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Chapter 109: The Mutants Have Declared War on Us!
🕑 Added 2025-05-23 17:04:46 +0000 UTC
Hank’s technical prowess was nothing short of extraordinary.
Right after he made his promise to Alex, he drew up a detailed procurement list and handed it to Selena. She immediately mobilized a team, and by nightfall, every item on Hank’s list had been delivered to his lab.
Then—he vanished.
For the next two days, no one saw Hank. He locked himself in his private lab, the lights inside burning through the night.
Now and then, strange mechanical noises would drift out—no one could quite figure out what they were.
And two days later…
With dark circles under his eyes but a grin of uncontainable excitement on his face, Hank finally summoned everyone into his lab.
On the table before him sat a bizarre-looking contraption, something straight out of Back to the Future, like one of Doc Brown’s psychic inventions.
“Everyone, this is the Brainwave Amplifier 2.0—portable version,” Hank said proudly. “Emma, once you put this on, your telepathy will be boosted exponentially.”
“You once resisted Charles’s mental scan. Based on my calculations, your brain can handle the influx of data and high-intensity operation this device requires.”
“So go ahead—give it a try.”
Despite his exhaustion, Hank was visibly buzzing with anticipation. His eyes gleamed with intellectual fervor.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but this thing… it’s hideous,” Emma said bluntly, eyeing the clunky device with visible distaste.
Every cell in her body resisted the idea of strapping such an eyesore to her head.
“Seriously, couldn’t you have made it look decent?” Copy Cat chimed in, equally unimpressed. “She’ll look like a ridiculous clown in that thing.”
Hank: “...”
He had worked two straight days without sleep to create this revolutionary device, and this was their concern?
He felt like he’d been personally insulted by the gods of fashion.
Alex just gave a helpless chuckle on the side.
“Emma, you can project illusions into others’ minds, right? So what does it matter what the device looks like? You can make everyone see something else—or even make it invisible.”
“It should be a piece of cake for you.”
“Sounds like a clever idea,” Emma admitted. “But there’s one glaring flaw—you’re immune to my illusions. You would still see me wearing this ridiculous thing.”
“No, Emma,” Alex said with a straight face. “You’d still look stunning—even with that thing strapped to your head.”
“Oh? You really think I’m pretty?” Emma batted her eyelashes playfully.
“Of course. That much is obvious.”
Alex wasn’t about to lose points for honesty at a time like this.
“Such a sweet talker… shame you’re just a bit too young,” Emma teased, then picked up the “ugly” brainwave amplifier and placed it on her head.
In the very next instant, her eyes widened in shock and wonder.
She could feel it.
A power surge—no, an explosion—coursed through her mind. Her telepathic ability had just been magnified tenfold—no, a hundredfold!
Hank hadn’t been exaggerating. He had really pulled it off.
Emma cast a sideways glance at Hank. All her previous doubts and condescension evaporated instantly, replaced by sincere respect.
Until now, she had believed that a mutant’s abilities could only be strengthened through rigorous training. She had never imagined such a leap was possible through technology.
This clean-cut young man… was a genius.
Now she understood why Alex valued him so highly.
“Incredible… absolutely incredible,” she muttered, awestruck.
As her power surged, she activated her ability, instantly rewriting everyone’s memory in the room. She cast an illusion, making the clunky device disappear from sight entirely.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, no one could see the amplifier on her head—except Alex, of course.
Seeing her amazed expression, Hank knew it had worked. A proud smile tugged at his lips.
“Hank, beautiful work,” Alex praised, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
“Truly impressive. Didn’t think you had it in you,” Copy Cat added, for once offering genuine praise.
Hank scratched his head sheepishly, looking a little embarrassed.
“Well then, looks like we’re ready to move forward with the plan,” Emma said, her tone full of anticipation.
---
Pentagon, U.S. Department of Defense.
Once again, the round table conference room was filled with high-ranking officials—some of the same faces who had been present during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The atmosphere was just as heavy, just as grim.
Shock, rage, fear, and dread were written all over their faces.
“Just two people?”
“Director Hansen, are you telling us that just two mutants managed to break into your intelligence HQ—and walk out without a scratch?”
“They even had the nerve to walk away? Unscathed?”
One general stared at Hansen in disbelief.
“You’re forgetting something,” another added coldly. “They did it in sixteen minutes.”
“As unbelievable as it sounds, yes. That’s exactly what happened,” Hansen said solemnly.
He then produced a sketch and laid it on the table.
“To be precise, only one mutant engaged our agents. He moved so fast, no one had time to react. It looked like sixteen minutes passed—but in reality, he incapacitated dozens of agents in a split second.”
Boom—the room erupted into chaos.
Every eye zeroed in on the sketch Hansen had brought.
He looked like a kid.
Just a teenage boy—yet he had singlehandedly taken down dozens of trained intelligence operatives in the blink of an eye.
And to many in the room, he was even more terrifying than the metal-controlling mutant who had sunk their fleet. At least that threat had a workaround—they could develop non-metal weapons. R&D teams were already on it.
But this one?
How do you counter superspeed?
How do you stop someone who moves faster than the eye can see?
“First they sink our fleet with a metal manipulator, then they tear apart our intelligence HQ with a speedster… gentlemen, we are facing a threat far greater than we imagined.”
“These mutants are more dangerous than anything we’ve encountered.”
“We cannot allow this to continue!”
“This… is war.”
“They’ve declared war on us! And we will respond in kind—with full force, to defend our homeland!”
The Secretary of Defense’s voice rang with iron-clad certainty, cutting through the heavy silence like a blade.
Around the table, grim-faced officials slowly nodded in agreement.
