The drive to Staten Island, normally tedious, was accomplished in a state of hyper-focused calm. Zhou Yi was at the wheel of the Audi R-Zero, a concept sports car that few outside the automotive elite had ever seen. The matte metallic grey body, sculpted like a living organism and whispering with an electric hum, was pure exhibitionism.
He had 'borrowed' the car from Tony Stark's private collection—a quiet, effortless transfer of assets that involved a polite note and the digital disabling of all tracking systems. Zhou Yi preferred the raw, physical connection of his specialized motorcycles, but an entrance at a place like Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters demanded a statement.
The sheer rarity of the R-Zero was designed to attract attention and, more importantly, to distract observers from the man behind the wheel and the reason he was there.
As the R-Zero swept past the formidable iron gates and began its slow ingress up the winding, immaculate drive, it naturally drew the gaze of every student and staff member near the main building.
Zhou Yi felt the characteristic psychic hum of the estate—a subtle, generalized mental barrier and the distinct, focused, immense presence of Professor Charles Xavier. This was a fortress built on secrets, powers, and vulnerabilities.
He smoothly parked the car near the entrance of the teaching wing, killing the engine's subtle thrum. He stepped out of the R-Zero, a figure of striking, effortless elegance in his tailored suit.
In one hand, he carried a magnificent bouquet of bright crimson roses. The choice was deliberate; the color matched the fiery temperament of the person he hoped to see, or the woman he was about to meet.
It was three in the afternoon. Classes had just dissolved, and the wide corridors were flooding with the unique hustle of mutant teenagers. Here, the bizarre was mundane.
A boy walked past with skin that shone like polished onyx; a girl used a subtle distortion of light to make her books float. Zhou Yi didn't bat an eye. His sister was one of them, and he was, in his own, carefully hidden way, another.
He was of pure Chinese descent, but his physique was startlingly powerful—the result of rigorous physical training layered over his suppressed powers. This, combined with the sharp, aristocratic features inherited from his parents, gave him an almost unnerving presence. He was unfamiliar, yet demanding of attention.
Before he could reach the reception area, the air directly in front of him shimmered, and a low, resonant thrum—a signature he instantly recognized as a high-frequency biotic field manipulation—preceded the sudden appearance of his sister.
"Hey! Yi! When did you sneak back into the country?"
A purple crystal curtain, barely visible to the naked eye, dissolved instantly as a significant, focused weight launched directly at him. Zhou Yi, despite his massive strength and hyper-speed reflexes, absorbed the impact with a grunt, stabilizing his stance by slightly increasing his personal gravimetric field—a subtle, counter-intuitive shift in his own local gravity that prevented them both from stumbling.
The aggressor, Sharice, was sixteen, with a massive cascade of wine-red hair gathered in a thick braid. Her emerald eyes, framed by strange, nearly arcane patterns, gave her the look of a mythical warrior-elf. Her strong, lithe legs immediately locked around his waist, and she began to pound him playfully on the forehead with a thick, hardcover textbook.
"You selfish brute! You went all the way to China for some monastic martial arts tour and didn't even invite me! How can I have such a criminally irresponsible older brother?"
Sharice's tone was teasing, but the physical force she generated, while playful, was far beyond normal human capability. Zhou Yi knew she was subtly channeling her growing biotic energy into the impact, a testing of limits.
Zhou Yi smiled helplessly. He smoothly shifted the roses behind his back, protecting the delicate blooms, and secured the "koala" firmly with his other arm, bringing her safely back to the ground.
"Sharice, you should know I'm exceptionally busy. I already gave you the key and full access to my penthouse on the Upper East Side. It has a phenomenal view and is five minutes from Central Park. You can do whatever you want there, right?"
Sharice slid down until her feet touched the floor, though she kept a proprietary hand clamped to his lapel. She puffed out her cheeks, the very picture of teenage indignation.
"First, my code name is Shandiao when I'm here, not Sharice. Second, that Upper East Side apartment is boring. No Olympic-sized pool, the game room is tiny, and it doesn't even have a twenty-four-hour takeout chef. Third, dear brother, do you honestly think Professor X would allow a long vacation just because I asked nicely?"
Zhou Yi chuckled, placing a heavy, restraining arm around her shoulder as they began walking down the corridor, dodging a student who briefly glowed with harmless electrical energy.
"First of all, Sharice, 'Shandiao' is a ridiculous, melodramatic nickname. Second, I can certainly offer you the Long Island villa—the one with the massive lawn, infinity pool, the custom poker room, and the go-kart track—but that is contingent entirely on you convincing our 'dear mother.' Third, I don't know about your vacation schedule, but I do know I was summoned here by Ororo for a parent-teacher conference regarding your recent, shall we say, extracurricular activities. I want the truth. Did you really breach the perimeter?"
Sharice slammed her forehead onto his shoulder, a calculated gesture of guilt and defiance. "It was a simple, understandable misunderstanding, okay? I only accidentally lowered the kinetic energy barrier on the main gate. I swear! You can ask my very dear friend, Kitty, she was there. She can vouch for me. Isn't that right, Kitty?"
Sharice's shout was met instantly by the panicked arrival of a sweet-looking girl with long, straight brown hair, clutching a stack of graphic novels. This was Katherine 'Kitty' Pryde. She looked utterly distraught, her eyes wide with palpable guilt.
Kitty was, Zhou Yi knew, the most likely accomplice—her power of intangibility would be the perfect counter to the school's physical barriers, while Sharice's biotic fields bypassed the energy dampeners. A perfect, if dangerous, duo.
"Y-yes, yes! I can absolutely vouch for Sharice! It was completely, one hundred percent accidental, sir! I promise!" Kitty stammered, wringing the spine of her book.
Zhou Yi knew immediately that this was a well-rehearsed, collaborative lie, designed to protect Sharice from the severity of the offense. He smiled gently, immediately softening his presence.
"Calm down, young lady. There's no need to be frightened," Zhou Yi said, his voice dropping to a warm, reassuring baritone. He was not about to interrogate a guilty teenager, not when charm was far more effective.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Zhou Yi, Sharice's brother. Just call me Yi. I'm not some stern, expressionless type, certainly not like Scott Summers."
He extended a hand to Kitty with a genuine smile.
The brown-haired girl timidly took his hand, her fingers briefly phasing slightly through his palm under the pressure of her nervousness, a subtle, involuntary use of her power. "Hello, Mr. Yi. Sharice talks about you constantly. I'm Kitty Pryde, her friend. You can call me Kitty."
"Hello, Kitty." Zhou Yi gently squeezed Sharice's shoulder. "I'm genuinely pleased Sharice has a friend like you. She can be quite the menace, prone to elaborate pranks and bossy in her demands, but she has a good heart underneath all that juvenile arrogance."
Sharice immediately punched his side—this time without using her biotic field, making it a harmless, sibling gesture. "You idiot! I'm your sister! Do you need to hold a press conference to detail my numerous character flaws?"
"Of course not," Zhou Yi replied airily, "No reporter would waste time reporting on such an obviously charming girl."
Kitty couldn't suppress a burst of laughter at their rapid-fire squabbling.
"Kitty! Which side are you actually on?" Sharice complained, pulling Zhou Yi closer to hit him again.
The normally shy Kitty, emboldened by Zhou Yi's warmth, covered her mouth and giggled. "Sharice, you know I didn't mean to laugh! But Mr. Yi does exaggerate quite dramatically."
With a final huff, Sharice threw a glance at a glowing archway at the end of the hall. Another subtle crystal curtain appeared, manifesting as a slightly distorted view of the hallway behind Kitty. Sharice grabbed Kitty's arm.
"We're leaving, playboy," she declared, turning her back to Zhou Yi. "I hope Ororo locks you in the Danger Room for a few hours. I'm with the women." She yanked Kitty away, her long, wine-red braid swishing dismissively.
"Hey! Sharice, I'm your brother!" Zhou Yi called out, exasperated.
"And I'm siding with girl power!" Sharice retorted, pulling her friend down the hall.
"A family dispute that appears to be permanently unresolved?"
A gentle, resonant, and remarkably charming female voice sounded next to him. Zhou Yi turned his head toward the doorframe and saw Jean Grey, leaning elegantly against the casing, a vision in her sensible, yet stylish, teacher's outfit.
He looked at the striking red-haired beauty, sighed dramatically, and held up the crimson roses. "Of course not. It just makes me melancholic that my sister has grown up so fast that she now views me as a necessary evil."
Jean Grey pushed off the doorframe, walking forward with a graceful stride. "Yi, you are always so amusing. And the roses… they are truly beautiful. Thank you for the thoughtful gift."
"It's been over a year, and you are still as captivating as ever, Jean," Zhou Yi said, warmly returning the hug. He held her just a moment longer than professionally necessary, a calculated risk. As he did so, his gravimetric field control was activated, a microscopic pressure against her thoughts, gently testing the density of her protective mental shields.
He pulled back, offering the flowers. "Actually, I think these Crimson Roses suit your hair color better than any other flower. It's the color of unbridled passion. But I know certain people—your boyfriend—would likely incinerate them before I was out of the parking lot." Zhou Yi's lips curled into a subtle, almost disdainful curve, clearly referencing Scott Summers (Cyclops) and his destructive power.
Jean accepted the roses, burying her nose in them. "I don't think a Crimson Rose is right for me, Yi. They're far too volatile and untamed for my taste, aren't they?" she replied, mistaking his comment for a simple compliment to her intellectual, controlled demeanor.
Zhou Yi took a step closer, his bright eyes locking onto hers. The space between them shrank, the air growing thick, less with romantic tension and more with a profound, unspoken acknowledgement.
"That is merely the surface, Jean. I see the flame beneath," he whispered, his voice low, his physical presence now looming over her slight frame. His own immense, latent power was pressing against her in a non-physical way.
"The person I observe beneath the teacher's uniform is a blaze of pure psychic energy. Passionate, wildly powerful, utterly uninhibited. You fill the minds around you with an unspoken, searing light."
He was referring not to her beauty, but to the terrifying potential of her Phoenix entity—the power he could sense pressing against her mental walls, the very thing she struggled to contain. He had been close enough to Professor X's mind to learn the full extent of Jean's destructive potential.
Zhou Yi's face drew closer, the proximity less about a kiss and more about a challenge—a powerful man intentionally violating the perimeter of the most powerful telepath on the planet. He was forcing a collision of their respective forces.
She pushed him away abruptly, her movement jerky and entirely unlike her usual grace. She glanced around guiltily. The students had long since vanished after seeing a teacher.
Her face was flushed, her heart pounding not with simple lust, but with the sudden, overwhelming awareness of his power, which had momentarily threatened to pierce her psychic armor.
"Zhou Yi! Do you realize what you're doing?" she hissed, her eyes briefly flaring with an inner, gold light that only he, with his keen sensitivity, could detect. "Or do you think this is a game?"
"Jean, I can guarantee what I said is the truth. I sense it. It's just that you always reject the reality of that power," Zhou Yi replied, his smile softening into an apology, but his eyes remaining intensely serious.
Jean Grey pushed him further back, turning and taking several quick, professional strides down the hall to regain distance and composure.
"I don't agree, and you need to stop talking nonsense about… that." She paused, her back to him, gathering her intellectual shields. "You need to understand, Scott, Ororo, and I are treating you with a professional, cautious distance because of what you represent—and the sheer gravity of your power. We can't have you disrupting our stability."
"I understand that perfectly. But I think you misunderstand my motives entirely. And that is fine."
"No, it is not fine. This is a school, not a nightclub, Yi. The conference room is the first door on the left. Ororo is expecting you." The red-haired beauty quickly walked away, the tension she carried practically vibrating in the air.
"This is truly… a strange institution," Zhou Yi murmured to himself, shrugging off the confrontation. He adjusted his collar and continued walking, the Crimson Roses now serving their purpose—a colorful, distracting beacon that obscured the fact that he had just engaged in a complex telekinetic and gravimetric duel with one of the most dangerous people on Earth, simply to test her defenses before his meeting.
He paused at the door, the bouquet now in his left hand, his right hand resting on the doorknob. The meeting with Ororo (Storm) would not be simple.
Sharice's actions were a cry for help, and Storm was the one who could provide the crucial context. He wasn't here to lecture; he was here to understand the gravitational forces pulling his sister into danger, and to exert his own, far greater force to keep her safe.
The confrontation with Jean Grey was more than just flirting; it was a subtle display of power. What specific insights do you think Ororo (Storm) will offer about Sharice's misbehavior, and what leverage might Zhou Yi use to protect his sister without exposing his own classified powers?