Dump Truck Iaido

Two cars traveled in the same direction. Someone in the rear car threw a steel toothpick by hand and struck a man in the car ahead in the throat.

In most stories, that would qualify as a martial arts power at the very least.

But in the Marvel Universe, someone like that was actually classified as an ordinary human!

Glass rained into the van. With the Sandevistan's output capped under normal circumstances, Lier had no time to react to what was happening!

He only heard Matt lunging toward him before the steel toothpick punched through the glass and stabbed into Matt's chest!

"Damn it! Hostile! Keep moving, stay under cover-"

But Lier knew cover was practically useless against this enemy!

Bullseye!

His ability bordered on a superpower. Anything he threw struck its target. He never missed!

Lier was frantic-Bullseye was a merciless killer. If Lier didn't prove he was still alive, Bullseye would simply kill the others!

"Matt, hang in there!" Lier set Matt aside, then opened the sunroof.

"What are you doing? Get back here-"

Breaking through the glass had drained most of the steel toothpick's kinetic energy. Although it had lodged in Matt's chest, fortunately, it hadn't pierced any organs.

Matt was horrified by what Lier was doing. Going out like that was suicide!

But Lier quietly removed the Sandevistan's output limit-

Bullseye's throws almost always hit, but "almost" was the key word. Matt had proven he could make Bullseye miss-

And so could Lier!

But he was a step too late!

The moment he opened the sunroof, Lier saw their pursuer-another van. Bullseye sat in the passenger seat with a toothpick in his hand, looking like he was on vacation!

He had just thrown a steel toothpick when John and Skye's van suddenly lost control, veered straight onto the sidewalk, and crashed into a wall!

Bang!

"Damn it-John, Skye? Answer me if you can hear me!"

Bullseye was stunned to see Lier alive!

He had missed? How was that possible?

Bullseye changed his posture, abandoning the idea of killing the others. The man was a psychopath. Missing a shot gnawed at him like an obsession!

He had to kill Lier!

"Ugh-what happened?"

Crouched in the cargo compartment, Skye had avoided Bullseye's attack. The computer and cargo had fallen on top of her. It hurt, and she might have suffered some minor injuries, but she wasn't going to die.

It seemed the van had slowed just before hitting the wall. Otherwise, things would have been much worse.

"I... I'm okay. John? John?"

Skye could only remain on her stomach and call toward the front.

But all she received in reply was silence, and... a raspy sound?

It sounded like someone on the verge of drowning, desperately trying to breathe. Air struggled through thick liquid in his lungs as he tried to draw in oxygen...

Skye struggled to push the things off her, crawled forward a little, and reached John in the front seat-

Something sticky coated her hand!

Blood!

Skye looked at the rearview mirror in horror. John was clutching his neck, a steel toothpick embedded in his throat!

That drowning sound was blood clogging his airway!

The Toothpick Killer!

Fear washed over her like a tidal wave, almost paralyzing her, until Lier's voice rang out again:

"Damn it-Skye? Listen, I've contacted an ambulance and the NYPD. Stay where you are. You need to stay calmer than John-

"Listen, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Help John out, then tell him to stay calm. He won't die, but he has to stay calm!

"John's counting on you! John's counting on you! Keep him alive-kzzzt-"

Lier's voice cut off abruptly, as though he had come under attack.

John couldn't get any air. His chest felt hotter and hotter, but he couldn't breathe.

But... perhaps because he had already been held at gunpoint and experienced the feeling of impending death...

He actually calmed down quickly.

With all his strength, he gave the panicking Skye a thumbs-up-

Skye snapped back to her senses, overcoming her fear almost instantly. She didn't want John to die like this!

"I'll help you, John. I'll help you. Think of your son. When you go home this time, everyone will call you a hero. Stay alive, stay alive..."

But John was so tired, so sleepy. His body felt hot and cold all at once.

Still, Skye was right. He had to live.

Two more steel needles flew past. Lier raised the Sandevistan's output to 50%, and everything around him slowed to a crawl!

The two needles had even accounted for his evasive movement.

But with the Sandevistan active, dodging wasn't all he could do!

Lier dodged one needle and knocked the other aside with his hand!

[The sense of power induced by the cyberware is interfering with assessment of the body's condition. Remove it?]

[Remove.]

Every time Lier moved, his body felt as though it were on fire!

His heart pumped wildly, sending adrenaline and other hormones surging into his neurons' receptors. The ATP used to store biological energy broke down en masse, and his body worked beyond its limits like an overclocked machine!

When operating at high speed, the Sandevistan activated every bodily system that enhanced physical performance, without activating the systems that limited movement to protect the body-

Users wouldn't even notice anything wrong with their bodies! Even after shutting it off, they wouldn't realize there was a problem!

But that technology-induced sense of omnipotence wasn't going to cloud Lier's judgment-

And Lier had discovered another problem. The Sandevistan's effects on him were nowhere near what those heavily augmented cyborgs could achieve!

Instead, Lier felt the pain and strain of pushing his body beyond its limits!

From Matt's perspective, Lier's body temperature spiked instantly!

The two steel needles missed their target, driving Bullseye mad. He couldn't understand why he kept missing!

Lier raised a finger at the frenzied Bullseye, then shouted at Anthony behind the wheel, "Damn it, ram him! Ram him! John's dying! Ram him!"

Anthony's eyes reddened, and he floored the accelerator!

It was nine in the evening. There were cars on the road, but not many, and their drivers cursed at the speeding van.

But when Anthony rammed the other van, they all quietly chose to get out of the way!

The van took a vicious hit and nearly rolled over. Fortunately, its driver managed to keep it steady!

The driver shouted nervously, "Damn it, aren't you supposed to never miss?"

"Shut up!" Bullseye pulled five steel toothpicks from his pocket. "Let's see you dodge these!"

Lier's van had overtaken theirs in a burst of speed, but the gap was only twenty or thirty meters. Bullseye refused to believe he would miss again!

Five toothpicks flew toward him, and Lier found himself struggling to deal with them-

If a cybernetic superhuman like V or Nott had been here using the Sandevistan, she or he probably could have killed Bullseye in an instant.

But Lier's body was too weak!

He barely dodged four steel toothpicks, but the last one was beyond him!

Smack.

Matt caught the last toothpick!

Matt didn't ask what was going on with Lier. He simply shouted, "We have to lose that guy!"

"No! We're going to kill him!" Blue data flashed through one of Lier's eyes.

Matt sensed Lier's temperature climbing further, especially in his brain and spine. It shot up to thirty-nine degrees Celsius and kept rising!

Seeing this drove Bullseye into an even greater frenzy, and he pulled out more steel toothpicks!

"Listen, Matt, hold him off. I'll figure something out!"

"I-I got it!" Matt wanted to say more, but this was no time to hide his abilities!

The two vans tore down the road. Bullseye brought out more steel toothpicks-ten, eleven, twelve-

Yet Matt always managed to narrowly evade them, as though he could anticipate every attack!

Finally, when the thirteenth steel toothpick came, Matt couldn't dodge it!

The bloodthirsty grin on Bullseye's face grew wilder, but he failed to notice that they had left the quieter streets and entered a busier area-

Yet they hadn't hit any traffic!

In fact, traffic seemed to be thinning. When they passed through intersections, wide-eyed people lined both sides, but not a single car happened to block their path!

It was as though... traffic was avoiding them!

"Aren't you ready yet? I can't keep this up!" In that brief stretch, Matt had already been hit in several places, and pain assaulted his nerves!

At this point, he was little more than a clumsy rookie hero. In hand-to-hand combat, he might have had a chance to take Bullseye down, but in a chase?

All he could do was take a beating!

"Almost-just a little more!"

Streams of data flickered wildly through Lier's cybernetic eye.

He was calculating.

From the moment the chase began, he had locked onto every vehicle he needed across several streets in Hell's Kitchen.

They had to be big enough, heavy enough, and fast enough.

Fast enough that they couldn't brake when they needed to, and heavy enough to crush an old van with ease!

Through the power grid, Lier controlled the traffic lights and calculated the vehicles' speeds, waiting for one opportunity!

And that opportunity was almost here!

"My turn!" Finishing his final calculation, Lier yanked Matt down.

He popped his head through the sunroof and locked eyes with Bullseye.

Lier moved his hand behind his waist, as though reaching for something.

A gun?

Bullseye immediately understood what Lier intended. He wanted an American showdown, a Wild West duel!

Bullseye grinned viciously and snatched a handgun from the driver. Perfect timing-he had run out of toothpicks.

He liked throwing things, but the most powerful weapon he could get his hands on was, of course, a gun.

This meant he wouldn't be able to carry out Kingpin's commission perfectly-

But Kingpin wanted an execution, and shooting someone dead in the street was a fine option. More importantly, Bullseye felt he would go insane if he failed to hit Lier even once today.

He couldn't refuse a challenge like this.

"Come on... let's see how fast you are."

Lier's van passed through the intersection. He pointed at the green light overhead and said, "Red light."

That meant they would fire when the light turned red.

Reading his lips, Bullseye gave a sinister smile. Only an idiot would actually duel you!

He drew his gun immediately, only to see Lier reveal his own hand-

That wasn't a gun-it was his middle finger?

Bang!

Two gunshots wouldn't have sounded particularly loud in a bustling neighborhood like this.

But this crash could probably be heard a kilometer away.

A speeding dump truck smashed Bullseye's little van off its wheels, ruthlessly pinning it beneath the front of the truck and dragging it more than ten meters.

The truck tipped over, its cargo bed dumping a huge load of sand and gravel onto Bullseye's van.

"Dump Truck Iaido, dumbass."

Lier held up his middle finger, mocking him from a distance.

[Unique hacking tool developed: Dump Truck Iaido]

[Description: Uses traffic control to place a lethal dump truck at the right location and time.]

[Tech Points awarded: 1000]

[Current Tech Points: 1535]