"Nice of you to join us Kiddo!" Toshi greets him. Izuku nods in response.
"Right, now that everybody is here, I'll get to the thing I wanted to discuss." Rogers says, putting down the cup of tea Nezu had offered him.
"I'll get right to the point Kid." Rogers says.
"Before you do that, I want to know something." Izuku interrupts.
"Go ahead."
"That power that I used at USJ, what was it?" Izuku asks.
"Do you not remember?" Toshi asks.
"Just parts of it. The last thing I remember was seeing Ochako get hurt." Izuku explains. "And after that it was me waking up in the tank. Though whatever it was, it didn't feel nice."
"Didn't feel nice?" Nezu asks, intrigued by Izuku's explanation.
"Uhm... how should I put it? The energy that Ochako is giving off, the psionic one, feels like it belongs to two different people. One is her usual bright energy and the other one, feels darker, I guess. Almost sinister."
"I see." Rogers answers, "Well for this you need to understand how the Phoenix Force works."
"Don't I already?" Izuku asks.
"Not exactly, you know how to use it's a fraction of its powers, but you can't control all of it." Rogers explains with Izuku, Toshi and Nezu looked at him in confusion.
"Let me explain, the Phoenix Force is, as you might know, sentient, among a lot of other things." Rogers starts explaining. "And it has 3 parts so to speak. 3 vastly different personas that together make up the omnipresent, omniscient, all-powerful Phoenix." Rogers places a few photos on Nezu's desk.
"The first part is the one you see normally with Izuku, that was the first perfect host's normal form." Rogers says, pointing to the first two pictures. "That is the neutral version of the Phoenix, you can call it the Grey Phoenix."
Rogers pushes forward a second picture. "What you saw in USJ was a tiny fraction of the destructive, unstable part of the Phoenix called the Dark Phoenix. This phoenix does what it wants and if swayed by either side in a battle, can spell decimation for the other. And I use decimation not destruction because the Dark Phoenix is an SS class threat. Something worse than All For One." Rogers explains as the atmosphere becomes darker.
"That is true, Dark Phoenix is the worst." A voice says from inside Izuku.
"What the!" Izuku says, holding his tongue at the last moment.
"Fret not heroes for you are in presence of the most powerful individual across all time." The voice says, exerting pressure on the three adults in the room.
"I-it c-can't be! Y-you're... you're the Phoenix Force!" Rogers says, unable to even look at Izuku.
"What you believe is up to you. I, however, am telling the truth." The voice says. "And the only reason I'm here is to warn you, humans. The path you walk is littered with death and annihilation. This is the last time you'll ever be graced with presence, so take heed. I wouldn't want to lose this body as I have done with my former bodies."
And as mysteriously the voice came, it disappeared. And along with it, the pressure vanished.
"Let me be the first one to say this. What the hell was that?" Toshi exclaims, scared shitless as he rubbed his neck and looked at the ceiling for a good few seconds.
"That was the phoenix force. Pure, untainted and complete." Rogers says, sweating bullets.
In Izuku's mind.
"What the fuck happened?" Scott says getting up from the floor.
"Do you not remember?" Izuku asks confused.
"Nope, we remember that Rogers guy explaining the parts of the phoenix to you guys then bam, we're knocked out by something." Scott explains.
"Well, the phoenix force apparently gave us a visit. Something about warning us about our path or something." Izuku answers.
"That would explain it." Emma says, dusting herself off.
"Yeah. Though can I be the first person to say, that Rogers guy needs a new name, he doesn't look anything like Cap!!!" Scott says. "I should know, I have fought him on a few occasions."
"I don't think looking alike was the point for these guys." Colossus says.
"The costumes feel like a representation of us." Namor adds. "Though they did a really do a good job at my costume from back when the Phoenix Force abducted me and some others looking for her new host."
"Yeah yeah, and they slaughtered mine." Magik shouts. "Just look at how slutty I look!!"
Izuku tuned out the rest of their conversation to focus on Rogers' explanation.
"We'll have to figure out what the Phoenix Force meant." Nezu says.
"That's true because a part of me doesn't believe that this threat that The Phoenix talked about could be All For One." Toshi says. "I might be wrong, but that is what my gut tells me."
"It has to be something worse if the Phoenix herself came to warn us." Rogers says. "We'll have to figure that out later but for now, we should focus on what we know."
"Right, then please continue, after that, we can discuss the training." Nezu says.
Rogers nods. "This was Jean Grey's dark phoenix that caused multiple wars and fights." Rogers points to the second photo. "Aside from the Grey and the Black, there is one more form of the phoenix, and this one is a bit special because the White Phoenix is formed when the host and the Phoenix are perfectly in sync with each other. There are a few other parameters that the White Phoenix needs but we're far from that stage for those measures to be even necessary." Rogers explains. "And this was Jeans White Phoenix form, not much was known about this form aside from how it is triggered." He points to the third photo.
"With that out of the way, I have one last thing I need to explain. Something I couldn't tell in front of everyone in the meeting." Rogers says. "And that is the true nature of our group."
Toshi and Izuku looked intently at the man.
"Shadow of the phoenix as a group, targets and recruits quirkless individuals. That's why we knew all about One For All, you and Izuku, even before he became the host of the Phoenix Force. We always knew about All For One, and we've even helped the heroes from the background, evacuating the civilians, keeping the small fry villains at bay so the main hero forces could reach the main villain or save the hostages, stuff like that." Rogers explains.
"And it is also our job to find the hosts of the phoenix if they were ever found on earth and get them to help the heroes fight against All For One." Rogers adds
"Like how Firestar fought alongside me against All For One?" Toshi asks.
"Exactly. Just like Firestar and Magnatar before him." Rogers says.
"Who's Magnetar?" Izuku asks.
"He was a hero around the time I graduated, and if I remember correctly, he was on vacation to Japan when I met him. Great guy and an even better hero. He was an American with a fire quirk if I'm not wrong?" Toshi answers.
"He didn't have a fire quirk, rather he was born with a speed-based quirk, he called it Impulse, the fire actually came from the Phoenix Force, though his power was much weaker compared to Firestar or Izuku." Rogers explains.
"Oh. I didn't know that." Toshi says when his face contorts as he realises something. "When I met him, he wasn't on vacation was he?"
"Unfortunately, no." Rogers answers, much to Toshi's shock.
"What happened to him?" Izuku asks.
"When Mas- I mean your grandmother fought All For One, he was evacuating the people while we distracted All For One, unfortunately, a stray attack from All For One's air Cannon quirk made a building unstable, and it had started to collapse on its own weight. Civilians were still inside so Magnatar and I held the building up leaving Gran Torino and your grandmother to fight All For One. But towards the end, the weight had become too much and Magnetar pushed me out of the building before it collapsed on him." Toshi says. "I tried to rush in to help him, but the old man came and pulled me away because Nana was getting overpowered by All For One and we couldn't risk One For All falling into his hands."
Izuku gets up to hug the older man. He could not only feel the sadness in his voice but also see it in the seasoned pro's eyes. Toshi smiles a bit.
"Sorry to interrupt that moment, as sweet as that is to see, there is one last thing I need to tell you, you know the one that I have been trying to say from the starting of the chapter." Rogers says. "And that has to do with you, much like everything now." He jokes. "We, as a group, technically work on the orders from the host of the Phoenix Force." Rogers says as he reclines into his chair, watching the room enter chaos.
"WHHHHAAAAAAAATTTTT!!!!!!" Izuku exclaims, shocked as he got up too fast, sending his chair tumbling.