"That's even more absurd than full mind control!" Wanda exclaimed, her voice rising with frustration. "Controlling people all over the world? There's still some chance of that being possible, theoretically. But manipulating the memories of the entire population? That's completely impossible!"
She gestured emphatically, her hands glowing faintly red as her emotions flared. "Do you have any idea how complex human memory is? How interconnected everything is?"
Although Elric had obtained the power of mind manipulation some time ago, copying it from Professor X's X-gene, he'd only used it once while fighting with Ultron in the mental realm. So he really didn't know the true limits of this power, didn't understand its full scope or capabilities.
His power absorption wasn't like the Omnitrix, which after getting the DNA of an alien species also provided the instinctive experience and knowledge of how to use that species' abilities perfectly. No, he only got the raw power itself—the genetic potential. How to use it effectively, how much he could push it, what the limits were—all of that was on him to figure out through practice and experimentation.
"Aline, call Charles," Elric said aloud, activating his communication system. "Conference call, urgent."
After hearing the full explanation of their discussion, after Elric laid out the entire concept they'd been debating, Professor X's first response was immediate and firm.
"It's wrong," Charles said simply.
"Professor, we're just discussing the possibility here," Elric clarified quickly, not wanting to sound like a villain. "It's not like we're actually gonna do it or anything. This is purely theoretical."
"And even more than that," he continued, "if someone else tries to do something like this—another telepath with fewer scruples—we need to be prepared for it. We need to know if it's even possible. Can you do that? Because if so, we need to be very careful about people with psychic powers in the future."
Charles sighed in exasperation through the communication link, the sound carrying his weariness. Then he started to explain, his professor voice coming out.
"Elric, you are really overestimating me and what telepathy can accomplish," Charles said patiently. "Let alone changing everyone's memories across the planet—even just controlling all of the people on Earth can only be done with the help of Cerebro, and only for a very limited time. Minutes at most before the strain becomes too much."
"And that's with the most powerful psychic amplifier ever built," he added. "Without it, I could maybe reach a few thousand minds simultaneously. Not billions."
"If your power increased, if you trained and grew stronger, could you do it then, Professor?" Elric asked, genuinely curious about the theoretical limits.
"No," Charles answered, his response straight and decisive, leaving no room for doubt.
"This is not a matter of how strong you are," he continued. "It's a matter of... honestly, I don't even know what would be needed to accomplish something on that scale. It would require rewriting fundamental aspects of how telepathy works."
"Controlling someone for a limited time and changing someone's memory are completely different things," Professor X explained, settling into his teaching mode. "Completely different categories of difficulty."
"You can think of controlling people as like taking control of a car while kicking the driver out," he said, using an analogy. "It's not very difficult if you have the strength. You just suppress their will and impose yours. Brute force, essentially."
"But changing memory is like changing some critical part of the car, like replacing the entire engine, and then making sure that every other component—which wasn't designed to work with the new engine—will still work perfectly together," Charles continued. "It's intricate, delicate work."
"When you change one memory, it leads to contradictions with other memories," he elaborated. "Those contradictions require changing another memory, and another, and another. It cascades. And if you don't do it seriously, if you don't account for every connection, most people will eventually figure out that their memory is false. The human mind is remarkably good at detecting inconsistencies."
After thinking about it, Elric had to admit it really made sense.
Even when Wanda modified reality itself using the full power of chaos magic, people could still eventually figure things out, could still notice the cracks in the illusion. Let alone just changing memories, which was a far more limited intervention. So this plan would likely not work, at least not on the scale he'd been considering.
"Okay, thanks Professor," Elric said. "I appreciate the explanation. And... sorry for asking you to even consider something like that."
"Just don't let me hear you're actually trying it," Charles replied, his tone carrying a warning. "Some lines shouldn't be crossed, Elric. No matter how tempting the shortcut."
The call ended.
Elric leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, processing everything.
The conference room suddenly fell into silence, everyone absorbing the implications of what they'd just learned.
Magneto finally spoke up, breaking the quiet. "So. If mind control isn't the path forward, what is?"
It was a good question, and one that needed answering.
Because after coming here to Sokovia, after settling in, Elric had kept his word about equal treatment. The mutants, with their various abilities, had directly grabbed several important governmental posts based on merit and capability.
With his experience leading the Brotherhood and his very suitable powers, Magneto had directly taken the post of Home Defense Minister. He was in charge of Sokovia's defensive capabilities, protecting the nation from external threats.
With that appointment, the power structure of Sokovia had also changed significantly, becoming more formalized.
The current structure now looked like this:
Magneto held the position of Defense Minister, in charge of Sokovia's defensive military operations and strategy.
Borgin took the position of Offense Minister, in charge of attack capabilities if military action was ever needed.
Pietro took charge of law enforcement, using his super-speed to patrol and maintain order.
Anastasia's post remained unchanged—current ruler, head of state, and chief policy maker.
And Wanda and Storm served together as law makers, helping craft the legislation and legal framework for the new Sokovia.
As for why there were two law makers instead of just one? That had to do with what happened after Elric came back from the mutant universe.
Flashbac
Opening the portal as large as almost 50 feet wide, creating a dimensional gateway big enough to move large groups through safely, Elric had taken every precaution.
Although the first portal—which he'd used when he originally came to this universe—had been stable, and even according to Vision it was reliable technology with very little chance of anything going wrong, Elric still decided not to take any risks.
He'd directly evacuated the whole area around the portal site, clearing out civilians for miles. And he'd created a massive barrier using the Phoenix Force, containing the gateway in a sphere of cosmic energy just in case something went catastrophically wrong.
Better safe than sorry when dealing with dimensional travel.
The refugees had come through in waves—men, women, children, all looking exhausted and shell-shocked. A thousand people from a dying universe, carrying what little they could salvage.
Professor X had come through last, making sure all his students were accounted for.
While Elric left Anastasia to settle all of the people coming from the other universe, getting them housing and food and medical attention, he'd noticed Storm's sad face in the crowd.
She was looking around at this new world, this new reality, with an expression of loss and melancholy. Everything she'd known was gone, left behind in a universe that would soon cease to exist.
So Elric had taken her away from the chaos, brought her to his home in the forest to give her some space and quiet.
"So this is your home?" Storm asked, her eyes a little downcast but still observing the simple wooden structure. "I thought you would live in a palace or something, you know. You said you were king of a country."
"Haa," Elric let out a self-deprecating laugh. "As you can see, this country was not in a very good situation when I took over. It was plagued with civil war, destruction everywhere."
"While I was still weak, when I first arrived here, I came to the forest to hide and built this house with my own hands," he explained, gesturing at the cabin. "And anyway, this place is quite comfortable. Peaceful. So I didn't think about leaving, even after things got better."
"Here, come," he said, opening the door. "Let me show you your room."
Although he'd lived and traveled with Storm for three years, and Elric had definitely developed a somewhat favorable impression of her over that time, they were definitely more than just friends. The tension had been there, unspoken.
But at that time, during their travels, he hadn't thought that he would bring her back to his own universe permanently. So he'd deliberately not taken any romantic steps forward, had deliberately kept a calculated distance from her to avoid complications.
But suddenly, when the mental barriers he'd put up were removed, when he'd made the decision to offer her refuge here, Elric had suddenly found out that he'd become quite accustomed to her presence. Comfortable with it. Maybe even dependent on it in some ways.
Storm had directly taken one of the rooms that Wanda had been using before, a guest bedroom with simple furnishings.
And since Wanda still came around from time to time, staying over occasionally, there were quite a lot of women's clothing already in the house. Storm wouldn't need to worry about that immediately.
"What did you want to eat?" Elric asked, wanting to make her feel welcome. "I can cook. Not gourmet, but edible."
"Koshari," Storm said softly, a small smile appearing on her face for the first time since arriving. "If you can make it. It's... it reminds me of home."
The Egyptian dish. Rice, lentils, pasta, tomato sauce, and crispy onions.
"I'll do my best," Elric promised.
It wasn't much, but it was a start.
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