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[Frog] Chapter 164: A Worried George, An Angry Gwen
🕑 Added 2024-11-18 04:09:15 +0000 UTC"Master, just now Tony Stark's AI butler, Jarvis, controlled all the military's small missiles."
Alan, who was sitting on the sofa, listened to Red Queen's report and immediately guessed what was happening.
With Tony's capabilities, going head-to-head against Magneto without developing various anti-battle suits was almost impossible.
So, Tony had taken control of the military's missiles to threaten Magneto into stopping.
What he didn't expect was that by the time he arrived at the scene, Magneto had already been dealt with by Alan.
"Red Queen, keep an eye on the movements of the top officials next."
"Magneto's death will surely cause quite a stir."
"Understood, Master."
...
The next morning.
"What did you say?"
"You were almost killed by Magneto of the Brotherhood of Mutants last night?"
In Helen's office.
Helen, who was sitting in front of Anna, stood up in shock, her face full of worry.
Anna quickly made a shushing gesture at Helen. "Shh!"
"Yelling so loudly—are you afraid that not enough people know about this?"
Helen instinctively glanced outside the door and then lowered her voice to continue asking, "Is Magneto really dead?"
"Yes!" Anna nodded. "This news will likely spread soon. Even though I fell asleep in the car last night and didn't get out, their actions when they stepped out woke me up."
"I saw through the window, and it was indeed Magneto's body."
"Wait, you just mentioned that Nick Fury showed great respect to a soldier..."
"What did that soldier look like?"
Anna hadn't expected Helen to be interested in a soldier by Nick Fury's side.
After thinking for a moment, she described Rogers' appearance to Helen.
The more Helen listened, the more shocked she became. She then stood up, walked over to her safe, and took out a document marked "Top Secret."
She pulled out a file and brought it to Anna.
"Take a look. Is it this person?"
Anna took the document from Helen with a puzzled expression and glanced at the photo on it.
"Yes, that's him!"
"Why do you have information on this person?"
"Read the date on the document and the description of him."
Anna read: "Steve Rogers..."
"He's the World War II hero, Captain America?"
Helen nodded. "It seems Howard's human enhancement experiment was indeed successful."
"Not only did it create the first superhero in our country’s history, but it also granted him unparalleled vitality."
"So much so that after being frozen under a glacier for seventy years, he could still regain life upon thawing."
As Anna looked at the document in her hand, her eyes were filled with disbelief.
She couldn't fathom that someone could actually survive after being frozen under a glacier for seventy years.
Could such a person still be considered human?
Although her specialty was in psychology, she had basic medical knowledge.
"Now I finally understand why you all idolize Howard so much."
Helen smiled. "He truly was a genius."
"But now, I'm more intrigued by that superhero you mentioned called Emperor."
"You have to understand, when Magneto threatened the entire nation's leadership, no one could bring him to justice."
"Honestly, I originally thought Spider-Woman or Iron Man would come to my rescue."
"I didn't expect Emperor to be the one."
After confirming that Anna had no other physical issues, Helen felt reassured.
They chatted idly in the office.
After a while, a researcher knocked on Helen's office door.
"Doctor, the person who was brought in last night has woken up."
"Mr. Peter is already in the ward."
Hearing this news, Anna's face lit up with joy. "Let's go, we should go see him."
In the ward.
Peter stood in front of the hospital bed, wearing a white lab coat, while the patient lying on the bed was the homeless man who had been injected with the enhancement serum.
At this moment, he was covered with various medical instruments monitoring his condition. All the data were showing stable readings.
“Mr. Parker, the patient's condition is very good, and he has regained consciousness,” the nurse said. “However, his awareness is not fully clear yet, so if you wish to question him, I suggest waiting a bit longer.”
Peter took the medical chart handed to him by the nurse and smiled, “Thank you. I’ll wait a bit longer.”
“Has Dr. Helen arrived?” he asked.
“I’ve already sent someone to get her. She’ll be here any moment.”
Just as she finished speaking, the door to the ward opened, and two tall figures walked in. Helen immediately went to check the patient's condition, while Anna walked over to Peter. “Peter, you’ve worked hard.”
“It’s nothing. He’s recovered now,” Peter replied. “But if we want to question him, we’ll still need to wait a bit longer.”
Anna nodded in understanding. The fact that the homeless man had recovered at all was already a huge relief, so waiting a little longer was not a problem.
After examining the patient, Helen expressed her surprise, “Mr. Parker, your anti-gene program is truly remarkable. If possible, we should sit down and discuss this in detail sometime.”
Helen had originally thought that at most, the patient's condition would be stabilized and cell division would be suppressed. She hadn’t expected such a significant recovery, and all within just one night.
Peter smiled modestly, “You’re too kind, Dr. Helen. If it weren’t for the equipment you provided, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Seeing Peter’s humble demeanor, Helen nodded approvingly. He was indeed an excellent student, just unlucky. The two previous collaborators he had worked with had ulterior motives; otherwise, Helen believed that, with Peter’s help, their experiments would have succeeded eventually.
For this reason, Helen refrained from directly proposing a collaboration with Peter. It would have felt like reopening old wounds.
“Cough... cough...” At that moment, the homeless man on the bed coughed and then opened his eyes, glancing around in confusion.
“Who... are you all?” he asked. “Where am I?”
Peter nodded to Anna. With the patient now awake, it was Anna’s turn to conduct the interrogation.
Anna stepped up to the bedside and spoke gently, “Sir, please don’t be afraid. We’re with the New York Police Department...”
“We just have a few questions for you...”
...
In the office of the New York Police Department, George sat at his desk, looking exhausted as he stared at the pile of documents in front of him. Finally, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried to clear his mind.
After serving as the head of the NYPD for so many years, this was the first time he felt so overwhelmed. It was also the first time he had faced so many major cases back-to-back.
First, a general was assassinated. Then, this morning, he received news that the leader of the mutant organization had been killed the night before. Now George not only had to organize manpower to investigate the assassin but also had to ensure that members of the Brotherhood of Mutants wouldn’t cause chaos in New York City. On top of that, he had the Osborne Industries case on his hands.
Just thinking about it made George’s head ache.
Knock, knock, knock...
The sound of knocking came from the doorway, and George could only muster a weak response, “Come in.”
When he saw who had entered the office, his face lit up with joy. “Gwen?”
“What brings you here?”
Gwen was carrying a bag and smiled as she said, “You haven’t been home for two nights.”
“So Mom asked me to bring you some food.”
“She told you not to overwork yourself.”
The sight of his daughter brought a noticeable improvement to George’s expression as he took the insulated bag from Gwen’s hands. He pulled out the food inside and began to eat.
“By the way, isn’t Cousin Anna here at the precinct today?”
After stepping into the precinct, Gwen hadn’t seen any sign of Anna.
George took a sip of coffee and said, “She and Peter are still at the medical building.”
“What, she didn’t go to rest at Alan’s place last night?”
“Alan moved into a new house yesterday. Anna’s now living there alone.”
“So we’re not sure if she went back last night.”
George’s expression momentarily froze when he heard that Alan had moved.
If he remembered correctly, Alan had only recently bought that house after moving to New York, right?
It hadn’t been that long, and he was moving again.
Was he really that wealthy?
Sensing the confusion on George’s face, Gwen explained, “Alan bought some stock in Stark Industries.”
“He made a bit of money.”
George nodded in understanding. That explained it—Stark Industries’ stock had been climbing rapidly.
He even regretted not buying some when the stock price had plummeted.
***
As the father and daughter were chatting, a police officer rushed in.
“Chief, there’s trouble!”
George’s face darkened immediately. These past few days, every time he heard those words, it meant a serious incident had occurred.
And they were always particularly difficult to handle.
“Don’t panic. Tell me what happened.”
The officer quickly handed over a report. “Last night, we received a report about a minor earthquake in the Thirteenth District.”
“An earthquake?”
George frowned. Did New York even get earthquakes? And in the Thirteenth District, no less!
The officer continued, “Further investigation and surveillance footage revealed—”
“The leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants appeared in the Thirteenth District last night, and his target was Miss Anna.”
“What did you say!”
George slammed the desk and stood up abruptly.
Even Gwen, who was sitting beside him, immediately stood up, “What happened to Cousin Anna?”
The officer who had come to report was startled by their strong reaction and quickly explained, “Don’t worry, Miss Anna is fine.”
“There’s no need to be concerned.”
Hearing that Anna was unharmed, both George and Gwen calmed down.
George then asked, “So when you say there’s trouble, what exactly do you mean?”
The officer hesitated for a moment, “The leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto, appeared. Isn’t that serious enough?”
...
George: "......."
Gwen: "......."
The room fell into silence as George suppressed a stomach full of anger.
Did I not know Magneto appeared?
I even know that Magneto was killed last night!
"You can go now."
"By the way, keep an eye on those registered mutants and monitor their movements at all times."
"Yes, sir!"
The officer saluted and left immediately.
In the office, only George and Gwen were left again.
George felt as if his head was about to explode, with a pile of troubles waiting for him.
"I didn't expect that Magneto was actually looking for Anna yesterday..."
George frowned deeply, unable to figure out why Magneto would seek out Anna.
Meanwhile, Gwen seemed to have some guesses in her mind.
Because not long ago, when she was at Alan's house, Nick Fury had come to visit.
At that time, Nick Fury had mentioned that Magneto intended to make a move against Alan.
Anna had been attacked at Alan's house.
Naturally, Gwen interpreted Magneto's actions as originally targeting Alan.
But unexpectedly, Alan was no longer living in the 13th district.
As a result, Anna became the scapegoat.
"Gwen, what are you thinking about?"
George called out to the dazed Gwen a few times before she snapped back to reality.
"Oh."
"Um, Dad."
"I have something to do, so I'm leaving now!"
With that, Gwen dashed out of the office, not giving George a chance to say more.
Watching Gwen rush off, George smiled helplessly.
"Daughters... they grow up."
Bang!
Gwen suddenly pushed the door open again, startling George.
"Dad, Mom said to come home tonight."
A warmth filled George's heart, and he smiled as he replied, "Alright."
Outside the police station.
Gwen ran into an alley and pressed a button on her wristwatch.
The Spider suit instantly enveloped her body.
The AI voice of Red Queen spoke up: "Good morning, Miss Gwen."
"There are no reported crimes in New York City today."
Gwen shot her webs and swung toward Alan’s new residence. "Red Queen, can you track Magneto's current location?"
"No, Miss Gwen."
Hearing Red Queen's response, Gwen suddenly felt a bit dejected.
In her view, Magneto threatened Alan's safety. If she didn't teach him a lesson, he would not let it go easily.
"Then keep an eye out. Report to me immediately if there’s any sign of Magneto."
"I'm sorry, Miss Gwen, but I can't do that either."
Gwen thought it was because Magneto's concealment was too good, but what Red Queen said next made her stop in her tracks.
"Because Magneto died last night..."
"What?"
...
