solid wall.

Neophyte, Scanner and Orator dropped to the floor before crawling toward the door as Kamal joined the target practice, grabbing out a gun by his side rather than using his mutant power, which was to take on the property of anything he touched. Bu Chrome stood up, launching himself forward at Wendy's attackers.

Chrome transmuted the chair leg into titanium and cracked it down on Kamal's arm, foiling his aim. "What does it say about you lot that you're not willing to let anyone else have opinions before starting to attack huh!? I didn't know Lord Magneto was so against us thinking for ourselves!"

At that point the fight became general and Wendy's hidden defenders decided they'd seen enough. As Wendy had warned them, they struck Spoor first. While he launched to his feet and brought his hands forward beginning to direct his pheromone powers Mystique, who had also known about his powers, stabbed him as she came out of cloak before kicking out, bringing Anne to the floor. "Hello Anne, nice to see you again. You weren't about to do anything stupid were you?"

Anne blinked then smirked, holding up her hands the gold of the bracers of her Acolyte uniform glinting in the strobing lights of the battle going on all around them. "Long time Raven, um, no, if it's all the same to you I'd like to do nothing but lie here right now." She knew what Raven could do and more importantly what she had done in the past for the cause so if Potter was willing to give her a chance, Anne was willing to at the very least talk to him.

Nearby Projector suddenly found himself weighing about a hundred times his normal weight, and he grunted, collapsing onto his knees before falling to his chest. Next to him Kamal screamed as he suddenly found himself stuck in the floor then was quickly shocked into unconsciousness as Shadow Cat phased into the room from the floor below them, smirking as her hands flickered with magical lights. God I love magic, gotta thank Ororo for teaching me again when I see her.

Psylocke went after Kamal, her telepathic dagger slamming through the back of his head even as he turned. He fell to the ground twitching in agony.

"Wh-?" Gambit muttered, charging more cards, but then he felt a monstrous blow from an unseen fist, hurling him back and out the door and into the wall opposite the rec room, which collapsed around him.

Looking up and around at the sudden and lethal violence, Anne whistled appreciatively. "Okay, hell yes. Mutant and flatscan equality suddenly sounds like a great idea, especially if it's backed by someone ruthless enough to order something like this."

"You get one chance with us," Susan Storm said, sliding into being as she allowed her invisibility to fade. The sight of one of the Fantastic Four backing this, whatever it was, attack wasn't right if Potter was willing to convert them instead of cut them down, made Anne even happier she wasn't trying to resist this.

"Y-yeah…" Neophyte gulped, shaking his head as he helped Scanner to her feet. "Um, neutrality is sounding really good just now."

Nearby an explosion rang out and Shadow Cat turned, phasing back through the floor moving toward the rubble over Gambit. She came back moments later, shaking her head angrily. "He's gone, blew up the floor underneath himself then the outer wall before racing off. He was out of sight by the time I phased through the rubble."

"Crap, he'll be bringing help any moment now. Any way we could catch him?" Mystique asked. Unlike Anne, Fabian and a few of the other Acolytes, she didn't know Gambit, though by his accent she could guess where he came from. One of Candra's bunch, definitely. No doubt a true believer just like she was.

"Doubt it, none of us have speed powers." Shadow Cat shrugged.

"And there are probably a few mutate patrols in the area, hunting for food mostly but still enough to make a fight of it here, pin us down." Wendy shrugged. "Can we get out of here now?"

OOOOOOO

About twenty minutes after the others left retracing their steps toward the port, in the now abandoned barracks Gambit slowly pushed himself out of his hiding place. He wasn't injured much, though his head was ringing from the hit the Invisible Woman hat laid on him. And ain't that a damn surprise, and a sign of things to come…

He frowned thinking hard, then shrugged his shoulders and exited the barracks, grabbing a motorcycle and heading towards the citadel. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen near there, and his real employer would probably like him to be in place to take advantage of whatever it was.

OOOOOOO

Harry sighed faintly staring around the dirt road and out into the jungle as he listened to Mystique report over the magic mirrors. Reed had recommended they not transmit anything by the electronic coms they didn't want to hear about an hour ago. He'd been having free reign of the Savage Land's integrated communication and computer systems, but that had ended swiftly. Someone on the other end of things was able to keep up with him, blocking him out of their own systems while trying to attack the port's computers in turn, cutting them out of the net.

Regardless, both sides could no longer use their communications gear, which would have been bad for Harry and company if they didn't have his magical backups. With them they were still able to organize the disparate forces in motion in the Savage Land. He knew now that Mystique and her team were on their way back to the port with both prisoners and possible converts, leaving behind two dead, including one whose power might well have made a big ass difference in the main fight.

Why was someone like that with the group of Brotherhood members and Acolytes who even Magneto needed to realize were not the most warlike? Ah… because he could use his power on them and turn them into berserkers once any battle was joined. And the other Acolytes were there to back him up, clever.

He also knew that Vanguard's team had ambushed seven groups of patrols, but hadn't turned up any clue just yet to Logan or his friends. Most of the other sides' casualties in that were among made by the brute class Mutates, but the losses among the real mutates in that second ambush were considerable.

But too much time's passed since that and the patrols are still disappearing. So what's Magneto up to? He knows about the flyers, and can at least guess about where Vanguard's moving around.

So far we've run into the low scale teams, the ones that Magneto could afford to lose. He hasn't put any of his chief lieutenants out despite two of them at least being able to fly. And despite what Vanguard's team reported, we haven't seen any real high-tech assault teams yet either. Is he waiting for us to come at him in the citadel? That'd be smart, but also far too defensive for Magneto's personality. Unless… unless he means to pin us against the citadel's defenses.

"Slow down," He ordered aloud, startling all around them. They could see the citadel in the distance, visible against the 'sun' which was well past it's midday point. Going by his watch it was around six pm, but the sun made it seem like it was far closer to midday than that. But the important thing was they stayed away from the citadel for now. "He's still waiting for us, we need to draw him away from his citadel..."

"I don't think so." Jean said suddenly, looking over at the small electronic devices set along the road. The small light flashing on the ones in sight suddenly died as Jean and Harry watched. "I think we just had to get past the reach of Reed's interference…"

A few seconds later the main strike force began to hear a strange musical note from the jungle to their left, some distance away but still within hearing range if barely. It sounded like someone was playing a flute.

Then from out of the darkness dozens, hundreds of dinosaurs and other large beasts appeared, charging toward the two trucks who suddenly were no longer protected from them.

"Action left, likely a diversion, everybody out of the trucks." Guardian said loudly, turning in that direction. "Cyclops, take command of the lead truck, keep them ready for action from the front, Jean take the rest and be ready on the right. I'll deal with the dinos."

"Roger." Cyclops said calmly. "Rogue, Warpath, wait in the center for now. Spyke, on the left, remember to follow my or Jean's order if she calls for fire on target, Havok right, I'll take center." At the same time Cyclops was seeing to that, Phoenix, Thunderbird, Colossus, and Magma waited.

As the dinosaurs continued to charge there was another shout, this time in a barely human voice, from the front as hundreds of mutates, many more than Wendy had reported, boiled out of the jungle along towards the attackers. "Attack!" Another charge of larger monsters attacked from the other side, including two T-rexes and several other huge dinosaurs they really should have seen coming. "How the hell… we've got action on the left and front."

"Roger Phoenix, any sign of Magneto or any of the other lieutenants?" Harry asked, as he stared out into the jungle. Wait for it, wait for it…

"Negative." Cyclops and Phoenix said as one before Cyclops elaborated even as his shooters took the attackers coming at them from the front under fire.

His eye blast of power was matched by someone on the other side, Peeper from the report he'd seen. But his attack was more powerful, and the other's attack coming at an angle couldn't overcome it, merely redirect it. "We've got mutates, Brotherhood members and a few Acolytes in sight, nothing major."

"Good." Guardian suddenly smirked pointing from one dinosaur to another, starting from the largest and down to the smallest. "Muffilatio, Muffilatio, Muffilatio…"

The dinos blinked one after another, shaking their heads and looking around as if they were coming out of sleep. Then they reacted to their strange circumstances in various, rather predictable ways. The herbivores bellowed racing off either in a group or as individuals, while the meat eaters snarled, attacking them or each other.

From somewhere in the distance there was a scream and the music, which had still controlled the other animals and had even begun to send bugs and smaller beasts at them, cut off abruptly. "Well, that was easy."

Turning back from that, he took in the rest of the battle now. "Storm, start attacking from the ground, Magma, make us some defensive ramparts. Cyclops, once she's done that, pull back with your brother to provide cover fire. Shi Jundai!"

With that shout Harry fell to his knees, slamming his hands down on the ground, and suddenly there was a small army of rock golems puling themselves out of the ground of the jungle and the road. The charging mutates and even those few dinos still trying to come to grips with his people found themselves facing the massive stone spears and swords of the golem army.

Cyclops obeyed pausing a brief to flare his eye blast at one of the attackers, smashing his weapon into pieces before it could range on the trucks front. At the same time Peeper found out his eye blasts couldn't deflect Havok's energy attack for some reason, and his assault slammed into a group of mutates, smashing them back and turning one into a corpse, his chest and side missing.

"Die flatscan lovers!" Crucible bellowed form behind the line, where he, Frenzy, and several other Brotherhood members had charged forward to add their weight to the battle. He tried to use his powers against the now attacking flyers, only for Storm to use a blast of wind that nearly flew back into their faces. "Damn it!"

Despite the flyers attacks however, there were more and more attackers coming out of the jungle mostly mutated but now they weren't alone. With them came the Sun People and mutated for the most part, all of them riding small two men skimmers of some sort armed with heavy weapons between the trees and other plants. The fight became close and desperate in places, but the golems had come as a major shock, and the brute-class mutates couldn't close.

The Sun People however were having much better luck, zipping around or creating small firing positions here and there in the battlefield. The first one that did cheered as their group fire caught Havok out in the open, but those cheers died when he leaped to his feet grinning and throwing back his own attack. It impacted the group sending their bodies flying this way and that like rag dolls. "Damn Guardian, this armor is awesome!"

"It's not perfect, don't get cocky," Cyclops warned, ducking underneath several energy blasts of his own.

"Colossus, Thunderbird, take point, Thing, Rogue, Paige and Warpath follow up, spread to either side of them. Make certain none of their own strong men get through to the shooters." Harry said calmly. "Cyclops, pull back along the right flank, Havok lay down cover fire. Magma, you ready?"

In response the entire jungle rumbled for a moment then several large berms of rock and dirt shot up between them and their enemies. "How's that for you boss?" Magma yelled, removing her hands from the ground then charging forward, her entire form now the energy form she used when she was exerting herself. She flung two balls of plasma out slagging two skimmers that had tried to get around their new defensive position.

At the same time, Cyclops pulled back with Spyke while Havok and Magma laid down a blistering cover fire on that side of things.

While his team members fell back Colossus charged forward, slamming into and through some of the mutates as the Sun People fired on him, but the blows merely rocked him backwards on his heels if that, unable to get through his steel clad frame and the Juggernaut armor. Beside him Warpath and Thunderbird shouted an Apache war cry together slamming into and through several mutates, their massive cleavers cutting and chopping.

Between one punch and the next Colossus had a brief second to watch as the golems began to take the fight to their ambushers .

That seemed to be the hint for the other side to throw in their next wave, this time Brotherhood members this time including some of their own front line troopers. "Die race traitors! Lord Magneto has commanded your deaths!"

Thunderbird went down from a right punch that threw him backwards through a tree, shattering the tree and nearly his jaw from a giant standing several feet taller than even Colossus. He had one eye, a beard, and wore what looked like an Acolyte uniform modified to resemble that of a circus strong man.

He was about to attack Thunderbird again when the Thing's fist slammed into his side. "Let's dance One Eye!"

Colossus and Warpath fell back in the face of four others. Frenzy Laughed gaily as she charged forward. Next to her a slightly taller girl with long thin horns coming out of her head, claws on her fingertips, and seemingly equally strong came forward grimly, catching a blow from Warpath and returning a slash that skittered off his chest, unable to pierce his armor but sending him back slightly from the impact.

But Colossus was faced with the largest fattest foe on the field, his fist nearly disappearing into the fat man's stomach as he brought his own two fists crashing down on Colossus' head, staggering the metal goliath. "Nothing moves the Blob pipsqueak!"