"Not bad at all!"
Erik's face was full of undisguised disappointment as he spoke in a sarcastic tone.
"I had greater hopes for you."
Charles could not help shaking his head repeatedly as well, but then his gaze settled on Rorschach. He added, "Not including you, Rorschach. You've always done very well."
Mystique, Havok, Banshee, and the others could not help glancing at Rorschach, who sat off to one side. A trace of shame surfaced on their faces.
It seemed they really had gone a bit too far.
Angel merely curled her lips. Though she said nothing, she felt rather unconvinced.
Who did they think they were?
What gave them the right to lecture her?
Who had politely invited her here in the first place?
"Rorschach, could you come over for a moment? We have something to discuss with you."
Moira beckoned to Rorschach.
Rorschach vaguely guessed Moira's purpose, but he did not say anything.
He quietly followed Moira, Charles, and Erik to a stretch of lawn a little farther away.
"Rorschach, we've obtained some leads on Shaw. The plane will take off in an hour for the Soviet Union. We're considering whether you might come with us."
Erik spoke seriously to Rorschach, seeking his opinion. "What do you think?"
After the Amusement Park operation last time, Erik had been completely convinced by Rorschach.
But Rorschach did not give an affirmative answer, because he knew Erik and the others would come up empty-handed this time.
Shaw was not in the Soviet Union. Only Shaw's confidante, the White Queen, was there.
And it was precisely this base that Shaw would arrive at before long.
Rorschach quickly made up his mind.
"Erik, thank you for trusting me, but I'm very sorry. For some reason, there seems to be something wrong with my body."
After thinking it over, Rorschach used a tactic he had often relied on in his previous life: calling in sick.
"Rorschach, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
Charles immediately looked concerned.
"I'm fine, Charles. It's just that my eyes sometimes suddenly hurt, like something is about to burst out."
Rorschach spoke to Charles.
This would also lay the groundwork for when he unlocked his heat vision ability in the future.
"Have you gone to the infirmary for an examination?" Moira asked from the side as well.
"I was planning to ask Hank about it later," Rorschach told Moira.
Beast Hank had been nicknamed Bigfoot by everyone. Aside from running fast, his ability seemed to serve no other purpose and appeared utterly useless.
But only Rorschach knew what a treasure Beast Hank truly was.
The guy was a top-tier scientist!
The Blackbird jet, the Mutant Growth Accelerator, the medicine that would cure Professor X's paralysis in the future, and more—all of it had been invented by Hank.
That was truly remarkable.
"All right. If it gets worse, go have the infirmary check you out."
Charles nodded from the side. "But if that's the case, Rorschach, stay at the base with everyone else. When I come back, we'll take a closer look at what's going on with your body."
"Then I'll wait for you to return."
"All right, head back. We need to leave."
"Take care!"
After waving, Rorschach parted ways with them.
However, Rorschach did not return immediately. After a brief thought, he went somewhere else first.
Since Shaw would be arriving soon, he naturally needed to make some preparations.
By the time Rorschach returned.
The mutants, who had previously been partying without a care in the world, were all sitting properly. Banshee had even set upright a chair that had fallen over in front of him.
The scene was
just like a group of helpless brats after they had made their parents angry.
"All right, Charles and the others made things a little too awkward."
After a moment, Mystique Raven cleared her throat and tried to ease the awkward atmosphere.
"What right does he have to say that about us? Who do they think they are, our parents?" Angel snorted unhappily.
"But we did smash quite a few things..." Banshee said weakly.
"Government property..." Havok Alex added from the side.
"What about our party?" Banshee looked around at everyone again and spoke quietly.
"A party? Man, what are you thinking? The party ended ages ago!"
Hank shook his head speechlessly and took the lead in cleaning up the utterly chaotic room.
The others followed his example. Without any further nonsense, they joined Hank's side.
As for Charles and the others calling Rorschach away separately, no one asked about it again.
After all, this had happened more than once already, and everyone had grown accustomed to it.
Everyone knew Erik and Charles valued Rorschach highly.
They had played without caring about the consequences earlier. Now, everyone began to "enjoy" the bitter fruits of their recklessness.
The group worked for quite a while before they finally cleaned up most of the mess.
After this incident, people such as Mystique Raven, Beast Hank, and Banshee began reflecting on themselves.
They sat around the sofa, discussing how they might need to make some changes in the future.
Havok and Darwin, meanwhile, played games off to the side, merely using them to conceal their irritation.
At that very same time.
Inside an office at the base.
"Still no way to determine Shaw's exact whereabouts?"
"No. That's exactly what Moira and the others are going to confirm."
Two CIA agents were discussing matters.
But suddenly, some strange sound rang out.
A portly CIA executive could not help standing up and walking toward the window to check what was happening.
But just as he turned around, a red-skinned figure appeared behind him as abruptly as a Ghost.
It grabbed the other agent.
The next second, it vanished again.
When the CIA executive turned back around, he was completely dumbfounded. Where had the man gone?
Whoosh!
Before the CIA executive could react, his vision blurred. The red-skinned freak suddenly appeared and seized him.
The next instant, the executive discovered that he was hundreds of meters up in the air!
The red-skinned freak let go.
The executive plummeted straight down.
Bang!
He smashed heavily into the ground.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Faint, muffled impacts rang out continuously.
All the mutants sensed that something was wrong. They stood up one after another and went to the windows to see what was happening.
Only Rorschach remained completely calm.
He knew the Black King had arrived!
The commotion now was Red Devil slaughtering the CIA agents on a massive scale.
Bang!
At that moment, a CIA agent fell from the sky and crashed into the courtyard outside, becoming a bloody pulp right before the mutants' eyes.
"Ah!"
All the mutants were terrified out of their wits.
Even though they possessed some special abilities, they were still sheltered young people who had seen little of the world.
How could they possibly remain calm in the face of such a horrific sight?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After that, corpses kept falling from the sky and smashing into different parts of the base, throwing everyone into complete panic.
Before you continue