Age Of Onslaught Part 33/37 The assembled Storm Division soldiers stared in shock at the huge fireball that was now in place of where the Palace had once stood. "MURDERER!" screamed Doom, pointing at Northstar, who looked just as shocked as everyone else. "W..w..what?" he stammered,"I didn't..." Doom lifted one metallic gauntlet and a huge burst of energy fired from it, frying Northstar to a crisp. "THE AMBASSADOR!" cried the Infinite's and began firing on Doom, whose armor easily stopped their blasts. "THE MONARCH!" cried The Storm Division soldiers and blasted the ten Infinite's into oblivion. "Get on that ship!" Doom cried,"Kill anyone on board!" They charged up the stairs and into the ship, blasting anyone they met up with. Killing the five Infinite's that were left onboard, the pilot and the three assassins Northstar had planned to smuggle into the Palace. "I must return to the Palace," said Doom to one of the soldiers standing outside with him,"There is a chance my wife survived." He activated his personal teleporter, disappearing in a glowing field of white energy. "Oh man," muttered the soldier, looking at the giant black cloud of smoke over the remains of the Palace. - When Dr Doom reappeared in the underground bunker, he was not too surprised to find that his duplicate had freed himself from his bonds. "You blew up the palace," Doom said simply,"I heard the explosion." "Yes," replied Dr Doom,"The resulting outrage will paint me as a sympathetic figure, the people will eagerly follow me as I led them in the battle against Apocalypse.... of course they're just cannon fodder, a distraction while I get into Apocalypse's stronghold and deal with the mutant myself." But Doom wasn't listening, he didn't care. "You blew up the palace," he repeated,"You killed my wife." "She was nothing," snapped Dr Doom, irritated,"What are you going to do about it, anyway? Cry? Attack me in a rage?" "You took away my reason for living," Doom said simply,"I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to attack you in a rage, there would be no point in me killing you, you're already dead inside." He walked past Dr Doom, who reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder. Doom turned his head and looked at him, and something in his eyes made his duplicate drop his restraining arm. "Where are you going?" called Dr Doom after him. "To fulfill a dream," replied Doom, and was gone. - "See what they've done!" Gwen yelled at Spiderman,"Can't you see that people like them don't deserve to live?" "Killing is never the answer," replied Spidey, but his words sounded hollow, he still couldn't believe the Palace had been blown up,"Besides, they're not the problem, Apocalypse is!" Behind them a white light suddenly appeared in the air. "What the fuck?" snapped Gwen, her eyes widening as the white light faded and she found herself facing Dr Doom, A huge green man and a only slightly smaller man wearing a red cape and a winged helmet over his long, blond hair. "Indeed, Spiderman," said Dr Doom,"Apocalypse is the problem, the source of this world's innate sickness and corruption, care to help us root it out?" - Doom sat in Northstar's ship, which flew through the air at breakneck speeds. He'd spoken to no one on his journey through the streets of Madripoor, not responded to the soldiers as he'd walked over the landing pad to the ship. He'd walked into it and spoken at last, ordering the soldiers inside to get out, then he'd sat down at the controls and launched the ship. Now he flew on a direct course towards the sea-wall. When he was within hailing range he sent Northstar's clearance code, which he'd found in the computer's memory files. He settled the ship on a landing pad on one of the towers and then put on the armor he'd brought with him, the armor that had survived the explosion when nothing else had, the armor he'd worn when he liberated the people of Latveria and other countries. He walked out of the ship and disintegrated the Infinite's that rushed out to fight him. He walked into the control center and blasted the operator, a young mutant named Julio Richter who'd fallen into disgrace and been sent there as punishment. Then he accessed the main database and central computer for the defensive sea-wall, using his considerable intellect to take over the system. He hooked it up to his armor and then activated the self-destruct system, which proceeded to build up energy within his armor until it would overload and blow up, overloading the towers at the same time and spreading out from tower to tower. His last thoughts before the armor exploded were of his wife.... and one last trick he had for his duplicate, Dr Doom. - "What?" cried Rogue. "They're powering up their systems," Banshee cried,"We're fried!" "I'm registering a major power fluctuation!" cried Gambit,"Somet'ing big is happening!" To their left they saw a huge flare of white light as one of the furthermost towers in their view exploded. Then the one next to that was destroyed, then the next and next and next, proceeding on out of sight. "What the hell was that?" asked Rogue. "I don't know, mon chere," said Gambit,"But we free and clear to go to Manhattan." Rogue smiled, then gave the order to the Fleet to proceed, they were going to take the fight to Apocalypse! ------------ X-Men Omega. ------------ Onslaught stood in the Throne Room of Apocalypse, anyone looking at the giant being would not have been able to read it's emotion, it's facemask was as dark and impenetrable as ever, only the crimson slits of eyes visible. But Onslaught was pleased. It had arrived on this world twenty years after preventing Bishop from saving Xavier. Things had been as it expected, the world was weakened and crushed under Apocalypse's bootheel, they would offer little resistance to the Onslaught when it came. Wiping out The Shadow King more for pleasure than from any fear, Onslaught had then challenged Apocalypse and, after an hour of intense battle inside the mutant High Lord's mind that had seemed to last an eternity to the External, Onslaught had conquered. "Now," it spoke to itself, exulting in victory,"Nothing can stop me, I have brought the only possible resistance to my reign together so that I might crush them like bugs." Some of the resistance had been unexpected, it had not realized that the X-Man had, in a last desperate attempt for help, sent a telepathic signal a few minutes back into the timestream (something he was only capable of due to Cortez's interference) and pulled a handful of mutants and heroes into this Age Of Apocalypse. These last hopes of the X-Man had sent ripples of resistance throughout this conquered, weak world and raised the hopes of too many to be left alone. Onslaught had brought the so-called X-Men into the Stronghold and ordered the Madri (under the guise of Apocalypse) to deal with them. If the Madri failed, Palisade would unknowingly send Onslaught a psychic signal, alerting it and allowing it to take them out of the fight. It knew that Rogue and Gambit were leading a giant Fleet of ships and Sentinels, but was confident that Apocalypse's sea-wall would decimate the fleet, then it's own psychic and magnetic powers would easily destroy the remainder. Even at this moment it could sense Cyclops leading Weapon X, Jean Grey, Shaman, Radius and, unbeknownst to Scott, a Morlock called Marrow through underground tunnels to the stronghold. Let them come, they would find themselves in the middle of the battle with the Madri. Captain America was leading a large group on an Aquatic plane towards them, it had already ordered the sea-wall's sensors to range underwater as well. They would never make it. Dr Doom had assembled the physical might of The Hulk, Thor and Spiderman and was trying to raise an army in Madripoor to attack Apocalypse. Although the Latverian's armor somehow made him immune to Onslaught's psychic probes, it was not worried, it would deal with the Monarch if it had to. After they were done there would be no resistance, at first it would pretend to be Magnus, a figure beloved by human and mutant both. By the time they realized it's true nature it's plan would already have been accomplished. "Nothing can stop me," it rumbled,"Resistance is futile, I am the alpha and the omega, the morning and evening star." It waited for the last dregs of resistance of this conquered world to rush in to their deaths. ------- Isreal. ------- Sinister stared down at the sand-dune, it was here that the static tachyon readings were emanating. "What is so special about this dune?" Sinister asked, then raised one palm and blasted energy into the dune. Sand kicked up all around him, strangely enough it didn't get in his eyes or in his mouth, as if the sand could sense his inherent wrongness. After all, he was not really a mutant, his human DNA had been altered by Apocalypse back in the nineteenth century, making him into what he was. He blasted away twenty years of accumulated sand and nodded in satisfaction at what he saw. Two men lay at the bottom of the sand dune, one twenty years older than the other but obviously identical to the other man. They'd both been dead over twenty years but showed no signs of decay, in fact Sinister was willing to bet that their skin would still be warm if he touched it. "Time travel," he said,"Interesting." - The X-Men, Deadpool and Robbie Robertson watched in perplexed confusion as the battle joined. Without involving any of them. The Madri had walked down the stairs towards them, chanting in a mixture or latin, greek, egyptian and english, preparing to battle them. And then half the Madri had turned on the others. "Dear Lord no!!!" cried Deadpool, clasping his hands to his face in his best imitation of Macauley Culkin,"It's another Great Schism!" The battle was impossible to follow, all the combatants were identical. Many of the Madri tried to absorb their opponents, became shocked when, for the first time in recollection, they could not do so. "What the flaming hell is going on?" muttered a harsh voice, the X-Men turned about and found themselves facing Weapon X. "Logan!" cried Iceman, forgetting to be pissed off about being brought here,"What are you doing here?" "'Gainst my better judgment," replied Weapon X,"I came here to open a can of whup-ass on 'Pocalypse." "I can commiserate," replied Iceman with a sigh, his eyes widened suddenly. Behind Logan, Scott Summers pulled out of the large manhole that had been hidden in the darkness until then. "SHIT!" cried Iceman,"It's the Prelate!" He lifted his hand to fire a stream of ice at Scott, but Logan reached out and stopped him (his healing factor made him one of the only people who could touch Iceman for any length of time). "Relax, popsicle, he's with us." Following Scott came Jean Grey, Shaman, Radius and then Marrow. "What's she doing here!" cried out Scott, forgetting the fighting Madri for a second. "Relax, Summers," muttered Logan,"We couldn't stop her if we tried, so I figgered it was better you didn't know." "Logan," said Ororo calmly,"Perhaps your hyper-senses can tell us what is going on with the Madri." He sniffed,"Smells are muted, like they're carbon copies of each other... which I guess they are." He sniffed again,"Except one, he's a real guy." "But the real Madrox is supposedly kept in a top secret location," said Abyss,"Why would Apocalypse risk him against us?" "Because," said Scott,"He's not Apocalypse's Madrox." "Does this kind of thing happen to you people often?" asked Robbie. "Jamie!" cried Scott,"Is that you." None of the seemingly hundreds of Madrox responded, but then over the din of the battle they heard a voice calling. Looking up they saw one Madri who had held back, he was waving to them. "Up here, Cyke, is that you?" "Yes!" cried Scott,"Jamie, what happened to you guys in Isreal? When we got there Mr. Fantastic said you'd been replaced by psychic constructs!" "Great big guy!" called down Jamie Madrox - The Multiple Man of X-Factor,"All I remember is he looked a bit like Magneto but he had telepathic powers and he was bigger than The Hulk! Then a flash of yellow light hit me and I was in New York again, but everything was fucked up!" The other Madri continued fighting, since they couldn't absorb their enemy and every punch and kick just formed a new duplicate, the battle was neverending. Everybody just ignored them now. "I could knock them out with me sonic scream," ventured Terry, who desired to try her powers out again. "NO!" yelled Madrox,"Your sonic scream will trigger even more dupes!" "How does he ken that?" she asked Wade. "Relax, darling," replied Wade,"He knows." "Will they make new ones if I gut them?" asked Marrow with a grin. "Forget the soulless ones," said Shaman,"They do not threaten us, perhaps we can get past them to Apocalypse." "The Madri aren't a threat, are they," stated Palisade, looking at the fighting duplicates. "No," said Ororo,”Cecilia, something has been strange about you, what is the matter?" Palisade smiled and Jean Grey gasped. "She's under psychic control!" she called out, and then they were frozen in place, unable to move. Jean struggled to overcome the psychic freeze on her body, but whoever held her in place was not only more powerful than her, but far more skilled as well. A glowing form of energy appeared over their frozen bodies, even The Madri were stuck in place. The energy was every color of the rainbow, reminding Logan of the Aurora Borealis, except there were two crimson slits in the center, much like eyes. - You try my patience, - said a voice in all their heads, - Especially you, Scott. - "Pr....Professor?!" Scott managed to stutter,"It can't be you!" - Calm yourself, failure, - spoke the voice softly, obviously reveling in holding them in it's thrall, - I am not Xavier, but Xavier is me, Neither am I Magneto, but Magneto is me. - "I... I don't understand!" cried Scott. - Of course not, - replied Onslaught, - Simply understand that I am The Onslaught, and I am more dangerous to you that The Apocalypse ever could be. - Palisade began to laugh. - My tool, - said Onslaught, - It is she who has decided your punishment for daring to challenge me. Her repressed emotions and desires provide me with the energy and imagination to keep you from challenging me... I shall leave your conscious minds intact, but your bodies will be under the control of your subconscious desires.... a fitting punishment I think. - The energy disappeared, as did all The Madri - including Jamie. "What was all that about?" asked Logan,"Onslaught? What about Apocalypse?" "We've been played for fools!" snapped Scott,"This Onslaught is the one who created this world, he must have somehow gone back in time and prevented Bishop from saving Professor Xavier's life, restarting this Age Of Apocalypse. But Apocalypse isn't in charge, Onslaught had either been using him as a figurehead all this time or just waited till the world was ripe for conquest before removing him from the picture." "Wait a second," snapped Wade,"You're saying this Onslaught dude took out Apocalypse!?!" "Yeah," muttered Scott,"But...." "Forget that," muttered Iceman,"Palisade, he said you were his tool, what does that mean?" Palisade just smiled, and then they found out. - Sabretooth loped over the crest of the hill, saw the lights of the city. "Gonna be a part of it," he growled with a chuckle,"In ol' New York." He began loping down the hill towards the city that never sleeps. - Anti-aircraft fire blasted at the Fleet, occasionally taking down ships but taking more damage than it delivered. The ground was even more cratered and smashed than usual, the Fleet had decimated the defensive missiles and bases. The Base Commanders had been sending constant calls to New York for help or orders, but they received no response. Rogue gritted her teeth as a laser blasted close along the wing of her fighter. "Too damn close!" she snapped. "Not much I can do about it from here," replied Nightcrawler, who had taken over from Banshee and Gambit as co-pilot,"Unless you want me to get out and ask them to stop firing!" And then they were past the range of the anti-aircraft guns, pushing on towards New York, the Fleet following. - "Well well, wotta revolting development," said The Thing,"The tables have been turned." He was allowing Captain America to pilot the Aquatic Plane for the time being, he was to take over when they left the water and headed into Apocalypse's airspace. "Hey, Grimm," said Jubilee with a grin, she'd been hiding under one of the small bunks at the back of the plane. When he'd come into the room she'd remained quiet, thinking she would sneak out when he fell asleep. She didn't account for his bulk however, and when he lay down on the bed the mattress had squashed into her face and she'd had to call out. "No stowaways," he said,"Not just as a matter of course on this one, we're on a dangerous mission." "Hey," she said,"There was an open invitation to anyone who wanted to go, but if I'd said I was going Remy would have gotten Bobby or Guido to stop me." "Sheesh," he muttered,"Someone save me from headstrong teenagers." "Hey!" she snapped, thumping her foot on the floor,"I'll be twenty in seventeen months!" He chuckled,"Come on kid, let's see if we can get you something to eat.... man, Susie will probably blame me!" Jubilee hid a smile, actually Susie would probably blame herself, after all, she was the reason Jubilee had stowed away. - Robbie Robertson, Shaman and Jamie Madrox stood in the alcove leading up into the Stronghold. "No," said Shaman, looking down at what was happening below, guessing what Robbie was about to ask,"This kind of thing doesn't happen often, in fact, until the last couple of days it never happened at all." For whatever reason, Palisade's subconscious desires hadn't infected them like it had the others. To be truthful, it had affected Shaman, but since he had a closer link to his subconscious than most, he'd been able to resist it. Palisade's repressed sexual desires and needs had been released over the others, infecting their subconscious minds and releasing their own desires. Their conscious, thinking minds remained, but they were no longer able to control their bodies wants and desires. "Come," said Shaman,"I want to met this Onslaught, the source of our world's sickness." They left, leaving the others behind. For Bobby this was a dream come true, the ice sheath about his body had seemingly melted away, leaving him in only blue jockeys and staring at his near naked body in shock. "Jean," said Logan,"I want you bad." "She's my wife," replied Scott,"I want her." "Calm down," said Jean,"You can both have me." Scott and Logan beamed at each other, reached out and shook hands. "Hey," said Bobby,"Since I'm here too, can I join in?" "Sure," laughed Jean,"I'm easy." - What am I saying! - Jean's mind cried, - Sure, this is a fantasy of mine, but this is hardly the time or the place! - The others were wondering the same thing, except for Bobby, who was so excited about being able to touch once again that his conscious mind was close to his subconscious' way of thinking. Even as Jean's mind protested, she began stripping her clothes off, the others follwing suit. Jared stared in shock at his hands, for the first time that he could remember in years, the small white glow about his body had disappeared, leaving just plain, touchable skin. Marrow, who had long lived on fantasy alone, wasn't sure what was happening, why her body was feeling so horny, her lap so incredibly wet. What she did know was that she was attracted to Corbo, she wanted to do things with him she'd never done before. "Come here," she said to him, taking him by the wrist,"Let Sarah make you feel good." Ororo Munroe looked at the others and sighed. "What have you done, Cecilia?" she asked. "Wish I could say I'm sorry," giggled Palisade,"But I'm really not... I've repressed my desires so long, pressed it down deep at the back of my head and pretended I didn't need sex." "There is a time and a place for this kind of thing," said Ororo, she smiled,"Stop this foolishness and we'll deal with it later." "I've been putting it aside to deal with it later all my life," she replied with a grin,"And how come you're subconscious isn't in control?" "It is," replied Ororo,"But I've never repressed, never held back my desires... as you know," she was referring to coming onto Palisade after they had first met,"My subconscious and conscious are very close, I'll do anything you want me to, but why do it now?" Palisade smiled,"Because I want to, and I'm tired of putting aside my wants." She pulled Ororo forward and kissed her, after a few seconds Storm allowed herself to relax and kiss back. Terry wrapped her arms around Wade's waist and huddled close to him. "Why are they doing it?" she asked him. "They've been taken over by their fantasies," he replied,"Maybe you should get out of here, Terry, I don't want to do anything weird to you, I've always been a pretty sick individual, who knows what sicko fantasies are in my subconscious." "I'm not scared of you," said Terry with a smile,"I trust you, and the only fantasy I've ever had is to have someone I can trust to hold me." He held onto her and hoped he could trust himself not to do anything to her. - "Okay then," said Logan, pulling the last of his costume off,"Let's go." - I can't believe I'm doing this, - he thought. "All right!" laughed Scott,"Let's go." - This is just weird, - he thought. "Oh man it's been so long!" cried Bobby. - WHOOPEE! - he thought. "Then let's do it!!!" laughed Jean. The beautiful redheaded telepath stood naked before them, showing off her beautiful, lithe body. Their eyes crawled lecherously over her large breasts, the curve of her hips, the neat little rectangular thatch of red pubic hair over her shaven, pink pussy lips. The three naked men moved around her, getting ready to choose a hole and slam it to her. "Okay," said Scott,"I got an idea where I wanna be!" He quickly slid down onto his back and allowed his hard cock to point up into the air. Meanwhile, Bobby stood with his hands planted on his hips, a huge smile on his face as he stared at her perfectly formed, creamy white skinned ass. Logan just stood back, a confident, smug look on his face as he waited. Jean stepped over Scott, planting her feet on either side of his hips. Then she happily lowered her down over his erect meat, stopping when his cockhead was pressing against the entrance to her already dripping snatch. "Come on!" he groaned,"Come on, Jean!" She smiled and then pushed down, echoing Scott's gasp of pleasure as his cock spread apart her cuntlips, sliding inside of her velvety depths. She grinned down at his gasping face. "You like?" "Me like! Me like!" he cried. - Me like? - he thought, - What's wrong with me? - Continuing to push down, she felt his cock pressing up inside of her cunt like a perfect fit. As soon as she was settled at the base of his shaft she gave a few, quick fucking moves, her hips bouncing up and down, her cunt gripping to his shaft. Then she pressed down firmly against the base of his shaft, grinding her cunt against his hips. "Right," she said,"Time for cock number two." She reached behind and spread her perfectly formed asscheeks apart, revealing her pink, puckered anus. "Come on then!" she called to Bobby,"What are you waiting for?" Bobby was quick to respond, he stepped up over Scott's thighs and took his cock in hand. He pressed it against her asshole, hoping her sweat and his pre-cum would be enough lubrication to get his meat up her butt. Pushing forward, Bobby's dick pressed against the tight sphincter muscles until her anus began to open up, then with a groan he pushed the head of his cock into her rectum. "Okay?" he asked. "Give me a few seconds," she moaned, stroking her clit and raising her hips up and down to allow Scott's cock to fuck in and out,"Okay, go ahead."