On the ground, the Avengers were left utterly stunned.
Captain America's jaw had dropped.
Hawkeye's hands trembled.
Black Widow's face was full of shock.
Only Tony Stark's heavy breathing could be heard behind his faceplate.
"How... how is this even possible..." Steve muttered.
He felt as if the worldview he'd painstakingly built over a century was being mercilessly shattered.
He had thought these people were the pinnacle of individual power on Earth.
But the power displayed before his eyes—
Wasn't just 'powerful.'
It was miraculous!
"What... what even is that ability?" Hawkeye's voice trembled. "He alone... disabled an army?"
"Electromagnetic pulse... no! No, that's not it!"
Tony's warframe system blared overload alarms.
"This isn't EMP! It's... a more fundamental, more dominant force field control!
Damn, his field covers the entire city!
JARVIS, boost my warframe's EM shielding now! Or I won't even be able to stand!"
If Magneto's attack was a "disarmament" at the material level,
Then Charles Xavier's attack was a "judgment" at the soul level.
Charles sat in his silver wheelchair, floating quietly beside Magneto.
Eyes closed, fingers on his temple, he connected his vast psychic power fully to Lucci's "MagicNet."
With the MagicNet's near-infinite amplification, his telepathy was boosted a thousandfold, ten thousandfold!
He did two things:
First, he built a "psychic tactical network" for all allied units on the battlefield.
"Scott, the enemy command team is 27 degrees left, 40 meters down. Purge them with your 'Zero Two' heat beams."
"Ororo, your energy is scattered. Focus your attack on the abdominal joint of the Leviathan—its armor's weak point!"
"Piotr, Cain, the enemy command ship is 500 meters ahead. Go, take it!"
His precise, clear orders sounded simultaneously in everyone's mind.
Under Charles's command, the whole battlefield became a high-efficiency machine, every part running at peak performance!
Second, he condensed his massively amplified psychic power into invisible, sharp needles, piercing the barrier of the universe to strike directly at the Chitauri commanders!
BUZZ—
The Chitauri officers attempting to regroup suddenly felt like their heads were smashed by invisible hammers!
Their minds froze, souls torn apart in an instant!
At best, they became instantly idiotic, howling in vain.
At worst, blood gushed from their orifices as their brains were churned to pulp by the psychic onslaught, dying on the spot!
One by one, command nodes were snuffed out.
The Chitauri army, already in chaos from Magneto's attack, completely collapsed!
Magnetism and mind.
Matter and soul.
The two mutant kings, who once fought for their own species on opposite sides, now, under Lucci's perfect command, formed the most flawless team for the first time ever—
And delivered an artistic, merciless, dimensional reduction strike to the invaders from beyond the sky!
—
The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, a steel fortress in the clouds, now stood silent on the command bridge.
Nick Fury stood with his hands behind his back, staring out the massive viewport at the distant battlefield.
He didn't look back at the ship's giant screens. The Chitauri's might had already surpassed the limits of human military response; from the start, this war seemed doomed.
What could he do?
The Avengers were already the best—yet only a drop in the bucket.
The Chitauri were endless. The city would fall—just a matter of time.
And his greatest weapon, the Helicarrier, didn't even dare approach the battlefield.
That was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s last trump card, and also its final bargaining chip with the World Security Council.
His mind circled in desperate search for an escape, but kept smashing into cold iron bars.
Just then, a voice full of shock and disbelief sounded behind him.
"Director! Oh my god!"
"Director, look at the main screen!"
It was Agent Maria Hill, her voice trembling with excitement, all composure lost, her beautiful face flushed with shock and awe.
Nick Fury turned, brow furrowed, his one eye bloodshot and weary.
"What am I looking at? Did the Chitauri retreat?"
But the moment his eye focused on the screen, his pupils shrank abruptly.
As if struck by lightning, he froze in place.
The screen showed a real-time, high-definition feed from a high-altitude recon drone.
But the scene was not the expected tragedy of the Avengers struggling in vain.
What did he see?
A silver-haired woman raising her hand to summon cosmic lightning, obliterating Chitauri craft to ash!
A woman in red, with a Phoenix image behind her, effortlessly lifted hundreds of enemies and their machines and turned them all to dust!
A red-helmeted man hovered at the center, and with a gesture, the Chitauri's high-tech weapons and armor all failed, self-destructed, crashed—
He ruled the battlefield's metal like a god!
He saw...
the ones who had always been S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top surveillance targets, suppressed by the government, feared by the people,
Mutants!
He saw the mutants, who were supposed to hate mankind, fighting to defend Earth from alien invaders...
No, not fighting—
It was a one-sided massacre!
The power they unleashed, the terrifying force that rendered Star Fleet meaningless,
shook even Nick Fury, king of agents, to his soul!
"This... this... how is this possible..."
His lips trembled as he muttered.
After a short daze, Fury's frozen heart blazed with ecstatic fire!
But then, an even greater sense of crisis surged through him!
He thought of the World Security Council!
"Hurry!"
He suddenly snapped back to himself, practically roaring at the comms officer:
"Hurry, connect me to those damn council bastards! Now! Immediately!"
He understood all too well the nature of those men, who could only weigh pros and cons from the comfort of their offices!
The moment they saw the Chitauri's power, they would undoubtedly launch the worst plan—
If the war went badly, they'd nuke the entire battlefield without hesitation!
He had to stop this possibility!
He couldn't allow the blood-soaked mutants who fought here to die at the hands of humanity!
But seconds later, the comms officer turned to him, face full of fear and helplessness.
"Director... unable to connect!"
"The Council is in closed session, discussing matters of human survival at the highest level. They can't be disturbed."
"Survival? My ass!"
Fury, shaking with rage, rushed over and grabbed the comm.
"Send them the pictures from the Helicarrier—now!
If they don't want to see a nuclear explosion on Earth,
If they don't want to be the criminals of humanity,
Make sure those idiot directors see these images!
Let them see, and decide what to do!"
—
Somewhere hundreds of meters below ground, in a nuclear-proof strategic bunker—
The World Security Council's supreme war command center.
In the vast, circular chamber, humanity's highest representatives held a video conference via encrypted lines.
An aura of "coldness" filled the air.
Debate raged over the fate of millions and the direction of human civilization.
"We can't wait any longer!"
A general representing the military hardliners slammed his thick finger on the table, the sound like a death knell.
"The reality is cruel! The human line of defense was completely broken 27 minutes ago!
S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers plan have done nothing!
That space portal is a festering wound, pouring cancer cells into the Earth!
Before the cancer spreads, we must cut it out!
I propose we immediately launch the cleansing plan and nuke the city!"
"I agree with the general,"
A cold-faced representative repeated, "Delay only loses us the initiative. The only real solution is a properly-powered nuke.
The sacrifices will be painful, but necessary for the survival of the human race."
"But... those are millions of living souls!"
A female representative asked, anguished, "Do we have to jump to the final step without even trying other plans?
This is a crime against humanity!"
"Woman's mercy!"
The hawkish general sneered.
"If you saw those monsters in your own backyard, you'd regret your innocence!
History remembers only the victors, not meaningless victims!"
Tension filled the room as both sides argued endlessly.
Just then, a young staffer hurried to the chairman, whispering something urgent.
The chairman's face barely changed, but a ripple of surprise flashed in his eyes.
"Is it true?" he asked quietly.
"Yes, sir. Nick Fury used emergency authority to forcibly intervene. He claims this concerns the fate of mankind."
The debate paused.
"What's going on, Chairman?"
The chairman leaned back, fingers steepled, pondering.
"Unexpected news. Nick Fury has something important to show us."
"Nick Fury? S.H.I.E.L.D.'s one-eyed dragon?"
The hawkish general's face twisted in derision.
"He better have something important! Otherwise he's as useless as the rest, not worthy of that seat!"
Most others silently agreed.
They thought Fury's message was just a defeated general's last-ditch plea.
"Let's see it," the chairman waved.
"Let's see what Nick Fury wants to show us."
With the chairman's nod, the massive holographic projection in the center of the room lit up.
The footage Fury sent appeared.
At first, the military logo adorned advanced fighter jets approaching a giant alien "Leviathan" warship.
But before getting into attack range, a few energy beams from the beast instantly vaporized the jets, turning them into useless balls of flame.
Seeing this, the directors' faces grew sour.
"Enough!" the chairman ordered.
"I've seen these pictures before the meeting! Skip ahead!"
He assumed Fury was just trying to elicit sympathy or justify his own failures.
The footage fast-forwarded through scenes of burning cities, finally freezing on the four Avengers, backs together, staring up at the Chitauri—
So small, so powerless.
Soft sighs were heard in the chamber.
"The Avengers...! Useless, just a few people with special powers,"
One director shook his head.
"In the face of real interstellar war, what can they do?"
"Nick Fury, what is this supposed to mean?" the general snapped.
"Is he admitting his 'heroes' can't hold out, and asking us for help?
A waste of precious time!"
Just as they were about to end the transmission—
The next instant!
BUZZ—
Light flashed, and figures of all shapes and sizes appeared in the sky!
Hovering in the air, hundreds of them, directly blocking the gap between the Chitauri and the Avengers!
"Wow—!"
The entire chamber exploded in commotion!
Directors leapt from their seats, faces filled with fear and awe.
"That... who are they?"
"Mutants! Mutants! My god!
Why would those mutants, so full of hatred, appear there?"
"What are they planning? Are they using the alien invasion to strike at humanity when it's too busy to fight back?
Are they about to launch a full-scale attack on mankind?"