90 Issue #2

(For those who were reading it earlier. Sorry, I released it too early. The editor, writer, author, publisher, and producer have all been telling me to release at consistent times)

The rubble of Magneto's castle began to shake before being blown away. Underneath, the injured but still living figures of the Brotherhood could be seen.

Several of them had serious injuries and needed medical attention but they had just managed to survive. And the one who had saved the rest was Magneto.

Magneto, or at least the person Joseph thought to be Magneto, was actually a shapeshifting mutant the man had been using as a stand-in when he slept.

Ever since he was warned by Destiny with another one of her visions and noticed that several powers had been trying to take his life, the man was extra careful. And it seems his wariness had proven correct.

Right after Joseph launched his initial attack against Quicksilver and caused the building to collapse, Magneto had awoken from his slumber and hurried to save his fellow mutants. But even with his quick reaction, the damage that Joseph caused was still massive.

Looking around at his Brotherhood, Magneto felt nothing but rage. And the person he wanted to direct that rage at was going somewhere he wasn't sure of.

"Does anyone know who he was?" Magneto asked, even though he already had an idea of the answer

"No," Quicksilver panted while gripping his bloody shoulder where his arm should have been. "He sounded like a younger version of you, though."

"Sinister!" Magneto immediately put the pieces of the puzzle together. The only person that would dare to clone him and order that clone to try and kill the original was Mr. Sinister. Magneto quickly gave orders to the rest.

"Anyone who can fight, patch yourselves up. We will be following after him in 15 minutes."

"How are we going to know where he is going?" Pyro II asked after ensuring there were no cuts in the gas lines of his flamethrowers

"He is a clone of Sinister. That man is all about flamboyance. He will attack a major target and will get the attention of the authorities. We just need to show up before the battle is over to show that he is not truly me," Magneto explained the logic behind his plan of pursuit

No more than 20 minutes later, Magneto, Quicksilver, Pyro II, Mystique, and Lady Mastermind were in Magneto's private jet and were taking off towards the U.S.

Joseph had already been spotted. The man was attacking a SHIELD base that Senator Robert Kelly and the President were visiting. No better target for a fake Magneto to attack and pin the blame on the original.

So the group hurried to fly over to New York in order to combat Joseph and prove their innocence. While the Brotherhood was on its way, the SHIELD base that was being attacked was struggling.

-- 5 minutes earlier --

Several agents were firing their bullets at Joseph but before the bullets could even reach him, they were stopped mid-air before they turned around and made holes inside the people that shot them.

"It's Magneto, you idiots! Get the beam weapons!" one SHIELD agent shouted

A few agents ran off to get beam weapons ready while many more continued to fire upon Joseph to serve as a distraction.

Joseph's attack came swift and seemed to be without reason. He fired several energy beams of microwave, electric, light beams down upon the base which killed a few dozens.

The agents focused on bringing the president and Senator Kelly to safety but when they realized that Magneto wasn't after the pair nor was he going all out. The man seemed to just want to torture them.

Inside of the main building, Nick Fury III fired off several blasts of energy from his weapon before yelling over to his subordinates, "Where are the Avengers!? Where are my sentinels?!"

"Avengers arriving in 30 seconds, Director!" an agent replied

"The sentinels are 2 minutes out," another agent replied

Joseph was in the middle of choking several SHIELD agents wearing dog tags while melting them into their flesh when he heard the rallying call he had been waiting for.

"Avengers Assemble!"

Captain America and the other Avengers charged forward but Captain America was just having the worst 24 hour period ever.

He forced their friendliest member to leave, which caused many more members to leave, Tony got attacked the night before, and now Magneto was attacking a SHIELD base when the Avengers were at their weakest.

'Just isn't my day,' Captain America thought to himself as he threw a SHIELD at Joseph

But Steve forgot one thing that was very important. Most of the members of his team were3 currently 'humans' and did not have any powers to fight. They were using tools. And that was where it all started.

Joseph stopped Captain America's shield and sent it flying back towards him. While Steve was able to dodge, the shield did end up decapitating several SHIELD agents behind him.

"No!" Captain America screamed out in rage

Namor and Black Bolt took to the air to battle Joseph. They were the two heaviest hitters that the Avengers could currently use.

"Magneto. I have been wanting to challenge you to see who is the better ruler for a while now," Namor said while winding up a punch.

When Namor tried to strike Joseph, the latter caught it easily before sending a large amount of electricity through Namor's body. The king of Atlantis was instantly fried before he fell out of the sky unconscious.

"No!" Black Bolt said as he unleashed his ballistic scream on Joseph

This was the first attack that had managed to push Joseph back but the man was still uninjured. Seeing that he had been pushed back, Falcon and War Machine tried to flank Joseph but were surprised when they found themselves unable to move.

Without even looking at them or moving his hands, Joseph ripped the wings off of Falcon's suit while crushing War Machine within his own armor. Both were sent falling to the ground where Mr. Fantastic was barely able to catch them before they crashed into the earth and died.

Black Widow fired several shots before quickly ducking behind cover next to Captain America.

"We're losing out there, Rogers. Kinda wish we had a bunch of magical and superpowered heroes here," Natasha commented as she reloaded her guns

"Not now, Nat. You can scold me after we survive this," Steve replied while trying to think of a countermeasure

"Move!" Natasha pushed Steve to the side as a large column nearly crushed the both of them

Joseph's rampage was getting more and more intense. Even the sentinels that had just arrived were being blown back with seemingly very little effort from the man.

Joseph was about to crush Hawkeye with a sentinel's body when a giant bolt of lightning fell from the sky. Using his powers, the clone was able to barely block it at the last moment.

'Finally. All the players are here.'

The one who had summoned the lightning was none other than the weather goddess, Storm. Along with Storm, many members of the X-Men and New Mutants appeared all around the SHIELD facility.

Not just the X-Men but also many of the members of the Avengers that had quit the day before or other heroes of New York showed up. A large portion of the hero community showed up to deal with what they thought was the most powerful version of Magneto they had seen.

"Do we really have to help these guys? They have sentinels on their side?" Wolverine asked from the ground

{They need our help. Of course, we need to help them stop Magneto} Jean said over their telepathic connection

Joseph looked at all the new arrivals with a small smirk on his face. Mr. Sinister programmed him to cause mass destruction. And the clone could think of nothing worse than killing all of the most influential heroes at once.

"Magnus, my friend. Please stand down and surrender yourself. You don't want to make this any worse. You are the ruler of a mutant nation," Xavier tried to convince Magneto from his seat. Standing next to him were Emma and Kitty who were to act as his guards.

Just as Joseph was about to respond, a deep, magnetic voice could be heard coming from behind.

"You should know me better than that, Charles. I have no interest in ruining my nation over a simple senator," Magneto flew out of his jet while the other members of the Brotherhood were on the ground

"So you lived?" Joseph spoke for the first time since his arrival. "It doesn't matter. I will just kill you with the rest of the heroes here."

Large amounts of various types of energy appeared around Joseph's body. Many of the heroes started building up energy of their own and getting into their signature poses.

Round 2 had just begun!