Chapter 698

"Save your sanctimony. I don’t need it!"

For a Warlock, mercy was already a considerable concession.

Evenson had assumed his earlier display of power had made the situation clear. He had offered Chen a way out, extended a hand, and even tried to recruit him rather than kill him. As far as Evenson was concerned, he had bent as far as he reasonably could.

Chen Haoran rejected him without hesitation.

"SHIELD forced me to suppress my own power!" Chen snarled. "They keep showing up for surprise inspections. Every few days, there’s another form they want me to sign. They’ve completely disrupted my life. No, they destroyed it! I can’t even find a decent job to support myself anymore. I refuse to go back to living like that!"

Evenson sighed.

"Another victim of SHIELD’s questionable approach to Inhuman containment."

The words were aimed at Chen, but his gaze briefly shifted toward Coulson and May.

Sometimes, Evenson really did think SHIELD’s monitoring procedures were terrible. They could practically shove people toward rebellion.

That said, he also knew he was looking at the issue from his own perspective.

"Mr. Chen, I currently live in the United States. Everyone knows it has more guns than common sense, but even there, you have to register a handgun. Automatic weapons are even more tightly regulated. Most civilians aren’t allowed to own them at all, so—"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Chen cut him off.

Evenson swallowed his irritation and patiently tried again.

"My point is, do you really think SHIELD monitoring you is completely unreasonable? You should understand by now that your abilities are considerably more dangerous than a handgun. Hell, a machine gun doesn’t come close."

He pointed toward Chen.

"And unlike a weapon, your power is part of you. You don’t need equipment to use it. Metal detectors can’t find it. There’s no ammunition to confiscate. Whether you use it or not comes down entirely to your own decision. There’s no conventional security measure that can prevent you from using it."

Evenson spread his hands.

"So what exactly do you expect them to do? Pretend you don’t exist?"

SHIELD’s system was intrusive. In ordinary circumstances, it could easily be argued that some of its measures violated basic rights.

But ordinary laws had been written for ordinary people.

Nobody had drafted them with Inhumans in mind.

It was easy to say SHIELD was being heavy-handed. These people hadn’t chosen to become what they were.

But the alternative wasn’t exactly comforting.

Imagine living between two neighbors. The guy on your left is a carpenter. The guy on your right is a blacksmith.

All day, one saws wood while the other hammers metal.

Then, at night, the carpenter starts making grenades.

The blacksmith starts building launchers for them.

Give it three days.

You might start thinking SHIELD’s paranoia has a point.

"Believe me, I’ve suffered under the same system," Evenson continued, trying to establish some common ground. "And I’d argue I had it worse than you."

May’s eyebrow twitched.

"When SHIELD first came after me, there were six people watching my apartment from the building across the street. Twenty-four hours a day. Another four were stationed around the two corners nearby."

He shook his head gravely.

"They even wanted to install pinhole cameras in my apartment. They weren’t planning to spare the bathroom."

May’s expression went blank.

Evenson continued.

"But look at me now. I’m doing just fine."

Of course you are.

May rolled her eyes.

Those cameras had never actually been installed. Within two months, the agents assigned to watch Evenson had discovered absolutely nothing useful.

What they had discovered was that Evenson could make trained intelligence operatives paranoid enough to need therapy.

Some of them had spent more than a year seeing psychologists.

Even now, May suspected a few would suffer an immediate breakdown if they saw a black object or encountered a street fortune-teller.

"You can tolerate being treated without dignity," Chen said, flames surging higher around his body. "I can’t."

His voice hardened.

"I’ve made my decision. I will never endure that humiliation again."

"You’re taking this a little too far."

Evenson clenched his jaw and forced himself to remain calm.

"I already told you. That was my situation in the past. I changed it through my own efforts."

Chen hesitated.

"How?"

"I joined SHIELD."

Evenson tugged at his coat.

"I’m a SHIELD consultant now. I specialize in dealing with... unusual situations like yours."

He smiled.

"Honestly, it’s not a bad career path. You should consider it."

Coulson and May both stared at him.

Evenson was actually trying to recruit Chen into SHIELD?

"You should think about it," Evenson continued. "Once you’re working for SHIELD, you won’t have to deal with all those annoying inspections. And you said you don’t have a job, right? Problem solved. SHIELD pays well."

He held up a finger.

"Five figures. U.S. dollars."

He paused.

"As long as you’re not supporting five useless employees and dating several girlfriends at the same time, you should be able to live pretty comfortably."

Evenson’s current salary was $13,062.83 a month.

Even if Chen received less, cutting that salary in half would still leave him with more than eight thousand dollars a month.

Not exactly poverty.

So really, joining SHIELD was a pretty solid deal.

"Pah!"

Chen turned his head in disgust.

"You spineless sellout. That’s just surveillance with a paycheck!"

"I’m trying to help you!"

Evenson sighed.

"Fine. If you work hard enough, there’s even a chance you could get dental insurance."

He paused.

"Granted, I don’t have that one myself yet."

"It won’t happen."

May’s voice cut in before Chen could answer.

She looked at Evenson coldly.

"SHIELD isn’t going to accept him. His best-case scenario is spending the rest of his life in the Fridge."

Chen folded his arms and smirked.

"You heard her."

Evenson looked between the two of them.

"Why?"

"I remember what happened when we dealt with Michael recently. SHIELD went to considerable lengths to secure him, and later transferred him out of the custody of the Black Badge for rehabilitation and training."

He frowned.

"And now you’re telling me Chen doesn’t even get a chance?"

A darker thought crossed his mind.

"Don’t tell me this is because he’s not American. I thought SHIELD didn’t discriminate."

"I am living proof that SHIELD doesn’t discriminate."

May glared at him.

Then she exhaled.

"If you’d arrived ten minutes earlier, we might have been able to give him a chance."

She looked toward Chen.

"But now? Absolutely not."

Ten minutes?

Evenson frowned.

What the hell had happened in the last ten minutes?

"He killed Agent Quan," Coulson finally explained.

Evenson followed Coulson’s gaze.

Only then did he notice the body lying in the corner.

The man’s chest had been burned straight through.

"We thought this was a rescue operation," Coulson said quietly. "Agent Quan approached him without expecting trouble. He rescued Chen from the lab."

Coulson’s expression hardened.

"Chen killed him from behind."

"Agent Quan was the head of SHIELD’s Hong Kong division," May added, rubbing her forehead. "He was Chinese, and he was also the brother of the city’s Chief Executive. SHIELD has to answer for his death, both internally and publicly."

"So someone already died."

Evenson felt a headache coming on.

Now he understood.

The reason SHIELD had been willing to fight so hard to give Michael another chance, and the reason Coulson had been able to pull strings for Evenson himself, was simple.

Neither of them had killed a SHIELD agent.

This wasn’t about Nick Fury being sentimental about his people.

It was about precedent.

If SHIELD simply ignored Chen murdering an agent and then welcomed him into the organization with open arms, what message would that send?

That if your life wasn’t going well, you could kill a SHIELD agent, demonstrate how dangerous you were, and wait for SHIELD to show up with a job offer and a fat paycheck?

No.

That precedent could never be allowed to stand.

Evenson sighed.

"So there’s nothing left to discuss."

Fine.

He had offered mercy.

He had offered employment.

He had offered dental insurance.

He had done more than enough.

Evenson turned back toward Chen.

"Mr. Chen, give up now and you can walk away with your life."

His voice hardened.

"Otherwise, I won’t say anything else."

"Never."

Chen’s expression was resolute.

He had been shocked by Evenson’s earlier display of power, but surrender was still impossible.

He didn’t want to go back.

"I won’t live under SHIELD’s chains again!"

Flames roared around him.

"I am the Blazing Hero! I am fire! I will burn freely, and no one will control me!"

His eyes burned with conviction.

"Death before bondage!"

Evenson was silent for a moment.

"Then I suppose my earlier attempt to reason with you was misguided."

He had underestimated Chen’s resolve.

"Bring it on!"

Chen forced down the pain coursing through his body as the flames around his hands surged.

"Today, either I win my freedom, or I die by your hand!"

Evenson smiled faintly.

"I won’t fight you."

He turned around, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted down the corridor.

"Disciple! Come help your master!"

Coulson and May both froze.

Since when did this guy have a disciple?

A moment later, someone appeared at the end of the corridor.

She came scratching at her arm, baring her teeth in discomfort.

It was Lily Grant.

Evenson had brought her along, and there was no reason to waste perfectly good free labor.

"You..."

Lily kept scratching as she approached.

When she reached Evenson, she pointed at him with an expression of profound annoyance.

"Can you please call me something else? Anything else! Even just ’disciple’ would be better than that."

She shuddered.

"Look at the goosebumps you’ve given me."

"All over?"

Evenson frowned thoughtfully.

"Lift your shirt. Let me check."

"You!"

Lily’s temper exploded.

She raised a hand as if to smack him, then remembered that this was technically her master and forced herself to lower it.

She leaned around Evenson and looked at Chen, who was practically engulfed in fire.

"Seriously? You want me to fight that?"

Lily had never fought an Inhuman before.

Evenson immediately seized the opportunity.

"Are you scared?"

"I am not—"

"Your ancestors subdued demons and monsters. If you intend to inherit their legacy, surely you can’t spend your life fighting ordinary people."

"Okay, okay."

Lily waved him off.

"I was just curious. You don’t have to break out the motivational speech."

She pushed Evenson aside and started walking forward.

When she reached May, however, her eyebrows suddenly rose.

Her left arm swung out.

May reacted instantly.

She intercepted the strike.

Coulson immediately raised his weapon.

He had no idea what the tomboy was trying to pull.

But after their arms collided, neither woman continued the fight.

May glanced at Coulson and waved him down.

"Relax. Just testing each other."

Lily withdrew her arm and tugged at the collar of her leather jacket.

She looked May up and down.

"You’ve got training."

May nodded.

"A little."

The exchange had been sudden, and May had put more force into the block than intended. She had expected Lily’s arm to take the impact badly.

Instead, her own arm was the one that hurt.

Lily’s eyes lit up.

"So... you know No Bird Flies?"

May stared at her.

"No."

A shame.

If a bird landed in May’s hand, she could certainly roast it.

But making a bird unable to fly?

No idea.

Although, technically, a roasted bird couldn’t fly either.

Lily sighed.

"That’s too bad. I was going to spar with you afterward."

She turned away.

"Forget it."

Then she marched toward Chen.

"My name is Lily Grant, the Nine Dragons’ One Tiger!"

She threw off her leather jacket.

Two fierce tiger paintings covered her shirt. She slapped her hands together, golden light flashing between her palms in a way that vaguely resembled Kamar-Taj magic.

Whether it actually did anything was another question.

Lily pointed at Chen.

"Which neighborhood are you from? You paid this month’s protection fee yet?"

Chen stared blankly at his own arms.

Yep.

Still on fire.

Was organized crime really this aggressive these days?

Then he thought about it.

Actually, it made sense.

For someone who had just awakened superpowers, wasn’t the first step toward reaching the top of the world supposed to involve some local crime boss showing up to provide free experience?

Chen’s expression darkened.

"Hmph!"

He hurled a fireball the size of a dinner plate.

Lily’s eyes widened.

"Seriously? You’re attacking before I’m ready?!"

She threw herself into a side flip, narrowly avoiding the fireball.

Then she slapped both hands together.

Something enormous came out from her waist.

A spear.

Not just any spear.

A massive Eight Extremes-style Liuhe spear, nearly six feet of polished steel and murderous intent.

An ordinary person facing the blazing projectile would have panicked.

But martial artists trained their courage before their technique.

And the Liuhe spear of Bajiquan had been developed for the battlefield.

Fearlessness was part of the weapon.

Chen launched a second fireball.

Lily didn’t dodge.

She stepped forward.

Her spear shot out.

The tip struck the center of the fireball, and she twisted her grip, channeling force through the shaft.

The flames shattered.

The fireball exploded into fragments of light.

Lily grinned.

"That’s more like it."