Miles's Trap

The battered Lincoln stopped by the side of the road, and Logan and the others got out of the car one by one.

"Hey, park right by the entrance, will you?"

The parking attendant looked somewhat warily at the glass-shattered, bullet-riddled Lincoln and couldn't help reminding them.

After getting out, Logan paid him the parking fee and nodded.

Then, they helped Charles and Miles out of the car, placed them both in wheelchairs, and Logan and Caliban pushed them respectively toward the hotel casino.

Laura, wearing children's sunglasses, clearly saw this many people for the first time, looking around curiously, wanting to take it all in.

"Let's go, stop looking." Logan pushed Charles past from the side and reminded her.

"Logan." Miles in the wheelchair suddenly spoke up, "I just saw the medicine Charles hid in the crack of the backseat."

That was the medicine used to suppress Charles's epilepsy, but it tasted terrible and was always secretly thrown away by Charles under various excuses, tricking Logan into telling him that he had taken it.

"Oh, shit!" Logan cursed, let go of the wheelchair, and went back to the car to find the medicine.

He was running low on medicine, and his money was also running low; every single dose had to be used sparingly.

"Miles!" Charles said helplessly, "This isn't good... family members should understand each other..."

"Shut up, Charles!" Logan turned back and snapped, interrupting Charles's words.

So Charles could only glare resentfully at Logan like a child who had done something wrong, and then glared at Miles.

Miles remained indifferent to this, his gaze quietly glancing toward various parts of the casino.

Exquisitely decorated domes, dazzling chandeliers, a sparse number of guests, and... countless electronic devices.

Just within the immediate vicinity, Miles detected the presence of no fewer than five surveillance cameras.

Good, this place will do...

The corners of Miles's mouth turned up slightly, a flash of coldness crossing his eyes, and at the same time, the Cerebrospinal Fluid Extractor on the back of his head lit up with a slight red glow.

In the hotel mall, the group changed into new clothes and then booked two suites as a temporary resting place.

Charles, Laura, and Miles, the three old and young, stayed in the hotel room, while Logan and Caliban geared up in another room.

"Bang!"

On the TV, a western cowboy shot down the man in front of him and then smiled.

"This movie is famous, Laura... it's been over a hundred years..."

Charles carefully explained this western to Laura, and little Laura listened with a half-understanding look.

"Miles, what are you thinking about?" Charles turned to ask Miles instead, "You've been very quiet since just now, and even said very little of that stuff I couldn't understand. Frankly, this isn't like you. Is something on your mind?"

"I'm trying to connect to the internet, Professor." Miles fiddled with Gabriela's phone in his hands. "You know, personal phones have internet access, and I'm testing whether my new ability can connect to the internet through a phone."

"I must correct you, Miles. That is not your new ability, but a potential you've always had; it's just that you may have never tried in this direction before," Charles said.

"Mm." Miles nodded. "I don't remember waking up in the lab very often, and the few times I did were just them ordering me to try 'manipulating' others with my ability for testing."

"I bet if they knew you had the ability to manipulate electronic devices, they'd be regretting it to death by now," Charles smiled. "Too bad they don't have the chance anymore."

Miles didn't say much, but silently added in his heart.

Not necessarily.

"So, how is your attempt to connect to the internet going?" Charles continued to ask.

"Not great." Miles shook his head. "I can directly control this phone to connect to the internet, but I can't directly influence the 'information' on the network; after all, physically speaking, that's too far away from me."

"Mobile networks in the city are realized through signal base stations scattered all over the city," Charles asked. "Can you sense where the signal base station is here?"

"On that building to the south," Miles replied.

Meanwhile, one kilometer away from them, the signal base station on the building suddenly stopped operating. Consequently, the mobile phone networks of everyone nearby stuttered in unison.

As Miles restored the base station's operation, everything returned to normal, and very few people in the entire process even realized it.

"It seems you succeeded," Charles smiled.

"Sort of." As Miles spoke, a thought stirred in his heart.

A camera on the outskirts of the casino captured the figures of a group of people, most of whom had metal-textured mechanical prosthetic limbs, holding firearms and looking fierce.

In one of the cars, Miles even "saw" a familiar face.

Zander Rice.

[They're here.]

Meanwhile, in the other room, while packing up Gabriela's belongings, Logan found a comic book, Extraordinary X-Men, in her bag.

"..." Logan fell silent for a moment, then took off his glasses and stood up, walking into the room where Charles and Laura were.

He first glanced at the movie playing on the TV, then picked up the comic book and asked Laura, "Is this what you usually read?"

Laura glanced at him and remained silent.

"Look, Charles, the X-Men have a new fan," Logan said calmly, then continued, "You know everything in here is made up, right? Maybe a quarter of it actually happened, but it's not all like that."

"In the real world, people die, and there are no spandex-wearing, self-promoting idiots coming to save them..."

Charles spoke up, wanting to interrupt.

However, Logan was unmoved and continued somewhat angrily, "This is just ice cream used to comfort losers; that nurse kept pumping her head full of some nice-sounding bullshit..."

Professor Charles Xavier was about to continue interrupting, but right at that moment, Miles on the side suddenly spoke up.

"They're here."

So the others stopped arguing and turned unanimously to look at Miles.

"Who?" Logan asked.

"The people who chased us before, the Reavers hired by the institute, and Dr. Zander himself..." Miles slowly said, "They're going to find this place soon, probably in about ten minutes."

"Fack, have they been following us the whole time?" Logan cursed, then glanced at Charles, "Charles, we have to leave right now!"

"We can't get away," Miles said softly. "They've already started surrounding this place."

"Charles?" Logan turned his head back to look at Charles, seemingly seeking confirmation from him.

"Trust Miles, Logan," Charles said, looking at Miles as he asked, "Miles, what do you think we should do?"

"Ambush, break through," Miles said. "It's best to kill Dr. Zander, or else he'll just come looking for us again."

"Do you know what you're saying, kid?" Logan glared at Miles and said, "Do you think just the few of us can kill how many people?"

"Trust me, we can..." Miles said softly, "This is the best chance to kill Zander..."

"Listen to him, Logan," Charles said. "Get ready to fight."

"Fack!!" Logan spat hard, then asked, "What exactly should we do?"

"Put on the wireless earpieces, and then just follow my orders," Miles replied. "I just found a few case files on special forces infiltration operations on the internet; our strength gives us a chance to pick them off one by one..."

"..." Logan listened to Miles's confident tone, feeling angry enough to laugh.

Yet Laura quietly stood up to change her clothes and get ready for battle.

"Logan." Charles smiled at Logan. "Trust him."

Then, as Logan and Laura left, only the old man Charles and the young Miles were left in the room.

Charles looked at Miles and suddenly asked, "You actually knew they were chasing us all along, didn't you, Miles?"

Miles was silent.

"You're the one who left them instructions, or you had their locator on you," Charles continued. "The reason you didn't tell us earlier was because you felt it wasn't time yet."

"All of this is to set a fatal trap for Dr. Zander, isn't it?" Charles asked with a smile.

Miles sighed and then said, "I'm sorry, Professor, I have to do this."

Sure enough, Miles's thoughts could hardly be hidden from old Charles, who excelled at seeing through human hearts.

"Frankly, I don't wish for you to do this," Charles went on. "You're putting us in danger this way, but... I understand you, child."

"Huh?" Miles was stunned.

"We are family, Miles," Charles said. "Between family, it's about understanding and helping each other."

"So, go ahead and do what you want to do."

On the street outside the casino, Dr. Zander, who had tracked the locator signal all the way here, stared intently at his screen, his brow furrowed.

"Sir, we've surrounded the neighborhood and can start operations immediately!"

A man in a suit and dark sunglasses reported to Dr. Zander.

His name was Anthony, and due to Donald Pierce's death, he had been promoted as the temporary new leader of the Reavers.

"...Watch out for 'X-0'," Zander said. "I have a bad feeling. The amount of time 'X-0' could stay awake in a day originally didn't exceed two hours, nor would he use his ability so frequently, but now... the number of times he's made a move exceeds my expectations."

"We understand, sir," Anthony said. "Of course we'll be careful. We guarantee that the moment we see that kid, we'll blow a hole straight through his head!"

"Don't kill him directly, use tranquilizer guns!" Dr. Zander shook his head. "I have a hunch that the little guy might have undergone some 'changes' that could surprise me, so I want him alive."

"No problem," Anthony nodded. "Then, what about the others?"

"Do whatever you want," Dr. Zander replied.

"Hey, that's good then."