Leaving Alex in the bunker, Alex acted like a mentor as he led a group of young mutants, including Raven, up to the surface.
Alex looked over the group and said to Raven, "Just do what we talked about yesterday and practice your shapeshifting."
"First, transform into one of us, then blend in with the group. As long as your words and actions don't make us notice anything unusual, you'll be halfway to succeeding."
"During this process, you'll sharpen your observation and imitation skills. After all, if you don't want us to notice anything strange, looking the part isn't enough. Your behavior and mannerisms have to be exactly like the real person."
Raven nodded and left.
Alex noticed that Hank's eyes remained fixed on Raven. He cleared his throat, making Hank turn back.
"As for you, genius."
"I'm not going to teach you anything about mutant abilities."
Alex knew that Hank, just like Raven before, cared deeply about his own abnormalities.
So he said, "But I think you could make some improvements to the Cerebro amplifier."
"Here," Using "Knowledge Projection," Alex extracted a small portion of Kryptonian knowledge related to brainwave enhancement and directly implanted it into Hank's mind.
This knowledge was only a tiny part of Krypton's vast civilization. Combined with the fact that Hank himself was a research genius, Alex believed he should be able to withstand the sudden flood of knowledge appearing in his mind.
Hank's expression changed. Then he looked at Alex in amazement and said in disbelief, "My God, Mr. John, you can actually do something like this."
"You can directly give me knowledge?"
"Wow!"
Darwin gasped in amazement, staring at Alex in shock, "Is our Mr. John some kind of all-powerful Superman?"
———
On a hillside not far away, Erik stood with his arms folded.
Charles smiled and said, "To be honest, I've never met anyone as outstanding as Mr. John."
"You're right. He's practically Superman."
"He gave me some very useful advice. Erik, I think you'd do well to accept his guidance. You might become even stronger than you are now."
Erik looked at Alex and remained silent for a long time.
———
Meanwhile, after giving Hank that knowledge, Beast could hardly wait to put it into practice.
In the end, only Darwin was left.
"You're the easiest."
Alex smiled, "Your ability is 'survival of the fittest,' so I'll just beat you up."
"If you can adapt to even one-tenth of my power... No, that's asking too much of you."
"Anyway, I'll control my strength and let you adapt little by little, so that you can at least survive Shaw's attacks."
In the movie, Darwin's "survival of the fittest" had been overwhelmed when Shaw fed him one of Alex's(Havok) energy blasts, causing him to explode.
In the end, Darwin's foundation was simply too weak. Or rather, he had never gone through a process of growth. Being suddenly stuffed with that much energy all at once, it would have been strange if he hadn't exploded.
So next, Alex adjusted the power of his heat vision and continuously attacked Darwin.
Allowing him to adapt little by little, gradually understand his limits, and constantly break through them.
Of course, the process was extremely painful for the young man.
By the end of the morning's training, Darwin was already able to withstand heat vision at three thousand degrees.
But in Alex's opinion, if he wanted to survive Shaw's attacks, the safest benchmark was being able to resist heat vision at ten thousand degrees.
After all, that guy could even absorb nuclear energy.
That afternoon, after checking on Caitlin, Alex came out of her room and saw Erik leaning against the wall.
Seeing Alex come out, Erik cleared his throat, "Mr. John, could I have a word with you?"
Alex shrugged indifferently, "Of course."
The two of them walked outside the castle, where the enormous satellite receiver could be seen.
Erik hesitated before saying, "I'd like to know if you could give me some advice."
"I heard from Charles that you gave him some good advice."
"So..."
Alex smiled, "Mr. Erik, what kind of advice do you need?"
"If it's about becoming stronger, that's simple."
"Anger. Hatred. Those can all stimulate your abilities."
"Believe me, you're even stronger than you imagine."
"What you're lacking is a true outburst."
"Let your hatred erupt like a volcano."
Erik shook his head, "I've tried what you're talking about. Really."
"Not long ago, when I caught up with Shaw, I already tried."
"But I still couldn't stop him from escaping."
Alex said unconcernedly, "That's because you hadn't met me."
"Do you mind if I enter your mind?"
"I'll recreate the moment in your life that filled you with the greatest anger."
"I'll awaken your pain, your hatred, your rage."
"But I have to warn you. It may deal a great mental blow to you. You might become a demon because of it."
"And if that happens, your good friend may have to kill you himself someday."
Erik froze for a moment, then clenched his fists, "As long as I can kill Shaw, I don't care what I become."
"If I really become a demon, then let my friend stop me, judge me, kill me."
"I'll have no regrets."
Alex nodded, then used "Mind Invasion" to enter Erik's mind and dig out the scene that filled him with the greatest anger and deepest fear.
Then he used "Reality Warp" to recreate it.
Using "Reality Warp" alone, without the Reality Stone, Alex couldn't make it truly lifelike. It would lack immersion, making it difficult to stir Erik's emotions.
But with the scene uncovered through "Mind Invasion" as a foundation, then using "Quantum Sub-Brains" to recreate every detail of that moment, and finally manifesting it through "Reality Warp,"
Alex was able to make Erik relive the most painful moment of his life.
At that moment, Erik still had no idea what Alex intended to do when he suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Here's what we'll do."
"When I count to three, you move the coin."
"If you can't move the coin, I'll pull the trigger."
"Understand?"
Erik's face turned pale, "No... No..."
He turned around and saw Shaw, still a doctor, sitting on top of a desk.
He had returned to that camp, back to the nightmare he had spent his whole life trying to escape.
Erik turned around and saw a woman being held by two soldiers.
It was his mother.
Erik could smell the familiar scent on her.
For a moment, he could no longer tell reality from illusion.
For a moment, he forgot that he was already an adult.
"We can begin."
The doctor sitting behind the desk said coldly.
Without another thought, Erik immediately reached out to control the coin.
But that damned coin didn't move an inch on the table.