The chaos that ensued from those words were incomprehensible.
I had to use my telekinesis with subtlety to dodge the rain of bullets coming for me as I dived off the stage towards a pillar while simultaneously taking shots at people's head.
'My head game is still A1… That sounds way too wrong to fit the present theme.'
I shook my head at my thirtieth headshot streak. I swapped guns with a fallen one and began another wave of attack.
The obese dude already had two shots to his knee the moment he got up from his chair, Klaue had three, two to his knees and one to his right shoulder.
I was busy dodging the bullets sent my way while also parrying some and ricocheting some as strays, killing a few in the process, at the same time doing it subtly, when someone threw a huge cylinder full of some green stuff my way while others shot at it.
I already knew what it was, the stupidly dangerous chemical that could melt through bones in seconds along with anything organic.
Being the joker my current character was, I stopped the cylinder from exploding, making it look like the bullets bounced off of it as it was too strong to be penetrated by bullets and dove out to catch it before sending it back towards a clustered group of enemies who mostly looked relaxed since it didn't break when it was thrown towards me.
The look of abject horror on their face when the cylinder broke midair with one shot from me made me laugh like a fox during fire. I also used my powers to widen the splash area and made it cover more people.
The dude who had his arms outstretched to catch the cylinder remained frozen in that position as he shot me the most 'unfair' look.
I witnessed first hand how dangerous that chemical truly was.
All it needed was a drop on a person and it ate into their bodies and expanded outwards, giving them the most horrifying death.
It ate into their innards, leaving nothing but white smoke as if their very flesh was being erased even as they screamed in pain.
I flipped back, four shots to their heads, and crouched down, three more shots before I switched firearms. I had rendered most of the bigshots immobile with shattered kneecaps, a lot of them, and shoulders.
I was quick to kill anyone who tried to help them escape leaving most of them crawling like maggots before another shot from my guns pierced their feet.
Some fool tried throwing bombs forgetting the fact that we were underground and the numerous pillars and stoned walls were the only thing keeping the place form crumbling.
I replied in kind either by shooting the grenades before they left their throwers hands or hitting it back with a little telekinetic blast once it came near me.
…
20 minutes later, the underground auction was silent, save the groans of the few who were still alive.
I walked towards Klaue since he was still my priority and disregarding his pitiful struggle held his head and raised him off the ground, bypassing his flimsy caution he called mental defense and inputted my search words for his funds and Vibranium.
My recent gains from my fight against Magneto and Doom saw an increase in the quality of my abilities. Before, to dive into someone's mindscape, I'd have to forfeit my body's outside senses, leaving me completely vulnerable but now that weakness was no longer there. It was a trippy experience when I did it with Sublime, having two different perceptions of time and space. I wonder if that was how telepaths felt?
I got what I wanted and to test my new prowess since Sublime just shut down when I was through with him, I did what made telepaths the bane of every empowered being – Psyche Remodeling.
I didn't have the slightest pang on my conscience given who my target was.
It was as if I was deleting his biological codes and inputting new ones that ran on the same program but with different directives. It was way harder than I thought, vastly different from just frying his brain.
I deleted memories then imprinted instincts and thought to fill the gap. Since I didn't know how I would go about creating fake memories without having extensive training in it, I concluded my excursion.
Before me stood, although limply as if he was on strings and would fall down the moment my final aide left him, eyes having a new glow.
"Command me m-"
SCHLICK.
I sliced his entire neck off with a blade made of blood as a feeling of revulsion passed through me only for it to disappear the next instant.
I would never again attempt a psyche remodeling ever, if I had any say in it.
The first thing I felt when I let go of his mind was a phantom feeling of superiority and that everybody was below me. Followed by gut wrenching feeling to conquer everything I set my sight on. Then came the arrogance. None of which were me.
The three of those sensations smooched together created something, a feeling that was in vast contradiction with myself that my brain immediately destroyed that sensation.
If I knew it was this revolting then I would have killed Charles the moment I got my hands on him. Speaking of which… Last time I called, there seemed to be some sort of friction between Charles and some of the teachers, mostly Ororo and John. I didn't know how they were doing ever since Jean's death and what happened on Christmas.
With my mood worsened, the smile on foxy changed into a frown as the Joker went about and pillaged the memories of importance from all that were alive. Banks, passcodes, hidden caches, stocks and whatnot.
And guess what? Someone fucking had over a ton of Adamantium. Klaue had sold his last to the fucker for cheap because he owed him a favor.
…
Shit! I just killed Wilson Fisk. Turns out the fat fuck with the cigar was not the Top G but the Kingpin instead.
That was a major villain dead before Spider-Man and Daredevil finished senior high.
Since I wanted to leave the place as clean as possible, I took the sawn off head of Klaue and his body and tossed him into the puddle of organic-eating acid.
I had killed over a hundred people, 99% of those with headshots. The crime and investigation department of Cairo were going to have a field day, week, month, before they gave up the case.
I swished my bathrobe and left the scene of the crime and disappeared into the night.
…
Having all the bank details from those drug lords and warlords, it was an easy task for me to hack into their bank accounts and disperse the funds through thousands of boogey accounts that I had my virus run. I was not into AIs but the flare of hitting corporations with viruses was always a thrilling sensation.
All the cases of corporate espionage we've had through back doors all had the target corporation breaking down due to information leaks such as embezzlements, scandals or trimming down their stock price.
Imagine a company like the Google or Facebook of my former world suddenly having their stock price reduced to 10 thousand dollars per every percent of stock.
I hated being attacked, and those companies served as a warning. Sure they knew I was the cause of it, or rather they thought Suckerberg was, but since there was no proof, it sure as hell didn't happen. Classic America.
Some of these guys had caches of gold just sitting around across the world and I would have to hit them quick before their lawyers, since they definitely have an army of them, or relatives starts digging up the spoils.
I would personally hit up the Adamantium and Klaue's Vibranium storage but I'll have to call in home for help.
I rang my home line and waited four seconds before someone picked up the phone.
"Hello, Draul residence. How may I help you?" I cringed hard at that response.
"… Yelena?"
"Draul?"
"Why in seven hells would you pick up the phone with that response?"
"Uhm, what else am I supposed to say?"
"A simple hello would have sufficed." I said.
"And is there a reason why I shouldn't be extra polite to strangers who call?" She asked politely but I could hear the huff in her voice.
"Because there are only five people in this world apart from us who have the number to this line."
"…And what if it was Fury who called?"
"Then picking up the phone would have sufficed." I said with a small laugh. For some reason Yelena didn't like Fury all that much.
"Is there any reason you called other than checking up on us?" She asked.
What was she talking about? I never call to check up on them.
"Is anyone around?"
"Wait a minute…"
She left the call and went to look for someone, who picked the call 15 seconds later.
"Draul?"
"Nat, uhm…" Should I or should I not? I would have preferred Bucky since I didn't want them going back to a life they've left behind… but then remembering what happened on Christmas Eve, "Would you mind helping me retrieve some caches and treasures in some countries across the world?"
I waited for a few seconds before a reply came in. "Sure."
"Er… You are okay with that?" I asked dumbfounded.
Form what I knew, Nat hated every moment of being a spy and also the fact that they made her sister one but just like me, I was afraid they would be dragged into the multitudes of wars coming for the planet, so even if I hated asking her for help, I still wanted her out there and prepared. I didn't want a repeat of what happened to me to happen to her or any of them.
"Why wouldn't I be?" There was a chuckle to her words followed by a faint sigh that I would have missed if I hadn't been listening.
"Right. I'll be sending you some files with every detail you need for it. Run it over with Steve and both of you should hit up the ones you can while I cover what I can from my end."
"What about me?" I heard Yelena ask. Didn't she hate every part of her life under the watch of the Red Room? Why then would she under any circumstance want to put herself on the front lines.
"What about you? Obviously you'll be staying put with Bucky." Did she expect me to put her in a gun fight? She's not that delusional is she?
"But I wanna he-" Yelena started but I cut her short.
"Do nothing. Sorry girl but you'll be staying at home. I'm not that far gone to let you jump into what would definitely end up as a gunfight." I shot her down firmly.
"But I helped when Nat was captured!"
"When I allowed myself to be captured – there's a difference."
"Regardless of the reason for the capture, or your involvement at that time, you are still too young to be in the field." I wasn't naïve to the point that I thought I could keep her out forever, but she was still too young and she was just human.
"But-"
"No buts. At least wait for 2 more years then you'll be free to go out there. We'll have this conversation when I'm back." And that was a conversation I never want to have.
"You could have been a little soft on her you know?" Nat spoke to me.
"And you know I can't. Forget about that, why are you agreeing to this? I thought you wanted no part in this side of the world?" I asked with genuine curiosity.
She let out a sigh followed by a little breath of silence before she answered. "I can feel it you know? The change. Everyone at the house did. Somehow, in a way I can't explain, that fight changed everything. It's like the world we used to live in was swapped with another one… I don't know how to say this, but… it's like a feeling. I feel like if I don't do this then I'll miss something essential."
"…Damn! That's deep."
We both laughed at that. "Thanks."
"It's cool. This way you don't have to find a way to convince me to get out there." I could here the tease in her voice.
"How did you….?"
"You make it too easy to be read most times~"
Damn. She's got me read to another level. I shrugged at that, it wasn't that bad to have someone who could read me like this and not just read me, but also understand me to some level.
Bucky and Clint were the only ones who I knew could almost read what was going through my mind most times without me even saying anything.
"Looks like I'm going to start putting walls, wouldn't want anyone reading me like that." I joked.
"You don't have to… I assure you, not just anyone can read you, they'll need a certain level of… synergy to do that." The way her voice lowered over the phone almost made me think of something else before I shook off those thoughts.
Natasha was dangerous… in entirely different ways.
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