Chapter 132: Family Council

Two months were enough to bestow the "Super Spy" ability upon every child adopted by the Carl family. As for why Natasha would not remain within the Carl family, Kyle had pondered this repeatedly.

Natasha was a top-tier spy trained by the Red Room. He did not wish to ignore or alter her identity as the "Black Widow"; it would be far more appropriate to have her embedded within the upper echelons of S.H.I.E.L.D. She would serve as a bridge between the family and S.H.I.E.L.D., while simultaneously helping the Carl family monitor and understand the inner workings of the organization.

Kyle was about to leave Earth to gamble on that final shred of hope for survival. With a long-term perspective, he instinctively left many contingencies for things he could not fully control. S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of them. Since it was not worth much yet too valuable to simply discard, he would send someone to monitor and balance it from the shadows.

For half an hour in the master conference room, Kyle kept Natasha by his side, using the time to copy and extract the "Super Spy" ability. Once the half-hour passed and the time for the Carl family meeting approached, Kyle dismissed Natasha. He raised his hand, adorned with a sling ring, and waved it, causing a portal of brilliant sparks to emerge and expand from the ceiling.

When the ring of sparks opened to a radius of one meter, the Winter Soldier, his body entangled in iron chains, tumbled out and fell clumsily onto the floor of the conference room.

"What happened?" Bucky asked, climbing up in a daze, the chains dragging with a crisp metallic clatter. He had felt as if he were falling in a dream for over half an hour.

"You have finally recovered. It seems this method is quite effective," Kyle remarked thoughtfully. This was merely the use of a portal where the exit was set directly above the entrance, creating a loop of perpetual falling.

"Recovered? Did something happen to me again?" Bucky looked at Kyle urgently, desperate for an answer.

Kyle met his gaze and stated bluntly, "You lost control and went on a rampage just now. It took a great deal of effort for the people of the Carl family to subdue you."

"Yes, I remember now—my brain was once again controlled by those confused memories. The desire to kill, to destroy, to act upon received orders." Bucky muttered to himself, then suddenly let out a bitter, wretched laugh and sat dejectedly on the floor. "I thought that by leaving that place, I could return to who I was before, but I still couldn't escape the control of those memories. The old me is gone forever."

Kyle did not offer words of comfort. When it came to matters of the brain and memory, even he found it exceptionally thorny. Bucky’s condition involved damaged and erased memories, replaced by cold, ruthless programmed instructions that were reinforced repeatedly. Over time, the victim would mistakenly believe they were a Winter Soldier machine born only to execute missions. Even in the original timeline, after the twenty-first century, when Earth's technological brilliance shone across the universe, Bucky’s condition could not be effectively cured.

Bucky hugged his metallic left arm with his right hand and rasped with finality, "Kyle, you should just kill me now... give me an early release, and it will prevent innocent people from being hurt or losing their lives to the Winter Soldier deep inside my mind."

Kyle fell silent. He watched the sorrowful Bucky for a long time before saying softly, "I could certainly grant your request, but if Steve is still alive, I would not be able to answer to him when he returns."

"Steve, Steve..." Bucky repeated the name, shaking his head with a wry smile. "Will I ever see him again in this lifetime?"

Kyle tapped the table and offered a suggestion: "I can put you into a cryogenic chamber and keep you in the mansion’s basement. When a day comes in the future where there is a way to heal your condition, the Carl family will thaw and awaken you."

"Then let's do that. Thank you, Kyle." Bucky nodded in gratitude, agreeing to this method, which was not quite a solution but a reprieve.

Cryogenic freezing was a way to delay and escape the current situation—a decent stopgap measure. When Kyle first learned of his own genetic mutation, he had once considered freezing himself, sleeping peacefully until future technology reached a higher level. But rather than pinning his hopes on others and the future, he preferred to take the risk, venture into the vast cosmic galaxy, and rely on himself to seize opportunity cards and break through his genetic dilemma.

The Carl family meeting at the estate proceeded as scheduled. At the large round table in the second-floor hall, Kyle sat at the head, flanked by Lucy, Logan, and Rain-Eye, with Natasha, who was only half a family member, also present.

"As for Stark Industries, Howard has secretly transferred the company's shares and control to the name of the Carl family. I will leave the family's financial affairs entirely to Lucy. Any objections?" Kyle said solemnly, looking at his fiancée, his two trusted aides, and Natasha.

His final sentence was merely a rhetorical gesture; naturally, no one had any objections. Not to mention that all the family's resources were provided by Kyle, the fact that Lucy was the future mistress of the family meant she held far more authority than anyone else.

"I don't know... if I can manage it well," Lucy replied, raising her hand with a lack of confidence.

"Don't worry, learn as you go, and ask Howard if you don't understand something," Kyle comforted her, then turned his attention to Logan. "Logan, how are the combat classes for the children the family has adopted coming along?"

"Since they were all orphans of war who suffered bullying and scorn from the institutions, they are far more sensible than other children their age. They are all working hard and patiently in their combat lessons. However..." Logan paused, hesitating.

Kyle naturally understood what he meant—some children had high combat talent, others low, but no matter how high their talent was, in the eyes of people like them, it was truly too low. Natasha was also secretly surprised; in her view, cultivating children this way was inferior to the Red Room.

"As long as they have willpower and enough loyalty to the family, talent doesn't matter." Kyle smiled, recalling something as he gave an example: "Have you forgotten Steve? In the military camp where I was, he was the one with the least talent, and yet he still became a superhero."

To Kyle, all human children were equally weak. What they lacked was simply the evolutionary key to unlock their physical potential, combined with enough motivation.

"Logan, from today on, every three days, pick the child who performed best in training. After they pass an assessment by Rain-Eye, I will bestow upon them a physical potential boost no less than Natasha's!"

Kyle said in a deep voice, "Loyalty to the Carl family is the primary condition! Anyone with ulterior motives or who lacks initiative will be cleared from the estate! I need elite members who can maintain and give back to the family in the future."

This was the first time Kyle had proposed the selection and management of Carl family members. Logan nodded without hesitation. Even though he had personally adopted all the children in the estate, if they did not meet the standards to become members of the Carl faction, he would not plead for them.

In the Carl family, Kyle was the god of supreme power, and his words were the absolute law.