One After Another

A police cruiser patrolling Broadway was dispatched directly by 911 to 147th Street.

After parking, they saw shards of glass spraying from the shattered windows of the clinic on the corner.

Heavy impacts came from inside, accompanied by dust cascading down the building's exterior walls.

"Calling for backup! Calling for backup! An unknown incident has occurred at a clinic west of Broadway and 147th Street! Send fire and rescue vehicles!"

Neither officer even got out of the car before hurriedly calling for backup.

This building looked like it was about to collapse!

Besides the crowd watching from a distance, they spotted a young woman standing in front of the clinic.

The officer rushed over without hesitation and yanked her away.

Linda Carter had still been standing blankly before the clinic, dazed when the officer pulled her away.

"That's too dangerous! How could you stand there?"

"I... I work there."

"What happened?"

"Um..." Linda was conflicted. She felt like she would be treated as crazy if she told the truth, but there was clearly no way to hide this. She might as well be honest.

"A woman broke into the clinic illegally and attacked our doctor. Then... they started fighting!"

"You're saying people are fighting inside?"

"Y-Yes."

The officer immediately pressed his radio. "New development! Suspected mutant-on-mutant attack..."

Well, it had been reported.

Linda secretly covered her face. Doctor White wouldn't get mad, would he?

At that moment, an enormous crash came from within the clinic, followed by a clear sound of collapse. It seemed the stairs or a ceiling on one floor had caved in.

Several more police cars arrived, and the officers hurried to disperse the crowd. A collapsing building was dangerous, even if it only had two stories.

The owner of the sporting goods store next door had already begun jumping around and swearing.

Their buildings were pressed tightly together. If this one collapsed, it would be hard for it not to affect his building. How could he not be worked up?

Linda stared anxiously at the clinic. She did not know Doctor Ava's exact identity, but such a huge commotion was bound to be dangerous!

The police, firefighters, and even two Emergency Service vehicles had arrived. Fully armed Emergency Service officers surrounded the clinic from afar.

This was the scene Sean found when he returned.

His liver hurt!

Had his luck really been this bad lately?

First, he had been kidnapped to Canada while trying to make some extra money. Frustrating. He had earned quite a lot in the end, but it was still frustrating!

Then Phoenix had gone dark and tried to kill him! Yet he had not dared to kill her! Frustrating!

Then someone had pulled some strings and shut down his clinic! Frustrating!

He had wanted to meet Kingpin, but the man would not see him at all! Frustrating!

He had been pestered by a mysterious witch! Still frustrating!

And finally... that damn witch had actually returned to his clinic and gotten into a huge fight with his employee!

Most importantly... the clinic was about to collapse!!!

Sean was like a lit powder keg now—one touch, and he would explode!

"Doctor White!"

At that moment, Rogue emerged from the crowd and called out to Sean.

Sean, already boiling with rage, whipped his head around. He had thought the people coming to negotiate with him had arrived!

Instead, Rogue appeared, with that streak of white hair, and his mood instantly worsened.

"Doctor White, I don't want my X powers anymore~"

Rogue spoke softly, afraid the people nearby would overhear.

"Do you have money?"

"I... I can owe you!"

"Hehe~"

Sean did not want to deal with her at all. Right now, all he wanted was to do something vicious to that witch!

If he had found Victor, he could have stripped that witch clean of every last bit of value she had!

He had always kept one trump card that he had never used, acquired from an old man: late-stage gouty arthritis! The kind where every joint in the body was covered in lumps!

It would guarantee that a person could not move at all!

Just then, every window on the second floor suddenly shattered, and tongues of flame burst out from within. The entire small building groaned under the strain, swaying as if it might topple at any moment!

The police expanded the cordon once more. The situation inside was very different from what they had anticipated. The Emergency Service officers, who had been preparing to enter, immediately fell back and temporarily abandoned the idea of going inside.

Sean could not enter now even if he wanted to. The police would stop anyone trying to cross the cordon.

Linda Carter had already seen Sean, but she did not dare approach him.

Even from that far away, she could see the dark look on Doctor White's face~ It was obvious just how furious he was!

Linda felt that staying alive came first. She had better not go looking for trouble.

From outside, obvious flames could now be seen on the second floor. Something seemed to have caught fire!

The firefighters had already connected their hoses and could begin putting out the fire at any moment.

However, the commander on site did not immediately give the order to extinguish it, instead choosing to wait and see.

The impacts and explosions continued intermittently without stopping, while the little building's walls had developed countless cracks. Just looking at them felt dangerous; it could come crashing down at any second.

"Have the X-Men been notified? There are definitely mutants in there!"

The officer in charge at the scene was gritting his teeth. Their precinct had lost two colleagues this year, both because mutants had caused trouble!

That was why this officer hated mutants to the bone. He fully intended to let them fight each other to the death, then catch them all in one sweep.

"They've been notified. They're already on their way!"

"Good. We need to keep them trapped..."

"But sir, that building is about to collapse!"

A young officer truly did not understand what they were waiting for.

"There are no civilians inside. If it collapses, it collapses. Let's hope the owner bought insurance for it~"

The commanding officer said this as though he were being humorous.

In reality, his words disgusted several officers around him.

Sean clenched his fists, watching helplessly as the cracks in the clinic grew larger. Every window had shattered into pieces, and the outer plaster was starting to fall away, exposing the red bricks beneath.

Then a deep humming sound came from the sky. Sean looked up but saw nothing unusual.

It was Xavier's aircraft!

Sure enough, Storm descended through wind and lightning, hovering outside the clinic.

Cyclops and Wolverine were more decisive. The moment they landed, they rushed into the little building.

Sean watched helplessly as those two fools charged inside, and his heart turned ice-cold~

Without those two~

The building probably would not have made it anyway, but maybe it could have been repaired enough to remain usable afterward.

But after those two went in...

Rumble!

White Clinic... collapsed~

Amid the billowing dust, a thick optic blast punched straight through the second floor of the sporting goods store next door, tearing away half the building.

Flames! Explosions! They became even more violent!

Sean's eyes instantly turned red!

While the police and onlookers were backing away, he charged into the cloud of dust with Yuriko!

It was dawn again... I was still typing way too slowly~

I'd like to thank reader "Novel Love Book" for the donation, as well as QQ Reading readers "Huang Chao" and "11086544." Every bit of encouragement from you is Old Tree's motivation! Thank you!