Chương 3: Chapter 3 I vant to steal your blood, aha aha aha!
I'm bent over my workbench with my powertool in hand, a gutted Hammertech drone in front of me, when I hear a chime come from my computer on the other end of the storage area where I'm working on my own Iron Man armor.
Everything here is stolen from the Stark Expo, the tools, the soundproofing, the equipment, which means that it's all state of the art and I can work without fear of drawing the attention of someone outside. Likewise the computer, while not the fanciest model out there, was still heaps better than what I should be able to afford on my wages from my dozen odd jobs, which is why I hid it here.
As far as superhero lairs go, a teched out storage unit isn't the most glamorous, but it's a start.
Unfortunately my Twenty-four Step Program (the Steps keep increasing because I keep thinking of cool stuff I can steal/scavenge/build) is solely based on acquiring power, not wealth, so until I've made myself effectively immortal (Step 6 to 8) I'll just have to suck it up and try to get by on my minimum wage.
Sure I could use my tech and powers (when I get them) to steal money, hell, with what I had right here I could just walk into a bank and punch the vault door straight off its hinges, but that would suck me into a villain narrative.
Before you know it, like clock work I'll be running around in spandex with some ridiculous scheme to steal all the gold in Fort Knox using the cunning power of goldfish, only to be defeated just in time for dinner and locked away yet again, all the while screaming things like 'damn you Spiderman!'.
No, instant ramen will have to do. For now.
Shutting down the power saw that I had been using to dismantle an Air Force drone and shrugging off my thick gloves I walked over to my desk, which was covered in notes, blueprints and a couple of Stark Industries computers, my power armor whirring as I moved.
Until Step 3 was completed I was still a squishy human so I wasn't taking any chances and always made sure to wear the armor, just in case I missed something and someone managed to track me down. Nobody was going to catch me unawares.
Besides, the armor was a bitch and a half to put on or take off, so I tried to keep it on as long as possible.
Reaching my desk I leaned over one of the computers to see what triggered one of my alerts before an immense grin flashed across my face. One of the simpler programs I've written, designed to flag certain keywords, had managed to catch what I had been looking for.
"Shoot-out between U.S. Military and a monster at Cornell University Campus!"
Someone had managed to take all of the footage students had managed to capture and combine it in a short film of about 5 minutes. It had almost immediately been banned (S.H.I.E.L.D.'s work no doubt) but by then it had already had thousands of views and in a matter of moments 10 more versions sprung up at various forums, and the numbers just kept increasing.
'You screwed up, Ross, cat's outta the bag now. No way even S.H.I.E.L.D. can contain this, and even if you can keep this off the major news channels, people won't forget this.' I thought to myself in vicious amusement, before straightening and cracking my neck.
If I remembered correctly (and I knew I did, since I had made a gigantic poster of the MCU timeline and had hung it on the wall off my storage unit) then the Hulk would flee to some forest somewhere, and then he and Betty would make their way towards the only man they thought might cure Bruce.
Mr. Blue, at the Grayburn College here in New York.
I had no clue where the forest was where the Hulk was hiding out, and I had no idea how long it would take for Bruce and Betty to make their way towards New York, but that didn't matter. I already was in New York, and I was only days away from completing the first version of my armor, which would be enough for my current purposes.
Hell, a balaclava would do for my plan, but there's something comforting about wearing hundreds of pounds of metal and weapons when two behemoths start wrecking your neighbourhood.
Quickly setting up another program to flag any mentions about happenings in Harlem or the Grayburn College, I pulled my gloves back on and slammed my welding mask back down over my face.
There was work to be done.
It had taken roughly two weeks for Bruce and Betty to reach Grayburn College, which meant that I had managed to finish my armor a few days before schedule. As a result, I had taken the opportunity to hang around the College, pretending to be a janitor, as it allowed me much more freedom of movement than pretending to be one of the students.
I had made extra sure to hang around the office of one Samuel Stein, which had been made significantly easier by the man's stereotypical nutty professor persona: as I wasn't an academic or of academic interest, I almost didn't even exist to the man as he hurried down the hallways deep in thought.
While I was tempted to break into his office to get the synthesized blood of Banner right now, I held off on it, mainly because I couldn't remember wether the blood had been hidden or even stashed at his office at all. The movie had come out almost a decade before I was removed from my original universe, so details like that were extremely hazy.
No, better use my tried and true tactic of waiting for a villain to bring the fireworks, and while the heroes were distracted, make my getaway with the shiny loot.
And I was counting on the Abomination being one hell of a distraction.
So, I'll wait until Blonsky gets his fix, and while he tears up Harlem, I'll walk in with my armor on (which was currently dismanteled and stashed in the back of a rental van bought under a false identity, which was riding uncomfortably low on it's axels) take the blood and most importantly, try and take Stein as well.
Stan Lee died of drinking a single, diluted drop of the Hulk's blood; I was planning to inject myself with a full bloodbag.
I needed a man like Stein in order to see wether I would even survive the process or not. If he wouldn't come with me, or if he discovered that the blood would kill me, I'd have to wait for another serum which would boost my regeneration and constitution before trying again.
I really hoped not though, as most of those serums were only available in later Steps, and I desperately needed a boost now.
Shaking off my worries, I made my way towards my van when I saw Banner (in his Ruffalo portrayal, I was wondering about that, seemed this universe retroactively edited itself) and Betty made their way into Stein's office.
Tonight the showdown between Hulk and Abomination would occur; tonight would be the night I made my first Step towards evolving my body to a higher plane.
Unable to resist, but not wanting to draw any attention to myself, I conceded to the urge to let out an evil laugh, but made sure to do so softly, under my breath.
"Bwahahahahahaha…"
You know what, it's a lot less impressive when you need to whisper your diabolical laughs.
Right as I slid on my helmet, an almighty crash thundered across the College. Seems like Blonsky got his fix then. Quickly making my way back inside the building I ran towards where I now know Stein and his batch of Hulk-blood is, not caring about the few people that are around to see me, as my identity is safely hidden underneath my helmet, and my armor is painted in muted colours in order to blend in with the darkness of the night.
Reaching the room where Blonksy transformed into the Hulk, I ignored the door in favour of simply running straight through the wall, showering a surprised and slightly mutated Stein in brick and mortar (I could have used the door of course, but I couldn't resist the urge to once again inflict grivious harm upon architectural elements. It's addictive I tell you).
"W-who are you?" a dazed Stein mutters as he stares up at me in confusion, the small cut across his temple still flowing with blood, even as his cranium starts to expand a bit.
"I'm the guy who's getting you out of here." I state, a modulator in my helmet making my voice unrecognizable and suitably intimidating.
"What? I… I don't understand…" Stein mutters, though I get the impression he's talking more to himself than to me.
Not wasting any time, I reached over and hauled the man to his feet, ignoring his wince as I jostle some of his probably broken ribs.
"We need to get moving. Where's Banner's blood? The Army is everywhere and S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Black Widow are on their way, and when they get here, they're gonna arrest you, and destroy the blood."
At that I finally managed to get his attention, wild eyes settling frantically on my blank facemask.
"No… No! They can't have it! It's mine! Mine! I can do so much with it, so much more… you must save it!"
Grabbing the frantic scientist by his shoulders I forced him to stand still, using my larger frame to loom over him, making him stop his rambling.
"I will save the blood and I'll save you. You can't work on the blood when you're in prison can you?" I rumble, trying to sooth the confused scientist, who gives an agreeing nod at my words.
"So, here's what's going to happen. You'll lead me to the blood. I bag everything in sight. I'll take you to my safehouse, where we'll lie low so we can avoid S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Army. In my safehouse, you'll be able to expirement all you want. I want that blood, Stein. What Blonsky and Banner have? I want that too."
At the mention of expirementing, Stein's frantic eyes lighted up with a mad gleam, and he visibly tried to straighten himself despite his injuries and quite frankly ridiculous oversized head.
"Right. Follow me."
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