Time froze for the duration of a heartbeat, and then the universe exploded with the sound of wet bone.
When the tungsten core fired from Jin's modified nail rifle impacted Tank's right kneecap, the sound echoing through the tunnel wasn't a scream; it was the sickening crack of a giant tree being torn up by its roots. The blood spurting from the shattered joint appeared in Jin's gray world like jet-black oil splattering onto the concrete.
According to the laws of physics, Tank should have collapsed right then, but the giant man listened not to physics, but to the pure rage coursing through his veins. The growl rising from his throat vibrated the tunnel walls as he launched himself forward like a wounded bear, powering off his intact left foot instead of putting weight on the mangled leg. Pain hadn't stopped him; it had only triggered his adrenaline and pinned his pupils.
Meanwhile, V, waiting atop the train car, didn't just watch this display of savagery. Tank's roar of agony wasn't a cause for surprise, but rather the perfect signal to begin. As Tank's massive body hurled forward like a battering ram, V used the noise he created as a curtain, gliding down from the shadows. In Jin's gray visor, V was no longer a human, but a lethal white blur in motion.
Jin hauled on the cocking handle of the rifle to chamber a second nail. The clack-clack of the mechanism was drowned out by the whine of bullets from V's silenced weapon. V, gliding down from the top of the car, had already started firing in mid-air. The first bullet struck the armor plate on Jin's left shoulder, sending a kinetic shockwave through him; the second grazed the visor of his mask.
Instinct for survival taking over, Jin threw himself to the ground; sliding over the wet, greasy concrete, he scrambled under the overturned wagon just as Tank's fist came down like a sledgehammer, pulverizing the ground where he had stood a second before. Amidst the rising concrete dust, a smell filled Jin's nose, intense enough to overpower the burnt cable and ozone scent of the tunnel: Ammonia.
This was the scent of Tank's sweat, of pure muscle power and animalistic rage. When Jin rolled onto his back and raised his rifle, he grasped the gravity of the situation. Tank was coming at him, holding a metal sheet ripped from the wagon's body like a shield, while V moved in his blind spot with the precision of a scalpel.
One crushed, the other cut. Jin's mind calculated like a cold computer: fighting both at once was suicide; he needed to narrow the field. When Tank hurled the metal sheet like a frisbee, Jin rolled aside at the last second. The plate slammed into the wagon's wheels, flooding the tunnel with blinding white sparks. But V was waiting for this opening.
He emerged from Tank's left like a snake; in his hand was no longer a gun, but a long, matte black knife. As Jin tried to get up, V's knife lunged toward the weak point in the neck gap of his armor. Jin reflexively interposed the stock of the nail rifle. The CLANG of metal hitting metal rang through the tunnel, but the power coming from V's slender wrists was incredible; it was a pressure denser than steel, enough to make Jin's arms tremble.
With Jin's attention on V, Tank found the opportunity he was waiting for. Hopping on one foot, he closed in on Jin and grabbed his torso with those massive, calloused hands. As Jin's feet left the ground, spittle flying from Tank's mouth hit his mask. "GOT YOU!" the giant roared, slamming Jin against the wall of the wagon.
BOOM!
The air emptied from Jin's lungs. Gray warning text flashing on his mask's HUD screamed that external armor damage had reached 30% and rib stress levels were critical. Tank was squeezing. Like being inside a hydraulic press, the armor plates creaked and bent. V stood behind Tank, flipping the knife in his hand, aiming for Jin's throat; he wasn't rushing, waiting for his prey to be completely immobilized. Ozone, the metallic taste of blood, and Tank's breath mixed together as Jin's vision began to darken.
Tank wasn't letting go.
Then he had to make him let go. Jin's right hand was pinned, but his left arm... His left arm was pressed against Tank's thick, bull-like neck. And on his left arm was the modified High Voltage Coil. In the millisecond V lunged to drive the knife home, Jin crushed the trigger in his palm with all his strength.
CRACK!!!
The tunnel was illuminated by a blinding, stark white light. The 40,000-volt electric current, jury-rigged from a car ignition coil and a neon transformer, met no resistance as it passed through Tank's sweaty skin and discharged directly into his medulla oblongata. This wasn't a shock; it was man-made lightning. Tank's body went rigid; his muscles contracted so violently that the sound of his own bones cracking could be heard.
V was forced to jump back in reflex the moment he saw the electric arc radiating from Tank's body. Black foam bubbled from Tank's mouth as his eyes rolled back, but Jin didn't release the trigger. The coil was heating up, the insulation on Jin's own arm was melting, and the smell of burning flesh filled the tunnel. "FALL!" Jin screamed from under his mask.
And finally, Tank collapsed sideways like a tower falling out of control. He lay on the ground trembling, twitching with a fried nervous system. When Jin fell to his knees, free, he was gasping for breath. Smoke rose from the coil on his left arm. Raising his head, he saw the danger wasn't over.
The sledgehammer had fallen, but the Scalpel was still there. Standing five meters away, the sleeves of V's white shirt were rolled up, and there was neither fear nor worry on his face. Only the cold reflection of the black knife in his hand...
Jin tried to stand and level his rifle, but V moved with superhuman speed. He didn't run; he flowed. Before Jin could pull the trigger, V's kick struck the rifle, knocking the weapon aside. Then V struck Jin's chest armor with his palm. It didn't look like a hard hit, just a soft touch; but the kinetic transfer behind it sent Jin flying back two meters to land flat on his back.
Air emptied from Jin's lungs the moment his back hit the ground. V gripped the black knife in a reverse hold and drove it toward the armor gap at Jin's throat, that millimeter-perfect point of death. Jin reflexively shoved the body of the nail rifle in the way. CLANG! The knife sparked against the steel casing of the rifle. V's pressure was incredible; those slender arms bore down on Jin's chest like a hydraulic press. Jin's teeth locked together, snarling under his mask. He used the rifle like a shield, trying to throw V off.
Right at that moment.
While struggling with V's weight, Jin felt a sharp, icy sting in the armor plate on his back.
This wasn't a blow. This was a bite.
In Jin's gray-turned world, the silhouette emerged from the shadow behind him: Radar. The blind and deaf assassin had waited for the chaos Tank created and V's pressure. Tracking seismic vibrations with the soles of his feet, he had chosen the moment Jin was most vulnerable, most immobile. The long, needle-like titanium skewer—a stiletto—in his hand was entering through the armpit gap of Jin's armor, advancing toward his kidney.
Jin was trapped between two presses. In front, V's knife forced his throat; behind, Radar's skewer was carving a path to his internal organs. Pain flashed white lightning across his gray visor.
"If I don't move, I die."
Jin stopped resisting V's pressure. He suddenly let himself go. With this sudden loss of resistance, V stumbled forward. Jin seized this millisecond of imbalance, wrapped his legs around Radar's torso, and threw himself backward, on top of Radar.
The three of them, a tangled ball of flesh and metal, rolled onto the concrete floor. Radar was pinned under Jin's weight but didn't let go of the skewer. Jin brought his left elbow down hard on Radar's already bandaged head. The moment Radar groaned in pain and loosened his grip, Jin threw himself to the side and stood up. Black-looking liquid oozed from the left side of his armor.
V had already sprung to his feet with cat-like agility. Radar straightened up from the ground as well. He had no eyes, his ears heard nothing, but his head was tilted slightly to the side, listening to the vibration of the blood dripping from Jin's armor hitting the concrete.
Jin now faced two hunters. One saw but didn't speak. The other didn't see but felt.
V didn't give a signal to Radar. There was no need. With the deadly harmony born of years, they attacked at the same time.
V dove in from the front. He delivered rapid, surgical cuts with his knife, targeting Jin's face, neck, and joints. Jin tried to parry these attacks using the heavy nail rifle like a club. But the rifle was clumsy, and V was like the wind. With every block, V circled Jin's defense, opening a new scratch, a new gash in his armor.
Radar was tracking Jin's footwork. Whenever Jin moved to counter V, Radar slid from the ground, swinging his skewers at Jin's knees, ankles, points that would break his balance. Jin was gasping for air. The oxygen inside his mask wasn't enough.
"I can fight what I see. But the unseen will finish me."
He had to take Radar out of the equation. But how? The man tracked vibration, not sound. As long as Jin moved, Radar would find him.
Jin blocked a kick V aimed at his face with the rifle butt and staggered back. His back hit the metal body of the wagon. Radar felt the vibration of this impact. He understood Jin was "cornered." The blind assassin extended his skewers forward and broke into a full sprint to pin Jin to the wagon.
That risky, insane idea came to Jin's mind.
"Don't move."
Jin dodged V's knife thrust by turning his head at the last second. The knife embedded itself in the metal wagon next to Jin's head. In that brief moment while V tugged to free the knife, Jin watched Radar coming.
Radar was coming.
Jin didn't move. He held his breath. He locked his muscles. He cut the vibration.
Radar felt the target suddenly "vanish." The vibration was gone. He lost his orientation. But his momentum couldn't be stopped.
In the split second Radar was about to crash into Jin, Jin dropped.
Radar flew over Jin and... crashed directly into V.
V had freed his knife from the wagon and was turning to Jin when he found Radar in his arms. The two assassins stumbled from the impact.
That was the moment. That moment of chaos.
Jin was on the ground. The nail rifle was in his hand. He turned the barrel up toward those two entangled bodies. He didn't distinguish which was V, which was Radar.
He just hauled on the trigger.
PUFF!
The tungsten nail passed over V's shoulder and buried itself under Radar's jaw. It punched through Radar's skull.
When Radar's lifeless body hit the wet concrete, the thud bent and broke the perception of time in the tunnel once more. As the white smoke—steam—drifting from Jin's barrel slowly dispersed, V didn't even look at the corpse of his comrade slumped in his arms for a second. He shook Radar off him like a dirty shirt spilled with coffee.
There was neither grief, nor anger, nor surprise on his face. Only a cold, deadly focus.
V slowly undid the buttons of his jacket. His white shirt shone with a blinding brightness in Jin's gray world under the tunnel's sparks. He took off his jacket and dropped it. He rolled up his sleeves. The muscle fibers under his skin tightened like biological ropes. These weren't crude, bulging muscles like Tank's; these were compressed, increased density, compact fibers, each as strong as a hydraulic piston.
Jin felt to his marrow that the scale of the danger had changed. The Sledgehammer was broken, the Ghost was gone. But what stood before him now wasn't a soldier, it was a force of nature.
Jin pulled the cocking handle of the nail rifle. CLACK.
Last three nails. Distance five meters.
He hauled on the trigger.
PUFF!
The tungsten core shot from the barrel. Near-sonic speed, a lethal momentum. But V wasn't there. V didn't dodge the bullet; he passed through it. In Jin's gray visor, V's movement didn't look like a continuous flow, but a "glitch" where reality skipped frames. One moment he was there, the next he was floating two meters to the left.
Jin swung the barrel. PUFF! Second nail.
V didn't even bother to dodge this time. He shielded his face with his left arm. The tungsten nail struck the hidden Graphene alloy armor plate on V's forearm under the shirt. PING! Sparks danced in the air. The nail ricocheted off V's arm and embedded itself in the tunnel ceiling. V didn't even flinch. He just kept walking. His steps weren't quickening; they were lengthening. Every step brought him impossibly closer to Jin.
Jin couldn't fire the last nail. Because V was at the barrel's tip.
Jin used the nail rifle like a spear, making a hard thrust toward V's chest. His aim wasn't to pierce V, just to gain some distance.
It was a mistake.
V didn't parry the steel barrel coming toward him. He raised his left hand and caught the weapon in mid-air. But he didn't attempt a foolish show of strength to bend the thick steel barrel. V was a surgeon, not a sledgehammer.
He dug his fingers into the weapon's jugular, the brass pressure valve where the CO2 tank connected to the main body. V squeezed. The sound of metal fatigue was heard. CRUNCH. The brass gears stripped.
HISSSS!
High-pressure gas sprayed out from the burst valve. The tunnel was instantly covered in a cloud of white, freezing mist. Jin's vision was completely obscured. The weapon was now a pile of junk. V ripped the useless hunk of metal from Jin's hands and tossed it aside. CLANG.
Jin was unarmed. He staggered back. His back hit something. A mass of cold, sweaty flesh.
Tank.
The giant man was still on the ground. His body locked by the electricity—tetanus—he couldn't move. But he wasn't dead. His head, touching Jin's leg, was twitching. Tank's bloodshot eyes were on Jin. His teeth were clenched so hard blood oozed from his gums. He was fighting a superhuman battle of will to break that paralysis, to get up and tear Jin apart.
Jin tried to jump over Tank and get away, but V didn't allow it. Emerging from the mist, V struck Jin's chest armor with the heel of his right hand. This wasn't a punch. This was pure kinetic transfer at close range.
Jin didn't hear the ceramic plates in his chest crack at the moment of impact; he felt it. The blow lifted him off the ground. Jin slammed into the metal body of the wagon behind him like a rag doll.
BOOM!
With the impact, Jin's visor went black, then returned to gray. The air in his lungs was completely emptied. The taste of blood in his mouth was intense, like licking rusty iron. As Jin was about to fall, V grabbed his throat. V lifted Jin into the air with one hand and pinned him to the wagon wall. Jin's feet were off the ground. V's fingers were crushing Jin's neck armor, compressing the larynx underneath.
Alarm sounds from the mask rang in Jin's ears: CRITICAL DAMAGE... SYSTEM FAILURE... OXYGEN LEVEL LOW...
Jin grabbed V's wrist. He tried to break free. But V's arm was like a biological vise; it neither trembled nor flexed.
V brought his face close to Jin's mask. He was so close that Jin could smell his breath—a cold, minty, artificial scent—even through the filters. Tank's growls on the floor, Radar's corpse, the sparks in the tunnel... They all turned into background noise. V's calm voice cut through the noise in the tunnel like a knife.
"You have no friends," V said. He squeezed his fingers a little tighter. The visor glass on Jin's mask began to crack. SNAP. "You have no weapon," V continued. "And you have no power to scratch my skin."
Jin's vision was blurring. The gray world was darkening, a black tunnel opening inward from the edges. His consciousness was about to shut down. V tilted his head slightly to the side. He looked into that broken, fading visor on Jin's mask, into Jin's eyes.
"Now tell me, Judge..." V said, almost whispering. "Even while drowning in your own blood... do you still believe in justice?"
Jin couldn't answer. He just fell into the darkness.
UNIT-7 ENTERING. CLEARING FIELD OF VIEW.
V heard the voices. He didn't even turn his head to look at the tunnel entrance. His time was up. Tank was making rattling sounds on the ground. He had to carry him.
V turned to Jin.
"Justice is dead," he said.
And he squeezed his fingers.
CRUNCH.
The sickening sound of the break coming from Jin's neck drowned out even the sounds of the ESWAT team in the tunnel. Jin's windpipe collapsed. His vertebrae separated. V dropped Jin's lifeless body to the ground, next to Radar's corpse.
Like a garbage bag.
V went to Tank's side with superhuman speed. He hefted that massive bulk onto his shoulder in a single motion and, just before the ESWAT team's lasers pierced the smoke, dove into the tunnel's dark service corridors and vanished.
Only the corpses remained. And a Judge with a broken neck.