Some REALLY important things are happening these chapters for now and later, that's why they are in more detail and take a little longer. (This will also likely be the last bit of peaceful for quite some time since a lot of Marvel movies are really close to each other afterwards.)
P.S. I myself can't wait for the fight that's coming up :D.
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After spending some time thinking about Incursio, Liam heard a knock at his door.
He opened it to find Sam, Roberto, and Illyana standing outside.
"What are you guys up to?" Liam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Come on, we've got something to show you," Sam said, showing a wide grin.
"Alright, sure," Liam replied, closing his door behind him.
He followed the trio down the hallway. Along the way, they ran into Dani and Rahne. After some arguing between Illyana and Dani, the girls joined them.
"Girls and their arguing, am I right?" Roberto joked, nudging Liam.
Liam smirked and elbowed him lightly in the ribs. "Careful, man. Look behind you and maybe keep your mouth shut," he warned.
Roberto glanced back and immediately regretted his joke as Illyana and the other girls glared daggers at him.
After a few more twists and turns, they arrived at an old, creaky staircase.
"It's up here," Sam said, gesturing for Liam to lead the way.
They climbed up into an abandoned attic with gravity on the walls and trashy furniture stacked around.
"So, this is where you guys hang out?" Dani asked.
"Yeah, it's one of the only places Reyes can't watch us," Sam explained, brushing some dust off an old box.
"And it's full of cool stuff from before this place turned into a mutant facility," Roberto added.
Liam wandered to a corner and sat down, watching Illyana walk over to an old metal case. She opened it, revealing an old lie detector machine inside.
'Reyes must've left that here on purpose,' Liam mused, observing the scene. 'What better place to get information from teenagers than in their so-called secret hideout where they think they aren't being watched?'
Roberto volunteered to go first. Once the machine was hooked up, Sam grinned and asked, "How many girls have you been with?"
Roberto smirked. "Like I can even remember."
"That's a lie," Rahne said, pointing to the machine scribbling up and down.
"It's a lie detector, we know," Illyana added with a sarcastic edge.
"Fine. Three," Roberto admitted.
"Not bad," Sam said immediately.
"No, look," Rahne interjected, nodding at the machine again. It scribbled up and down again, exposing Roberto's lie.
"Why do you lie about that?" Dani asked, folding her arms.
"I get too hot," Roberto muttered, avoiding their gazes.
Sam started snickering. "Yeah, sure—"
"You think this is funny?" Roberto snapped. "Your turn, asshole."
While the others testing continued, Liam scanned the room. 'The camera should be hidden somewhere around here,' he thought, his eyes scanning from corner to corner.
The questions moved from Sam to Dani, each of them sharing their stories while Liam tuned them out, focused on his search and some future planning.
"Hey, Liam! Your turn," Sam called out, breaking his concentration.
"Alright, sure," Liam said, standing up. He sat in the chair as Illyana fastened the wires around his arm.
"So, what do you have for me?" Liam asked.
"What happened to your back?" Illyana asked directly.
"Hold on a second," Liam said, summoning a whip from thin air. The others jumped back in alarm as he swung it across the room, knocking down two extremely well-hidden cameras.
"What are you doing?" Illyana demanded, stepping closer.
"Just taking care of Reyes' camera's," Liam replied, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Camera's?" Sam asked, crouching down to examine the broken pieces.
"Looks like it," Liam said simply.
"That bitch has been watching us this whole time?" Illyana hissed, her voice filled with anger.
Sam glanced at the wreckage in his hands. "She even watches us here?"
"Seems like it," Roberto said.
Illyana turned back to Liam, now even more curious about Liam. "So that whip is your mutant power? And your speed earlier—also not normal."
"You already asked one question," Liam replied. "Pretty sure I only have to answer one."
"You haven't answered anything yet," she countered.
"Fair enough," he said, leaning back. He paused, gaining the attention from everyone in the room, then answered casually. "A Magma Whale's self-destruction blast caused it."
Illyana glanced at Rahne, who was still monitoring the lie detector. "He's not lying," Rahne confirmed, but she herself didn't understand.
"He has to be. I've never even heard of a Magma Whale, the machine might just be broken." Roberto scoffed.
"Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Illyana snapped.
Before the argument could continue, footsteps echoed up the stairs.
"Looks like Reyes was still watching us," Roberto muttered.
"Stupid bitch," Illyana murmured, stepping away from Liam.
The attic door creaked open, and Dr. Reyes stormed in, her face twisted with anger. "Liam, solitary confinement. Now. The rest of you, obedience class in 10 minutes."
'I'll humor her for one more night,' Liam thought as he stood up, locking eyes with Reyes. 'But after that, she's finished.'
Reyes escorted him to a tiny room with a large steel door and locked the it behind him. Alone in the space, Liam immediately spotted the camera tucked into the corner and destroyed it with another whip strike. 'In a room this empty, it's not hard to figure out where they'd hide it.'
Satisfied, Liam sat on the floor and lifted his hand infront of him. He'd been thinking about a question since he found the white energy inside his body: 'What happens if I create a construct using the white energy from Incursio?'
'And if Reyes is going to teach a class soon, I will have atleast an hour to figure it out.'
'While I can't manipulate the white energy yet, earlier when I used my spells I forcefully stopped the white energy from entering incase something went wrong.' He thought. 'But now, lets see what happens if I make a whip construct with the white energy flowing into it.'
He slowly started summoning a spell circle. Normally, he could create a whip in a second, but this time he slowed the process, carefully observing how his energy reacted with Incursio's. The result was a yellow whip with glowing white sparks on it.
Wanting to test out how durable it was, he froze it using the icy tendrils from Ikthalon. To his surprise, the whip began to heat up, melting the ice with ease.
Seeing this, he summoned Incursio around him in order to summon Neontote. He changed Neontote to its dragon form and slowly started to increase the temperature from Neontote's flames.
'Really interesting,' Liam thought, he unsummoned Incursio and Neontote before they could melt the floor even furthur. 'This is a real gamechanger for my magic.' He thought, excited.
After spending some time thinking about all the new possibilities, he heard the door unlock. Sam, Roberto, and Illyana stood on the other side, smirking.
"What are you doing here?" Liam asked.
"We came to get you," Sam said.
"What about Reyes?" Liam asked, despite knowing what happened from the movie.
"I may have spiked her tea," Illyana said with a mischievous smile. "Come on."
'So this is the calm before the storm,' Liam thought as he stepped through the door. 'After tonight, there will be no reason to stay here anymore. I should go get my sling ring now.'