"It's becoming increasingly clear that simple pressure-point strikes won't be enough to deal with Professor X," Huang Wen mused internally as he led the wary group into the spacious, empty training hall of the Wing Chun school.
"After all, even if Charles were asleep, he could likely manipulate the dreamscape of his own mind to seek help or wake himself up, and my raw psychic ability—my Shen—is clearly still inferior to a planetary-level telepath like Charles, even with the continuous augmentation from the Regeneration Dragon Emblem…"
He sighed inwardly, a moment of self-chastisement. "It's a pity, though. I should have issued a personal challenge. Even if I hadn't formally issued a mission to defeat Magneto, knocking him out so completely should have generated a pretty decent, unexpected reward, right?"
"What exactly is this ability? How can you so easily freeze a person's body and then put them to sleep?" Mystique asked, her voice laced with suspicion, though she performed the simple task of helping carry the unconscious form of Magneto into the training hall with surprisingly cooperative efficiency.
She was utterly baffled. She had seen Magneto shrug off bullets, missiles, and psychic attacks, but this unknown Chinese man had treated him like a child's toy.
"That's exactly what he deserved!" Logan grumbled, walking briskly ahead. He was still irritated that Magneto hadn't suffered proper humiliation. "He should have hit that old geezer's funny bone. He'd have laughed himself to death in a magnetic fit!"
Logan knew, however, that even if Magneto had been struck in a nerve center that induced laughter, he would still be able to deploy his mutant abilities freely, proving Huang Wen's initial analysis correct: physical paralysis was not the same as neutralizing the magnetic will.
"Magneto! Jean Grey, Ms. Ororo!"
The noise had finally penetrated the relative quiet upstairs. Bobby Drake (Iceman) and Anna Marie (Rogue) rushed down the stairs, immediately heading toward Jean and Ororo with obvious relief.
However, John Allerdyce (Fireman/Pyro) and Bruce Banner also came downstairs, but made no move to join the X-Men. They stayed back, gravitating toward Riesfisk and Zhong Qiang, forming a curious, silent cluster of individuals who belonged neither with the Wing Chun school nor the mutants. The sight of this bizarre segregation earned a flicker of doubt in Ororo's eyes.
"Yes, we are profoundly relieved to see that you are all safe," Ororo nodded graciously to Iceman and Rogue. She then glanced meaningfully at Pyro and Banner, who seemed quite content standing on the periphery, a silent question forming in her mind: Why were they keeping their distance?
"We can dispense with the pleasantries now and get straight to the critical business. Shouldn't you release Eric first?" Mystique finally stepped forward, demanding Huang Wen release her leader.
"Of course, I was just about to do so… wait." Huang Wen's affirmative nod stalled. He focused his attention on the sleeping mutant, and just as he was about to exert the reverse Qi pressure, Magneto's eyelids gave a sharp twitch. A second later, Magneto's eyes snapped open, looking somewhat groggy and deeply annoyed.
"Ah, there it is," Huang Wen thought, his expression remaining perfectly neutral. "I knew it. Even though Magneto is physically untrained, his continuous connection to his abilities—which act as a kind of constantly refreshing divine power—found a subtle way to counter the localized internal force I used to seal his sleeping pressure point."
The complexity of Legendary power systems was fascinating and, in a crisis, highly unpredictable.
"That was a good tactic," Magneto said, pulling himself up, brushing the dirt from his cape. He gave Huang Wen a chilling, analytical look. "Now, I genuinely believe you. You are most certainly not one of Kunlun's sheltered monks."
He paused, gathering his composure, and the air of dangerous superiority returned. "However, this entire matter—Stryker, Cerebro, the hostages—this is a crisis for the mutant race. Are you absolutely certain you wish to involve yourself in our affairs?"
"Let's just say I'm willing to see the matter through," Huang Wen replied, deliberately vague. "After all, some of your companions have become… acquaintances of mine. If they encounter genuine difficulty, I will certainly lend a helping hand!" He glanced pointedly at Logan beside him, implicitly naming him as the primary acquaintance.
"Very well, then. Since you insist on listening, we will not conceal the full scope of the danger any longer." Magneto nodded, then looked directly at Logan. "Do you recall the man William Stryker? He is the puppet master behind all of this."
"I do now. I just saw him at Xavier's Academy for Gifted Youngsters," Logan growled, his face contorting in sudden, painful realization. "He was the monster who led the tactical unit that stormed the school and tried to capture the children!" He glanced at Huang Wen, a silent acknowledgment of their earlier discussion about his past.
"Charles was captured by him shortly after," Magneto confirmed, his expression deadly serious.
"You remember the massive Cerebro machine deep underground? William Stryker plans to secretly construct a second, even more powerful machine. He will then use the hypnotic, illusionary abilities of his son, Jason Stryker, to control Charles's mind and force him to use Cerebro to target and wipe out every single mutant in the world!"
Magneto then delivered the chilling final detail. "Charles, who will be forced to overuse his abilities in this catastrophic fashion, will undoubtedly perish immediately. If I manage to put on my helmet in time, I might survive the psychic shockwave, and your unique resistance might also allow you to survive, Logan, but whether the consciousness that remains after you survive is still you is highly uncertain…"
"So, based on your broken memories, do you know where William Stryker is hiding right now?" Jean Grey interjected, her concern for Charles overriding everything else.
"Lake Alkali," Logan replied, the word emerging automatically, without hesitation. He looked at Huang Wen, recalling the name the master had mentioned earlier, now anchored in his mind by the recent memory flash. "That's the site."
"Where exactly is this place?" Jean Grey, Ororo, and Mystique's eyes lit up with renewed purpose.
"On the surface, there were no traces of people, and I haven't smelled or sensed any human activity in the vicinity in my memory," Logan admitted, a hint of deep-seated confusion flickering in his eyes. "But I have an extremely strong suspicion that the actual facility, the place where they are holding Charles, is deep underground."
"Oh, that's right!" Jean Grey suddenly recalled the other person present. She spun around, turning her attention to the nervous, blue-furred mutant. "Nightcrawler, you were once controlled and used by William Stryker. He must have a hidden location or facility embedded somewhere in your memories!"
"I am absolutely willing to help!" Nightcrawler quickly assured them, shrinking slightly under the intense focus of the entire group. "But I truly cannot recall the location myself. The memories are too fractured and painful."
"It's irrelevant. I can retrieve them directly." Jean Grey placed her hand on Nightcrawler's head, her powerful psychic mind instantly delving into the recesses of his fractured memory.
"She hasn't reached the level of reading memories remotely yet," Huang Wen noted, observing the intimate, physical contact required for the transfer.
"My own psychic ability is the same; I need to make physical contact to conduct deep memory reading. Even with the continuous boost from the Regeneration Dragon Emblem, both Jean and I are still considerably weaker than Charles's raw, unaided mental capacity."
He glanced briefly between Mystique and Nightcrawler. "By the way, these two blue-skinned individuals look like they should have some connection. It wasn't explicitly spelled out in the timeline I remember, so I can't be certain if they're related…"
Huang Wen didn't detect any immediate, recognizable similarity between their auras beyond their shared blue pigmentation, and given that Mystique's age in the films was different from the comics, he couldn't assume the mother-son relationship.
"It is indeed Lake Alkali!" Jean Grey quickly opened her eyes, pulling her hand away from Nightcrawler. She looked directly at Logan and nodded with fierce certainty. "You were correct. The secure underground bunker at Lake Alkali is William Stryker's primary operational base!"
"But Lake Alkali is still too far away! How are we going to transport everyone there?" Logan frowned, exasperated by the distance. "Where is your plane? Are we really expected to sit in that sardine can of a metal box that Eric controls?"
"The plane was utterly destroyed," Ororo said, casting a helpless, weary glance at Magneto, who merely shrugged. "Given the condition of the wreckage, even a repair job would take days, and we cannot afford to delay. That metal box is all we have for crude transport."
"My abilities are only enough to carry one person across that kind of distance, and once I arrive, I will be completely exhausted and unable to move or teleport again," Nightcrawler admitted, looking hesitantly at the group. "If one of you can deliver the decisive blow and defeat William Stryker, I can take him along."
Nightcrawler's focus shifted mainly to Jean Grey, Ororo, and Magneto. In his view, only these three possessed the demonstrated power to confront Stryker.
"William Stryker's methods are ruthlessly deceptive and his security is absolute. We must proceed with extreme caution," Magneto warned, his tone grave. "It would be extraordinarily difficult for a single person, no matter how powerful, to penetrate that facility and deal with him alone!"
"System," Huang Wen's eyes suddenly lit up with a decisive gleam. He instantly contacted the system internally. "Issue a mission: transport Magneto and the X-Men to Lake Alkali!"
A digital notification immediately appeared in his mental interface:
Task being generated: Transport Magneto and the X-Men to Lake Alkali. Reward: One Extraordinary ability. Accept?
"One Extraordinary ability? Magneto and Jean Grey are both here, and Storm's power isn't exactly weak either. Is the system already calculating the extreme difficulty of transporting this many extraordinary individuals over such a long distance?"
Huang Wen pursed his lips, but ultimately chose to accept the mission. The opportunity to gain a new, potent Extraordinary skill was too valuable to pass up, even if it meant a significant expenditure of his Qi.