Whoosh!
A distance of ten thousand miles was covered in the blink of an eye. The salty sea breeze whipped his cape, and Russell stood in the void with his arms crossed, directly above the island nation of Genosha.
Being in another hemisphere, it was daytime here.
"What a beautiful island nation, yet controlled by a warlord as vicious as a venomous snake." Magneto stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes under the metal helmet as cold as a sharp blade.
Wanda nodded in heartfelt agreement.
The vast island beneath their feet was mostly covered by dense, pristine rainforest. The lush canopy undulated in the breeze, forming a surging green ocean, tranquil and natural.
However, at the edge of this primitive landscape, a hideous scar abruptly tore across the horizon – between two mountains, a patch of glaring yellow earth was exposed nakedly to the sunlight.
The concrete dam of the power station stretched like a high wall across the valley.
Thousands of Mutants toiled on the construction site like walking dead. Their dust-covered figures appeared particularly small under the shadow of giant machinery.
Heavily armed soldiers patrolled like hounds, the cold glint of their gun barrels and the dust under the scorching sun forming a cruel picture.
A scrawny young boy hovered in mid-air, his trembling hands controlling telekinesis, moving dozens of tons of steel.
Another Mutant knelt beside a concrete mixer, the water flowing from his fingertips mixing with sand and gravel into muddy slurry; further away, several figures were spewing flames at the newly poured dam, accelerating its drying.
"Mutant brethren—" Magneto's voice, distorted by a magnetic field, spread across the entire island. "Today, you shall regain your freedom."
The rumbling sound was like thunder, shaking everyone.
The construction site suddenly fell silent.
"Is someone coming to... save us?"
"Brethren, save us! I can't hold on any longer."
Thousands of Mutants with inhibitory collars around their necks looked up in disbelief. Their faces were covered in dust, their emaciated hands still held shovels, and their lips were cracked.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"
The alarm instantly blared at the construction site and spread across the country. The piercing alarm echoed over the island.
The soldiers saw the figures in the sky and raised their guns, firing frantically.
But they were all blocked by Magneto's raised hand.
A highly concentrated electromagnetic energy beam exploded from his indifferent palm, shattering several watchtowers into pieces, along with the soldiers on them.
"The times are moving forward, yet you are driving modern civilization backward, enslaving your own kind.
Since that is the case, just as armies were massacred after being defeated in ancient times, you must also be able to accept it."
Russell slowly flew in. Wherever his heat vision swept, armored vehicles melted like wax figures, and helicopters exploded into a ball of sparks before they could even take off.
He was like a merciless killing machine. The crimson laser swept across, and the dictator's army turned into flying ash amidst screams!
"Fire! Fire! Kill these two monsters!" The site foreman, a military officer, ordered, his face pale with fright, clutching the walkie-talkie.
Boom!
A uranium-core armor-piercing shell shot out fiercely, but it was like a paper toy hitting a bronze wall, shattering into dust on Russell's chest. He was expressionless and slowly turned his head.
A crimson laser swept across, splitting the heavy tank that fired the attack in half. His gaze shifted slightly, and the other tanks followed suit.
"How many times have you cursed and beaten my people in these past days? Now is the time for you to repay the blood debt!"
Magneto clenched his five fingers, and the steel guns held by all the soldiers seemed to come alive, breaking free from their control. Under their terrified gaze, the dark muzzles turned.
Bang bang bang!
The gunshots merged into a single sound, and bullets rained down back onto the firing positions, exploding in a shower of blood and fire.
Scarlet Witch was enveloped in red energy, firing energy blasts like a fort. One moved as fast as a fleeting shadow, weaving through the soldiers.
The dictator's army, capable of controlling the entire country, was quickly scattered and decimated.
Buzz!
"Something is coming!"
After using his laser to remotely cut off a foreman's head, Russell looked towards the inland depths, hearing the sound of large aircraft breaking through the air with his super hearing.
"Are they two—Robots?"
Magneto perceived the incoming objects with his magnetic field.
"Detecting Mutant, eliminate!"
Two black dots were visible on the horizon. Two giant Robots, over ten meters tall, with purple bodies, steel helmets, and cold, emotionless eyes, appeared on the horizon, flying at high speed.
Before they even arrived, their eyes lit up with lasers that traversed several miles, suddenly blasting towards them!
"Sentinel Robots."
Russell narrowed his eyes, recognizing these Robots at a glance.
The Mutant ability inhibitory collars now made sense.
"Is Bolivar Trask of this Universe cooperating with the nation of Genosha?"
Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the Sentinel Robots, a brilliant scientist.
In the Marvel Multiverse, there are as many Universes as grains of sand in the Ganges. Some things may remain largely unchanged, such as the existence of the X-Men, the Brotherhood of Mutants, the invention of Sentinel Robots, and Sentinels being the natural enemies of Mutants...
But some details will be different.
Russell only had a general understanding of some things, not everything.
Buzz!
Thick lasers pierced through several miles, tearing through the sky and shooting towards them with terrifying power. The dangerous crimson light even temporarily overwhelmed the sunlight, casting everything in a blood-red hue.
The Mutants below turned pale with horror, but before Russell and Magneto, such an attack was not even enough to make them bat an eyelid.
"They are not made of metal—"
Magneto casually manipulated two broken watchtowers, piecing them together to form a shield to block the laser attack, and frowned.
"Presumably, the inventor of these two Robots anticipated that they would one day face you, and of course would not be foolish enough to use steel as a material.
Otherwise, no matter how advanced they are built, aren't they just your toys?"
Magneto's iron shield melted into molten iron in the laser and evaporated. Russell's eyes also shot out crimson lasers, which, compared to the thick lasers of the two giant Sentinels, were like the difference between a stream and a river.
Swish!
But the red light flashed, a line between heaven and earth, as if space itself was cut open.
The two Sentinels were severely wounded from a distance, their bodies torn to shreds. One of them was smoking black and couldn't fly, falling and crashing.
"Sentinel Robots... I remember the construction material seems to be a high-density molecular composite plastic, dozens of times harder than steel."
Russell narrowed his eyes.
Seeing that the two giant Sentinels were not completely destroyed under one of his laser eyes was not unexpected, even though he hadn't used his full power.
"It was similar giant model Sentinels that would land on Genosha Island, controlled by Magneto, in the future. Nearly half of the world's Mutants gathered there, and over sixteen million Mutants with various abilities resisted together, but they were all slaughtered.
Even powerful Mutants like Magneto were powerless to stop it."
"Hmph! Does everyone think I'm some kind of Iron King?" Magneto snorted coldly, then immediately took action, a vein bulging on his forehead. He crushed the surviving giant Sentinel from a distance.
It didn't seem effortless at all.
Magneto can control more than just metal, but undoubtedly, controlling metal is still the most effortless for him.
"Have you thought of a problem?"
Russell activated his x-ray vision, looking into the depths of the island. What he saw made his eyebrows raise.
"What?"
Magneto turned his head.
"A dictatorial warlord, enslaving Mutants not to mine, but to build dams and power stations? Is he trying to develop the people's livelihood?"
This is naturally impossible.
"What did you see?"
"I saw nearly a hundred such Robots ready for action, and a huge Robot factory, continuously producing the same giant Robots!"
"Are you saying there's already a factory production line that can mass-produce this kind of Robot?" Magneto's face changed dramatically.