Saving an Auntie Matters More Than Catching Someone!
After a long journey, the pickup truck stopped outside a flea market.
Gambit opened the car door. "Sand Rat Miguel often comes here to resell scrap parts."
Sing Sing and Wolverine also got out of the car.
Wolverine's nostrils twitched twice, and a strange mix of smells wafted into his nasal cavity.
The smell made him so irritated that he wanted to reach out and tear the car door off.
The three walked deeper into the market.
"Cousin, when I see that Sand Rat, I'll go first, and I'll reason with it and appeal to its emotions."
Don't be impulsive!
The Gambit lowered his voice. "Let's talk money first, then everything else."
Sing Sing curled his lip and pulled a wad of US dollars from his pocket. "Use this? I'm familiar with the sugar-coated bullets of capitalism too."
After searching for half an hour, the three heard a hoarse, shrill shout coming from deep within the market.
"Don't miss out! Retired US military field generator, 90% new, this horsepower can power the air conditioners in the whole neighborhood!"
A short man stood behind the stall, sunglasses pushed up to his forehead, spitting as he tried to sell to two Mexico.
His skin was tanned dark, and his hands were oddly small.
This is the target: the Sand Rat.
The Sand Rat's shouts stopped abruptly as Gambit walked within five meters of him.
After taking two steps back in fright, it "whooshed" into the ground, leaving only a sand pit in front of the stall, still spewing dust.
"Damn it! Chase after them!"
The Gambit cursed under his breath and took off running.
He didn't expect this guy to run away as soon as he saw him.
Has my secret been exposed?
A dragon of earth lurked rapidly across the garbage-strewn sand, while Sand Rat scurrying about underground overturned the shelves of three stalls.
An elderly woman who was roasting corn was thrown to the ground and screamed in fright.
Sing Sing dodged a flying scrap tire and then helped to lift the corn stand that had been overturned by the old lady.
Wolverine didn't blindly pursue them; he crossed his arms and watched Gambit and Sing Sing's performance.
The Gambit circled around to the other end of the market, his fingertips dancing with crimson energy.
Sand Rat, cornered, peeked half its head out from beside an abandoned the Fridge.
"Wait! Don't chase me!"
He held up a hard drive. "The people who caused the Avalanche are also looking for me! I'll give it to whoever offers the highest price!"
Just as Sing Sing was about to begin his "talk therapy," he heard the familiar sound of an engine outside.
Three heavy-duty pickup trucks, modified with anti-collision steel beams, crashed through the market's barbed wire fence and sped forward.
There were seven or eight fully armed gangsters standing in the back of the truck.
The leader, a Black man, leaned out halfway, brandishing a submachine gun and roared, "Miguel's over there! Hand over the stuff!"
"Da da!"
A hail of bullets struck the tin roof and the abandoned vehicle shell, sending sparks flying.
The market was in an uproar.
The stall owners and customers screamed, dropped their wares, and scattered in all directions.
A Mexico woman pushing a shopping cart tripped over a collapsed shelf, and the metal frame pinned her right leg.
A seven or eight-year-old girl nearby collapsed to the ground, crying loudly, while bullets flew whizzing past their heads.
Sing Sing Chow had already put his legs up, preparing to leap towards the Sand Rat five meters away.
But when he caught a glimpse of the mother and daughter out of the corner of his eye, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.
"Damn it!"
Sing Sing turned around, cursing.
Not far away, the Gambit threw out three powered cards.
With a loud "boom," the driveshaft of a pickup truck was blown off on the spot, and the vehicle went out of control and crashed into a pile of wrecked tires.
Wolverine had already jumped into the bed of another pickup truck.
A scream rang out as six Adamantium claws tumbled in the sunlight.
In just three seconds, several clouds of blood exploded in the truck bed, and severed limbs were thrown out of the vehicle.
Amidst a hail of bullets, Sing Sing rushed towards the mother and daughter.
Above their heads, half a piece of sheet metal, shattered by a stray bullet, spun and crashed down.
Sing Sing reached his right hand to his waist, and the Pig Butchering Knife shot out through the air.
A backhand flick!
"Clang!"
The sheet metal was cleaved in mid-air, grazing the mother and daughter's shoulders before crashing into the sand.
He pulled the woman out from under the shelf like a radish, picked up the wailing little girl with his right hand, and kicked a gas cylinder that had rolled to his feet dozens of meters away.
"Lie down! Don't run around!"
He yelled at the terrified stall owners nearby, "Get behind cover! Are you crazy?!"
Sand Rat Miguel, was about to take advantage of the chaos to continue burrowing and running away when he unexpectedly found half of his body stuck in the soil.
This guy actually gave up the chance to capture himself to save a few unrelated Mexico refugees?
The last remaining pickup truck got smarter and started circling around the perimeter, firing its machine gun relentlessly, suppressing Wolverine and preventing him from catching up for a while.
The Sand Rat gritted its teeth and burrowed into the ground.
When he appeared, he had already mysteriously emerged from under the front of the moving pickup truck.
With astonishing speed, his small hands lifted the hood and swiftly severed the brake YouTube and distributor harness.
The pickup truck lost power and brakes and plunged into a sand pit, leaving the thugs inside completely disoriented.
Wolverine grinned as he looked at the overturned pickup truck and stepped forward.
The battle ended quickly.
The middle-aged man, still shaken, pulled a bag of steaming hot tortillas from the still-intact metal barrel and stuffed it into Sing Sing's arms.
He was muttering something rapidly to himself.
He said you're a really good person.
Sing Sing sighed and gave half of the corn tortillas in the paper bag to Gambit and Wolverine who were walking over.
Then, taking the remaining half, he walked up to the Sand Rat, who was watching them warily.
"Comrade Miguel, can you show me the way? Also, I'd like to do a background check before the job interview. Are you interested in switching from stealing car parts to inspecting underground utility tunnels? It's a government-employed position, with high-temperature allowance and all the necessary work-related protective equipment."
The Sand Rat didn't take the corn tortilla, staring into Sing Sing's eyes. "Why didn't you try to catch me just now?"
Sing Sing took back the corn tortilla and took a bite.
"Arresting you would at most count as a performance bonus for HR's recruitment efforts. But if I just stand by and watch this old lady's stall get smashed and she get buried, who's going to compensate me for my delicious cornbread?"
"Protecting the lives and property of the people is the bottom line for us grassroots workers, don't you understand?"
The Sand Rat lowered its head.
Having spent so many years navigating the underground world, he can tell who's lying and who's using absurdity to mask their true feelings.
"Okay." He raised his hand and shoved the hard drive into Sing Sing's hand.
This is a complete structural diagram of the underground vault and ventilation shafts in the Avalanche.
"There's also a secret passage I left behind back then, leading directly to the abandoned silver mine. It allows me to bypass all the sensors and reach his control room."
The Gambit raised an eyebrow and took the hard drive.
The three followed the Sand Rat to a relatively intact abandoned office in a corner of the market, where they found a dilapidated computer and plugged it in.
The screen lit up, displaying a dense 3D pipeline diagram, with a heavily defended area marked in red at the deepest part.
The three of them exchanged a glance.
Something's not right.
Weren't they looking for Sand Rat to scout out the location of the Avalanche?
Why the sudden confiscation of their property?
Each of the three harbored their own ulterior motives.
The Gambit wanted to squeeze out some extra money.
Wolverine, was single-mindedly focused on killing Avalanche.
Only Sing Sing is still trying to win over Sand Rat.
"Lead the way, name your price." The Gambit lit a cigarette.
The Sand Rat thought for a moment, then held up two fingers. "Give me some cash. After it's done, escort me out of Vegas."
"No problem, cousin, what about you guys?" Sing Sing glanced at the two of them and readily agreed.
None of them objected.
"Alright, I'll take you in."
He hesitated for a moment. "But you need to know, that underground vault where the Avalanche... there's actually another level below it."
"Is there another level below the vault? What's stored there? Tons of gold or bearer bonds?"
The Sand Rat shook its head.
"Release them."