Raptor of life 11.3 (Patreon)

This chapter was edited by sinisterr the awesome and the magnificent pids, the punny sky and the stoic Blackstarline!

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Chapter 11.3

Back with Jean…
December 12, 1996
Sinister Egypt Base
10:00 AM

Seeing my mother and sisters was good for me. It reminded me of what was at stake if I failed. I was even more determined to not be captured again. I wouldn't die! I would let those dumb clones do the dying for me. Not even knowing how to resist some lousy brainwashing machine, though this Chimera girl, she was fine, we had even reached an understanding. 

Looking behind me, I saw some other clone soldiers patrolling. I opted to shapeshift into one of the few remaining cloned engineers left. c I think any revenge plans of mine would have been doomed if I didn’t have Goldie with me. I nodded in greeting at another engineer as he passed by me. The passageways and corridors of the base were spacious, to permit some special transportation vehicles to pass. I had even seen some kind of maglev that travelled through the mountains.

It was the first thing that I had sabotaged today. I fiddled with all the magnets of the tracks, today wasn't a killing day, but to cut any avenue of escape for Sinister and his troops. I also caused cave-ins to the access to the other facilities in the mountain chain surrounding the valley. Now it was the generators’ turn. They were in the lower level of the base.

I fully intended to disrupt the operations of this base. Earlier, I rode the elevator to the  lower level and walked to the main generator fueling everything, and in the confusion I intended to go have a look at the containment cells to see if they had anyone there I had to rescue who could help me kill the rest of the clones.

The armed clones were more numerous the more I advanced- a tidbit that informed me Sinister was gaining more of an understanding of my tactics. I would have to up the ante if I wanted to force the endgame like I designed it. The guards ushered me into the generators chamber that I realized was massive, taking all the two hundred fifty square meters of the room. It wasn't a fuel based generator like I thought but a full blown fusion reactor, it made me respect Sinister just a tiny bit.

The spherical and dark gray containment unit showed me the electric blue plasma inside. I felt the warmth and energy that it generated raised the hair on my skin. It was controlled by a single computer which was far more advanced than anything I’d ever encountered in this reality and my previous one. Fortunately, the control and the UI of the operating system was intuitive and made completely comprehensible; another thing I didn’t understand, Sinister should have made this more difficult to get into.

On the screen, I saw how much energy 0.90 GJ/s. *How inefficient, Howard Stark made a smaller one that could feed 2GJ/s that powers Stark Industries for years.* Consulting my stolen tablet, I read the apps that permitted me to control the generator and its capacitors before me. There were a series of hidden chambers such as this one with a generator barely handling the feeding power to each facility.

Though the tech was here before my eyes, it was hard to believe that a wacko like Sinister had it; and this one reactor could power multiple cities for one hundred years. I wanted it, and badly.  My first instinct about blowing it up and the base with it warred with my greed. Here I was, with the chance to end this all by creating an instability in the plasma containment unit, thus creating a nuclear explosion that would blast those mountains and the valley, but no, I wanted it all.

*Fine, I will keep it. I will just cut the systems feeding into it and create a loop in which it will cut the electricity intermittently. Introduce deliberately a few bugs that are easily fixable.*

I shunted the power fed to the teleportation system into the labs; the cloaking system, I didn’t touch it; that was needed to make this place invisible and I didn’t want SHIELD or god forbid Hydra to discover it after I am done with the current owner.

I poked at the touchscreen to validate the operation I wrote in the computer. I turned toward the gate and began to solder the armored doors together with a thin beam of heat with pyrokinesis. Once done I caved-in the entrance and packed the rocks and earth into a solid wall of rock by bonding their molecules together.

Slowly approaching the wall, I knocked on it with a finger. It was four meters thick. I tipped my chin down in a nod, pleased with my work, before taking my tools and tablet, then teleported to the next chamber. This operation was repeated four times before Sinister finally sent Havok to protect the last generator chamber. As I didn’t want the reactor chamber to be damaged, I stopped my sabotaging operation and teleported directly in a deserted alcove in a secluded part of the base.

I shapeshifted into Aurora and her dumb costume, which was annoyingly too tight on the breasts. I materialized an illusion of Sinister at my side and we walked together toward the holding cells. The clone guards that we crossed respectfully bowed and scraped to my illusion. It disgusted me that the man had programmed them to do such a thing at his mere presence. I mean, talk about abuse of good brainwashing.

Swish. Clang. Vrzzz. Multiple metal doors opened automatically when I punched in the code I’d stolen from the guards head in the electronic lock box. Sinister was already in 2020 as far as I was concerned, while the world was still in the 90’s. I envied the communication system and the tablets, it would be really easy to create smartphones by copying the circuitry inside, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Sinister's factories.

I entered, immediately noticing the guards positioned in armored booths, possessing flame throwers, energy assault weapons and machine guns waiting for orders. With my TK, I snapped their necks and they were dead instantly, tumbling to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Most of the cells seemed to be tailor made for my kind, armored walls, each cell is a large cage with horizontal bars and a powerful force field spanning across the sides. At least they had amenities inside such as a shower and toilet.

There were only two prisoners inside neighboring cells. A young woman who seemed to be my age, dressed in black prisoner clothes, her hair red, and eyes green- I wasn’t surprised at that. Sinister seemed to have a thing for girls with my eyes and hair.- and a bald black man in tattered clothes. The two wore inhibitor collars around their neck.

The young woman flinched when she noticed my gaze on her, and also because my Sinister illusion was standing beside me. The black man in his cell was frozen entirely. They were terrified and angry… I could do something about that.

I returned to my normal appearance and dismissed the Sinister illusion. “Heya guys, how is it hanging?”

# # #

(Angelica Jones)

It’d been seven months since she was snatched on her way home. Of course, she had attempted to defend herself, escape or kill the guards, but she was always caught. Not only that, her powers seemed to have deleterious effects on her own body. She couldn't use them extensively; her jailer had written her off when he discovered that her power generated radiations were affecting her cellular structure and long-term exposure would give her cancer.

Angelica lay strewn across her cot, thinking about how she got here; she was a thirteen year old high school student who fell victim to a series of unfortunate events. She was being bullied by girls at her school, midtown high, then her grandmother died; it was how she activated her x-gene, a really bad day. She could remember how frightened she was when she began manifesting the power to generate great heat.

It was much more of a struggle when you didn’t have anyone to help you do so... and there was her father who she had come to live with after the death of her beloved grandmother who couldn’t deal with her ability, thus neglecting her  completely. Angelica had felt so desperately confused, lonely and miserable. And then, she had been snatched by two men in  black who in fact took the wrong girl!

When she was presented to Sinister, she defended herself with a beam of microwave heat. She had clearly roasted the guy, but he regenerated under her very eyes, his response a wicked smile and a slap that rendered her  unconscious. Since then Angelica was experimented on, beaten, and starved. She had to even fight a clone of herself which she’d killed.The pale faced man was a sicko… Footsteps came toward her way, and she wasn’t surprised to see that it was the vampire mad scientist guy and his new slave, it was the first time she saw that woman who watched her with interest until she suddenly turned into a younger redhead of sixteen-eighteen years of age, then the pale mad doctor disappeared when she waved her hand.

“Heya guys, how is it hanging?” The redhead asked cheerfully.

The actions of that redhead made Angelica huddle in a corner frightfully. “W-who are you?”

Her smile slackened as she looked at Angelica. The red aura surrounding her gave her an ethereal atmosphere that scared the young girl, but the soothing voice of the older redhead put her somewhat at ease.“Oh you poor girl, what did they do to you?” Her eyes glowed slightly. “Your name, it’s Angelica… Oh! I know who you are now.”

She turned to the left, her attention shifting to the other captive. “And you man, what’s your name?”

“Name’s Will.” Angelica heard the guy from her neighbouring cell say. With a determined expression she said, “Will, what do you say if I can help you and Angelica get out of here?”

Angelica stood to her feet, staring with  interest at the older girl, trying to discern if she was leading her on. “I-is this a test? Please no more tests.” Angelica heard her neighbor ask with a crack in his voice. She too was subjected to the pale man’s test, he had even offered to release her if she became one of his subordinates; of course she spit in his face as an answer.

The redhead’s eyes flared with anger, she pinched her nose for ten seconds, then looked at each of them. Angelica was feeling hope for the first time in months. “Ok we are going to get outta here, Angelica stay far from the forcefield. Will as well.” She made a fist that glowed red and gold and took on the quality of flames and smashed it into the forcefield of Angelica’s cell. 

With a noise of broken glass and an explosion, the forcefield shattered and then the girl stepped into the cell. Angelica stepped back watching as the strange girl walked up to her. She held up her hand and touched the collar at Angelica’s neck and blink, it disappeared. The girl smiled at Angelica who felt the rush caused by her ability being active again.

Angelica took a full lungful of air, and for the first time in seven months, she could taste freedom. She threw a thankful gaze at the older girl.

“Follow me, we need to free Will.” She informed, spinning on her heel and giving her back to Angelica.

There was something important that Angelica wanted to ask the older girl. “Wait! What’s your name?”

She turned, looked at her and grinned. “I am Jean Grey, I am a telekinetic and telepath and something more… I am the girl who they should have taken instead of you, they kidnapped me one month ago, I have awakened four days ago and I have decided to kill Sinister and his clone club.”

This news floored Angelica. How could they have mixed her with this gorgeous girl?! Her form was much higher than her own, and she was way more muscular. Angelica followed her to face the black guy in the other cell, who looked the same age as Jean.

Jean smiled at him as if she had won the lottery. “Will, my man! I will get you out of here, but I want to ask something of you first. Hmm, Angelica too while I am at it. I need a drop of your blood.”

Angelica looked wary. “Huh, what for?”

Jean tilted her head. “To get your powers, of course. I have an ability that lets me get others from people through their genetic material. I need a lot more of them to kill Sinister, the pale man. That’s his name.”

Angelica couldn’t help but be hesitant; she’d been burned from hoping before. “Y-you won’t abandon us if we give them to you right?”

The flash of determination on Jean’s face reassured her. “I’m going to save you, I will bring you back to New York, okay? I have a friend there who can help you two get on your feet. Can you trust me? Just this time, believe in me, please.” Jean’s eyes bounced between the two. 

The two prisoners stared at her with different levels of emotions; one dared to hope, the other simply had given up long ago. But something in the voice of that one girl made them feel that everything could be okay.

It was by standing back that Will took his fate in his hand and decided for the first time to dare hope. “If ya can get me outta here, I fitna give ya my power.”

The older redhead turned to Will who looked at her in the eyes with a firm gaze. “Bro, I will do better than that. My friend I spoke about? Samira, she will help hide you, get you a job. If you can work for us, we are going to treat you better than those people. Your power is a great boon.”

Will snorted, hurling spit to the ground. It’s more like a curse to me, lady.”

She shook her head. “I’m gonna change that, bro, I promise. But I need your ability to get you to the place I spoke about and to help me put that pale faced wanker six feet under, I don’t want to look behind my back forever, you capiche?”

Will nodded. “Crystal. Now get me outta here.”

Jean just punched the forcefield again which crumbled just like the one in Angelica’s cell did. Then, she removed the collar from Will’s neck.

“Damn, it’s been so long…” Then Will bit his thumb and blood began to flow from it.

Jean’s lips quirked up into a smile, and she asked him,“No hesitation?” His response was a shrug and a coy smile. “A deal is a deal.”

She chuckled at that, patting his shoulder. “Bro, I like you more and more. Stick with me and everything will be alright.”

“We will see.” He commented, still wary, and Angelica understood why. “I never renege on a deal.” Jean raised her chin, she looked so haughty and funny that Angelica couldn’t help her smirk. 

Jean’s hand morphed into a golden and red clawed one that seemed to suck out Will’s blood. Then something else happened, with a red glow from her hand she took the black guy’s thumb and healed it. “Thanks homie.”

She then turned to Angelica who was irrationally afraid. Jean understood and stopped moving. The younger redhead breathed in and out and did the same as Will and bit her thumb, precious red ichor flowed slowly out of it. Angelica allowed it to drop onto the gold and red clawed hand. Jean healed her, the sensation warm. 

“Okay, now let’s get outta here get behind me, okay?” With a wave of her hand, Jean tore the fabric of reality and a red colored portal opened.

Inside the portal was an office with the most beautiful woman that Angelica had ever laid eyes on. She directed a smile at them and nodded at Jean. Will was the first to pass through, Angelica following suit. They all passed through and Jean simply said to her beautiful friend, “Take care of them, Sam.”

“I had foreseen this, identities were prepared for them. I am sad to say that Angelica’s father was killed six months ago, for her to not end up in the children protection services and being dealt an unfair hand, I took the liberty to designate myself as her guardian. William will be given a job in one of my new... enterprises.”

Jean laughed out loud. “As always, you are on top of things, Sam.”

Angelica frowned, understandably, as she had missed the context to this conversation. The beautiful woman smiled softly at Jean.“This is nothing compared to what I owe you, Jean. Now go back to kill that pale assed asshole and…” Samira looked at Jean meaningfully. “Watch your back.” 

Jean cocked her head, frowning. She must not have understood as she simply shrugged and straightened the lapel of her jacket. “Sure.”

“Angelica, your body can’t handle too much of the radiation you power produces, as you have a normal constitution. When I get back, I will help you with developing a resistance to  heat and radiation, but… to help you in the immediate, I can just do that for now.” Jean’s hand glowed red and she groped Angelica’s right breast.

“Hey!” Angelica looked on in indignation at her savior.

She didn't expect to be groped by the person she owed her freedom to. With an intense look of concentration, Jean explained, “Shh... I’m disintegrating the cancerous tumor here in your right breast.”

Angelica stopped struggling then said with a cracking voice and a tear. “Y-you… thank you.”

When she finished her work, she withdrew her hand, shooting Angelica a smile. “You’re welcome!”

It was finally time for the older redhead to leave. Along with her, she took some gear that Samira had prepared for her- a fine katana sword, food and water for two weeks, bandages, an English to Xhosa dictionary that seemed to be an African language and a first aid kit. Angelica and Will cheered Jean.

“Kill them all big red!”

"Punch that pale vampire guy in the face for me!"

Jean chuckled. “Yeah, time to get this show on the road, I will see you later guys.”

The kickass girl punched another hole in the fabric of reality, passed through it and then was gone leaving Angelica with stars in her eyes and a new heroine to worship.

# # #

(Northstar & Aurora)

December 13th, 1996
08:10 AM

Patrolling the Jungle from the sky, Aurora and Northstar searched for Jean Grey. They had assumed before that she would make mistakes, and she wouldn’t be able to hide in the jungle forever. Certainly, they thought, she’d be found, thanks to the clone reinforcements from the other bases around the globe coming to help.

Aurora kept seeing patterns in how their wayward subject acted. She created a distraction that made all of them scramble until she destroyed or sabotaged something important. There was no way that a young woman of sixteen years old was an expert in guerilla warfare. But it was like making Aurora and Northstar wrong was the new goal of the snot nosed brat!

Yesterday she had taken out most of the fusion generators hidden in the base and if their master didn’t anticipate this possibility, the base would be left without power. Only two reactors were left online. Meanwhile, the girl used the distraction to spring two prisoners. The powered clones were taking turns patrolling the base and the jungle for any sign of Jean Grey, clone guards with more powerful telepathic protection to be able to discern who is who and not be controlled through mind control.

Aurora and Northstar believed these measures were taken far too late to their tastes. They were over the river in the valley and following it, it was not the only water source in the valley; the base depended on an underground lake that was fed by the Nile, but from the scientist and soldier clones Grey’s base of operation should be near one.

The twins were sweating excessively, their costume unable to dump the excess humidity and warmth generated by their flying under the sun. Aurora was ready to call it a stop and switch assignment with Hans and Sunfire when her brother called her out as he stopped to hover in the sky.

“Sis, do you see that?” Northstar pointed his finger to something he was seeing in a clearing. A mid sized structure with a roof covered in grass and flowers. Aurora stopped flying near her brother and cast her eyes downwards, and they widened. It was a hole dug into a hillside, with round windows and wooden front door.

It looked cozy and inviting, and Aurora glowered at the strange construction; she had no frame of reference to such a thing. She noticed her brother wore the same expression he always had when something attracted his curiosity and began to slowly descend to the clearing. 

“North! Don’t go there!” Aurora panicked.

Aurora’s brother looked up, smirking at her. “Why? It’s clearly her base of operati-”

He was interrupted by a scorching golden beam of energy firing at him. It was scorching, so much so that even  Aurora felt it from her position. Thanks to his superhuman speed and heightened reflexes, Northstar evaded the beam by channeling a portion of the kinetic energy of the atomic motion in his body’s molecules in a single direction. Down.

But the beam still singed his hair. Aurora looked down and saw the red haired hellion launching another beam at her, she too avoided being hit and fired her own concussive blast at her. The girl didn’t even bother dodging and waved her hand, harmlessly hitting a golden and red forcefield spread all over the construction and their target.

Northstar and Aurora continued to bombard the forcefield until they noticed that it still remained strong, not even wavering slightly under their continuous assault. Aurora took her communicator and spoke loudly but concisely. “We have found her, she’s holed into a building she has built into a small hill!”

“Can you capture her?” The smooth and british accented voice of Sinister asked.

“We are trying!! She raised a forcefield that Northstar and I can’t even dent, please send help-” Aurora dodged a golden heat beam. 

She didn’t have the time to continue leisurely speaking as she was getting shot at and made to dance in the sky as Jean Grey was firing at them through the forcefield. *This shouldn’t be possible! Are they one way shields?!*

As she danced in the air as multiple beams converged toward her, Aurora felt another beam coming for her from the back. She rolled on the right and saw what had been coming for her, noticing the beams could bounce! *How the hell is she doing that?!*

“North, careful! The beams can bounce!” Aurora noticed as she saw the beam bounce on invisible surfaces in the air, if they didn’t have super speed and reflexes they would be dead. She didn’t think that the others, Hans or Sunfire could survive this!

“Got it!” Northstar shouted back, charging his concussive beam while dodging the bouncing beams of heat.

The pointy eared man liked this rush of adrenaline that was coursing through his veins, the healthy fear that he might die at any moment; that this was why he was born! To fight, be different from his original who had disappointed him in so many ways. Northstar pointed his fist at the forcefield and fired multiple concussive bursts to where the redhead was firing at them. The shield rippled in place, showing signs of weaknesses for the first time. It galvanized Northstar who continued.

It cheered on his sister too who raised her two hands before her and a crackling sound fired a powerful lightning blast that shattered the shield. The twins feeling victorious looked as the girl looked frightened for an instant before her expression shifted into one determination and strength, she crouched as if she was preparing to jump, the ground and stone shook and Jean Grey shot into the sky at a speed comparable to them, creating a shockwave that pushed the twins away.

Aurora was the first to straighten her flight and try to catch up to Jean and fire concussive and lightning blasts at her. Jean was making incredible barrel rolls, dodging and braking mid-flight that simply rattled Northstar and Aurora who were subject to G-force while Jean wasn’t.

*That is so unfair!* Aurora cried out in her thoughts. Now she understood what Hans was telling her about Jean Grey being faster than her and Northstar.

Jean Grey stopped while Aurora came at her and then her entire body began to slowly glow with strobing lights. Music suddenly played in their heads, a genre that Aurora and brother recognized. They were seeing spots in their eyes because of the light, it was annoying.

*Heavy Metal Hard Rock music?* They thought in tandem.

At that point the situation changed again, Jean Grey fired beams of energy at them but they evaded. Northstar veered right but was surprised to find himself caught by a red glowing hand that held him by the left ankle. His face paled as dread crept up his spine. This was the moment that Northstar knew that for all his bravado he was about to die. For a brief moment, his eyes landed on his sisters but it was already to late

He was wrenched back toward Jean Grey and multiple hands caught each of his limbs. Aurora cried out and fire sped toward her brother in an attempt to try save him but she was far too late as he was quartered. His arms and legs were pulled out of his body, blood flowed in the air and Jean Grey caught Northstar with a hand on his throat, beheading him in a single go. The heavy metal music stopped.

“NORTH!!!” Aurora bellowed, her voice cracking.

Jean Grey giggled. <Oops, looks like your brother lost his head…> The monster projected into Aurora’s mind.

The monstrous young woman was holding onto the body of her brother, her right hand coated in his blood. She laughed at Aurora’s outburst. <Monster? How rude… I find it really hypocritical that you call me this when I see in your mind what you have been doing. You’ve been naughty, Aurora.>

*How… Ah, telepath.* Aurora glared at Jean, blue light shining around her like a torrent. “I will kill you! No… I will end you today, whatever master says!”

Grinning, Jean Grey wasn’t impressed by her display of power. <Well, that would be intimidating if you... well... were intimidating.>

The death glare Aurora directed at Jean would have killed her if she had this power. “Are you mocking me?!”

Jean rolled her  eyes. <Oh, you’ve become boring.>

Aurora heard a sonic boom behind her and saw Hans coming toward them. Her hands coated with lightning and she turned her head to Jean who wasn’t phased by anything. “You are dead. Hans and I will avenge North-”

Twin beams of light hit Aurora on her back and knocked her from the sky, as she fell in the sky she tried to recover but was hit again by the same red beam of Hans and she crashed into a copse of trees. The fall broke her right arm and leg on hanging branches that should have slowed her fall. Aurora was still conscious when she saw Hans and Jean Grey slowly descend from the sky.

The pointy eared woman tried to stand up but cried out in pain. Jean Grey, the monster, landed before her, and crouched with a quirky smile on her lips. “No sequel for you.”

With a crack of her neck, Aurora’s story ended.

# # #

(Sinister)

Sinister’s personal lab
15 minutes later

Nothing was going his way. Miss Grey had cut him off from his other bases and resources completely. He was busy going through the computer network and fixing the bug introduced into the control program of his fusion reactors grid. He just couldn’t understand how that little trollop did it! 

His system was supposed to be inviolable! Yet, she had simply waltzed in with the understanding of how everything worked?  Who was this girl? She’d been playing him since she was a child and now? Now he regretted having ever involved himself with her. Nathaniel kept losing subordinates and disposable pawns. 

The pale man was typing away angrily on his mechanical keyboard when he heard the footsteps of someone coming behind him. It was Vertigo, looking rather upset. “Master.”

Nathaniel didn’t bother to turn, trying to track down the program creating the feedback loop in the reactors. With a measured voice he said, “Yes?”

A few beats of silence passed before she spoke, “There’s a development.” 

He stopped typing and turned to Vertigo, his eyes focused on her, his expression neutral. “Speak.”

As if wanting to be done with it, Vertigo breathed out and said, “Aurora and Northstar have been killed.”

Nathaniel stumbled back, denting the table slightly when he hit it.“Impossible!”

Aurora and Northstar were his most loyal clones and those who sought to surpass their originals the most. In fact, they bugged him relentlessly for equipment to raise their capabilities every two weeks. Nathaniel had thought them more wary of Jean Grey and able to bring her back, once again the mad scientist felt as if the redheaded trollop nipped his heels.

His face morphed into a mask of cold fury and his clenched fists were an indication of his fury and his need to obliterate something. Vertigo lowered her eyes, not wanting to become the target of his anger and get flattened. “I’m sorry to say that's what happened.”

It was about five minutes later that Nathaniel found it in him to reign in his temper to ask, “What about Hans?! He should have arrived on time!”

Vertigo didn’t know about that, and agreed with her master, Hans should have been faster but maybe there were circumstances? Hans had come out covered in blood and his armor completely destroyed, so she believed that that fight had been difficult. “He wasn’t fast enough. But... there's good news, we discovered her base of operations.”

Nathaniel relaxed his posture and looked completely taken aback. “She didn’t abandon it?”

Gulping, Vertigo continued. “No… she’s hmm… how can I say this without sounding ridiculous? You’d have to see it to believe it.”

With an intense gaze, Nathaniel closed the distance between them, all up in her face, demanding, demanding, “Show me.”

Vertigo chuckled nervously. “Fair enough.” She took her tablet from the pouch on her belt and deftly unlocked the screen and let her finger slide on it to do what she was commanded with. Vertigo connected to the surveillance drone pointed at the hole in the hill of Jean Grey and showed it to her master.

Nathaniel watched the scene on the screen, his jaw unhinged. He looked to Verigo who wore an incredulous expression that didn’t abate since she entered his lab. “Is she… having a BBQ with the prisoners?”

Vertigo nodded in assent. “Yes master.”

Nathaniel looked into his subordinate’s eyes, a rictus of rage slowly spreading on his face. “She is taunting us.”

Vertigo backed down from him, her voice little as she agreed, “Yes Master.”

“Vertigo, my dear, fetch Sunfire and Hans and tell them to bombard that place to kingdom come. Kill her. She’s been nothing but trouble, poisoning our food and well, messing with our generators in a way that tells me that she could have made them blow up and the base with them. She’s impossible to contain so I want her dead. But at least bring me a sample of her DNA.”

At that, her fear vanished, a smile spreading across her face as finally Nathaniel was being reasonable and gave the orders she had been waiting for. Her friends were killed by the psionic bitch and there was no way that the leftover clones could take her down by holding back. “As you wish, master.” 

Vertigo was about to leave when Nathaniel raised a finger to stop her and continued to hand out instructions. “I almost forgot, gather Havok, Chimera and Senyaka with you, bring the three leftover losers too.”

Vertigo tilted her head and hesitated, the title of loser often shifted to others periodically when the master was concerned, he didn’t like failure at all. “Scalphunter, Empath and Vanisher?”

He gave her an indulgent smile. “Who else has deserved that expletive?”

Vertigo chuckled. “It shall be done as you bid.”

Nathaniel waved the woman off. “Now get out, I have work to do.”

As she left, the mad scientist decided that maybe he should array more enemies against Jean Grey. Taking his tablet, he called two of the non-clone personnel in the base on visioconference. On the computer’s screen the blonde Lady Mastermind and Arclight appeared. They were in a safe room in another mountain linked to the main base.

“Miss Wyngard and Miss Sontag.” Nathaniel’s head barely shifted in greeting.

Arclight was the first to speak, folding her arms over her chest in a sulky way. “What do you want?”

Nathaniel showed no reaction to her blatant rudeness, continuing to amiably speak, “I am in need of your services…”

This time it was Lady Mastermind’s turn to react, her gaze growing colder and vastly more unfriendly. “Is it about Jean Grey?”

Nathaniel nodded. “...Indeed.”

The young woman flicked her wrist at him, a scoff leaving her. “Not interested, we were supposed to have already left, but you kept delaying our departure... for your tests.” 

“It is my job to map out all eventual divergence in mutants’ genome, you-” Nathaniel who was lost into the start of his rant and explaining the importance of his research to those two, was suddenly interrupted by Arclight.

“I DON’T FUCKING CARE, I WANT TO LEAVE!!” The crude woman then left the camera’s range and Nathaniel heard shockwaves in the background as the screen on the two women’s side shook.

“You and your little army, you are all going to die anyway. We have been following what’s been happening, and  you keep underestimating Grey. Count us out, you are on your own.” With that, Lady Mastermind  boldly cut the communication.

“If she wasn’t the daughter of my associate…” He would have turned her into a surrogate mother.

He shook his head and returned to work, engrossed in the programs and routines of the control computer and undoing the damages of the girl for the next two hours. What a disappointment she was. He had thought that he could mould her and make her his lieutenant and the mother of his weapon against En Sabah Nur, or maybe more… but it wasn’t to be.

A notification suddenly pinged on his screen. Nathaniel was surprised that he clicked on the pop-up automatically and that surprise grew when he saw three of his loser clones in a compromising situation. Empath was being savagely used from behind by Scalphunter and was giving oral favors to Vanisher. Empath kept pleading with them to let him go and screaming until his aggressor kept beating him in submission to continue to satisfy them.

“Damn, that's a surprise learning you can't gag.” Empath found a rare moment when his mouth wasn’t working to speak but the Vanisher clone slapped him, knocking out a tooth out of his mouth and placing his manhood back into Empath’s mouth. “Shut up and take it!”

“Damn you suck like a pro, swallow this milkshake!” Vanisher then proceeded to push his member to the hilt in the younger clone throat.

Grrrlllk. The shocking sounds coming from Empath made Nathaniel shudder.

“Yes, suck it all! Damn, you sucked a liter outta ma’ balls!”

Scalphunter was climaxing as well, until all three of them dropped dead on each other. To Nathaniel, it appeared as though they’d dropped dead from their act of forced copulation. The camera cut the feed and the mad scientist found himself wondering what it was all about until a note appeared into the air and slowly fluttered to him.

Nathaniel caught it and read aloud, “You kept recycling that rapist Empath with his memories intact, I had to punish him. Anyway, just like him, you seem to be the type of guy that likes a hot dog in your bun.”

“YOU DARE, HARLOT!!” He bellowed, his lungs burning with the roar. 

Then suddenly, bodies started landing at his feet with a note. ‘Four left.’

Nathaniel’s eyes widened and he instantly took his communicator. “Vertigo!”

Only silence and radio static replied to him, until he heard the scratching of someone answering.

“Hey, I am sorry to say but Vertigo is dead.” A female peppy voice replied to his call. 

Nathaniel recognized the voice, it was certainly… “Chimera, is that you?”

“Mhm, sure it is.”

Closing his eyes, Nathaniel asked the question that burned on his tongue. “How did she die?”

Chimera’s laugh was throaty and Nathaniel frowned, disliking the mocking tone of it. “Why of course, I killed her, my new boss has freed me from your little programming and seriously? Suicide codes implanted in my psyche if I raise a hand against you? That’s a low blow even for you, Nate.”

Nathaniel’s clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. He grit his teeth in an effort to remain silent, his hunched form exuding an animosity that was like acid - burning, slicing, potent. His pale face became red with suppressed rage. “Chimera, listen to me carefully. I will find you, and I will kill you for this betrayal. Tell your new master that I will come for her too, I shall rava-” 

His rant was interrupted by the mountain shaking again, it seemed that it was a localized earthquake. Then he thought better when he saw the top of it fly leaving his lab’s ceiling exposed to the elements. With wide eyes, he watched  as the top of the mountain turned into smaller chunks of stones and just like shotgun rounds spread into the sky at supersonic speed. Nathaniel felt them slam in the earth as they kept creating quakes each time they landed.

“What the hell is happening outside!?”

# # #

Back with Jean…
2 hours earlier

I followed with great interest as the Sunfire clone barreled in the sky toward my position, when he stopped to hover up in the air and looked down at me and my projections of Will and Angelica with superior stoicism. I was ready to drag him down from the sky and wrung his body like a dirty towel when he raised a hand and sent a stream of ionized matter toward me which rammed harmlessly against my forcefield that covered the hill. 

I made my construct of the freed prisoners run to the inside of the hobbit-house and close the door. I shot into the sky and sent telekinetic constructs in the form of flaming birds at Sunfire who destroyed them with plasma blasts. Swiftly and with stealth, I dodged all those he shot my way and the way I could feel the scalding heat when it was barely halfway to me informed me that I really did not want to get hit by those!

*Sunfire? His codename is so fitting. Okay it’s not the time to play with that guy, let’s be serious!* I stopped and hovered using my hand as a focus to grab the man by his middle section and slam him in the earth below.

It worked, a bit too well, the force creating a crater in the clearing he crashed in. My hands covered in lightning arcs, one of the powers harvested from Aurora’s dead body. In one smooth down gesture, I lit Sunfire up repeatedly with it. I continued this for over one minute until I was sure that the guy wouldn’t get up. I finished this with a wide area optic blast in the crater that enlarged it.

“I hope that was enough.” I landed at the mouth of the crater with a forcefield just in case, and wasn’t surprised when I received another  plasma blast and was  ejected into the sky.

“Still alive, fuck!”

Sunfire rose, naked from the crater, his costume having burned off under my assault. His skin was burned all over his body, making him resemble a well done steak. “Y-ou… steal from us.”

Oh, finally a dumb clone realized that I got abilities from the others I killed. I shrugged, smirking at the cooked japanese man. “Yeah, so? I’m still not going 100% here.”

I let go of my conscious control on my TK aura, and my telekinetic field expanded to immediately cover the entire area, the valley, the mountains and beyond. Sunfire tried to cook me with his plasma emanation ability but I was beyond caring about such things as logic and physical laws. My raw power was such that I was strong enough to become immune to my enemies’ powers or ability through sheer force alone.

Sunfire plasma emanation blazed hot enough that everything around him turned to charcoal immediately. “You are toying with us!” He growled, launching  burst after burst of plasma blasts at me.

The power of the sun was nothing to me at this point, his blast dissipated as I dispersed the heat all around us by slowing the molecule of air. “Let’s kill you properly this time.”

I was more than a telekinetic, I was a reality warper. All the powers I’d stolen from those clones taught me something, TK could replicate everything. That is why I focused on how Gambit power affected items or people around him.

I grinned at the Sunfire clone and said in his mother tongue, “Omae wa mou, shindeiru (You are already dead).”

His eyes widened in confusion. “Nani (What)?” He asked.

But I didn’t answer and simply snapped my fingers.

SNAP. The half cooked man exploded in a shower of gore and fire; as a result of the current use of the japanese man plasma emanation ability, it was as if a mini nuke had exploded. The shockwave and energy didn't reach me and I kind of contained it into a force bubble. How did I do this? Through my TK I made Sunfire’s body molecules speed up to the point that it caused an explosion.

I reigned in my power and let it flow back into me; landing on the ground was out as it was all scorched and still hot enough to cook eggs on. Scanning the landscape surrounding me, I could understand how dangerous my powers were. I liked that hobbit-house which had taken me three hours to make it. Fortunately, the hill was intact and-

I felt a presence and a projectile being thrown into my direction, and I batted it away, turning in the direction it was fired at me from. My mind grabbed his, and as I read him, I discovered that I was only captured because of him. Dragging him toward me on the scorching ground on his back, the man really screamed like a bitch. Once he was driven before me, I watched as Kodiak Noatak was covered in second degree burns. I grabbed the gun at my thigh, pointing it at the rogue inuit’s head. I fired two bullets in his brain and two in his heart, lungs and kneecaps.

“Not even worth the expenditure of power.” I holstered my gun.

Goldie latched a tendril on the madead body and gobbled its blood, and I was guessing he tasted delicious from the way she covered and consumed him. I turned my head to the feet of the mountain and felt a fight happening from afar, the psionic energy great in strength. I floated up and slowly flew toward what I felt and covered the eight kilometers in seconds, not caring at all about G-forces.

My arrival didn’t pass unnoticed, my ally, Chimera the blue eyed blonde was battling that big brute Senyaka. She was winning as the man must not have drained enough people to sustain using his bio-electric whips. With a thought I tripped the armored guy who fell face first only for Chimera’s giant ectoplasmic dragon to nab the man in its gullet and crunch on him.

He howled in pain until it stopped, the dragon then spat him out. Goldie gave me the impression that she didn’t want his power so she didn’t reveal herself.

“Hi, Chimera.” I greeted her with a wave.

She was the only clone so far that felt like an actual human being to my telepathy and not half a person. The less brainwashed and most capable of independent actions. Chimera wore a black armored catsuit and a mask barely protecting her face, I thought that she would be better off with a helmet.

The blonde did a perusal of me from head to toe, smiling, seeming to like what she saw. She  slightly bowed her head to me. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you face to face.”

I landed before her. Chimera was taller and… statuesque. A bit intimidating, but for some reason, I felt that she was more afraid of me than of her. To reassure her, I returned her smile and projected camaraderie feelings, holding my hand before her. She shook it readily. “Indeed.”

Releasing her hand, I then focused my telepathy on her mind. “Now come here I must look into your mind to undo the brainwashing you were subject to, as promised.” I pulled the woman down to a crouch before me and held onto her head.

Unbeknownst to Sinister and his clone group, I offered Chimera to unshackle her will if she allied with me, and she easily accepted it out of fear for her life when she realized the type of lengths I would go in my fight. I still kept my guard up, just in case she would betray me.

Her eyes shone with gratitude. “Thank you.”

Chimera’s mind was in shambles, she was suffering from ADHD and there were multiple mental blocks on her mind. *This psionic signature…* It was powerful and yet the work shoddy. It reminded me of myself when I had started learning how telepathy worked; if I was a scalpel, Sinister was a hammer. It smelled of his work; I’d seen it in everyone’s altered mind in this base.

The blonde woman before me was strong, maybe on par with Xavier. Sinister had limited her telepathic and telekinetic output, she should be stronger than what I saw her do to Senyaka. Chimera should have been able to use multiple ectoplasmic creatures. Sinister was actually afraid of her. If I remember well, Sinister had an ability called Dilate power that allowed him to mentally paralyze a foe he's touching and the ability to psionically "turn off" the superpowers of any mutant, creating a mental block.

The man was scary, and I was honestly surprised  he hadn’t tried that shit with me- there must’ve been a reason my power was still intact.

“I am… surprised that you could fight as well as you have been, Chimera.” I mused as I systematically removed all the blocks on her mind.

The blond’s head was already killing her, and riddled with headaches and at worse creating bleeding in her brain that I instantly treated. I deleted the programming placed on her, but I saw something that made me gasp. *Kill codes? That guy is horrible. He could kill them with an order.*

“That asshole, I will kill him.” I vowed between clenched teeth. 

Chimera looked in my eyes. “Why are you saying that?”

I told her the truth without sugarcoating it for her. “Sinister, he really doesn’t like you. He placed more suggestions and safeguards in your mind than all the previous clones I’ve been mind surfing in. It will hurt somehow, are you ready?”

“Do it.” She clipped, her eyes serious, full of determination.

With those words, I started, completely erasing the command embedded in her psyche. She screamed  in agony as I ripped away any of Sinister’s safeguards in my new friend’s head. After over ten minutes, Chimera’s agony had faded to a dull throb. Chimera though, she was grinning like a loon.

Chimera's expression turned beatific, she exhaled in one breath, “Free at last, and I owe it to you.”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff. But I can tell you something I learned the hard way. The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. And you must ask yourself this to be able to be truly free; who are you, Chimera?” Jean asked, the clone was young and she had done less bad deeds than Aurora who was a freak who killed children for fun.

She suddenly looked rather lost. “I-I don’t know, I am only two years old and I never had time for myself… I guess, when I discover who I am, I will know and I’ll be free.”

*Come to my side, we have cookies.*

I  didn’t need to read Chimera’s thoughts to understand this moment was an opportunity. I held out my hand to her. “I will help you find your answers. Join me and I promise you that I won’t ever let you down.”

“I will. You have been straight with me so far.” Chimera took my hand, then I firmly pulled her up. She proceeded to firmly shake my hand. 

I rewarded her with a billion volt grin. “I shall not disappoint, welcome to team Phoenix.”

It was at this moment I sensed the approach of a malicious mind from the entrance of the base. My eyes fell instantly on a blond young man of my own age. I felt the plasma discharge building up in his body as he prepared to fire. 

“Not today, asshole.” Without breaking stride, I pulled out my pistol from its holster and fired off two shots dead center in Havok’s head so fast he was still standing up for some brief seconds before he fell like timber on his back, dead. Moments later, his mind had completely vanished. 

“You Summers’ boys are all so useless.” I commented, twirling the pistol in my hand before sliding back into its holster at my thigh.

“That was badass.” Chimera whispered, her voice full of reverence and wonder. I turned to her, with a full smile. “Aww, thank you Chimera. Now why don’t you go hide somewhere in the base while I go take care of Sinister once and for all?”

Chimera’s face lit up with a smile, and she saluted military style .“You are the new boss.”

I shrugged, and scratched my head. I didn’t want to see her as a subordinate after having dived so completely into her mind; I knew her better than she did now. “Sure, but I want us to be friends too.”

We walked up to Havok’s body, and I bent over, grasping his long hair in my hand, opening a portal to one of my hideouts in the base. Then I began pulling Havok’s body behind me.

“Kick that pale bastard in the balls for me, will you?” Chimera shouted at me, entering the portal.I turned to her, my smile promising.“Oh believe me, I will.”

I closed the portal and decapitated the dead body, taking only it’s head with me for Goldie to eat.

# # #

I had located Sinister but he was locked down in his lab. I could barely feel his inky mind ensconced in a structure built in the next mountain. There was a blockage there, preventing me from teleporting right there; blind teleportation was dangerous with my level of proficiency but I really wanted to kill the guy.

I had to wait, though, because using all those powers had drained us both. I was recovering from using my full power- channeling such energy was tiring and I didn't yet have the endurance to maintain full time. I wasn’t disappointed by my full power, and I knew it’d be awesome to train. Meanwhile, I called back Hans to me, the big lug surprisingly useful and I decided  it would be such a waste to kill him. I resolved to work on him and program him to serve me, completely replacing what Sinister was him. 

Hans was going to be my butler- something I truly needed. I felt him float toward me, in the alcove I had chosen to hide in. I was levitating in a lotus position, meditating on what I was about to do. This was the first time that I would deliberately rebuild the psyche of a human being. Fortunately, I knew what I wanted- I wanted someone lethal and loyal to me while also loving them as a friend,but not an ass kisser. He should also be fiercely protective of me and everyone I valued and he might come to love; the perfect butler, as well as a fighter, he should strive for perfection and believe that anyone should seek to be the best they could be. He should also be a learned and wise man. 

The giant blond man lowered his head and I pressed my fingers against his temples. The psyche, all of the elements of the human mind, both conscious and unconscious. It was also composed of the id, ego, and superego; the psyche consisted of all of the forces that affected thought, personality, and behavior. The product of all conscious and unconscious psychological processes.

I had looked deep down in mine and tried to carefully craft such a fragile thing; it was akin to building a model but I had to craft each of the parts carefully. Hans’ new personality would lean toward an Architect type, a person with an introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judging personality traits. 

These thoughtful tacticians loved perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do. Their inner world was often a private, complex one.

An hour later, I was done and Hans’ eyes lost their dullness, now staring at me with sharp and intelligent eyes. “Jean.”

Now that he had this now natural kind disposition, Hans looked handsome to me. Though, not handsome enough to dislodge a certain half-asian girl from my heart. “That’s my name.”

He nodded with seriousness. “I am at your service.”

I snickered. “You are mine now, Hans.” I raised a hand and patted his shoulder.

“Soul, mind and body.” Hans uttered, making a move to hug me. 

I firmly placed a hand on his torso, stopping him. “Let’s not go too fast, Hansy I am in a committed relationship.”

Hans smirked at me. “No offense, Jean, but you aren’t my type.” 

Gasping, I shouted, “What?! But I am everyone’s type!”

Hans looked me up and down, arching a brow. “Sorry, I don’t see it. You are too young, too muscular and you got that smug personality that is a major turn off.”

He patted my head, a large smile playing on his lips. I was momentarily stunned as this was the first time someone has said something like this to me. But I kind of understood, I was basically a mother; I gave birth to his personality and took mine as an example to craft it. Though the comment about being too muscular didn’t fly with me. I didn’t know what he meant; I felt fine. I looked at myself, well… it’s true that I gained a bit of muscular definition.

I shrugged. “Okay, it doesn’t matter anyway.”

“It’s time to finish this, go find Chimera and protect her, will you?” I stood up and landed my feet on the ground.

“As you wish...” 

I glared at him. “Did you read the Princess bride or something?”

“That’s my favorite book in the whole world, though I have never read it.” Hans quoted with a smile, bowing his head slightly before spinning on his heel and left flying at super speed.

*I-I think some unconscious thoughts of mine have messed with the psyche crafting process… like I think I added a bit of Westley from Princess bride. SHIT.*

[Understanding: There, there.] Goldie hugged me mentally.

*I love you Goldie.* I hugged her back, then I had the dubious pleasure to discover that symbiote can purr.

I teleported outside the base and floated to the summit of the mountain, it was barely one thousand meters or so. This was the mountain where the lab was hidden in.I couldn’t teleport inside, and I deployed my Aura, feeling that I could do anything. There was something I always wanted to do when I promised myself to control 100% of my power. 

I extended my arm before me and manifested a telekinetic sword composed of raw psi-energy. It glowed red and gold, it’s radiance blinding. If Betsy Braddock could do it, so could I, being more powerful than her it’s just par for the course. I took it in hand, the sword I manifested a fantasy bastard sword that I was very fond of in my previous life. 

The sword had a long handle which allowed use by either hand, or both, also possessing a more slender, tapered, narrowly pointed glowing blade. With a nod of pride, it was a pleasure to know that I could manifest blades, and I hoped that I could do it at will. Training would change that. I enlarged the blade, until it became as big as a skyscraper, looked at the mountain with critical eyes and in one thought sliced through it with my telekinetic sword.

I caught the other half of the mountain and used my recently acquired molecular combustion made the half chunk of rock explode. The fragments spread as if a grenade had gone off at the speed of sound  and crashed in the valley and other mountains; I didn't care if I had messed with the ecosystem, I would fix everything after I ended my enemy, today.

Finally, I found him. He looked at the sky, and I sensed fear and resignation coming from him and that he was speaking into a satellite phone. I quickly descended into the lab as Sinister kept speaking.“...Oh, she has killed everyone already, it’s my turn now, good bye.” He then put the phone on the lab desk behind him.

“Miss Grey.” His british accent was now really distinguishable.

“Professor Essex.” With the way he stared at me, you’d assume I backhanded him. I did, he thought of himself as Sinister now, in memory of his wife. I hovered toward him, he didn’t feel threatened at all, how quaint.

He wore a lab coat and an outfit that screamed of the  nineteenth century. The smile he gave me chilled me to my bone but I didn’t show it and stayed as calm outside as he. “I regret that it has come to this. If I knew the depth of your power, I would have either invited you or left you alone and observed you from afar.” 

I returned his smile. “And stolen my DNA while I was not aware of being part of your schemes like you did to the original Aurora and Northstar?”

He cocked his head, looking at me like I was a puzzle. “Strange, you seem informed about my methods.”

Lifting my chin, I turned my nose up to him. “I know everything about you, Professor Essex.”

Sinister shook his head and smirked condescendingly at me. “I doubt it. Miss Grey, I have an offer for you, if you are willing to listen we can put that sorry series of events behind us.”

The thought of refusing and beheading him on the spot crossed my mind, but I held off, opting to listen to what he had to say; it wouldn’t cost me anything. “Speak.”

The British mad scientist nodded at me and with a grandiose and dashing swish of his lab coat, put a hand on his breast. “I am willing to offer you my service, my technology and experience. As a battle between us would be rather… destructive, a partnership between the two of us could be highly beneficial Miss Grey. Think of all we could accomplish, we could bring homo superior to the top and of course, the rest of humanity with us. What say you?”

I bopped my head in a nod and Sinister’s face lit up with delight, until I opened my mouth and said, “I don’t see why you’re trying to buy your life with my own possessions.”

Sinister’s eyes held a glimmer of confusion at that. I landed my feet on the ground, staring him dead in the eyes. “Because I have already claimed everything you own by right of conquest, so you need to bring out something else if you want to leave alive.”

“Impudence! I offered you decent terms and you spit in my face! You’ll have my base over my cold dead body!”

“Ah a challenge! Now, where can I mount the stuffed head of a Nathaniel?” I made a show of looking around the lab.

His eyes glowed red like ruby, smoldering waves of anger rolling off him. “I will kill you, little trollop.”

I grinned. “And I am about to take you out prematurely, like your family.”

The shock on his face was priceless.

“You…” He lunged at me, I felt him unleash his own telekinetic aura meeting my own.

I was sent flying through the walls of the mountain by the clash of our respective might colliding. That was only a sign that my focu wasn’t sharp enough. Once again, I unleashed my full power, Sinister attempted to punch me but I caught his fist. He smiled devilishly like that was what he had wanted. I felt something trying to grab at my power and mind, but Goldie and I batted it away, then I punched him with all my strength.

It was my turn to send him flying into a wall, destroying the lab equipment. I pursued him only to receive a shot from his concussive blasts; my forcefield shrugged it off, I smiled and fired my own optic beam at him catching him in the chest and digging him in further into the next room. I manifested a telekinetic sword in my two hands and stabbed him in the heart.

My hands charged lightning and let the blast travel through the psionic blade to electrocute him. Sinister howled in pain and seized. He glared at me with such hatred and  endured the pain and touched my telekinetic sword with his hand, tightened his grip on it and kicked me.

Flying, I stopped myself from entering the lab again. Sinister created a multi layered forcefield and was charging his concussive blast and struck me full on. “Argh.”

I created multiple layers of forcefield like I just saw him do. “Enough!” I shouted and followed my instinct and began siphoning Sinister’s own psychic energy. 

Stumbling, I saw him now looking at me in fear as I strengthened myself with his energy and raised my hands before me and sent a blast of psychic energy I stole from him, cutting all the forcefield layers he made, to shreds. All the rocks around me floated up and I shaped them into sharp projectiles that I hurled at him. The screams that left him were music to my ears.

Walking toward him with a swagger, I looked at his shredded form. “Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can’t get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don’t care who you are. What goes around comes around. That’s how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.”

I crouched at his side and used my telepathy to stop him from using his powers- the same way he’d tried to do with me. Goldie latched on his arm and bit it, I turned off his pain receptors. Wrenching a bit of bleeding flesh from him. “This was always how it would have ended, asshole. You, dying, like the rat you are under my heels.”

I then began to steadily ransack his knowledge, and skills, I didn't just replicate it but completely stripped it from his brain. And Phoenix damnit, it was extensive; the process continued for two longer minutes, until it settled in my mind with Otto's knowledge and archived in my memory banks. I allowed myself a self satisfied smile.

Sinister looked on as Goldie began devouring him. “Y-you and I aren’t… so different, Miss Grey. I-it seems that you have… become a monster, like me.”

I scowled at him and Goldie stripped another strip of flesh from him. “You know what the difference between us is? My parents and family are still here, they didn’t ditch me. Not like your wife did. Laughable that she was even able to see any light in that dark pit you call a soul. Oh, what were her last words to you as she died? ‘To me, you are... utterly... and contemptibly... sinister.’ What a fucking joke, even she knew you were trash way back then.”

He stared daggers at me, hatred burning in his eyes. When he tried standing, I placed a foot on his torso and pinned him onto the ground again, cracking his ribs. He grunted. My hand lit on fire, Goldie retracted into me again fearing it. “How do you like your ribs?”

Sinister’s palpable fear was back, his heart thudding furiously and his eyes dilated. I turned on his pain receptors and used the strongest cosmic flame and heat I could use to negate the effects of his regeneration. I blasted him with cosmic heat and flame. He screamed like the bitch he was.

I sustained the flame throwing effect for five minutes until I saw that nothing was left of him. Not even ashes. I have killed my mortal enemy. “I am finally free.”

SHRIKNT. I felt a pain in my heart and I looked at my breast, a blade piercing me. Goldie was screaming and I noticed that I too was screaming in pain. I fell on my knee, then the blade retracted and I fell forward, face first.

“Urrgh.” Goldie was already trying to save me and fix my heart. But I felt that it wasn’t going to be enough…

My assailant rolled me on the side and then I saw Sinister smiling at me. “I told you that I would kill you, little trollop.”

No! I had forgotten that he has become some kind of hivemind with a bunch of clones! How could I forget such an important detail! No, it couldn’t finish like this, I had him! I had killed him. Why?! Just why?! Sinister took some kind of futuristic silver gun out of his jacket pocket and stood up, pointing at me and pulling the trigger. Even though I rallied any shred of psionic energy I had left to form a forcefield, the weird energy pierced my forcefield and then I saw black and fell into oblivion.

# # #

When I reopened my eyes, I was in the astral plane- on my little island, to be precise, with the gigantic tree on fire and a giant firebird looking down on me. We looked at each other for a long moment before she spoke.

(You have failed.) The voice was stern and uncompromising.

I sighed. “Yes, I admit that I had forgotten he had clones running about.”

The Phoenix Force cocked it’s fiery head. (What are you going to do?)

“I am dying, right?” My voice cracked.

(You certainly are, your Klyntar isn’t able to save you and is proceeding to launch a psychic scream.)

My eyes widened. “No, no, no! That can’t happen!”

When symbiotes are threatened, they let out a psychic scream that affects sensitive humans worldwide, and was received by symbiotes in a nearby star system. A starship full of Klyntar hosts might come knocking, it was a toss between good or corrupted one.

The Phoenix scratched inside her fiery left wings. (Goldie is still a child and she loves you. Of course she is going to scream for help.)

Panic consumed my insides. “What can I do?!”

(Become mine.) Phoenix said simply.

I tried to play dumb. “Excuse me, what do you mean?”

Phoenix’ voice was full of amusement. (You know what I want.)

Glaring at her, I said, “No.”

(You are already a pseudo phoenix avatar, you have been acquiring powers from me, such as the life sight or cosmic fire.) Her voice was as seductive as a succubus.

I knew that I was already doing things that only me merged with the Phoenix force should be able to do. My cosmic fire ability that I really liked was a boon, but it seemed that it came with a price tag.  “There must be another way.”

(There is none.) Phoenix whispered.

“But this is.. This is a burden! It’s too big.” The Phoenix Force was one of the oldest known cosmic entities, representing life that had not yet been born, as well as the forces of creation and destruction. The Phoenix Force was an immortal, indestructible, and mutable manifestation of the prime universal force of life. Born of the void between states of being, the Phoenix Force was a child of the universe. 

It was the nexus of all psionic energy which did, had, and ever would exist in all realities of the Omniverse, the Guardian of Creation, and a de-facto guardian of the M'Kraan Crystal. 

The Phoenix was among the most feared beings in the entire universe - having the power to cut and regrow any part of the universe, as well as destroy it entirely, which was part of the Phoenix's purpose: "The Judgement of the Phoenix": to burn away what didn't work. Recent interventions of the Phoenix suggest that "what didn't work" was what had become stagnant instead of naturally evolving.

I didn’t feel like I could assume such a mantle; I wasn’t a good person, and my morals were flexible, something that was proven by my acts against Sinister’s clones. (I have an offer.) She said, with a reasonable tone.

She made me hover to her, and I looked inside her flaming eyes. “Okay, it costs me nothing to hear it.”

(Twenty years, I can give you twenty years with your loved ones until you take your full duty as an avatar.)

I gasped, my jaw unhinged. “That’s not enough! I want to marry Cindy! I want kids, this is not enough time… I-I have a counter offer!”

The Phoenix lifted her head and screeched in annoyance. (Oh, this is gonna be good, let me hear it.)

I looked beseechingly at her. “I am willing to become a Phoenix host, you can give me tasks, but I can return to Earth and live my life as I see fit. I… I am willing to become part of you, forever, but I should also be able to manifest another avatar of myself to stay on Earth and fix things… is it attractive enough?”

The giant firebird looked thoughtful. (This has never been done before, but this offer is very attractive to me.) She mumbled.

“Then?”

The Phoenix force morphed into a flame Me. She held her hand to me and said, (Take my hand and you shall gain your heart’s desire.)

What I wanted was to live! What I wanted was to return to my parents, friends and Cindy! Then I wanted to ensure the death of Sinister and all his clones! I took Phoenix’ hand and then I fell asleep. Everything was on fire, and I felt myself merging with Phoenix, our memories, personalities and body becoming one. I even absorbed a part of her consciousness, it was vast, like an ocean and I felt myself cocooned in the most comfortable featherbed. 

In my dreams, I saw why the Phoenix was so interested in me. I saw a young me that had telepathically linked her mind to her dying friend, Annie Richardson, to keep Annie's soul from moving to the afterlife. In doing so, my mind was being dragged along to the "other side" with Annie. 

Phoenix had lent her energy to break the connection and kept close watch on me since then, as it felt a kinship with the young me. And I understood, yes, I finally understood that she wasn’t my enemy, that she cared for me, she loved me. And now? Now we were one.

“I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever -- I am PHOENIX!”

# # #

I woke up, and rose upright using my TK. I remained in the lab and Sinister looked at me with horror. I looked at myself, my hands were bigger, I felt taller. More powerful than I had ever dreamed of. There was another change, I was in a red and gold costume with the phoenix symbol emblazoned on my chest and a sash belt at my waist.

[Happiness: Jean-host, Jean-host, Jean-host, Jean-host, Jean-host…] The litany of joy of my Klyntar friend at my resurrection was heart wrenching

*Goldie! I’m sorry, I should have been more careful!*

[Determination: Don’t die.]

I smiled and then looked up at the Sinister clone who had killed me. Because, yeah there was no sugarcoating it, I had died some minutes ago. I looked at the vial of my blood in the hands of this Sinister. He smiled at me, took his gun and fired at me again. But this time the green energy package didn’t work and hit harmlessly against my body.

I cocked an eyebrow at Sinister. “You know, I thought that I hated you before. But now? Now what I am about to do to you, I’m going to enjoy it, very very much.”

His smile faded as if he had fallen into a particularly bad dream. “You may kill me, but I shall come back with a solution to that... sudden power up you have obtained. Each time I come back more powerful than before. It’s too bad that you are such a vixen, we could have done great things together. I was willing to bend the knee to you, you and I could have been the greatest force this world had ever seen.”

Tilting my head I answered him with, “For a washed out brit geneticist, you do sound awfully cocky; but I don’t want you to bend the knee like you did to that asshole, Apocalypse. I want you dead.”

I held out my hand and his waiting neck flew into my grip, then I lifted him  into the air. I was already suppressing his powers as he struggled in my grip.

“This time I won’t just kill you, I shall scour the earth for every scrap of your presence, I will send your soul to Lady Death personally.” I felt my aura build up and then I was suddenly encased in a fiery gold and orange aura in the form of a bird and floated into the air, the mountain simply disintegrated around me and we were rising into the sky. Sinister’s body was already burning  and I held onto a piece of his soul.

Swiftly, I reached the stratosphere and clutched on the soul piece, I opened my senses and opened my lifesight. When I blinked, I could see everything living on the planet. When I turned toward the moon, I saw life there, too. I refocused on Earth and more precisely on the other soul pieces scattered all over the blue-green marble under me.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, now feeling at least fifty clones of Sinister alive. I wanted to kill them all in one shot, I spread my awareness around the entire planet and my fiery aura in bird form grew and grew. 

Then, I screeched. A red wave of energy spread all over the planet. The wave washed over everything on the planet's surface and in the surrounding space, searching for the precise DNA strand of Sinister. I saw many of his clones burn, screaming and disintegrate at the same time. It made my lips curl into a wide grin laced with satisfaction. His soul pieces came flying into my waiting hands and assembled.

Once complete, I crushed the soul in my hand and just like promised, I sent his soul to Lady Death. As I looked at my hands I realized that this power, it was terrible. And a responsibility that I didn’t want, but maybe because I didn’t want it, I was perfect for the job?

(Yes.) I heard the Phoenix’s voice in my head.

“Ah you are still here, excellent. Now Sinister is dead, that’s a great day!”

(Your job isn’t done yet. Can’t you feel that mental field all over the planet?)

“Oh?” I turned my senses toward the planet once more and fair enough there was someone performing mass mind control on multiple people at once. Half the population in fact, my eyes narrowed. 

My mind found them, it was some kind of bacterial life that was spread all over the planet and trying something. This vaguely reminded me of something. I interfered with the mental field and heard the suggestions it was sending. It hated metahumankind. It hated us because we were immune to his infection, we were a threat to him.

It called itself Sublime and burned so fiercely with hate that he compelled humans to hate us and took direct action in order to ensure that metahumankind’s population was held in check, if not outright killed in order to become the dominant species on the planet.

As I mind surfed on the mental field to divine the intention of the multicellular lifeform, it detected me and spoke to me. “Don’t touch me!”

“Abomination.” I gritted between my teeth.

“You mutant female think you are better than me?!”

“Huh, yeah, now prepare to die.”

I screeched for the second time by focusing on the entirety of the planet and the wave spread again. Seeking the Sublime, when it did find it, the waves began to break down the corresponding matter on the surface of the planet. I heard as the psychic scream of the sublime collective died, well… collectively. Some infected humans fell dead or fainted depending on the level of infection by the organism.

It was such a shame. Thing is, you couldn’t save everyone. My eyes honed in on Egypt. My new base of operation was now clone and Sinister free. I resolved to go to the other bases to clean them up. Also depending on the powered clones, I would either feed them to Goldie or keep them on retainer.

Looking at the blue and green planet, I saw beauty within it. How did such a place breed such an egoistic species like ours? Maybe, just maybe, my ascendency to the avatar state wouldn’t be so bad and would help fix the problem riddled planet. I descended toward Egypt with a smile on my face as the Raptor of Life.

END OF ARC 1: SINISTER'S END