X-Men Issue #7: Brawl at the Mall (Patreon)

Jean had sometimes used her telekinesis to float but now she flew. The power that the entity in her mind gave her was like an ocean to the pool she had once been drawing power from. If only she was in full control.  

The thing that had been in her head for weeks now was forcing her to fly around looking for a place to unleash the power that built up inside of her. There had been some chaos, flipping cars, destorying an old building or two in that time but this thing wanted to unleash real power. She was still in her stolen outfit of converses, skinny jeans and a long sleeve green shirt with a yellow flaming bird on the front. Something the entity was drawn too.  

It was just becoming nine in the morning as Jean flew over a town about an hour and a half away from the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. She had been there once with Rogue and Scott; Jean began to say before another crippling headache slammed into her mind from the entity in her mind. 

The redheaded mutant dropped from the sky. She managed to control her fall enough to land on the roof of a large building. Jean tried to push back the thing pushing around her mind but was unable to. She collapsed on a large skylight as she was overwhelmed. It felt like her brain was melting. 

Without warning, the pain disappeared and Jean could move yet again. This was due to the entity noticing what was through the skylight. Down below was a mall, one that was just opening for the day. Jean could feel that the powerful thing inside her mind wanted to go down there, to use her powers of telekinesis to play and break the materials that sat down there. To cause destruction that devastated the community. 

Jean knew to give the being what it wanted. She would try to make sure no one got hurt, but she couldn’t fight against what the force wanted. With a wave of telekinesis the glass shattered and Jean floated down to the floor of the mall below. The glass she had shattered her powers began to shatter to such small pieces that it looked like sparkles of rain. 

At the Xavier Institute later that day, Scott and Bobby were just getting out of chemistry class with Professor McCoy. Though they had classes with Hank, as he liked to be called, it was still hard to get used to a man who looked like a large, hairy blue ape wearing the tightest black shorts and a loose large white tank top.  

Both men walked down the hall before Logan appeared out of nowhere and stopped. 

“Drake, suit up. Summers, gather the rest of your team and meet me at the Blackbird in ten.” The short older man said. He was dressed in his combat gear. Yellow combat pants and a sleeveless yellow athletic shirt with blue shoulder pads and sides. He wasn’t wearing his mask but had his blue gloves on. The Wolverine was mission prepped.  

“Yes, sir.” Bobby Drake ran off to the locker room to grab his gear. Scott raised an eyebrow in confusion, which was hard to tell behind his red aviator glasses.  

“It’s Jean.” Logan said. His voice was deadly serious, and Scott didn’t ask another question. Scott was already rushing off to gather Jubilee, Lorna, Alison, and Kitty. He didn’t even register that Hank McCoy was in the hallway talking to Logan. 

“What’s going on, Logan?” The blue mutant asked. 

“Jean’s attacking a mall. We’re going to bring her back.” The shorter man said as checked his gauntlets.  

“My god and Ororo is sending a team to bring her back? Is she coming as well?” McCoy asked as Wolverine gave him a look. While Storm, like all the X-Men, wanted Jean back safely and as soon as possible, she had thought the best approach was to figure out a way to wake Professor Xavier from his coma. She was also worried about confronting Jean causing more harm than good as they were still repairing some of the damage to the mansion. If they confronted her out in the world, it could cause major harm to mutant-human relations. Logan disagreed. 

“She’s in a meeting, no time to interrupt her.” He said before marching off to the Blackbird hanger. Hank’s face dropped as he realized Logan hadn’t told the acting head of the school that he was taking students to bring back a Jean. Something she’d clearly want to be aware of. 

“What?” Hank asked, his voice high in alarm as Logan was turning a corner. 

“She’s in a meeting, don’t bother her.” 

Hank couldn’t see that as Logan turned the corner; he had picked up his pace to get to the hanger as quickly as possible.  

Scott rushed into the common area to find Kitty sitting with Tabitha and Rouge. The trio were hanging out and studying algebra at the same time. Scott briskly walked over. 

“Kitty, suit up.” He said, the words rushing into one another. 

“What? Seriously?” Shadowcat said with excitement. She phased through her chair and rushed off towards the locker room. Rogue looked up at Scott. 

“Jean?” She asked.  

“Logan said she’s at some mall. A repeat of what she did here a few weeks ago.” He answered as his head swiveled. He still had to find the rest of his team. 

Rogue stood up. 

“Let me gather my team and we can all go.” She said but Scott was already shaking his head. 

“Logan told me to gather my team.” He said, he didn’t want to be too harsh but now wasn’t the time to mince words.  

“Rogue, I don’t think your team is up for it. With the inexperienced team and only recently running simulations in the Danger Room, I just don’t think they are ready.” He said doing his best to be diplomatic. Tabitha didn’t say anything, but she did give him a disapproving look. 

“No offense.” Scott added as Rogue nodded her head. While she knew Scott was right, she wasn’t an inexperienced X-Man and she was being sidelined with the rest of her team. 

“Yeah, I get it. Just...” Rogue brushed the white bangs from her eyes. “Just bring her home.” 

“I will. I promise.” Scott said with a nod before jogging off to find the rest of his team.  

Down in the underground portion of the school, Kitty had just walked into the locker room that sat between the Danger Room and the hanger where the Blackbird was located. She had quickly got to her locker and tossed her purple hoodie inside and grabbed the actual uniform. She had been training in just normal athletic gear as it took time to create the full X-Men uniform that everyone on the team wore.  

“Finally.” Kitty said as she undressed taking off her jeans and pastel pink tank top leaving her in a small black bralette and purple briefs with flower designs before sliding on her uniform. Like all the X-Men, Kitty’s uniform was mostly black spandex material but hers had purple around the chest with yellow on the collar, the gloves and the belt with the big X in the center that all the team had. She had thought they were one pieces but it was actually a top and pants. Every member of the team had input on how their gear looked, some went a bit crazy.  

She had to stop herself from running down here when Scott said they were going on a real mission. She hadn’t been on any missions as an official X-Man yet. Just training exercises, which were always a blast but to go on an actual mission, felt so cool. It was the reason she joined up after seeing that Mystique’s Sisterhood of Mutants wasn’t what she was looking for. Her mind snapped back to the here and now as the door opened. Lorna, Alison and Jubilee all walked in. Lorna was in a yellow sundress with her green hair pulled up tight. Alison was in white short shorts and a beige top that exposed her stomach. Jubilee was wearing a bright pink shirt and some jean shorts. 

“Someone’s an eager beaver.” Lorna said, seeing Kitty stretching in her gear.  

“Sorry, but yeah. Like been waiting a while to actually try this on.” Kitty said as made sure everything fit and was functional.  

“Strike a pose.” Alison said as she pulled out her camera and Kitty did strike one. Dazzler took a few photos, making sure Kitty looked good in them before sending them to her phone. 

“Big moment.” Alison said as after all Kitty had put her through as part of the Sisterhood, they had become friends.  

Lorna removed her sundress, leaving her in a green thong and fancy green bra. She turned to quickly changed out the lacy green bra for a black sports bra. She turned to her locker and floated out her uniform on their metal hangers.  

Like all the uniforms, Lorna and Kitty’s were similar but with some major differences. While black spandex pants, Lorna’s top had no purple but yellow from the shoulders to her belly button. Her’s also had the X on the center of the belt but also X’s on the shoulders.  

Jubilee pulled her shorts off to reveal a pair of undies that were on the larger side and of a faded pink variety. While Lorna and Alison both had come to love Jubilee like a sister, it was hard for them not to poke fun at times. 

“You are going to have such bad VPL.” Alison said, while Jubilee pulled her spandex pants. 

“Oh, shut up. We are going on a mission. Is that really the most important part?” The shorter woman asked. 

“Yes.” Lorna and Alison said at the same time. Jubilee gave them a “are you serious” look before turning to Kitty for a second opinion. 

“It isn’t that bad, right Kitty?” Jubilee asked as she turned her butt towards their newest teammate.  

“Uhhhh, kinda is.” Kitty said as it was clear Jubilee was rocking some larger undergarments. Not that Kitty was one to judge as she preferred a more fullback style herself, just not as full as Jubilee’s. 

“We are all going shopping after this.” Alison declared as she pulled her own pants and shirt off leaving her in a white bra and white boyshorts. Her uniform was the most different as it was blue spandex pants and a blue jacket that went over a white spandex top. The jacket had an X above her heart to go with X on her belt.  

Jubilee just shook her head and finished getting ready. Her top was similar to Lorna’s with the yellow covering her shoulders to her stomach with black along the sides. The shortest member of the team finished off the look with bright yellow gloves, which helped keep her hands safe for when she needed to use her powers to full effect. 

The foursome left the locker room to find Scott and Bobby waiting by the Blackbird. While the guys had the same options as the ladies to customize their gear, Cyclops and Iceman’s were pretty similar. Black spandex pants, yellow belts with X as the buckle and black spandex tops. Though Cyclops had a yellow bandolier across his shoulders and had his combat visor instead of red sunglasses.  

Before any of them could say a word, Logan stormed in, mask on ready to go. 

“On the plane, now.” He ordered as it was clear while Scott was team leader; Logan was running this mission. No one argued as they got onto the Blackbird and locked in. They were in the air and on their way before anyone said anything. 

Scott was the one to break the silence. 

“What’s the situation?” He asked, trying to keep it professional but not masking that he was extremely worried about Jean. Logan sighed before answering. 

“Jean crashed through a glass ceiling at a mall and started raising Hell. All kinds of chaos.” He spoke. 

“What’s the plan?” Bobby asked. His voice waivered a little, but it was something they all except for maybe Scott were feeling. While Jean was their friend, they also knew she was powerful. One of the best X-Men to ever wear the uniform. 

“We land. Me and Shades.” He jerked a thumb in Scott’s direction. “Confront and try to talk her down. If that fails Alison is to disorient her, you and Lorna contain her. And Firecracker back there is to shoot down any dangerous debris that’s floating around.”  

Everyone silently nodded in agreement as Logan had it all figured out. Scott looked out the window worriedly hoping they wouldn’t need to use anything besides talking to Jean from Logan’s plan. 

Less than an hour later, the Blackbird was landing in a mall parking lot. Police had cordoned off the area, so the lot had plenty of room for the stealth plane to land. It set down almost silently as Logan led the team of students off. 

The police officers, who had seen they were out of their element and stayed far away from the mall, watched in wide eyed fear and wonder as the X-Men approached. The local P.D made plenty of space to let the mutants pass and it was obvious the trouble was caused by one of their own. They walked around a break in the police barricade and Logan stopped them. 

He raised a hand to signal the team to stop and his eyes went to the sky. The entire team looked up but saw nothing. 

Until a silver jet, slightly smaller than the Blackbird, flew overhead and stopped to hover. The jet slowly landed thirty feet from the team of X-Men. 

“Ah, crap.” Logan said as the jet’s engines powered down. It turned so that the vehicle was in profile, showing a large, stylized A on the side of the jet. After a moment a ramp extended from the side and figures began walking out to meet the X-Men. 

The one in the lead needed no introduction as he was dressed in red, white, and blue with a circular shield strapped to his back. He walked with an air of confidence that made everyone take notice. Next, to him was a puzzling figure for she was familiar to the X-Men. Her grungier gear for black leather pants, red leather corset, and a red tiara. Though she kept her red leather jacket from when she invaded the X-Mansion with the Sisterhood of Mutants.   

They were Captain America and Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch. They walked down the ramp first to face Wolverine and the team of X-Men with him. They were followed by two people carrying bows in purple. One was a guy, probably around Cap’s age wearing goggles, a purple shirt and black cargo pants. He had a quiver on his back and a purple bow in his hand. Matching him was a girl, also in a purple shirt, her’s was just long sleeved and black cargo pants, she had her own quiver and purple bow. Her goggles were skinnier and black. 

Last down the ramp was a woman in a bright yellow one-piece jumpsuit and a red domino mask. Her gloves were bright red, and her auburn hair moved in the breeze. She walked elegantly down the ramp to stand behind Cap.  

While the X-Men assembled watched the group come down, Lorna’s eyes were drawn to her sister as her pulse quickened. She let out a small, surprised gasp. 

“Not happy to see us, sis?” A familiar voice said as she felt someone resting on her shoulder. She turned to see her brother, Pietro Maximoff. Quicksilver smiled before sticking his finger in his mouth before using super speed to jam it into her ear. 

He was gone and back next to Cap before Lorna could even uncomfortably move her head from the wet willie. She let out a gak and began trying to rub the saliva out of her ear. Quicksilver moved to stand behind Cap. The silver-haired man was wearing a silver sleeveless shirt with a white bolt across it and black running pants closer to leggings. 

“Are they Avengers?” Bobby asked.  

“Are we fighting the Avengers?” Jubilee asked. Logan turned back to them and gave them a glare, getting them to quiet down. The last thing he needed was them embarrassing him by acting like students who were just finally facing a real challenge.  

Which they were. 

“We aren’t fighting them. Yet.” He said as he took a few steps forward. “Just be glad I don’t see any heavy hitters. Last thing we need is the Hulk showing up.” 

Captain America saw Wolverine moving forward and marched over to meet him. His own team stayed back, as did the X-Men as the two grizzled veterans talked. 

“Steve.” 

“Logan.” 

Wolverine spat off to the side. 

“We got this handled Steve. You can take your...” Logan looked past Steve Rogers to the group behind him unimpressed. “Team and head back to S.H.I.E.L.D.” 

“No can do Logan. We got called in and the Avengers are here to handle this.”  

“Mutant in there, don’t you think mutants should handle that?”  

“Not my call. Once we have the situation handled, I’m sure Director Hill will be in contact with Professor Xavier to help rehabilitate whoever is causing this.” Cap said. 

“Hey, she-.” Scott stepped forward and stopped when Logan shot him a glance. He was going to stop anyways as he realized he had just shouted at Captain America. Logan turned back to Cap. 

“Cause the government has been so good to mutants in the past, we should just trust them on this one.”  

Steve let out a sigh. 

“I don’t want to do this with you. I’m not here to argue about the rights or wrongs that have been done to mutants by the U.S government. I’ve been sent here to stop a mutant who is currently ripping apart a mall in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. So, I am only going to say this once.” Steve Rogers stepped a bit closer to Logan making it more obvious the difference in physical height. 

“Step aside, Logan.” Captain America said as he looked down on the smaller Canadian. Wolverine was not intimidated and looked up at Captain Rogers. He began cracking his knuckles. 

“Please, I’ve been waiting a long time for this.” 

As the two WWII vets made threats at one another the team of X-Men were whispering among themselves.  

Bobby and Scott were ready to back up Logan at a moment's notice, while the woman in yellow and the two archers did the same for Cap, like two groups of kids watching their dads get into a fight. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were both eyeing Polaris, who hadn’t taken her eyes off her siblings since they appeared. Dazzler and Jubilee were at the green-haired mutant’s side ready to throw down with her older brother and sister. 

Kitty was left as the one asking questions. 

“I thought they disbanded?” Kitty asked, generally confused. She was closest to Bobby and Scott but asked loud enough that anyone could have answered. The Avengers had been an on and off unit for the past few years, but last anyone had heard they had disbanded.  

“We are Avengers Refor-.” Captain America began to declare before Logan interrupted. 

“It's the Avengers, they do this crap all the time.” Logan said cutting off Cap. Rodgers shot Logan a glare. To him reforging the Avengers was a big, sacred duty for the good of the people. For his shorter counterpart, it was annoying. Captain Rogers gave Logan a look of annoyance for that commoent before turning back to the matter at hand. 

“Logan, this isn’t up for negotiation. Take your team and head back to your mansion.”  

“No can do, bub.”  

“How dare you.” One of Cap’s team said. Logan’s attention moved to that group. 

“He’s Captain America, aren’t you patriotic?” The girl in purple asked.  

“I’m Canadian.” Logan said, turning his attention back to Captain America. They stand off for a moment longer before the Red, White and Blue Avenger has had enough. 

“Quicksilver.” Cap said, giving the speediest member of his team the order to go get the mutant inside the mall. 

“On it.” Pietro said rushing past the X-Men before anyone could stop him.  

“Cyclops.” Wolverine growled, giving the young man the order to go after Pietro and Jean. Scott doesn’t say anything, instead chasing after Pietro who was already inside the building.  

An arrow flew from the female archer, but was knocked out of the sky by Jubilee. 

“Hey, no fair.” She said as the plasma she shot off destroyed the arrow. The archer was already notching another bow, while the rest of Cap’s team fanned out. The fight was starting. The X-Men waited for the order from Logan, which came a moment later. 

“Let’s make one thing clear.” Logan said as he popped his claws. “Cap is mine.” 

Cap pulled his shield off his back and strapped it to his arm.  

The time for words was over as the X-Men did battle with these new Avengers. 

Scott had just raced into the blown out doors of the mall, not even turning back to seeing the huge fight unfolding. His only goal was to find Jean and talk to her.  

He kept moving forward till a gust of wind blew him back. Except he quickly realized it wasn’t wind. It was Quicksilver speeding up and down the halls. The speedster stopped in front of Scott, looking bored for waiting.  

“You do realize I could run from here to Alaska and back before you even got to her?” The silver-haired speedster said. Scott had never bothered with the speedster much in the past, but he knew jean hated him, and he was starting to see why. The son of Magneto was annoying. Cyclops ignored him and kept moving forward. He didn’t take a full step before he went down.  

“What? No chit chat?” Pietro asked as Scott fell down. He looked to see his shoes had been tied together. 

“Seriously?” Scott said quickly untying the boots and retying them. The speedster stood there, picking dirt from under his nails as Scott slowly got back up. As Cyclops got to his feet, Pietro was gone, but he could feel the aftermath of a breeze.  

He took another step before the blur, Pietro, appeared before him again. To the speedster, Cyclops moved in slow motion as his hand tried to go to his visor to adjust the blast, he was about to unleash on Quicksilver. Pietro had other ideas as his hands flew to Scott’s chest.  

“Ahhh.” Scott shouted as his nipples were twisted with super speed. His hands went to his chest just in time to feel his boxers get tight. The blue and white plaid fabric that had been sitting in their normal position was not halfway up his back; no mean feat for anyone considering the fabric wasn’t very stretchy.  

“Man, you kind of suck.” Pietro said as he sped into vision in front of Scott. The speedster looked perfectly calm in his silver outfit. Before Sott could answer back, he felt the speedster grab him, thankful not by his boxers and before Scott could say a syllable, he was thrown into the back room of the store, back towards where he started. 

“I have plenty of time to handle you, your girl and get a bite to eat.” The speedster said. “So, sit tight and I’ll go handle your girl and a bite to eat. I’ll grab you a burger.” 

With that the door to the back room was slammed shut and Scott was alone. 

“Great.” Scott said as he took a moment to adjust his boxers. 

Outside the greatest hand-to-hand combat fight was happening as Wolverine and Captain America clashed, claws on shield.  

Across the parking lot another fight was happening as Bobby Drake was blasting a wave of ice at Firestar, who living up to her namesake was firing fire at his wave of ice, causing a lot of water and steam. 

The two forces of fire and ice clashed with neither making any progress on defeating the other. After a moment, Iceman and Firestar needed a break and broke off their attacks. The two heroes eyed each other. As equals, they moved at the same time once again firing blasts of their element at one another. 

“Aren’t you one of us?” Bobby asked as he shot a beam of ice at Firestar. She in turn fired a blast of microwave energy in the form of heat causing the two to push against each other.  

“Just because I’m a mutant doesn’t mean I’m going to just go with everything you guys do.” She said as the two strained against each other.  

“Well, you should.” Bobby said back as he didn’t have any other ideas as to why Firestar should be switching teams.

“Wow, that was pathetic.” Firestar said as she quickly moved as Bobby’s blast of frost met empty air. He didn’t have time to think of anything witty as he had to run to avoid getting fried by her blast of heat. Bobby rolled and left a wall of ice behind him as Firestar’s heat tried to follow him, but blasted into the wall creating more water and steam.

“Try this for pathetic.” Bobby said as he blasted a huge snow cone shaped blast at Firestar. She launched with her own blast of heat, not enough to kill Bobby but enough to knock him on his butt.

The two blasts of heat and cold passed each other and slammed into their opponents chest. Bobby landed on a heap feeling sunburnt, while Firestar landed in a pile of slush, cold and damp. 

The battle of the two elementals had created a small fog around the area, Jubilee and Dazzler were facing off with an Avengers original.  

The original Hawkeye, Clint Barton, was really hoping this wouldn’t devolve into the fight it had. 

“Okay, so just so we’re clear we don’t have to do this.” He said as his bow was notched with a non-lethal round. Both girls had gathered plasma and light in their hands respectively, ready to fire off. 

“I mean Logan is fighting Cap, are we allowed to call him Cap?” Jubilee asked, looking at Allison. The blonde shrugged. 

“I mean you guys have Wanda and Pietro on your team, that alone makes it feel like we have too.”  

Hawkeye shrugged. 

“Not my call. I just work here; that’s an HR decision.” 

Both girls looked at him for a moment. 

“Was that a joke?” 

“I mean HR didn’t specifically hire them, but we do have an HR department.” 

Clint had a dozen or so reasons he didn’t want to fight them, but a big one is they were the same age as Kate Bishop, who he mentored.

They faced off waiting for one of the others to make a move.

“So, are we going to fight or like….what?” Allison asked. She had been in battles before, but this was against an Avengers, like an actual Avenger. You don’t fight them, even the lesser known ones. 

“Uhh, up to you guys?” Clint asked, not really sure. When Captain America told him they were going to go deal with a situation involving a mutant, fighting the X-Men wasn’t really what he had in mind. 

“He’s just one guy.” Jubilee said before firing off a bolt of plasma. Clint rolled out of the way of the blast and fired his arrow, a flashbag one. The arrow flew at the two women, who moved to make sure they were clear of being struck, but neither was prepared for the explosion. Allison and Jubilee covered their eyes from the flashbag. Their ears rang as Clint readied another arrow.

“That sucked.” Allison said as she rubbed her eyes. Usually she was the one blinding people, not being blinded.

“What?” Jubilee asked, as her ears were still ringing. The two mutants gathered energy in their hands again. Allison gathered a bright flash to fire off and Jubilee gathered plasma.

“Now, that isn’t really necessary.” Clint was trying to say before both women fired off their abilities. Clint jumped back dodging both blasts of energy that collide above him. The makeshift flashbag now blinded Clint as his ears rang.

“Damn it.” He said, rubbing his eyes as he got to his feet.

“What?” Both women asked as they unable to really hear who was speaking.

Across the parking lot, in the fog of steam the other Hawkeye Kate Bishop wasn’t having as pleasant of a conversation with her opponent, Shadowcat.  

“Don’t take another step.” Kate said aiming her bow, also with a non-lethal arrow notched, at Kitty. The shorter woman kept marching forward. 

“I’m warning you.” The younger Hawkeye said, not wanting to shoot the mutant, but she was also not playing around. 

“I heard you, I think it would be a waste.” Kitty said as she moved forward. 

Kate had no choice. She released the arrow and hoped it didn’t hurt the smaller woman too much. Instead, Kitty watched as the arrow went right through her body. 

“See, kind of a waste.” She said to the archer who looked a little bit worried. 

“That doesn’t seem fair.” Kate Bishop said as she notched another arrow.  

Kitty chuckled. 

“You know I can do the same thing again right?” Shadowcat asked as she moved forward a bit faster now. 

Kate got off two more shots that went right through Kitty before she changed tactics. She pulled an exploding one from her quiver and fired at the ground. The ground below Kitty exploded into a small pothole of dust and debris. Kate lost sight of her opponent and when the smoke cleared, Kitty was gone. 

“Oh no.” Kate said smally as she realized she may have gotten overzealous with the exploding arrow. It wasn’t a massive explosion, but there was no sign of the mutant.  

“Coming up.” Kitty said as she phased through the ground at Kate’s feet. Before the younger Hawkeye knew what was happening, she was given a wicked uppercut that sent her sprawling onto her butt. The female archer was stunned but rolled to start to get up, but Shadowcat was already moving, grabbing the archer’s quiver and phasing it off of her. 

“You are really bad at this.” Kitty said tossing the quiver of arrows away. Kate was on one knee, still a bit disoriented from the punch when Kitty went for her next move. 

She wasn’t sure what to call it and it was more just to throw her opponents off, but she reached into Kate’s pants, grabbed the waistband of her undies and began phasing. The archer’s eyes went wide as she felt something change below the belt as Kitty pulled Kate’s black boyshorts off and held them up in the air. 

“Pretty plain.” Kitty teased as Kate shook off the disorientation from the punch and the fact she was no longer wearing underwear. She rolled forward, pulled a smoke bomb from a pouch on her uniform, and threw it down. Kitty was left in a coughing fit, dropping the underpants, as Kate put some distance between them.  

On the outskirts of the parking lot Polaris was doing battle with her sister. 

It wasn’t going good for the green haired mutant as she was pulling pieces of metal from anywhere, she could to deflect and block her sister’s magical red blasts of energy. While Wanda was better at just letting her power loose to cause havoc by making the worst probabilities become reality, she had grown as a mutant and could full direct this energy in red waves to blast her foes back. Her foe being her little sister in this case. 

“Stop hiding and fight me like a woman.” Wanda demanded as she marched towards Lorna. The metal controlling mutant debated for a second before fleeing, using a car door to hold off her sister’s onslaught.  

Polaris held back as much as she could as her sister continued to slam magical waves of energy at her. Lorna pulled more metal to block the waves as Wanda taunted her. 

“Scared as always, going to pee your pants next?” The Scarlet Witch asked, knowing this would get under Lorna’s skin. Which it did, bringing back trauma from their past. 

Before Wanda could launch her next attack, Polaris began firing out the metal she had collected at her sister. Now it was Wanda’s turn to be on the defensive as she blocked chunks of metal from slamming into her. 

Wanda smiled, she liked when Lorna was mad. Made it all the sweeter to beat her.  

“You’re going to lose this rematch, little sis.” Wanda said as Polaris reached out for the next thing to throw at her sister. 

It was a cop car that Lorna picked up with her powers of magnetism and tossed at Wanda. For a moment Wanda’s eyes went wide, their father could do such things with ease, but she hadn’t realized her sister had also gotten to this level of power. 

Wanda jumped out of the way as the cop car landed where she had been standing. 

“I am going to make you my bitch.” Lorna said as she marched towards her sister. Wanda realized she might have over played her hand, but she always had another trick up her sleeve. As her green hair sister approached, Wanda used her mutant abilities to hex the gas tank of the cop car. Lorna wasn’t ready as a small explosion knocked her forward. She hadn’t been knocked off her feet but it still threw her forward. 

For a moment she looked at Wanda pissed before a new expression took over. One of pain.  

Lorna jumped into the air as her backside burned. Thanks to Wanda’s hex, a small bit of fire had shot out from the explosion, landed on Lorna’s outfit, specifically the butt, and caught fire. Wanda got up and smiled as her sister smacked her own butt, trying to put out the flames.  

As the flames died out, Lorna could feel a huge hole in the back of her pants revealing almost her entire left butt cheek.  

Lorna sneered at her sister at this new humiliation. Wanda gave an evil smile back. Seconds passed and the pair were hurling metal and magic at one another. 

Inside the mall, Jean realized she was alone. She landed on the floor looking around at the damage she had caused. The thing that was inside her was still there, but for the moment it was leaving Jean in full control. 

The fiery energy that crackled off Jean dissipated. She had no idea why she was so angry, so destructive or so powerful. She knew she was strong before, but everything felt so fragile. She could break the world by accident. She felt bad for a moment before the being reasserted itself. 

She smiled; whatever was sharing space in her head oved the destructive power she had. The entity whispered to smash more, she began to release her telekinesis. Windows shatters, anything not pinned to the floor shifted, flying through the air and the tiles beneath her feet cracked. In the back of her mind, she remembered no one was getting hurt, just things. If that kept the entity happy, she was happy. Truth be told, deep down she liked it. 

A whistle brought her out of herself reflective thoughts. She turned to see a figure that made her blood boil. Standing in a silver spandex shirt with white accents and black spandex pants was Pietro Maximoff. The last she had seen of him, he was being arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D after attacking the Xavier Institute.  

Jean did not like Pietro. Anytime they fought, he went out of his way to humiliate her, targeting her specifically. His brain moved too fast for her to ever hope to get a read on him using her telepathy, not that it was her strong suit anyways. Pietro was going to treat this encounter like all the other times and raced forward. 

Jean felt a rush of air and felt a bit colder. Pietro was behind her now and he was laughing. How she hated his laugh.  

“Nice panties, granny.” The silver speedster said, mocking her. Jean looked down and her face went red with embarrassment and rage.  

She had been pantsed once again by the speedster mutant. Her pale red fullback briefs were on display as Pietro got a great look at her rear. Her pants were around her ankles once again, and he was laughing at her. In the past, embarrassment would have been the foremost emotion, but now it was something else. She turned to face him. 

Jean was mad, she was enraged. She was going to make him pay. 

“Aw, is Jeanie mad?” Pietro taunted.  

The speedster hadn’t yet realized that this wasn’t the normal situation with Jean. He had thought she had gone to the mall to blow off some steam, and it turned a bit chaotic, if he had even given it that much thought. He had dealt with issues like that after getting into arguments with his father.  

Jean used her telepathic powers to pull up her pants and put them back in their proper position. Her eyes locked on Pietro and with the power of the entity she reached into his mind. While telepathy wasn’t her strong suit in the past, with the power of the fires that burned within her, his mind wasn’t as protected as in the past. He wasn’t prepared as the quicksand of her psychic attacks slowed him down. Which didn’t matter anyway. Her telekinesis wrapped around him that even the great speedster couldn’t run out of.  Not that he didn’t try. 

As Jean telepathically held Pietro in place, she used her powers to grab a cash register and throw it directly at Pietro. Specifically, his crotch. Quicksilver was also too preoccupied, trying to unstick himself that he almost didn’t notice the cash register flying towards his crotch. 

The piece of retail equipment slammed into his lower body with such force that Pietro crumbled around it as he was thrown back. Coins flew as he and the register landed in a tangled mess. He ended up straddling the register as he landed on top of it.  

Jean telepathically hurled him from where he was into a wall, bouncing him off of it as she smeared the speedster like a bug on a windshield. Quicksilver was in enough pain that he really wasn’t in any place to defend himself. The fire insides Jean screamed out for more, so she flipped Pietro in the air landing him in the fountain in the center of the mall. 

He was awake, but immobile from pain. Pietro knew he was in the fountain, but his head wasn’t underwater. That was because Jean had lifted all the water out of the fountain forming a ball of liquid in the air above. 

“Oh crap.” Pietro said as the ball dropped. He managed to get to his feet just in time for it to envelop him. Soon the speedster was inside the ball of water that Jean held in the air. With her powers, she began to churn the water from still to a raging rapid. Pietro’s head would appear every so often for air, but Jean shook it like the speedster was in a floating washing machine.  

“Jean.” Scott shouted as he ran into the the mall to see the floating ball of water with a speedster inside. She turned to him and the redhead’s hatred faltered for a moment. It was Scott Summers, the boy she had had a crush on since they first met.  

The ball of water hit the ground with a splash. Pietro lay in a wet heap on the ground, coughing a little but alive.  

“Jean, what are you doing?” He asked. Even though he and Jean were close, he’d be lying if he hadn’t been a bit disturbed at seeing her almost drowning a fellow mutant.  

The fiery force inside Jean swelled to the surface again, just for an instant. She looked at Scott with such rage and malice, like how dare he defend Pietro. 

No, this is Scott. Jean said to herself. The being went back down as Jean’s emotions towards Scott rushed back to the surface. 

“Scott, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Jean said. Her voice sounded so hurt and alone. He took a step closer to her. 

A muffled shot rang out and a yellow dart appeared in the side of Jean’s neck. 

“Jean!” Scott shouted in alarm as he ran towards her. Before he could reach her multiple soldiers ran in, guns raised, stopping him from moving forward. 

Jean raised her hands, but more muffled shots and more darts appeared in Jean’s back and arms. No telekinsis came as Jean tried to move forward. 

She stumbled.  

She tried to use her powers to pull the darts out of her back. The darts remained imbedded in her as the entity in her mind went quiet. Jean would have felt relief, but she fell forward. She was unconscious before she hit the ground. 

Scott watched in horror as armed men rushed in to surround Jean. One of these soldiers dressed in black pointed to Scott. He was grabbed and dragged out of the building. His last sights of Jean were as she was being placed onto a gurney.  

Outside, helicopters were landing. 

The team of Avengers and X-Men stepped apart as this new group arrived. The dozen helicopters all had the same logo on the side.  

S.H.I.E.L.D. 

“Oh crap.” Logan said as the helicopter nearest to him and Captain America landed, and the sliding door opened. Four soldiers in blue S.H.I.E.L.D jump suits rushed out followed by a woman with short brown hair also wearing a blue jumpsuit. 

“Stand down, now.” Maria Hill shouted as S.H.I.E.L.D agents rushed in. She was currently the acting director of the organization.  

“What the hell is she doing here?” Logan asked Cap, who gave a shrug. 

“No idea, I told her we would handle this.” The captain looked at Wolverine, wiping the blood from his nose that was most likely broken. “Professional curtsey.”  

“You.” Hill said point to the Avengers. “You are all getting back on that quinjet and so help me, you will go back to the tower and sit there till this mess is sorted.” 

Her attention then turned to the mutants. 

“And you bunch will get on your jet, which we will be tracking, and you take your entire team back your compound and stay there until I figure out exactly what is going on.” 

Scott was walked out at gun point by soldiers and marched towards his teammates. Logan recognized the smell coming off the soldiers who held Scott and stepped towards them. They had two smells wafting off them. One of a person and one of the chemicals that he knew all too well. He popped his claws as he took another step. 

“On your ship now.” Maria Hill shouted at Logan before he could get any closer. He looked at Cap before turning his attention back to the unmarked soldiers with the S.H.I.E.L.D agents. 

“Who are those guys?” Logan asked, his voice a whispered growl. He knew who they were but wanted confirmation. 

“No idea.” Cap said, generally unsure of who these men were as they weren’t under Maria Hill. “But I plan on finding out.” 

After much show of force from S.H.I.E.L.D the X-Men and Avengers returned to their respective jets. Logan flew the team back to the Xavier Institute. He was silent and enraged for the entire flight. Scott told Bobby everything that happened with Jean and how he felt so helpless as she unleashed her powers. The rest of the team was silent as they hadn’t rescued Jean like they had planned.  

The blackbird landed on the outdoor landing pad, and everyone slowly got up and marched down the ramp. Their blue professor was waiting at the bottom looking nervously as each student walked by. Logan was the last to exit the vehicle. 

“Logan, uh, Ororo wants to see you.” Hank McCoy said as he looked around nervously.  

“I’m not in the mood Hank.” Logan said as he marched down the ramp of the Blackbird. He made it to the bottom of the ramp when the sound of thunder on an otherwise clear day made him stop.  

He stopped and looked at the clear sky. 

“I’ll head right over.” He said begrudgingly as his metal skeleton made him the perfect lightning rod, and it sounded like Ororo was pissed. Logan pulled off his mask and began the walk over. 

Everyone watched as Logan marched to the headmaster’s office, just like a student. Word spread around campus quick, and by the time Logan reached Ororo, more than a few students were waiting around outside trying not to look conspicuous.  

Rogue was one of them. She had run into Scott before she made it to the office.  

“Is she okay at least?” Rogue asked. It was obvious that bringing Jean back to the Institute hadn’t gone as planned. 

“I don’t know.” Scott said, looking as low as she had even seen him. 

“Soldiers showed up and tranquilized her. They took her. I just don’t know.” Scott said, and Rogue could tell even behind his visor he was tearing up a little. She was also at a loss for words, and Scott trudged back to the locker room to get changed. She rushed to Ororo’s office just in time for Logan to walk in. He gave a glare at some of the students and sent them running, Rogue stayed. 

He gave her a look before walking in. The door closed behind him and the argument started. 

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ororo asked before the door could be fully closed.  

“I was going to get Jean back.” He said walking to the window. A few students were outside trying to look like they weren’t listening in. He cast a glance down and many of them went scattering. 

“And how did that work out for you?” She asked. With Professor Xavier’s current comatose state, Ororo had taken over as headmaster, and she had started dressing as it. Her white hair was pulled back, and she was wearing a black blouse and black dress pants. The heels she wore, also black, made her a good deal taller than Logan, who was vertically challenged. 

“It was going fine till those jackasses showed up.” He said, trying to sound nonchalant about the situation. She threw up her hands as she walked from behind her desk. 

“You are the most irresponsible man on the planet.” Storm shouted in her office, loud enough for anyone on the same floor to hear. 

“I did what I had to do.” Logan shouted back. 

“Fighting Captain America is what you had to do?” 

“He had it coming.” 

Another rumble of thunder came from outside, and Logan was glad to be inside.  

“We are already hated and now every news station and website in the world has you punching Captain America in the face. How do you think that’s going to play?” She asked, looking down at Logan. He was getting tired of this as Logan believed he did what was right. 

“Who cares. I went to get Jean; she is one of us, and she is clearly going through something right now. It was better than sitting here doing nothing.” He said. Storm took a step closer as the two were on shaky ground. 

“She is and now she is gone. You went in without even mentioning anything to me and rushed off halfcocked, again might I add, and now Jean is gone to the Raft or who knows where.”  

“I know where she is and I plan on getting her b-.” Logan began say before a loud crash of thunder shook the building. 

Logan didn’t say anything as he was working on a plan on getting Jean back with or without Ororo’s help. Ororo took his silence to mean he was finally going to listen to orders. 

“We might have a lead on helping Charles.” She said, her voice a bit calmer now. Logan looked up at finally hearing good news. 

“There is a flower in the Himalayas. After talking to a few people, Hank thinks it can help Charles.” 

“The Himalayas?”  

“Yes, it’ll also be good as it keeps you out of the public eye for a bit considering today.” Ororo said as Logan opened his mouth to argue. She gave him a look that said if he said anything other than okay, she would hit him with a bolt of thunder. 

“Me?” 

She glared at him. 

“Fine.” Logan said, turning and marching away before they could start arguing again. He entered the hallway, most of the students who were trying to overhear what was going on fled at th sound of Logan’s heavy footfalls.  

The only one remaining was Rogue. Before she opened her mouth, Logan shushed her and gestured for her to follow. Once they were a good distance from Ororo’s office, they were free to talk. 

“What happened?” Rogue asked. She had been so hopeful that they would return with Jean, but the team had returned with nothing but bad moods. 

“Avengers showed up, stopped us from getting to her. Scott’s the only one who made it inside.” Logan said, thinking for a moment before adding. “They’ve recruited Wanda and Pietro.” 

“What happened to Jean?” The goth asked. 

“Taken.”  

She waited for Logan to elaborate, but he didn’t. 

“If you’re going to rescue her, I’m going with you.” Rogue said. There was steel resolve in her voice. 

“No, I am going to find some flower for Chuck.” 

Rogue stopped for a moment as she didn’t think there was a world where Logan wouldn’t be going for Jean. He stopped to look back at her. 

“I’m not, you are. Come on.”  

Rogue’s mind caught up and she kept walking to keep up with Logan. 

“I don’t know where she was taken, but I know who took her and who can get you to her.” He explained as he laid out a plan for Rogue to follow and where to meet this man who can find those who took Jean. 

“He knows where their lab is and can get you there. He is good, strange, but good. Don’t tell him I said that.” Logan said as he gave Rogue an address. He stopped for a moment before giving Rogue the worst news of all. 

“Weapon Plus took her.” He said placing a hand on her shoulder. “The same group that gave me these.” 

Logan said as he popped his claws in his other hand. Rogue knew Logan’s past was extremely terrible and now they had Jean.