Although Magneto was reluctant, he still made his decision.
Gotham couldn't be the only place harboring a pool of Dionesium. There had to be more of the mysterious liquid metal hidden elsewhere in the world. Right now, the most important thing was to escape. If they didn't leave immediately, they risked being buried alive beneath tons of collapsing stone.
"We're leaving!" Magneto ordered sharply.
With that, the group turned toward the entrance they had come through. But Joker, ever the strategist, had already accounted for that. There was no chance he'd leave such an obvious escape route untouched.
And sure enough, what they saw stopped them cold.
The tunnel had been blown apart. Fallen debris completely blocked the way out, sealing off any chance of escape through conventional means.
Faced with the blocked path, Magneto was surprised but not panicked. His confidence didn't come only from his own powers. It also came from the mutant allies by his side.
"Azazel," he called out.
"Got it," The red-skinned mutant replied with a nod.
He was the Brotherhood's last resort. As long as he knew where to go, he could teleport there without ever seeing the destination. No matter how dangerous the situation was, he could get them out.
Without wasting another second, Azazel stepped forward. He placed one hand on Riptide's shoulder, the other on Magneto's. Jason reached out and gripped Riptide's arm to stay connected to the chain.
Only Mystique, who had just snapped the Joker's neck, hadn't joined them yet.
"I'm coming," she said, walking toward them.
She had no interest in hacking up Joker's corpse anymore. The top priority was getting out of this collapsing death trap.
Just as she reached out to grab Magneto's hand, his expression suddenly changed.
"Raven! Watch out!"
From Magneto's perspective, Joker had come back to life again. He pushed himself up and pulled a handgun from inside his coat, aiming it straight at Mystique.
"Damn bastard!"
Magneto immediately tried to disassemble the weapon using his powers, but the moment he focused on it, he realized something was wrong.
The brightly colored weapon wasn't made of metal at all. Every part of it, even the bullets, was crafted from non-metal materials.
'He planned this ahead of time?'
For the first time in a long time, the mutant leader felt a flash of panic. Without metal in the weapon, he was powerless to stop it. If Joker started firing recklessly, even he could be in serious danger.
"Azazel! Teleport us!" He shouted, reaching out for Mystique's hand.
But Joker was faster. He pulled the trigger.
It went straight through Mystique's spine.
"Ah!!!"
The moment it pierced her, her lower body went numb. She collapsed to the ground and missed the outstretched hand by inches.
As her body hit the floor, Magneto and the others vanished in a flash of red smoke.
"Erik!!" she screamed, her voice raw and desperate, but it was already too late.
Magneto wouldn't come back for her. Not now. Not with the cave collapsing. She knew him too well. He wouldn't risk Azazel, the Brotherhood's last lifeline, just to save one person. Especially not after Azazel had only recently recovered from serious injuries.
"Don't bother. You know your teammates better than I do."
Joker, unsteady but grinning, staggered toward her with the gun still in hand.
"You bastard, stay away from me!"
Feeling the killing intent in the clown's voice, panic gripped Mystique's heart. She kept shifting her appearance: Harley Quinn, Alfred, Bruce Wayne, everyone who had once been connected to the Joker in some way. She hoped that seeing those faces would make him hesitate and give up the idea of killing her.
But Joker didn't even flinch. He wasn't fazed by a mere change in face.
"This is exactly why I find you people boring," he said, voice low. "No willpower. No conviction. The moment one of you is in danger, the rest abandon you. Just like the world does. You're all chasing some oversized dream that doesn't exist. People like you... I can't even find the energy to be interested."
At that moment, Mystique understood—he wasn't going to let her go. There was no use begging, no hope of deceiving him.
And strangely, her fear of dying began to fade.
"Keep running your mouth, Joker," she spat. "When this cave collapses, you'll die too!"
"Oh? Is that so?" He gave a slight smile.
The ground trembled again, this time more violently.
Just when Mystique thought the cave had reached its breaking point, a drilling machine burst through the stone wall in front of her.
'Reinforcements? Joker's backup?' she thought.
But the figure she saw operating the machine was none other than 'Batman,' Joker's sworn enemy.
"What... How is this possible?" she whispered in disbelief. "How could you two be working together?"
Only then did it truly hit her. Gotham was a trap. A massive, elaborate scheme.
If 'Batman' and Joker had been on the same side from the very beginning, then Gotham wasn't a chaotic, lawless city after all. It was a carefully constructed abyss, one designed by those in the shadows to consume greedy people like them.
"Congratulations," Joker said, crouching beside her as he picked up a jagged rock. "You've uncovered one of the world's little secrets. You mutants never should've come here."
Then, with a twisted grin, he raised it high and slammed it down hard toward the stunned mutant.
...
On the other side, Magneto looked grim as they teleported out of the cavern.
It wasn't just because they had lost Mystique. When they used Azazel's powers to return to the secret room, they found the situation was far worse than just a collapsed cave.
Above the cave, the Court of Owls' headquarters was now on the verge of collapsing as well.
What was even more deadly was that several specially-made rockets had exploded nearby, releasing a strange type of gas that surrounded the entire Court of Owls building.
With just one breath, Magneto felt his head spinning. His vision blurred as if he were hallucinating.
"This is bad," he muttered. "Riptide, make a storm to blow the gas away. Azazel, get to high ground and scout for enemies. This kind of setup has to be the Joker Gang's doing."
They had just run into the Joke in the cave. Now, it was obvious who was behind this mess.
"Understood."
Both mutants nodded, even as dizziness clouded their minds.
Riptide spun rapidly, wind swirling around him. Within moments, a powerful cyclone began to drive the toxic gas away.
Meanwhile, Azazel vanished in a puff of crimson smoke, rising to scout the area.
During this time, Sabretooth and Toad had arrived with most of the mutants, gathering near the secret room and waiting for Magneto's orders.
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