"You..." Magneto ground his teeth.
"All right, Fenris, bring Erik down."
The Professor's tired voice came through the earpiece.
"Got it."
Fenris hoisted Magneto up as well, then pushed lightly off the ground and landed neatly in front of the rest of the X-Men.
By now, Professor X's head was covered in sweat. His smooth bald scalp was reflecting the light so brightly that it somehow looked a shade brighter than everything around it.
The White Queen's power was indeed inferior to his, but defeating her had been no easy task either. Especially since Emma was not stupid enough to meet him head-on. She had simply chosen to entangle him and drag things out.
After a whole night of that, even the Professor was exhausted.
If Emma had not realized the tide had already turned and chosen to withdraw on her own, there was no telling how much longer that battle might have lasted.
Fenris swept his gaze across the area. Every mutant on Magneto's side had already been captured.
Riptide and Toad had been tied up in positions so awkward they were almost painful to look at. Azazel stood there with a blank expression on his face, clearly trapped by the Professor's power.
The White Queen, Emma, was far more graceful. She stood off to one side with complete poise, as if she were the real X-Man here.
"Hello there."
When she noticed Fenris looking her way, Emma smiled.
Her eyes locked onto his, and an invisible ripple spread out as she tried to see exactly what kind of person this young man was, the one who had turned the whole battle around almost by himself.
"Ah!"
As if she had seen something horrific, Emma suddenly let out a scream. Her head snapped violently backward as though it had been struck by a hammer.
"If you shouldn't be looking, then don't look."
Fenris let out a scornful chuckle. Did she really think he had taken Magneto's helmet just to play with it?
"Professor."
Fenris gently set Magneto and Rogue down on the ground.
"Fenris, we owe today to you."
Professor X sighed with feeling.
If it had been anyone else, Azazel would have succeeded a long time ago.
After saying that, Charles turned to his old friend and said angrily, "Erik, you almost ruined everything!"
"Charles, it was you and your students who destroyed the future of mutantkind!"
Erik showed no concern at all for the disadvantage he was in. Pointing furiously at the brightly lit scene on Ellis Island in the distance, he demanded, "Do you know what they're doing over there? They're preparing to pass the Mutant Registration Act!"
"You want our people to be exposed before the entire world and forced to endure those looks of discrimination and rejection?"
Charles shook his head. "Erik, that is not an excuse for killing tens of millions of ordinary people in New York."
The two of them had fought for decades, and neither had ever managed to convince the other. At this moment, Charles had no desire to debate Erik.
"Killing ordinary people? What do you mean?" Erik froze.
"The Senator Kelly you turned into a mutant is already dead." Charles let out a sigh. "Your machine is unstable. It would have killed tens of millions."
"Stop this, Erik."
"After tonight, everyone will know the Liberty Island incident was your doing. Out of fear, they'll reconsider the registration act."
"Hank is preparing to establish a Department of Mutant Affairs. Jean has been lobbying the council nonstop to get the registration act repealed. We are all protecting our fellow mutants in our own way."
"If the day really comes when there is no other choice, I will stand with you."
Looking into his old friend's sincere eyes, Erik opened his mouth, but in the end he said nothing.
"We're leaving."
After another long silence, Magneto slowly rose to his feet and beckoned to Azazel, who had already been released from Professor X's control.
"Hey, kid."
Before leaving, Magneto turned his gaze to Fenris, who had already gone back to normal and was now toying with the helmet that could block psychic power.
Fenris looked up. "What is it?"
He did not feel much hostility toward this old man who had spent his entire life fighting for mutants.
"Kid, do you want to join us?"
"I heard you suffered terribly in that mutant research facility too. Do you want to fight alongside me, alongside the Brotherhood, to protect mutant interests?"
The moment Magneto said it, Fenris had not even had time to answer before the Professor beat him to it.
"Erik, that is beneath you!"
"Oh, my old friend, language like that really doesn't suit a man of your stature."
Magneto smiled.
In the next moment, he and his people dissolved into red smoke and vanished before everyone's eyes.
"It's finally over."
With Magneto gone, everyone's taut nerves suddenly relaxed.
After a whole night of hard fighting, all of them were utterly spent.
"You all did well." Professor X wiped away some sweat and praised them softly. "But in the end, we got through it without disaster and saved tens of millions of innocent lives in New York."
"I really didn't expect Magneto to have so many powerful people under him."
Storm sighed. "That Riptide could only manipulate cyclones, but the way he used his power was incredible. If Fenris hadn't charged into the wind and knocked him out, I probably would have lost very soon."
"But that Toad guy was seriously disgusting."
The moment Jean remembered taking a full blast of Toad's slime to the face, her stomach started turning all over again.
Fenris and Scott exchanged a smile. They had helped each other more than once in that fight. The two bumped fists, and nothing more needed to be said.
Nearby, Rogue remained silent. She just quietly looked at Fenris in his tattered state. Several times, she started to reach out, but each time she gently drew her hand back again.
"You do not need to doubt yourselves. Azazel and Riptide are both old veterans who have been fighting for many years. Their combat experience is immense, and all of you are still growing."
Professor X said, "Let's head back."
"We caused far too much commotion here, and Ellis Island's security was endangered. People will be coming to investigate very soon."
"Okay."
Inside the Blackbird, Fenris took a new outer layer, pulled it on, and dropped comfortably back into his seat.
"Back to the mansion!"
Ororo shouted happily.
Jean suddenly frowned. "Did we forget something?"
"I don't think so."
Scott froze for a second, then swept his eyes over everyone inside the jet. "There were six people when we came, and there are still six people now. Looks right to me."
"Haha."
Professor X let out a quiet laugh from the side.
"Let's go, let's go."
Scott hurriedly urged.
Roar!
With the low hum of its engines, the Blackbird quietly rose into the air. Hidden by the dense fog, it swept past the Brooklyn Bridge and startled a flock of white doves into flight.
The doves drifted down onto the rooftop of a building in Manhattan.
"Liberty Island is just ahead. I really appreciate you bringing me over."
On the rooftop, Logan scratched his head a little awkwardly and spoke to the figure beside him.
"No problem, man, but you don't even look that very, very, very fat, so how are you this heavy?"
A tall, skinny figure in red-and-blue kiddie pajamas, with a ridiculous pair of sunglasses set over his red mask, shook out his arm while continuing to complain.
"You're not that big green guy from the news a while back, are you? The one who escaped from the Corvo University lab?"
"Sorry, man, I know you're definitely not that big green guy, but your weight made me think of him immediately. Right away. Instantly. I seriously think you need a diet plan..."
"Why aren't you saying anything? This is the part where you tell me you actually do have a diet plan."
"I haven't been swinging around saving people for that long, and I haven't rescued that many people yet, but carrying you was way harder than carrying the eggs my uncle asked me to buy this morning... Oh God, I forgot to buy the eggs!"
The red-and-blue figure was chattering away nonstop when he suddenly heard a sharp snikt.
His eyes widened under the mask.
"Hey! Hey! Look at that! Oh my God, you've got two metal claws! That is so cool!"