Shane Freak
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Chapter 1394 - The Return of the Old Ones (Part 2)
🕑 Added 2024-07-03 07:29:18 +0000 UTCIn DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List
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After a while, in a cramped and small bedroom on the 2nd floor of the store, a long-haired young girl was sitting on the floor, completely soaked, glaring hatefully at the two young men in front of her. Shang-Chi shook his head and said, "Miss Jessica, if you hadn't gone crazy and tried to attack us, I wouldn't have had to splash you with water. Are you calm now?"
Jessica spat out a "Ptooey!" just like a female hoodlum from Hell's Kitchen, vigorously shaking her head to fling her wet hair behind her ears. She took a deep breath and said, "It wasn't the water that woke me up, but your spell-casting movements. Monsters can't cast spells, at least not without dark powers."
"Can you tell us what's going on? We just introduced ourselves - we're Superheroes from another world, and we just got here."
"You'll be staying here forever soon enough," Jessica said with a cold smile. "You just fought with those monsters, didn't you? Well, just wait, your craziness is only a matter of time."
Reilly and Shang-Chi exchanged a glance, and Reilly knelt down, looking directly into Jessica's eyes. "So that's why we want to know what's happening here, since we saved you."
"You didn't save me, I was hiding just fine, and you dragged me here," Jessica retorted.
"But you wouldn't have been able to hide for long," Shang-Chi emphasized. "The monsters would have found you eventually, and there aren't enough supplies to sustain you here."
"Sooner or later, we'll all go crazy, so I might as well hide for a while," Jessica said in a self-defeating tone, throwing the old hunting rifle aside and hugging her knees. "If you really want to know this hopeless truth, I'll repeat it."
"As you can see, this world has gone mad, and this madness started with the Superheroes - Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, the ones you often see in the newspapers, they've all become monsters."
"Then it spread to ordinary people, a terrible contagious madness spreading through the population, and people one by one turned into monsters and started rampaging."
"At first, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the military were still somewhat useful, using large-scale heat weapons to clear the area. But then they realized the transmission of this disease wasn't through wounds, but through the mind."
Jessica pressed her lips together, revealing a desperate expression. "As soon as you see them, or even get close to them, you'll gradually be infected by the madness, that terrible, irresistible darkness that invades your heart and turns you into a monster like them."
"By the time the government realized this, many of them had already been transformed. Yes, someone pressed the nuclear button, but their chaotic minds made them miss the target, though the oceans have been polluted, and the groundwater as well."
Reilly and Shang-Chi's faces grew somber, while Jessica's face was pale as she muttered, "Some organizations in Asian countries are still resisting, and there are some survivor alliances in Texas and Florida, but New York is completely done, you know why."
Of course they knew. New York was the most concentrated area of Superhero activity, so if the Superheroes were the source of infection, it was almost impossible for anything to have survived here.
"So you..." Shang-Chi hesitated a bit, not wanting to further upset Jessica's unstable mental state.
Jessica pressed her lips together and lowered her head, revealing a bitter smile. "I guess you could say I got lucky. For a long time before the disaster, I was being controlled by a supervillain called Purple Man, who had established a mind control barrier in my brain."
"When the disaster struck, he was the first to die at the hands of some Superhero, but his mind control over me wasn't completely broken. That barrier is still there, so I was able to fend off two monsters and hide."
Jessica tapped her forehead with her finger. "He was a terrible sadist, controlling every aspect of my thinking and depriving me of the ability to think independently. But that's also what saved me, because the residual influence means the madness the monsters bring can't fully control the main part of my brain, so I can still face them without going crazy."
"But you're right," Jessica's tone was tinged with despair. "This isn't a long-term solution. As I gradually regain my clarity, that madness will eventually invade here, and I'll become a monster like the Vengeance League."
"The Vengeance League?" Reilly repeated the term with some confusion. Jessica looked up at him briefly, then averted her gaze, muttering, "Yeah, the Vengeance League, maybe some of your old friends are there - Iron Man, Captain America, Thor."
Reilly and Shang-Chi were both shocked, their mouths agape. Shang-Chi swallowed hard and said, "Okay, I can understand Iron Man and Captain America, they're still human after all. But what about Thor?"
"Literally, the guy who goes around wielding a hammer," Jessica shook her head. "The newspapers don't report much on him, and I don't really understand, is there something special about him?"
Of course he was special, Reilly thought to himself, glancing at Shang-Chi, who was clearly thinking the same thing. It seemed Jessica didn't know that Thor came from Asgard, but they both did.
If even the Gods of Asgard had fallen, then the enemy's strength was probably beyond imagination. They would have to re-evaluate the scale of the situation.
"How did you get here to this Space? Never mind, it's a waste to ask, before you get infected, it's better to leave quickly." Jessica waved her hand and stood up, then picked up the old hunting rifle again, and said: "I have special abilities, it's just that Purple Man's control over me hasn't allowed me to fully unleash my power yet. If I go crazy, I might hurt you, so get the hell out of here."
After saying that, she picked up the gun and was about to walk out, when Lila stopped her and looked at her, saying: "Do you mean that we will be infected if we face the monsters directly? But we just dealt with two monsters."
"Correct, one looked like a zombie, and the other looked a bit like a glasses snake, only with a lot more tentacles," Shang-Chi described.
Jessica's movements paused for a moment, and she turned her head to look into Shang-Chi's eyes and said, "Did you make eye contact with them?"
"Of course, that zombie had at least eight eyes, I can't imagine not seeing them," Shang-Chi answered honestly.
However, Jessica took a few steps back, looking at them as if they were monsters, and she shivered, then said, "Didn't you see any terrifying hallucinations? Like suddenly feeling dizzy, then seeing many pairs of eyes staring at you, tentacles, slime, and all kinds of horrible insects?"
Seeing Jessica's pale face, Reilly knew that she must have been describing something she had seen before, but he had a confused look on his face, and when he turned his head to look at Shang-Chi, he found that Shang-Chi also had a blank expression.
"It's a terrible spiritual pollution." Jessica shook her head and said, "It will corrode your brain, slowly dragging you into the vortex."
"Spiritual pollution? Where?" Shang-Chi asked instinctively.
"I didn't see any." Reilly shrugged and said, "At the time, I was busy checking if my Spider-Sense was working."
Shang-Chi thought for a moment, then said, "I was doing an internal inspection of the flow of energy, reciting a mantra in my mind, you know, reviewing is important before an exam, I don't want to mess up the spell on my first try."
At this point, Jessica realized that their expressions were not feigned, and the black-haired girl looked at them curiously and said, "Are you immune to this kind of pollution? But what's the principle? It can't be because you're from another Space, can it?"
Reilly and Shang-Chi exchanged a glance, obviously they had come to the same conclusion - perhaps the pollution had not occurred, or was only slightly weaker, so they didn't feel it.
They recalled the heartfelt gratitude they felt when they saw that the monsters and zombies in this world could be touched, and then the stark contrast with the eerie silence of the nightfall in the dream Space - they almost wanted to high-five each other.
Reilly swallowed hard, suppressing his excitement, and this action was understood by Jessica as worry and fear. She shouldered the gun and said, "I have no intention of dragging you down, nor do I need anyone to save me. If this is the fate of this Space, then I can only say, fuck it, I don't need any more victims!"
With that, Jessica turned and headed downstairs, but Shang-Chi stepped in front of her on the staircase, blocking her path, and said, "Wait a minute, I have a plan that I've been wanting to try for a long time."
He looked at Reilly, and Reilly naturally knew what Shang-Chi was referring to, so he shrugged and said, "Okay, do as you please, but I hope we can find some survivors to stock up our doomsday shelter."
"What are you two talking in riddles about?" Jessica's gaze kept shifting between the two young men, as if she was guessing their relationship, and also like she was thinking about the relationship between her and their plan.
But in any case, the three of them walked out of the store's shop window, as the human instinct for survival would always prevail. Jessica knew that, in a sense, these two people had indeed saved her, and if there was even a slim chance that they would not be affected by the pollution, then they had truly saved her.
"So, is this Hell's Kitchen?" Shang-Chi asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Jessica caressed the barrel of the hunting rifle and said, "The police cars you saw on the road were not to save the civilians, but to suppress the riots. This is the place where the chaos started first."
"If there's a safe house we can use here, I think it must be..." Shang-Chi turned to look at Reilly, and Reilly recalled the story he had told Shang-Chi about himself, then after some thought, he came up with the answer: "King Pin's Royal Palace."
Hearing the familiar name, Jessica raised her eyebrows, guessing what these two people were going to do, but she still warned, "I must emphasize to you that in this world, whether they are villains or superheroes, they are all monsters now."
"That terrible gang leader and his henchmen must have all turned into monsters too. They not only have guns, but also tentacles, and perhaps even some helpers you can't imagine."
"Aren't you coming?" Reilly looked at Jessica and asked with a smile.
Jessica snorted and forcefully pulled the bolt of the gun, and then in the slightly surprised gaze of Reilly and Shang-Chi, she took off into the air, coldly saying, "I'll say it again, fuck it!"
[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]
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Next Chapter ->Chapter 1395 The Return of the Old Ones (Part 3)
