The bus took them close to Manhatten, without interruption.

It was almost a bad sign--they saw no humans, no one at all. Hardly even an animal.

Shine left off singing to ask Mystique, "Raven, do you know anything about what Apocalypse's ideal world is? What we might expect?"

"He doesn't share much." Mystique was glancing out the window at the bare landscape. "I do know he hates humans."

"Makes sense, he tried to wipe 'em out," Logan said.

"He thinks that humans are weaker, lesser beings and need to be purged," Mystique said. "He uses mutants who are powerful enough for him, once they are under his control. But he'll eliminate them if they are too weak or if they turn."

"Nice fellow," Scott said. "Why did you work for him again?"

"Why do you work for Xavier?" Mystique asked.

"He helps people," Scott said.

"Ask Apocalypse if he's helping people, he'll say yes," Mystique said. "Everyone says that. Whether it's true or not."

"Well, no one is going to argue that," Shine said. "And, Scott, if we could stop with the asking Raven why she did something that is actually useful to us now, that'd be great. No one has not made mistakes, but smart people use them."

Scott looked a little chastised.

"Would he be likely to just eliminate all humans if he could?" Shine asked.

"Of course," Mystique said.

"Are you saying that there're no humans here?" Trinity looked green. She'd been real quiet, mostly just trying to help Kevin drive, but now she was listening.

"I don't think even Apocalypse could wipe them all out," Shine said. "There's millions of humans--it's only been 50 years. But this Merging...who knows what it will do to ordinary people? Perhaps he figures they are not worth considering. I'm sure the humans are in hiding but some would survive. Or be enslaved."

"He'd not think they were even worth enslaving, except that there's not enough mutants in the world to run it," Mystique said. "Didn't you make that point about Magneto's wish? The economy would collapse without humans, but they'd be treated as dogs, or worse."

"Can we help them?" Jubilee asked.

"That's not why we're here," Logan said.

"Don't worry," Shine said. "If we succeed, none of this will ever happen, sort of. They'll be returned to a less perilous existence, we can hope. At least not one under Apocalypse."

"We're looking at mutants being exploited, then," Wally said. "Anyone with powers that are cool enough, basically. I bet guys like Morlocks, though, would still be oppressed."

"They all will be oppressed," Mystique said. "The question is will they all be brainwashed? Or will they be going along with it out of fear?"

"Makes no difference, does it?" Logan said.

"It does," Hank said. "We might be able to reason with some if they are not brainwashed."

"Or undo brainwashing," Shine countered. "Who knows?"

Mystique stared at her, then she said, "Shine, you told me once that Apocalypse is no god, and that it would be a small matter to defeat him. Do you still think that?"

"You said what?" Scott looked at Shine like she was mad.

Wally laughed. "That's my wife..."

"Sounds like ya," Logan said. "But cocky."

"No," Shine said. "Not cocky. I still think that. I think Apocalypse is a small, pathetic, little coward as much as I ever did. He's also mad. He's dangerous, but he doesn't scare me, not the idea of him. Just what he can do to people. If it were just him, I'd not worry about this. But, he has an army. And some way to merge dimensions. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about that. But that's all stolen power. Apocalypse himself is not God. I fear meeting God Himself the way I'd fear standing at the edge of a volcano. I fear Apocalypse only the way I'd fear a madman with a lit match in a room full of gun powder."

"Well said," Storm said. "Power is not always the same as being intimidating."

"I hope you're not planning to talk to Apocalypse, if we should find him, the way you talked to the other people we fought," Hank said. "I believe he would kill you at once."

"And it proves what if he does? Anyone could do that on chance," Shine said. "But it would depend on the situation. Perhaps I won't face off against him at all. Maybe one of you will. This is your fight too. But don't fear him. He's just a fool with a powerful tool or two. Fear, instead, our own arrogance and cowardice--those are our biggest enemies."

She leaned on her hand contemplatively.

"Ve must keep praying," Kurt said. "And silently, perhaps. I believe ve may be reaching the entrance of the city."

So they were.

* * *

https://youtu.be/0VUVIpvedmc

You'd never recognize it as Manhattan. All the buildings were low, common, more like barracks than houses.

No one was in sight, except a few mutants, by their attire, gathered at the beginning of the city, which was just a very rough-looking road.

There was a check point set up.

"Kevin, turn this into a car like those ones." Shine was looking at the few vehicles near the entrance. They seemed to be armored cars.

Kevin made the bus turn into a replica of them, which closed off the windows and made the seats very close together inside.

Storm started to breathe faster.

Logan held her hand.

"Morph." Shine motioned at him. "Or Raven. One of you. We're going to have to try to imitate how they look. I don't want us to have to fight yet, if we can help it. We should save our strength."

Morph slid to the front.

"Sure, I can do this look." He peered at the 'guards', who were wearing armor, from the looks of it. Apocalypse always did have a taste for that.

Sinister's goons usually just wore mutant outfits, so no uniform would have been in place with him.

Morph shifted to be wearing clothes like that and turned his face egg white.

Smart, he definitely didn't look human now.

"Rogue, do you still have telepathy?" Shine asked.

"Yeah. Ya want me to try to read their minds?" Rogue said.

"Yes...anything they want to hear to get us inside," Shine said. "There's no reason you shouldn't be able to, right?"

"Let's hope not," Rogue said.

Everyone else shrank back, as far out of view of the few windows as they could.

Kevin hid behind Morph but kept the car moving even so.

"Code?" the border guard said in a bored voice.

Rogue beamed something at Morph.

"D6161081," Morph said. [Comment if you got it.]

"Purpose?" The guard didn't double check.

"Delivery," Morph answered, still taking his cue from Rogue. "Supplement and Distribution."

"You're ahead of schedule," the guard said.

"Found a shortcut," Morph said.

"You're cleared." The guard didn't seem to care. "Make sure they know you're early at the plant. They might not be ready yet. Don't loiter around the street--you might get robbed. This place is a mess of underground tunnels still. Move along."

"Thanks," Morph said.

Kevin moved the car cautiously, hoping it looked natural enough on the outside.

"Well, that was creepy as all get out," Jubilee muttered.

"That was too easy," Shine said. "I thought they'd scan us at least."

"Well, you think tyrants can't get cocky?" Wally said. "Maybe there's just nothing for them to worry about, so why bother? You gotta figure Apocalypse isn't trying to keep mutants in line just for their powers, like the Sentinels were. He's trying to make them all evil, bullies like him. Maybe the goal is just to keep anyone from uprising about it."

"Apocalypse doesn't fear humankind," Mystique said. "They are a nuisance to him, that's all. But that did seem too easy. They don't account for people having telepathy? Or they just don't care."

"Oh, how stupid I am," Shine suddenly said. "You just solved it,"

"I did? How--" Mystique stopped. "Oh."

"I don't get it," Ryan said.

"They aren't worried about telepaths," Shine said. "Now why do you suppose that could be, when we came here specifically because telepaths were missing? Of course he'd have started here. He must have rounded them all up already--if there were any left. Perhaps there weren't, and that's why he came up with the kidnapping them idea. Or it's just eliminating anyone who might pick up on the Merging happening. A telepath would never be driving one of these cars, they figure."

"Then we got lucky," Morph said. "But what if they had scanners for powers?"

"If we just assume everyone we see has one," Wally said, "why scan for it? They'd just want to know who's really powerful. Can they test that?"

"In the future, it's possible," Hank said. "Likely, even. But if we have the menial task, they may assume right off we aren't that powerful. It seems Apocalypse would run a totalitarian dictatorship and assign jobs based only on mutation. Likely guards and soldiers have stronger mutations, and distribution people have weaker ones. The system must have been in place for a long time, in this timeline."

"Oh, gosh, this is UA all over again," Wally said. "Everything is based on quirk utility. Sounds even creepier comparing it to this."

"When the villains were less creepy than that," Shine muttered. "Well...at least we know how it works if that's the case. We're used to it. But that makes the Hero World sound like a post apocalyptic world in of itself."

"Shine, that is so many levels of deep, I'm not sure it even makes sense," Wally said. "But my mind is blown." He made the motions for that. 🤯

"Can I ask? How many worlds have you been to that were...like this?" Ryan asked.

"None," Shine said. "But similarities do run through them all, I suppose. There are times I miss the early days, when all I had to worry about was the Battle Between Good and Evil, hanging on a magic book and hearsay."

No one knew what that meant. [EAH reference, Rebel for Life.]

"So what do we do now?" Kevin asked nervously.

"If it's possible they are not scanning us..." Shine mused. "I had assumed this would be a nightmare of security to get through, but perhaps I failed to take into account what a barbarian Apocalypse is. Power rules everything for him, not intelligence. It could be...we could walk through this world without being detected at all, for a while. Come to think of it, he never uses technology that much when he attacks."

"You'd think he couldn't win," Wally said. "I mean, they have nuclear bombs. How did he get past that?"

"Without speculating too much, if he had mutants who could infiltrate those places, it might have been simple," Shine said. "We already know that Mystique released Sentinels in the other dimension--why not the bombs? Why not everything? All you have to do is plan it right." She rubbed her chin. "In some ways, this is bad, but for us, it just might be the Grace of God. We'd never have made it to Apocalypse HQ freely if he had the technology of my timeline, or anything like it, but his own arrogance might just be our ticket out of this. Sinister is the one who'd be hard to surprise. He's always watching...but we all know who's in charge if they are, in fact, working together. We have a shot."

"So we just get out and run?" Morph said.

Shine was still thinking. "Well, how free is this society for mutants? It can't be that free, but if the price of their enslavement is that they get to beat up humans and anyone else they don't like, what can we expect? It's like Ancient Rome when it all went to pot. Still, I prefer this to the scenario where everything is too technical and robotic. If you have to pick your hellscape, one based on brute force is usually less effective than mind control...so let's hope that's right. In any case, let's just follow those other cars for now. We have to find out where the Capital of this new and unimproved America is. That's almost certainly where we'll find Apocalypse."

"And why can't he live in any other country?" Mystique asked.

"He could, but two things: He would pick America to spite the X-men and democracy, and also, it's where Xavier messaged the other X-men from, so unless they moved, it has to be America somewhere," Shine reasoned.

"Dang..." Wally said.

"You're too good at this." Morph rubbed his head. "Makes it sound like you've done this way too many times. And I've been there. So, sympathy."

"I just read a lot," Shine said. "And I may be wrong. Anyone have problems with my hypothesis? Now is the time to say so."

"Even if I'm not sure you're right, we have no better theory of how things work," Hank said. "None of us know Apocalypse that well. At least your theory accounts for some of his actions. Either that, or we'll be caught at once. It seems unavoidable--we can't stay in this car forever."

"So, that said, we find the Capital, and we go and knock some heads." Rogue made a fist into her palm. "That's all there is to it?"

"I wish that my plan, when pared down to its basic elements, didn't amount to exactly what you just said," Shine sighed. "But I can't plan for what I don't know. So yes."

"You know, I can understand that," Emma said flatly. "And it's frustrating that we know so little. But the only way to learn is to get out of this car. How far to this Distribution plant that they mentioned?"

"Looks like not too far." Morph peered out the front window. "I think those cars are turning into a lot right now."

So they were.

The "plant" looked more like an abandoned Costco that was half empty, and with way too little staff.

[So Costco at the end of the weekend, basically... JK, I don't shop at Costco that often.]

The armored cars that were delivering had guards coming on up to flank them, and it was clear why: Just on the edge of the ground were several mutants, at least they looked like mutants, who were trying to get past security, probably to steal the food and supplies.

There was what appeared to be a line of mutants, clearly waiting for their turn, along one side of the building.

"What is this?" Kitty was looking now. "It looks like those old photos of the soup kitchens in the Great Depression...with scarier hobos."

"Those poor people," Storm said. "They must be starving."

"I doubt there's a lot of food available, if your theories are correct," Hank said. "Who would grow it?"

"Usually in this case people just end up fighting over food, and the strongest get it." Shine acted like she was reading a pamphlet about it. "Unless you are clever enough to steal it. I'd be looking for mutants with powers to let them disguise themselves for that. Otherwise, it's an all out brawl, Hunger Games style."

"Literally the most unfunny food fight ever," Wally said.

"What's...the Hunger Games?" Kitty asked.

"A terrible story," Shine said. "Full of semi-realistic, sociopolitical commentary on the spoiled, entertainment-driven aspect of society. I'd bet money that this world has made it basically real."

"And this is Apocalypse's vision for a better society," Mystique said. "If you're right, then one has to wonder what better means. I guess as long as the powerful rule, he does not care."

Trinity shivered.

"Guys, they're going to check the back of this car to unload it," Morph said suddenly. "We're going to get caught. What do we do?"

"I wonder what the laws for stowing away on cargo trucks are here?" Wally joked.

"We'll have to fight." Logan stood up. He seemed to relish the idea.

"Logan, wait," Storm said. "There's too many of them. What if the people in line attacked us also? The guards maybe we could handle, but we can't fight a mob. They may think we stole their supplies."

"Let's stay calm." Shine came to look out the window. "There's always a way... Morph, try asking this next guy if you can refuel before unloading, just so you can leave right away after they're done."

"You think that'll work?" Morph said. "That's..."

"Too normal sounding," Kitty said. "It's not at all scary."

"First rule of surviving this," Shine said, "people don't change that much. Try it."

She stepped back.

Morph was nervous about it, but when he came up to the person who was directing the cars where to park, he asked them as instructed.

"Eh, yeah, people do that all the time," the overseer said, distantly. "Can't really blame them. I'm not really supposed to let you do that, because of time, but you're early, so you can go ahead. This is just the early crowd. Lovely, aren't they? Like it makes any difference who's here first. Fueling unit is just around that corner."

"Thanks a million," Morph said. "Keep an eye on those garbage. They look rabid."

"Tell me about it," the overseer snorted.

Morph and Kevin drove on.

"That was so scary..." Jubilee said.

Shine gestured at them all smugly. "See? You don't always have to fight."

"And when we just appear out of nowhere?" Logan said.

"One thing at time," Wally said.

Morph pulled into the empty unit. There was fuel lining the walls.

There were also roaches skittering around the corners of the rooms, looking for garbage.

Kitty almost screamed when she saw them.

"Well, this is charming," Emma said, after Kevin turned the car back into dirt and they all were stretching their cramped limbs. "Now what?"

"I figure we have a few minutes before anyone else comes to fuel up," Wally said, looking around the corner. "So what's our plan?"

"Now we find one of these punks and ask 'em a few questions." Logan extended his claws.

"Brother, perhaps there is a better vay," Kurt said.

"Yeah, way better," Shine said. "Logan, don't be silly. That the last thing we're going to do."

"And why not? Ya want to try askin' 'em nicely?" Logan said.

"I'm sorry, in an oppressed society, who do you ask to sell out the oppressive tyrant?" Shine asked. "Not his lackeys."

"Y'mean...them?" Rogue glanced toward the people who were waiting in line.

Shine tugged her hair. "Best way to get info out of people who have only basic needs at the forefront of their mind, is to provide that basic need. For food, people will tell you almost anything. Now, who wants to go steal some of those supplies out of the other units?"

They all saw her plan.

"That's genius." Wally hugged her. "Look at you. It's like you were born for this."

"You know, you scare me," Ryan said to Shine. "I feel like we shouldn't be using that as leverage."

"Tough s---, kid," Mystique said. "This is what you have to do. And you act like it's hurting them. Kitty could probably get in the fastest, but she'd be spotted... We have to look like we work here."

She shifted into the same kind of armor-like uniform that the overseer had been wearing. "Let's go command some supplies."

Kitty gulped. "Okay, sure...sneak into the unit guarded by armored mutants who look like they eat kids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and steal the stuff they're heavily guarding from a line of hunger-crazed other mutants...no big. Piece of cake for Shadowcat."

"You can do it," Colossus said. He'd hardly spoken at all since they left, and it startled them.

"Just watch out," Scott said. "Maybe they aren't as stupid as they look."

"You'd better hope they are," Mystique said.

"Get more than one box if you can," Shine advised. "Just in case something goes wrong."

"I bet the food they have here is worse than the emergency rations my mom buys." Kitty scrunched up her nose. "But whatever."

Mystique slowly stole out of the unit and along the wall to the ones where the others were unloading.

Kitty followed, trying not to be seen.

There really weren't that many guards paying attention to that corner of the yard; most of them were trying to keep the masses back at the edge of it. The others were watching 

https://youtu.be/RxgJr_8LraY

Mystique didn't miss that several of the "workers" took some of the rations for themselves, without anyone doing a thing to stop them.

Some things never change.

Kitty was hiding, half in the wall, holding her breath.

Mystique wasn't sure how to snatch anything out of this without anyone noticing, except by pretending to unload it.

She nodded at Kitty and gestured at one of the walls in the corner.

"Once I drop it over there, pull it out through the wall," she hissed. "Hopefully no one looks that hard at anyone here."

Slipping in among the unloaders wasn't that hard. The guards were hardly watching each other.

Mystique unloaded two cases of what had better be food--though she reasoned any supplies at all would probably work.

Nothing went wrong until some of the workers started fighting with each other.

"I saw it first."

"Come off it, you take twice as much as the rest of us already, pig."

"Like you don't sneak extras even when the rest of us aren't around."

"Only way you'd know is if you were around doing the same thing, wouldn't you!"

They started actually fighting.

The other guards, rather than stop them, just started laughing and taunting them not to hold back.

Mystique tried to back up, and one of them shot some kind of stun power that knocked over half the boxes in the room, almost hitting her.

The others then started cussing him out for making extra work for them, and it seemed a full on brawl was about to break out.

But then one big one, who must have been in charge either by rank or by brute force, yelled at them all to get back to work or he'd skin them and turn them into upholstery.

Mystique finally got to the wall while they were thus distracted and put down the boxes.

"Hey you!" the big guy called.

She froze.

"You not listening to me?" he said angrily. "When I talk, you better be listening, maggot!"

Lovely.

Mystique faked a compliant look. "Sorry, just trying to finish my job."

"Did I ask for an excuse?" The big guy walked up to her and glared at her. "You going to talk back to me?"

Mystique had to get him to look away long enough for Kitty to move without him seeing her.

"No, sir," she said, thinking frantically.

"Yeah, right now!" The big guy then reached out and smacked her into the ground, making the others laugh.

He glanced at them. "What you all laughing at, jackasses? This could be you if you don't get back to work!"

They backed off.

"And you watch your mouth," the guy said to Mystique contemptuously.

"Yes, sir," she muttered meekly.

He turned his back.

Perfect.

Mystique pushed herself up.

It really hadn't hurt that much, thanks to the armor, but the sheer force of this guy...what was his power? Reinforced muscle? Whatever it was, she was pretty sure he could have broken bones like a twig. Was this what they could expect of this entire world?

Kitty, who was a nervous wreck after that, fumbled and dropped one of the boxes.

The crash made the boss turn.

Mystique wanted to strangle Kitty, but as it was she had only seconds to distract this guy.

She jumped up instantly and socked him as hard as she could in the jaw.

This shocked the other workers.

Mystique thought: that probably wasn't the smartest distraction.

The guy didn't even go down, he just stumbled back and then looked at her with murderous intent. "You have a death wish, you--" He used some words that couldn't really be repeated.

"Do you?" Mystique gave up trying to be subtle.

"I'll rend you limb from limb!" The boss grabbed at her.

Mystique put her agility to good use. She ducked and easily evaded his swing, and then she tripped him, and he tumbled headlong into some of the other boxes.

Kitty choked on a laugh and was able to yank the last box out of the wall.

Lugging it through the walls to the others, she gasped, "Mystique is in trouble."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Emma said.

"It was my fault," Kitty sputtered. "I dropped the box, and she tried to distract this huge, scary boss guy by hitting him, and now they're fighting, and he's going to kill her, and you have to stop it!"

"She's still in disguise, right?" Rogue said.

"Yes," Kitty said.

"Oh, well then, this'll so be easy," Wally said.

"I got this," Quicksilver said. [Bet you forgot he was here... I know I almost did.]

"Dude, you slept through most of the bus ride. You don't even know what we're doing," Wally said.

"I can go snatch some woman," Quicksilver said. "Easy."

"One of you just get her before she gets herself killed," Shine said feistily.

"Yes, ma'am!" Quicksilver saluted and dashed away.

"That jerk," Wally said. "I was gonna... He's not even that fast."

"Why do men always insist on making things about ego and competition?" Emma said drolly. "Someone's life is in danger--time to fight over who's more powerful and fast!"

"Why do you show off being a telepath when there's a crisis?" Wally asked her.

She blinked at him, like she couldn't believe the "idiot" half of the DJ team, at least in her mind, had just roasted her so well she couldn't even argue.

[Never underestimate The Flash. He'll get you when it counts.]

Quicksilver snatched Mystique out of the fray just before the other guards were going to grab her and hold her in place so the boss could punch her into jelly. To them, it seemed like she vanished like a ghost.

"What?" they said oddly.

The boss frowned. "I think we have a rebel loose. Half of you go look for 'em and lock down this plant till we find them."

"Sir, the people are going to riot if we delay any longer," said one.

"Let 'em," said the boss. "If they get too antsy, activate the back up security. Fry a few of 'em, they'll clear out."

"Yes, sir..."

* * *

"Was punchin' him really the only thing ya could think of?" Rogue scolded Mystique.

She rubbed her fist. "It worked, didn't it? What was I supposed to do?"

"Bad news." Kitty came out of the wall. "I snuck back to make sure you guys were okay, and I heard them say they're going to look for us. They think there's rebels here now. We have to get out of here fast. Something about locking off the plant."

"I wonder what that'll look like," Logan sneered. "More overgrown bullies."

"Is no problem for us." Colossus turned into metal.

Then there was a loud sound, like a beeping, warning noise.

Colossus turned back into his usual self.

"What is this?" he said.

"Uh oh." Kurt tried to teleport and failed. "My fruends...I think they just turned our mutations off."