A Long Easter (I)

Spring thunder exploded over the East Coast, followed by a torrential downpour. Puddles along the tree-lined roads reflected the daylight filtering through gaps in the dark clouds. Countless raindrops battered the thick leaves, and the rustling of rain drifted in through the windows. Outside, the spring rain carried a chill; inside, warmth filled the room.

Schiller gently turned the pages of his textbook, the sound of paper rubbing utterly drowned out by the rain. He cleared his throat and had to raise his voice. "Easter is one week away. The psychology club dinner will begin at exactly seven o’clock on Easter evening. Students wishing to attend should be seated before six-thirty."

As he spoke, Schiller paused and glanced at the heavy rain outside. Then he said, "There have been thunderstorms throughout the city these past few days. Please bring umbrellas when going out. Estimates suggest that if rainfall continues to increase, flooding may occur. Please watch for evacuation notices…"

After finishing, he gathered his textbooks and prepared to leave. Evans, who had been sitting in the front row, stood and walked over to the podium. In a low voice, he said to Schiller, "Professor, the rain has been too heavy lately. A lot of students haven’t been able to attend on time, so their assignments…"

"They can turn them in later. Tell everyone to notify their parents. If the rain keeps up, evacuations could happen at any time over the next couple of days. Have them pay attention to local gang activity…"

Evans took out a schedule and said, "In previous years, the Easter party was held on Easter evening. But this year, our new principal moved the banquet up by two days, which happens to avoid conflicting with the club dinner. As for the dinner, we were planning to…"

Evans went over the arrangements with Schiller. While the two were discussing them in low voices, Bruce walked over. Evans glanced at him, and Schiller said to Evans, "Let’s settle on this plan for now. I’ll confirm the details with you later."

After Evans left, Bruce immediately said, "The rain has been too heavy lately. Gotham’s drainage system has serious problems. I need to return to Wayne Tower and keep an eye on things to prevent flooding."

"Leave approved. Also, it looks like they’ve suffered an Armor Break."

"We’ll talk about that later." Bruce cautiously looked around, seemingly wary of the many eyes and ears nearby.

When Schiller returned to his office, Victor was holding a goose egg and gesturing over it with a paintbrush. Schiller walked over, looked at the egg, and said, "Where did you get that? You didn’t go raid a swan’s nest on the lake, did you?"

"Of course not. Do I look that bored?" Victor dipped his brush into blue paint and drew a star on the goose egg. As he painted with intense concentration, he said, "The logistics department prepared materials for five Easter eggs for every professor. We have to finish painting them before the holiday and give them to the students."

"Well, that’s strange." Schiller smiled. "Shouldn’t they be painting them and giving them to us? God knows how exhausting it is to teach them."

"They’ll give us some too, probably finished ones. After all, not many of them can paint."

"I actually quite like this sort of thing. When I was little, I wanted to be a painter." Victor leaned close to the Easter egg and used a smaller brush to refine the star’s details.

Schiller shrugged and returned to his seat. Sure enough, several goose eggs had been placed on his desk. He picked one up and examined it as he said, "The amount of rainfall lately has really been ridiculous. Did you check the forecast?"

Anna, at the neighboring desk, was also painting an Easter egg. She looked up at Schiller and said, "This damned place barely gets any sunny days in a year, but this rain is too much. My rain boots are practically useless now."

"I just heard from one of my students that the Easter party was moved up?" Schiller sat down and began sorting through the brushes and paints.

"Yes. The principal moved the banquet forward so he could hold more events, and naturally the dance was moved up as well."

"Why would he do that? What events are there to hold?" Victor asked in confusion.

"This is the first major holiday of his first year here. Maybe the new principal wants to show us what he can do. Besides the banquet, dance, and dinner, I heard there will also be Bible exchanges, prayers, and hymns."

"He doesn’t look like a particularly devout believer. Why is he suddenly taking Easter so seriously?"

All three shook their heads. Schiller studied the goose eggs on the table and gestured twice with a brush. Just as he was about to begin painting, Victor stood up with a freshly finished Easter egg in hand and said proudly, "Look at this. Look what I painted."

The egg in his hand was covered in stars, painted in red and blue. It looked much like Stars and Stripes, but because the goose egg was oval, most of the stars had been distorted, and some areas were unevenly colored.

Anna teased him, "I had no idea you were such a patriot. The designer of the flag would surely be moved to tears by your work."

"Please." Victor complained, "You’re asking me to paint on a flat surface, which is hard enough. Never mind on a round goose egg. This is already pretty good, okay?"

Anna lowered her head to inspect her own work and found that it was even worse than Victor’s. She irritably tossed down her brush. "This damned rainy weather has completely blocked my thoughts. My thesis isn’t going well either, and the things those students write are even more unbearable…"

"I noticed two weeks ago that the biggest downside of endless rainy days is that they get water in their brains."

"Stop joking. Their brains are full of water even without the rain."

The three sighed. Clearly, the quality of Gotham University’s student body was deeply worrying. Looking at the Easter egg in his hand, Victor said, "I don’t think they’ll be interested in these things. They prefer bullets, or stuffing some flammable plant into them."

"That’s it. I’m going to the Shop to buy a few ready-made ones. No one will notice anyway." Anna stood up, but Schiller called after her. "Get me a few too, Thank you."

After Anna left, Victor and Schiller looked at each other. Schiller said, "So what are you planning to do? Don’t tell me you really intend to stuff something into the goose eggs…"

"I’m going to finish painting them, then find a few unlucky bastards to give them to. If they dare complain that my paintings are ugly, I’ll fail them."

"Oh, right." Victor stood up and said, "I studied the blueprints for that freeze gun you gave me last time. It doesn’t seem very suitable for ordinary people."

"Really? Why not?"

"Just pulling out the magazine requires a great deal of strength. And if you don’t apply enough force when pushing it back in, there’s a risk of leakage."

"This gun looks like it was designed for well-trained soldiers or a Strongman. If I used it, the leaking fluid would be enough to freeze my arm stiff before I even got a shot off."

The blueprints Schiller had given Victor were for the freeze gun Peter had developed.

Once Victor put it that way, Schiller understood. The person who developed the gun was Spider-Man, who possessed Superhuman Strength. Besides superheroes like Iron Man and Captain America, its users were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and even the least capable among them were well-trained armed police officers.

Those people could naturally ignore the strength requirements and recoil, but researchers like Victor could not. Schiller said to Victor, "So how do you plan to improve it? Do you have any ideas?"

"Of course. Actually, I came to invite you to the lab with me. I need a test subject, and I think the two of us are about the same in build and strength. I’d like you to help test the prototype I made."

Schiller shrugged. "All right. Let’s hope you get the data you want."

When the two left, the thunderstorm had mostly stopped. However, there was far too much standing water on the roads. Victor shook the wet tips of his shoes and complained, "The school’s drainage system is truly terrible. The rain stopped over an hour ago, but none of the water on the ground has drained away."

Schiller looked around and saw no open drains or channels on the surface. Thinking back, he realized that all of Gotham seemed to be like this. Its drainage system barely worked. Light, steady rain was manageable, but once there was a short burst of heavy rainfall like today, the entire city seemed flooded. Without even stepping outside, people could enjoy an ocean view.

Just as he was immune to Fear Gas, Schiller was also immune to this rainwater. At least, the Symbiote Grey Mist in his body had detected nothing unusual.

After arriving at the laboratory with Victor, the two chatted for a while before Schiller began helping Victor test the freeze gun.

After recording several sets of experimental data, Schiller asked him, "What do you think of that low-temperature generator?"

"There’s nothing wrong with it, actually. Its output is enormous. If there’s enough energy, it could freeze a very large area."

"Can the output be increased further? What’s the maximum?"

Victor looked at Schiller in surprise. "There’s no real upper limit, but what would you need that much power for?"

"Could I trouble you to make a few more? I might have a use for them later." Schiller spoke thoughtfully.

Victor did not press him for details and simply agreed.

Schiller noticed that Victor seemed distracted. He asked, "Have you not been sleeping well lately?"

"No, but I have been a little dazed recently." Victor shook his head. "Normally, even if I spend an entire night in the lab, I can stay focused. But lately, I start getting sleepy before midnight."

"Maybe there have been too many gloomy, rainy days. Rainy weather can make people depressed, and damp air isn’t good for the body either. It’s best to go out as little as possible."

Schiller turned to look out the window. At some point, the rain that had stopped had begun falling again in intermittent bursts, and it was coming down harder and harder.

Schiller thought, judging by Gotham’s absurdly excessive rainfall lately, the Court of Owls was getting desperate.