(Pat Doyle; AIM HQ Basement) We're good to go.
Now, fire wasn't something I'd dealt with too many times in my life. Sure, there were a few fires going in New York every once in a while. But those were better handled by people with experience and training. I didn't want to rush into a room on fire and cause an oxygen explosion if I attempted to blow it out. Firefighters were far better trained to handle things like that than I was.
So when I say I was taken off guard, that I leaped back out of instinct from the plume of fire that erupted out of my attacker's mouth, it should've been something that I expected. It just wasn't something I`d been desensitized to yet. My hands went to cover my eyes as another man popped out from the side to land an uppercut against my chin.
Which amounted to his hand breaking at the wrist, his scream causing the first attacker to stop suddenly. I took this moment to blitz him, striking him in the chest so hard that his ribs cracked and he ended up gasping for breath on the floor. Not wanting to be too brutal here, I used my X-Ray Vision to check to see if I'd accidentally punctured his lungs with his rib but found that wasn't the case.
I waited for Stark to hobble through the doorway once more as I took a look around. I didn't expect the lab to be right next to the staircase, but the walls, even on this level, were still lined with lead. It was an odd decision, pretty sure it should've been illegal in New York nowadays. Though, I doubt that AIM was going to be taken down for building violations.
"You got taken out by these two goons?" I couldn't help but ask Stark. They had some weight to their blows, but I was sure that Stark's armor could deal with these guys. I'd seen him lift tanks in videos, these might be strong but they were still regular person weight.
"This armor isn't exactly designed to withstand high temperatures or even super strength," He admitted, rolling his shoulders as he took off the broken pieces from his body, he retained portions of the torso but otherwise kept the hand and arm parts needed to use the repulsors safely. "It's made for stealth, not being attacked by walking volcanos."
I could still hear this odd low whine, like the buzz of an old CRT. I didn't like it but it was really the most minor of issues currently.
"I'll lead on, you give directions."
Given the state of his armor, there wasn't much room to let Stark be used as a meat shield. These folks had already wrecked the armor so fast that it might as well have been cardboard, but they'd yet to hurt me. So I felt pretty good being the meat shield for whatever came our way.
It was near maze-like down here, with twists and turns that were more suited to an evil universe version of the Legends of the Hidden Temple than it was to a research facility. I noticed the cameras as I passed, but given the way I came and the number of people I went through to get here, if they didn't know I was here then they needed more than prison time.
They needed to be institutionalized.
The colors of the hallway shifted slightly, going from a dark beige to a stark white that looked like dirt would evaporate rather than dare touch it. It was this subtle shift too, a slow transformation over time. The lights too shifted in color variance, from a cold blue shine to a warm yellow tinge. The whole thing was odd, but did contribute to the vibe that they had completely remodeled this floor at some point.
Which, if they were conducting experiments here, made sense. This had been a simple office building before this.
Stark held his hand up, stopping me from turning left and moving me down right.
"There's a dead end that way," He explained. "We're going to find about two rooms further down. The first will be a large room set up for complicated experiments. The second is supposed to be a large storage room. But given the security around the latter, I think that's where they're keeping the hostages."
When we got to the door, I could see why he thought so. It was a meaty thing, in the metaphorical sense that is. Thick alloyed metal, titanium, steel, and other metals. It was like someone looked at the materials Stark brought to make his armor and embodied the meme of 'hold muh beer'.
Stark sighed a harsh sound that scraped against my ears.
"We're not going to break through this one easily-" Before he finished the statement I'd already shoved my arm through the wall around the door while giving him a dry stare. "-I guess they make their own doors in Ireland then."
"Says the country that created the Kool-Aid Man."
There was a sensation of shoving your arm into a concrete wall. It could be compared to much of anything else I've done in my life. It went in as easy as one would pierce jelly, but of course, the material was so radically different as to make the comparison meaningless. It was like dry foam in some ways I suppose.
I made quick work of the wall, practically chewing through it with my hands so fast that a dust cloud built up around us. Stark couldn't help but cough given the density of the material in the air. I was unaffected, a Kryptonian could hold their breath in space, so I wasn't going to let anything in my lungs and our eyes could be hit with a large caliber rifle round without blinking. Dust wasn't a factor that could affect me.
When I finally got through the wall, I found a disgusting sight before me, but it was Stark who reacted first.
"Cross!" He yelled in horror, something that I felt as well while observing the injuries done to the man. His face was swollen, his eyes beat red, one was curated with blood while his lip was busted open. His white shirt was stained red with the blood that pooled from his eyes. "Jesus are you ok?"
He was tied up vertically to a table, which was also vertical. His torso, his wrists, and even his legs were strapped with a black metal I was unfamiliar with.
"No… " The man replied in that dream-like manner you'd expect from a child being woken for school early on a Monday morning. "I'm not Jesus, too bald for that… heheheh."
Cross blinked open his eyes, revealing another horror that had been done to the man. A red void of flesh awaited us leaving him with a single eye as the man struggled to regain consciousness. Cross looked to Stark first, then to me. I'd almost forgotten what I was wearing till he spoke up.
"Stark, I thought you took out people dressed like that, not got beat up with them."
"I really hate English people," I couldn't help but snipe, referring to Blonsky's choice of this outfit for me. A hoodie and a domino mask would've been okay. But instead I looked like I could be a member of the very group I was attacking.
With the added problem of no one would even know that.
"And that's not really dispelling the terrorist vibe you've got going for you."
I sighed before checking the man's heart rate with my powers. It sounded normal, it even looked to be alright. No blockage, the blood flowed cleanly through according to the beats. He was battered, and would make for a great pirate this coming Halloween, but Cross seemed to be okay.
My mind suddenly realized a possibility that I wished it hadn't. Where was Louise? Where was Van Dyne or Foster? Why was Cross left on his own? Simply to make things harder on me to find them all? Give me one so I'm distracted with them while they set up a proper trap? Or they just had a general trap that required a delay?
If this was how bad Cross was, then how bad were the others? Louise wasn't the type to sit quietly and do nothing even while captured. I wouldn't put it past the woman to do something stupid to get the AIM people mad at her. From what I know about Adrian Killian, the man already had a few screws loose in that noggin of his, he could do something irreversible.
"What happened to Louise?" I asked desperately trying to quiet the horrible ideas that were coming to my mind at Cross's own wounds.
"I… don't… know," Cross said between breaths, as mere being awake for a few seconds had taken all the energy he had. "She'd been in the room with me before I passed out. They could've taken her anywhere."
"Take a look at this." Stark pointed towards the trio of screens on the other side of the room.
On one screen there was Bill Foster and Van Dyne, much like Cross they were tied up to vertical tables. But unlike with Cross, they weren't horribly tortured, something that brought me no small amount of relief. Cross needed to get medical attention, having two more people that needed such a thing would've added to my list of priorities before finding Louise.
Still, even on the second monitor in the room, there was no sign of my friend.
It was possible that Louise was with the other two, merely off screen. It wasn't like the single camera angle showed us the entire room they were in. I guessed from their background the place was in a lab that Stark mentioned earlier. So there should've been enough room for the three of them.
"How many rooms on this floor exactly Stark?" I asked the man, concerned at how long it would take to find Louise. These walls were all lead-lined, so I couldn't see through them and it wasn't like I could just willy-nilly go breaking through walls. It was only the closeness to the door here that let me be comfortable with the idea that no one was right in front of where I was breaking apart the wall. For all I knew, Louise was being kept at a wall and when I broke through she'd be hit by me.
"This level is half again the size of the ones above it, but with this added maze design there's less space being used actively by staff," Stark started to explain. I hadn't noticed until now that he started working away at one of the terminals in the room. Typing away with his unarmored hand far faster than most people were capable with two hands. "There's at least two dummy rooms and two Labs outside of this room."
It was then that my ears picked up the approaching sounds of over a dozen footsteps coming down the hall. More security? They'd already thrown some heavy firepower against me, so it was possible that they were either going to dogpile me with enough bodies or they had equipment that the other groups lacked. Though, quickly I realized that given the weak flesh of the two richies in the room with me, any gunfire would probably be fatal.
As would any of the fire-based powers AIM people tended to have. God help me if they were to blow themselves up in this building as they had with the bank job earlier, that would just end up with the entire building dying.
So I decided to act fast… only before I could, somebody else was already acting. Gunfire followed harsh crunches that my advanced hearing barely picked up. There was a clap of a pistol smacking against a cheek. These sorts of exchanges lasted for a few moments before the sounds came down to a single pair of footsteps.
Given the advanced technology of AIM we'd omitted walkie talkies, or just comms of any sort. One could easily say this was a mistake, given Stark's tech surpassed theirs when it came to non-biotech. But there was simply no time for Stark to create an entirely new security system, as we'd discovered that AIM had been the ones to overhaul the 'Iron Patriot' armor, meaning that Stark's security protocols could be compromised. Meaning that we were more secure running silent, even if that did leave us running around like a bunch of headless chickens at times.
This was proved to be true when Blonsky came walking through the hole in the wall, his suit splattered with blood and his hair slightly tussled. I could also see a slowly decreasing spot of red on his cheek, making me believe that he'd be hit by one of them. It certainly showcased how fast Blonsky regen worked. In seconds he went from hit to healed.
Scary fast. Worked along with the level of scale from Morse. Blonsky had healed from having his spine shattered by a blow from the Hulk before I'd run into the guy. His healing factor only a few steps removed from the X-Men's Wolverine in my opinion.
"I can see that you've found Cross,'' the British fellow noted as he took stock of the room. "AIM's tipped their hands here. I have fought two Enhanced men who match the people that Lugh fought at the bank. How about you guys?"
"We're the same," Stark noted as I finally freed Cross from his restraints. They were tougher, far tougher than any metal I'd broken or ripped through before. THough like everything I've come against, it did break. "AIM is mask off. You're calling in the calvary?"
We hadn't expected AIM to directly send their super soldiers after us given the connection with the Ten Rings' actions. With just that element being openly revealed to us, SHIELD had no reason not to swoop into the building and lock things down.
"They're on their way as we speak."
Stark filled the other man in on what we'd discovered with the usual style one would expect from the quippy man.
"Given that Cross has prepared himself for the pirate's life," He stated, pointing at the man before turning his unarmored arm towards himself. "And that I'm halfway to becoming the stripper version of Iron Man, I'll take him out, suit up and come back."
"Meanwhile Blonsky and I will go and secure Foster and Van Dyne."
There was some concern that Stark would be ambushed on his back up with Cross. But I imagine that if Stark thinks it is a good idea for him to do so, I had to trust his opinion on that. He was supposed to be a genius after all.
Blonsky led me down the halls far faster than Stark managed to guide me earlier, practically sprinting. It was still a very slow pace for me, but the small area we were in made it impossible for me to safely blitz through with super speed without just running through the walls. Something that my earlier comments about breaking through walls applied equally to. You didn't know what was on the other side.
So we found ourselves outside a typical glass door one would expect from a standard science facility in the movies. Inside the room was the duo of captured scientists who were surrounded by a mix of lab coat-wearing people and a few folk in ballistic vests. Well, and a single man in a black suit.
"If it isn't the men of the hour, Blonsky and our glorious savior… Lugh. Come in, I've been expecting you two for a while now."
We walked in, Blonsky holding a large caliber revolver in his left hand while his right was placed on his elbow. We entered the room with a slow measured grace prepared to be ambushed. But nothing happened, nothing but us being greeted by Killian's ever-enlarging grin.
Now, by this point in my life, I'd run into a number of criminals and super criminals. Not even with Loki, as arrogant and conceited as that fuck was, did I want to punch someone's face in so much. Aldrich Killian oozed condescension, he oozed a type of sleazy car salesman vibe. Like not only did he think he was better than everyone else, Killian thought
we were morons; morons he could sell a lemon to and convince it was a bargain sports car.
"The great Lugh, a shining god standing before me," Killian bowed as he laughed, which was a weird screeching noise that sounded like someone failing at keeping their timbre deep. "I have been waiting for so long to get my hands on you… " His eyes briefly glanced at Blonsky but went on to ignore him. "I like the change in outfit, it suits you better than the white and blue thing you were wearing before. Feels much more honest to boot!"
There was this gleam to his eyes that didn't match the recording I'd seen of the guy, a maniac almost pup-like energy to the man. It was creepy from an adult of his appearance. In that suit, in those clothes. His brow had also started to pour sweat, his armpits were so soaked that I could see the visible liquid seep through the shirt and jacket he was wearing. This was not a healthy man.
In fact, I think he might be high right now?
"Shining?" I echoed, pulling off the black ski mask as the smile on my face thinned. "My friend, I am Dawn, not the gleaming metal."
It was a hamy line to say, could've been described as cringe in fact, but it got the desired effect from the man. He giggled uncontrollably like a schoolgirl being tickled. This man
was high. I just needed to figure out if I could use this to my advantage or if it was better to just blitz him.
"Oh, the Daaaawn," Killian intoned, scratching his neck as if there was a creature on it that he needed to kill with his finger nails. It didn't help the further reddening of the man's skin. "Like the sun or the god Rao."
I was suddenly reminded that Killian had a new partner, one that he'd been interacting with only in the recent few days. This timing, so soon after the confirmed death of Dr. Octavius, was so suspicious that I considered the idea that whatever method Brainiac used to contact her was now being used to contact Killian.
I will eventually find a way to kill that green asshole. He'd been bothering me ever since I arrived here. But for now I had more personal things to deal with.
"Where's the redhead?" I asked, trying to keep my voice casual. Trying to make it seem as if I wasn't concerned, merely asking out of curiosity from their absence.
"You shouldn't have asked after the girl," Blonsky whispered to me that warning, knowing that I would hear him even as low as this.
His warning there proved to be correct as the obviously insane leader of AIM started to laugh maniacally. Slapping his knee even in an ever more cartoonish display, I noticed that the restrained and even gagged duo of Foster and Van Dyne were staring at the man in confusion. I turned to Blonksy and mouthed asking him if this was normal for Killian.
I already know from prior investigation that it wasn't normal but Blonsky had talked to the man not too long ago. When Blonsky shook his head, I knew that there was something really wrong with this situation.
"The redhead?" Killian repeated the description, even adopting my stance. "The redead!" he repeated again, this time adding a stereotypical Irish accent, closer to a Scottish accent than an Irish really. I ignored that for the moment, my attention was more taken by how he'd gone from a dull white-ish pink to a vibrant red.
Instantly, I turned to my thermal vision, expecting to see much of the same as I was with the people in the bank. And there were some similarities to those people, but the difference was stark in contrast. The other Extremis Enhanced people I'd run across heated up evenly across their entire body. Killian here had an extremely hot core around his heart but elsewhere it was much colder.
Still hotter than a normal man would reasonably withstand.
"She has spunk, so I decided to offer the girl a job," Killian finally moved on from repeating the word 'redhead' over and over again. "Just getting her… prepared for the job physically," He pointed behind him and my eyes turned toward the doors on the opposite side of the room. "There's an exam… and a rather dangerous operation."
I bit the inside of my mouth, not reacting to his words just yet. It was then that Blonsky shot Killian in through the mouth, blood exploding out the back of his neck. It covered the Doctors Van Dyne and Foster. Killian dropped to the ground, flopping like a salmon who'd leapt from the water to find themselves on dry land unexpectedly. There were a few seconds of him shaking before the body stopped.
The Former Royal Marine didn't stop there, Blonsky didn't wait for Killian's body to stop twitching before putting rounds into the security guards around us. It happened within two seconds, the guards weren't fast enough to keep up with the British Super Soldier's trigger fingers.
"I love the morons who monologue," Blonsky explained as he walked over to free the captured doctors. "They stand around unarmed while I'm carrying a gun openly and just keep talking. Would've been able to take me at least if they were coming in hot. Spray me down with enough rifle rounds and I'd probably die."
Before he reached Killian's still body, the other man leaped back to his feet and blitzed the royal Marine. A grab to his arm twisted his pistol away from him, then another twist snapped the limb at the elbow, before finally a white hot fist struck itself through his stomach.
Blonsky gasped in short breaths and I came in with a fist to Killian's head so brutal that not only was the man flung through the far doors, breaking them off the wall even. His neck had twisted around. WIthout much concern for that, I ripped my jumper off, took the t-shirt off with it and attempted to tie it around the captain's wounds.
"Should've double capped," he muttered out. "I'm fine… I'll be fine. This is just a flesh wound… survived worse… free the others. Stark will be back soon, he'll be able to help me far better than you zipping me out of here."
My concern for the man lessened with each passing word as Blonsky appeared to gain more strength as he continued. It was rather remarkable, so much so that I let my eyesight zoom through the adhoc bandages to see the wound at a micro level. I found the incredibly disgusting sight of the wound healing back together.
"Ok-" Before I could finish the sentence Killian had somehow gotten up again, this time twice as hot, and stuck me right in the face with a stunning right hook. This was the hardest anyone outside of Thor had ever struck me, it was far harder than Loki would've done against me.
Which is why Killian broke every finger in his right and I received no injuries.
"This is not going to end well for you."
His laughter in the face of that threat disturbed me more than a bit.
Author's Note; Lots of personal things have happened over the time since the last update. So sorry about the wait, I had planned on an update a week for you a lot. Sadly life likes to get in the way of my writing plans for this story for the last while. This is a bit bigger than the last few updates. So I'm glad to deliver something to everyone.
I was at a wedding, got food poisoning and someone crashed into my front garden. That caused me to chase my dog down the street. And it shattered the headlights on my car. So… that wasn't great lol… at least the wedding was nice… as expected. Thankfully, the driver had stuck around and will be paying for everything.
It was an accident with their handbrake that caused the incident, there is a hill nearby so the van just kept gaining momentum before crashing.
On a side note, I've gotten a new keyboard now and I didn't notice the layout being odd on Amazon images. I thought I had gotten an 1800 layout, but instead, I've not gotten a function row and I'm missing a right shift. I do like the keyboard still, the size makes it useful in some locations. I'm just not sure what this layout is called? Lol. And have replaced all the keyswitches with new ones. Except two because the keyboard has five pin connectors for every switch except two of them.
So a pre-written author's note here. I've got a kofi account and a discord. As a reminder is why I am mentioning it here. Since some of you are on mobile and can't see my sig below. People on discord, and who contribute to my ko-fi will receive access to copies of the unbeta'd versions of future chapters.
I will be posting the next chapter in a few days. Big big things coming up for you and for me.
