The flames kept surging higher, but a blurry figure suddenly burst out from within them. He moved so fast that the fire itself split apart around him, giving the onlookers no time to react at all. By the time anyone registered his silhouette, he had already reached the back of the bus, grabbed the leader of the robbers, and lifted him clean off the ground amid the man's miserable scream.
"Tell them to surrender. Immediately."The cold, electronic voice sent chills through the robber leader's entire body. But he still gritted his teeth, pulled the pistol from his thigh, and fired frantically at Zhou Yi's helmet.
Watching the bullets twist and melt on the crystalline face shield—leaving behind strange visual distortions—Zhou Yi decided the man was no longer useful. He casually flung him backward. The unlucky man flew dozens of feet before embedding into the door of a wrecked car. He twitched a few times like a shrimp, then went limp.
This sight terrified everyone—police, hostages—and especially the remaining robbers.
A man named Barr immediately threw down his gun, dove into the driver's seat, and started the bus, sending it swerving wildly. Another robber, Andrew, cursed loudly, grabbed a little girl, and tore open his jacket—revealing a bomb strapped to his chest.
"I'm asking you—none of you are planning to surrender?"Zhou Yi stepped through the rear door and spoke to the two robbers still resisting.
"Get away, you freak!"Andrew held the girl in one arm, while the other hovered over a detonator. He slowly backed toward the front exit—clearly unwilling to get any closer to Zhou Yi. Being near him made him feel utterly unsafe.
But the distance was far from enough.
A flash of white light shot from Zhou Yi's helmet, slicing across Andrew's arm. In the next instant, his body flickered—and he was suddenly right in front of Andrew, gripping his throat and lifting him into the air.
"Put the girl down. And stop the bus!" Zhou Yi commanded.
"Go to hell, you monster!" Andrew struggled desperately, instinctively pressing the detonator—But his hand didn't move as he expected.
In fact, as he twisted, his forearm simply slid off, dropping to the floor with no blood at all. The severed edge was charred pitch-black—as if the limb were a burned-off machine part. Looking closely, the cut surface had been cauterized as though treated with extreme heat.
Andrew felt nothing. No pain.The high-temperature beam hadn't just severed his arm—it had sealed the wound and burned the nerves dead. Aside from losing part of his arm, he almost felt… unharmed.
And that was exactly what terrified the robbers even more.
Barr, completely panicking, slammed the accelerator without caring about direction. Andrew, meanwhile, put on the bravado of a cornered madman, stubbornly defiant.
"You bastard monster! My hand—AH!" he screamed, rage twisting his face. Then he raised his remaining arm, and—He hurled the little girl out of the bus.
Because of Barr's wild driving, the bus was already scraping the edge of the bridge. Andrew's throw sent the girl straight off the side—plummeting toward the sea below.
From this height, a child would die instantly on impact—no matter how well she could swim.
Zhou Yi hadn't expected such viciousness. He immediately tossed Andrew onto Barr—The tremendous impact knocked both men unconscious, breaking several bones.
Then Zhou Yi rushed out through the door, diving after the falling girl even faster.
The girl was still screaming midair—But only for a moment.
Suddenly she felt her body sink, and realized she was already in Zhou Yi's arms.
He gently pinched her pale cheek, smiled, and said, "It's okay now, little one."It was his first time pinching a child while in this form—he clearly didn't know his own strength. Her cheek was now bright red.
But the girl showed no reaction at all. She still had the look of someone who'd seen a ghost—her mind unable to comprehend what had just happened.
At that moment, a deafening metal crash came from above. Zhou Yi looked up.A familiar yellow figure was charging off the other side of the bridge at full speed.From this side, Zhou Yi could clearly hear the screams of the children still trapped on the bus.
While Zhou Yi had leaped off to rescue the falling girl, the out-of-control bus hadn't crashed into the police barricade and stopped as expected. Instead, its tires were shredded by a row of spikes first. The sudden deceleration forced the unconscious Barr to stomp the accelerator even harder. The bus continued its crooked, roaring charge—and then tilted, sliding entirely off the bridge.
No one had predicted this. Not Zhou Yi—not the police.
Everything had seemed moments away from a perfect resolution—then the situation took a cruel twist.Many officers felt on the verge of breaking down.
A busload of students, killed because of police oversight.The pressure and condemnation awaiting the NYPD—from media, from the public, and from their own conscience—was unimaginable.
Watching the tragedy unfold, Captain Stacy covered his eyes in anguish. Everything about today tormented him. As one of the few officials with a conscience, he felt the pain deeply. The same went for many officers and onlookers.
And the media—The most chaos-hungry species in the world—Had already arrived.
They were filming, livestreaming, screaming for ratings.The Brooklyn Bridge incident—firefight, superhuman events, potential mass child casualties—it would explode in the news.
Soon, the journalists burst into even louder uproar.
The noise irritated Captain Stacy so badly he snapped,"Damn reporters! Can't they shut up for a second?!"
A police officer patted his shoulder."Captain… I think you should look at this."And for once, his tone was filled with excitement.
Feeling something was off, Stacy looked up—
And in the golden light of the afternoon sun, a black figure descended slowly from the sky—Holding an entire bus overhead, and cradling a little girl in his arm.
When he set the bus down, the flashing lights of cameras instantly turned the scene silver-white.
The situation had reversed completely.
Officers rushed to extract the students—but they didn't have to. Their parents had already broken through the police line, crying and clinging to their children.The police dragged away the unconscious robbers—using no small amount of force in the process.
A young couple rushed to Zhou Yi.
Understanding their intention, Zhou Yi handed the girl over.The mother hugged and kissed her desperately while the father wrapped his arms around both of them, eyes red, voice trembling.
"Thank you, sir… thank you for saving my child."
"No need to thank me."Zhou Yi gently stroked the girl's hair."Your daughter is adorable. Letting such a sweet child enjoy a beautiful life—that's my duty."
"Thank God… may God bless you, sir!"The couple kept thanking him, but Zhou Yi only waved and walked toward the man who had been waiting for him.
"A happy ending, isn't it, Captain Stacy?" Zhou Yi said.
Stacy frowned, staring hard at him."Who are you? Stark's machine? An Osborn experiment? Or some shady alien? What's your real purpose?"
"None of those," Zhou Yi said calmly. "Like I told you—I'm just a passing do-gooder. A man with a knight's spirit. Think of me as the last darkness of the night… and the herald of the coming dawn. As for my purpose—you've seen it. Peacekeeping. That word works well."
"And you expect me to believe that? We don't need masked weirdos maintaining peace. That's what police are for."Stacy waved irritably, already imagining the chaos this newcomer would bring to New York.
"There will always be situations like today—things you can't handle."Zhou Yi shrugged."And times when you'll need my help. I won't cause trouble, and I won't steal your jobs. Consider me a… friendly partner."
"Partners give their name," Stacy muttered.But doubt was already appearing in his eyes.
"That's a secret," Zhou Yi said with a smile. "Use that sharp mind of yours. A codename will do."
Then he leapt into the air—and in full view of everyone, rocketed upward with a thunderous sonic boom, tearing through the clouds and vanishing from sight.
The moment he disappeared, the waiting reporters stormed past the police barrier and swarmed Captain Stacy.
"Captain! What's your relationship with that mysterious man?""Captain, who is he—superhuman, mutant, or machine warrior?""Captain, police performance today was abysmal—you worsened the crisis, and the mystery man handled everything. Are the police wasting taxpayers' money?!"
The barrage of accusations drove Stacy's blood pressure sky-high, but he was a veteran of self-control.Instead of punching a reporter, he pushed away the microphones trying to crawl into his mouth and forced a serious expression.
"Ladies and gentlemen—today's rescue was completed through the joint efforts of both parties. So no, the police are not a waste of taxpayer money."
"Captain, you said 'both parties'—does this mean the NYPD is cooperating with the mystery man?"
Stacy cleared his throat—then made things up on the spot.After all, the mystery man had already implied this was acceptable.
"According to our verbal agreement, you may consider it so. The NYPD and the mystery man do maintain a certain cooperative relationship."
"What is his identity? Will the police reveal his background or the nature of this cooperation?"
Seeing Stacy actually leak information, the reporters went feral.
"The cooperation is strictly between the man himself and the police department. It does not involve his real identity—that's private. And the cooperation is limited to matters of public safety."Stacy answered while squeezing out of the mob with help from his officers.
"Captain, then what do you call this partner? Flyer? Strongman? Future Warrior?"
Stacy thought for a moment, then said solemnly:
"Knight. I call him the Dawn Knight."
(Downknight)
The moment the name slipped from his lips, every reporter adopted it immediately. Within hours, the name spread through the media and became officially fixed.
And for Zhou Yi—This marked the beginning of his life as a superhero.
-----------------------
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