Chapter 61: Stripping Away Hulk and Conducting an Education of Love
The draft cutting through the hutong carried a slight chill, blowing the commotion from the distant street in intermittent bursts.
After a brief, dead silence, Arthur took the initiative to speak, breaking the stalemate.
"However, compared to reshaping your World view in your mind, isn't having surgery more important first?"
Arthur had both hands shoved into his hoodie pockets, raising his chin slightly toward Tony on the opposite side of the Portal frame.
Afterward, Arthur looked at Strange, raised a finger to point at Tony's chest, and explained in a very calm tone.
"Look at that blue-glowing gadget on his chest; that reactor is the target you need to deal with next. There is a tiny piece of shrapnel inside, and its position is stuck in a terribly dangerous spot, a mere hair's breadth away from the heart."
"He currently has an electromagnet hanging inside his chest cavity forcibly holding that fragment, otherwise this guy would have lost his life long ago instead of standing here talking to me."
Upon hearing precise medical terms like "surgery", "shrapnel", and "distance from the heart", Strange's brain, which had previously fallen into a severe system crash state, instantly seemed to grab onto some kind of realistic anchor point to latch onto.
That belonged to his professional field, the absolute confidence he had accumulated through over a decade of hard study and countless surgeries.
Almost within a single second, the ghost-like terrified expression on Strange's face receded.
He subconsciously straightened his posture, his gaze piercing through the golden magic halo, staring directly at the glowing device on Tony Stark's chest, his eyes returning to that cold and focused demeanor on the operating table.
"The power supply cycle and internal compression situation of that device need to be confirmed with scans first."
Strange closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the cold air in the hutong, his chest rising and falling noticeably. Although his voice was still a bit hoarse, he had already steadied his footing.
"Let me slow down first... Wait until I straighten out my thoughts."
Tony, standing on the other side of the Portal, looked at this Strange man wearing a suit who had been shaking with fright moments ago, his brows furrowing slightly.
He turned his head sideways with some doubt and looked at Arthur.
"Lin, this guy looks like something isn't quite right."
Tony pointed at Strange, his tone carrying undisguised skepticism and worry.
"Are you sure the person you found is really reliable? This is going to involve cutting into my heart, and if it's off by even a millimeter, I'm going to kick the bucket on the operating table. Don't just randomly pull some Doctor off the street to make up the numbers for me."
Facing Tony's doubts, Arthur just shrugged casually.
He turned his head sideways to look at Strange, who was trying to adjust his breathing, his tone breezy yet carrying an irrefutable certainty.
"If the person in front of you can't save you either, then in this World right now, there is no surgeon more formidable than him who can take over your battered body."
After hearing these words, the suspicious look on Tony's face gradually converged.
He knew Arthur's abilities very well; since Arthur could give such a high evaluation, that man in the suit definitely had real skills in his hands.
Tony nodded, his tightly locked brows also relaxing, considered to have peacefully accepted this Doctor who had dropped out of the magic circle.
"Alright, don't stand in the wind."
Arthur turned his head sideways, glanced at Gwen, who had been quietly holding the corner of his clothes, and then tilted his head toward Strange.
"Let's go, let's go inside first and talk."
Holding Gwen's hand, Arthur took the lead and stepped across the golden Portal. Strange took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and bit the bullet to follow closely behind them as he stepped in.
The scene before them instantly switched from the dim hutong to the spacious, bright underground studio in Tony's home filled with high-tech equipment.
As soon as Strange walked in, he headed straight for a metal chair that looked somewhat normal and sat down.
He rested his elbows on his knees, crossed his hands to support his forehead, and sat there for quite a while to calm down, digesting the shock brought by the absurd reality of crossing space.
Tony didn't urge him either, simply leaning against the workbench nearby, casually picking up a cup of Water to take a sip, and waiting patiently.
After a while, Strange put his hands down.
He stood up, took another deep breath, smoothed out the slightly wrinkled hem of his suit, and his eyes had completely regained the calmness and professionalism belonging to a top-tier Doctor.
"I'm fine now."
Strange looked at Tony, entering work mode, "Mr. Tony, when do you plan to start the surgery?"
Tony casually put the cup aside, spread his hands, maintaining an indifferent and casual attitude.
"Anytime is fine; I've pushed all the company matters to Potts recently. I'm very free over here and can lie down at any time."
Strange nodded, putting forward his request in a very rigorous tone.
"Since that's the case, please come with me to the hospital. Although this Underground Room of yours looks very advanced in equipment, there is no sterile environment here. To perform such precise open-chest surgery, we must go to the hospital, where there are the most professional instruments, the most suitable Nurse, and a standard-compliant sterile operating room."
"A reasonable request." Tony snapped his fingers, expressing agreement.
Arthur stood aside, not joining the conversation, but directly raising his right hand.
With a casual swipe in mid-air, accompanied by a faint crackling sound, a brand new golden Portal opened in the center of the studio. The other end of the door directly connected near the lobby of the Manhattan hospital they had just left.
"Shall we go, everyone?" Arthur lowered his hand, turning his head to look at Tony and Strange.
Tony raised an eyebrow, clearly very appreciative of this mode of travel that spared him the annoyance of traffic jams, and stepped directly across.
Although Strange still felt his scalp tingling a bit, with the experience from just now, he appeared much more composed when stepping across this time.
After coming out from the corner, the few of them headed straight inside the hospital.
With Tony Stark's face, which could walk swaggeringly through any private hospital, all procedures were pressed onto the fast-forward button.
Under Strange's orderly and professional arrangement, in less than half an hour, the Nurse team, anesthesiologist, and all specialized instruments were fully in place.
Tony was also changed into a hospital gown and pushed into the highest-specification operating room. The red light on the door lit up, and the surgery officially began shortly.
The waiting area of the corridor quieted down.
Arthur glanced at the tightly closed door of the operating room and checked the time.
For such precise open-chest shrapnel removal surgery, no matter how pinnacle Strange's skills were, it was absolutely impossible to come out without some time passing.
He didn't have the patience to sit idly here waiting for the patient to wake up. Furthermore, strictly speaking, this surgery had no direct relation to him; once he delivered the person to the location, his task was considered finished.
"We'd have to wait too long for this, let's go." Arthur turned his head to look at Gwen, who was sitting on the bench nearby, and said softly.
Gwen immediately stood up, very naturally slipping her hand into Arthur's palm, and walked outward with him.
After walking out of the hospital gate, Arthur did not choose to take Gwen directly back to their apartment home in Brooklyn.
He stopped in a blind spot of the green belt behind the hospital, once again slicing open that familiar golden halo.
This time, what appeared on the opposite side of the Portalwas a corridor with a cold, hard metal texture—inside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier.
Holding Gwen's hand, Arthur familiarly passed through several automatic metal doors, coming directly to the door of the lounge where Bruce Banner was located.
He raised his hand and knocked on the heavy metal door with his knuckles.
"Banner, it's me." Arthur casually called out toward the communicator next to the door.
A flurry of hurried footsteps came from inside the door.
Hearing Arthur's voice, Bruce Banner did not hesitate at all, quickly walking over to press the door-opening button.
The sound of air valve exhaust rang out, and the metal door slid open to both sides.
Banner was wearing a somewhat oversized casual shirt, and his hair looked messy.
Seeing Arthur and Gwen standing outside the door, he looked somewhat surprised, and greeted politely, "Hello, coming over so late, is there something the matter?"
Arthur did not walk into the room, but instead stood at the door, pointing at Banner's chest and saying straightforwardly,
"Actually, there's no big deal. I just suddenly thought of a method a moment ago that can help you completely solve the issue of that 'Green guy' inside your body who always likes to cause trouble."
Upon hearing this sentence, Banner's eyes, which had still carried a hint of sleepiness, instantly lit up, and his entire body abruptly took a step forward.
For Banner, the two words "Hulk" were a nightmare hanging over his head that had plagued him for a very, very long time.
In order to get rid of this monster that could go berserk and destroy everything at any moment, he had fled for countless days and nights.
Now, if Mr. Arthurbefore him, who possessed all kinds of incredible means, really had a way to solve this trouble, it would simply be a rebirth for him.
"Really?" Banner's voice was trembling slightly, his hands so excited that he didn't know where to put them, "Can it really be solved?"
Looking at Banner's urgent appearance, Arthur nodded, but then added another sentence,
"However, I must make it clear to you in advance that this method is somewhat dangerous. If we do it in an ordinary room, it's very easy to tear apart all the isolation pods here. So we need to find Fury and ask him for a sufficiently safe space to carry it out."
Where could Banner care about any danger right now? As long as that monster could be pulled out of his body, he was willing to face a hail of bullets by himself.
He looked at Arthur impatiently, his tone urgent,
"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Lin. Let's not waste time, let's go right now."
The few of them set off immediately, following the intricate corridors to the main control room to find Nick Fury.
Arthur roughly explained the plan to strip away Hulk that he had just discussed with Banner to this Agent leader.
Fury's single eye narrowed slightly, staring at Arthur for a few seconds. Afterward, without any shilly-shallying, he immediately expressed agreement and personally led the way, taking the few of them toward the isolation zone on the bottom deck of the Helicarrier.
As the heavily thickened explosion-proof doors opened one by one, Fury led them into a huge metal room.
"This is the place on the ship specially used to control dangerous criminals."
Fury stopped in front of the bulletproof glass of the observation room, pointing at the empty cage below, his tone revealing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s habitual confidence.
"All the walls and thresholds here are forged from the highest-grade alloy materials, absolutely pressure-resistant and shock-proof. This place is currently the safest on this Helicarrier."
Arthur stood in front of the glass, casually glancing through the transparent barrier at the so-called sturdy cage below.
He knew very well in his heart that the top-grade materials Fury was proud of were indeed useful in front of ordinary supercriminals, but in front of that green fat guy, they might not necessarily be the safest.
If Hulk really went crazy and smashed around freely a couple of times, these alloy steel plates would also shatter into a pile of scrap iron.
But conditions were limited right now, and there was no other way to think of; after all, Hulk was inherently not an ordinary creature that played by common sense.
"Make do with it." Arthur turned his head sideways, motioning for Banner to walk in.
Without hesitation, Banner walked down the stairs to the exact middle of the cage below, and following Arthur's instructions, stood firmly in a relatively spacious spot.
He took a deep breath, clenched his hands tightly into fists pressed against the sides of his trouser seams, closed his eyes, and appeared very nervous.
Gwen, standing at the edge of the control room, subconsciously leaned a little closer to Arthur, her fingers clutching the hem of his hoodie.
Although she had experienced quite a few storms, in an occasion like this about to face a violent monster head-on, her sense of responsibility as a superhero and her worry for her boyfriend's safety still uncontrollably bubbled up.
Arthur felt her strength, turned his hand over to hold hers, squeezed it gently, and signaled her not to worry.
Arthur walked to the glass window, locking his gaze onto the pale-faced Banner below.
There were no extra preparatory actions.
Arthur directly activated the Tiger Talisman.
A pure energy penetrated across from Arthur's direction, hitting Banner's body below directly without any obstruction.
At that very instant, Banner let out a painful and muffled grunt.
Following closely, a spine-chilling scene appeared.
On Banner's body, it was as if a severe image overlap appeared, with two completely different creature figures violently tugging and conflicting inside his body.
Accompanied by a muffled sound like tearing, those two overlapping figures were gradually stripped away to both sides by an irresistible force.
In the end, the body was completely split into two completely independent entities by the Tiger Talisman.
One was Bruce Banner, who stumbled backward out of his original body.
His legs somewhat weak, he took two steps back and fell heavily onto the metal floor, looking at his own hands with a dazed and somewhat dumbfounded face, as if he still hadn't reacted to what the pulling sensation of having his soul hollowed out actually meant.
As for the other entity, it crashed heavily onto the floor next to Banner.
That was a massive figure with green skin and terrifying, knotted muscles—Hulk.
At this time, Hulk, who had been forcibly separated, completely lacked any rationality and intelligence of a scientist.
The concept of thinking did not exist in his brain at all; the discomfort of being forcibly dragged into the external environment instantly transformed into a mind full of pure desires for destruction.
Hulk's bloodshot eyes widened immediately, and he abruptly raised his head, letting out a deafening roar toward the ceiling, causing even the bulletproof glass of the control room to emit an ear-aching humming sound along with it.
His thick green arms were raised high, clenched into two fists the size of sandbags, just preparing to turn around and start violently smashing toward the surrounding metal walls that looked so annoying.
At the exact same second Hulk went wild,
Arthur's figure suddenly disappeared from the observation room, flashing in an instant right in front of Hulk inside the cage.
Without the slightest hesitation, Arthur used the power of the Ox Talisman.
He rushed forward abruptly, facing that behemoth, raised his arm, and solidly smashed a heavy punch onto Hulk's broad chin.
"Bang—"
A muffled-to-the-extreme sound of flesh colliding exploded inside the spacious cage.
Even as massive as Hulk was, under the impact of this unreasonable monstrous strength, his entire green, mountain-like body was forcefully knocked off its feet by this punch, flipping backward and crashing heavily onto the floor, smashing a clear indentation into that top-grade alloy ground.
Taking advantage of the gap where Hulk was somewhat dizzy from this punch and hadn't yet managed to get up and act out,
Arthur's other hand quickly sliced open a golden Portal on the wall.
That door frame was extremely wide, and the opposite side of the door was a barren environment. Arthur walked over unceremoniously, grabbed Hulk's thick leg, and relying on his giant strength like dragging a rag sack, directly swung that massive green body in a circle, throwing it fiercely into the other end of the Portal.
Immediately afterward, Arthur turned his head to glance at Banner, who was still dazed on the floor, and without lingering much, immediately rushed out of the Portalfollowing Hulk, and the moment he stepped across, with a backhand wave, completely closed that golden halo.
The cage inside restored a dead-like silence once again.
Chapter 62: Educating Hulk with Love
Inside the metal underground isolation zone, the air was so quiet that you could even hear a pin drop on the ground.
The massive monster and the young man vanished together in this space, leaving no extra traces behind.
The hem of Fury's black leather coat was still swaying slightly due to the violent air current just moments ago.
He didn't stand there foolishly dazing; he immediately raised his hand and pressed the internal communicator worn on his ear.
"Call the main control room immediately, turn on all tracking functions right away, and lock onto the energy reaction generated by that guy and Hulk just now!"
Fury's voice when issuing the command was extremely decisive.
After saying this, he turned around and tilted his head toward Bruce Banner, who was still somewhat recovering, and Gwen, who wore a relaxed expression.
"This place is no longer suitable to stay in; we are going to the upper hall."
After speaking, Fury strode towards the metal elevator. Banner swallowed hard, his legs feeling somewhat weak as he followed behind.
Only Gwen looked in the direction where Arthur had been standing earlier, completely unconcerned about any unexpected events, and naturally kept up with the group.
The few of them took the elevator to the spacious and bright main control room of the mothership.
Rows of Agents in front of the console were typing rapidly on their keyboards. Following Fury's command, the largest display screen in the very center flickered twice, and then immediately switched to a clear surveillance footage filmed from a high altitude overlooking the scene.
The image on the large monitoring screen locked onto those two small black dots high up in the air.
The camera slowly zoomed in, clearly showing the scene of the two people falling.
In the footage, Hulk was spreading his broad green arms while his two thick legs kicked wildly in mid-air.
Being completely unable to find any place to exert force made him extremely uneasy. Not far from him, Arthur was staying steadily in mid-air.
He used the Rooster Talisman. Arthur maintained a distance neither too far nor too close from Hulk, suspended in the sky like that.
Hulk was so angered that he bared his teeth and stretched out his arms, trying to grab Arthur in front of him.
However, no matter how hard he reached forward, his fingers simply couldn't touch even a tiny bit of Arthur's clothing.
Arthur crossed his arms over his chest, watching Hulk howl and shout at the top of his lungs there.
The two of them passed through thin clouds together, falling continuously downward.
Seeing the altitude getting lower and lower, Arthur seemed to have seen enough of Hulk's comical appearance.
He suddenly exerted force, instantly closing the distance between his body and Hulk.
The veins on Arthur's arms strained tightly, instantly forming a solid fist that pressed down without warning onto the upper part of Hulk's thick chest.
This force was too immense, directly driving Hulk to smash downwards at an even faster speed.
In the surveillance lens, the two of them were like a meteor crashing toward the ground, dragging a long vertical trajectory across the sky.
Arthur deliberately opened a golden Portal at the very front of the fall.
The two of them passed through the Portal carrying massive impact force. The scene switched, and a boundless desert appeared on the big screen.
This was a very remote desert area. Looking around, there was only yellow sand everywhere, with not a single figure in sight, let alone any buildings. All that existed were two creatures that appeared out of thin air.
One was Arthur, who was trying to tame the monster here, and the other was Hulk, who completely lacked reason and was entirely filled with anger.
Hulk's mountain-like towering body smashed into the sandy ground like a solid lump of iron. Yellow sand splashed everywhere like water droplets, directly creating an extremely huge deep pit in the ground.
Arthur patted off a bit of sand and soil clinging to the edge of his trouser legs, standing steadily on the edge of the earthen pit.
The raised dust and sand had not yet settled when the green fellow at the bottom of the pit, who had been thrown into a dizzy mess, erupted once again with even more intense Fury.
A thick green shadow suddenly leaped out from the pit.
Hulk roared as he rushed toward Arthur. His huge arms, filled with exaggerated muscle lines, pulled backward, swinging his wide fist fiercely and urgently, smashing it head-on toward Arthur.
Facing this attack, Arthur stood in place without any intention of dodging.
He only raised his hand slightly, moving his fingers very simply in mid-air.
Right on the inevitable path of Hulk's heavy fist descending, a Portal sparkling with bright sparks suddenly opened in mid-air.
And in just a split second, another connected door opened very precisely right beside Hulk's own large head.
Hulk completely couldn't brake in time, and his huge fist passed through the Portal ahead without any obstruction.
Immediately following, this punch poked straight out from the halo beside his head, carrying his overflowing anger, and slammed solidly and fiercely onto his own cheek.
The sound of the heavy blow traveled a long way across the wilderness. The impact force delivered by this punch was too fierce, directly causing Hulk to lose his center of gravity and balance.
His massive green body was sent flying into the air by his own punch, retreating backward out of control.
Hulk fell onto the surface of the distant yellow sand, rolling continuously on the ground like a rubber ball for several turns.
He panted heavily, plunging his hands into the sand trying to make himself stop. After steadying his body, he glared back at Arthur with his bloodshot eyes.
However, before Hulk could rush up again, Arthur directly pulled open a Portal in front of himself.
Arthur took a step forward into the door, and the next second he teleported directly in front of the bewildered Hulk, appearing right under Hulk's nose.
Seeing this annoying guy run up to him, Hulk didn't hesitate at all. He opened his mouth, as large as a washbasin, and let out a burst of wild roars toward Arthur's face.
Windy saliva splattered all over Arthur's face. Arthur tilted his head to dodge slightly.
He raised his arm speechlessly, wiped the unknown liquid off his face, sighed quite helplessly, and said, "You need to brush your teeth."
Then, just as Hulk was about to raise his fist and wanted to smash it down fiercely, Arthur swung his fist several times faster than him.
Arthur's heavy punch landed squarely on Hulk's side face a step earlier.
Hulk was sent flying out once again. This time, he was hit by Arthur's head-on power and slid backward along a long trajectory.
Watching Hulk flying backward in mid-air, Arthur raised his hand again and opened a Portal on the trajectory where Hulk was about to fly out and fall.
Hulk crashed headfirst into this door and vanished.
Immediately, high up in the sky directly above his original position, the other end opening of the Portal appeared.
Hulk screamed as he fell from the door above. When he was about to smash into the ground, another door appeared below.
Hulk fell into the halo below once again, and then dropped down from the door in the sky.
These two Portals aligned one above and one below complemented each other, causing Hulk to only be able to unluckily maintain a falling state continuously in this closed-loop mid-air.
He yelled and shouted, grabbing wildly with both hands to the sides, but there was not the slightest bit of leverage around. He couldn't stop even if he wanted to, and facing this situation, Hulk had no way at all to escape.
Arthur once again relied on his methods to hover in the nearby mid-air. He rubbed his chin and began to think.
Faced with this kind of bad-tempered monster, how could he make this big guy behave a little?
In the end, he could only think of a rather cruel but neat and decisive method.
Arthur snapped his fingers, first directly removing the series of Portals that repeatedly pulled Hulk back and forth.
Losing the support underneath, Hulk smashed straight down, pressing fiercely onto the ground full of dry sand.
Before Hulk could recover from seeing stars and crawl up from the ground, Arthur dropped down, extended his finger toward the green fatty, and then used the Monkey Talisman.
Along with a wave of strange changes spreading out, that huge green figure on the sandy ground, which looked like a moving fortress, vanished.
Appearing on the ground in its place was a grayish-brown mouse with a long, thin tail.
Because the transformation produced by this trick of the Monkey Talisman belonged to forcibly turning an object into another species of animal from the source level of genes.
Therefore, the gamma genes in Hulk's original body that had terrifyingly abnormal destructive power were completely erased at that moment.
Now he had been modified into an ordinary animal form.
Arthur walked over and reached out to grab it, lifting the mouse up in mid-air by its long tail.
After turning into a mouse, Hulk was completely out of options. Now he could only follow his instincts, struggling continuously in Arthur's hand while those few short limbs flailed blindly about.
Arthur naturally didn't pay attention to the dissatisfaction of the mouse in his hand. He immediately used the Rabbit Talisman.
The vast desert background originally within his line of sight instantly reversed.
Space transformed sharply before his eyes, and Arthurcrossed distance directly to appear instantly on the floor tiles of a pet store in the center of a bustling city.
After entering the store, Arthur picked casually for a while, taking a fancy to and buying a Dragon Li Cat with very agile reactions and extremely good-looking coat patterns.
He readily paid at the front desk and then bought a large pet cage with very sturdy wire mesh separately.
He directly put the newly bought Dragon Li Cat into the new cage.
Afterwards, carrying the large iron cage, Arthur also threw the mouse—transformed from Hulk—into the cage and placed it together with the cat, directly locking these two creatures together.
Seeing a mouse enter its territory, the Dragon Li Cat's innate animal hunting instinct surged up instantly.
It stretched its front paws forward and pinned this scurrying gray mouse underneath.
Then it began to extend its paws to push and toy with this prey. It was useless for the little mouse to run all over the place; it kept rolling around inside the cage.
Just as the Dragon Li Cat opened its mouth full of sharp teeth wanting to swallow the mouse in one bite, Arthurglanced at the two of them from outside the cage.
He immediately and instantly used the Rooster Talisman. A layer of ability belonging to his control was isolated in the middle.
This left the Dragon Li Cat full of confusion. No matter how it bit or how it leaned over to gnaw, it completely couldn't bite this piece of meat right at its mouth.
Until it tossed and turned back and forth for half a day and no longer wanted to eat, Arthur finally stopped and directly removed the Rooster Talisman at this position.
With this removal, the Dragon Li Cat found that there was no longer that annoying barrier blocking it in front, so it happily leaned forward to continue torturing the panicked little mouse inside this sealed cage, nudging it this way and patting it that way.
While casually and effortlessly carrying this cage that made clattering sounds, Arthur walked leisurely on the sidewalk of the outside street, strolling casually on the street while listening to the traffic sounds by the roadside, as if those few battles just now were as trivial as casually throwing away trash.
On the other end, the three people who had been watching the entire development process with the help of high-altitude surveillance angles and staying in front of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s holographic equipment all fell silent because of this development.
Banner rested both hands on the operating desk in front of him. His eyes kept looking at the close-up of that cage on the screen, looking at the poor mouse inside the cage being tortured and toyed with back and forth by the Dragon Li Cat in various ways.
Hulk had originally wanted to try to resist this predator that was a few sizes larger than him, but using a mouse to resist a cat naturally resulted in total defeat, and in the end, there was only the single path of desperately fleeing within that tiny patch of wire mesh.
Long ago, that green monster had always been Banner's inescapable massive nightmare, but looking at Hulkbouncing around blindly running for his life inside the screen at this moment, why did Banner suddenly feel that this guy actually looked so pitiful? It even made him spawn a trace of pity.
Fury, standing in the center of the console watching the show, also took a deep breath beside him.
Instead, he made a very rigid decision in his heart: to quickly gouge and kick Arthur completely out of all alternate lists concerning dangerous personnel or recruitment candidates, and immediately transfer him into that S.H.I.E.L.D. confidential red list where only observation is allowed and he must absolutely not be provoked.
This completely cannot be considered human capability; it was simply too outrageous and terrifying, with no way to deal with it at all.
As for Gwen? How could she care about this current terrifying green monster Hulk? What kind of person Hulkwas or what sufferings he encountered—she wasn't even familiar with that big guy, so she couldn't care less about this idle business.
She just stared closely at the Dragon Li Cat dancing inside the iron cage captured in the monitor footage, her eyes seeming almost ready to sparkle with little stars.
Deep down in her heart, she only felt that this cat extending its paws was also really so cute. After Arthurstrolled back from the avenue, she definitely had to seize the right opportunity to reach out and take this cat over, and raise it properly inside this apartment room.
Chapter 63 Dr. Banner Prepares to Reconcile with Hulk
Inside the special metal cell on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, specifically used to detain extremely dangerous criminals, the air was so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping could be heard clearly.
Arthur pushed open the heavy isolation door and walked inside, the cold white light shining on the large metal pet cage in the exact center of the room.
At this moment, a very absurd scene was presented inside the cage.
That colored Dragon Li Cat that Arthur had bought back from the Manhattan pet store not long ago was now sprawled out flat on its back at the edge of the wire mesh, fast asleep; not even the sound of Arthur walking in could make it lift an eyelid.
This cat was obviously already tired of playing, its feline hunting instinct having been completely drained in front of this strange prey that couldn't be eaten no matter how much it bit.
Knowing that this thing couldn't turn into a dinner to fill its stomach no matter how it bit, and having played enough by pawing at it, the Dragon Li Cat simply chose to lie down on the cold floor to catch up on sleep.
In the other corner of the cage, a grayish-brown mouse was shivering and curled up into a ball.
Its tiny body was covered with fine scars scratched out by cat claws, and a few wisps of gray hair were ruffled and curling messily.
Even though Hulk's true form was a terrifying behemoth whose mind contained only wild smashing and an endless desire for destruction, after experiencing the despair and torture of being forcibly changed in species and repeatedly pushed to the brink of Death under a cat's jaws, he had also become obedient.
Without that divine power sufficient to destroy skyscrapers, left only with the physical shell of a mouse incapable of even resisting a domestic cat, Hulk finally came to fully recognize the cruel reality in this cramped iron cage.
Arthur walked up to the cage and casually flicked open the simple metal latch on it.
The subtle frictional sound of the iron door opening woke up the sleeping Dragon Li Cat.
The Dragon Li Cat slowly opened its eyes, crawled out of the cage with elegant steps, stretched a long, comfortable stretch on the floor ahead, and shook the fur on its body along the way.
Arthur reached out, directly grabbed the long tail of the mouse still shivering in the corner, and tossed it aside.
Afterward, Arthur used the Monkey Talisman.
An invisible force instantly covered the mouse's entire body.
The grayish-brown fur and tiny bones rapidly expanded and twisted in mid-air, while glaring thick blood vessels and knotted green muscles grew wildly like a blown-up balloon.
Accompanying a muffled sound of a heavy body hitting the ground, that green monster as tall as a small mountain appeared once again on the metal floor of this special cell.
At this moment, Hulk did not erupt into a deafening roar like usual, nor did he destroy the surrounding walls.
He merely squatted in the corner at the very edge of the room, feeling extremely aggrieved, just like a child who had suffered all kinds of grievances.
His thick arms tightly hugged his own legs, and his massive green body was trembling uncontrollably all over.
This wasn't him deliberately showing weakness, but rather the most direct muscle spasm reaction left behind after his body, suppressed for too long, experienced a prolonged state of murine weakness.
After a long while, Hulk's somewhat sluggish brain slowly reacted, realizing that he had recovered his original, powerful physique.
He lowered his head to look at his arms, discovering that all the tiny scars on his body made by the cat's claws had completely disappeared, and the will belonging to a behemoth began to slowly gather back in his eyes.
Just at this moment, Hulk's gaze swept across the floor, and he saw the Dragon Li Cat strolling leisurely by Arthur's feet.
The moment he saw that cat clearly, a trace of extremely obvious fear subconsciously flashed through Hulk's bloodshot eyes.
That was the natural predator's coercion deeply engraved into his genes when he had turned into a mouse.
But immediately after, this brief fear was replaced by the overwhelming, ultimate anger surging up.
The dignified Hulk had actually been treated like a toy by this inconspicuous little thing and tortured back and forth.
Hulk's chest heaved violently, he suddenly straightened his waist, and his green fists, clenched to the size of sandbags, prepared to lift with a whistling wind, intending to punch this audacious cat directly into meat paste.
"Hey, Hulk."
Arthur stood in place without even changing his posture, simply raising one hand slowly and saying in a calm tone,
"If you dare to hurt it, I will turn you back into a mouse, and then throw you into the largest stray cat nest in Brooklyn."
These words drifted lightly into Hulk's ears, yet they were more effective than any heavy weapon.
In Hulk's mind, the fear worse than Death when facing an absolute predator while turned into a mouse uncontrollably echoed.
That sense of trembling deeply engraved in his soul had forcefully torn open and occupied a corner in his anger-filled heart.
That huge fist about to smash down stopped abruptly in mid-air, the powerful recoil even causing Hulk's arm muscles to emit a muffled hum.
He retracted his fist, staring fiercely yet mixed with dread at Arthur before him.
Holding it in for a long time, this massive green monster unexpectedly spoke up, saying word by word,
"Hulk hates you. Hates cats."
After saying this sentence, Hulk turned around heavily, squatted back into that corner facing the wall, leaving his huge back to everyone in the room, striking a pose of wanting to be left alone quietly.
It was also at this time that the room's heavy isolation door was pushed open once again.
Bruce Banner, Nick Fury, who had originally stayed in the monitoring room to watch the whole process, and Gwen, holding a few bags of snacks in her arms, walked in one after another.
Dr. Banner was wearing that slightly oversized casual shirt. He stood at the door, looking at Hulk who was now squatting in the corner of the wall, looking extremely quiet and even somewhat pitiful, emotions showing in his eyes that were extremely complex.
Dr. Banner's heart suddenly gave birth to an unspeakable emotion.
In many past years, Dr. Banner's life had only endless flight.
He had tried every possible method, attempting to completely clear away Hulk, the time bomb hidden within his body, through various means.
He hated this green monster that had deprived him of a normal life.
Although Hulk had now been stripped out, just now in front of the monitoring screen, watching Hulk as if treated like the cheapest pet toy, casually thrown into a cage by Arthur and left for a Dragon Li Cat to torture...
Dr. Banner's mindset had undergone a transformation unconsciously.
He suddenly felt like reflecting on his obsession over these past few years. He began to seriously think in his mind: if in the future time there really was no existence of Hulk, what kind of life would his own life gain, and what kind of life would he truly lose.
Dr. Banner strode forward, walking over slowly.
That green behemoth was right in front of him, and he did not show the slightest retreat.
Dr. Banner reached out his hand, gently placing his palm on Hulk's wide and thick green back.
"Hulk, this seems to be our first time standing together and talking in this way. To be honest, it really feels a bit strange."
Dr. Banner said softly, his voice carrying a long-lost calmness.
Hulk did not turn his head, but the muscles on his back twitched slightly, seemingly listening to Dr. Banner's words.
"However, since the atmosphere is so quiet now, and the timing is just right, I think we should have a good talk."
Dr. Banner smoothly sat down slowly beside Hulk, leaning against the wall, just like an ordinary person preparing for a heart-to-heart talk with an old friend.
Arthur stood not far away, watching these two preparing to open the long psychological counseling session, suddenly feeling somewhat bored.
He didn't really want to listen to these troublesome and long conversations. Arthur bent down, scooped up the Dragon Li Cat still strolling on the ground, then turned around, took the hand of Gwen who was standing aside and still watching the spectacle, and walked directly towards the outside of the cell door.
Just as he walked to the door, Arthur casually pushed out Director Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., who was leaning against the doorframe and planning to brazenly eavesdrop on this top-secret psychological exchange.
"Those two are performing a soul reconciliation over there. What are you listening for in this place? Hurry up and get out."
Arthur didn't leave any face for this Agent head, casually pressing the close button by the door.
The heavy metal isolation door closed seamlessly in front of Fury's helpless dark face.
After walking a distance down the long metal corridor, Arthur stopped with Gwen, who was lowering her head and intently teasing the kitten in her arms.
He chose not to directly open a Portal back to their cozy apartment in Brooklyn, but instead casually raised his arm to draw a circular Portal flickering with golden-yellow sparks.
The other side of the Portal was not their living room at home, but a street paved with old floor tiles, facing directly at the familiar wooden door of the underground band practice room.
The two of them stepped across the Portal, and the slightly chilly night breeze on the street blew against their faces.
Gwen raised her head to glance at the doorway in front of her covered with faded posters of various rock bands, a trace of obvious confusion flashing in her azure-blue eyes.
She turned her head to look at Arthur and asked perplexedly, "Why did we come here?"
Arthur looked helplessly at the girl in front of him wearing a dark gray oversized hoodie, reached out and gently rubbed her signature pink-gold gradient short hair, and began to explain,
"Did you have too much fun playing outside with me today, and completely forget the fact that your school is actually just taking a day off today?"
Reminded by Arthur, Gwen's eyes widened instantly, and she suddenly had an epiphany.
That's right, today she was clearly just taking a temporary day off from school. In her original plan, she should have taken some time to deal with her studies or band matters.
As a result, because she ran around everywhere with Arthur to deal with those shocking crises, the dating time was dragged out too long, and she completely forgot about her daily life arrangements.
A trace of embarrassed blush appeared on Gwen's originally cool and dashing face.
She lowered her head and smiled, tightening her arms slightly around the Dragon Li Cat in her arms.
"It's just that life in the extraordinary World is too exciting, running over there for a moment and running over here for another."
Gwen raised her head to look at Arthur. That cold and aloof appearance in front of outsiders had long since disappeared, and she stuck out her tongue at Arthursomewhat embarrassedly,
"And I stayed with you the whole time, with my attention all on you, so I unconsciously forgot about this matter."
Looking at her soft appearance with a hint of spoiled coquettishness, Arthur smiled affectionately.
He didn't say anything more, walked forward, and reached out to push open the heavy door with poor soundproofing.
The familiar scent inside the room, mixed with wood and metal musical instruments, rushed towards them.
In this not-so-spacious underground rehearsal room, all the band members had already gathered.
However, there was no sound of music at the scene, and they were not doing their daily joint practice at all.
Lead singer Mary Jane sat on a shabby sofa, strumming the guitar strings without playing any tune.
Everyone else was also doing their own things, some browsing their phones, and some staring blankly at the floor. The atmosphere in the room was as gloomy as strangers who didn't know each other being forcibly put together.
When the door was pushed open and made a creaking sound, the people in the room stopped what they were doing one after another, turning their gazes toward the direction of the door simultaneously.
After seeing clearly that it was Arthur and Gwen standing at the door, a trace of extremely obvious panic suddenly flashed in the girls' eyes.
They were no longer ordinary little girls who hadn't experienced anything.
Not long ago on that ordinary dinner night, they personally experienced the terror attack brought by the dual Green Goblins.
Not only that, because of that poisoned iced drink, they also personally experienced the painful process of genetic mutation and turning into terrifying lizard monsters covered in scales.
What made them even more unforgettable was that when they were forcibly dragged back from the verge of losing their sanity and madness, while their consciousness was still in a hazy state, they saw with their own eyes this handsome Asian youth in front of them.
They saw Arthur use the Horse Talisman to restore everyone from the mutation, and even saw him use the Dog Talisman to resurrect the corpses scattered all over the ground.
That kind of miracle that subverted all physical and natural laws had become an indelible brand in their minds.
For this group of girls who only loved rock and roll, starting from that night, Arthur, as well as Gwen who was his girlfriend, were no longer in the same World as them at all.
That natural sense of hierarchy and awe of the unknown made them feel somewhat constrained even just breathing right now.
Gwen stepped forward and stood in front of these once closest teammates.
Her azure-blue eyes looked at Mary Jane sitting on the sofa, smiling and softly saying, "Good evening, everyone."
This plain greeting did not break the stalemate.
Everyone looked at each other, their bodies appearing somewhat stiff, having no idea what attitude to use at this moment to respond to this drummer who hid a heaven-shaking secret.
Looking at the suffocatingly awkward atmosphere in the room, Arthur stood at the door and spoke up to break the peace.
"It's fine, there's no need to be so restrained. She is still the her you are familiar with, and I am still me. Just get along the way you used to, there's no need to take those messy things to heart."
Arthur's tone was very plain, carrying a power that could calm people down.
After finishing these words, Arthur stepped back half a step, making a gesture of leaving.
"Ahem, it's not appropriate for a guy like me to stay in your rehearsal room full of girls. You guys have a good chat, I'll be leaving first."
Arthur shrugged, casually pulled the door of the rehearsal room shut for them, and then turned and walked toward the direction of the street.
This time, Arthur still did not use the Sling Ring to immediately teleport back to the apartment.
After going through the tossing and turning of S.H.I.E.L.D., alien anomalies, and various superpower events, he planned to just walk on the asphalt road of Brooklyn with his own feet, enjoying this rare silent scenery and slow-paced walking time.
The dim yellow street lamp light and shadows continuously alternated on his body.
Just as he walked forward along the slightly deserted street for about a block, a pattering and familiar sound of rubber-soled canvas shoes stepping on the ground suddenly came from behind him.
Arthur stopped in his tracks and turned around.
He saw that familiar figure jogging towards him.
A dark gray hoodie, acid-washed ripped jeans, and the pink-gold gradient short hair shimmering under the street lamp. Gwen stopped in front of him, panting slightly, and the Dragon Li Cat was no longer in her arms.
Arthur looked at her, raised his eyebrows slightly, and asked with some confusion,
"Lass, why did you come out so fast? Aren't you going to continue having a good chat inside with your best friends?"
Gwen raised her head to look at him. Those bright eyes carried a deep affection and reliance that she would only reveal in front of him. She gently shook her head.
"I've already finished saying what needed to be said to them."
As Gwen spoke, she leaned forward very naturally, hugged Arthur's arm tightly with both hands, and gently leaned the weight of her body against him,
"Compared to staying with them in that gloomy room, I want to be with you even more."
Arthur didn't speak; he just stood quietly in place.
His gaze lowered, falling on these eyes close at hand, and he looked like this for a long time.
The night breeze on the street blew across the corners of their clothes, and around them, except for the occasional sound of passing vehicles, there was no other noise.
Finally, a most natural and gentle smile slowly emerged at the bottom of Arthur's eyes.
"Alright." Arthur agreed softly, taking the opportunity to pat the back of her hand that was hooked around his arm, "Then let's go home first."
They walked side by side toward the direction of the apartment.
The night was deep, and Arthur's expression was as calm as still water without a ripple, but deep inside his heart, a sneer so soft that only he could hear slowly rippled outward.
"No matter who you are, if you want to play, then let me see what on earth you want to do."
Chapter 64: Mystique, Professor Charles's Invitation
The wooden security door of the apartment made a soft clicking sound as the lock tongue slid into the groove of the doorframe.
Arthur casually tossed his keys onto the shoe cabinet in the entrance, changed into slippers, and walked into the living room.
The 'Gwen' with short pink-and-gold gradient hair, dressed in casual clothes, followed closely behind him. Together, they walked to the somewhat aged fabric sofa and sat down.
After sitting down, Arthur did not naturally open his arms as usual but instead subtly moved his body toward the armrest of the sofa.
He deliberately left a visible gap about the width of a palm between himself and the girl beside him.
The 'Gwen' beside him sat quietly, her hands neatly placed on her knees, showing no noticeable reaction to this obvious distance.
Seeing her like this, Arthur couldn't help but sigh inwardly, complaining to himself.
This disguise was far too sloppy. If it had been the real Gwen who followed him home tonight, the moment the door closed, that cool and aloof rock drummer disguise would have shattered into pieces.
She would definitely not even bother to take off her shoes properly, but would directly pounce onto the sofa, burrow into his arms, grab the hem of his clothes tightly, and rub her head against his chest, seeking comfort and hugs.
There was no way she would sit upright like a stiff wooden dummy, unable even to mimic the rhythm of real breathing.
Thinking this, Arthur couldn't help but let out another soft sigh.
The sigh was especially noticeable in the quiet living room.
Hearing this, the 'Gwen' beside him immediately turned her head, those perfectly replicated azure blue eyes showing a hint of puzzlement.
She looked at Arthur's slightly bored expression and asked softly, "What's wrong? You seem unhappy?"
Arthur leaned back on the sofa, simply shook his head, and said nothing.
Just then, the 'Gwen' beside him took action without warning.
She suddenly turned sideways, pressed both hands directly on Arthur's shoulders, with an undeniable force, pushing him hard against the back of the sofa.
The distance between them instantly narrowed. She slowly lowered her head, that familiar face almost touching the tip of Arthur's nose, her eyes shining with undisguised ambiguous light.
"If you're unhappy, I can help you."
She lowered her voice, whispering in Arthur's ear with a seductive and teasing tone, even deliberately adding a lazy breath on the last syllable.
Arthur was not flustered by this sudden sensual move.
His heart rate didn't even increase by half a beat; he couldn't even be bothered to dodge or defend.
He just blinked helplessly, quietly looking at this familiar yet unfamiliar face, and then broke the atmosphere with a comment.
"You got it wrong."
Arthur's voice was as flat as if he were discussing what to have for dinner tonight.
"First, Gwen would never say something like that. Second, Gwen would never make such a bold move pushing someone onto the sofa. Third, she is very thin-skinned."
Saying this, Arthur unceremoniously reached out, pushed away the arms on his shoulders, straightened up and stood, looking down at her as he continued to expose:
"Even if she really gathered the courage to say something intimate, she would be blushing, too nervous to even look at me, and stammering. Definitely not like you just now, full of practiced seduction."
Arthur increased the distance between them, leaned against the nearby cabinet, crossed his arms, and his eyes gradually became serious.
"So, tell me, which organization are you from? Sent by S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
The first thing that came to Arthur's mind was that Agentleader who always wanted to control all supernatural powers, but the thought had barely surfaced when he shook his head, immediately dismissing the guess:
"No. Nick Fury, that black-hearted Egghead, just got messed up by me on the Helicarrier. He must be busy dealing with that mess right now. Even if he wanted to test me, he wouldn't have the time for such obviously fake boring tricks."
Hearing Arthur's reasoned analysis, the 'Gwen' on the sofa slowly straightened up.
Her previously seductive expression had completely disappeared, replaced by undisguised surprise and astonishment.
She looked up, gazed deeply at Arthur, and asked with clear confusion:
"When did you see through my disguise? And how?"
Over the years, with this flawless disguise ability, she had infiltrated countless heavily guarded Bases and fooled many shrewd and ruthless people.
From the curve of hair to the texture of skin, from vocal cord vibration to iris color, she was confident she had achieved 100% perfect replication at the physical level.
She didn't understand where she had shown the fatal flaw that allowed someone to see through her at a glance.
Arthur looked at her puzzled face and gave an extremely simple answer in a flat tone: "Do you know what 'feeling' is?"
"No matter how perfectly you imitate the appearance, there are some things you simply can't fake."
Arthur casually pointed to his own heart area, explaining the complex emotional bond in plain words:
"She and I are like sunflowers and sunlight, each other's only anchor. I'm a worthless guy with no one in this World, and she's also a poor soul burdened with deep psychological trauma, stranded here alone. Only when we are alone together does that feeling of completely dropping our guard and baring our souls appear."
Arthur paused, his eyes turning somewhat cold:
"I can't describe that feeling with specific words. It's very unique—an intuition that when she's here, the air around becomes different."
"But just now, when you walked up to me with her face, I couldn't find even a trace of that feeling in you. Not a bit."
Arthur's completely irrational, illogical, and unscientific 'feeling theory' thoroughly defeated her.
The person on the sofa was silent for a long time. She suddenly felt somewhat deflated. Her mutation ability, honed over countless days and nights, had actually been defeated by such an intangible yet unbreakable idealistic bond.
Since she had been exposed, there was no point in pretending anymore.
She stood up from the sofa, and as she rose, a wave-like blue light began to spread rapidly across her skin.
In just two or three seconds, Gwen's fair, cool face and pink-gold hair receded like a wax sculpture melting.
Dense tiny dark blue scales surged up from under her skin, covering her entire body. Her hair became a dark red short cut combed back, and her eyes turned into pure yellow pupils like a Beast's.
A Mutant woman with a strange blue body, full of wild beauty, stood blatantly in the center of Arthur's apartment living room.
Mystique Raven did not assume any defensive posture; she directly stated the ultimate purpose of tonight's charade: "Professor Charles wants to see you."
Hearing this name, Arthur raised an eyebrow slightly.
He was indeed a bit surprised. He hadn't expected the X-Men's senses to be so sharp and their actions so fast.
He had only just dragged that big guy Hulk out of the Helicarrier for a thorough beating and blatantly displayed overwhelming force a few times, and these high-level Mutants holed up in Westchester County were already getting restless.
They even went so far as to send Mystique, a veteran-level Mutant, all the way to Brooklyn to probe his background.
Arthur turned his head, looked out the window at the completely dark night, and pursed his lips helplessly:
"You sure know how to pick a time. Coming to find me so late, are you planning to put me up for the night at your Mutant school full of superpowered kids?"
As he spoke, he stretched lazily and added half-jokingly, "I'm warning you, I'm broke. I'm not paying any overnight fees."
Just as Arthur finished saying this, the Mystique standing a few steps away suddenly froze in place without warning.
Her body stiffened, her originally wild and unruly yellow eyes lost focus, and then a completely different aura emanated from her blue body.
It was an extremely steady, gentle aura, like that of an old man who had experienced the vicissitudes of life.
When Mystique spoke again, her tone and choice of words had become completely different, like a kind elder addressing a younger generation:
"Child."
The controlled Raven said in a calm and deep tone:
"If you are willing, the doors of Xavier's School are always open to you. So many things have happened recently, and I have a lot to discuss with you face to face."
Arthur stood still, knowing what was happening.
Professor Charles, with the World's most powerful brain, had directly bridged the vast geographical distance and taken over Raven's consciousness with his mental powers.
Seeing this seamless performance, Arthur knew clearly that these two had definitely conspired on various contingency plans before coming.
Otherwise, given Charles's principled and egalitarian nature, he would never use such forceful means to control Raven's mind unless absolutely necessary.
Facing the remote dialogue of Earth's most terrifying psychic master, Arthur showed no panic, nor was he afraid that the professor would take the opportunity to probe his mind with telepathy.
"Tomorrow..."
Arthur replied subconsciously, but suddenly a thought crossed his mind:
"No, tomorrow Gwen's school has some anniversary celebration. I have to go support her. I don't have time to chat with you folks."
Arthur sighed and simply made a decision:
"Forget it, let's settle this tonight. Old man, if you're still energetic now, remember to leave the door open for me at the school. I'll be there soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, the gentle, old-man smile of Professor Charles on Raven's face instantly receded like a tide.
Her body shuddered violently, and her eyes regained clarity, as Charles had actively severed the mental connection.
Raven, back in control of her body, gave Arthur a deep look. Her face, covered in blue scales, resumed its usual cold expression as she said:
"Looks like you're done talking."
Arthur nodded indifferently: "Let's go."
Raven turned around and was about to step toward the apartment door to lead the way.
"No need for that trouble."
Arthur's voice came from behind her. Then, Arthur directly raised his right hand, and the Sling Ring on his finger emitted a subtle magical resonance.
He waved his arm in the air seemingly casually, drawing a circle.
With a series of crackling sounds, a circular Portal, wildly flashing with brilliant golden sparks, was torn open right on the living room floor.
The edge of the Portal continuously showered energy sparks, and within the circle that appeared out of nowhere, a wide road paved with old asphalt, lined with large trees, was clearly visible.
The night breeze from the other side, mixed with the unique scent of suburban grass and trees, blew directly into this small Brooklyn apartment through the Portal.
Fortunately, Arthur had seen the X-Men series before and roughly knew the location and terrain of the X-Mansion in Westchester, or it wouldn't have been easy to open a precise Portal to a place he had never been to based on imagination alone.
Hearing the noise, Raven turned her head and was stunned by the sight.
She watched the golden spark ring tearing through space, her golden Beast-like pupils contracted slightly, and an undisguised look of surprise flashed across her face.
But having been through much, and given the countless bizarre Mutants with various abilities at Xavier's, she quickly suppressed her shock and restored her normal expression.
Raven didn't ask any unnecessary questions; she simply followed Arthur into the golden circle.
As the two figures disappeared, the golden Portal rapidly shrank in the living room, eventually turning into a few sparks and completely vanishing into the air, as if nothing had happened.
On the other side, in the vast and quiet grounds of Xavier's School in Westchester County under the night sky.
In the retro-styled corridor with oil paintings on the walls, Professor Charles sat in his high-tech wheelchair.
He wore a neat suit, his bald head devoid of any decoration.
At that moment, he showed a gentle smile with a hint of anticipation and contemplation, and turned his head to look behind him.
Standing behind him, pushing the wheelchair, was a massive, imposing Mutant covered in dense blue fur, yet wearing a pair of scholarly black-rimmed glasses—Beast Hank.
"Let's go, Hank, push me out." Charles instructed softly with a gentle yet authoritative voice, "Our mysterious guest has arrived."
Chapter 65: About the Past (1)
Inside the underground music rehearsal room in Brooklyn, the dim incandescent lights overhead crackled as they glowed.
Just a moment ago, this place was a scene of chaos as if the sky was falling, but now, the atmosphere had completely eased up.
After Gwen's brief explanation earlier, bouncing back and forth between a bunch of nonsense and hard facts, the minds of these girls in the rehearsal room finally managed to digest the fact that "My teammate is actually an alien or a visitor from a parallel Universe".
After all, everyone had just witnessed with their own eyes a living person around them suddenly transform into a giant lizard monster with full-mouthed fangs, and then get forcibly changed back to their original form in an even more unreasonable way by Gwen's seemingly cheat-like boyfriend.
With such a World-destroying level big scene as foreshadowing, now that Gwen said she was Spider-Woman who had traveled across from another World, these rock girls actually felt that it was just so-so, and they wouldn't mind this little bit of extra shock.
Some even thought it was pretty cool.
Everyone had completely reconciled by now, the slight estrangement caused by the concealment just now had vanished completely, and their relationship naturally returned to the casual, rambling best-friend state of the past.
A few of them casually found a few stools and sat around the old wooden table right in the middle of the rehearsal room.
Right in the center of the table, that kitten was curled up and lying down.
This kitten was completely uninterested in what kind of roller-coaster emotions and worldview collapses this group of humans around it had just experienced.
It tucked its two front paws into its chest, its eyes narrowed into a slit, and it was quietly purring and sleeping deeply, too lazy to even twitch the tip of its tail.
Mary Jane held a paper cup in her hands, gulping down half a cup of water to calm her nerves.
She let out a long breath, turned her head to stare at Gwenfor a long time, and gossip abruptly gleamed on that face which usually loved to put on a cool-girl expression.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, Gwen."
Mary Jane nudged the table with her elbow and leaned her body forward.
"Is Arthur usually this exaggerated? With just a wave of his hand, he cured all of us, and he also made such terrifyingly huge commotions. Two such powerful people like you two, how on earth did you meet in the first place? Is it that kind of process where you fight monsters in the sky while saving each other, which must be extremely romantic, right?"
Hearing this, Gwen was slightly stunned.
The rock girl, who always wore a cold face in front of outsiders and looked insanely cool when drumming, actually showed a slightly uncomfortable look on her face at this moment.
She reached out to scratch her pink-gold short hair and shook her head very decisively.
"No way."
Gwen spoke, her voice not loud.
"Actually, when the two of us first met, it was very ordinary. It was truly the kind of ordinary that if you threw us onto the street, no one would spare us a second look. But... maybe precisely because it was too ordinary, as time passed, we slowly ground and blended into the relationship we have now."
As soon as those words were said, another member of the band who was fiddling with her bass strings nearby became displeased and immediately crowded over.
"Stop keeping us in suspense. The more ordinary it sounds, the more interesting it is. Hurry up and tell us, how on earth did you meet? We're dying of curiosity!"
Looking at the glowing-eyed expressions of her sisters around her, Gwen knew she couldn't escape today.
She rested her chin on the table, looked at the soundly sleeping kitten in the middle, her gaze slowly drifted off, and she turned on her memory mode.
Her thoughts were instantly pulled back to when everything first began.
"At the very beginning..."
Gwen narrated slowly, her voice very soft.
"I just happened to be sucked into a spacetime turbulence. At that time, I had no idea what kind of ghost World I had come to. When I opened my eyes, I fell straight down from mid-air and heavily smashed onto some broken street corner whose location I didn't know."
As she narrated, memories rewound, and time returned to that heavy rainy day when she first descended into this World.
The rain that day was extremely heavy, and the raindrops hitting the asphalt road splashed white water droplets.
Gwen collapsed by the water-logged roadside, her whole body's bones feeling as if they had been dismantled by someone and randomly reassembled, hurting so much that she could barely lift a single finger.
Because before the time travel, she had just experienced a life-and-death fierce battle with Green Goblin in her own Universe.
Her Spider-Woman suit was already torn to shreds to begin with, and right now it had been fiercely battered by the tearing force of the spacetime turbulence. The whole person looked simply more miserable than a homeless person picked up from a garbage dump.
Gwen panted heavily, barely raising her hand to yank off the Spider mask on her head whose original color could no longer be seen.
She collapsed and sat in a puddle full of muddy water, rain pouring down her cheeks, flowing into her eyes and stinging with sharp pain.
She looked around somewhat blankly.
The surrounding streets looked both familiar and unfamiliar; the architectural style was still that of New York, but many billboards and subtle signs completely failed to match what was in her memory.
This discovery caused her heart to sink.
The spacetime turbulence churned her internal organs, and she tried to brace the ground to stand up, but her feet went soft and she fell back into the puddle.
Standing up—an action she wouldn't even need to think about normally—had now become as difficult as ascending to heaven for her.
Gwen was exhausted to the extreme.
The heavy rain mercilessly fell to the ground, hitting her heavily, taking away her last remaining bit of strength bit by bit. Her clothes were completely soaked, clinging tightly to her body as she shivered from the cold.
She simply gave up struggling, slumped on the water-logged ground just like that, and slowly raised her wrist.
The screen of the high-tech dimensional transporter on her wrist had completely gone dark, its outer shell cracked with a deep fissure, and the parts inside emitted a few wisps of weak electric sparks extinguished by water. It was completely broken.
"I can't go back."
When this thought popped into her mind, Gwen looked at the broken bracelet and felt unprecedentedly helpless.
There was not a single person around; the rain was simply too heavy, and the entire street was tightly shrouded by the curtain of rain. In this ghost of a weather, almost no one would choose to go out.
Gwen hugged her knees, her mind a mess like a pot of porridge, blankly wondering where her path should go next.
Just at this moment, a blurry figure appeared in the curtain of rain.
That was a young boy holding a black long-handled umbrella.
He was wearing a somewhat old-looking set of work clothes, stepping in a pair of waterproof boots, and walking toward this side along the sidewalk.
That was precisely Arthur, who had just traveled to this World not long ago, hadn't obtained the talismans yet, and was working hard to make a living.
Arthur held the umbrella with one hand, his pace quite fast.
When he passed by Gwen's side, his gaze casually swept across this tattered figure collapsed in the rainwater.
He noticeably paused his footsteps, the soles of his shoes rubbing against the accumulated water to produce a slight splashing sound.
Afterward, he resumed his steps, preparing to continue walking forward, obviously not wanting to meddle in other people's business and bring trouble upon himself.
However, just after he walked forward less than two steps, his feet slammed to a halt.
He stood in the rain for a few seconds, then walked back in reverse.
Arthur walked up to Gwen, lowered his head, and taking advantage of the roadside's dim light, carefully sized up Gwen, who was sitting in the puddle with her wet hair plastered against her face.
When he saw Gwen's appearance and that iconic pink-gold gradient short hair clearly, his face instantly revealed a distorted expression of having encountered a major trouble and undergoing intense ideological struggle.
"How annoying!"
[Arthur's perspective: I'm about to be late, but why does the person in front of me look so familiar? Otherwise, forget about it. No way, I'm still so curious. Otherwise, let's take another look. Well, what if it wastes time? How annoying!]
Holding the umbrella, Arthur, right in front of Gwen, used his free hand to scratch his hair fiercely, water droplets being flung everywhere as he muttered in a low voice.
"How can they look so much alike? This is truly ghosts on the main road..."
[Arthur's perspective: Damn it! Gwen? Human Gwen or Spider-Gwen? Why is she still so disheveled? Could it really not be her in person?]
He stood there struggling internally for a short while, and finally, as if completely giving up resistance, he let out a heavy sigh.
"Ah!! So annoying! Whatever, whatever, I really owe you!"
[Arthur's perspective: Ah, Gwen, is it really her or not? Well, whatever, let's farm some favorability first. In case it really is Spider-Gwen, I can brag in the future about how I helped a superhero before.]
As soon as his voice fell, Arthur directly switched the umbrella to one hand, and with his other hand very crudely unzipped the zipper of the thick waterproof work jacket on his body.
In a flash, he took off the jacket, carrying a warmth belonging to a boy's body, and threw it right at Gwen's face, draping her tightly all the way from her head to her shoulders.
Immediately following that, before Gwen could even react, Arthur bent down again, grabbed Gwen's hand, and pressed the handle of that large black umbrella directly into her hand, making her grip it tightly without allowing any refusal.
"Hey, listen up."
Arthur didn't even dare to look at her more than once, turning his head to the side and shouting loudly in the rain.
"If it weren't for seeing that you're pretty! I would have left long ago! Who cares whether you live or die!"
Having finished this highly defensive sentence, Arthurdidn't even want the umbrella anymore.
He directly raised both hands to hold them over the top of his head, attempting to act as a trivial canopy.
Then he bolted in a flash, hurrying into the heavy rain ahead, his legs stepping extremely fast, splashing water droplets high up.
Leaving behind a voice that gradually blurred in the rain curtain: "See you in the jianghu if we're fated! Remember to return my clothes and umbrella then!"
[Rain-drenched time: I'm so handsome, this can definitely farm favorability.]
In just a few seconds of effort, that figure wearing a single layer of clothing completely ran out of sight, disappearing at the corner of the street ahead.
Gwen sat in the freezing accumulated water, somewhat dazed as she watched the other person's receding back.
Because it was raining, the temperature dropped very low, and she shivered from the cold.
She instinctively reached out, tightened the large men's work jacket draped over her body a bit, and wrapped it tightly around herself.
As soon as the clothes tightened, a distinct scent broke into her nose.
That was a scent mixed with the smell of cheap laundry detergent, a slight earthy smell of rainwater, and the unique aura belonging specifically to that boy.
The smell couldn't be considered very high-end, but in such a cold, desperate, and lonely rainy night, this piece of clothing carrying residual warmth and the umbrella opened in her hand gave her a solid, living-creature-like sense of security.
Gwen didn't think anymore about what kind of nerve this strange passerby was acting up on.
She eased up on the ground for a short moment, and her body finally recovered a tiny bit of strength thanks to her super-strong metabolism.
Holding Arthur's black long umbrella, wrapping the work jacket tightly around herself, and bracing the brick wall beside her with her hand, she laboriously climbed to her feet from the puddle.
Standing in place, she looked around left and right at the empty surroundings, still not knowing where she should go in this unfamiliar World.
After standing blankly in place for a period of time, the wind mixed with rain began to grow heavier again.
Gwen decided to ignore the others for now; her top priority was to first find a corner that could shelter her from the wind and rain to take cover and simply treat the wounds on her body.
Following the edge of the road, stepping heavily and lightly, she walked toward a deep alley not far away.
That alley was dark and narrow, piled full of uncleared garbage cans inside.
As soon as Gwen walked in with her umbrella not far, an unpleasant odor mixed with rainwater and putrid stench rushed at her face.
Immediately afterward, as she lowered her head, she saw a disgusting scene that made the blood in her whole body almost reverse instantly.
Behind a flipped-over large green garbage can, in a spot half-obscured by several black tattered garbage bags, lay a person.
Even in the dim-lit alley, Gwen still vaguely saw a patch of extremely familiar hair exposed beneath that pile of black garbage bags.
That was identical to hers—short hair with brilliant golden roots and tips gradually changing to pink.
Gwen's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly stepped forward, squatted down, and shoved away the stinking garbage bags covering the top.
The scene below made her gasp a breath of cold air.
That was her own corpse.
To be exact, it should be the corpse of a person who looked identical to her.
In this Universe where countless parallel Universes existed, barring any accidents, this tragic corpse was the local "Gwen Stacy" of this World.
The girl lay quietly in the freezing dirty water, with a shoddy switchblade conspicuously stabbed into her chest.
The fresh blood had long been washed clean by the rain, and her complexion presented a dead-ash-like pale blue.
Gwen looked closely at the marks on the other person's body; the girl's pockets were turned inside out, and all accessories and valuable electronics on her body that could be exchanged for money were gone.
Clearly, this was a very ordinary yet fatal street robbery and murder case.
Dying just like that in the gloomy alley.
Gwen silently squatted beside the corpse, looking at this face completely identical to her own.
In this unfamiliar World, her local self hadn't even had time to experience any major storms before ending her life in such a stifling way.
She took a deep breath, reached out, and cautiously rummaged through the corpse's clothes pockets that had already been rummaged through in a mess.
Finally, she fished out a small pink wallet that others wouldn't look twice at from the inner pocket of the corpse soaked through by rainwater.
Opening the wallet, inside, besides a bunch of keys, was also a hard-shell identification card.
Gwen pulled out the ID card; the photo on it was unmistakably this face, and the name column clearly printed a few letters: Gwen Stacy.
As expected, it was herself of this spacetime.
The wallet was limited to just that; anything else usable and slightly valuable had basically been looted clean in that fatal robbery.
Gwen gripped that ID card tightly in her hand, and then, she bowed deeply toward this freezing corpse.
"I'm sorry."
Gwen looked at that unresigned face and said earnestly in the sound of the rain with a voice only she could hear.
"Since you don't need it anymore, then... temporarily borrow your identity for a while. I will live on in this Worldfor you."
Having finished these words, Gwen stood up and returned along the original path, walking out of the alley.
Gripping that ID card in her hand, Gwen quickly sorted out her thoughts in her mind.
Since there was also a counterpart of herself existing in this World, would the home address in this World also be identical to the one in her memory?
In a desperate situation, harboring such wishful thinking, Gwen held the umbrella left behind by Arthur, wrapped tightly in the old work jacket carrying his residual warmth, dragged her painful body, and walked step by step toward the direction of that location in the depths of her mind's memory.