LIGHTNOVELONLINE 75 – Reactions (Part 2)
Across the world, various organizations, countries, criminal organizations, and powers came to the attention of the so-called 'Alien' calling Metropolis, Hell's Kitchen, and Gotham home.
Spies, Criminals, Agents, and villains flocked to these three cities to confirm for themselves whether this 'Alien' truly did have such...supernatural goods for sale, goods that could be paid through multiple methods, one of which really caught the attention of these organizations. After all, paying with one's Karma, regardless of whether it be good or bad, interested quite a few of the leaders of these organizations.
How is Karma calculated? How did this Alien know whether people did good or bad?
Was it really an Alien, or just some mutant bullshitting for attention?
So many questions, yet there was only one way to get them.
Then, there was the fact that the creature illuminated some topics that most had no clue about.
There were different types of mutants? Or metahumans, in Zeref's words.
Who were these Inhumans? Where were these aliens? If Superman was an alien, does that mean that other aliens would be Human as well? How many aliens called Earth home? Then, there was the creature's talk about magic, making people and organizations worry that the defenses they had in place would be pointless against something as unusual as magic.
Many countries were already, to some degree, aware of magic, but countless more were not. The United Kingdom was one of the few countries aware of the supernatural community and one of the few that actively employed them. London itself was a safe haven for the supernatural, with the city housing the largest supernatural community in the world, hidden from the mundane world through magic. Despite that, the Supernatural community was still greatly entwined with the mundane world.
When they discovered someone—no, something—trying to reveal the supernatural side of the world to the public, many in the supernatural community believed that the creature needed to be silenced. In contrast, many others saw this as a chance for them to reveal themselves to the world finally. After all, why would they be any more shocking compared to the events that happened yearly in the mundane world? Not to mention, they already had a member of the supernatural side of Earth representing them as heroes, Wonder Woman, the Demi-God of the Greek Pantheon.
Various people in the supernatural community began making plans. Some booked flights to see this creature themselves, some decided to reveal themselves to their closest mundane friends and family, and others began seeking out Wonder Woman, hoping that she would be able to help them or stop the creature from revealing them to the mundane world.
...
BANG, BANG, BANG!
In quick succession, three shots rang out from a small caliber pistol in the middle of Hell's Kitchen, taking down three men in suits.
Creeping up into the alley was a man seeking vengeance, a man who held a grudge and wasn't willing to look past it.
That man was none other than the Punisher, who was kidnapped not too long ago by SHIELD and tortured for days while his friend was disassembled and turned to scrap.
Frank was out for revenge, and he was making progress.
Dropping down to the bodies, he began examining them, stealing their phones, guns, and anything else noteworthy before retreating from the alley.
Since his escape, Frank has been chased day in and day out by these SHIELD agents in Hell's Kitchen, and so far, Frank has found that he is only managing to keep ahead of them due to his training and knowledge of the local terrain.
Now, he just needed to crack the phones and get a bead on more hideouts for these SHIELD and Hydra agents.
Frank was fully convinced that Hydra had completely taken over SHIELD. He had made it his mission to take SHIELD down, whether he died trying or not, and has already cleared out multiple of these hideouts, but it seems that SHIELD has started making their mission to take him down, as they now shot at him on sight and actively searched for him.
He wasted no time in returning to his safehouse, taking the long route to avoid being tailed and making sure he was not being followed.
When he was sure that nothing and no one was following him, he entered an abandoned factory. There, he was met by a man in a brown patchy duster wearing strange riot armor. They worked on an assualtron on a workbench.
"How is she doing? Making any progress?" Frank asked, looking down at the Assaultron on the workbench.
"I'll be done with her soon. Luckily for you, her memory core is intact. However, I did notice that some of her weaponry and a great many internal systems were ripped straight out. I'm afraid she will not be combat-ready for quite some time until either I manage to get her up into shape or get her into a different body," Kyle gave his diagnosis, stepping away from the ripped-apart Assaultron.
"Keep me notified, and Kyle?" Frank asked before saying, "Thanks."
"No worries. Just don't involve me in your mess, and we will be fine," Kyle said, moving to a different workbench while multiple eyebots floated around the factory, working on Kyle's pet project, the creation of a sentry bot.
"You check out the news?" Kyle asked nonchalantly.
"No, what about it?" Frank asked, placing down the stolen phones, ripping them apart, and disabling any trackers that were on them, knowing full well, with the jammer Kyle had in place, that the two would not have been tracked.
"The boss got interviewed; he's become famous; it's a good time to start hitting the Cafe again if you're worried about being stopped by those agents if you want to pick up supplies and weapons," Kyle informed Frank.
"Really? Good for him. You made any progress with Fallout?" Frank wondered.
"I have. I'm onto Fallout New Vegas, which is quite an interesting place, though the heat is...annoying," Kyle commented half-mindedly.
"It's worse than California?" Frank asked.
"Without a doubt, it feels cramped compared to the other games, and It seems limited to the area around Vegas, or New Vegas in this case, and it is chock-full of animals, abominations, raiders, and other bullshit, not to mention the heat is a fucking killer, I died from heatstroke twice now," Kyle complained, showing his clear annoyance with the Mojave Wasteland.
"Seriously? Have you tried, I don't know, drinking water?" Frank sarcastically replied, only to meet a deadpan expression from Kyle, making Frank crack a smile in his friend's annoyance.
"Anyway," Frank said, moving on, "How are you doing with Fallout's tech? I know you said you're trying to learn and master everything possible; how close are you?" Frank asked, curious.
"Not even. There is just too much to learn across Fallout, and I seem to run into new things to learn or study constantly. For example, somehow, the Mojave Wasteland has its own population of supermutants. I wonder if there's a source of FEV hidden somewhere or if the supermutants instead migrated to the area," Kyle answered before rambling about the things he was learning and found strange about the Mojave Wasteland and New Vegas in general compared to the first two Fallout games and wastelands that Kyle personally roamed for years.
Shaking his head and letting his friend continue to talk, Frank got to work on cracking the phones, soon easily doing so after having done the same dozens of times before. He scoured the phones of all contacts, map destinations, calls, voicemails, their search history, and whatever else he could get his hands on.
Letting out a savage smile, Frank realized he had found his next target when he looked at the map data in their phones, finding several points across the city that the agents searched for and used the map app on their phones to find.
...
Meanwhile, roaming hell's kitchen, a flaming skeleton in a motorcycle leather jacket, blue jeans, and cowboy boots, a horrifying devilish creature roamed the streets at night, leaving dozens of piles of ash behind as criminals, soldiers, and countless other sinners swarmed the crime-ridden area.
The city's crime rate was undergoing constant changes, rising and falling daily. Some days, no crimes happened at all, and others, there was a spree of crime.
The Spirit of Vengence continued his hunt.