The room buzzed with nervous energy as students clustered around Rogue and Blink, their voices overlapping in a chaos of questions and disbelief.
"Six hundred million dollars?" Bobby's voice cracked on the number. "That's… that's insane money, Rogue. Like, buy-your-own-island money."
Rogue leaned back in her chair, a satisfied smirk playing at her lips. "Didn't exactly need an island, sugar. Just needed control."
"Control over your mutation," Jean said slowly, still processing. "You can actually choose what you absorb now?"
"Every last bit of it," Rogue confirmed. "No more accidental draining. No more killing people with a touch. I decide what I take, when I take it, and how much."
Kitty phased her hand through the table absently, her eyes wide. "And this Trader guy just… made that happen? For a copy of your power?"
"Business transaction," Rogue said with a shrug. "He got what he wanted, I got what I needed."
All eyes shifted to Blink, who stood near the window with her arms crossed. The change in her was impossible to ignore – she'd gained at least four inches in height, her frame filled out with lean muscle, and there was something different her.
"And you?" Pietro asked, his usual cocky grin in place. "What exactly did you trade for that upgrade? Because damn, girl."
"Pietro," Ororo warned from across the room.
"What? I'm just saying she looks—"
"Like she could break you in half," Jubilee finished with a snort. "Which she probably could now."
Blink's cheeks flushed, but she held her ground. "He called it potential release. Said my body was holding back what it could really do. So that ability unleased my potential."
"Holding back is an understatement," Sam muttered, his Southern drawl thick with amazement. "You look like you could arm-wrestle Logan and win."
"Now that would be something to see," Gambit chuckled from his corner, casually shuffling cards between his fingers.
Nova watched the exchange from near the door, keeping his expression excited as others. The questions, the amazement, the growing legends around this mysterious Trader – it all working in his favour as he thoughts.
Logan's gruff voice cut through the chatter like a blade. "Alright, that's enough socializing. Danger Room. Now."
The students groaned collectively, but began filing out. Logan's training sessions weren't optional, and everyone knew better than to argue when he used that tone.
"Since you two are our big mysteries today," Logan continued, his yellow eyes fixed on Rogue and Blink, "you get to go first. Show us what all this fancy upgrading actually means in a fight."
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The Danger Room hummed to life around them, walls sliding and reforming into a circular combat arena. Mechanical platforms rose from the floor, creating cover points and elevated positions. But what made several students take an involuntary step back were the robots – dozens of them, emerging from hidden compartments with red optical sensors glowing like predatory eyes.
"Holy shit," Bobby whispered. "How many are there?"
"Forty-seven combat units," Beast announced from the control booth, his voice crackling over the intercom. "A mixture of ranged attackers, close-combat specialists, and aerial reconnaissance drones."
Logan stepped to the edge of the arena, claws sliding out with their familiar *snikt*. "Rules are simple. You go in alone. You survive. Everything in there is programmed to kill you, so don't expect any mercy from the machines."
He looked directly at Blink. "You want to show off your new toys? Here's your chance."
Blink stepped forward without hesitation, rolling her shoulders to loosen up. "Gladly."
The arena sealed with a heavy metallic clang. Through the reinforced observation windows, the other students pressed close to watch. The robots arranged themselves in tactical formation – a front line of rifle-armed units, melee fighters spreading to the flanks, aerial drones taking high positions near the ceiling.
"Blink's tough," Kitty said quietly, "but that's a lot of robots."
"She'll be fine," Rogue said, though there was tension in her voice. "Girl's got more fight in her than people think."
In the arena, Blink closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were glowing with violet light. The air around her began to shimmer and warp, like heat rising from summer pavement. A sphere of distorted space expanded outward from her position, encompassing nearly the entire arena.
"What the hell is that?" Alex Summers breathed from the control booth.
"Spatial manipulation field," Beast replied, his instruments going wild. "She's creating localized distortions in three-dimensional space. Fascinating!"
The robots opened fire.
Energy beams and projectiles lanced through the air where Blink had been standing, but she was already gone. She reappeared directly behind the front line, her fist connecting with a robot's back with devastating force. The machine's chest plate buckled inward before it flew forward, crashing into two of its companions.
She vanished again before any of them could react.
The students watched in stunned silence as Blink became a blur of violet light, appearing and disappearing throughout the arena like a ghost. Each teleportation was perfectly timed, putting her in position to strike while avoiding return fire.
Nova found himself leaning forward despite his usual composure. The way she moved, the precision of each spatial jump, the fluid transition from defense to offense – it reminded him of something. Someone.
*Instant teleportation,* he thought, watching her blink directly into a robot's guard to deliver a crushing uppercut. *Perfect spatial awareness. Never appearing where an enemy expects.*
A memory flickered through his mind unbidden – yellow hair and a gentle smile, kunai knives appearing and disappearing in flashes of light. The Fourth Hokage, moving across battlefields like lightning given form.
*Minato,* Nova realized, his eyes tracking Blink's impossible movements. *She fights like Minato.*
The comparison was apt. Both used instantaneous movement not just for transportation, but as the core of their combat style. Both possessed an almost supernatural ability to read spatial relationships and exploit positioning. Both were devastating in close quarters because they could always choose the perfect angle of attack.
"She's incredible," Jean whispered, her voice filled with awe.
In the arena, Blink had destroyed over half the robots without taking a single hit. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she maintained the spatial distortion field, but her movements never slowed. She teleported above a cluster of machines, driving downward with both fists to crush one while using the impact to launch herself sideways into another.
The remaining robots adapted, spreading out to limit her options. Aerial units dove at her from multiple angles while ground forces created overlapping fields of fire.
Blink's response was to disappear entirely for several seconds. The robots spun in confusion, sensors searching frantically. Then she reappeared in the exact center of their formation and *pushed*.
The spatial distortion around her pulsed outward like a shockwave. Every robot within twenty feet was hurled backward by the warping of space itself, their metal frames crashing into walls and each other with thunderous impacts.
"Did she just weaponize teleportation?" Scott asked, his voice tight with professional interest.
Only a handful of the most heavily armored units remained functional. They converged on her position with mechanical determination, their weapons spinning up to maximum power.
Blink smiled, violet energy crackling around her like controlled lightning. She blinked once more – not away from the remaining robots, but directly into their midst. Her enhanced muscles coiled and released as she struck the central unit with everything she had.
The impact sent a shockwave through the arena floor. The robot's armor cracked like an eggshell before it collapsed into sparking wreckage. The others fell to her spinning kicks and precise strikes in rapid succession.
When the dust settled, Blink stood alone among the mechanical carnage, her chest rising and falling with controlled breaths. The violet glow faded from her eyes as she surveyed the destruction.
"Simulation complete," Beast announced over the intercom. "All targets neutralized. Time elapsed: four minutes, thirty-seven seconds."
The arena began to reconfigure itself, clearing away the destroyed robots. Blink walked toward the exit with fluid grace, looking barely winded despite the incredible display of power.
"Well," Logan said as she rejoined the group, "that was educational."
Rogue clapped her on the shoulder with obvious pride. "Told y'all she had fight in her."
The other students were still processing what they'd witnessed. Bobby shook his head slowly. "I've seen Scott take down that many targets, but not that fast. And definitely not that… efficiently."
"She didn't waste a single movement," Nightcrawler observed, his tail twitching with nervous energy. "Every teleport was perfect. I cannot achieve such precision even with my experience."
Nova remained quiet, but his mind was still turning over Blink's new ability, domain. She have a fifty meter domain and up of spatial elements. Within that domain she make any type of spatial change, as long as she have enough energy to support it.
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CHAPTER:- [115 - THE PROBLEM] IS AVAILABLE ON MY P@TREON