X-GENE OMNITRIX-Chapter 47: XGO - 45 : Unbound Potential

"She's using short-range teleportation," Jean gasped, a hand flying to her temple as she sensed the psychic disruption Rogue was causing in the fabric of space. Her Phoenix aura flared briefly in response. "Like Nightcrawler's, but... cleaner. No brimstone, no displacement effect. It's pure thought-movement."

Rogue planted her feet on the ground, the impact sending spiderweb cracks through the reinforced floor. She extended her right hand toward a training drone that had been hovering harmlessly nearby. The air around her forearm distorted like heat waves rising from sun-baked asphalt. The drone didn't just move—it crumpled inward as if crushed by an invisible fist, then hovered before her, its components rearranging themselves in defiance of gravity.

Cyclops dropped to one knee, taking careful aim. The ruby quartz of his visor glowed brighter as he calibrated the intensity of his blast—enough to stun, not harm. With practiced precision, he fired a concentrated beam of destructive optic energy directly at Rogue's center mass.

What happened next stunned everyone present.

Rogue pivoted, her movements preternaturally fluid, and raised her left hand. The optic blast—a force that could punch through steel—hit her palm and stopped. Instead of exploding on impact or throwing her backward, the crimson energy coalesced into a swirling, compressing sphere hovering inches above her palm. Violet tendrils of her own power wrapped around the ruby energy, containing it, reshaping it. Her fingers curled around the sphere as it condensed further, the edges of her silhouette blurring with the strain of controlling such volatile power.

"She's redirecting my optic blast!" Cyclops yelled, diving behind a training barricade. His usual tactical calm momentarily fractured. "That's not absorption—that's manipulation!"

Rogue's arm tensed as she redirected the compressed energy upward with a casual flick of her wrist. The sphere rocketed toward the ceiling, exploding against a reinforced panel in a spectacular shower of crimson and violet sparks that rained down around them. The impact left a blackened crater in the Danger Room's supposedly indestructible ceiling.

"Y'all are holdin' back," Rogue drawled, though the strange psychic undertone in her voice had grown stronger. Her feet slowly lifted off the ground until she hovered a foot in the air. The violet aura around her intensified, casting eerie shadows across her face that accentuated the unnatural glow of her eyes. "Don't."

"Be careful, kid!" Wolverine barked, muscles bunching as he launched himself toward her in a feral sprint. His adamantium claws reflected the purple light emanating from her body, catching it in lethal glints. "You're starting to sound like him."

Logan closed the distance with remarkable speed, but Rogue didn't move. Instead, when his claws were mere inches from connecting with her side—a strike meant to graze rather than impale—they hit an invisible barrier. The collision produced a sound like crystal being struck, and ripples of psychic energy pulsed outward from the impact point, violet circles expanding like water disturbed by a stone.

Rogue's eyes flared brighter, twin novas of psychic power, as she extended her consciousness outward. Wolverine suddenly found himself surrounded by a purple outline, his body lifting off the ground as easily as if he were weightless. The look of surprise on his grizzled face lasted only a moment before Rogue launched him backward with a pulse of telekinetic force that sent him hurtling toward the far wall.

Logan hit the reinforced barrier with enough impact to leave an impression of his body in the metal. He slid down, landing in a crouch, bones cracking as his healing factor repaired the damage in real-time. He rotated his shoulder with a grimace. "Alright... maybe a little like him."

Nightcrawler seized the momentary distraction, disappearing in a puff of sulfurous smoke only to reappear repeatedly in staccato bursts around Rogue. Each teleportation brought him closer, his movements a dizzying three-dimensional strategy designed to disorient and confuse. The air filled with the distinctive bamf sounds and brief clouds of indigo smoke as he executed his most complex teleporting pattern.

"Impressive, Kurt," Rogue said with unnerving tranquility. Her eyes didn't track his movements—they didn't need to. A subtle corona of motes now encircled her head like a crown of psychic awareness. "But I can feel your jumps before you even move."

As Nightcrawler materialized for a split second to her right, his three-fingered hand reaching out to tag her with a training sensor, Rogue simply gestured. A bubble of transparent violet energy expanded from her body in all directions, catching Nightcrawler mid-teleport. For a moment, he was frozen in the barrier, his eyes wide with shock—then the energy field pulsed, and he was thrown clear across the room, tumbling in a controlled roll to absorb the impact.

Rogue raised both hands toward the ceiling, fingers splayed wide. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees in an instant. The metallic floor beneath their feet trembled, then buckled as invisible forces pulled at the structure of the Danger Room itself. Deep, resonant groaning sounds echoed through the chamber as the reinforced panels strained against forces they weren't designed to withstand.

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In the observation booth above, Beast's blue-furred fingers flew across multiple holographic displays, his intelligent eyes widening behind his glasses. "By the stars and garters," he muttered, adjusting sensor inputs as readings spiraled beyond predicted parameters. "Her energy output is accelerating again—this is beyond Omega class. She's operating at frequencies we don't even have instrumentation to properly measure."

A display to his right shattered as the readings exceeded its capacity, sending glass shards scattering across the console. Beast barely noticed, his attention fixed on the biometric data streaming in from Rogue's physiology. "Fascinating," he whispered, despite the danger. "Her cellular structure is adapting in real-time."

Back on the training floor, Jean Grey planted her feet firmly and extended her consciousness outward. The Phoenix aura around her intensified as she established a psychic connection.

Rogue—listen to me, Jean's telepathic voice cut through the chaos with crystalline clarity. You need to pull back. Your psychic resonance is overriding the safety protocols. The feedback could destabilize the entire system.

The expected response never came. Instead, Jean suddenly found herself torn from her physical body, her consciousness pulled into a vast mental void unlike anything she had experienced before. There was no up or down, no reference point, just endless darkness punctuated by distant stars of thought. She floated, weightless and momentarily disoriented in this psychic construct.

Slowly, a silhouette coalesced before her—Rogue's form manifested as a human-shaped constellation of swirling violet energy. Within this mental projection, the white streak in her hair blazed like a comet trail against the darkness. Tiny threads of luminescent energy extended from her figure in all directions, connecting to distant points Jean couldn't identify.

You don't get it, Jean, Rogue's voice resonated through the mental connection with multidimensional quality. Each word rippled outward like a stone thrown into still water. It's not just power. He didn't just give me strength... Alex gave me purpose. I feel everything. Minds. Emotions. Futures.

As she spoke, the void around them transformed. Flashes of possible timelines manifested like lightning strikes—brief glimpses of futures where Rogue soared through space unprotected, where she stood among cosmic entities as an equal, where she cradled broken worlds in her hands and reshaped them.

I can touch now, Jean, Rogue continued, her mental voice filled with wonder and fear in equal measure. I can finally touch without taking. But the price...

Jean tried to respond, to reach out mentally as she had countless times before, but found herself abruptly thrust back into her physical form. The transition was jarring, causing her to stagger backward several steps before Storm caught her arm, steadying her.

"Jean?" Storm's concerned voice sounded distant through the lingering mental displacement.

"I'm alright," Jean replied, though her voice trembled slightly. "But she's... evolving. It's incredible. And terrifying."

In the center of the Danger Room, Rogue descended slowly from where she had been hovering, though her feet remained inches above the cracked and distorted floor. The combat paused as the other X-Men regrouped, their breathing labored, postures wary but ready to reengage. Cyclops had a fresh cut above his eyebrow, dripping blood down the side of his face. Wolverine's uniform was torn at the shoulder. Storm's cape was singed along its edges.

Rogue floated before them with her arms crossed, the violet aura around her pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat. Small objects around the room—training sensors, fragments of broken equipment, discarded weapons—orbited her at varying distances, caught in the gravitational pull of her psychic presence.

The heavy steel doors at the far end of the Danger Room slid open with a pneumatic hiss, parting to reveal Professor Charles Xavier. His wheelchair glided soundlessly over the metallic floor, somehow navigating the warped panels and debris with perfect precision. There was no surprise on his face—only a deep, contemplative focus as he surveyed the aftermath of the confrontation.

"Enough," he said, his voice carrying neither alarm nor anger—only calm, firm authority.

Rogue turned toward him slowly. The orbiting debris around her slowed, then gently lowered to the ground. For the first time since the fight began, her expression softened. The harsh lines of concentration eased from her brow as recognition flickered across her features. She descended fully until her feet finally touched the ground, and the violent glow in her eyes dimmed to a gentler luminescence.

Xavier approached her without a trace of fear, guiding his wheelchair through the battlefield of distorted metal and scattered equipment. The only sound in the cavernous room was the quiet hum of his chair's motor and the faint electrical crackle still emanating from Rogue's form.

"You've grown powerful, Rogue," he said, looking up at her with a penetrating gaze that had witnessed the rise and fall of countless mutant abilities. "More than I've ever seen from you. Or anyone else."

She was trembling now, subtle vibrations that sent ripples through the violet aura that still clung to her skin. It wasn't fatigue causing the tremors, but something deeper—an inner conflict between the person she had been and the being she was becoming.

"Professor..." she whispered, her voice breaking slightly as the alien undertone momentarily faded. Her Southern accent emerged stronger, a touchstone to her humanity. "It's too much."

Xavier raised a hand gently, palm upward—an invitation, not a command. "Tell me what you feel."

Rogue looked down at her gloved hands, which still pulsed with faint violet light. The leather of her gloves had begun to deteriorate at the fingertips, revealing skin that shimmered with contained energy. She flexed her fingers, watching as minuscule arcs of power jumped between them like tiny lightning bolts.

"It's like..." she began, struggling to translate the experience into words, "I'm not just me anymore. When I touched Alex—when I absorbed him—something didn't go away. Normally, it fades. It burns out. But this?"

She tapped her chest with a finger that left a brief trail of light in the air, her eyes wide with a mixture of wonder and apprehension. "This stayed. Like he left part of himself in me. A seed."

The room was silent save for her uneven breathing and the occasional metallic groan from the damaged facility. The other X-Men maintained their distance, but their postures had relaxed slightly now that Xavier was present. Jean in particular watched with intense concentration, her hand still at her temple, monitoring Rogue's psychic output.

"I don't know when it'll end, Professor," Rogue continued, her voice gaining strength. "I don't know if it ever will. I feel... changed. Mutated. Stronger in ways I can't describe."

She raised her hand, and a section of floor three feet away lifted without visible effort, the metal reshaping itself into a rough sculptural form before settling back down. "Like Mewtwo's DNA and mind rewrote pieces of me. I'm seeing patterns in everything—the air currents Storm creates, the probability paths of Kurt's teleports, the optic energy Scott channels."

Rogue turned to face the group, her expression earnest. "I'm thinking in layers. Teleporting without effort. Moving things without touching them. Talking in minds I've never touched. It's like... the world got bigger and smaller at the same time."

Xavier studied her carefully, his powerful mind gently probing the outer edges of her consciousness—not invading, merely assessing. "Do you feel you're losing yourself? Your identity?"

"No," she said with surprising certainty, standing straighter. "I feel more like myself than ever. But it's like I'm also seeing who I could be—all the versions of me across time and space." Her voice dropped to a near whisper. "And if I don't learn control, I might become something I can't pull back from."

Jean stepped forward from the group, approaching cautiously but without fear. When she reached Rogue, she did something that made Wolverine tense and Cyclops take a half-step forward—she placed a bare hand directly on Rogue's shoulder, skin to skin contact that would normally trigger Rogue's absorption power instantly.

Nothing happened except a brief flare of violet light where their skin met.

"You're not alone," Jean said, the Phoenix aura briefly flickering around her in response to Rogue's energy. "We'll help you navigate this. All of us."

Storm moved forward as well, her regal bearing unchanged despite the battle they'd just fought. A small breeze stirred around her as she approached, her control of the elements as natural as breathing. "You've always fought through worse, Rogue. Your entire life has been about controlling power that others would be destroyed by. Now it's time to rise again."

Xavier smiled warmly, the expression softening his often serious demeanor. "You are a beacon now, Rogue. A symbol of what mutantkind can become. But even beacons need guidance." He gestured to the damaged room around them. "You have a responsibility—not just to yourself, but to those who will one day come to you for help."

The last traces of violet light receded from Rogue's eyes, revealing their natural green, though tiny flecks of purple remained like stars scattered across emerald fields. She looked up, her power calming further, and said with renewed determination, "Then I'll train. Every day. Until I can use this without hurting anyone. Until I can fly without falling."

To demonstrate her point, she raised her hand toward the extensive damage to the ceiling. Her eyes flashed violet briefly as the twisted metal began to reform, panels straightening and fusing back together under her telekinetic guidance. The strain was evident on her face, but the control was there—nascent but growing.

Xavier turned his chair toward the exit, satisfied with what he had seen. "Begin tomorrow. You'll be trained as both a mutant and something more—something that walks between worlds."

As Rogue turned to walk beside Jean and Storm, her briefly normal eyes met Cyclops, who offered a short, respectful nod despite the wariness that hadn't completely left his posture.

"You scared the hell out of me," he muttered, using a gloved hand to wipe the blood from his brow.

She smirked, a flash of her old self breaking through the gravity of the moment. A tiny spark of violet energy danced playfully across her fingertips as she replied, "Good. Means it's workin'."

Wolverine approached, rolling his shoulder one last time as his healing factor completed its work. "Next time," he growled, though there was a hint of pride beneath the gruffness, "I won't hold back either, kid."

"Lookin' forward to it, Logan," she replied with a challenging glint in her eye.

As the group made their way toward the exit, the damage they were leaving behind told the story of their encounter—twisted metal panels, scorch marks from deflected energy blasts, deep gouges in reinforced walls where Wolverine had made impact. It would take days for the automated systems to repair everything.