Chapter 4840

"Don't move around, stay still." Steve patted little Thomas's shoulder and said, "It'll be fastened in a moment; if you move it'll come undone again."

Little Thomas squirmed on his seat, but still looked at his companions. The older of the twins had his mouth wide open. Franklin, hugging his arms, said, "I said something was off here. Didn't expect it to actually be haunted."

"Wait a minute," little Morgan held out her hand, "Did you see the figure at the doorway just now?"

"Oh, don't start that." The younger of the twins said, "You definitely want to scare us again, Miss Stark. We're not falling for that anymore!"

"I'm not joking," little Morgan frowned and said very seriously, "I thought it was Aunt Wanda at first. But if those two came back, then who's outside the door?"

Billy shivered. He stammered, "There can't really be a ghost, right? I... I never harmed them... Don't come looking for me..."

Franklin was speechless. "You're Shazam. You can use the power of the Olympian gods, and you're afraid of ghosts?"

Unexpectedly, Billy shook his head and said, "Before coming, my dad told me not to use superpowers casually. I can't cause trouble for this universe."

The twin brothers exchanged a glance. The older gave Franklin a look, the younger gave little Thomas a look. Then they were caught on the spot by Wanda.

"I'm warning you, don't stir up any trouble on Earth. If I find out you snuck out..."

"We won't, Mom!" The twin brothers immediately shouted, "We'll video call Dad tonight!"

"That's right, I'll read stories to my little sister! Guaranteed not to run around!"

Those words definitely had no persuasive power. Wanda didn't believe them at all either. But she was very confident in her own power. Here, besides Franklin who could open a portal to escape, no one else could get out of her palm.

Once Wanda left, the two brothers turned into bitter faces. Little Thomas had nothing to say either. They all knew they couldn't possibly do anything under the Scarlet Witch's nose. The only hope was Franklin.

"Don't look at me," Franklin sent them a mental transmission, "A while back I wandered the universe with my dad. My mom is very angry; she's preparing to find me a tutor. I'm afraid I won't have so much time to come out and play anymore..."

"Oh! No!!!" The children instantly screamed in misery. You have to know, their ability to come and go freely in the universe mostly relied on Franklin's portals. If he stayed home, this little squad might just disband on the spot.

Dishes were served one after another. Basically made by Natasha, Coulson, and Bucky. These few had pretty good cooking skills. Frank also made a mashed potato dish. His cooking skills couldn't be called good, but this dish was really too simple; there was no room for it to be bad.

The children's were kids' meals. Grilled baby back ribs with vegetables, plus a clam chowder, staple was mashed potatoes. The adults shared a leg of lamb and roast chicken, plus Hungarian beef soup. The past few days' meals had an especially large amount of soup, because nothing is more enjoyable than drinking a bowl of steaming hot soup on a snowy day.

Greed soon received on his phone the information about the Violet Resort from back then that Jarvis had searched for on the internet. But when the Violet Resort incident happened, even Captain America and the Winter Soldier hadn't undergone enhancement yet. Their youth had no internet at all; the traces left on the net were too few.

Moreover, back then so many wealthy people joined forces to blockade the news. Traditional media left no traces either. Only a few small TV stations reported the resort's closure for rectification, not mentioning a word about the cause.

Currently only some family members' voices can be found. The official explanation given to the public back then was that these people went to the beach together and were drowned by a rising tide. Such an outrageous reason was forcibly rewritten into fact by them. Whether autopsy reports or police investigation results, all were unified in caliber. These victims' families also had nowhere to appeal.

"How did you know it was tap water pollution back then?" Greed looked at Steve with some curiosity. Steve stopped his hand cutting meat, then said, "I worked there for a long time, and had a few friends I got along with. They told me."

"Then how did they know? If so many people knew, it should have been impossible to cover up."

"Because not everyone in that resort died." Steve thought for a moment and said, "The tap water problem wasn't a fire or tsunami that could kill everyone in a short time. There were always lucky survivors who escaped. Probably they spread it."

"That era wasn't like now, where a phone can spread news worldwide. If radio stations didn't interview you, you had no chance to express yourself to the masses. And those covering up the news back then certainly wouldn't give anyone that chance."

Greed nodded. In the internet age, there's no such thing as "inside information" anymore. Or rather, much of the information circulating on the internet now would have been top secret back then; most people would never have access to it in a lifetime.

But in the past, when one could only speak out through traditional media, covering up news was always simple. Just don't let people get interviewed on TV. Yet Greed still felt something was off.

You have to know, American media is notorious, but not entirely directed at ordinary people. Celebrities dislike them too. Because often American media holds the greatest supervisory power, able to easily manipulate stock prices through public opinion. Even those tycoons have to bow to them.

The Violet Resort matter isn't small, and precisely because of that, reporting it would gain considerable benefit. There shouldn't be no TV stations interested. And the resort's owner wasn't without competitors. Openly they wouldn't tear face for Hampton's tourism business, but privately pulling tricks should be possible. How could it be covered up so perfectly?

Greed felt there must be some hidden details. This matter really wasn't that easy to resolve.

At the dining table, little Morgan was fussing about not wanting to eat vegetables. Insisting the parsley Stark made her eat was bitter. Stark could only coax her, barely managing to get the carrots and broccoli eaten.

The twin brothers really disliked eating bell peppers. One bite and their whole faces scrunched up. Wanda coaxed for a long time too, barely getting half of one down.

Rather, the youngest Franklin wasn't picky; he ate whatever was given, and his appetite wasn't small either. Steve wanted to praise him a couple sentences, just turned his head and discovered Franklin had opened a portal in his mouth. Whatever he didn't like eating, he directly threw away through the portal.

Little Thomas copied him too; things he didn't like eating he directly decomposed into dark matter, dissipating into the universe. Steve felt by the time he grew to adulthood, the universe's dark matter would have significantly increased.

The children more or less all had some picky eating. This might be because children's taste buds are more sensitive. However, in this manor, their picky eating tendencies weakened. All were more inclined to finish quickly, then wander all over the manor, seeing if they could really see a ghost.

Barely finishing the meal, the children sprinted out. Wanda didn't mind, instead starting to simmer a phone call with some old friend. The topic seemed to be New Salem's affairs. Greed sat in the room listening to the gist; seemed the witches' settlement had an accident.

Colorado's high plateau — birds don't even shit there. The biggest problem there isn't the height, but the desolation. Near the Grand Canyon of Colorado it's all barren mountains and rocks. That place has never been tread by human civilization; not that human civilization can't, but it's truly uninhabitable.

One could say, the witches being driven there is no different from exile. Massachusetts, though also quite remote, at least has decent climate and vegetation coverage. The Colorado plateau is far, hot, and desolate. Anyone with a bit of ability wouldn't end up driven there.

Greed could naturally hear that the Scarlet Witch had beautified that history somewhat. Nicely called "living in seclusion all the way, finally finding a secluded place to settle." But plainly put, they couldn't win, were exiled to a godforsaken remote place to barely survive.

In this situation, the witch group internally must have conflicts. Even if that generation's bond was stronger than gold, by the second generation it definitely wouldn't work. Harkness doesn't care, Wanda doesn't seem to want to intervene either. Who knows what they'll do.

After about an hour or more, Wanda finally returned with a heavy expression. She pursed her lips, seemingly not knowing how to start. Steve hurriedly went up to her and said, "What's wrong, ma'am? Any trouble? Tell us quickly; we can think of a way together."

But Wanda shook her head and said, "Nothing, it's not related to me."

Then she looked at Greed and said, "My teacher has a son named Nicholas Scratch. This guy is a natural bad seed; he still hasn't woken up from the witch hunts, and has been dedicated to exterminating all witches in this world."

"A while ago, he and his companions infiltrated New Salem, attempting to incite witches to hunt down his mother. Some witches fell into his trap, but they were simply no match for Ms. Harkness. My teacher is currently hunting them, heading north all the way. If she comes to New York, I should sense it. Then I'll go find her."

"Thank you so much, ma'am." Greed said, "But if it's just these matters, you shouldn't have needed to talk on the phone this long. If there's something troubling you, just say it. We can give you some opinions, but absolutely won't make decisions for you."

Wanda rarely revealed some negative emotions — this is actually very rare; most of the time she's full of vitality, looking like she loves life. Never seen her reveal fatigue. Even during the time when the kids were hardest to handle, she never complained impatiently, but was always very invested and enjoying it.

But now she actually pressed her brow, sat down on the sofa. And even sat dazedly for several tens of seconds before opening her mouth to say, "The witches want to migrate north."

Greed raised an eyebrow and said, "Didn't they migrate from the north to there?"

"Yes, they want to return to Massachusetts." Wanda sighed deeply, "Because of Nicholas's arrival and destruction, a war broke out inside the witches, quite a few died. The leader has had enough of New Salem, feels Massachusetts is still better. So they decided to move back."

"That's a good thing, right?" Steve said, "No one persecutes witches anymore now. Massachusetts's natural environment is good. Witches going there to live is pretty good too."

"You're thinking too simply about this." Wanda turned to look at the few of them and said, "Ilvermorny is still in Massachusetts."