Triple Afterimage Fist Shows Its Might

Hawking reacted swiftly, carrying Storm in one hand and Nightcrawler in the other as he quickly retreated, dodging Cyclops's red blast.

Magneto, who had been walking at the front, merely raised a hand and moved a machine weighing several thousand pounds in front of himself.

"It's your school's teacher. Deal with him yourselves."

After leaving those words behind, Magneto and Mystique directly abandoned Hawking and the other two, intending to continue onward.

"No need to take that long. I'll do it!"

With a loud shout, Hawking charged toward Cyclops.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Seeing Hawking rush at him, Cyclops rapidly pressed the switch on his visor, firing short-frequency red blasts one after another like lasers.

However, Hawking was moving incredibly fast, his footwork flashy and unpredictable. He bounced up and down like a monkey, somehow evading every blast.

But the closer he got, the harder they became to dodge.

It was like a handgun: beyond five steps, it was fast; within five steps, it was both fast and accurate.

Only by getting close could he have a chance of winning.

"Hawking, move!"

Storm had only just processed what was happening when she saw Hawking had already rushed out.

Before she could activate her powers to help, Hawking had reached within less than a meter of Cyclops.

Yet for some reason, he suddenly stopped moving.

Cyclops showed no mercy whatsoever. He aimed at Hawking's head and fired a red blast.

With the power of Cyclops's blasts, if an ordinary person took one head-on to the head, their skull would probably explode like a watermelon.

Unfortunately, although Storm possessed wide-range lightning and storm attacks, her powers took time to activate and were restricted within the base, leaving her unable to help quickly.

As for Nightcrawler beside her, despite being able to teleport, he was a devout Christian who had never received professional training. From the moment of the attack until now, his mind was still completely blank.

But then Storm's eyes widened, because the red blast passed straight through Hawking's body, as if the Hawking standing there were only an afterimage.

"It's over!"

At that moment, a voice suddenly came from above and behind Cyclops. Before he could turn around, pain shot through his neck, and he passed out.

Only then did Storm realize that Hawking had somehow already leaped above Cyclops, flipped over, and struck the back of his neck with his palm.

"He's... so strong!"

From Cyclops's ambush to the end of the fight, no more than three seconds had passed.

In three seconds, Hawking had knocked out Cyclops, one of the X-Men's main fighters with extensive combat experience. How could that not shock her?

When Wolverine had praised Hawking's strength before, she had not fully believed him. Only after seeing it for herself did she understand that Wolverine had not exaggerated at all. If she fought Hawking at close range, she was not confident she could win either.

He had both brains and strength.

Hoisting Cyclops onto his shoulder, Hawking darted back to his original spot and called out to Magneto and Mystique, who had only just taken a few steps forward:

"Taken care of. No need to rush—we'll go together!"

Cyclops was actually very strong. His body absorbed ambient energy and metabolized it into concussive blasts, which he released through his eyes.

If he removed his visor, which controlled the blasts, and unleashed his full power indiscriminately, he would be like a humanoid laser cannon. He could easily destroy most buildings and instantly kill most enemies.

The key was that there was no cooldown, and his firing speed was extremely fast.

His only weakness was his relatively poor physical condition and hand-to-hand combat ability, which made him easy to take down once someone got close.

Then there was the common flaw of most X-Men: they were too soft-hearted. If they could injure someone, they would never kill them, invisibly weakening their own Combat Power.

Just now, Hawking had used the Triple Afterimage Fist to leave behind an afterimage and mislead Cyclops, then leaped up and knocked him unconscious in one strike.

If they had been in a sufficiently open area with distance between them, and Cyclops's output had not been restricted, Hawking might not necessarily have been able to beat him.

Looking at Hawking carrying Cyclops, Magneto felt both admiration and speechlessness.

He admired the Combat Power Hawking had displayed at such a young age, but he was speechless because he had originally intended to use Cyclops to distract the three of them. Now, that plan had clearly fallen through.

They continued forward, and in less than two minutes, they saw the door to the Cerebro Chamber guarded by a group of elite soldiers.

Magneto raised a finger, and the elite soldiers were slaughtered by their own weapons without any ability to resist.

But just as they were about to step forward, Storm, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, and Mystique all cried out and collapsed to the ground clutching their heads. Hawking immediately reacted and put on the same act.

Because he knew that Stryker's son, Mastermind, had already used Professor X to locate every mutant on Earth and had begun using his power to destroy their brains.

Only Magneto, wearing a helmet that blocked psychic power, remained unaffected.

He raised both hands and activated his ability at full strength, controlling Cerebro and forcibly shutting it down.

The entire Cerebro Chamber had been built by Stryker using blueprints obtained from Magneto's mind, so Magneto naturally knew every detail.

Without Cerebro's amplification, Professor X could no longer locate mutants, and they were naturally safe.

However, the instant Cerebro was shut down, Magneto immediately controlled the Cerebro Chamber door to open, then pulled Mystique inside.

Before Storm and the others could recover from Professor X's psychic attack, he was about to close the Cerebro Chamber door.

The Cerebro Chamber door was also mixed with Adamantium and could not be broken through by brute force. Moreover, any violent attack would affect the entire Cerebro Chamber, indirectly killing Professor X.

So long as he closed the door, he could safely have Mystique transform into Stryker and order Mastermind to change "kill all mutants" into "kill all humans."

Triple Afterimage Fist!

At that moment, Hawking made his move.

He was not a mutant, so Professor X's psychic attack naturally had no effect on him. His mind was perfectly clear. He activated the Triple Afterimage Fist, leaving behind an afterimage as his body rushed into the Cerebro Chamber before the door closed.

"You're courting death!"

Sensing Hawking suddenly charging in as if to attack him, Magneto instinctively used his power to defend himself. A coin shot from his pocket like a bullet, flying straight toward Hawking's forehead.

Although he admired Hawking, if Hawking interfered with the plan to exterminate humanity, he would kill him without hesitation.

Yet, just like Cyclops's blast earlier, the coin passed straight through Hawking's body.

Crack!

The sound of a neck snapping came from behind him. Magneto hurriedly turned around, and anger immediately appeared on his face.

Hawking had somehow appeared before Mastermind, who sat in a wheelchair, and snapped his neck.

"It's over now. Of course, if you still want to spar with me, I'd be happy to keep you company!"

Hawking released Mastermind's neck and smiled.