Chapter 72: So You Also Come to the Rooftop to Enjoy the View

No matter how tumultuous things became within S.H.I.E.L.D., it had nothing to do with Roald—or rather, he was quite pleased to see S.H.I.E.L.D. stumble.

When Coulson led the strike team to the rooftop, they found no sign of Rogers. Only scorched marks and a chilling cold lingered at the scene. After reporting to Nick Fury, Coulson immediately dispatched S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives to spread out around Rand Tower. He had more pressing tasks to attend to.

On the rooftop, Coulson had taken note of the battle’s traces, which reminded him of certain intel. He also discovered the underground space beneath Rand Tower.

Meanwhile, below Rand Tower, Daredevil led the Defenders deeper into the subterranean corridors. They used chi to sense Danny’s location, advancing with almost no resistance—none of the Hand’s ninjas appeared. The ease of their progress struck them as oddly suspicious.

After pressing forward for a while, Daredevil, at the heart of the group, became increasingly uneasy. Though his senses detected no signs of life, he could hear a dense rustling ahead.

He halted abruptly. “Jessica, Cage, Colleen… wait!”

Everyone stopped at once.

“What’s wrong, Matt?” Jessica asked instinctively.

“I sense something off. There are countless footsteps approaching—closing in fast.”

“But I can’t feel any chi related to living beings,” Colleen, the Daughter of the Dragon, said, her hands glowing with faint light.

“It’s too late, Colleen,” Daredevil replied, resigned, folding up his cane and stepping in front of the others.

“Oh, such keen senses for a little creature. Unfortunately, Kel’Thuzad has no reward for you,” came a raspy voice.

With those words, countless ghostly blue lights flickered in the dark underground. As the light grew, the Defenders realized they were surrounded by a dense horde of Scourge soldiers.

A shimmering image of Erika appeared behind them.

“Honestly, I hate this feeling, Matt,” said Luke Cage, his muscles tensing and shifting. “It’s always me who has to charge in or take the hits at times like these.”

“Cage—” Matt began, but before he could finish, Cage had already surged forward to cover their retreat.

With a graceful motion, Kel’Thuzad swatted the charging Luke Cage away and vanished with a sinister chuckle. The Lich King had warned him that these people still had their uses—otherwise, he would have simply unleashed Death and Decay upon them, never allowing them to advance this far into the cavern.

When Coulson arrived below with his agents, he found a group surrounded by skeletons—and heard someone shout, “Hail Hydra!”

Controlling Sindragosa’s descent into the Atlantic, Roald withdrew the card at the very moment the dragon hit the water, then used the power of the Space Stone to appear in Queens.

It cost him a great deal of soul energy, but this was all part of his plan from the start.

Having Sindragosa vanish into the sea would mislead many and help cover his tracks. After all, flying inland would attract far more surveillance, but entering the ocean concealed many movements.

The Space Stone was now fused into his Lich King card, resting on his crown. The energy of the Cosmic Cube had been used to forge Kel’Thuzad, supplemented by the scepter and Mind Stone taken from Loki.

Roald now held two stones.

Loki’s plan to summon the Chitauri army and invade Earth had failed, but Roald still managed to unleash catastrophe with Sindragosa. In a sense, he had taken Thanos’s place, orchestrating a calamity and fulfilling a part of the timeline.

Now that Roald possessed two stones, Thanos could never hope to gather them all. If he wanted to erase half of all life, he’d have to break through the barriers between worlds and fight Darkseid for the Anti-Life Equation.

After shedding his armor, Roald was about to sit atop a building in Queens to examine the Sindragosa card when he heard the telltale swish of a web. A sharp “whoosh” sounded in his ear.

“Whoosh whoosh—”

A few more in quick succession. Roald had just stashed away the Sindragosa card when he saw Peter Parker, swinging in wide arcs through the air on his webbing.

“Oh, my friend!” Spider-Man, with his keen senses, had already spotted him. With a flip, he landed on the radio tower just behind Roald.

“Long time no see! What are you doing here? Admiring the view from the rooftop too? How did you get up here? And thanks for looking after my pizza box last time—I wanted to thank you in person!”

No sooner had he landed than Peter Parker fired off a rapid string of questions.

“Just up here for some air. You know my place was in Manhattan, but with all that chaos, I moved to Queens,” Roald replied with a perfectly straight face.

“Oh, buddy, that dragon was quite an event. I was about to head over and help out—want to come?”

Seeing a friend who could also shoot webs, Parker was especially delighted. He swung from the signal tower, back and forth.

“Not this time. You know I’m only good with a bit of tech, nothing too special.”

“All right, man. So, you’ve moved to Queens now?” Peter asked, a little excited.

“Uh, I suppose so.”

“That’s fantastic! I hope you’ll come over to my place—you know, we’re friends now, aren’t we?”

Hearing Roald had moved to Queens, Peter Parker was truly happy.

Thanks to the tricks Roald had taught him for getting front-page photos, Peter had earned more at the paper, landed an internship at Stark Industries, and even managed a few dates with Jane. Since meeting Roald, he felt like all his luck had turned for the better.

With few friends to speak of, Peter Parker genuinely liked Roald. He felt they had much in common—in their own ways, both could shoot webs, both were talkative, both loved a good rooftop view, and they got along easily.

“You’re right—we are friends.”

The best way to handle a chatterbox was to play along; Roald had mastered this strategy for dealing with Peter Parker.

He noticed Peter’s suit had changed; compared to the simple design he’d worn before, there was now a distinctly high-tech look.

“You seem in a good mood.”

“Oh, absolutely! I got a raise, landed an internship at a big company, and check this out—my suit! It’s new!”

“Yes, I can see that. It’s a big improvement from your old red pajamas.”

“Hey, those weren’t pajamas…” Peter started to protest, but under Roald’s teasing gaze, he gave in, lifting his hands in defeat. “All right, all right, I admit—they were pajamas.”

“But this suit is different now, my friend. It has so many new features!”

Peter flipped across the rooftop railing, sharing his joy with Roald.

“Do you know Stark Industries? The one with Iron Man? He made this suit for me.”

“I can tell—it’s impressive.”

“Right? It really is!”

“Yes!”