Same Tune
Fuck it!
The Soldier Boy spread his hands and looked down at his chest.
An orange-red halo gathered from the center of his sternum, spreading rapidly from a faint glow to the size of a bowl.
Beneath the ripped battle suit, the outlines of ribs peeked out from under the skin, like the bamboo frame of a lantern, shining from within.
Next comes the skin.
The color changes from flesh tone to orange-yellow, and then transitions to orange-red.
It then quickly evolved into a bright white that was almost incandescent, dazzling, and difficult to look at directly.
At the same time, the surrounding air began to distort, and Heat Wave continued to roll outwards.
The concrete ground beneath the Soldier Boy's feet began to crack.
Numerous cracks spread outwards from his feet, with wisps of white smoke rising from the tiny fissures.
At that moment, the temperature in the entire corridor soared within seconds, reaching a level that made one's skin feel hot.
( John didn't go up to interrupt the pre-cast animation this time because he was afraid that the Soldier Boy would lose control and self-destruct like a human bomb.)
At this moment, John, who had been on guard, also lowered his gaze.
It's important to know that the Soldier Boy, and even the Chest Cannon that Kimiko later inherited, had the strictest parents among all Metahuman.
John fears that the scene of losing his superpowers will repeat itself.
Therefore, he needs to be prepared to have both options.
As his thoughts emerged.
An invisible barrier instantly appeared on the surface of his skin, rippling slightly with overlapping waves.
Do you know how many times the Russia conducted Chest Cannon tests on me?
Over four hundred times, they tried to figure out exactly where my limits were, but they failed.
"Do you know why? It can keep increasing as long as I want; there's no limit to how much it can grow."
As he spoke, a resonant energy began to emanate from the Soldier Boy's chest.
The remaining concrete fragments on the entire wall were shaken and fell out of the cracks.
The ground sank, and an area centered on him was instantly crushed into a shallow crater by the invisible pressure.
Gravel and dust were pushed out of the pit.
At that moment, an extremely strong tearing and pressure-like sensation pushed straight up the Soldier Boy's waist.
At the bottom of his chest cavity, the energy core, burdened with an enormous amount of energy, began to riot, but the Soldier Boy gritted his teeth and endured it.
His entire face flushed red.
With the emergence of the overflow, all the internal energy bursts through a certain peak in an instant.
"Aaaaaaah!"
John moved.
He pushed off the ground with one foot and quickly dodged backward, turning into a black afterimage.
The thick, bucket-like orange-red beam of light relentlessly pursued John's direction of movement.
In a split second, the edge of the beam of light reached John's face.
not good!
John quickly crossed his arms in front of him, and Bioelectric Field enveloped his upper body from the transparent outer side of his arms.
"Whoosh!"
The edge of the beam of light brushed against it.
Thanks to John's exceptional reflexes and evasive maneuvers, the edge of the Chest Cannon missed him and instead struck the Bioelectric Field membrane.
The instant the beam of light touched the Bioelectric Field, John sensed that the membrane layer instantly cracked into a network of fine cracks that spread from the center to the edges.
The force was immense, and John slid backward along the corridor floor.
"Well--"
The Soldier Boy knelt on the spot, his whole body arched backward, his limbs stretched to their limit.
As the Soldier Boy was fully unleashed, the orange-red beam of light grew stronger, and the resulting tremors became increasingly exaggerated.
The entire ceiling collapsed, and the fragments were vaporized before they even reached the ground by the high-energy beam of light.
John kept dodging the Soldier Boy's chest.
The Soldier Boy gritted his teeth and, using his knees for support, began to spin, following John wherever he went.
The orange light on his chest radiated outwards in a fan shape from his body, creating shockwaves that overlapped and expanded over an ever-growing area.
Glass, iron walls, everything swept by the shockwave melted and glowed red-hot the moment it touched the light.
In an instant, the Soldier Boy transformed into a meat grinder, spinning 360 degrees without any blind spots until he brought John down.
But compared to John's near-teleportation speed, the Soldier Boy's reaction was noticeably slower.
From John's perspective, this provided ample room for error.
After all, with an attack like the Soldier Boy's, leaving no blind spots, everything on this floor, including everyone, would eventually die at his hands.
He also has a bunch of teammates who are terrible at the game.
John looked past his body toward the corner of the corridor.
At that moment, Cate was helping Kimiko to her feet, while Frenchie coughed up a mouthful of blood and pressed his forearm against the wall.
Kenji Miyashiro lay on the ground, his chest rising and falling slightly, appearing to be still alive.
However, they were facing away from the two people.
The Soldier Boy's Chest Cannon was about to hit them, but they didn't react at all.
Only a few steps left.
John's pupils contracted, and he accelerated to his maximum speed, transforming into a streak of black light as he rushed forward.
Even the Soldier Boy himself wouldn't dare to take a direct hit from Chest Cannon, let alone these rookies.
Once hit by the cannon, the fate is to be utterly destroyed, leaving no trace of the body.
What, you mean Kimiko?
One Chest Cannon shot removes the debuff from abilities and flies over; no matter who you are, Kimiko or Rumiko, you're all fucking dead.
And then there's Frenchie; he hasn't even gotten his hands on the equations for V1 yet, he absolutely cannot die.
"Whoosh--"
When John reappeared, his entire figure was already behind the group.
Without much hesitation, he grabbed Cate by the waist with one hand and held Kimiko with the other, the black trench coat making a tearing sound as it fell against the near-sonic wind resistance.
Frenchie's native greeting was still stuck in his throat when John grabbed him by the back of the collar, leaving him suspended in mid-air for a moment.
In less than a second, the black figures flashed into the fire escape corridor and then fell to the ground.
Just then, Kenji, who was lying on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes.
Before those black pupils could even focus, they spotted a dazzling orange light flashing in the distance.
"Um...?"
Kenji tilted his head, his mind a jumble of thoughts. He could only vaguely deduce that the dazzling spot posed a significant threat.
The brainwashing instructions rooted in his mind hadn't been completely removed, and he quickly identified the figure in the distance glowing orange as the "object" that needed to be eliminated.
At the same time, the Soldier Boy's Chest Cannon happened to sweep in that direction.
Kenji sat up mechanically, and then a thought struck him.
The next second, a light blue shield, flickering as if it were leaking electricity, appeared intermittently on his body.
John stood there watching this scene, then helplessly slapped his head.
"I thought you were going to unleash your full potential... With this level of skill, you might as well just go to sleep."
At this moment, the orange-red beam of light engulfed the entire area.
John's shadow shrank to a straight line, and before Kenji could react, he had already knocked him unconscious with a chop to the neck.
Cate, who was some distance away, had just come to her senses.
She then noticed that John had flashed back to her side, dragging Kenji along like a dead dog.
This series of actions left Cate somewhat bewildered.
"Ah... no..."
John interrupted Cate.
"It's too late, take him with you first."
"Then... be careful."
Cate glanced at Kenji lying dead on the ground, then at John.
He gritted his teeth, pulled Kenji up, and dragged him into the shadows of the fire escape.
Seeing that the group had successfully disappeared into the shadows, John turned around with relief and faced back towards the direction where the Soldier Boy had been.
His body slowly rose, about two meters off the ground, hovering above the ruins.
The trench coat was billowing and fluttering in the rising air currents, and the black wings rose with the air currents, swaying with the ripples of the wind.
He didn't attack immediately, but instead calmed his breathing and began to focus on conserving his energy.
The surrounding air began to distort, and the deep reddish-gold in John's pupils began to spread from a tiny point of light, slowly filling his entire iris like molten gold.
The light gradually deepened, transforming from a warm golden radiance into a dazzling crimson glow.
"Buzz--"
Until the crimson-gold light condensed to its extreme, almost overflowing from his eyes.
Two beams of light, thicker than a hand, suddenly shot out, burning two straight, blinding red streaks in the air.
At the same instant the Heat Vision was released, a burst of orange-red energy erupted from the Soldier Boy's chest, crashing head-on with violent force.
Thump!
The two energy streams collided violently in mid-air, exploding into a blinding sphere of light nearly three meters in diameter.
The violent shockwave spread out in a ring, cracking the remaining walls on both sides and pulverizing everything around it.
Initially, the two forces were evenly matched, and the ball of light trembled violently in mid-air, with the boundary between the crimson gold and orange-red being pulled back and forth repeatedly without any deviation.
"Aaaaaah!"
The Soldier Boy roared, increasing his strength, and the orange-red energy stream suddenly surged by half an inch, actually pushing the Heat Vision back slightly towards John.
John frowned slightly, then raised his body again, causing the crimson-gold beam of light to thicken instantly, forcefully withstanding the counterattack.
"Sizzle--"
This struggle lasted only a few seconds, yet it felt like an eternity.
The energy density at the center of the sphere of light continued to rise, and even the surrounding space seemed to be scorched and distorted.
As John continued to output power, the crimson-gold beam suddenly doubled in size.
Then it pushed forward inch by inch, like a hot blade burning through wax, slowly grinding the orange-red meat back and forth, devouring it all.
Under sustained high pressure, the latter gradually cracked from the center, with fine cracks spreading across the entire optical cross-section, and the emitted light particles began to dim.
In an instant, the crimson-gold Heat Vision completely filled the high ridge, utterly shattering the weakening orange light, and slammed solidly into the Soldier Boy's chest.
"Thump!!!"
The Soldier Boy was thrown backward as if he had been hit by a tank cannon, crashing through several concrete walls.
Finally, it slammed hard against a metal wall, leaving a clearly defined mark on the surface.
In an instant, dust mixed with debris from the walls that had been shaken off along the way, and a thick gray fog billowed up throughout the corridor.
"Call..."
After the gray fog settled down slightly, John slowly anchored himself and landed on the ground.
In the ruins at the base of the metal wall, the Soldier Boy was slumped in the rubble, his charred battle uniform almost unrecognizable.
His chest was covered in large, charred burns, and his eyelids were drooping, his pupils unfocused.
"Kill... kill me."
The Soldier Boy's lips moved with difficulty, uttering a few indistinct syllables.
John paused, then looked down at him.
The Soldier Boy's voice was very soft, and only the word "kill" could be vaguely heard, so it was not immediately clear what he meant.
So John bent down, trying to hear what the Soldier Boy was saying.
Just as he bent down and leaned closer, the Soldier Boy's unfocused eyes suddenly sharpened.
There was no trace of weakness from his serious injury in his eyes, only the madness born from suppressed rage and the triumph of his successful scheme.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The Soldier Boy grinned maliciously.
"Old foxes are shrewder, buddy, you've fallen for their trick."
Before he could finish speaking, a blinding orange burst from his chest, and a torrent of energy blasted straight at John was standing right next to him.
It was a burst of intense light, enough to scorch the retina.
Like a giant net, it extinguished all the shadows hidden in the corridor.
The boundaries of everything—walls, rubble, pipes, even the corpses lying on the ground—dissolved completely in the blazing sunlight.
Meanwhile, in the fire escape, several people were hurrying forward along the narrow passage.
Cate was helping Kimiko down the stairs.
Frenchie carried Kenji on his shoulder, clutching his bleeding shoulder, feeling extremely dizzy.
Just then, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shook, followed by a loud bang.
Before long, a plume of hot air, carrying dust, rushed in through the passage, mixed with a strong smell of burning.
"Hey, why did it suddenly stop?"
As they walked, Frenchie nearly bumped into Cate, who had stopped abruptly.
Cate didn't reply, but quickly turned around and looked up at the fire escape.
John, over there...
Due to the excessive depletion of her mental energy, the area around her pupils was already bloodshot.
Although she is currently in a weakened state due to mental exhaustion, as a mental Superman, her intuition is exceptionally sharp.
She had a premonition.
It was an extreme feeling of suffocation and death.
"Oh no, over there..."
Cate pointed up, to the fifty-fifth floor.
Kimiko seemed to sense something as well, her eyes becoming extremely anxious, and then she reached out and pressed down on her shoulder.
"Quick, let's go!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the end of the passage exploded!
The billowing flames surged into the cramped space, raging wildly, bringing with them suffocating black smoke and terrifying heat as they swept towards the group.
"No!!"
In that critical moment, Kimiko quickly pushed Cate and Frenchie in front of her.
Then, he exerted force with both arms and pressed down hard, trying to use his thin back to withstand the surging waves of fire.
"Sizzle--"
The flames spread to Kimiko's back in an instant, and an intense burning sensation surged through Kimiko entire body.
The repeated burning from the high temperature continuously stimulated her pain receptors.
The space here was too cramped. Kimiko gritted her teeth, enduring the excruciating pain, and looked down to check on the condition of the others.
The group was becoming increasingly weak due to the ongoing fire, especially Frenchie, who was coughing violently as the thick black smoke from the burning fire choked him.
Cate also collapsed weakly to one side, her spirit gradually becoming scattered.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
Kimiko's speech was slurred, and she could only anxiously shout while patting the two men's bodies, trying to keep them awake.
However, it was clear that their condition was deteriorating, and if they continued to stay in the fire, they would die there sooner or later.
After all, unlike Kimiko, they don't have self-healing abilities.
"Wake up..."
Silent tears slid down Kimiko's cheeks. She shook her arms violently, but no one responded.
She was in despair.
"--Zzzzz--"
A sudden sound came from behind, and Kimiko turned around abruptly.
Amidst the churning flames, a figure with flowing long hair stood backlit in place.
Her eyes shone with a blinding blue-white electric light, and her white-gold uniform stood out clearly in the firelight, her body crackling with tiny, star-shaped arcs of electricity.
"Starlight...?"
"Walk!"