The battered Lincoln pulled over to the curb, and Logan and the others stepped out one by one.
“Hey, just leave it right by the door, alright?”
The parking attendant eyed the Lincoln warily.
Its windows were shattered, and the body was riddled with bullet holes.
He couldn’t help but call out a reminder to the group.
Logan got out, paid the parking fee, and nodded in response.
Next, they helped Charles and Miles out of the car, placing them both in wheelchairs.
Logan and Caliban pushed them toward the hotel casino.
Wearing her children’s sunglasses, Laura looked around curiously.
It was clearly her first time seeing so many people, and she wanted to take everything in.
“Let’s go, stop staring,” Logan muttered as he wheeled Charles past her, offering a quiet warning.
“Logan,” Miles called out suddenly from his wheelchair.
“I just saw the medicine Charles hid in the gaps of the backseat.”
It was the medication used to suppress Charles’s seizures.
It tasted awful, so Charles always found excuses to secretly throw it away, lying to Logan that he had already taken it.
“Oh, shit!” Logan cursed.
He let go of the wheelchair and headed back to the car to search for the pills.
His supply was running low, and so was his money.
Every single dose had to be conserved.
“Miles!” Charles said helplessly.
“This isn’t right…
family members should be considerate of one another…”
“Shut up, Charles!” Logan barked over his shoulder as he returned, cutting Charles off.
Left with no choice, Charles glared resentfully at Logan like a child who had been caught misbehaving, and then cast an equally aggrieved look at Miles.
Miles remained completely unfazed, his gaze silently scanning the casino.
He took in the beautifully decorated dome, the array of glittering chandeliers, the sparse crowd of guests, and…
the countless electronic devices.
Within his immediate vicinity alone, Miles detected no fewer than five security cameras.
[Good, this place is perfect…]
A subtle smirk touched the corner of Miles’s lips, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
At the same time, the cerebrospinal fluid extractor on the back of his head emitted a faint, pulsing red light.
***
In the hotel shopping mall, the group picked up some fresh clothes before booking two suites to serve as temporary resting places.
Charles, Laura, and Miles—the old, the young, and the infirm—stayed in one room, while Logan and Caliban prepared and organized their gear in the other.
*Bang!*
On the television screen, a Western cowboy shot down a man in front of him and flashed a smile.
“This is a very famous movie, Laura…
it’s over a hundred years old now…”
Charles gently explained the Western film to Laura.
Little Laura watched, only half-understanding.
“Miles, what are you thinking about?” Charles turned his attention to Miles.
“You’ve been incredibly quiet since we got here.
You haven’t even said those things I usually can’t understand.
Frankly, it’s unlike you.
Is something on your mind?”
“I’m trying to connect to the network, Professor,” Miles replied, fiddling with Gabriela’s phone in his hands.
“You know personal phones have internet capabilities.
I’m trying to see if my new ability can access the internet through this device.”
“I must correct you, Miles.
That is not a new ability.
It is a potential you have always possessed; you simply never tried to utilize it in this manner before,” Charles said.
“Yeah,” Miles nodded.
“As far as I can remember, I wasn’t awake very often in the lab.
The few times I was, they only ordered me to test my abilities by ‘controlling’ others.”
“I can assure you, if they knew you could manipulate electronic devices, they would be regretting it to death by now,” Charles chuckled.
“A pity for them, they no longer have the chance.”
Miles kept quiet, though he silently added a thought of his own.
*That remains to be seen.*
“So, how is your attempt to connect to the network going?” Charles asked.
“Not great,” Miles shook his head.
“I can directly control this phone to connect to the internet, but I can’t directly manipulate the ‘information’ on the web itself.
Physically speaking, it’s just too far away from me.”
“Mobile networks in cities function through signal base stations scattered all over,” Charles noted.
“Can you sense where the base station for this area is?”
“On the building to the south,” Miles answered.
Simultaneously, a kilometer away, the signal base station atop that building abruptly ceased operations.
Consequently, the mobile networks of everyone in the immediate vicinity froze for a brief moment.
As Miles restored the base station to normal, everything went back to running smoothly.
The entire process was so brief that barely anyone even noticed.
“It seems you succeeded,” Charles laughed.
“In a way,” Miles said.
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
A security camera on the perimeter of the casino captured a group of people approaching.
Most of them possessed metallic cybernetic limbs, carried firearms, and looked thoroughly menacing.
In one of the vehicles, Miles “saw” a familiar face.
Zander Rice.
[They’re here.]
***
Meanwhile, in the other room, Logan was sorting through Gabriela’s belongings when he discovered a comic book in her bag: *Uncanny X-Men*.
“…” Logan fell silent.
He took off his glasses, stood up, and walked into the room where Charles and Laura were.
He glanced at the movie playing on the TV first, then held up the comic book, directing his question to Laura.
“Is this what you read?”
Laura looked at him, remaining silent.
“Look at this, Charles.
The X-Men have a new fan,” Logan said flatly, before continuing, “You know this stuff is all made up, right?
Maybe a quarter of it actually happened, but it wasn’t like this at all.”
“In the real world, people die.
And there are no self-promoting idiots wearing tights coming to save them…”
“Logan…” Charles tried to cut in.
But Logan was relentless, his voice rising with a trace of anger.
“This is just ice cream to comfort losers.
That nurse spent her time filling her head with beautiful-sounding bullshit…”
“Logan!” Professor Charles was about to interrupt him again, but before he could, Miles spoke up.
“They’re here.”
The argument stopped instantly.
Everyone turned their attention to Miles.
“Who?” Logan asked.
“The people who were chasing us before.
The Reavers hired by the institute, and Dr.
Zander himself…” Miles said slowly.
“They’ll find this place soon.
It’ll take them about ten minutes.”
“Fuck, they’ve been tailing us this whole time?” Logan cursed, then glanced at Charles.
“Charles, we have to leave right now!”
“We can’t run,” Miles said softly.
“They’ve already started surrounding the building.”
“Charles?” Logan turned back to Charles, as if looking for confirmation.
“Trust Miles, Logan,” Charles said, looking at the boy.
“Miles, what do you think we should do?”
“Ambush and break out,” Miles said.
“It’s best to kill Dr.
Zander.
Otherwise, he’ll just keep hunting us.”
“Do you even hear what you’re saying, kid?” Logan glared at Miles.
“How many people do you think we can actually kill on our own?”
“Trust me, we can do it…” Miles said quietly.
“This is the best chance we’ll ever get to kill Zander…”
“Listen to him, Logan,” Charles said.
“Prepare for battle.”
“Fuck!” Logan spat fiercely, then asked, “What’s the plan, exactly?”
“Put on the wireless earpieces and follow my commands,” Miles replied.
“I just pulled up several special forces infiltration logs from the network.
With our abilities, we have a chance to take them down one by one…”
“…” Hearing Miles’s confident tone, Logan wanted to laugh in frustration.
Yet Laura silently stood up and went to change her clothes, preparing for the fight.
“Logan,” Charles smiled at him.
“Trust him.”
Once Logan and Laura left, only the old man and the young boy remained in the room.
Charles looked at Miles and suddenly asked, “You knew they were tracking us the whole time, didn’t you, Miles?”
Miles remained silent.
“You left them a trail, or you have one of their tracking devices on you,” Charles continued.
“The reason you didn’t tell us earlier was because you felt the time wasn’t right.”
“All of this was to set a death trap for Dr.
Zander, wasn’t it?” Charles asked with a smile.
Miles sighed, then said, “I’m sorry, Professor.
I had to do it.”
As expected, Miles’s schemes could not escape the notice of old Charles, a man who excelled above all else at reading human minds.
“To be frank, I wish you hadn’t done this,” Charles said.
“You’ve put us all in immense danger.
But…
I understand you, child.”
“Huh?” Miles was taken aback.
“We are family, Miles,” Charles said.
“Family members understand each other and help each other.”
“So, go ahead and do what you must.
Don’t worry.”
***
Out on the street near the casino, Dr.
Zander, who had tracked the beacon signal all the way here, stared intensely at his monitor, his brow furrowed.
“Sir, we have surrounded the area.
We can begin the operation immediately!”
A man in black wearing sunglasses reported to Dr.
Zander.
His name was Antony.
Following Donald Pierce’s death, he had been appointed as the temporary leader of the Reavers.
“…Watch out for ‘X-0’,” Zander warned.
“I have a bad feeling.
Normally, X-0 can’t even stay conscious for more than two hours a day, let alone use his abilities so frequently.
But now…
the number of times he has intervened exceeds my expectations.”
“We understand, sir,” Antony said.
“Of course we’ll be careful.
We’ll make sure to put a bullet through the kid’s head the second we lay eyes on him!”
“Don’t kill him!
Use the tranquilizer gun!” Dr.
Zander shook his head.
“I have a feeling that little specimen has undergone some ‘changes’ that might surprise me.
I want him alive.”
“No problem,” Antony nodded.
“What about the others?”
“Do whatever you want with them,” Dr.
Zander replied.
“Heh, sounds good to me.”