Chapter 22

"Lydia, Erik is here," Astrid said as she woke me up.

"Okay, coming down, give me a sec," I said as I was getting dressed. I made my way down and saw Erik in the doorway.

"Lydia," Erik said as he nodded.

"Hey Erik, how are you?" I asked.

"Well, I'm here to accept your offer on certain conditions," Erik said.

"Of course, let's talk inside," I said smiling and walked into the office near the entrance.

"So, just you huh," I said as we sat down at the table.

"Charles hasn't spoken to me since you left," Erik said.

"Probably going to return back to his students now that he knows some events," I said out loud.

"That's assuming they occur the way you showed us. You mentioned other possibilities," Erik said in a serious tone.

"Yes, there are too many to keep track off to be honest. So, what are your conditions?" I asked.

"I am sure you probably already know," Erik replied. I stared at him before I closed my eyes.

"Protection for your mutant group. Obviously, you want your family protected," I said.

"Yes, there's also a concern of leadership," he said. I opened my eyes to look at him. He is very different from the versions I know. The way he said that made it sound like he talked to his group to come to an agreement. I smiled.

"You are going to lead any mutants that join us. There will be different groups for people who want to do other things. Such as combatants and noncombatants. For the time being, everyone can move here until we find a suitable place to stay," I said.

"What about Genosha?" he asked. I shook my head

"I know you are attached to it, but you should know that it is too well known and monitored by the government. We need someplace they don't know about,"

"Food?" he asked.

"We will have more than enough," I said.

"Money," he asked. I just stared at him and raised my eyebrow.

"Really?" I asked raising my eyebrow.

"What if someone wants to leave?" he asked.

"Anyone can freely leave. Combatants don't really have that luxury. They will know too much, and the risk would be too high. A telepath could erase their memories, but that's invasive and I rather not do that. I am open to other solutions though," I answered, and he nodded. He stayed quiet for a while until I broke the silence.

"What's stopping you?" I asked. He slowly looked at me.

"I am not sure I can lead," he said with a sincere voice. My eyes slightly widen in shock.

"You'll be surprised to what you can do," I said. Erik is probably on the same level of leadership skills as Charles. Probably more.

"And besides, you're not alone," I said smiling. He gave me one of his rare half smiles.

"Come on, lets arrange transportation," I said and went to look for Astrid.

I had Astrid help with this and coordinated the move. We had made more underground facilities in my home and bought more of the surrounding land just in case. Erik's group moved in and most of them wanted to have normal lives while two wanted to fight. It was better than nothing. Everything was going smoothly since Astrid and Wendy helped a lot. I decided they had it all under control, so I took Emma and Tessa out for training.

"Ready?" I asked them.

"Yes," Tessa said as she took a sprinter's position.

"Go!" I said and started a timer.

She ran as fast as she could through an obstacle course. It involved a lot of jumping, dodging, and physical strength the further a person got into the course. It took her 20 minutes to clear it.

"Ready?" I asked Emma turning to her.

"Yes," she responded.

She lowered her body slightly and took off once I said go. It took her 35 minutes to clear the course. I made Emma not use her powers which showed how much she depended on them. Tessa's power is more passive, and she was able to complete it faster but still lacked the physical strength to complete it easily. Astrid and Wendy will be great teachers for Tessa. She's basically a sponge just waiting to absorb all the information. I would have to train Emma to master her powers.

"Tessa, go report to Astrid or Wendy. Tell them to begin your training," I said.

"Yes," she responded and left quickly with a Sentinel right after her. I raised my brow at her. She seemed really enthusiastic.

"She's happy to be part of something meaningful. Same goes for me," Emma said as she saw my expression.

"Let's start with your training," I said, and she nodded.

"You are a really rare mutant with a second mutation. We will focus on the first one. Your telepathy is good, but your defense is nonexistent unless you go into your diamond state," I said.

"I'll go over how to create barriers and shield your mind. Eventually, it'll be a passive action you do. Your brain while not necessarily a muscle still functions like one. It changes and gets stronger the more you use it. Telepathy is a mutation that essentially has no limitations. All it takes is practice," I explained.

"Let's sit down. Try to enter my head," I said. She nodded and attempted it. Her attempt was blocked completely. Her head slightly went backwards from the feedback of her attempt.

"That was my weakest defense. Imagine if you had tried that and I had all my barriers up. Not only would I have blocked it, but I would know your location and even reversed the attempt and enter your mind," I explained.

"Relax your body and mind," I said as I closed my eyes and focused on entering her mind.

In her mindscape, I began to show her the inner workings of protection and barrier creations. This was our routine until I felt confident, she would be able to hold her own against a powerful telepath like Charles or Jean. Before I knew it, it was dark, and we stopped for the day. I was in the balcony of my room looking at the stars. I would find myself doing this a lot. I missed Carol a lot.

"I wonder if you're looking at the same stars," I whispered. I heard a knock on my door snapping me out of my trance.

"Come in," I said loudly enough to be heard.

"Hey Lydia," Wendy said.

"Wendy? Can't sleep?" I asked.

"Hardly, I finished my research," she said, and I tilted my head in confusion.

"Regarding you," she added when she saw my confusion.

"From the blood samples you wanted? What did you find?" I asked.

"It's my theory on your sudden spike of energy," she explained.

She handed me a tablet and I looked at it. There was a report that showed side by side comparisons of my cellular structure and individual cells. I recognized some of the other research. I had done my own regarding second mutations on mutants.

"Let's begin with the space stone energy. Your mutation to absorb it is constantly begin put under stress. Normally, other forms of energy like normal kinetic energy wouldn't have much stress unless you constantly get hit with missiles or something similar," she explained and showed me an up close of a cell.

"This is how all your cells look like. Besides the faint blue energy surround them, normal at first glance," she said and zoomed into one particular spot of the cell.

"That is until you zoom in here," she said. I saw what she was referring to. I took the tablet from her and look at it closely.

"The membrane around the nucleus are changing," I recognized this from my knowledge of being a doctor.

"Correct, but zoom in further," she said. I zoomed in and saw that the nucleolus was changing its shape.

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"Beats me," she shrugged.

"What I do know is that I believe that specific mutation is about to evolve and form a second mutation. I think it's safe to guess that your cells are preparing themselves for this change," she explained.

"Thank you," I said.

"No problem. I haven't had that much fun in so long," she replied. She does love a challenge when it comes to the scientific stuff.

"Do you think she's okay?" she asked while looking at the stars.

"Yeah. Just a little more time before she comes here," I said. I lost track of time as I was staring up and found myself alone.

Time blurred by as I kept myself busy. I continued to absorb more energy from the space stone and practiced my abilities. I was shocked by the dedication of Emma and Tessa. They both were very committed to being honest and staying here. When I asked them why, they rather be on the side that can hold off the Phoenix. I guess my fight with Jean had an impact on them. In fact, I think everyone that joined heard of what I did in New York. Erik was even surprised by me.

After everything was settled and everyone had their responsibilities, I had Erik, Emma, and Tessa meet me in the lab. I gave them the choice of being injected with the Super Soldier Serum. Wendy, Astrid, and I had modified it now to extend someone's life span a bit more than the original serum. It wasn't anything crazy, but they would heal faster and would most likely extend their life by a couple of years. I offered it to Erik's family as well and he accepted. His daughter would have to wait until she is older and wants to do it. Erik had asked if Red lotus and Selene could have it as well. I remember them from the fight with the Hellfire club and Jean. What was interesting to me was that this Red lotus was different from my memories and Selene is a person I do not know. Selene seemed to be a telepath and sensitive to other mutants. Red lotus is an exceptional fighter and uses his hair braids to fight. I was happy to extend the same offer to them. I asked Erik if it was okay to bring Selene with me to train with Emma since she was a telepath. He was more than willing and surprised that I asked. Everyone agreed to be injected and the procedure now was much less straining. It still required to be placed in a healing pod, but the aftereffects were mostly soreness that would go away within a few hours.

It was funny to see Erik working out after. He practiced with Red lotus to get better at fighting. I'm sure he realized that he's biggest weakness was close combat. Emma and Selene got along well, and their telepathy powers increased. Tessa turned to be an incredible ally. Her ability to quickly pick things up on the first try was great for us. Astrid began to slowly give her access to some of our systems and help improve them.

I had put all my focus on the space mining. We had increased our fleet and accumulated a lot of resources for the nanites to start building several of our plans. The first plan was to build a large space station. It would have many different functions and a hub for ships. I took inspiration from Wendy's Kree designs and added my own tweaks to them. The final product could house millions of people. The most important features I made sure it had was the camouflaged. It was a mix of the Kree's design and our own. It was safe to say that no one would be able to location the station unless we wanted it to be seen. The second item was the battleship. It was easy in design, but our biggest problem was travel.

I approached Wendy with it, and we were both stuck. While the lightspeed engine was great, the dangers it came with were too big. Wendy's design heavily relied on the Jump network to travel and avoid objects but if it was completely unknown then the possibility of hitting something increases. These jumps were known locations that were safe to travel to without colliding with an object. We met daily to discuss how we could get a better engine without having a risk like that. We could achieve faster than light travel but if we hit an object as we traveled it would destroy the ship and everyone inside. It reminded me of a scene from one of the new Star Wars movie I managed to watch back in my own universe.

"Lydia," Astrid said.

"Yes?" I asked. We were all siting in a round table discussing the engine problem.

"You mentioned something about the Pym Particle's that you were afraid of using," she said. Wendy looked at me in confusion.

"Yes, well…using the Pym Particles you could travel back in time," I said slowly.

"What!? Impossible!" Wendy shouted.

"Yeah, it's kind of stupid to be honest," I replied and crossed my arms.

"How is that achieved?" Astrid asked.

"Through the quantum realm. It's very complicated and you would need to be precise. I'm sure we could figure it out but it's dangerous to meddle with time. That's why I was afraid of it," I explained.

"But how could you choose where to go and what time?" Astrid asked.

"They managed to create a quantum tunnel to the precise place and time," I said.

"They?" Wendy asked.

"The people who managed to do it and they soon realized the repercussions of meddling with time," I answered.

"We would need to do more research on the matter but if it was possible for them to travel back in time and pick a spot they wanted, wouldn't it be possible to enter this quantum realm and pick an exit location without the whole time travel aspect," Astrid said.

"We do have a map if we combine the jump network which would act like a giant map can be used to guess areas that jumps don't exist," Wendy said.

"So, if we can combine all three then we could achieve almost instant travel," I said.

"In theory, yes. We would need to gather more data on the quantum realm and start mapping gaps in the jump network," Astrid answered.

"Bring Tessa onboard, let's get started with this," I said.

We concluded our meeting and headed to do our usual routines. So much has been done that I feel ready to follow Carol when she returns. I had finished creating a suit of armor that was pretty basic compared to my own, but it's still offered the same protection. I gave these to Erik, Red lotus, and Selene. I designed it as a belt where all they had to do is touch the buckle and the armor would expand around them.

The construction of the station had been completed and the ship was also completed apart from its engine. I went to the lab to start my daily energy absorption when something happened. I asked Astrid and Wendy to come to run every test possible.

"Ready?" I asked.

"All systems running," Wendy said.

"Ok," I said. I was in a room with a space stone energy canister. I started to drain the energy except this time there were no burns. The energy just freely moved into my body. The feeling was incredible. Before I knew it, all the energy had been absorbed. I turned to the window where Wendy and Astrid were, and I could tell they were saying something.

"Anything?" I asked.

"Try activating your shroud," Astrid said over the speaker. I was confused but started to channel my energy. A faint blue shroud of energy covered my body and looked different. The color was more intense than before, and I didn't feel the constant drain.

"Can you increase the power?" Astrid asked. I nodded and pumped more energy. I released my energy and blue lightning gathered around me and swirled around in random directions. The shroud became dense and almost agitated. The burn this stage created weren't there anymore I can feel I could hold it longer than before.

"What about the Phoenix energy?" Astrid said. I tried to feel for that foreign energy, but I couldn't find it anymore. I shook my head at the window.

"You can stop," Wendy's voice came over the speakers. I disconnected my energy and exited the room.

"So?" I asked. They seemed to be glued to their monitors looking at the data.

"Can you go back into the room? We need to do one more test," Wendy said.

"Okay…" I said and went down to the room again.

"Try to absorb the kinetic energy from the bullet," Astrid said. I look to see a Sentinel on the other side aiming its hand at me. My guess is that they are seeing how effective it still is. I prepared myself and got ready. The Sentinel fired and I my left shoulder was pulled back from the force of the bullet. The bullet landed in front of me as it hit bone and got reflected. I was so shocked. I had activated my energy to start absorbing but nothing happened. The wound left behind had already healed.

"Okay, we're done," Wendy snapped me out of my daze, and I went to their location.

"So?" I said and crossed my arms when I entered.

"Ah, don't be like that. It healed anyways," Wendy dismissed me with a wave. I felt my eye twitch in annoyance.

"It seems like this particular mutation evolved to handle different forms of energy," Astrid said still looking at her monitor.

"I suspect that the Phoenix's energy gave it the kick it needed to change," she said.

"So, I can only absorb the space stone's energy?" I asked.

"No, I believe that you could most likely absorb more dangerous forms of energies. It's hard to test this theory out without having access to different forms of energy. If you ever face off against the Phoenix again, then you'll at least not burn to a crisp," Wendy said laughing at the end. She had a really weird sense of humor.

"It seems that absorbing the space stone energy has been perfected. Your mutation has been able to purify the energy to avoid damage. If you get another stone, I believe you'll still get burns but not as bad. Eventually, your mutation will keep evolving if constantly stressed by energy like what you were doing with the space stone," Astrid explained.

"So, the bad is that it no longer absorbs kinetic energy," I said and they both nodded.

"That's a fair trade I guess," I said in a low voice. How is it possible for it to change to absorb cosmic energy? I can't remember someone that could do that. I began to search through my memories when I heard a voice next to me.

"I'm glad you think so!" a voice next to me said and I jumped slightly. I looked and saw Sir standing next to me.

"What wrong?" Wendy asked.

"Nothing, I just remembered something I have to do. I'll see you guys later," I said and quickly left with Sir following next to me.

"Well that's rude. Don't you think you should have introduced me to them?" Sir said in a childish voice.

"They can't see you and if I did, I'll just look like I'm going crazy," I said in a low voice.

"That would be funny to watch wouldn't it?" Sir said laughing. My eye twitched in annoyance.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Well I thought I'll drop by, you know, visit my favorite experiment," Sir said in a mocking tone. My anger rushed out and I had trouble keeping myself from exploding on him.

"You didn't even say thank you! Who do you think changed the mutation for you huh?" Sir said again in a mocking tone. I stopped walking and looked at Sir.

"What's your game? I would be able to absorb the powers of all the stones if that's the case. No one would be able to face me," I whispered.

"All the stones? Do you really think you can get all of them?" Sir said laughing.

"And don't even get me started on other enemies. You overestimate the reach of the stones," Sir said. If that's the case, then Thanos only got rid of lifeforms that were the weakest. That makes sense. Carol wasn't affected by it. Even if it tried, it might not have worked since she is using part of the space stones energy.

"So, you and Carol huh? Interesting choice," Sir said, and I glared at him.

"Are you done?" I asked. He laughed.

"I love our talks. We know each other so well," Sir said laughing. I tighten my hands.

"I think I've out done myself with this universe to be honest. It's going to be so entertaining," Sir said. I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of sadness hit me. An image of Carol quickly flickered in my mind and snapped me out of it.

"I'll survive your plans. I'll protect her and my family until my last dying breath," I said firmly. Sir just smiled widely.

"Oh, I'm sure you will but what will you sacrifice?" Sir said with a wider smile. I blinked and he was gone. I released the air I didn't know I was holding and leaned against the wall. The tension in the air was high. I looked at my hand to see I had unconsciously activated my shroud.

"Whatever the cost," I whispered to myself.