Even with limited information, Richard already knew where to begin.
The system did nothing without purpose. It wouldn't assign a rescue mission involving Wanda and Pietro randomly. And running into Gambit in Las Vegas at precisely this moment? That wasn't coincidence either.
His intuition aligned with the logic.
The invitation Gambit mentioned almost certainly came from the Hellfire Club.
Gambit's mind was shielded. Telepathy wouldn't work on him. But Gambit couldn't be the only invited mutant in the city. And not everyone possessed psychic isolation.
That meant one thing.
Find the others.
Richard didn't hesitate. He activated telepathy and extended his awareness outward across downtown Las Vegas.
It didn't take long.
Two to three hundred mutant signatures flickered into perception like distant signals. He ignored the weakest immediately. Ypsilon-level and Delta-level mutants were unlikely to attract Hellfire Club attention unless their powers were unusually specialized.
He focused on Beta and Alpha-level signatures.
The Hellfire Club wasn't like the Brotherhood of Mutants or the X-Men. It wasn't public-facing. It wasn't ideological recruitment. It was elitist by design. Membership required status, power, or unique value.
Where the Brotherhood accepted anyone who believed in forceful equality, the Hellfire Club recruited selectively.
After filtering out the weaker signatures, the list dropped to fewer than fifty.
He began deeper scans.
Careful. Controlled. Quiet.
More than half of the remaining Beta-level signatures belonged to agents of the Department of Mutant Affairs. Those were irrelevant.
That left fifteen independent mutants.
Of those fifteen, eight had received invitations.
Richard extracted the memory fragments cleanly.
Time. Location.
No explanation.
The day after tomorrow. Eight p.m. Atomic Nightclub.
The invitation bore no agenda. Just coordinates.
As he sifted through additional memories, he identified the current leadership of the Hellfire Club.
Sebastian Shaw.
Black King.
Just like in other continuities, Emma Frost, Azazel, and Janos Quess were also active members.
Despite this universe not following the film timeline, the lineup mirrored it closely.
The moment Richard confirmed Shaw's presence, his decision crystallized.
Energy absorption.
He wanted it.
Shaw wasn't Omega-level, but his energy absorption outperformed most mutants with similar classifications.
Standard absorbers could handle limited forms of energy. Shaw's ability was broader. Kinetic, thermal, electrical, even nuclear—he could take it all. Only psychic energy was excluded.
More importantly, he could absorb energy directly from attacks.
Punch him, shoot him, strike him with lightning—it all fed him.
Stored energy enhanced his physical attributes and could be re-released offensively. In battle, he transitioned instantly from ordinary durability to superhuman resilience.
Of course, there were limits.
His storage capacity wasn't infinite. Overload would injure him. If he could absorb endlessly, he would already qualify as Omega.
Without stored energy, Shaw was merely a physically conditioned human. But once combat began, the battlefield itself fueled him.
Unless his opponent refused to attack entirely, he always gained power.
He could even pre-charge before engagements, as he once did by absorbing nuclear reactor output.
Conventional tactics struggled against such a power set.
Yet Shaw was not invincible.
Telepaths could break him.
Without a psychic isolation helmet or Emma's support, he had no defense against mental intrusion. That vulnerability had cost him before.
Richard smiled faintly.
Telepathy remained his advantage.
Beyond absorption, Shaw possessed a healing factor. Not as extreme as Wolverine or Sabretooth, but still remarkable. It slowed aging significantly. With sufficient energy intake, he could maintain youth indefinitely.
Richard's desire intensified.
Energy absorption would synergize beautifully with his current arsenal.
And Emma Frost?
He wanted her telepathy.
If he plundered Emma's ability, his own telepathic tier would jump immediately. Alpha-level psychic strength would place him among the top mental powers on Earth.
He might not surpass Professor X, but he would stand near that echelon.
While reading invitation recipients' memories, he discovered something else.
Shaw and Emma were younger than expected.
Shaw appeared under forty. Emma likely under thirty.
In other timelines, Emma had been contemporaneous with Magneto and Professor X. That version held no appeal.
But this one?
White suits. White dresses. White boots.
He dismissed the images calmly.
Interest didn't equal recklessness.
For now, Emma came off the kill list.
There were other telepaths in the world. Upgrading his psychic ability didn't require her specifically.
Shaw, however—
Energy absorption was too valuable to ignore.
.....
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