Frenchie: Don't Kill Me!

The moment Kate saw Qi Li, she naturally also took in the horrifying, gruesome scene inside the room. Yet she merely swept a glance over it before locking her gaze firmly onto Qi Li. "Honey, are you alright?" Kate hurried over. Paying no heed to the blood splattered across his face, she cupped her boyfriend's cheeks with both hands, her eyes filled with concern. Qi Li started to hold her hands, but glancing down at his own blood-drenched palms, he decided against it. He nodded. "Now that I've vented my anger, I'm fine." Kate glanced at the two corpses on the floor. Though she had no idea what had happened, she still nodded in agreement. She knew Qi Li wasn't some bloodthirsty maniac. Quite the contrary—compared to the bizarre freaks running around campus, her boyfriend was unbelievably normal. He didn't smoke, drink, do drugs, gamble, flaunt his wealth, or bully others. He wasn't a chauvinist, didn't attend degenerate orgies, and certainly had no horrifyingly twisted "hobbies"... When she first got to know Qi Li, she had fully prepared herself for the real-life him to be vastly different from the Bronze she knew on screen. Yet it turned out there was indeed a difference—except it was in reverse. The real-life Qi Li was even better than the Bronze in the movies. Kate felt incredibly fortunate to have struck gold with such a wonderful boyfriend. Perhaps Qi Li's arrival was the universe's way of making up for all those years she had spent locked away. Of course, if there was one thing that troubled her about him, it was that he was simply too popular with women. Take that senior from school, for example, or Ellie Han from yesterday. Since it couldn't be Qi Li's fault, it naturally had to be the fault of the two dead men on the floor. Kate pulled out the tissues she was carrying to wipe Qi Li down, only to realize they were far from enough. Deciding on a quicker fix, she simply ordered the mind-controlled people waiting outside the door to strip off their clothes, giving Qi Li a fresh outfit to change into. Then she meticulously wiped every trace of blood from his hands and face until he looked completely back to normal. "What should we do about this place?" Kate asked, glancing around the wrecked room and offering a suggestion. "I could control a few staff members to seal it off and clean everything up. If all else fails, I can even find a couple of fall guys to take the blame." Before Qi Li could say anything, Kate shook her head. "That still doesn't feel entirely safe." "Wait!" Her eyes lit up as she looked at Qi Li. "We can bring Luke here. He can use his superpower to stage an indoor fire and cremate the corpses completely." It was undeniable that this was an excellent solution. The incident had happened so suddenly that all Qi Li could do was find a secluded spot to finish the two off. As for dragging them out of the football stadium beforehand, not only were there too many eyes along the way, but even if he had found an open window to fly out of, Homelander was right here. Homelander would definitely spot him. Who knew whether the man might feel a sudden burst of self-righteousness and make a dramatic superhero entrance? In truth, as long as Qi Li wasn't caught in the act, even if suspicion fell on him afterward, he would be completely shielded by the colossal titan that was Vought and the numerous investors tied to his interests. This was the hard-earned wisdom he had gathered from personally killing quite a few vile superhumans. Still, since Kate had offered a plan, Qi Li replied, "That's a solid cleanup plan. There's just one problem—will Luke agree?" Kate answered without hesitation. "We'll bring him here first. If he refuses, I'll mind-control him and erase this memory afterward." As long as it was for Qi Li, she didn't mind doing the dirty work. With Kate putting it like that, Qi Li naturally had no objections. "Then we'll do it your way. But before that..." Qi Li's gaze suddenly shifted toward the ventilation grate on the ceiling, the corners of his mouth curling into a faint smirk. "Let's deal with the little eavesdropping mouse overhead first." The moment the words left his mouth— *Bang!* *** Rewinding the clock a little... Just as A-Train was preparing to leave his locker room to make his official entrance onto the field, The Boys—who had planned to steal Compound V—were already in position. Frenchie had slipped into the ventilation shaft, intending to quietly sneak into A-Train's locker room and retrieve the crucial Compound V sample from the speedster's bag. Only, a minor hiccup occurred along the way. From the moment Frenchie entered the vent to the time he reached A-Train's room, he had to crawl a considerable distance across the upper reaches of the building. And the utility room Qi Li was in happened to be directly beneath that path. Consequently, Frenchie inadvertently caught sight of the scene below. He hadn't witnessed Qi Li in the middle of killing the men. Yet the moment he saw the figure standing casually on the blood-soaked floor, quietly conversing with a pretty blonde girl as if nothing had happened, how could he fail to understand what had taken place? *Fuck! It's Bronze!* Frenchie's entire body tensed as he cursed under his breath. Having just watched the Campus Showdown two days ago, he was all too familiar with Qi Li's face. And, of course, he was even more familiar with Qi Li's terrifying combat prowess. As a seasoned field operative, Frenchie pulled his gaze back at once, flattening himself against the floor of the duct. He slowed his breathing to an almost imperceptible crawl, not daring to twitch a muscle. By all logic, he shouldn't have been discovered. Yet what Frenchie didn't realize was that his frequent drug use left a faint, lingering odor clinging to him. An ordinary person might have had trouble smelling it, but Qi Li was standing directly beneath the vent. Though Qi Li didn't possess a dedicated super-sense of smell, his nose was far sharper than that of an ordinary person. Over time, that subtle, chemical scent of powder had become impossible to miss. At a certain moment, Qi Li had suddenly tilted his head up. After finishing his sentence to Kate, he vaulted straight into the air. *Riiip!* Before Frenchie's violently contracting pupils, a slender, powerful hand punched straight through the thick metal grate as effortlessly as slicing through tofu, appearing right in front of him. Then, fingers locked around his collar. Without giving him the slightest chance to resist, Qi Li dragged him—along with a massive chunk of the ceiling—brutally downward. *Crash!* Unable to bear the strain, more than half of the room's ceiling collapsed in a heap. Frenchie slammed hard onto the floor, rolling several times in agonizing pain. Even so, he drew his handgun with blinding speed, preparing to aim it. Yet Qi Li was already standing before him like a phantom, extending his right hand. Frenchie's vision blurred. By the time his eyes refocused, the gun in his hand had somehow ended up in Bronze's grip. Looking down at the Glock 17, Qi Li tightened his fingers with effortless ease, crushing the firearm into a mangled lump of scrap metal. Then, without a word, Qi Li looked at Frenchie, poised to snap his neck. In that split second, Frenchie's instincts kicked in. Mustering every ounce of strength in his body, he screamed at the top of his lungs: "I have partners!" Qi Li's hand paused. His gaze drifted slightly, catching sight of the earpiece nestled in Frenchie's ear.