"Another job?" Skyl's tone was teasing. "You mean working for you at SHIELD? You people spent all that time preparing—digging into my background, analyzing my psychology and behavior patterns—then you decided I'm powerful but controllable, so I can be used. Right?"
"You're reading my mind again?" Nick frowned, clearly disapproving.
"Just basic analysis," Skyl said, "plus divination." He put extra emphasis on divination.
"You can do divination too?"
Skyl perked up, then gave a modest, restrained nod. "Correct. As an exemplary honor student at Hogwarts, I'm fluent in every spell and every scrap of magical theory past and present—especially Prophecy and Divination. You may address me as a Seer."
"Hogwarts," Nick repeated, sounding like he was barely holding it together. "Sure. Fine. I'm Nick Fury, from SHIELD." He held out his hand.
Skyl didn't take it. Instead, he touched a hand to his chest and dipped his head. "Skyl. Or you can keep calling me by the codename Magician. I don't mind."
Nick's mouth twitched. "We have to call you something."
"Tony Stark didn't tell you?" Skyl asked.
"Stark refused to share anything about you. He's a loyal friend."
Skyl didn't argue. Tony was the kind of friend who always took care of his people—the rich guy you could cling to and somehow end up fed, housed, and protected. In a Robin Hood story, he'd be the benefactor with the open purse.
Their conversation was going smoothly enough, except for the heavy, ragged gasping coming from the ground beside them.
Kingpin was still choking, still begging for air.
The way he thrashed in his own mess made him look like a beached whale. Curious, well-meaning pedestrians started drifting closer.
Nick asked Skyl to spare Kingpin.
"He's a bastard, but some of what he said is true," Nick said. "Anyone who wants him dead needs to be ready for New York to burn. If Kingpin dies, his people will retaliate indiscriminately, and the East Coast underworld will go rabid. A lot of innocent people will die."
Skyl couldn't help laughing. "Mr. Fury—weren't you pretty tough when you were threatening him a minute ago? I'm guessing this is the perk of power: even if someone's drenched in sin, 'justice' still has to worry about breaking the vase."
Kingpin slowly raised his head. In that massive, thick skull, his bloodshot eyes looked like red glass marbles—cold, vicious, and deeply unsettling.
A young blonde student stepped forward. "He needs emergency help. I can assist—"
Nick flashed his credentials. "Miss, don't come any closer. We're handling a dangerous criminal."
"But he's incapacitated, and he looks like he's in immediate danger."
"Professionals are taking care of it. Do not approach." Nick kept blocking the good Samaritans, then lowered his voice to Skyl. "You need to decide soon, kid. Time doesn't wait."
Skyl didn't move.
The student pulled out her phone and called for an ambulance.
"Sir, I called 911," she said. "Paramedics are on the way."
She'd correctly judged he was suffocating, his airway obstructed. With every desperate breath, a clump of stomach contents would surge out—then, like a living snake, force itself back into his mouth even when he clenched his teeth.
More and more people crowded in. None of them recognized Kingpin. They didn't know he was New York's biggest crime boss, the living emblem of the city's rot. They only saw someone who needed help.
Nick couldn't hold back that many people forever. He retreated to Skyl's side, preparing to have SHIELD field agents grab Kingpin and haul him away.
"Stay with me, sir," the student said. She moved in decisively, trying to clear Kingpin's airway, but she didn't have proper tools. So she called out to the crowd, frantic: "Does anyone have a vacuum? Is there a store nearby that sells one? Someone needs help!"
Skyl flicked his wandless magic out in a powerful Confundus Charm.
The crowd abruptly turned as one and wandered away, as if a switch had been flipped—everyone except the student, who stayed kneeling beside Kingpin. She was too focused on saving a life to be affected.
Kingpin really was close to dying. Dying like this—humiliated, choking in his own filth—was the kind of death that would make headlines. For a man like him, it could become a footnote in history.
The girl wiped at the mess with tissues, but it didn't stop the reflux. She kept calling for help, kept urging him to hang on.
Skyl shook his head and stepped forward. "Miss, let me."
"You can help me lift him," she said quickly. "He's too heavy. We need to tilt his upper body forward—maybe gravity can help clear his airway, at least slow the backflow."
"That won't work," Skyl said. "What he needs is forgiveness."
He rested a hand on Kingpin's head, like he was patting a child.
"Like this."
Kingpin gagged and vomited a thick flood of half-digested Indian food sludge, and the blockage finally broke. He sucked in air again and again, wheezing like an exhausted ox.
The student sprang up, eyes bright with relief. "How did you do that?"
Skyl looked at her. "What's your name?"
"Gwen Stacy," she said. "I go to Midtown High School." Gwen offered her hand, gaze shining. "Are you a doctor? You look really young."
Skyl returned the gesture the same way he had before—hand to chest, a slight bow. "I'm a wizard."
The blonde girl laughed. "All right, Wizard. You saved a life today."
She looked around and realized every bystander had vanished. She frowned. "People in this city are so cold."
Nick Fury had lowered his phone, arms folded now, watching Skyl talk to the student with a thoughtful, unreadable look.
Skyl didn't answer Gwen. He turned to Kingpin, who was swaying upright, and asked calmly, "Are you willing to atone? Do something before you die—something that makes up for what you've done. I can give you a dignified ending."
Kingpin's hand shot out.
He clamped his fingers around Gwen's throat from behind. The kind-hearted student managed only a short, strangled scream before her face flushed red.
Nick's pistol snapped up, aimed straight at Kingpin. "Put the girl down, motherfucker. Stop making your life harder."
Gwen's terrified eyes darted between Skyl and Nick. Kingpin lifted her one-handed, like a prisoner slowly strangling on a gallows.
He had no gratitude for the girl who'd tried to save him. He only wanted a shield—something to block Skyl's magic.
The bastard backed toward his car.
Skyl stayed where he was. Nick pressed a finger to his ear, issuing orders through a bone-conduction earpiece.
Kingpin yanked open his door, then sneered at Skyl and delivered a death threat.
"You shouldn't have gone soft, kid. Now I'm going to mobilize everything I have to hunt you down—and everyone you've ever met. I'll tear your connections apart. I'll make you live under the shadow of death every day, until you finally break. Then I'll kill you and hang your corpse on the outside of the Empire State Building and let it dry."
Skyl asked, very seriously, "Is that really what you think? You're going after people I know?"
"Fear me," Kingpin hissed. He stuffed his huge bulk into the driver's seat, threw Gwen into the passenger seat, and sped off with his hostage.
Nick's face went dark. A civilian getting dragged into this on his watch was a failure. And Skyl's detached, almost amused posture left him disappointed.
"Skyl," Nick said coldly. "SHIELD will protect you and your friends. Kingpin won't succeed. You can go home. We'll take it from here."
Skyl shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down with a small smile. "Yeah, yeah. A mortal crime boss—captain of an evil empire—announcing a death hunt on people I know. Terrifying."
"This isn't a joke," Nick said. "Kingpin is a dangerous super-criminal. The resources he controls can trigger disasters on a global scale."
Skyl nodded, as if he'd been corrected. "Right. I should take it seriously. Kingpin and his accomplices are going after people I know… let me count. A billionaire. A Sorcerer Supreme. Galactus's daughter. A cosmic entity. A creator god. Great. Great. In this universe, they only have to deal with those five people—should be easy."
He inhaled slowly. "Oh, and there's the new one: Miss Gwen Stacy. She just happens to be the daughter of a high-ranking NYPD captain, Spider-Man's girlfriend, and Spider-Gwen in another universe. Mr. Kingpin sure knows how to pick them."
Skyl's expression cooled.
"Looks like he chose the more painful way to die. That's fine. I've got plenty of ways to deal with trash like him."
For some reason, standing beside him, Nick Fury suddenly felt a deep, crawling chill.
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