The Shadow King
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(Floor 7)
I could feel Jean's mind and the presence that I was learning to associate with the Phoenix.
Welp. That can't be good, I thought to myself.
It didn't take me long before I found a prone form laying on the floor in a heap, mumbling something.
Rouge's movements, what little she had, were sluggish. She looked like she had a concussion or was perhaps drugged.
"Rogue. Rogue! Can you hear me? Hey!"
I gently shook her, trying to get her to open her eyes. Checking her for wounds or anything that could have caused this.
I touched her and reversed her time to 30 seconds ago, but nothing changed. She was still in the same state I found her in.
Panic rose in my chest, and I looked around frantically, trying to find Jean and the others.
Okay. Either A she's been like this for more than 30 seconds or B whatever is causing this came back the moment I stopped reversing time.
Rogue groaned, and my focus snapped back to her. I needed to get her out of here and to medical help as soon as possible.
Lifting Rogue's body, I mentally reached inside myself for the energy that connected me to the space stone. I searched for the core of it. And I found it.
I focused on where I wanted to be. I visualized the walls, the equipment, and everything in it in my mind.
Then, I imagined the two of us being there rather than here. We shouldn't be here. We should be there. This is how I demanded things should be. We disappeared from the room with a blue flash.
When I opened my eyes, we were inside, the med-bay. I ran over to one of the healing chambers and placed Rogue in it.
"Sophie. Contact Dr. Hansen, something is wrong with Rogue. "
"Dr. Hansen has been just notified, and is on her way." Sophie calmly replied.
"Then I'll leave her in your care. I have to go back and find the rest of the team." I said, before teleporting back to the facility.
As soon as I arrived, I was hit by a psychic blast of immense power.
It felt like I was falling, sinking. Being subsumed all at the same time. Grabbing my head as I fell to my knees, I screamed in pain as the world shattered around me. Someone was trying to brute force their way into my mind.
I could faintly hear a familiar voice, telling me to fight back! It slightly cut through the haze, allowing me to become slightly more aware of my surroundings.
My mind reeled, and suddenly my surroundings became clear once more.
"Now, now. You're just being a spoil sport. A few seconds more and I would have had a very nice new meat suit. " A deep voice tutted.
I blearily opened my eyes to see David with shining yellow eyes in front of me. What was most concerning, though, was the being standing beside him.
Dark skin, dark hair, dark sunglasses hiding dark eyes. The obese man was dressed in a grey suit, but it looked as if it were spun with darker thread beneath.
Something that looked like a man but wasn't one. A monster. It was touching David's shoulder, grinning. He put his lips to David's neck, and black tendrils seeped into David.
I also realized, belatedly, that he wasn't speaking with me but with someone else.
The being just surveyed us from behind his shades. He tried reading my mind again, and I winced in pain as I did my best to keep him out of my mind. I hadn't had to work this hard on my mental defenses since Xavier had attacked me.
Tendrils. The creeping sensation of a mental presence, just at the edge of my awareness, kept pressing on my mind as it tried to find a way into my mind. Brute force hadn't worked. So, I could feel it being more subtle now as the shadow tendrils probed my defenses. Sweating, I could only lay there as it was taking all my mental energy to keep the things out of my mind.
After what felt like a lifetime the pressure lessened. Rolling over onto my back, my breath caught as an ethereal projection of what looked like Jean wreathed in Phoenix fire, the shadow tendrils burned in the presence of the flames retreating into the fat man.
The flames seemed to both take up the whole world and not at the same time. Thinking that Jean was somehow both on the astral plane and somehow physically present at the same time, which as far as I knew was impossible, and giving me a massive headache, as advanced as my mind was it was still mortal.
As my mind tried to comprehend these disparate facts which were proving impossible for my mind to reconcile. Jean floated between me and the other two men in the cell.
" I will not allow you to taint their minds foul creature. I will burn you from this plane of existence."
Jean screamed as she launched several flaming spears across the room.
I winced as the Phoenix screamed a physic war cry, that I was sure could be heard around the world.
The fat man scoffed as he negligently batted away two of the flame spears while several round shields appeared to block the rest of Jean's attack.
"This isn't about strength, it's about will. It's about belief. I was spawned by the first nightmare, a manifestation of the dark side of human consciousness. As long as negative emotions exist, I shall always exist. I Am The Shadow King."
While they were having their chat, I was trying to call upon the power of the space stone, which was proving a lot harder than it usually was. My thoughts were all over the place.
I felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean, with the amount of power the two of them were throwing about.
But I wasn't keen on leaving my fate to chance, especially when I had the power to fight back. Matter transmutation wouldn't be of much use right now, neither would a reset to my physical state. So, my only option was phasing.
Kitty had discovered this little trick to counter Jean's telepathy when they were sparring. Her thoughts became highly erratic when phased as if there was no mind to telepathically affect.
Concentrating on my task, I tuned out the rest of their conversation, and with a mental nudge I was phased.
I let out an involuntary gasp of relief as the crushing weight on my mind disappeared.
Refocusing on my surroundings only to see the Shadow King and the Phoenix having an all-out battle.
An average person wouldn't be able to tell anything was really going on because as far as the eye could see, David was standing stock still in the middle of the room, while Jean was slumped on the ground passed out near the door.
To anyone with magical or was psychic senses, it was a whole other story.
I gulped as I watched them fight, both constantly changing their shapes and size while they seemed to be throwing physchic planet sized attacks at each other faster than I could follow.
Watching them open mouthed for a minute I could see that Phoenix seemed to be winning judging by the Shadow King's agonized screams.
I watched Jean use a particularly large blade of flame to slice off several chunks of the Shadow Kings form. She then used her cosmic fire to burn the sliced of portions before the Shadow King could pull himself back together.
The Shadow King screamed in rage while he whipped around and used his mastery over the astral plane and shadows to try and launch a counterattack at her.
Jean matched him blow for blow. It was awe inspiring to watch. And made me feel something I hadn't felt in a long time. Small.
My thoughts were interrupted by a voice.
"Nghhh…" Jean grunted.
( 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)"
Check out my pat-reon/AnubisCreationz