Within the centre of the Pentagon, what used to be a peaceful garden, three intense battles between mutants ensued...

Battle One - Zeke vs Rocko

Rocko hit first. He always did.

Stone folded over his skin in slabs, locking into place with a grinding GRRRK-CLAK. He ballooned into a boulder-man caricature, veins bulging unnaturally with his Z-Gene-infused blood under mineral plating.

"I'M ROCKO!" he bellowed, voice booming off stone.

Zeke blurred past him, muttering, "You really like your name, huh?"

He stomped on the ground once.

Boom!

The ground shook, but not from sheer force like Rocko.

It was a shockwave, compact and directional, that rippled outward. Zeke rode the rebound, body launching forward like he'd fired himself out of a cannon.

Kai had defeated Zeke effortlessly both times they had faced each other, but the most recent had lit something within him. He began breaking down his mutant ability and realised that his shockwaves were a channelled frequency of vibrations rather than an output of force.

'Control the output,' he thought, breath steady, pupils locked.

Rocko swung, massive stone fists arcing downward.

Zeke slid low, palm grazing the earth.

THRUM-BOOM.

A staggered double-pulse. The first softened Rocko's footing. The second struck upward into his torso before the armour could brace.

Rocko gagged after the internal impact.

His lungs rattled like loose bricks in a cement mixer.

"That-hurts! My rocks should stopped that-"

The man covered in earth only increased his rock armour and became even more wild.

"I'M ROCKO!"

Zeke pivoted, boot digging in.

Another stomp.

BOOM.

This one was narrower, punching into Rocko's midsection. The reinforced armour held, but the man inside didn't. The shockwave and force threaded through the stone, shaking the person beneath.

Rocko staggered, grass exploding under his heels with each desperate step.

Zeke wasn't done.

He dashed left, then right, detonating micro-pulses off air pressure alone.

Boom-Boom-Boom

These weren't to deal damage, but to gauge his opponent and range. Each wave returned information, tactile like sonar against his bones.

'He's dense and slow. I'm literally his worst opponent, and my ability is a complete counter since it can get through his armour.'

Zeke smiled, 'If anything, it makes him easier to hit with a shockwave.'

He clenched his fist.

One punch.

THUD-BOOM.

The wave detonated after impact, bursting inside Rocko's guard like a timed charge. The stone cracked outward in a starburst, shards skipping across the garden.

Rocko roared again, but it was weaker now. Confusion threaded through it.

"Impossible!" Rocko cried. "I'm the moving mountain! I'm Rocko!"

Zeke cracked his neck, breathing out casually. "Yeah? Mountains crumble, mate."

He jumped.

Not high, but direct.

A heel-drop.

BOOOOOOM.

The shockwave detonated downward like piledrivers stacked on each other, a rhythmic collapse of pressure and vibrations that Rocko simply couldn't defend.

It was the worst possible matchup for him.

Stone was durable, yes - but also resonant. And Zeke had learned to weaponise that resonance into a death sentence for anything brittle or dense.

The armour shattered.

Layer by layer, it crumbled off Rocko's body, collapsing inward instead of outward, turning to dust that hissed into the ground like snow melting on hot metal.

The garden fell silent.

Then-

Thud!

A round, bald man toppled forward out of the disintegrating stone shell.

He was completely naked as Zeke took off his jacket and dropped it onto his bare behind.

Rocko lifted a trembling hand, dignity already gone.

"I… I'm ro-cko…" he wheezed.

Zeke rubbed his temples. "No. You're nude-o."

Rocko groaned, face hitting grass again.

Zeke sighed, looking at his defeated opponent with clinical detachment. He had improved massively, and it seemed as though each time he faced that blood-wielding monster, his skills developed.

But at the root of it all was his mutant ability.

It was powerful, scalable, brimming with potential - if he ever refined it fully, he could level city blocks with seismic pulses alone.

Whether he'd live to see that day, that was another question...

Battle Three - Lenny vs Brutus & Vera

'Two against one, man, this ain't fair,' Lenny groaned internally.

'And just look at how big and muscly this freak is.'

Without warning, his two opponents began their attack, and it was the small woman who began.

Vera hopped off her partner and immediately blasted her lasers from her eyes at the giant humanoid lizard. But his scales were unnaturally durable and thickened as they were hit by her scorching red beams.

ZHHHH-KRAK!

Brutus then slammed in from the flank, muscle density spiking like compressed steel.

Lenny staggered.

Pain rolled under scales; it wasn't major, but it was the first time he felt it in a while.

He had kind of forgotten what it was like to be hurt, and even the Messiah's beams of light didn't damage him.

Brutus punched again.

Vera beamed again.

They were brutal and coordinated with each other efficiently.

Lenny quickly found himself becoming overwhelmed by their joint attacks.

He wasn't trained like the others. No Russian special ops, no mutant training camp, no forgotten military background. Just raw emotion and a monstrous form that now triggered when he lost control of his emotions.

'I can't do this. I'm not fast like Sven, crazy like Nadya, or scary like Kai. I'm just-'

That's when...

"Eep!"

A tiny voice from rubble.

Amina had been caught by a stray shard of ice and rubble amidst the battles taking place around her. She quickly composed herself and began healing herself as she tried to find somewhere else to take cover.

Lenny's pupils narrowed to slits.

Something snapped inside him.

He launched forward like a freight train of claws and tail and fury.

He punched Brutus once, then again and again and again...

THUD-THUD-THUD-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-

A piston rhythm of raw strikes detonated and smashed into the dense muscle, launching Brutus backwards through wall after wall, his massive body tumbling like debris from a collapsing tower.

Lenny hit with overwhelming momentum, stacking force until Brutus finally crashed unconscious under shattered infrastructure.

His body was mangled, muscles all over his body torn as he lay there, his body slowly shrinking to its original scrawny form.

Meanwhile, Vera had been helpless to stop Lenny and began firing lasers at him as the lizard turned his attention her way.

Lenny burst forth and intercepted her face with his palm.

'I don't want to hit a girl, but-'

He then carefully chopped the back of her neck as he had seen done in anime, knocking her out without turning her into paste.

She crumpled onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, and Lenny picked her up over his shoulder before heading over to Amina.

"Are you okay?" he asked frantically as he curled his tail around her like a barricade.

"No dying," Amina murmured weakly, smiling through pain.

Lenny huffed. "Yeah. No dying."

He then placed Vera on the ground gently, receiving a questioning look from Amina, who was healing herself.

"What? Did you want me to leave her out there to get killed in the crossfire?"

Amina just smiled, finding his gentle side charming.

-

Lenny and Zeke finished their battles long before Nadya's. Now they stood at opposite ends of the shattered garden, watching the real war unfold - the one built from frostbite, memories and scorched loyalty.

Zeke joined Lenny and sat atop a snapped stone gargoyle, chin in hand, watching the fire and ice Russians go at it. Meanwhile, Lenny shielded Amina with his body as they also watched from a distance.

"She's going to explode the entire garden," Zeke said flatly.

No one responded. Amina was too tense watching the woman who took her in fight in an intense battle, and Lenny was worried for the girl he clearly liked.

But, I bet you're wondering where Battle Two is?

Well, here is the main event between Nadya and Irina...

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