Lauren grinned at the question. "In the flesh."
She whipped her hands up, trying to fire off a few shots, but Pietro was already gone.
The team arrived just in time for the twin tentacled monsters to charge. Wanda raised a hand, freezing them mid-air while Bobby and I opened fire—one froze solid, the other scorched.
They screeched, but our attacks barely fazed them. Their limbs swelled with effort, muscles balking against Wanda's hold. Meanwhile, the metal-armed fighter clashed with Logan with surprising power. Logan's claws tore through his skin, but it didn't slow him down.
His second arm blurred forward, slamming into Logan's chest hard enough to generate a shockwave and send him crashing through several walls.
My eyes bulged, but Colossus surged forward to intercept the attacker. Their fists collided with a thunderous crack.
Wanda, clearly done babysitting the tentacle twins, shoved one backward into a pair of portals Sam had opened. It never made it through though. Its tentacles extended, stabbing deep into the metal floors of the facility
I shifted my focus to the sharpshooter, sending a searing wave of heat in her direction.
Kitty dashed in to assist Colossus, but the metal-armed stayed ahead of them both. Every punch was predicted, every grab dodged at the last second. Even in mid-air, he was a beast, lashing out with kicks that knocked Colossus flat.
Lauren dodged my shots with the same preternatural grace, teleporting just before Pietro's lightning could touch her. She reappeared behind our sorcerer, who swung instinctively with an Eldritch blade, shutting his portals.
It shattered against her raised hand. A second later, a projectile ripped through his chest, continued through Beast's shoulder, and went on to pierce Wanda's lung. Her grip on the tentacle monsters vanished, and Pietro shrieked, changing direction in a blink.
He grabbed Wanda's falling body and vanished.
"Professor!" I shouted, a beat too late.
"I'm fine!" Hank called back, his wounds already mending thanks to the Extremis in our blood.
Our sorcerer wasn't so lucky, wide-eyed and dead.
"Three for the price of one—not bad," Lauren grinned.
I swallowed my rage and locked eyes with Bobby. Without a word, we split—each taking a flank. Bobby slammed a hand to the ground, conjuring massive twisting spikes of ice that impaled the flailing tentacle mutants and pinned them to the ceiling. It only bought us seconds.
Tentacles whipped out like bladed chains—too fast for even my enhanced senses to track. But Bobby kept up. His ice lashed, stabbed, and constricted, keeping the monsters from advancing.
Logan burst out of the ground beneath the metal-armed mutant, claws raking the soles of his feet. Colossus charged in like a battering ram, hoping to land a solid midsection hit.
I threw everything I had at Lauren. Beams of heat fired from my eyes, mouth, and palms, giving the team precious time to regroup.
Lauren wore a smirk while she teleported and dodged.
"So he gave you all healing factors and enhanced durability, huh?" she said, dodging another blast. "Maybe I should give that idiot more credit. But his gifts pale in comparison to those of a god."
"You're those agents Dante was talking about," I realized aloud.
Lauren grinned—and teleported just in time to dodge a brutal body check from Pietro.
"You'll pay for hurting her," he growled, pulling two knives from his boots before blurring away. The two of them zipped around the chamber at impossible speeds.
Across the room, the tentacled monsters had evolved again. Now eight limbs each. The temperature had dropped far below freezing, and Bobby's ice was thicker and colder—but still not enough. The creatures were only getting faster.
"Kitty!" I yelled. "Bury those freaks!"
She pivoted from metal arms, springing forward with purpose. She dodged a sweeping blow from metal-arms, slid across the ice, and grabbed a tail from one of the writhing beasts. It dropped instantly, giving Bobby the breathing room to deal with the remaining one.
"Double-time!" I shouted, unleashing my strongest blast at the beast. It melted through Bobby's ice entirely, and he joined in with a concentrated icy stream.
"Playtime is over," Lauren declared, and the air shifted.
First, metal-arms transformed—his metallic coat spread across his whole body, and he let out a bestial roar that knocked us off balance. He followed with a blinding kick, sending a wind blade that tore through Colossus's armor and nearly split Logan in two.
Meanwhile, the half-frozen, half-burned mutant erupted with fleshy growths that coated him in organic armor. His tails sprouted thorns, and he doubled in size.
The ground exploded as Kitty came flying out, pursued by whipping tentacles.
And then Lauren multiplied.
Dozens of copies filled the chamber—each armed, each with a gun pointed at us.
My heart dropped.
We were going to die.
That's when Sam moved—like he'd risen from the grave. Reality shattered around us, dragging every X-Man and Pietro into the mirror dimension. Bullets flew, some made it through—tearing flesh and bone—but none struck anything vital.
A final portal yawned open, spitting us out in a chamber in Kamar-Taj, where we landed hard on our backs.
Bobby, mid-gasp, spoke first. "What the hell just happened?"
"We just got our asses handed to us," I said.
--
Dante's POV
Lauren's the agent?
Of fucking course.
Her standoffish behavior. The deflection. It was kindergarten-level misdirection—and it worked. That pissed me off more than anything else.
If I got a class from Shin, odds are they did too. Which meant they were after the same things I was: the Stones.
The prison hit? That was probably for easy levels, and a recruitment drive.
They had four people now. And from what I'd heard?
A Haki user. A few Ghouls—probably powered by levels instead of blood. And Lauren, a teleporting sharpshooter with some type of busted class.
They were high-level. All of them.
I didn't like this.
Not one bit.
Still…considering the circumstances, the team held their own. I made sure to tell Scott just that.
"A compliment?" he raised a brow. "And here I thought hell would freeze over first."
"Yeah, well. Figured it was time we put the rivalry aside," I replied. "The world's literally on fire. It needs us at a hundred percent."
Scott nodded, thoughtful. Then he looked up. "I still think you're an asshole. But you're the heaviest hitter we've got—and you seem to be on the side of the angels."
That was the closest thing to an apology I'd ever get.
"You need to rally everyone who can still fight. Get them to New York. And tell Fury about his mole. If we're lucky, they haven't gotten what's inside the vault. Call Rin. He should be done dealing with his dad by now."
"And where will you be?" Scott asked.
"At the bottom of the Mariana Trench—putting an end to the demon threat once and for all."