Over on the lawn, Storm was helping two little girls build sandcastles. She looked up at the passing afterimage and frowned slightly.
In the underground base, along the medical wing's corridor.
Professor X moved slowly in his wheelchair, quietly discussing the children rescued two days earlier with a doctor in a white coat. Their internal organs had suffered severe damage, making their recovery especially difficult.
Suddenly, the floor trembled faintly, and a gust blasted through the passage entrance. Chen Xiao stood before them, slightly breathless. "Professor, Mr. Scott is in danger!"
Professor X's expression darkened abruptly. "Vitas, what happened?"
The doctor looked puzzled too. Hadn't Scott left the school yesterday?
Chen Xiao composed himself slightly. Some of the urgency faded from his face, and his tone steadied. "I just heard a few teachers mention that Mr. Scott left school yesterday. His destination... was Alkali Lake."
"Yes." Professor X nodded, but his gaze suddenly shifted.
Just as he instinctively reached out with his telepathy, hoping to quickly ascertain the reason, a strange resistance quietly emerged.
It was not a psychic barrier, yet it firmly enveloped the core of Chen Xiao's consciousness like a supple membrane.
Its power was not immense, but it was extraordinarily dense, as though it had been born to shut out prying eyes.
Was this Vitas's psychic characteristic? He did not rely on mind reading, yet he possessed his own inviolable boundaries.
At that same moment, Chen Xiao sensed the touch of that psychic fluctuation, and a system notification immediately sounded in his ears:
"Professor X's psychic interference detected. Automatic immunity granted under the information protection protocol."
His expression remained unchanged. He merely said gravely, "Yesterday, while reviewing the school's records, I noticed the relationship between Senior Jean and Mr. Scott."
"They weren't just partners who supported each other. Their abilities also naturally complemented one another."
"According to what you said, Scott's optical energy did indeed have a soothing effect on Senior Jean's mental stability."
"So I also reviewed Senior Jean's records. Three years ago, she faced the flood alone to stop Alkali Lake's dam from bursting, and was ultimately swallowed by the enormous waves."
At this point, Professor X's eyes dimmed for a moment.
"But you wrote in her file that Jean was an Omega-Level Mutant in the truest sense, with limitless potential."
"Could someone like that really be taken by a flood?"
"Even if she exceeded her limits to save everyone and suffered severe injuries from the backlash, I still find it hard to believe she died completely."
"If she survived, those three years of silence most likely meant she was critically injured and had fallen into deep dormancy."
"And you noted that a primal power lay dormant within her, one even you feared. Once it lost control, the consequences would be unpredictable."
"That final battle three years ago precisely confirmed your judgment."
"So my hypothesis is this: Jean's consciousness is still in chaos at the bottom of the lake, and her body is extremely weak. She is instinctively craving external energy."
"Once Scott approaches... I'm afraid that dormant instinct will awaken immediately."
These were the words he had repeatedly weighed during his frantic run.
He could hardly say outright, "Professor, Scott is about to be eaten by Jean."
Still, aside from the speculative portion that followed, he had fabricated nothing. The school's top-secret records did indeed contain detailed information on Jean Grey and Scott.
That included the special connection through which their abilities naturally complemented and balanced one another.
Chen Xiao's methodical reasoning made Professor X's expression abruptly tighten. His brows drew together slightly, and he nodded solemnly. "Vitas, your analysis carries considerable weight."
"You're right. We all underestimated Jean's potential... perhaps she never died at all."
After a brief pause, Professor X swiftly sorted out the timeline. "Scott left early yesterday morning on a motorcycle. Alkali Lake is more than twenty-three hundred kilometers from the school."
"Judging by the journey, he should still be on the road. There's time to stop him."
Before he finished speaking, Professor X's gaze sharpened, and his tone turned decisive. "Whatever the truth, we must err on the side of caution. Vitas, leave for Alkali Lake immediately with Logan and Ororo!"
"Understood, Professor."
Although Chen Xiao's judgment remained an unverified hypothesis, and Professor X had yet to establish telepathic contact with Scott, he still made an immediate decision without hesitation, just in case.
Moments later, the ground trembled faintly, and the lawn beside the dormitory building silently split open.
Under the astonished, bewildered, and barely restrained excited gazes of a group of mutant students, a black fighter jet with a wingspan exceeding twenty meters slowly rose.
Its rear engines roared with flame. Like an arrow loosed from a bow, the jet pierced the clouds with a shrill howl, vanishing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
"Vitas, is Jean... really still alive?"
Inside the cockpit, as they traveled high above the ground at supersonic speed, Storm held the control stick firmly in one hand. A dazed look still lingered on her face; clearly, she had not yet recovered from the news.
Wolverine, sitting in the copilot's seat, was equally stunned. He had just been urgently awakened and shoved into a fighter jet before he could even button his jacket, sent thousands of kilometers away to rescue Scott. His head was still swimming.
Left with no choice, Chen Xiao repeated the evidence he had presented to Professor X, exactly as before.
But the moment he finished, Storm continued questioning him with furrowed brows. "Vitas, why can Scott's ability help Jean stabilize her mental state?"
Are you a walking book of a hundred thousand whys? Why all these relentless questions? Chen Xiao silently rolled his eyes inwardly.
Then, sounding slightly surprised, he asked in return, "Ms. Ororo, haven't you read the school's internal records? They clearly document an analysis of every instructor's individual abilities."
"Heh... I really haven't." Storm laughed openly, making no attempt to hide it. "I've never had much interest in research data or technical reports."
Logan spread his hands and shrugged too. "Don't look at me. I never touch that stuff either."
Storm came from an ordinary family, and her mother was an immigrant from Kenya. With limited education in her early years, she had kept books at arm's length since childhood;
Logan, meanwhile, had been born more than a century ago, during the First World War era. He could barely read, let alone study theoretical material.
"All right." Chen Xiao shook his head lightly, then continued explaining:
"According to Mr. Scott's records, his optic blasts aren't an ordinary mutant ability. They connect to a source of pure, immense laser energy."
"That energy is extraordinarily pure."
"And an immeasurable primal power lies dormant within Senior Jean. It's too strong-so strong that ever since childhood, it has constantly battered the boundaries of her consciousness and torn at her mental stability."
"Later, the professor discovered that when Jean absorbed the laser energy Scott released, it could effectively soothe that restless power."
"To put it more plainly: once that power is 'fed,' it stops gnawing at her mind."
"So that's it." Storm nodded, seeming to understand. "No wonder you said that if the power within Jean lost control completely and she entered an instinct-driven state, Scott would be the one in danger."
Imagine a beast that had starved for three years suddenly seeing a roast chicken dripping with sizzling fat pass before its eyes. Was there any need to guess the outcome?
Ahem!... Scott wasn't a roast chicken, of course.
While the three sped onward at full speed, Scott, who had ridden for an entire day and night, had already crossed the US-Canada border and entered the remote woods surrounding Alkali Lake.
On the bumpy dirt road, his face was covered in stubble, his eyes sunken, and his body visibly weary. Yet he still raced along at nearly a hundred kilometers an hour.
The mountain forests on either side flashed backward through his field of vision.
After an unknown stretch of time, the view ahead suddenly brightened. A desolate gravel trail opened up at the end of the dense woods.
Looking farther ahead, he could faintly make out a broad river.
Scott's heart gave a slight jolt. That river ended at the lake that had swallowed everything he longed for.
The mountain wind struck his face, damp and cold. A little over ten minutes later, the vast lake abruptly came into view. He instinctively braked his motorcycle and stopped beside the road.
He stared blankly at the water as memories surged like a tide, churning endlessly.
After a long while, he let out a deep breath, took off his backpack, and slowly walked toward the shore, his steps heavy and unhurried, his expression downcast.
"Scost!"
A call, both familiar and distant, rang out in his heart without warning.
His entire body stiffened. Then he shook his head with a bitter smile. He must have missed Jean so much that he was hearing things.
But the next second, that voice surfaced again, too clear to ignore:
"Scott!"
"Scott..."
Each call pressed harder than the last, growing more urgent and heavier, like an invisible sledgehammer striking his temples. His head felt ready to split. Clutching his forehead, Scott staggered and stumbled toward the water.
"Scott."
"Scott..."
"Stop calling!"
He suddenly roared, his eyes blazing red. Two scorching laser beams burst forth and swept across the lake, raising a towering wall of water with a thunderous explosion!
Bang! Bang!
Just then, something stirred in the distant center of the lake. Ripples spread across the tranquil surface, followed by surging waves, layer upon layer, growing ever fiercer, as though some enormous creature long asleep were slowly awakening.
Scott abruptly froze, and the red light in his eyes instantly went out.
Deep in the lake's center, a massive vortex formed with a roar, spinning rapidly and churning up tremendous waves as mist rose in a column.
At that same instant, a terrifying, suffocating pressure surged from the vortex's center. Heaven and earth lost their color, the ground shook, and even the air seemed frozen.
Boom!!
A light too intense to look upon suddenly erupted, piercing the heavens and dazzling the eyes shut.
Within that brilliant light, the vortex at the lake's center slowly lifted a figure. Her long hair streamed, her clothes billowed, and her face was as clear as yesterday.
It was none other than Jean Grey, whom everyone had believed long dead.
The instant she emerged from the water, a horrifying presence that overwhelmed everything swept outward. The air stilled, the waves froze, and the entire lake sank into deathly silence.
Scott's pupils contracted sharply, his throat tightened, and he blurted out, "Jean!" His voice was as dry and rough as scraping sandpaper.
His whole body went rigid. His gaze locked onto the figure gliding toward him through the air, his heart pounding as though it might burst from his chest.
Yet Jean's response was as cold as a frozen lake. She hovered by the shore, her expression indifferent, her eyes devoid of warmth, as though the person standing there were not her former lover, but some unfamiliar and dangerous intruder.
She descended soundlessly, coming to a steady stop before Scott. The hem of her clothes did not stir; even the wind moved around her.
Scott's fingertips went numb. The wild joy of regaining what he had lost surged in his chest, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably. Three years' worth of words clogged his throat, yet he could not force out a single sentence.