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….
However, I digress.
Buried in the analyses and medical records of the Xavier School's residents, I… no, I didn't isolate the X-gene.
For that, on Earth's technical base, I would have had to slave away for five or ten years.
Even given that I… well, that is, the original Loki was the creator of Sleipnir, Odin's divine eight-legged horse capable of flight.
But I realized that I could help with the clumsily functioning abilities of the students in ninety percent of cases.
Take Cyclops. His eyes emitted a certain spectrum of particle-wave radiation, which nevertheless could be completely dampened by a light filter suppressing the proper spectrum.
That is, as soon as I learned the composition of the glass in his visor and read how the experiments on selecting this composition went, I could easily create an optical illusion that would do the same thing.
But an illusion isn't a huge contraption covering half a face; it can be made small, exactly fitting the surface of the eyeball.
Then transfer the spell scheme into a runic form, add a shutdown block via mental command, tattoo it onto Scott's head (after shaving it, but the hair will grow back), and voilà, the guy can walk around without glasses, without the slightest risk of blowing up the neighborhood while washing his face.
Every sentient being has magical energy, some more, some less, and even an untrained human has enough volume to maintain a tiny illusion comfortably.
And for me, doing something like this would take literally a couple of hours of work.
Realizing this state of affairs, I didn't think long and decided to have a heart-to-heart with Charles. After all, he is the most interested party.
He, it must be said, also taught several lessons for his charges, so I had to tactfully wait for him to finish his beloved literature class.
And only after letting a crowd of excited kids out the door, rewarding a couple of particularly sprightly ones with thematic imp horns along the way, did I go inside.
Storm, who was about to teach them math right now, would naturally notice my prank and say something to me about it later, but that would be later.
Besides, running in the corridors is forbidden, so I was within my rights, even if she would be the one scolding the violators based on my "tip."
"Got a minute?" closing the door behind me, I attracted the attention of the professor, who was immersed in examining a stack of some papers. Kids must have written an essay.
"Loki?" Xavier looked up at me. "Of course, come in." The papers were set aside, and the invalid's whole posture portrayed readiness to listen.
"I'm here about Magneto's machine and mutants in general," I walked to the guest chair.
There were many of them here, Charles conducted his lessons not in classrooms, but in a comfortably furnished room with plenty of randomly placed chairs and small sofas, although there were tables too; you can't write much down without them.
"Regarding the first, I've already figured out how to increase the survival chances of those irradiated to about forty percent and how to make the process safe for the operator, but I'm not sure it's worth implementing in metal."
"So even with Asgardian technologies, a human's chance of survival will be less than fifty percent?" the telepath frowned. It seemed to me he generally didn't really like that I was working in this direction, but he didn't try to forbid it.
"It can be increased to sixty, and even up to ninety if you try hard enough, but that's not the point. Even at forty, we get no less than five million mutants if the installation is used on New York or a similarly populated city."
"The problem isn't the success of awakening the X-gene, but its quality. Correct me if I'm wrong, but about half of your students have some sort of problems controlling their powers, and almost always it's not the fault of their motivation or effort."
"Yes, unfortunately, problems of this kind are becoming more frequent among mutants," the professor nodded, sadly steepling his hands in front of his face.
"In such cases, we try to help by finding technical solutions, like with Scott and his eyes, for example, but the problem is indeed quite serious."
"Yes, while one can get used to living with glasses, living without the ability to touch anyone is torture," I closed my eyes understandingly.
And it seems to me that the cause of such errors in the genome lies in the fact that the mass awakening of the X-gene began prematurely.
Radiation, cell phone emissions, chemicals in the air and food, all sorts of GMOs and other environmental pollution, these are all hostile factors capable of provoking the organism to mobilize its resources for defense and, as a consequence, activating genes that are currently in a latent state.
"The result is the same effect as Magneto's machine, but quiet and without the special effects. Meanwhile, the nucleotide combination in the DNA isn't finished; it needed a few more generations of successful breeding. So while it works, no one should be surprised that it works like a raw prototype."
"Are you sure about this?"
"About seventy percent," I shrugged. "To be completely sure, I need Asgardian equipment, several years of research, and very… very many samples to gather statistics. But that's just the preamble. What I wanted to discuss is what I can do to help such mutants in your school."
And I laid out my conclusions.
"What is required of me?" Charles asked briefly at the end of the story, immediately making it clear he was "pro."
"Convince Jean not to declare war on me for making her boyfriend bald for a couple of weeks," I smiled at the telepath.
"I think that won't be too difficult," Charles returned the smile.
"You think?" I continued the game.
"I have every reason to believe that Dr. Grey harbors no prejudice against men with a lack of hair on their heads," the most famous bald man in this world assured me with firm confidence in his entire posture.
"Ah, right, I keep forgetting," I feigned embarrassment with shifty eyes under Xavier's knowing smile.
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
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