Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 234: Fight Back

Hank growled like a beast as he stared at Stanley. His bloody face showed no sign of understanding what was happening at all.

’Shit!’ Stanley thought. It was obvious that the man was not going to listen to him at all. Hank was still in his beastly rage and thus he would have to wait for Hank to calm down before he could tell him anything.

He kicked Hank in the chest and sent him flying away. Hank skidded along the snowy ground and slammed onto a metal light pole.

As Hank was trying to get back up, Stanley heard two gunshots, both of which landed on Hank.

Hank was startled and whined. His low intelligence at the moment only made him claw around the air in hopes of either blocking or attacking.

Stanley looked up and saw Fred shooting down with both of his guns. Neither of them was working on Hank at all.

"Fred, stay back," Stanley said. "I’ll deal with this. Go help, Sol."

Fred looked down, struggling to look at anything. "Will you be alright?" he asked.

"Yes," Stanley said. "Go be with Sol. Are Vera and Nova okay?"

"Shit!" Fred cried out. "I haven’t even checked on them. Take care of this."

Stanley frowned when he heard that. If anything happened to Nova...

This wasn’t the time to think about that. For now, he needed to get the association people away from here.

He looked back at Hank and could only do one thing. He ran right up to him and punched him in the chest once.

Hank coughed out heavily as he couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. Then, Stanley took the time to look through his ears and found the small piece of equipment he was searching for.

He pulled it out swiftly and placed it in his own ears. Then he spoke into it.

"Who listening on this channel?" he asked.

He couldn’t hear anyone at first, but a moment later he heard someone speak. "Stanley?" she called out.

It was Ulia.

"Ulia, do you know how Hank’s powers work?" he asked. "How do I get him to listen to me?"

"I don’t know," Ulia said. "Someone of these fighters might know. Anyone?"

There was a period of silence as no one spoke at all. All Stanley could hear was the cold blowing wind, murmurs of people that had surrounded him far away, and the wheezing sound of Hank as he tried his hardest to breathe.

"Speak up! This is our second Nova, Stanley. He’s here on a mission, answer him," Ulia said quickly after no one spoke up at all.

There was another period of silence, but this time someone spoke up at the end. "It has to do with blood," someone said. "He drinks blood and it makes him stronger, but he also becomes more beast than human during that time. He gets strong from the blood and can heal too."

"If you can make him use up both his strength and healing power, his powers should subside," the person said. "Other than that, the only thing you can do is wait for him to stop going feral, which happens about half an hour later."

Stanley couldn’t wait for half an hour. "Thanks," he said. He knew what to do now.

As Hank got back up, Stanley punched him in the face. The force with which he hit him sent forth a shockwave that people could feel in the air nearly a hundred meters away.

He waited for the man to heal slightly and asked loudly, "Who are you?"

He made his sound loud enough that it sounded like an investigation for those who heard him. "Speak!" he shouted as punched him on the other cheek this time around.

Another resounding boom went through the surrounding, making the hearts of everyone that tremble a little.

"I will kill you!" Hank shouted and clawed at Stanley.

Stanley moved to the side and tripped him. Hank fell face first, slamming onto the pavement. Stanley then kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying into the light pole again.

This time, the metal beam bent and crashed to the ground, and along with it, the lights were gone as well. The surrounding lights bled through, but it wasn’t enough for many to see.

Stanley slowly walked up to Hank, giving him ample time to heal and use up his blood. He kicked the pole off of him and pulled him up.

"Are you ready to speak?" he shouted.

Hank slowly looked up. His eyes were clearer than they had ever been before. "Who?" he asked softly.

Stanley realized that he was finally getting through to him. He got down and grabbed Hank, pulling him back up.

"Do you recognize me?" he said softly.

Hank looked at the face, barely recognizing anything around him, let alone Stanley.

Stanley realized that as well and sighed. "I’m sure you can understand me right now," he said. "Can you still heal?"

Hank didn’t know what was going on exactly, but he nodded.

Stanley then said something that surprised him a little. Before he could respond, Stanley punched him again.

Hank found himself skidding along the floor and Stanley quietly followed him. However, before he arrived, a loud explosion sent him flying backward.

Stanley fell at least a dozen meters back, landing on fresh snow. He felt a ringing in his ear that disoriented him.

He had been ready for the explosion as he had told Hank to use a grenade, but he hadn’t expected the explosion to send him back this much.

He slowly got up, with a finger in his ear that he used to get rid of the ringing. At the same time, he pulled out the communication piece he had and destroyed it under his fingers.

He quickly got up and looked in the direction of Hank, but he was nowhere to be seen. The grenade idea had paid off.

"Where is he?" he shouted. "Where did he go?"

Some people pointed in the general direction, and Stanley ran. However, he never caught up to Hank purposefully.

About 5 minutes later, he returned with an angry look on his face for everyone to see. People were gathered around, but he shooed them away and entered.

The inside was a mess as he had expected. There were trails of blood on the stairs that led upstairs. He quickly went up and found Vera tending to Nova while Fred tended to Sol.

Seeing him walk up, both of them looked up.

"What happened? Where is he?" Fred asked.

"Ran away," Stanley said, showing the tiny wounds on his body. "Bastard used a grenade on me and used the chance to run off."

"And you’re fine?" Fred asked, always surprised to see Stanley never suffer much when he fought.

"I’m fine," he said and looked at the two on the floor.

Both Sol and Nova were unconscious. Sol was bleeding profusely from his neck muscles which Fred had put his hands on. As for Nova, there was an entire metal rod that had gone through her shoulders, close to her neck.

It was a miracle that she hadn’t died just yet.

"How are they?" he asked quickly. "Do we need to take them to the doctor?"

"I have called someone," Fred replied. "They should be getting here at any moment. Did that man really go away?"

Stanley shrugged. The less he spoke about it, the better it was. He was about to say something else when he saw something.

His eyes widened slightly, but he tried to hide his surprise. He couldn’t let them see what was up just yet.

"Sol should be fine." He crouched toward him. "It’s just blood loss from what I can see. A bit of treatment and some food to help his body made some blood, and that should be fine. We can even transplant blood if needed."

"But Nova..." he didn’t know what to say. The massive metal rod that stuck out from her shoulders made him hesitate that she could come out of this fine. The rod was even bent, making it hard for it to be pulled out.

He got to her and grabbed the rod. Just as he tried to pull it, both Vera and Fred shouted at once.

"No!"

"Stop!"

Their words caused Stanley to pause. "What?" he asked.

"Don’t pull the rod, you fucking idiot!" Vera shouted. "That’s what’s keeping her blood inside. If you pull it out, she will bleed out."

"Oh!" Stanley said with a somewhat scared look. "I’m sorry, I... I wasn’t thinking right."

"Leave this to us," Vera shouted at him. "Go see if the doctor is here or not."

Stanley nodded. He quickly walked out to go back downstairs. As he was walking down, he put something into his pocket that he had grabbed during the commotion he had just caused.

Of course, he knew that one shouldn’t pull out whatever was stabbed into someone. That was basic medical knowledge that he got even as a Defender. It would be stupid for him to make such a simple mistake.

He waited for the doctor, who arrived 2 minutes later and brought him upstairs. The doctor lived outside the Low but was used to dealing with the gang, so they weren’t worried.

"I swear, I just got the message like 2 minutes ago. I didn’t know you guys called me over 5 minutes ago," he said as he brought out his equipment.

He first treated Sol, and then with Stanley’s help slowly helped Nova.

"They will be fine," the doctor said in the end. "Have them eat this medicine as I’ve prescribed it, and give them mostly fluid died. And let them rest for as long as they can."

"They will be back to good health in just a few days."