In the apartment entryway, A-Train casually closed the door.
"Honey, I'm home." He put on his slippers and grumbled casually, "Why does it smell fishy? Did you forget to close the fridge again?"
A-Train dropped his shoulder bag and walked toward the living room, freezing after only a few steps.
Popclaw was tied with ropes to a chair in the center of the living room, frowning deeply and shaking her head frantically.
"Look who it is?" Butcher stood behind the chair, his dark Wolf Claws resting lightly on Popclaw's throat. "The loser who just threw away his life on the track, finally decided to come home?"
"Who the hell are you? Let her go! Or I'll smash all of you into paste!" A-Train's eyes were bloodshot, and he assumed a sprinting stance. "I'm counting to three. Three, two..."
"Want to bet... whether I pull the trigger faster or you run faster?" Butcher held a gun in his right hand, pressing it against Popclaw's forehead. "Your girlfriend doesn't seem to have bulletproof skin, does she?"
"Stop! Don't touch her!" A-Train quickly raised his hands, his momentum plummeting. "What do you want? Money, or..."
"compound v." MM stood nearby, saying coldly, "Tell us everything you know."
"I don't know what you're talking about." A-Train's eyes darted around, subtly adjusting the angle of his feet. "Gentlemen, trespassing is a serious crime. You can still leave now..."
Before he finished speaking, a blue light flashed, accompanied by the low, high-speed whirring sound of A-Train.
Whoosh—Boom!
A-Train moved his feet, and the surroundings instantly slowed down.
He clenched his fists, intending to teach these two reckless desperados a lesson before rescuing his lover.
A-Train arrived next to the dining table, punching the unresponsive Butcher and delivering an elbow to MM.
Popclaw's eyes suddenly turned slowly toward him. A-Train immediately grabbed Popclaw's shoulder, intending to save her: "Don't worry, baby, I'm here to save you."
Voom—Voom—Boom!!
Waves of terrifying Gravity suddenly descended, causing the air itself to become sluggish, pressing down entirely upon him.
A-Train's proud, sound barrier-breaking speed suddenly diminished by more than half, like a speeding race car crashing into thick syrup.
"What the hell?!" He was terrified, forcing his body to twist around to take his lover away.
Just then, the head of the "Popclaw" figure, who should have been terrified and helpless in the chair, slowly turned toward him at a steady pace.
Their eyes met.
The invisible force continued to strengthen, constantly pressing down on A-Train, as if he had been draped in a heavy lead suit.
"You, you...?" He tried desperately to force a move, but found his feet were completely trapped in the cement floor, as if stuck in a swamp.
Immediately afterward, blue light burst forth from the eyes of the "Popclaw" on the chair.
Two slow, icy blue beams of light shot out from her eyes, aiming for A-Train's ankles.
Crack! Crack! Crunch—
Ice crystals rapidly spread across A-Train's recently lifted ankles, instantly welding him to the floor.
The world returned to normal speed. Butcher and MM felt a massive force, and their bodies flew backward uncontrollably, knocking over furniture.
Bang bang—Clatter clatter!
The muscles on "Popclaw's" face strangely squirmed and deformed, revealing a male face with distorted features.
A-Train struggled, flailing his arms to smash the ice crystals, and roared with a ferocious expression, "You despicable bastard, what did you do to her!"
Wade raised a hand and grabbed, and the cement floor beneath him immediately turned into rolling mud, creeping up A-Train's body like a living thing, covering him up to the neck, fixing him securely in place.
He continuously shot Freeze Vision from his eyes to reinforce the cement layer, raising an eyebrow playfully: "Next time you save someone, remember to look closer."
"Shapeshifting, it's... it's you!" A-Train's pupils contracted, and boundless fear surged into his heart. "The person who disguised themselves as CEOMadelyn... Translucent, did you kill Translucent?!"
He immediately put on a mournful face and pleaded sorrowfully, "Brother, I'm about to be kicked out of The Seven. You don't need to bother me! Seriously, you don't!"
Wade looked at him with cold eyes and proceeded to change his clothes.
"compound v, right? I'll talk, I'll tell you everything..." A-Train was utterly broken inside, his dark face losing some of its color.
"Pah... The Seven, huh? You're fast, huh?!" Butcher struggled to his feet and started laying into A-Train's immobilized face. "Are you still fast? Still fast?!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every punch was accompanied by a dull thud and Butcher's furious roar. A-Train's head swung back and forth, blood spilling from his nose and mouth.
MM dragged the real Popclaw out of the closet and threw her in front of A-Train: "That's enough, we still need to get information from him!"
"Let, let her go... we can talk." A-Train looked at Popclaw on the floor.
"Now." Butcher shook his arm, the dark Wolf Claws slowly receding, and smiled brilliantly. "Cooperate, and maybe I'll let both of you go... If you don't, Translucent will be your warning."
A-Train watched his lover cry in terror, felt the inescapable restraint around him, and looked at the terrorists in front of him who could even slaughter Translucent.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!" he shouted incoherently. "I'm helping Homelander... secretly transport compound v."
"The route is from Sam Stadium in Florida to Pennsylvania Station in New York. They're holding some illegal immigrants there, probably for human experimentation... I'm just responsible for delivery, I really only know this much!"
Butcher put away his phone, having recorded all of A-Train's confession. "Since you work for Homelander, you should know what kind of person he is... Watch your mouth, or if this video gets out, you're dead!"
Wade listened quietly, then calmly prepared a syringe.
He walked forward and, under A-Train's terrified gaze, drew a full vial of deep blue blood from his carotid artery.
Wade put away the blood sample, scanned A-Train's body, and forcibly pried a finger-sized tracker from the back of his neck: "He's yours now."
A-Train thought he had narrowly escaped and breathed a sigh of relief: "Phew... Th-thanks. Don't worry, I won't say anything. I'm planning to travel the world and won't be coming back."
"Don't be in a hurry, we still have some unfinished business!" Butcher grabbed his collar, pulled out an earpiece, and shouted, "Hughie, come in. It's time to say hello to this 'Great Hero' who committed a hit-and-run."
Half a minute later, the apartment door was pushed open again.
Hughie walked over, staring intently at the bruised and swollen face sticking out of the body encased in cement and ice crystals, hatred practically pouring from his eyes.
A-Train looked at the unfamiliar young man, completely bewildered: "Did I offend you somewhere?"
Hughie gritted his teeth and punched him in the face, crimson memories instantly flooding his mind: "You, it was you... you hit and killed her in the street! We were supposed to get married! You damned scumbag!"
"The girl named Robin, right? I, I already apologized, and I gave her family a large sum of money."
"Do you think money can buy back her life?! Weren't you gloating in the bar... saying she was 'like a smashed fly'! Is that what you call an apology?!"
"An eye for an eye. You live in the HarlemBlack Community, right? You also have an older brother and two nephews..."
Despair surfaced in A-Train's eyes. Looking at the young man consumed by hatred before him, he finally realized how his high-speed accident had ruined someone else's happy life.
"I know, nothing I say will help." He opened his mouth, remained silent for a long time, and spoke in a low voice, "I was also terrified back then... I could only use words like that to make myself feel better."
"But please, I beg you... don't touch them. It was all my fault, my family has nothing to do with this."
A-Train looked squarely at Hughie, pulling at his bleeding lip: "I'm yours to deal with... just don't touch them."
Hughie grabbed A-Train's neck with both hands, his arms trembling violently.
Butcher walked over, revealing two black Wolf Claws, and chuckled sinisterly, "Kid, can't bring yourself to do it? I'll help you!"
Wade watched everything with cold eyes and walked straight toward the door: "You handle the rest."
The door gently closed. He didn't care at all what would happen to A-Train and Popclaw.
In the corridor, Wade pressed the blood vial in his pocket and walked faster and faster: 'Extreme speed means high mobility. If developed high enough, couldn't one minute be stretched into several minutes? And so on...'
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