Chapter 9: New Order
Decided to post this early since I wanted it to be in power ranking as soon as possible.
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With a deafening boom, Niklaus landed heavily in the forest, the force of his descent shaking the trees and sending birds scattering into the sky.
His heart pounded in his chest, and he could feel the searing energy of Jean's Phoenix Hybrid form closing in on him.
The air around him felt charged, almost electrified, as she drew nearer, her fiery wings lighting up the sky behind him.
In an instant, Niklaus activated his veil, cloaking himself from sight and suppressing his energy signature.
He darted through the forest, twisting and turning between the trees, hoping to confuse and lose Jean in the dense wilderness.
Every movement was precise, his senses heightened as he tried to predict her next move.
The forest seemed to blur as he flew at high speed, his mind racing alongside his body.
The crackling of twigs and leaves under his feet were the only sounds in the dark, otherwise still forest, but Jean was not far behind—her presence was like a firestorm looming ever closer.
Niklaus glanced back for a split second, seeing the fiery glow of the Phoenix's wings illuminating the forest like a second sun.
He pushed himself harder, flying lower and faster, trying to keep his veil intact while avoiding detection.
But he knew he couldn't keep this up forever.
Soon an idea hatched in his mind and so he stopped without his veil.
Niklaus stood there, his mind raced with half-formed plans.
The veil was off, and in the distance, the glow of Jean's Phoenix form was fast approaching.
He forced himself to stay calm, feeling the immense power radiating from her as she descended from the sky like a flaming goddess.
Her fiery wings cast a soft glow over the dark forest, the air around her alive with energy.
Jean landed gently, her wings retracting as she stepped closer, trying to project calm and reassurance despite the crackling tension in the air.
Her psionic senses told her that the boy in front of her was deeply distressed.
She didn't want to spook him further.
She approached slowly, her voice gentle and soothing as she spoke.
"It's okay," Jean said softly. "We're here to help. What's your name?"
Niklaus, showing no signs of resistance, allowed her to approach.
The look in his eyes was unreadable, but his body language seemed calm enough.
She stepped closer, her guard slowly lowering.
She couldn't sense any immediate threat, though there was something... strange about him.
When he suddenly lunged forward and hugged her, Jean hesitated, caught off guard by the action.
She gently patted his head, still sensing the anxiety and fear from him, thinking perhaps he was just a frightened child after all.
But then, he spoke.
"New Order: Jean Grey loses all control over her body if Niklaus Vought forfeits all his senses except his sight."
The words hit her like a sledgehammer. Her body instantly froze, rigid and unmoving.
She could still feel the power of the Phoenix surging within her, but it was as if her body had been disconnected from her mind, trapped in a cage she couldn't escape from.
Her arms, which had been soothingly holding Niklaus, were now limp at her sides, completely unresponsive to her will.
Jean's eyes widened in shock, but she couldn't even move them to show her reaction.
She was entirely at the mercy of this boy, her own formidable psionic power and connection to the Phoenix suddenly useless in the face of this impossible command.
Jean stood frozen, her body locked in place by the strange command Niklaus had given, her mind raced to comprehend what had just happened.
She couldn't move, couldn't break free, and the Phoenix within her raged against the sudden loss of control.
Niklaus stepped back, his smirk fading into something more neutral as he looked up at her.
There was no malice in his eyes, just a cold calculation.
"Nothing personal," he said calmly, his voice soft but firm. "Just don't want the hassle with your kind."
Niklaus smirked to himself as he stood back, watching Jean.
He could feel his influence over her not as some external force, but as a manifestation of the authority he now held.
This wasn't the New Order—it was something else.
He'd claimed dominion over her for now, and she would bend to his will.
With a casual tone, he added, "Jean Grey, I command you to follow my orders. You will erase this encounter from your memory and your teammates'. Once I'm two hundred kilometers away, incapacitate Logan, Scott, and Kitty. Fabricate their memories to replace this whole ordeal with something mundane—just a routine search that found nothing."
He stepped back further as her eyes flickered with power, the Phoenix force swirling behind them, but unable to fight against his authority. "Once you've done that, you will use one hundred percent of your body's potential to attempt to erase the Phoenix Force's awareness of this event. If that fails, continue the original tasks."
As if calculating his limits, he added one final condition, "This order will terminate in two days."
Jean's face remained blank, her body responding to his will as she slowly turned to face the forest where her teammates waited.
For a moment, Niklaus wondered if even the Phoenix force could resist him.
He glanced back one final time before taking off, flying through the sky and disappearing into the horizon, leaving Jean to execute his commands.
The forest grew quiet behind him, but not for long. Jean, now a puppet of his authority, began her grim work.
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Jean, Logan, Scott, and Kitty stood in the middle of the forest grounds.
The moment the Phoenix flared within Jean's eyes, Niklaus had already slipped away into the forest, leaving them behind.
Jean's connection to the Phoenix force flared briefly but settled, the battle for control having been resolved long ago.
As the team regrouped, Jean was already under the influence of Niklaus' command.
She took a slow, steady breath and, without a word, turned to face Logan.
"What the hell's going on with her?" Logan grumbled, his instincts flaring as he eyed Jean suspiciously.
Before anyone could respond, Jean lashed out.
With a powerful telekinetic shove, she hurled Logan backward through the air, sending him crashing into a nearby wall.
Scott immediately reacted, his visor glowing as he unleashed a precision optic blast at her.
Jean raised a telekinetic shield just in time, deflecting the beam harmlessly into the sky.
"Jean! Snap out of it!" Scott yelled as he fired another blast, trying to get through to her.
Jean's face remained expressionless as she redirected the next optic blast toward Kitty, who phased just in time, narrowly avoiding being hit.
The air around them rippled with the force of Jean's telekinesis as she advanced, her motions calculated and devoid of emotion.
Logan pushed himself up from the ground, shaking off the impact. "Damn it, Jean. I'm not in the mood for this." With a growl, he charged at her, his claws out.
Jean didn't flinch. Instead, she flicked her wrist, lifting him telekinetically once again and slamming him to the ground hard enough to leave cracks beneath him.
Before Logan could recover, Jean's telekinetic grip tightened around him, holding him in place.
His adamantium claws slashed at the air, but there was no breaking free. "Logan, stay down," Jean commanded flatly, her voice devoid of warmth.
Meanwhile, Kitty reappeared behind Jean, hoping to catch her off-guard.
She tried to phase through Jean, to disrupt her telekinesis from within, but the moment she phased, Jean turned and flung her into a nearby tree telekinetically, the impact knocking the wind out of her.
Scott fired off another blast, more intense this time, trying to subdue Jean without hurting her too much. "Jean, you've got to fight this!" he pleaded, but his words fell on deaf ears.
Jean redirected the blast away once more, sending it crashing into the ground beside him with a small explosion of dirt and rubble.
Scott ran at her, hoping to close the distance and get through to her.
But Jean reacted quickly, grabbing him telekinetically mid-sprint and lifting him into the air, her expression still cold and unmoved.
Then, in an instant, the air around her shifted.
The Phoenix traits she had developed , dormant until now, began to stir.
Jean's eyes glowed with a bright, fiery hue as she tapped into the deeper well of physical prowess she had gained after her encounter with the Dark Phoenix.
Her once-controlled telekinesis now crackled with raw, fiery energy.
Logan, still pinned beneath her telekinetic grip, felt the heat radiating from her. "Ah, hell," he muttered as the temperature around him spiked.
Jean, with a calm, deliberate motion, released her telekinetic grip on Logan, allowing him to scramble to his feet.
But before he could make another move, flames erupted from her hands.
She sent a burst of fire directly at him.
Logan leaped to the side just in time, but the fire scorched his leg, slowing him down as he winced in pain.
Scott fired another optic blast at her, but this time, Jean responded with fire.
She raised her hand and shot a stream of fire from her palm, clashing with Scott's blast.
The two energies met in mid-air, creating a swirling mass of fire and light.
Jean pushed forward, overpowering Scott's optic blast and sending him flying back as the flames overwhelmed him.
Kitty tried to get back on her feet, but Jean turned her fiery gaze toward her.
With a simple gesture, a ring of fire formed around Kitty, trapping her within a burning cage.
Kitty phased just in time to avoid being caught, but the heat was intense, forcing her to stay on the move, unable to get close to Jean.
Logan, ever stubborn, charged at Jean once again, ignoring the pain in his leg.
He slashed at her with his claws, but Jean was ready.
With a fiery telekinetic wave, she flung him away once more, sending him crashing through a tree.
He groaned in pain but didn't stay down, his healing factor already working overtime to repair the damage.
"You won't remember this," Jean said softly as she approached Scott, who was struggling to get up from the ground.
She reached out with her mind, tapping into his memories, preparing to erase all traces of this encounter.
With a flick of her wrist, she knocked Scott and Kitty unconscious with a wave of psychic energy.
Logan tried to lunge at her one final time, but Jean caught him mid-air and pinned him to the ground.
Her fiery wings flared as she began altering his memories as well, ensuring that none of them would remember the battle or the strange boy who had caused all of this.
Once finished, Jean hovered in the air, her body radiating with residual Phoenix energy.
She took one last look at her unconscious friends below before she flew off into the sky, carrying out the final part of her command.
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