Professor Charles lay in his wheelchair, his eyes half-closed, looking at the dappled light filtering through the pinprick holes in the water tower's outer shell.
He felt a vague sense of déjà vu, as if he had seen this scene before, but unfortunately, he couldn't recall it.
He didn't really want to sleep, because Logan had just given him medicine not long ago, and this was his rare period of lucidity.
But he also didn't want to fully open his eyes, as it took too much effort.
He was old, his powers were not what they used to be, and he also suffered from Alzheimer's.
For him now, perhaps simply living in the World was a form of torment.
"Creak…"
The sound of the door slowly opening attracted Charles's attention.
So, he slightly turned his head and looked at the two young visitors.
"Hello, little one…" Professor chuckled, then looked at Miles next to her, his gaze momentarily frozen, "Oh… My God…"
As the most powerful Mind Control user, Charles had actually already sensed Laura's existence, and had even mentioned to Logan that a woman was seeking help everywhere with a little girl, but Logan didn't take it seriously.
But Miles's appearance was not within his perception.
"…Even unconsciously, he instinctively uses Mind Control to shield himself… turning self-preservation into an instinct…" Charles's eyes flickered as he murmured, "Child, it seems you must have suffered a lot…"
"Hehe… heh…"
Facing Professor Charles's scrutiny, Miles's gaze was blank, still in a dazed state.
Laura wiped Miles's drool, then looked at Charles with some vigilance.
Following Miles's instructions, she had found this place by following Logan's scent, but she wasn't sure who this old man in front of her was.
"So similar…" Charles's gaze swept over Laura and Miles, then he smiled and asked Laura, "What's your name, girl?"
Laura didn't speak.
She didn't like to talk to begin with, let alone in front of strangers.
"Another problem student…" Professor Charles wasn't bothered by Laura's silence; he was even a little happy, because Laura reminded him of his days at the academy, where he spent most of his time dealing with all sorts of troubled teenagers.
"Don't be afraid, child, I'm Charles.
As you can see, I'm just an old man who can't stand up…"
"Where did you come from, by train, the rumbling kind?"
"Your clothes are beautiful, did you just buy them?"
Professor Charles was not in a hurry, asking patiently and coaxingly.
As a Mind Control user, he could easily invade others' minds and retrieve desired memories.
But now he was too old, and reading memories was too exhausting.
Of course, the most important thing was… he felt he shouldn't treat these two children so roughly.
The process of communication between a teacher and student was also very important.
Seemingly sensing Charles's goodwill, Laura thought for a moment and said softly, "Laura."
Then, she pointed to Miles next to her and said, "Miles."
"Alright, Laura and Miles…" Charles said softly, "I remember there was another woman with you…"
"Dead."
"…Sorry."
An awkward silence.
Charles thought for a moment, about to say something else, but then heard movement outside.
Logan was back, but there was also an unexpected, uninvited guest.
Laura's expression shifted, and she got up and walked out.
She could feel that it was the people who killed Gabriela.
"Laura?" Charles called out, "Wait, where are you going?"
"Laura, wait!"
However, Laura was unmoved.
Just then, another voice suddenly rang out.
"Laura… push me along…"
Laura froze, then she and Charles looked at Miles, whose eyes had regained clarity.
"F***, I remember now, Professor Charles in this one has hair, so he's useless now… Tsk." Miles muttered to himself, looking at Charles with a surprised gaze, "Nice to meet you, Professor… But I'm sorry, I'm about to do something bad… Laura, let's go!"
So, Laura silently pushed Miles's wheelchair.
"Acquired brain damage leading to 'catatonia' and complex 'stress disorder'…"
Professor Charles murmured to himself.
…
"Listen, Laura, those two men over there, one has an iron hand, the other has iron bones… I'm going to kill the one with the iron hand, because he's the one who killed Gabriela.
We're just getting revenge, it's only right, isn't it…?"
"But it's hard for me to do it alone.
That guy's will is a bit strong; I failed last time, and he's been more vigilant since then…"
"Now is a good opportunity.
I'll restrict his movements, and then you take the chance to go up and cut off his head… It's very simple, just like you cut off other people's heads…"
"Speaking of which, what was that guy's name? Pietro? Pierce? Logically, he shouldn't die until the end of the plot… But f***! To hell with the plot! I'm going to kill someone!"
Miles, pushed in his wheelchair by Laura, slowly approached the two men confronting each other outside the main entrance from the other side of the water tower.
Then, he slowly extended his finger and placed it on his own head.
Outside the water tower, by the car.
"See? You're not the only one who's been modified…"
Donald extended his mechanical arm and chuckled, threatening Logan.
Just as he was about to say something else, the precisely structured mechanical arm suddenly sparked with crackling electricity.
Then, his own expression suddenly changed, and his neck twisted back with a creaking sound, as if it were rusty.
"Ah!!"
The next moment, he only saw a little girl screaming and lunging forward with her steel claws, slashing across his neck.
"Pfft."
His head fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and stopped.
Logan, standing beside him, stared blankly at the scene, his gaze lingering on Laura's steel claws as they slowly retracted.
"So light…" Miles released the finger from his head, weakly muttering, "Shit, that bastard got off easy… Getting your neck cut is much more comfortable than a bullet to the head, I didn't feel anything…"
When a Mind Control user manipulates others, if the controlled person is harmed, the manipulator will feel the same pain.
That is to say, at that moment, Miles would also feel the pain of his neck being severed.
But he didn't care.
Compared to what he had suffered in the laboratory, this feeling was nothing at all; he even had the leisure to comment on which way of dying felt more stimulating.
"Logan! Logan!"
Professor Charles maneuvered his wheelchair over, introducing to Logan, "This is Laura…"
Then, Charles's gaze fell on the head on the ground, and he said to Laura with some surprise, "Child, you killed someone?"
Laura silently looked at Charles, saying nothing.
"It's Mind Control." Logan said, looking at Miles, "Charles, these two little brats, one has claws like mine, the other has powers like yours… F***, what kind of ridiculous family reunion show is this?!"
Although Logan was old, his warrior's instincts were still intact.
He quickly realized that Donald's strange behavior before being killed must have been due to Miles's power controlling him, as he had seen such things too many times.
He and Charles used to cooperate in the same way, one thinking and one acting, the difference being that Charles generally wouldn't allow him to kill directly.
As the former leader of the peaceful faction of Mutants, Professor Charles was a good man; he always strived to resolve disputes between Mutants and humans through peaceful means… Of course, that was in the past.
"I want to talk to you when things settle down, Miles…" Charles said to Miles, then turned to Caliban with a normal expression and said, "Caliban, come over quickly, these two are the ones I've been telling you about… Laura and Miles."
"You didn't tell me there were two people before…" Caliban, wearing a cowboy hat and a mask, completely covered, said, instinctively looking at Miles, "That little guy… is very dangerous!"
"How dangerous?" Logan asked.
"His mind is unstable, chaotic, a mess." Caliban murmured, sensing Miles's condition. "He's already insane, but he's tricking himself into believing he's not. He wants to die… but he's stubbornly clinging to life…"
Caliban, a Mutant, has the ability to sense other Mutants, pinpoint their locations, and assess their conditions.
He also suffers from congenital albinism and is afraid of the Sun, which is why he wraps himself up tightly when he goes out during the day.
"Caliban, let's pack up and leave now." Logan realized something was wrong, knowing that Laura and Miles had big trouble behind them, and wanted to take Professor Charles and Caliban away directly.
"What about those two children?" Caliban asked.
"Let those two * * things get lost." Logan replied.
"…You're right, Logan." Miles, in the wheelchair, suddenly spoke again. "Take the Professor and get far away. Don't get involved in this. You'll die… If you die, the Fox X-Men will truly be over…"
"No, Miles, don't be like that… Logan, take them both…"
Professor Charles sat in his wheelchair, pleading with Logan, but just then, Logan's expression changed, and he looked sharply into the distance.
A convoy of black vehicles appeared on the road in the distance!
Someone was coming, many people.
"We're leaving now!"
Logan, without a word, put Charles into the car and had Caliban sit next to him.
"No, Logan, we can't abandon family…"
"Shit, shut up!"
Logan cursed angrily, then slammed the car door shut, got into the driver's seat, and drove away.
Only Miles and Laura were left there, watching them drive away.
"…You know, Laura." Miles said hoarsely, "If you followed them, you should be able to survive… But the others probably won't…"
"Because of my existence disrupting the plot, those people from the company will probably send more forces to catch us… So hurry… Ugh!!"
Miles trembled in pain, and a little pus-yellow fluid seeped from the cerebrospinal fluid extractor at the back of his head.
At the same time, the convoy in the distance was getting closer and closer.
"Miles?" Laura asked, a little worried.
"…Run, Laura!" Miles's eyes were bloodshot. "I feel it, Dr. Zander is there… This time I must kill him!"
"You'll die." Laura said.
"I've wanted to die for a long time." Miles said softly, "But I won't be at peace until I kill that bastard…"
Dr. Zander Rice, head of the "Transigen" project, head of the Mexico City Genetic Modification Research Institute, and the creator of Miles and Laura, is also the person they most want to kill.
"I'll go with you." Laura said.
After Gabriela's death, Miles was her only remaining family.
"You're really stubborn…" Miles sighed. "Push me back into the Water Tower. We'll fight them in there… Hmm?"
Just then, Miles and Laura both looked in another direction.
The extended Lincoln that Logan had driven away earlier had, for some reason, returned.
"Children, get in the car quickly!"
Professor Charles opened the car window from afar and enthusiastically waved to the two little ones.
Wolverine, in the driver's seat, looked expressionless, stiffly stepping on the brake and stopping the car in front of Miles and Laura.
Clearly, he was under Charles's Mind Control.
"Miles?" Laura instinctively asked Miles.
"Ha… Well, it seems the plot is still going back on track." Miles pouted, "Superhero-style twist, awesome!"
Soon, Logan's car stopped, and Caliban got out to help the two get in, folding Miles's wheelchair and tossing it into the trunk, placing it next to Charles's wheelchair.
"Logan, it's up to you now." Professor Charles said, releasing his control over Logan.
"Fuck! Charles! You brought this on yourself!" Logan immediately cursed angrily the moment he was released from control. "You old bastard! Didn't you see those people behind us? They're coming for these two! You'll get us killed! Shit, you actually controlled me! I knew it, you can still use your abilities!!"
"I always could, I just found it tiring." Charles leaned back on the cushion, saying somewhat wearily, "Caliban, could you please check on that child's condition? I'm very curious about him."
"I don't think now is a good time…" Caliban looked through the rear glass at the convoy following far behind. Several figures emerged from the windows of a few cars and waved.
Soon after, bullets flew in, piercing several holes in the rear window.
"Charles! Deal with those pursuers!" Logan yelled.
"Shut up! Can't do it!"
"Didn't you say you always could?"
"I don't have that much energy left, and there are too many people!"
"Vroom vroom…"
Amidst the roar of the engine, the extended Lincoln drifted on the dirt road, shaking off a few cars behind it, and sped wildly forward!
The next moment, Logan's expression changed as he saw cars coming from the opposite direction!
He quickly stopped and turned around, taking another small path.
"Bang! Bang!"
The rear window glass shattered, and Laura, crouching behind the Professor, used her arm to shield him from a bullet, then bit it out with her mouth and spat out the bullet head.
"Hold on tight!!"
With no other option, Logan yelled, drove the car head-on into a barbed wire fence, and got the entire front of the car stuck in it.
"Dada dada…"
Two machine guns behind them began to fire, pinning everyone down, preventing them from looking up.
Logan pressed hard on the accelerator, but the car remained entangled in the barbed wire. Helpless, he could only try to reverse.
"Hey, hey, I see those two kids…"
Inside one of the cars, someone was trying to contact the person in charge via walkie-talkie but found that the communication suddenly cut off, and a crackling static sound came from the walkie-talkie.
"What the hell? Is it malfunctioning?"
"Hahahahaha!"
A Raider with a machine gun mounted beside him laughed maniacally as his vehicle approached. Just as he was about to pull the trigger on the Lincoln again, he looked dazed, then turned his gun and fired at his own vehicle without hesitation!
The man who was hitting the walkie-talkie screamed as his flesh was torn apart by the machine gun.
"Ah! Ah…"
Amidst a few screams, Miles in the Lincoln pressed his fingers to his temples, trembling all over, his face contorted in a grimace.
Caliban, on the other side, saw the pus-filled brain extractor on the back of Miles's head and slightly widened his mouth, "How is he still alive?!"
"Relax, child…" Professor Charles comforted Miles, saying, "Mind Control doesn't need to be so forceful. It should be guided by the situation, with some technique…"
"But honestly, your mental power seems a bit special. How much do you know about your own abilities…"
"Bang!"
A Raider suddenly lunged onto the car roof, about to fire into the car, but Laura's claw pierced his head.
Then, Logan drove the car through the gate and sped towards the open field!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh…"
A long train approached from afar. Logan slammed on the accelerator, and the Lincoln accelerated, rushing towards the railway tracks!
At the last moment, the Lincoln drifted across the tracks, while the SUV closely trailing it was pushed away by the train's locomotive, and then the long body of the train blocked off the World on both sides of the tracks.
"Clang clang clang…"
Laura looked at the people on the other side through the train, expressionlessly raising a middle finger.
Dr. Zander Rice, who had rushed over, opened his car door and got out, watching the car on the other side of the train gradually drive away, and angrily punched the car window.
"Fuck…"