The professor and his party left. He had rejected Nick Fury's plan and hadn't given Xiang Qian a direct answer either.
Xiang Qian didn't mind. From their brief exchange, he'd already confirmed the professor's position: if a conflict broke out on Alcatraz Island, the X-Men would inevitably get involved. Everything else was a minor detail and wouldn't affect Xiang Qian's plans.
Xiang Qian poured himself another glass of wine and impatiently shooed away the unwelcome guest who refused to leave. "Mr. Fury, your target's gone. The mission failed. You should head back and write your report."
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Nick Fury asked, his face dark and solemn.
"What do you think I'm trying to do? I'm just a legitimate businessman doing everything I can to protect my legitimate property." Xiang Qian turned the accusation back on him as if it were only natural. "You're the one who just tried to incite Mutants to damage my property, Mr. Fury."
Nick Fury accused him, "You're sitting back and letting the Mutants go to war with the United States government. Motherfucker, you could have stopped all this if you'd just worked with us..."
"Everything I'm doing now is the result of discussions with the White House and the United States Department of Defense. You're the one trying to sabotage the United States government's plan."
Nick Fury snapped, "Cut the diplomat act, motherfucker! S.H.I.E.L.D. answers to the World Security Council, not the United States government."
"Even though the United States government covers 60 percent of your funding?" Xiang Qian scoffed. "Even street vendors know that whoever pays more gets the louder voice."
"You can't fool me, James Zion! I'll be watching you." Nick Fury sounded utterly certain. "I'm not like those fools in the White House or the Department of Defense. I know you've got something to hide, and I'll be watching you like a hawk."
Xiang Qian spread his free hand, the one holding his wineglass. "Suit yourself. There's nothing to hide about my plans. I could stand in the White House and announce them in front of everyone. I plan to promote the integration of Mutants and ordinary people."
Nick Fury sneered. "Oh? How incredible. Am I standing before a saint? What should I call you, Moses? Are you going to lead the Mutants in creating a promised land?"
"No. Mutants could never become a self-sufficient people. They can only integrate into ordinary society; otherwise, they'll face extinction." Xiang Qian sighed with regret. "Mutant society has an inherent social flaw."
"A flaw?"
Xiang Qian nodded. "Yes, a flaw. One caused by the differences in their powers. Higher-level Mutants have an overwhelming advantage over lower-level ones. Obviously, if the Mutants established an independent society, it would inevitably become a distorted one, with social classes determined by the level of one's powers."
"How much vitality could a society have if your place in it was set at birth and could never change?"
Nick Fury gave him a skeptical look. "So you plan to guide them? You want to be the Mutants' Moses?"
"Mutants don't live only in the United States." Xiang Qian sneered at Nick Fury's narrow-mindedness. "Even by the most conservative estimates, there must be over ten million Mutants in our country. This is a serious social problem."
"Although I don't like the United States, its failure to handle the Mutant issue would also have a real impact on us. Now is the best time to resolve the North American Mutant problem. They currently have two leaders who are utterly selfless. Whether it's the professor or Magneto, at least when it comes to Mutant rights, both of them are genuinely selfless."
"If they fall, and some ambitious, politician-like figure takes over as the Mutants' leader—someone like Sebastian Shaw, who caused the Cuban Missile Crisis—that would be the worst-case scenario."
"You all managed to turn a blind eye to such an obvious fact. I thought you were only blind in one eye. Need me to sponsor you a new eyepatch?"
Xiang Qian kept talking, while Nick Fury was so angry that almost all he could see was white.
Holding his glass, Xiang Qian paced to the window and looked down at the street in front of the hotel. The professor and his party had just left the building and were preparing to cross the street.
Although the X-Mansion's Blackbird had an advanced stealth system, it couldn't land in the busy city center.
A metallic crash rang out from the distant street. A car parked at the roadside suddenly flew into the air, tracing a graceful arc before crashing down toward the professor and his party on the crosswalk.
Cyclops Scott stepped forward. A scorching beam shot through his visor and sliced the car in half in midair.
Everyone, above and below, turned their eyes toward the spot where the car had taken flight.
There, right in the middle of the street, a thin figure hovered in midair. He was dressed in black, and the many colored lights around him revealed only a dark metal helmet on his head.
Every car that came near the figure slid helplessly to either side, setting off a chain of collisions. The street fell into chaos in an instant.
Magneto had arrived.
The honking horns, commotion, screams, cries, and even the distant wail of sirens after the crash all seemed to accompany his entrance.
Magneto glided toward the professor and his party, but someone else moved much faster.
A gigantic figure emerged from the street corner beside Magneto. Nearly three meters tall and three or four times as broad and thick as an ordinary man, the giant lumbered toward the professor like a walking mountain of flesh, each footfall landing with a thunderous boom.
Even Xiang Qian, watching from high up in the hotel, felt as if the ground were trembling.
"Charles!" the giant roared, his voice reaching the clouds.
"Juggernaut."
"Cain Marko!"
Nick Fury and Xiang Qian named the same man differently.
As before, the attack began with a beam of light. The scorching ray stretched across dozens of meters and struck Juggernaut in the chest.
"Charles, you have to die!" Though Juggernaut cried out in pain as the heat burned him, he pressed on through the beam, which was hot enough to melt steel plates. He casually swatted aside a car at the roadside that hadn't gotten out of the way in time, sending it flying like a bowling ball.
Seeing Juggernaut nearly upon them, Beast shoved the professor's wheelchair aside and threw himself forward, tackling Cyclops to the ground before he could be caught in Juggernaut's charge.
Unable to stop, Juggernaut veered across the crosswalk and crashed headfirst into a shop by the roadside.
The street was already in chaos, with people fleeing in every direction. But the confusion lasted only a moment. When the professor looked around, the crowd near the center of the disorder suddenly fell silent. Everyone, regardless of age or gender, began moving away at the same steady pace.
The panicked crowd abruptly fell into an eerie order.
The professor's powerful telepathic abilities had taken control of the scene.
Scott's optic blasts kept striking Juggernaut, who was trapped inside the shop, holding him back from turning around. Beast stood guard beside Scott, while Wolverine, claws extended, watched Magneto warily beside the professor.
From behind Magneto, a figure came sprinting down the distant end of the street. Magneto's second ally had arrived.
The figure was moving incredibly fast. Even Xiang Qian, looking down on the whole scene from above, could make out only a vague shadow, leaving a long trail across the street. In the blink of an eye, it shot in from beyond the range of the professor's mental control and lunged straight at him.