Outside the military prison, Liam Hayes appeared with Lorna, Rogue, Clarice, Kitty, and Lauren. The six of them stood in the shadows, looking at the heavily fortified military compound in front of them, and even from a distance the place felt difficult to approach.
The layers of defenses were tight, and the soldiers patrolling outside moved in disciplined routes that left almost no obvious opening. It was the kind of setup that made sneaking in look nearly impossible.
The girls frowned as they studied it.
If they got stuck at the very first line of defense, then what was the point of insisting on coming along in the first place? They were here to help, not to stand around and watch Liam solve everything alone.
Liam could have told them that getting inside was actually easy for him. Whether it was telepathy, invisibility, or spatial movement, he had more than enough ways to slip into the prison without anyone noticing.
But when he saw how seriously they were discussing the problem, clearly determined to prove themselves, he kept quiet and let them work it out on their own.
It didn't take long.
After a brief discussion, the group settled on a plan, and Lorna walked back over to him to explain it.
"Liam, after talking it over, we decided to quietly take out the soldiers patrolling outside first," she said. "Then we'll head into the prison and rescue Magneto."
Liam raised an eyebrow slightly.
The plan was simple. Brutally simple, really. There was nothing particularly clever or elegant about it.
But given their abilities, it was also the most practical approach.
They didn't have his ridiculous toolkit. They couldn't turn invisible, teleport freely, or solve everything through sheer mental domination. For them, a direct and efficient infiltration was the best option available.
"It's not a bad plan," Liam said with a nod. "Alright then. Let's move."
The moment he approved it, a bright smile spread across Lorna's face.
The group immediately sprang into action.
They moved swiftly through the darkness and quickly closed in on the outer guards. Lorna controlled two small metal beads and sent them flying with surgical precision, knocking out the soldiers watching the entrance before they could even react.
Right after that, Kitty led the others through the wall, slipping silently into the compound.
Seeing this, Liam used spatial movement to follow them in without a sound.
"Kitty, Lauren, let's work together," Lorna whispered.
The two nodded at once.
Their coordination wasn't perfect yet, but it was more than good enough. Lorna kept the pressure on from a distance, her metal beads shooting through the darkness to knock out guards posted at different corners.
Kitty phased through objects and walls, appearing behind soldiers before they could react and dropping them in silence.
Lauren manipulated the moisture in the air, condensing it into water spheres that shot forward with surprising force.
At first, everything went smoothly.
But no matter how careful Lorna tried to be, they were still discovered by a passing patrol.
"There's no helping it now," Lorna said, her expression hardening. "We brute-force the rest."
Her metal beads shot out again, knocking down the last few guards in the area almost instantly.
"All the outer guards are down," she said. "Now where's the prison block?"
"I found it. Over there." Rogue, who hadn't taken part in the fighting, pointed in one direction.
Since she couldn't easily help with the takedowns, she had been watching the surroundings the whole time and had already identified the likely location of the prison itself.
"Good. Move."
Lorna called out, and the group headed for the prison at once.
It wasn't until they were actually inside the prison complex that the girls let out small breaths of relief. They had made it past the first major obstacle, and that alone gave them a burst of confidence.
Then Liam appeared directly in front of them and smiled.
"Not bad, ladies. But now that you're inside, the rest is up to me."
The girls stared at him helplessly.
They had just spent all that effort getting into the prison, only for Liam to pop in and out like it was no harder than stepping across a room. It was hard not to feel a little deflated when the gap between them was that absurd.
Seeing their expressions, Liam laughed and offered a little comfort.
"You did great," he said. "You'll be able to handle things on your own sooner or later. I'm not going to be around every second forever."
Then his tone softened just slightly.
"But when I am here, you can trust me."
"Liam…"
Lorna and the others looked at him, their eyes brightening.
How was there really a guy like this?
He was strong enough to make impossible things look easy, and then he still knew exactly what to say to keep everyone from losing confidence. It was honestly unfair.
"Alright," Liam said, turning his head toward the far end of the corridor. "Enough of that. The welcoming committee is here."
The girls immediately followed his gaze.
At the other end of the prison passage stood a woman in a suit, flanked by two prison guards carrying guns.
Bang! Bang!
The two guards opened fire without hesitation, emptying their magazines toward the group.
But every bullet came to a stop in front of Liam.
He hadn't even bothered to move.
Lorna, standing nearby, waved her hand the next second. All of the suspended bullets reversed direction and shot back at their original owners. The two prison guards were torn apart almost instantly, their bodies riddled with holes.
But when the bullets struck the woman in the suit, something strange happened.
Instead of falling, she remained standing.
The bullets that entered her body were forced back out as if her flesh rejected them.
Liam narrowed his eyes. "Lady Deathstrike?"
If he remembered right, this was one of the mutants under Stryker's control. She had superhuman healing, adamantium bones, and claws even longer and deadlier than Wolverine's.
In a lot of ways, she was basically an upgraded copy of Logan.
And in a direct fight, even Wolverine wasn't necessarily her match.
At that moment, Lady Deathstrike extended her slender claws and lunged at them.
"She's basically another Logan," Lorna said with a scornful smile.
Then she raised one hand.
The next moment, Deathstrike was yanked off the ground and suspended helplessly in midair.
Against a mutant whose body was full of metal, Lorna was practically a natural counter.
"Nice!" Rogue and Kitty blurted out at once.
"Simple," Lorna said, clearly pleased with herself.
"But what do we do with her?" Clarice asked, looking up at Deathstrike's restrained body.
Lorna rubbed her chin. "Maybe we just kill her?"
"No." Liam immediately shook his head. "She's just being controlled by Stryker. Let me try something first. I might be able to bring her back."
"Alright," Lorna said, trusting his judgment as she lowered Deathstrike to the floor.
The moment her feet touched the ground, Deathstrike charged again.
But this time Liam's telepathy caught her first.
He invaded her mind and began searching through her memories.
What he found made his expression darken.
Lady Deathstrike had once been an ordinary woman—black-haired, beautiful, seemingly delicate, wearing her hair tied back in a ponytail. Her father had been one of Stryker's assistants and a key figure in the Wolverine project.
But after the Weapon X transformation succeeded, Stryker had him killed.
And once that was done, she herself had been turned into the next test subject.
After seeing all of that, Liam couldn't help feeling some sympathy for her.
Another life ruined by Stryker.
Another victim.
He carefully restored the portions of her memory that had been damaged by the control.
The moment she woke up, Deathstrike roared, "Stryker! I'll kill you! Kill you!"
Then she slashed toward Liam.
The murderous rage inside her was so intense that she couldn't even tell who was in front of her anymore. After so long under Stryker's control, her mind had been twisted almost beyond repair.
Liam frowned and restrained her again.
At this point, if he wanted her to function normally, he would need to modify her memories directly.
After a moment's thought, he made a small adjustment.
When Deathstrike opened her eyes again, she was much calmer.
Then she looked at Liam and bowed her head slightly.
"Master."
"…Master?" Lorna, Rogue, and the others all stared at Liam in shock, then immediately turned their eyes on him with expressions that demanded an explanation.
Liam coughed awkwardly. "That… wasn't exactly intentional. There may have been a small issue with the memory edit."
He was just about to make another correction when the prison walls suddenly began to tremble.
In the next moment, countless steel bars tore themselves out of the walls like sharpened spears.
"Careful!"
Liam raised a hand and used his electromagnetic control to stop the steel in midair before it could hit anyone.
"What the hell?" Clarice and Lauren instinctively stepped back, startled by the sudden attack.
"Is it Magneto?" Lorna frowned as she stared at the metal frozen in the air.
Other than Magneto, she couldn't think of anyone in this prison who should be able to control steel on that level.
A second later, Magneto himself stepped out from the other end of the passage.
"It really is Magneto!"
"Magneto, what's wrong? We came here to save you!" Rogue and Kitty shouted in confusion.
"Don't bother," Liam said, his expression sinking. "It's useless. He's already under Stryker's control."
He hadn't expected Magneto to fall for it.
From what he knew, Jason's illusion powers were supposed to be more about creating false environments than completely seizing someone like this. But expectations didn't matter anymore.
Now they just had to subdue Magneto first.
At that exact moment, enormous masses of steel surged toward them under Magneto's control, flooding down the corridor in a wave so wide there was no room left to dodge.
Seeing that, Liam swept a hand forward.
An ice wall rose instantly, blocking the oncoming flood of metal.
Then, without wasting a second, he used spatial movement to appear directly behind Magneto.
His telepathy struck at once, invading Magneto's mind.
....
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