"Want me to be honest?"
Queen White's voice rang out, her eyes burning as she looked at the others. "Frankly, I wish they'd refused to cooperate. That way, I could've had the pleasure of doing it all over again."
"You and Alex are a match made in hell," Copy Cat muttered, clicking his tongue.
This woman really was crazy—certifiably unhinged. It probably took someone as unorthodox as Alex to keep her in check.
"Let's go. We'll see how it all plays out soon enough."
With a casual wave of his hand, Alex rounded up the group.
No one said anything more. They climbed into the car one after another and sped off.
---
Back at the villa, Hank greeted them the moment they stepped inside, eyes full of anticipation.
"Alex, Raven—how'd it go? Everything go smoothly?"
Given how much was at stake for mutantkind, Hank had been anxiously awaiting news.
"No idea. Keep an eye on the news tomorrow," Alex replied, shrugging.
He was hopeful, sure—just like Queen White—but he wasn't the type to make bold predictions without hard facts.
"You really came through, Hank," Queen White said, walking over while gently stroking the portable neural amplifier. "Alex was right. I don't have the heart to kill you after all."
"Emma, that's the creepiest compliment I've ever heard," Raven said, rolling her eyes.
After a few quick greetings, everyone headed off to their rooms.
That was when Selena quietly approached Alex.
"My Lord, I've received word from our agents. We've found Logan—he's one of the people you asked us to track."
Alex turned toward her, his expression casual. "Logan, huh? What about the others? What about William Stryker?"
Selena shook her head apologetically. "We've deployed multiple teams to track him down, but so far, there's no trace of Stryker."
Alex waved it off. Stryker was a high-ranking military figure—hard to catch under the best of circumstances. If he was holed up in some secret island facility, that only made the search harder.
Still, finding Wolverine was a win.
"What's his current status? Has his wife died yet?" Alex asked after a pause.
In the original storyline, Logan's fall into Stryker's trap began with the staged death of his wife. Alex needed to confirm whether his interference had changed anything.
Selena hesitated for a split second. "My Lord… how did you know?"
A flicker of surprise crossed her face. Clearly, her Lord knew far more than he let on.
"Our investigation confirmed that Logan's wife was murdered a month ago. He's since left his hometown and gone on a quest for vengeance."
Alex frowned.
In canon, her death had been a ruse—a setup involving Sabretooth and Stryker. But with Sabretooth already dead by Alex's hand, it looked like Stryker had reused the same ploy.
If she'd already been "dead" for a month...
Shit.
Could Logan have already found and destroyed Stryker's base?
"What's Logan doing now?" he asked.
"From what we can tell… he's searching for someone," Selena replied after a brief pause.
Alex let out a breath of relief.
If he was right, Logan was tracking down his old teammates, looking for a way to get to Stryker. Eventually, he'd find Gambit—and the two would go on to attack the mutant base together.
"Keep looking for the others. And don't take your eyes off Logan," Alex ordered.
"Yes, my Lord."
Selena was about to turn and leave when she hesitated. "Also… Kraven came by this morning. He said he needed to speak with you. Should I call him in?"
Kraven? That caught Alex off guard. The man was the steward of their faction—if he was coming personally, it had to be important.
"Did he say what it was about?" Alex asked.
"No." Selena shook her head. She had asked, but Kraven hadn't given her the time of day.
She and Kraven had a rocky history. She'd openly defied him on more than one occasion, and he had a thing for her she'd never reciprocated. Now that she'd pledged herself to someone else, Kraven wasn't exactly thrilled with her.
"Fine. Bring him in."
Selena nodded and went to fetch him.
---
About thirty minutes later, Kraven arrived, dressed in his signature black trench coat.
"My Lord."
Though he wasn't thrilled about serving this "parachuted-in" Supreme, Kraven knew how to play the game. He bowed respectfully.
"Sit. Selena said you were looking for me?" Alex gestured for him to take a seat.
"Thank you, Supreme."
Kraven sat down and produced a stack of documents from his briefcase.
"These require your signature."
Alex glanced through them. They included ownership papers for the ancient castle Hank had picked out—plus a few extra properties that hadn't even been requested.
Once he signed, it would all be his—legally.
Clearly, this was the faction's way of honoring their new Supreme.
Alex didn't stand on ceremony. He signed with a flourish.
Just like that, he was rich.
On paper at least, he now rivaled Charles Xavier in wealth—a development that even surprised Alex himself.
"Supreme, Elder Amelia wishes to convene a formal meeting soon. She wants to awaken the other two Elders and formally resolve the issue of our faction's leadership. What do you think?"
Though Amelia had already pledged loyalty to Alex, her voice alone didn't carry the authority to represent the entire group. The other two Elders held even higher status.
Until their approval was secured, Alex's title as Supreme remained unofficial.
"Fine by me," Alex replied without hesitation.
---
White House — Central Council Chamber
The room was packed wall to wall with people.
Among them were survivors from the Pentagon, though they looked visibly uncomfortable—especially under the pointed stares of everyone around them. The tension was thick.
The atmosphere was suffocating.
Twenty-six high-ranking officials had been killed in just twenty-three minutes.
"And in that time, not a single other soul in the Pentagon—aside from you—realized what was happening?"
"Even the agents outside the door didn't notice anything, not even after the killers were gone?"
"This is insane. How is that even possible?"
For a long moment, the room was silent—until someone finally broke it with a voice full of disbelief.
Yes, the speaker was a mutant himself. But even he couldn't fathom how something like this could have happened.
Two intruders broke into the Pentagon and slaughtered their way through a secure meeting for nearly half an hour—and no one else noticed?
It defied logic.
Had everyone in the building gone blind?
"We ran a full preliminary investigation," said the lead of the joint inquiry. "Everyone in the Pentagon—without exception—reported nothing unusual."
"Not one person saw the two intruders."
"Not one person heard anything wrong."
"It was as if the entire massacre never even happened."
The room, already heavy with tension, grew even heavier.
And with corroborating statements from firsthand witnesses like Director Hansen, the truth became impossible to deny.
"One of the intruders was a mutant previously imprisoned by Intelligence—Queen White," the inquiry lead continued. "Director Hansen, please explain."
"There were two intruders. One was the telepath we had in custody—Queen White."
"She's a high-level telepath. I believe she clouded everyone's perception in the Pentagon, rendering them effectively blind and deaf to the massacre."
That made sense—at last, the pieces clicked into place.
Still, the fact that she could suppress the minds of everyone in the building… that was terrifying.
"The second intruder was the mutant who broke her out."
"We don't know much about him. What we do know: he has superhuman speed—he can take out dozens of agents in a single second."
"His movements are too fast for the human eye to track."
"And his eyes can fire beams strong enough to slice through twenty-centimeter steel like butter."
Gasps filled the room.
This wasn't just dangerous—it was unstoppable.
No known weapon could touch someone like that. And paired with a telepath who could wipe your awareness?
How do you fight that?
"If they could slip into the Pentagon and assassinate our leadership undetected, they could do the same anywhere."
"All of us—we're all at that man's mercy!"
"He can do what he threatened. That wasn't an empty bluff."
Silence gripped the room.
"…You've all seen the evidence. You know what they're demanding. So—what do we do?" someone finally asked, knocking on the table for attention.
"The United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists. Not now. Not ever," one hardliner snapped.
"And if they wipe out the rest of our leadership? You ready to shoulder that blame?" another shot back.
"That man alone could topple this country!"
"We've already lost our fleet in Cuba. We just buried half our chain of command. If it happens again—that's it. We're done."
The hardliner fell silent. So did the rest.
No one dared bet the country's survival on a bluff.
"But how do we know he'll keep his word if we give in? What if he kills us anyway?"
"He broke into Intelligence and didn't kill a soul. Even this time—he only killed the ones who signed off on the extermination order."
"They could've killed everyone. But they didn't."
"And all they're asking… is the truth."
"They're not murderers. They're not monsters. They're fair."
A pause followed.
Then all eyes turned to the President.
"…It seems," he said slowly, "we have no other choice."
Grim expressions swept the room.
No one wanted this. But everyone understood:
They'd already lost.
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