"How was it?" Ian asked Aisha as he watched the professor's departing figure.
"He was telling the truth the whole time, and he never attempted to invade our minds," Aisha replied.
Aisha's ability was Mind Protection, primarily focused on mental defense and lie detection.
With this power, she firmly held her position as the general manager of Carnegie Alloy Company and the leader of the action team at Carnegie Mutant Academy.
"As expected of the professor," Ian said, unsurprised.
The professor had strong willpower, a firm philosophy, and unwavering principles. Unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn't read others' thoughts at will.
But precisely because of his philosophy and principles, recruiting the professor was nearly impossible. And with him around, Ian never even considered trying to recruit the mutants at X Academy.
"No need to keep an eye on the professor—just focus on Stryker," Ian instructed.
Stryker's methods were simple yet highly effective.
Using the assassination attempt on the president, he stirred up anti-mutant sentiment, heightened conflicts between ordinary humans and mutants, and escalated public discourse.
He then leveraged public opinion to pressure the president into approving his action plan.
During this time, he also used Washington's influence to suppress X Academy, forcing the professor to struggle on multiple fronts and wasting much of his time.
By the time the professor tracked down the real assassin, Stryker had already completed his setup.
Just like in the original storyline, while the professor's people were out searching for the assassin, Stryker struck decisively!
Stryker knew his framing of mutants wouldn't hold up for long.
The professor, due to his public image, might not take direct action against him. But Magneto had no such restraints—he would absolutely not let Stryker walk free.
So, Stryker used himself as bait to lure Magneto out, trapping him in a magnet-free alloy cage.
Then, before the professor could react, he used Magneto as bait to lure the professor into a trap, successfully capturing him as well.
In a single day, both Magneto and Professor X—two of the most powerful mutant leaders—had fallen into Stryker's hands!
"What kind of trump card does Stryker have?"
It was just Mastermind—a single illusionist!
This entire sequence of maneuvers was incredibly impressive!
"Amazing! Truly, the power of hatred is limitless," Ian couldn't help but marvel.
Even without Magneto as a bargaining chip, Stryker still managed to capture Professor X and even trapped Magneto along the way.
Stryker knew that killing Magneto wouldn't be easy.
So, he shifted his focus, and under cover of night, he launched an attack on X Academy.
Coincidentally, just like before, only Logan was there to guard the academy, along with a bunch of kids.
Once again, the outcome remained unchanged—some students were captured, while others escaped.
"Is it the sheer force of narrative inertia, or have I not changed enough?" Ian mused.
Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed how little the end result had changed.
"Should we rescue those kids?" Aisha asked.
"No need. The professor will save them. Just keep monitoring," Ian replied.
Those kids were too deeply influenced by the professor, and Ian had no interest in fighting him over them.
As long as their lives weren't in danger, he had no reason to intervene—especially since Stryker's forces weren't the only ones attacking X Academy.
Notably, X Academy's aircraft and technical data didn't fall into Stryker's hands.
The rest of the events played out just as Ian expected.
Jean and Storm, after retrieving Nightcrawler, reunited with the escaped Logan and the others.
Then, they unexpectedly ran into Magneto.
"He is Colonel William Stryker. His only reason for attacking the academy is to obtain Cerebro or to get a prototype and build his own," Magneto explained.
"But Cerebro requires the professor to operate," Jean pointed out.
"Stryker captured Charles," Magneto replied.
Instantly, the atmosphere became tense.
Jean and Storm looked horrified, while Logan remained clueless.
"When Cerebro is activated, Charles' mind connects to every person on Earth.
If he focuses his consciousness on a specific person or a particular group, such as mutants,
he can wipe out all of us in an instant," Magneto explained.
If Ian had been there, he would've scoffed at this statement.
Cerebro could only kill ordinary people—regular humans or weak mutants.
There were plenty of ways to defend against this kind of mental attack, and many powerful beings on Earth who could directly stop Charles.
Otherwise, how could Charles have survived this long?
Of course, Jean and the others didn't know this—even Magneto might not have realized it.
After all, at this point in time, mutants were the only widely known supernatural force on Earth.
"How did Stryker even find Cerebro?" Storm asked.
"It's been there for decades—many people know about it.
Besides, I helped Charles build it decades ago. The principles behind it aren't a secret.
With today's technology, Stryker could easily build one himself," Magneto replied.
Ian could build one too—a better one. But there was no point.
After experiencing it once, Ian realized that Cerebro had severe flaws.
It was only useful against weaklings—when facing powerful foes, using Cerebro was like presenting your biggest weakness on a silver platter.
Soon, Jean and the others figured out Stryker's plan.
From Nightcrawler's memories, they found Stryker's base.
Then, things unfolded predictably:
The team stormed Stryker's base and rescued their people.
Logan recovered his memories, Jean saved Scott, and the kidnapped kids were successfully rescued.
When Magneto found the professor, he once again turned the tables!
Stryker had used his son, Mastermind, to manipulate Professor X and force him to use Cerebro to kill all mutants.
When Magneto arrived, he didn't destroy Cerebro or wake Charles up immediately.
Instead, he had Mystique disguise herself as Stryker and use the same method to control the professor.
Only this time, Magneto's target wasn't mutants—it was all humans!
"Aisha, did you feel that?" Ian suddenly turned to her.
On his hand, a silver ring engraved with mysterious runes gleamed faintly.
It was the Mind Protection Ring, inscribed with Aisha's Mind Protection Law Rune, granting mental defense.
"There's a powerful consciousness invading our minds," Aisha replied.
"How strong?" Ian asked.
Aisha considered it and answered, "Strong enough to kill ordinary mutants.
But ineffective against those with law runes—and completely useless against our academy's mental shield."
"What about normal humans?"
"Most basic mind-protection devices should be able to resist it."
Professor X had been famous for years, so most influential factions had developed their own mental defenses.
Ian removed his ring, and the mental shield vanished—
Immediately, he felt the immense mental force.
It was powerful… yet fragile.
Ian instinctively knew that even without mental attacks, he could break through it with sheer willpower.
But he chose not to.
Feeling Professor X's mind, Ian had already predicted the ending.
Even without Rogue, the outcome was the same.
So, in the end, Rogue's role in driving the plot was minimal.
[Please add the novel to your library, and add your free power stone]
(End of Chapter)