On the same night.
[Popclaw's Apartment]
The landlord, Lutz, scratched his head and opened a door that had clearly been repaired before. He said to the two people outside, "Popclaw lives in this room."
Then he walked into the living room and let a man and woman come in.
The two were Black Noir and Element Woman.
Following Alex's orders, they were investigating Blue Hawk's death.
Not long ago, they had found the residence of freelance writer Dodge Wilson. Blue Hawk had once been there.
Inside, they discovered some human tissue. After sending it to the lab for testing, the conclusion was: it belonged to Blue Hawk.
Next, by checking the apartment's surveillance footage, they confirmed that a man in metal armor had killed Blue Hawk.
So they followed that lead.
In the end, it brought them to Popclaw's apartment.
Walking into the apartment, Element Woman pointed at a selfie of Popclaw on the wall, "She used to be my idol. What a pity."
Black Noir didn't know what she thought was a pity, and he didn't care.
He walked over to the television and stopped. Suddenly, he picked up a photo frame placed on top of it.
In the frame was a photo of Popclaw and A-Train together.
"Huh?"
Element Woman walked over from behind, "Was she A-Train's girlfriend?"
Black Noir neither nodded nor shook his head.
Instead, the landlord Lutz said from behind, "A-Train came here often. But whether he was Popclaw's boyfriend, I don't know."
"Well, I think they probably were. You know, every time A-Train came over, something in this place would end up broken."
"I've heard that when superhumans are doing that kind of thing, they usually have a hard time controlling themselves."
Black Noir turned his head and glanced at him. Even though his black hood hid his eyes, Lutz immediately shut his mouth and stepped back.
Element Woman looked toward the bedroom door, "The one who killed Blue Hawk came here. Strange, why would he come looking for Popclaw?"
Black Noir lifted the photo frame and pointed at A-Train in the picture.
Element Woman suddenly understood, "You mean he was investigating A-Train, so that's why he came here?"
"Then where's Popclaw?"
"Was she taken away, or is she like Blue Hawk?"
———
Still the same night.
In a dim and quiet community park, there was no wind, yet some bushes were gently shaking.
Butcher walked over to a merry go round and sat down. He took out a cigarette and lit it. He had just managed to take a puff when someone sat down beside him.
It was Jeff, who had been kicked out of the project team at Olga Weapons Development Company.
"Normally, unless a woman asks me out, I don't come out at this hour. And definitely not to a dump like this."
Butcher curled the corner of his mouth, "So you'd better have something important, like you said on the phone."
"Otherwise, I'll shove this cigarette into your mouth."
Jeff pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at the empty merry go round in front of him, "I want you to do something for me."
"Go into Olga Company and get something for me."
Butcher stood up and blew out a thick cloud of smoke, "No time."
He slapped his pants and prepared to leave.
Jeff took out a piece of gum from his pocket, tossed it into his mouth, and chewed as he said, "They kicked me out. Don't you want to know why?"
Butcher turned around and stood there crookedly, looking at the white man, "What, because you didn't want to sell your ass anymore?"
Jeff smiled, "Because they're about to make a deal with the Department of Defense. You should know that only companies with clean records can land contracts with the Department of Defense."
"But unfortunately, in order to collect data before, we did a lot of things that violated federal law."
"One of them was handing over unauthorized dangerous weapons to bastards like you."
The bastard in question shrugged indifferently, "I see."
"They kicked you out and dumped all the blame on you. That's very much in line with how this country does things."
"So, you want revenge on your former employer?"
Jeff didn't respond.
Butcher waved his hand, "I'm not interested in your problems, and I don't want to get involved. Find someone else."
Jeff didn't stop him, just said, "Without me, if there's a problem with your armor, it can't be repaired."
"And there's a safety protocol built into that armor. You don't want to know what it is."
"I can only tell you this. If the Olga Weapons Development Department wants to, they just need to lift a finger and you'll turn into a pile of rotten meat inside that armor."
"The roasted kind."
"And finally, to clear themselves, next, they'll probably hand over a list to the Federation. I guess your name will be on it, Mr. Butcher."
The bearded man smiled, stroked his beard, and turned around, "You shameless bastards."
"Alright, come on. Tell me what you want me to get for you."
———
Next morning—
Workout. Shower. Change clothes. Listen to Angelina's report.
Last night, she had followed Alex's plan, appeared in public, and then deliberately separated herself from the crowd. But unfortunately, the Liquid Man didn't take the bait.
Alex smiled, "That's normal. From what I can tell, that guy is a professional killer. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to sneak into the Seven Tower."
"Since he's a professional, he won't bite that easily."
"Have some patience."
Then he picked up the Daily Planet. He hadn't read it for a few days, and sure enough, the newspaper had been updated.
Kryptonian General Zod visits Earth. The plot of Man of Steel had already ended. The paper carried large reports on Metropolis after surviving the disaster.
From the photos, Metropolis looked just like in the movie, severely damaged.
"Next it should be the old man's turn to lose his temper."
Saying that, Alex casually flipped through the inside pages. Just as he was about to put the paper down, he suddenly stopped.
His pupils slowly widened.
On the inside page, there was a column with a photograph.
It showed an asian woman.
She wore sunglasses and held a white cane. She seemed to be blind.
In the photo, the woman was walking out of a doorway. Behind the door were piles of rubble, and even some stones were rolling out.
The headline of the column read: [Shocking! A Woman Walks Out of the Ruins. Is She an Alien? Or a Superpowered Being?]
It turned out, after Metropolis suffered massive destruction, rescue efforts began. During one civilian rescue operation, several participants personally witnessed a blind asian woman walking out of a room that had no visible opening at all.
Unfortunately, the scene was chaotic. After walking out, the blind woman disappeared into the crowd, so there was no follow up report.
If there hadn't been a photo, Alex would probably have treated it as gossip and moved on.
But because of that photo, Alex seemed to be frozen in place, unable to move.
Because the woman in the photo was the same blind asian woman he had met earlier at Walmart Department Store, Lin Aida.
She had actually appeared in the Daily Planet, appeared in DC's Superman universe.
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