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May. 21st, 2022 at 11:40 PM
As the Phoenix drew closer to Xavier's, the creatures coming through the portals could sense it. All that energy, all that power -- it drew them like a bright light draws insects, pure instinct, none of them knowing what they would do with it if they actually reached it. They started to draw away from the other portals, focusing on the ones closest to that beacon of power. The ones closest to Xavier's. The campus was already packed with strange, dangerous creatures, but soon it would be even more so, the Phoenix's power just out of reach driving some of them into a frenzy.
It wasn't just monsters that followed in the Phoenix's wake. Some of the Hellfire Club's members had abandoned this whole business after what happened to Shaw, but some of them were still tracking the thing they had summoned. If they couldn't control it, they could at least make sure nobody else could take control of it, either.
And then there was the Phoenix itself. Brilliant, burning, it sensed what it had come here for -- the host that could contain it without being destroyed. The girl who, in the kind of cosmic coincidence that started to feel more like fate, even shared its name. Phoenix. Jean Grey. It found her in the chaos, and it moved into her like it had moved into Shaw, and this time its scorching psychic fire met a mind that could withstand it.
Inside, the spellcasters would feel the burst of psychic energy as the Phoenix found its match. It filled them, giving them strength, powering their spell as it reached its peak. Giving it that last burst of energy it needed. Outside, and all across the multiverse, those who'd gone through portals to other worlds would feel themselves drawn to the portal that would take them back where they'd come from. They could follow it home, or they could resist it and remain where they were. That was their choice. But they would only have a few minutes to make it, before the portals began to close for the last time.
When the last of the portals closed, the damage that had been done to the very fabric of reality would finally be healed. Powers that had weakened, strengthened, fluctuated wildly, would be restored to normal. But there would still be enemies to fight, both monstrous and human, before this was truly over.
(Fighting continues! Everyone!)
[Watch for headers for Jean and the Phoenix, portal entries and exits, and continued fighting! Some of the monsters will respond to the pull of the spell and go home before the portals close, but more of them will stay to keep causing trouble. There will also be Hellfire Club members arriving to cause even more trouble. Last fight thread!]
It wasn't just monsters that followed in the Phoenix's wake. Some of the Hellfire Club's members had abandoned this whole business after what happened to Shaw, but some of them were still tracking the thing they had summoned. If they couldn't control it, they could at least make sure nobody else could take control of it, either.
And then there was the Phoenix itself. Brilliant, burning, it sensed what it had come here for -- the host that could contain it without being destroyed. The girl who, in the kind of cosmic coincidence that started to feel more like fate, even shared its name. Phoenix. Jean Grey. It found her in the chaos, and it moved into her like it had moved into Shaw, and this time its scorching psychic fire met a mind that could withstand it.
Inside, the spellcasters would feel the burst of psychic energy as the Phoenix found its match. It filled them, giving them strength, powering their spell as it reached its peak. Giving it that last burst of energy it needed. Outside, and all across the multiverse, those who'd gone through portals to other worlds would feel themselves drawn to the portal that would take them back where they'd come from. They could follow it home, or they could resist it and remain where they were. That was their choice. But they would only have a few minutes to make it, before the portals began to close for the last time.
When the last of the portals closed, the damage that had been done to the very fabric of reality would finally be healed. Powers that had weakened, strengthened, fluctuated wildly, would be restored to normal. But there would still be enemies to fight, both monstrous and human, before this was truly over.