30. But you rejected it. Because you were afraid of it?

Not at all perturbed by her anger, Spider-Man looks down on himself and then at her and gestures to himself before he says, "I'm sorry, is me being ethereal considered alive now? Cause if so then Patrick Swayze will be thrilled."

Fed up with his sad and frankly insufferable attempts at being funny, she gives him an annoyed glare in the hopes he catches on fire.

He raises his hands placatingly, "Okay look," he says, "I can go into a long explanation of how I'm here or I can help you with your problem."

Her glare doesn't leave as she repeats, "My problem?"

"Why are you doubting yourself?"

Her glare leaves her and mild surprise replaces it. Not three seconds later that turns into indignation that she directs to herself.

She looks to the frozen visage of Scott setting fire to everything and gestures to him, "I'm supposed to be able to take him. I'm the secret weapon everyone is counting on."

"The weight of the world on your shoulders," he summarizes for her, "Been there a few times. Was actually close to your age too."

Hope looks back at him in slight surprise, "Really?"

Spider-Man nods, "Yeah," he sits down and crosses his legs together and Hope follows his example, "I was fifteen when I got my powers. I was going out every day saving people and beating up bad guys," he sighs with a bit of remorse, "And I made a lot of mistakes that nobody let me forget. Especially myself."

Hope looks down in shame, "Like I did on the moon."

"No," he immediately says and get her to look at him in slight surprise, "I told you I think you made the right decision back on the moon, and the reason why I thought that is because you've heard the stories about the Phoenix Force, but I don't think you really understood what it meant to actually have it inside you. What having the power to destroy and create things from thought is like. And how much it can corrupt you if you are not ready for it. I think you needed to see firsthand what it does, even to good people."

She looks back at the frozen image of Cyclops. Him losing control of himself and attacking everyone is what she would have gone through if she accepted the Phoenix back on the moon.

"Although I don't think Emma and Namor fall in that category," she can't argue with, "but that's not my point. My point is that you needed to see it for yourself and not just hear the stories about it. So you can really be ready for it."

He stands up and looks down at her, "And you have an advantage that Jean, Scott, and everyone else didn't have. You are prepared for it. Everyone believes that, Hope. The only question is, do you believe in yourself?"

He fades away and she sits there in silent contemplation. His last words echo in her head.

Does she believe in herself?

'I do.'

She closes her eyes and takes deep breaths. She clenches and unclenches her fist as small wisps of Phoenix force and chaos energy float around her hand.

'I know I can do this.'

The world slowly begins to move again.

'Everyone is counting on me to do this.'

The fires all around her begin to swirl around the energy around her fist as it mimics the Phoenix Forces.

"What happened?"

She looks up to see Scott looking around bewildered. She guesses he noticed he was frozen in place briefly.

"What happened?" Hope repeats back to him as she stands up, "You made a mistake."

She charges at him and punches him in the face with her chaos/Phoenix-powered fist. He staggers back as the flames on him dissipate.

"You let this power go to your head," she punches him again as she continues to talk, "even after knowing what it will do to you eventually."

Scott tries to retaliate with a blast from his eyes but Hope hits him again and the blast fire off into the sky.

"Even after all the pain and suffering you all caused," as she continues to hit him she doesn't notice the fires on the battlefield begin to gather into her hands, leaving them for the rest of the heroes to see, "You still thought you guys were in the right!"

She doesn't mean to include the X-men in that statement, but the ones watching and close enough to hear her wince at her words as she continues to beat Scott.

Cyclops falls to his knees, looking exhausted and bloody, looks up at the heavily breathing Hope and says, "You were supposed to be the one to take it," she keeps her expression still and doesn't say a word, "It was your destiny to take the Phoenix Force and use its power to save our people," he gives her a look of contempt, "But you rejected it. Because you were afraid of it."

Her determined look doesn't waver as she responds, "I was afraid of it. Especially after seeing you five."

She then uppercuts him right in the jaw and launches him two feet in the air. When he lands the Phoenix Force immediately gets out of him and flies into the sky.

It looks down at Hope and Hope looks back up at it.

"But not anymore."

It then dives down at her and she absorbs it. All the heroes watch on even as the heat and light get more intense. After a few moments the intensity dies down and what could be seen is a girl on fire.

"Hope?" Wolverine calls out to her.

She doesn't respond. Instead, she blasts off into the air.

"Tony!" Cap calls out.

"I'm on it!" Tony responds as he follows after her. They both vanish quickly from all the present heroes' sight.

Cap presses his finger to his ear and says, "Tony! Gives us an update! What is going on?"