American comics: Starting with mutants

Inside the elevator.

Dr. Merrick, dressed in a sophisticated silver-gray suit with a dark tie, a pen in his breast pocket, and his gray hair slicked back, hurriedly stepped out of the elevator after it came to a stop, along with Commander Albert Laurent, who was wearing a black tactical vest and military camouflage pants, with weapons hanging from his waist.

Dr. Merrick, carrying a duffel bag, stepped out of the elevator first. The two then hurriedly tried to cross the cloning factory, which was also located on the lowest floor, to the other side, and then escape through the secret passage there.

But just as Dr. Merrick, who was hurrying along with his head down, was about to take his next step, the base commander Albert Laurent beside him seemed to have noticed something and quickly grabbed Dr. Merrick and pulled him back sharply.

next second.

Boom!

A charred steel plate fell from above like a cannonball, landing right where Dr. Merrick had just been standing.

If Albert Laurent hadn't pulled Dr. Merrick back, Dr. Merrick's head would undoubtedly be smashed to pieces by now.

The burly, bald, dark-skinned Albert Laurent looked at the steel plate lying on the ground, drew his sidearm with a whoosh, and without even looking at it, began to repeatedly pull the trigger at the unidentified object that was rapidly falling from the sky.

boom!

Too lazy to take the elevator, Ethan glanced at the base structure and used his thermal vision to burn a path from the command center floor to the lowest cloning factory. During his descent, he glanced at the bald man firing rapidly at him.

Ethan, having absorbed the kinetic energy of several bullets, directly converted that energy into thermal vision and returned it to the bald man.

boom!

Albert Laurent, who was precisely hit in the chest by thermal vision, took off and crashed through several cloning pods still containing embryos before falling to the ground, motionless.

boom!

Wearing a black T-shirt, black trousers, and black leather shoes, Ethan touched the floor of the cloning factory with his right toe and landed steadily on the floor.

Ethan smiled at Dr. Merrick, who seemed stunned, and greeted him with an expression that conveyed a sense of regret that could finally be made up for: "Dr. Merrick, we meet again."

Dr. Merrick from X11 made his escape incredibly fast. By the time he and Jean emerged, Dr. Merrick from X11 had already boarded the transport plane.

Ethan has been feeling somewhat regretful these days that Dr. Merrick's death was too easy.

Unexpectedly...

God was kind to him; knowing that he had always missed Dr. Merrick, God brought another Dr. Merrick before him.

But Dr. Merrick, who was completely bewildered by Ethan's words, couldn't help but frown.

"Black Emperor Number Sixty-Six, I don't know you at all."

"But I know you."

Ethan said with a bright smile, "After all, you were the one who arranged all the experiments on us mutant clones at the X11 base. By the way, I've always wanted to find an opportunity to thank you. After all, if it weren't for those experiments of yours, I wouldn't have been able to master my abilities so perfectly."

Baojianfeng comes from the sharpening, and the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from bitter cold.

Even without any special abilities, he would still dare to say that his mastery of his mutant powers is no less than that of the Black Emperor himself.

After all, in the past three years, if he had been even slightly negligent, he might have been killed by an experiment at the base.

Ethan's mind flashed back to the hardships he had endured over the past three years. Then, looking at Dr. Merrick, who seemed to have thought of something as he listened to his words, he sighed, "Originally, I harbored deep resentment towards you. Unfortunately, you at X11 base didn't give me the chance to torment you, and you died in the transport plane explosion. But now that I see you here, I suddenly realize that you're just a pathetic wretch, even more pathetic than me."

The reason is simple.

He is a clone in this life, and he knows it.

But what about Dr. Merrick in front of us?

If nothing unexpected happens, this Dr. Merrick in front of us is also a clone, and the reason he is pitiful is because he seems unaware of this.

really.

When Ethan mentioned that there was also a figure of himself at the X11 base, Dr. Merrick was first stunned, and then became extremely angry.

After all, in his view, clones were consumables, objects, dispensable things, and things that could be slaughtered like pigs and dogs.

And now someone suddenly tells him that he is also a clone, how could he not be furious?

"No, impossible, I am the original body."

"I am definitely not a clone."

"The one you see is just a clone of me."

Merrick roared, seemingly speaking to Ethan, but more like trying to convince himself. Then, as if remembering something, he ripped open his sleeve: "Look, I don't have a number, and I don't need any growth-suppressing injections at all."

Ethan smiled and said, "Merrick at X11 base doesn't have a number on his arm, and he doesn't need growth-suppressing injections either."

Dr. Merrick's gesture of reaching out to show Ethan stopped abruptly at those words.

He seemed to have thought of something, and his mind quickly recalled all his memories from childhood to adulthood. Suddenly, just as he recalled a certain fragment, it was as if an electric shock struck his mind, and he froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.

Ethan watched this scene with a slight smile on his lips.

No matter how well you replicate someone's memories of their original self, you can never replicate those memories in a way that makes them self-consistent.

After all, memories are part of the soul. If a clone can inherit all the original owner's memories, then it can no longer be called a clone; it can be called possession.

Like Ethan, he has the memories of Black King Shaw, but these memories are fragmented and chaotic, unable to form a stable timeline.

Dr. Merrick may think his memory is perfect, but that's only because of the superior manufacturing process. If no one reminds him, it's fine, but if someone reminds him and he carefully recalls his memories, he will find the problem.

For example, right now.

"No."

"That's impossible."

"I can't be a clone."

"I am not."

Dr. Merrick must have discovered something amiss in his memory; his face instantly darkened, the light in his eyes vanished, and he collapsed onto the floor, muttering to himself as if trying to convince himself.

but……

What's fake will always be fake and can never become real.

Looking at Dr. Merrick's current state, Ethan suddenly had an idea!

……