C78: Move Hands and Feet
"Wait a moment!"
Raising his hand, he halted the Hand ninjas and gangsters who were preparing to re-encircle them. The old man spoke lightly, yet his voice cut like a blade:
"Since everyone's assembled, I might as well move my hands and feet and help you solve your problems permanently."
"I'm starting to agree with Jessica," Luke Cage muttered, brow raised. "This guy's real trouble."
Bullseye, however, nodded with complete confidence in the old man. "Then please, Evil God. If you can deal with these Defenders, Mr. Fisk will reward you richly."
"Evil God?"
Across the ruined floor, Matt Murdock's heightened senses—keen enough to track heartbeat rhythms, breathing patterns, and subtle shifts in air pressure—zeroed in on that name, and his unease bloomed into a gnawing dread.
"Wait… Are you the Fire Cloud Evil God?"
"Oh?" the old man replied with a half-smile, genuinely surprised. "You've heard of me?"
[Legend from Daredevil +130]
[Famousness from Luke Cage +95]
"Fire Cloud Evil God? Who the hell is that?" Jessica Jones raised her brow, clearly skeptical.
"A legendary killer," Luke answered grimly. "They say he once wiped out an entire monastery hidden in the Himalayas. The one Doctor Strange trained at before Kamar-Taj—the monastery of the Seven Oracles. A Xing came to New York looking for him."
"A Xing?"
Jessica's expression shifted at the name. Her eyes flicked back to the old man, now standing serenely, surrounded by chaos.
"Then yeah," she muttered, "he's definitely a walking crisis."
"You lot know about Penglai?" the Fire Cloud Evil God's tone sharpened at the name. "That's classified in nine realms of sorcery. I guess I'll have to hit harder to learn how you got that information."
"Everyone be ready!" Matt warned, turning to the others. "He might be the most dangerous enemy we've faced. More than the Hand. More than Kilgrave. More than Nobu."
"You think?" Jessica snapped back, but even her sarcasm sounded forced. She kept glancing toward the old man, eyes narrowing.
"I vote we fall back. Now," Wesley suggested, his voice calm but tense. The clone played his role to perfection—strategist, advisor, even while preparing the next shot.
But the Fire Cloud Evil God smiled coldly.
"Retreat? Not while I'm standing."
In a blink, his figure vanished—reappearing directly in front of Matt and the others, faster than any Flash-level reflex Matt could track.
"What the hell?!" Jessica swore.
Even Matt—who'd fought Elektra, Bullseye, and sensed Daredevil-level speed before—felt thrown off. His radar sense couldn't track the old man at all.
But training kicked in.
Luke Cage lunged forward, a human shield. Wesley crouched behind, angling his custom pistol and firing off a curved shot from his Arc Ballistics set.
The bullet arced around Luke's broad shoulder, designed to strike from a blind spot.
But the old man, without even turning his head, reached up and plucked it mid-air.
"Bullets?" he scoffed, crushing the lead with two fingers. "That's playground stuff."
[Legend from Daredevil +75]
[Famousness from Luke Cage +60]
[Famousness from Jessica Jones +55]
The Defenders stared. Bullet-catching wasn't new—Captain America had done it in WWII with his shield, Batman deflected rounds with bare hands during training, and Superman did it weekly—but this was completely barehanded.
At that moment, far across town in the antique shop, Li Ran felt another notification flood in. He grinned; his clone, still playing "Wesley," was delivering a performance worthy of Gotham's Court of Owls.
Too bad he was only a projection.
But the play wasn't over yet.
Suppressing the pain and surprise, Luke Cage launched forward, fist the size of a sledgehammer crashing toward the Fire Cloud Evil God.
The old man didn't dodge—he palmed the blow, halting Luke's punch with one hand.
The impact rippled through Luke's vibranium-reinforced skin. He stumbled back several paces, chest aching.
"Hmm," the old man mused, "cross-training? Some kind of Vibranium-infused physiology?"
The comment was flippant—but accurate.
Before Luke could recover, the Evil God blurred forward again. His palms flickered like Iron Fist's chi strikes—but devoid of mystic energy—slapping at Luke's sides, shoulders, joints.
"I want to see," he said, "just how much punishment you can take."
Luke tried to block, arms moving rapidly, but he couldn't match the old man's inhuman speed.
Boom—
The final blow sent Luke flying backward. He hit the wall with enough force to shatter concrete and collapsed.
"Turns out, not cross-training. Just thick skin," the Evil God muttered.
On the ground, Luke groaned, blood seeping from his lips.
[Famousness from Luke Cage +225]
"Luke!" Jessica gasped. She stared at her fallen teammate—the Luke Cage, bulletproof since Harlem, now bloodied.
Her fists clenched. Her body tensed and then lifted into the air.
"Jessica, no!" Matt shouted.
But she wasn't listening.
The Fire Cloud Evil God looked up, intrigued. "Flight? That's interesting. And no mystical aura, either. Not like Zatanna or Shazam."
He grinned.
Jessica hovered, gathering strength. "The interesting part's just beginning, old man."
She hurled a refrigerator.
And the fight truly began.
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