Just Done Boasting, and They Shut the Door to Beat the Dog?
749 Bureau Headquarters, Plaza Number One.
The night was dark, and all the lights around the square were on.
The Magik, dressed in a blue and white school uniform, stood in the center of the field, his hands gripping the Soulsword and plunging it into the ground.
Beside her, Wandering Girl with dark circles under her eyes had half a mint stick dangling from her mouth.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, desperately correcting the minute deviations in latitude and longitude across the ocean.
The two, one as the main force and the other as the assistant, pushed the stability of the transoceanic space passage to its limit.
Seven blue portals, each over five meters in diameter, lined up in the night.
The scenes inside the light screen were all different.
The door on the left let in the dry, hot winds of the New Mexico desert, whipping up yellow sand and hitting the plaza floor.
The sound of waves crashing on the eastern coast of the Atlantic could be faintly heard coming from the two middle doors.
A cold, damp atmosphere wafted out from the rightmost door.
Sing Sing walked up to the group with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He took out a handful of lucky charms from his pocket and stuffed them into the pockets of Li Hongqi, Ma Jun, and Gambit Remy, among others.
"It's all packed away. It's a life-saving concoction made by Ling Ling Yi during her three days of seclusion, using incense ash brought back from Laojun Mountain mixed with top-quality cinnabar."
"If you really run into a fatal attack that you can't withstand, this thing can protect you from the Yama's snare."
The Gambit twirled the yellow talisman between his fingers, then brought it to his nose and smelled it.
"Stephen, if this stuff works, you have to send me a whole dozen after we're done playing. I'll take them to the poker table and try them out."
Sing Sing glanced at him sideways, then turned and walked towards Jacqueline.
The newly recruited thug was looking down and pulling at his tactical vest; the flesh on his arms was firm and full, exuding a ferocious, Beast- like quality.
Just as I was about to give him a few words of advice, I caught a glimpse of Deadpool crouching down next to me, stuffing a fork he'd taken from the cafeteria into the crotch of his tights.
"Wade, if you dare leave any cafeteria property in North America, I'll have Aunt Zhang smash your skull with a giant iron ladle when I get back!"
Deadpool stood at attention and saluted.
"This is called cross-border allocation of strategic resources. Once I've stabbed those bastards in the ass with a fork, I'll wash it clean and return it to Aunt Zhang!"
Director Wang ignored this clown and walked seriously to the front of the group.
"Everything was explained clearly in the operations room."
"Once we're on the other side of the ocean, nobody should talk to those beasts who leech off the poor."
"Once we get to North America, guys... if you can beat them, go all out and kill them! Don't talk about chivalry with those vampires!"
"If you really run into a tough opponent you can't handle, don't stubbornly try to fight it out! Just signal Illyana and Edith to come and help you retreat!"
"We, the people of the 749 Bureau, went out all in perfect unison, and we must return for dinner in perfect unison!"
"Don't worry, Director Wang! I was just looking for a place to test my skills!"
Jacqueline yelled and grabbed the collar of the Gambit who was still flirting with the female comrades in the communications class, dragging him into the portal like a dead dog.
"Ouch! Slow down! You're going to tear my collar out of shape!"
The shouts and curses were swallowed up by the blue light.
Ling Ling'er, Ling Ling Liu, and Ling Ling Qi each led their team members into different spatial passages.
North America, Michigan, outskirts of Detroit.
This is an underground salt mine that has been abandoned for half a century.
A rusty winch leans precariously among the weeds, and a deep, black Deep Well resembles a gaping maw left in the wilderness.
A flash of light, and Cao Dahua, holding an MP5, was the first to step out of the portal.
Wearing sunglasses in the dead of night is like a blind man lighting a lamp.
Wanting to get a better look at his surroundings, he pulled his sunglasses down and glanced around furtively.
The mine tunnel was eerily quiet, with only the dripping sound of water seeping from the rocks overhead onto the rotten iron sheets.
Cao Dahua felt a great sense of relief.
He straightened his back, pushed his sunglasses back up on his nose, turned around and waved to Storm and Ueda Kenji behind him.
"Ahem! Remember to maintain the trident tactical depth of two in the front and one in the back!"
Cao Dahua strode arrogantly ahead, chattering incessantly.
"Back when I was working in the Major Crimes Unit, I led raids on the secret hideouts of transnational criminal gangs at least eight hundred or a thousand times!"
"Who dares to even breathe loudly?"
"Those desperados would drop their weapons and smash their toes if they just heard the name 'Tiger of the Serious Crimes Unit'!"
With that kind of air, you'd think he was a leader inspecting coal mine safety!
Ueda Kenji, who was following behind, was extremely tense, and his skin occasionally flashed with a metallic sheen.
He was prepared to transform into mechanical armor at any time.
Storm didn't wear her usual loose-fitting Chinese-style robe; instead, she changed into a sharp black special operations uniform before setting off.
The former leader of the X-Men, a top combatant, frowned slightly.
She tilted her head back and took a deep sniff, trying to sense the faint airflow around her.
"Team Leader Cao, something's not right here. There's not a breath of wind, it's so stuffy..."
While they were analyzing the situation, the three of them walked into the salt mine's main hall.
Thick gates simultaneously slammed down from the top of the four rock walls, wedging themselves into the grooves, causing soil and debris to fall throughout the entire mine shaft.
"Damn, they're playing dirty!"
Cao Dahua was startled, and the MP5 in his hand almost went off.
Before he could react, the giant ventilation fan above his head started spinning wildly backwards.
A large amount of colorless and odorless hallucinogenic nitrogen gas mixed with nerve-paralyzing toxic fog was poured directly over the heads of the three people through the ventilation duct.
A rumbling sound came from behind the surrounding walls, and the entire wall was visibly squeezing and shrinking towards the center of the hall, the space shrinking every second.
"I'll break down the door!"
Ueda Kenji roared, and his arms swelled and grew thicker.
Dark gray bio-steel plates burst forth, snapping together to form two heavy tower shields, each taller than a person.
He lunged forward, his paws out on either side of his feet gripping the ground firmly, and pressed the shield against the approaching wall directly in front of him.
The metal was violently pressed against the wall, but the hydraulic wall did not stop at all, forcibly pushing Ueda Kenji to plow two deep trenches in the ground.
Storm was preparing to use her abilities to violently demolish the structure, began to breathe rapidly.
The white mist pouring down from above entered her respiratory tract.
The nerve-numbing agents were secondary; the truly deadly component was the potent hallucinogenic substance.
The hall was shrinking, the walls were closing in, and the ceiling was slowly pressing down...
The scene before my eyes began to blur and become unfocused.
The booming sound turned into an explosion.
That was Cairo decades ago...
The warplanes destroyed the house, burying her and her parents under the dark, sunless ruins.
It was a nightmare buried deep in her soul, a claustrophobic fear she could never escape for the rest of her life.
In this underground coffin where even the wind cannot move, hallucinogenic drugs amplified this despair a thousandfold.
The goddess, who once commanded the wind and rain and controlled the celestial phenomena, could not even unleash a single bolt of lightning.
"No... don't press down... Daddy... Mommy..."
Storm clutched her head with both hands, letting out a painful scream, her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.