The energy blast Shaw had launched was now completely assimilated by the void power, transforming into black and white rays that emanated from Marcus's hands and streaked back toward their originator.
As Shaw caught sight of those colorless void beams, a primal fear gripped him. Some deep instinct warned that direct contact with those rays would be fatal, regardless of his absorption abilities.
Unwilling to test that theory, Shaw channeled the sonic energy he'd absorbed through his feet, propelling himself skyward just as the void rays passed through the space he'd occupied a split second earlier.
"Impressive reflexes," Marcus called out. "I expect that's what kept you alive after the Nazis fell."
Without pausing, Marcus launched himself upward with extraordinary speed, appearing beside Shaw in mid-air. His dagger carved a path of pale blue light as it descended.
Swish!
Sensing the imminent danger, Shaw released another sonic burst, altering his trajectory. Though he avoided a fatal strike, the dagger still sliced across his shoulder.
That slight contact was enough. The void energy coating the blade immediately transferred into Shaw's body through the wound. In an instant, both his absorption abilities and the stored energy within him were completely suppressed.
Shaw, suddenly powerless, plummeted from the air.
"This... this is impossible!" he gasped, staring at his hands in disbelief. "My powers—they're gone!"
"Nothing is impossible," Marcus replied, leveling his pistol. "Not so fun being cut off from your abilities, is it?"
He squeezed the trigger, aiming for Shaw's head.
BANG!
At the last possible moment, Marcus diverted his aim, shooting not at Shaw but at a large stone hurtling toward him at high velocity.
The bullet shattered the projectile into harmless fragments. Marcus traced the attack to its source—the earth-manipulating mutant standing near Riptide. The terrakinetic had created a barrier of entrapped CIA agents around himself, effectively preventing Sean and Alex from attacking without risking human casualties.
Whoosh!
A faint sound and subtle displacement of air caught Marcus's attention.
"Planning an escape?"
Recognizing the telltale signs of Azazel's teleportation, Marcus fired rapidly in that direction.
His shot missed the teleporting mutant, instead striking Shaw's arm. The injury wasn't enough to prevent the escape attempt.
Azazel materialized beside the earth-manipulator and Riptide. With their help, Shaw managed to stand despite his injuries. Despite the pain, Shaw fixed Marcus with a venomous glare.
"The next time we meet, I will kill you," he promised.
"Funny coincidence," Marcus replied with a cold smile. "I was planning to kill you right now."
He pulled the trigger again.
BANG!
As the shot rang out, a wall of solid stone erupted from the ground. In that same instant, Azazel activated his teleportation, whisking Shaw, Riptide, and the earth-manipulator away in a cloud of sulfurous smoke.
The bullet harmlessly embedded itself in the stone barrier. Marcus sighed with genuine disappointment.
"We really need to upgrade our equipment," he muttered.
With more advanced weaponry, he could have penetrated the stone wall and potentially prevented their escape. Next time, they might not be so fortunate.
Seeing Shaw's retreat, the young mutants erupted in cheers. Raven and the others believed they had successfully defended themselves and proven their worth as fighters. The CIA agents, who had been utterly ineffective against Shaw, joined in the celebration with palpable relief.
Though Shaw had seemed invincible to them, he had been no match for Marcus. Their standard-issue firearms had been little better than clubs against the energy-absorbing mutant. Even their rocket launchers had backfired spectacularly, with Shaw simply absorbing and redirecting the explosive force.
Marcus observed their jubilation with a mixture of amusement and frustration.
"Compared to Shaw and his team, you're all severely outclassed in both experience and technique," he pointed out.
"That's why we need your guidance," Raven replied, undeterred by his criticism. "I know we weren't perfect, but wasn't this our first real combat situation?"
"Fair enough," Marcus conceded. "For now, help these CIA agents out of their rocky prisons. They didn't fare much better than you did."
With that, he headed back to his quarters, the severed tail of Azazel still clutched in his hand. He was curious to see if it could be fashioned into a useful whip—the balance and flexibility had felt promising during his brief experiment.
Just as he was settling in to examine his new acquisition, the communication device buzzed with an incoming call from Charles.
"Professor?" Marcus answered, studying the tail's musculature as he spoke. "Haven't heard from you in days. Planning to deploy your rookies anytime soon?"
"No, it's Shaw!" Charles's voice crackled with urgency over the aircraft's communication system. "He went to the CIA facility, he—"
"I know," Marcus interrupted casually.
"His ability is extremely—wait, you know?" Charles faltered, caught off-guard. "This is intelligence we just received. How could you possibly—"
"Yes, I know," Marcus confirmed, probing the tail's muscle tissue with a pair of tweezers. "Those guys just fled from here about ten minutes ago. To be honest, the CIA's security protocols are embarrassingly substandard. A dozen agents couldn't even contain two temporarily depowered mutants."
Charles and Erik fell silent, struggling to process this information. It seemed impossible that Marcus was discussing Shaw as if he were a minor inconvenience.
Erik, in particular, found it difficult to believe. Shaw had been the central nightmare of his existence for decades. The notion that anyone could neutralize him so easily was almost offensive.
"This shouldn't surprise you," Logan's gruff voice joined the conversation. "To Marcus, mutant abilities aren't nearly as threatening as conventional weapons."
Logan sounded entirely unsurprised. He had witnessed firsthand the shocked expressions of mutants who relied too heavily on their powers when confronted with Marcus's void abilities.
"Surely you remember experiencing his power yourselves?" Logan added.
At this reminder, Charles and Erik reluctantly accepted the reality of the situation. They had initially hoped Marcus might be able to temporarily suppress Shaw's abilities, creating an opening for a coordinated attack.
What they hadn't anticipated was that Shaw—whose power could neutralize an entire army—would be rendered almost helpless against Marcus. The paradigm was shifting: when stripped of their mutations, even the most formidable mutants were reduced to ordinary humans facing a highly trained operative.
"Anything else?" Marcus asked, clearly losing interest in the conversation. "If not, I'm hanging up."
Without waiting for a response, he terminated the call.
Charles stared at the dead communicator, then turned to Logan with a bewildered expression.
"Don't look at me," Logan shrugged, puffing contentedly on his cigar. "He's always like that."
The cigars he'd appropriated from Emma Frost's collection were excellent—a small but satisfying consolation prize.
Back at the facility, Marcus focused his complete attention on modifying Azazel's tail. The muscular structure was remarkably dense and flexible. With some strategic microcontrollers, he could potentially manipulate the appendage with impressive precision.
"Fascinating specimen," he murmured to himself. "It would be even more effective if I could incorporate some of Darwin's adaptive genome into it."