Chapter 375: Magnetic Uprising

 The X-Men turned and ran. Shin thought for a moment, then used his camouflage technique and followed behind the group.

This place wasn't far from the Statue of Liberty. With a car, it would take only a few minutes to get there. But without one, it would take at least half an hour on foot.

Although the X-Men were sprinting ahead, they still couldn't catch up. 

Shin sensed a strange magnetic field slowly spreading from above. He even heard a girl crying and screaming in distress.

Looking up, he saw a bizarre metallic device installed on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. The machine was spinning rapidly, emitting a powerful magnetic field. A girl was strapped to it, clearly the mutant known as Rogue.

Shin could feel Rogue's vitality draining as if the machine was extracting her life force and converting it into magnetic energy.

"Rogue! Damn it!" Wolverine, gasping for breath, roared in frustration. But he had no long-range abilities and could do nothing but shout from afar.

Cyclops hesitated, his hand hovering over his quartz glasses. He didn't dare aim at the machine restraining Rogue, fearing that any misfire could cause an explosion and kill her.

As for blasting the Statue of Liberty itself… that was the Statue of Liberty, the national symbol of freedom in America!

Don't be fooled by movies where it collapses hundreds of times. If he so much as scorched the thing with a laser beam, the X-Men would face political hell back at the academy.

While they wavered, the magnetic field continued expanding, growing stronger and wider.

Shin, who had been tailing them invisibly, saw they were falling behind and didn't bother hiding anymore. He appeared beside them and asked bluntly, "What's that girl's ability? Why did Magneto make her the core of that device?"

The sudden appearance startled the X-Men. Storm reacted first. Ignoring how Shin had followed them unseen, she quickly explained, "Rogue has the power to absorb other people's abilities. As long as she makes contact, she can copy their powers."

"But the abilities are temporary, she can only use them for a short time. Magneto wants to transfer his powers to Rogue temporarily, and then use her as the engine to power that machine!"

Shin froze for a second. "Ah, I get it... that's her."

He hadn't seen this particular X-Men movie and wasn't familiar with the name Rogue. 

That one was incredibly overpowered, capable of absorbing nearly every power from the X-Men and Avengers. At her peak, she could go toe-to-toe with Celestials.

[Note: In the comic Uncanny Avengers, Rogue absorbed the powers of almost every X-Men and every Avengers available during the Celestial attack. Which apparently is "hundreds" of heroes.]

But when she was weak… well, her current state, screaming helplessly on a machine, was proof.

The X-Men didn't understand what he meant, and Shin didn't bother explaining. Instead, he casually slapped his palm to the ground.

A deep rumble followed as the earth beneath them began to rise, higher and higher until it completely lifted off.

Magneto had installed his machine at the highest point of the Statue of Liberty, hoping to radiate the magnetic field downward in a wide, expanding arc. That way, he could cover the entire multinational summit nearby.

Shin sneered. 'You want the high ground? Sure, I'll give it to you, just not in the way you expect.'

He hoisted the entire structure several thousand meters into the air, thinking, 'Let's see if your field can still cover everyone from this altitude.'

Honestly, even if Rogue were drained to her last breath, she couldn't spread the magnetic field that far.

Back above, Magneto panicked when the ground started quaking. At first, he thought the X-Men were trying to topple the Statue of Liberty itself.

He quickly activated his magnetic powers to stabilize the statue, only to realize it wasn't collapsing. It was rising. The entire island surrounding the monument had lifted into the sky, becoming a floating landmass.

Now, Magneto was genuinely alarmed. He didn't even care that his energy had been sapped by Rogue and that he was still weakened. Without hesitation, he directed all his focus into flying the statue toward the summit grounds.

Wolverine, Cyclops, and the others looked skyward in stunned silence. 

Among them, only Storm had the ability to fly via wind manipulation.The others cannot fly and are becoming increasingly anxious.

Cyclops still didn't dare attack the Statue of Liberty, and now he was even more reluctant. Jean Grey's telekinesis and telepathy were practically useless in this situation. As for Wolverine, no matter how hard he leaped, he wasn't getting up there.

Storm was the only one who could do something. She summoned a strong updraft and soared into the air, targeting the members of Magneto's Brotherhood positioned near the machine.

To be fair, in terms of raw power, the Brotherhood's lineup didn't stand a chance in a direct confrontation. Toad, whose abilities were, well, toad-like... Sabretooth, who lacked an adamantium skeleton, and Mystique, whose talents were better suited for espionage than direct combat, weren't exactly elite fighters. Up against Storm, they were outmatched.

Even Magneto himself was in no shape for a fight. He'd just been drained by Rogue and was preoccupied with flying the Statue of Liberty.

Storm made short work of his team. One fell to a thunderbolt. Sabretooth showed some resilience, but after taking multiple hits, even he dropped. Magneto, determined to complete his plan, grits his teeth and pressed both hands on the machine. He poured every last ounce of power into it.

His hair, already streaked with gray, turned completely white in an instant. He aged visibly, looking decades older.

With a deafening blast, the machine erupted with energy. A massive pulse of magnetic force surged outward like a wave of light. The device was completely fried, and overloaded beyond repair. But in that brief moment, the magnetic wave still swept through the entire summit venue.

Shin hadn't expected Magneto to go this far and was stunned. 'This guy's really willing to die for this?'

Through his chakra senses, Shin could tell Magneto's life force had been drained. The man probably only had a year or two left to live now.

While Shin stood there, surprised by Magneto's ruthlessness, the rest of the X-Men were in despair.

The magnetic wave had reached the summit. Chaos erupted almost immediately.

Everyone affected reacted differently. Some were dizzy. Some fainted. Others felt severely unwell. No one knew Magneto's true plan, to forcibly mutate them using magnetic radiation. Most of the summit attendees thought they'd been exposed to nuclear fallout.

And frankly, in some ways, they weren't entirely wrong.

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