"Teacher, is everything alright? You were looking at me rather intensely," John the Fireman noticed Huang Wen's prolonged, thoughtful gaze and practically bounced over, his face split by an eager, wide smile. The boy clearly believed this was the start of his personal training session.
"Hmph!" Iceman, Bobby Drake, who was standing nearby, instantly bristled with open disdain for John's overt eagerness. In Bobby's narrow view, no matter what inexplicable powers Huang Wen possessed, he wasn't a mutant.
Therefore, he was fundamentally incapable of understanding or helping mutants grow stronger. John's behavior, fawning over an outsider, was a profound embarrassment and a betrayal of mutant solidarity.
"You won't have to carry that little crutch around anymore, John," Huang Wen remarked easily, his smile spreading as he gestured toward the standard-issue metal lighter that John the Fireman instinctively held in his hand—his necessary, external source of fire.
The necessity of the lighter was a deep, embarrassing flaw in John's mutation. Unlike Bobby, who could pull ice from atmospheric moisture, or higher-tier pyromancers like the Human Torch or Sunspot, John was a secondary manipulator.
He couldn't create the flame; he could only control and amplify existing external fire. This meant he was utterly dependent on that small, cheap flame to manifest his power. Worse still, in a confrontation with a genuinely powerful fire-wielder, John's tiny flame would be instantly overwhelmed and snuffed out.
"Seriously, Teacher?!" Fireman John gasped, his surprise so profound that his voice cracked. He immediately noticed that every single member of the X-Men, including Magneto, was now staring at him, utterly confused by his sudden exclamation.
"I spoke only to you, John. Focus," Huang Wen transmitted his voice directly into John's mind with a ripple of his newfound Shen control. He kept his tone soft, guiding.
"The moment for your training isn't now. Your first task is service. Go with your companions; help them rescue those mutant children being held here. This is your repayment for the care and instruction you received at Xavier's Academy."
"I understand completely, Teacher! Thank you!" John the Fireman nodded quickly, his eyes bright with solemn dedication. He took this as a genuine, high-stakes examination from Huang Wen, a proving ground for his new path. "I will definitely execute the task as you've instructed!"
"Crack!" The immense, jagged entry crater was completed as Magneto finished twisting and tearing the sub-structure apart, leaving exposed, splintered metal edges.
Magneto glanced over at Huang Wen with an edge of pure, arrogant pride—the man had asked for a plan, and this was the plan: brute force, metal manipulation, and an absolute disregard for the enemy's defenses. He settled his protective helmet onto his head and stepped confidently into the gaping maw. Mystique, followed by the main X-Men team, quickly dropped in behind him.
"What did you tell that kid?" Logan, walking in the rearguard with Huang Wen, leaned in, his voice barely audible above the screeching metal sounds emanating from the newly formed tunnel.
"It was nothing major. I simply identified a martial art that is perfectly suited to his unusual elemental abilities," Huang Wen answered, shaking his head casually. "It will allow him to bypass that dependency on the lighter permanently."
"There's a martial art that can do that?!" Logan's eyes—already sharp and feral—grew even brighter with rapacious interest. He halted his descent for a second, staring directly at Huang Wen. "Is there anything… anything at all… suitable for me? Something that doesn't just involve those mind-games you mentioned before?"
"There absolutely is a set of techniques for you, Logan," Huang Wen confirmed, his gaze locking with the mutant's. He was, of course, thinking of the Invincible Vajra Divine Art—a martial foundation that makes the body utterly impervious to conventional damage.
Paired with Logan's natural, hyper-accelerated healing factor, the technique would transform him into a living, moving mountain—a figure virtually impervious to anything short of a high-yield tactical nuke.
It would make his body an unstoppable force, a true Wolverine, never again to be simply tossed around by opponents like the Hulk or Juggernaut. It would also dramatically enhance his internal stamina and spiritual strength, bolstering his resilience against psychic attacks.
"The only problem," Huang Wen internally mused, "is that Logan has zero internal energy cultivation base. He will have to start from the absolute beginning, a truly massive undertaking, even for a talent like him."
"Are you serious?" Logan asked, his voice now a low growl of anticipation. Huang Wen felt the intensity of his stare, the predatory focus of a beast that had just sighted its ultimate prize.
"When have I ever misled you?" Huang Wen raised an eyebrow, maintaining a mysterious façade. "Perhaps you will get to see this technique demonstrated very soon, depending on how the next few minutes unfold…" He glanced meaningfully toward Magneto, who had just encountered the first wave of soldiers down the long corridor.
"CLANK!"
Magneto didn't even slow down. He merely flicked his wrist. The standard-issue fragmentation grenades clipped to the belts of the advancing soldiers were instantly ripped from their pouches, the safety pins yanked free by unseen magnetic force, and detonated mid-air before the surprised men could even raise their weapons. The shockwave scattered the remaining troops in a gruesome spray of smoke and metal.
"Halt immediately! Do not advance any further!" William Stryker's voice, amplified and distorted, crackled over a nearby speaker system. He was outside the Cerebro chamber, near the controls, realizing his security perimeter had been compromised. "No one is permitted past this point! Anyone who approaches will be killed! And that includes me!"
Stryker, recognizing Mystique's ability to imitate anyone, was already moving, knowing that if he didn't escape, he'd be trapped. He couldn't comprehend how Magneto's team had slipped past all his advanced perimeter radar and sonar systems without a single alert.
"Your allies and the captive children await your rescue," Magneto announced with a cold, almost benevolent smile, looking at Jean Grey and the X-Men who were holding position. "Their life-signs are weak, but clear. They are being held in the eastern sector. Can you not feel and hear their desperate cries?"
"And the Professor?" Jean Grey asked, her eyes narrowed with a lingering, justifiable suspicion of Magneto.
"Worry not. I have known Charles for a lifetime, far longer than any of you. I shall guarantee his safety," Magneto replied smoothly, not taking offense at her doubt. He kept his expression calm, but his right eye flickered almost imperceptibly toward Huang Wen.
Magneto was still extremely cautious of the martial arts master. Even if he possessed the power to instantly crush Huang Wen with his magnetic field, Huang Wen's ability to induce instant, inescapable sleep meant the master also held a functional instant kill against him. Magneto had to proceed with calculated caution.
"Adamantium…" Huang Wen's mind was elsewhere, focused on the facility's notorious history. "I need to secure a sample of the raw material, but the drawback of not having a portable storage space is becoming apparent. I can't simply phase it into another dimension…" He needed a way to acquire the indestructible metal that would be key to perfecting Logan's Vajra technique, but his current System didn't offer an inventory feature.
"Alright, we'll go rescue the children first!" Jean Grey, Ororo, Rogue, Iceman, and Mystique nodded decisively and moved off down the specified corridor, led by Jean's growing psychic awareness of the prisoners.
"I'm coming too!" John the Fireman called out, catching Huang Wen's eye for approval, and then sprinted to catch up.
"What are you doing here, John? You've abandoned us to become the pet of some ordinary human," Iceman Bobby spat out, deeply annoyed by John's sudden eagerness and clear shift in allegiance. "This is a mission for mutants! It has nothing to do with you anymore!"
"My choice of mentorship is none of your concern, Bobby. And helping you is simply the right thing to do!" Fireman John retorted with undisguised disdain. In his newly boosted confidence, John felt that once he could create his own flames, the whiny, defensively-focused Iceman Bobby would be completely irrelevant.
"And what about you, Mr. Huang?" Magneto turned, his massive hand gesture controlling the ambient metal of the corridor walls, pushing it back to create a wide berth. He smiled, a thin, calculating gesture. "Since you have achieved your goal of bringing us here, what is your next action?"
"My immediate goal, Eric, is twofold," Huang Wen replied, deliberately meeting Magneto's gaze. "First, I need to guide Uncle Wolverine toward recovering his lost memories and, quite frankly, help him exact some long-overdue revenge for what was done to him in this monstrous place." He clapped a firm, supportive hand on Logan's shoulder.
"Let's go, Uncle Wolverine. This pit is where you suffered your greatest torment, but it is also where you found your absolute power. There are echoes here; you should be able to reconnect with the memories you seek…"
"Memories… and revenge…" Logan muttered, the words resonating deep within him. He looked around the cold, unfamiliar-yet-primal corridors, and without waiting for a reply, he started walking deeper into the facility, drawn by an ancient, terrible echo.
Huang Wen followed immediately. His secondary goal was right there: the chamber where the woman with the similar healing factor had been trapped and encased in adamantium—the ultimate source of the raw material he coveted.
The deeper they went, the closer Logan got to his past, and the closer Huang Wen got to his prize. The atmosphere in the corridor grew colder, heavier, filled with the ghosts of trauma and the promise of impending bloodshed.