Of course, Zod was not going to bring Pietro back right away. If he did not let the kid properly experience the bitterness of life, he would forget how hard-won his current comfort truly was.
Look at Wanda. She was so sensible. Uld said Wanda had enrolled in a lot of courses, majoring in management, probably because she wanted to join Blade Technology Industries.
Every one of those teachers gave her an A. You had to understand, these were private tutors Zod had paid a fortune to hire, the kind who served only the children of the upper class.
At first, they were unwilling to switch from one-on-one tutoring to one-to-many teaching. But nothing in this world is difficult, so long as you have money. After Zod dumped in a massive sum, the teachers all declared that educating talent was their duty as teachers. One-to-many was fine. They were not afraid of hardship, and they were not afraid of exhaustion.
Pietro was the opposite. In the beginning, he could still sit through class properly, but later he started skipping school and pulling all kinds of stunts.
He had clearly lived through the hardship of becoming an orphan, yet he could enjoy the convenience of his new life with a perfectly clear conscience. That made Zod feel he had to bend him back onto the right path.
Five days later.
Pietro had been tormented until he barely looked human. And just then, screams rang out from outside, the screams of the people who had kidnapped him. Immediately after, a figure burst in.
"Pietro?"
The helmet split apart automatically, revealing Zod's head. The moment Pietro saw Zod, he broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
Ten full days of torture had left his face gaunt, his body thin, and his whole person far more haggard.
"Alright. Come with me. Wanda's been worried sick about you."
Zod pulled Pietro up and led him out of the little black room that had held him for ten days.
Then Pietro saw the corpses strewn across the floor.
They were horrific to look at. Some had been cleaved in half. Some had their torsos punched through, leaving a hole the size of a basketball.
Pietro only felt satisfied, like a knot in his chest had finally loosened. After that, Zod sent him straight to the hospital under Blade Technology Industries.
After Pietro left, those corpses drifted away with the wind, because they were merely "bodies" Zod had constructed out of atoms.
"Thank you, Mr. Heath!"
The moment she got the news at home, Wanda came running. When she saw Pietro unconscious, she lunged forward, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Only after a while did she stand again, thanking Zod over and over.
"No need," Zod said, shaking his head. After all, he was the one who did it.
But Wanda showed the maturity of a girl whose mind had grown up too early. She forced herself to be strong. With Pietro like this, she could only hold herself up with her own hands.
Zod and Uld were outsiders. They could not give her that much care or help. Fortunately, Pietro was not too seriously hurt. Even though he was beaten every day, after the beatings the Beastification Soldiers would still feed him nutrient solution. That solution boosted metabolism, ensuring his body would not be left with lasting aftereffects from the abuse.
Then Zod left. Uld, however, stayed behind.
Next, a new monster appeared in New York.
This time, it was still the Deep Sea Folk. Using the Deep Sea King's death as their excuse, they had come to take revenge on the land-dwellers!
One massive Deep Sea creature after another crawled ashore, and panic erupted almost instantly.
America's response was fast this time, also to make up for the last time, when they had been powerless against Elder Centipede and could only rely on the image of superheroes.
Ten Iron Mongers purchased from Blade Technology Industries were shipped to the scene, along with dozens of War Machines to support them.
The superheroes who got the news also mobilized immediately.
"They're huge," Reed clicked his tongue. "What did these guys eat down in the sea to grow like this? It's unbelievable!"
The Thing, Ben, clenched his fists and charged one of the shark-headed Deep Sea Folk. The two slammed together, yet Ben did not manage to knock it down.
With the impact of nearly a hundred tons, Ben had assumed the creature would be badly injured at the very least.
This thing only had a few scales dented, and that was at the neck. Was its body full of high-performance fiber, or shear-thickening fluid? With this kind of defense, even ordinary bullets were probably useless.
And that was exactly the problem.
Pistols, machine guns, bombs, these were always extremely lethal against humans with small frames and fragile bodies. A bullet piercing wound, blood loss, shrapnel, even the shockwave. Ordinary people could not withstand them.
But used on monsters with bizarre physiology?
Zod had constructed these Deep Sea Folk strictly according to the setting. A race living under that kind of ocean pressure having physical abilities that completely outclassed humans was only natural.
The coastline had already set up defensive lines, but the destructive power of these Deep Sea Folk, each with an average height over two meters, exceeded all expectations.
By all logic, a metal storm formed by a hundred streams of fire should have been enough to shred anything. Yet once the Deep Sea Folk raised one arm to shield their eyes, hunched forward, and charged, it all became a joke. Shadow after shadow rammed through the barrage. Some fell, but others pushed all the way to the five-meter-high defensive structure.
Then they were blocked by the Iron Mongers.
Since Zod had claimed the Iron Monger was designed with the Deep Sea King as its hypothetical enemy, he would naturally ensure it delivered, at the very least, it would not be so easily torn apart by ordinary Deep Sea Folk.
"I've never eaten this kind of human before," a Deep Sea creature said as it sized up the Iron Monger in front of it. "Looks like the meat should be excellent."
To it, this land-dweller resembled certain creatures in the sea. Peel off the shell, and inside was fresh, juicy flesh.
The American soldier inside the Iron Monger gathered his courage and opened fire.
A heavy .50 BMG autocannon, the kind usually only mounted on helicopters or vehicles, roared from the Iron Monger's left arm.
At close range, the savage firepower plastered the Deep Sea creature's face, but it simply slapped the autocannon to pieces. Under the AI's instinctive response, the Iron Monger blocked the Deep Sea creature's lightning-fast second strike, then snapped back with an uppercut that nailed its chin, followed by a frenzied chain of blows.
Each punch carried dozens of tons of force, pounding until the Deep Sea creature's face split open.
"Good. We can actually fight them!"
The military personnel were thrilled. Zod Heath really was something.
The Fantastic Four fought with difficulty. Ben found the trick. He stopped trying to clash head-on with the Deep Sea Folk. Instead, he restrained them, then Invisible Woman Susan used an invisible force field to detonate them from within, and then Human Torch roasted them black so they would not regenerate.
As for Mr. Fantastic Reed?
He was basically just there to make up the numbers.
"A mere Tiger-level monster is enough to leave today's superheroes at a loss. In the end, it's because they've trained too little."
Zod stood on a rooftop with his arms crossed, observing the battle. Electromagnetic force twisted the magnetic field around him, preventing any technological means or superpowers from detecting him, as if he were standing in a different dimension altogether.
/-\
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