The air along the island's coast carried a potent scent of blood and gunpowder.
In Trinity's realm, he stepped onto the shore as a small black kitten.
Xi Nian, gifted with night vision, gazed ahead.
At the edge where the island's beach met the rainforest, it was clear a fierce battle had recently concluded.
The ground was strewn with human remains, fragments of helicopters and artillery, and scattered bullet casings. In some areas, faint flames and smoke lingered.
The signs of devastation hinted at the intensity of the recent conflict.
Yet, the coast was now silent, with no trace of human activity.
Had no one survived?
"Where's the Starro you sensed?" Xi Nian asked, his voice inexplicably raspy.
"Meow meow…" Xiao Huang's reply echoed in Xi Nian's mind: "I can only faintly sense it's somewhere on this island."
Sensing through some spatial ability, perhaps?
The thought crossed Xi Nian's mind, though even the young emperor himself seemed uncertain.
Still in its cub stage, the Yuan-devouring Beast's innate abilities were likely still developing.
As Xi Nian prepared to explore the island further, he paused, his gaze locking onto a spot on the beach. There lay a humanoid creature resembling a weasel, soaked and seemingly unconscious from water.
Yet, a faint heartbeat revealed it was still alive.
…
Night deepened.
Within the island's dense, primal rainforest, a team trekked forward. The group included humans in varied tactical gear, a bipedal shark-like creature, and a young girl with a mouse perched on her shoulder.
"I'm so hungry, really craving something," the shark-like creature muttered in human speech, drool dripping as it patted its flat belly like a drum.
"Goodness, are you sure this guy won't snack on us?" a helmeted man in a red shirt grumbled.
"Of course not—he's our friend," the young girl replied with an innocent blink, waving toward the shark creature.
"I'm not convinced," the man in red huffed, his hand gripping a custom long-barreled pistol. "He nearly ate you earlier. Not exactly reassuring!"
"Please, keep it down," the team's leader, a man in a black uniform, said firmly. "We have no choice. They've told us he's our strongest asset. Without him, we can't reach Jotunheim. We don't want those bombs in us going off. We must complete the mission and return to the prison to keep moving forward."
"Exactly," a calm female voice echoed through the team's micro-communicators as the leader spoke.
Thousands of kilometers away, in a high-tech U.S. base filled with surveillance screens and computers, a woman in a professional dress watched the monitors intently. She was Amanda Waller, a senior official overseeing Task Force X. If any convict on the mission tried to flee or stray, she'd activate the explosive device implanted in them without hesitation.
"If you want a reduced sentence, follow orders," Amanda Waller said sternly into the communicator.
"Understood," replied a quiet young man with strange glowing spots on his body.
Before anyone else could respond, the shark creature's eyes gleamed. It opened its toothy maw and lunged toward a spot in the jungle.
Only then did the team notice a small black kitten emerging from the bushes, perched quietly on a stone. It seemed harmless, its glowing green eyes watching them.
Almost… charming?
But as the massive shark creature, ten times the kitten's size, charged with ferocious intent, the kitten's expression shifted to a mischievous grin. A fierce aura surged from its tiny form, and one small paw swiped forward—
The air erupted!
As if struck by a speeding truck, the shark creature was flung backward, crashing through the rainforest with a roar. Its two-meter frame hurtled ten meters, toppling several trees before coming to a stop.
"Good heavens!" "What?!"
The team froze, a chill racing up their spines as their scalps tingled at the shocking reversal.
Their so-called strongest force, defeated in an instant?
Though hardened criminals, they quickly rallied, launching a counterattack.
The black-clad leader fired a large-caliber gun with precise, rapid shots.
The man in red raised his wrist, squeezing the trigger of his long-barreled pistol.
The young man with glowing spots unleashed a dense barrage of strange energy from his palms.
The girl, clutching a glowing tech device, initially moved to summon the island's rats but froze, her face paling as she stared at the kitten in terror.
Bullets and energy spots rained down on the kitten.
To the team's disbelief, the bullets ricocheted off the kitten's body or veered away, unable to touch it. The energy spots, capable of melting stone, left not a mark on its sleek, hairless form—a dark, biological cortex that deflected everything.
Unfazed by the assault, the kitten remained still, its blue eyes growing fiercer and more impatient.
"Stop attacking!" the girl cried, clutching her trembling mouse.
Simultaneously, Amanda Waller's urgent voice crackled through their communicators: "Cease fire immediately! Stop, and you might survive. Keep attacking, and you're done!"
Reluctantly, the three members halted, knowing their lives now hung in the balance, controlled by the tiny creature before them.
"Why is it here?" Amanda Waller muttered in the U.S. base, her face pale as she opened an intelligence file on her screen.
The black kitten in the photo matched the mysterious being at the scene.
Codename: Black Flash.
First sighted: December 23, 2011, Christmas Eve, downtown New York City.
Species: Unknown.
Known abilities: Strength to tear apart a muscle car, speed surpassing sound, limb transformation or weaponization, tentacle manipulation forming massive structures, ability to consume objects far larger than itself, ultrasonic roars, and resilience against energy beams and heavy artillery.
Battle record: Defeated an unknown liquid creature, nearly defeated Iron Man.
Danger level: SSS+, one tier above the Hulk.