Night.
Under the lights of the luxurious yacht, the seawater looked as black as ink.
The Black King Sebastian Shaw, the White Queen Emma Frost, and Riptide Janos Quested were waiting on the deck. For what, they did not know.
A head silently emerged from the surface of the sea.
Of course, it was not just a head.
Otherwise, the scene would have turned into a horror movie.
Erik Lehnsherr, dressed in a diving suit, was swimming quietly toward the yacht.
At this time, Magneto was not yet Magneto. He was still Erik. A young man who had not yet evolved into a "showman."
Erik had been traveling the world, hunting down former Nazis. The criminals who had destroyed his childhood.
He was making them pay.
Sebastian Shaw was the last enemy Erik had deliberately left alive. And the one he hated the most.
Because Shaw had been a "doctor" in a concentration camp.
But he wasn't saving lives.
He was performing human experiments.
Erik had been one of his subjects.
To force Erik's abilities to awaken, Shaw brought Erik's mother in front of him. He ordered the child to bend a spoon within a limited time, or she would be shot.
At that time, Erik couldn't control his power.
No matter how hard he tried, nothing happened.
The result was simple.
Shaw killed Erik's mother in front of him.
Pain and rage filled Erik's heart. His potential erupted, forcibly awakening his mutant gene.
But his mother... could never come back.
Erik boarded the yacht in silence. He pulled a dagger from his leg, rounded a corner, and came face to face with his target.
He didn't attack from a distance.
He didn't use coins or metal fragments.
He wanted Shaw to die up close.
Painfully.
He had to make Shaw pay.
Tonight was the night the blood debt would be settled.
Erik didn't know that Shaw was also a mutant.
Shaw had never revealed his abilities back then. Erik still believed he was the only special one.
That was why he was careless.
"Hello, 'Doctor.'"
Erik's hand holding the dagger trembled slightly.
Not from fear.
From excitement.
From the anticipation of finally killing his enemy.
"Whoa. Look who it is?" Shaw lounged in his seat, recognizing him immediately.
"Little Erik Lehnsherr."
"He's here to kill you," Emma Frost said, standing up with a slight frown.
She had already read Erik's thoughts. Then she forcibly flipped through his memories.
His most painful ones.
Emma was also a telepath, though not on Charles's level.
She also possessed a diamond form. When activated, her body turned into diamond-nearly indestructible.
Her physical strength increased.
And she became immune to telepathy.
"Ah!" Erik cried out as he collapsed to the deck.
"Tsk tsk... Emma, that's not how you treat a guest," Shaw said lightly.
He made no move to stop her.
"...!" Erik barely regained control and threw the dagger.
He seized it with his ability.
The blade shot forward like a bullet, straight toward Shaw's head.
Emma had already anticipated it.
She shifted into diamond form, caught the dagger barehanded, and kicked Erik off the yacht.
Why she didn't capture him was unclear.
Maybe kicking him off felt better.
"Emma..." Shaw sighed, sounding almost regretful.
"We shouldn't harm our own kind."
He was just short of shedding crocodile tears.
A sudden flash of light lit up the night.
A massive warship had fired five flares, illuminating the sky and the sea.
"Ah... now the real party begins," Shaw said, glancing at Riptide.
Riptide's ability was wind manipulation. At full power, he could create hurricanes.
"This is the U.S. Coast Guard," a loudspeaker boomed.
"Do not move your vessel. Stay where you are. Failure to comply will result in immediate fire."
Several fast boats packed with soldiers sped toward the yacht.
"They have a telepath," Emma said, frowning as she resisted the probing force.
"I can't sense them..."
On the warship's observation deck, Charles pressed his fingers to his temple.
"Something's wrong," he muttered.
"There's... someone blocking me. This has never-"
He stopped.
He remembered.
Someone had forcibly invaded his mind not long ago.
Charles turned to Morin.
"That's normal," Morin said, eyes still on the ancient book in his hands.
"There are too many mutants in the world. Sharing abilities isn't strange."
"Can you help me?" Charles asked.
"As a teacher, I can guide you," Morin replied calmly. "But I won't step in for you. Especially since you're not my student yet."
He was genuinely reading.
One of the spellbooks he had taken from Tia Dalma.
With his learning speed, a single read was enough to understand the spells. Even improve them.
A teacher had to keep learning. That was only reasonable.
"What if I become your student?" Charles asked.
"Do you think a teacher does a student's homework for them?" Morin smiled and turned a page.
"I'll teach you how to develop your ability. And how to deal with her. That's your homework."
"I won't do it for you."
"That would only hurt you."
"I understand." Charles took a breath and looked toward Moira and the others.
"I'm sorry. I don't think I can help tonight."
Morin wasn't invisible.
He was simply using his mental power so that no one but Charles could see or hear him.
The exchange felt long.
In reality, it happened in an instant.
On the yacht, Riptide stepped to the edge.
Two tornadoes formed in his hands.
With a casual push, he sent them toward the approaching boats.
The boats flipped.
All of them.
Charles stared at Morin in silence.
Morin didn't look up.
"I'll teach you another thing," he said, turning a page.
"When you hit a problem, don't panic."
"And use everything you have."
"If you can't invade the minds on that yacht, can't you scan the surroundings?"
"Can't you find someone... useful?"
"What...?" Charles frowned.
Then he understood.
He released his mental power outward.
The disturbance was obvious.
A massive iron anchor chain rose from the sea.
It weighed nearly ten tons.
It floated like a living creature.
The anchor was its head.
The chain, its body.
An iron serpent charging toward the yacht at terrifying speed.
"We should leave," Shaw said, frowning as he ran below deck with Emma.
A nuclear submarine was hidden beneath the yacht.
That was their escape.
Shaw wasn't afraid of the chain.
As the Black King, he could absorb energy. Kinetic. Thermal. Nuclear.
Almost anything.
He could even draw power from a reactor, though it would strain him.
But he had bigger plans.
He wanted to trigger a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Radiation would create more mutants.
And he would become the true Black King.
Erik surfaced just long enough to breathe.
He controlled the iron serpent and sent it after Shaw and Emma.
It missed.
So he redirected it.
The chain wrapped around one end of the yacht and swept to the other.
The steel hull split cleanly in half.
Shaw and Emma fled upward, barely escaping to the next level.
Only then were they safe.
At that moment, Erik looked like a god of war.
Charles stared, smiling unconsciously.
His mouth hung slightly open.
A stranger.
A future rival.
Incredible strength.
"Do you think he's strong?" Morin asked, still reading.
"Yes... huh?" Charles looked over.
He caught the sarcasm.
But didn't understand it.
"Don't be fooled," Morin said flatly.
"He looks impressive."
"But his feet are frantically pedaling under the water right now."
He exposed Erik's reality without mercy.
Like Godzilla.
Mighty above the surface.
Panicking underneath.
"...!" Charles fell silent.
What kind of imagination even comes up with that?
Still-
When he looked again, the godlike image cracked.
Erik suddenly looked... a little pathetic.
Almost cute.
"Enough jokes," Morin said with a sigh.
"Although his power is strong, he's using it poorly."
"Get him out of the water first."
"With his ability, he'd make a good student."
"It helps that you share the same goal."
As he finished speaking, Erik saw the yacht's underside open.
A submarine emerged and began descending.
"...!" Erik immediately changed targets.
He tried to seize control of the submarine.
Even the smallest nuclear submarine displaced six thousand tons.
This one was fifteen thousand.
Far beyond his limit.
But he refused to let go.
The submarine dragged him along.
His legs kicked wildly.
Not enough.
He was pulled under.
Even as his breath ran out, he held on.
Then-
Someone grabbed him from behind.
A voice echoed directly in his mind.
"Stop. You're going to drown."
"You have to let go."
"I know this matters to you."
"But you're going to die."
"Please, Erik. Calm down."
The force behind the voice touched his soul.
Erik's mind cleared.
He released his grip.
Charles brought him back to the surface.
The submarine disappeared into the deep.
"Let me go!" Erik struggled.
"Don't worry!" Charles shouted toward the warship.
"We're over here!"
"Who are you?" Erik demanded.
"Professor Charles Xavier!"
"You invaded my mind!" Erik spat out seawater, still treading desperately.
He wasn't a showman yet.
That much was obvious.
"You have powers," Charles said. "So do I."
"We're the same."
"I thought I was the only one..." Erik recalled Emma's diamond body, the tornadoes, Shaw-
And now Charles.
"You're not alone," Charles said, smiling brightly.
He misunderstood.
But the smile was sincere.
"Erik," he said again.
"You are not alone."
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