A Long Easter (I)

Spring thunder roared over the East Coast, followed by a torrential downpour. Puddles on the tree-lined road reflected the sunlight filtering through the clouds. Countless raindrops pattered on the dense foliage, and the rustling sound of rain came from outside the window. Outside, the spring rain was chilly, but inside, it was warm and cozy.

Schiller gently turned the pages of his textbook, the sound of the pages rubbing together completely drowned out by the sound of the rain. He cleared his throat and had to raise his voice to say, "Easter is just a week away. The Psychology Club's dinner party will begin at 7:00 p. m. on Easter Sunday. Those who wish to attend, please be seated before 6:30 p. m."

Schiller paused, glanced at the heavy rain outside the window, and then said, "There will be thunderstorms throughout the city for the next few days. Please take an umbrella when you go out. It is estimated that if the rainfall continues to increase, there is a possibility of flooding. Please pay attention to evacuation notices..."

After he finished speaking, he packed up his textbooks and prepared to leave. At this moment, Evans, who was sitting in the first row, stood up, walked to the side of the podium, and whispered to Schiller, "Professor, it's been raining so hard these past few days that many students haven't been able to attend on time, so the homework..."

"Pay it later. Remind everyone to remember to notify their parents that if the rain continues, evacuation may be necessary at any time in the next couple of days. Tell them to be aware of the movements of local gangs..."

Evans pulled out a schedule and said, "In the past, the Easter party would be held on the evening of the day, but this year, our new principal has moved the banquet forward by two days, just in time to avoid clashing with the club dinner. We plan to hold the dinner..."

Evans explained the meeting arrangements to Schiller, and as the two were discussing in hushed tones, Bruce walked over. Evans glanced at him, and Schiller said to Evans, "Let's settle on this plan first, and I'll confirm it with you later."

After Evans left, Bruce spoke up immediately, "The rain has been too heavy lately, Gotham's drainage system is in serious trouble. I need to go back to Wayne Tower to keep an eye on things and prevent flooding."

"Granted leave. Also, it seems they 'Armor Break."

"We'll talk about that later." Bruce glanced around cautiously, seemingly wary of the large number of people around.

When Schiller returned to his office, Victor was holding a goose egg, gesturing with it up and down with a paintbrush. Schiller walked over, glanced at the egg, and said, "Where did you get this? You didn't go raiding the swans' nests on the lake, did you?"

"Of course not, do I look like such a boring person?" Victor picked up his paintbrush, dipped it in blue paint, and drew a star shape on the goose egg. As he painted intently, he said, "The logistics department has prepared materials for five Easter eggs for each professor. We need to finish painting them before the holiday and then give them to the students."

"That's strange," Schiller said with a laugh. "Shouldn't they be the ones to finish painting and give it to us? Heaven knows how tiring it was for me to teach them."

"Of course they will send them, but they might send finished products, since not many people can draw."

"Actually, I quite like this job. I wanted to be a painter when I was a child." Victor leaned close to the Easter egg and used a smaller paintbrush to refine the details of the star.

Schiller shrugged and walked back to his seat. Sure enough, he saw a few goose eggs on the seat. He picked one up and looked at it, saying, "The rainfall lately has been really outrageous. Have you checked the weather forecast?"

Anna at the next table was also drawing on an Easter egg. She looked up at Schiller and said, "This godforsaken place hardly ever gets a sunny day, but this rain is so heavy that my rain boots are almost useless."

"I just heard from my students that the Easter party has been moved up this year?" Schiller sat down in a chair and began fiddling with his brushes and paints.

"Yes, our principal moved the banquet time forward in order to hold more events, so the ball time was also moved forward accordingly."

"Why would he do that? Where are there so many events to hold?" Victor asked, somewhat puzzled.

"This is his first major holiday in his first year in office. Perhaps the new principal wants to show off to us. In addition to banquets, dances, and dinners, I heard that there are also sessions for exchanging Bible, prayers, and hymns."

"He doesn't seem like a very devout believer, so why is he suddenly so focused on Easter?"

All three shook their heads. Schiller examined the goose eggs on the table, and after gesturing with his paintbrush for a moment, just as he was about to start painting, Victor stood up with a freshly painted egg in his hand and said proudly, "Look, this one, look at what I painted."

The egg he was holding had many stars painted on it, using a red and blue color scheme, making it look like the Stars and Stripes. However, because the egg was oval, most of the stars were distorted, and some areas were not evenly painted.

Anna teased him, saying, "I had no idea you were so patriotic. The designer of the national flag would be moved to tears if he saw your work."

"Please," Victor complained, "You have a hard time even drawing on a flat surface, let alone on a round goose egg. This is already quite good, okay?"

Anna glanced down at her work again and realized it was even worse than Victor's. Frustrated, she threw down her pen and said, "This damn rainy day is ruining my train of thought. My thesis isn't going well either, and what those students wrote is utterly unreadable..."

"I discovered two weeks ago that the biggest downside of the continuous rainy days is that they get water in their brains."

"Don't be ridiculous, it's all water even when it's not raining."

All three sighed. Clearly, the quality of Gotham University's student body was worrisome. Victor looked at the Easter egg in his hand and said, "I don't think they'll be interested in this. They'd prefer bullets, or some flammable plants here."

"That's fine then. I'm going to buy a few ready-made ones at the Shop. Nobody will notice anyway," Anna said, standing up. Schiller called after her, "Get me a few too, Thank you."

After Anna left, Victor and Schiller looked at each other, and Schiller said, "So what are you planning to do? Don't tell me you're really planning to stuff something into the goose egg..."

"I plan to finish drawing them, and then randomly find a few unlucky guys to give them to. If they dare to complain that my drawings are ugly, then I will give them a failing grade."

"By the way," Victor said, standing up, "I studied the blueprints for that Cold Gun you gave me last time, and it seems that they are not very suitable for ordinary people to use."

"Really? Why do you say that?"

"It takes a lot of force just to pull out the magazine, and if there is not enough thrust when you put it back in, there is a risk of leakage."

"This gun looks like it was designed for well-trained soldiers or Strongman. If it were me, the leak would freeze my arm before I could even fire it."

Schiller gave Victor the blueprints for the Cold Gun that Peter developed.

Upon hearing Victor's explanation, Schiller understood. The person who developed this gun was the Superhuman Strength Spider-Man, and the people who used it, besides superheroes like Iron Man and Captain America, were either agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.. or at the very least, well-trained armed police officers.

These people can, of course, ignore force or recoil, but researchers like Victor cannot. Schiller asked Victor, "So how do you plan to improve it? Do you have any ideas?"

"Of course. Actually, I just came to invite you to come to the lab with me. I need a test subject. I think we are about the same size and strength, so I would like to ask you to help me test the sample I made."

Schiller shrugged and said, "Okay, hopefully you get the data you want."

When the two went out, the thunderstorm had mostly stopped, but there was still a lot of water on the road. Victor shook his wet shoes and complained, "The school's drainage system is really bad. The rain has stopped for more than an hour, but the water on the ground hasn't drained at all."

Schiller looked around but didn't see any drainage ditches or canals on the ground. He thought back and realized that the whole of Gotham seemed to be like this. The drainage system was very inefficient. It was fine when it was just a light drizzle, but once there was a large-scale downpour like today, the whole city seemed to be flooded, and you could see the ocean view without leaving your house.

Just as he was immune to the Fear Gas, Schiller was also immune to this rain; at least, no abnormalities were found in the Symbiote Grey Mist within his body.

After arriving at the lab with Victor, the two chatted for a while, and then Schiller began helping Victor test the Cold Gun.

After Victor recorded several sets of experimental data, Schiller asked him, "What do you think of that cryogenic generator?"

"That's actually not a problem. It has a lot of power. If there's enough energy, it can freeze a large area."

"Can the power be increased further? What's the maximum possible power output?"

Victor looked at Schiller with some surprise and said, "There's no upper limit, but what do you need such a high power for?"

"Could you make a few more? I might need them later," Schiller said thoughtfully.

Victor didn't press further and agreed.

Schiller noticed that Victor seemed distracted, so he asked, "Have you been sleeping poorly lately?"

"No, but I have been a bit dazed lately." Victor shook his head and said, "Normally I can concentrate even if I'm in the lab all night, but lately I start to feel sleepy before midnight."

"It's probably because there have been too many rainy days lately. Rainy days can cause people to feel depressed, and the humid air is also bad for your health. It's best to try to stay indoors as much as possible."

Schiller turned to look out the window. Sometime during the rain, which had stopped, it started falling again, intermittently, and more and more heavily.

Schiller thought that judging from the recent ridiculously high rainfall in Gotham, the Court of Owls was in a hurry.