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[Pokémon Adventure: Riding the Hype!]
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On a hidden island in the Pacific.
This secluded place, once used by those vibranium smugglers from Wakanda as their final stopover, had now clearly suffered retaliation from vibranium's rightful owners. The already small island had been almost completely swept clean by some kind of high-energy weapon.
The beach, the woods, even the river had all lost their original beauty. What remained was utter devastation.
"The exact same method…"
Two long wings beat slowly, leaving beautiful trails of light in the air. Fenris stood beneath the clouds, his powerful vision taking in everything on the ground below. "So it really was the Wakandans."
Compared to T'Challa, who was far more open-minded, Wakanda under T'Chaka had kept much tighter control over vibranium. And with his belief in eliminating every last root of a problem, his methods were naturally ruthless to the extreme.
"Charles, can you tell anything?"
Magneto and Professor X arrived beside Fenris a moment later.
After seeing the destruction at the previous site, the three of them were no longer shocked by the wreckage below. Magneto glanced at Fenris's expressionless face, then reached out and poked Charles.
"All the clues have been destroyed. I can't make anything out."
Professor X observed the island carefully for a while, but in the end still shook his head. "Unless time itself can be reversed, trying to find useful information in a situation like this is no different from searching for a needle in the ocean."
Bang!
The moment he heard that even Charles was completely at a loss, with no leads whatsoever, Magneto furiously slapped a hand against Charles's wheelchair.
In his anger, he crushed a clear handprint into the tough composite material with nothing but his grip strength.
"Whoever did this, if I find out who it was…"
Magneto ground his teeth together. "Bolivar is lurking in the shadows, eyeing us like a vulture. Mutantkind is hanging by a thread. We finally managed to uncover a few leads, and now someone cuts in halfway through and destroys all our work!"
"Hmph!"
Seeing all their previous effort come to nothing, Magneto was overcome with fury, his eyes turning red.
The surrounding magnetic field instantly began to surge. The sea below, calm only a moment ago, started churning with waves almost at once.
The rising waters rolled outward in wave after wave. A small tsunami was nearly about to take shape. Professor X in his wheelchair and Scott were both on the verge of losing their balance in midair when Fenris suddenly stepped in front of Magneto.
"Don't lose your head. I know who intercepted the contact we were looking for."
"Hm?"
Fenris's words immediately cooled Magneto's anger. His gaze cleared, and he turned at once to look at Fenris with open expectation. "Who?"
"Wakanda."
Fenris stared straight into Magneto's eyes and spoke each word clearly.
"Wakanda?"
Magneto frowned, and the hope in his eyes disappeared instantly.
What kind of place was Wakanda?
Wakanda was supposed to be nothing more than a backward little farming and herding nation in Africa. Even now, its people supposedly still lived by slash-and-burn agriculture.
Most of the world did not even know such a place existed.
How could a country like that possibly cross tens of thousands of kilometers in such a short time? How could it possibly find these suspects with such precision?
Just because the smuggled goods came from Wakanda?
Or because they had spears for hunting and farm tools for working the soil?
"Fenris, I think panic's getting to you."
Magneto let out a sigh. With a turn of his hand, the turbulent magnetic field around them calmed at once, and the waves began to settle. "Wakanda may have the motive, but it absolutely does not have the capability."
"On the map in my study, I'm sure you saw it. Those slippery smugglers circled the Pacific who knows how many times before moving the goods back into the United States."
"Even if you bundled the CIA, the FBI, and Nick Fury's SHIELD together, they still wouldn't be able to track those people easily. So how could a bunch of Wakandan farmers possibly do it?"
Shaking his head, Magneto dropped from the sky and began searching the island personally, still trying to find something useful.
That left Professor X seated quietly in his wheelchair, motionless, as if thinking deeply about something.
"Fenris, that's just how Erik is. Don't take offense."
Professor X came back to himself and gave Fenris an apologetic smile. "But he's right about one thing. We really should go back and reconsider our next move."
"Professor, I'm not offended. People rarely believe in things that fall outside the bounds of their understanding."
Fenris shook his head.
A technologically backward farming nation secretly possessing the most advanced science in the world was about as unbelievable as the richest man in the world secretly being a vigilante superhero in the dark, Superman being nothing more than a Kansas farmer, or there always being someone faster than the fastest man alive.
"I'm not asking you to accept that reality right now. Today, I only have one question."
Fenris glanced at Magneto, who was still anxiously searching below, then fixed his eyes firmly on Professor X. "Believe me or not, we have to go to Wakanda. Every minute we delay lowers the chance that contact is still alive."
"If I told you I need you to come with me to Africa, where we'll be facing the most technologically advanced nation on Earth, where a major battle could very well break out, and where even the entire X-Men might get dragged in, what would you do?"
"…"
Silence fell for a moment.
Scott's gaze shifted back and forth between the two men, but in the end he said nothing.
Magneto's hearing had apparently become sharp enough to catch Fenris's words from far below. He flew straight back up.
After a brief hesitation, he took his place quietly at Fenris's side, making his stance clear.
"What are you staring at?"
Noticing the puzzled look in Fenris's eyes, Magneto suddenly laughed. "I don't believe what you said. But I believe you. The Brotherhood can be here anytime."
"The most technologically advanced country in the world? Decades ago, I had missiles coming at me by the dozens and I didn't flinch. You think I'm going to start being afraid now?"
Fenris twitched at the corner of his mouth. For the first time, he truly felt that Magneto was exactly the kind of man who could own the room. Even when he charged in blindly, he did it without the slightest hesitation.
"Scott, tell Ororo and the others to prepare for combat."
After less than a second of thought, Professor X's firm voice rang out.
"Understood, Professor."
Scott nodded and immediately relayed Fenris's words back to the school.
"Charles, so you're finally letting go of those pointless principles of yours?"
Magneto was clearly surprised by Charles's decisiveness and looked at his old friend with a teasing smile. "You clung to them for decades. What made you willing to put them down now?"
"Fenris may not have proof, and I may not be able to see what he's thinking, but if you're allowed to trust him, why am I not allowed to support him too?"
Professor X took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. "My principles were established for mutantkind. And now, for mutantkind, they can also be set aside."
"Fenris, are we leaving right now?"
"Yes."
Fenris looked at the two elders who had chosen to support him without hesitation and smiled faintly.
A massive dimensional portal appeared in an instant, passing straight through the four of them.
In the next moment, a vast stretch of grassland appeared directly beneath their feet.
(End of Chapter)
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