And then the bully in question steps out.

"She wants to talk to Loki," he says, before storming off.

She glares after him, then smooths out her expression a bit (though she's still clearly annoyed) and goes in to Professor Maximoff's office.

"Hey Loki. You alright?" the professor asks.

"Yeah. Shaken a bit. I don't like that that guy was in my head."

"He's being disciplined for that, and we'll keep an eye on him. But, Loki - you did react outside of the bounds of self defense. Using magic against other students is fairly strictly prohibited."

"He was trying to suffocate me!"

"Yes. Some level of self defense was warranted there - but you could have easily killed an unenhanced human with that blast, and I don't think you knew he was telekinetic."

She scowls and looks away.

Her professor lets her stew for a few seconds, then, gently: "Because it's a first offense, and there were pretty strong extenuating circumstances, we're going to let this one go with a warning. We'll be telling your guardian about what happened, though, and if this happens again we might take disciplinary measures."

"That's not fair."

"Rules often aren't. But imagine what would have happened if his only powers had been telepathic? And you'd thrown him that far?"

"I already knew that he wasn't baseline though from shoving him! He barely reacted, and I know I'm stronger than a human even when I'm not pushing hard."

She sighs. "I understand that. Still, I'm going to be giving you some exercises on safety with magic use - not as a punishment, but to give you more tools in case something like this happens again. Alright?"

"Okay..." she mutters.

"Thank you. Can you let Mallory know I want to talk to her next?"

"Sure."

She jumps down from her chair and heads out.

And Mal heads in.

"You alright?" one of the five girls - not Sophie - asks, voice soft.

"She's telling my guardian, and she's giving me stuff to do for magic safety, but I'm not really being punished. Apparently." Loki's scowling, nonetheless, and leaning against a wall to wait for her friend.

"School can be unpleasant like that," the same girl continues.

"Especially when Quentin is involved," Sophie says.

She nods.

"So... I guess you guys know I'm Loki. What're your names?"

"Sophie," says Sophie.

"Phoebe," says a harsher looking girl.

"Irma Mindee," says a girl, quietly, glancing quickly at Loki then away.

"Celeste," says the girl who'd asked if Loki was alright.

"Esme," says the last, her assessing gaze focused on Loki.

"We're the Cuckoo sisters," Sophie continues. "We like going by Five-in-One collectively, but a lot of people have been calling us the Stepford Cuckoos. It's annoying."

"Sounds annoying. It's good to meet all of you." They're really identical, more than identical twins usually are, so she tries to hook her memory of their names onto their mannerisms and also their sort of magical echo. It's really similar between all them, but there are enough subtle differences for Loki to be pretty sure she can tell them apart.

They nod.

"We would like to help you with mental defenses," says Celeste. "We think we'd be good teachers. We're doing well on the theory in our psychics course, and we're not as natively powerful as someone like Kid Omega, so we know more about rising from the bottom, so to speak."

"Thanks. Do you guys want to meet up sometime then?"