"Her ability is too special—too valuable—and we need time to study it. That's all," Stryker said solemnly. With absolute home-field advantage, he could toy with Kayla however he liked. As for keeping his word? Since when does a wolf negotiate honor with a sheep?
"You just let him walk?!"
A voice dripping with fury crashed down as a man in a black coat—Victor, Sabretooth—leapt from the roof. He'd been here a while already, waiting to watch Stryker and Logan tear each other apart so he could swoop in and reap the spoils.
By their agreement, he would kill Logan, then have molten adamantium pumped into his body—becoming the Adamantium Tiger.
"Easy, Victor."
Stryker's face tightened. Victor was his sharpest double-edged blade. With Sabretooth's help he'd already captured dozens of powerful mutants and distilled their genes for the Weapon X Project. But Victor's ambition had begun to slip beyond Stryker's leash. Even so, good help was scarce, and Stryker was the only scientist on Earth who truly controlled the adamantium process; besides, Victor's jealousy of Logan's metal bones burned like acid.
"You can't let him go!"
Victor's hate-filled stare bored into Stryker. He was one breath from going feral.
"Victor, you can't beat him."
"Then give me the adamantium!!"
"Your tests are back. You can't survive the bonding. It will kill you."
The verdict fell like a funeral bell.
Though Victor and Logan were half-brothers and both terrifying mutants, Victor's healing simply wasn't on Logan's level. Even Logan had scraped past death to survive his procedure. In Stryker's calculus, there was probably only one man on Earth tough enough to endure an adamantium infusion—Logan. He had no desire to watch Victor die on the table.
For Victor, who hungered day and night for more power, that answer was a hammer blow.
"We had a deal! I can do it! Anything Logan can do, I can do too!" Victor growled. He was crueler than Logan and fiercer in close quarters. Before Logan ever got his metal skeleton, he'd been the little brother—utterly outclassed.
"Victor, he's using us!"
Kayla, silent till now, finally spoke. She'd seen through Stryker. If she wanted to save her sister, Emma Frost, words wouldn't cut it. She had one card left—risk everything, use her touch-hypnosis, and force Stryker's hand.
Stryker whirled and clamped a hand around Kayla's throat, hoisting her into the air with one arm. Rage and spite glittered in his eyes.
"Woman, your tricks don't work on me!"
A grin split Victor's face, baring animal fangs. He wasn't Logan—no soft heart. He'd lost count of the people he'd killed, and the beast in him was never far from the surface.
"How about this time… you really die?"
His fingers tightened. Bone creaked in Kayla's neck. If Stryker was going to back out, then Victor would slaughter one of his key assets to make a point; otherwise the man would always see him as a tool. He was Sabretooth. He was Victor. He was destined to stand at the peak of mutantkind.
"Victor!!"
Out in the hall, Logan—who'd been on his way out—stopped dead and let out a thunderous roar.
With senses honed like blades, he'd heard it all. Logan knew Kayla had lied and hurt him; if it was to save her sister, he could understand. Truth was, though he kept saying he'd let it go, his heart hadn't. The wolf's heart was too soft.
Saitama sighed from the sidelines, dead-fish eyes full of boredom. "Headache… Guess I'll wait," he muttered.
Logan charged. One explosive step dented the floor. He wasn't the man he'd been. In less than a minute of brutal collision, he drove his adamantium claws straight through Victor's chest and nailed him to the ground.
The sudden reversal wiped the color from Stryker's face. Logan's power had exceeded his estimates. His strongest enforcer couldn't last a single exchange. Without a second's hesitation, Stryker flicked a glance at the lab coats; while the brothers clashed, he and his researchers slipped for the hidden door and fled.
"I told you! If I ever saw you again, I'd kill you with my own hands, Victor!"
Logan pinned Victor and snarled, livid.
"Heh… then do it, Logan! Kill the only brother you've got left in this world. Kill the man who bled at your side—over a woman! Wake up! We're mutants. We're the apex!"
Victor's roar was half mad, half pleading—and he couldn't deny the shock twisting in his gut. Logan's strength now utterly crushed him.
Logan's face twisted with pain. He leveled those razor claws at Victor's skull. Even with their healing, a pierced brain would end it. Adamantium would slice Victor's head like tofu.
Rip—
Blood sprayed.
An arm spun into the air and thumped to the floor.
Logan wrenched his claws free. Victor's scream tore the ceiling; his right arm was gone—sheared clean at the shoulder.
"Hahaha! Still too soft, Logan. One day, I'll take that arm back!"
Clutching his stump, Victor stumbled off, a blood-soaked wreck. Once, mutants had trembled at his name. Now he fled like a beaten cur.
"Logan… I'm sorry, I…"
Kayla's lips trembled. She had so much to say, but didn't know where to start. She had never faked her feelings for him. But right now nothing mattered more than her sister's life.
"Please… save my sister. She can turn her body into diamond. Please, Logan."
Logan, still shaking from breaking with his brother, looked at Kayla, then turned to the bored bald guy stifling yet another yawn.
"Saitama. We're going. Sorry to trouble you."
At last, a flicker of interest stirred in those dead-fish eyes. Saitama yawned. "Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Sure would be nice to find a tougher opponent for once."
(End of Chapter)
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