Marvel's Osmosian

When Logan and I came back into the living room, the party continued. Everyone eventually began to wind down, and it was decided that everyone would sleep over tonight. Scott called Xavier to let him know, and the group settled down around the TV to watch a movie before we went to bed.

I ended up on the couch with Laura to one side of me and Rogue on the other, despite my attempts to get Jean to take that spot to avoid this outcome. Jean seemed distracted, though, and hadn't picked up on my very obvious signals; pleading looks her way as everyone sat down.

As the movie continued, I noticed that Jean was still thinking deeply about something, so I reached out with my telepathy and brushed against her mind. She noticed right away and looked towards me before allowing me to connect mentally with her.

'What's got you so deep in thought?' I asked.

It took Jean a moment to reply. 'Someone asked to meet up with me.'

'What, get asked out on a date? Doesn't seem like something to think that deeply about, either say yes or shoot the guy down. Or is it a girl?'

I could see Jean roll her eyes from across the room and a small, fond smile appeared on her face. 'No it's not a date, and yes it's a girl. She came up to me and said she wanted to discuss and offer to do with my powers.'

That was a more concerning prospect. 'So tell her, no, it's probably some company or another trying to use your mutant powers for their own gain. Plenty of people have seen us that way since we got exposed.'

'That's the thing, though. She's a telepath like me.'

I sat up straight, drawing some confused looks from both Laura and Rogue, but I was much more focused on Jean's problem now. There was one person in particular I could see being the person making the offer, and if it was who I thought it was then this was a problem.

'What was her name?'

'Emma Frost.'

And unfortunately, my fears were confirmed. Emma Frost, sometimes good guy, sometimes bad guy, always a headache. I really didn't feel like getting involved in the huge mess that was the Hellfire Club, but I also wasn't going to let Jean get manipulated by them.

'Yeah, I've heard of Emma Frost. She's involved in some shady shit, but it's better to figure out her game plan and deal with it than be left in the dark.'

'So what should I do?'

'Easy, agree to the meeting and I'll go with you. What can she do with a bodyguard like me around?' I mentally sent an image of me flexing ironically. 

Jean stifled a giggle, hiding it behind a cough so the others didn't notice. 'Okay, I'll set up the meeting and bring my very intimidating bodyguard along.'

Eventually, everything began to wind down. Kitty ended up falling asleep curled up in a ball on the chair, Bobby doing much the same. Despite the array of open rooms, the girls had decided to all sleep in Laura's room earlier. We both slept in the same bed every night, but Laura still had her own room for her stuff if she wanted her own space.

Jean telepathically carried Kitty up to the room while I did the same with Bobby and put him in one of our guest rooms. Logan ended up leaving, not wanting to stay at a sleepover with a bunch of teenagers. Everyone got situated in their rooms, and I noticed Rogue staring when I gave Laura a kiss goodnight before everyone went to bed.

----

It was a few days later when the time for our meeting with Emma Frost came. Jean and I were sitting in a diner, remarkably lowkey for someone of Emma's stature. Jean was pretty obviously nervous about the whole thing, but I put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It will be fine."

Jean nodded her head shakily and took a deep breath to calm herself. When Emma walked through the door, she drew quite a few eyes. Dressed in all white, her midriff exposed with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Emma Frost certainly carried herself the way I thought she would, taking long strides towards us with self-assured confidence. She appeared to be a couple of years older than us, most likely in her early twenties.

"Jean, it's a pleasure to see you again. And this must be your friend." Her voice was smooth and bewitching, but I was completely indifferent to her appearance.

"Casper," I said, waving a hand as she sat down. I could feel her power mentally reaching out to me before it hit the brick wall that was on my mind.

"Rude," I commented, an amused smirk on my face.

"Apologies, I do it subconsciously as a defense mechanism." A lie, but not one that really mattered to me at the moment. "Nice to meet you. I'm assuming you're both curious about my offer."

Jean nodded and Emma began to explain. "A group I'm associated with has been aware of mutants for some time. In particular, I'm interested in getting to know telepaths like myself. We're a rather rare breed of mutant power."

I snorted mentally. In the comics, it felt like damn near everyone was a telepath at some point. And then you got into all of Jean and Scott's future/alternate-timeline kids that ended up popping up. For some reason, they usually inherited Jean's power and not Scott's.

Emma's words did confirm something for me though. I hadn't been sure if she was working on her own in an attempt to form her own school, the Massachusetts Academy, or if she was working in the interests of the Hellfire Club. It seemed it was the latter since she was referring to a larger group.

"What does the Hellfire Club want with Jean?" I chimed in. It was better to put Emma in a position where she had to be at least moderately honest, even if I knew she was never going to be telling the complete truth.

Her face didn't visibly react, but I was pretty sure she was at least a little thrown off balance. "You are remarkably well-informed. I didn't think Charles would tell his charges about us."

"That's not an answer." If anyone really bothered to check with Charles, he would obviously know he hadn't told me, but I was actively hacking into a lot of different places so it was an easy excuse to say I discovered them that way. It helped that I actually had found some information about the club in SHIELD's files.

"The Hellfire Club's goal is to get like-minded individuals together. I'm one of the heads and thought that Jean would be a good fit to join under me, our similar powers and all."

Emma then launched into her sales pitch, and the more I listened the deeper I tried to think about her reasoning. Telepaths were useful, Emma herself having made liberal use of her powers in an effective manner, but it struck me as odd that she was going out of her way to recruit Jean. 

There hadn't been any appearances of the Phoenix so far, so that shouldn't be the reason. It seemed mildly redundant for her to recruit Jean when she already had her own power, but then she had also made use of the Stepford Cuckoos in the comics, so perhaps it wasn't so useless.

Eventually, she finished her sales pitch, and Jean and I shared a look.

"I'd like some time to think about it," Jean said.

"Of course, just contact me again once you've made your decision."

Emma stood up and turned to leave, but as she did I heard a voice echo in my mind. 'We are attempting to help her. Don't sour her on the idea just because of a preconceived notion.'

My eyes narrowed as I realized she was speaking to me in the pocket I'd left for Jean. She wouldn't be able to gain access to any of my thoughts or memories, those were firmly locked down by both my telepathy and my control over my body. The part of my mind that held my memories was basically working on a completely different frequency, so it was impossible to read me no matter how strong of a telepath you were.

It was a powerplay, to show me that she'd been able to find and get into that little pocket I'd left. It didn't mean much, she obviously hadn't gained any information from me, but it was still irritating. 

Once she'd left, Jean looked at me. "What do you think?"

"Her boobs are fake," I said, both out loud and mentally to Emma. I heard the scoff before she withdrew her mind and Jean looked at me.

"Really?" Then she rolled her eyes. "You're distracting me, what do you think about her offer?"

"Don't take it. The Hellfire Club is a place where all kinds of shady shit happens, and they already have one telepath. Who knows what they want with another? The best course of action is to tell the Professor and avoid any further contact with them."

Although I had my doubts it would be so easy to get Emma Frost off her tail, it was still for the best that she told Charles. The man certainly had experience dealing with the club, and probably was aware of Emma as well. Despite my issues with his ideology, the man could be an effective leader when he needed to be.

----

A few more weeks went by and at the moment Laura and I were in my car driving towards the institute. I could've teleported us there or used my superspeed, but I had a nice car and I was going to use it.

"Bobby told me he's gonna try asking out Amara soon," I commented idly, my head bobbing to the quiet music I had playing.

"I don't know why he waited so long. Should've just gone for it, worked for me," Laura said, her head resting on her fist as she leaned up against the window.

"Yeah, after you needed forever to figure out what you were feeling?" 

That earned me a good-natured slug in my shoulder, but the two of us settled into a comfortable silence as we enjoyed the drive. 

"Sometimes this all doesn't feel real," Laura muttered quietly. "It feels like I'll wake up back in the Facility and this will all have been a dream."

"Well, it notes, and if anyone tries to take you back there they'll be dead before they can move."

Laura nodded and had a small smile while she looked at me. The moment was interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the distance. Both of our heads shot forward as we looked to where it had originated, and it was clear that it had come from the direction of the institute.

 It took me a second to set the car to auto-pilot home and I grabbed Laura's hand, who was already ready as I teleported us straight there.

The scene we came upon when we arrived was a disaster. Half the mansion collapsed and the entire thing was on fire. Logan seemed to have been thrown back by the blast as he was getting up to his feet. On the lawn, Charles' wheelchair lay damaged, but there was no sign of him.

"Inside, the kids," Logan said as he ran towards the front door and barrelled through the flames, his clothes starting to burn. Laura and I moved as well, I activated my superspeed and made it inside faster than either of them as I searched around for students.

I quickly found Bobby, who was buried under some rubble. It seemed the Plumber's badge had ended up useful, as it had shrouded him in hard light when the explosion happened. He was unharmed but disoriented as I helped get him out of the rubble.

"Ugh, what happened."

"I don't know, but can you put out the flames while I try to find everyone else?"

Bobby quickly got in gear and covered himself in ice as he began to put out the flames all over the mansion. 

Rogue and Kitty both were similarly okay due to the Plumber's badges I'd given them previously. If anything, this showed I needed to make sure to give some to the rest of the group. I'd been busy with other stuff and besides the three I'd given them when they came over, I hadn't had the chance to make more. 

I also found several of the new mutants and helped them get out of the mansion. None of them were particularly injured, but the same couldn't be said for Evan. It seemed like he and Kurt had been together when the explosion happened, as he'd tried to cover Kurt's body with his own, but he didn't have time to form a full shell of bone so parts of his body were torn and burned.

Kurt himself was fine due to Evan's protection, but we'd need to get Evan's help. Thankfully, the injuries weren't too bad since his body was also naturally more durable.

It was also at this time that rain began to pour on the mansion to help Bobby's efforts, so I figured that they had found Ororo. 

It took some time, but all of us grouped up at the front lawn while Ororo looked over at Evan. With most of the medical equipment destroyed, she had to fly him to a nearby hospital. If he was more seriously injured I would've run him there, but he should be fine and there was another pressing concern to deal with.

"No sign of Charles or Jean."

Neither of the two had been found in the mansion, but if they were dead it would make sense to at least find some sign of them. Instead, it felt like the two had completely vanished.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know, one moment Charles was grabbing his head and Jean went over to help him. The next, everything blew," Logan said, having been the only one outside at the time of the explosion other than Charles and Jean.

"Can I see your memory, maybe it will give me an idea?"

Logan agreed and I concentrated as I entered his mind. The memory was at the forefront, so it wasn't hard for me to see.

The scene began with Logan walking back into the institute from the gates. He'd gone out to smoke and was making his way inside when he noticed Jean wheeling Charles around while speaking to him. He had been about to go over to the two when Charles suddenly began to clutch his head in pain.

"Chuck?" Logan questioned and began to run over while Jean reached down and tried to help Charles. Then, all Logan heard was a scream, and the next thing he knew, he'd been sent flying and the institute was on fire.

I pulled back from his memory, my brow wrinkled as I tried to figure out what happened. 

'I'd thought the Phoenix might have escaped, but it didn't seem like Jean was any different when Charles had his headache, so then what happened?'

"We need to try to find Jean and Charles. I don't believe that they're dead if we can't find any sign of them." I then looked back at the mansion. "Cerebro should be fine since it was underground. I'm not all that good with telepathy, but I should be able to figure it out after a bit and use it to find them."

"I may be of assistance," a voice I recognized spoke. The figure of Emma Frost walked through the gates and took in the destruction. "Cerebro is made for a telepath after all."

----

Author's Note:

And now the next arc has begun. Kinda curious if anyone remembers the show this arc is based on, the setup was used pretty similarly to it but the arc isn't going to really go like the show's plot at all. Show is hella underrated, and no one seems to talk about it.

Gonna give the harem poll till the end of this arc before I make a decision. As always, engagement keeps the muse going so leave a comment if you feel like it. I'm attempting to update this story and Humanity's Campione, so check that out if you're interested, it's a Harry Potter/Campione crossover.