Mutant Research Base
Before Phil could even leave the room, a shrill alarm blared.
His expression tightened, and he turned sharply toward the wall of surveillance monitors.
On the screen, a figure—tightly wrapped in combat gear—was descending from the sky, landing atop the mountain where the base was hidden.
"It's him! That's him!"
The middle-aged assistant beside him trembled as he recognized the figure and let out a strangled cry.
Phil's lips curved into a smile, not of fear, but of delight.
"You mean the vibranium… it's in his hands?"
"That's right!" the man nodded quickly. "He was the one who injured Sabretooth and took the vibranium!"
Phil's eyes lit up.
"You've got guts. You steal from me and then dare follow me back here?"
The middle-aged man swallowed hard, glancing toward Sabretooth in the room. After a pause, he fumbled a pea-sized locator from his pocket. His face paled with dread.
"I… I'm sorry, Doctor. It was my oversight—"
"No," Phil shook his head, cutting him off.
"You did well."
With that, Phil slammed his palm on a button on the wall.
At once, the alarms howled throughout the mountain facility. Doors burst open, and soldiers armed with rifles poured into the halls, racing toward the main gate.
---
Outside the Base
Xu Mo landed lightly on the mountainside and advanced toward the entrance. Ahead, armed troops swarmed from the fortress.
"So… they've already noticed me?"
He frowned but didn't bother hiding anymore.
With a thought, his telekinesis surged. The soldiers staggered as the rifles were ripped from their hands and floated into the air.
In perfect formation, the weapons aligned, barrels turning back toward their former wielders.
The soldiers froze in horror. Then, panicked, they turned to flee—too late.
"Da-da-da!"
Gunfire thundered through the corridor. Screams echoed. By the time the magazines were emptied, the strike force lay broken across the entrance.
Xu Mo strode inside.
Four flying knives whirled free from his back, orbiting him like hungry predators.
In the laboratories ahead, researchers already armed themselves, transforming into combat units. They raised pistols the moment his footsteps echoed down the hall.
Xu Mo's gaze flicked to the glass-walled chamber beyond, where restrained mutants writhed as test subjects. His jaw clenched.
"Human experimentation… on mutants?"
His eyes hardened with cold fury.
The scientists panicked and fired.
But Xu Mo's telekinesis crushed the gun barrels inward. Explosions ripped through the weapons in their hands. Screams followed.
Before they could recover, Xu Mo's blades sliced through the air, ending the fight in less than thirty seconds. Silence fell.
Every moment was captured on the surveillance feed back in Phil's office.
Dr. Phil stared at the screen, stunned.
"…Magneto?"
He shook his head violently.
"No… impossible! He doesn't match Magneto's build. And besides—Magneto lost his powers. Everyone in our circle knows he was injected with the mutant 'cure.'"
His assistant collapsed in terror.
"It's the devil! It has to be the devil!" the man wailed.
"Shut up!" Phil barked.
Grabbing a small case from a wall safe, he rushed to the back exit. He wasn't about to lose everything.
"Sabretooth—follow me!" he ordered. The feral mutant growled and moved to obey.
Phil would never abandon the prize he had carved from Sabretooth's regenerative factor.
The middle-aged assistant scrambled after him. "Doctor, please! Take me with you!"
Phil spun and fired a shot without hesitation. The man dropped instantly, blood pooling beneath him.
---
The Pursuit
By the time Xu Mo cleared the corridors, the base's leaders were already fleeing.
He muttered, "Hydra? Or some splinter cell?" The high-tech defenses and mutant experimentation screamed of Hydra, but something about the operation felt different—more specialized.
Either way, he couldn't let them escape.
Following the trail, he burst onto a rear platform carved into the mountainside. A steel zipline stretched down to the valley below. In the distance, a small figure was already sliding rapidly toward freedom.
Closer, Sabretooth was fastening himself to the line.
But no matter how the mutant tugged, the line wouldn't budge—frozen in place by Xu Mo's telekinesis.
Snarling, Sabretooth turned. With a guttural roar, he ripped the harness off and lunged.
Xu Mo's eyes narrowed. He had no time to waste.
"Double strength. Spiritual augmentation."
His right hand, encased in a metal gauntlet designed to channel psychic force, clenched into a fist. His physical strength was immense—fifteen tons normally, thirty with enhancement—but fused with the sixty-plus tons of psychic force surging through him, his strike carried the weight of nearly a hundred tons.
He swung.
The blow detonated with the force of an explosion. Sabretooth froze mid-air, suspended for a heartbeat. Then his body burst apart, scattering across the platform.
A cold system chime rang in Xu Mo's mind.
"Points +12,000."
He didn't stop to check. Instead, he leapt from the ledge, racing down the line of escape.
The hunt wasn't over yet.