Chereads / Marvel : We Are / Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: Tinkering

Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: Tinkering

Running through the stairs desperately under the pursuit and shooting of six Widows. Rick felt for the first time that getting down the stairs slow and trouble thing. Especially when he found at the ground floor, two Widows were waiting for him.

"How many of you are there?!" Rick complain when he saw them.

Not wanting to confront so many trained assassins at the same time, before reaching the last floor Rick raised his hand and activate the grappling hook of his glove. The hook quickly flying upward, stuck to a baluster on the 10th floor. With a gesture of the wrist the thread retract to the glove, making him 'fly' toward the 10th floor.

Because they didn't expect such an unexpected change, the Widows weren't able to react until Rick step on the 10th floor.

By the they wanted to do something, he had already disappeared from their sights. But Rick knew that it wasn't over, because even though he could hear the sound of a big fight taking place on the 7th. Rick was certain that the building was surrounded.

But fortunately, he had a plan. And the first step, which he did immediately, was to break a windows and use the grappling hook to reach the rooftop. As for the question on how did he take back the hook without touching it? Don't question it, it's just one of the basic rules of Syndicate.

As Rick predicted, there were indeed people on the rooftop. Good news, they were only three each positioned on different building. But bad news for Rick, each of them were snipers.

In split second, Rick made a decision and start to race toward the closest Widow on the roof top in a zigzag pattern.

At the same time to be safe, he took out his U-shield from the U-watch creating a spherical energy shield around him. With this energy shield, no bullets shoot by the Widows could penetrate it. While the U-shield could protect his wearer from almost anything physical or liquid it, had a limited time of 20 second.

So when he arrived at the bottom of the fireplace 5 seconds have already passed. Looking at the Widow standing on the fire place, Rick knew that if he took the stairs, he wouldn't his shield would have disappeared by the time he reach the top of the fireplace. But Rick didn't need to take the stairs.

Crouching a little, Rick jumped in the air a first time, then as if there was an invisible platform in the air, he took it for a second jump three times more powerful than the first. That was the double jump skill.

Double jump: a skill that make you able to to jump a second time in air after a first jump. The second jump will use three times the power of your your first jump. If after using this skill you fall from from a dangerous height, you won't suffer any damage after landing, but create a small Shockwave that will push anything under 100 kg around you. This skill can be used with the Wall sliding skill.

Without wasting time after being at the same level as the widow, Rick took out Jacob revolver, the M1877 "Thunderer" and shoot two times at her before falling. Because he almost never use a gun, his accuracy wasn't good enough to kill the Widow even if he aimed at her heart. But it was enough to seriously injured her.

After landing, the shield still had 10 second remaining. So with those precious second Rick quickly went to the edge of the roof top and shoot his grappling hook to another building far away.

But as he was going to use it, he suddenly heard a windows breaking downstairs. And when he look at it, he found Hawkeye and Black Widow jumping out of building.

Fortunately, even though they were quite high, they use the baluster from balconies to cushion ther fall. But Rick wasn't happy on were they landed.

"Hey, don't break car!" He shout at them.

"Are you serious?!" Shout back Black Widow incredulously in the air as she shoot at Widows coming from the window she broke while Hawkeye was entering inside the car . "Don't see that we have much bigger problems?!"

"Yes, but I still want to complain!" Rick replied haughtily before the shoot from the sniper banging at his shield made him remember his own situation. "Let's meet at the old base!" Then without waiting for Natasha's reply he jumped at the thread and disappear quickly through the buildings. Just in time for the U-shield to wear off.

As he slid down the thread, Rick didn't realize it at first, because he was in the air, but after landing on the building he noticed what's going on because he couldn't stand up for a while : his whole body was trembling of fear.

Don't look at him, rushing towards the Widow on the fireplace, deceiving seven of or casually scolding Natasha making him seemingly quite brave, in fact Richard was scared to death.

The only reason, he didn't freeze is because he just let his instinct take over from the beginning to the end. Meaning that his survival instinct and reflexes were great, otherwise like the majority of humans he would have been kill the moment the Widows spotted him.

Even when lead all those Widows downstairs only to go up himself wasn't something he planned at all. It was still done instinctively. Because at first, Rick really entend to escape from the main entrance of the building. Which was actually a stupid things to do now that he thinks about it. But still, if Natasha or Clint had saw him, they would have only thought that it was all part of his plan.

The other reason of why he didn't panic immediately, was because, he was actually panicking!

As many people, the more desperate the situation, the more he try divert his mind on other things. And for Rick, complaining and arguing is his way of coping with the situation. Which he had to do a lot these two days.

Even though he received old Rick memories and knew this world from the movies and series, it didn't mean he confortable with that. But until now, he still had some illusions that all of this was just a dream. That was until he almost died a minute ago.

He couldn't deceive his subconscious anymore and think this was a vivid dream. And it was because of all of this was real that he was even more afraid than when he transmigrate.

Now that in his perception there's no more dangers, his survival instinct quieten and he's true feeling about the whole situation appear.

Honestly, if he was safe, Rick would have vent with all his heart, but because he didn't receive Athena notice, he knew that he was still in danger. So after taking a minute to calm down, Rick took out his grappling hook again and start to play at Spider-Man with the buildings of Budapest.

After putting enough distance with Natasha apartment, Rick got down to the ground and tried to disappear among the crowd. But it was quite difficult dressing as a Victorian assassin. A change of outfit was necessary.

So, after doing some shopping at night, Rick finally look like a modern person. Even though he still wear a long black coat with a hood but at people looking at won't think he's a cosplayer.

Because the system didn't store what he took out from it, he had to take out Red's backpack and put his stuff inside. What's interesting is that like in the game that backpack had many 'compartments' and almost possess a dimension of its own.

And what surprised Rick was that after passing through the modern area, his system finally terminate the mission.

[Congratulation Rick you have completed the Main Mission 'Dreykov fall' (2). You've been rewarded with :

Experience points

1100GC

Mystery box ×3.]

[Main Mission 'Dreykov fall' (3) unlocked: Find the one who program the electronics chips, rescue her and destroy as much data and chips as possible.]

Like in his first mission, a new location and position appear in the map of the system.

'That should be the location of the person I need to save' Rightly thought Rick while going to his real safe house (the one with a jet was obviously just a big garage).

As for why Rick went to his safe house? It's because even though he didn't 'build' the arrows he boast about to Hawkeye, he indeed build and improve some useless gadgets in that house. Like said too Clint, he did pick up two thing from his father, but because he wasn't a genius like him, for Rick, mechanics is just a hobby.

But after his fight with the Widows, he noticed clearly that he just escape by luck and the fact that these most of these Widows were controlled by the chip otherwise the first time Rick used the grappling hook they wouldn't be so slow to react.

And Rick know that this is why he was lucky. That's why when he got home, he immediately went to his workshop.

Because building stuff was just a hobby, his workshop situated in his basement was of 70 square meters. But for the current Rick it was still enough because he would use more of his upgrade skill than anything else.

It has to be noted that even though Rick had the British and US nationality, he mostly reside in other small European country like Hungary, Latveria, Symkaria, Greece or even Sokovia. Which explain that his Workshop was quite complete here and he didn't have one in like Cambodia for example. As for the reason why he live in those country? Because as a criminal, it's easier for him to hide in small country than in the USA or UK.

Before starting, though Rick call Athena to open his mystery boxes.

[Congratulation you've won:

Unnamed tree fruit from the Shadow Of The Colossus

Tokine's Shihakushō

Shay Cormac Air rifle

Reinhardt's Helmet

The Doctor's Bow tie

Yoru's Mask.]

'Except for the unnamed tree and the air rifle other thing aren't very useful right now.' Thought Rick who took out Odd Overboard.

As a weibu and comics fan Rick also had a day when he imagined becoming a super hero and having super powers. So that plus the many shortcomings he found tonight, he already had an idea on what to create or improve.

First of all his gloves containing his hidden blades and grappling hook were too big and bulky. So after upgrading them once to understand how they works(even the diapering act of the cables) he rebuild them to make them less conspicuous and more normal looking. Besides he upgrade them two times to reinforce their durability and hardness.

Then he did the same with Odd overboard, Hydra energy shield and the U-Shield and integrate the flying function of the former on boots and fusion and integrate the latters on his new gloves.

The new shield had two modes, the spherical mode like before and a semicircular mode were the shield only him from frontal and side hits, but not blow coming from above and behind.

The advantage with this mode was the fact that it didn't have a time limit, but will break after too much hit. And the disadvantages were obviously that it didn't cover all angles.

As for the weapon, Rick fusion the air rifle with the wrist blasters and the Slow special skill. Because he didn't want to have to much blood on his hand and kill by mistake, his wrist blasters didn't have those one shot kill laser bullets, but air bullets fusion with with the slow skill.

With the new air bullet, he could now control the lethality of the shoots, plus the slow skill that will slow any movement made by 10 time the initial speed of the one who was shoot, for more than 5 minutes. If with that he could still kill people by mistakes, he should just quit. Even, he add an electric orb and an electric bullet in case his air bullet weren't enough. He even added a discharge function for close combat.

And so it was normal that he gave up on his firearms. The only thing he didn't change to much was the smoke bombs he he forgot he had because he didn't has materials to recreate them. So he could only upgrade them.

As for his outfit, it was still in the assassin's creed style, but more modern looking and and black red.

Overall, Rick didn't add too many messy things to his new gear because in his opinion it would only confuse him. He even decide that in the future, he will carefully chose the skills he will integrate with himself and not take everything that come at him.

Because he still had some times, he also modified the Black Widow Suit and turn it into the female version of his own suit. Except that the new Black Widow suit couldn't fly, only stuck to walls through the boots and gloves. He had to spend 660 GC to obtain the same visual effects and ease, Spider-Man has, when he stuck and climb walls.

But Rick opinion it was worth it. He always found it weird that in a world with so many spider powers, Natasha Romanoff who had the Black Widow moniker didn't have anything to do with spiders, except for her logo. Even Widowmaker had more thing related to spider than Black Widow!

So when doing her wrist blasters, while he kept the lasers bullet, he also added the electric one and especially added a new kind of grappling hook. The cable was now as thin as threads from the shoes, but could support 2 time it's previous max weight.

As for Hawkeye, he only upgrade the quiver once with GC while making a bow capable to change into a long saber and a simple suit that he upgrade two times. While it's seems like Rick didn't want to put to much effort on Hawkeye, it wasn't the case. It's just that he already almost everything in his new quiver. His quiver was the marvel version of Batman utility belt! Plus the fact that his arrows were unlimited, There was nothing to complain about. Besides, except for Rick, who would know that he didn't make any effort on his gear?

After finishing his tinkering, Rick finally took a look at his information panel for curiosity.

[Name : Richard (Rick) Mason

Age: 18

Level : 2

Heroic Names : 0

Heroic Badge : 0

Skills : Double Jump, Wall Sliding, Focus shoot.

Special Skills: Slow, Decay.

GC: 2 200

Skill Points : 2.]

After seeing the skill pints, Rick remembered that he could indeed upgrade his skills with the points obtained from leveling up. But he didn't use them, but wait for a skill that would need it.

After confirming many time, that he didn't forget anything, Rick decided to rejoin his teammates with two big bags containing Hawkeye quiver and and Black Widow gears. He didn't want them to know of Red backpack yet.

This time, instead of taking the car or walking, he decide to get there by the air with his improved grappling hook and double jump skill to be proficient in their use. While he didn't want to become the new Spider-Man, he wouldn't say no to an improved Jacob Frye.

So during this night, a black and crimson figure traveling at an incredible speed could be seen on the roofs of Budapest. It's speed was so fast, that just winking was enough to lose that figure from your sight.

That black and crimson figure seemingly flying through Budapest was obviously Rick who quickly mastered his new grappling hook. Except for some time were his double jump running was really needed, he almost made the whole course with his grappling hook only.

Because he already knew how to use it due to his familiarity with the game, he now had no problems in using it even if he still his arm still hurt after long strides. So after loudly landing on the roof of his factory, Rick decided that he will train his body so that the strain on his arm will lessen.

Because he was to lazy to land on the ground and enter from the front door, Rick wanted to go inside from the open window on the roof that gave directly to the second floor were the control room was also located.

But even so, Rick was still frighten and surprised when he landed and was immediately lock on by a wary Hawkeye with already in a drawing position with his bow and arrow in hands.

"Wow! Wait! Don't shoot! It's me! Rick!" Rick shout in panic with his hands in the air after he lowered his hood.

After identifying that it was indeed Rick, Hawkeye finally lower his bow.

"Sorry. I had a terrible night." Justify Hawkeye.

"And mine was wonderful." Retort Rick, rolling his eyes at him. "Where's Nat?"

"Behind you." Replied a familiar voice talking behind Rick. Which prompted him to turn in hurry, to see a Natasha in a bad mood.

As she and Barton approached him, he suddenly smelled a weird smell from them.

"How did you escape with the car?" Rick asked with a bad feeling in his heart. "Please don't tell me my crash into some building or explode like in those spy movies." After seeing Clint weird smile, Rick feeling become stronger as Clint hold his shoulder.

"Don't worry, your car didn't explode or crash on anything." While he said that, Rick knew it couldn't be that easy, and sure enough : "Your car just sank in the Danube river." Which explained the smell but Rick didn't care.

"You're the devil. And you owe me a sport car." That just made Clint smile wider.

"What's inside those bags?" Asked Natasha blankly worrying Rick a little, but he still replied honestly.

"That's your suits and gears. After the attack from the Widows, I realized clearly that even if most of them were controlled which made them slow in their reactivity and stiff in their movements their were just too many of them for us to beat." What Rick didn't notice was Natasha darkening face after he talk about the Widows being controlled but Clint noticed so he tried to make Rick focus on other thing first.

"And so, did you brought me those famous arrow you were talking about? Because now have only nine arrows with me."

"Don't worry, from too much onwards until the end of the mission, you'll never be in lack of arrows. Today I present you, the Unlimited Quiver! Thirty-five arrow. Seventy-six option for your arrows and fifteen seconds of cooldown for each arrow shoot before the quiver create a new one. With that, if you're still beaten you should just retire, because it's mean that being an agent is not a job for you."

Then without waiting for Hawkeye to reply, he start to explain the equipments more in detail while demonstrating the less dangerous capacity of the arrows and the bow before doing the same with Natasha's. The latter was so chocked, that she even forgot her brooding mood. Even Hawkeye who just wanted to distract her was instead distracted by it.

They thought before, that they already knew his talent, but now they realized that they still underestimate Rick genius. Unlimited arrow! Vertical climbing technology! For both these spies, they only thought it could exist only in the games or movie, not in reality!

It took them ten good minutes to calm down on the surface, but in their heart they were still shocked. Even Clint was now debating on whether he should lock up Rick, force him into the S.H.I.E.L.D. or letting him go. Because if before he thought that Rick was at the level of Tony Stark, now he think that Tony Stark should takes note on how to create new technology from him, because they weren't comparable at all.

As for Natasha her thoughts on the matter was way more simple. She didn't care if Rick could be the next Demon Lord, a Super CEO or Super hero of all times. All she cared about, was the fact that these inventions will put an end at Dreykov and freed the Widow. This was especially true since she saw a familiar face that didn't seem to recognize her during the fight earlier. The way she looked at her, empty of any emotions. When she was known for being very lively and chatty, just broke Natasha's heart.

If before Natasha just wanted to kill Dreykov to be free, meaning for her it was just a Task. Then now It's become personal.

'Dreykov, I will make you pay for what you have done to my sister!'