High in the sky.
With an arm around Starlight's slender waist, Qi Li departed from Vought Tower, cruising at a steady pace between towering skyscrapers. Thus began the Super Seven duo's first patrol—or rather, their first airborne fan meet-and-greet.
On the streets below, citizens and tourists whistled and cheered with all their might.
Office workers gazing out from their high-rises caught sight of the pair at such close range that they dropped all professional restraint, waving in giddy surprise.
None of this surprised Qi Li.
A massive portion of his and Starlight's shared fan base belonged to the urban demographic.
The rednecks of the rural Midwest and South, on the other hand, had never been particularly fond of him.
Starlight's speech slamming extreme Christianity at the Believe Expo had sent her approval ratings plunging among that same crowd as well.
Not that it mattered.
Compared to rural folk who spent their days surrounded by cow dung and sheep manure, could barely scrape together a few coins, and dreamed of returning to a traditional way of life, the well-educated, trend-setting urban class was far more prized by Vought's marketing department.
The vast majority of their newly gained fans hailed from major metropolitan areas, and they made up the driving force behind merchandise sales.
Qi Li offered a faint smile toward the well-dressed men and women crowding against floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
Seeing this, Starlight waved in that direction as well.
With an unbroken smile plastered across her face, she whispered into Qi Li's ear, "I never would've dreamed in a million years that I'd see a day like this."
Qi Li waved to the onlookers around them, replying without turning his head, "Just like you never imagined you'd be wearing your original costume again today."
Starlight glanced down at the battle suit whose design had remained unchanged since she was little, biting her lower lip. "I've always objected to it."
Qi Li glanced at her. "Objecting was useless, though. The only reason you're wearing it today is because Vought's polling found your approval rating peaks when you wear this suit alongside me. You should be thanking me. You don't have to wear that nightclub-girl getup anymore."
Just then, hearing people chanting her name, Starlight flashed a smile their way before turning back to him, her tone dripping with dramatic gratitude. "Thank you! Bronze! You're practically my savior!"
Qi Li gave his assessment: "Zero sincerity."
"What?" Starlight's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
Qi Li didn't reply. His arm tightened around her waist as he abruptly accelerated into a sharp turn, shooting through the narrow gap between two skyscrapers.
A roar of cheers erupted from the streets below.
Still unable to fly on her own, Starlight felt her heart leap into her throat. An exclamation slipped out: "Fuck!"
The corner of Qi Li's mouth curled slightly. "Mind your hero image."
Starlight glared at him, about to shoot back a retort, when a thunderous shout suddenly echoed from directly below them.
She instinctively looked down and spotted Mike, waving his arms wildly, the Starlight Bronze Sword tattoo across his bare chest commanding immediate attention.
"Oh, God..."
Overcome with sheer embarrassment, she instantly averted her eyes.
Even now, she couldn't bear to look at the fact that so many of her and Bronze's fans were getting tattoos like that inked across their skin.
Qi Li remained entirely composed, not forgetting to remind her, "As a superhero, you can't go letting your fans down."
Left with no choice, Starlight joined Qi Li in waving down at the rabid fan in response.
Before long, however, she heard Qi Li mutter a "Fuck" of his own.
"Those morons in marketing! I told them not to put the letters 'S' and 'B' right next to each other to represent our duo. And what do they do? They ignore me!"
Qi Li had noticed that besides the Starlight Bronze Sword on Mike's chest, smaller letters flanked the blade on either side: an "S" and a "B."
"S" stood for Starlight.
"B" stood for Bronze.
The SB duo meant Starlight and Bronze.
To native English speakers, it was completely normal and carried no special meaning.
To Qi Li, however, every time he saw that combination of letters, it felt like someone was cursing him out as a fucking idiot.
"Mind your image management," Starlight countered with a teasing smile, even if she didn't fully understand the joke.
Qi Li shook his head and was about to say something when, suddenly, an urgent transmission crackled through his earpiece from a Crime Analytics coordinator:
"Multi-vehicle pileup underway on the Western Highway! Bronze, Starlight! This is your moment! Deploy immediately for rescue operations!"
"Keep one golden rule in mind: do not attempt to save victims who are fatally injured! Do not attempt to save them! If things go south, predatory media outlets will jump at the chance to paint your rescue as botched!"
Starlight received the exact same alert.
The two exchanged a look.
Qi Li's expression hardened. "Hold on tight!"
*Boom!*
A white ring of sonic vapor erupted across the sky.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowds below, Bronze and Starlight vanished in an instant.
A young girl holding up a plastic toy bronze sword blinked back tears at the sudden disappearance, pouting as she sniffled. "Mommy, where did the hero brother and sister go?"
Her mother quickly scooped her up, explaining in a gentle voice, "Sweetheart, Windsor, the hero brother and sister have gone to save the world!"
"To beat up bad guys?"
"That's right!"
The little girl's eyes lit up instantly. She waved forcefully toward the empty sky, calling out in a sweet, childish voice, "Good luck, heroes!"
Less than ten seconds later, an atmospheric concussion boomed over the Western Highway.
Qi Li swept his gaze across the interstate below.
Over twenty vehicles were mangled in a horrific pileup, completely blocking traffic in both directions.
Behind and ahead, more oncoming drivers—unaware of the catastrophic blockage ahead—were barrelling straight toward the wreckage, realizing too late that slamming on their brakes wouldn't stop them in time.
"Starlight!"
Qi Li shouted her name. With time running out, he didn't care whether she fully grasped the plan; he threw her with forceful precision toward one side of the crash site.
Meanwhile, he plummeted from the sky, dropping down on the opposite approach.
The moment his boots struck the asphalt, a Ford sedan came barreling toward him at high speed.
Qi Li could see the driver's face, twisted in terrified screams.
Even with the brake pedal pressed to the floor and all four tires leaving long black skid marks along the pavement, the car failed to halt its momentum.
Seeing that car and driver were about to plow straight into the wreckage, Qi Li extended his right hand and shoved forward.
*Bang!*
The Ford struck him as if ramming into a solid steel pillar, the front end caving inward on impact as though a massive chunk had been gouged straight out of the bumper.
Qi Li didn't budge an inch.
After shuddering forward a couple more inches, the Ford finally ground to a halt.
Before the shaken driver could even begin to thank him, the figure before his windshield vanished.
Over the next few moments, amidst a chorus of screeching tires tearing into asphalt, Qi Li intercepted car after car with bare hands, forcibly bringing each one to a stop.
Until a fully loaded heavy semi-truck came charging in.
Qi Li glanced at the cab.
He could easily take the impact head-on, of course. But without the extended front crumple zone of a sedan, the truck driver would be pulverized into paste the instant of collision.
Shifting his weight, Qi Li blurred and reappeared at the left flank of the cab. He hooked one hand into a gap in the chassis and pulled violently against the truck's forward momentum.
*Skrrreeeech—*
An ear-splitting, teeth-grinding screech scraped across the highway.
Qi Li was dragged forward a short distance by the truck's sheer inertia, his boots carving deep trenches several meters long into the solid asphalt.
Gathering power into his arms once more, he heaved.
With sheer brute force, he brought the fully loaded rig to a dead stop.
"Bronze! Take these warning signs!"
One of the rescued motorists reacted with impressive speed, immediately flipping on his hazard lights, pulling reflective triangles from his trunk, and handing them to the superhero he now trusted more than anyone on earth.
Qi Li nodded and took them. In a flash, he placed one sign two hundred meters back from the crash perimeter, then darted over toward Starlight's sector to set up another.
Along the way, he cast a glance her direction and saw that her rescue work was impeccably handled.
Unlike other superheroes who choked at critical moments or triggered bizarre collateral damage, Starlight was consistently firing calibrated, low-power blasts of blinding light, bringing one speeding vehicle after another to a halt.
Whenever her aim couldn't line up in time, she simply threw her own body into the car's path to stop it cold, emerging entirely unscathed.
By the time Qi Li returned, Starlight had already reached the center of the pileup, carefully lifting the outermost crushed vehicle with both hands to inspect the cabin.
He stepped up beside her.
The two exchanged a brief nod—no words were necessary.
Qi Li moved in to help clear the wreckage. Not knowing how many survivors were trapped inside, he worked with the same deliberate care as Starlight.
Five minutes later, every collided vehicle had been pried apart, and the occupants had been pulled from the twisted metal.
Most had died on impact, while a handful survived with varying degrees of injury.
By stroke of luck, one of the motorists Qi Li and Starlight had spared from the pileup happened to be a doctor.
Under his guidance, Starlight's eyes flared with golden light as she rapidly drew in electricity from nearby power lines, aiming her palms at the survivors' wounds to cauterize them with controlled heat.
Qi Li stood off to the side.
Since he had no role in medical treatment, he focused on maintaining order, fielding the overwhelming gratitude of the motorists and passengers they had pulled from the brink.
"Bronze! Starlight! Oh my God! Thank you for saving my family! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you..."
"You're welcome. It's our job."
"I have a four-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter to raise. I have a mortgage, car payments... If I died today, my kids would've been completely ruined! Thank you! Bronze! I don't even know what words or actions could ever thank you enough. But I swear, from this day on, my kids and I are your and Starlight's most loyal fans!"
"Hang in there. Take good care of your kids."
"Bronze! Starlight! You're real superheroes!"
This time, Qi Li refrained from reciting the canned line, *"No, you guys are the real heroes."* He simply nodded with a polite smile.
Out of the corner of his eye, however, he suddenly noticed Starlight walking toward a severely, critically wounded victim.
Frowning slightly, he stepped forward to intercept her.
Chapter 89