Ten minutes later, a bright orange taxi stopped right in front of the supermarket.
"Thanks," Ivan said in Yuji's form, handing the driver a twenty.
Hughie was still sitting on the dirty cardboard box by the iron door when he saw the familiar figure approaching.
"He's here."
"That's Butcher's so-called backup?" Frenchie snorted, looking Ivan over. "Doesn't look like much."
"Out of the way," Ivan said, shoving Frenchie aside without hesitation. He could sense the strange signal coming from inside. If he remembered correctly, the person locked up was Kimiko, the Japanese girl with insane regeneration—the exact power he needed right now.
She also had a brother. Ivan couldn't recall the name, but the guy could shoot some kind of force waves from his hands. Decent potential, but nothing special since he couldn't control it for shit.
"Fuck—" Frenchie started, instantly pissed.
Hughie grabbed his arm before he could explode.
"Well, I'm giving him a chance today because of Butcher's reputation," Frenchie growled, stepping back beside MM with his arms crossed. "Let's see how this asshole opens the lock."
Ivan ignored him.
He simply raised his left hand and sliced it across the door seam. A sharp metallic snap echoed. Then he pushed the iron door open and walked straight in.
"What the fuck?" Frenchie muttered. He rushed over and crouched down. The bolt had been cut clean through like butter.
"That guy just sliced the lock with his bare hand. He's a fucking supe," Frenchie said, spinning toward Hughie.
Only then did Hughie speak up. "He's the one who killed Translucent. That's why I told you to wait for him."
"Fuck you! Why didn't you say that earlier?" Frenchie looked ready to throttle Hughie. A second later he exhaled. "Hard to believe Butcher actually recruited a supe."
---
Hughie scratched his nose awkwardly. "Actually… he's not really part of the team. Butcher doesn't even know who he is."
"Next time spit it all out at once," Frenchie snapped. If Hughie didn't look nothing like Butcher, he would've sworn the two were related.
"Whatever. Let's just follow him."
Hughie and Frenchie fell in behind MM as they moved down the dark corridor.
They had barely stepped into the tomb-like passage when the sound of heavy gunfire erupted ahead.
Inside the underground cell block, over a dozen criminals were unloading on Ivan with assault rifles. Muzzle flashes lit up the room as bullets slammed into him nonstop.
The rounds couldn't pierce his carbon skin. They just stung like hell from the impact. That was it.
Then, under the terrified stares of the gunmen, Ivan slowly raised his invisible right hand. Five thin tendrils shot out like wires, wrapping around the shooters. He clenched his fist.
Blood lines spiderwebbed across their bodies like cracked glass. A second later, the men collapsed into piles of twitching meat and gore.
Silence fell.
"Finally quiet," Ivan muttered. His right hand slowly became visible again.
He followed the signal and found Kimiko locked in a cage. She was completely feral after days of torture, eyes wild with zero humanity left. She smelled the blood on him and started crawling backward in terror.
"Analyze all her abilities."
While he ran the scan, Hughie and the others crept into the dungeon. The sudden gunfire earlier had scared the shit out of them. All three moved carefully, guns up, scanning every corner.
"Why'd the shooting stop? Did the mystery guy get taken out?" Frenchie asked.
He turned the corner and froze. His face went bone white. "Holy fucking shit… Did we just walk into hell?"
"Ugh—" Hughie clapped a hand over his mouth and sprinted back toward the exit.
"That guy slaughtered all of them," MM said, keeping his cool. He'd seen plenty of ugly shit in his life. This was nasty, but he could handle it.
MM stepped around the piles of shredded meat and walked into the side room. A half-eaten meal still sat on the table. He rifled through the boxes nearby and found files full of human experimentation records. Sick, twisted crap.
"Shit. These bastards," MM spat on the floor.
"Keep looking for Compound V," Frenchie said, joining the search. A place like this had to have some stashed away.
While digging through the mess, Frenchie spotted Ivan standing in front of a steel cage. Inside was a young Asian woman, Kimiko, curled up and staring with empty, feral eyes.
"Who's that?" Hughie asked, wiping his mouth after puking outside. He moved behind Frenchie and stared at the girl.
"We should let her out," Frenchie said softly, looking at her lost expression.
"No," MM cut in, blocking him. "We're here for Compound V. Grab it and go. This isn't a rescue mission."
Hughie snorted. "That sounds exactly like something Butcher would say."
"Don't compare me to that asshole. You should say I sound like a guy who wants to stay alive?" MM shot back.
"Shut the fuck up," Ivan said coldly, still as a statue in front of the cage.
All three men instantly went quiet. None of them wanted to piss off the mysterious supe who had just turned a dozen men into ground beef.
[Analysis Complete]
[Talent Skill: Enhanced Regeneration]
[Fusion Condition: 100ml of Kimiko's blood]
[After fusion: Significant boost to physical durability, strength, reflexes, and regenerative ability. Regeneration scales with overall body strength, but has a limit. Further upgrades will require fusing additional regeneration talents.]
Ivan had expected Kimiko to have multiple powers like Homelander. Turned out she only had the one. That explained why the scan finished so fast, just a few minutes.
He stood there silently, staring at the broken girl in the cage.
___
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69