Chapter 118: Diamond's Edge
—
The silk gown clung to Emma Frost's curves like liquid moonlight, its white fabric doing absolutely nothing to hide the generous swell of her breasts or the way her thighs pressed together as she lounged in her leather chair.
The laptop screen cast pale blue light across her face, highlighting the sharp angles of her cheekbones and the predatory satisfaction in her ice-blue eyes.
On screen, the Gold Emperor's ancient face remained impassive. He was old – old enough to have seen the Qing Dynasty fall, old enough to remember when Shanghai was just fishing villages. His weathered hands remained folded, but Emma caught the microscopic tightening around his eyes.
"Your attire is... unconventional for such serious negotiations, Miss Frost," he said in accented English that carried the weight of centuries.
Emma's laugh was crystal breaking on marble. She shifted deliberately, letting the silk ride higher on her thighs, watching his pupils dilate despite his legendary control. "Does it bother you? You're far too old for it to have any effect, anyway."
The Gold Emperor's expression didn't change, but she felt the spike of irritation through her peripheral telepathic awareness. Men of power hated being dismissed, especially by beautiful women who knew exactly what they were doing.
Predictable. They're all so predictable.
"The terms remain as discussed," he continued, voice steady. "My clan will ensure your Benjamin Tennyson faces no official interference during his time in our territories. Be it police, military, bureaucracy. All will look the other way. Any obstacles will be... removed. Quietly."
Emma traced the rim of her wine glass with one manicured finger. "And the temples? The hidden places where spirits supposedly 'dwell between heartbeats' or such?"
"Those who guard such places will know he comes under the Dragon's protection." The old man's eyes glittered. "Though I cannot guarantee the spirits themselves will welcome him. The dead have their own opinions about the living."
Especially about those who've reversed death itself, Emma thought, remembering the sight from Genosha. Four million souls yanked back from whatever lay beyond. She wondered if Ben understood the magnitude of what he'd done, or if he was still playing at being a normal teenager with a fancy watch.
"This debt between us..." the Gold Emperor began.
"Is paid in full," Emma interrupted, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. "What I did for your grandson in Hong Kong, removing those particular memories before they could destroy his sanity, we're even."
The screen flickered as he nodded once, formal and final. "It is agreed. The White Queen's protégé will find China... accommodating."
The connection ended, leaving Emma alone with her thoughts and the taste of expensive wine. She leaned back, silk sliding against leather, and allowed herself a moment of satisfaction.
Ben had no idea how many strings she was pulling, how many favors she was calling in. The boy who could command time itself, walking blind through a world of hidden powers and ancient grudges.
Even he'll need more than that alien watch where he's going.
The office door burst open without ceremony, one of the Stepford Cuckoos rushing in with uncharacteristic urgency. Celeste, if Emma was reading the micro-expressions correctly – the girls insisted they were individuals, though the differences were subtle as snowflakes.
"Mother," Celeste said, her usual composed mask cracked just enough to show genuine concern. "I believe you'll want to see this."
The wall-mounted monitor flickered to life, displaying the Academy's main dojo in high definition. Emma's wine glass paused halfway to her lips as she took in the scene. Ben Tennyson stood in the center of the training space, facing off against Julian Keller. The Hellions had formed a loose circle around them, along with what looked like half the Academy's student body.
Oh, Julian. You predictable young fool.
Emma's expression hardened into a scowl, followed by a weary sigh that came from somewhere deeper than her chest. She'd seen this coming from the moment she'd invited Ben aboard her jet.
Julian was territorial, possessive, and had spent three years being the unquestioned leader of his peer group. The arrival of someone who commanded Emma's obvious interest would trigger every insecurity the boy carried.
He's acting exactly as I trained him to, she realized with bitter amusement. Confident, protective, always ready for a challenge. All the qualities that make him perfect to lead the Hellions... and utterly incapable of recognizing when he's outclassed.
Through the monitor, she watched Ben's casual stance, the way he held himself with unconscious confidence. The boy had fought Sentinels, messed with cosmic entities, reversed death itself – and Julian thought he could intimidate him with teenage posturing.
"Should I intervene?" Celeste asked.
Emma considered it. A telepathic command could end this before it escalated. Not even a command. A simple suggestion planted in Julian's mind, a momentary distraction, anything to preserve her carefully constructed power dynamic.
But dozens of students were already watching.
Word would spread through the Academy within minutes. If she stepped in now, she'd look weak – a teacher protecting her pet from her own student. Julian's authority would be undermined, but so would hers.
Besides, she thought, settling deeper into her chair, I'm curious to see what Benjamin does when pressed.
"No," she said finally. "Let them play. This was inevitable from the moment I brought him here."
"Julian could be seriously hurt," Celeste pressed.
Emma's smile was all teeth and winter moonlight. "Oh, darling. I'm not worried about Julian." Because while Ben was undoubtedly strong… so was Julian.
He was Emma's Trump Card.
****
The dojo felt different now. Half the equipment had been shoved to the walls to make room, and the atmosphere itself had also changed. Electric and dangerous. The kind of moment where reputations got made or shattered.
My first day at Emma's school and I'm already starting fights.
I stood in the center of the makeshift arena, feeling the weight of forty-odd pairs of eyes. Some curious, some excited, some clearly hoping to see the outsider get his ass handed to him by their golden boy. Julian occupied the space across from me, telekinetic energy making the air shimmer around his hands like heat waves.
A senior student I didn't recognize had appointed himself referee. He was a tall kid with silver skin that reflected the dojo's lights, probably some kind of metallic mutation. "Standard Academy sparring rules," he announced. "First one who can't continue loses. You can choose to surrender at any time. No permanent injuries, no powers that could cause lasting psychological damage."
He looked between us. "Are you ready?"
Julian's smirk was all cocky confidence. "More than."
"Hold on," I said, raising one hand. "Just need a second."
I twisted the Omnitrix Dial. Let's go, Feedback. I needed the energy absorption to make this work. I carefully clicked down on the Omnitrix face, feeling that familiar surge of anticipation as alien DNA flooded my system. The transformation hit like lightning made tangible, every cell restructuring itself in seconds that felt like hours.
When the green flash faded, I looked down at hands that sparkled like cut emeralds. My eyes switched. Diamond-hard crystal covered my entire body, refracting the dojo's lights into rainbow patterns that danced across the walls.
Oh, come on.
"Diamondhead," I muttered, my voice now a low rumble that seemed to come from a chest carved from living stone.
Here I thought the malfunction effect had been fixed. I held back a sigh. The watch has been cooperating for weeks, and now it decides to act up? Perfect timing.
But even as I mentally cursed the Omnitrix's unreliability, another thought began forming. Feedback would have been ideal for converting Julian's telekinetic attacks into electricity, but he couldn't channel raw Chi.
Every energy type was filtered through his electrical nature. So my desire to use Chi in this duel wouldn't have been successful. It'd just have been electricity.
Diamondhead, though... Diamondhead was basically a living crystal matrix. Silicon-based lifeform with a structure designed for conducting and storing energy. Just like Chromastone, his genetic cousin who could absorb and redirect anything from solar radiation to cosmic rays.
And if I recalled correctly, didn't he have the body of a Chronosapien inside him?
Maybe this is better. Time to test what Kwannon taught me.
"That's your power?" Across from me, Julian's expression shifted from smugness to something more calculating. He'd probably been planning to overwhelm me with raw telekinetic force, but crystal was harder to break than flesh.
"Very glittering. Ready when you are, princess," Julian called out, his voice dripping with condescension.
I didn't give him a reaction. The lack of response seemed to irritate him further.
"What's wrong?" Julian's smirk widened as he addressed the crowd. "Cat got your tongue? Or maybe you're finally realizing you're out of your league here."
A few Hellions chuckled. One of them, a girl with blonde hair, called out, "Maybe he's scared, Julian!" Was her hero name Roulette? I kept a note.
"Nah," Julian replied, his telekinetic aura making nearby objects tremble. "He's just another tourist who thinks one lucky break makes him special. Probably got his powers handed to him on a silver platter. That weird watch thing."
The silver-skinned referee looked between us nervously. "Are both fighters ready?"
"More than ready," Julian said, cracking his knuckles. "Time to show Emma's new pet what real training looks like."
Pet. It was a pretty funny word, given the context, given how much Emma was trying to win me over, but I kept my expression neutral.
"Begin!"
Julian exploded into motion the instant the word left the ref's mouth.
A training dummy rocketed toward my head from the left while two more came at me from different angles. Weight plates spun through the air like buzzsaw blades, their edges whistling as they cut toward me.
I fired diamond shards, intercepting the first dummy in a shower of splinters. My crystal projectiles punched through the wooden target with sharp cracks that echoed through the dojo. But Julian was already three moves ahead. His telekinetic barriers deflected my counterattack while more equipment joined the assault – medicine balls, practice weapons, even chunks of the floor itself.
A weighted training sword clipped my shoulder, spinning me around. Before I could recover, a medicine ball slammed into my back, sending me stumbling forward.
"Come on!" Julian laughed, his voice carrying easily over the chaos. "I heard rumors that you fought Sentinels! This is embarrassing!"
I raised my arms, firing a spread of diamond projectiles. Julian's shield turned them aside like they were thrown by a child. More students started cheering for him, their voices growing louder with each successful defense.
"JULIAN! JULIAN! JULIAN!"
A practice staff caught me across the ribs, followed immediately by another weight plate to the chest. The impacts rang against my crystal form like bell strikes. I fired back, but my aim was off, my movements sluggish.
"What's wrong?" Julian taunted, sending three dummies at me simultaneously. "Not so tough without your little green friends to back you up?"
Focus on the Chi, I told myself, trying to ignore the barrage. It didn't hurt at all, after all. I wasn't here to just beat his ass, I was here to train my Chi during battle. Find that warmth, find that flow...
But it was like trying to meditate in the middle of a hurricane. Whenever I almost grasped that internal spark, another projectile would slam into me, scattering my concentration.
"I expected more from the new student Emma brought, but I guess it's my bad. Your powers come from a watch, after all." Julian continued, his voice growing more mocking with each word. "Is the Sentinel rumor a propaganda? Maybe you just hid behind better mutants while they did the real work."
The students' laughter was getting louder. I could hear whispers from the crowd.
"Is this really the guy Emma brought?"
"Julian's not even trying."
"He looks pathetic."
Julian sent a desk flying at my head. I ducked, but the follow-up chair caught me in the shoulder, spinning me around. As I tried to regain my footing, a barrage of smaller objects – books, training weights, water bottles – pelted me from every direction.
"You know what I think?" Julian's voice was pure venom now. "I think you're just some wannabe who got lucky once… Emma probably felt sorry for you. 'Oh, look at the poor little human with his shiny watch. Let's give him a participation trophy.'"
At least he can talk the talk, I had to admit. Despite my patience, even I was getting all irritated. Anyone else, they would have stopped focusing on Chi and fought for real by now. The crowd was eating it up. More students had gathered, and they were all watching me get systematically dismantled by their golden boy.
Another training dummy slammed into my chest, this one hard enough to nearly tumble me to the ground. I staggered backward, firing wild shots that went wide of their mark. Julian's barrier didn't even need to deflect them.
"I heard some kids theorize earlier that he fought dozens of Sentinels in Genosha?" A student called out. "He can't even save himself!"
Julian was in his element now, conducting the assault like a symphony. Objects flew at me in complex patterns – high, low, spinning, straight. Every time I tried to focus internally, another impact would jar me back to the physical world.
The Chi... I need to find...
A weighted training sword caught me across the jaw with enough force to crack my crystal. An Omega Level mutant's telekinesis wasn't weak. I stumbled, my vision blurring for a moment.
"Oh, did that hurt?" Julian's mock concern was acidic. "Maybe you should call for help. I'm sure Emma will come running to save her precious pet."
That's when a heavy medicine ball caught me square in the chest, sending me to one knee. The crowd's cheering reached a crescendo.
"PUT HIM DOWN!"
"FINISH HIM, JULIAN!"
"SHOW HIM WHAT REAL POWER LOOKS LIKE!"
Julian raised both hands, gathering a massive telekinetic force. Training equipment orbited around him like satellites, and his eyes blazed with triumph.
"Any last words before I show everyone what happens to pretenders in my house?"
My house. The possessiveness in his voice, the casual cruelty, the way he'd turned my attempt to learn into a public humiliation...
It nearly pissed me off. But I wasn't angry. I was focused.
Because while Julian had been grandstanding, while the crowd had been cheering, while objects had been battering my crystal form... I'd finally found it.
The Chi wasn't liquid warmth in this form. It was structured, geometric, following the natural pathways of my crystalline matrix. Like light refracting through a prism, the energy moved in predictable patterns, building and amplifying with each pass through my diamond lattice.
There.
I felt it gathering in my core, flowing down through the crystal matrix of my arms, collecting in my hands like some sort of contained starlight. Julian was still posturing, still building his big finishing move, still talking.
"I hope Emma's watching," he said, the telekinetic pressure around him reaching critical mass. "I want her to see what happens when–"
I opened my arms and let his attack hit me full-force
The telekinetic blast struck my chest with the power of a runaway truck.
Under normal circumstances, even Diamondhead's durability would have launched me across the room. Instead, I felt the kinetic energy pour into my crystal structure, absorbed and converted just like Chromastone would handle a laser beam.
I hope this idea works. Since I was having trouble focusing on the little amount of Chi I had, what if I mixed extra energy with it? It'd surely be easier to sense and influence after that. My body began to glow with inner light, the absorbed energy mixing with the Chi I'd been focusing on so far.
The combination was intoxicating – raw power amplified by conscious intent, Julian's own strength turned against him and enhanced by my growing mastery.
The students' cheering died in their throats as they realized what had just happened.
Julian's expression shifted from triumph to confusion to dawning horror.
I stood up slowly, light bleeding from every facet of my crystalline form. When I spoke, my voice carried harmonics that made the air itself vibrate.
"My turn."
The beam that erupted from my chest wasn't just concentrated force. It was kinetic energy refined through crystal structure, amplified by Chi, and directed with surgical precision. Julian's eyes shot wide and he raised his hands to form a telekinetic shield. It met my attack head-on and shattered like spun glass.
The beam caught him center mass and launched him across the dojo. He hit the far wall hard enough to crack the reinforced material, sliding down to land in a heap of expensive Academy uniform and wounded pride.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Now we're cooking.
The cheers had fallen quiet. I stepped forward, walking slowly, and with each footfall, I sent Chi-enhanced commands through Diamondhead's connection to silicon-based materials. The dojo floor was composite, but the ground underneath contained minerals to respond to my will.
Massive diamond spires erupted from the floorboards, razor-sharp and gleaming. They chased Julian's scrambling form like living things, forcing him to take to the air with desperate telekinetic flight. But that was just the beginning.
I raised my hand and focused Chi into the crystal formations I'd already created.
The spires began to resonate, vibrating at frequencies that made the air itself hum. Then, with a thought, I detonated them.
The explosions weren't fire or force – they were crystalline fragmentation bombs. Each spire burst outward in a sphere of razor-sharp shards, thousands of tiny diamonds moving in unpredictable patterns that Julian's telekinesis couldn't track or deflect. He screamed as several found their mark, drawing blood through his Academy uniform.
This is what power feels like when it's really yours.
But I wasn't done. "Oh did that hurt?" I mocked back with the same words he'd said to me. "Maybe you should call Emma."
I pressed my palm against a remaining section of intact floor and let Chi flow through the crystal matrix beneath. The energy spread like roots through the building's foundation, seeking every trace of silicon, every grain of sand in the concrete, every fragment of glass in the windows.
The entire dojo began to sing.
It started as a low harmonic that you felt in your bones, then built to a crystalline chorus that made students cover their ears. Every piece of processed mineral in the room responded to my will – the silicon chips in electronic devices sparked and died, glass fixtures cracked in perfect geometric patterns, and even the small quartz crystals in some students' jewelry began to glow.
Julian tried to regroup mid-air, gathering his telekinetic strength for another assault. But how do you fight someone who's turned the entire building into a weapon? How do you overwhelm a foe who can make any crystal-based material sing to his tune?
This is crazy.
Previously, Diamondhead could only generate crystals and control his own, but with the help of Chi, I could also influence outside crystals.
"You were holding back…? You dirty trickster, you tried to get my guard down!" Julian shouted, his voice cracking with anger. I could sense the fear mixed, though.
I didn't answer. Instead, I created a single, perfect diamond in my palm and infused it with concentrated Chi. The crystal began to pulse with inner light, growing brighter with each heartbeat. When I flicked it toward Julian, it moved like a guided missile, changing direction mid-flight as my Chi-enhanced control allowed me to manipulate its trajectory far easier than before.
Julian caught it with his telekinesis, thinking himself clever. That's when I smiled.
The diamond exploded in his telekinetic grip, not outward but inward – an implosion of crystalline shards that overwhelmed his defenses and peppered his arms and chest with tiny cuts. He screeched in pain and dropped like a stone, his concentration shattered along with his confidence.
I closed the distance in a blur of green crystal, sidestepping his last desperate telekinetic shove like a child threw it.
Students scattered to safe distances as the destruction spread, someone screaming instructions about evacuation protocols that seemed to come from very far away.
My hand closed around his outstretched arm, diamond-hard fingers finding the precise pressure points that would cause maximum pain with minimal actual damage.
The crack of his wrist breaking echoed through the ruined dojo, followed immediately by Julian's scream of agony. "ARGHH!!"
He dropped to his knees, cradling his shattered arm against his chest. Tears streamed down his face – pain, humiliation, and the bitter realization that he'd picked a fight he never had a prayer of winning.
Sunlight filtered through the destroyed rooftop, falling over me. My body scattered it all around the destroyed, crystal filled gym. I stood over him, seven feet of crystalline power, and felt something that should have been satisfaction but tasted more like disappointment.
This is supposed to be Emma's prize student? The leader of the Hellions?
"Next time," I said, my voice carrying clearly through the shocked silence, "ask before you assume. Evaluate before you challenge."
I tapped the Omnitrix, and the transformation ended. In a flash of green light, I was Ben Tennyson again – shorter, softer, but somehow carrying more presence than I'd had moments before.
Kwannon appeared at my side, having watched the entire fight from the edge of the crowd. Her dark eyes held something that might have been a look of surprise.
"Impressive," she said quietly. "What was that strange form? You channeled Chi through such an odd nervous system. I've never seen anything like it."
"Neither have I," I admitted, and it was true because I didn't see any alien use Chi before.
Around us, students whispered in dozens of languages. Some helped Julian to his feet, others stared at me like I'd grown a second head. The dojo looked like a war zone, diamond spires jutting from shattered floorboards at impossible angles.
Emma's going to love this.
I met the eyes of the Academy's student body. Some fearful, some awed, all utterly focused on me. Then I realized something had fundamentally changed.
I wasn't just Emma's guest anymore.
I was a player in whatever game she was running.
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