#8 - First Blood

With Yang Le's appearance, the jewelry store fell into silence.

"Ah!" Seeing Yang Le transformed into Swampfire, the crowd screamed, and Betty, who was closest, even fainted directly.

"What are you!" Herman looked at Yang Le, who was grabbing his right hand, in horror, and activated his gauntlet in desperation.

"You…" "Bang!" Yang Le was about to answer when he was blasted into pieces by the shockwave released by the gauntlet. Due to the short distance of the impact, Herman was also sent flying.

With the sound of shattering glass, Herman crashed through the glass display case and landed inside the counter.

"Damn it!" Herman struggled to get up, enduring the pain all over his body. Many glass shards were stuck in him, making him look miserable.

"At least I took care of that monster," Herman consoled himself, but before he could get up, a pair of thick green roots stood in front of him.

"You can call me Swampfire, Mr. Criminal," Yang Le said, looking down at the dumbfounded Herman.

"Mo…Monster!" Herman looked at Yang Le, who had just been blasted into pieces by him, standing in front of him intact. If it weren't for the pain in his body and the blood flowing out, he would have thought it was all an illusion.

"Die! You monster!" In a panic, Herman activated the gauntlet on his hand again. Perhaps because the energy was about to run out, this time the shockwave only shattered Yang Le's upper body.

However, all of this was in vain. Before Herman could lower his hand, Yang Le's upper body had already been reconstructed.

"That thing is useless against me," Yang Le reached out his hand to grab Herman, who was sitting on the ground.

"Ahhhhh!" Herman completely lost his mind, constantly firing shockwaves.

Yang Le's body was shattered and reshaped again and again until Herman's gauntlet ran out of energy.

"Nightmare! This must be a nightmare!" Herman murmured softly, as if he had a seizure, staring blankly at Yang Le, who had once again reconstructed himself in front of him.

'You're right, but this is Swampfire,' Yang Le looked at Herman, who had lost his will to fight, feeling bored. He stretched out his right hand and turned it into several thick vines to tie him up.

"So, ladies and gentlemen, you are… oh, never mind," Yang Le turned around, intending to announce to the crowd that they were free, only to find that there was no one behind him. They probably all ran away while he and Herman were fighting.

---Separation Line---

"So you're saying there was a humanoid plant about 7 feet tall fighting with the criminal, and you escaped while they were fighting?" George looked at Betty, who was shivering even while wrapped in a blanket, with disbelief.

'What's wrong with this world? First, there's an escaped convict with a weapon of mass destruction made from garbage in prison, and then there's a plant monster?' George couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

But George had no choice but to believe it. After all, all the hostages who escaped said the same thing.

"Sheriff George, all the hostages should have escaped," a police officer ran to George and said.

"Okay! Get ready, we're going in!" George regained his thoughts and looked at the police officer who reported to him with firm eyes.

"Yes!" Receiving the order, the police officer immediately transmitted the order through the walkie-talkie. Soon, a group of police officers preparing to attack were on standby.

George didn't waste any time and directly stated the key points of the operation.

"According to the information brought by the hostages, there should be two people in the jewelry store. One is the escaped convict Herman, who is carrying a powerful weapon, and the other is an unknown life form. It is currently unclear whether it is aggressive. We must be prepared for both sides to be enemies, understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Very good! Prepare to attack!" George took out his pistol and took the lead in walking towards the jewelry store.

However, when the police officers walked into the jewelry store step by step, they only found a mess and Herman, who was tied up and lying on the ground, mentally distraught.

"There's no plant monster at all," one of the police officers muttered in a low voice, but his tone seemed to have a hint of relief.

George looked at the plant fragments on the ground in silence.

Yang Le walked lightly on the way home. If he didn't care about the eyes of others, he might have jumped up.

"Charged to 56%, one step closer to unlocking the next stage of alien hero," the corners of Yang Le's mouth couldn't help but rise. Today was simply his lucky day. He not only met Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, but also gained a lot of energy at once.

Yang Le knew that Herman was like a drop of water falling into a hot oil pan. This was the law of the Marvel universe. Once the peace was broken, countless troubles would follow, and he needed to prepare for the upcoming battles.

'The escaped convict just now, should be Shocker, right?' Yang Le recalled Herman's characteristics. The gauntlets that could release shockwaves were too iconic.

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'Looking at the prison uniform on him, he probably just escaped from prison. Then this should be his first appearance,' Yang Le remembered that Shocker was originally an ordinary lock-picking thief. After being caught and imprisoned, he worked hard to learn and then used the knowledge he learned in prison to make a weapon that could fire shockwaves and successfully escaped.

"Knowledge is power!" Yang Le sighed at how knowledge changes destiny and also sighed at the teaching staff of the American prison.

Even prisoners know to arm themselves with knowledge, but he spends all day idle (referring to patrolling). Yang Le felt very ashamed.

"Sure enough, the sewers are suitable for rats," after being ashamed for a second, Yang Le drilled into the sewer.

The righteous hero returned to his warm and humid home, and the evil villain curled up in a cold prison.

Herman fell back into prison again. He felt devastated. Originally, Herman was most proud of his stable spirit. He didn't panic even when he was first arrested, but now he was a little listless.

Everything he planned was ruined. After this escape, the police will definitely be wary of him, and it will be as difficult as climbing to the sky to escape again.

"Herman, someone wants to see you," just when Herman was feeling devastated, the prison guard knocked on his iron door.

"Who is it?" Herman asked softly. He felt very strange. Not to mention that it was already past visiting hours, based on his performance, it was impossible to get a chance to visit.

However, the prison guard did not answer his question, but just opened the cell door and looked at him coldly.

"Okay, then let me see who is the powerful person who wants to see me," Herman perked up. He felt that he might be leaving here soon.