Chapter 15

"You know of me?" the voice asked.

Fuck me…

Across from the arena, I saw two people strolling in. One was a rather voluptuous woman with blue eyes and flowing white hair. The other was a stout, muscly man with thick black sideburns sticking out of the sides of his mask. They were dressed in odd leather uniforms of yellow and black.

I forced my mind to not make the obvious connection and focused instead on the rage within me that'd been building.

I couldn't let him see what I knew. It would put an end to my plans before they even began.

With a roar, I called upon the demonic energy flowing in my veins, releasing a wave of crimson, fiery energy that slammed into Profesor X's consciousness.

Oddly, the wave was mostly contained within my body, and it was enough to send the pervy professor packing.

"What are you---ack."

The effort took as much out of me as the entire Angel Regeneration sessions.

-100 DE

Congratulations: You've unlocked Demonic Energy Manipulation.

I swayed slightly on my feet, and my grip on Night Kat's throat loosened. The mutant plopped to the ground and promptly passed out. Much to my surprise, the wounds he'd incurred during our fight had started clotting.

That was some bullshit. His healing factor was better than mine. I'd remain battered and bruised if I didn't activate Angel Regeneration.

All at once, Storm and Wolverine took a stance, the latter unsheathing its claws.

"What did you do to the professor?" Wolverine demanded.

"I should be the one asking the questions. Who the hell are you, and why the fuck is your Professor trying to mind-rape me!" I snapped back.

I raised my sword to match Wolverine, knowing I stood no chance. By some miracle, even if I could take him. Storm was another matter entirely. Her Mutant power was Atmosphere Control.

It didn't get more overpowered than that.

"Didn't anyone ever tell him it's rude to go looking in people's heads?"

In the commentator stand above, I heard an explosion and saw two powerful beams of red light arc out.

I heard a familiar yelp. It was Toad's. Pietro let out a string of curses, and then, a sudden blur nearly knocked me off my feet.

I used Rebellion to support me, and when I finally got my bearings, Night Kat was also gone.

Welp, there went my leverage.

Unless the morals of the X-Men were radically different in this universe, a wounded mutant would've been an effective way to get them to back off.

"Fucking Speedsters," I cursed.

Now that they were gone, I was wounded and fresh out of moves.

"Is that the guy they left behind?" I heard a voice say. It was coming from a pair of mutants who floated down from the now-destroyed viewing box. The voice belonged to a young brown-haired teenager about Dante's age who wore a red visor.

"He doesn't look like much," he concluded, folding his arm.

"You barely know him, Scott," the girl beside him said. "Let's hear him out at the very least." She had red-flowing hair and a gorgeous face.

Jean Grey.

Oddly tolerant considering what she must've witnessed in the stands. She had a good heart. As long as no one broke it, getting a chunk of the Phoenix flame wouldn't be as hard.

Hopefully.

She had a complicated look on her face when we met eyes.

I was meeting her a few years earlier than I wanted and had to fast-track the first stage of my plan. Earning her trust.

In a colossal moment of restraint, I made Rebellion and Ebony vanish, leaving me unarmed.

"Before this all goes to shit, at least let's try to have a civil conversation," I said with a self-assured smile.

---

Jean's POV

We've known about the underground fight club run by the Brotherhood for months. And after a week of making no progress, Professor Hank had a sudden breakthrough.

On the day a fight was supposed to go down, an algorithm he set up sent camera footage of Toad entering a convenience store in a shady area of Los Vegas with a half a dozen henchmen and left alone.

It took Professor Hank under a minute to hack into his phone and track Toad back to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city.

Beast had us on the Blackbird the moment Scott and I were out of school.

It was our first mission together since we became a couple, and I was afraid it would affect our team dynamic.

He always put himself ahead of me on missions, even when letting me lead made more strategic sense.

I read his thoughts on our latest training session in the danger room and saw the depth of his devotion. It terrified me.

Scott was willing to die for me.

When I told the professor about it, he simply smiled.

"It is a gift to feel so deeply and so passionately while still so young, Jean."

"I'm happy that he likes me so much," I muttered, looking down as my cheeks burned red, "but I am not sure I want the weight of his death on my conscience."

"And it will not be," the professor assured. "Scott is his own person and allowed to feel whatever he feels. Although he loves you, and that will influence him quite a bit, he'll likely lay down his life for any other student or member of the squad. He's selfless, and it's that very reason why I'm grooming him to take over when the older team retires."

"Professor, still…I—"

"Don't turn him away specifically because of what you've seen," he said with a warm smile. "You're not supposed to be his mind in the first place, and that wouldn't be fair to Scott. You like him, and he loves you. That should be enough for now."

'Like him,' I latched onto those words. 'Not love.'

Scrutinizing my thoughts, I realized the Professor was right.

I didn't love Scott, but I liked him enough not to ruin what we had because he loved me too much.

Most girls would kill to date a boy like him.

I saw my classmates' stares when he walked into the room, played sports, or sat at lunch.

He was the hottest guy in school, and I was lucky to have him.

Fast forward a few hours, and we sat at the rear of the plane side by side, Scott's hand wrapped around mine.

"I just intercepted the Live Broadcast, and I'm spoofing the server signature," Professor Hank announced from one of the pilot seats. "As far as he knows, he's streaming live to 100,000 paying viewers."

"Excellent work as always," The professor praised from the seat across from us. He smiled at me, and I knew he saw through me. He didn't have to read my mind.

"You've done this hundreds of times in the danger room," Professor said. "No need to be nervous, Jean."

"It's just last-minute Jitters, Professor."

"Yeah, relax babe," Scott bumped shoulders with mine. "I'll laser off Toad's face before I let him touch you, not that you need my protection. You can take out chumps like him in your sleep."

I bit my lip. He was right, of course, but his comment about lasering Toad's face got me thinking about what the professor had told us earlier. Toad was not the only enemy we had to worry about on this mission.

Scott saw the growing look of worry on my face, so I spoke before he asked.

"But what about the anomaly?"

While the professor was scanning ahead, he sensed somebody in the warehouse with Toad, only his mind was unlike anything he'd ever encountered before. The professor had dubbed him, the Anomaly.

"He won't be a problem," The Professor assured. "I've personally scanned him. And while there's…something underneath the surface I can't quite grasp, he poses very little danger to the combined forces of the X-Men."

Logan who'd been sitting still this entire time, spoke up. "Don't get your little heart worked up about a pup. If the Prof said it's fine then it's fine." He unsheathed his adamantium claws, and it caught the blue light of the ship.

"And if it isn't, I've got my claws."

"Put that away before you cut something important," Storm chided. "The sentiment is the same here, of course."

Scott beamed. "See. Nothing to worry about."

I let out a long sigh and forced a smile. "I suppose you're right."

(A/N: Read up to 5 Chapters head on Patreon. I'm grinding to get that number up to 10. So, if you sub now, you'll have a chunk of content waiting for you. The polls will also be launching sometime next week to decide on the direction of the coming arc on Patreon. If you don't want to miss out, search for Artandcreativewriting.)