148 Issue #8

Jack's ears felt like they were being tortured as he heard the gravelly voice of the dark being that was within his mind.

"Might presumptuous of you to assume that you can consume me in one bite. Not even my fiancee is capable of that. By the way, you sound like every Decepticon's voice got combined into a singular voice."

"Hehehe. Arrogant, aren't you? I have been around since humans first had nightmares. I am the absolute ruler of the Astral Plane. I have gone by many names over the years, but the one you may find the most familiar is the Shadow King."

Jack instantly got into a defensive posture. He had definitely heard of this name before and knew just how dangerous he was.

Shadow was indeed an ancient being that had been around longer than any of the mutants that walked/flew/swam the planet. He(?) was a being of pure psionic energy that lived on the Astral Plane and would pick hosts in order to interact with the world.

His latest host had been with him for nearly 100 years but the Shadow King was always looking for a more powerful host or people to control.

One of those people happened to be a young Ororo who was put under the control of the Shadow King until Xavier found her. When he did, the telepath did battle with Shadow King and barely came out on top as he saved Ororo.

Ever since then, the Shadow King has held a grudge against Xavier and any he called an ally. It also made the king desire to find a stronger host that would allow him to kill Xavier.

This is exactly why he was in Jack's mind at the moment. Jack was a being of immense psionic potential which Shadow King could use to overcome his limits and take over the entire universe. At least that was his whole evil plan.

Jack was about to continue talking with Shadow King but he felt a strike on his back before he was sent down, onto the domain that Shadow King had created for himself.

Jack looked up and saw that Shadow King was not the only one that decided to invade his mind. This other being resembled Magneto but with more armor that had more points.

"EU edgelord Magneto. What are you doing inside of my mind?"

"Onslaught, kill!"

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!"

Jack had also heard of Onslaught before. Another old enemy of Xavier, this one was even literally born because of him.

Onslaught was a being of pure psionic energy that was the combination of both Magneto's and Xavier's negative emotions. It was also one of the most dangerous enemies that the heroes of Earth had ever battled.

Onslaught was not only a being that was close to being a psionic god and having all the powers of Magneto but it also had the ability to absorb mutants and take their powers for itself as well as armor that even Thor could not put a crack it.

Onslaught was about to strike again but he was blown away by Shadow King with a blast of pure telepathic energy.

"He is mine. Any thief that tries to steal from a king shall be executed."

Jack could see that a massive battle was about to happen in his mind. Since he was inside of his mind, he could only use telepathic powers. So Jack recreated his Armored Dragon Titan with pure psionic energy.

Just as the 3 were about to battle, they heard the cry of a bird and felt immense heat pouring down on them. The 3 looked up and saw a single red and gold feather.

Even without seeing its full form or hearing it from the creature's own mouth, Jack could already tell that this belonged to the Phoenix Force.

The Phoenix Force was one of the oldest known cosmic entities, representing life that has not yet been born, as well as the forces of creation and destruction. The Phoenix Force was said to predate darkness and was stated to be the fire from which all things were born.

The Phoenix Force was an immortal, indestructible, and mutable manifestation of the prime universal force of life. Born of the void between states of being, it was the nexus of all psionic energy that does, has, and ever will exist in all realities of the Multiverse.

And even if it was just a single feather of this might being, Jack wasn't sure he could beat it even if he unleashed all the power that he had.

Jack gave up on fighting them immediately. He had questions that he wanted to ask first and was hoping that they might start killing each other first.

"How did all of you get into my mind?"

Onslaught did not seem to understand the question while the feather seemed to be unable to speak. It was Shadow King that explained what had happened.

"You invited us in here. When you absorbed the astral bodies of all those other beings, you let loose a beacon on the astral plane. And it seems the 3 of us, as the most powerful psionic entities sent avatars out to test you as a host.

But seeing these two here, I know that I no longer need to test you. The next time you enter the Astral Plane, I will consume you whole and take over your body."

Shadow King did not stay any longer. He turned into a black mist that disappeared from Jack's body.

Onslaught looked like he was about to attack but before he could, the avatar was burned to cinders by the Phoenix. So all that was left in the mind was Jack and the feather.

"Ok. Here goes nothing."

Jack created hundreds of guns and rocket launchers before firing them at the feather. But before any of them could reach it, the energy was burned away.

"So you wanna play that way, huh?"

Jack created several nuclear missiles out of concentrated psionic energy before firing them at the feather. This time, they did not melt before they detonated but even after the explosion, the feather was unharmed.

"So concentrated energy doesn't melt but it still can't harm it. Isn't that fantastic?"

Jack had no choice but to create dozens of cubes made of pure psionic energy to act as a seal for the feather. Jack had to make sure that he kept the feather from leaking out its energy and letting the main body know where he was while also keeping the feather from affecting him.

Besides that, there was nothing else that he could do but curse his own luck.

He was the one that opened the floodgates by allowing all those astral bodies into his body without checking. It was only right that he had to bear some consequences for it.