chapter 4: Beast or man?

After an uneventful ride back toward Manhattan we got off at 34th Street and herald square.

After looking for a random hotel we settled down for some nice penthouse suit. not like I needed to throw the money away by getting the most expensive room but with the amount of cash that I have right now and the fact that I can craft stuff and patent it or sell it. or just conjure a slab of gold or raw diamonds and sell them since the tinkerer's essence allows me to.

Hell, I bet if I went to Wakanda's embassy in NY and told them where to find Klau they would give me a nice reward for their lost Vibranium. not like I need it while I'm able to conjure more from thin air.

With that. no Vibranium and no Ultron doomsday extinction machine. although it would just destroy everything I knew about the movie and that timeline. god knows what he would do then. perhaps some plague or some other shit.

After we got settled in the room I told the room service to provide me with some running clothes for Ciri and me, after they got with the sport's wear of our size I paid the guy with a generous tip.

"ok Ciri, wanna do some crime fighting? or you prefer a bubble bath with scented candles and some relaxation." I ask her as she looks at the bigass jacuzzi style tub with hungry eyes.

I just sigh.

"iron. Greed. and Tank. stay as bodyguards. Iron and Greed outside the bathroom, while Tank can watch over inside" I eye the two humanoid shadows with suspicion while the three of them bow. "you know that I know what you are seeing, hearing, or feeling so if you peep ill just dismiss your ass." Not really afraid of a bear peeping on Ciri.

In fact, I was getting jealous over nothing. the shadows are eternally loyal, so they would never go against one of my orders. I just sigh while rubbing my temples "Goddam irrational mind"

The shadows disperse while Ciri just shoos me away. before closing the door. I just look through the eyes and senses of Tank observing her starting to strip before she stops for a second and stares at the shadow under the tub.

" Fine fine, I'm gonna go, be back in a few," I say as I change into the black tracksuit and will for the symbiote to cover me from head to toe. not like I want any hair or DNA to drop where I'm going.

'Shadow Exchange' I just think as I activate the ability and trade places with one of the soldiers under Igris.

~~~

I Appear in some alley behind a dumpster, In front of me I see a bank with an armored car parked in front of it. It would be common if it was not 3 am at the moment. and the fact that the driver while having a decent costume to impersonate a security guard still looks like a thug.

Let's not go there, this is Marvel and I don't want to go profiling, just because the dude looks like a mafia member does not mean that he is.

I activate my stealth and after a few minutes A group of armed and armored people walk outside the bank carrying a few cases, a man in a suit is following them. while talking on the phone. I strain my hearing and eavesdrop on the conversation.

"...thing in order?" asks a voice on the other end of the phone

"Yes, Sir. The transfer has been completed and they are on their way." He says and hangs up the phone

I manage to get a good look into the crates. "Essex Corp" interesting.

I remember this being some kind of evil organization from the X-Men franchise. Was it some kind of lab that experimented on mutants? or are they responsible for the Weapon X program?

not a clue. Using my telepathy order 4 red Orks to sneak inside the truck with the guards while I quietly stick to the side and crawl to the top of the truck while maintaining my stealth.

'Let us see where are you going' I think as the truck starts the engine and drives up town.

Thank god that there is almost no traffic at this hour of the night so we are not stuck for endless hours just to get out of the city.

But everything is not peaches after a few minutes when the truck drives into a random underground parking lot. Straining my perception to the maximum I could sense the heartbeat of everyone inside the van, I also could feel what was inside the boxes, it was organic, but there were no heartbeats. so probably mutant samples.

The armored truck stopped, and the guards exited and swept through the parking lot before extracting the cases. they moved towards a metallic door that looked like an elevator.

then before I could follow I sensed a few shadows dying and reforming by using my mana.

I quickly ordered half of the Orks to follow the Essex boxes or their contents, and the other half to follow the goon squad. then I shadow-exchanged with a Mage from Igri's team.

Rubble, Fire, a few broken down cars, and my shadows, pulled people to safety while A giant mutated chimera of man and scorpion was fighting with a few shadow knights that were distracting it. At the same time, the mages threw small fireballs and little lightning bolts.

Its body had a mix of skin and carapace, it took on a sickly brown shade with some shiny reflections, it had no hair, Hollow Beety eyes, and instead of hands some claws. from its tail bone a segmented tail with a poison sack and stinger the size of a human head. overall it was around 2.5 meters tall or around 8 feet even with its crouched posture.

It was not a guy in a suit, it was a mutant or mutate? no fucking clue. but what was sure was that he had killed people, if the half eaten corpse of a kid laying on the ground next to it was to be believed, mixed with the gore of fresh blood dripping down its amorphous chin.

Using the basic telepathy I had led to nothing but the basic primal feelings of "Kill, Eat, Rage" It was like an animal, a monster trapped between human and animal.

It sniffed the air and turned towards me after I deactivated the stealth, it grinned as it immediately charged me at frantic speeds its mind screaming "Spider and Food" Using Ruler's authority I just levitated its body with the telekinesis and it used its tail to spray poison towards me.

Umbra can probably protect me from the poison and the corrosive effect, but not taking any chances, my spider senses did indicate that the poison/acid was a bit dangerous, not fully tingling but still enough to let me know that it would not be pleasant to be hit by it.

I shadow-exchanged with one of the shadow soldiers and teleported behind Scorpion while keeping hold with Ruler's authority.

It was time time to move this to an unpopulated area. I flung Scorpion high up in the air and watched him rise at an accelerated rate way above the skyscrapers

"Kamish, Fly" After saying those words with my creepy ass symbiote altered voice the shadow under my feet started to emerge, two giant wings made out of shadow followed by a quickly manifesting body of the Shadow dragon appeared and roared then started ascending.

After we cleared the buildings with a few bats of Kamish's wings leaving the people around the streets beneath us covered due to the high speed winds. I caught Scorpion with Ruler's authority once again, then threw him with the telekinesis towards the big pond in Central Park.

Perhaps some waterboarding will help him cool down his hothead.

Kamiosh followed the flying mutate until it landed in the water, I could see it trashing under the water, flailing its tail left and right trying to escape my telekinetic hold of him underwater, it sprayed its poison/acid, and the water boiled.

"Jesus" I mutter. It was mindless. Literally a danger to itself and everyone else. As much as it pained me, I knew what I had to do "Have mercy on its soul" I mutter the prayer as I take out Kamish's wrath daggers from my inventory and jump down from Kamish.

I had killed before when living on a farm, not anything humanoid. but this was basically a rabid animal that walked on two feet.

I pull Scorpion out of the water with Ruler's authority and plunge Kamiss' wrath into its forehead until the dagger makes it all the way through its skull.

*Ding* You have killed Scorpion "M.A.C." Lvl 38. +3800EXP.

*Ding* for Killing an enemy with 30 levels more than you EXPx3

*Ding* You have earned 11400EXP

*level up*

*level up*

*level up*

*level up*

…

I dismiss the notifications and take a few deep breaths.

Looking at the corpse on the floating water I feel a bit disgusted with myself, but it had to be done.

"Arise" I mutter and see a shadow Getting extracted from the corpse.

"Elite grade humm?" I say as it kneels in front of me. "You 'll be Stinger" I name my new shadow as it disappears with the rest, then store the corpse in my inventory.

Mounting Kamish once again I make him rise above the clouds before I store him in my shadow, go into stealth, and Shadow-exchange back to the surface. time to go and do the daily quest before hitting the hay.

I start sprinting around the city, sending shadows if I find anything suspicious. here and there, overall I'm done with the 20km run, the 200 pushups, and 200 sit-ups in less than 30 minutes, and that is while being fairly relaxed with all of it, I shadow exchange back to the hotel room before even 1 hour has passed in total since I left and I'm about to prepare to go to sleep when the bathroom door opens. and I see Ciri …