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The first explosion echoed through the arcade like a thunderclap. Soon, five more blasts followed in quick succession, raining down like hell itself.
Dust and debris rained everywhere. Everyone was standing untouched, as a transparent blue shield had covered the entire arcade. The shield had cracks running across it like a spiderweb, but it held firm.
'I barely reacted in time.'
Dante felt the strain of pushing Susan Storm's resonance to its limits in his skull. Death's Resonance had tempered his mind over and over. Without that, the shield would've collapsed and turned the arcade into a graveyard.
Outside the mall, pure panic erupted. People screamed and bolted for the exits, shoving and tripping over each other. A few went down hard in the stampede, their fates unknown.
Gwen and Felicia had put on their symbiote suits right as the explosion hit. Likewise, he had switched into his Skullfire form.
Felicia's green eyes glowed fiercely. "I'm going after the fucker."
Her tendrils whipped out and carried her out of the arcade in a second. The explosion, whether targeted or random, had pissed her off.
Gwen stuck to his side. "What are you all waiting for? LEAVE."
She yelled at the arcade crowd that was frozen as if they were afraid the psionic shield would go down if they moved.". The crowd snapped out of their shock and started heading for the exits.
Damte let a force field push him up. He swept the floor above just in case. The upper level was empty, nothing but closed storefronts waiting for new tenants. No casualties there. Back in the arcade, he pushed the chunks of rubble aside with psionic force and dropped his forcefields down. The arcade had remained untouched thanks to his quick reaction.
Gwen caught up to him and took his hand, her fingers intertwining tight with him. "Are you alright?"
"I am. Go calm down the people. I'll handle the injured."
She reached out and wiped his upper lip with her thumb. "You're bleeding."
He felt the warm trickle of blood. Nothing a quick application of Biokinesis couldn't fix. "The explosion broke a few layers. It's really nothing. There are people here who need—"
"I shouldn't be saying this as a masked superhero, but you're more important to me." She took a folded handkerchief from her purse and pressed it gently to his lip. "Don't use that power to heal people even if it means…"
Although she hesitated to finish her words, the meaning couldn't be any clearer. It wasn't just affection but also a sense of responsibility towards the man who had saved her father. She didn't want him burning himself out for strangers if it cost him.
"I'm not using it." He shook his head, smiling under the mask. "Just go."
"Shooing your caring, incredibly patient girlfriend. You're a terrible man."
"I'm not going to change."
"I don't want you to."
She put the handkerchief back in her purse and fired a web toward the upper level. After one more concerned glance at him, she launched through the mall.
Dante activated Death's Resonance. Encompassing the entire mall with his senses, he saw injured people scattered across the mall. A few were on the verge of death. The explosion might not kill them, but the paranoia definitely will.
He found Gwen through the same cosmic awareness. She hung upside-down from her web, holding a comically huge megaphone in her hands.
"Attention, citizens of Manhattan!" Her voice boomed through the entire mall. "Your crime-hating, ice-cream-loving, young, bold, best-role-model-for-girls masked vigilante is here to save the day!"
The noise level in the mall dropped measurably. People who had been running found their feet slowing. The cheerfulness of the announcement cut through the panic more than the sirens did.
"I'm not alone. My boyfriend Skullfire is also here. So just stay calm, everyone!"
The remaining crowd went completely still at the mention of his name.
"Wow, you guys trust him more than me. My heart is shattered…" She zipped at the ceiling and moved back into a normal position. As normal as it could be for someone hanging from a ceiling with one thread. "Does anyone have super glue for my heart?"
"Hold on! Is Skullfire cheating on Ghost Rider?" asked a young man near a hotdog vendor. "This is spicy news."
"Who says a man can't have more than one girlfriend?" Gwen replied without any shame whatsoever. "Philosophical question. Think about it. In the meantime, stay still, everyone. Skullfire is going to treat the injured right now."
After a few moments, the people began looking around. Nobody was healed yet.
Gwen's eyes widened. She put a hand on her forehead like she was scanning the distance. "Boyfriend, any time now. Your girlfriend is out here looking delusional."
He sent a thought through his domain and a wave of restorative energy moved through the crowd. It took less than two seconds to deal with the injuries. "It's done."
There was a long moment of silence. The kind of hush that happened right before a crowd realizes something impossible just happened.
"The cut on my arm…" A woman near the escalator stared at her sleeve, flexing her fingers. "It's healed..."
"My fever," an older man muttered, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead. "I had it this morning. It's gone now… it's gone."
"Something happened to my back," a construction worker in a heavy jacket said. "It doesn't hurt anymore."
"My stomach-ache is better…"
The mall erupted in noisy chaos as people started shouting about their sudden miracles. Arguments broke out as some people claimed they had regrown lost body parts or felt twenty years younger, as though the explosion had never happened.
"Companion…" Death emerged beside him from the shadows and sighed. "You were a little generous. Everyone here will live ten or more years."
Dante winced. He might've gone a bit overboard and healed their incurable diseases, increasing their lifespan. But it would make Skullfire's popularity soar even higher, which in turn would make Emma's new merchandise business gain many new customers.
"I didn't have the time to treat them individually."
He left the situation of the mall to Gwen. She was more than capable of handling it from here. He reached out through his cosmic awareness to find Felicia. She was three blocks away, running across the side of a corporate tower in the pursuit of a black SUV tearing down the street. Two police cars followed them closely, their sirens blaring through the traffic.
She jumped off the building, swung through the air by attaching her tendrils at a traffic pole, and landed on the back of the SUV. The driver swerved wildly, trying to shake her off, which didn't affect her in the slightest. She put her hand on the roof and hung herself to the driver's window.
A shotgun blast roared straight at her face, and the symbiote suit absorbed it without any difficulty.
Felicia smashed through the window and punched the driver right in his face, knocking him unconscious. Without the driver, the car began to swerve. Felicia grabbed the steering wheel, but she didn't need to control. A pink aura enveloped the SUV and slowed it, bringing it to stop before any accidents occurred.
Jean had arrived, completely enveloped in her pink psychic aura. Telekinesis allowed her to achieve flight.
The passenger door flew open as a man rushed out and fired a 9mm at Jean's face. None of the bullets reached her, each hovering midair meters away from Jean. One by one, the bullets compressed into nothing and dropped.
"Sleep."
The middle-aged man's eyes closed. He fell backwards, slid off the hood, and sat down with his back against the SUV's front.
She walked to Felicia. "Black Cat."
"Jean—"
"Call me Phoenix." Jean tugged at her yellow mask. "I'm wearing this for a reason."
Felicia stared at her face, long enough to make Jean self-conscious. "Oh, right. I forgot Silvija gave you that name."
"..."
The police cars pulled up behind the SUV. Officers came out fast, already pointing their guns at Felicia and Jean. "NYPD. Stand down. Do not interfere with the arrest of these suspects."
Felicia looked up. "Darling, cops are bullying me."
Dante had no choice but to teleport to her side. Only he was allowed to bully his girlfriends.
Jean took half a startled step back, her hand rising slightly to push him away with telekinesis. She relaxed up when she noticed the mask. "You're here."
The officers lowered their weapons without hesitation. They knew who they could afford to mess around with, and who could mess with them.
"Can you hold on the arrest for a few minutes?" Dante asked the cop in the lead. "I need to speak with them first."
The officer unclipped his radio and relayed the circumstances back to the department.
"Hold your position," Yuri's voice came through the speaker. "Radio me if he needs anything."
Yuri had an ungodly level of trust in him. He suspected it came from two places—her own read on Gwen's character that Stacy wouldn't associate herself with an evil man and her own assessment of him so far. Whatever the reason, he was aware that quite a few regulations were being set aside on his behalf.
The cops stepped back, watching warily.
"Kitty, how did you know I was watching?"
Felicia grinned. "I had a feeling. Call it a woman's intuition."
The cat genetics were the more accurate explanation. Her instincts had been sharpening at a biological level. He wouldn't be surprised if she woke up with cat ears and a tail one of these days.
He nodded at Jean. "Good job getting here so fast."
"Thanks." She revealed an embarrassed smile. "I heard about the news and flew right away."
He patted her shoulder. "Is it true Silvija suggested the Phoenix name?"
"I went to her for advice about the codename. She said the Phoenix suits my red hair… and my rebirth following my departure from the X-Men."
Before, Silvija couldn't tell the dragon apart from the phoenix. He had gotten her interested in the mythology behind phoenixes and dragons. All of this accumulated in Jean receiving a codename she shouldn't have at this stage.
'This is such a wild coincidence.'
Felicia yanked the side door out. Dante had already seen their faces through cosmic awareness. Neither of the two men had ever met him. They could be after Felicia since her father had a rich history of pissing people off.
"Well, they seem like normal people," Felicia said, turning to him. "But I swear these two did that explosion. They have that smoky, chemical smell on them. Also… they drove recklessly when I approached."
Felicia began trying to prove she had the right people. Being associated with Silvija, she definitely knew what guns and explosives smelled like.
"Your nose is that sharp?"
She scrunched her nose. "Not always. I can improve it on command. It's like my own superpower."
Laura would definitely be superior in this regard if it wasn't for SHIELD's surgery that lowered the strength of her nose. As it was now, Felicia might be Laura's equal in the scent-tracking department.
Felicia grabbed the driver by his collar and dragged him out, setting him right next to his partner against the hood. She grabbed their heads and bashed them against each other. They Jolted awake by the pain, they gasped.
"S-S-Skullfire!"
He let his death's aura wash over them, freezing them solid in place. They could only move their wide eyes, unable to even turn their heads. "Phoenix, I'll leave the rest to you."
Jean smiled, pleased to be relied upon. This wasn't a feeling she could get working with this universe's X-Men. She extended her hand and enveloped both men in her pink aura. Her mind-reading lasted for a few seconds.
"Someone contacted them by text. Three millions upfront. Seven more on completion."
"Ten million, damn." Felicia looked at Jean and let out a whistle. "This guy is serious. Phoenix, what orders did they receive?"
Jean turned to Dante and showed a troubled look. "Follow you and blast you to smithereens."
He cut the Resonance Link and crossed his arms. Someone out there knew his identity and wanted him gone. SHIELD knew his durability better than anyone. They would go for heavier firepower, not simple explosives. Fury would only go for such a sloppy method in desperation.
Right now, Fury had no reason to be.
'I can't write off the possibility.'
He couldn't rule it out, but there were more plausible candidates. It could be some mutant hating him for making them public, someone who was obsessed with Emma and saw their recent alliance as an obstacle, someone being mind-controlled by a telepath like Xavier, crazy cult followers of Selene, or one of the High Lords.
The list could go on and on.
He had pissed off too many in his first month here.
Felicia pulled her fist back and threw a deadly punch. It hit the space between the two men, ripping a hole through the car's hood. "I'll find whoever gave the order. I promise you he'll be dead in two days."
A random arcade attack would be one thing, but a targeted attack on Dante was intolerable. Just killing them wouldn't satisfy her. She wanted to destroy whoever tried to lay their hands on him.
Dante had some qualms about leaving his enemies in the shadows. Then again, he had no choice. The cosmic awareness had too much going on to accurately find proper evidence to find the mastermind. He could ask Death, but he had to not rely on her for everything, especially after he made the bold promise of defying the multiverse and cosmic laws to give her a child.
Seeing Felicia so determined, he decided to trust her with this.
"I'll help you," Jean said. "His actions are questionable at times, but he is still my mentor."
Felicia chuckled. "Great. Your telepathy will be a big help. I'll include Gwen as well. Her detective skills are no joke."
Jean suddenly looked at something in the distance. "She is here."
He saw Gwen swing around the corner of a building. After one more long arc through the air, she landed on top of the SUV in the classic superhero pose.
Felicia crossed her arms, smirking. "Stop it. You aren't cool like that."
"I know you're joking around, but I'll say Ghost Spider is damn cool," Jean said. "Her costume is excellent. The name is perfect."
Gwen flipped back her hood and stood up straight. "You flatter me, Phoenix. Have I ever told you how much I love that name? It goes perfectly with your fiery-red hair."
"Sable said the same thing." Jean smiled honestly. "What do you think about my costume?"
Jean looked for Gwen's honest opinion, but all she got was silence. The redhead let out a depressed little sigh.
Dante patted her shoulder twice. "We'll work on it soon."
***
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