Apocalypse and Professor X

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Charles Xavier's office.

On the enormous circular screen, satellite imagery silently displayed a scorched wasteland. The once-peaceful Polish town was now a smoking ruin, like an ugly scar across Earth's surface. Charles stared fixedly at the screen, veins bulging across his smooth forehead, his knuckles white from clenching his fists.

"It was Erik." His voice trembled uncontrollably, filled with pain. "I felt it... He's being controlled. His anger and grief have been magnified countless times."

Chu Hang stood beside the massive floor-to-ceiling window, not turning to look at the ruins. His perception had already crossed the continent, catching the four surging energy signatures in the distance. Each had been strengthened to an inconceivable degree. Apocalypse's amplification of the X-Gene was even more domineering and thorough than he had anticipated.

"He's begun." Charles suddenly sat upright, as if struck by an invisible current. The Brainwave Amplifier beside his wheelchair activated at once, its silver metal headpiece unfolding automatically and fitting precisely over his temples.

"Every television station, radio station, and the internet worldwide... has been forcibly taken over by the same signal source."

Before he had even finished speaking, every screen in the office—televisions, computers, even the tablet Hank had left behind—flickered as their images were forcibly switched. Every channel showed the same scene: an ancient being with a towering frame and gray-blue skin stood atop a pyramid, looking down indifferently at the chaotic city of Cairo below. Behind him stood Storm, Angel, Psylocke, and Magneto, whose eyes were hollow, arranged on either side like four statues of gods.

"This world is terminally ill."

Apocalypse's deep, majestic voice emerged simultaneously from every speaker and headset across the globe. This was not a simple technological hijacking, but a worldwide psychic broadcast. His will was being projected directly