7 DC-PHD-CH7

On a vast grassy plain, a humanoid blur could be seen blitzing around, decimating the population of giant rabbits and collecting colorful orbs that dropped out of them. A faint translucent white flame-like aura surrounded the figure.

"Hahaha. Even Kaio-Ken x2 is enough for defeating these rabbits with a single punch now!!" Cain exclaimed giddily. He had grown pretty strong now, thanks to the constant devouring of red orbs and the occasional purple orbs. His combat ability was many times greater than what it was before he left Gotham.

Unlike before, he could put up a fight with a dozen or so rabbits now even in his base form without the use of Kaio-Ken. With Kaio-Ken, even at x1 or x2, he could wipe the floor with the rabbits without much effort.

As a result of which, the number of orbs he was getting per day was becoming quite significant. Unlike before, Cain was not even able to finish off all the orbs he earned in one day by himself, as even he had a rate of digesting energy.

The reason he was required now to ingest these orbs in large amounts was that the low-quality tiny red orbs of the rabbits were no longer making much improvement to him in small amounts. Purple orbs were still pretty effective on him, but not the red orbs.

If he wanted to make more efficient progress in his path to get stronger, then he would have to find stronger opponents in the Pocket Hunting Dimension. However, so far, he had only had rabbits as his opponents without even seeing someone else.

While Cain was seemingly lost in his thoughts about a better source of orbs than simply destroying the rabbits, a stealthy figure skulked through the tall grass, stalking Cain and observing his actions. When it saw that Cain was lost in his thoughts, it decided to take advantage of this and attack.

Air gathered around the figure, forming deadly sharp crescent wing-shaped projectiles. When it saw that Cain still seemed to be distracted while fighting rabbits, it sent the two wing-like projectiles slicing toward Cain.

Just a moment before Cain was about to be sliced by the projectiles, his Aura seemed to flare and get stronger, before he disappeared from the perception of the skulking enemy, making the projectiles simply slice into the tall grass in vain.

The next moment, Cain appeared on top of the skulking figure. 'Kaio-Ken x8!!' he thought in his mind, as he punched out with his flame-like translucent aura-covered fist. The skulking figure felt a threat to its life and it immediately gathered wind around itself and pushed itself away from Cain in the tall grass and out into the open.

Cain smirked as he looked at his new opponent. It was like an elongated green-colored cross between a Mink and a Snake, with two thin green wings, that had markings on them, sprouting from its back

"There you are!! And here I was, worried that you would not show up." Cain said with a welcoming smile on his face but a ferocious steely glint in his eyes, "After all, I am much stronger now, so it is not shameful at all to be scared of me."

The Green Mink snarled menacingly at Cain's words, astonishingly Cain slightly. This was not a foolish creature like one of the rabbits. This was a creature with enough intelligence to process his words, or at least get the emotions and intent of the words spoken from the expressions and body language.

"Huh, a smart cookie you are." Cain said narrowing his eyes with a cold flame lighting up in their depths, "To pay you back I also have. A revenge for the many times you killed me this will be."

The Mink seemingly understood this, as it started to use its special ability, which made it greatly different from the rabbits Cain had fought so far. Winds influenced by green-colored energy swirled around the mink like a miniature whirlwind.

"Huh, is that how it's going to be? All right then." Cain said as he input more energy into Kaio-Ken x8 to flare the aura around him powerfully, "I am going to call your species Thrash Mink from today onwards. Because that is what I will do to you whenever I see one of you in this Dimension."

Man and Mink glared at each other, before suddenly rushing towards each other at the same time, as if on a pre-determined signal.

Cain was slightly faster than Thrash Mink and attach it with a strong Kaio-Ken aura-covered punch. However, the miniature whirlwind around the Mink seemed to act as a barrier, as it bled the momentum from Cain's punch, while also deflecting it sideways.

The Thrash Mink gave a screeching sound and attempted to slash Cain with its Wings covered with the sharp green-colored wind. As Cain rapidly backed away, Thrash Mink tried to continuously slash with its wings rapidly, spinning around to add more momentum.

When it saw that Cain was always a step faster, it started creating the crescent wing-shaped projectiles that directly fired out of the miniature whirlwind that surrounded the mink, looking like sharp green boomerangs.

'Uhg, this annoying little menace...' Cain thought as one of the crescent wing-shaped projectiles sliced his cheek slightly and another managed to slice into his left arm a bit before he managed to dodge.

'This can't go on. I will have to risk it.' Cain thought as he flared the Kaio-Ken aura before drawing it in and condensing it around him. He had found that this allowed him to use it as an additional aura of armor around him.

After having condensed the aura, Cain stopped dodging and held his arms in defense in a cross shape, before barrelling towards the Thrash Mink. The Mink was startled and started lashing out with its projectiles.

Cain winced slightly as the projectiles cut into his arms despite the aura armor dispersing part of the energy of the projectiles. Crushing down the pain with his willpower, Cain blitzed forward, crashing directly into the Mink, breaking its whirlwind protection.

"Now, you die!!" Cain yelled with a rage-filled look in his eyes. Flaring up his Kaio-Ken to strengthen it, he clutched the Mink's neck with one hand, choking it, and started punching it rapidly with the other.

Initially, it retaliated with its wing attacks, but soon it started to lose consciousness due to the constant punches being rained on its head, which made it feel like it was being smashed by a hammer repeatedly.

Finally, after around a minute, Cain's final punch caved the Mink's skull. Cain sighed in relief having managed to kill it after so much effort. He dropped the corpse on the ground as it started dissipating.

The result of the dispersion of the corpse was three walnut-sized red orbs, with a deeper red color, one walnut-sized purple orb, with a deeper purple color, and a translucent orb with a silhouette of the Thrash Mink, surrounded by green-colored winds.

"Damn, that sneaky bugger was annoying, but a very generous enemy when it comes to rewards," Cain muttered as he collected the orbs. He then looked around and found that there were no more enemies in sight, "I guess I will just hide for now, going out of this dimension peacefully for once instead of having to die."

-x-x-x-

Cain woke up in his room after spending the remainder of his three-hour slot in the Pocket Hunting Dimension relaxing atop a tree. He stretched his body and got up from the bed.

After going to the bathroom for a quick wash and freshening up, he decided to go through his usual training routine. 100 Butterfly Sit-ups, 100 Pistol Squats, and 100 Two-Finger Handstand Push-ups.

For a regular person, this series of exercises would probably put them in serious physical danger of organ displacement or muscle tearing. However, for someone with Cain's level of enhanced fitness provided by the enhanced physique values, this just barely got him sweating.

As he was finishing up the last of the Two-Finger Handstand Push-ups, Peyton opened his door, thinking that she would wake him up to hang out with Olivia, Major, and her, as it was a Sunday and it was already around 12.

She was greeted by a complete sight of a sweating Cain, his chiseled physique rippling like the surface of a disturbed lake with each pushup.

"Holy Shit!!" Peyton exclaimed, her eyes going wide as she took in Cain's physique that was on display for her. She felt her breath quickening for a moment and almost felt lightheaded because of the rush of blood due to excitement.

As Peyton got herself under control, Cain swiftly finished his work and wore a T-Shirt. "Hey Peyton, What's up?" He asked casually, ignoring her reaction to seeing him half naked.

"Umm …. Yeah … I was… I was here to invite you to hang out with us since it's a Sunday. It's almost been a week since you moved in but we all never got to hang out much with you since we have our university and you have your gig in the café." Peyton got herself under control and managed to speak.

"Oh yeah sure." Cain agreed happily, "What are we planning then?"

"Well, we were planning to cook something fancy as a brunch and watch some movie. Have you seen Vertigo?" Peyton asked.

"I have not actually. Should be fun." Cain agreed, "Do you need help with the cooking? I am no master in the kitchen but I think I can help with cutting vegetables, setting out the table, and stuff."

"Umm, I don't know. Olivia is the kitchen wiz. Major and I generally try to stay out of her way as much as possible when she is cooking." Peyton admitted.

"Okay. Let me just have a quick shower and I will join you guys downstairs." Cain said.

-x-x-x-

As he came down from his room after a shower and a change of clothes, he heard a news snippet from the television that surprised him, just as he neared the living room.

[…...These four attacks by cold/ice theme supervillains seemed to be planned to be synchronous. Mister Freeze in Gotham City, Icicle Jr. in Star City, Killer Frost in Pearl Harbour, and Captain Cold in Central City.]

[Fortunately, the Justice League Members reached these cities on time, along with their proteges. Mister Freeze was taken down by Batman and his sidekick Robin, Icicle Jr. by Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy, Killer Frost by Aquaman and his sidekick Aqualad, and Captain Cold by Flash and his sidekick Kid Flash.]

[The Four Sidekicks also made their grand debut in the Justice League having been publicly invited to the Hall of Justice for the first time. Here are the pictures of them in the Hall of Justice…]

Cain watched all this in silence, finally piecing together the timeline of this world somewhat, thanks to his meta-knowledge. He didn't know a lot about DC, but he knew this much that this particular series of events that was just shown in the news was the beginning of a chain of events that were covered in the DC Animated series Young Justice.

He had barely managed to watch the Season 1 of the show in his previous life before getting distracted by other series and movies. Now he wished he could make his past self forcibly watch and memories the whole series down to the tiniest bits.

Letting out a sigh, he ignored the rest of the news and went to the kitchen. He saw Olivia hard at work, operating two stoves at once. Major was by her side, doing the small things she instructed him to do with utmost carefulness.

Meanwhile, Peyton just leaned against the far side of the kitchen counter, a glass of wine in one hand, the other arm folded below her shapely bosom while propping up the elbow of the hand that held the wine glass, and an amused smile adorning her lips as she watched the show in front of her.

"Hey, guys." Cain greeted them, "What's cooking?"

"Spanish Paella," Olivia replied hurriedly as she continued cooking.

"Sounds Yum." Cain replied, "Any help needed?"

"Nah, Major's got it. Right Major?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah, I do," Major said as he looked at us with a resigned expression of someone who has accepted his fate.

"Okay, I guess I will just watch something on the television to pass the time," Cain said.

"Hey, why don't Peyton and you get started with Vertigo? Peyton said that you have not watched it yet so you can watch it with her. Meanwhile, Olivia and I have already watched it a bunch of times since Peyton is a huge fan of the movie." Major suggested, "We will join you once the Paella is ready."

-x-x-x-

While Cain was having fun with his new roommates, the supercomputer in Batcave was analyzing lots of data rapidly as Batman stared at it with a grim look. The reason was something that had happened in front of him this morning.

When he had gone to stop Mister Freeze something suspicious had happened that he had not told the other League Members for now. The suspicious event was the fact that Mister Freeze got beaten up by Robin single-handedly without Batman having to do anything.

Batman frowned once again as he remembered the scene where Robin one-sidedly thrashed Mister Freeze. He displayed greater speed, strength, durability, flexibility, and combat ability than Batman was familiar with.

Most importantly, this was not something that could be achieved simply by the training Batman had designed for Robin. This was something more, something more metaphysical and external.

Robin had admitted later upon being questioned by him that he had no idea why this had happened or why his abilities had grown so much. All he knew was that this happened after that time when he "unintentionally" ended up fighting the vigilante Black Hood, who had apparently "almost killed" the gang members and Robin himself.

Batman shook his head remembering that, as he knew very well that Robin was slightly exaggerating Black Hood's actions simply because he was feeling competitive and wanted to show off.

But still, the fact remained that Robin insisted that he had been left on the verge of death by Black Hood, yet when Batman arrived on the scene, he found Robin seriously injured, but nowhere near fatal.

Moreover, Robin was covered in a black sludge that Batman had not told Robin about. After bringing Robin back and putting him through treatment, Batman had run tests on the black sludge, which had turned out to be waste material expelled from Robin's own body.

Based on the evidence, Batman theorized that Black Hood had somehow done something to save Robin when it turned out that Robin indeed was on the verge of death. The side effects of that were the expelling of waste material from Robin's body and his sudden growth in physical abilities.

Seeing the true extent of the growth for himself this morning, Batman was worried about what chaos Black Hood could cause if he started performing this "procedure" with other people as he liked without restriction.

As such, as soon as they were done handing over Mister Freeze to the authorities, Batman had come back to the Batcave and was currently analyzing the current location of Black Hood.

Ever since his fight with Robin, Black Hood had seemingly disappeared from Gotham City. Either he was laying low for a while in Gotham, or he had migrated to another location.

Batman's detective instincts made him sure that it was the latter, as individuals with rapidly improving powers like Black Hood, along with the sense of vigilante justice, would never be willing to lay low, especially when they saw crimes around them that need punishing.

As such, the most probable action would be to go away from the location of constant crime, so that he would not be tempted to act. Moreover, Batman already suspected Black Hood's identity to be that of the kid that he had saved from the bombing incident, as his rapid improvement was in line with what had happened to Robin.

With all these clues and suspicions, it was easier for Batman to design a tracking algorithm to see where the kid was at the moment. Precisely at that moment, a beeping sound from the computer interrupted his thoughts as Batman saw that the algorithm, he designed had managed to locate the kid.

Hacking some traffic cam footage, Batman enlarged the image as he looked at the picture of the kid called Cain, laughing and chatting with three individuals who were slightly older than him, with a guitar case on his back.

"I have finally got you, Black Hood." Batman muttered with his eyes fixed on Cain's face, "I will soon be coming to chat with you."