บท 115: Insecurity
He bolted out of the Daily Planet office without even looking back.
For some reason, seeing them together triggered an instinctive urge in him to escape.
He didn't want to face the inevitable outcome… In the face of a destiny that seemed unchangeable, he couldn't even take a step forward to try and alter it.
...He was afraid of facing everything that would come after failure.
Soren, restless and unsettled, went to S.T.A.R. Labs.
He spent the entire afternoon in a state of anxiety, caught between hope and despair.
Finally, just before the end of the workday, he received a call from Clark.
The leader of the Justice League was asking if he wanted to come over for dinner that night.
Without even thinking, Soren closed his laptop and said, "I won't come. I have something to do..."
Like a thief caught in broad daylight, he anxiously turned down Clark's invitation.
He had no idea what Clark's current warmth meant.
Was it just the result of a long-standing habit formed over many days and nights?
Was it pity, guilt, or perhaps sympathy?
...Whatever it was, it couldn't be love.
He knew that much.
He was self-aware.
That night, he went to Gotham City.
Although the antidote Batman had injected into his system had worked, he still felt that his gene suppressor might be malfunctioning after the miniaturization process.
He wanted to ask Batman to help resolve the issue.
But tonight seemed to be the wrong time to show up.
Batman wasn't out in the city.
His ever-loyal British butler, Alfred, holding a bone china teacup, set it down and respectfully said to him, "Master Wayne is attending a charity gala this evening, Master Hargreaves. If you're looking for him, you might want to try the Stuttgart Opera House."
Soren thanked him and flew off toward the Stuttgart Opera House.
He landed at the entrance, reverted to his human form, and blended into the crowd, entering the main hall of the charity event.
As he scanned the packed auditorium for Bruce Wayne, Gotham's most famous billionaire bachelor, he couldn't find him at first.
...Instead, he quickly picked up on some unusual sounds coming from the rafters above the opera house.
Soren, seated beside a woman in a pink silk slip dress, lifted his head with a serious expression, gazing toward the ceiling of the grand hall.
Before the lady even noticed, he had quietly stand up and left.
The sound of what seemed like the scales of a cold-blooded creature scraping against the pipe was amplified in his ears.
He followed this sound, running down the opera house's emergency exit stairs, turning into the alleyway behind the opera house's Chinatown, and then, at the entrance of a restaurant's kitchen, lost the clue to this sound.
...Where did it go?
He bent down, feeling the ground with his hands, trying to sense the faint vibrations beneath the surface with his palms, his fingertips pressing against the uneven asphalt.
His blue eyes were illuminated by a rosy light from the neon signs—
Tiny stones and dust gently rolled by the edges of his palms.
...The light of evolution shone forth from him.
Eight silver wings burst through the skin on his back, a purple crown covered his face, a beam shield formed in an instant, and his long golden hair extended down to his heels.
Magna Angemon that was holding the Excalibur, rose from the alleyway!
He hovered in mid-air, and his eyes, under the sun totem headband, scanned with the precision of an infrared scanner, locating two crimson figures beneath the neon lights.
He shouted loudly and flew straight down.
The Excalibur cut through the ground, revealing the complex sewer tunnels of Gotham City, and he descended into the broad underground pipeline.
The pure and dazzling white light illuminated the two figures.
...
A newly emerged superhero from New York, Spider-Man, dressed in a red and blue tight suit, was rapidly shooting webs, attempting to bind the large and imposing crocodile monster in front of him.
Pure white webs flew one after another onto the Killer Croc's body, like countless fishing nets spread out, heavily wrapping and imprisoning him.
But the Killer Croc that has gone through mutation was incredibly strong.
It threw its head back and roared, its scaled arms flaring out like a flock of birds spreading their tail feathers, tearing through the webs with brute force.
Its ten claws extended, their cold, sharp glint ready to shred Spider-Man's webs!
In a split second, Spider-Man shot a web upward to dodge Killer Croc's attack, while Soren raised the Excalibur high and charged at the Killer Croc!
The Excalibur, carrying the purest light power in the world, pierced through Killer Croc's chest.
Killer Croc roared in pain, flailing its claws wildly, its five claws tearing at the chest of the Magna Angemon.
The Magna Angemon immediately used his wings that was glowing with golden light to swat away Killer Croc's claws, sidestepping the creature's biting attack, and with renewed force, the Excalibur pierced through Killer Croc's back!
Killer Croc let out an ear-splitting roar, its golden vertical pupils bulging with fury, and its powerful tail smashed through the concrete walls of the underground sewer tunnel.
But it no longer had the strength to resist under the Excalibur's assault.
It crashed down into the sewage, its vertical pupils staring resentfully and spitefully at the Magna Angemon—
Soren came to his senses, he picked up the exhausted young man behind him and flew up to the surface together with him.
He said angrily, "Who told you to come to Gotham City? This isn't the place for you!"
The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man who had just crawled out from under the monster's claws was dazed in the strong, muscular arms of the Magna Angemon, his spider eyes blinking erratically, "Wow! You're—you're the Angemon! Oh my God, can you give me an autograph?"
Soren: ?
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