The Mutants Make Their Debut

Inside X Academy's ancient castle, in the reception hall.

Charles, Erik, and the others had gathered together, anxiously waiting in front of a large, boxy television.

An emergency broadcast notice stated that the President of the United States would deliver a prewar mobilization speech.

Though none of them held much hope, there was always a chance. What if both sides realized there would be no winners in a nuclear war and shook hands to make peace? Then Shaw's scheme would come to nothing.

Never underestimate the intelligence networks and think tanks possessed by a superpower. Ever since the end of World War II, when the new global political order had taken shape, the Lighthouse and the Alliance had been competing and confronting one another.

In scientific fields, the two superpowers could be said to be engaged in healthy competition. Both sides were holding their breath, determined to surpass the other in atomic energy, high-energy physics, space exploration, and other fields.

Accordingly, both sides had planted countless hidden agents within the other, seeking even the smallest scraps of intelligence about their opponent's movements at the earliest opportunity.

As far as the Lighthouse was concerned, it had a professional team of more than a thousand analysts and think-tank experts currently examining the precise reasons behind the friction between the two sides.

Sebastian Shaw and the petty maneuvers of the Hellfire Club behind him naturally could not escape the eyes of professional intelligence personnel.

But knowing was one thing. Dealing with mutants who possessed all kinds of strange abilities and appeared and vanished without a trace was another. Even a superpower felt the frustration of having great strength but nowhere to use it.

On a conventional battlefield, even Level Four mutants like Shaw and Erik would merely be cannon fodder beneath overwhelming firepower.