"I want to ask, where is my brother."
Loki conjured himself a head of flashy black hair, every strand slicked back and perfectly in place.
"Your brother?"
Norman blinked.
Just then, Coulson walked over and said, "The prince from the other Asgardian, the one who owns that hammer."
Norman immediately remembered. He had indeed seen files on Thor. But right now Thor was just an ordinary man, so Norman hadn't paid much attention.
In truth, if Loki hadn't brought it up, Coulson would have almost forgotten Thor existed. He had been through far too much lately—so much that his old employer was gone. No, everything was gone. Even SHIELD's helicarrier had become the property of the Skyhammer Bureau.
"Let me check…"
Coulson flipped through the files.
Then he said, "Great. Pierce looked for him not long ago, so his file is right on top."
"Before, he was wielding a sledgehammer at a construction site. He doesn't have any real skills, just a body packed with muscle. Plenty of strength."
Hearing this, Loki let out a mocking laugh.
"That suits him perfectly."
"If you want to go find him, he's in Midtown Manhattan, and his place is… in Brooklyn."
Coulson frowned. He hadn't noticed before, but now he realized Thor actually lived in Brooklyn. While famously the home of Captain America, it was also the part of New York with the highest concentration of poor people. Thor living there was most likely because it was the cheapest place to stay.
"I'll go have a look."
This time, Loki had no intention of making trouble for these Midgardians. Especially since Norman and Coulson seemed to have a decent relationship with Bante—he absolutely couldn't afford to cause problems. But he didn't head to Brooklyn right away either.
Inside the mothership.
A black figure moved through the corridors. The figure walked brazenly through the ship's passageways and didn't bother to avoid the Skyhammer Bureau agents. Yet the agents were completely unaware.
"Too easy. They don't notice a thing."
The shadow laughed smugly to itself. Just then, another voice came through the communicator.
"Be careful. If I can't get the item brought to me…"
"Relax, I already know the location…"
"Wait—someone's coming!"
Chameleon hurriedly cut the communication. A moment later, three or four agents rounded the corner together, and he immediately disguised himself as one of them and blended in.
Once everyone had left, Loki's figure, crowned with gold horns, materialized from the illusion.
"Well, looks like I stumbled onto something extra."
Surprise showed on his face as he followed.
Half an hour later.
A knocked-out Chameleon lay in some room aboard the Skyhammer Bureau's mothership. Loki flexed his fingers, digesting the memories and intelligence he had extracted from Chameleon. Then he pulled out the communicator and contacted Bante.
After a few minutes of explanation, Bante roughly understood what had happened.
"So, Kingpin hired him to break into the Skyhammer Bureau's prison and find the Phantom Cat?"
Bante stroked his chin, thinking.
Loki said, "He had bad luck, running straight into me."
His expression was smug, eyes on Bante as if waiting for praise. But Bante tilted his head and asked, "Instead of looking for Thor, what were you wandering around the helicarrier for?"
Loki froze. He clearly hadn't expected Bante to ask that question. After a one-second pause, he stammered, "I was, uh, looking for something… Alright, I was looking for the hammer." Loki spread his hands. "I just wanted to see if I'm worthy now."
"No need to think about it. You definitely aren't."
Bante said, "The day you stop caring about worthiness might just be the day you actually become worthy."
"You sound exactly like Asgard's royal court seer." Loki scratched his head and changed the subject. "So what do we do with this guy? Kill him?"
"Let me think for a moment."
Bante said.
He recalled that the Phantom Cat was Felicia's father. Beyond that, the specifics weren't so clear. He immediately pulled up all records on the Phantom Cat from the Skyhammer Bureau's database.
Phantom Cat, real name Walter Hardy.
Naturally, that was a fake name. His true name was John Hardesky.
Strictly speaking, the Phantom Cat and Captain America were from the same era. He was born in 1930, and when Captain America became a super soldier, the Phantom Cat was only thirteen. That meant he was nearly eighty years old by now. But Felicia was only sixteen this year.
"The Phantom Cat was injected with the Super Soldier Serum, so he ages much slower than ordinary people. The serum also granted him incredible agility, which is how he became the renowned master thief known as the Phantom Cat."
He knew the serum's formula because, back when Captain America received the injection, the young Hardesky had been hired by the Nazis to gather intelligence on it. Only at the time, he had thought he was working for the United States. Once he discovered the truth, John didn't hand the formula over to the Nazis. He went into hiding with the secret, and later, the Phantom Cat was born.
But getting John Hardesky to reveal the serum formula was no easy task. SHIELD had spent years trying to capture him and still never managed to extract the complete formula. To get the formula, leaving Chameleon alive and letting him carry out Kingpin's plan might actually be simpler.
Bante wasn't planning on that, though. Because Felicia was his girlfriend.
So he nodded and said to Loki, "Kill him."
Then Bante cut the communication, ready to go have a chat with the Phantom Cat.
Hearing the order, Loki's face lit up with a grin. He glanced sideways at the unconscious Chameleon. A dagger appeared in his hand.
The SHIELD prison, now the Skyhammer Bureau prison.
The Phantom Cat had long since realized that something massive must have changed out in the world. Over this period, way too many prisoners had been brought in. Many cells were crammed full. Among these inmates were some he recognized—former SHIELD agents. Not only that, the prison guards had been replaced. The eagle emblem on their uniforms had been swapped for a hand gripping a hammer.
He really wanted to figure out what had happened, but during all this time, Nick Fury had never shown up.
"Mr. John Hardesky."
Hearing someone call his name, the now white-haired Phantom Cat lifted his head and looked outside his cell. Standing before him was a young man, not wearing any uniform at all. He looked like someone completely unrelated to SHIELD.
But how could such a person be here? And why would the guards be looking at him with admiration?
"Who are you?"
"Bante Parker. You probably haven't heard my name," Bante said.
"What do you want with me? Where's Nick Fury?" the Phantom Cat shot back.
"Nick Fury has been removed from duty. I'm here to let you out. The cells are almost full. I figure a petty thief like you doesn't need to be locked up this tightly."
Bante opened the cell door. But the Phantom Cat pressed himself against the wall and didn't immediately walk out.
"I'm not locked up here because of theft."
"I know. It's because of the serum."
Bante indicated he could come out first before they talked.
"If you know that, then why…"
Old man, obviously because I'm dating your daughter. Bante was very tempted to say exactly that, but he decided to preserve a civilized image for his future father-in-law.
"It's precisely because you know the formula that we can't keep you in a snake pit. These people…" Bante spun in a circle, pointing to most of the cells, "are all Hydra."
"What exactly is going on?"
The Phantom Cat was so startled by Bante's words that he stepped out of his cell. So Bante gave him a rough summary of the whole "Anti-Insight Plan." Only then did the Phantom Cat understand what had happened.
"Unbelievable. Fury even asked me about the serum formula, but I never told him the full contents," the Phantom Cat said.
Locked up for over a decade and suddenly released, with the world having changed so drastically, the Phantom Cat felt completely adrift. He had no idea what to do next.
"I'll give you a suggestion."
Bante said, "Go home. Spend time with Felicia. Live the rest of your life like an ordinary father."
"You know Felicia?"
The moment John Hardesky heard his daughter's name, he froze. His emotions were like a deep river—no raging waves visible on the surface, but fierce undercurrents surged beneath. Longing and guilt flooded his heart.
"Ahem, allow me to introduce myself…"
Bante coughed lightly, a bit awkward as he extended a hand toward John.
"I am, more or less, Felicia's boyfriend."
John Hardesky: ???
For some reason, John Hardesky suddenly found Bante rather unpleasant to look at.
Then Bante handed him a photo. In the picture, Felicia was holding an ice cream cone, laughing brightly under the sun. It was taken the very first time Bante and Felicia had gone out together. Back then, Felicia had insisted it was a study session, but in the end, they never even unzipped their backpacks. They just ate ice cream and cotton candy, one after another.
John Hardesky reached out with trembling hands to take the photo. In that instant, the old man's tears broke loose.
"Felicia… my daughter…"
He covered his mouth and wept, his fingers rubbing the photo over and over, as if trying to make up for the ten-plus years he had lost. But that was impossible.
"Cherish the present, Mr. Hardesky," Bante comforted him.
Hardesky wiped his tears, lifted his head, and said with a hint of anger, "You're still calling me 'mister'?"
Bante: ???
Honestly, the moment he saw his daughter's picture, all of Hardesky's displeasure with Bante vanished. The Felicia in that photo was more radiant than the sun. For him, just seeing his daughter that happy was enough.
"Let me keep this picture."
He tucked the photo away like a treasured keepsake into the pocket over his heart. Then, with a sorrowful sigh, he said, "But I can't go back to Felicia. I can't make it up to her and her mother either."
"You know yourself how huge the Super Soldier Serum formula is. Who knows how many people are desperate to get their hands on it. I'll bring danger to Felicia."
"Actually, the danger has always been there, Mr. Hardesky… uh, Uncle?"
Bante had meant to say "mister," but Hardesky shot him a stern glare. The pressure from his future father-in-law forced him to correct himself. Then it hit him—was he some kind of uncle-collecting maniac? Uncle Ben, Norman, and now another, Hardesky. Whatever. There'd probably be more in the future.
Shaking his head, he told Hardesky about Chameleon and Kingpin.
"The danger has always been around, Uncle Hardesky. I think you need to trust Felicia," Bante said. "Felicia is strong. Whatever she does, she wants to do it better than anyone."
Hearing that, Hardesky wept all over again.
When Felicia was little, he had constantly told her to strive for the best, no matter what. He never imagined that after all these years, Felicia still remembered what he had said and had been trying to live by it all along.
"So what are you suggesting?"
"I'm going to seal all your original files at a classified level, making sure no one else finds out. As for Kingpin…"
Bante's gaze turned cold.
He had tolerated Kingpin for quite a while now. At the very start, Kingpin had worked with the original Green Goblin, Stromm, sending Bullseye to kill Spider-Man. Then he caused trouble in court and, after being defeated, sent Kraven to capture him and Peter. Bante had always held back, considering that without Kingpin's iron grip, Hell's Kitchen and even the entire New York underworld would descend into even greater chaos. So he hadn't taken him out. But there was a saying: three strikes and you're out. And now Kingpin was stirring up trouble again. Bante had already made up his mind to get rid of him.
Killing Kingpin would be easy for him. When it came down to it, Kingpin was just a mortal with a little more power and influence than most—not even a real superhuman. His so-called peak human physique meant nothing in Bante's eyes. So why not let Felicia take him down with her own hands? And let her rule over Kingpin's criminal empire afterward. The only question was whether Felicia had what it took to be a queen.
"Isn't that a bit too dangerous?"
Hardesky still hesitated. He was worried his daughter would get hurt. But Bante shook his head.
"Don't worry, I'll help her."
He would never let Felicia go on an adventure alone, of course.
"You?"
Hardesky wasn't quite convinced of Bante's abilities. "What superpower do you have?"
"I am rich…"
Bante blurted out.
Then he quickly shook his head, then nodded again just as fast. "No, but actually yes. Anyway, I can handle myself in a fight."
He patted Hardesky on the shoulder like an old friend, leaving the older man momentarily stunned.
"If that's the case, then let's find a place and make the Super Soldier Serum."
Hardesky thought it over and spoke.
He was honestly tired of the life trapped in prison. If he could settle things once and for all, that would be a good thing for him too. And passing his ability, his legacy, on to his daughter was something he could completely accept.
Bante clapped his hands.
"I've got a lab."
/-\
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