President X (Seeking Votes)

Thinking of this, Zhang Ye didn't dare hesitate. He immediately shot the protector beside the communications soldier, then rushed forward and, in the instant the soldier drew his gun, fired several more shots, shredding his palm.

"What did you mean by 'Assassin' just now?"

"Ahhh!!" The soldier didn't answer Zhang Ye's question, just kept howling, but his cries were quickly swallowed by the explosions, affecting no one on the battlefield.

Zhang Ye had no patience to waste on him. He stomped directly on the wound, and immense pain engulfed the soldier's consciousness as he screamed silently.

"Is President X here? Answer me!"

"Yes, yes," the soldier nodded frantically, tears and snot streaming down his face. Under the agony, his complexion turned deathly pale, even his lips going ashen.

"Where? Answer me!" Zhang Ye gritted his teeth. Knowing that President X was in the same military base as him gave Zhang Ye no sense of safety at all.

If it were anyone else, fine, but President X was a genuine telepathic mutant—nothing like Emma, who had already lost her abilities.

Who knew if President X had already discovered him, or if he had silently invaded his mind, leaving him at risk of brain death at any moment without even realizing it.

"I, I don't know, I really don't know." The soldier shook his head wildly, using his other hand to push desperately at Zhang Ye's foot, trying to get it off his wound.

Zhang Ye believed him, accepted that he truly didn't know. After all, President X had been missing for so long, his whereabouts were top secret—how would some ordinary soldier know the specifics?

He put a bullet through the soldier's head, then immediately left the battlefield, running toward the meeting point he and Pietro had planned, following the directions Pietro had given him.

Zhang Ye wasn't worried about Pietro, since he wore a helmet immune to telepathy. But he himself had nothing—he was the one in the danger zone now, so he had to get Pietro to take him out of here as fast as possible.

At the same time, Zhang Ye felt a flicker of excitement. If President X was here, that meant his secret chamber would be left "unguarded." As long as he could get out of here, he could leave this universe.

But when Zhang Ye was still a few hundred meters from the planned meeting point, he suddenly saw something unbelievable on the other side of the factory building.

The outer wall of the factory had a huge hole in it, and Pietro lay limp on a pile of dirt outside. From Zhang Ye's angle, he could clearly see Pietro's right leg bent at an unnatural angle—clearly snapped by someone.

Rewind ten minutes.

Pietro had been waiting for Zhang Ye to make his move. When he heard the alarm go off, he knew it was time—that alarm was the signal he and Zhang Ye had agreed on.

With the soldiers outside all stirred up, Pietro took the explosives he'd swiped from Nick Fury's safe house and headed straight for the power supply units. They were four massive generators, heavily guarded by troops stationed all around them.

But those soldiers were nothing to Pietro. Moving swiftly in the darkness, he planted all the bombs and detonated them instantly. The next moment, a deafening blast tore the generators into countless fragments, the flash of light bright enough to illuminate the sky.

The destruction of the power supply drew everyone's attention. The soldiers split into two groups: one went to suppress the mutant prisoners who hadn't yet escaped, while the other filed into a factory building, sealing it off under heavy guard.

Pietro was naturally curious. In his memory, that place had always been an abandoned factory, its equipment long since too old to use. Forcing it would risk accidents, and President X didn't have the money to replace the machinery, so he'd ordered it shut down long ago.

But now, it seemed there was something hidden there.

Maybe it was because this was the only route to the meeting point with Zhang Ye, or maybe the smooth execution of the plan had made Pietro a little reckless.

Normally, Pietro wouldn't want to stay here a second longer, but now he actually wanted to see what those soldiers were protecting.

Thinking it, he did it. In the blink of an eye, Pietro darted into the factory. His super-speed brain let him quickly scan the terrain and find a good spot to hide.

He crept up an engineering ladder, and using the shadows, he fixed his gaze on the highest-ranking soldier among them. It was a Black man wearing an upper-body Iron Suit that looked a lot like Iron Man's. Pietro recognized him—he was the guy who always stood with President X on TV.

Right now, he was standing in front of a White Container, knocking on it with a mix of fear and helplessness.

The knocking echoed through the empty factory. The surrounding soldiers were deathly silent, none daring to speak or even breathe loudly, afraid of disturbing something.

After a moment, a woman's voice came from inside the White Container.

"Didn't I say not to disturb me lately?"

"Sorry, President X, but it's important." The Black Officer's forehead was beaded with sweat, but he steeled himself and spoke up.

Up on the engineering ladder, Pietro heard this and immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, afraid he'd cry out.

"Is it a border riot, or has a nuclear war broken out? I've told you, none of that matters. Once I succeed, the whole world will submit," the woman's voice said, with a hint of impatience.

"No, it's not that, President X. An Assassin has broken in. They destroyed the power supply and released the prisoners from the Mutant Prison. Those prisoners are about to break out now."

The White Container fell silent. The whole factory went quiet. The Black Officer swallowed nervously, then lowered his head and continued. "We suspect it's remnants of the Avengers. We don't know how they found your location, but they're using the mutant riot to try and assassinate you—urgh!"

Before he could finish, the Black Officer was blasted away by a surge of red energy. He slammed hard into the factory wall, blowing a huge hole right through it.

Then the door of the White Container exploded open. A woman in a red dress, stunningly beautiful, floated slowly out, carried by a crimson glow.

(New book period isn't easy—please give some support if you can. Thanks.)