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Dante returned to his room. The bed was made and the floor looked spotless. Everything had returned to order. Silvija was gone as well, which made sense after eleven straight hours. Her improved constitution required less rest.
He sat on the edge of the bed and placed the Sovereign symbiote on his lap. "Venom, what do we do with this?"
Absorbing Sovereign might trigger an evolution for Venom, but it might also grant it the Hivemind ability. Dante might not keep Venom around if that happened. Hiveminds were just not his thing.
A black tendril snaked up from his shoulder, forming Venom's toothy grin. "Destroooy it. We don't need another Hivemind."
"Another one?"
"Klyntar is a Hivemind. I escaped them."
Venom was talking about the Hivemind which Knull, the King in Black, had left behind. Dante still had no idea how he would deal with Knull. Death's Resonance might not work on someone as ancient as Knull.
"Stop it!" Sovereign's voice came from within the red mass. A surprisingly familiar voice. The face that materialized in the symbiote's surface was Norman Osborn's, appearing younger than the man who had died at Dante's hands. "You already killed me. Please. Spare what little I have left."
Dante's mouth twitched. "Of course, you saved your memories in it. Is that why you cooperated with Belasco?"
"Preserving life and essence is the priority for any symbiote. We are a superior lifeform."
Venom pointed a dripping tentacle at the red mass. "Can we destroy it?"
"Not yet." He shook his head. "I have a use for it first."
He teleported outside Jean's room and knocked twice. She opened up in seconds, her red hair wrapped in white towel. The noise of Darkchylde's grand exit had been difficult to sleep through for anyone within Manhattan.
"You already showered?"
"I'm up early everyday. I used to run for an hour at five."
She stepped aside and waved him in, gesturing to the chair like a polite host. Dante ignored it and sat on the bed instead. Jean awkwardly sat down on the chair.
He showed a faint smile. "I know it might contradict your whole superhero dream, but you can't go out alone."
Her death could lead to the descent of the Phoenix Force. He remembered Phoenix keeping an eye on Jean ever since she was a kid. Jean was just that perfect of a host for the Phoenix Force, the White Phoenix of the Crown. Despite his recent accomplishments, he still couldn't hold a candle to the Phoenix Force. It would be better to delay Phoenix's arrival until he could bring out the full power of Death's Resonance.
Jean crossed her arms with a frown. "Why?"
"Whoever is pulling SHIELD's strings has gone radio silent. They might target me… or anyone close to me." He kept his friendly expression. "You can switch to a treadmill."
Her expression became colder. Running might have been her only way to experience a bit of freedom during her stay at Charles's mansion. A treadmill couldn't offer the same experience.
He continued, "Or I can tag along on your runs until we sort out SHIELD mess."
The offer clearly caught her off guard, surprised that he would make time for her. She recovered her composure and smiled. "Then be ready tomorrow."
"Got it." He raised the Sovereign symbiote in his hands, reacquainting her with their old friend. "Are you happy to see it again?"
Jean's gaze sharpened on the symbiote and used her telepathy to read its memories. "You… went to Hell for Piotr's sister?"
"It was a fun trip, all things considered. I got this meatball as a souvenir."
Jean was quick with her telepathy. Emma had more experience with her powers, but Jean's talent was a level above Emma.
Getting off the chair, she lowered to one knee in front of him and watched the symbiote squirm. She looked up after a moment with a surprised look. "Just how strong are you?"
"Let's just say Earth is a goner if I ever lose control."
She sucked in a cold breath. "Your telepathy immunity is a great thing. I don't want to imagine the consequences of you being mind-controlled like Logan."
To be frank, both Jean and Ororo might end up having powers of global scale. But that will happen in the future. Right now, they were nowhere near that level.
"Look through its memories," he said. "Find where the remaining symbiotes are hiding."
"That's easy." She stared at the Sovereign for a few seconds and scrunched her nose. "In the sewers."
"Get ready then. It'll be your first mission."
It would be a piece of cake for her, but he would still leave it to her. Experience was quite crucial, especially since she hadn't been on many missions during her time with the X-Men.
Jean gave a reluctant look. She had just come out of the shower and now was forced to go perform a mission in the dirtiest place in Manhattan. "Give me one minute."
She sighed and walked over to her closet.
He stood and noticed her iPad lying face-down on the nightstand. Curious, he flipped it over. The screen lit up to a group photo: Jean with the X-Men around a table, Professor X at the head like a proud dad.
"Silvija bought it yesterday," Jean said, looking over her shoulder. "It's good for drawing and watching movies."
"You can meet them anytime you know. I'll sort it out with Xavier if he makes it difficult."
Jean shook her head, still not ready to meet the X-Men after "betraying" them.
"At least get your stuff from the mansion."
She shook her head again. "My mansion room has nothing I can't buy here."
He didn't argue against her. Pushing wouldn't accomplish anything when she herself had no desire to return at the moment. He walked out of the room, closed the door behind, and waited in the hallway.
"Please spare my life," the symbiote pleaded pitifully in Norman's voice. "I'll do anything for you. Just let me continue existing."
He reached into the symbiote through Biokinesis and located the specific pathways it was using to vocalize its thoughts. He severed them so it wouldn't be a bother again.
"Stay dead."
Soon, Jean emerged in her green-and-yellow suit, mask and gloves in place. The design was functional and it accomplished its job in keeping anonymous. The colors still looked a bit silly.
He touched her shoulder and a golden sigil flickered in the air before her. The sorceries in his arsenal had expanded significantly with just one night of training.
"What was that?"
"Protection so your suit won't be ruined."
She looked down at the sigil as it faded from view. "Thanks."
He shook his head. "Tell me the sewers' exact location."
She scratched her jaw, searching her memories. He pointed at the Sovereign in his hands, reminding her that she didn't have to work that hard. She smiled and tapped into the Sovereign's mind. After a few seconds of searching, she described the location in details. The symbiotes had hidden themselves in the deepest section of the Upper West Manhattan sewer network.
He drew a circle in the air and pushed mystical energy into it. The portal opened and immediately hit them with a vomit-inducing stench.
"Urgh." Jean took a step back and covered her face with a handkerchief. "When did you learn this?"
"Last night." He crossed over to the other side and reached out to Jean. "Get in."
She accepted his hand and stepped through carefully. Her boots splashed in the muck, but his protection spell kept them clean.
He snapped his fingers to close the portal. "Regretting your decision?"
"No. How are you not affected?"
"I just tweaked my ability to smell. You can also isolate the smell with your telekinesis."
Jean Grey of 616 Universe was a molecular-level telepath. A feat like isolating an area would be considered normal for that version of Jean.
She stared at his face. "...You did what?"
"Forget it." He pushed the symbiote toward her. "Control it to call the symbiotes here."
Her eyes widened behind the mask. "We could have done that before we came here."
"And make everyone on the streets panic?" He pointed out what she hadn't considered. "You also need to adapt to different environments. There will be missions where you don't have the option to avoid an environment like this."
She gazed at him for a long moment and accepted the lesson he was trying to teach with a nod. "Understood."
He gestured to the symbiote who had been forced to be silent. "Go ahead."
She put her hands on the Sovereign symbiote and her eyes glowed with warm pink psychic energy. Every telepath had a unique aesthetic to their psychic energy, which only appeared when they exerted their powers. Jean had a simple pink aura, Emma had blue, and Psylocke had her purple butterflies.
"Obey me."
"Yes, mother."
She stopped her telepathic connection and looked at him in confusion. "Did you say something?"
He glanced away and cleared his throat, not expecting her to still be paying attention. "I was talking to Death… about her new responsibilities as Sharon's adoptive mother."
"Right… You need to introduce me to her sometime."
She returned her attention to the symbiote. The pink psychic energy enveloped her eyes again. The red symbiote's surface rippled as it sent a call through his hivemind network.
Soon the tunnel filled with heavy, wet thumps. Over a hundred symbiotes moved like a black tide and stopped in front of her.
Jean stared at her mini army of symbiotes and at him. The question in her eyes was clear: "now what?"
"How you proceed is your decision. It's your solo mission for a reason."
Jean nodded firmly. "Then I'll remove their symbiotes first."
The pink psychic energy enveloped the symbiote hosts and removed their symbiotes. Every black blob slowly drifted to Dante's side through the steady guidance of Jean's telekinesis. Venom sent out a tentacle and absorbed them one by one.
By the time the last symbiote was absorbed, Dante felt the heaviness come through the bond.
"Partner, we have to reeeest."
It was a forced sleep to digest every symbiote in a healthy way and potentially evolve into a stronger version. Even if it didn't work out, he had mystical and scientific means to help Venom become stronger.
Jean hadn't broken a sweat, despite spending so much psychic energy. "Dante, can you open a portal to the NYPD? These people need proper care immediately."
She had the right instinct but the wrong execution. Bringing a hundred people to the NYPD in broad daylight would bring a lot of attention. The better move would be to hide everyone and head straight to the Captain. But then again, she was still in her rookie era. Her decision-making would improve as she gained more experience with these situations.
Dante traced a quick circle that ripped the space and connected to another location. All the people levitated with her telekinesis and followed Jean as she walked through the portal. He put on his mask and stepped on the other side before closing the portal
The space outside the NYPD precinct was suddenly occupied by a hundred floating people in various states of confusion and disorientation. The scene gathered attention from every direction, even more when Dante—Skullfire—appeared through the portal.
Jean seemed unbothered and waited until a familiar face came through the precinct doors.
"Phoenix. Who are these people?"
"The last of the symbiote victims," Jean said and turned slightly to address the people. "Every symbiote has been taken care of. You're safe."
Her voice was amplified through psychic energy, reaching everyone on the street.
Yuri Watanabe revealed a tired smile. "That's the first good news I've heard since forever."
The lady captain waved Jean to set the people down by the wall and called for backup.
Dante stared at Jean's back. Marvel Girl—her early comics codename—would've been awkward for a woman in her twenties. Any mind-related title would've worked, but she chose Phoenix even though she had yet to cross paths with the Phoenix Force.
"She did it on a whim," Death said in his mind. "I will agree it is a little on-the-nose, given what's coming."
'Is she watching even now?'
"Yes…"
'Shit.'
Jean walked to him smiling. "Did I pass?"
"B+."
She looked offended at his grading. "What could I've done for a perfect score?"
"You know I have the power to make people invisible. We could've completely avoided this attention."
Jean looked at the remaining bystanders, then at the news cameras still stationed at a cautious distance. The realization came to her calmly. "I should've given it more thought."
"A+ for recognizing your mistakes."
She laughed and playfully punched his arm. Her cheerful mood became somber when she watched the cops and hospital staff cooperate on the scene. "Hey. Can I make a request?"
"Sure. As long as it's nothing excessive."
She kept her gaze on the ground. "Can you help me design a new suit? This doesn't work in the cold… the yellow looks a little silly in pictures."
At least she had been self-aware about the suit.
"Which direction do you want to take with your suit? Bold and bright or functional?"
She glanced back at Yuri, who was walking toward them. "We'll talk later."
Yuri dusted her hands and stopped in front of Dante. "You've been busy."
"Just doing my job."
She lowered her gaze to the red slime held in his hands. "Is that the source of everything?"
"Yes. I'm going to destroy it."
"Standard procedure would be to ask you to hand it over."
Dante narrowed his eyes. "I don't care about the procedures. No one is going to use this thing again on my watch."
"I wasn't going to," Yuri admitted, shaking her head slowly. She knew she wouldn't win an argument against someone who couldn't be held responsible by the laws. So she chose to accept her loss with her dignity still intact. "Who were you fighting on Oscorp Island?"
"The Demon Queen. I dealt with her."
"We're in good hands, it seems." She shifted to stand by his side and put her hands on her hips, watching the disoriented and sick people being put in the ambulance. Within a few minutes, it was over. The crowd on the street thinned as most people went back to their respective work. "I hope that's the end of the symbiote case."
"It is," Jean said. "We've dealt with everything besides the few on our side."
"They won't give you trouble," Dante reassured Yuri. "I'll keep a close eye on them just in case."
Yuri let out a sigh. "A few weeks ago, things like that were fiction. How did we get here?"
She was lamenting the old normal when things were relatively peaceful. He couldn't imagine how she would cope when super-powered villains became a norm.
"Mutants and magic have always been here," Jean said from his side. "There were people working hard to keep it invisible."
Yuri's expression turned serious. "SHIELD?"
He put a hand on Jean's shoulder, warning her with his gaze not to bring up SHIELD in public. "Captain Watanabe, don't look into it. I'm giving you a heads-up since you're Ghost Spider's friend."
Gwen had chosen to trust Yuri with her identity, so he was helping her out. Fury would be pissed about today's incident as the destruction of an entire island would paint SHIELD in a bad light. Anyone poking around in his backyard might become the target practice for all that bottled-up "fury."
***
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