The body of Andrew Becker trudged forward. It mimicked ambulation, craned its head at odd angles, and knew which points in space it should move between to arrive at a further distance. The mind of Andrew Becker was consigned to oblivion, to its undoing. And for such reasons, there was only the dark abscess that had taken root to control it like the brain still functioned, like the heart still beat. It was merely flesh, now. Vacuous, empty, devoid of its former personality that gave the flesh meaning and a reason to [i]be.[/i]

Xavier didn't find a consciousness that was structured like any human or mutant. It was untethered, a ghost lacking a corporeal form to claim and yet still existed in spite of lacking causality. Umbra chose to exist, because he could. And he could choose, because he existed. Unlike an ordinary being of flesh and blood, which had to sustain itself and could not simply carry on via its thought alone.

That consciousness existed in margins, now. It shacked itself to flesh, as it had always wanted, but now it had to exist [i]as[/i] flesh. It could not simply reach out and unmake the mind of Charles Xavier with a whim, as Umbra had thought to do. No, he could only perceive its presence. And in that moment, as it came forward, all that beheld the old man was a yawning abyss where a mind should have been. The black expanse of outer space, but the stars and the nanoscopic debris between lightyears were absent.

It was nothing.

There wasn't even push-back to trying to get inside that head. Like it was made of wet paper, with nothing behind it.

[hr]

[color=00ffff]"There's only so much he's capable of like that."[/color] Ryder felt out for what he'd shut off. He could still distort reality, but Umbra effectively blindfolded and crippled himself stepping into a body. [color=00ffff]"He thinks I don't know, but he just fucked himself over doing that, and now, at best, he's just some shitty little toddler throwing a tantrum. He might as well be fucking [i]drunk."[/i][/color] A drunk person could still do irreparable damage to those around them, to be sure, but the advantage was that the X-Men had a sharpness to their actions that he lacked.

And, notably, Ryder wasn't fussing with them.

[color=00ffff]"Jump him. Do [i]NOT[/i] let him make a move. Don't wait to see what his plan is, don't fucking ask me to read him- You see someone walk through, you fucking atomize them. Got it?"[/color]