The Phalanx Covenant
Part One: The Final Sanction
On the North Sea, over Muir Island, off the coast of Scotland, a sleek mini-jet comes in for a landing. Inside are Scott and Jean Summers. Just returned from a twelve year honeymoon spent two thousand years in the future, in different bodies, raising Nathan Summers, the man known as Cable.
"It's too quiet down there Scott. Total communications silence, psionic or otherwise. But Professor Xavier is supposed to be here. What could have--?" Jean is struck silent by the sight before them.
"Do you see that, Jean? There sees to be something over the whole lab complex. Something like...like..." Scott falls silent, as the material covering the complex comes alive before their eyes and attacks their aircraft.
What Scott and Jean Summers see before them is like nothing they have ever seen before. They are the Phalanx. A techno-organic life form that has made Muir Island but one of their first beach-heads in the conquest of this pale blue world.
"Full extension, Egon." The female orders, "Plot an intercept solution with the genetic anomalies while Nkotha and I attack laterally."
"They are mine, Larissa." Egon answers, as he rips a wing off of the mini-jet.
"No, Egon. They are ours." Larissa tells him.
"Scott, I'm intercepting a load of fierce psi-babble. As if these maniacs were screaming at the same time. Whatever they are, they're herding us towards that big one at ten o'clock high!" Jean warns him.
"Hang on, Jean! I'm going down hard! Get out as soon as we stop!" Scott orders, as the mini-jet plows into the soft sand of the beach and he blows the hatch.
"Scott, look out!" Jean screams, as Nkotha forms a giant fist and smashes the remains of the mini-jet into scrap metal.
"Maybe a dose of optic blast will distract them long enough to--" Nkotha simply splits his body apart, allowing Scott's blast to pass through him.
"Scott, if you tell me what you're going to do, and even a little bit of what I'm thinking leaks through my psi-block, these...these beings can counter our next move. The entire island seems infested. What happened to the professor and Excalibur?" Jean asks.
Suddenly both she and Scott are distracted by the chugging of an old engine as deliverance, of a sort, arrives, overhead.
"Something's scanning us with high power stuff across the whole spectrum. But we probably aren't registering anything. We're so low-tech that the high-end stuff looks right through us. But whatever it is, it's burning out all my instruments. Whatever's down there is hairy to the max, Logan!" Harry yells back to Wolverine, who is preparing to leap out the side door of the old plane.
"But down there is where I gotta be, Harry! You can refuel in Scotland and scoot on home. Oh, and thanks for the lift!" Logan adds, as he leaps out into the rushing wind.
"The last time I jumped outta' a burnin' C47, it was over Normandy and the sky was full o' flak." Logan thinks to himself, as he free-falls. "But that's another story. Right now, somethin' that crawled outta a psycho's nightmare is doin' the backend creep on some o' my favorite people. Time to pop silk."
"Heads up, Circuit-Face!! The ol' Canuckle-Head is back in town, and there's the devil to pay!" Logan shouts, as his parachute opens and he pops his claws.
"Egon and Nkotha, deal with the other mutant anomalies! I'll handle this new one!" Larissa orders, as she extends her form up towards the descending Logan.
"You stick yer mug where it don't belong, it's gonna get ripped!" Logan shouts, as he slashes Larissa's face. Before she can blink, her head is in six separate pieces.
This doesn't even slow her down, however, and in seconds she has entwined Logan in several tentacles, as he stares in amazement at this new life form.
"If that is the best you can do, Mutant, then this entity of Phalanx will make short work of you!" Larissa tells him.
"Charles told me this was gonna be a tough one." Logan thinks to himself. "I said, 'It ain't Magneto, is it?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'So what are ya' worried about?' Now, I know."
"You are a blight on the surface of this planet, Mutant! A purely organic defect that Phalanx will soon correct!" Larissa tells him.
"You should talk about bein' defective, Lady, you're all over the place!" Logan replies, as he slashes with his bone claws at the tentacles entangling him.
"Jean, do you see, it's Wolverine! I'm aiming high!!" Scott shouts, as he unleashes his optic blast.
"Scott! You shouldn't have said--" Jean falls silent, as Cyclops' blast hits low, just below Logan's feet, blasting him free of Larissa's tentacles.
"He was fakin' 'em out, Jean! That blast was low!" Logan shouts, even as he falls.
"You've got to watch it, Logan. You don't have your adamantium any longer. That fall could have--" Jean says, as she catches Logan with a telekinetic cushion.
"Aw, Red, I had a feelin' you'd be ready with a psi-cushion. So, what's goin' down here? I got a mind blast from Charley Xavier to meet up with him on Muir Island. He almost seemed scared. Kinda' spooky." Logan explains.
"It seems you know more than we do. We came here to tell the Professor information concerning the Legacy Virus. All this was a shock to us. It's...it's good to see you again, Logan. You were missed." Jean tells him.
"Sorry, no time for reunions, Folks. These Phalanx entities have insinuated themselves into the very structure of the Main Lab Building. We want to put as much distance as possible between us and them." Scott orders.
"You call the shots, Scott. It's been a long time since I was a team player." Logan replies, as they make for the far side of the island.
Inside the main lab, Larissa issues orders,
"Reorganize and regroup. This threat must be neutralized. We must assess tissue damage and go collective with the main consciousness to share battle data."
Back on Muir Island, Logan turns to Jean and says,
Within the main lab building.
Outside the main lab, Cable, Scott, Jean and Logan approach the entrance.
Then, just as she feared, an especially strong memory of the first time she linked with Nathan like this comes to her and is instantly shared by Nathan. He is ten years old and he and Redd, (The name Jean used in the future where she and Scott, using the name Slym, raised Nathan) approach two of Apocalypse's 'Dog Soldiers' Redd takes young Nathan's hand and helps him disguise his techno-organic arm so as to avoid raising any questions from the guards.
"I can't Redd." Cable says to Jean as she tries to lead him into the Astral Plane.
In between heartbeats, Nathan finds himself on the Astral Plane with Jean.
Outside the main lab, where the three Phalanx entities were fast approaching their position, Larissa suddenly stops and turns to her companions. "She/he/they have entered our consciousness! Regroup/merge/internalize!"
As the three Phalanx merge together and disappear from this world, Logan turns to Scott and says, "Heads up, Scott, we're on deck. What's with you? Actin' like you been away for two years 'stead o' two weeks!"
On the Astral Plane, Nathan is still amazed at all the new sensations.
Instantly, the same memory from before floods his mind. Nathan is ten years old and he and Redd are approaching two of Apocalypse's 'Dog Soldiers' while Redd takes young Nathan's hand and helps him to telekinetically disguise his techno-organic arm to avoid questions from the guards.
Cable suddenly finds himself on the Astral Plane facing Jean once again. And the pain is gone.
With a blinding pain such as he's never felt, Cable finds himself laying on his backside looking up at the sky outside the main lab. His link with Jean broken.
"Such a 'Beau Geste' but so futile!" The newly reformed Phalanx entity tells him.
At the edge of a sharp cliff several hundred yards away, Scott, Jean and Logan stand as Harry brings the plane towards them.
"Go with the flow, Cable!" The Phalanx gloats over him, as he writhes in pain. "There is much joy in being a part of a greater purpose. It is the true meaning of being whole."
"Is everything jake back there?" Harry asks over the intercom, "I don't know how I let you talk me into swinging back around and buzzing that island again. I don't get it! The pressure wave from that explosion should have ripped our airframe to shreds, but we're flying smooth as silk."
"Set us on a course for Tibet, Harry." Logan tells him, as he enters the cockpit. "We'll drop you off at the first fuel-stop and I'll fix it with Xavier to make good on the plane. Gotta save the world, ya know."
Meanwhile, at the top of Mt. Everest, deep within the Phalanx womb.
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"We have priorities, Larissa. We have our mission. We must not divert our main energies from our primary objective: the infiltration and absorption of all Muir Island genetic hardware and data banks." Nkotha replies.
"Parameters understood, Larissa. Now is not the time. Mutagenic physiology is still resistant to assimilation process." Lang informs her.
"Her psionic powers are blunted, but still considerably dangerous." Hodge adds.
"More Psi-Dampers, Hodge! Quickly!" Lang orders, as Psylocke tries to free herself from the dozens of Phalanx tentacles entrapping her.
"It is well known that mutants cannot be absorbed, Designate Lang." Larissa tells him.
"I know that, Larissa. All the more reason we must secure their number. Now, what are you doing here, Larissa?" Lang asks.
"I came to merge/share. I possess data that--" Larissa begins.
"Unit override command: Return to Muir now!" Lang orders, as he thinks to himself, "No! During the download, Larissa had access to my thoughts. What did she see while I was distracted with Psylocke and had my blocks down? Does she know? Does she suspect? Did I get rid of her in time?"
"Sorry about the weddin', Jean. I was--"
"Logan, your heart was there. That's what's important. It all seems so long ago." Jean tells him.
"S'funny you should say that, Darlin' It's like the light in yer eyes is a lot older. Like they been starin' at a lot more life than it's possible to see in the last few months..." Logan replies.
"It's harder to hide secrets from you than it is from a psi-talent, Logan." Jean tells him.
Suddenly, Egon and Nkotha burst upon the trio. Interrupting further discussion.
"The trunk line! Good Lord, they traveled through the underground cable that connects this weather station to the main lab." Cyclops yells.
POOM THOOM
The two Phalanx entities are blasted back from Scott, Jean and Logan before they can attack.
"What? Force beams!? Some sort of plasma weapon!? Who?" Scott asks, as he turns to find the source of their salvation.
"I thought I heard you mention my name as I was Body-Sliding in, or were you talking about another Cable?" Nathan asks Scott, as he stands on the hill above them with, still smoking, plasma rifles in each hand.
"Nate!!" Jean yells, her face lighting up as she takes in the big man's presence.
It is a sight Jean Grey Summers has seen many times before, but after all she's been through, she will never see this man quite the same way again.
"We've got the advantage now. Hit them with everything you've got!" Cable orders, as he continues to blast the two Phalanx entities.
"Scott, his psi-print is stronger, more in sync with my own than ever before." Jean communicates with Scott through their psi-link.
"Jean, somehow I feel it, too. But we can't talk now. Just concentrate on blasting Phalanx!" Scott replies, also through the psi-link.
"There is yet another mutagenic anomaly. I am registering residual EM radiation from a teleportation field. It is best we retreat back to the research center." Egon orders, and the two Phalanx retreat back into the underground cable.
"That certainly sent them packing." Cable says, as he approaches the others.
"Not another step, Bub, until we got proof you are who you appear to be." Logan tells him.
"Logan! This is Cable. Trust me, I know." Jean tells him, and turns so she is facing both of them. "Now, tell us what's going on around here or I'll telepathically pull it out of the both of you. Understood?"
"I hear ya, Red." Logan replies.
Jean's mind is suddenly filled with the image of Nathan as a small child. Just as she and Scott left him, just hours ago, to them. Two thousand years in the future.
Cable's mind is also filled with the image from Jean's memories. The big man's heart suddenly swells fit to burst, as he feels the love and concern coming from Jean. If only they had the time to discuss all the things he longs to tell them, the questions he has wanted to ask them since they disappeared from his life just after the three of them had defeated Apocalypse when he was still a boy. But, as always it seemed he has to put his wants and needs aside to confront the current crisis.
"The condition is critical, Folks. Xavier mindblasted me this information before he and Excalibur evacuated the island. What we've got here is a race of techno-organic beings, from Lord knows where, whose first strike included the taking of most of the X-Men! Chuck nominated me and Logan to find them. While he an' the others, including my X-Force, take on the Phalanx on other fronts. You two are an unexpected addition." Cable explains.
"The X-Men were the first objective, you say. That fits." Jean replies, "You see, I picked up vague images from Larissa and the others. They seem to be, as they claim, a collective intelligence. One intrinsically linked to the other. Obsessively intent on replacing all indigenous 'carbon-based life' on this planet with their own. It was so strong a feeling...almost a genetic imperative."
"That would explain why they're here then. Muir is the foremost biological research facility on Earth. Where better to garner data on Terran life-forms? They're obviously trying to access the computer core which the Professor must have shut down before he and the others evacuated. And we need that core for the Cerebro subframe to locate the missing X-Men." Scott explains.
"Assumin' they're still alive, Cyke." Logan adds.
"Which we won't know for sure until we stick out our head in the lion's mouth. Again. They're a collective intelligence, right? OK, with Jean's telepathy running interference, and me backing her up, we'll infiltrate their group entity and give 'em what for. That should allow Cyke and Logan about five minutes to get in and out of the facility with the info we need." Cable tells them.
"Cable, with your techno-organic infection, you'll be especially susceptible to the Phalanx. You'll have to use extreme caution." Jean tells him.
"Caution's my middle name." Cable replies with a huge grin.
"Larissa, you have returned from your merge/share with the main. Merge with us so we can all experience your ecstatic joining with central shared consciousness at the Citadel." Egon says.
"There was no merge/share. Something is awry. Something is hidden. Share my memory of it." Larissa replies, as she merges with Egon and Nkotha.
"I see/hear/smell/feel it!" Egon exclaims. "Lang is holding back. He is not sharing. Lang is a partial absorbee, he remained mostly human to be our interface with the non-cyber world. He is not truly techno-organic. We must alert the main collective and initiate--"
"No time!" Larissa shouts, "The mutant female is a powerful Psi and the newest arrival is formidable, as well. We must carry out our mission before they--They Come!! I sense their approach. Quickly, we must meet their attack."
"You be careful out there, the both of you." Scott tells them.
"Don't worry, Cyclops. Charging headlong into a battle is sort of my specialty." Cable replies.
"What am I doing?" Jean asks herself, "When we enter the Phalanx collective consciousness together all my most secret memories will be laid bare for Nate to know. There are things that a son should never know about his parents...especially if they imperil the entire future probability that created him. Is it even possible to avoid those memories?"
Putting her doubts aside Jean turns towards Nathan and asks softly, "Are you ready?"
"Yes." Cable replies simply.
"Try it, Nathan." Redd told him, taking his small hand in hers.
"But it's painful, I can't Redd." Nathan had told her.
"Shhh. Concentrate! Create that clear white spot in the center of your consciousness and let yourself flow through it...let yourself flow..." Jean tells him.
"This is amazing! I feel like I can do anything!" Nathan tells her.
"Anything you can imagine." Jean tells him, as she takes his hand and together they enter into the Phalanx consciousness.
"More like twelve years, Logan." Scott replies.
"You been practicin' them non-sequiturs?" Logan asks, as they make their way into the lab. "Some mess, huh? Looks like dead techno-organic tissue. Jean and Nate's psi-attack must have taken the Phalanx by surprise."
"My every thought is a flashing beam of sizzling power! This is incredible, Jean! I feel such an ecstatic wholeness in this state of being, as if I were riding an avalanche of limitless power!" Nathan tells her.
"Don't let yourself get carried away within the Astral Plane, Cable. It's tempting, I know, but you have to concentrate." Jean replies, as the three Phalanx advance upon them.
"We were not prepared for an attack from within!" Larissa shouts, as Nathan unleashes an awesome psionic assault upon them. "He/she/they are unmaking us!" Larissa screams.
"I can blast them with pure pain!" Nathan shouts, as he presses his attack.
"Keep your bearings, Cable. Look for weak spots." Jean advises him.
"Look for weak spots, Nkotha, Egon! We cannot be defeated! We are the final solution!" Larissa shouts.
"We don't have any weak spots, Larissa!" Cable tells her.
"Power alone won't win here, Cable. Hold back a reserve! Use strategy!" Jean admonishes him.
"Here is a weak spot!" Larissa yells, "There is a key memory sequence from the carbonite unit's childhood. it is causing a glitch in their psi-linkage! Nkotha, you concentrate on the she/entity while I press the attack on the techno-organic infectee and commence the absorption process!" Larissa orders.
Cable screams as it seems that he is ripped apart down to his very soul at Larissa's attack. In an instant his psi-link with Jean is sundered. And in the real world the psionic assault bears painful physical results. The techno-organic virus begins to spread across Nathan's chest from his left arm.
Sensing, and feeling, Nathan's agony, Jean blasts Larissa away from Nathan and re-establishes the psi-link with him.
"Focus! You're letting them through! Find your center, Nate! Get it back together!" Jean shouts, using her own psionic powers to boost Nathan's.
"Merge with me Nkotha!" Larissa orders, "They are intrinsically non-collective. They quibble. They vacillate and they prevaricate. They are no match for a unified poly-consciousness. Egon, you return to the lab. Their companions must be there. Destroy them and return to aid us." The newly merged Phalanx entity renews the attack upon Cable.
"Jean! They're too strong!" Cable shouts, as his Astral Form begins to dissipate.
"Not if we counter with a mind-bond! We have to focus on a shared memory, a moment of strength!" Jean tells him, as she takes his Astral Form's hand, just as her physical body holds his hand in the real world.
"Do not fear, Nate. Fear will weaken the blocks, dim the disguise. They're just Dog Soldiers, Nate." Redd tells him.
"Papers! Where are your papers?" The nearest guard shouts. Nathan begins to tremble and his arm begins to take on a metallic sheen. "What's wrong with the lad's arm?" The guard asks.
"There's nothing wrong with him." Redd tells the guard, as she squeezes young Nathan's hand and renews the disguise. But the guards draw their weapons and Nathan's control slips completely.
"Oh, Redd! I slipped! I--"
"Don't worry, Nathan. I'll get us through this." Redd tells him and steps between him and the advancing guards.
"I'll get us through this! Remember that moment, Nathan! Use the power of that moment. Let it well up inside like an unstoppable force and now, Unleash it!!!" Jean shouts, as she unleashes a psionic assault upon the Phalanx entity that disrupts their merge and travels back along their mind-net to Egon who is attacking Scott and Logan in the lab, granting Scott the time he needs to access Cerebro.
"They've feinted: drew us out with the Queen and Knight, while their Bishop and Rook advanced to the end game!" Larissa screams, "Let's see how you play after we knock all the pieces off the board!"
"Jean! What are they--?" Cable asks.
"Get behind me, Nate! They're going after you!" Jean yells.
"Nate? Nathan? Are you--?" Jean asks.
"I'm not going back." Cable tells her.
"We have to!" Jean replies.
"I've had it with the Astral Plane." Cable says, as he grabs up his plasma rifle.
Scott and Logan exit the lab with a twenty foot tall, Phalanx entity consisting of all three Phalanx, in hot pursuit.
"We can't quit now!" Jean pleads.
"Who said anything about quitting? I'm talking about getting physical!!" Cable says, as he opens fire upon the Phalanx.
"Stop it, Nate! You'll hit Scott and Logan!" Jean yells.
"I don't think so, Jean. I know exactly where they are. But what's that behind them?" Cable asks.
"Shoot it, Nate!" Jean yells, as she notices exactly what Cable had been firing at.
"Gotta cycle up the power cells to full discharge!" Cable replies, and the plasma rifle begins to hum with suppressed power.
KATHOOOM
"Way to go, Bub!!" Logan shouts, as the huge Phalanx is blasted into several thousand tiny pieces.
"Scott, did you find out--?" Jean asks.
"I know where the X-Men are, Jean. They're on Chomo-Lungma." Scott replies.
"Gesundheit." Logan tells him.
"Mt. Everest, in Tibet. Eight miles above sea level. That info cost us. Moira must have written a fail-safe into the operating program. As soon as I processed the date, the self-destruct timer went active" Scott informs them.
"That's why the Phalanx were trying to absorb the data. They were bypassing the--" Cable begins.
"Look!" Jean, points behind them where the Phalanx is beginning to reform itself.
"He's pullin' himself back together." Logan says.
"There's less than three minutes left on the timer." Scott informs them.
"At least we take three of them with us." Cable says.
"Hear that? Pratt and Whitney engines...It's Harry!" Logan exclaims, as the old plane tops a hill to their left.
"That's your ride! Go to the headland!" Cable orders.
"We're not leaving you, Cable!" Scott tells him.
"No one is getting away unless someone holds the fort here. The X-Men need you. I'll slow the Phalanx down and get away myself. Now go!" Cable orders again.
Jean is ready to argue the issue, but Scott takes her arm and tells her, "He's right, Jean. It's the only way."
"Nate, w-we'll wait as long as we can." Jean yells, as Scott pulls her away.
"The fat lady hasn't sung yet." Cable replies.
"She has. Your weapons' power cells are depleted. You knew that when you elected to stay. The others can't be saved, you know. It is only a matter of time before we encompass this entire planet." Phalanx tells him.
"Not you guys. You're dead meat!" Cable tells the towering form that stands before him.
"We were including you in the collective pronoun. You are a transmode infectee, after all. Already half-way to being one of us so to speak. Don't resist the absorption, Cable. It is only delaying the inevitable." Phalanx says and outstretches it's arm.
"NOOOOOOO!" Cable screams, as the techno-organic virus begins to run rampant across his body.
"This ain't gonna work, Jean! There's no place for him to land!" Logan tells her.
"He doesn't have to. I'm telepathically 'telling' him to come in low with the throttle wide open." Jean replies.
"You're not thinkin' you can--" Logan begins.
"Not think, Logan. I know I can!" Jean tells him.
As Harry swoops low over their heads, Jean telekinetically stops the plane and holds it in place so they can board.
"Ain't you just the lil' redhead who could!" Logan tells her.
"That's some trick, Lady! But we'd better get underway before this ol' Dakota shakes itself apart!" Harry tells her.
"Wait! It's Nate! Phalanx is absorbing him!!" Jean yells, as she feels Nathan's pain.
"I'll go." Scott says and turns to jump back out of the plane.
"You and Jean stay put. The X-Men are countin' on ya." Logan says, as he leaps out of the plane.
"I'll give ya' a 'hole'!!" Logan shouts, as he leaps into the Phalanx and begins to slice it to ribbons. "Ya' know, the big guy might be a royal pain, but he's our royal pain!"
The Phalanx is soon in several pieces and Logan turns towards Cable. "Let's bug out, Bub." He says, as he helps Nathan to his feet.
"You c-can't stop us!" The reforming Phalanx screams.
"Get a life." Logan replies.
AWOOGA AWOOGA AWOOGA
"Rats! Sounds like our clock just ran out." Logan says, as he realizes the the final ten seconds of the self-destruct timer has begun.
"Y-you came back for me?" Cable asks.
"Dumb move, huh?" Logan replies.
BA-WOOM
"You did good, Harry. Jean wrapped your plane in a force field as soon as she enveloped Nathan and Logan in a psionic cocoon and reeled them in like fish in a trawl net." Scott explains.
"You got 'em both?" Harry asks.
"Safe and sound. Coming aboard even as we speak." Scott replies.
"Guess I don't have to sing Logan's 'Spirit Song' for him. This time." Harry tells him.
As soon as they are aboard, Jean and Scott are at Nathan's side.
"Nathan, we were worried sick, but your techno-organic form has stabilized. It must have been incredibly painful." Jean says.
"Haven't had much worse." Cable tells her.
"I'm okay, too." Logan says, as he watches his fellow X-Men hover over Cable.
"That's great, Logan. You're not bleeding are you, Cable?" Scott asks.
"Guess I'll mosey up front and see to Harry." Logan says, as he turns and heads towards the front of the plane.
"Look, I appreciate the concern, but what the Phalanx did brought back a lot of old memories. If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone for a while. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is." Cable tells them as he gets up and heads towards the back of the plane.
"Good luck." Harry replies quietly.
"There is an emptiness on the mind-net, Hodge. I fear that Muir Island is lost to us." Lang tells him.
"Do they know where we are, Lang? Would they dare attack us here?" Hodge asks.
"They are X-Men, Hodge. What do you think?" Lang replies.
Our Journey Continues With
The Phalanx Sanction
