In the Texas desert, the phone line crackled with a tension that felt like it could ignite the surrounding brush. Huang Wen's voice remained cool, a sharp contrast to the bubbling fury on the other end.
"Relax, Raven. I haven't done anything permanent to Raze," Huang Wen said, his tone casual as he checked his mental countdown. Silly Girl was deep in the data streams, peeling back layers of satellite encryption. "He's got Logan's genes, after all. Killing him is a chore I'm not quite ready for. I was thinking of something more... scenic. Maybe a deep-freeze in the Antarctic? Under a few miles of ice, out of sight, out of mind. He won't die, but he'll have plenty of time to rethink his life choices."
"You wouldn't dare!" Mystique's voice was a jagged blade of desperation. "If you touch him, I will spend every waking second of my life hunting everything you care about!"
"Give me the phone, Raven." A new voice entered the conversation—heavy, resonant, and dripping with the weight of decades of authority. Magneto had clearly pulled the device toward him with a flick of his magnetic field. "Young man, you are treading on very dangerous ground. Do you truly wish to be an enemy of all mutantkind?"
"Old man, let's get one thing straight," Huang Wen mocked, his eyes glowing with a faint golden light. "You've been the one picking this fight from day one. I tried to help your people, but you tried to treat me like a stepping stone for your little revolution. And now? Logan just wanted to see his son, and you treat him like a lab rat. He's my student, Erik. You touch my people, you deal with me."
"You have a high opinion of yourself, kid," Magneto's voice turned icy. "You've played with some parlor tricks and beaten a few street-level thugs. But for you, I have made ample preparations. You should be proud; it's rare that I put this much effort into a single human. Now, release Raze, or the consequences will be—"
"Found them!" Silly Girl's voice chimed in Huang Wen's ear, crisp and triumphant. "They aren't in Nevada, Master. It was a decoy signal. They're in a hidden facility in New Mexico, roughly three hundred miles from your current vector. Moving the coordinates to your HUD now."
"Or the consequences will be what?" Huang Wen interrupted, a predatory grin spreading across his face. "Actually, don't bother. I'm tired of the long-distance chat. Let's talk in person."
Without waiting for a reply, Huang Wen crushed the satellite phone. He grabbed Raze by the collar, his body dissolving into a streak of light as he utilized the full extent of his legendary speed.
In a hidden bunker beneath the New Mexico sands, Magneto stared at the dead phone in his hand. His face was a mask of cold fury. With a sharp gesture, the metal plates in the room began to groan and shift. They flew toward him, wrapping around his body in a complex, interlocking weave.
This wasn't his usual cape and tunic. It was a suit of streamlined, high-density metal armor that clung to his frame like a second skin. It looked suspiciously like a matte-black version of Tony Stark's Mark II, reinforced with magnetic shielding and designed specifically to leave no gaps for a pressure-point strike.
"Erik..." Mystique whispered, looking at him with concern.
"He's coming," Magneto said, his helmet snapping shut. "And this time, I won't be caught off guard."
"You know, for an old guy who hates humans, you sure are quick to steal their fashion sense," a voice echoed through the hall.
Magneto spun around. Huang Wen was standing at the end of the corridor, Raze slumped at his feet. Huang Wen's eyes immediately went to Magneto's new suit.
"Seriously? Anti-pressure point armor?" Huang Wen chuckled, shaking his head. "I haven't even had the 'Iron Man' talk with Tony yet, and you're already out here wearing his mood board. Does it come in red and gold, or is 'Grumpy Dictator' the only color in stock?"
"Laz!" Mystique cried out, stepping forward, but she froze when she saw the golden aura vibrating around Huang Wen.
Huang Wen ignored her, his mind focused. He tentatively reached out with his telekinesis, trying to seize the magnetic armor and crush it, but he hit a wall. The suit wasn't just metal; it was an extension of Magneto's own magnetic field. Every molecule was being held in place by Erik's sheer will.
"You really do have psychic abilities," Magneto's voice sounded muffled through the helmet. "Telekinesis, mental suggestion... you're more like Jean than I thought. But my mind is shielded, and my armor is anchored. You're out of tricks, boy."
"Tricks? I haven't even started," Huang Wen said. His Spirit swept through the base like a radar. "Found them."
In a blur that left the air screaming, Huang Wen vanished. Magneto reacted instantly, his armor propelling him forward like a railgun slug, but he was a fraction of a second too slow.
Huang Wen reappeared in a high-security holding block. He found Yuriko first, suspended in a magnetic harness that kept her off the ground. With a casual wave of his hand, he severed the magnetic bonds and caught her. Then, he kicked down the reinforced door to the adjacent room.
The smell hit him first—a metallic, sharp odor that made his nose wrinkle. On a medical bed, Logan was pinned down by massive iron clamps. He looked like he'd been through a meat grinder, but his eyes were wide and burning with a familiar, feral rage.
"Boss..." Logan grunted, his voice a gravelly mess.
"Hold on, Logan. Let's get you out of this kinky setup," Huang Wen said, tearing the iron clamps away like they were made of wet paper.
Suddenly, the room vibrated. Magneto's armored form crashed through the wall, his hands outstretched. "You're not taking him!"
The magnetic field in the room intensified, trying to pin Logan and Yuriko back down. Huang Wen snorted. He placed a hand on Logan's shoulder and another on Yuriko's, and with a surge of Qi, he bypassed the magnetic interference entirely. He warped them both back to the Wing Chun Academy in New York, leaving them in the safety of the medical bay before warping back to New Mexico in a heartbeat.
He arrived just in time to see a very angry, very naked Logan charging back through the bunker's halls. Apparently, Logan had used his own Indestructible Divine Art to break free the moment he landed in New York and had demanded Silly Girl send him back to "settle the score."
"He's a real man, I'll give him that," Huang Wen muttered, watching the spectacle.
Logan was a golden-skinned blur. He had activated the Indestructible Divine Art, and for the first time, Magneto's greatest power was useless. The Qi circulating through Logan's cells acted as a biological insulator. Magneto tried to seize Logan's skeleton, but he couldn't get a "grip" on the metal. It was like trying to catch a greased eel that also happened to be a chainsaw.
CLANG!
Logan's claws slammed into Magneto's new armor. Sparks showered the hallway. The anti-pressure point suit was thick, but it wasn't Adamantium. Logan was literally peeling the metal plates off Magneto's chest with his bare hands.
"You think a tin can will save you?!" Logan roared, his voice echoing with the power of his Qi.
Magneto was forced into a desperate retreat. He began tearing the base apart, throwing massive steel girders and concrete slabs at Logan, trying to bury the mutant under thousands of tons of debris. But Logan just carved through it all, his golden skin glowing brighter with every strike.
Huang Wen stood back, leaning against a crumbling wall, watching the fight with a critical eye. He was impressed by Logan's progress, but he was also counting.
Two minutes, thirty seconds... two minutes, forty-five...
In a flash of light, the golden glow around Logan's body flickered and died. His shoulders slumped, and his breathing became heavy and ragged. The Indestructible Divine Art was a massive drain on his stamina, and even after months of training, he was still hitting the three-minute wall—the "Ultraman Limit," as Huang Wen liked to call it.