"Fortnight"
"Squelch-"
Red streamers swept from his eyes, fluttering through the air.
John drove a right fist into the cheekbone of the face in front, instantly caving it in beneath the bridge of the nose.
Then his left fist swung violently upward, slamming into the second man's abdomen.
"Aaah-"
His fist sank into the abdominal muscles, its outrageous force passing straight through the abdominal nerve plexus and driving into the spine.
"Two flies."
John casually flung their bodies aside.
He was just about to take a step when a sinister shadow suddenly lunged from his blind spot.
The attacker kept his center of gravity low throughout, knees slightly bent and back hunched close to the floor. Three translucent, milky-white bone blades burst from the gaps between his knuckles.
The next instant, the bone blades struck John squarely in the lower back.
"Crack-"
A brittle snap rang out. John was completely fucking fine.
Instead, all three sharp bone spikes snapped outright, followed by the entire hand collapsing into a deformed, utterly ruined mess.
The test subject who had ambushed him stood frozen, pupils contracting sharply as he questioned his life.
"How could..."
By the time he reacted, he was already looking at John's glowing red eyes.
"Zzz-"
Bone Spikes instantly dropped to the floor.
John lifted his ankle slightly, kicked the pile of mush away, and looked toward the crowd surging ahead like zombies.
He had only slowed his pace for a moment, but the other test subjects behind them had already flooded the entire corridor.
The cramped passage could not hold everyone, so they could only pile into several rows and charge forward mindlessly.
Watching this spectacular "zombie tide," John suddenly recalled something vaguely familiar.
Apparently, he had used this move in his previous life too.
(A tribute to the original.)
At the thought, the fierce red-gold radiance in his eyes suddenly brightened, but that was not enough.
He was still charging up.
As time accumulated, a blazing-white torrent gradually emerged deep within John's irises, churning outward.
Then John floated up from the floor, hands on his hips.
"Zzz, zzz-"
The temperature in the corridor abruptly soared.
John willed it.
In an instant, two fist-thick pillars of red-gold light burst from his pupils.
The beams' attack diameter filled half the corridor's cross section, and the test subjects in the front row bore the brunt.
("Bear the brunt" means being the first to be attacked. Don't let unprofessional Chinese teachers lead you astray.)
(I teach high school Chinese, politics, and history.)
Within fractions of a second of their bodies touching the beams.
Bones, muscles, and blood all expanded instantly, turning to charcoal under the extreme heat. Heads separated from bodies, and bodies melted into two pieces.
There was a rustling sound as the crowd toppled backward.
The test subjects farther back were knocked flying by the severed limbs ahead, still carrying their momentum.
Although the Heat Vision had not swept directly over them, the heat radiating from either side of the beams.
Was already enough to expand the air into an explosive impact.
Those sent flying crashed into the people behind them, into the walls, and into the shelving and pipes lining both sides of the corridor.
But John still had no intention of letting up.
He began turning his neck, sweeping the beams from the left side of the corridor to the right, like a giant scythe heated white-hot sweeping waist-high through a wheat field.
Then harvesting.
The entire corridor shone as bright as day beneath the Heat Vision.
Everything touched directly or indirectly by the beams burned, melted, vaporized, and exploded.
And this tide of test subjects had no ability to resist the Heat Vision.
They were not on the same level.
Only a few chunks remained of the dead in the first row, while the second row was half-dead.
As for the third row, John had burned a gap straight through the middle, and those lucky enough to survive on either side collapsed to the floor, rolling around.
John then reined in his Heat Vision.
The red-gold radiance faded from blazing white to orange-yellow, from orange-yellow to dark red, before extinguishing deep within his irises.
The scene was a complete wreck.
Across the floor swept by the Heat Vision, a charred trench had been burned into the concrete, stretching across the entire corridor.
On either side lay survivors and charred remains in every direction, along with shattered fire hydrants, trickling molten iron, and scraps of cloth still smoking.
There had been roughly a hundred people present, and John had wiped the map with a single attack, instantly killing most of the test subjects in his field of vision like trash mobs.
Still, some of the clearly stronger ones had actually survived.
John tilted his head, looking at the few surviving test subjects nearby.
Not many could still stand in the corridor after the sweep of Heat Vision, but there were indeed a few.
A Pyro who could turn his entire body into flames.
The flames on his body had been pressed halfway down by the shock wave. Orange-red fire clung to his skin, churned once, then sprang up again.
A man who could create a transparent barrier in front of himself crouched behind Pyro, both hands braced on the floor.
There was also a woman whose shoulder had lost an entire chunk of flesh to the Heat Vision.
Pink new tissue was visibly crawling inward from the edges of her wound, her muscle fibers writhing and reshaping like living creatures.
A floating woman huddled to one side.
Finally, the biggest brute, two and a half meters tall, stood at the very front, his skin an unnatural, dull iron-gray.
Several red marks had been burned into the skin of his chest by the Heat Vision, but they were only superficial wounds.
"Interesting..."
John stopped hovering and slowly returned to the floor.
Of course, he did not forget to glance back and check on Cate.
However, the little beauty was in far worse shape than he had imagined.
Cate huddled nervously behind John, her pretty face drained of color, back pressed against the wall, mouth forming a huge "O," and legs clamped together.
She had clearly been frightened.
Growing up, Cate had only learned about Homelander's abilities and combat prowess through a screen.
But she had never expected his Heat Vision to perform to such an outrageous degree.
"Don't be nervous."
John curled his lips somewhat smugly, patted Cate's shoulder, then turned back.
"Don't waste the ones who managed to cling to life. They can provide some extra muscle for our team."
At that moment, flames condensed into a ball in Pyro's palm, then extended along his arms.
Two orange-red fire tornadoes spiraled toward John.
Fucking Liu Kang.
John had played console games at Kent Farm, and the sight really did have a touch of Mortal Kombat to it.
And he happened to have another move for dealing with fire.
At the thought, John took a deep breath, expanding his chest.
The next second, his mouth suddenly opened, and a white frosty mist spread out.
The seemingly thin frost began multiplying and spreading the instant it touched the fire tornadoes.
Before the orange-red tongues of flame could dissipate, ice crystals condensed by the cold instantly encased them from the inside out.
They froze in midair in their burning shapes, like orange blossoms instantly sealed in ice.
Then the freezing breath spread backward along the fire tornadoes, crawling from the fireballs to his arms, and from his arms to his shoulders.
Pyro opened his mouth to say something, but freezing breath poured inside. All the flames around him went out, and his entire body was encased in a translucent shell of ice.
Human figurine collection progress +1
The instant the barrier man beside him saw Pyro freeze, he slammed both hands against the floor.
The barrier changed from translucent blue-white to solid mercury silver, its surface hardening into a mirrorlike reflective shield.
He poured all his energy into the barrier, making the shield as thick as a wall.
"Oh-ho, pretty feisty."
John walked up to the barrier with interest and threw a punch.
Cracks instantly appeared across it.
Then came a second punch, widening the cracks.
The barrier man gritted his teeth and held on, his fingers sinking into the concrete floor as veins bulged violently across his forehead.
"Here it comes."
A savage glint flashed through John's eyes.
The third punch.
There was a single crack.
The entire barrier instantly exploded, silver-white fragments floating in midair and turning into motes of light before they could reach the floor.
The instant the barrier disappeared, its maker spat out a mouthful of blood and fell backward.
"Cate, catch."
John caught the back of his head, gripped it, then swung him up and hurled him toward Cate.
By then, the healing woman had taken advantage of the opening to regrow half her shoulder.
She lunged from the side, her newly grown muscle fibers still writhing and tightening. The moment all five fingers of her right hand finished growing, she clenched them into a fist and aimed for John's temple.
John tilted his head aside to avoid it, then caught her wrist with his other hand.
A self-healing woman?
Fuck, I don't have a single good impression of self-healing Supes.
John punched the self-healing woman straight in the jaw. Then, while she reeled in pain, he opened both hands and slammed them against her ears from either side.
Smack!
The self-healing woman's eyes instantly rolled back. The tremendous force shattered her eardrums, and the remaining energy drilled into her brain, churning it all into paste.
Then she dropped straight to the floor, a large puddle of water seeping from her body.
"Just one left."
John shook the water from his hands in disgust, then looked at the last brute.
As for the floating woman, she showed absolutely no intention of attacking, so John ignored her.
"Aaah!"
The brute decided to strike first. Relying on his enormous size and brute strength, he swung a fist a full size larger than John's face, bringing it crashing down with a rush of wind.
John could not even be bothered to dodge. He merely raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and casually caught the huge fist.
Thud!
When fist met palm, a shock wave exploded outward.
The brute's fist was held firmly in John's palm, unable to move.
He tried to push forward with all his strength, his iron-gray muscles straining to their limit and veins bulging from his neck to his forehead.
John looked at him with a smile, then tightened his fingers.
The next second, the brute's finger bones cracked.
The brute tried to bend over in pain, and John pressed his fist downward.
His shoulders tilted, and his knees slammed straight into the floor under the pressure.
Then John let go, flashed above the brute's head, and followed with an elbow strike descending from the sky.
Thud-
1v100 achievement unlocked +1
(Differentiation doesn't count.)
"All right, Cate, they're yours."
Pyro had become an ice sculpture, and the only one closest to Cate was the barrier man.
Cate stepped forward on her long, beautiful legs, hopped over the corpses one by one, reached the barrier man, and crouched.
She placed her fingers against his sweat-soaked temple.
Consciousness invasion.
His memories held the laboratory's white lights, syringes, and Shetty's voice:
"Phase one tolerance test passed."
Then the scene jumped to the corridor, where all the test subjects clutched their heads at once and lost their minds.
"Boss, Shetty should already be halfway done with the Supe Virus.
"The reason these test subjects' thoughts are confused is that these viruses should be able to break down Supes' consciousness and scramble their brains."
"Shetty's database is on basement level two, but it requires internal personnel authorization to open."
Cate's legs were already somewhat weak. Just as she was about to stand, the screen of the phone in her trouser pocket suddenly lit up.
She wiped the blood on her hand onto the barrier man in distaste, then took out her phone.
She lowered her head and took a look.
That one glance instantly changed Cate's expression.
"What's wrong?"
John noticed Cate's expression and asked, his hands behind his back and his eyes narrowed.
Cate turned the screen toward John.
On it was a message from Hughie, sent a few hours earlier. There were only two lines:
Soldier Boy found us. He's with Vought.
John frowned, staring at the screen for a moment.
Soldier Boy... why had he appeared so early? That shouldn't have happened.
And with Soldier Boy's personality, he'd actually chosen to work for Vought first... something was very wrong.
Something must have happened that had diverged from the original world's trajectory.
At that thought, John reached out, gripped Cate's shoulder, and pulled her to her feet.
"We need to pick up the pace now."
"Here, you need to get your hands on Shetty's Supe Virus formula as soon as possible, then mind-control these people into working for us."
"Boss, aren't you coming with me?"
Honestly, staying beside John made Cate feel as safe as she possibly could.
"Things are moving a lot faster than I imagined. I need to figure out how to rescue Hughie and the others."
"I'll contact Lamplighter now. Once you've collected all the information with him, meet up at the usual place."
As he spoke, John took his phone out of his pocket, typed a message, and sent it to Lamplighter.
"Lamplighter will be here soon."
[World Distortion Level: 62%]
When Soldier Boy pushed open the doors of the luxurious villa, the people inside were still lost in their dancing.
The music shook the floor, and laser lights cut alternating red and blue beams through the fog from the smoke machines. The dance floor was packed with Supes wearing nothing at all.
Beside the bar, a guy who could shoot flames was using his feet to light cigars for the guests.
In a corner.
Several female Supes dressed like dominatrixes were sitting around on a hollowed-out coffee table.
"How is it?"
They held wineglasses, whips in hand.
"Drink it!"
Under the coffee table.
A burly man with two heads lay there, motionless.
(Don't say it.)
The air throughout the villa was thick with a mixture of alcohol, sweat, and cheap perfume.
"Fucking beyond words..."
Soldier Boy stood in the doorway, frowning.
He wore a palm-brown combat suit, his shield hanging from his left arm. His right hand had just taken the unfinished cigar from behind his ear.
His gaze swept across the dance floor, across the bar, across the sights that offended the eyes and challenged every moral standard, and he pinched his nose.
"How many fucking years has it been..."
"When I started this party back then, we didn't go nearly this far. How the hell did it turn into this?"
"Not a shred of taste."
Just then, a woman in a silver bikini with a tail behind her walked past him, carrying two cocktails, and stopped in front of him.
"Are you new here? Or are you looking for someone?"
"You don't look familiar."
As she spoke, the woman's eyes involuntarily darted toward Soldier Boy's pants.
So manly. A round with him wouldn't be bad...
Still, something about the outfit of the man before her felt familiar.
"You might not have heard of the people I'm looking for."
Soldier Boy exhaled a cloud of smoke, walked straight to the bar, and laid his shield flat on it.
"The TNT Twins. You know them?"
"Oh, so you're looking for the bosses?"
The woman swayed her waves and pointed somewhere.
"They just finished up today. They're in the inner lounge now."
The inner lounge had carved wooden double doors, with a piece of cardboard hanging from the handles, covered in the words "KNOCK FIRST" written in fluorescent marker.
But Soldier Boy didn't knock.
Instead, he raised his right foot and kicked the doors square in the middle.
Bang!
The inner lounge opened up.
The setting here was more private than the outer lounge.
Unlike the outer lounge, there was no bar or DJ booth here, only a ring of deep-red velvet sofas surrounding a circular stage covered with a gold-sequined carpet.
A half-removed uniform hung over the arm of a sofa, and the ashtray on the coffee table was piled with cigarette butts and transparent balloons.
But the smell here was stronger and more mixed than in the outer lounge, with an added rankness so cloying it turned the stomach.
There weren't many people sitting on the sofas, perhaps seven or eight, men and women alike, all wearing collars.
On the sofa by the window sat a man and a woman whose clothing was distinctly different.
The man wore gold pajamas open at the chest, his hair slicked shiny, while the woman wore a short black halter dress, her high heels propped on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
Heh.
Those two.
It took Soldier Boy less than two seconds to recognize them.
Although those two old faces were far uglier than they had been ten years ago.
But the TNT Twins had a habit: they never wore normal clothes in any public setting.
The man wore only gold pajamas, and the woman loved only short black dresses.
That made them very easy to identify.