……
“Get out of my way!”
After being beaten deep underground by Hawking’s giant ape form, Captain Marvel exploded in anger.
All the energy in her body exploded in one bright burst, breaking through Hawking’s barrage of attacks, and slammed Hawking with a column of energy.
“Roar!”
Hawking’s anger intensified. All reason he had left was erased by his sheer instinct.
Waves of energy shot mercilessly from his mouth towards Captain Marvel, and his body leaped up again to attack her.
The two sides fought back and forth—the fight was so fierce that it was earth-shattering.
Captain Marvel still had the the upper hand overall due to her small body and flight, She can easily dodge Hawking’s attacks.
After Hawking transformed into a giant ape, his body was too big, so his movements were inevitably slower. He also had no control of his martial arts anymore, giving a lot of opening to exploit,
But Hawking’s destructive power was still very terrifying. In this form, he seemed to have no energy restrictions. The energy cannons fired from his mouth one after another without any pause.
Most importantly, his defense was impregnable. Captain Marvel’s attacks were painful, but none of them was fatal.
Of course, it was also possible that Captain Marvel held back, knowing that Hawking was still a child that she should not kill. After all, not even Nick Fury was that shady.
Also, Captain Marvel still had to take account the safety of other SHIELD agents and the X-Men.
Their combat had dragged some distance away from the others, but Hawking’s energy blast could reach them quite easily.
If she hadn’t blocked it, that one shot would have killed all the members of S.H.I.E.L.D.—except perhaps Captain Carter. It would be GG.
To be honest, if Hawking hadn’t almost lost his mind at this time, he would have been able to overwhelm Captain Marvel by firing energy cannons at Nick Fury and the others, forcing her to take all of it.
“Oh, hell, Hawking, I’ll never call you little monkey again!”
Looking at Hawking’s brutal ape form, Wolverine took Professor X and the rest of the X-Men to evacuate towards the stealth plane.
He had heard about Hawking’s secret second form from Storm, who told him to go with Nightcrawler to cut Hawking’s tail when Hawking lost control.
He didn’t really take Storm’s words seriously, thinking that Hawking was just exaggerating.
Now he realized that it wasn’t an exaggeration. Hawking’s great ape form casually cracked the ground with the swings of his fist. The energy beam from his mouth scorched the earth.
Ever since Hawking transformed into a giant ape and fought Captain Marvel, they could no longer continue fighting.
The ground was trembling and collapsing, and the energy cannon that Hawking occasionally fired near them blew massive craters. Its bright light alone was enough to dazzle them.
If the shot hits the dam and the dam breaks, all of them standing here will be swept away.
It was fortunate that Stryker’s base was far away from inhabited area, deep in mountainous lake. Otherwise, the casualties would’ve been catastrophic.
Nick Fury obviously realized it as well and no longer chased after the X-Men, opting to retreat to his own vehicles.
If all had gone according to his plan, he could’ve subjugated and won both Magneto and Professor X over in a single fell swoop.
He didn’t expect someone like Hawking would exist in the ranks of Professor X’s students. A mutant with power on the level of a natural disaster, enough to hold Captain Marvel back.
If he insisted to continue the battle, there would be nothing left but troubles even if he win.
……
X-Men’s stealth jet and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Quinjet took off almost at the same time, but they did not evacuate the area. Instead, they hovered over Captain Marvel and Hawking, observing the battle between the two below.
If Captain Marvel win, with her speed, X-Men’s stealth jet would never escape unless it fly away right there and then.
If Hawking wins, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s capture operation can only be considered half successful. The X-Men can evacuate smoothly.
But Captain Marvel clearly had the upper hand.
“Professor, what do we do now?”
Storm asked Professor X while piloting the stealth plane.
Hawking had lost his mind in the giant ape form, and no one knows how long he would last. Should they wait? Flee? Cut his tail and return him to normal? Or assist him in battle? Professor X pondered his choices.
“See if you can communicate with the enemy plane. I want to talk to the director of S.H.I.E.L.D..”
Professor X finally told Storm.
It was definitely impossible to cut off Hawking’s tail now, and he can’t just leave Hawking and escape. It made even less sense to assist in the attack because S.H.I.E.L.D. over there will definitely do the same.
So he wanted to try to see if he could reach agreement through negotiation. The situation now was different from just now, at least they were on level playing field.
Storm quickly opened a communication channel to the SHIELD Quinjet.
“Director Fury, if we continue fighting like this, we will both lose. Do you really want mutants and humans to go to war?
“And if they continue to fight like this, it’s hard to guarantee that they won’t hit the city. I don’t think either of us wishes for that result. “
The other side didn’t know about the time limit of Hawking’s ability and his weakness, which gave the X-Men the higher ground in this negotiation.
Nick Fury replied after a moment of silence:
“I don’t want to start a war with mutants, I just want to find out the truth of the matter. This happened because of your lack of cooperation.”
He was also stuck in a conundrum.
As the battle between Hawking and Captain Marvel escalated, several hills in the Rocky Mountains were flattened, and there were huge craters everywhere in the forest on the ground. The consequences would be unimaginable if the fight continued.
But he was not willing to just give up.
“Director Fury, when I return to New York, I will take Colonel Stryker and all the evidence to your S.H.I.E.L.D. for investigation. But right now, please, just let my students go.”
Professor X started the path to negotiation, the same path Nick Fury wanted in the first place.
His objective was to control the threat of mutants in his own hands and turn it into his own power to deal with hostile and powerful alien threats.
He didn’t want to fight the mutants to death.
The result was less from satisfactory, but it could be said to pass the bare minimum. The anti-human Magneto had been caught, and Professor X could be brought to the fold later.
However, just as he was about to agree X When the professor made the proposal, the battlefield changed.
Hawking, still as a giant ape, suddenly trembled, and then began to shrink rapidly and returned to the appearance of a child.
“Professor Charles, I think it would be better for you to follow me to S.H.I.E.L.D. for investigation now!”
The changes on the battlefield completely turned the situation in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s favor. Nick Fury obviously wouldn’t even consider Professor X’s proposal.
……
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