I let out an exasperated sigh. Where to even begin? "You are operating on half-truths and misinformation, and I don't care enough to educate or correct you. You will leave, Magneto, or not even that telepath of yours will be able to stop me."

Wanda and I briefly locked eyes. To her credit, the girl held my gaze. I liked her spirit.

Logan, Scott, Bobby, Kitty, and Hank arrived just as I spoke, lining up behind me in tenuous solidarity.

"You think you can win because you managed to get a jump on Xavier?" he scoffed. "I am in another league entirely. Who do you think put Xavier in the wheelchair to begin with?"

"I thought you were friends, or at the very least respected each other?"

"Xavier made his choice long ago, and you're making the same mistake he did by refusing me. The most powerful of us must cooperate if our race is ever going to thrive, and there needs to be a clear leader."

"And I take it you're it." Magneto's wrinkled lips formed a Cheshire grin. "And I don't appreciate competition."

As if on cue, Sabertooth leaped out of the forest. I caught him with my telekinesis just as Magneto stretched his hand out to Logan, seizing him. He sent him in my direction, claws first with a flick of his hands, setting Logan up to impale me. Rin leaped in front of me to protect me, while Scott and the rest of the mutants flailed in surprise, but I was ahead of them.

I threw Sabertooth at Wolverine. They clawed into each other the moment they clashed, and Magneto was forced to relinquish his hold on them.

The rest of the team used that lapse in his concentration to attack. Scott fired a Concussive beam, which was blocked by the red-haired girl, who raised a portion of the driveway.

And Toad leaped forward, tongue lashing at Kitty Pryde, who went intangible. Bobby covered his hand in ice, sending a spray at the reptilian mutant, but John interrupted him with a fireball of his own and a crooked smile.

"Been a long time, Bobby boy."

"I knew you were rotten, but this is a new low even for you, John," Bobby said. "Think of the kids."

"I am thinking about the kids!" he yelled as he fired a thick torrent of fire. Rin plucked a knife from one of his many pockets and tossed it at John's head. I was forced to stop it, leaving me open for an attack from Magneto and the telekinetic. With a great heave, she sent the deconstructed wall of shrapnel she'd raised at the X-Men. Magneto flicked his hand, plucking several lamp posts from the ground, which he casually added to the attack wave.

Digging deep, I raised a telekinetic wall that bounced back every attack that slammed into it, protecting our entire side. The technique drew more into my reserves than expected, but it only caused a fraction of the mental strain it used to.

The entire battlefield froze at my display, and even Magneto raised a brow in surprise.

He resumed his assault immediately, though. As did the rest of the mutants.

The telekinetic girl quickly became a thorn in my side, targeting Rin and using him as a buffer to keep Scott's laser off her. Meanwhile, Pyro and Bobby duked it out, scarring the landscape with ice and fire.

Kitty struggled to make clear headway with Toad. While she clearly had the better mutation, Toad was so good with his tongue that he made it next to impossible for her to touch him. His tongue moved lightning-fast. Without precise calculation on her part, any attempt to grab hold of the tongue could result in a ghastly wound at the least.

Logan and Sabertooth rumbled in the forest somewhere, and from what I could track, Logan was losing to the larger man's ferocity and strength advantage, but Logan had him beat in claw sharpness and endurance, so I wasn't too worried.

Dr. Hank was getting ready to jump into the fray when Night Kat showed up, and the big man was compelled to pair up.

Meanwhile, I faced Magneto.

"Let's see what you're made of," he announced like some budget movie villain and started to fire all of the metal objects in the area at me.

I raised my shield again, making it spherical, enduring the oppressive wave of metal shrapnel.

Unlike last time, Magneto didn't stop after the metal objects were deflected. He looped it around and pressed them on the shield and shaped them into a tornado of metal death. Even Rin's weapons got dragged into the frenzy as well, and the kid, finally tired of being puppeted, spat in the girl's face when she looped him around.

In a rage, she chucked him at me and yanked Scott's visor off his eyes. She then raised the discombobulated mutant, spun him around, and flung him away.

Meanwhile, Rin was in very real danger, hurtling towards a storm of metal that would've shredded a lesser mutant.

Hand stretched forward, I grabbed him mid-air, and so did the girl, beginning a mental tug-of-war. My telepathy still easily covered the battlefield despite the strain, and I could see that we were slowly losing.

If I fell, then everybody else would. So, I switched gears.

My plan was risky, but I did it anyway. I narrowed my telepathic scope, forsaking battlefield awareness to concentrate on just Toad. With a simple flex of my will, I sent him pressed hard into the ground. I heard a loud cry erupt from his gargled throat as several bones snapped.

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Kitty leaped back, surprised by the sudden crater, and I spoke to her mind.

"Go help Logan, and drag Sabertooth into a tree or something. It should free him up so that he can help."

"Couldn't that kill him?" she asked.

"If you haven't been paying attention, they're trying to do the same thing to us," I said. "Stop holding back, or somebody might actually die."

To my side, I saw that the fight between Bobby and Pyro was winding down. Bobby skated around John, encasing his leg and hands in a thin layer of ice before riding up in an icy wave and socking him in the face.

Serves him right.

"Stop staring and go!" I snapped at her and connected to Bobby next.

"Good fight," I sent. "Are you good for another round?"

He flinched but slowly mastered himself. "Jean…thank you? And yes, I'm game for another round."

"I need you to be ready to fire with everything you have at Magneto when I give the signal. Hold nothing back."

Finally, I linked to Scott's mind.

He was disoriented and upset.

The fear rolled off him in waves as he scampered and crawled. The world raged around him, and all he had to go on were sounds and smells.

"Scott," I sent to him in a soft voice.

"Jean?"

"I'm here." My heart ached for him. He hid his insecurity well under all that bluster and bravado, but in the end, he was just as afraid and fragile as I was—afraid of the power that bubbled underneath.

"Jean…I need my visor back. I can't…fight."

"She has it," I sent, but not for long. "You can trust me, Scott. Let me be your eyes. Let me show your target."

"O…kay."

Slowly, I commanded Scott to his feet and pointed him in the general direction of the red girl.

"Now!" I yelled to both Scott and Bobby.

The night burned scarlet as twin beams of energy speared out of Scott's eyes and slammed hard into the witch. She copied me at the very last second, generating a film of red energy that protected her, but Scott with and without his visor was very different.

The beam launched her hard into a tree and pinned her there until her shield sputtered, and she was knocked unconscious.

Over at my side, a wave of frost crashed over Magneto, forcing him to disengage and fly away.

"Stop!" I yelled to Scott as I sent his visor over to him and threw Rin halfway across the ground, leaving me a clear view of Magneto. With a powerful shove, I sent his metal arsenal flying into the forest.

In the forest, I sensed that Kitty had done what I'd asked and trapped Sabertooth in the bough of a particularly large and hard tree, and Hank was finishing his fight with Night Kat by putting the mutant out of commission by snapping a few bones.

With all of the Brotherhood down, I glared at Magneto with equal parts malice and amusement.

"What was that about your place on the hierarchy?"

Magneto's eyes surveyed us, and I could see a semblance of panic creep into his features, but he remained stalwart.

"I've fought against the worst odds," he said.

"You haven't fought against me," I said with a wave of my hand. A tree ripped from the ground, root system and all, and hurtled at him at considerable speeds.

To my surprise, he raised his hand, creating an electromagnetic barrier. The tree snapped in half, shoving him back, and Bobby and Scott fired at him.

Magneto banked to the right, dodging both beams as he waved his hands. Several bits of metal flew at everyone present, and I had to seize them all with my telekinesis and toss them even farther into the forest.

Circling back, I reached out for him with my telekinesis and pulled, but Magneto fought my grip with his shield. Sweat poured from his brows as his lips quivered in effort, but I kept pushing.

"It doesn't feel particularly good, now does it?" I quipped.

Just as I was about to crack his sphere, he did something I should've expected for someone of his moral fiber.

He reached out for the house, and I felt his mind latch onto all the metal in the house, even the bits in the foundation. He tugged on them slightly, and the entire home groaned. The kids cried, and so did the X-Men.

"What the hell is going on?" Scott demanded.

"The lunatic!" Bobby exclaimed.

"He's trying to pull the house apart," Hank supplied in horror.

"The kids," Kitty exclaimed. "I have to get them out."

"Go," Logan commanded, leveling a glare at Magneto, then, he looked at me.

"Can you stop it?"

"Short of snapping his neck, no," I said with some bitterness. He had years of experience on me, and I did not have the fine control to wrestle with him. I bit my lip in frustration.

"I admit," Magneto heaved, "Coming to a compound mostly devoid of metal might've been a mistake, as was underestimating you. However, you'll be committing an even bigger mistake if you don't order the girl to stop! Or else, I'll give the children something to truly cry about."

"You'll stoop this low?" Logan demanded.

"I try not to make a habit of if, but yes, no sacrifice is too great to ensure the freedom and protection of my kind," he said. "And you should feel the same way."

Steve Rogers

The modern world was strange, to say the least. Devices as thick as a machine gun magazine with the mental juice to run circles around some of our brightest minds. Cars far faster, smaller, and quieter than anything we had back then. Even the telephones were small enough to fit on the inside of your ears.

However, what had been the most surprising so far was the sheer variety of things that existed out there. Demons were apparently a thing, and so were mutants.

I tried to ignore the stare of the blue-skinned kid sitting beside me in the car. His eyes practically shone stars when he saw me, and after peppering me with hundreds of questions he'd allowed me to sit in peace, but his eyes never left me.

He had a tail, fangs, and yellow eyes—everything you'd expect from a demon. Ironically, he wasn't the demon on the team. Well, half-demon, technically. From everything Coulson, one of my two new partners, told me, the real demon was a wild card. He had no problem throwing himself headfirst into danger and had colored outside the line his entire life.

He swore he was on the side of good now, but he never officially joined SHIELD and was paid on a commission basis.

He sounded more like a mercenary than anything else, and the only person he seemed to care for was himself and the girl they were going to back up.

And apparently, she was even worse.

"We're not nearly as scary as Coulson makes us out to be." I heard a voice say in my head, and my heart stopped.

Coulson slammed the brakes, and even the perpetual monotone Asian lady seemed to jump in her chair. The kid beside me took it well, all things considered, hinting that this might've not been his first time.

My grip on my shield tightened. It was all I could do to keep my composure. It was one thing hearing about mutants and their abilities, and it was experiencing it firsthand.

"I'm sorry for the rough introduction, Cap," the voice said. "The situation is dire, and I need your help."

"No worries," I said, shifting in my seat. "It's what I'm here for."

That earned me strange looks from everyone present.

"You can hear her in your head, can't you?"

"Initially, yeah?" Coulson said. "Though now that I say it out loud, it's a wild thing to admit to."

"What do you need?"

"We need you to enter from the back of the house and rescue a group of mutant kids being held hostage by a mutant terrorist madman," Jean said. "And you cannot bring your shield or any type of metal. It will only alert him."