Refusing to fall behind: squeezing the spoils dry overnight

Susan Stone's words, like a pebble thrown into the deep sea, stirred up silent ripples in the deathly quiet corridor.

To extract the full value from someone's achievements?

As an even more generous gift?

These words pierced precisely into the hearts of Wanda and Hela, hearts filled with jealousy and resentment.

Wanda was leaning against the corner of the wall and almost torn apart by the Chaos Energy, suddenly raised her head. The mad flames in her Scarlet eyes were replaced by a cold, calculating light.

yes...

What makes Gwen Stacy Stacy eligible to get in?

Wasn't it because she dragged that old man in the wheelchair back?

That credit, that "ticket," originated with Charles Xavier!

If... if I could extract something more valuable from that old man than simply "bringing him back alive," then tomorrow morning, when Lynn opens the door, wouldn't I be able to utterly crush Gwen Stacy's laughable victory?

On the other side, the Death Energy surrounding Hela, which had almost frozen everything, slowly subsided. For the first time, her dark green eyes, filled with murderous intent, looked directly at Susan.

The blonde woman's suggestion, though full of human cunning, was surprisingly... logical.

Instead of waiting here like a resentful woman all night, it's better to take the initiative and turn that Spider Woman's "trophy" into your own stepping stone.

With overwhelming results, prove to that man who is truly qualified to stand beside him.

"Heh." Hela let out a cold, ambiguous snort, which could be considered tacit approval.

Three women who should have been mortal enemies formed an extremely strange and precarious short-lived alliance under the supreme common goal of "competing for Lynn's favor."

"Come with me."

Susan wasted no time; she turned and headed straight for the temporary solitary Containment Room where the remnants of the X-Men were being held.

Wanda and Hela exchanged a glance, both seeing undisguised competition and wariness in each other's eyes, but they still immediately followed.

Baxter Building, fifth basement level, Backup Biological Laboratory.

The temperature here is much lower than on the top floor, and the air is filled with a cold smell of disinfectant mixed with metal. Rows of sophisticated instruments operate silently under the dim blue indicator lights, emitting a low hum.

In the center of the laboratory, inside a transparent cage formed by an energy Force Field, Charles Xavier lay slumped in his wheelchair, unconscious. His once-well-tailored suit was now rumpled and wrinkled from the earlier plane crash, and his aged face was deathly pale.

"Get him out." Susan pointed to the cage, her tone as cold as a surgeon's.

Wanda didn't even bother to look for the switch; a flash of Scarlet Chaos Energy appeared at her fingertips, and the Force Field Shield, strong enough to withstand conventional missile bombardment, silently and imperceptibly Oblivion a gap, like fragile glass.

Hela grew impatient and reached out, unleashing an invisible Death Energy that transformed into chains that bound the wheelchair. She roughly dragged Charles out of the cage and slammed him heavily onto a metal laboratory table.

"Bang!"

The dull thud made Charles's weak body jolt, but he still didn't wake up.

"Be careful!" Susan frowned and hissed, "His brain is a 'gift,' not a pile of rotten flesh! If you ruin it, how will you explain it to your master?"

"A mortal's mind, no matter how ingenious, is laughably fragile." Hela curled her lip in disdain, but ultimately did not make another move.

She only lowered herself to deal with this "trash" because of that man.

This frenzied competition has officially begun.

Susan took the lead. As the "brain" of the Fantastic Four, technology and analysis were her domain.

She strode to the Control Console and her hands moved swiftly across the virtual screen, inputting a series of complex commands in an instant.

"Buzz--"

In the laboratory dome, a huge, multi-tentacle robotic arm slowly descended, and dozens of Probe, shimmering with faint electric light, hovered precisely above Charles's head.

"Connect neuronal synapses and begin scanning the cerebral cortex." Susan's eyes gleamed with excitement and obsession. "I need to first construct a complete model of his brain activity and find the core nodes of the memory storage area."

Following her instructions, the Probe, like living venomous snakes, gently and precisely pierced Charles's scalp, connecting him to the deepest layers of his nervous system.

The Control Console's light screen was instantly flooded with a waterfall of refreshed Data Stream. Countless complex curves representing brainwaves and nerve impulses pulsed wildly, constructing a massive, dizzying three-dimensional brain Star Map.

"Hmph, all flash and no substance."

Hela looked at the complex data and let out a disdainful sneer.

She walked to the other side of the lab table, slowly extended her flawless hand—the one that had crushed countless Deity skulls—and gently placed it on Charles Xavier's forehead.

"The soul of a mortal is always full of flaws."

Before she finished speaking, a Death Energy, visible to the naked eye and deeper than the night, slowly seeped from her palm, like a layer of cold black frost, and quickly covered Charles's entire head.

This force did not damage any brain cells, but acted like a precise Scalpel, directly targeting the mental level. It forcibly severed all connections between Charles's conscious and Subconscious mind, blocking any possible thoughts of resistance deep within his soul.

If Susan's job was to draw maps, then Hela was to build an impregnable, insurmountable prison on those maps!

She wanted to make sure that in the ensuing "exploitation," this lowly mouse wouldn't have even the slightest chance to struggle!

Wanda remained aloof and observed the situation.

As she watched Susan's dazzling display of technology, and then Hela's overwhelming divine power sealing off her, the flames of resentment in her heart burned ever brighter.

On what grounds?

One relied on stolen technology, the other on his Deity status.

And I...

Wanda's gaze fell on her slender hands.

I possess the same power as him!

I'm the one who understands him best!

A morbid, undeniable possessiveness instantly overwhelmed all jealousy.

She took a deep breath, stepped forward, and placed her hands on either side of Charles's temples.

"Your movements are too slow."

Her voice was soft, yet it carried an undeniable air of authority.

The next second, two streams of Scarlet Energy, thinner than a strand of hair, emerged from her fingertips.

They weren't as domineering as Hela's Death Energy, nor as cold as Susan's Probe. They were like two cunning, living snakes, silently slipping into Charles's brain through the tiny gaps left by Susan's Probe.

This is Chaos Magic.

Distorting reality and ignoring rules.

In the mental prison Hela built, Wanda's Chaos Magic is that of a notorious thief who can come and go at will and steal everything!

"Found... the coordinates of the Mutants Academy..."

"The underlying design blueprints of the Cerebro..."

"His fear of the ' Phoenix '... and... his feelings towards Lynn..."

The Scarlet Energy Tentacles frantically plundered Charles's memory area, forcibly stripping and copying countless precious pieces of information, which were then continuously transmitted to Wanda's mind through the Mind Link.

This is an extreme and utterly undignified form of plunder.

Professor X, once aloof and revered by countless people, has now been reduced to a mere tool, his skull opened, at the mercy of others. His thoughts, his memories, the secrets of his life, have all become commodities that these three women are frantically fighting over in order to curry favor with another man.

Time flew by in this oppressive yet highly efficient "assembly line operation".

Susan was responsible for location and analysis, and continuously optimized the data extraction path.

Hela was responsible for suppression and blockade to ensure the absolute stability of the "goods".

Wanda was in charge of the core "plunder," taking everything of value, leaving nothing behind.

This night was still agonizing for the three people outside the door.

But this ordeal has transformed from passive waiting into an active, frantic, and relentlessly competitive "overtime work."

With each piece of information they extracted, their confidence in Gwen Stacy the next day grew stronger, and their desire to regain Lynn's attention burned even brighter.

Just as this efficient and ruthless exploitation reached its most critical moment.

As Wanda's Chaos tentacles were about to touch the deepest recesses of Charles's brain—those vague memories of the "Sacred Timeline" and "TVA" that even he himself was unaware of—

On the experimental table, the body that had remained unresponsive like a corpse suddenly trembled violently!

Charles Xavier's eyelids twitched violently.

"Um?"

Almost simultaneously, Hela, Wanda, and Susan all noticed this unusual movement.

"His Psychic Power is rebelling!" Susan exclaimed, staring at the suddenly erratic brainwave curve on the screen.

"Impossible!" Hela's face darkened, and she tightened her grip on Charles's forehead, unleashing an even denser surge of Death Energy. "Under my death seal, even Odin's soul won't be able to move an inch!"

However, in the very next second...

Charles Xavier's tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open!

Those were eyes filled with terror, confusion, and raging fury!

Woke up!

He miraculously awoke from this extreme torment!

Almost instinctively, a devastating Psychic Storm, accumulating all the power of his life, erupted from the deepest part of his consciousness!

He will grind these demons, along with their souls, into dust!

However--

That terrifying Psychic Power, capable of destroying a city in an instant, seemed to crash into an invisible wall of extreme cold and death the moment it burst out of the brain.

"Pop..."

A very faint sound, like a bubble bursting.

That devastating Psychic Storm simply vanished...

Charles's pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints in an instant.

His prized Mind Stone abilities, hailed as the world's strongest, were actually... firmly suppressed within his own mind, unable to leak even a fraction of them out?!

How... is that possible?!