The Comprehensive Evolution of American Comics

In just over ten seconds, the once-bustling base fell silent. Besides the occasional snoring and the hum of equipment, only the chirping of insects and birds could be heard.

Yang Le emerged from the ground and walked over to a soldier, lifting him up and slapping him a few times. The soldier groaned, showing signs of waking up, but after inhaling the airborne sleep spores again, he fell unconscious once more.

Yang Le nodded in satisfaction. As long as those flowers continued to spray sleep spores, even if the world ended, these people wouldn't wake up. Similarly, a mere piercing alarm wouldn't rouse them.

"Scott, this is Habby," Yang Le said over the comm channel. "I've taken care of things here. Wait for me at the edge of the barrier."

"Roger that," Scott replied.

Yang Le returned to the edge of the barrier and passed through it without hesitation. As expected, the alarm immediately sounded the moment he crossed.

The sudden alarm startled Scott and the others outside, especially when they saw Yang Le walking out of the barrier. They thought they had been exposed.

"So, are we going for a full-on assault?" Gambit asked, his hands full of playing cards, looking eager and unfazed.

Yang Le was speechless. This wasn't some unplayable game; why did it feel like a failed negotiation leading to a siege?

But you know what, Yang Le and his team were indeed going to rescue hostages, they were indeed a special ops team, and they were indeed going to storm a building. It really did feel like Rainbow Six.

"Don't worry, I've already taken care of everyone inside," Yang Le waved his hand, signaling everyone to relax.

Upon hearing this, Gambit immediately became excited and said, "Awesome, bro! You took them all out by yourself?"

"Nature is helping me," Yang Le explained. "I used hypnotic spores to put everyone inside to sleep. To prevent them from waking up, the place is still filled with visible spores. Even an elephant would be knocked out in seconds."

Nature is wondrous, with many creatures possessing strange abilities and relationships of mutual reinforcement and restraint.

Yang Le opened his palm, revealing several black berries lying quietly on it.

"These berries will prevent you from being stunned by the spores. Remember to hold them in your mouth and don't swallow them."

Without suspicion, the others each took a berry from Yang Le's hand and put it in their mouths. They immediately grimaced.

"So spicy!" Jean covered her mouth, forcing herself not to spit out the berry. Tears welled up in her eyes almost instantly, giving her a fragile and beautiful look.

"Damn!" Gambit also winced from the spiciness, even crumpling the playing cards in his hand. Scott gasped for air, taking a while to recover.

"Stand at the door, go in, and wrap it up," Scott said, his words slurred, whether from the spiciness or the awkwardness of talking with something in his mouth.

Although Yang Le had cultivated this berry, he didn't know it would be so potent. Seeing the X-Men's reactions, Yang Le immediately abandoned the idea of tasting it himself.

Waving them on, he took the lead and passed through the barrier. Scott and the others quickly followed. As soon as they crossed the barrier, they inhaled the dense sleep spores in the air and immediately felt dizzy, but the berry in their mouths quickly stimulated them back to consciousness.

Without a word, Yang Le led the group quickly through the barrier and to the front of the base's main gate. Although there were no guards, the gate was tightly closed.

Yang Le stepped aside, knowing the next part wasn't his job. Scott immediately understood, stepping forward and pressing his right hand on the right side of his special sunglasses. A deep red laser immediately shot out from his eyes.

With a sizzling sound and the smell of burning, the metal gate was quickly cut open like a hot knife through butter, creating an archway wide enough for two people to walk through side by side.

Along the way, Yang Le and his group didn't encounter any resistance. Everywhere they looked, there were unconscious soldiers and people in lab coats.

"Phew!" Gambit whistled. "This is the easiest mission I've ever been on."

"Me too," Jean said with a smile. "If only it could always be this easy."

Although they hadn't encountered any combat, Yang Le and his team had another problem: getting lost. Without anyone to guide them, Yang Le and the others could only search room by room, which wasn't good news, as the longer they wasted, the greater the risk.

"Let's wake someone up," Scott suggested. "With Jean's ability, we don't have to worry about not getting the right information."

"I thought I wouldn't have to use my powers this time," Jean said, smiling and flipping her hair.

Gambit immediately picked up a sleeping lab coat and, without a word, took the berry Yang Le handed him and stuffed it into the lab coat's mouth, then slapped him a few times.

"Ugh…" the lab coat groaned, about to wake up in a daze. Seeing him awake, Jean immediately used mind control and mind reading.

"Great!" Jean exclaimed. "Raven is okay. She's locked up with other mutants."

Having received this news, everyone was happy, as they had been close comrades for a long time, but they also didn't forget the main task.

"They're all locked up in the prison deep inside the base," Jean said, biting her lip, clearly having seen unpleasant images. "Those bastards are abusing them every day."

Gambit scoffed and casually broke the leg of a researcher. The intense pain should have woken him up, but the sleep spores constantly entering his nose and mouth prevented him.

"Let's hurry up and rescue them," Scott frowned at Gambit's behavior, but didn't say much.

"This way," Jean stopped reading and signaled everyone to follow her.

Gambit punched the berry out of the lab coat's mouth, and the latter fell back into unconsciousness, then followed Yang Le and the others to the depths of the base.

It didn't take long for the group to arrive at the place where mutants were imprisoned in the base, led by Jean. Just like outside, everyone here was also unconscious.

Scott and the others saw their companion, Mystique, lying in one of the cells. The cells here were all single rooms, probably to prevent the mutants from uniting and escaping. The cells were not made of bars, but of a special transparent material that looked like some kind of resin, incredibly tough.

Each cell had information about the cell's occupant, but only their abilities and code number were recorded. Yang Le glanced over them and didn't find any interesting abilities.

Except for the last cell, which was different from the others. It wasn't made of that special transparent material, but of a heavy, airtight metal door, indicating that an important figure was imprisoned there.