POV: Third Person
Interior of the Shi'ar Mothership
Few Minutes After the Invasion
2016
The infiltration had been a success; now the invading team had split up, each member on their own mission after plans had been altered.
Beast was now at the terminal attempting to hack into the ship's database, with Pietro guarding him. Since Baldur wasn't present, Scott had taken command and changed the orders. Thus, with Logan, who was just as impatient as Scott to find Jean, they were now sprinting aimlessly through the ship's corridors.
With each corridor they passed, Logan sniffed the air, trying to catch the familiar scent of his beloved, but luck had yet to be on his side.
"Soldiers ahead!" Logan whispered sharply.
Both he and Scott had received top-notch physical training from the best specialists, so they swiftly and silently found a hiding spot. Logan leapt onto the ceiling, his claws slicing open a ventilation shaft. Inside, he extended a hand to Scott, who grasped it and was pulled up beside him.
Peering through the small gap in the ventilation tunnel, Scott observed a squadron of soldiers marching down the corridor. They walked in formation, the front rank holding spears with red flags atop them, while those behind wielded rifles of more advanced design.
What caught Scott's attention most were their heads; he had encountered extraterrestrial beings before, but never a race with feathers on their heads instead of hair. Apart from that, the Shi'ar resembled humans closely.
"Let's move, they've moved on," Logan said to Scott after they had been still for a few minutes.
The two descended from their hideout, and with the patrol gone, they continued their search for Jean.
After half an hour of navigating corridors and evading patrols, they were beginning to lose hope. Despite the immense size of the ship, Logan expected tracking a person's scent in such an enclosed environment would be easier, yet Jean remained elusive.
"RUMBLE!"
A loud rumble shook the entire ship, throwing them off balance.
Then, the corridor began to flash with red alert lights.
"They've been discovered," Logan muttered, thinking the tremor had been caused by their allies.
"Fera, report!" Scott called through his communicator.
"The tremor wasn't caused by us, Cyclops. Systems indicate the ship is under attack by another fleet," Fera responded.
"RUMBLE!"
Another tremor followed.
"We need to retreat now, Scott. I've already obtained the information we wanted," Fera continued.
"We're heading back to the ship," Scott said, already running with Logan towards Fera.
Desperate to escape, they paid little attention to avoiding enemy patrols, stumbling upon one. The spear-wielding front rank soldiers were surprised by the two invaders, giving Cyclops time to fire a blast from his visor, knocking them down.
Logan attacked alongside him, his claws slashing through anything in his path. Cyclops provided cover, taking down soldiers before they could retaliate against Logan. Within moments, the patrol lay dead or incapacitated, casualties of Logan's blades or Scott's optic blasts.
"Attention," the AI that had guided their ship spoke through the communicator.
"What is it?" Scott asked.
"Due to the battle outside, our chances of escaping using the stealth ship are slim," the AI continued.
"Any other options?" Scott inquired again.
"I am in contact with the King to decide on an escape plan. In the meantime, I recommend you both join the others. Of course, this would not have been necessary had you followed the King's plan," the AI remarked.
Scott ignored the AI's sarcasm, continuing to run through the corridors with Logan, no longer fearing the patrols. Soon, they would discover that retracing their steps wouldn't be easy; their detection upon injuring a Shi'ar soldier meant their path back was compromised.
POV: Baldur
Command Room of the Ratatosk
Same Moment
2016
Things were going according to plan, despite Scott changing my plan. I could have communicated with them and tried to assert authority over Scott, but it would have been futile; I wasn't in the field, and they weren't my subordinates.
It was only twenty minutes later that things changed drastically. A massive fleet of spacecraft appeared on our radar, confronting the Shi'ar fleet. I easily recognized the warships of the Kree, who had once sent four cruisers to cleanse Earth. Now, these same cruisers, which had been sufficient to annihilate Earth, were mere specks compared to their mothership, rivaling the Shi'ar's in size.
When the Kree fleet appeared, they made no aggressive moves but opened a communication channel intercepted by Alice. In the conversation, Captain En-Vad, leader of the fleet, demanded an explanation for the whereabouts of the Phoenix host responsible for the destruction of one of their worlds.
The message wasn't polite, but neither was it hostile. Unfortunately, the one who responded to the Captain's message was one of the Shi'ar princes, and a known mutant, Gabriel Summers, Scott's brother. I wasn't sure why he was a Shi'ar prince; it was quite different from the comics, although there was a storyline where he became the emperor. I don't recall him being a prince before.
So, how does an arrogant prince raised by a tyrannical empire react when another being fails to show reverence? With an attack. Thus, chaos engulfed the entire solar system. To safeguard Vision from this battle, I instructed him to return to the Ratatosk; he had already fulfilled his role perfectly, unnoticed in my camouflaged ship.
"Should we depart, sir?" Nordur asked from my left.
"After our allies return to the ship," I replied.
"The battle is escalating, my king. Within minutes, even the asteroid belt will be engulfed," the ship's third-in-command stated from my right.
He was correct; in seconds, the stealth ship's route would be under fire, at high risk of being caught in the crossfire. Not even the Ratatosk could withstand being in the midst of such a battle.
(And that's just one of their fleets.)
"Sir," Alice called.
"I haven't formulated a concrete plan yet, Alice. Give me a moment," I said, anticipating her request.
In truth, there wasn't much to ponder. The issue at hand was how to extract that group without alerting these two empires; aside from that, I saw no other complications.
"Alice, instruct everyone to converge at the point where they entered the ship. I will retrieve them personally."
"Yes, sir."
I rose from my command chair and headed towards the exit.
"General Nordur, you're in charge. Remain cloaked until my return; once we're back, depart immediately."
"Yes, sir."
I had already ordered Níðhöggr not to approach, so we would rendezvous after resolving everything.
Upon the elevator doors opening, I wasn't surprised to find Wanda in her red uniform, given by me.
"You may join me, Wanda," I said, standing beside her as the elevator closed and ascended a floor.
"I didn't ask for permission, Baldur," she replied without looking at me.
As the elevator doors opened, I stepped onto the floor of the small observatory atop the Ratatosk, which was empty.
With a thought, a golden light bubble appeared around us.
"You may open up, Alice," I said aloud.
At my command, the observatory's windows opened wide enough for me to soar out of the Ratatosk at high speed towards the Shi'ar mothership.
"Wow!" exclaimed Wanda beside me.
As we approached the battlefield, it resembled scenes from Star Wars, with colorful laser blasts and explosions from the tiny fighters in space. Amidst the chaos, my relatively small golden bubble did not attract much attention, though I was grazed by a few shots.
"Sir, the team is under attack," Alice informed through my communicator.
"Be ready to act quickly, Wanda. We need to get in and out as fast as we can," I instructed her.
POV: Third Person
Interior of the Shi'ar Mothership
Moments Before Baldur and Wanda's Departure
2016
It took a while, but Logan and Cyclops managed to return to the spot where they had arrived. Beast and Quicksilver were already waiting for them near the stealth ship when everything spiraled out of control.
The cargo area door they were in was blown open, and two individuals leading a group of Shi'ar soldiers began firing wildly at the team, who took cover behind containers.
"Fall back!" shouted one of the commanders of this small platoon.
"I'll handle this," he continued, and the soldiers obeyed, retreating as far as they could.
This figure was humanoid, completely covered in flame-like energy; only his face, different from the red, was a skull-shaped visage engulfed in red flames.
With those words, he aimed both hands at one of the containers and unleashed a barrage of red flames, hitting the center dead-on and causing it to explode. From the flames, Wolverine leaped towards his foe, his suit ablaze along with his claws, catching the Shi'ar commander off guard who did not evade. But before Wolverine's claws could connect with the humanoid in flames, a giant hand in green armor grabbed Logan's face and slammed him into the ground.
The one who halted Wolverine's attack was a three-meter-tall humanoid clad in heavy green armor that covered its entire body. More surprising was the smaller figure holding him by the neck. Unlike the giant, this one was much smaller, standing less than a meter tall, also clad in green armor.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"
Logan screamed in pain as he was pinned to the ground, the giant holding him down, while the small one hanging unleashed pure electricity from its body, coursing through the armor and striking Logan directly.
"Don't fry him too much, Warstar. The Prince wants prisoners for answers and the pleasure of torturing them," spoke the humanoid of flames beside his companion.
"BAAAAM!"
An energy blast fired from Cyclops's visor struck Warstar squarely in the chest, causing him to release Logan, who swiftly got up and launched himself at his attacker, now screaming in rage.
The fiery being, seeing the new enemy, unleashed a barrage of flames towards him. Cyclops rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the attack.
While the fiery being continued its assault and Wolverine resumed his, Beast, who had been clinging to the ceiling above the fiery being, leaped into action. Avoiding direct contact with the pure flames, he tore a piece of metal from a beam on the ceiling and struck his enemy squarely on the head, but the fiery being didn't flinch.
"What manner of beast are you?" he asked Beast, though he didn't wait for an answer, immediately firing back at him.
On the other side of the battle, Logan was hurled against a container, but before he could strike, a blur appeared behind him and caught him. Quicksilver then gently placed Logan on the ground and joined the fray. Warstar was undoubtedly stronger than them, and his armor could resist adamantium well.
Using his speed, Quicksilver dashed towards the back of Warstar and tried to strike the smaller figure on the giant's back. However, when his foot touched the smaller one, he received a shock as well, forcing him to retreat. Warstar took advantage of this, grabbing Quicksilver's leg and hurling him towards Logan, who disregarded helping his ally and dodged the incoming body, attempting to slash Warstar.
On the other side, Cyclops fired again, this time hitting the fiery being in the chest, followed by Beast landing another blow with his improvised weapon. Neither blow seemed to have much effect; if anything, they seemed to only embolden their opponent.
"BOOOOOOOOOOM!"
Then an explosion rocked the wall behind them. When the dust settled, a golden sphere appeared with two people inside. The sphere then opened, and a woman in a red suit moved her hands, pulling all four team members towards her.
The being, seeing this, fired at them, but just as his attack was about to hit Beast, a golden shield appeared in front of it, deflecting the blast. In a swift motion, everyone was safely inside the sphere, which closed around them and swiftly turned around, exiting through the hole it had created.
Outside, in space, the sphere accelerated away from the Shi'ar mothership. However, Baldur, controlling the sphere, turned to see the fiery being pursuing them through space.
"I admire your persistence," he said to his enemy.
Then four small lights emerged from the sphere. These tiny lights expanded into spears that shot towards the fiery being, forcing it to evade, thus preventing it from reaching its target.
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