CH 83: Recovery
After creating the Domain and leaving Raphael to handle its analysis, as well as the connections it might reveal between the different power systems, Lex had gone back to creating action figures. Except he was now back on Earth. After a week of practicing with the vibranium figures, his control over Telekinesis had improved enough that even when applying enormous amounts of force, he could stop himself from affecting the surrounding environment. He no longer needed an empty planet for his training, and, honestly, there was another reason he preferred being back home: that planet had absolutely no network.
After what had happened with Jubilee, Lex had become a little paranoid about always being available. He still had plenty of things he wanted to do, but spending days or weeks somewhere so far away that nobody could even contact him was no longer something he was comfortable with.
His latest project had been the action figures themselves. After about a week of training, Lex had finally managed to create life-sized vibranium representations of Donna and Kara. They were less realistic statues and more heroic interpretations, complete with exaggerated curves, defined abs, and poses that made them look like they had stepped straight out of a superhero poster. He had considered making one for Sharon as well, but every time he tried to imagine what pose would suit her, he drew a blank.
“Should I paint these?” Lex wondered, looking over his creations.
<Yes. Use a small paintbrush and manipulate it with Telekinesis. It will provide a considerably finer application of force and further improve your precision.>
Since Raphael approved of the idea, Lex decided to paint them after all. Unfortunately, that meant he needed some good-quality paint first, and considering he had spent the last week sculpting metal with his mind, going shopping suddenly seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to spend the afternoon.
When he reached the mansion, however, he spotted Jean and Jubilee outside playing badminton—or tennis. Lex wasn't entirely sure which one it was. They were standing a short distance apart, hitting something back and forth with rackets, so it had to be one of the two.
“Hi, girls,” Lex called as he approached.
“Hi, Lex!” Jubilee immediately replied, turning toward him just long enough to miss the incoming shot.
“Point,” Jean called out, catching the ball before it could roll too far away.
“Hey, that's cheating!” Jubilee yelled, abandoning the game entirely as she ran toward Lex and jumped into his arms.
Lex caught her easily, barely having to adjust his stance as she wrapped her arms around him.
“Why do you have to stay away from me all the time? I even moved into your house, and somehow I'm seeing less and less of you!” Jubilee complained, puffing out her cheeks.
“True...” Lex admitted, shifting her comfortably in his arms. “Well, how about this? I'm free today, so let's spend the day together.”
“No way. I'm not ditching my friend just because my boyfriend is here...” Jubilee said, though the last part came out as barely more than a whisper. Her expression made it obvious that she was already struggling with the decision.
“Oh yeah, how's she been holding up?” Lex asked, lowering his voice.
Thankfully, unlike most of the people in the house, Jean's hearing hadn't been enhanced, so she couldn't make out what they were saying from a distance.
“She's getting better. She won't talk about anything related to the incident, but otherwise she's been doing good. Though Scott has been calling her non-stop, and even tried to get me to talk to her after I blocked him. Heck, he even got Tabby to call me.”
Jubilee paused for barely half a second before continuing.
“Then again, everyone knows he's head over heels for Jean, but the guy's gotta understand that if Jean, who can literally read minds, isn't reciprocating your feelings, it's definitely not because of some kind of miscommunication. She just doesn't wanna talk to you. Actually, Jean has helped a lot of us students back at the school with these kinds of problems, you know? She was kinda like a teacher there, so we couldn't really bond much, but look at us now! She's totally my best friend.”
Lex could already see where this was going, but Jubilee was nowhere near finished.
“Oh! Did I tell you about my best friend? Actually, Anna doesn't think we're best friends because she can't always join in the fun with us. Obviously, it's not because we don't want her to join, it's just because of her strange mutation. But I still consider her my best friend. Well, Tabby does too, but you know how Tabby is. She shows affection by beating you up. Oh, but she won't hurt you. She only hurts people who hurt people. Oh! You know, one time she put her time bombs in Scott's coffee, and she had the guts to blame me and Anna too! We all got detention for it. But you know Anna, she always—”
By that point, Lex had accepted that Jubilee could probably keep talking until the end of the day if he let her. Rather than listening to another ten minutes of mutant gossip, he leaned down and kissed her.
Jubilee's words died instantly. For a moment she simply stared at him, but then her arms tightened around his neck and she kissed him back, apparently deciding that whatever she had been talking about could wait. What had started as a simple kiss quickly turned into something much more enthusiastic, with Jubilee pressing herself against him and completely forgetting that Jean was still standing a few steps away with a racket in her hand.
Lex certainly wasn't going to complain. One moment they had been talking about her friends, and the next Jubilee seemed to have forgotten the entire conversation, the tennis match, and probably the concept of time itself. She had been recovering well from what happened at Xavier's, and seeing her this energetic and carefree was reassuring, but Lex suspected her sudden inability to remember anything except him had less to do with her recovery and more to do with the fact that she was, well, Jubilee.
A few moments later, Jean cleared her throat.
Neither of them noticed.
Jean waited.
Still nothing.
“Ahem. Guys?”
That finally got through to them. Lex pulled back slightly, while Jubilee remained wrapped around him, her face noticeably flushed as she glanced toward Jean and realized just how long they'd apparently been standing there.
“I don't want to interrupt whatever this is,” Jean said, amusement creeping into her voice, “but I'm still waiting for our match.”
Jubilee looked at the abandoned rackets, then at Jean, and finally back at Lex. The embarrassed expression on her face lasted only a moment before she gave a small, almost sheepish shrug.
“Yeah... about that.” She glanced toward Jean again. “I think you win.”
“Wow. Giving up without even trying?”
“I'm suddenly okay with losing.”
Jean stared at her for a second before shaking her head. “You were very passionate about winning five minutes ago.”
“Things change.”
Jubilee grabbed Lex's hand before Jean could say anything else and started pulling him toward the mansion, her earlier determination not to ditch her friend apparently having evaporated somewhere between the first kiss and the second.
She gave Jean an apologetic smile before turning back toward Lex with a grin that made it very clear she had already made up her mind.
“I need to... yes.”
Jean watched the two of them disappear toward the mansion,
“Wasn't she proudly saying that I wouldn't ditch a friend just because my boyfriend is here?” Jean muttered, shaking her head with an amused sigh before gathering the tennis equipment and heading inside herself.
Far away from them, however, something much more dangerous was beginning to move.
Deep within Africa, Charles Xavier had unknowingly entered a place that had remained undisturbed for centuries. The ancient chamber was less a traditional tomb and more a place of hibernation, its enormous stone structures surrounding the dormant body of the being who had once been worshipped as a god.
The intrusion had awakened him.
En Sabah Nur opened his eyes.
The ancient mutant wasted no time trying to understand the world around him. Instead, he turned his attention toward the intruder and used the Celestial technology preserved within his tomb to pry into Charles Xavier's mind, searching through his memories and absorbing everything Charles personally knew about the modern world.
The information came rapidly.
Humanity had changed.
Mutants still existed.
The world possessed individuals capable of powers that would have been considered impossible in his own era.
And among those individuals was someone who immediately caught his attention.
Lex Everhart.
Apocalypse's expression slowly changed as he learned what Charles knew about the young mutant. Lex was immensely powerful, powerful enough that Charles considered him one of the most dangerous mutants of the current generation, and he was surrounded by people who were themselves extraordinary in their own right. Magicians, superhumans and other powerful beings served alongside him, forming a group that was far beyond what Apocalypse had expected to find in this age.
“Lex Everhart…”
En Sabah Nur smiled.
“So he is the most powerful mutant of this generation.”
But there was no reason to confront Lex immediately.
Not yet.
Apocalypse had awakened into a world he barely recognized, and while Charles Xavier had given him an enormous amount of information, there was still much to accomplish before he could challenge someone of Lex's apparent caliber. If Lex truly possessed the strength Charles remembered, then Apocalypse would need more than his own power.
He needed servants.
He needed warriors.
He needed four Horsemen worthy of standing beside him.
And so, after taking control of Charles Xavier and making him his first servant, Apocalypse began considering the mutants of this new age, searching for those whose power could be forged into something greater.
Before he confronted Lex Everhart, he would find his Horsemen.
While this was all going on, Gwen, after promising Regan that she'd find a way to identify and enter the dimension where Monet had somehow reached, was currently flying to Nepal in a private jet.
“No matter what... Lex definitely helps you enjoy the power of wealth...” Gwen said as she sipped her wine. “Too bad he can't have this, huh?” she added, remembering that Lex was immune to alcohol to the point that he had once drunk an entire barrel of wine without even getting the feeling of being drunk.
When Lex had found out that Gwen was looking into Regan's missing friend, he had actually been pretty confused.
“I wonder why she never came to me for help... I didn't even know she was going through something like that,” he had said.
“Well, to Regan, Kitty, Alison, even Ava, you're in a different world now. You're the guy who travels to space, lifts cities... They just don't feel as close to you anymore, or they don't think their problems are important enough to warrant your attention,” Gwen had explained.
That had actually upset Lex quite a lot.
“But then...”
“So I'm the Kara now...” he had replied with a chuckle. “Maybe I should really spend some time with them, with everyone...” he had added at last.
Gwen stopped drinking after a few sips of wine. She never really liked getting drunk, preferring to stay just on the edge of it. It was that slight feeling of almost shutting off her brain that she liked, without actually losing control of herself.
Since the flight was going to be pretty long anyway, she decided to rest for a while.
An hour later, the plane suddenly began descending, its altitude dropping rapidly as it approached the mountains below.
The pilot grinned.