Marvel: The Psychologist Who Stole Wanda and Gwen's Hearts!

When it came to deciding how many guns to take back, Lorien and Hela discussed it briefly. In the end, they both agreed—take as many as possible. Because every gun they left behind was one more weapon in the hands of the terrorists. So, the more they could grab, the better.

Lorien also explained his reasoning to Gwen.

"These weapons are from the Chitauri Civilization, which means this group must have found some leftover Chitauri tech."

"They’ve definitely hidden it away. The stash probably isn’t big, and chances are they’ve done their own modifications."

Gwen completely agreed. She thought the same thing. If it were a large stockpile, they wouldn’t have waited until now to use it. In fact, it probably would’ve been discovered before they even got the chance. The fact that they were only using it now meant it was likely the work of a small group.

"Tomorrow after school, I’ll track them and see if I can find their hideout."

Gwen clapped her hands, decision made.

"If I do, I’ll contact you, Lorien."

"Then you bring Hela over."

Lorien nodded and gave an OK sign.

"No problem."

And that was settled. One would scout after school. The other would grab whatever he could after work. Two people, working together to clean up the streets—but only when they had spare time.

See, this is what superheroes are like when it’s purely interest-driven! Being a superhero is fun and easy only when it’s a side gig. Turn it into a public celebrity career, and the pressure would ruin it. That just wouldn’t do.

Next, the guns were put away. But Lorien wasn’t in the mood to cook today. Cooking, after all, is fun when done occasionally. Do it too often, and it’s just housework.

So Lorien asked straight out,

"How about we eat out tonight? We can shop a bit too."

"Sounds good~!" Gwen was the first to raise her hand.

Hela saw her and raised hers too. "+1!"

Alright then—eating out it was!

The three changed clothes, slipped on their shoes, and headed down to the underground garage. When they got to Jetfire, Hela stared at the two seats in thought.

"Two seats. Three people. How’s that going to work?"

"Easy." Lorien slid into the driver’s seat.

"Two options. First—you get tied to the back and dragged along, or you sit on the roof. Second—you sit on Gwen’s lap."

Gwen had the build of a teenage girl. Hela looked like a loli. So Gwen and Hela could share the passenger seat. But Wanda? She couldn’t ride with anyone—she needed the seat to herself.

Once they were in, Lorien hit the gas, and Jetfire rumbled out of the garage. As usual, they took a loop along the coastal highway first.

It was 6:15 p.m. The sun was just beginning to set. Lorien drove the Ferrari, two little sisters beside him, enjoying a breezy seaside drive.

He rolled down the window, stretched his hand out, fingers relaxed, palm catching the wind.

Hela noticed and asked, puzzled,

"What are you doing?"

Lorien, sunglasses on, grinned.

"At this speed, if you put your hand out and feel the wind, it’s about the size of a C."

Both Hela and Gwen froze for a moment.

"Really?!" Gwen asked, curious.

"Try it and see."

So Gwen and Hela both reached out their hands, positioning them just right. Lorien kept the speed at about fifty.

Sure enough, after a while, Gwen pulled her hand back, pressed it against her chest, and looked at Lorien in surprise.

"It’s true!"

"Told you." Lorien raised an eyebrow, still driving.

Hela tried pressing her own chest. Hmm, didn’t match. So she pressed it against Gwen instead—and nodded.

"It really is."

Once they left the coastal road, Lorien steered toward a nearby restaurant.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked. "Chinese, Western, Italian, Japanese, Indian—anything’s fine. But I’d suggest avoiding the third and fifth."

The third tended to taste all the same. The fifth... just looked too heavy.

Gwen and Wanda thought for a moment.

"How about Japanese? We haven’t really tried much of that before."

Hela didn’t mind. "As long as it’s good."

"Alright, let’s go."

Lorien started looking for a Japanese place with a nice atmosphere. He’d never make Japanese food at home, but eating it out was fine—good for a change in flavor.

Eventually, he found a luxurious Japanese restaurant inside a high-rise. Since Japanese places pride themselves on top-tier service, he picked one that was high-quality but not crowded.

After parking, the three headed inside and took the elevator straight up to the restaurant’s floor...

"Ding~"

The elevator doors opened, and the waiter at the entrance bent as low as possible to welcome them. Someone then led the three of them into the restaurant.

Finally, the head chef came over to ask what they would like for dinner, saying he could prepare anything from tempura to seafood, and even recommending a few of his specialties.

Lorien didn’t order anything himself. Instead, he told Gwen and Hela to order more and that he would just eat along with them.

Before long, the two girls finished ordering. Gwen leaned over and whispered in Lorien’s ear.

"The people here are so humble. Honestly, it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable."

Hela thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

"This kind of behavior is only seen among the lowest classes of the Nine Realms—those who’ve committed serious crimes."

Lorien swirled the cup in his hand and smiled.

"That’s just their culture. A strict hierarchy, bowing and scraping... You don’t have to like it, but you can’t criticize it."

"Mm-hmm~?" Gwen nodded, then quickly realized something.

"Oh, wait, I said that wrong."

Lorien corrected himself with a small smile. "You can choose to ignore it. Just don’t concern yourself with it."

After a while, the chef began serving their dishes one at a time. The idea here was that you could focus on savoring each dish, so they wouldn’t bring the next until you had finished the one in front of you.

Of course, each portion was very small.

Lorien tried the first dish. The flavor was decent—after all, a luxurious restaurant like this wouldn’t be serving street food.

For Gwen and Hela, it was their first time eating this kind of cuisine, so they found it alright. At the very least, it was something new to try.

Eventually, after they had slowly finished all their dishes, Lorien paid the bill. The three of them walked out past a row of staff bowing respectfully.

"How to rate this..." Gwen thought for a moment. "Out of ten, passing is six... I’ll give it a seven."

Hela, sitting on Gwen’s lap, answered without hesitation.

"One point."

Both Gwen and Lorien turned to her, curious.

"Why one point?"

Hela replied flatly.

"Because this wasn’t Lorien’s cooking."

"Woo~~~" Gwen made a playful noise, then pinched Hela’s cheeks with a grin.

"Hela, you’re getting good at talking, huh?"

Even Lorien looked at her with mild surprise. The eldest princess of Asgard... not acting tsundere?

Hela didn’t respond. She just gave a soft "hmph" and turned to look out the window.

Lorien chuckled and kept driving.

"No rush to head back. Let’s just wander around New York for a bit."

"I’m in." Gwen agreed immediately. As long as she was near Lorien, she was fine with anything.

Hela was no different. Right now, all she wanted was to stick close to Lorien or play games.

It was 8 p.m. The Ferrari cruised smoothly down the highway.

The city lights at night made New York look alive and bustling. If you had astigmatism, the scene might look like thousands of tiny mosaic lights flickering in the dark.

Hela leaned against the window, gazing at the city.

"This looks so different from Asgard."

Gwen tilted her head, curious. "What’s Asgard like at night?"

Hela thought for a moment before answering.

"The roads are lined with glowing magic streetlights, and the temples shine with golden light. But if you look toward the edge of Asgard, only the Bifröst stretches into the darkness."

Gwen could picture it—Asgard like a floating island in the Nine Realms, surrounded by darkness yet strong and unyielding. Almost like a firefly in the void.

Just then, Gwen suddenly tensed, her eyes snapping toward a corner of the city.

"Pssst!"

Just then, a laser beam suddenly shot up from somewhere in the city, piercing the sky before vanishing into the atmosphere.

"Pssst!"

Another beam followed, slicing through the side of a high-rise and bursting out the other end.

"Something’s wrong," Gwen reacted instantly.

Lorien looked toward the source and spotted a figure in bird-like gear darting between buildings.

Hela glanced up at the fading light of the laser, then suddenly brightened with anticipation.

"Is that the laser weapon?"

"It should be," Lorien nodded.

"Then let’s hurry and grab a few!" Hela shouted excitedly.

Lorien smirked. "Alright, let’s check it out."

He turned the wheel, Phoenix Force surging through him.

In the next instant, the speeding Ferrari vanished into a phantom blur and reappeared near the location they had just seen.

As the car rolled out of a narrow alley, the three of them stepped out—only to find the area already locked down by police.

Barricades were up, officers in position.

A quick glance told Lorien enough.

Gwen, standing beside him, explained for Hela, who was too short to see over the crowd.

"New York’s biggest bank was robbed. But they didn’t take the money—just scattered it everywhere."

Even now, bills were still drifting lazily down from above, carpeting the streets.

Once people realized they were all large-denomination bills...

"Hurry! Grab it—it’s all money!"

"Pick it up! Grab what you can and run!"

"Free cash! Everyone take it!"

In an instant...

The first to snatch the bills from the air and ground were a group of Black men. Not kids—men. They moved fast, scooping up as much as they could.

Then the white guys caught on, diving in to gather fistfuls of cash.

Soon the first group grew bolder, shoving and grabbing money straight from others’ hands.

They quickly realized that taking once from a person was worth more than bending down ten times.

The moment others saw this, more joined the fray.

What began as a scramble turned into a full-blown riot.

And where was the largest pile of cash?

Right at the bank’s front steps.

It didn’t take long before greedy eyes turned toward the police line.

"Uh-oh."

Officers noticed the shift and started shouting into their radios.

"Requesting backup! Requesting backup!"

"Step back! I said step back! One more step and I empty the mag!"

"Get more units here now!"

As expected, once a riot ignites, it’s nearly impossible to contain at the start.

The first kick against a police shield was all it took—then the crowd surged toward the bank entrance.

With whites and blacks mixed together in the chaos, no officer was about to risk his life over a paycheck.

For a few thousand a month? Forget it—time to bail.

The cops fell back under the push, and people immediately began scooping up the bills right in front of them.

A few dozen officers were no match for hundreds, maybe thousands, of rioters.

They could try to stop the ones blatantly snatching, but those quietly stuffing bills into their pockets? Impossible.

By the time the riot began, Lorien had already teleported himself, Gwen, and Hela to a rooftop for a better view.

"You guys carry on," he thought. "I’m just here for the show."

"How soulless," Hela muttered after watching for a bit, shaking her head. "Asgardians would never riot over money."

Gwen pressed her lips together, silent for a long moment before letting out a sigh. She was clearly disappointed.

She’d been Spider-Woman for a while now—rescued hundreds, maybe close to a thousand people.

And looking at this scene, she couldn’t help but wonder if any of these scrambling, greedy faces were ones she had once saved.

It wasn’t impossible.

Sensing her thoughts, Lorien placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"You help people for your own peace of mind, and to not waste your abilities," he said. "Not for any one person or group. Don’t think about it like that."

Gwen froze for a moment, then nodded, wrapping her arms around him.

"Yeah... I was overthinking it."

Hela was still at the edge, peering down at the chaos below.

After a while, she asked, "But who threw the money? And why?"

Who it was—no one knew. The culprit was long gone.

Most likely, it was that winged figure they’d seen flying between rooftops earlier.

As for the reason... that was more interesting.

"To create chaos so they could escape?" Gwen guessed.

"To benefit society?" Hela offered.

"I think... to show off," Lorien said after a pause.

Both girls blinked.

"Why?"

"Because he could’ve left quickly—but instead, he waited for the crowd to gather before running. And with that gear of his, he couldn’t carry much cash anyway. Even if he stuffed every pocket, maybe a few tens of thousands at most. So why bother robbing a bank?"

Realization struck Gwen.

"So... he did it to prove he’s a supervillain. To make sure everyone remembers him. To get famous?"

Lorien arched a brow and nodded. "Exactly."

Gwen sneered in disgust.

Hela frowned, thought for a moment, then spat out a quick "Tsk"—though she added, almost begrudgingly, "At least he’s got some personality."

...

With reinforcements arriving, the riot slowly fizzled out.

Of course, it helped that every last bill had been scooped up.

The moment the cash was gone, people bolted.

And without a crowd to feed the chaos, the whole thing unraveled fast.

Those slow to run or too stunned to react got caught and turned into scapegoats—likely to be handed a few years in prison.

Seeing it was over, Lorien waved his hand.

"Let’s go. That guy’s probably one of the crew you ran into this afternoon, Gwen. Keep an eye out for him tomorrow."

"Mm!" Gwen nodded sharply. The villain’s stunt had clearly gotten under her skin.

Someone was in for trouble.

Hela’s eyes lit up when she heard they were heading back. She bounced over to Lorien’s side, ready for teleportation—though she hardly needed to be there for it.

Snap!

With a single flick of Lorien’s fingers, the Ferrari reappeared in the underground garage, while the three of them stepped through the front door, shoes coming off in the entryway.

Hela dashed straight for her room, calling out in delight,

"Come on, let’s hurry up and shower already!"