"My... vibranium," the disheveled man muttered before his eyes refocused on Emilia, "that, is a very ... pricy, commodity young lady, though I'm sure you already knew that."

 

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement," Emilia held back on rolling her eyes, "I'm tempted to trade you for a bit of it to Wakanda...though since they are so stuck up I'd like to avoid that, what do you think?"

 

"Ah," he blinked dumbly, "Young Lady, I can't help but disagree Wakandans would never part with even a gram of it willingly, even if you saved the life of their damned King." his tune changed instantly, "and I'm sure even if they'd I have more vibranium than they'd willingly part with, not on me of course, but I'd compensate you handsomely for my continued freedom."

 

Slimy bastard, Emilia mused, amused at how quickly the man understood his situation. The moment he understood she knew about Wakanda and how much they'd like to get their hands on him he forgone any of his previous pretence.

 

"Mhhm," Emilia nodded, "I'm sure you will, especially since we are willing to act as your bodyguards on your way back to your hideout," she narrowed her eyes at him as he stiffened, "you are welcome, though it'll cost you all of your vibranium I'm afraid."

 

"A perfectly fair trade for ladies like yourselves to escort a humble smuggler like me," he nodded with a twitching grin.

 

*Are you sure this is worth it?* she heard Jean's telepathic question, along with the woman's clear dislike of the slimy smuggler.

 

*Don't give up now Jeanie, we suffered through the heat for this.* Emilia sent back, *Just a little bit more.*

 

*If you say so,* with that she felt their bond go back into its natural, inactive state.

 

"Your men will wake up in a few minutes," she notified the smuggler, "we can't do anything about your vehicles though."

 

"Ah, no problem my Lady," he shook his head vehemently, "I'll get them into working order as soon as possible."

 

"Off you go then," she waved him away, *and the moment you try anything I'm tearing off a finger * she sent directly into his mind, making herself appear like a mental colossus, bearing down on his frail mind.

 

He stumbled on his way out but started nodding frantically.

 

"Well," Jean started once the man was out of the truck, "didn't know you were good at negotiations, where did my shy little Emilia go?"

 

"It's much easier when I can read all of their thoughts," Emilia shrugged, a slight blush creeping up on her face but she acted like it didn't exist. What she said was right too, her usual social anxiety was much easier to deal with when she could clearly feel others' emotions and read their thoughts, which also made negotiation considerably easier.

 

"If I knew we were going along with them I wouldn't have torn off their tires," said Jean a good half an hour later as the two of them watched the bunch of people running around like headless chickens, trying to fix up as many of the vehicles as they could.

 

"It's alright," Emilia shrugged, "I didn't think it through that much, but I realized we wouldn't have to bother fighting the guards at his hideout if he led us there himself and gave up his vibranium."

 

"It'll take much longer," noted Jean, her distaste for the circumstances echoing clearly in her tone.

 

"This is a perfect time for practice," Emilia smirked, throwing a sidelong glance at her wincing girlfriend, "I'll keep a part of my mind here to keep an eye out on them."

 

Jean nodded as she took Emilia's hand into her own, caressing it softly as their bond strengthened as psychic energy flowed freely between the two. They closed their eyes and focused, submerging themselves in the sea of energy that was the power of their interconnected minds.

 

A moment later they opened their eyes to a very different but familiar scene, they stood on a bridge of solid energy glowing in iridescent colors as it extended over the expanse between two floating islands above the nothingness of the Astral realm.

 

"Now then," Emilia floated up freely, pulling Jean up with her effortlessly, "your place or mine?"

 

"Mine should be better," said Jean, glancing at one of the islands with a large dark castle in the middle surrounded by an expansive forest that was in an endless cycle of forest fire and regrowth. The flames spread quickly, incinerating the fauna to ash but it sprung back up from the ash soon after, stronger and more vibrant than ever.

 

"I guess so," Emilia nodded, "it's convenient that it regenerates by itself," she sighed, remembering how tiring it was to rebuild her own mindscape after one of their practice sessions.

 

They floated over to a clearing in the ever-burning forest, facing each-other a dozen meters apart.

 

"Try to limit your power output so you don't just send me spinning into the Astral sea again?" Emilia asked, that was an annoying few hours she spent floating back to her mindscape.

 

"Okay," Jean nodded, floating a meter above the charred ground, her flaming red hair billowing behind her.

 

Not now, dumb moron, Emilia thought to herself, biting her lips a bit as she stared at the domineering form of her lover. She herself didn't want to waste energy on floating when she didn't need to, efficiency, control and versatility were her strong points while Jean's were more focused on stamina and power but she also had the psychic fire from the phoenix that gave her some abilities Emilia couldn't replicate no matter how much she tried.

 

The Flames could heal and regenerate anything just as much as they could vaporize even the strongest materials they'd tested it on, she guessed it somehow tapped into some sort of conceptual power to become the physical manifestation of Destruction and Rebirth like the Phoenix Force itself.

 

Jean's arms lit alight with bright flames, creeping up to her elbows harmlessly as she readied herself for their spar and Emilia took the moment to ready herself, her legs spread a bit, she lowered herself into a fighting position as she stared at Jean.

 

*3, 2, 1, Go!*

 

They sprang into action at the same time, Jean flew up a few meters and threw homing balls of fire at Emilia while a film of psychic energy covered her skin like a bodysuit, glowing in all the colors of the rainbow.

 

Emilia flooded her body with psychic energy, focusing on her legs as she launched herself at the retreating Jean like a bullet. Despite her previous remarks about Jean's brutish style of fighting, in the end, when it came to a fight where she had to go all out she was much more brutish.

 

She noticed the difference between their powers a while back, unlike Jean who could exert her power equally over any distance inside her range, Emilia's power was exponentially greater the closer the enemy was to her, peaking when she was in physical contact with them.

 

Fist-sized psychic shields sprang up over her palms as she slapped away the fireballs one after the other like annoying flies while closing the distance quickly between herself and Jean. The girl didn't let her though, when the fireballs proved inadequate she started tearing up the ground from under Emilia, crushing the dirt into hardened stone before assaulting Emilia in a hail of stones.

 

Emilia used Telekinesis on her own body to make turns and dodges that no normal human could, she stopped in the air for half a second, midjump, only continuing when the rock aiming to strike her in the head flew past her face and the next one was threatening to crush into her back.

 

She launched herself to the side at full force, no slower than she was running before with her enhanced muscles. She took 90-degree turns without any effort while going faster than some cars, she had to be careful and keep her brain from swishing around too much from the increased G force but it was manageable.

 

Telepathic attacks were out for this spar as that would include them beating up each-others mindscape and with them fighting inside Jean's would give Emilia a large edge, still they went at it with passion. Emilia didn't let Jean have a moment of rest as she launched attacks on the floating woman while closing in on her.

 

Her psychic energy manifested and solidified into physical form, glowing white swords, spears, halberds, and anything she could imagine manifested and flew at Jean, not leaving her a single second of peace.

 

Multitasking was another thing Emilia found herself excelling in, even more so with steadily her increasing psychic powers.

 

The rocks let up and Emilia only had a split second to launch herself far up into the air, gritting her teeth as she pulled herself like a ragdoll but the scalding heat touching her feet made it evident that it was a good decision. A veritable sea of white-hot flames consumed the ground, flowing out of Jean's outstretched hands like she was holding a flamethrower.

 

They made eye contact, Jean smirked as her palms moved upward, and Emilia's eyes widened as she made a solid footing for a moment, her thighs contracted before she launched herself away from the temporary foothold. She sailed over the slowly approaching flames, making a few more footings mid-air as she zig-zagged toward her floating girlfriend.

 

She was only a few meters away from reaching Jean, now a good hundred meters up in the air when the girl let the flames go. Emilia's eyes got drawn towards her red palms still covered in white flames as Jean made a clawing motion, like grabbing an apple.

 

Jean pulled. The errant flames stopped and moved, converging on the two of them in a tide of destruction and incinerating heat. Emilia screamed as she felt her astral form's skin burn but she struck out, a glowing white sword manifesting in her hand before she used her entire Telekinetic power to push.

 

Her scream was joined by a pained whimper from Jean as her overpowered Psychic shield cracked and the sword parted her skin and penetrated her flesh. The sword came out through her back but Emilia couldn't see that, her form was engulfed in flames as her vision darkened despite the divine light of the Phoenix's flames.

 

She woke up in the middle of a forest, the vibrant blue, white and red leaves of the trees made it evident that she was back in her own mindscape, though the soft thighs she was currently resting her head on made her think she was in heaven for a moment.

 

She sighed in contentment as she felt Jean's dexterous fingers comb through her hair and massage her scalp, this was bliss, if she got rewards like this for losing she'd have to consider doing it more. Surprisingly they were rather tied in wins despite the considerable disparity in power.

 

"Congratulations on your win," said Emilia before closing her eyes again, humming at her lover's ministrations.

 

"Thank you," Jean said quietly, "it was close again," Emilia felt the girl's shame at that, Jean felt like she should have won without effort with her powers but Emilia almost managed to win this time too and a real fight Jean would have died too without astronomical luck.

 

Emilia cracked open her eyes to smile up at Jean, she felt a bit guilty as it was her intention to make the girl feel like that. The guilt was eating at her when she was watching her girlfriend squirming like this but she knew it was nothing compared to the guilt she felt if she died because she didn't learn to control her powers.

 

"You're getting much better," she reached up to caress her cheek and turn her gaze back towards her, "I'm proud of you."

 

Jean had an intense look in her eyes at that, her verdant green eyes almost glowing in the light before she tore her gaze away, looking a touch embarrassed as she scratched her cheek.

 

"Thanks," she murmured, "and sorry for killing you like that."

 

Emilia winced at the turn of phrase, and her grimace deepened as she remembered her skin peeling off in the scalding heat. Getting burned to death wasn't the most enjoyable experience even if the pain was rather dampened in their Astral Forms.

 

"It's alright," Emilia said, "and sorry for impaling you."

 

Jean looked at her weirdly for a bit before shaking her head softly, "No problems love, you can Impale me all you want."

 

"Do- Don't make pr-romises you w- won't keep," Emilia stuttered, her face heating up quickly at the implications.

 

"I'm not," Jean shook her head, her head swishing around at the motion, "just give me a bit of time, please?" she asked with a hear-throbbing shy smile on her lips.

 

Emilia felt her heart melt at the expression as she nodded mutely, damn it all, this girl will be the death of me.