Anuraag Banerjee
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NGLM [Chapter 122: Death of a Wolverine?]
🕑 Added 2023-07-21 14:01:03 +0000 UTC---
"All happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
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'It is said that one gets increasingly arrogant as one gains more and more knowledge. I have always believed it to have some kind of truth in it. Not only in fiction but also in my previous world, the statement held true in most cases. Geniuses become too arrogant and always underestimate the ones they think are not as smart as them. And it's exactly what happened with Sinister too this time.' I thought in my mind as I looked at the unconscious body of Wolverine in front of me.
Rudeus had thought that he would never be able to find Mr. Sinister. He was too good at hiding, so good that even an enhanced Cerebra or Zoya or even b.s magic couldn't find a trace of him. But the crazy scientist seems to have grown too arrogant because he himself sent him a clue, he sent X24.
Rudeus didn't remember who X24 was supposed to be in the comics but in the movies, he was just a clone who was a younger version of old man Logan. But here, X24 was a clone of Logan who not only had all of his enhancements and abilities but also seemed to possess some of Beast's physical features as well as the ability of limited adaptation. He was designed as the perfect weapon, modeled after Logan.
It was unknown what he was sent for but his mission failed as soon as he entered the school grounds because unfortunately for him, Jean was at that moment practicing her extrasensory perception ability by enclosing the entire school in a domain of psychic energy of sorts. So she sensed him the moment he stepped near the area resulting in him getting a brutal beating at the hands of Jean.
'I guess both me and the girls are getting real good at ass whooping.' He thought as he remembered how he whooped Vulcan's ass a couple of days ago after the angry teenager tried to kill Professor X and destroy the school in anger of being left for dead.
Vulcan being an omega-level mutant would have been a little hard for him to beat before due to his op energy-absorption and manipulation powers but as a result of his magical training with Morgana, he had learned how to cheat, so he just used a single spell to encase them both in a sphere of darkness alienating both of them from any exterior sources of energy and then he had gone and literally whipped Vulcan with a black receiver till he admitted defeat and swore never to try stuff like that again.
Even though Vulcan was supposed to be a villain in the comics, this Vulcan still had a teenager mentality. He had anger issues alright but he was not even close to being as annoying as his brother, Cyclops. So, after quite some time of making him understand the greater good of things, Vulcan calmed down and even apologized to Rudeus for his attitude and thanked him for saving his life.
"Did you find anything after reading his mind?" Rudeus asked Jean after listening to how she caught X-24 and beat him to an unconscious state.
"No, he has some sort of psychic resistance. If I try to forcefully read his memories, his mind would be shattered beyond repair. So, I was waiting for you to decide what to do." She answered.
"It doesn't matter much if his mind is shattered or not. He is not useful to us either way. What we need is his memories and his knowledge of Sinister. But it was good that you didn't do it yourself. I needed some experience with my own new telepathic powers, this could be the perfect opportunity for me to test them out." Rudeus smiled as he looked at the fake wolverine and concentrated to activate his power.
He normally kept his telepathy either deactivated or at its lowest power level where he could just sense other people's emotions a little. It was an advantage he possessed with all of the powers that he had gotten from his system as perks. They were all his but he could activate or deactivate them or even adjust their power levels and intensity like an on-and-off switch. He currently only used this feature with his telepathy since he had no wish to suffer passively like Jean and pick up perverted thoughts from all around him.
So, as he prepared to dive into X-24's mind, he increased his telepathic power to its original omega level and then concentrated to force his way into the young and extremely hairy Hugh Jackman's mind.
While entering his mind, he did feel a slight resistance in the form of a mental barrier which to him was as weak as a paper. It wasn't even able to slow down his omega-level mental probe.
There were very few beings who could match his telepathic powers. The only mortal who currently had psionic powers higher than himself was Jean and that was only because of her current status of being a 'beyond omega' level telepath after absorbing the Dark Phoenix.
As soon as Rudeus got inside his mind, all of fake Wolverine's memories, all of his knowledge, everything became clear to him. He understood the reason for his attack and Mr. Sinister's brashness. The clone-loving scientist was desperate and needed a DNA sample of Jean for one of his experiments to succeed.
That's why he had taken this gamble and sent X-24, hoping that he would be able to sneak in and steal Jean's DNA sample from her room somehow.
But, did he really not expect that a telepath like Jean would easily be able to catch the fake Wolverine and find out everything about Mr. Sinister and his current base of operations from the brute's mind? Or maybe he did... Maybe, Mr. Sinister wasn't as big of an idiot as he thought he was, maybe this whole thing was a trap.
'But, a trap isn't a trap if you know the trapper's trying to trap you. In that case, It's a face-off' He thought as he nodded. He didn't care if this was a trap or not. This was a chance for him to get rid of a very dangerous enemy from his long list of dangerous enemies and he was willing to take it.
"Jean, get the A-men ready, it's time for their first mission." He said with a straight face.
"Really Rudeus? A-men? Your naming sense is so screwed that I can't even imagine what you would name our future children if given the responsibility." Jean looked at him like she was tired of his naming jokes.
"*Sigh* Fine, get the X-force ready. But seriously A-men isn't really that bad, it even got that godly vibe in it. Plus, A for Atem remember?" Rudeus tried to make her see his amazing talent of naming but sadly, she just shook her head and closed her eyes, concentrating on informing everyone in the team to get ready for their first mission and report in the mission room.
"Are you sure that they are ready for this? They haven't had a lot of practical field experience." Jean asked worriedly after she was done mentally transmitting the broadcast.
"They should be. They were trained with the best and by the best. The danger room, and the simulations programmed by Zoya herself, had all been preparing them for almost everything that could possibly happen in a mission in the real world. If they were able to persist through those, then I am sure they would be able to persist through this mission as well." Rudeus said as he dropped X-24's limp body on the ground after gaining everything he needed from his mind.
The fake Wolverine was more or less dead now. Even though his heart was still beating, his mind was gone, not fractured but completely gone as liquid brain matter was slowly dripping down from his ears and nose.
"Let's go. If the mission goes as I expect it to go, we might get the last bit of data we need to finally conclude our research on modifying and evolving the x-genes." He said as he opened a boom tube.
But at that very moment, a small blue transparent panel lit up in front of his eyes as a familiar sound chimed in.
[Ding! Quest generated. World choice detected...]
