Parasite

A/N: Hello everyone! It's been a while. I hope you are doing well. Obviously, some of you may be wondering why I haven't been posting for the past few weeks.

And, the reason is simple. Unfortunately, I caught Covid-19 and have been really sick for the past few weeks. Thankfully, after a long and arduous recovery, I'm just starting to feel up to writing again. (Still feel like shit though.)

Not to delay, here's today's chapter...

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Enjoy :)

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(The Mansion)

"Any sign of David?"

Logan asked through his communicator.

"Sorry Logan, but there's no sign of David. At the moment we don't have any way to track him, nothings showing up on Cerebro. The professor thinks he's able to cloak himself somehow. I've got Nightcrawler out scouting the area, but I don't have much hope of him finding anything."

Orroro responded, with a sigh of frustration. After everyone had got out with the prisoners, a series of explosions destroyed most of the facility. They suspected it was part of a self-destruct sequence designed to wipe out any evidence, so they hadn't been able to find out any details of what had been going on. Fortunately, they'd managed to rescue over 60 prisoners.

Kitty was busy helping the professor get the younger mutants back to their families, while those who were runaways or simply didn't have a place to go were being transported to either the mansion or to Cypher's facility in New York.

The blackbird wasn't big enough to accommodate everybody, so they were mainly using the Quinjet along with Kitty's portals to move everyone.

"Keep looking."

"Logan, Hank's waking up. Maybe he'll be able to tell us something."

Scott suggested, cutting into their conversation. Instantly Logan was on his way to the med lab. Five minutes later he was pacing around the room as Hank groaned as he slowly got his bearings. In spite of his impatience, Logan reminded himself to wait for him to become lucid enough to answer. Not five seconds later, though.

"What do you remember?"

"Not much." Hank groaned, cradling his head in pain.

"There was an explosion which knocked me out, but I do remember waking up when Illyana was confronting some guards. I think I heard her saying something about going back to help Jean after she teleported me out. Is she okay?"

" We found her knocked out on floor 7. She's on the Jet headed back to New York along with some of the older kids and Gambit. Now, are you sure? There has to be something, anything. A strange smell, weird lights, come on Doc."

Logan pressed, hoping for any little detail that might be able to help.

"No…wait. Strangest thing, I faintly remember seeing two small yellow orbs, almost like a pair of eyes."

(The Quinjet)

Illyana had always been a light sleeper. So, when she sensed somebody hovering over her she automatically knew something was off. There was that smell again, a strange combination of disinfectant and burned clothing.

Timing her actions just right, Illyana suddenly head-butted the creep, when he least expected it.

Jumping to her feet when she saw him go down. Not only that, but she had become aware of where exactly she was, on a plane.

"Where are we headed?"

She questioned, glaring at the man who was now standing upright holding his nose. For the first time, she was able to get a good look at him. His shining red-on-black eyes were a dead giveaway he was a mutant. He gave her a cocky smirk in response.

"The name's Gambit. Glad to see ya awake mon cherie. Shame we haven't been properly introduced."

"The name's Magik."

She scowled. Giving her a slow once over he said.

"Why y' wanna call yourself that petite? Y' certainly don't look like a magician."

Eyes narrowing, Magik made a swing at him completely forgetting about her injured arm.

When he successfully managed to dodge, Illyana started to become irritated at his cocky smirk.

"Now come on cherie."

Gambit said, ducking a kick aimed at his head. He couldn't help but start noticing how easy it was to get a rise out of her and he liked that.

The angrier she was getting, the wilder her swings became. She was definitely unlike any girl he had ever met before. It was a true shame she was a bit young for him.

"That ain't too nice of ya'."

"Well, neither was you abducting me," She retorted, lunging at him.

At that exact moment, the plane gave a lurch causing both Gambit and Illyana to lose their balance ending up with the two landing in a tangled heap. If it weren't for her anger, she probably would've been deeply embarrassed at the whole situation.

Gambit arched an eyebrow at their position, his smirk not only remaining but widening.

"Already mon cherie? Didn't quite peg y' for the type to move so fast. But that's okay. I like 'em aggressive. Also I didn't abduct you."

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as if to emphasize his point.

He seemed in complete control of his emotions, but his mind was a whirl. Her glare bothered him, they reminded him of someone.

Cypher, Kitty, and Jean had all warned her against using her powers especially with the trouble it had been giving her recently, but for Gambit she was willing to make an exception.

Lowering her head closer to his, she whispered in his ear, completely catching him off guard.

"You like 'em aggressive? Well, don't think you're man enough to handle this."

Opening his mouth to say spurt out some innuendo Gambit instead let out a grunt as he rolled off, her rolling around on the floor in a ball. Illyana, looked down at him as she stood up. Feeling a bit guilty at kneeing him in the one place no guy ever wants to be kneed in.

"Ow…Why me? " He said tearfully.

(New York, Loft)

Back in New York, Jean slowly stirred as she began to and regain consciousness. Her eyes blinked slowly before snapping wide open in alarm. She thrashed about in the bed, making me lose the hold I had on her.

"Jean! It's me!"

Recognizing my voice, Jean looked around clearly confused as to where she was.

"What.. where are we?"

"We're back in New York. You manifested the Phoenix and started a battle royal on the Astral plane with the Shadow King, you drove him off but I don't think you destroyed him. Then you just collapsed, from exhaustion I think. The Ancient One showed up as soon as I got you home. You made quite the show for those aware of such things. She checked you out too and she agreed that you were exhausted and just needed rest."

" What about David? Did we get him out? Rogue! Hank! Illyana! Are they okay?!"

" Calm down. Rogue is in the med-bay back with Dr Hansen. I found her passed out, so I teleported her back first."

" What about Hank, Illyana, and David?"

I sighed. "I searched the whole compound for David after I teleported you out. I couldn't find him. Hank and Illyana are okay, they got separated from you guys in the confusion. Illyana is on her way back, while Hank is back at the mansion. "

Jean's eyes were darting around still highly strung by what happened. I reached out my hand and started to rub circles on her back, trying to soothe her.

"Can you tell me what happened back there?"

She let a breath out almost collapsing on herself.

" I don't…I'm not really sure what happened."

Jean closed her eyes and took another shuddering breath.

"Things were going according to plan, up until that thing appeared. It called itself The Shadow King, I think it was controlling David. Some sort of psychic parasite? I was holding it off, Rogue grabbed Davids arm and then….."

She suddenly grabbed her head in pain and grimaced. It took her a few seconds before she could talk again. I was heavily frowning, trying to remember something. It was faint, but I think I'd read about the Shadow King in my other life.

There were so many continuities and reboots over the years, that I picked up a bunch of stuff through osmosis or simply by looking them up, once in a while. I remembered something about Genosha island, but that didn't exist here, and something about possession?

Suddenly a feeling of dread crept up on me, and a shiver ran through my spine. As I started to connect things together.

" Wait, Rogue touched David?!"

I said in alarm.

(Med-Lab 3)

[Doctor's notes: Maya Hansen]

I've just finished going over the scans from the young woman Ramsey brought in.

Physically there wasn't doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her and even after I administered the healing serum, there was still no response. Her vitals were stable, but her brain activity is strange.

Normally a brain constantly produces bursts of electrical activity. That's how groups of neurons in a brain communicate with each other.

She seems to be in deep REM sleep. If didn't know better I would think she was in a medically induced coma. It was mentioned in her file that she was a mutant or a meta-human as Ramsey liked to call them.

Her absorption power was classified as Alpha level with a potential to be Omega level depending on the type of power she absorbed.

Could it have been something she absorbed while on the field?

Her theta brain wave pattern was all over the place, oscillating between normal parameters of someone who is in a deep dream state and someone's mind who is trying to wake up.

A Full physical was performed and nothing else was found. Her power dampening bracelet was checked too and is working properly.

[End Log.]

" I should probably get in contact with Dr Parker maybe he could find something."

She muttered to herself.

Turning from her log Maya updated her datapad. What she didn't notice though, was the sudden spike in brain activity and Rogue's eyes suddenly opening.

( Chapter End)

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Big shout out to my friend PhotoStorm Photography. He helped immensely with this chapter. 😊😊

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For 11+ advanced chapters of ( Ultimate Cypher)"

" And 3+ advanced chapters of (Altered Mind)"