Jean was wrong; Fang Yuan and Blink didn't reappear until the afternoon of the third day.
Seeing how inseparable Blink and Fang Yuan looked made more than one Rogue die of envy.
Still, what let the Rogues breathe easier was that Fang Yuan hadn't announced Blink as his girlfriend—so they still had a chance.
Logan cornered Fang Yuan and laid out his doubts.
"Why don't I use the Longevity Serum routine in this World?" Fang Yuan clapped Logan on the shoulder and earnestly spun him a line. "Different Worlds have different customs. Here, the tension between humans and Mutants is already sky-high."
"If something like Longevity Serum popped up now, it'd light the fuse in seconds!"
Of course he was bluffing; Longevity Serum is a trump card in any World. It might detonate things, but if Fang Yuan could handle the covetous eyes, everyone else would just have to let him fleece them.
But Fang Yuan didn't want the hassle, and it wouldn't fully solve the Mutants' plight anyway. Sentinels have been built—he could hardly leave them to rust.
If they're going to be used, the great philanthropist Fang Yuan might as well help them reach their full potential.
Over the next month, the newly expanded X-Men drilled team tactics, while Magneto returned to the Brotherhood of Mutants to keep the hotheads in line.
Fang Yuan kept schooling the student Mutants with pleasing results: Iceman could freeze larger areas faster, and Pyro could now mold flames into crude shapes.
"Looks like my teaching skills outshine the Ancient One's by a mile!" Fang Yuan preened to himself.
Only Rogue still couldn't control her power and had to wear gloves all day.
To keep her from pestering him while he fed the fish, Fang Yuan started teaching her magic, focusing on boosting mental strength—maybe that would help her master her ability sooner.
Meanwhile, Good Big Brother Shaw had smoothed over his own scandal; the officials stopped digging into his identity.
Because at one hearing he'd asked the officer in charge, "Would you rather I be the Black King or the Mutant diplomat?"
If he were the Black King, that officer wouldn't be sitting across from him talking.
Yet Mutant registration kept advancing; as Trask Industries kept delivering more and more anti-Mutant sentinel robots, the authorities' confidence soared.
Every day the news showed Mutants being arrested by Sentinels.
At first only law-breaking Mutants were seized, but soon they were grabbing anyone who was a Mutant.
That plainly contradicted the government's earlier promises!
Still, though Sebastian Shaw protested on behalf of Mutants, he couldn't stop Sentinels from trampling Mutant rights.
Shaw's voice went unheard; even sympathetic humans spoke up, but most stayed silent.
After all, it was only Mutants being arrested—what did that have to do with them?
Trask Industries thus became the hottest company around.
"We've upgraded the algorithms; sentinel robots can now pinpoint the Mutant X-Gene more accurately and can actively evolve their recognition abilities, effectively nullifying certain Mutants' power-shielding tricks!"
President of Trask Industries revealed in a fresh interview.
At first no one paid attention to the info in that interview, dismissing it as mere advertising.
Humans hostile to Mutants kept on with their revelry.
Whenever a sentinel robot took flight at low altitude, crowds tagged along—onlookers, reporters hunting stories, and plenty of anti-Mutant bigots delighted to see Mutants suffer.
"Wonder what Mutant it'll be today. Yesterday's catch had hidden in a mall for over ten years!"
a burly White man gloated.
"So what if you've got powers? Still kneel and beg like a pig for the slaughter," another man chimed in.
Clearly much of the anti-Mutant hostility was plain jealousy.
Why wasn't I the one born with powers?
Iceman Bobby's little brother probably thought that way; once he learned his brother was a Mutant, he dialed 911 on him.
BOOM!
Soon after the Sentinel landed, a violent explosion rocked the area, quickly smothered by smoke. Moments later two Sentinels hauled out a Black man with scorched hands.
"Him? He's actually a Mutant!"
the crowd gasped. The burly White guy even stepped up to the Sentinel, raising his camera for a selfie with the captured Mutant.
He's done this many times; sentinel robots only target Mutants, so humans feel perfectly safe. Some have even dubbed them guardian angels.
But these so-called guardians of humanity seemed different—after seizing the Mutant, the sentinel robot didn't fly away as usual; instead it kept patrolling the scene.
"There are still Mutants here?" The humans on-site were stunned.
At that moment the Sentinel's loudspeaker crackled—
"Recognition System upgrading…"
"Recognition System upgrade complete!"
"Scanning target… X-Gene…"
Suddenly the Sentinel's voice sharpened: "X-Gene Carrier detected!"
"Who?"
The White muscle-man was still gaping, wondering which Mutant was reckless enough to approach a Sentinel, when the robot grabbed the nearest person—him!
"X-Gene Carrier captured!"
The White froze, then struggled wildly.
"I'm not a Mutant—you've got the wrong guy!"
But if even Mutants can't fight Sentinels, he stood no chance.
Seeing him seized, the crowd realized something was off; everyone knew this man was a rabid anti-Mutant bigot—he couldn't possibly be a Mutant.
Had the Sentinel gone haywire?
"Beep-beep-beep!"
Both Sentinels on the scene suddenly blared alarms.
"Large batch of X-Gene Carriers detected—requesting backup! Requesting backup!"
The humans exchanged bewildered looks.
"They're not coming for us, are they?"
"Run!"
People scattered in panic, but more Sentinels swooped from the sky and boxed them in.
No way out!
The same scene played out in many places, flinging society into chaos and leaving the authorities frantic.
The Sentinels had gone Rogue, targeting ordinary humans as well!
This upended the entire strategy toward Mutants.
For now the robots were only capturing people, not killing, but everyone knew unchecked errors would end in catastrophe.
Fortunately the purchase contract had included a remote kill-switch; the authorities shut the Sentinels down and stopped further arrests.
But the storm had already been unleashed.
The Sentinels' loudspeakers had broadcast everything; onlookers—and reporters live-streaming—spread the word far and wide.
After the uproar humanity realized one thing—
Everyone carries the X-Gene?
The government split into two camps: one demanded an immediate probe of Trask Industries, the other clung to wishful thinking.
"What if it was just a technical glitch?"
"Even if it wasn't, Trask can roll the Recognition System back—then the Sentinels remain our ace against Mutants."
Rather than accept universal X-Genes, they prized the robots' immediate gains; after all, recent results had been spectacular.
But Fang Yuan gave them no time to waver.
All envoys sent to Trask Industries vanished without a trace; phones went unanswered. When the government tried to dispatch others, every active television on Earth cut to the same feed.
A figure in a black trench-coat, black fedora, and white smiling mask appeared on every screen.
"Hear me, residents of this World!"
"I am the Sorcerer Supreme, Fox—savior of countless Worlds!"
The man's opening line filled everyone with dread.
"Savior?"
Hardly the entrance of a rescuer.
"Satellites—every satellite signal's been hijacked!" experts quickly pinpointed.
"A Mutant?" an official asked.
The expert shook his head. "If Mutants had this tech, they'd have ruled the World long ago!"
The official paled. "Not a Mutant… then we're in real trouble!"
With a Mutant they could negotiate; anyone else was beyond reach.
They knew exactly what the so-called Mutant threat really was.
On-screen, the Sorcerer Supreme continued.
"You have lost your way—but I have arrived!"
"The day of awakening is here!"
"Every tower, every high-rise of yours will crumble."
"A new epoch is about to begin!"
Fox blended into the darkness, only the white mask still visible, its grin now doubly eerie.
"I send this message not to recruit the strong, but to tell you who will deliver you from misery," Fox paused, "out of… sorcerer's etiquette."
"Furthermore…"
With a wave the camera pulled back, revealing he stood inside Trask Industries' headquarters.
At his feet lay the blood-soaked CEO of Trask; behind him, endless silver-white sentinel robots.
"Thank you for the gift—you've already built my army for me!"
"Sentinel robots—Slaughter Mode… activate!"
In an instant every Sentinel's eyes blazed a deadly red!
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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