Beast knew perfectly well he would be chosen as the representative scientist for the mutant side. Thus, he stepped forward proactively—though he had no idea what awaited him.
Kitty Pryde took a deep breath, walked to a nearby table, and picked up a laptop.
Her expression was solemn.
"Hank… I'll get straight to the point."
She pulled up a document and turned the screen toward everyone.
"I'm sorry. I found this in the secret folder on your computer. I… phased into your room to get it."
"You broke into my room?" Beast frowned.
Anyone else making such a claim he might not believe, but a girl who could literally walk through walls?
No password, door, or lock in existence could stop her.
But even then, he wasn't particularly alarmed. The "secret folder" contained only classified research data and… some embarrassing personal videos. Shameful, but hardly a matter for a public confrontation.
Yet when he looked at the screen, his eyes nearly popped out.
"Th–this is… data extracted from the Helicarrier's systems!"
As a scientific genius, Beast identified it instantly—and froze in disbelief.
"I've spent days and only managed to decode a tiny portion. But this—this is the full dataset!?"
"Of course you didn't decode it," Kitty said sharply.
She switched to another window—an email.
'Dear Hank,
I deeply regret the decision Congress has made…
—Tony Stark'
The courtyard exploded with murmurs.
Of course. Captain America had just proposed sending Beast to work with Tony Stark.
If Tony was the Helicarrier AI designer, then working with Beast would give him complete control over the "investigation."
And now there was an email—from Tony himself—already in Hank's possession.
Captain America's offer suddenly looked like a setup.
Beast turned pale.
"Wait—wait! I've never seen that email! I have no idea how it got onto my computer!"
Steve Rogers was equally stunned. None of this matched anything he or Tony had discussed.
He quickly turned to General Ross.
"Contact Tony. Immediately. Find out what the hell he's doing!"
But Ross was already lowering his phone.
"Captain… Tony Stark is missing. None of our channels can reach him."
Steve stiffened.
"Damn it, Tony! Whatever you're doing, you should have told me first!"
He still believed Tony had simply acted on his own again—rash, impulsive, unilateral.
But this time, Tony's "mistake" was pushing Steve into a political disaster.
Meanwhile, the mutant side had already compared the digital signatures.
A mutant technician declared:
"This data is unquestionably Stark Industries architecture. And the email originated from the Pentagon's Defense Department servers. There's no doubt—Congress authorized Stark to control the Helicarrier! Hank McCoy was cooperating with him in advance!"
"I WAS NOT!" Beast roared.
But the crowd was already beyond reason.
"And how did you break my encryption, Kitty? That's not your power!"
Kitty folded her arms.
"Oh, I had… help. Someone warned me to check your files. If not for him, I never would've believed you'd betray us."
The "someone," of course, was Marcus—who had handed her the preset decryptor containing fabricated "evidence."
Beast had indeed never seen any of it… because Marcus had placed it there himself.
Had the crowd been calm, the inconsistencies would have surfaced immediately.
But they were not calm.
They were angry, frightened, and ready to blame someone.
The shouting began—
"Traitor!"
"It was the government all along!"
"They sent Stark to wipe us out!"
"Kill him!"
Marcus barely needed to steer them.
A single spark among the agitated majority was enough to ignite the entire crowd.
Cyclops—already losing control of the student body—felt the pressure.
Even he wavered under the tidal wave of fury.
He turned to Captain America.
"Captain… it seems we have our answer. Your Secretary of Defense directed the attack. Even if you were unaware, Congress cannot escape responsibility."
"Scott, no! Wait!" Steve tried desperately to regain control.
"Don't jump to conclusions. Let us bring Tony back and question him. I swear we will give you a proper explanation."
But the crowd was no longer listening.
In their eyes, Captain America was no longer the hero of freedom.
He was just another President—another enemy.
"Get out!"
"You brought an army to intimidate us?"
"You want war? We'll return it!"
"We're done being afraid!"
The wave of hostility forced Cyclops into a corner.
He had no choice but to embrace their sentiment—or lose them entirely.
He turned back to Steve.
"A 'proper explanation'? Tell me, Mr. President—do you even know what mutants need?"
He stepped forward, voice ringing across the courtyard.
"You're America's greatest hero. When the powerless suffer, you protect them. When injustice spreads, you stand up. That is what made you a legend."
"But when mutants were dragged into laboratories for experimentation—where were you?
When we were hunted, hated, discriminated against—where were you?
When soldiers massacred entire mutant communities—where were you!?"
Steve had no answer.
When the Superhero Registration Act threatened his peers, he had risen in rebellion.
But when the Mutant Registration Act devastated mutant lives… he had not.
Cyclops delivered the verdict:
"You have never stood with us. You are the hero of America's people—
but we mutants were never included among them."