Watching Hank's departing back, Raven reached out as if to stop him, but she didn't know what to say. She hesitated for a moment, and Hank disappeared around the corner.
"Forget it. Everyone has something they have to face. Hank is no different."
"As for how he chooses, that's up to Hank himself."
"I just hope he makes the right choice."
Raven said softly. Just as she was about to return to the living room, she saw her foster brother walk into a room.
———
Inside the room, Erik sat in a corner with his head buried in his hands.
Although a lamp was on, Erik sat where the light couldn't reach, embracing the darkness.
"No."
"Don't look into my mind, Charles."
Erik suddenly spoke.
Charles awkwardly lowered the fingers he had been about to press against his temple, "I just wanted to see what was wrong."
"Erik, since this afternoon, I've felt like you've been in a very low mood."
Erik looked up from the darkness, "Thank you for your concern, but you can't keep entering other people's minds whenever you want. How is that any different from walking into someone else's house without permission?"
Charles gave a dry laugh, "I'll be more careful in the future."
He spread his hands, "Do you want to talk? I'm ready to listen."
Erik shook his head, "I don't want to say anything. If possible, I'd like to be alone."
Charles coughed lightly, "Erik, I don't know what Mr. John did to you this afternoon."
"I can only tell you that anger can't solve problems."
"I hope you can calm down. If you ever want someone to talk to, I'm always here."
Erik didn't respond.
Charles had no choice but to leave.
From the darkness, Erik said softly, "No, you're wrong."
"Charles, my friend."
"Anger can solve a lot of problems."
———
[The Next Day]
"No!"
"How could this happen!"
Alex was eating breakfast when he heard Hank let out a tremendous roar, sounding just like a wild beast.
He could roughly guess what had happened.
The others hurried toward Hank's room. Inside, they didn't see Hank. Instead, they saw a blue-furred beast.
Raven covered her mouth with one hand and cautiously called out, "Hank, is that you?"
"Don't look at me!"
"No!"
The beast roared and curled up in the corner, covering himself with both hands.
That's right, he was Hank.
Last night, he had injected himself with the serum. It worked much like antibiotics, attacking the X-gene cells inside mutants.
After injecting the serum, Hank changed. His oversized feet shrank back to normal.
Just as he was getting happy, everything changed.
Not only did his feet change back again, but his X-gene cells multiplied rapidly. He completely turned into a monster, and the pain of the mutation caused him to pass out.
When he woke up in the morning and saw that the result was the exact opposite of what he had wanted, he cried out in shock, drawing everyone over.
Hank was filled with regret. Now his muscles had swelled, blue fur covered his entire body, fangs protruded from his mouth, and he had completely become a humanoid beast.
This was thousands of times worse than before.
At the same time, he also felt fortunate that he hadn't let Raven inject the serum yesterday.
Otherwise, Raven's situation would have been unimaginable.
Raven walked over, crouched beside Hank, and took his hand, "Listen, Hank."
"You may think this is terrible."
"But it's not that bad."
"When God closes a door, He always opens a window."
"I believe the you now must have abilities you never had before. You just haven't discovered them yet."
Hearing Raven's comfort, Hank felt a little better and lowered his hands, "But I look like a beast now."
"But your heart is beautiful."
Raven placed her hand on Hank's broad chest, "Charles once said that he's met many people who looked beautiful, but their hearts were incredibly ugly."
"Hank, you're a hundred times better than they are."
Encouraged by Raven, Hank looked up, "Really?"
Raven nodded.
Leaning against the doorway, Alex(Havok) said, "Hank, actually this isn't so bad. At least from now on, you can go for the wild look."
Hank immediately let out a growl at him.
Alex jumped in fright and hurriedly backed away, making everyone laugh.
Hank relaxed as well and, encouraged by Raven, stood up and walked out of the room.
"My God."
"You're Hank?"
Charles had arrived as well. Seeing Hank like this startled him, but he quickly recovered, "What did you do?"
"It's a long story."
Hank briefly explained what had happened.
After listening, Darwin held his head, "Hank, you're a genius."
"That serum of yours may amplify the X-gene cells in us mutants. It could make our abilities even stronger."
"Just like you are now."
"If the rest of us injected it too, maybe we could become stronger without any training."
Hank shook his head, "No. That thing is unstable. It completely deviated from my original goal."
"I think it's better not to experiment with it."
Charles also said, "Hank's concern is justified. Don't research that serum anymore."
Hank nodded.
Raven said, "Didn't you prepare two doses yesterday? Where's the other one?"
Hank walked back into his room and reached for the drawer, only to accidentally break the table.
"Sorry. I still can't control my strength very well."
He looked apologetically at Charles, then said to Raven, "The box on the floor is the one. Could you get it for me?"
Raven picked up the serum that had originally been meant for her.
Charles said, "Could you let me keep it?"
Hank nodded.
So Raven handed the serum to Charles.
Charles put it into a box, slipped it into his pocket, and left.
Erik watched all of it.
Over the following days, the mutants all trained hard, and their efforts finally paid off.
Alex(Havok) had barely learned to use his power. Although he still wasn't very skilled, he could at least focus his energy instead of letting it scatter, and he no longer needed to perform that ridiculous gymnastic move.
Darwin could now withstand ten-thousand-degree Heat Vision. Hank had improved the Cerebro enhancement device, and Raven could now freely transform into anyone in the mansion and was very difficult to expose.
Then, one day, the president was giving a speech on the black-and-white television.
["Any nuclear missile that crosses the Cuban quarantine line will be regarded as an attack on our nation, and we will respond with full force."]
The day of the final battle was approaching.
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