Li Bai crawled through the ventilation duct, which had accumulated a fair amount of dust, then poked his head out through the ceiling of the basement's second level. By then, he had transformed into a mouse. Even if someone saw him, they probably wouldn't be suspicious.
But no one would have expected someone to squeeze through a ventilation duct barely big enough for a fist, so Li Bai crawled out of the opening without a hitch and without anyone noticing.
There really were only two guards in the room. However, Harry Osborn wasn't the only one tied up. There was also an elderly man in his fifties or sixties with graying hair.
Without making a sound, Li Bai extended thin hooks from his hands and feet, allowing him to climb down the wall like a gecko. His movements were gentle and careful, yet smooth and quick. He truly moved like a gecko, without making the slightest sound.
Once he had climbed above one of the guards' heads, he suddenly let go and dropped from the ceiling.
The guard felt something land on his head. A moment later, pain shot through his eye socket as Li Bai's long sword plunged into his eye.
In an instant, the man's brain was shredded, just like the guard upstairs. The other man in the room hadn't even reacted before Li Bai had pulled out his sword and sent a burst of electricity from his palm.
The sword spun through the air toward the guard, once again striking with pinpoint accuracy as it pierced his eye and sank straight into his brain.
Two lives taken in the blink of an eye.
"Alas, had you been asleep like the men upstairs, I would have had no need to take your lives." Li Bai shook his head with a sigh. Then he flicked his sword to clear away the filth and slid it back into its sheath.
After taking care of the guards, Li Bai didn't immediately go to untie the hostages. Instead, he carefully searched the entire room for traps.
His caution paid off: behind the door, he found a suspended grenade. If they had simply burst in, it would have detonated and blown the two hostages inside to pieces.
Only after confirming the room was safe did Li Bai signal Luo Xia, letting them know they could take care of the others without worry.
Soon, the sound of gunshots mingled with the thuds of fists landing. Luo Xia and Matt had engaged the Russian gangsters on the second level.
Li Bai had complete confidence in his commander, so he didn't leave the room to help. Instead, he first cut through the ropes binding Harry's hands and feet, then peeled the tape from his mouth.
The five-year-old was far calmer than Li Bai had expected. Even after being freed, he didn't cry or shout. He politely said to Li Bai, "Thank you."
Then Harry's eyes lit up as he asked, "You're so cool. Are you an alien?"
Li Bai hesitated for a moment. It wasn't that he wanted to hide who he was; rather, he had to work hard to speak English in a normal way so he could communicate with Harry.
"Uh... I'm Li Bai. I'm not an alien. I'm a robot," Li Bai said haltingly.
Perhaps all his talents had been invested in stealth and assassination when he was activated. His language skills seemed a little poor.
Li Bai had thought Harry wouldn't understand his heavily accented English. But to his surprise, the boy replied in equally halting Chinese, "Li Bai? The Li Bai from 'The moonlight shines before my bed'?"
"You speak Chinese?" Li Bai asked in delight.
"A little. I can understand it, but I'm not very good at speaking," Harry continued in halting Chinese.
"Wonderful! I'm not skilled in foreign languages either. But for a foreigner of your age to have attained such proficiency is truly remarkable..." Li Bai immediately switched back to the language he knew best.
Harry: (⊙_⊙)???
So this robot was speaking Chinese? Why was it completely different from what his teacher had taught him?
Leaving aside the two of them struggling to communicate, Luo Xia was making swift progress. With Matt's hearing scouting ahead, the two of them knocked out the gangsters before they even had time to react.
Since Harry was already safe, Luo Xia followed Matt's example and only injured the gangsters instead of killing them. Still, after taking a punch to the head from Luo Xia's fist, wrapped in a Sensor Glove, whether these men ever woke up again was up to luck.
Sweeping through the place like a force of nature, Luo Xia and Matt reached the room where the hostages were being held. A Alloy Dagger sprang from the Sensor Glove and cut through the door latch. Luo Xia and Matt pushed their way inside.
Harry was pursing his lips, wearing a very serious expression as he recited, "Four steps, one man falls; ten thousand miles, I make my way..."
Matt wasn't the only one who had to hear it several times before he understood. Harry was reciting Ode to Gallantry.
Luo Xia turned to Li Bai and asked, "You're teaching him poetry now?"
Li Bai replied awkwardly, "I only recited a couple of lines to myself. The boy is... eager to learn."
Luo Xia: "..."
Luo Xia didn't interrupt the "master and pupil." He first called Norman Osborn to tell him that they had successfully rescued Harry, so he wouldn't answer another call from the kidnappers and agree to some awful demand.
When he heard his son Harry's voice, the CEO and founder of Oscorp was so excited he nearly cried. You only realized the value of something after losing it. It had taken his son being in danger for Norman Osborn to realize that he had often neglected Harry's feelings by focusing only on work.
With that settled, Luo Xia finally had a chance to look at the gray-haired old man beside them. Judging by his features, he looked close to sixty. He was tall and heavyset, like someone who had spent his life in comfort.
It seemed he, too, had been taken hostage by the Russian gangsters. Since they had put him in the same room as Harry, he was probably someone important as well.
Li Bai hadn't known who the man was, so he hadn't untied him. Now that Luo Xia had arrived, he helped peel the tape from the man's mouth.
"Who are you?" Luo Xia asked.
The old man still looked terrified, as though the kidnapping had left him shaken. Luo Xia had to speak gently and reassure him before he finally managed to calm down.
But before he could introduce himself, Luo Xia received a warning from Violet: "Commander, two cars have stopped at the entrance. The three bodies have been discovered."
Luo Xia understood. They had to be members of the Russian gang. He hadn't expected reinforcements to show up so quickly.
"Matt, take Harry and this gentleman out through another exit, then get them to Osborn Tower. I'll hold them off and buy you some time," Luo Xia told the others.
Matt knew Hell's Kitchen very well, and his special ability let him sense danger in advance. He was the best choice to lead them out.
So Luo Xia decided to stay behind and cover their escape. He took two pistols from the fallen guards, a slight smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to cut loose!
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