#424 - Meeting

Yang Le pushed the door open and immediately saw Colossus Piotr, a large figure, discussing something with Scott and other teachers. The sudden knock caused the entire room to fall silent.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Yang Le, maintaining his simple and honest persona, scratched his head and said, "Looks like I've come at a bad time."

"No, you've come at the perfect time, Harpy," Magneto said with a smile, extending his right hand to beckon Yang Le closer. Yang Le didn't refuse and walked over.

"Headmaster, has something happened?" Yang Le asked.

Cyclops Scott, Gambit Remy, Jean, Mystique, Beast Hank, Storm who had been rescued a few months ago, and himself; all the faculty members of the academy were gathered here. It seemed like something important was being discussed.

"It's about news of our fellow mutants," Magneto said, summoning a chair with a wave of his hand, which floated over and stopped in front of Yang Le. "Scott can give us the details."

The situation for most mutants was miserable. Although Magneto had publicly created the floating island sanctuary for all mutants, many were still isolated and unaware of its existence.

This was because they lacked access to information. Smartphones, computers, and televisions, common sources of information in modern times, were out of reach for most mutants. They had to rely on picking up old newspapers to get news.

Many mutants had not received an education and couldn't read, making even newspapers useless. As a result, many mutants were like people in ancient times, relying on hearsay to learn about what was happening in society.

Because of this, Magneto assigned Scott and Beast Hank the task of monitoring the internet in their spare time for news about wandering mutants.

Many reckless teenagers liked to post videos on Twitter or Instagram mocking the homeless, and mutants, seen as modern-day scourges, were often targets of ridicule.

These punks would, for some reason, stalk, attack, and even molest mutants. Don't assume all mutants are strong; some weaker mutants could only accept their fate when faced with groups of ordinary people.

These bastards would post videos of them bullying mutants online, and these sensational videos would bring them fame, with many people even rewarding their heinous behavior with donations.

Scott and Hank's job was to search for this information, find the locations in these videos or news reports, and then bring the mutants to the island.

The matter Scott was about to discuss today stemmed from this.

"This morning, after teaching the children, I searched for news about mutants as usual," Scott said, his brow furrowed, indicating he was recalling something unpleasant.

"I saw a live broadcast about a mutant on a certain streaming platform."

Scott turned the tablet in his hand, facing the screen towards everyone, and continued, "The live broadcast has ended, and the platform's official deleted the recording, but Hank recovered the video."

Scott pressed the play button, but the screen remained black. Just as Yang Le was wondering if Scott had missed the button, a set of gleaming white teeth appeared on the screen without warning.

As the perspective widened, Yang Le realized that the black kid had been pointing the camera at his mouth the whole time. If he hadn't smiled, Yang Le wouldn't have noticed.

"Hi! man!" the black kid suddenly said. "I have a world-shaking discovery!"

The black kid slurred his words, and judging by his glazed eyes, Yang Le suspected he was high.

"We discovered it together, Neil!" a voice came from off-screen, followed by several agreeing sounds, indicating there were many people present.

"OK! OK!" the black kid named Neil replied reluctantly, but he quickly returned to his silly smile and continued, "We found a 'drug' that isn't illegal! Guess what, n***a? It comes from a mutant!"

As he spoke, the screen shifted again, this time focusing on someone huddled in a corner. Unfortunately, his phone's terrible camera couldn't clearly capture the person's appearance, and Yang Le could only roughly make out that it was a girl.

But not to worry, Neil quickly zoomed in, and even reached out to grab the girl's pink hair, forcing her to look up. The girl's beautiful face, mixed with panic, appeared on the screen.

Watching the tearful girl, Yang Le heard a breeze beside him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ororo beside him looking furious, the breeze stirring his silver hair, and cyan energy overflowing in her eyes.

Having been imprisoned and experimented on for a long time, Ororo already hated humans to the bone. Yang Le had no doubt that if she were there, she would electrocute those junkies, but now they were on the floating island, and he couldn't let her act rashly and harm their own people.

Yang Le transformed his arm into a bouquet of various flowers and slowly extended it towards Ororo. Ororo, who was in a rage, was stunned by the sudden appearance of the flowers. Following the stems, she realized that Yang Le had created them.

"Calm, Ororo," Yang Le said in Swampfire's silly voice, which sounded wise despite the lack of a nose. "You shouldn't be consumed by anger, that's not you."

The rich fragrance entered Ororo's nose. These flowers were carefully selected by Yang Le, not only would they not interfere with each other, but they also complemented each other, like perfume, linking one ring to another, and even had a calming effect.

The furious Ororo came back to her senses, reached out and took the bouquet from Yang Le's arm, and said after a moment of silence.

"Thank you, Harpy, I'm adjusted."

"Just like my name," Yang Le joked. The tense atmosphere in the room finally eased, and everyone else also broke free from their anger.

However, Yang Le wouldn't say that he didn't expect Ororo to take his hand. This sudden action caught him off guard. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and cut off the stems, otherwise wouldn't he seem petty?

If Gambit next door saw it, he would think I couldn't afford it! Grow a few more bouquets! One for each person!