Magnetic King and Deathstroke were both building up momentum, rising into mid-air, their eyes firmly locked onto each other.
Tiny snowflakes flew past them, with their translucent edges reflecting the moonlight, the cold light flickering and disappearing quickly, while the sound of the wind masked the sound of action.
Without seeing any attacking moves from Deathstroke, Magnetic King suddenly plummeted headfirst.
Before the darkness overtook him, he saw Deathstroke swiftly flying to catch him as he fell, and heard a piece of trash talk.
"So weak, can't even withstand my gaze."
Frustrated and anxious, Magnetic King let out a 'hic' and completely fainted.
Seeing him completely unconscious, Su Ming then pulled out an inconspicuous small needle from the back of his neck.
"Well done, Anya, you're very quick with native blowguns."
A doll-like face appeared from the rooftop across the street with a big smile. The girl was always at the best age for a Mao Sister, wearing a black leather jumpsuit, blending well into the night.
She jumped onto the nearby chimney like a cat and sat down, lifting her head to talk to Su Ming, her little leg swinging back and forth.
"It's your poison that's effective, boss. We should increase production of the poison that restrains mutants, each sister should carry some just in case."
Su Ming shrugged, carefully handing the poison arrow to Anya: "This isn't something we developed; I picked it up from Japan. Reverse engineering isn't a priority. If any of you have expertise in chemistry, feel free to study it."
Indeed, this was the stuff recently used by an unknown force against Logan.
After receiving teleportation assistance from Heimdall, Su Ming visited several places, like returning to school to have the adjutant prepare some preliminary reports on the recently acquired items, or discussing the arrangement of the next ship with Zheng Xian, or getting some anti-Magnetic King weapons from Wakanda.
Chiben is metallic, likely detectable by Magnetic King; thus, Su Ming sought advanced Wakanda technology—an automatic pneumatic blowgun barrel.
With a sharp bone spike coated with poison serving as the arrowhead, this became the best weapon against Magnetic King.
The adjutant's inspection report stated that what was used on Logan was some kind of gene inhibitor, not effective long-term, but when applied as mutants exert their abilities, it causes them to suddenly lose their superpowers, leaving them powerless.
Reverse cracking requires significant time, but purifying and concentrating the drug is achievable.
At this time, Magnetic King isn't yet the future person who can create satellites by hand or stomp to shift Earth's magnetic poles.
Since escaping the concentration camp, he's been either hiding or seeking vengeance, without time to study his powers; his biggest trump card now is controlling the metal elements within enemies' bodies.
But Su Ming's self-healing ability is exceptionally strong, equipped with strangulation for patching up, suffocation or being riddled with holes within doesn't matter; sometimes a warrior has to do his job and draw hatred.
Although his bones are named X Metal, they're actually a solid form of energy, just avoid appearing before Magnetic King with other metals.
Magnetic King has a quirky personality with manic depressive tendencies, high likelihood of battle initiation, naturally requiring preparations for fallback.
If it can be dealt with easily, Su Ming doesn't want to dismantle cities or anything, thus arranging Anya for ambush while he lures Magnetic King's attention entirely on himself.
Isn't a sneak attack common sense?
He didn't expect the poison to work this well, against non-self-healing ability users, just one needle does the trick. Magnetic King, controlling so much metal, posing while flying around, suddenly emptied, losing strength, of course fainted.
It seems those who manufactured this poison have considerable knowledge about mutants; therefore, those harassing Logan must be Romulus. If it's that psychopath, Wolverine won't have any major issues for at least a year; that guy's still having his fun.
Anya's tasks over these years have included monitoring Magnetic King, his behavioral habits, combat style, all this intelligence was deeply ingrained; she knew for sure Magnetic King would fall into the boss's trap.
"Never mind, we don't have any trustworthy chemists." She jumped down from the chimney, treading lightly on someone's roof tiles: "Then I'll return to the safehouse on standby, once he's used up, I'll continue the surveillance operation."
"Yeah, probably tomorrow will be about right; you can rest a night."
Ah Ya waved her little hand cutely, jumping off the rooftop, disappearing into the darkness. Meanwhile, Su Ming hoisted Magnetic King, looking up to call Heimdall to open the door.
Perhaps after this, Magnetic King will recognize the necessity of a helmet? Exposing the back of the neck not only risks catching cold but getting hit.
Speaking of which, the Supreme Mage explicitly requested to negotiate with him, yet he showed disregard; what audacity.
But Su Ming likes this kind of reckless bravery; now, the United States has many troops controlled through projective force; how to efficiently eliminate all of them without getting affected by black water?
The answer lies in finding a mutant supremacist who wouldn't blink an eye to kill.
Many fit the criteria, like Apocalypse, Selene, or Black Phoenix, all capable of easily wiping out those controlled troops.
Only, negotiations with these few don't pan out; especially Apocalypse, probably resents Su Ming intensely now.
Thus, the most ideal choice currently is Magnetic King; the required price is almost negligible, some information useless to Su Ming can turn Magnetic King into a henchman.
For revenge, Magnetic King would surely be willing to kill more enemies, exchanging for information, Lady Nine-Heads wants someone carrying deep-sea resentment? Then Su Ming will provide that.
.................
When Magnetic King hazily woke up, he found himself bound by unknown black tentacles, while Deathstroke was sitting on a park bench not far away, head lowered as if dozing off.
But before he could react, the other party knew he had awakened, these tentacles served as monitoring devices.
"How about it, have you decided whether you want to hear my terms now?" Deathstroke stood up from the bench, stretching lazily, asking in a leisurely manner as a charred stench permeated the air, the distant city was burning.
Magnetic King: "..."
Bound here, could he choose not to listen? The key issue was he didn't know how he fainted, truly baffling.
If he wasn't mistaken, the flag flying on the nearby ruins was the U.S. flag? Wait, is this…..?
Seeing the distant scene clearly, Magnetic King's eyes widened in shock.
Even if he were completely uninformed, he's heard Washington D.C. represents U.S. power, how did it become scorched earth now? Did the Third World War break out?
Noticing his gaze, Su Ming explained timely: "As you see, the United States was invaded by Hydra, the situation is very bad, so I need you to help me deal with those troops; I believe killing Japs should be enjoyable for you, right?"
"Why don't you do it yourself? Don't say you lack that ability." Magnetic King paused, then stood up, staring at Deathstroke's face.
But the mask blocked all expressions, those red goggles only contained inhuman coldness: "I am providing you a trade opportunity; your ability is highly suitable for large-scale massacre. Think about it, aside from me, no one knows where your mother's killer is."
"..." Magnetic King furrowed his brows.
"I've heard she was a beautiful and gentle woman, very loving to you; oh, it's really a pity, when those scoundrels opened fire at her..." Su Ming turned aside, seemingly gazing at the city's flames.
"Enough! Release me, I agree to your terms." Magnetic King's temples bulged with veins as if Deathstroke personally witnessed the scene, this description made him exceptionally anguished.
He interrupted Deathstroke and accepted the deal.
Su Ming smiled, turned his face back, letting Strangulation retract the tentacles and warmly patting Magnetic King's shoulder: "Once you sign the magic contract, you're one of us, Old Wan, prepare to embark on an American tour."