---

"Religion, ideology, resources, land, spite, love, or just because no matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start a war. War will never cease to exist… reasons can be thought up after the fact. Human nature pursues strife."

— Paine,  (Naruto Shippuden)

---

(7 months later)

<(Pietro Maximoff, aka, Quicksilver pov)>

"And another point," I shouted in happiness as I saw the ball going inside the basket.

"That's cheating Pietro. Your super speed is a cheat in sports. We can't even see you coming. I think you should stop using your power while we play basketball." Warren Worthington, aka, Angel said in annoyance as he panted.

"Na-ah, that's your problem, my friend. I didn't complain when you made the first point by flying with those huge wings of yours. Also, you are the one who said that powers are allowed in the game, remember?" I gave a cocky smile towards Warren.

Xavier's school had completely changed into a more peaceful version of itself. There hadn't been any attack for the last eight months. No protests against metahumans had taken place in front of the gates, and no child was kidnapped. Even the few spies sent by the organizations had quickly been identified and subdued with Zoya's help and Hank's upgraded state-of-the-art security technology.

On the contrary, the intake of metahuman students and staff had only increased and with Rudeus' huge funding, the school was quickly growing with new residential complexes being built inside the school for more students. The amount of funding the school was receiving could easily be compared to the biggest and most prestigious institutions in the country.

Xavier's school for the gifted had not only become one of the most reputed and famous schools in the US but also one of the most peaceful havens for young metahumans, second only to the country of Genosha.

Although Miss Ororo was saying that they wanted to change the school name to signify its recent growth and evolution. Maybe they could even name it something like Silver Heights or maybe Quick Academy. Yep, those would be the most appropriate names.

"Oh man, I can't believe we lost to Pietro of all people," Bobby said as he powered down from his crystal ice form.

Bobby was in a depression at first after being heartbroken due to Rudeus' rejection but recently he had come out of his depression. He has accepted the fact that he couldn't get everything he wanted in life and has moved on. In fact, according to some rumors going around the school, the man of ice is supposedly dating some rich hot-shot guy from the Frost family. Well, good for him, I guess.

"Yeah, it's almost the same as when we tried to play dodgeball against Wanda." Lorna smiled sadly as she remembered her utter defeat in the game at the hands of the Scarlet Witch. Wanda had hit her with so many dodgeballs at such impossible angles that she had almost lost count. She had aches all over her body for about a week after that day.

Me, Lorna, and Wanda had gotten quite close recently after we found out that all three of us were the spawns of the same magnetic dictator. We three had really similar tastes and likings and got really well with each other. Turns out that it's really fun when you have two siblings. I mean sometimes we do fight but it's mostly really fun having two sisters to watch your back.

And she was right. Wanda recently was getting really good at using her powers, especially her telekinesis part. Recently, she was even able to stop me from running when we had a mock battle in the danger room.

"By the way Pietro, you wouldn't know what type of flower your sister likes right? I mean I wanted to thank her for helping me with my fiery nightmares, so I was thinking of asking her out by buying her some flowers..." John, aka, Pyro started as he ran up to us, fire boosting his speed like some cheap low-budget jetpack.

"Dude, don't. First, I am not gonna help you get together with my sister even though you are a friend and second, I am not sure she will take your advances towards her well. I am pretty sure that she already has a crush on someone. I really don't think that you should try your luck with her." I said as I remembered Wanda mentioning to me her wish to marry her crush and be a homemaker while having two children as her dream when me, Lorna and Wanda played truth and dare some days ago.

"Well, you never know until you try. Plus what's the worst that can happen?" Pyro said with pure confidence having no idea about the dozens of curses in Wanda's magical arsenal that she learned and could use on him if he annoyed her enough.

"I see. if you insist, I can't stop you. But do remember that I tried to warn you." Pietro said as he sighed.

They continued to chat with each other on random topics and just had fun while being 'normal' teenagers but sadly their normalness didn't last long.

*Screetch* A shrill sound suddenly reverberated in all their minds with a sharp headache and intense mental pain sounding much like the call of a crazed wild bird.

"What is that sound? It's so fcking painful." Angel screamed in pain as he covered his head with his own hands to try to control the pain he felt in his head like all his other friends.

Soon, the sound stopped and their pain neutralized as well but in its place, they heard a new voice, the voice of Professor Xavier in their minds.

"All students are requested to quickly enter the school building premises. This is not a drill. I repeat, all students are requested to quickly enter the school building premises." The professor's voice sounded in their heads.

"What do you think is happening?" Kurt who had teleported to them asked with worry lacing his voice.

"We are under attack," Gwenpool said in a serious tone as she drove to them like some action hero there to save them on her Harley Davidson with her walking shark sitting on the back of her bike.

How come that shark never tries to eat her? Also is that Wolverine's favorite bike she is riding?

"Really, how did ya figure that out genius?" Anna, aka, Rogue asked mockingly.

"Because I noticed the stereotypical crazy overpowered female superhuman floating in the sky with her dark-themed clothes, free-flowing red hair, dark eyes, pale skin with dark colored veins, and a bat-shit crazy smile on her face looking like she wanna kill all of us, and destroy the school by raining down meteorites on it. Duh!" Gwenpool said with a straight face as she looked at the female figure floating alone in the slowly darkening sky.

***

"Ororo, I can't hold on against Jean's telepathic assaults for long even with Cerebro's might. Contact Rudeus as soon as you can. Jean is more powerful than ever right now. Her power feels like it's endless. I can't even feel Jean among all that raw power, only her raging hatred and anger. She needs to be stopped as soon as possible and Atem is possibly the only one who can stop her without destroying the city in the process." Xavier said as he panted but still held on to his helmet connecting him to his cerebro, drops of blood trickling down his nose.

Hearing this, Ororo knew instantly what to do. She knew about Jean's identity as the phoenix and her potential after she was informed of it by Rudeus. She knew that Jean was not in control currently and that the professor was losing in this telepathic battle against the dark corrupted version of Jean even though they were currently in a stalemate right now.

She needed to protect her students and this school. So she quickly made a decision. She was sure that Zoya already knew of Jean's arrival as evidenced by a dozen sentinels already fighting the girl or at least trying to fight the girl. She knew that Zoya would definitely contact Rudeus on her own to inform him about Jean. So she didn't need to do anything about that.

What she needed to do was buy time and time she would buy.

"Hold on for some more time professor. Protect my and the minds of the other teachers and students. We will make sure to protect this school from her. As long as I breathe, not even a single student will be harmed." Ororo declared as she walked out of the room at a fast pace determined to defeat Jean and beat some sense into her.

---

Don't forget to comment and 'favorite' this chapter if you like it.

Also, you can check out my Pat reøn page to read ahead or to support your fantastic author. 

(My Pat-reon uses the new billing method which means if you pledge on the 15th of this month, you will have to pay again on the day you pledged, ie, the 15th of the next month. So whenever you subscribe, you will get a whole month.)

pátreon.com/God_Doom

(replace the á with a)