Rogue's chest rose and fell as she forced her blush to settle.
She closed her eyes and focused on Nova's memories about his experience and knowledge about his ability. Suddenly she opened her eyes in disbelief. She had known he was considered Omega-potential, afterall he can do anything with enough knowledge.
But seeing it from inside his skin, feeling every possibility at her fingertips? Lord have mercy… it's like holding the universe in your hands.
The weight of borrowed power settled into her bones, foreign yet familiar. Every atom in the air seemed to hum with potential, waiting for her command. She flexed her fingers experimentally, watching reality ripple at the edges of her vision.
"Start." Logan's bark snapped her back to the moment.
The robots lunged as one, steel feet pounding against reinforced flooring, rifles and blades arming up with shrill mechanical whines that echoed through the chamber.
Rogue exhaled once, letting calm settle over her like armor. Then she moved.
Her hand swept forward — and the arena erupted. A wall of searing flame burst from nothing, washing over the first rank of machines. Armor plates glowed cherry red before melting inward like candle wax. Robots toppled with metal shrieking, their forms collapsing into slag.
"Holy shit," Kitty breathed, pressing against the observation window. "She just— that came out of nowhere!"
Another wave of robots rushed her left flank, adapting their approach. Rogue didn't even look. She stomped her heel once — the reinforced floor split like paper. Jagged spires of earth lanced upward, concrete and steel reforming itself into deadly points. They speared through torsos and joints, metal crunching like bones, before exploding outward into rubble that scattered like shrapnel across the arena.
From above, aerial drones dove with wings humming, seeking to overwhelm from multiple angles. Rogue's emerald eyes narrowed as she tracked their movement. She raised both hands toward the ceiling — a thunderclap split the chamber like the world breaking apart.
Bolts of lightning streaked outward in branching paths, white-blue veins that leaped from target to target with deadly precision. Circuits fried in brilliant flashes, and drones dropped like broken birds, sparking as they hit the ground.
The students pressed closer to the glass as the arena shook.
Pietro let out a low whistle. "That's insane. Fire, earth, lightning — she's throwin' everything at 'em."
The remaining bots adapted again, blasters raising in perfect unison. A coordinated storm of energy fire screamed toward her position, the air itself seeming to burn.
Rogue didn't flinch. She threw her arms wide — and the air itself answered.
A cyclone roared to life around her, winds howling through the chamber with hurricane force. Energy blasts twisted off course, ricocheting harmlessly into walls, while a dozen robots were lifted off their feet like toys. They slammed into reinforced barriers with impacts that sent shockwaves through the floor.
Before the winds died, she snapped her fingers with casual precision.
Water surged from the air itself, materializing as a torrential flood that crashed down on the remaining ground forces. Circuits popped and sparked as red optical sensors dimmed, machines drowning in an element that shouldn't exist here.
Wanda's eyes narrowed, scarlet energy flickering faintly around her fingers as understanding dawned.
She turned her gaze to Nova, studying his face as he watched his borrowed power in action. This isn't element control at all like other mutants. Rouge's not manipulating fire or earth or lightning — she's manipulating reality itself, forcing it to create those attacks. His ability, its very similar to hers..... altering reality.
A massive heavy-assault unit crashed through the smoking wreckage, reinforced shield raised high, its bulk designed to withstand anything thrown at it.
Rogue just smirked.
She lifted one hand, and pure light blazed outward, brilliant and blinding as a newborn star. The machine staggered, sensors overloading in the impossible radiance. In the same breath, her other hand clenched into a fist — absolute darkness swallowed the robot in a wave of crushing void.
"Light and shadow together?" Kurt teleported closer to the glass, his blue fur bristling. "That should cancel each other out!"
Instead, metal screamed under impossible pressure as opposite forces tore at the machine's frame simultaneously. The reinforced hull folded in on itself like origami, collapsing into a twisted knot of steel and circuits.
Beast's datapad was going crazy with readings he'd never seen before. "Remarkable. She is not manipulating the elements from the atmosphere, instead it's like she is creating them out of thin air."
More robots surged forward — sleek close-combat models designed to overwhelm through speed and numbers, blades outstretched as they leaped through the smoky air.
Rogue's eyes snapped upward, her auburn hair whipping in winds that existed only around her.
She thrust both hands skyward like a conductor commanding an orchestra.
Thunder split the room in half. Fire and lightning cascaded together in impossible harmony, raining down like burning meteors. Each impact sent shockwaves rattling through the reinforced glass of the observation deck. Students stumbled as the floor vibrated beneath their feet.
"Jesus," Bobby whispered, ice unconsciously forming around his hands. "She's tearing the place apart."
One by one, robots were shredded, burned, or simply unmade by forces that rewrote the rules around them. Explosions lit the chamber in stroboscopic bursts of destruction.
The smoke began to clear, revealing devastation. From behind the wreckage, one final machine lunged — a sleek assassin model that had waited for its moment, plasma blade raised high and humming with deadly energy.
Rogue spun with fluid grace, her palm already glowing with an impossible sight — half brilliant radiance that hurt to look at, half consuming void that seemed to eat light itself.
She slammed her hand into the robot's chest.
The machine convulsed violently as opposite absolutes collided within its frame — simultaneously seared by infinite light and crushed by perfect darkness. The scream of reality tearing apart filled the room before it detonated into glittering fragments.
And then... silence.
The Danger Room floor was a graveyard of sparking metal and impossible elements. Steam hissed from joints that no longer existed. Fires burned without fuel while patches of frost somehow coexisted mere inches away. Rogue stood at the center of it all, sweat dripping down her temple, her green eyes still alight with borrowed cosmic fire.
Rogue brushed a damp strand of hair from her face and walked toward the observation deck where the others waited, her boots crunching over shattered steel.
Jubilee was the first to find her voice. "Girl, that was insane! You didn't just win, you wrecked them. Straight-up superhero movie level."
Bobby let out a low whistle, grinning despite himself. "Forget the Danger Room — I think the Danger Room needs protection from you."
Rogue stopped in front of them, chest still rising and falling, and gave a faint, almost embarrassed smile. "Don't go puttin' me on a pedestal, y'all. That wasn't me. It's borrowed power."
The words hit like a weight. For a moment, no one spoke. Then, almost as one, the group's eyes slid toward Nova.
Jean's gaze lingered on him, her lips parting as if she wanted to ask a dozen questions at once but didn't know where to begin. She felt the hum of power in Rogue's performance — and she knew where it had come from.
Kurt tilted his head, his golden eyes narrowing as curiosity sparked. "So… all zat destruction… all zat power…" He let out a low chuckle. "Mein Gott. It vas yours to begin with."
Pietro crossed his arms, flashing Nova a quick grin. "Borrowed or not, you've got style, man. Letting Rogue show it off like that? That's a power move in itself."
Bobby, still shaking his head in disbelief, pointed a finger at Nova like he was seeing him for the first time. "Okay, seriously — how the hell are you even standing there looking casual right now? You're basically a walking apocalypse waiting to happen."
Nova met their stares evenly, then his mouth split into a wide and a arrogant smirk.
But Scott's jaw tightened beneath his visor. He'd been watching Jean — and he'd caught the way her eyes lingered on Nova. The spark of interest there, the fascination, was unmistakable. His hand flexed unconsciously at his side, teeth grinding as jealousy coiled tight in his chest.
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CHAPTER:- [117 - MAGIC KNIGHT EXAM] IS AVAILABLE ON MY P@TREON