Draul's plan for taking care of Sublime was simple.
All he had to do was try and get inside the bacteria's head(or nucleus… or mitochondria) and use its hive-like mind to connect to his other proxies and destroy them from the inside while he'll incinerate the virus like every good doctor would. Nothing a little UV ray can't fix… on the chance that UV can fix it, then he'd have no choice but to use gamma. Everything becomes simple when gamma is involved in this universe. Either you die or you become super-powered.
He had thought of pointing the X-Men to Sublime but given how he played them for years in the comics, he wasn't taking any chances.
From what he could gather, thanks to Clint actually doing some spy work, the man known as John Sublime had some kind of dealings with some of the human members of the Hellfire Club, Edward Buckman.
If Draul was to be honest with himself, he didn't remember much from the comics. His memories before his transmigration were harder to remember for some reason and due to the fact that he read those comics when he was a kid and through his teenage years, he had forgotten most characters except those major ones.
For one, he didn't know who the fuck was Edward Buckman but given that he was in the Hellfire Club, the man had to be somewhat capable either in politics, wealth, or personal abilities.
He did a little digging on Edward Buckman and he was irked by the fact that he wasn't surprised when he saw the guy's name for those who sponsored the SENTINEL project. He couldn't be since John Sublime's name was among that list too.
He had to admit the fact that HYDRA was too competent at what they did that they even had piles of dirt on their seemingly allies.
The files they had on Sublime was that of a human who funded some of their works that they put out as joint project which wasn't much.
Although his target was only Sublime, he had the feeling that he would fighting more than Sublime and his goons, possibly knocking heads with the Club's high ranking members.
He contemplated whether to go in stealthily and take out Sublime or just walk in and cleave off the neck of the fool and no matter how he thought hard about subtlety, the idea of seeing someone's head flying and spinning in the air somehow appealed to him.
He hoped he wasn't becoming sociopathic, he had his brain to make sure.
"You sure you want to get out there after what happened last year." Steve asked concerned about his mental state.
Sure he might have acted indifferent and nonchalant about what happened on Christmas Eve, but the rerolls of the death tolls on Christmas day got to him more than he cared to admit. Those deaths were, over 2 million, directly connected to him. It could be argued on a losing ground that both Doom and Magneto were the primary cause of the tragedy, but the truth was that he wasn't a victim of the disaster as the victims of it were.
He was in top shape minutes after the fight ended, the pain and injuries gone before he even could figure out how to calm himself down.
Steve and the others had been concerned about how he'd react when they watched the news at Charlie's since our home was gone. It was the first time he cursed himself for how much control he had over his emotions and expressions.
For people who didn't know he could do that, which the exception was just Clint, Bucky and Fury, maybe even Steve, he came off as unsympathetic and cold. Even Ororo had been put off a bit by his seemingly nonchalant attitude towards the deaths caused by our fight.
"Yeah don't worry about me. I promise I'll be good~." Draul said in a sing-song tone which made the captain sigh in exasperation.
"Just keep whatever you are going to do in moderation." His voice had a blurry edge to it that Draul couldn't interpret if it were concern or regret and tapped his shoulders before he started getting ready to go help out in the city.
"C'mon, I can be stealthy if I want." The awkward atmosphere around us bled out with that statement as Steve waved and went his way.
With every step Draul took, he remembered the hate he held for Doom. He lost a lot of things because of the untold amount of destruction their three-way battle caused.
'My car, my pool, my bar, my couch, my imported pillows, my ties, my imported coffee and most importantly, my eggnog. No one could say I didn't have my priorities straight.'
Everyone of those things was enough to make best friends hate each other while the last was more than enough to cause bloodline enemies.
Not to mention since he hadn't been able to procure a new Shelby GT5000, he settled for a Lamborghini Murcielargo. He bought two Lamborghinis and had to make extra payments for two Aston Martin Vanquish S.
Who said he couldn't live life fast in the Marvel-verse? Bucky had taken the other Murcielargo as soon as it hit the new garage while Nat and Steve had to settle for the Aston Martin.
Nat was cool with it but Steve looked as if he'd rather drive a Camry than whatever the car he bought was. Sometimes his straightness could be annoying.
He took his ride and hit the road. He could still feel the change as the ever moving city of New York had a fast traffic which was very rare at this time of the day.
From his tracking of Sublime's and Buckman's location, he found out that the Upper echelons of the Club were holding a party on a yacht. The details of the party wasn't known but there were invited guests who had a certain degree of opulence which was what the Hellfire Club looked like from the outside.
He parked his car half a mile away from the shore and this time just walked, enjoying the scent and feel of the sea breeze.
He wasn't in a hurry since there was no getting off the yacht unless someone had a boat or mutant powers such as flight or teleportation.
When he neared the shore, he noticed bodyguards walking around, quarantining the entire shore against visitors of any kind.
He looked like a tourist given the Hawaiian shirt and shorts he had on coupled with the straw hat which solidifies the look of someone looking for a good time at the beach.
He was spotted as soon as he entered the restricted area which prompted some of the bodyguards to bar his path with an advice to turn back as the entire shore was rented for private purposes.
He didn't even deign to reply the guards which immediately put them on alert as some of them reached for their weapons. Without a change in his expression Draul walked forward towards the shore even as the guards called up warnings.
The more the tourist looking man came forward the more the guards felt a sense of danger. This feeling was so thick that one of the younger guards who couldn't take the pressure any longer and fired his bullet.
His heart went into his throat as his panic rose not because of his accidental discharge but because of the floating bullet that stopped inches before the face of the intruder.
"What do you know? Now I don't have to worry about my clothes being riddled with lead." The intruder spoke with an unfazed expression in his face with only a slight tone of amusement in his voice.
"M-mutant!" No one knew who said that but the moment the term registered in the heads of all the guards, regardless of who the intruder was, they all opened fire and let the bullets defend them against whatever ability this mutant had.
They however were destined to be disappointed as the intruder, without moving an inch from where he was, stopped all their bullets that looked like swarms of bees in front of him.
"Guess I'm able to hold objects travelling at a mile per second without any effort. I feel like I could push it more but that's up for future trial." The intruder said, more like he was talking to himself. "Now then, how about we get to the main reason for today's meeting."
Draul waved his hands and before any of his assaulters could react, each received a bullet straight through their vest and into their hearts, giving them a swift but choking death.
The yacht was already making its way to a part of the shore a distance away from Draul's location meaning that they had already been contacted by the disturbance ashore and also most likely have heard the sounds of gunshots which clued them that whatever intruder they were facing meant business.
Draul, still having the carefree expression on his face walked forward towards the sea and stepped on it.
He, since the first confrontation, finally exerted force in one of his hands and the meaning of the gesture was explained as a part of the sea, which was where the yacht was, started rising.
He continued exerting force on his hands pointed towards the yacht in an upward manner as the sea carried the yacht higher.
He felt two attacks on his brain but his shield deflected them with ease even as the second was more sophisticated but the end result was still the same.
Feeling content with the height of the yacht, his foot submerged in the sea emitted frost as an entire 2km from his location on shore to the sea froze over.
The ice around his feet swirled and formed a board which he stepped on and surfed towards the ice-risen yacht.
He could see some people sliding down the ice he created and stood in a formation waiting for him without putting much of a combat ready stance.
He came to a halt as he faced the five individuals who stood waiting for him.
"A rather crude way of making your presence known, don't you think?" Said a man wearing all-black with his permed hair going backwards and an impressive beard if Draul's opinion were to be taken.
Draul didn't need anyone to help him identify the Black King of the Hellfire Club – Sebastian Shaw. The man stood in front of the others with his face set into a cold frown that would have terrified the weak willed if they had been in Draul's shoes.
Behind him were two people wearing some sort of spandex uniform; one had an easygoing smile on his face that looked Spanish and the other, a male too, stood rigid as his eyes never left Draul.
The other two men Draul didn't know but he could tell they were somehow strong. Somehow because of the way they posture.
"Sorry for crashing your party but I'm looking for someone. I'll be on my merry way once my business with him is concluded." The chilling breeze of the current atmosphere blew against the six men who stood in confrontation.
Draul had the small smile on his face that he had since the beginning, hoping that they'd just let him go through with his business and leave him be.
"I think you should introduce yourself first before asking for such absurd requests. Someone like you should at least be refined in etiquettes to do such small greetings." Shaw spoke in the same no-quarter-taken tone.
"Sorry for that. Name's… Draul." Draul contemplated on whether it was worth telling them his name but considered that given their influence, it would be easy if they wanted to find out anything about him. His personal information was still in the system after all.
Sebastian Shaw to his credit didn't show any reaction at all to that name even as the thoughts inside his head worked otherwise. He had recognized the young man as soon as he saw his face and couldn't help but wonder what the Draugr was doing here.
He wasn't ignorant of what happened in Moscow which was the first place he'd seen the Draugr in action. He had wanted to recruit him to his ranks but had to give up on that thought when he found out that he had some connections to S.H.I.E.L.D. Wouldn't do good to have a double agent inside the inner part of the Club, even if they had multiple ways to ensure he didn't betray them, there was no telling that those in S.H.I.E.L.D would not be able to sense the subtle difference. In the end he had decided against it.
The Draugr was impressive in terms of ability but based on what Shaw knew, his attacks were mostly energy based with enhanced physique though the way he froze the yacht and not to mention control that part of the sea at such distance made him weary.
Despite his thoughts, he made to introduce himself hoping that it wouldn't devolve into a fight as there were some people in attendance that he'd rather them not knowing the full scope of his abilities. One of such persons was the White Queen. "My name is Sebastian Shaw, the President of the Hellfire Club, New York branch."
========================
Don't forget to vote.
Read up to 25 chapters ahead at pa*treon.com/Draul_TheOminous.