Chapter 381: Avengers VS X-Men
Mutations at the Elbow!
Suddenly assaulted by Starshine, Ava was initially startled and instinctively tried to use her phasing ability to save herself, but to her shock, her ability failed to activate!
How could this be!? Since her debut, she had never encountered an opponent who could completely ignore her powers... well, except for the boss!
A terrified glance swept over the Starshine in front of her and then shifted to the bewildered Starshine standing next to Gamora; Ava was plunged into the same confusion as Tony.
Her throat was gripped so tightly that she couldn't even save herself, and then something even more terrifying happened.
Ava realized that the Phoenix Force, which had always been dormant within her and never used, was now being sucked into the body of the woman in front of her, who looked strikingly like Starshine!
Not only could she change her appearance, but she could also ignore Ava's phasing ability and even extract the Phoenix Force from her body!
Who exactly was this divine entity?
Could she be the perfect Phoenix host, Jean Grey, whom Clark had mentioned before, in this parallel universe?
But Clark never mentioned that Jean Grey had the ability to change her appearance at will!
While Ava was under attack, Tony, who first noticed the problem, raised his hand, and his palm blaster was already charged. Meanwhile, a screeching missile suddenly approached from the sky. Tony quickly redirected his cannon, and his energy blast struck the missile mid-air, causing it to explode.
"Boom!"
The missile hit by the palm blast indeed burst into a string of colorful fireworks, dazzling everyone present. The electronic interference mixed in even caused Eris and Friday, two top-tier AIs, to lose their judgment temporarily.
As everyone's vision restored, the scene had suddenly become eerily strange.
On what had been a relatively empty plain, there were now crowds of people.
There were five Tonys, six Peppers, three Star-Lords, six Gamoras, twelve Starshines, five Eris...
Essentially, the numbers of all the Avengers had inexplicably multiplied.
Given the earlier attack on Ava by Starshine, everyone knew they were facing a special army capable of changing its shape at will!
Before arriving in this parallel universe, Clark had told them that mutants' powers were like those of the Inhumans, with each individual possessing one or several unique abilities. The probability of encountering identical powers was not zero, but it was extremely low, similar to finding two people on Earth who looked exactly alike.
You should know that awakening mutant powers does not have shortcuts like twins have. Even if they are twins, their powers often differ, just like Wanda and Quicksilver.
But how could these enemies, possessing identical powers, be explained?
Had Clark not said that in this parallel universe, he had found no traces of alien existence?
Was the enemy's ability to hide too strong, capable of avoiding Clark's detection, or was the universe too vast for Clark to have noticed their presence?
Or, were these all robots, or perhaps a mutant with a special ability had created these duplicates?
The possibilities were numerous, and Tony and the others dared not jump to conclusions. The urgent task now was to identify the real enemies among these look-alikes.
This was another huge problem.
Even Eris's electronic devices couldn't discern the true from the false!
What a headache-inducing ability!
"Bang!" Just when everyone was at a loss, Tony raised his hand and fired a palm blast at the "Starshine" choking Ava.
The others were still unsure whether it was the real or fake one, but the one currently extracting the Phoenix Force was definitely fake!
With that single strike, the counterfeit Starshine was blasted away, and Ava was also hit by the residual blast, flying towards another side. However, Ava could still barely withstand the impact of the explosion.
Tony's action, though saving Ava from having her Phoenix Force extracted, also marked the beginning of the battle.
The next moment, chaos ensued.
...
Using his spatial abilities to arrive at the Himalayas, Clark saw Captain America leading the Avengers team, now facing an integrated and unprecedentedly powerful mutant army.
Unexpectedly, leading the opposition was not Professor X or Magneto but the clearly darkened Jean Grey, or rather, the Black Phoenix would be more appropriate now.
Behind Black Phoenix stood Charles and Magneto, positioned as if led by the Phoenix.
Behind them were several formidable mutants, with familiar faces such as Mystique, Beast, Storm, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler lined up behind the Professor, and Clark even spotted Wolverine, whom he hadn't seen before!
Behind Magneto stood members of the Four Horsemen, Psylocke, and Angel, along with a burly man with a presence similar to Wolverine, and a young girl with Eastern features, purple hair, and green eyes...
These were just the mutants Clark recognized or found familiar, capable of standing in the front row. Behind them,
a dense crowd of about a hundred more mutants stood, most of whom Clark did not know.
Upon Clark's sudden appearance, Professor X's face showed a resigned expression as he spoke first: "Mr. Clark, we do not wish to be enemies, but there are some things we need to clarify in advance." He paused and pointed at the Heavenly Sword behind the Avengers, asking, "Can you tell me what exactly this is used for?"
"This thing is a bit complicated to explain," Clark rubbed his nose, still reluctantly explaining: "In fact, your world has always been eroded by Dormammu, a dark god from another dimension. What I created is an artifact that can resist Dormammu's erosion, allowing your universe to avoid being affected by him."
Charles frowned upon hearing this, then added: "The kind of erosion you mentioned, is it a special substance that can make people violently insane?"
Clark nodded slightly: "If you insist on understanding it that way, it's not impossible. It seems that even you have started to notice the high concentration of dark energy."
Nodding slightly, Charles then added: "However, according to our information, that type of energy, harmful to both mutants and humans, only appeared after you and your daughter last visited."
What?
As Charles spoke, Clark's super brain immediately let him understand the entire situation.
If he hadn't known before, knowing the full background now, he couldn't help but curse inwardly.
Dormammu, true to his nature as the ruler of the Dark Dimension, had indeed framed him cleverly.
First, people in the X-Men universe did not know of Dormammu's existence, and their understanding of him was almost nil. Even if the dark energy began affecting some individuals, their current technology couldn't pinpoint the cause. Unless someone behind the scenes deliberately guided a "genius" who suddenly emerged among humans to detect this energy, it would immediately come to light.
And the people of this universe didn't know who Dormammu was, but before the outbreak of dark energy, there was Clark, capable of overpowering the Phoenix!
No matter who it was, at this time, they would likely suspect him first.
In response, Clark could only helplessly explain: "I truly have no ill intentions towards you; you should know that if it were otherwise, after defeating Apocalypse, I would have no need to help you awaken your powers."
"I would like to believe you, Mr. Clark," Charles shook his head. "But you say you spent a great deal of money and effort to create something that can resist an extraterrestrial evil god, purely to help us... I find that hard to accept."
For this, Clark could only helplessly say: "Actually, helping you resist Dormammu is also for the safety of our universe. You understand the principle of 'when the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold,' Mr. Charles. As for why we didn't notify you in advance... Damn it!"
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