Unlike Daisy, who was simply drifting through life, Angela’s parents had a clear plan for her future.
The main reason they had chosen this godforsaken parochial school was its strong relationship with Yale University.
Many prestigious universities had historical ties to the church, and earning excellent grades or a strong recommendation from a parochial school could significantly improve one’s chances of admission to a top-tier university.
Now, however, it seemed a new variable had entered the equation.
“Why is the school closing?” Daisy had absolutely no love for singing hymns, but the school was currently the only place she could call home.
Since she hadn’t made any plans for the future yet, it was still important to her.
Angela thought for a moment.
“I heard some company wants to buy up all the land in Hell’s Kitchen and tear everything down to rebuild the area.” Daisy took out her laptop, connected to the internet, and searched for more information.
She quickly found the answer.
“Union Allied Construction is financing the acquisition of several properties in the area.” She frowned in confusion.
Was Union Allied Construction already laying the groundwork in Hell’s Kitchen this early?
Behind Union Allied Construction stood the Kingpin.
At this point in time, he was still far from the peak of his power, and taking over Hell’s Kitchen by himself was beyond his capabilities.
That was why he had joined forces with several other parties to establish Union Allied Construction as a front.
But Daisy clearly remembered that the land acquisitions weren’t supposed to begin until after the Avengers fought the Chitauri.
That was still several years away.
Over the next few days, she returned to school.
Everyone was in a panic.
The teachers had stopped taking their lessons seriously, and the students were left to do whatever they wanted.
The only people who seemed pleased were a handful of members of the school board.
Kingpin had no intention of provoking a parochial school—a modest-looking institution with surprisingly influential connections—so he offered generous relocation compensation.
Daisy watched Kingpin’s assistant, James Wesley, arrive at the school in person.
Impeccably dressed and responsible for managing much of Kingpin’s criminal organization, Wesley was treated with extraordinary deference.
The board members catered to this “god of wealth” with extreme humility, afraid of showing the slightest hint of disrespect.
Negotiations progressed remarkably quickly.
No matter how unhappy Daisy felt about it, the school’s closure was inevitable.
She now faced two choices: support herself independently or transfer to another school, finish high school, and eventually attend college.
She was confident.
With her superpowers, the experience of two lifetimes, and knowledge of the future, making money wouldn’t be difficult.
The real question was where to place her loyalties.
Joining the criminal underworld was out of the question.
Despite being a failed writer in her previous life, she was still a law-abiding person at heart.
She had no interest in drug trafficking, human trafficking, or illegal arms dealing.
Building a powerful criminal organization would be especially difficult for her.
Anyone trying to establish themselves in that world would inevitably become a target.
Putting on a tough act and fighting back might be satisfying once or twice, but doing it every day would be exhausting.
She couldn’t think of any woman who had built a major criminal empire, so she dismissed that path entirely.
Running a legitimate business came with its own problems.
Once it reached a certain scale, both S.H.I.E.L.D.
and HYDRA would inevitably take notice.
The former was manageable.
The latter was not.
The movies made it seem as though HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D.
were evenly matched because HYDRA had secretly infiltrated the organization for years.
Reality, however, was very different.
HYDRA was enormous, and its structure could roughly be divided into four branches.
The first consisted of multinational corporations that used legitimate business operations to conceal illegal activities.
One example was the Typhon Group, a corporation employing more than 250,000 people whose board of directors was entirely controlled by HYDRA.
Its businesses ranged from food and pharmaceuticals to weapons manufacturing, aerospace materials, and countless other industries.
The second branch consisted of government agencies in various countries, including the U.S.
Treasury Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and others.
Within these organizations, certain influential officials—or even their leaders—were HYDRA operatives.
The third branch comprised international criminal organizations, with A.I.M.
(Advanced Idea Mechanics), Iron Man’s longtime adversary, serving as a representative example.
The fourth consisted of intelligence agencies.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
was merely one of them and, within HYDRA’s vast network, was only a relatively important asset.
HYDRA could mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in assets whenever necessary.
It also maintained elite, highly trained forces at bases around the world, numbering at least one hundred thousand personnel.
Facing an organization of that scale, Daisy knew she had no chance of opposing it.
For now, she could only focus on the present.
Unfortunately, another painful problem had surfaced.
She was broke again.
Finding another easy target like the one before wouldn’t be simple, and she needed to earn some spending money.
Angela suggested getting a part-time job at a convenience store, but Daisy rejected the idea without hesitation.
You’ve got to be kidding.
She was Quake.
Working as a cashier?
She’d do it the day Tony Stark volunteered to clean public toilets.
So what could she do?
She rented a car and spent the day driving around Manhattan.
She couldn’t get into major corporations like Stark Industries, Oscorp, or Rand Corporation, and she had no desire to work for a small company.
As she drove past the famous Central Park, she decided to stop for a walk.
However, police officers were already cordoning off the area with caution tape.
Watching from a distance, she overheard bystanders saying there had apparently been a gang shootout and that dozens of bodies had already been removed.
Since it had nothing to do with her, she simply turned back.
She opened the car door.
A man covered in blood was lying face down in the back seat.
Thanks to her enhanced senses, she could detect that he was still breathing, although only barely.
She immediately stepped back, intending to call the police nearby.
“Huh?” Almost instinctively, she used her vibration sensing ability on him and was surprised by what she found.
This was a genuinely good person—better than most, at least.
Integrity, courage, selflessness…
according to the vibrations she sensed, he embodied all of those qualities.
She abandoned the idea of calling for help.
There were too few good people in the world.
Since she had encountered one, she wanted to help if she could.
Besides, the shooting in Central Park had already given her a few suspicions.
The man still retained a trace of consciousness.
When he saw her approaching, whatever crossed his mind, he simply lost consciousness.
“Hey, wake up!
What’s with passing out the moment you see me?” Daisy closed the car door and, with some effort, rolled him onto his back.
He was incredibly heavy.
Even with her enhanced strength, moving him wasn’t easy.
Simply put, he was a very big man.
He appeared to be in his thirties, dressed in a casual shirt and jeans.
He carried no weapons, but three bloody bullet wounds in his chest and abdomen painted a horrifying picture.
One of the wounds was only a little above his heart.
The fact that he hadn’t died instantly was nothing short of miraculous, but he clearly didn’t have much time left.
Daisy pulled the identification card from his pocket and glanced at the name.
“Frank Castle?
This guy…” She immediately cut herself off.
It really was him.
The man who would one day become the Punisher.