Chapter Forty-Six

She was pinned down while a massive robot raged above them. It was honestly odd, to say the least, the level Dr. Bolivar Trask had gone to make this sentinel unbeatable. They've had dealings with the man in the past and Dr. McCoy had made simulations of his 'creation' in the Danger Room. This one seemed to be on a whole new level though.

Everything she and her other teammates threw at the massive thing just bounced off. Without a heavy hitter like Scott and a mechanical genius like Ben, they were poorly lacking when fighting a machine like this one.

"UNIDENTIFIED MUTANTS SURRENDER YOURSELVES," The massive robot said as it shot lasers out of his hand pummeling the surroundings while attempting to capture the x-men. With each step it took the ground shook and each blast tore through cars and buildings like it was paper.

Toad dodged a steel beam by running along its surface and lance attempted to drop an empty building on its robotic form, but at best they were just slowing it down.

Suddenly a psychic force could be felt rumbling through the surrounding area. Jean understood this was someone called the Scarlet witch, the similar name made Jean feel a pang of regret inside but she pushed it away. Why was it that in her daily life she couldn't feel anything but when it came to the blonde, she'd had lost a week and a half ago it nearly broke her?

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts she refocused on the attack and the fact the world now knew about mutants, and if that wasn't bad enough. Judging by the news helicopter hovering close by they knew their faces as well. Why didn't they wear masks as Ben had? Dammit, there she went thinking about him again.

Checking the situation she spotted the Witch piercing the robot's guns with psionic energy sharpened into blades. Things were starting to look up for their little group maybe they could even get out of there before the police or the national guard got too close.

But she continued to watch as it appeared the Witch caught sight of something on a building nearby and left the battlefield… It wasn't long before the sentinel regained some of its abilities and started rampaging once more.

At some point she noticed a problem, it wasn't they were exposed and it wasn't the massive robot that they couldn't defeat. It was really a question really, not a person or even an event. The question was: Why exactly did Jean not care about anything?

She knew that fact was bad, and she also knew it had to be stopped. But she only felt like walking away from all the same.

'What is going on?' She wondered internally this wasn't like her.

It had even been ten minutes since she had even made an attempted attack!

"It"s because your emotions have been blocked." A voice said in her head.

"Who..?" Jean said aloud.

"Jean Grey, you are a good woman. Many of my avatars are different versions of you actually. This means that in many worlds you or rather beings like yourself take on the mantel of my powers. Someone that was afraid of your potential has placed mental barriers between you and your actual power. If you wish to gain the full spectrum of your emotions and all of your abilities, I can do this."

Jean attempted to absorb the information that this voice was telling her, she had been through many things in her life but she always knew voices inside your head were never a good thing.

Skeptically she asked, "Let's say I believe you. What is the catch?" Maybe the voice was right and she wasn't operating on all of her emotions, but as damaged as her priorities were currently, she knew there were probably strings attached.

"Wise girl." The voice said sounding more seductive in nature. "There is a catch. My avatars have many responsibilities around the cosmos if you except willingly… You will have to leave everything you've ever known."

She thought about the offer and knew that was a huge trade-off. But the longer she processed the aspects of the offer, the more she understood her team was suffering. Somewhere deep inside of her, that fact bothered her.

"Is it possible for you to release my emotions and latent powers but give me more time to think about accepting your offer on becoming your avatar?" Jean couldn't help but plead.

At the silence of the voice, Jean spoke again, "Like you said my emotions were veiled. Therefore, whatever decision I make now would be compromised. Give me some time to adjust and I can give you an actual answer."

"Fine." The voice said much like a sulking child, "I will give you this chance. But know this! The Phoenix is not a patient force, I will have your answer soon... or you will no longer have that choice." As the Phoenix's words ended something akin to a mental band that had been covering her head was released.

All at once several things happened, the pain of losing Ben. Realizing she had actually been in love with him all along. Her affection for Scott, and the other X-men... Everything threatened to overwhelm her and like a blaze of fury the energy that had been held within her was released. What could be hours or possibly days passed as she relived memories she had once completely forgotten.

It all started with a car ride on a sunny summer day with her parents. On this same day... she had killed them both.

---

Somehow Gwen managed to escape the grasp of the massive figure. When she was able to get a good look at him she noticed the man was wearing a mechanized rhino suit. He raked his left foot across the ground three times like an actual beast, then rushed at Gwen once more.

"Too slow, big boy." She jumped with a summersault in the air using the rhino horn to push off for extra air then landed gracefully behind him in a crouch.

Unexpectedly something hit her then, knocking her to the ground. Looking upward at the prone figure of the beetle flying above her, "Remember me webs? We got unfinished business."

Gwen tried to catch her breath from the hit but there wasn't any time. She caught sight of Ben going after the Rhino. 'At least that was one thing I don't have to worry about.' She thought.

Shooting out two web-lines and attaching them to the backside Beetle holding her in place... like a dog leash. Knowing full well that the lines wouldn't hold her for long, Gwen jumped into the air and shot two more lines to slingshot herself back at the villain.

Coming back down like a jackhammer Gwen threw a punch cracking Beetles' helmet, "Lights out dear, allow the grownups to play."

Barely dodged an attack thanks to her spider-sense looked up to see her least favorite supervillain.

"Vulture... again? So many what the hell." Gwen asked feeling frustration building up.

Ben shot two webs into the Rhino's face blinding him for a few seconds, while he left the other line in his hand. Running full force and sliding feet first between rhinos' legs Ben then got to his feet and jerked the line as hard as he could. Pulling rhino face straight to the ground Ben then wrapped the stunned man in a case of concrete webbing.

Spider-sense warned him of danger without thinking Ben first checked on Gwen seeing that she was safe Ben soon realized the warning was actually coming from behind him. Jumping to the side of a building Ben narrowly avoided a green tale with a blade attached at the end.

Recognizing the tell-tale signs of the Scorpion immediately Ben couldn't help calling out a taunt, "Come on Gargon, as always too slow. Spider still beats scorpion."

What caught him off was the female voice that responded back, "Do I know you, bug boy."

"Holy cow batman she's a girl!?" Ben spat out.

"Yeah, I'm a girl, how the hell do you know my name. Stand still damn it!" Scorpion lashed out again and missed.

Rhino started to rip through Ben's webbing and stand back up though he was disoriented it was going to be a problem if one of them didn't dispatch one of the villains in front of them.

Gwen began crude aerial acrobatics to keep ahead of the two flyers. 'This was a trap, they lured us here.' She thought to herself.

At least she still had one of Ben's spare web-shooters; adjusted the nozzle she began to layer the vulture in a thick coating of fluid. Taking off high managing to avoid the web shots Gwen was firing, Beetle began to shoot at civilians to distract Gwen. It was working.

Getting pissed she webbed a manhole cover and slung it towards beetle in frustration. Clipping her wings Beetle went down landing on a building completely out cold. Pausing for a moment at the realization that she hadn't used that much strength since 'the event'. Feeling the guilt build Gwen couldn't bear to look at her dad after that.

Being tackled to the ground by a police officer brought her back to her senses. Feeling the wind from the vulture's razor wing go by her face as she went down, she realized because of her being distracted she nearly died. Examining her savior, she asked, "You okay… god! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Hey, keep your head in the fight. This city needs you. Some of us in blue see it." He replied. She saw his name tag, Sargent Flint Marko.

"Thanks, Sgt, I got a bird whose wings need to be clipped." She growled. 'Swallowed your fear of failure!' she told herself. 'They need me, and I can't afford to miss.' Then she went after the manhole cover once more.

When vulture dived bomb her again, Gwen held up the manhole cover using it as a shield to block. Then the old man went air born again, attaching a web to the back manhole cover she swung it to a street pole as an anchor. Not seeing the line as he flew by Vulture cloths lined himself falling to the ground in a heap. For good measure, Gwen shot a layer of webbing pinning the old man to the ground.

Charging again Ben had lost patience with the oversized toddler, "I swear you're dumber here." Quickly dodging out of the way the Rhino rammed headfirst into a fuse box. Electrifying his mechanically enhanced suit.

Shaking his head Ben mocked, "The guy I knew would never have fallen for that."

Due to his distraction, Scorpion grabbed him around the waist with her tail, "Hum too bad, you look good in that spandex but orders are to take you out." She said as she started to squeeze harder.

"As much as I love the attention and trust me Gorgon. You look a hundred times hotter than the Mac I know, but I'm a one-woman spider and I've already got my girl."

Shooting a ball of webbing at her face it covered both her mouth and nose, causing the lady in green to panicky drop him. Clawing at her face she managed to make a hole to breathe. Setting down in defeat Ben webbed her feet together making her less of a threat for the moment.

Scanning the area, he spotted Gwen was finishing up as well, internally cringing at the area that was covered in craters.

Suddenly his spider senses warned him of danger and a voice caught him off guard, "How about a kiss babe?" As he turned to scorpion again, "Kiss this!" She said as she shot acid.

Flipping backward he managed to dodge the spray. Connecting a foot to the underside of her chin she landed beside the still-smoking Rhino. Neither was moving afterward. Examining them for a few moments Ben confirmed that they were still breathing.

"You good?" A voice said from beside him. Gwen had arrived at some point without him realizing it.

"Sore, how's your head?" He said touching her face where she was cut.

"Good," she said but he could tell that she was lying.

Capt. Stacy came running over and Ben slid between him and Gwen in a panic.

"You're not taking us in after we just saved your butts." Captain Stacy centered himself realizing Scarlet Spider just stopped him from blowing Gwen's secret.

"Now you two get out of here before Capt. Castle and his team show. Thank you for your help."

Scarlet Spider nodded, "Sorry, if your men got hurt it was a trap to draw us out."

Gwen nodded in agreement she had come to the same conclusion earlier.

"It's Kingpin's style, you turned down working for him. The assassin you told me about was probably just the beginning. Its escalating, this will be twice now, and I don't want to guess what's next." Ben said looking through the crowd until he saw Murdock. "I know you can hear me, Matty. And I want you to know... I won't let you do anything." He could see the blind man's flinch in response.

Then Gwen pulled on his hoody, "Time to run more cops are on their way here".

Taking one last glance at the handicapped lawyer Ben swung away followed closely by Gwen.