Weapon X indeed had a base in Madripoor, and this time, they hadn't even deployed all their forces—though, it was a fact that only two out of four who went out came back.
"I don't even know how I'm going to get through tonight." Deadpool slumped on the sofa, talking to X-23 beside him, while wiggling his two regenerating arms, which were about the size of a baby's. "Can you imagine how I'm supposed to spend tonight, baby? I can't even reach myself. I'm so lonely, but if you could just help me..."
X-23 chuckled and raised her hand, her five slender blades gleaming with a cold metallic sheen under the light. They looked like excellent bone choppers, scaring Wade into quickly shouting, "Oh! Never mind! I take it back!" He almost fell off the sofa.
Just then, a man in a white lab coat walked into the Weapon X members' lounge.
"Alright, my dear Weapon X operatives, we must admit, our operation today was a failure."
Ajax was a well-built bald man. Other than that, wearing a white lab coat, he showed no distinguishing features. He sighed helplessly, counting who he had left: Deadpool and Daken returned, X-23 and Domino, who hadn't gone out.
That was it.
With this lineup, even if everyone was present, they wouldn't have a guaranteed victory against their opponents, let alone now. Ajax had no choice but to explain the next steps: "Based on what we've seen, there's no doubt, James Howlett, our Logan, will return to his mutant circus. With our current strength, we can't make a move."
"I told you long ago, you should have performed surgery on me and grafted the Muramasa onto my claws."
Daken stood up unhesitatingly, glaring at Ajax, seething with anger: "That blade is the only thing that can kill that bastard! I told you that ages ago!"
"What we need is a living Weapon X, do you understand?" Ajax had no intention of indulging Daken either: "Both your genes and Deadpool's healing factor come from him. He's the one I need most! Since the dam incident, all the Weapon X genetic samples we had were destroyed! I need a living one! Understand?!"
"If you just want his blood, I can kill him first, then give him to you."
Speechless. There's no talking sense into him, typical Wolverine arch-enemy mindset. If you guys want to kill Logan, then don't fight amongst yourselves. You agree to kill him, then one by one, it's "He's mine!" and then you stab each other, what's the point? Are you crazy?
A speechless Ajax waved his hand, then left with a parting remark, "I'm going to prepare for the next operation." He took the elevator down from the Weapon X base to his lab, where he finally shed his disguise—Ajax transformed into a person with pathologically pale or grayish-white skin, high cheekbones, and a sharp chin, appearing overall like a resurrected corpse. Most notably, a red diamond-shaped gem, similar to the diamond suit on a playing card, adorned his forehead.
The so-called Ajax was just a disguise. His true identity, or rather, his true face, was an old X-Men foe, Nathaniel Essex, also known as Mister Sinister, whom Cyclops and Logan both believed to be long dead. He had long prepared his clones and uploaded his consciousness into a clone body upon his death, thus escaping doom.
The reason he was operating under an alias, infiltrating the Weapon X project, was to take over everything, to arrange the manpower and time for his next plan. He needed Weapon X's data and plans. His objective was to create a perfect mutant weapon to combat the legendary mutant tyrant who would eventually awaken, an entity named Apocalypse.
For this, he needed a living Wolverine, because as the most successful Weapon X, whose genes could even be used to create Deadpool, only a living Wolverine could help him complete this ultimate weapon. However, it was unfortunate that Weapon X was good in every aspect, except for the existence of a group of Wolverine's fanatical arch-enemies, each wanting to kill Wolverine.
This work was truly unbearable, too exhausting.
Mister Sinister thought as he dialed a signal. Soon, a large green, skull-like face composed of "0"s and "1"s appeared on the screen: "Well, well, isn't this Dr. Essex, head of Project Ten? What brings you to call at this hour?"
"You didn't tell me the X-Men were here, and my plan to capture Weapon X failed." Mister Sinister faced the mysterious person without any panic, instead, he threatened the other party righteously: "You'd better send some of your capable people here. After all, you know how important this is to Project Ten."
The other party fell silent, seemingly considering his offer. After a long while, a smile appeared, signifying agreement to Mister Sinister's request.
"I will help you enrich your DNA database, Dr. Essex. I trust your talent, but please do not forget who is supporting your research. Tomorrow morning at ten, prepare the room. The people you need will come."
"Hail Hydra."
"Hail Hydra—" After mockingly shouting the slogan, Mister Sinister, who had secured new sponsorship, couldn't help but curl his lip. He then pulled up his gene bank and began comparing data. He wasn't a mutant, or rather, he wasn't originally, but after genetically modifying himself with a gene-splicer, he gained a variety of abilities. Basically, he would program himself with different mutant abilities as needed to deal with different enemies. This tactic was once very effective, until he was taken down by the X-Men once.
As for now, there were still only a few new X-Men. As long as he could formulate sufficiently powerful mutant abilities and alter his genetic sequence, he could certainly give these X-Men endless surprises!
"I can't rely solely on myself. What if I get taken down again? I need to prepare a new clone and find the gene of a telepath for easy transfer of my mind at any time."
While sifting through data in the gene bank, Mister Sinister raised an eyebrow, then couldn't help but chuckle. He saw Jean Grey's genetic sample, and suddenly, a bold idea popped into his mind.