The officer focused on the screen, and when he saw the numbers displayed, the hair on his arms stood on end. Goosebumps spread quickly down his back, and his pupils contracted instantly. The screen was showing a magnitude 8.0 earthquake!
"Immediately notify everyone to evacuate!" he shouted, furiously typing on his computer to send the message out via text.
Since the earthquake had just begun, they should still have a little time to evacuate. And the location was New York! If this really was an 8.0 magnitude quake, the consequences would be unimaginable. A quake that severe was not supposed to happen here!
The Weather Bureau was in utter chaos. Everyone was frantically sending out information like they were mad.
"Sir, we've sent out the alert, what do we do now?" one of the staff members shouted urgently. Even though the alert had been sent, at the current speed the fault line was spreading, it wouldn't be long before it reached New York City. And because this was a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, at least two-thirds of New York's buildings would collapse!
"What can we do?! Immediately notify hospitals to clear out and be ready to receive casualties!" the officer's face was pale, his roar echoing through the room. He could only hope that the earthquake would be short-lived. Maybe that way more buildings would remain standing.
The reason he was notifying hospitals first was that after an earthquake, medical resources were the most needed. Although the epicenter was sixty to seventy kilometers away from New York, the aftershocks would still be at least a magnitude 7.0! And if the earthquake were to expand further, the consequences would be unthinkable.
What was even worse was that New York was a coastal city. If a tsunami were to be triggered, the death toll would skyrocket.
"Yes! I'll get that arranged right away!" The staff member scrambled back to his desk and began making calls. There wasn't much they could do right now. The best they could do was get the message out to as many people as possible. He could already imagine how terrifying the aftermath would be.
The alarms blared over New York City. People on the street noticed that everyone's phones vibrated at the same time. Their eyes widened, and their faces were filled with confusion.
"What's going on? Why did the alarm suddenly go off?"
"Hey, I think I got a message on my phone."
"Something must have happened, right? That alarm sounds so urgent!"
"No way, what could possibly happen?!"
They took out their phones in confusion, and the moment they saw the message, fear spread through their hearts. They never expected that there would be an earthquake! Although the earthquake hadn't spread that far yet, New York citizens were already beginning to feel a slight tremor.
"Ahhh! It's an earthquake, run!"
"I got the text message, it says it'll reach us soon!"
"We're doomed, this is an 8.0 magnitude earthquake, there's not even enough time to run down the stairs!"
"Even if we run down, we can't escape with so many tall buildings everywhere!"
Mixed with the terrifying alarms, people ran down the stairs like they were mad. They ran faster than they ever had in their lives. The moment they received the message, they had already felt a slight tremor. This meant that even though the earthquake hadn't reached them yet, it was already having an effect!
Not far away, on the coast, a fisherman sat in his expensive chair, his head down, nonchalantly tying a hook. After putting the bait on, he casually cast his line into the water. As a frequent 'air force' member (a term for someone who always fails to catch anything), he was used to his bait being eaten after he cast the line. Just as he was about to check his fishing float, he felt the ground begin to shake, and he frowned slightly.
"An earthquake?" He looked up, and the sea water was quickly receding. Even his fishing float landed on the rocks. "What's going on?" He frowned, pushing up the brim of his sun hat. But when he saw the scene in the distance, the fishing rod in his hand fell to the rocks.
A few seconds later, with another tremor, he saw dozens of-meter-high waves begin to surge in the distance. He stood there, dumbfounded.
"Fuck! Fuck! I'm gonna die!" He didn't even have time to grab his expensive gear and scrambled toward his car. If a wave that big hit him, he'd be dead for sure!
Meanwhile, inside the Avengers Compound.
Bang!
Tony stood up and slammed the table, looking at Steve with rage. "Steve! Sam saw you let Bucky go with his own eyes!" He paced back and forth, his eyes filled with anger. He never expected Steve to let Bucky go!
Steve took a deep breath, his chest puffed out, and looked Tony in the eye with a determined expression. "Bucky didn't do it on purpose, he was being controlled!" He knew Bucky didn't do it on purpose. He had just fallen into someone else's trap. And he had already asked Bucky, and he wasn't even there at the time!
"So what?" Tony's teeth were grinding. "Is that your excuse? So you didn't catch him?" He never expected that Steve would do something like this for his own selfish reasons.
"Calm down!" Steve's voice also had a hint of displeasure. "What we need to do is catch the real culprit, not hold on to Bucky!"
He didn't want to see his friend being wrongly accused like this, and he firmly believed that only by catching the real culprit could they solve this problem. What's more, the other party's goal was definitely not so simple.
"Heh!" Tony laughed in anger, leaning on the table with his hands, his voice low as he reprimanded. "So how are we supposed to explain this to Wakanda, and to Ross?!"
Regardless of whether the other party was the real culprit, what they needed to do was bring him back first and then interrogate him. Not do something so outrageous for their own selfish reasons!
This didn't take into account the Avengers' current position at all. Ross and Wakanda had been pressuring them, and he was about to suffocate! They weren't thinking about the future, they were only thinking about what was right in front of them.
"We're not working for them, why should we have to explain anything to them?" Steve looked at Tony, his brows furrowed deeply. They were supposed to be an independent organization, but they were acting as if they were working for others.
"You're so naive! How can you be so naive at your age?!" The anger that Tony had been holding in had nowhere to go. Steve was simply not thinking about the future. They were an independent organization, but that didn't mean they could completely ignore the government. If there were no restrictions, did that mean they could do whatever they wanted from now on?!
The other Avengers were either standing or sitting, their expressions complex as they watched the two of them argue silently. Everyone had different thoughts. Watching them argue non-stop, they also had no way to intervene. Otherwise, it would turn into a chaotic argument.
Wanda sat in a chair in the corner of the office, her eyes growing more and more impatient. In her opinion, the most important thing right now was to find Bucky. Without finding Bucky, neither side could move forward.
Hummm...
A crimson glow was already swirling around her hands. She was ready to stop the two of them from arguing. Suddenly, the entire building began to shake slightly.
"What's going on?" Steve stood with his feet slightly apart to steady himself. He hadn't experienced an earthquake in years.
[Boss! We've detected a major earthquake, and the magnetic field is in chaos. The epicenter of the earthquake is spreading toward the ocean!] Friday immediately notified everyone in the office of the news.
"A major earthquake?" Tony was stunned, then his expression became serious. "Send me the data on the earthquake!"
If a major earthquake really happened in New York, the consequences would be unimaginable. The next moment, a blue hologram appeared in front of everyone.
[8.0 magnitude earthquake, rapidly spreading toward the ocean. Current location's tremor is 4.6, and New York City's aftershocks are 3.6.]
Tony's eyes widened when he saw the map data. The earthquake was very strange because it wasn't spreading in all directions, but directly toward the ocean. It was as if it was deliberately avoiding New York, and only some distant aftershocks were reaching the city. If it weren't for this, New York would already be a ruin. And this earthquake was too strange, completely beyond his understanding.
"What on earth is going on? This earthquake isn't right!"
"How can an earthquake's tremor direction be controllable!"
"And didn't you guys notice? It seems to be deliberately avoiding uninhabited areas!"
"This is just too terrifying, what on earth is happening?!"
Everyone's faces became especially serious. They could only define this earthquake as a different kind of fault line. For some reason, only the aftershocks were transmitted. And at that moment, the shaking stopped. The entire process lasted less than ten seconds!
Everyone felt a sense of relief after the earthquake stopped. Because it was just too terrifying, even a slight shake made them feel the horror of an earthquake.
Only Wanda noticed something was off.
The location of the epicenter was very familiar; it was where Cassius's house was.
Could it be that Cassius caused it?
The thought just flashed through her mind. But it was impossible. This was an earthquake! And from the point of origin, the earthquake had spread for sixty to seventy kilometers. This was something no human could control!
Back at the mansion.
Looking out, other than the villa behind them, everything in front of them had changed in a terrifying way.
All the land had been churned up, and the decorations in the courtyard had been swallowed by the ground. The trees were all leaning over, and the ground was uneven and bumpy. It was as if everything had been torn apart from the ground with brute force.
Some trees had even been sucked into the constantly shifting cracks. Some decorations and trees were half-buried in the soil.
"Is this... real power?" The young girl stared blankly at what was happening in front of her, unconsciously swallowing her saliva. She had never thought she could have such a powerful ability.
This power was like a natural disaster. In just a few seconds, everything in front of her had undergone a huge change. And this power felt like it could destroy the world.
She was sure that if this man in front of her wanted to, he could easily destroy an entire city. He could even use this power to make a city disappear underground.
What's more, this had only lasted for a few seconds. She even noticed that Cassius's expression hadn't changed at all while he was doing all this. It was as if he had just done something insignificant, and he hadn't even bothered to raise an eyebrow.
"This is just the surface-level of Magnetic Field Control." Cassius waved his hand, his voice calm.
Although he felt a little unsatisfied, he also knew that he couldn't continue using this power. He had deliberately controlled the direction of the power. Otherwise, just the aftershocks would have been enough to cause a huge problem for New York City. Although he wasn't a good person, he didn't have any desire to destroy a city.
He had to admit that this power was terrifying. If he had really unleashed it, he could have controlled the seawater to swallow the entire city.
This was the power of the magnetic field. Therefore, using magnetic force was just the most basic way to control it. It was just that Lorna didn't know this. The power of steel was limited, after all. But the magnetic field could change many things, and that was the ability Lorna needed to learn.
"This is... amazing!" The girl was completely stunned. Her voice was stuttering. If she could also be that powerful, no one would ever be able to bully her again. And those despicable devils would be no match for her!
She had thought she would live like this forever, but Cassius had opened a brand new door for her. That Magnetic Field Control could be used like this completely changed her worldview. Her life was changed in this very moment. Cassius would never have imagined how terrifying this girl would become in the future.
"So don't underestimate yourself, you're very powerful!" Cassius said gently, ruffling the hair of the Lorna next to him.
Sometimes, a single sentence from someone could change a person's life. Those so-called lab staff? They didn't even have this power themselves, so how could they know how terrifying it was? They even called it magnetic force? That was a huge joke.
"So I can also become like this in the future?" Lorna grabbed Cassius's sleeve with an excited expression, her bright eyes wide. When Cassius demonstrated his power, she already understood how to use this power. That meant that she would soon be able to do the same thing.
"No," Cassius raised his index finger and shook it gently in front of Lorna. His eyes were serious.
"Huh?" Lorna's excited expression instantly fell. She had thought that she also had such a powerful ability, but it seemed she didn't. It seemed there was still a huge gap between her and Mr. Cassius.
But at that moment, Cassius continued. "You can't just use this power casually. Unless I'm here, otherwise... you'd have to fix the lawn yourself."
"Fix the lawn?" Lorna was stunned at first, then she understood what Cassius meant. It wasn't that she couldn't do it, but the problem of cleaning up afterward. But she looked at the ruined landscape and pouted. It seemed that it would cost a lot of money to fix all of this. The cracks were so long that she couldn't even see the end of them.
Cassius smiled and waved his hand. A dark red glow suddenly appeared. It was like a wave, quickly spreading into the distance.
It was as if time was rewinding on the cracked ground. Everything began to reverse. The things that had been buried underground returned to their original positions. And after the dark red glow passed over them, the cracks slowly healed, and green grass began to grow again.
The scene was calm and peaceful, as if nothing had ever happened.
Lorna stared in shock at the man in front of her. This man was not only mysterious, but also incredibly powerful!
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