"Storm, don't let Jean teach this class again for a while," Liam Hayes said, turning to Storm with a serious expression. His tone left no room for argument, and it was clear he wasn't making a suggestion.
"I understand," Storm replied with a nod. She already knew he was right, because there was no way Jean could safely return to this classroom after what had just happened. If she saw John using fire again and lost control a second time, there might not be anyone capable of stopping her.
"Well done, my boy."
Professor X's voice came from the doorway as he rolled into the classroom in his wheelchair, his eyes resting on Liam with open admiration. He had sensed the first signs of the Phoenix Force breaking loose inside Jean the moment it happened, but instead of stepping in immediately, he had chosen to observe how Liam would respond.
From his perspective, Liam had handled the crisis flawlessly. There was nothing to criticize, not even the smallest mistake.
If it had been him standing there in Liam's place, he wasn't sure he could have suppressed the Phoenix Force so cleanly.
"Professor," Storm said as she stepped to his side.
Professor X gave a small nod, then looked at Liam. "Liam, come with me."
With that, he turned his chair and rolled away from the classroom, clearly expecting Liam to follow.
Liam frowned slightly, confused about what the professor wanted to discuss, but he didn't ask. Instead, he turned to Storm before leaving. "Ms. Ororo, please have the students who passed out taken to the infirmary first. I'll come by after this."
"Understood," Storm said, nodding again.
Once they were out in the hallway, Liam stepped behind Professor X's wheelchair and pushed it for him. The professor smiled faintly at the gesture before speaking.
"Liam… what do you think should be done about this matter?"
"You mean Jean?" Liam asked.
"Yes," Professor X replied. His expression grew more serious as he continued. "Since that extra power awakened inside her, she's become unstable. At any moment, she could become a danger to everyone around her. If you were the one making the decision, how would you handle it?"
Liam fell silent for a moment, his brows drawing together as he considered the question carefully. Then, after a few seconds, a bold thought surfaced in his mind.
"Maybe I have a way to make that power disappear from Jean completely."
Professor X turned his head slightly and looked back at him in surprise. "Oh?"
Liam explained without hesitation. "I have a special ability that works somewhat like Rogue's energy absorption. If I can pull the Phoenix Force out of Jean's body, then this threat should disappear entirely. That would solve the hidden danger at its root."
His energy absorption could take in almost any kind of power.
In theory, that should include the Phoenix Force.
And if it worked, he might even gain control of that terrifying energy himself.
But Professor X shook his head immediately. "No. That would only transfer the threat from her to you."
"Professor, maybe I really can control it," Liam argued.
"Liam," Professor X said firmly, his tone leaving no room for debate, "you cannot destroy yourself for Jean."
"Alright then," Liam said with a shrug, dropping the subject.
In truth, even if Professor X had agreed, Liam still wouldn't have done it yet. Not now. At the very least, he would need to become a Level 5 mutant first.
Otherwise, he had no confidence at all that he could suppress the Phoenix Force if it entered his body.
Thinking back, the last time he had checked in with Jean, he had only received double experience points. That had always struck him as strange. But now the answer was obvious.
At that time, Jean hadn't truly awakened the Phoenix Force yet, so naturally the check-in hadn't granted it.
Now, however, things were different.
That meant he had finally found a path to obtain the Phoenix Force.
The Phoenix Force. Chaos magic.
If the two strongest powers in the Marvel Universe appeared in one body at the same time…
Just imagining it made Liam's anticipation rise.
Time passed quietly after that.
A full week went by after Jean's outburst.
During that week, Liam tried several times to check in with Wanda, but every single attempt failed. That left him feeling more than a little speechless.
He had been ridiculously lucky for so long that the constant failures felt almost insulting. It was enough to make him wonder whether his luck had finally run out.
Still, he had another theory.
Wanda's chaos magic might simply be too powerful. A force on that level probably wasn't something he could casually obtain while still at his current stage.
Maybe the smarter move was to become a Level 5 mutant first, and only then set his sights on her power.
With that thought in mind, Liam checked his system panel.
[Host: Liam Hayes][Abilities: Vector Manipulation, Teleportation, Ice Control, Flame Control, Energy Absorption, Electromagnetic Control, Evolution, Telepathy, Super Infrasound, Spatial Reversal, Atomic Collapse, Invisibility, Molecular Manipulation, Dragon Form, Super Brain][Ability Level: Lv.4 (Fourth-Level Mutant)][Experience: 10000/6700]
"If things keep going this smoothly, I should be able to level up in under a month," Liam muttered to himself with a satisfied nod.
Not long after, he casually checked in with Colossus, who was standing not far away.
[Ding! Would the host like to check in with mutant Colossus?]
"Yes."
[Ding! Check-in successful. Congratulations to the host for obtaining the superpower 'Organic Steel Form,' along with 100 experience points.]
"So it really is steel," Liam thought, his expression turning faintly amused. "This ability doesn't really do much for me."
At this point, there was already almost nothing that could hurt him physically. Even without turning his body to steel, his durability—enhanced by Evolution—was already no weaker than metal.
So while the ability wasn't useless, it didn't offer much he didn't already have.
Meanwhile, far from the academy, another event was unfolding.
Inside the White House in Washington, a ghostlike figure slipped past layer after layer of security and reached the president's office. More than a dozen agents in black suits surrounded the leader of the country, but their protection meant nothing in the face of the intruder's strange mobility.
In the blink of an eye, every bodyguard in the room was taken down.
The figure pounced onto the president's desk, and the remaining agents finally got a clear look at the attacker. It was a blue-skinned mutant with a tail, a dagger spinning between his fingers with terrifying ease.
Seeing that the president was about to be killed, one of the agents fired.
Bang.
The shot rang out, and surprisingly, it struck the blue mutant.
But in the very next instant, the attacker vanished, leaving behind nothing but a dagger buried in the desk beside the president.
An attempted assassination of the nation's highest leader by a mutant was no small matter. The government launched an immediate investigation, and before long, the office received another visitor.
An older man wearing glasses stepped into the room and glanced at the dagger hole in the desk with a faintly mocking smile. "Mr. President, I have to say, your luck today was truly remarkable. You were only inches away."
"What are you here for?" the president asked flatly, ignoring the jab as he poured himself a glass of wine.
"I need your authorization for a special operation."
"I thought you came here to discuss education reform," the president replied dryly.
"Mr. President, you do have a sense of humor."
As the two men spoke, the door opened again and another suited man entered the room.
"Mr. President, I'm here."
"Congressman Kelly, welcome," the president said, smiling for the first time since the attack.
After nearly being assassinated by a mutant, he had started taking the mutant issue much more seriously, which was exactly why Senator Kelly had been brought here today.
But the real Senator Kelly had died long ago due to Magneto's machine. The one standing here now was Mystique in disguise.
Kelly's identity was too valuable to the Brotherhood to waste, so Mystique often used it to attend important meetings. Because of that, no one had discovered the real senator was dead.
"This is Colonel William Stryker," the president said.
"Pleasure to meet you," Kelly said, stepping forward to shake hands.
Stryker studied him sharply for a moment, then said, "Colonel Stryker's department has been dealing with mutants since long before my time. Senator Kelly, if I remember correctly, you were strongly in favor of the Mutant Registration Act not too long ago. But lately, your attitude seems to have changed."
Mystique paused for just a fraction of a second, then smiled smoothly. "I'm simply doing what's best for the country."
The answer was vague, but Stryker didn't press the matter. Instead, he placed a file on the desk.
"We've gathered intelligence indicating there's a school for mutants in upstate New York."
The president and Kelly opened the file and found several blurry aerial photographs of a school campus.
"Where did you get this?" the president asked.
"We interrogated one of the mutant terrorists involved in the Liberty Island incident."
"You mean Eric?" Kelly asked before she could stop herself. "You interrogated him?"
Stryker nodded. "Yes. Magneto. Speaking of him, we had his prison constructed out of plastic using advanced military technology."
Mystique kept her expression calm, but alarm bells were ringing in her mind. Eric was in trouble, and he would need help.
"These photos just look like a school," she said, lifting one of the images.
"It is a school," Stryker replied. "But it's also a school with aircraft that can launch from the basketball court."
That made the president fall silent.
Mystique, on the other hand, was genuinely shocked. She stared more carefully at the photograph.
This wasn't just any school.
It was Xavier's Academy.
Her gaze toward Stryker changed immediately. Compared to the loud, foolish public image of Senator Kelly, Stryker was far more dangerous.
If he succeeded, the entire academy could be wiped out.
And that was absolutely not something Mystique intended to allow.
"Mr. President," Stryker said, looking directly at him, "I believe we need to act."
The president didn't answer right away. He frowned and began to think.
He finally understood why Stryker had come to him in person despite not being invited. If the army raided a school in New York without cause, the political fallout would be enormous.
The military would need someone to shoulder the blame if it went wrong.
If the intelligence was correct, then he could justify it.
If it wasn't, then he would be the one destroyed.
The president rose from his chair and paced slowly, struggling with the decision. On one hand, mutants had just tried to assassinate him. On the other, this operation could cost him his presidency.
But if word got out that there was a heavily armed mutant training facility in New York and he, as president, knew nothing about it, that could ruin him too.
In the end, resentment and fear won out.
"Alright, Stryker," the president said at last, turning to face him. "You have authorization to search the school, make arrests, and conduct interrogations. But I do not want to see dead mutant children on the evening news."
Stryker didn't care about the warning in the slightest. Instead, he smiled with the satisfaction of a man whose scheme had worked exactly as planned.
At almost the same time, back at Xavier's Academy, Liam received a message from Mystique.
Inside the tactical conference room, Scott was the first to speak. "I think Magneto ordered the attack. Who else would do something like that?"
"No, Scott, I don't think so," Jean said immediately.
"You're wrong, Mr. Scott," Liam said calmly. "Magneto might have the ability to arrange something like this, but he wouldn't do it. It doesn't make sense. Magneto would never deliberately do something that damages mutant interests this badly."
Storm nodded in agreement. She thought Liam's reasoning made far more sense.
"But even if Magneto didn't do it," Scott argued, "this still hurts mutants badly. Who knows how many more people will support mutant registration now?"
"Maybe worse," Lorna added with a frown. "Maybe the president will order every mutant in New York rounded up."
"Those fears aren't unreasonable," Liam said, a confident smile appearing on his face. "But relax. I already have a plan."
"What plan?" Lorna asked immediately, her eyes lighting up.
The moment Liam heard about the attack, he had already understood what was really happening.
The so-called mutant assassination attempt was almost certainly staged by Stryker. Its purpose was obvious: push the president into open conflict with mutants.
Stryker's own son was a mutant, but his wife had taken her own life because of their child's powers. Since then, Stryker had come to hate mutants so deeply that he had even experimented on his own son, turning him into Subject 143.
With Jason's illusion powers, Stryker could manipulate minds.
In the original story, even Magneto fell victim to it.
Stryker's goal was to use Jason to control Professor X and wipe mutants off the face of the Earth.
It was an ambitious plan.
And in Liam's eyes, a stupid one.
A playful smile touched his lips as he considered what to do with a man arrogant enough to dream of exterminating all mutants. Killing him directly with teleportation would be easy, but that felt too simple.
And since the president wanted to avoid bad headlines, then Liam had no intention of letting him off the hook either.
"The first step of my plan," Liam said, "is to find the mutant who supposedly attacked the president and bring him back here."
He looked at Storm and Scott. "Ms. Ororo, Mr. Scott, I'm assigning that part to you two."
"No problem," both of them said at once.
"What about us?" Lorna and Jean asked.
"I haven't assigned you anything yet," Liam said with a laugh. "Stay here and look after the students."
"Fine," the two of them replied, nodding.
At that exact moment, the door to the conference room opened.
"Well, this is interesting," a familiar voice said. "I leave for a while, and the professor practically abdicates. Is anyone going to tell me what the hell happened?"
Everyone in the room turned, and smiles spread across their faces.
"Welcome back, Logan," Storm said first, rising to greet him.
"Good to have you back," Scott and Jean added with matching smiles.
"Welcome back, Uncle Logan," Liam said, openly pleased to see Wolverine again.
....
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