An Unexpected Incident, A Chance Encounter with a Superhuman
Although the two of them had only met a few times, all it took was looking at each other's previous research projects and papers to get a clear sense of how capable the other really was.
It had to be said that he and Otto were quite similar in one regard.
Both of them had spent their time teaching in academia, full of talent but with nowhere to truly use it.
So they had been left to pass their days in ordinary obscurity within the university system.
"Mm. I trust your judgment. You two might even end up collaborating on future projects. Keep working hard, Samuel. I believe in you. You won't disappoint me."
After hearing Samuel's objective assessment of Otto, Killian nodded. He gave him an approving pat on the shoulder, then turned and walked back toward the armored vehicle.
At the same time, the Blackwatch squads began their cleanup operation.
After putting on specialized protective cleanup suits, they started using dedicated disinfectants and a series of sterilization measures to clean the entire dock.
In no time at all, the once blood-soaked, chaotic dock was restored to its previous state by the Blackwatch team's professional efficiency. To make it look as though no one had been there for a long time, they even gathered dust from nearby areas and spread it evenly across the ground.
If someone did not inspect the place carefully, they would never guess that a massacre had just taken place there.
After dealing with all of those people, Killian's mood, which had been fouled by the robbery, improved considerably.
Then he boarded his armored vehicle with his guards.
The three test subjects also returned to their compartment after undergoing full sterilization and being thoroughly washed clean.
During that process, Subject No. 1 felt that the Blackwatch team members who had enthusiastically scrubbed him down deserved a five-star review.
Absolutely amazing.
Soon afterward, the convoy started moving again and headed steadily back toward the company.
This time, since there was no rush, the ride felt incomparably comfortable to the test subjects in the compartment, especially Subject No. 1. It felt far better than the trip there.
He decided he would also give this driver a good review.
And so the journey continued without incident. Aside from the occasional scattered cars passing by on the main road, nothing unusual happened at all.
But when the convoy passed through a small town on the edge of the city, Killian noticed something strange.
At a turn near the edge of town, a luxurious purple sedan was parked there.
And if one looked carefully, a man could be seen frantically saying something while cornering a woman and steadily forcing her backward.
What made Killian curious was that despite the obvious commotion, every nearby house still had its lights on, yet not a single person came out to help. No one even opened a window to look.
That oddity, together with everything else, made the situation feel deeply wrong.
His instincts told him it would be best not to get involved.
But at the same time, another voice in his gut told him there might be something worth gaining here.
And just as Killian was still hesitating, the woman, who had already been pushed all the way into a corner, spotted the convoy and reacted as though she had seen a savior. She shoved the man away and stumbled toward them.
But before she could reach Killian, a fully armed Blackwatch squad had already trained infrared sights across her body from every angle.
The woman understood very clearly that if she moved even slightly, she would probably be turned into a sieve.
The only thing that reassured her a little was that the men behind her were also being targeted in the same way.
And once she realized that, she could no longer hold herself up and collapsed to the ground.
"I'm sorry. That's my girlfriend. We had an argument just now, so there may have been some misunderstanding."
"She has low blood sugar right now. I need to take her to the hospital. Would you mind letting me bring her with me?"
At that moment, the man behind her behaved in a way no one expected.
When he saw the infrared sights fixed on him, he showed no panic at all. Instead, he calmly raised his hands in a surrender gesture and spoke with a relaxed smile, as if chatting casually with friends.
But in the next second, his expression began to change visibly. Little by little, he seemed to realize that something was wrong.
"Superhuman, suspected psychic manipulation. Implement Protocol Seven. All units, monitor yourselves, fall back immediately, request T-700 support."
The Blackwatch squad leader had already noticed something was wrong. He immediately concentrated fully and aimed not at the man's chest this time, but at his arms and legs while barking out rapid orders.
As soon as they heard the leader's command, the others fell back at speed while shifting their aim points from the man's torso to his limbs.
And then, in the blink of an eye, the man watched the red dots disappear from his chest and spread across his arms and legs instead.
At that moment, even though he did not fully understand what was happening, childhood memories surged through him, and his heart, which he had long thought no longer cared, started trembling again.
Only this time, he did not dare move.
Because he could tell these people were disciplined and trained. Maybe they had come specifically to capture him.
And if he moved, they really might shoot.
Even so, while keeping his hands raised, the man quietly tried to use his ability, attempting to control the nearby townspeople and force them to come outside.
But before he could do anything further, he saw something step down from the armored vehicle.
They looked exactly like Terminators.
In that moment, if he had not still been able to clearly feel that his powers were working, he might genuinely have thought he had been hypnotized.
Because that was a Terminator.
A globally famous movie icon.
And now it was standing right in front of him.
He could not even begin to imagine what kind of organization would deploy something like that just to capture him.
With equipment like this, wouldn't it make more sense to go conquer the world?
What did it have to do with an innocent passerby who only wanted true love?
But no matter how close the man came to mentally breaking down, the T-700s kept marching forward with mechanical precision. Their terrifying red sensor eyes fixed on him as they advanced with rifles raised.
Then, once they got within range, one of them smashed him unconscious with a brutal elbow strike.
Another immediately locked special handcuffs and shackles onto him, completing the capture of the superhuman.
Under Killian's remote command, the T-700 hoisted the man up and threw him into the compartment holding the three test subjects.
At that moment, as soon as the metal compartment opened again, Subject No. 1 noticed that the scenery outside had indeed changed.
That made him even more convinced of his own genius.
Clearly, getting into the metal box really did move you to another place.
And what made him even happier was that the boss had brought him more food.
Apparently the boss knew he had not eaten enough before and was now giving him a little after-dinner snack.
But in the next second, Subject No. 1's expression visibly fell.
Because Killian's command came through, ordering him to watch over this runt, someone even smaller than the little runt from before. This one was practically a peanut.
He was not even as thick as one of Subject No. 1's arms.
He could not imagine what possible use such a thing could have.
But because it was the boss's order, Subject No. 1 had no choice. He plopped himself down in front of the unconscious man and lowered his head to sniff him.
He might not be allowed to eat him, but smelling him could at least help ease the craving.
Outside, after the man had been subdued, the Blackwatch soldiers who had gotten close to him were visibly unsteady even when they walked.
It could only be said that the man's ability was terrifying even against strong-willed Blackwatch troops. If they had stayed there much longer, they likely would have been completely controlled.
After the Blackwatch squad leader forced himself through the churning discomfort in his brain long enough to report everything to Killian, his men helped him back into an armored vehicle.
Because the original members of the lead convoy had lost most of their combat effectiveness, they were redistributed among the other armored vehicles, and a few additional soldiers were reassigned to replace them.
"Boss, what should we do with the girl?"
At that moment, the temporary squad leader who had just taken over looked at the unconscious woman lying in the distance and asked Killian.
"Bring her back. Put her on Sublevel One for now."
After hearing the question, Killian began thinking.
He could not clearly remember the full scene, but the man's ability and that distinctive purple outfit instantly reminded him of a Marvel superhuman.
The Purple Man.
An ordinary man who had gained the power to control others through a rare accident.
That power had allowed him to accomplish all kinds of things most men could only fantasize about, including building himself a harem.
Later on, though, he got bored with that life and eventually encountered what he believed to be his "true love," Jessica Jones.
Another superhuman.
She possessed enormous strength and reflexes and, according to later accounts, could even fly, basically a Marvel version of a female Superman, though one that had clearly been cut down in power many times over.
Even so, that did not change the fact that she was strong.
Killian was not completely sure whether the woman was Jessica Jones.
But if someone like the Purple Man was chasing her, and if a seemingly ordinary woman had been able to rush almost all the way to Killian's convoy before Blackwatch finally stopped her, that already said more than enough about her physical ability.
Ever since the incident with the pharmaceutical companies, Blackwatch had maintained extremely high-level protective protocols around Killian.
A normal person would be warned before they got within ten meters.
If they deliberately tried to approach any closer, they would be met with bullets.
But this time, Blackwatch had almost failed to react in time.
That alone proved something about the woman's capabilities.
So, following the principle of "better to take her back than risk letting her slip away," Killian decided to bring her with them.
And while the soldiers were helping move her, Killian had also ordered them to collect every possible biological sample: stray hairs, tissue from the small cuts she had "accidentally" gotten when she fell, and even blood.
After all, it would be terrible if some outside organization with bad intentions got hold of her DNA and used it for the wrong reasons.
"Boss, what are you...?"
Seeing Killian order people to collect cell samples from a strange woman they had just met, Samuel looked puzzled.
"This woman's body isn't ordinary. Once we get back to the base, assign special personnel to her. No, on second thought, you handle this project personally."
"If my guess is right, then we may really be on a lucky streak lately."
As Killian looked at the biological samples from the woman who might be Jessica Jones, the corner of his mouth curled into a smile.
Because if she really was Jessica Jones, then recently he would have acquired three superhumans in rapid succession.
Black Widow.
Jessica Jones.
Purple Man.
The only pity was that he did not have time.
Otherwise, he would have wanted to specifically go look for Luke Cage too.
If he remembered correctly, Luke Cage was Jessica Jones's husband, though he did not know whether the two of them were already together yet.
But looking at the location, and at the fact that the woman had been fleeing from a man like Purple Man, Killian guessed that things were probably still at a very early stage.
At this point, Jessica Jones was either only just falling under Purple Man's influence, or already beginning to struggle free of it.
After all, Purple Man's control weakened over time and could also be resisted by strong willpower.
In the original story, only a very small number of people could truly resist his control. There was even a comic where Purple Man controlled Tony and tried to make him build something like Professor X's Cerebro, hoping to use it to control the whole world.
Basically, he was just a weakened version of Professor X.
"Oh?"
After hearing Killian's explanation, Samuel immediately became interested.
At that moment, he could hardly wait to get back to his lab.
...
Meanwhile, as time passed, the man inside the compartment, who had previously lost consciousness, slowly began to wake up when droplets of liquid kept landing on his face.
"What kind of water is this? It smells horrible."
Still half-awake and groggy, he instinctively reached up to wipe the dampness from his face. But the more he wiped, the more he smelled a thick, metallic stench, mixed with the disgusting odor of a corpse.
Then suddenly, something seemed to click in his mind.
His eyes snapped open.
What he saw right in front of him was an enormous head, a monstrous mouth stretched wide in a grin.
Only then did he realize that what had been dripping onto his face was not water at all.
It was the monster's saliva.
(End of Chapter)
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