Chapter 114: New York-1
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07.
Two Chapters today! This is the First One!
—
Jean.. was flying. She was a bird, and she was herself. She didn't know how she was here, how she was even alive.
She remembered fighting Vuk in space, after killing the other D'Bari invaders. She remembered blowing herself up, imploding the endless well of energy within herself in an effort to kill both herself and Vuk. But now, here she was flying over.. what looked like her to be France.
It felt like a dream, since she didn't remember coming here, nor did she remember beginning to fly.
"Hello Jean." Jean hears, making her suddenly stop in the air, only to see a man standing in front of her.
Floating. He was floating in the air, in front of her. He was flying too!
Through the orange haze that her eyes seemed to be covered by, Jean stares at the man, and asks, 'Who are you?'
She did not recognise his face, she did not think he was even a part of this dream… if it was a dream even.
The man smiles at her, and says, "I am.. like you. A mutant with the powers of Telepathy and Telekinesis, amongst others. My name is Mason Aves."
Not a dream then.
Mutant? Jean remembers that word. It was what her father had called her, it was what she was. It was why her mother died, why Vuk came to Earth, why Charles came for her. It was why Mystique almost died at her hands.
She also remembers the name, Mason Aves. She remembers reading it in her history books, she remembers her parents arguing over which Super Soldier was the best. Captain Avalon- Mason Aves, or Captain America- Steve Rogers.
Somehow, despite all those doubts and questions, Jean could only feel calm, as she asks, 'Why are you here?'
The man, Mason Aves answers, "I am here to help you, Jean. Help you regain your identity. Help you control the Powers inside you. Help you.. with whatever you feel like you need help with."
Jean tilts her head, and waves her hand. The orange haze surrounding her spins in the air, following her commands without any issue, and she says, 'I am already in control, Mr Aves. I don't need your help.'
The man smiles, and asks, "Why are you only using your Telepathy to speak then? Why not use your mouth?"
Jean stops, only then realizing that yes, this man was right. She puts her fingers on her lips, and tries to open them, to say something. But even as she opens her mouth her words only come through her telepathy. Her mouth felt as if it was.. sluggish, not entirely her own.
She widens her eyes, once more feeling afraid, and says, 'What- what's happening to me?'
Mason Aves smiles, and Jean feels calm once again, as he says, "You're changing, Jean, growing into your powers. The Phoenix Force within you is making you what you're meant to be. She wants to talk to you, but alas, she cannot. Not yet. That's why I'm here. To help you grow, and until you can talk to the Phoenix yourself, to be the voice for her."
Jean stays silent, and looks into her own mind. She barely glances at the fiery visage of the Phoenix, when with a single screech from the bird, she is thrown out of her own mind. She could understand that she wouldn't understand anything. Not yet. The Phoenix Force had tried talking to her, but even her voice was too much for her to handle.
Still, however, Jean realizes she was perfectly calm. She could feel the calming presence of Mason's mind around herself, she could feel it comfort her, sooth her. She could feel the orange haze calm her, it was her own power after all.
Nodding, she asks, 'Why? Why are you doing this?'
The man tilts his head, and says, "I had made a deal with the Phoenix, once. In return for her help, I was supposed to help you become who you're meant to be. Even without my debt to the Phoenix, however, I would have still helped you, Jean. Everyone deserves to feel comfortable in their own mind and body. Everyone."
Jean could feel the sincerity behind his words, feel that he was right. And she remembered her mothers stories about this man. Captain Avalon had purposefully gone into enemy territory to free the captives. If he was the same man, and Jean had no reason to doubt him, then she knew that she would be safe with him.
Safe from manipulations, safe from memory erasures, safe from.. hurt.
Nodding hesitantly, Jean says, 'I will come with you. To learn. But once I believe myself ready, I will leave.'
Mason Aves smiles, and with a simple wave of his hand, creates an orange glowing hole in space, which shows a castle on the other side. He says, "If you believe yourself ready, Jean, I won't even try to stop you."
Making up her mind, Jean enters the portal into a land of Magic, of dragons and unicorns and fairies. As she turns back towards the still open portal however, Jean sees the flying forms of Erik Lehnsherr, Magneto, accompanied by Charles Xavier, flying towards her, yelling for her. And then, the portal closes, leaving her alone with the First Superhero.
—
Charles could clearly remember the two times he had seen Mason Aves. First was when he had gone to recruit Jean into his School for the Gifted, in the year 1982.
Mason Aves, whom he hadn't recognised at first, was talking with Jean's father, barely a day after the car accident which lost Jean her mother. Unfortunately, through her own actions.
Mason Aves had already explained to Mr Grey what Mutants are, or what Mutations mean for the person or their relatives. The man, however, wanted nothing to do with his own daughter. He couldn't look at her in the same light while knowing that Jean was responsible for his wife's death.
Charles had debated changing his memories then, so the father doesn't know that particular fact about Jean. But alas, he couldn't make that decision.
Mason Aves being a mutant was not that much of a surprise. There were already theories about it in the world of genetics, since unlike Steve Rogers, the source of his powers wasn't exactly confirmed.
Everyone knows the story. Hydra experimented on him, and when he escaped, he had powers. Some super strength, amazing reflexes, and resilience to damage. It had stayed hidden well during the war, but as it happens, everyone knew when the war eventually ended, and the man went missing.
Some did believe that his powers were a result of Hydra's experiments, but Charles.. he believed that Hydra's experiments only brought forward what was always there. His mutations. Multiple, as far as he knows.
His being alive, however, was what was the most surprising.
Charles had spoken with the man then, after Jean's father had made the not so surprising decision to hand Jean off to Charles, and not Mason.
(Charles had an actually established school in America to teach her, whereas Mason had just himself. And no father, no matter the feelings, wants to hand his daughter off to a lone man, let alone someone not in the same country.)
Mason Aves was surprisingly calm when Jean wasn't given to him, but Charles wanted to know why Mason wanted to teach her. And so, he had learned that Jean was something special. Even amongst other Mutants.
'She could be our staunchest ally, or our worst enemy.' Mason had said, and Charles could feel it to be true.
He could feel the tremendous potential within her, the infinite Power within her that was just waiting to be unleashed.
And so, as soon as Mason had left, Charles had.. changed a few of her memories, and put up a mental block on her. He made her forget that her father ever survived, since that was a wish of her father's. The mental block, meanwhile, prevented Jean from accessing more than a fraction of a fraction of the power that had remained dormant within her.
And it had gone well, for a while. They fought the Brotherhood of mutants, Friends of Humanity, Stryker and his stooges, and even a few terrorists, all under the careful watch of the CIA.
Until.. the mission happened. A dangerous mission to rescue the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which had been attacked by a small Solar Flare-like Storm. The Cosmic Storm was slowly moving towards the Earth, and Endeavour had simply just gotten in the way.
During the mission, which had been requested by the President himself, Jean had somehow managed to protect the others of her team by pulling the Cosmic Storm towards herself.
And then, into herself.
Events just went wild after that. Jean lost control over her powers, his mental block deteriorated, and her mental stability.. declined. And then, after an attack by an Alien race named D'Bari, Jean.. died. In space.
But somehow, she survived. She showed up above Europe in the form of a flaming bird, which Charles and Erik were fortunate enough to see before it disappeared behind clouds, and Charles had recognised her immediately. Erik had lifted Charles up, as they flew after the Phoenix, but alas, they had only seen her disappear through a glowing orange portal, along with the recognisable form of Mason Aves.
After that, they hadn't seen a hint of either Jean, or Mason. They just.. disappeared. Until Mason showed up at his doorstep a few minutes ago, asking for help defending the planet. And lets not forget that he had first healed Logan's mind, brought all of his lost memories back, something which even Charles hadn't been able to do.
From what he had learned just now, however, and from Hank's call with Agent Hill of SHIELD, it was true. Only, SHIELD didn't know where the Battle would happen, but Mason did. Stark Tower, he had said.
Logan had agreed immediately, and so had Mr Rasputin and Mr Drake. Ororo was just a moment behind them, and after she agreed to go to war, Scott was the next. Charles could see the benefits for the Mutant kind if this invasion is defended against, and they were here to help.
Seeing Mason Aves look at him with a raised brow, Charles says, "The X-Men will help, Captain Aves. Earth is our planet too, of course we will help defend it."
It takes a few minutes to tally up the people that will go, and those who will remain behind to protect the School if it is attacked. After a few minutes of discussion and loud debates, Charles interjects with a loud voice, "Enough!"
Once everyone is silent, he says, "Piotr(Colossus), Logan(Wolverine), Scott(Cyclops), Hank(Beast), Ororo(Storm), Betsy(Psylocke), Kurt(Nightcrawler), Clarice(Blink), and Kitty(Shadowcat). You will be leaving with Captain Aves to New York, representing the X-Men. The others, including me, will stay behind just in case the School is attacked. I will even be coordinating the defense via Cerebro."
"But.. Professor!" Evan Daniels, and Jubilation Lee yell simultaneously.
He gives them a look, and says, "You're still too young for a War, Mr Daniels, Ms Lee. I will not be sending anyone under 20 to fight a War. And that's final."
"And what about me? I'm 23, Why're you holding me back?" Anna Marie, or Rogue, asks, and Charles could feel that she was disgruntled about not being allowed to go.
Sighing, he says, "Rogue, your powers will not be of much use in the middle of a battle, I'm afraid. You are far more of use here. If someone takes the distraction of the battle as an opportunity and attacks the school, you and Mr Drake will be our strongest defenders. That is also why I'm keeping Warpath and Bishop here too."
Bobby Drake, or Iceman, nods in confirmation, accepting Charles's decision. Warpath and Bishop were not outside at this moment, but Charles knew that Warpath was listening to this conversation intently.
The list made, everyone goes to change into their X-Men uniform, leaving Mason alone with Charles. Charles stared at the man, a long list of questions on his mind.
Alas, now was not the time to ask them. There was a war to be had. A battle to be won, and aliens to be fought.
As soon as the team gathers, Charles says, "You will be going to War. This will be like nothing you've ever done before, trust me. Your priority is to defeat the alien invaders through any means necessary, including killing them, and rescuing as many civilians as you can. Good luck X-Men, the fate of the world is in your hands."
With a wave of his hand, Mason creates a circular portal with an alley within New York City on the other side. They could hear the busy streets of NYC from the portal, cars honking and people yelling as they usually do. Which meant the battle hadn't begun yet.
The team barely startles at the portal creation, since they were used to it happening thanks to Blink, but there was no shortage of looks directed at Aves for what else he might be hiding.
Teleportation, Healing, Super Strength, Agility, Telepathy. What else can this Wizard-mutant do?
As Mason takes the first step through the portal, the others follow soon after. They turn back to look at the gathered students, as well as the X-Men that had chosen(or forced) to remain behind, and nod at them. And then, the portal closes, leaving half of the X-Men alone with a stranger, as far as they could tell.
A stranger that had just kicked their collective ass, barely 10 minutes ago.
He opens his mouth to say something, but suddenly there's a loud boom that makes them all wince, their hands automatically going to their ears. With wide eyes, they run out to the street and turn towards the direction of the sound, only to see a bright blue beam shooting up into the sky.
The beam had poked a hole in Space itself, creating a portal to somewhere else.
"And so it begins." Aves whispers, as the Aliens start pouring out in droves.
—
Seeing the familiar form of Iron Man start flying up to fight against the alien invaders, Logan throws his Cigar down, and says, "Storm, get up there, do what you can, but don't die."
Storm nods, and as her eyes turn white, starts flying up into the sky.
"Good luck, Ororo." Scott calls out, no doubt worried about his girlfriend.
Mason floats up into the air, surprising him with the flight, and says, "I'll join her. We'll take care of the aerial side of things. You take care of things down here."
Logan nods, and says, "Right. You and I are gonna have a talk, bub. Once all this is over." As Mason nods and flies off, Logan turns back to his team, and says, "Psylocke, Kitty, Hank, Blink. Go towards Stark tower as quickly as you can. There will be places to evacuate and people to rescue closest to the.. whatever the fuck that blue light is."
And Hank will be able to protect them from anything that comes to stop them.
Blink nods, and creates a pink coloured portal that most definitely leads to somewhere near Stark Tower. Kitty, Hank, and Psylocke jump in after her, not needing any prompting.
Turning towards the remaining X-Men, Logan looks at Scott, and says, "Colossus and I will be focusing on killing the ground soldiers. You and Kurt try and snipe the fliers. Don't put yourself in unnecessary danger, elf. Get in, kill them, get out."
Kurt frowns, and nods hesitantly. Logan knows that he doesn't like killing, he isn't used to killing, but this is war. Killing is a necessity, not a choice.
Scott says nothing, but Logan could smell that hesitance at killing from a mile away.
Logan nods at them, and says, "Good. Now let's go."
—
The first wave of the aliens, Chitauri, Thor had said, was very large in numbers. Almost a thousand, in fact. As soon as the first alien had appeared through the Portal that had opened up in the air, Tony had flown towards it, repulsors raised to attack.
He had a lot of missiles on his suit, and a lot of other, not so insignificant, ammunition. However, 'a lot' is not infinite. His repulsors, however, don't follow the spatial limitations for their charge. It is still finite energy, created by the Arc Reactor in his chest, but it is Energy.
Raising his hand, Iron Man fires one repulsor after another, blowing the Chitauri.. floating-bike-things up into balls of fire, as he keeps flying towards the Portal. This leads, however, to the Chitauri immediately seeing him as an enemy, and attacking him too.
As a second Chitauri blast hits Iron Man on the shoulder, followed immediately by the metallic flying bike they were riding, Tony grunts, and calls out, "Jarvis, flares."
Multiple tiny rocket powered explosives fly out of a hatch in his suit, his targeting system taking care of aiming.
As the chitauri blew up all around him, Tony gets some respite, only to see literally dozens of Chitauri flying towards the city, weapons already firing at the buildings and streets. Turning his body, Tony steers the armour towards the city, another horde of Chitauri right after him, and starts blowing them up one after another, using just his Repulsors for now.
"Sir, you seem to have a large group right behind you." The surprisingly unhelpful voice of Jarvis interjects.
Tony turns his head down, and while still flying forward, he aims his repulsors at two of the Chitauri in the centre and fires them. He hits bullseye, causing the chariots to explode, taking a few of their friends with them. Unfortunately, that still left Tony with around twenty or so Chitauri still right behind him.
As he opens his mouth to give Jarvis the order to fire more missiles, suddenly the sky lights up brightly and multiple Lightning bolts slam down from the sky, hitting not just all of the Chitauri behind him, but also those he was following.
"Thank you, Point Break." Tony mumbles, as he starts tracking more Chitauri to kill.
"I don't think that was Mr Odinson, Sir." Jarvis calmly says, and suddenly brings up the footage from on top of the Stark Tower, shot from a nearby skyscraper. It showed Thor and his Lightning summoning magic Hammer fighting with Loki and his scepter.
"Huh. That's odd." Tony says, and opens his flaps to stop with the help of his repulsors, only to enter a side street where he could see seven or eight chitauri chariots flying.
One of them is hit by a red beam of light that came from somewhere down on the street, while another is hit by a car door, taking them both down.
"Did Hulk show up, J?" Tony asks, as his cameras try to pinpoint where the door came from.
As his cameras suddenly capture the culprits, and zoom in, Jarvis says, "It seems we are receiving some help in the form of the X-Men, sir."
X-Men. Tony knew what X-Men were, of course he did. Mutants, people with different powers than normal. Like.. Mason Aves.
"Son of a bitch. So that's what he meant when he said he was bringing help. Aves is a mutant!" Tony exclaims to himself, as he leaves the mutants to their task, and goes on killing the Chitauri.
As he flies into open air, little to no buildings around him, the sky lights up once again, and one lighting bolt after another is thrown around, hitting multiple Chitauri at a time.
Tony's armor cameras focuses on the origin point, and he sees a woman floating in the air, lightning emitting off of her in quick bursts.
"If I wasn't in love with Pepper." Tony mumbles, looking at the Goddess in front of him.
Jarvis says, "I shall be sure to inform Ms Potts, Sir."
His alarm systems suddenly flare up, warning him of an incoming horde of Chitauri. Tony turns around, his repulsors raised to kill at least a few of them, before something else happens.
Someone flies through a Chitauri chariot, with Tony making out a sword in his hands, throwing guts, body parts, and metal flying everywhere, and jumps from chariot to chariot, killing one Chitauri after another.
In the single second between Tony's alarm system blaring and the chitauri finally reaching him, there was just a single out of twenty Chitauri remaining, whom Tony kills with a punch to the head.
As he lays his eyes on the culprit of this madness, Tony frowns, and asks, "Can every mutant fly, Avalon?"
Mason Aves, Captain Avalon, looks at Tony, blue blood covering not just his face, but the sword and his clothes too. The clothes looked highly reminiscent of his old SSR uniform, as far as Tony could tell, and maybe they were the same. Whatever it was, Tony could not help but be baffled by the number of powers this man kept pulling out of his ass.
Aves slaps his sword sideways to get rid of the blood, and Tony didn't even know that was possible outside of anime and Japanese historical action movies, and he says, "Nope, very few can. Neither can all Wizards, so you can say I'm just special."
Tony scoffs, and producing something from his armour compartments, throws it at Aves, who catches it easily. Tony says, "Put it in your ear, Rogers and the rest are on their way."
And then, Tony flies off.
A woman version of Thor who doesn't need a hammer, a man made completely out of some shiny metal, a man with laser emitters for eyes, a man who had knives sticking out of his knuckles, and finally, a man who can fly, teleport, heal himself, and use Magic.
"You know what, J. Maybe we're winning after all." Tony says, as he flies up back towards the portal, to fight the next wave.
Of course, it barely takes a minute after his words that Hawkeye crashes the Jet in the streets of New York, and a fucking whale enters through the portal. A space whale. With teeth made out of metal, wearing a metal armour.
"Stark, you seeing this?" Steve Rogers asks.
Tony swallows his instinctual response, 'The fuck am I even supposed to do about it?', and instead says, "Seeing.. still working on believing. Has Banner shown up yet?"
Because if there is one person who can take care of this gravity defying space whale, it is Hulk. Or maybe Thor, but Tony didn't think Thor had as much.. oomph.. as Hulk.
"Banner?" Steve asks, confused, because of course he is.
Sighing, Tony returns to killing Chitauri as he starts flying towards the whale, and says, "Just, keep me posted."
—
Logan ducked, letting a purple glowing spear pass through where his head just was, and snarling, he pushes his hands forward, stabbing the offending alien with his Adamantium claws. Taking one hand out, Logan kicks the alien back into one of its brethren, and then runs forward, this time his claws landing right inside their foreheads.
Turning away from the dead aliens, Logan glances at Cyclops, who was fighting an alien hand to hand, trying not to die, and immediately jumps in. Colossus had his own share of aliens handled well. Their weapons, whatever they were made out of, couldn't harm his metal skin at all. But then again, even Logan had had some trouble in damaging his skin with his Adamantium claws.
And it was supposed to be the sharpest and strongest metal on Earth.
Once the group they were fighting was dead, Logan picks up one of the guns fallen out of the alien hands, and throwing it towards Cyclops, he says, "Why don't you let us do the grunt work, bub. Just stick to taking pot shots at the aliens."
Scott scowls at the insult, and says, "I can take care of myself, Logan."
Colossus steps between Logan and Scott before he can say anything, and as Scott looks up at him, he says, "No one's saying you cannot, Cyclops. But while Wolverine and I can take multiple close up hits, you cannot. It is better for not just you, but for the team, if you don't risk yourself unnecessarily."
Scott nods, although a bit reluctantly, and after throwing the weapon down, he says, "I'll stick to pot shots, Colossus."
Logan suddenly sniffs his nose, and says, "There's a few aliens hiding inside a building. I smell a lot of people in there."
Colossus lifts his hands with a smile, and in his heavy Russian voice, he says, "Shall we go then?"
As they start jogging towards the building in question, a voice in Logan's head asks, 'How's things looking on your end, Wolvie?'
Logan scowls, and says, 'We're doing your job, missy. The aliens have over 30 hostages inside a hotel lobby on the 36th. We're going there now.'
Psylocke, the telepath on the field, replies, 'Well we're moving towards Stark tower. A few cops joined us and are leading the civilians underground, through the subway right now. They say the army will take a while to appear. But thankfully, we aren't alone in defending the city.'
Logan nods, knowing that to be true. On top of the X-Men, Logan had already seen Iron Man and Captain Avalon fighting in the skies, helped by Storm. And now, barely a minute ago, a highly advanced Jet had flown into the city, no doubt bringing in more helpers.
Somehow, though, Logan wasn't surprised by the absence of any military power save for the cops, and even they were in way over their heads.
Coming to a stop outside the hotel where the Chitauri were holding people hostage, Logan thinks to himself that maybe the entirety of the X-Men should have shown up.
—
A/N: I couldn't think more for this chapter. Maybe I'll finish the Battle of New York in the next chapter, or I'll take one more. Probably the former.
Anyway, Charles has a lot of questions for Mason, but he's holding his tongue because there's a war right at the door. Scott is over Jean(finally, at least in one Universe), and is in a relationship with Ororo.
How? Idk, I was going to have Emma be it, but then remembered that she's in the UK and like, 20 years older than him.
Scott, Ororo, Piotr, Kurt are all around 35. Rogue, Kitty, Bobby are younger, at around 25. Hank is in his 70s, same for Charles and Erik. Psylocke is also 30-40. Anyone left?
Jean: I understand this backstory is not enough so I'll write this. Basically, when Mason asked Phoenix to heal the planet for his use, Phoenix asked for a favor. Jean was the favor.
His task was to ensure she doesn't go mad, because Jean is a perfect Host or something, but Mason failed. Charles got Jean, and Mason didn't bother challenging Charles because the father himself gave her to him.
And when the Dark Phoenix movie happened, at the end Charles and Erik were in France when they saw the Phoenix appear in the sky. Mason managed to convince her to come with him, and then taught her how to properly control her powers.
Where is she now? That you'll learn after the Battle is over.
Please tell me how this chapter was, reviews are appreciated and welcomed!
Thank you for your support! Tata!
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