The Last Stand

The Last Stand of the X-Men was a fictional battle set roughly two years after the New Mutants game storyline, and another eight years prior to the beginning of the New X-Men game. The events of the conflict draw from a number of canon sources, primarily the Second Coming arc, but deviate strongly from canon material. The Last Stand is a major component to the backstory of the New X-Men game.

Prelude
Though they have long been the enemies of the X-Men and the mutant race as a whole, the Purifiers became a principle threat after the depopulation of over 98% of the world's mutants following the events of M-Day. Declaring M-Day to be not only a victory for the human race, but evidence of god's judgement, the encouraged Purifier base redoubled their efforts and settled into a campaign to end the mutant problem once and for all. Backed by wealthy investors and supported by carefully positioned political allies, the Purifiers quickly became a global phenomenon. Their primary, militant branch remained largely underground, concealed by Purity, their public facade disguised as a human rights organization.

Led by the likes of Col. (and later Reverend) William Striker, Matthew Risman, and eventually Bastion, the Purifiers led increasingly successful campaigns against the X-Men, including two major attacks on the Xavier Institute which claimed the lives much of the school's remaining student population. Retaliatory strikes by the X-Men revealed a global network of fundamentalist terrorist cells too numerous for the X-Men to combat alone. Coupled with the invention of the Hope serum, which could depower a mutant with a single injection, the world was facing the seemingly inevitable extinction of the mutant race.

The one consolation came in the form of a new generation of young mutants that began to appear around the world, roughly two years after M-Day. The X-Men responded by once again opening the Xavier Institute to students, rapidly assembling a growing student body and organizing them into training squads. In turn, the Purifiers stepped up their campaign, revealing entire armies of reaver soldiers, led by elite cyborg generals.

As the conflict rapidly escalated, the weaponization of the Hope serum, dubbed "Glory", allowed the Purifiers to maintain the upper hand. Facing an increasingly likely defeat, Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, drew his forces away from their traditional headquarters in New York and established a more defensible position on a refurbished Asteroid M in the San Francisco Bay area. Here, he managed to lure the Purifiers into one climactic battle to settle the feud between both forces for all time.

The Battle
Little is known for certain about the battle itself. The X-Men, reduced to only a few dozen in number, and bolstered by additional mutant allies to a strength of approximately 100, were set upon by a nearly fully committed Purifier army.

A sphere of solid red energy of unknown composition or origin was placed down around the mutant position, completely sealing it off from the outside world. The Purifiers are believed to have utilized Slip Drive teleportation technology to rapidly position their forces just as the dome was closing; it is also possible that they were able to field additional forces even after the area was sealed off. In contrast, the X-Men's allied forces, such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, were trapped on the outside, unable to lend their support.

The battle lasted for over 20 hours, at which point the sphere and its contents - including both armies entirely, as well as parts of the local civilian population and landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge - simply vanished. The resulting implosion caused tremendous damage to surrounding areas, bringing the total civilian death toll up to 7,176 and creating tens of billions of dollars in property damage.

Aftermath
The Last Stand of the X-Men was considered at best a Pyrrhic victory for the Purifiers. Though they lost the majority of their world forces, the X-Men suffered a more total defeat. However the Purifiers would never fully recover, falling prey largely to disorganization and in-fighting as a result of lack of leadership, as well as retaliatory strikes by the likes of The Brotherhood of Mutants.

Cyclops had managed to move the surviving student body of the Xavier Institute, comprised of those mutants deemed to be too young to fight, through both time and space to Wakanda, two weeks into the future. Guarded by Anole, technically the only surviving X-Man, they would eventually make a home for themselves in Africa, forming Unity in the process. Unity would develop a strict policy of non-interference that would keep them isolated from the rest of the world.

The tremendous civilian casualties made the Last Stand another "Stamford moment" in the eyes of the public, and further soured the global political climate against superhumans, particularly mutants. The United States was the first to enhance their Superhuman Registration Act to include the comprehensive criminalization of the X-gene in what would soon become a world-wide phenomenon. Coupled with mandatory genetic screening and the widespread distribution of the Hope serum, the global mutant population was kept "in check" for years to come.

The bolstering of the SRA sent ripples through the superhuman community that would eventually result in infighting and eventual adjustments of the rosters of many prominent superhero teams, most notably including the Avengers. Tony Stark would soon replace Nick Fury as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and institute a "51st" Initiative team devoted entirely to the pursuit and capture of mutants.