The armored convoy advanced through a cloud of dust, driving into Whiteman Air Force Base.
General Lake pushed open the door and stepped out. Brushing aside the new adjutant hurrying over, he strode away without a word.
Unlike before, General Lake was clearly in a terrible mood upon his return, even visibly angry.
"Throw all those little bastards we captured into the Gamma Zone!"
The Gamma Zone was a special containment sector inside Whiteman Base, specifically used to imprison and study high-risk individuals. It held all sorts of dangerous Mutants, out-of-control test subjects, and other hazardous things collected by Northern Command over the past decade.
The young Mutants who had just been brought back from North Dakota had all been fitted with suppression collars and escorted by soldiers to the entrance of the Gamma Containment Sector.
After the leading sergeant reported in, the heavy alloy doors slowly opened with a teeth-grating scrape, revealing a long, oppressive corridor beyond them.
"This place feels awful..." Mona, the little Black girl, muttered softly.
"Keep your voice down. Don't let them hear you..." Gideon, walking beside her, said under his breath. "These people never intended to let us... Urgh!"
Gideon, whose face and neck were covered in strange cartilaginous growths and whose mouth held bizarre fangs, stumbled and nearly fell.
During the earlier assault, he had been shot in the right leg. Walking now was already a tremendous struggle.
His ability was underwater breathing. He could remain active underwater for long periods like a fish, but such an ability was practically useless on land.
The guard beside him did not care in the slightest. He simply grabbed Gideon by the shoulder and dragged him onward like a dead dog.
The other teenagers watched Gideon's pained expression and slowly clenched their fists.
The air in the Gamma Zone's corridors reeked of disinfectant, rust, and a faint, lingering stench of decay. On both sides stood rows of cells made from specialized glass and high-strength alloy.
Along the way, they saw many prisoners.
Most of them were Mutants, listless and curled up in corners, almost like dried specimens. A few had suffered horrifying mutations, becoming complete monsters. They rammed futilely against the thick cell doors and let out beastlike roars, clearly no longer regarded as human.
In one cell sat a pale, albino-looking freak in the corner. He raised his head, and his lifeless eyes quietly watched the group of young people pass. There was no anger, no sorrow—only a dead, hollow emptiness.
"This must be hell..."
A young Mutant named Charlotte muttered quietly.
The group continued onward, passing a large operating room lit by shadowless lamps.
Through the bulletproof glass, Gideon saw two strange figures... one was a "devil" covered in blue fur with a tail behind him, his limbs wrapped in bandages. Noticing Gideon's gaze, he shot him a vicious glare. Beside him was another abnormal-looking man with reddish skin, connected to all manner of equipment and seemingly undergoing some kind of special treatment.
At the other end of the medical area, a boy in a wheelchair caught Charlotte's attention. A strange device glowing red was embedded in the boy's head, with a thin tube extending from it into a nearby machine. His eyes were vacant, drool ran from the corner of his mouth, and meaningless, foolish giggles of "Heh heh heh" escaped his lips.
"Miles..." Charlotte murmured. He recognized him. It was Miles, whom Gabriela had taken away together with Laura.
Just then, Charlotte suddenly felt an inexplicable chill.
Following that sensation, he looked over and saw a tall, vicious-looking man standing motionless in the shadows at the deepest end of the medical area. With hollow eyes, he silently watched Miles as cerebrospinal fluid was extracted from him.
Then a doctor in a white coat hurried over, said something to him, and led that silent Beast away.
Dr. Zander entered General Lake's office and found the atmosphere terrifyingly oppressive.
"Answer me, Dr. Zander." General Lake slammed a battle damage report onto the desk, his icy gaze fixed on the trembling doctor. "How many test subjects like X-0 did you create?!"
"General, I..." Dr. Zander was completely baffled by the sudden accusation. "There is only one X-0. He is the only successful clone cultivated from Professor X's genes. There cannot possibly be a second one..."
"Impossible?!" General Lake sneered. "Then how do you explain that thing in North Dakota today that instantly crippled my command system and seized control of the drone formation?!"
"Perhaps... it was some kind of spyware?"
Faced with General Lake's fury, Dr. Zander explained himself again and again. After exhausting himself with explanations, he finally managed to make General Lake reluctantly accept the fact that a second X-0 could not exist.
"Get out." General Lake waved him away.
Afterward, General Lake sat alone in his office, his expression dark as he recalled that humiliating defeat.
Faced with the unknown entity suspected to be a "second X-0," he had immediately regrouped outside the blockade zone after the initial retreat, preparing to place the mountain region under a full carpet blockade. Yet by the time they returned to the battlefield, Logan and those little brats had already vanished without a trace.
What angered him even more was that they had apparently not fled toward the Canadian border as he had expected. Instead, they had gone south, back into the heartland of the United States, turning the blockade lines he had heavily deployed in the north into a complete joke!
"Damn it..." General Lake called an internal number and issued a new order through gritted teeth.
"Mobilize every available intelligence network... Search the entire United States for Logan and those young Mutants!!"
"They can't have gone far!"
South Dakota State University, School of Biological Sciences.
Logan limped out of the building carrying a silver-white briefcase marked with an "X."
He returned to the pickup truck by the road and rejoined the children and Charles.
Just then, Aurora's alert suddenly rang from the phone!
"Mr. Logan, Northern Command has just issued a nationwide manhunt order against us!"
"So it's starting already?" Logan muttered, seemingly unsurprised.
General Lake was a rising general in the United States military. What they had done earlier could be classified as treason if taken seriously enough. A nationwide manhunt had only been a matter of time.
"A nationwide manhunt?" Bobby murmured. "Does that mean lots of bad people will come looking for us soon?"
"We're the 'bad people,' Bobby," Jonah reminded him.
"...We can't keep driving this truck." Richter looked at Logan. "We need to switch vehicles before heading to Westchester."
"Switching vehicles is dangerous too..." Delia added. "After all, it's a full two or three days' drive from here to Westchester."
Amid everyone's anxiety, Laura thought for a moment and turned to Logan.
Logan continued questioning Aurora through the phone. "Any suggestions, Aurora?"
"We can take an autonomous cargo truck."
Aurora answered, "I have already anonymously contacted Walmart Department Store Group online and placed a freight order. In a little over twenty minutes, an unmanned freight truck traveling from South Dakota to Westchester, New York, will pass along the highway outside the city. I will access its main control system and temporarily make it stop. Find an opportunity to board it."
"Major corporations' autonomous freight trucks have complete documentation, and traffic police have no authority to stop them. Combined with the fully enclosed cargo compartment, their safety is extremely high. At full speed, we are expected to reach Westchester in twenty-eight hours."
"The truck is stocked with sufficient food and medicine. You will be able to get adequate rest."
More than ten minutes later, under the cover of night, a driverless cargo truck over three meters tall arrived right on schedule and slowly stopped on the wilderness highway outside the city.
Looking at the massive vehicle, Logan showed a complicated expression and muttered, "Shit... On the road outside Kansas, I was nearly run over by one of these things..."
The cargo doors slowly opened, and Aurora's voice came through the truck's speakers. "Time is limited. Someone could pass by at any moment... Please board quickly!"
"Give me a hand. Get Charles up first." As Logan spoke, he joined Richter and Jonah in carefully lifting the still-unconscious Charles into the truck.
Soon, once everyone had boarded and the doors had closed, the cargo truck started again and set off on the long journey toward New York.
Inside the cargo compartment, after settling Charles down, Logan slowly moved to another spot and sat down. Looking at the children before him and the stacks of boxed cargo, he let out a long breath.
The moment he relaxed even slightly, all the pain accumulated during the battle surged through his body like maggots in the bone!
Old Logan was exhausted. And he hurt too badly.
He truly wanted to just fall asleep right there and never wake up again.
But... he knew it was not time yet...
There were still things he had to do.
So Logan opened the silver-white briefcase and took out a syringe filled with fluorescent green liquid.
Though it had no label, Logan knew exactly what it was.
"Wolverine Enhancement Serum!"
The old wolf silently stared at the serum for several seconds. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he drove the needle hard into his own neck!
"Psssh..."
As the serum was pushed into his artery, Logan felt an indescribable heat rapidly spread from his neck throughout his entire body.
His blood gradually seemed to ignite. Every inch of muscle and every bone let out groans as though they were being pushed beyond their limits!
His flesh was collapsing... and being reborn at the same time!
"Logan?" Laura noticed something was wrong with him and called out anxiously.
"I'm fine..." Logan shook his head, but before long, he could not help baring his teeth again. "Aurora? Aurora? Damn it... You never told me injecting this thing would hurt this much!"
"This is an experience of complete transformation, Logan," Aurora replied. "During this process, your Mutant genes will be further completed, restoring their full vitality and reaching their theoretical perfect state. At the same time, Essex Corporation's records included research on 'Adamantium biological compatibility.' I used that information to further improve the serum, which will further ease your body's rejection response toward Adamantium..."
"Fuck! Shut up! Just tell me how much longer this will take?!"
"According to my estimates, you will suffer for at least another ten hours."
"Shit..."
Logan cursed wearily. Soon, his entire body went limp as he leaned helplessly against the cargo wall, finding even moving a finger unbearably difficult.
Once Logan stopped screaming, the cargo compartment returned to silence, leaving only the steady hum of the truck in motion.
The children gathered around him, watching him with both curiosity and concern.
"Mr. Logan..." The chubby little Bobby looked at Logan's pained yet unexpectedly calm expression and could not help asking softly, "What is a superhero's life... like?"
Faced with the children's curious stares, the corner of Logan's mouth twitched slightly.
He leaned weakly against the cold cargo wall and raised his head. His gaze seemed to pierce through time, returning to that period many years ago...
"I'm no hero..." Old Logan said in a low voice. "At the beginning... I was nothing more than a stray dog wandering everywhere..."
"Then, in the winter of 2000, I met Marie—Rogue—in a bar..."
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