Mike's house.
Two red envelopes were taken out and handed to Gwen and Luke.
"It's called a red packet, it's a blessing from the elders."
Luke didn't know whether to take them or not, and turned his head to look and his little face darken after his father had already drank himself into a stupor.
"Take it!"
Gwen took it and shoved it into Luke's hand, squeezing her eyes, "My dad won money today."
Shaking the red packet in her hand, she said, "It's good stuff in there."
A little embarrassed, Luke said gratefully to Mike, "Thank you, Uncle."
"You're welcome."
Mike smiled and ruffled Luke's hair.
Turning his head to John, Mike said, "Still good to go?"
John blinked, tossed his head, nodded, shook himself as he slowly stood to his feet and, without warning, suddenly shouted, "Mike! Thank you for believing in me!"
Stunned, Mike grabbed John, who was about to fall again and said to Luke, "I'll take you two home."
Picking up his neighbour and placing him on his side with one hand like a sack of potato, Mike walked to the other man's house, inquired if Luke knew what to do turned to leave.
When he got home, he and Gwen watched a bit of TV, and after Gwen had gone to bed, Mike took out three red envelopes and put them in the room upstairs that belonged to Clark and the others.
Although these three were big, they would always be children in Mike's eyes.
Its a good thing that John came to dinner with them since it was actually Chinese New Year today and almost forgot about it.
Placing the red envelopes, Mike stood in the doorway.
"Happy Chinese New Year, kids."
With a silent whisper, the door was pulled shut by Mike.
_-_-_
"Bang!"
The door in front of them was pushed open and four men walked into the lavish halls of Hellfire with heavy strides.
In the middle of the hall, the Black Queen, dressed in tight black leather, saw the four men and a false smile surfaced on her face.
"My dear compatriots, it is good to see you."
She stood up and her eyes fell on Eric, her seductive eyes flashing, her red lips curling slightly as she said, "You are Magneto?"
Eric nodded coldly and said, "Yes."
She swung her waist around and walked up to Eric like a snake, slithering and tempting, circled around him and reached out and pressed her hand to Eric's chest.
Eric's eyes fluttered and he took a step backwards.
The Black Queen was stunned and covered her mouth with a laugh.
"So afraid of me?"
Without waiting for Eric to answer, she licked her lips lightly and said, "I couldn't let go of you being so delicious."
Eric remained expressionless, but in his mind he had cursed out.
The Black Queen raised her hand and was about to reach out when Fire Venom, who was on one side, spoke up, "Black Queen, where is the target of our mission this time?"
The Black Queen looked at Fire Venom.
Fire Poison's silently swallowed.
"Heh!"
The Black Empress let out a low laugh, walked over to the sofa and sat down, saying, "Sit down and take a look."
Once the four were seated, she reached out and pressed the map on the table, a life force was injected into it and the map floated up, unfolding under her control and flying to the four of them in front of Eric.
There was a red circle drawn on the map, and what was marked inside, was ...
New York?
The four of them were shocked.
Seeing the expressions of the four, the Black Queen revealed a smile.
She was very satisfied with the four's expressions.
Soundwave couldn't help but say, "Black Queen, are we not powerful enough to go to New York with the number of people we have?"
She was going to say looking for death, but was afraid of being turned into dust by the Black Queen.
Fire Poison nodded in strong agreement.
The Black Queen smiled lightly and said, "This time, apart from collecting life force, there is a more important purpose for going to New York."
Upon hearing this, the four of them were startled.
The Black Queen hiked her legs together and propped one hand on her chin, "To take out the mutant who is working against us."
The four men were startled, while Eric's mind was slightly surprised.
Had Charles' deliberately exposed tail been caught?
The Black Queen's eyes narrowed as she said, "Yes, he's in New York, of that I have a fairly good idea."
"That man is a threat and must be gotten rid of as soon as possible."
Eric said in a quiet voice, "Can I ask the source of the information?"
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the the three Fire Venoms drew in a cold breath.
No one had ever dared to ask the Black Queen that.
The Black Queen became dangerous and said, "Are you doubting my decision?"
"No" Eric said calmly, "I just want to make sure the news is reliable since we're taking a big risk this time."
The Black Queen hummed softly, and just as the three thought the Black Queen was about to make her move, she let out a low laugh and said, "You're adorable."
"From the first time we met that mutant, we've made over a dozen moves since then, each time in a different location."
With that, she reached down and pressed a red marker on the table, manipulating it to fly up and use it to mark a location on the map.
Then she continued, "Some of these actions the man didn't show up, but most of them, the man did."
Some locations were marked with a bright red x by her.
Then smiling, she said to the crowd, "Since all my operations were only on short notice, there were some far away places where he should not have been able to make it, and the closer to New York, the faster he appeared."
For this reason, the mutant who was working against them would be in that area of New York, if not in New York, and if they made a commotion in New York, that mutant would definitely be the first to appear.
The crowd nodded their heads.
Eric, however, suddenly said, "It's definitely not a coincidence that the other side has stopped us from acting so many times!"
Fire Venom was startled and said, "You mean to say that we have traitors in Hellfire ...?"
"There are still smart people out there."
The Black Queen spoke lightly, her gaze fixed, and said, "So, without knowing who the traitor is, we simply go straight to New York and kill the other side to catch them off guard and take care of that mutant."
Soundwave said worriedly, "But with a traitor, if the other side gets the news in advance and prepares a trap, won't we be shooting ourselves in the foot?"
The Black Queen laughed and said, "So, no one else knows the location except for you four, and I've already got them on the plane."
"And, don't you guys believe in my strength?"
The four were startled as the Black Queen then said, "They are ready and just waiting for us."
With that, the Black Queen got up and said, not to be denied, "Come on, guys, fight for me"
The four men looked at each other, looked at the bitterness in each other's eyes, nodded and walked out with the Black Queen.
The others did not know the location of the target, and the four who did know the location were with the Black Queen, and there was no chance of a leak in the minds of the Black Queen's few.
But ... Eric hadn't come into the hall with a helmet.
New York, X-Academy.
Charles took off the Cerebro, and put a smile on his face as he looked at the huge sphere of space he was in.
The Cerebro had appeared just in time!
Eric had informed him of this meeting in advance, so he had just used the Cerebro, which was connected to his and Eric's brains, to sort of participate directly in this meeting.
"Well? Charles?"
Hank McCoy asked with concern, saying, "Did you find those people?"
"Found them, they're targeting me and are on their way to New York now."
Upon hearing this, Hank McCoy's heart fluttered and he said, "We need to notify S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly, we need to act."
Charles smiled and nodded.
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