John collapsed completely.
He lay on his back in the rubble, with warm blood flowing from his forehead into his ears.
He didn't care, just looked above his head quietly.
The sky at New York today is very blue, without even a trace of cloud, and it is unseasonably clean.
At this time, two shadows covered most of the sky.
Clone and Neuman stood beside him, one on the left and one on the right.
They looked at the man at the bottom of the pit with no expression on his face.
Then, the two of them moved half a step to both sides in unison to make room for the space in between.
The dull sound of footsteps stepped on broken bricks, slowly approaching.
The chubby face of Mesmer appeared directly above John.
The fat on his face was squeezed together, his smile became thicker and thicker, and even his small eyes narrowed into a slit.
"Stop resisting and hand over your body obediently."
Mesmer looked down at John, with only fanaticism and greed in his voice, "As long as I Body Snatching your body again, no one in this world can stop me."
John ignored him.
He didn't even turn his eyes, still looking intently at the blue sky.
The severe pain in his body had become numb, replaced by a wave of loss and emptiness that overwhelmed him like a tide.
Mesmer is in a very good mood now.
Faced with John's disregard, he didn't feel angry at all.
"In that case."
Mesmer shrugged, "Then I will erase all your memories. This will make it easier to enter your body and avoid wasting time."
This sentence fell lightly, but it pierced John's heart.
The eyes that had always been like stagnant water finally showed a violent fluctuation.
memory.
If those memories were erased, what would be left of him as a person?
What is the difference between it and a piece of meat that has never existed in this world?
Buzz!
John's eyes erupted with dazzling red light without warning.
The distance is too close and the speed is too fast.
Two dark red streaks of Heat Vision penetrated Mesmer's eyebrows instantly with lightning speed.
A black hole of blood penetrated his head.
But this fatal blow did not make Mesmer fall.
Neuman, who was standing aside, just moved his fingers slightly.
A line of blood instantly penetrated into Mesmer's brain, forcibly repairing the burnt brain tissue and holes as before.
John gritted his teeth and suddenly tried to stand up and struggled.
Clone standing next to him stepped on John's chest and pinned him back to the ground.
Then, Clone bent down, raised his arm, and hit John's temple hard with his elbow.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Hit it hard several times in a row.
John's ears exploded with a roar, and the world in front of him was completely blurred.
Blood obscured his vision, and in the rolling red shadow, he vaguely saw Mesmer stretching out that fat hand and touching his forehead.
After a while, the world was spinning.
The blurred vision gradually became clear.
John found that he was no longer in the ruins.
What comes into view is cold white ceramic tiles and dazzling incandescent lights.
He looked around and found that he was back in the demonic place in his childhood memories: the underground laboratory of Vought Tower.
That was the very beginning of all his memories.
But this time, as he stood in the center of the laboratory, he felt surprisingly calm.
Outside the bulletproof glass, Vogelbaum and Barbara appeared in white coats.
They held experimental notebooks in their hands and stared at John through the glass, with sinister smiles on their faces.
Before John could walk over, the two figures were like bubbles in the sun, shattering and disappearing with a snap.
Immediately afterwards, Edgar leaning on a cane and secretary Madelyn appeared on the spot.
They looked at him quietly with false smiles.
Then, it also dissipated in the air.
Boom, boom, boom.
A figure approached the steel door and knocked lightly a few times.
Yes, Lynn.
He walked to the small window used for feeding food, holding a red apple in his hand.
Lynn handed the apple through the small window and smiled gently at him.
John's breath was stagnant, and he stretched out his hand to grab the apple.
But as soon as his fingertips touched the air, Lynn's smile solidified, and his whole person turned into specks of light and disappeared.
John grasped nothing, his fingers froze in mid-air.
The next second, the laboratory became lively.
The fluffy little golden retriever Buddy ran over, but it was like a balloon that was constantly inflated, becoming fatter and fatter in just an instant.
The lively Reggie was doing the starting pose on the spot, the cool Tommy was chewing bubble gum, the cute Annie was holding up the hem of her skirt, and there was the Kevin who was holding Fish Tank and smiling shyly.
The silent Black Noir stood in the shadow of the corner, and the upright-looking Benjamin carried a shield.
These family members are all standing in the laboratory at this moment.
They stood together, looking at John, with warm smiles on their faces.
John opened his mouth and wanted to call their names.
But before the sound came out, everyone's figures became transparent at the same time, and finally disappeared in unison.
He was the only one left in the laboratory again.
Before he could take a breath, the pale walls around him suddenly collapsed.
Light and shadow intertwined, and harsh noises poured into John's ears from all directions like a tsunami.
He found himself standing in the middle of a wide street.
There were densely packed people all around.
Thousands of faces twisted with anger were staring at him.
"Murderer!"
A middle-aged man holding a banner roared at him, spittle almost spraying into his face.
"Hypocritical Butcher! You don't deserve to be a hero at all!"
A mother holding her child had tears on her face, and her eyes were full of irresistible resentment.
The crowd was like a high wall that kept closing in.
Countless hands held up mobile phones, and the flash lights cut through his eyes like dazzling blades.
Rotten vegetable leaves, mud, and stones all hit his Stars and Stripes uniform.
"Get out America!"
"Die! Monster!"
The civilians he had saved in the sea of fire, and the ordinary people who cheered him when he patrolled in mid-air, all now became part of this torrent of anger.
They held up protest signs and cursed him with the most vicious words in the world.
No one cares about what he has done, and no one is willing to listen to his explanation.
John stood there, looking down at his stained hands.
He didn't want to use Heat Vision to burn these people, nor did he want to raise his fist.
A deep sense of powerlessness seeped out from the seams in his bones, draining all his strength in an instant.
He felt like a drowning man, falling into a bottomless the Deep.
He waved his hands desperately, trying to grab something, but all he could touch were those cold and biting curses.
He lost everything and was completely abandoned by the world he desperately wanted to clean up.