At the edge of the Arctic Circle, Wolf Nest Base, Greenland.
Alex Summers glanced hesitantly at his teacher, Erik Lehnsherr, still unable to believe the words of the "legendary" Mr. Howlett.
"Don't be nervous. Attack me with everything you've got."
Though James spoke casually, in an easygoing tone, Alex's palms were still slick with sweat.
This was his first time meeting this gentleman, and his first time at the "Wolf Nest" Base in Greenland.
Ever since Miss Emma Frost had gotten him out of a maximum-security prison in New York, young Alex had stepped through the door to a whole new world.
He had met Captain Rogers, the World War II hero he'd seen in comic books as a child. He had also watched a man with a Metal Arm and long black hair fight in the valley with him, like two humanoid beasts, their sparring so fierce they shattered mountains and split rocks.
Besides Miss Frost, there was his powerful teacher, Mr. Lehnsherr, an Alpha-level mutant who could toy with planes and battleships at will; Mr. Red Devil, who could reach any corner of the world in an instant; and Miss Raven, who could change her appearance in countless ways.
He had seen just how powerful the Howlett Group, one of the Western world's biggest capitalist conglomerates, was—wealthy enough to rival a nation.
Yet everything had begun with the "young man" standing across from him, who looked only a few years older than Alex.
He had assumed that a man whom everyone respected as their leader, even their "father," would at least be a mature, middle-aged man. And yet Mr. Howlett's test of him involved taking the full force of his high-energy shockwave with nothing but his body.
Erik Lehnsherr was even more nervous than Alex. Having his student