7 Adjustment

Author's Note

Alright so at first I wrote this chapter with Jean flipping out and the Phoenix getting lose. I didn't like it and as I thought more about it, I'm not sure I like the idea of absorbing the Phoenix force after all. Forming a connection with an entity notorious for driving hosts crazy does not seem like a good idea, so I'm going to put that on the backburner for now. I feel like the institute has been dragging on, though.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next day I headed down to breakfast to find everyone else already there, including Rogue. When I walked in she perked up a little bit, but otherwise didn't react all that much. One change I did note was that she was now wearing gloves.

"Good Morning." I said as I took a seat at the table.

There were some murmured "morning" back to me as I began eating. Today was a weekend, so we didn't have to go to school. I had been continuing to amass money through my powers for my eventual leaving. This weekend I was hoping to develop my superspeed by devoting almost all of my time to it. It was one of the most useful powers available, so I wanted to level it as soon as possible.

Eventually we all finished eating and headed down to the Danger Room. Instead of Logan, today we had Ororo teaching us.

"Today we are going to be working on the more mental aspects of your powers. For some of you like Jean, this will be something that makes perfect sense. For others it could be confusing. A good way to try to gain control is through meditation and centering your mind. For myself, my meditation lets me remain calm and not let my powers run wild. Each of you will be trying to meditate and gain a deeper understanding of yourselves."

This wasn't something I was sure I particularly needed, but I was open to seeing what it would do. Ororo directed us to take whatever position we found most comfortable. I just crossed my legs, schools spent so much time drilling into us to sit this way that it felt the most normal.

We then had to close our eyes and try to clear our minds of thoughts. I wasn't sure how everyone else was doing, but I did as I was told and attempted to clear my mind. I took deep breaths and centered myself as I allowed myself to finally calm down. I had spent almost every waking moment I could since I woke up here working towards gaining more power. I was scared, scared of all of the insanely powerful beings that exist in this world. I didn't want to just be some fodder, I wanted to get strong, strong enough that I wouldn't have to be afraid of them anymore.

As I came to that realization and really came to terms with my fear, I found myself in a garage, with a projector sitting on a stand pointing at the wall. Slowly walking towards the projector, I turned it on and before me played memories. It went quickly, cycling through different period in my life, before suddenly stopping.

*Ding*

[Skill Leveled: Telepathy: The ability to read and manipulate minds. Able to enter yours and other people's mindscapes to search for deeper thoughts and memories. Beware, though, the mind does not like being entered deeply and will fight back. Lvl 3/10]

'I figured I was in my mind, but I didn't expect for the skill to level. Being able to enter other people's mind is a good ability, but it could also be dangerous, especially if they're trained to resist mind reading.'

With the level came an instinctual feeling of how to leave and enter my own mindscape at will. With a thought, I exited my mindscape and came back to the world of the living. Opening my eyes, I looked around to see that I wasn't the first one to stop, but I also wasn't the last one to. Kurt, Scott, and Rogue were already done, but Jean was still meditating.

Nobody said anything, content in whatever they realized about themselves. We all waited for Jean to finish doing whatever it was she was doing. Eventually, she too woke up and Ororo reconvened with all of us.

"I hope that each of you found a new understanding in yourself. That's all for today, you will have a Danger Room session again with Logan tomorrow."

We left the room and as we were walking out, I got an excited look on my face. Yesterday we had to go find Rogue, but today I could finally do something I had been wanting to do for a while.

Leaving the institute, I turned a corner before teleporting into the school and went to get the device that leads to the middleverse. Picking it up, I reset it before charging it activating it. A portal open before Forge walked out, looking around in wonder.

"Finally, I'm free!" He exclaimed.

'Can't blame the guy, I would've gone crazy being trapped in there.'

"Hey, did you make this device? How'd you appear from nowhere?" I asked.

Forge turned to look at me, then rushed over and hugged me. Taking the opportunity, I drained his power.

*Ding*

[Skill Gained: Technopathy: The ability to interact and create machines comes intuitively. Lvl Max.]

'Just a little more and I can finally make it.'

"Hey bro, I don't swing that way."

Forge let me go before stepping back and saying "My bad, thanks for rescuing me from there. I thought I'd be trapped forever."

"No problem, how long have you been in there?"

"I don't know, I lost track of time. What year is it?"

"2012"

"Damn dude, it's been a long time. I've got to go find my family." He said before running out of the room. I didn't really have anything else to say to him, so I didn't bother chasing after him.

Instead, I teleported directly to a hideout I had used when I was homeless. In the past week I had spent time slowly amassing the required materials to build a car, using the funds I had made from selling diamonds and other precious gems and metals.

'I've got the technopathy, now it's just a matter of time before my car is built.'

I devoted the rest of the day to getting started on the car, although it would be a little while until it would be completed.

Once it got a little late, I headed back to the institute for dinner.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next week passed by with only a couple things worth noting happening. Jean and Xavier went to go invite Kitty Pryde to the institute, but since I didn't go to this one it went much the same as it did in canon. Along with her joining our school came Lance and with him the teen team of the Brotherhood began forming.

My time was spent further refining my abilities, with my super speed in particular being one I devoted almost all of my time too, in slight neglect of the others, which led to gaining results.

*Ding*

[Skill Leveled: Super Speed: The ability to move and think at superhuman speeds. Body is adapted to be able to take the strains of moving at those speeds. Current top speed: 400 mph. Lvl 3]

The speed increase was a massive boost. I found a lot of enjoyment in running and it made me feel at ease when I was running, so I ran long distances both for fun and for training.

Alongside the two level-ups for super speed came a level up for Atmokinesis finally. I used my superspeed to run far enough away from the institute that I didn't think Storm would be able to sense my charging the weather and took the time to finally practice. I could control small amounts of wind and lightning at first, but as I practice I managed to form a small tornado in my hand that I could expand or shrink at will It took a lot of concentration to use the abilities at the moment, though.

*Ding*

[Skill Level: Atmokinesis: The ability to manipulate the weather. Affected by one's emotions(negated by Gamer's Mind) Lvl2/10]

When I was at school, I spent most of my time with Rogue since she seemed to gravitate towards me whenever possible. Her desire for human contact seems to have led her to associate with me as much as she could. I didn't mind talking to her at school since besides training my telepathy, there wasn't all that much I could do instead. When we were in training she asked me to help her with her power, but even if we had similar ones there wasn't much I could train her on, so I just spent time giving her a target to practice the powers she gained from the others. I didn't gain a level in any skill from it, but it did let me get more creative with shaping my body by trying to form shields from different parts of my body to protect myself from her when she used Scott's power.

I found myself starting to get tired of the institute, though. Most of my training was done on my own and it was limiting me in how much I could do since Xavier forced us to go to school. I enjoyed my time talking with Rogue, but it wasn't enough for me to want to hold myself back by staying at the institute. Logan had given me a good foundation in martial arts, enough that I could fight. I wasn't a master, but for that I'd need more individualized training.

In order to get my own place to live, I had began working on trying to use suggestions with my telepathy so I could get a house even if I was a minor. My class time was spent working on this, and I managed to gain the level and skill to do it.

*Ding*

Using this ability, I purchased a house threw liberal use of it. I had moved my partially finished car, along with the other supplies I had in my hideout to the house and was using it as my hideout. Things were coming into place and I was almost ready to leave the institute.

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