American Comics: Starting from the Invincible Young Hero

Chapter 73 Russell, Do Not Attempt to Confront the Empire (Two Chapters Combined)

Russell sped past like lightning, piercing through the smoke and fire, and the sentries' infrared scanning system locked onto him.

Bolivar's pupils contracted sharply as he was shocked to find that his carefully constructed smoke barrier had been completely ineffective.

The sentries quickly assembled, attempting to cover the mother model's retreat. However, just as the mother model was about to fly away, Russell's figure violently rubbed against the air, bursting forth with scorching flames, and crashed into the mother model like an intercontinental ballistic missile.

boom--!
The deafening explosion echoed through the sky, and the violent shockwave blew away the nearest dozen or so sentries.

The mother model's body broke off at the waist, splitting into two pieces.

Despite its size being far greater than that of a regular sentry, it was not designed for combat; its hollow abdomen served only as an assembly line, offering virtually no defensive capabilities.

"Reclaim the mother model at all costs and completely eliminate this mutant!" Bolivar's face was grim as he grabbed the microphone and coldly gave the order.

This master mold, which had consumed countless hours of his effort and resources, absolutely could not be destroyed. A flicker of anxiety flashed in his eyes—if it could be retrieved in time, the broken master mold could still be repaired…

The idea hadn't been finalized.

Om-!
Suddenly, a thick laser beam pierced through the broken edge of the mother mold and shot out from its head.

Russell unleashed his full power, veins bulging on his forehead, his deadly gaze sweeping across like a sharp blade, completely cleaving the female model's upper body in two!

"Kill him! I want him reduced to ashes!" His eyes widened, his face froze for a moment, and the next second Bolivar's voice trembled with rage.

The mother mold was worth far more than a thousand Sentinels, but now it has been reduced to scrap metal!

"Annihilation mode activated."

A cold, mechanical voice rang out, and all the sentries suddenly changed their attack patterns. Their eyes flashed red light wildly as they rushed towards Russell, as if they wanted to perish together with him.

"Trying to harm our heroes who shattered their shackles? Don't even dream about it!" A soft, cold laugh rang out.

Rumble——!
The entire island of Kenosha trembled violently, and the iron ore deep underground was forcibly extracted by an invisible force, condensing into a giant steel whip that stretched for more than ten miles, sweeping across the battlefield like a raging dragon.

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!
The dozen or so red-glowing sentinels scattered like swatted flies.

Russell looked back and saw Magneto wearing a helmet, his eyes sharp as knives, his jaw muscles taut, remotely controlling the entire mine as a weapon, clearly serious.

"We are here to help you, Infinite Ones!"

Two dazzling streaks of light pierced the sky, revealing a man and a woman with similar appearances. As if the light's offensive swept across the battlefield, it launched millions of attacks on the sentinels in an instant.

The dozen or so Sentinels were riddled with holes, as if they had been bombarded by a meteor shower, and were rendered unusable on the spot.

"Thank you for saving my brother and me!"

Although the two were immediately exhausted and panting, they still looked up and nodded sincerely to Russell, their eyes filled with gratitude.

"North Star, Aurora..."

Russell recognized the two men.

The most powerful mutants in the mutant community are a pair of twins whose greatest strength is speed; they are as fast as light.

Putting aside other factors, their speed was far inferior even to Russell's.

"And me! The Sunfire will forever remember your and Magneto's kindness!"

A man engulfed in flames descended like a meteor, clad in a red battle suit, his hands spewing forth towering waves of fire that engulfed the sentinels and obscured their vision.

"The sun explodes!"

The next second he roared, and plasma flames far exceeding the surface temperature of the sun burst forth from his chest, melting more than a dozen Sentinels into twisted scrap metal.

The air was distorted by the high temperature, and the sky and earth changed color.

"Well done, Infinite Man, we saved those people." Russell saved thousands of mutants when knives were held to their necks. Scarlet Witch flew over immediately, a smile on her beautiful face, and winked at him admiringly.

She turned to the Sentinels, raised her hand and released the power of chaos, and crimson energy flooded twenty or thirty Sentinels like a tidal wave.

The precision machinery short-circuited instantly, sparks flew everywhere, and debris fell in all directions.

Unlike Sunfire and the Aurora siblings, who unleashed their full power only to falter, Scarlet Witch seemed to be in complete control, as waves of chaotic energy swept over the other Sentinels.

Russell and his allies joined forces, sweeping across the battlefield like a storm. Meteor-like punches, lasers tearing through everything, steel dragons, and the power of chaos intertwined.

In the blink of an eye, nearly a hundred sentry units were destroyed.

The last Sentinel was punched through the chest by Russell, and its mangled body crashed to the ground.

Led by Russell, the group stared down at its still-glowing head. Magneto coldly questioned, "Who are you? Why are you so eager to exterminate mutants?"

Magneto knew that the person behind the invention of the power-suppressing collar and these Sentinels was probably watching through the Sentinels' eyes, and a chilling killing intent almost burst forth from his own.

"What does it matter to you if I destroy you?"

Regardless of narrow-minded love, hate, or grudges, mutants must be completely eradicated.

After speaking through the Sentinel's indifferent voice, Bolivar disconnected the connection on his own.

"For humanity, this is an undeniable objective fact; I am merely one of humanity."

"madman!"

Magneto angrily crushed the head of the last Sentinel.

"People used to call me crazy, but today I've seen someone even crazier than me!"

Russell glanced at Magneto, who was extremely agitated.

I know that the usually ruthless mutant leader must be filled with worry at this moment.

Magneto has encountered countless people who used to clamor for the extermination of mutants and said that all mutant monsters should die, but he only regarded them as ignorant insects.

This time, there wasn't even any angry cursing, just two simple sentences. Why did Magneto lose his composure like this?
He truly felt threatened, as both the mutant ability-suppressing collar and the mass-producible Sentinel robots demonstrated power far beyond their time.

Bolívar was an undeniable genius.

He even saw far ahead, and could be called a wise man.

Knowing the future, Russell knew that if no other factors interfered, mutants would completely replace humans, just as humans had replaced ancient apes.

Great evolution is always worthy of celebration.

But in the prehistoric era, did humans wipe out the ancient apes, or did humans replace the ancient apes, or did both occur simultaneously, ultimately leading to the disappearance of the ancient apes from the earth?
Bolivar not only had a long-term vision and planned ahead, intending to eliminate the mutant race, but most fatally, he actually possessed this ability.

"Sentinels—the natural enemy of mutants."

This description is entirely apt.

In countless universes, mutants have been driven to extinction by the Sentinels.

However, Russell was not a mutant after all, so this matter was not something that bothered him much.

"Now that we've taken Kenosha, we can begin building our nation."

"Nation-building?"

Upon hearing this possibility, Magneto temporarily set aside his fear of Bolivar, and his heart began to beat faster than usual.

"Of course, of course we must establish a nation."

However... we still need to wait a while before making an announcement to the outside world..."

He suppressed his impatience and looked back at the ravaged land, where the entire military government was paralyzed and in complete chaos.

Moreover, even without their arrival, this is an extremely poor and backward country.

“When an unprecedented nation of mutants appears before the world, it must not be like this.” Russell nodded, understanding his meaning.

Even if a dilapidated and backward country hastily opens its arms to mutants all over the world, saying it can protect them, how many people can it attract?

They had to first transform Kenosha, making it look like a paradise, a haven.

Only those mutants from all over the world who are fed up with a life of displacement will look here with hope and flock here. "Haste makes waste."

Conquest Points: 52749

Russell glanced at the panel; thousands of mutants rescued from desperate enslavement had given him over ten thousand conquest points.

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

Once the mutant nation is established, the number will likely be astronomical.

……

Debbie Grayson sat in the dimly lit living room, the red wine glass in her hand reflecting the flickering firelight from the fireplace.

Her fingertips unconsciously traced the detailed test report sent by Old Arthur on the tablet—the DNA and battle traces remaining in the fibers of the suit.

All of these points to a fact she least wants to believe.

click!
The sound of the door lock turning made her tremble.

Nolan Grayson, her husband, entered, his cloak still carrying the chill of the night wind. His gaze froze slightly when he saw the tablet in his wife's hand; he seemed to have caught a glimpse of the photograph of his missing, tattered battle suit.

But the All-Round Man quickly regained his composure.

"Still not asleep so late?" His voice was gentler than usual, as if he wanted to pretend that nothing had happened.

Debbie looked up, and the pain and anger in her eyes made Nolan stop in his tracks.

"Why?" Her voice was hoarse, her fingers gripping the tablet tightly. "The Global Guardians are your friends!"

A flicker of panic crossed Nolan's eyes, and his heart sank, but it was quickly replaced by calm: "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Stop pretending!" Debbie stood up abruptly, a wine glass shattering at her feet, the crimson liquid spreading across the floor, much like the bloodstains from that day.

"The test results for the combat suits are right here! They're covered in their DNA!"

Her voice trembled, and her eyes held a last glimmer of hope: "Is someone controlling you? Threatening us? Tell me, please tell me, this wasn't your choice."

Nolan remained silent for a moment, and the gentle mask on his face gradually peeled away.

As if his last shred of hesitation had been forced to be cut off by reality, when he spoke again, his voice was as cold as ice: "Listen to my arrangements, and you, Mark, Russell, and our whole family will be safe."

"No matter who gets into trouble, I promise my family will be safe."

These words were like a knife piercing Debbie's heart. She staggered back, sensing an even more terrifying implication in her husband's words.

"What are you going to do, Nolan? Not just the guards. What else do you plan to do?"

Nolan didn't answer, but calmly walked to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of whiskey.

The sound of ice cubes clinking in the glass was particularly jarring in the deathly silent room.

“Nolan!” Debbie grabbed a framed photo from the table—a family portrait of her, her husband, and their two children, Mark and Russell. “Look at this! Look at your son, look at your nephew, what kind of monster have you become?!”

"Turn into a monster?"

The picture frame shattered at Nolan's feet, shards of glass scraping across his boots and leaving a white mark.

He looked down, his chest heaving with a painful tremor, but when he looked up again, his eyes remained resolute and cold.

“I haven’t changed. This is who I always have been. It’s just that I’m tired of pretending now,” he said in a deep voice. “There are some things I have to do, and I have no choice but to do!”

The firelight from the fireplace cast flickering shadows on his face, and in that moment, Debbie finally saw clearly—the man standing before her was no longer the husband she had loved.

"Nolan, you..."

Debbie was about to say something angry and disappointed.

"There's never anything you have to do, Uncle."

A voice drifted over, and Russell walked down the stairs from the second floor.

"Sometimes you think you have no other choice, but the reality isn't as bad as you think."

"Russell?"

Seeing his nephew suddenly appear, showing no surprise at all, Nolan's brows furrowed instantly.

"You found out about this too?"

"good."

The mutant universe needs some time to build Genoa, so Russell came back to check on things. Unexpectedly, he stumbled upon his aunt and husband having a showdown. Calculating the time it would take for the suit to be tested, it was indeed time.

"What do you know? You're just a child!"

Nolan coldly crossed his arms and rebuked Russell's words without any politeness.

But this posture, which is psychologically defensive and resistant, did not escape Russell's notice.

"The world doesn't always give an adult that many choices. I once said that the Witrum people were a peace-loving race, and I lied to you."

"Witrum is born to learn to fight, to prepare for the Empire's invasion of the galaxy."

Ignoring his wife Debbie's shocked and bewildered expression, he continued.

Unlike the simple-minded Mark, his kind yet resilient wife and mature and outstanding nephew were able to withstand all of this.

Then why not just confess all the cruel realities that have been buried deep in your heart for so long?

"Although I have some prestige among the soldiers of the Witrum, I am still just a soldier, and a soldier's duty is to obey orders."

I was sent to prepare for the conquest of Earth, and now the time has come—even if I don't act, the Empire will send someone to replace me…”

"Nolan, is this why you've targeted the Global Guard?"

Debbie's eyes widened, her voice trembling slightly. Although her husband tried his best to hide it, as the person she shared her bed with day and night...

How could she not be familiar with her husband's tone of voice?

There was a hint of feigned coldness and resoluteness in her husband Nolan's words, as if he had been forced to do so.

“We can figure something out together, Nolan.”

You are definitely not a devilish soldier whose birth mission is to kill.

Debbie cried and tried to take her husband's hand.

"Find a solution? You have no idea about the empire's iron will, its strict discipline, and its power." Nolan flung his wife's hand away, turned away, and, not wanting to see his wife in pain any longer, coldly tossed a warning to his nephew before leaving.

"Russell, don't try to fight the Empire. Even if the outside world is full of cries and despair, stay home for your own life. Stop trying to play the role of some ridiculous superhero."

This is my advice to you.

The chaos is only temporary; Earth will be reborn under the rule of the Empire!

Bang!
Crashing through the roof, Nolan, the all-around hero, soared through the air and flew away without looking back.

“Russell, save your uncle! I can feel his pain. Don’t let him make a mistake he’ll regret for the rest of his life…” Aunt Debbie turned around and buried her face in her nephew’s shoulder, weeping.

Russell patted his aunt on the back, stared intently in the direction where Almighty had flown away, and said only one sentence softly.

"I will, Aunt."

"What's wrong with Dad? I called him just now, why didn't he answer me?"

Mark landed on the lawn, watching his father, All-Around, fly away and disappear into the horizon. He scratched his head in confusion, then turned around and saw the roof of his house with a huge hole in it, and his mother crying bitterly.

"This is... Mother, why are you crying?"

"What's going on, cousin?" He stared wide-eyed, never having seen his mother cry so sadly and helplessly. Flustered and unsure how to comfort her, he turned to his cousin Russell in a panic.

(End of this chapter)