"A bunch of good-for-nothings!"
Inside Gabrielle's boyfriend's house, the commander crushed the communicator in his modified mechanical hand.
"Commander, the investigation is complete."
Just then, a mercenary ran in with a laptop, placed it on the table, and pressed the play button.
Seeing the little boy with a tail in the video jump onto a fifth-floor balcony, the commander raised an eyebrow:
"It seems this kid ruined my plan. Interesting. There are still wild mutants out there.
I'm sure Dr. Rice will be interested in him."
Dr. Zander Rice was the Facility's biology Dr. and also the CEO of Rice Genetics Group, his boss.
The reason mutants were extinct was all Dr. Rice's doing.
Dr. Rice developed a special virus that inhibited the mutant X-gene, integrating it into genetically modified food and spreading it widely across the World.
Ordinary people who ate this genetically modified food would not be in any life-threatening danger, but it would be impossible for them to give birth to mutants with the X-gene.
So far, due to the widespread availability of genetically modified food, no new mutants had appeared for twenty-five years.
And those mutants from twenty-five years ago, if they consumed this food for a long time, their abilities would also go out of control and degrade significantly.
This was also one of the reasons he could lead a team to eliminate all mutants in the World.
The Westchester incident, where Professor X lost control and killed all the X-Men and students except Wolverine, as well as over six hundred ordinary people, was also due to long-term consumption of genetically modified food.
Logan's self-healing ability had significantly declined, and his appearance had aged, also due to genetically modified food.
The Facility had always known the hiding places of Professor X and Wolverine; if not for Professor Rice's prohibition, he would have long since taken people to eliminate these two.
Mutant children born in the laboratory, due to antibodies injected by Professor Rice, were not affected by genetically modified food.
Therefore, the sudden appearance of an eleven or twelve-year-old wild mutant child seemed somewhat strange.
If his parents didn't eat genetically modified food, then how could this child have grown up without ever eating genetically modified food? This was clearly impossible.
"Let's go to the border checkpoint and see what's happening."
After shooting and killing Gabrielle's half-dead boyfriend, the commander led his team towards the border checkpoint.
On the way, he called Dr. Rice:
"Dr., while we were pursuing Gabrielle and X-23, we discovered a wild mutant child..."
"Bring him back. I need to figure out why he hasn't been affected. If necessary, you can request to use X-24!"
Inside the Facility, Dr. Rice hung up the phone with a grim expression.
"How could a new mutant be born? Did the X-gene develop an antibody? That shouldn't be possible."
Currently, compared to the mutant children who had escaped, he was more focused on the newly appeared wild mutant.
If the X-gene had indeed naturally produced antibodies, it would mean that new mutants would continue to emerge in the future.
His plan to rule the World with an army of Wolverine clones would be thwarted.
Meanwhile, after Gabrielle entered El Paso County, she didn't rush to find Wolverine.
Instead, she found a secluded motel.
Her thinking was clear: without knowing Wolverine's exact location, rashly entering El Paso County to search would likely lead to encountering the Facility's pursuing mercenaries.
Since Wolverine was a taxi driver, she could use a ride-hailing app to locate him.
As long as she placed an order, Wolverine would come to her.
"Goku, put this jacket on over your clothes."
As soon as they got out of the car, Gabrielle took off her jacket and covered Goku with it, hiding the tail behind his butt.
Although a normal person seeing Goku's tail would only think it was a decorative toy,
to be safe, she felt it was better to be cautious.
"Boss, one room."
"Thirty dollars."
The plump motel owner looked at Gabrielle, her tone carrying a hint of contempt.
Local White people discriminated against any outsiders.
Gabrielle didn't mind. After paying and completing the formalities, she immediately took Laura and Goku to their room.
"You two sit here and watch TV. I need to contact a friend to help."
Opening her phone's ride-hailing app, Gabrielle quickly started searching.
Goku tilted his head and suggested:
"Aunt Gabrielle, why don't you take me to that Facility? I'll help you deal with them, and then you won't have to worry about being hunted."
He wanted to destroy the headquarters of the pursuers, the Facility, just like he dealt with the Red Ribbon Army.
This way, the problem could be fundamentally solved, and he could spar with that expert sooner.
Gabrielle stroked Goku's head:
"Auntie knows you're very strong, but the Facility isn't as simple as you think. That X-24 has an immortal body; you're no match for him.
The friend Auntie is contacting is very powerful. Once he arrives, we won't have to be afraid."
An ordinary little boy with a toy gun thinks he's the strongest in the World, let alone a mutant like Goku who can truly fight twenty people at once.
So she understood Goku's proud mentality.
But she was even more aware of the Facility's terror, and even more aware of X-24's terror.
She never even considered destroying the Facility; being able to escape to Canada with the children was the best outcome she could imagine.
"Aunt Gabrielle, is your friend very powerful?"
Goku's eyes immediately lit up.
Gabrielle's eyes showed a hint of admiration:
"Yes, he's called Logan, nicknamed Wolverine, and he was once one of the most powerful mutants."
From the Facility's intelligence, she knew that the famous Logan, like his comic book counterpart, was a very righteous mutant warrior.
He had saved the World and fought evil many times with other X-Men.
"Is he more powerful than that X-24 you mentioned?"
Goku's eyes grew even more expectant.
Gabrielle hesitated for a moment, then said:
"If it were before, then Logan would definitely be stronger, but now... I'm not sure."
X-24 was just a clone of Logan, so his strength was naturally not as good as Logan's, but that was Logan in his prime.
The Logan she saw yesterday already had White hair.
However, she believed that even an old Wolverine wouldn't be much worse than X-24, and besides, Goku and Laura could help.
At this moment, Laura, who was watching TV, pulled out a comic titled "Uncanny X-Men" from her backpack and handed it to Goku.
Goku took the comic and quickly flipped through it. After he finished reading, he was so excited that he jumped on the bed.
"So many experts! I really want to spar with them!"