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Hawk didn't know where Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was, except for what the Sentinel had told him.
But he knew Westchester County.
The county was known for its quiet countryside, big estates, and peaceful, empty roads.
Wealthy families on the East Coast liked to build mansions there. The dense woods made a perfect natural barrier for their homes.
More importantly, Westchester County was close to New York City, the world's wealth capital, and not too far from Washington, D.C., where power was centered.
Hawk knew where Westchester was, but he'd never had a reason to visit.
Before his Cosmo awakened, he was too poor. Places like that were full of "Private Property, Keep Out" signs. If someone like him—a broke, powerless orphan—got caught trespassing, there was no telling what might happen to him.
After his Cosmo awakened, he had even less reason to go there.
First, he was busy. Second, Westchester County didn't matter to him anymore.
Maybe that sounded cliché. Back then, Westchester County ignored him. Now that his Cosmo had awakened, he felt it didn't deserve his attention.
The sun was already setting.
He was in New York State, Westchester County, on Graymalkin Lane. At last, he'd reached Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
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But he was late.
One look was enough. The place was a wreck. The huge Xavier estate looked like it had been bombed. The mansion had collapsed into ruins, and debris, broken furniture, and scattered belongings were all over the lawns.
But there wasn't a single person around.
Thud!
Hawk and Wanda touched down on the grass in front of what was left of the main building.
"Are we too late?"
"No one's here."
Wanda looked over the estate, frowning as she took in the silence and destruction.
Hawk also looked around the grounds.
Then something happened.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Suddenly, a series of launches echoed through the woods. A swarm of small, complex drones shot into the sky. When they reached a certain height, each one flashed with bright blue light. The lights linked together—and in seconds, a huge blue net covered the sky and sealed off the area around Xavier's School.
"..." Wanda watched it form.
The air changed. She raised her hand and saw her Chaos Magic flicker against some unseen force. "Those X-Gene suppressors again."
Next to her, Hawk's mouth twitched in a slight smile. He looked at Wanda. "Now do you see why I wanted to turn Quantico into dust?"
It was just as he'd said.
The federal government's word was hardly better than Mephisto's.
In some ways, it was even worse. After all, no matter how shameless or tricky Mephisto was, even he wouldn't leave Hell, make a deal, and break it right away.
But for the Feds, that was normal.
"Then why didn't you dust them when you had the chance?"
"You thought that was too cruel, remember?"
"When did I ever..." Wanda stopped mid-sentence and instinctively glanced at Hawk.
Hawk's expression did not change.
Their eyes met.
Wanda opened her mouth, then looked away first. "Fine. I admit it. I didn't think the government here would be this shameless."
She truly hadn't expected the Feds to act like this... Hawk had basically kicked down their door, proved he could wipe them out, and still gave them a chance to live.
So what was their response? As soon as he departed, they immediately retaliated!
Did they truly lack awareness? Wanda couldn't make sense of it.
Hawk understood perfectly.
Who gave the Feds that confidence? It could only be the world-famous mutant, Professor X—Charles Xavier.
Whenever a mutant stood up to humanity and fought for mutant rights, Professor X was always the first to step in and stop them.
A mutant siding with humanity.
He did it with Sebastian Shaw, the Black King.
He did it with Erik Lehnsherr, Magneto.
Professor X had spent years using his status as a mutant to preach trust in humanity and peaceful coexistence.
Because of Professor X's open, unchecked bias, humanity had grown fearless, and mutants had ended up in such a miserable position today.
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As the blue net finished sealing off Xavier's School, the sound of heavy boots echoed from the woods. Moments later, waves of armed soldiers and Sentinel agents came out of the trees.
Several armored vehicles rolled out behind the soldiers, with gunners holding onto their heavy machine guns.
As soon as the soldiers and Sentinels appeared, no one spoke or hesitated. They all aimed their weapons at Hawk and Wanda, sure their targets were already trapped.
Their orders were simple: set the trap, wait for the targets to walk in, then take them out.
"CONCENTRATED FIRE!"
The acting commander shouted the order right away.
In the next moment—twelve armored vehicles opened fire at once. Heavy machine guns blazed. Brass casings rained onto the grass. Thousands of bullets formed a deadly web, swallowing Hawk and Wanda in seconds.
"RA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!"
Wanda thrust both hands forward.
Even with the suppressive field, her Chaos Magic wasn't completely blocked. It flared up, forming a huge energy barrier.
The bullets slammed into the red shield, sending ripples racing across it.
In seconds, flattened bullets piled up in a thick layer on the grass in front of her.
Next to her, Hawk watched the attack with a calm that almost seemed insulting.
"Still feeling sympathetic?"
"..." Wanda poured more power into the shield. When she heard him, she caught her breath for a moment and shot him a sharp look.
"You're right. They don't deserve your mercy."
"Heh." Hawk let out a quiet laugh and didn't say anything else. He slowly lifted off the ground and drifted out through Wanda's energy barrier.
As soon as he was exposed, a sniper fired without hesitation. The crosshairs locked on Hawk's eye, and the trigger was pulled.
Bang!
A special armor-piercing round shot from the barrel, screaming through the air and reaching Hawk's left eye in an instant.
But the bullet that should have gone through his skull stopped as soon as it touched his eye. It flattened into a useless disk, then crumbled into dust before anyone could blink.
It wasn't just the sniper round.
As soon as Hawk left the barrier, all the gunfire turned on him. But every bullet that hit his skin ended up the same way.
They crumbled into dust.
A heartbeat later, Hawk moved.
There was no warning. One moment, he floated in the air like a statue. Next, he turned into a streak of red lightning. In a blink, he ripped through the blue net and crashed into the infantry line without slowing down.
Hawk moved so fast the air split around him, leaving a vacuum behind. The pressure knocked two rows of soldiers into the air like they weighed nothing. They were dead before they hit the ground.
A machine gunner on an armored vehicle saw Hawk coming right at him, and his eyes went wide with fear.
Before he could react, Hawk's fist punched straight through the armored vehicle. The force tore through the machine and ripped the gunner's lower body apart.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Wearing the custom red tactical suit Wanda made for him, Hawk ignored the bullets bouncing off his body like rain on steel. He spun once and slammed his fist into the ground.
The ground under his fist exploded upward. The shockwave blasted out in a circle, tearing through everything within fifty meters. Every soldier nearby lost their footing and was thrown into the air as the force tore through their bodies.
"RA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!"
"FIRE!"
"Fwoosh!"
Hawk looked up just in time to see an air-to-ground missile flying toward him from a fighter jet.
The missile hit him in the chest and exploded into a huge fireball.
Hawk floated out of the flames as if they were nothing. He hovered in the air, perfectly still, right in the path of the fighter jet and the attack helicopters.
The helicopters and fighter jets opened fire at once, their cannons spinning into a blur.
Heavy rounds slammed into Hawk's chest, flattened—and bounced off without leaving a mark.
Hawk's face stayed cold and blank. Then he vanished and reappeared in front of the lead helicopter. He reached out and grabbed the spinning main rotor blade with one hand.
The rotor stopped instantly.
Bang!
The engine burst into flames. As the soldiers inside panicked and tried to escape, Hawk tightened his grip on the helicopter. With one powerful swing, he used the aircraft as a club and smashed it into the helicopter next to it.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The two helicopters crashed together.
Twin fireballs exploded in the sky.
They were bright enough to light up the clouds.
The fighter pilot watched the destruction from his cockpit. Fear took over, and he turned hard, trying to escape.
But as soon as he tried to run,
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Hawk turned himself into a missile and punched straight through the fighter jet's fuselage. Hovering in midair, he looked down without expression as the ruined jet exploded into a fireball and plunged toward the earth.
Five minutes later.
The battle was over.
But... Only the battle 'here' was over.
He had already offered them a chance to survive. Unfortunately, General Thaddeus Ross in this world misinterpreted his mercy as weakness.
In that case, they could all go to hell!
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