Answers to reviewers' questions or statements:
JJChandler: Gladiator will make an appearance soon.
EroSlackerMicha: Like Kaine said, Mutants are probably the only group of people that have worse luck then him or Peter.
Karlos1234ify: God Doom, his power made him even stronger than the Living Tribunal which was often said to be the second most powerful being in Marvel Comics at times, Peter would likely need the Infinity Gauntlet, heart of the Universe and likely the full power cosmic along with the Phoenix Force to even register as a threat to God Doom.
Superstar Kid: That's pretty much the lives of Peter Parker and the X-men in a handbasket. The ones attacking the school are actually none of those groups, at least not entirely. Yeah Peter is in for some fun time ahead with the various forces in the universe both good and bad trying to manipulate him into using the Phoenix Force to further their own goals. Well Betsy is a very attractive woman, dresses in rather revealing clothing, can kick major ass, and is going to be spending large amounts of time around Peter and even in his head. Couple that with the wall crawling bastard's luck in regards to gaining women of that caliber's affections at some point down the road, why wouldn't Wanda be a little jealous.
Devilboy101: No, more of a good friendship. Both are clones, both of their predecessors' slash fathers have some rather unsavory and violent history and have certain expectations placed on them. So that have plenty to bond over, but Laura may be too intense for Evan to be a love interest, plus she isn't exactly looking for anyone at the moment.
MCRasengan: Least Magneto will have a genuine reason to hate Peter now… just wait until Simon learns of this.
Legionoftheweb94: No, he won't take away her powers, he'll do something else that'll piss her off though.
Marveldcfan: Well aside from trying to mentally restrain him during his rampage, Betsy never really did anything against Peter directly, so his feelings against her really aren't all that negative, it's more of Scott's 'inner circle' that he'll have issues with. Well Wanda could confront Betsy and call her out on her actions but it's not like she has room to talk, she did pretty much near total Mutant genocide only a few years ago and the effects are still being felt.
Adtr509: Wanda's jealousy stems from the fact that Betsy is a attractive kick ass woman that's going to be around Peter, sometimes even in his head, and with his luck with women like that… yeah, competition.
Spawn Hades: Yeah, which is why I'm confused as to why Marvel keeps trying to push Peter to be with women that could never understand half the hell he's gone through in his life time.
gunman: With his luck, anything is possible. We'll find out who the guys attacking the school are this chapter and what their goal is to a degree.
OmniPlanckInstant: Yeah but his progression will be going faster now that he has an actual telepath teaching him, especially one as powerful as Betsy. No Jean Grey school being attacked is good because now, free people for Laura to butcher!
90skid4life: Cold shoulder for the most part. Rogue and Rachel's reaction to Peter when they meet up again will be interesting to see.
Harbinger of Kaos: No they know about Krakoa to some extent and that's already being taken care of as we'll see in this chapter.
super spider 209: The story won't get dark again for a while, like ten chapters at least which is when Peter will be in the Ultimate Universe, but if you meant the Dark Phoenix showing up again, that won't be for a good long while. She already as him as a host, if you mean is she growing a lustful attraction to him, then yes, she is. As for where Jean is, not sure, I'm waiting to see what Marvel has to say about her whereabouts these past few years come December when they bring her back.
justafan: It won't, it'll just be those little moments where Wanda gets a little annoyed with Peter's attention on Betsy, granted most of its training but having her boyfriend stare at a half-naked woman as attractive as her will rub any girl the wrong way probably.
Darkspyder: It's not Magneto that Peter will have to worry about once word gets out that Peter is in a relationship with Wanda, and things are going to get all the sweeter once Jessica and eventually Carol are dragged into it.
Wingd Knight: It was showing that Scott's mentality was starting to get questionable during the events of X-men Schism and the X-men title he was in that dealt with him and his X-men team. Avengers vs X-men just brought it to a head. Well the Dark Phoenix isn't a push over, whenever it came out, the fights it had were brutal, plus getting hit by cosmic fire is bound to leave some serious burns at the very least. Why no love for America Chavez? Granted I barely know who she is and could care less but I never got why people don't like her. Nah this version of the Unity squad was never made. Granted it's got a few of the original members on it but it's also got several new comers too. Part of the reason being that several of the X-men that were part of the team in the comics were also part of the attack on Wakanda and well… yeah.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel characters seen, mentioned or used.
Laura roared in rage as the gun men opened fire on her, their bullets quickly tearing into her body as she raced towards them with her claws at the ready. In several strides she was on the first gun men and rammed her claws into his abdomen, causing him to emanate a pained choking sound as she tore her claws free while slicing the muzzle of another gun in half before stabbing the weapon's wielder with both sets of her claws with a glare on her blood-stained face.
She then turned towards the last man and leaped at him with a yell. The unknown attacker was able to bring his weapon up in time to act as a sort of shield from Laura's claws. The dark haired young woman narrowed her eyes at this as she grabbed on to the man's shoulders and pulled her foot back and suddenly unsheathed another adamantium claw from in between her toes. The man didn't have a chance to react before Laura rammed the claw into the man's side, piercing his lung.
"ACK!" he choked out as he and Laura slumped to the floor.
Laura stood back up and removed her clawed foot from the man and quickly went over to Evan to see if he was alright. A frown crossed her face as she saw that he didn't seem to be particularly coherent. She saw the needle he was shot with and ripped it out of him before she held it up to her noise to see if she could identify what it was.
"Hmm…" Laura sounded as she detected traces of Neurotoxin and a host of other chemicals that she couldn't identify at the moment. She placed the needle in her jacket's coat before she slung one of Evan's arms around her shoulders and helped him up.
"W-What…?" he said as his head bobbed side to side.
"Shh" Laura said as she slowly approached the doorway tot the kitchen just as gunfire began to erupt from other parts of the school along with screams from the residents… and their attackers.
Laura and Evan exited the kitchen, but the genetically altered clone of Wolverine came to a stop as she saw several gun men ahead of her and Evan, several were breaking off and heading deeper into the school while a few stayed behind to secure the hallway. There were still too many for her to deal with while she was holding the genetically altered clone of Apocalypse. She glanced at Evan and saw that he was starting to regain some of his senses.
"Will you be fine for a few moments?" she asked in a low voice as she kept her eyes and ears on the gun men ahead of her, their voices were altered with some sort of scrambling device to make identifying them difficult.
Evan looked at her with a groggy expression before he gave her a small nod "F-For… a f-f-few… y-yeah…"
Laura nodded as she leaned him against the wall and slowly helped him down to the floor before she ruffled his hair "I'll be back…"
She then removed her jacket and placed it on Evan to keep him as covered as possible before stood up and began to approach the distracted gun men. She unsheathed the claws in her right hand and jammed them into the first man she neared while her other hand covered his mouth to muffle the pained scream. She then shoved him away and approached the next…
…
"Everyone stay together!" Kitty yelled as she gave one of the attacking gun man a brutal kick to his knee, breaking it before she rammed her elbow into the man's face, earning another loud sickening 'crack' as several students rushed by her to the nearest 'safe room'.
One of the students was Kid Gladiator, son to the current Emperor of the Shi'ar Empire. He was busy being dragged away by his bodyguard, Warbird, while he fired of several blasts of his heat vision at the approaching gun men "BAH! KID GLADIATOR DOSENT RUN FROM A FIG-"
"You can face them down later my lord" Warbird said calmly as she grabbed one of her swords and threw it towards one of the gun men trying to shoot at Kitty's back. She didn't bother to watch as the man fell to the ground with her sword embedded in his chest, she had to get her charge to safety before doing anything else.
Kitty had just shoved the groaning man away and was about to follow her students to make sure they were safe when suddenly four heavily armed gun men emerged from a hall and aimed their weapons at her and opened fire. The Headmistress didn't even blink as the bullets phased through her while she rushed towards the men before she leaped through one and sucker punched the man behind him. She had turned around to deal with the others who were both reloading and trying to place distance between her and them before suddenly a powerful gust of wind shot out from a doorway and sent all three men flying into the wall. Kitty's brow furrowed as she saw storm emerge from one of the rooms, dressed like her, in her sleep wear.
The now ex-queen of Wakanda glanced at Kitty with wide eyes "Kitten what's-"
"We're being attacked by a bunch of assholes with guns Ororo, thought it'd be obvious" Kitty bit out as she kneeled down next to the man she punched and picked up something he dropped and held it close to her eye.
"But how didn't they trigger the alarms?" Ororo said with a frown as she saw more men emerge from a hall and sent a bolt of lightning towards them, destroying part of the wall and forcing them back into cover.
"I don't know… let's go ask" Kitty said as she stood back up and rushed towards the gun men that Ororo was keeping pinned down.
As Kitty attacked the men with Storm providing cover for her, Xavier's voice echoed through her head as he set up a telepathic link.
'Katherine…' Xavier said.
'Professor, what the hell is going on?' Kitty asked as she neck chopped a man while she drove her heel into another's nose, breaking it while she phased in and out to avoid being grabbed or shot by the various dark clad men and women around her 'Who are these people?'
'I don't know, they seem to have these sort of psionic inhibitors on them and their giving off a signal that's weaken my telepathy. It took a lot more effort then I'm willing to admit to just establish a link with you and Angelica…' he said, his mental voice getting notably weaker and weaker.
'Oh fan fuckin tastic!' Kitty thought with a dark scowl as she was suddenly back handed by a gun man to the ground. Before Kitty could respond, he was blown away by a lighting bolt to the chest.
It was then that Kitty and Xavier both heard Angelica's voice in the mind link 'Guys, I'm outside with several of the students and Gambit and I see several helicopters coming our way… they don't look like the police'
'Must be their backup…' Kitty thought as she phased through a man's kick to her chest before she rolled out of the way and responded by giving him a two-legged kick to his groin.
'I was able to send a message to Hank and Bobby before I was cut off, they and the rest of the Unity Squad should be here soon' Xavier stated as he was busy trying to maintain the link with Kitty and Angelica on top of restraining several men around him from shooting at him and Hope while Rachel helped Rogue and Husk usher the students into a saferoom for them to use.
'Kitty, any idea on who these guys might be?' Angelica asked through the link as she sent several fire balls towards the approaching choppers.
'Well with our luck it's either those little bastards from the Hellfire Club, Strykers people or even Sinister's marauders…' Kitty said as she and Storm continued to push the gun men back before suddenly Angel appeared from a hallway and began to attack the men with the aid of Kid Omega who was armed with a psionic shotgun and Hellion.
'Or it's just a bunch of Mutant hating assholes…' Kitty thought with a sigh before suddenly the entire school shook, taking her by surprise and forcing Xavier to end the link between her, him and Angelica "What the hell?"
…
One of the men made a hand gesture towards the door before forming a fist. The man carrying the shotgun nodded as he moved towards the door and aimed for the hinges and fired off a single shot at each location before pulling back and letting the squad leader kick the door in and enter the room-
BANG!
The squad flinched as their captain was sent flying back from the doorway and into the wall across the hall. The gun men slowly looked back towards the door and paled at what they saw.
"I know, no one was expecting me to show up, were they?" a man in a red and black suit said as he stepped into the light more to show that he was armed with several different pistols, a knife, two swords attached to his back and several grenades attached to his belt "Well I'm only here to drop off my old buddy old pal Cable who's currently in a rather inconvenient coma at the moment when I heard you boys running around up here…"
The man was holding an old modified elephant gun in his hands while giving the gun men a dark smirk from underneath his mask "Well boys and girls, bear with me because this is my first time teaching a class and for that matter attending this school, so-"
Deadpool was interrupted as the gun men opened fire on his form, their bullets tearing into his flesh and suit, spraying blood on them, the floor and walls. Deadpool didn't move as he let the bullets pierce him until he was met with the sounds of the gun men ejecting their spent magazines.
"You know, I had a catchy school reference I was gonna make in regards to this, but that was just plain rude" Deadpool said as he reloaded his gun before holding the barrel up to one of the tense gun men "So how about I skip the wise ass remark and get to shooting you MOFO's up like it's the Fourth of freakin July!"
At that, Deadpool unleashed a hailstorm of hot lead on the armed men, killing several, wounding another and forcing the last to run tail and run.
"Heeeeey, get back here so I can shoot you!" Deadpool yelled as he raced after the man, laughing as he shot at the feeling attacker before he stumbled as the building hsook from something.
"GAH!" Deadpool yelled as he fell face first into the ground, his shotgun firing off prematurely and hitting a picture of the old X-men.
The Merc with a mouth groaned as he pushed himself back up and reached for his weapon "Man, I haven't felt a building like that shudder since I made the mistake of giving Logan a few of my special spicy tacos…"
He then glanced outside to see what may have caused the building to shake and paled at what he saw "Oh fuck nuggets on a hand glider…"
…
Just moments beforehand, outside the school in the scorched clearing by the main entrance, Angelica was gritting her teeth in rage as she, with the aid of Karoka, sent microwave blast after microwave blast at the approaching gun men and helicopters that had separated her from several students and was trying to rectify that before something slammed into the ground not twenty feet from her and sent the former teammate of Spider-man flying into the building.
Angelica let out a paned whimper as she felt and heard something in her chest crack as she slumped to the ground. She let out a pained hiss as she saw what slammed into the ground and gaped at what was standing there…
It was the Hulk… or rather a Hulk with gray skin and odd bony protrusions emanating from his body.
The gray Hulk saw Angelica lying against the wall and let out a enraged yell before it suddenly rushed towards her. The pyrokenetic's eyes widened as she just barely managed to dive out of the way as the gray being smashed into the school, shaking the entire building to it's foundations as it let out an enraged roar.
"RAAAHHHH!"
Meanwhile, half a mile away from the besieged school, a young boy stood there, surrounded by a over a dozen gun men. A smile was plastered on his face as he saw parts of the school beginning to crumble under the rampage of the gray colored Hulk.
"Heh, shame Wolverine isn't here to see this" Kade Kilgore said with a dark smirk on his face as the Hulk's roared echoed through the night, drowning out the sounds of gun fire "I would have loved to see how he could stop this-"
He was interrupted by the sudden roar of a Quinn jet racing overhead towards the school, causing him to scowl briefly before his curiosity was piqued. He held out a hand towards one of the men around him and waited for a pair of binoculars to be placed in them before he sued them to zoom in on the fight.
"Hmm, now let's see how the Hellfire's newest Knight fares against 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes…"
…
Meanwhile thousands of miles away in K'un-Lun, Peter's training in his psionic powers while progressing rapidly in some areas, was moving at a snail's pace in others, particularly in mental commands and suggestions. Something that Betsy was hoping to fix as she escorted a slightly tired Peter into a relatively empty dojo with the only other inhabitants being a few monks on the far side training with several wooden staffs.
"So, what's first on the agenda?" Peter asked as he stood before Betsy.
"Today we're going to try something simple and that's taking control of one's movements through mental manipulations" Betsy explained as she folded her arms across her chest.
Peter quirked a brow at that "Huh what does that mean exactly? Like I telepathically tell you to do something, and you do it? Like the Jedi mind trick?"
"That's a rather crass way to put it but yes, like the Jedi mind trick" Betsy said with an eye roll.
"Neat!" Peter said with a clap before he cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders "So how's this work, do I try to get inside your mind and tell it to do something?"
"Yes and no, I'll explain as we go but for now just try breaching my mental defenses and gain a foothold in my mind" Betsy said as she adjusted her stance slightly.
"Are you sure?" Peter asked a little worriedly "I mean won't I possibly hurt you?"
"Peter, my mental defenses are a lot more powerful than Wanda's by a longshot, if anyone's going to get hurt, it's you trying to breach them" Betsy said with a cool expression.
"Oh, uhh okay then" Peter said as he took a deep breath before he sent out a telepathic probe towards Betsy only for it to smash to pieces against what could only be described as a pure wall of psionic energy "Whoa…"
"Like I said, my mental defenses are a lot better than most of the people you've been training with here" Betsy said with a small smirk before it dropped "Try harder, I know you have the power to do so"
Peter nodded carefully as he sent another telepathic prod towards the woman, this one far more powerful then the last and frowned as it was easily taken down again. For the next several minutes Peter tried again and again to breach through Betsy's mind, but it was like fighting against both Venom and Carnage at the same time. Betsy for her part looked unconcerned by Peter's growing annoyance or power in each telepathic probe. While she would admit the man certainly had the raw power, he was solely lacking in the finesse, the ability to utilize said power to it's absolute maximum potential.
'Here's hoping he'll learn fast' Betsy thought as she felt another attempt to breach her mental shield. It was getting to the point that she was tempted to weaken them just to get on with the lesson before a combination of pride and common sense halted her.
Peter was going to one-day face equally powerful or greater telepaths then her and they will be far from accommodating. And unlike her at the moment, they won't be standing around, waiting for Peter to breach their minds, if anything they'll be trying to breach and crush his.
'Baby steps' Betsy thought with a snort as she felt another attempt by Peter fail.
"UGH!" Peter groaned as he tired to breach Betsy's mind again "Man you guys make this seem so much easier when fighting against hordes of bad guys"
"Practice" Betsy said with a simple shrug "Plus most of the people I've fought against are weak against telepaths and I've been often said to be the third most powerful on the plant with the demise of Jean and the de-powerment of Nate"
Peter grunted at that as he built up another attack to use against Betsy before suddenly his spider-sense flared ever so slightly, breaking his concentration "What the…?"
Betsy saw this and frowned "What is it?"
Peter's eyes narrowed as he felt his spider-sense tingle ever so slightly again before it stopped. He looked around to see if he could identify whatever it was that may have set it off but saw nothing aside from the departing monks on the far side and none of them screamed secret villain out to get him for some reason.
"I'm… I'm not sure…" Peter said in a confused tone 'Why the hell was my spider-sense going off like that? I don't see or 'sense' anyone nearby that wants me dead…'
Betsy frowned at this as she did a quick but more thorough telepathic sweep of the area for any possible signs of another's presence that may be catching Peter's attention. After several moments she ceased her search "I don't detect anyone else here aside from us"
"Hmm… guess it's just my spider-sense still reacting to the Phoenix being inside me" Peter said with a frown "It does that sometimes, at least I think that's why it's gone off"
"You think it's something we should worry about?" Betsy asked with a raised brow.
"Maybe, but it's not going off in a way that says, 'hey duck and cover'" Peter said as he scratched the back of his head "More like 'Hey something's not right here, be careful'"
"Does… does your Spider-sense actually say that?" Betsy asked with an amused grin.
"I wish, would make things so much easier if I knew what the danger was" Peter laughed before he noticed something about Betsy's mental defenses… they were down. Or at the very least not as strong as they should be.
Peter hesitated as he considered whether his lesson in trying to breach Betsy's mind was still going before he decided to very carefully breached along the edges of her conscious to see if she'll react. Her grin fell slightly as Peter felt her defenses rushing back up to full strength and in that moment Peter took the plunged and grabbed a small but solid foothold in her mind just before he could be pushed out by her defenses.
"Well done…" Betsy said as she felt her body stiffen as if some unknown force gripped her.
"Uh thanks I guess?" Peter said in an unsure tone "Not uh really used to hearing people thanking me for restraining them. Most of the time people are screaming at me, growling or wishing that I die a horrible death"
"Yeah well don't get used to it" Betsy said as she cleared her throat "Now what I want you to do is-"
She suddenly found herself staring at her own body not too far away while Peter found himself looking at his own.
"What the?" Peter said before his eyes widened as he realized that it was in Betsy's voice he spoke. He casted a quick look down and gaped as he saw he was looking down at a body that he knows for a fact didn't belong to him.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me right now…" Peter heard his voice speak in annoyance and looked up to his body was rubbing his brow in aggravation "This is just bloody brilliant"
"Uh Betsy?" Peter asked carefully as he tried not to move or risk doing something else "What, what's happened?"
"It appears you've accidently switched our minds" Betsy replied with a sigh as she folded Peter's arms across his chest "You most have placed far more of yourself inside my mind without realizing it and in response likely placed my mind in yours"
Peter swallowed nervously as he tired to not move "What do I do?"
"Switch us back. I'd do it myself but trying to reach into your head and force it to do something it doesn't like may trigger a response from the Phoenix and I don't feel like having my ass set on fire by cosmic flames" Betsy said with a look on Peter's own face that made it seem like it was the simplest thing in the world for him to do.
'Wow, do I really look like that when I'm talking down to someone?' Peter thought as he rubbed the back of his- Betsy's head 'Huh, no wonder so many people want me dead. Hell, I'd be able to see that look through my mask! Though in my defense my words don't have that English accent to it that mine's starting to get every time Betsy talks with my voice which makes me sound kinda cool and super sophisticated-'
"Peter!" Betsy snapped "Today would be lovely!"
"Right, sorry" Peter winced as he took a deep breath and tired to reach back out towards his own body with a focused expression.
Several moments passed as Peter tired to switch their minds, or try to repeat the process he performed earlier that apparently led to this predicament. After several attempts Peter let out a sigh.
"It's not working!"
Betsy sighed at this as she rubbed Peter's brow "This is why Xavier should be here…"
She then took a deep breath and prepared to try and assist Peter in helping him switch their minds back into their appropriate bodies when suddenly she found herself in a white space. Betsy gasped in surprise as she looked around to see that she was all alone. She looked down to see that she appeared to be in her actual body rather than Peter's.
"What the hell is going on, did he manage to switch us back or did he accidently project an illusion again?" Betsy wondered out loud as she tried to sense for any psionic energy around her before she let out a pained hiss as a sudden wave of pure raw psionic power raced through her head and caused her to nearly black out.
"GAAH!" Betsy yelled as she gripped her head in pain and almost fell to her knees as a result.
"Hmm, now this is interesting…" a woman's voice spoke up behind Betsy, causing her to tense as she slowly turned to see a massive Raptor cloaked in cosmic fire looking down at her as if she were a mere ant, which in all sense of the word, she was compared to it.
"Phoenix!" Betsy said in shock at the appearance of the omnipotent being of life and rebirth. She took several steps back and conjured up a psionic glaive to use before it suddenly vanished as quickly as it appeared, much to Betsy's surprise and growing fear.
The Phoenix chuckled as she gradually shrunk and changed until she became the fiery woman that Peter first saw her in when he came to the White-Hot Room and slowly circled the tense woman. Her fiery hand just barely grazing over Betsy's shoulder and back like a light breeze as she smirked "Oh don't be like that miss Braddock, after all if I really wanted you dead… you'd be dead"
Betsy swallowed nervously as she felt an inhuman chill rush down her spine at the sudden dark edge the cosmic being's voice took "What do you want?"
The Phoenix came to a stop in front of Betsy and quirked her head to the side and had her eyes narrowed in interest as she took in the form and power of the telepath before her "Hmm, such latent psionic energy within you my dear. You know, there have been times where I was tempted to make you my new host rather than the likes of Jean or Emma, but you never seemed close enough for me to try"
"Really?" Betsy said as she tried to move but suddenly found herself frozen still, as if some unseen force held her in place.
"Really…" the Phoenix said as she took several steps towards Betsy and turned her head slightly after grabbing her by the chin "After all, I've never met a telepath so well versed in combat like you in almost a million years, particularly one so powerful… the possibilities are nearly endless with you my dear…"
Suddenly Betsy was met with the image of her standing in a sea of what looked to be dark purple flames with a burning white-hot Phoenix symbol seemingly burned into her chest, pulsating with power down her body before it was gone as quick as it came. The sudden event caused Betsy to gasp as she felt a sudden surge of power, the likes she's never felt in all of her years before it was gone, and she was left feeling on the verge of collapse.
The Phoenix smirked at this "Hmm, enjoyed what you saw and felt?"
"W-What… what was that?" Betsy said as she tried to find words for what she saw.
"That… is what could be if the time ever arises where I must search out for a new host, unlikely as it is to happen" the Phoenix said as she released her grip on Betsy and let her stumble back before falling to her knees. The Phoenix chuckled at the scene before turning her back to the purple hair woman and waved her off "Begone Elizabeth, as much as I find your company enjoyable for the moment, I'd much prefer to have my newest host back in his body. The poor dear must be traumatized by now and well, wouldn't want him to think I've chosen a new avatar hmm?"
Before Betsy could say or think of anything, she suddenly found herself back in the room that she and Peter were suing to train in, now within her own body.
"Ahhh finally, got it. Ohhhhh sweet spider powered body that I sometimes wish had more power in it, well before now, how I've missed you!" Peter said with a relieved sigh before he noticed Betsy's uneasy expression "Uh, you okay? I mean that is you in there right and not some monk that I accidently grabbed somehow and traded his mind with Betsy's…"
"I'm… I'm fine…" Betsy said as she cleared her throat and turned on her heel and began to quickly march towards the doorway "Lesson's over for the day. Meet me back here tomorrow morning for your next session"
Peter watched her go with a surprised look on his face and made to follow her before he heard a faint whisper in his mind.
'Let her go…'
Peter paused at the voice of the Phoenix echoing at the farthest edges of his mind. His eyes narrowed slightly as he responded in a tone mixed with annoyance and accusation 'What did you do?'
The cosmic entity was silent for several moments before it responded in a near quiet yet clearly amused voice that he struggled to hear.
'I showed her… possibilities!'
…
On the far edge of the Sol System a small ship roughly the size of a football stadium laid amongst the clouds of cosmic dust and ice that laid at the very edge of humanity's solar system. The ship was refitted stealth class corvette of the Shi'ar Imperial Navy. In the heart of the modest sized scout ship, stood it's captain and before him was a terminal that was linked to his commanding officer's back on Chandilar, the Throneworld of the Shiar, deep within its empire.
The Captain, which happened to be a Lupak, stood at attention as he waited for a response from his commander. He didn't have to wait long as the gruff voice of his commander spoke through the terminal.
"Report!"
"Sir, we have arrived in the Sol System several cycles ago and have been monitoring the planet Earth after the arrival of the Phoenix. So far, the world remains intact and we have confirmed that the Majestor's son is still alive and appears to be well. We are already planning for extraction of him and his bodyguard, Warbird" the Captain said in a cool tone.
"Do the Humans know of you and your craft's location?" he asked.
The Captain shook his head "No, aside from their brief detection of us after we came out of lightspeed, they remain unaware of our exact location. They know that we are somewhere nearby, but they won't know where we are unless we let them. While their 'SWROD' facility is rather advance, much of the alien technology that they've accumulated over the years and what we've gave them, is fairly dated. Their scanners couldn't pick us up until we were within visual range"
"Very good… I would prefer they never knew you were there in the first place, but beggars can't be choosers these days" the commander said with a growl of annoyance before he cleared his throat "What of the Phoenix?"
At this the Captain frowned "We have confirmed the reports. It is still alive and has found a new host in the one that they call Spider-man"
"Spider-man? A rather interning choice given that our records have classified him as a low probability of inheriting the power of the Phoenix… either he's part of the Grey bloodline that we've somehow missed or there's something else we're not seeing" the commander muttered, more to himself than the Captain before he spoke in a louder tone "His location?"
"We were able to track him to some sort of extra dimensional zone in a mountain range located on the continent they call Asia before he entered some sort of area that seems to lead into a pocket dimension of sorts" The Captain said as he brought up a holographic map of the location and an area highlighted the showed the source of the extra dimensional energies "But our craft isn't outfitted with the equipment necessary to peer inside and it appears to be under heavy monitorization by both SHIELD and SWORD. It's also safe to assume the Avengers and the X-men as well. I had one of my scouts try to breach it, but he was forced to pull back before he was discovered"
"Hmmm… has the Dark Phoenix emerged yet?"
"It did, barely a week after the Phoenix bonded with Spider-man. It went on a rampage though some East African nation after it came under assault by the X-men" the Captain said as he sent a series of images and recordings that they were able to take of the site "We have yet to determine the exact trigger of its emergence"
"Any major casualties?" he asked with an audible frown.
"Indirectly? Hundreds" the Captain said with a sigh as he showed images of the capital city in ruins "The Avengers, X-men, and Fantastic Four were prevented from aiding the nation's military in search and rescue operations in it's capital city that was heavily damaged by the one called Namor thanks to the emergence of the Dark Phoenix"
"Direct casualties?"
"One confirmed… the Wolverine" the Captain said.
His superior was silent for several minutes as he examined the information sent to him and likely his own superiors. After what felt like hours, he received a response.
"Then it is decided… the Majestor is assembling an elite strike force he himself shall be leading consisting of almost the entire Imperial Guard, the Death Commandos and three dreadnoughts. They will arrive within several standardized cycles to neutralize the Phoenix and it's host"
"Easier said than done, sir" the Captain stated with a frown "Earth and its defenders will not simply let us terminate the Phoenix and its host without a fight. This Spider-man has ties with several notable heroes on this world and they will fight to their dying breath to keep him safe"
"Indeed, but it's either we stop the Phoenix now or we risk another D'bari or worse…" he responded with a tired sigh "Gather as much information as you can and begin preparations for their arrival"
"It shall be done" the Captain said with a nod as the connection ended and the Captain was left standing they're in complete silence.
After several moments he sighed as he turned on his heel and left the coms room to alert his men to their new orders. They had a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time.
…
And done.
Next chapter, The Unity Squad arrives to aid the X-men in repelling the invaders…