Chapter 13: Arc 1: Chapter 13: The Human Realm

As CCPD's officer Joe West and his colleagues rush to the site where the train had derailed, countless reporters have already gathered outside the broken railroad.

These guys came so quickly, not 30 minutes after the survivors got out; they had already arrived on the scene from Central City.

Derailing accidents are already hard to come by, especially for a small city like Central City; there wouldn't be a single case even in a few years.

This, of course, draws the attention of the media.

Of course, their main concern other than the quick rescue and the large number of survivors was on something else.

"My God, did they use a bomb here?"

The young officer West sees the tunnel entrance, blocked by all kinds of cargo and train carriages, as well as the hole that was blown through the center; this capable black officer could only exclaim.

"No, Joe."

A reporter who's familiar with officer West had just finished his report and looked at the officer with suspicion:

"These aren't the traces left by a bomb, you know, I was in the military as a Demoman..., unless the survivors had called a tank, they would need a lot of explosives to blast such a massive hole into a 7meter wide blockade. Not to mention this smoothly."

The reporter squint's his eyes as he looks at the cooled down metal around the massive hole, light flashes in his eyes, he says:

"Undoubtedly, this is something supernatural!"

"Undoubtedly, you've just experienced a supernatural case, little girl."

With his black briefcase, Agent Nick Fury takes off his sunglasses and looks at the stubborn little girl in front of him with an awkward face.

The latter sits on her suitcase, drinking coffee without a care in the world, and is covered by a rug. Her mother sits beside her daughter with a face of worry, looking at the cold man in front of her warily.

"Over ten people have told me, little girl, that you were the first to discover the man who blasted the hole."

Fury crouches down, trying to make his expression look more gentle.

But as an ex-elite soldier, along with the sharpness developed from being a military intelligence officer, he truly was not fit to act the role of a 'nice uncle'.

The mischievous little girl in front of him ignores him completely; she isn't even scared of him.

Fury patiently tells the little girl, who had turned her face aside:

"So you must've seen something, little girl. I'm here to help you, so no matter what you saw, you should tell me."

"But I didn't see anything."

The girl sits on the suitcase, and while wobbling her legs back and forth, she looks at the Fury in front of her with her head tilted and says coldly:

"I heard a noise, I ran over to it, then I saw the big hole...and then all the uncles and aunties came, and then we were saved. I told the same to the pretty miss reporter just now. Why won't you believe me!"

The little girl became seemingly angry; she turned to her mother and begged pitifully:

"Mom, mom, these Americans are annoying! I don't like it here; let's go home."

"Alright, alright, my poor baby."

The mother, who still has a bandage on her head, bends down and carries her beloved daughter in her arms. She glares at the innocent Fury and tells her daughter:

"We'll head for London immediately, baby; your father must be worried sick."

Then, ignoring the awkward-looking Fury, she drags her luggage and leaves.

The clever girl lies on her mother's shoulder and proudly makes a face at agent Fury; with her childish voice, she shouts:

"Goodbye, tall uncle."

"And my name is not little girl; it's Hermione! Hermione Jean Granger! Good luck, sir!"

Fury watches as miss Hermione leaves, his experience tells him that the little girl in front of him knows the inside story about the supernatural incident, but still, he can't interrogate a little girl.

Fury may have seen his fair share of darkness, even leading many of those operations himself.

But he sees himself as someone with a bottom line.

The agent looks at the briefcase at hand, in it was a dangerous object he had just collected in Chicago, and 6 hours after the explosion, another supernatural incident occurred in the area of Central City, not far from Chicago.

Fury thinks this not as a coincidence.

He looks back at the hole blasted at the tunnel entrance; it reminded him of a similar explosion that happened in Chicago.

He has a hunch that these two events are by the same creature.

Yet he has no evidence.

"Hey, hands off! You damn bastards!"

A voice resounds behind Fury; the agent looks back and sees an elderly man on a stretcher, quarreling with a few CCPD officers.

The elderly man seemed to be injured, but he was like a lion from the way he acted.

"As I said, I don't know anything, and I don't remember anything! As you can see, I'm just a pitiful old man, probably with amnesia or something, so get off my skin!"

"Mr. Stan, we mean you no harm; we just want you to describe..."

"Screw off! Don't touch me! I have my rights!"

Seeing the elderly man on the stretcher begins to swing his cane to drive away from the innocent police officers, Fury shakes his head,

There's nothing left to see here, and he has no interest in the quarrels between an elderly man and the police.

His only lead related to this supernatural event is about to depart from the US to London, which means there's no point for agent Fur to extend his stay.

The SSR is very busy, and this institution maintained for over 50 years now seeks transformation; there is little time for a senior agent like Fury to waste.

He puts on his sunglasses, looks around, and enters a black car, and as the engines buzz, agent Fury soon leaves the site and enters the highway.

He has a gut feeling that the creature that caused these two odd explosions will reappear sooner or later.

He just has to wait, patiently.

"Killing a fraud and then saving more than 230 people. So few casualties with such a serious case of derailing, with some leaving unharmed, even. Is this truly a blessing of God, or perhaps...something else?"

Fury drives as he thinks. He suddenly steps on the brakes, causing the car to come to a halt by the road.

Agent Fury realizes a vital factor.

He opens and reads the file.

"Mm, a few people left unharmed?"

Fury's squinted eyes shine:

"That's right, he left..."

Thinking quick and acting quicker, he picks up his phone and dials a number.

"Officer Joe West? My name is Nick Fury, a senior agent of the Scientific Strategic Reserve. I need you to dispatch officers and search the perimeter around the tunnel! Yes! Immediately!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Central City, a small city, located in the northern region of America, getting here from Chicago by train takes approximately 6 hours.

This little-known city was once a famous space rocket R&D city; even as the plans for space exploration are gradually ending, Central City still houses multiple world-class tech labs.

You are reading story The Path of Shadow in American Comics at novel35.com

This is a city of literature, and the people who live here, are proud of said literacy.

But to be honest, the weather here is not good at this point and time.

This morning, heavy rain had descended Central City and its neighboring areas. The rain was so heavy that even the cleanup of the center of discussion, the train tunnelway, and the police's search had to be temporarily delayed.

Other than madmen and homeless people, almost no one would travel under the rain.

Merlin belonged to the latter.

He was currently curled up at the corner of a street way in Central City with a dirty rug.

Although most of the rain had stopped, there were still little raindrops falling onto Merlin's already chilling face and body, and causing him to feel a chill down his spine for the malicious intent fate has in store for him.

Walking from the railroad outside the city to the urban area of Central City under the cold rain was a terrible experience.

Even worse, Merlin thinks that he is sick.

Like someone sick with a cold, Merlin felt that his entire body was aching and that his bones were feeble.

Even though he had tightened his clothes, Merlin still could not feel a hint of warmth. He feels a freezing chill emit from his bones and onto his body, he curls in the corner, trembling from the cold.

With each breath was visible cold air.

This was definitely not due to the rain.

Merlin assumes that it's related to him getting dragged into two mana rampages in a short duration. It was the power inside him 'warning' him, as his current physical strength could not withstand two simultaneous mana explosions.

It was like overdrawing his future like a madman.

"It's...time to go."

Merlin struggled to get up; he felt as if he was completely frozen. But he has stayed here for long enough, and he must leave before his misfortune starts to accumulate.

The time limit of 6 hours forces Merlin to think of a way out.

It had been a very long time since he has had a good sleep.

His condition, both physically and mentally, were at their limits.

And as we know, under extreme tiredness, an average person should rest instead of running around because it's dangerous...

Like now, for example.

"Ah!"

As Merlin prepares to cross the street, a scream follows the flash of car lights; then, Merlin feels as though he was pushed forcefully, flying into the air, and then...

His vision darkens.

Before losing consciousness, Merlin could hear panicking voices; it seemed to belong to a couple.

"Henry, Henry! Oh god, I killed someone, I killed someone!"

"No, dear, calm down, he's still alive, this young man just took a scratch...don't worry, I'm a doctor, after all, I'll save him. Come on, help me lift him onto the car."

"No!"

Merlin desperately struggles, but he is too tired, and he really, really needs to rest.

"But...time's almost up."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merlin felt as though he was lying in the bathtub in Coulsons' farm, leisurely enjoying his afternoon while bathing in the warm sun in Wisconsin.

It felt great, and it was as though he had regressed to when he was 15, spending his most wonderful life without worries.

There seemed to be someone singing; it was a song he had never heard before; it was an elegant and sweet female voice.

In the singing, Merlin slowly opens his eyes.

He sees not the warm sunlight; instead, he sees an unfamiliar white tile pattern.

Merlin was at a loss; he turned and looked around, finding him to be lying in a bathtub, just not in a place he's familiar with.

He could still feel his back aching a bit, but his physical and mental fatigue was gone.

After a long rest, it was like he had been revived.

Merlin stands from the bathtub; as he steps out of the bathtub, he notices a set of clothes by the bathtub. Those clothes were not his but were clean; they had the scent of sunlight on it.

Merlin puts on the slightly larger clothing, dries his hair, and looks at himself through the mirror; the black circles that appeared due to lack of rest were nowhere to be seen.

After slopping around for nearly a month, aside from his messy, uncut beard, he had become the clean and calm Merlin he once was.

It was like...

Going to hell and back.

"Oh, you're awake?"

The bathroom doors open, a tall and big man, who's wearing an apron, seeming to be cooking, enters.

He looks at the Merlin in front of the mirror and lets out a bright and slightly apologetic smile.

He had messy brown hair; his always cheerful eyes and prominent nose gave him a gentle charm. He seemed to be a pleasant gentleman and a good husband.

"You're the ones who saved me?"

Merlin looks back at the man, his expression slightly heavy, and asks:

"How long was I out for? Did anything...bad happen?"

"Oh, you've slept for around 18 hours, everything's fine, nothing weird had happened...at first, I thought you were unconscious from internal bleeding, but it was simply you being too tired."

The man scratches his head, looking at Merlin's somewhat odd eyes, and says embarrassingly:

"It's our fault; I shouldn't have let my wife take the wheel..."

As he speaks, he wipes his hands on his apron and extends his hand towards Merlin:

"Let's get acquainted formally; I'm a doctor, the name's Henry."

"Henry Allen."

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find story with these keywords: The Path of Shadow in American Comics, Read The Path of Shadow in American Comics, The Path of Shadow in American Comics novel, The Path of Shadow in American Comics book, The Path of Shadow in American Comics story, The Path of Shadow in American Comics full, The Path of Shadow in American Comics Latest Chapter