Mockery

"An old friend?"

Galacta looked the two of them over in surprise. The complicated look in Mercer's eyes hardly seemed like the way someone would look at a friend.

Of course, it wasn't the look of someone harboring a secret crush, either. From the way Mercer looked at her, Galacta could tell he was straight, not gay.

The look in Mercer's eyes now seemed more like pity and regret, which Galacta found difficult to understand.

"Let's take care of business first."

Now wasn't the time to say hello to Peter Parker. After giving him a few looks, Mercer left with Galacta. They had more important things waiting for them.

"Galacta, can you sense where they've put their energy source?" Mercer asked.

Something like the Tesseract was bound to emit gamma radiation. Even if the amount was tiny, it would still be there.

Ordinary people couldn't sense that energy, and S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't pinpoint its exact location, either.

Now that they were inside the school, the search area had shrunk considerably. Galacta should be able to sense it.

Galacta swept her gaze around the campus, narrowing her eyes slightly. Then her slender finger pointed somewhere. "Over there. There's a certain amount of energy radiating from that spot."

"There?" Mercer was a little stunned. Galacta was pointing at the gymnasium, where the biggest crowd had gathered.

As though something had occurred to him, Mercer frowned and hurried toward it, with Galacta following behind.

They entered the gymnasium. The formerly spacious building was now packed with people.

In the middle of the crowd stood an enormous machine that looked impressive even if no one understood it. It resembled three upright prongs joined at the base, with a metal column on each side so thick that even two people couldn't encircle it with their arms, and a slightly longer column in the middle.

Though its workings were incomprehensible, the enormous machine was still an awe-inspiring sight.

"Those Hydra bastards aren't even pretending anymore. They put it right in the middle of the crowd!"

Mercer's expression darkened completely. They had been wondering where Hydra would hide the Tesseract.

But now they could see that the Tesseract hadn't been hidden at all. Instead, it sat right on the machine.

There was a transparent glass compartment in the center of the machine. Inside it, the Tesseract emitted a faint glow of cosmic energy. It was quite beautiful.

If Mercer hadn't known what it was, he really would have admired it.

"I could just go up and yank it out." Galacta made a show of rolling up her sleeves, making Mercer break into a cold sweat. He hurriedly waved his hands to tell her not to.

"We can't make a move here. More and more people are being drawn to this thing." Mercer quickly caught her wrist and said quietly, "If we fight here, a lot of people will die!"

"I was joking. Honestly, couldn't you tell?"

Galacta glanced sidelong at Mercer's hand. Only then did he realize he was still holding her wrist. He quickly let go with an awkward smile.

If they disregarded the consequences, Mercer was certain she could simply reach out and wrench the Tesseract free.

With Galacta's constitution, even withstanding a direct attack from the Tesseract wasn't out of the question.

But if that caused something to go wrong, the consequences would be more than they could bear. They still needed another way to resolve this.

After relaying the situation to Nick Fury, Mercer wandered around the machine with Galacta, trying to figure out how to handle it.

Evacuate the crowd?

That was the worst possible approach. There were too many people here. Even clearing out half of them would alert Hydra.

"Excuse me, what is this?" someone curious stepped forward to ask.

The Hydra operatives posing as staff explained it to them with looks of "kindness."

"This is a new energy machine manufactured by the Genesis Group. If it operates normally, the energy it produces in a single day will equal a thermal power plant's output for an entire year!"

The crowd erupted!

That claim caused an uproar. Wasn't that a little too outrageous?

One day's output could match a thermal power plant's energy production for an entire year? The bystanders weren't exactly convinced.

But there was no denying it was an excellent sales pitch. Those words drew even more spectators.

"Something about this thing doesn't seem right."

Just as Mercer was agonizing over what to do, a quiet voice suddenly came from beside him.

He turned to look. At some point, Peter Parker had come to stand about two body widths away from him. He was staring at the energy-emitting Tesseract with a puzzled expression.

"What do you mean? What do you think is wrong?" Mercer raised his eyebrows and moved closer. Could Peter Parker actually tell something was off?

Peter Parker looked at the unfamiliar boy who had approached him. Since they were both at a science and technology exhibition, he didn't think much of it.

"I feel like that thing inside isn't just a display piece. It seems to be emitting some kind of energy, and it isn't weak, either."

After saying that, he felt he sounded a little like a country bumpkin, so he hurriedly added another remark.

"But didn't they just say it's a new energy source? Just pretend I'm talking nonsense."

Mercer smiled and nodded on the surface, but inwardly he mused.

His Spider-Sense must be kicking in, letting him detect the threat posed by the Tesseract.

After all, if Peter stayed here, he would become a victim himself once things went wrong.

As they talked, Mercer's gaze couldn't help drifting toward Peter Parker's chest.

It certainly wasn't because he was a pervert. It was because he had spotted a flash of red beneath Peter Parker's shirt-the red of his Spider-Man suit!

Looks like he's already become Spider-Man at this point. No wonder S.H.I.E.L.D. has information on him. He thinks he's the only one who knows, but people have already had their eyes on him for a while, Mercer thought.

Fortunately, Peter Parker had no evil intentions and hadn't used his abilities to commit crimes. Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been hunting him down within a couple of days.

For Peter Parker, who had only just become Spider-Man, that would have been too much to handle. He could have struggled for three days at most before being forced to surrender. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s methods were reliable in that regard.

"Hey, Parker, this isn't something a hick like you can understand. You'd better just go home!"

A mocking voice suddenly rang out from the crowd, followed by several people laughing along.

Mercer didn't even need to look to know who had delivered that childish taunt. There was only one person who constantly picked on Peter Parker: the school bully, Flash Thompson.

That made Mercer sigh. Peter Parker was clearly a superhero with superhuman strength, yet he still couldn't escape being bullied at school.

Anyone with an ordinary person's mindset would have dragged Flash into an alley and beaten him senseless long ago. They would never have let him stand here running his mouth.

"Is someone's mouth connected straight to his bowels? How else could the crap coming out of it stink so badly?"