Issue #6
It was Marvel Girl that made the first move. The red head unleashed a wave of pure psionic energy at the group which caught them all off guard. No-Girl put up telepathic barriers around her teammates' minds in order to keep Jean from being able to affect with with such an unfocused AOE attack.
"Thanks, Dome!" Kid Omedga said before firing several shots off from his psionic pistol. Ms. Marvel set up a barrier around herself before creating psionic weapons of her own.
"Haha! She's mine!" Kid Omega declared before jumping away while continously firing his gun ar Ms. Marvel. The latter followed him which left the battle a 5 on 4.
'These 3 suck at working with others so we might as well let them go play as they want.'
Aero decided to take command of the battle and use each of the other's emmebrs as a strength.
"Everyone, split up! Talon, we need you to take out Cyclops. Black Cat, Iceman looks like he isn't feeling so lucky today. Kraven, there goes some prey for you to hunt. Me and No-Girl will take on Angel."
The girls nodded and began leading away their opponents.
Felicia was the first to flee. She fired a bolt of black energy which caused Iceman to fall on his ass. As soon as he did, she ran towards the right.
Talon charged forward and was met with one of Cyclops' optic beams. Using her claws, she was able to endure the attack and slowly push forward.
"I got her pinned. Beast! Angel! Charge!" Cyclops ordered
Beast began charging toward the trio with such intensity that many of the students would not recognize him as the peaceful and calm Dr. Hank. A blue, ghostly rhino appeared behind Kraven before it disappeared and she charged forward.
The small young woman crashed directly into Beast. But instead of being sent flying back herself, she sent Beast all the way to the other side of the Danger Room. But Kraven was not done. A ghostly gorilla appeared behind her before she went over to continue her battle with Beast.
Aero watched the others handle their opponents and nodded. She was watching over their fights while also being prepared to help anyone who needed it.
'Wait. Where is...'
"Agh!"
Aero heard a shout from above and had just managed to move out the way of the staff enough to only have her right shoulder get broken.
{Aero's hurt!} No-Girl informed the rest of the team
{I'm fine! Focus on your fights!}
The other members of the squad nodded and ignored Aero, to No-Girl's confusion. But she was not able to be confused for long. Since she was left alone, Angel was about to strike her container with his staff.
Before he managed to hit her, a bright light filled up the room as Aero fully activated her powers and tackled Angel to get him away from No-Girl.
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Jack looked at the battle from above with a smile on his face. The team was performing better than he had expected and just as he had expected.
'Melody is smart. She saw that Quentin was unreliable so she decided to make all the fights individual. I wonder if she also took into account that these 5 work better as a team or she just got lucky? Either way, she will be the temporary leader. Just need to remind her to keep her eyes open.
Quentin is just as much of an arrogant fool but at least he shows some compassion for his teammates. A battle between two telepaths firing off blasts of psionic energy that don't recognize friend or foe should be taken to a different location. He should have brought Martha with him though.
Ana and Felicia picked out the best opponents for themselves. Bobby at that age was very weak and could barely do much but since he has ice-based powers, that could take away the others' concentration from their fights.
Felicia's bad luck will mean that he has to truly focus on a single opponent to land a blow and the chances of him hitting one of the others to get a pot shot are unlikely.
Ana's powers are also the perfect counter to Hank's. He can only take on the traits of a single animal while she can switch on the fly.
Laura got the short end of the straw. The team only has a single long-range attacker but even he will be useless against Scott. Only her healing factor can hold out while the others finish their fights.
Martha was quick to respond but besides that, there is not much she can do. Her power has a limited range at the moment which can't be improved until she gets a body.
Overall, I would rate them each an A. Their teamwork is a D though. Melody was able to predict the appropriate measures and sent out the others against who they needed to go but they were each prepared to fight randomly. Luckily, they listened to her orders, otherwise, they would get an F.'
Jack had seen enough. He pressed a few buttons on the control panel which caused each of the X-Men to start turning into pixels before they disappeared completely. Jack then teleported down towards the group.
Jack walked over to Melody and healed her arm before he had them all sit around him in a semi-circle. There was news to be shared and prizes to be given out.
"Not bad. You all passed the test and become a part of my team. From now on, you're all Inquisitors."
Melody let out a small cheer but when she saw none of her teammates reacted, the girl coughed to try to hide her embarrassment. But before she could apologize she heard Laura speak up.
"Whoo?" Laura said, unsure if she should cheer
Hearing that Larua had cheered too, Melody smiled brightly at the other young woman who returned the smile back at her.
Jack nodded at the pair before he brought out two pills, tossing one to Laura and the other to Melody. The girls caught the pills before looking at Jack with confusion.
"To put it simply, most people don't unlock their full X-Gene when they awaken their mutant powers. Such as Dr. McCoy and Ms. Frost. These pills here will forcefully activate some more of your X-Gene and trigger a secondary mutation."
"Why didn't you give all of us those pills?"
"Cause you're annoying and they don't need them!"
Jack gave them the pills for 2 reasons.
The first was that both of them needed it. Laura was much weaker than Logan because his body did not have Adamantium in it. So while she was faster and could heal faster than him, she was less durable. Melody just had no offensive or defensive power and it even put a huge target on her.
The second reason was that the duo earned it. Out of the 6 students, they were the best on the test that they had just taken. They did the task they knew they had to do without complaint, even when it was disadvantageous for them.
Hearing what the pills did, both girls took the pills immediately. Laura had the most noticeable reaction. She knelt over in pain before her claws pierced through her skin. Instead of being silver, they were a golden-bronze color.
Melody looked much better. Instead of being in pain, the only change in Melody was that her eyes became bright pink. Melody raised her hand as pink, neon energy surrounded her hand. The others looked at her in amazement.
Jack looked at the changes in both of the students before he nodded. The process had been completed, so there was only one thing left to do.
Jack froze Martha's jar in black ice before making it shatter and killing the young lady. The other Inquisitors looked on in shock when they saw that. But before they could ask what was going on, they saw Jack's hand glow gold before the golden energy left Jack's body and took the shape of a human being.
The light soon faded which revealed the naked body of a young woman with black hair.
"And with this, my Inquisitors are now at their full power."