Warren Worthington III headcanons (pt3)
Further headcanons. In this part, I elaborate on Warren's past powers and abilities not related to his specific mutation.
[Last update: 08 September 2023]
Posted also at Dreamwidth and Tumblr.
Part I | Part II: romantic life | Part III: more powers | Part IV: his women
Extract from my own Warren Worthington Headcanons post here:
Imagine the amazing things authors could come up with if they remembered and decided to fit Warren with three cosmic/celestial powers. [Life Seed, Death Seed, Vortex]
and also
I'm totally suggesting a huge power-up when he manages to unlock both Death and Life seeds powers and also some Crimson Dawn and his Vortex abilities.
More powers
Warning: Please bear in mind that I'm about to give Warren a huge power up. Also, explanations and ramblings on why I'm picking all these powers out of Warren's past at the post linked above - amidst some other canon and non canon things of our favorite flyboy that you might be interested in.
(How Warren acquires - back - these powers in another post that's on the works)
It needs an awful amount of time and training to unlock each and all of Warren's potential so I'm in no way suggesting these abilities should be reacquired and mastered in a day. I'm speaking on a years-span basis.
The powers are also strictly compartmentalized, so he can't use a specific ability (say, survive in space courtesy of the Black Vortex) while drawing from another source (say, healing). But, with time, he'll learn to shift from one to another with such as speed and on instinct that he'll almost be able to use two abilities in conjunction (say, one moment he's throwing flecettes and the next he's already flying away in light form).
Life Seed(the seeds are gifts that give their users cosmic power - Victor von Doom, Earth-295)
Its powers apparently run out after Warren, believing himself a true angel, abused of them. But, contrary to what Hank McCoy had predicted, running out of the Life Seed powers didn't cost Warren's life. Yes, it did kill Warren, but just killed new Warren persona, allowing the previous - original - Warren to resurface. The Life Seed has never vanished, though, and it's been dormant in Warren since then, latching onto old modifications that Warren received from Apocalypse, the life-force energies that awakened after the battle against Horseman Death Wolverine and apparently burned out when he healed his former War mate Abraham.
When he finally learns how to tap into the Life Seed, he finds - feels - like he did that time, with all the additional perks he enjoyed when he was memory-less and believed himself a true angel. The energy appears and acts like light but technically it's not light, as Dazzler can tell. Still, training alongside Alison (who mentors him on how using light), allows Warren to further master this ability to levels he never knew when he was memory-less.
He can manipulate the energy to give it a shape. He can make swords and shields that can be as sturdy as objects made of metal; the more his power is fresh and the more they can withstand brutal force or powers thrown their way - his long-time fighting side by side with Betsy, who uses her TK in such a way, might have shaped his approach to this ability. This use heavily wears him out on the long run so he tries to avoid it as much as he can, though (besides, he already has a pair of wings that act like a perfect offensive and defensive weapon).
Use of the Life Seed energy unlocks the set of powers Warren experienced that time when he wandered through New York on glowing wings with former Death Horseman Wolverine on his tail and Betsy trying to talk to his mind. It's the same warm force that allowed him to heal Abraham, but this time it doesn't drain, it's still within him, a source that can be strained but never truly runs dry. If he uses too much of this power, he risks tapping into his own life force, though.
He can choose to be incorporeal in this form, made of glowing light, like he did that time, and he can infuse that light into other people, healing them. In the light form is untraceable by hyper senses and his mind feels "blank" to telepaths, who get from him "statics", so he can't be located.
He can turn his incorporeal, life-force light wings into solid wings that can cut despite the feathered shape or use them as a shield to protect others while leaving the rest of his body incorporeal - he learns to use this ability in a way similar to how Kitty Pryde uses her phasing powers during a fight. He can launch his light feather as flechettes but, unlike Archangel's, these ones relieve of pain and help find "clarity" - they get much helpful when dealing with a conflicted villain or a person that has been brainwashed.
It's straining for him, but he can move through air at a very fast speed if he focuses enough. One moment he isn't there, the next is behind the enemy, silent and towering like a statue made of burning white light. He still flies under the power of his wings because it's very, very hard to keep himself whole while moving at such a speed in a light form.
In his light form, some of his healing power can seep out of him. If he walks, under his feet life thrives, flowers bloom or grass grows, like a power boost to nature, while a persona near him could feel refreshed.
The life energy powers awake once again the psionic abilities, such as partial shields from telepathic intrusions and limited telepathic communication.
He also regains the use of the psi-talons, when he can elongate the tips of his fingers into claws of psy-energy that can rip through the fabric of one's psyche.
The complete potential of the Life Seed allows for resurrections (which is some powers use that Warren can save, since the invention of The Protocols).
The Life Seed greatly enhances Warren self-healing powers, although not even it can't make him immortal from deadly illnesses and heavy physical damage.
Death Seed(the seeds are gifts that give their users cosmic power - Victor von Doom, Earth-295)
X-Force members Logan and Betsy never questioned what they had been explained: a Life Seed is necessary to break the influence of the Death Seed. Their powers should nullify each other, they thought. They never questioned this axiom, nor had a chance to, even when Warren - memory-less and reborn against all odds - showed powers that were linked to the Life Seed, nor they made questions when those apparently dried out. They never asked themselves a simple question: if there's still a trace of Life Seed in Warren, couldn't be there's a trace of Death Seed as well? Did stabbing Warren with the Life Seed destroyed the Death Seed in him or just broke its influence on Warren's mind? Can a Death Seed be really destroyed in the first place?
Then things happened, Archangel appeared. No one truly wondered how Archangel resurfaced, because only a handful of people knew that Archangel was supposed to be forever vanished, burned out of Warren by the Life Seed, and when Warren decides to accept back that part of him to be whole again, only few X-Men were present - and the only one who could care and be worried was also the one who was too happy to see Warren on a path to regain his old self again to make questions. Also, there were more impending things and the conflict with the Inhumans knocked, diverting Betsy's attentions elsewhere.
Warren embraced this new self and then, finally, regained everything he had been, including memories and personality. By that time other tragedies fell on the X-Men, they were relocated to another universe and then they were busy founding Krakoa. Everyone accepted that somehow Warren could control his Archangel persona and neither Logan nor Betsy ever wanted to reminisce the time of Archangel as Apocalypse Heir, especially now that Apocalypse himself is returned so there should be no risk of any Ascension Protocol to ever kick in again.
But within Warren a fragment of the Death Seed laid dormant, brought to him by the Archangel that merged with his memory-less past self. An Archangel that was created by the fragments of the Death Seed that never truly vanished but just turned into splinters after the clash with the Life Seed. And the more Warren lets Archangel come out, the more he calls Archangel's powers out, the more the Death Seeds fragments grow, attracting the Death Seeds dust that had been spread since that day Betsy stabbed Warren to stop him.
When the Death Seed is complete, Warren can tap into the powers that made him the new Apocalypse, but this time - balanced by the presence of the Life Seed - he's in control, he's no more influenced by it. He's not slave to the instinct of evolution, he isn't compelled by a mission. But he actually develops true powers fitting to an Horseman called Death.
In his Death, Archangel's form, he can suck life force from people and everything that is alive. If he walks, behind his feet leaves a path of death, flowers whiter. His aura scares animals, and if he were to touch one the poor creature would feel strength sap out and, if he focuses enough, he can deplete all the life force from a creature, killing them.
His Death persona, while enticed by rage and anger, is focused but detached at the same time.
The Death Seed grants immunity to the passing of time. The recipient isn't immortal, they still can be killed, but can live forever as long as they alternate living to periods of deep rest to let the Seed replenish its power.
Black Vortex(Cosmic power - turns an individual into a cosmic entity)
Despite Cable's best efforts, cutting Warren's cosmic wings and replacing them with a clone of Angel's feathered wings donated by Mimic didn't remove the Vortex powers from teenager Angel, because cosmic powers can't just be removed by cutting out any enhancements. As long as the Black Vortex exists, those who had been touched and never asked it to have their cosmic powers removed, are connected to the Black Vortex. The connection just laid dormant when teenager Warren was sent back in the past from where it came from and lived (again) his life. As Gara warned, once you have been touched by the Vortex, you are forever changed. The cosmic energies still flew in Warren during the years, but - with Angel's mind wiped of all the memories of his stay in his future - he has no idea he was given such a power. But, from within, the energies protected him, healing or restoring him in ways his mutant body couldn't nor should do on his own, allowing him to survive when his power sets suggested otherwise.
When the block Jean put on their minds falls and Warren regains the memories of his teen-self adventures, he instinctively starts to tap into the Black Vortex cosmic powers. Channeling them doesn't come easy, as he's deprived of the enhancements he was given at the time, especially because he has to learn how to tap into them without setting off a permanent change to his wings. Once he's in full control of the energies, Warren can do with them everything his teenager self did, although the peaks can be reached only when he's in space - something to do with the nature of the Vortex and its connection to the forces that permeates space and that are somehow dimmed in Earth atmosphere.
His wings can turn celestial energy to a fire that cannot be extinguished by water. In space his wings shift from a feather form into celestial energy, enabling him faster than light travel through space. Through them he can discharge energy to destroy even whole planetary fleets. He can also conjure a pair of blades that can cut through anything.
The Vortex powers allow him to exist in open space. Not only he doesn't suffer from the lack of oxygen, but his body can withstand the crushing forces that make anyone not suited with cosmic powers to blow up in space.
Since Warren accepted the Vortex powers when he had yet to be touched by Apocalypse, they don't work in Archangel's form - Warren can't tap into any of the Vortex abilities if he's in the Archangel form.
With time, the Black Vortex powers can take again the individual to their true cosmic potential unleashed and, given enough time, Warren could return to the final form he gained when he was fully touched by the Black Vortex and ascended to cosmic entity status.
Crimson Dawn
When Warren gave up a part of his soul in bargain for Betsy's during the battle against Kuragari, he unwittingly allowed for a connection to the Crimson Dawn, that fed on the dark thoughts and ambitions of the Archangel persona, latching to that form.
Not as strong at the one Betsy experienced (as Betsy was infused by the force of the Crimson Dawn), with time and training he can tap into those powers as well, as long as he's in the Archangel form.
He can be one with the shadows and take a form made of complete darkness, like a coat of ink over his whole body, only his eyes flashing bright red.
He can teleport through shadows, using the Crimson Dawn realm as passage, and emerge from shadows like darkness taking shape.
When tapping into that connection, the Crimson Dawn mark flares on his face, in a bright burning red, but the mark isn't permanent and vanishes as soon as he closes the connection.
The Crimson Dawn mystical forces are aroused by the dark powers of the Archangel and it's only Warren's unawareness of the connection, that blinded him of it when he ascended to his role as new Apocalypse. The connection, fleeting like a fuzzy lure to darkness, reveals itself only when the Death Seed is fully reformed.
The Phoenix
Once Warren has fully mastered the powers given him by the Seeds, he has the potential to draw the Phoenix, as he is perceived as a cosmic force of life and death.
The Phoenix would pick Warren only if she wasn't allowed to bond with Jean again - in a future in which Jean once again refused to be one with the Phoenix, the Phoenix would look for other potential hosts. Warren, having in himself both the forces of life and death, would be a perfect choice for her - being balanced between the two would allow Warren to be less vulnerable to the powers that the Phoenix brings, and would not succumb to Dark Phoenix.
Notes
I know. Too much. Do I care? No. I'm too fandom-old to care, at this point. It's not that in 60 years of canon we never got absurd powers up anyway - some stuck and are accepted (Wolverine absurd levels of healing factor come to my mind, although not the biggest culprit in the MU), so... why not? Besides, I'm not pitching these ideas for a new X-Men title, and I'm not even planning a serious fanfiction out of them. Feel free to snag one, some or all of these if you're interested. Credit is welcome but not required, although I'd like if you at least let me know if you used (I might want to take a look at what you did with this knowledge!). I'd also like to engage and hear your thoughts.(Not that anyone will even read this post, let alone interact)
About the Life Seed powers: The life-energy powers came out of nowhere, with no explanation besides a generic "Apocalypse" during Apocalypse: The Twelve and never mentioned again, although it was implied that Warren used them all to heal former-War. (How much I would've liked they stuck, giving then-non-Archangel Warren two powers that would make him an enemy to not underestimate: Logan says Warren can't be traced by smell, and Betsy - on top of not being able to read his mind - is quite horrified when Warren pops out the talons, labeling them very dangerous.) The rest are what memory-less Warren did in Wolverine & the X-Men. (I didn't like those powers - they made Warren just another superhero with energy blasts, so I didn't savage those.)
About the Death Seed powers: For how I envisioned them, both the Life and Dead Seeds powers have an healing/killing effect similar to the ones of Elixir but, contrary to Elixir, Warren isn't corrupted by the killing power, while his healing powers can - with due time - reach resurrection levels, but they can't easily regrow lost body parts as Elixir does. The life force isn't sucked out nor absorbed by Warren, like Selene does - it's just destroyed. The rest mentioned is to fix Apocalypse's need to get his centuries-long rest with the conflicting (newer) info about the Death Seed giving cosmic powers (which should mean some kind of immortality IMHO).
About the Black Vortex powers: Basically what was seen in the Black Vortex arch. We weren't explained how Warren went from light wings to those metallic/like bones with fire as wingspan. I wasn't a fan of how the wings were rendered, with those metallic-like bones/roots that, in some panels, stood even when the wings were "turned off", so I elect to remove them and have the wings fully fire or blueish white light.
About the Crimson Dawn powers: The same abilities shown by Betsy during her brief post-Crimson Dawn appearances to then forgotten by the time Revolution came.
About the Phoenix: It has recently (see update date) come to my attention that Warren, ascended as Apocalypse's heir, was able to draw the Phoenix and use it against her very host - Jean Grey from the Age of Apocalypse. Warren explains the Phoenix betrayal with the following "You seek to use [the Phoenix] to stop what which it desires most... death and rebirth.".
[Last update: 08 September 2023]
Posted also at Dreamwidth and Tumblr.
Part I | Part II: romantic life | Part III: more powers | Part IV: his women
Extract from my own Warren Worthington Headcanons post here:
Imagine the amazing things authors could come up with if they remembered and decided to fit Warren with three cosmic/celestial powers. [Life Seed, Death Seed, Vortex]
and also
I'm totally suggesting a huge power-up when he manages to unlock both Death and Life seeds powers and also some Crimson Dawn and his Vortex abilities.
More powers
Warning: Please bear in mind that I'm about to give Warren a huge power up. Also, explanations and ramblings on why I'm picking all these powers out of Warren's past at the post linked above - amidst some other canon and non canon things of our favorite flyboy that you might be interested in.
(How Warren acquires - back - these powers in another post that's on the works)
It needs an awful amount of time and training to unlock each and all of Warren's potential so I'm in no way suggesting these abilities should be reacquired and mastered in a day. I'm speaking on a years-span basis.
The powers are also strictly compartmentalized, so he can't use a specific ability (say, survive in space courtesy of the Black Vortex) while drawing from another source (say, healing). But, with time, he'll learn to shift from one to another with such as speed and on instinct that he'll almost be able to use two abilities in conjunction (say, one moment he's throwing flecettes and the next he's already flying away in light form).
Life Seed(the seeds are gifts that give their users cosmic power - Victor von Doom, Earth-295)
Its powers apparently run out after Warren, believing himself a true angel, abused of them. But, contrary to what Hank McCoy had predicted, running out of the Life Seed powers didn't cost Warren's life. Yes, it did kill Warren, but just killed new Warren persona, allowing the previous - original - Warren to resurface. The Life Seed has never vanished, though, and it's been dormant in Warren since then, latching onto old modifications that Warren received from Apocalypse, the life-force energies that awakened after the battle against Horseman Death Wolverine and apparently burned out when he healed his former War mate Abraham.
When he finally learns how to tap into the Life Seed, he finds - feels - like he did that time, with all the additional perks he enjoyed when he was memory-less and believed himself a true angel. The energy appears and acts like light but technically it's not light, as Dazzler can tell. Still, training alongside Alison (who mentors him on how using light), allows Warren to further master this ability to levels he never knew when he was memory-less.
He can manipulate the energy to give it a shape. He can make swords and shields that can be as sturdy as objects made of metal; the more his power is fresh and the more they can withstand brutal force or powers thrown their way - his long-time fighting side by side with Betsy, who uses her TK in such a way, might have shaped his approach to this ability. This use heavily wears him out on the long run so he tries to avoid it as much as he can, though (besides, he already has a pair of wings that act like a perfect offensive and defensive weapon).
Use of the Life Seed energy unlocks the set of powers Warren experienced that time when he wandered through New York on glowing wings with former Death Horseman Wolverine on his tail and Betsy trying to talk to his mind. It's the same warm force that allowed him to heal Abraham, but this time it doesn't drain, it's still within him, a source that can be strained but never truly runs dry. If he uses too much of this power, he risks tapping into his own life force, though.
He can choose to be incorporeal in this form, made of glowing light, like he did that time, and he can infuse that light into other people, healing them. In the light form is untraceable by hyper senses and his mind feels "blank" to telepaths, who get from him "statics", so he can't be located.
He can turn his incorporeal, life-force light wings into solid wings that can cut despite the feathered shape or use them as a shield to protect others while leaving the rest of his body incorporeal - he learns to use this ability in a way similar to how Kitty Pryde uses her phasing powers during a fight. He can launch his light feather as flechettes but, unlike Archangel's, these ones relieve of pain and help find "clarity" - they get much helpful when dealing with a conflicted villain or a person that has been brainwashed.
It's straining for him, but he can move through air at a very fast speed if he focuses enough. One moment he isn't there, the next is behind the enemy, silent and towering like a statue made of burning white light. He still flies under the power of his wings because it's very, very hard to keep himself whole while moving at such a speed in a light form.
In his light form, some of his healing power can seep out of him. If he walks, under his feet life thrives, flowers bloom or grass grows, like a power boost to nature, while a persona near him could feel refreshed.
The life energy powers awake once again the psionic abilities, such as partial shields from telepathic intrusions and limited telepathic communication.
He also regains the use of the psi-talons, when he can elongate the tips of his fingers into claws of psy-energy that can rip through the fabric of one's psyche.
The complete potential of the Life Seed allows for resurrections (which is some powers use that Warren can save, since the invention of The Protocols).
The Life Seed greatly enhances Warren self-healing powers, although not even it can't make him immortal from deadly illnesses and heavy physical damage.
Death Seed(the seeds are gifts that give their users cosmic power - Victor von Doom, Earth-295)
X-Force members Logan and Betsy never questioned what they had been explained: a Life Seed is necessary to break the influence of the Death Seed. Their powers should nullify each other, they thought. They never questioned this axiom, nor had a chance to, even when Warren - memory-less and reborn against all odds - showed powers that were linked to the Life Seed, nor they made questions when those apparently dried out. They never asked themselves a simple question: if there's still a trace of Life Seed in Warren, couldn't be there's a trace of Death Seed as well? Did stabbing Warren with the Life Seed destroyed the Death Seed in him or just broke its influence on Warren's mind? Can a Death Seed be really destroyed in the first place?
Then things happened, Archangel appeared. No one truly wondered how Archangel resurfaced, because only a handful of people knew that Archangel was supposed to be forever vanished, burned out of Warren by the Life Seed, and when Warren decides to accept back that part of him to be whole again, only few X-Men were present - and the only one who could care and be worried was also the one who was too happy to see Warren on a path to regain his old self again to make questions. Also, there were more impending things and the conflict with the Inhumans knocked, diverting Betsy's attentions elsewhere.
Warren embraced this new self and then, finally, regained everything he had been, including memories and personality. By that time other tragedies fell on the X-Men, they were relocated to another universe and then they were busy founding Krakoa. Everyone accepted that somehow Warren could control his Archangel persona and neither Logan nor Betsy ever wanted to reminisce the time of Archangel as Apocalypse Heir, especially now that Apocalypse himself is returned so there should be no risk of any Ascension Protocol to ever kick in again.
But within Warren a fragment of the Death Seed laid dormant, brought to him by the Archangel that merged with his memory-less past self. An Archangel that was created by the fragments of the Death Seed that never truly vanished but just turned into splinters after the clash with the Life Seed. And the more Warren lets Archangel come out, the more he calls Archangel's powers out, the more the Death Seeds fragments grow, attracting the Death Seeds dust that had been spread since that day Betsy stabbed Warren to stop him.
When the Death Seed is complete, Warren can tap into the powers that made him the new Apocalypse, but this time - balanced by the presence of the Life Seed - he's in control, he's no more influenced by it. He's not slave to the instinct of evolution, he isn't compelled by a mission. But he actually develops true powers fitting to an Horseman called Death.
In his Death, Archangel's form, he can suck life force from people and everything that is alive. If he walks, behind his feet leaves a path of death, flowers whiter. His aura scares animals, and if he were to touch one the poor creature would feel strength sap out and, if he focuses enough, he can deplete all the life force from a creature, killing them.
His Death persona, while enticed by rage and anger, is focused but detached at the same time.
The Death Seed grants immunity to the passing of time. The recipient isn't immortal, they still can be killed, but can live forever as long as they alternate living to periods of deep rest to let the Seed replenish its power.
Black Vortex(Cosmic power - turns an individual into a cosmic entity)
Despite Cable's best efforts, cutting Warren's cosmic wings and replacing them with a clone of Angel's feathered wings donated by Mimic didn't remove the Vortex powers from teenager Angel, because cosmic powers can't just be removed by cutting out any enhancements. As long as the Black Vortex exists, those who had been touched and never asked it to have their cosmic powers removed, are connected to the Black Vortex. The connection just laid dormant when teenager Warren was sent back in the past from where it came from and lived (again) his life. As Gara warned, once you have been touched by the Vortex, you are forever changed. The cosmic energies still flew in Warren during the years, but - with Angel's mind wiped of all the memories of his stay in his future - he has no idea he was given such a power. But, from within, the energies protected him, healing or restoring him in ways his mutant body couldn't nor should do on his own, allowing him to survive when his power sets suggested otherwise.
When the block Jean put on their minds falls and Warren regains the memories of his teen-self adventures, he instinctively starts to tap into the Black Vortex cosmic powers. Channeling them doesn't come easy, as he's deprived of the enhancements he was given at the time, especially because he has to learn how to tap into them without setting off a permanent change to his wings. Once he's in full control of the energies, Warren can do with them everything his teenager self did, although the peaks can be reached only when he's in space - something to do with the nature of the Vortex and its connection to the forces that permeates space and that are somehow dimmed in Earth atmosphere.
His wings can turn celestial energy to a fire that cannot be extinguished by water. In space his wings shift from a feather form into celestial energy, enabling him faster than light travel through space. Through them he can discharge energy to destroy even whole planetary fleets. He can also conjure a pair of blades that can cut through anything.
The Vortex powers allow him to exist in open space. Not only he doesn't suffer from the lack of oxygen, but his body can withstand the crushing forces that make anyone not suited with cosmic powers to blow up in space.
Since Warren accepted the Vortex powers when he had yet to be touched by Apocalypse, they don't work in Archangel's form - Warren can't tap into any of the Vortex abilities if he's in the Archangel form.
With time, the Black Vortex powers can take again the individual to their true cosmic potential unleashed and, given enough time, Warren could return to the final form he gained when he was fully touched by the Black Vortex and ascended to cosmic entity status.
Crimson Dawn
When Warren gave up a part of his soul in bargain for Betsy's during the battle against Kuragari, he unwittingly allowed for a connection to the Crimson Dawn, that fed on the dark thoughts and ambitions of the Archangel persona, latching to that form.
Not as strong at the one Betsy experienced (as Betsy was infused by the force of the Crimson Dawn), with time and training he can tap into those powers as well, as long as he's in the Archangel form.
He can be one with the shadows and take a form made of complete darkness, like a coat of ink over his whole body, only his eyes flashing bright red.
He can teleport through shadows, using the Crimson Dawn realm as passage, and emerge from shadows like darkness taking shape.
When tapping into that connection, the Crimson Dawn mark flares on his face, in a bright burning red, but the mark isn't permanent and vanishes as soon as he closes the connection.
The Crimson Dawn mystical forces are aroused by the dark powers of the Archangel and it's only Warren's unawareness of the connection, that blinded him of it when he ascended to his role as new Apocalypse. The connection, fleeting like a fuzzy lure to darkness, reveals itself only when the Death Seed is fully reformed.
The Phoenix
Once Warren has fully mastered the powers given him by the Seeds, he has the potential to draw the Phoenix, as he is perceived as a cosmic force of life and death.
The Phoenix would pick Warren only if she wasn't allowed to bond with Jean again - in a future in which Jean once again refused to be one with the Phoenix, the Phoenix would look for other potential hosts. Warren, having in himself both the forces of life and death, would be a perfect choice for her - being balanced between the two would allow Warren to be less vulnerable to the powers that the Phoenix brings, and would not succumb to Dark Phoenix.
Notes
I know. Too much. Do I care? No. I'm too fandom-old to care, at this point. It's not that in 60 years of canon we never got absurd powers up anyway - some stuck and are accepted (Wolverine absurd levels of healing factor come to my mind, although not the biggest culprit in the MU), so... why not? Besides, I'm not pitching these ideas for a new X-Men title, and I'm not even planning a serious fanfiction out of them. Feel free to snag one, some or all of these if you're interested. Credit is welcome but not required, although I'd like if you at least let me know if you used (I might want to take a look at what you did with this knowledge!). I'd also like to engage and hear your thoughts.(Not that anyone will even read this post, let alone interact)
About the Life Seed powers: The life-energy powers came out of nowhere, with no explanation besides a generic "Apocalypse" during Apocalypse: The Twelve and never mentioned again, although it was implied that Warren used them all to heal former-War. (How much I would've liked they stuck, giving then-non-Archangel Warren two powers that would make him an enemy to not underestimate: Logan says Warren can't be traced by smell, and Betsy - on top of not being able to read his mind - is quite horrified when Warren pops out the talons, labeling them very dangerous.) The rest are what memory-less Warren did in Wolverine & the X-Men. (I didn't like those powers - they made Warren just another superhero with energy blasts, so I didn't savage those.)
About the Death Seed powers: For how I envisioned them, both the Life and Dead Seeds powers have an healing/killing effect similar to the ones of Elixir but, contrary to Elixir, Warren isn't corrupted by the killing power, while his healing powers can - with due time - reach resurrection levels, but they can't easily regrow lost body parts as Elixir does. The life force isn't sucked out nor absorbed by Warren, like Selene does - it's just destroyed. The rest mentioned is to fix Apocalypse's need to get his centuries-long rest with the conflicting (newer) info about the Death Seed giving cosmic powers (which should mean some kind of immortality IMHO).
About the Black Vortex powers: Basically what was seen in the Black Vortex arch. We weren't explained how Warren went from light wings to those metallic/like bones with fire as wingspan. I wasn't a fan of how the wings were rendered, with those metallic-like bones/roots that, in some panels, stood even when the wings were "turned off", so I elect to remove them and have the wings fully fire or blueish white light.
About the Crimson Dawn powers: The same abilities shown by Betsy during her brief post-Crimson Dawn appearances to then forgotten by the time Revolution came.
About the Phoenix: It has recently (see update date) come to my attention that Warren, ascended as Apocalypse's heir, was able to draw the Phoenix and use it against her very host - Jean Grey from the Age of Apocalypse. Warren explains the Phoenix betrayal with the following "You seek to use [the Phoenix] to stop what which it desires most... death and rebirth.".