Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 19 The Owl Gets a Rotten Rat

The Invisible Man resides in a room covered with metal foil, undetectable by any detector.

While not all, the vast majority of people with superpowers usually possess superior physical attributes, from strength and agility to defense.

The Invisible Man is one of the best among them. He may not have the strength of Homelander or Queen Maeve, but his carbon-fiber skin makes him virtually invulnerable.

The Frenchmen and Butcher have tried swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, forks, guns, armor-piercing projectiles, electromagnetic projectiles, laser-powered projectiles, electrically powered projectiles, high-temperature projectiles, and poison projectiles, but none of them worked.

If there were a discipline in this world called how to economically and scientifically deal with superhumans, the French would definitely be experts in this field.

Finding the weaknesses of superhumans under limited conditions and then subduing or killing them is something the French are already very familiar with.

But looking at the transparent man locked in the electrified cage, the Frenchman was momentarily at a loss.

Electricity can harm the invisible man, but that's about it; it can't actually kill him.

This guy's carbon skin is as tough as an old turtle; with the three of them's current meager resources, there's no way they can penetrate it to cause any damage, let alone kill him.

Wait... a turtle?

The Frenchman suddenly had a bold idea.

He left the bewildered Hughie and Butcher behind and entered the secret chamber where the Invisible Man was imprisoned.

The Invisible Man had realized that the other party couldn't do anything to him, so he started yelling at everyone he met, figuring it was only a matter of time before Walter found him.

Rather than saying that they locked themselves up, it would be more accurate to say that these thugs trapped themselves and waited to die.

The transparent man, realizing this, had a mouth harder than his own skin, completely unaware that disaster was imminent:

"Look at you, all cornered! You'd better release me now, and I promise I'll give you a quick death, and I won't harm your families... Aaaaaah!"

The Frenchman knocked the Invisible Man unconscious with a stun gun, then called in the bewildered Butcher, opened the cage door, and began to perform some localized work on the Invisible Man.

When the invisible man in the cage slowly woke up again, he only saw three men with ill intentions squatting in front of him, chuckling.

"You're awake!"

If you know you can't break a turtle's shell, how do you kill a turtle?

Of course, you should avoid the shell and start from the soft inside.

If the transparent person's outer skin is a tortoise shell, where is the soft part inside?

Butcher thought that the Frenchman had to be really twisted. After the Frenchman reminded him, the only solution he could think of was to stuff a bomb into the transparent man's mouth.

The Frenchman suggested starting with a localized approach, arguing that it would prevent the other person from vomiting.

Upon hearing that several plastic C4 pellets had been inserted into his body, the usually stubborn Invisible Man finally began to feel fear.

At this moment, the roles of offense and defense have reversed.

"So that's the situation. As for the specifics, we'll have to see how things develop."

Holding the C4 remote control in his hand, Butcher felt happier than ever before. At this moment, he truly held the power of life and death over the most powerful superhuman in the world.

"Now you have to tell us everything you want to know. If you don't tell us, your chrysanthemum will explode; if you lie, your chrysanthemum will explode too."

"I was wrong! Please! Don't kill me!"

At this moment, the Invisible Man wished he could kneel down and kowtow to Butcher several times:

"Please, please don't kill me! I'll do anything!"

The Invisible Man's brain had never worked so fast in his life. He remembered Hughie asking him about the Aero Engine earlier:

"I know the train driver killed your girlfriend, and I know some dirt on him. Don't kill me, I can tell you... everything about you two!"

Butcher immediately became interested: "Tell me quickly."

This felt like stepping back into the good old days—when Butcher led a professional team that specialized in collecting dirt on these superheroes and then taking them down.

If we had to give that team a name, it might be called "The Boys".

"The locomotive has a secret lover, that 'claw woman'! He thinks nobody knows, but I do! He goes to her place to play cards almost every day!"

As for how the Invisible Man knew, it's quite obvious. Anyone with the ability to become invisible can't resist the urge to pry into other people's privacy.

The Invisible Man even dared to spy on everyone except Homelander, including his own teammates. If he hadn't heard that the rookie also had super vision and hearing, he would have gone to visit him long ago.

"I know almost everything about the Seven, their dirty secrets and private matters. Don't kill me, I'll tell you everything!"

Butcher was genuinely tempted to the end.

The information spoken by such a person is absolutely true. Just write it down, follow the clues, find evidence, and you can easily cause the stock price of Water Corporation to drop by at least 50%.

But Butcher knew they didn't have much time left.

~~~~

"Does anyone know where the Invisible Man went?"

Homelander, who was about to say a few words, noticed that Invisible Man was absent from the morning meeting once again. When he asked his colleagues, they all said, "I'm not here."

In everyone's opinion, the Invisible Man is probably in a mess again, getting himself into a mess with gambling, drugs, and prostitution. What's there to worry about?

Unlike the other seasoned veterans in the Seven, Homelander's attitude towards his superhero career wasn't sporadic; he genuinely wanted to be a superhero.

At least in the public eye and under the spotlight.

Look at my old teammates: alcoholics, drug addicts, autistic, an aquarium owner, and someone who skips work. The new kid, on the other hand, is actually quite serious right now, diligently taking notes in a notebook.

Oh, no—Homelander, with his super vision, discovered that the other party was merely drawing a turtle in his notebook.

Homelander was heartbroken. He had just worked overtime last night to sink the entire family of the Baltimore mayor who had threatened Madeleine with Compound V into the Atlantic Ocean, and now he had to manage these paycheck thieves.

Now he understands that Vought International's biggest threat isn't outside, but within the Seven.

However, it's also a good thing that this newcomer is slacking off. Homelander isn't stupid; he knows what those people on the 82nd floor mean by putting someone with similar abilities into their team.

However, this newcomer is clearly too young. Yesterday, during a presentation, he publicly criticized his own fan base, which was filmed and posted on Douyin. His already low approval rating dropped by 18 points.

Homelander, who has cultivated a fan base for decades, is confident that he can defeat his opponent by using him as a competitor.

Joey, who was drawing circles in his notebook, was thinking about where to begin his investigation into the dirty dealings of the Vought Corporation.

It's not that I'm having a headache about not knowing where to start, like before; it's that I'm too good at starting. I'm actually inside the Water Corporation right now.

What in this world is harder to guard against than an internal traitor?

Joey, who was currently pondering how to eliminate the remaining Spicy Crispy foes, would probably recall an idiom he had learned in his previous life if he could hear the voices of Homelander. The idiom is "the owl gets the rotten rat."

But even if he had the superhuman wisdom of ten supermen, he couldn't possibly come up with the Homelander's unique way of thinking at this moment.