Eternal Saṃsāra: The Wanderer of Worlds

[32] Catching Up With the Pheonix

Chapter 32: Catching Up With the Pheonix

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The sun rose over the horizon, casting a golden glow over the grand mansion that was located on the outskirts of the city. The dew-covered grass sparkled in the light, and the birds sang in the trees. The air was fresh and clean, and the world seemed to be waking up to a new day.

Enrique Nova found himself waking about then, his biological clock used to wake up early. He quickly freshened up, took a quick cold shower, and began to brew a cup of hot coffee. While the coffee was being prepared, he went to the two of the only other rooms occupied in this entire mansion.

Enrique shook awake Greer, giving her some time to fully return to the world of light, and went to Anna’s room to wake her up too. The two girls began to freshen up while Enrique returned to his coffee.

The morning was gentle, and Enrique enjoyed a newspaper that was still filled with the alien invasion even though it had been a few days. The girls joined him, and Enrique presented them with two cups of coffee too, and the group passed their morning with small chattering.

….

About a few hours later, Enrique decided it was time to leave the mansion for the first time in a few days. There had been quite the press mess in the world for the past few days, and while Enrique liked farmers and knew how to handle the camera well – he still preferred to not be bothered by paparazzi too much.

“Nobody likes paparazzi, huh? I thought at least people like you’d like it.” Greer said, waving her hair to the side with her hand. She seemed unsure about what she was wearing, a white sports bra under a denim jacket, coupled with tight gray pants.

“Some do. Well, few. But they aren’t exactly right in the head.” Enrique replied while checking his own suit out; he didn’t bother with a proper black suit and just wore his Hero Costume in the form of a white suit. He needed to do that because he planned to drop by his office first, it was the opening day after the employees’ little vacation.

That, and he also had to go there to check on a report MJ made. Apparently, the CCTVs had caught a fight between the Chitauri army and someone else, who she thought wasn’t one of those aliens, right outside the office. Enrique had to check that out, MJ had keen eyes.

“Guys, can you get ready faster? It’s getting late.” From the side, Anna sighed in feigned exasperation. She sure was having fun with the power to change her clothes with a thought.

Loki’s Illusion Magic was a lot deadlier than mere holograms. Sure, they were basic illusions by default, something one would phase through when touched, but they could also be used to materialize physical things. Anna was using that power to make clothes, an exotic tank top under a puffy jacket and black pants.

“Careful, you might become naked in public if you lose concentration or the magic energy for it.” Enrique had warned her almost jokingly, watching her pale a bit; that possibility seemed to affect her even in her newly adapted personality.

To Enrique’s surprise, Goddess Mut came to rescue Anna’s case at that moment, her voice ringing in his mind alone.

[“It’s fine. What she absorbed from Loki was Asgardian Magic and energy mainly, the knowledge to cast spells was what she learned from his memories – which is a mere secondary gain. If she hadn't learned that, I could have taught her magic myself, though now it's amusing seeing Frigga's magic behind used by my most loveliest believer. Anyway, my point is that, she has enough energy to sustain such a spell.”]

“That makes sense.”

It seemed Mut had taken quite the liking to Anna after this incident. He nodded to the air and looked at Anna. 

“Ignore my joke, the gracious Mother Mut said you are fine. Speaking of Mut, I happen to have a question. Now that Anna absorbed so much of Loki… does that make her a Goddess?”

Greer perked her ears up at that, Anna pretended to be uninterested but she listened too. Though Mut’s voice only rang in Enrique’s head.

[“It’s complicated. You may know this already, but aliens exist in this universe – with some owning personal abilities beyond some gods. So how do you differentiate them from a God? It’s Faith and Divinity. Now, Anna has sucked in a lot of magic powers, divinity, and racial strength of frost giants, but that doesn’t mean she would receive any faith that would be directed towards Loki after this. But at the same time, she has divinity flowing through her. The best term to describe her would be… that she is a Demi-God.”]

She added, [“If she had absorbed a lower-ranked God, her divinity reserves would have run out. However, if you remember, I explained to you back when you first appeared in this world, that High Gods and above don’t depend on prayers and faiths. While it helps, it’s not very necessary. She has a flowing spiritual ‘engine’ that runs divinity, and will refill her reserves overtime when she uses it.”]

“Anna, you’re a Demi-God.”

Enrique fixed his tie for the last time and announced, not seeing any point in explaining it in detail. Though that also meant, if Enrique prepared a number of humans to worship Anna like a Goddess, she might turn into a proper God – or that may just expand or recharge her Divinity Reserves, he didn’t know.

Anna flinched, smiling widely, while Greer looked at the two of them with an odd frown.

Enrique chuckled a little and joked, “Now, don’t go hating on me again with your racial superiority prejudice like last time. Ouch, it still stings when you left with Charles because, you said it yourself, I was ‘not even a mutant’.”

“H-hey!” instantly, it’s as if Anna from before returned as she threw herself on his chest and hugged him tightly. “T-that, I already admitted it was stupid of me. You can rest assured that I’d never do such a thing ever again!”

Enrique felt accomplished as he smiled at her and ruffled her hair, watching her look up at him in adoration. She had changed, and while Enrique didn’t have any way to remove the changes yet, it was clear that she hadn’t become some sort of crack-head who thought she was Loki.

A gentle giggle filled his ears, [“You can technically be considered a Demi-God as well. Being a God’s Avatar isn’t a small status.”]

Enrique had thought so, but it was nice getting confirmation. It suited him, of course, though he would prefer to become a proper God someday.

“You know what Mut said?” Enrique whispered. “I am a Demi-God too, what a coincidence.”

Anna just continued hugging him, while Greer’s eyes drooped. She felt as if she was being left behind, though sadly she saw no path on how to catch up with them.

Soon, the three of them left. Anna and Greer called an Uber, and Enrique made a note to finally buy a car for them Z well as they left for Midtown High. While Enrique himself flew to his office at the speed of a flying jet.

X-x-X

"Good to see what all of you are in one piece. Goddamn, what a lucky vacation that one was."

Enrique strolled into the office, waving off the standing-up employees with a smile. They returned his words with sighs of relief.

"Honestly." One of the employers agreed right away, heaving a sigh. "Those aliens ran right over our house, if we were there at that time, only God knows what would have happened."

Enrique had a little chat with his 15 employees and then made his way into his office room.

Mary Jane Watson waited for him there. Usually, she would come to greet him, but today she looked particularly troubled as she stared at the monitor while chewing on her lips.

"Miss Jane?"

Enrique stopped near her chair and called, startling her. That was worrying, why was she so invested-

Ah.

Enrique's eyes fell on the monitor and suddenly he knew why.

"S-sir!"

MJ jumped up and greeted him. She quickly moved away from the chair, allowing him to take a seat. He did and leaned over, looking at the screen with a frown.

A normal human wouldn't have seen any difference between this green thing and one of those Chitauri. They would just have assumed it was some other variant of Chitauri. Yet, MJ recognized it. Of course, she did, how couldn't she? That was her ex-boyfriend.

"The Green Goblin…"

On the monitor, on the footage, he saw Green Goblin who had come equipped with bombs to blow his office off. Only that he couldn't, because aliens invaded the world and rushed after him.

The camera didn't catch anything, but given there was no death report, and also because that was the Green Goblin of all slimy bastards, he was sure the villain survived.

That fucking moron. How dare he come to blow off his office?

"Y-you know him?"

"Heard some rumors."              

Enrique got back up from the chair. He looked into her eyes, as she looked down. She probably thought it was her fault that he was here, and Enrique would agree. Except there was no need to say that to her face, she was a useful manager, one of the best he had worked with.

"I-"

"That's Harry Osborn?"

"..."

MJ looked startled. She had told him that her ex-boyfriend had turned into a monster, but she never thought he'd take it literally, and connect the dots. She didn't know he knew things in a bit more detail than normal people.

"I- yes."

"Miss Jane, let's talk tonight."

Enrique put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle look. She was quite shaken; she was worrying too much. 

"Book some place, a restaurant or, I don't know, whatever. I have some other work I need to take care of, so I'd like to finish this issue quickly. I'll send you some Stark Tech, cameras and sensors, tell the people to work on it, and modify it for extreme security alerts. Because this guy might come again."

"Yes, sir."

MJ heaved out a breath and nodded, appreciating his quick thoughts. She hesitated but then reached out her hands to grab his forearm as his hand was resting on her shoulder. Gently, she squeezed it.

"Thank you."

****

Anna and Greer were pissed. It’s not as if Enrique didn’t have a car, but they didn't. It was his personal car, and while he let them ride it, he just wouldn't let either of them drive it. Well, Anna was a minor, but Greer could drive it. Yet, he wouldn’t agree.

"Girls? Please, go buy your own car." he had said.

Anna was almost willing to hypnotize some car dealer and get a car, but before she could give in to her new foreboding thoughts, the Uber reached the school.

"Can I get an autograph instead of the payment?"

"Uh…"

The Uber driver recognized her, and it said quite something that a man from such a profession would rather take her autograph than money.

Anna couldn't hold back a smile. She was famous. One day she was thinking that life was a dead end, her touch being a deadly poison, to this level of fame.

After giving the autograph, the two entered the school and instantly found themselves surrounded by students.

Usually, Anna would feel awkward with such a crowd but today… she only felt excited. Greer also found herself having fun, for once not receiving weird looks even though she was in her Tigra form, and instead getting looks of jealousy, envy, and admiration.

It felt good.

It was about that time, surrounded by so many people that a needle won't be able to come in, that a half grabbed Anna and Greer as it pulled them.

They phased through the crowd, going through their bodies. It took them half a minute to be out of the crowd, and in an unpopulated corner of the campus.

"Kitty!"

"Hey, Anna."

Anna recognized the girl instantly. She may have not spent that much time in Xavier's School, but she had made a few friends there. Well, only one actually. It was this girl, who could phase through things, so she hadn't been worried about Anna accidentally touching her.

Anna hugged her. She was wearing gloves, but it still surprised Kitty that her friend was confident enough to engage in such physical contact.

Canceling the hug, she turned to look at Greer and grinned. "Greer, this is my mutant school friend, Kitty Pryde. She can phase through things, as you saw. Kitty, this is Greer Nelson, she's strong, a human tigress. Not a mutant though."

"Hey."

"Hi~"

Greer gave the girl a short nod, and the girl returned with a smile. She was an energetic one, this one.

Turning back to Anna, she began to talk.

"Anyway, what are you doing here, girl? You're famous now, coming here so casually is gonna cause problems." 

"It's fine. Enrique – Supernova – will be here anytime now. He's going to enroll me here. I was doubtful at first when I heard there'd be mutants from Xavier's School attending… but now that I know you are one of them, I am excited!"

"Oh. Oh? Hey, that's great!"

The two girls got along well, and Greer almost forgot how different Anna had been acting these past few days.

It was around that time that a white star descended from the sky, stopping inches above the ground as his large figure loomed over them. 

"Shadowcat? Good morning." Enrique looked at Kitty and said, with a raised eyebrow. 

"Uh…"

Kitty gave him a weird look, returning a shaky nod. Shadowcat wasn't a name that many knew, even Anna didn't. She hadn't debuted as an X-Men yet, so how did he know?

"Good morning. Nice to meet you..." 

"Nice to meet you as well. Anna talked about you a lot, I hope you'll take care of her in her time here. On that topic, can you lead us to your processor first? I want to have a chat with Jean Grey."

Kitty slowly nodded. She hesitated, almost reaching out a hand, wanting to pull him through the walls and into the office, but ultimately decided to use the usual path to lead them to the office.

As someone who wanted to join the X-Men, she had heard of what he did to the X-Men a few months ago, back when Emma Frost had called them for backup. She seemed weary of him, if not outright scared.

'Poor girl.' 

Anna felt a little bad for her friend.

****

By the time Enrique and friends were in the school building, a large group of paparazzi had gathered outside. Despite Enrique taking a few days off public, the steam hadn't ended, and they were here to get a glimpse of him.

Not that any of that mattered. They couldn't come inside; the security level was high like that since there were mutants attending this school now. So Enrique just followed Kitty into the teacher's office, which was occupied by a lot of teachers this time around compared to the empty room last time.

"Jeaaan~"

Enrique smiled widely and approached the glasses-wearing redhead. She just blinked, until she was caught in a hug, suddenly blushing but unsure if she should push him away. He soon pulled back, and Jean was glad he hadn't tried anything funny with his hands, it really was a normal hug.

Her expression asked, were they close enough to share hugs like this?

Anna wore an odd expression, a mixture of many emotions, but Enrique tried not to notice and looked at Jean.

"I'd have appreciated your presence in the recent battle. Where were the X-Men at that time?"

Jean looked a bit embarrassed. She took a second and turned to the other teachers in the room, all of whom were staring at them.

"Guys, can I have some alone time with them?"

"Oh- er, sure."

One of them quickly replied and in unison, all of them stormed off, though a brave one did rush to Enrique to take a picture first.

When they were gone, Jean slumped into her chair and sighed.

"Enrique, we really wanted to help, trust me. Helping in that battle would have allowed Mutants to earn great PR. But we had no way of getting involved. Because there was a mutant on the loose. It's a kid from our school. He called himself Kid Omega, and he made a mistake and murdered someone right under Xavier’s nose while attending the school, no small feat for any mutant.

"Quentin is… was an Omega-level, his main power was to form thoughts at a very fast rate. He could even control and manipulate the minds of others, as well, and he did that to gather a group of mutant children from our school to throw a revolt against us, the X-Men. He could also resist attempts of psychic manipulation on his own mind and in general shut down mind probes and keep most telepaths out of his head, and since the people he was using to attack us were just mind-controlled kids, we couldn't go all out."

That sounded like an annoying thing to deal with, Enrique could see it. Jean looked somewhat devastated as she said the next words.

"Ultimately, we had no choice but to… neutralize him. Cyclops had to blow him into blisters, and since that, he locked himself in a room. Killing a teen, even if that boy was mentally unwell, was a big hit to him. All of this happened when the sky split apart, Kid Omega had used that moment of shock to launch his attack, and the X-Men had no choice but to stay."

That made sense. Enrique would have been more surprised after hearing this if they ended up joining the battle. Even if they could have taken care of it early, it must have been a hit for all of them after killing a kid.

Though Enrique had to agree that was a strong power right there. Pity he was killed. If he was locked or something, he could have led Anna to steal that power.

"I see, that's a pity. Forgive me for expecting you there then, Miss Jean." Enrique closed his eyes and had a sad nod. He didn't really feel anything about this entire thing, but better to appear humane than otherwise.

She just sighed. Taking in a deep breath, she clapped her hands and smiled.

"Anyway, let's put those depressing thoughts to the side. You are here with Anna again; must that mean you are thinking of enrolling her here?"

"Yes."

"That is great!"

Jean stood up, walking off.

"All right, come with me. I'll make it fast since it looks like the paparazzi will get more annoying otherwise."

Enrique followed behind her, and the three girls exchanged glances before following as well. 

While staring at her walking in front of him, as she talked about something he wasn't really interested in, he began to plan if he could use this information to his benefit somehow.

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