Chapter 140: Dinner with Jackal. 

Author: SHE-HULK IS AWESOME!!!

Would you like me to introduce her sooner in the story? Leave a comment below! Also, give me power stones!!!

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"Don't you get any weird vibes from your uncle?" Gwen asked in a hushed voice as they lay underneath a blanket on the bed. 

"Weird vibes? What do you mean?" Ryan said as he turned to look at her face. Gwen turned to Ryan and they are facing each other. 

"Like, when he talked about your mom, there was a sense of longing… or something… I could be wrong. "

"Well she is no longer here," Ryan said as he smiled. 

"Maybe," Gwen said with a hint of concern in her voice. She knew something was off, but she can't pinpoint what it was. 

"Just sleep. We will talk about this tomorrow."

Ryan kissed her gently and hugged her tightly inside his arm. She nuzzled into his chest and made herself comfortable. Before long, both of them ventured into dreamland. 

Noting Gwen's sharp instinct inside of his mind, Ryan recollected the evidence that he found as he searched for the human trafficking and lab experiment incident. Although his body was sleeping, his mind was still active. 

He rearranges the data inside his mindscape to search for the clues that have been left behind by the culprit. 

"The cross-species genetics sure points toward Norman Osborn, but he was no longer continuing his research."

All of the evidence was pointing towards Osborn, like it was planned by someone. Someone with immense hate for the man. 

Someone who had lost everything because Osborn decided not to continue the research that he has to experiment on his own body. Someone who he will have dinner with tomorrow. 

"(sigh) I wish the chat group was online."

The incident started on Friday when this week's trading session was over. Otherwise, he would have already captured the culprit by referencing the incident to the other members. 

"I am a fan, but it's not like I knew all the characters." 

Like the previous Spymaster or the Steel Samurai, his knowledge of the characters was shallow.  There were some nerds inside the chat group who he could ask anything about the marvel universes. 

"This incident does remind me of Jackal." 

Ryan muttered something true, but he had no way of knowing it. 

"Maybe I should go through all of Gwen's stalkers? How long will it take?" 

There was a variation of the culprits that he remembered, but the variation was someone obsessed with Gwen. 

"I'd rather die than use her as bait," Ryan muttered, angry at himself for having such thoughts. 

"I guess I had to do this the hard way, the Batman way." 

By solving puzzles. The mutagenic serum he got can be traced to Sacks Industry, but he already had a dead end with the route as Sacks Industry was already bankrupt 20 years ago. 

"Professor O'Neil… April O'Neil… what am I missing here…" Ryan muttered slowly as he tried to find the answers. He didn't know why, but he kept thinking about the sewers…and pizza. 

"The trafficking rings, Roxxon, Hydra. What was the connection between them?" 

He kept thinking about it until the sun came up and illuminated the dark sky. 

… 

On the island. Dawn had woken up from his sleep, but he felt incomplete. He watched the area around his bed, waiting for someone to greet him. 

"Why is she still sulking?" Dawn asked himself this question. He tried to rationalize his mind, but he kept getting mad when he thought about it. 

He didn't realize it, but he was missing her presence in his life. 

"I only told you to shut up once, and you won't come here for a week?" He muttered angrily as he wore his deer mask. 

Putting on his wooden sandals, he walked briskly toward the transmitter area. 

"If you don't want to come here, then I will come to you." 

"Deer God, what are you doing?" A random group of kids on the island asked cheerfully as Dawn walked by them.

"Dragging a runaway back home," Dawn replied to the girls, making them have a question mark floating above their heads. 

Home. That was what Dawn thought. Hela's place was here, with him on this island. 

After he reaches the spawning area of the holographic projection, he reverses the connection and wears the nerve-gear glasses underneath his mask. 

He dives into the connection and finds himself in a dark castle. The lights haven't been turned on, and the castle has been abandoned. 

"Hela?" Dawn called out for the goddess, but there was no answer. He walked around the entire castle, but he didn't find her. 

"Where are you Hela?" Dawn muttered as he started to get worried. Feeling anxious and irritated, he searched for Hela with wide steps. 

Inside the closet — No Death Goddess. 

Inside the bathroom — No Death Goddess. 

Outside the castle — No Death Goddess. 

" HEEEELLLLLAAAAA!!!!" He yelled out loud, completely disregarding his character as a silent type that he had made for himself. 

His voice echoed around the empty underworld traveling almost 10 kilometers away through the castle's speakers. 

"You're cutting all ties, aren't you? Just wait. I'll find you no matter what." 

After his vow, Dawn disconnected the holographic projection that brought him to the underworld. He walked briskly toward the hangar area and headed for his spaceship. 

In the underworld, his voice arrived at the spot where he first met Hela, to the stone throne inside the cave of the ancients. There was a silhouette of a woman sitting there, regressing toward her condition before she had visitors that declared their loyalty to her. 

At the moment, Dawn didn't care if Odin would notice that he was meeting with Hela.

Before he left, he contacted Ryan and told him what he was going to do. He also had left the responsibility to teach the new apostle during the time he was gone to Ryan. 

Boarding the spaceship alone, Dawn activated the ship's engine and planned his journey. Suddenly, a young woman stopped him from taking off. She stood in front of the spaceship, blocking the way. The islander didn't know his plan, so he couldn't be angry with them. 

"Deer God– I meant Dawn God. No… it God Dawn-" 

"What is it?" Dawn cut off Park Shin's stuttering as he wanted to leave as soon as possible. 

"C-can I come with you?" Park Shin said, with her voice lowered as she got through her sentence. 

Park Shin was missing space traveling, and she wanted to have a new adventure. Maybe as DOTU and go help the people in the universe. Earth was quite boring now for her after she had seen the wonders of space. 

Her anticipation was broken as Dawn rejected her suggestion. 

"I need to do this by myself. We can go after I come back." 

The saddened Park Shin perked back up after hearing Dawn's words. 

"Promise?" 

"Sure. I promise." 

Dawn activated the ship's thruster and flew toward the sky. The ship entered stealth mode as it flew past Earth's defense scanning and was hiding itself from Heimdall's monitoring of the nine realms. 

"One hour to get to Niflheim," R.Q notified Dawn. The ship has been upgraded multiple times, and now can achieve a cruising speed of half the speed of light. 

"Good. Maintain full speed," Dawn ordered as he took off his mask inside the ship. 

On the island. A kids trio was looking up toward the sky, trying to find traces of the spaceship. 

"Where did Dawn God go?" Mia asked. 

"I don't know. I wish he would bring God Hela back," Dotty said with a sad tone. Sive patted Dotty's back and tried to comfort her. 

"I am sure you will manage to pass level 7 without God Hela's help. Try your best." 

Sive was referring to the virtual reality game they had played together with Hela. Every day at 4 pm, without even missing a minute, Hela and the kids will log into the game and try to pass a level before dinner time. 

It's been quite some time since Hela had been away from the island. Most of the islanders are missing her without her even realizing it. She truly has a home on this island even though she couldn't see it. 

The kids' trio went to the Great Hall for breakfast together with the other islanders. There, they heard the news about the new supervillain, Tarot. 

"Pfft, he didn't even kill the cops, and he was branded as a supervillain." One of the older widows said sarcastically. 

"It seemed that Hydra was behind this." Another widow commented. 

"Enough. Don't mention the name in front of the kids," Annika scolded the loose-mouthed widows. 

"Wait…Hydra? As the Hydra that Captain America fought in World War 2?" Richard said quizzically as he heard the hot gossip. Annika glared at the widows who can't hold their mouths and replied calmly to Richard's question. 

"Well, Captain America fought one branch of them. Deer God said that Hydra had multiple branches all over the world. Don't worry about it though. He already foresaw their destruction."

Annika soothes the worrying Richard. Yinsen looked at her with a genial smile as he realized why Dawn picked her as the island's leader when he wasn't here. 

"And when the time comes, we will rally together under Deer God AND-"

"Wait. Stop!"

Yinsen stopped Annika from going overboard. His good impression of the woman shattered as easily as it was built. There was some addition on the island that Yinsen had to keep an eye on from falling into Annika's fanaticism. 

The nun had been nodding furiously behind Annika, making Yinsen's effort to help them from getting a bad influence end in futility. 

…

Sunday morning in New York. 

Ryan woke up before Gwen, but he didn't get up from the bed. He stared at her pretty face for a few minutes before she woke up. 

"Unn…don't," Gwen said as she covered her face. 

"What? I didn't do anything," Ryan said teasingly.

"Don't stare at me before I wash my face," Gwen said as she squirmed to get out of the bed.

"Can I stare afterward?" Ryan teases her. 

Gwen was silent as she stopped on her track to get to the bathroom. "Can," She answered curtly before she walked through the bathroom door. Ryan chuckled after hearing the answer. As she had agreed to it, there was no chance he would let her permission go to waste. 

After getting ready and saying goodbye to his fathers and uncle, Gwen and Ryan went back to their Brooklyn penthouse.

Last night, Tim talked to Marcus to become a director of the company, which the undercover Hydra agent accepted readily as it will make his work easier. Marcus also will move closer to the Knight industry instead of staying in the Long Island Manor. 

Marcus had always been independent of the family since he was young, so his action didn't arouse any suspicion from the family members. Although it will be a little harder for Marcus to do his job, it was the better path for him in the long run. 

The New Yorkers were bombarded by the news early in the morning. The most wanted criminal <Tarot> had been plastered all over the media outlets, and a city-wide search was ongoing to search for the criminal.

It was an excessive reaction from Hydra but the hidden organization didn't regret any of it. If Tarot managed to pry information from the Winter Soldier, James Buchanan Barnes, then Hydra won't be able to hide any longer. 

Tony had argued with SHIELD on this matter. Even Captain America was dissatisfied with SHIELD. 

SHIELD acted as a neutral party in the matter. Fury had allowed the situation to worsen as the collective effort of the entire country to find the man will be better than SHIELD working alone. 

He will swoop in as soon as Tarot was caught, maybe use his act as if he is saving Tarot to plant a seed of gratitude or trust for his new interrogation machine – to cultivate loyalty to only him in the future. 

It won't be the first time that Fury has done this. He acquired both of his top agents – Natasha Romanov whose past was no longer hidden, and Clint Barton who was caught during a heist during his time as a member of the circus using the same method. 

"Wait, he appeared?"  Fury asked in a puzzled tone as he heard the report from Hill. 

"Yes, he had saved some kids from a burning building, helped a cat that was stuck on a tree, helped pulled the passenger from a car accident, and…" 

Hill gives out the long report on Tarot's actions to Fury. 

Rubbing his hurting forehead, Fury silently acknowledged Tarot's bravery inside his mind. 

Like Tony expected, Ryan did use a neural transmitter to control his Tarot persona from afar during the time he needed to make a public appearance.

That was the whole reason why he used an armored suit to debut as a superhero — or in this case, supervillain. 

Tony was always one step behind in catching Tarot at the scene. He didn't want to bring him to custody or anything, but he wanted to bring Tarot under the umbrella of the Avenger. 

Unlike Fury,  Tony had been fighting on the public stage and even ridiculed the coroner that faked the medical report by showing the extreme slow-motion video of the bullet from afar. SHIELD can easily do what he was doing, but none of them stepped up to defend Tarot. 

The night came, and Ryan was having dinner with Professor Raymond Warren together with the Stacy family. 

"I don't know how people can be so cruel toward another human being.  Locking up people in cages and experimenting on them like they are some kind of animals," Gwen said in dissatisfaction as the topic of the research lab comes up. 

George Stacy and Helen Stacy nodded after hearing what Gwen said.  They were satisfied inwardly as they had raised their daughter well. 

Raymond and Ryan didn't respond much to what she had said. 

Ryan had used humans who had committed terrible crimes as his tester for some items and even tested it with some alien species. That's why his conscience was pricked with Gwen saying that. 

Raymond also was pricked in his heart, not because of Gwen admonishing his hidden action, but because George Stacy said that they had found a lead to Roxxon. For him,  it seemed that he couldn't stay much longer in New York — before his experiments were truly completed. 

"So Ryan, tell me what you think about… Tarot,"  Raymond asked to change the topic. He also wanted to hear what the 'Oracle' had on this guy. 

"What more do you want to hear?  He is a menace!" George Stacy interjected.  Running around doing the police jobs, George had a bad impression of the new vigilante.

"Nah Dad, he was doing a good thing. The police couldn't be everywhere you know…" Gwen insinuated.

"Tell him, Ryan!" Gwen dragged her fiance into the fray. 

"You should tell her instead!" George pulled Ryan to his side. 

Ryan shook his head slightly and ignored the stubborn father and daughter duo like their mother was doing right now. 

"I think he has done a good thing. Even…I…didn't know about the human experiment lab, and I was supposed to be the all-knowing Oracle," Ryan said with a hint of self-depreciation. Gwen holds his hand under the table to comfort Ryan. 

Raymond stared dagger at Ryan who was making some lovely glances with Gwen. Suddenly Ryan turned back to Raymond, however, his face was gentle again. 

'Wait..why was the malice talisman…' Ryan was jerked back into the conversation after he sensed something was wrong. But there were no known variables around even as he cast an all-seeing spell (stealthily) and check out the entire surrounding. 

'What was that?' He thought as he continuously expanded his scanning range – even bothering some of Kamar-Taj mages from his spell. He kept trying during dinner time, not knowing that the source of the malice he sensed had already hidden deep inside Raymond's mind. 

…

That night, after Ryan and Gwen returned home to their Brooklyn Penthouse after dinner with the family. 

"Didn't you get any weird vibes from your uncle?" Ryan asked in a hushed voice as they lay underneath a blanket on the bed. 

"Weird vibes? What do you mean?" Gwen said as she turned to look at his face. 

" Wait. Is this revenge for what I said? " she noticed what was going on and pulled Ryan's cheeks. 

In a muffled voice as his cheeks were being pulled, Ryan replied, "Noo… I noticed something was off about him…"

While Ryan was trying to convince Gwen, Raymond had gotten into a private jet at the airport. 

The poor college professor was in no condition that could afford this luxury, however, his dealings with the underground world were lucrative. 

"Too bad I had to retreat because of that damn vigilantee," Raymond muttered coldly as he was informed by Hydra about Tarot's declaration. 

Hydra had eased up a bit as it had been a day, but none of the bases were attacked by Tarot, making the declaration seem like hot air. 

"Too bad for Gwen, I wanted to share with her… the feeling…of being powerful!" Raymond laughs maniacally alone in the private jet. 

There was semi-completed research based on a gene of a spider that he had researched together with Osborn before. He will keep that serum, especially for his niece.

…

"Urgh…Where?" Barnes groaned as he opened his eyes. He woke up in a white and purple, small quarter, barely 5 meters wide and 2.5 meters tall. 

"My head," Barnes groaned as he placed his metal arm on his head, trying to contain the pain and the memories that were gushing in. 

"I…I…" Barnes became stunned after remembering what he had done. Dozens…even hundreds of assassinations…even killing Steve's friends, the Starks, and other countless crimes over the 70 years he had become a Hydra tool. 

He dropped to the floor of the quarters, wailing amidst the empty compound he was in. After a few hours of self-regret and self-hate blending in together inside his mind, the winter soldier tried to get out of the compound. He walked towards the edge of the small quarter he was in and tried to take a step outside the doorless room. 

*Zing*

An energy shield prevented Bucky Barnes from getting out. That was when he realized it. He wasn't in a small capsule room. He was now in a prison. 

During that time, Ryan was inside the Knight Manor, standing quietly next to the bed of his newly found uncle. After contorting his expression multiple times, he left without doing anything. 

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