Dante

"Jesus, this is already getting old," I sent as I pulled off my cloaking mask.

'I could try telepathically cloaking our faces, but I don't have enough practice with it to test it in public,' Jean said as she pulled her mask off as well. 'Besides, it won't do anything for Cameras.'

'If shit ever slows down, maybe I could finally get some rest and study my shapeshifting affinity more.'

'Rest,' Jean hummed. 'it'd be nice if we had more of that, though I suspect we'll be getting much of either after today. The Mansion in Alaska is finally done. We're ready to move.'

It'd been a day since the attack on New York, and we were headed to the New York SHIELD headquarters to finally deal with the mutant sorting.

It was nasty business, conscripting the mutants to fight for our side, but it had to be done.

We needed more soldiers.

The Demon attack highlighted how ill-prepared we were for the demon threat. We were more vulnerable than ever, and while it was great that we had Isha to drain for intel, I had an inkling she'd be less help than we thought based on how quickly Domina had been willing to sacrifice her.

More than anything, the experience had me reassessing my performance and my skill set. My skills were in dire need of upgrading and combination. I'd managed it once when I created Myriad Martial Arts, and I was also thinking about my arcane smithing skills and other mundane skills.

I was also in great need of a few choice skill purchases and creations.

Alchemy, so that I could produce healing potions myself instead of buying them every bloody time, and perhaps the six eyes to increase my perception to a ridiculous degree and help me drastically improve my energy control. It was the secret to significantly cheaper skills, smoother skill creation, improved combat, and using demonic and angelic energy to augment my physical abilities more precisely.

There was also crafting, finalizing the enhancement formula, and training every member of the primary team. There was so much to do with so little time.

I sighed.

Kurt and Natasha were waiting for us when the doors finally opened.

"Already back to work?" I asked Kurt. "Fury is a real slave driver, isn't he?" He'd just finished healing from the hole that Domina punched through him. Two Health potions had done the trick. I was happy to help, but it hadn't been cheap.

Kurt touched his chest in faux pain. "There's no place where I'd rather be," he said. "This is important."

That it was.

"Natasha," I nodded at the spy. "Always a pleasure."

She did not reciprocate. "Fury wants you to drop by after the scans have been handled."

"Why?" I asked, reading Natasha's mind. Oddly, it was blank, and I knew the reason why. Natasha had been training her mind to remain guarded around Jean.

"You'll have to ask him when you see him."

I could've pushed further to unearth the secret that Natasha had been trying to hide, but I shrugged instead. "I guess I'll find out eventually."

Kurt led us through the facility until we arrived at a huge mess hall. The mutants stood up when they saw us. A few were perched up in the rafters of the room.

The hostility rolled off them in waves, and I nearly snorted in disbelief.

Didn't these jackasses remember the shitstorm we went through trying to save their ungrateful asses.

"The psychic and her boy toy," A buff blond guy huffed with his arms folded. By reading his mind, I could tell that he was easily one of the strongest mutants in the facility, and he was not a fan of Fury's plan.

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"Come to do the government's bidding like the little lapdog that you are?" he scowled. "I already told Blue Skin and his G-men friends, we ain't letting you touch our heads."

A few other mutants lined up behind him, ready to back whatever asinine play for power he was about to embark on.

"Jean doesn't actually need to establish physical contact to use her Telepathy," I said, flashing him a shit-eating grin. "In fact, she's probably done."

I knew I was.

I didn't need Telepathy to know that Garret was guilty, but even I was impressed by his rap sheet. He had a fairly successful criminal career for somebody so dumb. He'd done it all from murder, to robbery, racketeering, extortion, fraud. Hell, the only redeeming quality the asshole had was that he wasn't a rapist.

His crimes numbered in the hundreds, and he'd have grown to be a local crime boss if Hydra hadn't captured him.

Ari, a blonde, diminutive girl, had quite the body count. Her mutation—acid breath—made her deathly lethal to anyone who got too close. Living on the street, she had to defend herself more than a few times.

The third killer was a girl named Lauren with a mutation that made her deathly accurate up to a ridiculous distance. She had the perception and accuracy to sheer off the wing of a fly with a knife and had been forced to use that talent for Hydra repeatedly. In fact, her job was so off-book that only Strucker knew about it.

She didn't seem too worried about the sorting, though, confident that we'd find her too useful to pass up.

Finally, there was Armando Munoz. I got a strange feeling about him with my Devil's Eye. His energy signature was constantly in flux, and reading his description explained why. He had a mutation called Reactionary Evolution. It took only a fraction of a second for me to realize he was the famous future X-men called Darwin. He had the unique ability to adapt to external stimuli to ensure his survival, and according to everyone else here.

He'd accidentally killed more than a few scientists during experimentation. When SHIELD found out just how special he was, they'd started collecting blood from every mutant in the facility, but they all knew in the back of their minds this was about Adam. After all, it had happened before.

When Jean tried to read his mind, she managed to get a surface-level read on him before he rebuffed her, suddenly evolving a mind shield even better than my own.

I raised a brow at the interaction, and Garret continued to run his mouth. He jabbed his meaty fingers at me.

"Don't think we don't get the news down here. You're just as guilty as we are, Inferno Knight. You've killed far more people than everybody in this room combined."

Hell, he was probably right.

"And I bet the red head is not far behind."

"That's enough, Garret," Kurt finally spoke up. "I was on that mission, and that campus only survived because Jean and Dante were there. Things could've been so much worse."

Garret scoffed. "Of course you'll defend them. When he does it, its fine, but when we do it—"

"It's to get revenge on a guy who looked at you the wrong way," Jean said, "or 'teach' other rich girls not to flash their money. What about the last girl you killed before Hydra found you, what did she do wrong, except stand in your way."

"You're one to talk," he said defensively. "You burned down an entire school!"

"And no one died except a mind-rapist who probably got off to fucking easy," I said, stopping Garret in his tracks before he got started again. "You're not weaseling your way out of this shit. You need to get that into your thick skull. You shot and mugged and killed and after this shit is over, you'll get dragged to court. So, why don't you stop being a fucking pain in the ass and let the government keep you from becoming just another member of the demon army. I've seen what happens when they get their hooks in you. There is no coming back from that. So, big man. Pick your poison. Would you rather be a mindless demon slave that I'll have to cut down eventually or behave and get protection from the United States."

Garret's mouth flopped open and closed as his mind raced for a rebuttal. However, it was Lauren who spoke up.

"What about you?" she asked. "There's no way in hell you didn't do shit, before this hero business started."

"True," I said, "but I didn't delight in the murder and suffering of others like your boy Garret did. I was able to cut a deal with the government because of that. And I bet just about everybody here will be able to do the same, as long as your past isn't too heinous. Isn't that right, Nat?"

Natasha gave me the side eye. I was basically putting the government on the spot and asking them to grant amnesty to a bunch of mutants with uncontrollable mutations. Fury won't like that one bit.

"You shouldn't expect the same deal Dante got," she said. "He does a lot than just fighting for the government, but we should be able to do something about your charges if you cooperate."

"Come on guys," Garret huffed. "You can't believe them, right?"

Lauren shared a look with Ari and the rest of the mutants. "We'll work for you, but we won't be putting our lives on the line for a maybe. We want something in writing, good pay, and a chance to get back our old lives."

"I'll have to talk to the director, but," Natasha said, "I'm optimistic."

It was not what they'd expected to hear, but it was the best deal a bunch of former criminals could hope for.

The sorting went off without much of a problem after that. Garret was promptly detained, while the rest of the children and adult mutants were given a chance and uniform, all under Fury's say so. I would've advocated for them, but I was still recovering from the last time I did that.

I made my way to Fury's office next, curious to see how he'll try to spin throwing me under the bus.