Locke suddenly shook his head and laughed at himself. How could he have forgotten something so obvious? The Professor had just killed people. Whether the number was small or large didn't matter. What mattered was the fact itself.
For a man who had always preached mutant protection, coexistence, and moral restraint, that kind of blood on his hands was a devastating contradiction. Could Charles Xavier really accept that he had become the very thing he spent his life trying to stand against? Locke doubted it. And that meant this problem might be easier to solve than he originally thought.
All he had to do was collect the evidence, organize the truth, and wait for the right moment.
Then he could let the sinner face judgment.
A smile tugged at his lips as he turned and shouted to Colossus behind him, "Big guy, the dam's leaking. Get the Professor out of here first." His tone was light, but there was no room for argument in it. Whatever came next, they had to survive the next few minutes first.
On the way out, they linked up with Frank, Jean, Storm, and the others, and before long they ran into Logan too. By then, the entire base was in its death throes. Water was pouring through cracked walls and shattered seams, and every section of the structure groaned like it was only seconds away from tearing itself apart.
Under Logan's lead, the group pushed through a newly opened escape route and headed out of the facility. When they passed through the chamber where Logan had once been transformed, Locke made a quick detour. He grabbed Lady Deathstrike, hauled the adamantium furnace along with him, and made sure neither of them got left behind.
When they finally emerged outside, they found a Chinook helicopter waiting nearby. The open ground around it was smeared with heavy bloodstains, and a dragging trail of red stretched all the way into the nearby brush, telling its own story without anyone needing to ask questions. In the distance, the dam was beginning to fail for real now, and the swelling lake behind it was moments away from swallowing the entire area.
Everyone boarded the helicopter, and Frank took the controls.
The aircraft lifted slowly, then banked hard as it climbed. As it swung around, they passed over the X-Men's jet, the Blackbird, and Storm dropped down from the helicopter to join the others below. Then, in the near distance, the dam finally gave way.
It didn't crack. It collapsed.
The wall broke apart under the weight of the water, and a roaring flood came tearing through the valley with enough force to erase everything in its path. At the very last second before the surge reached it, the Blackbird shot into the air and escaped.
Locke watched the raging torrent through the open side of the helicopter, his expression slowly flattening. He knew this wasn't over. Not even close. Stryker was dead, the base was gone, and the immediate crisis had been contained, but the fear inside the White House hadn't disappeared. If anything, it was still growing.
The hatred and distrust toward mutants was still fermenting in Washington.
At the end of the original chain of events, when the President had been preparing to give a national address about the assassination attempt, Xavier and his people had barged into the Oval Office and confronted him directly. They brought evidence proving Stryker was behind it, but in Locke's opinion that whole move had been brain-dead from start to finish.
What was that supposed to look like?
A group of powerful mutants cornering the President of the United States inside the White House was not diplomacy. It was not persuasion. It was not a show of innocence. It was a threat, whether they intended it that way or not.
On that point alone, Locke thought they deserved to lose.
Magneto and Xavier were both smart in their own ways, and both of them cared deeply about mutant survival. The problem was that caring didn't automatically make them right. Locke had no intention of repeating that mistake.
He was going to have a proper talk with the President.
After all, as New York's so-called savior, how could he not go meet the man in charge?
…
At the White House, Locke made a call.
The secretary on the other end moved fast once she realized who he was, and a meeting was arranged almost immediately. That was the value of a title like Million-Savior. It wasn't just public admiration. It opened doors.
Soon enough, Locke was standing inside the Oval Office.
The President sat behind the Resolute Desk with a composed, serious expression, studying the man in front of him with open curiosity. At the same time, Locke was studying him too.
And the result made his pulse jump.
According to the Ultimate Evolution Module, the man sitting behind that desk was King-tier prey.
Locke's mouth almost twitched. It felt like some invisible beast had started clawing at the inside of his chest. What kind of reward would the system hand over if he threw one punch right now? Would it be enough to let him stand against the entire United States by himself?
Ideas flickered across his mind one after another.
Different ways to kill him.
Different ways to push his emotional rating higher first.
Different ways to turn this meeting into a harvest.
Without realizing it, a trace of killing intent began to leak from his otherwise calm eyes. The President didn't understand what he was seeing, only that the man across from him suddenly felt colder. That gaze was sharp and glacial, like winter settling over a battlefield.
He cleared his throat softly. "Mr. Locke, you specifically asked to see me. What is this about?"
The voice pulled Locke back to himself.
After a few seconds of serious thought, he gave up on the idea of killing the President on the spot. Taking out the head of a major country was possible, but the consequences would be a complete mess. The Marvel world was already unstable enough. If he triggered a global arms race on top of everything else, the entire planet might rot before he ever had a chance to bring it under control.
No need to rush.
There was still time.
He smiled and said, "Mr. President, I came here today as a lobbyist."
The President's brows rose slightly. "Oh?"
"You're about to make a televised speech about the assassination attempt, right?" Locke asked, though they both already knew the answer.
The President nodded. "The public has a right to know what happened. I have to explain it clearly."
Locke leaned back slightly and said, "Then I hope you won't express a hardline position against mutants in that speech. Not yet."
The President's expression sharpened at once. "Why?" he asked. "Mr. Locke, are you close to them? Or are you…"
Locke waved both hands dismissively before he could finish. "I'm not a mutant. I only met them recently. The reason I'm saying this is simple. America needs them."
That made the President go still. "What do you mean?"
Locke didn't answer immediately. Instead, he began laying out the pattern piece by piece. "Think back over the last stretch of disasters. The Manhattan earthquake and demon invasion. The Day of Mourning in Afghanistan. The missile incident at the Stark facility. Your own assassination attempt. And now the collapse at Alkali Lake. Do you really think all of that is just coincidence?"
The President's eyes narrowed. He had clearly thought about this before. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
That question had already been floating around Washington. Locke knew that much. Analysts had noticed the trend, and reports had already been written. He took advantage of that uncertainty and pointed upward.
"I've received a revelation," he said evenly. "Troubled times are coming. America is heading into an era of escalating disasters, and ordinary protection won't be enough. We need extraordinary protection."
The President narrowed his eyes even further. "You mean mutants?"
"Enhanced people," Locke corrected. "Mutants are only one category."
Then he smiled and shifted the conversation toward what he actually wanted. "Mayor Adams and I have already reached a preliminary agreement. I'm putting together a team called the Avengers. They'll serve as New York's primary hero unit. When the city faces major crime, large-scale attacks, or catastrophic events, the Avengers will respond."
The President understood immediately. "There are mutants on your team, so you're here to speak for them."
"You can take it that way," Locke said, "but I'm also here to remind you of something bigger. New York isn't the only city in danger. In the years ahead, the entire country may face crisis after crisis. The Avengers won't just be able to save New York. They'll be able to save America too."
The room went quiet.
The President was thinking now, not as a politician giving a speech, but as a man weighing assets, optics, military strength, and public order all at once. Locke could practically see the calculations moving behind his eyes.
So he pressed.
"Since the Day of Mourning in Afghanistan," Locke continued, "troops stationed there have been rattled. Some of them don't even want to leave base for patrols anymore. Internationally, there are already whispers that America is all bark and no bite. The White House and the Pentagon have both been trying to reverse that perception, but it hasn't worked."
He leaned in slightly.
"But if America suddenly has a powerful Avengers team standing on its side, doesn't that change the picture?"
That landed.
The President's fingers tapped once against the desk. Restoring military confidence had been a problem for him for a while now. He had already explored other options. He'd considered the armor route, compared Stark's tech to Locke's battlefield performance, and tried to see whether one of them could become a symbol of American strength.
Stark had refused him outright.
Not only refused him, but humiliated the effort before it could even begin.
Now Locke was sitting here offering a ready-made alternative.
The President was tempted.
He tapped the desk again and said slowly, "The Avengers. What do you want from me?"
Locke answered without hesitation. "First, soften the government's public stance toward mutants. Second, formally recognize the Avengers as an approved heroic organization with limited law-enforcement authority. Third, provide salaries and benefits. Fourth, instruct local governments, the Pentagon, and federal departments to acknowledge them and cooperate where necessary. And if individual members make meaningful contributions, recognize them publicly with honors, medals, and hero status."
The President sat in silence for several seconds, considering every angle. Then he looked up and asked the real question.
"And what do I get?"
Locke smiled.
"A team of enhanced individuals who protect civilians, uphold order, confront disasters, and serve American interests."
The President listened, then smiled faintly and shook his head. "What else?"
Locke's smile widened.
"My support in the next election."
That did it.
The President's expression finally broke into open satisfaction, and he gave the desk a light tap with his fingers. "Perfect."
....
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