Escanor(Marvel)

Kurt decided to join us, but his blue skin would hardly go unnoticed. He ran into our skeptical glances. He showed us a bracelet that easily changed his appearance, turning him into an ordinary guy.

"Well, now you'll be the only one standing out in our group," Jubilee snorted, blowing a huge bubble with her gum.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. A guy over two and a half meters tall, with such an impressive build, definitely attracts attention. I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but now I realized it could be a problem.

The energy that constantly fueled my body enhanced it, but I had recently learned to control its flow. I tried to reduce its intensity, and my body began to shrink. My height decreased to two meters, and my muscles became less noticeable enough to not stand out.

Fortunately, Hank, despite my constant antics and destruction of his equipment, had made me clothes that adjusted to my body size. This solved the problem of accidental damage. Simple clothes a t-shirt and jeans.

"Now that's a bit better," Jubilee commented, examining my transformation with interest.

As we approached the exit, we noticed Rogue. She was standing nearby, staring intently at us. After deciding something, she took a step forward and headed our way.

"Mind if I join you?" Rogue asked modestly, looking at us.

"No problem! The more, the merrier," Kitty shrugged.

So our small group of three turned into five. Since none of us were sixteen yet, we couldn't drive. If you counted age, I was the youngest among them, and the others were just a few months away from turning sixteen.

We had to take the bus. Fortunately, the buses here ran regularly. Why didn't we use Kurt's abilities and teleport straight to the city? It was simple: once, he tried to teleport me but overestimated his strength. He got sick from the strain, and the experiment failed. So buses were our best option.

The ride was calm. I looked out the window, watching the familiar landscapes pass by. Memories suddenly flooded over me like a wave. To distract myself from the growing anxiety, I shifted my gaze to the other passengers.

My eyes stopped on an elderly man sitting in front of me. As soon as he noticed me looking at him, he nodded. Something inside me froze. My brain seemed to loop, images from that night flashing one after another like bright lightning bolts.

I felt anger rising in my chest. This man... I couldn't be mistaken. He was there. That night when everything changed.

Finally, I've found you. You'll pay for my parents' death. Almost instantly, I was next to him, grabbing him by his clothes.

"Escanor," Rogue's voice snapped me out of my rage.

I looked up and saw her frightened face. Glancing around, I realized everyone on the bus was staring at me with fear. My gaze slid to the window, where I saw my reflection: furrowed brows, eyes literally burning with anger. Only then did I realize my hand was gripping the old man's clothes a man I had never seen before.

"Sorry..." I muttered, quickly letting him go.

The old man mumbled something, rubbing his chest but clearly avoiding my gaze. At that moment, the bus doors opened, and I was the first to step out, almost rushing onto the street. The others followed me.

Something was wrong. Why had this wave of rage hit me so suddenly? Why was I ready to tear apart a completely innocent man? I stood there, breathing deeply, trying to regain control. I had vowed revenge, but I hadn't realized the trauma was this deep.

The idea of going out for some air no longer seemed like a good one.

"Are you okay?" Kitty asked cautiously, studying me with a wary look.

I felt the anger slowly fading, leaving behind a strange emptiness. I needed to figure this out. Back at the mansion, I hadn't had such emotional outbursts, but as soon as I returned to my hometown, everything seemed to spiral out of control.

Something was clearly wrong. I'd have to talk to the Professor and ask for his advice. But more than anything, I wanted to leave this place. And find the killers.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I forced out, steadying my breathing. "Just memories flooding back. Sorry about what happened on the bus. I didn't mean to hurt him."

"Alright, as long as you're okay now," Kitty replied, though her expression still showed concern.

I nodded, trying to push away the dark thoughts. But deep down, I knew the calm wouldn't last long. I didn't want to ruin the outing for my friends.

"So, where are we going?" I asked, trying to distract myself.

"To the mall, and then we'll decide," Kitty suggested.

The girls whispered among themselves as I made an effort to distance myself from my own thoughts. It seemed Shelma had started telling the others about what happened that night.

I needed to get it out of my head.

The mall was probably a good idea. There were always plenty of things to do there: movie theaters, cafes, shops, and more. We decided to walk to get some fresh air. It was a shame we couldn't use Kurt's teleportation abilities. On the other hand, it was good to know I could resist if someone tried to move me by force.

On the way, we passed a small ice cream stand. The summer heat and sunshine made it the perfect moment to grab a cone. It quickly lifted everyone's spirits. We laughed and joked around as if nothing strange had happened on the bus.

When we finally reached the mall, we decided to catch a movie. After grabbing popcorn and soda, we settled into our seats. I tried to relax, but the action scenes on the screen only made me smirk. Everything seemed fake and unrealistic. When you can bend steel like plastic, special effects in movies just don't impress anymore.

But apparently, I was the only one who felt that way. Rogue sat next to me, completely engrossed in what was happening on the screen. Her face lit up with interest, and the popcorn in her hands disappeared at an alarming rate.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I knew her story. A girl who had accidentally hurt someone once. She ran away from home, wandered alone, afraid of people and any touch. The X-Men found her and took her in, but her past still hung over her like a shadow.

Her fascinated expression reminded me that even with such a burden, a person could still find joy in simple moments. Maybe I could let go of the past too.

Almost every mutant had a similar story. They lived ordinary lives until one day everything changed. Their fates were altered forever just like mine.

After the movie, we continued wandering around the mall. Everything was going fine until, to my horror, we ended up near a women's clothing store. It was a fatal mistake. Kitty immediately dived inside, pulling Rogue and Jubilee with her. Kurt and I had no choice but to follow.

Rogue remained reserved: she picked out a few dark-toned items and didn't draw any more attention to herself. Kitty and Jubes, on the other hand, seemed to have turned shopping into a competition who could try on the most outfits. I tried to stay out of it and pretend I didn't care, but that didn't help. I still ended up carrying a mountain of clothes and giving my opinion on every outfit.

Before long, I noticed a pattern: if I liked something, it was immediately put back on the shelf, and they took something else instead. I stood there, baffled. Then why ask me at all?

"There's no point in looking for logic," I muttered under my breath, deciding to just endure the moment.

When that ordeal finally ended, the next one began they dumped all the shopping bags on me and Kurt. Jubes and Kitty loaded me up so much that I looked like a mobile coat rack. The weight wasn't an issue for me, but comfort? That was another story.

Rogue, on the other hand, handed me just one small bag. She didn't even try to take part in the shopping madness. If only they were all like her...

And then, an idea struck me.

"Kurt, maybe you could bamf back to the mansion and drop off all our stuff?" I suggested, hoping for logic to prevail.

The response was instant and unanimous: a wave of disapproval.

"We can't draw attention to ourselves," Kitty reminded me. "We have to act normal."

Grinding my teeth, I had to agree. So, I kept carrying all those bags. I was starting to think they were just messing with us at this point.

As we walked past the storefronts, we passed a music shop. Rogue slowed down, stopping by the window display, her eyes fixed on a poster featuring a rock musician. Below the image was a concert date, and underneath it, in bold letters: "Pain Breaks Hearts."

"You wanna go in?" I asked, noticing her thoughtful gaze.

"No, just looking," she replied quietly, shrugging. Throughout the outing, Rogue had kept her distance, speaking little, as if lost in thought.

"Oh, come on, why not? Let's check it out," I said with a small smile. The others had already walked ahead, leaving us a bit behind.

"I don't know… well, I guess we could," she said hesitantly but then took a breath and stepped inside first.

"You like rock?" I asked as we made our way to the racks of CDs.

"Yeah. It's my favorite genre," she answered, carefully running her fingers over the album covers. "And this… this is my favorite artist! I didn't even know he had a new album out."

Rogue's eyes lit up, and for the first time in a while, there was a spark of excitement in her voice. It was one of those rare moments when the wall she kept between herself and the world cracked open just a little.

"Does he have a good voice?" I asked. Personally, I wasn't much of a music fan. Sure, it could be interesting to listen to something now and then, but that was about it.

"Very," Rogue replied warmly. She picked up the CD, walked over to the counter, and after paying for it, immediately put it into a player. Handing me a pair of headphones, she added, "Listen."

I put them on and was instantly hit with a blast of rock music powerful enough to rupture eardrums.

Taking off the headphones, I handed them back to Rogue with mixed feelings.

"Well?" she asked, her eyes glowing with anticipation.

"It's… cool," I said. I didn't want to ruin her mood or disappoint her.

"Hey! What's taking you guys so long? Hurry up!" Kitty called out from near the store's exit.

Rogue carefully tucked the CD into her bag. We stepped out of the store and hurried to catch up with the others.

We continued wandering through the mall until my phone rang. Of course, I had no free hands to get it. Without hesitation, Kitty reached into my pocket.

"Oh, it's Hank," she said, putting the call on speaker and handing me the phone.

"Escanor, we have an emergency. We need your help," came Hank's tense voice.

And then I noticed something strange. Right in front of us, behind a glass wall, a car was speeding straight toward us.

The shopping bags instantly dropped from my body.

In a single leap, I reached the glass, bracing for impact. Planting my feet firmly and spreading my arms, I caught the car as it crashed through the storefront with a deafening roar. Glass shattered in every direction, but I absorbed all the impact, stepping back to soften the force.

The car came to a halt in my hands. Inside, I saw a man gripping the steering wheel in a death grip, his face frozen in sheer terror.

Carefully setting the vehicle down, I made sure the driver was unharmed.

A crowd had gathered around me, their faces a mixture of shock and awe.

As if nothing had happened, I turned, calmly walked over to the phone, picked it up from the floor, and put it back to my ear.

"Yeah, Hank, I'm listening," I said, as if I hadn't just stopped a speeding car with my bare hands.

"A high-level mutant Juggernaut is rampaging through the city," Hank's voice was tense. "You need to hold him off until the other X-Men arrive. They're still too far away."

"Got it," I replied curtly, ending the call.

This was going to be a good fight.

"I'll take care of Juggernaut. You guys get the civilians to safety," I told my friends.

Kurt and Kitty exchanged glances and nodded. No one was better suited for evacuation one could teleport, the other could phase through walls.

I stepped toward the shattered window, trying to figure out where the car had come from. Estimating the trajectory, I tensed my legs and with a deafening crack, the ground beneath me split. A second later, I shot into the air.

A jump and I almost hit the wall of the nearest building, flying so close. Landing on the asphalt, I immediately broke into a sprint. This city had too many tall buildings to jump around without risking a collision.

The sounds of chaos grew louder gunfire, screams, the crash of collapsing structures. In the distance, I spotted the destruction crushed cars, shattered walls, mangled asphalt. All of it led to a single figure, slowly advancing forward.

There he was Juggernaut. A massive mutant clad in red armor. A gleaming metal helmet, shaped like a dome, covered his head. His sheer muscle mass was terrifying like something straight out of a comic book about invincible heroes.

Bullets fired by the police bounced off him like pebbles against steel.

He marched forward, destroying everything in his path indiscriminately. Cars, walls, people everything was just an obstacle to be bulldozed aside.

I stood still for a moment, assessing the situation.

Alright then. Let's see how he handles someone who can actually fight back.

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