Adapting in Marvel

"Yes."

This made him very uncomfortable every time he fought.

It was as though his own mental powers were being suppressed.

And now, Professor X had finally gotten his revenge.

The full extent of his Level 5 Mental Mutant powers was revealed at this moment.

He, Professor X, was the most powerful mutant in the realm of the mind.

The savior of humankind.

How frustrated Professor X had been before, but now, he was brimming with confidence and determination.

Upon reaching the level of a Level 5 Mental Mutant, he became even more skilled in controlling his mental abilities.

The split of mental consciousness he had attained allowed him to divide his mind into as many as 20,000 fragments.

These fragments of mental consciousness were like extensions of Professor X's mind—They functioned as though they were independent duplicates or a collective consciousness.

Each of these fragments could be endowed by Professor X with consciousness, memory, personality, and more.

And, crucially, these fragments also carried Professor X's abilities.

They could operate independently to assist Professor X in achieving his objectives.

At any moment, Professor X could recall all these fragments with just a single thought.

The "Lieutenant Lekanev" of the Soviet base was one such fragment of Professor X's consciousness—It had overtaken Lieutenant Lekanev's mind, transforming into an independent mental entity in service of Professor X's goals.

In fact, it wasn't just Lieutenant Lekanev.

Across the Soviet Union, with its thousands of nuclear launch bases, there were dozens of instances of Professor X's mental fragments at work.

"Professor X, Sabastian Shaw has initiated the countdown for the nuclear missile launch,"

Hank announced as he walked in from outside, holding an advanced tablet in his hand.

In this era, such a device didn't exist.

This tablet had been developed by Hank using the top physics laboratory in America, taking him just over 10 hours to complete.

It was a testament to the brilliance of Hank's inventive abilities.

Hank approached Professor X and placed the tablet in front of the control console of the brainwave enhancer.

He then began operating the tablet skillfully.

Soon, the figure of The Black King appeared on the screen, visible to Brian, Professor X, and Magneto.

...

At that moment, inside the presidential office of the Soviet Union,

Black King Shaw sat drunkenly in the presidential chair, tapping the table absentmindedly with his right hand.

Behind him was a massive screen,

Displaying the words "Nuclear Explosion Countdown" in bold, ominous text.

In front of Black King Shaw, the entire Hellfire Club was present:

Red Devil,

 Mikhail Ursus ,

Angel,

Mutant Polly,

Blood Eye Kate,

And another mutant whom Brian had never seen before.

This mutant was a white man.

He appeared a little uneasy.

Clearly a new member who had only recently joined the Hellfire Club.

The rest of the group looked at the nuclear explosion countdown behind Black King Shaw with a fanatical expression, ready for action.

"Red Devil, move our brothers and sisters to the nuclear shelter,"

Black King Shaw ordered, ceasing his idle tapping on the table.

"Okay, Shaw,"

Red Devil nodded. The Hellfire Club mutants standing in front of Black King Shaw then held hands.

Bang!

In a swirl of red mist, the group vanished.

They had been teleported to the nuclear shelter beneath the presidential office by Red Devil.

"It's almost time—the world should now witness a nuclear explosion,"

Black King Shaw said as he stood up, casting a glance at the countdown behind him.

He then pressed a button on the desk before him.

This button, however, was not the nuclear launch button.

Neither the Soviet Union nor America entrusted politicians with direct control over nuclear launches.

Pressing this button merely issued an order to activate the nuclear warheads.

Once the nuclear launch bases received this command, a designated operator at each base would press the actual launch button.

As the countdown reached zero, Shaw pressed the launch command button without hesitation.

The launch command was instantly transmitted to various nuclear launch bases across the Soviet Union.

...

At the same time,

Brian, who had been closely observing Black King Shaw's actions, turned to Professor X and said:

"Ok, Charles, do it."

Professor X quickly activated his mind consciousness duplication.

As Professor X initiated the duplication process, Brian had already left the Cerebro Enhancement Room.

At that moment, he stepped onto the lawn of Xavier's Manor.

With a slight push of his feet, he propelled himself straight into the sky.

Boom!

Brian's flight speed immediately broke through the sound barrier, creating a massive sonic boom that rippled across Xavier's Manor.

In mere moments, he had ascended to an altitude of 10,000 meters.

Hovering in the sky, Brian gazed down below.

From his vantage point,

Whoosh, whoosh!

He observed nuclear warheads being launched across the globe, emerging from their silos.

Nearly 20,000 nuclear warheads had been fired simultaneously.

The sight was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

Throughout the world, the thunderous sounds of nuclear warheads breaking away from their silos, followed by the separation and acceleration of their rocket tails, echoed everywhere.

The nuclear warheads from both the Soviet Union and America had already broken the sound barrier during their acceleration phase.

A few minutes later, nuclear warheads from other nations also reached supersonic speeds.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Suspended amidst the clouds,

Brian watched as nuclear warheads shot upward from below...

Piercing through the clouds and streaking toward outer space!

It wasn't until this moment that the drunken Black King Shaw realized something was wrong.

"What the...?"

"What's going on? Why haven't the nuclear bombs exploded yet?"

Black King Shaw looked up and glanced outside.

When he saw that the nuclear warheads had not changed their trajectory but continued ascending above the clouds, his expression changed drastically.

He sobered up instantly.

"X-Men!"

His eyes burned with rage, and his fists clenched tightly as he struggled to suppress his anger.

Even the most oblivious person would now realize that something was amiss with the nuclear launch.

It had to be the work of the X-Men.

As he watched the nuclear warheads growing smaller and smaller in the sky, a deep sense of powerlessness began to wash over him.

The speed of the nuclear warheads was simply too great.

In mere moments, they were on the verge of leaving Earth's atmosphere.

Boom!

A burst of raw energy erupted from Shaw's body.

The entire Red Square in the Soviet Union was obliterated in an instant.

Countless Soviet leaders were buried beneath the rubble.

Standing amidst the ruins, Black King Shaw raised his head to look at the nuclear warheads, which were now completely out of sight.

Suddenly, he began to laugh.

Under extreme anger, emotions often spiral out of control.

Black King Shaw saw his plan to bomb the entire world fail.

At that moment, he burst into wild laughter.

"Ha.. Hahaha.. Hahahaha.. Good. Very good. X-Men, you are courting death,"

He declared, his voice filled with venom.

Black King Shaw swore to himself that if he didn't eliminate all the X-Men, he would no longer deserve the title of the world's strongest Level 5 Mutant.

As Black King Shaw seethed with helpless fury and maniacal laughter, Brian, high in the sky, continued his pursuit of the nuclear warheads.

Using his Flight Ability, he followed the warheads as they broke through the troposphere and stratosphere, finally reaching the mesosphere—the middle layer of the Earth's atmosphere.

Here, the air was already exceedingly thin.

And the temperature plummeted rapidly with altitude.

Buzz.

Upon reaching the mesosphere, Brian's body began to adapt and evolve rapidly.

A layer of golden film instantly formed over his skin.

This golden film effectively locked in heat, maintaining a constant temperature for his body.

At the same time, the film filtered and absorbed harmful ultraviolet rays.

It also absorbed water molecules from the surrounding air, decomposing them into oxygen to sustain Brian's breathing.

Boom.

In the mesosphere, Brian felt no discomfort.

His ability for adaptive evolution was in full effect, showcasing its incredible power.

Once in the mesosphere, Brian stopped ascending, choosing instead to hover in place.

He silently observed the dense cluster of nuclear warheads as they continued their ascent, piercing through the mesosphere, the thermosphere, and finally reaching the exosphere—The very edge of Earth's atmosphere.

As the nuclear warheads entered the exosphere, they instantly lost the pull of gravity, just floating in the outer space of the earth.

________

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