The Marvelous Dragon Balls

Chapter 72: The Quinjet

Matt Murdoch nighttime persona was certainly different from that of the other less experienced heroes. Not only did he have an extremely rich combat experience, but he also had formal training and had the perk of being a natural bio-radar. This made him a tactical master who is incomparable to the other three. But besides his super-senses, he did not have much power level at all, with 10 of points his power assigned to his defense, and another ten assigned to his attack power…

The one with most balanced defense and attack power was Jessica. She had a power level of over 100, and was agile enough to avoid being hit. However, this “civilian” had not received any systematic training. Being too reliant on her brute force, she should actually be the easiest for Saint to take down among all four Defenders.

Who else?!

“For now, I’m actually invincible! I never thought it would feel so… lonely!”

In this abyss of self-indulgence, Saint became forgetful, completely missing the fact that not too far from him, there was Kamar-Taj’s New York Sanctum. There, he would have worthy competition, if he’s willing to risk his life…

Anyway, in the past two weeks, besides the trivialities mentioned above, two major events took place outside Saint’s restaurant.

The first was SHIELD’s second attack on the Hand. While they did not manage to take down any of the five fingers, they did manage to hit the organization hard. The operation went so well that they managed to destroy whatever was to be called the Hand army. As for Chaste, they did not suffer as many losses, even though they were existant mainly in name after the last time’s fight. Now, the Hand was to probably need at least a decade to get back to their old level of power.

SHIELD however were not done. Within the two weeks, they hit around 90% of Hand’s various small and large bases, including the “charity” that Colleen used to be involved with. Most of the Hand’s members caught were incarcerated, while the few minors that were recruited by the organization were sent for reform in child detention centers.

With this happening, what was aching Colleen was mostly solved very quickly. Still, until she could kill Bakuto, her demons would still hunt her.

The second thing that happened was that after saving many people from SHIELD’s bullets and the Hand’s blades, Saint’s reputation soared among the public.

Well, it wasn’t exactly Saint who got famous; it was the newborn superhero: Golden Boy!

Fourteen days of the news about him ”fermenting” in New York and across the country were enough to spread this image of the spiky blond hair superhero. This image of his was actually a reason for his increasing popularity!

As a country made out of immigrants, the United States had a population that’s ethnically very diverse. While equality was strived for by most citizens, racial prejudice still existed. Minorities, whether Asian, African, Latin Americans or Indians were inevitably subject to varying degrees of discrimination by a few who considered themselves elite.

Coincidently, the blue eyed blond hair appearance of Golden Boy established his image as an “all American” white superhero, like Captain America before him.

Golden Boy was a description of Saint’s value to the people as much as it was a description of his appearance. But if one day, the public would discover that their “All American Golden Boy” was actually a Chinese teenager, the reaction of some of his supporters would certainly be a sight to behold…

……

On the fifteenth day, according to his agreement with Fury, Saint, went to SHIELD’s headquarter in his “Golden Boy” state. There, Coulson was awaiting him. He led him through a corridor, at the end of which he found a special Jet.

It was different from other Jets, which usually had normal wings that went downwards to the side. This small aircraft was different, with its wings actually bent upwards like those of a bird.

It was the Quinjet!

Saint immediately recognized this jet specific to SHIELD. Besides Wakanda’s advanced jets, the Quinjet was the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. Even the future Avengers aircraft is a special Quinjet built by Tony Stark.

To the fan-boy in Saint, this was an incredibly exciting moment, but the “oblivious” civilian in him had to keep calm. Therefore, he looked unimpressed to Coulson. Seeing that, the latter couldn’t help but say: “This is a jet unique to SHIELD, the world’s first Quinjet. It’s a jet fighter capable of taking off and landing vertically.”

“The first? Ha ha!” Saint ruthlessly answered Coulson while pointing at the Quinjet: “This jet uses the same turbojet engine as your car. Howard Stark, one of your founders, put forward the concept as early as 1943 and provided experimental research results. And now, in 2009, this is what you have made out of his work, and you’re being so proud?”

“…”

Coulson looked away from Saint, secretly swearing in his heart for the thousandth time that he would never start a non-needed conversation with him again.

The two walked to the door of the Quinjet, and in the pilot-seat, they found Coulson’s old partner awaiting them: Melinda May!

Seeing her, Saint was surprised more then when he saw the Quinjet. Immediately, he squinted, staring directly at her, and said in Chinese: “Wow, you’ve actually learned how to use KI?!”

“It’s thanks to you.” May answered in Mandarin, and thanked Saint dryly with a tone filled with contempt: “If it wasn’t for you letting me sense your Ki, I wouldn’t have been able to learn Kunlun’s techniques. Thank you very much.”