The next day, Bill gathered the X-Men in the yard. "Magneto's coming back, and worse might follow—Apocalypse, Phoenix, you name it. We need a fallback.""How?" Storm asked. "We're stretched thin.""Like this," Bill said, triggering the Steve template. He punched a tree, wood blocks stacking, then mined stone from the mansion's foundation—pixelated chunks defying physics. With Lily's fire as a furnace and Clara handing him scavenged metal, he crafted walls, turrets, even a makeshift bunker beneath the lawn. The X-Men watched, baffled, as Minecraft logic merged with Marvel chaos.Beast scratched his head. "Fascinating. A multidimensional crafting system?""It's from a game I knew," Bill explained, shaping iron bars. "But it works here. We can hold out."Lily joined, her flames tempering blocks into obsidian. "Dad, this is cool! Like a fortress."Clara smiled, hammering a plank. "You're making us a home, Bill."His comics memories—Genosha's fall, mutant camps—drove him. "Not just a home. A shield. Magneto won't break this."Wolverine tested a wall with his claws, grunting approval. "Solid. But they'll bring more than fists.""Then we'll be ready," Bill said, crafting a bow and arrows from twigs and string. The system hummed:
"Host emotional state: Determined. Steve template proficiency increased."Night fell, the bunker glowing with torchlight—Lily's fire. Bill sat with his family, Clara's hand in his, Lily sketching designs for more defenses. "We're tougher than they think," he said."Always were," Clara replied.