Xavier wheeled closer, his mind assaulting Wolverine’s psyche. “Logan, stand down. This isn’t your war.” Visions of Jean Grey’s death flooded Wolverine’s thoughts, but he shook them off with a berserker roar. “Get outta my head, baldy!” He leaped at Xavier, but the fourth warrior, Karan Mehta—elegant, with high cheekbones and pyrokinetic flames dancing on his fingertips—intercepted, unleashing a torrent of fire that singed Wolverine’s healing flesh.
Magneto, recovering, manipulated the iron in the warriors’ blood, trying to puppeteer them. Arjun and Rajan writhed, veins bulging, but their mutations resisted—Brahman resilience amplified by Xavier’s link. “Your power is crude,” the fifth warrior, Dev Patel—poised and strikingly handsome, with telekinetic tendrils—hissed, lifting Magneto off the ground and slamming him into a billboard.
Wolverine, skin bubbling from the flames, tackled Karan, claws piercing his shoulder. Blood sprayed, but Karan countered with a point-blank inferno blast, forcing Logan back. The fight devolved into chaos: Magneto ripped rebar from buildings, impaling Vikram’s leg; Arjun’s plasma scorched Magneto’s cape; Rajan’s fields shattered Wolverine’s advance.
Xavier’s voice boomed telepathically: “Enough!” A psychic wave staggered everyone, but Wolverine pushed through, slashing at Dev’s tendrils. Magneto, bloodied but defiant, summoned a magnetic storm, pulling guns from nearby GCPD cruisers and turning them into a bullet hailstorm aimed at the warriors.