Chapter 40: Arc 1: Chapter 37: Last Night In Oakland Pt. 1

Miss Carter was 60-years-old, she was exhausted after coming to Oakland from New York; her talk with Merlin was cut short so Fury had to do the rest of the work.

This seemingly nice elderly lady wasn't as kind as she appeared to be; in the short 30 minutes of their talk, she had used a smooth way of talking to dig into everything of his past 21-years.

Under her lead, Merlin had told her almost everything about his life.

Of course, Merlin didn't speak of the really important parts.

The Coulsons family, the Atlantean Vulko, and little Arthur, the female Wakandan warrior Okoye, and the Wayne family that had helped him, along with Bruce's whereabouts.

Things he promised to keep a secret on, he will keep it all to himself; a promise is a promise after all.

And Fury who took over Merlin and Miss Carter's conversation was a cunning one; he knew Merlin had been swayed by Miss Carter, so he no longer talks about it.

Instead, he generously opens a room for Merlin and tells him to get some rest; he gave him 3 days to consider before giving them an answer.

Frankly, Merlin was really tempted.

Not just because of Miss carter's encouragement, not just because of the substantial conditions Fury said.

He was tempted because of two main reasons; firstly, the S.S.R. indeed has the capability to help him make it through the transformation stage of the serum. According to Miss Carter, it took Captain America Steve Rogers nearly 3 months of training to fully master the power of the Super-Soldier serum's modifications to his body.

And it was due to Mr. Howard making a reasonable training program for Steve so that Captain America's potential could be discovered thus making him grow in the shortest time possible, and he became stronger throughout battle until he became the legendary hero everyone knows him as.

Secondly, Fury has not only once implied that the organization the Winter Soldier was working for was probably the official intelligence organization of the Soviet Union before its collapse; and due to the turmoil of the current political situation, this once powerful intelligence organization had depraved into mercenary or killer organizations.

Merlin had made his feud with the organization by killing its best killing machine, they will not stop coming after him.

Rather than having Merlin faces the aftereffects of killing the Winter Soldier alone, it's better for him to join the S.S.R. as they have the sufficient abilities to foil the organization's revenge towards Merlin.

Most importantly, Merlin had his own reasons.

After joining the S.S.R. he could lend their power in his quest to seek out the mythical wizards in order to permanently deal with the demonic powers inside him once and for all, or use scientific ways to free him of the perilous situation of being threatened by demons.

Half the work for double the efficiency.

But Merlin could not make up his mind yet.

His past experiences have taught him to be cautious, to think twice before making decisions, and to evaluate the situation.

He has a sort of uneasiness towards the future, though he knows not of where this uneasiness is coming from.

"You look like you didn't have a good sleep."

On the second morning, Merlin met Fury when he was having breakfast.

The latter was feasting away on a table by himself, there were other people eating around him, and by their expressions and movements, Merlin assumes that they're all agents who are here with Fury to protect Madam Carter.

"I didn't since you guys are here."

Merlin sat across from Fury with his breakfast, he looked at the senior agent who was cutting his bread, he had awful eating manners. Merlin even noticed that Fury had a weird way of cutting his bread; he didn't cut it diagonally which was easier, he instead cuts around the corners of the bread, which intrigued him, he asks:

"Why cut bread like this? Is this one of the regulations of the S.S.R.?"

Fury glanced at him and shakes his head, he says:

"I don't eat diagonally cut bread."

"Why not?"

Merlin pressed on, which Fury replies slightly irritatedly:

"Because I've seen triangular bombs disguised as bread on the dining table in the Vietnam War. Is that good enough for you?"

"Alright, alright."

Merlin did not keep asking as to avoid infuriating Fury, and just as he was about to start eating, Fury puts something on the table and pushes it towards Merlin; it was a black watch that seemed no different than a regular watch.

"This is for you."

Fury picks up the dining cloth and wipes his mouth, telling Merlin:

"Newest invention from the logistics department, in it is the latest GPS locator as well as a miniature bomb used for escaping captivity."

"Hmm?"

Merlin squints his eyes, he takes a bite of a fruit and picks up the watch, saying:

"You should know that if I really wanted to run, you can't ever catch me with this thing right? It won't harm me even if you trigger the bomb on it."

"So I didn't keep it's secret from you."

Fury did not mind, he takes a sip of the wine glass and says:

"Regardless of whether or not you accept our goodwill, you'll have to be under the S.S.R.'s watch; this thing is more of an expression of sincerity."

"Merlin, when you put it on, it means that you're willing to live in peace with us, it means that we'll be friends, at least close associates. Bringing it with you means that we'll know your location and that we can come to rescue you when you're in danger. That is if you're willing to let us know."

"Are agents usually so careful?"

Merlin snorts and replaces the old watch on his wrist with the new watch he had just been given in front of Fury.

His gesture makes Fury let out a smile. He stands up, pats on Merlin's shoulder, and places a stack of cash by his hand, saying:

"Although you're not an official member yet, here's your monthly salary and allowance, I'll give them to you in advance. So go have some fun, we'll inform you when it's time to leave."

Fury leaves the restaurant, Merlin looks around, and while chewing on his food, he picks up the stack of cash and counts it, before putting it into his pocket with satisfaction.

He finishes his soup, wipes his mouth, leaves a dollar note under the plate, and leaves the motel.

He had one last stop before leaving Oakland.

---

"Sigh, it's all been destroyed."

Merlin with his baseball cap stood at the entrance to the black neighborhood as if he was standing on post-war wreckage. As far as his eyes could see, at least one-fifth of the houses here had been utterly destroyed in the chaotic battle last night.

The apartment he once hid in had been blown up, nearly one-third of the building had collapsed, what remained of the apartment had a desolate vibe to it.

The surrounding area in the neighborhood had been completely cordoned, but there was no police officer here guarding the site, nor were there reporters here to report about the news; it was as if this entire block had been forgotten by the outside world.

Merlin could guess what had happened, the S.S.R. must've pressured the local media to not report what had happened here to cover it up, or to stop mass panic for the other residents of the city.

This was necessary information control, even in this modern society, humans are never too accepting about something.

If the local media had reported about such a serious event, it could spread chaos and fear among the people, even causing a chain of malignant events that shouldn't happen.

Merlin puts his hand in his pocket and walks across the debris-filled street, this place must've undergone emergency cleaning, so there are no signs of dead bodies, guns, or blood; of course, in some unseen corners of the street, some bloodstains could still be seen.

And as Merlin opens his second sight, he could see that even under the sunlight, there were weak little phantoms drifting around the debris. They wandered aimlessly, unwilling to leave.

But these weak spirits would not last long under the sunlight, like an ice-cube melting under the sun; in 2, 3 more days, the streets would become 'clean'.

Merlin had received from Fury the news about the outcome of that night's gunfight.

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

The nearby police officers and firefighters arrived in the nick of time, supposedly another mysterious force was helping them; anyways, most people had evacuated the building before its collapse, resulting in few casualties.

This is probably the only good news in a series of bad news.

"Sir, sir, give us some help in rebuilding our neighborhood."

When Merlin walked around the corner, he saw a group of people standing there calling for the locals and passing pedestrians to donate for the rebuilding of the neighborhood.

A young girl with messy hair stood next to Merlin, she had a donation box at hand and was looking at him with hopeful eyes.

Merlin looks back, behind the fundraising area was where a basketball court originally stood; now there were many children standing there at a loss, they no longer had their usual smiles, nor did they run around playing basketball, as they seemed to be feeling terrible for the disaster that had occurred.

"Alright."

Merlin takes the salary he had just received from his pocket, he leaves one-tenth of the amount, and donates the rest into the donation box the child was holding.

"I'm sorry, kids, I wish you peace for the rest of your lives."

He stroked the surprised girl's messy hair, and apologized to the child, even though she doesn't understand his apology. He then stands up and prepares to leave; but as he turns around, he suddenly hears the screaming of a child coming from the edge of the basketball court.

It was a miserable scream, like that of a tortured cat.

Merlin walks over, there were several people with random tattoos beating up a young boy. Coincidentally, he knows this boy.

It was the boy Merlin had sent to call for help.

He finished the mission Merlin had given him, he contacted Wayne Mansion's butler, the elderly butler then hired Betsy to save him. You can say that without this boy, he would've been captured by the Winter Soldier that day.

"Hey!"

The few men who were beating up the boy heard someone stop them; a brute who seemed to be the leader of the group, then turns around and looks toward Merlin.

He violently scolded:

"F**k off! This is none of your business!"

"I'm not calling for you!"

Merlin ignores the brute, he takes off his baseball cap and speaks to the boy who was shielding his head while being abused:

"You, kid, need help?"

The terrified boy looks up, there was still blood on his nose and the corner of his mouth; he looked at Merlin at a loss, and surprise flashed in his eyes as Merlin took off his cap.

It was clear that he recognized Merlin.

The boy's expression attracts the brute's attention, he moves his shoulder and walks towards Merlin, he reaches out a finger and heavily points on Merlin's chest, and with a harsh tone, he says:

"You know that kid? His dad owes us money and he clearly can't pay it back, so why don't you do it!"

"Alright."

Merlin remained expressionless, he looked around and pointed towards an alleyway:

"There are too many people here, let's talk over there."

"Come on boys!"

The leading brute waves his hand, and they push Merlin into the alleyway; the boy who was left alone was at a loss, he looked at the men entering the alleyway with fear.

Moments later, he hears a horrible shriek, it made the boy run towards the alleyway thinking that Merlin was being beaten by the brutes.

But as he looked into the alleyway, to his surprise, he saw Merlin strangling the man's throat with one hand like he was holding a chicken; the other 4 men were on the ground, supposedly knocked out in less than a minute.

Blood was splattered everywhere, which made the alleyway look like a murder crime scene.

"Have I paid you back all the amount owed?"

Merlin asked calmly, but the man who had his throat strangled could not reply, so Merlin shrugs and says:

"I'll take your silence as a yes."

"Bam"

Merlin flings his hand which sends the brute flying away, he knocks on the same wall that the Winter Soldier had broken in their chase that night.

Merlin who had just solved a debt dispute claps his hand cheerily, he looks at the blood on his finger with disdain; he wipes the blood on his fingers with the man on the ground before turning around, he then sees the young boy standing there.

He walks over and gently pats on the boy's face, saying:

"Come on, kids shouldn't be looking at this."

The boy follows behind him, looking back every now and then, until a few minutes later, Merlin asked:

"What's your name? Did your dad and uncle get rescued?"

"I'm Erik, Erik Stevens."

The boy wipes the blood on his face and says sadly:

"Dad and uncle are missing, they say they're dead, but I don't believe them; my dad always said that he would bring me to his homeland one day, it was in a faraway land called Wakanda..."

"Wakanda?"

Merlin squints his eyes and asks:

"What's your dad called?"

"N'Jobu, my uncle's called James."

The boy lifts his head and looks at Merlin hopefully:

"Can you help me find my dad and uncle? You're such a good fighter, surely you can help me find them."

"N'Jobu, huh?"

Merlin recollects the name, and if he hadn't remembered wrong, the name belonged to the person who had a standoff with the mysterious His Majesty the Black Panther, he should also be a prince of Wakanda. The Black Panther King said he betrayed Wakanda with outsiders and would bring N'Jobu to be judged by the Council.

I wonder what happened to them?

Young boy Erik mistakes Merlin's contemplation as balancing worth; Erik who grew up in the black neighborhood had seen his fair share of things like this, he grits his teeth and grabs Merlin's hand, saying:

"Follow me, boss, let me show you something!"

"Just think of it..."

"As my payment to you!"

 

 

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