The Reincarnated Hitman

Gasp!

Hypnos let out a gasp as he quickly let go of Zero’s head and immediately moved back, his eyes wide in horror.

"Wh-what the hell is this monster?"

The yellow-haired man seemed a bit confused at his reaction before looking back at Zero.

He slowly walked towards the unconscious hitman before also crouching and lifting his head.

Time, in his perspective, seemed to slow to a crawl as he immediately realized something was wrong when their eyes locked.

On Zero’s face was the same mask he had walked in with earlier, and rolling on the floor below him was a small canister.

He had regained consciousness from the moment Hypnos let go of his head, and as if moving on autopilot, he immediately formed a mask that covered the lower half of his face and released a knockout gas.

He knew that carelessly tossing it would just result in the speedster catching and disposing of it before it had the chance to spread.

So he let the invisible gas leak beneath him whilst the mask remained on his face.

The plan had worked out better than intended when the speedster suddenly approached.

The yellow-haired man suddenly let go of his head and grabbed the canister, but it was too late.

Before he could run far, he suddenly froze in place, and Zero slowly stood up.

His head and white shirt were now bloody, but he paid no mind to that as he turned towards the speedster and said, "You were quite the pain to deal with."

"But thanks to your Factor, the gas worked a lot quicker than it originally would’ve," he added with a small smile as the yellow-haired man suddenly fell to the floor face-first.

Since he was a speedster, his metabolism was a lot faster than the average human, awakened or not.

Which meant, at every moment, he pulled in more air than normal, and at that very moment, he had absorbed a lot more of the knockout gas.

Zero then turned towards Hypnos, who seemed terrified of him for some reason.

The splinter seemed as if he was looking at a monster, which confused the hitman quite a bit, since, as far as he could recall, they were the ones winning so far.

Or perhaps.

"You looked into my mind, didn’t you?" He asked, and although Hypnos did not answer, Zero immediately knew that he did.

"Firstly, that was quite rude," the hitman said, "and secondly, what did you see in there?"

He then placed a hand on his chin as he started muttering, "given my personality, I’m certain it’s mostly sunshine and rainbows."

Zero then looked back at Hypnos as he added, "but given your reaction, I’m going to guess you’re either terrified of sunshine and rainbows."

"Or what you saw was completely different from sunshine and rainbows."

"S- stay back, you monster," Hypnos said, this time using his Factor.

But just like the previous few times, Zero just shrugged it off as he muttered, "I’m pretty sure it’s the former."

"STOP!" Hypnos ordered as he continued stepping back until he stumbled on the chair he was previously sitting on.

This time, Zero obliged and stopped, but instead of being influenced by Hypnos’ Factor, he just saw no reason to approach.

Instead, he just said, "Will you take off the tech?"

He waited for a while after his question before letting out a sigh and lifting a gun that had formed in his hand.

"I won’t be repeating myself."

His demeanor seemed completely different from previously, and although Hypnos seemed convinced that he was sent here by the HA.

He was also certain that the white-haired man before him wouldn’t hesitate to pull that trigger.

So the right choice at this moment was to give up the tech....right?

Well....

Instead of doing as Zero commanded, Hypnos suddenly stood up, his eyes and the Factor amplifier glowing at the same time as he said, "Kill yourself!"

Zero looked at him for a while, completely uninterested in playing along even though the opportunity presented itself.

Instead, he just let out a sigh and pulled the trigger, the bullet aimed directly at the side of the helmet.

Hypnos’ eyes widened as the bullet slammed into the side of the Factor amplifier, destroying a couple of mechanisms.

A second later, the tech released an incredibly high voltage directly into the Splinter’s brain,

AHHHHHHH!!!!

Hypnos let out a scream of pain as the mechanism, no longer able to safely regulate the amplification it had been feeding into his skull, dumped everything it had left in one uncontrolled surge.

Zero watched without a change in his expression as the tech started melting, literally, but instead of coming off, it tightly clung to Hypnos’ head.

Slowly, it merged with him, causing his head to become a lot more veiny and larger, but his screams didn’t stop.

[Hypnos?]

A sound suddenly pulled Zero’s attention towards the ground, where an ear piece was, probably dropped by Hypnos while he was trying to move away from him.

Calmly, he picked it up and looked towards the still screaming Splinter before replying, "he’s a bit busy right now, but you can leave a message."

The person on the other end suddenly went silent as the connection was cut off, causing him to toss the earpiece away.

He then looked towards Hypnos, who was now completely passed out, but still very much alive.

"Well," he muttered, "that’s definitely the character design I wanted to see in the comic."

Zero then lifted his gun and pointed it at the unconscious man. "Unfortunately, these types of deformations always came with a power-up, and I’d rather not find out what yours is."

BOOM!

Before he could pull the trigger, though, the lab suddenly trembled as a hole was blasted through it from aboveground.

Still, he paid no mind to it as he pulled the trigger,

BANG!

Unfortunately, just before the bullet could reach Hypnos, a golden barrier suddenly appeared before him, deflecting it.

"What do you think you’re doing?" A familiar voice came from behind him, and he couldn’t help but smile as he slowly turned around.

"If it isn’t my favorite Hero, Radiance," Zero said.

Fortunately, he still had the mask on, so she couldn’t recognize him in the slightest.

"Did the HA send you?" She asked with a frown.

"Nope," Zero shook his head, "I’m what you call a free agent."

Radiance frowned before looking around him, noticing both his condition and the condition of the two.

"In my defense, they were trying to kill me," he defended, seeing where her eyes moved, "this was just self-defense."

"..."

Radiance was silent at his words, her golden eyes resting on him before she stretched her hand and finally said, "You’ll have to come with me to the HA."

"As much as I’d love to go anywhere with you," Zero said with a smile hidden behind his mask, "shouldn’t you be taking care of something else right now?"

She froze, recalling that she hadn’t tagged three people and she still needed to make sure they were safe.

There was also the fact that she needed to hand these Viallins to the cops for them to be transported to HA.

Seeing her expression, Zero smiled again before he said, "Maybe we’ll reschedule that date for a later time, but goodbye for now."

With that, he calmly turned around and walked towards the exit as Radiance silently watched him leave.

[Radiance, are you okay?] Her agent’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Yes," She simply responded, "but I need you to find out what you can about a white-haired man who was present at the park today."

[Is something wrong?] The agent asked again.

"No," She shook her head, "just find out who he is."

[Got it.]

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A/N: Third Chapter tonight.... we’re truly locking in this time