Chapter 81: CHAPTER 79

[Draul St. Cross POV]

I uploaded the ViewTube app yesterday and people on social media were clamoring to it.

From the streams and number of uploaded videos in less than 24 hours, I reckon that it wouldn't take up to a month before we are besieged with partnerships from news and media outlets for exclusive rights and anything else they would want to get their hands on. 

That wasn't my problem as it was Marky's. It was only when something was really important that I would be called in, like maybe a lucrative business deal with Facebook or any of the apps on its chain, then Marky would have no choice but to call me as my decision making power was higher than his, although not by much as it was still just the both of us holding it down. 

Marky had called me a few days ago in regards to renting an office for the business and maybe hiring a few people to help with complaints and any other issues customers had been facing when using the apps and also scouring for any virus or bug trying to interfere with our systems which was highly impossible. 

Sure they are people who could break into our servers with ease but then either Marky or I would be notified and besides even if they did break in, there would be nothing to steal from the archives of data except the personal information provided to us by our customers. 

Hell, we have up to ten attempts at break-in every week so that made for a twenty four hour check on the systems mandatory and now I could see why Marky was losing his shit. 

The first time our monthly profits from Facebook crossed over a million dollars, Marky immediately dropped out of school officially, obviously, given that he had stopped going for a while now. 

While I sympathized with what Marky had going on and sometimes he'd call me to get a few things done, I couldn't drop what I was doing just because of some company. For all I would never know, it could be that Facebook would've never existed in this universe because Marky choked on soya milk and died prematurely or he started playing COD on Playstation and forgot about being a programmer. 

Right now money was the least of my problems, and while I wasn't a millionaire by any stretch of the word, money was quickly losing its appeal to me. Sure I very much needed it, but if it was placed on a list of my priorities, it would rate second to last on whatever was on that list. The last thing on that list would be wearing a superhero costume. 

As I had far reaching goals, so did Marky. Even though I bought more than half of his company due to his greed and ignorance, it was still his job to take care of the company while I ran around trying to save my life for whoever was coming for it. 

It was the last week of November and the snow was already kicking in while the temperature fell with each passing day. I was looking forward to my first Christmas on the Marvel-verse which was taking me three years to experience. I wasn't the only one in festive spirits; Steve and Bucky were too. I could feel their tensions loosen each day as the holiday came closer. 

I was already thinking of where to spend the holidays when my phone rang. 

"Hello Draul, we need your help… Jean just woke up."

I tried. I really tried, but the words still came out of my mouth. 

"Fuck."

…

It was only me this time as I drove to the Mansion. 

Why was I putting myself in this scenario again? It was for the simple reason that it might have been my fault that the Phoenix came out too early. 

If it had gone according to whatever timeline was considered canon, then I was pretty sure that I would not have been part of that event. 

Well the second reason was for this not to be any of those timelines where the raging Phoenix destroyed earth. 

I didn't know what I could do to help but Ororo and Logan answered my calls when I called, that alone was enough reason to do my best to help, even if it might have been meagre. 

I got to the Mansion and drove to the front of the building and immediately I entered I could feel some sort of prickling sensation around my body which went as soon as it came. 

I passed through the kids who were clamoring through the halls and ignored even the ones who were pointing at me and saying something about a nightmare. 

The closer I got to where they directed me, the more I saw some signs of damage which just made my gut sink deeper already knowing that this kind of action was already what I was expecting and hoping not to come through. 

I saw Ororo and the others with a Charles who was bandaged all over with drips and whatnot around him. 

"What happened?" I asked Lagan who was leading against the wall with a deep scowl on his face. 

"Thought you got the news: Redhead woke up."

"I'm asking what happened 'after' she woke up." I specified. 

"Nothing much. Just flung Chucks over a wall, flung the boyfriend over a table, broke my neck and when I came to I found out that she blew a hole in the ceiling and left."

I could already feel the headache this was giving me and immediately started scrubbing my mind for anywhere she might be. 

"Is Charles awake?" I asked him. 

"Yeah… but.. *sigh*" They all looked tired as if they were running a marathon at full speed. 

"But what?"

"Things are kind of hot right now and everyone is still out of it." Logan said to me with a look that he wasn't going to talk about the issue anymore which made me seek out the one who called me over. 

"Can you tell me what happened here, Ororo?" She had left the med when I was talking to Logan and I had to catch up with her to know what happened. 

"As you can already tell, Jean woke up… and she tried to kill the Professor." She revealed but I wasn't shocked since that was the normal course of action that any person would want to take against Charles for what he did. "What happened after?"

"Do you have any idea where she might be now?" It was a long shot but I had to try, unfortunately the response was one that I fully expected. "No, unfortunately."

"Draul, do you know what might be happening to her? I'm sorry if I'm being intrusive in any way." She asked and I felt bad for the hope that her tone held. But then again what kind of help could I possibly have when facing the Phoenix. 

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I let out a breath. "Probably trying to come to terms with her new powers right about now."

"But then she wouldn't have been hostile to us if that was only the case right?"

"That should have been the case if only Charles' influence on her mind weren't so deep." I said as we branched into another path not even knowing where we were walking to. 

"What do you mean by that?" Ororo was quick on the uptake so I elaborated. 

"Charles didn't just lock away her personality and some minor memory change. What he did was actually divide her being into two and stuffed her powers in one of those personas and locked them up forever while throwing away the key. The only reason she didn't kill Charles the first moment she got was most likely because her other part, the Jean you know, stopped herself from doing that."

I could see how her eyes lit up at that straw I threw. "So that means there's really a way to save her right? Even if she has two personas, there has to be the Jean that we know in there right?" She asked. 

"Hopefully what you are craving for is true." I nipped at her rising hope. 

"What does that mean?"

"How would you feel if someone locked you in a dark room for over a decade? And not only that, he also created someone that wasn't you and let her take the wheel while you watched as your body and actions were controlled by his whims for the best part of your life?"

She had a thoughtful expression on her face before she visibly paled. "T-that means…"

"She is in a battle of dominance over herself… And from the looks of it, your Jean is losing as time goes on."

"T-then t-that means we have to hurry up! We need to help her!" Ororo was able to stay calm visibly but I could feel the panic in her tone. She must have had a lot going on as Logan had said. 

"But we still don't know where she is." I reminded her of the main issue at hand which deflated her enthusiasm a bit. 

"Sorry for calling you when we didn't have anything on her." She apologized. 

"It's nothing really. You guys did help me when I asked, doing this much is nothing in comparison." I waved it off. "Is everything all right with you Ororo? Everyone seems tensed and I don't think the situation with Jean is the cause."

She paused as I said that before a self deprecating smile appeared on her face. "I guess you can say that. It's… just that with everything happening with you, the Sentinels, Magneto, and now Jean and the Professor's… I don't even know what to call it. It's just that everyone's mind is very occupied and I think it's affecting our focus. We haven't had a good time to unwind, is all I'm saying, but the holidays are upon us so that is a good thing as it provides us a chance to do so. Hopefully we are able to save Jean before the holidays kick in."

Wow. Just wow. 

And here I was complaining that I was stumped full with issues ever arising. Sure I had a lot to deal with but small problems like these that poles up into something deteriorating isn't anything fun to deal with. On the contrary, they cause more damage than the monumental ones. 

"Sorry about all that." It was the only thing I could say since I am pretty sure most of it came with and from me. 

"I'll be out of your hair then. I'll try what I can to find her and if I have anything I'll let you know." I told her and after a small light talk, we went our separate ways. 

As I drove, I thought of all the possibilities that came with the Phoenix. First of all was the epic destruction that came with its rebirth. That was my first worry. 

This didn't go like the movies at all. Maybe it would have, given that Trask, Stryker and Lake Alkali were here, but that would have been like at least 5 years into the future but something happened that made it spiral into a fuckball. 

Second of all was to look for Magneto. I didn't know why but Magneto was always able to find his way to collaborate with the midway-apotheosis Jean Grey. And I was the last person who wanted any sort of collaboration between Magneto and Jean Grey. 

And the other was Doom. I was very much paranoid about this guy. 

To be perfectly honest, Doom freaked me out just as much as a raging Phoenix did. My only saving grace was that I still had a little time before our next tango but the bad part was that I didn't know how soon that would be and also the fact that I didn't have a viable way to increase my strength in a short while. 

I didn't want to distract Fury in whatever he was doing so I refrained from calling him and asking if he could help me in finding Magneto, which meant that I had to do this the hard way. Which admittedly was way harder than it sounds since I didn't have any idea where to believe. 

I drove while I swerved through the traffic, completely ignoring the shouts of reckless driving from the other drivers I overtook. 

It was during my immersion that a call to my phone broke me out of my thoughts. I looked at my phone and saw an unknown number but I didn't hesitate to pick it up, knowing fully well that there was a high chance that I wouldn't like what they were going to say. 

"Who's this? And for both your sake and mine, please do not piss me off." Damn, the stress really was getting to me and I could very well feel the anger trying to rob me of my reasoning. 

"Mr. Draul, it's me, Yelena! Some people just abducted Natasha and I need your help to save my sister." And just like that the anger bled out but the stress remained. 

"Where are you? Can you meet me at the bar?" I asked her as I made a U-turn which drew more shouts that I ignored. 

"Yes."

"Good. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Can this day get any worse? 

… 

.. 

Please don't bother answering that.

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