"Good, it seems there are smart guys here besides Charles."
Magneto looked at Hawking with even more appreciation.
Phoenix didn't delay, immediately got up and went to Nightcrawler's side, comforted him for a few words, and then began to concentrate on performing telepathy on him.
Soon, she found the exact location of Stryker's Base from Nightcrawler's blocked memories.
"It's in the Wenkley Industrial Park, in the Rocky Mountains of Canada."
"Impossible, I just came back from there, it's been abandoned, there's nothing there but a few wolves."
Wolverine's face showed an expression of disbelief.
Phoenix explained:
"Logan, the Base isn't on the surface, it's built Underground, in the dam of Alclaire Lake."
With the Base's location confirmed, the next step was to decide on the personnel for the mission.
Initially, it was decided that Magneto, Mystique, Wolverine, Storm, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, and Hawking would go, with Colossus staying behind to look after the children.
But at the end, Hawking raised an objection.
"My suggestion is for Professor Qin to stay and protect the students, and Piotr to go with us to rescue Professor."
He didn't want Phoenix to go to the Base, as if she were to be stimulated and break through the psychic barrier Professor X had placed in her brain, it would turn into a major catastrophe.
As a Level 5 Mutant, Jean possesses the Phoenix Force, one of the three ancient powers. When fully unleashed, she would be no weaker than Wanda, who possesses Chaos Magic and has traversed the Multiverse.
However, because she couldn't control her powers as a child, leading to a car accident that killed her mother, her personality split.
One is her current kind personality, and the other is a dark personality full of desire and destruction.
To prevent Phoenix from losing control, Professor X constructed a barrier in her brain with his own psychic energy, temporarily restraining that dark personality.
So, the Level 5 Phoenix currently exhibits a power level equivalent to Level 3.
If not stimulated, Phoenix's kind personality could slowly develop and fully master the Phoenix Force in the future, ultimately eliminating the dark personality completely.
"Piotr has only just started training and hasn't been able to coordinate very well yet; he's much worse than Jean."
Storm frowned and objected upon hearing this.
Hawking, however, explained earnestly.
"Precisely because of this, I suggest that Professor Qin stay behind, because the safety of the students here is also very important.
Last night's battle at the school must have alerted the nearby Police, and now that area is probably sealed off by a large number of Police and government personnel.
There might even be Stryker's subordinates among them.
If this shelter is discovered, the students' safety will be difficult to guarantee.
Professor Qin has the same mind control abilities as Professor Charles, which can effectively avoid Police interrogations and better protect the students' safety."
"I think what Mr. Xiao Hawking said makes a lot of sense."
Magneto was the first to agree upon hearing this.
He didn't care about the safety of the school's students; he just felt that with one less Jean, his plan would face fewer obstacles.
As for Piotr, who can fully steel his body, he is restrained by his abilities just like Logan, so there's no need to worry.
"Xiao Houzi makes sense. For the students' safety, Jean, you should stay."
Wolverine also agreed with Hawking's point of view because he liked Jean and was worried she might get hurt in this mission.
Considering that what Hawking said was indeed reasonable, Storm finally agreed.
"Logan, promise me, you must rescue Scott!"
Seeing that everyone agreed, Phoenix could only nod, but she also instructed Wolverine.
Professor X was captured by Stryker, so Cyclops, who was responsible for protecting Professor X, naturally couldn't escape either, and Cyclops was her boyfriend.
"Stryker only got the main unit of the Cerebro last night. It will take some time for him to transport it to the Base and then assemble and debug it.
Let's get some good rest and recuperate, then depart tonight and launch an attack in the early hours when the opponent is most complacent!"
After the operatives were decided, Magneto also set the time for the operation.
Everyone hadn't slept well last night, especially Magneto, who had escaped from prison, and Storm, who had gone to Boston to find Nightcrawler; they hadn't slept at all. So now the most important thing was to adjust their state before setting off.
Hawking had no objections to this; his protagonist template cooldown hadn't ended yet, and he also needed time.
In the Villa's Underground Room, after the meeting ended, Hawking went straight there.
Besides storing a lot of long-lasting food, there were also many daily necessities.
"Found it!"
After a search, he finally found what he needed in a box—sunglasses.
"Too bad they're all kid-sized."
He picked a Mickey Mouse-shaped one, put it in his pocket, and then left the Underground Room.
Why look for sunglasses?
Because tonight was coincidentally the full moon of the month. If he looked directly at the moon without sunglasses, he would transform into a brutal, irrational giant ape.
Of course, this was also his biggest trump card for daring to participate in this operation.
If he truly encountered a crisis that even loading the protagonist template couldn't solve, or even threatened his life, he would transform into his giant ape form to save himself. The giant ape form's combat power was ten times higher than his normal form.
As for the others, sorry, they could only pray for themselves.
"Logan, I'm sorry, you're very good and charming, but I choose Scott, so… don't do this again."
Just as he walked out of the Underground Room, Hawking happened to run into Wolverine and Phoenix kissing passionately, and heard Phoenix's decision to reject Wolverine and choose Cyclops after the kiss.
Wolverine and Cyclops both liked Phoenix, but compared to the wild Wolverine, Phoenix ultimately chose Cyclops, with whom she had spent more than a decade.
"Looks like you're heartbroken. Want one?"
Hawking pulled a cigar from the box in his pocket and offered it to Wolverine.
"Thanks. Compared to me, perhaps Scott is indeed more suitable for her."
Wolverine consoled himself.
He was a lone wolf who had lost his memory, constantly wandering to find himself, and even when he occasionally returned here, it was only a temporary stop.
"Hey, why does that cigar box of yours look so familiar?"
"Really? I picked it up from the ground."
"Picked it up? That's what I dropped yesterday when I was drinking!"
"Oh, well, it's mine now."
"That's my last box, give it back!"
"Logan, don't be so rude. Isn't it too embarrassing for an adult like you to snatch things from a child? Alright, alright, here you go, take it all, okay?"
"You're still a child, this isn't suitable for you. I'll keep it all and give it to you when you really need it."
"Hahaha, just kidding, actually I don't smoke."
Because he hadn't loaded the protagonist template, although Hawking's strength exceeded that of ordinary people, it was still far less than Wolverine's, and he ultimately had the cigar box taken away.
However, his last sentence also made Logan a bit depressed, realizing he had overthought it.