"That's—the military convoy!"
One of the Stark board members gasped in shock.
The military convoy had exploded!
It hadn't even been long since they'd left Tony's villa.
What the hell was going on?
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
One explosion after another rippled through the air.
The entire convoy that had just departed was annihilated in an instant.
The roar of detonations and blazing flames drew countless eyes toward the scene.
Obadiah's face turned deathly grim.
This… wasn't part of the plan at all.
Frank had boarded the vehicle meant to "escort" him into custody.
The moment he stepped inside, the soldiers' attitudes changed completely.
The polite pretense vanished—they began to punch and kick him viciously,
even smashing the butt of a rifle against his skull.
But even bound and beaten, Frank showed no sign of panic.
He even had the leisure to fish for information.
"So… you never intended to let me reach your holding facility alive, did you?"
"You have to understand—we're just following orders,"
the squad leader said flatly, tacitly confirming Frank's words.
"Oh, I see. Taking me away should've been enough to deal with Tony.
So why the need to kill me?"
"Blame yourself for ruining the operation in Afghanistan."
"So I was right… The terrorists there had your people among them?"
Frank had already suspected as much.
Qin Xiao had warned him that the group in Afghanistan had ties to Obadiah.
Now, it seemed the military was involved as well.
"You know too much,"
the squad leader said coldly, signaling his men.
Bang!
Bang!
The soldiers raised their rifles and pulled the triggers without hesitation.
Whizz—
Whizz—
Bullets tore through the confined space, punching into Frank's body in rapid succession.
"Target resisted—neutralized on site!"
The squad leader reported over his comms, fabricating the "official" story.
Resisted?
Frank had been fully restrained—
what kind of resistance could there have been?
He looked down at the motionless body riddled with bullet holes and nodded curtly.
"Clean up the scene."
Several soldiers began setting up to stage the aftermath.
But then, a cold, disdainful voice rose behind them.
"You guys… really don't waste time, huh?"
The "corpse" on the floor slowly stood up again.
Not only that, the restraints that should have bound him had somehow fallen away.
His body twisted unnaturally, like liquid mud—
the shackles had been useless from the start.
"You're not human!"
"You're a mutant!"
Panic flashed across their faces.
This just got serious—
they hadn't realized their target was a mutant!
One soldier immediately activated his comm unit.
"Report! Report! The target is a mutant! Elimination failed!"
These were experienced operatives—
and yet, at such close range, they hadn't even been able to kill him.
They knew they were as good as dead.
Getting this warning out was the last thing they could do.
"No," Frank said with a crooked grin.
"I'm not a mutant… I'm a Devil Fruit user."
He didn't bother stopping them from spreading the news—
in fact, he wanted them to.
He remembered what Qin Xiao had told him:
If you really want to thank me, make the name of Devil Fruit users known.
And this battle—with the military—
would be the perfect start.
Bullets continued to whiz through his body,
but each one sank harmlessly into a mire-like mass.
His flesh flowed and shifted like swamp water;
no wound could harm him.
Then, like a beast unleashed, Frank lunged at the soldiers.
Inside the cramped vehicle, there was nowhere for them to run.
He grabbed a sidearm from one soldier's belt—
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
In three rapid shots, the armed men inside were dead.
The out-of-control vehicle swerved violently before flipping onto its side.
The other military vehicles in the convoy screeched to a halt.
They had all heard the frantic comm report—
and now they were on full alert.
They didn't know what a "Devil Fruit user" was,
but they sure as hell knew what mutants were.
The flipped transport was immediately surrounded.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Muffled thumps came from inside the wrecked vehicle.
Moments later, the warped door was smashed open from within.
A man stepped out—completely unscathed.
A white skull emblem blazed across his chest.
Frank—
had fully become The Punisher.
The soldiers stared at him in horror.
In his hands was a rocket launcher,
its warhead aimed squarely at the lead vehicle of the convoy.
Where the hell had Frank gotten a rocket launcher!?
"Get down!" someone screamed.
To be continued…
(Author's note: Let me know ... If people are reading, I'll upload another chapter for every 3 powerstones)