Defection, Cloning

"Like what happened to Human Torch?"

Thinking of Human Torch’s fate, Quicksilver shuddered. No one could stop Iron Man from killing someone.

Quicksilver hesitated before saying, "The problem is, I don’t have that kind of prestige, and I can’t beat the old man."

"This doesn’t require much prestige," Domino said. "All they want is a promise."

Quicksilver asked in confusion, "What promise?"

"A promise that the government will let bygones be bygones."

Domino said, "Human Torch’s betrayal caused the Brotherhood’s most extreme faction to disappear. Those left are rational mutants who long for a better life.

"Thanks to Iron Man, conditions for mutants have improved rapidly. Many Brotherhood members want to return to normal lives, but most of them are wanted criminals, so they need a promise of amnesty.

"As long as they have that promise, they’ll follow you."

After a pause, Domino continued, "As for not being able to defeat Magneto, you don’t need to worry. As long as enough people defect, Magneto won’t do anything.

"Magneto isn’t someone obsessed with power. He has always respected mutants’ choices. You can see that from how freely people come and go from the Brotherhood."

Quicksilver felt somewhat embarrassed. Had he misunderstood Magneto before? Domino continued, "Also, you can ask Iron Man for help. I heard Iron Man is researching a drug that can strip mutants of their powers. When the time comes, we can turn Magneto into an ordinary old man and let him enjoy his remaining years in peace."

Quicksilver asked, "Would Iron Man be willing to help me?"

"Of course. As the Mutant Savior, he definitely won’t want to forcibly suppress the Brotherhood. You can rest assured about that."

Domino said with absolute certainty, "Pietro, this is the last chance. Once Iron Man takes control of the military, whether he wants to or not, he’ll have to purge the Mutant Brotherhood and give an explanation to those who support him."

Quicksilver gritted his teeth and said, "All right. I’ll contact those people, but I want to meet Iron Man first and get a promise from him."

"No problem. I can help you contact the BOSS."

Domino smiled. Quicksilver thought of something and asked unhappily, "Was this why Iron Man left you in the Brotherhood?"

"No. Iron Man never asked me to do anything. Convincing you was my own decision."

Domino said frankly, "On one hand, I don’t like seeing mutants die. On the other, if this succeeds, the BOSS will definitely promote me and give me a raise. Everyone knows Iron Man is a generous man."

"I hope everything goes smoothly."

Quicksilver sighed. "And I hope the old man doesn’t beat me to death afterward."

Domino laughed. "Don’t worry. Whether you succeed or fail, he won’t beat you to death. At most, he’ll beat you half to death. You are his biological son, after all."

"Half to death is still terrible, okay?"

Quicksilver rolled his eyes and urged Domino to contact Wang Bert. Domino directly called Wade and explained the situation.

Half an hour later, at a private coffee shop, Wang Bert smiled at Quicksilver and Domino. "Try the coffee here. I hear it’s quite good."

Domino said excitedly, "I’ve wanted to try the coffee here for a long time, but this place only serves members, and you need recommendations from two existing members to qualify."

Quicksilver asked in surprise, "Why have you only heard about it? With your status, Iron Man, can’t you afford coffee here?"

Wang Bert said, "To someone who doesn’t like coffee, all coffee tastes more or less the same. I usually drink tea. If you talked to me about tea, I could spend an entire day explaining the differences between different kinds."

"Compared to tea and coffee, I prefer cola."

Quicksilver shrugged. "Iron Man, are you really willing to grant amnesty to the Brotherhood?"

"Why wouldn’t I be? We’re all mutants. More importantly, most of the Brotherhood’s mutants are innocent. They joined the Brotherhood only because they couldn’t survive otherwise."

Wang Bert said, "If you’re willing to lead the Brotherhood into peace talks with the government, I can guarantee that the government will let bygones be bygones."

"That’s good."

Quicksilver breathed a sigh of relief. With Iron Man’s guarantee, there would definitely be no problem on the government’s side. Everyone knew President Richard listened closely to Iron Man.

"I’ll win over as many Brotherhood members as possible and overthrow Magneto."

Quicksilver gritted his teeth. "But Magneto is too powerful. I’ll need your help to take him down, Iron Man. Uh, if possible, I hope no one dies during the whole process."

Wang Bert secretly shook his head. What a naïve child. He said, "I can agree to that, but any mutants unwilling to surrender must be put in prison until I approve of them."

"The others are fine, but can Magneto be spared prison?"

Quicksilver froze, then hurriedly said, "Or you could lock him up at my home, and I’ll be responsible for watching him."

"You can’t keep watch over him. The only one who can is the Professor."

Wang Bert said, "If the Professor is willing to watch Magneto with you, I can make an exception for Magneto. Uh, when the time comes, Magneto might prefer prison to living with an unfilial son like you."

Domino laughed. Quicksilver was somewhat embarrassed. He said, "I’m not being unfilial. I’m helping him. Iron Man, could you record a video with me? My word alone might not convince the others."

Wang Bert nodded. "Sure. Also, I’ll have President Richard issue a pardon specifically for Magneto. If even Magneto is willing to accept a pardon, the others will be even easier."

"That would be perfect."

Quicksilver said happily. Then he thought of something and sighed. "Unfortunately, the old man definitely won’t surrender."

"That’s up to him. We’ve given him the opportunity, anyway."

Wang Bert said, "Domino, assist Quicksilver with this matter. Once it’s done, I won’t treat you poorly. At the very least, I’ll definitely give you a female lead role in a movie."

"Thank you, BOSS."

Domino said happily. Quicksilver was a little displeased. "I don’t need her help. I can handle this myself."

Wang Bert asked, "Pietro, do you know the difference between a mature person and an immature person?"

Quicksilver asked, "What difference? One can be eaten, and the other can’t?"

"Good answer."

Wang Bert burst into laughter. "A mature person understands how to take responsibility. Pietro, this isn’t child’s play. You carry the future of most of the mutants in the Mutant Brotherhood on your shoulders. If you fail, many people will die."

Quicksilver froze. He swallowed and asked, "Can we switch to someone else?"

Domino was speechless. Wasn’t he being way too cowardly? At a time like this, shouldn’t he be pounding his chest and promising he would get it done?

Wang Bert said, "Someone else could do it, but if someone else rebels, Magneto might not show mercy."

"Then I’d better do it."

Quicksilver gave a bitter smile. "I don’t know whether I’ll succeed, but I’ll do my absolute best. Domino, I sincerely ask for your help. I’m not confident on my own."

"I’ll help you as much as I can."

Domino smiled. "You don’t need to worry too much. My luck is very good. Anything I want to do will definitely succeed."

Quicksilver was overjoyed. "Really? That’s great."

Wang Bert looked at Quicksilver sympathetically. Domino did have good luck, but her luck came from other people. Would Quicksilver end up being sacrificed to the heavens? That fast guy next door was always getting sacrificed.

"Domino, if you run into trouble, you can ask Wade for help."

Wang Bert snapped his fingers, and a small silver case appeared out of thin air on the table. He said, "This is top-tier spy equipment I got from the CIA. Study it yourself."

"Top-tier spy equipment? Great."

Domino’s eyes lit up. Quicksilver’s eyes shone as well. He was very curious what CIA top-tier equipment looked like.

"All right, I’m going to discuss this with the Professor. Make yourselves at home. Oh, this coffee shop is mine. Order whatever you want. I’ll give each of you a membership."

Wang Bert smiled, stood up, and vanished from the coffee shop. Quicksilver said enviously, "When will I be as rich as Iron Man?"

"When you’re dreaming."

Domino said.

Quicksilver rolled his eyes wildly, then raised his hand and shouted, "Today, I’m going to live like a big shot! Waiter, bring me every delicious thing in this place!"

Domino covered her face. She only had one thought now: stay as far away from Quicksilver as possible. This was too embarrassing.

In a heavily guarded building in Washington, the Human Supremacy Organization was holding a meeting. Unlike their usual calm confidence that everything was under control, many members were anxious this time, even panicked.

"Iron Man is going to take control of the military. What do we do? Once he takes control, we’re finished."

"Don’t panic. He hasn’t taken office yet. In America, the president doesn’t have the final say."

"The problem is that the public is entirely on the president’s and Iron Man’s side. I contacted those Senators. They don’t plan to stop this, and they can’t stop it anyway."

"Have the military protest. Make the military march too."

"The rank-and-file soldiers don’t oppose Iron Man. Many soldiers are deeply dissatisfied with the mutant manufacturing facility. They think it was too cruel, too inhumane."

"The rank-and-file military supports Iron Man too? Then can’t we stage a coup?"

"A coup? Have you gotten too full of yourself, or do you think Iron Man can’t lift a blade anymore? If you dare stage a coup, Iron Man will appear before you the next second. That was never an option to begin with."

"This won’t work, that won’t work. Then what are we supposed to do? Sit here and wait to die?"

"Don’t panic. Iron Man still has some time before taking office. During that time, we’ll hide the antidote and the Sentinels so Iron Man can’t find them. As long as those two trump cards remain, we haven’t lost."

"That’s right. We’ll lie low for now. Once the antidote and Sentinels are developed, we’ll launch a desperate counterattack and take out Iron Man and all those damned mutants."

"The problem is, we can’t hide. Iron Man has Money Power. When the time comes, he’ll dig us out one by one and kill us."

"Before he gains complete control of the military, he won’t act against us. In other words, we need to develop the antidote and Sentinels before then."

"It will take Iron Man around three months to gain complete control of the military. In other words, we have… uh, we only have three months."

"Develop the antidote and Sentinels in three months? Mr. Warren, Mr. Trask, are you confident?"

"We are, but you must give me massive funding, at least tens of billions."

The representative from Trask Industries answered. Angel’s father, Mr. Warren, also said, "I need not only massive funding, but also a large number of top experts. I mean the very best."

"You’ll get whatever you want. We have only one demand: develop the antidote and the Sentinels within three months. If you fail, we’ll all die. Worse still, this world will become a world of mutants."

"We will succeed."

"Good. Go back and raise funds and recruit experts. Don’t hold anything back. This is a matter of life and death."

Everyone nodded one after another. At that moment, one member suddenly said, "I need a large amount of funding too."

"Dr. Rice of Alkali Studio, your plan is good, but we don’t have time."

A prominent figure said this. Dr. Rice had previously proposed a plan—adding a special drug that suppressed mutant genes into food, ensuring that no more mutants would be born in the future.

Another member said, "The Food Plan will take years to take effect. We don’t have that much time."

"I’m not talking about the Food Plan. I’m talking about the Mutant Weapon Plan."

Dr. Rice said, "This plan has two branches. One is implanting the genes of powerful mutants into embryos. We have already used this technology to cultivate a group of superpowered children.

"The other is genetic cloning technology. After years of effort, I have successfully cloned Wolverine Logan."

Dr. Rice’s words piqued many people’s interest. Someone asked, "Then can you duplicate Iron Man?"

"No, because I don’t have Iron Man’s blood."

Dr. Rice said regretfully, "Iron Man cares deeply about his genes. Nothing from his body has ever leaked out.

"I once hired a top model to seduce Iron Man, but Iron Man was completely unmoved. Even more frustratingly, that model fell into a river and died, and I had to pay a huge sum because of it."

Everyone was speechless. A prominent figure asked, "Whose blood do you have?"

"Wolverine Logan, Sabretooth, Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops…"

Dr. Rice said, "Aside from Professor X and Magneto, I have the blood of most powerful mutants. They don’t care about such things, so it’s easy to collect."

Someone asked excitedly, "So you can duplicate these powerful mutants?"

Dr. Rice nodded. "As long as I have enough funding, yes."

"Excellent. We’ll provide however much funding you need. You must assemble a mutant army for us within three months. When the time comes, we might be able to fight Iron Man head-on."

"As you wish. Human Supremacy!"

"Human Supremacy!"

At Mutant Academy, Wang Bert explained the matter to the Professor. The Professor said happily, "Wonderful. I was always worried that you would purge the Mutant Brotherhood. Now I don’t have to worry."

"Even if I really did purge the Mutant Brotherhood, I would only target the hardliners."

Wang Bert smiled. "Professor, Magneto must be watched over by you personally. I can’t trust anyone else."