The Texas desert heat was unforgiving, but for Magneto, the world had never looked brighter. When Mystique had first brought him to the wandering, broken Jean Grey, Erik Lehnsherr had seen more than just a powerful mutant; he had seen the messiah of their race.
Magneto was ecstatic. He had spent decades listening to Charles Xavier drone on about Jean's potential, about the "blocks" he had placed on her mind to "protect" her. In Magneto's eyes, Charles hadn't been protecting Jean; he had been lobotomizing a goddess to keep her subservient to his dream of coexistence. Now, seeing her raw, untethered power, Magneto knew that the rise of mutants was no longer a dream—it was an inevitability.
Despite being currently powerless, Magneto's greatest weapon wasn't his mastery of metal; it was his mind. He was a survivor of the world's darkest atrocities, a leader who had gathered the outcasts of society into a unified fist. His rhetoric was a surgical instrument. Under his careful, fatherly persuasion, he convinced the lost and confused Phoenix that her pain was a symptom of a world that feared her, and that her true purpose was to lead her people to glory.
With a simple gesture from the Phoenix, the intricate "acupoint lock" Huang Wen had placed on Magneto's nervous system was incinerated. The meridians were forced open by cosmic fire. Erik felt the familiar hum of the Earth's magnetic field return to his bones, stronger and more vibrant than ever before.
Back in the present, as Huang Wen listened to Raze's drone-like confession, he wasn't particularly surprised by this turn of events. He knew his pressure point techniques weren't divine law. If a cosmic entity like the Phoenix Force couldn't restart a man's heart or unblock his Qi, then the universe was a much simpler place than he thought. He had already seen his strikes fail against Raze's shifting biology; it only stood to reason that a god-tier psychic could undo his work.
"So, Magneto is back on the board," Huang Wen muttered, his eyes narrowing. "And he's got a nuclear-level psychic as his new enforcer. Great."
As Raze continued his story, the details of Logan's arrival came to light. Logan had tracked the group to a remote ranch, driven by a mix of duty to Xavier and his own complicated feelings for Jean. He had encountered Raze first.
Raze, raised in the shadows by Mystique, had been weaponized against the very idea of a father. When Logan, moved by a rare moment of paternal shock, had rushed toward the boy, Raze had "greeted" him by driving bone claws through Logan's lungs.
But Raze had underestimated the "New Logan." Months of practicing the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill under Huang Wen's tutelage had turned Logan's body into something beyond mere flesh and adamantium. Even without the technique active, Logan's base physical density had increased tenfold. Raze's claws had struggled to penetrate the reinforced muscle, and Logan had responded with the kind of "tough love" only a feral Canadian can provide. He had beaten the young wolf cub into the dirt, showing him that experience beats raw mutation every time.
However, Logan's victory was short-lived. Mystique had emerged from the ranch house, flanked by a restored Magneto and a glowing Jean Grey. Jean hadn't even blinked. She had simply waved a hand, and a wall of telekinetic fire had slammed into Logan and Yuriko. The heat was so intense it vaporized their high-tech watches instantly, cutting off the signal to the Academy. Before Logan could even mutter the mantra to activate his Diamond skin, Jean's telekinesis crushed the air from his lungs, knocking both him and Yuriko into unconsciousness as if they were ragdolls.
They had been taken away to a location Raze didn't know. Mystique, fearing for her son's safety, had ordered him to stay behind and act as a scout, refusing to let him join the Brotherhood's inner circle until the "heat" had died down. Raze, ever the obedient tool, had waited... until he saw Huang Wen arrive and ignite the desert.
"So you don't know where the base is," Huang Wen said, his voice flat. He felt a wave of helplessness, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, calculating resolve.
"The Brotherhood's secret hideouts... I've traveled the world, but I never bothered to look for underground bunkers or shielded islands," Huang Wen mused. He looked at the blue-skinned boy at his feet. Raze was still under the influence of his Spirit—his mental defenses had been shattered like glass.
"Since you don't know the way, we'll ask the woman who does. Contact your mother," Huang Wen commanded.
"Yes..." Raze replied, his movements robotic. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a secure, encrypted satellite phone. He dialed a number that wasn't in any public directory.
"Beep... Beep... Beep..."
"Raze?" Mystique's voice came through, sharp and filled with a mother's instinctive paranoia. "What happened? Why are you calling on this line? Is the target neutralized?"
Raze looked at Huang Wen, his eyes vacant. Huang Wen's voice echoed directly in the boy's mind: Ask her when she's coming to pick you up. Act normal.
Huang Wen had briefly considered a direct hostage exchange, but the math didn't favor him. He had one Raze; they had Logan and Yuriko. Beyond that, Huang Wen didn't want a deal—he wanted a confrontation. He wanted Silly Girl to track this signal to its source so he could end the Brotherhood threat once and for all.
He was feeling a surge of confidence he hadn't felt since his first day in this world. After integrating the Legendary Ah Xing character pack, his power levels had reached a mathematical tipping point. When he activated the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill, his combined Essence, Qi, and Spirit attributes surged to nearly 8,000 points. If he factored in Silly Girl's auxiliary processing and combat support, his functional "battle power" exceeded 10,000.
Back when he first met the Ancient One, Silly Girl had estimated the Sorcerer Supreme's power was ten times greater than his own. Now, Huang Wen had grown tenfold. In his mind, he was no longer a "local master"; he was approaching the threshold of the "Big Shots"—the cosmic entities and planetary protectors. He was, perhaps, becoming a little arrogant, but in a world of gods and monsters, arrogance was often a prerequisite for survival.
"Mother," Raze said into the phone, his voice steady thanks to Huang Wen's mental bracing. "The area is clear. When are you coming back for me? I'm tired of the dust."
There was a long, suffocating silence on the other end of the line.
"You're not Raze," Mystique's voice dropped into a deadly, guttural growl. "Who is this? What have you done to my son? If you've touched a hair on his head, I will spend the rest of my life making you scream."
Huang Wen sighed, taking the phone from Raze's hand. "You always were too smart for your own good, Raven. Long time no see. I hear you've been busy playing house with Magneto and the Phoenix."
"Huang Wen?!" Mystique's voice shifted from rage to a sudden, sharp edge of fear. "How did you find him? How did you... what have you done to his mind?"
"He's fine, for now," Huang Wen said, pacing the scorched circle of earth. "He's just having a very honest conversation with me. But let's talk about Logan and Yuriko. I want them back, and I'm not really in the mood for a long-distance negotiation."
"I warn you, Wen," Mystique hissed. "We have the Phoenix. We have the Master of Magnetism. You are one man. You might have beaten some street thugs and a fake Mandarin, but you are playing with powers that can erase you from history. Don't do anything reckless."