Birthday.

It was early in the morning and Colleen was out in the desert with Ryu and Yue, with her eyes closed and her katana sheathed by her side. The two of them threw a large rock at her, as the rocks flew within her vicinity, she quickly unsheathed her blade slicing them in half.

"Well done Leen-Leen! You did the move exactly like the book said." Yue said.

"You mean how Andrew wrote it in the book. As much as I appreciate these new moves, I don't like how weeb inspired they are." Colleen said disappointedly.

"What do you mean? A new technique with Chi is great no matter of the origin." Ryu said.

"Read the name of that technique." Colleen said.

"....Ultra Instinct....." Ryu mumbled.

"Well I mean the principle works. If Leviathan could use Chi to physically move and grab things, it would stand to reason that if you expanded your aura out, you can feel things in them that you can't see." Yue said.

Colleen let out a sigh.

"I know, but I was the one who helped him unlock his Chi, and now he's the one teaching me." She said sitting down next to them glumly.

"Sweetie, relationships aren't about winning, it's about helping each other grow to be the better than yesterday." Yue said.

"Yeah, and he says he can't do any of these moves himself because he's too weak. So once you master all the moves in this book, you'll be back on top." Ryu said flipping through the book.

"Really helpful Ryu, it's really getting across my point." Yue said frowning at him.

He shrugged throwing his hands up.

"No, you're both right. I need to become stronger, and this is a guide book on how to do it. Now let's work on the next technique, what was it called again?"

"Divergent strike. Your chi wafts like a flame moving back and forth, by attacking with a weak first strike and letting your Chi follow up with a more powerful strike, you can throw your opponents off." Ryu said.

"No not that one, I've got that one pretty much down, the other one."

Ryu quickly flipped through the book.

"Do you mean Chi blades? I mean focusing your chi to act like a blade without a base is incredibly difficult near impossible really."

Yue snatched the book out of Ryu's hands and flipped to the last page.

"She means this one. Flash step. During the attack from Thanos, I read a report that you broke the sound barrier with a skywalk, but expended an enormous amount of Chi. I believe you could achieve the same effect for a fraction of the expenditure. First you would have to condense the area you enhance, and secondly using your hands as a push off point as well. To train this technique attempt to hold yourself in the air, only using one point of contact, and have someone test the radius of your chi, the results should be that with a single step you will move at the speed of sound." Yue said reading aloud the page.

As Colleen grabbed the air, the three girls came running out huffing and puffing.

"There you are. We got a problem." Noriko said.

"What's wrong?" Colleen said.

"We can't get him to leave the house. At least not long enough for us to prepare everything." Laura said.

"What? Did you try the spiders?" Colleen asked.

"He said if we dropped a spider on him again, he would make us eat the ration packs again." Kate said.

"Shit! We need him out of the house until 5pm. What the hell are we gonna do? We still have like 12 hours to go!" Colleen exclaimed.

"Iunno can't you just bang him into a coma?" Noriko asked.

"I was saving that for tonight! I have got to stop saying this shit in front of my parents." Colleen said shaking her fists.

"Well, what the hell is the plan to get him out? We've been planning this for like a month now." Laura said.

"Well who's the one person that could keep Andrew busy for 12 hours?" Kate asked.

Andrew sat in the living room watching TV and eating a bowl of cereal.

"Hey Hawkins, do I have any new messages?" Andrew asked.

"No sir. I have deleted Miss Johnson's last threatening message due to its extreme profanity. Should I play her the music video one more time, she does have five more minutes, before she resumes her duties."

"Yeah, play it on repeat. Oh and make sure you play it on all screens. She wants to drop a tarantula on me, I'll show her."

The front door swung open, Andrew turned to the door seeing Maria and Sarah at the front door.

"Oh hey guys. What are you two doing here?"

"We need you to leave the house for 12 hours. Can't say why, or tell you how, but you need to leave." Sarah said.

"Well now that you've said that, I'm not going anywhere."

"Andrew this is for your own safety, leave now or forever be hurt." Sarah said.

"Please, there's nothing you two can do that could hurt....me....."

The screen changed to Father Cox and Yue in the kitchen.

"What the f**k? That has to be fake." Andrew said.

The two of them passionately started to kiss and tear each other's clothes off.

"OH MY EYES! ARGH!!! WHY! WHAT THE F**K! WHY?" Andrew screamed falling to ground closing his eyes and covering his ears.

Sarah dragged him out the house as he continued to scream in agony, as the others crept in, looking at the screen confused and shocked.

"EWW GROSS! WHY IS THAT ON THE TV?" Colleen shouted covering her eyes.

"He wouldn't leave, so we went nuclear." Maria said.

"I CAN STILL HEAR IT!"

Ryu glanced at Yue pursing his lips at her.

"It's obviously fake."

"Looks pretty damn real to me." Laura said with Noriko and Kate watching on enthralled.

"This is a highly rendered deepfake, using footage I have of Father Cox and Mrs Wing." Hawkins said.

"TURN IT OFF!" Colleen shouted.

"Andrew you aren't allowed to come back until 5pm, if you try that footage will play." Maria said.

"If you think that this fake footage is going to stop me..."

"Hawkins, please play the video with Kate." Maria said.

"WHY AM I IN A VIDEO?"

"HEURGH! ALRIGHT I'M LEAVING!" Andrew said walking towards the hangar, stifling a gag.

"HEY F**K YOU! I'M HOT!"

Andrew quickly entered the Quinjet flying off shuddering and squirming in his seat.

"Alright he's gone. We got 12 hours to set up for his birthday." Maria said.

"Wonder what he's gonna do for 12 hours." Colleen said.

The footage changed to Andrew in Quinjet drinking a large bottle of vodka.

"Purge. He's going to purge that image out of his head." Sarah said.

Cyclops, Charles, Magneto, Juggernaut and Storm followed Mr. Sinister through a desert tunnel.

"Just a little bit further, Juggernaut you can punch me later, if I'm lying." Mr. Sinister said.

"You know it's rude to invade someone's mind." Charles said.

"Please, like you didn't rummage in that little Japanese girl, and mess her up." Mr Sinister said.

Everyone stopped and looked at Charles.

"In her mind! HER MIND! Finish the sentence, Sinister." Charles exclaimed.

"Now, before we go in, you're going to see some distressing things, which I may or may not have caused."

"Move it along Sinister." Cyclops growled.

"Alright, but if you attack me, I will kill everyone here." He said rolling his eyes.

They entered into a large throne room, with a large sarcophagus in the middle.

"You're wasting our time Sinister, we've explored these tombs before. There is nothing here." Magneto said annoyed.

"Well obviously nothing is here. I stripped it clean decades ago. I brought it back, because I thought I should reveal En Sabah Nur in his original resting spot."

Mr. Sinister kicked off the top of the sarcophagus revealing a grey decomposing, decrepit body with blue lips, covered in silver and black blood. The X-men glared at him as he posed in front of the body.

"What? I didn't do that to him. In fact if it wasn't for me, he would be a lot worse."

"What the hell is that silver shit in him?" Juggernaut asked.

"A most peculiar thing I discovered lurking in his body. A virus that eats flesh and turns it into technology itself, I call it the techno-organic virus. Pretty cool right?" Mr Sinister asked with the others ignoring him.

"Where the hell did it come from, and how do we stop it?" Cyclops asked.

"Ah yes as you can I've made great headway in killing the virus, which is why the first mutant looks like a skeleton with blue lip stick."

"Shut up, your voice drones on my ears. If it is metal in origin I can remove it." Magneto said levitating over the body.

"I definitely would not do that." Mr Sinister said.

Magneto raised his hand up, and En Sabah Nur's frail body lifted into the air, when the silver and black blood sprang out in metal claws shooting at Magneto. Cyclops quickly blasted them and they all took a step back watching the body thud back inside the sarcophagus.

"Like I said, don't do that. The virus is partially sentient and doesn't react well to being removed."

"Then we take what blood he has left, and make strong mutants of our own!" Juggernaut yelled.

"For the love of...*sigh* No it's fine, it's fine. He's big and stupid. Just breathe Nathaniel. Phew...Alright from now on, keep all your questions to yourself and don't do things until I prompt you." Mr Sinister said pinching his brow in frustration.

"Alright go ahead Sinister. Tell us why we shouldn't kill you right now." Cyclops said.

"One you couldn't kill me. Secondly, I've tried to make mutants extracting pure blood, allow me to show you exhibit A."

A clone of Mr. Sinister pushed in a glass box with General Stryker banging against the glass, his black inky body exploding into a liquid and reforming at a rapid rate.

"KILL ME! PLEASE KILL ME!" He screamed.

"Is that..."

"General William Stryker. I gave him an extracted vial of En Sabah Nur's blood, and as you can see the result hasn't been pretty. His body can no longer maintain its shape, but still reforms back to his state constantly."

"So this was a fool's gambit all along. He can't be resurrected." Storm said.

"Ah, not exactly goddess, there is someone on this planet able to heal En Sabah Nur."

"Alright take my blood." Juggernaut said.

Mr. Sinister rolled his eyes taking a pained sigh.

"Let me show you why you're stupid."

Mr. Sinister plunged his hand through Juggernaut's chest ripping out his beating heart, tossing it aside. The X-men all moved back, as Juggernaut fell back onto the ground, after a few seconds, his body twitched. A low pained mumble, rumbled out and Juggernaut rolled over onto his hands and knees coughing out blood, clutching his chest.

"Your healing factor is strong, but I remove you from that helmet from you, you would cease to exist. The mutant I am referring to is..."

"Wolverine." Charles said.

"Bingo! Her healing factor resets her body to a saved state. If you bring her DNA to me, I can bring him back."

"Very well. We will bring her here." Magneto said.

"Pleasure doing business with you all."

"What will you do you with Stryker?" Cyclops asked.

Mr Sinister shrugged his shoulders.

"Iunno, I don't even know how to kill him. God knows I've tried. Maybe En Sabah Nur will know what to do with a mutant bigot."

"KILL ME PLEASE!"

"Be quiet. You will live to watch the new age." Charles said scowling at the tank.

Andrew sat in the Quinjet returning to the base with the sun starting to set.

"So can I get a reason why you two are coming with me?" Andrew asked, Sister Tait and Father Cox.

"We don't really have a home, because you didn't do a good job saving our city." Sister Tait said.

"I also haven't read you a bible verse in a long time."

"Alright, fine keep your damn secrets. I don't even know why they kicked me out of the house, or why I wasn't allowed to eat the whole day."

Sister Tait leaned into Father Cox.

"Does he seriously not know what today is?" She whispered.

"I don't think he does."

They landed outside the base with no lights on, and Andrew summoned his sword.

"Woah, what are you doing?" Father Cox asked.

"The lights are all off. Something feels wrong, like an ambush. Stay back."

"No wait! Just, trust us and walk in slowly." Sister Tait yelled out.

Andrew turned around perking an eyebrow at her. He slowly opened the door entering the dark place.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone yelled out.

Confetti flew out from party poppers and the room lit up with party blowers. Andrew took a step back, and turned around to Sister Tait and Father Cox.

"Is it one of your birthdays?" Andrew asked.

"Good god! Are you stupid? We're celebrating your birthday!" Kate said.

Andrew looked back at everyone pointing to himself.

"Me?" He said.

"Yes you idiot. Today's your first birthday!" Colleen said smiling and grabbing his hand.

They sat Andrew down in the living room filled with various gifts on the table. He stared on stunned, his eyes beginning to water as he looked around.

"Oh my god, it's so sad and cute at the same time, he's going to cry." Noriko said.

"I'm not going to cry. I just have eye sweat." Andrew said looking up and fanning his eyes.

"I'm sorry we kicked you out sweetie, but we needed time to prepare everything."

"Mmmhmm...I...mmmhmm..." Andrew whimpered holding his tears back.

"You can cry Andrew. We're not going to judge." Kate said.

"You so are...*sniff* but I refuse...to...*cry*....I'm just spitting out my eyes." Andrew said wiping his eyes.

"Peter, Robbie, Felicia, Daisy and the others left you gifts too, but they couldn't make it." Maria said.

The lights dimmed down, Ryu and Yue came out holding a large cake, with a singular candle in it, placing it down in front of Andrew.

"I'm so happy that we can finally be here for your first birthday." Yue said smiling at him.

Andrew kept his head down nodding as the others began to tear up. Colleen pushed his head up.

"Come on sweetie, I know you're strong enough to blow out one candle."

Andrew smiled with tears streaming down his face and blew out the candle. The room erupted into clapping and cheers. They spent the night drinking and eating, opening the gifts.

"That one is my gift." Father Cox said handing a small box over.

Andrew cautiously opened it, to see a black bible, and everyone glared at Father Cox.

"Dude, how can you ruin his first birthday?" Colleen said annoyed.

"Just open it." He said.

Andrew opened the bible to see a hollowed out shape of a small rock pick. His eyes lit up with joy.

"YOU GOT ME A SHAWSHANK BIBLE?" Andrew said ecstatically

"I figured it's the only bible you would like to have."

"It's the only one I would ever love." Andrew said hugging it.

Colleen went into the basement and came out with a long box.

"Sweetie you didn't have to have get me anything, this party was enough."

"Well I was told sex isn't a present."

"WHO THE HELL IS TELLING HER THAT!?" Andrew yelled.

"So I got you the next best thing."

"What's better than sex?" Maria whispered.

The others all shrugged their shoulders. Andrew opened the box to find a black Shihakusho and a white Haori, with the Japanese number of 6 on the back.

"YOU GOT ME A BLEACH CAPTAIN OUTFIT!" Andrew shouted hugging Colleen.

"Ahhhh, almost forgot he was a weeb." Maria said nodding along with the others.

The night ended with Andrew and Colleen lying together in bed.

"So, how was your first birthday party?"

"You just want me to tell you how great you are, don't you?"

She nodded with a big grin.

"If you told me a year ago, I would be experiencing this night. I would have said, ahhhhh why is this beautiful woman speaking to me?"

"Well this beautiful woman, is not going to do that every year. This is only happens on special occasions, like your 18th or 21st birthday."

"Wow, so sex is off the table for 17 years till I'm legal? Whelp, guess I give Connie a call then."

Colleen pushed him out of the bed.

"You just hit a minor!" Andrew exclaimed.

"I'll do it again, if he says something stupid again."

The next morning came and the house was suddenly lifted into the air. Everyone quickly leapt out of bed grabbing their weapons, when the mansion was slammed into the ground. All of them stumbled out of their rooms.

"What the hell is goin..." Father Cox said.

"Protect them!" Andrew ordered to Sarah.

Andrew held his suit in his hand and leapt off the second floor, his suit moulding over him, and he kicked opened the door with his sword out. Magneto levitated above the house.

"Eric? What the f**k are you doing!?" Andrew yelled.

"Stay out of this boy." He growled.

The others followed out and as Wolverine stepped out. She was lifted into the air and her skeleton was ripped out of her body, her flesh and blood was thrown into a chest, next to Charles. As her skeleton was flung far into desert, Andrew leapt up trying strike at Magneto when he was blasted out of the air by Cyclops. Colleen dashed out charging at Cyclops, when a bolt of lightning struck her in the back.

"Noriko what the hell are you doing?" Kate yelled.

"I...I don't know....I just moved by myse...."

Noriko fired a bolt of lightning into Kate knocking her unconscious.

"Thank you so much dear. Your services are no longer required." Charles said with a smile.

"What...what did you do to me?" Noriko asked trembling.

"Sleep." Charles said.

Noriko's eyes rolled back and she fell asleep. Andrew and Colleen struggled to stand back up, when they felt the ground shaking and rumble, and looked up to see Juggernaut kick them into the desert.

"WOOOO! I'VE WAITED SO LONG TO DO THAT!"

The two of them tumbled into desert quickly standing back up, with a steam of blood running down the side of their head, huffing and puffing.

"You good?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, just peachy. Let's kill that dickhead once and for all."

"Agreed."

The two of them readied their swords, with a sonic boom, a black and white flash zipped past Juggernaut. His arms flew off into the distance and he fell onto his knees, with a fountain of blood spraying out of his stumps. Colleen turned around slicing Juggernaut's head off, and Andrew threw his sword at Charles. A bolt of lightning came down from the skies striking the both of them, and they fell to the ground twitching and convulsing. Storm levitated down grabbing Juggernaut's head.

"COME ON OUT HYDRA SUPREME!" Magneto yelled crushing the house.

"STOP! THERE ARE CIVILAINS INSIDE!" Maria shouted, walking out with her hands up.

"I don't want them. I want Hydra Supreme." Magneto growled.

"There's no one here by that name..."

An arrow levitated out of Kate's quiver and flew through Maria's leg. She fell down letting out a scream. Sarah quickly ran outside tossing her shield aside.

"It's me you want! I was Hydra Supreme! Leave the others alone. They aren't your enemies!"

"Was. You speak as if you have changed from what you did. You will never stop being the woman who branded my kind, the woman who tortured us. YOU ARE THE MONSTER!"

The house began to levitate hovering above Sarah, when a red laser beam struck Magneto in the back.

"We have what we need. Grab her and let us leave Eric." Charles said.

The house was tossed aside crashing down, and Magneto levitated down.

"On your knees and hands behind your head." Magneto growled.

Sarah quickly followed his command. Several arrows pierced through her limbs pinning her to the ground. She cried out in anguish, with Maria reaching over and grabbing the arrows.

"Stay out of this, I only want her to suffer." Magneto growled, twisting the arrow in Maria's leg.

A Blackbird jet landed near them and Ophelia walked out giving Maria a smug smile.

"You should know, that Maria here has known Sarah to be Hydra Supreme the whole time, and had the audacity to have her run point on the Genosha trade."

"Ophelia you bitch, we had a deal!" Maria shouted grabbing her pistol.

The pistol liquefied and fell to the ground.

"Oh I'm abiding by it. You sold me the location for an Iron Man unit, and in return Hydra would not attack S.H.I.E.L.D. But you see, I'm not attacking you, the X-men are."

Metal wiring from the mansion ripped out binding Sarah and Maria, and they were violently thrown into the jet.

"Make sure they suffer, before they die."

"Will do, but do remember our deal."

"We will not attack Hydra territory." Cyclops said.

"Good, oh you left those brats alive. I can fix that for you." Ophelia said taking out her pistol.

Her gun became glued to the underside of her chin as Magneto scowled at her.

"When the age of Apocalypse is upon everyone, they will be our greatest allies, now leave." Magneto said.

"Sheesh, don't say I didn't try to help." Ophelia said holstering her pistol.

She boarded the jet with Maria scowling at her, as the X-men boarded their own Blackbird jet.

"You know they'll kill everyone if they awaken him. They won't play to your deal."

"Do you really think I'm that stupid? That I don't have a plan? I have intel from the future that En Sabah Nur, the so called Apocalypse dies the very next year."

"What the hell gave you that information?"

"A mercenary from the future calling himself Cable, he has given me concrete information that he dies in year 2022."

"That's a whole f**king year he could kill people. Even you aren't that crazy to let genocide like that happen!" Sarah shouted trying to break free from the restraints, the blood gushing out of the arrows.

"Perhaps you've forgotten which organisation I run? We're synonymous with genocides, shit you were the queen of it. But to tell you the truth, with all the resources we use keeping these Omega threats in check, a little genocide would do great for the world's resources."

"You won't get away with this. You'll die with us."

"One day, but you won't live to see that day." Ophelia said knocking Maria unconscious with her foot.

Ophelia looked at the projection in her jet.

"Set up the execution for 12pm tomorrow, at Kremlin. Did you hear that Sarah? You'll get a flashy death, after we expose all your secrets to the world. Hydra will turn a new leaf and kill its past. Then as if we couldn't look like the greatest heroes to the world, when the mutants rebel in S.H.I.E.L.D territory, Hydra will come and save the day. Oooh I can't wait. Are you excited?"

Sarah dropped her head, sobbing banging her head against the ground.

"Oh what? No patriotic speech? No last desperate attempt to strike fear into my heart? How disappointing."

Ryu, Yue, Father Cox and Sister Tait rushed out grabbing the others and brought them inside. After a few hours, Noriko was the first to wake up, pushing them away, and scurrying back terrified.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!" she said crying.

"You're not going to hurt us." Yue said.

"I am...I am..."

Colleen shot awake groaning and holding her head.

"F**king shit! They got the jump on us." Colleen groaned.

Kate came down the stairs with a fully loaded quiver and suit, tossing Ryu and Yue duffle bags.

"Good you are finally up. Laura's already escorted Father Cox and Sister Tait back home, she's on her way back. You two fill that with food and water, and then go into hiding take a phone with Hawkins on it." Kate said.

"How long have we been out for?" Colleen groaned.

"5 hours." Hawkins said.

"F**k, what did I miss?"

The TV screen changed to a news report of J. Jonah Jameson.

"We have only learnt of S.H.I.E.L.D's deception about the true identity of Captain America, now we to be shown this new information. It is heart breaking ladies and gentlemen to hear, but Sarah Rogers was actually the war criminal known as Hydra Supreme, responsible countless senseless slaughter of Jewish people. However this is not all bad news, Hydra will execute this monster at the Kremlin tomorrow at 12pm."

"F**K! We need to..."

"Move? Yeah, I'm already on it. Grab your shit and get on the jet when you're ready, we're leaving the moment Laura gets back." Kate said.

She approached the crying and scared Noriko, slapping her across the face.

"Listen to me. YOU did not hurt me. Do I look hurt?"

Noriko shook her head.

"Good, I need you to get dressed, gear up and get on the Quinjet. I can't have you crying over something stupid and pointless like giving me a static shock. Now wipe your tears girl, I've been hit by worse."

Noriko wiped her tears and ran up stairs.

"Why isn't Andrew waking up?" Colleen said frantically shaking him.

"Don't know, his vitals are fine, my guess he didn't have enough Chi surrounding him like you do." Kate said grabbing the full bags from Ryu and Yue.

Andrew found himself in the endless hallway of weapons, seeing Mimicry sitting in front of him.

"Why am I back here..."

"Find me when you are ready, I have left you a gift." Mimi said.

"Gow?"

Andrew shot awake holding his head inside the Quinjet, with the four girls suited up.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"You've been out for 7 hours. Sarah and Maria were kidnapped by Hydra. They're going to be executed at the Kremlin tomorrow at 12pm, we're going to stage a rescue." Kate said inspecting her bow.

"I know you think that this is stupid going in blind, but Andrew we..." Colleen said.

"Hawkins, pull up all the information we have on Ophelia's honour guard, in particular that Omega Red." Andrew said.

"No information available."

"F**k it we go in blind. We don't know what's waiting for us, when we get there, but we're leaving as seven or not leaving at all. Got it?" Andrew said.

The four girls nodded. The X-men entered into the tomb and placed the chest in front of the tomb. Mr Sinister eagerly opened the chest, wincing back in horror.

"Good god! I only needed like a drop of her blood, why the hell did you bring her whole skin suit?"

"Reserruct En Sabah Nur now!" Magneto shouted.

"Seesh, testy for an old Jewish man, who just got revenge for his people, you'd think you be a little happier." He said grabbing a handful of blood from the chest.

As Laura's blood trickled onto En Sabah Nur, the techno-organic virus reacted violently shooting out into metal spikes, the X-men all took a step back. Mr Sinister watched on gleefully as the virus shot out into a singular spike of metal. He quickly encased it in a glass case, staring at with joy, before teleporting away.

"Is it done?" Magneto asked.

The sarcophagus exploded into pieces, a five meter tall giant emerged with bulging muscles, letting out a long deep breath. He inspected his hands and body, as the X-men all bowed to him.

"What year is it?" He said with deep rumbling voice.

"Near the end of 2021." Charles said.

"Over two millennia have passed since I contracted the virus."

He took two deep sniffs.

"I see you are different like me. Where you the ones who have freed me from the virus?"

"Yes it was us, and we have long awaited the day for mutants to rule the Earth. If you would allow us, we can take you to our home, filled with mutants ready to be lead by their new king." Charles said keeping his head down.

En Sabah Nur approached them; each step cracked and rumbled the ground, as he stood in front of all of them.

"King Apocalypse has a nice ring to it."

Several tentacles appeared out of his back shooting into the X-men. Each of them screamed out in pleasure feeling power coursing through their veins.

"Grow my children. The time of man has come to an end."

Charles stood up looking down at his legs and bulging muscles, his loose skin now taut and young.

"The Age of Apocalypse has begun." He said with a grin.