Code Names

Two days later, in Miles's laboratory at the underground base.

"Click."

With the final crisp sound of machinery locking into place, the last precision module fit perfectly into position, and Miles's newest creation was finally complete.

It was an entirely black weapon with sleek, elegant lines and a near-future sci-fi aesthetic. Designed by Miles himself, its body bore not a single unnecessary decoration. Every indentation and protrusion served a function, cold and pure.

The "X-0 reaper" high-energy electromagnetic sniper rifle was 143 centimeters long and weighed 28.5 kilograms. Its main body was made from carbon-fiber composites, specialized ceramics, and titanium alloy. Some core components were even crafted directly from Adamantium. Its theoretical effective range was around five kilometers, and the projectile's muzzle velocity was expected to exceed Mach 6, with further increases possible in charged mode.

As for its power...

As Miles activated his ability, a Flying Dragon S slowly approached. He expertly mounted the X-0 reaper beneath the drone, then sent it airborne again. Under Miles's control, it entered optical camouflage mode.

Amid a low hum, the air around the Flying Dragon S's body warped for an instant. Then its dark silhouette faded from sight and vanished, completely blending into the surrounding background. Only in Miles's perception did the drone remain hovering, never having moved.

At the same time, footage from the drone's main camera appeared in Miles's field of vision. No external transmission device was needed. Miles directly forced the camera feed from the drone into his awareness with his ability. Then, under his control, the drone swiftly locked onto a 100-millimeter specialized steel plate several hundred meters away, used as a target.

Then, the drone's system completed its ballistic calculations almost instantly. The barrel turned, locking onto the center of the steel plate. The electromagnetic rails began charging.

"Fire!"

There was no roar of gunpowder, no muzzle flash, and even the usual recoil of a firearm was greatly reduced. Inside the nearly invisible chamber, a 10-millimeter tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile was violently launched through the electromagnetic rails!

The next instant, the surveillance feed from the distant range showed a blinding burst of white light erupt from the center of the heavy steel plate.

Then Miles felt a faint tremor beneath his feet, followed by a thunderous boom mixed with the sound of tearing metal.

"Bang!!!"

A hole more than a centimeter wide had appeared in the 100-millimeter-thick RHA armor plate. Its edges were smooth, clearly scorched traces left by the terrifying impact and heat generated at the moment of collision, which had melted and vaporized its way through.

Miles slowly walked behind the steel plate and saw another massive hole over ten centimeters wide. Blue-purple temper colors from the extreme heat remained around it. The ground was littered with solidified metal droplets and tiny fragments.

Even the second backup steel plate behind it had been burned through. The tungsten-core projectile had then lodged deeply inside the third plate, with its tip protruding from the back.

"The power is astonishing," Aurora said. "Miles, the Reaper you designed has completely exceeded the scope of a sniper rifle. It has nearly entered the realm of a light anti-tank cannon. Its targets should be heavily armored military vehicles, or Mutant fighters with formidable defenses..."

"This is only an attack in normal mode, Aurora." Miles chuckled. "In my projection, the charged-mode Reaper will launch its projectile at over Mach 8. Its destructive power could nearly double, especially since... I have this."

As he spoke, Miles slowly took out a new projectile, one with a different sheen from the tungsten core.

A 10-millimeter Adamantium projectile.

As ammunition designed to match electromagnetic firearms, neither tungsten-core rounds nor Adamantium-core rounds could truly be called "bullets." These projectiles had no traditional cartridge cases, primers, or gunpowder. They could be viewed entirely as pure "slugs" specifically designed to be accelerated directly by Electromagnetic Force. Every aspect of their design centered on maximizing kinetic efficiency and lethality. Therefore, the sturdier the projectile core material, the greater the destructive power.

Compared with ordinary tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds, Adamantium projectiles would undoubtedly unleash far more devastating power!

"If that's the case..." Aurora briefly calculated the scenario of the Reaper firing an Adamantium bullet at Mach 8 in charged mode. Her tone fell silent for a moment. "For now, I can't think of anything in this world that could block that attack."

"Don't underestimate this world, Aurora," Miles said slowly. "This world never lacks all kinds of strange people and abilities. Many times, the enemies we face can't be dealt with through ordinary physical means at all."

"Of course, for now... this Reaper should be good enough." Miles summoned the drone over again and lovingly ran his hand over the Reaper's smooth casing.

The Reaper's terrifying lethality, paired with the swift and elusive Flying Dragon S, was undoubtedly a combination beyond the limits of conventional technology in this era—a true creation of black technology.

But... that was all.

After putting away his beloved toy, Miles fell into thought about the future.

His research methods differed from "creators" like Tony Stark or Reed Richards. He was better at "rapidly absorbing, understanding, and applying existing knowledge," as well as "reverse-engineering" cutting-edge technology. He could optimize a 1 into a 100, but it was difficult for him to create a 1 from 0. Because of that, the level of his research depended heavily on the technological ceiling of the world he was in.

That wasn't to say Miles was truly inferior to those genuine super-geniuses. The main reason was that he had accumulated too little research experience. From the time he truly began working with technology until now, it had only been about a year at most.

Furthermore, the technological ceiling of this world wasn't particularly high. It was nowhere near a place like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where black technology flourished everywhere. Here, there were very few things that could truly be called black technology. Adamantium counted as one, but its raw materials were difficult to obtain. Even Miles could only acquire small quantities through Caliban's channels. He had barely accumulated any projectiles so far, and every shot had to be used sparingly.

Aside from that, he had once considered the legendary Sentinel Robots. But even after Aurora searched networks around the world, she still couldn't find the slightest trace of the Sentinel Program, as if it had never existed.

So... what path should he take next?

Being stuck at the academy all the time made his means of acquiring resources far too limited.

"Miles!"

Just as Miles was deep in thought, a cheerful call interrupted him.

Madeleine appeared at the laboratory door, excitement on her face. "Come out quickly. Everyone's waiting for you. We're discussing something important!"

"Something important?" Miles raised an eyebrow.

Led by Madeleine, Miles arrived at the academy's common room.

Sure enough, nearly all the young Mutants had gathered there, sitting around on the sofas and discussing something enthusiastically.

"What important matter are you discussing?" Miles found an empty seat and sat down, asking casually.

"Something very important!" Madeleine sat down right beside him, her eyes shining with a kind of enthusiasm Miles couldn't understand at all.

Then Bobby, the chubby boy, gave Miles the answer.

"We're discussing our action code names as the X-Men!"

"...Huh?" Miles froze, not reacting for a moment.

"Don't underestimate it!" Richter explained from the side. "Because of the Westchester New Mutant Agreement, we barely had any chances to carry out missions before, so it didn't matter. But a few days ago, I happened to hear Logan say that times outside had changed, and we'd be getting busy soon!"

"In that case, we need to prepare action code names," Charlotte added. "After all, having a code name will make things much more convenient when we're operating outside."

"Ha... all right." Miles sighed and patiently listened to them discuss it. Then he glanced sideways... and found that Madeleine had somehow quietly edged closer again.

Has the Phoenix Force affected this girl that much?

"Since earthquakes are what I'm best at causing, Delia gave me the code name Quake." Richter pointed at himself, looking rather pleased. Then he patted Delia beside him. "I originally wanted to call her White Queen, but she didn't like it. She said she should be called Silverlight."

"Quake... White Queen..."

Miles muttered the names a few times, then curled his lip. "Never mind the code name Quake for now... don't you know there was once a Mutant called the White Queen from the same era as Logan and the others? She was also a woman with psychic powers, and apparently she was as powerful as Charles."

"But the White Queen is already gone!" Richter argued confidently.

"Shut up, Richter!" Delia covered her forehead in exasperation. "I don't want to live in the shadow of some old woman!"

"All right." Richter sighed and gave up insisting.

"What about the rest of you?" Miles asked. "Have you all decided on action code names?"

"I'll be Ivy." Rebecca, who controlled plants, sat atop the back of the sofa with her legs swinging. "I like the word."

"Okay, Ivy." Miles nodded, then looked at Mona, who possessed ice powers. "What about you, Mona?"

"Since there was once an X-Man named Iceman, then naturally I'll be Ice Woman." Mona sounded entirely unconcerned.

"I'm Puppeteer." Jonah, who could make others perform the same actions as himself, spoke up.

"I think I'll be Sharkman." Gideon, whose appearance was somewhat unusual, said. His ability allowed him to breathe underwater and move through water like a shark.

"Wraith." Charlotte spoke up. Considering his ability involved astral projection and possession, the name Wraith suited him well.

Compared to the others, Laura's choice was much simpler.

"X-23," Laura said.

X-23 was the experimental batch designation for everyone in their group except Miles. Laura apparently couldn't be bothered to think any harder and simply chose it outright.

Then it was Bobby's turn. Since his ability was generating electricity, he eagerly said, "I think my code name should be Flash!"

"Ah..." Miles sighed deeply and patted Bobby on the shoulder. "Pick another one. How about Electro?"

"Not great. It sounds like a villain..."

"Okay, that's the one. Good, Electro. Be good, Electro..."

Miles promptly cut Bobby off, then looked toward the newly arrived Dani and Sam.

"I'll be Moonstar," Dani said. "It's my surname."

"As for me..." Sam hesitated. "I... don't know what I should be called. Do I have to pick one?"

"Everyone else has one, Sam. You should give it a try too," Richter said. "Come to think of it, we haven't seen you use your ability yet... You only said you could release energy and launch yourself like a cannonball. So what exactly does it look like?"

"My ability..." Sam hesitated. He was actually somewhat resistant toward his own power, but seeing how curious everyone was, he gritted his teeth. "All right... I'll demonstrate it for you!"

Then, led by Sam, everyone went out into the courtyard.

"Whew..." Sam took a deep breath, then suddenly let out a roar!

The next second, an explosive energy field enveloped his entire body. He transformed into a humanoid cannonball and shot straight into the sky with a thunderous boom!

"He flew so high!" Jonah looked up and said enviously. "I really want an ability that lets me fly too..."

"That isn't flying," Richter corrected, though his tone was full of admiration. "That's launching! It's incredible!"

However, their amazement didn't last long. The golden light in the sky soon began to sway erratically. Then a shrill scream tore through the air, reaching them clearly from above.

That streak of light... was falling straight down!

"Why is he coming down again?"

"Damn it... can't he control his direction in the air?!"

Several of them hurried over and caught Sam, saving him from being smashed to death.

"Sorry... everyone," Sam said apologetically. "I rarely use my ability. I shouldn't have flown straight up like that. I still don't know how to control my direction..."

"It's fine. You'll get better after more practice," Miles said casually. "We once ran into a guy called Lightwave. His ability was very similar to yours, and he was quite good at flying."

"Really?" Sam nodded and asked hopefully, "Then can I meet that gentleman?"

"No. He's dead. I killed him."

Sam fell silent.

"Anyway..." Jonah took over. "Since your ability is to launch yourself like a cannonball, how about just calling yourself Cannonball?"

"Cannonball?" Sam repeated it a few times, then nodded. "That doesn't sound bad."

"All right, then now it's Miles and Madeleine's turn."

At Delia's reminder, everyone turned their attention to Miles and Madeleine again. They all seemed curious about what code names the two of them would choose.

Miles thought for a moment. He had originally planned to do as Laura did and use his experimental designation, X-0. But he felt that seemed too ordinary.

After thinking it over, he ultimately chose another word.

"Psypoint."

It represented the origin point where minds converged.

Madeleine looked at Miles and fell into thought as well.

Then she remembered Charles's description of the Phoenix Force within her not long ago, and a name naturally came to mind.

"Red Phoenix."