Rage of the Phoenix
"YOU IDIOT!" Shaw screamed at Cobra Commander. "LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
"WELL HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW…" Cobra Commander shouted back. A large shriek interrupted him. He turned and saw the Phoenix change again. Soon there was Jean immersed in flame, floating above him. "Oh boy…"
"Jean…" Scott gasped.
"Cut 'em down!" Logan ordered as the X-Men and Misfits freed their friends. No one stopped them. The Hellfire Club and Cobra had much bigger problems.
"Who dares destroy the M'Krann Crystal?" Jean spoke in a powerful voice. "Who has upset the balance of what is?"
Shaw gulped. "We were the ones who summoned you…"
"You summoned me…" Jean glared at him, her eyes consumed by fire. "In order for me to serve you?"
"Well…" Shaw began. "Not really..."
"Don't bother lying to me!" Jean shouted. "I can see your diseased thoughts as clear as day! You dare try to command the powers of a god as if they were nothing? As if they were toys for you to play with?"
"Not exactly…" Shaw tried to cover, feeling afraid for the first time in a long while. "We want to serve you. For you to bring order to this chaotic world. We offer you…"
"You offer me? Did you really think you could impress me by trying to destroy my host's friends?" Jean hissed. "She and I are one now…Her pain is my pain…Her love is my love…and her anger…"
"Uh, yeah I think we get that…" Cobra Commander wisely backed away. "You know what Shaw? You're right! Cobra doesn't really need this! The Phoenix Force belongs to you. So we'll just be going…"
"The Phoenix Force belongs to no man!" Jean shouted. "Least of all a wretch like you!"
"I think I must also be going now…" The Kingpin backed away. "I'm late for another appointment…"
"Yeah I've gotta see my manicurist," Steve gulped.
"You who sell your own kind into slavery…" Jean roared. "You believe you have the right to rule? YOU HAVE NO RIGHT AT ALL!"
"Frost…." Shaw backed up. "Do something…""Shaw you fool, she's too powerful!" Emma shouted. "The Phoenix Force has strengthened her mind by a thousand fold. I can't control her!"
"You could never control me!" Jean snarled and sent a vicious psychic attack at her. Emma screamed and collapsed in a heap. "Just as you imprisoned others in their minds, so shall you be imprisoned!"
"Oh crap this is not good," Pierce gulped. "What do we do?"
"Well," Destro gulped. "When Cobra is faced with difficult tactical maneuvers such as this there is one strategy we employ…"
"And that is?" Kingpin asked.
"We run like hell as far away as possible," Destro explained.
"Works for me," Pierce said.
"EVERYBODY RUN!" Shaw shouted.
"COBRA RETREAT! RETREAT!" Cobra Commander was already running with the other Cobras. The door slammed shut before his face and he collided with the door. "Ow…"
"You shall all burn," Jean hissed. "Burn with the judgement of the Phoenix!"
"This was not one of our better plans," Destro gulped.
"YOU THINK?" Cobra Commander shouted at him.
"Please Phoenix!" Pierce screamed. "Show us mercy!"
"Mercy? Mercy?" Jean was consumed by fire. The glow of the Phoenix surrounded her. "Just as you planned to show them mercy? The same mercy you planned for the world you would gladly sacrifice in your pathetic bid for power and immortality?"
"Uh, yes?" Pierce gulped. Jean responded with an inhuman scream of rage.
"Way to go Pierce you just ticked her off even more!" Mr. DaCosta snapped.
"WELL I DIDN'T SEE YOU COMING UP WITH ANY SOLUTIONS!" Pierce screamed hysterically.
"She's going to kill them!" Ororo gasped.
"And that's bad why?" Warpath grunted.
"We have to stop her!" Xavier shouted.
"Good luck," Pietro gulped as Jean powered up.
"Jean, Jean don't do this!" Scott pleaded.
"These heretics must pay!" Jean raised her arm and fire started to blaze all around the room.
"Note to self," Pietro gulped. "Do not tick off Jean anymore!"
"Jean!" Xavier called out. "Don't do this! You know this is wrong! Fight it!"
"Too late Charles," Jean looked at him. "For too long she has suffered at the hands of those who hate and abuse power. Her eyes have been opened to the evil and the cruelty of this world. As long as part of her wishes, you cannot stop me!"
"We can try," Althea stood in front of her.
"Al…What are you doing?" Lance gulped.
"She's got a plan," Todd gulped. "I hope!""Remove yourself from my path or be destroyed," Jean warned her.
"No," Althea said.
"We're all dead aren't we?" Pietro groaned.
"We will be if you don't shut up!" Wanda snapped.
"Jean," Althea looked straight at her. "You don't want to do this. Believe me. If anyone knows about what you're feeling right now it's me! You're probably reading my mind right now, so you know what I'm talking about."
"Yes…" Jean's eyes narrowed. "I see your past clearly. Although your powers are merely a fraction of mine…You do understand to a degree."
"Don't go down that road Jean," Althea said. "You're not a killer. Don't make the same mistake I made."
"The mistake was not yours to make," Jean told her. "You had no control over what you were doing then. I have control now."
"All the more reason not to do this!" Althea shouted. "As much as I'd love to see these guys roasted alive, it shouldn't be done at your expense."
"Jean if you do this, you're no better than they are," Kurt called out. "Do you really want that? Do you want the stain of blood on your soul, even if that blood is not innocent? Don't give into your anger! It will destroy you!"
"Besides," Althea looked at her. "Do you really want to be anything like me?"
"You have a point…" Jean smirked. "AAGGH! XAVIER WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
"I'm sorry Jean but I have no choice," Xavier entered her mind.
"Don't make me fight you Xavier!" Jean roared as she hovered in the air, clearly in agony. "I want to use this power to benefit the world! Don't make my first act be the slaying of my beloved teacher and friends!"
"That's not going to happen!" Xavier snarled. "Jean I know part of you is fighting this! I can feel it! Just keep fighting!"
"I can help," Betsy assisted. Soon the two of them were deep inside Jean's mind. It was a battlefield filled with fire and harsh red rocks. "The girl really needs to redecorate."
"LEAVE…!" A huge fire Phoenix flew over them. They were knocked to the ground by the heat and force of the flame wings.
"Okay why aren't we dead or knocked our or…?" Betsy gulped.
"Jean's subconscious mind," Xavier explained. "There's a part of her that's still with us."
"Is it too much to ask that it's a large part?" Betsy asked.
"I am in control here!" The Phoenix screamed.
"Jean I know you can hear me! Fight her!" Xavier shouted as he focused his telepathic powers. "Psylocke! Focus!"
"I'm trying!" Betsy told him as she created a large shield. "It's like fighting in an oven!"
"Jean! Help us!" Xavier called out. He was able to transform his clothes to the same armor as what he fought the Shadow King with. He slashed at the creature with his sword but no effect.
Back in the real world Scott called out to Jean. "Jean! Please! It's Scott! Can't you hear me?"
Scott…
Something happened in the psychic world. The ground shook within it as the figure of Jean was revealed deep inside the Phoenix. "Scott…" She cried out.
"Jean! We have to bind the Phoenix Force inside you!" Xavier called out. Suddenly the ground began to shift.
"Professor…" Betsy was getting very worried.
"Don't fight it Psylocke!" Xavier instructed. "Move with the ground! It's responding to our thoughts! Use it to entrap the Phoenix!"
"Just as long as we don't get trapped," Betsy gulped as she did as she was told. The ground within Jean's mind grew into a vortex, trapping the Phoenix's feet and tail.
"NO!" The Phoenix screamed as the ground swirled around and around, covering more and more of it.
"JEAN!" Scott reached out to her, feeling her pain through the psychic bond they shared.
Jean's eyes opened. They were glowing with fire. "Scott…"
Just then the entire building burst into a brilliant ball of flame. The flame turned into a phoenix and shrieked into the night.
At that very same moment all over the world…
"NO!" Deep in her lair, Selene shook with fear. "IT HAS RETURNED!"
"By the Great Ashanti…" Dr. Strange furrowed his brow as he meditated in his inner sanctum. He knew dark times were ahead.
Agatha Harkness watched the fire in her hearth burn brighter. A black cat yowled in horror. "I feel it too old friend…" She sighed. "The fire is coming."
Foresight screamed at the images as he lay in his bed. Scenes of a great bird of fire battling a powerful figure with dragon like wings. Destruction and devastation surrounded them. Joining the fight a brilliant figure of a female angel could be seen before everything was consumed with fire.
Deep in the burrows of the Arctic was a hidden city. "I sense such power…" A strange looking female with purple armor, bald except for a long flowing top knot of black hair looked at a crystal. Her reptilian eyes glowed. "Yes, I could use this. We will rise again and gain vengeance on the human race."
Far in another hidden catacomb three figures in the shadows were also aware of what transpired. "So the Phoenix Force has been unleashed?" One figure said. "Excellent. Everything is going according to plan. Now members of Factor Three, our real work is just beginning."
On the surface of the moon a lone figure, cloaked by technology witnesses the flames. "Once again I must watch as history repeats itself…" He spoke to no one in particular.
A billion light years away on a distant planet, an alien woman with white hair and a pink dress screams in agony. "I must warn the princess! The Phoenix has awakened!"
Destiny sat in her room at SHEILD. She knew what was going to happen. "It has begun…"