Child of Light and Darkness
~
Chapter Seventeen
They stopped abruptly as they noticed the crowds of people.
"Logan we should get them out of here."
Logan nodded. " Right 'Ro. The first thing we should do is try ta keep the pedestrians away so they can't get hurt. We gotta create some sort o' distraction so we can move 'em."
"Well how are we supposed to do that? I mean what about the police?"
"They can stay. But we gotta tell 'em what they're up against."
"Well no one looks hurt. I mean if there were I'd assume someone would have called an ambulance." Scott commented looking around.
"Yer probably right. More' n' likely Jeannie just arrived, she probably caused all this destruction in 'er wake."
"Hey, Guys…we were right. She has Magneto." Bobby said his voice quaking a little.
Dark Phoenix had Magneto wrapped in an energy coil created by her fists, she held him tightly in it, as she suspended him in the air a few feet below herself.
"Wow, dis da first time Remy seen Magneto quiver. Ain't got much of dat while Remy was on his team." A small smirk played across his lips.
"We all may find some kind of small amusement in seein' Mags beg fer his life, but we gotta save 'im this time." Logan reminded them.
"Dun know 'bout you guys but dat looks ta Remy like Jean gotta be 'bout a thousand feet above de park. I dun know how we supposed ta reach 'er."
"Yeah Kurt and Storm could reach her but at that height if they were to get knocked down it could be fatal. I don't know how we're supposed to distract her long enough to get Magneto out of here."
"Hey Ah'm thinkin' that Jean's probably gonna want to fight us, or at least got us out of her way. And for that to happen she'd have to notice us, and if she notices us we can probably get her on the ground. And maybe distract her face to face."
"Maybe." Scott nodded. "But first things first we have to get those people away from here."
"I'm on it!" Kurt said bamfing out. It was only moments before he bamfed closer to the crowd of people, startling a few.
"Excuse me people, but ve are going to have to ask you to leave. Zis is not somezing zat, as interesting as it may seem, you're gonna vant to be avound for."
The crowd obliged mostly out of fright, the world knew about mutants, but that didn't necassarly mean they saw one quite like Kurt everyday.
"Hey I'm sorry but you people can't be out here." One of the S.W.A.T. members said approaching Ororo. She assumed he was the captain.
"Look bub, I have great respect fer authority, but you people can't handle this by yerselves." Logan said pushing in front of Storm.
"I'm sorry, but that's my orders. I'm going to have to force you to leave."
"Yer not gonna do that."
"And why not?"
"You see that?… " Logan said pointing to Jean, who for the moment was distracted, still with Magneto. "She's a mutant, a bad mutant. And yer not gonna know how ta stop 'er from doing more harm than good. So yer gonna need our help. You see what she's done already, ya don't have the power ta stop her from doin' more than that. But maybe wit' us ya got a chance."
The captain exhaled deeply, and nodded. "Okay, but If I see anything I don't like, I'm sending in my team."
"Good."
Logan noted a few stray pedestrians that kept their distance but stayed nonetheless.
"In the meantime ya should set yer armored men, linin' the streets, so these people don't get hurt."
The captain nodded and turned his back to Logan, motioning orders to his team.
"Ro I want you ta put the fire out. Can ya handle that?"
"Yes but that could attract her attention."
Logan nodded towards Storm. "So be it."
At Storm's mental command, the clouds pushed together and darkened, thunder began to cackle and rain started pouring almost instantly.
Ororo let the rain pour as she created a wind gale and closed it around Jean as it shoved her back and she was forced to look down upon the X-men. Somehow she managed to keep Magneto coiled up.
"I think that got her attention." Bobby said swallowing hard.
"Fools! How dare you disrupt me?" She cackled. "Have you come to save your friend?" She asked amused, as she nodded towards Magneto.
Storm held up her wind gusts and pushed into it making the wind stronger and more fervent.
Dark Phoenix fought against Storm's power. She turned Storm's power against her and diminished Storm's power altogether.
"You must try better than that if you fools expect to live."
Dark Phoenix bellowed.
Storm was putting all she had into the wind but she could feel Dark Phoenix pulling at her, until she felt her control falter and her power over the wind seemed to suck out. She stumbled slightly, taken aback at what Dark Phoenix could do.
Logan snarled and unsheathed his claws. "Alright here's the plan…we gotta get 'er down. The rest we'll figger out later."
He bounded toward her but was stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't move. He fought against the invisible force holding him back. She managed to keep a hold on Magneto as she did the same to Logan.
"Did you really think you could harm me?" She asked him.
Logan snarled. "I thought I'd try." He fought against the invisible restraints once more.
"Don't bother."
Logan looked down at his fists, he flinched as he felt them being tugged or pulled by Jean's telekinetic ability. He fought against the pull by trying to retract them, it didn't work.
He felt himself being pulled forward, like a giant magnet attracted to his skeleton was pulling him closer to Jean.
He tried to fight or do something but she was to powerful. He pushed himself as hard as he could against the shield holding him tight, it only caused himself to bound back.
He felt himself lift slowly off the ground, enveloped by her fiery energy. His claws still outstretched he tried to retract them but to no avail.
She lifted him about a foot away from her in the air.
"The great Wolverine…powerless." She sneered.
He snarled unable to respond.
"How does it feel to be left at my mercy?"
"Ironic isn't it…James?"
Logan's eyes widened in shock as he tried to suppress his pain. "What. Did. Ya. Call. Me?" He asked gasping for breath.
"James Howlett." She answered.
Logan couldn't help but look amazed as the pain accumulated within him.
"Yes I know who you are. I know everything about you."
"But… How… How... Do…You… Know?" Logan snarled.
"I'm an all seeing all knowing telepath. Or have you forgotten? Now, Does that answer your question?"
"James…ya called me James…is that my name? Ya know where I came from? Ya know my origin?" Logan asked his interest and curiosity peaked.
"Is that what you want from me, Logan? To learn to you your past…to show you your past?"
She paused.
"You would like that wouldn't you?"
Logan didn't respond, he was squirming frequently trying to free himself.
"Unfortunately I can't do that. I could, but I won't. Now you know I could kill you in an instant. Strip away your adamantium skeleton, cut away your air supply, or simply kill you with one painful psychic bolt aimed at all the prime nerves in your mind."
He felt her energy pulling his adamantium out through his pores.
He snarled at the pain his healing factor didn't seem to be working.
His skin slowly cut nicked by her power.
"How does it feel…Wolverine to have your healing factor deactivated?" She asked evilly.
He rose his eyebrows, surprised.
She laughed. "Yes…I can do that…and so much more. You think Magneto is the only mutant with power enough to control that adamantium skeleton of yours?"
She retracted his claws before pushing him away, as he fell hard to the ground, weak and bleeding, his healing factor not working because of her power.
Magneto looked on as she tortured Logan, he was still helpless caught in her restraints.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~
Bobby watched as Logan fell to the ground and didn't get up. In fixated determination, he iced himself up a ledge and built a shield as he threw ice missiles at her.
She simply burned them into water before they reached her. Bobby was still icing missiles at her when he felt himself change back into his human form.
He looked at Dark Phoenix who shed him an evil smirk. She had telekinetically changed him into his human form.
"Did you really think your puny ice powers would work against me? Fire and Ice don't mix."
Bobby looked down at his feet where she melted his ledge and he found himself sliding down a puddle of water.
He tried icing himself back up but she must have been blocking him somehow.
"Whoa!" He said as he fell to the ground.
"Hold on Bobby I got ya!" Kurt said teleporting to catch his friend.
"Oh no you don't." Dark Phoenix sneered as she froze Kurt in his tracks. He tried desperately to teleport but she had some kind of strong hold around him.
"Now for you." She said turning her gaze toward Bobby. "I want you to stay right were you are." She laughed before turning him into a solid form, crystal.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~
Kitty swallowed hard, "O my god…like did you see what she just did!"
Kitty yelled looking to Scott. "She like, just turned him into some kind of crystal! I like, don't think this is good Scott."
Scott looked around, Logan was still on the ground, hopefully recuperating, Kurt was still caught in her telekinetic hold and Bobby was, well hopefully unharmed.
"Scott! Mahybe Ah can drain some power off o' her!" Rogue suggested taking off her left glove.
Scott shook his head right away. "No! She's to powerful!"
"But Ah've done it before!"
"Yes But you've seen what she can do! Don't take that risk."
Rogue nodded understanding. "Okay But Ah've got to do something." She walked over to Logan fallen body, she touched him briefly enough to get his powers.
"What are ya doin' petite?" Remy asked.
"Ah got an idea! Ah just need Logan's strength."
She walked towards the nearest maple tree. She wrapped her arms around it, and pulled it off it's roots.
"Let's see if ya can stop this!" She yelled throwing it.
"Storm!" Scott commanded.
Storm nodded and created a gust of wind to carry the tree towards Jean.
Dark Phoenix smiled as the tree neared her. She cackled evilly wrapping her energy around the tree turning it into solid gold.
"I can't hold it! It's to heavy!" Storm yelled as the tree came falling back down pinning Rogue underneath it.
"Chere!'" Remy yelled running up to her. He tried energizing the solid gold tree but it wasn't taking.
Instead he turned his focus to Dark Phoenix. He energized a few cards and tossed them at her. She enveloped them in fire and burned them into dust.
She telekinetically grabbed at Remy picking him up from the ground and holding him tight.
"How would you like to feel the sting of your own power used against you?" She asked as with a thought she energized Remy with his own power and enveloped him in kinetic energy.
"Suppose I let go?" She quizzed.
"Scott! She'll kill him!" Rogue yelled still struggling to be free from under the tree.
"I know!" Scott yelled back franticly.
"Do something!" Rogue shouted at him.
"I'm trying!" He shouted desperately pushing on his visor. "She's blocking my optic blasts!"
He shouted trying the button on his glove that Hank had installed in case he were pinned against a wall and couldn't reach the button on his visor, he could trigger his blasts from the button on his glove.
"B-But that's impossible! They're way to strong for even the most experienced telekinetic!"
"Well with what we've seen today, it's like possible."
Scott drowned out their voices as his mind wandered. There had to be a way to get through to her. She was still Jean…she had to be. But than she was this-creature…ugly, evil, being that would kill them all without remorse.
But there had to be a way…there just had to. Scott disappeared into the shadows of the park, beneath the trees and the dirt ridden paths…he had an idea.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~
"I tire of you idiots. Didn't Xavier teach you anything?" Dark Phoenix sighed in annoyance, as she threw Gambit to the ground.
"I have to say you made an admirable ploy X-men…But a ploy that failed."
She said as she descended to the ground.
With a thought she turned Bobby back into his human form and pulled Rogue out from the tree. Logan was still down for the count, so she froze the five of them where the stood, instantly transforming them into living statues.
"There that's better. Hmmm…but now that I have you, what should I do with you?"
"Jean, If there's anything human remaining within you…" Storm pleaded.
"There isn't." Dark Phoenix responded.
"…Please hear me! Remember what you were, Jean Grey…a human, loving…caring…what the X-men mean to you…"
Jean pulled the energy that she had used to freeze them, tighter around Storm.
Storm grunted.
"I no longer belong to you and your group. I no longer feel the need to be Xavier's lackey. Your appeal is heard and denied, Storm. Any one else have any last thoughts?" Dark Phoenix asked looking to all of them.
She smirked as no one replied. "Good." With a thought she hit them a hundred different ways at once, watching as they fell to the ground.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~
"Hmmm…that's much better." She sneered brushing herself off, mockingly. She turned to Magento.
"Now I know why you wanted so badly to bring Xavier down. That team is an irritating annoyance. I feel so much better to be rid of that burden."
She said almost wordlessly.
She put a finger to her chin, "Now what shall I do with you?" She asked Magneto.
"I don't understand what you want with me." Magneto grunted.
"Revenge of course." She cackled.
"But what did I do to you?"
"Don't tell me you don't know?" She paused as Magneto remained silent.
"You're Jean Grey, Xavier's recruit." Magneto said aloud, that's what gathered from the X-men's conversation.
"I was. Not anymore. However that part of me that used to hold Jean's psyche tells me that she has quite a few negative feelings towards you, Magneto. Perhaps one of them has to do with your ploy to expose mutants to the human population."
"Xavier's recruits have no feelings towards me, he has taught them that."
"That may be true but they're all entitled to their own opinion. And Jean Grey doesn't feel very highly towards you…Erik."
Dark Phoenix paused. "Tell me…is this fancy helmet of yours a wardrobe ploy or is it built for a specific reason? To keep telepaths out, I bet."
She slowly lifted off Magneto's helmet. "I wonder what would happen if a telepath were to enter your mind, while you were useless to defend yourself."
"Is that what you plan to do to me, Jean? Kill me with a single psychic bolt?"
Dark Phoenix cackled. "Now why would I do that? To have the world's mightiest mutant at my mercy and I kill you in a painless instant? Now wouldn't that be tragic?"
She said as she curled her energy around his helmet and crushed it into bits. "Believe me when I say this, Erik, your fate will be the worst of all."
" 'Of all'? What are you on some sort of revenge trip?"
"You may say that. Jean didn't hold many grudges, negative feelings, but only for a few. Mastermind, Mesmero, I think you've heard of them…"
Magneto nodded.
Dark Phoenix continued. "…I'm afraid they're no longer. Now you…you are the most powerful mutant to date…and the last person dear Jean Grey has on her 'list' of negative emotions."
"So you're doing this, for revenge?"
"The revenge is nice, but the sensations I feel while doing so, is what I live for. The sensations of evil, sensations beyond the smartest human comprehension, for the unbound joy of evil."
She paused. "But let's not distract ourselves from this task. I believe I was wondering what I should do to the All Powerful Master of Magnetism."
~x~x~x~x~x~x~
I don't know about you…but I have to say, after reading over this I like the way I've written Dark Phoenix. Now I really enjoyed writing her…probably because being Dark Phoenix there is a limitless things I can do with her.
I really enjoy writing Jean's revenge trip…I just couldn't resist having Dark Phoenix and not writing in Magneto cowering in fear…I'm sorry but that dude needs to open his eyes and step off his high horse…who does he think he is…besides the most powerful mutant to date at the present time in this fictional reality?
Now the question is…will she kill him? Or won't she? I guess you'll have to read to find out.
Oh, BTW, for all of those of you who don't know…James Howlett is Logan's real name…as learned and explained in the miniseries 'Origin' that was written in like 6 parts last year…my bro's a total Wolvie fanatic so I got it for him…after I read it myself of course.
Anyway in this fic, when Jean's transformed into Dark Phoenix she like knows everything…like her mind has been expanded infinitely…but keep in mind…if and when Jean turns back she'll remember nothing of what she knew as Dark Phoenix and remember little if any of all the actions that want on while she was Dark Phoenix. Oh so, to get to my point…Logan doesn't know about himself being James Howlett…although in the current comics to date…he knows very little too…but he does know his name is James…I think. Anyway the 'Origin' miniseries was just a fill in for the readers…not the character so yeah….
R&R…I know you will, but I want to hear what you think of my portrayal of Jean as DP. Could it be better? Worse? I wanna know what u think.