35 Chapter 34 - Finding Out

[April of 2012]

[°New York City°]

Andrew's P.O.V

I sat in at the rooftop of the Empire State Building invisibly – with clothes on – and looked at the scenery silently while things ran through my mind about what just happened to me.

The most prominent question that eclipsed all was the fact that.. I died.

Yes. I am very certain about this, but my question is, how am i still alive?

The last feeling that i had before dying was the worst kind of pain i have imagined as i felt as if i was being burned by some unusually strong flames that managed to affect me even with my relatively strong body.

And then after that was as if i was floating endlessly and then i woke up.

Did i get resurrected by someone or did my soul just chose a new body and then boom! I'm alive?

Sigh.. Too many questions with no answers.. but i know where to get the answer.

The X-Men and the Hellfire Club.

Wait.. What about that Cassandra Nova? Did she get defeated already or what? Because I'm pretty sure that she's not the reason for my death as i managed to protect my mind till the end after all.

Or is she still alive? Ugh.. That accursed woman's Telepathy was so strong that it even eclipsed Xavier's. I can still remember the feeling of her casual mind attack that almost collapsed my mind..

The second thing that really brought out some strange emotions out of me was the death of my group..

John Allerdyce, Illyana Rasputin, Azazel.

Even trying to tell myself that I'm not affected by their death wasn't really working as I've gotten attached to them. To John and Illyana specifically as i have just got Azazel's company for a few days.

So in the end. After much thoughts and deliberation, I've come to the decision to honor John's goal and dreams and finish it myself. His dream of a world where there is really a place for the mutantkind, his dream where the mutantkind are standing equally.. No.. where the mutantkind are standing even above the ignorant humans themselves...

Even though, I'm not really sure if I'm still a mutant with this new body, John's and Illyana's dream.. No.. Our dream, I will fulfill it.

But before all that, I need to make sure this new body of mine gets as strong or even stronger than my original body.

Also, after coming back to the city and getting myself some clothes, I found out that two months actually passed since i "died".

I wonder how the great Kingpin have been since I haven't seen him, did my telepathic suggestions got removed because of my death or he remained as he is?

Sigh.. questions again..

But before i find anything about him, I should first visit the X-Men and "see" for myself what really happened.

"Hisss~"

I inhaled the polluted air of the city and exhaled as i conjured reflective water in front of me as i looked at my new body.

I didn't really managed to take a clear look at this new body's features at first as i was too shocked by what happened and all. I brought my hand to my face and rubbed it as one word surfaced in my mind.

Average...

This new body's looks was as average as they can get with its wimpy-looking face and thin body. The only thing that seems to stand up was the unusual jet-black hair, pitch black pupils and pale skin tone.

They're too strange for me that it seemed suspicious but i just shoved it to the back of my mind as i manipulated my facial features and changed it another average face that one wouldn't be able to relate it to its previous one.

After doing all that shit. I floated from the rooftop and flew away while a force-field that protected my new fragile body from the g-force covered me as i flew.

—--—

[°X-Mansion°]

Andrew's P.O.V

Before going to the X-Mansion, i stopped and remembered that i need a new mind shield, and just after about 20 minutes, I managed to build a new one that was as strong as my previous one and the process was much smoother and easier than before.

I'm not really sure if this is because i have already done it before but even after doing it, it felt as if i can still upgrade so i went and made it more stronger and after all that, I was surprised to find that i can't even feel a single hint of mental fatigue as if what i did wasn't taxing at all.

It was very unusual but i just credited it to the fact that maybe i got stronger and shit after i died and all.

So now i hovered above the mansion and spreads my whole [ Psionic Sense ] – which was unusually bigger than before reaching over one kilometer – to cover the whole mansion.

There. I found the whole squad without even one missing from them all in the Danger Room.. wait no.. there's no Jean Grey here.

At that discovery, i made my whole senses carefully check the nook and cranny of the whole mansion and still didn't find her.

Is she on vacation or something?

Nah, that girl wouldn't go on a vacation without company. So where really is she?

As this question that have no answer surfaced my mind, I inevitably pulled a Charles Xavier on them and invaded Nightcrawler's mind and took a look through his memories.

After a few moments of reading all the X-Men's minds excluding Xavier. One word just flashed in my mind after i pulled my ability from their minds.

Fuck.

The Phoenix Force already woke up and broke free from her cage? Shit.

Though, if she woke up and shit, then why didn't she kill Charles who was the one to cage her in the deepest mind of Jean?

From the team's memory, he saw how the Phoenix was about to kill Charles and then suddenly she seems to lose control of her own hands and the cosmic flame in her hand that was supposed to incinerate Xavier was tossed to the ground and spreaded like a virus and quickly burned me and Illyana, John and Azazel.

So that's where i got the feeling of being burned alive by a strong flame, huh, definitely a bad experience if i must say..

But back to the question. Wasn't Jean supposed to be hating Xavier and shit after her sealed memories – along with the Phoenix – came back to her? Then why did it seemed as if she has partial control over her body – which was being controlled by the Phoenix – and stopped the latter from killing the bald cripple?

Damn! These unanswered questions just keeps multiplying and I'm getting fed up with it. Though, I can't do shit about it as we are talking about the Phoenix itself, a very powerful cosmic entity that embodies the Life, Rebirth and Destruction itself.

I removed the annoying thoughts as i reviewed the memories to see if i missed something and surprise surprise, I really missed a scene.

From the memory of Logan himself, I saw that after letting go of Charles, The Phoenix actually looked at my burnt pitiful body and approached it. She stared at my body for few moments and she seems to even muttered a few lines and then looked to the horizon as if she saw something flying away.

Wait, don't tell me..

The direction she looked to was the direction of the hospital this new body was from before being buried and she even stared at my old body for a moment and muttered, which was big as from what i can remember, there's a few things that catches the Phoenix's attention..

I know this is a big stretch but.. maybe.. The Phoenix is the reason why I'm still alive? Maybe she's the one who sent my soul to this new body?

Hmm.. very plausible, but still a bit farfetched because as I said, there's a few things that catches the Phoenix's attention, and there's nothing from me that would caught her attention..

Wait.. My soul.. If she really saw my soul, that means she saw my memories and saw me for what i truly am..

A being from out of this multiverse.

But if that's true, then she should have killed me or something, right? Arrghh! This questions are bugging my mind!

There's no use thinking about these kinds of things for now as i can't currently comprehend what thoughts are running in a mind of a cosmic entity.

The only thing that somehow brought some joy in me after i read the X-Men's memories was the fact that That Cassandra Nova was now dead, I'm pretty sure she's dead for real since it's the Phoenix that killed her itself and there's almost no coming back from that.

Though. This version of Cassandra Nova Xavier seems to be a true Omega Level Telepath that eclipsed even that of Charles whom i deduced was while powerful, have already reached the limit of what he can achieve.

Anyway. Now im'ma go visit where this X-Men buried my original body and my group's.

Flying a few hundred meters away from the mansion, i landed on a privately owned graveyard that Xavier owns.

Damn, this guy's truly loaded.

Xavier's whole private land property spans to a whopping three square-kilometers, and that's just from his X-Mansion, according to Ororo, this guy also got other private land properties on other locations.

Anyway. I stepped forward and saw four graves that each has all our names on it.

I chuckled a bit after my eye passed Azazel's as i saw from the memories of X-Men that they even debated if they should include Azazel to the graveyard at all seeing his devilish appearance.

Though, after a motivational speech from Ororo, the group relented – specially Kurt and Rahne who was too religious for their own good – and allowed Azazel's grave to be placed beside us.

Poor Kurt, didn't even managed to properly meet and talk heart to heart with his father Azazel.

Anyway. I stared at the graveyard and waved my hand as i psionically pulled a chunk of earth from the ground to come in front of me.

I manipulated it using Geokinesis – which was once again strangely much easier to use – and molded a section to shape like that of Illyana's Soul Sword and made it solidly stick on her Epitaph's upper section.

I then molded another section and made it to be like that of sculpture of a fire and made it sat atop John's Epitaph.

After that, I made long earth-colored carbon copy of Azazel's long tail and made it coil around his grave while it's sharp tip was pointing to whoever was standing in front of it.

And finally. I returned the rest of the earth to the ground and just focused on my grave's epitaph as i carved a relatively big symbol of Psi(ψ) on it.

ψ or Psi in Greek Alphabet represents the psyche which is of course mind or soul.

Hmm, not bad, not bad. Note to self to thank the Greek Gods for the wonderful symbol if i ever meet them in the future.

As I thought about the Greek Gods, my perfect memory worked its magic and the image of that pathetic excuse of Zeus from that comedy movie of Thor surfaced in my mind as i shuddered in disgust.

Anyway. I removed the distracting thoughts and continued standing in front of the graveyard as another idea surfaced in my mind.

Nobody usually stays dead in Marvel Universe..

There have been multiple evidence of that shit happening where the writers just wrote some bullshit and made characters just pop up from the dead.

So with that in mind, I'm pretty sure there's so many way on how John, Illyana and Azazel can magically/supernaturally/bullshittically come back to life.

Even the thought of gate-crashing the Hell Dimension of Mephisto guns blazin' (A/N: Dr. Doom Style) crossed my mind but i erased that impulsive and dangerous thoughts for three reasons.

One, it was said Mephisto was super strong in his own dimension so that's basically suicide.

Two, I'm still not sure if their souls really went to Mephisto's realm considering that there's so many hells out there and there's that bitch Mistress Death herself.

And three, how would i be able to do all these freaking things when I'm still weak?

So it still all boils down to my strength. With enough strength, I can dance my way around any place and all would be glad to entertain me.

With enough strength, I can make that simp comic Thanos become sigma like his MCU counterpart and all would sing to praise my unending glory.

So with gaining enough strength in my mind. I set my sights to the coming mind gem one month from now on.

*****

Give me the stones and the He-Who-Starved won't bother you in your dreams..

If you want to read ahead and support me at the same time, then be sure to visit my pãtreon. I post eight advanced chapters of my book on pãtreon.

www.pãtreon.com/moziel

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