Professor, what should we do now?" At this critical moment, Jean Grey barely held back the advancing water with her telekinesis. Everyone looked at Charles, hoping that Charles, the backbone of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, could come up with a solution.
"Scott, blast open the room next to us to divert the water and buy us time!" Charles immediately gave the order. Cyclops, without the slightest hesitation, fired a red shockwave from his eyes, collapsing the adjacent path and diverting some of the water.
However, the X-Men were still in the main channel of the water flow. Even with some water diverted, it didn't alleviate Jean Grey's pressure. In fact, the shattered rocks from the collapsed room merged with the water, making it even harder for Jean Grey to cope.
"Professor, Jean can't hold on much longer!" Cyclops shouted anxiously at Charles, seeing Jean Grey's struggle.
"Erik, I'm sorry!" A look of determination flashed in Charles's eyes as he looked at Erik, who was lying on a mutant, and said in a low voice.
"Come on, let's just get out of here alive. It's better than dying!" Magneto, true to his long-standing friendship with Charles, instantly understood Charles's meaning. He recalled the pain he had just experienced, took off his helmet, and said through gritted teeth.
"Buzz!" As Magneto finished speaking, a powerful psychic force instantly surged from Charles and entered Magneto's brain.
"Ah!"
"Ah!"
Charles and Magneto simultaneously let out a painful roar. Just then, a metal wall appeared between the X-Men and the water flow, allowing Jean Grey to finally stop and rest. She almost collapsed to the ground, but Cyclops, quick-witted, caught her.
"Hurry, this wall won't last long…" Magneto and Charles spoke at the same time, their voices trembling. Then, both of them screamed again, "Ah!"
With that scream, a passage was forcibly opened in front of them, and a metal ladder descended. It was the ventilation shaft leading to the outside.
It was at this moment that Magneto suddenly rolled his eyes and completely fainted. Charles's body also trembled uncontrollably from the pain.
Charles barely managed to look at Jean Grey and said, "I feel Erik's pain. The rest is up to you. I believe you can do it…"
After speaking, Charles finally succumbed to exhaustion and pain, falling unconscious and leaving the X-Men and a group of fledgling mutants at a loss.
"Go!" Cyclops took a deep breath, quickly helped Jean Grey towards the ventilation duct, and everyone else hurried after them. There weren't too many complications in the ventilation duct, but when they escaped the base, a new problem arose.
The X-Men's jet had already been destroyed, and they didn't know where the base's helicopter was. More importantly, the Alkali Lake Dam above them had begun to crack, and the water was rushing into Alkali Lake, threatening to wipe out the entire X-Men.
With a "boom!" the dam split open, and a torrent of water poured down, threatening to engulf all the X-Men.
"Perhaps the Professor was really wrong. Perhaps we really shouldn't have been enemies with Huang Wen. Otherwise, in this situation, we could have easily left…" Jean Grey pushed Cyclops away and stepped forward, her telekinetic power surging. She extended her hand, and the raging torrent instantly split into two, but it was clear that Jean Grey was not at ease; her body was trembling constantly.
"What do we do?! What do we do?!"
Although Jean Grey had split the torrent, everyone knew they probably couldn't escape. Even with the torrent divided, they were still surrounded by water. The recently rescued mutants stood in place, at a loss.
And there was an even more important reason: everyone knew that Jean Grey couldn't hold on forever!
"Jean…" Cyclops's eyes shot out shockwaves, trying to help Jean Grey alleviate some of the pressure, but his efforts were merely a drop in the ocean.
"The Professor entrusted you all to me. I must save you all! It's also a way to repay the Professor's kindness…" Jean Grey took a deep breath, a look of determination flashing in her eyes. She extended her other hand towards everyone around her. The next moment, everyone's bodies floated up.
"Jean! Jean, what are you doing?!" Cyclops shouted, somewhat panicked, as if he realized something.
"I'm saving you all…" Jean Grey's body faintly glowed with the power of the Phoenix Force, controlling everyone's bodies to slowly rise and fly sideways, moving away from the area submerged by the torrent.
"No! Jean! Put me down! I don't want to go!" Cyclops struggled constantly, but facing Jean Grey, who had already unleashed the Phoenix Force, he was no match. He could only watch helplessly as his body flew farther and farther away until Jean Grey's figure was no longer visible, until everyone's bodies suddenly landed. They realized that Jean Grey was probably already engulfed by the torrent.
"No!" Cyclops, who had fallen to the ground in disarray, tried to run towards the torrent, but Ororo held him back tightly.
"If you go now, it's just a dead end!" Ororo looked at her companions who were injured from the fall and reminded Cyclops with tears in her eyes, "Don't forget, you are the leader of the X-Men! The hardship isn't over yet!"
Ororo was right; the X-Men's ordeal was not over. They had fallen from mid-air and sustained injuries of varying degrees. Most importantly, they had no transportation, and it was unknown how far they were from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Moreover, this group of X-Men could already be considered elderly, weak, and injured… "I…" Cyclops desperately wanted to go find Jean Grey now, but his responsibility as the X-Men's leader reminded him that he had to first settle his companions.
"Perhaps the Professor was really wrong…" Ororo sighed in her heart, looking at the unconscious Charles and Magneto. From the final outcome, Charles's actions were undoubtedly unwise and completely shattered Charles's image of kindness and wisdom in everyone's hearts.
"If Huang Wen hadn't fallen out with us, at least for Logan's sake, we could have safely left here, at most losing Erik, who was originally an enemy. But now, Jean has sacrificed herself…"
Cyclops couldn't know what Ororo was thinking. He decided that after settling his companions, he would look for Jean Grey's whereabouts. If he couldn't find Jean Grey, Cyclops was prepared: he would live here permanently, guarding it for the rest of his life!
"Those who can still move, help your companions with some crutches. Everyone, support each other and move forward!" Cyclops took a deep breath and began to take on his responsibilities, giving commands.