"Morning, Tony," Marcus greeted casually as the Iron Man armor settled beside him.
At his fingertips rested Loki's scepter—its Mind Stone glowing faintly.
With its psychic distortion field active, their conversation was sealed off even from telepaths.
Tony stared at the battlefield below, where Magneto's steel tempest raged and the X-Men cheered in triumph.
"This is what you wanted?" he asked, voice low. "Watching them tear each other apart?"
Marcus shrugged with disarming honesty.
"There's no helping it. These people are far too powerful."
And he wasn't wrong.
On the battlefield were Hulk, Magneto, the Phoenix, Professor X—
all titans whose strength bordered on myth.
In Marcus's own forces, only the Scarlet Witch and Marcus himself could be considered top-tier—barely Alpha-level.
To confront several Alpha-high or near-Omega mutants head-on—beings capable of planetary destruction—was sheer lunacy.
But now?
Thanks to the seamless cooperation between Marcus and Tony,
these titans were too busy tearing each other apart over "principles" to notice Marcus at all.
Whether mutant or Avenger, they would fight until one side was dead.
And in the chaos, half—if not more—of Marcus's greatest obstacles would erase themselves.
For now, Marcus's Metallization powers were useless—Magneto suppressed the entire battlefield.
But once both sides were exhausted and crippled…
Who would be left to stop him from claiming everything?
Marcus asked:
"Our forces are fully in position?"
Tony nodded.
"All your troops have been moved through the tunnel network. One word from you and the dead flood will swallow this place."
"Not yet." Marcus kept his eyes on the carnage below.
"We haven't seen either side's trump cards. I'd rather not make too dramatic an entrance."
Tony accepted that with a silent nod.
Then he handed Marcus a black S.H.I.E.L.D. security card marked with a Level-5 clearance sigil—
the one they had taken off Nick Fury.
"The details of Project Blacklight are all here. Their research just had a major breakthrough. They're announcing that their synthetic Blacklight organisms can now be perfectly controlled—they're combat-ready."
"The key came from data recovered at HYDRA's Sokovia facility—the zombie-control headset you asked me to develop earlier."
"You planned for this day even back then, didn't you?"
Marcus smirked.
"Pure coincidence. I never expected such a tiny zombie-control device to cause such a large ripple effect. If the Blacklight researchers knew how that helicarrier really fell in the New York war, they would never have dared combine zombies with a control system."
Tony stiffened.
"They're close. I can sense their signals."
Marcus's expression sharpened—cold, calculating.
Even without the Blacklight virus itself,
Project Blacklight now belonged entirely to him.
"Then let's see," Marcus said softly,
"what kind of monsters the government has cooked up."
As Marcus finished speaking, Magneto's colossal storm finally calmed.
The courtyard of Xavier's School had transformed into a gruesome scrapyard—
reeking of iron and blood.
Here, "scrap" meant limbs, corpses, and twisted metal.
Thousands of tons of blood-soaked steel carpeted the grounds.
Beneath them were untold numbers of crushed soldiers.
For the moment, no one dared challenge the Master of Magnetism.
Magneto descended slowly…
and as soon as his boots touched the ground, he stumbled.
X-Men rushed to support their savior—only to discover his abdomen soaked in red.
It was the injury he'd received during the dual assault by the Hulks.
When Hulk exploded out of the metal sphere, a shard had pierced Magneto's torso;
the follow-up punch nearly tore him apart.
Had Magneto not caught himself mid-flight with magnetic force,
he would've been launched straight into orbit.
He was over seventy—
a lifetime of battle had aged his body faster than normal.
That he remained standing at all was thanks only to his iron will.
"You need medical treatment immediately!" Kitty Pryde exclaimed.
A combination of lacerations and internal rupture—
any other man would be unconscious, or dead.
"No. The mutants still need me," Magneto insisted.
He stood only by magnetically bracing the metal around him.
The fact that he had landed meant he could no longer sustain flight.
"You're dying!" Kitty shouted.
"Even if we take you now, there may not be time!"
"I know… but… I cannot leave yet."
Magneto forced himself forward, eyes fixed on the battlefield.
Blood dripped from his lips.
"The enemy… hasn't fallen. So neither can I…"
"HUULK!!!"
The roar shook the air.
A massive green form erupted from beneath the rubble, arms raised in fury.
Hulk was covered in deep, bone-revealing wounds—
but unlike Magneto, his monstrous body stitched itself back together in seconds.
Now restored and enraged beyond reason,
he charged the mutants with thunderous steps.
Red Hulk rose as well—
only to be smashed back into the ground by Hulk's savage punch.
There was no ally or foe anymore—only targets.
This was the Hulk in his pure, unrestrained fury—
the same state in which he had killed Abomination.
With unlimited anger came unlimited strength.
Given time, that strength would grow without limit—
until nothing living could stand in his path.