Westchester.
Jean slowly pushed herself up from the ground. It had been a while since Aquaman and Onslaught had taken their battle elsewhere, but only now was she beginning to recover from the pain that had wracked her body.
Just as she stood up, she heard the roar of a motorcycle.
"Who's there?!"
Jean's instincts flared. The danger hadn't passed. Onslaught could return to attack her at any time. Even though she knew it didn't make sense for him to ride a motorcycle to find her, she couldn't let her guard down.
In the same moment she turned her head, she unleashed a telekinetic blast without hesitation, hitting the approaching vehicle head-on.
Boom!
The motorcycle exploded instantly under the attack. But Jean still caught a glimpse of someone jumping off just before it blew up.
That figure rolled across the ground several times, finally crashing into a large rock. A loud crack sounded from the impact, the unmistakable sound of bones breaking.
"Ahh! You crazy woman! You just attack without saying a word?!"
Only when the voice came out did Jean realize who it was.
Logan.
He had ridden from New York on his motorcycle, but what he didn't expect was that shortly after he left the city, Aquaman and Onslaught had moved the battlefield there.
"You're the one who charged at me without saying anything," Jean shot back, not showing the slightest bit of guilt after accidentally injuring him.
Logan didn't expect an apology from her either. Instead, he pushed himself up with a wince and surveyed the devastation around them.
"What the hell happened here? Was it the LexCorp that attacked?"
He still hadn't forgotten how the company's chairman, Lex Luthor, had defeated their entire team with just a single armored suit. And up in space, he even had orbital weapons tracking them at all times.
Logan assumed this was all their doing.
"LexCorp did show up," Jean said.
Although it was Colonel William from the military who led the team, those security personnel were indeed sent by LexCorp.
Just as Logan was about to get angry, she continued.
"They cleared out all the mutant children from the school. All of them... except the one you care about. Rogue."
The instant he heard that all the kids were taken, Logan's heart sank. He thought he might have come too late.
But when Jean said Rogue was the only exception, hope lit up in him again. As for the other children who were killed? Once he finds Rogue, he'll grieve for the rest.
"Tell me what really happened."
Jean's words had been vague, but Logan realized things were far from good. He wanted a clear picture of the situation.
She nodded. At this point, they were more or less on the same side. Their shared goal was to stop Onslaught. Explaining a bit more didn't matter.
But as she opened her mouth to speak, a cloud of black mist suddenly exploded behind her. In the next second, she couldn't say a word.
From that mist, the battered figure of Onslaught stepped out. His armor was gone. His bare hand grabbed Jean by the throat and lifted her off the ground.
"Urgh…"
She couldn't speak. His grip was tight, crushing. Worse, under Rogue's ability in his body, her powers completely failed. She could only watch as her strength was drained away.
"Who the hell are you!" Logan shouted, dropping into a combat stance. When he saw Jean's expression contorted in pain, he immediately attacked.
He wasn't the movie version of Logan. He had no adamantium skeleton, and no worries about being yanked around by some magnetic power.
So this time, his leap... well, it still looked exactly like something out of the movies.
Without adamantium, he wasn't going to get flicked away like a ragdoll. That part was good.
Unfortunately, a steel rod shot out from the rubble and pierced straight through his torso, pinning him to the ground.
"Argh!!!"
The pain of a punctured lung made Logan scream. But Onslaught didn't even flinch.
"Your ability is quite valuable too. Don't worry, you'll get your turn soon."
Healing powers weren't exactly rare among mutants. But regeneration as strong as his, without altering the body's structure, was something Onslaught had only ever seen in him. Naturally, Logan's power was one he craved.
Within seconds, Jean's body had withered.
Once Onslaught felt her abilities fully integrate, he tossed her seemingly lifeless form next to Logan.
"What did you do to her?!"
The mutant's voice trembled. Jean now looked like a dried-out corpse. He had seen this before. Rogue's ability—the power to drain life and abilities with a single touch.
"You already figured it out, didn't you?"
Onslaught could tell from Logan's shocked face that he'd connected the dots. But he didn't care. He simply stepped closer.
"The girl you care about so much... she's right in front of you, Logan. So why not give your powers to her? It's been 170 years. Surely, you've had enough of life by now?"
The truth was, Logan had long grown tired of the world. In nearly two centuries, it wasn't that he hadn't had people who mattered to him—it was that they had all left, one after another.
He was sick of living, but he didn't want to end it all in some dark corner by himself.
More than once, he had thought about letting Rogue absorb his powers. Letting her take it all, so he could finally rest.
But this wasn't her.
"Shut up!!" Logan roared, gritting his teeth through the pain as he tore himself off the steel rod. Bloodied but defiant, he extended his bone claws and launched himself at Onslaught.
"You're not Rogue! Get out of her body!!"
As the mutant slashed down, a thunderous shockwave exploded from the impact. The ground beneath Onslaught caved in, sending him crashing into the rubble. A crater over twenty meters wide appeared where he landed.
"Huh? Did I really do that?"
Even in his rage, Logan froze, stunned. He didn't remember ever being that strong. He had been ready to die just now.
"You didn't have that kind of power."
As those words fell, a faint silhouette slowly emerged from his body.
Reid appeared in front of him.
"That strike just now was mine. Don't get any strange ideas about your own strength."
Afterward, Aquaman also descended from the sky, trident in hand, closing the trap around Onslaught once more.
"I'll give you a piece of advice, Logan."
"What?"
Logan hadn't expected the man to speak to him. Even though Reid had just emerged from within his body, he didn't think there was much of anything worth talking about between them.
"I won't hold back. Neither will Arthur. We're not going to let Onslaught keep growing stronger. So if you want to save Rogue, then find a way to wake her up. If she can regain control of her body while he's still weak, this'll all be over."
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