Chapter 25: Cleaning More Trash
The next day.
At the top of the Empire State Building, a hero looked over the city from above.
"I've never seen the streets this quiet." Spider-Man commented as he looked at his city.
Quiet was the understatement of the century. It was still New York, still a noisy city. What Peter meant was that during the three hours he had been patrolling…
…Nothing happened… And that was exactly the problem! Nothing happened! How was that possible!? No matter how many new heroes appeared, criminals never stayed quiet.
Not even when Sentry patrolled the city was it this quiet.
"Adrian, huh…" Peter looked at the post on Adrian's account that he followed.
The reason for this silence? It was all related to the new hero, Venom. At first everyone thought Venom would be a new hero/anti-hero from Spider-Man's villain gallery, but he was much more than that.
First of all, he didn't care about his identity. Everyone in this damn city, or even in the world, knew that his name was Adrian Walker. Overnight he became the most talked-about man of the moment. Some criticized him, some praised him.
His name was on everyone's lips. Many villains probably had plans for him at that moment, but they were surprisingly wise enough not to confront a man who apparently didn't care about the consequences of his actions.
Yesterday proved that when facing a man with power similar to Sentry's and who didn't care about acting like a conventional hero who was very limited by his sense of heroism and his lack of capability.
Adrian Walker was a threat, and everyone knew it. Any sensible person wouldn't be trying to provoke him.
But as a certain philosopher said: Human stupidity has no limits.
People thought they could defame him and get away with it. The people who called him the antichrist, a terrorist, a sick pervert, etc. All those who insulted him with horrible names that he abhorred.
All their dirty secrets were leaked on the internet, from search histories to even crimes they committed and tried to hide. Nothing was hidden.
Freedom of speech? Of course. Everyone had the right to freedom of speech. This was America. And just like them, Adrian also had the right to his freedom of speech, right?
And that was exactly what he did. He took full advantage of that right, using a new artificial intelligence he named Alfred in honor of a certain CHAD who is Batman's butler.
Everyone who insulted him with horrible names had their lives spread out for everyone to see.
But don't get it wrong. Adrian didn't care about what they said, but he wasn't a saintly hero who would sit quietly while everyone thought they could criticize him without consequences.
After the wave of leaked information from those "keyboard warriors," Adrian created a Twitter account and said:
"Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. Everyone abuses it like a random prostitute and places themselves on a high pedestal when they feel morally superior. Just like you, I will abuse it too. You can criticize me, I don't care. But criticize my actions! If you defame me for something I am not… the consequences are evident to everyone. Enjoy your day."
In just a few hours that post exploded because Adrian controlled the publication and made it appear in everyone's feed. Soon several hashtags became popular, all centered around Adrian.
The account exploded with followers. In less than three hours he already had five million followers, and the number kept rising.
They tried to delete his account. They tried to censor his words. They tried to hide what he did. But nothing worked. Everything he did seemed to be… inevitable.
The government tried to demand action from the heroes, but the Avengers pretended to be deaf. They tried to push SHIELD to say something, and all SHIELD said was:
"Tell me what I should do against a man who can easily lift a cargo ship, fly faster than our jets, has impenetrable skin, and shoots lasers from his eyes?"
Those words left the government silent. They even thought about using their hidden card, the hero who was their weapon, but analyzing the man's feats, it was very likely he would lose badly…
Adrian didn't hide his powers at all, but he also didn't show everything. He only displayed the full set of Superman's powers with some phasing changes from Kitty Pryde.
Images of him flying outside the planet were seen. Apparently he could operate in space without problems. Images of him lifting an entire cargo ship with just one hand. Him going from the United States to the other side of the planet in minutes. Him going to Mars and bringing back rocks from the red planet.
He did all of this while helping whoever he could along the way while searching for villains he wanted to eliminate. After all, if he was going to do something, it should be done efficiently.
He gave everyone a show of terror on purpose. He was announcing his existence. He was practically saying: look at what I can do, and I'm not like those puritan heroes of yours. Provoke me, bite me, I will come after you, and you won't like it.
The most popular image on the internet at the moment was from a satellite Adrian controlled. The satellite took a picture of Adrian standing above an asteroid while he ate a hamburger with his shark named Jeff.
Adrian posted it on his profile with the phrase:
"Guess where I am right now, and you win a prize."
That photo made the master of magnetism, who had recently lost his boyfriend to an angry bird going through his recent midlife crisis, clench his fists, because that asteroid was his secret base.
When Magneto returned to his base that day…
He found nothing. The entire place had been looted.
"ADRIAN!!"
Now, why did Adrian provoke the master of magnetism? For no reason. He just didn't like the guy. He understood where his hatred came from, after all he went through the Holocaust, but many people went through that. Did you see them becoming what Magneto became?
"But they didn't have powers," says innocent little Johnny.
Powers are just a flashy way of killing someone. A weapon can do the same. Magneto became exactly what was done to him: a purist monster who believes mutants should remain at the top.
So yes, Adrian didn't care at all about provoking him… And as expected, he fell into the trap.
Hidden inside the asteroid, Adrian smiled when he saw Magneto screaming. Soon he disappeared in a sonic boom.
Question: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
In the blink of an eye, Adrian passed straight through the master of magnetism, and he turned into red mist.
Omni-Man would be proud.
"Thanks for contributing to my evolution, Eric."
Omega-level power? Pfft. At the end of the day, if the body is weak, none of that matters. All omega-level mutants, except a few selected ones, are just fancy sacks of meat.
"I wonder why Eidolon from that fanfic I read in the past didn't kill Magneto. After all, isn't he taking care of humanity like a mother?... I guess in the end it's the same reason I didn't kill Wade. He likes his character. In the end, we are both hypocrites." He laughed.
Adrian's face turned, and he looked directly at the camera inside Magneto's base while showing a gentle smile and waving his hand, as if he were greeting a childhood friend.
…
Later that day.
At the Brotherhood of Mutants headquarters, a meeting was taking place.
"Raven, what happened?" Scarlet Witch asked.
"Magneto is dead." Even though she had to present a strong façade, she still trembled slightly.
"…What?"
Before anyone could recover, she showed the video of Adrian passing through Eric like paste.
When he turned to the screen and waved at them, everyone felt a chill run down their spine.
"This is…"
"The new hero, Adrian Walker, codename Venom."
"We have to—"
"We have to stay quiet." Raven wasn't going to listen to the blonde beast's nonsense right now.
"If you haven't noticed, mutants as a race have lost their two most popular leaders, Erik and Charles—"
Before she could continue her speech, something descended from the building and landed among the mutants.
Standing there imposingly, wearing a set of casual black clothes, black pants, black sneakers, a black coat, and a black shirt with a white bat symbol on the chest.
"Continue, Raven."
"…" Raven was genuinely terrified, and the same could be said for everyone around.
Before he appeared, there were many brave fools here. But in his presence, everyone simply discarded any thought of acting against him as something useless.
Even Sabretooth, who was usually the reckless one who attacked first, felt the urge to run as far away as possible. For someone deeply connected to instinct, being in Adrian's presence was like standing before a supreme predator that drove all his instincts insane.
…But of course, just because no one dared to attack didn't mean no one would.
"Get out of the way, trash!" A red giant kicked a mutant aside.
"I'm the Juggernaut!" He started running toward him.
"I'm Adrian."
"Nothing can stop me!"
"Are you sure?" He kept the same faint smile on his face.
"Yes!"
Like an unstoppable force, Juggernaut collided with Adrian… But nothing happened.
"Hmm, not bad. As the champion of that worm's dimension, you're decent… But in the end, that's all. It's not like you're the Hulk." Adrian spoke with boredom while holding the man with just one outstretched arm. Not even the ground around them was damaged.
"That's impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible, my friend. Especially in this universe. You just don't have enough strength to make the impossible possible."
Looking at him, Adrian remembered the sister of that bald fool… Hopefully she would come out of whatever hole she was hiding in so he could kill her. He also had to see if Legion existed in this reality.
My God, that man's family was complicated.
Suddenly, before everyone's eyes, Juggernaut began shrinking… more specifically, he began rejuvenating nonstop until he became nothing more than a drop of sperm and disappeared into atoms.
Everyone looked at the scene in horror. All traces that Juggernaut had ever existed were gone except for the red jewel on the ground, which immediately began floating and disappeared into the sky.
Adrian watched coldly and didn't even try to stop it.
With the same smile on his face, he said:
"Well, thanks for gathering everyone. As you know, mutants are going through many difficulties right now~."
"The bird having his midlife crisis killed the indecisive bald man, and I killed your emo boyfriend. Suddenly you lost two of your useless leaders. Now comes the decision—ah, but before that."
"Miss witch, I have no ill will toward you or your brother."
He looked at Wanda, who was holding chaos magic in her hand.
"But I know it's hard to believe me after this display… If you want, you can leave."
"…What are you going to do with them?"
"Do you care that much?" he asked amused.
"…I." She bit her lips.
'Yes, they helped rescue my brother… but it was more of a mutual exchange than help.'
"Remember, Miss Witch. I am not the villain in this story. You should know very well what kind of people are in this meeting, and what kind of person their leader was."
Wanda bit her lips and nodded.
"…I don't care."
"Have a good day, dear witch."
Adrian stepped aside to let her leave.
Wanda pulled her brother and quickly left the place. When she closed the door, Adrian's expression turned neutral, and his eyes glowed red like two beacons of power.
"…Now."
"Let's clean the trash."
Everyone with heinous crimes on record, or who killed innocents for pleasure, disappeared under a concentrated blast of laser.
Running away was impossible. Even if they tried, the entire place was sealed by quantum magic.
Soon a scene straight out of The Boys appeared.
Everything turned into fresh meat.
Adrian had to lower his evaluation criteria, because no one in the Brotherhood was a saint. Raven herself had a long criminal record. So everyone who died were those who committed heinous crimes.
Sabretooth was the first to die.
Every year on Logan's birthday, that man committed genocide and sent it as a gift to Wolverine. He also had the highest number of heinous crimes.
Raven could only watch in silence as the monster killed them one by one in cold blood.
…
In the end, only Raven remained from the Brotherhood.
The rest who were alive were new recruits who hadn't committed crimes yet, but they weren't at the meeting.
Of course Adrian didn't forget to collect everyone's genes.
The only one he didn't take was Wanda's. He didn't want to mess with chaos magic.
He was very happy with quantum magic, thank you very much.
Surprisingly, despite having many crimes, this Raven didn't have any heinous crimes on the list.
She hadn't abused minors. She hadn't killed children. She didn't feel pleasure in killing.
Yes, she had killed innocents during infiltration missions, but if Adrian didn't lower his criteria, he would have to deal with all those brats, and he didn't want that.
Adrian healed them and absorbed their powers.
He would help them have better lives, so he needed a manager.
Ah, but more importantly, he finally got Raven's genes! Now he could create his Cortana with blue beauty and everything!
Of course he wouldn't make her exactly like this woman. Her skin looked like it had scales because of her mutation. What he would create would be more like the skin of a Twi'lek from Star Wars.
Another thing Adrian found interesting was that this Raven didn't have a lesbian relationship with that old seer she was married to in some versions.
What a shame. He wanted that woman's powers.
Although he doubted if they would work. And if he wanted to see multiple futures, he just needed to get the Time Stone.
So her power wasn't really useful… Meh, forget it.
"Please don't look at me like that. I'm not a monster." He spoke in an offended tone.
Raven simply looked at the door where they had been before and then back at him.
Words weren't necessary.
Her gaze already accused him.
"You want me to list all their crimes? Or their crimes don't matter because the people they killed weren't mutants?"
He narrowed his eyes at her.
"…."
She wanted to say it didn't matter, but she knew that would be her death sentence.
"Understand this, Raven. You're only alive because I need a manager to deal with those kids you rescued from Hydra."
"And because in the future I'll destroy more mutant research stations, and I don't want them to become Eric's weapons or get close to the unstable bird."
He could give them to Emma, but that would be worse.
He didn't trust that witch at all.
Even without telepathy, her charm was too strong.
Sending a bunch of teenagers to a woman who dressed like a luxury prostitute was basically asking them to be manipulated.
In the end, she would try to build an army like Magneto.
Raven was better.
She was more controllable and more loyal if someone held her leash tightly enough.
"…If you're going to rescue mutants, the Brotherhood could have helped you."
"Don't treat me like a fool, Raven. Eric would have used my help to increase his soldiers or tried to use me for his plans."
"Erik and Charles are two of the most incompetent leaders I've ever seen."
"Charles ruined lives because he thought he knew too much and almost unleashed the Phoenix to destroy the planet."
"And Eric is an idiot who gathers manipulable youths and turns them into monsters."
"Pyro is an example. He was just an arrogant teenager who thought he knew too much. Eric worsened his temperament and turned him into a murderer who enjoys killing and watching flesh burn."
"Everyone Eric touched, he corrupted."
"He didn't care about them. He just wanted useful tools for his plans."
That was Magneto's essence.
Adrian hated Disney's tendency to humanize villains.
A villain is a villain.
Imagine if Frieza had some tragic past about abuse or something like that. He would lose all his imposing presence.
Because of that, Adrian liked Sukuna.
Even though his fight dragged on for more than sixty chapters, at least his personality was consistent.
He was evil.
He was a villain.
And that was fine.
There were bad people in the world. Not everyone needed a tragic story to make some girl cry for them.
As Alfred said in Nolan's movie:
Some people just want to watch the circus burn.
"Now, I'm not saying I'm a saint. I consider myself just a normal person with too much power. I don't want to be a hero. I don't want to be a villain. I just want to live my life as freely as possible."
"But I won't completely ignore my actions either."
"I know that without leaders and proper combat strength, the government and various organizations will just capture mutants and use them like cattle."
"I intend to solve the mutant problem and kill the alien parasite."
"In return, you will become the leader of an institution I founded."
"Since I eliminated your two useless leaders, it's only fair that I do something in exchange."
"…Parasite?" Raven ignored everything else.
"Yes."
"You didn't know."
"Tell me, Raven. Didn't you find it strange?"
"The world is chaotic. There are beings like Sentry, Wonder Man, Hercules, Adam Warlock, and demons like Ghost Rider."
"Why does no one have prejudice against them?"
"Why is the reaction always so disproportionate whenever mutants appear in the news?"
"Is it really just prejudice?"
"We're in the age of heroes. Everyone knows aliens exist. They've even visited Earth."
"So why are mutants always the targets?"
"…You're saying it's deliberate?" Raven spoke in horror.
"Yes."
"An alien parasite hates the existence of mutants because we have resistance to it, and they can't control us."
"Because of that, they incite prejudice so we will act in ways that make everyone hate us."
"…This…"
Raven was speechless.
Could something like that really exist?
Adrian wouldn't lie.
And that reasoning explained many things.
My God, how had no one noticed this?
"Don't worry about it. I'll solve it. Just like I'll kill a doctor who likes doing experiments… though that will be difficult."
Doctor Sinister was like a cockroach, just like the High Evolutionary.
You never knew if he was really dead because he had countless clones.
"Anyway, will you work for me?"
"…Do I have a choice?"
"Of course you do, my dear. Everyone has a choice."
He smiled gently.
"You can accept and help me with the mutants I rescue… or you can go straight to hell and sit on the devil's lap. It's not like it would be the first time you've done that."
He let out a small chuckle.
Raven tightened her lips.
This man was truly hateful.
"I accept."
"Goooood."
…
Adrian settled things with Raven and gave her an initial investment of one billion dollars.
Then he helped her and the mutant children move to a hidden location in California.
"Do you know why I hate you?" Adrian said while looking at the children with gentle eyes.
Raven, disguised as a sensual blonde, looked at Adrian with a neutral expression.
Even though she hadn't known him long, she knew the question wasn't rhetorical.
"It's because the moment a mutant awakens, you force them into two choices."
"Two terrible choices."
"On one side, you become a murderer."
"On the other, you become an idiot manipulated by Charles."
"If I didn't have my powers and chose Charles's school, I would have to listen day and night to that bald man preaching his delusional ideals."
"If I chose the Brotherhood, I would become a mindless soldier for Magneto."
"Two gay lovers sucking each other's dicks while satisfying their egos using the fuel of innocent lives." He snorted.
"That's why I'm doing this."
He pointed to the enormous mansion.
"Here, they will truly have a choice."
"The decision will be entirely theirs."
"The problem with mutation? I can solve that easily."
"If they want, I can even remove their mutation."
"What I want to give them is simple."
"And something those two maniacs never thought of because of their inflated egos."
"A simple damn choice."
"Children should play, make mistakes, and be scolded for it."
"They shouldn't go to a damn war caused by two old men."
"Teenagers should be idiots."
"They should fail to confess to their crush, get rejected, and cry about it."
"They should play sports, play video games, and prepare for their future."
"They should just be normal teenagers."
"Not listening to nonsense from a bald man talking about coexistence."
He spat the last word with disdain.
"You insult them too much. Don't you believe in coexistence?"
"That's what annoys me."
"Why are you separating yourselves from humans?"
"Are mutants some new species of shark or something?"
"Aren't mutants human?"
That was what irritated him about mutants.
They talked so much about the subject as if they weren't human.
As if they were some kind of alien.
But maybe it was humanity's inherent prejudice.
In his past world, people fought because of skin color.
In this world with humans who had different powers, it was natural the same thing happened.
"Don't you see your own prejudice?"
"The moment Charles talked about coexistence, he was wrong."
Adrian touched Raven's shoulder.
Her mutation immediately began leaving her body.
Soon she was just a normal human.
"With just one touch from me, you're no different from any normal human."
"…Let me go." She trembled, visibly uncomfortable when she felt something fundamental leaving her.
"Powerful Avengers superheroes are human."
"Mutants are human."
"Even those fish under the sea are human."
"You just evolved differently."
"But without a doubt, you are all human."
"Of course, I fit that description too… probably."
Adrian didn't even know what his biology was anymore.
He was probably some new half-Klyntar species considering Venom was fundamentally part of his biology.
…
Thirty minutes later Adrian had already left, and Raven fell onto the bed.
"Today was the worst day of my life," she said tiredly.
So many things had happened.
For a moment she thought she would die.
Instead she received a moral lecture from someone two hundred years younger than her.
And she couldn't react or say anything because she was too afraid of the man.
She had just acted like an obedient little girl while accepting all his requests, all because she feared dying horribly like everyone else today.
"…Mutants are human, huh…"
She turned and stared at the ceiling thoughtfully.
Many things shocked her today.
Especially the existence of the parasite supposedly responsible for most discrimination.
But the other was Adrian's way of thinking about mutants.
He wasn't chasing some grand cause of peace.
Nor preaching mutant superiority.
He simply wanted to give every mutant who awakened in this crazy world a choice.
He probably didn't even realize how attractive that idea was.
Even she felt influenced.
They had been so focused on their leaders' great cause that they ignored ordinary mutants who didn't care about any of it and just wanted normal lives.
Raven was tired.
Yes, she wanted the best for her people.
But she was tired of killing.
Of the intrigues.
Of seeing humanity's filth.
Maybe it was good that Eric died…
She had never said those thoughts out loud, but deep down she felt relieved.
Maybe following him wouldn't be a bad idea…
Slowly she drifted into unconsciousness.
Soon she fell asleep.
....
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