Twilight deepened, and the city's hustle and bustle gradually fell silent.
On the second-floor balcony of an old apartment building across from Brightman's Video Store.
Wade crouched there quietly like a dormant leopard, with three or four empty potato chip bags scattered by his side.
His eyes were glued to a high-powered telescope, staring at the video store that was still open.
After rescuing the Thomas father and son from the beach, he had come directly here to lie in wait.
'Constantly drawing my own bone marrow for experiments isn't the way to go; it's inefficient and it hurts,' Wade thought, crunching the last potato chip. 'That Translucent fellow isn't bad. He's thick-skinned and tough; he should be enough for me to experiment to my heart's content.'
Screech—
A black sedan screeched to a halt in front of the video store.
The passenger door was pushed open, and a bewildered Hughie was shoved out; a grim-faced Butcher then drove off, quickly disappearing at the end of the street.
After Hughie walked into the store, within Wade's [Blood Sense] vision, a blurry humanoid outline, traced by countless deep blue blood vessels and a glowing heart, strode brazenly from across the street.
A few minutes later, the humanoid outline walked straight into the video store.
"He's here." Wade perked up and raised his telescope. "This guy is useless except for being invisible and able to take a beating... But Hughie, can you really handle the 'Shadow Bug Potion' I gave you?"
The scene inside the store was clearly visible through the telescope. Hughie, who was watching the store alone, was seized by an invisible force and tossed around like a sandbag, crashing into expensive audio equipment and leaving it in shambles.
'Where's the potion? This guy couldn't be stupid enough not to bring it, could he?' Wade's heart skipped a beat as he continued munching on potato chips.
The black sedan driven by Butcher actually returned. It suddenly made a U-turn, accelerated, and with unstoppable momentum, slammed headlong into the video store.
Boom—Crash!
Translucent, who was about to deliver the final blow to Hughie, was sent flying by the impact, slamming heavily against the wall.
Wade stuffed an energy bar into his mouth. "Quite ruthless... he's using Hughie as bait."
Butcher crawled out of the mangled cockpit, brandishing a crowbar and roaring at Hughie, "Run!" He then charged fearlessly at the dusty outline struggling to get up.
Bang! Bang!
Butcher swung the crowbar, but it was difficult to cause any effective damage. Instead, he was knocked to the ground by two punches and struggled to get back up.
At that moment, Wade saw a battered Hughie scramble into the cloakroom and shakily pull out the small vial.
"That's more like it." Wade's eyes were full of anticipation.
Hughie looked at the syringe in his hand, then at Butcher struggling on the ground. Gritting his teeth, he plunged the milky-white potion into his arm.
The moment the potion was injected, Hughie's feet left the ground, and he levitated eerily.
The shadow beneath his feet seemed to come to life, beginning to writhe frantically and expand continuously.
A massive swarm of phantom insects, composed of light, shadow, and physical matter, emerged out of thin air accompanied by a distracting buzzing. Most took the forms of cockroaches, mosquitoes, moths, and flies.
Under the effect of [Phantom Generation], they multiplied rapidly, transforming from dozens into a cloud of hundreds of insects, which then swarmed Translucent all at once.
"F**k! What the hell are these?!" Translucent flailed about in a panic. The swarm itself had weak attack power, but it clearly outlined his form, leaving him with nowhere to hide.
"Nice work, kid." Butcher spat out some blood and took the opportunity to grab a television set and charge again.
"Come back, surround him!" Hughie waved his arms anxiously, trying to control the swarm. But his control was clumsy; the swarm would sometimes fly out of control or cluster too densely, inadvertently blocking Butcher's path of attack.
"Control: zero. Teamwork: negative." Wade put away his telescope. His facial features writhed for a moment before he leaped down from the second floor.
Inside the store, Butcher was sent flying once again.
Hovering a meter in the air, Hughie, in a moment of desperation, unzipped his fly. A stream of yellow liquid gushed out, splashing onto Translucent's face and instantly freezing his head into a block of ice.
"Ugh!" Translucent quickly covered his face, his arms also being frozen by the subsequent liquid.
Butcher struggled to raise his crowbar and beat the restricted Translucent to his knees.
"Butcher, push him over! He's afraid of electricity!" Hughie floated to the wall and picked up a broken cable that was "sizzling" with electricity.
With a powerful kick, Butcher sent Translucent stumbling backward until he landed right on the electrical cable.
"Aaah—!" Amidst the shrill screams, Translucent's body convulsed violently as blue electrical snakes surged through him. Finally, he went limp, emitting wisps of green smoke.
"Huff, huff... Damn it!" Butcher struggled to his feet. When he looked at Hughie, his eyes were full of wariness and ferocity.
He raised the bloody crowbar and barked, "How the fuck do you have superpowers?!"
Hughie, having just hurriedly zipped up, immediately raised his hands. "It's a potion. I took a superpower potion someone gave me... it only lasts for 12 hours."
"Pah, look at you, you coward... using something someone just gave you." Butcher spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm. "Grab the stuff. We need to take this bastard and leave immediately!"
"Aren't you FBI? Arrest him!"
"Heh... I lied to you. If we don't leave now, it'll be too late."
After arguing for a while, they eventually picked up the unconscious Translucent, preparing to load him into the car and take him away.
"Was that piss you were spraying?!" Butcher turned his head away in disgust at the pungent smell. "That's absolutely revolting!"
Hughie stopped in his tracks, looking surprised. "I was trying to save you..."
"Then why didn't you spray more and freeze him completely? Why'd you stop?"
"I ran out..."
Just then, a figure appeared silently like a ghost within the wrecked store.
It was a strange-looking Asian youth whose facial features seemed haphazardly pieced together.
Wade chewed on a chocolate bar, one hand in his pocket, and said indistinctly, "How about we make a deal, you two?"
Without waiting for their agreement, he gave a casual wave.
A powerful force field instantly enveloped Butcher and Hughie. Their bodies remained frozen in the position of carrying the man, unable to move; only their heads could still turn.
"Kid, we're dead meat." Butcher strained to turn his neck, only to find his body completely unresponsive. "Where are those bugs of yours? Call them out!"
Hughie's eyes darted around frantically as he gritted his teeth. "I can't! It's too heavy, they can't get in!"
As soon as the swarm flew into the gravity field, they were crushed against the ground by invisible pressure, instantly turned into mush.
Wade looked at the struggling Hughie and smiled. "Is the potion we gave you working well?"
"You guys?" Hughie's eyes widened. After a moment of realization, he asked, "Are you with that girl who gave me the potion?"
"That's right." Wade walked over to Translucent, placed his hand on the man's calf, and after a moment, looked at Hughie. "You want to cause trouble for A-Train, right? There's information about him in this guy's memory."
"Before A-Train ran over your girlfriend, he specifically went to 'Popclaw' to get something. You can check there."
Hughie felt like he'd been struck by lightning, his whole body trembling. "Is... is that true?"
Wade then turned to Butcher. "As for you, Billy Butcher, former FBI agent who was fired... there's no information you want in his memory."
Butcher was horrified; the other man knew everything about him!
"Translucent is a hot potato you can't handle... I'm taking him." Wade stood up and tossed a metal box onto the table. "Inside are three different types of 'Temporary Superpower Potions' as a bit of sponsorship. The instructions are inside; remember to read them."
Butcher strained his neck and roared, "Wait! You said... you read his memory?"
Wade paused and looked back with interest.
"Then you must fucking know 'Becca'!" Butcher stared at him intently, his voice trembling as he asked, "Tell me! Where is she?! Is she alive or dead?!"
Wade stared at this man who was obsessed with finding his wife and dared to take on Vought Corporation alone, silently assessing: 'In my plan, his obsession with Becca is a variable that could be exploited in the future, but definitely not now.'
"Becca? You mean the former Vought Corporation PR specialist? She vanished into thin air." Wade hesitated for a moment before saying, "You don't need to worry about the Translucent problem either; he's as good as dead..."
Butcher shook his body with all his might and growled, "If you take Translucent from here today, no matter what you do to him..."
"Tomorrow, or the day after at the latest! Vought Corporation and Homelander will be at your door with a mission briefing, power analysis, and a composite sketch of that weird face of yours!!"
"Heh, threatening me?" Seeing that Butcher seemed to want to say more, Wade mocked, "I wouldn't be so sure..."
Right before Butcher and Hughie's eyes, those haphazardly arranged facial features began to flow and reorganize like a melting wax statue.
A second later, it became Butcher's scruffy, astonished face.
"He can come looking for you." Wade used Butcher's voice, tilting his head and laughing playfully.
Then, his face blurred again, turning into Hughie's terrified countenance.
"Or come looking for him."
Finally, Wade's face returned to its original, haphazardly pieced-together weirdness. "Now, any more questions?"
Butcher and Hughie watched in stunned silence, a chill running from their spines to the tops of their heads.
This ability meant that the person before them could be anyone and was everywhere.
Wade ignored the two, grabbed Translucent's ankle, and with a few flickers of his silhouette, appeared outside the store and vanished into the night.
The force field vanished.
Hughie collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.
"Ugh, cough!" Butcher coughed up bloody phlegm and walked gloomily out of the store, looking at the street. "Was that guy... telling the truth?"
"Should we... should we call the police?" Hughie pulled out his phone incoherently. "Translucent was taken away... that has nothing to do with us anymore, right?"
"Call the police? Are you waiting for Vought Corporation to come and torture us for information or silence us?" Butcher grabbed the metal box and stuffed it into his jacket, then gave Hughie a hard shove. "Get in the car! From the moment you took that potion, there's no turning back."
Hughie was half-dragged and half-shoved by Butcher into the nearly totaled car.
After a roar of the engine, the two quickly drove away from the neighborhood.
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