Deadly Guardian

It was one in the morning in downtown New York.

Most buildings had turned off their lights and closed for the night. Only the twenty-four-hour stores still had a little life in them. The neon lights along the streets cast a dim, yellowish glow, while taxis marked vacant occasionally sped down the main roads.

A young man in jeans and a hooded trench coat wandered along the deserted street like a homeless man, his hands stuffed in his pockets, his back slightly hunched, and his face buried in the shadow of his hood.

Eddie. His situation was not much better than Thor’s, far away in Mexico.

As an outstanding graduate from the University of California, he had only been reporting for the New York News Company for two days. He had imagined getting promoted, earning more money, marrying a beautiful rich woman, and reaching the peak of his life. Then, overnight…

Not only had the room he was temporarily renting been blown up, but he had also become a murder suspect and been arrested by the New York police. Worst of all, there was a symbiotic life-form living inside his body that did not care whether he lived or died.

"Fuck, today really was terrible!" Eddie muttered bitterly.

His mind suddenly buzzed. Then, like an inner voice, a hoarse retort sounded. "Hey, hey, watch how you talk. Becoming my host was the day you were reborn."

"Heh." Eddie forced out a laugh.

Toxin said unhappily, "Cheer up. Aren’t there plenty of ordinary people in New York who became superhumans? Captain America, the Symbol of Peace, and so on…"

"Do you think… with the way you and I transform, we look more like righteous heroes or villainous monsters?" Eddie complained helplessly.

"That may be true. But what you’re about to do is something huge—save New York and preserve world peace!"

Toxin gave a light cough and explained seriously, "In that battle just now, I devoured part of that alien symbiote’s body and obtained fragments of its memories. They came to Earth this time to scout it out in advance and develop it into an alien colony. If even one of them returns to its home planet, it will bring thousands upon thousands of symbiotes here to attack Earth."

"Didn’t that monster just die?" Eddie asked in surprise.

Toxin answered bluntly, "Yes. But there were four of them in total. One is dead now, leaving three."

"To deal with three monsters that powerful, you might as well just let me kill myself." Eddie wailed miserably. He stopped in the alleyway and scratched his hair in frustration, startling a stray [Vicious Dog] by the roadside. It glared at him, baring its teeth as disgusting saliva dripped from its jaws. Its beastly eyes gleamed with a cold green light in the night.

"Get lost! Don’t mess with me!"

Eddie glared back furiously. Beneath his hood, his concealed face twisted slightly under the eerie, dim neon light, turning into the visage of a black monster—

Long, protruding white eyes surged with savagery and killing intent. A bloody maw large enough to bite off a human head opened and closed, revealing rows of sharp, jagged fangs.

"Awroo…" The [Vicious Dog] tucked its tail and instantly lost its nerve. Its legs trembled as it fled in terror, quickly vanishing around the intersection.

"Sigh."

Eddie’s face returned to normal. He sighed helplessly and continued walking aimlessly ahead.

Toxin offered rare reassurance. "Don’t worry. They have very obvious weaknesses: fire and ultrasonic waves. As long as we make proper use of them, hunting down those three symbiotes isn’t impossible."

As a reporter, Eddie keenly caught the flaw in its reasoning. He asked suspiciously, "Wait. Aren’t you the same species as them? Why would you turn around and help Earth? That sounds way too fake."

Toxin fell silent.

After a while, Toxin finally said coldly, "To be honest, what happens to Earth has nothing to do with me. I only want to find the meaning of my own existence. Though I am of the same species as those symbiotes, we were born on different planets."

"So you aren’t on the same side? Then right now, are you looking for your parents?" As Eddie spoke, even he found it absurd.

An alien version of tadpoles looking for their mother?

The question seemed to touch Toxin’s sore spot. It said irritably, "I don’t know. Stop asking me. Ask again, and I’ll bite your head off!"

Eddie shrugged. "Even if I let you bite it, you couldn’t. Besides, I’m your host now. We share one life. If I die, you can’t live either."

Toxin was left speechless.

It had not expected that not only was its own adaptability strong, but Eddie’s adaptability as a human was no less impressive.

"You…"

Eddie was about to say something when a black tentacle suddenly extended from behind him. It sprang into the alley beside them, yanking his entire body swiftly inside.

"What happened?"

Eddie was still confused when, a few seconds later, he saw a police car slowly drive past without its lights or siren on, as if it were patrolling and searching for something.

"A police car… Are the police still hunting me all over the city?" Terrified, Eddie asked Toxin anxiously, "What do we do? Before we find and kill the symbiotes, the New York police will kill us first."

"What are you afraid of? I’m here." Toxin snorted disdainfully. This host’s physical condition was decent, but his mentality was far too unstable. He still needed some proper training.

"You aren’t planning to kill people, are you?"

Eddie sighed again, for who knew what time, and turned to leave the alley. But as black shadows flickered before his eyes, three people in black appeared at the alley entrance out of nowhere.

"Be careful. They aren’t ordinary people." Toxin’s voice rang out in Eddie’s mind.

Eddie took a step back and warily examined the three people blocking his way.

They were two men and one woman. The men were tall and burly, while the woman was slim. All three wore full black combat leather outfits and grinning demon masks.

Their equipment was also extremely strange. One carried a Barrett sniper rifle as tall as a person on his back, another wore a bladed cold weapon at his waist, and the last had a pair of enormous metal Dual Guns strapped to his legs.

"Team F, target located beside the alley at 654 Hada Street." As the leader of the trio, one of the men efficiently reported into a high-tech communication watch.

The female figure in black looked at Eddie and said sweetly, "Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are disciples of the Karl family. I am Red Eleven."

"Red Ten." "Red Nine."

The other two disciples spoke in turn.

"Little brother, I advise you not to make any pointless attempts to resist," Red Eleven continued.

Eddie did not answer. Instead, he seemed to mutter to himself, "What should we do?"

"What else can we do? Fight!"

As if responding to Toxin’s hot-tempered answer, Eddie let out a low growl. His body rapidly swelled and changed, dark keratin forming over him, explosive armored muscles bulging beneath a terrifying shell that enveloped his human body.

"Attack!"

Faced with this, the three disciples exchanged glances. Without another word, they launched a joint assault, their movements swift, efficient, and effective.

A fierce battle unfolded on the silent streets of downtown New York in the dead of night.