“What you are about to see is illegal in both the United States and Canada…”
Inside the stretch limousine parked on the shoulder of the road, Charles and Logan watched the video saved on Gabriela’s phone in heavy silence.
In the video, Gabriela revealed the truth of Alkali Transigen to them.
What was nominally just a cancer research facility in Mexico City was in reality a gene-weapon laboratory dedicated to engineering artificial mutants.
Over the past few years, the lab had bred numerous gifted artificial mutant children, inhumanely raising them to be killers and weapons before selling them off for exorbitant prices.
“They were born here, and they have never left…”
“They have no birth certificates, no names…
Their fathers were gene seeds kept in test tubes…”
“It’s a business.
They are making soldiers…
weapons of death…”
On the screen, before Gabriela could finish her sentence, the phone’s battery died.
“Heh heh…” Miles, in the back seat, let out a silly giggle, clearly not fully awake yet.
Old Logan took off his glasses.
His gaze drifted past Miles to Laura, who was sitting on a toy spring horse by the roadside, her brow deeply furrowed.
“…You took the woman’s money.
You promised to take these two children away,” Charles asked from the back seat.
“Yeah,” Logan murmured, barely audible, before asking, “Who is she?”
Undoubtedly, Logan was asking about Laura.
“She’s your daughter, Logan,” Professor Charles replied.
Logan glanced at Charles, then got out of the car without saying a word.
“Alkali has your genetic material,” Charles reminded him.
“You too.” Logan gestured with his chin toward Miles, who was sitting next to Charles.
“…Ha,” Charles let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
“True enough.”
Watching Logan walk silently toward Laura, Charles turned to Miles.
“Miles, are you awake?”
“…Where are we?
I’m so sleepy,” Miles muttered groggily.
Logically, after using his abilities so intensely earlier, he shouldn’t have woken up so quickly.
He felt as though Charles had nudged his mind awake.
“Hold onto your resolve, Miles,” Charles said with a warm smile.
“I know you’re exhausted and in pain…
but you don’t realize that a large part of your agony comes from your mind being far too tense…”
“I can feel it.
Your spirit is like a burning fire, scorching your brain and consuming your life…”
“So, try to relax.
Think of the beautiful things in your memories…”
“I’m sorry, Professor…” Miles whispered.
“I don’t know what relaxing feels like.”
“Poor Miles.” Professor Charles offered a bitter smile, then said, “In that case, you can try to imagine.”
“Imagine?”
“Yes, imagine,” Charles nodded.
“Imagination is the most precious treasure God has bestowed upon humanity.”
“You should imagine that you are just an ordinary teenager, hanging out with other kids at an age when you’re supposed to be making trouble.
Playing a basketball game, or going on a date with a girl you like.
Doing all the things kids your age are supposed to do…
Oh, and remember, no smoking cigarettes or weed.”
As Charles spoke, his words subtly swayed Miles’s consciousness.
With Charles’s power, even without using his telepathy directly, simple hypnosis was more than enough to soothe Miles’s mind.
“School, huh…”
Fragments of the past slowly drifted into Miles’s mind—memories that once belonged to a nameless transmigrator.
Unfortunately, his agonizing experiences in Alkali Transigen had long since torn his memories and identity to shreds.
The current Miles had even forgotten his original name; the name “Miles” had been given to him by Gabriela.
Now, under the Professor’s guidance, Miles felt as though he were in a dream, returning to a school campus, playing happily with classmates, and even stealing a kiss from a girl’s cheek.
Soft and sweet.
“…Thank you, Professor,” Miles murmured softly before falling into a deep sleep.
This time, he truly slept.
Looking at Miles’s pale, sleeping face, Charles smiled gently.
He then called out the window to Logan, who was currently staring down Laura.
“Hey, Logan, don’t be so rough on Laura.”
“Shut up, Charles.
Stay out of this!”
“Oh, and also, I need to pee,” Charles added, still smiling.
“…” Logan looked back at Charles in silence.
…
When Miles opened his eyes again, it was already dark.
“Ah…
That was a good sleep.
Where are we in the movie?
Have we hit the classic road-trip movie cliché where the old guy dies halfway through?”
Miles yawned, then turned around to see Laura wearing a new pair of children’s sunglasses, munching on a fresh tube of potato chips.
“…”
Seeing Miles wake up, Laura instinctively hugged the chip tube closer to her chest.
She hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a few chips and held them out to Miles.
“Thanks, Laura.” Miles took the chips with some effort, then looked at the others who were gathered around, watching Gabriela’s video.
“What’s going on?” he asked, slightly disgruntled.
“Why didn’t anyone invite me to watch this home video?”
Logan and Caliban, who had just returned from restocking supplies, gave Miles a speechless look and ignored him.
“…It seems your past life was a bit more colorful than I imagined,” Charles clarified with a soft chuckle.
“We’re watching the recording Gabriela left behind.
Do you want to join us?”
“Sure, sure,” Miles nodded.
After a good sleep, Miles was visibly much more energetic than before.
“Caliban, give him a hand,” Charles said.
“To be honest, I still don’t think taking these two kids along is a good idea…” Caliban grumbled under his breath as he helped support Miles and brought him closer.
Logan said nothing, only adjusting his glasses.
Yes, the old Wolverine was farsighted and needed reading glasses to see the phone screen clearly.
By now, the video had reached Laura’s surgery.
The footage vividly displayed the researchers injecting red-hot Adamantium into Laura’s limbs.
The entire process was bloody, raw, and horrifying to watch.
Next, Miles began to appear in the footage.
Just as he had behaved before, the Miles in the video had vacant, blank eyes and a dull expression.
He passively let the researchers drive an extractor into the back of his head, embedding it deep into his skull before connecting a tube to it.
As the only successful clone of “Charles Xavier,” Dr.
Zander, the lab director, had always maintained a keen interest in him.
His brain was considered one of the institute’s most valuable research assets.
Then, Gabriela’s voiceover in the recording continued, “Inside this building, they are still…”
*Bzzzt…*
Suddenly, the phone screen flickered and went entirely white.
“Huh?
Is it broken?” Caliban was startled.
“Tsk.” Logan impatiently tapped the phone against the car door, but it did nothing.
“…Miles?” Professor Charles suddenly realized something.
He turned to look at Miles and saw that the boy looked somewhat spaced out.
Hearing Charles’s voice, Miles snapped out of it.
“Uh, I’m fine…”
Instantly, the phone screen flickered and returned to normal.
“Oh, looks like percussive maintenance still works,” Logan muttered.
“No, Logan, that wasn’t it.” Professor Charles shook his head.
He looked at Miles, a distinct spark in his eyes.
“Don’t be afraid, child.
Tell me, what did you just feel?”
“I…” Miles thought for a moment and said uncertainly, “I felt like…
I could control that thing…”
“What thing?” Logan asked, confused.
Then he watched as the phone screen in his hand turned white again.
“It’s his ability!” Caliban nodded at Charles, then asked hesitantly, “Can telepathy do that too?”
“Controlling a phone screen?
Interesting,” Logan said casually.
“Since when can telepaths manipulate electronic screens?
Charles, I think I finally understand why I could never find your TV remote in the headmaster’s office back at the Institute.”
“That’s because I hated you always watching country music performances in my office.
It felt like a group of people taking a dump in my ears,” old Charles replied calmly with a vulgar retort.
Meanwhile, Miles was carefully examining this new application of his power, a thoughtful look on his face.
“Actually, I noticed it a while ago, Miles,” Charles continued.
“Your ability is slightly different from normal telepathy.
You can make lights flicker, and you can cause walkie-talkies to malfunction…
Clearly, the targets of your power aren’t limited to humans.”
“Try to completely unleash your perception, Miles,” Charles coaxed gently.
“Don’t focus so much on the cluttered thoughts of other people.
Follow your instincts and perceive with your mind…”
“Now, tell me, what do you perceive?”
“…The phone,” Miles murmured, pressing his fingers to the side of his head.
“And…
the streetlights.”
The moment the words left his mouth, a streetlight on the side of the road began to flicker erratically.
After a few blinks, it went out.
Then, as if triggering a chain reaction, the other streetlights on both sides began to go dark one after another like falling dominoes, plunging the entire street into gloom.
“The convenience store’s cash register…
and the lights…”
A burst of cursing suddenly erupted from the convenience store down the street, seemingly because the register had crashed.
Then, the store’s lights abruptly went out, swallowed by darkness.
“And…
so much more.”
A few young men walking by were laughing and talking when one wearing headphones suddenly took out his phone in confusion, only to find the screen completely blank and white.
Soon, the others also started swearing.
Only then did the other people in the car instinctively turn their gaze toward Miles.
“That’s enough, Miles,” Charles advised.
“Don’t go any further.”
But Miles ignored him.
His perception continued to sweep outward, reaching even further.
In the night, a silent darkness began to sweep over everything.
People inside their homes watched as their light bulbs flickered, and devices like TVs and landlines repeatedly malfunctioned.
An old, poorly maintained surveillance camera on a city street suddenly groaned, slowly whirring to life and tilting upward.
Miles found that this camera had become his third eye, allowing him to see things much farther away.
A stray dog with a broken leg hobbled by.
How pitiful, just like him.
And over there, in an alleyway, a mugger was robbing a woman…
“Shut up, lady!
If you don’t want to die, let go of the bag!”
At the corner of the alley, a vagrant holding a knife pressed the blade against a woman’s neck, threatening her harshly.
But at that exact moment, the streetlights and window lights all around them suddenly went completely dark.
This eerie occurrence startled both of them.
Then, the phone in the woman’s pocket rang, answering itself despite no one touching it.
“This is the precinct.
We have received a report and will arrive within five minutes…”
“Fuck!!” The mugger with the knife threw the woman violently to the ground.
He snatched the phone and tried to turn it off, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t shut it down or even hang up the call!
“Please keep the line open.
We are on our way…”
The mugger slammed the phone hard onto the ground, spat angrily at the woman, and hurried away.
Having survived the ordeal, the woman slowly retrieved her phone.
Around her, the lights gradually began to flicker back on.
The dim glow of the streetlights cast a glistening tear in her eyes.
…
Inside the limo, Miles slowly lowered his hand from the side of his head and opened his eyes.
“I think we might have just witnessed a miracle,” old Charles said, looking at Miles with unprecedented brightness in his eyes.
So alike…
Not just the telepathy, but even the habitual hand gesture he used when activating his power…
He looked so much like a young version of himself!
“What did the kid just do?” Logan asked, unable to feel the direct effects of Miles’s power.
“He can manipulate all electrical appliances within range,” Caliban explained.
“Cutting off light sources, even disabling electronic screens…
It’s a very strange power.
I’ve almost never heard of a mutant with this kind of ability!”
“It’s not ‘manipulating appliances,’ but ‘manipulating electrical signals,'” old Charles corrected slowly.
“At its core, it is still a telepathic ability.
But many people don’t realize that thoughts in animal brains are transmitted via electrical signals…”
“Telepathic abilities in the conventional sense achieve their effects by interfering with the brain’s electrical signals.
But Miles…
his mental abilities have a much broader scope.
What he can manipulate is all ‘electronic signals’!”
“He can manipulate not only other people’s consciousness, but also all electronic circuits, devices…
and even networks.”
“Does that mean he can just snap someone’s brain shut like turning off a TV?” Caliban asked instinctively.
“It’s not that easy…” Miles massaged his temples, muttering weakly.
“Brain signals and circuit signals are too different.
The brain is a complete mess of chaos…
It’s not something you can achieve by simply cutting off a line or two.
That’s the old man’s area of expertise.”
“…Even so, it’s extraordinary,” Caliban whispered to himself, his expression shifting.
“In a society where electronic devices are everywhere, having the power to manipulate all electronic signals…”
“Logan.” Old Charles suddenly called Logan’s name.
“We must protect Miles…”
“He is the hope of the new generation of mutants!”