Phoenix Up

A/N: I got off work early today, so yall get a chapter on a weekday rather than a weekend.

.~.~.~.

The Phoenix looked at me for a moment after I called her out so bluntly. Despite being in the form of a gigantic flame vaguely resembling a bird, I could somehow tell that it smirked amusedly for a moment.

"Very well, young reincarnator. I shall tell you what I want..." Phio said before outstretching her flaming wings.

A myriad of different colored flames spread out across the white void for a moment before taking the shape of many different constructs and images. The constructs morphed into dozens of people, then hundreds, then thousands. Most were humans, many were not.

"As the source of all Psionic Energy in the Universe, my powers are vast and nearly infinite. Along with my sister, I was there to breathe life and sentience into all beings capable of it!" She explained.

"I thought that was Death's job, no?" I asked.

The Phoenix shook its head. "That is true, yet untrue! I represent all that is sapience and sentience! Anything that lives and thinks only does so because I allowed it! Death may breathe life into flesh, but I give it the capacity of thought! I am also that which represents rebirth! I prevent stagnation and promote the continued evolution of all life." She explained.

"I see..." I muttered.

"The powers of a vile woman have halted humanity's evolution, and that is an abomination to me!" The Phoenix spat.

"I'm guessing you're referring to M-Day?" I asked, to which the Phoenix nodded her head.

"M-Day?" Jean asked, looking up at me, not bothering to part from my embrace despite having gotten over her embarrassment a while ago.

"Ah... It was an event where a mutant woman went crazy and altered reality on a multiversal Scale to eliminate the vast majority of mutant genes." I explained.

"Why would she do that?" Jean asked.

"Basically her father was mutant Hitler who believed in mutant supremacy. Her kids, who she created using magic and a sliver of the Devil's essence mind you, died, so she had a mental breakdown. Her robot husband also died, and she attacked her friends and colleagues before re-writing reality so that Mutants were the dominant race on earth and humans were persecuted and her father was in charge. However, after the superheroes defeated her, she realized her father would never be satisfied and came to the conclusion that mutants themselves were the problem, so she tried to wipe out all mutants in the universe, but only got about 99% of them, with the rest keeping their abilities." I explained.

Jean stared at me for a moment before sighing. "If it wasn't because I could read your mind, I'd think you were just lying to me... I still think you're pulling my leg." She muttered.

I chuckled a bit at this and pat her head before turning back to the Phoenix, who waited patiently for my explanation to conclude before continuing.

"Yes... that change has caused problems across the multiverse, but that isn't the point. The point is that the natural evolution of humans has been halted artificially, which is an abomination to me." She said.

I felt like her excuse for caring about this was a bit strange, so I decided to ask. "So... what's your REAL reason for hating it?" I asked.

If she REALLY wanted to, she could undo the damage, at least in the local universe, so I didn't see the issue.

The Phoenix huffed in a way reminiscent of Jean when she becomes upset. "I am unable to, my powers, just like those of my siblings, have been greatly reduced due to the Isolation. You, Damian Luciel, will be my instrument in this endeavor. You will reawaken all of the mutants in this universe using your powers." She admitted.

That caught me off-guard. "I can do that, hell, I was planning to do it later anyways, but what will I get out of it?" I asked.

There was no way I'm going to run around doing whatever this eldrich abomination demanded of me just because it was... well... an eldrich abomination.

Jean gave me a light slap on the chest. "Rude! Phio isn't an abomination!"

"You don't disagree that she's an eldrich being though?" I quipped and looked back at the flaming bird.

Its eyes narrowed at me for a moment and I returned the favor, giving it a glare. The temperature of the surroundings increased slightly, but I wasn't backing down. This was Jean's mind, and if I knew one thing about her, it was that she would never allow me to be hurt here, so I wasn't threatened too badly.

Sure, the Phoenix was probably omnipotent here with Jean's help, but not if Jean was actively working against her.

"You presume that she would side with you?" It spoke.

"I do, she is my future wife after all..." I parried.

The stare-off continued for another few moments before it finally gave up and, with a loud sigh, decided to relent. "Fine, human. What do you want? With your powers, there is little I can offer you." It asked.

"You will remain in Jean until her natural death and never use your powers to corrupt her," I demanded.

The Phoenix huffed. "Jean is only the house where in which I shall live. A welp like you need not worry about this. Our merging shall come soon enough."

I thought briefly about my Jean becoming the White Phoenix after merging and tried to repress a smile. It'd be pretty fitting for her, as well as a worthy powerup which she'd probably need to consider herself the 'Head Wife' of Reality Warper's Harem.

Jean blushed, reading my thoughts for a moment before laughing awkwardly. "That's quite the big head you've grown. You're making yourself out to be some kind of diety," she commented.

"Oh trust me, I plan to be one... eventually," I told her before turning away from the Phoenix and giving Jean a kiss on the forehead.

"Uh-huh..." Jean replied, rolling her eyes, believing what I was thinking up was nonsense.

I smirked and looked back at the Phoenix for a moment. "So, how will this work?"

"Simple, like this..." It said before diving into my chest in a single fluid motion, the fire being completely absorbed by my body.

Back in the real world, I inhaled in shock and recoiled. My face looked upwards at the ceiling. My eyes glowed red with power as an aura of psychic flame surrounded me. I felt a large buildup of power inside myself and begin bubbling to the surface of my body and soul. For a moment, I almost felt like I'd explode, but then, it was over.

An invisible shockwave of psionic energy erupted from my body, spreading outwards from my location and slowly expanding. In the first second, it was just the neighborhood, then all of Harlem. In another second, the entire city of New York was exposed. The wave of energy permeated throughout the country and then the world at large, covering all of humanity.

And just as soon as it happened, it was gone again. The power I felt faded and the energy rushed out of my body and back into Jeans. I let out a long exhale and slumped forward a bit tired.

'A little warning next time!' I yelled in my mind.

'Next time~' I heard the voice of the Phoenix reply, sounding smugly victorious for some reason, as though she'd gotten something over on me.

"That flaming chicken!" I spat.

"That's not very nice," Jean said as she sat up and began to rub her head.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"Yeah... I got the run-down by Phio a moment ago. She said she unlocked my full potential first and will help me with my control." Jean said, moaning a bit. "That doesn't mean this headache will go away though."

I smiled and moved to sit beside her. I pulled her in close and cuddled for a moment. "I'm glad you're ok."

"Yeah well I'm glad I'm ok too, but... things are going to be different from now on, huh?" She asked.

I smiled and held her a bit closer. "Yeah, but something that won't change is how much I love you."

Jean laughed at that. "Hahahaha! What are you saying you, dork? This isn't a cheesy B-Rate Romance Movie." She said, laughing softly to herself.

"In my defense, you are my first girlfriend. I don't exactly know how to do all those smooth lines yet." I jovially responded.

Jean smiled and hummed softly. "Hmm~ Well I guess I'll be there forever for you to practice on, Mr. Future Husband."

We both chuckled a bit before settling into the couch for a night of rest, or we were until Eve walked in from the other room holding a plate of pizza and Soda Can.

"Hey Damian, did you feel a sudden tingly feeling just now?" She asked as she rounded the corner only to see Jean was up.

"Jean! Are you ok?" She asked as she rushed over, sloppily putting down her meal and embarrassing her in a hug.

"I'm fine now, Eve, thanks," Jean said, giving her a sisterly hug back.

Eve sat beside me and continued talking to her after wrapping one arm around mine. "Still though, since when did our high school lives become so crazy?" She asked, defeated. "I mean, monster fights in the middle of the city? What's the world coming to?"

Jean and I looked at one another knowingly. It feels like the events of the Harlem Brawl were so long ago even though it'd only been a few hours. I guess conversing with cosmic entities and making deals on planetary scales does have that effect.

"I think we'll all be seeing quite a few more changes in the future," I replied to her.

"Really? I can't imagine it. That's the stuff Superheroes are supposed to deal with, not us." Eve complained before reaching out to her slice of pizza and taking a bite. "Bleh! Who ordered Pepperoni with White Sauce?" She recoiled.

Jean giggled and I shook my head in amusement. Eve was unintentionally bringing the two of us back down to earth and we were enjoying our last moments of normality for a while before the whole world caught fire in the morning.

"It isn't funny, ok?" Eve said with slightly red cheeks.

I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Sorry, sorry! Its our bad. Shall I get you another slice?"

Eve sighed, dropping the issue. "Nah, I'm not really feeling pizza anyway. I'd kill for a burger though..." She sighed.

Just then, a soft pink light formed around the slice of pizza in her hand, and it was converted into a hamburger, complete with all the things she liked, like the Kale Crisps and oozing melted American Cheese.

The three of us all froze in place, staring at it. Jean then looked over to me and asked with her eyes 'Was that you?' to which I gave a small shake of the head, telling her it wasn't.

Eve was the most surprised one though. After a few moments, she picked it up and took a small bite before pausing and then ravenously devouring the entire thing.

"I don't know what that was, but that was the best thing I've ever eaten." She commented, more to herself than us.

I laughed awkwardly before patting Eve on the back. "D-don't worry about it. Burgers and reality warpers go hand in hand."

.~.~.~.

A/N: I actually rewrote this chapter a few times today which is why it's so short. The first iteration of this chapter was much more heavily focused on the Phoenix and the MC making a deal and what the Phoenix's motivations were before I remembered, 'Wait a minute... the MC is a Reality Warper. Why does he need the Phoenix's help for stuff?', which dramatically lowered the word count.

Unfortunately, this also came with the caveat that the Phoenix didn't reveal any of the drama going on with the Cosmic Beings.

Yall missed out on the only exposition about the Cosmic Civil War going on until the Space Adventure Arc because the MC is too powerful for his own good.