American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

Storm covered her left arm and looked at the back seat.

The Chinese man in the black suit had his eyes closed, his head bobbing with the movement of the car.

"Robert, go to 7th Street in the East End. I have a house there."

"Alright, Ms. Ororo! Hold on tight!"

In the back seat, Stephen Chow's ears twitched.

Go to her house?

This won't do!

He quietly checked his right ear; the small wound from before was almost scabbed over.

In a few more minutes, not even a red mark will remain!

If we really get to her lair, the lights will shine on it.

Bandaging?

Bandaging my ass!

His elaborate scheme to suffer a painful injury was about to be exposed!

What will we use to coerce this weather-controlling agricultural rainfall expert into signing a labor contract?

No!

We must take the initiative into our own hands.

They dragged the two of them back to their lair and got them on their pirate ship; once they wanted to get off, it was too late!

"Cough cough...cough!"

Stephen Chow coughed, opened his eyes, and pretended to be barely breathing.

"You're awake? You're bleeding, we need to stop the bleeding!"

"My injury can't be treated by ordinary quacks," Zhou Xingxing gasped for breath. "Go to the western suburbs... the wasteland behind the abandoned chemical plant."

Gegebu glanced in the rearview mirror, sweating profusely. "Director Stephen! There's not a soul in sight over there. What are we going to do there?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Stephen Chow sat up straight. "There's a car waiting for us over there! If you miss your flight, I'll dock your pay!"

With a sharp turn of the steering wheel, the Mustang swerved and headed straight for the western suburbs.

Storm frowned: "The car that's picking us up? Where are we going?"

"Go back to X Academy."

Storm fell silent for a moment. "X-Academy... I haven't heard that name in a long time. And it's been a long time since I've been back."

Stephen Chow leaned back in his chair.

Storm's current state clearly indicates that she has a grudge.

Old Cha, that stubborn mule, stays in the dilapidated school every day pretending to be profound, while these former core members are now wandering outside, living a life of hardship.

There's definitely something big going on here!

If we don't understand these people's pain points, how can we address their specific needs and issue them work badges?

"I'm telling you," Zhou Xingxing said, pulling out a crumpled cigarette and putting it in his mouth, "that old man, Lao Cha, is always leaning on his cane, sighing and lamenting all day long."

"You guys were a top-tier team that saved the world back then, how come you just collapsed like that? You didn't even pay any severance pay?"

Storm sighed. "That was a disaster none of us want to talk about."

She turned her head to look at the receding night view outside the window, her tone bitter.

"Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, together with the Hellfire Club, created an extremely dangerous device."

"What are they trying to do?"

"They are trying to forcibly turn all Americans into mutants."

Stephen Chow raised an eyebrow.

"Damn. Isn't this just an illegal pyramid scheme? Forcing people to recruit others? This Lao Wan has a good business sense."

Storm ignored his bizarre analogy and continued speaking.

"The professor discovered their plot. This forced conversion will kill millions of ordinary people."

"So the entire X-Men were mobilized to stop them."

"That's good, superheroes save the world, standard patriotic script. And then what?"

"Then..." Storm's voice was tinged with anger: "William Stryker and Bolivar Trask found out. They joined forces with the military and government to deploy heavy troops and the original Sentinels."

"They don't want to stop the disaster at all; they just want to take advantage of the three-way conflict to wipe us all out!"

"Tsk."

Stephen Chow let out a cold laugh.

"These politicians love to play double-cross. They cast a long line to catch a big fish, using you guys as a battleground, and in the end, they take everything."

No wonder Old Cha has completely lost faith in the US government.

Anyone who gets tricked like this would be considered good-natured if they didn't bomb the Pentagon.

"That battle... was too brutal."

Storm closed her eyes, and she saw again the land stained red with blood.

"The military was firing indiscriminately. The Brotherhood and Hellfire were in a bloodthirsty frenzy. We were caught in the middle and suffered heavy casualties."

"Everyone's gone mad. Nobody's stopping."

"The professor used a brainwave enhancement machine to connect the consciousness of everyone on the battlefield. He requested a ceasefire and asked everyone to retreat first."

"But it was no use. Hatred and fear completely overwhelmed reason. In the end, it was just pure slaughter."

Storm's shoulders trembled slightly.

"And then what? Who won?" Stephen Chow pressed.

"No one won, and the professor finally broke down."

"He forced the brainwave device to operate beyond its capacity, pushing his mental energy to its limit."

"In that instant, the entire battlefield... tens of thousands of people... were frozen in place."

Tens of thousands of people?

Forced immobilization?

Cattle!

"Not only that, he forcibly controlled Red Devil. He made Red Devil teleport to Magneto's side and remove the helmet that could block telepathy!"

"Then, he pulled the consciousness of Magneto, the Hellfire executives, Stryker, Trask... all the leaders into a closed mental space."

Awesome!

Stephen Chow silently gave Charles a thumbs up in his heart.

When physical methods failed to convince the public, they resorted to holding a closed-door online group chat.

"What did they talk about inside?"

"Nobody knows." Storm shook her head with a wry smile. "After the psychic space dissipated, Magneto put on his helmet and led the Brotherhood and Hellfire troops away."

Stryker and Trask also withdrew without saying a word.

"A chaotic battle, like a meat grinder, ended just like that, inexplicably."

Storm leaned against the car window, looking forlorn.

"We thought it was all over. We could start over."

"But the day after returning to the academy, the professor announced that the X-Men were being disbanded."

"He sent all the students away. He closed all the facilities. He locked himself in the college and never stepped out the door again."

"From that day on, we became homeless wanderers."

The carriage was quiet.

Gegebu sniffed as she walked ahead, her transparent face covered in tears.

This silly guy probably thought of the grievances he felt from squatting in the chicken coop every day.

Stephen Chow rubbed his chin.

In the realm of consciousness, Old Cha must have reached some kind of shady compromise with those politicians and tycoons.

Would they trade self-imprisonment and disbanding of their armed forces for a ceasefire from those lunatics?

How foolish!

The peace achieved through compromise is just like the year-end bonus the boss promised – it's all a complete bubble!

"Alright, stop with the sentimentality. Your problem is that you don't have a proper organizational structure!"

"If you're leaving, then so be it. Out with the old, in with the new. This wretched place in America can't accommodate you, but we have plenty of jobs in China waiting for you to shine!"

"Sizzle!"

The wild horse stopped at the edge of the wasteland.

"Director, we've arrived! But there's nothing here!" Gegebu looked around.

Stephen Chow opened the car door and got out, a night breeze blowing in his face.

"Watch closely."

Relying on his memory, Stephen Chow reached out and groped around in mid-air for a couple of seconds before pressing a hidden button.

"drop--"

A faint blue ripple appeared in the air.

A streamlined, black tactical shuttle with bat-like wings appeared before the three of them.

Storm's head was buzzing.

The professor actually gave this to him?!

What kind of spell did this man cast on the professor?!

Just when both of their worldviews were shattered.

Stephen Chow straightened his suit and tie, and walked to the cabin door in his leather shoes.

"What are you all standing there for? Follow me closely. I'll show you what the benefits of a business trip from a reputable company are like!"

Inside the cabin, the vanished one, who had been staring at the slug, stood up.

"Boss! You're finally back!" The missing man was so excited he almost jumped out of the hatch.

Stephen Chow pointed to Storm and Gegebu behind him.

"A newly hired colleague."

"Get on the bus! We're going back to the college to sign the labor contract!"