Three o'clock…
"BOOM!"
An explosion tore through the entire neighborhood.
Outside the largest bank in the city, thick, roaring smoke billowed up in waves.
"Report! Super-criminals are attacking the biggest bank in the city. If they succeed, our losses will be impossible to calculate…"
At Global Defense Agency headquarters, an intelligence officer—white-faced with fear—turned to look at Cecil after receiving the alert.
"A bunch of sh*t!"
In Cecil's eyes, there was only anger—anger layered on top of anger. The Guardians of the Globe had only been gone for a few days, and these scumbag villains already couldn't sit still.
"Notify Omni-Man. Nolan."
Cecil didn't dare waste a second, barking the order at his people.
"Director, Nolan is currently in the U.K. fighting a fire-breathing snake," a staffer reported, looking at Cecil with an ugly, strained expression.
"Sh*t. Then who can we send right now?"
Cecil raked a hand through his hair, forcing himself to think.
"Mark is in school. We could also try contacting Jovian… wherever he is," the blond secretary answered.
"…"
Cecil's eyes sharpened. He ignored that suggestion.
"What about the Teen Team?! What are they doing right now?"
"Teen Team's Eve is also in class…" the secretary said, tapping rapidly on his tablet. "Right now, only Robot, Rex Splode, and Dupli-Kate are on standby at the base."
"Then send those three."
Cecil felt like his skull was about to split. Jovian's situation wasn't handled yet. The Guardians' situation wasn't handled yet. And now these damn supervillains were acting up, causing chaos everywhere.
"Yes, Director. We've already notified the Teen Team."
The secretary nodded, confirming the message had been sent.
Meanwhile, at the Teen Team base…
"Everyone—we've got a mission."
After receiving the call, Robot relayed Cecil's orders to the others.
"Seriously?!" Rex said, eyes lighting up. "I just finished training…"
He snatched up a towel, wiped sweat off in a messy hurry, then threw on his orange, sewer-worker-looking suit and rushed to Robot's side, ready to deploy.
"The enemy is attacking the largest bank in the city," Robot said. "Mark and Eve are in school. Omni-Man is saving the world. Right now, we're the only ones who can stop them."
"So that means Jovian's not showing up, right?!" Rex laughed loudly. "Hahaha—leave it to me!"
"It's time for Rex Splode to put on a show!"
He practically vibrated with excitement. With Jovian around, every fight turned into the Jovian Show, and Rex felt like background decoration. That was never the ending he wanted.
"I want you to be careful," Robot said, voice hard and serious. "This time we don't have Jovian. Any one of us could die."
"No need to tell me." Rex waved him off. "I know."
"…"
Robot looked at Rex's smug, cocky face and immediately understood: Rex did not, in fact, know.
But Robot wasn't Rex's parent. He wasn't obligated to teach him. And saying too much would only make Rex push back harder.
Robot activated the Jack control system and called in a mag-lev hoverboard. They would ride it to the bank and take down the villains.
Meanwhile, at the largest bank in the city…
"God, this is beautiful~"
Kursk flung stacks of cash up into the air. Green bills rained down like a storm.
"Hey! Quit screwing around," snapped one of his partners—an armed super-criminal holding an arc-welder gun. Beside him stood another man whose entire body steamed with endless molten lava, like a watered-down warlord straight out of a nightmare. "If a superhero shows up, we're finished!"
"Relax~" Kursk strolled forward with absolute confidence. "No one's coming to bother us today."
"Huh?!"
The magma man and the arc-welder gunman exchanged a look, not understanding what Kursk meant.
"Haha…" Kursk grinned, pleased with himself. "I've got my sources. You just follow my lead."
He didn't bother explaining further. Even if he did, they wouldn't believe it.
The so-called greatest heroes—the ones who "fight evil"—weren't as shining and righteous as they looked. Beneath the surface, plenty of them were monsters wearing human faces.
Honestly, compared to those hypocrites, villains like them—who admitted they acted for profit—were practically honest.
"Now," Kursk said, turning to the magma man, "use your lava to melt open these vault doors. I mean all of them. Every last one."
"Fine."
With Kursk's assurance, the magma man nodded. His body instantly liquefied into flowing molten sludge and surged toward the vaults, hissing as it ate into the metal.
"Hey, little punks! Rex Splode is here!"
Just as the three of them stared greedily at the vaults, a loud shout rang out—and several darts snapped through the air, slamming into the magma man's body.
"BOOM!"
The darts detonated on contact, blasting the magma man apart into a scattered mess.
"Ambush?!" Kursk and the arc-welder gunman whirled around at once, bracing themselves.
"Gurgle… gurgle…"
At the same time, the magma man's splattered molten body bubbled violently—then flowed back together like liquid, re-forming into a single shape.
"Hey," the magma man growled, returning to a humanoid form. He glanced at the attacker, then turned with a scowl toward Kursk. "You said nobody would bother us."
"It's just a small fry," Kursk snapped, rolling his shoulders. "Take him out."
"Don't order me."
The magma man glared at him. They were partners, not boss and subordinate.
"Kid," the magma man rumbled, cracking his neck, "that one hurt."
"So… have you decided how you want to die?"
He strode toward Rex. In the next instant, his body swelled and transformed into a three-meter-tall molten giant, towering over Rex like a living furnace.
"Wow—magma freak!" Rex said, grinning. "Okay, first I need to explain two things."
"First: I'm not small fry."
"Second: I'm not alone."
As he spoke, Rex pulled out a short, thirty-centimeter baton from behind him and tossed it straight at the magma giant.
"BOOM!"
The explosion shredded the magma man's entire right arm into a mangled, molten ruin.
"Told you," the magma man said, staring at his ruined arm as his face went cold, "that hurts."
He swung his left arm down at Rex like a falling pillar.
"Over here, big guy!"
Right as the magma man moved, he heard a sharp electronic tone.
"Hm?"
He turned—and saw an orange, expressionless robot holding a massive fire extinguisher.
"Oh, sh*t…"
The magma man's expression twisted.
"FWOOSH!"
Robot triggered the extinguisher. Thick white foam blasted out and completely smothered the magma man's face.
"Help me!" the magma man roared, clutching at his eyes. "I can't see!"
"Idiot," Kursk and the arc-welder gunman muttered at the same time, looking at him like he was the dumbest person alive.
They both shifted into combat posture.
Kursk raised his hands, electricity crackling into shape.
The arc-welder gunman adjusted his weapon's angle, a greasy smile creeping onto his face as he prepared to fire.
"What are you looking at?"
A hoarse female voice whispered right by his ear.
"Huh?!"
The gunman's leering grin froze. He spun around toward the voice—
"Die."
A small, compact fist drove straight into him.
"Pff—!"
The arc-welder gunman went down in a heap, dropped by a single punch.
"Damn it…"
Kursk's eyes sharpened as he saw the sudden appearance of a bob-cut girl—and his partner sprawled on the floor. Cursing, he stepped forward, ready to personally fry her.
"Hey! What are you looking at?!"
Before Kursk could unleash his best move, several darts smacked into his body.
"BOOM!"
The detonation launched him across the bank like a rag doll.
"Bastards…"
"A bunch of bastards!"
Kursk cursed as he forced himself up off the ground.
"I suggest you surrender," Rex said, casually bouncing a dart in his hand as he walked up with a confident smirk. "Your buddies are already handled by my team. Like I said—I'm not alone."
"…"
Kursk didn't answer. He looked at the magma man, blinded and beaten back by foam. He looked at the arc-welder gunman pinned down by five bob-cut girls—each with a different number printed on her chest—unable to get up.
He understood what that meant.
Now it was just him.
"Useless trash!"
"In the end I have to do everything myself!"
Anger flashed in Kursk's eyes. As his fury surged, the lights in the bank began to flicker wildly—bright, dim, bright, dim—like the building itself was reacting to the storm in his head.
"You want a duel? Fine," Rex said, pulling out two batons from behind him. As he activated his power, both batons began to glow.
"I want you all dead!" Kursk roared.
Electricity exploded through the room.
In an instant, every electronic device in the entire bank building died.
Darkness swallowed everything.
"BOOM—!"
The moment the blackout hit, a thunderous explosion erupted near everyone's ears.
The shockwave blasted Dupli-Kate's many duplicates off their feet, sending them flying. The only body that didn't get thrown immediately hit the floor and flattened herself to avoid the debris.
A few seconds later, everything seemed to fall silent.
"Rex! Robot! Are you okay?!" Kate called out.
As the sudden pressure faded, she rose from the ground—but she didn't stand tall. She stayed low, crouched, feeling her way through the darkness as she searched and called for her teammates.
"I'm fine, Kate," Robot answered immediately. "But something's on top of me. I can't move right now."
"Okay. Don't move. I'm coming to—"
Kate exhaled, relieved… then her heart seized again.
"Rex? Rex—where are you?!"
Rex still hadn't responded.
"Bzzz… bzzz…"
As Kate kept crouching and calling his name, the overhead lights finally sputtered back to life.
When the light returned, everyone could see again.
And the first thing Kate saw was a pair of orange pants.
She knew those pants.
They were Rex's.
"Rex—so you're here! Thank god, you're okay!" Kate said, lifting herself with sudden hope. "When I called you just now, why didn't you ans—"
As she rose, the rest of the scene came into view.
That orange figure had arms.
It had legs.
It had a torso.
But it didn't have the one thing a person needs to talk… to think…
"Fuck!"
Kate stared up at the body—standing stiff and upright, not even fallen yet—blood pouring out in bright, wet streams from where the most important part of a human being should have been.
Two lines of tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
"…"
Kursk watched her cry.
He watched the headless "knight" finally collapse.
Then he looked down at his own chest.
A massive hole had been smashed clean through it.
With the last scraps of strength left in his body, he turned around.
Behind him was a gaping crater in the wall—more than a meter wide.
"Fuck…"
Kursk stared at the hole, managed one final curse… and then dropped hard to the floor, never rising again.
"…"
Pinned beneath a heap of vaults and heavy safes, Robot's eyes flickered with signal-light patterns. Thanks to his night vision, he had seen everything clearly.
A rock the size of a fist had punched through the wall behind Kursk, blown a hole through Kursk's chest, and—on the same path—destroyed Rex's head.
Then it had slammed into the floor.
That single impact had created the catastrophic shockwave that produced everything they were seeing now.
"A meteor…?"
Robot processed it for a moment, then felt something close to disbelief.
All of this… because of a meteor?
Out in space…
"That throw was a perfect ten."
Jovian floated calmly in the endless starfield.
If he said Rex would die today, then Rex would not last until tomorrow.
There was no such thing as a real coincidence.
Jovian became a blur and shot off toward the U.K., going to help his father deal with that fire-breathing snake.
That pitch had been a good one.
Tonight, he deserved a bigger dinner.
A whole-snake feast.