His several-story-tall body seemed clumsy and awkward in this strange, surreal space.
No matter how hard he charged, and no matter how terrifying the energy blasts he unleashed, the surrounding space kept shattering, reassembling, and folding in on itself, like a kaleidoscope.
He would charge straight ahead, only to find himself plummeting downward the next second.
He would throw a punch at the bald woman in yellow robes, only to realize the blow came from behind his own back.
"What kind of sorcery is this?!"
Apocalypse was furious.
As a self-proclaimed god of mutants, he was accustomed to crushing everything with sheer power or controlling slaves with his psychic abilities.
But the bald woman in the yellow robes was as slippery as an eel, and her methods were bizarre and unpredictable.
"It is magic, En Sabah Nur."
The Ancient One stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her feet planted on a glass wall that was perpendicular to the ground, her expression as calm as still water.
"Your power is immense, but in the face of universal rules, it is still rather crude."
"Silence, witch!"
Apocalypse roared, firing two thick beams of energy from his eyes.
"Break open!"
He attempted to use pure power to overload and burst the surrounding space.
However, the Ancient One merely rotated her wrist slightly.
CRACK!
The entire space rotated ninety degrees like a Rubik's Cube.
The energy beams Apocalypse fired slammed straight into a folded spatial wrinkle, and then...
BOOM!
They shot out from directly above his own head, striking him squarely on his crown!
"Awww—!"
Apocalypse staggered, hit by his own blast. His massive body tumbled onto the folded buildings, crushing countless panes of glass.
"I hate magic!!!"
Apocalypse covered his smoking head, letting out a roar of utter humiliation.
"Then you are correct."
The Ancient One watched the raging, impotent Apocalypse. A flicker of exhaustion crossed her eyes, but her voice remained serene.
"As long as you hate it, and as long as you fail to understand it..."
"I can keep you trapped here and stop you from helping that creature outside."
With that, the Ancient One formed a complex hand seal.
HUM!
Countless golden lines of mystic energy crisscrossed in the air, forming a huge, intricate geometric cage that layered around Apocalypse, trapping him.
After confirming that Apocalypse couldn't immediately break free, the Ancient One swiped her hands.
ZZZAP—!
A sparking, circular portal to the real world opened before her.
Without looking back at the still-roaring blue giant, she stepped through.
The Real World.
At the ravaged Madison Square Garden, Tony Stark was completely overwhelmed by Magneto's metal storm.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.! Calculate the trajectory! Find a gap for me to punch through!"
"Sir, the metal density is too high. I cannot calculate an effective path. Suggest engaging Brute Force Ramming Mode."
"Then ram it! Ram that old, helmeted bastard to death!"
Tony was about to increase the thruster power when suddenly—
Directly in front of his silver armor, a golden, sparking circle appeared out of nowhere.
Through the circle, Tony was stunned to see that the person on the other side was none other than Magneto, who was standing right in front of him, back turned, arrogantly attempting to brainwash Professor X!
The distance was so close that Tony could even make out the embarrassing seam lines on the back of Magneto's spandex suit.
And on the other side of the portal, the Ancient One and Wong stood there, nodding to Tony.
"Now, Stark," the Ancient One's voice came through.
Tony paused for one hundredth of a second, then his face lit up with elation.
"Ha! Now that's what I call service!"
"Thanks, Sorcerers!"
Tony didn't hesitate. The thrusters of the Anti-Frieza Armor instantly erupted in a blast of blue exhaust.
BOOM!
The massive steel fist, wrapped in the invulnerability of Vibranium and carrying the entirety of Tony's pent-up frustration, shot through the portal!
"Hey, old man, can your magnetic field stop my rage?!"
Tony's eyes were bloodshot. On the display inside his faceplate, all the data was spiking into the red.
Closer!
Ten feet!
Five feet!
Magneto's completely undefended back was right there.
Tony had already pre-set the trajectory for his pulse cannons. One hit, and he could blast this turncoat old bastard into dust!
However...
The very instant the giant steel fist was about to touch Magneto's cape—
WHOOMP—!
Without any warning, Tony felt as if a red-hot poker had been brutally jammed into his brain!
"Urgh—!!!"
The scream was cut short before it could fully escape his throat.
The high-speed charging armor froze mid-air, an incredibly jarring sight, like a scene paused on a screen.
The thrusters hadn't failed.
J.A.R.V.I.S. hadn't crashed.
His body was simply not obeying his commands!
"What's going on... my hands... my legs..."
Tony realized, horrified, that no matter how frantically his brain sent orders, he couldn't even twitch his fingers a single millimeter.
Even his mouth was forcibly held shut by some invisible force, leaving him only able to make muffled "oooh-ooh" sounds.
Then, Magneto slowly turned around.
His aged face held no surprise, only a chilling, mocking look.
"That was close, Stark."
Magneto reached out a hand, and the surrounding scrap metal instantly darted forward like living snakes.
They completely wrapped around the Anti-Frieza Armor, which was rigid in mid-air, encasing it like a mummy.
"If it weren't for an old friend stepping in, you might have actually dismantled me."
An old friend?
Tony's eyes narrowed instantly.
The next second, a familiar yet completely alien gentle voice resonated deep within his mind.
"I'm sorry, Tony."
"Sleep now."
It was Charles! Professor X!
"No! Charles! What are you doing?!"
Tony roared frantically within the cage of his own mind:
"That demon killed Thor! He destroyed Washington! He wiped out Japan! You're helping a monster! Let me go!!!"
"I truly apologize."
Charles's voice was still filled with that trademark, empathetic compassion, but to Tony, it sounded more terrifying than a demon from hell.
"But I have seen that future."
"Resistance means extinction."
"For the future of mutants, and for humanity's last hope, we must make a choice."
As the words faded, an even greater wave of psychic energy surged forward like a tsunami, instantly drowning Tony's consciousness.
The light in Iron Man's eyes went out.
The huge suit of armor dropped its arms limply, hovering silently behind Magneto.
On the other side of the battlefield, the X-Men, who were locked in a fierce battle with the Juggernaut and others, also froze simultaneously.
Wolverine, Logan, had just plunged his Adamantium claws into Juggernaut's stomach when he stopped completely.
"Professor? What the heck are you doing? I can't move!" Logan raged in his mind.
"Logan, Jean, Ororo..."
Charles's voice resonated simultaneously in the mind of every X-Men member.