Lamplighter was curled up in his chair, watching the new movie *Homelander vs. Starlight*.
When Stormfront barged in with a sullen scowl, he merely halted the lighter spinning between his fingers.
On the television screen, the movie kept droning on with high-pitched moans and squeals.
"Something up?" Lamplighter asked, keeping his eyes glued to the screen with complete composure.
Listening to the crescendo of screams from the man and woman on television, Stormfront's eyelid twitched.
Though she had tried her hardest to follow modern trends and adapt to the times, more often than not, she simply could not fathom the thought processes of this generation.
That was true of ordinary humans, and even more so of superhumans.
Put side by side, the first generation of superhumans and today's flamboyant superheroes seemed like two entirely different species.
There was one thing Stormfront hadn't lied to Qi Li about.
She had seen far too many aggravating people and things, and she was indeed under immense stress.
With a cold face, Stormfront splayed her five fingers, and purple electric arcs crackled and danced across her fingertips.
With a loud zap, the television screen immediately fizzled into static.
Lamplighter sat bolt upright, throwing his hands out in total exasperation. "Hey, come on! I was just getting to the good part!"
Stormfront had no patience for his nonsense and demanded bluntly, "What's the deal with Bronze?"
Lamplighter slouched listlessly back against his chair and answered, "Sam Riordan broke out, and Vought sent him to track him down."
"Why didn't you go after him?" Stormfront asked coldly.
Lamplighter gave a candid reply: "Me? I don't feel like getting ripped in half by Sam. Besides, I couldn't catch up to him anyway."
Lamplighter's superpower was pyrokinesis.
Just like Marvel's Pyro, he couldn't generate fire on his own, but he could manipulate any flames in his vicinity.
If his opponent were Sam's brother, he could toy with him until he was dead, just like the Human Torch against Pyro.
Against someone as thick-skinned and overwhelmingly strong as Sam, however, he knew better than to try.
"You could have informed me! I would have gone after Sam!" Stormfront pressed closer, glaring fiercely at him.
Lamplighter shrugged. "The decision came straight down from the eighty-second-floor executive office. How was I supposed to refuse? Besides..."
He looked up at Stormfront, his tone dropping. "Sam was dosed with Compound V as a child. He's an entirely different case from the adult test subjects here. If a test subject goes missing, deal with it however you like. But Stan Edgar personally weighed in on an unstable superhuman, so we follow his orders. It's not like Sam knows anything anyway."
Stormfront's brow furrowed sharply. "Stan Edgar? His reach is getting longer and longer."
The experiments currently underway at Sage Grove Center were vital to the grand blueprint of her faction.
Although Stan was the CEO of Vought, her faction held substantial sway on the board of directors.
He had only ever been in a position to nod along in support, kept strictly outside the plan's inner circle.
Who would have thought he would use the breakout of Sam—who wasn't part of the experiment—as a legitimate pretext to insert his own lackey?
Where there was a first time, there would be a second and a third.
Stormfront let out a cold snort, her voice laced with undisguised disgust. "He just can't wait to swoop in and reap the harvest!"
Lamplighter raised his hands in surrender. "Leave me out of the feud between your two factions. I'm just a working stiff. I only follow official orders from up top."
Now that she knew Stan Edgar was refusing to stay in his lane, Stormfront was in no mood to waste any more time on Lamplighter.
She turned and stormed out.
Before long, a low roll of thunder once again echoed in the sky above the facility.
***
Meanwhile, Qi Li had met up with his temporary partner.
By the time they set out, it happened to be mealtime.
Passing by the sausage man's room, Qi Li casually snatched a plastic fork off the meal cart and flicked it right through the food slot at the bottom of the iron door.
"Aaargh!"
A shrill, agonized shriek immediately erupted from inside the cell.
The corner of Qi Li's mouth curled slightly as he continued walking outside as if nothing had happened.
Outside the psychiatric facility, Qi Li stared at the beaten-up Honda in front of him, falling silent for a moment.
It had been a long time since he last rode in a car, let alone one this cheap.
Turning toward the tall, skinny man with long, unkempt hair beside him, Qi Li suggested, "I could just fly you there. It'd be faster."
"No!" Inubaku shook his head without hesitation, replying in dead earnest, "A dog never stays in the air."
Hearing that, Qi Li couldn't help doing a double take.
*Damn, another total oddball!*
At that moment, Inubaku dropped to all fours, hands and feet shuffling as he sniffed forcefully at the ground all around.
Blessed with a superhuman sense of smell, his ability to analyze and track scents far surpassed that of bloodhounds and other top tracking breeds, over ten thousand times keener than that of a normal human.
Inubaku had already sniffed around Sam's cell for quite a while, burning the target's scent deep into his memory. Now he was merely confirming the direction.
"Get in!"
In less than a minute, Inubaku called for Qi Li to get into the car while he took the passenger seat.
After all, he needed to stick his nose out to catch Sam's scent in the air from time to time.
Doing that mid-flight would indeed have been difficult.
Offering himself that small consolation, Qi Li set the car in motion with slightly rusty driving.
Soon enough, though, he regretted it.
Pinching his nose with one hand and steering with the other, Qi Li frowned deeply and asked, "Why does your car smell like dog shit?"
Inubaku stuck his head out the window and replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "It's a dog's car. Isn't smelling like dog shit completely normal?"
Qi Li was speechless.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, he suddenly noticed what looked like the mangled, heavily chewed carcass of a yellow dog beneath the rear seat. His brow knotted even tighter.
"Don't tell me that's your handiwork too."
Inubaku glanced back and said calmly, "Relax, it was a male. That's what it gets for trespassing on my territory."
*So you got into a fight with a dog, won, and then ate it?*
*You're an actual fucking dog-eater!*
Qi Li didn't even have the energy left to complain.
He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, wanting nothing more than to get this over with as quickly as possible.
"Hold on, turn right. He changed direction," Inubaku chimed in.
Expressionless, Qi Li spun the steering wheel.
Half an hour later, a gas station came into view.
Inubaku stepped out of the car, sniffing the air forcefully and dropping to all fours every so often.
Qi Li followed behind him at first, until Inubaku stopped and stared fixedly at a pile of garbage.
Qi Li had assumed Sam was hiding there and was just about to admire the fugitive's sheer grit when suddenly, a female dog ambled out from behind the trash.
She looked back at Inubaku, then casually turned her head away.
Inubaku stared straight at her, the corners of his mouth curving into an amused smirk. "Playing hard to get, you little bitch?"
Qi Li: "..."
Unable to watch this any longer, he rolled his eyes so hard it hurt and decided to head over to the convenience store to grab a bite to eat, hoping to soothe his traumatized soul.
Still, as he reached the convenience store doors, Qi Li couldn't hold it in any longer and spat out a vehement curse:
"Fuck!"
Chapter 68