Beginning of the End

[Magneto]

(A whurring sound is heard as the last tank slowly raises off the ground, the men inside try to get off a shot at the mansion but the tank's gun barrel curls up and twists in a way as to make it no longer safe to fire. The men inside bail out, realizing that this tank is as good as scrap without the main gun.)

Magneto: "Will you people ever learn. Bringing metal to a fight with the Master of Magnetism is a notion even worse than bringing a knife to a gun fight. You should feel lucky that I spared you long enough to escape before turning this abomination into junk."

(Hovering just above the mansion, Magneto moves his hands as the tank raises higher from the ground. Then, he slowly balls his right hand into a fist. His power causes the tank to essentially implode until it is nothing more than a very large ball of steel, he lowers his hands and then tank drops to the ground. He then turns his attention to the jeep and grins. The occupants immediately evacuate the vehicle, leaving it unmanned.)

Magneto: "I believe your team can move out onto the ground now, ECKS. The tanks are all but gone. Only the troops on foot remain. Well, the ones who haven't run away by now."

(Magneto continues to hover there, keeping a bird's eye view of the fight.)

[Magneto]

(With a simple lift of his hands, Magneto removes every metallic weapon, gun or otherwise, from the soldiers. Then he crushes them all, rendering them useless, and drops them back on the soldiers. Making it so ECKS and his team are able to go hand-to-hand rather than fighting against their guns. But he notices that some of them have other weapons that aren't metallic. He sends a transmission back to ECKS.)

Magneto: "You should all be warned, some of these soldiers are armed with weapons I can't control. I'm not sure if they've brought back the cure weapons or if it's something else but I'd be careful if I were you."

(He continues to maintain his place above the mansion as ECKS crashes out the window and starts taking men out.)

[ECKS]

(ECKS takes a second to glance up at Magneto, then over at Nightcat, who is having her own fight. Suddenly a sharp pain in his left leg causes him to drop to one knee, he grunts and looks down to see a large dart in his leg. He quickly uses his claws to knock it off. He grits his teeth as the toxin from the dart works its way through his system, he starts to feel the effects for a few seconds before his healing factor kicks in to start canceling out the unknown toxin. He shakes it off and stands back up to spot the soldier who shot him.)

ECKS: "Good shot, bub. Why not come come a little closer and try that again? I won't bite."

(The soldier recognizes that the drug was useless, drops his weapon, and takes off.)

ECKS: "I don't think that one was the cure, musta been somethin' else. Don't mean they don't have the cure somewhere though. Guess I should be more careful myself."

(Just then a soldier comes up behind him and does some sort of karate kick to the back of his head. The loud of crack of metal meeting bone is heard and ECKS, unaffected by the blow, turns to see the man holding his ankle in pain.)

ECKS: "Big mistake."

(The man cries our but it's to late, ECKS is on him and in a second it's over. More soldiers run in so ECKS lifts the man's body and tosses him into the others, knocking them down.)

ECKS: "Next?"

. . .

[Nightcat]

(Liz continues to run around on the branches of the trees, trying desperately to avoid of the gunfire from the soldiers. She does a flip of one and turns to face the oncoming men. She draws her swords and slashes some of them. When Liz hears more gunfire, she teleports away once again. She hears one of soldiers shout for reinforcements.)

Soldier: BRING THE TEMP! WE NEED TO STOP HER! SMITH WANTS HER ALIVE NOW!

Liz: Temp? Oh great.

(She sheaths the swords and takes off running. She reaches the spot where ECKS has been fighting. This time she doesn't hear the fire. She looks down and sees two small, green needles sticking out of her leg. She yanks them out, but her vision starts to fail. She suddenly screams in pain, looking down and sees her fingers being ripped apart to form normal hands. Liz collapes to the ground, screaming in agony as her tail is retracted back into her spine, her feet are ripped apart to become normal, her ears shrink, her hair grows longer and turns blondish brown, and her eyes change color, from emerald to blue, and pupils emerge. She lays writhing on the ground, a normal human.)

[ECKS]

(Hearing Liz scream, ECKS turns around just in time to witness her transformation.)

ECKS: "NOOO!!"

(ECKS cuts his way through a small crowd of soldiers and scoops up Liz then runs for the front door of the mansion. He stops just short, kicks it open, then rushes in and stops to place her on the couch in the main lobby. He taps his earpiece to report.)

ECKS: "Everyone! Liz is down, we need everyone down here now! I don't think I can hold'em off by myself for much longer. And it's gotten worse, they have cure weapons! Repeat, they have cure weapons. But I have a plan that just might work."

(ECKS rushes back to close the door, then notices that Magneto is already there, closing the door. Sheltering himself from the soldiers. ECKS helps him by blocking the door.)

[Nightcat]

(Liz opens her eyes to see that someone had moved her to the lobby. She looks down at her body to see what had happen and she starts to cry softly. She curls up as best as her new phyiology will allow.)

[Starr]

. . .

Ana: "I thought all the cure weapons were destroyed by Magneto and his team when they assaulted Alcatraz. How did this happen?"

ECKS: "I thought they were, too. Apparantly, someone had a contingency plan. They must've hidden some away somewhere and now Smith managed to find them and is using them against us. But for his plan to work, he has to take you, me, Magneto and Christina the way we are. He won't use the cure on us because he needs our powers. At least, I think that's what he needs."

Ana: What makes you think that?"

ECKS: "One of them shot me, too, right before Liz got shot. But the dart that hit me was a tranquilizer dart, not a 'cure' dart. If he really wanted me out of the way he would've cured me, too."

Ana: "Yeah but how can you be sure? Sure he needs Christina's power for sure, but how can you be sure that he needs ours. He may only need the information he implanted in us."

ECKS: "You know Smith as good as I do, maybe better. Trust me, if he didn't need my powers, he'd have taken them by now."

(Ana silently agrees.)

[Oracle]

(Christina picks up her head, overhearing ECKS. Smith needing her with her powers was a crucial point of her plan, but the tranquilizer darts were something she had to be careful of. All that mattered was to find the soldiers that were armed with the cure weapons.)

(Christina stands by Liz and is overwhelmed by guilt.)

Christina: I'm so sorry about this, Liz. I can't help but think that this is particially my fault. I'm so sorry.

[Nightcat]

(Liz sits up and look at Christina with sad blue eyes. She pushes her long blond-brown hair behind her new ears.)

Liz: Es ist ok. I blame no one. I had ze reflexes und stamina to evade them for hours. I let mein guard down...

(She makes to stand but falls back down on to the couch.)

Liz: I guess I have to relearn how to valk.

[Magneto]

(Magneto starts getting frustrated waiting for everyone else to get ready to make the next move. He steps forward.)

Magneto: "I don't mean to break this obviously sentimental moment but we need to decide what the next move is. They're only minutes away from coming through that door and I'd suggest we do something before that happens."

Magneto: "I believe someone said they had a plan, how about sharing that with the rest of us. After all, you've done such a great job with this so far, why stop now. They are still so many more of us to sacrifice for your cause."

(Magneto crosses his arms and waits for the impending comeback.)

[ECKS]

(With a growl ECKS turns away from Liz, unsheathes his claws and starts toward Magneto.)

ECKS: "You son of a.... Aww, see, now you're just not playin' fair."

(As expected Magneto uses his power to stop ECKS dead in his tracks without even lifting a finger.)

ECKS: "The only plan I got is for the four of us that he needs with powers go out there and take out the guys with cure weapons so that the rest of the team can join in without havin' to worry about a repeat of what happened to Liz. I think Kitty can manage out there to as long as she keeps an eye on when to phase in and out so the darts go right through her. And Christina can use her power to help the rest of us predict where the shooters are and who they're aimed at before they shoot."

(Magneto releases his grip and ECKS retracts his claws and pops his neck.)

ECKS: "Now if you or anyone else here has a better plan I'm more than open for suggestions."

(ECKS waits to see if anyone has anything to add.)

[Oracle]

(Christina's mouth formed a little smile. ECKS's plan would be perfect for her own. She would be able to go and confront the soldiers herself. Everyone would be busy fighting so she wouldn't draw too much attention to herself. As soon as she found any soldier with the cure weapons, she would take it herself. <Smith's plan will go up in smokes. We could be safe, for a while.> Christina lets the smile on her face fade as she faces ECKS.)

Christina: Sounds like a plan to me. Let's just get this thing over and done with.

[Mindcontrol]

(Mindcontrol thinks about ECKS's plan, it could work but if it fails then Smith would have three of the four people he needs and Christina not counting Wolverine and everyone who gets shoot by those weapons will be "cured"{looks at Liz then turns away}. On the other hand if it works this will be over in no time. he decides that its risky but it should work and its not like he himself can come up with anything better)

Mindcontrol:yeah lets do this.

[Nightcat]

(Liz stands somewhat shakely and grips her swords.)

Und vhere do I fit into all of zis. I may not be mutant right now, but I can still fight. Zat ist unless...(She turns to Magneto.) you zink zat I am not fit to fight on your side for I am "vone of zem " now. Or have you lost zat mentality since you vere a human too before you regained your powers?

[ECKS]

(ECKS stands up and gets between Liz and Magneto before he has a chance to answer.)

ECKS: "Wait a minute, this ain't helpin' our cause. Now while I am against you goin' out there like this Liz, I really can't stop you, can I? If you got yer mind set on this then yer gonna do it no matter what I say, I just wanted you to know that even though I admire your courage and don't doubt your abilitry, I am totally against it."

(He looks to the others that will be staying inside.)

ECKS: "If we can't stop'em out there, we'll retreat back in here but we will not let them get past this room. I'll die before I let anyone take over this mansion. And I ain't ready ta die just yet. Let's go, one last time, it's now or never X-Men."

(ECKS walks to the door and gets set to kick it open and face whatever lies behind it.)