Although Magneto was now worried about the life and death of his old friend, to be honest, he didn't really believe Apocalypse would kill Professor X. After all, Professor X was an extremely rare individual with powerful psychic abilities.
What he feared more was that Professor X would stubbornly refuse to submit. If Apocalypse grew annoyed, he might indeed kill him.
What's more, mutants possessed all kinds of abilities. Although Professor X was the strongest psychic, that didn't mean he was completely uncontrollable. Once certain control-type powers were used on him, even if they were lifted later, Charles might already be rendered useless.
Don't be fooled by the surface-level contrast between Magneto and Professor X—one a radical, the other a conservative. In truth, their personalities were complete opposites.
Magneto was something of a bully, likely due to the many hardships he'd experienced in life. There had been countless times when he'd chosen flight over fight. And when cornered by an unbeatable enemy, surrendering temporarily wasn't beneath him.
Generally speaking, unless facing an opponent with strong moral principles, Magneto's bottom line was surprisingly flexible.
Professor X, by contrast, always appeared gentle and loved to mentor others, advocating a moderate approach. But in reality, the man was incredibly arrogant. Words like "compromise" or "submit" didn't exist in his dictionary. Join you, Apocalypse? Dream on!
Shin thought it over and decided to reveal what he knew right away. Judging by Magneto's current mindset, he looked ready to recruit some of the X-Men first and only later go searching for Charles.
"As far as I know, the mutant Apocalypse emerged a long time ago," Shin said directly to the group.
"His ability is extremely powerful, it should be soul possession. That's how he's accumulated so many different mutant powers."
"Soul possession?" Magneto's eyes twitched at the term, and a sense of unease gripped his heart.
"Yes. Simply put, he destroys the mutant's soul and takes over their body. Apocalypse uses this method to achieve both immortality and the absorption of multiple mutant abilities."
To be honest, the more Shin considered Apocalypse's powers, the more confused he became about the nature of the X-gene. Supposedly, the gene existed within the body—but both Apocalypse and even Professor X had performed soul transfers, and their powers still worked afterward.
If it was purely tied to the soul and not the body, then what about cases like the Phoenix Force's clone, Madelyne Pryor aka the Red Queen? Or those mutants who'd acquired abilities through genetic transplants? What's going on with these guys?
Magneto had no idea what Shin was thinking. He was now preoccupied with his own fear over Apocalypse's capabilities.
Originally, he assumed Apocalypse had taken Professor X because he feared Charles's power and wanted to recruit him or at least prevent him from interfering.
Usually, mutants handled things in a straightforward manner: beat someone up to assert dominance, then deliver a speech about mutant superiority. Most uneducated mutants would end up surrendering.
Professor X, however, had formidable power and a strong mind. He wouldn't be persuaded so easily. But precisely because of his strength, limited mobility, and obvious physical weaknesses, most supervillains had been relatively tolerant toward him. At least in the short term, Charles should've been safe.
Who could've predicted Apocalypse wanted to take over his body?!
Magneto, who had been relatively calm, suddenly leaped up like he'd been burned. "Where did Apocalypse go? Do you have any teleportation-type mutants at the academy?"
At this point, Cyclops, Storm, and the others had put aside their previous differences with Magneto. Almost all of the first-generation X-Men had been adopted by Professor X. Their bonds with him were more than that of mentor and student—they were like children to a father. Now that their "father" was in danger, everything else became irrelevant.
"There's a girl named Clarice who can create portals," Jean Grey said, having finally regained her composure. "But we still don't know where Apocalypse is."
Shin quickly reminded them, "Every time Apocalypse transfers his soul, he needs a pyramid to assist. Right now, the only pyramid is in Cairo. So he must have taken Professor X there."
Without another word, Storm turned and called for help. Moments later, Shin saw a girl of Asian descent walk in.
She looked a little timid, only around fourteen or fifteen years old, and clung to Storm Ororo's hand.
"This is Clarisse," Storm said. "She's a mutant with teleportation-type abilities."
"Can she teleport directly to Cairo, Egypt? Does her power reach that far?" Shin asked.
"I can take you to Egypt," Clarisse replied timidly. "But my spatial accuracy isn't great. I'm fine within visible range, but if I teleport over long distances, there's a large margin of error."
Magneto frowned. But there weren't any alternatives. Teleportation was an incredibly rare ability. He'd once had a mutant named Azazel under his command, whose teleportation skills were outstanding. Unfortunately, Azazel had since joined Hellfire and left the Brotherhood.
As for the academy, their original teleporter, Nightcrawler, was now either performing with a circus or serving in a church, he hadn't joined yet.
The only teleportation-capable mutant available was the young Clarisse, who was not even an adult yet.
Shin, despite possessing space-time abilities himself, couldn't use his Flying Thunder God technique, he hadn't marked any coordinates in Egypt.
"Gather the team. This time, we're all going together," Magneto ordered decisively. "From what I know, Apocalypse has dozens of capable mutants who can engage in real combat. Your school reserve members can join as well."
He issued commands directly to the X-Men. Cyclops opened his mouth, as if to argue, but ultimately said nothing.
Jean Grey spoke instead. "But… they're just students."
"Charles can't protect them forever," Magneto retorted without hesitation. "And this time, he's been captured by Apocalypse! What do you think will happen to those school students if Apocalypse gains Charles's psychic ability?"
The answer was obvious complete brainwashing. Apocalypse called himself a god, how could anyone not see what kind of person he was?
Besides, he'd gone out of his way to steal Professor X's powers. That wasn't for show.
Even if the students at X Academy didn't resist him, once they did, they'd be brainwashed for sure.
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