The Brotherhood of Mutants had raided an illegal mutant laboratory.
Yet these people really did seem to regard themselves as terrorists. They had not even thought to take photographs or loot the laboratory's files to use as evidence against the people behind it.
Perhaps the Brotherhood's reputation had already become so terrible that even if they produced such evidence, people would simply accuse them of maliciously smearing others. In that case, there was no point going to the trouble.
Fortunately, the Brotherhood's method of retreat was not to have a large group of people walk away together.
In the open area in front of the laboratory compound, numerous cars and trucks had been parked haphazardly. Everyone relied on these motor vehicles to leave.
When there were not enough vehicles, some people simply broke the locks of nearby cars and commandeered them on the spot.
Since it was still the middle of the night and everyone was in a hurry to leave the dangerous area, Henry had not been able to visit a canteen or restaurant to get a few pieces of bread.
He climbed into the back of a truck, but even then, someone had to push him from behind to help him get up.
Everyone boarded the vehicles.
The people sharing the back of Henry's truck included not only comrades who had been taken to the laboratory alongside him, but also several members of the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Unlike the famous members led by Magneto, these people were not household names. Their appearances alone did not reveal their identities.
Henry did not bother asking who they were. He simply asked, "Brother, where are we going?"
"To the coast. You don't think we can just take a plane and leave this place openly, do you?"
"The coast? So we're still in the Middle East?"
"Yes. You haven't left the Middle East. After going to all the trouble of smuggling you out of the country, the people who established that laboratory wouldn't bother transporting you all the way back to North America to conduct their research, would they? The easiest place to clean up after something like that is overseas."
"Then where are we going?"
"You sure ask a lot of questions. I don't know whether Magneto plans to return to Genosha or go back into North America. But if we're talking about distance, Genosha is definitely closer."
Someone else asked, "So there's a ship waiting for us at the coast?"
"That's right. We have an oil tanker with a secret passenger compartment built into it. It's very comfortable inside, and no one will have an easy time finding us."
So this was the Brotherhood of Mutants' secret ship.
The group did not head for an obvious location like a port. Instead, they went to a stretch of coastline, where small boats waiting there ferried all the mutants to an oil tanker anchored not far away.
Some people did not need the small boats at all. They simply used their abilities to move directly onto the tanker.
They even brought the cars and trucks aboard the ship. Clearly, the abilities of these people were no trivial matter.
Only after the oil tanker entered international waters did all the mutants who had escaped from the laboratory finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Regardless of whether they had been brainwashed by the fanaticism of Lieutenant Colonel Ray Schoonover, the commander of the mutant battalion, mutants who had enlisted in the military had surely possessed some desire to serve their country in the beginning.
But after being defeated or wounded, they had immediately been sold out by their own nation.
Few people could feel good about that.
And with the mutant battalion having been crushed by the Mandarin and the Ten Rings, with so many comrades killed in action, the survivors' situation was even more bitter.
On the oil tanker, the group was not confined to the cabins. From time to time, they could still go out onto the deck and bask in the sunlight.
Unfortunately, the current Henry felt none of the surge of strength that sunlight used to bring him.
He simply held a baguette, chewing it slowly while enjoying the sea breeze.
On ordinary days, when the weather was clear and sunny, quite a few people would come up to the deck to fool around.
Life at sea was simply too boring. The few entertainment devices in the cabins seemed to have come straight from the previous century.
There were billiards, pinball machines, and darts.
Playing these games well on a ship was indeed more challenging than playing them on land, but the equipment was limited. Even beer was rationed.
As for entertainment devices that required electricity, such as computers and game consoles, it was not that they had none. Rather, their use was strictly controlled.
The ship belonging to the Brotherhood of Mutants was an old-fashioned oil tanker from the previous century. It had not undergone much modernization of its electrical systems, so there were considerable restrictions on the use of electronic equipment.
However, today was different.
Not a single one of the people who usually loved coming up to the deck to make merry had appeared.
If there was one thing about the Brotherhood of Mutants that made Henry admire them, it was the mentality of its members.
They knew how to take things in stride. Everyone understood the importance of enjoying life while they could.
Regardless of whether their experiences had been tragic or utterly disastrous, the cheerfulness they displayed on the surface was at least infectious.
The mutants rescued from the laboratory had more or less managed to forget their miserable experiences under the influence of that atmosphere.
But today was strange.
Those mutants who went looking for fun every day without fail had not come up to the deck.
Had something unusual happened?
Having lost his super-vision and super-hearing, Henry could only speculate.
Just as Henry was making wild guesses, a group of people emerged from the cabins.
At the front was Magneto, who rarely showed himself.
As the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, he was not the sort of leader who was particularly approachable or who would mingle with the crowd at every opportunity to ask after everyone's well-being.
However, Magneto did not forbid anyone from seeking him out.
Whenever someone had a problem, they could go to him, and they would receive an answer very quickly—whether the answer was good or bad.
Such decisiveness was another quality rarely seen in political leaders.
Most people simply wanted to drag matters out. Unless they stood to gain something personally, they would rarely act with much enthusiasm.
Magneto, however, truly did not concern himself with personal gains or losses. He cared only about position and right and wrong.
When it came to conflicts between mutants and ordinary humans, he stood with the mutants.
When it came to disputes within the mutant community, he stood with reason.
It was as simple as that.
A man who rarely appeared before the public had come out again today.
Either he had received word that the U.S. military was preparing to send aircraft or helicopters to attack the oil tanker, or he had something he wanted to say to everyone.
Henry was not particularly conspicuous among the crowd.
In the mutant battalion, he had been popular partly because people hoped to rely on his copper skin and iron bones to shield them from bullets.
But in the Brotherhood of Mutants, everyone relied more heavily on their own abilities rather than expecting others to protect them.
So Henry remained seated in his place, chewing on his baguette and basking in the sunlight while listening to whatever grand claims Magneto intended to make.
"Comrades, I deeply regret what happened to you in the Middle East.
"This is not the first time something like this has happened. It happened during the Second World War, and it happened in Vietnam. The truth has simply been covered up again and again, leaving no one aware of it.
"That does not mean that using mutants as experimental materials is justified. Even if we have truly made mistakes and deserve to be punished by law, we should never have been subjected to such treatment.
"Unfortunately, since the end of the Second World War, humanity's hostility toward mutants has not been limited to the Aryans. Even the United States, which claims to be a beacon of freedom, has been no less guilty of discrimination.
"Do you intend to continue enduring such an environment?
"We are the more evolved Homo sapiens on Earth. Mutants should be the protagonists of the new era.
"Yet those ordinary humans are doing everything in their power to interrupt our evolution, and even steal the fruits of it.
"No. This is not what we deserve. It should not even be the future of this world.
"To set all of this right, and above all, to prevent tragedies like those you have suffered from happening again, it is time for us to stand up and show the world the determination of our people.
"My comrades, my friends, my brothers and sisters—whether you are willing to admit it or not, this is the moment of revolution.
"We must make our personal suffering known to the world. More importantly, we must make humanity understand that the mutants' patience has limits.
"This is the moment of the mutant revolution!"
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