Issue #9

Jack was surprised to see Yukio there for a moment before he recovered and nodded back in greeting. During such a formal setting, he didn't dare to act casually.

{Ignore her for now. But since she is here, she has a much closer relationship with Selene than I had expected. Watch over her carefully.}

{Understood}

The original purpose of the meeting was to discuss methods and plans for dealing with the Human Faction of the club. But since they were present, that had to be put off. Instead, the group talked about the Hellfire Gala which would be coming up on Halloween.

Jack didn't focus on this topic. Instead, he wanted tried to let his psionic energy flow around the room as he tried to pick up any loose thoughts but was unable to get anything.

'They are either very skilled with their psychic shields or they have psychic blockers. Most likely even both.'

The meeting was neither too long nor too short. It lasted 2 hours before it was over. When it was, Jack left with Emma as soon as it was over and without speaking to anyone. Which he was perfectly fine with.

Once they got back to the car, Emma immediately started the psychic conversation.

{So what did you learn?}

{Pierce is the one truly stopping you all from taking over. He dominated the entire conversation. Even though it was just about the Gala, he should not have been able to have much control against 5 others. Just his speaking ability alone makes him someone I'm not sure I can match.

But it also seems like he holds a trump card. There were 5 powerful mutants there, 10 if we count the heirs. Yet no one mentions killing off the Human Faction of the club as you and Shaw had done before?

Just what makes you guys so afraid of him?}

Emma looked at Jack with a smile on her face. He had picked up the key point immediately.

{The man is no longer just a normal human. He is actually a deadly cyborg. Each one of his upgrades over the years has made him resistant to our powers.

Not only that, but he also has his own elite team working for him. They consist of human and mutant cyborgs that believe or have been made to believe in human superiority. Those along with the army of Sentinels that he has due to Alexa makes him very dangerous.

If we were to attack him in that room, best case scenario: 3 members of the Inner Circle and 2 of the heirs live. The worst case is that we all go down with him. Neither of those is the ideal scenario since we have carefully cultivated the current members of our Inner Circle.

So we will continue playing the game. We must continue the charade. Until the day we are sure that we can eliminate him without fear of a harsh counterattack.}

Jack nodded in understanding. With this missing piece, he understood why they had not yet assaulted Pierce directly. But this brought up another question.

{Then why hasn't he attacked us yet?}

{Simple. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Who else is all for mutant domination and hates those that believe in human superiority?}

'Ah. So he is also dealing with Magneto. This is not just a battle on one front for them but on two. If he sends too many of his forces after us, Magneto will take advantage. If he does the same to Magneto, we will take advantage.

He is trying his best to maintain the status quo but because of the Hellions, we are slowly wilting down his support while strengthening our forces. He can only watch from the side since the Brotherhood would make him suffer.'

Emma watched as Jack silently put all the pieces together. She had given him a few hints and he was able to understand the crux and the final plan.

'Good. He is getting smarter. I need to find him more prey so he can grow stronger. His current skill set is too unstable.'

Just as Emma was thinking about who would be the best prey, she felt their entire SUV shake before it was sent flying. Jack was bouncing around the interior while Emma was sitting snugly in the seat.

When the truck landed, it was upside down. Emma sat in the seat with the same indifferent look on her face while she looked at Jack bleeding on the ceiling. The pair could see bullets striking the windows before bouncing off.

"This is why I say to always wear your seatbelt. Luckily, this car was meant to handle explosives and high-grade bullets so you weren't sent flying outside of it."

Jack groaned in response.

"Anyway, get to work. You have rarely had to use your powers while injured. This is a good chance to try it out and see how calm you can remain in pain."

Jack groaned again but he did as he was told. His psionic energy left the van and swept over the people firing at them. None of them had psionic blockers so Jack was easily able to get inside their minds.

He shuffled through their memories while they didn't know he was inside to get to know who had hired them. The members of the Hellfire Club wouldn't be so stupid to do this in the open. This was New York, the city of heroes. After a few seconds of probing, he got the answer.

"You have a sister?!?!" Jack asked

"Two. They both are terrible and bitches. They also think they are the only mutant in the family so that is probably why they sent these guys without any mental protection."

"That's just great. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and kill these guys now."

Jack did not kill them immediately. He caused all their pain receptors to fire off while also forcing the men to relive their most terrifying memories as well as experience their worst fears. The group died due to heart attacks because of the trauma that Jack had put them through.

"Fun. I got several skills and one of them was a mutate. At least I got something from all of this."

"That's good. Now go get out and flip the car so we can get back to the academy."

Jack grumbled as he crawled out of the car and flipped it back over. Mei began driving and the trio was out of there before any police or heroes could arrive on the scene.

The first to actually arrive was Spider-Man. He saw the 10 dead bodies and all the damage from their weapons but not a single victim.

"What the heck happened here?" he asked no one in particular

Abilities and powers gained this chapter:

[- Sniper (Expert): User's skill with using weapons at a range 200 meters or higher

- Knife CQC (Adept): User's skill with fighting using a knife

- Rifle Mastery (Adept): User's skill with using a rifles

- SMG Mastery (Adept): User's skill with using a SMGs

- (Mutate) Scoping: This is the ability of a mutate. The user is able to see up to 3,000 meters clearly with their bare eyes]