Joseph didn't join the castle tour.
Nor did Nick Fury or Phil Coulson.
Once the ten massive clay titans had marched off into the distance with the students in tow, the lively crowd that had filled the area only minutes ago vanished—leaving just the three of them standing there in silence, surrounded by echoes of awe.
"Mr. Joseph…" Nick Fury finally broke the quiet. His voice was calm but firm. "Now that the opening ceremony is over, could we trouble you… to send us back?"
Joseph raised an eyebrow, surprised by the directness. "A guest from afar like you, Director Fury, doesn't wish to wait for Headmaster Charles?"
With a polite tone, he raised his hand, summoning another cascading staircase of water that connected the shore to the floating island.
"No need," Nick Fury answered without hesitation. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has plenty of urgent matters to handle. I need to return immediately."
Joseph gave a subtle smile.
Working around the clock, are we?
Still, he didn't press. With a gentle motion, he raised his hand again. In the center of the lake, the rippling water twisted into a spiraling vortex.
Fury strode toward it, then paused and looked back at Joseph. "Mr. Joseph, I hope that the next time we meet, it will be under similarly pleasant circumstances."
Joseph's eyes remained steady. "Director Fury, Xavier's School doesn't seek conflict. We're just trying to do what's necessary."
"I hope so."
Without further exchange, Fury leapt into the portal without hesitation. Coulson, still munching on a half-eaten hamburger, glanced at Joseph with uncertainty, then followed his superior through the vortex.
The world shifted around them.
In the blink of an eye, the two agents reappeared at the edge of the giant pit they had entered from earlier. The night was deep and still. The dozens of dismissed Mutants were long gone, and only S.H.I.E.L.D. agents remained, standing by to receive their leaders.
"Boss… we're just leaving?" Coulson asked, genuinely confused. "We finally got access to the new Xavier's School. I thought we were supposed to speak with Charles…"
"There's no need, Coulson," Nick Fury replied, stopping in his tracks.
There was a strange undertone in his voice—low and tense.
Coulson immediately picked up on it. "Boss… what exactly do you think they're trying to do?"
Fury didn't answer right away.
Then he snapped.
"Do you know why the government has always feared Mutants?" he demanded, eyes blazing. "Why we've been secretly researching their abilities, yet never pushed through even a basic Mutant Registration Act?!"
Coulson blinked, taken aback by the sudden outburst.
"Because until now," Fury continued, "the Mutants were never truly united. They were fragmented—chaotic! Magneto and Professor X couldn't agree on anything! The Mutant community was a fractured mess!"
"But now?" Fury pointed toward the distant glow of the castle complex, barely visible in the darkness. "Did you see what Joseph just did?!"
"He brought together the X-Men and the Brotherhood. He got Magneto and Professor X to work together! Do you understand what that means?"
Coulson stared at him, speechless.
"It means he's planning to unify all Mutants—starting with a school that enrolls them while they're young!" Fury shouted. "And he didn't stop there. He brought in Stark as an ally. Tony Stark! One of the most influential figures in the world!"
"And not just him—the princess of Wakanda too!" Fury's tone grew more furious. "Do you know how hard it is for us to get our hands on even a gram of Vibranium from Wakanda? But Joseph? He gets the princess to come teach at the school!"
"Teach what?! What kind of 'professor' is she supposed to be?!"
He threw his hands up in disbelief.
"And then there's that school motto!"
"Until now, the only thing Mutants shared was their powers. No unity. No purpose. But now? Joseph is giving them a shared identity. A shared goal. He's creating ideology, infrastructure—and a damn army of genius-level kids."
"And what's worse?" Fury growled. "He's giving them knowledge—beyond their powers. Science, politics, engineering. He's creating the next generation of Mutant leaders, thinkers, warriors."
"What he's building isn't just a school. It's a movement. It's a political system."
Coulson stood frozen, his brain racing to catch up.
"If that's the case…" he hesitated, "then why invite us? Why let us see all of this?"
"Because he wants us to see it!" Fury snapped. "That entire ceremony? It was a message. He's showing us that Mutants don't need to hide anymore. They don't need to answer to the government, the military, or S.H.I.E.L.D."
"It was a warning."
"They have power now. And they're not afraid to show it."
Coulson was quiet for a long time.
He finally whispered, "He's planning to turn the world upside down…"
The night wind picked up, and Coulson shivered involuntarily.
"Then what do we do?" he asked. "Just sit back and do nothing?"
Fury didn't answer.
Both men stood there, looking at each other—troubled, uncertain. For once, the master manipulator Nick Fury looked… at a loss.
It wasn't just Joseph's strength that concerned him. It was his intent. His clarity. His vision. The way he delivered every part of the ceremony like a man setting history in motion.
Xavier's School no longer felt like a quiet place for troubled children.
It felt like the seed of something enormous.
And dangerous.
S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't built to deal with something like this.
"Even if we wanted to stop them…" Coulson finally said, "can we?"
Fury exhaled slowly, then began walking again. "We're not there yet."
"But we will be," he added, eyes narrowing. "Starting now, we gather intel."
He snapped into commander mode. "Coulson. Contact Stark tomorrow. I want to know where he stands in all of this. Does he still want S.H.I.E.L.D. support for Stark Industries?"
"Send Barton to Wakanda. I need to know what agreement led them to send their princess out into the open."
"Dispatch Natasha Romanoff to investigate Matt Murdock. A vigilante lawyer who moonlights as a crime-fighting teacher? What does he have to do with this school?"
"And boost surveillance. These Xavier's School students and teachers will eventually leave the campus. We need eyes on every movement, every interaction."
Coulson nodded, pulling out a small notebook.
"And one more thing…" Fury's voice dropped to a near whisper. "Inform Base Zero. Tell them the Tesseract research must be accelerated."
Coulson blinked. "The Tesseract? But… we haven't even classified it properly yet."
"I don't care," Fury replied. "Just make sure they prioritize it."
"Understood," Coulson said, scribbling it down. Then, after a pause, he asked, "Boss… what about you?"
"I'm going to start recruiting for a new Avengers lineup," Fury muttered. "Because if Joseph's right… then this world is going to change faster than any of us expected."
Coulson glanced back toward the pit behind them.
"Should we secure the area?" he asked.
"Not yet. Just monitor it." Fury shook his head. "If we move too soon, it'll be seen as a provocation. And we're not ready to deal with what comes next."
Coulson agreed. The two turned toward their Quinjet, walking in thoughtful silence.
The wind whispered through the trees.
And then, from somewhere deep in the shadows, Coulson murmured: "Boss… I keep thinking. Joseph didn't invite us just to show off. This whole thing… it felt like a chess move."
Nick Fury's eyes narrowed as they boarded the jet.
He didn't respond.
But deep down, he knew Coulson was right.
This wasn't just a ceremony.
It was the first move in a very, very long game.
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