With a loud bang, Shin, who had already elementalized his body, was unharmed. Cyclops hadn't cranked his optic blast to full power, and at this level, it couldn't harm Shin's solar elemental form.
However, Shin's car was directly blasted into the air. Watching the car flip through the sky a few times before crashing to the ground, Shin fell silent. Then, with a flash of lightning, he reappeared and retaliated. Lasers fired wildly in every direction, forcing Storm to hurriedly drag Jean Grey back to a safe distance.
Wolverine didn't need protection, he wouldn't die anyway.
At that moment, Cyclops was recklessly unleashing beams of energy. Wolverine, who had just been electrocuted, roared and charged forward, ignoring the stray lasers, with his adamantium bone claws extended.
As expected, Shin didn't even move. When Wolverine attacked him, he was once again electrocuted and let out a sharp cry. Even his metal bones were briefly visible through the surging currents.
Realizing the battle was going sideways, Storm quickly raised her hand to summon lightning. A bolt of thunder struck Shin with a loud crack, but instead of hurting him, it supercharged him, making him even more energized.
When Storm raised her hand again, she was also electrocuted. Her white hair puffed out from the jolt. Although she could control lightning, she didn't have an elemental body like Shin and wasn't immune to electrical shock.
"Alright, that's enough! We surrender!" Jean Grey called out urgently. With their three strongest fighters all electrocuted into submission and her mission still incomplete, she quickly conceded and waved the metaphorical white flag.
Shin snorted lightly and lowered his hands. Only then did the others start to recover.
"Sorry, sir. I apologize on Wolverine's behalf, he acted recklessly, but he didn't mean any harm. Um... excuse me, are you a mutant as well?" Jean Grey asked cautiously.
She was mainly worried that Shin might be associated with Magneto, but she also had another motive: if he was an unaffiliated mutant, maybe he could be persuaded to join their cause.
"I'm not a mutant. And you, glasses guy, pay up for my car," Shin said, sneering at Cyclops.
Originally, Kingpin had intended to gift Shin a car, and it certainly wasn't some cheap model. Even a bazooka couldn't damage it. But if Shin faced a threat serious enough to force him into action, then even a car with a secondary adamantium shell might not hold up.
Now Shin had made up his mind: he needed a better car with even stronger defenses. If it couldn't withstand the collateral damage of a battle, it wasn't worth the investment.
Cyclops, having recovered, remained silent. He wasn't exactly humble, but compared to Wolverine, he was more prideful than confrontational.Even though he knew he was at fault, he didn't show much remorse on his face.
"Could you give us a moment? We're the X-Men, and we're in the middle of something very important. We'll compensate you for the car later," Jean Grey quickly interjected. She didn't dare let either Cyclops or Wolverine speak again.
"Oh? And what's so important?" Shin asked with curiosity.
"Magneto plans to turn everyone at the international summit into mutants," Jean Grey explained. With the situation escalating, there was no point in hiding it, so she laid it all out.
"Magneto's got some wild ideas," Shin said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. The car incident was already behind him, he hadn't cared much about it anyway. What really interested him now was the X-Men's attitude.
They'd acknowledged their mistake. Cyclops still looked like a stone statue, and Wolverine remained defiant, but Jean Grey had at least offered a sincere apology.
Now Shin turned his attention to the bigger issue. "But you X-Men are a little too uptight, aren't you? Magneto turning all world leaders into mutants, wouldn't that be a good thing for your kind?"
Turning all the top leaders into mutants might not sit well with regular humans, but from a mutant's perspective, it could reduce discrimination and encourage peaceful coexistence.
After all, the current situation for mutants was grim. Any chance,no matter how slim, was still a chance.
"That guy plans to sacrifice Rogue!" Wolverine snapped, teeth clenched.
"He wants to use her powers to activate the machine, but it'll drain all her life force and kill her!"
So that was the truth, sacrificing comrades. Shin nodded. For superheroes, self-sacrifice was noble, but forcing others to sacrifice themselves? That was outright villainy.
"And there's more," Jean Grey added with a wry smile. "Magneto's previous experiment already failed. The test subject managed to escape from the lab, but right in front of us, his genes collapsed and he turned into a puddle of water."
Shin pursed his lips and didn't say anything. Magneto's plan, turning all the world's leaders into mutants, might have been crude and reckless, but it at least was an idea to address the rift between mutants and humans.
If he'd tried to assassinate all the world's leaders instead, then yeah... humanity would probably declare total war on mutants the next day.
"It's them!"
"Target acquired!"
Just as Shin was discussing the situation with the X-Men, a sharp voice rang out from behind.
It was the guards assigned to the multinational summit. A large contingent of police and soldiers had arrived. Cyclops' stray lasers from earlier had been flashy and far-reaching. The summit's security team wasn't blind, they had followed the trail directly to the scene.
"Not good, the guards are here! We don't have time to explain!" Jean Grey's expression tightened. "Sir, let's go first!"
With a wave of Storm's hand, a powerful gust of wind swept through the area. "Let's bypass them and head to the Statue of Liberty! We have to stop Magneto!"
Seeing the guards close in, the X-Men said a few last words to Shin, then scattered like startled birds. Shin, used to this routine by now, just sighed internally. Clearly, this wasn't the first time they'd had to flee a scene.
But they weren't running away... they were circling around, heading straight for the Statue of Liberty.
Even if they didn't want to fight humans, Magneto's scheme had to be stopped.
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