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Chapter 151 New York Police Officers
After Bucky and Natasha left, No. 56, Waterfront District descended into stillness once more.
Three minutes…
Five minutes…
Ten minutes…
Finally, NYPD Commissioner O’Neal arrived with a huge squad of police officers. Only then did the officers stationed at No. 56 find their backbone.
“What’s the current situation? Where’re the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents?” O’Neal questioned a team leader who was dispatched early on.
The team leader briefly described what happened before the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived and continued, “After those from S.H.I.E.L.D. entered, a huge explosion occurred on the rooftop and the entire tenth floor was blasted apart, sending it flying high into the sky!”
The team leader raised his arms high, attempting to make his description even more convincing. “Then, the green monster was gone and the four-limbed monster was blown up before hanging onto the wall. Spider-man was prepared to finish off the four-limbed monsters, but those from S.H.I.E.L.D. suddenly attack Spider-man. He seemed to have shouted a couple of words to those agents. But the wind was too strong, I couldn’t hear it, but I reckoned he was persuading them.”
When speaking about Spider-man, the leader was rather agitated, becoming even more talkative. “After that, Spider-man got angry and jumped onto the rooftop and then those agents went silent. Probably got wrecked! And then, he tried to kill that four-limbed monster, but that monster was quite powerful. Both of them fought with each other equally, punch after punch…”
As if transforming into Spider-man, the leader’s saliva was spitting all over places as his hand waved around.
“To the point!” Burrowing his brows, O’Neal interrupted the leader.
Being interrupted, the leader was rueful and had an unsatisfied expression. But he knew he couldn’t offend his superior and added, “Then, Spider-man and that monster entered a stalemate. Soon after, a golden circle suddenly appeared behind the monster and that monster vanished into thin air.”
“Vanish?!” O’Neal was flabbergasted and kept questioning, “Did you see anything else?”
“Oh right! There was a black shadow flying in the sky. But the shadow was too fast and coupled with the power outage, I can’t see it properly with just moonlight. So, I’m not sure.”
O’Neal’s brows buried deeper and didn’t blame his subordinates for speaking vaguely and unclearly. Everything that happened tonight was too bizarre and spine-chilling. If it wasn’t for Spider-man’s presence that gave the group of police officers their courage, they probably would pee in their pants when facing this crazy occurrence.
Now that every involved party vanished into thin air, O’Neal was stumped as well. But after listening to the leader’s description, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents most likely were still upstairs. Thus, he waved his hand and shouted, “Follow me upstairs.”
The squad of officers held onto their torchlight and promptly followed the commissioner’s pace and soon reached the ninth floor, “rooftop”, soon.
On the “rooftop”, there were a total of eight people, not one more or less. All of them were encased by a thick layer of spider webs, either lying flat or hanging, immobilized. O’Neal hurriedly let someone check them and learned they were just unconscious, thus letting out a sigh of relief.
However, he had no way to remove the web and instructed, “Find someone to guard this building and don’t let anyone up. Once the web dissolves and if the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents still remain unconscious, call the medics and send them to the hospital.”
O’Neal surveyed the beehived ninth floor and felt his head pounding. This was where the mayor was living. When the police department received the initial report, it was from the mayor’s personal rapid emergency line.
And now, not only the mayor was nowhere to be found, even the four-limbed monster trying to murder the mayor was gone. Nobody knew where the hell that monster came from. Nobody knew the well-being of the mayor.
Regardless, as the NYPD commissioner, O’Neal must know!
If O’Neal was unable to resolve this issue, he figured his position was in danger. Having this thought, he looked at the eight agents sprawling all over the place and felt his blood boiling.
‘Since you’re from a special agency, your authority is much greater than normal officers! But why are you doing things recklessly?! You can’t even judge the situation! If you didn’t attack Spider-man and were assisting him instead. Maybe Spider-man would’ve taken that four-limbed monster down! Haven’t you agents heard of the phrase, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man”?!’
Even though O’Neal was fuming, his basic professionalism was still there. He was cursing the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents within his heart while investigating the ninth floor for any lead. All of a sudden, his torchlight swept past a broken piece of floor slabs, which seemed to have something beneath it. Something was glistening under the shine of the torchlight.
“Call a couple of people over, move this piece of floor slab away.”
As the floor slab was moved aside, O’Neal finally had a clear view of the item with the light from his torchlight. It was a broken mechanical claw. The claw had four blades, each incomparably sharp.
He lifted the mechanical claw with his hands but failed to budge it. The entirety of the claw was made out of pure metal and was unusually heavy!
A light bulb lit in O’Neal’s mind as he hastily ran towards the edge of the floor. As he expected there were deep claw marks carved into the wall. This made him full of surprise as if discovered the key to this deadlock. If he could retrace the claw marks, then he was certain of finding the four-limbed monster’s origin, ultimately the identity of the culprit.
O’Neal was indeed someone worthy of being the commissioner, rather intelligent and keen.
“A couple of you, come and follow me to retrace the claw marks to find its origin.” O’Neal was unwavering in executing his work. This was one of his strengths.
However, before he could go down, someone stormed up. O’Neal took a gaze and the one who came up was an old man filled with white hair. It was Mayor Osborn’s butler, Bernard.
Brimmed with anxiety, Bernard immediately asked, “Commissioner O’Neal, where’s Mayor Osborn?”
“My apology, Mr. Bernard. Currently, we have yet to discover tracks of Mayor Osborn. Our preliminary judgment is that Mayor Osborn has gone missing.” O’Neal answered Bernard in a standard replying format.
Bernard scanned over the devastated rooftop with listless eyes. Judging from his expression, he probably was unaware of Norman’s secret and believed Norman was an ordinary person.
“Commissioner O’Neal, can you send someone to check underneath the ruins? Perhaps…” Bernard was depressed as he believed under this destructiveness, Master Osborn was void of any chance of survival. Moreover, the monster was aiming at Master Osborn to begin with.
“Mr. Bernard, the fire department is on its way. They will begin clearing the rubbles soon.” O’Neal added, “Besides, I already found a clue about the culprit and am preparing to lead a team to investigate the culprit’s identity. Please patiently wait for the news from us and take care of yourself.”
After explaining for a bit, O’Neal hurriedly led his squad to search for the claw marks.
As Bernard headed downstairs, he was akin to an empty husk, lifeless. He had served the Osborn family for half of his life and watched Norman grow up. Right now, he was thoroughly heartbroken.
Nonetheless, Bernard understood his current responsibility. With Norman’s condition being uncertain, the utmost thing at the moment was to call Young Master Harry to return from Europe to stabilize Oscorp.
Pulling out a phone, Bernard tremulously dialed Harry’s number.
“Hi, this is Harry. I’m unavailable right now but please leave a message.”
But there’s a time difference between the U.S. and Europe. Maybe Harry was busy with other stuff and unable to pick up Bernard’s call.
Taking a deep breath, Bernard pressed the voicemail button, “Young Master Harry, it’s Bernard. Something happened to Mr. Osborn. If you receive this message, please call back immediately. Oscorp needs you.”