Victor

Disclaimers

I do not own the rights to any of the characters of the Marvel or DC universe. Any original characters referenced in this tale are my intellectual property (I think? copyright law is confusing :S)

I know and care little about the sexuality of any of the creators, actors, or characters involved in the Marvel/DC universe. Similarly, this story contains graphic descriptions of gay male sex. If that may offend you, I suggest looking elsewhere for entertainment. Otherwise enjoy some smut. The smut will be widespread and hopefully organic to character growth.

Partial credit goes to the story Mutation by Phoenixfire543 (on nifty) for inspiring me to write my own variation on the whole superhero genre. His protagonist inspired mine power wise, though mine varies a lot in temperament and disposition.

Don't own the rights to the Garbage song "Only happy when it rains"

Gay lord national resort was built in 2008 but I'm using it in this story because I find the name hilarious and this story doesn't need to conform too stringently to the real world. No disrespect meant to the hotel...

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Authors Note

This chapter is quite involved and makes numerous references to previous chapters. I've tried to cover as much of the story terminology below but I've probably missed some. I've also resorted to summarizing what some of the other characters say to avoid dull exposition sharing conversations. As always hope you enjoy the chapter.

Bit haphazard with tenses, this chapter.

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Story Terminology

Psionic bubble/shield - mostly used as a defensive measure to hide from ex corporeal surveillance by telepaths can go out but cant come in. Like locking yourself in behind a strong door with a peep hole.

Inverse psionic shield/ psionic cage- used by a telepath to trap psionic beings inside. So they can't escape. Like a prison cell, locks from the outside.

*text between these symbols indicates telepathic communication *

^text between these symbols indicate Victor using 'water voice' to communicate with someone^

::Within the psychic landscape::

Dialogue tags/actions followed by: dialogue

Scenes not in the physical realm or not viewed personally by Victor will start with :: LOCATION/ People involved:: and end with :: ::

'Linked' - telepathically attaching to someone else to experience their sensations (sometimes emotions or thoughts).

Tk - telekinesis/telekinetic

'eyes' - water molecules used to psionically observe events.

'hands' - refer to ice or water hands used as de facto hands

'Psychic shadow' - a copy of someone's mentality that's subtly different from the original personality due to the effects of not having a body and varying experiences post separation.

psychic remnant - a psychic after image that results after using Rogue's power.

proxies: ice copies of Victor's body (neutered for decency) used to do personal mutant errands

'Psychic clone' - a physical copy of Victor, infused with psychic energy equivalent to a class 4 telepath with no independent thought or action.

teleport hops - teleports that range from a few feet to a few miles.

body hop - traveling through water vapor psionically, to briefly coalesce into human shape to recover before shifting to water and traveling some more. high speed, extremely mentally taxing.

To a telepath there are three layers of the mind of note, the outer self, the middle self and the inner self or Core.

The outer self is home to strong emotions and immediate reactive thoughts(surface thoughts).

The Middle self is where sensory links take place and memories can be accessed, altered and uploaded.

The inner core is the home of the mental landscape, the psychic avatar, the psyche and willpower.

The deeper into someone's mind a telepath descends the more at risk they are to personality bleed-through and ejection from the mind.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Someone else's Memories &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

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Chapter 10 Reclamation

Power (temporary)

The landscape blurred past me as Nightcrawler and Abraxas teleported me back to Avalon where I glimpsed familiar cities and landmarks through flashes of purple smoke. I didn't even get a chance to ask them any questions due to the speed of their teleports.

Avalon, Tasmania, Australia approximately 1300 hours 24th June local time (time zone differences)

When we arrived at Avalon, I was shocked by the changes made in my absence, it now looked like a small town in the Mediterranean. There were no walls around the perimeter just sandstone buildings on a virtual island in the middle of Tasmania. It was busy, people passed by a man in only his underwear chained to a statue of Austin/Broadcast in the town square apparently indifferent to his muffled cries. He had a metal helmet covering his face and he squirmed futilely against his chains.

Abraxas and Nightcrawler handed me off to 2 other riot helmeted guards without a word, disappearing again in a puff of purple smoke. The shorter one said "Follow us. He's waiting." and I realized that it was Spark behind the poly carbonate face plate. He had filled out a lot in the last 3 years, his form fitting armor hinted at a muscular body and big biceps. His gray armor appeared custom built with black cables encircling his body.

I protested. "What's this about?" Spark crackled with energy, the black cables around him glowed blueish with strange energy.

The other guard who was slightly taller and wider than Spark had a different custom armor made of some sort of flame retardant material with small holes that spouted flames and said "Shut up and do what you're told."

I decided to wait a few more minutes in silence until I was face to face with Austin before asking any more questions. Obviously his followers were fiercely loyal to him and didn't like his authority or orders questioned in their presence.

I was escorted to Austin's house, a sprawling 3 story Mediterranean style villa near the town square.

A man dressed in a butlers uniform opened the door. He exuded confident professionalism as he led me past several large well furnished rooms. I couldn't help it, I was impressed by Austin's home. During my time as leader of Avalon I hadn't really cared about furnishings but this place reeked of wealth and style and it made me a little embarrassed at my youthful pretentiousness living in an ice mansion.

The door opened with Austin sitting behind his desk. The butler turned and left me standing awkwardly in front of the man who had scarred me years before.

"Hi Austin..." I started and stopped awkwardly, suddenly uncertain.

"Hello Victor, it's been a while."

"Yes. I go by Matthew these days." He didn't even react to my comment so I moved onto a more pressing concern. "How did you escape SHIELD captivity?"

"Zoo Master arranged a distraction so that Spark could free me."

"Zoo Master? " I asked incredulously.

He gave a small grimace. "The name was his idea but he rescued me, I had boosted his powers before my capture and now he can telepathically control any and all animals within a mile of him."

It took me a couple of seconds to reconcile the low end telepath who gave instructions to animals telepathically with the mutant he was describing. I guess it wasn't too surprising, Zoo Master (ugh) was one of Austin's followers during the conflict and the others hadn't Cured any of Austin's followers after I took out Austin. "I hear that you've recovered from your mental breakdown earlier."

"Yes Jacob has helped me reconcile the memories of the different realities as separate." He looked off balance for a moment before smiling graciously and standing "I'll give you a tour of my home before we discuss you joining the family."

I shrugged. I didn't seem to have much choice in the matter.

Austin took me to an underground room with various targets around the room. He shows off his powers, displaying his aptitude with warping reality to his whims as well as generating fireballs, lightning, solar and telekinetic attacks to hit the targets on the walls. He fixed the incidental damage done to the stone wall with a wave of the hand.

He gloated about being able to read my mind. I don't comment. I don't really see the point. After that he shows me his harem of 20 women, some in various stages of pregnancy. He seems to be running some sort of personality power cult in Avalon. I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or depressed by his efforts. I say nothing. I've gotten good at keeping my mouth shut over the last 3 years. Easiest way to keep a secret.

He took me back to his study and tells me the backstory about the nearly naked guy chained in the town square. The barely dressed man was a Void Soldier who had attacked Avalon a few days ago. This Void Soldier had negation effect, adamantium bones, rapid healing and energy blast powers. This was the third Void Soldier attack against Avalon in a year and the most deadly.

He went on to tell me that he can return my powers if I promised to serve him loyally as his right hand man.

I asked "If you're so strong why do you need my help?"

He explained that while he has great power, his range is still limited by sight and his telepathic observation is limited. My psionics would be the last piece he'd need to ensure Avalon's future security against the Void Soldiers and anything or anyone else.

I thought about it for a few minutes while he idly played with a shimmering purple ball of energy of unknown effect in one hand.

I responded with "I'll help you out with your Void Soldier problem in exchange for my powers back permanently. "

He smiled and said "I knew you'd see it my way." We shook on it. He adds "In case you think you can get your powers back and leave I should warn you that the chaos magic that erased your powers in the first place tends to recover in a day or two. You need me to absorb the energy again or you will be powerless again."

I shrugged and said "That's not my style." He smirks at me and I know that he knows that was a lie. He must have picked up a stray thought with his telepathy. (Retreat is often the best option from a conflict and helps give you time to regroup and plan a decent counter attack.)

There's a weird sensation as Austin absorbed the chaos magic inside me. It felt like being pulled towards him when I'm standing still and a mixture of that odd off balance feeling as your foot hovers uncertainly for a split second in the air over a non existent last step.

After a minute of enduring that off kilter feeling, my old powers re emerged within me. I could sense the movement of the water around us and I could vaguely sense my inner mental landscape and how wrong it had become. My old strength returned rapidly as the chaos magic is drained from me. Austin tried to slide a telepathic probe into my inner core only to smack straight into a remnant of my telepathic past, a psionic vampiric class 6 telepathic shield. It stuns him momentarily and I made use of that to sap him for 8 seconds absorbing his strength into me before he is rendered unconscious and I let go of his throat. My perception of the world changes, as his memories become mine and a new psychic shadow spawns within my mind.

A wave of memories hit me of the Void Soldiers from Austin's POV

&&&&& The first Void Soldier appeared a year ago and with a small army of about 20 men armed with semi automatics and tranq guns. The Void Soldier negated all my attacks within a 3 foot radius and whatever damage my guards did with their attacks, healed within a minute. He/they tranq'd and shot dozens of my followers before I used mid range geokinesis and buried the invaders underground to the thunderous applause and adulation of my people.

The second Void Soldier attacked 5 months ago and I called upon my newly recruited humans to fire the salvaged electric guns in an unending barrage. Despite having regeneration, negation and adamantium bones, it wasn't too hard to throw rocks at him while he was regernerating until he was pushed into our new moat that was 20 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

The Latest Void Soldier attacked a few days ago. He was the hardest yet to deal with. He had adamantium bones, regeneration, negation and energy blasts. His energy blasts knocked hundreds of my followers unconscious and severely wounded dozens and killed several before Spark and I could overwhelm him with lightning and mini earth quakes. Once he was unconscious and half buried in the ground. I emptied Avalon's supply of tranquilizers into his body before dragging him off to the town square.

There I chained him up to my statue and shoved one of the energy helmets that I had created to absorb my excess energy and siphon it into Avalon's energy grid. The helmet he wore was up on the highest setting, no matter how he struggled or tried to blast his way out, all he'd do would provide more power for the grid. The asshole would provide power for Avalon forever to serve as an example to anyone else who would try to hurt my people. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I left Austin's room and Austin's butler attacked me with a class 3 telepathic/telekinetic combo, the telekinetic blast is like a strong but brief head wind that I ignored while his telepathic attack merely fed my newly created class 4 telepathic shield over my outer self. I knocked him down with a ice hand slap to the head. I opened the front door with a 'hand' and once outside Spark launched a blue energy ball at me that hits me in the chest and it melts my skin painfully but I phase and the damage is gone. The other guard (Austin's memory provides the name Trent aka firebrand) runs forwards, armor covered in fire, he tried to punch me and I block him and absorbed his heat into me. Sparks energy ball is absorbed before it can reach me and Trent's fire is absorbed into me. Trent is drained quickly, lying slumped on the floor but Spark takes another minute to run out of juice before he's spent.

I only have 7 minutes left to enjoy having Austin's power to sense and absorb all sorts of energy types in my vicinity and I wanted to make the most of it. More of Austin followers streamed towards me blasting me with all sort of attacks, some are mutants that use various powers on me but the majority are humans/ low level mutants who use electric guns to fire at me. I absorb their energy attacks, every strike making me stronger, it makes me appreciate how Austin's power had gone to his head. I felt temporarily invincible with the new power. Even the sun feeds me its power through ambient light, heat and solar radiation.

I grow bored of feeding off the attacks of Austin's people after less than a couple minutes and I fly upwards on a freshly created ice disk, leaving behind Avalon. As I ascended I surrounded myself in an ice bubble designed to magnify the sunlight. I flew towards Xavier's, absorbing all sorts of energy types, some I couldn't even classify yet. While I flew I explored my mental landscape for the first time in years and found the reason my headaches had gotten worse over the last year.

MIND

::Mental Landscape::

The mental landscape had changed a lot while I was powerless. From above it's been split into 4 distinct zones with my mental castle in the center.

I manifested in the castle's throne room with my psychic avatar. Shadow Beast appeared a moment later, greeting me with undiluted enthusiasm. He tells me how they've been barely holding on to the castle against the others even with modernized defenses such as laser turrets, proximity mines and security cameras. Beast sums up the history of the war that's been waging since I left.

Beast, Northstar, Tony and Steve have held onto the castle against the other factions.

Magneto, Mystique and Thor have taken a section of the landscape, their base looks like a high tech fortress surrounded by metal spikes that Thor uses as lightning rods and Magneto can use as weapons against intruders.

Phorcys took half the nightmare soldiers and rules over an area of ocean, with bleached human bones decorating his underwater empire, guarded by various sea monsters.

Phoenix rules over the charred area after claiming a hundred of the strongest protomutant minds to serve her and worship her like a goddess of Fire and death. She also has created psychic avatars of Cyclops and Wolverine to serve as her lieutenants. They're caricatures of their former selves, Wolverine a snarling man beast and Cyclops an obedient body guard. Her area is the most well defended with layers of literal fire walls. She launches the occasional attack against the others at random intervals to weaken their defenses and claim more territory. Her area is the largest.

Shadow Beast told me that now that I'm here I can help restore the mental landscape back to the way it was. I visit the newest psychic shadow Austin/Broadcast with Shadow Beast tagging along and when faced with Austin, I sprout tentacles from the chest and I pierce his chest with my tentacles and absorb his weak psychic strength, his useful memories and discard the rest of him.

Beast is enraged by my action and lectures me about it for a while and I let him as I digest my meal.

I respond with: It's war and I don't need any more unreliable or dangerous psychic remnants loitering about after what happened during my absence here.

He looks unhappy but grudgingly follows me. It's my mind after all and he's merely a guest.

Magneto sends a wave of mutant wraiths to attack the castle to test how strong I am. I become a tidal wave swallowing his wraith army easily and I absorb their psychic strength into me. Magneto retreats with Mystique covering his retreat. I don't bother following him as I digest the fresh psychic strength.

I can sense that the other occupants of the mental landscape are aware of my arrival as I can see the entirety of my mental realm and they are preparing their defenses/armies.

I go visit Phorcys alone under the banner of truce to make a deal. His face is bloody red red water replica of my former face while his body is protected by a bright orange red chitin armor, he's grown a scorpion tail. I proposed a deal that we'd work together to take out the Phoenix faction and Magneto and he could take 80% of their lands, half their power and memories as his own in return for his help.

Phorcys asked: Why do you trust me to honor our deal when you broke the deal with Austin?

I responded with: You're the darker half of me, without you I probably wouldn't have survived as long but you're wrong. I didn't break the deal with Austin I plan on honoring it in my own way. Once I destroy the Void Soldiers at their source I won't have to be obligated to an unstable Austin. You're a part of me for better or for worse and we should be united. We're stronger together.

Phorcys fake vomits at the sentiment of cooperation and snarks back: Austin's unstable he says, as he talks to the voice in his head, asking for help to kill the other voices in his head.

I shrugg: I never said my life was normal.

He accepts my offer. Shadow Beast, Steve, Northstar and Tony are unsure about this unholy alliance. I tell them it's a necessary evil. They're unhappy but they want the war to be over with as it's been going on for what seems 15 years (the perception of time within the mental landscape is malleable and has become another weapon in the war.)

I take Steve and Northstar with me along with half of Phorcys' forces while Beast and Tony remain at my castle with half the nightmare legion to hold the base if Phoenix and her army launches an attack while we're gone or if Phorcys attempts a double cross with his remaining forces.

With our 2 factions united against Magneto, we storm his base. Thor and Magneto try to slow us down with long range thunder and metal attacks but the nightmare legion and sea monsters soak up most of the damage allowing Phorcys, Steve, Northstar and I to make our way to his high tech fortress.

We push forward and trap Mystique, Magneto and Thor within the throne room. Steve holds off Mystique while Northstar occupies Thor with high speed attacks. Phorcys and I work together to take down Magneto the strongest of the 3. We hammer at him with physical, water and psychic attacks until he is sufficiently weakened. Then we drain him of his psychic energy, sharing the spoils as we absorbed his memories in the process. I helped Northstar finish off Thor, sapping half of his remaining psychic strength. Phorcys joins in with Steve and saps her psychic strength. Without words we swap and finish off Mystique and Thor psychic shadows/avatars permanently and they fade into nothing.

Northstar strips Magneto's base of operations for armaments at super speed while I check on our numbers. We lost over half of our forces in the battle.

Phorcys and I are brimming with psychic strength so I use Magneto's memories to recreate the face of every Nazi soldier he hid from during the Holocaust. The faces that haunt him when he sees human faces shouting out bigotry or raising their hands against his mutant brethren. Perfectly expendable cannon fodder.

Before our next engagement we regroup. Phorcys returns to his base to gather the rest of his army while I return to mine to gather the others in a final assault.

Phorcys uses his time away to creates more sea monsters; krakens, giant squids, crabs, octopi, a Cthulhu and sea serpents. He also throws in a few mermen to serve as cannon fodder.

Before we leave for battle Beast tells me he has a possible solution to the mutant devastation using the information in the archives. I back up the memories of Shadow Beast, Northstar and Steve before our battle in case they get killed in this final conflict.

We launch a full out offensive against Phoenix's stronghold with everything and everyone we had. Jacob's therapy has turned Phoenix from an unstable omnicidal telekinetic to a focused and ruthless omnicidal telekinetic. It's a dangerous improvement.

After a long and protracted battle where Phorcys and I worked together to destroy Phoenix's forces, we finally isolated Phoenix from her army of boy toy soldiers.

Phorcys and I tag teamed her, hitting her with literally everything we could think of. Eventually we got the upper hand as Phorcys teleported behind her and ripped out her throat with crab claws. I teleported in front of her and disemboweled her as I drained her of her psychic energy and memories.

We waded into battle against her remaining troops who fought with psychic rifles and time grenades. Their psychic rifles fired ammunition that tore through psychic avatars, bleeding out psychic strength, forcing you to exert even more psychic strength to heal the wounds. If you got hit too many times, you'd run out of psychic strength and fade away.

Our forces suffered staggering losses, out of every 10 soldiers we brought against her, only 1 had survived. Northstar got hit by a time grenade, locking him in place to be torn apart by Phoenix's soldiers. Steve and Tony died while keeping Shadow Cyclops and Wolverine pinned down and distracted. They managed to weaken them enough so that our cannon fodder could finish them off with a swarm attack.

After the battle Phorcys kept some of the soldiers for later, saying they looked pretty enough to eat. He licked one on the cheek suggestively. I just drained them immediately, absorbing their psychic energy having archived their relevant memories already when I first acquired their minds in Antarctica during their failed attempt to obliterate the 'golem collective'. Beast survived though, weakened and weary from the fighting. :: ::

POWER

Austin's power runs out and I returned to myself a thousand miles away from Avalon having won the war for my mind decisively. I had used all the energy I had absorbed to speed my travel to an unprecedented level. For a few minutes I was traveling at about 12000 miles/p hr. without any teleporting; Austin's power is wasted on him. While the power was gone, the greater awareness of the energy spectrum lingered in my mind. I traveled the rest of the way to Xavier's via spurts of teleport-hopping and hydro kinetic travel. It takes about 4 hours to travel the remaining 9000 miles there.

North Salem, Westchester County, Xavier Institute Local time 2300 hours June 23rd 2004

Xavier detects my presence telepathically and I could detect his shock through our brief mutual telepathic awareness. I'm equally shocked to find him wandering the corridors of the school looking healthier than ever. I appeared in front of him and he tried to dig into my mind for my intentions piercing through my outer shield with ease. The class 6 telepathic shield above my inner core feeds hungrily on his telepathic power, rendering Xavier mute and immobile for a moment.

2 and a bit years of my inner class 4.5 psionic vampiric telepathic shield cannibalizing the other telepathic shields above had left my mental landscape secure from other telepaths. Anyone that had succeeded breaking my inner shield would have released a more competent self aware, fully realized Phoenix unfettered by my control. As well as a predatory Phorcys. A telepathic Pandora's box. Which is typical of my life.

:: Mental Landscape ::

Phorcys is busy teaching his conquered captives how to be good sex slaves. :: ::

While Xavier is stunned I grabbed his neck and sapped him for 4 seconds, where he crumples to the ground. This gives me 4 minutes worth of his power to use as I see fit.

I teleported into Cerebro. I strapped myself in and use it to boost my psionics. I asked everyone via low level mid range telepathic broadcast *Where is Josh/Elixir?"

One of the students answers Kenya, Africa and I use Cerebro to narrow Josh's location via psionic scanning to a remote village in Kenya.

Storm meanwhile is alerted to my presence and I know that I have to hurry before all hell breaks loose.

:: Mental Landscape::

I ruthlessly kill the weak Xavier psychic shadow and use his powers and memories to ruthlessly purge my psychic avatar of as much of the accumulated psychic baggage as possible. There are traces of Phoenix, Beast, Steve and the others inside me but its minimal. :: ::

I cranked up my telepathic output to the max (Xavier's borrowed telepathic power) and scanned the entire continent of North America searching for a particular mental signature that reverberates with John's mental signature. I found him in Boston in the shape of Jean Gray. I sighed and rolled my eyes. No matter how many times I kill that woman, she still haunts my life. Phoenix is an ironically accurate alter ego considering how many time she rises from the ashes.

:: Boston & John:: I send a flesh proxy (made from the shower room and dressed in a X men outfit) to pick up John in a stolen X - Jet. I water whisper to him the basic goals of my plan. Which is to reclaim our birthright powers, stop the Void Soldiers once and for all and free any human test subjects. He/she leaves me hanging for a long moment for an answer then nods in assent. (he/she is surrounded by ordinary people out for a night out). I directed him/her to the nearest publicly accessible rooftop for a stealth enabled pick up. :: ::

Then I 'body hopped' out of there after trashing Cerebro fluid chambers so that they can't track me down easily. Elixir is now the only mutant powerful enough to restore us to our former glory without Austin's price tag of subservience and stupidity and I'd do whatever it takes.

Once John's cooperation is certain and I've disposed of the flesh proxy, I gave John the coordinates via telepathy and 'body-hopped' my way to Africa. The effort is extremely taxing but also intoxicating in it's speed and freedom from the physical form. Took about 3 hours for me to travel the 7500 miles.

Remote Village outside Nairobi Kenya Local time 1100 hours June 24th

I arrived outside a small hut where there is a line for Josh's services. I send out a mental arrow and John is still an hour out traveling via X jet. I waited outside for a couple of minutes, letting myself recover from the mental strain of a long journey. The line of people look at me oddly and I realize that I've left my clothes behind and am naked again. On the upside I no longer have the scar on my chest. I touched my chest, remembering all the times that Hakeem had trailed his fingers over my scar and told me how sexy it was.

I sighed and turned to ice so that the natives were spared looking at my nakedness.

Josh comes out to greet me warily. I explained the situation to him and he declined to help saying the last time he helped me hadn't gone so well and his hand still felt weird. Ironic since he's now completely golden and he seems completely indifferent to that.

I spend the next 45 minutes trying to convince Josh/Elixir in between patients that he's the only one I know that is strong enough to help restore me and the whole mutant race to its former glory. Seeing that it's a lost cause I go outside and wait for John to arrive. I sent out a mental arrow to check on John's progress and ETA(estimated time of arrival) so I can think of a new plan.

As I monitored him through telepathic ex corporeal overview I could feel my newly reacquired powers starting to flicker and fade. It triggers one of Austin's memories of how his early test subjects experienced rapid loss of powers after exerting themselves too much. It's still at the early stage of power loss/ chaos magic return. I hardened my heart to Josh's petty emotions and I go back inside the hut. I don't have the time to waste convincing him as I can already feel my powers weakening with every minute that goes by. I sapped him for 6 seconds, stealing his power and rendering him unconscious. I gave him the equivalent of a paper cut with an ice razor blade and turn the blade into an ice cube with the blood inside. I placed the ice cube where my heart would be if I had one at that point. I reached out with a thought, scanning the villagers and fixed the villagers medical problems with ease before I left. Traveled via Hydro kinetic bubble to intercept John.

:: Mental Landscape::

I drained the weak Josh/Elixir shadow, strip mining his mind for useful memories and discarding the rest. :: ::

I teleported into the cockpit. "John, I need you to let me into your mind so I can restore your power."

He/she said with a smirk "Give it to me Boy Wonder!"

"Remember how you'd switch from one form to your default body" He/she nods "keep that in your mind."

I telepathically project myself into his mind and remember with him how he switched forms. I dug deeper into that memory for the exact details of his genetic blue print of his default form. I reached inside John using Elixir's borrowed powers and turn John in Jean's body into the default John complete with original power. Then I give him the ice cube to eat and John acquires Elixir genetic form and powers. He morphed into Elixir who looks more ridiculous in John's dress. I telepathically transmitted the genetic details necessary to repair my genome to recover my hydro kinetic, telepathic, teleporting, telekinetic, biologically sapping form. Elixir's memories help.

John reached inside of my body and I screamed as he made the temporary reclamation of my powers permanent.

I let John fly as I use the flight time to recover from the ordeal. John complains that he feels odd, I do too. I search through the various memories I have at my disposal for an answer.

I asked him "Have you ever copied Austin's form?"

"Of course."

"Good. I've got a plan."

John as Elixir and I linked minds and bodies as I created a new flesh proxy with John as Elixir tweaking it to have Austin's power. I puppeted it, using it and Austin's memories to drain the remaining chaos magic out of us. I puppeteered the Austin clone using his memories to create a class 4 magic shield from future magical disruption that might attempt to steal our powers. I changed course to Alkali Lake and engaged auto pilot and stealth mode while I recovered from the latest mental strain. Takes about 4 hours to get to Alkali.

Alkali Lake local time 800 hours 24th June.

When we arrived at Alkali Lake I set the X- Jet on hover as I floated us down. I landed on the water, which I froze beneath my feet. I thought for a second and engaged the auto pilot to send the X- Jet back to Xavier.

"Now what?" asked John.

"Time to tidy up this place." I said and with a gesture I took hold of the millions of gallons of water that had flooded the base and the area around it and slowly reformed it into a giant ice dome around the base.

"Nice Job. I would have done it faster with Jean's power."

"Probably." Then I had an idea and ... I reached out with a thought and created a couple of water hands at Xavier's to search through the medical database for Jean's DNA pattern. Once I found that it was simply a matter of searching the surrounding area for a genetic match. Jean Gray had been beneath the water for years. Even with telekinetic shielding, she still molted dead skin cells among other things. I found an intact hair follicle.

John ate it and morphed into Jean. "I'm back bitches."

"Yes. Very droll. Where were you during the mutant devastation anyway? I didn't know what happened to you."

He/she looked at me for a long moment before smiling and floating telekinetically above me. "I was in South America. Once I discovered that I no longer had the hunger and had this great body." He squeezed his tits with a half dreamy smile on her face... "Anyway I went out to party and met this hot Latino guy who was a Colombian drug lord and the rest is history."

"What happened to him?"

"He died." said with a half shrug "Territory dispute. So I came back to the States with some money and decided to start over. It's what we do."

"Yeah..." I drifted off thinking about how I had started over with Hakeem and how that was ruined now. "While you're in that body, how about providing us with telepathic cover in case Xavier and the Xmen tries to find us."

"Are you afraid of him or something?"

"No. Just don't have the time to deal with him at the moment. I'm going to use Cerebro 2 to do a more thorough search for the Void Soldiers. They must be somewhere and I need to find them before they call in the heavy hitters to interfere."

"Yes sir." John as Jean gave me a mock salute and I couldn't help but smile at being with John again. He was a sociopathic asshole but he was amusing at times and I had kind of missed his irreverent humor.

I teleport-hopped into Cerebro 2 and used Magneto's memories and my tk to repair the metal panels.

MUTANTS

Once I got Cerebro 2 working I could sense John's psionic shield over my ice dome hiding us from external telepathic observation. I used Cerebro 2 to send waves and waves of 'eyes' in all directions searching for blank spots in my awareness that would indicate Void Soldiers. It wasn't as efficient as Cerebro but it would do for now.

I found something other than a Void Soldier that merited my full attention.

:: COLORADO - SHIELD OUTPOST::

Maddrox (aka Multiple Man, a former henchman of Magneto) is strapped to a table in ill fitting underwear. He's lost weight since I last observed him reabsorbing his dupes. There were two agents in the room with him, one male, one female, the male strikes him in the shoulder and a dupe is made, the female agent immediately fires a special gun that renders the dupe immobile and unconscious. Between the two of them they drag the dupe away while Maddrox Prime struggles futilely to get free.

His dupe is carried to a room where a group of scientists take blood samples. The dispassionate way one of the scientists cuts into the dupe, killing it/him without regard infuriates me. I diverted my attention back to Maddrox Prime in the room alone, I frost up the security cam monitoring him and teleported him to the roof of an adjacent building.

He looked around "What's going on?"

^I have an offer for you.^

"Who are you? What do you want?"

^ Not important at the moment. Would you like to get revenge on the government?^

"Yes." He scowled as he wrapped his arms around himself.

^Good. I need your help.^ I searched the area for something in his size and teleported over some clothes. He got dressed and almost instantly he looked more self-assured and confident. ^I'm going to need your complete obedience for the next couple of days until I can complete my mission and then you can do what you like.^

"What's the catch?" He looked around. He seemed much more paranoid than the last time I saw him. I guess being a science experiment wasn't much fun after four years.

^This mission requires the target to be relaxed and complacent, your escape would be problematic.^

"You're going to put me back there?" He asked, his voice rising in pitch and volume.

^You'll need to trust me for a moment and remain completely silent.^ He closed his mouth violently, his lips compressed into a tight white line. I poked him with an ice finger and his mouth opens as he duplicates. I scanned them both and they register as physically the same. ^ Only one of you needs to remain here, the original comes with me far away and at the end of the mission we'll return for the duplicate and we can burn this place to the ground if you like.^ He smiles a vicious smile as he/they think about it. I gave him a moment to decide and they both nod somewhat reluctantly. ^Which one of you is coming with me and which is staying behind?^ They exchange a glance and one stepped forward while the other hung back. I teleported the dupe back into captivity, teleporting the 'borrowed' clothing back to its original location and encased the other in an ice bubble with snow coating the inside and transported him to me via ice bubble. :: ::

While I transported him back to my impromptu base I read SHIELD's report on him. He'd been in captivity since Magneto used him as a decoy before the Alcatraz battle and was a bit malnourished and morose but otherwise healthy. They were studying his duplication ability in order to discover the secret behind his matter duplication for their own purposes. However his genetic profile appeared different from a regular mutant in several key areas so they were having difficulty making headway as they tried to replicate his power scientifically.

I went out to greet Maddrox Prime a few minutes prior to arrival. I'm near the breaking point after using so much energy to retrieve him and interact with him long distance.

"Welcome to the mutant revolution. Are you ready to cause some havoc?"

"Hell yeah."

"That's the spirit." I shook his hand for a second, using Rogue's power to get a taste of his power. His power held the key to my anti Void Soldier strategy.

:: Mental Landscape:: I drained and disposed of the Maddrox psychic shadow after strip mining his memories. :: ::

He stretched out. "I'm going to need a drink."

"Sure. Have a drink and a shower and a change of clothes and a short rest and we'll get into what I need from you."

I took him to his new room; one of the private sleeping quarters that had running water and electricity thanks to a back-up generator I had found and repaired earlier. I had a short timeline to complete this but I figured that Maddrox would need some downtime before starting since he'd been in captivity for years.

I telepathically transmitted some instructions and information to John as Jean for him/her to work on while I worked on my own control over psionics and continued my search for the Void Soldiers.

A few hours later Jamie Maddrox found me in Cerebro 2 using his dupes as a swarming search party. Maddrox Prime reabsorbs the now unnecessary dupes in front of me. It's odd seeing it live. The dupes just disappear into him. After reviewing my memories of Maddrox from Magneto's interactions (when he was a henchman) and Xavier's time with him (when he was a student) along with his memories of his power I had a plan to maximize his effectiveness.

I asked him to split into 10 and I uploaded specific knowledge sets into each dupe. He has some telepathic resistance and it takes a bit of time to finish. I feed Dupe 1 Mystique's hand to hand combat memories, Dupe 2 got her memories on covert infiltration, Dupe 3 Stark's knowledge of security systems, Dupe 4 got former Mossad's agent information gathering memories, Dupe 5 got my knowledge of firearms, Dupe 6 got Steve Roger's tactical memories, Dupe 7 my experience with explosives, Dupe 8 basic medical training, Dupe 9 land tactics and the Maddrox Prime small unit tactics.

I told him/them to take a few hours to adjust to the information now in their heads, work through the muscle memory dissonance issues and then I'd telepathically review absorption of information in a few hours. While he/they did that, I worked on my hydro kinetic control over long distances and short, playing with the weather by affecting water in between psionic scans.

By the end of the day John as Jean had returned from his excursion to an uninhabited French Polynesian island where he had been practicing his telekinesis and golem animation techniques. Maddrox met John and they got on quite well, two roguish peas in a pod. Maddrox had reabsorbed his dupes and he now had the knowledge necessary to turn him from a bank robbing loser and throwaway decoy in Magneto's scheme to a highly trained one man army.

25th June Alkali Lake

While John as Jean trained with telekinesis and golem animation and John worked on honing his newly acquired skills with hands on practice, I used Cerebro 2 to scan the US for Void Soldiers. I found them in Mexico and Canada.

I used 'eyes' to monitor the situation. There were only a couple of Void Soldiers in each base with about 20 scientists and 50 armed personnel and a couple hundred prisoners/ test subjects. Each base sent the results of the various experiments to the SHIELD Helicarrier every week.

I used 'hands' and 'eyes' to covertly read through the data collected by the experiments to determine how many people needed to be rescued and how many people had died. The numbers of deaths so far were profoundly disturbing. I had assumed incorrectly that with the mutant devastation reducing our numbers to mere hundreds they would have let our species die off with a whimper. Instead the US Government had spent billions to ensure that we didn't experience a resurgence in numbers and power by capturing remnants and some foreign and domestic mutants in order to experiment and form their own super powered army of Void Soldiers. The remnants that proved of little value were either mind wiped into forgetting the experience or exterminated.

They had sacrificed hundreds of humans in order to test out genetic grafting (mostly vagrants and criminals). Most died. The 'successes' were vivisected for further information. It worked best on humans with a certain genetic sequence. Army personnel with a particular psychological profile were subjected to blood tests and recruited for further experimentation. Only a few of each test batch survived.

Each Void Soldier due to the negation effect only had half the power of the original genetic grafting donor. So the Void Soldiers with Wolverine's healing took twice as long to recover from damage. Void Soldiers with Havok's DNA grafted onto theirs took twice as long as the original to power up fully and produced energy blasts with half the destructive potential. They were sent out singly as their negation fields could interact and render them both inert.

Due to Mutant Devastation, the Void Soldiers program had been forced to rely heavily on rem's (remnants) for fodder for their genetic experiments to create the perfect weapon to eradicate mutants forever. Rem's provided little useful genetic material for super soldier enhancement so they were forced to rely on previous mutant research and attempt to raid Avalon for useful mutant specimens.

I took a short power nap to recharge my mental batteries as the last couple of days had been exhausting. I was out of practice on using my newly regained powers and everything was more effort than I remembered.

When I woke up Maddrox Prime asked me what made me think of this training method. I told him I saw it in a Japanese anime and I thought it might work for him based on how his powers worked. The truth was I don't know who had seen the anime. The mental archives had been left unattended and poorly maintained during my absenes. All the recent psychic shadow absorptions hadn't helped either.

1300 hours I sent John and Maddrox dupes off to collect the necessary equipment (radios and vehicles)for the mission. I did a quick run through of my salvaged arsenal (from the base) as I confirmed the current location of the SHIELD Helicarrier.

Ideally we would take a week or two to work on our collective skill sets but mutants and former mutants were being imprisoned and experimented on and we couldn't wait much longer. The Canadian Black site had plans to capture Northstar to harness his genetics to create a super fast, strong, regenerative, adamantium coated Void Soldier. They had already managed to get their hand on blood samples collected while he was an Olympic skier (for drug tests) and were using them as parts of their initial experiments on monkeys. Then once they unlocked Maddrox's genetic secrets they could have graft the multiplying ability and have the perfect replicating army.

While they were gone I contacted the Lazaruses and had them produce 50 enhanced Cure Darts for the missions which I collected an hour later via 'teleport hopping'.

When they returned I told them the location of the bases and my plan to take them down. They seem excited by the prospect of violence and chaos. John as Jean floated about around the base acting like a poltergeist, setting random things floating and creating illusory ghosts. Maddrox prepared stamped his feet and generated dupes.

John had been tasked to take on the Canadian black site while Maddrox and his army of dupes would deal with the Mexican Black Site. I would monitor their progress, troop movements in the area and the Helicarrier to see what they would do before attacking.

1900 hours Alkali Time John and Maddrox in position a mile away from their targets.

I remained at Alkali to make use of Cerebro to oversee operations.

CONFRONTATION

:: MEXICO ::

I created a small hail storm above the concrete facility to muffle the sounds of the Maddrox convoy's approach. They stopped a mile away from the black site. Maddrox Prime took position at the vehicles to maintain radio contact with the 8 Maddrox Dupes. Each of the Maddrox had a few Darts to use on any Void Soldiers they ran into. :: ::

:: CANADA::

I generated a small snow storm to cover John as Jean's approach to the facility. John had 25 Cure Darts to take down the Void Soldiers as necessary. :: ::

:: MEXICO::

The 8 Maddrox dupes spread out and took out the sentries without being seen. I told them to hold position while I did recon of the facilities. :: ::

:: CANADA::

John as Jean used telepathic attacks to render the Canadian sentries inert. I told him to hold position while I did recon of the facilities. :: ::

:: Helicarrier::

20 minutes later Nick Fury receives a call from the Canadian Black Site advising that they hadn't heard anything from their sentries and that they suspected they are under attack by an unknown third party. Nick Fury told them to forward all relevant data to Helicarrier while they organized reinforcements to the black site. It was time to take out the Helicarrier and distract their forces as well. :: ::

I telepathically forwarded all data of armed personnel in the area to John and Jamie Maddrox before abandoning my position at Alkali Base with Cerebro 2. I flew over to Washington DC at high speed while wrapped in psychic camouflage shields.

:: Mexico ::

With the Canadian base on alert it was only a matter of time for the Mexican Black site to be aware of the danger they were under. I added Tk energy to the hail hitting the concrete roof of the Black site and used water voice to 'sing' the lyrics to Garbage's song Only happy when it rains; ^Pour your misery down on me. ^ for maximum confusion.

Some of the security personnel came out to see what was going on and the 8 dupes became 16 with one boot stomp, then 32 with another, then 64 and they charged forward with abandon, ignoring the gun fire to disarm and disable the hapless security staff. They spread through the facility knocking out guilty scientists and collecting and securing the prisoners safety. They kept multiplying until they ran into the Void Soldiers.

The Mexican Void Soldiers had enhanced healing and senses from Wolverine as well as the energy projection abilities of Scott Summer's older brother code named Havok. Dozens of Maddrox dupes were killed but the 2 Void Soldiers were no match for the swarm of Maddrox dupes armed with Cure Darts. The Void Soldiers were dosed with quadruple the recommended dose of the Cure and were hog tied while depowered. :: ::

:: Canada::

I generated a fearsome blizzard while using water voice to sing the lyrics

^I'm only happy when it rains You wanna hear about my new obsession? I'm riding high upon a deep depression I'm only happy when it rains (Pour some misery down on me)^

John as Jean used the lowered visibility and excess snow to create and telepathically program hundreds of snow golems. I pointed out the high risk targets, using the blank spots the Void Soldiers generated to locate them. The snow golems died/collapsed by the hundreds but John as Jean kept sending more and more of them until the Canadian Void Soldiers were buried alive defenseless in snow. Then John used long range telekinesis to fire Cure Darts into the melting snow until they were depowered. :: ::

:: Washington DC::

From long distance while flying over I transferred about 70% of my hydro kinetic power and poured it into a flesh proxy that I formed out of the Potamic River. It registered about a class 4.5 hydro kinetic clone and I hastily programmed it with level 3 programming and telepathically transmitted some instructions as to his purpose. He created a 100 foot Triton god of the Sea out of ice in the Potomac River. It started a march from Quantico upwards towards Washington DC. It moved slowly. :: ::

When I arrived at Washington DC, I loitered nearby, using 'eyes' to keep track on the others and the Helicarrier.

:: HELICARRIER ::

It only took a couple of minutes for SHIELD mobile headquarters to get reports about a giant ice replica of the Greek sea God Triton 'navigated' by Victor marching upon Washington DC.

Nick Fury called the Avengers while other SHIELD agents and personnel organized evacuations of the POTUS and VIP's from the area and scrambled military jets and personnel to stall the ice giant from reaching its probable target of the White House. Nick Fury redirected the Helicarrier to fly to Washington DC to provide tactical support.

Nick Fury also called the X men to assist which was an unforeseen complication. :: ::

::Washington DC:: My hydro kinetic clone and his pet Ice Triton loitered near the *Gay Lord National Resort and Convention Center just because I found the name amusing. It would serve as a useful decoy to distract the SHIELD personnel as I used thousands of 'eyes' and dozens of 'tk hands' to read through and delete the information on the results while retaining the incriminating data of the illegal experimentation on humans and murder of extraneous test subjects.

The Avengers arrived in a quinjet from New York and the Helicarrier was only about 20 minutes behind them. The Avengers attacked Triton and the flesh proxy with lightning bolts, brute force, bullets and arrows. I had the flesh proxy `escape' into the water to delay and confuse them as the Triton collapsed into chunks of ice and water.

Vision noticed the attempt to destroy the Void Soldier project digital files and flew towards the Helicarrier, remotely interfacing with the database in order to stall the deleting of data. Meanwhile the other Avengers tries to deal with the 2 newly created ice Tritons. :: ::

I traveled at high speed hydro kinetically to intercept the Helicarrier before it could assist the Avengers against the fake threat of an empowered flesh proxy.

When I was a mile away from the Helicarrier I added additional layers of class 4 psionic camouflage shields around myself and teleported into a quiet alcove to make use of one of the computer terminals to finish deleting the data myself.

I sent a mental arrow out to Mexico and Canada to check on the progress of the mission and they were up to the clean up stage.

:: Canada ::

John as Jean was telekinetically floating the 200 rescued captives and the 20 captured scientists to be brought back to Alkali to be processed. The Canadian Black site had been turned into twisted wreckage in his wake. John as Jean had torn apart the concrete facility as if the walls were made of gingerbread. Only the concrete floor and the unconscious/telepathically stunned security personnel remained reasonably intact.

::Mexico::

Maddrox dupes drove the rescued prisoners and captured scientists back to the Alkali base. The dupes stole some of the Black Site's personnel's cars to deal with the amount of people needing transport. The Mexican Prisoners weren't in the best of health. They would need to be treated for their wounds A.S.A.P. :: ::

As I engaged in a furious computer battle with Vision to delete the results of the data, I used hundreds of 'eyes' and dozens of 'hands' to read through SHIELD database to try and find useful intel. I found a lot of intel, SHIELD had files on everyone powerful living and dead, active and inactive, including the X men and Avengers.

The truth about the origin of Ultron enraged me but I buried it to deal with later. It would be safer to delete everything about the Void Soldiers and utterly destroy the hardware to make sure the information was gone forever but I might need the incriminating data of the illegal experimentation on mutants later to expose those involved. There was a high risk of Vision having a partial copy of files of the SHIELD database so complete eradication was unlikely. Digital data is a nightmare to get rid of.

While I was wreaking havoc on the SHIELD database using Tony Stark's secret backdoor into the system, Vision appeared from the floor, firing some sort of energy blast from the gem in his forehead that disrupted my psionic protection. SHIELD agents appear from multiple doors like pissed off bees with a shaken hive and fire their guns at me. I teleported out of the room into an unoccupied room.

Vision followed me traveling intangibly through walls, he must be remotely accessing the Helicarriers security cameras. I tactically retreated. Vision is the most dangerous of all the Avengers, he's smart, capable of calculating variables with a super computer brain, armed with an alien artifact with a durable metallic body that can go intangible or super dense at a whim and interfaces with technology remotely from miles away. I teleported out but Vision remained hot on my tail.

I wasn't sure how to shake him other than exploiting his baseline programming to protect people. To distract him I stall 2 of the engines of the Helicarrier with thick layers of frost and he stops following me, reversing directions to stop the Helicarrier's rapid descent.

Having fulfilled my purpose I sought to leave quickly before things escalated unnecessarily. I teleported out and I used my psionics to find the fastest way out of the area only to discover that there's a class 5 psionic bubble contracting around the area. I can't see past it and it is shrinking slowly but surely.

Similar to the method I had suggested to Sean to lock me in the Danger Room when control of my body was being lost to Phorcys. The plan was obvious. They'd trap me in my body psionically then Cure me or mind rape me into obedience.

The psionic cage closed in from one side, herding me in the one direction. I can't see anyone but since my area of effect has been shrunk, I can hydro scan at my highest setting. I discovered the X-men cloaked arranged in a line against a backdrop of nothing...

Fucking Xavier.

Sean, Wolverine, Storm, Mike, Gambit, Vader, Colossus, Kitty, Iceman and Rogue decloak and it's obvious they're ready to fight me as they are all wearing X men outfits and I can sense they are all guarded with class 4 telepathic shields. Vader, Colossus, Rogue, Bobby and Kitty are in their second forms, shadow, osmium grade metal, diamond, ice and intangible. I land in front of them, hands up .

They're loitering in a pasture of Oxon Hill Farm. I guess it's a good area for a super powered fight. Not much in the area other than trees and farming equipment. The Anacostia Freeway was nearby but had light traffic...

I teleported down hoping to get them to turn it off. "This isn't what it looks like I swear. "

Storm moves forward, lightning resting in her hands. "Xavier has requested we bring you in for the government. Come quietly, we don't want to hurt you. "

^I got that impression with the psionic cage. I'll tell you this once. Get out of my way or I'll be forced to go through you. I don't have the time for this.^ Directing my comment to Sean.

"I'm sorry Victor but you've gone too far this time. You need to be brought in."

The Avengers land their Quinjet behind me, they're looking slightly worse for wear after fighting with my hydrokinetic clone and Ice Triton golems. I'm sandwiched between the two teams.

I now have Thor, Iron man, Vision, Hawk eye, Black Widow, Captain America, and the Hulk behind me and the X-men in front of me.

^Sean I'm begging you don't make me do this. I don't want to go through you.^

Sean's expression hardened and the psionic bubble contracted and strengthened around us. It measured roughly a mile at the moment and was steadily contracting.

"You've gone too far bub, attacking the Professor." Said Wolverine claws extended.

Storm launched a lightning blast at me, which I dodged and said "Surrender Victor before it's too late."

:: Mental Landscape :: Phorcys sits on my left as Beast sits on my right as the last of my council.

Phorcys leans close, his mouth pressed against my ears: Easiest way to survive is to kill all your enemies.

Beast: They're not your enemies, you just need to make them understand why you're doing this. :: ::

Wolverine launches himself at me and I shift to water vapor letting him pass through me as Captain America throws his shield at me. His shield bounces off Wolverine's skull with an odd sound. Iron Man laughs within his flying armor. Wolverine snarls "You're next bub."

Storm said "Wolverine" warningly. I encase Wolverine in my ice to stop him engaging in a pissing contest with Iron Man as I consult with the others.

:: Mental Landscape

Phorcys displayed a holographic projection of his solution to the problem. Me using my darkest power to reach inside the non poly morphs blood and shattering them from the inside. Then launching a concentrated frost wave at the survivors before blasting them with super heated steam, the rapid shifts between the two temperature extremes should kill the remainder. Once they were all dead I could use my psychic vampirism uninterrupted to leech the strength of the psionic bubble. Then I could reach out with a thought and turn Xavier into red shrapnel so that he could never try this again : 5 moves and you win the game. You just have to give in to the inevitable. They're whimpering dogs and they need to be muzzled permanently.

Beast: If you do that you'll be hunted down to the ends of the earth and I will fight you with everything I have.

Phorcys laughed in Beast face, unimpressed at Beast's bravado.

I glanced between them. Beast agitated and blue, Phorcys unbearably smug and relaxed, dripping in blood with a scorpions tail.

Me: I'm not going to kill them but I will make them regret fighting me. :: ::

Tony Stark in his fancy metal outfit flew towards us "You're outnumbered and outmatched."

I calculate my options and decide on a strategy, make them angry, create a diversion and run away. I rotated my ice face around and responded with. ^I may be outnumbered but I'm not entirely convinced I'm outmatched. After all the X men only brought one Class 5 and a bunch of class 4's out to play.^ I pointed at him. ^As for you you're a tin man without a heart^ I point at Black Widow and at Hawk eye ^2 humans with useless weapons^ at Vision ^a robot with delusions of a soul^ and at Thor ^a disgraced and exiled prince with the IQ of Spinach. Oh and don't forget our favorite failed science experiment and mental midget with uncontrolled rage issues, Hulk. What is there to be scared of? I pity you.^

Hulk's eyes narrow as his muscles bunch and bulge, Thor charges forward with a "Thou shalt pay for that blasphemy." I teleport a few feet to the side and call upon the 5 feet of Potamic River within psionic reach and white out the psionic bubble with a quick and dirty blizzard. Thor shouts out "Face me coward and fight."

I floated upwards so that I'm a foot away from the roof of the psionic bubble keeping me prisoner. I channel all my telepathic and psionic energy into a single psionic attack sapping the power of the psionic bubble to weaken it and empower me. The first strike does little towards either goal but the second and third strike has more effect. Before I can strike a 4th blow, I'm struck by a lightning blast and a split second later a concussive blast from another of Gambit's cards. I redirect my attention down and the blizzard has been cleared, either by Iceman or Storm and Colossus has launched Wolverine at me, claws extended as Hulk leaps towards me from the other direction.

I reached deep within myself and embrace the very thing that has kept me the odd man out my entire life. I abandon emotions and calculate my options with a cold detachment and and planned my vicious counter attack to this ambush. I sacrificed both hands, launching them at Wolverine and Hulk.

The one aimed at Hulk aims for his eyes, he automatically blinks and it shatters over his face, doing little damage to him. The hand aimed at Wolverine, pierces Wolverine's skin and digs into his flesh and wraps its icy claws around his adamantium ribs. While Hulk is still blinking away ice shards I teleport-throw Wolverine into Hulk claws first. I steam blast Wolverine's face so that he doesn't know what's going on. As he screams in pain Wolverine hits Hulk hard in the mid section claws first, sending them plummeting to the ground locked together. Hulk roars inhumanly loud, sonic blasting everyone, even my ice molecules vibrate oddly. Hulk punches Wolverine repeatedly around the head and face as Wolverine struggles to break free making things typically worse. They hit the ground hard, causing a mini quake. ^First blood is mine.^

I broadcast the sound of laughter in Hulk's ears to push him further over the edge. Hulk runs out of psionic cage with Wolverine hanging on precariously by the adamantium claws. The heavy hitting regenerators of both teams are gone. Thor blasts at me with a Thunder Bolt fired from Mjolnir as does Storm from her hands, I sizzle. Gambit launches an entire energized deck of cards in my direction which I block with some ice I sacrifice from my chest. Iceman provides some replacement ice with a poorly thought out frost blast attack.

^There's an enraged Hulk on the loose, you probably should do something about that before he kills some civilians or tears Wolverine into pieces.^

There's a moment of silence as both groups think about that and I can sense the frantic thoughts going on from everyone but Vision, whose mind is a complete blank to me. Black Widow empties both clips of her guns into my ice before she races off with Thor and Kitty. Vision and Iceman also move to go with them, Iceman using an ice slide to travel. ^don't stay as ice as you exit the bubble it might kill you^ I water whisper to Bobby. He shifts to flesh as he passes through the blankness. His ice slide remains. Stupid mode of travel.

Iron man blasts at me with a repulsor blast and a quip "No more playing around kid."

^I agree 7 down, 10 to go, it's time to get brutal.^ I use part of Iceman's ice slide to launch an attack from above at Hawkeye knocking him out of the psionic cage which has shrunk to half a mile. I used the remaining ice slide to create an ice dome within the edges of the psionic cage blocking the others from returning easily. ^No more playing around. 9 to go^ (Storm, Iron Man, Colossus, Rogue, Vader, Sean, Mike, Gambit and Captain America)

Iron Man blasts at me again with a repulsor blast while Storm hits me again with a lightning attack. Gambit throws some cards into me and I'm momentarily dispersed and disoriented by the blast.

I evaded another repulsor blast and get hit by Storm's lightning. It tickles. I flew closer to her and she hits me with a stronger blast of energy. I shift to water, sprouting 4 tentacles, one wraps around Colossus in metal mode, Iron Man, Rogue in diamond form and the last sending a water tentacle through Vader in shadow mode, they get hit by conducted electricity. Vader and Rogue are knocked out by the electric blasts, losing their second forms and reverting to human mode. (7 to go)

Colossus and Iron Man move towards me aggressively, unaffected by the electricity. Colossus runs towards me and punches me while I'm in water form to no effect.

Iron Man blasts at me again with a repulsor blast while Storm hits me again with a ball lightning attack. Gambit throws some energized cards into me and I'm momentarily dispersed and disoriented by the combined effect of energy blasts.

I reformed in ice mode a few feet away and Captain America attacks me with his shield, Colossus punches me with a osmium fist and Gambit strikes at me with an energized bo staff. They hammer at me for a minute, causing bits of me to shatter off or explode while Iron man hovers above repulsor blasting me. I shift parts of me to water to absorb their blows before shifting into ice to trap their weapons and Colossus's fist inside me. I expelled Captain America's shield and Gambit's bo staff at furious force in random directions beyond the shrinking psionic bubble. At the same time I spun about like a centrifuge at rapid speed and launched Colossus and he hits Iron Man with a loud collision impact that dents his armor and Colossus rebounds into the ground.

Captain America and Gambit resort to using their fists to punch at the bits of me that are ice. I shift those parts to water mid punch and their hands are captured as I freeze around them. I pull them both into my mass and forcibly eject them, throwing Captain America at Mike and Sean who use their blended tk strength to catch him. Gambit collides into a groggy Rogue who shifts into diamond mode, they collide in a ungainly heap and are still.

Iron Man fires an unknown energy blast at me and even in ice/water mode it makes me nauseous. The disturbing sensation drives me over the edge from cold and calculating to mindless rage. I sacrificed an arm and encircle Iron Man bringing him to the ground, I turned the air around him into frost around his armor, piling more and more ice on him. Storm tries to pull the ice towards her as Sean and Mike uses telekinetic attacks to push it away but their attempts are meaningless against my rage.

^Ultron killed 2 of my Unit^ I said as I tore into the self indulgent meat sack inside the ruined armor, slicing at his flesh, leaving shallow wounds in my wake. Robotic arms and legs come flying from above and I used 'water hands' to grab at them and redirect them towards the last moving opponents; Captain America, Mike, Sean, Gambit and Storm. Gambit explodes one, Storm fries one, Sean and Mike crush 2 together with tk and Captain America punches one down with his bare fists.

The bubble is now only a couple hundred yards wide and closing fast. The fight is taking up too much time and energy. I shift to water vapor spreading out to evade physical attacks. It leaves me more exposed to other attacks as Mike and Sean telekinetically attacks me as does a partially re armored Iron Man and Storm with energy attacks.

^ ENOUGH ^ I coalesced drawing all water within range towards me, leeching water from the air making it harder for them to breathe for a moment as I grow ten feet tall. Gambit throws energized rocks at me and Iron Man flies forward and reverses suddenly so that I get a face full of hot plasma. The next rock Gambit throws at me I redirect with some Tk into Iron man. It does little damage to him.

While they're distracted with their attacks on me I created a 6 foot high 3 foot wide psionic dome of my own around me, using a thin layer of opaqued ice behind it to obscure normal vision as well with a bit of TK boosting to maintain it. I puddle and separate into myself and 2 clones then I do a quick double phase, transferring 50% and 40% power to the clones making two class 3.5 psychic clones with class 4, hydrokinesis and class 3 telekinesis. I provide them with a singular purpose which is to reinforce my psionic/ice/tk dome so it's harder for Sean and Xavier to see what I'm up to. I lace my psionic dome with class 3 psionic sapping.

I take a moment to phase again and I'm down to 40% mental strength. Sean brow dripped with sweat, it made me suspicious.

I waited another moment as the 'psychic clones' reinforce my psionic bubble but their usefulness was rapidly coming to an end as Xavier's psionic bubble contracted again, reducing my area of influence to an area 50 yards wide and 10 high. I shifted to flesh and reached out with both hands and drained both clones of their energy with Rogue's former power. I run forward naked telepathically broadcasting the horrors of the Void soldier project, the vivisection, the amputations of remnant parts and the casual slaughter at Sean and Mike distracting them. I bitch slapped Sean and Mike, knocking them to the ground. The pain and momentary sap broke the connection they have to Xavier and gave me a glimpse into their minds.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Mostly Sean's pov

Xavier calls me telepathically at college during my Psychology lecture, telling me that Victor had attacked him, trashed Cerebro and went off to attack Elixir for unknown reasons. I'm shocked that Victor has his powers back and that he's attacking mutants. When I heard from his last he seemed content with his life in the military. Could Phorcys be back ? I told Xavier, I'd let Mike know and we'd come around to help out.

Xavier gathers a large group of us in the Danger Room the next day (Wolverine, Kitty, Bobby, Gambit, Stepford Cuckoos, Mike, Vader, Colossus, Rogue, Storm). "Nick Fury has confirmed my fear that Victor has become violently unstable. He's been identified as the mutant responsible for a series of attacks against Government installations and for an Ice Giant marching on Washington DC. We will be cooperating with the government in order to bring him in for questioning. "

"Why would he do that?" Mike asks

"It's unclear at this time but after he attacked me a couple of nights ago, damaging Cerebro and stealing the black bird I have created a protocol to contain him. My fears were confirmed when he attacked Elixir yesterday. There is no doubt that he has something more in mind and he needs to be stopped immediately. Which is why I've called you all here."

Wolverine asked "We could just kill him."

Storm "Logan."

"Not killed, captured Logan." Xavier. "To demonstrate how dangerous and capable Victor is I will replay some of his previous uses of the Danger Room."

(Mike) reacted with fear as he watched my previous sessions in the danger room along with everyone else so they could prepare. Xavier told Sean that he'd need to be strong and maintain the connection so that Xavier can direct the psionic bubble to trap me in so that I can be transferred into SHIELD maximum security prison. In a way similar to what I had done to contain Phorcys in the danger room.

Sean and Mike were advised together that they were to hide the team until Victor has been herded into place, then if Victor resists, let the others fight while you make sure to serve as the anchor for the psionic dome.

We're shown an outline of a plan to trap me, which didn't factor in the Avengers. Xavier would stay at the Mansion with Cerebro and the Stepford Cuckoos feeding him their power with Sean as the psychic anchor to help focus and direct the psionic cage and the others were to weaken me to make the psionic cage more effective. &&&&&

I ran towards the edge of the psionic bubble focusing all my psionic and the telepathic strength drained from the 2 'psychic clones' and sapped from Sean and Mike and my own psionics into an attack the width of a scalpels edge. It slammed into the psionic cage leaving a hole the size of a pin prick which was all I needed to push all my psionic strength through the hole and back towards me, that section of the class 5 psionic cage to collapse in on itself from the external psionic attack. I got hit from behind by something and fell face forward into the dirt and grass. I shifted into a puddle and rose upwards as water vapor beyond the others trying to regroup and Xavier's weak attempt to create a secondary psionic cage.

Post Battle

I reached out with my mind via mental arrow and froze the fluid in Cerebro's fluid chamber and exploded it, disabling any further attempts by Xavier to stall me for several hours. I used Sean and Mike's stolen powers to cover myself in psychic shielding to escape detection from Sean or Mike or anyone else so I have a chance to recover in peace.

The others are fighting to keep Hulk down so I direct a mini tidal wave at Hulk pushing him in the opposite direction towards the others to distract them all as I escape. Hulk and the others had left a trail of devastation over the bridge. I broadcasted my memories of the recordings of the experimentation to everyone in my current range (half a mile).

Change of plans, transport the prisoners and victims to Oasis spa to be healed by Misty. They won't notice a convoy coming into Washington with all the traffic outwards.

John as Jean replied I won't even ask. Jean coated all of his Tk traveling passengers in psychic camouflaging rendering him and them invisible to detection.

Jamie just nodded and changed the direction of the convoy.

I teleported a few miles away from the battle onto Goose Island,(an uninhabited 3 acre nature reserve) and collapsed onto the ground, mentally and emotionally exhausted from fighting with former friends and living legends. I rested for half an hour within my own psionic dome thinking about how there's a twisted part of me that enjoyed the challenge of going up against so many super powered opponents. Even though I only sort of won by fighting dirty and running away.

Teleport-hopped to Oasis Spa, said hi to Misty and Jackie who were in the process of healing the rems and mutants. I pitched in and a couple hours later, everyone was healed. After that I met up with the scientists who John as Jean's had telepathically wiped of memories relating to the research results of the experiments but not of their memories of keeping mutants prisoners. I double checked their minds for anything that could reboot the Void Soldiers.

Traveled back to Alkali Lake with John and Jamie Maddrox via John as Jean's telekinetic efforts..

I asked John if he's copied Jamie Maddrox powers yet and John smirks and said "Yes."

"Good" I kissed him, hastily putting up some psychic blocks up to restrain Rogue's powers. "Let's multiply our fun." I telepathically broadcasted my idea to him.

"I've missed hanging out with you. You come up with the weirdest stuff." I smiled as he stripped. He morphed into Multiple Man with a nice hard uncut 8 inch cock and claps his hands several times, mass producing fake Maddroxes for our entertainment. The original shifts back into his default form and gives me a quick kiss.

"Go fuck yourself." He smiles as 3 of the fake Maddroxes take him aside to do just that. One of the fake Maddroxes lies on his back, legs up while Original John takes position between his legs and shoves his hard cock into virgin territory. Another fake takes position behind him, shoving his 8 inch cock into John's ass while yet another fake stands over the supine fake and feeds John a mouthful of Maddrox cock.

Meanwhile the other five fake Maddroxes turn their attention towards me. They strip me naked, their hands all over my body, rubbing and stroking and groping. I'm pushed to my knees where I suck on one fake Maddrox cock after another. It doesn't take long before one of the fake Maddrox's fucks me from behind while I'm sucking cock. From there things escalate rapidly and before long I can't move for Maddroxes. I have a fake Maddrox filling my mouth, as I fuck back and forth with 2 stiff cocks in my ass while fucking the virgin tight ass in front of me who is making out with the Maddrox below.

The room echoes with the sound of heavy breathing, grunts and groans and the ball slapping sounds of hot sweaty sex. It was disrupted when the real Maddrox walks in and says "What the hell?" He reabsorbs the John dupes and I find myself naked, on my knees with John in a similar position, my hole gapes wide aching to be filled.

"Hey Maddrox. We were just fucking around."

John laughs.

Maddrox Prime stares at us with the strangest expression on his face as he seems to flicker through ever emotion. "Fuck it. Let's fuck."

I'm a bit surprised as Maddrox was 95% straight but I guess absorbing Johns has made him more open minded ? Maddrox Prime strips naked and he's quick to multiply and take control of the situation. In a minute, I'm back to being double fucked and face fucked with 5 dupes ready to take over in a circle around the fucking action.

John meanwhile is moaning loudly as he receives the same treatment. Double fucked and mouth stuffed while more Maddrox dupes surround him. This continues for quite some time as one hard cock is replaced with another within a moment. I swallowed a few loads while I take half a dozen loads in my ass and having a couple of orgasms. I call a break, unused to so much fucking after years of monogamy and the Maddrox dupes are reabsorbed into Maddrox Prime who is fucking John..

My mouth and ass ache. I phase and the hormones return again. John and Maddrox are still going at it, John with his legs around Maddrox as Maddrox drives in deep over and over again into John's well loosened ass.

I share telepathically a new and more intense variation on what we'd done. They agree.

I link the 3 of us at the core telepathically sharing my knowledge of and powers of hydro transition shape shifting. John assumes Maddrox's powers through his form. It's easy for John to emulate my method as he's been a student of Mystique's shape shifting. Jamie (maddrox) doesn't get it so he stays the straight man so to speak. I sap Maddrox for a couple of seconds.

I reduce the telepathic connection with Maddrox as I share shapes with John as we multiply. Maddrox multiplies too... There are hundreds of me and John-Maddrox dupes. Then we shape shift into different bodies. Then I/we reduce the connection to mid mid level so that we can share sensations but no longer powers to lock the forms.

Maddrox (temporarily) and John are both bi so some of John's forms are female. All of mine are men. Most of which are replicas of the guys from my time at the army barracks, or the farm hands from Luke's farm and the guys from the swim team including Jackson. Some of the John dupes have assumed the shape of various mutants from our past. Maddrox is himself hundreds of times.

We fuck like crazy. The 3 man bisexual 1000 body orgy spreads throughout the base fucking up against everything as the sensations of hundreds of couplings washes over us again and again, drowning us in an excess of hedonistic lust. Maddrox's stick their 8 inch cocks into fakes of Wolverine, Bobby, Pyro Middle aged Magneto, Nightcrawler (white), Cyclops, Rogue, Storm, Jean, early me, me post school, Matthew, Northstar, Wiccan, Hulkling, Vader, Sean, Mike, Hulkling (human form) and Wiccan. Along with hundreds of humans.

I was alternately fucked by Johns in other bodies along with multiple Maddrox dupes. Mostly though I fucked myself so many times it was hard to remember how I functioned as a normal human for so long. The low level telepathic network that my dupes gave off helped to keep track of where they were and what they were up to... Or who they were in.

It was fun watching a Maddrox only pile up occur. As twenty Maddroxes gang banged one lucky Maddrox.

There was a glut of sex, hours passed as if they were seconds and far too soon, every body was thoroughly drained, filled and or sore; we slumped around the base naked and sticky like very content and tired people.

Afterwards I absorbed all my clones and the world rushes up to meet me, my powers experience a brief surge and for a moment I see everything through billions of water molecules and experience the motion of every molecule of water on Earth. Thankfully it only lasted for about half a second before it faded. I collapsed to my knees and promptly passed out having absorbed more information than any human should take in at once.