DC EARTH-616
Inside the Tower of Fate, golden sigils flickered and sputtered like dying stars. The grand chamber once a sanctuary of order was a chaos of shredded scrolls and cracked relics. Blue fire licked across the walls where wards had been torn apart.
Zack Summers a.k.a Cyclops stood at the center, visor glowing crimson.
Cyclops: Come on, Fate… or whatever's left of you!
From the shadows lurched the decaying form of Doctor Fate. His helm was tarnished, half-split down the middle; tattered robes dragged across the marble floor. Where his eyes should have been, sickly green light pulsed. With a guttural hiss, he raised a clawlike hand, necrotic magic crackling.
Cyclops unleashed a full-power optic blast, the beam ripping through the air like a scarlet lance.The zombie sorcerer swept a skeletal arm, and a warped shield of runes erupted, bending the beam away in a shower of sparks. The recoil shattered floating candles and sent tomes spinning into the void.
Cyclops: Oh, you brain-dead zombie!
With a snarl, Zombie Fate lunged, snapping his jaws wide, fangs of magic glinting inside the helm. He swung both hands at Zack, arcane chains of death trailing from his fingers.
Cyclops rolled, firing another blast at the floor to propel himself up onto a higher ledge of the chamber.
His visor glowed brighter as he looked down.
Cyclops: Not today. I'm not on the menu.
Below, Fate tore through a pillar of the tower, runes unraveling and floating like ash. The whole structure shuddered under the duel, spells twisting into wild shapes as the two clashed red energy against green necromancy turning the Tower of Fate into a war zone of shattered magic.
The chamber shook, ancient chains rattling as necrotic glyphs swirled in the air. Cyclops staggered back, visor glowing like a furnace. From the green haze sprang not one but a dozen more shapes spectral, rotting copies of Doctor Fate, their cracked helms and clawed hands dripping with sickly magic.
They swarmed him, grabbing at his arms and legs, dragging him down.Cyclops gritted his teeth and unleashed a wild, sweeping blast from his visor. Scarlet beams slashed through the clones, splintering some into mist, but more poured in from the walls.
Cyclops: Get… off me!
He fired again and again, optic blasts ricocheting off crumbling walls and shattering sigils overhead. The tower trembled as the spells keeping it whole faltered. Out of the corner of his eye, through the chaos, something flickered a book on a shattered pedestal, its cover glowing white-hot with a pulse like a heartbeat.
Cyclops: Oh boy…
Still fighting the clones, he stretched out a hand and seized the glowing tome. The moment his fingers closed around the cover, a surge of power ripped up his arm, arcs of energy lashing outward. The clones screeched as they dissolved into ash. Runes tore free from the walls like shreds of paper.
Cyclops planted his feet, clutching the book with both hands as the tower itself began to unravel. Magic sucked at him like a vortex, pulling him toward the center of the storm. Above, the real Zombie Doctor Fate floated closer, green light flaring in the cracked helm.
Cyclops snarled and snapped his head up, visor blazing.
Cyclops: What the hell! Not… giving up!
He fired another full-force blast at the sorcerer. The red beam struck Fate squarely and fizzled, warped, and vanished inside a swirling portal of necrotic magic. Fate kept coming, hands reaching out.
The pull of the book grew unbearable. Cyclops' grip slipped.
Cyclops: Nooo!
With a final roar, the tome wrenched free. Its cover slammed shut. A blinding flash erupted, a thunderous shockwave tearing through the chamber. Zombie Doctor Fate shrieked as the wave hit him, his form disintegrating into motes of green fire. The Tower of Fate crumbled from the top down, exploding outward into shards of stone and light.
When the dust settled, nothing remained but drifting sparks and a scorched crater where the tower once stood the glowing book gone, Cyclops nowhere in sight.
EARTH-616
Rain hammered down on the city street, neon signs bleeding in the puddles. Laura Kinney stood at the center of it all in her black-and-yellow Wolverine suit, claws sheathed but hands clenched. A crowd had gathered despite the storm; phones glinted like fireflies as they recorded her silhouette.
Laura (thinking): I want them to see the Wolverine coming.
Lightning flared overhead. Suddenly the downpour went eerily quiet. High above, a circle of gold-white energy churned open in the clouds, its runes flickering like burning leaves.
Laura: What the hell…?
A shape tumbled through the portal a man in battle-torn body armor, visor blazing crimson, one arm locked around a thrashing, decayed sorcerer wearing a cracked helm.
Cyclops (shouting): Don't grab me!
The zombie Doctor Fate screeched as his body warped, twisting into some unknown shape Cyclops didn't recognize.
Cyclops: Huh who now!? Nevermind!
A red beam erupted from his visor, slicing the last clone to ash in mid-air. The shockwave sent him spinning down through the rain. He slammed into the street, crashing into Laura and skidding across the pavement in front of the Funni's entrance, scattering umbrellas and phones.
Laura grunted, shoving him off her with one hand and popping a single claw.Laura: Who are you supposed to be?
Her eyes narrowed, taking in the visor, the gauntlets, the stance so familiar but not.
Laura: Wait… Scott? Is that you?
Cyclops staggered to his feet, visor still glowing, rain streaming down his faceplate.
Cyclops: Who the hell is Scott?
Around them the portal pulsed, then snapped shut with a crack like thunder, leaving the two of them alone in the rain, staring at each other as the crowd whispered and filmed.
Laura didn't wait for the crowd to ask more questions. She hooked an arm under Cyclops' and yanked him off the wet pavement. People gasped as she dragged him away from the neon-lit entrance of Funni's and into the shadows, claws half-extended.
Rain hissed on the metal as she shoved him under a dripping overpass, the roar of traffic above muffling their voices. In one fluid motion she spun and slammed him onto the slick concrete, pinning his chest with her knee, one claw at his throat.
Laura: Who are you! Why are you wearing his suit!?
Cyclops blinked up at her, visor still glowing faintly red.
Cyclops: What do you mean? I'm wearing my suit?!
Laura lowered her face close to his, nostrils flaring as she sniffed, feral instinct cutting through the rain.
Laura: Lies.
A flash of red burst from the visor. The optic blast knocked her back across the concrete, scraping her palms but not breaking her stance.
Cyclops pushed himself up, hands raised slightly.
Cyclops: Sorry i only used fifteen percent of my power. Now, as politely as I can ask… what's your name?
Laura stood, claws retracting an inch but still ready.
Laura: Laura Kinney. But my real name is X-23, if you want.
Cyclops tilted his head, then reached up and unlatched his visor. Scarlet light dimmed as he looked at her with his own eyes for the first time.
Cyclops: Who in their right mind names their daughter X-23? Anyways, my name's Zachary Summers but you can call me Zack for short.
Laura's mouth twitched, a murmur slipping out before she could stop it.
Laura (muttering): Wow… never met another Summers offspring. Great.
Zack's brows knit.
Zack: Who?