Disclaimer: I dont own the X-men or Avenger's Initiative
The Cry of the Phoenix
Chapter 4: Explanation and unwanted houseguests
To say the atmosphere on the blackbird was cheerful would have been a lie. All eyes had turned to Slayer and Sieg, the two that had just happened to get involved in the situation. Cyclops looked sternly at Slayer, who still held on to the Dark Phoenix version of Jean. The X-men leader ignored Sieg's glares, deciding to speak to the adult.
"All right now's the time for explanations" Scott said firmly.
"Oh come on, I just got out of a weird Phoenix egg, I'm probably soaked in cosmic energy, my private memories and thoughts have been discovered by some guy living in a sword, I've been tasked with protecting the fragments of the Phoenix, which I unfortunately have no idea what the other two look like and to top it off I've missed an appointment with a rather expensive but beautiful hooker, so I really really really am not in the mood to explain what has to be done and why I've gotten into this shit okay!" Slayer said, leaving the X-men flabbergasted.
"Uh…what was that part about a guy living in a sword?" Armour asked.
"Firstly he's not a guy he's a spirit, and he doesn't live in the sword the spirit is the sword, a guy living in a sword's impossible!" Sieg said grinning.
"Someone's got to explain what's going on"
"I'd rather wait until we get back to your base, it saves me having to actually have a conversation with that woman with the big tits whose name I keep forgetting" Slayer said, to which Sieg blinked in confusion.
'Wait a second, did James just possess that guy?'
"Watch your mouth, besides she can hear everything your saying through me" Cyclops growled at Slayer.
"Then I suppose we can explain, hi my names Sieg, basically I'm an unregistered super human who does what he's got to do, anyway I was staying in the city for a time until a friend of mine, a psychic tells me he sensed a strong psionic burst, or some kind of psychic activity at the bridge I'm not quite sure how to describe it…you know what happened on the bridge, I saw the memories of Jean Grey, which were absorbed when my sword clashed with the Phoenix, that's when I heard her calling out to me" Sieg explained, nodding his head towards the White Phoenix as he spoke. "I got her out of the egg and then Slayer was contacted by the heroes spirit in my sword"
"He explained to me that the fragments of the Phoenix needed to be found so that Jean Grey could be complete" Slayer began, "These fragments are love and hate, which we have recovered, the other two are happiness and sorrow, I don't know where they are but this heroes spirit implied that the two fragments would come to us of their own power" He explained.
"If he said that then there's a likelihood that they will" Sieg said, having faith in his hero.
"Oh and another thing and this is for you to hear Cyclops, he said that you and Emma cant touch these two while they're in sleep, he said that you were the cause of all of this"
"The way I see it this whole thing started because Jean can't stay dead" Scott said and the other X-men gasped.
Even Slayer was shocked by the mans outburst. But Sieg was pissed. He ran at Scott, punching him right across the face.
"WHAT THE HELL'S YOUR PROBLEM YOU SHOULD BE GLAD THAT JEAN'S COMING BACK!!" Sieg yelled.
"If you had let me finish…" Cyclops began casually, "Jean isn't coming back, she'll just die again and rise again then die again, Emma sticks around and I love her, I respect Jean but I love Emma!" he said in a serious tone, looking at the woman that had once been his wife.
Sieg looked at Scott in complete shock. All his thoughts on Jean and Scott had just been thrown down the drain. The two of them had been together since the beginning, they had come across problems and split ups in their relationship before, hell Scott had even married another woman but this woman looked like Jean and eventually the two of them did marry. Sieg even had Faith that had Xorn not killed Jean then Scott would have chosen her. But from what Scott had just told him, it seemed that he had completely given up on Jean. Sieg was all for moving on, but this was the love of Scott's life. Hell Sieg had grown up with the image of Scott and Jean as the perfect couple.
"So that's it huh, we'll bring her back and then she'll just live, even for me that's cold" Sieg said in disappointment as he walked past Scott.
Slayer nodded his head, he knew the boy was young and Naïve but he had to learn at some point that love wasn't always what he thought it was. Some married couples got divorced and dated other people while some people stayed together for the rest of their lives. And some people lost the ones they loved and stayed alone for the remainder of their days.
A few minutes passed and the X-men arrived at their home base. Upon arriving the two Jeans were rushed towards the medical bay, while Wolverine and Beast stayed with them, it was Cyclops who went to see Emma.
"DAMN WOMAN!!" Emma yelled, smashing her diamond fist into her mirror.
Scott walked into the bedroom and to Emma's side. He laid a hand on her shoulder and kissed her diamond skin.
"That woman…Jean, she always comes back!" Emma whispered as she changed her form back to skin.
The woman swung around, wrapping her arms around Scott's neck, while Scott placed one hand on her waist and the other on her shoulder.
"Emma, no matter what happens nothing changes all right, I still meant what I said on break world" Scott said.
Emma smiled before brushing her lips against Scott's.
"What the hell are you two doing?"
The two lovers turned around to see Storm leaning against the door panel, her arms crossed with an angry expression on her face.
"Right now we have two Jean's down in the medical bay and a masked Phoenix still out there, we've had a call from Iron man and the Initiative, they said that the Phoenix has left Earth!" Storm explained.
"She's right" Slayer said, walking to Storm's side with his eye glowing. "I've been tracking them and it appears the egg is heading towards Shiar space, more specifically the sun there"
"Why would the Phoenix egg go to a sun, maybe to draw energy, or trigger a super nova like Jean did that one time…oh well at least we'll be rid of Vulcan!" Emma said with a sigh.
"Oh god…Alex, Rachel and the Starjammer's are there" Scott said, with immediate concern for his brother and daughter.
"Wait a second…it looks like the masked guy is drawing something out of the sun, it's a tiny little flame, hmmm…the Black Phoenix must be taking little pieces of the sun and converting it into power he can use" Slayer hypothesised.
"But to what end?" Storm asked.
"They said something about destroying the heart of reality" Scott said.
"The heart of reality, then they wouldn't be here, they'd have to be in the space between the multiverse" Slayer said.
"Right now their actions are without any form of rationality, they must be insane!" Emma said.
"Wow she even comes with blonde hair!" Jack muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!"
Sieg lay down on the coach of the living room, his arms crossed with Armour and Pixie watching him. He opened his right eye and looked at the two of them from the corner of his eye. There was an awkward silence before Sieg decided to break it.
"Just what did you want to ask me?" Sieg asked them with an irritated tone to his voice.
"Actually I was wondering where your sword went?" Armour asked.
"I can only really summon it when its needed, and right now its not needed" Sieg asked with a sulky voice.
"I've got a question…why do you look so moody?" Pixie asked.
"I'm not moody, I'm just pissed off about your leaders attitude"
'But pissed off is moody isn't it?' the two girls wondered.
It was then that Colossus walked into the room followed closely by Dazzler.
"We called Sam and Amara, they're on their way over, Wolverine got on the horn to his X-force team and their own their way too" Colossus said.
Then Nightcrawler ported into the room with Angel beside him.
"We've been getting a lot of fliers from the Initiative today, you've got quite the reputation Herr Siegfried!" Kurt said, patting Sieg on the back.
"Please just Sieg Mr Wagner"
"Call me Kurt and I'll call you Sieg" the demonic mutant said.
The two of them nodded and shook hands.
"I vas vondering, you vouldnt happen to be German vould you?"
"Well my grandpa lived in Germany before the war broke out so he took to calling his children by German names, my mum thought that Siegfried suited me, but my friends call me Sieg" The boy explained, rubbing his head sheepishly, he was actually proud of his name and didn't care what people said, its just he wasn't exactly comfortable talking about his background.
But still Sieg felt that he could trust the X-men. They were after all a group of heroes he looked up to as a child; he had actually wished he was a mutant, which made him real popular at school. The group began talking amongst themselves, mostly about what had happened today, but Meggan also bombarded Sieg with questions. He didn't hate it mind you, he just wasn't used to people actually being interested in his adventures.
"And then I turn around and I see of all people Venom standing over me, now I wont lie he's a pretty scary guy, and for once there aren't people around cheering the registered hero on, but I actually couldn't decide whether or not I should run away or fight, after all you guys did here what they did to Jack Flag and Steel Spider?" Sieg asked the group who all nodded their heads.
"When I heard about that I was actually glad that we weren't part of the Initiative" Warren said.
"What happened next, did you fight him?" Meggan asked, an excited expression plastered across her face.
"Well I guess you could say that…I kicked Venom in the balls, threw Penance into a building, broke Moonstone's nose and got out of there, crime was relatively low in that state anyway"
"Oh god, I saw that video on the internet, some guy edited his recording so that it showed you kicking Venom in slow motion, you should have all seen the guys face as soon as Sieg's foot made contact" Dazzler explained.
Logan walked into the room, followed closely by the X-force members Warpath, his girlfriend Hepzibah, X-23 and Domino, though instead of their black ops uniforms they were dressed in their regular costumes. Wolverine sat down on the coach and sighed.
"How are the two Jean's doing?" Sieg asked.
"Their life signs are stable, at the moment they just seem to be asleep, The Cuckoos volunteered to read their minds, but Hank denied them the opportunity" Logan said.
There was a moment of silence, in fact a full five minutes where no one spoke. Sieg tapped his foot impatiently against the floor. He slowly got up, with an aura of red energy surrounding his body.
"GOD DAMN IT!!" He yelled out.
"What is it kid?" Wolverine asked.
"I cant stand this, just waiting around for something to happen, I can feel it out there, I can feel the Black Phoenix and the egg flying through space, my hero keeps telling me to be patient but I cant, for all we know the phoenix could be getting stronger and stronger with every bit of flame that it takes" Sieg explained, slamming his fist against the wall.
"That's exactly what its hoping to achieve" Slayer said as he walked into the room with Bobby and Ororo.
The other X-men all stood up as Slayer addressed the group.
"This Black Phoenix is taking small flames from each sun in the universe, this process is being carried out faster than the speed of light even as we speak, I'm not a hundred percent sure but I believe that it works much like a village river, a little bit of water to keep one villager alive, the egg is the village and the corp members are the villagers, but the chieftain, that's the masked Phoenix is stealing from other villages in secret, he could drain the whole river but he doesn't want to leave the other villages to starve" The warrior explained.
"Wait a second you mean he doesn't want to destroy every solar system, I thought he wanted the heart of reality destroyed" Logan said.
"It's just a theory but he may be looking for a way to destroy the whole universe in one fell swoop instead of triggering super novas in each solar system…look Sieg I know your impatient, I am too but right now we need to gather some allies and wait for the phoenix fragments to get here, my eye reacted a few minutes ago but I didn't see anything, oh and speaking of allies that reminds me, where any of you able to reach some of your former students?" Slayer asked Warren and Kurt.
"Right now most of the students are focused on living their own lives, we've got the Young X-men here as well as the Cuckoos and Blindfold, but they wont be good for the major battle situations" Warren explained.
"No one can blame those kids after all they've experienced" Slayer said, lowering his head a little.
Suddenly the warrior's eye glowed a fierce orange colour and he immediately raised his head. The X-men got up off their chairs and looked to the warrior.
"Down the corridor near Emma and Scott!" Slayer said.
Logan nodded to Nightcrawler, who with a smile jumped to the side of Colossus.
"It seems we have an uninvited guest Scott darling" Emma said with glowing white eyes.
Cyclops put a hand to his visor while Emma changed to her diamond form. The two of them crept out of their room and aimed down the corridor. Cyclops's finger twitched as for a moment a red X shape glowed in the dark. But before Cyclops's could react the shape glowed again and a figure ran out of the shadows. The figure appeared to be a woman, wearing a black and red suit with a helmet that had a red X shaped visor. She moved with elegance as well as amazing speed, running past Scott and karate chopping his neck. The leader of the X-men suddenly felt woozy from the pressure point being hit so hard. With Scott down on the ground Emma tried punching the attacker, who swept her legs around, tripping Emma up.
"You picked the wrong house to steal from bitch!" Emma growled in anger.
The former White Queen kicked at the masked woman, but she grabbed her feet. Everything happened so fast that Emma didn't even have a chance to gasp as the woman swung her foot round, taking a chunk off the wall as she threw her into Scott. As Scott and Emma laid on the floor groaning, the woman turned her head back and uttered a single phrase.
"Forgive me!"
She began running up the corridor, until a familiar purple smoke popped in front of her. Colossus swung his fist through the smoke, missing the woman only narrowly. She back flipped to avoid another crushing blow from the powerhouse. Nightcrawler teleported behind her, but was met only with a kick to the gut. Curved blades slid out of the woman's wrists and she rolled towards Colossus, she rolled to the left, dodging another blow while dragging her blades across he floor. Again Colossus tried to strike her, and again she dodged. She eventually slid her blades back in and stepped back. Piotr looked at the woman in confusion before he looked down, and noticed that the woman was actually cutting a circle into the floor. The weak floor collapsed underneath the X-man's weight and the intruder simply walked on.
"She's taken down Nightcrawler and Colossus" Slayer said to the remaining X-men.
"Dazzler, X, Domino, you three try to cut her off, John, Hepzibah and Warren, get to the subbasement elevator and guard it in case the others fail" Logan said, immediately switching to leader mode.
"Wait a second…" Slayer said as his eye began glowing again.
It was a simple enough task, but they were in the way. While they were certainly worthy of the X they were still young and inexperienced. The young X-men, Anole, Rockslide, Ink and Greymalkin dared to get in his way. They lunged forward towards him, being alerted of the previous intruder by Frost no doubt. He ducked underneath a crushing blow from Rockslide.
Jumping off the muscle of the team he landed in front of the one that was the biggest threat, Ink. With a jab to the face he stunned the former mercenary, then he threw him towards Greymalkin. When the mysterious mutant caught his teammate, the intruder sprung his attack. He rushed forward driving a fist into Ink's chest, while head butting Greymalkin. In one fluid motion he drew the sword on his back, slashing Anole's legs off, knowing that they would regenerate.
"I don't know who you think you are pal and I don't really care, but you come her then your obviously sick!" Ink said cockily as he thrust his hand forward, the hand that had the tattoo that would induce sickness.
A weapon that was affective, but could backfire. The intruder grabbed Ink's wrist just as he activated his powers. He redirected Ink's hand towards Greymalkin, who unfortunately fell victim to the tattoos power and fell into a fit, vomiting across the floor. Ink didn't have time to berate himself, as an elbow was ran straight into his face, knocking him to the floor and out of the fight. Rockslide may have had potential but he had one fatal flaw, the fact that he was made up of pieces. The intruder drew the sword on his back and ran at Rockslide. With a slash to the shoulder he took off the X-man's right arm. With another slash he split Rockslide's fist in half. And with one more horizontal slash he took off the X-man's legs. He sheathed his sword and began to walk on.
"You've got another intruder, he's taken down the Young X-men" Slayer said.
"Everybody stick to the plan, kids, Slayer your with me!" Wolverine said as he popped his claws and ran down the corridor, followed by Sieg, Pixie, Armour and Slayer.
The five of them ran up the corridor, but suddenly Slayer's eye glowed.
"WATCH OUT!!" Slayer yelled.
A round black shield flew into the wall, rebounding off it and hitting Armour in the head. Then the shield flew towards Slayer, who ducked, only for the shield to rebound off the wall and hit Wolverine and Pixie. Slayer turned to their attacker and examined him, only slightly shocked by the mans appearance.
He wore a black mask with red eye lenses and a black suit with grey sleeves. The sleeves were tight and showed off his well-toned abs. His boots were black but underneath his laces there was dark grey rubber on the boots. The trousers he wore weren't as tight as his shirt, more based on the trousers that most army men wore except for his bared no camouflage and the sides and back were covered by ragged pieces of cloth hanging off of the belt. His mask had a hole at the top that allowed his thick sandy blonde hair room to be free, a few strands hung loosely over his eyes. The man stood with a slightly slouched neck but his stance was serious and confident. Slayer's eyes crossed over the mans gun blades, and the device on his wrist as well as the sword strapped to his back. He held his arm out and the shield smoothly flew back into it.
"You attacked me first X-men, I have little care for you Sieg, get out of my way so I can finish my objective!" The masked man explained.
"What is your objective!" Slayer demanded.
"I am Soldier and my objective is to return Shadow Initiative operative Mutant Zero!"
Next Chapter 5: Soldier vs. Warrior
That's right, Soldier from Decimation: Return and The Mission of Hellfire is appearing, and he's getting into one fierce fight with Slayer, while Mutant Zero faces some of the X-men and Sieg is left to watch on the sidelines, flabbergasted as his powers wont work. But meanwhile the Black Phoenix and his army continue to gather more power, and someone with a connection to the Phoenix force will pay the ultimate price for it.
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, feel free to review if you'd like