I asked Magneto cordially, “Could you put all that floating metal away? If you get too close to the field below, you’ll lose control of it all, and probably kill some of the spectators.”

He glanced at me, saw I was being serious, and carefully withdrew himself and the metal from proximity to the force field protecting Station Seven, lowering the mass to the ground. I could tell he was already sussing out the subterranean area locally, and not liking what he was seeing.

He told the people below to stand down while he investigated what was happening, and cease all hostilities against the outsiders in their midst, as they were not an invasion force. I appreciated that, although the fact there were dozens of casualties in the short time since they had arrived was not a positive thing.

But that was fine. As they were withdrawing, hundreds of Pentad Corpsmen, several Lanterns, and a bunch of Solar Marines were already descending in a show of force. Even the most cursory mental scans indicated a highly aggressive warrior mentality in effect among the population here, and such beings responded best to a show of overwhelming force on the part of their opponents when it came to not fighting. They would of course resent matters, and try to find a way to gain the upper hand, but with Nova-class ships rapidly parking themselves over every mining site and hundreds of flying troops emanating boatloads of power putting themselves into place, they’d at least think twice about rashly launching another assault.

-How bad is it on the Earth over there?- I /asked into Markspace, waiting patiently as the Starholder descended on my position. The mutants of Arakko here saw it coming, especially how smoothly it was making its way through the atmosphere, and withdrew even further as the mile-long ship, crackling with cosmic energies, settled into place over the colony, and its relief crew of armored men and women began to emerge from the hangars.

-Monitoring the electronic traffic. They are, to put it politely, in a panic. From their standpoint, two other worlds just appeared out of nowhere in THEIR orbit, and suddenly Venus and Mercury shifted orbits, and now suddenly everyone is in equilateral orbits around the sun. They’ve only got the one managed minor space station, however, and no extraplanetary mobility to speak of.- Paragon /paused significantly. -There appear to be many significant differences between our Terra and theirs, however, even as we have many similarities.-

-It’s an America-dominated world, with a Lenin-derived Soviet Russia,- Cypher /broke in, his ability to understand languages making it phenomenally easy to quickly interpret the different sources of information we were picking up. -We’re trying to nail down any key differences from parallel timelines. It appears that there’s a mutants-only nation NOT set up by Apocalypse in the South Pacific?-

I turned my attention that way, scanning... -Yes, currently also in a tizzy. It seems their version is not sapient, and they can’t talk to it anymore, including their version of you, Doug.-

-The island is alive?- he /blinked. -There’s another me there?-

-Apparently its interpreter, as it has no easy way to interface with normal humans. Congratulations.-

-We’ll compare universal translator language numbers,- he /replied, somewhat amused. -I’ve got some individuals I’d like you to verify, if you don’t mind.-

-Go ahead,- I /nodded, a couple thoughtstreams who enjoyed monitor duty putting themselves at his disposal.

-Senator Robert Kelly; Robert Trask; Henry Peter Gyrich; American General Thaddeus Ross...-

Cosmic Awareness began to go out, and I relayed what they were doing now, and what they had done in their false past, to our intelligence people.

------

I politely moved down and outside the force-field and out from under the looming mass of the Nova Ship hanging in the air above us. Magneto glanced at the vessel, feeling his control of magnetism unable to approach it, the same technology from the Negative Zone that could be used to shut down cosmic powers interfering with his manipulation of the E-M spectrum.

He was completely useless against it, and he knew it, and he could tell I did, too. Remarkable what not being able to wield the raw materials of the world as your own toys does to a superhuman being.

“Elder Lensherr,” I greeted him again politely. “I trust the information I provided you was accurate?”

“It was, Dynamo,” he responded with careful courtesy, although his reluctance was obvious on its face. “I have communicated this to my compatriots, although there have been... problems on that front. We seem to be unable to locate a fair number of them, as if they were not brought here with us.”

“Ah.” My lack of surprise showed. “Older members of the people here, I am assuming?”

He blinked in surprise. “How did you know?” he asked suspiciously.

“This is a Sealed timeline, and it is likely you are a divergent alternity that was materialized by a higher power. The point of divergence would have been in our year 1832, which is the designation for this dimension in Time Variant Authority nomenclature. Any being which was in existence before that point could naturally not be duplicated in your timeline, as they are a fixed existence in ours.

“Your time-sighters are probably in an absolute tizzy with their inability to predict the future, as well. It is another unique feature of our timeline. There is no future until we get there, so there is nothing to predict among variables. 1832 has no alternities that branch from it. Your materialization is not a quantum effect, it is a cosmic event of extraordinary magnitude.

“This is, for instance, the reason your sapient island on your Earth is not responding to you. It is not sapient in this dimension. The Krakoa on our world is the original, and it is indeed sapient, although we were not aware of it before now. We are in the midst of establishing first contact with it as we speak.”

He blinked at me. “You... know all this already?” he asked hesitantly.

“I have Cosmic Awareness, Elder Lensherr. It could be said that I know whatever I wish to know, given a little time. But, of course, I must know what I want to learn, and I have a limited amount of time and awareness to spend on such things.”

“An extraordinary gift,” he admitted gruffly. “Are you a mutant?” he asked hesitantly.

“You are asking if I was born with an active X-gene?” I asked for clarity.

“Yes.” He indicated the throngs of people below paying attention to our discussion. As I’d made sure they could all hear what we were saying, we definitely had their attention.

“I, personally, no. I would be classified as a mutate, with some superhuman abilities activated by a combination of genetic treatments and radiation when I was a child, among other things. Mutants are just one of the branches of human Powered among our people, however, so there’s no difficulties there. As a member of the High Guard, I speak for the highest defensive forces of the Solar System; genetics are not a requirement for such a station.”

His cheek twitched slightly at the reprimand. “My apologies. My experiences with such matters have often been... confrontational,” he conceded warily.

“Accepted. We have no violent intentions towards yourself or your people.”

A person below shouted up, “Lord Magneto! Jean Grey of Krakoa is attempting to contact you!”

“Ah.” He gave me another look, and I glanced at his helmet knowingly.

“The magnapsium helmets of Elder Lensherr are famous throughout the Sol System. I use a mesh of it in my own visor,” I informed him kindly.

“Magnapsium? Famous?” he asked, then looked past me at the Corpsmen on station there, all wearing helms, and the officers having visors. “All of them?” he asked, stunned.

“Of course. You would not believe the number of incidents of mind-fuckery those things have prevented over the years. The universe is filled with a very large number of arsehole mentalists, Elder.”

Smiling despite himself, he pulled off his trademark helmet. “On that we will agree. Jean, I am here.”

“I am a student of the Moondragon Mysteries. If you like, I can link in,” I told him calmly.

He blinked. “You’re a telepath, too?”

“The X-gene is not required to be a mentalist, Elder Lensherr. Completely normal humans can learn the Moondragon Mysteries and grasp the realm of the mind.”

He stared at me in shock. “Is this common among your people?” he asked after a moment, stunned by the implications.

“The number of students of the Moondragon Mysteries numbers tens of millions. The serious practitioners, perhaps a million or so?” I replied thoughtfully. “It is not quite the same or as good as having a natural genetic talent for telepathy, but the upper levels of power are nearly identical in virtually all other respects.” I brushed his mind, felt the thread of another mind touching his, linked to it, anchored it, reinforced it, and made contact with the mind on the other end, who was shocked by how easily I did so. -Good afternoon! Miss Grey, I presume? This is Dynamo, representing the High Guard of the Sol System. I am on Mars speaking with Elder Lensherr here. Do you have some questions for me, or is this purely a private conversation with Elder Lensherr here? I will excuse myself if so.-

They both gawked at me. I had a significant presence in the mental sphere, and I wasn’t really hiding it at this time. In pure psionic capability, Miss Grey had me cold, but in all other respects, and the magical one was REALLY telling, I swamped both of them.

Her mind was significantly different from our own Jean Grey, unsurprising given her more natural origins, and the fact she’d died and been resurrected by the Phoenix Force at least once or twice, who knew?

-Oh! Um...- she /trailed off, obviously caught off-guard. -We were talking about, uh...-

-They wanted to know how dangerous you are,- Magneto /cut in astutely. -Especially after I informed them that you seemed confident of shutting down my magnetism, and the way your technology is impervious to my powers.-

-Shutting down electromagnetic field manipulation is a subset of shutting down reality manipulation in general. We have the means to do the latter, so the former is simplicity itself,- I /informed them both, to their dismay. -If you are wondering about threat levels, the ship above me could glass the whole planet in minutes, or simply blow Mars apart if there was need to. If you are wondering about me personally, I could snap my fingers and blow a hundred-mile sphere of million-degree plasmic fire out about me, reducing everything around me to stray atoms and making a very large crater in the planet and a hole in this nice atmosphere you’ve set up here.

-By that measure, I’ll assume my threat level is very high by your standards, although I freely admit I could be mistaken.

-I see you’re still working on the higher gravity problem, but that just needs more compressed mass, so I assume you’ll have it solved shortly,- I /added in a complimentary manner as I smiled cheerfully.

-I can see why you might not be too worried about our ‘sudden appearance’ here,- Jean Grey /noted wryly. -Assuming what you are saying is true.-

That amused me even more. -You can find all sorts of profiles about me on the interstellar and intergalactic media channels, if you’ve access to them. My power has been witnessed in mass war and combat situations for literally years. Feel free to verify my status and those of my fellow High Guards. You don’t serve on the High Guard without being the very best, and that is for a very good reason.-

She and Magneto looked at one another. -Well, since you’re being so open, do you have any designs on Earth, Mars, or its populations?- she /asked carefully.