The nights in Detroit are anything but gentle, especially when two Shocker Combatant are partying in the Eighth Street.
The police car has been overturned and is on fire.
Flame licked at the shattered shop windows, illuminating the trembling citizens hiding behind the ruins.
"Someone... someone save us..."
A young mother covered her child's mouth, her eyes blurred with tears.
The two Shocker Combatant were dragging a patrolman with a broken leg, seemingly discussing whether to rip off his left or right arm first.
That nauseating "ee--ee--" sound was unsettling.
Just as the patrolman closed his eyes in despair, a dull thud rang out.
No one saw what flew over; there was only a loud crash, and the Shocker Combatant who was grabbing the patrolman was smashed into a brick wall.
A burly man wearing an oil-stained work vest and a welding mask stood under a streetlamp.
He was carrying a threaded steel bar that was still dripping black liquid in his hand. His thick arms were bulging with muscles and veins that looked like crawling worms.
"It's ' Sledgehammer '! That big guy who works at the car factory!" Someone recognized him.
The remaining two Shocker Combatant abandoned the half-dead policeman and charged towards the oblivious "civilian" with screams.
A gasp went up from the crowd.
Those who tried to play the hero before all ended up as pieces of minced meat.
But the man called " Sledgehammer " did not back down.
He faced the Shocker Combatant and, just before the Shocker Combatant was about to pounce on him, made an extremely awkward yet incredibly precise move—he turned sideways, crouched down, and thrust the steel bar in his hand straight at the monster's right ribs, three inches below the bone.
"Puff!"
No explosion occurred.
The strange man twitched twice like a machine whose power had been cut off, then collapsed to the ground.
"He... he didn't explode?!"
The onlookers stared wide-eyed, their expressions a testament to witnessing a miracle.
Seeing this, another Shocker Combatant made a move to pounce.
" Sledgehammer " snorted coldly.
He grabbed a manhole cover with one hand; the hundreds of pounds of cast iron felt as light as a frisbee in his hand, and it whistled as it smashed into the face of the Shocker Combatant.
He then charged forward, his fist carrying wind pressure, and smashed the monster's head to pieces.
The battle is over.
It took forty-five seconds.
After a moment of silence, deafening cheers erupted.
People ran out from behind the rubble and surrounded the man covered in oil. Some cried, some laughed, and some frantically took pictures with their phones.
"He's a hero! He's a hero of Detroit!"
"To hell with the government! We need tough guys like him!"
Just as the crowd was getting excited, a helicopter roared in, its searchlight beams enveloping the " Sledgehammer " in the center.
The "V" logo on the fuselage shone brightly in the night sky.
The hatch opened, and instead of a fully armed special operations team, a woman stepped out, wearing a business suit but still walking briskly in ten-centimeter high heels.
She is the Deputy Director of the Vought Talent Management Department.
She walked up to " Sledgehammer," ignoring the smell of engine oil on him, and handed him a contract that she had prepared beforehand.
The camera zoomed in at the opportune moment, giving the contract a close-up, where the words " Vought Heroes Recruitment Order" in gold were even clearer than the terms and conditions on it.
"Sir, the world needs people like you."
" Vought doesn't care about background, he only cares about ability. This isn't just a contract; it's a ticket to justice."
" Sledgehammer " paused for two seconds, then slowly removed his welding mask, revealing a resolute face bearing scars.
He glanced around at the expectant eyes, then nodded heavily and signed his name on the contract.
"Crack! Crack!"
New York, Vought Tower, Strategic Operations Department.
Hannibal Lecter held a glass of bright red liquid and gently swirled it.
The screen in front of him was displaying similar scenes from all over the United States.
Houston's " Blazing Cowboy " scorched the Shocker Banshee with a modified flamethrower.
The " Eye of the Stormfront " in Chicago dismantled the monster's mechanical arm with his bare hands.
Miami's " Hunter of the Deep " secured a triple kill on the beach.
Each video ends with a scene of Vought executive handing over a contract.
"What a wonderful performance."
Hannibal took a sip of the liquid in his glass.
"Public opinion has completely changed."
Hans Landa sat on the sofa, his fingers flying across the tablet.
"All the voices criticizing Vought for monopolistic practices have disappeared. The top trending topic now is 'Everyone can become a god.' These idiots really think that as long as they have courage and that pitiful sense of justice, they can join us."
"That's the poison of 'hope'." Hannibal's eyes were deep. "If we only sent our Homelander, it would be a miracle, an unattainable worship. But prolonged worship breeds alienation, even fear. But now..."
He pointed to the " Sledgehammer " on the screen, surrounded by a crowd.
"Those were their neighbors, their coworkers, ordinary people they'd clinked glasses with in the bar. When 'ordinary people' can become heroes and gain Vought's approval, they are no longer bystanders, but participants."
"They'll feel like they're part of Vought too."
Forget Detroit auto workers, forget Houston cowboys.
That was nothing more than a second-tier product discarded by the Vought Gene Labs, a scrap from " Human Torch Project ".
Those so-called "precision weak point strikes" are simply because these test subjects were implanted with tactical modules targeting the biological characteristics of Shocker before they left the factory.
It was a puppet show that was directed and acted by the actors themselves.
One end of the string is tied to these so-called "ordinary heroes," and the other end is tied to the restless heart of the masses.
The hand holding the string belongs to Vought.
"What's S.H.I.E.L.D..'s reaction?" Hannibal asked.
Fury is probably taking aspirin.
Landa shrugged. "He checked Sledgehammer's background; it was clean. He did work at the car factory for five years. Of course, he couldn't find out that the car factory was actually a hidden holding company of the Vought Asset Management Department, nor could he find out that Sledgehammer went for special physical training every weekend."
"Very good."
Hannibal approached the map.
The surface was densely covered with red pins representing the Shocker attack, while blue pins representing the Vought counterattack were spreading rapidly, like a new virus devouring the old lesions.
"The first phase, 'Spreading Fear,' was completed by Doctor Shinigami. The second phase, 'Giving Hope,' has already begun."
Hannibal's finger traced an arc on the map, eventually stopping at Washington.
"It's time to move on to the third phase."