"Die if you don't love me (Step for 20)"
Upstate New York, deep in the Adirondack Mountains.
At the end of the road stood an old log house. Several holes had rusted through its sheet-metal roof, barely covered with plastic sheeting.
Soldier Boy stood silently in the woods fifty yards from the house, like a hunter studying his prey's den.
Even after thirty-eight years, that day remained fresh in his memory.
She had betrayed her, joining forces with every teammate.
He still remembered her expression that day.
There had been neither hesitation nor guilt in her eyes.
Not even a trace of love, only the savage satisfaction of hatred.
He didn't understand.
So he had come to get to the root of everything.
There was an enormous RV parked beside the old house.
Warm orange neon glowed intermittently through gaps in the RV's window coverings. Someone clearly lived inside long-term.
And some sort of purple fan light, laden with suggestive meaning, was glowing too.
(Don't say it.)
Inside the house.
Crimson Countess wore her newly purchased red mask, her uniform doing its best to outline her nearly misshapen figure, as she performed a highly difficult set of personalized acrobatics for the camera.
On the screen, the only fan online, an old man, watched with burning eyes.
While using advanced calculus to take repeated derivatives, he stared fixedly at the enticing points of light all over her body.
Ever since she retired, Vought International's traffic pool had had no room for her.
Now she could only rely on these one-on-one, paid, formulaic livestream shows to cover the RV's expensive gasoline and her canned food.
"Give me a second, baby~ I'll get an exciting prop. I guarantee you'll love it."
She deliberately drew out the last syllable, lifted a bunch of enormous purple grapes from beneath the table, and waved them before the camera.
Then she turned around and was just about to bend over into her signature, member-customized pose when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock...
"Just a second, baby. I'll go see what's going on."
Frowning, she glanced at the livestream clock in the lower right corner. It was twelve thirty.
Who the fuck had so much time on their hands that they'd knock on a retired superhero's RV in the middle of the night?
A premium livestream member?
Impossible. Just a few days ago, she had visited every premium member's home to administer one-on-one Pilates therapy.
A robber?
Would a robber dare target a famous retired superhuman?
Wouldn't that be carrying a lantern into a toilet... looking for shit?
With that thought, she tightened her waistband in puzzlement, then unlocked the RV door.
Outside the crack in the door stood someone in the shadows, his build burly, his face hidden in the darkness.
"Bitch..."
"Long time no see."
"Wha-"
Before she could finish, a fierce gust suddenly swept toward her, chopping hard into the back of her neck.
Crimson Countess's vision went black. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed like a puddle of mud onto the metal floor.
When she regained consciousness, she found herself tied to a ladder, her hands fastened behind her.
She tried to break free, but the ropes were exceptionally tight. She could only stop and use her newly awakened mind to investigate her surroundings.
As her unfocused vision cleared, she saw him.
Standing before her was a bearded man in a palm-brown uniform, holding a shield, with a cigar in one hand.
The moment she recognized him, the blustering arrogance on her face shattered.
Her pupils lost focus for several full seconds. Her lips trembled violently before she finally squeezed out a sentence:
"It's... you. You actually came back."
"What, aren't you going to welcome me?"
Soldier Boy rested his shield beside his knee and slowly approached, an amused curve on his lips.
He looked down at her from above.
His gaze mingled the tenderness of old with bewilderment over her betrayal, inner struggle, and hatred accumulated through thirty-eight years of torture.
"Long time no see, darling."
He paused and studied Crimson Countess carefully.
"You've aged quite a bit."
At those words, Crimson Duke's jaw suddenly tightened. She turned her face aside, refusing to meet his eyes.
Seeing this, Soldier Boy chuckled and crouched, pinching her chin between two fingers. Then his eyes suddenly hardened, and he forcibly twisted it back.
"You don't seem particularly delighted to see me."
He raised an eyebrow.
"I came specifically to see you."
The silent Crimson Countess finally spoke.
"To see me? You call these ropes 'seeing me'?"
"Oh..."
Soldier Boy feigned sudden understanding.
"Actually, I just want to know... why you never came to rescue me all those years."
"Or rather, why you chose to betray me in the first place."
"Rescue you?"
Crimson Countess sneered at Soldier Boy's words.
"You think I would've come to rescue you?"
Soldier Boy stood up and paced two steps down the cramped aisle, the toes of his boots striking the floor.
"Let me guess... those Siberian breeding pigs in Russia paid you a fortune, so you sold me out?"
"You're too naive. The truth is, the Russians didn't pay me a cent."
She paused, a flash of hatred crossing her eyes. Then her face began to flush, and she ground her teeth.
"I fucking volunteered to sell you out."
The air suddenly froze.
But Soldier Boy seemed to have anticipated it. He merely raised his eyebrows slightly, looking utterly unconcerned.
"Oh?"
"Go on. I'm listening."
Crimson Countess seemed utterly enraged by Soldier Boy's indifferent attitude, her hands desperately struggling against the ropes behind her back.
"You want the truth?"
"I've always fucking hated you, you selfish, chauvinistic dead man... and it wasn't just me. Every single teammate hated you!"
"You know what? Maybe Vought already thought you were dead weight back then and deliberately set you up so the Russians would take you.
"You were never a war hero... you were just a fucking pathetic lab rat, a disposable rag filthier than a toilet."
"Finished?"
There was no longer any warmth of reunion in Soldier Boy's eyes.
In its place were furious brutality and the viciousness left by betrayal.
"Die!"
Crimson Countess's struggles with her hands behind her back finally paid off.
One hand swiftly slipped free of the hemp rope. Then, panting heavily, she thrust her palm forward.
The next second, a searing red beam of energy formed in her hand and shot straight toward Soldier Boy's chest.
But Soldier Boy simply didn't dodge.
The instant the crimson beam struck him, he raised one hand and blocked all its damage.
When the attack vanished, his skin only showed a faint redness resembling a burn. That was all.
Crimson Countess could scarcely believe it.
"It's been thirty-eight years."
Soldier Boy looked down at the little red mark on his hand and brushed off the ash.
"You think I'm still who I was back then? The experiments those Russians did on me.
"They locked me in a sealed room, fed me Gatling rounds through my open mouth, roasted me at high temperatures, pumped poison gas into my body.
"Those energy blasts of yours might've hurt me back then, but now..."
Soldier Boy raised his eyes disdainfully, his brown pupils devoid of emotion.
"They don't even count as a tickle."
At Soldier Boy's words, Crimson Countess's breathing began to quicken.
She didn't believe him.
So she abruptly increased her energy output, using both hands this time.
Red light spread outward from singular points, forming two even more dazzling beams. The heat contained within them warped the air as they shot straight toward Soldier Boy.
But Soldier Boy still didn't dodge.
Instead, he even began walking forward, one step at a time, slowly closing in on Crimson Countess against the energy's violent impact.
"No... no..."
Crimson Countess grew afraid and began retreating. The energy in her hands was rapidly draining too, her hands trembling, the red light flickering.
She had grown old, after all.
Soldier Boy reached the doorway, then extended a hand and seized Crimson Countess's left wrist.
Then he exerted a little pressure. Crimson Countess grunted in pain, and the red light in her palm instantly went out.
Immediately afterward, without the slightest thought of treating a woman gently, Soldier Boy smashed a right hook into Crimson Countess's face.
Then he raised his hand for a slap, wound up, and struck.
Smack!
The blow knocked Crimson Countess off balance, sending her crashing into the doorframe. A thread of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
Yet even in that state, a mocking, disdainful smile remained on her lips.
"What are you laughing at?"
Soldier Boy approached and slammed her head hard against the RV wall, his brow deeply furrowed.
"Cough, cough... I'm laughing at you."
Crimson Countess raised her head with difficulty.
"Coming back for revenge. How ridiculous... you think I was the one who wanted you dead most? You think I came up with that plan?"
Soldier Boy's expression didn't change, but his hand around the Countess's throat suddenly tightened.
"Cough, cough... someone approached us before the Nicaragua mission."
Crimson Countess's voice grew weaker and weaker.
"She approached me, Gunpowder, Mindstorm... one by one. She told us there was a plan that would give us 'the best of both worlds.'
"It would let Vought get rid of you and let each of us get what we wanted."
"Who was she?"
"Heh... that's the funniest part."
Crimson Countess's lips twisted into an ugly curve, blood seeping between her teeth.
"That former sweetheart of yours, Liberty."
At those words, Soldier Boy's body stiffened for an instant.
"You never imagined that, did you? The person you trusted most, the woman who once shared your bed, was scheming against you from beginning to end."
"She told us... the company needed an obedient mascot, and superhumans needed a perfect leader without a single impurity."
Soldier Boy said nothing.
He simply stood there in a daze, but his pupils were contracting violently, and even his breathing grew exceptionally turbulent.
Crimson Countess kept talking.
"So she succeeded. You vanished for thirty-eight years, and she took everything you had, while all you could do was stupidly come looking for people like us..."
She never finished.
Because Soldier Boy's right hand suddenly clamped hard around her throat. Veins bulged across his enraged face, his features contorted.
"Say that again?"
His fingertips dug into the hollow at the side of her neck. Crimson Countess's throat bobbed, forced upward.
Then Soldier Boy lifted her half an inch into the air, her toes scraping helplessly and wildly against the RV floor.
At that very instant, a surge of warmth spilled from between her legs.
It spread into a dark wet patch.
It flowed down along the curves.
It gathered into thin streams at the bends of her knees, finally dripping onto the floor.
"Cough, cough... you, you're always like this."
"You don't deserve to have..."
Soldier Boy said nothing. He simply held Crimson Countess up and slowly straightened.
"Everything you've said might be made up, but I'll take my time verifying it."
Soldier Boy spoke calmly, loosening his fingers from the side of her neck one by one.
Crimson Countess instantly crumpled back to the floor, her throat spasming as she greedily sucked in air.
But an orange-red light suddenly burst from his chest.
The glow swelled, gathering into a searing white core at the very center of his chest, its edges churning with molten-gold streaks that bathed the entire carriage in the colors of dusk.
That blazing light was reflected in Scarlet Countess's pupils.
"Good night."
Then he gave a slight nod.
The next second, a straight, brilliant white beam shot from the core in his chest.
(Going all out today-three chapters coming! Let's push for the book's test run. If you readers have a moment, please come show your support, tap like, hit the update reminder, and add the book to your bookshelf.)
(Please!)