Chapter 374: Oath-taking Ceremony

  In the principal's office, as Xu Yue's calm voice slowly echoed in the room, everyone in the room suddenly had different expressions.

  Among them, the professor and Hank, who had known Xu Yue's general plan for a long time, behaved the calmest. The current situation was actually the result of their deliberate indulgence. Since ancient times, there is no construction without destruction, and chaos can often build a ladder, so the mutants really need this war started by Magneto.

  In the corner, Logan was breathing out smoke and his eyes were indifferent. To be honest, as early as after understanding the specific relationship between the two camps of humans and mutants, he knew that the war between them was inevitable. Even if there was no antidote, there would be other fuses sooner or later.

  Although the past memories are still a little vague, this veteran warrior who has experienced various battles, big and small, such as the War of Independence, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War, has long been numb to the matter of war.

  He had spent the first half of his life fighting in bloody battlefields. Now, even if he had to go through another war of survival between humans and mutants, it would just be a return to the past. He was used to it. As for

  Scott, he was far from recovering after suffering torture in both his mind and body. In this state, it was difficult for him to put forward any constructive and effective opinions at this moment.

  Therefore, the atmosphere in the room fell into silence for a while. After a long time, Storm, who had spoken first, spoke again.

  "I understand. I will continue to expand the size of the X-Men reserve, at least to give them the power to protect themselves."

  Since Jean sank to the bottom of the lake and Scott was depressed, the professor began to deliberately delegate all powers in the academy to Storm. So now, as long as it was a major decision about the entire academy, it was basically her who made the decision.

  In fact, she did not disbelieve the war prediction made in Xu Yue's words. She just couldn't bear to send those fledgling students to the battlefield so suddenly. But in this situation, perhaps being more ruthless could really help them.

  After that, she pursed her lips, turned her head and looked at the professor on the side and said:

  "Professor, since war and chaos will soon break out, do we need to temporarily send some students in the college back home in advance?"

  "No, as long as I am here, the students will be fine, just do it."

  The professor still looked gentle, but his words revealed extreme confidence. Under normal circumstances, he would not make such a solemn promise, but in this special period, he needed to give his students enough confidence.

  And the professor's promise was not empty words. With his world-leading psychic ability, as long as he was more vigilant, he would be able to protect all the students in the college.

  On the other side, seeing that the professor had comforted everyone, Xu Yue also glanced at the beast Hank who had been away for many days in the room. The purpose of the other party's coming to the college this time was similar to the previous one. They were all commissioned by the federal president to come to explore the attitude of X College towards this terrorist attack.

  "Minister Hank, regarding the report to the Department of Defense, you should directly tell them that X Academy will not participate in the conflict between the Brotherhood and the government. After all, we are just a college for teaching and educating people. We value peace."

  "Heh!"

  The beast's perception is always extraordinary sharp. Glancing at Xu Yue, who was faintly surrounded by evil spirits, and Logan, who was smoking and looked like a bandit beside him, Hank pulled the corner of his mouth and nodded in response.

  "Well, I will reply like this, but whether the Department of Defense believes it or not is another matter."

  "It's okay. They will have no time to worry about us soon."

  ...

  Magneto's live broadcast declaration of war has a wide impact. At the same time, as long as the TV is turned on, a silver-haired old man will appear on the screen. The various remarks he spewed out swept the entire country like a storm.

  Therefore, while everyone in the college was discussing this incident, there were more discussions outside the college in every corner, including the federal government at the top of the country's rule.

  Washington, the Office of the President.

  The president of the country, with a head full of white hair and looking a bit older than Magneto, was leaning on the soft reception sofa, staring at the TV screen in front of him with a gloomy face, and his narrowed eyes contained an uncontrollable fury.

  It is no exaggeration to say that Magneto's speech was almost trampling on the face of the entire federal government. He was threatening a country!

  Sensing the increasingly restless anger in the president's eyes, a tall black man standing next to the TV decisively pressed the TV remote control in his hand, causing the live broadcast on the screen to suddenly go out. Now that he had understood Magneto's threatening intentions, there was no point in continuing to listen except to increase his anger, so it would be better to turn it off earlier.

  After doing all this, he crossed his hands in front of him, put on a solemn reporting posture and said:

  "Mr. President, we are trying our best to track him down."

  After speaking, the president on the sofa looked at the dark TV screen in front of him again, and then he stood up with anger, walked around the sofa for half a circle, and then barely suppressed the anger that was about to burst out of his mind. He turned around and said in a deep voice:

  "We can't let him do whatever he wants!"

  "I agree!"

  Looking directly at the tall black man who was responding to him in a deep voice not far away, the president lowered his eyes and began to give orders in a decisive manner:

  "This is related to national security. Close the Worthington Laboratory immediately. I want all the troops to be equipped with firearms equipped with antidotes, and contact Trask Industries to ask them to send a large number of sentinel robots to participate in the laboratory's protection system!"

  "Okay, sir!"

  "Trasco, find Magneto as soon as possible to stop him. Use any means if necessary."

  "Since Magneto wants a war, I will give him a war!"

  The cold and murderous voice continued to echo in the President's office and spread rapidly to the entire federation at a very fast speed. The most direct consequence was that a large number of soldiers began to pour out of the barracks and were effectively dispatched by the government military to various key locations in the federation.

  Especially in San Francisco, where the headquarters of the Worthington Group is located, it is the top priority for the army to gather and protect.

  On the second day after the decree was issued, those city residents who seemed a little uneasy because of yesterday's riots just walked out of their homes and were surprised to find that the atmosphere of the whole city had become murderous, and many fully armed soldiers were wandering in the streets of the city. On

  the one hand, they were alert to the chaos and fighting yesterday that broke out again in the city, and on the other hand, they were constantly searching for Magneto's traces.

  In order to prevent their own weapons and equipment from being used in reverse by Magneto's metal manipulation ability, the government military even changed the equipment configuration of all soldiers in one night. All equipment containing metal was discarded, and even the most important weapons were changed from the original long guns and short cannons to special firearms with plastic bodies and antidote potions as bullets.   

  This is the deterrent power of the mutants. Just preparing to be enemies with them will force a country to retreat in advance.

  After giving up all the metal equipment, the lethality of the army has dropped drastically, but if it does not give up, it is estimated that Magneto alone will be enough to slaughter all the soldiers within his sight.

  The changes in the city are far more than that. The Worthington Group, which controls the antidote, was then forcibly taken over by the military. The various antidote injection points that were originally planned to be closed were reopened, and the number of injection points was greatly increased, covering all the major blocks in the city.

  Its peripheral security personnel have also changed from the initial police officers to the heavily guarded armed forces, and the defense strength has made a qualitative leap.

  Magneto wanted to use threats to force the antidote to stop issuing, but the government did not compromise and retreat. Instead, it expanded the scale of the antidote issuance. These actions have conveyed a clear message to the outside world invisibly: if you want war, then you will be given a war that will never be quelled. Unless it is destroyed, the antidote will never stop issuing.

  For a time, the tense atmosphere of impending storm enveloped the entire city. Even ordinary residents who did not pay much attention to current affairs gradually smelled the strong danger signals floating in the air at this moment.

  In addition to the above actions, the greater changes were all focused on the Worthington Laboratory where the mutant Jimmy was imprisoned.

  Since the president's decree was issued, the Worthington Laboratory and the Alcatraz Island where it was located were completely blocked at the first time. All irrelevant personnel were cleared out of the island, and all routes connecting the island were also banned at the same time.

  It didn't take much time for the government to quickly turn the Alcatraz Island, which was already isolated in the San Francisco Bay, into an isolated island completely isolated from the outside world.

  Then more than a dozen large armed transport planes carrying a large number of troops and equipment began to take off from the military zone and landed on Alcatraz Island one after another in the morning. At the same time, dozens of special sentinel robots produced by Trask Industries also arrived near the island soon.

  In just one morning, the military built the entire island watertight and full of dangers. The core of the antidote comes from Jimmy's unique mutant gene, so as long as Jimmy doesn't have an accident, Magneto's plan to stop issuing the antidote will never be realized.

  For this reason, the government has invested a large number of troops in this key point, just to ensure that when Magneto leads his men to attack, they can make them come back without return.

  Of course, this is only the last insurance measure. If possible, the government is not willing to wait for the Brotherhood's attack like a rabbit. Being too passive will only add many unpredictable risks.

  So while improving the defense of Alcatraz Island, they are also constantly sending troops to search for the specific location of the Brotherhood's station, hoping to catch it first before the other party causes serious losses. This is the most reliable strategy.

  Unfortunately, the plan is beautiful, but the specific implementation is not smooth. After more than ten hours, the government still has nothing to do with the location of the Brotherhood's station.

  ...

  Just as the human army was searching everywhere, an impassioned swearing-in ceremony was already underway in a remote forest somewhere outside the city. This was the secret base of the Brotherhood. The

  dense forest with towering ancient trees was crowded with people. Thousands of mutants of all kinds gathered into a vast black crowd. The loud shouts and cheers even made all the surrounding trees tremble.

  On the high earth slope above the crowd, seven or eight senior members of the Brotherhood lined up in a row. At the front, Magneto Eric, who was wearing a majestic black robe and a dark red cloak, was in the front.

  He was looking down at the densely packed Brotherhood members below. His slightly old face was filled with an indescribable firmness. He raised his hands high and spoke passionately. Soon, a highly inflammatory swearing-in speech drove everyone present to great enthusiasm.

  "They want to treat us, but I tell you, we are the antidote!"

  "The antidote is used to treat those weak and incompetent humans. They have their weapons, and we have ours."

  As the spiritual leader who created the Brotherhood, Magneto is not only powerful, but also has an extraordinary ability to incite people's hearts. He is not inferior to a failed art student. Every pause between his speeches can trigger the high-pitched and enthusiastic shouts of the audience below.

  When talking about weapons, Magneto paused slightly and couldn't help but look at Jean with red hair not far away. The other party is his biggest reliance for daring to confront the government head-on.

  The power of Omega-level mutants is comparable to that of gods. Magneto can fight against an army, while Jean can destroy a country or even an entire world.

  Under this kind of power, it is completely easy to wipe out at least a small Devil's Island. As long as Jean is still in his team, even if the thousands of Brotherhood members below are exhausted in the war, there is no possibility of failure for him.

  That is to say, from the moment Jean decided to join the Brotherhood after awakening, he was already invincible. Even if the X-Men led by Charles jumped out to stop him again, they were destined to be unable to prevent the Brotherhood from winning completely. As for

  Jean's uncontrollability, he had never thought of controlling a goddess. Look at what Charles had done before. It was meaningless to hide one's power blindly. All

  he had to do was to guide the goddess to show the most terrifying anger of mutants and the most overwhelming destruction to humans. Humans need fear! Need to be in awe!

  Only in this way can mutants truly rise!

  "We will attack the entire world with unprecedented anger. If any mutants stand in our way, we will use this poison to deal with them!"

  "We are going to Alcatraz, to control the antidote, to destroy its source, and then we will be unstoppable!"

  As the last sentence of the declaration of 'unstoppable' sounded, the entire dense forest was completely boiling in an instant, and the fanatical shouts rose and fell, resounding through the sky!

  As the loud shout spread, the huge movement also happened to attract the attention of a human soldier who was searching for the Brotherhood's location at the edge of the jungle.

  ...…

  Federal government, underground strategic command post.

  This huge building built deep underground is equipped with many of the most advanced strategic instruments currently available, and there are a large number of government personnel in military uniforms or formal attire constantly moving around. For a while, the sound of conversations and the ringing of telephones rang continuously.

  This command post has now become a strategic command center specifically for dealing with the Brotherhood of Mutants. The president of the federation, military generals, the Minister of Mutant Affairs and other senior government officials are now all gathered in the command post, waiting together for effective intelligence on the search for the Brotherhood's location.

  Suddenly, a staff secretary who was answering the phone in the corner of the command post quickly put down the receiver in his hand and shouted excitedly:

  "Report to the commander, the Brotherhood's location has been locked!"

  (End of this chapter)