"Hurry up, Ace!"
Mike Peterson couldn't understand the meaning of the Chinese song that Ye Li was playing.
He thought they had encountered some extreme racist and quickly grabbed his son to run!
"Li, what are you doing? The lyrics of this song are too... it's going to attract the police..."
Skye quickly tapped Ye Li's phone to stop the music, then grabbed him and tried to run.
"What? This song is actually very positive and uplifting, don't misunderstand."
Ye Li thought: It's just your bias. The lyrics are perfectly normal; it's just that the homophones might trigger some minor associations...
At that moment.
Boom!!———!!
A violent explosion echoed through the street.
Flames burst out from the top-floor window of an apartment building, appearing to be a gas explosion accident.
"There are still people up there, right?"
Kind-hearted and beautiful, Skye softly asked her boyfriend upon seeing the accident.
"Should we notify Gwen? Her shadow-phasing ability should allow her to get there instantly."
"Eh, look over there." Ye Li tilted his head, avoiding the obstruction of the figure box in his arms, and gazed in a direction.
"Oh?"
Skye followed his gaze———
She saw Mike Peterson sprinting towards the burning apartment building.
"What is he trying to do?"
Just as the girl finished speaking.
Mike Peterson had already reached the sidewall of the building, punching his hand into the bricks and climbing up hole by hole...
Clearly, he was no ordinary person.
"Wow....¨ˇ."
Seeing this, Skye was no longer in a hurry. She playfully nudged her boyfriend with her elbow and teased, "You just pissed off a superhuman, Li."
"I already said, that song is perfectly normal. What's the issue?"
Ye Li spread his hands, "I just wanted to give the kid a figure... Seeing his dad struggling, I kindly taught him an inspiring song. Is that a problem? No, it's not."
Bang!
Bang!
While someone was still joking with his girlfriend, Mike Peterson had already climbed to the burning floor's window, pulled up his hood, and jumped inside.
"He went inside."
Skye took out her phone and aimed it at the window to record.
"What's there to film, hmm?"
Ye Li leaned past the girl's hair, dyed brownish gold, and playfully nibbled her delicate earlobe.
"Ah—teacher, what are you doing~"
Skye shrank her neck from the nibble, then affectionately rubbed her face against her boyfriend's.
"Recording data, of course. Information on superhumans is valuable."
Ye Li secretly pouted, 'just an experiment subject...'
He did vaguely remember that black man—some kind of lab creation, but he hadn't paid much attention when he watched the show in his last life.
His focus back then had mostly been on Skye...
Thinking this, he glanced at the mixed-race beauty standing close enough to touch.
———'Mm…understandable, isn't it.'
Bang!!
Mike Peterson jumped from the window, carrying a woman in his arms, and landed so hard the concrete cracked into a spiderweb pattern.
This caused all the bystanders to whip out their phones to record, just like Skye.
Ye Li rubbed his chin and quietly muttered,
"Logically speaking…falling six floors in a bridal carry should have snapped that woman's neck from inertia. Completely illogical."
Mike Peterson, seeing himself surrounded and filmed, quickly set the rescued woman down and disappeared into the crowd.
But—
As he slipped away with his son Ace, removing his outer jacket—
A shadowy figure, hidden under the brim of a cap, silently began tailing him…
Ye Li took all of this in.
He swept his senses over the stalker and was a little surprised———
'Huh? That brain implant…isn't that the Fearless Corps' model of clone soldier…'
Fragments of detailed memories were quickly retrieved and pieced together.
'I remember now…that black man was called Mike Peterson…a Centipede Warrior created by the Centipede Project…'
Ye Li immediately deduced what was going on———
The research institute director had reported that part of the Extremis virus subproject data had been stolen.
Apparently, Hydra's Centipede Project division had used it to develop that superpowered black man—Centipede Warrior Mike Peterson.
The clone soldier following them was probably one of the scouts sent by the Silver Sable Security Company, who the director had hired to investigate…
'…Huh. Not bad. Pretty competent.'
As the true boss, Ye Li nodded in satisfaction.
Since they'd already located Mike Peterson, it meant the director had done a solid job.
'Oh, right…'
In the original timeline, Skye's powers had been awakened in the midst of all these Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. events.
'I could bring her into this…help her develop her seismic abilities…'
Ye Li started considering how to help his girlfriend awaken her latent bloodline.
He just didn't remember the exact details.
'Anyway, there's nothing urgent going on lately. I'll have someone monitor Coulson and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents first…'