American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

The experimental subject injected with the longevity serum was in much better condition. Although still visibly weak, it was a vast improvement from the decrepit state before the injection, where their life could have been extinguished at any moment.

"What the hell is he?" Venom grumbled, bouncing over. "There's something inside him! It's fighting me for control of the host's body! And what's worse, that thing inside him just kicked me out without any reason! I, Venom, have never encountered anything like this since I was born!"

"Something inside him?" Luke's eyes lit up instantly, and he looked at Venom with great interest. He thought this might be another hidden big fish.

"I think I woke it up. I was going through the experimental subject's memories when suddenly a voice spoke in my head, asking if I wanted to be free. What would I do with freedom? A precarious life, barely enough food, and the worst part is how slow it is to get stronger outside. I was just being honest, and the voice suddenly became furious and kicked me out. Just because it's stronger than me, it can steal my host?" Venom said indignantly. He had forgotten that he was the later parasite.

"A voice? Sounds like it can communicate," Luke said thoughtfully.

"No, no, no, that consciousness is more like a rigid program. It shouldn't be the main consciousness," Venom judged based on his years of parasitic experience.

"That's pretty good too," Luke didn't seem dissatisfied. If the main consciousness came, Luke might have some trouble. After all, in his memory, the Beast that the Hand worshiped was also a tricky character.

"Hmm, is the effect of the serum wearing off so quickly? Is this experimental subject's body unable to handle the surging power?" Luke frowned slightly as he detected the experimental subject's physical characteristics returning to a certain stage and then slowly declining again. This meant that the experimental subject wouldn't be available for his research for much longer.

Luke couldn't be sure if that power within the experimental subject would continue to exist after their life signs completely disappeared.

If worst comes to worst…

Luke's eyes fell on Venom again.

Let him parasitize a few more captives and repeat the parasitism process? What if the other party really is just a rigid program with such settings? Wouldn't he be able to get more benefits before they realized something was wrong? Anyway, it's all about borrowing power, so who he borrows from doesn't matter, right?

…

Time flew by for nearly a month. During this time, New York's underworld was also uneasy. SHIELD agents gathered in large numbers in the city, including Director Nick Fury himself.

Kingpin, the king of the city's underworld, had lost his composure many times in the past week. His business was under heavy scrutiny by SHIELD agents, resulting in heavy losses. To quote Nick Fury's original words as repeated by a SHIELD agent: "As the king of this city's underworld, you must have your own channels for information. SHIELD has lost something important and must retrieve it! The crackdown on the city's underworld business will not stop until it is found. Here is our list of suspects. Identify one, and we will temporarily leave you alone."

Hearing this, Kingpin almost wanted to take his men to kill the one-eyed dragon. However, he ultimately maintained his composure. Although he believed in the supremacy of power and that the best solution was to eliminate any enemy, he couldn't have achieved his position as king of the city's underworld by relying solely on power. He also needed brains.

Facing an organization like SHIELD, killing Nick Fury wouldn't necessarily solve the problem, and might even bring disaster to his organization. Moreover, Kingpin wasn't confident that he could kill the old agent.

Most importantly, he was completely suffering from collateral damage! If Nick was targeting him, it would be nothing more than various means and a desperate fight. But the other party just wanted to get some information from him…

Thinking of this, Kingpin couldn't help but curse his partners in his heart once again. For the dragon bones that could extend their lives, the Hand's high-level members were simply crazy.

Should he resist stubbornly and watch his business channels be completely destroyed by SHIELD in order to keep his partners' secrets?

Or should he stab them in the back and reveal the Hand's information to SHIELD to extricate himself?

Kingpin wasn't a person who had difficulty making decisions. In the span of a week, he had come to terms with reality. He didn't need to bear these losses for the Hand, even if the Hand was an important partner. But in the underworld, so-called partners and friendships are mostly unreliable when faced with a crisis. Kingpin understood this from the beginning.

Once Kingpin made his decision, Nick quickly obtained accurate information. And to show his sincerity, Kingpin also revealed some of the Hand's information to Nick. Anyway, with SHIELD's intelligence gathering capabilities, the information he revealed would soon be investigated. Of course, Kingpin also subtly reminded the Hand.

Soon, SHIELD agents raided several of the Hand's strongholds in the city and arrested many people working for the Hand.

SHIELD's actions also stimulated the Hand, which sent a large number of personnel and ninjas to assassinate SHIELD agents. Both sides had their own trump cards, so for a time, they were evenly matched, and even SHIELD's agents suffered greater losses. This made Nick's face even darker when he saw the casualty reports.

What was worse was that even if they killed the enemy's ninjas, they had no way of knowing if they had actually killed them. Because once the enemy was fatally wounded or died, they would turn into a cloud of ashes and disappear. And these days, the number of these ninjas was simply endless, as if it had never decreased.

…

Inside SHIELD's temporary headquarters, Luke looked at Nick in the room and joked, "Looks like your recent operations haven't been going so smoothly?"

"I don't expect to be able to hide anything from you, little Luke. So, did you come this time with a way to help me?" Nick asked calmly as he sat in his chair.

"I've looked at the intelligence you gave me about the Hand, including the combat videos, and even tested and researched the ninja captives that your SHIELD agents managed to bring back after they were seriously injured," Luke said with a smile as he tossed a metal wristband to Nick. "Try it."

Nick caught the metal wristband thrown by Luke and, following Luke's instructions, put it on his left arm. After activating it, he instantly felt his body become lighter and his strength greater.

"What is this?" Nick looked at Luke in surprise. He had seen a lot of technological equipment, but this was the first time he had seen something that could enhance a person's physique and combat power like the Super Soldier Program.

"I extracted a certain power from the bodies of those ninjas and used some technology to seal it as an energy source on the equipment," Luke said softly.