In countless Hollywood thrillers, a group goes camping in the wild, or their car breaks down along the road and forces them to walk. Inevitably, around some careless bend in the trail, they spot a villa hidden deep in the woods. When they foolishly and boldly wander inside, the nightmare begins.
As the saying goes, people cannot imagine what lies beyond their comprehension.
In reality, secluded houses tucked away in mountain forests, far from the clamor of civilization, were anything but rare.
Where Cast Iron was currently holed up happened to be just such a place.
If some unlucky, lost soul were to stumble in right now, they would be "pleasantly surprised" to discover that reality was far more grotesque and thrilling than any movie.
Cast Iron was guzzling barrel after barrel, savoring the taste of despair steeped in human blood. Listening Ear, fresh off a threesome with Card Burst and Wind Butterfly, was listening to music while grilling meat. Card Burst casually toyed with his beloved deck of cards while continuing to fool around with Wind Butterfly. Wind Butterfly didn't even turn around; with a gentle puff of her crimson lips, the delicate little skull cradled in her hands began weathering away, ground down layer by layer into a fragile shell.
All around the room lay a scattered mess of needles, white powders, crumpled tissues, and the Super Seven dildos.
"Suffering and Redemption superhero team: Cast Iron, Card Burst, Listening Ear, and Wind Butterfly. One loves blood, one loves skin, one loves flesh, and one loves bone. Birds of a feather really do flock together."
Racing along the route Osvaldo had pointed out, Qi Li noted Cast Iron's scent growing heavier by the second while the file on the brute's team flashed through his mind.
He had thought this was going to be a one-and-done job.
From the looks of it now, it was a buy-one-get-three-free deal.
What a... delightful surprise.
Qi Li looked toward the villa glowing with light halfway up the mountain ahead.
Listening Ear had super hearing.
Pulling off a sneak attack was virtually impossible.
In that case, brute force it was.
BOOM—!
A deafening shockwave shattered the night.
High above, Qi Li transformed into a black streak, plummeting straight toward his target at breakneck speed.
Almost at the exact same instant.
Listening Ear ripped off the headphones blasting music into his ears, snapped his head toward the sky, and screamed, "Someone's coming!"
Seeing his three teammates completely unbothered, he hurriedly added, "It's a superhuman!!"
At those words, the three finally stirred.
Cast Iron let out a loud burp. "Here to join our party? Welcome, welcome."
Card Burst gave a sleazy chuckle. "I knew it. Superhumans love a good thrill."
Wind Butterfly licked her lips hungrily. "If it's a handsome boy, let me have a bite first."
Hearing that—especially with Wind Butterfly daring to cut in line ahead of him—Listening Ear tossed his lingering caution to the wind and snapped at her, "No way! You got first dibs last time! This time it's my turn!"
Wind Butterfly refused to back down.
Just as an all-out argument was about to erupt—
CRASH!!
A dark silhouette dropped like a meteor from the sky. The courtyard blew open in an enormous explosion, the violent tremor instantly cutting their squabble short.
Gravel and debris sprayed outward, instantly shattering the first-floor French windows into dust and blowing a dense storm of grit into the living room.
Listening Ear, Card Burst, and Wind Butterfly reflexively threw their arms up to shield their faces.
Cast Iron, thick-skinned and heavily armored, moved first to protect his precious "beverage."
Thud... thud... thud...
From within the massive crater that looked as if it had been struck by an artillery shell, a steady rhythm of footsteps sounded.
Seeing his grilled meat ruined, Listening Ear's gaze turned vicious. He abandoned his argument with Wind Butterfly over who got first bite and prepared to thoroughly curse out this insolent guest for having zero manners.
Until...
He saw Qi Li emerge from the swirling dust and smoke. The curses died in his throat, and his eyes lit up with dazzling fervor.
Beside him, Wind Butterfly instantly swooned into total fangirl mode. "Oh my god! It's Bronze!"
Hearing that, a thought flashed through Listening Ear's mind: *Hell no! I can't let her get to him first!*
That was Bronze, the hottest rising star of the Super Seven!
He sprang into motion, darting ahead of her to plant himself in front of Qi Li, spreading his arms wide in an eager, welcoming embrace.
"Welcome, Bro—"
SQUELCH!
Qi Li thrust his hand clean through his chest.
"...nze."
Only after stammering out the final syllable did Listening Ear seem to register what had happened. He slowly looked down, staring in horror at the gaping hole through his chest.
"You..."
He froze, coughing up mouthfuls of dark blood. He raised his head again, staring at Qi Li in sheer bewilderment, trying to say something.
Qi Li simply yanked his arm back out. Without sparing him another glance, he stepped right past him.
Thump.
Listening Ear collapsed to his knees like a punctured sandbag, the front of his shirt rapidly soaking through in dark crimson.
Moments later, the superhero known as Listening Ear drew his last breath.
Feeling a fresh surge of power steadily pouring into him from behind, Qi Li took a brief moment to adjust to his newly acquired super hearing.
Counting the super smell he already had, he was well on his way to collecting all five super senses.
"Oh my god!"
"Holy shit!!"
"What the fuck are you doing?!"
By now, Wind Butterfly, Card Burst, and Cast Iron had finally snapped out of their stupor. Their eyes whipped in utter disbelief from the stone-cold corpse of Listening Ear to Qi Li, erupting into a barrage of curses.
They thought Qi Li had lost his mind.
Qi Li actually had an explanation for that.
He had originally planned to give an opening line, but Listening Ear had practically begged for death by rushing right up to him—and then had the sheer convenience to throw his arms wide open, leaving his chest completely exposed.
If Qi Li hadn't taken the shot, it would have felt like an insult to all the man's hard work.
"Cast Iron, your game is up," Qi Li explained calmly.
Yet Cast Iron only looked completely baffled, while Card Burst and Wind Butterfly stared at Qi Li as if he were an escaped lunatic.
Forget it.
Better to keep things simple.
Qi Li moved.
"Shit!!"
Already on high alert, Wind Butterfly struck instantly.
Two pairs of butterfly-like azure wings ripped through the leather fetish suit on her back, unfurling wide and violently beating forward.
BOOM—!
A howling gale tore forth like razor-sharp blades, sweeping up shattered floorboards, furniture, and ceiling panels in its wake as it surged relentlessly toward Qi Li.
Qi Li's eyelids lowered, and he raised his left forearm to shield his face.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
A flurry of sharp metallic impacts rang off his body, the force pushing him steadily backward.
"Motherfucker! Choke on my dick!!"
Seeing Wind Butterfly make her move, Card Burst—her longtime partner in crime—originally intended to flick the cards from his hands. But upon second thought, he couldn't bear to part with them.
Instead, he scooped up the Super Seven dildos scattered around him, pumped them full of explosive kinetic energy, and hurled them fiercely at Qi Li on the back of the wind.
And so, Qi Li watched an assortment of toys hurtle toward him: a star-spangled Homelander model, a pitch-black Black Noir model, a clear Translucent model, along with blue-and-white, deep red, and golden-star designs. Among them was even a newly minted version in his own bronze hue.
To top it off, there was an adult novelty modeled after the Bronze Starlight Sword.
When Qi Li had learned that these adult novelties had earned him millions in royalties within a short span, he had marveled that appearances could be deceiving.
Yet in this moment, watching them fly at him one after another—especially seeing filthy stains smeared across his own branded model and the joint Starlight edition—Qi Li's face contorted into the exact same look of unspeakable revulsion Starlight had worn when confronted by her obsessive fan, Mike.
*I wonder when the San Fernando Valley will start producing Bronze adult films,* he couldn't help but wonder, recalling that Vought had already licensed the rights to production studios there.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Violent explosions erupted around Qi Li.
Card Burst's superpower was infusing non-living objects with kinetic energy and detonating them at will.
Combine that with Listening Ear's super hearing, Wind Butterfly's gale manipulation, and Cast Iron's metallic frame, and this superhero team was actually respectably formidable.
When it came to acts of terrorism, if Card Burst ever unleashed his talents to their fullest, he could easily have gone down in global infamy.
"Is he dead?" Cast Iron demanded hurriedly.
He was already opening his massive maw, preparing to rapidly chew through solid metal to temporarily amplify his powers. Compared to his "beverage," however, he genuinely hated gnawing on dry metal and avoided doing so whenever possible.
"Relax! After taking that many direct hits, not even a superhuman would have bones left!"
Breathing heavily, Card Burst straightened his spine and let out an arrogant, triumphant laugh.
"Haha!! Super Seven, my ass! I just wiped one out today!"
Wind Butterfly moved to blow the smoke and dust away.
Suddenly!
She felt the air currents directly overhead drop sharply, rushing straight down at them. Without a second thought, she snapped her wings and shot backward at top speed.
Only after she caught her breath did it occur to her to warn her teammates—far too late.
BOOM!!
Like a precision-guided missile, Qi Li plummeted from the heavens, blasting through the villa's roof and slamming directly onto Card Burst.
He couldn't help it. To Qi Li's freshly acquired super hearing, the man's maniacal laughter had been nothing short of a broadcasted coordinate, practically screaming, *Shoot me if you've got the balls!*
In the blink of an eye.
Card Burst's laughter still echoed in the room, but the man himself was gone.
Qi Li, without a scratch on his body, slowly stood up.
Beneath his boots, an unrecognizable puddle of bloody gore was steadily spreading outward across the floor.
"FUCK!!!"
Cast Iron hesitated no longer. Shoveling a massive handful of dense metal ingots into his mouth, he charged headlong at Qi Li with terrifying momentum, making the ground shudder violently beneath his immense weight. As he ran, he bellowed at the sole surviving teammate left on the field:
"Wind Butterfly!! Take him together!!"
Wind Butterfly, however, froze.
Her eyes darted to the battlefield.
Unlike Derek, who also possessed metallic abilities, Cast Iron's skin was naturally the color of cold steel. Standing eight feet tall with a bulk like a colossal wrecking ball, anyone who witnessed his berserk charge would feel an overwhelming sense of unstoppable dread.
In truth, any tank or heavy truck currently on the road would be flattened into scrap metal if it collided with Cast Iron head-on.
Against this juggernaut...
Qi Li merely raised a single, calm hand.
The next instant.
BANG!
A violent blast of air detonated from the point of impact.
Cast Iron's earth-shaking momentum abruptly halted as though struck by an immobility curse, freezing dead in its tracks.
Wind Butterfly stared dumbfounded at the staggering sight of Qi Li pinning the gargantuan Cast Iron in place with just one hand.
Cast Iron's panicked shriek snapped her out of her daze: "Wind Butterfly! Help me, dammit!!"
At those words, Wind Butterfly's face drained of all color. Spreading her wings, she shot into the high sky with a shrill *whoosh*.
She ran!
Chapter 92