Eduard hovered in the air hundreds of meters above the clouds with an indifferent look on his face as he clearly observed the gunman positioned on a building kilometers away from a bank with his sights positioned there; looking at the bank in question he was able to spot some vans in the distance where all it took was a glance for him to see dozens of men armed with several different types of weapons, and some clearly looked like they had been taken from games such as the Abalo rifle from Halo.
'Quite a line-up...'
[Yes, 25 heavily armed people and even some plasma weapons developed with unknown technology.]
'This level of technology is useless to us, but it still shows that it's worth keeping our researcher alive and free, right?'
[（￣へ￣）]
Eduard ignored Cortana and continued to watch the vans slowly approach and position themselves, he stayed like this for a few minutes before he realized that the "heavyweights" of the day had finally arrived; there were three figures that stood out strongly among these armed men, one of them was a young adult who didn't appear to be more than 25 years old, he was blond with a golden outfit with red details and a strange red backpack with silver details and some strange "hoses" that connected to his wrists, this was a mutant that he definitely couldn't recognize, which was quite different from the other one next to him, he could recognize this ugly thing anywhere, especially considering that Groxo was right next to Magneto.
- Don't you think they're too relaxed? - Eduard asked with an amused smile as he watched the blond tease Groxo as if he didn't care what they were about to do.
[Considering that they think you're a mutant, that's to be expected, plus, considering your backgrounds and personalities, I believe that the question of defeat has never crossed their minds, and even Magneto must believe that he won't be harmed considering everything he's been through in his life, and also taking into account the little power you've shown so far, that's all understandable].
'It makes sense'.
Eduard thought and put his worries aside.
- Cortana, set up a broadcast, I'll continue with the broadcast so that people can see what I'm doing, whether it's a positive reaction or not at least the annoying government from the comics won't be able to throw their dirty water on me!
[Ok~]
While Eduard and Cortana watched their preparations, Lex's team began to break into the bank and imprison the people. After imprisoning the people, they wouldn't bother going to the vault and would just fill the building with bombs, or so it seemed, since instead of bombs, they were small explosives that would react to touch once switched on, where they would disperse various substances in a centered manner rather than dispersed like most.
- Do we really need so much preparation?
- I also think this is an exaggeration, I mean, how many different types of harmful gases do we prepare?
- I can still understand the poisons, but do we need those aberrations too?
- They say that only freaks can deal with freaks.
- Shh! Keep it down, you idiots!
- Are you scared, Carl? - A fat man asked with a mocking smile as he looked at his friend.
- Yes! And you should be too! If any of these mutants have the ability to hear us, we'll all be dead because you won't shut up! - Carl replied angrily to his colleagues.
After listening to Carl, they all fell silent and their expressions turned sour, after all, deep down they knew that no matter how much they belittled or mocked them, at the end of the day they were the vulnerable ones, and this only gave them a feeling of helplessness that made them hate them, after all, knowing about the existence of hundreds or thousands of people who were born "superior" to you would naturally generate envy, especially when you couldn't even complain about it out of fear, as you can now. A good example of this was Carl's friend who was laughing a little while ago, his expression at the moment similar to that of a person who has been robbed and slapped in the face afterwards.
- Forget it! Let's finish the job soon! - The man who seemed to have swallowed shit just turned his face away and continued his work while cursing internally for a few moments until his expression got even worse when he forced himself to focus only on his work, after all, there are mutants who can read minds too, right?
- Huff... - Carl sighed and felt better after ending this discussion, after all, he really was afraid of mutants so he didn't want to piss them off because his friend was jealous of them, besides, he was grateful to have some mutants on his team today; knowing who Luthor's target was today Carl's legs couldn't help but shake for a few moments before he shook his head and turned his attention back to his work while burying the fear Eduard was causing. Scenes like these could be seen everywhere as Lex's men prepared for what was to come.
-Tsk! - Pyro clicked his tongue again as he looked at the behavior of the people around him.
- Calm down! - Magneto exclaimed in a calm, authoritative tone as he glanced briefly at Pyro.
Knowing Pyro's personality, he knew that this rebuke would lose its effect in seconds, but that didn't matter, at the moment he didn't really care if the two who accompanied him were unhappy with the gossip or the obvious fear that Luthor's henchmen were transmitting, no, what really mattered to him today was how he would talk to the "mutant" who was being ambushed here. He needed to convince that young man to take up his mantle, his age was already taking its toll and for the time being, apart from Raven, he didn't trust anyone to keep the mutants safe as he had been doing or at least trying to do all his life, but even if he did trust her, he lacked the strength, he lacks the "impediment" that he has become for the government and that has worried him for a long time and that is exactly why he needs to convince this boy, after all, with just the little he has seen in the video he can guarantee that this boy is a real impediment and with Raven by his side he would be relaxed about passing the flag.
- Those idiots are really annoying! - Pyro's voice snapped Erik out of his thoughts and made him look around, which allowed him to see that the men were even more frightened than before thanks to Pyro's dissatisfaction, which made him sigh with exhaustion, and this generated even more panic on the part of the people around him, after all, Erik, known to the world as Magneto, was a living weapon, a being who could potentially destroy the planet, and even in his old age the government in general didn't dare to act directly because of the "nuclear weapon" they were guarding, of course, they didn't act publicly, but underneath the plans things were different and everyone knew it. Looking at how a simple sigh provoked everyone around him except the mutants who had come with him, Erik just closed his eyes.
- Forget them, they're not worth our time anyway. - Erik muttered and then fell silent.
- Just shut up Pyro! - Groxo exclaimed grumpily at the looks he was getting.
- ... - Pyro looked at Groxo and, noticing his bad mood, he just smiled mockingly and said nothing more, turning his attention to a lighter he had taken from one of the hostages.
- An interesting group... - Eduard said with a smile.
[I agree!]
- I find it interesting that Magneto hasn't discovered us yet, considering little I know about him it should be easy to find me, right? - Eduard asked with obvious doubt in his voice, after all, as far as he could remember this old man was always one of the most powerful beings on the planet and some of his versions had the power to actually destroy planets if he wanted to, not to mention that his tracking skills weren't bad either.
[Ed, he's old...]
After saying this, Cortana remained silent for a few moments, watching Eduard's expression before continuing.
[He's not like you and Kara Ed, he doesn't get stronger with time, quite the opposite... At his age all he can do is use his powers as little as possible to remain the "nuclear deterrent" of his group...]
After listening to Cortana's reply Eduard nodded and looked down again as he thought about Magneto and the mutants, something he had honestly ignored until now, but after thinking about it he felt a little bad for them, after all, even someone who doesn't want to be a hero, wouldn't want to ignore the plight of the mutants now that he have the powers to make a difference, and he's sure that most Marvel fans wouldn't ignore the atrocities the government has done to these people by treating them like mere lab rats either; Eduard decided to help the mutants a little, but when he remembered how the world saw them and how much shit would be falling on him, a huge headache came over him.
- Any ideas here Cortana? - Eduard simply let Cortana read his mind and understand his concerns before asking, after all, genius or not it was true that he was terrible at emotional intelligence and politics, so he just chose to depend on Cortana in these areas.
[No plan can be inferred based on our knowledge, after all, in your mind there are two different types of people who are the residents of Marvel and DC, it is also true for the government, this makes an approach difficult since you have never gathered data aimed at this issue...]
- ... - Eduard remained silent after listening to Cortana and couldn't help but nod, he knows that he had put a lot of things aside in recent years and thanks to that he didn't have certain data, and one of those things was the situation of mutants; it's not that Eduard doesn't have data on mutants, it's just that he only collects data on their powers, factions and other more objective things, but he never bothered to collect data on their social situation or how society treated them. - Sigh...
[Ed...]
- I know it's not my fault Cortana... - Eduard murmured in a comforting tone when he realized that Cortana was going to console him. - But!" Eduard raised his tone, and his eyes narrowed. - Even if this isn't my fault now that I've realized the situation, I can't just close my eyes, not when I'm sure that children are guinea pigs... - It may sound stupid, but Eduard hasn't really thought about it over the last few years, after all, he had a lot to do and even started observing space in preparation for what was to come, so with so much going on he just made some monitoring guidelines for the situation on the planet and never got too obsessed or worried about it with the rare exception of when it involved magic where he spent most of his effort over the last few years, and thanks to that, his work on "monitoring the mutants is only superficial, and he doesn't even bother to look at the reports. - I really feel bad now... - A sad smile appeared on Eduard's lips, and he did feel bad for having been negligent about it, but after just a few seconds he put this emotion aside and decided to be more careful, but he still didn't want to become Batman or Superman who spent their lives protecting the earth.
'I think I need to improve the guidelines when I get back'
After secretly thinking this, Eduard decided to think about how to improve the "social welfare" of mutants and how to better monitor the world afterwards, but for now he had to prepare.
- Cortana, get the cameras ready, we'll start soon, and I want even the conversation with Magneto to be broadcast uncut, let's see if that old man can change people's minds with this little push... - Considering he was old and ready to ask for help to protect the mutants, I guess he wouldn't mind gaining some sympathy without government interference, right? Of course, if it was the young Magneto who could fight for everything he needed, he wouldn't try that, but maybe the old man who just wants to protect his race might? Eduard really hoped so.
[When you want to start, just let me know!]
- BOOMM!!!
Eduard stopped in the middle of saying something and turned his attention to the bank again, seeing that Luthor's men had blown up the entrance and opened an emergency exit connected to the sewers at the same time, he was a little surprised, but soon ignored it and looked at the cameras and decided to focus on listening to what they were saying; after listening for a while a smile appeared on Eduard's face.
- Cortana, go ahead!
[Ok~(ง'̀-'́) ง]
(A/N: I know it took me a long time to post this time and I didn't even post the chapter in advance on Patreon, but I really had some personal problems to sort out so I can only apologize, but to avoid this happening again I'm going to put the story I haven't posted yet and am writing aside for a while and accumulate chapters of this one. I hope you enjoy the chapter!)
(A/N: For now there are 5 extra chapters on patreon, I will try to increase this weekly; I will also be publishing another story in the next few weeks in advance)
- Patreon: p@treon.com/Aedificationemmundoscumimaginatione