The Demise of the X-Men

Scott did not open his eyes.

His eyes were shut tight, his eyelashes trembling—not from fear, but from rage.

That sense of powerlessness, of being backed into a corner and realizing he could do nothing, was seeping out through every pore.

He heard Russell's voice, but he did not want to listen. Nor did he want to look into that man's eyes, even as the intense suffocation eroded him.

"Russell, what are you doing? Let Scott go right now," Storm Ororo shouted.

Russell remained unmoved, his telekinesis acting like two invisible needles that pierced Scott's eyelid muscles, forcibly prying his upper and lower lids apart.

Under the strict control, Scott's eyes opened.

Those eyes, unprotected by his visor and exposed naked to the air, were not blue, nor green—they were red.

A laser beam instantly shot out from Scott's pupils. This time it was not a beam, nor a torrent; it felt more like an explosion, like all the energy released in the instant a star collapses.

Russell's goal was precisely this, so he naturally did not dodge. He stood in front of Scott at a distance of less than half a meter, their eyes locked, separated only by that crimson laser capable of vaporizing steel.

The laser shot straight into Russell's eyes, entering through the pupils, passing through the crystalline lens, the vitreous body, the retina, and the optic nerve, all the way to the brain.

The eyes were inherently one of the most fragile parts of the human body. Even though his physique was continuously reinforced by superhuman healing, upon contact with the super laser beam, his eyes were instantly burned away.

The cornea carbonized, the crystalline lens vaporized, the retina detached, and the optic nerve melted into a charred, smoking mass of protein.

His brain endured an