Today is Sunday, so no work today. I sat on the couch, sipping coffee and flipping through the news. The usual talking heads yammered on about eic colpse, politics, and celebrity drama until something more iing caught my attention.

  "Explosion in the Bronx! Authorities are iigating what they're calling a coordita a suspected criminal anization's safe house. Eyewitnesses reported a massive fire, followed by a series of explosions that rocked the entire block. The NYPD has not yet made any arrests, though unfirmed sources suggest the involvement of the notorious mafia boss, Hammerhead. Meanwhile, sources indicate possible ties to Hydra, the iional terrorist anization."

  I smirked. o see the cops finally doing some work. But that bullshit about no arrests wasn't surprising. Yuri must have captured some of the Hydra agents during the shootout and iigated the situation from behind the ses. Still, I gotta pay her a visit and check out for myself if she's using the opportunities wisely. If she's doing things well, then it's all good, but if not...

  Anyway, I wonder if Natasha recovered the tech from Hammerhead's base in the Bronx. sidering her skills, it is not that hard. She'll hahis just fine, no doubt about that. I hope she's more careful this time.

  After finishing my coffee, I was about to take the cup to the basin, but that is when I heard the doorbell.

  I wasn't expeg aoday. I tried to use my super speed to check out, but it didn't activate. I quickly tried to use my psychic ability to look who it was, but it failed. My mutation isn't w. What the fuck is happening? Power nullifiers! Someone came after me, I see. If I'm n, they have this pce surrounded, and sidering it's far away from the city, they had it easy. Plus, I'm pretty sure they aren't friendly or else, they wouldn't have gohat far. I could hear footsteps surrounding my house.

  The doorbell rang again...

  Now isn't the time to panic.

  I've been prepared for a situation like this. After activating the microphones and the hidden cameras, I grabbed the untraceable phone and earpods that the Beast gave me when I left the academy and quickly went to the basement. There was a little tuhat led out to the other side of the ke behind my house. It was an underground escape tuhat I built for escape situations. And the house is rigged with explosives. Not to mention those explosives I've pnted around the area. I took the trigger a into the tunnel, log it from behind.

  As I crawled through the narrow escape tuhe cold earth pressing against me, I held the trigger tightly in my hand. It's just a normal switothing else. Just a single push on it and the entire house would explode. Now, my question is... Who are they? Are they reted to the ing? Or, perhaps, they belong to some kind of shitty gover group? Wait! Was the gover behind my ing? Whatever it is, I've left a burner phone in my room. I'm sure someone will call using that and they will defiry to threaten or act smart.

  The turetched beh the ground for about 200 meters approx. I could already see the faint light of the end ahead. When I reached the exit, I stopped for a sed, listening. Silence. Good. No one was here—yet. I tried to use my power and create a tiny shard of iy fiop and it worked. Just to be sure, I used my psychic power to s the area. All clear.

  I carefully lifted the hatd slipped out, croug behind a thick tree. From this vantage point, I had a clear view of the house. They were closing in, surrounding the building with military precision. A group of bck-suited operatives with what looked like high-tech guns surrouhe area. Definitely not local thugs. There were three military trucks with weird maes on the back. Those must be the Mutation nullifiers that were blog my mutations.

  Suddenly, I noticed one figure standing apart from the rest. He wore a long bck coat, his hair streaked with gray. He was barking orders into a . William Stryker. Everyone knows that fucker. He's pretty famous in the news. Last month he got his own team of operatives who work to capture rogue mutants and superhumans.

  I ched my fists.

  As far as I remember from the id movies... This guy was infamous iant world, leading tless operations to capture or extermiants uhe guise of national security. Stryker didn't just hunt mutants—he experimented on them, trolled them, and twisted them to his purposes. He had something to do with my ing, didn't he?

  I put on my earpods. Let's see what that bastard is barking.

  Stryker paced in front of the trucks. "I want a sweep," he ordered through the device. "Find him. Our spies didn't see him leave his house, which means he may be within its walls, in which case we have him. Go!" He looked at his watch, his jaw tightening.

  His men were searg ihe house and some of them were looking around.

  He was serious. This was a full-scale takedown.

  Soon, one of his men came out of the house with the burner phone. Niow, let's talk, shall we? Just as I expected, Stryker dialed the only saved number and raised the phoo his ear. My phone began to vibrate. I used my super speed to run away from that area, but made sure to stay within the range and then took the call.

  I took a deep breath and pressed the answer button, keeping my voice calm and measured. "Hello?" I said casually as if it were any other day.

  "Where are you?" Stryker's voice was harsh, demanding, with an edge of impatience.

  I smiled to myself. "Ah, Stryker. I was w when we'd finally get the ce to talk. Been a fan of your work, you know? Especially the part where you capture and torture mutants. Real cssy stuff."

  There was a brief pause, and I could hear the tension in his silence. "You think this is a game?" he growled. "You're trapped. No powers. o run. Even if you run, we'll find you. But if you cooperate, maybe I'll sider leaving you in one piece."

  "I'm not really a 'cooperate' kind of guy, Stryker. But tell you what—how about you cooperate with me? See, the thing is, I've got my finger on a little switch. A switch that will turn my house and the entire area into a lovely crater. You think you and your little operatives in there are going to survive when I blow this pce sky-high?" I chuckled darkly.

  The silen the other end was deafening. I imagined him weighing his options, calg the odds.

  "You're bluffing," he said finally, though there was a note of uainty creeping into his voice.

  "Am I?" I g the trigger in my hand. "I'd hate to ruin your fun day, but I'm willing to bet you don't want to find out. You've already lost the element of surprise. Maybe you should call your little hunting party off before things get messy. But then again, when will I ever get a ove the enemy of the mutants iire world again..."

  "Wait!" Stryker stuttered.

  "Nope!" I pressed the trigger.

  The world seemed to freeze for a moment as I pressed the trigger, and then all hell broke loose. A massive explosioed from my house, followed by a series of smaller, rapid explosions. Fmes shot into the air, apanied by thick bck smoke, engulfing the entire property. Stryker's voice vanished from the other end of the call, repced by static.

  I ran back to see the se. There ain't no way, I'm gonna waste this view.

  Through the chaos, I could see Stryker's operatives scattering like ants, diving for cover as debris rained down. The high-tech trucks were caught i, flipping over like toys as the shockwave rippled through the forest. The sound of metal tearing and gss shattering filled the air.

  I smirked. "Who's bluffing now?"

  Stryker's men were burning as the fmes and explosions ed them. I was standing at a safe distaill watg the fun. But what surprised me was Stryker. He lost half of his body, and that bastard was regeing at a fug quick pace. Of course, Logan's DNA or Victor's DNA. Iing.

  The fun has just begun. It's time to stop my delivery job and ge my current profession to something more fun and bloody. I 't live a normal life anyway. The peace was fun as long as it sted. Now, time to kill some motherfug gover agents and expose them.

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