Bang! Bang! Bang!
Footsteps came from up ahead.
Every so often, they were accompanied by the sound of two fighter jets crashing and exploding.
Captain Locke had survived, but only because, in the nick of time, he had ripped the Exoskeleton Armor off one of his men and put it on himself.
Both his arms and legs had been blown to pieces. Only his injured head and the torso protected by the armor had survived.
Now he lay face-down in the dirt, his mouth open as dirt poured inside.
When he heard the footsteps, Locke tensed up, but he had no strength or ability to lift his head.
Suddenly, a foot came down on Locke's head, pressing his whole face into the ground and grinding it into the dirt.
"You're the one the base headquarters sent to lead the hunt for me, right?"
A deep male voice came from above him.
Locke clenched his teeth, trying to keep the dirt from getting into his mouth.
"Y-you... What do you want? You damn Mutant!"
Lynn looked down at the cur and chuckled.
"Heh... You still don't get it?
"This is war, and you've already lost!"
War?
Nearby, Wolverine heard Lynn's words and felt a jolt.
This Mutant... did have a point.
This really was a war—the Mutants' war against these people.
"As a prisoner of war, what do you think I'll do to you?" Lynn's lips curled into a cruel smile.
"Heh! All you can do is kill me!" Captain Locke sneered.
"You damn Mutant! You can't escape the base's grasp. Even if you kill me, there's still my family, and countless others like me!"
"Is that so?" A cold glint flashed in Lynn's eyes. "Heh, doesn't matter how many of you there are. I'll kill every last one of you all the same!"
He grabbed Captain Locke and started toward the hill that had been leveled.
At last, Captain Locke could see what Lynn looked like.
His pupils dilated. He froze as if struck by lightning.
That face...
That face was exactly like his own!
Could Subject 52 really take on other people's appearances?!
At the thought, a sense of danger welled up inside Captain Locke.
No, he had to tell his superior, Black Skull. Otherwise—
Just then, Lynn's voice sounded beside his ear.
"Surprised, huh? What do you think would happen if you died in a cesspit, and I used this face to contact the people at base headquarters—and your family?"
The words rang in Captain Locke's ear, cold as a demon's voice.
His face instantly turned deathly pale.
Damn it... The intel was wrong!
Subject 52 could actually take on other people's appearances!
If he found Locke's family and discovered the base headquarters...
Wait!
Captain Locke remembered Black Skull's subordinates, Subject 01 and Subject 07, two Level Four Mutants.
"Heh! Go on, then. If you've got the guts, head to base headquarters!"
Captain Locke looked at Lynn, whose appearance now matched his own, and sneered.
Though Subject 52 had displayed terrifying strength, Captain Locke believed that either Subject 01 or Subject 07 could easily subdue him.
Lynn noticed Captain Locke's reaction and thought back to what he had just seen.
He had obtained some information from Base 10.
This armed force had been sent by Black Skull, one of the members of the base headquarters' Council of Leaders.
They had originally been sent to capture him, but after discovering traces of Wolverine and the others, they had sent Locke's unit to provide support.
What was more, Lynn had discovered that Black Skull had a Level Three Mutant with a mental ability among his subordinates.
Base 10 had no information about Level Four Mutants or those above Level Four.
Although Lynn's Observation Haki, combined with Electric Current Drive, gave him powerful senses, it couldn't let him read minds.
So he couldn't know what Captain Locke was thinking.
But if he didn't know, there was no need to.
He had already embarked on his own path. He would press forward without looking back!
Black Widow's face was full of shock, her beautiful eyes fixed on the enormous crater blasted into the distance.
Inside it, the tanks, CIWS guns, and Patriot Anti-Missile System had all been reduced to scrap metal.
Most of the armed men had also been killed by the terrifying shock wave.
H-how was this possible?
Black Widow Natasha felt as if an earthquake were shaking her from within.
Other than Magneto, were there really Mutants this powerful?
Nearby, Bruce Banner stared in stunned disbelief at the road that had been blasted flat and the three fighter jets that had crashed.
He had thought the Mutant would be in grave danger against such a terrifying armed force.
But he had never imagined that the other man would unleash such terrifying power.
With overwhelming force, he had destroyed those terrifying modern weapons.
Bruce Banner's jaw nearly hit the floor.
He turned to Black Widow Natasha and asked, "You didn't bring me here so I could take him to S.H.I.E.L.D., did you?"
Black Widow: "..."
Watching Black Widow fall silent, Bruce Banner felt his luck was truly terrible.
He knew it. S.H.I.E.L.D. never called him in for anything good.
They expected someone as weak and helpless as him to take such a terrifying Mutant to S.H.I.E.L.D.
How was that reasonable?
"Subject 52, criminal Mutant. I advise you not to oppose the base."
Even with Lynn holding him by the head, Captain Locke still wore a sneer.
For as powerful as Lynn's abilities and strength were—even after he had blasted Locke's entire armed force to pieces—Locke still didn't believe he could stand against the base's Level Four Mutants.
"I'll tell you this: my superior alone has five or six subordinates who are more powerful than you!"
Locke looked at Lynn's cold expression and sneered.
"They can destroy an entire city in an instant. One of them can hold down an entire country, and they can even move the planets in the sky. They've subdued aliens, too, so you—"
"So what?"
Lynn cut Captain Locke off before he could finish.
Locke's face stiffened as he stared at the man before him.
Though that face looked exactly like his own, the gaze—the resolve shining in those eyes—made Captain Locke shudder.
What kind of gaze was that?
It was like a spark burning across the boundless ocean, destined to set the whole world ablaze and reduce it to ashes.
"You... You bastard..." A trace of fear finally appeared on Locke's face.
Even when Lynn had captured him, he had been confident that the test subjects at the base would capture Subject 52.
But after seeing that gaze, he felt like an insect about to be burned to ashes.
No, he felt as if the whole world were that insect.
And he was nothing but an insignificant speck on it!
Lynn casually tossed Locke into the cesspit of flesh and blood that the Mutant children had dug.
"Urrgh..."
Locke struggled in terror, but the moment he opened his mouth, filth poured inside.
Watching Locke sink lower, his face twisted in terror, Lynn spoke, each word deliberate:
"No matter how strong you are, no matter how many of you there are, as long as I can still think, as long as I'm still here—
"I will bring divine punishment down upon every last one of you cur!"
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