Disclaimer: Inflation's caused the price of hacking classes to skyrocket… pocket change anyone?

A/N: Okay, so when I redid this chapter it kind of got away from me. I warn you now, there shall be cursing and violence galore here, and it gets dark in many places. This chapter fought me tooth and nail, but I'm pleased with the results. Enjoy!

"…"- conversation

'…'- thoughts

(…)- extra facts/actions (some)

'blah…' -telepathy/what people say mentally

Chapter 64: The Horseman of Death

Hallway #29, Asteroid Evolution, Orbit of the Moon, Milky Way Galaxy- May 17, 5:00 AM

The Horseman of Death, for he could no longer be called Roberto da Costa, a.k.a. Sunspot in the realm of codenames glared at the pathetic and quite pitiful group of people in front of him. He snorted as he caught the shocked looks that came from some of the mutants, the look of sorrow from the man in the wheelchair, and, of course, he reveled in the fear that emanated from what he supposed was his former team.

Head tilted, Death proceeded to bounce one of his balls of flames up and down, smirking when several sets of eyes followed the motion, all of them obviously scared that he was going to launch an attack at them at any moment. His eyes kept flitting back to a young woman with dark red hair in a braid and wide, sorrowful emerald eyes.

Despite this unnatural interest in one woman (and really, she wasn't even that pretty. There were so many other hot women standing before him that Death was extremely tempted to grab one and run off with her), he knew that his Lord and Master would have his head on a gold platter inlaid with rubies and emeralds if he strayed from the plan.

'My servant, do continue with the show.'

The Horseman of Death bounced the ball of flames in his hand once more, having dissolved the second one earlier before smirking. Moving around, he looked for a suitable target… and soon found him.

"Traitor!" Death sent the ball of flame towards his target, the former Horseman of Famine, sending a glare at Legion, who stood to the left of the man in the wheelchair. "Master Apocalypse has ordered me to destroy you and your pitiful rescue group before he initiates his plans! Make it easy on yourself and surrender!"

Reacting quickly, Legion threw up a psychic barrier around not only himself but those with him, to ensure that no one was injured. The Horseman's attack slammed into the barrier, which shimmered a violent shade of purple. Legion's arms strained with the effort of the attack, no longer having the strength from Apocalypse to draw upon and enhance his powers. Of course, Legion was beyond glad that he was no longer a sycophant to that ancient Egyptian monstrosity, so he felt the price was small to pay.

Death was not pleased that his attack was being foiled; therefore, he conjured another ball of fire and launched it at the former Horseman, a rather mad grin on his face. Legion's feet slid back a few inches as the other mutants finally came out of their stupors at seeing a once-ally attack them and began to join Legion in reinforcing the barrier. Pyro formed a layer of thin, orange flames behind the purple barrier, the colors blending together. Avalanche, Magneto and Polaris seemed to share the same wavelength as they ripped pieces of metal off the surrounding wall and sent them at the Horseman, who nimbly dodged them while continuing to send two streams of flame at the barrier. The other mutants began powering up only to be halted when the Horseman's attack suddenly ceased.

"You are all mere children," Death mocked as he did a backflip to launch himself into the air. "That was merely a small; even miniscule really, taste of my power, and a former Horseman was unable to do anything to stop it. Pathetic, really."

Legion threw out a hand to forestall any movement towards the obviously psychotic mutant and, maintaining the barrier proceeded to stare at his opponent. The first thing that he felt was outright pity. He felt sorry for the man who had been unwillingly brainwashed into serving Apocalypse's plans when he was almost positive that all the man desired was to escape the prison and return to his loved ones. It was certainly a dream that he himself had once harbored long ago, before the horrible confrontation with his father, Cyclops and Phoenix.

Next, Legion felt anger. He was, to use a plebian term, pissed off at this man. Did he not have the internal willpower to fight off Apocalypse's mental intrusions? Of course, Legion deftly ignored the small voice in his head – which sounded like David – that mocked him, stating that he had been under the mutant's control for a good ten years and just where had his inner strength been then?

Thirdly, his gaze was drawn to the younger of the two red-haired, green-eyed women, the one with the haunted look in her eyes. 'Must be tha lass he fancies.' He felt sympathy for her; after all, she had hoped to be reunited with her beau just as the others had, but instead found herself facing someone who was a deformed monster of the man that she loved.

Deciding to do something instead of just standing around gawking like a plebian, Legion cleared his throat and spoke. "Roberto, ye've been brainwashed by Apocalypse inta servin' his plans; he will discard ye when he's done. Why are ye with him?"

The Horseman started and snarled in reply. "My name is Death! This Roberto no longer exists; he is gone! My Lord is not using me; I am the finest of his Horseman; the most beloved and so he will allow me to rule by his side when he has taken control of the world!" Death formed a smaller, more intense-appearing fire ball, bouncing it from palm to palm. He continued, "Of course, you would know nothing of loyalty, hmm?"

Without warning, Death launched a slew of dark orange and white fireballs at Legion, smirking. However, he had forgotten that the barrier was still active, and was reminded of this when a purple light shone from in front of Legion. To add to his frustration, a fire shield of some sort was also present… and was currently changing its shape to attack him.

"Damn!" Death cursed as he did another set of backflips to send himself flying in the air and, crossing his arms over his chest released a stream of white fire which impacted with the fire shield. When the resulting steam vanished, Death found a slew of psionic darts heading his way. He dodged them in the air, shooting one of them down with a smirk. Looking downwards, he saw the traitor preparing another attack. Thinking he would do the same, Death began to gather a collection of solar rays in his hands.

Of course, Death's flaw in this situation was that he wasn't paying attention to the other insects below him. Too focused on killing the traitor per Apocalypse's orders, a red haze covered his vision. Therefore, he was figuratively and literally shocked when a stream of hot electricity struck him in the back, his arms jolting out from him without his say-so.

Storm, having noticed the Horseman's distraction decided to take him out before anyone else got hurt. Partly, she also felt a bit responsible for this mess, as she had been a Horseman all those years ago and, yet, in the time since she'd found no way to insure that the mutant was vanished forever. Therefore, she felt it her responsibility to save Roberto the guilt that still lived with her years after the event had passed.

As Storm shot a smaller stream of electricity at the Horseman, tears dripped down her face for the action, one that she had sworn she'd never have to take with any student. "I'm sorry, Roberto, but this is the only way I can think of to save you."

Death screamed in pain, a sound that had Storm wincing in sympathy, but she kept her concentration. She then added a torrential downpour to the electricity hoping beyond hope that she would be able to smother the flames that now continually surrounded the Horseman.

Unfortunately for Storm, Death was playing her like a well-oiled fiddle. In one swift move, he dove for the ground, out of range of the weather-witch's attacks and, turning sharply flew upwards, smirking at the shock and fear that flashed across her face. She tried to manipulate the wind currents so that she could escape but Death was too quick for her; in fact, he read her movements. He rammed his shoulder into her back, relishing in the shriek of pain that he heard.

Storm couldn't believe the amount of pain that she was feeling; had Roberto always been this powerful? Had she just never noticed beforehand? Storm's powers suddenly gave out on her, and as she fell towards the ground she wondered if she would crash, or even, miracle of miracles, regain even a modicum of control over her wind manipulation powers to make a difference. She closed her eyes in anticipation of a crash, but felt something catch her.

Death frowned. Damn, but if his fun hadn't been snatched from him just like that! The wench's head hadn't even broken open; such a waste! And really, who in the hell wore their hair like that anymore? The man looked like a fashion reject!

"'Ro!" Wolverine exclaimed as he ran and pushed off the ground, surprising many with his willingness to do such a thing. Legion's barrier split as the man leapt through and then closed once he was back inside. The Wolverine caught the weather-witch in his arms, bracing himself for a rough landing, his adamantium skeleton making up for the sudden jarring that he felt as he came into contact with the steel floor. Looking at the injured woman, Wolverine felt anger beyond anything he had felt before, even when he'd been with Yuriko all those years ago. A hand reached out and fingered a strand of white hair gently (thankfully, it was hidden from prying eyes, except for Lexie, who smirked knowingly) and proceeded to glare at the Sunspot, who was alternately scowling and celebrating in the air at his defeat of the weather witch.

"Monsieur Wolverine?" asked an accented voice and the adamantium-laced mutant turned around and acknowledged Gambit, whose red-on-black eyes were looking at him oddly. "Est-ce que vous voulez que j'aide Stormy?"

Wolverine paused for a moment before curtly nodding, not saying anything verbal in reply. Gambit removed a glove and placed his hand on the back of Storm's neck, a light red energy surrounding the area. Almost instantaneously Death's wound healed and her eyes fluttered open, a weak smile sent as thanks to both men for their aid in rescuing her.

"Chuck?" Wolverine growled turning to face the physically-handicapped man after helping place the newly-healed weather witch on her feet. Wolverine deftly ignored the smells and feelings of fear and betrayal emanating from X-Factor, telling himself that it'd do no good to have himself distracted; not when there was a homicidal mutant floating feet above them.

Xavier glanced over at the instructor, his gaze calm and belaying the certainty that shone in his charcoal orbs, the reassurance that Sunspot would be rescued. Wolverine smirked in reply.

After a moment, Xavier moved to the front of the pack of mutants, yet took care to remain behind Legion and Pyro's protective barrier. Magneto was right behind him, his helmet under his arm, ready to be placed on his head at a moment's notice. Cyclops stepped right behind his mentor, nodding briefly at his former enemy. The show of support was to advise the rest of the mutants that teamwork was going to be absolutely necessary to rescue the mind-controlled mutant. Death darkly chuckled at the sight.

"Roberto, I know that you are still somewhere in there. If you hear me show me that you know I'm talking to you," Xavier said, eyes calmly taking in the sight of his student playing, once again, with a ball of fire. Upon getting no response, Xavier sighed. "I'm sorry to do this, Roberto, but you have left me no choice."

The most powerful telepath in the world prepared to dive into Sunspot's mind, his hands in their customary position on his temples. However, the gathering of mutants leapt in fear and shock when after a moment a heart-wrenching scream emanated from the telepath, his black eyes automatically closing in response to the intense mental pain he was under.

"Charles!" Magneto cried and, ignoring the risk to himself placed his helmet on the telepath's head, cursing when the scream only lessened; it didn't stop. "Why isn't it working?"

Mastermind stepped up beside his employer and, at one time, friend and remarked quietly, "Charles doesn't have magnetic capabilities. Your powers, plus the properties of the helmet were what made it impossible for him to use his telepathic powers on you in the past. All we can hope for now is that the properties of the helmet block some of the damage from which the Professor is suffering." Magneto's eyes clouded over in anger but Mastermind, sensing what the former arch-villain of the X-Men wished to do placed a hand on Erik's shoulder, halting any rash movements from the man.

"We must think logically in a time like this, in order to prevent anything untoward from happening." Mastermind nodded towards Legion, whose attention was obviously split between his father and the maintenance of the psychic barrier; Pyro had no such qualms, though his eyes were snapping furiously, with his flames reacting in kind.

Magneto took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, garnering an amused look from Mastermind. "Very well. I'll help Charles as best I can, but we must have a contingency plan to free him." A casual wave towards the Horseman of Death was laced with anger and, to an eagle-eye, fear. Fear that he may never get the full opportunity to truly apologize to his long-time friend for over two decades' worth of trouble and misery, and fear that he wouldn't live to fully mend ties with his estranged children.

"Legion, we need your help," Mastermind quietly stated waving a hand in the Horseman's direction, eyes dimly glowing. 'Hopefully, Death will believe that the barrier is still up; Pyro seems determined to protect us, so that helps.'

Legion curtly nodded before exchanging a look with Pyro, silently giving him control of the barrier before dropping his addition. Running over to his father, Legion kneeled and placed his hands on Xavier's temple, eyes closing in concentration. Sweat soon began to show on the younger man's face, alarming Magneto and Mastermind; Cyclops had been beckoned back to his team to attempt to concoct a plan to save Roberto da Costa.

"Well?"

"Quiet!" Legion snapped opening an eye enough to glare at the Master of Magnetism. "Ay need quiet."

"Good luck with that," Mastermind snorted sarcasm dripping.

Meanwhile, the mutant teams had simultaneously decided that the only way of retrieving Roberto was going to be physically injuring him. Therefore, Cyclops and the Phoenix launched a double attack, only to duck when a stream of white fire was shot in retaliation. Both managed to survive that attack, only to fall under Death's formidable combination of martial arts moves, ones that they both recognized. However, the realization that the moves were ones practiced by the Wolverine during his morning katas on the front lawn of the mansion came too late; the two powerful mutants were downed with a few hits.

"Now!" A slew of aerial attacks were launched at Death from ArchAngel, Psylocke (by use of her telekinetic abilities), Avalanche and Shadowcat, yet the four could only watch in dismay as Death neatly dodged each of them, madly cackling as he did so. Ground support from the Scarlet Witch, Rogue and Gambit were reflected back at their creators, causing them to roll away, furthering the distance between them and Death while making their target that much harder to hit.

"Is this all you have?" Death sneered, laughing as he flew quickly towards the four aerial mutants and, avoiding a grip from Avalanche managed to get his hands on Shadowcat's wings. Smirking, he ignored the howl of anger from Avalanche and proceeded to spin Shadowcat around and around, the smirk widening at the slightly paler skin tone that appeared on the gargoyle-like creature. Finally deciding that he'd had enough of that, he let go of Shadowcat and watched in satisfaction as she flew towards Avalanche, who managed to catch her… yet, due to the sudden weight fell from the sky, his wings only doing so much to soften a landing.

Death then turned his attention to the other two aerial mutants, eyes narrowing. ArchAngel's eyes narrowed in return and for a moment, it seemed as if a testosterone fight was taking place in mid-air, the stunned silence only interrupted by the sound of the metal-winged mutant's feathers hitting each other. Psylocke, rolling her eyes at the immaturity displayed in front of her had an idea and, without notifying ArchAngel silently slipped into her own shadow. As the purple-haired telepath traveled through the shadows, a handful of dark purple psychic knives took shape, ready to pierce their target.

"Fool!" Death hissed as he broke eye contact with the blue-skinned, metal-winged freak. Glancing around, he smirked when he sensed a disturbance. Creating a dark black fireball, he turned around and rammed the attack into the small shadow hole that had just appeared. A scream emanated out of it, scaring ArchAngel out of his mind.

"Did you really think that you could outsmart a Horseman?" Death mocked pulling his arm back from the hole, dragging Psylocke, whose right shoulder now sported a rather deep cut. Drips of blood fell towards the ground, the dark red spooking other mutants below who were spellbound by what was occurring above them.

"Betsy!" ArchAngel called out eyes widening. Death smirked as he created another, smaller ball of fire and launched it at the metal-winged angel, who dodged it with ease, his expression bordering on murderous. "Let her go now!"

Death's smirk widened. "If you insist." With that, he flung the injured Psylocke away from him and she began a downwards plummet, her friends below crying out in alarm.

"No!" ArchAngel shot a stream of poisonous metal feathers at Death before going into a suicidal-type nosedive, arms at his side. Death dodged the attack, cursing when a thin stream of dark poison managed to touch his hand briefly. Luckily for him, the poison burned up quickly.

"You shall pay," Death muttered as he placed his hands together much as Meltdown did to form her larger "cherry bombs" (… not that Death had any memory of this) and drew them apart slowly, a ball of dark fire appearing. Taking aim, he bounced the ball into the air and launched it towards ArchAngel with his foot, forcibly reminding X-Factor of their teammate's adoration of soccer.

ArchAngel's scream of pain was milk and honey to Death, who cackled madly. His attack had hit the winged mutant between the shoulder blades, singing the back of his neck. Skin burning, ArchAngel did his best to focus his attention on the falling Psylocke, whose eyes were open and panicked. He sensed that she was attempting to telekinetically catch herself to slow her fall, but her powers were failing her.

"Take my hand!" ArchAngel exclaimed reaching out a uniform-clad arm and Psylocke just managed to grab it before she faded into unconsciousness. Pulling her into his arms, ArchAngel curled his body around his fiancée and managed to do a bastardized version of a tuck-and-roll, a tactic that Xavier had taught him a few years ago when he'd asked for some help in his training. His arm and left knee hit the steel floor harshly, causing him to cry out in pain.

'At least Betsy's okay,' ArchAngel thought as he looked at the woman that he considered one of, if not the most, beautiful in the world. ArchAngel struggled to get to his feet but hissed in pain when he realized that he had somehow banged up his left knee so badly that he couldn't put any weight on the leg. Cursing his luck, he looked around him, searching for help yet the only person he saw heading his way was Healer, with Vine on his heels.

'The healing-brat… hmm. I think that I need to deal with him quickly…'

Death tossed a slew of fireballs towards Healer, who managed to dodge a few before uncharacteristically stumbling. The next fireball hit his side, eliciting a hiss of pain. Healer tried to catch his balance but Death, sick of staying in the air, did an abrupt dive to the ground and slammed a fist into Healer's back. Vine, who'd skidded to a stop at Death's appearance attempted to launch an attack in retaliation for his friend but was forced back by a heat wave.

"No one will be healed now." Healer fell forward, a large burn mark signifying where he'd been hit in the center of his back. Death then turned his attention to ArchAngel, who was still struggling to get to his feet. Snorting, Death aimed another fireball at the mutant and grinned when the winged freak fell to his knees once more, the woman in his arms. As ArchAngel collapsed, Death could hear his Master's modest applause; his ego grew.

Death sensed another attack coming and did a backflip to launch himself in the air, dodging the stream of dark red energy that was sent his way. Cyclops had staggered back to his feet after being dealt the series of martial arts moves; he had the bruises on his face to prove it. He sent stream after stream of optic energy at the Horseman, who nimbly dodged every one. Irritated, Cyclops made a decision, one that he knew he rarely chose to do. Wincing, he took of his visor and, opening his eyes unleashed the full extent of his powers at the Horseman. Death cursed as he was hit head-on, having not anticipated such a strong attack; so strong, in fact, that he was pushed back a few feet in mid-air.

Cheers rose up from the other mutants, many thinking that the battle had been won. Cyclops closed his eyes after a moment, streams of faint energy still escaping his eyelids; of course, this move, while necessary for Cyclops wasn't for the Horseman. Death had taken the time to form a barrier of sorts around his fists, diving into the vortex of optic energy. Cyclops' vision had been filled with red – literally – and so he hadn't seen the move; Phoenix, however, had.

"Scott!" Phoenix called out the sleeve of her arm torn at the shoulder and the arm itself covered in black-and-blue bruises; her other arm was cradled against her chest. "Look out!"

"What?" Cyclops questioned a hand covering his eyes. The rest of his question was cut off when the Horseman slammed into the leader of the X-Men, sending him flying ten feet into the air only to land on the steel floor with a loud 'bang'. Moira, who was nearby watching the events unfold with fear ran over and checked his pulse, nodding slightly at Phoenix, reassuring her that her husband was alive. Unfortunately, he was unconscious.

"You will pay." Phoenix got to her feet and, despite the pain in her injured arm called up reserves of psychic energy, hoping to make a dent in the Horseman's defense. Unfortunately, Death's pseudo-fire barrier managed to repel the majority of the attack, leaving it to hit its creator with the force of a freight train. Phoenix let out a cry as she was flung backwards as well, another crack emanating from her body, this time from the opposite arm. The Blob caught the flying woman and, at Moira's signal laid her down gently next to Cyclops. Two of the more powerful X-Men leaders were down for the count… now what?

Death was pleased. Things were going his way; now, who was his next target going to be? Ah… there.

Gambit and Rogue were dodging Death's fire attacks, having witnessed how dangerous they were and, really, it was only prudent to try avoiding getting hit by them. Burns of any degree weren't fun!

"Merde!" Gambit's curse became a favorite word of the moment, as it was repeated multiple times. Dodging a fireball, Gambit flung a handful of playing cards at the Horseman, a sharp magenta glow surrounding them. Rogue, meanwhile, was having an easier time than her partner as, thanks to some of her new powers she was able to reflect the attacks back at their creator, similar to what Legion had been doing earlier.

"How's he doin'?" she yelled at the quartet of men and at Mastermind's subtle nod she cursed. 'Damn it, tha Professeh's still out of it!'

"Chère, dis ain't workin'," Remy commented drawing a dry laugh out of the Mississippi native. She sent a tunnel of wind at Death, who mocked the move by creating a funnel of flames in return. What he didn't expect was Gambit to send a stream of kinetically-charged water at the Horseman, who cursed when he felt some of the liquid from the attack hit his shoulder. Steam instantly rose from the contact.

Death arched an eyebrow and chuckled darkly, impressed that a ground attack had had the power and stamina to reach him far up in the air. Deciding to retaliate swiftly and with the power to equal those he considered somewhat worthy the Horseman created a large array of different-sized fireballs, each burning with varying degrees of strength. Taking aim, he shot them at the southern couple at once, a mad grin working its way on his face.

Gambit and Rogue started when they saw the attack coming, but one look at each other told them what they needed to know. They waited for the exact time and when it came they both ducked, allowing a wave of bright orange flames to shoot over their heads and engulf the Horseman's attack.

"Merci, Johnny," Gambit commented reaching inside his trench coat for another deck of playing cards. Pyro, who'd long given up on the barrier as the bloody Horseman was focused on taking out individuals instead of large groups of people shrugged.

"'s okay, Rems. Oy was gettin' bored anyhow."

Death frowned; he hadn't been expecting the man with orange hair to block his attack but as he ran through his mind for strategies he found one that suited his tastes. Flying higher in the air, Death put his hands together and drew them apart in quick, slashing movements, creating a series of curved, scimitar-like fire blades. Then, slashing his arm once more, Death sent a solar ray at the blades, fusing them together into a rather large hurricane that spun towards the three ground-bound mutants, licks of flame moving around the outside of the behemoth.

"Pathetic," Pyro crowed lighting his hands with bright white fireballs, the intensity causing Gambit and Rogue to step back a few inches. Evidently, Pyro felt the need to fight fire with fire… literally. At a subtle signal, many of the other mutants stepped backwards as well, afraid that they were going to be negatively affected by the eminent firefight.

Pyro smirked before sending his own fire attack upwards, the flames switching between various hues of white and blue, indicating just how burning hot they really were. What Pyro didn't see, however, was the smirk on Death's face. If he had seen said smirk, perhaps Pyro would have been wiser; alas, he did not see the change in facial expression.

The Horseman prided himself on thinking at least two steps ahead of the fire-wielding, quite insane man below, and to prove his worth to his Lord and Master – who was watching the entire performance, bemused – he charged directly into his own attack.

As Death sped through his hurricane, he encountered the defensive move sent by his opponent and, although he felt some miniscule burns on his face from the attack the Horseman made it through the unprecedented path and immersed himself in pleasantries as to the praise that his Lord and Master would heap on him on a job well done.

What Death didn't count on was that Pyro was not stupid; far from it. He was actually quite intelligent, and like any space-conscious human being Pyro had noted that the flames were getting bigger while simultaneously growing hotter. Then, figuring out what the Horseman must be doing his smirk dropped and he silently cursed. 'Just my bloody luck.'

'Guess this is as good a time as any to test out the new powers.' A very serious look moved onto Pyro's face as he drew his hands together, bringing his flames into a more focused field. Concentrating, he separated part of the flames, spinning said fire around him in a fast-moving, rotating circle.

Just as Death's visage appeared in the flames, Pyro smirked and with a flash disappeared. Those who had known Pyro before were left speechless; Gambit and Rogue smirked and began launching attacks at the Horseman, who was now close enough to the ground that other mutants began attacking him as well.

Death was not happy. He grunted from the brunt of the attacks and, as he had done previously launched himself into a set of back flips with the eventual goal of regaining his advantage in the air; of course, the ability to dodge other attacks was nice too.

However, just as Death was going to launch himself into the air a pair of armored boots hit him in the back of his head, allowing him to end up face-to-face with the steel floor.

"Nice one!" Blob hollered cheering like many of the mutants, most of whom were ecstatic to think that the Horseman was finally down for the count. Pyro preened a bit; Rogue frowned.

"Pyro –" Rogue began but was stonewalled when the Horseman's hand came up and grabbed the flame-manipulator by his ankle, yanking hard. She moved to help her fellow deity but Gambit's hand on her shoulder arrested her movement.

"Not hard enough," Death drawled eyes narrowing. Rather than give up, Pyro proceeded to shoot a ball of flames at the Horseman's face head-on, but frowned when nothing happened. The Horseman burst into laughter. He then threw Pyro into the air a few feet and, launching himself into the air grabbed his arms and wrenched them behind the Australian's back, ignoring the intake of pain he heard.

"What fools these mortals be," the Horseman mocked, shaking his head sadly. He was obviously upset at the turn of luck, what with his ability to turn the tables so that he was now in charge. If Pyro had ended up higher up in the air, the attack might have worked. Too bad for him, though, that he didn't take the time or energy to plan that far ahead. Oh well; more's the pity for him.

"Nice try, mortal," Death sneered, reveling in the pained, soft hiss that he heard from his prey. He moved the arms backwards even more, smirking when a yelp of pain fell on his ears like a soft melody. "I'm bored of you." With that, the Horseman spun his prey around in a circle once before launching himself towards the ground; Pyro, too in pain from the strict hold the Horseman had had on his arms was unable to do anything. When he landed, the crash was so loud that it caused Legion to glance up briefly from his attempts to help his father back to the present reality, a worried look flitting across his face before fading back into seriousness.

The Scarlet Witch, who'd been watching the fight with bated breath, realized that she could no longer stand on the sidelines… not that she had wished to in the first place. It had been decided earlier that she'd be on back-up, and now she was most definitely needed.

Running over to the fallen body of her boyfriend, she placed her fingers on his neck and breathed a bit more easily at finding his pulse. Then, glaring at the smirking Horseman she got to her feet and began chanting a short spell, eyes glowing silver.

"Eat dust, Sunspot!" the woman screamed, a rather large ball of magical energy on course for Death, set to the Horseman's heat signal (a nifty trick that Agatha Harkess had showed her previous to her mentor's unexpected death two years previous). As the attack moved towards the Horseman, said male instantly sensed the hidden trap in it and frowned.

'Damn her. That throws a wrench into my plans. Then again…'

The Horseman smirked and, taking stock of his current condition proceeded to charge directly towards the attack, ignoring the surprised shouts of alarm from below, those watching wondering just what was going through the Horseman's mind.

The Scarlet Witch watched in amazement, not sure what was going on… but when she realized what he was doing cursed. Death was flying toward her attack so that he could move around it and lead it straight towards her, pulling up at the last second. That was such an amateur move; easily recognized by someone who had extensively studied various attack formations for years.

"Your plan won't work!" the Scarlet Witch screamed, and, concentrating, chanted another spell, this one in a different language than the first and much longer. Her right arm spun into an arc in the air, followed by her left arm, leading to the creation of two silver threads. Snapping her fingers, the threads began to move to surround her, creating a net of protection. As an added bonus, the Witch knew that if she was to widen the range of the net, she could easily transport people with her… for a price, of course. Nothing came for free anymore.

As the Scarlet Witch let out a deep breath, she chanted yet another spell, this one harsh and guttural. She then vanished in a flash of silver light, causing Death's movement to slightly stall. Unfortunately, the Scarlet Witch ended up in the air a few feet behind Death, the mispronunciation of one syllable not doing anything good for her. She was aware of none of this, however, as she was coming off the slight magical high caused by her using the mystical net.

"Wanda! Look out!" Shot screamed alerting her fellow Brotherhood members to the Witch's plight. Before they could eve n begin to try to save their fellow member, however, Death spun around and flew towards the Witch, the acceleration that he used forcing the Scarlet Witch forward, her balance and concentration lost. However, before the Witch began to fall the movement was halted by Death grabbing the collar of her jacket, a wide smirk covering his face.

"What a witch you are, my pretty. Shall I have some fun with you?" Death leered eyes staying unnervingly open. The Scarlet Witch glared at him and spit in his face, causing a hiss to sound from the Horseman.

"Bitch. You shall pay for that offense." Death frowned and, after thinking for a millisecond grinned. The grin did nothing to sooth the Scarlet Witch's nerves, which were starting to become even more frayed. Out of desperation, she threw an extremely potent hex at the Horseman, only to gape as he tossed it aside as if it was a fly. Just at that moment, Death smirked eerily, causing goosebumps to race up her skin.

"Enjoy your new hell, mi'lady." Death threw the Scarlet Witch behind him, grinning at the screams that met his ears. Death hadn't forgotten the spell that had been sent his way and, deciding to make the bitch suffer the same fate that she would have allowed him he had done the only logical thing available to him at the time. He'd thrown the sorceress into her own spell, grinning when the paralysis spell took effect, knocking her unconscious to boot. As the black-haired woman began her descent to the ground, Gambit sprinted towards her and, copying what Wolverine had previously done jumped and managed to catch the Witch's limp body. Every bit the thief with cat-like reflexes, Gambit managed to land on his feet.

Just as he moved to put the Scarlet Witch on the ground, Gambit heard Rogue yell out a warning about the Horseman. However, before he could even turn around Gambit felt what he believed to be flames licking the back of his neck. He hissed in pain as he felt a rock-solid punch connect between his neck and spine, and the crack of a vertebra told him that this was not good news. The smell of burnt skin didn't do wonders for him either.

Gambit fell forward to his knees and, eyes rolling back into his head fell forward, unconsciously shifting his body so that he landed beside the Scarlet Witch and not on top of her. Rogue's muffled scream of horror was the last thing that Gambit heard before his consciousness faded.

The Southern Belle was pissed. She had just watched this, this monster take out almost ten mutants single-handedly and wasn't even tired. There should be something there indicating exhaustion, yet there was nothing. It was as if he had just entered the fight… could there be something more than meets the eye?

'Focus on tha' later, sugah. Right now, Remy needs yah.' Rogue's focus became single-minded as she landed on the ground and, ripping off her gloves with her teeth placed then where the Horseman had hit him and started to heal him. However, Rogue forgot to look around her surroundings for danger as she usually did, her emotions taking over what was normally a routine modus operandi for her. Therefore, she never sensed the hit that came her way, aimed at her shoulder.

As the cross-chop made contact, pain flooded Rogue's senses, overloading her mind and pushing her to struggle that much harder to finish healing Gambit so that she would have an ally on her side.

"You'll never succeed," Death promised as he sent a stream of black flames at Rogue, who turned around and shot optic beams out of her eyes, drawing upon her memories of Cyclops' powers. Death, not expecting this at all hissed as the attack hit him, but soon recovered, scaring Rogue even more with his uncharted perseverance.

"Such spirit… we could have fun," Death mused smirk widening on his face. "However, the Master would be displeased with me for taking his fun away… so you'll have to accompany me later to his Throne Room." The Horseman then proceeded to fling yet another wave of black flames at Rogue, this time successfully hitting his target. The volcanic heat overwhelmed an already mentally exhausted Rogue; as she fell into the void, she thought that she felt Gambit stirring beneath her, but when no further movement was felt, she concluded that it had been her imagination.

As the Horseman moved to claim his prize, a torrent of flame-tipped bone spears landed between him and the unconscious Southern couple.

"Morlocks, watch your backs, and attack!" Spyke commanded, drawing the small group of Morlocks around him. Callisto's one present eye narrowed in thought as she calculated the best form of attack, all the while sending a handful of poison-lanced daggers towards the Horseman, intermixed with Spyke's bone spears.

"Wretches!" Death hissed eyes darkening. Ignoring the oncoming onslaught of the blue-furred doctor and the mechanical genius, Death took to the air once again, not even noticing the 'crash' that signaled the collision of Beast and Forge, both of whom had been unable to stop in time. The collision had the other mutants wincing in sympathy.

"Shit!" Spyke exclaimed when the Horseman caught one of his spears and snapped it in half, as if it hadn't even existed. Exhaling, Spyke tried to come up with a viable plan, but was thrown off task when the Horseman wheeled towards him, spinning as he flew and creating, in essence, a human flame of sorts, its target the gathering of sewer-dwellers.

Spyke threw up a bone shield, hoping that it would be enough to protect his friends and himself; Callisto took the time to finger a poisoned dagger and leap over the barricade, the sharp point glinting in the harsh fluorescent light provided in the room. The Horseman, unfortunately, saw this attack coming from a mile away and, reacting quickly grabbed the woman's ankle. Callisto faltered, her moment um and power thrown off balance as the pain from the Horseman's touch burned through her clothing.

"Showtime." Death proceeded to spin the eye-patched woman around him, moving at extremely quick speeds. Once he deemed her sufficiently confused, he proceeded to let go, the momentum causing Callisto to go flying towards the Morlocks. Lucid and Façade were lucky to catch the woman, but the force at which she'd been flung caused them to falter and tumble to the ground, the pain too much for the normally unflappable Callisto to handle. To her, it felt like she was burning alive, what with her smoldering ankle and the other burnt areas where the Horseman had dared to touch her while he spun her.

Leech, sensing that he was one of the few fighters amongst the Morlocks left stepped forward and, closing his eyes held out his hands and tried to find that spark that represented a mutant's power. Ignoring the majority of the sparks he saw in his mind's eye, he found one that was tainted a dark black, its normal orange and white turning into shadows of their once bright selves.

However, nothing was working, and despite numerous attempts Leech found to his horror that his powers were unresponsive. Unbeknownst to him, Apocalypse remembered his earlier defeat well, and as a result had installed inhibitors against Leech's powers in all of his Horseman; just in case.

"Something's blocking me!" Leech yelled, eyes flashing open in panic. Spyke cursed turning his anger onto the once-more smirking Horseman.

Artie – who as of yet had no codename – stepped forward and, eyes narrowing spit a torrent of dark purple venom at the Horseman, smirking with his forked tongue slightly protruding as the target was hit. The Horseman hissed in pain and, spinning around narrowed his eyes.

Artie's reptilian eyes widened as a fire hurricane was sent his way and he leapt to the side, narrowly missing being burned to death. However, he wasn't so lucky the next time. Death launched a wave of fire at the two young Morlocks, smirking when his target was dead-on. Leech and Artie screamed, the smell of burning skin making Torpid cringe in fear.

As the two young mutants collapsed, unconscious, Spyke's anger grew. He stepped forward and, readying an arm full of his signature bone spikes launched them at the Horseman. Death caught a handful of them and wiggled them back and forth in front of an irate Morlock. As he opened his mouth to mock the other mutant Spyke suddenly smirked and snapped his fingers. The spikes glowed bright red before exploding in the Horseman's face, causing him to scream in pain.

"Score for the Spyke-man!" Spyke crowed, pumping his fist in the air in victory. He didn't see the Horseman emerging through the smoke, scowl firmly in place. The wounds on his face were healing as he moved, black blood drying on his face. Spyke's eyes widened as he finally caught sight of the Horseman flying his way. He moved to procure a bone spike for defense but the Horseman reached him first, head-butting him in the stomach in the process.

Spyke coughed up some blood, eyes going wide in disbelief. The spiked-Morlock fell to his knees, arms moving to cradle his burned stomach. After a few seconds, Spyke fell to the ground, eyes closing in pain. Storm's anguished yell cut through the chaos that erupted amongst the remaining mutants, all of them totally shocked that one mutant had done that much damage without any help from anyone.

Torpid, backing up slowly realized that she and Caliban were the only mutants left. However, gathering her courage she slowly moved towards the Horseman, who was gloating over his latest defeat. As Torpid drew off her glove, the Horseman suddenly spun around and grabbed her arm, catching her off guard.

"Think you can sneak up on me, you little whore?" Death snarled and, switching his hand grabbed the front of her shirt and threw her towards a wall. Luckily for Torpid, Caliban intercepted her, grunting as he adjusted his balance to accommodate the sudden increase in weight. Torpid shot him a weak smile before wiggling out of his arms, running towards her fallen comrades; Caliban followed resignedly.

As the Horseman turned his attention to the rest of the gathered mutants, the two conscious Morlocks began to gently move the fallen fighters somewhere safe.

"Alright then," Death said dusting his hands absently. "Who's next?"