Joseph fought against the insane strength of the youth with the dead eyes. He reached out and drew from the power of the Earth's electromagnetic field -- growing monstrously powerful as he desperately sought to free himself from the mesh of mental and physical bonds that were slowing crushing the life out of him. Rarely had he ever been so helpless before a foe. Those capable of taking him down so easily were a small handful. Zaladane. Xavier. Galactus. The Beyonder. But he had always had allies who had helped him to overcome his foes. But not now.
The great shaggy Beast had wandered over to the screaming Havok and injected him with something to make him stop screaming. Then he had wandered over to the wounded X-Men. There would be no help from them. Scott was dying, Cannonball had several limbs twisted at strange angles and Jean lay helpless -- in shock from her husbands wounds and badly burned from one of Havok's plasma bolts.
The Black Beast pondered the prone X-Men while Magneto was slowly being lashed to death by psionic forces. He thought for a moment and then dressed the gaping wound in Scott's back. He would be a valuable bargaining chip if he ever had to deal with Essex again. Then he considered the red headed telepath who was slowly stirring. Jean Grey was strong willed and telepaths had a nasty habit of breaking free of mind control. That was why they hadn't tolerated them back in the death camps he had once run in another reality. She would be hard to break and he already had the boy. He had given orders to shoot her and she had managed to survive -- which raised some interesting possibilities. But it entailed risks too, and the Black Beast hadn't gotten as far as he had by taking chances. Reluctantly he grasped her by the throat and began to squeeze.
Joseph saw him begin to kill her but could spare nothing to help as the boy lowered him into a trench that had been dug using TK. The dead eyes seemed to glaze with pity for a second and Joseph had a glimpse of what might have been of the Beast hadn't twisted this mighty mutant. Then his vision was obscured as he was slowly covered by the moist soil. He was being buried alive!
Visions flooded his mind -- of being thrown into a grave by German soldiers after they had just finished massacring his family for the crime of being Jewish. He remembered clawing his way to the surface, only to spend years in the horror of Auschwitz watching his people being murdered -- and assisting in killing them. It was just like that now. The X-Men were the only family that he had and they were being killed or taken for far worse fates. And he was being buried alive.
Joseph found the core of rage that had driven Magneto and finally felt the passion that had driven him before. No longer merely the memories of what he had once been but the brutal reality of a man driven mad by more horror than a person could take and possessing the power to make his rage a reality. Magneto linked his power and his passion together into a single minded berserk rage and clawed his way to the surface. He reached into the electromagnetic field that covered the planet and drew his mother's power into himself. He could hear sizzling and cracking as lightning wreathed him due to the immense power that he had drawn in. In that moment he felt that he could have done anything.
Nate Grey fought against the wave of strength that Magneto poured forth but, deep inside in some dark corner of his mind that was still free, the part of him that was still himself and not a mindless servant of the Black Beast felt joy at the prospect of release from this hideous servitude. He struggled against Magneto but knew he was dead as a wave of gamma radiation flooded through his body -- shutting down the mechanical controls that monitored his behaviour. Master of all forms of EM radiation, Magneto had cycled through all of the various forms of his power until he had found one that not even Nate Grey could block effectively. Nate fell to the ground as the first wave of sickness swept through his body. He was free at last -- even if only at the end of his life.
Magneto watched the features of his opponent melt and then turned his attention to the stunned Black Beast (who was so shocked he had forgotten to keep throttling Jean). With a simple bending of light (another form of electromagnetic energy), Magneto vanished from the senses of the brotherhood.
The Beast bounded away, narrowly escaping a hail of thin metal fletchettes that tore through the air where he had just been. Rifles cracked and degaussed plastic bullets flew through the clearing. A sudden flash of red demonstrated that at least one had found it's target. The Best hesitated for a second and then bounded to Nate Grey. He was more badly wounded, but far more valuable than the replaceable Havok. Both had lost the homing devices that would enable the teleportation machines to pick them up unaided and the group teleporter was too valuable to risk on this sort of mission.
Mangeto cursed as the bullet seared his lung. A moment of concentration and he was garbed in the blood red armour that had inspired terror in a generation of humans. A second bullet bullet struck him but was unable to penetrate his body armour. He rose about ten meters into the air and turned to face the Black Beast.
His instinct for survival as strong as ever, the Black Beast activated a device and vanished with the mortally injured Nate Grey and a dozen of his followers -- leaving behind "Prelate" Summers, an enraged Magneto and three seriously injured X-Men. Magneto cursed as his senses picked up the flurry of EM bursts that marked the activation of teleportation devices. He concentrated -- seeking to follow the EM trail to it's source.
Joseph, Jean projected, I need help. I can't concentrate enough to lift everyone with my telekinesis. We need to get the injured back to the mansion. Through the link Magneto could sense the incredible pain that coursed through her from both her wounds and those of her husband. A psychic link could have some serious drawbacks. He hesitated -- all his instincts were to follow the Beast before the trail grew cold.
Please. Don't leave us here to die. Jean pleaded. Magneto looked at here. Third degree burns carpeted her torso. Even with plastic surgery, she would never be beautiful again. Half of her face had been burned off by the bolt and he could smell charred flesh. Scott lay in a puddle of his own blood and several of Sam's fingers had been bitten off. His senses could detect multiple broken bones in the young man. None of them were in any shape to escape on their own and without medical treatment one or more would die for sure. Besides, he could torture the location out of Alex and his own wound was beginning to pain him. Following the Beast when he wasn't at his absolute best would be suicide and he couldn't leave the X-Men to die unless it was worth it and this wasn't. That decided him.
Magneto lifted up the injured mutants inside of a magnetic bubble. He used his powers to scan for injuries and to seal off the worst points of damage. Then he accelerated away back to the mansion where they could be treated properly. But he would be back for the creature that had descrated his wife's grave with violence and tried to kill his friends.