After an unknown amount of time, amid the steady, monotonous jolts of the pickup truck, the elderly Professor Charles slowly opened his eyes.
The anesthetic had worn off, and a dull ache throbbed from the wound on his back.
But the old man had been through too much in his life; this level of pain was far from unbearable.
What concerned him more was that the others had clearly run into trouble while he was unconscious.
Logan, who was driving, still hadn’t fully recovered from the injuries on one side of his face.
Visible claw marks remained on his neck, and the hand gripping the steering wheel was wrapped in dirty cloth, with mangled flesh faintly visible underneath.
In the backseat, although Laura’s injuries had healed thanks to her self-healing factor, her dust-covered, blood-stained clothes and the exhaustion in her eyes spoke volumes about the brutality of the previous battle.
Beside her, Miles had regressed back into his catatonic state.
His head lolled limply to one side, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, and his pale face was still smeared with grime—the lingering marks of bleeding from his facial orifices after overusing his abilities.
“Logan,” Charles rasped.
“What happened?
Where is Caliban?”
Logan glanced in the rearview mirror at the waking Charles, a barely perceptible flicker of relief softening his tense face.
He then drove in silence, letting the roar of the engine fill the quiet cabin.
After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice gravelly as he answered, “He’s gone.
They must have taken him.”
“And then we were attacked by a monster.
Yeah, the one mentioned in that woman’s video…
codenamed X-24.
A young clone grown from my DNA…”
“Caliban is gone…”
Charles let out a long, heavy sigh, thick with sorrow and helplessness.
“Another clone of you, and he’s our enemy…
That is terrible indeed.
So, what do we do now?”
“Run, obviously,” Logan replied without hesitation.
But then his tone shifted as he asked, “But before that, Charles, answer me one question.”
“We shook those bastards off at first.
But right after we checked into that casino hotel, they found us again…
So, who exactly is giving them directions?”
Logan’s questioning made the air in the truck freeze instantly.
Miles just kept grinning vacuously, completely unresponsive to the outside world.
Laura, however, seemed to realize something.
Leaning forward slightly, she protectively shielded Miles, glaring warily at Logan.
Seeing Laura’s reaction, Charles offered a warm, gentle smile.
He patted her hand soothingly, then turned to calmly meet Logan’s bloodshot eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Yes.
It’s Miles.”
Logan’s gaze went cold.
With his suspicions confirmed, his temper flared on the verge of exploding.
But before Logan could lose it, Charles continued, “There is a tracking device hidden inside the cerebrospinal fluid extractor on the back of Miles’s head.
You know, that little gadget embedded in his skull, harvesting his cerebrospinal fluid day in and day out.”
“…Shit!!”
Logan gritted his teeth, slamming a fist onto the steering wheel, shaking the entire truck.
“Can’t he control those damn ‘electronic gadgets’?
Why the hell hasn’t he turned it off himself?”
Charles smiled faintly and, instead of answering directly, gestured toward Miles with his eyes.
“Right now?”
Logan glanced at the teenager who was giggling away with drool dripping from his mouth, his fury suddenly stifled, leaving him at a loss for words.
In his catatonic state, Miles was genuinely a complete simpleton.
You couldn’t expect him to do anything but giggle.
While he instinctively maintained a mental block, that didn’t extend to electronic devices—as that was a potential he had only just unlocked.
For some reason, Logan recalled what Caliban had once said…
“I think…
they might have a different future…
I want to see it with my own eyes.”
*So this is the idiot you wanted to believe in, Caliban?!*
“Fuck!!”
Logan gritted his teeth, cursing under his breath with bloodshot eyes, “Dammit, he’s going to get us all killed sooner or later!!”
***
Interstate, Oklahoma.
Most of the day passed, and as the sky began to dim, painting the edges of the clouds with a deep orange hue, Miles finally stirred awake.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw old Charles looking at him with a warm smile.
“Good afternoon, Miles.
How are you feeling?” Charles asked.
“Glad to see you’re okay…
but don’t get too close next time, Charles.
I’m pretty sure I still have my first kiss.”
Despite his weakness, Miles instinctively cracked a joke to announce the return of his sanity.
Then he sighed, his voice raspy as he said, “As for me…
honestly, terrible.
I think I pushed my abilities way too far earlier.”
“I asked Logan earlier, but his version was too brief.
You know he doesn’t have the patience to tell a proper story.”
“I get it, but to be honest, I’m still exhausted.” Miles’s voice was weak and drained.
“After you got shot and passed out, Caliban guided us to a back-alley clinic to get your wound patched up.
But that asshole Fernando charged an absolute fortune…”
“…So I just kept looping that bastard Zander’s screams in his earpiece until he walked away.
The last thing I remember is completely frying his headset before blacking out…”
“It sounds like it was a perilous ordeal,” Charles murmured.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be awake to help, Miles.”
“No, you already helped us a lot back then,” Miles shook his head.
“Also…
Caliban was likely taken by Dr.
Zander.
The moment he disappeared, that monster showed up…
I don’t believe in coincidences.
If Caliban were around, we would have definitely gotten a heads-up.”
“Wait, that makes sense…” Miles mumbled to himself.
“That bastard Zander sent that monster specifically for us.
Since it’s Logan’s clone, it has a mutant signature, so they had to grab Caliban first to keep us blind.
That way, the three of us would be completely defenseless against it…
Dammit!
That has to be it!!”
Seeing Miles’s nerves fraying again, Charles offered gently, “Easy, child.
Caliban’s capture isn’t your fault.
If only…
if only I had woken up sooner.”
“No, Professor, you don’t need to comfort me.” Miles shook his head, then slowly locked eyes with Charles.
“Just give me some time…
I’ll bring Caliban back.
I promise!”
Hearing this, both Charles and Logan, who was driving, froze for a moment.
Beside them, Laura thought about it for a second, then gave Charles a solemn nod as well.
Her too.
“Well, it seems you really don’t need comforting.” Charles smiled warmly, clearly pleased.
“But I must remind you, Miles, what you said wasn’t quite right.”
“It’s not ‘I.’ It’s ‘we.'” Charles gestured toward Laura, himself, and then toward Logan up front.
“We are going to rescue Caliban together.”
The elderly Charles didn’t forget to call out to the front seat.
“Right, Logan?”
“…”
Logan didn’t bother to reply, driving on in silence as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
“Splendid, he agrees,” Charles said, unfazed.
He then turned back to Miles.
“So, what are your thoughts on our next move, Miles?”
“First, we head to the nearest city and find a major hospital.” Miles pointed to the back of his head, where the cerebrospinal fluid extractor was now surrounded by encrusted pus.
He gritted his teeth.
“I have to find a way to get this thing out.
Otherwise, every time I use my abilities even a little bit, my head hurts like hell…
The trouble is, it’s embedded in my skull and partially wired into my brain tissue.
It can only be removed surgically.
If it weren’t for that, I would’ve ripped it out with my bare hands long ago.”
“Poor child…” Charles sighed, then suggested, “What about Wichita?
I recall there is a decent hospital there…”
“No, we have to plan this carefully.” Miles took out Gabriela’s phone, tapped his temple, and activated his ability.
As a flood of digital data surged through Miles’s mind, the phone screen in his hand flashed rapidly with various icons and interfaces, eventually settling on a digital map.
“Wichita is indeed the closest right now, but given our pursuers, going straight there would make our movements too predictable…
So I suggest we head slightly further to Kansas City.” Miles’s tone was icy, completely devoid of emotion, sounding almost like synthesized speech.
He rapidly scanned massive amounts of online data, speaking at a brisk pace.
“I need an incredibly complex neurosurgery that a standard hospital can’t handle.
We should go straight to the University of Kansas Hospital.
It’s one of the best in the country and a comprehensive academic medical center campus.
It has top-of-the-line medical equipment and a complex environment…
If we encounter enemies, I’ll have a lot more to work with there!”
“…Miles,” Charles said, watching him with concern.
“When did you learn to surf the internet directly with your brain?”
“Back at the casino hotel when I was searching for cell towers,” Miles replied.
“Doesn’t it hurt?
Processing that much data all at once…”
“Actually, some external stimulation makes it a little easier to bear.”
“…Very well.” The old Professor nodded.
Just then, Logan chimed in from the driver’s seat.
“…Kid, did you forget one tiny detail?
Do you have any money?”
“Not right now, but that’s not a major issue,” Miles said indifferently.
“Once we reach Kansas City, I just need to step into a bank with this phone.
As long as the primary mainframe is within my range of perception…
it won’t take long for me to drain all their online deposits.”
“…” Logan was completely stunned.
“Miles!” Charles chided, casting a stern look his way.
“Don’t do that.”
“Tch…” Miles grimaced.
“Fine.
I’ll only take a little, just enough to cover the surgery…”
Listening to Miles mutter, Logan’s mind raced, unable to settle.
Truth be told, Logan hadn’t really grasped the concept of Miles’s “electronic signal manipulation” until now.
But hearing the kid lay it out like this…
he finally realized just how terrifyingly powerful such an ability was in modern human society.
After all, the social order of the information age was built almost entirely on digital communication.
And Miles…
he could use his power to take whatever he wanted from it without a shred of restraint!
To him, money was quite literally just a number.
This realization only made Logan more irritable.
If that was the case, what the hell had been the point of him working so damn hard to scrape together savings?
Watching an automated truck speed past them, Logan couldn’t help but curse, “Fuck…
Goddamn autotrucks…”
It was the year 2029, and self-driving technology was fully mature; driverless vehicles were a common sight on the highways.
“Logan, look out!!”
Charles’s sudden shout snapped Logan out of his daze.
Only then did he see the driverless truck beside them suddenly veering wildly, swerving straight toward them!
Logan swerved sharply, veering the pickup off the road and spinning it in a wide arc across the open field before coming to a stop with a screech of tires.
Across the road, he saw a horse trailer that had jackknifed and overturned on a grassy slope, having swerved violently to avoid a collision.
“We have to help them,” Charles said.
“No, we need to keep moving.
Someone else will help,” Logan said impatiently, clearly unwilling to get involved.
“Why not us?” Charles retorted.
Logan sighed, started the engine again, and drove toward the stranded trailer.
With the vehicle damaged, several powerful horses had broken free in panic.
They were rearing and bolting down the busy highway, whinnying in terror.
Just then, a massive automated cargo truck barreled past, nearly crushing two of the horses.
The owner was frantic, desperately trying to calm the beasts, but he was only one man and couldn’t possibly round up so many terrified horses on his own.
Charles rolled down his window, watching the scene with concern before slowly closing his eyes.
An invisible, gentle, and calming wave of telepathic energy washed over the spooked horses like a warm spring breeze.
The frantic animals gradually settled down, halting their wild run and snorting softly as Charles guided them safely onto the grassy verge by the side of the road.
Logan got out of the truck with a scowl, walking over to help winch the trailer out of the ditch.
Watching the horses get led back, Charles smiled and turned to Miles.
“You see, Miles, communicating with animals isn’t that difficult.”
“They aren’t soulless; they just don’t think about complex things like we do.
You only need a bit of patience, some gentle reassurance, and then you can become their friend…”
“Is that so?” Miles asked, still half-puzzled.
The crisis was quickly averted, and the rescued Munson family was incredibly grateful.
They warmly invited Charles and his companions to their farm for a hearty dinner.
“I’d like to invite you all over to our place for dinner to show our thanks.
It’s not far from here,” Kathryn, the wife, said to Logan.
“No, thank you,” Logan shook his head.
He called out to Laura, who was standing near the trailer, curiously watching the horses.
“Alright, Laura, time to go…”
Inside the cab, Charles wanted to raise his hand and accept.
It had been so long since he had felt the warmth of a normal, decent family.
But this time, Miles stopped him firmly.
“Charles, trust me on this…” Miles grabbed Charles’s arm and said seriously, “Don’t get them involved!”
Miles couldn’t actually remember much of the original movie plot, but he had a vague recollection that this family did not meet a good end.
“Ah, very well.” Charles sighed, letting the matter drop.
After ushering Laura away and bidding farewell to the disappointed Munsons, Logan hurried back to the truck.
“The University of Kansas Hospital, right?” Logan asked.
“Yes.
Do you need directions?” Miles asked.
“No, I know the way,” Logan said quietly.
“Hold on.”
The pickup started up again, carrying them forward into the distance, heading toward Kansas City.