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***
While we were flying back to the city, I managed to contact a few people.
The plan was to build a school from scratch, which meant a whole bunch of problems. From having an architectural design, to finding a construction crew. But that was the problem, that it was impossible to entrust it to just anyone. After all, the school was going to be a very special place. I needed not only a dormitory, a building for lessons, and a gymnasium. I needed laboratories of all kinds, shelters capable of surviving a small nuclear strike, several emergency escape routes, and as an appetiser, a hangar for an aeroplane and a round room for Cerebro! No, but what if!?
Obviously, the fewer people who know the exact layout of everything I want to cram in here, the better. But where do I find those people?
Unfortunately, Felicia couldn't help me. She's never been involved in secret construction, and she couldn't possibly know the intricacies of such a thing. Then I began to think about who among my acquaintances has such experience. For some reason, Stark was one of the last things that came to mind. It was only recently that I had visited one of his semi-secret laboratories. But, nevertheless, a simple associative chain of literally two links Stark-building, until the last did not want to create in my brain.
Having called Tony, I briefly outlined to him what I was planning, and actually asked him if he could help at least with advice. He was a little surprised at the speed at which I was finding problems on my own head. He whined about the fact that he hadn't sorted out my previous problem yet, and that I was giving him another one, and he still had his own things to do. But, nevertheless, almost immediately began to help. The first issue with the construction plan was solved quite simply. It turns out that Jarvis, his personal AI, had made up a dozen or even two such projects, and so far not a single building built according to his drawings had fallen apart.
Construction was a bit more complicated. Stark preferred to pay for the services of several trusted construction companies. The more of them, the better. Each such team was engaged in its own part of the work, without having at its disposal a common construction plan. Lately, Stark has also been using hand-built robots. Robotic platforms. Of course, they couldn't do the whole range of work due to their imperfection, but at least that's the way it is.
The mechanical workers aroused some interest in me. It's hard to trust people, as well as some robots, but the latter I can simply erase the memory. If I were a telepath, I wouldn't have any trust issues at all! You know, three people's memories. You don't even have to pay a salary! I envy Xavier, Frost and the rest of the mind-wipers.
Anyway, I asked Tony to put Jarvis in charge of the school project.
Back in town, I sent Uncle Ben home. I couldn't leave Petra unattended. Kurt couldn't play with her all day. He confirmed to the agency his willingness to buy the land in question, leaving the official stuff to Felicia.
Contacted his aunt and made sure she was okay. According to her, Kayden and Miss Palmer had undergone medical examinations and had been advised by specialists. Laura and Tatiana, on second thoughts, had to decline. But all of the fair sex had received a full range of relaxation and anti-stress procedures. Well, there manicure, pedicure, chocolate baths, etc. Aunt Mei also did not deny herself the pleasure. Now, she said, she was finishing checking the girls into the hotel. A whole floor with its own lift had been rented for them. They can stay there for now, and then we'll see. When I'm done with that Zebra Daddy, they'll be able to go to all four corners of the world. Maybe the school project can be postponed.
Eh! Why do I get the feeling it's not going to be that easy?
The rest of the day into the evening was also quite fruitful. Online conferencing with Stark and Doc Ock. We had a ton of topics to talk about, and an equally handful of projects that were essentially in the final stages of development. As a result, we were productive and it felt like we did a month's worth of work in one sitting, even though that wasn't the case. As an example, we finished all the work on Iron Man's Mark II suit, even the teleporter we managed to stuff in there. Now all that's left is to assemble it and test it. Also were ready projects of Iron Spider suits 'Mary III' and 'Richard I'. These were two fundamentally different types of suits.
'Mary' is basically the type of suit I use now. Its main distinguishing feature and major plus is that it's lightweight. It's basically the same tights from the original, but just a different colouring. The tech gadgets in it are extra modules that I've collected over the course of my superhero career, like web shooters, holographs, tasers, and the rest. 'The Mary III, on the other hand, is the latest model of the costume. Its peculiarity - it is first of all factory assembled, and not the homemade crafts, which I riveted myself. Also new are a new and improved fabric, a teleporter, and Stark's signature little reactor, which will now power all the electronics.
'Richard' is a, heavy duty type of suit. Massive armour, much larger, and more solid than the 'Mark II'. Emphasis is placed on protection, power, and weaponry. In such armour you can't ride a spider's web, and my favourite dexterity will have to be forgotten. But you can fly in the suit. Of course, I can't go up against the Hulk in this suit, but I think I'll be able to take on less formidable opponents.
We've also developed so-called 'disposable' teleporters. We planned to give them to relatives, close friends, and people whose fate we cared about. It's hard to overestimate the usefulness of such a device... and its value. Not in material terms, but purely technological. That's why it's disposable. After the first use, it completely fails. There's no way to repair it, fix it or understand its structure.
There were other interesting things, the work on which we either completely or partially finished.
True, towards the end of the day, it was just the two of us and Doc Ock working together. Tony, having instructed Jarvis to put the costumes together, had gone off to some party. Either he wanted to hit on Potts or he just couldn't stand it until he got a new 'toy.' He would almost jump up and down with the urge to try out the 'Mark' of the second one.
Soon I also excused myself. Leaving Octavius engrossed in his work.
It was getting dark outside, which meant it was time for my alter ego to emerge under the moonlight.
Zebra Daddy ran his own nightclub. It wasn't hard to get in. Generally, only people with a healthy paranoia pay proper attention to guarding the roof of their bases. Daddy wasn't that kind of guy. There wasn't even the most basic alarm system here, let alone such a luxury as a video camera.
There weren't many people inside yet, though a small queue had already piled up at the entrance. The club was cheap, and didn't boast a fancy interior or even cute pjs. The place looked more like a converted hangar, a wide and long building with metal pillars and narrow and small windows, where a dozen sofas, chairs and tables were simply arranged.
Pops was there, sitting in the corner, dabbling in drugs. Purple trousers, yellow shirt open, white T-shirt underneath. Well-defined cheekbones, wide nose. Brown long hair, and a high forehead. Almost all of his fingers are adorned with massive rings.
Two dark-skinned bodyguards. They look imposing, tall and pumped up. They wear suits, ties, and even have a special earpiece in their ears. Another African-American sits bored looking, next to Pops. Unlike the other two, this one doesn't seem to be a security guard. Dressed simply: jeans, T-shirt, and a windbreaker on top. Some guy he knows? I don't know. Laura didn't mention him, anyway.
There were a couple of guards at the entrance to the club, but they didn't have any weapons compared to Pops' personal security detail. At least not firearms. So they weren't dangerous.
After slightly changing the settings of the spiderwebs, and rearranging the cartridges, I decided to act. Climbing out of my improvised hiding place, I leapt to the floor. No one thought to interrupt my calm and leisurely journey to the corner where Papa Zebra was holed up. Most of those present were either stoned or in the middle of it. Those who were a little more attentive, hurriedly left their tables, and, rounding me, went towards the back entrance. I did not interfere with them, let them run.
It was only near Papa's table that his guards reacted, but before that I should give them credit for seeing me off with a wary look. One of the guys moved out to meet me, blocking my way. The other, on the other hand, pulled back a little and unclipped his holster. Does he think he can draw his gun and fire at me in time? And even hit me?
Naive.
I raise my arms cowboy-style. In that split second, the only thing the guys did was barely dilate their pupils. Obviously, you can't count that reflex reaction as their own achievement. A web shoots out from around their wrists. But not a normal one. This one unfolded abruptly in flight, turning into a veritable spider web. The bodyguards, tied at the arms and legs, fell to the floor, like dolls.
The disadvantage of this technique is that the web is very thin, it is enough only to swaddle an ordinary person. But the stronger ones can tear it. But it's cheap and cheaper, in the sense of fast and effective.
Having shot the web several more times, clinging it to walls and columns, safely blocked the passages to our table. Now no fist-waggers would come.
I looked at Zebra and his neighbour with some doubt. I don't think I'll swaddle them. They had no weapons, apart from a small knife lying on the table, stained with white powder. There was a bigger problem. The guys didn't look surprised at all. Either they had nerves of steel, or the drugs had dulled their critical thinking. Somehow I'm leaning more towards the latter. If that's the case, is there any point in discussing anything with this pimp? Does he realise reality, or is he out there in a better world somewhere catching striped ponies by the tail?
- Hey-hey! Look who's visiting the humble me! A superhero! Our friendly neighbour, Spider-Man!
- Oh, do they know me here? - Well, if you do, all is not lost, so maybe we should try and talk.
- Considering how much of our honest brother you've transplanted? - Pops curved his lips in a grin. - Yeah, there's been some talk about you.
- Not very favourable, apparently?
- Well, to some, to others. - The man relaxed on the back of the sofa, his neighbour continued to stare into the void with a completely indifferent look. - So what brings the Weaver to my happy place?
- Complaints. The neighbours say it's noisy here. Tired people can't sleep at night, they have to take sleeping pills, and it's bad for their health. The sanitary situation is still terrible, the food in the kitchen is of poor quality. I also heard that the bosses oppress the staff. The girls especially.
- These are all rumours. More than that, it's a disgusting lie, a slander.
- So why did you go after your ex-girlfriend, huh?
Now Pops has picked up, having got off the back of the sofa, he stared at me with a frown.
- The joint's on her. - he hissed. - A big one.
- Wrong. - I shook my head. - If you'd shown a little interest, you could have asked the cops for the details of that case. You'd know there's no other prints on that knife but that client's.
- I'm dealing with the cops?! - He got excited, but then he seemed to realise. - Wait, you're telling me that guy slit his own wrists?
- Bingo!
- If that's the case, why'd she run?!
- Hmm, what do you think? You can assume she quit of her own accord. So here's the deal, you stop your blokes, and the hunt itself. You forget about the girl and her friends, and we go our separate ways like ships at sea. Okay?
- What? No, Tkach is not okay. She owes me anyway. She left without notice, and more importantly, she didn't work for a fortnight, as per her contract, yeah. So tell my baby that her daddy's waiting for her.
- I was hoping you'd say something like that.
- Ha-ha! What's next? You gonna wrap me in a spider web and take me to the station? Or are you gonna call the cops here?
- I'm thinking the latter. There's more evidence to haul you around.
- Dude, you're so full of shit! You really don't know what you're talking about, do you? I'll be out by the second day, if not in a couple of hours!
- You can always find an honest cop. I got a whole book of them.
- Ha-ha! For every honest cop, I'll find two corrupt judges, not to mention heaven's gift of a jury.
- You know. - I'm relieved. - I was really hoping you'd say something like that.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're not just gonna kill me, are you? You heroes can't do that!
- You're the right kind of superheroes. I'm not.
- If that's the case, Bandit, do me a favour.
The African-American sitting next to Zebra didn't even look at me. Everything happened instantly, and even though I pointed my hands towards my opponents, even if I had time to release the net, it wouldn't have made any difference. This man with a strange nickname didn't attack me with a physical method. It was telepathy.
- 'Chief! We're under attack!' - Cee exclaimed cheerfully for some reason.
She was actually proving to be a surprisingly silent housemate in my head. I didn't hear a clear message from her very often. Perhaps part of the reason was that our communication was not like that of two people. In the sense that we needed almost no words.
- 'I've noticed!' - I muttered irritably, hastily reinforcing my defences and building new mind barriers. - 'Only it's kind of weird...'
After a few moments, C exclaimed in surprise.
- 'Chief, he's not messing with our minds! He's just taking over a derelict body!'
Oh shit! Indeed!
While we, paired with Cee, were cocooning our minds, in a shell like walnuts crossed with cabbage, this guy preferred to take possession of an abandoned body! Now there was a comparison to be made. The Bandit's manipulations, were not unlike those of Emma Frost on her part. The girl worked remotely, and her mind had been sucked into my head almost by accident. The dark-skinned man, on the contrary, seemed to have left his body completely. Now I could see why it had piled up on the dope table.
I didn't have time to do anything and somehow reclaim my rightful property again.
My hands came up, tentatively, slowly, but slowly. My palms closed around his neck. Ha, how banal, and damned effective! But close, not in time. At the edge of my blurred vision, I saw a vague silhouette looming over Bandit's body. It was that cop, Papa Kayden. Well, or rather his soul. He looked right at me, curved his blood-stained lips slightly, and dove into the body of Papa Zebra's handmaiden.
This was obviously seen by Bandit himself, as he was now using my eyes. Realising that he had made a mistake by leaving his body, the guy frantically rushed back. But it was too late. The telepath's body twitched, rose sharply from the table, grabbed a knife from it, and put it into the throat of Papa Zebra, who had no time to realise anything.
The Bandit's mind, or maybe even soul, left my body. Almost immediately afterwards, the ghost of Kayden's father also left his shell. Dissolving into the air, rapidly losing his shape, he still managed to say a few words to me that stirred me more than the murder that had just taken place.
For a long minute we seemed to stand still. Me, trying to come to my senses. The bandit, staring blankly at the bloody knife clutched in his hand. And Daddy Zebra, unsuccessfully covering the cut wound on his neck. With the intensity with which the blood was gushing out, it was obvious that Daddy was already dead. Even if the ambulance crew were here right now, there was nothing the paramedics could do to help him.
I was out of it pretty fast.
Bandit didn't show any signs of aggression or anything. But he's gonna come round soon. I wouldn't want to be near him at that moment. What if he uses his powers again?
Breaking the window, I quickly jumped out into the street.
There were no CCTV cameras in the drug den, of course. The cops were also unlikely to be called. But even if they did, by the time they got there, my web would be gone. There's no direct evidence that I had anything to do with this murky business. Yeah, yeah, I don't think anyone's gonna take the testimony of anyone in the club seriously. And the fact that rumours will spread... Well, in the criminal environment about me even worse tales are told! One more won't change anything. Besides, I just came to talk to you, and I didn't kill Zebra.
Sadly, the Bandit will probably be killed by his own people. Unless he has the ability to subdue more than one person at a time. Which I personally highly doubt. Bandit's a lot weaker than Frost, I can tell you that.
To be honest, I didn't really care that much. More important was what the ghost had said to me before he disappeared. To an outsider, those words would have meant nothing, but to me....
Father Cayden dictated an address. Just the address of the hospital where a young woman had been kept at my expense for a long time. Her older sister had once made me promise to take care of her.
If the ghost gave me that address, and even told me the room number, then he must know the connection between me and that girl. If that's the case, then I'm invited to a meeting.
I got to the hospital with all the speed I could muster, and as a result I was there in about fifteen or twenty minutes. At this time of day, only the staff on duty were present at the hospital. This allowed me to avoid unnecessary witnesses. On the floor I needed, the nurse was sleeping peacefully.
- Hey. - The ghost appeared as soon as I approached the large panoramic window that allowed me to see the girl's room.
- I've seen you before. - I grumble grimly.
We're standing.
We're not talking.
Neither of us seems to know what to say.
- I think I should tell you the whole story from the beginning. - After a while, Cayden's dad finally speaks up. - My whole story.
- Hmm...
- Why you? - The ghost masterfully guessed my unspoken question. - You see. My daughter's probably not going back to her mother or her brothers. She's a lot like me, so I know what I'm talking about. Cayden will either stay on the streets or--
- Or I take care of her, right?
- Well, I've been following you, and I know about this school. You're serious about this.
- What makes you think she's gonna come to my school and not go back to the street? She seems a little too used to freedom to me.
- The other girls, I think, would agree to be the first students. - he said thoughtfully. - Tatiana has nowhere else to go. And I just... I hope my daughter will prefer the street, her friends. I've done everything I can to make that happen.
- Is that why you brought them all together? So they could bond?
- I had a lot of time to make a plan. Lots of plans, lots of plans. - smiled the ghost. - Anyway, I have a favour to ask. When Kayden gets a little older, can you tell her everything? Tell her my story? I just don't have anyone else to turn to...
- You got it. - heavy sigh.
- Thank you. Ahem... it all started when I died. Shot by a thug right in front of my daughter. It hurt like hell. Dying. It's hard for me to describe what it was like. Anyway, no white tunnels or anything like that. Just at one point, too much blood out of my system, I started to dissolve, disappear. It's scary, believe me, gradually forgetting your whole life. From the very beginning, from childhood, adolescence, to graduation, to getting a job, to getting married, to having children. All my memories faded away, I stopped remembering who I was. And after a while, I think I even forgot I was human.
Then...
Then there was only pain. Constant, terrible pain. It's still with me now, never letting go. As you can see, the bullet wounds are still with me.
I don't remember when I became like this. An invisible ghost, wandering aimlessly around the city. I don't know how it happened or why it happened, what made me remember. But the memories kept coming back. In bits and pieces, out of order. I remembered faces, names, sometimes whole days of my life. I didn't have a good sense of time, but I think it took at least a year. When I started to become more or less aware of myself, to think in normal categories, a terrible realisation came. I was getting weaker, dying repeatedly. The last bits of energy that fuelled my pseudo existence were disappearing.
I didn't want to disappear again. Losing myself... that's scary. I didn't want that feeling to happen again. So I started looking for a way to prolong my existence. I tried everything! I even put my fingers in the socket. But it was useless, I couldn't influence the material world, and it ignored me. In a mad attempt, I tried to inhabit someone else's body. You know, I almost succeeded. A young pregnant girl, she became my receptacle. Or rather an incubator, because I took a place near the foetus. It was beautiful. I could easily, on an intuitive level, sort of suckle on her. The energy intoxicated me. I drank and drank, absorbing everything it had to give me. I only woke up when the girl was taken to the hospital. She'd almost lost the baby, and she looked like a corpse. It got me thinking. I didn't want to become a killer. When you're half a step away from the afterlife, it would be foolish to take on unnecessary sins.
Besides, it made me think that girl was someone's daughter. It made me think of my family. When I went home, I saw that my family had changed a lot. The younger twins had grown a lot, my wife... she was holding on, but she was having a hard time. The older kids were the most worrisome. The son was running around with petty criminals, the daughter had dropped out of school. It broke my heart. Seeing how much they needed their father, it made me crazy not to be able to help them, even with advice.
Staying by their side was beyond me. I tried to get as far away from them as possible. That's when I met him. The man who killed me. The man who took more than my life from me. Took my family from me. He went from being a small-time, albeit armed, criminal to a small-time gang boss, calling himself Zebra. That's how I got my purpose. I realised I couldn't leave until I took him with me.
But how to do that without being able to influence the material world, I had no idea. And the lack of energy was still a problem. At first, I even tried to repeat my trick of possession. There was hope that I could take someone's body under my control. But the second attempt, like the third and the next few... they failed. Perhaps the will of those people was too strong, and I simply couldn't defeat them on their own field.
That's when I got the idea to take over a sick person. Yes, that's low. But at that moment I was driven by hatred, and I almost forgot about my humanity. I was prevented from falling into madness by chance. In the first hospital I visited, there was an old man. He was hooked up to a ventilator. But that's not the point. I could feel, I don't know how, but I knew for sure that he was already dead. His soul had left his body, just a body, an empty shell. His relatives wouldn't let him go. Suddenly, I found a way to prolong my conscience in a more or less acceptable way.
- Did you use her, too? - I interrupt the ghost's protracted monologue and nod at the girl.
- No.' He shakes his head. - Do you know how many old people in this hospital have Alzheimer's? Severe Alzheimer's? Even more in the city! I don't need that many. Anyway, I try not to touch the kids... even when they're like this.
- Okay, but how did you know about the connection between me and this girl?
- In my position, it's very difficult to read books. - smiled bitterly at the ghost. - I can still watch TV, but I can't change channels either. It's very depressing. Boredom has become my eternal companion, along with pain. That's why in the moments when I wasn't busy making plans, I tried to do something to keep myself busy. I've somehow learnt to read the memories of the people I inhabit. Believe it or not, I can tell you the life story of every patient in this hospital.
This girl, Dora, I've also known for a long time. I've even been lucky enough to develop a kind of rapport with her. Despite her illness, the name of which I can't pronounce, there's a little bit of intelligence in the girl. A mind twisted by loneliness, lack of education, upbringing, and all the rest. One day I noticed her condition was worsening. It was strange. After all, she was relatively stable. The doctors were also throwing up their hands and didn't know what was going on. A little later, I noticed that her sister stopped visiting her. But you turned up a few times, not wearing a suit, though.
- So you don't know what happened to her sister? - I ask warily.
- She's dead, I think she was shot. But what does that have to do with you?
- One way or another. - I smile grimly, not even a ghost should know about the skeletons in my wardrobe. - So what happened next?
- Hmmm... okay, well. Like I said, I made a bunch of the craziest plans. Somehow I got lucky. This guy, Bandit, that I took advantage of. He used to have a little brother who was sick too. Bandit used to bring him here for checkups. Satisfying my curiosity, I learnt about the older brother's miraculous powers. When he left his body, I could easily capture him. I had a marvellous, capable, and most importantly, controllable body in my possession.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! There's something I'm not adding. Controllable?
- Well, yes. I had complete control over it, unlike the bodies of all the other people I inhabited. All I could do was suck the energy out of them.
- Now I see, cos I thought being possessed automatically meant you took full control of it.
- Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. - The ghost smiled bitterly. - Even so, I couldn't just go and kill Daddy Zebra. The bandit remained the full master of the body, and when he returned to it, I was thrown out. I'm lucky that guy's power has a nasty side to it. Every time he uses it, something in his memory just gets erased. That time it was memories of me. He also never left his body for long, because how much he would forget depended on it.
After a while, Bandit's younger brother died. This upset the guy a lot. You could say that the meaning of his life was gone. This is where I got lucky once again. To be honest, sometimes it seems that if it weren't for a series of lucky breaks, my revenge wouldn't have happened. Anyway, it turned out that Papa Zebra knew the Bandit. Interested in his power, Zebra got him hooked on drugs. He used to control Bandit with the money he needed to treat his brother, but when he died, that bridle broke. However, as it turns out, drugs can be an even more effective method of control. I was glad then, because if the guy had used his power around Zebra, I'd have had a chance. But the opportunity never presented itself. It pissed me off, and at one point I realised that I couldn't rely on fate. I had to take it into my own hands.
I had to experiment. By trial and error, after some time, I discovered that I could become 'visible' to people. Of course, there was a downside. It required a lot of energy, literally a lot of energy! And I felt a lot worse than usual after this experiment. A loophole that allows you to partially bypass this obstacle as well. Sometimes I did go to see my family. I was shocked when Kayden ran away, out into the street. But that's when I learnt I could communicate with her without wasting a huge amount of energy. Sadly, that kind of connection was unique to her. It didn't extend to my wife and other children. Maybe it worked out that way because Kayden saw me get shot. I don't know.
- What happened next? - I interrupted the long pause.
- The finale. I timed it so that Kayden would save her former teacher first. I thought Miss Palmer might be able to set her daughter straight, she is a teacher, after all. It didn't work out so well. It was Cameron who needed the psychological help the most. That incident with Laura came at a good time. I realised what it could do and sent my daughter there. With Tatiana, it was almost an accident. I felt sorry for the girl.
- And then you showed up.
- Yes. In theory, I suppose Laura could have easily handled Zebra on her own. With a dad like that! Or whatever he is to her. But I didn't want to risk it, so I turned to a professional superhero. I'd have been happy with your revenge, but Zebra had called in the Bandit to find the girls. I had my chance.
- So what now? I mean, you got what you wanted. What's next?
- Nothing. - the ghost said sadly. - I spent almost all my energy talking to you. There's still a little bit left to say goodbye to my daughter. And then... Well, I guess it's time to find out what the afterlife is like. Goodbye Spider, and... thank you.
Father Cayden vanished into thin air.
I stood still, thinking about the story I'd just heard. In fact, I had a lot to think about.