"She found this place fast. Looks like my memory wipe didn't hold," Rowan Mercer muttered, watching the woman through the school's concealment barrier. "S.H.I.E.L.D. still has teeth."
He recognized her immediately. Natasha Romanoff. The same agent he had erased at the Akrales Genetics facility.
Earlier that day, Rowan had been practicing the Killing Curse in the simulation chamber when Professor Xavier interrupted him. Someone suspicious was circling the perimeter. When Rowan came to look for himself, the answer was already jogging past the hidden grounds in athletic gear.
Even weakened, Professor Xavier's telepathy still blanketed the entire school. Anyone with hostile intent was like a flare on a dark field.
"So they want to play?" Rowan's smile was thin. "Fine. We'll play."
This wasn't a year ago, when they'd just escaped the lab. Even S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't scare him much now. If pushed, he could pack everyone into expanded space and pay Fury a personal visit. Or drop the Hydra problem into their laps and let them tear each other apart.
And the children weren't helpless anymore.
After a year of training, the mutant students could fight. Coordinated, disciplined, sharp. Against ordinary agents, they weren't easy prey.
Professor Xavier turned his wheelchair slightly. "Do we relocate?"
Before Rowan answered, Logan's claws snapped out with a metallic snarl.
"Relocate?" Wolverine growled. "If they touch one hair on these kids' heads, I'll bury them in the garden."
Xavier sighed. He preferred avoiding open conflict with governments. Logan preferred ending threats permanently.
"No relocation," Rowan said calmly. "We let them in. Then we talk."
He turned to the students gathered behind him.
"You've trained in simulation rooms long enough. Tonight, you get a real exercise. Perform well, and I'll approve a day off. Professor Xavier and Logan will take you to an amusement park."
The courtyard exploded.
"Headmaster, really?" Rick, the oldest and steadiest of them, could barely keep his voice down.
Rowan nodded. "When have I ever lied to you?"
The cheers were immediate and unrestrained. These kids knew what amusement parks were. They'd seen them on television. None had ever asked. They knew how fragile their safety was.
Professor Xavier's expression tightened. "Rowan, that might be risky."
"Not after tonight," Rowan replied. "After tonight, the government will have bigger problems than us."
An hour later, a black van stopped five hundred meters from the school. Inside, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents adjusted instruments while Natasha scanned the area with binoculars.
"Well?" she asked.
"There's a strange magnetic field ahead," an agent reported. "It disrupts perception. That's why the school doesn't register visually. But it's still there. Multiple life signatures inside."
"So how do we get through?"
"We'll build portable interference units. Once equipped, the field won't affect us."
Natasha nodded. "Do it. Fast."
By dusk, she returned with three elite teams. They waited in the trees across the road.
"I'm going in first," she said. "Wait for my signal."
She sprinted across the road, interference device active. This time, the school was clearly visible. Stone walls, iron gates, quiet lights.
Easy.
She grabbed the wall to vault—
—and slammed face-first into something invisible.
The impact knocked her flat.
"Natasha?" a voice crackled in her earpiece.
"I'm fine," she hissed, holding her nose. "Don't move."
She tested the space again. Nothing visible. Nothing tangible.
Frowning, she vaulted anyway.
The moment her boots hit the ground inside the perimeter, someone stepped out of the shadows.
A boy. Calm. Smiling.
"Breaking into a school at night?" Rowan Mercer asked lightly. "That's bad manners, don't you think?"