Fredozy
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Chapter 117: A beast
🕑 Added 2025-09-07 13:02:17 +0000 UTCSomeone screamed.
"Oh my God!" Kitty's voice cracked with horror as she stared at what Gojo had just done to Wanda. The brutality of it left her frozen with her hands trembling.
Mystique roared, surging forward in a blur until she was by Wanda's side. She crouched low, her body shielding the girl as she snapped her glare at Gojo.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you insane?! Were you trying to kill her?!"
Gojo tilted his head, eyes narrowing with quiet disdain. "Such hypocrisy," he muttered, then raised his voice, sharp and cutting. "Look around you, Raven. What do you see? Your machinations cost hundreds of humans their lives when you decided to release the Juggernaut and you dare question me? Just like you were trying to kill us? If not for me, Juggernaut would've slaughtered every single person in this place."
His chuckle was low and dangerous. Energy rolled off him in waves, heavy as the moon itself. The weight pressed on every chest in the area like a guillotine waiting to drop. Mystique prided herself on composure, even in the face of death. Yet her body betrayed her. Her knees locked, her lungs burned, and glittering fear reached her eyes.
A red aura shimmered around Gojo, heat rippling through the air as the temperature climbed unbearably high.
"Enough, Gojo." Xavier's voice cut through the tension, low but firm. "You need to calm yourself."
"And there it is again," Gojo's gaze turned, piercing the professor. "You let this happen again and again, never dealing permanent damage to make them think twice before acting. They invaded your home. Destroyed it. And not just that—" his head shifted back toward Wanda's broken form, "—they had the gall to threaten me. And you want me to let them walk away?"
His voice sharpened like a blade. "You're too forgiving, Professor. They must understand such an invasion won't be tolerated again. And such an action against me will be addressed in equality."
"I agree with the walking calamity." The dry voice of Tony Stark filled the battlefield as he stepped into view. His helmet hissed open, revealing an unimpressed glare. His eyes flicked toward where Pietro lay crumpled. "Good riddance."
Logan grunted as he shoved Avalanche's unconscious body aside and came to stand beside Stark. "They'll just come back. Again. And again. And again. Maybe it's time to prove a point Chuck. Send Mystique in a—"
"No!" Xavier snapped, harsher than usual. His voice carried weight and sorrow. "We aren't executioners. That is not our way. If we allow vengeance to corrupt us, we're no better than Magneto. No better than the humans that hunt us. A war of bloodied ideals will doom us all."
Gojo turned slowly, his blue eyes glowing with dangerous clarity. "And that—" he hissed, "—will always be your downfall. Pacifism in the face of hatred is nothing more than surrender. You'd sacrifice your students' futures for a dream that will only see them slaughtered."
"Hey!" Scott's voice cracked with anger. "That's not true!"
Jean stepped forward too, her jaw set. "We choose to believe in hope, Gojo. That's what makes us different."
Hank and Storm exchanged a glance but said nothing.
Gojo exhaled, shaking his head. "Believe what you want, then."
He felt Wanda's pain resonate through the psychic plain. A raw, tearing scream of life fading. She was barely clinging on, her body failing. His eyes scanned her and he saw pierced lungs, shattered ribs, liver torn, kidneys failing. His sigh was heavy as a golden aura spread from his body.
The glow enveloped Wanda. Her ragged breathing steadied, her wounds knitting closed, blood evaporating as flesh reformed. Color returned to her pale cheeks.
"Amazing," Hank whispered, wide-eyed.
Mystique's shock turned to disbelief. "How?"
'How the hell is he doing this?' she thought. 'His mutation was supposed to be telekinesis, telepathy and teleportation. Those three already make him Magneto's equal but healing? Energy manipulation? How many powers does he have?'
She had faced monsters, people who could be considered gods and killers but this boy was something else. A mutant so versatile, so impossibly powerful… a monster in human flesh. Xavier had no idea the weapon he had in his hands .
"You have so much power," Mystique spat, standing slowly, venom dripping from every word. "And yet you remain idle while your kind is treated like trash. You do nothing but bow to Charles' ideals. You're nothing but an idiot boy—"
Her words died in her throat as a wave of suffocating coldness slammed into her. It felt as if she'd been submerged beneath endless ocean depths, her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth, every hair on her body rising. Cold, merciless loneliness wrapped around her.
"I am not forced to do anyone's bidding," Gojo's voice was colder than ice. "That's your way, not mine. Charles and I may share a vision, but where I differ is this…"
Mystique's body trembled uncontrollably, eyes wide with panic.
"I am not so careless. Nor merciful."
He turned, and for a second, he looked less like a man and more like a beast wearing flesh. Mystique's silent scream clawed at her lips before she collapsed, motionless under the crushing psychic weight.
Gojo grabbed her limp form by the scruff and hurled her toward the stirring Brotherhood. His voice cracked like thunder.
"Get out of my sight. And never return. If I so much as smell you here again, know this. there are things worse than death."
The Brotherhood didn't argue. Blob stirred first, scooping Wanda and Mystique into his arms. Pyro dragged a battered Lance while Pietro's body was lifted with unsteady hands. Their defeat was undeniable, their near-victory overturned by one boy's arrival. The razor-thin line between triumph and obliteration had never been clearer.
"You pushed her too far, Gojo." Xavier's voice was heavy with disapproval. "That psychic punishment could have caused permanent damage."
Tony's brow arched as he crossed his arms. "Oh, please. I've seen her cosplay as half a dozen U.S. presidents. She'll walk it off."
Gojo shrugged. "I did no such thing. That was just an over reaction on her part."
Spider-Man piped up, his voice muffled under his mask. "Uh-huh, sure. Totally natural. Like me getting punched by the Hulk and calling it 'light cardio.'"
Even Logan barked out a short laugh at that, though the tension in the air refused to fade.
