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Chapter 55: Confronting the Truth
🕑 Added 2025-08-24 13:25:21 +0000 UTCJay's eyes fluttered open to find himself connected to what looked like half of Reed's entire medical arsenal. Tubes snaked from his arms, wires traced across his chest, and monitors beeped in mechanical symphony around him. He was plugged into more equipment than a NASA launch sequence.
The room fell silent as his eyes opened, all conversation grinding to a halt.
Domino sat beside his bed, her face downcast, avoiding any eye contact. That wasn't like her at all—usually she'd be cracking jokes about his near-death experience by now.
The room was packed with worried faces. The Fantastic Four clustered near the windows, Tony pacing restlessly in his under-suit, Steve standing rigid with arms crossed. Xavier was there with Jean, Beast hunched over readouts like a man possessed. Rogue leaned against the far wall, her usual Southern warmth replaced by something cold and distant.
But it was Scott's voice that cut through the tense atmosphere, sharp with accusation.
"—that's what I've been saying! We don't know if anything he told us was the truth or lies. His whole revelation story might've been manipulation to get something from us. Just like he lied to the Fantastic Four!"
Jay tried to focus, his enhanced hearing picking up every word even as his vision cleared.
"The Doc would never do such a thing!" Bobby's voice was heated, defensive. "And even if he did, it would be for some well-intentioned reason!"
"Like putting on the Power Broker costume and going around instigating Morlocks to fight?" Johnny shot back, small flames flickering around his clenched fists.
"Johnny, enough," Reed said firmly, but his voice lacked its usual warmth. Ben nodded grimly beside him, massive arms crossed.
Beast looked up from his monitors, blue-furred features etched with scientific concern. "I don't know the reasoning behind Jay's disguise activities, but what he told us about Jean's DNA being tampered with checks out completely. I've verified it myself."
Jean tried to argue, but Xavier raised a weathered hand for silence.
Tony stopped pacing to face Steve. "What do you make of this, Cap?"
Steve's jaw was tight with conflicted loyalty. "I don't know what to think anymore. But I do know he helped me get out of the ice."
"Yeah, in exchange for your blood samples to help Reed improve his enhancement procedure!" Johnny yelled, his famous temper flaring.
Bobby had heard enough. Jay could feel the man's anger building like a storm front, could sense through their mental link that Bobby was about to use his repackaged Kilgrave powers to make everyone shut up and listen.
Jay's danger sense screamed an urgent warning. Things were about to go catastrophically south.
Without thinking, he pushed himself against the bed to sit up—and immediately shot upright like he'd been launched by a spring-loaded catapult. His newfound strength sent him rocketing from prone to standing in one fluid motion that surprised everyone in the room, including himself.
The collective gasp was audible. Reed's eyebrows shot up. Steve's shield shifted as he stepped back instinctively. Even Xavier's usually composed expression cracked with surprise.
"Sweet mother of Darwin," Beast whispered, his scientific mind immediately cataloging the display of enhanced physicality changes.
Domino's face finally broke into a genuine smile—the first real emotion she'd shown since he woke up.
"Jay!" Bobby rushed over, checking him over with the frantic care of a father seeing his son return from war. "Easy there, kid. You gave us all quite a scare."
Jay steadied himself against Bobby's shoulder, but he couldn't ignore the atmosphere in the room. The lack of relief on most faces. Even Rogue seemed apathetic, her green eyes holding none of their usual fire.
The conversation with the Queen of Nevers was still fresh in his mind—the revelation about the cosmic scale of things, about other transmigrators, about his insignificant place in the infinite web of stories. But right now, he had more pressing concerns.
Trying to cut through the tension, he forced a grin. "What's with all the long faces? Did somebody die?"
The silence that followed was deafening. Several faces darkened further, and Jay knew he'd stepped in it.
Scott stepped forward, his ruby quartz visor catching the light as he pointed an accusatory finger at Jay's bare chest. "Cut the act, Power Broker. What's really going on here?"
Jay's heart sank to his boots. His Unmasked perk had delivered as promised—again. All his careful planning about revealing his Power Broker identity at the right time and place had just gone up in smoke.
For a split second, he considered spinning another lie. He had backup contingencies, prepared explanations. But then the Queen's words echoed in his mind—the infinitely vast scale of reality, all those other transmigrators working toward their goals across countless universes. His own situation suddenly felt petty and small in comparison.
He stopped. Took a breath. And completely ignored Scott.
"Bobby," he said, looking directly at the vet. "How did you get here?"
"Domino called me," Bobby replied, confusion evident in his weathered voice. "Plus, that whole Doom broadcast didn't hide much. Wait—you don't know what happened?"
"Doom?" Jay blinked in genuine confusion. "What the hell does he have to do with anything?"
Steve stepped forward, his voice carefully neutral but strained. "After they put you under sedation, we were attacked. First the Abomination, then Doom himself. He nearly killed all of us. If it weren't for some incredible luck..."
Jay turned to Domino, searching her face. "Dom, is this what happened?"
She couldn't meet his eyes, just hummed noncommittally while fidgeting with her gloves.
Growing more concerned, he looked to Rogue for answers. But the ice-cold look in her green eyes said more than any words could.
Jay scanned the room desperately. Only Beast approached, checking his monitors with clinical detachment.
"You appear to be in excellent health," Beast announced with his characteristic intellectualism. "Better than before, actually. It seems the enhancement procedure was remarkably successful."
"The one he tricked us into giving him," Johnny snarled through gritted teeth, "without even needing it! He could have turned Ben normal without any enhancements, just like he did with that Leech kid!"
Jay exhaled slowly, trying to formulate a response, but Beast interrupted.
"I'm certain Jay must have had his reasons. After all, it appears he doesn't wish to transform like Ben permanently, correct?"
"What?" Jay asked, his voice joining several others in confusion.
Beast's brilliant mind was already connecting dots with ruthless scientific precision, his blue eyes lighting up with the thrill of solved puzzle. "I've been harboring suspicions since we first encountered Power Broker in the Morlock tunnels. His powers operated in remarkably similar fashion to yours, Jay—identical restrictions, merely different operational ranges. The correlation was statistically significant."
The room went dead silent as Beast continued, his academic tone making the revelation sound like a dissertation defense.
"When I observed Leech in his completely normalized state and applied basic deductive reasoning..." Beast's voice grew more animated with scientific excitement. "If Jay's abilities don't merely suppress mutations but instead permanently absorb them—unlike Rogue's temporary absorption—that would elegantly explain the vast majority of observed phenomena."
Tony's face went pale. "You're saying he's been collecting powers like baseball cards?"
Reed's analytical mind was already racing through implications. "The range differences, the permanence, the precise control..."
Sue took an involuntary step backward. "How many?"
Jay stared at Beast with grudging respect. The man was one of the smartest beings on the planet for a damn good reason. His entire job was analyzing and understanding mutant abilities.
Jay gave a rueful, defeated smirk. "Got me, doc."
Reed stretched his arm out to physically turn Jay around, but found he couldn't budge him even an inch. Jay turned voluntarily, meeting Reed's eyes with steady resignation.
"Is that the truth?" Reed demanded.
"Yes," Jay confirmed simply.
"Then you were lying when you said you could permanently turn Ben human!"
"I never lied about that. Not even once." Jay's voice remained steady despite the accusations. "To permanently remove his condition, I or someone else would have to carry that burden permanently—something Ben would never agree to. But now I can do something better. I can give him complete control over his powers like a biological switch, allowing him to transform between states at will."
Ben was about to voice a protest, but Beast cut him off with another revelation.
"You're able to perform this precise genetic manipulation by having absorbed Sage's powers of DNA analysis and cellular restructuring, aren't you, Jay?"
Every eye in the room fixed on Jay with new understanding—and new fear.
Without turning around, Jay nodded with quiet dignity. "Right again, Dr. McCoy."
That's when Scott's optic blast lanced across the room in a ruby-red arc of destructive energy.
Jay dodged it with almost insulting ease—his enhanced reflexes didn't even need his danger sense to warn him. In the same fluid motion, he extended his power suppression field, but with his upgraded control, he was surgically selective. Only his abilities, Bobby's, and Domino's remained active.
The effect was instantaneous and devastating. Sue's force fields flickered and died when she tried to protect the team. Johnny's flames extinguished like candles in a hurricane. Reed's stretched arm snapped back to normal proportions with an audible snap. Ben began partially shedding his rocky exterior in chunks that clattered to the floor.
The X-Men found themselves equally helpless—just like they'd been in the Morlock tunnels when they first encountered Power Broker.
The silence was deafening as every hero in the room realized they were completely at his mercy.
"Why don't we all calm down," Jay said mildly, standing in the center of a room full of temporarily depowered heroes like some kind of cosmic referee, "and not attack the patient? How's that sound?"
The tension stretched like a wire about to snap.
Comments
Gemaxter
Tension so thick, you can cut it with a joke.
elph
Really like how the other heroes arent just like "Ok he lied and manipulated us, thats cool" lol!
