Mutant, since the discovery of their existence they have been regarded with fear, suspension, often hatred.

Across the planet debate rages, are mutants the next link in evolutionary chain or simply a new species of humanity, fighting for their share of the world?

By the way, it is a historical fact, sharing the world is never been humanity’s defining attribute.

Professor X

Apocalypse: The Twelve

Crossover Theme: After more than a decade from the first mention of the fabled Twelve, their story is finally told. It turns out that the legend about the Twelve is the grand design of Apocalypse, who started the rumors himself long ago. They are twelve powerful mutants that Apocalypse wants to lure together, as he needs them to ascend to godhood. His plan is to take their powers, combine them and transfer them into his body. After doing so he will be omnipotent, and needing a suitable host body capable of containing this incredible power, Apocalypse decides Nate Grey will do just fine, and he has him captured as the so called Thirteenth. The X-Men end up facing Skrulls, Egyptian cultists, the four Horsemen and Apocalypse himself before the events unfold into the mind-shattering conclusion when one man’s bold sacrifice may turn out in vain.

At Xavier’s mansion, Cyclops is in the danger room thinking about his beginnings with the X-Men and how much they’ve gone through together. However, he wants to leave the X-Men and spend his life with Jean. The next day the Professor calls a meeting with everyone. The analysis on one of Destiny’s diaries has been completed. During his briefing they encounter a mutant Skrull named Fiz who stuck into the mansion. He tells them urgent news of trouble on Earth. The Skrulls have allied themselves with someone powerful. The only thing he knows is that there are twelve mutants that can’t be harmed and that something terrible is going to happen. Destiny’s diary has a listing of the Twelve: Xavier, Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Iceman, Sunfire, Polaris, Cable, Bishop, the newly found Mikhail Rasputin, the Living Monolith and Magneto. Xavier warns the X-Men of the trouble ahead and dismisses them. Scott remains. He addresses his desire to leave, but Xavier tells him he needs him on this one. Scott reluctantly agrees to stay.

Over in Egypt, his cult worshippers revive the Living Monolith. Mr. Sinister is there as well. We learn about his experiment with the Monolith and Alex Summers in the past. Sinister reminds him that he is his to control. The Monolith is enraged and lashes out. Mr. Sinister uses a staff to control him. He is, after all, part of the grand design …

Meanwhile, Caliban and Deathbird had managed to kidnap Cable. He stands as a prisoner in Egypt. Apocalypse is with him and for the first time Cable fears that he may have failed his mission to stop Apocalypse. Apocalypse tells Cable about his past dealings with Sinister and why he infected him with the T.O. virus when he was a baby. He thought he was rid of him when Cyclops sent him to the future, but it’s all right now because Apocalypse has him right where he wants him. Apocalypse tells Cable to prepare for a test and shortly after, the brainwashed Wolverine shows up. They fight; during the battle Cable tries to get through to Logan, but it’s no use. In the end he hooks Wolverine in the shoulder with his psimitar knocking him down into a black pit. Apocalypse comes back and Cable attacks him. It seems Cable has the upper hand, but Apocalypse eventually breaks free and knocks him down. He tells Cable to give up or else Caliban will be killed. From behind we see Wolverine is back and he has his knuckles at Caliban’s throat. Cable has no real choice and gives up. Apocalypse doesn’t understand why Cable would give up; only the strong should survive. Cable tells him all life is valuable. Cable is chained back up and wonders once again if he has failed.

Nate Grey has been enjoying a day with the Fantastic Four. He contacted Reed Richards for help to track down the AoA baddies and also has his power levels tested. Suddenly, he gets an urge to leave and flies away. Shortly after, Caliban pops up through a teleportation disc and attacks him. Caliban, aka Pestilence, slashes with his claws across Nate’s face. He then manages to capture Nate and drag him through the disc.

From the mansion, Xavier enters Magneto‘s dreams and tells him they need to talk. In his citadel on Genosha, Mags wakes up and calls for Cortez. He needs one more hypercharge. They later meet at the Leningrad site and Xavier fills him in on everything he knows about the Twelve. Magneto agrees to help.

At the X-mansion things are back to normal, relatively speaking. Jean tries to locate Iceman because he’s one of the Twelve. She uses Cerebro and locates him. Unfortunately he’s busy battling with Deathbird, the Horseman of War. He loses and they both teleport away. In Japan, Sunfire shares a similar fate. He gets surprise attacked and defeated by Ahab the Horseman of Famine.

In the mansions’s infirmary we find that Mikhail has fully recovered. The Horseman of Death teleports in, right next to him. Wolverine takes out Colossus and then Moira and Mikhail. He’s about to leave with Mikhail when Cyke and Storm show up. Storm uses her wind power to sweep them away from the teleportation disc. She manages to snatch Death but only after he is able to throw Mikhail through the portal. The rest of the X-Men show up in the infirmary. Everyone takes turns trying to take down Wolverine. Even Fiz gets in on the action, but to no avail. Wolvie manages to collapse the room on top of everyone and he makes his escape into the sewer tunnels. The team splits up into two groups. Archangel, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Psylocke and Shadowcat go after Wolverine. The rest head for Egypt to fulfill the Twelve’s destiny.

Psylocke straps herself into Cerebro. She needs to use it to help track down Wolverine. Unfortunately she has the Shadow King locked within her mind and can’t use her powers actively without freeing him. Her telepathy amplified by Cerebro, she contacts the group members in the tunnels below and points them to Logan‘s location. Moving through the tunnels, Death had some past memories (mutant Massacre, Kitty about to wed Caliban) resurface, and the team intercepts him. He disposes of Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Archangel. Jubilee, who doesn’t fight as hard as the others, finally gets through to him with words and reminds Logan of the adventures the shared, allowing Psylocke to enter his mind and fight Apocalypse’s control. Wolverine breaks free and goes back to normal. However, now Archangel has changed. He stands holding his face in his hands and says ".. light it never dies not even in monster”.

Warren’s wings glow with light and he departs looking for something or someone in the city. His wings are oddly glowing. Wolverine is tracking him and follows as Archangel checks out the many hospitals of the city. Finally Archangel’s target becomes clear, he is searching for Abraham Kieros, the original Horseman of War. Psylocke is in telepathic contact with both X-Men, straining badly using Cerebro. From inside her mind the Shadow King gives her an option. If she releases him he will set everything right. She’s about to accept his offer when Archangel enters her mind and stops her. He tells her to disconnect from Cerebro and trust him. She does. Next we see that Archangel has found Abraham who is almost totally paralyzed. Wolverine comes into the room and grabs Warren. He threatens Worthington’s life. Archangel convinces him to sheath his claws. He uses his strange new light power to heal Abraham. Archangel’s wings turn back into feathers and him and Wolverine leave the hospital, knowing that they can overcome the darkness and they really can make a difference in the world.

Waking up, Nate Grey finds himself still in New York City. The whole place is filled with Coldsnap-9, a deadly gas. He finds other strange things too. The city is in shambles, a bunch of superheroes are dead, and he sees his reflection and his face looks like Caliban’s. The entire is a hallucination, caused by pestilence’s disease. Nate finds himself thrown into battles he already fought (Morbius, Gene Nation), and as he tries to help out the other superheroes of his dream, Nate finds that nobody can see him and he can’t touch anyone. Witnessing all the imaginary X-Men getting killed, Nate remembers his telekinesis and focuses with all his might. All of a sudden, Nate remembers what really happened before. Caliban had attacked him. This recollection brings him back to consciousness. He finds himself face to face with Caliban. He’s in some sort of containment field and unable to move. Apocalypse enters the room and Nate is shocked. Apocalypse tells him that he is the most important piece in his grand design.

The other X-Men and Magneto have made it to Egypt. They know where their kidnapped friends are located, but right away they are hit with an earthquake that damages their jets. A large group of Skrulls and cultists come out of nowhere and engage them in battle. All over sudden, Bishop shows up when he is pulled from his time stream by Apocalypse. A lot of the Skrulls change their image to appear like X-Men allies, thus confusing them. Soon nobody knows who is friend or foe anymore, and the remaining members of the Twelve all get captured, either by shapeshifting Skrulls or by the three Horsemen Pestilence, Famine and War. The Twelve are contained in greenish orbs that prevent them from using their powers’. Now that Apocalypse has everyone he needs, the Skrulls and cultists become fiercer with the remaining X-Men above. Apocalypse reveals his plan to the Twelve and is ready to initiate it. He wants to bundle the Twelve’s energies through the Living Monolith and send them into Nate Grey, who shall become his new host body. In his engine, Magneto and Polaris represent opposing magnetic poles, Storm, Iceman and Sunfire are extreme forces of nature, Mikhail and Bishop provide control over space and time, Xavier is the power of mind, and Jean, Scott and Cable represent the unity of family.

Elsewhere in the states we see Cable’s current girlfriend, Stacey Kramer, is worried about him. He has disappeared and she doesn’t know to where. Irene Merryweather, the chronicler of cable’s adventures tells her that this isn’t unusual for Cable’s business and that he will be back soon. Yet she feels that this time it might be different and could have something to do with the end of the world.

In Egypt, the Twelve have been assembled in their null orbs. Cable finds out what’s really going on with Apocalypse. Suddenly, him and Cyclops are transported to the psionic plane. They find themselves in the future, Cable’s Askani future. They start off in a huge graveyard that was designated for the people who died fighting to stop Apocalypse. Nathan tells his father about his past with Aliya and what it was like growing up after him and Jean (Slym and Redd) left to go back to the present. He used to look up at the stars every night and light a candle for them. Cable is worried that he’s failed everyone. Scott tells him it’ s not true. They hug and it starts snowing. It gets real heavy and Scott disappears. Cable finds himself in Alaska where he lived as an infant. He sees a cabin in the distance and heads towards it. Madelyne Pryor is inside and she has Cyclops hovering above her in a stasis field. He finds out she’s responsible for pulling him and Scott to the psionic plane. She knows what’s going on and wants him to stay there with her in safety. He tells her that’s not going to happen. He realizes as long as he’s still alive he has a chance of stopping Apocalypse. She reluctantly sends both of them back to their bodies. They find themselves back in their orbs. Apocalypse is there and tells them the chamber is almost ready for his needs. He will soon rise to power.

The X-Men outside of Apocalypse’s lair are still fighting the Skrulls and cultists in Egypt. They are severely outnumbered. They Skrulls decide to make the mutant Skrulls join the battle. They’re ordered to go after Fiz, “the traitor”. Fiz manages to get through to a telepathic mutant named Zcann. Through her they manage to get all of the mutant Skrulls to switch sides and fight along the X-Men. Now that the tides have turned, Fiz tells the X-Men to go after their friends.

Inside the temple, the transfer process has begun. However, Magneto weakness causes the energy flow to stop, and the process starts reversing. The Living Monolith receives so much energy that he bursts out of his null orb and grows to gigantic proportions. He inadvertently breaks the rest of the Twelve free as he unleashes some of his power. They try to reason with the Monolith, but he is already too consumed. Cyclops, Phoenix, Professor and Cable head out to look for Apocalypse while the rest try to stop the Monolith’s rampage. The Horsemen enter the scene and try to stop them from going after Apocalypse. Mikhail intercepts them and teleports them away along with himself. Nobody can stop the Monolith, so Bishop decides to absorb all of his energies. He succeeds and is sent back from which he came by the temporal energies he absorbs. Meanwhile Magneto discovers that he can tap into earth‘s magnetic field through Polaris and uses this power against the Monolith. The original search party manages to find Nate and Apocalypse. They try to interfere, but Apocalypse is too strong now and easily keeps them all away. Cyke can think of only one thing to do and that’s to knock Nate out of the machine and take his place. The rest of the X-Men, including those not of the Twelve, enter just in time to see the horrifying end result.

Ages of Apocalypse

Crossover Theme: Apocalypse’s plan of bonding to the form of X-Man Nate Grey has failed and he found himself merged with Cyclops instead, so he changes his plans. The draining process couldn’t fully complete and he still needs as much of the Twelve’s energies as he can get. So using his newly received powers, he warps the X-Men’s realities several times in an attempt to get them to use their powers to recharge the machine. It almost works a few times. However, Cyclops is still inside of Apocalypse fighting back at him whenever he can, and Jean is the only one who can sense her husband still alive.

In the first of alternate realities, Apocalypse sends the X-Men back to the past. However, he alters the exact details of the beginnings of the X-Men. We see Jean Grey arriving at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters. She’s greeted by Xavier and his students: Beast, Gambit, Iceman and Storm. Jean has a sinking feeling that something is not right. Later on Cerebro alerts them to a new mutant presence. It turns out that it’s Magneto and Polaris. They’re threatening to take over Cape Citadel. They leave, but not before Magneto threatens their lives. Later, on Asteroid M, Magneto and his Brotherhood discuss their future plans. Sunfire enters and tells Magneto he’s found a new mutant on Earth they should check out.

Back with the X-Men, Cerebro alerts them to another mutant presence nearby. The team heads out to the “Monolith“ circus where Cerebro told them to go. They find Colossus performing a strong man act. While trying to convince him to join the X-Men, Magneto and his Brotherhood show up. Before they can battle, a stranger nearby yells out to Jean. It’s Scott, and he’s being chased by an angry mob. Jean goes over to protect him. They tell each other they love one another. Suddenly, Scott reverts into Cyclopalypse. Everyone attacks him not knowing that by using their powers they are helping to recharge the circuit for Apocalypse’s power transfer. During the melee they realize that this reality isn’t right. They start remembering everything that actually happened; Cyclopalypse disappears from the battle and everything returns to normal. They find themselves back in the chamber of the Twelve. Phoenix tries to convince everyone that Scott is still alive, but Professor X doesn’t believe her. She storms off in anger.

The second reality is based in Cable’s book. Here, Cable is the leader of an opposition group based in Egypt. His enemy, the “Pharaoh”, has conquered many lands and controls almost half the Earth. On this day, Cable defeats a small band of his army. After discussing what their next move should be with his girlfriend Aliya and Professor X, Cannonball, Warpath, M and Synch arrive. They are the scouting party of Cable’s reinforcements. Over the horizon we can see hundreds of people coming to Cable’s cause. Sunfire, Storm and Magneto are leading the army.

They decide they should attack right away. Cable and Aliya scout out the temple where the enemy is located. Cable goes over the attack plan with his lover. He wants to know if she feels like this whole thing isn’t right. Something is bothering him about the situation. She only declares her love for him. Later on, they storm the citadel. Iceman leads the invasion and they manage to distract the enemy forces. A few of them, Cable, Storm, Sunfire, Magneto and Aliya make it to the Pharaoh’s room. It turns out the Living Monolith has been the one wreaking havoc, yet Cyclopalypse has been guiding him the whole time. They knew that Cable and his small group would be coming and set a trap. Once they realize that enemy soldiers are surrounding them, Cable and his friends all attack the Monolith. He proves too powerful and takes them all on. Once again the Twelve are tricked into using their powers. Cable suddenly realizes what’s going on and stops everyone, even though it means sacrificing his true love’s existence. He finds himself back in the chamber of the Twelve, and is crying.

Elsewhen and –where, Wolverine, Spiderman, Ghost Rider and the Hulk are the new Fantastic Four. They try to to keep the Harpy, Banner’s wife, from hurting other people and plan on placing her in the negative zore until they can find a cure for her condition. Annihilus and Blastaar were waiting for them on the other side of the portal, and a battle begins. Spiderman quickly rescues his daughter May, while Wolverine clobbers Blastaar. One of Blastaar's energy blasts hits the Hulk freeing the Harpy in the process. This also causes Banner to loose control over himself and he turns into the Savage Hulk. He smacks Blastaar so hard he is knocked back through the portal. Together the others manage to capture both Annihilus and the Harpy and seal off the negative zone after they have been sent through the portal.

Banner and Parker go off to work on a cure for the Harpy and Wolverine and Ghostrider relax. Ghostrider leaves on his jet bike and is shot down shortly after. Later on, the Fantasti-Flare is fired in the sky above New York and Wolverine responds, making him run from a date with his girlfriend Stacey once again. He arrives back at base and is told that Dr. Doom has assassinated President Robert Kelly and taken over the White House, but Dr. Doom has been dead for years. Suddenly, a group of Doombots smash through the wall. Banner turns into the Grey Hulk and the team defeats them easily. The group heads off to Washington wondering all the while why Ghost Rider hasn’t responded to the flare.

Their plane is shot down and the Fantastic Four battle through an army of Doombots. They end up in the White House and find Ghost Rider tied to a large bomb. Dr. Doom is also there. The Hulk smashes Dr. Doom and Wolverine frees his teammate. The bomb was rigged to the ropes and a countdown begins. The Hulk puts the bomb into orbit. Wolverine takes out Dr. Doom and removes his mask to discover that it is some type of robot. Arnim Zola the Bio-fanatic enters the room. He tells the four about his plan to take over the world. It turns out that the Doom robot is also a bomb. The team escapes, but not before Wolverine cracks Zola's glass face shield so he cannot see. Unable to make his escape he is blown up by his own bomb. Outside the Fantastic Four see that Graydon Creed is being sworn in as the new president. Oh no !

In X-Men Unlimited, the story is set several years in the future. The X-Men are on Earth’s moon fighting a battle against the Shi’ar Empire. The Shi’ar want to take over the Earth. The X-Men take on hundreds of soldiers. After battling for a short while, Apocalypse’s four Horsemen show up to do some damage. Eric the Red is now the new Horseman of Death.

Ahab and Caliban stumble upon the infirmary while Deathbird and Eric attack the standing X-Men. The patients in the infirmary are about to buy the farm when Excalibur shows up. They are able to protect everyone and some of the members leave to help the other X-Men. Eric the Red and Wolverine go toe to toe. Banshee flies up into space and destroys many ships with his sonic scream. He falls unconscious to the ground. Eventually everyone is pushed back into the infirmary area. The enemy surrounds the X-Men and Excalibur.

Out of nowhere Professor X and a horde of Skrulls drop in from space. Xavier attacks Deathbird for killing his love, Lilandra and Wolverine skewers Eric the Red. After Ahab shoots Kitty, Caliban switches sides and attacks him. Deathbird recovers and puts down Caliban’s insurrection. With things looking bleak, Jean with the aid of Mastermind, creates the illusion of the Dark Phoenix returning. It works and all of the Shi’ar flee. Deathbird decides that with two Horsemen out cold they should retreat as well. The X-Men and Excalibur are now alone. Professor Xavier tells them the battle will be long and hard, but they will eventually stop the Shi’ar.

In Apocalypse’s last attempt we find the team now way in the future. We are shown an alien teacher by the name of E’tha going over a brief history of the X-Men with her class. She tells of all the good they’ve done in the universe. The students are distracted by a ship’s arrival. Onboard are Professor X, Storm and Colossus. There’s a big celebration for Professor X’s arrival. We catch up on what everyone’s been doing over the many decades. Even Magneto shows up with his Brotherhood. Unfortunately, the reason Xavier came back is because he’s dying. Storm heads off in search of Jean. She wants her to talk to Xavier before he dies. They haven’t been close since Cyclops sacrificed his life to stop Apocalypse.

One of the denizens of the planet alerts them to a machine that could possibly save Charles’ life. It only requires their mutant energies to activate it. After starting the machine, Cyclopalypse reveals his true self. They have inadvertently energized him. He turns back time to when the whole thing first began attempting to take their entire life energies, yet during the process the circuit explodes. Jean thinks it was Cyclops’ doing, trapped down deep with Apocalypse. However, nobody believes her. Cable attempts to kill Cyclopalypse, but Jean stops him, allowing Cyclopalypse and the Monolith to teleport to safety. She didn’t want Cyclops to be killed.

Back at the mansion, Professor mulls the recent events over in his head. He wonders if Jean and him will ever be close again. In the end, Jean leaves the mansion in a cab, the same way she arrived many years ago.