American comics: I am full of martial virtues and I love to be kind to others.

The five agents turned around and raised their weapons, aiming them at Lynn.

“Damn it,” Lynn muttered, then shouted, “Sarah! Sober ones, cover me!”

He rolled to the side, dodging the first volley of fire. Rubber bullets and stun grenades exploded where he had just stood.

Sarah—who entered the room a little later because she was hit by the energy wave and wasn't fully under Victor's control—raised her riot shield and stood in front of Lynn.

“We have to stop him!” she shouted.

Lynn's eyes scanned the room, searching for an opportunity. Victor was backing away, moving towards the back door, clearly trying to escape. The subdued agents were providing cover for him.

But Lynn noticed a detail—Victor's eyes were shining, but his forehead was sweaty. Managing so many people at the same time was a huge burden for him.

“He can’t maintain control over so many people for long!” Lynn said to Sarah. “We just need to buy time!”

But Victor clearly realized this too. He suddenly accelerated and rushed towards the back door.

Lynn gave chase immediately, but the controlled agents blocked his path. He couldn't harm his colleagues, so he could only dodge and parry their attacks.

Just as Victor was about to reach the back door, the door was suddenly kicked open.

Reynolds led the blockade team in.

“Victor Lane! FBI!” Reynolds yelled, “You’re surrounded!”

Victor stopped and looked around. There were FBI agents in front and behind him; although he had some under his control, there were still too many of them.

“It seems I underestimated your resolve,” Victor said, then he did something unexpected—he turned sharply to the subdued Marcus, his eyes flashing blue.

"Marcus! Maximum intensity illusion, area coverage!"

Even with the limiter, Marcus's abilities still erupted under Victor's mental enhancement. Not at full strength, but enough.

The entire warehouse was suddenly engulfed in a chaotic hallucination—walls were collapsing, the ground was cracking, and flames were engulfing everything. Everyone, including Lynn, was overwhelmed by the hallucination.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Victor rushed to a window, smashed the wooden planks with a chair, and jumped out.

"He's escaped!" Lynn shouted, struggling to break through the illusions in pursuit.

But by the time he reached the window, Victor had already disappeared into the alley. Lynn jumped out of the window and chased him for dozens of meters, but in the complex terrain of the industrial area, Victor's figure completely vanished.

"Damn it!" Lynn slammed his fist against the wall.

He slowly walked back to the warehouse, the hallucination had faded—Marcus had lost consciousness, the overuse of his abilities had rendered him unconscious.

But they captured two mutants—Marcus and Elena. Jason also escaped in the chaos, following Victor out of another exit.

“Something is better than nothing,” Sarah said, though her voice trembled with pain—the energy wave had caused severe burns.

“But Victor escaped again,” Lynn said, a deep sense of frustration washing over him. “We were so close to him, so very close.”

“But we rescued two victims,” Sarah said, pointing to the subdued Marcus and Elena. “Professor X might be able to help them break free. That’s progress, Lynn.”

Lynn looked at the two young mutants—they were now unconscious, their faces contorted with pain and confusion. They should have had normal lives, should have used their abilities to help others. But Victor had destroyed it all, turning them into weapons.

“Contact the Xavier's Institute,” Lynn said to Sarah. “Tell Professor X that we have two mutants who need help. Also, intensify the search of this area; Victor and Jason couldn't have gone far.”

“I understand,” Sarah said.

Lynn took one last look at the broken window, the direction Victor had fled in.

The Xavier's plane arrived in New York six hours after the operation.

Lynn and Sarah personally escorted the two captured mutants—Marcus and Elena—to the plane. Both were restrained by limiters and handcuffed, but Lynn specifically requested that they not be shackled or blindfolded.

“They are not criminals,” he told the escorting agents. “They are victims. Treat them with dignity.”

Marcus woke up once during the journey, his eyes blank and filled with fear.

“What happened?” he murmured. “Where is the professor? He said he would protect us.”

“The professor lied to you,” Lynn said calmly, sitting opposite him. “Victor Lane manipulated your mind, making you believe he was helping you. But he was just using you.”

“No,” Marcus shook his head, but there was doubt in his voice, “the professor understands me. He gave me a goal, he gave meaning to my abilities.”

“Your abilities have a purpose,” Lynn said, “but not to harm innocent people. Marcus, do you remember who you were before you attacked me? You wanted to protect your sister, you wanted to learn to control your abilities, and you didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Marcus's eyes began to waver, as if he were trying to recall something. But soon, his expression hardened again, as if the belief implanted by Victor was fighting back.

"You don't understand. What we're doing is necessary. It's to protect mutants."

Lynn didn't argue further. He knew verbal persuasion was ineffective; Victor's mind control was too deep. Only Professor X's professional help could truly break this control.

Elena remained silent, curled up in her seat, her eyes vacant. When Sarah tried to speak to her, she only trembled slightly and did not respond.

“She’s in a state of psychotic shock,” the accompanying FBI psychologist said. “The shock of her arrest and the feeling of being suppressed have shut down her mental defenses. This might be a good thing—in this state, Victor’s psychological suggestion will also be less effective.”

It was late at night when the plane landed at Xavier's College. But the lights in the main building were still on, clearly indicating that the entire college was waiting for their arrival.

Professor X personally came out to greet him, followed by Dr. Hank, Logan, and several other X-Men members Lynn didn't recognize. "Agent Lynn," the professor said, his wheelchair gliding over, "I've heard about your operation. Subduing two controlled mutants without causing serious casualties is remarkable."

“But Victor escaped,” Lynn said, his voice tinged with self-reproach. “And a third mutant, Jason, escaped with him too.”

“This isn’t a failure, it’s progress,” the professor said, then looked at the two mutants being escorted off the plane. “Let’s get them to the medical center. They need immediate evaluation and treatment.”

Xavier's medical center was prepared for this special situation. There were two separate treatment rooms, each equipped with mental monitoring equipment and comfortable yet safe restraint devices.

Marcus was placed in the first room. He was fully conscious and began to resist violently.

“You can’t do this to me!” he shouted. “I want to see my lawyer! I want to contact the professor!”

“The professor you’re talking about is Victor,” Hank said gently but firmly, adjusting the monitoring equipment, “but he’s not your friend, Marcus. He’s manipulating your mind. We’ll help you see the truth.”

“You’re the ones manipulating me!” Marcus struggled. “You want to turn me into your tool!”

Professor X's wheelchair glided into the room. His expression was sorrowful, but his eyes were resolute.

“Marcus,” the professor said, his voice calm but firm, “I will not lie to you. I am going to enter your mind and examine the damage Victor caused. This process will be uncomfortable, even painful. But I assure you, I will not change who you are, nor will I control your thoughts. I will only remove what is not yours.”

“I disagree!” Marcus shouted.

“I know,” the professor said, “that’s why I had to do this—because your refusal wasn’t from your own will, but from a defense mechanism implanted by Victor. The real you, the young man who wanted to protect his sister, would want to break free from this control.”

The professor closed his eyes and placed his fingers on his temples.

The mental monitoring equipment in the room began to beep, and complex brainwave patterns appeared on the screen. Lynn stood outside the observation window, watching all of this through the one-way glass.

Marcus's body began to spasm, and he groaned in pain. But this time, the pain wasn't physical; it was mental—two opposing forces were battling in his mind, Victor's implanted belief system resisting Professor X's purge.

“His mental defenses are very strong,” Hank said, looking at the monitoring data. “Victor has set up multiple layers of protection in his subconscious. Whenever an external consciousness tries to investigate, these layers are activated, triggering a strong rejection reaction.”

"Can the professor break through?" Lynn asked.

“Yes, but it will take time,” Hank said, “and the process will be painful. Victor’s mind manipulation is like planting a parasitic plant in the brain, its roots penetrating deep into every node of memory and belief. To remove them, each root must be carefully separated without damaging the surrounding normal tissue.”

Lynn looked at Marcus's pained expression and felt a surge of anger—not at Marcus, but at Victor. This monster not only killed people, but also turned living people into his puppets, planting this torment deep within their minds.

Thirty minutes later, Professor X exited Marcus's mind, his forehead covered in sweat.

“The first phase is complete,” he said, his voice weary. “I’ve found the key anchor Victor implanted—a core belief: ‘Only Victor can understand and protect you.’ This belief connects to all of Marcus’s memories of security and belonging.”

"Did you remove it?" Sarah asked.

“Not entirely,” the professor said. “If I were to forcibly remove it, it might damage Marcus’s entire emotional system regarding trust and security. Instead, I created space for questioning around that belief, allowing Marcus’s consciousness to begin examining it for himself. It’s like turning on a light in the dark, letting him see that there are other things in the room.”

"How long will it take for him to fully recover?" Lynn asked.

“It will take weeks, maybe months,” the professor said. “This isn’t a process that can be completed in one go. I need to enter his mind multiple times, gradually weakening Victor’s influence while strengthening Marcus’s own consciousness. But the good news is that the first step is always the hardest. Now that core belief has begun to falter.”

Marcus was asleep on the treatment bed, but his expression was much calmer than before.

“I will continue after he rests,” the professor said, then turned to the second treatment room. “Now, let me see Elena.”

Elena's situation was different. She didn't resist; instead, she displayed extreme obedience and indifference. When Professor X entered her mind, she didn't even react.

But ten minutes later, the professor opened his eyes, his expression becoming even more serious.

“Her situation is more complicated,” he said. “Victor used different techniques on her. With Marcus, he instilled active beliefs and a sense of mission. But with Elena, he suppressed her self-awareness, putting her into a passive, receptive state.”

“What does this mean?” Lynn asked.

“This means Elena has almost lost the ability to make her own decisions,” the professor said. “Her mind is like a computer waiting for instructions. Victor tells her what to do, and she does it without questioning, without emotion, and without even real understanding. It’s a deeper, more brutal form of control.”

"Can she recover?" Sarah's voice trembled.

“Yes, but it will take more time,” the professor said. “I need to reawaken her self-awareness and rebuild her emotional responses and decision-making abilities little by little. It’s like teaching someone how to be themselves again.”

Lynn stared at the unconscious Elena—a nurse who should have used her healing abilities to save lives, but whom Victor had turned into an empty shell. His fists clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms.

“I will catch Victor,” he whispered. “I will make him pay for all this.”

“I believe you can,” the professor said, “but now, we have another important task—to extract intelligence from their memories.”

Over the next two days, while treating the two mutants, Professor X carefully explored their memories, searching for any clues about Victor's plan.

This is a delicate process. The professors must find those memory fragments that Victor has deliberately hidden or obscured without damaging their thinking.

On the morning of the third day, the professor convened a meeting with Lynn, Sarah, and the core members of the X-Men.

“I’ve found something,” the professor said, displaying several memory fragments on a holographic projection in the conference room. “These were extracted from Marcus and Elena’s deep memories; they themselves may not even remember hearing these things.”

The first memory came from Marcus—he overheard Victor talking to someone on the phone:
"The next target has been identified. Her name is Anna Marie, a mutant whose ability is to absorb the life force and abilities of others. Yes, she's the girl who was contacted by Professor X's team. She's currently isolated and confused. The perfect candidate."

Lynn's heart sank. "Anna Mary? Isn't that—"

“Little rascal,” Logan interrupted, his voice filled with anger, “Victor wants to do something to Little Rascal? That bastard!” (End of Chapter)