As soon as Norton began thinking about the issue, an image of a bald head appeared in his mind.
There were many hidden powerhouses on the planet, but only the Sorcerer Supreme had both the time and knowledge necessary to delve into the mysteries of time.
Unfortunately, Norton didn't dare approach the Sorcerer Supreme just yet. He wasn't sure what kind of attitude someone like that would have toward an anomaly like himself.
"Norton!"
One day, Hannah suddenly burst in, clearly in a hurry.
Norton paused his experiment and looked up. "What's got you so worked up?"
"The President was assassinated by a Mutant today—inside the White House!" Hannah reported, voice tight with urgency.
After all, the President was still the official leader of the United States. An assassination attempt was serious under any circumstance—but carried out by a Mutant? That was explosive.
Not to mention, Norton's Mutant Academy wasn't exactly a secret. The Carnegie family couldn't stay completely uninvolved.
"What ability did the Mutant use?" Norton asked. A successful assassination in such a highly protected area wasn't something just anyone could pull off.
"Teleportation," Hannah replied. "A teleporter got in and out."
With the Carnegie family's intelligence network, the full details were already at their fingertips. While the general public might still be in the dark, Hannah had easily figured out it was the work of a teleporting Mutant.
Norton immediately narrowed it down. "Stryker again?"
It wasn't hard to guess.
Neither Professor X nor Magneto would do such a thing, and in the original timeline, Stryker was the one behind it.
Magneto hadn't been captured this time, yet Stryker still moved forward with an attack on Mutants. Where was he getting that kind of confidence?
If it weren't from Magneto leaking information—like before—then...
"Did the military give him more support?" Norton muttered, eyebrows furrowed.
This world wasn't limited to a basic X-Men plot. The U.S. military here was stronger, more prepared, and far more ruthless.
With their resources, pinpointing the secrets of Xavier's School wasn't hard.
"Why would they back Stryker?" Hannah asked.
"Because Magneto has the military terrified," Norton replied. "Stryker just has to say he's targeting Magneto, and they'll hand him the keys to the kingdom."
In modern warfare, Magneto's powers were utterly broken. He could single-handedly shift the tide of war.
Given the U.S. military's possessive, paranoid nature, they couldn't allow someone like him to exist outside their control. They were desperate for his power.
"Come on," Norton said, putting away his tools. "Let's go enjoy the show."
After over a year of lab work, he'd finally caught up on the important research. It was time for a break.
Back in Washington, Norton met with several key figures to clarify the situation and distance the Carnegie Mutant College from the assassination.
It wasn't hard to do. Anyone close to the matter already suspected what was really going on. Norton's outreach was simply to show his position.
Once that was done, it was time to sit back and spectate.
This time, Norton didn't plan to get involved. It was Stryker, after all—Professor X and Magneto could handle him.
What interested Norton more was how Stryker would move without Magneto feeding him inside information. This time, he had to face both Professor X and a free Magneto. Norton was curious to see what tricks he still had.
To his surprise, just as he was settling in to observe from the sidelines, Professor X came to his door.
"Professor! Come on in," Norton welcomed him warmly.
As Hannah handed over a cup of coffee, Norton asked, "To what do I owe the pleasure today?"
"I came about the incident yesterday," the professor said bluntly.
"I didn't do it," Norton replied immediately. "And frankly, if I wanted to get rid of the President, I'd just replace him with someone more obedient. That's way less trouble."
His logic was solid enough that even the professor hesitated. He had, of course, already suspected Norton wasn't behind it—Norton had no reason to make a move like this.
Still, he had to be sure. Even a one-in-ten-thousand chance was worth investigating when the stakes were this high.
"This could affect all of Mutantkind," the professor said. "The backlash will only get worse—"
"I trust you can handle it, Professor," Norton interrupted calmly.
"Alright, Norton," the professor said with a nod. He understood Norton's stance. Still, before leaving, he made one final request:
"If you learn anything useful, please let me know."
Norton did know a lot. But this time, the web surrounding Stryker was far too complicated to explain casually.
After personally walking the professor out, Norton gave one last warning:
"Professor, be careful. Assassinating the President might not be their real goal."
As the professor left, Norton turned to Hannah and asked, "What do you think?"
"He was telling the truth," Hannah said, eyes thoughtful. "And he didn't try to read our minds once."
Hannah's ability was psychic resistance. She specialized in mental defense and lie detection—skills that made her invaluable as both the general manager of Carnegie Alloy and captain of the Mutant Academy's action team.
"As expected from the professor," Norton said, not surprised.
The professor had always been principled. He only read minds when absolutely necessary, and he had his own convictions.
But those convictions were also the reason Norton had no interest in recruiting him—or bothering with the students at Xavier's School. Although he respects the man, he still thinks Charles naïve. If Norton had his power, he could accomplish so much more.
"Forget the professor. Just keep an eye on Stryker," Norton ordered.
****
Stryker's methods were simple—but highly effective.
In the aftermath of the president's assassination, he stirred up public fear by hyping the "Mutant threat," fueling conflict between ordinary citizens and Mutants, and manipulating public opinion. That wave of sentiment then became leverage, pressuring the president to approve his action plan.
At the same time, Stryker used Washington's political influence to suppress Xavier's School, forcing the Professor to focus on putting out fires, wasting valuable time.
By the time Professor X tracked down the assassin, Stryker's preparations were already complete.
Just like in the original storyline, when the Professor sent his team to find the culprit, Stryker made his move.
He knew very well he couldn't keep the truth hidden forever. Eventually, the Professor would discover he'd framed the Mutants. And while Xavier might hesitate to retaliate due to political concerns, Magneto wouldn't. That man had no such restraints and would come for him without mercy.
So Stryker used himself as bait to lure Magneto into a trap made from a non-magnetic alloy—one of the few substances Magneto couldn't manipulate.
Then, before the Professor even heard the news, Stryker used Magneto in turn to lure Xavier and successfully captured him too.
Two of the most powerful Mutants—taken down in a single day?
What kind of cards did Stryker hold?
Just one: Master Illusion.
The entire operation was enough to make Norton's scalp tingle.
"Incredible. The power of hatred really is limitless," Norton muttered in disbelief.
Even without leveraging Magneto like before, Stryker had still managed to capture both Magneto and Professor X.
Magneto was only trapped, not killed—Stryker wasn't foolish enough to think that would be easy. Instead, he shifted his focus and launched a nighttime assault on Xavier's School.
And wouldn't you know it—just like before, Logan was the only adult left to defend the place. The rest were a bunch of kids.
The result didn't change much. Some students were captured, while others escaped.
"The inertia of this world is insane," Norton said, watching events unfold. "So much has changed, and yet we still end up in the same place."
"Should we rescue those kids?" Hannah asked.
"No need. The Professor will handle it. Just keep watching," Norton replied.
He had no desire to fight the Professor for influence over those students. Xavier's imprint on them ran too deep. Unless their lives were in immediate danger, Norton wouldn't step in.
Besides, Stryker wasn't the only one who'd invaded Xavier's School.
At least the flight system and other sensitive tech hadn't fallen into Stryker's hands.
As expected, the plot progressed similarly to what Norton remembered.
Jean and Storm returned from searching for Nightcrawler and regrouped with Logan and the other escapees—only to unexpectedly run into Magneto.
"He's Colonel William Stryker," Magneto explained. "His only reason for attacking the academy was to get the brainwave amplifier—or at least its design, so he could build one himself."
"But that device needs the Professor to operate," Jean said, her tone anxious.
"Stryker captured Charles," Magneto replied grimly.
The atmosphere instantly turned heavy. Jean and Storm paled, while Logan looked on, still unaware of what was truly at stake.
"When the amplifier is used, it links Charles's mind to everyone on Earth. If he focuses hard enough on a specific group—say, Mutants—it could wipe us all out in an instant," Magneto warned.
If Norton had been there, he would've scoffed.
Such a device could only kill regular people—normal humans or low-tier Mutants. Earth had too many ways to defend against an attack like that. In fact, there were multiple beings who could outright stop Charles if he went rogue.
Otherwise, Charles Xavier wouldn't have survived this long.
Of course, Jean and the others didn't know that—and perhaps Magneto didn't either. After all, at this point in time, Mutants were the only supernatural force actively operating on Earth.
"How did Stryker even know where the amplifier was?" Storm asked.
"That thing's been around for decades. Plenty of people know it exists. I helped Charles design it myself, years ago. The basic principles aren't a secret," Magneto replied. "With today's tech, it wouldn't even be hard for Stryker to make his own version."
Norton could easily build one too—and his would be stronger—but he saw no point.
After using it once, he realized the device had fatal flaws. While it worked against the weak, it made the operator incredibly vulnerable against the strong. Using it was like handing your enemies a loaded gun and turning your back.
Soon enough, Jean and the others uncovered Stryker's plan and extracted the location of his base from Nightcrawler's memory.
What came next was straightforward: They stormed Stryker's base and launched a rescue mission.
Logan regained his memories, Jean rescued Scott, and the captured students were freed.
When Magneto found the Professor, he pulled a dirty trick.
Stryker had been using his son, Master Illusion, to control Professor X—forcing him to use the brainwave amplifier to kill all Mutants.
Instead of destroying the machine or waking the Professor, Magneto used Mystique to impersonate Stryker and reprogrammed Xavier's instructions—this time targeting all humans instead.
"Feel that?" Norton asked, suddenly glancing toward Hannah. A silver ring shimmered on his hand, engraved with a series of intricate runes.
It was a psychic-protection ring—etched with Hannah's personal mental-defense seals. It provided strong resistance against invasive psychic attacks.
"A violent presence is trying to invade our minds," Hannah confirmed.
"How strong is it?" Norton asked calmly.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then replied, "Strong enough to kill average Mutants—but ineffective against anyone with law-based runes or those protected by our Academy's psychic barrier."