X:Men: Sanctuary

by Kyle Phoenix

The return of Talisman! Puma, Lifeguard, Thunderbird and Slipstream on the hunt for Xavier. Mature subjects, please review. Plus plenty of slash and erotica throughout that gets explicit. Note: Chapter 27 was revised due to an error.

10. Oooooops, I Did It Again

X-Men: Sanctuary Issue # 10 By Kyle Phoenix War Part 3 "Oooooops, I Did It Again."

Roster: Archangel Northstar Magma Shadowcat Peter Rasputin, Jr. Black Bishop Psyche Paulie Spike Frenzy Karma Chamber Nightcrawler Iceman Talisman Raphael Hunter Capt. Ari

Shi'ar Deep Space:

"We're sorry about this you know," Kitty said to Captain Ari who had been sitting stoically in her command chair for almost twelve hours straight. The X-Men had taken shifts being awake with two people always on the Bridge with the impassive starship commander, who had refused to leave her post. At first it seemed like obstinacy and then Kitty had come to accept that she was tacitly agreeing to the hijacking so long as her ship wasn't damaged. And she considered herself the only one capable of directing it properly. Truth be told, kitty was relieved and happy that the woman had chosen to help, even if it wasn't willingly. A starship was not an easy thing to fly, especially with only her being the X-Man with the most knowledge of not only Shi'ar language but technology. She'd been pulling long shifts with brief cat naps for days, being in a dozen places at once to both monitor, teach the others and formulate their plan. Storm had taught her well how to manage a team, she was proud to say.
"Shadowcat, isn't it? I reviewed your record. It's one of the few databases I'm still allowed to access on my own ship," Ari said frostily.
"I apologize for that as well. But we can't have you sending out a distress signal or blowing us to Hell. If you did have those thoughts, I'd have to make sure I phased you into space before any harm came to the ship. So you see, our goals and concerns are the same. Maintain the integrity of the ship," Kitty said back just as coldly. She couldn't give this woman an inch in believing that her value outstripped Kitty's willingness to compensate for her loss.
Ari arched her brow carefully. "Your file, it is impressive though. Your mastery of the Shi'ar computer systems and which ones to subjugate. Your leader, Professor Xavier has taught you well. You would make an accomplished commander of a ship in a few years. However you'll understand if I'm not interested in your apologies. We're streaking towards a world, a world full of Empire research to alleviate the madness your leader infected us with. On top of that is a new barbaric race from another dimension that are here at your people's behest to possibly take over my people. All for the refugees we'll be picking up in a few hours. You expect me to see anything but madness in risking hundreds of billions of lives for what----hundreds?"
"This is all spiraling out of control. This was never our intent," Kitty said hesitantly.
"Have you ever considered how destructive you X-Men are throughout the whole damn universe!?" she seethed then got herself back under control. Her hands flying to smooth her feathers on her head. The hatred dulled in her eyes for a moment, her breathing became less labored. "Shadowcat, by Terran standards you're a young woman. Barely an adult and yet you've had adventures and done things that make my career pale in comparison. You even were friends with the Evil Harbinger, Dark Phoenix before her transformation and consuming of worlds and a sun. Unfortunately we Shi'ar through Lilandra's love of you and your leader have been raped by all associations."
"We've helped in the past. We'll do everything in our power to help you now."
"Your help is a deadly thing, Katherine Pryde."
"I know. I know that there are many victims from what the X-Men become immersed in. I've even left the X-Men for a time because of that reason, because I was tired of seeing so much death and destruction. I can't help but agree that the X-Men are like a plague in some ways. But there are true innocents, children, who we're trying to save here."
"You've also crippled my people's last hope. There were top secret medical experiments taking place on Xevan. To restore a leader to the Shi'ar," Ari admitted wearily. "The talks with the Kree and Skrull we're stop gaps to give the process time. Don't get me wrong, Katherine Pryde, I'm not racing my ship to that medical planet to simply stop the invasion. On that world in stasis for several years was our last mad leader, D'Ken. He was healed. I pray he hasn't been slain."
"D'Ken?" Kitty gasped. She'd known of Lilandra's mad brother who'd almost destroyed the universe from the X-Men database.
"Yes, it seems you X-Men have put yourselves in the thick of the shit yet again," Ari said dryly then turned her eyes back to the viewer screen.
Kitty felt torn about leaving the woman. But with the information of D'Ken being on Xevan, she saw why there hadn't been much resistance. Ari had a mission to protect the next leader of the Empire from the invasion that was occuring. Kitty looked back at Karma and Northstar who were at their assigned stations then let herself phase through the floor below. For a moment she felt a slight tugging at her consciousness and realized it was because they were traveling at such high speeds. She wondered if perhaps if she didn't focus so hard on maintaining a form of cohesiveness she would shred apart if she let those forces touch her. That was big quantum physics theory concepts she was too weary to speculate on now. She wondered if she would ever get a chance just to do pure research again, to consider herself and the Universe at large.
She came through the wall into the cavernous science lab that had become her home for the past few days. It allowed her to monitor and if necessary, due to several programs she'd integrated into the systems, control all the ship's functions and it was only two decks away from the Bridge. She phased down onto her cot, where there were half a dozen blankets and pillows. She set her watch for ninety minutes and then closed her eyes, she couldn't bear to keep thinking on the problems she had to solve over the next few days.

Nima:

Talisman came up to the surface of the water and stepped nude onto the beach. With a wave of her hand a strong breeze took the water away from her and then another wave of her hand and her costume appeared on her body. She shook her hair out and then turned, her mystical sensors throughout the beach and atmosphere alerting their mistress to something. She pressed deeply at the wards and for a moment the feeling slipped away.

She gritted her teeth and looked around her for Chamber and Hunter---- they were both at the far end of the beach, in their makeshift hut, giving her privacy. Not noticing her shame. Talisman logically knew that she could do so much, that everything she could think of was at her will to bend, to manipulate, but it was like trying to hold a soap bubble. If she moved at things too hard, the connection popped. She had access to the power but she hadn't studied specific spells for years the way her father and others had. Magic was still....magical to her. She often found her self stumbling through her own thoughts for what to do and then how to do it. It was like being rich and not ever having a credit card or cash on hand. Making the mystical credit cards/cash---the keys to accessing her wealth of power was what slowed her down, exhausted her.
She looked up again and touched her sensors. They were hers.
Yes, there it was the shift in space-----an object coming towards the moon in both form, energy and intent of the beings aboard. Beings who Talisman recognized and a very angry and frightened woman.
Chamber stood up and looked at Talisman and then the night sky. His telepathy was stronger around her, he was learning to take cues from her when she radiated psychic energy. Talisman let her mind go to San Madre, tightly wound up in mystical bonds that she'd worked on for days, so that Holy Mother, Raphael and the thousands of residents would stay unconscious.
"How long?" Chamber asked Talisman as she came over to the hut. "I can feel 'em but I can't put me tongue, if I had one, on how long."
"We push too hard. Both of us. Too many of us on this team have access to great power but lack the training to use it." Talisman looked back up and thought about distance, about it not existing and then trying to overlap that image between her and the ship that was coming closer over onto her logical measuring self. "Three hours, I think."
Hunter looked at them both, his brow covered in sweat. "I don't have long. A day or two at most. When we get aboard the ship you'd best put me in stasis. The Brood egg in me will mature soon."
"I think we're going to need you to hold on a bit longer than that, Hunter. We'll need someone to help fly that ship," Talisman said and kneeled in front of the Shi'ar man. "You've given up so much to help us, to help these people of San Madre."
"I was first sworn to my liege, Lilandra and then to stopping these Brood from getting a foothold on your world, any world. I fought in the first Brood War when the Empire encountered them in deep space. I've lost many friends and loved ones. I cannot see that happen. Nor could I turn my back on one's that my liege found so compelling as to love," he coughed slightly and Talisman's hands began to glow. She held his hand and closed her eyes, looking deeply into his system. She could see the Brood egg intertwining through his limbic system, the texture of his blood chemistry was changing. Soon the change would be deadly to his Shi'ar biology. Essentially the Brood killed off all of the immune system and then consumed the remaining biology to convert into food to feed itself as it ate one from the inside out. It looked like a transformation but in fact it was a genetic coup dentate.
She wished she'd paid more attention to her father's healing spells. She thought that she could separate the two entities if she only had the proper training. She couldn't even figure out how to heal. She patted his feathered hand gently then stood up and walked slowly back towards San Madre. The mystically comatose victims of the town were the only one's she felt comfortable with anymore, at least in their silence she could pretend it was hope.

"A township?" Ari said in surprise, looking over the holographic schematic of the moon below. "You Stargated an entire town?" She couldn't help but chuckle. "You are a marvel, Shadowcat. You bend the rules of what I thought a Stargate was capable of and I minored in Stargate Technology at university."
"Thank you. I've run some calculations and had the others emptying out the deployment bays. Moving all those supplies and ships to other cargo bays and unused crew quarters."
"Yes, that didn't escape me. You can't bring the entire town back so you intend to bring only the town center? This area here and the cavern below it?"
"Yes, I think I've recalibrated the matter transporters properly and Cecelia has been working on maintaining the anaesthetizing gas."
"Why are the refugees being kept in stasis?" Captain Ari asked suddenly.
Kitty looked at Cecelia who shrugged. "Hey, she's got to know at some point."
"Know what?" Ari asked, perplexed. "I am for all intents your prisoner. Why bother concern for my feelings?"
"All of the people we're beaming up, with the exception of two teammates, have been infected by the Brood," Kitty said calmly looking Ari dead in the eye.
Ari was still for a long moment then took a deep breath and nodded. "So we will be carrying a lethal biological alien on board as we then fly my ship into the midst of an invasion? Would you like to activate the self destruct now? It will save time and pain when we perish."
The three women were silent for a long minute.
"That was like Star Trek humor, right?" Cecelia asked.
"It was admittance that while I readily admit that you X-Men cut the odds to beyond my ability to calculate the probabilities of success with, you are also reckless. Part of your recklessness is what spirals these situations out into destroying the lives of others, throughout the galaxy. Simply put, your best ideas and intentions lead to ruin. You require new input."
"You know, I've been suggesting much the same thing for awhile now," Cecelia laughed. "Kitty, I think Capt. Ari has shown that she's willing to at least begrudgingly help us so that she can get to this Xevan planet to save their King Decon."
"Emperor D'Ken," Ari corrected.
"Whomever. Point is, we need her to run some of our operations so that we can save those people below and prevent that invasion."
Kitty chewed her lip thoughtfully. The Shi'ar captain, though not pleased with being hijacked had priorities that were beginning to put them in alignment with the X-Men's goals. This operation was also fast spiraling out of Kitty's ability to manage. She slowly shook her head. "Ok, Captain, advice on how to accomplish this?"
"First tell me exactly what happened and brought you here, I'm still unclear as to that," Ari said.
It took Kitty and Cecelia nearly ten minutes but between the two of them they were able to bring her up to date with their dilemma.
Ari's eyes flashed with deep emotion for a moment then turned back to the holographic schematics. "First, we will only bring the children aboard. You're making a decision based upon the possibility of converting them all back to human. The adults you must consider expendable. They are literally the absolute corrupted diseased part of your mission. The children though, in stasis, are still salvageable medically. We'll transport the children up to the cargo bay and put them into deep stasis. As the isle is Stargate transportable we will transport it that way to prevent contamination. The mystical bindings of your teammate Talisman and the technology built into the isle will have to preserve them. We will leave them near the Stargate that I will use to take you back to Earth once, we have saved Xevan. Is that clear?"
Kitty was about to open her mouth when she understood that this is what Capt. Ari was best at so she agreed and opened the comm link to the X- Men and Hunter below to explain the plan.

Madripoor:

Sabine woke up first at a loss for what had happened to have brought upon the darkest of consciousness. Sabine did a quick mental survey and found that his body was male, which generally meant combat of some sort. He looked around, the nearly collapsed cottage. A battle had taken place. He reached out mentally for Meridian and found..........something odd. Meridian was alive, whatever force had overwhelmed him, her protector, hadn't killed her but in some form she'd been co-opted. She was nearby. Only a couple of miles away.
Sabine stood up and literally felt a pressure of psionic energy suffusing the entire island.
Something was deeply wrong.
The child.
Sabine got to his feet and began moving towards his mistresses' psychic radiance.
A fist slammed into his head from behind.
"Not so fast," M said as she pinned his arm behind him.
Emma Frost strolled into the room, in full diamond form. "Why, hello, Sabine. This is my student M. She's quite upset at the fact that your employer has seemingly been the cause of this entire isle falling under some sort of psionic spell."
Sabine looked up in shock.
"Yes, Sabine, I know of Meridian. She's old, yes, but not as invisible as she wants to be. One of the Marauders, Arclight, a clone, I understand was left alive and Viper had the foresight to hide this from all but her most trusted associates. I plucked it from the thoughts of one of said associates and when this odd psionic malady befell, what is rapidly becoming this isle nexus for all mutant mayhem on Earth, I decided that M and I should immediately visit the near death Arclight and do a deep, thorough mental scan of her. I don't believe in coincidences of presence between the X-Men, the Marauders and then this psionic control field. So Arclight's memories brought us here and we arrived just in time to see this pleasant cottage pummeled by a Shi'ar scout ship and then rocket off to Hightown.
"Now, we'll have to go to Hightown to end this madness, of course. Mainly because Frost Industries has nearly one hundred million invested in this mayhem rock and I refuse to post those kinds of third quarter losses. As we're all caught up with one another, would you mind explaining just what, excuse my French, the fuck is going on?"
Sabine considered his options carefully. Meridian had been co-opted in this endeavor but that didn't mean all was lost. These X-Men considered Meridian a super villain at most; there were ways to still protect his mistress in this matter.
"Meridian was pregnant with a mutant child. The child of Warren Worthington, one of your number."
"How 'Dynasty'," M said dryly then tightened her hold on his arm. "And this psionic blanket?"
"I believe that the child is the cause of this. That the child is being born with an incarnation greater than a child's and has plans of his own."
"And what are those plans?" Emma asked.
"To be the Anti-Christ," Sabine sighed.
"Oh, wonderful, a child with delusions of epic grandeur," M sighed. "Doesn't anyone evil ever want to say destroy drug manufacturers to plunge the economy into turmoil? Something simple?"
"The very nature of complete world domination stems from narcissism and a psychosis that suggests they would be able to manage an entire planet. I had simply a ghastly time managing my staff at my Gstaad villa! But, on to world saving, again," Emma sighed.
"Why would Warren fire upon you and this cottage and where are the rest of the X-Men?" M asked.
"I have no idea. But it was only Archangel aboard the ship. That much I remember from the attack."
"Do you think you'll be fired as Meridian's personal guard?" Emma queried.
"At the least."

Warren felt like his mind was truly his own, that he had complete control over himself. He knew that Meridian had changed him, had unlocked something about him that he had never even remotely considered before. He had left his teammates and thousands of innocents stranded on the other side of the galaxy to come back for the woman in his arms. Meridian looked up at him and smiled.
"My champion. Looks like we have a problem with our child though," she sighed looking over at the crimson coruscating energy field in the center of Frost Industries hangar bay. "I told you he would be a handful."
"Yes, you did. Is this how it all begins? The war you told me about?"
"It is more than a war. It is the destruction of the spiritual consciousness," Meridian corrected.
"Of course. I'm still not clear on how our child is going to attempt this."
"He'll travel back in time and kill a world leader who's changed the world's consciousness."
"Uhhhhhhhhh.....that's already happened. A fellow X-Man Bishop was part of restoring this world with the help of the alternate universe X-Men. Prof. X's son went back in time to kill Magneto and killed Prof. X instead. It's really hard to imagine my first child as lacking the ability to even set a world destruction trend."
"Oh, Warren, don't despair! I know that people like us who have accomplished so much in life worry about the motivation of their children. Will they be able to live up to the high standard we've unknowingly set? He will."
"How?" Warren said skeptically as the energy field began to swirl faster.
"Oh, he's going to kill someone much more profound," Meridian assured.
"Warren Buffet?"
"Jesus Christ."

Somewhere:

Dani lifted her head and groaned. This was not good.
Marat stood in front of her, holding his battle axe. She was chained to a rock, actually more of a boulder on a cliff side.
"You broke our agreement," he said calmly.
"I was needed. By my family. On Earth. And then the X-Men thing came along. You knew I would come back eventually," Dani sighed, she knew he was right, she owed him more than she had done.
"I am not a patient man."
"Yes, that is abundantly clear to both me and my friends. I hope they're still alive?" she asked hopefully.
"All but the blue one, his disappearing powers interacted with one of my axes."
"Oh, shit! Marat, we have to find him. Help him. He would've appeared--------anywhere-----Valhalla? Asgaard?"
"And your debt to me? Our marriage?"
"Our marriage was to stop a war and because of our feelings but as corny as this sounds, we both know why it would never work," Dani sighed, she looked around the peak she was on. Just where in the hell had he brought her?
Marat leaned down, set his axe down and roughly grabbed her chin. "You have obligations, woman! You cannot expect this Earth band of genetic mishaps rule your destiny. And you have a grand destiny! Unfortunately I am entwined with said destiny, I am and so are my people, my tribe. I cannot afford for you to grow beyond the maturity of less than two centuries of life to understand what it means to be responsible to a people."
"I'm sorry, Marat. By the by, just where in the hell are we?" Dani asked politely. She knew that he was right in so many ways about so many things. She'd pledged to him and been with him a hundred years that no one knew about and instead of honoring that she'd slipped away one night without a word.
""Your friends will be here. Perhaps in a year. Perhaps a decade. Time is hard to understand in mortal constraints," Marat shrugged and smirked sadistically. I will kill them if you do not find them first." He pointed towards the setting sun. "Eight thousand miles, that way, they will appear. It will take awhile to break this chain, you'll have to use the magicks I taught you. By using them, you will reestablish your bond to me."
"You always were a smart fuck," Dani smirked. "We could save a lot of time and energy, if we just walked together."
"Yes, we could. But the imprisonment in both time and body will give you time to think," Marat kissed her gently then picked up his axe and walked away.
Dani picked up the length of the chain that was bolted into the rock itself. She could feel the magic pulsating through it.
Great.
Her X uniform was in a pile a few feet out of reach, that meant she would be cold when night fall came sitting in only deerskin loin cloth that he'd changed her into. Around her neck though was the crystal choker that he'd given her when they'd been married. She began the chant, that her people had started a thousand years before her birth. And she felt a slight spark in the chain. Not a lot. Like one letter in a book being highlighted.
This was going to take awhile.

Shi'ar space:

"You are the motherfucking woman!" Talisman laughed as she, Chamber and Hunter walked onto the battleship bridge. She gave Shadowcat a high five. "A battleship?! You stole a battleship!! I half expected you to come back with the Millennium Falcon!"
"Hey, I couldn't have done it without the others. This is Captain Ari, this is her ship," Kitty said with a broad grin and waved at the Shi'ar captain. She quickly brought them up to date on the plan as Ari walked over to Hunter.
"You are helping them, Commander?" Ari said in disgust.
"I was assigned by the Empress Lilandra to watch a Brood sect. I was to be relieved. Then the madness spread and all in contact with Earth were abandoned," Hunter said shamefully, bowing his head.
Ari put her hand on his shoulder. "And now you are infected?"
"Yes, Captain. I am. But these X-Men are worthy beings. I hope that they can help restore what their teacher's possession has wrought."
"Yes, they are unique beings. It will be good to have you aboard, they are good fill ins but I need someone familiar with starship operation, you are now my second in command. Hopefully we'll be able to eradicate the Brood from you. If not, I will do you the honor of killing you myself if need be. Take a position at Navigation, it's the one position no one amongst them has adequate experience in. It would be my honor have one of the Majestrix's Royal Guard there."
"Thank you, Captain," Hunter said and sat down at the navigation console.
Kitty pointed at the glowing blip on the holographic schematic. "We are confirmed that the Stargate machinery is activated on San Madre and ready for transport."
"Initiate," Ari nodded at Cecelia who punched in a series of commands on her console. A moment later two directional beams shot from the battleship, in opposite directions one to the ship below and the other to the Stargate they would be using.
Ari checked the calculations on her arm rest again. "This is very good. Essentially the town will travel at a markedly slower speed which will give us two days before it appears at the terminus point, the Stargate in Sector 18. If we're not there to retrieve them, they die. If we don't make it there to retrieve them, we're either dead or they might as well be."
"That's thousands of people just beamed into the nether region," Chamber said, shaking his head.
"And children we can possibly rescue downstairs."
"And me?" a figure said as he stepped from behind Chamber.
"Raphael?" Kitty said in surprise.
"He was with the children and not infected like the adults or Holy Mother," Talisman explained, "so I brought him aboard."
"I don't seek to harm anyone.......I don't know what to do anymore," Raphael stammered in his thick South American accent and looked both helplessly and hopelessly around the Bridge, his eyes bulging at the star scape before him. He suddenly seemed thin and drawn and overwhelmed and clutched his tattered white robes even tighter.
"We're not going to hurt you, Raphael. You remember me? From the cavern? We're just trying to help everyone of San Madre. We had to come to some.......friends in space to get the medicine for them though," Kitty said, stepping unflinchingly forward.
Raphael pried his eyes away from the nearly two story tall viewer screen of the stars whizzing by outside as they sped towards Xevan. "I understand. Your witch, Elizabeth explained this all to me."
"I also explained that Holy Mother, the prime source of his power was a million miles away and that I'd personally show him what real magic was about if he got out of hand," Talisman assured everyone.
"Good," Nemesis nodded.
Raphael looked nervously at Nemesis, his eyes seeming to study her featureless mask then his own face relaxed and he nodded. Instead of the implied threat he seemed to find comfort in her. "I will work to help my people. My allegiance to the Holy Mother was wrong, it was her influence. I no longer agree with her actions. I apologize for my part in her plans."
"We seem to have a knack for picking up orphans on this team," Paulie grunted.
"That we do. I'll get everyone settled then we can get together in the meeting room to go over our strategy for dealing with the invasion," Shan smiled and lead their compatriots onto the transport elevator.
Captain Ari gave them a long glare then went back to her command chair. She was torn between fear, revulsion and the Empire's pressing necessity for warriors. Lilandra had her choice of consorts from all over the galaxy and yet she'd chosen a human, a mutant human, Ari was beginning to see why. The possessed both variety and vitality and though they were immature in matters of intergalactic politics, she could see that they were a force to be reckoned with. They were vibrant, optimistic people teeming with life.

Xevan:

"We are so fucking dead," Frenzy muttered under her shock troopers' helmet to Carlos, who was following her in similar body armor and full face covering helmet.
"We're doing fine, Johanna, don't worry," Carlos said in a low voice into his comm link though no one could hear them as they walked amongst a legion of troopers that he could only compare to vague campaigns he remembered in Earth's history. Troy. The Crusades. WWI. Though he had lived through them all, he had only brief memories unless he actually focused on them. His mind was like a mansion of rooms that sealed off when he "died" and was reborn. Deep within the recesses of that house, the basement, and yet permeating through all of the walls was the Beast who he'd been co-opted by long ago. They were both prison and prisoner to the other.
The gauntlet on his left arm quickly flashed a series of lights and Carlos heard the staticky voice, almost hollow, like true ghosts within the machine, of Peter speak through their comm links.
Ahead about a thousand feet is the supply transport that goes up through this space elevator. I've authorized your presence aboard it to return with technological materials to be examined by their scientists.
"Good work, Peter," Carlos sighed, his faith in the young man had been neutral until now but Carlos was beginning to see the immense potential the boy possessed. "Outside?" bombardments of planetary weaponry from the Xevan and presumably Magma had been going on for hours.
Magma did a lot of damage to their forces and the Xevan had been able to make their way through the insane infected people and attack the invasion forces directly. There is another problem though.
"I knew it," Frenzy grunted. "Never an easy caper."
The space elevator is basically like a rope, a big metal rope attached to their other dimension and ships, planetary size ships in continuing dimensions. The "top" of the elevator is within an inter- dimensional rift. It's endless in a physical matter way.
"I see. So we cannot exit from the roof as it were. What about locating an escape ship?"
Within the upper stratosphere there are hundreds of patrol ships to protect the dimensional aperture. It takes me awhile to..........move through this much metal. It's like swimming upstream and the energy that powers and irradiates this whole complex is slowing me down even further.
"You move with metallic based molecules, I suspect," Carlos said calmly. "You're not truly a part of the integrated computer system."
No. I am not. Sorry. I understand everything from the inside out. Then jump back out and program the computers but I can't control them while inside. It's risky for me to keep appearing and I'm going to have to keep going higher in the elevator to secure your passage. They have thousands of security protocols.
"He's no Sage," Frenzy muttered.
Yes, but I am still the ace up your hole, Frenzy! Peter defended.
Carlos chuckled. The boy's mastering of idioms was comical at best. "You're doing fine, Peter. We couldn't have gotten this far without you acting as the point man. We understand your limitations and I want you to take every precaution to protect yourself and keep yourself undetected. There is no way we could fight our way to the upper levels of this monstrosity. The X-Men's style of smash and win, won't win today. With the revitalizer in tow, we have to be extremely careful."
Frenzy and the Black Bishop walked onto the large cargo transport shuttle, Frenzy still carrying the revitalizer on her back, dozens of scientists and shock troopers sitting alongside them. Carlos craned his neck to see where the scanners were that authorized people to just get on board but decided to not look suspicious and kept his head down. Luckily the Khan Force was made up of so many divergent races from throughout other dimensions that they blended in physically by simply being bipeds.
There was a tremor under the elevator itself and Carlos couldn't help but wonder if and when Magma would have no choice but to stop acting as a distracting force and instead attack the elevator directly, her power being equal to probably bringing it down. He reached out empathically for her, as always he felt the coolness of logical intent that was a sharp contrast to her fiery exterior. She was feeling oddly overwhelmed though. Almost like she'd finally admitted to herself that she was confronting more than even her ego thought she could handle.

"I can easily destroy you all!" Magma said haughtily to the assemblage before her. "In fact, it would end problems near and far, if I did so."
Deathbird tensed, the fiery woman before her wasn't joking. She moved closer to her brother D'Ken, to whisk him away and leave Kriss to discover how hot he really liked it if Magma did anything. Deathbird was still getting reports from her agents throughout the region that there were localized volcanoes and earthquakes appearing all over the city. Supposedly Magma could stop these.
Kriss nodded almost imperceptibly. Though nearly human in appearance except for his skin color, he had a decidedly reptilian genetic nature. Deathbird could sense barely any body heat from him.
"You could do that, Red Queen Amara. You could surely topple my advance force tower. Which is why I insisted with my other potential allies this negotiation. You want off of this world. They want a large, sane military force to help them restore stability to their shattered empire. And as they are my Lord Khan's allies from many a dimension, I am willing to help them," Kriss said calmly then looked down at his forces who were now fighting the Xevan armies. He was quiet for several longer minutes then he turned back to the assemblage.
"Safe passage off of this world for me and companions?" Magma asked warily.
"We can't allow that, my dear," Deathbird said. "One emissary can live."
"I concur with my sister," D'Ken said slowly, almost as if the words brought him pain. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Magma the entire meeting.
Magma considered her options. Which weren't many. Ally herself with a madman, a madwoman, a being she was beginning to think was a physical incarnation of a snake. All three with shattered, tattered empires that they were trying to reform. Should one of these monsters become a ruler of such an empire, what did that say for Earth's future. It was one thing to be willing to sacrifice a few compatriots for her goals but her world? There were many things she was willing to be, but not responsible for planetary genocide.
Well, not the genocide of her own world.
"Here's my offer. Safe passage off and I'll stop what I've done," Magma smiled. Then waved a fiery arm at the warring armies below. "Oh, not that. I've been slowly moving tectonic plates within the planetary crust itself. Only I can reverse it. Killing me won't help. Think of it as planet imploding from within. Check with your scientists. We have time. Not much. But enough."
"Human whore!!!!!!!!" D'Ken raged and reached for her throat but his sister grabbed him and held him back.
"Oh my," Magma sighed. "Seeing your precious new allies once again finding the price of taking over this dimension too costly. What does a space elevator go for these days without Lord Khan's approval and charisma? I'm willing to bet, it costs about one Vice Admiral's future, what do you think?"
Kriss looked at her stoically for several long seconds. "If you cannot win the game, destroy the board?"
"Between the three of you, I might as well go back and destroy Earth myself. You'll eventually invade or destroy it out of revenge or egomaniacal greed. So, why don't you take what is the first in a long line of nutty royalty and get back in your needle and shove it..........back home?" Magma growled.
"Come, D'Ken, we don't need her. Nor Xevan. We'll simply leave. She's the one bound by the lack of a ship," Kriss opened a small communicator. "Now, Reshell."
Almost instantaneously the skies above, dark except for the fire fights above seemed to flash like daylight. To electrify. First blinding white and then yellow and finally settling into a deep pinkish gray.
Kriss looked up, a small smile on his lips. "That is essentially a force field around the planet that disrupts all electromagnetic generators several miles above the surface. A no fly zone if you will. Now my elevator is the only way of transporting on and off. I doubt the four hundred million Xevans will want to be here when the planet explodes and I'm more than willing to....shove my elevator back up now that I have the rightful heirs to the Empire."
"You two must've been elated to be greeted by Kriss' people who you are royalty to," Magma said darkly to D'Ken and Deathbird.
"I look forward to introducing them. It will insure the future you were so concerned about," Kriss smirked.
"'Look forward'...? Good," Magma chuckled.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" D'Ken screamed and a moment later his body was covered with large roasting chunks of Kriss' body. Magma had focused and within an instant made him spontaneously combust, she didn't think she could do it a second time; she'd been concentrating on it as singular, invisible pulse of her power to generate heat for the entirety of their conversation. In fact, she'd been trying to kill them all. Her head felt like it would explode and her fiery appearance was rapidly returning to human.
"That was the Empire's last hope!!!!!!!!!!" D'Ken screamed, charging towards the mutant, but his sister was faster, her claws extended. Magma was barely able to grab Deathbird's wrists to stop the impaling and pull them both backwards and tumbling down the ridge.
Magma had taken all the hand to hand combat courses Xavier offered, basic judo, but she was no match for a born warrior and with her powers at such a low ebb, she didn't think she could even summon enough energy to put up a defense. Deathbird's wings expanded out and they swooped over the battlefield, thousands of Invasion troopers fighting Xevan's military. Magma screamed out as Deathbird viciously bit into her throat, narrowly missing her jugular, the woman was an animal!
"I will enjoy this, bitch!" Deathbird shrieked, sailing towards a communications vehicle, particularly its raised antenna. It was obvious to dump her enemy, impaling her. Magma could barely see through the smoke and fires from below, the laser fire, the screams and explosions, twirling in mid-air over a war zone, heading towards death, Magma screamed primally.
She was the newly coroneted Red Queen of the Hellfire Club! She would not die at the hand of this half animal slag! Magma raged at her mutant power, she reached past the agony in her mind, clutching her heart and found the fire that she controlled, the touch of the earth below her that was hers alone to command. She called the power, her power over the very fabric of the earth below and the antenna sped closer to them, everything sped closer to them as a wave of earth rose from the ground, half solid, mostly molten. Literally a lava tsunami. Magma cared no longer for the ramifications of her powers on this world, for the lives this would take below.
If she were to die, she'd take every one of the bastards with her.

Carlos felt the empathic scream of rage, terror and deep resolve a moment before it seemed like the world had gone insane. Something large had hit the tower. Like a fist. They'd been tossed for what seemed like minutes and then Carlos had felt Frenzy's arm clutching him, her steely emotional resolve to survive predominant in her mind. He realized that something had happened to his helmets display system, everything was now static, not the usual computations and readouts fed directly from the computer system. He could also feel the Beast within him raging in glee. Which meant one thing.
Death on a large scale.
Thousands if not more.
In a short time.
"Don't move, Carlos, Let me just do this," Frenzy said and Carlos ripped off his helmet. He wished that he hadn't. He wasn't just dangling from the arm of the seven foot tall woman. The cargo transport inside had ripped open upon the external impact and they were thousands of feet above the ground below, Frenzy pulling them up through a makeshift hand and foot grappling motion. Between his weight and the revitalizer, he knew it was probably negligible to her super strength but as he watched dozens of soldiers falling from below and above them, he wondered if they'd be hit by plummeting machinery or bodies.
"Peter!!!" Carlos screamed into his comm link. If the boy was IN the metal in some sort of mutant phasing, what the hell would happen if the structure was damaged so?
"I'm here."
"Good. Were you injured? How does this affect you? What happened?" Carlos yelled down into his gauntlet.
"No. I'm here," Peter said again and this time the anti gravity sled lowered to eye level next to Frenzy and Carlos. He was wearing a soldier's uniform over his uniform and smiling brightly as he always was, like it was all one grand adventure. Carlos couldn't help but smile, the boy's enthusiasm at this madness was infectious. The two X-Men hopped onto the anti gravity sled and Peter slowly steered it to rise in the shaft to a safer level.
"Magma hit the whole tower with a wave of earth, lava while a massive earthquake occurred around the base," Peter explained. "Because I was monitoring the base from the inside, I "saw" it coming. I was able to get out close to this sled to help us. We have another problem though. The tower is both damaged and started a criss-crossing network of an energy lattice to prevent ships from launching off world. The energy field is out of control."
"We have to go back for Magma, if she's still alive. Damn, did I just say that?" Frenzy said tiredly.
Carlos wiped the blood from his face and looked at the ruined inner tower. All he could see below was fire and hear screams and explosions. "Keep going up. No choice. Magma isn't dead so we're her only hope from above, not below. Our exit ship, Peter?"
"Well, it's above the no fly force field but won't be for long. It's like an energy whip is striking the planet from this force field thing being out of control. Between the tectonic stress from below and above, this world is in bad shape", Peter explained. "I don't even know how to help or stop this."
"We can't. Keep rising us," Carlos said adamantly. "It can't get any worse."

Deep Space:

Holy Mother felt her body being lifted and moved by her followers, her strength being restored. That horrible slumber that she'd been fighting against for so long was finally over. Somehow the Native witch's magicks had been disrupted. She opened her eyes and smiled then her smile turned to a look of consternation and finally grim understanding and acceptance.
The Brood Queen pulled Holy Mother closer with a tentacle, their thoughts becoming one, without hesitation. Where as Holy Mother was the most powerful Brood Queen on Earth, she was merely a host, a distant cousin, to the true Brood Queen Mother, who now held her in the belly of an enslaved Acanti.
"Earth child, you are mine. Yoursssssssss are mine. And as we sssssssssssnatched you from the Stargated beam we've been tracking where your attackers went. Where they've taken the true prizessssssssssss------ the children. I want the children, Child Queen. I know how you changed them. What you did. I want them."
"Yes, my Queen", Holy Mother whispered, a small part of her magicks telling her that San Madre was still on it's way across the universe while they were heading in the opposite direction towards a world called Xevan.

Xevan:

Talisman felt the world before they had completed the transition from the Stargate. She literally felt a world being ripped apart. It was like hearing a relative scream out in agony. She had never expected her powers to put her into such rapport with an entire world. It made her really consider what her powers were, and what they were capable of.
"We have a real problem," she announced as she walked onto the bridge but felt a deep moment of redundancy. The viewer screen was full of the planet Xevan with a seeming lance through it, a crackling energy field around it with volcanoes visibly erupting on the surface. "Ok, they have a real problem. I can actually feel this world screaming out in agony. I don't know if it has much more time left if we can't stop all of the hell that's broken loose on it."
"So this is Khan's space elevator?" Paulie smirked. "Is it supposed to crack the world in half? Looks like a knife in an eyeball. Anyone else like Jason vs. Freddie, the movie?"
Kitty and Hunter rose from a console where they'd been busily going through computations. He calmly explained the problem they were seeing on the viewer screen. "I think that trying to set up a force field around the planet is what started this whole debacle. This erratic tectonic activity also looks like your teammates Magma's power signature. But I'd guess that she was fighting them as the field was put up. The field was calibrated for the planet's magnetic field prior to Magma's powers being used on it. On a subtle level, her shifting and rolling of tectonic plates alters a planet's magnetic poles."
Kitty continued. "Generally because she stops, the shifting stops. The field must've gone up and now it's trying to recalibrate the magnetic field erroneously. The space elevator registers a lot of damage. I'd wager the field is no longer in their control. Gravity is orbiting the planet one way, Magma is pulling it counter pole and the field is trying to twist it another way. Hence, the massive crumbling of the world."
"But the people! How do we stop this?!" Northstar demanded.
"There are close to four hundred million people on the planet," Ari said stoically. "At least a fourth of them were infected with the Insanity Virus. This invasion is perfectly targeted to a world already strained to its very fiber by war and strife. The fact that the Emperor D'Ken was being treated on a facility here secretly only makes this more imperative."
"Why wasn't D'Ken snatched up from here?" Iceman asked.
"Politics. Hubris. Other forms of bureaucratic insanity," Hunter grunted.
Ari shrugged. "Xevan is one of our greatest healing colonies, cutting edge science. A fourth of the population infected was the lowest numbers throughout the Empire. I'm not in touch with Shi'ar Intelligence any longer but I assume that they felt him safe here. This virus has all but slain the Empire, retrieving a leader who may or may not ever be sane again wasn't our highest priority."
"Everyone, I think I have some good and bad news," Karma said and put up a display window on the large viewer screen. It was a recording of Hunter's ship entering orbit around Xevan and then awhile later suddenly rocketing off.
"So our team did make it here at least?" Kitty sighed.
"Yes, this is a recording from orbiting satellites. Why they left so abruptly is unknown but the satellite did do passive scanning as a security measure. Only one person was aboard the ship and the rest had been beamed down to the planet. Never beamed back up. Several hours later, this," she fast forwarded the recording and an inter-spatial rift occurred, a beam meeting one that had rocketed up from the surface.
"Someone established an energy connection between the planet and Khan's forces?" Paulie said. "A traitor? Or was another X-Man used like Khan originally used Gambit?"
"The power signature is from a conglomerate of generators on the surface. They allowed the foothold. Dani had episodes of quantum energy expenditures but I think that went away. No one else on the team could be responsible," Karma theorized. "I would say that the instability throughout this whole space elevator and force field is from an imperfect calibration to attach the space elevator."
"So our people are alive?" Chamber asked. "Do we believe that?"
"That's literally Hell down there, Jono. Of course there are X-Men alive down there," Iceman chuckled. "We probably started most of that hell in one form or another. Cassandra Nova, Magma, Khan's Forces."
"Then our problem is threefold," Ari announced calmly. "Retrieving your comrades with the technology to save the children in the cargo bay. Destroy this space elevator and attempted invasion. And righting a world being torn asunder. Suggestions?"
"Is her middle name 'Janeway'?" Paulie smirked.
"I would suggest we hurry," Hunter offered. "The massing of the Empires remaining battleships with any allies will be here soon. Six hours by my estimates from interstellar communiqués racing back and forth. And we will be shot out of the sky as contaminated too. Though I am loathing saying that I would not give my life right now for them to come aid of this poor world."
"That's not our problem, we got kids to save," Paulie reminded.
"This invasion, much less the Insanity Virus would not be here if not for your people!" Ari said vehemently to everyone on the Bridge.
"Hey, fuck you, Tweety! We saved your bird ass plenty of times. How many times have the Shi'ar coming whipped begging the X-Men for help or a little Xavier dicking?" Paulie snapped back faster than anyone else could reply.
"Good Lord! Did he just talk about Prof. X getting some? That ain't right! I'll never sleep again!" Iceman groaned.
"Terrorists!" Ari shrieked. "You X-Men, all of you, are nothing more than mutant terrorists!! Who have caused the deaths of countless billions! Lest I remind you of first Phoenix and now your precious teacher?"
"There are at least six X-Men down there, trapped and fighting to help that world right now," Cecelia reminded coldly. You Shi'ar aren't exactly in this whole galactic thing as babies. Face the lumps. You get invaded. I've been reading my "Behind the Empire" history; you've invaded and eradicated any race that wouldn't join your union. And if we cross reference the information on Khan's Empire, we come up with the interesting fact that on the other side of that spatial rift is a duplicate Shi'ar race that's helped him conquer countless worlds. So let's stop bellyaching and moping on the guilt trip about what Storm and her team did and didn't do."

There was a flash of impossibly black mystical lighting throughout the Bridge and all eyes turned to Talisman who was bathed in deep violet energy erupting from her coronet. Her voice was rumbling and furious, both audible and telepathic, sending a dark crawling feeling along all of their flesh. "Perhaps you didn't hear me the first time. I am the Protector, the Avatar, and the Righteous Hand of Fury of All that is Natural! I don't give a fuck about any of your petty human wars, massacres, injustices, histories or associations. One of my worlds is DYING! Now, I can try to save that world alone by blowing this ship apart and watching you all discover the joys of space travel without a ship or oxygen, or you can put all of this shit aside and save what is tantamount to one of my children! Three seconds to choose."
There was complete silence as her threat sunk in.
"She's right," Karma was the first to say.
"And righteous," Paulie added.
"Half the team to rescue the X-Men below and destroy the space elevator from below and another half to attack the rift and pick us up and get out of here before the Shi'ar arrive?' Kitty suggested.
"Sounds feasible," Ari agreed and climbed back into her command chair. She knew that they all possessed strange abilities but that was the first time that she had seen that one of them arguably had an agenda that even her fellow X-Men couldn't influence. It was even more frightening then the rage she felt at the X-Men's constant interference in her people's lives. What would happen if another Dark Phoenix was loosed on the universe?
Nemesis watched silently from a dark corner of the Bridge, her sword drawn and only a twitch away from impaling Talisman who was a dozen feet in front of her. It had crossed her mind when the witch had attacked everyone.
Kill her.
But that would come at another time.
Wasn't that why she was here? To kill several of the X-Men?

Though he loved the tropics, Carlos hated excessive heat. The fact that he was basically in a glorified technological thermometer stuck into Xevan that was right now going through the mother of all fevers didn't escape him. Sooner or later this was going to pop in some way. They'd passed hundreds of repair crews rushing to the base of the space elevator with coolant and repair equipment and still the interior temperature of the space elevator, almost a mile above the surface of the world, was well into a hundred.
The three X-Men had ditched their transport and were hiding in a storage room, resting and going through computer schematics to try and navigate the quickest route to their destination, the ship Peter had ready for them. Two miles above.
"Think we'll make it?" Frenzy asked them both. Her finger lightly trailing the holographic display of their route further up, various zigs and zags to avoid patrols and scanners that might pick up their false credentials.
"If Peter's machinations haven't failed us. Are we going to make it, Peter?" Carlos chuckled as he clapped the young man on the shoulder.
Peter turned his eyes to them and the irises were startlingly completely metallic, some sort of side effect from constant use of his power. "I don't know. The damage from below has changed so many things. So many routes I'd planned out. I basically put a metal "string" through the elevator that only I could see to follow. But it's been breached in some places, Whole sections were damaged and ejected into space. Also there are huge atmospheric storms raging outside, disrupting my electronic eye connection. I interface with metal. This metal though is too big for me to keep it all in my vision. I don't understand their technology well enough to do much better."
"Do your best," Carlos nodded, knowing that the boy was being pushed well beyond his limits. Peter hadn't had the extensive training with the nuances of his abilities. None of them, Peter included, were exactly sure what he could and couldn't do, Carlos had noticed that in their ascent. Peter was always double checking himself. Lack of confidence, inexperience and exhaustion were beginning to wear on the young mutant.
"Why don't we do something unexpected?" Frenzy suggested.
"Such as?"
She traced her finger up along their next highlighted route and then pushed her finger through the exterior wall. "Like to rock climb?"

Amara awoke and turned, her face touched the cool ground. She forced herself to her knees. Then looked up and wished that she hadn't. Chaos. Everywhere. A war in the rolling volcanoes and earth quakes for as far as the eye could see. She reached for the connection the earth and found it gone. Something had superceded her control. The crackling pinkish energy field in the sky gave her an idea of what it could be. Kriss' damnable force field. It was altering the magnetic poles.
Bastard.
If he were still alive, she would've killed him again.
Her vision felt blurry and as she wiped blood from her forehead she had an odd taste in her mouth. Poison. From Deathbird's talons. Next to her, Deathbird was crouched watching her expectantly.
"Well, Red Queen? We can continue to fight on a world all but dead or we can find a way off," Deathbird grinned.
"You tried to kill me, bitch! What game are you playing?" Amara's eyes flashed with power but even the low level display gave her a sharp pain in her head. She'd not only overextended herself but her ties to a planet falling apart was taking a physical toll on her. She wasn't even sure if she could defend herself against the warrior before her.
"I tried to kill you for my brother's eyes. If I wanted you dead, you would be. I didn't expect you to lash out with all of your earthen powers at the world itself," Deathbird grinned, her admission as much of a an apology as she would ever give.
"Self preservation," Amara spat trying to get the vile metallic taste out of her mouth.
"Understood and commendable. You remind me of Storm in such an elementally furious way."
"High praise from you, I gather."
"D'Ken, though revived is still mad, if not firmly balanced in controlling that madness. He was already plotting to kill me to insure his rule."
"Lovely family."
Deathbird cackled. "He will rule the Shi'ar, bring together the shattered remnants, I'm sure. I, however, am not as protected as Lilandra, even in these perilously uncertain times."
"Life, like you, is a bitch. What has this got to do with me?"

"I understood the sum of Kriss' offer to you. Resources, allegiances. He of course wanted your world but there are smaller ways to begin."
"Such as?" Amara sighed, everyone had an angle.
"The day when either my brother or a madman like Kriss gathers the tatters of Khan's Empire, will come. And they will come for Earth, better prepared than not. I have three choices. Die at D'Ken's hands eventually. Run and die hunted. Asylum and allegiance to someone who can protect me as I protect her," Deathbird grinned and swept open her wings then made a grand gesture of kneeling lower than the crouching X-Man. "I offer myself as personal guard to you, Lady Amara, Red Queen of the Hellfire Club, X-Man and soon to be Ruling Regent of Earth."
"Oh, my," Amara sneered.
"Collect chess pieces where you can, my Queen," Deathbird's hand reached out, shaking, a small control pad handed to Amara. "My agreement of fealty to my brother. It controls the explosive collar around my neck, imprint your finger and your thoughts keep my head attached."
"How......elegant," Amara tittered. "Why me though?"
"You need allies and I can't trust anyone else on this world to see my value and not bow to the demands of my brother to kill me. We're far enough away that he can't activate it. But not for long, if I know him. So my life, is truly in your hands."
"Delicious," Amara said and pressed her thumb to the pad. There was a slight electrical shock and she saw a flash of her own self through Deathbird's eyes. "What was that?"
"We are bonded. Aren't the Xevan's clever? As long as you live, so do I." Deathbird smiled.
"My enemies enemy is my ally?" Amara offered.
"Yes and hopefully savior."
"Canny woman, aren't you?"
"Isn't that what a woman of your ambitions needs by her side?"
"Touché."

"Ok, I un-volunteer for this assignment," Spike said over her comm link, she, Talisman, Shadowcat, and Hunter had beamed down to the surface in full space suits. The city was a charred ruin. Dead bodies everywhere, intermittent momentary earth quakes, signs of huge battles between the Xevan's and Khan's forces and the crackling crimson sky didn't help either.
Shadowcat checked her suits wrist comm display, she's made several additional changes to the space suits including linking them into the X- Men's comm links. "I'm picking up four signals. Split. Faint. Above and due north. About a mile roughly in both directions."
Talisman kneeled down and deactivated the protective shielding from the helmet. She choked at first on the smoky air but she needed contact with the world to help save it. She quickly stripped off her space suit.
"Liz, is that a good idea?" Shadowcat asked nervously.
"I'm fine, Kitty, I can protect myself mystically from the heat and radiation. I have to be in physical contact to help this world," she floated up several feet, letting her mystical senses reach out in silver tendrils from her finger tips.
"Can she truly heal a world?" Hunter asked.
"No," Talisman said mournfully. "Bu I can put it into stasis while you turn off this damn space elevator and get Magma to stop the earth quakes and volcanoes."
"Liz, put your suit back on. We'll be able to beam you back up when-- ----," Hunter started.
"Unnecessary, I know where the ship is. I can transport myself back. Go. Find the others, help them. Magma is terrified, this world is reflecting her terror."
Shadowcat looked back for a short moment at Talisman, nodded then ran up the deserted street followed by Hunter and Spike.

Xevan Orbit:

Northstar and Iceman moved rapidly through the abyss of space, both in Shi'ar space suits, racing under the speedster's power towards the top of the space elevator that was partially obscured by a dimensional rift.
"Scared?' Iceman asked over the comm link.
"Why would I be, Drake, I'm speeding into what is literally a spatial equivalent of nuclear reactor, dragging along a sentient ice cube for back up. What could go wrong?" Northstar said dryly.
Jean-Paul, we're X-Men this is what we do! Fantastic view, don't you think? The planet below? I mean without taking into account it's literally being ripped apart," Iceman said, watching what had become a swirling coruscating color scheme of the crimson force field, crackling lightning and volcanic smoke from the surface.
"Chamber, Paulie, Nemesis, are you three in place, yet?" Northstar said over his comm link, the chronometer on his visor saying that they should be in place.
"We're here," Nemesis answered in her flat tone. Her small group had beamed directly into the planet's atmosphere, next to the space elevator's force field projectors.
"Let's wreck the bastards!" Northstar grinned.
"You know, Northstar I was thinking---------," Iceman didn't get a chance to finish as Northstar stopped short and let their incredible velocity, hurl Iceman forward towards the spatial rift.
"You really are a cocksucker!" Iceman groaned and a moment later his body expanding beyond the Shi'ar suit, growing into literally an ice wave. Within less than a minute, he'd drawn thousands of tons of moisture around him and it slammed into the space elevator and the rift.
Northstar waited patiently, several miles away from what were becoming pyrotechnics and explosions of the space elevator to the other dimension, part of the power supply being cut.
"Now!" Northstar shouted to Nemesis.

Paulie arced around, speeding back towards the mid section of the space elevator, forcing his mind to not think about the fact that they knew unless evacuations were made, they could be killing thousands. However now it was war. This world, the San Madre children, the X-Men that were left below or these Khan soldiers. With the gauntlets eradiating his entire body, he roared and directed it forward at the space elevator, a bright golden flash coming from the opposite side of the space elevator.

Nemesis clutched the woven harness line that connected her to Chamber who was releasing all of his energy at the space elevator as Paulie suddenly blasted through the other side.
"Chamber?" Nemesis said into her comm link.
"Still alive," he said from a hundred feet below her, dangling from the line. "Its no problem to keep blasting away. Been a long time since I've been able to let go like this."
"He was releasing blast after blast and right at the edges of his concussive blasts against the space elevator, Nemesis could feel his telepathy washing over her. She could feel his attention becoming more and more piqued by the images he was seeing within her mind. The psi shields she had as well as the dampening field her mask put up wasn't enough with all of the energies of so many varieties around them. He was seeing who was under the mask.
That couldn't be allowed to happen because of her ultimate mission.
Nemesis? What's that I'm seein' in you, girl? I didn't know me telepathy was that good? The others don't know? How could you keep something so big hidden so well? You must tell them! he said to her telepathically.
"Yes, you're a good man, Jono. Unfortunately, we have a problem."
"What did you say, luv?" Chamber asked, their comm link reception being spotty to each other, must less anyone else.
Nemesis suddenly rocketed down towards Chamber, drew her sword and before he could even react, plunged it into his chest, causing a brilliant explosion.

Paulie picked himself up, slightly dazed from having crashed through so much metal. Shock troopers were unconscious all around him. Or dead. It looked like they were all evacuating back up through the dimensional rift. The space elevator suddenly trembled violently and the floor tilted.
"Looks like this world trading center is coming down," Paulie groaned as he stood up. He stood up and opened his scanner, looking for other X- Men comm links. He looked around the room he was in, more seats than people knocked out. They wouldn't be here much longer. He went over the a computer screen and took out a slim wallet sized doodad that Kitty had put together. He slapped it onto the screen and watched as it lit up and released her nano-virus into the system.
"I think the invaders now have a problem," Paulie snickered.

Peter's head craned suddenly.
"We have a problem!" he shouted a moment before all the explosions above them began. Thousands of tons of metal, some of it actually liquefied by the intense heat, began pouring down towards them. Carlos grabbed the make shift climbing control they had rigged through the two lines attached to Frenzy who was their anchor and waved violently outwards at her. There wouldn't be much time for this to work.
"Weaken the walls, Peter!" Carlos shouted and Peter nodded, his hands flashing and the area around all three X-Men seeming to become thinner. The anti gravity and magnetic supports they were using to climb with, fell by the wayside.
Frenzy, acting as the lead climber, grabbed the cables her teammates were dangling from her waist on and swung them away from the space elevator. Without hesitating she dug her hands into the wall and ripped it open, the dense metal made weaker by Peter, so that her incredible muscles tore it even easier than she was normally capable, allowing her to bore through more, faster. Carlos and Peter in a flung arc, came slamming into her a moment later, causing them all to tumble back inside. All three watched as tons of metal plummeted outside of the space elevator, smashing into where they'd just been.
"That was too close for comfort!" Frenzy groaned, they'd been climbing for hours without incident, without notice from Khan's forces within. She'd come to believe that they were home free.
"This just gets better and better, doesn't it," Carlos groaned. They'd been climbing for hours, the air gradually getting thinner and thinner and the cold more intense around them, he was worn out.
Peter's eyes flashed metallic and he nodded. "Kitty's here. She's released a virus into the mainframe system. A Shi'ar coded virus, she couldn't have invented anything fast enough to go through the system unless it was partially based on the technology they use. We're about ten stories from the ship, I've gotten for us. Be right back!" With that Peter seemed to get blurrier and blurrier until he faded back into the walls itself.
"That is a freaky power," Frenzy grunted.
"The others are here, that means we're all but out of here," Carlos said confidently, then he felt something sharp happening on the psychic plane.
Chamber?
Was that a scream from Chamber? There was so much interference, physical and psychic it was hard to tell.

"Are you there, X-Men? This is Paulie!!!" Paulie shouted as he floated on an energy field slowly down the center of the space elevator. He could almost make out the raging fires and molten lava consuming the base of the tower and there was a huge gap above him almost a mile up where Icemen had wrecked part of the top. It was still immeasurably big. Like trying to smash a standing city to bits. He knew that it would take more time and resources than the X-Men had but the plan wasn't to perfectly destroy this contraption. Just wreck their ability to maintain an invasion or transport troops to the planet below.
"There! One of the invaders," an armored commander of a full squadron, yelled to his troops as they came charging towards Paulie on anti gravity sleds.
"You talking to me? You talking to me?!" Paulie smirked, reversed course and headed into the squad.

Shi'ar Battleship Armada:

Within a solar day of the alert of Xevan's invasion, a hundred ships had been launched from the outer posts to aid. Normally Xevan would've been defended within an hour at the most but due to the Insanity Virus, the Empire's resources were stretched thin. Several thousand worlds under direct control or allegiance with the Empire couldn't be risked with lack of security, but close to two thirds of the worlds had been infected, draining the resources of the other one third beyond future repair. There were theorists within the Empire and outside of it who calculated that the Shi'ar Empire would complete fracture and collapse within less than a decade if not for a massive influx of aid. The Kree having been decimated and under the rule of Deathbird were at best a band aid and other large empires were patiently waiting to see if the fabled Shi'ar could save themselves.
They hadn't expected for the fourth child of the Royal Family to return from his studies in the farthest corners of the universe and demand the reigns of the Empire. At first there had been dissention, questions of rights and forms of how matters should be handled. All opposition had been destroyed immediately.
Canaan allowed for no opposition to his word, to his right to rule. He'd built up a force of a thousand ships in his journeys and as proof of his right to lead the Empire, he'd sworn to drive off all invaders. Slim, and tightly muscular he was physically smaller than Gladiator laying before him, his head feathers shorn low, his deep cinnamon skin contrasted by flashing emerald eyes. His aides, twin telepaths, stood behind him, quiet with obsidian skin and featureless faces, only two purple glowing eyes on their faces, even their genders hidden below billow robes.
Canaan looked at the Empire's greatest warrior and nodded. "Wake him."
There was a sizzling energy through the air, purple flashes and Gladiator spasmed and then sat bolt upright. He looked into Canaan's face and was at first shocked and then overjoyed. He climbed from the bed and kneeled, "You have returned, my liege."
"Yes, Gladiator. It took time for word of the Insanity Virus to reach me in the deep regions of where I was..........exploring. I never expected there would be no one of the Royal Family left but me to rule. That was never to be my role."
"Yes, it has been dark times for the Empire," Gladiator agreed.
"We are under invasion from another dimension it seems. From intelligence sources it seems that they are affiliated with the Shi'ar Empire in that alternate dimension as well. I propose we rebuff them and lead this invasion back to their dimensions. To plunder them as they would plunder us!" Canaan said with a dark smile. "There are a thousand ships with me and more mounting for a second wave assault after freeing Xevan. I need you as the praetor of my Imperial Guard to lead this force. Are you with me?"
"Yes, my liege."

Ari looked around her bridge, several vital systems were exploding and the ship was listing. "Report, Karma!!" she shouted through the smoke.
"Its photon blasts from the Acanti striking us from behind. We can't keep going closer to the atmosphere and space elevator, we're attracting radiation spikes from the energy field's it's projecting!" Karma screamed from the circular consoles she was sitting in the center of.
"You're doing fine, Karma, relax! The Brood cannot be allowed to punch through the shield!" Ari barked.
"It's Mother!" Raphael shouted from a seat where he was strapped in. "But there's something bigger.......darker holding her mind! It wants the children!"
Ari grumbled a Shi'ar curse then tapped in codes on to her arm rest. The ship lurched violently to starboard then the engines seemed to slow as retro thrusters blasted violently and spun the ship around. "Eat this, bitch!" Ari shrieked and opened fire with a full salvo of plasma bursts at the space whale directly behind them.
"Ari, they've activated a tractor beam! They're trying to pull us in to the gaing mouth!" Karma shouted.
The comm link blared with Northstar's voice. ""Is there still a lock on the extra suit, I have for Bobby?"
"What.....? Yes!" Karma shouted, she was in charge of monitoring the X- Men's signals for beam up and the ship's defenses.
"You have a plan?" Ari asked.
"Karma, I'll distract that living beast!" Northstar shouted as his speed increased tenfold and he flew in a wide arc and then directly towards the ice and rubble near the top of the damaged space elevator. He whirled around huge chunks of debris, thousands of tons, using the vortex to first hold then capture the debris and snap it at the Acanti, a rain of wreckage.

Karma having gotten his hint had run up to the viewer screen and with a deep, centering breath project her possession power at the Acanti, the living beast she could sense near the ship.
SUCH AGONY!!!!!!!! Tran screamed within her, the psionic connection between the twins and the space beast instantaneous.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!" Karma screamed dropping to her knees, the Acanti was the size of a small city, but she refused to buckle and redoubled her mental efforts at it's mind. Through the pain, Tran, we must go through the pain!
I am with you, sister! Tran assured and focused all of his mental strength at pushing like a knife through the pain that had become part of their calm co-existence.
Raphael shrieked on the bridge and eldritch energy erupted from his body, sending him ripping from his protective restraints to the floor. "It's the Brood Queen, using Holy Mother's magicks!!!!"
Ari instinctively hit a secret panel under her command chair and a hand blaster dropped out. Karma, sweating and bleeding profusely from her nose and eyes, turned and stared helplessly at Ari. In an instant, Ari knew that she was aware that the captain could retake her ship. Her first instinct had been to shoot both of them, the X-0Men having no other hold over her ship. The fleet was only minutes away. Ari could still save herself.
Kill her! Strike her down, sister! Tran screamed, ready to lash out at Ari with their possession power and cease her heartbeat and brain functions, the deadliest use of their power.
No, Tran!
She will kill us!
Ari stayed crouched behind the chair, shielded from the eldritch bolts erupting from Raphael and finally made her decision. She turned to her chair and slammed her hand on several panels, missiles bombarding from the ship at the Acanti giving Karma the edge to push her mind harder and harder at the reeling living ship.
"I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!" Iceman shouted over his comm link, having reintegrated his body into the extra space suit Northstar carried for his reforming and now launching a wave of ice at the Acanti's tail fins. The sudden tonnage threw the Acanti out of control from the massive amount of weight, hundreds of tons that had suddenly formed around it.
"Just a little more, precious one! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!" Karma shrieked, having found the Acanti soul, its mental core and joined in an alliance against the only thing that it wanted. To destroy it's tormentors, however possible. Karma, now able to help it assert control over it's subjugated higher functions, its ability to soar the stars, helped it give one final burst of speed and throw its body onto the ragged space elevator, like a knight falling onto a sword. The combined weight and impact as well as mixture of energy caused the needle to not only crumble but the planetary energy field to first flash violently then flicker and finally vanish.
Karma slammed to the far wall, an errant eldritch bolt from Raphael's body having hit her. The connection between Holy Mother suddenly severed Raphael stood up shrieking, energy erupting from his fingertips and then he fell to his knees, reigning back in the power.
"Are you in control or do I have to kill you? You're not an X-Man," Ari said calmly, standing, her blaster locked onto his kneeling form. Raphael began laughing hysterically, pounding his hands to the ground then looking up and laughing again as he stood up weakly.
"To the contrary, Captain! You now have two X-Men in form on board!" the body of Raphael stood up but a flash of psi energy flashed over it and it became the spitting image of Karma's brother, Tran and then the flesh turned back to Raphael's features. "It seems that magick has given me a new body!"

"Glad to see you can pull yourself back together," Northstar said as he swooped over to Iceman and grabbed him by the arm. "Your ice wave did superbly well but we still have an open rift, with access to this dimension."
Iceman looked up at the severed space elevator slowly crumbling towards to the planet's surface, lack of gravity causing some pieces to spiral away and then back towards orbit. There was still machinery and visible armed forces extending from the crackling dimensional rift above the planet.
"I think we should look into plugging up that hole, Northstar," Iceman suggested.
"How? More ice? Can you generate more?"
There's plenty of moisture, crystallized, here in space, but can you get us in and then back out before anything happens?"
"I am speed," Northstar snickered as they sped towards the rift.

Canaan stood on the bridge of his flagship as all one thousand of his fleet dropped out of hyperspace, a comfortable distance from the mess that was Xevan. He watched calmly as the hijacked Shi'ar battleship fought off the pursuing Brood ship and then the X-men, according to his telepaths, used psionic and then external means to attack the Acanti and encourage it to commit suicide. Canaan let a thought slip to his telepathic aides and a moment later pictures of Karma, Northstar and Iceman appeared in holograms next to him on the protruding deck that served as his command post. They were fascinating creatures.....humans. It seemed that his sister Lilandra's affiliation with them had many times lead to excellent progress and defense but recently one of their number had brought about the Insanity Virus that was destroying his people.
Two dozen Imperial Guard members lead by Gladiator walked onto the deck and Canaan turned and looked at them all as they kneeled before him. He was used to command of a fleet but the constant royal genuflecting would take getting used to.
"Praetor, clean the vermin off of my world," Canaan said calmly.
"At your word, my Emperor," Gladiator said and all thirteen members of the Imperial Guard flew through the decks force field streaking towards the planet below. Canaan let his thoughts slip back to his aides who relayed his orders at a thought, his entire fleet possessing relaying telepaths as well as the best Shi'ar fleet officers he could assemble from his own exploration squad and the remnants of the outer Empire.
The plan is simple. The Imperial Guard will secure the planet. Medical ships take up orbit on the far side of Xevan away from the conflict. The rest are with me, we must keep that rift open for the second wave that will be here shortly. We have a universe to conquer to save the Empire.
The fleet rocketed towards the rift; not noticing to small specks caught in-between, until the eruption of the ice wall.

"Ok, this does not look like a good thing," Northstar muttered as the phalanx of battleships rocketed towards him and Iceman in the rift. "Ari, this is Northstar, we need a little help here."

Ari stood stunned on her bridge. Not just at the fact that the soul she knew resided in Karma had now taken over the teenage human but also at the battleship signatures she was getting from the arriving fleet.
Canaan!
Her sensors had tracked the Imperial Guard heading towards the planet and the space elevator was all but gone, what was left of it, far below the atmosphere of the planet. She blankly watched as Tran helped his sister back to a strap in chair and then went and manned the console his sister had.
"Ari, this may be an overwhelming situation at the moment but don't make a mistake----," Tran barked and there was a flash of psi pain from him to her, "----I'm not the most patient of X-Men I will take complete control of you to rescue my comrades. That was but a sample of how painful I can make it."
Ari's eyes narrowed. No, this one was not at all like the others. Not even the pretense of morality, which made her suspect that what had looked originally like a horrible imprisonment was in fact and word, karma.
"Understood, Tran. I take it you've watched long enough to be of assistance? The blue flashes on the viewer are more ships hyper spacing in, from the triangulation I would say that it's a back up Brood ship. They generally travel in triads as security to the Brood Queen. If they've warped into this space drama it can mean only one thing......"
"The Brood Queen is still alive!" Karma shrieked, still feeling psi contact with it.
"Melodramatic thing, isn't she?" Tran said dryly.