Jean and left the mansion around two in the afternoon to meet up with her friend Taryn for a late lunch, only to get there and realize that her friend just wanted to mooch off of her Language Arts work. She sighed at that but agreed and handed it over so long as the girl promised this was the last time. Taryn then filled her in about how dating Scott was (even though Jean hadn't actually asked). Apparently the boy did actually know how to date, and had been a perfect gentleman, something that didn't surprise Jean so much as his knowing where to take her and stuff like that, but they hadn't kissed yet.
Jean grinned at her, seeing this as another way to wean Scott away from her. "If you want my advice I would take the initiative there. He's a bit slow and sort of has a low opinion of himself sometimes, so you're going to have to push him a bit."
Taryn looked at her, head cocked to one side. "So you're not jealous or anything? I mean the whole school knows he's got a huge crush on you."
Jean shook her head amusedly and said tartly, "The feeling is not mutual. We're friends, nothing more. He may've had a bit of a fixation on me, but I think that's just because we were at the institute for so long together, he'll get over it."
I hope for his sake that's true, Jean thought. I certainly don't feel that way towards him. He's too needy, too self centered even now. He's gotten better, but he's still a little too emo for my tastes, and not quite as… as thoughtful as I would like in his world view, he's a follower at heart, not a real thinker. She ignored the image of Harry, smiling at her as they talked about some engineering problem that popped into her head at that, as well as the odd flash of Ororo in the bath from last weekend. Jean refused to be a home-wrecker, and the budding love the two shared was something to see.
"Thanks Jean" said Taryn. She went on a little more hesitantly. "There have been some rumors about Duncan you should probably know."
Jean shook her head for firmly. "Don't bother, I really couldn't care less. If the rumors prove false that's all to the good, if the rumors prove true I'll find out soon enough myself."
Taryn nodded, wondering about the strange apathy her friend was showing toward her boyfriend, but chalking it up to Jean being Jean. The conversation segued into other things, with Taryn dominating the discussion, talking about clothing, some famous actor being caught cheating with a much younger girl, the fact that Tony Stark had been found but hadn't yet rejoined the public scene, and a lot of gossip about what was happening at the high school.
Jean smiled fixedly throughout it, not really taking part just nodding at appropriate places and hoping that their brunch would be over soon. She hadn't realized it but talking to Taryn was like talking to the quintessential teenage girl, and Jean had almost nothing in common with her anymore. She had a dream for the future, a goal she was working towards, a duty she had taken up willingly and was interested in politics and the world around her, something that Taryn entirely lacked except in the realm of tawdry gossip.
The meal could not end quickly enough for her and she excused herself swiftly, not even taking up Taryn's offer to drive her back to the Institute. While she had a license Jean didn't have a car, but it was a nice enough day and they were only about fifteen to twenty minutes walk from home.
About five minutes later she was passing through a strangely empty park on her way into the residential district where the mansion was when a fireball came out of nowhere, missing her by inches as she jumped backward.
Without even having time to think she dodged to the side as another swiftly as another bloom of fire went by, then summoned up her telekinetic shield just in time as another fireball in the shape of an elephant slammed into her. Her telekinetic shields sprang dissipated the fire to either side and she stared at the man who had attacked her, her voice cold and angry. "Do I know you?"
"Shame babe," said the blonde in the odd uniform. "I'd have liked the chance to get you to know you real good, but it's the time of choosing, And I aim to be a winner." He formed another fire creation above his head in the shape of a Tiger and then threw his hands forward, and the tiger bounded forward at her.
Jean growled a little and slammed the flame Tiger away as if with a giant hand of telekinetic force. The thing dissipated swiftly dissipated. The man scowled a little and then shot out several dozen different fire creations at her all at once.
Jean grinned a little wildly. "That's not how you play with fire!" She called up her power and used a trick that she she'd learned somehow from the phoenix. A giant bird of flame appeared behind her and she hooked her hands forward. The phoenix soared forward, gobbling up the fire animals that the man had created in its gigantic beak. "This is how you play with fire!"
The man screamed in fury, angry beyond belief that the girl in front of him had stolen his shtick and summoned more fire creatures sending them forward at the redhead.
By this time Jean had seen that the man wasn't actually creating the fire himself, merely manipulating it after it came out of hoses attached to his hands and from there to a pack like a flamethrower would have along his back. With a thought she sent a tendril of power along the ground sneaking up on him, keeping the teen's attention on her by sending another few blasts of telekinetic power against his flame creations.
Once the tendril was in position she sent it up under his arms, splitting it to grab the tubes under his arms ripping the tubes apart and sending the volatile fluid everywhere.
The man shrieked in surprise, but had enough presence of mind to grab control of the flames and create a sphere of flame over him. The fire rose away from his body into the air above him.
However this allowed jean to summon a ball of telekinetic force around him and then sucked all the air out of it creating a vacuum which snuffed out the flames. The man grabbed at his throat unable to breath, but Jean held it, waiting until the man fell forward in a faint before releasing her control. The last thing the man saw was Jean standing before him, her hair floating in the air above her head, her jade eyes flashing with power.
"Idiot," Jean muttered angrily, slowly controlling herself. "What the hell was that about?"
With another wave of her hands she lifted the remains of the backpack off the man and threw it to the side, then ripped off the man's legging below the knees, and tied him up with his hands behind his back, then blindfolded him with what was left. Another thought and his body contorted his arms and legs behind his back. Another thought grabbed a loose piece of wood off the ground, and she looped the unnamed teen's limbs over it, hefting him into the air like a hog for the fire, an ironic touch that brought a smile to her face.
She was about to take to the air and fly the rest of the way with her prisoner, trusting on her telepathy to ward off other people from seeing her when she looked up and suddenly saw a sphere of metal had suddenly appeared in the sky above them. She had been concentrating on the man so much she hadn't seen it arrive.
She frowned at the thing, and then with another hand wave slammed it to the ground with all her considerable telekinetic power. The thing was crushed and shattered but swiftly reformed as if it was made of rubber rather than metal.
"Why do I get the feeling this isn't a good thing," said Jean dryly then tried again this time grabbing the thing and trying to rip it apart. As soon as she stopped however the pieces flowed back together and reformed before coming after her.
She was so engrossed with trying to take out the one in front of her that she didn't notice that another one had come down directly behind her until metal tentacles reached out and grabbed her from behind.
She gasped and turned trying to blast them off her, but the two globes moved in swiftly, working together and trapping her between them. One of the tentacles zoomed up right in front of her face and suddenly a plume of gas hit her and she couldn't stop herself quickly enough to keep from breathing in. Her vision became blurry almost immediately and she felt her power slowly give out.
Now I know how Xavier felt when he ran into my belsham-trees, was her last thought as tentacles wrapped around her pulling her into the hollow sphere.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
To the side of the battle that had just taken place hidden among some trees agent Barton stared up into the sky where the metal sphere had just disappeared. He had been frustrated in his attempts to follow Potter when he left the mansion, but had realized something was going on when he couldn't monitor the mansion at all, every time he did he turned away and found something else to do. So instead he had followed the kids to school, taking a job as a janitor in order to spy on the kids and see if they let slip anything about the target or anything else he felt his boss might want to know.
It hadn't worked very well, the kids seemed to understand the need to keep some things secret, but he had learned that Munroe, Pryde, and Grey were closer than the others to him, so he had taken to following Ororo Munroe or Jean whenever they left the mansion just in case something happened. Then too, they were both easy on the lines, and while Jean was still in high school she was eighteen and hot as hell.
Now however his mind was focused entirely on the mission, his stomach a hard knot of worry, and even a little bit of fear. That metal ball, someone was controlling it, and the only one who could make it do all the things it just did, let alone do it from a distance…
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing in a very special number. "This is Agent Barton, call sign Hawkeye, pass-code 26195. Connect me to Director Fury ASAP."
A moment later a gravely, preternaturally angry voice came in from the other end. "Barton this better be important, you know you're only supposed to contact us at scheduled times, hell this signal is barely encrypted." It was actually very well encrypted, but Director Fury was a follower of the idea that nothing was ever too secure.
"I have target MM sighting." Barton replied harshly.
A brief intake of breath was all he heard from the other end for a moment then "Tell me."
Barton described the battle that had taken place, sighting his orders to stay incognito as the reason he didn't interfere, then the appearance of the metal balls and the way they acted.
Fury came to the same conclusion Barton had, and reacted quickly. "Get to the extraction point beta; it's the closest one to your present position. Something's going on, and I want you and agent Romanov ready to respond if needed. I'll have a capture team sent to your present position to pick up the fire user." With that he ended the call and Barton turned and ran off as fast as he could move.
OOOOOOOOO
Candra frowned as she stared at the mansion from her new, closer position after sending Pyro after the redhead. They had seen the redhead leave with her friend, followed by the Potter boy driving away in an admittedly interesting looking car, then they had seen the jet leave, her willpower able to ignore the telepathic suggestion that nothing was there. That meant that the thief was alone in the mansion.
Yet now that it came to it, something inside of her was telling her to turn away, that there was nothing interesting here, but she recognized the effect and could overcome it. "A magic user," she murmured, "so the rumor about this Potter boy is true. Still a low power ward like this will not stop me."
Even as she said that though she had trouble moving forward, and it was only her strength of will that allowed her to push forward with her plan to attack the mansion. Still once she was on the mansion's ground the feeling dissipated quickly. Soon enough she stood in front of the mansions main entrance. She reached out grabbing a dozen trees along the driveway, pulling them into the air with her telekinetic power and throwing them all at the front of the mansion.
Ororo had been enjoying a quiet day of reading. Just because she had more control over her emotions and could show her emotions now hadn't changed the fact that she enjoyed having some quiet time to herself, which was why she had turned down Harry's invitation to go driving with him despite the temptation to have some more time with him. Harry had taken the opportunity to go off on his own in his car, wanting to just have some fun speeding around a bit. It had been tempting, but a new book by one of her favorite authors had come out during the week and that had tipped the scales. Harry had taken this in stride and the two of them had cooked some munchies for her and a lunch for him that he could eat on the go, leaving Storm all alone.
So it was with a frown of annoyance and consternation on her face as she looked up to the noise of several loud booms echoing through the mansion. Her eyes widened in shock as a tree smashed through the window of the solarium, and it was only her swift thinking and control of the wind that battered aside the shards of the glass before they could hit her.
She scowled then marched downstairs angrily. She found that the doors to the mansion had been blown apart by the impact of two other trees, and a blond woman in red armor was floating through the opening, held in the air by telekinetic powers if Storm was any judge. In one hand she held what looked like a glowing sphere of light, and she hurled it at Ororo as soon as she was visible.
Storm rose into the air using her own powers to dodge the blow and slammed a heavy wind into the woman throwing her outside despite her telekinetic shield. She followed swiftly then hovered in the air in front of the as yet unnamed attacker, her hair billowing around her head with her fury. "I don't know who you are but you will pay for your destruction of our home!"
Candra scowled angrily. "Return what you stole from me thief!"
Storm glared at her imperiously. "I don't know what you're talking about, I may have been a thief when I was younger but I kept none of my ill-gotten gains! Whatever you are searching for you will not find it here. Seeing as this seems to be a misunderstanding I'm giving you this one chance to walk away. But if you continue I will fight you with all my power!"
Candra scowled a little at the other woman's arrogance, but could see no reason why the other woman would lie, and she wasn't wearing the gem which she obviously would've been, the thing was priceless after all, a ruby of that size! Still that didn't dissuade her from her other mission here. She could still have the personal satisfaction of killing the thief and earn her reward.
Candra made several more telekinetic spears and hurled them all at the woman but Storm dodged them adroitly. "Then your death will serve my cause well enough! It is the day of choosing, and I will be one of those chosen to enter Sanctuary and claiming the reward!"
"So be it!" Storm shouted angrily, shooting a blast of wind and water at the woman.
Candra scowled and used a telekinetic shield to block all those blokes returning fire swiftly, but Ororo had moved around her attacking her from behind, and forcing her to shield again for a moment before bringing her own assault around.
While Candra wasn't as powerful as Jean she had none of her hesitance to use lethal force and had far, far more experience using her powers. She didn't fall into the trap of just using brute force as Jean had last weekend her battle against the weather witch, instead channeling her power sometimes into small sticks lying on the ground and hurling them at supersonic speeds at the weather which. She tried other things too grabbing onto Storm's legs or arms and hurling her around whenever she could, but it availed her not.
Storm dodged most of her attacks easily, using all of her quickness and speed to from being struck more than a glancing blow from her opponent's assault, merely responding by blasts of wind and rain. She was concentrating on something else however, allowing the other woman to take the initiative or apparent initiative at any rate.
Candra suddenly realized what had once been a clear sky above them had darkened perceptively until it looked as if a massive storm was about to burst overhead, then she looked down suddenly as her legs, soaked from Storm's constant rain attacks, and slowly freezing where they were. Witha thought she heated up the air around her enough to offset that but then looked up in shock as a monstrous bolt of lightning came out of nowhere slamming into her shields.
Her shield held momentarily, but then Storm added more and more power into her assault forcing Candra onto the defense for the first time in the fight and then Ororo suddenly darted forward.
This was the last thing her opponent expected, and she looked on in shock as Ororo closed into hand-to-hand combat range.
Candra was no slouch in hand-to-hand combat however, and even as her shield failed under repeated lightning strikes she struck out with one armor encrusted hand trying to slam the other woman's head in.
Unfortunately for the blond woman, Storm had anticipated her attack and dodged her punch grabbing her arm right behind the elbow and pulling Candra in to slam her other hand across her throat in a wicked chop. The armor there wasn't very thick, and the blow succeeded in crushing her throat.
She then backed away, sighing sadly as the woman slid to her knees, grabbing at her ruined throat. Ororo shook her head sadly "Normally I would not condone the use of lethal force against an opponent I did not know, but your murderous intentions were clear, and the damage you did to our home tells you had the power to do it. I could not take chances and for that, I'm sorry."
Yet even as she watched the woman's throat seems to heal itself and a moment later Candra got to her feet shaking her head and laughing. "Fool girl," she said staring at the younger woman, "I am immortal,you cannot kill me!" Candra had a limited healing ability, but she could use her power automatically on the cellular level to heal herself.
"Just because I can't kill you," said Ororo grimly as another lightning bolt suddenly came from behind Candra to slam into her back throwing her back to the ground, "Doesn't mean I can't hurt you."
Candra recovered quickly and got to her feet again lashing out with telekinetic force, but Storm took to the sky again dodging her blasts and returning with several hundred high-powered lightning bolts slamming into the ground all around Candra, then a monstrous pressure built up in the air around the blonde woman slamming her once more into the ground with crushing force in carrying into her.
What Storm had done was concentrate the wind speed of a level five hurricane into a small space concentrating it and making it even more powerful. It had ripped straight through Candra's telekinetic shields and slammed into her chest ripping through the armor there in turn and tearing her chest to pieces.
Storm landed and then strode forward and watched as the other woman began to heal herself.
Ororo scowled and remorselessly slammed even more power into her, another dozen lightning bolts slamming into the blonde's body before she could recover enough to protect herself. Storm spoke taping the side of her head, her voice soft yet somehow carrying over the sound of the lightning slamming down, her eyes white chips of ice. "Just because you are immortal, does not mean you cannot die up here! I wonder how many deaths you need to suffer before whatever it is that is healing you gives out?"
Ten minutes passed thus, with Candra desperately trying to heal herself, trying to get a defense up to stave off her attacker, but Ororo was remorseless and unstoppable.
At last Ororo pulled away gasping at the expenditure of power and unwilling to continue to look at what had once been a blonde woman's body. The body however did heal itself back to its other form, but when she looked into the woman's eyes it was obvious her mind hadn't healed as her body had. Whatever soul had been there was gone, leaving only a shell behind.
She looked up in surprise as a metal sphere suddenly plummeted down out of the clear sky to land in front of her. She backed up swiftly, her eyes hard and one hand summoning another lightning bolt and in her other hand a sphere of water formed out of the moisture of the air.
Suddenly the sphere opened, and metal tentacles zoomed out at her, but storm was prepared and ducked away keeping her distance and slamming them aside with wind as she tried to hammer the inside of the sphere with lightning.
Another however shot out of the sky to land beside her and help its fellow.
She ripped the first one apart using the same technique she had against Candra only far less powerful, but her exhaustion caught up to her and she stumbled in midair a bit, falling down toward the ground for a moment before she caught herself.
The other one took advantage of her momentary weakness and tentacles shot out grabbing onto her legs and pulling her in. Another tentacle hovered in front of her face for just a second and gas blossomed out catching her unaware and she could feel herself succumbing to darkness when something else much more powerful grabbed her and pulled her out of the grip of the thing.
"No one," said a voice that she had come to know and cherish, "uses tentacles on my girlfriend!" She succumbs to the darkness with a smile on her face, knowing that Harry had returned.
OOOOOOOO
Harry had felt it the moment his intent ward had been broken by Candra and turned for home. He hadn't been in a rush, thinking that Ororo, Logan, Charles and Scott could handle things, not knowing that three of those people had left on a mission. So he returned just in time to see the second sphere come out of the sky and attack his girlfriend, which naturally made him quite irritated.
He had pulled her toward him out of the thing's grip with a near full-powered ACCIO then caught her gently, slapping a NOTICE-ME-NOT charm before gently laying her down on the ground. "You did good luv," he muttered, stroking her hair gently as he looked around at the devastated mansion and grounds, not missing the body of the blond, who despite her shredded armor appeared uninjured but catatonic.
The spheres turned and, losing sight of their target attacked him, thinking he was their quarry. "Oh, no, attack of the tentacle aliens, whatever will I do?" Despite his tone and the words, Harry was utterly enraged at this attack on his girlfriend. Someone is going to die for this, he vowed. Before they closed Harry cast a BUBBLEHEAD charm to protect himself from the tentacle's gas.
"Let's see how magical resistance you are," he said as he used a levitation spell to send one of them soaring away into the sky from whence it came and another Earth molding spell to trap the other and holding it in place. "Now whatever you are, just stay still, I have thousands of spells I want to use on you. And remember this is for science!" A moment later the thing was torn asunder by earth spikes. "Hmm, no resistance to earth, fascinating, let's see what the other elements can do to you. And again, this is for science."
The thing he had sent the sky came back with friends, but Harry kept on using different spells to immobilize or destroy them, using spells that were too messy to use on living people most of the time, spells that scattered and ripped and tore, but his face never changed from a slightly analytical, curious look despite the amount of power he was throwing around.
He continued taking out his anger on what he was rapidly realizing were mindless drones for nearly an hour, until eventually there were over twenty of the things, and they all formed into one enveloping him from all sides.
They tried the gas but he did not succumb to it. Despite this the giant sphere raised into the air with him in it still batting aside tentacles as they tried to get a grip on him, but he stopped trying to destroy the entire thing. I'd bet anything that this thing is taking me to whoever is really behind this, so going along with things will let me… show my displeasure for this assault.
The sphere shrunk slowly, more and more tentacles attacking him until finally he was forced to retreat behind a full bodyPROTEGO, surrounding him in a shield. The shield stopped them from attacking, and the sphere stopped shrinking but shot further into the air, whatever intelligence was driving it having assumed that because he wasn't fighting back any longer he had been beaten.
"Ah, so nice to be proven right," Harry muttered, staring at the tentacles now wrapped around the outside of his shield. "Now, should I attack immediately after the thing opens or wait and see what happens? Choices, choices."
OOOOOOOOOO
Across town at the acme the battle between the two boys continued as a stalemate until Pietro happened to look up to the sky as he was zooming in for another punch on Kurt. "Hah, we did it!"
Lance looked up too, but unlike his 'friend's' face his was more grim than expectant.
Evan frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?" Kurt took advantage of the lull in action to bamf next to Evan, standing and staring at the almost jubilant Pietro and the somewhat resigned Lance.
Pietro turned to them giddily and the two X-men finally saw what he had been looking at. Four metal spheres had appeared in the sky. "Don't you get it, this means we passed! We won, and now we get to enter sanctuary and claim our reward!"
Evan and Kurt looked at one another, wondering what the hell was going on, but deciding to go along with things for now.
Moments later the spheres touched down and Pietro stepped toward one. It opened and he willingly entered, not getting the tentacle and gas treatment. The others looked at one another, then Lance moved forward resignedly, getting in another of the spheres. Kurt and Evan again exchanged a glance, but curiosity drove them on, and the two of them also entered the metal spheres willingly. A moment later all four zoomed back into the sky and away.
OOOOOOOOO
In geosynchronous orbit above the state of New York was a massive asteroid, named, rather unimaginatively by its owner, as asteroid M. It was about four kilometers long, but was hollowed out for about a third of its length. Now such a massive orbital object would have been found immediately by several dozen governments the world wide, nervous as they were of anyone but them having control of the orbitals, but this asteroid was hidden behind extremely high-tech ECM and visual camouflage.
Charles was not in the mood to be impressed however, despite the grand tour. He stared at his companion, shaking his head. "All this Eric and it is all ruined by the purpose you put it toward."
The man so addressed was tall and moderately broad shouldered, standing about 6' 5'', wearing sleek red armor with purple highlights and a purple cape that flowed down over his shoulders behind him and a strange, bullet shaped red helmet with no face guard. His hard blue eyes looked down at his old friend and intellectual rival. "Yet here we stand, on the cusp of a new age of my making Charles. You have long mouthed the words of coexistence between Homo Superior and Homo Sapien, yet what have you done to achieve it? Nothing, as the riots begin, as world opinion begins to solidify against us, you wait and hope and train your vaunted X-men, but you do not do! No, it is time for mutantkind to stand together, and together we will move toward the future."
"With you as our leader, and mutantkind lording it over Homo Sapiens? Can you not see how wrong that idea is Eric?"
Eric Magnus Lensherr, Master of magnetism, shook his head. "I can see it as the only way to secure the safety of mutantkind. You can see it now, the hate and the fear. No, the only way we can survive is if we are the ones with our boot on their throats, not the other way around. And of course I will be the leader it is my vision, the vision of Magneto which will lead us to victory."
The two of them entered a room where Scott and his estranged brother Alex stood talking to one another happily. The two of them had met after Logan and Charles had retreated to the Blackhawk after Logan had smelled that Magneto had been there. Then they saw that the mansions security had been breached and the two of them had lifted off, leaving Scott alone to find his brother.
But by this time Magneto had already convinced Alex to come with him, showing the boy his powers and explaining their mutant status and what would happen if people learned what they could do. Alex in turn convinced Scott to come with him after the two of them found one another, the two of them taking a single sphere up to the asteroid.
The Blackhawk was nearly back to the Magneto had then attacked the Blackhawk, removing Charles and taking him with him back to the asteroid, leaving Logan behind. Logan swam ashore and found Sabertooth waiting for him and the two immediately attacked one another, but then Charles had told Logan to throw the fight and make his way back to the mansion, worried about the other students.
The two brothers had just been joined by Pietro and the others, and were all now talking quietly about the power up that Magneto had promised the winners and how such a thing could be achieved. The X-kids were wary, but were willing to listen, especially Scott, who was hoping that a power up would allow him to control his eyes without the use of his ruby visor.
"Scott, Evan, Kurt, what in the world are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious, they are here to see what I can offer them Charles." Eric turned to the teens, looking around at them all. "What I can offer you is perfection, your mutant powers evolved as far as they can go. You are here because you have proven yourselves worthy of this gift, worthy of being the leaders of mutant kind. We will work together to seize the future for Homo superior, to protect our fellow mutants from the hate and fear of Homo Sapien."
The passion and power he put into those words gripped all the teens, even the three X-men, and they found themselves nodding along with Pietro and Lance. Charles stared, then shook his head. "Children, remember we are working towards peace with normal humans. War is not inevitable unless we make it so. His words are poison, do not listen to them."
Scott frowned at him. "But aren't we supposed to listen to other's opinions before forming our own sir? Surely listening won't hurt anything?"
Charles frowned but had to relent, seeing as the other two teens from the institute were both nodding along. This was what made Eric dangerous just as much as his power. The man was undeniably charismatic, passionate about his flawed positions, and could convince other people of his point of view without anything but his words at times.
Eric smiled, laying a hand on Scott's shoulder than motioning them all to follow him through a door that had heretofore been guarded by Sabertooth. A Sabertooth in fact that had somehow become even larger, more feral and ripped then a few hours before. "Come then, and I will show you what I can offer you."
The group entered another room, though this one wasn't a sitting area or anything like that, it was very obviously some kind of lab, which had several tubes filled along the side of it. In each one was one of the winners of the battles on Earth that had tried to get away from his spheres. Kitty, Rogue, Jean, and in the last one was Harry.
Charles and the others stared, surprised and worried at the fate of the four people in the tubes. Charles spoke to drive it home in no uncertain terms. "And are they here just to listen Scott? I wonder how they're supposed to listen to anything given the state they are in thanks to our host."
Eric chuckled, raising a hand as the X-men moved away from the brotherhood, even Scott looking at him angrily, his eyes flicking between Jean in her capsule and Magneto despite Alex trying to calm him down. "Calm down please, they are like this because they did not enter the spheres willingly, it is merely a defensive measure."
Magneto stopped in front of that one, looking a little angry at how Harry was there rather than Storm. "I must admit this one surprised me though. I would have been prepared to bet on Candra beating Storm. But to have her lose and to have Potter somehow replace her, that was a shock."
Scott growled a little, his visor beginning to glow. "Let them out, now!"
"They will be released soon," Eric soothed. "After we have had a chance to talk."
He was interrupted by a force slamming into his armor from behind and sending him flying. Despite the fact he hadn't been prepared for it he had summoned up a magnetic forcefield in anticipation of his needing it against Scott and the other. It took the brunt of the force of the attack, but he was still flung down the room.
He looked up at where the attack had come from to see Potter somehow awake and glaring at him, with one arm raised pointing at him through the now shattered glass of the container. "That was for trying to tentacle rape my girlfriend you bastard!"
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