Reborn with Steve Stand-Chapter 843: Baby you’re still green…

“What?”

Hearing Fang Mo’s words, everyone’s expressions involuntarily changed.

And as if to confirm what he said, before long, the metal door of the Cerebro chamber slowly slid open. Then, out in the corridor, a sudden glow of light appeared.

A tranquil space rippled slightly.

Immediately afterward, without any warning, a spherical purple energy field emerged out of thin air.

That purple energy barrier churned and swirled like a huge “bubble” of space. As the group looked on, the purple glow swiftly receded.

And once the barrier vanished completely, everyone noticed five very different-looking individuals inside.

The one in the center—a blue-skinned figure with a corrugated forehead—was clearly Apocalypse. He was staring at Charles with a scorching, unmasked greed and longing in his eyes.

Aside from Apocalypse, four other mutants with drastically different appearances stood behind him.

The one on the far left was a short-haired man with some tattoos under his lip, clad in a leather jacket. Overall, he gave off a rebellious vibe. He looked arrogant, blatantly sizing up everyone in the room.

Next to him was another tattooed young man—tall, skinny, bald, with sunken eyes. His aura wasn’t as fierce; he was basically just standing there.

Over on the right stood a towering, silent hulk of a man, next to a Black woman with a pair of horns on her head.

“See? Here they are,”

Unlike everyone else going on alert, Fang Mo seemed pleased as soon as he saw Apocalypse and his group arrive. He even turned and said something to his companions.

“…”

Logan glanced at Fang Mo but said nothing, simply letting his bone claws slide out.

“At last, I’ve found you,”

Across from them, Apocalypse spoke for the first time. His gaze passed over the others and locked directly on Charles. Reaching out a hand, he added, “Come!”

A crisp crack resounded.

The Cerebro helmet on Charles’s head instantly shattered.

Under the mental link, Charles gave a muffled groan of pain and then passed out cold.

“Charles!”

Raven cried out.

But before she could do anything, the metal plating beneath Charles’s feet suddenly tore itself from the floor with a sharp screech, forcibly wrapping around him. Then it yanked him over toward Apocalypse.

“?”

Ji Yan the golem blinked, momentarily confused.

She reflexively looked down at the tattered scraps of fabric in her hand. It had once been the collar of Charles’s shirt. The metal’s pull was astonishing—strong enough to rip the threads clean, leaving Ji Yan dazed, scratching her head as she wondered what she should do now.

Luckily, someone else took action first.

“!”

Erik abruptly raised a hand, unleashing a powerful magnetic field. The metal plating carrying Charles lurched to a halt in midair, two opposing forces locked in a stalemate.

“Hmm?”

Seeing that, Apocalypse frowned in slight surprise. But then he simply upped his own output.

“What!?”

Erik was aghast—this was his first time experiencing metal slip from his control. Quickly he raised his other hand, doubling the magnetic intensity in an attempt to wrest control.

“Interesting. Looks like you have decent power,”

Apocalypse noticed Erik’s persistence and smiled. “Don’t bother, child. I’m creating a brand-new era for us, an era better than the present. And life for you all will be better than it is now.”

“A better era?”

Raven blurted, stunned. “What do you mean?”

“That means…”

“It means destroying modern civilization, putting everyone back in ancient Egypt with some lousy baked flatbread.” Fang Mo, not waiting for Apocalypse to speak, answered on his behalf. “At that point, he’ll be a god ruling the entire planet; mutants become the privileged nobility, while humanity is relegated to lowly slaves.”

“Hmm?”

Apocalypse turned and eyed Fang Mo, somewhat taken aback. “…You actually know that?”

“Gods know everything,”

Fang Mo answered with a light smile.

“Oh?”

That reply clearly displeased Apocalypse, the self-proclaimed god. “No one stands before me, En Sabah Nur, and calls himself God.”

Saying this, he waved a hand. “My Horsemen, deal with them.”

Hearing Apocalypse’s order, the four behind him sprang into action. The short-haired man on the far left sneered and stepped forward first.

“…Huh?”

Fang Mo paused, squinting at him. “Wait—it’s you?”

“You know who I am?”

The man raised an eyebrow arrogantly, staring at Fang Mo. “Then surrender. Maybe it’ll spare you some pain.”

“No… Man, what were you thinking?”

Fang Mo almost cracked up. “You must have an Omega-level power: ‘unfounded confidence,’ am I right?”

He recognized the guy: it was that minor “porcupine” mutant from X-Men 3, no actual name given—some random goon, ability: sprout spines from his body. The power was fairly lame, but the guy had bizarre levels of self-confidence. In the original, he’d had a conflict with Pyro, then, unbelievably, picked a fight despite Pyro’s fire powers. Fang Mo had suspected his real “power” was blind confidence, with the spines just a side effect.

But X3 was way later in the timeline. Right now, after Days of Future Past in 1973, that dude might not even have been born. Must be some butterfly effect that brought him in early.

“What the hell did you say!?”

Spiky Mutant was obviously provoked by Fang Mo’s ridicule. Furious, he charged straight at Fang Mo.

With a pffft, his body erupted with spikes. Instead of keratin, they’d become metallic—each roughly the thickness of a chopstick. In a close-quarters fight, that might be a real problem for the average opponent.

“Seriously, I can’t with this guy…”

Fang Mo shook his head in amusement, grasping “Mǎyù Líng” to chop the porcupine guy in half. But at that moment, he heard a sudden shout behind him. Logan had fearlessly dashed out—and slammed into the spiky man.

A series of wet squelch, squelch sounds filled the air.

Within seconds, Logan’s body was riddled with over a dozen puncture wounds.

“Goddamn you!”

Logan snarled through the pain. He flipped and pinned the spiky man beneath him. The move itself made Logan hiss in agony as well, but he grimly drove his bone claws into the guy’s chest, a brutal exchange of injuries.

“Ugh…”

Seeing it, Fang Mo’s nether regions almost twinged in sympathy.

“Arghh!”

The porcupine man howled, chest impaled right through, struggling frantically. “Aaargh!!”

“Useless fool…”

Even Apocalypse couldn’t take it anymore. He had strengthened that guy, yet he was immediately pinned to the floor, humiliating.

He turned a cold eye to the remaining Horsemen. “Why are you just standing there!?”

Realizing their master was angry, the other three had no choice but to act. The first to move was the tattooed bald guy. He raised his hand, and the black tattoo on his palm spun like a kaleidoscope.

Without warning, nearly everyone on Fang Mo’s side—Erik, Pietro, Raven, and most of Fang Mo’s “all-stars”—collapsed. A bizarre illness flared within them, savaging their guts, lungs, and hearts with piercing pain.

The weaker ones even started vomiting uncontrollably.

“D-Damn it…”

Double Agent Old Feng fell to his knees, teeth clenched. “Poison…? Trying to be sly, eh!?”

Notably, a few people were unaffected: Fang Mo, Mǎyù Líng (in human form), Ji Yan the Golem, plus Logan, who was too busy trading stabbing blows with the porcupine man.

“Hmm?”

Hearing Old Feng and noticing their symptoms, Fang Mo recalled a certain mutant. “…Disease?” He vaguely remembered someone like that from the films, though he couldn’t recall which one exactly.

“Shit!”

A rasping, weak cry from Erik broke Fang Mo’s train of thought. “Ch-Charles!”

Because Erik was also succumbing to the disease, his magnetic grip weakened. The unconscious Charles flew right into Apocalypse’s grasp.

“Finally, he’s mine.”

Apocalypse looked elated, fondly touching Charles as if admiring a prized treasure.

“Bastard!”

At last, Ji Yan the golem seemed to realize what had happened. She let out a raging yell, then charged at Apocalypse with a massive punch: “Stealing my villager?! I’ll beat you to death!”

With that, she stomped the metal walkway so hard it buckled. The metal squealed from the force of her stride—like the entire mansion shuddered from her speed.

“I’ve got this!”

A towering, taciturn giant among the Horsemen roared excitedly in response, his body inflating as his flesh morphed into something with a metallic sheen, like a living tank. Clearly another strength-based mutant, he aimed to go toe-to-toe with her.

But unfortunately, he’d picked the wrong opponent.

The moment his stone-like body collided with Ji Yan’s unstoppable charge, a thunderous boom rang out. The giant instantly burst into rubble, while Ji Yan stumbled several steps before halting, pivoting to see the debris strewn about.

“Huh?”

Ji Yan scratched her head in confusion. “…Where’d he go?”

“…”

Apocalypse’s face had grown darker.

“Dude,”

Fang Mo piped up with unhelpful glee, “did you assemble this batch of Horsemen on some penny-pinching website? Were you out of real fighters…? Everyone knows discount goods are poor quality—someone next door ordered a ‘mom’ and she died the next day.”

“You—!”

Apocalypse, who’d been belittled several times in a row, finally snapped. He turned to Fang Mo and unleashed a wave of his power.

He corroded the surrounding metal walls, reducing them to powder, which then surged at Fang Mo like razor-sharp blades.

But before the blades hit, Fang Mo’s figure vanished like a phantom.

“What?”

Apocalypse frowned, puzzled. Almost instantly, he felt a terrifying surge of danger behind him. On instinct, he pivoted, raising a defensive energy shield.

And what greeted him was the sight of a slender leg, clad in sheer black tights, hurtling toward him.

Truth be told, Apocalypse was a bit thrown off by it.

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He saw Fang Mo grasping a teenage girl by the shoulder, swinging her body like a weapon overhead. Possibly due to the speed, the girl’s shoes had been flung off, leaving a small foot covered by semi-translucent black silk. Tensed in fear, that foot arched daintily…somehow almost cute.

But before Apocalypse could think much about it, that leg crashed into his shield. He felt the defense give way under the force of that seemingly delicate foot, fracturing instantly.

“!!!”

In that moment of shock, the slender leg smashed down on his shoulder. With a squelch, the blade-like foot sank deep into Apocalypse’s flesh—cutting through his armor, shoulder, even down toward his chest.

“This move’s called the ‘Devastating Kick’. Scared yet?”

Having landed the blow, Fang Mo didn’t hurry to finish him, but grinned and asked calmly.

“Wh…What—?!”

Apocalypse, gravely wounded, staggered back a step. Although he possessed regeneration, his opponent’s power was too bizarre for him to understand. That meant he needed to get out of here immediately—his objective was stealing Charles’s telepathic abilities, not a prolonged fight with this weirdo. Once Apocalypse got that mind-control power, it wouldn’t matter how strange Fang Mo’s power was; he could crush him on the psychic plane. So priority number one was finding somewhere safe to fuse with Charles’s ability.

He decided not to prolong the battle. With a mental command, he triggered his spatial teleportation.

A hemispherical field enclosed him, and Fang Mo felt a repulsive force pushing him away. He didn’t resist, allowing himself to be flung back for appearance’s sake.

“Return, my Horsemen!”

Within that violet bubble, Apocalypse’s voice rang. The twisted metal plating, the porcupine man, even the shards of the stony giant were pulled in as well. The next second, the purple glow faded, and Apocalypse’s group vanished entirely.

“It’s over,”

Raven groaned worriedly. “He got Charles!”

“No, you’re mistaken, girl,”

Fang Mo’s voice cut in. He calmly wiped the bloodstain off the “Mǎyù Líng” foot. “If Charles has been captured…”

“…They’re already finished.”