Twilight_Scribe
patreon
Chapter 81: The Final Showdown—A Storm Is Brewing!
🕑 Added 2025-05-16 14:57:30 +0000 UTC
Whoosh!
The moment Alex's heat vision shot out, the Winged Man reacted instantly. With a swift flip mid-air, he narrowly avoided the deadly blast. Hovering in the sky, arms crossed, he stared down at Alex with a heavy, grim expression.
What Shaw said wasn't wrong—this man was a serious problem.
Eyes that could shoot heat rays? That kind of ability was simply monstrous.
To mutants everywhere, Alex posed an innate and overwhelming threat.
And that wasn't all. His strength, speed, and durability were all off the charts. He had no apparent weaknesses. Even Shaw had suffered repeated setbacks at his hands.
With someone like that standing in their way, taking out the guy who could control magnetism was going to be... tricky.
As for Alex himself, he didn't pursue the Winged Man further—there was no need. The cramped interior of the Blackbird jet limited his movement. He couldn't very well slice the aircraft into pieces just to get rid of the guy.
Land was already in sight. Once they got off the jet, dealing with a flyer like that would be child's play.
That said, when it came to handling grunts, Charles was still the ultimate cheat code.
After all, he didn't need to lift a finger—just touch his temples and think, and he could freeze the Winged Man mid-air, knock him unconscious, and let him fall into the ocean to drown.
Unfortunately, Charles's full attention was locked onto breaking through the psychic barrier within the nuclear submarine. He had no bandwidth to spare.
Ever since Erik had pulled the sub from the water, Charles had sensed a mental dead zone inside—just like what they encountered back at the Manhattan hotel.
Charles knew it. Shaw had to be hiding in that place.
Although he'd been helpless against this type of energy shield back in Manhattan, the current situation was far more critical—potentially world-altering.
He couldn't afford to fail.
So Charles threw everything he had at breaking through the barrier, leaving the rest to the others.
Good thing, too. For seasoned X-Men, dealing with the Hellfire Club's underlings wasn't much of a challenge.
That was how it played out in the original film, after all. While the X-Men clashed with Riptide, Azazel, and the defected Angel, Charles didn't intervene at all.
If he had, none of those guys—without helmets—could've strutted around for half as long.
Only after the team dealt with the minions and Erik confronted Shaw did Charles finally use his power to freeze Shaw in place—letting Erik kill him with a single coin.
In short: until Shaw was dealt with, Charles was off the table. The rest of them would have to handle the Hellfire Club on their own.
Fortunately, that wasn't a problem.
"Nicholas!"
Another voice rang out. As the Winged Man retreated from Alex's attack, a new figure emerged from the submarine.
It was a bald, hulking man with skin so pale it looked like whitewashed plaster. To the uninitiated, he might've looked seriously ill.
But clearly, this was just a physical mutation—nothing more.
The man was perfectly healthy.
He looked up at the Winged Man hovering above and shouted.
"That guy's in there—I can't get close!"
The Winged Man shouted back with a shrug of frustration.
"Fine! Leave it to me!"
The bald man grinned, then suddenly extended both arms and clapped toward the Blackbird in a dramatic, Hulk-like motion.
Boom!
With that slap, a massive wave exploded from the sea, towering like a dam burst, surging toward the Blackbird with unstoppable force.
"What the hell?!"
"A tidal wave?! Hank, heads up!"
Shouts of alarm rang out inside the jet.
"Everyone, strap in! It's gonna get bumpy!"
Hank shouted as he frantically piloted the jet, trying to dodge the incoming surge.
"Charles! Down!"
Alex yelled, throwing himself flat and grabbing Erik's hand, yanking him down to the floor.
The next instant—
BOOM!
The enormous wave crashed over the jet, jolting it violently.
The Blackbird was thrown around like a leaf in a storm, rocking so hard it felt like an earthquake.
Inside, the X-Men were shaken to their core. Heads spinning, stomachs flipping—they could barely tell up from down.
But thankfully, everyone had buckled in. Alex, with his terrifying strength, braced himself effortlessly, gripping the walls like a steel anchor.
As for Erik, he magnetized himself to the jet's interior, flattening himself over Charles like a human seatbelt.
Everyone made it through unscathed.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Moments later, the jet lost control and Hank crash-landed it onto the shore.
The impact was even worse than before.
The iconic first-generation Blackbird, a symbol of the team, was reduced to scrap metal in an instant.
Most of the X-Men were on the verge of vomiting.
Thankfully, with safety precautions in place, no one was seriously injured.
Cough, cough!
"Everyone okay?!"
"Moira? Raven?"
"We're good, Charles!"
Despite looking thin and frail, Charles—owner of the most powerful brain on Earth—was the first to recover. While the others were still reeling, he was already on his feet, checking on the team.
As for Alex?
He was already standing there like nothing had happened. Not even his hair was out of place, as if the crash had been a mild breeze.
Without wasting a word, Alex joined Charles and Erik in helping the others out of their seats. One by one, the mutants stepped out of the wreckage.
Across the shore, Shaw's submarine had also crash-landed. It was now a mangled husk of twisted metal, completely totaled.
And outside the destroyed sub stood four figures.
—The bald man from earlier, the one who could manipulate water.
—A flashy, dreadlocked Black man wearing sunglasses and oozing swagger.
—A plain-looking guy whose abilities weren't yet clear.
—And the Winged Man, still hovering mid-air, radiating cool menace.
They stood there, facing off against Charles and the others, tension crackling between the two sides like dry tinder in a lightning storm.
