Superhero-Style Action

Professor Charles Xavier lay in his wheelchair with his eyes half-closed, looking at the speckled light leaking through the dot-like holes in the water tower's exterior shell. He felt a fleeting sense of déjà vu, though he could not remember why.

He did not actually want to sleep, because Logan had just given him his medicine a short while ago, and this was his rare window of lucidity. Yet he did not quite want to open his eyes fully, either, for it took too much effort.

He was old now, his abilities diminished from their former glory, and he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. To him now, perhaps merely living in this world was a form of torture.

Creak...

The sound of a door being pushed open slowly caught Charles's attention.

Thus, he turned his head slightly and looked toward the two young visitors.

"Hello, little one..." the professor began with a soft chuckle, then looked over at Miles beside her, his gaze pausing briefly. "Oh... my god..."

As the most powerful telepath, Charles had actually sensed Laura's presence long ago, and had even mentioned to Logan that a woman was traveling around with a little girl asking for help, though Logan had not thought much of it.

Yet Miles's appearance was not within his awareness.

...Even unconsciously, he instinctively shields himself with telepathy... turning self-preservation into an instinct... Charles's gaze shifted slightly as he muttered to himself, Child, it seems you must have suffered a great deal...

"Heh-heh... heh..."

Faced with Professor Charles Xavier's scrutiny, Miles wore a dazed expression, still trapped in a state of catatonia.

Laura helped wipe some drool from Miles's chin, then looked at Charles with a hint of wariness.

She had followed Miles's instructions and tracked Logan's scent to this place, but she had no idea who this old man before her actually was.

"Such a resemblance..." Charles's gaze moved back and forth between Laura and Miles, then he smiled and asked Laura, "What is your name, girl?"

Laura did not speak.

She had never liked talking in the first place, let alone in front of strangers.

"Another troubled student..." Professor Charles Xavier did not take offense at Laura's silence; in fact, he found it somewhat endearing, for Laura reminded him of the days at the academy when he spent most of his time dealing with various troubled youths.

"Don't be afraid, child. I am Charles, and as you can see, I'm just an old man too decrepit to stand."

"Where did you two come from? Did you take the train, the rumbling kind?"

"Those are lovely clothes. Did you just buy them?"

Professor Charles Xavier was in no rush, offering gentle and coaxing inquiries.

As a telepath, he could easily have breached other people's minds to extract the memories he wanted. But he was too old now, and the act of reading memories took far too much effort—and most importantly... he felt he should not treat these two children in such a crude manner.

The process of communication between teacher and student was important in its own right.

Seemingly sensing Charles's goodwill, Laura thought for a moment and whispered, "Laura."

Then, she pointed at Miles beside her and said, "Miles."

"All right, Laura and Miles..." Charles said softly, "I remember there was a woman with you..."

"Dead."

"I'm... sorry."

An unspeakable silence fell.

Charles thought for a moment and was about to say something further when he heard a commotion outside.

Logan had returned, accompanied by an unexpected uninvited guest.

Laura's expression shifted as she stood up and walked out.

She could sense that it was the same people who had killed Gabriela.

"Laura?" Charles called out. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Laura, wait!"

Yet Laura remained unmoved.

Just then, another voice rang out abruptly.

"Laura... push me along with you..."

Laura paused, then joined Charles in looking at Miles, whose eyes had regained their clarity.

"Fuck, I remember now. The Charles Xavier in this movie has hair, which means he's utterly useless too... tch." Miles muttered to himself, looking at the astonished Charles. "Nice to meet you, Professor... but sorry, I'm about to go do some bad things... Laura, let's go!"

And so, Laura silently pushed Miles's wheelchair forward.

"Acquired brain damage resulting in 'catatonia' combined with complex 'PTSD', is it..."

Professor Charles Xavier muttered to himself.

"Listen, Laura, those two men over there—one has iron hands, and the other has iron bones... I plan to kill the one with the iron hands because he's the one who killed Gabriela. We're just taking revenge, which is only right, right..."

"It'll be hard for me to do it alone, though. That guy has a somewhat strong will, I didn't succeed last time, and he's more alert now..."

"Now's a good chance, though. I'll restrict his movements, and you take the opportunity to go up and chop his head off... It's very simple, just like how you chop everyone else's head off..."

"Come to think of it, what's this guy's name again? Pietro? Pierce? Supposedly he's only supposed to die at the end of the plot... But fuck! To hell with the plot! I'm here to kill someone!"

Pushed by Laura in his wheelchair, Miles slowly approached the front gate from the other side of the water tower, drawing near the two men who were currently standing in a standoff.

Then, he slowly raised a finger and pressed it against his temple.

Outside the water tower, by the car.

"See that? You're not the only one who's been modified..."

Donald extended his cybernetic prosthetic hand, offering a smiling threat toward Logan, and was about to say more when that intricately constructed mechanical hand suddenly flickered with a burst of crackling electrical sparks.

Then, his own expression suddenly changed as his neck jerked back with a stiff, rusty clack.

"Ah!!"

The next instant, all he saw was a little girl shouting as she bared the steel claws in her hands and lunged forward, swiping across his neck.

"Pfft."

His head fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and came to a stop.

Logan stood nearby, staring blankly at the scene, his gaze lingering deeply on Laura's steel claws as they slowly retracted.

"So light..." Miles released the finger pressed against his temple, muttering weakly, "Shit, I let that bastard off easy... Getting your neck chopped off is way more comfortable than getting your head blown off by a bullet. Didn't feel like much at all..."

When a telepath manipulated others, if the controlled target suffered injury, the controller would experience the exact same sensation. In other words, at that very moment, Miles had likewise felt the pain of his own neck being severed.

Yet he did not care.

Compared to what he had once suffered in the laboratory, this minor sensation was truly nothing at all, and he even had the leisure to critique which method of death provided a more thrilling sensation.

"Logan! Logan!"

Professor Charles Xavier wheeled himself over in his chair, introducing to Logan, "This is Laura..."

Then, Charles's gaze fell upon the head lying on the ground, and he asked Laura with a hint of surprise, "Child, did you kill a man?"

Laura stared at Charles in silence, saying nothing at all.

"It's telepathy." Logan looked toward Miles and said, "Charles, these two brats—one has claws just like mine, and the other has powers just like yours... What the hell kind of sappy family reunion show is this!"

Though Logan was old, a warrior's instincts still remained within him. With a slight recollection, he knew that Donald's strange behavior before his death must have been due to being controlled by Miles's ability. As for the reason... it was simply because he had seen this sort of thing far too often.

He and Charles had once cooperated in precisely this manner—one provided the brains while the other provided the brawn, with the only difference being that Charles generally never permitted him to kill people outright.

As the former leader of the mutant pacifist faction, Professor Charles Xavier was a good-natured man who had always dedicated himself to resolving disputes between mutants and humans through peaceful means... Of course, that was in the past.

"I'd like to talk to you once things settle down, Miles..." Charles said to Miles, then turned his gaze to Caliban with his usual composure. "Caliban, come over here quickly. These two are the ones I've been telling you about... Laura and Miles."

"You never told me there were two of them..." said Caliban, wearing a cowboy hat and a face mask that wrapped him up tightly. He instinctively looked toward Miles. "That little one... is dangerous!"

"How dangerous?" Logan asked.

"His mind is extremely unstable, chaotic, a total mess." Caliban muttered as he sensed Miles's state. "He's gone mad, but he's tricking himself into believing he hasn't. He desperately wants to die... but he's still forcing himself to hang on and live..."

The mutant Caliban possessed the ability to sense other mutants, lock onto their locations, and assess their status.

He also suffered from congenital albinism and feared sunlight, which was why he wrapped himself up so thoroughly when venturing out during the day.

"Caliban, let's pack our things and leave right now." Realizing something was amiss and knowing that Laura and Miles had major trouble trailing behind them, Logan wanted to take Professor Charles Xavier and Caliban and leave immediately.

"What about the two kids?" Caliban asked.

"Let those two **ing things roll." Logan replied.

"...You're right, Logan." Miles suddenly spoke up from his wheelchair again. "Take the professor and get the hell out of here. Don't get mixed up in this business, or it'll cost you your life... If you die, Fox's X-Men will truly be over..."

"No, Miles, don't be like this... Logan, take them both along..."

Professor Charles Xavier pleaded with Logan from his wheelchair. Yet at that moment, Logan's expression shifted drastically as he snapped his gaze toward the distance.

A convoy of black vehicles had appeared on the distant road!

Someone was coming—a lot of people.

"We're leaving right now!"

Without a word of argument, Logan bundled Charles into the car and had Caliban take the seat beside him.

"No, Logan, we cannot abandon family..."

"Shit, shut up!"

Logan cursed fiercely, slammed the door shut, slid into the driver's seat, and sped away.

Leaving only Miles and Laura behind, watching as the vehicle drove off into the distance.

"...You know, Laura," Miles said in a raspy voice, "if you follow them, you should be able to survive... But the others probably won't make it out..."

"Because my presence is disrupting the plot, those people from the corporation will likely dispatch even more force to hunt us down... So you should hurry—ngh!!"

Miles convulsed in agony, a sickly yellow pus beginning to seep faintly from the cerebrospinal fluid extractor at the back of his head.

Simultaneously, the convoy in the distance was drawing closer and closer.

"Miles?" Laura asked with a hint of concern.

"...Run, Laura!" Bloodshot veins covered Miles's eyes. "I can feel it, Dr. Zander is there... This time, I'm going to kill him for sure!"

"You'll die," Laura stated.

"I've wanted to die for a long time," Miles said softly. "It's just that without killing that bastard, I won't go down unsatisfied..."

Dr. Zander Rice—head of the Transigen project, director of the Mexico City Genetic Modification Institute, creator of Miles and Laura, and the person they wanted most to kill.

"I'll go with you," Laura said.

Following Gabriela's death, Miles was the only family she had left.

"You really are stubborn to a fault..." Miles sighed. "Push me back inside the water tower. We'll fight them from in there... Hm?"

At that very moment, Miles and Laura turned their gazes simultaneously in the opposite direction.

For reasons unknown, the stretch limousine Logan had driven off in was now reversing back toward them.

"Children, get in the car!"

Professor Charles Xavier rolled down the window from afar, waving enthusiastically at the two youngsters.

The Wolverine in the driver's seat wore a blank expression, his movements rigid as he stepped on the brake and brought the car to a halt right in front of Miles and Laura.

Clearly, he had been placed under Charles's control.

"Miles?" Laura instinctively looked to Miles for guidance.

"Ha... well, I suppose the plot is returning to the main track after all," Miles muttered, curling his lip. "Superhero-style turnaround, brilliant!"

Before long, Logan's car came to a complete stop. Caliban stepped out to gesture for the two of them to climb inside, then folded up Miles's wheelchair and tossed it into the trunk, placing it right alongside Charles's.

"Logan, it's all on you now." Professor Charles Xavier said, releasing Logan from his control.

"Fuck! Charles! You asked for this!" The instant the control was lifted, Logan burst into a furious tirade. "You old bastard! Didn't you see those people behind us? They're coming straight for these two! You're going to get us all killed! Shit, you actually controlled me! I knew it, you can still use your powers after all!!"

"I've always been able to, I just find it tiring," Charles replied, leaning back against the headrest with a hint of exhaustion. "Caliban, would you mind taking a look at that boy's condition? I'm quite curious about his situation."

"I don't think now is a very good time..." Looking through the rear window, Caliban watched the convoy trailing far behind them. Figures emerged from the windows of several vehicles and waved.

A short while later, bullets came whistling in, punching several holes through the rear window.

"Charles! Deal with those pursuers!" Logan yelled.

"Shut up! I can't!"

"Didn't you just say you've always been able to?"

"I don't have that kind of strength left, and there are simply too many of them!"

"Vroom—"

Amidst the roaring engine, the stretch limousine executed a sharp drift on the dirt road, shaking off the vehicles right behind it as it barreled forward recklessly!

The next instant, Logan's expression shifted as he saw another vehicle approaching from the opposite direction ahead!

He hurriedly slammed on the brakes, made a U-turn, and veered down another narrow side road.

Bang! Bang!

The rear windshield shattered. Laura ducked behind the professor, using her arm to deflect a bullet aimed at him, then caught the slug in her teeth and spat the battered bullet out.

"Hang on!!"

With no other escape routes left, Logan roared at the top of his lungs, driving the car headlong into a chain-link fence and jamming the entire front end of the vehicle right into it.

"Rat-a-tat-tat..."

Two machine guns from the vehicles behind began sweeping fire in their direction, pinning everyone down and preventing them from lifting their heads.

Logan stepped hard on the gas pedal, but the car remained hopelessly tangled in the wire mesh. Left with no choice, he tried throwing the car into reverse to back out.

"Hey, hey, I see the two kids..."

Inside one of the vehicles, a man was attempting to contact the commander via walkie-talkie when he found the communication suddenly cut off, replaced by a crackling static of electric current coming through the device.

"What the hell? Is it broken?"

"Hahahahaha!"

A Reaver manning a machine gun mounted nearby let out a strange laugh as his vehicle closed in. Just as he was about to resume pulling the trigger toward the limousine, his expression suddenly glazed over. He abruptly spun the gun barrel around and opened fire on his own people and vehicles without the slightest hesitation!

The man who had been tapping his walkie-talkie let out a scream as his flesh was torn apart by the machine gunfire.

"Ah! Ah..."

Amidst a few piercing cries, Miles—inside the limousine—kept his finger pressed firmly against his temple, his entire body trembling and his features twisted in a ferocious grimace.

On the other side, Caliban caught sight of the festering cerebrospinal fluid extractor at the back of Miles's head and parted his mouth slightly in shock. How is he even still alive?!

"Relax, child..." Professor Charles Xavier comforted Miles, saying, "Mind control doesn't need to be so brutal. It should be guided smoothly, combined with a bit of technique..."

"Though to be honest, your mental fortitude seems rather special. How much do you actually understand about your own abilities..."

Bang!

A Reaver suddenly lunged onto the roof of the car, raising a weapon to fire inside, only to have Laura drive a claw straight through his skull.

Following that, Logan slammed the car forward, smashing the gates open and surging out into the open fields!

"Whoooo—"

A long freight train was chugging past in the distance. Logan slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and the limousine accelerated continuously, charging straight toward the railway tracks!

At the very last critical second, the limousine drifted sideways across the tracks, while a trailing off-road vehicle was sideswiped and pushed aside by the train engine, leaving the lengthy body of the train to sever and isolate the world on either side of the tracks.

Clank-clank-clank-clank...

Through the windows of the passing train, Laura stared expressionlessly at the people on the opposite side and raised a single middle finger.

Dr. Zander Rice rushed over, stepping out of his vehicle to watch from afar as the car on the other side of the train gradually pulled away, and struck the car window in anger.

"Fuck..."