This story is based on the new Uncanny X Men Issue 4. In it, the X Men kill a Phalanx that has been cut off from his strain and his strain was killed off before he could reconnect. Depressed and alone, he was found by a little girl, and thinking he could initiate her and they could be friends forever, he absorbed her, but her mind was gone. He desperately tried to contact his strain by initiating more people, and then morphed himself into a device to contact his strain. However, he then found out they were all gone. By this time, the X Men had arrived and were about to attack him. He lowered his shields and let them destroy him. The thing is, if they had known that he was the last of his species, they would have sympathised with him. This is an alternate version of the events that happened during this issue.
Cyclop's POV
"Clinical, Magik, good work. X Men prepare to..." Cyclops began from inside the jet. After being told by SWORD to go after the Phalanx, they had set out. However, they were not prepared for what they saw. "No..." said Cyclops. The Phalanx was spread over the entire city like water, or lava. It had eaten every living person in the city.
"It's like Pompeii, or..." said Psylocke.
"This is horrible," said Hope
"It'd be horrific as a final act," said Cyclops, "Remember: the real horror is that unless we stop it, it's just a prologue."
The Phalanx was rising, turning into a giant, towering over everything. It looked as large as the Empire State Building and was still rising.
"Engage. Engage with everything you've got!" shouted Cyclops, anger in his voice. He watched as the flying X Men outside the jet attacked the giant Phalanx. Cyclops turned to issue orders to the X Men inside the jet.
"Hope, take the controls, provide air support," said Cyclops
"Affirmative," said Hope
"Magik, get us downstairs," said Cyclops, but by the time he'd finished, they were already on the ground "Good work."
"Brother, no- you're hasty. You do not need the Juggernaut's power yet," said Magik.
"I know," said Colossus "But this creature killed a town, I don't need the power, I want it."
Colossus, now in his Juggernaut form, attacked the Phalanx "Is that really so bad?"
The Phalanx made to swallow Colossus, but glowed as Magneto held out his hand.
"No, alien," he said "I don't think you get to do that."
The Phalanx stopped "Interference, altering ferromagnetic properies, adaptation complete."
The jet shot several missiles at the Phalanx. "Adapt to this," said Hope.
"Foolish," said the Phalanx, "Literally selfish. If you knew what I knew you would not fight so hard. But you will learn."
"Then don't fight," said Storm "Talk, you fool. Do you think anyone wants this?"
Suddenly, the Phalanx transformed again, this time into a tall spike-like thing. Apparently whatever it was trying to do didn't work, as it transformed back and continued fighting. Then, it stopped and stayed still. Blasts came from every direction. Every X Man had fired a blast of some kind at the Phalanx. All of them were stopped in their tracks before they hit.
After the blast had cleared, a girl stood on the ground in front of the Phalanx. She was wearing combat trousers and boots as well as a blue t-shirt.
"I cannot let you kill this Phalanx," said the girl "Try again and I'll be forced to take all of you out, don't try to read my mind, Psylocke, you'll regret it if you try."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" asked Cyclops, angry now "This thing just killed an entire town, and your defending it?"
"They aren't dead," said the girl flatly "Phalanx initiation cannot kill, it needs their power for fuel, give me a day, and I can reverse the horror this Phalanx has done, if you kill it now, it won't be the Phalanx that'll be killing those people, it'll be you, is that what you want Cyclops, is that what you want your extinction team to be?"
Cyclops stepped backwards at the venom in the girls voice. "Who are you?"
"My name is Jenny," said the girl "Avenger, veteran of the Battle of New York, I fought against Ultron and won, I am one of the last of my species, the Time Lords, and I can't allow you to exterminate this Phalanx, you see, it's the last of it's species too."
"We should stand down Cyclops," said Storm, "This isn't right, what we've been doing, I felt that from the moment this fight started."
"I agree with Storm," said Hope "And I'd like to stay and help you, Jenny, if I can."
Cyclops thought for a minute, then nodded. "You've got a day," he said "One day and then we'll be back, I'll leave you any of my team that wish to stay and help, you're right, Jenny, we can't turn our backs on a creature that is the last of it's species."
"Just kill me," said the Phalanx, and they could hear the sadness in it's techno voice "Without my strain, I'm nothing."
"Go on," said Jenny "Go back to Utopia, give me time, I'll be able to cure him, set him straight."
The X Men that wanted to, left in the jet, leaving Hope, Storm, Magik and Psylocke behind.
Jenny's POV
"All right," said Jenny, looking a the four members of the Extinction Team that had remained behind "I've got to make contact with it, Psylocke, can you show me a psychic scan of the Phalanx?"
"Here," said Psylocke, holding out a hand. Jenny took it, and immediately saw the Phalanx's brain.
"The problem seems to be that it's hive mind has been removed, it's connection to it's people severed, now it's found out it's the only one of it's strain and it wants to die," said Jenny, her voice pitying "But listen to us, Phalanx, you've captured many minds and all of those minds are trapped in your body, if you die, they die with you, I can help you, but I need to know that you won't initiate me if I touch you."
"I promise," said the Phalanx "I don't have anything else to lose, I'm prepared to die now, my people are gone."
"What you had," said Jenny "Wasn't real life, your connection to the hive mind meant there was no individuality, no single, independent thought, that's why when you try to initiate people now, their minds seem to vanish, they synchronise with your own thoughts."
"Can you help with that?" asked the Phalanx "I initiated someone who was only nice to me, and I repaid her by stealing her mind."
"You thought that your way would be better, that she would be happier," said Jenny "Noone can blame you for that."
"Can you help?" asked the Phalanx
"I can," said Jenny "But I have to trust you won't initiate me if I touch you."
"I won't initiate you," said the Phalanx "I know what it does to people now, I only initiated so many with the hope of contacting my strain, now, I know that that is impossible, my strain is dead, I am the last."
"Let's get to work, then," said Jenny, her hands glowed as she moved forwards to the foot of the Phalanx "Now, I've never done this before, so you might want to find an area to lie down so you don't fall over and crush something."
The Phalanx obeyed and lay down in an open area. Jenny walked to the lower end of the Phalanx, placing both hands on the Phalanx's foot. Both hands glowed a golden light. The foot started to dissolve, spreading out and reforming into humanoid shapes, then taking on colour, becoming human again. They were, however, still unconscious.
"Check them," said Jenny "I don't know if I did it right, are they breathing, do they have a pulse, do they have a mind?"
"All afirmative," said Psylocke "Keep going, your doing great."
Jenny continued, making sure to target only the human sections, leaving the devoured metal in place to leave the Phalanx with a body after it was over.
Gradually, as more humans came out of the Phalanx unharmed, the Phalanx itself started to shrink. This went on for the rest of the day and most of the night. The Phalanx continued to shrink. Soon, it had shrunk to human size. The last person to come out of the Phalanx was a little girl wearing a turquoise shirt and shorts. As she came out, Jenny collapsed on the ground. Storm walke over to her.
"You did well, Jenny," said Storm "You did well."
Storm's POV
The Phalanx, still human sized, had run over to the little girl, the last to come out of it. "Is she O.K?" he asked "I never meant to do that to her, I was her pet, she was mine, I never wanted to hurt her."
"We know," said Hope "Our people didn't believe it at first, but Jenny brought it all through to us."
The Phalanx looked to Jenny "Is she O.K?" it asked
"She should be fine," said Storm "Sometimes, using power like that take a strain, I'm still not sure what it was, but she cured you, Phalanx."
"I am grateful to her," said the Phalanx "But what will I do now, my strain is gone, I no longer have a purpose, Jenny may have cured me, but what now?"
"Why not come with us for now," said Storm, picking Jenny up from the ground "I shall make sure Cyclops and the other members of the Extinction team do not kill you, we cannot do much more now, but when Jenny wakes up, you can decide what you want to do."
"Very well," said the Phalanx "I shall come with you."
"If you, or any of your team, kill this Phalanx, you'll have me to answer to," said Jenny, turning away from the group.
"Wait," said Storm. Jenny halted. "You could stay with us, Jenny, what happened today has shown me that we need someone to keep us from going too far, you could be that person."
"Tempting offer," said Jenny "But you have to find your own way, there will be many challenges in the future, Aurora Munroe, and you will question if your really on the right side, when that question arises, you must follow what your heart tells you."
"What do you mean?" asked Storm "I don't understand."
Jenny smiled "You will," she said "Once you have made the choice, we shall meet again."
Jenny pressed a few buttons on a strange device on her wrist, and vanished, leaving Storm with more questions than answers.