When it comes to how much crisis awareness superheroes and mutants have, and how they've honed their quick on-the-spot reactions through various disasters, you can tell just by looking now.
Even without any warning, most people were immersed in the comfort of the hot spring, but Matt just shouted once, and everyone instantly jumped up, not caring that they were still bare-chested. Some even dropped the towels wrapped around their waists, and they ran out frantically.
Contrary to those disaster movies where people freeze in fear after someone gives a warning, every superhero and mutant reacted like they had rehearsed countless times, retreating as quickly as they made their entrance. In the pit, they instantly cleared out with a swish.
Although Stark's illness hasn't completely healed, his reactions were shockingly fast. Before Matt finished speaking, he had already armed himself in his mecha, grabbing Steve with his left hand and Bucky with his right. As they passed Natasha, Bucky pulled her along, and she in turn grabbed Shiller. Worried about Matt, Shiller pulled him along too. People from the Prime Universe followed like a skewer of candied fruit and flew out of the pit.
The Avengers from the Prime Universe weren't slouches either. Iron Man picked up Spider Man, who then stuck to Captain America with Spider Silk. Doctor Strange pulled in Black Widow and Banner, while Thor took Hawkeye in one big leap. The only slight hiccup was that Captain America and Thor's robes fell off. Fortunately, it was dark above, and no one could see.
The local Avengers reacted a bit slower and were scattered because they were socializing with the mutants. Spider Man shot Spider Silk to pull himself up, and Black Widow used her Hook to ascend. Iron Man considered saving them, but the mutants didn't need his help, so he flew up on his own. Winter Soldier, Captain America, and Hawkeye were all led out by the mutants they were chatting with.
The remaining mutants got even more creative, each bringing a large group. Just Polaris alone pulled up more than twenty mutants, who all appeared above the pit in unison.
In just one or two seconds, the ground began to tremble. It wasn't a horizontal shake, but an up-and-down motion like flipping a frying pan. This kind of shaking even made it hard for a cyborg like Captain America to stand steadily, nearly launching him into the air.
"Something's wrong!" Stark stepped forward and said, "This tremor is too regular to be a natural phenomenon; something must be... the volcano! Something is causing the volcano to erupt!!!"
Everyone's expressions changed. You have to know, the volcano on Clarkia Island is an active one, and geological activities are quite frequent. If it erupts, the whole island might get buried under volcanic ash. Even if there are no casualties, the long-time construction on Clarkia would all be for nothing.
Moreover, they're so close to the volcano now, they might not have time to escape. Besides superheroes and mutants, there are also a bunch of regular people here. Among others, there are ordinary scientists, people from SWORD and Wakanda, and some ambassadors from small countries that are friendly with the mutants. If all these people die here, the mutants would have to leave Earth overnight.
Before Stark even finished speaking, he was about to jump down. Steve hurriedly held him back. "What are you doing!"
"I need to go down and dismantle that thing," Stark shouted, raising his voice. "The volcanic eruption isn't immediate; there's still time!!!"
Upon hearing this, the mutants realized the situation too. Iceman and Pyro immediately rushed forward, and other young mutants quickly gathered around.
"I'll go with you!" Iceman said, "No matter what it is, I can freeze it. If needed, I can find a way to freeze the magma too!"
"That's right!" Polaris said, "I can stabilize the underground magnetic field to buy you time. We absolutely can't let the volcano erupt!"
Stark took a slight step back, "Stephen!"
"No way," Strange stepped forward and said, "I don't know the specific underground structure. If I open a Teleportation Portal, it might throw you directly into the magma. And the explosion could damage the Teleportation Portal, and then you won't be able to come back!"
"There's no time left." Stark gritted his teeth and said, "We have to fly down!"
Several figures quickly flew toward the bottom of the pit. Just then, another figure followed him. As Stark flew, he turned to see that it was the local Iron Man. The other lifted his visor and shouted, "I designed the underground water system; I have to go!"
Stark said nothing, but he knew that the only thing that could cause such regular tremors must be artificial equipment, and the only artificial system underground right now was the water system. It had to be related to the local Iron Man's design.
Although there were many doubts about this, Stark couldn't be careless. When flying into the previous cavern, he deliberately blocked the local Iron Man's path. The other noticed but had no time to argue, because Stark flew off in a flash, not giving him a chance to explain.
"Everyone else, follow me to the volcano." Erik spoke up, "If it's inevitable that the volcano will erupt, we'll have to find a way to channel the lava. Captain, you take the others to shelter."
"Come underwater," Namor suddenly said, "I've built a temporary bubble cabin in the Deep Sea below the island. Even if the volcano erupts, it won't be affected. Follow me."
Seasoned veterans like Captain America and Winter Soldier didn't need to communicate; they naturally formed a formation. Some led the way, while others guarded the rear, maintaining the group formation like shepherd dogs, quickly heading toward their destination. Ordinary people and weaker mutants could only grit their teeth and try to keep up.
In the blink of an eye, they reached the lakeside. Namor swam to the center of the lake, waved his Trident, and a waterway opened underwater. Superpowered mutants began leading ordinary people down. Since there was no seawater all the way down, and no need to adapt to pressure changes, they smoothly reached the Deep Sea refuge Namor mentioned.
"Here you can see, there's a continuously rising stream of water, leading straight to the center of the lake," Namor said, "I wanted to build a high-speed water channel between Atlantis and Clarkia, and it's only halfway done, I didn't expect this incident to happen."
"I'm still not at ease," Apocalypse said, "I'm not afraid of volcanic eruptions, you all wait here, I need to go check it out."
After saying that, he flew back up. The other powerful mutants did the same; they couldn't just hide in a shelter like ordinary people, so after sending the people off, they all flew up.
However, everyone went to the volcano's mouth to find Erik, and they didn't dare go down lightly. Because they didn't understand the underground structure and didn't know what exactly was causing the tremors, going down would only cause trouble. If it really exploded later, it wouldn't be easy to get out.
However, Strange from the Central Universe and Shiller, who were emboldened by their skills, were mainly worried about Stark, who hadn't yet recovered. The two flew into the cave at the fastest speed; the temperature here had already far exceeded before.
Previously it was just unsuitable for ordinary people to live, now it's a bit unsuitable for superpower users. As soon as Strange entered, he added several layers of shields to himself, then said, "The lava river in Mephisto's Hell isn't even this hot. Can Tony's mecha withstand it?"
"They also brought Iceman and Polaris, so it should be fine." Though Shiller said so, the gray mist was already spreading out, starting to search for Stark's figure throughout the entire cavern.
The gray mist doesn't really like hot places, but that's just his psychological effect. In reality, temperature has no impact on the Outer God. Or rather, most things in the real world can't affect it at all. Moreover, the gray mist is good friends with Little Morgan, and since Little Morgan's father might be in danger, he's too anxious to care about the heat, going full throttle instead.
"Found it!" the gray mist suddenly shouted, "Wait a moment, I need to retract some of my abilities, otherwise it'll affect their minds..."
Shiller condensed into human form, startling a few mutants, almost making them strike out. Iceman's ice cone had already been launched but fortunately had no impact on Shiller.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I..."
Shiller hurriedly gave a gesture to silence him, because now the two Iron Men were examining the engine of the water supply system. It was this thing that continuously released shockwaves, driving underground heat and was about to cause a volcanic eruption.
Iceman became anxious watching and said through gritted teeth, "Can't we just freeze this thing? The volcano is really going to erupt!"
This was no joke. The ground tremors were getting more severe, and the whole cave started collapsing, with the pathway on the left already half collapsed. More frightening was that the ground was starting to crack, which meant magma might be surging up.
Pyro, who was very sensitive to the heat, suddenly shouted, "Get out of the way!"
In a second, Polaris tugged and directly pulled all the mutants and two Iron Men to retreat quickly. Strange, who had just arrived, propped up a shield. At a distance of less than ten meters from the engine, a giant crack shot out lava.
Fortunately, they retreated quickly, and a shield blocked it, otherwise, they might have been hit by now. Being able to withstand the heat here was one thing, but getting hit directly by magma was another. It's like working near the sun versus directly entering the sun, and Stark's nano armor was too thin to withstand it.
"The engine must be shut down!" Stark shouted, "You guys stop the magma, I'm going to check it out again!"
With that, he was about to fly out, Strange gritted his teeth, trying to pull him back, but couldn't act. Seeing him fly out, the mutants could only brace themselves and fly out. Polaris gritted her teeth, stomped her foot, and a magnetic storm formed a giant whirlpool, directly pushing the magma back into the crack.
Iceman immediately stepped in to control it, as an ice carpet spread out from under his feet, instantly sealing the crack. But Pyro said, "No, the repressed magma will find another weak spot to emerge, this won't solve the fundamental problem!"
"Where's the next spot?!" Polaris asked, turning back.
Pyro felt the heat changes, pointed his hand forward, "There!"
No sooner said than done, as the place Pyro pointed to split open. Polaris waved her hand, and a magnetic arrow shot out, but this time it couldn't stop the erupting magma, only weakened its force a bit. Iceman took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, a dense ice mist spewed out, instantly dropping the entire space's temperature by over ten degrees, freezing the crack barely shut.
"You're right, this isn't the way," Polaris looked at the still raging crack, but had no better solution. Normally restricted by Clarkia, they couldn't fully exert their abilities, and had to be very cautious, afraid of destroying the whole Clarkia Island, so they were just barely coping.
"There's something wailing," Shiller suddenly said, "Did you hear it?"