Statue of Liberty.
Inside the Torch.
A silence had befallen, at the abrupt end of the chaos.
"This is strange," said Storm, glancing at Will. "I don't believe Frost would give up just like that."
Scott looked at Will with full blown suspicion.
"You were awfully composed even when Emma announced her plans, like you could easily defeat her."
Will shrugged. "Don't know what you're talking about."
"She also happened to release control just after you said, and I quote: who said you've won?"
Will raised his hands.
"Alright, I took her out. I couldn't let her succeed, could I?"
"How did you do it?" Scott demanded.
"I have no obligation to tell you. Beg me on your knees and I'll re-consider," said Will, shutting him up.
"But, is she really gone? Are we really free from her control?" Storm asked, as if expecting to be controlled again.
"It really is over," she said, looking somewhat stunned. "I felt it. She had fainted for some reason. She even tried calling Psylocke for help."
"She should be out for a while," Will confirmed, also relaxing his guard.
'Not going that far any time soon.'
Recalling the intensity of the battle, he still felt the chills.
He had come prepared but had still almost ended up dead at the hands of Magneto.
And the actions of these Villains can also be really dangerous.
Had Frost simply focused on her mission instead of attacking them, it would have been over. She could have fortified the base by stealing the most powerful weapons, and taken all mutants under her control.
In short, she could have become unstoppable.
Thankfully, Will found out about it in time, and just happened to have a failsafe installed in the Cerebro.
But, the current matter had not been completely settled yet. The sound of helicopters reached his ears. The Police was on their way, no doubt.
He quickly made his way over to Rogue, the rest of the X men quickly following behind.
Rogue seemed to have gone unconscious, having been hit by rogue metal particles. Logan cut down the machine, freeing her.
"How is she?" Asked Logan as Jean checked her condition.
"She seems to have a concussion."
But while this was happening, Will suddenly had a sinking feeling when he looked back.
"Guys, where is Magneto?!"
Jean looked at him apologetically. "I saw Mystique taking him away. When… when you were attacked."
"You mean when you guys went nuts on me?" Will felt the veins on his temple throbbing. This was the second time Magneto got away.
Is he really lucky for having great teammates like Emma Frost and Mystique or is Will simply unlucky for having to team up with X-men?
Jean pursed her lips. "I'm so sorry. I really tried to stop myself."
Storm also bowed her head. "Though it was against my intentions, I know that it was still my powers that struck you. I can only ask for your forgiveness."
"Yeah, my bad too." Even Logan felt bad. Will really did try his best, but they really messed up at the last moment.
Will shrugged. "Forget it."
Of course the performance of X-men left a lot to be desired. But to be honest, all he really cared about was aura farming from them as much as possible for a higher mission completion rating.
In the face of these rewards, he really didn't give a damn about Magneto.
"If Magneto comes back, I'll just have to defeat him again," he said casually, deciding to Aura Farm instead. "Relying on my tech, of course," he added, glancing at Scott.
Scott snorted, but couldn't say anything. After all, he was the one who questioned Will's competence due to his reliance on tech rather than his own powers.
Jean approached Will and hugged him, making his injuries flare up. "You were amazing just now. I really can't imagine how we could have done this without you."
"You indeed fought admirably," Storm also agreed. Unfortunately, there was no hug from her.
[Aura +++]
"It's what I do," Will replied, patting Jean's back while Scott's fists and teeth clenched, his face turning green.
At this moment, another glider flew in, stopping in front of Will. He had called it when the non-ferrous one was struck by lightning.
Will picked up the remains of the previous Glider. said, hopping onto his new ride. "Let's go now, the police will be on their way."
….
On the way back, Will finally checked the spoils of the war.
[Mission Completed
Magneto: Defeated
Frost: Defeated
Aura Farming: X men think you're HIM + Fight recorded for further use.
Total Aura Farmed: 12000 pts
Completion Rating: 9.4/10
Congratulations! You gotten a pet: Light Phoenix(Hatchling)
You have unlocked the Pet feature.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability: Storage Space
You have unlocked the Manifestation Skill Tree Branch]
[You showed high attainments in Aura Farming during this mission. Your class has been upgraded]
[Class: Apprentice Aura Farmer — > Adept Aura Farmer]
[Class Bonus: Aura Cloak]
[Light Phoenix: The mythic Light Phoenix (hatchling) from a destroyed universe. The pet will be bonded to the user, allowing them to share of its abilities.
Storage Space: The ability to transfer objects to a pocket dimension. Current space: 1 cubic meter.
Aura Cloak: Covers the body in a cloak of Aura that hides your Aura signature and protects the body from external external influence.]
For a moment, Will simply froze when he saw the rewards. But then, a maniacal laughter almost escaped his throat before he suppressed it.
'Heck to the yeah!'
It seems that he did make the right bet. Because there's no way ordinary missions would have given this kind of rewards.
Usually, it's just simple aura skills, but this time, he got something new.
An actual pet? And that too, a Light Phoenix?
That sounded really awesome.
And he has been wanting a storage space for a long time. If he has it, he might never have the shortage of equipment again. He would have a mobile arsenal anywhere he goes.
As for Aura Cloak appeared to be just the skill he needed most right now.
He couldn't wait to test out these skills to confirm whether they really were as good as he thought.
[Do you want to receive the rewards]
[Y/N]
Will almost tapped yes but held himself back. It has to be done when he's alone.
After reaching the X mansion, they went straight to Cerebro.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of Emma inside, only a faint scent of high-end perfume.
While the X-men searched the rest of the place, Will once again boobytrapped Cerebro for further future emergencies.
He also checked the surveillance but found that it had already been erased by Emma.
Then, while the X men were busy settling the rest of the matters, Will went into the nearby woods, ready to check his new powers.
'Accept the rewards.'
Instantly, new aura pathways were drilled into his body in different patterns, bringing in new pain. But it was nothing compared to the new kind of pain he was experiencing on his shoulder.
Leaning against a tree, Will had to frantically take off his equipment and t-shirt to see what the hell was going on.
A Phoenix shaped mark was being carved on his shoulder, little by little, made out of tiny symbols that seemed to mean nothing.
Will felt that his wounds had started to heal faster. Or maybe it was just a placebo.
He decided to call on his new pet first. But, he looked at his shoulder mark in puzzlement.
'How the hell does this work?'
He just tried activating it like his other skills.
[Light Phoenix]
The mark on his grew hot, light glowing beneath his skin. And then, a with a light flutter of wings, a tiny creature emerged.
It was no bigger than a hawk chick, its white gold plumage glowing slightly in the dark forest.
Its big eyes, that seemed to be made out of molten amber, clearly had intelligence, regarding him with what seemed to be timidity and a hint of curiosity.
What surprised him was the fact that the Creature seemed to have a very high amount of Aura, according to his [Aura Sense].
Will suddenly felt a strange sensation in his mind, and then it could feel it. A connection with something foreign.
It felt absolutely weird, and magical at the same time. He could feel the creature's thoughts. The tiny hatchling seemed to be quite confused at suddenly being summoned to a different place.
"Don't worry, little guy. You're safe," said Will. His fingers couldn't help reaching out to touch the cute little fella.
But the Phoenix seemed to be startled, jumping back from his finger. It fluttered its wings and climbed back towards the mark, disappearing as soon as it touched it
Will clicked his tongue.
"Looks like it'll take some time."
He checked the next skill. Unlatching his battered shield from his armor, he activated the next skill.
[Storage Space]
His aura moved, manifesting outward. The space in front of Will blurred, as if there was a glitch in the matrix.
He tried putting the shield in. Immediately, the shield vanished.
Will checked the Aura Consumption and took a sharp breath. Storing that shield had taken around 200 Aura points.
This Storage ability is not cheap. But then again, he is using the Aura to literally manipulate Space itself. Of course it was not going to be cheap.
[Aura Cloak]
Will activated the last skill as well. Immediately, a cloak of invisible Aura covered his body. Even inside, he could feel subtle layers of Aura settling over his aura pathways.
Other than that, he couldn't sense any other changes. His body was still the same.
But he had expected as much. After all, according to the description, its function is to mask his aura signature and prevent external influence on his body.
The rewards he gets are mostly related to the Mission. So if Will's guess is right, at least he should no longer be mistaken for a mutant by X men and other organizations.
And if he's lucky, maybe Magneto can no longer influence him even if he's wearing a metal suit.
Done checking his skills, Will sent the drone footage of the fight to PR and started making phone calls, getting busy.
The Aura has been farmed. Now it was time to harvest it.
….
Will and Jean entered the lab which was now empty.
It was already late at night and they had just finished dealing with their own matters. Will was just informing Jean that he was leaving but the psy-chick insisted on finally fulfilling her promise of helping Will out.
Will was also curious if the Aura Cloak was actually working. If it was not, he would still need X-men's help.
"Take off your clothes."
"Uh… do I need to?"
"Yeah, they interfere with the detection."
Will shrugged, taking off his t-shirt with a slight grimace.
Jean gasped when she saw the numerous wounds.
"You're seriously injured! Why didn't you tell me?"
"Well, it was nothing major."
"It most definitely is," Jean announced as she pushed him onto the bed and started diagnosing.
It turns out, the injuries really were quite serious. Since the suit was made out of non-ferrous materials, it didn't have much in the name of defense and it was almost impossible to avoid all of Magneto's projectiles.
Will only got away with it because he kept Magneto busy and didn't give him the chance to get serious.
"Nice tattoo," Jean's eyes were suddenly attached to the Phoenix mark, looking at it in fascination. She lightly traced a finger over it and Will felt the baby phoenix respond through the mind connect, expressing its desire to come out.
'Shit. Jean has a high affinity with the Phoenix of this world.'
"Uh, can you check the injuries first?" Will had to distract her attention.
Jean took back the hand that unconsciously stretched out.
Tearing her eyes away from the tattoo, she instead focused on his injuries. She lightly prodded the big burn on his other shoulder, which looked the worst.
She shuddered, as if she could feel that pain. "This is a very deep burn. How did you get it?"
Will's shoulder muscles tightened in pain. "Courtsey of the Weather Goddess."
"Oh… you could have blocked that one," she murmured in recollection. It was Jean who lowered his shield through telekinesis at the time.
"Once again, I'm really sorry for what happened."
Will shook his head.
"Don't blame yourself. In fact, I am surprised you even managed to put up such a struggle against Emma Frost on Cerebro."
"About that…" Jean looked thoughtful.
"To be honest, even I am surprised. It's just that when Emma was ruffling through my mind, something happened and suddenly, I was able to resist her somewhat…"
Will's expression grew serious. "How do you feel right now?"
Jean looked into his eyes and smiled. "I don't know—better? I feel… different… free… like I had been walking through water and now I am suddenly on land again."
"Well, that's good," said Will, but inwardly, he thought it was not good at all. In the movies, Jean's powers had been locked by Professor Xavier, which resulted in really bad consequences when they were released later.
"Also, I don't know why, but I feel…" Jean looked at him searchingly, as if trying to find something, but then she just shook her head. "Never mind."
"You can tell me," Will offered, but Jean just focused on his injuries.
"How did you get these?" She asked instead, examining two particularly bad bruises, one on his ribs and one on his back.
"Your dear boyfriend."
"He's no longer my boyfriend," She clarified, an annoyed look flash across her face.
Will raised an eyebrow.
"So, you really are breaking up?"
Jean didn't answer.
"Well, good for you. I couldn't understand what you saw in him in the first place."
Jean paused. "To be honest, I don't see it anymore either."
"Then what kind of guys do you actually like? Does he pass any of the criteria?"
"My criteria?"
"Yeah, who do you feel attracted to?"
"Who… I feel attracted to?" Jean murmured. She looked at him in a daze, her hands lightly trailing his chest muscles.
Will also maintained eye contact, a faint smile crossing his lips.
Jean leaned forward slightly, maybe almost subconscious. Will would be a japanese shonen protagonist if he didn't respond to a lady's initiative.
The distance slowly closed and their lips met. Probingly at first, but they mashed together with such high intensity.
Will took off the mature doctor's rimless glasses and pulled her curvaceous body into arms, not at all caring about his injuries, and Jean responded with equal passion, completely throwing aside her reserved and dignified demeanor.
She stuck her tongue into his mouth, delicately swirling it with his own while Will's hands unscrupulously groped her ass.
'Definitely my type.' He exclaimed inwardly, feeling the squishiness.
They ended up on the hospital bed with Jean straddling him, grinding on his length over his clothes.
But, at this moment, her hand touched his tattoo, and both of them froze.
Will felt the Phoenix respond more intensely this time and he felt his shoulder burning hot.
From what Will could catch from his bond, the bird could actually sense a familiar presence in the Jean, something similar to its own kind.
Will could only draw one conclusion from that.
'Has she… already bonded with the Phoenix Force?'
After touching the mark, Jean suddenly seemed to have snapped out of the sensual state, scrambling up from Will's lap and tidying her clothes.
"I'm sorry, I don't… I don't know what happened," she stammered. "I'm usually not like this, no matter how attracted I am to someone… not that I have been been this attracted to some to someone befor— Damn it! I'm not attracted to you either!"
Jean seemed to have become an utter mess.
"Jean, calm down."
Will didn't try to make fun of her for this seemingly adorable and clumsy behaviour. Instead, he was absolutely serious.
Because his suspicions had come true.
"No, you have to understand, something really is wrong."
"Jean, jean… I believe you," said Will, gripping her shoulders. "Sit down, we can talk about it."
Jean really had calmed down and there was a certain gratitude in her for Will's mature way of handling the situation.
"I have discovered that after I was free from Emma's control, I have been feeling more… impulsive," she said, her eyes glancing on Will's lips and his muscular body. "And… I am also finding myself acting on those impulses. I just had a big fight with Scott earlier. I almost beat him up."
"That, you can not be blamed for," said Will, making her smile.
"I'm serious," she said, lightly bumping his shoulder with her own.
"Alright, here's what I can infer." Will also got serious. "Either your heightened powers are influencing your mind, or a part of your personality has been suppressed for too long, the locks on which have loosened."
"If there really is something wrong with me, that is," Jean added. "Or maybe I am just having menopause in my thirties."
But Will knew he was right. What he said were the two different ways that led to Jean becoming the dark phoenix in movies and comics.
"We can find that out right now," said Will, taking her hand. He looked into her eyes. "Do you feel the impulse right now? Do you want to kiss me?"
Jean hesitated.
"Come on, Jean. I'm serious here."
Jean looked into his eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity. She lowered her head and gave a slight nod. "Really badly," she admitted. "But this kind of impulse is only for you," she added hurriedly, as if worried he might misunderstand her for a slut.
Will slowly put her hand back on his Phoenix mark.
"What about now?"
Her eyes widened. The glow and warmth swept in front the mark, into her fingers. "It's… gone. At least, I can control myself now."
"Well, congratulations. You don't have menopause. There really is something wrong with you."
Will was relieved. It seems that there's a way to prevent Jean from losing control through his light Phoenix. This system reward really is a godsend.
Jean let go of the mark, albeit reluctantly. "What is this tattoo?"
"Well, just know that it can help you whenever you lose control… until we find a better solution."
Jean could only agree to that.
"So, can we do the tests now?" Will asked.
"Of course. But before that, I… have a question."
"Ask away."
"Um… how old are you?"
Will paused. This again. He was at the age where he was too old to date teenage girls but too young to date older women.
"Somewhere being 20 to 40. Now, can we get back to business?" No way he was gonna answer that.
And so, they did the tests, with obvious awkwardness and sexual tension between them.
But it turned out that Aura Cloak really did work, since Jean could no longer find any anomalies in him, making him appear a normal human.
Afterward, on his request, Jean took him to see Forge's workshop.
Forge is yet another reason why Will had come to the X mansion. His abilities? Technopathy, genius-level intellect, and intuitive understanding of technology.
In short, much more useful than the rest of the X men most of the times.
As he followed Jean into the workshop, the smell of hot metal entered his nose. The place was big, cluttered with half-finished inventions, and glowing consoles. Tools, prototypes, and blueprints are scattered everywhere, making the place feel chaotic yet alive.
A broad-shouldered native american was currently hammering away at the hot metal. He had rugged features, black hair tied in a pony tail and one of his legs was a mechanical prosthesis.
"Hey Forge, this is Harry. He needs your expertise."
Forge glanced at Will and turned back to work.
"Well, you know I don't help random people."
"Well, this random guy just took on Magneto by himself."
This got the clanker's attention. "He did?"
Will smiled. "Let's do this again. Hi, I'm White Knight."
There are a lot of things Forge can be useful for.
First and foremost, better anti-magneto weapons. Second, better anti-psychic equipment. Will and acquaintances can't always wear these wigs to protect their minds.
There are better alternatives, like small equipment that disrupt psychic waves, thus preventing interference.
This was just the start of the list.
Will put forward these suggestions and what he already had quickly gained Forge's recognition, starting a lengthy discussion.
Jean, who was still slightly wet, dried up instantly.
….
The next day, Will woke up with a cute chick sleeping on him.
No, it was literally a cute chick, the baby phoenix.
When he woke up, the baby chick also stirred, before opening its eyes.
"You're awake."
Will tried stroking it and this time, he succeeded. Its small feathers were incredibly soft and warm.
The bird chirped lazily, closing its eyes in satisfaction.
"Do you have a name? What should I call you?"
The intelligent bird answered with a chirp, and through the bond, Will came to know that it didn't have a name.
"Well, I'll give you one then. Are you male or female?"
"Chirp."
"Female? Then, let's call you…. Willi? No? Osi? How about… Aurora?"
The bird perked up at that, and the name was decided.
"Your name is Aurora now," Will announced. It had nothing to do with the word Aura. Not at all.
….
A.N.: How were the rewards?
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