"Well... that's a shit show if I've ever seen one." I said with a whistle as I looked at the ruined visage of Tokyo. The once beautiful city was covered in what I could only describe as flesh with machinery in it. All of it connecting back to one giant pillar of flesh on a building away from us.
"A giant monster in Tokyo, I'm surprised that this is the first time I'm dealing with something like this." Kitty said with wide eyes as she looked around and Piotr sighed beside her.
"In our defense, it's mostly Fin Fang Foom who rampages in Asia and it tends to be the Avengers who deal with that monster." The Russian mutant explained.
"What do we do?" Laurie, who no longer was blue skinned but still had red hair and was wearing some spare clothes Kitty gave her, asked and I wondered why I hadn't just made a portal back to Utopia and punt her through it before coming here. At least she wasn't just rushing into danger like Teon likely would have.
"Gotta find the mutant and get Kala to stabilize his powers like he did with you." Kitty said before looking around. "The problem is that he can be inside of any of this... mass." She seemed to be unwilling to say 'flesh' for some reason. Also, was she serious?
"You don't think that he's just in that huge chunk of flesh that's connected to every other tendril of flesh in the city?" I asked with a raised eyebrow as I pointed at the mentioned huge chunk of flesh.
"Well... yes." Kitty said with a cough, looking embarrassed that she somehow missed that. "But there is a chance that it might just be a decoy so be careful."
"Sure." I said with a shrug before glowing with the Old Power and leaped towards the flesh pillar.
It took me several more jumps before I reached my target and I had to admit that the sight of a giant pillar of flesh with machinery in it was quite disturbing, even compared to some abominations that masqueraded as wildlife I had seen on Sakaar.
"Out of control or not, gotta pity the poor bastard who ended up with this mutation." I muttered to myself as I stepped forward and raised my fist before stopping.
"This is still flesh, so will it hurt them if I tear it apart?" I wondered as I stood still for a moment before remembering the state Tokyo was in and shrugged. "Guess I'll apologize if it does hurt." And punched the pillar of flesh, my fist going through the pale substance and machinery parts, but before I could do anything else; I felt a probe in my mind, trying to drag me in.
"So not only flesh based power but also some sort of telepath?" I said as the probes became more and more frequent, uncaring that they did absolutely nothing. But then they stopped as I pulled my fist out of the flesh. "Ah, the psionic part of your powers are directly connected to the flesh manipulation then." As disgusting it might seem from outside, this was a very interesting power.
"Far too interesting to let it be unknown." I said with a grin as I once more plunged my arm into the mass of flesh and then let the probe drag me in.
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"A visitor, finally." And then I came face to face with the mutant that had been causing all of this, though I couldn't say that was such a great thing since black veins were visible on his face, as if they were trying to get out. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was black in a more inky way rather than natural black hair.
"Though I have to admit that I hadn't thought my first visitor would be so... unique." Oh, had I mentioned that he was also sitting on a throne that was made out of his own flesh and connected to him through it, much like everything else I could see in this mental world.
"I get that a lot. I'm glad to finally meet the little troublemaker as well. Love what you have done with your mental world, it's all very... fleshy."
"Merely a preview to end of the real world." He declared with an ugly smile. "But that's for later, I have yet to introduce myself. I am Uedo Kenji, and you are?"
"Hiro Kala, you can just call me Kala though." I said as I looked around. "And this is what you want to do with your powers? Seems kinda wasteful."
"Art does tend to appear that way to philistines, but this is the best future for the world." Kenji said with a smile as his throne seemed to get bigger and I looked directly into his eyes. "For the existence and life are both meaningless and are nothing more than a simple case of cells dividing and trying to multiply while ignoring the true state of the universe being one of non-existence, of void. And I shall be the one to make that into reality!"
And saw madness.
Yet that wasn't all that there was in his eyes, there was also a small amount of fear and hesitation, along with other similar emotions that were deeply buried under the madness. The only explanation I had was that the young man before me was a nihilist but the out of control powers of his, which were psionic in nature, had taken that to an unhealthy extreme; out of his own control.
Something that I could fix.
"So you think life and all of our actions are meaningless, that nothing has purpose."
"Yes! Exactly! That's how it..."
"Then that means that there is nothing stopping us from living our lives." I cut Kenji off with a smile and started to walk towards him.
"...what?"
"If there is no purpose, then that simply means that future is an adventure and it's entirely ours to shape."
"No! That's not what I mean! Existence is a torture and the only future is suffering! Because nothing we do matters! None of it has meaning!"
"Then I shall give it meaning myself." I said and I could feel the same energy that I had felt when I had stabilized Laurie and could feel a light come out of my soul.
"So I say, all will be well!" Then I grabbed the wide eyed projection of Kenji and the whole mental scape was filled with light.
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