Repairs and an overdue patch

(Apologies for the delay, things have become more hectic lately and more concerning. A family member was being stalked among other things that had my focus. I have been taking some time to try and get my family a bit more calm and trying to relax a bit, but no one is feeling safe where we are anymore. I will try to put up chapters when I can, but it has been difficult to find joy in writing due to the recent events.)

Zane POV

I arrived back at the mansion in time to see SHIELD taking away the purifiers that had been caught, the Professor speaking to a few agents and explaining what had happened. As I got over I used Red Medic to start helping to heal those injured, mostly the **** Helen alongside a less injured Marie and Sarah. I was told after Rogue and Cyclops were healed that Sarah, Jean, Emma, Penny and Whitney would all be going to rescue those missing. That I was to stay here, help with repairs and keep the mansion protected alongside Kali, Kitty, Marie, Rayna, Bambi, Helen, Cable, Bishop and Mystique. Despite Cable making a very good case to go on this mission, he was asked to stay behind and keep the place protected by both Jean and the Professor. Mystique using some equipment to get in contact with with Magneto, informing him of what had happened. The Professor talking and leading repairs, helping to guide people as best he could while I created a good 40 clones to help out as well. I focused on trying to help heal Helen for the time being, activating my regeneration sphere for her was the right call too... It took nearly half an hour for Helen to wake up, when she did it was shakily at best, her body still recovering even as she spoke. "Zane... Get the... Professor..." She panted out, struggling to stand up, I sent a clone before pushing her back onto the bed. She was clearly too hurt still to be getting up just yet.

The professor arrived relieved to see Helen was recovering, a glass of water and some food helped her body and the Regen Sphere to heal her even faster. "Professor, it was someone green... He was tall and had glowing red eyes... Never seen him before. There was some machine outside that blew the mansion apart, explosive weaponry. Before I fully lost consciousness I caught sight of him taking some of our people and putting them in what I believe were stasis pods for transport." She explained, the professor looking concerned. "Helen. Did they or anyone else you saw seem like they might be connected to Stryker or his purifiers?" Helen shook her head a moment. "No. Whoever they were... Stryker would never have allied with them. Why mention Stryker?" She asked sounding confused. That was when the professor explained how they had gotten back to find that Purifiers were attacking the mansion and that some people were missing, he explained how during interrogation they learned the purifiers had taken several of our people. "Helen. You, Cyclops and Rogue were the only ones left here when we arrived. You were **** but the others were being attacked and only lightly injured. Were you able to fight or learn anything else about this large Green enemy?" He asked as Helen groaned before explaining. "I found out that he's got Superhuman Strength, Agility, Reflexes and Durability. I blasted him with one of my experiments but it hardly slowly him down. It was the one I was trying to copy Sarah's Optic blasts with..."

That revelation caused the professor to pause for a moment. "We'll have to take every precaution we can on our rescue mission. Helen can you oversee repairs on the mansion? Zane's providing us with quite a few extra hands. I'll see who I can get in contact with, perhaps someone will know or be able to help us discover who attacked you. Perhaps an advance **** for the purifiers? Some sort of mercenary? Regardless, I have calls to make and you need to take it easy and recover, leave the heavy lifting to Zane for the time being." Helen didn't look happy to be told to rest and heal, but she nodded her head. I helped her to get a bit more comfortable, setting her up with a drone that she could use to communicate with my clones. I set up another group of 20 to help out wherever they could while I headed to check on the lab area. I was surprised to find it completely intact, it looked like the attackers had only gone far enough to deal with Helen and kidnap some of those that were here before leaving. No interest in our tech perhaps? I took the time to try and see if there was anything I could do with the lab, what I found was several notifications that popped up in my view.

Congratulations! Due to your recent successes you have been granted additional resources, new upgrades for the warsuit, several blueprints for new gear as well as a large amount of cash.
I'm pretty sure nearly 100 million is more than a LARGE amount cash... I couldn't help but stare at the amount in surprise. Then came the next pop up.
Due to the level up lockout you are being compensated with a large amount of points to spend in the Training Room Shop! These points can be used for anyone's benefit as long as you've trained with them once, so please choose carefully who it is you'll spend them on.

A welcome surprise to say the least. Speaking of training I couldn't help but think about how bad the attack was, how I took so long trying to fight some of those enemies, how I needed to train more so I could better protect those I cared for. I knew that the telepath's wouldn't have let me think like this, better to stop now before I accidentally summon one... I suddenly leaped out of my chair and onto my ass when a MASSIVE pop up appeared with loud sound blaring through my head for a moment. Once I could hear again and was steadily back up to a standing position I wished whoever was responsible a painful future and read the now silent message.

CONGRATULATIONS! Because your connection has been extended to so many and your bonds with said people have grown stronger, you can now choose a NEW UPGRADE! Please choose 2
1:Master Crafter. Make true Masterworks using reduced amount of materials, further improves and allows you to upgrade prior creations.
2:Mental Defense Perk unlock.
3:Large boost to randomly selected power. Power selected: Enhanced healing ability.
4.New weapons for use by yourself and your clones. WARNING these weapons will be higher quality, however they can also be UPGRADED to be equal to the legendary weaponry of the Asgardians. Possibly stronger.

Huh... Interesting. I wasn't expecting it to offer me choices... I can only take 2 options... Thank fuck it isn't just one... But which to choose? Option 4 was VERY tempting, but who know's what kind of resources would be needed to make something THAT strong, probably better to leave that one out for now. Leaving out the new perk just felt INCREDIBLY foolish, besides surely I might have the chance to get those potentially incredibly powerful weapons another time right? Option 3 randomly selected one of my powers to grant a large boost too and had already picked my Enhanced Healing ability, I'm glad it told me which one got randomly selected BEFORE I chose it. Currently though my own healing was working fine for me, so option 3 didn't really seem worth it either at the moment. That left options 1 and 2, since I could pick both of the options that's what I did. I felt a sudden FLOOD of information pushing into my head, info helping me to better understand how to use the foundry best, how to make new weapons or armor, and while it was going came another screen. This one showing the new Mental Defense Perk I'd unlocked, called Mental Overwatch. Apparently it added in a large space station like area called The Watchtower to my mental defenses, this would allow my defenses to set themselves up with better knowledge of who was invading, how and what they were looking for. It also would help to set up larger ambushes, better traps, and apparently brought forth a large new selection of defenders to the Mental Connection as a whole. A moment later I also saw that the Watchtower came with a VERY powerful orbital laser that could be used against invaders. Talk about an upgrade... there seemed to be HUNDREDS of new defenders and traps spread through the entirety of the mental connection now, possibly even MORE!

...I came out of the connection and went right into the Foundry, setting things up to work. I got everything set up and was prepared to start upgrading what I could and working on everything, when Kali and Kitty came into the room. "Hey Zane? We were looking to train you wanna join us?" I agreed but explained I needed to do something real quick with the Professor's Warsuit. There was still a few hours before the mission could begin, everyone was trying to get ready in the midst of helping with repairs. The professor spent the time in foundry with me, learning how to better control the Warsuit and practicing with it. When the time came for the mission, the Professor stated he'd be staying behind for this one, the upgrades hadn't been finished yet and he'd wanted more practice. I also pitched an idea to the Professor that got a chuckle out of him before he agreed to try it out. It took awhile to get the upgrade working correctly, the Foundry was a huge help, multiple arms coming out to help get parts in their proper places. When it was finally done the Professor was able to bring the Warsuit with him as he headed out, he'd need more practice with it to get fully used to it but he would be able to join the others in battle if it was needed.

With that handled now Kitty and Kali, swords in hand were both looking to join me for training, Helen assuring me that so long as the clones she had didn't vanish or were called away the repairs should be done quite soon. I may have also had the clones start taking lessons from Helen for numerous other jobs, whatever could be helpful whether it be construction, plumbing, electrical work, anything that could be useful to learn. With that going on we were discussing if we should find a fourth, it would increase the strength of the enemies but also the reward and at this point I was wanting to get stronger so bad I couldn't help but ask if anyone wanted to join us... I didn't have to wait long for Marie to come flying in, wearing some training gear that hugged her curves so tight I could see an incredible squish from her thickness where her thigh's met her huge ass. "Ready to go Sugah~?" She asked right as a new notification screen popped up...

Congratulations! Those in your party can now gain experience and level up along with you! With your Appraisal system you can help your teammates or those you share a mental connection with to reach new heights! We apologize as this was a feature MEANT to be available to you previously. As compensation please accept additional EXP points and Shop points.

That was the message I saw, I showed it to the others before Marie suggested I try using Appraise on her so we can see how it works. A moment later and I got a mission screen to do just that. So she sat right on my lap and told me to go right ahead, that accent of hers and her stretched out top making it harder to focus. I used Appraisal on her and we were greeted with her stats screen.

Name: Marie/Rogue LVL: 150 Class: Fighter/Siphon (Unique Class) Damage type: Bludgeoning, Crushing

Additional Info: The unique class Siphon allows Rogue to temporarily or permanently gain powers/abilities from others due to touch, duration based on how often or how long her special Siphon ability has been used. Due to her draining the power from Captain Marvel she has gained permanent flight abilities, enhanced strength and durability, others she can gain permanent abilities from include Bambi, Kali, Kitty, Sarah and Jenny. Others may be added to this list over time, also she can gain additional power from those she's gained a permanent ability from. Upon hitting LVL 200 will no longer need the Collar and be completely in control of her Siphoning ability.

Oh... Oh! That was a surprise, I looked at Marie only to see her jaw dropped. A moment later and her eyes locked onto mine. "Can we go training? NOW? Please?" The look of eagerness in her eyes was impossible to miss, she wanted to finally have control so badly. I explained there was no guarantee she'd get 50 levels in only one training session, but we could certainly get started on it today. I also got to watch Kali and Kitty both congratulate her on having such a clear goal to hit, both of them agreeing to try and help her hit that level. The knowledge that they could also grow in level made them excited to train with me too, something I had no doubt that Kitty would spread around the mansion that my powers helped others to get stronger like this. Jenny and Sarah would both be eager to train with me and others most likely. But that was something for AFTER we were able to get people back safely.

So with that we all grabbed what we needed and prepared to head into the training room, the Professor warning us not to push ourselves too hard. Currently he was resting his legs, traveling around the mansion in his hoverchair, checking in on Helen while Cable and Bishop helped to patrol and assist where they could with repairs in between. With the go ahead given the four of us headed into the Training room attached to the Foundry, this one connected far better with my powers than the Danger room could be. As we headed inside the question of what mode to go with was asked, we decided for the one with greatest rewards possible, so that meant Survival. Marie made it clear that no one went on their own this time, the others joining her in staring at me while I tried to whistle like I was innocent, I got a few giggles in response as well as a light punch to the shoulder before we went inside...