Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 454 MONTAGE

“It’s like I can breathe again,” Anne said, planting another kiss on my lips. She was sitting on my lap back in our holding cell in the Shi’ar palace. She had pulled me away to discuss other matters but somehow it turned into a makeout session. Her body writhed on mine though we were fully clothed. 

She had won her fight, and just like that she became the girl I remembered. No longer angry, or scared, she was almost giddy in her post-victory. Though my mind did know it was probably wrong to take advantage of her sudden over-joyous attitude, I really didn’t want to ruin it for her. My lone hand continued to knead her ass cheek as she and I locked lips once more. 

Anne and Shade’s fight had been a forgone conclusion. Shade jumped from shadow to shadow, and Anne acted like a cat playing with her prey. Attacking from afar and shooting her with the unique Cosmic blasts she could summon. The fight lasted an hour like that until Shade was able to get close. Which would have been a good call, if the Force Anne took hadn’t also given her super strength. 

“Is this what you feel like all the time?” She marveled, her eyes sparkling as she gripped my shoulders a little too tightly. “I feel like I could rip apart anything.”

“Mostly,” I said with a grimace. “You might need to learn to cool it with the super strength.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she said, letting go of my shoulder. Pulling the arms of my shirt in she exposed the skin where she had gripped me and began to kiss them, which turned into her trying to give me a hickey. She shivered ecstatically as her whole body felt pleasure, not from me, but from whatever high she was on currently. 

“It’s like I was a baby, and now I’m a full grown adult. I can see so much now,” she said, pulling away again. “Are those ultraviolet rays?” She pointed out the overly thick window next to us.

“No idea,” I said. Smiling wide I stared up at her, happy for her. “So the power isn’t diminishing?”

“No, I don’t know why,” she said. “It’s like stuck in me or something. I swear it’s getting stronger too.” She touched her middle. “I can almost feel it there.”

I tried to think back when I used the Weakness Eliminator on her. There had been another weakness she had called Power Symmetry. I wondered if that had something to do with keeping the Cosmic Force. Was her ability really a Force? Or similar to one. Maybe made by a god as well. There were too many possibilities out there. But if she could take one, I wondered if she could take more. And if that was possible, how could I do the same?

It was hard to admit, but the Forces sounded like a quick way to get stronger. Strong enough for my Challenges at least. I could train my body to be strong enough for all of the ones I read in the Prophecies of the Phoenix. Collect all the Forces like Infinity Gems. Become a god among mortals in my own right. It was rather tempting, but not right now. I would need System granted items to make it happen. For now I would take comfort in knowing Anne could take care of herself now. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“I didn’t even think about it, is Danvers okay?” She asked quickly, looking back to the door. 

“I healed him best I could, but he is pretty out of it,” I said.

“Did I take his power? Like for good?” 

“No idea, but let’s ignore that for now,” I said. “You’re strong, Anne. Probably one of the strongest people on Earth now.”

“You think?” She asked, her smile wide as her lower half grinded me.

“I know,” I said, my lone hand still on her ass. I wanted to explore more, but I refused to with so many possible…distractions around. Scarlet Witch still hadn’t been found, and though I didn’t exactly have feelings for her, I knew something could grow there. I also didn’t want to ruin the mood Anne was in. “Come on, I know you want to celebrate, but the other fights freaked the others out. We need to help them.” 

“What?” She asked, confused and disappointed.

“I know you were all high on your new powers, but Black Tom Cassidy was killed,” I said.

“He was?” She asked with a gasp, then frowned. “Who was that again?”

“Juggernaut’s lover, or whatever. Cain Marko, his friend,” I said.

“Oh, the Professor’s cousin, that magician-looking guy with him got killed?” She asked. After she won her fight she had taken me back to the back room to “talk” which was a makeout session much like we were currently doing. I had watched the other fights with my Haki as she talked about her new powers and we made out.

“Yeah,” I said, tapping her ass. She frowned but got up. I forced my erection away, but she was so giddy she began caressing it through my pants. “Anne,” I chided.

“Sorry just…I feel like my old self again. I wanna…you know.”

“...Later,” I lied. I had learned my lesson about talking about us. “I want to as well. But while the sun is up we need to work.” I grabbed her hand and walked her out of the sleeping quarters as I explained what happened with the other fights. “Hank McCoy, fought after you. He lost, but his opponent didn’t try to kill him. Then Black Tom Cassidy went up against a steroid freak and his head was chopped off.”

“What?!” She yelled as we stepped out.

“Yeah, sorry, didn’t want to ruin your mood,” I said truthfully. “Cain was in such a rage he jumped off our platform and went for the Majestor. He broke through a forcefield around the Majestor’s viewing area, but was stopped by a stronger forcefield and the Imperial Guard arrested him.” 

Honestly, I was lucky he had done that. I hadn’t thought that the Majestor had his own personal forcefield, and it was far stronger than all the others since even the Juggernaut couldn’t break it. I would have to take that fact in mind if Lilandrin’s plan came to fruition. Maybe I could find where the forcefield was being controlled from or something. 

“Oh my god, I didn’t think they’d actually kill any of us,” she mumbled, her mood souring.

“Yeah, Danvers couldn’t have stepped in, even if he was conscious. After that they sent us back here,” I said. They probably wanted to increase the security around our platform after Cain had broken out. Or we were proving stronger than they expected and wanted to rig the game further somehow. 

In the main area of our holding cell the group was a mix of worry and fear. Reed Richards was awake once more, his posse crowded around him, my eyes were drawn to Magneto who was walking right toward me.

“Bastard, I have not heard from Quick, have you?” The purple wearing man glared at me, barely registering Anne beside me. 

“Fuc-Dammit I forgot,” I said. “No, I haven’t heard from him. What’s the matter?” Magneto was worried, which was making me worried since he had been so stoic during all of this.

“We are losing this,” Magneto said. “Two wins on our side, three wins for theirs. I worry more of the less experienced crowd will be called. We need the majority to get through this.” His eyes darted to Xavier who was with Colossus, I nodded. Magneto was aware of the real plan to help Lilandra if needed, but we had to keep appearances since we were most likely being watched.

“I’ll uh…talk to the others. Give them some pointers,” I said. He nodded and we split ways. Anne followed me as I walked into our very cramped training room. No weights or any equipment whatsoever the room had a tall ceiling and some kind of weird cat tree in the middle of the room. I had seen a few in the underground bunker and knew they were some sort of leisure ornament that the Shi’ar used, but we didn’t need one. Thus this room became the unofficial training room. Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker, and Jessica Jones sparred near the cat tree. 

Well not really sparred, but kind of threw punches like they had an idea of what to do. Tabi sat on the cat tree, watching over them as they slapped hands and kicked at one another. 

“Stop, stop, stop,” I groaned, leaving Anne behind as I walked over to them. “What the hell are you doing?” 

“Practicing,” Jessica said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Actually proud by the statement.

“I was promised that you all would go through a training montage in my absence,” I said. “Did you practice stage fighting?” I asked, disgusted by their display. “Jessica, you punch hard enough to break down walls.”

“Well, yeah, I don’t want to hurt them,” she said. I rolled my eyes.

“They’re fucking super heroes,” I said, exasperated. “They are as strong as, if not stronger than you.”

“No we aren’t,” Gwen said, frustrated. “You keep fucking saying we are strong. But I haven’t seen it. I mean, I know I’m stronger. But what you did…” She pointed at Anne. “I can’t do any of that crap.”

“Oh my god,” I said, annoyed. I had known I probably stunted their growth a little by being there for them, but I didn’t think their progress was this bad. A part of me had hoped they had been practicing with their powers when I was away, but obviously that wasn’t the case. “Fucking hell-” I cut off and moved instantly for Gwen, punching at her face. 

She reacted as I expected, somersaulting back, out of my reach. Before she could say anything, I kicked at Peter’s junk. My leg moving for between his, he naturally shot his new web slinger at the cat-tree and pulled himself away. I dove at Gwen swiping at her face as she dodged down, allowing me to go harder as I shot a Nen Blast at Peter that he narrowly dodged. 

“I blame myself,” I said, as I poured Nen into my body. Getting angry at my own lack of monitoring my favorite super heroes. I flew at Peter. Kicking him in the side and knocking him into the wall opposite me. He hit it hard, his head bouncing off the wall. Before he landed I was on him again, punching his side. He coughed up phlegm as he dodged the next attack. 

“Take it easy-” Gwen cried as I shot a wave of Nen at her.

“Fuck that. You two need a montage, and I plan to give it to you,” I said truthfully. It was time to show them how much they could take and dish out. “This is going to hurt you both a lot more than it will hurt me.” I thought some heavy metal music would be good for this montage, because I didn’t plan to go easy on them. 

—

“Why?!” Gwen cried as she hung upside down from one of the dozens of pillars of the palace. Tears streaming down her face as she clutched onto Peter. 

“Because you need to stop acting like you’re weaker than you are!” I barked. We had been fighting for hours by that point. Gwen and Peter had broken out of our cell to escape me as I kept my onslaught going. We were now on the opposite side of the palace, concluding our epic battle. “And to show you real fear.”

“What? Why?” She cried. 

“Because I am a hell of a lot scarier than those Imperial Dickwads,” I lied. In fact I was weaker than a lot of them. “Even with just one hand, I can beat you. And tomorrow, if you get summoned, you can look back on this fight and know that at least they aren’t as tough as me.”

“That’s bullshit, you ripped out my hair,” she cried. Which was true. I ripped out the hair on the right side of her head. She pissed me off, and I may have gone a little far, but now she looked more like the Gwen Stacy from the Spiderman Multiverse movie. Though where her hair was ripped out was rather bloody. 

“What are you?! Sakura?! Who gives a shit about hair?!” I yelled back. “We are talking about your life, Gwen. I’ve already caused you to almost die twice. Next time, I won’t be there to protect you. You need to know what you are capable of.”

She hadn’t thought of that. Confused for a moment, her anger waned. “Fucking hell,” she said, letting out a tired sigh as she relaxed a little. Still upside down, I wished I could act that natural hanging hundreds of feet in the air. As she realized I was telling the truth a ship flew toward us. A spotlight shining from the ship someone began to speak from a speaker. 

“Humans, you are not permitted out of your room,” the voice said. “Please allow yourselves to be escorted, or you will be given further restrictions on travel.” I rolled my eyes. Though I didn’t want them to know we could escape from our rooms so easily, I doubted it was a surprise to them either. The ship opened, and Gwen jumped inside with Peter in her arms. I flew into the ship, sitting opposite her. 

The Shi’ar guards didn’t bother to restrain us as they flew us back to our cell. I gave Gwen time to calm down, I really hadn’t gone easy on them and was rather winded. Practically lucking into their powers, I was a little annoyed how easily it came to them with their Spidey Sense and reflexes. 

“Are you really worried about me?” Gwen mumbled from across the transport ship. 

“Of course,” I said to her. “Gwen, you’re my friend. You think I didn’t know how scared you’ve been? I’m sorry I’ve been focused on other things, but I worry about you. Especially since you about die everytime something happens.” 

“You didn’t have to be such a dick about this, what? Test?” 

“More like practice,” I said. “In the military, you train to react instead of think. You do far too much thinking. You need to start trusting your super powers more.”

“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. Sick of the fighting and talking about it, she sat in silence until we were dropped off near our room. Guards met us there and escorted us back to the rooms. The window we had broken out of was now replaced with a large steel cover. Most everyone in their beds, only a few were up. Hardly seeing us as they were stuck in their own thoughts. Gwen set Peter down on the floor.

Charging my hand with Hoken I zapped his head, causing him to heal slightly and get a little shock. Jerking awake, he yelled and backed away as he saw me.

“It’s okay,” Gwen said, grabbing his arm. Calming him down I left them to their come to Jesus moment. 

Anne was asleep in the girl’s room, but there was someone else I wanted to see. Going back into the training room, the lights were off, but a blue glow emitted in the room. Not from the tree but from the side of the room. Tabi’s fur lighting the area up, she was being petted by the red headed Jean Grey as she whispered to the cat. 

“You know, she can talk, right?” I asked Jean as she jerked at the sound of my voice. She sat at the far end of the room, her hand on Tabi.

“What?” Jean asked.

“Tabi can talk, so she isn’t the best at keeping secrets,” I said. I could feel Jean’s worry and fear for the next day. Probably trying to take some comfort from the cat, I couldn’t blame her. I walked over to them. As I did so, Tabi turned to face Jean and meowed loudly. 

“See, she can talk,” I said as if that was proof enough. 

“Ah yes, of course,” Jean said, not really caring for the humor. “What can I help you with, Weston?”

I frowned in the dark. Our relationship since Limbo had cooled. Her personality of the Phoenix was still locked away. I didn’t want to confuse her…but I also didn’t want to leave her in the dark. I opened a fist sized hole into my subspace and pulled out the old scroll. 

“I found this,” I said, pointing the scroll at her. “It uh…reminded me of you.”

“Why?” She asked, confused as she took the scroll. I blew a raspberry. Standing on the edge of telling her everything and nothing, I thought back to my conversation with Anne about her future self.

“Do you remember anything about Limbo?” I asked.

“...” she opened her mouth but didn’t answer. Surprised by the reaction of her Haki, it was telling me that she did remember some of it. Perhaps more than she had been letting on, or maybe she was starting to recall more of the event.

“Back then…you called yourself the Phoenix. You said you were reborn or something,” I said. “I don’t know, just read this. But I want it back, okay?” I asked. Instead of stealing Tabi from her I turned around. I could only give so many hints and clues for people before I started yelling at them for not seeing it before. Holding myself back from being the spoiler sport I had been in the Manga Hall, hinting at my ability to see the future, this was good enough. Giving them tidbits here and there that they could work through.

Though I didn’t know what the future for Jean was, I knew that the Phoenix was a part of it. Unsure if I wanted the Phoenix back or not, I was going to leave it to the gods of canon. They never seemed to let me down when it came to letting the characters develop themselves.