“Miss Ororo, you’re not using your phone right now, are you?”
Wade spoke softly to Ororo while rapidly searching for something on the phone’s screen.
“Hmm?
Not at the moment.”
Ororo looked at him in confusion.
“What is it?”
Wade tightened his grip slightly.
“Good.
Then lend me your phone for a moment.”
Jean’s brows furrowed.
She had clearly caught sight of the electronic map displayed on the screen.
The destination was Flushing, Queens.
She immediately said,
“Wait.
Don’t tell me you’re planning to—”
Before she could finish, the sturdy floor of Charles’s office suddenly cracked.
The entire castle trembled.
By the time everyone recovered from the shock, Wade was nowhere to be seen.
“Professor, he’s going there?”
Jean looked anxiously at the television.
The power Abomination had displayed was absolutely no weaker than Wade’s.
If anything, it was even greater.
“This is too reckless.
Shouldn’t you stop him?”
Charles remained silent for a moment.
“I’m sorry.
I can’t.”
“?”
“If I stop him, there’s a very real possibility that we’ll create an Omega-level mutant who turns against the world.”
“You both understand what that would mean.”
An Omega-level mutant gone rogue?
Even Magneto, an Alpha-level mutant, was already enough to give Charles and the others a massive headache.
Charles’s gaze was calm.
“There is another, more important reason.”
“My telepathy…”
“I’m afraid it can no longer control him.”
Meanwhile, Wade was already running toward Flushing.
“This is way too slow.”
Wade anxiously stared at the electronic map in his hand.
He had to navigate around countless winding streets and avoid the buildings along the way.
Otherwise, moving at his current speed meant that even the slightest collision could destroy an entire building—and seriously injure him in the process.
Damn Abomination.
If you wanted to cause trouble, couldn’t you have gone somewhere farther away?
With that thought in mind, Wade began putting more and more force into every step.
Finally, he poured all his strength into one stomp.
BOOM!
The recoil launched him hundreds of meters into the air.
If going around everything was too troublesome…
Then he’d simply go over it.
…
Queens.
Flushing.
Night had already fallen.
Abomination was thoroughly enjoying the destruction he was causing.
“So this is what it feels like to have power?”
Abomination casually lifted a small car and hurled it into the crowd like a discarded toy.
Hearing the terrified screams of the fleeing civilians, he became even more excited.
“Hulk!”
“This godlike power doesn’t belong to you.
It belongs to me!”
“Where are you?
Come out!”
But the only answer he received was a voice from above.
“Hulk isn’t here.”
“But Wade is.”
“So get the hell out of here!”
Wade dropped straight from the sky.
His clear but furious voice rang out as he used the force of his descent to drive his foot directly into Abomination’s ugly face.
The legs were naturally stronger than the arms.
Combined with the acceleration from gravity, this strike exceeded Wade’s current maximum strength.
The impact carried nearly thirty tons of force.
Abomination didn’t even have time to react.
His mouth twisted violently to one side as his enormous body was sent flying hundreds of meters.
Half a street was destroyed in the process.
“Thank goodness.”
Wade landed steadily and anxiously looked behind him.
The street behind him led directly toward the slums where his home was located.
If Abomination had taken even a couple more steps forward, things could have gone terribly wrong.
Before Abomination could recover, Wade immediately rushed toward his home.
He tore open the deformed front door and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“She only fainted.
Thank goodness.”
Wade checked his unconscious grandmother.
Her breathing was steady, and she hadn’t suffered any injuries.
Just as he carefully lifted her frail body into his arms, an enraged roar came from behind him.
“Hulk!
Was that you?!”
A powerful warning instinct suddenly erupted inside Wade.
Something was coming straight toward him.
He had more than enough time to dodge.
If he moved, the person in his arms would be exposed to the incoming attack.
Without hesitation, Wade lowered his head and turned his back toward the approaching threat.
He presented his not-yet-fully-grown back to the incoming impact.
BOOM!
A tremendous force smashed into Wade’s back.
His body flew through the air like a broken kite.
Abomination had lowered his body into a stance resembling a sumo wrestler charging forward, using his reinforced shoulder to deliver a brutal shoulder tackle.
The force was almost impossible to resist.
Wade could feel his bones and internal organs being damaged by the impact.
Yet he merely tightened his arms around his grandmother, protecting her with every ounce of strength he had.
He flew several dozen meters before finally crashing heavily into the ground.
“A weak little human?”
Abomination’s mouth was still crooked, and even his neck was slightly twisted.
Apparently, Wade’s meteor-like kick had done more damage than expected.
“Cough, cough, cough.”
Wade spat out the blood rising in his throat.
There were even fragments of damaged organs mixed within it.
He wiped his mouth before carefully placing his grandmother on a relatively flat patch of ground.
“You say that like you’re not human yourself, idiot.”
Wade looked at Abomination approaching him.
He didn’t want to retreat.
More importantly, he couldn’t retreat.
This distance is dangerous.
I need to find a way to push him farther away.
“Oh?”
Abomination—or rather, Emil Blonsky, the soldier he had once been—looked both confused and excited.
“Your flesh-and-blood body actually survived my charge?”
“Are you a mutant?”
Abomination’s gaze shifted toward Wade’s grandmother.
His twisted face stretched into an even more vicious smile.
“That old woman beside you…”
“Is she the reason you came all the way here?”
“You don’t need to know.”
Wade slowly stood up.
A familiar heat began spreading through his body again.
His injuries rapidly regenerated.
Abomination also began walking toward him.
“I’ve never killed a mutant before.”
“I wonder what makes you freaks so different.”
As though responding to Wade’s words, Abomination’s footsteps became equally slow.
Putting their vastly different physiques aside, the two of them almost looked like models calmly walking onto a stage.
Neither one showed the slightest hint of fear.
“Ten meters.”
“That should be enough.”
Wade carefully calculated the distance between himself and his grandmother.
Once he reached that distance, the force he unleashed should no longer affect her.