"Eric, stop it!"
Seeing how dangerously the situation was spiraling out of control, Charles no longer hesitated. He shouted at the top of his lungs and lunged forward, rushing straight toward Eric. His only thought was to tackle Eric to the ground and interrupt the attack before it was too late.
But the moment he moved, his vision blurred.
A figure suddenly appeared directly in front of him, cutting off his path before he could even take another step. The sudden movement forced Charles to halt immediately.
His expression turned grim.
"Rorschach… please," Charles said, his voice tight with desperation. "Please don't stop me."
There was no doubt about it. The person standing between him and Eric was Rorschach.
Facing Charles's almost pleading gaze, Rorschach slowly shook his head. His tone was calm but utterly resolute.
"Sorry, Charles. I can't let you go."
He glanced briefly at the distant fleets before looking back at Charles again.
"This time, I agree with Eric. Those people deserve to die."
Rorschach's voice wasn't loud, but every word carried an icy certainty.
"We didn't do anything wrong. If anything, we saved them. And their response is to try to kill us."
His eyes hardened.
"I'm not going to show mercy to people who are trying to kill me."
"Rorschach! Eric!" Charles roared in fury and desperation. "There are thousands of people on those ships. They're just following orders. This isn't their choice!"
It was the only thing he could do now.
Charles understood perfectly well that he couldn't physically break past Rorschach. The man's monstrous strength made any attempt meaningless. Even worse, with both Rorschach and Eric standing against him, his telepathic abilities were completely suppressed.
For the first time since forming the team, Charles felt utterly powerless.
"Stop them!" he shouted desperately to the others.
"Alex! Sean! Darwin! Stop Eric!"
"Moira, stop him!"
Above them, the frozen missile warheads were already beginning to move again. Slowly but steadily, they were drifting closer and closer toward the fleets on the sea.
Time was running out.
But the mutants Charles called to stood frozen.
Alex Summers, Sean Cassidy, and Darwin exchanged uncertain glances. None of them knew what to do.
Until now, Charles, Eric, and Rorschach had been the unquestioned pillars of the group. Every major decision had been guided—directly or indirectly—by those three. They had always worked together, always stood on the same side.
But now the three leaders were divided.
Even worse, Eric and Rorschach were standing together against Charles.
The younger mutants felt completely lost.
Should they support Charles?
Or should they let Eric continue?
Even if they wanted to help Charles, another grim reality remained. Neither Eric nor Rorschach was someone they could realistically stop.
Moira was the only one who didn't hesitate.
She firmly supported Charles.
Without warning, she drew the pistol from her waist and fired directly at Eric.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several shots rang out in quick succession as the bullets streaked toward Eric.
But against someone who could manipulate magnetic fields, firearms were almost meaningless.
Eric casually flicked his hand.
The bullets instantly veered off course, deflected by an invisible magnetic force and sent flying harmlessly aside.
One of the ricocheting bullets suddenly changed direction again.
Whoosh!
It shot straight back toward Charles.
Rorschach couldn't help feeling slightly speechless when he saw it.
In this timeline, Charles's position was completely different from what it had been originally. Yet somehow, fate still seemed determined to send that bullet toward him.
Then again, the explanation was simple enough.
Charles and Rorschach were both standing near Eric, and Eric had just deflected the bullets without paying much attention. A stray ricochet heading in their direction wasn't surprising at all.
But Rorschach's abilities were no longer what they had once been.
His perception, reflexes, and reaction speed had all improved dramatically.
So when the bullet flew toward Charles, Rorschach merely raised his hand and caught it cleanly between his fingers.
The spinning projectile came to a complete stop.
Just like that, Charles avoided the fate of being confined to a wheelchair.
Meanwhile, Moira's quick burst of gunfire had emptied her magazine. Before she could even react, Eric flicked his hand again.
The metal components in her equipment responded instantly.
Moira was thrown backward by the sudden magnetic force, landing several feet away in the sand.
At that moment, Eric turned his attention back to the sky.
The missiles began moving again.
Slowly but steadily, the entire mass of warheads started flying toward the fleets waiting offshore.
"Damn it… this is insane. Sorry, Eric!"
At the final moment, Alex finally made up his mind.
Taking a step forward, he prepared to unleash his energy attack at Eric.
But before he could act—
Swish!
Two blazing beams of heat vision shot down from Rorschach's eyes.
They slammed into the sand directly in front of Alex's feet, blasting two smoking holes into the beach and forcing him to stop immediately.
"Damn it!"
Sean Cassidy gritted his teeth.
Opening his mouth wide, he unleashed a powerful sonic scream toward Eric.
But the attack never had a chance to travel far.
In the blink of an eye, Rorschach appeared in front of him like a ghost.
His hand shot forward, clamping firmly over Sean's mouth.
The sonic wave was forced backward, trapped by Rorschach's grip before it could even leave Sean's throat.
"Man… this isn't right."
Darwin shook his head repeatedly, clearly troubled by the situation. But he made no move to intervene.
He knew perfectly well that he had no chance against Rorschach.
More importantly—
It was already too late.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The suspended missiles finally reached the fleets.
Then they detonated.
A chain of explosions erupted across the ocean, each blast shaking the air with thunderous force. One after another, towering fireballs rose into the sky like blooming mushrooms.
Blazing flames roared outward like the breath of some monstrous demon.
The combined fleets of the United States and Russia were instantly engulfed in the inferno.
Warships shattered under the devastating barrage. Steel hulls were ripped apart as if they were made of paper.
Within seconds, the once-mighty fleets were reduced to burning wreckage scattered across the sea.
"Eric… what have you done?"
Charles's voice trembled.
His face had gone completely pale.
All strength seemed to drain from his body as he collapsed onto the sand, unable even to remain standing. The devastation unfolding before him felt as though the sky itself had collapsed.
Mutants had just used missiles to destroy the fleets of two superpowers.
After this day, would there still be any place left for mutants in human society?
Eric and Rorschach had pushed their entire kind onto a path with no return.
At that moment, Charles felt as if his heart were being torn apart.
"Charles… my friend. I'm sorry, but this had to be done."
Eric looked down at him calmly.
"Friends?" Charles repeated bitterly.
He slowly shook his head as he stared at Eric.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think we are."
What Eric had done had crossed a line Charles could never accept. It shattered the very foundation of everything he believed in.
"Charles," Eric said quietly, "I have always wanted to stand beside you. I wanted us to unite our brothers and sisters."
His voice grew more intense.
"I wanted our kind to protect each other. To keep each other safe."
"All mutants standing together."
"Fighting our enemies together."
Eric paused before continuing.
"I hoped we shared the same path, Charles. Unfortunately… we don't."
As he said this, Eric turned his gaze toward Rorschach.
"And Rorschach," he added, "I don't think we're as different as you claim."
Rorschach shrugged slightly.
"This time, I support your decision because they tried to kill us. That's all."
His tone remained relaxed, almost casual.
"Right now, at this moment, they're my enemies. But that doesn't mean every ordinary person automatically is."
He glanced briefly at the burning wreckage scattered across the ocean.
"If people leave me alone, I have no interest in bothering them."
Then he looked back at Eric.
"That's the biggest difference between you and me."
.....
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