I'M BAAAACK! 3000 years have I slumbered! And now, I have finally awakened!

I am so, sooo sorry for letting a gap like this happen. Life has been super busy for me lately and time passed me by before I knew it. This is especially embarrassing because I actually hope to start a p-word website at some point, and these type of upload gaps are pretty unacceptable for that.

I'm going to try to get a regular schedule set up once again, so stay tuned for that everyone!

Remember, I based this version of kryptonians mostly on the SupermanTAS version, and Clark's untrained power level will pretty closely match the earliest episodes of that show, at least until he gets his ass in gear and stops avoiding T-Rao.

Now, without further Ado, Enjoy!

Previously on Orphan Adrift:

As I sped closer my mind raced at the sounds of conflict I picked up coming from the farm, many of which I didn't recognize. Someone was attacking the farm! Someone was attacking my family! My family that accepted me! My family that loved me! That finally found me after all this time! After living an entire life of loneliness and misery!

A hundred different thoughts and feelings flew through my mind, each one worse than the last, but at the end, my panic and anxiety settled in to one single emotion.

RAGE.

Kent Farm: Earlier that day

The X jet landed stealthily about half a mile out from the target property, and engaged retro reflective panels. A quick scan of the area didn't show any areas or structures that you would expect from a secret base, but that didn't necessarily mean anything concrete. What someone could do from a secret underground complex could just as easily be done from a regular basement. Cruelty often takes the form of the mundane after all.

The thing that really clinched it was the low levels of an unidentified energy that was unknown to their scanners. It was hardly anything, and harmless from what they could tell, but the fact it was here at all confirmed their suspicions that this was more than just a simple household. The strongest reading they got was from a point on the ground near the barn that would be a prime spot for a storm cellar, and was likely a disguised entrance to where they did their experiments.

"Alright." Growled Logan. "We've confirmed something fishy is going on, We know where the dirty work is being done, and we've confirmed that this ain't a highly funded project. Probably a couple of mad scientist fucks or anti mutant religious types, so let's go gut these sick fucks and get that poor kid outta there."

Charles whipped his head toward Logan and scowled. "We have confirmation of nothing. The unknown energy is just that. Unknown. It could be a mystical relic they unknowingly unearthed that is interacting with their daughter without their knowledge. Mystical artifacts have been involved with late mutant awakenings in the past, it is not a stretch of the imagination to believe a similar artifact could be responsible for an early awakening as well. We go in with a standard recruitment attempt first."

Logan rolled his eyes, "Bullshit. What's more likely Chuck? That this is a couple a' twisted rednecks doin' the same shit anti-mutants always do? Or some random asshole stumbling on a completely unheard of mystical golden gem of hocus pocus in the middle of a fuckin' cornfield?! You said it yourself that there was intentional psychic interference, clear planting of false memories, that there was a powerful mind that could mute its mutant signature, and that there were signs of forced awakening from the time the kid was born! And you still wanna play this with fuckin' kiddie gloves?! This is too many checked boxes to be a fuckin' coincidence! And I'm not letting that little girl get experimented on, tortured, and who knows what else for a single fucking second longer than I have to!"

Charles stared at Logan for an awkward second, letting him cool a bit, before responding. "Logan. This isn't alkali lake. This isn't the weapon X program."

Logan snarled, "Get outta my head!"

Charles quirked an eyebrow. "I wasn't reading your mind. I didn't have to. I am a legitimate professor you know."

Logan sighed, and suddenly seemed to recognize that they were still in a crowded jet, the other inhabitants looking awkwardly on. "So… what? We just walk up like a couple a' fuckin' salesmen, knock on the door and say, 'Hello! Sorry to intrude, but you wouldn't happen to be experimenting on a little mutant girl would you? Tell the truth now.' "

"We go in," Charles responded, "with standard recruitment, with gentle investigation."

Logan growled. "Ok, but I'm takin' point, if bullets start flyin', I'll be the shield."

Charles winced. If there was danger it was pragmatic, but Logan was more keyed up than usual, and even on a calm day he wasn't the most diplomatic of men. "Very well, but Storm and I will go with you, and we will do the talking."

Logan narrowed his eyes, but nodded.

As the trio of mutants traveled up to the front door of the farmhouse, the professor was forced to stop his wheelchair at the edge of the porch, while storm and Logan walked the few steps up to the door, and knocked. A kind faced man answered the door, smiling with a hint of curiosity. Xavier noted it was the same man who had comforted the girl. He attempted to read his mind, but found that there was something blocking him. He relayed this fact telepathically to Storm and Wolverine, and they tensed.

The Man, upon seeing Charles waiting by the porch stairs, exited his house and walked out on to the porch, closing the door behind him. "Hello, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with you folks. My name is Jonathan Kent. What brings you all the way out here?"

"Hello Mr Kent, I am professor Charles Xavier. I run the Xavier institute for gifted youngsters. These are my associates, Ororo and Logan. We are here because your daughter has certain gifts that may be dangerous if not properly controlled. She is a Mutant, and we are an organization that is dedicated to protecting and assisting mutant kind."

Jonathan blinked a few times, then spoke, "I'm not sure what you're talking about. Mutants, aliens, superpowers and the like aren't even real. They're an urban legend, like bigfoot and the Jersey devil.

But, even so, my wife and I are perfectly capable of raising our daughter no matter what. So thank you for your concern, but I believe you're mistaken."

Reflexively, Charles tried to read his mind again, only to once again find himself unable to. Scanning more thoroughly, he found that the source of the telepathic interference was coming from a watch on the man's wrist. Xavier narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You claim not to know about Mutants or my organization, and yet you are wearing a telepathic dampener. Where and how did you obtain that watch you are wearing?"

Johnathan Kent quirked an eyebrow in response to the more aggressive approach. "Where I got my watch, is none of your business. Now unless you have some sort of government authority, and a warrant to search my house, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And if I see any of you anywhere near my daughter ever again, there will be serious consequences, and if you all don't get of my property this instant I'll be calling the police. Have a nice day." He reentered his house, shutting the door behind him.

Xavier clenched his Jaw in frustration. The lawful thing would be to leave. They witnessed no crime and they weren't exactly the arm of the law, they were a private organization.

But the telepathic dampener was damning. That wasn't something anyone just had. It was a tool specifically designed to counter him, which ruled out any other plausible explanation. He asked himself, was he willing to gamble on a mutant child's life? Leave her to the cruelty of her human tormentors?

No he was not.

Turning to Logan, he nodded his head.

Logan smirked, walking up to the front door of the house. "Might wanna get some distance Chuck, without your telepathy working you're basically just some jackass in a wheelchair, as far as fightin' goes at least,"

Charles nodded, and began wheeling his way back to the blackbird.

Logan worked his neck back and forth, cracking a joint, then, without further preamble, kicked the door in off it's hinges.

Logan hadn't taken two steps into the house before he smelled a faint whiff of steel and gun oil.

BLAM!

The thunderous crack of a shotgun split the air, followed by a ringing gong-like sound as Johnathan Kent shot a full load of birdshot point blank into the side Logan's indestructible scull.

His adamantium skull was unharmed, but his brain? Not so much. As Logan stumbled and fell to the side, dealing with what was essentially a super concussion, Johnathan pumped the slide action on the shotgun, popping the smoking red shell out the side. Pointing the gun at Storm, he inhaled to speak, but with a flick of her hand he was blasted back by gale force winds, sailing through the air and smashing the coffee table.

Lexi, who had been hiding when she heard the gunshot, screamed in fear when she saw her father blasted through the air.

Storm, upon seeing her, stepped into the house. "Don't be afraid! Come with us, we're here to take you away from these horrible people!"

At this Lexi snarled in anger, tears running down her cheeks, "You think just 'cause I'm a kid that I'm dumb?! You smashed my door and hurt my Dad!" As she screamed, her eyes glowed with green lightning, and her body was surrounded by a lime green aura. The coffee maker, the microwave, the dishwasher, and the toaster all were surrounded in the same green aura before disassembling into their base components and rushing towards Lexi.

The stream of parts converged in front of her outstretched hand, assembling into something new and terrifying in a miniature tornado of machinery, building what looked like a large, roughly constructed gun, with metal bits and pieces sticking out in ways that looked unsafe to hold, the glass jar from the coffee maker protruding out of the bottom and filled with water like a steam-punk super-soaker.

It continued to float in front of her as she pointed it at storm, and a deadly stream of scalding electrified water spewed out the nozzle with enormous pressure.

Anticipating danger as soon as the parts had first began take on a gun shape, Storm was ready to dodge and did so, flying out the door and up into the air, borne by gale force winds, the boiling stream missing her completely.

Lexi was about to pursue, but was distracted by a groan from what should have been a dead man. Her eyes widened in fear as he rose, his metallic skull briefly visible as his flesh reformed over its surface, his pitted and peppered skin spitting out tiny bits of birdshot with small bloody squelches.

Momentarily frozen by the gruesomeness of the sight, she flinched when the wolverine unsheathed his claws with a snikt

"Birdshot huh? Ain't that annoying." He said casually with an undertone of rage, and then began to stalk forward to where Jonathan was only now beginning to get up, groaning in pain as he fiddled with his watch.

Fearing for her father, she yelled, "Y-you want me?! Well, uh, come and get me!"

She fired her boil gun once more at Logan, scoring a direct hit. Hissing in pain as his skin was scalded and his muscles spasmed, he whipped toward Lexi, an animal aggression in his eyes just as the water in her gun ran out.

Oh. She might have miscalculated a bit, Lexi considered.

Lunging toward the door to get away from Logan, Lexi screamed in surprise as the same telekinesis that she used to levitate and fire her gun sent her blasting forward, through the door and over the porch like an Olympic long jumper under moon gravity.

Horrified at her impending crash landing, Lexi crossed her arms in front of her face, and her telekinetic aura solidified around her in a defensive barrier.

Before she hit the ground, however, she was caught by a gale of wind that swirled around her.

Seeing storm with her hand outstretched, Lexi panicked. "Let me go!"

Storm shook her head and lifted her higher, then began to speak. "I know this seems confusing, but you need to listen to me! Mutant powers like yours awaken naturally in someone's early teens! You are much too young for that! The only way you could possibly have these powers is if you were being experimented on! Used like a lab rat! I know you think they love you, but they are using you!"

Lexi eyes widened as she recalled just a few hours earlier, when she showed her powers to Pa. He seemed quite surprised, but not absolutely flabbergasted, as if he was familiar with the idea of a child having superpowers. He had been calm as he had hugged her, reassured her that everything was alright, that they could figure this out, carrying her inside and setting her up with her favorite quilt as he made her hot chocolate.

At the time she had been relieved that Pa had been so understanding and comforting, and had loved her dad even more because of it.

But her mind refused to stop there.

How could he have been so calm? How could he have not freaked out? Did he know ahead of time? Was he experimenting on her? Did he expect this? Did Ma know? Was she a part of this? Was Clark in on it?

Suddenly so many old memories started popping up, the watch, the whispered conversations, her abnormal intelligence, the fact that somehow she always had the gut feeling that there was something more to her family, something she wasn't being told.

Was… all of it a lie?

Tears began to well up in her eyes. She gritted her teeth. "NO!" She shouted in defiance, half to Storm and half to herself. "There has to be a different explanation! My parents love me! They do! They DO!"

Storm sighed, a look of sadness and pity settling on her face. "I'm so sorry." She said sincerely.

Something about that look absolutely pissed Lexi off. As if she didn't know what was real just because she was a kid. Like she was too dumb to realize if she had a real family or not. "Fuck you!" She shouted, much to Storm's shock. "I've lived with my family my whole life! You think I'll believe some stranger that my Mom and Dad are evil?! Hell no!"

Clenching her fist, her empty boil gun split into its base parts, and she launched them at Storm like a blast from her Pa's shotgun.

Storm quickly surrounded herself with a tornado of wind blowing the bits off course, but lost her hold on Lexi as a result.

Lexi fell about ten feet to the ground, but the fall was cushioned by her TK as she landed, and she sprinted toward the barn.

Once she reached the doors they shot open with a blast of TK, and she stretched out her hands to the family tractor, which was quickly covered in a bright green aura and rapidly began disassembling itself, its parts reassembling around her in a makeshift mech suit, the diesel engine sputtering on her back.

Aided by her new exo suits tractor wheels and protected by her own telekinetic aura, she raced back towards Storm with the intention of beginning round two!

As soon as she got close however, a blue blur accompanied by what sounded like the roar of a tiger slammed into her side, throwing her off balance.

Looking at what had hit her she actually let out a scream at the blue, fanged, animal-looking man wearing only a speedo, who was clinging to the side of her tractor suit.

She was further shocked, when instead of a snarl or a roar, he spoke with all the buttery smoothness and precise diction of a Shakespearean actor, "Please stand down! We do not wish to harm you! Only to help you!"

Grabbing him in her machine assisted grip, Lexi spun each of her foot wheels in opposite directions, spinning around and around with increasing speed. Once she had enough momentum, Lexi threw the hairy blue beast-man at storm, who had been rushing forward to help. Taken off guard, beast collided with storm, knocking her out of the air and unconscious with the impact.

As they fell, Beast expertly repositioned himself mid air to safely catch the unconscious Storm.

With his hands occupied with his teammate, Beast was unable to block the tractor powered haymaker that slammed into his face, sending him flying backwards along with Storm.

Lexi didn't know if the animal man was unconscious or not, but she suddenly realized she hadn't seen the man with the metal claws, which meant that he was still in the house with her parents.

She made to rush towards the house, but a crimson force beam impacted in front of her, cutting off her path. Looking up, she saw a large black stealth jet seemingly materialize out of nothing! Had it been invisible? Or more accurately, cloaked?

As the jet hovered in the air, a voice came over a PA system, which sounded like a teenage boy.

"Stand down! We are the X men and we are only here to bust a mutant farm! We are trying to help you!"

(Meanwhile in the house with Logan and Johnathan)

As the kid blasted out of the house, Logan made to follow, but stopped when he heard Storm get the girl in a wind cradle.

If that business was being taken care of, then he was free to take care of things with 'Mr. Farmer' here.

He turned, growling in frustration as the last of the birdshot FINALLY got pushed out by his healing factor. Ugh. Point blank birdshot might not be the most painful or dangerous things he had been subjected to, but it was so fucking annoying to heal from, like a hollow point on crack. It had been awhile since someone had gotten him with it.

Wait. Hang on. Why had he been shot with birdshot?

He stopped walking towards the man on the floor, who was slowly getting up.

If this was a mutant farm, shouldn't they have better weapons? Weapons specifically created to fend off mutants? Why come at them with an old shotgun loaded for bird?!

But hold on again, the watches! They were able to block Chuck's telepathy? That wasn't something random ass people just had.

So there was something going on here, but Logan was no longer sure exactly what that was, and that settled around his heart like an icy hand. He had been part of dirty operations against innocents before, and he had resolved then to never do so again. Whatever weird shit was going on, he had to get to the bottom of it, and fast, before the X men ended up something they couldn't fix.

At this point, Johnathan had successfully gotten up, and was clearly favoring one leg, but even so settled into a boxers stance.

Logan smirked at that. It was surprisingly respectable.

The feeling of unease grew.

"Where'd you get that watch?"

Johnathan remained stone-faced. "None of your damn business." He said frostily.

At that Logan paused, because yeah, that's fair, but he still wasn't sure this guy wasn't a child abusing piece of crap either. The watch was one point for, the birdshot one point against.

His thoughts were interrupted by a brief flicker of fear in the farmers expression, as well as his eyes briefly shifting to look at something behind Logan.

Logan whipped around, claws flashing, and sliced through a wooden baseball bat that was being swung at him by what must have been the farmer's wife, and she let out a brief cry of pain as she fell back, her forearm now sporting three deep gashes from his claws, which were now profusely bleeding.

"Shit!" Logan barked, as he realized what he had done. There was a clatter as Martha's watch fell off her wrist and onto the floor, the band having been slashed clean through.

He quickly rushed to put pressure on her arm, the regular baseball bat doing even more to convince him that something else was going on here.

Johnathan, seeing Logan trying to help, rushed as well as he could with his injured leg, shoving Logan out of the way. "There's a first aid kit in the kitchen! Go get it!" Once Logan was gone, Johnathan turned to the love of his life. "Martha! Are you alright?! Can you move your fingers?!"

"I'm fine Johnathan, but what's going on? Why was that man attacking you, but is helping now?" Martha said almost dreamily, her hand trembling. She was in minor shock.

Johnathan let out a sigh of exasperation and anxiety, but kept a calm tone. "I'm not sure Martha. Something tells me we're going to have to have a long talk with these folks, just breathe ok?"

At this she scowled, but with a hint of playfulness in her eyes. "Johnathan Kent! I am injured, not an invalid! I am perfectly capable of remembering how to breathe!"

Johnathan chuckled, "Yes dear."

(Meanwhile with the professor)

Charles waited at a safe distance, lamenting his uselessness in this fight. While many other mutants were capable of combating against his telepathy, Up until now, the only thing that could completely nullify his telepathy was magneto's helmet, which was specially made and one of a kind. These watches were far more advanced, and apparently reproducible, which scared him. In an ever ongoing arms race between mutant kind, this technology could render him unable to protect the children and young adults he had promised to take care of. The source of this technology needed to be destroyed, plain and simple.

Again he mentally scanned the distant farm, hoping to be able to latch on to one of the enemy minds. Even the girl, who didn't appear to have a watch, was protected by her powerful mutant ability, which unluckily was psychic in nature.

Suddenly, he was able to sense another occupant in the farmhouse! A woman, likely the girls mother!

Quickly scanning her mind, he quickly realized something, which caused him to freeze in abject horror.

This wasn't a mutant farm.

The genuine love she had for her daughter was clear as day, and after looking just a bit deeper, he learned of something so mind bogglingly out of left field that he couldn't possibly have predicted it.

She had an adopted son, who was apparently a real life, living, breathing, honest to God, space alien.

Things just got a lot more complicated.

'STOP!' The professor projected to his teammates, 'THIS ISN'T A MUTANT FARM!'

It was then he realized that he was likely too late, as Scott had apparently already decided to fly the most advanced and dangerous vehicle on earth right on up to a powerful technopath.

This was going from bad to worse.

Lexi took one one look at the hovering stealth jet above her, and smiled a Cheshire grin.

Reforming the tractor suit around her, she created what was essentially a diesel powered single use pogo launcher, which sent her rocketing up toward the jet.

As soon as she got within ten feet of its hull, she clenched her fists and made a tearing motion, as if she was pulling something toward her.

The bottom of the blackbird glowed green, and promptly exploded into a maelstrom of machine parts and armored plating, which flowed around Lexi, assembling into a high tech armored battle suit.

The ship's vertical takeoff anti grav was reformed into a jet pack, the landing gear, engines and even the automatic door motors were repurposed into a powerful exoskeleton, and the lightweight but extremely durable hull plating formed a layer of armor around that. The cannon cyclops had just fired was now mounted on the 10 ft tall mech's shoulder, and a strong forcefield formed around Lexi's face, which was the only part of her body that remained visible. She braced herself as she was nearly bowled over by a telekinetic shove, and she looked up to see a redheaded older teen girl flying down with a two others, a boy with a strange visor and a brunette girl in green.

The redhead landed first, then set down her two companions. The young man with a visor inhaled to speak, but Lexi didn't wait that long. She was tired of these entitled yahoos attacking her home for no good reason!

Firing up the main weapon she had taken from the ship, which was now on her shoulder, Lexi nearly lost control of the tech around her as a massive amount of energy was syphoned directly from her, and for the first time since the bus, she began having one of those headaches again.

Still, the energy cannon was energized, it would be a waste not to fire it. A lime green blast of distilled telekinetic energy roared forth from the cannon, barely avoided when beast tackled the three youths out of the way. A long trench was carved in the ground by the cannon shot, and Cyclops quickly responded by shooting back through his visor at the suit. Lexi shot into a guard position, the red beam slowly crumpling the hyper durable plating. Realizing she couldn't block it forever, and recognizing the beam to be the same as the one that shot out of the cannon, she reassembled the energy intake of the cannon to rest in the palm of the suits right hand, and began absorbing the beams energy, charging her cannon without tiring herself.

A spike of pressure hit her forehead, and she got the feeling that someone was trying to intrude into her mind, and firmed herself against it, tossing the intruder out before they could make proper contact, which only made her migraine worse, and she felt a hot sticky liquid running from her nose at the strain.

She aimed the cannon at the source of the intrusion, and fired the red beam the cannon was now charged with.

As Charles Xavier desperately coordinated with his team, trying to get them to stand down, the girl they were trying to help made that significantly more difficult by being one of the most extremely deadly mutants they had faced, only exceeded by mutants like magneto and juggernaut. Still, the sheer power she was expending was clearly not sustainable. His latest attempt to connect to her psychically had been rebuffed and he felt a twinge of guilt when he felt her pain and saw the nosebleed. He hadn't intended to harm the girl, just to communicate and calm her down. He quickly prepared to send a new order to the X men, but was interrupted as the girl turned her cannon towards him, still being charged by cyclops, who was unaware he was no longer doing any damage.

For a split second, he realized he was about to greet his own death, when he was telekinetically yanked from his wheelchair by Jean, saving his life as his chair was utterly vaporized. "Thank you Jean!" he projected, and Jean responded with a nod.

As cyclops finally realized his gaffe and stopped supplying Lexi with free ammo, Beast and Storm, who had regained consciousness from he momentary blackout, were keeping Lexi busy as her green aura continued to diminish in brightness.

Xavier spoke telepathically to the whole team, "She is fading fast! If this continues she may be injured or even killed by using a power her body cannot yet sustain! I am unable to contact her telepathically, and am afraid of damaging her mind if I make another attempt! We must get her out of that suit before she suffers permanent consequences!"

The team nodded, and quickly got to work.

While storm was an incredibly powerful mutant, her weak point was defense, so she flew back and up, providing support by using her advanced aerokinesis to blow her more fragile teammates out of the way before they could be crushed by a hit from Lexi's suit. The vast majority of her more effective abilities were lighting based and highly lethal, which weren't appropriate for a mission such as this.

Cyclops also stayed back, only blasting when Lexi was distracted by someone else, targeting the outer limbs, which were far away from Lexi's body. He was being quite cautious as to not supply her with more ammo, but finally scored a hit on her anti grav jetpack, significantly hobbling her mobility.

Jean capitalized on this, using her telekinesis to lift Lexi off the ground, further disabling her mobility, as her jet pack was busted and she couldn't push off the ground.

Once Lexi was unable to dodge, the fight became significantly easier. Rogue, noticing Lexi's seemingly exposed face, made an attempt to make skin contact in order to drain her power and hopefully knock her out. She was blocked by the psionic field however, and would have been crushed by a blow from Lexi's huge mechanical fist if not for Storm's timely intervention, sucking her away to safety.

Beast, ever the diplomat, stayed in close range but only dodged Lexi's flailing hits without attacking, trying to talk her down. "Please! This suit is too much for your power to sustain! You must release control of it!"

Lexi's only response was a scream of panic, pain, and frustration at her inability to move or hit any of her enemies. She hardly even registered his words.

They were at a bit of a stalemate until wolverine came rushing out of the house. While the armor Lexi had taken from the blackbird was ridiculously strong, it was no adamantium. His claws made quick work of her mechanical limbs and energy cannon, and the torso of her suit was so huge that her actual flesh and blood limbs didn't extend past it.

Surrounded by unknown combatants, immobilized, and with every method of defending herself completely dismantled, a feeling of total powerlessness settled over Lexi, making all her rage and rebellion turn into a pure primal panic, the kind that overwhelmed the senses and froze the body and mind.

Tears streamed from her eyes as she wailed and shrieked herself hoarse in desperation, finally showing her age as her advanced intellect gave way to every child's ingrained instinct to call for help from their caregiver.

Her screeching scream made the X men wince, especially wolverine and beast with their enhanced hearing.

Just as beast inhaled to try and calm her down with words of comfort, a thundering roar seemed to split the sky, rending the very air in twain.

An untraceable blur descended from the heavens, slamming into the ground with a thunderous crash that seemed to shake the earth itself.

As the dust cleared, the X-men saw a large, muscular young man around twenty, wearing a red and blue plaid flannel shirt, thick generic work jeans, brown work boots, and a brown duck jacket. He floated a few inches off the ground, his eyes brightly glowing with a furious red light, his curly black hair mostly combed and tamed, but waving slightly as if caught in a mild wind.

Before the X-men could overcome their shock, the wordless wails from behind them paused, then sounded out again, this time in a coherent word.

"CLAAAARK!" The girl screamed, her voice echoing through the fields.

With a boom he seemingly disappeared with massive speed, and the suit surrounding the girl blasted apart, the girl disappearing entirely.

The young man reappeared by his house, Lexi in his arms, her limbs wrapping around him as she clung like a limpet. Unwrapping her, and completely ignoring the stunned X men, he set her on the porch near the doorway. She protested, but calmed when he spoke. "Go to Ma and Pa. I'll handle these guys."

Lexi stared at him with wide eyes, before nodding, and running into the house. As she ran towards her parents, the young man looked at his mother's arm, seeing the cuts that his father was dressing. Faster than a speeding bullet, he seemingly teleported back outside with a rushing wind, face in a scowl, eyes wide from rage.

Beast once again tried to defuse the situation with words. "This isn't at all what it looks like I assure you!" He said nervously, "this is all just an honest misund—"

"You cut my mother" the young man interrupted, looking at wolverine. His voice was calm in tone, but seemed to echo in stereo as if his lung capacity and vocal chords surpassed the limits of human strength.

Wolverine stepped forward confrontationally, not retracting his claws. "Now listen here bub, there's a whole lot goin' on around here that you don't know abou-hrk!"

His voice was interrupted as Clark blurred forward, his grip of steel clamped around Logan's throat, and with a blur of speed they both disappeared.

To the X-men's horror, when the young man returned, wolverine was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?!" Storm shouted, "What did you do to him?!"

He stared at the X-men for a few seconds, contemplating, and then smirked, as if enjoying a private joke. "Orbit. I sent him into orbit, at Mach 7." He proclaimed.

"MURDERER!" Storm shouted, enraged. She flew up with a burst of wind, the sky darkening as thunder rumbled in the clouds. A deafening BOOM sounded and there was a blinding flash as lightning struck Clark with the full fury of the skies.

Seemingly not experienced in combat, the young man either didn't or couldn't dodge, and was blasted back towards the house with a pained scream, catching himself just in time before he smashed a hole in it.

His muscles spasmed a bit, but he clenched his fists and concentrated, and the involuntary movements quickly ceased. While his shirt was charred, his chest where the lighting struck seemed completely undamaged.

A strange look, like a mixture of surprise confusion and a bit of fear appeared on his face. "That… hurt." He spoke, shocked.

Storm's eyes glowed even brighter, and lightning began to charge up in the sky once more.

The young man steeled his expression, realizing something. "Of course it hurt. This isn't a playground spat." He seemingly berated himself, getting into a ready stance.

The tension broken, Scott shot his optic blast, and Jean Grey fired off a series of near invisible telekinetic missiles at the powerful new enemy.

Tensing as if to dodge, but his eyes flickering to the house behind him, the young man stood his ground, crossing his arms in a cross block. The optic blast and TK missiles slammed into him with all the power of a locomotive, pushing him back, his feet digging troughs into the ground. The nearer he was pushed to the house with his family inside, the harder he pushed pushed back until finally, he came to a stop, and with gritted teeth, began to march forward under the strain.

Jean and Scott redoubled their efforts, but the young man seemed to have discovered a new level of strength as he marched towards them with ever increasing speed.

Storm, who had charged up far more current than she had previously, let loose another bolt of lightning, this time maintaining a constant flow instead of a single shot.

This paralyzed the young man with pain briefly, and Scott and Jean took the opportunity to leap apart, the three long range fighters taking positions around the young mutant in a three point formation, bombarding him from all sides.

Suddenly, the young man, who was crouched over defensively, seemed to relax. His muscles released their tension, and he stood up and spread his arms wide open, as if accepting the damage. His jaw was still clenched and his eyes scrunched closed in pain, but in time even that relaxed, as he seemingly used the pain to purify his mind, to recalibrate his senses to this level of combat.

Unnerved by this, and by the lack of visible damage on anything but his clothes, they plumbed new depths of power within themselves, blasting him with all their combined strength, screaming with the effort.

Suddenly, his eyes popped open, and he inhaled.

All those present felt their ears pop uncomfortably as the air pressure around them dropped noticeably.

Whipping around toward storm he blew out a mighty breath, which roared with all the gale force intensity of a cat' six hurricane. The massively powerful air blast knocked Storm out of the air, her body and flowing hair dusted with sub zero frost. Beast, who had been watching and waiting for an opening, once again caught her, and finding her once again unconscious, retreated, judging her condition to be critical.

Turning to Scott, the young man blasted a pair of red beams from his eyes, meeting Scott's optic blast head on, and cutting through it like a fish through a rapid current.

When his beams finally made contact with Scott's visor, the young kryptonian immediately disengaged his heat vision, not willing to disintegrate Scott's eyeballs. Grunting in pain Scott tore off his visor, his eyes clenched shut to avoid friendly fire. The hot visor had left the skin it was in contact with pink and toasted with first degree burns, painful, but fully healable.

Noticing the boy's restraint and finding it significant, professor X once again tried to make telepathic contact with the young man to make him stand down and be receptive to their words, but was met with immensely powerful psychic shielding that brought to mind a massive wall of indestructible crystal, smooth and polished without flaw or weakness. Fearing the strength of such an accomplished psychic, Charles tensed himself for the backlash, throwing up protective layers of psychic energy around his mind in preparation for the counterattack!

Bizarrely enough, though the young man's psychic defenses were mind bogglingly tough, he made no attempt at counter telepathy against Charles, or even showed any signs he even had detected the attack in the first place! Was this young man even a telepath? But then how did he have such defenses?

Unaware of the professors musings, Clark blurred towards Jean, the last ranged fighter still giving him trouble now that Storm and Cyclops were down. Weaving around and through her TK blasts like an accipiter on the hunt, he quickly reached her and slammed through her hastily conjured defensive force field like a plane breaking the sound barrier, grabbing and pinning her arm painfully behind her back.

"leave here and never return, or… I-I'll tear her arm off!" he stammered, taking the menace away from his amplified voice with the obvious bluff. Suddenly hearing someone behind him, Clark looked back to see Rogue's uncovered hands stretched forth, intent on touching his skin!

His eyes widened and he released Jean, Bounding upwards and reaching a height that exceeded most tall buildings in his haste to dodge at super speed.

Having thrown herself forward at a target that was no longer there, Rogue stumbled forward, off balance, one of her bare hands touching Jean's neck as she attempted to catch herself.

Jean gasped in pain, collapsing weakly to the ground, Rogue falling on top of her, draining her for a few seconds before the southern bell realized what she was doing to her redheaded friend and pushed herself away from her, Jean lying unconscious on the floor.

The young man froze, his face a bit guilty at the near death he had indirectly caused by dodging. The professor's voice sounded out, shouting a stern warning. "Rogue! Be careful!"

Rogue's eyes gleamed with an near unnoticeable inner fire, and she thrusted forth her hands, holding her enemy with a strength that seemed to greatly exceed what Jean had shown so far. Darting upward in a blast of telekinetic flight, she slammed into Clark, her bare hands gripping his face.

Instead of the normal rush of a powerful mutants energy flowing into her, she felt a enormously painful jolt as she was electrocuted with visibly green lightning, the overflowing kryptonian energy reacting strangely to her abilities, mixing with the borrowed telekinesis and flowing through every one of her cells, irradiating them with kryptonian life force.

In immense pain and beginning to feel quite drained, Clark shoved the young woman off of him with a palm thrust, wincing as she slammed into the ground, but relaxing as he saw she was unharmed, her unconscious body occasionally sparking with green lighting.

Breathing heavily, but already feeling his energy refill with the suns rays, he turned to the last to remaining members of the X men. Charles was on the ground, and beast had returned to protect him.

Just as he clenched his fists, about to fly down towards them like a missile, Martha Kent's voice pierced the air. "CLARK JOSEPH KENT! YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Clark screeched to a halt midair, visibly recoiling in guilt and fear at the use of his full name. The professor and Beast blinked a few times in confusion as this mighty being, a nigh all powerful warrior from outer space that had decimated the X-men in less than a minute, floated meekly down to his mother, his posture stooped in obedience.

"But Ma…" he began, sounding just like a multitude other chastised sons the world over, "they attacked the house, they cut y-"

She interrupted him, and he instinctively went silent to accommodate. "Did you! Throw that man! Into SPACE?!" She shouted, furious.

His eyes widened, seeing the problem, but also relaxed, able to fix it. "No ma, I was just trying to scare them! I only tossed him a few corn fields over." He stated with a smile, confident that the truth would resolve his mother's anger.

It did not.

"You tossed him?! A FEW CORNFIELDS OVER?!"

"H-he's fine Ma! He has indestructible bones and he heals super fast!" He looked to the horizon, squinting slightly, "I see him now, he's fine! Madder than a bag of wet cats, but fine."

Martha Kent sighed, deflating in relief. "What about her?" She asked, pointing to Rogue. "That was a nasty fall, the two of you were up quite high up!"

Clark responded, "she absorbed some of my power and got tougher for a bit, she's breathing, she's fine! No broken bones or anything."

She sighed once more, fully relaxing. She turned towards Charles. "Now. Let's get you and your people all gathered up into the house. We've got first aid we can patch you up with, and hopefully whatever Lexi did to that… that spaceship or whatever of yours she can undo, only when she's feeling better of course. In the meantime, all of us are going to have a talk about what you folks will be doing differently going forward, and what you'll be doing to fix all this." She looked pointedly at Charles, who suddenly noticed all the property damage from the two battles.

"Ah… yes…" he agreed, a sinking feeling in his chest he hadn't felt since his boyhood years. "Of course" he agreed sheepishly.

A/N: AAAAANNNNNDDD THERE WE HAVE IT!

I gotta tell y'all, this chapter absolutely KICKED MY ASS. I never knew just how difficult it would be to juggle so many fucking characters all at once in a pitched battle without it feeling like people were standing around taking turns, and I don't even know if I even succeeded at that in the end. I had absolutely NO IDEA how bad it was going to be when I planned this as the second fight scene I've EVER written, especially because the first was a one on one for my one piece story.

This was a different beast all together, and at the end of the day, I'm still not even sure if I made anything better than mediocre. I tried to include a bunch of cheeky references and setups for future X men shit I want to do to keep it interesting, but this was honestly so much more challenging than I ever expected.

One of the main problems I kept running into was all the pov switching I was having to do, and eventually i just decided to write in 3rd person omniscient. hopefully it wasn't too far of a departure from my usual style, and hopefully it all made sense.

Yes, I'm aware that this is an avengers story, so team battles are going to be par for the course, and this isn't anywhere EVEN CLOSE to the fights I'll end up writing in the future, but it's still early days ahead, so I can relax and focus on dialogue, character building, and individual stories for now, and hopefully this experience will help me be more effective in the future when everything comes together again.

Thank you so much for your patience on such a shitty cliff hanger, I never intended to leave it unresolved for this long.

And as always, I would love to hear what y'all think in the comments and reviews! Your feedback helps me immensely!

Have a great week! See you all soon!