Alex braced himself beside the broken doorway, hands glowing with a tight ring of plasma.
"Where's Riptide?" he shouted.
Darwin pointed toward the front lawn. "Outside."
Another burst of wind slammed against the building, rattling the windows. Alex looked toward the entrance. "Sarah's out there alone."
Before either of them could move, the tornado rolled across the lawn.
Darwin stepped toward the broken doorway but stopped himself, crossing his arms with an easy shrug. "If we all rush out there, we'll just trip over each other's feet."
Alex glared at the glassless frame, jaw tight. "She's facing him alone."
Darwin kept watching the lawn, unfazed. "She chose that."
Alex hesitated, exhaled a sharp breath, and gave a reluctant nod. "Then we'd better be ready when she needs us."
"Riptide, you're gonna be ripped and tied," I muttered darkly, my words barely audible over the roar of his tornado.
The storm he conjured on the lawn drove a wide funnel of wind and gravel straight toward her. But I wasn't about to let this puffed-up weather wizard steal the show. Oh no. If he wanted a storm, he was about to get one—a Tokiwadai-level lesson in high-frequency electrical current. Electromagnetism, baby—my favorite flavor of destruction—was coming out to play.
I closed my eyes for a moment, driving a massive high-voltage current straight into the soil, grounding myself and feeling the pull of the magnetic fields around us. Beneath the surface, I could sense the veins of iron waiting for me to claim them. The power was there—raw, untapped—and I grinned as the ground trembled violently beneath my boots. Millions of micro-particles of iron magnetized under my electric output, bursting from the lawn like a black, churning wave. The wind screamed as it slammed into my back, but I was already one step ahead.
An iron-rich cloud burst from the ground around me, expanding like a dark thunderhead at my command. The iron sand vibrated at high frequency, hissing against the surrounding air currents. I twisted my focus, driving the electrical current through the metallic storm, pulling it higher and shaping it into a dense, rotating vortex. It was intense—the wind fighting against the weight of the iron, the air crackling with energy. Riptide's tornado came barreling toward it, but I wasn't about to play defense. I was about to end this.
I pushed harder, bending the magnetic field with all my might, forcing the iron to spin tighter. The two storms collided with a shockwave that cracked the weathered concrete steps nearby, sending blue electrical arcs snapping across the metal. My vortex ground against his winds, forcing them back, the dense iron suffocating his airflow and eating away at his kinetic momentum.
Riptide struggled, fighting to keep control, but he was losing. His tornado faltered, the winds stuttering, trying desperately to hold shape, but the iron was already consuming it.
Now... time to wrap this up. I pooled the deep shadows around my feet, flooding them with micro-electrical pulses. Guided by bio-electric signals, my nanites surged forward directly out of the shadows, slithering through the chaos with total precision, sinking into Riptide's defenses with ease. The metallic vortex pressed tighter, and his resistance became a distant memory as the nanites flooded his bloodstream, driven into his nervous system with a rigid grip.
He staggered, eyes wide with panic as the electrical interference hijacked his nerve signals, locking his muscles in place while the nanites flooded his bloodstream.
"Game over, wind boy," I muttered, my voice low but laced with triumph.
My storm bore down on him, pushing him to his knees as the dense wall of iron crushed his kinetic momentum. The tornado collapsed, the winds unraveling into nothing as the metallic storm consumed it whole.
And as I was about to finish him—squeeze the life out of him for real—a scream cut through the air—a voice I didn't recognize, shrill and full of rage. The high-frequency shriek rattled straight through my inner ear, scattering the magnetic cloud into a chaotic burst of loose dirt. Before I could react, my magnetic cloud went wild, scattering the iron sand and spiraling into a chaotic frenzy.
I rolled my eyes, dusting a stray speck of dirt off my shoulder as I glared up at the roof. "Thanks, Banshee. Truly, your timing is a gift. A little heads-up next time would be revolutionary."
From the corner of my eye, I caught Sean—Banshee—flushing crimson as he hovered near the roofline, looking entirely like a kid caught pocketing candy. Sean landed hard enough to skid across the grass before catching his balance.
Sean winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "I really thought he was getting through."
I raised a brow, crossing my arms with a dry look. "You almost helped him."
"I know." He stared down at his boots for a second before looking back up, grimacing. "I'll do better."
I smirked, letting out a short, amused huff. "You'll get another chance."
Sean gave a short nod, looking slightly relieved, and launched back into the air without another word.
"Yeah, well, I was nailing Riptide," I grumbled under my breath, watching him go with an exaggerated sigh. Honestly, I do not get paid enough to babysit a walking tuning fork.
My gaze flicked back to Riptide, still trapped in the disarray of black iron sand and crackling energy. He wasn't dead, but he sure as hell wasn't in any condition to fight.
With my attention back on Riptide, ready to finish him off, I paused as my senses picked up a heavy, intense pressure.
Oh, come on. Can't I brutally dismantle this guy in peace for five minutes?
It wasn't Riptide that made me pause. It was my senses—they picked up... Shaw.
Inside the corridor, Darwin frowned. "He stopped fighting."
Alex looked toward the shattered entrance. "What?"
"The wind."
For just a moment, the building felt strangely quiet. Then footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
Azazel caught Riptide before he hit the ground. Riptide tried to speak but only managed a strained breath. Azazel didn't immediately fuss over him; instead, he glanced toward the mansion. The shattered tall windows reflected bright, pulsing flashes of blue light from deep inside the common room. Azazel's tail flicked with quiet calculation, though his expression stayed smooth as he tightened his grip on Riptide.
"She changed the fight."
Only then did he look back down at the wheezing telekinetic. "What did she do?"
Riptide slowly shook his head, pale and sweating. "I... don't..."
Another flash of crimson swallowed them both.
I barely had time to process the escape before I noticed the faint pulse of my conductive nanites inside Riptide's body picking up a new directive through the shadows.
"Ugh, seriously?" I muttered under my breath, blowing a stray strand of hair out of my face.
As if dealing with Azazel's teleporting circus act wasn't annoying enough, Sebastian Shaw was about to waltz in. And that was a fight I couldn't finish today—not with an execution. If I kill Shaw right here, Erik never gets his crucible. He never becomes Magneto, and mutants lose their balance against humanity. But if I let Erik execute him on that beach, the fallout shatters his bond with Charles forever. I need Shaw alive so Erik reaches his full potential—but severely crippled so I can step in and take the final shot before Erik crosses the line. And Darwin stays alive tonight. Period.
I quickly reined in the remaining iron sand with another quick voltage pulse, twisting it into a circle of sharp arrows, deadly and precise, hovering behind me. My nanites wove seamlessly through the iron.
Time to move.
Sinking directly into the shadows on the lawn, the frantic noise of the courtyard cut off. I shadow-stepped through the facility's lower foundations, reemerging in the dim light of the hallway just outside the common room. My iron sand arrows hummed softly behind me, the air thick with ozone and anticipation. Come on in, Shaw. Your favorite energy-absorbing schtick is about to run into a very rude awakening.
Meanwhile, Banshee's keen sense of timing had everyone on edge inside the corridor. Darwin's body rippled as it shifted into living rock, the scent of electricity heavy in the air as Banshee took a deep breath, his body poised for another sonic assault. Alex stood just a little too still, muscles coiled and fists clenched as if waiting for the right moment to pounce.
Sean landed beside Alex, breathing harder than he wanted anyone to notice, his shoulders tight.
"You all right?" Alex asked, keeping his eyes fixed down the hall.
Sean wiped his forehead, flashing a tight, defensive grin. "I've been better."
Darwin looked toward the stairwell without blinking. "Save it for later."
Sean followed his gaze, swallowing hard. The hallway fell quiet again.
And then, the heavy steel door creaked open.
Alex shifted a step in front of the others. Darwin moved with him without saying a word. Neither of them attacked. They simply waited. So did I.
Sebastian Shaw walked in from the stairwell, dressed in a meticulously tailored suit, stepping past the wreckage without breaking stride. He didn't even flinch when my iron sand arrows erupted toward him, crackling with electricity and simultaneously delivering my next payload of nanobots.
Darwin's rocky skin spread farther across his neck and shoulders as Shaw continued toward us. Alex raised one glowing hand, ready to fire.
Alex's hand burned brighter, his voice dropping into a warning growl. "Say the word."
Darwin shifted his footing beside him, calm as stone. "He wants us to lose our nerve."
Neither of them moved. Shaw smiled as if he'd heard every word, completely unbothered. Shaw didn't even look at either of them.
"Impressive," Shaw mused, his eyes glinting with lazy amusement. He didn't even break a sweat.
As the arrows hit him, he absorbed the kinetic energy and the raw electrical charge, his skin flushing with heat as my arrows crumbled into dust. However, my nanocritters' payload was delivered smoothly, the micro-currents sliding them straight into his system while he soaked up the light show.
Now... time to sell the performance.
I widened my eyes just enough to look delightfully appalled, letting out a breathy little gasp. "What…" I breathed, pitching my voice right on the edge of mock disbelief. Oh, I should win an Oscar for this. Look at me, totally shattered. "Did you really... absorb my lightning?"
Shaw gave a quiet, condescending laugh, stepping closer. "You expected pain."
I blinked innocently, tilting my head. "I expected results."
"So did I."
His smile never faded an inch. "Quite the display," Shaw said smoothly, that infuriating smirk never leaving his face. "Precise control. Remarkable power." He took a few more steps toward me, his gaze never leaving mine, the smile widening as if he were savoring a fine glass of wine. I honestly considered sticking my finger down my throat right then and there. The ego on this guy? Unbelievable.
Then, I grinned back at him—slow, deliberate, and slightly manic. Tokiwadai style. If it weren't for my teammates standing right behind me, I might have giggled. But I locked my gaze with his instead, letting my voice drop into a playful, deadly purr.
"Stop!"
And then, his world came to a full stop.
I unleashed a hyper-precise bio-electrical pulse straight into the nanites in his system. Every nerve ending, motor neuron, and muscle fiber locked under a continuous high-frequency electrical hold. Shaw froze mid-step, his features fixed in a calm, mocking expression. His breathing cut off instantly. His heartbeat locked into a rigid, forced rhythm. Even the cellular processes that kept his body primed for kinetic absorption went still under the neuromuscular reboot. I could see the faint, glowing crimson hue around him—time itself, suspended.
Got you. Right where I want you, you smug bastard.
To the others, he was just a statue. An immobile figure locked in an eternal pause.
But for me? I was orchestrating a biomechanical sabotage on a microscopic level.
A sharp ache throbbed behind my eyes as I maintained the hold. The strain of locking down a man saturated with absorbed kinetic potential strained every muscle in my neck. A warm, metallic drop slid from my left nostril, but I flashed a tight, bloody smile and pushed right through the burning pressure in my skull. I couldn't kill him, but I sure as hell wasn't leaving him whole.
Surging directly out of the deep shadows beneath his feet, a dark swarm of supercharged DEM Realizer-engineered nanites rushed out like a dark tide, driven by my bio-electric signals. They moved fast and deadly. I watched as they infiltrated Shaw's body, slipping past every natural defense he had.
The nanites bypassed his cellular defenses to systematically sabotage his internal organs. One group hijacked his nervous system, rewiring motor pathways to guarantee recurring muscular spasms and delayed reaction times. Another set dove into his circulatory system, setting up microvascular blockages that would starve his brain of oxygen whenever his heart rate spiked. Another batch targeted his immune system, rewriting its directives to treat his own mutant absorption energy as a foreign pathogen, forcing his body to fight itself from the inside out whenever he tried to store kinetic force.
And for the final touch, the remaining nanites locked into a silent, dormant state within his bone marrow—a ticking bio-kinetic time bomb set to trigger a complete metabolic system crash the moment I sent the command signal down the line.
On the outside? Shaw was still a statue, frozen in time, while hot blood dripped steadily and heavily down my lip, staining the yellow collar of my dress. My knees buckled slightly under the sheer, crushing feedback of holding his kinetic energy in check, but I forced my posture straight, flashing him a bright, cheerful wink he couldn't even see.
I leaned in close to his frozen ear, lowering my voice to a teasing, ragged whisper. "You like absorbing energy, Shaw? Let's see how much you like it when your own body treats your power like a disease."
The strain peaked, white noise roaring in my ears as my vision flickered at the edges. I couldn't hold the lock a second longer without my own blood vessels snapping.
The time lock snapped. The world returned to motion.
Shaw stumbled back three paces, his face contorting in sudden, unadulterated shock as his hijacked nervous system misfired. His breathing turned ragged, his eyes wide as his body recoiled against the invisible biological sabotage locked deep inside his cells. The nanites had done their job.