◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones. or 500 Collections
◇ You can read 90 chapter ahead on P@treon of which 10 are free Chapters. if you're interested: patreon.com/Heroicverse
------------------------------------------------
These disloyal fellows, in order to lessen their guilt, did not hesitate to betray their former companions; such selfish behavior was already commonplace for these scumbags.
Adrian Toomes, who was completely unaware of this at the time, returned to the Base with Phineas Mason after successfully robbing that night, only to find the Base deserted and the ground in a mess.
Workbenches were overturned, documents and equipment were scattered everywhere, and there were still traces of a struggle on the walls.
Apparently, a hasty battle had just taken place here not long ago.
Needless to say, something must have happened!
Realizing that the situation was not good, Adrian Toomes immediately decided to take his family and leave New York.
So he first handed over his Mechanical Wings and the box of chitauri energy stones to Phineas Mason for temporary safekeeping, telling him to immediately take the goods and hide them in the countryside.
Once the coast was clear, he would contact him.
Phineas Mason was not only the person he trusted most, but also the one who personally crafted these Mechanical Wings, so Adrian Toomes was not worried that he would betray him.
Before they parted, he patted Phineas Mason's shoulder, his eyes full of trust, "Brother, I'm counting on you for this. Make sure to hide the things well."
After arranging everything, Adrian Toomes rushed home, preparing to take his unsuspecting wife and daughter out of New York under the guise of a 'vacation' to avoid the limelight.
However, what Adrian Toomes didn't expect was that Sheriff Frank Castle had already set up an ambush around his house. As he was excitedly preparing to get into the car with his wife and daughter, dozens of armed police officers rushed out from all directions, surrounding the three of them.
To avoid implicating his wife and daughter, Adrian Toomes did not resist at all, allowing the police to take him away.
After all, as long as the police couldn't catch Phineas Mason and couldn't find those chitauri energy stones, his charges wouldn't be too severe.
Because those weapons were neither made by him nor personally sold by him, and only Phineas Mason was present when he robbed the transport vehicle, so even if the police knew he robbed the transport convoy, they had no evidence to prove it.
It was even uncertain whether these high-tech weapons would eventually be classified as 'firearms' after forensic evaluation.
Because this involved a shady deal between City Hall and Stark Industries.
If, during the trial, Adrian Toomes were to expose the inside story to the media, it would inevitably have a huge negative impact on the credibility of City Hall and Damage Control, and at the same time, Stark Industries' stock price might plummet…
All of the above were things Adrian Toomes had already planned before he started this 'no-capital business'.
So even if he was caught, he wasn't afraid at all.
In Adrian Toomes's view, he only needed to hire a good lawyer, and he would most likely be bailed out after only a few days in custody.
And the subsequent situation was exactly as Adrian Toomes had predicted.
He was first held at the Queens Police Station for two days, but because the police had not found Phineas Mason or the box of chitauri energy stones lost by Damage Control, nor the Mechanical Wings he wore during the crime, the case made no key progress.
Finally, due to insufficient evidence, the police could only first charge Adrian Toomes with the crime of Endangering Public Safety and send him to prison to continue searching for other clues.
Thus, Adrian Toomes and his subordinates were finally transferred from the Queens Police Station to Ravencroft Prison.
The prison gates were heavy and cold, as if they were the boundary separating freedom and confinement.
After completing a series of tedious handover procedures, Adrian Toomes was roughly pushed into an infirmary by two prison guards, who moved rudely with impatient expressions on their faces.
Then, a middle-aged White Doctor wearing rubber gloves performed a routine physical examination.
The examination included, but was not limited to, stripping naked and checking if weapons were hidden in one's anus, among other perverted steps.
Adrian Toomes was filled with humiliation, but he could only suppress his anger and dissatisfaction, cooperating with the Doctor's examination.
After going through all the procedures, a physically and mentally exhausted Adrian Toomes was finally assigned to a four-person cell of about ten square meters.
This was, of course, something he obtained by using his 'money power'.
However, compared to the more expensive single rooms and presidential suites, the environment of this four-person room was clearly not ideal.
A damp, musty smell permeated the cramped cell, and large patches of paint were peeling off the walls, revealing mottled concrete.
And the walls were covered with various obscenities and X-rated images, defaced by who knows how many people.
Adrian Toomes wrinkled his nose, a look of disgust in his eyes.
He directly ignored the friendly glances and smiles from the other three 'roommates' in the cell, dragging his heavy steps to his own hard bed, and lay down fully clothed.
Soon, he fell into a deep sleep.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Anyway, in a few days, he would be bailed out by his lawyer.
He didn't know how much time had passed.
"Waaah… waaah… waaah…"
Adrian Toomes, who had been in a deep sleep, was suddenly awakened by a sharp, piercing alarm.
The piercing alarm echoed in the small cell, making Adrian Toomes's eardrums ache.
He abruptly sat up from the bed, still with a hint of sleepiness in his eyes. When he turned to look outside, he found that his three cellmates had already rushed to the cell door at some point, gripping the iron bars tightly with both hands, and were forcefully squeezing their heads into the narrow gaps between the bars, straining to peer towards the end of the corridor outside the cell.
They were trying to figure out what was happening outside.
"What's going on? What happened?!"
Adrian Toomes grabbed a bespectacled inmate and pointed to the blaring alarm outside, asking, "Is this a routine prison drill, or what?!"
"It shouldn't be a drill. I've been here for over a year, and I've never experienced this before…"
The bespectacled inmate said timidly, yet with a hint of excitement, "But I just heard from the people in the next cell that it seems like a riot suddenly broke out in another block!!"
"A riot? How boring…"
Adrian Toomes frowned, a look of disdain on his face. He immediately lost interest in watching the commotion and walked back to his bed to lie down again.
Because staging a riot in such a heavily guarded prison had almost no chance of success.
However, before he could close his eyes and fall back asleep, the alarm outside the cell eerily suddenly stopped.
The entire prison block instantly transitioned from its original noisy environment to a deathly silence, like the oppressive calm before a storm.
Immediately after, before the inmates could figure out what had happened, a faint groan and brief but extremely shrill human wails began to sound, one after another, from far to near, from the end of the corridor.
"Something's not right!"
Adrian Toomes's face instantly showed a look of vigilance. He quickly got up from the bed, came to the cell door again, cocked his ear, and leaned his body slightly forward, trying hard to hear the strange sound coming from afar.
However, he couldn't accurately describe the composition of that sound.
Because it sounded somewhat like the chaotic buzzing of a swarm of bees, and a very large swarm at that, but it also contained some kind of human whispers.
And just as Adrian Toomes and the inmates were desperately trying to figure out what was happening outside the prison block.
"Screech…!!!"
A teeth-grinding sound of twisting metal suddenly came from the end of the corridor.
A tall figure, over three meters tall, completely covered in black Symbiote, looking like a muscular humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex, easily tore a huge gap in the thick gate separating the two prison blocks with his bare hands.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden sight.
"There's a villain who stole my stuff~~ I'm restless day and night, I can't sit still, I really don't know what to do…"
Eddie Brock, transformed into Void Knight, sang to himself in his low, evil voice, pacing proudly down the corridor.
And each of his steps seemed to tread on the hearts of the inmates, filling them with fear and unease.
"Luckily, I was fortunate enough to meet God, who granted me power~~ So, when I return home again, I'll tell you what I'm going to do…"
"I'm going to make that villain~~ taste all the pain I've endured!!"
"I have many needles~~ I'm going to riddle that villain with holes~~ I can assure you, that villain won't live much longer!!"
As he spoke, Eddie Brock raised his finger and flicked out muddy Symbiotes into the cells on one side.
Those Symbiotes drew black arcs in the air, like messengers of death.
"Hey, does anyone know what the hell this guy is?!"
"If I'm not mistaken, this guy is probably a Symbiote Warrior, right?"
"Is it that 'alien creature' that Ape God uses, often reported on TV, that can change its body shape at will?"
"Exactly! If only I could have a Symbiote like that, I could easily escape from this damned cell, then go back to Hell's Kitchen and have a good time with my old flame!"
Just as the inmates, who had been peering through the cell bars to watch the commotion, were whispering amongst themselves, they suddenly felt black shadows flying towards them.
The next second.
Screams and wails echoed from the cells along one side of the corridor.
"Ahhh, don't you dare crawl on me!!"
"Ahhh, oh God, don't come over…"
"Damn it, how did they all turn into monsters…"
However, the screams in the cells quickly ceased, replaced by the loud thud of cell doors being blown open by immense force.
Immediately after, a group of inmates possessed by black Symbiotes rushed out of their cells like a pack of raging Beasts, letting out terrifying roars that made the walls of the entire prison block tremble slightly.
Although these Symbiote-possessed inmates looked almost identical to Eddie Brock from the outside, all appearing as muscular devilish figures with bulging muscles.
However, a spiral-shaped red rune appeared on the positions of their eyes and noses.
This was precisely the unique mark of the Loyalist Symbiote, loyal to Knull.
And Eddie Brock's voice, like an automatically looping phonograph, resonated in the minds of all inmates possessed by the Loyalist Symbiote.
"Go, my loyal servants, I have already chosen a new home for you underground. Go there and await my command…"
"Soon, I will lead you, with slaughter and blood, to reclaim the Gene Code key from Karl Merks, which can 'liberate' the shackles binding our God!"
"I will suck the last breath, trembling and sweet, exhaled from Karl Merks's corpse, and then let him hear the crunching sound of his spine being pulled from his body before he dies…"
"By then, the entire World… ah no, I should say the entire Universe will be covered in slaughter and blood, and then enter a new Dark Age!"
"And I, too, will finally become the 'Slaughter Right Hand' of the Dark King, ending all light for My Lord Knull."
"God~~ is coming!!!"
After becoming the Void Knight, personally bestowed by Knull, Eddie Brock had evidently become the new Master—or rather, temporary administrator—of these Loyalist Symbiotes that had split off from the Symbiote Dragon Grendel!
So, upon receiving his command, the Symbiote-possessed inmates, like obedient puppets, all rushed towards the back corridor.
And during this process, Eddie Brock continued to scatter Symbiotes into the cells he passed.
Soon, he arrived at the cell where Adrian Toomes was located.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment. Adrian Toomes watched the colossal figure suddenly appear outside his cell, his pupils rapidly contracting.
He instantly recalled scenes he had previously watched on television with his family… King Kong, wearing a Symbiote Suit, engaging in fierce battles with various enemies.
Because those scenes were so shocking, he still vividly remembered this miraculous alien species, the Symbiote!