60
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
We'd been in Rio de Janeiro for one week and three days. Way beyond what we'd been told we would be there for. And that was good.
The days had gotten a bit routine actually, in a very weird way. Wake up at 3 AM, have breakfast with the others, then go out and fight things/save people/move rubble. In between was all the paparazzi.
Seriously, there were a shit-ton of journalists around, all taking pictures of Avengers and BRIDGE soldiers fighting the monsters that had appeared in Rio as often as they could. I had no idea how to feel about that. I mean, all of the Avengers were badass to see in action. But, and not to be cliché, all the normal people fighting alongside us were also freaking awesome. Numerous charitable organization from the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders had landed on the ground, supporting us with food, medical supplies, and people with real experience in disasters.
Maria Hill was a freaking political genius. She'd fought tooth and nail the entire time, stopping every attempt to pull us out early. First, because we were technically 'contractors', the Avengers could volunteer to stay as long as we wanted. We officially had a patrol schedule setup and everything, even plans to continue things afterward and come from New York every once in a while. At least for as long Rio had monsters. Second, she'd used every loophole and law available to extend our time in Rio while taking interview after interview to make sure the news knew exactly what the plan was, and who was at fault. So despite the countries pushing for us to leave having put their agendas through, no one was going to blame BRIDGE.
I mean, some people would, but they were either ill informed or were willfully ignorant/trying to sabotage us despite the fact we'd done nothing but fight monsters.
Seriously, Rio had monsters. Did I mention that?
We'd arrested or killed a lot of the human enemies, but there were also demons, dinosaurs, wolves, and some strange crab-like things that kept cropping up all across the destroyed city. I'd fought a wolf as Wildmutt, Hulk and Thor ended up taking on an Ogre in the middle of a skyscraper, Cap had dueled against a demon knight with a sword, Black Widow had assassinated some sniper from the Cold War trying to take over a shopping mall as his fortress, and half the sentient monsters in the city kept running the second Frank Castle showed up. Seriously, when did that sort of thing become routine?
In the end, BRIDGE had a few days before they would have to pull out. In the meantime, it was back to hunting again.
------
In a stolen convertible, Hawkeye slid around some rubble at high speed. I gulped nervously, trying not to seem nervous. "Why do you always steal cars?"
Hawkeye chuckled. "Come on, man, how often do you get to ride a car like this?"
"Tony has like, twenty of these," I winced when Hawkeye drifted around a corner, the wheels squealing as he went around at high speed on a road that was littered in debris.
We were both dressed in our full armor with our helmets down, my gauntleted hands clutching nervously at the handrests. "Dude, slow down!"
"We don't have red lights or other cars to worry about, you realize that?" Hawkeye asked, turning to cock an eyebrow at me. "And don't you spend half your life in super-fast alien bodies or something?"
"That's different!" I winced when Hawkeye drove through the remnants of a shop window to enter through a building. We drove through for a moment, the car rolling over debris at eighty plus miles per hour before smashing out of another window.
"Yeah, sure it is," Hawkeye said casually. "Look, lets talk. Just to distract you."
"Talk about what, the fact you've apparently been trained to drive by Commander Shepard?!" I asked in horror, yelping when he somehow ramped off a shopping cart to leap over some rubble.
"Commande-No, not that," Hawkeye slowed down the car. As I breathed in relief, he looked over at me. "Kid... You need to take a break after this is over."
"I... what? Why?"
"Because you probably haven't thought about anything but getting stronger in all the time we've been here, right?"
"Where the hell is this coming from?" I asked, staring at Clint. "Dude, are you lecturing me for wanting to get stronger?"
"A little," he pulled around another car, one left to rest on it's side. "It's just, ever since Ulik," I scowled. "How've you been?"
"..." I crossed my arms, thinking. After a long moment, I looked over at Hawkeye.
"Man, how the hell am I supposed to feel?" I'd been beaten. Like a damn drum. He'd taken me out like I was a kid. "You know man, I can no longer tell when I have actual problems, and when I'm just being a bitch," I looked around. "Thousands of people displaced, dead, or missing, a city destroyed, and I'm obsessed with my one loss."
"Don't do that," Clint said, sounding almost disgusted. "Kid, I've seen some crazy sad shit over the years. This is just the latest warzone for me," he said as he casually drove around a corpse. As was my job, I typed at my gauntlet and marked the location of the body for pickup later. "The world is always going to have stories sadder than yours. That doesn't make your worries invalid."
We drove under a bridge that was almost collapsing.
"Okay, you lost your first fight. Everyone does. It sucks."
"It doesn't just suck though!" I winced at how whiny my voice sounded. "I mean… I only belong on the team because I have the Omnitrix. I was in my strongest form, and it still got beat down. And I'm not… I'm only worth..." I struggled to speak. "The Omnitrix is my power. It's my Mjolnir, my bow, my gamma strength and shield. If I can't use it to help, what good am I?"
"You lost one fight," Clint pointed out.
"It only takes one," I said softly.
That was the harsh truth. Ulik wasn't some sparring partner. He'd been ready to kill me. Would have. No, worse than that. The only reason he hadn't was because of Tony and Thor. I'd almost died.
I needed to do better, to train, to get better tech, better at fighting, to-
"Okay, let me give you some advice," Clint looked over at me, blue-gray eyes scanning me. "Start using your weapons to their full potential. Start trusting them."
"...Dude, you're pulling some next level Mr. Miyagi stuff, because I have no idea what you mean. I use the Omnitrix all the time!"
"You use it, sure. But I never see you go all out. You never do the quick shifting thing as fast as you could. I'm pretty sure you could dominate any fight if you started doing that more often. Fasttrack into Diamondhead for example, that would be epic."
"That would be like you shooting all of your arrows at once," I grumbled. "If I shift too fast I waste power and end up changing back."
"Yeah, what a shame, you turn into a man dressed in power armor and carrying the most advanced human weapons, being trained by Captain America and Black Widow. I'm not sure how you get up in the morning without shattering your bones," Hawkeye said, his sarcasm practically slicing into me. "Really man, didn't you make all that stuff specifically so you could use the Omnitrix to its full potential?"
I winced. That… was a good point. The armor I was wearing wasn't anywhere near as powerful as even Tony's older suits, but Tony's second suit could survive anti-aircraft fire while leaving Tony mostly safe.
But I couldn't help it. Every time I quick changed I could feel a metaphorical clock in my heart jumping forward.
"Okay, just think about this," Hawkeye said calmly as he did something on the road that made the car sound like it was moments from tearing in half. "You keep saying there are more forms in that watch, right? More things you can do with it? Well how do you expect to be able to unlock them if you don't push that thing? You know how many times I've broken a bow because I pulled too hard on it? How many experimental arrows I had to stop using because they were too damn gimmicky? I follow safety procedures, sure, but how can I know how far I can go if I don't push my limits?"
I wasn't sure how that translated to the watch, but I kind of got what he meant. ...Ben had pushed the watch to it's limits all the time. He got annoyed when he ended up changing back into a human, but he never let that stop him. And he didn't have the tools I now did. I mean, he had Gwen, Grandpa Max, and later Kevin, but then I had Creel and Wanda, as well as BRIDGE and the Avengers.
Clint was right. I could be using the Omnitrix with more abandon now. And really, I seemed to lose power at random anyways. Might as well go all out before that.
I had been thinking of some combo moves after all…
"Hell, Steve should be the one giving you this pep talk," Clint mumbled to himself. "Ah well. Hey, at least you got a new form, right?" Clint pointed at the watch. I looked down at it as well.
"Yeah, if the watch would stop glowing yellow long enough for me to try it out," I grumbled, lifting the Omnitrix.
A week later and the watch was still absorbing the DNA of Ulik? Or compiling it, or analyzing, or whatever it was currently doing. Thankfully I could still transform, but everything the watch did still had a yellow tinge to it. If only I could figure out what the hell was taking the watch so long.
"I mean, not sure if you want Ulik as a form though," Clint scrunched up his nose. "That guy was UGLY. And smelled horrible."
"I have ugly, smelly forms already," I mused. "One more won't hurt."
"Tell that to the ladies around us," Clint chuckled. "Though I guess you don't need help with that."
I winced and said nothing. Yeah right. Somethings never change, and my luck with women was one of those.
"But we should take a break after this," he mused. "Seriously, the past few days have been exhausting."
"Amen," I sighed. "I can't wait to be back in New York again."
Just then, we heard a loud shout. Hawkeye finally slowed down, allowing us to see a group of three slowly walking over to us. A man and two children. They all seemed relieved to see us. We pulled up.
"You're with BRIDGE?" the man said in Portuguese, the Omnitrix translating. "Avengers?"
"Yep," Clint said casually. "Hop in, we'll take you get some help."
The man swallowed heavily, nodding as tears poured down his cheeks. The children with him, both boys, looked exhausted. Once, I would have guessed they were family. Now, I knew better. Sometimes, in tragedy, people just find each other. If they're lucky.
The three of them hopped into the back. As they put on seat belts I tapped at the Omnitrix, frowning.
Suddenly, right on cue, the yellow glow faded, familiar green replacing it.
"Oh thank god," I said, flipping the holograms to glow over the Omnitrix.
"How's it look?" Clint asked curiously.
"Let me see… there!" I found the Troll form and showed it to Clint.
Like Ulik, it was clearly massive, though it looked smaller than he did for some reason. Corded muscle, a thick coat of hair, two toes and gigantic clenched fists. No uru knuckles, but he was wearing a pair of boxers with the Omnitrix symbol at his waist.
"Man, that really is ugly," Clint winced. "Seriously, that guy looks almost as hairy as Rath. Never heard of manscaping?"
"You manscape?" I asked with a grin.
"...No?"
I laughed, idly flipped to the next alien. I stared at it for a moment. My eyes widened, and I looked around in horror. No. Oh shit, no.
"We need to get back, now!"
"What?" Clint looked over at me, then at the hologram. "Is that Goop?"
"We need to go back to camp!" I flipped through the watch and selected the alien I needed. With a quick press, my body shifted.
"Upgrade!"
Our confused passengers yelped in surprise as I changed into a large being of black and white nanites.
"Dude, what is going on!?"
"No time!" I moved my body, flowing as liquid to press against the dashboard. In a few seconds, my nanites had joined to the car, black and green circuits flowing over the ceramic and metal. Soon I was a black and green car. I shined my headlights. "We need to get to the base. X!"
"Yes, sir?" X said, my AI companion sounding confused. I didn't waste time. Instead I sent him a series of protocols. As soon as they hit, he began his work, sending them to Jarvis, who sent them to Maria.
"Hold on!" I told Clint.
"Oh come on!" Clint shouted as more seatbelt straps surrounded him and the three terrified refugees. I ignored him, sprouting wings out of my sides and rockets from my… well, rockets came out.
"OH SHIIIIIIIT!" Clint yelled out as we blasted off in a trail of fire, flying into the air and heading to
the beach.
------
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE
On the Enterprise flight deck, Maria watched as a helicopter landed in front of her and Sam. She and the Avenger eyed the machine as it kicked up wind, sending her hair flying. A logo rested on the doors of the helicopter, the image of a red cat on a red, black, and green background. Above them, more such helicopters flew over the helicarrier to head for the beach below, some Wakandan ships having already joined the small fleet in Rio's harbor. The doors of the helicopter opened, and a man stepped out.
Maria raised an eyebrow. "Prince T'Challa?"
"Good morning," the handsome young man said, smiling. He wore a black sweater and brown trousers, a pair of brown boots on his feet. A far cry from the usually traditional clothing or suit he wore at events. Behind him, a pair of bald woman in elegant dress came out of the helicopter as well. The trio strode toward Maria and Sam. "My apologies for us taking so long to get here. We had to fight through quite a few regulations."
"We've had some issues with that as well," Maria said with a smile. "Still, we hadn't expected the crown prince himself to arrive."
"Hell of a PR moment for Wakanda," Sam noted idly.
At that, T'Challa frowned. "No. I am here for more than simply to help Rio. I must meet with you for other reasons. If you would please, I'd like to join you in a private room."
Maria pursed her lips. "Of course. Let me just-"
Suddenly, Maria and Sam's comms came to life. "Priority Alert!"
Maria turned to look at Sam as the rest of the message played. Their faces became visibly horrified as T'Challa and the women behind him watched in confusion.
"Prince T'Challa!" Maria barked, spinning to look at him. "Tell your people to avoid the beach for now! If the infection spreads, they might be our last hope."
"Infection?" T'Challa asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Sam!" Maria barked, taking a quick stride towards her command center.
"On it!" Sam shouted, running off towards Rio. "Falcon!"
In a flash, his armor surrounded him, a pair of wings sprouting as well. He rocketed off, leaving T'Challa to follow Maria in confusion.
"We'll need to scan every person in the area if this thing is as infectious as we believe," Maria said, eyes narrowing.
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
I looked over the analysis I'd made, trying to narrow down any mistakes. I'd been prepared for something like this. After all, since I'd become a full Avenger I had files galore for the day I might fight this or that person/alien. We had plans in place for just about everything, including the Beyonder (though the plan for him as of right now was to figure out someway to jailbreak the Omnitrix or design some weapon with universal capabilities). Point was, we had a plan.
I turned to look about the room. Several monitors stood around us. Coulson and his team were on one, my fellow nerd staring out with his arms crossed, Fitz-Simmons behind him as they read my analysis. Tony was on another, only his face showing up since he was in the suit. Maria was on another, Victoria Hand behind her on the right, T'Challa (surprised me to see him) on the left with some of the Dora Milaje. Cap and Nat were streaming from a rooftop in the city, while other Avengers who weren't with us were also streaming from around the city.
Inside the actual tent, Dr. Bill Foster, Clint, Jen, Creel, and Frank Castle were watching me as well. A mirror rested nearby.
"Okay, final breakdown," I said, trying to sound impressive. "These things can combine with people the way Upgrade combines with machines. They enhance strength, speed, and can give their hosts a variety of powers besides that. They also eat human brains sometimes. They have two weaknesses, fire and sounds with immense force behind them. Even then, they are TOUGH. Even the weakest ones can take bullets and just shoot them back. We don't know how many there are, but the Omnitrix absorbed one," I raised the Omnitrix and pressed down.
In a flash, my body changed again.
You'd think it felt like Goop or Upgrade, but once again, it felt different. My skin and bone felt like it melted into my muscles. In fact, all of my organs, even my brain, had somehow turned into muscle. For just one moment, I could feel my brain in my skull before the sensation disappeared. In a moment, I melted away.
Then I rose up, taking a rough form. Even though I didn't need eyes, I formed a face of sorts.
"Oh, that is just gross," Jen said, staring at me wide-eyed.
My body was now a black gelatinous form. Streaks of green ran across my body, like veins. I looked over at the mirror. The head I'd formed both did and didn't surprise me.
In shape, I'd formed a face that looked somewhat like Spider-Man's in the black suit, with the big eyes and all. Expect my eyes were bright green. Curious, I 'opened' my mouth. The section of my face tore open, and massive teeth shone within a drooling mouth. My tongue lolled out, at least a foot of pink muscle. I quickly pulled it back in.
"Oh good god, please don't do that again," Jen said in shock, looking greener than usual.
"Agreed," Coulson said with a wince.
Huh. Should I even look like this? With teeth, tongue, Spider-Man style eyes? Or… was my own subconscious affecting the way I looked, shapeshifting me to how I 'thought' a symbiote should be?
"Sorry," I said. "Just testing the new hardware."
"Is that your voice?" Creel asked, my beefy friend looking shocked. "You sound like a demon!"
"No, those sound less intimidating," Frank said.
"Of course you think that," I grumbled. "Every demon in the city runs away when they see you."
"Enough," Maria said. "Mahmoud. Demonstrate."
"Okay. Dr. Foster?"
"...I'm not sure I want to anymore?" the good doctor said weakly.
"Wait, didn't you volunteer for this?" Jen asked, surprised.
"Yeah, but that was before-"
"Will you all stop overreacting?" I asked, suddenly annoyed. "Seriously, Snare-Oh is way creepier!"
"Well he won't suddenly take over my body," Bill grumbled. "I'm going to have nightmares about this." He sighed and walked over. "Okay. Wait!" he shouted when I moved my face towards him. "God, I'm getting flashbacks to the Thing. Okay, just, just do it."
I tried to make it fast. In a smooth movement, I flowed over him. My black and green flesh flowed into the good doctor. I entered his cells, his muscles, bones, and brain. Our cells intermingled. Soon, our minds pressed gently together, and we stared out at the world.
"...How do you feel?" Jen asked.
Dr. Foster looked around, then at his hands. I hadn't surrounded him in my form, simply letting him get used to the feeling. "I, uh… I feel stronger. Younger," he sounded fascinated.
Well, that is kind of the point.
"Ah!" he looked around, shocked. "Mahmoud?"
"Right here," in a smooth move, I surrounded him entirely. Frank, Jen, and Creel stared as we stood tall.
The Omnitrix sat on our chest, green lines moving out from it to radiate across us. In a conscious effort I tried to make the lines run in a geometric pattern. We stood tall, matching Jen in height, and our body was massive, as bulky as Thor or Creel. Our eyes were still green. I smiled toothily. "Cool."
"Oh, that is… oh?" Bill asked, shocked. As we stood there, a scan ran across our body, Simmons running up to the monitor.
"Dr. Foster, how do you feel?"
"Like I can take on the world," he said with our mouth. "And hungry."
"Yeah, that's me actually. I require chocolate."
"Chocolate?" Tony said at last, sounding confused.
"Yeah, chocolate has a chemical that can also rest in human brains," I explained.
"Phenethylamine," Simmons asked.
"Yep," I said. "Seriously, we need to make sure wherever this form came from, we find it."
I flowed away from Dr. Foster, who blinked as he separated from me. "Oh, now that is an odd sensation. Almost euphoric."
"That's because I held back," I said with a mental grimace. "If I wanted to, I could make it addictive."
"Still, it's a powerful form for us to have I imagine," Maria said, looking over at Victoria, who nodded calmly.
"And don't forget the species can… Tony, you already found out, didn't you," I said with a monstrous sigh.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Iron Man laughed with hysterical joy. "Another one!"
"Yeah," Annoyed, I narrowed green eyes. "And if whatever is out there makes more?"
"Haha…oh shit," Tony said at last.
"We'll get to work now," Cap said seriously. "Nat is going to take out that Viking that has been attacking people in the north, then we'll get to helping with scans."
"Good," Maria crossed her arms. "The job doesn't change otherwise. If this thing hasn't caused a problem in a week, we may have nothing to worry about, but I want all our people to be ready. Add Symbiotes to the file along with Ulik, the demons, and the others."
With that, the screens flashed closed. Jen and Creel turned to look at me while Frank walked out, presumably to speak to his men.
"So," Jen asked. "What're you naming this one?"
"…Blight."
------
Eddie Brock/Reporter
Eddie stumbled through the streets of Rio, eyes wide.
He'd showed up with other reporters, all trying to get in on the scoop. Of them all, only Eddie had decided to dig deeper.
BRIDGE was the real story. An organization that big, coming out of SHIELD after HYDRA? And the Avengers? There was something juicy out of all this, Eddie could feel it. He'd spent every moment tracking the Avengers through the city, and got tons of footage of all kinds of things. Dinosaurs, demons, and even knights in armor duking it out!
The Bugle page was blowing up thanks to that. Every person on Earth was following Eddie Brock now, because he went where no reporter would.
But he'd needed more. More acclaim. He was moments from a Pulitzer. From becoming the most well known man in reporting. Just needed one big scoop, a true game changer. He'd gone out to look for that a week ago.
And now he was hearing a voice in his head. Great job, Eddie. He'd been walking for three days, surviving on scraps and hiding.
He stumbled down another alley, breathing heavily. He was close to the beach. All he needed was-
A snarl brought his attention up. Something was in the shadows. As he stared in horror, the thing came out and eyed him.
He felt like crying. A demon. Another damn demon. And this thing was carrying a metal sword.
"Please. Please don't!"
Within him, something snarled. "Oh goodie. We were hungry."
"Come on man, really!?" Eddie spat out in horror.
The demon, a spindly thing eight-feet tall leaped toward him. Eddie's eyes flashed black.
Suddenly, the air behind him seemed to… open. A sucking sound filled the area. Eddie roared at the same time as the demon as they were pulled into somewhere.
For a moment, the empty alley roared with the sound of vacuum pulling in air. Then it faded with a small 'pop', a singularity shutting closed.
------
Monica Rappaccini of AIM
Deep within AIM, a command center sat being monitored by dozens of scientists, all working diligently. A window looked into a larger room outside. Everything within was peaceful, the men and women within working happily.
They jumped when Monica burst into the room with a spiteful glare on her face. Everyone quickly looked down again, trying not to look scared. She tended to jump on weaknesses like fear. Lyle looked over at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Monica. I take it BRIDGE didn't accept our further assistance."
"DAMN HIM!" she grabbed a wrench and stabbed it into a monitor. Everyone around her winced and pretended to keep working as glass flew around her. "Bruce fucking Banner! He just keeps getting in my way! That third-rate-"
"Enough," Lyle narrowed his eyes. "Don't lose your cool."
"My COOL?!" she spun, clenching the wrench in her hand tightly.
For one moment, Lyle and Monica stared at each other. Everyone in the room stared while pretending not to.
"...Monica, either hit me or don't. But I have work to do, so decide quickly," Lyle said dryly.
"...Fine," she slapped the wrench on a console nearby. "Why are you so calm anyway?"
"Because getting into Rio wasn't the only way for us to refine the technology," Lyle looked outside the window. Monica did so as well.
In the room beyond the window, two machines took up either side, identical in appearance and about five feet tall. They each had a series of tubes going to them, circuitry inside them, and a pair of sections like funnels pointed outward. The 'funnels' were pointed directly at each other, leaving three feet of space in between.
"Did you start that thing up again?" Monica asked, her face relaxing.
"Not just yet," Lyle sighed softly. "While Rio was a setback, it was also a good indicator of what to fix for our machine. Those who died in Rio were regretful however."
"What happened anyways?" Monica crossed her arms and looked over at Lyle.
"In a word? Our machine was too sensitive," he looked over at a monitor nearby. "Our biggest worry was getting it to work. We forgot to take into account all the other events that were somewhat related to what we wanted to do."
"Other events?" Monica asked.
"Yes," he moved over to let her look at the monitor, which she realized displayed a map with red dots across it. "Over the past thirty years, dozens of events have taken place across the globe that have involved energies that manipulate time and space. In Argentina first, one during the Cold War, New Mexico, New York City of course has had at least three we can account for," he chuckled. "Always New York, isn't it?"
"Is that going to be a problem?" Monica leaned over and noted that, indeed, New York was riddled in red dots. What was happening in that city?
"No," Lyle said simply. "We will recalculate and try again. Basically, our machine, in attempting to activate, was 'pulled' by the energies left by those other events. Well, it's a bit more complex than that, but it's the simplest explanation I can give."
Monica turned to glare at him for the insult to her intelligence, which Lyle ignored. "Still, we should be able to open it again soon. In the meantime," he turned on a screen, revealing an image of two people lying on beds. "We have the successes we pulled through."
On the first bed lay a bald man, older, with a slightly pinched face and pale skin. On the other, a much younger woman lay, her red hair pouring over the sheets. She was beautiful and well-formed, while the older man was almost skeletal in comparison.
"Weren't there three people?" Monica asked idly.
"...the third escaped."
"What?" Monica tried not to sound as though she found that fact amusing. "How?"
"Well..." Lyle put on a video.
On the screen, a naked figure strode down a hallway. Three men with guns confronted him, all wearing body armor. A flash of silver was followed by the naked figure leaping forward. Blood sprayed. An almost inhuman roar filled the air, actually shaking the camera.
From camera to camera, Lyle showed the figure's progress. Muscles bunched beneath tan skin, and black hair flowed as the figure flowed into battle. Bullets flew. He didn't seem to care, or even be hit. Again and again, blades slashed deeply though body armor to dig into flesh. The figure was inhuman. Almost supernaturally agile and strong, lifting men as large as football linebackers and throwing them aside.
At one point, the figure was standing amongst a pile of bodies. Blood poured from his blades. His chest was splashed red. His eyes almost seemed to glow.
"Our security personal were killed," Lyle said softly. "Armed with assault rifles, body armor, and training… and this, savage tore through them."
"Enhanced?" Monica asked almost breathlessly, her eyes panning the muscular mans naked form without shame.
"Maybe," Lyle shook his head. "He escaped into the mountains outside. I have my men chasing him, but whoever he is, he's familiar with forests, even with all the snow outside. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll die of frostbite," Lyle shut off the video. "But we have these two. And I believe they may be just as useful."
"Hmm..." Monica rubbed her chin. "What about our… benefactor?"
"Nothing," Lyle admitted. "Just more files to enhance our robotics research. I'm not sure if we're going fast enough for him."
"Then we'd better pick up the pace," Monica smirked, looking at a certain folder on the computer nearby.
(*(^!#α $*α &α ^#...!(*#&@*ω &!α)
"These bots aren't going to build themselves after all," she said with a greedy gleam in her eyes.
We'd been in Rio de Janeiro for one week and three days. Way beyond what we'd been told we would be there for. And that was good.
The days had gotten a bit routine actually, in a very weird way. Wake up at 3 AM, have breakfast with the others, then go out and fight things/save people/move rubble. In between was all the paparazzi.
Seriously, there were a shit-ton of journalists around, all taking pictures of Avengers and BRIDGE soldiers fighting the monsters that had appeared in Rio as often as they could. I had no idea how to feel about that. I mean, all of the Avengers were badass to see in action. But, and not to be cliché, all the normal people fighting alongside us were also freaking awesome. Numerous charitable organization from the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders had landed on the ground, supporting us with food, medical supplies, and people with real experience in disasters.
Maria Hill was a freaking political genius. She'd fought tooth and nail the entire time, stopping every attempt to pull us out early. First, because we were technically 'contractors', the Avengers could volunteer to stay as long as we wanted. We officially had a patrol schedule setup and everything, even plans to continue things afterward and come from New York every once in a while. At least for as long Rio had monsters. Second, she'd used every loophole and law available to extend our time in Rio while taking interview after interview to make sure the news knew exactly what the plan was, and who was at fault. So despite the countries pushing for us to leave having put their agendas through, no one was going to blame BRIDGE.
I mean, some people would, but they were either ill informed or were willfully ignorant/trying to sabotage us despite the fact we'd done nothing but fight monsters.
Seriously, Rio had monsters. Did I mention that?
We'd arrested or killed a lot of the human enemies, but there were also demons, dinosaurs, wolves, and some strange crab-like things that kept cropping up all across the destroyed city. I'd fought a wolf as Wildmutt, Hulk and Thor ended up taking on an Ogre in the middle of a skyscraper, Cap had dueled against a demon knight with a sword, Black Widow had assassinated some sniper from the Cold War trying to take over a shopping mall as his fortress, and half the sentient monsters in the city kept running the second Frank Castle showed up. Seriously, when did that sort of thing become routine?
In the end, BRIDGE had a few days before they would have to pull out. In the meantime, it was back to hunting again.
------
In a stolen convertible, Hawkeye slid around some rubble at high speed. I gulped nervously, trying not to seem nervous. "Why do you always steal cars?"
Hawkeye chuckled. "Come on, man, how often do you get to ride a car like this?"
"Tony has like, twenty of these," I winced when Hawkeye drifted around a corner, the wheels squealing as he went around at high speed on a road that was littered in debris.
We were both dressed in our full armor with our helmets down, my gauntleted hands clutching nervously at the handrests. "Dude, slow down!"
"We don't have red lights or other cars to worry about, you realize that?" Hawkeye asked, turning to cock an eyebrow at me. "And don't you spend half your life in super-fast alien bodies or something?"
"That's different!" I winced when Hawkeye drove through the remnants of a shop window to enter through a building. We drove through for a moment, the car rolling over debris at eighty plus miles per hour before smashing out of another window.
"Yeah, sure it is," Hawkeye said casually. "Look, lets talk. Just to distract you."
"Talk about what, the fact you've apparently been trained to drive by Commander Shepard?!" I asked in horror, yelping when he somehow ramped off a shopping cart to leap over some rubble.
"Commande-No, not that," Hawkeye slowed down the car. As I breathed in relief, he looked over at me. "Kid... You need to take a break after this is over."
"I... what? Why?"
"Because you probably haven't thought about anything but getting stronger in all the time we've been here, right?"
"Where the hell is this coming from?" I asked, staring at Clint. "Dude, are you lecturing me for wanting to get stronger?"
"A little," he pulled around another car, one left to rest on it's side. "It's just, ever since Ulik," I scowled. "How've you been?"
"..." I crossed my arms, thinking. After a long moment, I looked over at Hawkeye.
"Man, how the hell am I supposed to feel?" I'd been beaten. Like a damn drum. He'd taken me out like I was a kid. "You know man, I can no longer tell when I have actual problems, and when I'm just being a bitch," I looked around. "Thousands of people displaced, dead, or missing, a city destroyed, and I'm obsessed with my one loss."
"Don't do that," Clint said, sounding almost disgusted. "Kid, I've seen some crazy sad shit over the years. This is just the latest warzone for me," he said as he casually drove around a corpse. As was my job, I typed at my gauntlet and marked the location of the body for pickup later. "The world is always going to have stories sadder than yours. That doesn't make your worries invalid."
We drove under a bridge that was almost collapsing.
"Okay, you lost your first fight. Everyone does. It sucks."
"It doesn't just suck though!" I winced at how whiny my voice sounded. "I mean… I only belong on the team because I have the Omnitrix. I was in my strongest form, and it still got beat down. And I'm not… I'm only worth..." I struggled to speak. "The Omnitrix is my power. It's my Mjolnir, my bow, my gamma strength and shield. If I can't use it to help, what good am I?"
"You lost one fight," Clint pointed out.
"It only takes one," I said softly.
That was the harsh truth. Ulik wasn't some sparring partner. He'd been ready to kill me. Would have. No, worse than that. The only reason he hadn't was because of Tony and Thor. I'd almost died.
I needed to do better, to train, to get better tech, better at fighting, to-
"Okay, let me give you some advice," Clint looked over at me, blue-gray eyes scanning me. "Start using your weapons to their full potential. Start trusting them."
"...Dude, you're pulling some next level Mr. Miyagi stuff, because I have no idea what you mean. I use the Omnitrix all the time!"
"You use it, sure. But I never see you go all out. You never do the quick shifting thing as fast as you could. I'm pretty sure you could dominate any fight if you started doing that more often. Fasttrack into Diamondhead for example, that would be epic."
"That would be like you shooting all of your arrows at once," I grumbled. "If I shift too fast I waste power and end up changing back."
"Yeah, what a shame, you turn into a man dressed in power armor and carrying the most advanced human weapons, being trained by Captain America and Black Widow. I'm not sure how you get up in the morning without shattering your bones," Hawkeye said, his sarcasm practically slicing into me. "Really man, didn't you make all that stuff specifically so you could use the Omnitrix to its full potential?"
I winced. That… was a good point. The armor I was wearing wasn't anywhere near as powerful as even Tony's older suits, but Tony's second suit could survive anti-aircraft fire while leaving Tony mostly safe.
But I couldn't help it. Every time I quick changed I could feel a metaphorical clock in my heart jumping forward.
"Okay, just think about this," Hawkeye said calmly as he did something on the road that made the car sound like it was moments from tearing in half. "You keep saying there are more forms in that watch, right? More things you can do with it? Well how do you expect to be able to unlock them if you don't push that thing? You know how many times I've broken a bow because I pulled too hard on it? How many experimental arrows I had to stop using because they were too damn gimmicky? I follow safety procedures, sure, but how can I know how far I can go if I don't push my limits?"
I wasn't sure how that translated to the watch, but I kind of got what he meant. ...Ben had pushed the watch to it's limits all the time. He got annoyed when he ended up changing back into a human, but he never let that stop him. And he didn't have the tools I now did. I mean, he had Gwen, Grandpa Max, and later Kevin, but then I had Creel and Wanda, as well as BRIDGE and the Avengers.
Clint was right. I could be using the Omnitrix with more abandon now. And really, I seemed to lose power at random anyways. Might as well go all out before that.
I had been thinking of some combo moves after all…
"Hell, Steve should be the one giving you this pep talk," Clint mumbled to himself. "Ah well. Hey, at least you got a new form, right?" Clint pointed at the watch. I looked down at it as well.
"Yeah, if the watch would stop glowing yellow long enough for me to try it out," I grumbled, lifting the Omnitrix.
A week later and the watch was still absorbing the DNA of Ulik? Or compiling it, or analyzing, or whatever it was currently doing. Thankfully I could still transform, but everything the watch did still had a yellow tinge to it. If only I could figure out what the hell was taking the watch so long.
"I mean, not sure if you want Ulik as a form though," Clint scrunched up his nose. "That guy was UGLY. And smelled horrible."
"I have ugly, smelly forms already," I mused. "One more won't hurt."
"Tell that to the ladies around us," Clint chuckled. "Though I guess you don't need help with that."
I winced and said nothing. Yeah right. Somethings never change, and my luck with women was one of those.
"But we should take a break after this," he mused. "Seriously, the past few days have been exhausting."
"Amen," I sighed. "I can't wait to be back in New York again."
Just then, we heard a loud shout. Hawkeye finally slowed down, allowing us to see a group of three slowly walking over to us. A man and two children. They all seemed relieved to see us. We pulled up.
"You're with BRIDGE?" the man said in Portuguese, the Omnitrix translating. "Avengers?"
"Yep," Clint said casually. "Hop in, we'll take you get some help."
The man swallowed heavily, nodding as tears poured down his cheeks. The children with him, both boys, looked exhausted. Once, I would have guessed they were family. Now, I knew better. Sometimes, in tragedy, people just find each other. If they're lucky.
The three of them hopped into the back. As they put on seat belts I tapped at the Omnitrix, frowning.
Suddenly, right on cue, the yellow glow faded, familiar green replacing it.
"Oh thank god," I said, flipping the holograms to glow over the Omnitrix.
"How's it look?" Clint asked curiously.
"Let me see… there!" I found the Troll form and showed it to Clint.
Like Ulik, it was clearly massive, though it looked smaller than he did for some reason. Corded muscle, a thick coat of hair, two toes and gigantic clenched fists. No uru knuckles, but he was wearing a pair of boxers with the Omnitrix symbol at his waist.
"Man, that really is ugly," Clint winced. "Seriously, that guy looks almost as hairy as Rath. Never heard of manscaping?"
"You manscape?" I asked with a grin.
"...No?"
I laughed, idly flipped to the next alien. I stared at it for a moment. My eyes widened, and I looked around in horror. No. Oh shit, no.
"We need to get back, now!"
"What?" Clint looked over at me, then at the hologram. "Is that Goop?"
"We need to go back to camp!" I flipped through the watch and selected the alien I needed. With a quick press, my body shifted.
"Upgrade!"
Our confused passengers yelped in surprise as I changed into a large being of black and white nanites.
"Dude, what is going on!?"
"No time!" I moved my body, flowing as liquid to press against the dashboard. In a few seconds, my nanites had joined to the car, black and green circuits flowing over the ceramic and metal. Soon I was a black and green car. I shined my headlights. "We need to get to the base. X!"
"Yes, sir?" X said, my AI companion sounding confused. I didn't waste time. Instead I sent him a series of protocols. As soon as they hit, he began his work, sending them to Jarvis, who sent them to Maria.
"Hold on!" I told Clint.
"Oh come on!" Clint shouted as more seatbelt straps surrounded him and the three terrified refugees. I ignored him, sprouting wings out of my sides and rockets from my… well, rockets came out.
"OH SHIIIIIIIT!" Clint yelled out as we blasted off in a trail of fire, flying into the air and heading to
the beach.
------
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE
On the Enterprise flight deck, Maria watched as a helicopter landed in front of her and Sam. She and the Avenger eyed the machine as it kicked up wind, sending her hair flying. A logo rested on the doors of the helicopter, the image of a red cat on a red, black, and green background. Above them, more such helicopters flew over the helicarrier to head for the beach below, some Wakandan ships having already joined the small fleet in Rio's harbor. The doors of the helicopter opened, and a man stepped out.
Maria raised an eyebrow. "Prince T'Challa?"
"Good morning," the handsome young man said, smiling. He wore a black sweater and brown trousers, a pair of brown boots on his feet. A far cry from the usually traditional clothing or suit he wore at events. Behind him, a pair of bald woman in elegant dress came out of the helicopter as well. The trio strode toward Maria and Sam. "My apologies for us taking so long to get here. We had to fight through quite a few regulations."
"We've had some issues with that as well," Maria said with a smile. "Still, we hadn't expected the crown prince himself to arrive."
"Hell of a PR moment for Wakanda," Sam noted idly.
At that, T'Challa frowned. "No. I am here for more than simply to help Rio. I must meet with you for other reasons. If you would please, I'd like to join you in a private room."
Maria pursed her lips. "Of course. Let me just-"
Suddenly, Maria and Sam's comms came to life. "Priority Alert!"
Maria turned to look at Sam as the rest of the message played. Their faces became visibly horrified as T'Challa and the women behind him watched in confusion.
"Prince T'Challa!" Maria barked, spinning to look at him. "Tell your people to avoid the beach for now! If the infection spreads, they might be our last hope."
"Infection?" T'Challa asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Sam!" Maria barked, taking a quick stride towards her command center.
"On it!" Sam shouted, running off towards Rio. "Falcon!"
In a flash, his armor surrounded him, a pair of wings sprouting as well. He rocketed off, leaving T'Challa to follow Maria in confusion.
"We'll need to scan every person in the area if this thing is as infectious as we believe," Maria said, eyes narrowing.
------
Mahmoud Schahed/Dial
I looked over the analysis I'd made, trying to narrow down any mistakes. I'd been prepared for something like this. After all, since I'd become a full Avenger I had files galore for the day I might fight this or that person/alien. We had plans in place for just about everything, including the Beyonder (though the plan for him as of right now was to figure out someway to jailbreak the Omnitrix or design some weapon with universal capabilities). Point was, we had a plan.
I turned to look about the room. Several monitors stood around us. Coulson and his team were on one, my fellow nerd staring out with his arms crossed, Fitz-Simmons behind him as they read my analysis. Tony was on another, only his face showing up since he was in the suit. Maria was on another, Victoria Hand behind her on the right, T'Challa (surprised me to see him) on the left with some of the Dora Milaje. Cap and Nat were streaming from a rooftop in the city, while other Avengers who weren't with us were also streaming from around the city.
Inside the actual tent, Dr. Bill Foster, Clint, Jen, Creel, and Frank Castle were watching me as well. A mirror rested nearby.
"Okay, final breakdown," I said, trying to sound impressive. "These things can combine with people the way Upgrade combines with machines. They enhance strength, speed, and can give their hosts a variety of powers besides that. They also eat human brains sometimes. They have two weaknesses, fire and sounds with immense force behind them. Even then, they are TOUGH. Even the weakest ones can take bullets and just shoot them back. We don't know how many there are, but the Omnitrix absorbed one," I raised the Omnitrix and pressed down.
In a flash, my body changed again.
You'd think it felt like Goop or Upgrade, but once again, it felt different. My skin and bone felt like it melted into my muscles. In fact, all of my organs, even my brain, had somehow turned into muscle. For just one moment, I could feel my brain in my skull before the sensation disappeared. In a moment, I melted away.
Then I rose up, taking a rough form. Even though I didn't need eyes, I formed a face of sorts.
"Oh, that is just gross," Jen said, staring at me wide-eyed.
My body was now a black gelatinous form. Streaks of green ran across my body, like veins. I looked over at the mirror. The head I'd formed both did and didn't surprise me.
In shape, I'd formed a face that looked somewhat like Spider-Man's in the black suit, with the big eyes and all. Expect my eyes were bright green. Curious, I 'opened' my mouth. The section of my face tore open, and massive teeth shone within a drooling mouth. My tongue lolled out, at least a foot of pink muscle. I quickly pulled it back in.
"Oh good god, please don't do that again," Jen said in shock, looking greener than usual.
"Agreed," Coulson said with a wince.
Huh. Should I even look like this? With teeth, tongue, Spider-Man style eyes? Or… was my own subconscious affecting the way I looked, shapeshifting me to how I 'thought' a symbiote should be?
"Sorry," I said. "Just testing the new hardware."
"Is that your voice?" Creel asked, my beefy friend looking shocked. "You sound like a demon!"
"No, those sound less intimidating," Frank said.
"Of course you think that," I grumbled. "Every demon in the city runs away when they see you."
"Enough," Maria said. "Mahmoud. Demonstrate."
"Okay. Dr. Foster?"
"...I'm not sure I want to anymore?" the good doctor said weakly.
"Wait, didn't you volunteer for this?" Jen asked, surprised.
"Yeah, but that was before-"
"Will you all stop overreacting?" I asked, suddenly annoyed. "Seriously, Snare-Oh is way creepier!"
"Well he won't suddenly take over my body," Bill grumbled. "I'm going to have nightmares about this." He sighed and walked over. "Okay. Wait!" he shouted when I moved my face towards him. "God, I'm getting flashbacks to the Thing. Okay, just, just do it."
I tried to make it fast. In a smooth movement, I flowed over him. My black and green flesh flowed into the good doctor. I entered his cells, his muscles, bones, and brain. Our cells intermingled. Soon, our minds pressed gently together, and we stared out at the world.
"...How do you feel?" Jen asked.
Dr. Foster looked around, then at his hands. I hadn't surrounded him in my form, simply letting him get used to the feeling. "I, uh… I feel stronger. Younger," he sounded fascinated.
Well, that is kind of the point.
"Ah!" he looked around, shocked. "Mahmoud?"
"Right here," in a smooth move, I surrounded him entirely. Frank, Jen, and Creel stared as we stood tall.
The Omnitrix sat on our chest, green lines moving out from it to radiate across us. In a conscious effort I tried to make the lines run in a geometric pattern. We stood tall, matching Jen in height, and our body was massive, as bulky as Thor or Creel. Our eyes were still green. I smiled toothily. "Cool."
"Oh, that is… oh?" Bill asked, shocked. As we stood there, a scan ran across our body, Simmons running up to the monitor.
"Dr. Foster, how do you feel?"
"Like I can take on the world," he said with our mouth. "And hungry."
"Yeah, that's me actually. I require chocolate."
"Chocolate?" Tony said at last, sounding confused.
"Yeah, chocolate has a chemical that can also rest in human brains," I explained.
"Phenethylamine," Simmons asked.
"Yep," I said. "Seriously, we need to make sure wherever this form came from, we find it."
I flowed away from Dr. Foster, who blinked as he separated from me. "Oh, now that is an odd sensation. Almost euphoric."
"That's because I held back," I said with a mental grimace. "If I wanted to, I could make it addictive."
"Still, it's a powerful form for us to have I imagine," Maria said, looking over at Victoria, who nodded calmly.
"And don't forget the species can… Tony, you already found out, didn't you," I said with a monstrous sigh.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Iron Man laughed with hysterical joy. "Another one!"
"Yeah," Annoyed, I narrowed green eyes. "And if whatever is out there makes more?"
"Haha…oh shit," Tony said at last.
"We'll get to work now," Cap said seriously. "Nat is going to take out that Viking that has been attacking people in the north, then we'll get to helping with scans."
"Good," Maria crossed her arms. "The job doesn't change otherwise. If this thing hasn't caused a problem in a week, we may have nothing to worry about, but I want all our people to be ready. Add Symbiotes to the file along with Ulik, the demons, and the others."
With that, the screens flashed closed. Jen and Creel turned to look at me while Frank walked out, presumably to speak to his men.
"So," Jen asked. "What're you naming this one?"
"…Blight."
------
Eddie Brock/Reporter
Eddie stumbled through the streets of Rio, eyes wide.
He'd showed up with other reporters, all trying to get in on the scoop. Of them all, only Eddie had decided to dig deeper.
BRIDGE was the real story. An organization that big, coming out of SHIELD after HYDRA? And the Avengers? There was something juicy out of all this, Eddie could feel it. He'd spent every moment tracking the Avengers through the city, and got tons of footage of all kinds of things. Dinosaurs, demons, and even knights in armor duking it out!
The Bugle page was blowing up thanks to that. Every person on Earth was following Eddie Brock now, because he went where no reporter would.
But he'd needed more. More acclaim. He was moments from a Pulitzer. From becoming the most well known man in reporting. Just needed one big scoop, a true game changer. He'd gone out to look for that a week ago.
And now he was hearing a voice in his head. Great job, Eddie. He'd been walking for three days, surviving on scraps and hiding.
He stumbled down another alley, breathing heavily. He was close to the beach. All he needed was-
A snarl brought his attention up. Something was in the shadows. As he stared in horror, the thing came out and eyed him.
He felt like crying. A demon. Another damn demon. And this thing was carrying a metal sword.
"Please. Please don't!"
Within him, something snarled. "Oh goodie. We were hungry."
"Come on man, really!?" Eddie spat out in horror.
The demon, a spindly thing eight-feet tall leaped toward him. Eddie's eyes flashed black.
Suddenly, the air behind him seemed to… open. A sucking sound filled the area. Eddie roared at the same time as the demon as they were pulled into somewhere.
For a moment, the empty alley roared with the sound of vacuum pulling in air. Then it faded with a small 'pop', a singularity shutting closed.
------
Monica Rappaccini of AIM
Deep within AIM, a command center sat being monitored by dozens of scientists, all working diligently. A window looked into a larger room outside. Everything within was peaceful, the men and women within working happily.
They jumped when Monica burst into the room with a spiteful glare on her face. Everyone quickly looked down again, trying not to look scared. She tended to jump on weaknesses like fear. Lyle looked over at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Monica. I take it BRIDGE didn't accept our further assistance."
"DAMN HIM!" she grabbed a wrench and stabbed it into a monitor. Everyone around her winced and pretended to keep working as glass flew around her. "Bruce fucking Banner! He just keeps getting in my way! That third-rate-"
"Enough," Lyle narrowed his eyes. "Don't lose your cool."
"My COOL?!" she spun, clenching the wrench in her hand tightly.
For one moment, Lyle and Monica stared at each other. Everyone in the room stared while pretending not to.
"...Monica, either hit me or don't. But I have work to do, so decide quickly," Lyle said dryly.
"...Fine," she slapped the wrench on a console nearby. "Why are you so calm anyway?"
"Because getting into Rio wasn't the only way for us to refine the technology," Lyle looked outside the window. Monica did so as well.
In the room beyond the window, two machines took up either side, identical in appearance and about five feet tall. They each had a series of tubes going to them, circuitry inside them, and a pair of sections like funnels pointed outward. The 'funnels' were pointed directly at each other, leaving three feet of space in between.
"Did you start that thing up again?" Monica asked, her face relaxing.
"Not just yet," Lyle sighed softly. "While Rio was a setback, it was also a good indicator of what to fix for our machine. Those who died in Rio were regretful however."
"What happened anyways?" Monica crossed her arms and looked over at Lyle.
"In a word? Our machine was too sensitive," he looked over at a monitor nearby. "Our biggest worry was getting it to work. We forgot to take into account all the other events that were somewhat related to what we wanted to do."
"Other events?" Monica asked.
"Yes," he moved over to let her look at the monitor, which she realized displayed a map with red dots across it. "Over the past thirty years, dozens of events have taken place across the globe that have involved energies that manipulate time and space. In Argentina first, one during the Cold War, New Mexico, New York City of course has had at least three we can account for," he chuckled. "Always New York, isn't it?"
"Is that going to be a problem?" Monica leaned over and noted that, indeed, New York was riddled in red dots. What was happening in that city?
"No," Lyle said simply. "We will recalculate and try again. Basically, our machine, in attempting to activate, was 'pulled' by the energies left by those other events. Well, it's a bit more complex than that, but it's the simplest explanation I can give."
Monica turned to glare at him for the insult to her intelligence, which Lyle ignored. "Still, we should be able to open it again soon. In the meantime," he turned on a screen, revealing an image of two people lying on beds. "We have the successes we pulled through."
On the first bed lay a bald man, older, with a slightly pinched face and pale skin. On the other, a much younger woman lay, her red hair pouring over the sheets. She was beautiful and well-formed, while the older man was almost skeletal in comparison.
"Weren't there three people?" Monica asked idly.
"...the third escaped."
"What?" Monica tried not to sound as though she found that fact amusing. "How?"
"Well..." Lyle put on a video.
On the screen, a naked figure strode down a hallway. Three men with guns confronted him, all wearing body armor. A flash of silver was followed by the naked figure leaping forward. Blood sprayed. An almost inhuman roar filled the air, actually shaking the camera.
From camera to camera, Lyle showed the figure's progress. Muscles bunched beneath tan skin, and black hair flowed as the figure flowed into battle. Bullets flew. He didn't seem to care, or even be hit. Again and again, blades slashed deeply though body armor to dig into flesh. The figure was inhuman. Almost supernaturally agile and strong, lifting men as large as football linebackers and throwing them aside.
At one point, the figure was standing amongst a pile of bodies. Blood poured from his blades. His chest was splashed red. His eyes almost seemed to glow.
"Our security personal were killed," Lyle said softly. "Armed with assault rifles, body armor, and training… and this, savage tore through them."
"Enhanced?" Monica asked almost breathlessly, her eyes panning the muscular mans naked form without shame.
"Maybe," Lyle shook his head. "He escaped into the mountains outside. I have my men chasing him, but whoever he is, he's familiar with forests, even with all the snow outside. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll die of frostbite," Lyle shut off the video. "But we have these two. And I believe they may be just as useful."
"Hmm..." Monica rubbed her chin. "What about our… benefactor?"
"Nothing," Lyle admitted. "Just more files to enhance our robotics research. I'm not sure if we're going fast enough for him."
"Then we'd better pick up the pace," Monica smirked, looking at a certain folder on the computer nearby.
(*(^!#α $*α &α ^#...!(*#&@*ω &!α)
"These bots aren't going to build themselves after all," she said with a greedy gleam in her eyes.
