Chapter 52: Sentinel (1)
Sentinel (1)
"Minister?....."
"Hm? What's wrong, Hank?"
"That.... during meeting hours, the Vice Ministers' displays of affection are... a bit...."
"Hah? You got a problem with me getting cozy with my own?"
"Haa....."
Henry Philip "Hank" McCoy, teacher at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, executive in the United Superhuman Agency handling intelligence as the wise general—his body a beastly form covered in blue fur, like a beastman superhuman known as Beast—clutched his head and sighed deeply at the sight. This was the organization's top brass failing to focus on the meeting, too busy flirting with his women. It wasn't the first day, but even so, reining in the Minister in that state was impossible.
"You, focus on the meeting.... I enjoy admiring that changed, splendid form of yours, but now's the time for proceedings."
"Right, Zod-kun... Even if Zod-kun likes my chest, it's meeting time now, isn't it, Hank?"
"......My thanks, Vice Ministers."
At the sharp words from the original Alters—one of the Servants Zod particularly cherished—Zod adopted a listless expression but began to concentrate on the meeting. Only then did Hank offer his gratitude to the Artorias before resuming the proceedings in earnest.
"This matter is gravely serious, Minister. Recently, we've acquired intelligence that Trask Industries is conducting biological experiments on superhumans in Russia's outer regions. We dispatched Alpha Team, but contact has been lost since."
"What?....."
Realizing the gravity of the situation at last, he reverted to the cold, ruthless visage of the United States' overseer of all superhumans—the Minister of the United Superhuman Agency—nodding curtly to signal continuation.
"Bolivar Trask, Russian-American origin, but he defected to Russia and founded Trask Industries. Later, he shifted to the arms industry...."
"Too long, Hank! Summarize in one line."
".......He's experimenting on superhumans to develop new weapons—ones designed to kill superhumans...."
Kwang—!!!!
"(Grit) No matter how many I kill, they keep crawling back like cockroaches... It's utterly tiresome. And daring to experiment on superhumans? Has Alpha Team been captured too?"
Shattering the round table with a fist, yet snapping his fingers to restore it via magecraft, Zod glared at Hank, inquiring if the investigation team had been taken—but Hank shook his head.
"We don't know. They haven't been captured, but satellite imagery shows Kitty's phasing ability activating across multiple locations countless times...."
"She's looped time reversal multiple times? This is maddening."
Catherine "Kitty" Pryde, the female superhuman with phasing abilities, codenamed Shadowcat. She was a member of Alpha Team, dispatched to investigate and, upon confirmation, immediately assassinate and destroy the facilities of Russia's largest military contractor experimenting on superhumans. But her power wasn't merely phasing through matter.
She could also send a target's consciousness back in time. Kitty's ability pierced not just objects but thoughts and minds, 'transcending' everything. Human consciousness lingers in the present, while the body exists as a panoramic flow across past-present-future. Kitty applied her power to drag a captive through a wall, 'piercing' their current consciousness through time to the past. It wasn't just transcending consciousness but altering inscribed time itself... If she had looped through temporal shifts repeatedly, it meant they faced an enemy they couldn't defeat.
"......Damn it."
A rare, relatively mild curse escaped Zod's lips as he furrowed his brow. These were agents trained under the Special Team's Artorias and the executives, organized by the agency—even the lowest ranks could subdue 3~4 special forces alone. If elite operatives like Alpha Team were struggling, this was no ordinary threat.
"Hank, Erik, Charles.... Prepare the jet, and we'll go with Beta Team.... Also, call Altria and Ar (Saber Artoria's nickname)."
"Can't I go?"
"You've adapted to this world, but Altria and Ar still need adjustment time..."
"Disappointing..."
Artoria Alter sulked at not being deployed but soon embraced Zod, protesting as if seeking compensation—yet this time, Zod grew serious, gently rebuffing her affections.
Zod Animusphere was a wicked, horrifically evil man, but he cherished his people—and his women as trophies—every bit as fiercely. Thus, to rescue his subordinates (tools) in peril, he boarded the jet with Beta Team. Fusing supersonic speed with superhuman prowess, the jet hurtled toward Russia's north at near-light velocities.
****
Russia's northernmost reaches, Murmansk.
"Haa... how many times is this, fuck...."
In the frozen city of scarcely 300,000 souls amid barren expanses, beneath the earth lay an abandoned massive bunker for nuclear preparedness—the temporary base for the United Superhuman Agency's dispatched Alpha Team. One member, Roberto da Costa, superhuman wielding solar energy, codenamed Sunspot, spat curses while chain-smoking.
"Even indoors, moderate the smoking, yeah?"
Frowning at the smoke, waving it away, a burly youth scolded him—Piotr Nikolaevich Rasputin, organic steel superhuman, codenamed Colossus. Roberto retorted in an irritated tone.
"Like I can hold back in this mess?! Cut off from outside, HQ doesn't even know our situation! Rescue's a pipe dream! And this shitty loop we've been trapped in—we don't even know how many times! Only Kitty does! Huh?! 'Gregory Rasputin'?"
"This fucking—! My last name's just Rasputin! Not that Rasputin! Why the snide?"
Veins bulging on his forehead at Roberto's mocking jab, Piotr grabbed his collar, steeling one arm, the air thick with impending violence.
"Both of you, enough?"
"Haa... We get you're stressed too, but what good's infighting now? Calm down first... By now, the Minister's probably sent reinforcements."
A long-haired man with dark sunlit features, James Proudstar—superhuman enhanced senses, codenamed Warpath—glared at them with a sharp word. Agreeing, the handsome youth Robert Bobby Drake—cryokinesis superhuman, codenamed Iceman—coaxed and soothed them to calm.
"What good's coming if they do? Those monster robots—no one but the Minister can handle 'em."
"Frankly, I agree with the guy. Without the Minister or Vice Ministers, regular superhumans stand no chance... As much as it pains me."
Surprisingly aligned, Roberto and Piotr voiced pessimism but concurred that hope lay with their superior and his women.
"But seriously.... What exactly are the Vice Ministers and executives?"
A woman with violet hair, Clarice Ferguson—portal superhuman, codenamed Blink—sat cross-legged on an iron chair, tilting her head curiously about Zod's women, the Alters, and the Servants' true natures.
"I feel the same. Their abilities aren't clearly defined, and their weapons... nothing ordinary about them. Medieval knights or royalty in armament and speech, those weapons... And the auras the masters emanate feel beyond superhuman powers or that Mystery—magecraft or whatever."
Sipping hot coffee from a mug beside her, Kitty nodded in agreement, hypothesizing that those they followed—the Minister's women and aides—defied classification as mere superhumans... perhaps transcendent entities.
"Well, the bosses seem to know each other, so don't dig too deep, 'Kitty.' As the old saying goes, curiosity killed the 'cat'! Haha!"
"You gotta twist the metaphor into wordplay every time?"
Despite Kitty's protest, Lucas Bishop—energy absorption superhuman, codenamed Bishop—the dreadlocked Black man chuckled at her.
The icy tension in the air began to thaw slightly, but...
"Wait.... Damn! It's here! A Sentinel!!"
James—Warpath—sensing with his superhuman hearing and smell the superhuman-hunting weapon invading the bunker, cried out. The fragile peace shattered in an instant.
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