Toy Explosives

The town conquered by the Amazons lay amid a sea of fire and blood.

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

This place was like a ruined castle by the Rhine River, with black cobwebs crawling over the stone steps in the ruins, or perhaps a haunted forest.

The despair in the air numbed people's limbs, made them unable to stand, and finally sent them collapsing to their knees.

They knelt and begged for the Amazons' 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.

Besides the Amazons, ...others wanted that helmet too.

Once again, Penny Black flew over the horizon in her armor to save suffering victims. Though Britain had fallen, occupied by the invading Amazons 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, created with the full efforts of the Royal Navy, a machine only she could pilot.

The armor allowed her to fly at supersonic speeds, wield immense strength, resist blades and bullets, and even withstand magical attacks and the Amazons' cold arrows.

After the fall of her country, she had decided to continue fighting for justice, battling the Amazons and Atlanteans to the bitter end.

This operation was much like the previous ones.

It merely came with an additional instruction.

The Amazons were searching for the legendary Nabu's Helmet. The Resistance had to obtain it—and if they could not, they had to destroy it!

Penny possessed overwhelmingly powerful combat ability. She endured the bombardment of her teammates' shells and the scorching flames, effortlessly knocking the struggling Amazons to the ground with her fists and rescuing two men.

But what happened next went somewhat beyond her expectations.

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

It was as if he had expected to be enslaved by the Amazons 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 brows twitched upward, and anger pressed his voice low. "So am I!"

"What should I call you?"

"Dick, Dick Grayson!"

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

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

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

He was becoming somewhat obsessed with exploring this world.

It was not merely the rewards brought by exploration, but also the satisfaction of his suddenly boiling urge to collect.

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

Especially after learning that toys merely "slept" temporarily.

But these uninvited Resistance members 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 pounding.

Li Zu finally understood his condition. He was not insane; when his heartbeat accelerated, he simply lost his sense of the gap in strength between friend and foe and stopped considering any consequences, including fear and death!

Like a mad dog, he always wanted to chase something.

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

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

"The Joker?" Penny Black said confidently. "He sounds like a nobody."

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

Li Zu and Dick Grayson boarded the aircraft together.

Dick would head to the base to recover and treat his injuries, then return to the battlefield or rescue people being invaded elsewhere.

As for Li Zu, with his strong insistence and the help of Captain Cold—the strange man in the padded coat holding a freeze gun—he could head straight to London.

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

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

London, completely under Amazon rule.

Battersea.

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 acquire intelligence leaked from an Amazon training camp.

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

It seemed the Resistance was not united either.

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

"I'm Liar. Our operation has been discovered, and a bunch of bitches are chasing us now..."

A figure darted out of the subway tunnel ahead and arrived before Li Zu.

The Resistance armband on Li Zu's arm helped them recognize each other.

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 reinforcements arrive?" Liar looked past Li Zu.

There was no one there.

The others arrived one after another: the demon Etrigan, roaring loudly; a blonde woman whose hair floated freely as if alive; a woman running in panic; and a humanoid cricket.

"Mm, the reinforcements are already here~"

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

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

This man looked abnormal, and his actions were even more abnormal!

What kind of damage could those toy explosives inflict? There were even rocket-shaped toys among them!

He had always known that some within the Resistance had defected to Atlantis, while others had defected to the Amazons. Sending a madman from the rear today had to mean that certain people wanted him dead here!

"Okay!" The panicked woman named Hyde nodded. She let out a roar, her body growing larger as her clothes ripped apart under the expansion. A bald monster with tar-like skin replaced the woman.

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

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

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

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

Rumble~

The ground shook, as though something beneath it was about to break through the obstruction and escape.

Drip~

A nosebleed flowed from Li Zu's nostril.

At last, a figure with a pair of white wings burst through the ground and, upon regaining her freedom, lunged at Li Zu, who was closest to her.

The female superheroes and supervillains who followed also rushed toward him.

Drip, drip...

The nosebleed formed a line.

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

The toys piled on the ground instantly grew larger, becoming a small mountain.

They reverted into real explosives and missiles.

"Could you give me a light?" Li Zu looked at Liar.

"Gladly!"

Bang~

The bullet flew out, its spark striking the explosives. A chain reaction followed, and finally... BOOM!!

Flames blazed, and a heat wave lashed at their clothes.

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

(End of Chapter)