Chapter 24: Good Fortune Come to Those Who Wait
Li Yue sat in a house populated by several young men and women: the mutant team recruited by Charles and Erik. They were the same people as in the movie, plus Li Yue.
Charles and Erik didn't say much more to the assembled team. Instead, they seemed to be busy with something else.
...
"Hey, since we're going to fight together in the future, I think we should introduce our abilities and give each other a nickname," a blue-skinned woman suggested.
"I want to be called 'Mystique!'" She then added.
"Hey, I wanted 'Mystique' too. I didn't expect you to beat me to it," a long-haired young man said. Li Yue recalled that this man could emit ultrasonic waves as well as use sound waves to glide.
"Look at me and tell me I'm not a 'Mystique,'" Mystique activated her ability. Her blue skin flickered, transforming her appearance and even her voice identical to the long-haired young man.
"That's so cool!"
The other members of the team exclaimed in surprise at Mystique's display.
"Darwin, what about you? What do you want to be called?" Mystique asked the black man next to Li Yue.
"I'll just use Darwin. 'Survival of the fittest,' just like me."
The black man stood up and walked to an aquarium in the corner of the room. He stuck his head into the water with no hesitation. After submerging his head, something like gills appeared on both sides of his face.
The people that watched the demonstration clapped their hands, and the black man returned to his seat beside Li Yue.
"My turn! Everyone, I'd suggest covering your ears," the long-haired man eagerly stood up.
He half squatted down and faced the cup on the table. Everyone concentrated on the cup, but he suddenly used his superpower at the window. The glass on the window was shattered by the ultrasonic wave.
The people in the room exclaimed in surprise. Li Yue shook his head helplessly. This guy loved to show off.
"I want to be called Angel because..." The woman next to Li Yue stood up. She was a prostitute before coming here, and she would later join the enemy camp.
She took off her coat with her back facing everyone, revealing something like a tattoo on her back. Suddenly, her tattoo came to life and turned into a pair of transparent insect wings. It vibrated rapidly, and she levitated off the ground.
"You can fly! It's so cool."
"And this!" She spat out a mouthful of dark liquid through the broken window. The liquid landed on the head of a statue outside, melting the metal.
Seeing her ability, Li Yue thought that even if she couldn't kill her enemy, she would traumatize them with disgust.
"Hey, Li Yue, what's your ability?" Mystique turned to Li Yue.
"My ability is just like this!"
Li Yue grabbed the black man beside him and disappeared.
"What are you doing? Where are they? Why are they gone?" The room was filled with ruckus.
"We are here!" The black man shouted from outside the house, a little disoriented from the sudden change of scenery.
Li Yue felt that his ability had changed. In the instant that he teleported, he saw himself returning to the unknown space with a starry sky.
At some point, a large blue hand appeared from the sphere in the middle of the space. It grabbed a "star" before retracting into the sphere and disappearing.
Li Yue's mind returned to his body. He felt that his body had changed; he couldn't play around with these adolescents anymore.
Li Yue brought the black man back to the seat inside the house and sat down quietly, feeling the changes in his body.
"Wow, Li Yue, your ability is really cool. How did you do that? Did you really teleport?"
"I think Li Yue's nickname should be Zoom," the long-haired young man said. Li Yue silently complained in his heart.
"Li Yue's power isn't speed. I think we should call him Blink," Mystique argued. That name was alright.
"Li Yue, which one do you like? Your choice," Mystique asked for Li Yue's opinion.
"I'm choosing neither. You can call me the Teleporter. Also, I'm feeling a little sick; I'm going back to my room." Li Yue stood up and left for his room. He felt that he couldn't calm down with all these people around, and he still needed to examine the changes in his body.
"Li Yue, wait!"
Li Yue ignored them.
"Alex, it's your turn..."
...
Li Yue returned to the room and carefully sensed the changes in his body. He felt like there were something inserted into every cell in his body. Could it be?
Li Yue picked up the fruit knife on the table and slashed at his arm. Before the blade could touch his skin, Li Yue's sixth sense felt an inexplicable command entering his mind. Li Yue's hand quickly turned into something like a rock. The fruit knife hit it with a "ding" sound, but Li Yue's hand was unharmed.
"Sure enough, I have Darwin's ability," Li Yue concluded in his heart after seeing the reaction of his body.
Instead of being happy, Li Yue immediately thought about the cost and benefits. He had finally obtained a new ability, but it was copied from the black man that would leave the cast soon. It would've been better to copy Professor X's mental ability or Magneto's power.
At the very least, he wanted to copy Mystique's ability or Alex's red circle powers. Li Yue felt that, from the way it was depicted in the movie, Darwin's survival ability was rather weak. The black man couldn't even withstand a single energy ball from the Black King—the energy ball burnt Darwin to ashes.
Li Yue sighed with a heavy heart and silently decided to try and experiment on Magneto to see if he could copy another ability.
...
The other young men and women downstairs were having fun and letting loose with their abilities.
Unfortunately for them, Charles, Magneto, and a female CIA agent just happened to return to their reckless use of power.
"What are you doing?!" The female agent roared at them and interrupted the young man that was trying to unleash his ability. The group immediately stopped moving.
"Who broke that statue?" The agent pressed.
"It's Alex!" Beast mercilessly betrayed his comrade—to his defense, Alex had repeatedly mocked him.
"You are in severe need of discipline!"
"We thought that we needed to have code names. Charles, you will be Professor X. Erik, you will be Magneto," Mystique dauntlessly introduced their code names idea, ignoring the female agent. She then pointed at her team members one by one and introduced their code names.
"That's not bad!" Erik commented.
Suddenly, a figure appeared next to Erik. Erik almost punched the figure out of reflex.
The figure was Li Yue. He had heard the commotion from his room and directly teleported to Erik's side out of impatience. He then touched Erik and teleported away.
Li Yue carefully used his sixth sense to detect any changes after teleporting, but he didn't find anything. He felt a little disappointed; it didn't seem like he could copy Magneto's power. But he didn't show it on his face and brought Erik back to where they were.
Erik snapped out of his shock and looked at Li Yue, admiring Li Yue's power.
"He is Li Yue, code name Teleporter. What you just see was his ability," Mystique introduced Li Yue when she saw the confusion on Charles and Erik's faces.