“This is Team C, we are in position at the main entrance.”
“This is Team A, we have secured the elevators.”
“This is Team B, we are approaching the target from the stairwell…”
“Roger, proceed.
Await orders.”
In the command vehicle, Antony stared intently at the screens before him.
As the Reavers’ new interim leader, Antony hailed from the United States Navy’s special warfare forces and was highly experienced.
Unlike his predecessor, Donald, who loved to roam around, Antony preferred to direct from the center, which gave him a comforting sense of total control.
“There are five targets.
Try not to provoke the old man, but if you engage, make sure it’s a kill shot.
Wolverine and X-23 are extremely dangerous.
Do not let them close in!
Repeat, do not let them get close to you!”
“The freak in the heavy layers is nothing to worry about.
Focus your security on the kid in the wheelchair…
His ability can only control two to three people at a time, and the range isn’t very far.
Remember, don’t get separated!
The moment you see a comrade get controlled, the rest of you neutralize the target immediately!”
“Roger, we have reached the target floor…”
A line of black-clad Reavers slowly crept onto the twelfth floor, where Miles and the others were located.
Their movements were cautious, their footsteps feather-light.
“No anomalies so far…” the squad leader whispered into his walkie-talkie.
“We are preparing to breach…”
In the next instant, the lights on the entire floor abruptly went out.
Boundless darkness rushed in, startling everyone.
“Dammit, the power’s out!
Who did…
Ahh!”
Someone had barely finished complaining before screaming in pain.
“Hostiles!” The squad leader gasped, quickly reporting, “Antony!
We’re under attack!
Shit, it’s a trap, we…
Ah!”
“Ah!”
“Shit!”
In the darkness, screams and shouts of panic echoed one after another.
The walkie-talkie fell to the ground, emitting a burst of static.
“Team B!
Team B!
Report!
Team B, do you copy!”
In the command vehicle, Antony roared into Team B’s channel, but received no response.
Before him, the first-person feeds belonging to Team B lost signal completely, the screens turning to static.
“Situation has changed.
Team B is dark.
They were prepared!” Antony ordered the others.
“They’re still on the twelfth floor.
No need to leave too many men on the ground floor.
Team A, Team C, Team E, move in for support!
Team D, stay put and defend.
Protect Dr.
Zander…”
“Switch on night vision.
I suspect the enemy cut the power on the twelfth floor!”
The enemy’s two primary combatants were Wolverine and X-23, both close-quarters mutants with razor-sharp senses.
Since they had already lost the initiative, Antony figured that if he were commanding those two monsters, he would absolutely cut the power to create a favorable environment for his side.
Frankly, his reasoning was sound, but the problem was that he wasn’t facing ordinary opponents.
“Quick reflexes, Anty-nee…
wait, no, Tony…
whatever, you’re the enemy either way.”
Back in his room, Miles pressed his finger to his temple, trembling as he muttered, “Logan, how many more minutes do you need?”
“Two minutes.”
Out in the dark hallway, Logan drove a claw through a Reaver’s chest and grunted into his earpiece, “Also, can you cut the useless chatter for once?”
“Sorry, you know my brain isn’t right.
The more thrilling things get, the less I can help myself.
It’s like a guy getting a hard-on when he’s teased—not exactly something I can consciously control…”
“Fuck!!”
Logan cursed.
Caught off guard, he was slammed against the wall by a Reaver.
A gunshot cracked, and a bullet bit into him.
He gritted his teeth against the searing pain.
Then, with a feral roar from a young girl, Laura drove her claws through the Reaver’s neck, tearing him off Logan.
“Ha…
ha…” Logan lay on the floor, panting heavily before slowly pushing himself back up.
He was no longer the Wolverine of old, who knew neither injury nor fatigue.
What little healing factor remained could only ensure that a bullet wound wouldn’t be fatal, and nothing more.
In his prime, taking a few bullets was nothing; within seconds, his regenerating flesh would have pushed them out.
Now, he had to push through the agonizing pain, standing back up with the bullets still lodged inside him because the fight wasn’t over.
Old Logan was truly exhausted—both in body and in soul.
“Logan, get ready.
The second wave is coming in two minutes.
Eighteen of them.”
“Fuck!!” Logan barked.
“Are you serious?
You think this kid and I can hold off eighteen fully armed soldiers by ourselves?”
“By the way, Logan, are you afraid of water?”
“Afraid of water?
What the hell are you talking about?”
“Oh right, you’re a wolf.
Canines can swim.
Cats are the ones afraid of water, like your old brother Sabretooth…
wait, tigers actually love swimming.
Dammit, that makes no sense.
No sense at all!”
“Shut up, you brain-damaged brat!” Logan couldn’t take Miles’s rambling anymore.
“Keep annoying me and I’ll cut your head off and shove it up your ass!”
“You really have a bizarre fixation on asses, Logan,” Miles replied.
“Anyway, grab a gun off the floor for Caliban.
We need some extra firepower.
I told Laura to bring a few guns, but unfortunately, she doesn’t like them…”
“Um…
I have a pistol,” Caliban said, pulling out a handgun he carried.
Though Caliban was physically weak and no fighter, it made sense for a former black-market dealer to carry a self-defense weapon.
“That thing’s too weak, not enough WAAAGH!
It probably won’t even scratch body armor,” Miles scoffed.
“True enough,” Caliban nodded, conceding the point.
Soon, the door opened.
A blood-spattered Laura walked in holding an AR-15 rifle.
She nodded to Caliban and handed it over.
“Sigh…” Old Charles watched Laura’s murderous aura and sighed silently.
“Get ready.
The second wave is here.
Logan, do you have the grenades ready?”
“Yeah,” Logan nodded, then turned his gaze toward the stairwell.
Rapid footsteps echoed in the darkness.
Clearly, a large group was rapidly closing in from below.
“Logan, listen to me.
Hide first.
Don’t panic, trust me…” Miles’s face trembled as he gritted his teeth.
“Listen to me, we can win this!!”
“This had better be true!”
Logan gritted his teeth.
Through the shadows, he watched the enemies slowly emerge from the stairwell.
With their beast-like senses, the darkness barely hindered Logan and Laura.
Just as the enemy commander Antony had anticipated, the dark hallway was their home court.
“They’re wearing night-vision goggles,” Miles’s voice chimed in.
“Laura, draw their attention.”
Laura nodded and peeked her head out slightly.
*Bang!
Bang!
Bang!*
In the next instant, several bullets whipped past, forcing Laura to quickly pull back.
“Is it still not time?” Logan whispered, tracking their footsteps.
“They’re already this close…”
“Just a little longer, Logan…”
Miles said hoarsely from inside the room.
“Almost there…”
Two seconds later, in Miles’s perception, the enemies finally reached the designated position.
“Heh.”
The boy let out a cold smirk, muttering to himself, “Showtime.”
In the next split second, the night-vision goggles of every Reaver soldier flickered violently and died!
Utter darkness crashed down, impervious even to night vision.
At the same time, the fire alarms in the hallway suddenly shrilled to life!
*Riiiiiing—*
As the alarms blared, the overhead fire sprinklers burst open, unleashing a torrential downpour that instantly drenched the entire corridor!
“Logan!
Now!!”
Hearing Miles’s cue, Logan shoved his surprise aside and deftly pulled the pin of the grenade in his hand.
“So that’s why you asked if I was afraid of water…
Nice work, kid!”
Logan tossed the grenade.
As a World War II veteran, throwing grenades was practically muscle memory.
With just a glance, he knew exactly where to lob it to inflict maximum casualties.
“What’s going on!
My night vision failed!”
“Mine too!”
“The alarm is going off!
Is there a fire?”
“There’s water everywhere!”
The sudden failure of their night vision, compounded by the deafening fire alarms, threw the squad into utter disarray.
In the chaos, no one noticed a grenade sliding across the waterlogged floor right into the center of their formation!
“The human eye takes a few minutes to adapt to sudden darkness.
During that time…
they are blind,” Miles muttered with a sinister grin.
“This is my first gift to you…
Dr.
Zander!”
*BOOM!!!*
A violent explosion roared out, its terrifying force clearly audible even to Miles inside the room.
“Miles…” Charles couldn’t help but speak up.
Too many people have already died here.”
“Just a little longer, Professor…” Miles said softly.
“That bastard Zander is still out there…”
“I understand your stubbornness, Miles,” old Charles said.
“But you must know that revenge does not have to be rushed.
You are still so young.
You could have given yourself more time to grow…”
“I’m sorry…
I can’t wait, Professor,” Miles said quietly.
“As long as Zander lives, every single day is pure torture…”
“I can’t bear it anymore…
Professor!”
*Ssssshh…*
Out in the corridor, the fire sprinklers continued to rain down, drenching everyone in a torrential downpour.
With the grenade detonating right in their midst, several Reaver soldiers died instantly.
The survivors lay scattered on the floor, bathed in the pouring water, utterly bewildered by what had just transpired.
“Ahhh!!!”
Feral roars echoed in the darkness.
Then, the silent slaughter began.
“Hostiles!
Hostiles!!”
One soldier in slightly better shape ripped off his useless night-vision goggles.
Raising his rifle, he tried to aim toward the sounds in the dark.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger…
he realized to his horror that his cybernetic arm had malfunctioned!
*Bzzzt…*
The cybernetic limb, once fluid and precise, acted as if hit by a virus.
After a brief, frantic crackle of electrical sparks, it completely locked up.
With only one working hand, there was no way he could operate his rifle!
In the next second, the last thing he saw was a razor-sharp claw flashing in the dark, plunging straight into his eyes!
*Squelch!*
…
“Team A?
Team B?”
In the command vehicle, Antony shouted frantically into his radio, but no matter how hard he yelled, he received nothing but silence.
Every single squad he had sent in had gone completely dark!
“Information warfare?
Electromagnetic interference?!” Antony’s mind raced as he analyzed the situation.
He whipped his head around to demand of Dr.
Zander, “Are you absolutely sure they’re just a bunch of frail, crippled mutants?!”
“I am absolutely positive!!” Dr.
Zander exclaimed, his eyes wild.
Recalling the “anomalous data” they had harvested from Miles, he muttered to himself, “It’s ‘X-0’!
It has to be him!”
“This is his true potential!”
“What the hell are you talking about?!” Antony demanded.
“We retreat!” Dr.
Zander didn’t bother to explain, barking out orders, “Abandon the men.
Pull out immediately.
I need to redesign the capture protocol…”
But before Dr.
Zander could finish, the lights inside the entire command vehicle dimmed and died.
*Clack!*
The doors automatically locked, sealing off the interior.
“…What’s happening?”
“The vehicle is malfunctioning too?”
Antony repeatedly tried to restart the ignition, but the vehicle gave absolutely no response.
“What’s wrong?
Is the system out of power?” Dr.
Zander asked.
“Impossible, it was over half full a second ago!” Antony said, a note of panic creeping into his voice.
“It’s not just the command systems—I can’t even crank the engine!”
“We’re trapped in here!”
As a custom military command vehicle funded by Alkali and built specifically for the Reavers, this vehicle was highly advanced.
Everything from the engine to the command hub, and even the door locks, was digitally controlled.
Its heavily armored chassis was built like a tank, capable of taking direct rocket hits and shrugging off barrages of gunfire.
But of course, this also meant that once locked from within, the vehicle became the perfect iron coffin.
“Our systems have been hacked!” Dr.
Zander realized instantly.
“That’s impossible!” Antony retorted.
“Our comms run on a temporary, secure internal frequency, completely air-gapped from the main control systems.
No hacker could pull this off!”
“What if it’s not a normal hacker?” Dr.
Zander muttered pointedly.
Then he yelled, “Where’s the emergency escape hatch!
We need to get out now!”
“Underneath!”
Much like a tank, the armored command vehicle was equipped with an emergency floor hatch.
Operated purely by manual levers, it remained unaffected by any electromagnetic interference.
But the catch was that opening it was a grueling physical chore.
“Together…”
Antony and Dr.
Zander grabbed the emergency release lever together.
“One, two, three!!!”