2014.03.05 - Difficult Questions, Impossible Answers

Finding Adam Warlock is no simple matter. Despite believing Earth welfare is critical for the whole universe, he spends a good deal of time off word. And when he is on Earth, well, Earth is large. He was chasing a Daemonite information broker in Nepal twelve hours ago, then chasing off some malignant lwa spirits trying to open a gateway to their dimension in Jamaica, now he is back in New York. Such a troublesome city! Hart Island is a quiet place in the physical plane, but it was a time bomb in the psychic plane he has spent an hour defusing.

But that was almost an hour ago, now he is just waiting, meditating inside the abandoned power plant of the island, among the wrecked dynamos.

Finding Adam Warlock may be no simple matter, but Rachel Summers has a couple of advantages. Her own telepathic powers, boosted by some illicit use of the Cerebro system, give her a leg up to start with, especially considering the unique nature of Adam's mind. Allied to her innate talent for hunting people down, her curiosity, and her stubborn determination to get some answers to the questions she was left with after their last meeting...?

Well, it was only a matter of time.

As it turned out, although finding him was hard enough, finding him somewhere within striking distance was much harder than that. Rachel doesn't have the advantage of being able to travel instantly, after all. Finally, though, she got a lock on him. Not moving, and close enough. She was gone from the Institute within five minutes. Sometime later, Rachel stands outside the power plant. She stretches out with her telepathic senses, 'listening' for minds other than that of her quarry, but it's quiet. She smiles to herself, and moves quietly inside.

There are some human minds in the island, but none of them near the gutted power plant. The place is unsafe, the ceiling has collapsed in some areas and the remains of the generators are slowly rusting to dust, partially covered with moss. "We meet again, Starchild," greets Adam, standing up from his seated position. "I sensed your psychic search, you are a skilled tracker." His mind is difficult to read because much of what he thinks is based in senses and concepts humans don't have, or would have a difficult time grasping. But it is pretty clear he sees Rachel as something more, and above, than just a mutant woman, and also expects more from her than from a mere mortal human.

Rachel moves with assurance through the ruins of the power plant, her boots crunching through debris and broken glass. Her powers being what they are, even if more of the ceiling (or the floor!) gives way, she feels she can afford the confidence. She's not trying to sneak up on Adam, but at his greeting a look of disappointment flashes across her features. She'd at least been hoping to surprise him by tracking him down.

As he stands up, Rachel draws to a halt. She's dressed casually, in a leather jacket and jeans, fitting her outward appearance rather than reflecting the power within her. His unusual appearance garners a flicker of surprise, but little more than that - she IS a mutant, after all. Even though, from the feel of his quicksilver mind, she believes he's something... else. "I've had an interesting life." She remarks casually when he brings up her talents, then just looks at him for a couple of moments before adding. "I have questions, Adam."

Adam senses make him hard to surprise, but having the kind of power Rachel wields makes it even more difficult. To his senses she glows like a star among the dim lights that are regular humans. An interesting life was unavoidable for her. "Yes, questions." He agrees, "I can attempt to answer them. But I also might be interfering in the affairs of higher powers with fiery, volatile tempers. Please, understand if I might not be clear at times, out of necessity."

It's slightly surreal, for Rachel. A man she met in what seemed to her to be a waking dream, now present in the real world before her, and they're each conversing as if nothing about the other, or their prior meeting, was out of the ordinary. Maybe this is how Adam's life usually goes, but to Rachel it all has an odd sense of unreality.

There's a flash of eager interest in Rachel's eyes when Adam seems willing to answer her questions, but the condition he attaches to it makes her lips twist into a wry, knowing smile. "I don't blame you. I've seen what it can do." She hesitates, and shakes her head. "That's why I need to know, though. Whatever link I have to the Phoenix doesn't come with an instruction manual." She pauses, turning questions over in her mind and discarding them. "Let's try something easier. You told me you came back here for a reason - one that might involve me, somehow. What was it? What..." She pauses, seems annoyed with herself, and then continues anyway. "What am I?"

"Those are three different questions and neither is simple," replies Adam, although he is not complaining. Just an observation. "The universe is very complex place. Science, as human understand define science, can't explain the existence of entities like the Phoenix. Those beings are part of the mechanisms of the cosmos as much a gravity and light. The most advanced races, who are aware of them, call them the 'Abstracts' or just 'Entities'. They interact with lesser beings molded by our own perceptions, but they do have a core of intention and often their own plans for the future of the whole universe. They wield immense influence, but at such scale very few beings can even sense them. And sometimes, for reasons that are often incomprehensible, they do act at a very personal level. The choose champions, or avatars, or even conceive children."

He gives Rachel a few seconds to digest that. Then adds, "I came back to Earth, which is my birth world, because I believe it is in great danger. Recent events have inflicted severe injury on reality itself and Earth stands on the axis of the cosmos just when it is vulnerable. I know others with cosmic awareness have noticed and come here out of duty or by sheer instinct. Then I met you, a Starchild that is not even of this timeline, and I wonder what brought you here."

Oddly, Rachel suddenly grins when Adam makes that observation. "Sorry. I don't make anything easy." She tells him, sounding rather pleased about that. She does very much want to hear his answer, though, so that's the extent of her flippancy for the time being. As he speaks, she listens. He's talking about things on a much larger scale than she's used to, and although she's caught glimpses of the larger forces at work behind the world, it's still a lot to take in for the former Hound turned X-Man. She thought that was a big enough adjustment, but this... this requires a different way of thinking entirely.

Rachel is not, however, slow on the uptake. When the word 'children' is spoken, her gaze sharpens. Yes, she's just been given a great deal to think about, and she's glad that Adam picks that moment to fall silent. Suddenly unable to remain still, she walks over to the nearest dynamo and boosts herself up to sit on top of the rusting metal structure. She looks away for a few seconds, but then returns her gaze to Adam when he speaks again. "I don't know." She answers automatically, a bit defensively, then grimaces. "All right, that's not true." She goes quiet again, looking at her boots. Her memories aren't the shattered, fragmented mess they once were. She knows what had to have happened. "The Phoenix. It brought me here. It chose to save me, and only me." She looks up and meets Adam's gaze. "But I don't know /why/." Something stirs in her mind, like a memory of something half-heard. A voice saying 'she is as much my daughter as yours'. Rachel shies away from that. Her mother, her REAL mother, died when she was just a child. But after what she's seen this world's Jean Grey do... where does Jean Grey end and the Phoenix begin? Rachel takes a deep breath. "You'd better tell me more. About what you're here to do." She smiles, ruefully. "I think I'm involved, whether I want to be or not."

"The full story is long," replies Adam, his red eyes following Rachel. For a telepath it is sure easy to read what she is thinking in her face. "I don't believe I have it whole. But the final event was a great invasion from an unstable universe they calle here the Negative Zone. It has caused so much damage to the fabric of reality and space-time, it is now vulnerable like it has not been in a billion years. Vast forces that would benefit from the destruction of the physical universe are already in motion, and their agents, creatures such as the dark god Darkseid, will strike on Earth. Because Earth, due to its privileged position in the cosmic axis, is one of the places where they can do the most harm. I came back to guard the world, and with it, the rest of the universe."

There's no doubt that Rachel should be guarding her thoughts more carefully, not speaking so freely to the strange being that Adam Warlock is. But between the unreality of their first meeting, and the impact of the things that he's suggested, Rachel's not really managing it right now. As Adam leads with a classic excuse to not give her the full story, she bites her tongue just before telling him they have plenty of time. Somehow, she has a feeling that he doesn't measure time the same way she does.

Once again, Adam talks, and Rachel's worldview struggles to keep up. An invasion from another universe? Vast forces moving to destroy everything that is? It makes the problems she's faced as an X-Man seem small, even insignificant - despite often being matters of life and death.

Rachel feels she's being given a choice. Turn away, ignore Adam's warnings, try to forget this meeting ever happened... or be prepared for her life to change. "I'm glad you went with the short version." She says, but her attempt at levity sounds forced and flat to her own ears. "Adam, where I came from... I once swore I'd never let what happened to my world happen to this one, too. But what you're talking about is worse. If you think there's something I can do to help you stop what's coming..." Rachel shrugs, her tone betraying not disbelief in Adam, but disbelief in her own ability to affect things on so large a scale. "Then I guess you've got me."

"There is much we can do," replies Adam, but not without hesitating a second. The task is daunting, even for someone like him. "This world already has many strong defenders, and it is not by accident. Such is the way the universe protects itself." So maybe Rachel coming to this timeline was not an accident either, see? "But most of these defenders can't see the full picture, they operate at a local level. You are different; you should be able to see, to perceive what I had to tell you the last few minutes. If not now, then soon. Meanwhile, perhaps you should meet a few of my associates. Watch," He concentrates briefly, clearing his mind to so Rachel can see clearly memories of Quasar/Phyla-Vell, the Protector of the Universe, and Mantis, a cryptic seer that asked to help them. "There will be more soon."

Rachel catches the hesitation, and wonders if she's misjudged the situation. Was she, after all, drawn into that strange waking dream wholly by the accident of her connection to the Phoenix Force? Is there no more to it than that? Are there no answers for her beyond those that Adam has given her thus far?

Rachel relaxes a bit when Adam answers, aware even as she does so that it's a strange reaction to the situation, for involving herself in his cause seems far more dangerous than not doing so. Her brows rise slightly, surprise and a bit of skepticism on her face at his words. "Me? You're sure about that?" She asks, but she says it quietly, mostly talking to herself, and she's intrigued enough to fall silent at his request, reaching out with her powers to skim the images from the surface of his mind. She's struck by the power of the individuals he reveals. To be among so many other beings who rival or clearly exceed her powers is unsettling, but she doesn't back down. She's too stubborn. "One more, at least." She tells him lightly, and jumps down from her perch. "You're on." She tells him with a quick nod, pauses, and then smiles. "I'm guessing you know where to find me. I'll be waiting." She shakes her head once more, wondering again if she has any idea what she's getting herself into. "See you around, Adam." She tells him, and heads back out of the ruined power plant, tossing an ironic little wave over her shoulder as she goes.