Phoenix #3

Perrikus has taken the girl Adani to the edge of the universe, the mysterious place called the Quarry of the Gods or the Quarry of Creation. He warns her to stay close. The quarry isn’t always kind to visitors.

When she begins to ask questions, she hears the voice of her dead father. He appears to her, crouching on the skull of a giant, dead god and chides she shouldn’t have come here. What did he tell her? When she stammers that, he grabs her arm and replies that, if you disrespect the One True, there will be consequences!

When she tries to free herself, there is suddenly a noise and her father announces he is coming. The ground beneath shakes as she realizes she is standing on the arm of a god, who then grabs her and scrutinizes her.

Meanwhile, on a moon three lightyears away from Gameworld:
Jean Grey came here with her father-in-law Corsair to help people abducted by the Black Order. Now she finds herself facing Asgardian zombies, and the Black Order have disappeared.

Corsair asks her for help against the zombies surrounding him. She takes care of them, then asks him to protect her body on the physical plane, while she will use her telepathy to get to the root of this.

On the astral plane, she faces the leader, who recognizes the Phoenix, and asks her for help. Jean replies she first needs to understand. Who are they?

The Quarry of Creation:
In the hands of the giant god, Adani shouts, he isn’t real. Belief does not dictate reality, he retorts. Adani insists it has nothing to do with belief. He is fake… like a ghost… just something she is seeing. The god grins: thrust into illusion and forced to face God –

A god, Adani corrects him. She is young for the amount of disdain that brews in her soul, he observes. Adani snaps that a different god killed her father and brought her here. Gods have taken much from her, the god observes. Allow him to give her something back. He shows her visions of potential futures: Adani as a warrior brandishing a sword, an X-Man, a mother, a heroine. Hurt, anger, loss, even love: all those things are inside her. And any one of them could dictate the direction she chooses. Rarely does one have the opportunity to choose the direction for themselves, so ask herself: who is she?

The Astral Plane:
His name is Hakan and his sin is loving Asgard, the leader of the ice zombies tells Phoenix. Odin judged him and his followers and condemned them to an eternity of torment, their souls picked apart, piece by piece and forced to serve any who would trade the required bodies to unlock their tomb. The Black Order are not the first to try to use them for personal gain. Jean presses, asking why Odin punished them like that. Hakan claims that Odin is petty. His whole line knows nothing but blood, bringing death and destruction to all their people.

Hakan’s Narration:
But Hakan believed Asgard could be a truly great nation under the right leadership. He found a few who followed him and they fought to end Odin and his entire bloodline. He knew he wouldn’t be seen as a hero, but was willing to suffer, to destroy what he loved to make it better. But he was beaten. He had underestimated Odin’s cruelty and they were sentenced to eternal torture.

Astral Plane:
Jean refuses to judge Odin’s punishment but how could she leave Hakan to his pain? Killing his own people for a better Asgard is no better than the cruelty he accuses Odin of. Hakan admits his method may have been wrong, but his purpose was true, and all who followed him suffer. Jean tells him it is time to rest.

In reality, Corsair is still fighting zombies and grandstanding. Suddenly, he finds the zombies disappeared and all that is left is a black feather. It’s real, he mutters.

Jean demands the truth of him. Corsair replies he didn’t lie. Just left a few things out. Recently, a map went on the black market of a moon Odin used to imprison an army who tried to kill him. The Black Order got the map before he could steal it. Jean demands why he wanted the map. Before they were defeated, one of the soldiers plucked a feather from Odin’s favorite raven. Does she know how much that is worth? He used her for a feather, she states coldly. He wheedles, saying he didn’t know they were zombies and he knew she could handle the Black Order.

Said Black Order have regrouped and suggest they put that theory to the test. Angrily, Jean attacks one after the other. Ebony Maw has had enough. He telekinetically attacks her, chiding that the doings of the Black Order are not her business. She should have stayed on Earth where Jean Grey belongs!

While Corsair searches for cover, Phoenix meets the telekinetic attack with one of her own. She tells Ebony Maw that, the next time Thanos wants something in her cosmos, he shouldn’t send the B-team. She then beats him easily and adds, but face her himself! And she doesn’t need an army! she adds contemptuously.

Leaving through a teleportational gate, Ebony Maw shoots back they will see about that…

She helps Corsair up. He asks if they won. They did, for today. Thanos is looking for an army. He may not have gotten one now, but she doubts that he will stop looking. Corsair apologizes about lying. He didn’t know about the Asgardian zombies. He thought it would be a fun treasure hunt for the feather, which he seems to have lost during the battle anyway.

She accepts the apology and appreciates him protecting her while she was on the astral plane. He tells her to admit it: a small part of her was afraid he would abandon her to the zombie horde. It wasn’t a small part, she retorts.

She frees the prisoners and suggests he use the Black Order’s ship to return them to Gamesworld. As a goodbye, she tells him to check his pocket. He smiles when he finds the feather.

The Quarry of Creation:
Has the Quarry passed its judgment? Perrikus asks, when Adani steps out. She is now taller and carries a large sword, having chosen the warrior’s path. She replies that the Quarry made no judgment on her soul, she did. He reminds her he told her true power comes from within but there are others in the galaxy wielding powers that do not belong to them. They are aiming to fix that. He introduces her to his associates who are going to help them. They are called the Black Order and work for the Mad Titan Thanos…