Chapter 11: Brotherhood of Mutants (2)

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Despite looking (and being) retarded, The Blob was very strong. His skin and the fat beneath made every physical attack below a certain level useless. He could take cannonballs to his face. The fact that he was huge didn't help Enrique any.

Behind Enrique were the passengers of the train, shaking in fear. The huge blob was running at him and if Enrique dodged then the larger man would simply crush those civilians like paste. Then again, even if Enrique confronted him, that wouldn't change anything given the other man's huge form. Enrique will be pushed back too, killing the civilians under his tough suit.

He heard the flattering of a helicopter above - and glancing up, he indeed saw a news helicopter flying above the train, a large camera pointed down at the fight. Right, he can't let civilians die here. His heroic image will be diluted.

When the running Blob was just in front of him, Enrique jumped in the air and utilised his flight to spin rapidly before slamming down his head (protected by the invisible helmet) against the taller man.

Concussion was one of the things that could knock out the Blob, Enrique knew that. However… even though a loud *slam* detonated in the train, it seemed Enrique's blow wasn't strong enough.

"Gahrr…" the Blob glared at him. Well, at least he stopped on his track. "You bug!"

He grabbed Enrique by the shoulders – pulling his own head back – before slamming it forward at the smaller man. 

-Bang!

Just as their heads banged against one another, Enrique (very much unshaken) smirked and released a wave of electricity through his invisible helmet, watching the blob who was already shaking from the slam simply stiffen before Enrique slammed his head again, again, and again. 

He watched the fat man – now with his skin charred – roll his eyes upwards before his huge body simply slumped down on the floor.

 Enrique stood up on top of the soft body of the Blob, rolling his shoulders and looking at the battle ahead. Just as he looked, Spidey also finished Toad with a punch.

Now only Sabretooth and the big man, Magneto, were left. The latter looked at Enrique with a cold glare. His eyes briefly locked on Enrique's belt, but there was no point in it because it was made of pure gold, he couldn't control it.

"You came prepared." Magneto said, smirking. "I heard about you, you defeated my beast." He said, looking at Sabretooth who landed a defeating blow at Wolverine, making the metal man stumble on his feet before losing his consciousness. Though Enrique was sure Wolverine only lost because of his twisted claws (thanks to Magneto). But if Sabretooth knew that, he didn't care and simply gave Enrique a victorious grin. "Looks like he wants a round two, unfortunately, we don't have time to waste."

While Sabretooth grunted, Magneto raised his hand in the air and instantly the metal pipes inside the chamber snapped apart and surged at Enrique. One of the poles slammed on Enrique's face but was blocked by his helmet, and the other was manipulated to become sharp as it tried to piece Enrique's chest, but it couldn't even scratch the suit. At last, though Enrique tried to close the distance and dodge the incoming projectiles, he was unable to do so as three poles turned and bent, wrapping around him and stopping him from moving.

Magneto's smirk was as unmoving as Enrique's body. "Powerful suit you got there. But that's all that is special about yo-"

Enrique's body flashed brightly.

An aura of electricity erupted from within him as he felt raw power surge through his veins. He flexed his arms and the metal pipes wrapping around him cracked, turning bright red from the heat of the electricity as Enrique shook them off.

Truly, the [Lightning Cloak] was strong. 

Magneto's smirk was gone, and Sabretooth was staring at him in awe. Enrique didn't humour either of them and rushed at the former at a blinding speed, his arms pulled back to shape a punch. Magneto yelled out an order – breaking Sabretooth out of his daze as he growled and ran to Enrique. 

However, Storm moved between him and Enrique.

The sky crackled with dark clouds and lightning descended from the hole in the roof, striking Storm as she started to float midair, her eyes cracking with white lightning. Sabretooth came rushing at her, but she shot a surge of lightning from her hands, making the taller man fly backwards and hit the wall.

"I will take care of him." she said and Enrique nodded.

"What about me?!" Spiderman yelled from the side, making Enrique point at the civilians.

"Either of these two are too dangerous for you. One shot and you are dead. You stay with the civilians, they trust you." Enrique commanded and Peter protested.

"But-"

"A hero's true goal is to protect." Enrique interrupted Peter, making the young boy pause for a moment before nodding and jumping from the battle site and landing in front of the civilians.

"Thanks," he said to Ororo – who blocked an incoming Sabretooth again – before moving forward.

"Welcome." She yelled out, a bolt of lightning leaving her and hitting the man bear.

 The closer Enrique got to Magneto, the harder it got to move forward. The seats in the train moved, rushing to attack Enrique who slammed them away with his fists, or jumped over them. Magneto used his magnetism to take off the metal poles of the rail track (from behind the train) and shoot them at Enrique, putting him to a test to the limit of his abilities. Even Enrique was surprised at how well he fared against the poles. Punching them at a speed faster than bullets, causing them to fly out to where they came from. Releasing a wave of lightning to make them freeze in the air, the electricity messing with Magneto’s magnetism, and using that opportunity to grab a pole to slam the other, frozen ones like a baseball game.

Honestly, if this wasn't a train – Enrique would have lost. But precisely because this was a train, a very fast one at that, Magneto didn't have much metal to work with (even though metal was all around him). This unlucky scenario was the doom of Magneto’s game. Enrique noted Magneto force a hand watch on Anna’s wrist, perhaps to threaten him to break her wrist if he approached - but it was too late for that.

It had been 55 seconds, so 5 seconds till his [Lightning Cloak] would end. Luckily, he had reached Magneto already.

"This ends here," Enrique said, reaching out a punch at Magneto's face, but that punch never reached.

The hand watch on Anna's wrist, just before Enrique's punch could hit Magneto, shone softly as a pristine white beam fired out of the device.

"Aahhhh!" Anna yelled in pain, making Spidey and Storm turn to her as the former tried to fire his web, but with a gesture of Magneto's hand, he was wrapped in metal pipes. Storm was kept busy by Sabretooth. 

Enrique was unable to dodge the beam because of just how close it was, but truthfully he wasn't worried since the beam shouldn't be able to penetrate his suit - but it did. It did because it wasn't a beam, and was rather a highly visible electromagnetic wavelength.

Enrique froze in his spot, he was forced to, before he started to stagger backwards. Pain shot through his entire body as he wavered, shaking on his feet and falling to his knees. He felt as if his entire molecular structure was being overwritten.

Truthfully, he wasn't wrong. 

Enrique realised, though he could barely think, what the machine was as his mind went numb. Shit. If his guess was correct about the machine's origin, he was going to die. That Mutant Conversion Machine wasn't properly made and although it would turn normal people into mutants, it would also kill them soon after.

["Not good. My child, quickly… you… should… no…!"] 

He heard a distant voice in his head that slowly became unclear, and soon Enrique's vision went blank-

"Roarrr!"

In an instant, ‘his’ vision was filled with color.

—-

Anna watched in horror as her superhero groaned in pain. The lightning aura around him dispersed as he trembled on his knees. She didn't even notice as the front of her brown hair turned white, she couldn't bother to notice - as Enrique started to change.

Enrique was on the floor where his body shuddered, his muscles convoluted, and he grew larger. The visible part of his skin – his face – became pale white in colour, at last black stripes appeared around his face and fangs grew out of his mouth. Like that of a Siberian tiger. His silver eyes shone, his nails became as sharp as claws while spiky, black bones erupted from his elbows, and at last a single black claw erupted from the top of his either hands. [1]

"Roarrr!"

His painful grunts from a second ago were no more, he roared. He sounded like a beast now- no, he had become a beast. Someone who would kill anything in front of him.

That's exactly what he intended to do the next second.

The man-tiger jumped at Magneto, and in turn at Anna, with his claws bared as he swiped at both.

With no choice left, she swiftly put her foot on top of the unconscious Cyclops' face. Her shoe was taken off amid the battle, so she was barefooted - and when that bare foot touched Cyclops' skin, his power flowed inside her like a wave.

Then she released that wave through her eyes.

-Vhhhm~

The world turned too bright red for her to see, but she felt the beam hit her superhero right on the chest. She was sure he would be fine, though, since he still wore his indestructible suit.

—-

-Bang!

Enrique's back hit the wall as his senses snapped back to place.

"Oh…" he blinked, his vision swaying as he looked at his hands on top of where a big, black claw was coming out. “Looks familiar…”

"Dude?" He heard Spidey whisper from the side, wrapped in pipes. "Are you back?"

"...I am." Enrique said before he stood up somewhat shakingly, nodding at Spiderman. He noticed Sabretooth huffing on the side, where a hurt Storm lay unconscious.

“Congratulations. You are one of us now, boy,” Magneto said, smirking at Enrique. “Why fight any longer? What's the point in fights between brothers?”

Enrique ignored him and looked to the side where Anna was strapped by metal pipes, facing the window in case she opened her eyes. 

Enrique was pissed.

This bastard dared.

Enrique growled and said, "Anna, don't open your eyes and just hang on. I am back."

As Anna nodded rapidly, smiling in relief and squeezing her eyes more, Magneto looked at Enrique dryly. “Do you really plan on continuing?”

Enrique ignored it and rather noted how his own voice sounded cooler, deeper and crispier – like the grumbling of a tiger. Looking at a broken piece of glass on the floor, at his pale face that bared claws – he realised he had gone through some sort of bestial transformation after becoming a mutant. He felt powerful. But he couldn't feel happy - given that, he might die at any second.

“Enough of your metal magic, we end this now.” Enrique said, deciding to end this quickly to then find a way to save himself.

Magneto growled and rather than engaging himself, he gestured to Sabretooth. The man bear growled loudly and ran, but Enrique’s growl was louder. He could easily see through Sabretooth’s movements now, so instead of dodging the incoming swipe of claws, Enrique grabbed the other man’s hand midair, and with a smirk he shoved his own big-black-claw claw inside the blonde man's chest.

"-Kaugh!"

Sabretooth grunted as the huge claw was pushed inside his heart, only being able to watch as Enrique channelled electricity through his claw, making the bigger man shudder and soon fall to the ground.

Enrique turned to Magneto whose face had gone paler by then. “You really hurt your own kind… I suppose you can never relate to us innate mutants.”

"Fuck off." Enrique replied and watched Magneto frown as he raised his hand in the air again - but Enrique had had enough of that gesture. He raised his own hand in the air, trying out something that might or might not work (it did), and fired the claw from above his hand.

-Chip!

The claw sliced through the air and swiftly ran through Magneto's hand, making the old man's eyes go wide as he fell on his knees and yelled in pain.

With a gesture, the claw simply flew back to Enrique.

"Neat." Enrique said and walked over, shoving Magneto to the side and spicing through the metal piles that were wrapping around Anna (his claws cut through it like a sharp knife against paper). He brought Anna to a hug, while she still had her eyes squeezed shut. "How long till you can open your eyes?"

"No idea..." She whispered. "The duration depends on how long I have touched my target. But I am not exactly sure what the duration is."

Right. She needed many tests for her powers. Enrique crouched down and searched Cyclops' body in search of something, and soon found a small box strapped to his belt. Taking it off him, he found a pair of sunglasses that he used to wear before he got his visor. Probably a backup. Enrique swiftly put it over Anna's eyes.

"You can open your eyes now." he said and she did, slowly opening her eyes and looking at him. "Good. Now let's go, it's unwise to spend any more time here."

He would have liked to kill Magneto, but he wasn't prepared for Magneto's bald girlfriend being on his trail. Also, Magneto was a pretty big face for the mutants, so he might be making the entire faction of mutants against him by doing that on live television (the reporting helicopter was even getting closer now that the battle had died out).

“Alright..." Anna nodded, suddenly hugging him tightly. “Thank you.”

"So, uh," Spiderman said from the side. "Maybe I will be a third wheel in your flight? Do I leave on my own then?"

Enrique chuckled and gestured to the teenager to jump on his shoulders again, and when he did with a laugh of his own, Enrique took off with the two superhumans on his back and chest.

…He just wished he would survive and also that this white-washed transformation wasn't permanent and rather had an on-off swift for it.

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[1] Imagine “Rath” from Ben 10 – but as a white tiger, a humane head/face, and NO fur.

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