The round metal door opened into the wall on either side. The room it opened into appeared to be the inside of a giant sphere, the walls of which were covered in metallic panels of a light blue tint. Leading from the door was a walkway which appeared to be free floating, attaching only at the base of the door. At the end of the walkway, in the center of the room, was a circular standing, or in The Professor’s case, sitting area. On the forward edge of that was a half circle control panel.
Charles Xavier steered his chair forward followed closely by Hank McCoy, who was followed by Raven. Behind Raven came Alex Summers while Moira brought up the rear.
As Charles reached the center of the room, he drew a slightly elongated breath and spoke. “Moira, I am going to have to ask you to keep this a secret.”
Moira turned to look as the doors closed, with a gentle hydraulic ‘whoosh’, behind her. “I don’t even know what ‘this’ … is.” Her eyes were slightly widened as her gaze turned forward again.
Raven looked at the control panel. “This is Cerebro…” she said, then her shining eyes and gentle smile lifted to Hank McCoy. “The new model.”
Hank spoke as he turned his head to look at her. “Um, I based the color on…” He paused as she met his eyes. The words seemed to catch in his throat as he lowered his eyes and shook his head before turning his attention to the control panel. “It doesn’t matter.”
There was a moment of silence, as Raven’s smile broadened just an hint and The Professor lifted the helmet from the control panel and placed it over his head. A gentle warbling beep and a blue illumination along the curves around the face of the helmet announced the introduction of power to the machine. The room darkened and Charles Xavier lowered his head.
Initiated with a sudden flash of light that filled the room, a whooshing sound and streaks of light rushed from the front of the room to the back creating a sense of extreme forward motion, though the floor remained stationary.
Moira gasped and ducked, almost knocking her hand into Raven in an attempt to grasp something solid. She rose as the apparent rushing around her eased and the display produced the effect that the group on the walkway was floating along in a sea of pinpoints of light which formed themselves into wisps; ghost-like forms that flowed past.
“What are those?” Moira asked, turning this way and that to see everywhere.
Xavier answered her, “Those are all the humans of the world… and these…” The white ethereal forms faded while other lights appeared, this time red. “are all the mutants. I am connected to all their minds.”
Moira’s lips formed the word ‘wow’ as she continued to look around, eyebrows raised. “The CIA would kill for this.”
“I know they would,” Xavier said, ending on a deep, quiet sigh. His brows knitted and his lips pulled together. “Where are you Erik?”
In a nondescript basement, Erik stood in his Magneto suit, all except the helmet. He stood watching as, out of what seemed to be nothing, Apocalypse formed armor directly on Angel’s body. Then, Erik turned his head as though listening for a noise he was uncertain that he had heard. He turned around and began to step away from Apocalypse and the powerful mutant’s small band of followers. Erik’s steps were slow, with little purpose, before he came to a stop, an uncertain expression on his face. His brow furrowed.
“Charles?” he quietly addressed the surrounding space.
Charles Xavier drew a quiet breath, “Hello, old friend.” Suddenly, his eyebrows drooped and his lips parted as he let out a sharp breath. “I am sorry. I am so sorry. I feel your pain…” He drew another deeper, steadying breath before continuing. “and your loss.”
“You think because you can see into my head, you know how it feels?” Erik replied, his voice lacking energy if not emotion. “You’re looking in the wrong place, Charles.”
“What happened to them; it was terribly wrong.” A tear flowed in a rapid trace down Charles’ cheek. “But come back to us. I can help you.”
“Help… me?”
“Think of your wife. Think of your daughter. What would they have wanted?”
“They would have wanted to live,” Erik said, biting down on the words and forcing them out through clenched teeth. Then, his voice calmed and his face relaxed. “I tried your way, Charles. I tried to be like them…live like them. But it always ends the same way.” A break could be heard hiding in his voice. “They took everything away from me. Now…” Erik turned slowly back around to look at the small group in the basement with him and his voice hardened. “We will take everything from them.”
Apocalypse looked up slowly from his work and turned to look across his shoulder at Magneto. The group’s gazes followed.
“Hank,” The Professor moved his head slightly in McCoy’s direction, but did not take his eyes from the point in the space, on which they had been focused since he began his conversation with his friend. Hank bent down to bring himself closer to Charles. “He’s not alone.” was the message he received.
Apocalypse turned around fully to face Magneto, but it was clear Magneto was not the object of his attention. He drew a breath. “Extraordinary.”
“What do you see?” Angel asked.
A sigh was the immediate response, then came the words. “The answer.”
Digital readouts on Cerebro’s displays began fluctuate wildly.
“Hey, Charles, wait,” Hank said, as he bent over to look at the panel.
Moira inclined her head to look also, over Charles’ shoulder, and Raven’s eyebrows drew together as she watched both Hank and Charles.
Apocalypse turned his head away slightly, with a sigh as though contemplating. Suddenly, he turned back, and his eyes changed from their dark color to a luminescent blue.
The Professor’s mind was filled with the images he had seen previously, from the mind of Jean Grey when she had spoken of seeing the end of the world, all the images flashing by with such rapidity that comprehension of the exact images was difficult: raging fire, earth disintegrating into dust that was driven by a fierce wind, skyscrapers burning as the sky turned red, a human hand reaching to the sky, Apocalypse standing among the flames, lastly, the Egyptian symbol representing eternity, an ankh. The aggregate of the images: a bleak, horrendous future.
“Oh my god,” Charles whispered, as he gazed across the landscape of destruction.
Apocalypse’s lip lifted in a slight sneer, as he looked at The Professor across the unknown physical distance between them. “Thank you, for letting me in,” he said, in low tones.
Cerebro’s room wide display was ripped into gaping holes of purple that spread out till the whole room was covered and Xavier sighed as an almost blissful smile tweaked the sides of his mouth, his eyes still focused on something outside his present surroundings.
Touching The Professor’s shoulder, Hank bent over to look into his friend’s face. “Charles? Charles, get out.” Hank turned back to the console, but continued talking to his friend. “Charles?”
Charles Xavier drew in another awed gasp. “I’ve never felt power like this before.” The black of his pupils spread and expanded to fill his eyes, till there was no other color, and his amazed smile faded into a somber expression.
“Charles, get out of there.” Hank’s attention was again on his friend, his voice and face more urgent than before, more pleading.
“What’s going on?” Moira asked. “What’s happening?”
Again, Hank turned back to Cerebro’s controls and displays, looking them over. “I think… someone’s taken over Cerebro.” All eyes turned to Hank; Moira and Raven with their mouths slightly open in astonishment, Alex with his eyebrows drawn together and down in skepticism, as Hank finished speaking. “They’ve taken control of her.”
“To do what?” Raven asked.
Hank turned to look at her, every line of his face expressing anxiety bordering on fear. “To connect.”
Some of the ethereal forms projected by Cerebro stopped what they were doing as Apocalypse closed his eyes and drew in a couple of breaths.
“Always the same,” he said, drawing out the words into a calm stream. “and now, all this.”
On a submarine, somewhere in the vast oceans, the insignia of the Soviet Union could be seen.
”No more stones,” Apocalypse said. “No more spears.” In the control room on the sub, the two men on duty stopped what they were doing. Their pupils expanded, filling their eyes in entirety. The same happened to men in various such places around the world. “No more slings,” Apocalypse continued. The men pulled out their keys and inserted them into the submarine control panels. “No more swords.” The men turned the keys as Apocalypse’s voice raised to a shout. “No more weapons!” Silos opened as missile launches commenced. “No more systems! No more…” Torpedo bays opened in a submarine’s nose. Apocalypse lowered his voice to an ominous depth and it took on an eerie resonance. “No more superpowers.” The torpedoes launched and arched around.
“Charles!” Hank shouted.
There was no response of any sort, no sign that he had been heard, that Charles Xavier was conscious of anything around him, the same expression on his face.
Hank’s face turned to a desperate, fearful grimace, as he looked at The Professor, considering his next move. Then, his mind made up, he reached forward quickly to grasp the helmet from The Professor’s head. A flash and zap resulted. All those around Charles Xavier pulled back or ducked. Hank McCoy recoiled from the charge he had released. Charles screamed, grasping the console in pain.
“Hank!” Raven cried out.
Missiles launched from their silos as people gazed in fear, standing on neighborhood streets and outside their houses, some grasping each other in terror.
In command centers, officers turned to look at their giant information displays. “What’s going on?” one asked. “Who’s turning the keys?”
“The men are,” was the flabbergasted reply he received.
“Who green lit the launch?” came from another man.
“Hank, do something!” Raven said, as she grasped the arm of Xavior, who, now aware, was grimacing, still clearly in some anguish.
Hank McCoy slammed his fist into a bit of metal sheeting on Cerebro’s control panel and ripped it off as The Professor cried out. Hank reached inside the panel and yanked out a fist full of wires.
“It won’t shut down!” he exclaimed.
The torpedoes turned back and exploded on the submarines that had launched them.
In one of the control centers, one of the men turned to another. “We lost contact with all Trident and Polaris subs.”
The other man answered, his voice stunned, as he lowered a phone receiver. “The air force is reporting the same thing.”
“So much faith in their tools…” Apocalypse said. “Their machines.”
“Russia, China, England, Israel, India…” one man announced. “Everybody’s got nukes in the air.”
“What’s the target? Where are they going?”
“Up. Straight up.”
“Alex,” The Professor said, his face rigid in a grimace as he braced himself against the arms of his chair.
Alex Summers came forward and leaned over. “What?”
“Destroy it.” Charles Xavier closed his eyes. He continued and opened them as his voice rose in desperation. “Destroy everything. Destroy Cerebro!” His words ended in another half cry, half groan.
Alex moved around to the other side of the control panel, to the outer edge of the end of the path, to stand on the precipice.
Xavier leaned forward, his face grim, and said, his voice low and fierce. “Wreak Havoc.”
Those words were all Alex needed. He turned from looking at his teacher and friend, to the walls of Cerebro. Then, after drawing his arms and energy into his center, he flung his arms wide and released a stream of red energy out, burning the panels in the walls of the room. Alex’s shout of exertion was nearly drowned by Charles’ scream of pain.
“You can fire your arrows from the Tower of Babel…” Apocalypse cried, as the missiles exited the Earth’s atmosphere.
Alex’s efforts were reaping appropriate destruction as he unleashed another stream of energy and directed it with his hand toward another wall. As the panels melted and fell, Xavier’s screams faded. His mouth drooped into a gape and his eyes opened wide in an expression of strained shock.
The nukes began to float away into space as Apocalypse finished his tirade. “But you can never… strike… God!”
Cerebro’s purple, room-wide projection faded to reveal the destruction that Alex had created and as Cerebro shut down, Charles’ stunned face relaxed, his eyes closed, and his head drooped forward to his chest.
Hank removed the helmet from his friend’s head, and he and Alex wheeled the slumping Professor back out of the room, while Raven and Moira retreated and made way. Cerebro was left sparking and crackling behind.
“Charles?” Hank asked, kneeling before his friend, once they were out of the room and the door began to close behind them. “Are you OK?
He received no reply. Charles Xavier did not even move.