Penguin's New Move

Lark licked her cracked lips, her fingers rubbing the hilt of the short knife at her waist.

Penguin raised his left hand and tapped the screen.

"Bullets can't pierce his skin. I won't deny that. But the blades are coated with high-purity South American Frog Poison. All it takes is a one-millimeter cut, and even an elephant's heart would stop within a second."

Jay drew her short blade in a reverse grip.

Its edge gleamed an eerie green in the dim light of the hidden room.

"Go. Pull this off, and the three of you can run the smuggling route through East District Dock. Remember, when a man's busy doing this, his mind goes blank and his guard is at its lowest." Penguin leaned back in his chair and watched the screen, waiting for the hunt to begin.

Inside the suite.

The temperature rose.

On the large bed, the action was intense.

Chu Men gripped the waist of the woman beneath him, his muscles looking carved from stone in the glow of the wall lamp.

The woman's long hair lay tangled around her. Her nails gouged scratches into the headboard, and she could not even muster the strength to beg for mercy.

Another woman knelt nearby, trembling like a leaf.

Chu Men spared a sliver of attention to activate his super hearing. Sounds from throughout the lounge separated into layers in his mind, then filtered away.

The corners of Chu Men's mouth dipped.

Poison? Penguin must be out of his mind from the pain if he thinks a trick meant for ordinary people will work on Homelander's body.

Outside the suite, Lark took out a thin wire and slipped it into the lock.

Click. A faint sound of metal shifting.

The door eased open.

The three women slipped into the living room like cats melting into shadow.

From the master bedroom came only the creak of the rocking bed and the woman's gasps.

Lark signaled, and the three quickly approached the master bedroom. The door was open. They glanced at the scene inside, then at one another.

Raven pushed off with both legs, climbed the Roman column in the corner, and crawled along a ceiling beam until she was directly above the bed.

She hung upside down beside the crystal chandelier like an enormous Bat.

Jay crouched behind the bench at the foot of the bed.

Lark hugged the wall and headed straight for the headboard.

Ten steps. Five. Three.

The broad back of the man on the bed still showed no sign of turning.

Three short knives coated in green poison left their sheaths at once.

Raven released her grip with her legs and dropped headfirst, aiming her blade at the vertebrae in the back of Chu Men's neck.

Jay sprang from behind the bench, slashing her blade toward Chu Men's Achilles tendon.

Lark lunged forward, her poisoned knife slicing through the air toward Chu Men's temple.

The blades were less than half a palm's breadth from their targets.

At that instant.

An invisible ripple burst from Chu Men's body.

The air throughout the suite seemed to turn to solid concrete.

The three assassins froze in midair.

Raven hung upside down, her long hair streaming straight upward against gravity, her wrist just two inches from Chu Men's neck.

Jay hung above the foot of the bed, frozen mid-lunge, both legs suspended comically in the air.

Lark's blade hovered beside the wisps of hair at Chu Men's ear. Her elbow remained poised to thrust, but she could not advance even a millimeter.

Struggling did nothing.

Their eyes widened, veins bulging on their foreheads as an invisible force locked every bone in their bodies.

Chu Men straightened and casually pushed the woman aside.

He turned to look at Lark, suspended in midair.

"Your name's Lark?"

Chu Men reached out with two fingers and pinched the green-gleaming knife.

With a little pressure, the special-steel blade snapped cleanly in two.

Half the broken blade fell onto the sheets. The poison ate into the fabric, sending up white smoke.

Lark opened her mouth to speak, but the Force Field suppressed her vocal cords. She could not make a sound.

Chu Men looked up at Raven hanging overhead, then glanced toward Jay at the foot of the bed.

"Is Penguin's head full of shit? He sent the three of you here to die?"

He turned his head toward the pinhole camera in the corner.

In the underground hidden room.

Penguin met those crimson eyes through the screen.

"He... found it... He found me!" Penguin's bulk quivered, and he tumbled out of his chair.

Bracing himself on his left hand, he scrambled backward toward the corner.

In the suite.

Chu Men looked away.

"You barged into my room in the middle of the night and interrupted me. Tell me, how should I punish you?"

He raised his right hand and swept it down casually.

Riiip!

Fabric tore in rapid succession.

A tremendous force ripped Lark's leather outfit open from the back. It and the clothes beneath it shredded into a dozen strips that scattered across the floor.

Jay and Raven fared no better. Invisible hands stripped them of every piece of gear and clothing.

Daggers and guns clattered onto the carpet.

The Force Field released them.

Years spent living on a knife's edge had left them far more toned than the women lying unconscious nearby. Their firm muscles had a primal edge to them.

Lark braced a hand against the mattress and tried to rise, but a large foot planted itself on her shoulder and forced her back down.

"Since you're here, stay. The more people, the livelier it gets."

Chu Men grabbed Jay by her short hair and yanked her in front of him.

Raven gritted her teeth and tried to strike back, but before her fist was halfway through its swing, Chu Men caught her wrist in one hand.

Her knuckles cracked under his grip. She groaned in pain and went limp against him.

"That move where you dropped from the ceiling was pretty creative." Chu Men rolled over and pinned Lark, his gaze wild and undisguised. "Now it's my turn to teach you how to put your strength to work."

Creak, creak...

Three top assassins had become puppets.

The killing techniques they took such pride in were not even worth laughing at before this man.

In this world, Chu Men was the rules.

Whatever he wanted to do, he did.

Two hours later.

The women who had once killed without blinking no longer had the strength to move a finger. They stared hollow-eyed at the ceiling.

Chu Men got out of bed, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down over Gotham's glittering nightscape.

Just then, the system's mechanical voice sounded in his mind.

[Host has turned the tables, fully embracing the principle of doing as he pleases.]

[Do-as-you-please mindset improved. Bio-electric Force Field strength increased.]

Chu Men opened the suite's enormous walk-in closet.

Penguin had prepared a dazzling array of clothes in advance.

Rows of handmade suits and fine-quality shirts hung neatly inside.

Even the ties were arranged by shade.

He rummaged through them briefly.

He pulled down a soft black casual outfit and put it on.

He walked to the elevator and pressed the down button.

The floor indicator changed one number at a time.

Deep beneath the Iceberg Lounge, the air in the hidden room stood still.

Penguin slumped against the wall in a corner.

Nine feeds glowed on the surveillance panel before him.

In the upper-right feed, the man in black entered the elevator.

The red floor numbers kept falling.

Ding.