Osborn Bio-Industry Tower (Seeking Reads!)

The next day.

Hawk got up early, dressed, slung his single-strap bag over his shoulder, grabbed the documents Mrs. Snow had given him, and headed out the door to catch the subway.

He'd originally planned to take the bus.

As everyone knows.

New York City's subway is a whole mess.

Unfortunately, Hawk discovered there was no direct bus from his new apartment to the Osborn Bio-Industry building. If he took the bus, he'd need to transfer three times.

When he crunched the numbers, it was better to just take the subway.

At the very least, with the subway, if you had no morals, you could ride for free.

In a word.

You could hurdle the ticket gates, and even if you didn't skip the fare, the total cost was still cheaper than the bus.

So Hawk figured he'd just go with the subway.

Only...

He regretted it the moment he got on.

The stench.

It was unbearable.

A riot of multicolored smells surged from every direction, forcing Hawk to shut down his sense of smell with lightning speed.

But if it were just the odor, that'd be one thing.

The car was full of people putting on shows.

A hippie with a guitar was wailing away, dreaming of becoming a big musician someday.

Not far off, a black woman who looked like a tank from any angle had a golden python coiled around her neck.

God knows how she got that thing in here.

But that wasn't the main point.

As everyone knows, if you were to rank the places in New York City with the most pickpockets, the subway car would definitely top the list.

Sure enough, a hooded kid with dark skin had his eyes on Hawk.

His gut told him Hawk was a subway rookie.

A subway rookie meant a passenger who didn't ride often and didn't know the dangers of the car or the unpredictability of people.

These passengers might not be rich, but they were the easiest marks, so the thieving community called them subway rookies.

Soon.

The kid, pretending to adjust his earbuds, swayed his head and hummed a tune as he sidled up behind Hawk.

The next second.

The moment his right hand dropped from his earbuds, a folding knife whipped out, aimed at slashing Hawk's single-strap bag slung behind him.

Just then.

Hawk, back still turned, seemed to lose his footing, stumbling backward a few steps.

The kid behind him, ready to strike, hadn't seen this coming. The folding knife, just drawn and not yet adjusted, had its handle rammed by Hawk's collision. The blade reversed direction and, with a shluck, punched straight through the kid's wrist.

"Ah!"

The kid let out a scream, eyes wide, sucking in cold air as he stared at the knife buried in his wrist.

Blood dripped from the wound, plop, plop, onto the car floor.

The people around the car jumped at the kid's scream, then glanced at his dark skin and quickly looked away.

The subway pulled into the station.

The passengers, as if by unspoken agreement, got up and left the car.

No one gasped.

No one cared. No one even asked if the kid needed medical help.

Hawk followed the crowd out of the car.

From start to finish, he never once turned to look at the kid.

Stepping off the car, he felt one or two venomous stares boring into his back from behind and curled the corner of his mouth.

He'd been merciful enough.

If this weren't the subway, but some wilderness or a dark alley with no cameras, he'd have scattered that would-be thief's ashes.

Didn't the kid see he was dressed in cheap streetwear, worth less than fifty bucks total?

He was this broke, and someone still came to steal from him?

Was there no law?

Is there no law?

And...

"Gwen?"

Walking out of the subway station, Hawk was still stewing over nearly getting pickpocketed underground, his thoughts tangled and unsatisfied. Then he spotted Gwen standing not far away, right beneath the Osborn Bio-Industry building, as if waiting for someone.

Gwen, who had been scanning her surroundings near the entrance, suddenly caught sight of Hawk across the street. Her eyes lit up, and she raised her right hand, waving quickly to signal him.

Waiting for me?

Hawk paused for a moment, then darted across the road through a gap in the traffic.

The Battle of New York had been two weeks ago. Now, half a month later, Manhattan showed no trace that an alien invasion had ever taken place here.

That was the power of money.

The Battle of New York ended in the morning; by noon, repairs on damaged buildings in Manhattan—especially Wall Street—were already underway.

The outer walls of the Osborn Bio-Industry building had taken a heavy hit back then.

But now, who could tell that during the Battle of New York, the Osborn industrial tower had been pierced through by the Chitauri?

Hawk looked up at the Osborn building before him, rising just as high into the clouds as the Stark Industries Tower five blocks away. Then he dropped his gaze to Gwen, who seemed to be waiting for him at the entrance.

"You waiting for me?"

"Of course."

Unlike her usual school outfit, today Gwen had her hair tied in a high ponytail and wore a standard white lab coat, the uniform of a researcher. Smiling, she said, "If I didn't wait for you here, how else would I uncover your secret?"

Hawk shook his head, a little speechless.

"I don't have any secrets."

"No, you do. And I'll find them."

Gwen said this with a serious expression, then her stern little face broke back into a smile as she continued, "Alright, I'm done teasing you. Mrs. Snow called me this morning. She remembered you don't have a phone, and you don't have a pass for the Osborn building yet. She was worried you wouldn't even get through the front door, so she specially called me to bring you in and find that..."

Gwen paused here, looking at Hawk. "Right, what was the name of the guy you're looking for?"

"Max Dillon."

Hawk spoke the name of the future supervillain Electro, now just a completely invisible little engineer.

Gwen's expression showed recognition.

"Right, that's him. Let's go, I'll take you to the Bio-Electric Engineering Department."

"Alright."

Hawk didn't refuse.

Gwen then shoved her hands into her pockets, flicked her ponytail, and turned around with a casual flair, leading Hawk to the card reader. After she swiped in, she exchanged a few words with the security guard nearby.

The guard glanced in the direction Gwen pointed at Hawk, then nodded and manually opened the gate.

Once Hawk was inside, Gwen thanked the guard.

Soon enough.

Gwen, familiar with the layout, led Hawk to the Bio-Electric Engineering Department on the first floor of the annex building.