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*****
The sky was a jagged tapestry of ever-widening space-time rifts, looking as if the very fabric of the world was being torn to shreds. Beneath these fractures, the ongoing battles wrought devastating ruin upon the cities below.
Compared to the superheroes, who fought with heavy hearts and constant restraint, the hosts of the Phoenix Force were bound by no such scruples. With a single thought or a casual gesture, they unleashed cataclysmic casualties upon the world.
This left the heroes trapped in a state of simultaneous fury and helplessness. What made them feel even more powerless was the continuous arrival of more Phoenix hosts crossing over from other universes. One, then two—the heroes were already at their breaking point. By the time the third and fourth appeared, a shroud of absolute despair descended, leaving them struggling to breathe under the weight of their own terror.
And yet... a glimmer of hope remained in their hearts.
Mike.
---
Meanwhile, in Kent City.
A small cloud of grey ash scattered into the air, vanishing completely as the wind swept it away. Watching this, Jean Grey finally breathed a sigh of relief. Through a full-out burst of power, she had managed to eliminate the robotic Phoenix host with staggering speed.
Now, Jean turned her gaze toward the other side of the battlefield. Without a moment's hesitation, she streaked toward 'Emma,' who was currently suppressing the combined efforts of Eric and his two companions.
As Jean moved, the Emma from the other world immediately sensed the impending threat. Her eyes flickered with unease as she recalled the mechanical host Jean had just pulverized. She hadn't expected Jean to secure a kill so quickly. The balance of power had shifted; she knew she couldn't handle all four of them alone.
I need to leave! Emma decided. With a wave of her hand, she released a concussive shockwave, momentarily forcing Eric's trio back.
But just as she prepared to flee, a beam of crimson energy struck her, tearing two massive holes through her body. The suddenness of the attack shocked everyone present. This wasn't Clark's heat vision.
Looking up, they saw another figure emerging from a space-time rift. A new invader. A new host of the Phoenix Force. In an instant, the expressions of everyone below turned grim.
---
Back in Charles's office.
Mike and the others watched the events unfold on the virtual screens, their faces darkening with every passing second.
"Damn it! Another one!" Charles cursed under his breath before turning to Mike. "Dad, what do we do now?"
It wasn't just Kent City; new enemies were manifesting in locations all across the globe.
Mike hummed in thought but didn't offer an immediate answer. Instead, he turned to Jor-El. "Replay the footage of Jean killing that enemy."
Jor-El nodded, sliding a virtual screen in front of Mike. Mike studied the combat data intently. As he watched the moment the mechanical host was destroyed, the doubt in his eyes grew more pronounced.
That enemy's Phoenix Force... Jean didn't absorb it?
Weren't these hosts slaughtering one another specifically to seize more of the Phoenix Force? So why now? Where did the energy go? He remembered clearly that in Oren's world, after he killed that Phoenix, the power had lingered and circled the area before finally vanishing.
Frowning, Mike rewound the footage and watched it again, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the split-second of the enemy's death. Finally, he saw it. At the exact moment the host died, the Phoenix Force flickered for a heartbeat and then vanished into thin air.
Did it... leave on its own?
No, that was impossible. Facing a host as potent as Jean, the Phoenix Force had every reason to choose her. Unless... it was being absorbed by someone else?
That had to be it. As the thought took root, Mike felt a surge of curiosity—and a deep sense of wariness—toward whoever was secretly siphoning that power. This hidden player was lurking in the shadows with an undeniable agenda, and they would have to be dealt with.
Mike was pulled from his musings by Charles's frantic voice. "Dad?"
"Hmm?"
"They're in danger!" Charles shouted. "More enemies are appearing."
Because the fighting had already escalated, the newly arriving Phoenix hosts were diving straight into the fray the moment they stepped through the rifts, driven by their hunger for more power. The situation was spiraling into chaos.
"Complicated?" Mike whispered, repeating Charles's word. "It's only complicated until you kill them all."
However, to resolve a crisis of this magnitude, he was going to have to dip into his hidden reserves.
"Mike, can the Infinity Stones erase these invaders?" Jor-El asked, having remained silent until now.
Mike's brow furrowed. "I can try, but..." He didn't think the chances were high.
Upon hearing this, hope flared in the hearts of Charles and Raven. Little Lamb, however, merely curled his lip. He shared his father's skepticism. In his mind, the only way to fix this mess was for him to take action personally.
He had awakened so many abilities lately—powers so immense he could hardly believe them himself. But he decided to wait. He would wait until the situation reached its absolute nadir before he stepped in to turn the tide. A true hero always makes his entrance at the very last second, after all.
As Little Lamb indulged in his secret fantasies of saving the world, Mike had already manifested a Hulk construct to test the Infinity Gauntlet. A snap of the fingers echoed through the room, but the result was clear: the Phoenix hosts remained. The Phoenix Force was eternal and immortal, and it granted a measure of that permanence to its hosts.
"So, the only way is to physically eliminate these harbingers of chaos..." Mike murmured.
"They're running out of time!" Charles warned.
With a slight shimmer, Mike vanished.
---
Kent City was on the brink of total collapse.
Though Jean had successfully destroyed the first invader, the arrival of multiple new Phoenix hosts had prevented them from finishing off the alternate-world Emma. The situation was becoming absurd. Since when were enemies of this caliber so common?
Mike hovered high above the city, gazing at the jagged rifts and the desperate struggle of Eric's team. "This world has become the focal point of the multiverse," he noted to himself. "It's not just Phoenix hosts; other powerful entities are being drawn here as well."
The battlefield was a whirlpool of pure anarchy. At this point, even if Mike closed the rifts, the sheer energy of the ongoing combat would likely tear space-time open again.
"The only way is to wipe out every invader and then find a way to hide this universe's 'coordinates' from the rest of the cosmos," Mike whispered.
He held his hand out, palm down, and slowly began to lift it. As he did, a literal stream of cards—shimmering with the light of materialization—began to flow from his sleeve like a river of power.
Perhaps he had spent all these years hoarding these cards for this exact moment.
(End of Chapter)