Toy Explosives

Toy Explosives

The town overrun by the Amazonians lay engulfed in fire and blood.

Under the moon, the shattered silhouettes of mountains and towers swayed.

It was like a ruined castle by the Rhine River, with black cobwebs creeping across the stone steps in its ruins—or perhaps a haunted forest.

The air reeked of despair, numbing hands and feet, making people unable to stand before their knees finally gave way.

They knelt and begged for the Amazonians' mercy, only to find their final peace at the edge of a blade.

Everything was for that helmet, the legendary helmet said to possess the power of gods.

The Amazonians were not the only ones who wanted the helmet...

Once again, Penny Black flew over the horizon in her armor to save suffering victims. Though Britain had fallen, occupied by the invading Amazonians and turned into a colony for those women, Penny Black had survived as an experimental subject of the Royal Navy.

She possessed the Britannia Armor, built through the Royal Navy's utmost efforts—a suit of armor that only she could pilot.

It allowed her to fly at supersonic speeds, possess immense strength, shrug off blades and bullets, and even resist magic and the Amazonians' cold arrows.

After the fall of her country, she had decided to keep fighting for justice, to battle the Amazonians and Atlanteans to the bitter end.

This operation was the same as before.

There was only one additional instruction.

The Amazonians were searching for the legendary Helmet of Nabu. The Resistance had to get it—and if they could not, they had to destroy it!

Penny possessed overwhelming combat strength. She endured her teammates' artillery bombardment and burning flames, casually knocked the struggling Amazonians to the ground with her fists, and rescued two men.

But what happened next was somewhat beyond her expectations.

The man rescued by the Resistance showed neither gratitude nor joy. Although the corners of his mouth remained curled upward, Penny Black could see his displeasure in his eyes.

It was as though he had expected to be enslaved by the Amazonians rather than rescued by her, so that he could continue savoring the preciousness of freedom.

"We're the Resistance!" As Penny Black spoke, she instinctively stared at the face of the man in the green suit.

"The Resistance?" Dick Grayson's brow twitched upward, and anger pressed his voice low. "So am I!"

"What's your name?"

"Dick. Dick Grayson!"

"And you?" Penny Black thought this was a good way to continue the conversation with the strange-looking man.

Though the man looked abnormal, in a world like this, the people who acted normal were the truly insane ones!

"Can the Resistance go to the front lines?" Instead of answering, Li Zu asked his own question.

He was somewhat addicted to exploring this world.

Not only because of the rewards that came with exploring it, but also because it satisfied the collecting obsession that had suddenly boiled up within him.

He did not mind adding a collectible named Diana—or Aquaman—to his toy collection.

Especially after learning that toys merely "slept" temporarily.

But this uninvited Resistance group had disrupted his plans.

His chance to meet Queen Diana had vanished.

At the same time, he felt relieved. At least he could stop himself from doing something insane after his heart began racing.

Li Zu finally understood his condition. He was not crazy; whenever his heartbeat accelerated, he simply lost his ability to judge the difference in strength between friend and foe, and stopped considering any consequences, including fear and death!

Like a mad dog, always wanting to chase after something.

"He's an interesting fellow," the red-skinned demon beside him said with a grin.

"He's Gotham's madman." The man in the padded coat, holding a freeze gun, stared at Li Zu. "I heard some Resistance members talk about him. After his boss, Joker, died, he turned Gotham into a complete mess!"

"Joker?" Penny Black said confidently. "He sounds like an insignificant nobody."

Faced with Li Zu's "expectant" gaze, Penny Black nodded. "Of course! We in the Resistance operate on the battlefield! We welcome every warrior brave enough to go to the front lines!"

Li Zu and Dick Grayson boarded the plane together.

Dick would return to the base to recover from his injuries, then head to the front lines or rescue people being invaded elsewhere.

As for Li Zu, through his own forceful proposal and the help of Captain Cold—the strange man in the padded coat holding a freeze gun—he could head straight for London.

Britain had already been occupied by the Amazonians, and France had only recently become their new colony. The main battlefield was now in France as well.

To the Resistance's delight, they had obtained the Helmet of Nabu they wanted.

London, completely under Amazonian rule.

Battersea District.

A man in a green suit and yellow Oxford shoes walked through a narrow passage beneath a tall tower.

An hour earlier, he had received a mission.

He was to rendezvous with several Resistance members deep in enemy territory, including the Resistance leader.

Li Zu's role was to help them secretly obtain intelligence leaked from an Amazonian training camp.

It was an insignificant little job, as though those Resistance members who had learned Li Zu was from Gotham had deliberately sent him here as cannon fodder.

Apparently, the Resistance was not a united front either.

Where there were people, there would be conflict and division.

"I'm Trickster. Our operation's been discovered, and a bunch of bitches are chasing us..."

A figure sprang out from the subway tunnel ahead and arrived before Li Zu.

The Resistance armband on Li Zu's arm helped them recognize one another.

The figure stopped. He was a man in a military-green cloak, wearing a red mask and carrying two guns.

Several others followed behind him.

People Li Zu found very familiar.

"When will the support arrive?" Trickster looked past Li Zu.

There was no one there.

The others arrived one after another: the roaring demon Etrigan, a blonde woman whose hair drifted freely as if alive, a panicked woman, and a humanoid Cricket.

"Mm, the support's already here~"

Li Zu grabbed a handful of plastic toys from his pocket and scattered them across the ground.

"Hyde, block the passage! At least give us enough time to get farther away!" Seeing this, Trickster immediately gave the order.

This man did not look normal, and his actions were even less normal!

What damage could those toy explosives—and even rocket-shaped toys—possibly do?

He had always known that some within the Resistance had defected to Atlantis, while others had defected to the Amazonians. Sending a madman from the rear today surely meant that someone wanted him to die here!

"Okay!" Hyde, the panicked woman, nodded. She let out a roar, her body expanding as her clothes were torn apart. A bald monster with tar-black skin replaced the woman.

The monster possessed immense strength. She easily smashed down the tunnel, sealing off the pursuers behind them.

"Move! Those obstacles won't hold them for long!" Trickster turned and ran, only to notice that Li Zu had stopped after taking a few steps.

"What are you doing? We need to go!"

"The curtain hasn't fallen, so the lead actor can't leave the stage yet~" Li Zu spread his arms, as though quietly waiting.

Rumble~

Tremors came from underground, as though something was about to break through the obstruction and escape.

Drip~

A nosebleed ran from Li Zu's nostril.

Finally, a figure with a pair of white wings burst through the ground. The moment she regained her freedom, she lunged at Li Zu, who was closest to her.

A group of female superheroes and supervillains followed close behind, all rushing at him.

Drip, drip...

The nosebleed formed a thin stream.

Li Zu suddenly raised both hands above his head, like a symphony reaching its grandest climax.

The pile of toys on the ground instantly expanded into a small mountain.

And reverted to real explosives and missiles.

"Could you give me a little fire?" Li Zu looked at Trickster.

"With pleasure!"

Bang~

The bullet flew out, sparks struck the explosives, and the chain reaction finally... BOOM!!

Flames blazed, and heat waves slapped against their clothes.

Li Zu spread his arms, towering flames rising behind him...

(End of chapter)