The gap in fighting strength was far too vast.
Even with all the X-Men together, their chances of winning against the heroes on this side were less than ten percent.
Hank was still animatedly discussing energy conduction models with Tony. Wolverine was still smoking a cigar at the end of the corridor, exhaling a gray-white smoke ring.
Jean drew her gaze back from the end of the corridor and settled it on Natasha's composed, restrained face. Her professional smile returned, but beneath it, an ever-deepening layer of worry churned.
What chilled her even more was a fleeting thought she had caught on the surface of Natasha's mind.
It flashed past like a silver gleam from a fish's scales breaking the surface, then was swiftly pressed back into deep water.
Yongye said that bald old bastard on the other side was all smiles on the outside, while plotting to blow up our Earth.
If Yongye is right, then we stop him from striking first...
Jean's pupils contracted slightly.
Of course she knew Professor Charles's true intentions.
Before they came, Professor X had personally told her, Hank, Scott, and Logan in his study at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters:
"The universe on the other side must be destroyed. We have no other choice!"
"To protect the world, we can only sacrifice our conscience!"
Sure enough, another Earth lay at the other end of the Space-Time Vortex.
The Delegation arrived in a spacious plaza. At its center stood an enormous bronze statue of a bald man seated in a wheelchair, his hands folded on his knees, his gentle gaze turned toward the distance.
A line was engraved on the statue's pedestal: "Charles Xavier-the man who lit the first lamp for mutants."
Leaning on a cane, Batman was the last to emerge from