Author's Note: Jean's part in this chapter was heavily influenced by Ultimate X-Men Volume 6: "Return of the King."
Periods of Heightened Emotional Stress
Fury's trained soldiers were the first ones out of the transport, followed by Beast and the three younger X-Men.
"Do you think there's any chance we can stop it in time?" Iceman asked with obvious trepidation.
"We won't know until we're there," Beast answered. "I need you to focus on getting me to that control room."
"So if we're too late…" Iceman let the sentence trail off, not wanting to add, we're dead.
"Big Boy and me might be able to survive the explosion," Rogue pointed out, referring to herself and Colossus. "Maybe we should go, and the professor can—"
"We have absolutely no idea what the specifics of your new abilities are, Rogue. And though Peter's power makes him nearly indestructible, there's no guarantee that he would maintain sufficient concentration during the explosion to remain in his metal form."
"I'm willing to try it," Peter offered.
"I'm not," Beast countered. "And we stand more of a chance of making it in time to stop the explosion if we go together. Whether any of us can survive the explosion is irrelevant if we stop the explosion. Logic dictates that we follow the Professor's plan."
Rogue and Iceman exchanged a meaningful look. Iceman nodded at Beast determinedly, and Rogue looked away so her reluctance wouldn't be as obvious.
"Let's go, people," Beast ordered.
xxxx
Colossus led the way through the wreckage of the plant, flanked by Rogue and Iceman, with Beast trailing behind. There were signs of destruction throughout the structure.
"This isn't good," Rogue pointed out. "What are the odds that they trashed the whole place except for the control room?"
"We won't know until we get there," Iceman answered coolly.
"This is stupid," Rogue persisted. "There's no reason you need to die—"
"Mr. Drake is here voluntarily," Beast reminded Rogue. "This isn't the military. No one's ordering anyone to be here."
Rogue bit her lip to avoid further comment, but there was still simmering anger in her eyes.
"She wasn't calling you stupid, Beast," Iceman assured him, meeting his girlfriend's angry look. "Rogue—"
"How touching!"
Colossus barely had time to activate his metal form before a fiery blast knocked him backwards into Beast. Meanwhile, Rogue flew towards Iceman and carried him away from the blast with blinding speed.
"What are you doing?" Bobby, already in his ice form, demanded.
"You're welcome!" Rogue shot back.
"I can handle myself! Let me down!"
Rogue angrily did just that, letting go of him in midair. Thanks to their combat training, Iceman managed to land on all fours, just in time to see Pyro firing again.
Without getting up, Iceman managed to fire a blast of ice to intercept Pyro's flame, and the resulting collision of energy made both of them duck.
Meanwhile, Colossus and Beast began to move towards Pyro, only to discover that he was not alone. Quicksilver seemed to appear out of nowhere, the wind that accompanied his entrance causing small debris to scatter in his wake.
"Can't you see that John's busy playing with his old friends?" Quicksilver teased.
"This isn't a game," Colossus answered angrily. "Millions of people are about to die."
"Yes," Quicksilver agreed flippantly. "That is the game! I think we're winning!"
Colossus stepped forward to take a swing at the arrogant brat, but before he could connect Quicksilver was a blur of motion again, this time circling around Beast and Colossus.
"What's he doing?" Colossus demanded, trying to swipe at the impossibly fast boy and missing each time.
"His incredible speed is generating a vortex effect," Beast answered calmly. "I suggest we attempt to break free before—"
He never got a chance to finish the sentence, as the wind Quicksilver was generating knocked both men off their feet.
The cyclone began to intensify as Quicksilver tightened his circles around the two X-Men, but that proved to be his undoing as Colossus managed to stick his leg in Quicksilver's path, tripping him. Despite the pain of the impact, Colossus managed to capitalize by quickly connecting with an uppercut to Quicksilver's jaw, knocking the boy down.
"Nicely done," Beast complimented.
On the other side of the room, Pyro began sauntering towards Iceman, and Iceman warily approached in a combat stance.
"We just keep running into each other, don't we, Bobby?" Pyro punctuated the question by firing another burst that Iceman easily blocked with another ice blast.
"We'll have to do something about that," Iceman answered, uncharacteristically threatening.
"Temper," Pyro chided lightly.
Rogue picked that moment to swoop down at Pyro from the air, leveling a roundhouse kick at his right side. Pyro barely managed to dodge, only to find Iceman already in his face throwing a quick hook that connected with his jaw.
Pyro stumbled backwards weakly, and was finished by a single kick from Rogue that sent him tumbling into a nearby wall, which collapsed from the force of the impact.
Iceman quickly ran over to the pile of rubble, and was relieved to find Pyro still breathing but unconscious. He whirled quickly to face Rogue, losing his ice form due to his sudden emotion.
"Did you have to hit him that hard?" he demanded.
Rogue looked horrified. "I…"
"You could've killed him!" Iceman persisted.
"I'm sorry!"
Iceman's heart sunk at the look of vulnerability and pain on Rogue's face.
"I do hope I'm not interrupting, but we might have very little time to make it to the control room," Beast reminded.
A half-formed apology died on Iceman's lips when Rogue broke eye contact and abruptly turned away from him.
"Right," Iceman answered reluctantly, and he and Rogue fell into step with Beast and Colossus.
xxxx
The sight at the control room was beyond disheartening. The room looked as though it had survived a five-alarm fire. Display screens, consoles, and switchboards were melted beyond recognition.
Rogue angrily kicked a piece of useless twisted metal across the room.
"John," Iceman stated flatly.
Through the heavily shielded windows, they could see the reactor glowing increasingly bright as it neared critical mass.
"It would appear I have no choice but to attempt to disable the reactor manually," Beast observed. His voice did not seem to suggest any real expectation of success. He turned to the younger X-Men. "I thank you all for getting me this far. Your bravery was beyond compare."
"You don't actually expect us to believe you can stop that thing manually, do you?" Rogue demanded.
"It seems quite unlikely," Beast admitted. "But perhaps I can delay the explosion long enough for you, the Professor, and General Fury's men to escape." At their skeptical looks, he added, "I cannot simply do nothing."
"My X-Men!"
All four X-Men gasped. The telepathic message in itself was not unusual. In fact, it was exactly the way Professor Xavier usually opened their telepathic conversations.
His voice generally didn't so strongly resemble Professor Grey's, however.
"Jean?!" Beast exclaimed in disbelief.
"You haven't much time! Get out of there! Now!"
"What does it matter?" Rogue demanded. "When this thing blows, we're dead anyway!"
The roof of the facility was suddenly torn away, revealing a female form hovering in the air, wreathed in fire.
"I'd do as the lady says," Beast suggested mildly.
xxxx
As the X-Men fled through the corridors, they began to perceive the ground trembling slightly beneath them. By the time they made it to the courtyard, it was shaking with the force of a major earthquake.
"Professor McCoy?" Colossus's voice betrayed uncharacteristic uncertainty.
"Just keep running!" Beast encouraged.
As they neared the landing site, a discernable line appeared in the ground before them. Without warning, they were wrenched off their feet as the ground before them appeared to drop. As they looked over the edge of the newly formed cliff, they realized that in actuality the ground they were on was rising.
"Right," Iceman exclaimed in obvious shock.
"Jump," Beast urged them.
"After you," Iceman answered sarcastically.
Rogue rolled her eyes, grabbed her nervous boyfriend by the shoulders, and flew him to the ground.
"You really need to stop doing that," Iceman informed her, adjusting his uniform.
"You're welcome," Rogue answered bitterly.
Beast landed acrobatically next to them, and with an audible crash the metal-formed Colossus joined them.
When they reached the S.H.I.E.L.D. transports, they found General Fury and Professor Xavier staring past them in shock. Upon turning around to see what the two men were looking at, they saw a truly astonishing sight.
The Arc Reactor facility – along with the several meters of ground beneath it – was floating in midair. Above it, with her face strained in concentration and her arms outstretched, was Jean, glowing with Phoenix energy.
"She can do that?" Iceman demanded in utter disbelief.
"So it would seem," Xavier noted, concern obvious in his voice.
"Is she going to be able to get it far enough away to—?"
Before General Fury could finish his question, everyone was blinded by a sudden flash of light. As their vision slowly cleared, the bright light did not dissipate, but seemed contained in a roughly spherical shape in the sky.
No one really knew how to react as they all simultaneously realized what was happening. Jean was somehow containingthe massive explosion in a comparatively small bubble that encompassed the facility and the land she had telekinetically lifted into the sky. The sheer power she was demonstrating was beyond terrifying.
When the light finally faded, Jean lowered her arms and rubble began raining from the sky. After a few seconds, the exhausted Jean herself fell towards the ground.
xxxx
All of the X-Men – minus Henry McCoy and Jean Grey – were assembled in the briefing room. Ordinarily they would have gathered in the Professor's office, but that was one of the many rooms to not survive Juggernaut's assault.
The mood of the group was quite subdued. They were all still absorbing the results of their two separate, but equally dramatic, missions.
"We should be dead right now," Rogue pointed out. "If it weren't for Jean's new powers…"
"I fear that is precisely the kind of temptation she will have to resist," Xavier responded weightily. "I don't know what effect the repeated use of the powers of the Phoenix will have on Jean – physically and mentally. But what little we know about the entity thus far suggests extreme caution is needed."
"Emma seemed to have a reasonable amount of knowledge about it," Scott pointed out reluctantly.
The faintest hint of a smile emerged as Xavier answered, "Perhaps you could speak with her about the subject, Scott."
Scott's expression suggested that Xavier had asked him to jump into a swimming pool filled with hungry sharks, but he nodded in quick agreement and the subject was closed.
"Speaking of which, what about our new guests?" Storm asked.
"Kurt is, of course, always welcome here and will be staying with us at least for the moment," Xavier said, intentionally leading with the less controversial – if more painful – of the two. "He has agreed to let Henry run some tests and see what he can find out about his loss of powers."
"And Emma?" Scott pressed.
Xavier hesitated. "Scott, I can't turn my back on a mutant who has asked for asylum, regardless of their history."
Again, Scott nodded reluctantly.
"Magneto's escape was regrettable," Xavier continued. "But considering the circumstances, I'd say we should all count our blessings. John Allerdyce and Pietro Maximoff are both in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Unfortunately, as we feared, Cain Marko managed to escape before our return to the mansion and remains at large."
"I hate to ask," Wolverine interjected, "but how's the government reacting to all this?"
"Jean's… unorthodox solution" – here Scott shifted uncomfortably as Xavier continued – "limited collateral damage and loss of life. They are of course condemning Magneto's acts as typical mutant terrorism, but the military and the President have both formally acknowledged the X-Men's part in averting the crisis."
"Any lingering environmental effects?" Storm added.
"If anyone was going to be affected, it would be us," Scott pointed out. "And Hank has given us all a clean bill of health."
"Yes," Xavier agreed. "Jean is resting comfortably. Henry says there's hardly a scratch on her, but he wants to keep her overnight for observation. Hopefully this is the last time she has to call on the powers of the Phoenix."
xxxx
Several thousand miles away, Archangel's long voyage had finally come near its end. He swooped over most of sub-Saharan Africa with little notice, slowing only when he neared the massive pyramids of Giza.
There was a new, very different pyramid at Giza. It had gone unnoticed due to a combination of psychic suggestion and unusual sandstorm activity. It was to this pyramid that Archangel directed his course, landing lightly on the impressive balcony – a feature not shared by any other pyramid in the world.
A large, imposing figure loomed in the shadows. Archangel immediately dropped to one knee in abject submission.
"Lord Apocalypse," Archangel greeted. "I regret that I have failed you. Emma Frost betrayed us. I was unable to stop the X-Men from learning of Magneto's mission. Through the aid of the Phoenix, the plan was thwarted."
Ominous laughter preceded the shadowy figure's reply. "The attack on the insignificant human city was only ever intended as a distraction," Apocalypse assured him. "You have done well, my herald. Come. There is much work to do."
xxxx
Based on the X-Men films of Bryan Singer and the X-Men comics by Marvel Comics
I do not own the X-Men, or any associated characters and concepts
Charles Xavier, aka Professor X
Erik Lensherr, aka Magneto
Emma Frost, aka White Queen
Logan, aka Wolverine
Dr. Jean Grey, aka Phoenix
Scott Summers, aka Cyclops
Ororo Munroe, aka Storm
Marie D'Ancato, aka Rogue
Bobby Drake, aka Iceman
Piotr "Peter" Rasputin, aka Colussus
Warren Worthington III, aka Archangel
John Allerdyce, aka Pyro
Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver
Alex Summers, aka Havok
Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy, aka Beast
Jean-Paul Beaubier, aka Northstar
Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat
General Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director
Cain Marko, aka Juggernaut
Agent Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel
Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler