Darian finished dealing with Magneto and returned to the bronze body of the Statue of Liberty. The X-Men had already broken free from their metal restraints, and the looks they gave Darian were filled with a certain respect.
This respect wasn't because Darian could defeat Magneto, but because he had actually managed to ride Magneto!
This was something even Professor X had never achieved in his entire life!
Awesome!
The X-Men silently gave him a thumbs-up in their hearts.
"Where's Wade?"
Darian jumped down from Magneto's back and looked around, but didn't hear that familiar, cheeky voice.
If Wade had seen this scene, he definitely would have made fun of it: Gandalf riding the Great Eagle, and Darian riding Gandalf.
"Over there."
Ororo pointed towards the back.
Darian looked over and saw Wade lying flat on the ground in an extremely peaceful posture, hands crossed over his chest, as if he were about to have a wreath laid on him in the next second.
He asked in surprise: "What's wrong with this guy?"
Ororo shrugged: "Just now, when you were fighting Magneto, he thought the pose of Logan and Scott being tied up was quite unique, so he suddenly got excited. He took out his phone and started snapping crazy photos of them, and even found a marker to doodle on them. It wasn't until he had taken several hundred photos that he was willing to untie us, and then... he was beaten like this by an angry Logan."
Darian looked at the exposed halves of Young Logan's and Scott's faces, both drawn with crooked hearts in thick black marker, and even connected by a sloppily drawn arrow. He barely managed to hold back his laughter.
This goofball, he really does court death whenever he can.
He put on a stern face, looking indignant: "Good grief, I was fighting for my life in the front, and this goofball was actually taking photos in the back. I was wondering why I couldn't get any support! I must punish this goofball later—at the very least, those hundreds of photos must be handed over to me for critical evaluation!"
Young Logan: "..."
Scott: "..."
Both men wiped their faces at the same time, but unfortunately, the marker ink wouldn't come off for a while.
Young Logan, in a fit of helpless rage, gave the just-climbing-up Wade another beating. Scott stood to the side, expressionlessly trying to talk him out of it.
Afterwards, they rescued Rogue from the torch of the Statue of Liberty.
She wasn't hurt, just a bit frightened. Young Logan stepped forward to comfort her, and she finally calmed down.
The recovered Wade nudged Darian with his elbow and whispered: "They have an age gap of over a hundred years, right? Young Logan could be her ancestor. This Young Logan is really not a human; poaching Cyclops' girl is one thing, but to actually make a move on an innocent young girl..."
"They don't have that kind of relationship. He just treats Rogue as a junior to be taken care of," Old Logan explained for Young Logan. After all, they were the same person; Young Logan's bad reputation would affect him too.
But the problem is, why didn't you deny the part about poaching Cyclops' girl!?
Darian looked at Old Logan with disdain: "But Rogue doesn't seem to think so. The look in her eyes when she looks at Young Logan is almost stringy. It's the classic 'young girl falls in love with an older man' plot. But if they really do get together, it's not a bad thing for you. That way, you can focus on competing with Cyclops for Jean."
Wade shook his head: "Too small, your vision is too small. Better to set Young Logan and Scott up together; that way, Jean would belong entirely to Old Logan."
Old Logan: "..."
That's not impossible!
Because the commotion from the battle between Darian and Magneto was so huge, quite a few people near the New York harbor were stirred up that night.
However, it was too dark and the distance was too far, so no one could see the specific details; they only saw the arm of the Statue of Liberty move suddenly.
With that, all sorts of bizarre rumors began to fly, each one sounding more mysterious than the last.
Some said the Statue of Liberty was actually a terrifying creature; some said it would freeze when people looked at it, and when no one was looking, it would secretly snatch people away to eat.
Some believed this was France's shocking plan, that the Statue of Liberty was actually a Trojan Horse, with a giant robot hidden inside, ready to launch a surprise attack on America at any moment, and demanded that the United States Government destroy the Statue of Liberty immediately.
Only netizens claimed that this Statue of Liberty had definitely achieved sentience, no wonder it went through a tribulation every so often.
No matter how wild the rumors were, the tourist numbers for the Statue of Liberty saw an explosive increase, with a constant stream of visitors every day.
Looking at the data reports, the higher-ups in the local government and tourism departments were grinning from ear to ear. They ignored Colonel Stryker's proposal to reveal the truth and decided to keep what happened that night a secret, letting everyone guess for themselves.
In the face of traffic, what is the truth worth?
Of course, this was also due to the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of a certain evil bald man.
After all, he had been staying in the room with the Cerebro and hadn't come out, and to this day, no one knows exactly how much he did that night using his invincible Telepathy.
Despite this, Magneto still couldn't escape the sanctions of the law. He was imprisoned for multiple felonies in a plastic prison specifically designed for him.
From the walls to the bed, and even the clothing and equipment of the prison guards, nothing contained any metal components. The sentence was long enough for him to be reincarnated several times over.
This is the peculiarity of American law; most states don't have the death penalty, only crazy stacking of sentences. Some impressive ones can even stack up to several hundred years.
It is precisely because of this that villains in superhero comics keep coming back, only to be thrown into prison by superheroes, then break out, then go back to prison. Those who don't know better might think the villains are the superheroes' loyal fans, here to help them pad their stats and hit their KPIs.
After the group finished the raid and returned to the Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters, the Professor X of this World finally woke up, just like the Police in American movies who always show up right at the end.
Seeing this, Wade couldn't help but complain: "This is the worst setting in the old X-Men movie trilogy. Every time there's a big fight, Professor X goes offline at light speed, either getting ambushed or being killed instantly. His contribution to team fights is basically zero. This treatment is even more miserable than the Superman next door; at least Superman can show up at the end to clean up the mess after his teammates have finished showing off their skills."
"True," Darian nodded in agreement.
After the spoilers Wade had given him over the past few days, he already had a rough understanding of the X-Men movie series.
Honestly speaking, apart from "Dark Phoenix," which was universally recognized as a bad movie, and "X-Men 3," which was handled by the same director, the plots of the other movies were quite good.
Especially "Days of Future Past," where the Sentinel Robots that could mimic any Mutant ability made Darian very interested.
When the Professor X of this World woke up, the first thing he saw was Charles, who looked exactly like him, and subconsciously thought Mystique was playing tricks.
However, in the next second, he felt a powerful and familiar mental energy coming from him.
Professor X instantly fell into a moment of self-doubt.
Could he still be dreaming?
But soon, Professor X accepted the reality that the other person was Charles Xavier from another World, and that he himself still hadn't grown any hair even after several decades.
There was no need for words between the two bald men; they immediately began communicating on a conscious level.
In the eyes of others, the two bald men in wheelchairs stared at each other silently, not saying a word, and the scene was extremely eerie for a moment.
But it was clear that their conversation was going quite well, as both their faces bloomed with smiles like chrysanthemums.
Unlike Young Logan and Old Logan, who looked down on each other—one thinking the other was reckless and childish, acting without thinking; the other thinking the other was a pervert, already at that age and still wanting to be his love rival, it was simply shameless!
After some in-depth mental communication, the two Charles reached an agreement.
Professor X announced on the spot that he was willing to accept and protect the Mutant children who had traveled here, and agreed to let Charles, Old Logan, and the insignificant Caliban stay at the Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters to retire in peace.
Except for Scott, whose Cyclops eyes seemed to have turned green, the other X-Men expressed their welcome.
The addition of Charles and Old Logan was undoubtedly a great thing for the entire X-Men.
Not to mention how much the overall combat power would increase, just having an extra Professor X sitting in command was enough to put people at ease. In the future, even if this World's Professor X was ambushed or restrained again, there would be another one who could immediately step in, so they wouldn't be leaderless.
Moreover, Charles was much more powerful than Professor X, and his experiences were richer, so he saw things more clearly in many matters. This was the biggest difference between him and Professor X.
In simple terms, the moral bottom lines of the two were the same, but the former had higher flexibility, and his moral ceiling was infinitely close to his moral floor.
Darian mourned for the Magneto of this World for a few seconds.
It was bad enough to have one big bald man before; now there was another, stronger and more dark-bellied, two-bald-men version. Plus, without the protection of the helmet that blocked Telepathy, he probably couldn't expect to turn things around for the rest of his life.
Of course, Darian hadn't forgotten his own business.
Before traveling to this World, little Laura had already joined his Immortal Alliance according to the agreement, and in this World, he had also controlled the Sabretooth here, forcing him to become a member of the Immortal Alliance.
By now, the dungeon quest only needed one last member to be completed.
Darian wasn't anxious about this; with Old Logan and Young Logan as backups, he could complete the task at any time.
Compared to this, he wanted to continue stacking the prize pool. With Wade by his side, he could travel to more parallel Worlds and recruit more members.
Darian found Old Logan and Young Logan respectively and invited them to become interns of the Immortal Alliance. As long as they passed his review, they could immediately become official members of the Immortal Alliance.
Old Logan didn't refuse; he owed Darian more than one favor, so he would just consider it paying back some interest.
As for Young Logan, he refused at first, but when Darian took out those hundreds of intimate photos with Scott and said he was going to give them to Jean, he gritted his teeth and agreed.
After staying at the Xavier School for a few days, Darian found Wade in the classroom, who was tirelessly harassing the Mutant students.
"Little Colossus, do you pump iron when you're lonely at night?"
Colossus: "..."
He looked completely lifeless; clearly, he had suffered quite a bit of mental torture from Wade these days.
The other Mutant students around him showed expressions of relief.
Although they had also been harassed by Wade to varying degrees, at least Wade hadn't harassed them as long as he had harassed Colossus.
There was no helping it; in the other World, Colossus was Wade's good buddy, and out of love for the house and its crow, he became Wade's primary target for harassment.
Darian stepped forward and patted Wade's shoulder: "It's time to go, prepare for the next crossing."
"No, Little Colossus hasn't answered my question yet." Wade was unhappy.
"He's still a child, let him go."
"He's a head taller than me standing up, and you call this a child?"
"Cut the crap, hurry up and start the crossing, do you still want your reward or not?"
"Fine, fine..."
Wade was unwilling, twisting the time transporter on his wrist. A yellow light mixed with various images suddenly unfolded, enveloping the two of them.
In the blink of an eye, they disappeared from the classroom.
The whole classroom was silent for two seconds, then burst into enthusiastic cheers. Colossus was so excited that he shed manly tears.
This goofball has finally left!
San Francisco!
When the light dissipated, Darian found himself standing on a ruin of a city.
All around were twisted steel skeletons and semi-collapsed concrete buildings.
The streets were buried in rubble, rusty vehicles were overturned on the roadside, and the air was filled with the heavy smell of dust and rust, a scene of a post-apocalyptic World.
The entire city ruin was terrifyingly quiet. Looking around, not a single person could be seen, only the wailing of the wind passing through the broken walls.
Darian looked around and asked: "Where is this?"
Wade was looking down, tinkering with the time transporter on his wrist, muttering: "Something's not right, the positioning seems to have a problem, and I don't know where we specifically traveled to."
Darian rolled his eyes. When it came to being unreliable, Wade was as reliable as ever.
"Squeak—!"
Suddenly, a sharp, strange cry came from behind!
The two turned their heads and saw a strange creature with huge eyes, covered in earthy yellow, similar to a mole, rushing out from a pile of rubble. It opened its blood-stained mouth full of sharp teeth and pounced on them!
"That little thing actually looks like something."
Wade joked, but his movements were ridiculously fast. He drew his katana and slashed out quickly!
Slash!
Accompanied by the sound of the blade entering flesh.
The thing didn't slow down, but its head had already parted ways with its body. Yellow, turbid blood splattered everywhere, and the headless corpse rushed forward a few more steps before collapsing softly.
Wade shook the viscous liquid off his blade, did a flashy sheathing pose, and said triumphantly: "Did you really think Lord Wade was just a freeloader? Before Logan's genes were injected into my body, I was a famous mercenary. Blocking bullets was nothing for me!"
Darian ignored the posturing Wade and checked the information of the creature in front of him, discovering that this was a type of underground creature called Moloids.
At this moment, from the surrounding piles of rubble and the cracks in the collapsed concrete, a dense, scalp-tingling rustling sound suddenly came, as if countless claws were scratching against rock and metal, making Darian want to hit someone.
Immediately after, dozens of turbid eyes opened one after another in the dimness, staring dead at Darian and Wade in the middle.
"Buddy, if I say that was just a misunderstanding, would they believe it?"
"You can try."
"Uh, I think I'll pass."