217 Symbiote 0217: Warlock

Jane's horror-filled eyes met the man who was looking at her with hostility as his golden-green aura flared, "This is madness!" She shouted while getting ready for a fight.

"It is what needs to be done." The entrant spoke before attacking pushing an arm in front of himself and boosting toward Jane, aiming to punch her. She tried to defend herself with her hammer, bringing it in front of the newcomer's fist. Just as she tried to swing it, Jane felt a sense of pain that stemmed from her very soul and forced her to drop the hammer.

The punch made contact with her stomach, slamming her into the wall and breaking through it. [Didn't you already block their Soul Stone from affecting us?] She asked him.

Alex's tone was solemn, [I blocked us from one Soul Stone …] He trailed off.

[What do you …] Jane only needed a moment to process Alex's words, [They have two?] She asked, disbelief lacing her tone. The only reason that she didn't instantly deny the possibility was that Alex had already discussed with her that the stones were most likely broken up and spread all across the universe, diluting their authority.

[What are the odds, right?] Alex was just as surprised. Even after having hacked the systems of both the Xandarians and the Sovereign, he hadn't found any reference to the second Soul Stone.

'Ayesha …' Alex's thoughts directly honed in on the gold-skinned leader of both civilizations, 'She had more plans than what I could tell from the surface. And now, Jane's escape forced her to reveal herself.' Alex instantly thought about all sorts of things, realizing that there was most likely some being that Ayesha was being defensive against. The captured Thors weren't her targets. He felt that either she was following someone else's orders, or she was using the Thors as bait for someone or something.

Since his interest was piqued, he decided to at the very least have a conversation with this intergalactic ruler before he and Jane snatched the stones and disappeared from this planet. The man empowered by another Soul Stone quickly reached Jane as she powered herself up. Alex spoke in her head, [I'll block his stone from influencing you. Unlike the main stone, this one is merely using this man's life force — far from enough for the stone to be used at its full potential. Still, from the five minutes that we had left, we now have a little over three.]

Jane felt an uncomfortable feeling when she was reminded of the scene that she had just seen and nodded, powering herself up with lightning from Mjolnir that Alex had enhanced. The gold man saw Jane getting ready to attack and tried to get his Soul Stone to suppress her once again while approaching her to bring her away from the main scene.

[Try to get closer to the other stone, I'll try to snatch it. Once I can get it, we can fight this bitch on an equal level for as long as we need to.] Alex's words received a nod from Jane as she swung her hammer at the charging gold-skinned man. The surprised expression of the man was visible even through the thick sheen of his gold aura as Jane's hammer met his fist and threw him back with a blast of lightning, causing him to collide with the wall. He broke through back onto the previous chamber's balcony.

Jane was quickly upon him with her sword pulled back, ready to stab him. Feeling the life-threatening danger to his life whilst the Soul Stone sucked out his vitality while still being completely useless against his foe, the man felt his fight-or-flight instincts flare up. A warcry was followed by an explosion of his blinding gold aura that illuminated the surroundings and directly struck Jane's eyes with the light.

She wasn't deterred and continued moving forward, intent on attacking the man and finishing everything once and for all. Coupled with Alex protecting her eyes, she quickly stabbed her sword at the previous spot that the man was on. Unfortunately, the clanging sound of striking steel meant that he'd escaped. Just as Jane pulled back her sword, the light started receding and the man punched her waist, throwing her off to the side.

Jane felt her head banging against the railing of the balcony and stabilized herself, instinctively swinging her hammer to parry another of the man's blows. The ensuing lightning explosion pushed him back and Jane attacked him once again. The sword swung, whistling through the air as it made an arc toward the man who barely shifted himself to the side to dodge. A groan followed the gash that remained on his shoulder instead of his neck being chopped off.

He put a hand on his shoulder and looked at Jane hatefully. She didn't deign to care about his anger and quickly swung her sword again to finish things but the man let out another warcry. Jane increased her speed of movement, not wanting him to escape again, but this time, the golden aura didn't shine brightly. Instead, the green tint of his Soul Stone started overpowering his golden aura as it receded.

Just as the green aura took over, the man directly stopped Jane's sword with his bare hands, clasping it between both palms. Alex spoke in her head, [He is drawing out the potential of his soul with the stone. We may not be able to beat him directly, try to get close to the other stone so that I can get it.]

With her sword clasped, Jane quickly swung her hammer at the man, forcing him to let go of her sword. She gave an imperceptible glance at the generator in the center of the room that he noticed. Jane quickly swung her hammer at him, knowing that it would be almost impossible for him to stop it with his bare hands.

"I won't let you!" He screamed and flew up, out of the way of the hammer. He quickly sent out a beam of his now-green aura at Jane. She stabbed her sword on the floor in an attempt to block the attack. The attempt only partially worked. The beam was deflected into multiple weaker beams that spread out as if being reflected by Hofund, but Jane was still pushed back by the immense force of the attack, leaving a long gash on the floor.

Alex was getting irritated by the man's resilience — not understanding why Adam Warlock was working for the Sovereign in the first place. Not to mention that he seemed to be much less proficient with the use of the Soul Stone than he expected. He considered many possibilities about what the exact situation here could be, but none of them truly stuck. He shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on the fight again.

As Jane stood up, pulling her sword out of the ground, the man was upon her once again. A glowing green gem protruded out of the front part of his head as he continued channeling the power of his Infinity Stone. Jane met his charge with her hammer, pushing him back and slicing at him at the same time, leaving a nasty gash on his abdomen.

[We have less than a minute, Jane. I'll be out of energy at that point and we will both be forced to endure excruciating pain to use any of my Infinity Stones.] Alex told her, annoyed that he had to completely focus on resisting the influence of the two Soul Stones. He couldn't help Jane in the fight, nor could he separate himself and grab the other stone. Both of those things would distract him and could cause problems.

Jane heard Alex's words and decided to take things up a notch. She raised her hammer in the air and summoned a lightning storm right above the huge castle that housed not only the prison but everything related to the Sovereign on Xandar. The man tried to attack her with another beam — this one green — but she sent out an arc of Cosmic Energy from Hofund that disintegrated it until reaching the man. Sadly, he flared his aura as the green gem in the center of his forehead glowed brightly and dispelled the arc of Cosmic Energy.

An expression full of agony and pain appeared on his face for a moment before disappearing as he ignored it and cried out while attacking Jane once again. Parrying his fist with her hammer, Jane sent him flying into the wall and a bolt of lightning fell directly on him, piercing through the castle and causing a huge amount of rubble to fall down on top of him.

Hoping that the attack was enough, Jane didn't waste even a moment and used Mjolnir to propel herself to the Soul Stone that was powering everything. Just as she was about to destroy the turbine, the man burst out of the rubble with a desperate expression and charged her once again. He left a thick trail of green in his path as he reached her.

Unfortunately for him, Jane was close enough to the stone for Alex to merely need to extend a tendril into the turbine and wrap it around the stone.

***

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