บท 21: Chapter 21- Adopting a Pet, and Coming Home
POV- Nathan Cross
Sitting atop a nearby building, looking across at the towering figure of bullet-proof glass, with the thickest and most durable covering the ground floor, and the highest three floors, which were usually taken up by the important members of the Gorgons, who were the world's biggest drug supplier in known to anyone, but was now also occupied with an offshoot of the Triad who had taken up more efforts in expansion than traditionalism.
"Leviathan, you reading?"
"Birdnose, stop talking like this is a bad action movie and just talk normally."
"Birdnose? I see you, moving up." As Clint joined me on my observing rooftop, dressed in a black and purple suit with his standard quiver of fun and often lethal arrows, I saw his excitement.
"This group, and then we're going home. You excited?"
"To see my wife and kids after half a week? Yes. Almost as excited as Viper was to see you when she woke up."
I groan at his words, but honestly, I'm super proud to have had that kind of effect on her, especially after she tried to make me a drug-addicted puppet. After the session, I found a small stick of lip balm with the same smell and had Sharon ID what the compound was. The fast-acting and highly addictive drug would have made me desperate for another hit. So much so that I would have done ANYTHING for her. 'I can see why she does it, it's strangely addictive in itself. The power over others.
"She said she wanted to swear loyalty to you. Any reason you had to beat an assassin into submission?"
"She got handsy." 'Not technically a lie, she did make the first move.' "Can we focus on killing those for fuckers on the sheet and head home? I'm bored of this island and being coated in blood every day I've been here."
"You could always…kill cleaner?" Clint suggested, as if I hadn't realised the possibility before.
"And you could always shut the hell up. Now can you take out the two windows of the top floors, that way I can climb up and rip the top floors apart, ruining any chance of leadership while you stand here and look on and supervise?"
"It's the last one, and besides, I've got a propulsion-accelerated travel arrow, which can get me to the top of a building without leaving huge holes in it like someone fired cannons at the damn thing."
"All your whining is exhausting, maybe I should relax with a DATE?" Clint furrowed his brows but kept silent, and the two of us waited, watching the panicked gang members floundering around, growing frantic and tired. The mental exhaustion of being hunted is one of the most tiring things in existence, with the exception of listening to Peter talk about Liz and how perfect she is with her buck teeth and lack of any redeeming physical qualities. Watching the strangers experience the second most stressful sensation on Earth, both Clint and I are overjoyed, as it will make them weaker, and more susceptible to surrender when without proper leadership.
"It looks dark enough, let's move." I stand behind Clint as he draws a custom arrow with a specialised head and shaft, with strong, tensile cable and a strong gripping cup on the head, similar to a toy arrow, but capable of holding several hundred kilos. Drawing, firing and attaching the arrow wire spool to the rooftop, the two of us grab hold of the handles, uncomfortably close due to the intended use being one person. Slowing at we ascend to the highest floor, my kagune form, moving together like one gigantic spear, ripping open the high-quality bulletproof glass like a child does a sandcastle. Unfurling the spear and hooking myself and Clint into the building, I cover him with two of my enlarged kagune, each now as wide as an adult torso, protecting the majority of his body as he took cover. I receive shotgun shells and sub-machine gun fire, a violent greeting if I've ever seen one. Flicking a table into the largest group I dance through the swarm of guards, Clint still wrapped in a tentacle, having somehow drawn his bow again. Ripping and clawing rather than punching, bodies are cleaved and shredded, and those that did receive kicks were thrown through the glass, suffering the 70-storey fall to concrete below. I used to feel pain from small arms like this, but only the shotgun is currently causing any pain, but even then…it's futile, like swimming from a pack of orcas in the open sea. The last man in the room fell with an arrow through his neck, gurgling in horror.
"How the hell can you still shoot accurately like that?" I could feel him being flickered and waved around the room to prevent him from being targeted, and yet I could see around 18 with arrows in them.
"Because I'm amazing? Duh, it's a family thing."
"Perhaps I should ask Lila about the family awesomeness on a date." A zap ran through me as he swiftly shot a taser arrow into my leg. "Ow."
"You were being a dick." Shrugging as I pull out the arrow, because he did have a point, I dropped him to the floor, scanning the room for any of the leaders. "None here," he calls drawing a sigh from me. The two of us press forward, rooms cleared with a swipe of a spiked tentacle or an area effect arrow. 'Fucking magic arrows.' But on the second highest floor we found two, the vice-leaders of the groups barricaded into a room filled with armed troops and a few explosive weapons. Such as the rocket launcher I believed had been designated to films and museums.
"You two rats will die here, and the bosses will hunt down the Centipede and the one you all work for." Covering my ears quickly, Clint fires a sonic screamer into the centre of the room, forcing most to drop to the floor screaming. Despite my efforts, my ears bled for a moment, my hearing back within a moment before I dart off to the side, not wanting to experience being shot by multiple explosive weapons at once. 'I'd probably recover now, but there are so many risks.' A dart sweep removed roughly fifteen, and another explosive arrow killed a few more, but the deafened had woken from their stupor, and so we targeted the cowering sub-bosses. One of them, a tall dark-skinned man, had a sword in hand and a sub-machine gun in the other, while the Asian man, shorter than his comrade, was armed with a Chitauri weapon, proving how sucky SHIELD was at keeping others from getting their mitts on dangerous things. I take the laser weapon, knowing full well the skill and training Clint has gone through. While I might mock and tease him, he is an excellent combatant, and the idiot with the sword was fucked. The laser beam cuts deep into my shielding kagune, and the man dodges the blind swipe from another, firing again with the weapon. The fight between the Triad mob and ghoul lasted mere seconds, as the ghoul ducked the second beam with amazing flexibility, flipped over the third, and ripped his head off before he could fire a fourth. Clint was toying with the idiot with the sword, but instantly killed him once he saw me walk over towards him. The nobodies left in the room threw down their weapons using a spattering of different languages to beg and plead.
Our pursuit continued after the two 'big fish' of Madripoor, Jason Trang and Martin Urgobu, both of whom were dangerous men. Experienced killers with either training or had access to volatile weaponry and a large connection of friends, should they have had access off the island. Previous attempts to swim had been…discontinued after Sharon used existing spotlights to scan the water, shooting or capturing swimmers. The next floor was remarkably easier, the troops throwing down their weapons and ratting on their bosses, saying they fled down a few minutes ago. I didn't believe them initially, but I couldn't hear or smell them on the floor, and 10 people had moved downstairs recently. "Hawk, piggyback."
"What?"
"Get ON my back now." He mutters about the position being degrading, but he still clambers on as I approach the stairwell, looking down through the gap between stairs. "Ready?" I ask, jumping off anyway, giving the human archer no chance to complain. We fall for 9 floors before my kagune pierce into the concrete and wrap around the supportive steel structural beams, lifting myself and Clint back onto the 78th floor, where the scent turned inside, rather than continuing to descend. I barely opened the door before a blast of energy came from the darker man, a pseudo iron man suit that looked far worse even than Hammer Industries' old tech with a front-facing turret glowing the same yellow as the beam. "AAHH Fuck that's hot!" I cry out, Clint fires smoke into the room and an emp at the suit that is blasted by another beam. Tasking full advantage of the smoke, we split, and I move low to the ground, my kagune slithering across the room across the floor like serpents, striking out at sounds.
Another shout comes out through the room, but it's Clint's, which forces me into an annoying situation, especially if I want to return him alive. Using one tail as bait, writhing higher in the smoke, I follow the heavy scent of heated metal, and upon finding the turret-wielding fucker, crush his skull with my hand, receiving several daggers in the back and ribs for my efforts. I turn towards the Asian attacker, pulling out the knives in case they are explosive or magical in nature, his body seemingly relaxed but fully prepared for the fight. Retracting back into the trapped smoke, he vanishes from sight, dancing around the room flinging knife after knife at me. While most miss or hit insignificant areas, the lubrication on the blades made them annoying to remove.
"Why aren't you dead? Six of these knives coated in the poison provided to us bu the old Hand, are more than sufficient in taking down an elephant. You've received dozens of these cursed daggers."
"Cursed?"
"They ruin the heart, infecting it and corroding the arteries."
"Oh, well then they won't work, I'll just recover. Like with the poison. If anything, you've just boosted my tolerance to whichever poison you used. Thanks, dude." The pivot of a foot on the polished floor, squeaking slightly in the pool of blood spatter, is all I need to identify him. Whirling the kagune I'd used for distraction directly into the man, his torso explodes out behind him, leaving his upper limbs and head momentarily suspended in the air before they follow the legs to the ground. Using the head of Trang and the crushed remains of the metal suit, after I found Clint a little burnt and battered from the laser and crushed the said laser, we dropped down to the ground floor, leaving both on the front welcoming desk.
We made it back to Sharon's manor before 7 pm, rewarded with cheers for having completed the first stage of the plan of ruling Madripoor. For us, it was the only stage, as civilians and criminals alike were now terrified of the Centipede, Archer and Red Terror, which were all absolutely awful names. Someone would eventually connect Madripoor to me, but it made little difference as there is no way to punish me for crimes committed here, especially when I'm back in the States going to school and shit.
"Film a video of your new leader, with the kagune flicking behind her as she makes her speech and no one should ask too many questions for a while." We followed Clint's idea, mainly because mine were nowhere near as realistic, and so I called Wong asking for a pickup in half an hour.
Heels click on the flooring as Sharon, newly self-proclaimed ruler of Madripoor stalks down the hallway to the kitchen where we are relaxing with coffees, waiting for the magic taxi called Wong. "I know this is for your own benefit, but thank you for helping me attain this…both of you."
A heavy yet quick set of steps reveals Viper as she swings around the corner into the kitchen.
"Oh yeah, she wanted to talk to you before we left," Clint remarked sipping his coffee and listening to Sharon sing his praises for helping coordinate resources and post-takeover assistance.
"Levi, I need to talk to you." I groan, leaving the empty cup on the table, and follow her back to her room again, though this time wearing at least the remnants of clothes. As the door shuts behind me she whirls, grabbing me by the arms, "Take me."
"My ride's gonna be here in ten minutes, so.."
"To America fuckwit, with you."
"Why, on earth…would I do that?"
"I can be helpful? I can teach you, kill for you, comfort you. I don't care how much Sharon pays me, I want to go with you."
"And if I refuse?" I ask, my hands sliding up her shoulders and around her neck without even a flinch from her.
"I'll make my way over anyway, make a scene to get your attention and persuade you again."
I tighten the grip on her neck as I consider my options. 'One, I take her and reap the benefits but may face some downsides. Two, I don't take her and she follows in a week or two, killing dozens or hundreds to get my attention, causing a huge scandal. Three, I convince her to stay here and help for a week until she gets bored and repeats option two. Four, I snap her pretty little neck because she became addicted to me…what I could be.' Her face was turning a dark red before I dropped her to the floor. Her wheezing attempts to recover oxygen before reverting to hacking coughs of throat pain not bothering me at all.
"You know that Leviathan and Nathan are different people, right? I don't live in a mansion, and due to my age and work, I will have limited time for you."
Her voice was now hoarse, but recovering quickly, the experimentation leaving her with the same slightly improved healing factor as Steve. "I know. I don't mind, so long as you don't ignore me. And I wouldn't live with you necessarily. Not yet at least." She pulled herself to her feet and I cupped her face in my hands, placing a soft kiss on her green-coloured lips.
"Fine, so long as you only kill to defend yourself, me or if I tell you to." She gritted her teeth but affirmed her acceptance. "And you're wearing a collar from now on." She pulled me in for another kiss that lasted until Clint knocked on the door.
A few minutes later, the four left; A monster, disguised as a hero, a sorcerer, rented to the monster, a mentor, supervising the monster, and an assassin, addicted to him. All reporting straight back to the Avenger's tower.
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