Chapter Fifty-Nine: A Claw Piercing the Far East
James flipped through the information that Bucky and Asa had brought back.
His Russian is average, and he can only understand a rough idea, which is a few unimportant experiment logs and redundant data.
"Let's get it to the ground, wait for someone to translate it, let Dr. Erskine and Zola and them go and gnaw slowly, and continue to track down Sebastian Shaw, although he has no direct threat to us at the moment, but I don't like this kind of mutation experiment."
Colin Pitt stood in front of James and nodded respectfully, while Bucky was a little absent-minded and seemed to be in a hurry to do something.
"Okay, let's all go down, tomorrow Colin will organize everyone, and the wedding will still be lively."
Bucky's eyes lit up, and he proposed the marriage customs of Brooklyn, which he didn't know whether it was true or not, and left the study in a huffy look in James's disgusted eyes.
Downstairs, in the room between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter, Steve, who had just finished today's training session for the little wolf cubs, held a long ebony box in his hand, gently walked up to Peggy, who was studying and studying information, put the box on the table, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
"What is this?"
Once the British Rose, MI6's Carter agent wore a well-fitting indigo dress, her hair was fluffy and coiled, stroking the delicate wooden box, and looked at Steve curiously.
"Open it and take a look." Rogers blinked with a smile on his lips.
In the black wooden box of unknown material, two dark silver pistols with strange shapes were held on velvet satin, and the six bay wheels resembled those of a revolver, but the barrel casing was wide and long, more like the automatic pistols commonly used today.
The handle of the gun is inlaid with black wood, a kind of tropical primeval forest native to Africa, which can grow to more than ten meters high, but the growth cycle is very slow, so the wood is tight and delicate, and the gun body also has protruding lines that resemble roses and thorns.
Underneath the pistol was a row of long, large-caliber bullets with a bright silver glow and a blue-gray texture.
"The body of the gun is all made of [secondary Edman alloy], the bullet is [Prototype Edman alloy], the same material as my shield, the warhead can be reused, but it may be troublesome to recycle, and you can also use large-caliber ordinary pistol bullets."
Steve picked up one of them and introduced them to Peggy as he played with them.
"This is a wedding gift from the teacher, and he heard that you have great marksmanship."
Miss Carter took it in her hand and looked at it carefully, her eyes were full of surprise, she was a very good sharpshooter, but she often used a small-caliber pistol or a covert spy pistol.
This pair of special pistols, which have reached the extreme in terms of material and craftsmanship, seems to be a little too big for her, but Peggy still can't put it down and caress it a little bit, and suddenly sees a small card pressed under the body of the gun, which is written in an atmospheric and elegant way-
"Guns and Roses", gift, Ms. Peggy Carter blooming with thorns.
Peggy raised her head suddenly, her eyes blinked, a faint blush rose on her cheeks, and she asked in a magnetic London voice, "Is it true that Mr. Howlett has always been single?" β
Steve was suddenly stunned, frowned, and sat down on the table with his head tilted, as if remembering something.
"Hmm... There must be no shortage of women around the teacher, ahem, of course, I haven't studied in this area, but he does not have a public partner, and it is not easy to find a lady for someone like him. β
"Just by the words 'guns and roses', he will definitely be able to capture the hearts of many ladies."
Peggy took the gun from Steve's hand, put it back in the box, and happily held the wooden box and carefully put it away.
Steve Rogers looked at Peggy gently, but he was a little worried in his heart, the wedding of the two of them was going to be held tomorrow, and he was much more nervous than Peggy......
The wedding was held in the central plaza of the Howlett house, and the people from the Long Island mansion in New York were also picked up.
Steve's mother, Ms. Sharon, looked at her tall and handsome son, who was dressed in a smart suit and bow tie, and from time to time she put a handkerchief in the corner of her eye.
For Steve's so-called "treason", she has a scale in her heart, and she has no regrets as a mother to be able to be accompanied by such an excellent lady under the protection and gaze of Mr. Howlett.
As the best man, Bucky has long hair and is very soft, and he stands next to Steve with a grin, looking at the bride who is slowly walking in the distance.
Mr. Casper, the old butler, took Miss Peggy's hand, and his little grandson and granddaughter happened to be flower girls, dressed in cute little suits and pink skirts, and obediently sprinkled with flower petals on the back.
Peggy Carter's relatives are far away in the UK, and now she is in the same situation as Steve, which cannot be exposed, but since she joined the army after her brother's death in war, and settled in the United States completely, she has been in contact with her family for many years.
As a witness, James said goodbye to each other, hugged and kissed each other, and then everyone opened champagne and danced lively.
Emma was the bridesmaid today, and got the bouquet that Peggy had thrown, and came to the side to sit and watch them play, James, who was wearing an off-white dress today, with dazzling blonde hair coiled up, and was extraordinarily elegant.
James watched from afar as Steve tossed Miss Peggy high into his arms amid her hearty laughter and the banter of the crowd.
"Do you believe in the blessing of a bouquet of flowers?"
Emma asked casually, fiddling with the lilies and roses that were still hanging with water droplets.
James held the back of the chair behind Emma with his right hand, and seemed to be thinking about this question very seriously, Emma didn't intend to wait for his answer, raised her head, and said softly:
"How about dinner together tomorrow, Mr. James, I know a good Chinese restaurant."
"I was going to say I was going to look at my schedule."
James showed four slightly sharp canine teeth, deliberately joking, looked at Emma's bright smile and continued: "But I won't refuse Chinese food, how do you know that I like Chinese food." β
"I've done my homework seriously."
Emma leaned closer to James' ear and whispered.
.............................
A few years later, New York City, near New York University.
"Heterochromatic children's pick-up tricks are not used very often, and if you plan to get a female student at a university where you have just applied for a teaching position, it is better to have a new trick!"
The beautiful girl with dirty blond wavy hair and a plump figure was speaking angrily, and with a little sarcasm she said to the young man walking in front, and her footsteps quickly caught up, overtook the man, and entered a hot bar without looking back.
"Raven..."
Charles Xavier shook his head helplessly, followed into the bar, and saw the many beautiful ladies laughing and wanton inside, subconsciously wiped his long, but very well-groomed hair, straightened his clothes, and whispered a little weakly:
"Just have a drink along the way, if you become a lecturer, you definitely can't have anything to do with students, you don't always think of me as ......"
"You know best what I think!"
Raven casually took off her jacket and jacket, wearing an off-the-shoulder shirt that somewhat accentuated her figure, and lightly tapped her forehead, still very unhappy to interrupt Charles's words.
Charles lifted Tiriven's clothes up a little uncomfortably, tried to cover them more, and scribbled his defense:
"You know I'm not going to look at your thoughts, ahem, this shirt could be pulled a little higher..... It's a little too much..."
The girl slapped Charles's hand away and gave him a big white look: "I'm an adult, not the little sister who goes out with you to pick up girls and orders a Coke for me!" β
Raven Duckholm looked at a few beautiful and hot girls around a handsome and handsome man with a bit of cynicism on his lips, glared at Charles demonstratively, and leaned closer.
The man was wearing a black velvet suit jacket, with a tall posture, the shirt inside was buttoned haphazardly, very casual, with short brown hair, a thin face, and a wicked smile on his face.
He seemed to be performing a magic trick, the tip of his fair and slender right finger lightly tapped the forehead of the boldly dressed girl in front of him, and after a moment of her dazzling eyes, the man spread out the palm of his left hand, and inside was a silver dolphin pendant that was originally buried deep in the girl's proud chest.
The girl looked down, screamed in surprise, and shyly took back the pendant in the man's palm, glanced at it a few times, and shouted in the coaxing of the ladies around her.
"Another Eric, I'll hide one too, you look for it~"
Raven stared curiously at the handsome man who was laughing with the girls, her reflexes and eyesight had always been excellent, but she didn't see the young man touch the woman's neck in the slightest, but caught a fleeting streamer in her sight, as if the necklace had jumped into the man's hand.
"How did you do that?"
Raven's voice is lower and more magnetic than most girls, and has a special charm, Eric looked up at this sweet-looking young girl, and smiled freely: "It's just a little trick, sit down and play together?" β
"Of course, would you like to treat me to a drink?"
Raven smiled sweetly and sat down generously, Eric rubbed his fingers at the bartender, and suddenly remembered something, overshadowing the noisy sound in the bar, and shouted loudly at Raven:
"You're not a student at NYU, are you?"
"No, I'm accompanying my cousin to run some errands." Raven said with a smile.
Eric grinned, nodded, and commanded something to the bar.
"Ahem! Raven, I think it's time for us to go back. β
Charles Xavier pulled Raven's arm with a strange look, and tried to leave with an excuse, the girl pushed Charles's hand angrily, Eric turned around and explained politely:
"Don't get me wrong, you must be thisβ"
"Raven!" The girl sweetly introduced her name to Eric.
"βMiss Raven's cousin, Eric Lansell, a teaching assistant in the physics department at New York University, if Raven is not a student at this school, then allow me to treat her to a drink."
Eric politely introduced himself and invited Charles to sit down with him.
"Mr. Lanshel, it's a pleasure to meet you, but ......"
Charles touched his temple with his right hand as if unintentionally, and looked at the handsome man named Eric who invited him sincerely, and froze in place.
In just a few seconds, Charles gasped a few times, blinked desperately in a panic, pulled the stools around him, ran to the bar, asked the bartender for a glass of gin, and drank it all.
Gritting his teeth, he paused for a moment, as if he had made a difficult decision, and sat down next to Raven.
Eric laughed and patted Charles, who was taller than Raven's cousin and looked a few years older, and beckoned the bartender to bring Raven a Dycletree cocktail.
"Lately it's been popular for girls to drink this, rum, lemon juice, with a little sugar, and it tastes sweet and pleasant, just like you."
Raven was smiling, the young Mr. Lanshel was very good at dealing with people, with a free and easy temperament, and was very comfortable to get along with, although Charles was also very good at communicating with people, but Raven didn't like that feeling.
In addition to thinking Eric is funny, it is also a kind of dissatisfaction with his "cousin" Charles.
"Charles Xavier, who just applied for a lecturer position in bioengineering at New York University, should be in charge of the genetic research program if it goes well."
Charles took the initiative to introduce himself, uncharacteristically ignoring the many beautiful women at the table, his eyes always fixed on Eric's brown eyes, as if he could read something from them.
"Then you must be very good Charles, you have the qualifications to apply for a lecturer at such a young age, I finally got mixed up as a teaching assistant, or rely on a little bit of elder's connections, I have a hunch that we will become colleagues."
Eric smiled, laughing at himself indifferently, even more open-minded.
Later in the evening, Charles and Raven walked in the direction of the mansion where they lived, Zevier Manor, which was not far from New York University, which was why Charles chose to teach at New York University after returning from Oxford a year ahead of schedule.
"I really can't imagine that in order to prevent me from knowing boys, you even ignored the beautiful girls at a table, you said that you can rest assured that I can play with boys in such a guise."
Ruiwen's tone was even more lonely, different from the "anger" at the beginning, the depression in the girl's eyes was thick and deep.
"Raven... That Mr. Eric Lanshel, a mutant, and... We're the same. β
"Really! I suspect there's something wrong with his 'tricks', and that's a good thing, isn't that Charles? β
Raven's depression disappeared in an instant, and she didn't complain about Charles anymore, pulling him to ask questions, she was especially curious about Eric, but the young Charles Xavier was a little unhappy, he saw too many things.
Too many people like me feel subversive.
........................
"Steve! Isn't your turtle shell style known as something that no one can break? You'll hold on a little longer......"
Bucky held his right arm, which had been broken in two, and slowly waited for the broken bones inside to heal together, the cheekbones on his face collapsed, and his handsome appearance was ruined.
Steve Rogers slumped against a boulder, his back sinking deep, the thick crack crept up the two-meter-square boulder, and it looked like it was about to shatter.
Edelman's alloy shield was draped over his body, rising and falling as his chest gasped violently.
The Stars and Stripes on the shield were completely gone, replaced by a pair of long, erect fangs, in the middle of which seemed to be a sharp claw cracked horizontally through a scratch, forming a letter H-shaped emblem.
"That's called a Shawl Fist... If I hadn't carried you, I would have wasted ......"
Steve didn't seem to want to get up, and while he had the strength to talk to Bucky, he bought himself some more time to adjust.
"It's coming, get ready! I'll try to hold on a little longer, you look for a chance, and don't blast your fists again. β
In the time that Bucky had been in this meeting, the injuries on his body had basically recovered, only the tattered combat uniform, patches of blood stains and sweat dust stuck into strands of hair, and he was still extremely embarrassed.
Arguing that he wasn't messing around, he missed, and flicked Edelman's left arm, rubbing into a peculiar humming sound.
James Howlett, whose body seemed to flow with a thick stream of blood-red flames, his hands hung low, his thick bone claws almost touching his ankles, and the bone shield on his arm and the cone on the tip of his elbow crackled and crawled with tiny sparks of energy like electricity.
Steve and Bucky couldn't help but get goosebumps on their bodies as they looked at the teacher who unleashed the skeletal weapon, and this time there were any more mistakes, but it wasn't a joke.
James took a slight leap forward, not much force, but almost pressing the speed of the air barrier, still making a huge noise, and Steve dodged in front of Bucky, a piercing roar and sparks splattering.
He didn't dare to hesitate, relying on his fighting instincts and fist instincts, he blocked left and right, and narrowly carried the sharp claws that James stabbed over immediately afterward.
"Ho... Yes! β
Bucky raised his alloy left arm, his body was somewhat similar to James's, but the extraordinarily thin red energy shot out around him, his long hair swayed violently, and in the gaps of the alloy arm, hot hot gas gushed out.
His left hand was in the shape of a claw, retreating to retract his fist and accumulate, and a dark and deep hole collapsed in the palm of his palm, in which the blood light was condensed, and the energy of the whole body seemed to be gathered in it, and finally, a fist-sized flame red energy mass was compressed.
Rumble!
With the explosion and convergence technique of the Falling Star Fist and the characteristics of the Erdman alloy arm, this hand was like a shockwave of energy cannons, and a crackling roar with a shattering sound barrier shot towards James.
Bucky himself was forced back two steps by the inertia of the explosion of his left arm, and a ripple ring of air with a radius of more than one meter shot out, James happily showed his canine teeth, and his right hand reached out, and he took the cannon with the palm of his hand.
Burst... Bucky was stunned to see that the trick he had been holding back for a long time was easily pinched by the teacher, gritted his teeth, stabbed out the short sword on his left arm, and pounced on it.
"I'm going to show you something new......"
James slowed down the pace of his attack, and either shield and sword staggered together to attack him, parrying it with his bone claws and arm shields, and said a strange word to the two of them in a comfortable and soft voice.
"Random Claw Rush".
Airplanes...... The continuous high-frequency hum exploded out of thin air, which was formed by the superposition of the air cracks of countless claw spurs, and Bucky and Steve's eyes lit up, and the red torrent in their eyes was like countless sharp claws piercing through it.
Steve squatted down in time to protect himself and Bucky, but only for a moment of reaction, the poor Sergeant Barnes behind him was already full of holes, and even Steve's own two calves in the lower half of his body were pierced with more than a dozen blood holes.
The two of them tried to shrink their bodies, listening to the sound of the rain on the shield hitting the plantain like the dense impact of gold and iron, and it took five or six seconds before they suddenly stopped.
James put away the bones outside his arms, his upper body naked, and walked over and kicked Bucky, who was lying motionless on the ground.
"Don't pretend to be dead, this injury is just scary to look at."
Compared to the self-healing ability that Bucky has now, Steve on the side is more troublesome, although his physical recovery conditions can slowly heal in a few days, but it is difficult to stand up at the moment, after all, many ligaments and cartilage in the knee and ankle have been injured.
"Teacher..... I'm bleeding too much and I'm ..... faint."
Bucky, who had been broken with hundreds of blood holes, was lying on the lawn of the back mountain, and a puddle of human figures had already appeared red under him, although the wound stopped bleeding quickly, but it did shed a lot.
James looked at Steve, who was trying to stand up and propping himself up with his shield, thought for a while and said, "Go back and give you a shot of 'Styx', it should be soon." β
Steve didn't care about his injury, and he was not in a hurry to be promoted again through the Styx serum, gritted his teeth and endured the pain, and asked James:
"Teacher, did that move rely on the rapid output of a short burst?"
"What's new about that, this is the evolution of qi into gangjin, and gangjin is then transformed into a substance-like energy-like attack, which is the use of energy, not a real claw thorn."
James pondered for a moment, and then mentioned with some pity:
"It's still too rough, the use of energy forms and techniques can be discovered is really complicated, and I'm only slowly exploring it now, but Bucky's trick has this meaning."
What was originally just a nickname with Steve's good brother has completely become the name of Sergeant Barnes, and no one remembers Bucky's real name, which is the same as Mr. Howlett, also called James.
Bucky got up, his combat uniform was in tatters, like a few strips of cloth hanging on his body, he tore it clean, his muscles shining delicately, he picked up Steve, and looked at the two young ladies Emma and Peggy who were walking from the direction of the manor.
Peggy, who came closer, stared at Steve, who was trying to stand up straight, and glared at her husband with an unkind look, James coughed softly with some embarrassment, and comforted Peggy with a few words.
Mrs. Rogers, who was not really angry, shook her head helplessly, this is not the first time that this situation has happened, in the past few years, the three of them have often practiced like this, mainly as James's sparring partner, and have suffered more serious injuries than this.
In Bucky's words, once a teacher opens his heart, he is unusually crazy and terrifying.
"Mr. Howlett, the situation in the Soviet Union has basically been figured out."
Peggy Rogers told James about the latest intelligence research, and the group walked slowly in the direction of the old mansion.
........
"You want to go for yourself, because you suspect there's a psychic mutant influence in it."
James looked at Emma, who was much more mature on the side, although her appearance was still as beautiful as when she was a girl, her temperament and body shape were becoming more and more mature, her curves were plump, and her slender and tight legs seemed to have grown a little longer.
"Well, some of the high-ranking military on the Soviet side, as well as the 'Hellfire' research institute, have become more and more bizarre, and they have even spread to their party and government work, and their consistent ideology has become inexplicably distorted and extreme."
"A few years ago, Xiao acted in secret as if he didn't exist, but during this time, he appeared in the Kremlin many times, if he had this power and scheming ability, he would not have been hiding like a mouse for decades."
"My bold guess is that there should be a very powerful mutant with the ability to control the mind around him."
James put on a coat, sat down on the wide sofa in the study, took Emma's hand, took her into his arms, and smiled a little arbitrarily:
"What else is going to investigate, since he has come to the fore, then push it directly, since the end of World War II, this Xiao has been hiding in Tibet for many years, and I don't have the patience to accompany him anymore."
James stroked Emma's delicate and beautiful face, rubbed her snow-white and tender skin from time to time, and said in a deep voice:
"If he shows up, I'll kill him, even if it's on Red Square...... It's a big deal. β