Xavier Institute, Laboratory.
Hank McCoy, the Beast, stood in front of the control panel, his blue fur gleaming faintly under the fluorescent light.
His fingers flew across a scanner, the screen displaying a dense array of data.
Matt Murdock sat in the chair next to him, took off his suit jacket, untied his tie, and rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows.
His eyes were open, but they were unfocused, like two dry wells.
"The instrument's test results show no changes in your Genes." Hank frowned as he looked at the data on the screen.
"The known Genes fragments have not been edited, passively shut down, or even shown any abnormalities. Your superpowers may not have been taken away, but rather 'shielded,' like there's a wall blocking you and your abilities."
Matt's lips moved slightly. "Can it be removed?"
"I don't know." Hank pushed up his glasses. "It's not a physical barrier, it's at the molecular level."
Russell left a microscopic 'barrier' in your body. It may not be permanent, but its structure is too complex for me to find a way to dismantle.
Forcing your way through could cause irreversible damage to your cells and nervous system.
Charles sat in his wheelchair, his hands pressed to his temples, his consciousness already probing into Matt's brain and cells, groping in the darkness, searching for that wall.
What he found was not a wall, but a web, a spiderweb-like structure, covering Matt's Genes fragments and nervous system.
It doesn't destroy anything; it just "blocks" things, like someone standing in front of a window, blocking the sunlight.
The sunlight is still there, but it can't shine in.
Sensing the abnormality within Matt's body, his mental will reminded him of the Mind Stone barrier he had set up within Qin's body. The two were similar in function, but the former was more surprising.
Charles, having figured it out, was both pleased and worried. He was happy that Russell's son could develop his inherited Genes to a level that surpassed his father's in a short period of time.
He was also worried about Russell's growing terrifying strength, as no one knew his own abilities better than him.
If this ability were to be used in the right direction, it would be a catastrophe for the entire world. Even ordinary people, superpowered individuals, and Mutants who cannot withstand its mental impact would die instantly.
Charles opened his eyes, his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.
"I need time. The structure of this wall is too complex for me to dismantle, but I can try to go around it."
Matt leaned forward, his fingers trembling. "How do we get around it?"
"Your superpowers are still there, just blocked. I can use my Telepathy to build a bridge between your Mind Stone and cells and try to temporarily 'activate' your abilities."
"It's not permanent, but it'll at least give you a few days to recover." Charles looked at him. "Are you willing?"
Matt didn't hesitate at all. "Yes."
Charles reached out and placed his hand on Matt's temple.
"Relax, don't resist, try to think about positive things."
Something nice? Matt sighed and tried his best to do as Professor X said, but he really couldn't think of anything nice.
When he closes his eyes, he remembers being born in Hell's Kitchen, being abandoned by his mother as a child, being bullied by classmates, losing his sight in an accident, and his father, a boxer, being assassinated...
The only redeeming quality was his unwavering commitment to justice and his firm belief that light would ultimately triumph over darkness.
As Matt pondered this, his body suddenly stiffened; he had sensed it.
Those sounds, those smells, those feelings he thought he had lost forever, surged back like a tide.
He heard Hank's heartbeat, fast and steady; he heard Charles's breathing, light and even; he heard the children's laughter on the lawn outside the window, distant and clear.
He smelled disinfectant, paper, and Hank's faint, cat-like, Beast scent.
He even sensed that Charles's Telepathy as a bridge, crossing the wall and reconnecting him with his abilities.
"Thank you," Matt said, his voice a little hoarse.
"You're welcome." Charles withdrew his hand, leaned back in his wheelchair, and looked visibly tired. "But you should know that this is only temporary. I can only help you for a few days, no more than a week at most."
Before that, you need to find Russell and have him remove this barrier."
Matt nodded, stood up, picked up his suit jacket, and draped it over his arm. "I'll go find him."
"You don't need to go looking for him. He's on his way and will arrive this afternoon. You can have a good talk then; he's not a bad person at heart."
Charles told them that Russell was coming to Xavier Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Matt stopped at the door, turned around, and without asking Russell why he came to Xavier Institute, nodded solemnly:
"Professor X."
"Um?"
"You just said that Mutants and humans should coexist peacefully." He paused. "I didn't quite believe it before, but now I think maybe you're right."
He pushed open the door and went out.
Charles sat in his wheelchair, looking at the closed door, a slight smile playing on his lips. Hank walked over and stood beside him, a cup of tea in his hand.
"Professor, can his abilities really be restored?"
"Yes." Charles looked up at the ceiling at a 45-degree angle. "As long as Russell is willing."
"What if he doesn't want to?"
Charles was silent for a few seconds. "Then we'll have to learn how to survive in Hell's Kitchen without Daredevil when we're in downtown New York City."
The afternoon sun bathed the college lawn in a warm golden hue. Russell parked the car outside the iron gate, turned off the engine, and looked out at the vast estate through the windshield.
The main building is an old Victorian-style building, with ivy climbing all over its gray and white stone walls, and several stained glass windows reflecting dappled sunlight.
In the distance, some people were running on the lawn, some were strolling by the lake, and some were jumping on the basketball court. It wasn't just any ordinary jump; someone flew straight up from beyond the three-point line and slammed the ball into the basket.
"This is the Mutants school?" Rogue pressed his face against the car window, his eyes wide open, like a cat seeing the outside world for the first time.
"Hmm." Russell opened the car door, his sneakers clicking on the gravel pavement. "This is Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X's territory."
Rogue followed behind him, her steps hesitant, her hands unconsciously gripping Russell's clothes.
It wasn't out of fear, but out of nervousness; she had never seen so many Mutants gathered together before.
She had never even met another Mutants before seeing Russell on television.
Despite having broken the curse, influenced by America nighttime propaganda, she still perceives Mutants as monsters and outcasts.
And now, she's about to enter a house full of monsters.
Welcome to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
A voice simultaneously echoed in their minds, a gentle tone with a magnetic quality that instinctively put people at ease.
The Rogue, experiencing this for the first time, was startled, looking around with fear in his eyes.
"Don't be nervous." Russell put his hands in his pockets, his tone as calm as if he were commenting on the weather. "The speaker is Professor X, the principal of this school. He is a psychopathic Mutants, the strongest Telepathy on Earth."
"Professor X, I've heard his story, he... he's in my head?"
"It should be on the edge of your mind, as for whether it's actually inside," Russell paused, "That depends on his mood."
Before the Rogue could even process those words, the door opened from the inside.
With a creak, three people came out. Leading the way was a young man wearing Ruby-Quartz Visor. He was tall and had a strong, firm stride.
His face was mostly obscured by his glasses, but his jawline was sharp and angular, as if carved by a knife. Two women followed behind him.
One had white hair and dark skin, with a cold and aloof demeanor, like a walking iceberg; the other had red hair and fair skin, with soft features and a faint smile at the corners of his mouth.
The moment the door opened, all three of their eyes fell on Russell almost simultaneously.
Jean Grey walked at the very back, her pace slower than the first two, not because she couldn't walk fast, but because she was observing.
She had seen Russell's videos and read about him in the newspapers, many of which portrayed him as an escapee from a military Laboratory, an even more extreme freak than Magneto, but some reports suggested he was not Mutants, but rather a messenger of God.
But seeing celebrities in person, both in videos and in newspapers, is still a different experience.
He was young, much younger than she had imagined, wearing a well-tailored white shirt, his bangs standing still in the restless wind.
Especially his eyes; they weren't just a simple blue. The more you looked into them, the more indescribable a feeling they evoked, as if all secrets were laid bare.
"You must be the Russell that Professor X mentioned." Qin's voice was gentle, her face beaming with a smile, like a ripple on a lake.
Russell looked at her, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Phoenix. Jean Grey.
Within him lies one of the most powerful forces in the universe— the Phoenix Force.
At this moment, she is just an ordinary Mutants teacher, a gentle woman, who outwardly displays Telekinesis.
The power within her is shielded by a Mind Stone barrier erected by Professor X, and it's unknown when it will transform into the being capable of disintegrating matter, reshaping reality, and making the entire universe tremble.
"You are Jean Grey." Russell blinked.
Qin's brow twitched slightly; she hadn't expected this young man to already know her name.
She nodded in response, then shifted her gaze from Russell to the Rogue.
The girl huddled behind Russell, only half her face showing, her large eyes watching them warily, like a fawn ready to flee at any moment.
Qin smiled knowingly, a gentle smile like the winter sun, like someone reaching out a hand to help you up.
"You're Mary, right?" She took a few steps forward, slowly crouched down, and positioned herself at eye level with the girl. "Don't be nervous. Coming here is like coming home. Here, everyone is one of your kind."
She extended her right hand, palm facing up.
An invisible Telekinesis surged from her fingertips, and a coin floated out of her pocket, hovering in mid-air. It slowly spun and then floated up and down, like a leaf blown by the wind.
The Rogue's eyes followed the coin, his wariness gradually melting away, not because of the coin, but because of the red-haired woman's smile.
She could sense that there was no pity or sympathy in that smile, only something called "understanding"—an equal understanding between two people.
"My name is Jean Grey." The red-haired woman smiled and retrieved the spinning coin. "My abilities are Mind Stone control and Telekinesis. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The Rogue peeked out from behind Russell, looking at the smiling, approachable Jean. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't.
Russell didn't urge her; he just stood there, hands in his pockets, looking at the college, at the children running on the lawn, at the teenagers strolling by the lake, and at the laughter and chatter in the shade of the trees.
This is the cradle of the X-Men, the Utopia where Mutants and humans coexist peacefully, a place Charles Xavier built with his lifetime.
It looks beautiful to the naked eye, but Russell knew that the world outside the wall was not like that.
On his way here, he noticed that the houses closest to Xavier Institute were not occupied by ordinary residents, but by special agents on a mission.
Led by Qin, they walked across the lawn, past the lake, and past the basketball court.
Along the way, the Rogue's eyes never stopped moving. She saw a Little Girl running on the water, the ripples spreading outwards from her feet.
I saw a boy shoot tiny sparks of electricity from his fingertips, igniting a Coke can in another boy's hand; I saw a boy in a wheelchair use his Telekinesis to pull back a hat that had flown away.
Everyone has different abilities, and everyone has a smile on their face—a smile that isn't faked, but genuine happiness.
"This... is the Mutants school?" Rogue's voice was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something.
"Hmm." Jean walked beside her, keeping pace with her. "The students here are all Mutants who are rejected by ordinary people. They learn to control their abilities, to integrate into society, and to survive in the human world."
They looked... very happy.
"Because they don't need to hide themselves here." Jean glanced at the Rogue. "Here, you can take off your gloves, touch others, be yourself, no one will be afraid of you, no one will call you a monster."
Seeing the life she had always dreamed of, the Rogue's eyes welled up with tears.
She didn't cry, but the tip of her nose was red and her lips were trembling. Russell reached out and gently patted the top of her head, as if soothing a frightened kitten.
"Want to go play?" He pointed to the boys playing basketball on the court.
The Rogue shook his head. "I don't want to play basketball."
Her voice was choked with emotion, "I just want to follow you."
On the basketball court, a boy recognized Russell. He pointed at Russell and shouted as if he were yelling at the referee:
"Hey! Aren't you Russell, the guy who's on TV?!"
The single stone stirred up a thousand ripples, and everyone around stopped what they were doing.
Those playing ball put down their balls, those taking a walk stopped, and those by the lake looked up at Russell as if he were a person who had stepped out of a screen.
Excitement, curiosity, awe, fear, worship... a flood of emotions surged through me.
[Fear +1]
[Fear +1]
[Worship Emotion +1]
In the innocent and naive years of youth, everyone yearns to be Heroes, whether it be a highly prestigious Heroes like Professor X or a fearsome Heroes like Russell, so such admiration is not hard to understand.
However, the system shows that the dominant emotion is fear and apprehension.
Qin frowned.
She reached out and pressed her hand to her temple, and a gentle wave of Mind Stone emanated from her and spread outwards.
"Quiet." Her voice wasn't loud, but each word was like a hand gently calming those restless emotions.
"These are the professor's guests; please don't make noise here."
The noisy crowd immediately fell silent. Qin breathed a sigh of relief, turned to look at Russell, and her eyes held a complex emotion.
"Let's go, the professor has been waiting inside for a long time."
Russell nodded and quietly used his microscopic abilities to clean up the observable humanoid Genes pool.
Professor X is such a good person!