Over the course of the next forty-eight hours, I locked myself away in my workshop, forging artifacts I thought might help against the Omega Sentinel for myself. I worked around the clock, aided by the ghostly staff of the Tower to be able to craft what I needed in order to even begin to stand a chance against an Omega Sentinel. The Omega Sentinel that had been Karima Shapandur had hit me with attacks that were at least on the seventy-five-ton level, but were honestly a lot closer to the Ninety-Ton level. They'd punched right through my fifty-six-ton category ass and had almost killed me in a single blow. I'd need to rectify that as best I could, which likely meant creating more artifacts as well as training.
First, a suit of silvery, segmented, plate armor made of a metal called Argentum, which came from a being capable of creating entire artificial planes, and further enhanced with magic. The Argentum Armor would allow a normal human to strike with the strength of one of the smaller varieties of giant. For me, it would boost my strength, durability, and speed up to the sixty-eight-ton level. Still nowhere near enough to deal with the Omega Sentinel, but closer than I'd been before, where a single hit from one would practically kill me. Next, a helm chased in gold and bronze with a mail coif that was specifically tailored for a powerful bearer. This Champion's Helm was enchanted further and would put me in the seventy-five-ton category. I also made a dozen more healing potions, leaving a single ghostly assistant to watch over them while I forged.
Those wouldn't be enough, however. I would need to further my magical studies as well, training myself to be able to cast higher-level spells and refine my abilities even further. However, after forty-eight hours straight of crafting, I didn't have the stamina to train as well. Instead, I headed up to my bedroom, scarcely pausing for five minutes to shower, before collapsing into my bed and falling sound asleep. Much to my surprise, I found myself in the white bedroom where I'd first been granted my powers, and I wasn't alone there either. The white-clad, Jheri-Curled form of the Beyonder stood waiting for me there. That was good since I had questions for his ass.
"Hey! So, what's the big idea with giving Bastion the tech to make Omega Sentinels?" I demanded.
"That wasn't me. I'm not the only Beyonder who likes to introduce scenarios. There are others, though they don't usually butt into my own scenarios like this. I think you know of them, too." Answered the Beyonder, snapping his fingers.
At his snap, his power traced out a familiar, minimalist, logo in the air with light as if summoning a hologram. A shallowly curved arc leading to a distinctive, half there, font. I instantly knew what sort of opposition I was up against because that was the logo for the Beyond Corporation. The faction of Rogue Beyonders responsible for the kidnapping of heroes into pocket dimensions for their own amusement. I recalled them being the brains behind the whole Nextwave thing. The problem was, that they normally didn't muck about with the mainstream universe.
"The Beyond Corporation? This isn't exactly their MO." I pointed out.
"Normally, you'd be right about that. Something's changed the way they operate. All I know is that they recently attempted to do their usual thing with something from another Multiverse and got burned. It's got them spooked and now they're trying to accelerate the development of a champion capable of standing up against whatever they found in that other multiverse." Informed the Beyonder.
"And they're doing this by supercharging the Mutant-Human Conflict?" I frowned.
"They aren't the smartest cousins I have." Shrugged the Beyonder.
"Says the being whose first action on coming into his powers was to kidnap a bunch of heroes and villains to Battleworld and start smashing them together like action figures." I snorted.
"In my defense, that was a valuable information-gathering activity." Defended the Beyonder.
"You got your power usurped by Victor Von Doom before you could gather too much information." I retorted.
"Yes, and I learned to leave Doctor Doom alone. I don't know about you, but I'd say that's a valuable lesson." Insisted the Beyonder.
"Right." I scoffed.
"Why am I arguing this with a glorified mortal? It isn't important, the Beyond Corporation's meddling is." Sighed the Beyonder.
"All right, so how do we fix it?" I questioned.
"We don't fix it. I can't act against them openly. Beyonders don't fight with other Beyonders, not directly. That's where you come in, as a matter of fact. You're my proxy here." Answered the Beyonder.
"Ok, so how do I beat the Omega Sentinel?" I queried.
"Your artifacts will help, but you'll need to train as well. If you want my advice, train up your Ferromancy to be able to affect Omega Sentinel technology. If you can do that, you should be able to induce a catastrophic failure in one or more of their systems, which should give you the opening you need to finish them." Advised the Beyonder.
"All right, I can do that. What about the Beyond Corporation?" I asked.
"You're not ready to deal with them. I'm not sure if you ever can be, they have all the same powers as I do, plus the organization to make attempting the Doctor Doom route difficult, to say the least. However, they're acting out of fear of something they found in another Multiverse. You have the ability to travel between multiverses the same as we can, though it'll be more difficult for you than for us. If there's something in another multiverse that's scared them this badly, there should be something in another multiverse to help equalize the power disparity." Shrugged the Beyonder.
"Do you have any clue which Multiverse they went to?" I questioned.
"That's the thing. When I tried to follow their trail, all I found was a single universe with a number of shifting, unstable, timelines and the destroyed fragments of a multitude of other universes. I can only surmise that whatever scared the Beyond Corporation had something to do with the multiversal scale of the destruction." Offered the Beyonder.
"Well, shit. At least I know what level of power to aim for." I grimaced.
"Exactly. For now, though, focus on your training. We'll talk again if you survive the next fight." Nodded the Beyonder.
Then there was a flash of light and I woke up back in my bed in the Tower of the Axis Mundi. With a grunt, I got up and showered, dressed, and threw myself into my training. I sealed myself in the Grand Archives and pulled one of the mystical tomes down, searching for Ferromantic spells to cast. Over the next fifteen days, I studied those spells to the exclusion of all others. Pausing only briefly to eat, sleep, and take care of my other bodily needs. Jubilee, Husk, and Skin joined me to work on their own mystical capabilities, though they spent a lot more time in the training chamber than with me in the Archives.
I scarcely saw the others, they were busy using my mystical training chamber as an ad-hoc danger room equivalent. I only really saw them at mealtimes. When I did, only a few of them seemed up for conversation. Mostly that was Iceman and Jubilee, though Beast and Emma Frost chimed in every now and then. Thankfully, we were extremely well-provisioned and the Tower of the Axis Mundi was incredibly well-protected thanks to the various mystic wards and whatnot. Even if the Omega Sentinel could find us, they'd have a devil of a time besieging or assaulting the Tower.
On the twelfth day, Sabra, Doctor Reyes, and Cannonball took one of the Blackbirds to fly to a neutral location where Sabra could contact her Mossad Handlers to report. That left Iceman, Beast, Emma Frost, and the Generation X team here with me as the mood steadily worsened further with each passing day. Losing both the Massachusetts Academy and the X-Mansion seemed to take a lot of the fight out of the various X-People. I didn't really blame them for the morale loss either. If I'd lost two bases within the opening weeks of a war, I'd be glum too.
It was during one such mealtime on the sixteenth day of our latest stay that the frustration that had been bubbling under the surface from our defeat finally boiled over into open anger. Surprisingly, it came from an unlikely source, Iceman. I'd thought he'd been taking his defeat well, but I realized that Bobby Drake's goofy persona had been a mask hiding some pretty deep frustration. We'd been enjoying a meal of Breek Soup when Bobby threw his glass in frustration, smashing it against the floor and spilling the expensive and extra-multiversal Maiden's Kiss Brandy from Cormyr on Faerun on the stone floor.
"Damn it! We're just sitting here doing nothing when Scott, Jean, and the others need us!" He scowled.
"We're not doing nothing, Robert. We're training and marshaling our resources." Insisted Emma.
"And while we do that, who knows how many mutants are in danger!" Growled Bobby.
"Now, Bobby. You know that rushing in half-cocked will only cause us to incur another loss." Chided Hank.
"So we train and plan. What do we have to show for it? That thing can still defeat us! I'm supposed to be an Omega-Level Mutant and it beat me like a redheaded stepchild! We barely made it out of the mansion, you almost got turned into one of those things! Doesn't that piss you off?" Snapped Bobby.
"Yet I survived, thanks to the work of the good doctor Reyes and a mystical assist from our host. He who survives to run away can come back and fight another day." Insisted Hank.
"Indeed. We simply need to become strong enough that when we do fight again, we'll thrash that glorified toaster." Insisted Emma.
"Fine, so when is that? Because from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like we have plans to hit back any time soon!" Retorted Bobby.
"I'm actually with Bobby on this. We've been training nonstop and seen all kinds of improvements. Paige, Angelo, and I have all gotten a lot better with our magic, even figuring out how to mix it up with our mutant stuff. Ev's gotten a lot better with Telekinesis after Miss Frost let him Synch with her, and Monet and Penance have gotten even stronger. Like, what's the point of all that if we don't use it?" Queried Jubilee.
"Jubes' got the right idea. We should be able to hold our own at least." Agreed Skin.
"Much as I wanna agree here, holding our own isn't gonna save any of the Captured X-Men. We need to do more than that if we're gonna save them." Refuted Paige.
"Or at least wait till the others return so we have more numbers." Added Everett.
"I actually had a thought about that." Hedged the Twins currently pretending to be Monet.
"Oh? Do tell?" Prodded Emma Frost.
"You're not gonna like it, but I don't really see a way out of this right now." Sighed the Twins.
Then, as if struck by a beam of light, the twins separated, becoming their normal, non-merged selves and explaining their whole deal, how they were really just pretending to be Monet, how Penance was really Monet, trapped in the mute form of Penance by their brother Emplate, how they'd been forced to impersonate Monet so that no one suspected anything and how they felt just awful about the whole thing. Finally, they said they would make it right and laid their hands on Penance to begin the process of taking the Penance Form into themselves to free Monet. It was all information I already knew, but seeing them actually come out and admit it was nice.
The reactions of their teammates ran the gamut of shock, anger, hurt, and ultimately acceptance. This was no time to be fighting amongst ourselves, after all. Not with Bastion so willing to fight us himself. Mutants didn't really need more enemies at the moment, least of all each other. As the Twins drew the penance form into themselves, skin hardening and reddening, fingers lengthening into claws, the redness leached from Monet, dulling her skin to its normal mocha color. This process took a few minutes, but when it was done, the real Monet St. Croix was finally revealed. Monet looked at her hands, marveling at their softness and non-clawed state, before turning back to her sisters.
"I don't blame you two for this. Marius must have forced you to keep his secret. He'll pay for everything he's done to all of us, but for now, we have a different enemy we need to face." Intoned Monet.
"Good. I thought it'd take more to get them to admit it." I grinned.
"You knew? What am I saying, of course, you knew. Magic Guy." Snorted Jubilee.
"Magic Guy." I confirmed.
"If you knew, why didn't you tell the rest of us?" Demanded Everett.
"It wasn't my secret to tell. The thing about being a Magic Guy and having this third eye is that you've gotta know when saying something prematurely will only cause more problems." I answered.
"This counts?" Asked Angelo.
"This counts. Now, instead of causing another problem, we've doubled our Penance Power. I think I did OK on this." I nodded.
"You know something? I get it. My family's got things they wouldn't like folks to blab about either." Offered Paige.
"Well said, though perhaps someone might get the twins some clothing? They may be Penance now, but that's no excuse for underage nudity." Frowned Hank. As if on cue, Bartholomew appeared with well-made, if entirely mundane, clothes for the Penance Twins.
"You know, if they weren't tied to the Tower, I'd be asking where you get your staff. Good help is hard to find these days." Mused Emma.
"Unfortunately, Bartholomew and his staff are one of a kind, Ms Frost. C'est la vie." I shrugged.
"Pity. So, we have another combatant, but will that be enough?" Questioned Emma.
"It better be. I'm not sure we've got a whole lot of time." Scowled Bobby.
"What do you mean?" Asked Monet.
"I've just got a bad feeling that we're gonna need to move soon. I'm not a psychic like Emma, but my gut's never let me down before. Not when it counted." Sighed Bobby.
As it would turn out, Bobby would be proven correct not two days later. A breaking news report came in on the Radio of an attack by Mutant Terrorists at a recently recommissioned Sentinel Construction Plant in Washington State. In the wake of the attack, the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee had voted to increase funding to the National Security Agency, which I knew to be the main Agency behind Operation: Zero Tolerance. It looked like Senator Robert Kelly wouldn't be putting a stop to the Operation any time soon. That meant that if we wanted to stop Bastion, waiting him out until Senator Kelly changed his mind wasn't likely to be a viable option.
Fortunately, I knew someone who knew how to get in touch with Nick Fury and SHIELD. Hopefully, Tony Stark would be willing to help get Fury to step in. That was going to be my next move. Hank McCoy insisted on being the one to fly me back to the Mainland where I could get in touch with Tony. It made sense, he'd been an Avenger before, so if anyone could help me make my case to Tony, it'd be him. In the meantime, everyone else redoubled their pace of training. After all, if this didn't work, we'd have a hell of a fight on our hands and even if it did, I seriously doubted that Bastion would agree to stand down without a fight, even if the Government and SHIELD told him to. He hadn't the first time around. Seventeen days after retreating from the X-Mansion, Hank McCoy and I lifted off in a Blackbird, heading back into the belly of the beast.
We would meet with Tony easily enough, but it was what happened during that would make me glad I'd trained so hard. . .
XXXX
AN: All right, so here we see why I did what I did last chapter. It's actually not a Deus Ex Machina so much as it is setting up a major plot point involving the Beyond Corporation and Multiversal Travel for later. This one was a bit rushed because people gave me an arbitrary chapter limit before they stopped reading since they felt I was doing something different. I'd have liked to not rush it, but some of you guys apparently don't like waiting for things to be set up.
At any rate, the next chapter will involve a meeting with Tony Stark and a sudden rematch with the Omega Sentinel.
Stay tuned. . .