"Goodbye, Mr. Rorschach."
"Goodbye, Jarvis!"
At an intersection on 75th Street in New York, Rorschach waved at Jarvis, who was politely seeing him off.
He subconsciously glanced at a car not far behind him, and a disdainful sneer curled across his lips.
That car had been following him all the way.
Rorschach knew it had been sent by Peggy Carter.
He had not expected Peggy Carter to react so strongly to his superhuman strength.
Indeed.
Rorschach was not an agent and had no counter-surveillance skills, but since he knew Peggy Carter would not let this go, noticing it had been easy enough.
All he needed to do was listen with his super hearing, and he immediately understood.
If Peggy Carter had been willing to ask nicely, Rorschach might not necessarily have kept it from her.
After all, being a mutant was not something shameful.
Rorschach had never done anything vile or immoral, so what was there that he could not tell others?
But with that old woman's attitude, Rorschach could not be bothered with her.
And of course, he was not going to let Peggy Carter get away with secretly tailing him. That was why he had Jarvis stop here on 75th Street.
"Agent Carter, I'm not some soft persimmon you can squeeze whenever you want!"
Rorschach muttered under his breath. Then, without hesitation, he walked straight toward the black sedan following him.
Knock, knock, knock!
Rorschach knocked directly on the window.
Before long, the window rolled down, revealing a middle-aged man inside eating a hot dog.
"Kid, what do you want? Get lost!"
The middle-aged man deliberately pretended not to recognize Rorschach and barked at him with a glare.
Rorschach said nothing. He simply grabbed the middle-aged man with one hand.
With a light tug, he pulled the man out of the car.
Grabbing him by the collar, he lifted him into the air.
Though the man was a full-grown adult, he was as helpless as a baby in Rorschach's grip.
"Go back and tell Peggy Carter not to bother me! My temper won't always be this good!"
Rorschach gave the man a mocking smile, then tossed him upward.
Whoosh!
The man flew through the air and crashed heavily onto the roof of a nearby building with a bang.
The fall left him dizzy and battered, feeling as if every bone in his body had nearly come apart.
After doing all that, Rorschach acted as though nothing had happened. He calmly stepped into the crowd.
And vanished from sight.
Only the middle-aged man remained on the rooftop, trembling and on the verge of tears.
What kind of monster had Director Carter sent him to follow?
After shaking off his tail, nothing else happened along the way.
Rorschach returned to Xavier's Manor without any trouble.
Everyone was chatting and laughing in the hall, the atmosphere cheerful. There was none of the previous gloom and oppression left.
The moment Rorschach appeared, everyone eagerly came over to greet him.
After the Black King incident, Rorschach had completely established his authority among the mutants.
"Rorschach, man, you're incredible!"
Banshee's eyes practically shone with admiration. "You actually saved Howard Stark? That's insane!"
It seemed Raven had already returned and dramatically embellished the story while bragging about it to everyone.
"That's right! It's absolutely the craziest thing I've ever heard, and the coolest too!" Havok was so excited he could barely contain himself.
"Man, what's Howard like? Is he easy to get along with?" Even the usually mature and steady Darwin could not keep calm.
There was no helping it. To everyone present, Howard Stark was truly a colossal figure.
It was like attending a class reunion and suddenly hearing that your dorm mate had saved Jack Ma.
The shock, excitement, and thrill were easy enough to imagine.
"Mr. Stark is a pretty good guy. Other than not being as handsome as me, there's nothing wrong with him."
Rorschach flashed a smug grin and dropped onto an empty spot on the sofa.
The atmosphere in the hall was relaxed and cheerful.
With the Black King no longer hanging over them, the mutants naturally settled down at Xavier's Manor to wait for Charles and the others to return.
They happily enjoyed the luxurious life they had never experienced before.
Some of them were even having so much fun they wished Charles and the others would come back later.
The Bronx.
An extremely rundown abandoned building.
Yet in the filthy courtyard, littered with trash and sewage everywhere, a domineering, luxurious Cadillac was parked.
It looked utterly out of place amid its surroundings.
Four people stood before the Cadillac.
They were Stryker, Wade before he became Deadpool, and two ordinary agents.
Of course, that was only the force visible on the surface.
In other corners beyond anyone's notice, several snipers arranged by Stryker were hidden as well.
Judging by Stryker's setup, he seemed to be waiting for someone.
"Sir, you know I have a slight germophobia problem, so the smell in this place is really making me uncomfortable..."
Wade began chattering away again.
"Shut up, Wade!" Stryker snapped at Wade in frustration.
Wade reluctantly shut his mouth.
But Stryker knew it was useless, because Wade would start again in another ten seconds.
Fortunately, another car slowly pulled up just then.
A man in a black trench coat with shoulder-length hair stepped up to Stryker.
The person they had been waiting for had finally arrived.
"I told you, keep unnecessary meetings to a minimum. I need to stay low-key!" the long-haired man said to Stryker with some displeasure.
"Only the weak obsessively pursue a low profile. The strong solve their problems, Lucien."
Stryker spoke in a meaningful tone.
Lucien had not come to listen to Stryker lecture him. He asked bluntly, "Tell me. What is it?"
"Considering how pleasantly our previous cooperation went, I think I need to hire some more people from you," Stryker said without beating around the bush.
"No! Our cooperation ended long ago. I helped you capture the people you wanted, and I fulfilled my promise. But what about you? You still haven't found the person I asked you to investigate! Besides, you have mutants now. You don't need my people anymore."
"No, Lucien, I need them very much. Logan is gone, Zero and Sabretooth are dead, and my mutant team has fallen apart. In fact, other than Wade, I don't even have anyone I can use."
"That isn't my problem, Stryker. You know my situation. I can't be exposed! Three days ago, three of my clansmen were beaten to death by an Easterner, and I chose to forget the whole thing. So, sorry!"
Lucien had not meant anything by it, but Stryker's heart stirred at once.
Beating werewolves to death was not something an ordinary person could do.
It might well have been a mutant.
And that person had been an Easterner?
Back then, Stryker had asked a sketch artist to draw the murderer who had killed Sabretooth. He seemed to have been an Easterner too.
Although it had been dark at the time and the witness had not seen clearly, seriously affecting the accuracy of the sketch.
But whether the man had been Western or Eastern, there was no mistaking that.
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