Thunderbird || X-Men

Chapter 32 ~ A New Threat

(Hey, sorry for the extremely long wait! Writing X-Men Apocalypse is very hard when you don't own the movie, but now I do finally. From now on, updates will continue regularly unless stated otherwise! Thank you for understanding!)

The heavy metal doors of Cerebro opened, letting Charles enter. He was followed by Hank, Raven, Alex, Moira and I.

"Moira, I'm going to have to ask you to keep this a secret." Charles said to a wide-eyed Moira as she walked in after us.

"I don't even know what this... is..." She replied as the doors shut behind her. I followed Charles as he wheeled to the end of the long path.

"It's Cerebro." Raven told her. "The new model."

"I based the color on-" Hank began, but quickly decided against finishing his sentence. Charles placed the round helmet on his head as we watched in anticipation. It started to glow as it activated. Then, the room quickly changed, showing its beautiful blue display.

"What are those?" Moira questioned.

"Those are all the humans of the world." Charles told her. Then the room shifted to red. "And these are all the mutants."

I watched the red dots float around us. Things were not this high-tech the last time I was down here.

"I'm connected to all of their minds."

Moira gazed around in awe. "The CIA would kill for this."

"I know they would." Charles started focusing once again. "Where are you Erik..." He muttered as he searched.

Then we waited. I placed an eager hand on his shoulder. Then, Charles's face lit up.

"Hello, old friend." He greeted. I couldn't help but smile, feeling some nostalgic tears well up in my eyes. Charles sighed.

"I'm sorry, I am so sorry. I feel your pain...and your loss." He said. There was a pause as, I assumed, Erik spoke. Then Charles again.

"What happened to them, it was terribly wrong... but come back to us. I can help you." He tried to explain. "Think of your wife, think of your daughter. What would they have wanted?" His voice started to shake. Then another pause, longer than the first. Erik was arguing back with him. I saw Charles's face drop again.

"Hank..." He started. "He's not alone."

All of us looked back and forth between each other. Cerebro started to glitch out, making some strange mechanical noises. Hank started to mess with it, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Oh my god..." Charles said in almost a whisper. I looked around Cerebro to see all of the red lights fading away, blobs of purple consuming them.

"Charles... Charles get out..." Hank told him in a panic. Charles wasn't responding as he stared off at nothing. I knew something was definitely wrong.

"I've never felt power like this before..." Charles said, his eyes turning dark and glossing over.

"What's going on? What's happening?" Moira said from behind us.

"I don't know... I think..." Hank stuttered. "I think someone took over Cerebro... taken control of it."

"To do what?" Raven panicked.

"To connect." Hank finished.

We all stood motionless, completely unable to move or speak. Charles said nothing else during this time. The red glowing walls of Cerebro glitched purple, the colors bleeding together.

"Charles!" Hank shouted, moving to pull Cerebro's helmet off of Charles's head. As he touched it, it sent out an electric shock. All of us flinched as it hit us. Charles suddenly began screaming in pain.

"Hank do something!" Raven yelped. Instantly, Hank punched at Cerebro, knocking some of the metal covering loose and pulling out the wires, trying his best to get it to stop.

"It won't shut down!" We heard him say over Charles's yelling.

"Alex destroy it! Destory everything, destroy Cerebro! Wreak havoc!" Charles finally said.

Alex, who I hadn't seen use his powers in years, fired a bright red beam from his chest and right at the walls of Cerebro. Some of the panels had started falling off and clanging as they hit the ground.

Half of Cerebro was on fire when it finally shut down, Charles losing consciousness as it did. Alex stopped firing his beam and carefully pulled the helmet off of the professor, wheeling him out of the flames.

"Charles are you okay?" I squeaked once we were safely outside the doors of Cerebro. I held onto his shirt and shook him a bit, attempting to wake him.

As if things couldn't get any worse, I looked down the hall. A strange purple portal appeared. Inside of it were five people, standing together like they were a gang. I blinked over and over, biting the inside of my cheek to check if I was dreaming. I wasn't.

One of them was...

"Erik?" I managed to get out, my voice cracking. I could feel my eyes moisten just seeing him again. But it didn't last long.

Erik reached his hand out, picking up Charles by his wheelchair and pulling him towards their group. Charles hung over the side limply.

Alex ran towards them, trying his best to stop them from taking him through the portal. Hank and I ran after him as he prepared to shoot his beam again.

"All will be revealed my child." One of the other four said, before they turned to leave, the portal closing behind them.

"Alex, wait!" Hank yelled, but Alex had already fired, shooting through the metal doors on the opposite side. We all stopped in our tracks as we heard probably one of the worst sounds in the world. An explosion.

The flames surrounded us immediately, and almost as quickly, I found myself and everyone else on the front lawn of the school.

We all watched as the building exploded completely, earning a few squeaks of terror from the students. I looked around at all of their shocked and confused faces. I finally pieced together what happened when I saw Peter Maximoff, the young, fleet-footed kid I met about a decade ago.