Across the heavens and the earth, countless towering robots filled the battlefield in a dense swarm, moving with astonishing speed as they streaked through the sky.
"Another army of Sentinels?"
Fenris was startled. The thunder rumbling in the distance, the red laser beams slicing across the sky from time to time, and the sudden eruptions of frost, fire, and hurricanes all felt utterly unfamiliar to him.
If everything he had just seen was happening in the present, then when exactly was this battle taking place?
Could it be that while he had gone to see the Ancient One, the X-Men and the Brotherhood had joined forces again and gone straight for the Sentinels' main base?
But nearly all the Sentinels filling the sky and earth were the newest models, packed so densely that they seemed endless, even more numerous than the ones at the Arctic base. Why would Professor X and Magneto choose to go to war now?
Whoosh...
Before Fenris could think any further, a violent rush of wind roared past him, and a powerful feeling of weightlessness suddenly swept through his body.
His heart jolted. Instinctively, he spread his arms, trying to unfurl the wings behind his back, but this time his body gave no response at all.
"What's going on?"
As he fell faster and faster, the ground rapidly filled most of his vision. He was about to slam into it, while Sentinels all around him continued attacking, unleashing every kind of weapon they had.
Fenris narrowed his eyes and instinctively curled his body inward.
But in the next instant, a silver object glowing with a familiar blue light suddenly entered the corner of his vision.
"That's... the color of atomic breath?"
Fenris froze. In his blurred sight, he could only make out the outline of a massive, terrifying axe-like weapon.
Boom!
Before he could get a clear look, a deafening explosion erupted from below him. The immense shockwave from something colossal hitting the ground blasted outward in all directions. Then his vision went black, and every image vanished completely.
"No!"
Fenris's eyes snapped open. With a startled cry, he shot upright from the ground.
Bang!
A loud collision rang out above his head. In an instant, the entire building shuddered violently as though struck by an earthquake.
"Fenris, could you at least be a little more careful when you grow bigger?"
"If you smash the reactor room we just finished building, the whole school is going to be in trouble..."
A somewhat helpless voice came from not far below him. Fenris paused, then looked down just in time to see Hank's blue figure, dressed in a heavy protective suit, busy with something off to the side.
"Hank?"
Fenris slowly craned his head forward, looking completely lost.
At some point, he had already turned into his Godzilla form. Hank's sturdy body did not even come up to his knee, making Hank look absurdly tiny by comparison.
"Wasn't I at Kamar-Taj?"
"And the Time Stone... what happened to those files?"
As his awareness returned, Fenris suddenly remembered why he had gone to see the Ancient One in the first place, and he was immediately stunned.
"Hank, when did I come back?"
Fenris's body quickly shrank, and before long he had returned to normal size. Without the crushing presence of that enormous form, the entire space suddenly felt open and empty.
"You don't know when you came back?"
Hank turned and gave him a surprised look, though his hands never stopped working. "You got back about a day ago. Since you were sleeping the whole time, I didn't disturb you."
"Oh, right. I already finished decrypting the files you brought back."
When he said that, Hank's tone was full of amazement. He shot Fenris an incredulous glance. "I really didn't expect you to actually restore a pile of powder. That's unbelievable."
"Me?"
Fenris froze. He had not done anything at all.
And the Ancient One had said he was supposed to personally learn time magic and use the Eye of Agamotto to repair the data.
Had he done it in his sleep?
"And where did you get all this highly enriched uranium, anyway?"
The field of view inside Hank's protective suit was extremely limited. While chatting, he did not notice Fenris's strange reaction at all and simply kept praising him. "This is all strategic-grade material. After running tests, I found the purity is extremely high. It should last you a long time."
"This morning, a group of people personally delivered it to you. With this stuff, your growth in strength might be even faster than before."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. moves that fast?"
Fenris stepped closer in surprise. He had not expected Nick Fury to get it done in only a few days.
Seeing the sweat pouring down Hank's face, Fenris said sincerely, "I really owe you, Hank. Without you, I wouldn't even know what to do with this stuff."
"It's nothing."
Hank waved a hand dismissively. "Though honestly, I think this building may need to be torn down and rebuilt. You're growing so fast that sooner or later this place won't be able to hold you..."
Fenris smiled.
"Oh, right, Hank."
Suddenly thinking of something, Fenris changed the subject and asked, "The Sentinel wreckage should've all been brought back to the school by now. How's your research on it coming along?"
"Those robots..."
At that, Hank suddenly sighed, his voice full of frustration. "The material used for their outer shells is extremely unusual. It has powerful morphing properties and excellent durability. Ordinary attacks can't damage it at all."
"If it weren't for someone with power like yours, or high-temperature breath attacks, normal mutants wouldn't be able to do a thing against them..."
Then Hank patted his chest, sounding full of confidence. "But in the end, it's still just a special material. Give me some time and I'll definitely come up with a way to counter it. No need to worry about that."
"Then we'll be waiting for good news."
Fenris smiled faintly. After waving a hand, he disappeared from the spot.
"Magneto and Professor X are still at the school. But in the scene I saw, mutants were clearly already fighting those new-generation Sentinel robots..."
As he walked, Fenris kept turning it over in his mind.
But Hank's reaction had made one thing perfectly clear: Professor X and Magneto had not launched a direct assault on Bolivar's base.
When it came to something as critical as the life and death of mutants, the two of them had, almost without discussion, both chosen caution.
"So either everything I just saw was an illusion, and Tony, Black Panther, little Spider-Man, all of it was fake."
"Or..."
The images from that battlefield still refused to leave Fenris's mind. Suddenly, a bold idea surged into his thoughts.
(End of Chapter)
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