Ten minutes later.
Nick Fury received the report from Carol.
His face turned green.
The Hydra HQ, now a smoldering ruin, held only a few heavily injured Hydra soldiers.
Not a single friendly could be seen.
Thor and Steve were missing!
"Motherfucker! Hydra must have taken Thor and Steve."
"FUXX..."
After venting his rage with a string of curses, Nick Fury calmed down to think of a solution.
"Pierce's Revengers squad doesn't have this kind of power. It must have been the Brotherhood's mutants."
"Mutant abilities are diverse and bizarre. It's normal for them to defeat Steve and Thor if they used specific counters."
"But knowing is one thing; saving them is another."
After a long silence, Nick Fury realized that the Avengers' strength alone was insufficient. He had to find stronger allies.
For example, Professor Charles Xavier, who had gathered a group of friendly mutants.
"The person most skilled at finding people in this world is surely Professor Xavier, with his massive telepathic range."
With that thought, Nick Fury hurried out of his office and secretly left the space base.
He took a shuttle toward the starship housing the X-Men faction.
Naturally suspicious, the Black Egghead would never house mutants—who could explode at any moment—within his own base.
So he had allocated a ship capable of holding 200,000 people specifically for the mutants led by the Professor to take refuge.
Five hours later.
Nick Fury met secretly with Professor Xavier in the ship's bridge.
Professor Xavier, though looking weary in his wheelchair, still had eyes that sparkled with wisdom.
He seemed to have predicted that Nick Fury was coming to seek help.
As soon as they sat down, Charles spoke to soothe him: "Rest assured, Director Fury. I have already located Steve and Thor."
"They are at the Brotherhood's headquarters in Australia. Their minds are being controlled by the White Queen, Emma Frost. They are currently in captivity."
Learning their location didn't make Nick Fury happy; it made him more worried.
He spoke casually, testing the waters: "Professor Xavier, do you have mutants with precognition now?"
Charles was an old fox; he caught the probe in Fury's words instantly.
"Aside from Jean, I have never seen anyone with the ability to see the future."
"Unfortunately, progress on resurrecting Jean has been significantly delayed by these disasters."
"I won't be seeing the day she returns anytime soon."
Seeing Fury's impatience, Charles pivoted: "I know you want to ask how I knew about Thor."
"The truth is simple: we have been monitoring the Brotherhood's every move."
"Half a day ago, when the Brotherhood sent people to Europe, I dispatched Shadowcat and Bobby to gather intel up close."
"But this time, the Brotherhood sent the White Queen and the Juggernaut. Shadowcat wasn't confident in a rescue, so she didn't act."
"Fortunately, she followed them back and successfully identified the Brotherhood's secret base."
After hearing the source of the intel, Nick Fury nodded, his trust in his old friend increasing significantly.
"I'm very grateful for the intel, Professor. I want to rescue them as soon as possible. Can you send people to help?"
As expected, Charles agreed calmly.
"Your people will need to follow our command for this rescue mission."
"Furthermore, I will not make killing members of the Brotherhood a primary objective. The plan will focus on a silent extraction."
Nick Fury frowned slightly. Was Charles going soft because they were his own kind?
And he wanted command.
The Black Egghead was extremely wary of anyone trying to take his command away.
But this time, to save Thor and Steve, he had to make a concession.
According to intelligence, Hydra was also researching a Super-Soldier serum. If they had a chance to study Steve—the perfect specimen—long-term...
Who knew if Hydra would get lucky and reverse-engineer the serum?
Scientific research always involved a bit of luck. No one knew if Hydra's scientists would have a sudden spark of inspiration.
Even if the chance was low, it wasn't zero.
To completely eliminate this risk, Nick Fury had to yield and give up command while agreeing to Charles's terms.
Everything was for the sake of getting Steve and Thor back as fast as possible.
Once he had a plan, Nick Fury began to play the part of the hypocrite to build rapport.
"Old friend, we're both old. The stage belongs to the youth now."
"I can give you command, but you must ensure Thor and Steve are brought back safely."
Charles nodded solemnly. "We have simulated the entire rescue plan. The success rate is 90%, otherwise I wouldn't make such a guarantee."
With the cooperation settled, Nick Fury politely took his leave.
"When I return, I will dispatch a tactical squad to assist you and place Carol under your command."
Professor Xavier nodded dismissively and had Raven politely see Nick Fury out.
Time was tight; the rescue was set for 12 hours later.
This would be the first time the hidden X-Men appeared before the world, and in collaboration with the famous Avengers no less.
Charles made full preparations, double-checking every detail before letting the X-Men move.
In this time of human peril, it was time for mutants to step up and contribute.
In Charles's eyes, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get humanity to accept mutants.
Crisis is opportunity.
The path to ending humanity's fear of mutants might just start with this joint rescue.
The X-Men boarded the Blackbird, accompanied by two Quinjets full of agents, and breached the atmosphere heading for Australia.
...
The next day, the rescue plan met with a disastrous failure.
If the X-Men hadn't retreated quickly, and if the tactical squad hadn't sacrificed their lives to buy them time, they would have almost been taken down at the Brotherhood's lair.
Charles had calculated everything, except for the human heart.
Or rather, the seeds for this disaster were sown the moment he swore never to probe his own people's minds.
Every cause has its effect.
When the Brotherhood successfully established a mutant nation in Australia and thrived during the disasters thanks to their powers...
Mystique, Raven Darkhölme, and Polaris, Lorna Dane, came to believe that Magneto's actions gave mutants a real chance to control their own destiny.
Thus, as their loyalties shifted unnoticed, on the eve of the rescue...
Raven and Lorna secretly contacted Magneto, deliberately leaking the rescue operation to him.