AutumnXd
patreon
XGO CHAPTER 28
🕑 Added 2025-04-11 14:11:05 +0000 UTCIn a SHIELD command center, Maria Hill came running in, her face tense with urgency. "Sir, another attack on a military facility," she reported, placing a tablet on the table in front of Nick Fury.
Fury looked up from the reports he'd been reviewing, his single eye narrowing as he took in the information. "Is it him again?"
Maria Hill nodded grimly. "Yes, sir. Throughout the whole year, he's been attacking facilities around the world, both private and government-owned."
Fury scrolled through the casualty reports, his expression hardening. "And all of them having mutants as research subjects." It wasn't a question.
"Correct, sir. The pattern is unmistakable. This time it was a facility in Kazakhstan. No survivors among the staff or security personnel. All mutant test subjects extracted." Hill pulled up satellite imagery showing the smoldering remains of what had once been a state-of-the-art research complex. "The brutality is escalating. Security footage shows he froze several guards solid before shattering them. Others were impaled by ice spikes that formed spontaneously from the moisture in the air."
Fury studied the footage—grainy and incomplete, but clear enough to see a figure moving with inhuman speed through the facility, leaving frozen death in his wake. "Did you find where he's hiding?"
She shook her head. "We're trying our best, but we can't track him. He always gets off the radar after these attacks. The extraction pattern is always the same—he teleports in, eliminates all non-mutant personnel with extreme prejudice, releases the captives, and vanishes with them. The last frame of footage typically shows him creating what appears to be a portal of some kind."
The footage showed exactly that—Alex standing amid the carnage, surrounded by terrified but grateful mutants, opening what looked like a tear in reality itself before the cameras went dead.
"What about the other mutants he's saved?" Fury asked, leaning forward. "The number of mutants he has rescued can't remain hidden in any country without someone knowing."
"We're searching, sir, but still no clue. By our estimates, he's rescued over three hundred mutants from various facilities. They simply... disappear." Hill hesitated before continuing. "There's speculation that he might be using some kind of extra-dimensional space, but that's beyond our current understanding."
Fury rubbed his temples, feeling a headache forming. The situation had been escalating for months. What had started as surgical extractions had evolved into bloody massacres. When military forces had responded quickly to the third facility breach, Alex had simply turned the entire area into a frozen killing field. Fifty-seven soldiers had died that day, their bodies found in positions that suggested they hadn't even had time to raise their weapons.
"Sir, there's another situation," Hill continued, her voice dropping slightly. "There will be a UN meeting where they're going to vote on bombing the dead zone in Antarctica."
Fury's head snapped up. "What?"
"Sir, even though they don't know where Alex is hiding, they think it's in the dead zone, as that's the only place they don't have eyes on. The representatives from countries that have lost research facilities are pushing for direct action."
Fury slammed his fist on the table. "What nonsense! Just because of some theory, they're going to launch missiles into unknown territory from which our Earth itself is showing signs of repair? Are they nuts?"
The latest attack had been particularly brutal. When a special forces team had managed to corner Alex in one of the labs, he hadn't just killed them—he'd made examples of them. Security footage showed him methodically freezing each soldier from the inside out, a display of power that sent a clear message: stay away from mutants.
"Sir, it's not finalized," Hill explained. "They're going to decide today and have summoned you to provide SHIELD's assessment."
Fury sighed and nodded, standing up and reaching for his coat. "Prepare the quinjet. And get me everything we have on the Antarctic anomaly. If I'm going to talk them out of this madness, I need ammunition."
As Fury and Hill left the command center, the screens behind them continued to cycle through images of the aftermath of Alex's attacks—frozen corpses in labcoats, military personnel turned to ice sculptures in poses of terror, and destroyed facilities that had once housed the darkest secrets of mutant experimentation.
Half a world away, in Antarctica, Alex stood watching from a building grown from the World Tree itself. Though made of living wood, the structure had the elegant lines and sophisticated design of futuristic architecture—a perfect blend of nature and advanced civilization. Through one of the large bay windows that looked out over his hidden city, he observed the daily life of his growing community.
Children played in open spaces of lush greenery that should have been impossible in Antarctica. Some raced each other using their powers—a boy with super-speed laughing as he circled a girl who could teleport short distances. Nearby, a group of teenagers practiced controlling their abilities under the watchful eye of adult mentors who had once been captives themselves.
In various buildings that sprouted organically from the landscape, education and healing were taking place. Libraries filled with knowledge both human and beyond housed classes where older mutants taught the younger ones everything from mathematics to the responsible use of their gifts. Medical facilities staffed by mutants with healing abilities worked to undo the physical and psychological damage inflicted by years of experimentation.
Alex sighed deeply, his mind drifting back to the facility he had raided just hours ago. The scientists there had been performing vivisections on a mutant child who could control plant growth. He had made sure their deaths were particularly slow—freezing them layer by layer while keeping them conscious enough to understand why they were being punished.
When the military response team had arrived mid-extraction, he hadn't hesitated. Fifty-three soldiers had died in less than two minutes, their blood freezing in their veins before they could even radio for backup. He felt no remorse. In his mind, anyone who would defend such atrocities deserved no mercy.
A soft rustling sound drew his attention. One of the dryads—tree spirits born from the World Tree's influence—approached with a respectful bow. These beings, wise and gentle, had been an unexpected development of the World Tree's growth. With skin like polished wood and hair of leaves and flowers, they moved with a grace that seemed otherworldly.
"The child refuses to eat again," the dryad said, her voice like wind through branches. "She has nightmares of the place you rescued her from."
Alex nodded, his expression softening. "I'll speak with her."
The dryads had become essential to the sanctuary's functioning, particularly in caring for the most traumatized arrivals. Many children came to them broken in body and spirit, victims of experiments too horrific to describe. Without the dryads' patient, nurturing presence, Alex knew he would not have been able to handle such responsibility.
As he walked through the corridors of living wood, he reflected on how far they had come. What had started as a simple vision—a safe haven for mutants—had evolved into something far more complex. They had their own society now, their own culture emerging from the shared experiences of persecution and new-found freedom.
Yet he knew the outside world was growing increasingly hostile. Each attack he carried out saved lives but hardened attitudes against mutants further. It was a price he was willing to pay. His sanctuary could now house thousands, and with the World Tree's protection, they were safe from any conventional threat.
Or so he believed.
As he entered the chamber where the traumatized child waited, he was unaware of the gathering storm in the diplomatic chambers of the United Nations—unaware that humans, in their fear and ignorance, were contemplating actions that might test even the World Tree's formidable defenses.
In the heart of the sanctuary, the World Tree pulsed with energy, its roots extending deep into Earth's core.
