Looking at the lifelike humanoid doll in his hand, A-Train's tone was rather strange.
"Ha, I never thought you used to be such a hardcore fan of mine. This isn't the kind of thing ordinary passersby would casually buy, you know. It costs several hundred bucks."
Hughie's dad looked completely bewildered, with no idea what was happening.
All he knew was that A-Train had suddenly barged in, acting extremely manic, even downright crazed. This was completely different from how he appeared on screen. He had no idea what had provoked him, or whether he was simply high out of his mind.
Hughie gestured for him to stay calm, then stepped forward while forcing himself to remain composed. "Hey, A-Train, I came alone, just like you asked. Now let him go."
"Alone?"
A-Train vanished like the wind, then reappeared in another spot in less than half a second.
"Ha, you really did come alone. Next time—though there won't be a next time—you should at least keep one or two tricks up your sleeve."
Though he had been startled, Hughie became even calmer instead.
Just as Gambit had said before, when A-Train raced Shockwave, he had only achieved the incredible speed of 371 meters per second on a specially designed track after taking Compound V as a performance-enhancing stimulant.
A-Train clearly had not taken anything now, so he was slower than he had been then. Besides, this was a relatively complex residential area, not a specially designed track.
He had been gone for less than half a second. How far could he have run? How large an area could he have searched?
He had most likely just dashed outside, glanced around, seen no suspicious people on the road, and immediately returned!
"Okay, I think you mean this?"
Hughie flipped his hand and pulled a syringe containing a little blue liquid from his waistband.
Butcher had actually already handed over the sample they had obtained from the children's hospital to Susan, the CIA deputy director and one of his former flames.
But just as Li Wei had said, there was plenty of blue liquid around. Unless he injected it immediately, how could A-Train tell whether it was real or fake?
And Hughie had no intention of giving A-Train a chance to identify it. Once he was sure A-Train had gotten a good look at the little thing in his hand, Hughie immediately pressed down.
"Don't you want a hit of the good stuff?"
Although they did not know the exact details, they had already roughly concluded that A-Train's body had likely developed some kind of problem. He needed the stimulation of Compound V—or perhaps he was simply addicted to it. That was why Robin had suffered that tragedy.
A-Train swallowed. Ever since the Asian woman being used as an experimental subject had disappeared, Homelander had temporarily halted those experiments. Naturally, A-Train had no way to tamper with anything or secretly stash Compound V.
In fact, he had recently begun to feel increasingly weak. His heart had developed a very serious problem.
To him, Compound V was far more than just a stimulant. It was crucial to maintaining his powers and even keeping his place in The Seven!
Still, he gritted his teeth and stubbornly said, "I don't know what the hell that thing is!"
Hughie immediately seized on that. "Oh? Then you won't mind if I do this?"
Without giving him any chance to respond, he let every drop of blue liquid in the syringe fall onto the carpet.
A-Train's emotions instantly exploded. "No, fuck, what are you doing?! What the fuck is wrong with you? I'm going to—"
All of a sudden, A-Train felt his mind grow hazy. Before he could figure out what was happening, or whether this was some sign that his heart condition was worsening, he suddenly felt excruciating pain shoot through his calves!
"Ah, fuck!"
He screamed and collapsed to the floor. Both his lower legs had been cleanly smashed apart!
Li Wei, who had suddenly appeared in the room dressed as Gambit, could not help but let out a quiet sigh of relief.
To fight A-Train, who possessed Super Speed, he had prepared several backup plans beforehand. It could be said that he had been thoroughly prepared.
But he had never expected things to be countless times easier than he had imagined.
A-Train had no resistance whatsoever to his Psychic Remote Sensing. With the advantage of striking first, Li Wei had controlled him slightly and ended the battle directly.
In fact, if he had not wanted to prevent A-Train from making further connections afterward, Li Wei felt he could have controlled A-Train for at least another five seconds—enough time to kill him several times over!
Following the plan, Hughie hurriedly took his dad to meet up with Butcher and the others. After clutching his legs and howling in agony for several moments, A-Train finally realized who had attacked him.
"Gambit, you again!"
Li Wei casually spun his staff. "I heard you've been investigating me lately? Who told you to do that?"
A-Train did not dare betray Homelander at all. Enduring the agony, he changed the subject. "You're a Superhero too. Why are you siding with them?"
Li Wei shook his staff, covering it in a layer of glowing energy. "Simple. Because they're my friends, and you're not."
A-Train was instantly dumbfounded. He found it utterly unbelievable. "That's it?"
"That's it. You're not my friend, and you refuse to say who's behind you, so..."
Li Wei slowly raised his staff and looked at A-Train with clear ill intent.
Although the staff was only made of ordinary alloy, with Li Wei's strength behind it, it could still kill A-Train very easily.
In fact, among The Seven, A-Train ranked at the bottom in attack power, defense, fighting skill, and other areas. He was even worse than The Deep. In the past, he had relied entirely on his speed to bully ordinary people.
The Deep was not much better. Leaving aside his equally pathetic combat skills, the pair of gills at his waist were his most fatal weakness.
He was also good at crushing weaker opponents. But once he fought Superheroes of the same level, as long as they found his weakness and did not fight him in the water, defeating him was not particularly difficult.
There were only truly one and a half strong fighters in The Seven. One was Homelander, and the half was Queen Maeve, who could not fly.
"Wait, you can't kill me! I'm one of Vought's Seven! If you kill me, Homelander will definitely avenge me!"
A-Train tried to use Homelander's name to intimidate him. In truth, even if Homelander did seek revenge, it would definitely not be for him, but because The Seven's reputation had been insulted.
"Heh, that's a matter for later. What I want to do now is get rid of you, a menace to my friends."
Faced with such a reckless hothead, A-Train suddenly felt numb. Was he really going to die here so miserably?
Suddenly, in the face of death, inspiration struck him. Since the other man kept saying he was doing this for his friends, why couldn't A-Train become his friend?
"Wait, there's no need for this to go so far. I can become your friend too!"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
Li Wei seemed intrigued, and his movements visibly hesitated.
Seeing that it was working, A-Train disregarded the pain in his legs and immediately spoke rapidly.
"We're both Superheroes. We should naturally be friends. Don't worry, once we become friends, I'll do my best to remove myself from this matter and stop affecting you and your other friends!"
"Is that so? Then are we friends now?"
A-Train nodded frantically. "Of course. We're friends now!"
Then, as if he had suddenly remembered something, he added, "Oh, right. Vought implanted a tracking system in my body. Homelander and the others all know I'm here now."
"For safety's sake, my friend, you should leave as soon as possible. Leave this place to me from here on!"
Li Wei naturally knew about that. Translucent had also had a tracking system in his body, which was why The Deep had still managed to find him after his corpse was boxed up and thrown into the ocean.
However, looking at the string of brightly displayed prompts, Li Wei grew a little greedy. After A-Train's own explanation just now, he could already copy many of A-Train's abilities.
Could he remove the tracker from A-Train's body, then package him up and take him away?
Codename: A-Train Type: Physique Type Special Ability 1: A-Train's Super Speed. Greatly increases movement speed. The exact effect depends on physique and related factors. Maximum speed: 1,600 kilometers per hour. Can be fully copied. Estimated continuous contact required: 365 minutes. Special Ability 2: Enhanced Metabolism. Can metabolize 99.5% of calories from food, greatly improving the absorption and utilization of food, accelerating cell regeneration and wound healing, and more. Can be fully copied. Estimated continuous contact required: 8 minutes. Special Ability 3: Enhanced Eyeballs and Lacrimal Glands. Under high wind speeds, extreme temperatures, and similar conditions, the fluid on the surface of the eyeballs is continuously replenished and becomes more viscous, vastly increasing protection for the eyes while strengthening the eyeballs themselves to adapt to high-speed movement. Can be fully copied. Estimated continuous contact required: 5 minutes. Special Ability 4: Accelerated Perception. Greatly increases the brain's information-processing speed and the body's reaction speed, allowing adaptation to Super Speed and perception of the surrounding environment while running, among other things. Can be fully copied. Estimated continuous contact required: 29 minutes. Special Ability 5: Enhanced Stamina. Greatly enhances the efficiency of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. High-intensity exercise will not cause lactic acid buildup and resulting muscle soreness, among other effects. The cost is that the maximum lifespan of the corresponding organs may be affected. Can be fully copied. Estimated continuous contact required: 13 minutes. Special Ability 6: Intermediate RAP. Can be fully copied. Estimated continuous contact required: 1 second.
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