First Battle

Jay could tell that the woman before him was the standard capable career woman—decisive, highly competent, fiercely independent, and possessed of a controlling streak that might or might not have been a Bat Family tradition. Without leaving him any room to negotiate, she practically dragged Jay into a ventilation duct in the wall. Incidentally, ventilation ducts also seemed to be a Bat Family favorite.

The two crawled through the duct, with Huntress leading the way. Her movements were professional and swift, as nimble as a cat accustomed to moving on all fours. She was clearly well practiced at crawling through ventilation shafts. Jay followed helplessly behind her, watching her full hips sway beneath that purple cape.

He felt he ought to tell this young lady that there was really no need for him to hide, but he had barely uttered half a syllable when she shot him an irritated look and hissed, "Didn't I tell you to be quiet? It might hear us!"

I hate running into clueless kids like this during a mission, she thought.

"Uh, but—"

And he was not even obedient! Huntress turned back again in displeasure, still keeping her voice low but raising her tone. "I said be quiet. Which part of that did you not understand?"

Jay said helplessly, "But I was trying to say that it found us."

"Huh?"

The instant he spoke, the duct wall above them was ripped open with a loud tearing sound by sharp claws. The white monster tore through the metal sheet as though ripping apart a flatbread, desperately shoving its head inside and opening a mouth lined with saw-like teeth as it bit down. Huntress hurriedly rolled onto her back and gripped its neck with both hands, desperately keeping it from pushing farther in, while the unbearable stench from its mouth filled her nose.

Huntress gritted her teeth and sharply ordered over her shoulder, "Don't just stand there like an idiot. Go back the way we came. I can only hold it off for now."

Even at a moment of such danger, she was still putting the safety of a complete stranger first. Jay could not help but feel a deep respect for her.

But of course, he had no intention of obediently slipping away like that.

Huntress barely saw what happened. She only caught a blur flicker before her eyes, and the pressure on her hands abruptly vanished. The white monster seemed to disappear from her grip out of thin air, followed by a rapid series of clanging impacts from nearby.

She was a little dazed and did not immediately understand what had happened. She watched the civilian teenager who supposedly knew nothing tear the opening in the duct above them wider with his bare hands, then casually climb out.

Jay stood arrogantly before the white monster. He had just punched it into a mess of pipes, and it was seeing stars. It took a while to refocus its eyes and locate its opponent. Then it let out a roar and pounced again.

Its claws rose high, tearing through the air with a shriek as they slashed down. But Jay saw its every movement clearly. He reached out in a simple, direct motion and seized its wrist, clamping it so tightly that its claws could not move an inch. With a squeeze of his hand, his unmatched grip made the bones in its wrist crack.

The monster gave a low, pained howl and opened its mouth to bite Jay's head. Though Jay was quite confident in the toughness of his scalp, he did not want his head covered in foul-smelling saliva. So he tilted his head aside to avoid the bite, then drove his knee brutally into its abdomen. The strike landed with the force of an anti-tank cannon fired at point-blank range, nearly deforming its internal organs through its tough scales.

The white monster howled in pain again, but no matter what it did, it could not break free from those vice-like hands. Jay suddenly exerted force with both arms, lifting its massive body completely off the ground and hurling it over his shoulder as easily as throwing a shot put. Its white body smashed hard into the casing of a heavy machine, denting the sturdy metal panel inward.

Jay flexed his fist. "All bark and no bite. I only just finished warming up."

Maybe it understood the taunt, or maybe it did not. The monster propped itself up on its deformed legs, its blood-red eyes glaring viciously at Jay. It extended a claw and snapped off a gas pipe as thick as an arm, and white vapor gushed from the broken end. It roared and swung its arm, hurling the half-pipe like a javelin.

The broken metal pipe ripped through the air toward Jay with a piercing whistle. He neither dodged nor flinched, catching it one-handed. The metal crumpled beneath his grip like paper. The entire pipe casing gave off a low humming vibration under the immense force, like a tuning fork that would not stop trembling.

The white monster let out a rasping roar, strings of disgusting saliva hanging between its jaws. It lunged like a wolf or leopard, as though making the last desperate charge of a trapped beast.

Unhurried, Jay gripped one end of the metal pipe in each hand and exerted force with both arms, snapping the sturdy pipe cleanly in two. He held the pieces like short clubs. The moment the monster pounced within reach, he swung the left one hard into its cheek, knocking its head aside and flinging a long string of saliva from its mouth in an arc. He immediately followed with a strike from the right, smashing it squarely on the forehead. Stars burst before its eyes, its steps staggered, and all its ferocity vanished.

The monster stumbled backward, looking like a drunk nursing a terrible hangover. It struggled to determine its opponent's approximate position, then let out a muffled growl as if psyching itself up and charged again on unsteady legs like a bull. Jay did not even need to strike. He simply rose lightly off the ground and floated five or six meters into the air. The creature foolishly rushed beneath him, slammed headfirst into the wall, and fell onto its back without moving.

Jay walked over and kicked it twice, confirming that it was indeed no longer a threat for the time being. He turned around to find Huntress staring at him in stunned silence, apparently unable to speak.

"That should settle it, right?" Jay shrugged. "Of course, I think I'll leave the cleanup to the professionals. You know, I really do not have much experience with this."

Huntress stood there with her mouth open for a while before asking in astonishment, "Y-you're one of them?"

"Who?"

"Superpowered people," she said. "Y-you... who are you? How did you do all that? Are you a Kryptonian? Like Superman?"

"Uh, that's a really good question." Jay spread his hands helplessly. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Don't look at me like that. I really don't know."

Jay paused, gathering his thoughts before saying, "Well... as you can see, I do have some unusual talents that other people don't, but I'm not out fighting little monsters every day. In fact, this was my first time. I was even a little nervous. You see, I usually have a life of my own—"

He scratched his head and spent quite some time putting his words together before finally saying, "All right, what I mean is, I know you must have some superior to report to. But could you leave out the part about me when you make your report?"

"I... all right. I understand."

Her answer was so direct that Jay froze for a moment. It was so easy that it seemed abnormal.

"All right, just to confirm—you know what I meant, right?"

"Yes, I know." She nodded. "I'll take this thing back to headquarters and say that I handled it myself."

"Then, thanks?" Jay waved, suddenly feeling that this looked a little awkward. Backing toward the door he had entered through, he said, "I'll leave it to you, then. I should get going too. If I don't get home soon, my mom might kill me. So, see you."

With that, he vanished from the spot in an instant, as though turning into a gust of wind.

Huntress drew a deep breath. A Kryptonian—or at least someone suspected of being one. To be honest, she had not encountered one in quite a while, and her mind was still somewhat numb from the shock.

The communication in her earpiece came through again. "Huntress, are you still there? Respond if you can hear me."

"Yes, I'm here." She pressed a hand to her earpiece.

"How is the target? Any unusual developments?"

"No, nothing unusual. The target is down. You can send in the cleanup team now. I'm preparing to withdraw."

"Received. Request approved."

The transmission ended. Huntress leaned against the wall and took several deep breaths before switching to another line, one protected by layers of encryption that she had not used in a long time. The request she sent traveled underground as an electronic signal, crossed the city, passed through layer upon layer of encryption, and entered a deeply buried channel.

After a long silence in her earpiece, a hoarse, low voice spoke. "I thought you would never request access to this channel again."

"Believe me, if it were not absolutely necessary, I wouldn't want to either," Huntress said coldly. "But I think I encountered a Kryptonian."