Task Force X-Men
A/N: This was for one of the writing competitions that passed like a month or two ago. The prompt was mashing up two characters from Marvel and DC that you’d never think an amalgamation would happen for. Life happened and I never got to submit it. Still wanted to share it. Hope you like it even if it’s not really action heavy.
“This is Genosha, huh?”
Professor Charles Flag sat in the back of a Humvee between two soldiers in a convoy, that in a small way made him miss his prior military service. When deployments were fun, everyone knew everyone and you had brothers even away from family. Now that was past. Charles was older, he had gone to college and became a professor at a school he runs himself.
His trip to Genosha was a curious one. A majority mutant island with the governing body being mainly human that with international support to keep the population underfoot. It’s army, being a coalition from around the globe while be surveilled by, S.H.I.E.L.D. Recently civil disturbances and violent protests in the cities have blocked the country off from regular travel by S.H.I.E.L.D. The professor had to make a convincing case to be allowed on the island. Favors owed by high up were now all clear and he was met with security at the airport and now being driven to a monastery.
“I was expecting more civil disobedience instead of boring everyday life.” Charles noted as they made their way through a city and drove through a more rural area. The media portrayed riots, burning vehicles and flying people dragging helicopters to the street.
“The unrest is—was greatly exaggerated.” The female soldier on the passenger side of the Humvee said quickly and to the point. “Out here in the sticks, you don’t see much trouble.”
The professor watched ahead as the monastery came into sight. High stone walls blocked off view of the inside, the trees whose limbs spilled over them and the towers that peaked above them. A lot had been said about the attendants of this site. They were called the Brotherhood. They brought in mutants seeking help in the wake of the violence that had erupted in the cities. Little is known about the group. That is what Charles there for. The professor made a strong case for academic discovery. Only in the most dangerous place on earth.
Charles looked at the soldiers to his sides and next to him, he shifted in his seat and leaned forward, “I bet… miss? I’m sorry. Just want to see who I’m talking to. It occurred to me I never got your name.”
“It’s Darkholm.” The soldier said as the Humvee and the rest of the convoy slowed down near the entrance of the monastery. “And welcome to where the Head of the demon resides.”
“Head of the demon?” Charles asked.
“Local tradition when speaking about the village leader who oversees the Monastery.” Darkholm said, as the convoy came to a complete stop.
“Ra’s Al Ghul.” Charles said as he recounted the local traditions of the island nation in his mind. Not much was known about this figure. Local legends say he is immortal. The embodiment of the mutant ideal. How true this was the professor didn’t know.
Charles winced as a dull pain radiated from his hand and started to get more intense as it spread through his body. His head throbbed worse than any migraine, his stomach churned as he hunched over into the lap of the soldier next to him that grasped his hand tight. “Stop.” Charles begged as he gasped for air between each dry heave. The inside of the Humvee spun. Where Darkholm had sat was now woman whose skin appeared to melt away like mud being washed away in the rain.
Charles’ consciousness began to fade. He focused hard. He couldn’t speak because of the pain but on the inside, he was screaming which manifested its self by a seeming panic going on around him. The pain stopped, he heard shouts coming from the outside of the truck, the doors open and the sounds of scrambling feet from the outside were getting louder. The soldier the professor lied on top of exited abruptly as if they had been dragged out and by the time Charles’ head hit the seat beneath him he had passed out.
Charles’ awoke slowly and his body seemed to catch up even slower. Every muscle was tight and his vision was unsteady like a camera finding its focus. He felt a pair of rough hands drag him to his feet, a sound like the growl of an animal rang in his ear, his head was being forcibly turned to face one direction as a man’s voice started to speak.
“Why have you come here?” It asked as the professors’ vision returned to him. His was inside the monastery in a large chamber. The room was lit by oil lamps and torches. Ornate banners hung from the rafters. Men and women wearing ceremonial robes stood on the balconies above him with hoods on their heads that covered their faces. An old man in a large cape and flowing robe sat on a large wooden throne with two other attendants at his side. He was frail looking his hair was a smokie black and white at the temples.
“Ra’s Al Ghul?” Charles asked as the person that had grabbed him launched an elbow into his gut. As the older man doubled over he got a good look at his assaulter. It was a heavily-muscled hairy man, two fangs protruded from his mouth and from what Charles saw of his hands he noted his claws were very prominent.
“Speak when spoken to.” The shaggy haired man said.
“Professor, I am not disappointed. An old man got through a United Nations no fly zone while a civil war was going on.” Ra’s Al Ghul said as he rose from his chair and walked regally towered Charles. “Then in not even a disguise found himself in a military convoy bringing him directly to me.”
The Head of the Demon glanced at his servant holding the professor. The wild man’s grip loosened and Charles fell to his knees, “Ubu, is very protective of me. He adheres strongly to tradition. Normally I do not consult with the human gene trash directly. But you’ve managed to hurt one of my soldiers.”
From behind Charles came two robed people carrying a female soldier between them. This was the one that touched Charles and presumably knocked him out. “Interesting.” Charles’ said.
“What did you do to her?” Ra’s asked with the tone a parent would use on an unruly child. Charles looked at his calm stoic face. How it contrasted with how ridged he was. How he anxiously fidgeted with his hands.
“She really did take a lot out of me.” Charles said as he looked up at Ra’s Al Ghul. Charles looked at the leader of the monastery with hard defiant eyes. “This is all a farce.”
Charles’ head snapped back as Ubu growled and raised his large clawed hand to Charles. The room gasped as Ubu’s claws dug into and tore the flesh of his own throat. Charles took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He massaged the sides of his head as if he was trying to relieve a migraine, “There is no civil unrest on the island. There are no protests and you are not Ra’s Al Ghul!”
As Charles’ voice echoed throughout the temple in the heads of every man or woman there it was as if someone had set off an explosion. Their alarm turned into panic and screams as the noise grew louder in their minds. The Head of the Demon collapsed and started convulsing on the floor. The body began to bloat and turn blue. His skin sagged. His eye turned yellow. His clothes had started changing form along with his body to the consistency of mud
Charles stood up and opened his eyes to the sights of the entire monastery screaming in agony. Something he did not miss from his days as a soldier. Innocents suffered needlessly at the hands of his gifts. At his school the Professor in him would advocate for nonviolence when dealing with human beings. For using their powers to help. But the soldier in him knew that sometimes that it was the responsibility of the powerful to act when they see evil.
What he saw on the news however and what he had seen once he got here were two different things. It was an operational airport he had flown into. One without a military presence. The city didn’t have protesters. There was no fighting. The villages they had passed seemed wholly unaffected by conflict. The island of Genosha seemed to be thriving in fact.
“Where is Ra’s Al Ghul!” Charles demanded. Charles listened to the minds everyone in the chamber. Sifting through memories as they come up as he had them enthralled by a painful delusion his put in their heads.
Charles took a step forward and before his foot his foot the ground a spear that had been mounted on the wall darted at the professor and then turned in midair to drive into the ground. The banners in the monastery began to fall as the metal poles holding them launched themselves like darts into the floor near Charles. The ends of these poles twisted into points that all pointed to Charles neck. And followed him as he moved. Ready to fire.
Charles relaxed and the screams died down to nothing. Everyone was just asleep. He heard footsteps from somewhere just outside of his field of vison. “Charles my friend.” A younger man from what Charles could see in his peripheral vision wore a cloak of red and purple circled the barrier of spikes around his neck said. “You look well for a man your age.”
The man stood before him inches from his face. He wore a helmet that on revealed the face of Charles’ captor. “Hello, Eric. You look good for a man your age.”
Charles knew an Eric Lensherr while he was overseas during the Red Lantern invasion thirty years ago. He was a mutant mercenary working to save mutants in the crossfire. His ideas on the mutant were radical. He always talked about an independent mutant state. Was Genosha it? Why did he appear to not have aged at all? Charles focused and tried to impose his mind on, Eric. It didn’t work.
“A story for another time. “Eric said as he touched the retired old soldier’s face and frowned. “But my brothers that follow me may be rejuvenated in time. Think about that.”
Eric stood with confidence and discipline. His hands clasped together as he began questioning Charles, “When my acolytes told me an old man with a research permit was granted access to this island through a S.H.I.E.L.D no fly zone to speak to Ra’s Al Ghul I was curious. I wasn’t sure it was you at first. I didn’t recognize you.”
“But now you’ve silenced any doubt.” Eric said, he gestured to his followers that lay asleep around the chamber. “How did you, a retiree convince S.H.I.E.L.D to allow you to…”
Charles looked at him with a face of stone that held all his contempt and aimed it at the mutant. “No one told me anything.”
“You used your gifts to put one over on the world police?” Eric raised an eyebrow, “You know your too old for suicide missions? “
“There’s been a disturbance. I feel it. In the astral plane.” Charles explained. “It’s strong whenever
Genosha is talked about on the news or in anywhere. Like there’s a loop of information being played over and over on a tape.”
“When I went to S.H.I.E.L.D about what I saw they said the situation hadn’t developed.” Charles said as he continued to focus on Eric to break into his mind, with no result. “But their memories were wrong. They were made to be believed, but what they really saw was an escalation of violence. Mutants fighting back. The government toppled and humans in internment camps.”
“Eric.” Charles snarled. “You’ve turned yourself into a dictator and you’ve got someone powerful in your corner. Powerful enough to change what people see.”
“I have made the first move, Charles.” Eric said. The mutant leader was confident in his tone. Just like Charles remembered. Only now these more radical thoughts had been given action and even more radical people given purpose. “The humans have been poor stewards of this earth. They poison the land and the air. They kill our people, Charles. There are no heroes that fight for us.”
“So, Ra’s Al Ghul is going to be the hero for the mutant cause?” Charles sneered.
“No!” Eric said. “Ra’s Al Ghul as a symbol has run its course. An ancient name that stood for a cause just as ancient. The Demon’s head will come out of the shadows. The name Eric Lensherr and the names given to us by oppressors have no meaning to a Brotherhood of Mutants!”
The mutant extremist raised a fist as he announced his intentions. As he gave his true name and denied any kinship to humanity, “I am, Magneto!”
The points at Charles neck shot forward and liquified on contact with his skin. The metal poured from his neck down and began to encase him. Charles tried his hardest to focus a psychic attack on Eric and still nothing happened. Was the helmet protecting him. The old man struggled to move but he couldn’t as the metal hardened around him from the neck down. Eric waved a hand and Charles began to float. Charles gritted his teeth. The metal molded around him made his breaths short. He was trapped, but not without options. He closed his eyes and focused instead outwardly. A call for help to be heard by any mind that would listen. Perhaps his students? Charles didn’t know, but Eric had to be stopped.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this. If you want to see a continuation featuring a Suicide Squad x X-men amalgamation and an end of this story let me know. Gonna go back to the cave I’ve been living in and lurk on here from a distance now.
Charles Flag: Rick Flag X Charles Xavier
Ra’s Al Ghul/ Eric Lensherr: Ra’s Al Ghul X Magneto
Ubu: Ubu X Sabertooth
Darkholme: Mystique X Clayface
The League of Assassins X Brotherhood of Mutants
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