Chapter 78
The fight began without a word. The Hood and Ghost, confident in their invisibility, didn't know about my spiritual vision. I'd activated it the moment they vanished. They pulled their triggers almost simultaneously.
Ghost's rifle bullet flew straight at my head. Two orange energy blasts from the Hood's pistols were aimed at my torso.
Thanks to the previous psi-attack, most of my nanobots were still clustered in my skull, protecting my brain. With a quick mental impulse, the swarm of micro-machines instantly formed a super-dense shield over my left cheek, right in the bullet's path.
The impact lasted less than a thousandth of a second.
My head snapped back slightly. All the kinetic energy transferred to my neck, not my brain. It was enough to cause only minor discomfort. At the same time, I twisted my torso a couple of degrees, letting the Hood's energy projectiles whistle past. I wasn't about to risk taking his magical attacks head-on. Ghost's bullet was straightforward. A bullet was a bullet. But these energy blasts were unpredictable.
It was also clear that nobody intended to negotiate. Well, too bad, but they'd made their choice.
At that same moment, the man with the ball on a chain began to darken before my eyes. His skin and clothing shifted in color and texture until they were indistinguishable from the chain in his hands. Was he transforming into the material he'd touched? No, it was more like he was absorbing its properties.
Taskmaster, for his part, pulled his shield from his back and drew his sword. The blade was immediately covered in a bluish glow. An energy blade? An artifact? Whatever it was, nothing was simple here.
All right. With my recent modifications, I was no slouch either. A plan came together instantly. I'd take the path of least resistance.
I fired a small plasma burst at Taskmaster. With a casual flick of my other hand, I sent a concentrated heat wave toward the invisible Hood. These attacks had one drawback, though. They were slow. Taskmaster predictably raised his shield. The plasma didn't leave a scratch on it. It was an Adamantium shield.
The Hood sprang back several meters to the side thanks to his miracle boots, avoiding annihilation.
But I wasn't trying to kill them. This was just a distraction.
At that very moment, while they reacted to my attacks, I closed the distance to Ghost in a fluid rush. After her unsuccessful shot, she had shifted position, and now she was the farthest one on the improvised battlefield. She definitely hadn't expected me to see her. She'd thought my attack on the Hood was an attempt to probe the area and find them.
But no. Sorry, dear. You might have been a girl with a hard life, like so many others in this world. But I believed in equal rights.
I ended up right beside her. I knew plasma and heat would be useless. Her phasing would let them pass right through her. I needed pure kinetic force. I needed vibration.
I instantly summoned the "Chimera" again, but I only needed the vibro-gauntlet from the suit. It cracked ominously, which was unsurprising given my new dimensions. But the main thing was that it worked. That was XCOM quality for you.
I struck her in the chest. I didn't just strike her. I unleashed the maximum charge from the vibro-module. Her body, caught between phase and reality, couldn't withstand it. Ghost simply tore apart into a bloody mist. It was a cruel but quick death.
"Minus two," to the dumbfounded meta-mercenaries, my voice surely sounded like a death sentence.
My next target should have been Taskmaster. But from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the Hood, still invisible to them but visible to me, flying toward the parking lot exit. He was fleeing!
I stowed the Chimera in my inventory and rushed after him, ignoring the rest. A giant made entirely of steel immediately rose up in my path. He clearly didn't understand why I'd abandoned them to rush for the exit. I decided to save this wild card and the study of his capabilities for the very end. I simply jumped over him, using his massive back as a springboard and pushing off with both legs in mid-air. Surprisingly, despite the force I'd applied, the giant only tilted slightly forward. He was sturdy.
The boost propelled me a couple of meters closer to the Hood. That was enough.
I pulled a special grenade from my inventory, one that had finally come in handy. I hit the button and threw it precisely at the fleeing metahuman's back. It flew in a brief arc, and then the fugitive, now completely enveloped in durable adhesive foam, crashed heavily onto the asphalt. He was immobilized.
Perfect. His artifacts were undamaged. I just needed to finish the bastard off carefully.
I drew my tactical pistol from my inventory and shot him in the head. He wasn't wearing a protective mask. That mistake cost him his life.
He was dead. Two left.
I circled around the big guy again, easily evading his steel ball. In his hands, it looked like nothing more than a yo-yo. Finding myself face to face with Taskmaster, I assessed his equipment. He had his shield and sword.
The shield, as I'd thought, was simply a damn durable piece of Adamantium. Nothing more. But the sword... Now, I could confidently say this was an artifact. Definitely. It wasn't particularly powerful, not the kind that required resonance with its user. But I couldn't afford to get hit by it. Taskmaster stood in an ideal defensive stance, awaiting my move. And, of course, there was backup in the form of the big guy, who was already stomping his way over.
I used the "Chimera" again. I used the vibro-gauntlet again. The last thing I wanted was to dance around for long.
But here, Taskmaster really surprised me. He obviously understood what I'd used to kill Ghost. And he understood that his Adamantium shield wasn't Vibranium. It wouldn't disperse the impact. It would absorb the full vibrational force. Neither the shield nor the arm beneath it would withstand that.
So the guy simply threw his weapons onto the floor and raised his hands in a classic "I surrender" gesture.
The situation threw me so off track that I, stupidly staring at the mercenary, failed to see the attack coming. A heavy iron ball crashed into my back, throwing me several steps forward. My lack of combat experience was showing.
Taskmaster, meanwhile, didn't capitalize on the moment. On the contrary, he stepped back a couple more steps from his discarded weapons and began to silently observe. He was a true professional.
"Does this idiot not intend to surrender?" I asked Taskmaster, nodding at the big guy. The big guy, completely absorbed in the battle, was again spinning his ball. He clearly wasn't noticing his partner's surrender.
"Creel, after a transformation, is unstable," Taskmaster calmly confirmed, as if commenting on the weather. "He only comes to his senses after he has finished with the target."
I understood. I shouldn't stand on ceremony with this bastard.
I hit him with a highly concentrated plasma beam. In theory, it should have melted his metal body. But...
"Damn it!" I couldn't help myself.
The bastard wasn't melting. He was absorbing the plasma, transforming into it. He was becoming a living, roaring fire. And to top it off, he was laughing.
"He can even talk in that form?!"
"You messed with the wrong guy, brat!" the plasma Creel rumbled. He pointed his hands at me, obviously preparing to incinerate me with my own weapon.
I would probably survive the attack, but it would be extremely unpleasant. So I used the vibro-gauntlet again, cranking it to maximum power. I unleashed a concentrated vibration wave at the plasma man, who had already begun melting the asphalt under his feet. If firefighters could put out fires with sound waves, then my enhanced vibrations should work even better!
It was worse. He absorbed those, too.
The plasma collapsed, and Creel began to transform into a... vibrational man. He looked like a heat haze in the shape of a large man, constantly distorting and vibrating. It was unnatural! It was impossible! This was definitely not science!
...Alright, I roughly understood how his absorption worked. The main thing was not to get caught in his vibro-attack. While I probably wouldn't end up like Ghost, there'd be nothing fun about it.
I approached the vibro-guy carefully from the side. I used the Iron Blood, reinforced with the carbyne nanobots, to form a long, monomolecular blade. I plunged it into his shifting form and immediately ordered the nanobots to vibrate in counter-phase frequencies. I was attempting to dampen him. I was attempting to disrupt his power from the inside.
Sensing the threat, Creel made the only correct decision, as it seemed to him. He began to absorb the blade itself. He began to absorb my nanobots. He was transforming into an incredibly durable material. He was becoming a carbyne man!
Excellent! He had become solid material. Now, I could touch him.
Which I did. I touched him and summoned the heavy 'Rhinoceros' armor from my inventory. Then I simply placed it over Creel. I locked the big guy in it, like a sarcophagus. I used several foam grenades to be sure. And there, the meta-bastard was immobilized.
He was an unpleasant opponent. If he had known how to preserve the templates of the absorbed essences, or, God forbid, how to combine them, this would have been a solid Omega-level. As it was, it was a small matter. I would study him and dissect him. I would try to understand the source of his powers.
However, first, I would do some looting. I would take the Hood's artifacts. I would take Taskmaster's sword and shield. Possibly something had survived from Ghost's equipment. More precisely, from what remained of her.
Yes, there was much that needed to be studied. And also...
"Help me deal with your employers, and we'll be even," I finally said to the quiet Taskmaster. He was observing the events with professional indifference.
"I don't know who hired us," he answered in an even voice. "The contract was anonymous. The payment was made through a blind trust. It was a standard arrangement."
"Got it." I waved him off. I didn't really need his confirmation anyway.
Fortunately, my dilemma of what to do with all this mess was resolved by the arriving S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They burst into the parking lot in full combat gear and froze, taking in the surreal scene before them.
At my feet lay the massive "Rhinoceros" exoskeleton, drenched in restraining foam. A few meters away stood Taskmaster, calm and unarmed with his hands raised. Farther off was the Hood's foam-covered corpse, and what remained of the "Wesker-understudy" with his katana. And, of course, there was the large bloodstain where Ghost had last stood.
Without a word to the agents, I pulled the S.H.I.E.L.D. phone from my inventory and dialed Fury. This time, he picked up immediately.
"Yes, we screwed up again," came Fury's tired voice. That was the first thing he said.
"The bottom line is that S.H.I.E.L.D. is more of a liability than an asset right now, Nick."
"You've got a half-billion dollar lab, a bureaucratic nightmare we inherited, and protection..."
"I don't need the last one," I interrupted. "Protection clearly isn't your agency's strong suit. And without it, the first two are meaningless."
Silence. Fury was thinking.
"I'll assign several metas to my agents," he finally said. He'd clearly made this decision reluctantly, and I knew these metas were a limited resource. They'd have to be pulled from other assignments.
"At the very least, use them to protect the building and carry out your orders. That's in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best interest," I agreed. "Since we're talking about metas, tell me about Creel."
"Absorbing Man..." Fury drew out the name. It suited the bastard. "Carl 'Crusher' Creel. Former professional boxer. He mysteriously awakened his powers in prison. As the name suggests, he can absorb the properties of any material..."
"Not just materials," I thought, remembering the plasma and vibrations.
"...he touches. He's also got a strong regenerative factor that gets boosted by whatever he absorbs. He's been working as a meta-mercenary for a couple of years now. Well-established in certain circles. S.H.I.E.L.D. rates him threat level 'Red.'"
"Oh, that last point's interesting. What are the other levels?"
"'White' is your average civilian, or a weak meta who doesn't hurt anyone. 'Green' means they've got powers but they're mostly peaceful, or only commit minor offenses. 'Yellow' is a full-fledged meta who doesn't mind getting their hands dirty, but they're careful about it and try to avoid civilians. 'Red,' like you said, is high threat. Then there's 'Black.' Real headaches. Those mysterious moles in S.H.I.E.L.D. just fall into that category."
"I agree. We need to take these bastards down." I nodded. Telling him those moles were Hydra was still too early. Especially since this was a S.H.I.E.L.D. line, and they might have it bugged. "As for Creel, I caught him. Killing him's difficult, but restraining him is doable. It's only temporary though, and my lab doesn't have the right facilities for long-term holding."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. does," Fury caught on immediately.
"Figured. I'll transfer Creel to you for temporary holding. After that, I'll need clearance to study him."
"That can be arranged."
After we discussed several more details, I ended the call. The agents were already loading Creel into a special transport container. I approached Taskmaster and asked him to remove his mask and hood. Before me stood a bald man with dark skin and a neat beard.
I placed my hand on his neck and carefully pierced his skin with the Iron Blood. I mentally directed a couple thousand nanobots inside the mercenary.
"Now, I will always know where you are," I explained calmly.
The man didn't flinch. Only his eyes momentarily narrowed. He understood everything. He nodded silently, accepting the rules of the game.
Then, I returned to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and monitored the loading. They had already begun loading the bulky van container with the exoskeleton and the immobilized Absorbing Man inside. I helped them, revealing a part of my powers that was already no secret to S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway. Taskmaster, true to his professional status and now that he had accepted the deal, calmly sat inside under escort. The Hood's body, which, of course, was already stripped of its artifacts, was loaded in after him. I had long since placed all valuable items into my inventory.
I left the parking lot and the evidence in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s care and ascended to the first floor. I began looking for a way to fix the electricity problem. I hoped that the bastards had taken a more elegant approach rather than burning everything here to hell. Fortunately, that proved to be the case.
The electricity had been cut from the outside. It had been disconnected at the substation level. This meant that S.H.I.E.L.D. would soon restore it. As for the generators, they had been shut down via their control panels exactly when the main power disappeared. The building's security system hadn't even managed to activate them. It was smart. And, frankly, it was clean. I was glad that they hadn't worked in a barbaric way, like I had with Fisk Tower when I'd de-energized it with an EMP. It was a good thing that I hadn't caught heat for that...
I discarded the stray thoughts and returned to the lobby to wait for the power to come back on. My hand reached for the phone to call Peter, but I stopped myself. Let him sleep. He needed the rest. Instead, I sent him a text: "Everything is clear. When you wake up, come to the laboratory. You will continue your meditation here."
Given Fury's promised meta-agents and Hydra's failure, I had to admit that, for now, this place was much safer. They wouldn't be poking their noses in anytime soon.
So, these were my next steps. First, there was the S.H.I.E.L.D. order. With the pills and the "Proteus," it was almost finished. I only needed to produce a dozen reactors and a hundred potions. It wouldn't take much time. I would manage it in the next twenty-four hours, and my part of the deal would be done. Second, there was Felicia. She was a small but annoying problem. I needed to deal with her. I might have to confront her directly, reveal her secret identity, and play it by ear from there. All right, that could be postponed for a couple of days. Third, and this couldn't be postponed, was Hydra.
The plan with Pierce would still have to be carried out.
At that moment, as if confirming my heavy thoughts, the lights turned on in the lobby. S.H.I.E.L.D. had come through. I returned to the control panel and manually started the backup generators for stability. Only then did I ascend to the laboratory.
The plan was simple. I would deal with my debts. And while Hydra was licking its wounds and thinking they had gotten lucky, I would make my move.
It was time to cut off and cauterize several heads of this creature.
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