Chapter 80: Judgement Day IX (Mass release I)

“Well, well,” Rogue said, her voice dripping with satisfaction. “Look who’s lookin’ a little pale. That little tap took more outta you than you’d like to admit, huh?” Rogue said. “Looks like your little magic trick is mine now,”

She lifted her palm, and a small spark of bright orange light flickered between her fingers. Black ash began to drift from her shoulders, swirling around her in the wind.

“You managed to borrow my power ,” Veritas clapped twice for her. “But I doubt you understand it.”

“We’ll see about that,” Rogue spat.

When Rogue absorbed the powers of Veritas, she felt something extremely strange.

Usually, when she touched someone, she took their memories along with their powers. Once, she touched Jean just to borrow her abilities for a short time. Jean was a strong telepath, as strong as Professor X, perhaps stronger, but Rogue still copied her memories without any trouble.

This time was different. She could not take even one memory from Veritas’s mind.

Those stolen memories normally worked like a guidebook. They showed her exactly how to use the powers the same way the original person did.

It wasn’t like she would be clueless, though. But obviously, she would be lacking the finess of Veritas. There would be the output but no mastery.

It was like giving a normal person a high-powered adventure bike. They would know how to ride it and control the speed, yet they would not know how to drift or pull off the special tricks the real rider could do.

There was another thing, even though she felt like she had absorbed his teleportation power as well. She felt like a major activation step was missing. And she didn’t know what.

But no matter, she had Kurt’s teleportation.

BAMF.

Rogue vanished in a cloud of dark smoke. She appeared instantly right behind him, her fist already glowing bright orange for a point-blank blast. She had Kurt’s teleportation, her own super strength, and now his explosions. She was a powerhouse.

“Do you think that will work on me twice?” Veritas said, as he spun on his heel, his own gloved palm igniting with a massive burst of heat.

Their hands met in the middle.

BOOM!

For a split second, there was no sound, only a blinding flash of light as their powers met. Then, a deafening explosion ripped through the air.

A concussive shockwave blasted outwards, shredding the rest of the ruined Quinjet and sending both fighters staggering back. The entire Helicarrier groaned under the force of the blast.

Veritas skidded backward across the warped metal deck, his boots carving twin grooves into the scorched plating.

The force of the combined explosion had sent him sliding a good thirty feet before he finally dug in his heels and came to a halt.

Rogue steadied herself in mid-air after being thrown back by the attack. Her brown Jacket was scorched and gone. Thankfully, her yellow and green X-Men suit survived. She charged at him once again.

Veritas knew if this continued here, it would destroy the helicarrier, so he used the explosion to launch himself into the air. He knew she would follow after him… after all, she had very limited time.

Rogue didn’t hesitate. She flew after him.

The sky above the Helicarrier became a warzone.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Veritas had spun mid-air and fired a rapid barrage of explosions from both hands. The blasts tore through the clouds, bright orange bursts that lit up the dark sky. Rogue answered by spamming explosions of her own, firing them from both hands in rapid succession.

BAMF.

Rogue vanished out of his line of fire and reappeared right beside him, close enough to grab his collar.

Veritas was ready for her. Black ash poured down his sleeve and hardened into the long, curved shape of his scythe. In a blink of an eye, he turned sharply, his whole body twisting into the swing, and cut the blade straight at her waist.

Rogue’s eyes went wide.

She threw both hands up. Ash exploded from her palms, snapping together into a thick, jagged black shield. It was crude and unstable, barely holding together, but it formed just in time.

CLANG!

The scythe hit the shield and stopped dead. Sparks sprayed off both edges and fell, burning through the open air. For a moment the two of them hung there, weapons locked, hundreds of feet above the Helicarrier.

Then they broke apart and came at each other again.

Veritas swung the black scythe in a wide, sweeping arc. Rogue teleported herself backward. The dark blade missed her chest by a fraction of an inch. She raised her hands and threw a heavy volley of explosive blasts back at him.

Veritas met them with his own explosions. She punched the air, sending massive waves of heat crashing into his attacks.

Fire met fire. Bright orange flashes lit up the blue sky. The deafening sounds of their blasts overlapping sounded like a continuous, rolling thunderstorm.

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[Patron comments:]

[Yeageristo: damn, gotta say vertias vs rogue is… kinda beautiful…]

[Yeageristo donated 25 TP]

[Yeageristo: we’re all probably going broke after this stream]

[The Fool Fan: Indeed, take it lad my 3rd 100 TP donation]

[The Fool Fan donated 100 TP]

[PPPPOTAH: Damn I just counted the total donations from the chat are over 6K now]

[PPPPOTAH donated 10 TP]

[enemies_to_Lovers_enjoyer: @Yeageristo although I agree that its beautiful. Slight mixed feelings if she’s our boy’s new archenemy. But it’s also true that without even us knowing he’s has grown quite strong.]

[urANUS: Idc I just want violence]

[PPPPOTAH: Hey guys, I’ve got some news: the date of the event we were talking about during that Lemurian star stream has been shifted. The official circular will be released in a month or so.]

[Cosmic_Johan_Leibert: @PPPPOTAH Interesting. This time I will come to watch as well.]

[enemies_to_Lovers_enjoyer: @PPPPOTAH holy smokes, can’t wait. Just hope he doesn’t switch up archenemy until then. I love his chemistry with Gwen the best.]

[PrettyInRed: In My Dark Romance Stream, there is a dance ball tournament every 4 years. What exactly happens in the Terror Stream app?]

[The Fool Fan: @PrettyInRed oh here we have actual tournaments, not kitty parties.]

[PPPPOTAH: Oh, I forgot to mention it. Tom Holland was at a

party. A dude pinned him against the wall like a gecko, and that’s how Miles Morales was born.]

[urPP: @PPPPOTAH wtf??? I mean yeah, Tom is cute and penetrable, but still… ]

[urANUS: @urPP tf you mean penetrable????]

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Gwen watched from the Helicarrier with Captain America and Gambit as chains of explosions and sparks lit up the sky above them. Rogue and Veritas clashed again and again, their powers creating a violent light show that painted the clouds in shades of orange and black.

Seeing Rogue fight Veritas on equal grounds made Gwen’s heart drop for some reason. But she pushed the feeling down. It was her own plan after all. But watching someone else with him… it stirred something uncomfortable in her chest.

Gambit grinned, “Your plan was a success, non? Rogue’s gonna beat ‘is ass now, you watch.”

Steve stared above as well, not commenting on it.

Gwen nodded her head. “She’s got about 34 more seconds left. In this time, she has to either defeat him or absorb his power once again.”

Gambit nodded. “She can do it.”

Then, from their earpieces, they heard the update from the team that had gone inside the carrier. The targeting blades had been replaced, and now they were guarding the mainframe console.

In the skies, as the battle continued, Veritas confirmed 9 more minutes of the stream remaining.

‘It’s time to move to the next phase…’

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a loud BAMF echoed directly behind him. Rogue appeared in a cloud of dark smoke. This was her final teleport. After this strike, Kurt’s powers would leave her body completely.

She gathered every ounce of strength she had left and swung her fist straight at his masked face. She fully expected him to dodge or counter.

Surprisingly, his arm moved a fraction too slow to block her. Her knuckles smashed into his mask. And as it landed, she triggered a huge explosion from her knuckles.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

A colossal fireball engulfed the sky. Veritas, taking the full, direct force of the blast, plummeted towards the Helicarrier like a smoking, fallen star. At the last moment, he tried to slow his descent with a blast of his own, but his momentum was too great.

He crashed onto a parked Quinjet, which exploded on impact in a secondary, fiery eruption.

“Told you she’d do it,” Gambit said proudly. The thief had only been working with the X-Men for a few months, but he deeply trusted in his teammates’ raw capabilities.

Captain didn’t waste a second celebrating. He sprinted at full speed across the massive flight deck, heading straight for the smoking crash point. “I wouldn’t be so sure yet!” he yelled back at him.

Gambit and Gwen followed after him.

High up in the sky, Rogue floated breathlessly. Her chest heaved as she wiped sweat from her eyes. Even she was honestly surprised by that last hit. ‘How did I make that explosion so huge?’ she wondered.

Just 7 more seconds until Veritas’s power left her body. She flew back to the Helicarrier to join up with the others.

She had to touch him once again.

As Gwen, Cap, and Gambit surrounded the burning wreckage, a shadow stirred within the flames.

From the heart of the scorching wreckage, Veritas walked out. He limped slightly, his breath coming in ragged pants. The right sleeve of his suit was burned to a crisp, exposing his bare arm.

It looked like he had no energy left.

He looked… finished.

As Rogue landed beside her teammates, Gambit casually stepped forward. Six bright pink cards floated menacingly in the air right in front of him. “Veritas, it’s done, bro.”

Gwen, Rogue, and Captain America stood tense, ready to move if he tried anything.

Veritas stopped walking. The heavy panting stopped too. A low, mocking chuckle echoed from behind his mask. He straightened his back, and his limp vanished completely. He rolled his right shoulder to loosen the joint.

Then, he raised his left hand and calmly brushed the dirt off his ruined arm.

As he wiped the fabric, the burnt sleeve repaired itself in seconds, returning to a pristine condition.

“That was an impressive attack,” he said as he inspected his arm. “No wonder I felt pain just now. As expected of my own power.”

He raised his head and looked at the four heroes standing before him.

“You all think you pushed me to my limit,” Veritas said, his voice dropping to a cold, serious tone. “Let me show you what the source truly looks like.”

The black lips in his white mask widened as Veritas brought his hands together and locked his fingers into a strange symbol.

“Domain Expansion…..”

“Ashen Apocalypse.”