"So, sorry about that."
Fenris smiled. "Maybe I'm better suited to..."
"No, child."
Professor X suddenly moved forward and interrupted what Fenris was about to say. "I learned from Dr. Ryan that you got the hard drive containing the nuclear test data?"
Fenris nodded. "Yeah."
"Would you mind letting me look at it for a while?"
Charles smiled warmly. "Of course, if that doesn't work for you, we can just copy the files aboard the Blackbird. Would that be acceptable?"
"Sure."
Fenris's eyes flickered, but he agreed.
"Let's go. The military will be here soon."
Seeing Fenris relent, Charles smiled slightly.
The group came outside the main building. Scott gave a light wave of his hand, and a massive aircraft dropped its optical camouflage and appeared before them.
"That's a beautiful jet."
Fenris could not help taking a few extra looks at it.
"This is the X-Men's personal ride." Ororo still did not forget to recruit him. "If you ever change your mind, I can give you a proper tour."
"Ororo, give him some time."
The Professor chuckled from the side. "Maybe the next time we meet, he'll have an answer for you."
"Next time?"
Ororo looked puzzled.
He was refusing now, so why would he agree next time?
Meanwhile, after the hatch opened and Scott boarded the Blackbird with the hard drive, a figure suddenly ran out from inside the jet.
"Ryan[1]?"
Fenris's eyes lit up.
"Fenris!"
"Whoa, you've changed so much! You got way hotter. You're way better looking than that sunglasses guy!"
"I knew you let them take you on purpose! You're amazing!"
"And they all said you killed the base's elite troops by yourself so the rest of us could get out safely!"
The boy, more than five years younger than Fenris and his old prison bunkmate, had stars in his eyes the instant he saw him. He circled around Fenris, looking him up and down, babbling excitedly without pause.
"Hahaha."
Fenris laughed out loud. Looking at the boy, who was half crying and half grinning, he felt a rare warmth rise in his chest. "I told you before, if a riot ever broke out in the base, you were supposed to find somewhere safe and hide. Did you listen or not?"
"Yeah. I listened."
Ryan's gaze suddenly shifted away.
"Listened, my foot."
Ororo could not help rolling her eyes at that.
"When Scott and I got here, this little porcupine kid was running around yelling 'Do you?' while shooting spikes at a bunch of soldiers. Brave as hell."
"You little punk."
Fenris laughed again.
Since Ryan also had pretty decent regenerative abilities, Fenris was not too worried about his safety.
"The data's been copied."
While they were talking, Scott stepped back down from the Blackbird with the hard drive in hand.
"In that case, I'll be going."
Fenris took the drive from him.
"Fenris, you're not coming with me to the school?"
Sensing something was wrong, Ryan hurried forward and grabbed the hem of Fenris's shirt.
"I'll come see you after a while, but right now I've got things of my own to do."
Fenris smiled faintly. "Go on. The school is where you're supposed to be."
"...Okay."
Fenris rubbed Ryan's head, then turned and drove away. Before long, he vanished from everyone's sight.
"Professor, you're not seriously planning to build a reactor at the school, are you?"
Aboard the Blackbird, Scott suddenly asked.
The moment the Professor requested the data, Scott had felt that something was off.
"Why not?" Charles smiled, utterly unconcerned. "It won't cost that much anyway."
Since the Professor had already put it that way, Scott forcibly swallowed the words maintenance is expensive before they could leave his mouth.
"So that's why you wanted the hard drive!" Ororo said in sudden realization.
"That's just how rich people are. Get used to it."
...
On the nearly deserted highway, Fenris drove with one hand while pulling up the Titan Encyclopedia with the other.
On the first page, Godzilla was vividly displayed, but no matter what he did, the pages recording the other Titans simply would not open.
"I can't even see who the Titans after him are. How am I supposed to figure out how to unlock them?"
Fenris felt a little frustrated.
Based on his earlier experience, the way to unlock a Titan seemed to have some connection to that Titan's own traits.
"If I remember right, the MUTOs also feed on atomic energy. So why didn't absorbing all that radiation open the MUTO page?"
"And Kong..."
"No way I'm supposed to date a pretty white girl, then climb the Empire State Building and swat down a few planes just to unlock him, right?"
Smack.
His thoughts were drifting farther and farther off course, so Fenris freed one hand and slapped himself lightly, finally dragging his mind back on track.
"Whatever. Godzilla's already insanely strong. As long as I keep absorbing radiation, sooner or later I'll unlock Pink Godzilla, Burning Godzilla..."
The enormous base had now been completely destroyed. Several of his enemies had died by his own hands. Fewer than one in ten of the researchers and soldiers remained alive. With the radiation outbreak, the whole place was bound to become a wasteland sooner or later.
But according to the Professor, Colonel Stryker of the military was the one behind Alkali Base. By now, Fenris's name had most likely already landed on William Stryker's list.
"Ooh, scary."
Stryker might be a cunning enemy, but at the end of the day, he was still just an ordinary man.
Fenris could not help laughing out loud.
Across the open wilderness, the car tore down the road as the free wind poured in through the windows. Fenris simply cranked the stereo all the way up.
"Hey, hey... what's the matter..."
Before the song Star-Lord would absolutely dance to could even finish, Fenris caught a glimpse of a tiny black dot in the corner of his eye dropping straight down from the sky at incredible speed.
He did not even have time to swerve. In the next instant, a massive impact slammed down onto the roof of the car.
The multi-ton SUV rocked violently from the blow. Fenris carefully kept control of the vehicle, afraid that one careless movement might rip the steering wheel right off.
"When I find out who's been throwing stuff out of the sky, I swear, even if it's Odin himself, I'll..."
After finally stopping the car, Fenris climbed out, cursing under his breath as he stared at the huge dent caved into the roof.
A filthy, disheveled man wearing nothing but a tattered pair of shorts came into view.
"Huh? Not a hammer?"
Fenris froze for a second. He stepped forward and checked the man's breathing, only to find that he had merely passed out and did not have a single visible injury on him. Fenris immediately looked like he had seen a ghost.
"This guy's body is kind of terrifying... but why does he feel completely normal?"
Fenris promptly dragged the man down from the roof and tossed him into the back seat, clicking his tongue in amazement.
...
Several hours later, in an unnamed small town.
"This is... did Hulk carry me out of New York?"
When Bruce Banner finally woke from his unconsciousness, he looked around and found himself lying in a small motel room.
"Yo, brother. You're awake."
A handsome man was lying on the bed beside him with both arms tucked behind his head. The moment he saw Bruce wake up, the man broke into a friendly smile.
"You saved me?" Banner rubbed his head hard, trying to clear his thoughts.
"Mm-hm."
Fenris did not confirm or deny it outright. "I was driving along just fine, and then you suddenly dropped out of the sky and smashed into my roof. This is a luxury ride with half a million dollars in modifications."
"And I was doing over a hundred kilometers an hour, too. Brother, are you made of steel?"
"Sorry. But I probably don't have the money to pay you right now." Fenris's words left Banner awkward for a moment. He had not expected Hulk to toss him aside in midair.
Looking down at the single pair of ragged shorts he had left on, Banner scratched his head. "I'll find a way to pay you back later."
"It's fine. No need."
Fenris waved it off grandly. "It's not my car anyway."
"Huh?"
Banner blinked.
So the guy who saved him was a car thief?
"Yeah. Once I got to New York, I was planning to sell it anyway."
Fenris blinked, looking perfectly matter-of-fact.
"What? You're going to New York?"
Banner instantly sat bolt upright.
[1] (The doctor was Ryan Lane, this one is just Ryan. Yep confusing, but there are OC so who cares hahaha)