Chapter 28 Dad? Fake.
Metropolis, Lex Luthor's building, stood in the bright sunlight, looking as radiant as Superman.
In a closed conference room in the basement of the building, Lex Luthor stared at a video playing repeatedly on the screen and clicked his tongue in exasperation: "I thought you had some new tricks up your sleeve. Allen isn't someone who's easily fooled by these little pranks. Do you think he's a fragile little kid?"
On the screen, the scene of Allen rescuing people in the blizzard was played repeatedly. Every frame was very clear, and they could even see the reflection of 'Emily' in Allen's eyes.
Even after witnessing the patient's condition deteriorate despite all efforts to save him, Allen remained calm and composed.
"What's your hurry?" A man wearing a black half-coverage hood sat on the other side of the conference table, calmly picking up a piece of fruit and stuffing it into his mouth.
He then tapped the table and said, "What I want is for Allen to be completely disillusioned with this world. I want everyone around him to betray him. I want him to lose everything, so that he will depend on me to the greatest extent possible and be used by me."
“What you mean by making him lose everything is watching him like a psychopath as he happily goes off to medical school, leaves New York to become a doctor in Brudhaven, and now he even has a boyfriend… You even funded Brudhaven Hospital just so he could have his own office and lounge,” Luther said. “Excuse me for being blunt, but you’re like a stubborn but loving father. Was Batman your parenting coach?”
"What do you know? Of course I need to fully understand Allen to better implement my plan!" The man was embarrassed by Lex Luthor's words, but he retorted stubbornly, "I want him to experience the good things first, and then lose everything. Only through comparison will he feel the pain!"
“If you take my advice, go after Harry Osborn first, then turn Grayson into a specimen, then kill Matthew Murdoch and put his head in Alan’s closet. Alan might be so desperate by now that he’s ready to destroy the world.” Luther glanced meaningfully at the long stick the man was still holding. “Don’t tell me you’re having a soft spot for Daredevil.”
"A very interesting joke," the man said with a cold smile that wasn't hidden by his mask. "But I prefer to take things slowly. Look at our dear Allen, he's already learned to save lives... Good heavens, he's feeling guilty, can you see?"
When the video showed Allen being forced to abandon a patient in the emergency room, his eyes clearly showed reluctance and pain, though he himself was unaware of it. However, the two people present were very familiar with micro-expressions, and they accurately captured Allen's emotional fluctuations.
The image was cut out separately and placed side by side with Alan's expression as he watched Dick drive away.
“Oh, silly dad’s overjoyed.” Luther said sarcastically. “Your plan hasn’t been implemented yet, so I highly suspect you’re just fooling me.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can go find someone else. I’ve said it before, only Allen has the key to open that door. If you destroy my key and my fun beforehand, I’ll let you taste what it’s like to lose everything and beg on the streets, or I’ll tell your little tricks to your nemesis? Superman would be interested.”
Lex Luthor's face immediately darkened. "My lab address has been leaked! Yesterday, all my test subjects were smashed by Superman!"
The man gloated, "Alan, you did a great job!"
Luther was ready to turn on them; right now, he felt like a fool who'd been swindled out of his pension and was still secretly happy about it.
Maybe he's just a part of the game between this man and Allen. He's genuinely trying to cause trouble, but his teammate just wants to play games with his son.
“You’re such a ‘good dad’… Allen will kill you if he finds out everything.”
The man sighed, "That's great. It's a pity that my little Allen has absolutely no desire to live for 'Dad' right now."
Luther stared at Allen's trembling hands in the video: "Yes, he clearly had so many ways to survive. It's a pity you're not Allen's real father either. His dear father is almost tortured to death by you."
The man quickly disassembled the long stick in his hand into a cane, then took off his helmet and gave Luther a gentle smile. "Don't say that. From now on, I am baby Allen's father... I will make sure he lives a good life."
He slammed his cane into the ground and said impatiently, "Alright, go use your crude methods on your big blue idiot. As for Allen... I'll make him join us willingly, and then... I'll get what I want."
**
Brudhaven Emergency Department.
The instant the knife in Dr. Miller's hand pierced Allen, a series of events from the past suddenly connected in Allen's mind—from Dr. Miller's seemingly unintentional bump when he was operating on the 'squid,' to the revived squid, and even Alex Pedro standing up again at this moment.
“You’ve been tricked, Andy.” Allen, clutching his bleeding wound, said calmly, leaning on the table. “I suspect someone made you do this. He controlled Alex Pedro and promised you something, right? Wealth? Immortality? Or some other fantastical thing?”
Dr. Miller gave a mocking laugh. "Allen, you're always so self-righteous. Sometimes you're so childish that it makes me laugh."
Allen clutched his abdomen and realized that Dr. Miller had been very careful to avoid his internal organs. He looked badly injured, but he was actually just losing blood.
He suddenly remembered the first time he met Dr. Miller, when Ms. Goodman said that the guy who was smiling like a fool was his mentor, and he was actually quite disgusted with him.
But over time, Andy Miller's image in his eyes gradually transformed into that of an optimistic, somewhat naive, and overly kind-hearted person—a vulnerable, ordinary person in this world who deserves protection. He even felt that Dr. Miller shouldn't be doing the dangerous job of an emergency room doctor in the dangerous city of Brudhaven, but rather should be venturing into the world of stand-up comedy with Edward.
Admittedly, he did have suspicions about Andy Miller, but he ultimately gave up on investigating.
Because it's meaningless, no matter what Andy Miller wants to do, Alan Osborn is a man destined to die before the age of 30.
Allen looked at Andy Miller: "And you're so stupid it makes me laugh. Are you ruining your own career, or do you think the people behind you will let you get away with killing me?"
“You wouldn’t understand, Alan. Someone like you, born with everything, can’t empathize with me,” Andy Miller said. “You’re a complete slut; you only see what you want to care about and never care about anyone else. Everything you have is taken care of for you, even Ms. Goodman is very fond of you…”
Allen had absolutely no idea what the other person was trying to say.
Andy Miller continued, to himself, "And me... I work hard, pay my taxes honestly, and have never had any outrageous ideas. I have no money, no talent, and I have liver cancer... late stage. Edward saw it on the surgery schedule, didn't he tell you? What else do you think I can do?"
"I still haven't finished paying off my medical school loans, and my health insurance won't cover my medical expenses... I'm at my wit's end, but nobody's helping me. I called you, I thought about asking you for help, but nobody listened to me... What the hell were you eating, cereal just to go home! I was standing on the rooftop the day before yesterday... Damn it, I'm still young, I just graduated a few years earlier than you, and I have a sister who can't work and is bedridden. What will happen to her if I die?"
“None of what you’re saying has anything to do with me,” Allen said. “I didn’t cause your illness.”
“But someone told me that there’s a mysterious power hidden in your blood, and that if I listened to her, I could cure my illness and restore my sister’s health. Actually, I didn’t believe it at first.” Andy Miller looked at Allen. “But she told me to try, saying that you could bring the dead back to life… Later I saw it, the squid is a good example, I saw it with my own eyes. And now there’s Alex.”
Allen subconsciously looked down at Alex, who was lying unconscious on the ground.
“You see, you kill a person and feel no remorse,” Andy Miller said. “You’re a monster. What’s wrong with me fighting a monster?”
Allen ignored Andy Miller, knowing that when he was performing the organ transplant on the 'Squid', Dr. Miller, who was standing next to him, had deliberately bumped into him.
At that moment, he felt the scalpel cut his skin.
This was actually a serious occupational exposure, but he did not report it at the time.
On the one hand, it was because the test results before his death showed that his blood did not contain any infectious diseases, and he took timely measures afterward; on the other hand, it was because he wanted to know what Andy Miller was planning to do.
He had been wondering who Luther meant by "his enemy," and before today he had thought that the other party's target was his life.
Perhaps those rats in the gutter will poison him? Kidnap him? Or perhaps use magical means like creating the illusion of 'Emily' to lure him into a trap? Most likely, they'll threaten him with the people around him.
He had made thorough preparations for everything—Harry had Spider-Man by his side, Daredevil was with Matthew, he sent a danger signal to Nightwing through Dick, and simultaneously attacked Superman's signal source in the Arctic. Oh, and while chatting with Luthor, he also sent the addresses of several of Luthor's labs to that outspoken reporter at the Daily Planet, believing the reporter would have a way to contact Superman and the Justice League.
Before leaving the Osborn family, he also gave Deathstroke a large sum of money, instructing him to kill Norman Osborn and other disobedient executives within the Osborn Corporation after his death. That one-eyed man, despite his terrible taste, would surely do this small favor once he'd been paid.
However, none of the possibilities he had considered came to pass.
Now there's only Andy Miller.
Allen's vision was beginning to blur, and the excessive blood loss made him feel cold.
But he remained quite calm. He was considering what would happen to Dick after he died; that poor soul probably couldn't be kept in the world for long. He could only hope that Nightwing, who was supposedly on good terms with Dick, would discover this soon and then find someone from the magical side to resolve the issue.
However, he was no longer able to think about things too far ahead; he was prepared to calmly accept death.
"Tell me, since I'm about to die, what do they want you to do to me?" This was the question that Allen had always been curious about.
Did you go to all this trouble today to take him away when no one was looking? Or...?
However, Dr. Miller was not prepared to answer Allen's question.
“This is just the beginning, Allen,” he heard Andy Miller say.
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