The moon hid in the sky over New York Harbor.
On the roof of the Customs Building, Wade's palm strikes fell one after another, each hit accurately striking the back of Translucent's neck to ensure this "distinguished guest" remained unconscious for a long enough time.
Wade was well aware of Vought Corporation's style.
Every member of The Seven was a valuable asset to the company; a sophisticated tracking device was bound to be implanted in their bodies.
If he didn't deal with this trouble first, he would soon turn from the hunter into the hunted.
Wade held his breath and focused, operating his Blood Control ability with full force.
In his perception, Translucent's body gradually became Translucent, revealing a ghostly blue 3D life map composed of fine blood flow and various organs.
His gaze moved slowly, carefully scanning the oral cavity, nasal cavity, ear canals... those common implantation sites, but he found nothing.
"Invulnerable carbon metamaterial skin... not in the conventional locations. It couldn't be in..." An unseemly but extremely hidden location flashed through his mind.
He focused his perception on Translucent's lower body.
Sure enough, at the end of the rectum, a tiny square foreign object, which clashed violently with the surrounding flesh and blood energy cycle, clearly manifested itself.
"It might be a bit difficult for others..." The corners of Wade's mouth curled slightly as he made a grasping and twisting motion with one hand.
At the same time, he manipulated the blood and gases within Translucent's intestines to slowly converge around the foreign object, creating several precise, tiny detonation points.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
A series of muffled sounds came from within Translucent's body.
Under the impact of the internal blood and gas implosion, that tracking device instantly turned into fragments.
"Argh—!" Translucent instantly jerked awake from his coma.
He felt a burning, sharp pain from his lower body and found himself pinned down on his front. He immediately thought of some unspeakable images and cursed loudly, "F**k you! You pervert! Even if you're my fan, you can't do this... It's one thing to save me, but you dare to force yourself on me?!"
Wade didn't bother to explain. He used gravity to pin him firmly to the ground, his eyes glowing with an ice-crystal blue light.
Buzz—Zzt!
Two frozen beams emitting a cold mist shot out, instantly freezing Translucent's hands and feet to the concrete ground.
"A fan?" Wade sneered. "You overestimate your charm."
With his movement restricted, Translucent was forced to deactivate his invisibility, his face extremely distorted by pain and anger.
When he clearly saw the abnormally deformed features on Wade's face, his heart tightened, thinking he had encountered a Supe bandit with a twisted psyche.
"Listen, brother! No matter who you are, kidnapping me is the stupidest decision you've ever made." Translucent suppressed his fear and began to negotiate. "I have money, I have plenty of compound v. Let me go, and we can talk."
"You can have whatever you want! The... uh, injuries on your face. Our company has 'beauty creams' made from compound v that can completely heal them. I'll give you a truckload, how about that?"
"I don't want money, I don't want any cream, I don't want anything..."
"Damn it! You'd better think this through. The rest of The Seven will come for me... Homelander will find you and tear you to pieces! Vought Corporation's power is not something a small fry like you can imagine. Don't kick against the pricks!"
Wade listened to his blustering and cracked his knuckles with interest, as if measuring something.
He crouched down and asked with a look of curiosity, "Tell me... how many of Homelander's punches can that invulnerable skin of yours take? Or, what would happen if you took a few hits of his Heat Vision?"
Fearing he would do something reckless, Translucent swallowed hard and replied, "Not... not even one punch... He would shatter my internal organs alive..."
"You dare lie to me? You're clearly thinking 'three punches' in your head!" Wade curled a finger, and the invisible pressure suddenly increased, pressing Translucent's neck deep into the ground. His throat bones made an overburdened creaking sound.
His Mental Control currently couldn't read memories at all; it could only read some shallow thoughts. His performance at the audio store earlier was just a bluff combined with what he already knew.
He needed Translucent to say it himself, then read his shallow thoughts to judge the truth: "Tell me, what kind of scandalous dirt is there on the industries under Vought Corporation?"
"Don't even think about it! Do I look like a spineless coward?" Translucent's face turned red as he held his breath, turning his head and gritting his teeth.
Wade didn't waste any more words and raised his hand, closing his five fingers.
Translucent's eyes widened instantly. The air around him was completely sucked away, and his lungs felt like they were being squeezed by an invisible hand. An intense sensation of suffocation immediately enveloped him.
He opened his mouth in vain but couldn't inhale a single bit of oxygen. His face quickly turned a purplish-black.
Wade unhurriedly took out a DSLR camera, pointed the lens at Translucent, and adjusted the exposure needed for night recording.
Ten minutes later, with a thought, he revoked the continuous gas extraction effect.
In the face of death, loyalty became worthless.
"Gah—huff—I'll talk, I'll talk everything!" Translucent gasped for air like a drowning man grabbing a literal straw.
He poured out everything he knew and had seen:
From the dark production lines of compound v using homeless people and prisoners as "voluntary donors," to the hidden production factories at the Alaska Base;
From the malicious plan of packaging toxic super-waste as "new anti-depressants" and dumping them in slums, to the circular scam of creating "Supe terrorists" in the Middle East and South America and then charging high "cleanup fees";
He even revealed how Vought mixed trace amounts of compound v into skincare products, toiletries, and fast food, distributing them for free to screen and control potential Supes...
The two went back and forth with questions and answers, a continuous interrogation and forced confession that lasted for a full half-hour.
Translucent looked over timidly and said with a forced smile, "Look, I've been so cooperative... Can, can you let me go now?"
'I'll hold onto this footage of his confession for now and release it all at once when there's a chance in the future.' After digesting this information, Wade put away the DSLR. A cold light flashed in his eyes. "Compared to scumbags like you, I'm practically a saint... You're more useful alive than dead!"
Before his voice finished echoing, several palm strikes empowered by immense force landed precisely on the neck. Translucent fell into a coma once again.
"Without the tracking device, I can finally study him in peace." Wade then picked him up, circled around from the harbor, and flew toward the outskirts of New York.
...
Adirondack Park, Cave Laboratory.
Inside the cave, Wade secured the unconscious Translucent to a cold stone platform, staring at this brand-new experimental subject:
"How should I restrict him?"
If left here unattended, Translucent would surely find a way to escape. He had to ensure there were no mishaps.
Wade's palm hovered over Translucent's body, activating Blood Control for precise penetration.
Half an hour later, Translucent's body twitched frequently before going completely limp... Only his chest still rose and fell weakly, and his eyes were filled with extreme fear and despair.
At the junctions of his limbs and torso, four palm-sized black ring-shaped marks remained, while the carbon metamaterial skin was still unscathed.
Wade sensed the severed nerves and muscle connections within his body and nodded with satisfaction.
In this way, the motor functions of the limbs and the vocal ability of the throat had been permanently blocked. A quiet and perfect "experimental subject" was now prepared.
Wade condensed several sharp air blades and stirred them around in the man's mouth, drawing out a long stream of bright red blood into his hand.
[Superpower Gene Analysis in progress...
Ability: Carbon Metamaterial Integument — Light-bending Invisibility, Diamond-grade Defense (Basic Level)
Gene Map recorded]
"He doesn't have healing or regenerative abilities, so he really can't run away now." Wade looked at his right hand and silently absorbed the newly acquired ability.
A burning torrent spread along his right arm. The skin of his entire right arm instantly became completely transparent, making the subcutaneous muscle fibers and the ghostly blue vascular network clearly visible within his sight.
"Ugh!" Wade gritted his teeth and groaned. This power was more overbearing than he had imagined.
Immediately after, the transparency rapidly expanded, soon spreading to his entire body.
He felt every cell of his skin being forcibly broken down and reconstructed.
The surface of his skin transmitted a sharp pain and itching as if pierced by billions of fine needles, which then transformed into a dense, solid texture.
He looked down and saw, beneath his completely transparent chest, his heart beating faster due to excitement, and the golden blood flowing incessantly around it.
Five minutes later, with a slight thought, Wade attempted to control it.
That burning sensation immediately followed his will, rapidly flowing back and compressing, finally stabilizing as a layer covering the surface of his skin.
The transparency of his body began to fade, returning from a completely invisible state to a physical one.
"This ability is not bad. I wonder... how else can it be developed?"
Wade turned to look at the silently weeping Translucent on the experimental table, his pupils flashing with ghostly blue light. "Welcome to becoming Experimental Subject No. 01 of The Seven. It just so happens my potion reserves have run out... Your life is now full of value."
He used air currents to flip Translucent's body over, his finger slowly tracing along the curve of the spine. A new round of experimentation had begun.
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