Stormfront

Along the cold corridor, heavy iron doors sealed off rooms at regular intervals on both sides—hospital rooms, or perhaps more accurately... prison cells. Qi Li glanced into the room on his left. *Smack!* A massive red sausage suddenly slammed hard against the observation window, its tip parting and closing as if offering him an enthusiastic greeting. Qi Li narrowed his eyes slightly and paused. Looking past the giant red sausage, he saw a portly, bearded white man grinning arrogantly and provocatively at him. Qi Li suddenly asked, "Can I go in there for a second?" The answer was "no." Under normal circumstances it wouldn't have mattered, but with the whole mess with Sam having just occurred, causing another disturbance was the last thing they needed right now. Joseph hastily intervened. "Bronze, don't waste your time on him. He suffers from intermittent explosive disorder." Qi Li didn't press the matter. Burning the bearded sausage man's face into his memory, he resumed walking and asked casually, "How did he end up in here?" Joseph replied, his tone carrying a trace of natural male envy mixed with far greater pity: "You saw that... enormous sausage of his. He couldn't find a woman at all—not even Fem-Beast could handle it. Over time, he grew impulsive and irritable, and after injuring several people in a row with that giant sausage, he was sent here." Qi Li nodded in understanding. Continuing farther in, he saw a bald woman sitting expressionlessly in the center of her room; a man whose body flickered like a glitching screen, appearing on one side of the room one moment and the other the next; another clutching a large Teflon bowl, constantly spitting highly acidic saliva into it; and someone surrounded by floating bowls and chopsticks, slowly spinning in midair... Qi Li was quite surprised. "You've got this many superhumans locked up here?" Joseph gave Qi Li an equally surprised look and offered a brief explanation. "Uh... their parents basically gave up on them. You know how it is..." *What do I know?* *My adoptive parents overdosed and died long ago.* Fortunately, they reached Sam's room. Joseph breathed a sigh of relief and led Qi Li inside. What met their eyes were dense, massive fist indentations twisted like braided dough across all four metal walls. Qi Li's eyes narrowed. He stepped forward and ran a hand over the fist marks. Beside him, Joseph looked at the marks with lingering dread and explained, "Sam's room was specially constructed. The entire thing is encased in a full meter of specialized steel—a security rating even higher than the CIA's custom black sites." Without turning his head, Qi Li asked, "Then how did he escape?" Joseph sighed. "An orderly made a careless mistake during meal delivery." Qi Li glanced toward the seam of the door. Even after repeated cleanings, faint traces of dark red blood still lingered in the crevices. He finally understood why Shetty had claimed Sam was stronger than Luke. In terms of raw super strength alone, Sam was already on par with Qi Li before he killed King Kong. Qi Li pulled his gaze away and looked at Joseph. "Do you have any idea where Sam went?" Joseph shook his head helplessly. "After Sam escaped, he ran south the entire way. Security lost track of him after pursuing him for twenty li. His super jumps are absurd—a single leap is faster than an airplane over the same duration." In that case, all he could do was wait for that superhuman tracking specialist. Qi Li asked when his temporary teammate would arrive. Joseph replied, "Inubaku? He should be about half an hour away by car." Afterward, at Joseph's invitation, Qi Li went to his luxurious office to rest. During that time, a man wearing blue scrubs and fiddling with a lighter entered his field of vision. Qi Li felt that the man looked somewhat familiar. The man noticed Qi Li's gaze as well, gave him a blank look, slipped the lighter into his pocket, and walked straight off. As Qi Li was pondering it, a thunderous roar suddenly boomed overhead, cutting his train of thought short. *Someone flew in?* Qi Li turned his gaze toward the entrance. A few moments later, a white woman dressed in a black battle suit with a short cape trailing behind her pushed the door open and walked in. Qi Li saw her. She immediately noticed Qi Li as well. Her eyes narrowed, and a look of "pleasant surprise" spread across her face. The next second, she strode over with effortless familiarity, sized up Qi Li's face from head to toe, and spoke with a half-smile: "Hey, Bronze. I've been seeing you all over TV lately. You've really been stealing the spotlight, haven't you?" Qi Li looked at this unfamiliar female superhero, whose gaze was somewhat presumptuous, though not the kind that signaled an immediate desire to drag him into bed. "And you are?" "Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Stormfront, defender of Seattle—before that, Portland. Nice to meet you." Stormfront said this without making any move to offer a handshake. Seeing this, Qi Li didn't extend his hand either. Curious, Stormfront continued, "So Bronze, what brought you all the way from bustling New York out to this... godforsaken middle of nowhere?" Before Qi Li could reply, Joseph cut in from the side to explain: "Bronze was commissioned by Vought specifically to track down Sam Riordan, the psychiatric patient who broke out." Hearing that, Stormfront instantly put on a look of utter astonishment. Qi Li looked back at her and countered, "What about you, Stormfront? What are you doing in a godforsaken dump like this?" At his question, Stormfront's blue eyes locked directly onto Qi Li. After a beat, she pointed a finger at her own head and chuckled. "Can't be helped. I've seen too many... unpleasant people and things, so I'm under quite a bit of mental strain. The specialty medication here is great, and I stop by every now and then to pick some up. You know how it is—this sort of thing can't get out. All for the sake of those damn approval ratings, right?" Qi Li studied Stormfront intently. "You don't strike me as someone who actually cares about approval ratings." "Is that a compliment? Wow—I have to say, you've got sharp eyes." Stormfront raised an eyebrow and looked at Qi Li's dark eyes with palpable regret. "Why couldn't you have blue eyes?" *How about I gouge out those blue eyes of yours and wear them myself?* Qi Li suddenly felt Stormfront was dead-on about having mental issues. What kind of nonsensical gibberish was that? If Joseph gave the nod, he wouldn't mind lending a hand to lock Stormfront up in a cell for a few days too. Unfortunately, Joseph had no such intention. After dropping that line, Stormfront seemed to lose all interest in conversation. She gave a perfunctory farewell and clicked her heels toward the depths of the hospital. As she walked, the charming smile on her face darkened progressively, her blue eyes smoldering with irritation and fury. She slammed open an office door and shouted at the man inside: "Lamplighter!!"