Chapter 122: Spar
27th February 2006, New York City
(Jean Grey POV)
Jean was gaping at the explanation. Wanda sure learnt a lot about magic. The witch may claim her inexperience and ignorance but she has a good grounding on magical theory to understand the magic needed to create the room.
Wanda just picked up a ball, “Alright, let’s get to bowling. I know the rules from watching movies but I still have never tried this. So, please, take it easy on me.”
The redhead smiled; all thoughts of magical theory set aside. She was just there to have fun with her friends.
And have fun they did, from bowling to table tennis, to a game of pool. That room really was amazing. Why had they never used the danger room like this. It’s probably because of the name, the designation ‘danger’ sounds morbid. Plus, it was a room that was mainly for training and its gadgets showed that. There were no bowling balls there, just guns and laser beams.
Anyway, the three girls were sitting on conjured bean bags, after an afternoon of fun activities; they were tired, but they had smiles on there faces. They started talking and slowly, the conversation turned into their powers.
“My powers are so lame, compared to yours. Jean can lift cars with her mind, and can read people’s thoughts. Wanda, you have magic, for god’s sake. All I’m good for is going through some stuff. I mean it’s cool and all, but it gets old very fast, and there isn’t something to try to train so I could get better,” Kitty complained with a sullen tone.
“You don’t know the downsides of powers like ours. It’s very hard to control. I’d rather have powers that I can actually use safely, without accidentally hurting anyone around me. Back me up, Jean,” Wanda answered.
The redhead sighed, “It’s really hard, you know. The telekinesis was cool and all, but it’s the telepathy that I was worried about. It hurt so much…. Imagine everyone around you yelling at you all the time. It’s hard to concentrate on anything in particular. It was noisy all the time, and all I did for a time was learn to live through the pain. I couldn’t turn it off or do anything, really. Not to mention how lucky I was the I didn’t accidentally turn someone into a vegetable by lashing out at the voices. I almost lost it at one time but Ms. Sayre was able to stop me from frying half the school’s brains.”
Kitty looked pale at her revelation. It was understandable, the redhead had just professed the fact that she almost killed a hundred students because she couldn’t control her powers.
Surprisingly, Wanda, somehow, looked understanding. The teenaged witch answered, “Yeah, I did something like this once. I didn’t kill anyone really, but I wasn’t alright in the head, and my birth father had locked me away for years in my home, so I guess my powers reacted on their own. I didn’t even have a hint of control over them; they just did as they wanted and I just went along with the ride. I wanted a father that loved me and a brother that wouldn’t ignore me all the time. I guess that my powers responded and they brainwashed Pietro, they almost brainwashed my father but he was able to fight them off. It’s why I was sent to the Vault, in the first place. My father was scared I would succeed next time and he didn’t want to risk it. He had someone repress Pietro’s memory but I guess some of the trauma is still there, because he’s instinctively fearful of me.”
The redhead looked at her new friend in a new light. They really had a lot in common, didn’t they? Even for Jean, Wanda’s story was all kind of fucked up. Even Kitty looked like she was almost about to pass out from shock. But this somehow made Jean feel closer to the teenaged witch; there was something about having a shared suffering that brought people together.
Anyway, Jean decided to lighten up the conversation a bit, “well at least you never had to hear Scott’s thoughts in your head, or even worse Duncan’s.”
Wanda smiled at this, “I can imagine Scott’s thoughts being really weird. He looks like the guy who’s a psychopath in their own head but try to act normal. But Duncan, I think you would have similar thoughts to that of a Gorilla.”
Kitty burst into laughter, “I can see it,” she then made a face and started to speak like a cave man, “Duncan hungry, Duncan Angry, Duncan Horny.”
The three teenagers burst into laughter for a few minutes. After they calmed down, Kitty remarked, “You know, you guys’ powers are really alike. I wonder which one of you is stronger”
Both Wanda and Jean replied at the same time, “I am.”
Surprised, they looked towards the other one and said once again in unison, “You’re wrong, I am.”
Kitty’s eyes looked like they were sparkling, “I think there’s only one way to find out.”
Stolen novel; please report.
They looked at her questioningly, and she answered, exasperated, “A spar. You two could fight, the winner will be the undisputed superior.”
Wanda looked contemplative and shrugged, “I’m down. We mainly use this room for sparing anyway.”
Both girls looked at Jean, waiting for an answer. The redhead just sighed, “Sure, why not?”
Kitty squealed like she won the lottery or something and started babbling about it being the fight of the century and it was just because of her. The really could be really strange sometimes.
Wanda asked Jean, “Where do you want to do it?”
Jean answered, “I don’t know. It has to be somewhere that we both know equally. This way, we don’t have too much of an upper hand. How about the Junkyard next to the school? The one we hang out a few days ago when we skipped PE. We only went there the one time, so no one would have unfair advantage.”
Wanda nodded and the room started to shift. Suddenly, the redhead wasn’t in a closed room anymore, but she was in a familiar junkyard. Jean saw the scrapped cars that were exactly like the ones in the graveyard. The place around them was littered with things that were thrown away, probably in the same position that they were when they were last there.
“Alright, Kitty, you’re the referee. You make the rules and tell us to stop if we go too far.”
The brunette nodded and walked stood in between Wanda and Jean. She started counting, “Okay, you start on three. One, two, Three!”
Jean started by sending a telepathic probe towards Wanda, a probe who immediately slid over her mind, as if it was a liquid. She had never seen this before. The teenaged witch grinned, “Come on, Jean. I already know how to deal with telepaths, my mind is a fortress.”
Jean gritted her teeth, here goes her main attack force. Her telepathy should be enough for this. She was the avatar of the Phoenix Force, and the redhead had been growing exponentially stronger ever since her mental block was removed.
Jean lifted up a car and sent it at her opponent, who with a wave of her hand, created telltale red energy, that appears whenever Wanda uses her powers, that redirected the attack. Wanda decided to respond this time by throwing red energy burst at her. The redhead blocked them with a telekinetic.
The redhead took a look at Wanda’s face and found that she was smiling. What was surprising was the fact that she had a similar smile on her face. This was getting interesting. Jean tried to repel the young witch telekinetically, but her opponent noticed something so summoned a few debris in front of her. The debris was thrown away from the force of the push but Wanda had been safely hidden behind it.
Wanda summoned the pretty much destroyed debris from the previous attack and levitate it up and sent a veritable wave of trash towards the surprised redhead. Jean, however, hadn’t stayed idle for long, remembering Doctor Strange’s lessons on magical combat. The redhead created a telekinetic shield around her. The debris impacted the shield with a large bang, but they kept trying to get it. The trash started to heat up from the collision and melted together until Jean’s circular shield was entirely covered all around her. So, that was Wanda’s game plan, trying to imprison her.
Jean chuckled and she created a blade of green energy that cut through the trash like a lightsaber, letting it out.
Wanda raised an eyebrow and said, “Psionic energy projection. This is really advanced stuff, Jean.”
The redhead smirked at her, “I had a good teacher.”
Wanda mirrored her smirk, “Yeah, me too.”
Suddenly, a similar red energy blade was created in Wanda’s hand. The redhead grinned, this was one of the best fights, she’s been in her life. Both of them started to run towards the other, it seems like this was going to be a melee battle. At the first blow, they both noticed something. While they could manifest their psionic energy swords, they were both beginners when it came to sword fighting. They were both slow but they tried to use the saber as a distraction while trying to outwit the other one.
Jean found and opening and started to charge up a telekinetic attack from her hand. She noticed that Wanda was doing the same. So, the redhead tried to do the same with her left hand, and Wanda mirrored her actions, dispelling both of their swords. They were almost palm to palm together, each hand trying to push the other one telekinetically. They were at a stalemate and Jean wondered if this was it; they were evenly matched.
But suddenly the fragile stalemate broke, sending both of them flying back with their respective push. They both righted themselves into the air. They charged at each other, flying with a newly created psionic blade each in their hands.
Before they could meet, Jean was suddenly held in place by Wanda’s red energy. With nowhere to go, Jean used her sling ring as a focus and created a portal, getting her out the situation. Wanda then sent another scrapped car at her, but Jean, this time, created a portal in front of it, who swallowed it and sent it at Wanda’s unsuspected back. This trick worked because, the young witch was suddenly his by the projectile and fell to the ground.
Jean sent in another attack at her grounded opponent, before charging at the teenaged witch, hoping to end the fight. Pointing the end of her saber at the kneeling Wanda, Jean spoke smugly, “This is my win.”
Jean was surprised to see that the witch was smiling, “Is it?” she replied.
“Of course, it is; I have you at the end of my sword,” the redhead answered with an incredulous tone.
Wanda laughed, “Is that so, then let’s see what happens when I do this.”
The teenaged witch ran forwards towards the energy sword that was pointing at her. Jean exclaimed, “No, wait…” trying to stop her friend from killing herself. But her panic was suddenly turned to confusion as the Wanda in front of her dissolved into red rose petals that started to fly away with the wind. The redhead heard a small voice, behind her, to find her friend, not looking battered at all, with her own energy saber pointed at her back.
Jean could hear her opponent’s smug tone, “You’re not the only one who has learnt a few new tricks.”
The redhead tried to get her sling ring to escape, but it was nowhere to be found, “And you need to be more aware of your surroundings. Not everything is as it appears, there’s a life lesson there. You’re strong but you didn’t use your powers efficiently, you could have used your telepathy to sense me and figure out that the me hit by the car was an illusion. Now, will you forfeit, Jean Grey?”
The redhead nodded. This was a wake up call, Wanda was her age and Jean had more raw power than her, she’s the avatar of a cosmic entity, after all. She needed to get better, no one knew what kind of danger she could end up in. She needed to get better. She’ll ask Doctor Strange to up her training.