Chapter 184: Are You Wholesaling Aliens?
"I have no intention of fighting you, Apollo!"
Of course, even as she said that, Wonder Woman never hesitated when it was time to act. She swung a punch that connected with the sun god's chin. Apollo's head snapped to the side, and a transparent shockwave shattered the floor tiles.
"But if it's necessary, I never shy away from a battle."
She kept up the assault as she spoke, throwing a flurry of punches. Apollo raised his palm to block, but she easily fooled him with a feint. A swing punch from Wonder Woman followed, striking the side of his face.
"I was counting on it, sister."
Apollo grunted and threw a counter-punch. But Diana saw through his attack, sidestepping to evade it. She seized the opportunity to grab his striking arm in a grappling hold, following up with a heavy elbow strike to his jaw.
"If you insist on pestering me, I won't hesitate to harm a god."
"Big words."
Apollo barely reacted to the string of hits, immediately swinging a fist in retaliation. A cyclone of blistering heat erupted from his fist. Diana hurriedly crossed her arms, using her bracelets to block. The two divine powers clashed at her bracelets, the force of the collision knocking her back several steps. The ground beneath her feet cracked with a crunch.
"But you are no match for me, sister," Apollo sneered. "Without your allies, without those strange helpers, you have no chance of winning against me."
Basically, what he meant was...
*Surely you can't pull out another solar-powered alien to one-shot me, can you?*
"I don't need anyone's help to defeat you, Apollo," Diana said calmly, straightening up.
"But you are right about one thing. If I've learned anything during my years in the human world... it's that no one exists in isolation. That includes warriors."
"Hmm?"
Apollo frowned. Before he could process what she meant, he felt a fist slam into his face like a heavy iron hammer. A transparent ripple exploded on contact. Apollo's head snapped to the side as he spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying.
Kara, already changed into her three-piece set of a cape, uniform, and mask, floated in mid-air and said with a grin, "That's called a 'Super Punch,' dummy."
"A nice hook," Diana smiled. "It seems you've learned a few moves from Mr. Orin, but I'm sure you have even greater potential."
"Thanks." Kara smiled sheepishly. "But I prefer science to throwing punches... We of the House of El are all researchers."
In the past, Diana might not have cared much for so-called human technology. But thinking back on the minor technological shocks Orin Vale had given her recently, Diana thought for a moment, then nodded in deep agreement.
"Yes, science is very good."
Apollo flew back in an instant.
"Foolish! How dare you harm the great sun god! Accept the sun's rage!"
"Watch out!" Diana shouted.
A fiery beam of light shot through the air, striking Kara right on the large 'S' emblem on her chest.
Nothing happened.
There was no violent explosion, no astonishing impact. It was as if the move had its special effects cranked to the max—dazzling and brilliant—yet the actual effect of the hit was just...
*Is that it?*
"Uh... it doesn't seem to hurt." Kara clenched her fist, looking down at herself in surprise. "In fact, it feels... kind of good?"
Apollo: "?"
*Wait a minute, why does this development seem so familiar...*
Only then did he notice Kara's deep blue uniform, her red cape, and that familiar-looking 'S' emblem. It brought back some very bad memories for the sun god from his time in the Fallen Realm...
His expression gradually went slack.
*Wait, why can this bunch of aliens all absorb my divine power?*
*One of them was one thing, two was another, but now there's another one? Are they being wholesaled or something?*
He stared at Diana in disbelief, his eyes a silent accusation.
*This is too much!*
*You want to snatch the throne of the king of gods, fine, but you should at least research how to mess with Poseidon or Hades. Why are you gathering so many aliens to specifically target me?*
*Even when you're fleecing a sheep, you don't just keep fleecing the same one!*
Diana put on an innocent face, as if to say there was nothing she could do to explain the situation, and that it was just his bad luck and had nothing to do with her.
The next moment, Kara flashed right in front of him.
After absorbing that solar ray, the Kryptonian girl had also reached a supercharged state. She was already faster than Apollo, and in this state, there was no way he could keep up with her speed.
But it didn't make much of a difference. As the saying goes, bad things come in threes. The third time encountering such a similar situation had made Apollo expertly give up all resistance.
"Fine, just get it over with." Apollo sighed faintly and folded his arms. "Also, can you not hit the face this time?"
"Okay, no problem."
Kara smiled politely and raised her fist.
*Pow.*
The sun god shot into the sky. Clutching his stomach, he ascended all the way, becoming a meteor in the distant sky.
***
"Mr. Kirkut, is it?"
Orin Vale had arrived at the prison and was sitting in front of the chairman, who was clad in a prison uniform.
He was a pot-bellied, middle-aged man with a receding hairline. His face looked as if it had suffered greatly in prison, and his eyes were full of vigilance as he looked at Orin Vale.
He had been staring like that since he sat down, not uttering a single word.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm from A.R.G.U.S. We handle all matters related to the supernatural... just like the one your company was involved in," Orin Vale said. "We now suspect that your ordeal might have been a setup. Do you have anything to say about that?"
"No comment," Kirkut said coldly.
"So you're admitting the accusations are true?"
"No comment," Kirkut said, his face expressionless.
"Alright, then let's see..." Orin Vale opened his case file. "Miss Virgil accuses you of getting her drunk, luring her into a room, and assaulting her for about one minute..."
"Nonsense!" The older man's composure broke on the spot, his face flushing red. "How can she slander someone's good name out of thin air like that? I may not have timed it, but it was at least three minutes! Maybe even five, for all I know!"
"Uh... so it really did happen?"
Kirkut shot him a cold glare.
"I don't know if you're a real agent or not, but I've already told this story to everyone countless times. The investigators, people from my company, my family and friends... no one believes me."
"But I might. Who knows?" Orin Vale tapped the table. "If you're persuasive enough."
"You can go read the depositions."
"I'd rather hear it from you."
"...Fine."
Kirkut sighed and finally began to speak slowly, recounting his tale.
There wasn't much to say, really.
He was obsessed with women, and especially after reaching middle age, he lived a debauched life of luxury and excess, his body getting weaker by the day. It was clear someone had catered to his tastes and designed this trap.
"I really believed Virgil was a good girl," he said tearfully. "She was completely different from those slutty vixens I'd met before... sigh, I really believed her. I even seriously considered giving her a home. And this is how she repays me... Agent, you tell me, what's wrong with women these days? Why is it so hard to find a good girl?"
Orin Vale thought for a moment, then said seriously, "Maybe it's because you're not a good person yourself."
Kirkut: "???"
He looked up with a strange expression, thinking, *Is this how you're supposed to comfort a victim?*
The worst part was, when he thought it over... he realized the man had a damn good point.
That made him even more depressed.
"After it happened, I had people do some investigating, and that's when I realized I'd been set up. Virgil approached me with a purpose from the very beginning. She said she was from a modeling agency, and I didn't suspect a thing at first. But I later found out it was just a shell company. Her real identity was a card dealer and hostess, working for a casino..."
"Which one?"
Orin Vale asked, though he already had a good idea.
Kirkut snorted heavily.
"The Iceberg Casino."
(end of chapter)