"Mein Gott! What in the world—what happened to your face?!"
Max leaned casually against the Porsche, a smirk on his face and a beer in hand as he looked at the stunned X-Men standing in front of him. His face, disfigured and terribly ugly, was on full display now — a drawback he'd taken from this Jump, and now, they got a clear look at it.
He paused, eyeing the group, then shot Kurt a sideways glance with a slightly droopy eye. "Look who's talking, Fuzzy," he drawled, voice thick with sarcasm.
Kurt's eyes stayed wide open with horror, his mouth parting as if words were on the verge of spilling out, but he stopped himself. Instead, he let his gaze fall to the thick, green grass beneath their feet, focusing on it intently as though watching each blade slowly push its way upward.
"Ha. That's what I said when he took the bucket off. I've seen worse, way worse though... Hey! That's a hell of a dent in your Barbie Dream Car there Summers."
The gruff man wiped some beer suds from his chin and scratched one of his extra long sideburns. He pulled two more cans out and tossed one over to Max, who caught the can and cracked its tab open with his magnetic abilities.
"Hey, thanks Logan!"
Magneto was easily able to manipulate aluminum by inducing eddy currents within the metal, and therefore, so could Max. By creating a rapidly changing magnetic field, he generated a secondary magnetic field inside the can, allowing him to lift it as if it were steel. His precision was amazing, the 'instinct' ability was making everything seem second nature to Max.
He could now manipulate metal at the subatomic level. Applying localized force to the small metal tab of a can to "pop" it was a trivial task compared to Magneto's usual feats, like rearranging satellites or ripping adamantium from a skeleton.
Max could now replicate all of those things.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
Golden colored beer poured from the floating can into the strangely shaped, open mouth of Max, creating a magical yet extremely disturbing image while Max showed off with his new abilities.
He was having the time of his life while creating this weird persona in front of the X-Men!
The old saying goes, "Never meet your heroes," but in this twist, it might be more fitting to say, "Heroes, may you never cross paths with your most peculiar fans!"
Jean Grey grimaced, hand covering her mouth at the sight and then she looked away, while Scott just stood there for a few moments with his jaw slack, mouth hanging slightly open.
Scott forced his mouth to close and took a few steps forward.
"Damn... This whole chase—wasting my damn time! And now I'm gonna have to pay for the repairs on that wreck of a car. Who the hell are you?"
Max's terrifying grin widened. "Yeah, yeah. Send me the bill—once I get the bodywork sorted."
Then, without warning, he tilted his head, and a surge of magnetic power flowed through him. Dents and scratches smoothed themselves, energy rippling over the damaged body like a wave. With a flick of his wrist, the panels smoothed out, restoring the car to flawless condition in seconds, like the clock had been turned back.
"Can't help you with the broken plastic bits though."
Scott's eyes went wide. "No way…"
He looked back towards Max, taking in his ugly appearance once again. If Max had not become uglified, Scott may have calmed down at this point, Max's attitude, coupled with his very villain-like appearance, however, triggered the young mutant instead.
"You," Scott growled, his hand hovering near his visor, ready to start blasting, and if that damn Porsche got hit by one of his concussive beams? Oh well, what a shame.
"Me," Max rasped, his voice nearly as rough as his face. "Nice looking car, by the way. The handling on that toy is trash, mind you, but the Porsche? Now that was poetry in motion."
"Asshole!"
Scott was ready to take a shot at Max, even with Logan standing right next to him.
'That's enough... Scott, this man is not our enemy. Logan, you should know better than to encourage this. Everyone come inside. Logan, please escort our guest to my office.'
A mental fluctuation had suddenly interrupted the showdown between Max and Scott, grabbing everyone's attention, especially Max's.
"Tsk..." Scott dropped his hand, moving his itchy finger away from the visors button, giving up on attacking the moment the voice sounded out in everyone's heads.
Max wasn't worried about the Professor's telepathy in the slightest. He'd activated his ability, 'Blank', which blocked any attempts at peeping or scrying. The mental toughness and resistance of his new body certainly didn't hurt to have either.
As soon as the wave of mental energy hit the five of them, Max's interface alerted him that his mind was being probed, just like it had when Jean Grey and the Professor had tried earlier.
Max had seen a brief vision last time, via his Destiny mutation and had immediately put the helmet on, so that he could focus on driving. Much too busy to check on all of the notifications his interface was making.
This time, though, Max decided to see what would happen without his helmet on.
He was satisfied with the results. He could still hear the mental message, but could also feel that his private thoughts were completely safe under the protection of 'blank'.
Logan grunted while rolling his eyes, jerked his chin toward the massive oak doors, and started walking. Max didn't hesitate, falling into step beside him while the younger X-Men trailed behind like a pack of wary wolves.
Max didn't mind the untrusting gazes he could feel digging into his back. He turned his head while walking inside and caught his reflection in the mansion's polished glass. 'God, I'm hideous', he laughed inside his own head, while adjusting his tracksuit.
He wouldn't trust someone that looked the way he currently did at first meeting either.
He looked like a genetic experiment gone pretty bad, a stark contrast to the 'Pretty Boy' mutants normally running around these halls. But behind that face was a mind that now knew three different ways to dismantle the mansion's structural rebar if things went south.
He stepped inside.
As soon as Max's feet hit the marble of the foyer, his magnetic senses spread out.
To the X-Men, this was a grand home; to Max, it was a translucent wireframe of hidden circuitry and reinforced titanium. His magnetic sense brushed against the walls, feeling the 'skeleton' of the building.
'Reinforced I-beams... some sort of composite alloys,' Max noted, his internal senses practically highlighting the structural load-bearing points. 'And there's the automated security grid. Motion sensors, thermal dampeners... and at least six hidden hard-points built into the crown molding. This place is a damn fortress. Perfect!'
Max could feel each and every hidden nook and cranny in the house by scanning with his metallic senses, already familiar with the layout, not needing to spend any more than five seconds inside.
He could feel the house's "heartbeat" through the floorboards. Deep below, a massive electromagnetic hum resonated—the distinct, rhythmic pulse of a high-yield fusion reactor and a massive supercomputer array, alongside a huge, reinforced chamber.
'Cerebro,' Max realized, a small thrill of anticipation running through him. 'And the Blackbird's hangar. Not to mention the danger room...'
Max followed Logan through the mansion, heading right for a set of stairs leading to the upper floor.
"You three stay." Logan raised a hand with three digits sticking up, waving them backward and forth dismissively.
"Ah man." Kurt complained, he wanted to know everything about this mysterious, powerful stranger that somehow could make him look handsome by comparison, now that the initial feeling of danger caused by Max's ugly mug had worn off.
"I said stay, and you..."
Logan grunted towards Max, not even looking back as they finished climbing the stairs, his nose twitched.
"...Don't get any ideas about the hardware, kid. I can smell you 'counting' the bolts in the walls. I'd wager ya got that look in your eyes... the same one Magneto gets when he's lookin' for a structural weak point... I like you, despite the fact that you look uglier than the Juggernaut's ass, don't let me down..."
"I'm just sniffing things out, like you do, just in my own way."
"Humph, wise-ass... Well, this is it."
The two came to a stop in front of a pair of heavy, ornate mahogany doors. Max could feel the faint electromagnetic "noise" of the electronics on the other side—it was like a low-frequency hum only he could hear.
"Thanks for the beers, man."
Logan started walking away, turning his head slightly while responding, "Don't mention it. You're going to be buying the next round of cold ones... This may be a bit early, but... Welcome to the X-Men."