amaotonovel Chapter 4680 The Demise of the X Royal Family (1)
Chapter 4680 The Demise of the X Royal Family (1)
Chapter 4680 The X Royal Family: Demise (Part 1)
The solar storms raged as fiercely as ever. The colossal factories built by humanity around the sun swayed like trees in a storm. Automated drones and spaceships traversed the sunspots. Beneath the extreme light lay even deeper shadows. A small team stood by in the shadows of a cargo warehouse.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The massive explosion sent shockwaves through space, igniting a blinding blaze even before the sun. Accompanied by screams of agony, the advancing assault team was reduced to nothing but ashes.
More robots were released from the factory. They quickly spotted the raider's aircraft. The robots began a merciless slaughter, lives fading into the darkness of space. In the distance, the massive metal head within the steel ring glowed faintly in its eyes; three of the four supporting pillars had already been destroyed.
But as the last raider slowly stopped breathing and his brainwaves disconnected, a figure wearing a giant metal helmet clenched his fingers tightly. He exhaled and declared in the thought link: "Scott's team that raided the Redgate Orchid factory has been completely wiped out, and the prototype is still online. Now, mutants should seek help from the multiverse."
New York City was blanketed in snow for two days, with all streets submerged—the worst snowfall the East Coast had seen in decades. With ground transportation virtually ground to a standstill, almost everyone opted for shuttle services. This led to queues forming at shuttle stations.
Schiller got off at the Presbyterian Hospital station and tightened his coat. As soon as he stepped outside, he felt the howling wind, so he had to wrap his scarf tighter and pull his mask up even higher.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Schiller descended the stairs from the shuttle platform, entered the hospital building's rooftop entrance, and greeted his colleagues. Almost everyone was holding a hot coffee, and some still had snow piled on their heads.
Good morning, Dr. Rodriguez.
Good morning, doctor. Are there any consultations today?
"Good morning, doctor. Would you like a cup of coffee?"
Schiller went downstairs, took another corridor, and arrived at the emergency room nurses' station. Even on such a snowy day, the emergency room was still extremely busy. Smelling the strong stench of blood in the corridor, Schiller called out to a nurse hurrying by: "What happened?"
“A multi-vehicle collision,” the nurse said, frowning. “Another minibus fell into the river, and more than twenty people were injured, two of whom are bleeding heavily.”
Is there any danger to his life?
"No, but there are quite a few organs that need to be put back in, and the emergency room is very busy," the nurse said, shaking her head.
Schiller sighed and turned to walk back. He had just reached the second floor when he bumped into David, who was hurrying downstairs. David had just become a licensed physician last month but was still studying.
“David,” Schiller called out, “where are you going?”
“Wanda asked me to help out in the ER; there are a lot of injured people, and they can’t handle it all,” David said. “Did you just come from there, doctor?”
"Yes, I originally wanted to go see Wanda, but I heard she was busy, so I didn't go."
"What do you want with her?" David asked.
“Actually, it’s nothing much,” Schiller said vaguely. David narrowed his eyes, so Schiller lowered his voice and said, “The esteemed Mr. Hand of God has a backlog of forty-six medical records, and he only started writing the ones from last month this month. I simply can’t finish them all, so I had to ask some people for help…”
David's eyes widened. "The month before last? Does that mean all the patients have already been discharged?"
"Yes. All the patients have been discharged. Only the admission notes were written, and some didn't even have the admission notes written. Otherwise, could I ask someone for help?"
“These surgeons are insane,” David said. “But I really have to go to the ER, I’m afraid I won’t have time to help you with your medical records.”
"Okay, I'll think of something myself."
Schiller shook his head and continued upstairs, intending to find a few more acquaintances to be taken advantage of. Otherwise, Strange's debt would never be paid off.
Unfortunately, the Presbyterian Hospital was far too busy. Besides seeing patients, the doctors also had to mentor students. The mere mention of completing supplementary medical records caused them all to shake their heads; they themselves had a mountain of unfinished records.
Logically, this kind of work should be done by the interns. But Strange's interns are at least as good as God's fingernails, spending their days around the operating table. These people probably have more medical records to catch up on than Strange himself, so nobody should try to help anyone else.
After searching the hospital to no avail, Schiller was at his wit's end. He then took a shuttle to Stark Industries, intending to seek help from the omnipotent artificial intelligence, asking Jarvis to act as a generative AI and write his medical records for him.
To everyone's surprise, Stark, who has been staying home with the kids lately, showed up today. Schiller and the other man were both stunned when Schiller entered the office.
What are you doing here?
"How did you get in?"
The two asked in unison. Schiller replied, "This is your office, not your laboratory. Why can't I come in?"
“Oh, I forgot.” Stark slapped his forehead. “I’m so dizzy from taking care of the kids lately, I’m even dreaming about little Morgan’s voice. But why can’t I be in my office?”
"Every time you come to Stark Industries, you're always buried in the labs. You always say the business atmosphere in the office will affect your genius inspiration..."
“I need a break,” Stark said. “I know you might not believe it, but taking care of a child is the first time I’ve ever felt truly exhausted. I’ve never felt this way even when I’ve pulled several all-nighters in the lab before.”
Schiller glanced at Stark; he seemed alright, but his mental state had improved considerably, and he was no longer so anxious and neurotic. This was a classic case of "he who does not plan for the future will have trouble in the present."
Years passed, and little Morgan reached an age where he was full of energy, running and jumping. Besides her work at the company, Pepper also had to take care of Helen, so most of the work of looking after little Morgan fell to Stark. And he was clearly not the kind of person who could easily leave his child with a nanny. Little Morgan was almost wearing him down to the point of becoming a normal person.
“I want to travel,” Stark said, surprising everyone.
Schiller couldn't help but look him up and down again. Stark sat at his desk, planning to himself: "I'm going to a warm, quiet, and solitary place where I can think for myself."
“I completely understand your desire to escape. But if I really threw you into the deep forest, it wouldn’t be long before you started missing the equipment in your lab.”
“I want to take all that equipment with me,” Stark said. “I want to go into the rainforest and do research with pythons, to perfectly combine nature and machinery.”
“He’s hopeless,” Schiller sighed, then sat down opposite him. Stark then remembered to ask, “Did you come to see me?”
"Of course not, I'm asking Jarvis to fill in the missing medical records."
Stark had absolutely no interest in that kind of thing. He waved his hand and said, "Then go ahead and do your thing. Come find me when you're done. We can have a drink together tonight, and invite Steve along too..."
So Schiller started messaging Jarvis. But Jarvis didn't reply to his phone messages, so Schiller sent him a message from the Battle Realm, and learned that Jarvis wasn't even in this universe right now.
Schiller sighed, unsure whether it was his bad luck or Strange's. When the medical records couldn't be completed, everyone was busy, and no one could offer any help.
Schiller was somewhat resigned to his fate. He had originally planned to go back to Arkham Asylum and finish his studies in one go, but he was going to drink with Stark that evening. The road conditions were bad, making it inconvenient to go out, and partly out of a desire to escape, he decided not to write today.
The two of them huddled in the office, chatting idly. Stark was just saying whatever came to mind, and Schiller, after listening for a while, started to get sleepy and fell asleep on the desk.
"Schiller! Schiller! Where have you been?! Come quick!"
Schiller woke with a start, only to find himself lying alone on the sofa, covered with a blanket; Stark was nowhere to be seen. But if it wasn't Stark calling him, then...
"Schiller, it's me, Charles. The Glorious Alliance is just missing you, come here quickly."
"What? Go to the Glorious Alliance? How do you drink in the mental world?" Schiller was still a little sleepy.
"What's wrong, doctor? We're not here to drink, there's an emergency, come quick!"
Schiller then came to his senses. Stark had been summoned but hadn't been called. Schiller wrapped himself in the blanket again and went to the Radiant Alliance's base in the spiritual world, where he saw a frantic Charles.
Schiller was surprised. What could have made Charles so anxious? Could it be Reed...?
“We received a distress message,” Charles said, “from a universe that participated in the multiverse war. The mutants there have established an independent nation, but things aren’t going well. The human government has built the Redgateland factory near the sun to produce offensive robots for mutants, and they also want to develop a robot core ‘mother’ that resembles a super artificial intelligence.”
Schiller understood immediately. Although Redgate Blue Base existed in many universes, and even in their universe, there weren't many universes where mutants had established independent nations. Besides theirs, there was another one: the famous "X-Royal Family."
This comic tells the story of mutants uniting to build their own nation, and it can be considered one of the more prominent mutant comics out there. Whether it's the X-Men, the Brotherhood of Mutants, or even the Hellfire Club and Apocalypse, all mutants work together to build their home, and they ultimately succeed.
The comic has a happy ending; not only was a nation successfully established, but the sacrificed mutants were also resurrected. Logically, nothing should have gone wrong, so why would they need to call for help from the multiverse?
Charles continued, "To prevent the Mother Model from activating, Cyclops Scott organized a suicide squad, leading many powerful mutants including Wolverine and Phoenix, to raid the Redgateland factory. They fought bravely and destroyed three of the Mother Model's pillars. However, things went wrong when they were destroying the last one."
While he spoke, Schiller also reviewed the plot of the comic. The raid had indeed been somewhat unsuccessful; the entire eight-man team was wiped out, but normally, all four pillars should have been taken down, and the Mother Model should have been rendered useless. From Charles's words, it seemed everyone was dead, but the Mother Model survived? Why did such a variable occur?
Charles sighed and said, "The mutants in their universe had originally united, but they disagreed on whether to participate in the multiverse war. At that time, it was a crucial point in their negotiations with the human government. Professor X believed that even so, they could not be absent from the multiverse activities, for the sake of the long-term future of mutants. But the Brotherhood of Mutants and the Hellfire Club both disagreed."
"They're fighting amongst themselves again?"
“No, not at all.” Charles shook his head and said, “Although they disagreed, they still came. The problem is that the Expendables members were injured during the multiverse war, which is why they were ambushed by the Sentinel robots sent by the Redgate Orchid Factory. Even Phoenix couldn’t unleash her power in time, so before the last pillar was destroyed, the entire team was already dead.”