Alex, still hugging what had once been his friend, now let him go and looked directly at him, seeing what his friend had unfortunately been transformed into. Alex still hadn't lost hope, because if Peter could still return a hug, that meant he wasn't completely lost, just trapped somewhere inside himself.
Now, genetic engineering was something Alex knew a great deal about, to the point that, if he wanted to, he could actually create a serum capable of eliminating the mutations from mutants and extinguishing the species if he had the time and interest. But after thinking about it for a long time, he had realized that exterminating an entire race would be the wrong path. That would be genocide, and he didn't want to follow that path. He wanted to show that a mutant could help as a lawyer, but everything had been destroyed anyway.
The problem was that Alex didn't even have the beginning of the equipment necessary to work with genetic engineering at the level Peter had been subjected to. And even if Alex had the instruments, it would take him some time to figure out what had been done to Peter and reverse it. If he had whatever had been used to transform Peter, it would be five times faster.
And that was the problem. Alex didn't know what had happened to Peter, but he knew one thing for certain: it had something to do with Oscorp Industries. That was where Peter worked with reptile genetics, so unless there was another laboratory nearby that worked with that specific type of genetics, Alex found it difficult to believe it wasn't Oscorp.
So he had two options at the moment. One was to break into Oscorp's laboratories, take the serum that had been used on Peter, and reverse the effects in another laboratory. But this option had many flaws for Alex, because he had no way of knowing which serum would have been used on Peter, and besides that, he wouldn't have the necessary laboratory anytime soon.
The second option was simply to find someone who could get Alex into the laboratory secretly and obtain both the formula used on Peter and the cure for him. Alex thought it would only take a few hours with the serum used on Peter to figure out a way to reverse or at least minimize the effects. He was very familiar with the theory and even had some practical knowledge of it.
Alex eventually released the Lizard, still sad that his friend was in this state. When the Lizard was released from the hug, he seemed to come out of a trance and began looking around in confusion, before looking at Alex and immediately freezing in fear.
Alex sighed sadly and quickly left the warehouse, reaching the construction area only to find that both Tyon and Raymond were standing in front of the warehouse, apparently about to enter, only to come face-to-face with Alex.
Tyon, who was still holding the strange egg, seemed to tighten the hug he had wrapped around it when Alex appeared. This made Alex somewhat curious, but he soon let it go and looked at the two of them, waiting for them to speak. They clearly had something to say. Both Tyon and Raymond had looks of urgency on their faces, especially since they were entering the warehouse, which they only did when Alex wasn't meditating. Whenever he meditated, his cursed energy control became more refined and stronger, causing everyone near him to feel sick because of the pressure he emitted.
"Father, we have a problem. This egg is really weird. No matter what happens, we can't leave it alone for five minutes, otherwise it somehow appears inside the pantry and leaves a clear trail of gluttony behind, as if it ate something. BUT IT'S AN EGG AND I'M GOING INSANE BECAUSE OF THIS!"
Tyon shouted, clearly irritated, while holding the egg like a mother holding a troublesome baby. He was obviously exhausted, probably because he had been forced to hold the egg nonstop.
Hearing this, Alex thought for a moment and looked at the egg. For a second, he noticed that when he stared at it, it seemed to tremble slightly, almost as if it were saying hello. This seemed to go unnoticed, so Alex let it go and continued.
"Alright, keep taking care of it and give it a name. Also, ask someone to restock the supplies. I don't care how it's done, as long as there are no casualties. And report anything this little thing does to me."
Alex said this while turning his head to look at Raymond, who was clearly worried and nervous. Tyon, meanwhile, walked away with a defeated expression, the egg still in his arms and moving slightly.
"Alright, Alex, we have a big problem. It seems like some gang that works for the Kingpin has been hanging around our area and intimidating everyone in our territory. They also seem to be asking questions about us."
Hearing this, Alex wasn't surprised. He simply looked at Raymond with a serious expression, raised his hand, pointed a finger upward, looked directly into his eyes, and said:
"Then just crush them, Ray. Don't leave a single one alive for thinking they could even set foot in my territory. You and Tyon are going to deal with this, and I don't want any of them alive."
Alex said this with complete naturalness, while Raymond stood frozen. Alex moved away, beginning to leave the area and head toward the city as he spoke to Raymond.
"And I'm going to send a message to that piece of shit Kingpin that he is nothing more than a fly in my house now."
Hearing this, Raymond was stunned by the order. It was the first order Alex had given that would truly change the group itself, so Raymond took it very seriously. Before Tyon could even return anywhere, Raymond grabbed him and began heading toward the "Arsenal."
In reality, it was just a place containing around ten guns at most, all of them practically identical except for the Mountain Slayer, which Alex himself had created and given to Raymond. That was the only weapon Raymond took before returning to Tyon, who was still holding the egg, which continued to move slightly without drawing much attention.
While the two of them were heading toward Oliver's neighborhood, Alex was making his way to Hell's Kitchen to meet up with a friend he had saved from Alex himself, and whom he had also taught how to manipulate cursed energy. But that wasn't important right now.
Alex was almost reaching Hell's Kitchen when he realized that he didn't know how to find the so-called Daredevil. He had a name, Matt, and that was a good start, but Alex needed to be quick, so he needed something that would actually help him find Daredevil.
And he knew exactly how to find him.
Alex just needed to look for a crime that Daredevil would probably show up to eventually. Maybe at the scene itself, since he was nowhere near as fast as Alex, who could cross the entire city in a short amount of time.
So it would be more a matter of luck than anything else.
But Alex still had to get revenge for that damn Kingpin thinking he could do anything to him or Sanctuary. Alex was going to rip his heart out and chew it.
'Wait... chew it?'
Alex suddenly stopped at the thought that had just crossed his mind.
'Why the hell did I think that? I'm not a cannibal... and neither Sukuna nor Meruem, so why did I think that?'
Confused, Alex couldn't stop thinking about it because this wasn't the first time he had felt this hunger, so to speak, this desire for human flesh.
When he had killed those anti-mutants, he had still felt that strange urge. He had even felt sick before just from thinking about such an atrocity.
But now it was strange to think about it, because for some reason, he was hungry, and he was certain that this wasn't normal.
It wasn't coming from his normal stomach.
It was coming from his other one, from his other mouth.
Something more monstrous that he definitely didn't want to get close to.
And for the first time, fear rose within him because he had no idea what this fear actually was.
Realizing that he had been standing still in the middle of the street for too long, Alex snapped back to reality and began running again, starting his search for Daredevil.
Alex quickly began patrolling all of Hell's Kitchen without any fear. Whenever he found a crime, he would observe for a few seconds to see if Daredevil would show up, only to end up stopping the crime himself.
This went on for a while until, in the middle of his unintentional crime-fighting spree, he suddenly noticed a very familiar trail of cursed energy that was probably coming from someone who was fighting and manipulating their energy in a way that, at the moment, only Alex knew how to do.
Alex immediately ran toward the location, only to find Daredevil fighting more than ten thugs at once.
Curious, Alex didn't interfere. He simply watched to see how much Daredevil had grown during the time since Alex had taught him.
And, surprisingly, he was doing incredibly well.
In the current situation, Daredevil was surrounded by five thugs while the other five were essentially providing support with weapons.
But before they could even process what was happening, Daredevil reinforced his body with cursed energy and, with a quick and precise punch to the stomach, easily sent one of the men flying backward.
Seeing this, the thugs began attacking him with knives, bats, and even pipes.
Unfortunately for them, Daredevil was very different now.
He quickly blocked a bat strike with his arm, which didn't receive so much as a scratch. He then grabbed the bat, pulled one of his own batons, and struck the thug in the temple, knocking him unconscious.
Quickly using the fallen thug's body, Daredevil blocked the attacks from the pipes and dodged while using the thug to protect himself from his companions' knife attacks.
At the same time, he continued paying attention to the weapons of the others, who were still trying to aim properly at him.
That turned out to be a mistake.
Daredevil quickly threw the thug he had been using as a shield at the others, disorienting them and even knocking almost all of the men with melee weapons to the ground.
But Daredevil didn't waste the opportunity.
He immediately charged toward the gunmen with superhuman speed. The gunmen quickly fired at him, only for Daredevil to begin dodging the bullets with surgical precision, almost as if he already knew exactly where they were going to hit.
Absurdly fast, Daredevil was already in front of them.
Without even thinking, he delivered a punch directly to the chest of one of the armed men.
The moment the punch landed, the man was launched backward and slammed into a dumpster behind him.
Seeing the opportunity, all of the armed thugs began firing at Daredevil, only to see that their bullets never managed to hit him.
He always dodged a few seconds before they even came close, almost as if it were magic.
Daredevil quickly threw one of his batons at one of the armed thugs who was aiming at him.
The baton struck the thug directly in the middle of his forehead, knocking him unconscious almost instantly. The force was so great that the thug nearly did a backflip from the impact.
Seeing what had happened to their companion, the remaining thugs became frightened and began running.
But Daredevil didn't let them.
He chased them down and quickly incapacitated every single one with surgical precision.
When it was over, he stopped for a few seconds before turning directly toward where Alex was standing.
He greeted him with a slight bow and spoke loudly enough for Alex to hear.
"It's good to see you again, Alex."
Realizing that he had been spotted, Alex stopped hiding and began approaching Daredevil.
Daredevil trembled slightly in Alex's overwhelming presence, but quickly composed himself and extended his hand for a handshake.
Without even thinking about it, Alex shook his hand before looking at the unconscious thugs.
He whistled and then spoke.
"Wow, you've really been making good use of what I taught you. Nourishing your body for improved movement and using the punching technique I taught you. You've got some real talent."
Daredevil nodded, thinking about what Alex had said before coming up with a question.
"Speaking of that, Alex, there's something that's been happening to me lately. For some reason, I've been able to perceive things before they happen, almost like seeing the future, but only a few seconds into it. Do you know anything about that, Alex?"
"Maybe you have an innate cursed technique."
Alex didn't even need to think much before giving an answer, which left Daredevil confused.
What the hell was an innate cursed technique, and why the hell did he have one?
But before he could even respond, Alex was already asking another question.
"Daredevil, or rather, Matt, I need you to tell me everything about the Kingpin."
Hearing that name, Matt froze completely and looked at Alex.
Alex had an unnervingly calm and serene expression, almost as if he had just mentioned an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time rather than the greatest criminal in the underworld, someone who knew everything that happened within the criminal world.
"C-Certainly, Alex... but why?"
Matt clearly shouldn't have asked a question like that to a being like Alex, because the answer that came afterward was enough to freeze his blood.
"I'm just going to show some despair to someone who thinks he's a king."
The moment he said that, his face unconsciously became almost expressionless, strongly resembling a certain ant.
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I'm going to tell you a secret: this chapter was supposed to come out yesterday, but, being the dumbass that I am, I ended up forgetting to click the publish button. I came here late at night to see how the chapter was doing, only to find out that there wasn't even a chapter posted.
LMAO, but okay, enjoy the chapter!
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