Frank was the quintessential "man of few words and violent actions." Naturally, he didn't share Jessica's many reservations. Since Wald refused to surrender, Frank simply raised his blade and slashed forward.
Seeing Frank charge at him with a sword strike, appearing completely indifferent to his life or death, Wald panicked. He hurriedly used the Magma Memory to transform into a Dopant to block the blow.
"You really want to kill me?!" Wald roared at Frank, feeling a lingering fear.
Frank struck Wald with another slash and replied coldly, "You're not dead yet, are you?"
Knocked to the ground by the force of the strike, Wald became exasperated: "If I hadn't transformed in time, I would have been killed by your sword just now!"
Frank snorted with disdain. "From the moment you decided to rely on the power of a Gaia Memory to take others' lives at will, you should have been mentally prepared to be killed by someone else."
As he spoke, his right hand twisted the handle of his driver. The Accel Memory glowed red, and the driver emitted the roar of an engine.
"ACCEL"
"MAXIMUM DRIVE"
Wald had already fought a major battle with Frank earlier, followed by a frantic bombardment from Jessica that had left him heavily wounded. Though he had transformed again with the Magma Memory, he was now at the end of his rope.
Moreover, having just taken two more slashes from Frank, his condition worsened. He could only watch helplessly as Frank leaped into the air and delivered a flying kick toward him.
As Frank's Rider Kick landed a direct hit, a large "A" energy mark appeared on Wald's body, causing him to stiffen. Then, his body erupted in a burst of fire as the Magma Memory was ejected, hitting the ground and shattering into pieces.
Wald collapsed onto the ground, staring at the broken and ruined Magma Memory with eyes full of resentment.
"Mr. Punisher, since the Gaia Memory has been destroyed and Mr. Wald has lost his capacity to cause damage, he should be handed over to the police," Jessica said as she flew down and landed in front of Frank.
She was primarily worried that Frank might kill Wald with a casual swing of his sword. Given the Punisher's style of operating, that was a very real possibility.
Frank glanced at the injured Luke Cage nearby, lowered his Engine Blade, and looked at Jessica. "Jessica Jones?"
Although Frank hadn't had much contact with Jessica and Luke, he had kept an eye on them. Since both clearly possessed superhuman abilities, he had naturally sought out additional information on them.
Jessica didn't deny it; she nodded and deactivated her transformation.
Frank locked his gaze on the Clay Doll Memory in Jessica's hand and asked in a serious tone, "Where did the Gaia Memory in your hand come from?"
Even as he asked, Frank already had a guess. Seeing the Earth Driver on Jessica's waist—which functioned differently from how other Dopants used their Memories but was quite similar to his own—his suspicions grew.
Furthermore, Jessica's background was clear; she was unlikely to be involved with the organization selling Gaia Memories. It was highly probable that her equipment came from the same person who called himself "Eternal" and had given him his own Memory and Driver.
Just as Jessica was about to answer, Wald suddenly began to laugh maniacally behind them. "Don't think that just because you beat me, it's over! Someone else will come for that guy Tony Stark. Stark won't have a good end!"
A sharp glint flashed in Frank's eyes. This man has accomplices? Could he be connected to the Gaia Memory distribution ring?
Just as he was about to interrogate Wald further, the ground beneath their feet suddenly began to tremble.
"An earthquake?" Jessica asked, startled and uncertain.
Frank, however, stayed on high alert, using the Rider armor's detection systems to scan the ground for abnormalities.
Suddenly, the area where Jessica was standing collapsed into a sinkhole. Startled, she immediately flew into the air, clutching her Clay Doll Memory and observing the pitch-black hole that had suddenly appeared.
Frank also scanned the hole. However, nothing emerged from it. Instead, the ground directly beneath Wald shattered like a surging wave, instantly swallowing the prone man into the earth.
It happened so fast that both Jessica and Frank were distracted and couldn't react in time. They only heard a single scream from Wald before he was engulfed by soil and rubble.
"Not good." Frank immediately rushed forward to check the situation.
However, he could only pull Wald's mangled body from the debris. Once the Magma Memory was destroyed, Wald was just an ordinary human. Crushed by concrete and rubble, his flesh-and-blood body stood no chance of survival.
"Silencing him?!" Frank's face darkened as he looked at Wald's corpse.
Jessica landed beside him. Seeing Wald's gruesome state, a look of pity appeared on her face.
"Even though some unknown culprit managed to silence him right in front of us, they also left behind a massive flaw," Frank said thoughtfully to Jessica. "The fact that they were so desperate to kill him only proves that Wald would have eventually led us to them."
Jessica's eyes lit up. "You mean we can start by looking into Mr. Wald's recent activities and history to find the killer?"
Frank nodded and added, "And their target: Tony Stark."
He then glanced at Luke Cage. "But first, you should take him back to recover from his injuries."
Jessica nodded. After helping Luke up, she turned to Frank. "Mr. Punisher, perhaps we should exchange contact information? We can notify you if we find any useful information."
Frank was silent for a moment before nodding and giving Jessica a phone number.
"Wald was silenced by his accomplices, and someone else will continue to come after me?" Tony asked with surprise after learning the details of Wald's death from Nick Fury.
"Correct," Nick replied with a firm tone. "So you need to be mentally prepared and stay on your guard. It's best if you think about who might want to target you; it might help us narrow down the suspect. This Wald guy held a grudge against you and Stark Industries because his life went downhill after you closed the weapons manufacturing division."
Hearing this, Tony raised an eyebrow. "If we're going by that logic, I've offended way too many people. I've honestly lost count."
Nick's mouth twitched. That answer was... not at all surprising.
However, Wald's logic was indeed excessively paranoid. Was it because of the negative influence of the Gaia Memory? Nick Fury couldn't help but recall the experimental Gaia Memory trials at S.H.I.E.L.D. that had resulted in an accidental rampage.
"Regardless of who it is, if they want to cause me trouble, let them come! I'll use the Iron Man suit to show them who's boss!" Tony said, sounding quite annoyed.
They really thought he was a pushover? He was Tony Stark, Iron Man—he had never been afraid of guys like these.
(End of Chapter)