Chapter 1425: Recruitment, Foreshadowing, and Future
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
That was indeed the case.
From the moment Frank met his contact, the other party had no intention of scrutinizing him.
After confirming that the secret signal and name were correct, the contact took Frank to a private airport and put him on a private plane.
Frank was the only pa.s.senger on the plane. After greeting him at the door, the only flight attendant just said to call for her if he needed anything, before she stayed away where Frank couldn’t see her.
When he disembarked, she said, “Goodbye, sir,” and the flight was over.
Frank sent a text using a prepaid phone which the contact gave him.
After he received a reply, he deleted the message, dismantled the phone, and tossed it into a dumpster outside the airport. He then took a cab to New York, after being away for months.
When he arrived at a park in Queens, he sat down on a bench and stared blankly at the dilapidated merry-go-round.
A burst of laughter rang out in his head, along with a yell of “Dad, over here!” as he stood near the merry-go-round and smiled at his children and wife. It was as if he could see them all.
After a while, the bench creaked slightly at the sudden increase in weight.
Frank slowly turned his head and was stumped. “You…”
A broad figure in a gray hoodie crossed his legs leisurely. “Puncher. Long time no see, Frank.”
After a brief silence, Frank nodded slightly. “So, you’re the one looking for me.”
At that moment, Luke had a stone-like face of a white man. It was Puncher’s face.
He nodded. “That’s right. Someone is in need of a decent tactical team commander, and the work has to be done in secret.”
Frank looked indifferent. “What are they going to do?”
Luke asked, “Have you seen the recent news about New York?”
Frank: “If it’s about Batman, I’ve seen some of it.”
Luke asked, “Then, are you interested in directing that team of superheroes, including Batman, in battle?”
Frank’s calm heart exploded. He exclaimed, “What?”
Luke didn’t say anything and just smiled at him.
Frank was stunned for a few seconds before he finally came back to his senses. He subconsciously lowered his voice. “Do you work for Batman?”
Luke thought for a moment, then shook his head. “The other way round: Batman works for ‘us’.”
Frank gaped. This was shocking news.
Although that was everyone’s guess, it wasn’t like Batman himself had ever said it.
This meant that Batman indeed had an organization behind him, and not just “friends” helping him out
For ordinary people, “Batman’s friends” and “Batman’s teammates” were the same thing.
But for Frank, who was a battle veteran and used to estimating the military strength of both friend and foe, these were two completely different things.
The difference in combat ability between a friend who was helping out for the time being and a teammate who was part of the same organization could be ten times more.
This was also one of the reasons why a well-trained army could completely annihilate a mob that was several times larger.
More importantly, what did Puncher say just now? He wanted Frank to be the tactical commander and direct the superheroes, including Batman?
This was clearly to improve the team’s combat ability.
After avenging his wife and children, Frank’s heart had been like ash, and he hadn’t cared about the news at all. The only reason he had been aware of recent news about Batman was through chatting with other people.
Hence, he knew that Batman had a bunch of teammates with extraordinary combat abilities.
What was the point of asking Frank to be the tactical commander for a team made up of superheroes?
Were they planning to demolish a house or raze the Pentagon to the ground?
A team like this could absolutely do it.
If the combat ability of an ordinary human soldier was 2, then the combat ability of a special force was multiplied by 2 for every soldier that was in the unit.
The combat efficiency of Batman and other superheroes in a team would be a multiple of ten for each member, not to mention that Batman’s combat efficiency was at least 50 or even 100.
This wasn’t Frank overestimating Batman.
Before he got his revenge, he had studied the intelligence on Batman and confirmed that Batman was far superior in combat, reactions, decisiveness, and planning.
These were the best qualities that a qualified special force soldier should have.
Even if Batman didn’t use a gun or kill anyone, his combat ability was still much higher than that of an ordinary person, and he even had armor close to Iron Man’s level.
He was a cheat.
Frank had experienced too many crazy and unbelievable things in his life.
But tonight, he felt that the news he had heard was definitely the craziest and most unbelievable of the lot.
Looking at Frank’s expression, Luke patted him on the shoulder and got up. “Let’s go. I’ll arrange a place for you first, and then sort out your ident.i.ty.”
Frank frowned and didn’t move. “Why me?”
Luke turned around and smiled. “Because we might not have much time left, if we don’t want Earth to be destroyed.”
Frank: “What?”
…
After settling a stunned Frank in and giving the intended team commander one last night to digest the astonis.h.i.+ng news, the clone returned to the seaside villa.
Sitting on the porch, Luke fell into deep thought.
The reason he had to urgently “recall” the commander was because of Elena’s two “half-finished paintings” yesterday.
Elena had drawn some things before, but not many of them felt particularly special to her.
The Angel of Judgement and Batman were her early works.
However, she felt those paintings were based on what she had seen in the news, or dreams she had based on what she had been thinking about during the day.
Luke had thought the same.
But the two paintings from yesterday had given him a strong sense of familiarity.
He didn’t have much of an impression of the humanoid creatures on the flying machines, but the big worm s.h.i.+p evoked a memory.
He had instantly seized on that memory. That was… a large-scale Chitauri s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p!
He had completely forgotten what the cannon fodder Chitauri looked like, but this huge worm-like Chitauri s.h.i.+p had appeared many times as a small boss villain for the Avengers to beat up.
With the second painting, the sense of familiarity wasn’t as strong, but he had some impression of the tyc.o.o.n blowing up the Chitauri command center with a nuclear missile in the movie.
To Luke’s surprise, it was now Batman who was holding up the missile in the drawing.
This change didn’t make him doubt the accuracy of the second painting.. Instead, he believed that it might actually be foretelling the future, since it was Batman.