If this were a movie or TV show, then when Nightcrawler lunged at Xiang Qian, it would have gone something like this:
A woman with a piercing gaze fixed her eyes on Xiang Qian as if he were prey. She clenched her fists, ready to strike his vitals. At that moment, everything around them slowed down. A single blink might stretch into several seconds on screen.
If the production crew had been willing to spend on special effects, they might even have added a bullet-time effect: the hunter moved like the wind, death was closing in, and yet the target remained oblivious, still wearing the same expression he'd had a second ago.
That one moment might have lasted a minute or two.
Unfortunately, there was no slow motion here, no bullet time. When Nightcrawler lunged, half a second was just half a second. Xiang Qian had only enough time to lift his eyelids.
Then, just as Nightcrawler was about to reach the gun in Xiang Qian's hand, she inexplicably veered left. The afterimage of her high-speed sprint flashed past Xiang Qian, and then she began darting around him in erratic bursts.
No matter how hard Nightcrawler tried, the instant she was about to touch Xiang Qian, she would involuntarily veer off course.
The turns were bizarre. No matter how sharply she turned or how fast she rounded the corner, she experienced no sideways drift from inertia—as if she were still running in a straight line.
More than once, Nightcrawler stopped to recalibrate her direction. More than once, she summoned the speed she was so proud of, only to exhaust herself in vain.
Xiang Qian watched the fleeting afterimages around him with amusement. As a disciple of Kamar-Taj, he was naturally well versed in spatial magic. From the day he mastered the Sling Ring, he had eagerly set about finding new ways to use it.
What Nightcrawler had run into was nothing more than a small spatial maze—an improvement Xiang Qian had made to the Subspace Folding Technique.
This little trick was practically useless against Kamar-Taj mages, who were just as skilled in spatial magic. In fact, it was sometimes used as a training tool to test new apprentices. But against enemies unfamiliar with spatial abilities, the maze could be remarkably effective.
Once he was sure Nightcrawler posed no threat to him, Xiang Qian decided to stop playing around.
Nightcrawler came to an unwilling halt once more. Perhaps she was frustrated and reluctant to admit defeat, or perhaps she had underestimated her opponent's threat. Either way, she stopped just one step away from Xiang Qian.
As the afterimage came to a stop, Xiang Qian suddenly moved. Against a master of hand-to-hand combat, a hair's breadth could be all the difference between one person and an army.
Nightcrawler had only just stopped; the momentum of her run had yet to fade. In the highbrow language of the martial arts novels Xiang Qian had read as a child, she had exhausted her old strength before her new strength had arisen. In that instant, Xiang Qian took a small step forward and clamped his left hand around Nightcrawler's neck.
He lifted her slight frame off the ground by the throat.
Nightcrawler kicked helplessly, slapped at Xiang Qian's arm, and tried with all her might to pry his fingers loose. But she had no idea how strong the hand around her neck was. It could snuff out even the violent blast triggered by the Flame Gem in the palm of his hand.
As the lack of oxygen clouded Nightcrawler's mind, she caught sight of two figures entering through the doorway from the corner of her eye, just before she lost consciousness.
"Long time no see, Mr. Magneto." Xiang Qian opened his hand and let the unconscious Nightcrawler fall to the floor.
"James Zion! I can't say I'm surprised to see you here." Magneto didn't spare Nightcrawler a glance as she hit the ground. He glanced at Xiang Qian's face, then quickly fixed his attention on the gun in his hand.
Xiang Qian obligingly raised his P226, keeping the muzzle trained on Magneto. "Looks like you remember my old friend?"
"Vividly." Magneto instinctively pressed a hand to his left shoulder, his tone bitter with resentment.
Xiang Qian sneered. "See what the Juggernaut looks like outside? I've made a new discovery recently and added a new function to it. I have to say, you're lucky. If it had been this powerful back then, you'd have been in an urn long ago, and we wouldn't have all these problems today."
Magneto burned with anger, but the black muzzle forced him to suppress it.
"Where's the child?"
"The child?" Xiang Qian feigned confusion. "You mean Jimmy? I don't know. Isn't he in the room next door?"
"Don't play dumb, James."
Xiang Qian lied without missing a beat. "I'll tell you anything you want to know, or let my gun tell you. Do you think I need to play dumb? I really don't know. I ran into the Juggernaut as soon as I got here. Only one young X-Men woman went into that room. Why not ask her?"
Xiang Qian lifted the gun slightly, as if to say, I'm the one in control here. Why would I need to lie to you?
"I'm not Charles. Your lies won't fool me," Magneto said sternly. "You show up here, and the child disappears. Even if you didn't do it, you must know something. Why are you here?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to protect my assets and profits as much as possible."
Magneto glanced at the main control console beside them, and his expression changed dramatically. "You're copying the experimental data? If the child is already missing, what do you need the data for? This data is the key to opening the door to the destruction of Mutants."
As he spoke, Magneto suddenly reached toward the console.
Xiang Qian realized what Magneto was planning and opened fire. The bullet grazed Magneto's ear, making him stiffen in shock and abandon his next move.
"Don't even think about it." Xiang Qian aimed at the center of Magneto's forehead. "For the sake of the Professor and Raven, I don't want to kill you. But I'm warning you: if even one screw on that machine comes loose, or I see so much as a hint of electromagnetic interference on the screen, I'll shoot."
"Think carefully, Mr. Magneto. Even if the data here is gone, Worthington Industries must have backups. I'll have another chance to get my hands on them. But once you're dead, there won't be any backups for you!"
Magneto withdrew his hand. "Why do you want this data? Why steal it? If the child isn't with you, what do you need it for?"
"Even if I told you, would you understand?" Xiang Qian didn't answer directly. "The immense value contained in this data is beyond your comprehension. Good grief, I even wonder whether you people can spell the word 'gene' correctly."
"You're trying to humiliate us?"
Xiang Qian sneered. "I'm humiliating you? No, I'm just stating a fact. If anything, I'm looking down on you. Your extraordinary Mutant powers are a complete waste in your hands."
"You don't understand the enormous value your abilities could have for society."