Night Raid

Zhang Ye and the others’ target was Enchantress, the Asgardian sorceress from Asgard.

She had once been Thor’s archenemy, though she later often clashed with other heroes of the Avengers as well. Her magical energy was incredibly powerful, exactly what Zhang Ye currently needed.

After that battle ended, Enchantress lost her sense of fun. She traveled across the world, yet still could not recapture the thrill of matching wits and strength with the Avengers. In the end, she came to Osborn City, having heard that Osborn was declaring war on every superhero across the wasteland.

Enchantress had not cared at first, because she believed there were no superheroes left in this world. But the results greatly surprised her.

In the year or so since the declaration of war began, more than thirty people calling themselves "superheroes" had died at Osborn’s hands.

Although those people were truly weak, almost all ordinary humans, and most of them products of Osborn’s own staged productions, they still caught Enchantress’s attention.

As the saying went, throw out a brick to attract jade. In this wasteland world, superheroes were rarer than giant pandas. Ten fakes did not matter—as long as the eleventh was real, that was enough.

Just as Osborn had imagined, all the long-lived Enchantress wanted was for a few people who tried to resist them to emerge, so they could have some fun and reminisce about the old days. Nothing more.

That was precisely why Enchantress joined Osborn’s criminal alliance and became one of its members, waiting for challenges from all the ambitious people across the wasteland.

Perhaps worried that other supervillains would disrupt his game, Osborn had specifically opened up a road solely for challengers. It led directly to Osborn City, and Red Skull’s people would not stop anyone along the way.

Osborn even deliberately dealt with Hydra spies, fearing that those heroes might be intercepted by that old bastard Red Skull before they ever reached him.

But in truth, Red Skull had indeed done exactly that at first. Later, however, once he realized that Osborn was merely amusing himself and that the "heroes" who came here were basically all trash, he stopped paying attention to that madman.

Rather than play house with that old lunatic, Red Skull preferred wearing his old rival’s suit and admiring the relics left behind by heroes of the past.

As for Zhang Ye, his goal went far beyond that.

Enchantress’s magic was important, but the origins of the Batarang were even more important.

If those outsiders from other universes had survived, there was no way they would allow Osborn to run wild like this.

Just imagine.

When members of the Justice League, the Justice Society, or the Teen Titans arrived in this world and discovered that its superheroes had become history and criminals had carved up the world, would they simply accept it?

Of course not. They would do everything in their power to fix it all. They dreamed of bringing hope to this wasteland world.

And then, they heard the broadcast from Osborn City. One of the world’s greatest villains had declared war on all heroes of the wasteland, hoping someone would fight him in a battle of the century.

Zhang Ye guessed that those outsiders’ first reaction would definitely be—That bastard is obviously calling me out. If he wants to fight, then fight. If I don’t go, I’m a dog!

Zhang Ye was not just guessing. Based on his understanding of that whole band of reckless fools, they really could do something like that.

So, based on that assumption, Zhang Ye decided to make a trip directly to Osborn City. It would be best if he could find clues about those people from the DC Universe, but it would not matter if he could not. Collecting Enchantress’s magical energy would still be worth it.

After bypassing New Babylon, the three of them continued onward. Most of the roads here were under Hydra’s control, so for safety’s sake, Zhang Ye had been traveling under cover of night and mainly taking back roads.

It was only because Zhang Ye had altered the Ghost Rider Gang’s motorcycles’ appearance. Otherwise, with their ghost-rider-punk look, they would have been riddled with Hydra soldiers’ machine-gun fire the moment they entered the leader’s district.

When they reached a stretch of wilderness, Zhang Ye slowly stopped the vehicle.

"Let’s rest here for a while. I’ll refuel the bikes, and you two should eat something to replenish your energy." Zhang Ye got off the vehicle and spoke to Kara and Pietro. "We should reach Osborn City tomorrow. There’s going to be a tough fight there, so we need to prepare."

"Don’t worry. If they were in their prime, that would be one thing, but they’re just a bunch of old, weak, sick, and crippled people. I can handle them all by myself." Pietro opened a takeout box and said with a grin.

"Don’t underestimate them. Not everyone has been eroded by time. Enchantress has remained at her peak all along," Zhang Ye said casually.

"Hey, you’re here too. You handle that sorceress, and leave the rest to me. I guarantee the fight will be over in five seconds—ten at most. Anyway, no more than twenty seconds."

Zhang Ye’s gaze made Pietro’s scalp prickle, so he hurriedly nudged Kara beside him. "Kara will help me too, right?"

But Kara did not react at all. She merely frowned, silently seeming to ponder something.

"Kara, what’s wrong?" Pietro froze slightly, and the smile on his face gradually faded.

"Did you hear something?"

Instead of answering, Kara suddenly asked a question.

Hearing Kara’s question, Zhang Ye and Pietro both stopped what they were doing. They exchanged a glance, then fell silent and carefully listened to their surroundings.

This was Red Skull’s territory, after all. One careless mistake could see them surrounded by Hydra soldiers, which would be very dangerous. Though it would not really matter if they were surrounded, they still had to remain vigilant for the sake of the plan.

Zhang Ye and Pietro both knew that Kara had the best hearing among them. If Kara had truly heard something, then there was a high chance something really was approaching.

"Kara, what did you hear?" After listening quietly for a while, Pietro had heard nothing, so he asked curiously.

At his words, Kara leaped down from the vehicle. She then crouched slightly, straining to amplify her hearing as much as possible while carefully judging the exact source of those sounds.

"I hear a lot of people approaching. They’re moving fast, not at a human speed. And most importantly, I can barely hear their heartbeats. They don’t seem to be alive."

After a pause, Kara spoke again.

"There are roughly seventy of them. The leader is a strange guy wearing a suit that looks like a giant bat, with red stripes across his chest."

"Wait!

"You can hear the color of his clothes too?" Pietro stared wide-eyed.

"I don’t need to hear it."

In response, Kara merely slowly stood up and spoke softly.

"You’ll see it when you turn around."