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"Everything is gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to."
- Tony Stark, (Avengers Endgame)
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<(Omniscient POV)>
"We have to make sure to protect the Desert Rose. It can never fall into the hands of the invaders... Activate the detonation charges, Pike. Even if we must blow this entire base to protect the secret, we will do exactly that." One of the two extremist leaders observing the Colony soldiers decimating their troops, ordered in a grim tone of voice. Both of them were dressed in similar-looking black coats. The only thing that set apart the speaker from the other man in the room was a shining thin sword in his hands, or a rapier to be exact while the other man was holding a small spear-like weapon commonly known as a pike.
"I have already set the charges, Rapier. This is the detonator for it. We can blow this entire place up whenever we want." Pike quickly responded with a nod while showing a small black remote that he was tightly holding in his hands. "However, we should escape through the hidden tunnels underneath before we activate the detonator. Although I am ready to give my life to the cause, I am sure that the council would appreciate it more if we could inform them what truly happened here today." He said before removing the carpet from the floor of the room and revealing a small trapdoor underneath.
Rapier showed a small frown on his face at Pike's words but after thinking for a few moments, he too agreed with his logic. It wasn't even a question that both of them were immensely loyal to the organization they worked for. They were ready to give their lives at a moment's notice for the cause but that didn't mean they wouldn't even try to escape with their lives intact. They were human beings too and like most human beings in the world, they wanted to survive.
"Running away so soon? I should have known that all of you people's talks and ideals about changing the world and helping humanity rise against their corrupt governments were a ton of crap." Just when they were preparing to escape through the trapdoor, a voice suddenly interrupted them.
The two immediately became alert to the noise and began to look around, trying to determine where the voice had originated from but even after scanning the entire room, they couldn't find anyone or anything out of place. It was as if those clear words they had just heard originated from thin air.
"Do it, Pike. Activate the trigger, NOW." Reaper quickly shouted while pointing at the detonator in Pike's hands.
Alerted by Reaper's warnings, Pike decided to activate the detonator anyway and blow up the entire place without taking any chances. But before his finger could even twitch in response to the decision he had just made in his mind, a sudden pulse of energy seemed to manifest out of nowhere and short-circuited the remote, destroying it before it could be used for its true purpose.
"NO." Both Pike and Reaper screamed as they felt the last remaining hope of completing their tasks slowly slip away from their grasp.
"As much as we would like to see every one of you, filth get burnt to ashes, we are still under orders from the Chief to investigate the entire base before destroying it. So, you will have to settle for dying at my hands like the dogs you are instead of some last-measure suicide." The voice again declared but this time Pike and Reaper were finally able to see the source of the voice as the human figure of Captain Jack, the leader of the alpha division of the Colony slowly materialized in front of their eyes.
"Chief was right. This suit's stealth capability is almost as good as Jenny's camouflage power that comes with her Paintop-Cuttlefish legacy." Jack muttered to himself with a small smile under his mask while calmly walking towards the two militants.
"You destroyed everything. You have no idea what you have done. Thousands of innocents will die because of you if what is found here ever gets out into the world. You are no better than killers." Reaper shouted in rage as he and Pike rushed towards Jack with their weapons drawn.
"Didn't your master ever teach you? Never bring medieval weapons to a gunfight." He quipped as he shot Pike in the chest with his energy gun which seemed to knock the spear-wielding extremist out cold before casually blocking Reaper's sword strike with the back of his hand. "You are trained well. However, unfortunately for you, bladed weapons no longer work against me, at least not blades made of common steel." Captain Jack punched the thin steel sword, instantly breaking it in half with a single strike.
Reaper, although shocked by Jack's monstrous strength, didn't waste any time displaying surprise in his voice and immediately threw a grenade at him, not even caring about his own life or the life of his colleague. Jack, however, instead of dodging the grenade and taking cover, quickly caught it and threw it out of the room before bracing for the explosion. And indeed, a few seconds later, there was a small boom sound followed by dust flying everywhere but none of the three appeared to be hurt due to the explosion.
"Stop! We can pay you as much as you want. We will give you everything you could possibly desire." Reaper tried to plead to buy some time while already preparing to throw another grenade from his buckle, but Jack was much faster. He punched the terrorist in the throat before grabbing and easily twisting both of his arms, breaking them in the process.
"I don't make deals with terrorists. Also, you can never give me what I want because what I desire has to be earned, not given." He replied with a snort before letting the unresponsive body of the terrorist drop to the ground from his hold. "Inner base secured," Lucas finally reported after making sure that there was no more active threat in the room while lightly pressing the earpiece on his helmet as he breathed heavily. "Send in the extraction team."
"Copy that, Captain. Also, we found what seems like a small indoor plant research garden. They seem to be growing some sort of unique plant in here, probably to manufacture drugs. We are moving in, to secure samples from it." The guy from the other end responded within a second.
"Do it quickly and secure everything you collect from here in isolation boxes only We have orders to send them to the boss directly without alerting the military in any way." He warned in a commanding voice. "Anyway, good work, everyone," Jack congratulated over the comms, his voice becoming more lighthearted. "Once everything is secured, bag the bodies and set the high-density explosive charges. Our mission will be accomplished once we destroy any and all traces of this godforsaken terrorist hideout. After that, we can return to base."
As the soldiers in the alpha team of the Colony completed their assigned tasks and prepared for extraction, they unknowingly released a small exhale of relief they were holding back in their chests after finally getting the confirmation that they had succeeded in the very first mission of their lives while working for their new employer.
***
<{Bat cave under Wayne Manor, Gotham}>
<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
"The answer is still no, Ace. I am not going to build bone-shaped plasma grenades for you. And I am definitely not going to build machine guns that can shoot hairballs for your little cat friend. I can be considered somewhat of a mad scientist by now, but I am not THAT mad." I answered my pet dog while trying to fix the new hard-light hologram-generating machine that I was trying to build in my bat cave.
"Woof woof" Ace barked in apparent sadness as he struggled to let go of the idea.
I didn't even know why he wanted such weird weapons in the first place. In his own words, he is trying to pacify the animal underworld of Gotham and bring peace among all species of animals or something. Of course, he was just exaggerating stuff. I have given him and Miss Whiskers a few self-defense gadgets over the years to protect themselves from danger, so he was probably expecting me to fold like I always do but there was no way I could in good consciousness ever let them near plasma grenades. Giving a dog and a cat weapons of mass destruction is where I draw the line to pampering my pets.
I actually get it. They probably just want to play with me and Selina more since we are always busy most of the time, but surely, I could find much better toys and games for them than plasma grenades, jetpacks... or even hairball-shooting machine guns.
"Sir, if I may interrupt your important conversation with your pet dog, I have come across some important pieces of information that you should know of. Specifically, I have two pieces of good news and one slice of bad news for you. Which one would you like to hear first, sir?" Cortana asked interrupting my conversation with Ace.
"... Sigh The good news I guess."
"First, the alpha platoon succeeded. They even found some interesting stuff in the base which they will be sending over to the cave. Second, the British government accepted Alfred's deal. They will be transferring his daughter to Gotham permanently and even allow her to become a US citizen if she wants." Cortana revealed. "Of course, most of them have no idea that she is the daughter of the Queen and thus the princess of the UK. So, it will be better if we keep it that way."
"Ok, got it. That was quick by the way. These discussions can even take months at a time. But again, Alfred is really good at these types of things. He is a master negotiator with that sexy British accent of his. It's not a surprise he pulled this off so easily." I praised my extremely efficient Giga Chad of a combat butler. "Anyway, so what's the bad news?"
"She will be assigned here with the mission to protect you, the multibillionaire genius Bruce Wayne as your personal bodyguard from any future assassination attempts. This has been approved by both the UK and US governments. So, you will have to let her "protect" you for the next few years... at least until the guys in the UK "forget" about her and the US government officially accepts her citizenship."
"Fuck my independent life."
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(A/N: Sorry for the delay in updates but I was suffering from a fever and I couldn't even understand half the stuff I was writing. It took 3 days for me to write even a single chapter🥲)
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