FBI: Chapter 178/179

Chapter 178: His Name Is... Venom

"Who are you?! This area is off-limits to regular employees!"

Carlton Drake's old face immediately fell, and he reached out and pressed the button on the desk.

Dante didn't pay attention to his small action. Seeing that the old white-bearded man inside had no intention of opening the door, he casually smashed the entire door to smithereens.

"Ah!"

This sudden scene scared Carlton so much that he let out a high-pitched scream.

Dante stepped over the scattered glass shards and approached the desk.

"Oh? You just pressed the silent alarm, didn't you?" Dante looked at Carlton curiously, while showing his badge. "You think I'm playing around with you?"

Carlton tremblingly took the badge, looked at it over and over several times, then raised his head in disbelief.

"Are you… really from the Federal Bureau of Investigation?"

"Do you think I need to lie to you?" Dante pouted. "Don't you know that twenty-six people died at your company?"

"Wh-what!?"

Carlton shivered at Dante's words, but his hand movements were not slow at all, and he immediately called the human resources department.

The human resources department's reply immediately made him break out in a cold sweat.

"Yes, boss, LAPD just informed us of the deaths of these twenty-six researchers!"

Just then, the elevator chimed, and the security guards filed in, swinging their rubber batons and charging forward without a word.

"Don't…"

Carlton was dumbfounded. Were the security guards he hired so wild!?

They just charged at anyone they saw and swung their batons?

And if these people in front of him had no special identity, then it would be fine, it would just be a matter of paying some money.

But they were the Federal Bureau of Investigation!

Assaulting a police officer was a big deal. What was the difference between assaulting the Federal Bureau of Investigation and suicide!?

His head was buzzing!

However, what was swung high was the rubber baton, and what fell heavily was themselves.

"These few people… aren't even enough for a warm-up."

Mick Rory sat on a security guard, speaking indignantly.

"Mick, how many times have I told you, we are now FBI agents, not the two notorious bandits from Central City anymore," Captain Cold said, turning his head to Mick. "Remember, be restrained."

"You guys are really easy to tame. I still remember how you used to run errands for me," Constantine said, lighting a cigarette and watching from the side.

Dante turned around and glared at them, and the three immediately felt an inexplicable sense of oppression.

"When did those three become permanent employees?"

"About three months ago, Fury decided… of course, the future one," Sarah Lance replied.

"Then the future Nick Fury is a bit muddle-headed."

"That's not it, their performance is indeed good, at most they are a bit sharp-tongued."

"In any case, you must keep a close eye on them, especially Constantine, he's not an easy person to deal with."

Dante gave Sarah a few more instructions, then turned around and continued to speak to Carlton:

"Alright, now let's talk about what your company is researching."

"Research? Agent sir, are you referring to the new drug we developed? It's for treating high blood pressure…" Carlton kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "I wonder if there's any problem with this new drug?"

Dante reached out and pinched the loose facial skin of the old white man.

"Don't try to change the subject." Dante was too lazy to argue with this old man. "What I'm talking about, of course, is the Symbiote in the deepest part of your underground laboratory."

"Wh-what Symbiote…"

"Alright, you old man, the only thing that can get hard on your entire body is your mouth, right?"

Dante said nothing, directly grabbed the old man by the collar, and then took him into the elevator.

After everyone got into the elevator, Dante reached out and searched near the elevator buttons, and sure enough, he found a hidden button.

"Damn, it really is here," Dante said, eyes full of disdain. "Can't you people have some imagination? Are all of you learning from movies or something?"

After pressing it, an iris scanner appeared on the panel.

Carlton was pressed against the scanner, and after an "Identity verification successful" sound, the elevator automatically started operating.

The downward buttons only went down to the second basement level, but they eventually stopped at the fifth basement level.

"Three undisclosed floors, it seems you're hiding quite a lot from us besides the Symbiote," Dante said, looking at Carlton, who was already trembling like a leaf in his hand. "Now that we're here, I hope you can start crying and begging and tell us everything."

As soon as these words were spoken, the elevator opened with a ding.

Dante looked up, and sure enough, just by looking at the overall layout, it didn't look like a place for researching anything legitimate.

But…

It looked as if a hurricane had passed through here, and it was already mostly destroyed.

Dante frowned and put Carlton down.

Because he found that the old man's CPU had already burned out from this scene.

Clearly, he also didn't know what had happened here.

He silently activated his Green Lantern transformation, then used will green light to bind to Carlton, helping him quickly regain his sanity.

"Wh-what in the world happened?"

After Carlton sobered up, he immediately ran into the destroyed laboratory, his old face filled with despair, on the verge of tears.

"This was the hope for curing cancer! How could this happen!?"

"Alright old man, you're researching the Symbiote to cure cancer? Don't make me laugh," Dante said, very disdainful of Carlton.

Although he wasn't wrong, the Symbiote could indeed devour cancer cells in the host's body to achieve the effect of curing cancer.

Dante walked forward, and although it was destroyed, it was still possible to see that there had once been six huge culture dishes here…

Which meant…

There were six Symbiotes here!

And now they were all missing!

"You should confess everything now, Carlton," Dante said, pausing, then continuing. "Unless you want to commit suicide by being shot thirty times in the back."

Carlton's expression changed again and again, and he finally sighed helplessly, looking several years older.

"Alright, agent sir, I'll tell you everything."

"Initially, we indeed only obtained one Symbiote from a killer whale."

"We originally thought it was a creature driven by instinct, but later we discovered that it possessed intelligence."

"And he told us that his name was…"

"Venom."

(To be continued.)

Chapter 179: Scrap Metal?

When Dante heard that name, he couldn't help but wince slightly.

Sure enough.

This world was truly a giant makeshift operation.

There was no telling when some great menace would pop out of some obscure corner.

Of course, Venom couldn't be considered a menace. He primarily depended on his host.

But now, being in the laboratory, it clearly meant there was absolutely no host present.

Wouldn't that just be a big chunk of fat meat in Carnage Joker's mouth?

Carlton Drake also noticed Dante's suddenly changed expression and asked somewhat tremblingly:

"Agent sir, could it be that this Symbiote has some problem?"

Dante was amused by what this old man said.

"What do you mean 'this Symbiote has some problem'? Bro, you're the one doing research, aren't you?"

Dante jabbed the old man's chest hard, making his already mournful face even more contorted.

However, he dared not be angry, nor did he dare to speak.

Carlton knew that secretly researching Symbiotes behind the World Federation's back would be an enormous crime if he were caught.

But he simply could not resist the temptation of becoming a savior.

The Symbiote named Venom had shown him the power to cure cancer and all other intractable diseases.

If he could understand this power and apply it to medicine, he would become the greatest researcher of this century.

But now…

It was over, everything was over.

Dante frowned, looking at Carlton, and said in a deep voice:

"Alright, don't despair here."

"There are six petri dishes in total, which means there are six Symbiotes here."

"Tell me, besides the Symbiote called Venom, what else is there?"

Carlton wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, hesitated for a moment, and finally chose to compromise:

"It's like this, when we were researching Venom, we found five independent Symbiote seeds inside him."

"Their genetic structure is completely different from Venom's."

"We thought they might possess abilities completely different from Venom, so we used fire and sound waves to forcefully compel Venom to produce them as Symbiotes."

"Thus, five sub-Symbiotes of various forms were born. They called themselves Scream, Riot, Phage, Lasher, and Agony respectively."

"But these sub-Symbiotes didn't have any special powers beneficial to humans, yet they themselves had a much higher desire for attack than Venom."

"So… we wanted to contact the military and cooperate with them to launch Symbiote warriors…"

"However, before we had a chance to contact them, what is happening now occurred."

Carlton was on the verge of tears.

More than half of the entire Life Foundation's funds had been invested in Symbiote research, and now it was simply a complete loss.

"Agent sir, please, you must retrieve the Symbiotes. The Life Foundation will definitely pay you a sufficient reward!"

"Carlton Drake, hasn't your mind cleared yet?" Dante's gaze suddenly turned cold. "Do you think America… no, do you think the World Federation would allow a private capital like you to preside over the research of alien life forms?"

Dante's words were like a heavy hammer, completely shattering Carlton's sense of luck.

Saying this meant that the Life Foundation was finished.

Not only would they have spent a fortune doing free work for the World Federation, but they would also face accountability from the World Federation.

"My advice is, don't think about anything else. Listen to my advice, your Life Foundation cannot control this Symbiote stuff." Dante shook his head. "Alright, now tell me, did those twenty-six researchers who died in the villa have access to the Symbiote laboratory?"

"Two of them had access…"

After receiving a definitive answer, Dante rubbed his temples.

Sure enough, Joker, that scoundrel, would never do anything meaningless.

He concealed all his intentions beneath that madness and disorder.

Killing these twenty-six people in the villa was originally to invade the Life Foundation and acquire the Symbiotes.

If this Carnage from the future were to devour Venom and his five sub-Symbiotes, even if Dante wanted to deal with him, it would be a bit troublesome.

Of course…

It wouldn't be too much trouble.

But this constant feeling of chasing after Joker made him uncomfortable.

He always felt like he was following in Batman's footsteps.

"Ugh."

"I don't want to have any inexplicable bond with a green-haired lunatic."

"One Harley at home is enough."

Dante mumbled and then waved his hand, telling the Legends to search the entire Symbiote laboratory again.

Although it had been destroyed beyond recognition, this also meant that the destroyer would leave some clues.

Especially in the Legends, there were enough highly intelligent personnel. Give them a fiber that shouldn't be there, and they could analyze it thoroughly.

If that didn't work, Dante could also get Constantine to summon a few demons to question.

After searching for a while, Sarah Lance's voice rang out:

"Teacher, come look here!"

Dante immediately went to her side upon hearing this.

Among the dust of the ruins, a few inconspicuous specks of powder were hidden.

"If what you taught me back then was correct, this stuff should be… Adamantium fragments."

Sarah said with certainty.

Dante, however, was stunned.

Adamantium?

In this world, only two people possessed Adamantium.

One was Wolverine, James Howlett, also known as Logan, who had now completely adapted to his position as Dean of Instruction.

But Logan had no reason to be here, nor did he have the time.

Then it could only be the other person.

Harley.

Adding to that the note Harley left him, he could confirm…

Harley had been here.

Dante immediately turned and walked toward the completely dejected Carlton, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up.

"Did you set up surveillance here?"

"Of course, I set up non-networked surveillance, but all cameras and storage devices were destroyed."

"As long as there are some, it's fine."

Dante nodded indifferently, telling the Legends to find all the cameras and storage devices from the ruins.

Then he opened a teleportation portal and returned to the Team Base.

"Skye, come here. Big job."

"What big job?"

Skye heard Dante's somewhat urgent voice and flew directly from the training ground.

Under the guidance of Hela and the mutants of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy, she had skillfully mastered the technique of flying using vibrations.

In her memory, Dante had never shown such an anxious tone.

Then Skye saw a pile of electronic device fragments on the ground.

She cautiously asked:

"If you're short on money lately, just ask Fury for some funds, he doesn't lack it anyway."

"How can the dignified captain of the Star Team be collecting scrap metal?"

(To be continued.)