Chapter Fifteen: The School of Mutants (4).
Charles looked at Beast and said to him, "It seems there are unwelcome guests who have arrived."
A new identity entered the scene: his coat carefully creased, his stare unsmiling. Beside him, the Purple Man advanced with less measured steps; his skin seemed pallid, as if it drew its shade from the room itself, and his voice was quiet enough to resemble a civilized threat before he spoke.
The three behind — Beast, Jean, and Scott — approached the screen to look; they were stunned, then turned to Professor Charles to inform him.
Charles said, "Go, Beast — meet them in the room near the entrance. And Scott and Jean, go and make sure all the students return to their residences inside the school."
Everyone nodded in agreement and left to carry out the orders.
Charles looked at Daniel, then pointed the screen toward him and asked, "Do you know this man?" Charles was referring to the man who had accompanied Fisk.
Daniel looked at him and found him familiar, though he did not know him.
Daniel thought inwardly, (Luna, do you know who this is?)
Luna replied, [Hmff… although I suppose I should be taking gems for this,]
[This is (The Purple Man)]
[His real name (Zebediah Killgrave). He was not born with a superpower; it was made into him.
He was once an ordinary man, until a failed chemical experiment altered his neural cells, so his body began secreting pheromones capable of penetrating human will.
His skin turned a faded purple, and his voice became a covert weapon, for a single word from him is enough to break others' minds and make them obey his orders unconsciously.
Killgrave does not read thoughts, nor does he possess magical energy or a highly evolved mind like genuine mutants; rather he relies on a biological effect that seizes the body and deceives the brain.
And although his influence is limited by distance and time, his power is among the most dangerous because it does not attack the body… it robs a person of himself.]
Daniel immediately remembered Luna's words about him and what had happened when Fisk cooperated with him to control all the police officers.
Daniel told Charles about the truth of the Purple Man and about his ability and how he had acquired it. That was proof of the correctness of Daniel's account from the beginning, for Charles had just read the memories of both Fisk and the Purple Man a little while ago and knew who they were and why they had come here.
Charles asked Daniel, "Do you know why they came here?"
Daniel answered, denying it: "No — I don't know at all. This is the first time I see this. As I told you, this is a world completely different from what I know."
Charles said, "They came here to take control of our minds using the Purple Man's powers, then to make us soldiers for Fisk."
Daniel was astonished by these events and asked Charles, "So what will you do with him?"
Charles replied, "Despite the similarity of his power to mine, there is a great weakness in his power. If I faced him face-to-face, victory would be almost certain for me, because I can isolate myself mentally from his chemical influence, then stop Killgrave's mind entirely or take control of his mind — he has no defenses against mental domination. I can also prevent him from controlling other people."
Then Charles continued, "I can control them so they return and never come here again. The problem is that Fisk, before coming here, prepared his super-team to be nearby; Fisk told everyone around him that he was coming here, and they're all now outside my range."
Daniel said to him, "Then use the Cerebro device under the school."
Charles chuckled a little. "You actually know about the device. But if I do that and search their minds to learn all the people who know of Fisk's coming here, their minds will be harmed."
Daniel said, "You amaze me — people come to control you and use you, and you fear that their minds will be harmed."
Charles replied, "I don't want to use my power to harm people if I want them to accept me. Also, what would everyone's reaction be if the mayor of New York came to the School for Mutants and returned mentally damaged, not knowing who he is?"
Daniel inwardly realized that this was indeed Charles's nature, and asked him what he would do now.
Charles moved the chair he was sitting on, approached the door, and said to Daniel, "I will speak to them and frighten them a little only." Charles left, leaving Daniel in the room and Matt asleep in his chair.
Charles reached the room while Daniel watched them through the screen connected to his surveillance camera in the room — the one Charles had set up for him — and found that Fisk and the Purple Man had indeed mentally controlled Beast.
The control was terrifying — Beast stood motionless, his eyes fixed without a blink, his breathing slow as if mechanical. His movements were robotic and devoid of awareness; even his voice, when he uttered his first words, sounded hollow of meaning. Charles recognized it at once… this was neither sleep nor fainting, but imprisonment within the body.
Charles entered the room with Fisk and the Purple Man, and when he examined Beast's mind he found it as if asleep, no movement except for a few small repetitive thoughts: (Follow orders — do not attack these two persons).
Charles pitied him, then looked at Fisk and asked him: "Why did the mayor of New York visit our school?"
Fisk looked at him with a superior gaze and said, "Nothing much. I just want to learn more about the mutants."
Then Fisk looked to the Purple Man to take control of Charles's mind.
The Purple Man stepped forward to Charles to shake his hand, saying with a strange smile: "Welcome, headmaster of the school. I am Zebediah Killgrave, and it seems we will see a lot of each other from now on."
Indeed, when the Purple Man attempted to direct his voice as a familiar command toward Charles, something unusual immediately stirred within him — as if the tone of that voice struck against a thin barrier he had not expected. There were no clear details of the mental struggle, only a strange sensation sweeping through him: a vague interference in the pathways that steer his will, and a faint inner cry saying that something "was not aligned."
His voice faltered for a moment, then he felt as though a weight descended upon his eyelids. He could find no explanation for it, and Fisk did not know the cause of the disturbance either — all he saw was a sudden diminishment in the Purple Man's vitality. The Purple Man sat down slowly in his chair, his eyes fixed in an unconscious void, as if another mind had taken hold of the strings of his movement without him or Fisk knowing who the controller was.
After a moment Charles replied, "It does not look like that will happen, unfortunately."1 The two — Fisk and the Purple Man — were astonished. Who is this?
Fisk's automatic reaction to the Purple Man was, "Go on, do it."
But there was silence in response to Fisk. Fisk was stunned inwardly.
The Purple Man lay asleep in his chair with no response or movement.
After seeing this, Fisk looked at Charles; his face full of shock and his eyes wide open — and inside him he heard Charles say to him (Mind control is indeed a frightening power… isn't it?).