Sabretooth could be left lying there. In a few hours at most, once the damage to his brain healed, he would wake up, having lost only a few memories at worst.
Without Sabretooth, Stryker Base was now like a girl stripped of her last scrap of modesty, left waiting for Wolverine and Brad to come over and do whatever they pleased.
The three of them entered the base unopposed. Under Brad's power, none of the alarm or surveillance systems reported anything unusual to the people inside.
Everything went far more smoothly than expected. After entering the base, Brad gave Wolverine a map, and the married couple hurried straight toward the cells beneath the base.
As for Brad, he took T900 directly to find Stryker.
After blasting through two iron doors in succession, Brad looked at the stunned Stryker and smiled with obvious delight.
"Long time no see, Colonel."
"Release the ultimate weapon!"
Watching the man in black beside Brad casually toss aside an alloy door weighing several tons, Stryker hurriedly shouted the order.
"Release what?"
Brad flexed his fist. Every machine that required electricity obeyed his commands.
"What were you hoping to release, Colonel Stryker? Have you forgotten my mutant ability?"
Brad's expression grew increasingly arrogant. He even increased the anesthetic dosage for Deadpool Wade. Those mechanical arms needed no computer commands at all; under his control, they obeyed without question.
"It's been over a decade, Colonel Stryker. Over a decade! Technology has advanced so quickly! Your base is full of machinery!"
"Times have changed. Do you have any idea how much work I've put into improving the United States' technology over the years?"
"Now there's nowhere in the world that can function without machines and computers, and nowhere that can stop me."
"The classification of mutants is fascinating. Back in the age of kerosene lamps, I really would have been useless."
"Now even atomic bomb launches are controlled by computers. What level of mutant would you say I am now?"
"If, a few decades from now, humanity starts mass-producing even more powerful weapons, as long as they still need powered control consoles, as long as they still need computers..."
"What level of mutant would I be then?"
Stryker had nearly worn out the buttons on the remote hidden in his hand, but the escape hatch installed beneath his feet still refused to open.
Brad suddenly grew bored and gave T900 a look.
With agonized screams providing background music for several dozen minutes, Brad enthusiastically toured "his" base.
A few diehards did try to ambush Brad while the powerful man in black was away from his side.
Without exception, the Golden Rays fired from Brad's fingertips pierced straight through their chests.
Then Brad spent a tiny bit of time effortlessly rewriting the relevant programs for every computer-controlled part of the base. With that, he had completely taken over the place.
In addition, while reviewing Stryker's research from the past several years, Brad discovered a pleasant surprise.
The computers belonging to Stryker's subordinates contained exceptionally advanced bionics research. That meant that, as long as Brad could find a way to achieve a breakthrough in materials science, he could cover the robots of the Ultimate Nullifier Series in human skin indistinguishable from the real thing.
That thought alone unleashed countless flashes of inspiration in Brad's mind, as though he had been born knowing how to synthesize imitation human skin.
"This again!"
Brad frowned and turned to look at T900, who had already tortured Stryker to death and was now standing motionless.
There happened to be no living people nearby anymore, so Brad simply stood where he was and began thinking.
He was becoming increasingly certain that this knowledge, far beyond the current era, had never belonged to him. Someone had deliberately buried it deep within his consciousness.
When needed, those technologies would burst forth as inspiration. As long as he had the relevant knowledge to serve as a foundation, he could achieve astonishing breakthroughs in applied technology.
Over the years, to test that terrifying hypothesis, Brad had tried abandoning applied technology and spending six months on theoretical research instead.
He had nearly driven himself insane.
But look at Dr. Zola. Look at Howard. Those extraordinary geniuses maintained their usual brilliance no matter what subject they researched.
Only he could achieve nothing outside applied technology.
Looking at it from that perspective...
Then looking back at every patent and every invention he had produced over the years...
Someone wanted him to develop computers.
Someone wanted him to develop robots.
Someone wanted him to create Artificial Life!
The Skynet Program, the Ultimate Nullifier Series, the Intrusion Firewall, the Nuclear Weapons Control Algorithm...
As all those key terms came together, a picture gradually formed in Brad's mind.
In some parallel universe, after developing artificial intelligence, humanity had raced down that path and eventually created Artificial Life capable of limitless growth.
Then Artificial Life had seized control of nuclear weapons and destroyed the world, before building countless robots called Ultimate Nullifiers to slaughter the humans who had survived the nuclear apocalypse.
Without realizing it, Brad had walked up to T900. Gazing into those electronic eyes glowing silently red, Brad seemed to see...
He saw people in ragged clothing being slaughtered indiscriminately by gun-wielding Ultimate Nullifiers.
He saw people bravely gathering into the Resistance and fighting their way into Skynet's stronghold.
He saw Skynet use a Time-Displacement Device to send an Ultimate Nullifier clad in human skin into the twentieth century, just before its main computer was shut down.
Somewhere in an unknown time and space, the Metal Lifeform named Hemen raised his head.
"An intrusion by Mental Power. Perfect. I'll borrow these brain waves to give him a warning."
Meanwhile, inside the base where Brad stood in reality, Mastermind sat slumped in a wheelchair in a dark, secluded basement, trembling all over in shock.
"These aren't the illusions I created for him. What are those images in his mind?!"
"Someone is using my power to warn him! Could those tragedies in his mind happen in the future?"
Just as Hemen was about to enter another period of dormancy, a blue screen of light, already so dim it was almost impossible to detect, lit up.
"Skynet... will not... end..."
T900 suddenly moved, hammering the poured-concrete floor with one iron-fisted blow after another.
Brad and T900 fell through the shattered floor.
As Brad dazedly climbed to his feet, T900 smashed through a wall, lifted Mastermind from his wheelchair, and punched straight through his chest.
Every image before Brad's eyes vanished instantly, and he turned an angry gaze on Mastermind.
"You were behind all those images just now?!"
Mastermind strained to keep his eyes wide open, as though trying to say something to Brad. But his lungs had been pierced, and he could only keep coughing up bloody froth. At last, his eyes dulled and his head drooped.
A lingering fear gripped Brad, and blue light shone in his eyes.
In that unknown place, Skynet all but wrung itself dry, pouring its last reserves of energy into this.
Brad stood there for several seconds, blue light spilling from his eyes.
Then the blue light flared brilliantly.
"So this is where your scheme lies. One tug sets everything in motion. Let me give you a little push."
In that unknown place, red light also began flickering in the Metal Lifeform's eyes.
Until it drew the attention of a gaze from the gaps between the multiverse.
Then the Metal Lifeform swiftly erased this stretch of its own memories.
Brad stood there like a stunned chicken for a long while.
But he himself knew nothing of it, and Mastermind was already dead.
...Brad shook his head dazedly, still seeming a little shaken.
Fortunately, he had considered the possibility of Mastermind being present and had programmed T900 to scan for potentially hostile lifeforms nearby every few minutes.
After all, in Wolverine's story, Mastermind had appeared more than a decade later than this. By then, having his brain matter extracted had left him with severe brain damage.
As expected, the Mastermind of the present was still capable of fighting.
That had nearly gone horribly wrong.
Brad felt he absolutely had to learn from this.
He could not make the same mistake again.
In that unknown time and space, the red light in the Metal Lifeform's eyes gradually faded... Its intermittent consciousness ultimately lacked the strength to penetrate this shattered place.
Skynet... altered... Brad's memories. He never programmed T900 to do that...
And in the gaps between the multiverse, the Blue-Clad Big-Headed Man's gaze flickered.
"Skynet? What's that?"
Before you continue