Raptor of life 11.2 (Patreon)

Chapter edited by sinisterr, blackstarline, pids and sky

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(Goldie)

Somewhere in Africa
Sinister’s Base
December 7th, 1996

She slithered through the base's air ducts, ensuring she was silent and stealthy all the while being observant.  She noted the different levels she passed through, the bad man's lair was big and cavernous, if Goldie knew her host as well as she did right now, she would transform this place into a tomb in her quest for vengeance.Who could begrudge her when she had been treated like cattle, this bad man harvesting her blood in large doses. Fortunately, she could do something about it and each time her Jean-host’s blood was exposed to oxygen from outside, the DNA became corrupted.

Through the maze of stone and steel, a lot of his minions roamed in groups within the corridors and gathering places. Goldie was despairing as she wanted to follow the orders of her Jean-host, she needed to be stealthy like a tiger. It wasn't until night, when half the base went to sleep and she’d found an isolated human male cooking in the kitchens, that she struck.

When the man began to turn to grab more potatoes to peel, Goldie wrapped herself around him, knocking knives and utensils on the ground. Screams left him until l she closed his airways. The man struggled and whimpered even more as Goldie slowly covered his entire body with her own form and began to physically consume him from the inside-out, slowly draining his vital fluids. As the man's body slowly disappeared from within her, Goldie didn't feel full, no she received barely any sustenance from the man. He was a clone- a fake- and Goldie needed more essences to heal her perfect host. 

She repeated this endeavor nine times before having a modicum of what she needed. They had all tasted bland, as though she was eating  one of those vegetarian dishes Jean-host's progenitor fed her sometime. An opportunity to fill herself fully presented itself an hour later when she   saw a new target who had come to take sustenance in the kitchen. She followed him and his appearance jostled memories and then suddenly she couldn't pass such a boon from the fates.

As the man installed himself in one of the private quarters in the sub-basement of the base, Goldie blended with the stone, her golden luster dulling to grey and stuck to the wall behind. Goldie observed the man who had captured her Jean-host; he was watching something on one of the portable screens that everyone used in that place. Goldie slowly took on her humanoid form and crept up behind him, using the abilities she’d adapted from her Host's mate and sent a powerful bolt of electricity directly to the nape of the bald man’s neck. 

He seized and then fell forward face first and crushed the low table. Glee and the sweet feeling of revenge washed through her in waves. The man was still alive and Goldie was going to enjoy this. She planned to take her time eating this… meal. She morphed her head to create a mouth and long jaw; scary teeth appeared one by one and a long pink tongue licked the bald man's face.

“Fucked, you should have not, with Goldie.”

She swallowed him slowly, head first, though her feminine humanoid form didn't even bulge. With loud crunches, Goldie began masticating, the man must have awakened as her form slightly distorted,  but she held on and didn't let him escape and finally there was no struggling inside herself. 

“Delicious. Unlike those fake humans.” Goldie smirked, beginning to  analyze his DNA, the man seemed to have a degree of extra-dimensional properties. That was interesting, she decided to teach her Jean-host about her being able to replicate powers from other powered beings, the one she just obtained might make her happy. From what she could guess, this man had been able to teleport both himself and a certain amount of additional mass over a great amount of distance almost instantly.

Goldie willed herself to displace inside the air duct in this room, and in a flash of blue light there she was, Her surface rippled in satisfaction and she began her path back to Jean-host. It took her two hours to find her way back to the bad man's lair, occasionally stealing weapons and ammo and food for Jean.

She arrived in the room Jean-host was in and slithered on the cables of the pod and entered through the interstices of the water pump. Jean-host was asleep, Goldie returned to her home inside her perfect host, slowly loosened herself and filled Jean-host entire body with necessary vitality, essence and proteins. She quickly got to work on healing her host's spine, bones and nerves. 

[Exultation: Soon vengeance will be ours.] Jean’s eyes opened and immediately she felt the satisfaction of her Klyntar friend who transmitted to her the memories of the men she had eaten. A wicked smile came over her when she recognized the man who had bombed the SHIELD armored cars, heard the sensation of his bones crunching under Goldie's teeth and the way she made his power hers. 

Her eyes widened. *Goldie we have to talk, how could you have hidden this from me? How?*

[Apologetic: Now I can tell you.] And tell her she did.

Jean became excited as she learned from her friend that a symbiote was able to  interface with people's genomes and physiology to imprint their unique powers and abilities into itself, granting subsequent hosts access to those powers. She could also insert a power set into other people, she had in her genetic codex. This shocked Jean.

*No wonder there are symbiote poachers… you are all so incredibly powerful. *

That wasn't all, symbiotes functioned as living extradimensional tesseracts, requiring living hosts to anchor them to the fabric of space and time. That was how those hateful Poison and poachers got to them, without a host they couldn't defend themselves. It wasn't so surprising that Goldie could store a lot of things inside her. Goldie felt the resolution of Jean-host as the bare bones of a plan germinated in her mind. *Goldie, you are the key to our escape and… I think about finishing this. We will kill everyone here, I have had enough of having to look behind my back! Are you with me?*

[Acceptance, friendship: We are one.]

# # #

(Sinister)

Sinister Egypt Base
December 8th, 1996
05:29 AM

Sitting on his throne in his audience room, Nathaniel dismissed the holographic window projected before him. He stared at the portrait of his dear and late wife, Rebecca that hung on the grey stone walls. She was such a beautiful woman, witty and smart; a real socialite, that still took care of assuring herself that he was fed and didn’t spend too many nights researching and brought him happiness.

Nathaniel closed his eyes, trying to recall her beautiful smile, her blissful scent, and the texture of his fingers threading through her silky black hair.Putting his fist against his temple and leaning back in his throne, Nathaniel tried to calm his bubbling mind, but yet again failed and smiled.

He had her! Finally, it took six years but he had bested the Grey girl, though he felt somehow empty. His smile faded, morphing to a frown. Nathaniel should’ve been feeling like he was in heaven right now, but this hollow feeling in his chest didn’t permit him to. The chase was done, the prey was in his power right now, he should’ve been beyond satisfied right now, but  his caution whispered to him that nothing was decided yet.

“Why do I feel so unsettled? She lost, I won! I will make her my tool! I will defile her in body and spirit… and still she has that much power over me?”

Nathaniel’s memories brought him back to the nineteenth century, in 1859 and to that night when the time travelers Cyclops and Phoenix had come to him, trying to make him stray from his birthright, and his meeting with En Sabah Nur, Apocalypse. She was beautiful and powerful, yet a good and kind woman. Phoenix had tried to change him and give him a choice to make him stray from this path, but the death of his Rebecca and his reputation in London’s Royal Society had pushed him to accept the offer of En Sabah Nur.

En Sabah Nur painfully transformed him into an ageless being of extraordinary pallor, using telekinesis in his Alien Ship. He’d ordered him to create a powerful plague that would cull the weak and let the strong rise. Phoenix and Cyclops that Apocalypse had captured escaped and had pleaded with him to not release the plague. 

When Nathaniel had emerged from En Sabah Nur’s machine, he had willingly allowed whatever humanity remained in him to be carved out, all for the sake of science. But unleashing a plague to destroy most of humanity? That was foolish, cruelty for no purpose was ignorance and ignorance was the greatest enemy of science. 

Nathaniel manipulated the plague so that it would affect only Nur himself, but his immune system quickly adapted to it. It only caused the man to go into hibernation and as he slowly went to sleep, En Sabah Nur warned Nathaniel to never forget who had the true power and that when he returned, it would be the dawn of the Age of Apocalypse and Sinister would be his servant.

*Never, I will find a way to kill you!* Nathaniel slammed his fist on his throne’s armrest.

Phoenix and Summers had returned to their own timeline after he caused his master to go back to sleep. He had hoped they could stay and experiment on them to create a mutant of equal power who could defeat En Sabah Nur. He had to settle to trace their lineage and ancestors to find them in the future. Meanwhile he had made alliances with people of likely similar goals and creed to save the world.

He made enemies and friends alike, created his own army, took items from En Sabah Nur’s ship to study the technology inside and became wealthy through the patents and discoveries made by studying them, several fortunes over, but none of it mattered in his eyes. He wanted to be free- free to experiment and enjoy the fruit of his labor, contributing to the cause of homo superior you know.

And it wasn’t before the 80’s that his long wait was rewarded when Summers and Phoenix, whose real name Jean Grey, were born. He had made sure to be hands off with them, to subtly manipulate things only when needed. But in an unforeseen event Jean Grey noticed him after he had attempted to reinforce the programming he was supposed to have done on her when she was but a toddler. It had completely been ineffective!

And that girl! She was completely different from the woman he had met and he couldn’t understand why. She was cocky, abrasive and lethal. She was supposed to have joined Xavier! Been molded by him, but she completely loathed the man and even worse? She was a lesbian! His plan to pair her with Scott Summers completely went down the drain! He needed to combine their genes and create the ultimate offspring.

Nathaniel abruptly stood up and walked to the exit of his audience room taking care to not wrinkle the expensive red carpet with gold threads on the trims. He had tried, really tried, to let nature run its course, Grey and Summers would marry, have children and he’d kidnap their first born and raise him or her. Now he had no choice but to force things, thankfully, he had multiple clones of Summers on base, the only hijink to his plan is that for some reason he couldn’t harvest genetic material from Miss Grey.

And there was also the fact that all his attempts to brainwash her utterly failed. Her mind was like steel, stronger than any other ones he had met previously. It didn’t bode well… It upset him a great deal that his plan to have her as his willing puppet would never unravel. He stopped walking at the door. His brow furrowed. *Was she subtly defending herself? You never knew with powers…* Nathaniel decided to try again, and if he failed once more, he’d be forced to proceed with doing  in vitro fertilization and use the girl’s womb.

Nathaniel smiled, he had nothing but time. The door closed behind him as he walked to his main lab with a pep in his steps.

# # #

Back with Jean…
December 9th, 1996

I was really getting bored while waiting for Goldie to fix my spine, after I finished reviewing things Otto and the scientists had come up with from my stolen knowledge and skills. I tried finding entertainment in quantum string theories. String theory was a broad and varied subject that attempted to address a number of deep questions of fundamental physics. It had been applied to a variety of problems in black hole physics, early universe cosmology, nuclear physics, and condensed matter physics, and it had stimulated a number of major developments in pure mathematics.

Then that gave me a headache when my mind followed the lead of the current known theories and instantly went to Faster Than Light travel and Quantum communication. I realized that it also led to what I called hyperspace theory and the navigation of its layers and how I would break the barrier between dimensions to open a stable hyperspace window. This would allow a vessel to enter subspace and achieve faster-than-light velocities relative to real space while traveling at sublight speeds within its own layer of subspace.

I stopped there; it was scary what my mind conjured up when I was sufficiently bored. I just wanted to test the knowledge and use the skills in applied mathematics and chaos theory I had pilfered. My hands itched to find a damn blackboard and take notes to write down formulas, but I made do with my internal diary for now.

I was intrigued by what Goldie was  doing to my body. As an escape, I began entering in deep meditation just like sensei had taught me. Emily helped by doing the same as me and we quickly found balance, I was the yang, she was the yin and vice versa. I sank deep inside myself and was able to feel the repairs Goldie was doing to my back and more precisely on my spine and spinal cord.

Extra-dimensional tesseract symbiotes were able to fix or cure what ailed their host, by replacing some of the elements that didn’t work in their body, like failing organs or creating new legs with part of themselves. Goldie decided to not do any of that and directly take what was damaged and reconstruct it, thanks to my microkinesis that she copied, she was able to do just that and as I focused more my vision changed and I was able to see some kind of golden energy… being exchanged and suffusing my body.

*What the hell is that?*

It circulated into my body through some kind of channels. I knew the human body in and out because of how much control my TK gave me over it, but this was the first time I was seeing those arteries- and were those fucking meridians? Oh shit, please don’t let this become a chinese cultivation novel Emily told me about, I don’t want to become a bullshit person like those people. Those channels went through my organs and brain.

It was beautiful in a way, the way the energy slowly circulated and helped in fixing what was broken. Goldie was directly using my life force after feeding me the essence? Life force? Of the people she had eaten. It didn’t horrify me, what I let her do, all those clones and people on base were my enemies. As an afterthought I tried to touch the golden energy but it was like attempting to grasp air. It was weird, different from psionic or cosmic energy that had a more physical aspect to it, this energy was… this Chi, this was life force, spiritual energy. There was a trick to harness it. I was kinda bored and decided to continue to try. I don’t know how long I spent trying but I finally got the trick by spreading my awareness all over my body and with an act of will, touch my Chi. It felt strange, it was as if I had poked my and Emily’s own soul.

[Irritated: Please, stop that. Working, I am.]

*Oops, sorry.* I apologise, then dozing off to let Goldie complete her task. When I came to consciousness again, Goldie was still hard at work. I’d asked her on the progress and she informed me that the operation was almost complete. I deduced that she wasn’t simply fixing but modifying bone structure, making my bones stronger somehow. I didn’t yell at her, but she could have asked. Goldie was just like me- actions first, apologies later. 

I was finally understanding why she was saying we are one, she didn’t like being squishy so she made some change. *You could have asked, Goldie.*

[Worried: Thank me later, you will.]

*Don’t be sassy with me young lady!* I warned her; she was being bad.

I felt how smug she was as she continued to work. But she understood that I wouldn’t let the matter rest even if she ignored me. Though she still kissed me mentally as if to reassure me of her intention. Unable to shrug I still did it in my mind and got back to try Chi manipulation. With Goldie working on me, I tried to not touch my Chi but decided to see how everything worked. 

To help me in this task, I decided to tap into my symbiotes racial memories, Goldie seemed to intrinsically understand how life energy worked and could be used. The knowledge was extensive and Goldie didn’t limit it, giving me everything I could conceptually understand. When Emily and I delved into our body this time, I understood what I was seeing.

Goldie was basically transmuting my bones with life energy to make them denser, she also reinforced my muscles into an explosive mix of power and stamina, she had cut off my ability to feel pain, that was why I wasn’t suffering as she worked on me.

*Fascinating.*

Following the meridians linking my head, heart, lung, arms and hands, intestine, feet, I noticed how the Chi accumulated in some kind of energy center in my lower belly. The Chi focused here, then it surged and went into another energy center at the level of the heart. The same thing happened again between my eyebrows. 

Goldie’s memories told me that everything could be even more efficient if I accumulated more Chi from outside and refined it to unlock those channels and all my energy centers. 

<This is cultivation alright.> Emily snarked.

I couldn’t start when Goldie was still working as it could interrupt what she was doing which might be fatal. Just looking how the energy worked soothed me and slowly as I focused I began sending my awareness outward, and sure enough, Chi was everywhere. The trick to touch it and pull it into me wasn’t complicated, the place seemed to be filled with outside Chi anyway, so I did it. 

I noticed how murky it was compared to the energy inside my body, the knowledge of Goldie showed me how to refine it. I had to make it circulate in my first energy center, in my lower belly and send the impurities outside. It was hard at first, the energy didn’t want to separate, it was rocky and earthy in nature, but I imagined it going through a filter and it separated the rock like energy and took the pure Chi inside of me, adding it to my store.

I don’t know how long it took me but I felt as if something was breaking and before I could stop it did. The Chi was like a maelstrom inside of me, it settled and I noticed how the Chi inside me was stronger.

<Welp, Jeanie you just broke through.> Emily explained what I’ve just gone through.

I shuddered. *Hng, please stop, I am not a Cultivator!*

Emily laughed, thinking I was being ridiculous. <But you’ll do it again, you got some channels cleared and your first dantian unlocked.>

It was just like she said, my Klyntar’s knowledge was exactly describing the process as she did. *How do you know all this?!*

<I was a bored mom and reading tons of chinese cultivation shit. Now, continue.> Jean saw Emily shrug in her mindscape and return to her meditation.

[Affirmation: More essence! More power!] Goldie intervened, she suddenly had more energy to work with and finish Jean’s tune up.

Sigh.*I was getting bored anyway.*

It took time but I cleared my channels that became thicker and denser, allowing me to circulate more energy. I unlocked my second energy center near my heart. A surge of vitality spread throughout my body and my Chi heavier in my body, it had gained substance instead of being that wispy golden energy. Almost like a liquid. I felt stronger. Healthier.

<Only one left. Goldie is almost done too. The third one, I think it’s going to be a lot tougher; the area between the eyebrows is often depicted as the third eye. We may be able to see some supernatural stuff if you unlock it.>

That was disturbing, I was already seeing weird stuff in people’s mind; but seeing the supernatural was kind of spooky. There’s been something bothering me since I started that cultivation thing and I asked aloud to Emily, *You know… aren’t we going too fast with that stuff? I mean shouldn’t it take years for us to be able to do shit like that?*

Emily stiffened, scowled and sent her awareness outside of us. She could do everything I could, despite believing my body didn’t belong to her, too- we shared everything. Since I gained awareness as a toddler she had always been here. 

Emily took in our surrounding and focused on how the Chi outside flowed.<There’s an abundance of Chi around us, this shouldn’t be possible but I feel like we are being helped.>

I understood what she was saying. There should’ve been  less and less energy as we took it all in, but that wasn’t happening. *Someone is boosting us!*

I landed in my mindscape and looked at Emily who sighed heavily and sat on the sofa of the representation of my home in Annandale-on-Hudson. <There’s only one thing able to mess with life energy that we know off.>

Stepping back, I couldn’t prevent the fear that creeped up on me. I I didn’t like where my mind was taking me. *Em, please don’t scare me like that.*

Emily walked up to me, placing her hands on my shoulders, levelling me with a glare. <Stop trying to not see it! You know she’s been manipulating our lives since Annie died. She’s been sitting in the astral plane watching us, helping or letting us not… realize some shits.>

My memories instantly came on the fact that I suddenly had the cosmic equivalent of pyrokinesis, me able to see life force without meaning to train for it like Elektra or any member of the Chaste would, how people seemed to see me. I wasn’t that scary, I think?

(Very good.) A voice similar to mine, albeit more mellifluous, rang in our mindscape.

I wasn’t surprised that a fiery version of a bird manifested in our mindscape and looked at us too. I was frozen and looking at the bird of fire who stared at us two. Emily immediately placed herself between us.

(I have been observing you, yes.)

Emily is my role model; nothing scared her much. <Why do you want her that badly? You could easily find another host.>

The firebird flapped its wings and cocked her head. (Not a perfect one such as you two.)

My eyebrows rose at that, It wasn’t just me she wanted, but Emily, too? Why? This was completely different from what she has been telling me would happen after my powers manifested. 

<Me? But I am a tagalong, this is Jean’s body! I don’t matter.> I noted the sliver of panic buried in her tone. 

Again, it bothered me how she saw herself; she wasn't a nobody to me. She’d saved me, taught me valuable things and allowed me to be free. 

The Phoenix shook its head, pointed a wing at Emily and said, (You are one and the same, I don’t understand why you stay separated. You two should have fused since long ago.)

From the look on Emily’s face, one would think that the Phoenix had struck her.  She’d only calmed down when I grasped her hand in mine. She breathed in, even though she didn't need to and stared at the firebird <Fused?>

I poked Emily who turned to me. *She’s not the first one to say that to us, remember, the Ancient One.*

The firebird nodded and we stared at her. (A really wise woman, that is rare in this backwater galaxy.)

I gaped, *Wow, she's dissing the milky way, Em.*

Emily rolled her eyes. <What did you think would happen? She’s been seeing more advanced civilizations in Kree space or the Andromeda galaxy.>

I glared at the firebird, why did it seem like she was being insulting? I walked up to the bird and raised my chin, holding her gaze fiercely.  *I don’t like it, but just you wait, we will make Earth awesome. Birdy.*

Emily pulled me back and whispered, <Could you respect her and not give her cute names? She can still vaporize us.>

I grinned and shook my head. *No she needs us. We should go back to our cultivation, she’s just gonna do whatever she wants.*

Emily slapped my arm, clearly annoyed with me and crossed her arms over her chest, speaking loudly for Phoenix to hear, <Deal.>

When I turned to Phoenix, I saw her impenetrable expression breaking into a mask of indifference. Was it just me or did the firebird glare at me? Must have been my imagination, yep, totes that. Emily and I attempted to leave our mindscape, but we stood firmly fixed in place.

(You’ll have to fuse to leave, or you’ll die.) And just like that she disappeared in a column of fire.

Okay I didn’t anticipate that; that bird is being vindictive! *Em, what do we do?* I turned to Emily who stood in place with a calculating gaze.

Our bodies could finally move and Emily went to sit on the sofa. <Jean come here.>

I obeyed and sat at her side, at the same time she put an arm around my shoulder and said, <How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard…>

*Em?*

<There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends or family. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. When I first awoke in a tiny body and you were here, I began just observing. You were such a little wonder. You reminded me of my own child. You remember? I was always telling you to not do this or that. It wasn’t before you got burned by a hot pot that you finally listened.>

Being this close to Emily for sixteen years had given me insight in how she thought. She didn’t like how the bird forced us to do this, but she took it in stride; there was no hesitation on her part. Telepathy could be a boon, but today it was a curse to me. My vision became blurry, and I wiped my eyes, realizing tears had escaped. 

I lifted my head and looked at the older woman. *Em, please... you… this isn’t the end, you won’t leave me right?* I squeezed her in a hug and she returned the embrace just as tightly. 

She laughed and patted my back. <Leave you? No I’m not, we are going to fuse.>

I pulled away and then glared at her. *I don’t want to lose you, I don’t want to.*

<You are not, I will still be there.> Emily said as she poked my head, then my heart.

*Don’t serve me that sappy bullshit.* I knew that she was sacrificing herself for me, that she thought she didn’t matter, that I should have always been the one at the helm. Scratch that, it’s our body and-

Emily smiled, put a hand on my cheek and I saw her eyes shimmering with tears. <I don’t want you to die, if I must give you everything I am I would do it without hesitation.> She sobbed, wiped tears from her face and tried to laugh them off, but the sound was just choked. 

She didn’t fool anyone, certainly not me. But she tried really hard. <Don’t see it as us parting ways. This is not goodbye. Never say goodbye, because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting. You won’t forget me, will you?>

There was no way I would; she was more of a big sister to me than Sarah or Julia. Emily had always been here. If she said something then I’d believe it was true as she had always been mostly right. But who would be here to pick me up when I fell, who was going to hug me when loneliness crept in?  It had been her presence that had helped me get through the whole school bullying ordeal. 

No. I needed to grow up, I couldn’t continue to depend on her like this. I wiped at my cheeks.*I owe you more than my life, you are the reason that I am not a half lobotomized drone who answers to the rapist baldy’s wishes. Okay, I will buy that you won’t disappear, but if you do… I will find a way to get you back, you hear me?*

<Crystal, come here baby.> She gave me a dazzling smile, her curly locks tickling my nose as we hugged again. 

I shouted indignantly mid hug, *I am not a baby!*

As she began chuckling in my ear, she gave me the impression she was humoring me. <Yes, yes. Here.>

It was at that moment that we turned into our astral form despite ourselves. Emily’s golden yellow aura shone like the sun was completely different from my ruby red one. Our astral bodies became translucent, then we fell into each other. I understood then that we were fusing and that I too would be subsumed with Emily to become someone new.

As usual, she was right, we were not disappearing, we would be together forever. My thoughts were suddenly blank and I couldn’t think of anything.

# # #

I opened my eyes. I felt strange, completely different, stronger than ever. My legs and arms finally responded to the orders my brain gave them. Information flowed through my brain, two souls becoming one and forming another whole.

I wasn’t just Jean Grey, I was also Emily. That fact brought a smile to my face; we were still there but in a more complete fashion. What just happened to me was putting into perspective for me what really mattered. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

And we would be there together for each other. I knew why love was always described with eternity. A single minute stretched out for lifetimes and sometimes, in those moments people came together for a short time as that was the design of that relationship. Sometimes, it’s a lifetime. Sometimes, it’s much longer than one life on Earth.

I opened my eyes and my gaze shot around me. I was still within the green like water in the holding pod I was imprisoned in. There was only one thing left to do. Continuing my cultivation, it was done rapidly when I quickly but carefully drew on the outside Chi and made my breakthrough. I unlocked my upper dantian and the world was never the same again.

[Happiness: Completely fixed we are.]

*Goldie, thank you! You deserve all the chocolate we are going to steal!*

The symbiote reacted to that;, I felt something like glee and anticipation coming from her. I focused my will and tried shattering the glass but it stayed intact, not even a glimmer of a crack appearing. *Ah yeah, there must be an inhibitor on this pod.*

I kept trying, I even began to punch the glass with my fist but it did nothing. It pissed me off. I kept trying, until I was suddenly brought back to my mindscape, Phoenix was there before my sofa looking at me as if she was disappointed.

(You limited yourself.) She stated.

“What?” I don’t understand her, I was giving my all to escape!

Her bird head shook as she read my mind. (You limited yourself and I want to know why,? Was it to fit into that box your mortal enemy placed you in?)

“No, it isn’t! Please... I-I want to live! I want to kill him, see him being driven before me as I take everything from him!” There were so many people awaiting for my return, Mom, Dad, Cindy, Jess and my friends. No way that I was going to give up now!

(I’ve got advice for you then. Don’t think, do not try, when you try you fail. To succeed you must do, do or do not, there is no try.)

D-did the Phoenix Force just quote Yoda…? But I understood what she meant, I must unlearn what I have learned. I keep failing because I didn’t believe in myself, that I could win. I closed my eyes, cleared my mind, then I let go. I destroyed the lid that I had covering the well of power inside me, no more will I use it as a crutch. Pure and unadulterated power filled me, it couldn’t be contained and I didn’t even try to. 

It was like plunging into the sublime seas, diving deep, and swimming far, till I reached the depth of the ocean. I joined hands with it. And my world ended. And the next one began as Psionic energy thickly spilled out of my body and invaded the room I was in. 

I opened my eyes and looked at the glass separating me from freedom. *There is only the force.*

The glass broke or I should say the forcefield broke and the rest of the pod and the cables linked to me turned to dust. My body levitated from the ground. A cackle escaped me as I reveled in my power. It was hard to believe I was once afraid of it. This was awesome. My power was enough to reshape the world to my designs and you know what? I possessed the will ll to see it through.

Huh, I was naked, I floated toward a wall and transmuted it into a reflective surface and what I saw horrified me. My hair, my beautiful, luscious locks, were now completely shoulder length! My voluminous mane of red hair that I took care of for my entire sixteen years had been snipped. That was it, Sinister went too far this time! Even if it takes me an eternity, I will make you pay! “I will murder you, you and all the monsters you created, one after another, until you’ve been wiped from the surface of the earth!” I raged, my blood damn near boiling.

Goldie responded to my hatred and asked me if it was finally time to kill our enemies. “Yes, yes it is my dear.” And just like that, Goldie covered my entire form. As she was giving me our battleform, I let her sift through my mind for a good look for it. Memories of one Gabby Garcia, the White Widow came to mind and my symbiotes took her costume and morphed into it.

Where Gabby’s costume was white, mine was gold, where her’s was black, mine was red. Instead of a spider symbol, a dark Phoenix force one was emblazoned on my chest.

I noticed that I was taller and more muscular than before, strange. My hair had more of a curl to it, and my breasts had grown again it seemed. I shrugged, *I will think about that later, the fusion with Emi must have brought those changes.*

"Game on." Goldie covered my head like a full mask that concealed my features. Then, I shrank in a puddle and teleported with my new adapted power into the air duct and up on the wall and slithered into it, just in case I covered myself in my cloaking field. I was surprised that no one was checking on the room, and the pod with all the power I used. I retraced Goldie's previous path and went directly to the kitchen.

I wasn’t surprised to see people working there, even though one of them died here. Are they that dumb? My telepathy told me that they were so brainwashed they barely had the ability to think for themselves. I didn't lose time with them, I simply bound them all, they stopped moving and stood where they were.

I exited the air duct and fell on the ground in my humanoid form. I held my hand before me and sharp looking red claws replaced my fingers. I smiled and began to systematically kill everyone by slashing their throat. Red ocher oozed from the line across their neck, staining their clothes and aprons. 

Once they;d been drained of blood, they fell to the ground, dead. The entire kitchen was coated red in their blood. I levitated not wanting to cover my soles with blood and leave footprints. I raided the pantry, took food for myself and chocolate based products for Goldie. And for evil’s sake I used my TK to make the blood flow inside the pantry, staining everything: vegetables, water. I made incisions in the bag of flour and spoiled it all. 

It was a must to always cut off the supply of the enemy if the opportunity presented itself, and starve them. Even though I was stronger and in complete control of myself. This place must be a main base of that asshole Sinister and there must be significantly more powered people and allies of his inside. I was ready to put an end to this now. Determined to obliterate everything. I cloaked and exited the kitchen, left the armored door open for the cooks to be found. I floated slowly in the corridor and then a shrill sound rang everywhere, there were speakers embedded in the walls.

Attention, a subject has escaped, the base will be on lock down.

*Oh they finally noticed.* I chuckled as shutters closed and sealed the corridor I was in. 

Hearing footsteps behind me, I made a double take, my gaze landing on the man who’d attacked me before I was captured. He wasn’t alone, there was another man who could be assumed to be his twin brother running alongside him. They quickly found the kitchen and saw the bodies strewn here and there bathing in pools of their own blood.

The black guy felt nauseous. “Shit.”

His clone was even more disturbed by the scene.“What happened here?!”

As they stepped back, one of them took some kind of rectangular device from his pocket and spoke into it after pushing a button. “Boss, it's blockbuster 1. I entered the kitchen and… the clones staff... they are all dead, this is a literal sea of blood in here!”

A gasp was audible from the device’s speakers. “She was there! Find her!”

Of course I was here, dumbass. Now you are going to send your men to the slaughter to catch me, good. Bring them all.

The blakc guy in charge looked quietly at his dark blue uniformed clone. Then spoke again in the communication device. “But boss…”

“Do it.” I heard the steel in Sinister’s voice. There was no doubt it was him. Theatrically the man sighed. “Understood.” 

He pocketed his communicator and spoke to his counterpart who didn’t seem enthused about finding me. “Let's go find her, she must be weak after escaping that pod.”

Decloaking I appeared behind them, my face becoming visible when my Klyntar uncovered my head. “Oh, I assure you, I feel quite fine.” I said aloud and started speed reading his mind.

The black man man was called Michael Baer or better known as Blockbuster, a mercenary and an assassin that was hired by Sinister; he was eventually brainwashed to be my nemesis’ bitch. Sinister had created a literal army of this guy, there may be fifty of them on this base. What was worse, was that Sinister updated the memories of all his clones every week. 

It didn’t come as a surprise when recognition flashed across his face at the sight of me. He and his clone said at the same time, “Bitch!”

I smiled tightly. “Oh, you remember me. That's great. I kicked your ass the last time we fought and…” My eyes turned to his clone. “How sweet you've brought your brother to get his cheeks clapped too.”

They attacked in tandem at that, lunging at me. I didn’t even have to raise my hand to freeze them with my TK. The two men stopped one meter from me in midair, breathing heavily. Before the face of the one who insulted me, I smiled devilishly. “I am going to kill all of you cloned bastards.”

My eyes turned to the one who had attacked me in New York. “But first, I’m going to take your brother’s head and stick it up your booty hole.” 

I decapitated the one on the left with a thought. His head rolled on the ground, a pool of blood forming slowly.  The one who had attacked me was now soiling himself. 

*Disgusting.* I disintegrated his pants and undies and did just what I said I would. Now I needed to send a message to everyone here, something that would get the point across of what I was about to do.

As the head of his cloned brother floated toward him, the man shook like a leaf, looking at me as if I was the devil incarnate. I shoved the head where I said I would. Blockbuster’s screams were music to my ears.

# # #

(Sinister)

Audience room

Waving at his subordinate, Sinister mumbled, “Bring him to me.” 

Fortunately, it was audible enough for the guard at his side. “Yes, master.”

The normal clone took his communicator and spoke some orders into it. It was ten seconds later that the adamantium reinforced door to the audience room opened and two other clones were transporting a black man in a blue uniform on a gurney. Something indescribable was done to him and Sinister couldn’t believe he had survived it. Grey was dangerous- in more ways than he could fathom. 

*How did she escape?* Nathaniel asked himself.

He had gone all out on her adamantium holding pod, the most powerful power inhibitor and forcefield generator he could design and backed by two fusion batteries. The system diagnostic after that failure had shown that the forcefield capacitors had fried and not been able to hold on. This brief analysis shouted to him that the girl had woken up and immediately destroyed the apparatus holding her.

Yet again, Nathaniel felt he had underestimated the girl. He’d been disregarding the signs, the way she could even unconsciously shrug off any attempts of his to subvert or use her in any way. Nathaniel’s attention focused on the clone. The man’s belly bulged as though he were pregnant, and he kept mewling in pain at each movement of the clones transporting him.

*As I thought, she was in no way the kind soul of the woman he once met. She had gotten more vicious, before she would have just killed everyone without theatrics, but what she did here was just gruesome.*

“Ack… argh.” Blockbuster turned and twisted in the gurney.

Nathaniel looked on impassively at the spectacle, he would have felt the psionic power insinuating itself into the black man’s body if he had focused enough. Blockbuster’s body slackened, then he stopped moving. When he sat upright, Nathaniel immediately knew something was very wrong. The clone looked directly at him and smiled predatorily. Nathaniel wasn’t worried; there weren't many things that could threaten him. Blockbuster opened his mouth and his voice was replaced by a feminine one that Nathaniel was really familiar with. Natahniel flinched, his eyes wide at the psionic field that deployed all over the base.

“Sinister. This is where your story ends, although I am sure that there was a way out planned for you, I have a feeling that’s not what you want.” The tone of voice was serious and clipping.

*The girl, she's speaking as if she knew something about my future!* Nathaniel realized, standing up but mere moments later he was sent back on his throne by a powerful force.

He looked at Blockbuster, whose body began to smoke and to be covered in yellow orange lines.

“But I have a feeling that you are right where you want to be.” There was a chuckle before the message continued. “I am remaining as well, I am nearby. This place will not be remembered; and the memory of everything that started this, will finally begin to fade away; as the agony of every tragedy should.” The message became even more threatening. 

The psionic field thickened so much that it became visible, golden yellow aura spread all over the base. Miss Grey then began to address everyone, “and to you monsters trapped in the corridors, be still and give up your spirits, they don’t belong to you.” 

The chuckling intensified. “For most of you, I believe there’s still peace and perhaps more waiting for you after the smoke clears, although for you Sinister, the darkest pit of hell has opened to swallow you, so do not keep the devil waiting for too long. It's not me trapped in here with you, no, it's you trapped in here with me!”

A burst of emotions spread to everyone. It wasn’t anger though, no, it was thick, hot rage, A rage so strong and vengeful that it oozed of retributory and punishment for an offense. Biblical Wrath. After being used as a proxy messaging device, Blockbuster's body simply exploded in a shower of gore everywhere in Nathaniel's audience room.

Strips of flesh, blood and bones had splattered all over him and the guards in the audience room. Nathaniel took a kerchief out of his costume’s hidden pocket and wiped off the blood and brain coating parts of his face. He held onto the slip of fabric and stared at the blood staining it. *Fine, I will give you the fight you desire. *

“Call down the powered clones!” Nathaniel commanded, raising again and  pointing fingers.

But before one of the guards could move, the base… no the entire mountain began to shake, people and items were now levitating in place, until red light shone everywhere and then, BOOOOOOOM. The mad scientist was projected back onto his throne and a forcefield bubble surrounded him while the ceiling crumbled on everyone else in the room.

After ten seconds, the shaking subsided but Nathaniel looked around and up. The sun and the blue sky was visible, the audience room open to elements. He slammed his fists against the armrests of his throne.

“Call someone to get those clones out of the rubble! Call the powered soldiers now!!” Nathaniel screamed at the surviving clone guards who were extricating themselves from under the big chunks of rocks.

# # #

Back with Jean…
Sinister Valley

Looking at my handy work, I ripped away a good chunk of the mountain Sinister’s base was ensconced in. It was extensive, with multiple levels. I was satisfied with the level of damage I inflicted and cloaked. Flying deep into the jungle, I landed in a meadow with a water stream, my awareness spread all over it. There were strangely no foes or beasties here.

The jungle was an assault on all senses. The virescent hues were the foreground, the background and as high up as you could see. The heat and humidity pressed in on my skin making sweat pointless. The sounds of the insects, the birds and the larger animals created a symphony of nature calling you deeper. 

As I walked among the bushes, the leaves brushed up against me and my feet sprung up with each step. The air tasted sweet and fresh, making it feel like flowers were blooming on my tongue. There was a giant tree and under it a cave. I entered it, the cavern's walls were covered in moss. An animal had lived here and it didn't smell great inside.

My TK aura spread all over the interior, and I disintegrated the moss and mushrooms, the animal feces and urine. I packed the earth inside and the ground became grey, visibly gaining the consistency of smooth stone. I created airways to allow oxygen to pass through. My klyntar battle form melted into me, replaced by the clothes I wore when I got ambushed by the marauders, I remembered them from the comic books.

There were a number of them, and if I knew Sinister like he was in the different media I saw in my other life then he would have cloned them in multiple batches. It reminded me that I was unaware of what date it was. Goldie the ever helpful symbiote produced the communicator that was some kind of mini walkie talkie and the tactile tablet that everyone seemed to use in Sinister’s base.

I logged in into the tablet that reminded me of a Surface Pro 6, the same thickness and weightlessness. The operating system was completely different from the Linux or Windows one that I used in my other life. I brushed a strand of hair out of my field of vision, the bangs irking me now. The climate was sweltering and Goldie reacted to my need, getting rid of my jacket, leaving me  in my tank top.

Breathing in and out I sealed the entrance with a thought, the earth raised at the base of the cave and I transmuted it into rocks. *This Do or Do not shit was really helpful, thanks Phoenix.*

(You are welcome.)

I jumped up in surprise, hitting my head on the cave’s ceiling. I cradled the top of my head, crying out and a mellifluous laugh could be heard in my head. I don’t know when it’d happened but the firebird was now embedded deeply in my mindscape.

“What are you doing here? I thought you would go back to the astral plane!”

(I am the Phoenix Force. I can do what I want, and technically I am in the astral plane on our chosen island. Observing you, like you would observe reality TV.) I heard her sniff at me.

“Wow, my life is weird.” I found it strange that the PF was having human reactions. 

She stayed silent at that which was fine with me.I made the tablet float to me and looked at the date and time. My mind suddenly froze, “It’s not possible! No!”

[Distress: Jean-Host?]

“Goldie, how long was I in the pod?”

[Clarification: Thirty revolutions, since you were in the prison.] Goldie showed me that a revolution was the time it took the planet to turn on itself. The cycle of night and day.

My mind went blank. Thirty days. It’d been a whole month since I was captured. Thirty days that my mom, dad and Cindy had to endure in anguish without me.. If I wanted to kill Sinister before, it was nothing compared to now. Goldie reabsorbed the tablet into herself and I sat in the middle of the cave and instantly found my center and entered my mindscape. Inside I located the link to Jessica that represented a phone.

I took it in hand and from it felt emotions that my best friend shouldn’t have. Sadness and sorrow, longing. I put the telephone handset near my ears and mouth and spoke. “Jessica?”

<I must be dreaming, I felt like I heard Jean.> I heard her think, a sad note in this thought which went straight to my heart, cracking it. 

“Babe, you aren’t dreaming. It’s me.” I assured her.

Everything stopped and my mindscape was suddenly invaded by a pink haired girl. <Jean? JEAN!> When she saw me, she tackled me and held onto me.

I patted her back. “I am here, I escaped but I was put under for thirty days.”

She looked at me, though the mental representation of myself must have not changed even though Emily and I had fused. <Where are you? Where can I get to you?> Her expression was full of determination. Jessica was able to fly fast, we clocked her at below mach one because she doesn’t have anything to protect her that could support her acceleration.

I shook my head sadly. “You can’t, it seems that I am somewhere in Africa. I don’t know exactly where.”

She deflated, <I can’t fly that far… but… but, I am so glad to hear that you are safe.> Jessica hugged me again and I let her.

I hated to be the bearer of bad news. “Safe? I am not. If I run, Sinister will just hunt me down and take me back, he might also take the gloves off and capture you and the rest of our friends.”

For the first time I saw Jessica’s anger directed at someone else than the company whose truck killed her parents and brother. Her gaze became sharper. <So that bastard is called Sinister? It sounds like a Bond villain name…>

“His real name is Nathaniel Essex, an immortal enhanced bastard with too much money and power, smarts and resources. I’m going to kill him and everyone with him.” My mindscape literally vibrated at my uncontained wrath- uncontained because it was that great. 

Jessica looked around her, unsure of what was happening. As she refocused on me, she stared into my eyes, voice shaking. <K-kill him? Jean are you… yes you are serious I see it in your eyes.>

I changed the subject, clutching her hand. “Can you do something for me?”

<Anything.> Jessica looked at me earnestly. 

Smiling, I told her to, “Go see my parents, Cindy and our friends and tell them that I’m fine for now. I will come back when I am done killing everyone.” My hair rose as psionic energy surged into my mindscape.

Jessica stepped back. <Jean…>

“They are threatening my life, my family, my friends… It has to stop. I will make them stop.” Phoenix appeared at that moment, startling Jessica who looked between her and then at me.

<You are scaring me.> She whispered, her voice so little and so unlike her. 

I levitated to her, and put a hand on her cheek. “Don’t be, this has always been what it would have taken to make Sinister stop.”

*Hmm.* My mental field that was spread over the valley was detecting thoughts protected by those telepathic overlay things Sinister developed. They couldn’t fool me in a deserted place like this, human thoughts had a texture that was inimitable. “I must leave, Jess. There are people trying to find me in the jungle.”

<Jean! Wait!>

I turned to her. “Yes?”

<I may be scared but I want you to get back intact, okay? Do whatever you have to do to come back to us. >

“Thanks Jess, I needed that. Truly.”

I waved her away and her astral form disappeared from my mindscape. I was back in the cave, then I stood up, weighing the pros and cons of going into Klyntar battleform. After some moments, I found that I didn’t want to. Goldie must stay a secret, and if the fights are isolated I’d no doubt transform. I planned on using my main power set, my newly acquired Chi manipulation and continue to harvest powers with Goldie.

But just in case… Goldie formed a thigh holster with a magazine pouch on my tactical belt, I was now equipped with one of the P226 pistols we had stolen from SHIELD with three full clips. She added the tactical knife and sheathed my hands in black tactical gloves. The reason it wasn’t dark in the cave was because I’d manifested a construct of psionic energy in a spherical form all around, though everywhere was red and yellow because of the light.

However, I must fight smart too, instead of blundering all along and making mistakes like I ended up doing for the past years. I’d rely on Agent Shane and Elektra-sensei’s knowledge and training. Switching methodology and focus, I cleared my mind, and placed myself into a calm and mindful state; the result was my sense of awareness increased far above a human’s.

My body filled with Chi while I absorbed it from the outside and made it mine to fill my energy centers. All around me things became enhanced, like the colors, the wind, smells, my hearing and even my Klyntar enhanced vision.

*Okay, I will take out some of those clone scouts, rip information from their mind and then depending on what I find I will get back into the base and deny my enemies resources and kill the powered fucks there.* I nodded, cloaked, then teleported inside the base.

# # #

(Sinister)

Meeting room

Seated at the long table in front of him were fourteen of his powered clones, technically enough of them to take out that crazed girl. Sinister smiled and put his hand on the table before him. He had brainwashed each of them to believe that he was their ultimate master when they reached a suitable age of development in his manufactured artificial wombs.

On the left of the ornate white marble table was Hans. Massive, muscular, blond haired and with beady red eyes, he was the culmination of all the experiments with mutants and other superhuman individuals since WWII that Nathaniel had practiced. He was bred as the perfect mutant. Hans was genetically engineered from several other mutant's DNA, he had Superhuman strength, speed, durability, flight, an accelerated healing factor and optic blasts.

Nathaniel was proud of the fact that he had patterned him to be as close to Superman as possible; his creature was what the Nazis had wanted their ubermensch to be. Next to Hans was Vertigo, a lithe and green haired woman hailing from the legendary Savage Lands with the power of Psionic Equilibrium Distortion. She was able to project swirling mental waves of psionic distortion into her environment that affect the nervous systems of other living beings, focusing on the organs of the inner ear, causing extreme vertigo, nausea, disorientation, and having them experience hallucinations. 

Her distortion waves could render others unconscious, and like Scrambler, could also interfere with the superhuman powers of others, preventing their use or causing them to function incorrectly. To Sinister, amongst all of his subordinates, she was the most important right now. It was her who’d permit him to retrieve Jean Grey intact. On Vertigo’s side was an armored man, a clone of Senyaka, a mutant able to drain the bio-electrical essence of others upon physical contact. The living energy he drained augmented his natural strength, endurance, and reflexes, as well as accelerating his recuperative powers significantly.

The man was a savage, just like his original. *Well, Magneto killed the original for his bloodthirstiness…* When Gambit sent him the DNA sample of the man

The last clone on the left was Empath, a really disliked clone of a rapist and sexual offender who could use Empathy like his name suggested. Though it was his Pathokinesis that was the really bothersome ability he possessed. He had the ability to psionically control one emotion at a time, affecting many targets in the same area during that time or controlling the emotional states of multiple victims. He could change the amount of control he exerted over his victims, such as a simple emotional push or complete emotionless zombies who bowed to his every whim. 

The women here avoided him like the plague. Nathaniel kept having to clone him because he was murdered every three months by the local women population. Nathaniel barely tolerated him, disliking him greatly. 

To the right of the table were the most interesting mutants he had at his beck and call. The one to his right was the clone of Fiona Knoblach, a powerful psionic and ancestor of Jean Grey. He had found her original in the 1900s after Fiona founded the Sisterhood, an organization of psychic female mutants. Her original wasn’t dead and still lived as her Sisterhood grew into an organization with global influence, especially within the United States. 

She was immortal and possessed precognitive powers as well as the normal host of psionic powers such as telepathy and telekinesis. At her side was Jeanne-Marie Beaybier, Fiona’s friend; she was a clone of Aurora, a mutant member of Alpha Flight, one of the secret powered assets of the Canadian government. She was able to use photokinesis. Next to Aurora was a clone of Northstar, they shared almost the same power set. Each was able to fire concussive blasts and control how powerful the shots were, flying at 770 miles per hour at sea level. They moved faster than the human eye could follow. 

Technically those two were twins and able to use a Gestalt Photokinesis should they link hands they could generate a light equivalent to a lighthouse beacon by each sibling varying the rate of acceleration of his or her own molecules out of phase with those of the other’s. 

At Northstar’s side and flirting with him was the clone of Chimera, the clone of an interdimensional pirate of questionable sanity. A blue eyed blond, tall and curvaceous woman, clad in a leather outfit flattering her female form. Nathaniel had cloned her when he obtained a sample of her DNA after she appeared from a dimensional rift. The original and him had come to blow and he made her bleed enough, she fled through another rift, of course.

Chimera could generate ectoplasmic bursts in the form of telekinetic dragons to strike enemies both physically and psionically. She also had telepathy enabling her to read minds and create illusions. Due to the nature of her powers, it was getting rather difficult to keep her docile and obedient; the brainwashing machine’s programming tended to not stick more than two months with her.

*I may have to eliminate her.*

Unknown to Sinister, as he looked at the familiar faces of Gambit, Scalphunter and Vanisher who he had cloned last month, Chimera stared at him with a calculating gaze and quickly averted her eyes.

At last, Havok and Sunfire’s turn, with Hans they were his strongest hitter. Nathaniel’s Havok was a clone of Alexander Summers, Scott Summers’ little brother. The sample of his DNA had been easy to appropriate in his orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska. Havok was able to convert ambient cosmic energy and process it into plasma. 

This results in control over an extremely powerful sort of destructive force. He could also absorb energy from other sources other than the cosmic sort, fly, shoot or emanate plasma in the form of a blast or discharge, with a tell-tale concentric circle pattern. The kicker was that Havok was virtually immune to the effects of most forms of heat and virtually immune to the effects of most forms of radiation.

Sunfire… ah! Sunfire’s mutant powers enable him to absorb solar and other radiation to generate the process of ionized matter (usually air) through a mentally-triggered unknown biochemical process so that it was converted to plasma, the superheated state of matter. Plasma was the state in which matter making up the sun existed; hence, Sunfire referred to his projecting as "solar fire". Hence he could sheath his body in flames.

He could fly, shoot powerful blasts of plasma and sense beings by the heat signature that they gave off. With this powerful line-up, Nathaniel was confident that he could retrieve Jean Grey.

Nathaniel took on a fond expression, spreading out his arms. “My friends, I am happy that you answered my call.” 

“Like we have any other choice.” Someone retorted.

Nathaniel glared in the direction of Chimera and asked, “What was that?”

The woman rolled her eyes and huffed. “Again, my point.”

“So why are we here for, great leader? I heard that some redhead escaped from confinement and destroyed half the base.” Chimera wanted to point out that even he made mistakes.

“It is true. Jean Grey ran away and is now threatening to kill us all.” Nathaniel pushed a key on a holographic keyboard and a 3D picture of Jean appeared.

Everyone looked at her picture with varying expressions. Some with anticipation, others with a dread that grew and grew. 

Fiona Knoblach showed a fearful expression. She looked at Sinister who observed her in particular. Her eyes were completely dilated, a sign that she was having one of her visions. “He is right, if we don't kill her, She's going to kill us all. There's some kind of obstruction on my precognition, I don't know who is doing it but I barely get bits and pieces.”

“Interesting, where do you think it's coming from?” Nathaniel wasn't surprised that this had turned to a fight to the death.

Fiona closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on what she was feeling from the ambient local psionic field. “It's a mental field, covering the entire valley.”

There were clones cursing and showing displeased expressions on their face or body language.

Havok slapped his hand on the table. “Shit, seriously? There's no way she's that powerful!”

Nathaniel chuckled darkly. “Of course she is, why do you think I wanted her?”

Chimera chose to antagonize Nathaniel as usual, her chin lifting as she stared him dead in the eyes. “So let me get this straight, you kidnapped an omega level mutant and didn't think this would bite you in the ass?”

Nathaniel narrowed his gaze, glaring, and she held it the entire time until he answered, “I had no way of knowing she was omega level at the time. She's young, weakened from her stint into the holding pod and we can either capture her or kill her.”

“Yes, she's just one girl, what can she do?” Gambit interrupted and laughed with Scalphunter and a Blockbuster clone.

As if the fates had heard them and decided to give them a lesson, red glass boxes began to appear one by one on the big marble table. Then the boxes disintegrated, letting the heads of dead clone soldiers squelch onto the white surface. Most of the women present stood up to either puke or step back from the table. Some of the men did the same, but Senyaka, Scalphunter, Sunfire and Vanisher weren't affected.

“Apparently, she can do that, Gambit.” Nathaniel simply said. 

He wasn't disturbed by her theatrics but deeply  disappointed. A note slowly descended from the air and landed on the heads. He grabbed it, reading it aloud for everyone. “Imagine forests of corpses, dripping on a buffet. That's what you'll find when you descend into the valley and enter the jungle. Killing your toy soldiers was like stepping on ants; call your minions in 'cause you're gonna need more than them if you want to survive.”

Sinister slammed his fist on the table, cracks appearing instantly. The crack spread all over its surface, but by some miracle the table held upright still. “Impertinent little trollop.”

Nathaniel pointed a finger toward the  mountain of severed heads. “You’re seeing to which length she's going to take this, are any of you wanting to end up like this?”

“I will go, it’s either us or her at this point.” Aurora said, her brother nodding in agreement with her. 

Scalphunter intervened. “Hold up people, I want to point out that something is wrong here. How did she know we were here? How is she doing this?” He was worried about operational security and to prove to him that he was right to, multiple notes appeared from midair, for specific clones. 

Scalphunter took his notes and saw the sentence, “Fuck you, that’s how!” The clone fumed. “I’m going to shoot that little bitch.” His costume morphed into a rifle.

“You’re scared, motherfucker.” Hans pointed out, grinding his molars together. 

“Nice fur, you look badass with it. Unfortunately, there’s a pussy underneath.” Senyaka read, his tone flat. It wasn’t the first time someone dissed his fur armor. He looked in the air and nodded, sure that the girl behind the taunts watched them. 

“Fiona has the last note.” Aurora said aloud.

Everyone turned to the precog whose hands were now trembling, her eyes dilated. Nathaniel noticed that she was having a vision. Blood trickled out her nose when she looked at everyone. “What I am about to do to your annoying little club, I am going to enjoy it.” Then her head popped in an explosion of gore.

“OH MY GOD, FIO!!” Aurora bellowed, activating her super speed to catch Fiona’s body. It was in vain, as seconds later the rest of her exploded in the same manner.

Aurora watched her empty hands with wide eyes and blood covered her entire body. Her yellow of her skintight jumpsuit was barely visible now, most of it stained in red.  The mood was suddenly subdued in the room.

Nathaniel chose this moment to rally them. “I have only one order for you all, find the girl. Operational security is of course important.” Sinister left the room, the others following him, but Chimera remained, hiding a note. 

She was smiling as the note said, “Wanna team up?”

# # #

(Hans)

Hans' apartment
10 minutes later

Hans was fuming. Never had he been this insulted before. He was dying to get his hands on that little harlot. He couldn’t believe that he had found her attractive before. Hans had spent days watching the little harlot floating in her holding pod and fantasized day and night about her for the entire month. Now, though? He planned on tearing her apart a limb from limb. She wasn’t needed alive anymore; his master would find a way to clone her and then maybe the next iteration would be more reasonable.

He entered his apartment, the automatic door switching as he swiped his access card in the electronic lock on the door. Hans stripped of his armor, letting it fall to the ground and strode to his locker embedded in the gray wall facing his bed. Again, he swiped his card and the steel gray metal door folded on the right, revealing weapons and armor that Hans had stored.

Choosing to be careful, he chose his heavy armor, but as he took his tactical vest he heard a noise from behind him. Hans turned back and saw that there was nothing. Shrugging, he returned to his business but when he turned before him was a beautiful redhead with shoulder length hair who was now touching his face.

Hans tried to move away by stepping back at super speed, for naught as he couldn’t move anymore.

“Hello Hans.” The voice was sultry but  laced with maliciousness.

The giant man tried to move and fight but nothing happened, his body standing firmly paralyzed. “Unhand me!”

Jean Grey cackled. “No Hans, you’ll all die, but you? Not yet, not before I use you like the brainless puppet you are.”

“Y-you won’t win! My master will kill you… and I will be there watching as he desecrates your corpse.” A crazy glint appeared in his beady red eyes as he took her in.

“How crude.” Her hand on his cheek covered in golden and red goo that formed claws. She slid it on his naked skin, making a cut in his cheek. 

Blood oozed from the wound, and the red and gold goo sucked his essence with relish. “Now you ain’t going to be so unique anymore. This is goodbye to your sentience, puppet.”

Hans tried desperately to move, to fight! But he couldn’t think anymore. She was robbing him of everything; he felt as the redhead was unmaking him and plunged him into oblivion.

# # #

Back with Jean…
2 minutes later

This wasn’t the first time I’d destroyed someone mentally. I did it with the first clones that Sinister had sent after me. But Hans had been born naturally, his mind had felt more substantial than those I've made into vegetables before and it took significantly more time. Goldie hummed in the back of my mind as she registered Hans' genome into her codex and archived his abilities.

Then I felt it click as she was now able to use a different power set than Vanisher's teleportation. All those powers would come in great use. I catalogued the knowledge that I had stolen from Hans and it showed me the different abilities and skills of everyone arrayed against me. It was daunting, but not insurmountable. I had just taken two pawns off the chessboard. 

I cloaked myself once again, and began programming Hans' little pea brain with basic instruction and left a bit of my awareness with him to… pilot him, that's the word. I made my Hans puppet dress in his heavy armor and then we left to find someone I really wanted to kill and sabotage the teleportation network in the base. We wouldn't want for Sinister to resupply from his other bases.

We made a show of patrolling the corridors, the vehicle hangar where there was, I kid you not, a blimp, a plane and… how the hell could there be a Yacht in a mountain?! And who uses blimps nowadays? Those are death traps. Apparently Sinister kept the blimp out of nostalgia. 

From what I pilfered from Hansy, the control center should be near. Floating to avoid knocking into one of the clone engineers, I planned to return later and end them. I followed the light, there was excellent and comprehensive signage in this base. I even found a 'you are here' map. *Did Sinister believe that he would never get invaded?*

After five minutes we were in something akin to a loading bay, people and boxes appeared in flash of lights on a pedestal. *Isn’t that a fucking transporter from Star Trek? But the way it’s working… looked like it was an Asgard transportation device from Stargate.* Through my power, I was able to comprehend what was occuring. 

In Star Trek, people and objects were broken down into streams of subatomic particles, also called the matter stream in Star Trek. But Sinister’s transporter worked like the Asgard variant; any matter targeted by an Asgard transporter was encompassed in a bright light and broken down into its base atoms, which were then transported to a designated location and reassembled. 

*I want one… Fine, when I kill the asshole I will take everything he owns. Gives me more motivation to finish this.* I was going to take his base, his entire assets and form a company that would permit me to live comfortably in this world.

Deploying my awareness, I searched for any recording devices. No matter the size, I’d find them. They weren’t fixed to the walls, but in the forms of little insect-like drones set up all over the loading bay. With a thought, I crushed them all, closed the door to the bay forcefully, Carrie style and ordered Hansy to kill everyone in here.

I watched as he grasped a clone’s head between his hands and tore it from its body. He looked at the transporter platform with glowing red eyes, then twin beams of light struck the platform that went out in an explosion and shower of sparks. Whoever was coming to the base must be dead in transit in their base atoms.

I decloaked and manifested bladed constructs, arrows, swords, axes and threw them in the throng of fleeing or fighting clones. It was like I was the fox and they were hens, panic leading to them being killed or dismembered. I had to occasionally strike some of them, and tested my Chi powered punches and kicks that simply rend flesh or let my fist pierce them.

I also tested my own optic blasts stolen from Hans.

Krakooom. At first the ruby colored beam came out of my eyes far too weakly; they slammed into a clone who had a collapsible baton in his hand and lunged at me. I allowed the blast to persist and ramped up the strength until the clone’s body exploded and splattered on the wall. I shunted the power back into the inter-dimensional portals that my eyes had become.

Looking at my handy work I nodded, “Wow, that’s handy. I’m not going to need to study Summers for his power again. Hmm, though I would prefer to use my hands or all other my body rather than my eyes.”

Goldie must have heard me as I felt something switch and I held my hand to the control station of the transporter. KRAKOOOM. The station was now demolished as I sustained the blast for another ten seconds.

“Well that’s better, thanks Goldie.”

[Acknowledgment: Welcome, you are.]

Hansy continued to kill and wreck the place. We finished crushing and maiming everyone in the loading room. It was when we were about to leave that I felt a familiar mind with a different texture. It reminded me of…*Gambit.* I didn’t cloak this time and decided to stage a fight with myself and Hansy. I released my hold on the doors of the loading room and when it exploded, Gambit had a full view of me and Hans in a fist fight.

WHAM! I threw him flying out through the exploded door. Gambit jumped low on the ground supporting himself with a hand as if he was doing push ups. As Hansy sailed in the corridor and impacted the hangar door twenty meters away, the Gambit clone took a playing card between his fingers and threw it at me. With my TK aura I batted it away and it exploded. As the light and smoke descended on him, I flew toward him with super speed.

He was still fast enough to swipe his bo staff to my head. I lowered it, landed my feet on the ground and launched a palm strike that he stepped into and evaded by attempting to give me a shoulder check; Goldie upped my durability and base strength and I jumped, kneeing him in the stomach. The blow had him gasping for air and spitting out blood. 

Catching him by the neck I struck him with a full power reinforced Chi punch in the solar plexus. I pierced his torso and, with a thought, Goldie oozed from me and gobbled him up. CRUNCH. Crunch, crunch.

“That was cool.” I praised, feeling more people rushing for me at super speed. s As they came into the loading room, I smiled and waved at them before teleporting out of there. 

# # #

(Aurora and Northstar)

Loading Room/Transport Room

“She’s a monster.” Aurora gasped as she gazed upon the handy work of Jean Grey. 

Aurora had never felt horror like this before. She thought she knew what fighting was about but things like all those dead bodies and destruction of the transport room drove the point through that they were fighting for their lives.

Her brother asked, “Do you know what happened?” 

She turned and glared at her twin. “No! I've just arrived.”

Heavy footsteps rang behind them, and they turned, alert and ready in a fighting stance. They relaxed when they saw the giant form of Hans. “Urgh, did Gambit get her? She threw me rather far away.” The giant dusted himself off causing particles of stone and dust to fall from his face as he spoke.

“Hans, what the hell happened?!” Aurora demanded, all up in the bigger man's face.

Northstar walked behind her, avoiding walking over the clones' corpses.

“I was patrolling the corridors and important installations when I saw Jean Grey teleport into the loading room, we fought and… she didn't care about collateral damage.” Hans reported, still dusting himself of the stones and dust he was completely covered in. Hans looked concerned as he stared around the room.“Did you see Gambit? He arrived when we were battling.”

“No we didn't see-” Aurora was about to say when she saw a severed hand holding a silver bo-staff. Her face became hard when she said, “I think I found him.”

“Damn, she got him!” Northstar said insensitively as he took out his communicator and said aloud, “Northstar to console, I report Gambit killed in action.”

Aurora looked as her brother, clad in black and white uniform, was reporting what Hans had informed them about. As for Aurora she watched as Hans looked into the room beseechingly and especially looked guilty about the transporter platform.

*I see, she must have tricked him into destroying it.* She walked up to the big man and placed a hand on one of his biceps, thinking about how hard they felt. 

Hans turned to her and watched her absently. “Yes?”

Aurora took her hand back. “Hans… can you tell us anything about her?”

The giant blond man folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know… shouldn’t she just be a Telekinetic and a Telepath? She fought me on equal terms in close quarters and she’s cunning, always about to deceive you and push you into making mistakes.” Hans glanced to the platform again.

Aurora could tell this line of questioning was bothering him as his ego had been shattered after fighting with the ruthless and powerful Jean Grey. “I see, we should bombard her from afar with your optic blasts, my brother’s concussive blast and my lightning.” The black haired woman said confidently.

Hans shook his head. “Don’t underestimate her, she’s fast. As fast as you.”

Aurora snorted at that. “No one is as fast as me or my brother in flight.”

Hans chuckled gutturally. “Is this hubris I hear?”

There was off about Hans but Aurora couldn’t figure out what it was. “Hans?”

The blond giant cracked his neck and shook his head as he said absently. “Forget it, I’m going to patrol again.” He left her amongst the dead body and the destroyed transport room that finally gave Aurora chills.

# # #

(Jessica Jones & the Grey family)

USA, New York, Queens
December 11, 1996
Grey Penthouse
04:02 PM

Jessica would have never thought that she would be beating on this door again; she had lost hope of ever seeing her best friend again. But by some miracle Jean escaped, or should Jessica say as 'expected?'

Knock. Knock.

Jessica waited for another two minutes before she heard shuffling and someone coming to the door. The young woman who appeared at the doorway wasn’t someone Jessica recognised but she noticed the shared family traits with Jean. Short red hair, though the shade was lighter, green eyes and she was beautiful, like Jean. She directed a judgemental look at Jessica who was used to such behavior from people because of her pink dyed hair and the punk rock look she sported right now.

She wore a tight fitting green t-shirt and blue jeans. Her expression was less than welcoming. “Yes?” 

Jessica still smiled, looking earnest. “Is Mrs E here?”

“Who are you?” She scowled, crossing her arms under her ample chest.

Jessica couldn’t help the flicker of jealousy she felt because of the good genes of the Grey. “I'm Jessica Jones, I am Jean's best friend.”

It seemed that Jessica was now worth talking to as the redhead now stared at her with interest. “Ah. Is it important?”

Jessica nodded vehemently. “Terribly so.”

She opened the door fully and stepped aside.“Enter please.”

*Don’t mind if I do.* Jessica quickly entered and was ushered into the familiar living room. The difference was that there was another new redhead present and this perturbed Jessica. She had never seen them before. She slightly resembled Jean but harboured a different fashion sense that was closer to Jessica's, shoulder length hair and a less than mature attitude compared to her little sister.

She looked hostile too, but Jessica didn’t mind as this was a vulnerable period for the Grey family. 

The redhead who allowed her in inhaled deeply before shouting,“Mom! Jean's friend, Jessica is here!”

A few seconds later, Elaine Grey came to the living room. Jessica looked at her and she found the Grey matriarch subdued and tired looking, there were dark marks under her eyes and she wore clothes that were less cheerful than before. Elaine smiled when she saw Jessica, an improvement on her mood. “Jess, my dear. What brings you here?”

Jessica glanced at the two redheads who stared back at her with different kinds of mood and suspicions. As usual Elaine read the situation quite skillfully and waved at the other two redheads. “Oh, let me introduce you to Jean's big sisters, those are Sara and Julia.”

Jessica was surprised. She had heard about Jean’s big sisters; her best friend had been complaining about how absent they were and that it had made her parents sad, but that she understood they were busy building their own lives. They still called from time to time but it was only when they needed money or advice from Elaine and John.

Jessica threw a polite, “Nice to meet you.” and deftly ignored them to say to Elaine, “Mrs E, I have big news! Jean has escaped!”

Elaine visibly became more animated and, with a speed belying her age, she was in Jessica’s face, grasping her hands in hers tightly. “Jessica?! Is this true?”

She bobbed her head up and down and opened her mouth to reply but was cut off when someone put a hand on her shoulder and made her  turn. It was the older redhead, Sara, glaring at her.“What the hell?! How can you say that? Jean is… lost to us, respect…”

Elaine surged and slapped her daughter. “Sara, will you shut up?”

Sara looked at Elaine in betrayal. “Mom? Why...”

The Grey matriarch's eyes focused back on Jessica who felt like she had seen something too personal and squirmed when she felt everyone’s eyes on her. “Did she contact you?”

Without stuttering, Jessica began to inform Elaine. “Two hours ago, I was in class and she called on me.” Jessica became even more animated and happy. “Mrs E, she's alive, but… Jean said that she was put under for a month.”

Elaine’s disposition visibly shifted under Jessica’s eyes, her back straightening and her eyes shining with joy. Tears of relief streamed down her cheeks, one after the other. Julia, the second redhead in the room kept looking back and forth between Jessica and Elaine with incomprehension. She assumed Jean was dead since they hadn’t received any demands for ransom or any calls from those who kidnapped her. She had already written off her little sister at this point. She felt sad but wanted to be here for her mom as Jean was the baby of the family. 

But right now this girl just came and said that she had news of her sister having escaped. “Mom could you please explain? What's happening?”

Jessica saw Elaine’s face suddenly become more unhappy, and... was that guilt that she was seeing on Jean’s mom's face? Elaine turned to her second born. “Julia, I wanted to tell you… but your sister, she has powers. That's why the man who took her was interested in her. As you are really the most skeptical of us, I didn’t want to burden you with this knowledge.”

Julia had a disbelieving expression on her face. She raised from her seat, saying,“Is this a joke?”

“No Julia, mom… is right. Jean can lift things with her mind.” Sara intervened to cut short the freak out of her sister.

Jessica rolled her eyes at the two other Grey girls and decided to cut short this little drama and poked the link between Jean and her. *Come on Jeanie, your sisters are having a freak out. Can you do anything?*

Julia was in full blown denial when she opened her mouth to reprimand everyone. “Mom, you are being deceived. That girl is-”

In a flash of red and golden light, the astral form of Jean appeared, dressed in the same badass outfit Jessica had seen her in. Surely a Goldie construct. Jean was here, not in person as her astral form was transparent. She looked at her mom who suddenly tried to hug her but went through her instead.

“Mom! Careful, I’m not here.” Jean informed, watching her mom hit the back of the couch.

Elaine stood back up, a bit embarrassed. She saw Jean laugh at her, Jessica felt that the Grey matriarch was about to try to hug Jean’s projection again, before she stopped herself.

Sara Grey’s eyes were wide as saucers. “Jean!!”

Julia stepped back, frightened at the display before her.“Jean?”

Jean turned to her sister, beaming. “Hey Sara, Lia! Rumors of my demise are awfully exaggerated.”

Sara was first to react and walk up to her, poking Jean’s astral form. It went through it instead and she laughed  at her sister’s misquote. “That’s: The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. You geek.” Sara’s eyes were shimmering with tears.

“Jean, where are you?” Elaine asked beseechingly. Not interested in banter, she wanted to know where her baby was.

Jean's smile faded, her expression now hard. She crossed her arms and looked at her family. “Africa, in a base teeming with clone soldiers. My kidnapper is a fan of Star Wars it seems…”

“Like in episodes two and three?” Jessica interrupted.

Jean turned to her best friend and grinned. “Yep, I’m thinning their number as we speak, I already killed a lot of them and I am busy sabotaging everything.”

Jessica raised her hand and they simulated doing a high five.

“Kill? Jean what are you talking about? Mom, what’s happening?! Why is Jean a ghost?” Julia began to freak out as she took in the crazy scene before her.

Jean looked on in pity at her second big sister but didn’t explain; Jessica understood she was on a time crunch. Elaine would surely do that in her place.

“Can’t you just come back right now, Jean?” Elaine interceded between Jean and Julia, knowing her two daughters well. They had never been able to see eye to eye. Jean seemed to be on better terms with Sara who at least was supportive of her, as Julia was simply dismissive of her.

Jean had the same guilty emotion that Jessica saw earlier on her mother as she said, “I can in fact come back right now.”

Everyone reacted to this and shouted in sync, “Why don’t you?!”

They all looked at each other. Jessica giggled at their expressions. Then their gaze returned back to Jean who seemed reluctant to speak.

“I need to kill Nathaniel Essex or he will attack me again! He will not stop, and this time to get me back he might kill or take you all with me to assure my… obedience if you catch my meaning.” 

Sara squinted her eyes, doubting. “You are doing this for… us?”

Jean nodded. “Mom, sis… I need to finish this. I want to be free, I want to destroy the man who made me this way.”

Elaine shook her head, longing to have her daughter back this instance. “No! Jean come back! You’ll be safe with us.”

Jessica’s best friend looked apologetic. She shook her head and looked Elaine in the eyes. Jean was somewhat angry. “You think your world is safe? It is an illusion mom, even SHIELD couldn't do anything. Safety is a comforting lie those in power tell us to protect us, this is a death world. And whether you want it or not, mom… I will have my vengeance.” The angry eyes of Jean softened as she became even more transparent, she was leaving.

“Jean!” Elaine walked up to her daughter and tried to touch her.

Jean smiled and for just an instant, Elaine felt physical contact. “I love you all, I will contact you later!”

She was gone, like the wind and with her the colors of the world were too for Elaine.