Alex stepped out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
This time, his entire presence had undergone a drastic transformation. While he had previously carried an air of carefree detachment, the shadows behind his eyes and the complicated tension in his aura had always betrayed him to those perceptive enough to notice.
Now, however, all of that had changed. The darkness was gone. What emerged was someone lighter, more confident—radiating calm assurance. This wasn't an act. It wasn't a mask. It was real.
Naturally, that shift didn't escape the eyes of the old wolf, Logan. James had been watching him ever since he heard the door open. And now, seeing Alex's change, he nodded subtly.
"Looks like you've found your answer."
"Not quite an answer," Alex replied with a faint smile. "But I've got a plan now. A direction."
"Good." James said no more. Truth be told, he'd never wanted to get involved in this mess to begin with. If not for getting tangled up with Alex and Polaris and the others, he wouldn't have ended up in this ridiculous situation at all.
On the TV, the slaughter continued. The mutants who had been teleported into the area were being massacred by the rampaging Wild Sentinel. Some fell, others fled in panic.
People had no idea where the mutants had come from—let alone who had built this massive mechanical monster. But with so many heads of state lying dead on Capitol Hill, the world's governments couldn't just sit on their hands. Within minutes, military forces surrounded the Capitol and launched an assault on the Wild Sentinel.
"They don't stand a chance. No one can beat that thing," Blink muttered, staring at the screen.
"Wait… You know what that thing is?" Polaris asked, glancing sideways with suspicion.
"No," Blink shook her head. "But look at it. That tech is way beyond anything this world has. At this rate, it's only a matter of time before it wipes out everything."
"You sure about that?" Even James looked over with concern.
"Just a guess. But look—" Blink pointed to the battlefield on the screen. From the Wild Sentinel's body, countless smaller sentry units had launched. They were called small, but each stood over five meters tall—giants in their own right. "You think humans can fight that?"
"So what now? Don't tell me you actually want to jump in?" Polaris's voice trembled slightly. She'd been hunted by anti-mutant tech since childhood, and her instincts screamed against everything that robot stood for.
Blink swallowed hard. Truthfully, she had no idea what they were supposed to do now. The thing's destructive capability had already gone beyond anything she understood.
Just then, Alex's voice came from behind them.
"Relax. That thing isn't as unbeatable as you think—especially now that it's in your world."
Polaris and Blink both turned their heads. Even James shifted his gaze to hear what Alex would say next.
Seeing all eyes on him, Alex casually shrugged.
"Come on, I get it—this Wild Sentinel feels like some god-forged terror, but at the end of the day, it's still a machine. Tech obeys physical laws, right? Physics didn't just stop existing."
He walked over to the TV and tapped the screen with his finger.
"Look at the size of that thing. How much kinetic energy do you think it burns with every move? What kind of power source is it running on? And all those weapons? You think it's got an infinite payload to run its current combat routine?"
"You mean to say..." Polaris was the first to catch on, immediately grasping the point in Alex's words. As for James, he simply sat down at the table and started picking through the food for something he liked.
"Judging by the Wild Sentinel's current behavior, it's likely that it was teleported here mid-battle—probably right before its destruction," Alex explained casually, spreading his hands. "So it's still running on whatever original combat protocol it had. But now that it's cut off from its energy source, it won't last long. Sooner or later, it'll burn out and collapse into a heap of scrap."
Maybe it was something about the way mutants handled crises. They were so used to relying on their powers that they often overlooked the most obvious things.
Take the Iron Man suits, for example. Everyone knows Tony Stark has a whole armory of high-powered suits—but how many ever stop to ask how long the energy in those suits actually lasts?
Besides, Alex didn't believe for a second that the Dark Watcher would just let a Wild Sentinel reduce Earth to ash. That monster wasn't here to destroy the planet. It was bait—meant to get his attention.
After finishing his explanation to the girls, Alex strolled over to the table and sat down across from James, casually tearing open a pack of peanuts.
"I heard about Caliban... and the ship."
James didn't even blink at Alex knowing this. After realizing the true extent of Alex's power, it would've been more surprising if he didn't know.
Taking a sip of his beer, James responded in a low voice, "Caliban can't be exposed to sunlight. Keeping him with us made us too easy to spot. So I left him somewhere safe. Once we find a buyer, we'll get out of here together."
"You're planning to escape while things are chaotic?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What else do you suggest?" James shot back. "This country's been unlivable for people like us for a long time. If it weren't for Charles and his condition dragging me down, I would've left ages ago. Too bad all his assets and accounts got frozen by the government, or I wouldn't be stuck in this mess."
"I don't think it's going to be that easy."
"What do you mean?" James's brow furrowed.
Alex didn't bother to be cryptic. "You're not the only one thinking about running. And now that Manhattan's been overrun with mutants on live broadcast—who knows how many escaped? The situation's only going to escalate. You really think you'll make it out clean?"
James fell silent. He knew Alex was right. If they ever had a chance to get out, it had vanished in the chaos.
A massive wave of mutants had appeared from nowhere. They killed world leaders. They leveled the Capitol. And now, they were scattered and on the run. No government or military would sit idly by.
Judging from what that guy Pierce had said earlier, they'd been watching interdimensional intruders for a while. And now they had the perfect excuse to act—labeling this whole event as an invasion.
From now on, anyone who came from another universe was going to find their name on a government watchlist. Even Polaris and Blink, who just wanted a normal life, wouldn't be spared.
And since all the "invaders" happened to be mutants, even Logan and Charles would probably be pulled into the fallout.
"...Now I get why Pierce is so interested in Caliban," James muttered, rubbing his temples and drinking again. "With this many fugitives running loose, Caliban's tracking ability is exactly what they need."
"Yeah," Alex said, "that's why Caliban's situation isn't exactly safe right now. If before it was just Pierce and his faction after him, then after this incident goes public, the whole country's going to be hunting him down."
As he spoke, something occurred to Alex. He looked up at James.
"Logan, do you know what the Essex Corporation is really about?"
James nodded slightly. "Genetic engineering. They experiment on mutants, trying to use their DNA to grow and manufacture new mutant infants. Some woman once came to me about it—said she used to be a nurse in one of their labs. That's how I found out. But I wanted no part in that mess then… and honestly, I still don't."
"There was a breakout in one of Essex's labs," Alex continued, tearing open a jelly snack with a calm tone. "A bunch of experimental subjects escaped—those newborn mutants you mentioned. I'd bet anything those kids are out there, on the run."
"If those kids end up crossing paths with the mutants causing all this chaos in Manhattan," he added, "this whole situation might spiral even further out of control."
James let out a long, weary sigh. He knew exactly how messy things had become. And worse—he knew what kind of consequences this disaster would bring.
"Forget it," he muttered at last. "Let's not dwell on stuff that's not directly our problem."
After a long silence, James finally looked up at Alex and asked, "So what about you? What's your plan now? You didn't come here just to drop off food, did you?"
"Definitely not," Alex said with a slight grin. Since James clearly didn't want to stay on the last topic, Alex didn't push it either. After a short pause, he continued, "I came here specifically to ask for your help."
James frowned. "Help with what?"
"The situation here is way too complicated for me to handle alone," Alex replied.
Then, without another word, he slid a photograph across the table toward James.
"I need you to go to another universe… and bring back some backup."
....
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