At the entrance to the school building, Frank stood ramrod straight like a javelin. Over the past few days, he had completely taken over Alvin's duties, "terrifying the little brats."
Seeing the way these kids looked at Frank as if he were a monstrous beast from the dawn of time, Alvin felt that everything he'd done at the school paled in comparison! Maybe someday they could rename it Hell's Kitchen "West Point" Community School.
Nick was being pushed along in his wheelchair by his neighbor Jiawen. Listening to the people around him complain about Frank—"That guy's a demon. No, even the worst bastards in Hell's Kitchen can't compare to him"—Nick pretended he didn't know Frank and nodded along, joining in as they griped about how much he'd ruined the fun of going to school.
Nick acted like his own father wasn't really his father, so Jiawen, who was pushing his wheelchair and knew about his relationship with Frank, stared at him in disbelief.
Alvin walked over to the entrance of the school building with a smile and punched Frank in the chest. "Nice work, buddy. I knew the Director of the Punisher's Office was the perfect job for you. But we need to talk later. I found you an assistant."
Frank kept his head held high and didn't even look at Alvin. His icy gaze stayed fixed on every student who came near, and he waved Alvin away, telling him to get lost because he was busy. The kids had been acting up lately. They'd even started betting on who could smuggle contraband into school, which was putting a lot of pressure on him. After all, he wasn't like Thor and the others, who could find contraband just by sniffing it out.
Alvin didn't quite understand, but he still didn't interrupt Frank's work. With his employee working so hard, Alvin would feel bad getting in his way.
Professor Cage's supercomputer had arrived and was being installed and tested. Alvin went over to take a look.
The supercomputer was secondhand, but setting it up took up several classrooms in the school building. Alvin had no idea how well it worked—he didn't know anything about computers—but the room was packed with machines, lights blinking all over them. Great, very high-tech, and big enough to justify the two million dollars they'd spent. But seeing the electric meter spin like crazy during the startup test made Alvin wince. He told Cage that they didn't need all those machines running and that from now on, he could only turn on a third of them.
Professor Cage ranted at him until Alvin fled with his hands over his head.
The school was short-staffed, so Professor Cage had brought in a few old friends and several of his graduate students to help test the equipment.
The old guy was sticking close to a girl who looked a lot like the little Matilda, working on all sorts of things together. Judging by how enthusiastic he was, the old guy had fallen for her. Alvin would have Olivia report him to his wife later.
In the principal's office, Alvin stood with his arms crossed, coldly watching several gang bosses with a lot of clout in Hell's Kitchen.
He hadn't listened to a word they'd said. He just stared at them coldly. The little delinquents' parents had come to the principal's office to throw their weight around. If he paid them any attention, where would that leave his dignity?
Seeing Alvin's grim expression, they got a little nervous. After a brief discussion, they sent the Russian, Alexei, to speak with him on their behalf.
The arms dealer, as big as a white bear, stood awkwardly in front of Alvin. "Alvin, my friend, you've got to help me. My boy, Anton..." He pointed to a bald kid standing outside the door. The boy had a full beard, no eyebrows, and looked older than Alvin. "He's been having nightmares every night these past few days. Buddy, you need to rein in your Director of the Punisher's Office. If this keeps up, my son's going to go crazy."
Alvin folded his arms and asked curiously, "What did Frank do? I should give him a medal. I had no idea Anton could be this well-behaved."
Alexei said angrily, "That piece of shit Frank put my son in detention."
Alvin looked at Alexei like he was an idiot. "Your son's afraid of detention? He spent more time in the Detention Room than in class last semester. Buddy, your son's been fooling you."
Alexei glanced at his unfortunate son and said angrily, "But that bastard Frank shaved all the hair off my son's body with a harpoon, except for his beard."
Alvin could imagine how terrifying it must have been to have a butcher-like guy shave off all your body hair with a foot-long blade. Just thinking about it made him shudder. No wonder this former school bully now acted like a whipped dog. Still, using a harpoon to shave him was a bit much.
Alvin looked at Alexei awkwardly. "Buddy, Frank did go a little too far, but I'm sure Anton must've done something wrong. I heard he's been doing pretty well on the soccer team lately?"
Alexei looked a little pleased. "That's right. Anton's been doing well lately. His grades have improved, and now he's the starting tight end on the soccer team." His face fell again. "But he doesn't want to come to school these days. He's afraid people will laugh at him."
Listening to Alexei talk about his son's good grades and his place on the team felt especially weird to Alvin. You're an arms dealer—why are you talking about all this? It doesn't fit your image! Aren't you supposed to bring a gunman to find Frank and shoot him if he gives you any trouble? After hearing all this, I can't even bring myself to get mad at you.
Alvin asked helplessly, "So what exactly did Anton do to make Frank treat him like that?"
Alexei thought it over and hesitated. "I heard he shaved one of his teammates bald. But it was just a joke between kids."
Alvin looked at Alexei with a cold smile, not believing a word. Frank wouldn't go that far just for shaving someone's head. "A joke? You think this is a joke? Buddy, we can be vicious and ruthless, but we still have to be reasonable. Right now, I think Anton got what he deserved. Or you can call this Frank's joke, too. Hmm—Frank the deadpan comedian. How does that nickname sound?"
Alexei shifted awkwardly. "Buddy, we both know what happened. Honestly, I think the school's pretty good now, but Frank's too strict. Before he came, I could see Anton had a chance of going to college. Now he doesn't even want to come to school. What are we supposed to do?"
Hearing Alexei say that made Alvin feel a little bad. The Community School believed in "punishing the guilty to prevent future offenses and helping them turn their lives around." If Frank had scared a kid into staying away from school, that wasn't good. At the end of the day, they were still a school, not a prison.
Alvin felt that his decision that morning to bring Old Parker in to assist Frank had been very wise.
Alvin thought it over, then said, "You can't just decide not to come to school! Is the kid Anton shaved bald still coming to class?
Get Anton to class, now. Graduation's only a few months away, and our school's soccer team is doing pretty well. If Anton can score ten or twenty points in the ATC, he can get into a decent college.
If you want to go after Frank, fine. I'm a fair man. Come to the Gymnasium at three this afternoon. Just you guys. If you want Frank to pay for what he did to your kids, show up and face him one-on-one, by the rules of Hell's Kitchen."
Another Marvel character has shown up. Let's see if you can find him! (*＞)
Before you continue