"Like I said… maybe. Right now I'm not even sure if what I did counts as a crime," Ethan Cole said casually. His voice carried an almost playful tone, as if the chaos surrounding them had nothing to do with him. "But if it does, are you sure you're not going to arrest me?"
He tilted his head slightly, watching the masked hero in front of him. When no answer came immediately, Ethan chuckled under his breath. "If you're not going to arrest me, then I guess I'll be going."
Everyone knew Spider-Man had a mouth that never seemed to stop moving. In the world of superheroes, he was famous for constant chatter in the middle of fights, cracking jokes and talking nonstop. His reputation for verbal sparring was practically legendary, and Ethan had always found that trait amusing.
Up close, the young hero seemed exactly as Ethan had expected. Quick with words, a little awkward, and surprisingly sincere.
But Spider-Man suddenly asked something that caught Ethan slightly off guard.
"Why are you doing this?"
Ethan paused for a moment. The question clearly hadn't been what he expected to hear. After a short silence, a faint smile spread across his face.
"There's no deep reason," he replied calmly. "If you really want one, then I guess some people in this country managed to irritate me. So I decided to give them a little headache."
"What?"
Spider-Man's face was hidden under the mask, so Ethan couldn't see his expression, but the disbelief in his voice was impossible to miss.
Ethan raised an eyebrow and asked again, his tone still relaxed.
"So you're really not going to arrest me? After all, I'm technically the one who started this whole disaster."
Spider-Man went quiet for a few seconds. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded a little dull.
"That's… something the police should handle."
The answer made Ethan stop walking.
For a brief moment he simply stood there, then he shrugged with a faint smile and continued forward. By the time he glanced back again, Spider-Man had already moved far away.
Ethan didn't bother chasing after him. His figure blurred slightly and vanished from the spot in an instant.
Far away from the scene, Peter Parker suddenly spun around. His eyes searched the area behind him, and when he realized Ethan had disappeared completely, he finally let out a long breath.
Without hesitation, he yanked off the mask covering his face.
Cool air rushed against his skin as he bent over slightly and inhaled deeply several times. Only after a few heavy breaths did the frantic pounding in his chest begin to settle.
Under the mask was a face far younger than Ethan's. Sweat covered his forehead, and his chest still rose and fell rapidly as if he had just escaped something terrifying.
"Man… that guy…"
Peter muttered under his breath, still shaken.
"That felt awful. For a second there it was like I'd walked straight into the jaws of some giant predator. I swear, it felt like if I said one wrong word, he would've killed me right there."
Peter had become a hero because he believed in stopping criminals and protecting innocent people. Ever since gaining his powers, he had tried his best to live by that principle.
His abilities weren't complicated but they were incredibly effective. He possessed tremendous strength, extraordinary agility, and most importantly his spider-sense. That strange instinct allowed him to detect danger long before ordinary people even realized something was wrong.
It was like having a sixth sense, only far more precise.
Just moments earlier, that spider-sense had been screaming warnings inside his head.
Every instinct he had was telling him the same thing.
Ethan Cole was extremely dangerous.
If Peter had pushed even slightly too far, if he had provoked the man standing in front of him even a little, the situation might have ended very badly.
Peter stared at the place where Ethan had vanished, unease still lingering in his expression. It was hard for him to believe that someone so terrifying actually existed.
After taking a few more deep breaths, he finally managed to calm himself down.
There were still people trapped in the flood.
He forced himself to focus again and quickly rushed toward the next area that needed rescue.
Meanwhile, Ethan stood quietly on top of a tall building.
From this vantage point he could clearly see the streets below, now almost completely submerged in seawater. The massive waves that had surged inland earlier were no longer connected to the ocean behind them, and without that continuous force pushing them forward, their destructive power had weakened significantly.
Ethan estimated that once the water traveled another hundred meters or so, the remaining momentum would dissipate entirely.
Cars drifted helplessly along the flooded streets, tossed around by the turbulent water like toys. People struggled desperately in the currents, clinging to anything they could grab.
Among them, Ethan spotted several familiar figures.
Mutants wearing silver-and-white uniforms moved quickly through the chaos. Their abilities varied widely, but every one of them was doing the same thing—rescuing civilians trapped in the disaster.
Watching them, Ethan remembered Spider-Man's reaction earlier.
In truth, the young hero had been slightly mistaken.
Ethan had just withdrawn his consciousness from Professor X's psychic realm. Some faint hostility still lingered in his mind at the time, a leftover emotion from that mental confrontation.
But that hostility had been extremely weak. Only a telepath or someone with an unusually sharp instinct would have noticed it.
Unfortunately for Spider-Man, his spider-sense was exactly that kind of ability.
Even that tiny trace of negative emotion had triggered a full alarm inside his instincts, giving him an overwhelming sense of danger.
In that sense, the boy's intuition really was impressive.
Ethan had never actually intended to kill him. The encounter had simply amused him. Acting on a moment of whimsy, he had decided to tease the young hero a little.
After all, Spider-Man was one of the very few characters Ethan genuinely liked.
While he was lost in thought, Ethan suddenly turned his head.
Something had caught his attention.
Far below, floating above the flooded street, a slender figure hovered quietly in midair.
Beside her stood the Storm Woman who had been knocked down earlier.
The floating woman had fiery red hair that fell in soft waves around her shoulders. Her appearance was striking—pale skin, vivid red lips, and an elegant yet mature figure that radiated confidence and charm.
Her curves were graceful and alluring, her posture poised with natural elegance. There was a feminine warmth about her presence, but also something powerful beneath the surface.
She looked like a perfectly ripened fruit.
Irresistibly tempting.
Ethan's eyes narrowed slightly as he studied her.
As if sensing his gaze, the woman suddenly lifted her head and looked up toward the rooftop where he stood.
Their eyes met in the open air.
At that moment, everything seemed to freeze.
The rushing water, the cries of the crowd, even the wind itself felt distant. For a brief instant it was as if the entire world had faded away, leaving only the two of them staring at each other across the flooded city.
Inside Ethan's body, the Phoenix Force suddenly trembled.
Its energy surged with sudden excitement, far more active than before. A faint heat began to rise within him, like flames stirring beneath ashes.
Across the street, the red-haired woman's eyes widened slightly.
Surprise flashed across her face as she stared back at him.
.....
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