If you want to help me financially, you can do it on
https://ko-fi.com/neverluckysmile
After Arthur and Brock left the prison block, they didn't return to Camp Lehigh. Instead, they headed to the surveillance room.
Every movement within the cells was displayed clearly on the monitors, so Arthur could see the Mandarin deep in thought, as well as Treis, who was still rolling helplessly on the ground.
"What's this about?" Brock looked at the screen, puzzled.
"Oh, nothing really. I'm just curious, what does a person do when caught between extreme despair and extreme curiosity?"
Arthur's gaze drifted back to Treis.
"What do you think, what kind of interaction will they have?"
"I don't know. Honestly, I don't even know if this is something worth paying attention to," Brock said. "Compared to that, don't we have a lot of other things we need to get done?"
"Fair point!" Arthur nodded. "Alright, let someone else keep an eye on this. We'll see if the Mandarin still has any value left to squeeze out."
"That old guy?" Brock blinked. "Who is he really?"
"Just a notoriously infamous terrorist leader," Arthur replied. "But he's far more dangerous than the others. Honestly, that fight with him, was probably one of the most dangerous battles I've ever had."
"Doesn't look like it now."
"That's the strange part," Arthur said, turning back to the monitor showing Treis.
"The Life Foundation must have realized by now that he's gone. The real question is, what will they do next?"
Brock shook his head. "Is he really that important?"
"In a company like the Life Foundation, someone with his role usually knows a lot of secrets," Arthur explained. "Which means his whereabouts, and whether he's alive or dead, are extremely important. These people are the ones who do the dirty work for corporations like that. You can bet they care about what happens to him."
Then Arthur gave a slight smirk. "If you ever wanted to take down the Life Foundation, he's the most direct route."
Brock was about to respond, but then blinked and said: "But what you have in mind clearly isn't that simple."
"The Life Foundation…" Arthur chuckled. "We'll see. Right now, Treis isn't particularly useful. But once our logistics team finishes digging into all the Life Foundation's data, he might suddenly become a lot more valuable. Maybe. I'm not sure myself, I'm not a prophet, after all."
As he spoke, Arthur sighed and rubbed his brow in frustration.
"Honestly… I just don't have the energy to handle all these side issues anymore."
Brock looked thoughtful, then exhaled. "I'm starting to respect you more and more."
"Is it my charisma?" Arthur nodded with satisfaction. "You know, I had pretty much given up on the idea that I'd ever have any of that."
"No… You really don't," Brock said quickly.
Arthur gave him a deadpan look of utter defeat.
Brock quickly waved his hands.
"But! You do have… vision. Like that woman said, your ideals are grand. If we just stick to your goals, rally a bunch of weirdos, monsters, and freaks to follow your lead, maybe our kids won't have to worry about alien invasions in the future."
Arthur rolled his eyes and thought about it for a long moment.
Something still felt off about the way he said that.
"I suggest that after joining us, you sign up for a class," Arthur said, standing up.
Brock immediately straightened up seriously: "What class? Is there something I need to brush up on? I'm totally willing to learn new skills."
"Mm, sign up for a flattery training course," Arthur said. "At least then, your bootlicking won't be so obvious. It'll be smoother and less awkward. And you won't look so clumsy doing it."
"…That's a personal attack!"
"Yup. What are you gonna do about it?"
"Good lord, are all superheroes like this?"
"Yep, this is exactly what we're like. What are you gonna do about it?"
"Wanna see if I tell Venom to bite your head off?"
"He can't do that… so what are you gonna do about it?"
As they bickered, muttering and grumbling at each other, the two of them left the base and returned to Camp Lehigh.
The quest of monitoring the two prisoners at the sub-base had been handed off smoothly; there were already specialized personnel in place to handle that kind of thing.
As long as nothing unexpected happened, Arthur didn't plan to concern himself with it further.
After all, he still had plenty on his plate… There was still that receding-hairline uncle over in Asgard, longing desperately for Arthur to come pick him up and lead him into a new chapter of life.
Compared to that, the Mandarin situation was pretty much settled. All that was left was to see if he had any residual value, nothing that required Arthur's direct involvement anymore.
Back at Camp Lehigh, things were relatively calm for the rest of the day. Arthur let Brock roam around on his own. His room had already been assigned, so he could come back and rest whenever he got tired.
However, two Mark units were still following him, just in case Venom suddenly went feral and decided to snack on a couple of researchers. That was absolutely not allowed.
Arthur, meanwhile, curled up in his room, doing absolutely nothing.
After a while, he got bored and decided to step out and message Lily, and while he was at it, he also sent a message to Spider-Man to check in.
The response from Spidey was promising.
Apparently, Gwen's patience had limits, and with Arthur having vanished for so long, she wasn't going to wait around much longer. In a few more days, she'd probably call it quits.
With that confirmed, Arthur felt satisfied.
Then, he went online… to look for a house.
He decided it was time to buy a big house, something at least comparable to Tony's seaside mansion.
He had been too busy before to even consider it. In fact, he'd mentioned this to Lily more than once.
Now that he was finally browsing, he found a lot of promising options, but they all looked great, and he couldn't decide which one to pick. So the whole afternoon passed with him comparing properties and chatting with Lily about them.
The next morning, bright and early, Natasha sent news: She had found the address of the little girl's family.
A missing child, her parents must've been on the verge of a breakdown. In fact, not only had they filed a police report, they were preparing to contact the media, planning to run ads in newspapers and even go on TV to search for their daughter.
Arthur thought to himself: This can't be delayed any longer.
Luckily, Brock also needed to return to San Francisco that day to take care of some business.
So, the two of them simply stepped onto a teleportation circle together. With a flash of light, they appeared in a remote area on the outskirts of San Francisco.