Chapter 24

"Get out of my way!"

The words detonated like a thunderclap.

Buried under meters of fractured earth, Captain Marvel erupted upward in a burst of radiant photon energy. The ground split open like a wound, launching rock and scorched soil skyward as she emerged. Fury pulsed through every cell of her body.

In one swift motion, her fist, brimming with solar fire, collided squarely with Mark's chest. The force of impact sent the Great Ape flying backward like a meteor. His body carved a trench over a mile long through frozen wilderness. Trees vanished in plumes of steam. Stone shattered into dust.

"ROAAARRR!"

Mark came to a halt in a cascade of smoke and debris. He rose slowly, his shoulders heaving, muscles twitching, eyes glowing crimson with barely-contained wrath. He was wounded but not broken. In fact, the blow had only stoked the hurricane inside him.

There was no strategy left. No calculation. Only fury in its rawest, purest form.

He threw his head back and unleashed a deafening roar. Mouth-beams erupted from his fanged maw, surging forward in a relentless barrage. Each blast tore across the sky, scorching the air, streaking like golden missiles toward Captain Marvel.

Maria Rambeau rose to meet him without hesitation. She flew like a comet, her frame outlined by a burning skyline. Her every movement was precise. She deflected blasts with shimmering barriers, redirected energy with compact photon spheres, and twisted through gaps in the volley with sublime agility. Wherever a beam missed, the consequences were catastrophic. Mountaintops crumbled. Valleys erupted in flame.

This was no longer a clash. It had become a cataclysm.

Mark leaped again, the shock of his movement cracking the mountains beneath him. He swung a colossal arm downward, but Maria twisted away in time and countered with a spinning photon kick to his jaw. The blow cracked the air with sonic force. The Great Ape staggered, then retaliated with a mouth blast that grazed her side and sent her spiraling away.

Snow boiled into mist. Stone collapsed into slag.

Every strike reshaped the terrain.

Despite Mark's overwhelming strength, Maria maintained the upper hand. Her flight, control, and sharp attacks gave her a critical edge. His assaults, though immense, were slow and easy to predict. He was a walking apocalypse, but one that lacked refinement.

Still, restraint came at a cost.

She could end this. She had the precision to target organs, snap bones, or paralyze him with pinpoint photon strikes. But she held back.

Because beneath the monstrous form, under layers of muscle and fur, she saw what still lay inside.

A child.

Maria clenched her teeth. Every time she spared him, she took another hit. Every time she shielded a SHIELD agent from an errant beam, she lost precious momentum.

Below, a wild blast exploded near the SHIELD perimeter. Agents scrambled for cover. May and Carter shouted orders across the chaos, their voices barely audible over the carnage.

This was no longer a fight. It had become a warzone.

"Hell no! Mark, I swear I'll never call you 'little monkey' again!"

Wolverine cursed while running with the other X-Men, dodging explosions and flying rubble. Storm soared above, manipulating hurricane winds to divert the devastation.

"Logan," she shouted, her eyes glowing, "we have to cut his tail. Now. Before this gets worse."

"You think I can get near that kid's tail?" he asked. "He's throwing nuclear bombs from his face!"

Professor X, floating behind them in his hoverchair, was calm in appearance, but his brow remained furrowed. His telepathic link to Mark had nearly vanished. Reaching the boy's mind felt like shouting into a collapsing star.

"This can't go on," Charles said under his breath. "If he loses the last of his awareness....."

"Then we're all dead," Storm finished grimly.

What had once been a turning point now threatened to become a catastrophe.

Across the battlefield, Director Fury stood on a raised slope, wind snapping his coat against his legs. His agents scrambled to create a defensive perimeter around their damaged Quinjet.

"Fall back!" he barked into his comm.

"I want everyone ten klicks out. This just turned into a monster movie."

He winced as another of Mark's blasts carved a valley-wide scar across the frozen earth. What began as a tactical extraction had spiraled into a disaster with international consequences.

"Sir," an agent crackled over the radio,

"Captain Marvel is requesting airspace clearance. She's guiding the target toward the lake."

"Tell her to disable it," Fury growled.

"But keep him alive. That kid might be the key to solving this entire mutant problem."

He paused, his tone colder.

"And get eyes on Xavier. I want to know what he's really after."

~~~~~~

The X-Jet and SHIELD's Quinjet took flight, engines roaring overhead. Neither ship fired. Neither left.

From above, the two aircraft circled a crumbling battlefield. No one knew what would happen next.

If Maria won, the X-Men would not escape.

If Mark prevailed, SHIELD would be forced to retreat.

Inside the X-Jet, Storm turned from the cockpit, her face pale from the light of the control display.

"Professor?"

Charles sat still, hands folded beneath his chin, eyes closed. Outside, Mark let out another furious roar and hurled a glacier fragment toward the sky. Maria intercepted it and vaporized it with a focused blast.

Finally, Xavier opened his eyes.

"Open a channel to SHIELD. I need to speak with Director Fury immediately."

Storm complied, fingers moving rapidly across the controls. A moment later, Nick Fury's face appeared on the screen, his expression grim and unrelenting.

"Director," Charles began,

"if this continues, both sides will be reduced to ashes. You've seen what he's capable of. Do you really want to turn this into a global incident?"

Fury's face tightened. "You ran. You harbored a criminal."

"Stryker was the criminal," Xavier replied.

"And we can prove it. But not here. Let us go. We'll hand him over in New York, along with every piece of evidence. I give you my word. But now, you have to let my students go."

Fury glanced out over the carnage. The once-frozen valley had become a cratered inferno. The Great Ape still stood, chest heaving, eyes like molten iron. Maria hovered above him, shoulders sagging, breath uneven.

"Fine," Fury muttered. "But if you run again"

"You'll find us," Xavier said without hesitation.

But fate had other intentions.

Below, Mark suddenly froze mid-roar. A tremor ran through his titanic frame. His breathing faltered. The crimson fire in his eyes flickered.

Then, his body began to shrink.

Fur receded. Limbs contracted. The tail curled once, then went limp.

In mere seconds, the Great Ape was gone.

And in his place lay a battered, unconscious boy surrounded by smoldering debris and fractured ice.

Captain Marvel hovered overhead, stunned into silence, her chest rising and falling in ragged rhythm.

Fury's voice returned over the comm. Cold. Unforgiving.

"Professor Xavier… that changes everything."

Charles leaned forward, expression darkening.

"With the threat neutralized," Fury continued,

"you no longer hold any leverage. You will surrender. All of you. Or we come in and take you ourselves."

Let me know if you'd like this to continue into a standoff, a surprise betrayal, or a moment of redemption. I can also deepen any character arc—whether for Mark, Storm, or Maria—or set the stage for the next escalation.