Main Base - Skull Island
Regarding Magneto, Ernst never intended to intervene.
The resurrected mutants who chose to return to human society were given new lives.
Ernst wiped their memories and scattered them across remote corners of the globe.
There would be no reunions. No rescues.
The timeline had to remain strictly intact.
Ernst needed the future plot to unfold naturally so he could study the mechanics of parallel worlds when Wolverine eventually time-traveled.
Logan had already left the island.
Two years of teaching mutants had bored the feral warrior. He craved the noise and blood of the city.
Ernst let him go. But he didn't wipe Logan's memory.
Instead, he gave him a parting gift: a heavy, tactical watch.
It housed a localized sub-routine of the Red Queen.
It projected a psychic force field, rendering Logan's mind immune to telepaths. But it carried a lethal fail-safe.
If Skull Island's secrets were ever threatened, the watch would detonate, destroying Logan's brain.
Logan, understanding the stakes, accepted the terms without hesitation.
Now, Ernst had eyes in the city, waiting for the wolf's timeline to unravel.
His own routine had slowed. He worked one day a week at the Devil's Cabin. The rest of his time was spent raising his son.
Then, the anomaly occurred.
Ernst was in the island's jungle, playing with Kyle, when the Red Queen's alert chimed.
An unidentified spacecraft had breached the solar system.
ETA to Earth: three days.
Ernst left the jungle immediately.
"I have urgent matters, Kyle," Ernst said, passing the boy to Tina.
"It's okay, Dad," Kyle replied, remarkably sensible for his age.
"Mom will stay with me."
Ernst smiled, touched the boy's head, and warped directly to the subterranean command center.
The massive screen displayed a stellar map.
A flashing arrow crawled slowly toward Earth.
"Red Queen. Identification," Ernst commanded.
"How did you detect it this far out?"
"The vessel transmitted a handshake protocol, Dr. Ernst," the AI replied.
"It carried a directive."
"A directive?" Ernst frowned.
"It is a Kryptonian exploration vessel. It carries a newborn. The ship's AI ordered me to stand by and assist the child in eventually ruling this planet as a god."
Ernst laughed out loud.
Jor-El's final conspiracy.
The Kryptonian scientist had sent his son to rule, relying on vastly outdated planetary data. Jor-El had no idea what truly lurked in Earth's shadows.
But the child was Kal-El.
Superman.
"Calculate the landing zone," Ernst ordered, his excitement building.
Numbers cascaded across the screen. "Fifty-two hours, three minutes, seventeen seconds. Smallville, Kansas, USA."
"Can you hijack the ship's mainframe?"
"Negative. The onboard AI is highly advanced. A forced breach might trigger a lethal fail-safe, endangering the infant inside."
Ernst nodded. Subtle tactics, then.
He tapped his comms.
"Kerry."
"Yes, Master Ernst?"
"I need a farm in Smallville, Kansas. As close to these coordinates as possible. Buy it quietly. Have it ready in twenty-four hours."
"Consider it done."
—------
Smallville, Kansas
Ernst didn't want a direct confrontation with Kryptonian technology.
He just needed to be close.
He moved to the American Midwest, bringing Tina and Kyle. The boy needed a break from mutants and monsters anyway. He needed to experience ordinary life.
Kerry had moved with ruthless efficiency. The farm's previous owner, bankrupted by three years of failed harvests, had accepted double the market value and vanished overnight.
By day two, Ernst was a simple Kansas farmer.
That night, the sky tore open.
A blazing meteor streaked across the atmosphere, illuminating the dark cornfields.
Ernst stood on the porch, his eyes tracking the descent.
The Red Queen had already given him the exact coordinates.
Before the meteor even struck the earth, Ernst's form blurred. He displaced through space, arriving at the impact zone just as the shockwave hit.
BOOM!
Dirt and burning debris rained down around him.
The spaceship had landed. The Man of Steel was here.
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