I first met the Shadow King in Cairo, even as a child devils wanted me as their paramour and Shadow King was not the first. At the time of our meeting I was in the psychic thrall of Charles Xavier after I had lifted his wallet; during this moment of weakness Shadow King attacked his mind and they fought for me, needless to say, Xavier won but it was years later that Charles returned to stake his claim on me.
Through my tenure as with the X-men I have fought Shadow King countless times, and his attraction has not wavered in the least; I fully appreciate the irony in that he has corrupted Davis Cameron, with whom I have shared a tryst, and set him against me.
I was first attracted to Slipstream's naiveté, the fact that my life was so remote to his reality, it was wonderful that I could hold a conversation with him and not once speak of the X-men's current premiere antagonist. As I look at him now he is as much a warrior as any and while his mutant powers aren't aggressive his prowess as a combatant is a valid substitute for what he lacks in energy projection.
Like his sister he has changed physically, although his skin isn't armored gold his stature has increased frighteningly and he's been afforded all of the tribal markings of Shi'ar royalty, Neramani to be specific.
If ever legitimized he would be third in line to the Shi'ar throne, Lifeguard second, following Deathbird.
It is obvious that Shadow King has tweaked his genome to bring about these changes, what concerns me most is knowing that some small part of Davis is acting out of free will; Shadow King delights in culling the evil from a person, setting those violent instinct apart from their goodness, leaving it to charge the subjects.
I will have to get the ceiling fixed for Logan, I promising myself, using a combination of wind and lightning to make a large hole in the corner of the ceiling.
Davis is in fast pursuit, he is as skilled a flyer as I and I can't afford to take the offensive.
He has me!
He holds me from behind by the shoulders, quickly spinning me to face him, in his zeal he pops my shoulder out of the socket; the pain is no worse than what I've experienced in the past.
The strength and durability of a normal Shi'ar male far outreaches that of normal human male and while with my training I am stronger than most men, Davis is a Neramani Warrior; it would be futile to struggle physically.
I cannot afford to be subtle, the lightning reaches him full power from the skies, streaming itself through my body and I double it's lethalness.
Shadow King is cunning, he shows me a flash of the Davis Cameron I knew; reminding me that the pain I inflict is owned solely by Davis. His face is ashen, gravely contorted by the furies of lightning that I have passed through him.
I do not relent, I know that Shadow King counts on me granting my former lover quarter, so that he can regain the upper hand in this battle.
The strongest X-man could not resist the tornado that spins Davis unto complete disorientation followed by my strongest gale that rends him through the largest, sturdiest building within sight.
Even with the telepathic prompting of Shadow King, Davis will be out of the fight for a while.
I hover above Madripoor for a few seconds and with my left hand, palm open, I knock my shoulder back into the socket, all the while reminding myself that I've ignored worse.
In the Princess bar I learn that Emma Frost remains armored, as does Peter, while unconscious.
I realize almost immediately that Shadow King fell her as soon as she took her armored form, for some reason her psychic defenses are crippled when she uses her secondary mutation: Betsy is immune to telepathy and when a telepath accesses my mind that connection is mildly disorientating for them and it also makes them susceptible to my elemental powers; no matter where they are on the planet but as though they were standing not two feet from me. It is akin to astral fighting.
Psylocke and Lifeguard are heads up, and Psylocke is truly magnificent; every move initiated by Lifeguard is efficiently parried and if Lifeguard gets too close, Betsy hits her with a wall of telekinesis that empties the distance that was bridged.
Her mind automatically reinforces her physical strength with telekinesis but she has no control over it, which makes it nearly impossible to pull a punch in battle. We haven't had the chance to fully gauge the scope of her telekinetic strength, but by the looks of Heather Cameron it has proven effective enough.
It's as though Betsy climbs Lifeguard like a tree to plunge the telekinetic version of her psychic knife into Heather's mind, causing a synapses which renders her unconscious.
"Handy, ain't it?" She says, turning to me, smiling, while starring into the ethereal purple dagger.
Using her hands, she sits Heather up, leaning her against the wall; I disapprove, when I know that with telekinesis she could have done so safely; if Heather had woken while being moved she could have pulled Betsy's throat out.
"Who's this slag?" She asks, exhaling and joining be beside Emma.
"She's Heather Cameron, she was a cursory member of the X-treme team after you …" I say, breaking eye contact, looking down at Emma once again.
"Well, no offense Heather, but you suck as my replacement."
We split up, Betsy and I; we cannot take Heather and Davis, it would be too risky but I carry Emma's unconscious diamonded body with me. While Madripoor gives new strides to the term lenience, I doubt that many would turn a blind eye to laying an comatose diamond woman in the back of a cab and carrying her through the lobby into the Madison Cybil Hotel.
We meet at the hotel, Betsy lets us in through the Balcony of the penthouse. Emma has been awake for a few minutes now, other than reverting to flesh she hasn't interacted much: Her pride is badly bruised after being bested so quickly, no matter how worthy the foe.
"What's our next step, Storm?" Psylocke asks, almost immediately.
"We find Shadow King," I say setting Emma on her feet.
"Then what?" Psylocke asks, indignantly. "No offense Emms but you're no Charles Xavier and even he never had a clear victory against Shadow King."
"Well you beat him once Betts and you're talent as a telepath left much to be desired in those days, however, it does seem we need back up and I have the perfect someone in mind."
A/N: Sincere thanks to those who reviewed, it really matters.