2013.10.23 - The Resurrection and the Life

Genosha - Bastion
Bastion, once known as Fortress, is the new center of power of the Nation of Free Mutants. The western coastline of Genosha is quite inaccessible by regular shipping lanes, and Bastion, tucked up into the mountains, is a natural stronghold, well away from the disordered streets of Hammer Bay.
Conquered by Magneto, it has overnight turned into a police state. Armed guards patrol the streets, and the dense and ordered buildings create the visual effect of walking through rows of bunkers.
The Spire, as it is known on the street, towers over the skyline. A zigguraut style structure, the top plateau sports ten levels, the architecture flaring out at an improbable angle as if defying physics itself. A four-hundred meter tall metal spire spears up towards the sky from the top of the building.
Humans here are not welcome, though apparently many still live in the city performing the jobs that are necessary for sustaining a city of this size.
Bastion's soaring skyline features an odd sort of iconography. It's a bas-relief image of Magneto, clad in a Crusader's tunic and holding a broadsword to the tunic on its chest. Folded wings stand in place of a cape and the image itself has no face. In image and in statue, these icons of descending stone Angels abound, from the lowest street levels to the tops of the towers overhead. And every once in a while, out of the corner of the eye, it seems one of them almost ... moves.
The Spire is gone. A crater the size of a football field sits in the middle of a series of interlocking walls and defensive towers, now protecting nothing. Fragments of steel and the ruins of what had been a massive ziggurat cover an area almost a mile wide, testimony to an unspeakable destructive force having recently decimated the city.
----
Magneto throws his head back and inhales deeply, then stretches, feeling power course through him. Gravity, energy, familiar tidal forces of pure power buffet his person- and like a swimmer sinking into the pool, he revels in the sensation.
Then he snaps his eyes open.
~Jean, not to harp, child, but there might be something wrong.~ Where Magneto thinks he is, an infinitely long single-string loop vibrates in a fractal resonance. It manifests as a vaguely human outline for a moment, then vanishes into nothing more than a faint crackling of energy, barely discernable in the morning light.
Magneto's voice pulses from nowhere again, oddly dissonant and melodious at the same time. ~I believe I am having an out of body experience.
Jean is, perhaps, slightly more accustomed to the whole out-of-body thing. She has some facility with astral projection, after all. This, however, is a little different.
String theory, anyone?
The Phoenix's favourite avatar frowns, pinging little motes of energy about with a thought that manifests as a gesture. ~ I may be wrong, ~ she notes, ~ but, it could be that we expended too much energy to come back in one spectacular blaze of glory. ~
Because, let's face it, they went out in one spectacular blaze of glory. (Must be a one-shot thing.)
Of course, to be fair, Jean and the Phoenix, while in many ways one an the same, are in many ways quite separate. And that might be playing into it just a little.
The awareness, since it's little more than that, that is Jean Grey turns in a slow circle, looking at the glassy crater above which the pair hover. ~ Wow... we really did a number on this place. ~ She's not sure whether to be chagrinned or impressed.
I calculate the explosive force to be roughly equivalent to a low-yield nuclear blast, Magneto says. Or emits. There's a sense of focus from the vibrating string that resolves itself into a ghostly manifestation of The Imperator. "I was able to direct most of the explosive force upwards. I am pleased that Bastion did not see excessive collateral damage. I think we released a secondary explosion at the point of impact that undid our bodies at the molecular level. We literally atomized," Magneto explains. He blurs, then manifests a short distance away. "I theorize that my efforts to manipulate the Phoenix force 'dragged' me into that demiplane, which appears to be a sort of 'incubator' for the Phoenix, when injured." He makes a gesture, and a wall of steel flows into place from the glassy, charred metal on the ground, erecting into a perfect wall. "My powers do not seem to have been affected. That is something, at least," he remarks with a rueful tone.
It's as good a theory as any, and it fits with what Jean was thinking. She, metaphorically, at any rate, closes her eyes, pulling in her own power, finding it solid and workable. Her mind fills out the image she has of herself, creating it as a ghostly manifestation not significantly different from Magneto's -- save that there is the faintest golden flame aura that she can't quite suppress.
~ Mine, either,~ she says. ~ At least, not in scope. ~ Range and strength, however, are likely a somewhat limited, until she has a chance to recover a little more, anyway. Chalk it up to the transition back from the White Hot Room.
~ But, I think I've seen that place before, ~ she admits. ~ So, you may be right about wherever it was we were. ~
She regards the wall he's created. A smile touches her lips. ~ Maybe you should spell out S.O.S. for us... ~ Or, you know, she could try to reach out and scare the bejeezus out of someone by telepathically tapping them on the shoulder.
Magneto flickers around. "I am having a hard time maintaining this resonance," Magneto informs Jean with a muted frown. "I am not sure why. There are tidal forces affecting me in ways I am unaccustomed to," he says. "Being a creature of flesh and blood has /some/ advantages, apparently."
The Imperator makes a gesture and abruptly snaps sharply into focus, albeit still glimmering semitranslucently. "I am exploring a few theories on how to recover. I might have a workaround for me, but I am unsure if it will work for you as well. The limits of The Phoenix Force are vast and prodigious, but I have little intellectual understanding of how you do, what you do." Magneto shakes his translucent head, then holds a hand up into the air. A sharp *blip* of energy flickers from his upraised hand, perfectly visible to the two incorporeal mutants. It vanishes into the distance. "There. The equivalent of an emergency transponder," Magneto informs Jean. "If Mystique survived the blast- and hopefully she evacuated everyone successfully- she should respond in short order to this location."
Even Jean would like her body back. But, then, the nature of her powers versus the nature of Erik's could explain the differences in the tug-of-war with the planet each of them experiences. Her sense of the world is tied into the psychic plane. His to the electromagnetic sphere. Both, however, are primal forces. And what strains Jean's mind, here, is the sense of all those that lost their lives in this place.
The longer she stands here, the more she can feel it.
~ I can't stay here, ~ she says abruptly, looking at the silvery form of the Master of Magnetism, consternation in her eyes as her brows draw together. ~ There's too much... ~ Her form seems to flicker for a moment or two. ~ Too much psychic interference... ~
"...I understand," Magneto says, his tone remarkably compassionate. "I... wish I had evacuated more of the combat staff," Magneto remarks. "My civil staff all had left, fortunately, as well as my inner coterie. Still. Many mutants," he says with a lengthy and pointless sigh.
"Come. We may as well send the signal again, and from elsewhere. Lingering radiation may interfere with the signal. Is there somewhere you would prefer to go?" Magneto asks Jean, looking at her with eyes glowing an electric blue sparkle.
Death goes to: Hammer Bay.
Honestly? Jean wants to go home. She wants to make sure her friends, her family are safe. (She'd also love to go snoop on Sinister when he can't easily detect them, like this, but that's harder to accomplish.) She doesn't really know, however, how far either of them can really travel.
~ I want to find the others, make sure they're safe. ~ A grimaces touches her golden lips. ~ But, if they've evacuated safely, as I hope, they should be half a world away. I don't know if either of us could make such a trip just yet. ~
She gazes out beyond the walls of Bastion. ~ Maybe we should see how your people are doing, instead. ~
"Somewhere nearby, then," Magneto says with a nod. He extends a hand, taking Jean's in his. There's an odd sympatico- a resonance between them, as the Master of Magnetism- a man tied instinctually to the fundamental forces of creation- joins his energy to The Phoenix. "Hold tight. This may be a bit disconcerting," he warns the woman.
There's a blurring and a surge of motion- not that the two of them move, but that the world moves around them, their feet staying stationary. In a subjective moment, they stand in Bastion's 'town square'. There are fewer people about than usual, and the jackbooted state police are in abudnance, quelling rioters and fearmongers before they can even take a stand. Flashing lights and billboards reveal that a state of martial law has been declared and a curfew is in place. Magneto folds his translucent arms and looks around, watching the limited bustle of people trying to engage in authorized commerce. "Well, thank the fates for small miracles. At least bloody riots have not broken out," he remarks in a neutral tone. No one seems to notice the pair of them, standing atop a small platform usually reserved for public speeches. "I am quite curious to know who took the reins in my absence. We have been gone... nearly two days now," he says, looking at a prominent clock tower. "Plenty of time for ambitious usurpers to stake a claim to the throne."
The movement is mildly disconcerting at first, but Jean adapts. Away from that crater, the pressure of the death marks eases, though the fear and grief in the city are still entirely palpable to her. ~ Whomever it was, ~ she says, drifting a little above the crowd, watching them, ~ They have intimate knowledge of and access to your inner power structure. The cordoning and discipline is too efficient for it to be an outside group. ~
She brushes the back of the head of a man whose rank is higher than his fellows. The touch allows her to glimpse what he knows, though it causes him to reach up and rub the spot she touched instinctively. A wry smile touches her lips.
~ How likely is Mystique to take your throne? ~ she says. ~ Because these men fear her too greatly to take orders from anyone but her. ~ And maybe her duly appointed deputy, whomever that may be.
Magneto chuckles, the soundless resonance audible only to Jean. "I give it better than even odds," Magneto informs Jean. "Mystique despises celebrity and prefers a life of personal seclusion. However, she is devoted to our dream, and competent and highly intelligent. Not to mention a terrifying opponent. I do not envy the person who presents himself as a potential foe," the Imperator tells the woman. "Besides, the people here... they do worship her," he admits with a fond tone in his voice. "Oh, they respect me, for certain," he concedes. "Fear me, even. But Mystique has long been regarded as... a mother to the people. Always listening to them, their woes, their concerns. She has interceded on their behalf with me, more than once. I am sure she has planned for this contingency." He smiles bemusedly at Jean. "She is one of the few people to surprise me on a regular basis. I am excited to see how she handles this little incident."
Jean gives a wry smile at his words, somehow unsurprised. He's never been one to back down from a challenge. And is always one drawn to the brightest and best.
~ Are you sure it's her they worship? ~ she asks now, pointing across the square to where an ornate sculpture that appears to have been fashioned of the very earth beneath the street stands reaching up into the sky. It looks very much like Magneto in his armor and helm -- though flaming wings replace his cape.
A brow arches faintly, as Jean regards him. ~ I'm not so sure, myself. ~
Magneto looks a bit embarassed. "Well. After the attacks on the Center, they called me a hero. And when I arrived here in Bastion, I obliterated the Humanity First command center in full view of a few hundred mutants I had liberated. That sort of thing... leaves an impression," he says, though not without a little proud turn in his voice. He furrows his brow at a pair of masked men escorting a woman towards a medical van, despite her coughing fits. "Damnation. I had hoped we had contained Pestilence. It appears they have established the containment protocols I implemented," Magneto explains to Jean. "I have covered some fairly extensive contingencies in my government plans. An outbreak of some kind of plague seemed inevitable. I had anticipated something a bit less... apocalyptic than whatever it is Pestilence is spreading, but the measures should be sufficient to contain what is happening. I am suddenly very glad I prioritized building the hospital," he adds with a relieved expression.
Pestilence. Kurt. Jean's lips thin into a grim line. ~ Yes, ~ she agrees, her speech reflecting her dismay about the fate of her friend. ~ But both Pestilence and Famine can teleport. It won't be long until regular quarantine measures aren't enough. ~ Particularly given the virulence of the diseases and ailments the pair can spread.
Her thoughts drift to Jocelyn, who had remained behind in the hospital when the rest of the team went in to 'liberate Monet' -- whom they've yet to find. It occurs to her that Channel may indeed be the one X-Man in range of her current powers... unless the girl is actively defending against telepathic intrusion. Jean isn't yet powerful enough to overcome that.
Still, she must make the effort. She closes her eyes a moment and there's a flare of golden power, a small pulse. Ultimately, though, Jean sighs with mild frustration.
They'll just have to get closer... or stronger.
"I... I may have to take some steps," Magneto says to Jean, grimacing. He folds his arms. "Please believe me when I say this was a measure of last resort. I can effectively shut down their teleportation on Genosha, but I must make it to Hammer Bay, and in my own skin. I think Prelude will object, but at this point, we have to take some extreme measures to lock Sinister's forces down."
"Do we have a plan for reintegrating us yet, by the way? I should prefer not to spend the rest of eternity as a manifested wavelength of electromagnetic intent. Not that you are not darling company, but I miss respirating, for some reason."
Yes. He may need to take steps. Jean can't disagree. She arches a brow briefly at his words, both acknowledging and agreeing. Definitely steps.
~ I may have an idea, ~ she says, drifting back to him, now. ~ But, I need to get clear of the interference in this city. ~ She looks around at the number of people in the square, even under curfew. ~ There are so many minds, here. I can only break through so much. My strength isn't yet what it should be. But, if they survived, though, I can reach Marvel Girl or Scion. ~ They each carry a part of her -- Marvel Girl, particularly, given the piece of the Phoenix Force that lingers with her. Or did. Before Jean consumed it all in her attempt to obliterate Magneto and Sinister.
~ And Channel. ~ She doesn't want to reveal the girl, but, the reality is the energy absorber could be very useful. ~ Channel may, actually, be very helpful. She can absorb and redirect energy. And that's what we need. Energy. ~
"All right, then. I am going to open a... hmm. I suppose a 'wavelength resonance arc' is the correct nomenclature. A 'wormhole'," Magneto says, making little air-quote gestures. Someone shortcuts through the podium and passes through him. They stumble and shiver uncontrollably, little arcs of energy plying from Magneto's form onto them for a few steps. "Aaaggh, that was... unpleasant," Magneto shivers. "Come. I am getting a better sense of translating your thoughts. Focus on where you wish to go next, and I will convey us there." Magneto holds a hand out to Jean again, little flickers of phoenix-fire limning his hand and arm as they gain proximity to one another.
The unseen, golden ghost that is Jean Grey regards the silver ghost that is Magneto. She gives him a small, tight smile, and a light nod. ~ Hammer Bay, ~ she tells him, now. ~ The hospital. I need to speak with the administrator. ~ Young Jocelyn Stream.
Her fire is drawn along with Magneto as he transfers them through the magnetosphere from the square in Bastion to the hospital in Hammer Bay. That much farther from 'ground zero', the psychic interference lessens, and Jean inhales a deep (if entirely useless) breath. Still, it feels as if she's crawling up out of a swamp onto dry... or at least drier land. Psychic shock is still in abundance, here. But, it's not tainted with the same number of 'death marks' the crater holds.
Thus, her awareness expands a little farther, and she starts to trace tentative paths out to those that might be able to sense her. And she releases a faint psychic pulse -- a raptor's flare -- she hopes Channel may see in the midst of everything else.
Magneto's conveyance method is unique, but fast. Again, there's that sensation of the world whipping past, and in short order, Magneto and Jean- two ghostly apparitions, one manifesting in blue, one in phoenix red, are hovering just out of the visible electromagnetic spectrum and inside the hospital itself.
"Ahh, I see now," Magneto remarks wryly. "Jocelyn is one of yours. I must applaud your team. I had no idea she was a member of the X-men," the invisible and inaudible Imperator informs his temporary companion. "I should have guessed. When a high-powered, talented mutant shows up on my door wanting to help people for no ready reason, I should probably just assume she is a spy, no?" he says, turning a wry smile on Jean.
Speaking of ghosts, there is another of the Grey's hanging around. Nate's body is at Muir, burning with fever caused by a mixed case of pneumonia and malaria. The first hours were pretty horrendous, as his mind pushed him through a series of nightmares mixed with memories, which in turn rampaged around the helpless psyches of millions of sleepers in Scotland. They also reached a few of his friends in New York. Fun times.
After about twelve hours a cocktail of drugs and fast-acting antibiotic-alikes managed to wake him up briefly, and he took advantage of it to free his astral form and skip a few more hours of crazy time. He has been looking for people, sending messages and invariable being drawn again and again to Genosha for no good reason he could figure out. Finally, he had decided to follow his instincts and try to find out why he is feeling this weird pull. The Spire is still a mess, but he picks up something there. A psychic trail of shorts, which he can almost follow. His psychometry would be great for this, if he could control it. As it is, he feels like a blind guy following a trail of bread crumbs. Good thing space from the Astral is mostly a subjective concept. But he feels he will be somewhere... soon, maybe. Most likely Jean is going to feel him coming before he can reach her.
The hospital is busy. The mutants with healing powers strong enough to deal with actual diseases are being worked to the bone, propped up with caffeine and pretty much any other means at their disposal as the sick come in. Other healers are tending to those with physical injuries, and in the aftermath of the explosion, those numbers are up. Jocelyn, who had gotten her hospital down to running without her having to actually heal people often, had been pressed into duty tending to broken legs, broken arms, and more serious wounds. Patients are being dealt with as efficiently as possible, and as Magneto had stated he wanted a hospital capable of handling ten times the current population when Jocelyn had it put together, it was actually handling the influx of mutants reasonably well. Yes, there was a triaging area and it could certainly not handle the entire population of the island at once, but it was holding up better than most. She may have been a spy, as Magneto noted, but she had taken the responsibility of the hospital seriously. She'd made some mistakes, as she was quite young, but she'd made it a point to hire good people. That was showing itself now.
It is during one of Jocelyn's 'breaks', also known as checking over reports and documents regarding the massive influx of illnesses, that she picks up on something in the sky. That psyhic flare that the energy absorber spots being launched. Jocelyn couldn't identify individual psychic signatures, not really. If you put two psychics who were of different strengths, she might pick up on who is who based on that information, if they both were the leaky psychic faucets that someone like Nate was.
The woman looks around and spots...she wasn't quite sure what those were. They weren't ghosts, as she'd seen a ghost before, or at least something appearing as a ghost. But it was certainly something that was the source of that psychic flare. The X-Woman stands and takes a breath. She was probably the only one to see them, and she suspected she needed to communicate with them, somehow. She reaches out and takes hold of a little bit of solar energy and converts it into the same type of energy that those two were, letting the energy point as a 'path' to her office that, in all probability, only Magneto and Jean could see. The path is yellow, the energy beings will note. If those beings needed to talk, then they'd be able to find her with that. She couldn't reach them with her mind, but she could perhaps use other ways of communicating that she could see them and was willing to help.
Jean gives the Imperator a wry smile and a non-committal shrug. ~ If it makes you feel any better, ~ she offers, ~ Shift was actually quite in earnest when he came to see you. ~ And the Brotherhood telepaths should have been able to verify that. It's not their fault, after all, that Jean's better than they.
Although, if Magneto hasn't picked it up before now, it's probably becoming much clearer, given the comparative subtlety and slightly less idealistic M.O. the team has been using lately, that it probably hasn't been Scott or Charles guiding the team's actions. Not in Genosha, at least.
Magneto has Mystique. The X-Men have Jean.
As Channel's golden energy guideline appears before them, however, Jean turns away from Magneto. A small smile tugs at one corner of her mouth. ~ That's my girl... ~
She gestures to Magneto, now. He's the god of travel, here. She's the goddess of messages. Or something like that. ~ Shall we? ~
Still, there's a tingling just at the edge of her awareness. She pauses and turns her head, looking away from Jocelyn's trail, back toward Bastion in the distance. Stretching out a hand, she sends out another gentle pulse. A small flaming raptor, about the size and strength of a starling, wings its way toward that distant tingle. It's all the power Jean can spare, at the moment. But, her instincts say it's a necessary expenditure.
"I see it," Magneto says. He takes Jean's hand again and there's a flickering blur of the world moving around them, and abruptly, in front of Jocelyn, the two of them manifest (such as they are). One, a crackling spirit of blue and scarlet energy, a manifestation of the fundamental forces in the universe, and the other, a burning eidolon of flame and fury, the living embodiment of The Phoenix Force. Fresh from The White Hot Room, the former apparition- which bears a striking resemblance to Magneto- flares with little licks of flame, a side effect of exposure to the energy that Jean bears inside of her.
"Well, Miss Jocelyn," Magneto 'says', emitting the words as a buzzing translation of pulsed radiation. "It was quite a surprise to find you in collusion with the X-men. You hid yourself quite well," he says, with a note of admiration in his voice. "I do admire competence, despite our disparate goals. How have the infected been faring?" he asks the woman, as imperiously as if he weren't a monodimensional string manifesting as a dead man.
Circle and circle again, widening in spiral. Nate astral form is invisible to non-psychics, but for psychics he is like a flare in the sky. But he avoids contacting with those, he has something more important to find. Maybe, probably.
And then he spots the firebird. If he had a heart, it would have skipped a beat. |"Jean..."| Yes, the psychic signature is unmistakable. So close to his own, but so different at the same time. He touches the bird with a 'finger', charging it with power, making it brighter and larger. Then sends it back home. He follows.
There is just a split second for Jocelyn to 'turn' her vision, filtering out the energy source that makes up Jean and Magneto at this point. This is fortunate, as she'd rather not overload from her Sight and blow up the hospital. There is a hastily bit off yelp as Jocelyn turns away in the process. She grabs a bottle of painkillers she keeps in her drawer, pops a couple, and slowly brings her vision back on.
"Imperator?" There's a pause as she makes the next logical connection as he brings up the X-Men. Knowing who died in that fight, and that Magneto was supposed to be dead, it wasn't that hard of a leap. "Jean?" There's a bit of confusion on her face as she starts trying to figure out what, exactly, they are made of at this point. "I was told the two of you are dead. I am glad to see you. Or at least your energy, so to speak". Not to mention, last she knew, in the process of killing each other.
Jocelyn then gets to the question. "The hospital has had an ninety-seven percent cure rate after the first thirty minutes are factored out when we mobilized," the woman responds. "We've got a healthy zone set up, and teleporters getting the cured off the island the moment they get a clean bill of health, but we can't safely go out and find the people who aren't coming in, and I've heard reports of some fleeing the island without coming to the hospital first". The resources, vast as they were, couldn't do anything about that, not with the number of infected swarming in.
Jean seems to straighten, a moment, head coming up and lungs appearing to fill with a deep breath at the same time a touch of fire flares in her eyes. When she exhales, she has a smile on her lips, a warm smile. ~ Nate... ~ His pulse of energy through the bird was enough to energize her, allowing her to imitate Magneto's trick and draw the young man closer, faster than he might have otherwise come.
Her own method of speaking with Jocelyn, however, is far more direct. And now, with the three of them in such close proximity, she continues to hold Magneto's hand and reaches out a hand to touch Jocelyn's shoulder. This completes enough of a psychic link that they can speak in a fashion more like telepathy and less like morse code. And it's a wavelength Nate should be able to find and match easily enough.
~ You have no idea how good it is to see you... ~ she says to the girl, now, a smile on her lips and in her tone. ~ Yeah. Not so much dead as... a little low on energy. ~ For lack of a better description. ~ We just need to pull ourselves together, but to do that... We need your help. ~
Magneto shakes his head. "With respect, Doctor Grey, that's not the problem at all." Magneto turns his eyes to Jocelyn. "The Phoenix Force is unspeakably powerful, but intent matters greatly. Jean and I existed almost entirely as a state of energy at one point. The Phoenix returned us to that state. We have energy to spare, and then some. What we lack is mass. Basic relativistic physics tells us mass and energy are the same thing in different states. We must endeavour to find a way to restore our essential physical forms. In this state, we are nothing but power married to thought and will. Suggestions?" he asks the young healer, standing shoulder to shoulder with Jean.
Nate is there in a second. His astral form in the material plane is not as strong a psychic signature as when he is physically present, much of his energy is tied up to the Astral Plane. But it is still pretty significant, stronger than most alpha class telepaths. Easy to spot for Joce. |"Jean! You are aliv... or are you?"| Her current state is... confusing. Another beat, he fully materializes an illusion of his person for Jocelyn. Which her absorption powers proceed to eat easily. Adding a psychic sight, he tries again, making it stronger. Now he is visible, although he glows like a low-wattage light-bulb. "What has happened to you?" He asks Jean, "and... you," he frowns at seeing Magneto's ghost.
Yum. Psychic energy. Jocelyn's powers do effectively absorb that illusion Nate pops up in. Jocelyn looks at Nate, and speaks into the mind link at this point. << Well, get enough energy together in one spot and you can create matter. If there's a strong enough guiding force beind that form to create a specific person, and you have that person's mind, it should work. Hit me with enough energy and guidance, and I think it might work. Psychic energy to guide the mind with a strong enough impression, and between the kinetic energy and the energy the two of you bring, it might work. >> There's a pause as Jocelyn considers things.
Jean shakes her head, looking at Magneto. ~ The Phoenix can convert energy to matter, ~ she tells him. He did say he didn't really know how she did what she does. ~ The problem has more to do with the fact that I am not fully the Phoenix. And the trauma in this place is interfering with my ability to focus and pull in what I need. ~ Truthfully? She drained herself and it'll take a while to get up to full strength. Energy was easier and required less power to manifest than matter -- though she didn't realize that's what the Phoenix was doing at the time.
She glances to Nate, now, and offers a smile. She'd hug him, if she didn't need her hands where they are to maintain the link. ~ We're alive, ~ she assures him. ~ Just not corporeal. I'll explain it all, later. Right now... ~ She nods to Jocelyn. ~ That's more or less what I was hoping for. I can direct you and control what needs to be done, if you can control the actual flow of energy and its conversion. I need you to channel the energy Magneto and... ~ she glances back to the astrally projected telepath, ~ Nate? ~ Yes, there's a question there, because she can sense his own strain. ~ Can give. ~
She regards Magneto, now. ~ I know you have molecular control. Can you rip me some atoms to work with and send Channel a charge at the same time? ~
"Fortunately, I find myself with ample power to spare," Magneto assures Jean. "Which raises some interesting theoretical questions I shall have to explore at my leisure later. Suffice it that yes, I can craft us homonculii that will suffice for now," he assures the telepath. "This will likely take our combined talents. Everyone do have a care here, please," the Imperator says with a dry tone in his voice. "As much as I am sure you think the world would be better off without me, I should be disappointed should I find myself existing as a monodimensional superstring for the rest of eternity."
With that, Magneto holds his free hand out and starts pulling material in around him and Jean, bits and streams of spare organic material from the hospital's organ bank floating towards them and assembling itself slowly into something vaguely resembling a human figure.
Nate can shape matter, inorganic or organic, but living matter? Oh sure, as long as you don't want it alive afterwards. Living cells are too complex for him, even though most of the telekinetic re-arrangement he does already is unconscious.
What Jean is asking is a little hard to visualize. She wants raw, pure psychic energy, but Nate always shapes that energy into telepathic or telekinetic constructs when he projects it outside his mind. "But how...?" he thinks. No, he is always projecting psychic energy, most of it into the Astral Plane, but enough 'leaks' into the physical plan, and that makes him so highly visible. Technically, he should be able to do what Jean wants. Small problem only being is he has never done it before.
He grins. "Sure, no problem." A glance to Jean, because... really. Do they want Magneto back? He as no idea Erik used to be Jean's teacher, he only knows him as Genosha's autocrat, and they didn't like each other much the one time they talked.
Still, he trust Jean, so he extends an illusory hand to her ghostly form and begins pouring raw, unshaped psychic energy on her.
Jocelyn nods to Jean-Form as she runs her left hand through her hair. << Right. Jean, I'm going to open myself up to psychic energy, so you should be able to guide me while I convert. >> And with that statement, Jocelyn's defenses against psychic energy drop away. << As I absorb it, I will convert it and channel it into the respective vessels. >> There isn't much else for Jocelyn to do at this point except to wait for Jean to start pushing the energy at her. So the girl goes ahead and increases her physical cababilities by drawing in some kinetic energy. She had a feeling she might want the extra durability and reaction time. Just in case something went wrong.
Jean gives Erik a wry smile. ~ What? ~ she quips dryly. ~ And leave you as an electromagnetic ghost who can cross the world -- cross the universe -- with a thought and wreak whatever havoc you please without physical consequence? I don't think so. ~ A direct look. ~ Besides. We have an agreement, you and I, and a rogue geneticist to stop. ~
She smiles tightly to Jocelyn, now. ~ Here goes nothing... ~
Actually, it's quite something, the way the four of them interconnect. Each of them stand numbered among the most powerful beings on the planet. At a certain threshold, there really is very little difference in the types of energies they each wield. It's all Source of Life stuff in one form or another.
Jean settles her mind into Jocelyn's, guiding the subtleties of the girl's power. It's not so much that she has Jocelyn channel the energies into the homunculi, as it is she has the girl gather them and direct them into her own energy form as a sort of psychic bolster that she can use to fill her reserves and allow her to cut through the noise that suppresses her. Similarly, having a signature so close to her own, Jean finds it easy to use Nathan's natural overclocking to take the conversion Jocelyn creates and up it to a more cosmic level. Which, finally, allows her to maintain enough control over the Phoenix Force to take the rough forms Erik provides and bring them truly to life -- full recreations of the pair's original forms.
As the bodies become more and more solid, of course, people in the hospital begin to notice. That doesn't much matter to Jean, however, as she reaches out to take Erik's hand and draw his energy and hers toward the empty vessels, filling them, animating them, and, finally, truly inhabiting them.
The Imperator of Bastion, and the Raptor-encased form of the woman known as Phoenix are reborn in light and energy and flesh, with a psychic pulse that's easily as strong as the one that took their lives in the first place.
The difference? This one isn't explosive or destructive. It's Life made manifest once again.
A different pulse of energy flickers across the room- across the /hemisphere/- as Magneto reoccupies his physical self. Whereas Jean's resonance is strictly psychic, the Phoenix proudly announcing the return of her mortal vessel, Magneto fairly rings with the fundamental forces of the universe. Lights flicker, computers freeze, and half the world experiences a momentary power surge as the Master of Magnetism reoccupies a physical form.
Except he's not the aged nontogenarian he had been, even if an exceptionally fit one. His hair fills out in a lustrous black, his skin growing in smooth and even ruddy. Broad shoulders and sinewy forearms come into view before a simple robe covers his body, along with Jean's, as they mutually direct the growth of their respective forms.
"Well. This is... something else," Magneto says, holding his hands up. Musuclar veins stand on the back of his hands. He turns to look in the mirrored surface of a storage tank, pressing fingers against his cheeks, his chin. "I had hoped... but... this is more than I had dreamed," he murmurs to himself, almost ignoring Jocelyn and Jean, and the apparition behind him.
He turns, his motions sharp and alert, looking at the X-men. "Well, then," he says, rubbing his hands together with a scheming, judicious expression. "Well, well, well. It seems I am back in the fight," he states, grinning almost mischeviously.
Nate is genuinely impressed. Something about this Phoenix thing transcends telepathy, telekinesis, electromagnetism and whatever else Channel can control. It is creating life. Recreating life.
And also draining him quickly. His body is at the other side of the world, and his astral self carries only so much energy. Nate's illusion shears, and then his astral form starts blurring too. |"Hmm... looks like I have to get back to..."| his last thoughts are too weak to reach anyone. By the time Jean and Erik have physical bodies again, Nate wakes up at Muir.
"They are alive!" He is going to have to explain that one.
Back in the early part of this year, when Jocelyn chose the codename Channel, she really had no idea how well she would actually live up to that name. Or perhaps she adapted to it. A name, after all, is said to be a fundamental part of a person. Ask any wizard that and you'll likely get some stuff back about True Names and othe gibberish that Jocelyn frankly didn't understand that well. Absorbing the energy, Jocelyn focuses on converting it, and the raw amount of power is more than she'd ever handled at once. She'd never actually pushed her abilities to the limit, these conversion abilities were newly discovered, and she had been busy dealing with the fallout from Genosha.
But this was important. It was bringing Jean back. And Magneto, to be fair. If Jean felt it was necessary, well, Jocelyn was going to trust her that far. As the energy is converted and sent back to boost Jean, Jocelyn can feel her own strength draining. And then there were a pair of energy pulses as the two were reborn in front of her. It was impressive, to say the least, to watch.
"It does, indeed, appear you are. Jean?" Jocelyn asks, speaking to the woman to see how she reacts. It clearly worked for Magneto, at the very least! The woman's voice carries with it a strong hint of exhaustion, as though she'd just completed a triathalon, and that was putting it kindly.
The raptor's aura flames all around Jean as she finally takes a true, deep breath that fills her lungs for real. She does, however, sag some as she and the Imperator finally taste their mortality once more. It was no walk in the park, what she just did -- what they did together. It was a huge push against all their abilities. This is not run-of-the-mill, everyday power use, nor something that any of them can afford to do with any regularity.
Still, yes. Impressive. Very, very impressive.
(And it's probably scaring the living crap out of every anti-mutant faction the world over. Can you say 'open season'?)
The redheaded telepath looks at Jocelyn, now, and gives the other redhead a wan, but pleased smile. "I'm good," she says, straightening her spine and squaring her shoulders.
"Better than good." She looks at Magneto. A brow arches at his alterations, but she's really not so surprised. An amused smile plays at her lips for a moment before it gives way to a sharper expression.
"So. Shall we go hunting?"
Category:Log