"Someone took out his heart, but he's still alive," said Riley, an expert in anatomy, managing to keep his disgust under control. He looked over Captain America's condition, then added, "First, there was the blow, then the penetration, followed by the explosion, the shock and the heart extraction, but none of these killed him."
Xu Shang-Chi felt his throat tighten. He tried not to imagine the torturous sequence of injuries Riley described, but he still felt a bit dizzy. He thought that in the past, he would've definitely thrown up by now.
But now he doesn't even have the time to feel nauseous. He struggled to suppress the rising wave of nausea in his throat and said to Riley with an intense gaze: "What do you think is going on?"
"Someone noticed something strange, tried to kill him but failed. I'm pretty sure the perpetrator was also injured and didn't get far. We need to find them."
Xu Shang-Chi stood up and asked, "You have an idea of who it was, don't you?"
"It's probably Quill and Rocket Raccoon." Riley also rose, not even glancing at Captain America lying on the ground. He waved at Jessica to follow him and spoke as they walked towards the edge of the street, "The slash marks on Captain America's chest are from an animal, but the heart extraction is clearly human work. Other than those two, I can't think of any other combination."
And so, Xu Shang-Chi followed Riley. Jessica was chasing behind them with a gun and complained, "Can't you guys slow down? Explain what's going on with the body? Explain what you're planning on doing?"
"There's no time," Riley paused briefly to let Jessica catch up before he resumed his pace, telling her, "It's clear that some kind of disaster is happening, and it's much worse than we thought. We need to find a solution quickly."
"You guys seem to have a lot of experience, too much in fact," Jessica griped, "Not everyone can accept the fact that the national icon, Captain America, had his heart ripped out and died within two seconds. And weren't Spider-Man and Captain America good friends? That's what the papers say."
"I have to convince myself that the guy lying on the ground is a monster," Riley took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly, clearly not as stable as he seemed to be.
"Even though I know he was once a hero, saved many people, and was good friends with the Spider-Man of this world, I need to put those facts aside and become ruthless. Otherwise, the Captain America of our world will also end up the same."
"Okay, you two are the type of cool-headed teammates I was hoping to encounter," Jessica had to quicken her pace to keep up with them and finally ended up just flying, hovering in mid-air as she told them, "I was afraid you guys would be wailing and mourning. I just burnt my parents' bodies two hours before you found me."
"Is that why your hands were shaking when you were holding your gun?" Xu Shang-Chi tried to find some comforting words, but given the circumstances, he couldn't find much to say.
Jessica shook her head. "No, I was just exhausted from fighting the monster. But what surprised me was how quickly you guys, from a safer cosmos, adapted to the situation here."
"That's because we've gone through worse."
About two minutes later, Riley used his Spider-sense to locate Quill and Rocket Raccoon, who had taken refuge in the basement of a bar not far from the street. Quill was bleeding from his head, and after Riley gave him a quick check, he determined it was likely a concussion.
Rocket Raccoon grumbled nearby, "I told you it was a bad idea to use one of us as a bait to set the truck on fire. That monster's shield was blown away and it just happened to land on his head, you know how hard that thing is! You should be glad it didn't crack your skull open!"
"Don't be like that, Rocket," Quill shifted a bit to let Riley dress his wound and made a goofy grin, "I'm an interstellar pirate, I know how to set traps better than anyone. We made it, didn't we?"
"Besides, what were we supposed to do? Wait until the cows come home before defeating him? His shield is ridiculously accurate when he's on the defensive, you've tried it yourself, haven't you?"
"Oh, hey, buddy!" Quill hissed in pain. Riley apologized for being a bit rough, then got straight to work on treating the wounds on Quill's arm.
"Something did happen here," Quill started talking again, "It's somewhat similar, yet different from the world we previously experienced. Superheroes exist in this world, but they've turned into monsters. I suspect it might be the work of a group."
"And the worse part," Quill turned his gaze to a corner of the room, where a lump of red, unidentified substance lay. It had been conveniently ignored by everyone in the room until now.
Quill grinned, a cruel smile that revealed his sharp, shinning teeth. With a nonchalant tone he said, "I'm afraid they are immortal."
"I asked Rocket to slice open his chest, I pulled out his heart with my own hands, just like Yondu used to do to his prisoners. But he didn't die. An organ, like a cluster of tendrils, grew out of his body and replaced his heart. He'll become even more crazed."
Seeing Jessica's pale face, Quill felt a thrill of mischievous pleasure. However, he realized that the steady hands bandaging him hadn't trembled a bit. The two young men he expected to be scared by his tale were not reacting as he'd expected.
Xu Shang-Chi looked a bit nauseous, but was otherwise silent, half-kneeling against the wall. Riley, with a mildly cold expression, was bandaging him as though he were dealing with a piece of pork.
"Hey, boys, give me a reaction. Scream or say you're scared or something. I just took Captain America's heart out!"
"That was just a monster," Xu Shang-Chi said with a slight grimace, "Regardless of his brilliant past, that's history. Even if we take a step back, what you did was in self-defense."
"We really don't have time to deal with these trivialities," Riley licked his somewhat dry lips and said, "For not jumping in rage at you for ripping out the heart of my friend and elder, you can call me cold-blooded and ruthless."
"But clearly, there's more trouble ahead. And we together are stronger than you, so for your own sake, you'd better watch your manners, unless you want another concussion."
To Riley's surprise, he found himself behaving like a mobster, intimidating others. But what delighted him was that his intimidation was working - the fool in front of him shut up.