While scientists and governnts around the world speculated endlessly about him, Drex Valen stood alone in outer space.
Over the past several years, World Serpent had quietly begun constructing a lunar base on the Moon.
Part of the reason was strategic.
Earth still made Drex uneasy. Too many variables. Too many hidden threats.
The other reason was resources.
Rare minerals on Earth were nowhere near sufficient for the future he envisioned.
The Moon, however, helped solve that problem beautifully.
Human civilization almost seed designed to expand this way.
Sotis Drex genuinely understood why certain people believed intelligent life had been guided by so invisible hand.
Earth wasn't actually an ideal cradle for civilization.
And maybe that was exactly the point.
Because it wasn't perfect, humanity had been forced to innovate.
As technology advanced, demand for rare minerals and fusion energy naturally pushed civilization toward the Moon.
Then, once lunar resources beca insufficient, humanity would inevitably look farther outward.
Mars.
A planet rich in foundational mineral deposits.
And after that?
Jupiter waited patiently in the distance like a perfectly arranged fuel depot for an interplanetary civilization.
Step by step.
Almost too perfectly arranged.
As for the Inhumans supposedly hidden on the Moon, Drex still hadn't found any sign of them.
No trace of Attilan.
No sign of Daisy Johnson either.
Honestly, he didn't mind.
Though if Black Bolt really did exist sowhere out there, Drex wouldn't have minded testing himself against him eventually.
Black Bolt's voice was terrifying against most opponents.
Against Drex?
Not so much.
At this point, Drex suspected he could stand still and let Black Bolt scream directly at him without suffering aningful damage.
While he floated above the lunar surface staring into the endless darkness of space, a strange distortion suddenly appeared nearby.
An invisible ripple.
The instant Drex sensed it, every instinct in his body scread danger.
Real danger.
For the first ti in a long while, he felt sothing close to a genuine threat of death.
Then a distorted voice echoed from within the anomaly.
"Uncle Drex!"
Drex's eyes narrowed imdiately.
"Who are you?"
The voice sounded unstable, fragnted, as though it were forcing itself through reality itself.
"I… need… your help…"
Drex remained completely still.
"Na."
"…Franklin."
The distortion flickered violently.
"Franklin Richards. Uncle Drex… please help ."
Drex froze.
Franklin Richards.
Now that was a terrifying na.
Franklin Richards was the son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman.
That alone wasn't important.
What mattered was what Franklin eventually beca.
An Oga-level mutant capable of manipulating ti, space, causality, matter, energy, and reality itself.
A child who could create universes.
Pocket dinsions.
Parallel realities.
Entire cosmic structures.
At his peak, Franklin's power reached absurd levels even by Marvel standards.
He and his sister had once restored Galactus himself.
He possessed telepathy, matter restructuring, universe-scale energy manipulation, reality warping, and enough psionic force to rival cosmic entities.
So beings compared his potential directly to the Celestials.
Others viewed him as sothing even more dangerous.
Franklin once subconsciously created an entirely separate universe after Earth's heroes sacrificed themselves fighting Onslaught.
As an adult, he beca capable of generating multiple universes casually.
Galactus himself once referred to Franklin as the most powerful mutant in history.
Creator and destroyer.
Balance incarnate.
Drex still rembered one detail from the comics that had always disturbed him slightly:
Neither Reed nor Susan were mutants.
Franklin beca one because of the cosmic radiation lingering within their bodies.
The implications behind that were deeply unsettling.
"You're threatening your own existence?" Drex asked slowly.
"That's why you ca to ?"
Franklin's distorted voice crackled through the anomaly.
"My future… is changing."
Drex imdiately understood.
Sothing had altered Reed and Susan's relationship badly enough that Franklin might never be born.
Honestly?
That sounded fantastic from Drex's perspective.
A universe without Franklin Richards was objectively safer.
"Wait," Drex said suddenly. "Reed and Susan aren't together?"
He looked genuinely shocked.
"Why? Reed's emotionally oblivious, socially dysfunctional, selfish, paranoid, manipulative, and occasionally kind of terrifying, but—"
"Uncle Drex," Franklin interrupted awkwardly, "maybe ease up a little."
Drex stopped.
Fair enough.
Still, he remained completely calm afterward.
"So why exactly should I help you?" he asked. "From my perspective, you not existing might be the best possible outco."
Franklin Richards was one of the few beings Drex truly did not want to face soday.
If destiny offered a convenient loophole to erase that problem preemptively, why refuse?
But Franklin didn't panic.
Instead, his tone suddenly changed.
"Uncle Drex… I know you want the Phoenix Force."
Drex's eyes sharpened instantly.
Interesting.
Franklin continued calmly.
"This universe doesn't have Jean Grey."
Drex went silent.
"You won't find a Phoenix host on Earth here."
That hit harder than Franklin probably realized.
The Phoenix Force mattered to Drex for one major reason:
It could counter forms of mystical and conceptual power he still lacked effective resistance against.
Especially threats tied to souls, minds, and temporal manipulation.
The Infinity Stones alone made that issue dangerous.
The Mind Stone.
The Soul Stone.
The Ti Stone.
Without suitable defenses, those powers remained troubleso.
The Phoenix Force wasn't irreplaceable.
But alternatives were extraordinarily difficult to obtain.
Finally, Drex exhaled slowly.
"You know where the Phoenix Force is?"
On the other side of the distortion, Franklin sounded almost delighted.
The future version of Drex Valen, the near-omnipotent figure countless beings revered and feared…
Was actually speaking to him politely.
That alone apparently made Franklin very happy.
User Comments
0 comments from readers