Near Riverside Park, Manhattan District.
The dark, narrow tunnel reeked of strong sweat and decay.
Wade walked between the dilapidated tents, avoiding the filth on the ground and the huddled figures: "Why did Hughie ask me to come here?"
The air currents acted like an invisible net, helping him precisely identify a unique scent among the crowd.
In the corner of a shack cobbled together from tarps and cardboard, he found his target.
Hughie looked completely different from his usual self. He was huddled up, wearing a dirty hoodie seemingly scavenged from a dump, and ripped work pants.
His left cheek was badly swollen, dark red scabs formed at the corner of his mouth, and his entire body trembled non-stop.
"It's me." Wade pulled him up and helped him walk out from under the bridge, "What happened to you?"
"Chameleon..." Hughie heard the familiar voice, his tense body instantly relaxing, and tears mixed with grime rolled down, "H-huh... Butcher and the others... they were captured! I..."
Wade felt the injuries all over his body, frowning deeply: "Don't talk yet, let's go somewhere else."
He half-carried, half-supported Hughie away from the homeless camp and headed towards a bustling Chinese restaurant.
At this time in the morning, the restaurant had almost no customers.
In a corner on the second floor, Wade ordered a large table of food: piled-high fried rice, a large plate of shredded chicken, and ample beef rice noodles.
After the food arrived, he commanded Hughie: "Eat freely. The faster you eat, the faster your injuries will heal."
Hughie grabbed a spoon and wolfed down the food, tears silently falling: "It's my fault... it's all me..."
"I... I ran away, I left them all behind... Butcher, MM, Frenchie, Kimiko."
"I watched them being taken away... but I couldn't do anything, I'm useless!"
Wade extended a finger and gently tapped his right temple.
Gentle psychic energy surged into Hughie's body, and cellular-level repair instantly activated, silently mending the damage to his organs.
Hughie felt a cool, warm current sweep through his body. The bruises on his face faded visibly, and the intermittent pain in his internal organs subsided.
Wade's consciousness appeared in Hughie's mind, looking at the constantly rippling sea of memory below: 'What exactly happened last night? Relax, show me.'
The memories reorganized like flowing waves, and he found himself at the gloomy West Pier, where the smell of blood and sea breeze assaulted his senses.
The group of five hid behind a container, watching the hellish scene outside through a narrow gap.
Orange electrical light flashed continuously near a group of panicked dockworkers unloading cargo. Blood mist burst forth repeatedly, making loud popping sounds.
"Stop, we're from the Logistics Department..." Several people in plain clothes slumped on the ground, raising their hands and shouting tremblingly.
The orange electrical light didn't pause, smashing the people directly. The other workers froze for a moment, then frantically fled onto the ship.
The orange light centered on the people, began circling, moving faster and faster, turning into a Ring of Death, generating bursts of sonic booms.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The muffled sounds caused hearts to stop. Clumps of blood mist and shattered flesh splattered everywhere on the containers and the ground.
At that moment, screams from the other side caught the attention of Hughie and the others.
On the dock deck, Black Noir silently ran toward a crowd of gangsters who had just gotten out of a vehicle.
A flash of blade light!
The heads of the first few people separated from their shoulders, their faces still frozen in expressions of astonishment.
Black Noir's twin blades danced, moving so fast they were mere blurs. With every swing, he precisely severed throats, pierced hearts, and lopped off limbs.
He casually threw several shuriken. With a few muffled sounds, several people reaching for guns in the distance each gained several bloody holes and fell down stiffly.
A man in a suit knelt down, raising his hands and crying out: "Don't kill me! I don't know anything! I'm just..."
The response was a backhand slash.
The blade swept past, and the suited man's plea for mercy stopped abruptly. His upper body slowly slid along a smooth diagonal line, and his internal organs spilled onto the ground.
"Aren't they, aren't they Vought's people? Is this, is this a cover-up massacre?" Hughie muttered, covering his mouth, "Aren't they afraid of surveillance?"
Butcher clenched his fist and whispered: "Dummy, they probably destroyed the surveillance equipment long ago... These bastards don't even spare their own people."
MM turned his head, unable to watch anymore; Kimiko gritted her teeth and growled, while Frenchie put his arm around her and used gestures to calm her down.
They had only come to scout, intending to investigate Vought's other dealings, but they witnessed "Supes" carrying out an inhuman purge.
Butcher pulled a blood-red syringe from his waist pouch, plunged it into his arm, and gritted his teeth: "Let's go! Screw those Vought bastards!"
MM and Frenchie consecutively injected blue liquid, and Hughie casually administered a silver syringe.
Kimiko, left unattended for a moment, shot out like an arrow from a bow, rushing toward Black Noir first.
She leaped up, her two claws shrieking as they tore through the air, heading straight for the opponent's neck.
Black Noir slightly turned his body, avoiding the strike by a hair's breadth, and swung his blades in continuous slashes.
Clang, clang, bang, bang—
Between the flow of vehicles and piles of corpses, two black figures, one tall and one short, crisscrossed, and dazzling sparks continuously shot out.
"The one on the boat is too fast, let's take care of this mute first!" Butcher roared, turning into a blur as he charged out.
Kimiko was pinned to the ground by Black Noir's blade, on the verge of being decapitated.
Butcher violently slammed into the fight from the side, delivering a heavy, no-frills punch straight at Black Noir's face.
Black Noir reacted inhumanly fast, kicking Kimiko away, crossing his twin blades into an 'X' shape, and turning to block.
Boom!!
The punch and the blades collided, emitting a muffled thud.
A visible shockwave exploded from the point of impact, and blood splattered.
Black Noir was hit by this sheer force, lifted off his feet, and pushed back several steps.
"Oi, how does that feel?!" Butcher roared with laughter, giving the opponent no chance to breathe. He pushed off the ground, pursuing like a persistent ailment, his fists and legs becoming a storm of attacks.
Black Noir's twin blades spun like wheels, precisely blocking every heavy blow. The blades clashed against Butcher's knuckles, sparking continuously, forcing him to retreat step by step.
Just then, MM and Frenchie arrived, flanking him from the left and right.
Frenchie roared, charging fiercely toward Black Noir with unmatched momentum.
Black Noir parried a heavy kick from Butcher, sensed the fierce wind approaching from the left, and was about to spin and dodge, but MM's fist had already arrived from the right.
That fist had swelled nearly double in size, its surface displaying a metallic texture, and it slammed into Black Noir's ribs.
There was no avoiding it!
Black Noir took the full force of the punch.
Crack! Bang!
Black Noir used this immense force to send his body flying to the left, narrowly causing Frenchie to miss his charge, while simultaneously using the momentum to slash his twin blades towards Frenchie's neck.
However, a gust of wind was faster than him.
Hughie had been waiting in stealth nearby for a long time, and seized this fleeting opportunity.
He had no fighting skills, but he was fast. Just before Black Noir's twin blades could reach Frenchie.
Hughie appeared behind Black Noir and furiously kicked Black Noir's groin five or six times.
Black Noir showed no reaction, his blades slashing directly at Frenchie's neck, raising sparks and blood mist.
Butcher's iron fist passed through Black Noir's exposed opening and solidly landed between his chest and abdomen!
Thud!
Black Noir was struck, causing him to hunch over and continuously stagger backward.
"Nice job!" Butcher yelled excitedly.
Black Noir tumbled twice in the air, landed on one knee, using one hand to brace himself on the ground, and slid for several meters before stopping.
He slowly raised his head, looked at the four people surrounding him again, and paused briefly in the direction where Hughie was invisible.
Black Noir dropped his blades and reached for his waist.
"Careful, he uses shuriken! It could also be a ninja move like a smoke bomb!" MM stepped back and warned aloud.
Immediately, Butcher and the others became vigilant, ready to retreat or dodge at any moment.
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