Chapter 13: Clint Goodwin

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No, but it's the best idea I got at the moment."

"You know, if you had just stopped for a moment, we could have found a better solution."

"Well why don't you try giving yourself a few months left to live and see how it goes for you hmmm?"

"Touché~"

Ben, Sam and Bubbles all stood in front of the ten storey company building that was owned by the man that had the nanosuits locked up in his vault, collecting dust.

Once they entered they were greeted by the receptionist. "Hello my name Bruce Parker, I would like to talk to Mr. Barton about a trade deal between the two of us." Giving her his best smile, Sam navigated the conversation easily.

After they were done they were told to go up to Barton's office and wait for after his meeting. Ben looked at Sam for a second before grinning to himself.

"....What's so funny?"

"Bruce Parker?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Nothing, I just never took you for the gaming type."

About thirty minutes passed and the trio were allowed inside the office once everyone else left. The inside of the office was decorated with the finest furniture and had a gold plated desk where Barton was sitting eyeing the three.

"Mr. Parker..... What do you need this fine evening?"

Sam immediately turned back to his professional business man smile and began conversing with him while Ben just sat to himself, completely useless to this plan that Sam had thought up. The only thing he did was make sure the camera's blurred out their faces.

The two conversed for two hours before getting up, shaking hands and exchanging contact info. Once they were out of the building and sure that they weren't being watched, they headed back to the motel they were staying at.

After they got back Ben went straight to gimmicking with his cyberware again, sure that he was almost done with what he had planned. Sam just looked at him weirdly. "You can go straight into gunfire, and be fine, but you can't handle a conversation?"

"It's only certain people that give me a bad vibe, mostly businessmen...." Though that last part was mumbled more towards himself than anyone else. He had gotten back to work doing what he does best, technology!

A few days later, after packing up all the cyberware he had built, Ben yelled out into the room alerting Sam of what he was doing. "Sam, I'm leaving for the implanters shop on Renfield Lane, I'll be back in a few hours, don't do anything stupid while I am gone."

"Yeah yeah, get out of here you annoying prick."

About one hour after walking, Ben stood in front of a clean and innocent shop. Even when he had entered the shop Ben was greeted by white clean walls and regularly dressed doctors and nurses. But it all fell apart when he asked about implanting the cyberware.

The happy warm façade of the staff switched off and became sinister like a greedy devil hungry for your soul. They led Ben to the less clean place of the clinic, a place where blood painted the walls and the customers' screams echoed through the hallways.

Ben arrived at an office-like space that held the person he was going to bargain with. The man had a massive brown beard and an eyepatch over his right eye.

"What do you need?" A dry tone filtered out of the man.

"I need someone to implant these cyberware, someone who will listen to the instructions I have for said cyberware, and will allow me to erase their records after said procedure." The man nodded and walked out of the room, fetching someone who can do what Ben asked.

After he came back, he was with a clean man with no scars and had a bright smile on his face. This alarmed Ben greatly. You don't do implanting and come out the same as you did before, most of the time their patients die on the operating table, leaving them to clean up the mess.

Of course simply living through life in this world leaves scars that are irreparable, whether that be physical or mental.

"I'm Bartholomew Tim. I already heard the specifics of the operation, so when do you need it done?"

"Now. As quick as possible."

…

Several hours later Ben walked back to the motel poorer and stronger than before. His stingers and joints have been replaced with mantis like blades, the railgun was taken out for two gauss cannons on the underside of his arms, and his head was remodeled to look more like a human head, though he still had the 360 degree view with his other optics.

His railgun parts were going to be repurposed for a different project that Ben had been thinking up, but for now they would be collecting dust in his backpack. When he made it back to the motel the room he and Sam had been staying in was empty.

[Sam, where are you?]

[Gun store, why?]

[No reason.]

Guaranteeing his partner's safety Ben got to work modifying his hand cannon so that he wouldn't have to rely on surprises to take down someone like Sam.

…

Several hours later, Ben and Sam were back in Barton's office discussing 'trade agreements' between the two of them when Ben excused himself to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom away from prying eyes. Ben began connecting to the building's computer system with the help of the programs he had planted in it from the earlier endeavor.

He found the vault and the amount of security around it, leaving Ben in quite the pickle with how to go about this silently. He is a master of guns, machinery, and chaos, stealth is not included in that package.

But he comes up with an idea that involves chaos and getting the target item 'quietly'.

[Sam get ready I'm gonna set off the fire alarm and cause a massive explosion on the first, fifth, and ninth floor.]

[…That's a little overkill ain't it?]

[Well I see no other options here. I'm not well versed in the art of espionage.]

[Ok do what you have to do. I'm ready.]

REEEEEEE!

The fire alarm went off first, evacuating all of the company workers out of the building. Afterwards three explosions go off starting with the ninth floor to the first floor. During all of this Ben was gunning it to the vault where the nanosuits were stored.

Upon arriving at the target he finds the bodyguards on the floor with bullet holes in their heads. Ben draws his hand cannon, ready for the eventual confrontation with the attacker.

FWOOSH!

Ben tilts back narrowly avoiding the fast kyoketsu-shoge that tried to slash at him. He fires his hand cannon at the other end of the rope hoping to at least nick the attacker.

Alas the attacker rolls to the side and behind cover, stopping any injury to come to him. Ben on the other hand reloads behind the opposite wall, ready for when the bastard pokes their head out.

"You know. I was kind of expecting a well known merc to be here after the nanosuits since they are pretty nifty, but a rookie? That's a new level of surprise."

The voice came around behind him but he saw nothing on his rear optics, his newly built thrusters warming up for their first use in a fight.

"Didn't even turn around for the source of the noise even though it was behind you. Definitely got rear view cameras, I got to say. You have got to work on when or not to react cus most of the time it will reveal things you wouldn't normally want revealed."

Ben scowls at the man carefreeness. They were in the middle of killing each other, why does he seem so carefree?

"Wondering why I'm so carefree? Well it's not because I'm underestimating you, it's simply because I like to enjoy life, and being the funny guy I am, I hate being pressured into serious confrontations soo~...yeah. Sorry, not sorry"

"Ok, you are single handedly the most annoying opponent I've fought yet. I mean I would rather fight a five ton overweight cyborg than fight you!"

"....That's oddly specific.... No matter. now if you'll excuse me-"

He was interrupted as Ben shot at his position ,thanks to Bubbles revealing it to him. Causing him to fall to his side to avoid bullet fire, but he uses his kyoketsu-shoge to grab Ben's weapon and tries prying it out of his hands. Of course the opposite happens with Ben being physically stronger than him thanks to his robot body.

The man simply stared down Ben casually.

"You know I actually like fights usually, but fights that have you playing a game of 6D chess ain't my idea of fun, my dude... Now give me the suits."

Ben attempts to negotiate with the man, but is in for a rude awakening when the man pulls out six heated proton knives from behind his back and throws them at Ben with pinpoint precision. Ben activates the thrusters on his chest so that he can avoid the speeding knives being implanted into his torso. He would rather avoid another repair session, the last one almost bankrupted him!

"Sorry dude but I got a client that is in dire need of these babies and is paying good money for it. But if you want them back you could always hire me to steal them back! Oh and before I leave, the name is Clint Goodwin!"

This was the first time Ben got a good look at the man. A pair of black sunglasses and an akuma mask on the bottom part of his face. He was wearing a black suit and pants with a white undershirt.

He rushed at the window, hoping to catch the man with his rocket powered lunge. Sadly, he was unsuccessful and Clint slipped from the window seal into the open street, disappearing into the thin air, like a couple of plates of brisket....

Ben booked it out of there when the mission was a guaranteed failure and rushed back to the room.

[Sam, A merc called Clint Goodwin got the suits before me. What do we do now?]

[Clint Goodwin? He gave you his name?]

[Yeah?]

[I know where to start looking. Come back to the room.]

[Ok.]