Chapter 587 - Failed Delivery

In one of the many houses constructed within Queens borough, one of them was visited by a group of PD vehicles and two ambulances. Outside her home, Mj sat on the back of the ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her shivering body. Her gaze still locked on the doors of her home as her brain continued to play back the scene where she found her father... no, she didn't even consider the man her father anymore, dead or alive. Tracing her hands over to her neck which still stung, Mj took a deep breath. She felt nothing. No fear, no pain, no hate, no love, nothing. Not for the dead, at least. With her other hand touching her abdominal region, she thought carefully about her counter, "Does that gem reduce my feelings? Is it some kind of reactor," Even she didn't know what she was saying.

"What did the girl say?" Detective Colt looked at his junior as he scratched his head with an unnerved expression. "Same thing, sir. She got a phone call from her younger sibling before the call was disconnected instantly. She only called 911 once she had almost reached her home but by that time it was too late. Her sister was found in the living room. Cause of death— Stab wound almost reaching her left lung. Meanwhile, the mother is hypothesized to have died much later. It was if the killer..."

"Wanted to make the mother suffer." The detective looked at the pool of dried blood with a deep scowl touching his face, "And how did that crazy bastard die?" Gulping, the cop showed the message from the forensic team. "His brain was cooked? How can that—" Detective looked outside towards Mj's location and found the guard next to her collapsed and the redhead herself nowhere to be seen. "Where is she?" Detective's exclamation instantly attracted a few cops on the scene. At this moment, the junior's phone rang. It was his contact in the forensic team. Taking a step back and answering with a hushed whisper, his expression changed the moment he heard the news.

"Sir, the precinct was attacked! All the corpses from the morgue are robbed!"

---

"I have suffered too much today, including the fact that I came to this world," Near the empty house open to a sale, Mj crossed her arm and waited with her arms crossed. Her expression dull but unseen to the person keeping a rather keen eye on her. "You have my condolence," A voice echoed behind her as she stood without flinching for even a little bit. "Worry not, I do not wish to bring you more pain."

"You cannot," Mary muttered with her eyes gazing into the distance, "I don't believe I have anything to lose anymore."

"I propose to bring back what you lost today. My organization divined your existence and in return for your services, we shall bring your mother and sister back to life."

Looking back, finding a man in tight but efficient clothing, his body strapped with bladed weapons, Mj's first thought after her encounter was the most effective way of dismantling the mysterious enemy and use his weapons against him. She found 37 methods. "I do not enjoy getting stripped by a stranger's eyes. Please decide now."

"I need proof. I want to see for myself if you can bring back dead."

"That is acceptable. But you will be bound by our organization once you join and regardless of your morals and choices. Our task must be your priority."

"Not without proof," Mj stated without missing a beat as the man with a hood and a mask covering his face, only revealing his grey eyes, nodded. "Do you wish to meet your mother or your sister."

"Not them," Mj turned and finally faced the man, her green eyes not layered with beautiful crimson tint as a breeze blew in her direction, waving away her hair, "Philip Watson. I want him alive and left to my own discretion."

"It can be done." The man nodded and turned, "Well then, please follow me."

As Mj disappeared alongside the man, another piece of news shocked the entire police force of the city. Three departments had been attacked within the heart of the city with almost everyone present at the late hour within the precincts destroyed in the most gruesome fashion so much so that not a single visual of the tragedy was shown.

---

Outside Earth's atmosphere, surrounded by pitch-black darkness and minute reflections of celestial objects galaxies away, a space shuttle making its way back to the mother earth with the letter— L and F alongside the number 1— embedded on the front in bold blue letters. Suddenly, the tail of the shuttle exploded the moment the shuttle entered the atmosphere.

"LF1, LF1, report your status." Within a large space filled with scientists observing the shifts of the video feedback from the shuttle alongside a mainframe that was intended to assist in the landing of the shuttle, the head researcher instantly called for the mobilization and cleaning team. "Horns," pointing at the one responsible to extrapolate a safe path for the shuttle, the leader spoke, "Where will the shuttle land?" the leader inquired with a hurried expression as the man in question quickly ran the system and built the most probable pathway in the current circ.u.mstances.

"20 miles west of Sibu, sir."

"I am calling the boss. Meanwhile, get this information to Derek. He'll know what to do."

"Derek from the Cleaning Facility?"

"Yes!" The leader shouted with the roll of his eyes and scurried out of the control room. As the leader reached the exit marked with the name of the organization— Life Foundation— painted on the door, a loud scream could be heard from the burning shuttle that now blazed through the atmosphere. "Mayday— the specimen— krrshtt!" The call for help was replaced by cruel static frequency within moments.

The cleaner came and retrieved the information necessary for his tasks before leaving urgently while the rest of the doctors watched the shuttle finally crash into the predicted destination. After dozens of minutes, a youthful man walked into the control room with a cold expression. If looks could kill then his cold fury would bring ruin to everyone in this room. "Sir, the cleaning department has begun its operation." One of the female researchers followed as her words made the other controller pull the video transmitted from the location towards the largest screen in the room, showing a team clothes in orange-colored vacuum suits accompanied by the local police and the local employees of the organization.

"What about the specimens? Did they survive?" Carlton Drake, the sole owner of the Life Foundation Organization inquired hurriedly as the two researchers looked at each other. "Sir, only three of them have been found." She stated before a woman present on the site itself shouted in a hurry, pointing towards another direction where a man lay intact. "That's... Jameson!" Carlton exclaimed, "We need him alive no matter the cost."

"Yes, sir. We are relaying the information."

---

"It's been a week now," Nik kissed the top of Ann's head as she sighed softly, a little depressed by not being able to meet others. Harry had gone off-grid somehow, Peter was suddenly claimed to have left the world of the living by the government, well, she already knew about that. Mj had disappeared to and the worst part was that the police actually blamed Mj herself for the disappearance of the bodies of her family alongside others. But that particular accusation was merely a vocal one since no evidence pointed towards her but her absence didn't ease the situation. Gwen actually left for London to stay with her aunt for the vacation and get to know more about genes or something else of the studious nature. She was left with no girlfriend, virtually.

"I could try calling Cindy," Nik whispered as she instantly sat up, her gaze brightened, "Then hurry!" She shouted as the morning and afternoon for both, Nik and Anna were relatively boring. Nik had nothing to pursue to complete his objective and the occasional walks in the city brought him nothing of value. The rumors of the vigilante who was invisible and could destroy vehicles with the blink of its eyes had begun to rage however. In the entire week, Nik had stopped 17 s.e.x.u.a.l assaults, 4 robberies, and 23 muggings just because he had nothing better to do. After all, Ignit needed her meals, too. The worst part of all this was that Brandon had actually stopped playing the dealer which almost cost him his life and it burdened Mary for almost four days before she grew jovial once again.

So yeah, vacations were just a myth. Nik simply couldn't catch a break. "Son of the Daily Bugle's Jameson is confirmed to have died in the crash of the life foundation's space shuttle. The authorities have failed to provide any form of a concrete answer as to why the shuttle malfunctioned but this crash is categorized as an anomaly with Life Foundation already working on their next launch projects." As the news on the television echoed within the living room while Anna continued to seat on the table with her head lowered, Nik took out his phone and gave Cindy a call.

"Hello? Hey, Cindy? Yeah, I'm fine. What about your brother? Did he snoop in your room again?" Nik spoke and turned the call into the speaker mode before placing it on the table. "I'm telling you!" Cindy's disgruntled voice echoed through the room, "If Albert tries to confirm that I wear thongs like the girls in his videos, I'll rat him out to mom, big time!"

"But... do you?" Nik inquired as Cindy groaned, making Nik chuckled, "Anyway, Ann wants to talk to you. I'm switching on the speakers. Go."

"Anna? What's up?" Cindy inquired as Anna instantly cried, "Can we hang out? I can't stay here anymore! Let's go out and... well, the Korea Street has this new Karaoke. What you say?" Anna asked hurriedly as Cindy mumbled a few things under her breath. Before she could refuse, Natasha's voice surprisingly echoed through the call, "She'll be there. I'll even bring Ava, the more the merrier, you know. Ann, can you bring your mother there, too?"

"Yep!" She instantly nodded hurriedly, "I'll get mum, do you want Brandon to tag along? I can call him! He'll come running by!" Anna exclaimed as Natasha stifled a chuckle and replied in refusal. "Nah, let him be. Mary hooked him for a job so it's just gonna be your Aunt, Cindy, and Ava."

"Thanks!" Anna grinned while disconnecting the call while she hugged Nik tightly, "We've gotta learn some korean songs asap!"

"Uh, no we don't. We need to get Mary asap," Nik helped straighten Ann's priorities as Anna nodded and called her mother next.

On the other side of the call, Natasha handed Cindy's phone back to her as the woman going with the code name— Silk— snorted in dissatisfaction, making Natasha chortle, "If you want, you can always snatch your phone back from me. I doubt that it'll help though. They both then looked at the first monster to emerge— The Troll. Seeing the unconscious monster, Cindy realized her complicated position as she had now known from Ava that the traces of the remaining gene pool did belong to Hector. "Relax," Natasha smiled, "The team is already working on reverting Goblin. I shouldn't be telling you this but Ava would tonight in the first place. We're gonna turn your boyfriend back to normal. At least, presentable."

"Ex-boyfriend," Cindy emphasized. Her body posture suggested a great deal of a boost in her self-confidence as Natasha smiled and commanded, "Junior! That corner, too!" She pointed towards the edges of the back of Hector's enlarged neck as Brandon with the wiper in his hands grumbled, "This is not what I thought I would have to do in Stark Industries." Sighing to himself and recalling the extremely joyful look on Kiara's face as he commented on getting on the job at the industries, the annoyance in Brandon's heart grew. His mother was some sort of cool spy, he could understand that. He had seen enough movies to do so with just a few days of avoidance. But him getting pulled in cahoots with his aunt was never a part of the plan, at least, not body washing a monster.

"I'll just get my day's bonus and quit. To hell with cleaning troll balls," Mumbling to himself, Brandon also recalled Kiara's obsession with turning him into a legally upright citizen and her craze of status. Previously, he found it cute but now... "And to hell with that crazy bitch. I'll just date Wendy. She is super caring," Brandon decided while cleaning the gunk near Hector's neck, making the troll snarl softly as if he was m.o.a.ning in pleasure.

"Silk," Natasha didn't mind Junior's decisions. What he did was upto him and the location of Troll wasn't a secret anymore. In fact, to calm the public panic, S.H.I.E.L.D had already decided to use a scapegoat until they figured out what to do with Norman. Hearing Natasha's call, Cindy looked at her as the redhead grinned, "You can't wear bodysuits without thongs. Just own up to it... I even purchased the latest German collection, the make these crazy cut-outs—"

"I am not discussing lingeries with you!" The lady stomped her legs in annoyance.