The Raptor of Life

Chapter 28

 

Raptor of Life: Jean Quantum’s Gate adventures

Jean Grey In the Marvel Cinematic Universe

 

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

-- Star Trek Intro --

Previously in the Raptor of Life…

Jean arrived on Mars that she renamed Lukedonia; after discovering that the planet is sentient, and wanted to be her friend, she started building on Lukedonia’s surface while creating her own retreat and her base that she called Citadel.

As they get comfortable on Lukedonia, the small  group start devising a plan to take down the enemy of free will, the Time Variance Authority. God even their name is fucking arrogant what happens to them in that chapter is entirely deserved.

Ladies and gents, I give you chapter 28!

 

# # #

(General Overview)

December 5th, 2013

 

A black five kilometers long warship exited a slipspace rupture right behind the dark side of the moon, another silver and sleeker ship followed it. They didn’t announce themselves, they just stayed in orbit of Earth, freaking out everyone planetside. The ship’s hulls were radar absorbent, the only way they were noticed was through cameras, telescopes and the ol’ eyeball mk1.

Jean and Andromeda didn’t seem to care about the people they were frightening. The two ships began shooting at a point in space and like broken glass, an aperture appeared in the Canadian wilderness.

The bigger spaceship slowly entered Earth’s atmosphere, frightening NORAD into dispatching multiple wings of fighters. A decision that multiple countries have taken and sent their own emergency fighters wings to support The US and Canada. Whatever missiles they sent at the craft were stopped by a forcefield; they switched between offensive to monitoring when they noticed that they didn’t fire back at them.

When the ship stopped before the aperture in space people in power thought it had created, a lone figure exited a hangar bay and jumped from the eight hundred meters that separated it from the ground. The form of a figure in golden heavy armor, red hooded cape with a sword and a huge gun walked toward the portal.

She looked up and a huge energy field covered the ship, the landscape and the portal. Four other people descended and one of them was familiar to the analysts following the actions; Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard. The Asgardian waved at the drones and fighters, then a golden portal opened and he disappeared into it; the others with him went through another.

The field suddenly became opaque and the world was kept in the dark about what the aliens were doing on Earth.

 

# # #

 

Back with Jean…
Earth-761243 / Earth-794282 / Earth-TRN870 / Earth-199999
Citadel at the End of Time

 

The people on Earth were sometimes too nosey for their own good. I was fighting for their own free will, to give them the choice to make mistakes and not follow the script of some bastard with a guilt complex bigger than Tony Stark’s. He Who Remains, what an arrogant title; the bastard created a problem and just like his erstwhile ancestor, Reed Richards, made it worse. 

Nathaniel Richards, was a scientist of the 31st century, where he discovered the existence of Parallel Universes. And this is where the problem is, the stupid wanker didn’t expect his alternates to also discover the same fact, and naturally they came into contact with each other. So they all became huge friends and sang kumbaya and started sharing knowledge and technology with each other to improve their universes. 

Obviously, there were some morally bankrupt assholes in the lot, just like Reed Richards, damn I’m so going to erase him from my timeline when I get back home… Like I said, there were some bad apples in the alternates of old Nathaniel -I hate that name- and they started to get design on the universes of their alternates for resources and then started a multiversal war.

So basically, the bastard in the Citadel before me in the melded remnant of four universes came up with a plan. He found some non-corporeal entity that is capable of consuming time and space itself and won against every one of his alternates by weaponizing the creature. After that he created this space, violated the multiversal laws by founding the TVA and prevented any branch timelines from growing. Stealing the most important thing for a universe to grow and thrive: Freewill.

I don’t care that he doesn’t know, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

You can't defend your actions by arguing you didn't know they were illegal, even if you honestly did not realize you were breaking the law. Just like Richards, this guy took everything in his hand and didn’t bother asking people for help and make things worse, results? An uncountable number of lives in all the universes he destroyed were lost.

That is why I walked up toward the damn Citadel and started turning everything to dust around me. Oh they tried to stop me, the Time-Keepers, the Minutes Men… It was under the Bolter fire that I was slaugh- eliminating the Minute Men. They tried their best to kill me. They were going to be reborn in their proper timelines, so I didn’t bother trying to save them.

“Please stop!”

“We surrender!”

“Mercy!”

Their cries of mercy fell on deaf ears, I simply vaporized them with my Melta-gun once I ran out of bolter ammunition. I spoke to everyone in the corridor who was still present. “Heretics crave the cleansing fire of absolution. They need not fear, for I shall deliver it to them.”

My feet stomped over the tiles as I cleaned the corridors and shut down all their attempts to kill me. A Minute Man jumped from the ceiling and touched me with his pruning stick. “I- got you!”

I chuckled, and held onto the gadget and disintegrated it. Seized the man by his neck and slammed him on the floor before me. “Useless, you try to expunge me from the timeline that I’m already in control of? You have committed the ultimate heresy. Not only have you turned your back on all life and stepped from the light, you have profaned and destroyed everything the One Above All has striven to build. You have perverted and twisted the path He has laid for Mankind to tread. As your own organization’s decrees have stated, there can be no mercy for such a crime, no pity for such criminals. You cannot be allowed to live. Your sentence has been long overdue and it is now time for you to die.”

I wasn’t here to play games. All the mindwiped alternates from the destroyed universes I gave them peace and burned them down with cosmic fire. I continued until I emptied the entire citadel with my powers. I left the best for last, in his office. I opened the door and saw Nathaniel Richards looking at me with defiance and an amused expression.

He wore a swanky black bodysuit with purple robes; he looked at me up and down and said, “You are not who I expected to see right now. Should I bow to this God Empress?”

I chuckled, he knew that I was trolling, too bad I was going to kill him today. “Loki and Sylvie won’t be coming; I changed this timeline, killed all your agents in the multiverse and me getting rid of you today will make it so that all the timelines you destroyed with your pet get reestablished.”

His face changed and he shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re doing.’

Nathaniel stood up from his seat, but I was faster and destroyed his desk by burning it into cinder, killed his weaponized dimensional cloud-like pet by wishing it into non-existence and grabbed him by the neck. “Oh, I know what I'm doing, Nate.”

I lifted him from the ground and looked into his eyes. “But do you?”

He lowered my hood while struggling and then… he recognized me; there was a multitude of emotions passing through him, until they settled on disbelief. “You are-!”

“Jean Grey, Phoenix Avatar.” I said while letting him go to sit on his ass before me.

Nathaniel stood up and massaged his neck. I told him at the same time, “You messed up badly, instead of going through the correct channels, you destroyed billions of timelines and went against the natural order. There’s a price to pay for your actions.”

He glared back at me and justified himself with a, “I was trying to save the multiverse!”

I laughed at him. “This is the kind of thinking that brought me here; just like all Richards, your biggest mistakes have always been born from the best intentions. Your curiosity toward domains that should not be explored has destroyed your universe and perverted all the creations, and walked all over the bottom line of the Abstracts. You knew exactly what you were doing, didn't you?”

That shut him up. “...”

I took my power sword, it hummed with psionic energy. “After all, you have hidden your actions from their eyes thanks to their foe, the Beyonders.”

Looking around his office, I saw the cosmic cube on display under a glass bell; it sure didn’t look like the tesseract. “What did they give you to turn your back on your universe? Knowledge? Technology?”

He stayed firmly silent as I looked at him.

“You don’t need to answer. The Richards men have always loved knowing things.” I shrugged as I prepared myself to fight him.

It was about time for old Nathaniel to want to fight for his life as he couldn’t negotiate nor explain himself to me as I already saw through him. His robes and bodysuit switched to a purple power armor. I looked into the blue faced helmet he wore, his glowing purple eyes were trained on me. “Why do you think you can stop me? You came into my place and killed all my people and expected me to lay down my life for you?”

He started siphoning cosmic force in his armor. “I don’t live in a straight line, and with time, I can skip to the end-”

However… nothing happened when he threw his hands at me; Nathaniel looked at his armor and then at me. With a big smile, I asked him, “Was it supposed to do something?”

I took his fucking Beyonders cube and used technopathy to control his armor; Nate had omniscience, but a lesser version of it compared to me, who is bonded to the Phoenix Force. I’m not going to give him what he wants.

“No way.” He looked at me with fear in his eyes. 

I slowly walked up to him. “Even in this pocket universe, you have no power here. I’m sorry if you expected an epic struggle of some sort, but you aren’t worth it.”

There were things I needed to do and right now wasn’t the time to play, this was work. “I will fix this multiverse war problem that you caused. I’m going to make all your alternates cease to exist, great right? At some point in time, thanks to you, there will be no more Richards to muck things up.”

I raised my sword which started vibrating, I deactivated his cosmic armor, exposing his fleshy human ass. 

“Wait, we can-” He tried to say, but then I stabbed him in the solar plexus.

He looked at me in disbelief; did he think that I was some kind of Avengers or some goodie two shoes that he could guilt trip? “Good bye.”

I didn’t let his soul fly out of his body and grabbed his corpse to place him in my dimensional space. With 10.01% of my power I started breaking down this amalgam of universes, creating a new big bang to remake them. I skedaddled from here, I had a delivery to do for Death, Oblivion and my pal the Tribunal.

 

# # #

(Overview General)

 

After one day passed, the opaque energy barrier turned transparent as the golden armored figure walked out of the portal and closed it. She jumped high and landed inside the hangar of the ship and after thirty minutes the field disappeared and the spaceship disappeared by becoming invisible. SHIELD and the Military searched for it but couldn’t find it.

Some people recognized the armor that the being wore and said that it was strangely reminding them of the power armor that the Space Marines in Warhammer 40k wore; more precisely the Sister of Battles. The naysayer told the geeks to shut up and look for the aliens. They were all searching frantically, but found nothing.

The videos of the spaceship entering orbit finally circulated back on youtube after some careful leaks from highly placed people. People asked themselves why America kept being invaded by aliens and who they pissed off again. This time no one called the Avengers, despite Stark coming himself, he was refused landing on site.

There was nothing happening as the aliens seemingly left, having succeeded in their goal, or did they?

 

# # #

(Hela & Thor)

 

 Russian Airspace
Red Room Mobile Facility
One day earlier…

 

The portal opened in a wing of the facility, right in the middle of a bunch of training women and younger girls. They immediately attacked Thor and Hela. The princess of Asgard was having none of that and pinned them all to the walls of the training room with her swords.

Thor used a centripetal sleep spell to render everyone they captured unconscious. They were interrupted by a blonde Midgardian entering the room, seeing everyone down and then smoothly and swiftly unsheathing large knives and throwing them at Thor who deflected them. 

She charged him completely ignoring Hela, that was a mistake as the Goddess of Death caught the blonde by the neck and slammed her on the ground and lost consciousness. Thor was about to finish the job and smash her head in with his axe but his elder sister stopped him by seizing his weapon arm.

“Jean said to not kill them, remember?” Hela reprimanded.

Thor, who had been lost in battle-lust calmed down. “I… do, sister.”

Hela sighed, she was happy about bonding with him, but if he gave in to his battle lust after only six months in her presence she would need to get Jean to rectify that. Or better, Frigga or Odin; yes this was a good strategy, let the parents do the work for her. Hela decided to proceed on her current mission and looked at all the women and girls and whipped out her hand and they were all transmogrified into stone, then she shrunk them to place them in the pocket space that Jean had created for her.

It was strange to see all the stones being siphoned into the pocket space. “Let’s continue brother.”

“I need more control, Hela.” Thor opened and closed his fist as he did get stronger and no longer knew what limit to put on himself when he fought Midgardians.

Hela opened the door to the training room, turned and said, “Clearly, mhm… you need to fight without your weapon. Remember to try to act with finesse rather than brute force with your power. Instead of a bolt of lightning, what you need is… what do the mortals call it? A taser, yes that; regulate your lightning to take them out with that output.”

A rotund man clothed in full military uniform came into the room, he was accompanied by someone in a white suit with a skull helmet; Thor raised his hand toward them and said, “Like this?”

Krakoom! KZzzzt! Slap! Him and the helmeted woman, because those curves were totally womanly, got caught in the electrical blast and slammed on the plaster wall behind them.

Hela, necrosword in hand, walked up to them and carefully checked the two downed midgardians' pulse.  “Hmm, it’s enough to knock out a human, even an enhanced one. Use this level of power.”

Thor preened, with a big dopey smile. “I’ll do it.”

He was happy to have gotten the feel of holding back on the first try. As he walked to the two people, the face of the bespectacled fat man was familiar. "Huh, wait, I think we have already taken out the leader. What was his name again?"

Hela rolled her eyes, it's just like Thor to not pay attention, she said, "General Dreykov."

The Prince of Asgard snapped his fingers and smiled at his elder sister. "Yes that, Midgardian and their funny naming conventions…"

Hela continued as she put her blade to the fat Russian's neck. "He was one of the main objectives, but we aren't yet done, Brother. My future wife wants these Midgardian trained assassins to save them and work under her and she shall have them all and this facility's secrets."

Thor solemnly nodded,  he knew that in her own way Jean was here to do good and had a mission to make their universe better. "Then I shall help, I will finish the mission."

"You have my thanks, brother." Hela gave him a smirk.

Thor turned and with cape billowing walked in the corridor to finish raiding this training facility. Hela snorted, Thor was so eager he even went ahead. *And this is how you get men to do the dirty work for you. Fighting weaklings is disappointing… I should have gone with Jean.*

She turned Dreykov and his puppet into rock and put them in the pocket space, stood up and followed after her little brother.

 

# # #

 

Back to the present with Jean…

 

I exited the private space of the Abstracts and returned on my ship; Nathaniel Richards and all his alternates won’t ever exist again because of the problems they caused. At some point in time, the Richards lines will also disappear; replaced with new better and smarter heroes who won’t muck up the multiverse. I wouldn’t be surprised if the laws on dimensional travel get more… tightened up after this. Mission accomplished I guess, now I could enjoy my fucking vacation until time run out.

I sat on the command chair, and time stopped around me. As I expected, a second me appeared. She was clad in a white Phoenix uniform and sitting at the helm’s station of the bridge and swiveled her chair to face me. After an intense stare down, Jean Prime finally said, “You surprised me, Jean… you finished your homework rather fast.”

In retrospect, it was obvious that Jean Prime would come to meet me after I finished the job. “I didn’t want to waste time on the fuck up of that dude; now I want to have a good lie in and fuck my Hela and do some genocide of acceptable targets.”

Prime grimaced. “Ah, you already got influenced by her somewhat, you’re still not over your bad girl fetish.”

I raised a brow at Prime’s hypocrisy and then glared at her. “Don’t throw meteors from your thin glasshouse, Prime. Not when you’re all over Death…”

Was that a blush on her cheeks? She waved away my words with, “This and that are different.”

“Not to me.” I crossed my legs, still glaring at her. No one shit on my Hela, she’s mine! After an intense stare down of my own, Prime finally caved.

Prime revealed, “Dee is a fucking psychopath in bed, sue me!”

As expected… We really like Goth girls and Lady Death was the ultimate one. I teased her with, “Oh, this is your nickname for her, how cute.”

In answer, she smiled and asked, “Do you want to be sent through a black hole?”

No! I don’t want to see what a black hole looks like from the inside! I mimed zipping up my mouth. “Shutting up now.”

Prime rolled her eyes. “No, no, I want to discuss with you; let’s change the subject. Jean, let’s talk about why you didn’t erase the Eternals yet.”

I snapped together my fingers. “Ah, I knew I forgot something!”

Those people are so insignificant that I almost forgot them; oh and that baby Celestial in the center of the Earth needed to go too. “I will do it after meeting the Avengers.”

Prime made a horrified expression. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes?” Why was she getting afraid? I just planned to have some fun with my favorite Tony and Bruce.

“Please don’t do that.” She stood up and pleaded.

I frowned. “Don’t do what?”

“What you’re planning!”

I’m thinking about how hot Pepper is. I cocked my head as I said, “Cuck Tony?”

Prime sighed and threw me a deadpan stare. “Jean, I know you, you’re not into NTR. I mean Ultron.”

Dissembling and lying won’t work; so I guess I have to ask, “I want my own Synthezoid. Is it too much to ask?”

Prime must have found a way for me to have the safe and good version of Ultron, her eyes shone with golden light and she raised two fingers. “No mind stone, no connection to the internet.”

I needed to cleanse the mind stone anyway, maybe I can use another to make Ultron.“Yes, a completely isolated computer with my Ultron running on it, can I make it a girl?”

There was silence for a moment before Prime asked me with a reproachful tone, “What’s your problem with motherhood lately?”

I averted my eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sapphira, Lukedonia, Anima.” Three names was all she had to say to make me confront my current mood.

Ah, fine. “I remember our past life.”

Prime’s expression on her face softened. “Ah, you remember Al and Di. I miss them too, but they had fulfilling lives after our passing.”

I looked down, “At least there’s that…”

Prime changed the subject right away as I felt down. “Cool, so next is Ultron, HYDRA and…?”

I smiled, we were back on familiar grounds. “Thanos and his little band.”

The White Phoenix of the Crown giggled. “It will get more complicated than that.”

I tried to shove her with a TK push, but it had no effect. I still screamed, “No spoilers!!” 

Each time she said something to me, it was to nudge me in the direction that she wanted, sometimes to the detriment of my wellbeing. Her precognition and her omnipresence could be a bother sometimes. Prime smiled and said, “Oh you’re properly paranoid.”

Prime then looked up, a dark bubble of energy materialized over her head. “Hmm, Dee is calling me, later Jean.” She waved at me and left, the bubble absorbing her entire form.

Time resumed and then I looked as Anima manifested next to me, she raised her hard light right palm and then I did the same to high five her. She was too cute and she looked so much like me… “Everything is going well?”

We had seeded multiple spy satellites in orbit, Anima could spy on my friend at any moment. The Smart AI replied mechanically, “Creator, user Jane and security chief Gabriel are in London in a cafe, they’re discussing with two people.”

I nodded. “Ah she must be recruiting Darcy and Selvig.”

“What about Hela-”

Shhhufff! A dark triangle shaped portal opened and out of it exited Hela, I wasn’t seeing Thor, he was supposed to be with her.

“Hela?” The princess of Asgard walked up to me in all her regalia.

Hela dismissed her bladed helmet. “We’ve completed our task, Jean. We finally gathered your future army of assassins.”

I clapped. “Oh! Nice! But they ain’t all going to become assassins you know. I just wanted a crew for Romi.”

Some of those girls might want to go back to their parents, unless they were sold by them… this is going to be profitable in the long run, I am sure.

“Did you bring Dreykov and Belova to me?” I asked Hela.

She opened her pocket space and a little red box wrapped with a white bow floated toward me. I took it in hand and Hela said with a proud smile, “I even packaged them.”

I chuckled at the dark humor and flirted back with her. “You know how to please me, Hela and I love your sense of humor.”

She raised her chin in appreciation. “What about the widows?”

An avalanche of boxes stacked neatly on the bridge. “Mhm, here they are.”

The Death Goddess smiled as I began counting the one-hundred-sixty of them. The boxes all disappeared in a flash of blue energy as they were transported to the medical block of the Andromeda Ascendant. With an expectant expression Jean was about to ask, “Where are the-”

Plop. A case full of vials full of glowing red gas opened at my feet; Hela had a satisfied smirk on her face. She liked getting one over me. “Here’s the red dust.”

I nodded, the case floated next to my head. “I’m going to synthesize this and we will free all the girls.”

The Red Dust has the ability to immunize the brain's neural pathways, curing any form of chemical subjugation a person may have been exposed to. Hela sauntered toward me and then sat on my lap, wrapped an arm around my shoulders and asked, “And now what is my… Reward?”

That woman had a one track mind, so this is why she did all this? I really wanted to take her there and now… but I wanted to be done with this fast and get back to her and take two whole days for us. “I’m going to reward you, Hela. After I’m done.”

Hela looked disappointed, sighed and looked me in the eyes. “Promise?”

I put a hand on her cheek. “Have I ever lied to you, my dear?”

The Asgardian Princess’ smile returned, she said… she ordered me, “I shall await your presence in my quarters.”

She stood up and strutted out of the bridge, my eyes never leaving her swinging hips. Why am I always attracted to bad girls?

 

# # #

(Tony Stark)

 

4 days later…
Tony’s penthouse
Avengers Tower

 

The aliens were back, but the spaceships they had with them were both of a different configuration or should Tony say, they have different building principles? It was blatant, the second ship was certainly bigger, but more blocky and seemed to have more weapons. The first ship was delicate and still visible in orbit but on radar and other detection instruments it was invisible.

Tony then guessed that the other one was somewhere on Earth with active cloaking. The atmosphere in the penthouse became darker; the sky which has been clear all morning became cloudy. Thunders rumbled and a lightning bolt descended on the landing deck. KRAKOOOM!! KZZZZT!! 

“Man of Iron, I’ve come for your alcohol!” Thor bellowed as he appeared wearing a black version of his armor and a red cape.

Tony stared at the Asgardian from the swimming pool; barely recognizing him, because Thor didn’t have his hammer. “Thor?”

The Asgardian saw Tony laying on his lounging chair and he jumped there, right next to Tony. “It is I; are you happy to see me?”

Tony stood up on his feet, the warm atmosphere of the climate controlled penthouse became chillier as Thor stood before him. A Thor who had been present when that warship from four days ago had been spotted. “Point Break! You’ve got some explaining to do! Where have you been?!”

Thor scratched his beard as he looked at the offended Man of Iron, then he perked up as he understood why he was mad right now. “Oh, is it about how I arrived here?”

The billionaire crossed his arms and nodded. “You know it.”

Thor sighed. “Ah friend Stark, I think we need a lot of alcohol for this story.”

Tony looked at how weary Thor looked and relented; he could be patient after all…“Okay, come, let’s go to the bar.”

The story of what Thor had been up to those last three months unfolded; he worked hard for his father, quelling the rebellions caused by the fact that the Bifrost was damaged. Countless bandit gangs, warlords and would-be conquerors rose up. Thor and his people imprisoned, silenced or killed the rebels. Tony, in his thoughts, felt a bit horrified by the practice; but reminded himself that Asgardians were still a feudal society and were kept unchanging in this way by their king.

The situation changed when Jane Foster, Thor’s main squeeze on Earth, couldn’t be seen by the Big Brother they have on watch on Asgard. This is where things get funky, Thor brought back Jane to Asgard, only to discover that she was dying by entering into contact with a powerful artifact. She was only saved because a visiting Goddess was here to extract the artifact which had merged with Jane.

Thor was emptying Tony's wine reserve as he spoke of a woman able to take down entire armies, create life by just wishing it, stop time and make Odin listen to her. Something almost impossible, because he had the big stick; but now that Phoenix girl has the bigger stick and the All-Father was made to listen.

The big lug even discovered that he has a sister, called Hela, that was exiled because she wanted to make a coup and become Queen of Asgard. Hela was banished like he was by Odin, she even killed some of her own soldiers when she attempted her escape from Hel. *Who wouldn’t?*

Thousands of years later, that Phoenix girl went to Hel, battled Thor’s sister and sexed her into becoming a good girl. To Tony this sounded like the plot of a badly written hentai anime. Then after returning to Asgard, Thor, Jane and others were grabbed to participate in a mission on Earth to destroy some villains.

Tony gulped the rest of the whisky in his finely crafted crystal glass. “So, some uber God-like girl got a mission on Earth and brought you and your elder sister that you just discovered  some months ago on Earth to destroy a subversive enemy of some sort who used time travel to steal people’s freewill. And she’s out there, killing things on Earth?”

Thor slapped the bar's counter and looked seriously into Tony’s eyes. “Please never compare the Phoenix Avatar to a God, Gods' fear and are lesser than her, she’s powerful enough to turn this entire sector of the galaxy to dust. Then again, I’m sure that I am underselling her deeds.”

This was the first time that Tony saw Thor act like this, but the billionaire was a man of science and logic. He asked a question that he had been wanting to ask the Asgardian Prince since the start of his story. “So why does she need ships to get around?”

Thor looked stumped and filled his mug with wine again, this time mulled wine to be accurate. When he finished drinking, he said, “To be honest, I asked myself the same question. I saw her fly into space under her own power and thrive there in the sea of stars. The only answer I have for you is because that amuses her.”

Tony couldn't understand what Thor was saying, then he thought about Star Trek TNG and the Q; that entity acted exactly just like that Phoenix girl the Asgardian spoke about.

Thor confirmed Tony’s train of thought. “Lady Jean is a good person… however… She likes playing with people, to give them hope and wrench it away at the last moment. If you become her enemy she becomes a rather merciless individual. ”

Then the billionaire realized why Thor was here; it was to tell him to behave because, “Let me guess… Phoenix girl is coming here?”

Thor showed an expression as if he was really apologetic. “She’s coming here, yes; she said that she wanted to meet you, Man of Iron.”

And when Thor finished saying this, the sky that could be seen through the panoramic windows darkened. “Fuck.”

"Ah she is here, you should clear the landing pad." Thor remarked.

Tony walked up to the window and looked up; floating in the sky at least one hundred meters from Avengers Tower was the gigantic warship from four days ago. 

ZOM ZOM ZOM ZOM ZOM. The noise it produced was rather loud, so much so that the windows started vibrating. 

An aircraft exited one of the ports on the warship's starboard, it looked like a more boxy silver Quinjet that Tony created. It was rugged and seemed to use a propulsion system completely different from his repulsor technology. There were no weapons visible, but that didn't mean anything.

Beep! Beep! 

Tony’s smartphone started ringing, he pulled it out of his pocket and saw the personal number of a certain pirate super spy. He hung up, knowing that he would just get yelled at. 

 

# # #

 

Back with Jean…

 

The D77H-TCI Pelican features a versatile airframe, a power-efficient thruster configuration, and dense ablative armor for quick-transfer deployments deep into foe-occupied areas. It was rather fast as well, but today we didn’t need fast. This was more a show of power than anything and I didn’t want to use my status as an avatar right now. But I was technically the head of state of Lukedonia right now.

The Pelican touched down, the pilot android opened the exit hatch at the back of the dropship. It opened and Hela, Gabriel, Amora and Lorelei stood up from their seats.

It did look spartan inside the dropship, but it was okay in my books, no need to add fancy seats there. My attention was attracted to the sudden influx of helicopters around my ship; I simply gave a mental command and the ship went into stealth and raised to the planet’s mesosphere over Manhattan. At least it gave me an idea of how my own planet in my home universe will react when I bring big ships in orbit of Earth.

Hela was wearing a red and black version of her armor while I was wearing a Systems-Commonwealth uniform. I intended to wear an Imperial power-armor to meet with Stark; but… I just wanted to relax. I mean, I just killed one hundred thousand people in the TVA HQ, it was surprisingly well staffed. Nathaniel Richards has been kidnapping and wiping the minds of a lot of scientists and people with specialized knowledge to keep his operation working.

Fortunately, the timelines affected have all been reinstated and the people I killed were brought back to life and living their previous existence unaware of what has happened to them in their previous incarnations. So any guilt I may try to load on my own shoulders was invalidated; Prime herself made me know that all was well.

It wasn't an absolution, but I would take it. I had enough on my mind, but the time away from my home universe was doing wonders. The girls and I walked up toward the entrance of the hangar, only to see Tony and Thor; I felt Tony’s burst of lust when he saw me and each of the girls, but his desire was quickly put under control and quashed as he reminded himself that Pepper was even more beautiful and completed him.

This surprised me, and I liked that; he was a good guy if you dug deep, he wanted to do good and have his name remembered. Anyway, ignoring the Robert Downey Junior look alike, I ran toward the prince and ambiguously hugged him. 

“Thor! My friend!” I patted his back and let go of him.

He knew exactly what I was doing, and he rolled his eyes and pushed me away a bit. “Lady Jean, I’m happy to see you well, did you succeed in your mission?”

With a matter of fact tone, I said, “Yes, the man who has been orchestrating everything was condemned to the void of non-existence, as all his alternates.”

Thor gulped and said with a little trembling in his voice, “This… is a Fate worse than death.”

From the point of view of someone who aspired to become a legendary king, I could understand why this sentencing frightened him so much. “Lord Oblivion is quite thorough.”

“Ah so it wasn’t you who carried it out.” Thor sighed in relief and patted my head, undoing my hairstyle. 

I glared at him, and used TK to redo my hair, at the same time I said, “Nope, you already know my portfolio, Life, Death, Destruction, Psionic Nexus, Balance, Evolution.”

Cough. The inventor that we’ve been ignoring was finally back into the conversation as he interrupted Thor and I. Walking up to him, I said with a wave of my hand, “Hello there!”

Tony’s face froze for a moment, then he chuckled, “Was that a Star Wars quote?”

I put a hand on my chest and said with a sigh of relief, “Thank Gaia, someone finally understands when I quote pop culture!”

Holding my hand up, I introduced myself, “I’m Jean Grey. You must be Tony Stark, I have been dying to meet you.”

Stark took my hand and shook it firmly. “Not literally, I hope?”

“Death never bothered me, it doesn’t stick.” I cocked my head and laughed.

Tony’s eyes left me and focused on the Pelican. “Nice bird that you got here, what does she have under the hood?”

I nodded, smiling at how easy it was to build. “Ah yes, the pelican. It uses a Bussard Ramjet system that uses magnetic fields to attract hydrogen for propulsion. Really easy to make with the right materials.”

For humans of this world, the Pelican’s propulsion system is supposed to be theoretical and costly. I still can’t believe the tech was proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard, those old dudes in the past were visionaries. I’m half tempted to bring back others like Nikola Tesla and Einstein to see what they would make with the technology of today. But no… I can’t destroy the balance.

Tony’s eyes lit up when he noticed that I spoke his language. “Oh, I never thought about that kind of system, which special alloy do you use as a superconductor?”

I wasn’t about to tell him that I’m using some kind of superconducting plasma in the stuff. I coily said, “Maybe I can tell you over a drink, Doctor Stark.”

Hela, who didn’t like to be ignored, placed herself next to me, and placed a possessive arm around my shoulders. “Not just a drink! I’m hungry, my love.”

My girl being jealous was quite touching, she didn’t react like this when we were fucking Amora together… <You don’t have anything to fear, you know. Men rarely interest me nowadays>

<But I know men, they often get ideas where beautiful women are concerned.> Hela mentally replied back.

Tony understood the byplay and saw that I was taken, even more so when the other girls flanked us. I sighed, “Ah, the girlfriend has spoken.”

Snorting, the billionaire took his phone in hand and said, “Let’s go order some groceries and have some BBQ and Pizza. Then you'll tell me what you want.”

I want a lot of things…

“You’re speaking my language, Man of Iron!” Thor yelled in joy.

The Asgardian in the party perked up, happy that there was finally going to be a feast; it was an important part of their culture. I took a huge transparent and hermetic crate from my pocket space. “Sea Serpent meat, anyone?”

Hela turned to me and had a betrayed expression on her face. “Jean, you still have some? Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Oops.“I remember why I was hiding that now…”

The girl was crazy for that meat, it kept making us stronger… Tony looked at us a bit lost. We will tell him the benefits of the meat later.

 

# # #

(Natalia Alianovna Romanova)

New York
Avengers Tower
1 hours after the warship appearance

 

Natasha, decked in her SHIELD uniform, didn’t know what she was getting into as she entered the building with Clint and Captain America. Fury decided to use Tony’s familiarity with those three to get to know what’s going on in the tower; just in case he prepared multiple strike teams to take care of business and a pair of birds which would take down whoever was inside with Tony.

The warship which had been flying over the city has scared everyone, and too many people have watched Independence Day and it hit home that they have no defense against orbital bombardment. They walked to the reception area and saw that it was full of civilians; Steve and Hawkeye immediately ordered the civies to evacuate the building.

It took over ten minutes for it to happen, and Natasha expected Tony to already know what they were doing, because of JARVIS already spying on them.

[Good Morning, Miss Romanoff.] A cultured voice greeted the redhead.

The voice came from the welcome counter, the monitor on the help desk turned and on the screen the AI’s geometric construct avatar appeared. 

“JARVIS, hello, could you tell Tony that we’re coming in?” The female assassin requested.

[Certainly, I can do that… However, I must ask you to leave any weapons on your persons in the armory on floor 90. Sir’s guests are quite… dangerous.] 

Natasha stayed expressionless, but her voice went somehow higher as she became worried; she sure hoped that this wasn’t a hostage situation. “Is Tony in danger?”

“Maybe we should have gone with the assault plan…” Clint said next to her.

[I assure you that Mister Stark’s guests are currently peaceful, there’s Thor and his three other Asgardians in the penthouse, as well as another person that my scans report as human, but everything she does defies logic and science. Ah… it seems that you’ve been detected, Mister Stark and Miss Grey are inviting you to the BBQ. Please enter the elevator.]

This put to rest everyone’s fear, but the problem of having many aliens with powerful enhanced technology superior to earth present didn’t change. “Thank you, JARVIS…”

[My, you’re welcome, Miss Romanoff.]

Natasha turned to Steve Rogers in his iconic uniform and his shield. But it was Clint who asked, “Game plan?”

The redhead still thought that they were all going to step into the unknown at great risks.

“There’s no game plan, Hawkeye. We’re here just as Tony’s friend, remember? We’re going to eat BBQ with the aliens and Thor.” The Captain said decisively.

*No choice but to plunge into the abyss. As usual.* She thought to herself as she walked toward the elevator bank.

It took five minutes in the elevator to reach floor 90. The trio stayed silent as they assumed that they were being monitored. But they did talk with hands and arms signals. Basically, Natasha was asked to keep her concealed weapons on her person and only put the obvious twin pistols at her disposal in the armory.

The elevator stopped moving and with a 'ding' sound its doors opened on the lounging area of floor 90.

The trio was led directly to the armory by following the path that JARVIS highlighted for them; the AI kept the doors to the lounge area closed and opaque. It didn’t take long to reach their destination; and what wasn’t surprising when a bunch of clothes were prepared for them. A red purple casual dress and low heeled sandals for  Natasha, polo and t-shirts with pants for Clint and Steve.

“I guess the plan for concealed weapons is moot.” Natasha said, now knowing that whoever was there could anticipate their moves.

The dress she has been given had a half sleeve empire waist, with pleated swing; whoever had chosen this had conservative tastes, but it could be worse, she could be forced to put on nothing. Clint frowned as he saw the dress in Natasha’s hands, he was getting angry for her sake. Natasha thought, *How… chivalrous of him.*

"Why is Tony letting them dictate what to do in his own house?" Clint said as he put down his quiver and bow on the table.

Steve put down his helmet first, then his shield, next was the service weapon that he reluctantly used. "Either he is being coerced or he is having fun at our expense.”

Natasha said out loud, “The second option sounds more like the Tony I know.”

The men put their clothes on first and left the armory, leaving Natasha to put on her clothes; she decided to believe in Tony, he would fight tooth and nail before he let someone take over his Tower or take him hostage. She put down all her weapons, even the special ones hidden in special folds. She put on the dress and trendy low heeled sandals. Natasha used the reflective surface on the wall facing her to style her hair; once done she left and found her two teammates waiting for her.

They walked into the lounge area, the windows gained transparency and they all watched Tony laugh with a young redheaded woman in a high-tech red bodysuit. 

Thor and three other women were grilling some meat and seasoning it; serving sandwiches to Tony and the woman in red. Her glowing green eyes focused on Natasha, Steve and Clint. Her voice rang with a low alto, which was amused and cold. “Doctor Stark, your guests are here.”

Tony turned on his sofa and smiled at the trio. “Legolas, Capsicle, Thighs; you came! Just like I expected.”

The other redhead chuckled and leered at the men. “I’m happy that they’re here, in particular the men, do you like the muscle shirts, guys?”

Steve and Clint must have felt the same Leer and the sensation of being licked by the woman, because the Archer mumbled, “So that’s how it feels…”

He turned to his teammate, Natasha, and said, “I’m sorry that you’re always being objectified, Nat…” There was an amused laugh at the end of his sentence.

Steve looked aimlessly at the two of them who were not being serious in this time of crisis and on a mission. 

“I’m used to it.” Natasha shrugged.  

[Ask who the woman in red is.] Fury said in the concealed communicator in her ear.

Natasha stared at the other redhead and asked Tony, “Who is she, Tony?”

Tony looked awkwardly between Natasha and the other woman. “Huh, that’s-”

The other redhead said, "I can introduce myself, Dr Stark." Her glowing green eyes focused on Natasha who became unnerved. She could recognize the eyes of a killer. “High-Guard Captain, Jean Grey of the Systems-Commonwealth and technically the Governor General of planet Lukedonia.”

Steve asked, “The ship from earlier… it was yours?”

Captain Grey nodded. “The Infinity is my flagship, it is a Supercarrier.”

Steve frowned. “A simple yes would have sufficed.”

The redhead made a beautiful smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “No, I want to give you more information to avoid the death of all the tactical teams around this building and to destroy the aircrafts flying around this island. Already 10 wings of my Slipfighters are ready to be deployed and target all your military, governmental and industrial facilities in case I’m attacked.”

“Oh.” Natasha closed her eyes; her intuition was spot on, that woman had more blood on her hands than her.

“She has to be… bluffing.” Clint couldn’t imagine it, that’s 720 advanced fighters of unknown specs.

Thor said out loud, “No, she isn’t.” And took a bite of the large burger he made.

Captain Grey nodded. “Now that we have measured and waved our conceptual male genital organs and shown that mine is bigger than yours, why don’t we all take a seat and start eating?”

Tony slapped his thigh, laughed, and said, “I like your style, Captain!”

Captain Grey high fived Tony. It was strange that the billionaire had no qualm about his country getting destroyed by an alien. But maybe he knew that she wasn’t going to do it unless SHIELD attacked. Natasha breathed in and out and said, “Please, give me one moment?”

"Sure." Captain Grey waved Natasha away.

The agent walked ten meters away and contacted her superior, "Sir, there’s a new development." 

[I heard, if we attack her she will destroy the country. Damn she’s not playing around…Motherfucker.]

"I miss Agent Coulson, he was more diplomatic than us." Natasha added, her being a point of contact with aliens wasn’t in her job description.

[I want you to accommodate the Captain and keep her happy.]

“Yes, sir.” Natasha made a sharp nod.

Captain Grey asked out loud, “What is she doing?”

Tony whispered, “She’s telling her boss to back off or you destroy America.”

The redhead tilted her head. “Eh, I would, and now that I know you, Dr Stark, I would let you rebuild it.”

Tony chuckled and scratched behind his head. “Nah, too much trouble, the institution is rotten to the core. I’d prefer making my own corporate government with AI overseers.”

Captain Grey took a bite of her hamburger; Steve and Clint were being given one with some french fries. After thinking about what Tony said, Captain Grey explained, “It could work, I’ve seen an example of it. Just make your AI or Cybernetics Intelligence or Infomorph unhackable and you’re golden.”

The captain’s right arm lit up with holograms. "The tech you developed is enough to send you into space. But what’s stopping you?”

“Ah, well. It’s a pain you know, all those people who would want a piece of the pie.”

“Hmm…” Captain Grey started to think about something, then a thick stack of paper appeared in her hands, she handed them to Tony. “I’m sure that you’ll like this, I always wanted to see one of your suits.”

“What’s this?” Tony began leafing through the stack of paper and complex formulas.

“Read it.” The redhead told him with an amused tone.

The more he read, the more excited Tony became. He looked up at the Captain. “Is this some kind of matter manipulation theory?”

Captain Grey looked disappointed and sighed. “Look deeper, Doctor.”

A jug full of alcohol appeared on the low table, and the captain drank it. She manifested similar jugs for Thor and the other Asgardians. “Thanks, beloved!”

Natasha and the others understood why JARVIS was so lost now, the redhead made things appear out of thin air.

“Mmh. My bad… This is Particle manipulation theory.” Tony said after delving longer into the paper.

“Yes, you’re smart, let me give you an example of it.” Captain Grey fished a plastic knife from her plate; she tilted her head and the white plastic turned into silverish metal. Everyone looked transfixed by what they were being shown.

She flicked the metal knife with her fingers and the sounds echoed for all to hear. Tony stood up and took the knife and proceeded to make some light test on it. After a moment he stared in awe at the Captain. “You just created a vibranium knife out of plastic by rearranging the matter.”

"Yes, I am giving you the theory, I know you can make technology on the fly."

Natasha didn't like what she was hearing, there must be a catch. Tony, bless his soul, knew what the trap was. "But this would kill the economy! People aren't ready for that kind of tech."

"Yes. You'd have to create a new economic model, similar to Star Trek federation TV shows." Captain Grey argued.

Natasha and the others didn’t understand what was happening there; Tony chuckled as he said, "I am surprised you know about it…"

Captain Grey took another swig of ale. “TV and Radio Signals coming from Earth reach a radius of 114 light-years. It’s quite easy to spy on your people.”

"What is she talking about?" Steve asked, he and the others had no background in science to explain this new development.

Tony paraphrased with air quotes, "She's saying that aliens spying on us is our own fault."

The Captain giggled. "Quantum Entanglement and subspace communications is a must if you want to be considered a spacefaring society."

After this, the BBQ broke down and Natasha had more questions about what just happened in the tower. Even more so when she started growing and becoming stronger. She wasn’t the only one going through those changes. Thor told them that the meat they ingested was from Sea Serpent and consuming its meat changed those who ate it. They became stronger, they healed from all their health issues and were also granted a slight regenerative factor.

“You’re welcome.” The Captain put her hands on her hips, with a proud smile.

Clint stood up and was shocked that he’s been changed without his say so. “Wait, you could have warned us!”

The redhead rolled her eyes. “This is just food.”

Thor interrupted the spat by saying, “Lady Jean, don’t lie, my people would sell a palace for even 1 Kg of this meat.”

She turned to Thor and made a point, “I can go to Asgard and kill the beastie when I want though.”

“She’s right, brother.” Hela, the other tall female Asgardian popped up. “I saw her kill it with my own eyes, the rain of blood was beautiful to witness.”

“Hela, not now…” Captain Grey pinched her nose.

The tall black haired woman laughed, putting her hand before her mouth to hide her smile. “Ah, I apologize. My last action in that red room academy was so lackluster.”

Natasha jumped over the low table and was in Hela's face. “What did you say?”

Hela wasn't intimidated at all and turned her head to Captain Grey. “Jean, love, is the little mortal trying to intimidate me?”

Jean Grey pointed her hand at Natasha who was scanned by a yellow light. Then multiple holographic windows with files belonging to Natasha appeared. The Captain nodded and said matter-of-factly, “Ah yeah, you’re from the Red Room, they created you? I have never seen such a barbaric place before.”

Natasha turned to the captain and yelled, “I destroyed the red room!”

The Captain snorted and said derisively, “Huh, no, honey, you didn’t. Your current boss lied to you. They just moved their operation to another aerial facility. All the widows and General Dreykov who survived your assassination attempt are under my care.”

[Don’t listen to her, Agent Romanov!] Fury shouted into the communicator.

Natasha frowned, but she mullishly said, “I don’t believe you-”

Slump. A fat balding old man in a Russian uniform lay unconscious on the floor. A golden portal opened and there were four women in the same bodysuit as Captain Jean Grey. The first one took her helmet off and surprise surprise, here was Yelena Belova.

“Елена (Yelena?)” Natasha said in a little voice as she stared at the other woman.

The blonde squinted her eyes at the redhead and said, “— Я вижу, ты сменила хозяина, Наталья. (I see that you switched masters, Natalia.)”

 

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A/N: Hey you'll get two chapters guys, because I'm going to be away for the rest of summer.