Chapter 72: Consequences of the demise of a Phoenix (1)
"What do you mean she is dead? She is supposed to be one of the most powerful omega-level mutants out there. She can't be dead... How did- What happened?" Rudeus forcefully calmed himself down as he stabilized his emotions.
He really liked maybe even somewhat loved the redhead, although he wasn't an expert on love and didn't even know what it truly meant. But she was the only girl who he had actually ever taken on a proper date. Of course, the others went to 'dates' with him too but they either always ended midway with rough sex or involved killing and torturing metahuman haters.
"Well Storm didn't tell me much, just said that she died while saving them and she was a hero. Ororo was breaking into tears whenever she tried to say anything. She was so ashamed of Jean's death that she didn't even want to see you. I knew that the Jean girl was important to you and your plans, so I decided to come to inform you immediately." Selene said in a neutral voice.
"I see. Thank you, Selene. I should go see the X-men and find out what exactly happened. I think they need to answer a few questions of mine." Rudeus said coldly.
He opened a boom tube using Zoya and directly went into the Academy. He was not really that sad because he had a rough idea of what had happened to Jean. This was probably her Dark Phoenix storyline where she would be declared dead for some time and then she would emerge as the 'evil' Dark Phoenix.
But what he didn't know was if this was the Dark Phoenix storyline of the old X-men movie timeline, the new X-men Dark Phoenix movie storyline, the comics storyline, a combination of all of them, or a completely new version.
Also, he couldn't just let this be. What if he had changed the world so much that the plot no longer mattered? What if Jean wouldn't be able to completely unlock and awaken her phoenix side and needed his help? What if she really was dead and needed him to bring her back to life?
That was one of the main reasons why he was even going to the mansion. He needed info before doing anything. he needed to know what happened. He didn't want to be one of the characters who did something they would regret later just because he was angry and didn't listen to the entire story. There were too many storylines that happened only because of misunderstandings in the comics. He didn't want to add another one in there.
As he came out of the boom tube in front of the Academy gates, he entered the school grounds without waiting. He didn't portal inside directly because he didn't want the X-men to attack him mistaking him as an enemy. Because if that happened, Rudeus might not be able to control his emotions right now and might seriously injure some of them or even kill them.
Although even in that case he would still probably be able to resurrect most of them. Maybe only a few with supernatural backgrounds or bloodlines like Nightcrawler would be hard to bring back since souls of supernatural creatures are more 'protected' by underworld entities and their respective afterlives.
"Rudeus, you are here." Colossus was the first one to see and recognize him as he was standing outside the main building, staring at the sun with sad puppy dog eyes and lamenting at the loss of one of his friends and comrade. "I am sorry that..."
"It's an okay big guy. It probably wasn't even your fault if I were to guess. Just tell me where is the professor and the others. I need to know what happened. I need some closure right now." Rudeus said. He truly didn't blame Piotr. From what he knew of him, he was the Captain America type, the guy who would sacrifice himself to save someone else. That was one of the reasons everyone loved him. Hell even Rudeus himself respected him.
"The principal's room. They are mourning right now." Piotr said in a low voice with a heavy Russian accent as tears again came to his eyes. He couldn't even speak clearly due to the massive grief and guilt building inside him. This was the first time one of their teammates had died after all.
"Thanks." Rudeus walked straight to the principal's office. Colossus followed him as well with a sad look plastered on his face.
Rudeus noticed that the school was mostly empty today. It seems there were no classes going on as most of the faculty was mourning for Jean.
The entire school atmosphere looked gloomy and depressing like even the school itself was mourning for one of its first and sweetest students.
"Hello, Charles." Rudeus greeted the professor using his first name in a cold serious tone as he entered the principal's room without even knocking and stared down at the bald professor who seemed to be even balder today if that was even possible. He looked like he was suffering from major stress and anxiety.
Rudeus' anger decreased a little at this.
'Maybe the bastard is suffering as well. Perhaps he is guilty of what happened with Jean.' Rudeus thought. But he was still not gonna just let this matter go. He needed closure and he would make sure to get it. Also, he wanted to vent a little bit even if it was just verbally.
He looked at the other people in the room too. Most of the X-men were here in this room right now along with some new faces. Ororo looked like she was in severe depression while Bobby, Kurt, and Kitty looked like they were mentally broken and tired. Hank wasn't able to meet his eyes and Cyclops had somehow grown a beard in a short time and looked like he had taken up heavy drinking as he was barely able to stand straight.
Even Logan whose face looked hard, cold, and expressionless, could be seen that he was clenching his fists so tight that they were continuously bleeding due to his nails and his beastly strength. From the looks of it, Logan was suffering from immense guilt as he probably blamed himself like he always did when someone close to him died.
He also saw a few new faces like a teenage girl with brown hair with white strands in them and eyes that had become red due to excessive crying as well as a young boy who was playing with a lighter like nothing had happened. This ticked off Rudeus a little but he still controlled himself.
The girl was probably Anna Marie, aka Rogue and the other one should be Pyro. Rudeus didn't remember his real name and neither did he really care.
'Interesting, seems she has already joined the X-men even without the existence of Brotherhood in this universe.' Rudeus thought as he gave the southern girl a once over. She was one of the mutants he had initially told Zoya to keep an eye on and try to lead the X-men to them if she could. Seems like she did a good job.
He now just had to get Polaris, Scarlet Witch, and a few other metahumans to join them to get the peak team.
'The plot is progressing really fast now. Maybe I should take care of the psychotic reality-altering mutants soon.' He decided to do something about the more dangerous metahumans soon before they did something dangerous to the universe or worse the multiverse.
"Aah Rudeus. We were thinking of calling you to the school for the burial..." Professor started.
"What happened?" Rudeus interrupted him as he was not in the mood to listen to useless bullshit. He had to know what happened so that he could do something or be better prepared for what is to come.
He was really regretting going on his 'adventure'. If only he had known, he would have gone with the X-men instead at whatever mission or event they had gone to.
"Well, a few children from our school were kidnapped recently by a corrupt government agent named William Stryker including Pyro and Rogue here. The entire X-men team including me went after them to rescue the children. We were successful in it as well but Stryker had the last laugh. He himself died but he had activated a self-destruction protocol of the entire hidden base at the last moment."
"The protocol destroyed a dam near the base and flooded the entire area. We were all going to die in it if it were not for Jean. She faced a difficult choice between her own life and the lives of her comrades. She chose the latter. She singlehandedly held off the entire flow of the released dam water and bought us time to escape but she herself couldn't. We would have all been dead if it were not for her." The professor said in a calm tone.
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