Charles Xavier was once an even match forShadow King, but when last they met Charles found that he was no longer the most powerful mutant mind in the universe. Shadow King had cultivated his skills as a telepath, catapulting himself into a class all his own. It took the combined force of the X-men to take him down on the astral plane; where Charles once reigned supreme.
Psylocke only bested him because he had overextended himself and it took the combined might of her telepathy to keep him in check, so much that she became mind blind in that moment; I gather that when Vargas defeated and murdered her Shadow King was set free from her efforts.
Emma, Betsy and I are waiting for our evanescent ally in the lobby of the major airport in Madripoor, in Hightown; evidently some adventurers do not favor subtlety. The plane is running late and I'm irritated; a crowded airport filled to the brim with tourists who's only reason to visit Madripoor would be their curiosity of the dangerous.
If ambushed it would be difficult to protect the crowd and combat our adversaries effectively.
If I did not knowbetter I would think that Shadow King gleaned that thought from my mind as a cue.
The airport is no more than two thousand square feet and the landing strip can only accommodate small aircrafts, so when Lifeguard and Slipstream enter the airport they don't take us unaware.
The ceiling is relatively low for an airport, so flight is out of the question for our combatants; their wingspans would only hinder them in this arena, so they are forced to break through the crush of the crowd.
"Emma, I need a telepathic evacuation; Jean has demonstrated this skill before, I'm sure that you too can handle it!" I say in a terse whisper.
Almost immediately, the people rush for the door; Emma has induced a low-level panic throughout the airport.
Although to people who observe the change it me, it is as if my eye's cloud over when my iris and pupils disappear, but in fact my vision broadens; I can perceive auras and even sense the tendrils of neurons sent from the brain and map them to the body parts intended for use(X-treme X-men 14?).
Through sheer force of will I force the temperature in this limited environment down ten degrees a second; while outside the change would be easier, inside I have less to work with so I am forced to create a pocket environment that would allow such a change.
This acts as a reinforcement to Emma psionic urgings.
For Betsy and I the change in temperature is negligible because the uniforms we wear beneath our clothes are insulated. Emma, however is forced to psychically raise her temperature, a task that splits her concentration three ways; before she was capping the crowds panic but urging them to abandon the airport.
This would have been the second time Shadow King knocked her unconscious in the same day, if not for her involved vanity Shadow King would have succeeded.
She's unattractive when she grits her teeth and because concentrated telepathy has a mild heat pattern, I am able to see her gather her psychic power from her task and refocus her energies to shield her mind from Shadow King.
As Psylocke observed before, Emma is no match for Shadow King, although her efforts to protect herself are working thus far, she is unable to take the offensive and her defenses are wavering.
She is needed in this fight, so I do something outside of the true realm of my powers. Raising an electro-magnetic field isn't easy for me, I have done it before and the effort it takes to ensure that my teammates and the civilians are not electrocuted is considerate since the EM field must envelop the entire airport.
Electromagnetic fields scramble psychic powers Uncanny X-men 457; making it nearly impossible for a telepath, even on of Emma's level to establish any new feats. The field doesn't hinder the efforts already established before the field was raised but new psionic displays would be wrenching.
For Shadow King, he is forced to make a choice -- since he is fighting long-distance, continue fighting Emma, forsaking his control over Slipstream and Lifeguard or abandon the battle with Emma to keep the Camerons' in his psychic thrall.
He does what I would do; felling a single X-men and forsaking your henchmen would be ill-advised when there are two others to contend with.
"Let us make short work of them!"
Emma knows that within the EM field she is impervious to Shadow Kings attacks, she also knows that she is unable to attack the Camerons' with telepathy in kind.
She gains little mass through the transformation, hardly bulking up, but I notice that I am blind to her muscle responses, to the neurons in her brain.
"I am of no use in this fight; I need to maintain the EM field and restore the natural temperature!"
The process is numbing, I have to split my concentration, giving any attention to the battle that surrounds me would hit my teammates with a deadly shock, until I have undone temperature change in this airport; I simply can not maintain the EM field, the unnatural temperature change and offensively use my powers.
The undoing of the process is slower that the doing; the temperature only moves up 5 degrees at a time.
When I finish, I see that Betsy is my fallen comrade this time; Lifeguard looms over her, both hands clinched into a hammer, ready to pound the last of her life from her body.
Lightning again, it surges into Lifeguards central nervous system and I notice something new; Shadow King has altered them somehow, their minds refuse to give into unconsciousness. It is as if they are ignoring the pain, as though it is fleeting, where I know that I'm sending the full measure of my lightning directly into her body.
Still Lifeguard persists in my direction.
My mind flowers, opening as if it were blooming and I pay no mind to the consequences of my action; when fighting Shadow King no blows can be pulled. The water rushes as if from nowhere, in a crushing flashflood (Uncanny X-men 154)!
The rushing waters remove Davis from the fight -- only in presence, since he is sent through the glass doors, but unfortunately it too removes Emma. Lifeguard is another matter, her powers are to adapt and evolve for whatever the situation is; her feet become clamps that root themselves into the floor and she anchors herself, waiting out the massive rush of water.
Winds rush around me at extreme speeds; forcing the water to detour.
When the water clears, Lifeguard takes to the cramped air and comes for me at top speed.
It's instant; she's frozen in place and although she wrenches against the telekinesis I know that it is futile: Reinforcement have arrive.
The expression on her face is pained at first; a mirror of Shadow Kings struggle to keep control of her mind, yet he fails and when Heather's expression relaxes I am thankful again for Emma's genius.
He is still frail looking and very tall, but his face is no longer contorted by the ghosts that used to haunt him. His hair is different, tied back in a short pony-tail with controlled curls and a clean Mediterranean look to him.
If I didn't know better I would never guess he were Charles' son.
"Hello Legion," I say, taking his left hand in both of mine.