Chapter 3: Show me what you got

The group of 9 made their way down to the basement before entering a large room, made completely out of steel. The room was spherical and the only part that looked out of place was a small viewing box that was about 50 feet above the door that let the group inside. 

Ben followed along with the group, not sure exactly what was going to happen but he had a general idea. His grandpa had made him participate in some training sessions for SHIELD agents before. 

The 9 teens walked until they got to the middle of the room before turning around and looking up at the viewing platform where they saw Emma Frost standing with a glass of wine in a hand and smile on her face.

"Hello, my Hellions. I'm glad to see that all of you seem to be getting along," Emma raised her glass toward them. "And this is pomegranate juice, not wine. Currently on a cleanse."

"Anyway, you guys have combat training today. But since Benjamin has just joined us, I will give you two choices. P-2 or P-3," Emma told them with a small grin, to which all the Hellions groaned

"I'm guessing both of those are bad but what's the difference?" Ben asked with a look of confusion. 

"Not much," Cessily began to explain. "P stands for Purifiers. Anti-mutant terrorist group led by William Stryker. They killed a bunch of mutants a few years ago."

"I remember him. He tried to shoot Shadow Cat on national TV," Ben supplemented the little knowledge he had on the man

"Right. That's the part the public knows. Most don't know about the 3,000 mutants who were dragged from their homes and killed in the streets," Julian gave the details that the government 'hid for the better interest.'

"So these training simulations are against them. The lower the number, the more soldiers and Sentinels that we have to beat. We usually run P-2 but since you're here, Ms. Frost is a bit worried," Cessily continued. "The simulation is very realistic. You take a bullet when it's on and you could die."

"Sounds super dangerous. I'm down for P-2," Ben was excited to get into a real fight

'Grandpa Max always told me that I couldn't do any hero work until I was 16. Wanna see how I can handle myself in a real fight.'

The others looked at him in surprise but when they remembered what they saw of Buzzshock, none of them questioned him. The form was small and fast so it could most likely dodge bullets while letting out from heavy long-range firepower. 

"Glad to hear it," Julian smirked then turned to Emma. "We'll take P-2. Ben says he can handle it."

"B-2 it is."

Just as Emma's words fell, the room began to change. The teens were no longer inside a giant metallic room but standing inside the burning remains of the mansion. The sky was filled with smoke and large portions of the mansion had been blown apart. Bullet holes riddled the walls around and blood covered the floors and carpets. 

'Brian, you got the perimeter set up?'

Ben heard a voice inside his head and was about to freak out but he felt a wave of calmness wash over him. 

'Don't freak out,' the Cuckoos spoke into his head all at the same time. 'We set up a network between us since psychic links are harder to hijack than radio signals.'

'Oh,' Ben replied. 'Neat. So guess I shouldn't think about my pin, or how much I make from sponsors, or about how hot...'

'Ben!' Cessily cut him off. 'Number one rule about psychic links: if you think about not thinking about something, you're thinking about it. And we can all see it.'

'You really make that much from your TikTok? Damn,' Santos added to the discussion

'We are gonna need to focus. Purifiers remember?' Julian brought them all back to reality. 'We can question Ben about buying us all Lambos later.'

The others nodded in agreement, setting aside Ben buying them all cars for after the mission. Brian crouch walked over to the Cuckoos and placed his hand on each of them, saying 'you're it' as he did to each of them. 

His power made anyone he touched 'it' and created a psychic phenomenon around them in a 100-foot radius. Everyone, except for those he chose, would either run toward or avoid the person who was tagged. Most would notice this but since they were hidden and no one knew they were present, the Purifiers would subconsciously not approach where the trio was located. 

'We just did a reading. There are several blank areas so they are blocking out our telepathy. Must be how they were able to perform this attack,' the trio explained to the others while letting them know of the Purifiers that they were able to find. 

'Looks like they are pretty spread thin but this formation is dangerous. These guys are set up to lose a few of them in order to take down a single mutant,' Julian concluded. 'The Sentinels are also waiting somewhere to launch an attack.'

'I can cause a distraction. Get them all bunch up so you guys can hit them hard,' Ben suggested, dialing with his watch

'That little guy might not be too useful. Doesn't seem like there is much electricity to use while the Sentinels won't hesitate to blow another one up in order to kill you,' Cessily told Ben, worried that Buzzshock wouldn't be able to handle it

'Don't worry. I'm thinking of something much bigger,' Ben smirked when he saw a particular body appear on the surface of his watch

-----

Emma and several other staff members looked on from above and watched the students huddle in the rubble. None of them were reckless to make a bold move that would attract the attention of the Purifiers. 

"Your kids are looking good, Emma," Kitty complimented. The Hellions were proving just how well Emma had trained them with their self-restraint. Many other students would rush out foolishly and get themselves hurt, trying to save any survivors without thinking about the consequences. 

"Smart, yes. But a bit cold," Xavier said from his wheelchair. Although he knew that they were behaving intelligently, it still came off as cold in his eyes. 

"I agree," Scott agreed with his former teacher and father figure. "Still, we should give them more than a minute to adjust to the situation."

Emma looked at the two but didn't say anything. 

The school currently had three headmasters, each with differing opinions. Xavier was the original headmaster of the school and believed in teaching mutants how to best utilize their abilities to help as many people as possible. 

When he died, ownership of the school passed over to Scott Summers. He had a more militaristic philosophy and believed in learning how to use one's power for the greater good but he also wanted the students to focus on helping more mutants instead of everyone like Xavier wanted. 

During Scott's period of solo ownership, he ran out of funds and that was where Emma Frost came in. She bought 60% ownership of the school became co-headmasters with him until Xavier came back from the dead and joined them again as the third headmaster of the school. 

Emma was very different from the other two and taught her students to prioritize themselves and those they care about more than anyone else. Scott and Xavier disagreed with her views greatly but since she was the one funding the school and had majority ownership, there was little they could say to change her mind. 

Instead of focusing on what everyone else was saying, Emma had her gaze focused on her team. So she was the first to notice that Ben had rushed out from their hiding spot and toward the nearest Purifier. 

Ben punched the masked man in the face, knocking him to the floor before bring his left hand to his watch and pressing down on it gently. 

There was a bright flash of green light where Ben disappeared, only to be replaced by something much larger than Buzzshock. 

It was humanoid dinosaur-like creature, that stood about fifteen feet tall with hard skin that was colored brown on its outer side and beige on its inner side. He had human-like hands with four fingers, each with large gray nails. Lastly, he had a long dinosaur-like tail and the symbol on Ben's watch in the middle of his chest.

"Humungousaur!" the creature shouted, shocking all the staff, the Hellions, and the Purifier replications

-----

Humungousaur looked around and swept his tail, knocking several Purifiers into the air. He then rushed over the nearest one smacking him with the back of his hand and sending the person flying before moving on to the next one.

The Purifiers were slow to react but once they did, they began opening fire on the creature. And unfortunately for them, their bullets were unable to harm him at all. 

All the Purifiers could only attack futilely, trying to prevent the wrath of creature before them but none of their attacks worked. All they saw was a brown blur before losing consciousness. 

It was only after Humungousaur had taken out nearly 30 of them that the Sentinels descended from the air.

4 giant robots that were each about 3 times as tall as Humungousaur surrounded him from all sides. They each had two of their hands extended, their palms facing Humungousaur with glowing circles in the center.

"Uh-oh," Humungousaur said when he saw what was about to happen

8 beams shot at Humungousaur from all sides, forcing him to curl up and let his heavier scales protect his body. 

"Haha! We got him!" one of the Purifiers said when he saw that Humungousaur was forced on the defensive. But his cheer was cut short when he saw the dinosaur begin to grow.

Humungousaur began to rapidly grow. Spikes appeared along his tail and spine while the brown scales on his body became sharper. He also began to grow much larger, even from his curled up position. 

Once he was done growing, Humungousaur stood up under the beams that were still firing upon him. When he was standing at his full height, he towered over the Sentinels. 

"Hehe. My turn," Humungousaur said before rushing to the nearest Sentinel, He raised his fist up high before bringing his fist down toward the Sentinel's head.

'Oh, shit, he's gonna get hammer fisted,' Santos commented from the rubble

When Humungousaur's fist fell down on the robot's skull, he crushed its head in a single blow, sending shrapnel in every direction. The robot fell to the ground powerlessly as the morale of all the Purifiers began to crumble. 

'Shit, he got hammer fisted,' Brian shouted over the link

Humungousaur got down on all fours before turning around and rushing to the next Sentinel before crashing into it with his head and knocking it to the ground. The robot had a giant dent in its chest but all the lights were off, signalling that it had been shut down. 

After that, the rest of the fight ended pretty fast. Humungousaur dealt with most of the Sentinels and distracted the Purifiers while the rest of his team attacked from different locations.

In less than 10 minutes after the training session had begun, the battle that Emma thought would last at least an hour had ended with the Hellions perfect victory.