"Thank you for inviting me," Jupiter said with a smile at the door before casually hugging Jean. "I had fun," he added, stepping back before doing the same to Anna and Kitty. He kept it brief, his usual smoothness in full display, and gave the guys only handshakes or fist bumps.
"Yeah, it was fun having you over," Jean said warmly, returning his smile. "You should come back next time."
Bobby nodded, his grin easy. "Yeah, pretty chill, man."
Anna blinked at that, caught off guard for half a second before smirking. "Oh? That so?" she drawled, tilting her head slightly, her green eyes narrowing in mock suspicion. "Careful, sugar. Folks might start thinkin' you actually like my company."
Kitty giggled, and Jean rolled her eyes, half amused, half exasperated. At this point, she was used to Jupiter's easy confidence and the way he seemed to bring banter out of everyone around him.
Bobby snorted. "Man, you two sound like you've known each other for years already."
Anna shrugged, her grin turning a touch more playful. "Guess some people just make an impression."
"Real," Jupiter said with a faint smile, eyes glinting with humor. "Kitty, whenever you set up another party, tell me. Trust, I'll be there."
Kitty laughed, brushing her hair back. "Yeah, I'll hold you to that. Just don't turn it into a competition next time."
Jupiter raised his hands in mock surrender. "No promises."
He gave one last wave before turning and walking toward the street where a short, broad-shouldered man with a rough look was standing beside Ororo in front of a truck.
"Alright, you said your goodbyes, bub?" the man asked, voice gravelly, tone casual.
Jupiter froze for a moment, staring at him. Did an old white guy just call him blud? For a brief, bewildered second, he questioned reality. "What did you say?" Jupiter asked, genuinely thrown off.
The man frowned slightly. "I said, did you say your goodbyes, bub?" he repeated, clearly oblivious to the confusion he'd caused.
Ororo sighed, her expression shifting between amusement and mild exasperation. "He's saying bub, Jupiter. Not blud. Don't mind him, he isn't exactly keeping up with modern terms."
"Ah, right," Jupiter said smoothly, recovering almost instantly. "Well, I'm Jupiter. Nice to meet you."
The man gave a short nod, squinting at him. "Logan."
Jupiter extended his hand, and Logan shook it with a surprisingly firm grip. For a moment, neither of them said anything, just a silent exchange of weight, experience, and attitude. Then Logan released his hand and grunted. "You got a strong grip, kid. Not bad."
"Thank you," Jupiter replied, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "I get that a lot."
Logan snorted, already walking around to the driver's side. "Bet you do."
As Jupiter climbed into the back seat beside Ororo, she gave him a sidelong glance. "You handled yourself well in there. I'll admit, I expected worse."
"I can behave," Jupiter said easily, resting his arm against the window. "When I want to."
"That's what worries me," Ororo murmured, her tone dry but her lips twitching with a faint smile as the truck rumbled to life and pulled away from the mansion lights.
"How does such a thing worry you?" Jupiter asked, his tone light, amusement threading through his words.
"Because with you," Ororo replied, leaning her elbow against the door, "there's always something unexpected around the corner. And I already deal with enough surprises as it is."
Jupiter smiled faintly at that, turning his head to look out the window. "What, you saying I make life interesting?"
"I'm saying you make my patience shorter," Ororo countered smoothly, though there was no real bite to her words. Her eyes flicked toward him, the corners softening just a bit. "And I have a feeling you enjoy testing it."
Jupiter chuckled under his breath. "Maybe. But what if I said I could make it worth your while?"
Ororo gave him a flat look, one brow raised. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
He tilted his head toward her, grin widening. "Want to find out?"
Without missing a beat, Ororo placed her palm against his face and pushed him back with effortless grace, her expression somewhere between disbelief and amusement. "Really? Attempting to flirt with me right after you spent the entire night trying to charm Anna?" she said, shaking her head slightly.
Jupiter leaned back, still smiling. "I did say I wanted a polygamous relationship," he replied casually, folding his arms behind his head as if they were talking about the weather.
Ororo stared at him for a long moment before a small, incredulous laugh slipped out. "You think you can just say things like that and get away with it?" she said, finally relaxing into her seat.
"I usually do," he said, meeting her gaze with that same unbothered confidence.
Logan, who had been silent up to that point, grunted from the driver's seat. "Kid's got guts, I'll give him that. Or no sense of self-preservation."
"Probably both," Ororo said dryly, though her eyes were glinting with amusement now. "He's lucky he's charming enough to get away with half of what comes out of his mouth."
"Luck has nothing to do with it," Jupiter said, tone smooth but teasing. "It's all natural talent."
Before Ororo could respond, something massive moved into the road ahead, a dark blur cutting through the headlights. Logan cursed and yanked the wheel hard, the tires screeching against the asphalt. A split second later, a deafening impact tore through the truck, flipping it like a toy. The world turned upside down.
Metal screamed. Glass shattered. The smell of smoke filled the air.
Jupiter barely registered the chaos as he moved on instinct, wrapping his arms around Ororo and shielding her body with his own. The truck slammed into the ground, rolled once, and finally came to a jarring stop.
For a moment, everything was still, only the faint hum of the wrecked engine breaking the silence.
Jupiter exhaled slowly, not feeling a single ache as he ripped off his seat belt. The same couldn't be said for the others. Ororo hung limply against the seat, unconscious from the shock.
He looked toward the front. "Logan, you good?" Jupiter called out, his voice calm but firm.
"Yeah," came a low, guttural grunt from the driver's seat. Logan shoved the bent steering wheel aside, blood running down his temple. "Just a scratch."
Jupiter didn't waste time. He tore the seat belt restraining Ororo and pulled her gently into his arms before pushing the broken door clean off its hinges. Stepping out, he laid her carefully on the grass a few feet away, checking her breathing.
Logan climbed out of the wreck, shaking glass from his hair. "You alright, bub?" he asked, giving Jupiter a quick once-over.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jupiter said, brushing dust and shards off his jacket. His electric-blue eyes flicked forward. The ground trembled beneath them. "What is that?"
From the shadows ahead, a massive silhouette emerged, metal gleaming under the moonlight. A humanoid machine, towering above the trees, its eyes glowing a cold violet.
Logan's expression darkened instantly. "It's a Sentinel."
The weight in Logan's tone made Jupiter glance back at him. "And that's bad, I take it."
"Bad's an understatement," Logan growled, claws sliding out from his knuckles with a metallic click. "They're built to hunt and kill mutants."
Jupiter blinked, his head tilting slightly, curiosity flickering behind his calm expression. "Mutants?" The word rolled off his tongue like something foreign, unfamiliar. From what he remembered about this world, mutants were humans born with powers, like quirked people from MHA. Something in their genes made them different, maybe superior, maybe cursed, depending on who was talking. But beyond that, he didn't really know much.
Behind them, Ororo stirred, her breathing uneven as her eyes slowly opened. For a moment, they glowed faintly a soft white sheen in the dim light. "What happened?" she murmured, her voice groggy, disoriented. Jupiter steadied her shoulder, keeping her upright.
"That thing hit us," he said simply, nodding toward the massive metal figure that was turning its head their way.
Ororo's eyes focused, and the moment she saw the machine, her pupils shrank. "That's—"
"Yeah," Logan cut in sharply. "It's a Sentinel, 'Ro. And we need to move. Now."
The ground trembled again as the Sentinel took a step, its heavy footfalls echoing across the wrecked road. Every motion of the machine was deliberate, its cold mechanical gaze scanning for targets.
Jupiter's gaze lingered on it, calm and assessing, almost detached. "So this thing's programmed to kill people with powers?"
"Mutants," Logan said through gritted teeth, lowering himself into a crouch, ready to pounce. "You don't wanna find out what it can do, trust me."
Jupiter didn't answer right away. His focus shifted to Ororo, who was still regaining her balance. Her fingers twitched, and faint sparks of electricity arced between them, illuminating her face in pale blue light. Jupiter's expression changed his usual composure giving way to something close to intrigue.
So that was why he'd felt a strange pull toward her. Lightning. The storms. She wasn't just a woman with power; she was a living conduit of nature. As he looked closer, his perception as a divine being peeled back the layers most couldn't see. Her connection to the sky was innate, primal, limitless.
Jupiter almost smiled. He hadn't known his friend carried such potential. She wasn't just strong, she was unshackled.
"I don't think we have a choice," he said finally.
As if to emphasize his point, the Sentinel's eyes flared red, and a beam of energy erupted toward them. The air screamed from the force of it. Without thinking, Jupiter stepped forward, raising his hand.
A surge of power coursed through him, blue lightning crackling from his palm. The electricity slammed into the incoming beam, warping its trajectory and destabilizing the energy mid-air. The explosion was deafening but scattered, sparing the three of them from the direct blast.
When the light faded, Ororo stood frozen, staring at him with disbelief. "You're a mutant?" she asked, her voice filled with shock and confusion.
"Of course not," Jupiter replied immediately, his tone steady and dismissive, as if the question was absurd. "I don't even know what that means." He looked back at the towering machine, his expression hardening. "But that thing's not stopping until it kills something. If we run, it'll just target whoever's next."
The wind began to pick up. Clouds churned violently overhead, lightning crawling through them like veins. The storm was answering Ororo's rising emotion, the air thick with pressure and electricity.
Logan took a step forward, his claws glinting under the flashes of light. "Then we stop it here."
Jupiter glanced at Logan, then back at Ororo, whose white hair whipped around her face as the storm thickened above them. The clouds churned violently, flashes of blue and white lighting up the night. "Seems we're of the same mind," he said quietly, a faint smile tugging at his lips, his tone calm despite the chaos.
He turned his gaze toward the Sentinel. The machine's massive frame stood unmoving for a moment, sensors pulsing faint red light through the mist. Even from this distance, Jupiter could feel the hum of energy inside it, cold, mechanical, and utterly lifeless. He tilted his head, studying it. How much power would it actually take to destroy something like that?
Above him, thunder cracked, echoing through the air like a warning. Ororo raised her hands, eyes glowing bright white as the storm responded to her will. Wind howled, lightning gathering at her fingertips. A single bolt came crashing down from the heavens, slamming into the Sentinel's shoulder with a deafening boom.
The machine staggered but didn't fall. Its head turned sharply, mechanical whirs cutting through the sound of the storm. Jupiter's eyes narrowed. The lightning had hit hard but the Sentinel was barely fazed. Not bad, he thought, but too weak to end it.
In an instant, Jupiter moved. The world blurred for a heartbeat, and then he was standing right before the machine, one hand pressed against its cold, metallic chest. "Let's see you handle this," he murmured.
A surge of light erupted from his palm, brighter than anything Ororo had conjured. It wasn't just lightning it was raw, primordial electricity, pure and unfiltered, the kind that burned white instead of blue. The Sentinel convulsed as the energy coursed through it, its frame glowing from the inside before being hurled backward, crashing through the treeline with an explosive crack.
Jupiter stood where he was, lowering his arm as smoke curled from the air around him. He watched the burning path the Sentinel left behind, assessing. "That wasn't enough," he muttered. "I can tell. It'll get back up."
Behind him, Ororo stared in disbelief, her eyes still glowing faintly. "You—what was that? Did that kill it?"
"No," Logan said before Jupiter could answer, claws still drawn as he stepped forward. His tone was low but edged with familiarity, the sound of a man who had seen Sentinels get back up before. "It takes more than a lightning bolt to kill one of those things. Even whatever that kind of lightning was."
Jupiter gave a small hum, almost amused. He glanced at Logan's claws, then back toward the smoking forest where the Sentinel had vanished into the trees. "So they're built to handle that kind of punishment," he said quietly. There was no frustration in his voice, but inwardly, the fact that it survived annoyed him. If he were at full strength, if he were truly the being he once was, it would have been reduced to dust in a single blow.
Right now, though, he was restrained. This body, this container, limited him. His powers were those of a storm god, not a chief deity. The authority was there, but not the potency. A faint irritation lingered in the back of his mind as he exhaled, brushing a few strands of hair away from his eyes.
"Ororo," he said suddenly, turning toward her. His voice was calm, instructional, almost gentle. "When you use the storms and thunder, don't think of them as something you're controlling in front of you. Don't treat it as if you're compressing air and pressure."
Ororo blinked at him, uncertain. "Then what am I supposed to think of it as?"
"Not it," Jupiter corrected softly. "You. The storm isn't outside of you, it's a reflection of your will. The pattern beneath reality, that's where true control lies. Don't move the storm. Be the axis it moves around. Feel the balance, then decide how it shifts."
Ororo's eyes lingered on him, a flicker of confusion mixed with focus. The wind whipped around them as the clouds rolled overhead, thunder murmuring like a distant heartbeat. Slowly, she nodded, her breath steadying as she closed her eyes.
Jupiter extended his hand slightly, letting a spark of his own lightning intertwine with hers. The air thickened instantly. The storm responded, not to just her anymore, but to both of them. His authority bled into the atmosphere, weaving through her control, not overwhelming but enhancing.
He could see it in her expression the moment it connected. Her eyes widened slightly, her body tensing as she felt the raw surge of power, the divine resonance beneath her storms. It wasn't just weather anymore, it was creation and destruction intertwined.
She moved instinctively. The clouds above split open, and a blinding light cascaded downward. The bolt that struck the Sentinel was unlike anything before, pure blue and white energy, sharp enough to pierce the sound barrier. The explosion that followed lit up the entire forest, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
For a long moment, there was only silence. Smoke rose from where the machine had stood. Then, nothing. Not even metal remained.
"It looks dead now," Jupiter said, a faint note of amusement in his tone.
Logan stared, claws still out, eyes wide. "Ororo, how the hell did you—" He stopped when he noticed her. She was floating slightly above the ground, breathing heavily, her hair disheveled and her aura flickering like dying lightning.
When she landed, her gaze went immediately to Jupiter. "What did you do?" she asked. Her tone wasn't accusing, it was confused, almost dazed, as if she couldn't comprehend the power she had just unleashed.
Jupiter met her gaze calmly. For a moment, he said nothing, the faint glow of residual lightning still fading from his fingertips. "I only helped you see what you already had," he said finally, his tone measured.
His authority over lightning and thunder was more than raw power. It was a framework, the system in which those forces existed. Through that authority, he could manipulate the very notion of lightning and thunder itself. To him, shaping it, enhancing it, or combining it with Ororo's own abilities wasn't particularly difficult. The real question gnawed at the back of his mind. Did the gods of this Marvel universe possess anything comparable? He hadn't met them yet, but if they did, would they recognize it as the same type of authority or something entirely different?
Ororo's eyes were still fixed on him, wide and awed, her expression torn between admiration and disbelief. The clouds above gradually settled, the tension in the air dissipating, leaving a calm that felt almost surreal after the chaos of the Sentinel attack.
Logan sheathed his claws with a metallic click, stepping closer, his eyes moving between them both. "Remind me not to piss either of you off," he muttered, voice edged with the sort of cautious respect that only came after seeing powers beyond mortal reckoning.
Jupiter's smirk was faint but unreadable, though his gaze lingered on Ororo. Even now, he could feel the subtle resonance between them. The current of power hummed through the air, a connection that was unfamiliar yet oddly natural. The way her storm responded to him, the way the electricity bent to both their wills, hinted at a potential he hadn't anticipated. It wasn't just power. It was harmony, and it left a faint thrill stirring in him.
Ororo finally looked away, shaking herself slightly as if to re-anchor herself in reality. "We should head back," she said, her voice steadier now, though a trace of uncertainty lingered. "Logan's car is wrecked, and we should check if everyone else is okay."
Hearing Logan's confirmation behind her, Jupiter gave a slight nod. "Agreed," he said simply, stepping forward.
They moved cautiously through the debris strewn forest path, the storm having cleared but the ground still scorched in places. Ororo kept pace beside Jupiter, her expression thoughtful, fingers twitching lightly as if she could still feel the storm under her control. Logan walked just behind them, scanning the surroundings with a guarded eye, the weight of experience evident in his every movement.
Jupiter's mind wandered briefly to the implications of what had just happened. If he could harmonize his authority with someone like Ororo, what did that mean for the future? Could they truly amplify each other's power or was this a fleeting alignment of circumstance? For now, the question remained unspoken. There were more immediate concerns. The mansion, the other guests, the chaos that could have ensued if the Sentinel had reached the house.