join p atreon.com/KeyofStars and become a Sequence 9: Reader for hundreds of additional chapters and over a dozen stories
"Look out!!"
Seeing the out-of-control car not slow down, Annie, holding Kimiko, quickly dodged to the side.
The shelves were knocked over by the two, and the goods from above fell piecemeal onto them, largely obscuring their bodies.
The car brushed past them from behind, with an momentum that seemed to want to kill, crashing into a distant wall.
Boom!
Under the violent impact, the fragile wall was torn open, and the car was deformed by the impact, coming to a complete stop with black smoke rising from its front.
Pushing aside the goods that had fallen on her, Annie and Kimiko got up from the ground. She first checked Kimiko's body, confirming she was unharmed, before turning her gaze to the smoking car:
"Go hide over there. I'll go see if the driver is okay."
'Be careful!'
"I will."
After reassuring Kimiko, Annie walked towards the car's driver's seat.
She didn't think too much.
Generally, when encountering such a thing, people would only suspect it was an accidental incident, and Annie was no different.
She guessed that there might have been a car accident outside, causing the car to fail in an emergency dodge and crash into the mall.
Or perhaps the driver was fatigued, or even drunk, didn't see the road clearly, and crashed in here to avoid pedestrians.
Although it looked like the driver's fault no matter how you viewed it, Annie's personality leaned towards justice.
She couldn't just stand by and watch someone die in front of her, even if that person might be a criminal.
The wall was smashed, the front of the car was deformed, and most importantly, the car was smoking, indicating a potential for explosion.
If the person inside the car wasn't rescued, and the vehicle exploded later, the person inside would surely die.
It was with this thought that Annie approached the driver, attempting to rescue them.
However, what Annie hadn't expected was that when she reached the driver's side, what she saw was not the blood-stained, dying victim she had imagined.
Instead, it was a large hand that shattered the broken car window and went straight for Annie's throat!
Crash——!
The shattered glass of the car window fell to the ground, and the large hand pierced through the window, accurately gripping Annie's throat!
Suddenly attacked, Annie's pupils contracted, and she instinctively activated her ability.
The lights inside the store flickered, Annie's eyes lit up, and her body emitted a brilliant and dazzling glow.
The attacker, who was gripping her throat, seemed unaware of this and failed to close his eyes in time. Exposed to the light, he instinctively flung the light source—which was Annie—violently to the side.
Bang!
The person's strength was immense; Annie's body was thrown, knocking over several shelves in a row before she finally stopped and fell to the ground.
"Cough, cough… cough—!"
The sensation of being choked was not pleasant. Annie, buried under goods, pushed away the items covering her, gasping for air while coughing uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, the attacker had already recovered. He kicked open the deformed car door, stepped out of the car, and distorted his neck to look at Annie.
The attacker's appearance was revealed to Annie and Kimiko.
This attacker was tall, estimated to be nearly two meters, with a bare upper body, a muscular chest covered in chest hair, and a chin full of curly beard, giving him an overall savage appearance.
He was practically like a giant bear that had escaped from the forest.
The attacker's target seemed to be Annie; after exiting the car, his gaze immediately locked onto Annie, and he clenched his fists, walking towards her.
Feeling a bit better, Annie stood up from the pile of goods, her eyes glowing, facing the 'giant bear' walking towards her.
"Who are you?"
"..."
The attacker remained silent, like a Unwinged Angel killer, approaching Annie step by step. As Annie watched, his hands astonishingly transformed from flesh-colored to metallic.
In the blink of an eye, his hands had become iron fists encased in metal!
He's a Supe!?
Annie finally realized.
The one who attacked her was a Supe, and quite possibly one of the Super Villains that Vought had been promoting recently!
Because Kevin was her boyfriend, Annie now knew a lot of things.
She knew that Super Villains were Vought's current propaganda strategy, and she also knew that Vought itself had created this.
Originally, she, who still harbored a sense of justice, really wanted to prevent such things from happening.
But because Kevin said he would find a way, Annie, trusting Kevin, didn't continue to investigate, completely leaving the matter to Kevin.
But she didn't expect it.
Kevin had just been attacked during the day, and now, less than half a day later, another Super Villain had appeared to cause trouble.
How many Supe terrorists did Vought bring over?!
Annie even felt an urge to call Kevin and ask him what exactly he was doing.
However, compared to that, the problem currently facing Annie was still this Supe who could metalize his hands.
"I get it. You want a fight, huh?"
Knowing that the other party's target was herself, Annie also got angry.
No matter what, she was also a member of The Seven, a Superhero. For just any Supe to come and want to bully her, wasn't that a bit too disrespectful?
It just so happened that she was in a mall, the last place to lack electricity, so Annie could unleash her superpower at full power…
Click——
Just as Annie thought this, the lights throughout the entire mall suddenly went dark, all the lights extinguishing at the same moment.
At such a critical moment, the mall's power circuit had a problem.
The power went out!
Annie: "..."
This power outage truly couldn't have come at a worse time!!
With the power outage, the light in Annie's eyes gradually extinguished.
Her ability required electricity, and generally, cities were the places least likely to lack electricity, which was why Annie could use her ability at all times.
But now that the mall had a power outage, Annie could only borrow electricity from the streetlights outside, but this would take time.
However, the attacker in front of her might not give her time!
Annie felt heavy-hearted, hesitating whether to take Kimiko and run outside, when suddenly, Kimiko darted out from the shadows.
She was like a bloodthirsty wolf, her small body clinging to the big man's back, her two hands like sharp wolf claws, viciously tearing at the 'giant bear's' face!
Kimiko's surprise attack startled the bear-like Supe.
But he seemed to be a Supe specializing in physical combat; Kimiko's tearing did not cause him much harm, only some pain.
Therefore, he also reacted, his two metallic hands clawing wildly at himself, trying to get Kimiko off him.
"Get off!!"
The muscular man finally let out a sound, a deep voice matching his physique.
Kimiko, however, did not let go. Instead, unable to find a breakthrough on the muscular man's face, she finally aimed for the only weakness on his face.
Which was… his eyes.
"Ah ah ah ah!!!!"
Her slender fingers decisively and swiftly plunged into the muscular man's eye sockets. The eyes, extremely vulnerable to Supes, were destroyed by Kimiko's hands. Not only that, Kimiko's movements didn't stop; her fingers continued to delve deeper into the muscular man's head.
"Oh… I have to say, this scene truly is…"
Having previously witnessed Kimiko 'slaughtering' those smugglers, Annie was not afraid of Kimiko's actions, but rather let out a slightly disgusted sigh.
The struggle between the bear and the wolf continued.
Under intense pain, the muscular man unleashed his potential. His metallic hands finally grabbed Kimiko, who was scrambling on him, and amidst screams and roars, he violently flung Kimiko away.
At the same moment, Annie, who was approaching the outside of the mall, finally received electricity from outside the store.
Her eyes brightened again, and she brought her two hands together, gathering dazzling light, aiming it at the muscular man, while also reminding Kimiko:
"Kimiko, close your eyes!"
Kimiko, who had already landed on the ground, quickly turned her head and closed her eyes.
Instantly, a light bright enough to burn retinas illuminated the dim store.
The light carried an immense impact, crashing heavily into the body of the bear-like muscular man.
Thump!!!
The muscular man's body flew backward, like a volleyball being spiked.
His body crashed into the deformed, abandoned vehicle, shifting its position along with the car, until it hit a nearby wall and stopped.
With just one blow, the muscular man seemed to have lost the strength to fight back.
But even so, Annie did not stop.
She continuously unleashed light rays, firing them alternately with her left and right hands, one after another, mercilessly striking the muscular man's body.
It wasn't until the muscular man's chest was charred black, and she was certain he had no strength left to retaliate, that Annie stopped, running towards Kimiko:
"Kimiko, are you okay?"
'I'm fine.'
Kimiko signed with her blood-stained hands, reassuring Annie.
After confirming that Kimiko was unharmed, merely having a lot of the enemy's blood on her hands, Annie finally relaxed.
She turned her gaze back to the unconscious criminal, took a deep breath, and pulled out her phone to call Kevin:
"Hello? Kevin, I had a bit of an accident here. Kimiko and I were attacked. Yes, a Supe."
...
Annie's attacker was not an isolated case. On the day Kevin and Annie were attacked, Maeve, who was on patrol, was also attacked simultaneously.
And the next day, Stormfront, who was livestreaming, and Shockwave, who was also livestreaming, were attacked by different Super Villains almost at the exact same moment.
Annie's opponent was knocked out and defeated by her. Maeve's opponent escaped halfway through the fight and disappeared, as Maeve had no long-range control methods.
Stormfront, on the other hand, brutally killed her opponent because the attacker was a Black man.
Shockwave was the unluckiest.
He was casually ambushed while signing autographs for fans, and his leg was severely broken.
If Homelander hadn't been nearby at the time and provided timely rescue, Shockwave would probably have been the only Superhero in The Seven to die at the hands of a Super Villain.
Of the remaining people, Kevin had already been attacked yesterday and stayed inside Vought today, so no one came to attack him again.
Black Noir was elusive, like a ninja. Only he could find others; it was virtually impossible for others to find him.
However, overall, only Homelander, who flew in the sky every day, and the elusive Black Noir had not been attacked.
The rest of them had all been attacked by Supes.
Kevin could confirm that yesterday's attack was indeed not a coincidence; the mastermind was not only targeting Kevin but all members of The Seven.
"This is a declaration of war!!"
In The Seven's meeting room, Homelander's face was ashen.
Since Madelyn's death and reaching certain agreements with Kevin, Homelander rarely got angry.
He was still investigating Rebecca's matter, wanting to truly find the guy who killed Madelyn, so he wasn't paying much attention to other things right now.
However, this attack on all members of The Seven truly made Homelander furious.
No matter what, he was the leader of The Seven, and an attack on all members of The Seven represented a provocation to him, Homelander!
However, surprisingly, compared to Homelander's anger, the other manager of The Seven, the current Vice President Kevin, remained very calm.
"Calm down. Your anger is also what the enemy wants to see. For now, let's focus on discussing what exactly this so-called 'Supervillain Alliance' is."
Kevin swayed in his chair, expressionless.
When he learned that Annie and Kimiko had been attacked, Kevin was indeed very angry.
But Kevin also knew that his anger was useless.
He couldn't directly confront Stormfront or Edgar to confirm if it was their doing, as Kevin had no evidence, and rushing to them would only make it easier for them to find fault.
Furthermore, Annie wasn't the only one who had been attacked.
Therefore, compared to Kevin's own anger, the most important thing now was to discuss this 'villain organization' that simultaneously attacked all members of The Seven.
Where did it come from?
join p atreon.com/KeyofStars and become a Sequence: 9 Reader for hundreds of additional chapters and over a dozen stories