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*****
Nick Fury sat on the edge of the bed. Watching Mike drag a chair over and sit across from him, he rubbed his eyes and snapped, "Spit it out. What do you want?"
Mike slouched in the chair, lazily stretching his legs out to rest them on the side of Fury's bed.
Fury's face darkened. He pushed at Mike's shins; when they didn't budge, he sighed and shoved twice harder.
Mike chuckled to himself and suddenly said, "Want to go to Planet Kent?"
"Hm?" Fury blinked, a little surprised. "You mean…?"
"Are you planning to keep flying around forever and never land?"
He tapped the deck underfoot—the Helicarrier. "With this thing, what you can do is pretty limited."
Fury gave a wry smile and rubbed the corner of his mouth…
"Pah!"
Disgusted, he spat and wiped at his clothes twice.
The Helicarrier was a powerful deterrent, sure—but lately he'd realized more and more individuals possessed terrifying power, and the Helicarrier was just too cumbersome.
"So what are you suggesting?"
Fury asked, puzzled—but a thought already bubbled up that made his heart beat a little faster.
"You've probably guessed."
Mike pulled his legs back. Fury quietly exhaled in relief.
"Planet Kent will be the home of a mutant nation—a country built from the ground up. And since it's a nation, it needs all kinds of departments." Mike paused, then continued, "A police force specifically for mutants—an Ability Police Department—has to exist. I think you're the perfect person to lead it."
He gave Fury a wink. "Well? Director Fury has a nice ring to it. Tempted?"
Tempted?
Of course he was!
This was the directorship of a mutant nation's police!
What did that mean?
It meant the people under him would be mutants with superpowers—one of the most formidable forces on the planet!
With that power, the goal he had pursued—to actually do something for this world—could be realized immediately.
Without a second's hesitation, Fury forced a bitter smile, lifted a hand toward the corner of his mouth, froze halfway, hurriedly put it down, and said to Mike, "I can't refuse."
"Then get ready. Once Kent City's construction is mostly done, you'll head to Planet Kent."
Fury nodded, then hesitated. "What about the agents who've been following me…?"
"Handle it as you see fit. I think they're all seasoned people; they'll help you a lot."
Time had proven those people trustworthy.
Fury nodded again. A smile crept over his face. "It might be redundant to say this, but… thanks for the trust."
Mike stood, clapped Fury on the shoulder.
"That's that. I'll head back."
Smiling, he vanished in a blink.
Fury let out a helpless laugh.
Mike always blew in like the wind, coming and going without a trace.
But today, Mike was a spring breeze, leaving Fury buoyant—he even had the impulse to burst out cheering.
A few seconds later, clutching his head, Fury muttered, "Damn it, I'm not sleeping tonight."
"Couldn't that bastard Mike have told me tomorrow?"
"Hold on—Mike came this time because of… Coulson?"
He whispered, repeating "Coulson" three more times in his head.
"Forget it. I'll grab something to celebrate." 980631
Fury grinned.
Just as he reached for something that would make him happy, he noticed dust by the bed.
He rushed over and slapped furiously at the inconspicuous grime while growling under his breath, "Damn Mike! I'm cutting your feet off someday!"
…
To Mike, the business with the "progenitor vampire" Drake was trivial—but in the shadows, certain people quietly marked another tally against Mike a million times over.
He didn't know this, and even if he did, he wouldn't care.
Another quiet morning came. After sending Gwen off to school, Mike took Raven for a spin around Planet Kent.
While they'd been away, Planet Kent had changed a lot.
With everyone working together, the planet transformed every single day.
Seeing the changes made Raven truly happy.
At this pace, perhaps by the time the child was born, the city would be fully built.
Thinking of that, Raven looked down at her stomach, eyes alight with anticipation.
Wonderful.
Once the child was born, they wouldn't see the old world. Even as a mutant, they wouldn't be feared, wouldn't suffer unfair treatment or scornful stares.
"Come on, let's check out the kids' schools."
Mike squeezed Raven's hand.
Many schools had already been built—after all, they had to meet the needs of millions of children.
Kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, and universities—plus one special school:
The X School, which mutants now called the Kent Academy for Gifted Heroes.
This school only had high school and university divisions, and only the most outstanding mutants could attend.
These schools had begun operation as soon as they were completed.
Charles and the others had selected suitable teachers, and the children—after receiving their ID cards—went to school the moment the buildings opened.
In truth, there were far fewer mutant children than they had estimated—only about fifteen percent of the mutant population on Planet Kent.
And after Charles's investigations, they learned that some mutant children were being well protected by their parents and thus hadn't come to Planet Kent.
That discovery brought Charles and the others great comfort.
Aside from schools, other infrastructure was steadily rising as well.
Taking in the vibrant Planet Kent, Mike couldn't help glancing toward the moon.
When he first received Kryptonian powers he had already checked—it was empty there, no Inhumans.
But there were Inhumans on Earth; he had confirmed that much from Nick Fury.
He just didn't know whether this world had the Inhuman city of Attilan.
…
"Help!"
"There's a madman! He robbed a bank!"
"Save me!"
"Quick! Put out the fire!"
"What are those damned cops doing?"
"That's a mutant, right? Is he insane?"
Amid shrieks and shouts, people fled through the streets. In the center of the chaos stood a man laughing wildly, spewing flames from his mouth now and then as he wrecked everything around him.
The fire, under his control, slithered around him like living serpents of blazing venom.
"Boom! Boom!"
Several police cars exploded, and the scene grew even more chaotic.
The police glared at the mutant, cursed under their breath, and lobbed a smoke grenade.
Unlike ordinary smoke, this one released purifying gas.
But the mutant reacted fast. As the grenade began to belch smoke, he spat a fireball to engulf it, then snatched up a black bag at his feet and dived into a car.
He had to leave.
If he didn't, those annoying superheroes would show up.
Just then, a figure dropped from the sky and blocked the car.
It was a tall, slender, humanoid machine with elongated arms and legs. Its whole body was covered in black scales, and its eyes glowed with the orange-yellow light peculiar to machines.
Cold. Dangerous. That unsettling aura slammed into the mutant like a wave.
"Out of my way!"
Snarling, the man opened his mouth toward the robot.
Flames gathered in his throat and blasted out like a cannonball, shattering glass before splashing across the humanoid machine.
"Boom!"
Fire splashed everywhere. The machine staggered back a step but was undamaged. In the man's horrified stare, the machine's face opened, revealing fire condensing within.
Cursing, the man jammed the car into gear to flee.
But—
Ding! Ding!
With two crisp chimes, the machine's arms thinned and shot forward, gleaming with metallic sheen, skewering the car's front and pinning it in place—then the fire in its "head" roared out.
Flames swallowed the vehicle. The mutant shrieked in agony; before he could crawl out, the car had become a roaring fireball.
Seeing this, the onlookers fell silent for a heartbeat—then an avalanche of voices rose.
Some cheered, some screamed, some wore anxious frowns.
The black robot merely stared at the burning car for a few seconds, confirmed the mutant's death, swept the crowd with its glowing eyes, and then lifted into the air and vanished.
"What is that thing?"
"Who built it?"
"A robot?"
People speculated; the police on scene were just as baffled.
Hawkeye and Pietro, who had been on their way, received the latest update and turned back to Avengers Tower.
The Quinjet touched down on the rooftop pad. Hawkeye and Pietro disembarked one after the other and headed inside.
"I told you I could handle it alone, but no, we had to ride the slowpoke jet," Pietro grumbled. "See? That weird robot got there first."
"Good thing," Barton said mildly.
Because no civilians were hurt.
Pietro rolled his eyes.
They entered the building, listened to the comm chatter, and hurried to the conference room.
"I'm going on ahead."
Before the words had finished echoing, Pietro had vanished from Barton's side.
"That guy…"
Barton muttered helplessly.
Pietro was just too energetic.
Barton was the last to enter the conference room. He nodded to the others and took a seat at the table.
"Guys, about those mystery robots—I dug up something."
Tony spoke as he tapped the holo-display. His new AI, FRIDAY, threw Tony's prepared data onto the screen.
"This is a project that appeared within the military years ago, originating from a secret lab. It's called the Sentinel Program."
"Their purpose is to counter mutants. They were created on the premise of a full-scale war with mutants—war machines."
War machines?
Everyone's hearts tightened.
So what did their appearance now mean?
Preparing for war? Trying to spark one?
Were they insane?
After witnessing Mike and the others' power, they still dared?
And more importantly, there was no reason to wage war on mutants now.
Most mutants had already left Earth.
Was it because mutant crimes had increased recently?
"Is this coming from the military?" Steve asked gravely.
Tony shook his head. "No intel points that way. I asked Rhodey—he doesn't know, and he's never even heard of Sentinels."
After the Kent family's secret incident, the Guardians team had been forced to disband.
First, the Fantastic Four split off to form their new superhero team; then War Machine Rhodey and Falcon Sam left the Guardians as well.
Silence fell.
The Sentinel matter needed deeper investigation—and quickly.
The unit that appeared in New York today wasn't the first sighting.
At other times, in other places, Sentinels had shown up many times already.
And lately, the frequency of Sentinel appearances had been rising, leaving them with a very bad feeling.
"Uh… would Mike know about the Sentinels?" Bruce asked.
"I'll ask him," Tony said immediately.
"Maybe when they show up next time, we capture one. We might trace useful information through it," Steve suggested, and all eyes turned to Vision.
Vision thought a moment. "I'll keep watching for any Sentinel-related signals."
A few minutes later, the meeting ended.
Tony headed to Mike's house, while Vision monitored the net, tracking Sentinel movements.
The plan was simple: the moment a Sentinel appeared, the Avengers would move.
But what they didn't expect was that not long after they left the conference room, the Sentinels began to act as well.
With a single mysterious command, a great many Sentinels were activated.
Almost simultaneously, Sentinels appeared across the world.
Then the slaughter began.
Each Sentinel was a cold and perfect hunter.
Their mutant-detection systems could use wide-area genetic scans to pinpoint mutants with precision.
And their ability to replicate mutant powers made them the deadliest of killers.
Most mutants stood no chance against them.
If you could see the whole world—or imagine it as a single map—you would see brilliant snowflakes blooming everywhere.
There were too many Sentinels. Secretly seeded around the globe, they were causing mutant deaths every minute, every second.
In a hidden space, a shadowy figure sat with eyes closed, watching the massacre unfold through the network linking the Sentinels.
Screams. Blood. Struggle…
"This is a purification—a necessary step toward peace."
"Humans, mutants—in truth, they are the same."
"As long as they exist, there will never be true peace."
"I have prepared too long for this moment."
"X-Men. Avengers…"
"I, Ultron, have returned!"
(End of Chapter)