The Man Lying in Wait

Brad felt he couldn't bear to watch any longer.

He didn't even bother showing himself. He lazily raised a finger and traced a small circle in the air. The Blackbird immediately turned around, a Gatling gun extended from its underside, and it opened fire on the Black Bishop.

Startled, the Black Bishop tore his hands apart, splitting open the ground and letting his rotund body roll neatly into the gap.

Brad tapped his metal fingertips against the back of his left hand, maintaining suppressive fire on the ground. Dust flew everywhere, leaving the Black Bishop too frightened to poke his head out.

The four on the ground finally had a chance to catch their breath. Cyclops supported Moonstar, who was on the verge of collapse, and regrouped with Wolverine and Wolfsbane.

Brad rolled his eyes.

That combat awareness...

Soon, the Gatling gun's barrels overheated, forcing it to retract into the aircraft to cool down.

The Black Bishop angrily poked his head out of the ground and glared at the Blackbird overhead.

"How shameless! You've got another one hiding in the plane?!"

Then the Black Bishop noticed the four clustered together, and his angry expression instantly turned ecstatic.

Logan immediately realized something was wrong and was just about to shout for everyone to scatter.

Gravity instantly forced all four to their knees.

"You're actually standing this close together? If you'd all spread out and kept moving, I might have worried I couldn't keep track of you."

The Black Bishop crawled out of the earth with a sinister grin, steadily increasing the pressure on the four. He glanced up at the Blackbird and jabbed his other hand toward it.

"Get down here!"

The autumn breeze blew through the silence.

Nothing happened.

A few beads of sweat glittered in the sunlight on the bald patch atop the Black Bishop's head.

Based on his usual understanding of precision machinery, devices like this were especially vulnerable to his power. Applying gravity to any random point would destroy their internal mechanisms and render them useless.

Was the X-Men's technology really that advanced?

Had technology countered a move that had always worked before?

Just as the situation grew awkward, the Blackbird's hatch opened again, revealing a figure.

"You're the Black Bishop?"

Brad took a step forward. The Black Bishop immediately redirected his finger and applied gravity to Brad.

Brad dropped like a wooden post, slamming halfway into the earth.

Unconcerned, Brad raised his hands, braced them against the ground on either side, and slowly began hauling himself upward.

"A strength type?"

The Black Bishop grinned viciously and increased the gravity.

Brad didn't pause at all. He continued climbing out of the earth at the same speed.

Veins bulged on the Black Bishop's forehead. Even the pebbles around Brad couldn't withstand the savage gravity and were crushed to powder.

Brad's movements faltered slightly.

The Black Bishop burst into triumphant laughter. He was going to crush this bastard, who had nearly caught him off guard, to death with gravity.

Brad began swaying gently, his head drooping as though he were almost finished.

The Black Bishop panted heavily, his eyes filled with bloodthirsty delight.

Brad swayed on the verge of collapse.

On the verge of collapse.

On the verge of collapse.

He swayed for half a minute.

Blood trickled from the Black Bishop's nostrils.

"Something's wrong! Why aren't you dead yet?!"

The Black Bishop was starting to lose it.

"Oh? Run out of strength?"

Brad raised his head and looked over/scanned the Black Bishop's current condition.

Then he pushed down with both hands and pulled himself completely out of the soil.

"That's impossi-pfft!"

Before the Black Bishop could finish, Brad had flashed to his side and delivered a vicious hook. Four molars flew out in a spray of blood as his entire body spun through the air.

Brad glanced back at the X-Men team, who were recovering now that the gravity had lifted, then strolled over to the unconscious Black Bishop. He raised his metal prosthetic arm, and a lens emerged from his palm. A blue beam shone out, scanning the Black Bishop's entire body.

Then he crouched down, catching the glass vial and tweezers ejected from his right arm in his left hand, and picked up a bloodstained tooth to place inside.

Brad put the vial away and slowly returned to the four. With his hands behind his back, he silently watched them.

"I've already called the police and contacted the government's Special Action Group for Superpowered Criminals."

Cyclops lowered his head in shame. Logan completely ignored Brad's questioning stare, pulled a flattened cigar from his jacket, stuck it in his mouth, and began searching for his lighter.

Unfortunately, the lighter had clearly been crushed during the fight as well and wouldn't light at all.

Logan gave Brad a pleading look.

Brad stared coldly back, and the two remained at an impasse for a while.

"Just let me have a puff first. Whatever you want to do with me when we get back, I won't complain."

Logan had lost patience.

Brad extended his hand, and a flame popped from his index finger with a click. He waited until Logan had taken a satisfying puff, then snatched the cigar away, ignoring his shocked and murderous glare.

"When we get back, I'll also recommend that the Professor appoint me as the special instructor for Combat Class. Every member of the X-Men will have to join the training too."

The two girls groaned, then Brad herded them onto the plane.

Brad walked over to the prisoner transport van with Logan and Scott. He snapped his fingers, and the van's electronically locked rear doors opened.

Scott quickly turned toward the police officers, only to discover that they had all passed out at some point.

"I sent a little infrasound their way earlier. Knocked them all out."

Brad offered the casual explanation, then pressed his palm against the lock on the inner barred gate. A little liquid metal slowly flowed out and slipped into the keyhole.

The lock opened with a click, and Brad drew the liquid metal back into his prosthetic arm.

A young man with bloodshot eyes raised his head.

The three men standing outside the van seemed almost dazzling.

"I know you've been falsely accused. The legal process for your bail is already underway. I need you to coordinate with your lawyer."

"I... I don't have a lawyer."

Ahmed's voice was hoarse.

"That's all right. I've hired one for you."

Brad recited as though chanting scripture, "You've developed a special ability. We're all the same kind of people, and we'll help you..."

Seeing that Ahmed remained unmoved, Brad sighed, climbed into the van, and walked over to him. He bent down and whispered something in his ear.

Logan's hearing was particularly sharp, and he immediately raised an eyebrow.

Cyclops, meanwhile, looked utterly bewildered. He had no idea what Brad had said.

But Ahmed seemed to regain his energy. He stared at Brad, the light in his eyes growing increasingly fervent.

Then Ahmed stood up and casually pulled his hands apart, tearing through the handcuffs. He stamped his foot, and his ankle shackles broke open as well.

"I'll go back with you. It's not like I have a home left to miss."

Satisfied, Brad led Ahmed out of the van.

Cyclops wanted to point out that this wasn't proper procedure.

Brad raised a hand to stop him.

"I'm also a member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve. I'm authorized to invoke certain procedures to expedite the legal process. Don't worry. Everything is perfectly aboveboard."

The Blackbird slowly landed in front of the three men, and Logan and Scott boarded one after the other.

In the distance, a middle-aged man with a grim expression watched the aircraft.

He stood far enough away that even Wolverine's nose hadn't picked him up.

Brad suddenly turned and glanced in his direction.

The middle-aged man started, but quickly reassured himself that it had to be a coincidence. At most, the other man's intuition was unusually keen.

But then he saw Brad smile at him and raise his right hand in a wave, the metal glittering in the sunlight.

He watched Brad's lips form a sentence.

"Hurry back and file your report. It's pretty cold out here, too."

Panic instantly gripped the middle-aged man. He raised a hand, enveloped himself in an Energy Shield, and vanished from sight.

Invisible, he hurried through the woods, then glanced back, only to find Brad still staring straight at him.

And there was a faintly mocking smile on his face.