It's D-Day, early in the morning? In Halo daylight works differently.
For example, during the 'morning' the ring is covered by its own shadow, so there's no Sun on the horizon, during 'midday' we get to see the Sun on the horizon, like a sunset or sunrise. Lastly, in the evening we are once again shrouded under the ring's shadow.
The horizon adjacent to Earth's side never gets a sunset or sunrise.
That is if the ring is orbiting around the planet, it can also stay fixed on one side of the planet.
So... It's morning but we have no sunlight. *Sigh* So complicated.
Point is... It's D-Day and the X-Force boarded the ship we lent them, Jean and I followed them. I followed them because I was curious about Kitty's fight. Jean because she wanted to see her friends fight.
'Hey Padawan, Wanna bet that Kitty takes care of most of the fight after she gives in to her dark side and goes ballistic?'
'Why would I knowingly make a losing bet?'
'I did tell her to hold back so that the X-Force could make stronger bonds through hardship.'
'Eeh! That's interesting. Yeah, I see what you did there.'
'Heheheheh! Smart right?'
'Yes. She could either purposely hold back so much that most of them would be slightly injured and then fully display her might, or she could lose her patience early on and start a one-cat war.'
'Exactly! Knowing our Darth Kitty as much as we do... Both possibilities are likely.'
'She is indeed, secretly, a little bit of a sadist, and openly a battle maniac.'
'Right!? So? What do you think? Wanna bet?'
'What's in it for me?'
'One of the white Corvettes. I saw you eyeing them in the hangar.'
'That's... Ok fair enough, and if I lose?'
'I'll tell Senior Sister to help me regress you into a baby for a day.'
'That's too much you pedophile! ... ... .... I want a Corvette AND a personal space station at least!'
'What would you even do with a personal space station?'
'... I want a mansion on an asteroid or something like that. Like my own miniature planet.'
'Isolationist much?'
'Shut up! Take it or leave it!'
'Fine! You've got yourself a deal. I bet she will let them suffer before going berserker.'
'I bet she will start the one-cat battle since the beginning!'
'Heh! Are you ready for infancy all over again?'
'Please Aragorn! We both know that you'll take care of my baby self, if anything you'll treat me like a queen for a day. It's no secret how much of a baby lover you are. Kinda makes you wonder if you secretly are indeed a pedophile.'
'Heresy! I'm a baby SOUL lover! Make the appropriate distinctions you vile creature!'
'... Is that where your problem is!?'
'Yeah!?'
'*Sigh*... We are here, weirdo, let's pay attention.'
The ship hovered just above the sea, outside the pseudo-psionic barrier covering Krakoa.
*Splash* *Splash*
The X-Force jumped into the sea and swam to the close by beach instead of levitating there. This arrangement was made based on the fact that they didn't know how much the leeching would affect their energy reserves. So they shouldn't waste their energy when they could swim in.
Luckily there was no marine life in Krakoa, there's a barrier banning the entrance, or recognition, to its waters, so no Jaws, otherwise, Atlantis would have captured the island by now. Who wouldn't want an invisible moving island capable of space flight?
The barrier works like a notice-not-me charm, a little bit more forceful but under the same principle nonetheless.
That's why tech can't detect the island. There's also a no-flight zone under the barrier. I think it's to prevent aerial incursions.
What the X-Force was not aware of was that as soon as they crossed the barrier Krakoa came alive.
In the most literal sense of the word. A rumble spread across the island and the eyes of the main consciousness opened.
The main mind resides inside a gigantic tree the size of a sequoia. It raised one of the branches that worked as arms and a psionic wave erupted from it that brought life to the side of the island facing the X-Force.
Flora which resembles the one from Pandora seemed to come alive. Bioluminescence represented the fake life that Krakoa bestowed it. Flowers, stalks, leaves, and roots gained a neon hue.
The flora along with the terrain grouped in masses of dirt, stone, flora, and bio-light. Golems would be the most appropriate word if there was any.
*Stump* *Stump* *Stump* *Stump*
The golems came alive and all of them under the might of a single mind started marching to welcome the invaders.
*Stump* *Stump* *Stump* *Stump*
More golems joined them along the way, and the reverberation of the march spread through the Island meeting the X-Force on the beach.
*Stump* *Stump* *Stump* *Stump*
The roar of the enemies got under the skin of the less experienced mutants.
*Stump* *Stump* *Stump* *Stump*
Logan's adamantium-coated blades came out. Mystique shapeshifted a long claw above each fist, and body armor covering her most vulnerable places.
*Stump* *Stump* *Stump* *Stump*
The Morlocks, The X-Men, The Brotherhood; all of the CQC mutant specialists got primed for combat.
*RUUUUUUUMBLE*
Taking a spear formation, with the ones gifted with regeneration or physical attributes taking the lead, they marched in. The energy emitters were the first to attack.
*BOOOOOM*
I heard the clash between the golem wall and the blast of different types of energy beams.
A test to find out how much the energy leeching will hinder them. The results brought a grim visage to the mutants' faces.
"I can do this 2 more times. More than that and I will probably collapse!"- Shouted Scott to inform the general commander, Destiny.
"I can't load my cards with kinetic energy but I can use the ones I brought with no problems. I have 30 decks on me."- Someone experienced in combat like Gambit would indeed come better prepared than the rest. A shame that he didn't share this wisdom with the others.
*Rumble* *Crack**Boom!*- Ororo tried her lighting strike.
"I have no problems but my area of influence is limited."
*Woosh*- Bobby Drake took his shot.
"I can fight for an hour at best."
*Bamf*
"I can teleport just fine. But I'm getting more tired than usual."- Said Kurt.
One after the other the energy emitters or manipulators informed the commander of their limitations.
"AAAAAGHHH"
"ROAAAR"
Shouts of self-encourage were heard as the spear's tip came to clash with the golem wall.
Shots of fire weaponry joined the cacophony of battle. Weapons brought by the mutants with enhanced senses or related mutations, like Callisto. Explosions coalesced just a few minutes after the battle started.
"How is the passive leeching doing?"- Asked Destiny. She was trying to find out if they could save their energy for a later confrontation.
But she received no good news. In a matter of a couple of hours, most of the energy emitters would be out of 'shots' even if they tried to save energy for later use.
"Alright, we knew this was a possibility, no use crying over spilled milk. Make sure not to hit the vanguard! Fire at will and stay back afterward."
Only Gambit was left for later use as a trump card, even Eric could only metal bend for less than an hour. The energy leeching was worse than I expected.
I thought that omega and beyond mutants would be able to overcome the depowering effect, but as usual, in this reality, it appears that there was not going to be any mutant nation in Krakoa.
Although Krakoa, in Earth-616, was burned a few times and in the end, they had to move to Mars, this Island brought a much-needed respite to the ever-present mutant-human fight.
So without it, I can guess that it was one of the factors that contributed to the shitty life of the mutants of this Earth.
While this fight was taking place, in the back a primed and loaded cat was holding herself back chipping away at her self-restraint.
'Jean looks like you lost.'
'But you haven't won either. They are not suffering.'
'... You're right.'- It's semantics, but she's right.
The fight continued. Logan sliced left and right and got pierced by the spiked limbs of the golems only to slice more and regenerate. Rinse and repeat, like a berserker.
The spear formation was all about moving forward to cut into the enemy territory without being flanked.
Colossus took the right while Namor took the left of logan.
Even with his size, Colossus was dwarfed by the golems; but not in strength. He went low and grabbed a leg of the golem in front of him, he pulled the golem up by the limb before swinging as hard as he could, sending it back to the sea of golems, using it as a cannonball.
Namor was effective and fast, he shaped his hands like spears with his fingernails facing forward and pierced the heads and hearts of the golems. Where the control centers were.
I do wonder where his iconic trident is.
The Morlocks, the most physical mutants came after, taking down the stragglers and supporting the vanguard.
*Bamf*...*Bamf*
Nightcrawler moved from golem to sky, dropping golems like air strikes. But I can see how that was taking a toll on his stamina.
Shouts and cries rang on the battlefield, and even against the overwhelming numbers the spark of determination never left their eyes.
Of course, this fight could have gone differently if they had prepared cold weapons. But most people suffer from short-sightedness in this world.
Same as how Xavier and Eric couldn't think about working together, how Richards is fooling around with the dimensional wall, how Stark Industries is not being responsible with the weapons they manufacture, how SHIELD and USA thought that accepting Hydra scientists in their ranks was a great idea, how Ego thinks he can get away with inseminating all planets in the universe, how Thanos think he can get near Noona without being sent to The Void, how Spiderman never thought that his identity could be exposed if he swung out of the window in his room dress in his suit, how people think they can mess with time, souls, or life with no consequences... They didn't think about asking Eric to metal bend for them some shields, spears, axes, swords, or armor.
Their powers, skills, or abilities make people only think about what they could accomplish by themselves using their gifts.
That's why I try to solve my problems mostly with tech or through backstage maneuvers. Sure I want to fully master my abilities like any powered individual, but I also don't want to see the world through the scope of my powers only.
There are some things out there that my telekinesis and my energy manipulation can't grasp.
What would I do if at some point I faced an enemy that I couldn't beat with just my powers?
The Guardians of the Galaxy is perhaps the only group of superheroes who rely on each other and think outside the box to make up for their weaknesses. They always have to come up with unconventional solutions to overcome challenges, as none of them have enough power to pull the shit that they do. Nevertheless, they manage to come out successful at the end of the day.
This is a fight that they are going to fail. Not because they were lacking but because they didn't think outside of their ephemeral sphere of knowledge... naturally this would be without the catgirl in the equation.
Since the beginning, I dropped not-so-subtle clues about how they could have asked Seraph for help, but they didn't. They didn't even think about asking their non-combatants for help.
Seraph is supposed to be their helper and assistant, we made that clear, yet none of them included her in their plans. She even told them that if there was something that could have specifically targeted mutants she was willing to help with her body.
But somehow a mutant energy leeching island didn't fall under this category in their heads.
I could say that maybe they thought I included Seraph when I said that we would not be conquering the island for them; but, What about those conveniently overpowered kids that Xavier is keeping in his mansion?
There's a kid that could have mapped the entire island with it's geo-sensing, there's one that has a psionic-driven information-gathering ability, one that can make temporary telepathic links for communication, one that can heal practically anything.
So much wasted talent and the same is with the Brotherhood and Morlocks. So many awesome mutations that could render this fight pointless. Magneto didn't even think about bringing his unstoppable shield, Unus, because he lacks offense.
But the same as in DC Comins, they think that they can punch their problems away. If it's not a combat skill then it is a second-class skill.
The only reason why this battle will be a success is because of the Sith-Magical-Cat-Girl who is essentially vibrating at this moment. She is Ready, with capital R, to go.
'I think neither of us will win. Look at her, she looks like a meth addict suffering from withdrawal.'
'Hahahaha! Don't be rude Aragorn. If it was any of the other girls this whole army would have evaporated by now. She is only holding back because she knows how important this fight is for our friends.'
'Hey Jean, How would you have done this fight? Without your cheating powers, if you were in their shoes.'
'I would send Seraph in. If that's not an option I would put a bunch of sensing mutants to inform me of the enemy's location. I would probably find a way to launch someone strong directly to that giant tree over there where I can feel Krakoa. Or I could send Kurt and then have him teleport everybody else there.'
'Thanks... I thought that I was in the wrong expecting something different than this brawl.'
'I think that I could forgive them for not including Seraph in their plans since they don't see her as one of their own. But they could have done this so much differently. Maybe it's because I'm used to fighting you that I normally don't think about a head-on approach.'
'But even this head-on approach could be different if they could think about something else other than punching their way through. Like swords, shields, and axes. Even that much could have made a difference.'
'*Sigh* At least the teamwork is passable.'
'*Sigh* Yeah, for archenemies their teamwork is commendable.'
*Roaar*- Hank joined the fight to take over Colossus' position.
The brawl continued and the X-Force was gaining ground. That was until the ground raised creating 2 terrain elevations at both sides of the formation. The elevations were about 3 stories tall and from the top golems carrying rocks appeared.
No genius was needed to infer what was going to happen.
"Pull back!"- Shouted Destiny.
Eric used the last of his energy reserves to cover the retreat. Using the pieces of metal that Kurt Wagner had brought from the transport he shaped them into spheres before sending them to the feet of the golems to destabilize them.
"I'm almost out! Hurry up!"- Shouted Eric as he strained himself.
'I didn't think that he would use energy for his magnetic force manipulation.'- Said Jean.
'Yeah, I thought the same, I was under the impression that Krakoa wouldn't be able to affect omega-level mutants. It looks like he uses the M-Energy as a medium and not a resource, similar to Scott. That's why he normally can go on without overusing his powers.'
This is different than I expected but not that wild. Comic logic did say that when Wanda depowered the mutants there was a discharge of mutant energy expelled.
So you could say that most mutants, one way or another, need this M-Energy for the utilization of their powers.
This does make me think that Krakoa most likely can't absorb the energy that is being used to power physical attributes. But Wanda could still get rid of said energy. I can also manipulate it to some extent but I rather not mess with the internal energetic balance of the body.
After the X-Force went back, out of the artificial pass, they regrouped and were about to make new plans. Improvise, Adapt, Overcome, and all of that. However this time it was not necessary anymore.
The cat had enough.
I almost heard a *Snap* when she lost her patience.
"Teacher Ororo, you and the physical types will be my support."- Said the Cat with a manic glint in her eyes that was detected by the chocolate mutant.
"Kitty?"- Asked Ororo, unsure about the mental state of her student.
"It's time to do this! No more delays! Let's GO!"- She shouted.
What followed was a totally unneeded massacre. Unneeded because she could have used her portals and skipped to the end. Kurt Wagner can't sense the destination so he can't teleport there but the cat can.
Kitty manifested her elemental magic circles at her back and above her.
She sent the magic circle of light, above her, to the sky, and then it multiplied into several more copies of itself. A white speck of light was born out of each of them, it looked as if liquid light was taking the shape of a drop of water at the center of each circle.
This was an attack that she took inspiration from the famous White Nova and Megiddo. Each drop of light will hit a target at light speed before exploding in a white implosion the size of a beachball. The implosions would vaporize everything in the blast radius.
It is what I call a selective crowd-control spell. It is not an AoE because she has to pick each target.
With her magic ready in the sky her other circles finished loading as well.
Her air and fire circles mixed, facing the front, a second before a horizontal column of blue and purple fire was born. If that could be called fire.
*Fwooosh* *Boooom*
The air cried at the intensity of the heat, discharges of lightning were left in the wake of the plasmatic fire.
"Teacher Ororo gather the lightning!"- Damn! Isn't that smart!? She is taking advantage of the ambient scars left by her elemental magic.
*CRACKLE*
Ororo didn't wait for a second 'request', more like an order, she gathered all the static charge left and made a ball of lightning.
"What do you want me to do with it? They are outside of my current range."- Due to the effect of Krakoa on her range plus the annihilation that Kitty did of the enemies in her vicinity, no more golems were left that she could reach with her lightning.
Kitty activated a lightning command circle and shaped the lightning ball into a trident.
"I got it!"
The command circle was spent in a single triple intended command, 'Shape it, enhance it, and throw it'.
*CRACKLE* *BOOOM*
A lightning strike more akin to an explosion thundered in the distance where the cat's senses told her there were psionic presences.
"Everybody! Let's Move!"- Kitty let out a battle cry, which startled the mutants who were left stunned in the background.
"Damn! Since when can she do that?"- Asked Kurt Wagner.
"She's been studying magic in Halo and they usually have all-out battles against Aragorn, yet she is holding back since she hasn't used the magic that she is holding up there in the air."- Said Ororo.
Indeed, she could have made it rain and vaporize everything in her path to Krakoa, but even in her battle-thirsty state, she recognized the need to hold back and only use that light magic in case of emergency.
The objective is negotiation not... murder.
Kitty ran with the help of her TK and she looked as if she was taking a walk while moving about 5m (~16ft) with each step. Since she was waiting for her support she didn't fly all the way.
Kitty refrained from using her earth magic to avoid a battle of wills with Krakoa for terrain control. How smart of her! On the other hand, water magic was accessible to her without additional cost.
She flooded the golems that she was closing in and then froze them still.
Normally when you freeze something just on the outside it is not enough to hold back a resisting enemy, so kitty used a second, less consuming, magic circle and shaped the ice into spikes.
She spent all her magic circles, except for the ones above, and took out her lightsaber. I felt her tap into the reserves of my psionic energy through the contract and she started to summon lightning through the forceful vibration of the static charges present in her surroundings.
"YEAH! HAHAHAHA! UNLIMITED POWER!!!"- A total waste of my energy since the golems won't be affected by electric currents, electric explosions are a go but not currents since they don't have a nervous system. But let's let her have her fun, even I can admit that that was a cool move, 9/10.
*Vooom* *Vrooom*
Her lightsaber danced in this contest of wills, limbs flew in the air that she later took advantage of by grabbing and launching them back to the unsuspecting golems, telekinesis for the win!
"Are we even needed here?"- Asked Collosus.
No one could, or wanted, to answer.
Nonetheless, nothing else mattered to the rabid cat.
*Whump*- A suction sound was heard as one of her light-drops found a target.
After the implosion of the unfortunate golem, that thought about sneaking on her, a vacuum was left in the place composed of its head and heart. The suction fiercely pulled for less than a second before the environment settled down.
"HAHAHAHAHA! MORE! MORE! MORE!"- The rampaging cat kept going! Nothing was going to stop her!
"Shit! Shouldn't we be getting worried about our safety after she is left with no golems to hack off?"- Said Logan as his body language let me know that he was ready to bail out at a moment's notice.
I have to admit that Kitty's true calling is swordplay.
My mind can replicate any move, technique, or martial art, among other actions that I can visualize, meaning that I can wield a sword as instinctively as a sword master, so I know what I'm talking about when I say that she has talent.
After selecting the next golem as her target, she swiftly sliced one of its legs with her lightsaber, followed by a force push that knocked it over onto the golem standing behind it. She then proceeded to stab both of the golems in one swift move, successfully taking down two enemies that were three or four times larger than her with just three moves.
Her body adapts to the sudden increase in activity, more energy is output from her mitochondria-like organelles, and energy is consumed from the contract to supplant the need for it. Her regeneration makes sure to keep her at her peak at all times.
Her ears are keeping track of everything around her, her eyes track her enemies' moves like Madara sweeping the floor with the shinobi world like it was his bitch.
Her tails move to counterbalance the abrupt changes in her center of mass, like a cheetah running after her prey.
Small magic circles manifest from time to time to send tactically placed shots to interfere with her prey's moves, some stumble, some are hindered, some are forcibly unbalanced, and she creates a disrupting chaos among the enemy force.
Efficiency that you can expect from someone trained by Natalia and James, the efficiency of an assassin, a predator.
She pivots with the bearings of her toes, she dances between the golems as she advances, and what's left are scraps of golems. She keeps moving forward, onward to where she can feel more prey.
She laughs with wild abandon, and her purple lightsaber dances after each successful strike, almost as if leaving after images. The number of light drops decreases with each tactical strike, the same as her enemies.
Sometimes she jumps from one golem to another after a successful decapitation, just to claim another head.
Kitty is like a berserker that focuses on vitality and agility. Wounds are regenerated, her speed keeps increasing as Kitty gets more into the zone with each kill.
Her feet demand more flexibility, and more power, so her body temporarily adapts and grants her digitigrade legs. One of the many perks of my girls' adaptability trait.
She is a cat of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will!
'What have you done to my friend?!'
'Please, Padawan! Usually, you are so concentrated on your rampages that you don't notice that this is not the first time, nor the last, that Kitty gets in the zone like this.'
'... I don't remember and if I don't remember then it didn't happen.'- So she says, but the rosiness on her face says otherwise.
I feel as my cat draws more energy from the contract and she creates psionic spikes and void barriers shaped like circular saws. Then like an M134 on a helicopter, she sweeps at the opposing vanguard.
Spikes go for the cores, the circular saws go to the limbs.
I'm pretty sure that if these were sentient beings we would be hearing their wails of pain and cries of injustice.
I can only pity her enemies at the time when she has mastered her portals because only a teleporting Kitty could be worse than an intangible one.
At least you can escape from the latter.
"Why is she not phasing through them?"- Mystique voiced her question as she saw the wounds come and go on the cat.
"Maybe her energy is being siphoned so she currently can't."- Ororo.
She is wrong, her whole being is passively protected by the void energy. She is not suffering from energy leeching, she is just enjoying the physical altercation, the trill of the damage. She could be phasing and destroying but she is taking this chance to polish her skills in real battle.
Sometimes I wonder if she is not an isekai protagonist, she has all the attributes.
The conveniently given power-up, the powerful backer, the looks, the bloodline upgrade, the hidden master(s) training her, the all-elemental affinity, and now even the power-asserting actions to make the mortals understand who's daddy, or mommy in this case.
The next thing I know is that she is building herself a harem.
Not that I care, the Fulgebunt Draconis Imperium has no official stance on the matter since we are a multiracial, multiethnic, multispecies, multicultural, and a nonsegregated empire.
She is lacking a system but I'm working on creating one through the contract using my multiple mind instances to act as the voice of the system, to train my mind. Surely an enterprising project that will bear fruit in the future, now it's in its baby stage.
I have a lot of details to hammer out if I want to make it work, to name a few, I need to create a dragon language, the Fulgebunt Draconis Imperium runes, and work on a small update on the contract. So it's barely an idea at this moment.
My reverie was interrupted by a somewhat rushing Spark.
"Master Chief we have a problem. I detect a sudden massive drain in the electrical grid center around the Baxter tower."
"Isn't the dimensional breaching schedule in a year?"- Because why else would they need the help of the public grid?
"Yes, that's what I got ratified from the military report. The first version of the device was built but its activation was delayed until all security concerns were addressed."- This is something that I had to plant on the minds of the sponsors to try to curb some of their greed and stupidity.
"I don't detect any dimensional breaches so may-"
"..."- Spark
"..."- Jean
"..."- Me
"They did it, didn't they?"- Jean
"Jean take care of the kids I will go and deal with this clusterfuck."- I just hope it's not the negative zone, I already promised my future free time to the rampaging cat down there, and I can't make any other appointments with Annihilus.
Fuckers! I'm one of the sponsors of the project! I certainly didn't authorize this shit! The military certainly didn't either!
I made myself invisible and undetectable by common means, my latest trick was a combination of energy manipulation and telekinesis, warped to the building just in time to see Mr. God-Complex stand in front of the breach.
"Devil! I'm coming for her soul and you won't deny me!"- Doom.
The door to the lab opened and the wonder team rolled in.
"Victor! Stop this madness!"- Susan.
Reed ran to the control panel to try to stop the incoming disaster but, just like with the tesseract in the MCU, it was too late, the dimensional energy was already sustaining the ensuing connection from the other side.
"Reed! Shut it down!"- Johnny.
"I can't! I already did but something is feeding the operation from the other side!"- Reed.
"Can't we destroy the device?"- Ben.
"No! It would blast half the city at least!"- Reed. Among other shit that it would do to the world.
Settled with the realization that no one could stop it the team moved to the side of Victor von Doom.
"Victor, I hope you know what you're doing. Whatever the outcome... what is done is done."- Reed.
"I know what I'm doing! You know the device is ready, it was because of those monkey-brained idiots from the board that the project was delayed!"- Ehmm, no. It was because of this dragon here trying to save your arrogant asses.
*Boom!*- A blast of energy coming from the space between dimensions, a depository of unused unstable energy sources, irradiated the 5 idiots who couldn't even think of wearing a protective suit.
"Arghhhh!!! IT BURNS!"- Our flaming playboy was the first to mutate. The rest followed soon after.
"Susan your face!"- Reed exclaimed after seeing half of the face of his eye candy turn see-through.
"What!?"- Susan said before lifting her already fading hands to her face.
Susan panicked and Ben was the next to change. His skin earned a rough constitution to it before the change was internalized and the rest of his body turned to stone.
The culprit himself didn't see it but I could see it, how his soul got even more attuned to the mystical arts. I did have to manipulate the energy a little to prevent his dermis from turning metallic. I can't have a metal face on my future president of Earth!... Hopefully.
Reed started to melt and with him, the five Pokemon completed their digivolution. Makes no sense? I'm sorry, but what I just saw didn't make any sense to me either.
*Fwoosh*- A disgusting presence made itself known and all the standing humans went to the floor.
"𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖇𝖗𝖔𝖐𝖊𝖓 𝖒𝖆𝖒𝖆'𝖘 𝖇𝖔𝖞 𝖍𝖆𝖘 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖒𝖊! 𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬! 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖔𝖊𝖘𝖓'𝖙 𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓 𝖐𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝖜𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖍𝖊 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖉𝖎𝖉 𝖇𝖞 𝖎𝖓𝖛𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖙!"- A grating voice accompanied by a demonic laugh said as much.
Mephistopheles walked out of the portal in all of his crimson and demonic glory. And just his presence alone was enough to thwart whatever plans Doom had. If the idiot had any, I just can't see which angle he was playing at.
This was evidently not their first encounter, but it was the first where Doom met Mephisto in his true body.
Because of the shield that protects Earth, the one under the care of Yao, extradimensional beings are not allowed here. They can't breach the dimensional wall with their full power, but if the residents of this end of the shield find a way of breaching out then that's another story.
"U-Ugh! Mo-Mo-snster!"- Said Susan from the floor.
"𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖉𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖇𝖔𝖞? 𝕴𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖓𝖊𝖜 𝖋𝖑𝖆𝖒𝖊?!"- Asked Mephisto with ridicule while walking towards Susan.
"𝕻𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖉 𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖌𝖆𝖎𝖓, 𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝖘𝖖𝖚𝖊𝖊𝖟𝖊? 𝕸𝖒𝖒... 𝕬𝖍! 𝕽𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙! 𝕴 𝖈𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖔 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍! 𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬!"
"S-St-ay away from h-her!"- Doom held on a little better than the others as their bodies were finalizing the absorption of the foreign energy. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they were getting back a semblance of reasoning, enough to realize how messed up their situation was.
*Step* *Step* *Step*- Mephisto, the sadist, slowly approached the downed girl, finding joy in the desperation of the five insects under his feet.
"*sob* *sob* St-ay a-a-waa-y!"- Susan managed to cry out under her sobbing.
"𝕭𝖔𝖞! 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖙𝖆𝖎𝖓 𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖘 𝖒𝖞 𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖎𝖓 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖌𝖌𝖑𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖜𝖎𝖓 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍-𝖒𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝖘𝖔𝖚𝖑 𝖇𝖆𝖈𝖐! 𝕹𝖔𝖜 𝖇𝖊𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖒𝖕𝖙 𝖙𝖔 𝖈𝖎𝖗𝖈𝖚𝖒𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖋𝖗𝖊𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖒𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝖘𝖔𝖚𝖑, 𝖞𝖔𝖚'𝖑𝖑 𝖌𝖊𝖙 𝖙𝖔 𝖘𝖊𝖊 𝖍𝖔𝖜 𝕴 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖒𝖆𝖐𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖌𝖎𝖗𝖑 𝖇𝖊𝖌 𝖒𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖙 𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍, 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖇𝖊𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖊 𝕴 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖆 𝖙𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖍𝖊𝖗! 𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬𝕬𝕳𝕬𝕳𝕬!"- He licked his lips while eyeing Susan's desperate figure on the floor.
*Step* *Step*
He walked to a stop, right in front of the sobbing girl.
But I think that this was enough, these fools should have gotten the lesson engraved in their souls by now. Also, I just remember what the scum did to my little girls and now I have a sadistic craving for devil's tears.
Just as he was about to reach for Susan I moved in and stabbed my left hand through his chest and grabbed his spine from his inside. All in one move, no wasted moves.
It is funny how he needlessly replicates a hominid arrangement on his insides, I could even feel his heart and lungs in the way of my stab, which he totally doesn't need.
"𝖂𝖍-*cough*-"- He coughed some blood while trying to say something, but what I want are his howls of pain, not his talking.
With my right hand, I grabbed his left arm and smiled at him with my blood-red eyes before slowly pulling it apart from his body.
"𝕬𝖌𝖍𝖍 𝕬𝖌𝖍𝖍𝖍𝖍𝖍𝖍 𝕬𝕬𝕬AAGHH"- His demonic speech was broken off in the middle of his cries.
I knew his demonic speech was similar to my conceptual speech, meaning it could be turned off. I don't go about life blowing peoples' minds just to strike fear, to feel bigger than them, so there is no reason for him to come here playing like the big bad wolf.
"Wh- *Slap* *Crunch* AAHHHHH!"- I didn't want to listen to him so I ripped off his jaw after slapping him shut.
The good thing is that I don't need to worry about him dying. His dimension is already powering his regeneration.
He should count himself lucky that he has no soul because if he did he would be the perfect lab rat for my soul experimentations.
I waited for about two seconds for the damage to be undone. All this time he tried to control the mystical energy around us to strike me, or the 5 humans behind me. But I just countered his control.
He tried to summon his extradimensional energy through the portal, but energy is just energy in my eyes, no matter where it comes from, I will it back into his realm and only let a silver of it out to make sure that my playmate could enjoy my love taps, to make sure that his essence doesn't find a way back to his dimension if I accidentally 'kill' him.
He stupidly tried soul attacks, but that was like expecting a mountain to crumble after a whip slash.
"YOU CAN'- *Riiiip* AGAGHHHHHHH AAAHHHHHHHH"- I ripped all of his skin off with my TK in one slow, but efficient, move. His body is considered biological in my eyes, so I made sure to enhance his sense of pain.
I'm sure a being of his age and ilk knows how to turn into an energy being to escape and stop feeling pain, but I think his instincts warned him somehow that that could be his worst decision... ever.
"You don't get to talk Mephistopheles. Had you not threatened Susan Storm I would have been glad to strike a deal with you. When you get right down to it, I recently found myself in need of a torturer."- I won't have time to attend to all the Hydra scum that we will find in the future.
I refuse to let them peacefully move on to the afterlife, so, Who better than a devil for the position?
"But now I just feel the craving to hear you cry. You are disgusting and I was aware of it, but I didn't need you to shove it right in my face!"- Maybe my time with Senior Sister has affected me more than I knew, I was not this much of a sadist before.
Thoughts for later! Besides, maybe Noona likes to play rough, so before changing my newfound tastes, I should talk to her.
*Crushhh*- His eyes were annoying me. He was looking at me with incredulity, like an irrational being.
"AAAGHGAAAA"
"Don't look at me like that, this is your fault Mephistopheles. Nobody asked you to come to my universe, you came willingly! And the first thing you had to do was attempt to rape an innocent girl in front of her suitors. Please say no to NTR! *Crack*"- His bones were annoying me so I crushed them into a calcium-rich paste... Do devil bones have calcium?
"AGHHH PLEASE STO-AGHHHH"- No talking for you! I cracked his skull mid-speech.
"Shush! Your voice is annoying! Its best quality is the way it sings when you cry and wail in pain. Such a refreshing melody!"
*CRUSH* *RIP* *TEAR*
"IIIAAAGHHHH"- I crushed his dick and balls before ripping them off.
"Honestly, I don't have anything against NTR, or any other fetish out there for that matter, but all parties involved should be consenting in order to enjoy it. If you just do it to enjoy the emotional suffering of the other then that's just plain evil... unless the other is into it... Shit! This is confusing! I don't know the appropriate political stance on this matter. See! Now you made me mad, again! *RIP*"
"AAAAAAAAAHHGHGGHHHH"- I ripped his skin off, again.
"Like... Can you consider emotional damage a bad thing if the other is into it?... Maybe what matters is that the other person is consenting! Yes! That's it! *CRACK*"
I don't know why I hate his bones so much! How irrational of me! Normally I'm not this chaotic.
"Ahh! I feel like I just solved racism or world hunger; like I just united boobs, butts, and thighs lovers... To summarize, I'm not against any deviant sexual practice out there as long as all parties involved are consenting! Really Mephistopheles! Who would have thought you were such a great listener? *CRAACK*"- There, his bones, go again.
"AGGGH AGHHHHHHH"
I could feel people trying to come into the lab, but at the moment I have a shield around this room to prevent unwanted incursions or the spread of foreign energies to the outside.
"Look Mephistopheles, my time is running short, I need you to go back into your realm and get me the soul of Cynthia von Doom. You might be thinking that this is your chance to escape and plan my future demise, so I will show you what type of being I am."- Saying so I looked back to the spectators behind me.
"Kids if you don't want your brains to go mushy please turn around and don't look back until I tell you so."- This was something that Noona told me about a few months ago during one of our talks in the Infinity Well, our designated dating spot.
When I was in The Void my soul looked spherical to me, but, How could something have any shape in a place where there's no space? It's paradoxical, that's the answer.
It is something that is but isn't, that's the best way to describe many things about me.
Aniki, in his infinite wisdom, granted me this body as a shell. I thought it was a membership gift of some sort, but instead, it was a tool needed for me to interact with my people without harming them.
If my soul was normal I could have just existed in Marvel in just my soul form, but my soul erodes the sapience of thinking and feeling beings below a certain level of existence.
So when I pulled a small part of my soul outside of my container a maddening actuality pounded the 5 humans at my back, an actuality that made them feel that they would experience insanity or worse if they were to look back.
My conversation pal, Mephistopheles, was struck by something different. Realization.
"Stop! Put that thing back in! I understand!... How the fuck did they allow something like you in here!?"- How rude!, but I will allow it because you helped me achieve enlightenment in regards to understanding sexual deviancy, I'm sure this will help Spark in his theorems about humans and fetishism.
"Stop acting like a child! I was given a purpose, a job, and a mission by them, this universe is under my purview so I don't want you invading from your side, if you do I will just get rid of you and your dimension. Now that I know where it is, thanks to the portal, it wouldn't take me five minutes to pop it out of my universe."- Finding dimensions takes time even with my all-seeing eyes, luckily this bastard had the balls to walk in and announce its location.
"In other words... You're my hostage! My Bitch! So chop chop! Go and bring me the Gipsy Witch's soul. Don't make me wait!"- I pulled my hand out of my friend's rib cage and shot him into the portal.
"Spark, stabilize the portal, please. Make sure that it won't collapse until I have her soul back."- Of course, Spark has already invaded their systems now that I was inside here.
"Acknowledged"- Spark's voice echoed in the lab.
"Now you five, turn back! Let's do this one by one!" I saw them flinch as I directed my attention to them.
"First you arrogant dumb ass! What was the plan? Fight a dimensional lord in his dimension? That's just suicide with extra steps! Not only would you have failed with your current level of power but you would also be condemning this universe to the rule of Mephisto after he busted your ass!"- Of course, his God complex was battling with his reasoning. He knew when to shut up, that much was clear with his lack of response.
But this also brought to my mind the realization that this universe was probably going to be a Fantastic Four-less reality. At least Doom was fated to die the moment he walked into Mephisto's realm.
"Now you, Reed Richards. The original plan was to try the portal for an incursion on the Negative Zone. Perhaps, Did you max out your intelligence stat and then got nerfed on your wisdom stat when you were planning that shit? The mess that you could have caused would have been on the same scale as what Mr. Doom almost did."- This made him keep his silence as he was about to refute.
"According to what you are selling your investors you want to mine resources from the other side, but it's easier to mine resources from the asteroid belt than from another fucking dimension! There are enough vibranium asteroids out there to put Wakanda to shame!"
"I won't tell you to discard all of your progress but you could repurpose this into a space warper, aka portal, instead of a dimensional breacher. Some dimensions have dimensional lords that would, in the best case, just kill you without invading Earth, others are plain toxic to the world and you could kill all living beings just by opening the breach."
"If you still want to use it to pierce the dimensional wall then let me know so that I can find you a 'safe' dimension."- As if there would be such a thing.
"Ms. Storm, and Mr. Grimm, you two are the responsible adults in charge of the idiot over there, please don't give him the toys just because he is throwing a tantrum. I'm sure that you can see how messing with something you scarcely understand is a bad idea."- I could feel acceptance, shame, fright, and agreement from both of them, that's good.
"Mr. Storm, somehow this was not on you, so... Good job not bringing down reality as we know it!"- As if that was so difficult! There shouldn't be a need to congratulate someone on that but I feel compelled to do so, I guess on Marvel it is a thing to celebrate about.
"With that out of the way, let's wait a little more for Mephistopheles to come back with Ms. Doom's soul."- I won't need to wait long since he knows what's best for him.
And as expected he delivered. Mephistopheles the courier! He sent a small jewel from the other side of the portal containing her soul. I caught it with my TK.
"Thank you Mephistopheles. Spark, close it!"- I don't need to talk about anything else with the disgusting thing. He knows better now, he will avoid calling for my attention from now on.
"Alright! She looks just fine. As fine as someone who's been tortured for a long while could be. Do you have a body, Mr. Doom?"
"...No, I planned to let her move on. To be freed from her cage."
"Well... Do you know how to make a body?"
"... No, that's not my area of study."
"Right... Look, this is weird if you just answer my questions like a scolded child. Do you want help making her body, Do you want me to make it for you, Do you want time to make one on your own, Do you want to let her move on?"- Any option works for me, this guy already owes me, and he knows it.
I would like to say that it was according to my plan but this was an unexpected but welcomed development. Hopefully, I can help Doom even more, so that when I stir him into politics he would be more than willing.
"Sir?... I think that what's troubling Victor, and us, is that we didn't know that creating bodies was possible."- Susan. Yeah, I treat them as kids but I look younger than them, so I understand her confusion.
"Ah... right. *Sigh* Yes it's possible. So I guess I can make her body but I don't know what she looked like and, currently, I can't read a soul's information hence I won't know what she looks like. It is that or I could teach you how to make one and then you could do it yourself. I can lend you a corner of my place."- More work coming my way.
"Why are you doing this? Helping me, helping us."- Doom.
"I need something from you. Later, not right now. It's better if you do it willingly, otherwise, it won't work. So it's better to be friends. And helping the others is just moral decency, though now I can keep a tighter hold on Mr. Richards and blame it on his previous offense."
"I don't need you overseeing my operations!"- His comment earned him 5 stares, mine included, that said: Really?
"You're already indebted to me, I know that your upbringing won't allow you to repay my help with malignancy. Helping you further is not out of the same scope of action. If you want, you can consider it as me finishing my work with no loose ends."- We chose to ignore Richards.
"... I will accept your help and repay my debt afterward."- Doom said while almost cracking his teeth.
"That works for me Mr. Doom, if that's how you want to label our association then I have no problem with it. As they say, Rome wasn't built in one day, with luck we will be more than associates by the end of it all."- Why do I feel like I just proposed to Doom?
"Now this is a mess I don't want to be part of, so I will leave this P-Link in your hands and your mother's soul before I go. Your life is about to become chaotic and you will need some time to accept and adapt to your new selves." I said as I moved the soul container into his hands and took out a P-Link for Doom. He observed the P-Link with curiosity.
"Just tap the P-Link and you will get it. I know that all of you have questions but you can use the P-Link to get your answers or to contact me. I will see you later, I was overseeing a battle before this mess and I should go back."- Spark should be considered my damage control.
If there's something you don't understand or something you want to know, just ask your P-Link! Sounds like a good catchphrase.
I warped back to Krakoa just to find the X-Force trying to restrain my cat. She kept swirling around them trying to avoid her captors.
'What did I miss Padawan?'
'Hahahahahaha! Kitty wanted to fight Krakoa after they reached its location.'- The padawan said pointing at the gigantic tree.
'PFF Hahahaha! I will go and restrain her.'- Stupid cat of mine.
I moved to her location and, from her back with practice, placed one hand on her head and the other under her chin.
"Come at me! Weakling! Let's- *Purrrr* Aragorn stop it! I'm rampaging now *Purrr*"- Under the tired eyes of the X-Force I told Kitty as I petted her:
"Little cat, don't cause them more trouble. Look how pitiable they look."- I could feel the soup of emotions coming from them, tiredness being the dominant phase of the soup.
"*Purrr* Ok but keep doing that! *Purrr*"- I love this cat. She went from berserker to spoiled in less than 3 seconds. I turned my attention back to the mutants and said:
"Looks like you made it to the finish line. That over there is where its main mind resides, you need a telepath to communicate with it so you should call for Xavier."- Krakoa knows that it lost the battle, the cat is too overpowered, hence why it's waiting.
A being like Krakoa operates in a more logical, or even instinctual, way.
I can tell because of my empathy and weird mind. It essentially concluded that since its defense and attack methods are not working then it should try something different.
In a way, you could call it a very sane way of thinking, since it's not repeating the same action while expecting a different result.
Hence it knows it can't beat them, so it will try observation and then a different approach.
After making sure that there were no other threats, Kurt is sent to the plane for Xavier.
Xavier rolls to the base of the gigantic tree and attempts to talk with it.
On the outside nothing much is happening but after a few minutes, which I'm sure is more than that in their mind space, Xavier opens his eyes and smiles with a tear of happiness flowing down.
"It agreed!"
"YES!"
"YEAH!"
"HAHAHAHA!"
*Purrr*
"WE HAVE A HOME!"
Different cries and shouts of jubilation and exultation bless the island. Some, like the more aged, are silent but their joy is apparent in their physiognomy.
I will admit that this is not bad. Even though I borderline hate them because of how much the three groups 'blessed' me with work, I know what this accomplishment, this place, and this nation will mean for the mutants in the future.
This will be their safe haven on Earth, the place where they can be themselves with no regard for what others may do to them. A place of freedom and the first step in solving one more of the problems on my list.
I should probably go and introduce myself to Krakoa.
{A/N:
So this is it for the 'cat fight'. I introduced the Fantastic Four but we will not see much about them since Aragorn will be busy dealing with Hydra and the rest.
I will add some pictures to try to illustrate the battle XD.
The next chapter will have some different POVs and a small time skip, like a week or so.
Thank you for reading! I have lots of fun reading your comments! XD
}