『Caught』

[2012, USA, New York City, Secret Base]

A song is playing. A very recent song. Complicated by that one girl.

I open my eyes.

First step, assess the danger.

I did a mini-check up of my body as I lay there.

I focus on keeping my breathing steady and slow. Constant. Like I was still unconscious.

「Guardian-1 establishing a connection 」

A text box appeared with information, it had a light blue outline, the words were the black allowing the text to be contrast. It was simple and appeasing to the eye.

Did I just get the legendary A.I. helper and/or system?

I feel myself getting excited for the first time in forever.

Before reincarnation, I had a fascination of these super powered systems. The biggest golden finger in the entirety of Chinese web-novels. The ones who made nobodies into absolute figures of whatever world they went to.

I manage to suppress my excitement soon and follow my training.

I do a quick glance of the room and I was happy to find myself in a bed, rather than a torture chair.

The area probably has many hidden cameras but there is nothing I could do. So I lay there.

When I talked about time for strategizing and time for survival. It is definitely big brain time.

I have two main choices. Each with great risk. It's just a matter of deciding which had the least risk and the most reward.

Attempt to escape or sit like a duck.

The choice isn't really that hard to make.

I slowly get up trying hard not to make too much noise. But to my dismay, it creaks like a beast.

This made me think. Was the mattress on purpose or are the people who kidnapped me poor?

I walk to the radio and turn it off.

F*ck my training. There is now way in hell I'm going to die with this song in the background.

I hear the door open as a woman wearing a white blouse with a black work-slacks shows up.

"How are you?" She asks with a smile.

Simple question. But depending on how I answer it will probably determine my future. I can fake losing memories. I've already been trained how to do that. But then I might lose value if the people who kidnapped me wanted information.

"Where am I?" I asked completely dodging the question.

In this situation it seems like I had the high ground. The moment she spoke she cemented her role as the submissive one in this conversation.

I straightened my back and adopted a stance a young adult would have. By making my frame seem bigger, I instinctively seem stronger and a bigger threat.

"Mr. Belova, you are at a recovery room in New York City." She smiles.

I smile.

I subconsciously assessed her danger level.

"Do you have any water?" I ask her.

I scan her for weapons, my mind registering the fabric of her blouse. The weight of the objects in her pockets. The accessories on her hair.

"Yes." She says as she walks towards the mini-fridge.

I assess her walk. Is she well balanced? Is she wearing heels? Where is her center of gravity?

I check what I'm wearing. The same clothes from last night, including my trusty ring.

I flick my wrist. The ring turns an unearthly blue indicating it's on tranquilizer mode.

Although, I would much rather kill the woman and escape quickly, I don't want to get the ire of the people who are probably watching.

She opens the fridge and gets a water bottle.

I notice a couple beer cans in there.

"Scratch that. Can I get a cold one?" I ask

"Mr. Belova, nice try. You are only sixteen years old." She smiles. I smile.

she reaches her hand to give me the water bottle. That's my chance. I snatch her forearm and grip until I hear a click.

She looks at me confused. I look back. I smile, she doesn't.

Three seconds. That's how fast it takes for her to lose conscious.

I grab her by the arm and steady her before she falls. I drag her body to the bed and lay it there.

That takes five seconds.

I walk towards the door and two armed guards come out.

『Status Unlocked. Sufficient Time Lapse. Powers are Unlocked.』

My head starts ringing.

Sh*t, unlocking powers at such an inconvenient time, I really am a main character.

I look at the guards and they're surprised. That works in my favor.

They are already in my striking distance.

I transfer the my weight into my striking motion as I aimed straight for the guy's windpipe.

He tries to block the hit but it's too late. I was already in motion while he reacted.

His head flings back and hits the wall as he coughs out blood.

But I don't focus on that. I focus on the next guy. I strike when I still had the momentum.

I try hitting the guys stomach but he's already in a defensive position. He blocks it easily and tries striking my face.

I hit his hand away and push him to the wall. Hard.

I see his eyes roll back as he tries to stay conscious. I use this time to adjust my ring. I make it so the needle faces whoever I'm hitting.

I just need a well placed punch to the face and I'll knock this guy out.

He shakes his head and gets back to his fighting position.

There is a lot that of things I got from his fighting stance.

He uses the basic stance of boxing but quickly switches to stances of taekwondo from time to time. He's trained in the U.S. or somewhere in North America.

he comes at me running. He has the advantage in weight. Mainly muscle mass.

If I let him tackle me it's over. For him.

When he uses his grappling skills, I'll easily be able to knock him out.

So I do that. All of this was instinctual. Maybe less than a second passed as I braced myself for impact.

He tackles me.

I fall.

He positions himself to do an arm-lock, I position my ring. This time, making the needle face where I'm grabbing.

He holds tight and I grab the flesh of his arm. I hear a click and I wait three seconds. His arms go weak and I immediately get out of the hold.

I walk away as he is on the floor.

All this took less than fifteen seconds.

I quickly take the clothes of the first guy and put it on.

Takes a minute.

I run out the door and into a hall. There were agents everywhere. My chances of fighting them all are slim. Not impossible, but slim. Luckily, I didn't have to do that.

I simply walk past everyone. Fast but confident. I match my energy with the agents of the room.

I take a right and see an exit. I walk towards it like I had a purpose. No one stops to question me.

[Intercom: All Agents, Code 19. Mr. Belova has escaped the room! I repeat, Mr. Belova has escaped the room!]

The agents near the door start to look attentively at the people who were leaving.

I pick up my pace almost running.

"Hey! It's Code 19!" Someone yells at me.

"Yeah, I got orders to try to cut off Mr. Belova!" I yelled

"From who?"

"From Phill!" I yell.

I don't know who Phil is. I don't even know if there's a Phil. But it gives me a few seconds as the man tries to remember who that could be.

I open the doors and take a left. I take off the suit jacket and throw it in the trash. Although it isn't much, it will throw people off for a second. A second is a lot to people like me.

I follow the crowd down to Town Square. I change my energy to a man who failed his job interview.

A couple black SUVs passed by. It seems like they were looking for me. Too bad for them, I was trained to be unpredictable.

I scan the crowd looking for potential dangers.

Nobody is looking at me much. Except a person dressed very weirdly. This type of fashion only became popular near the 2010s when I was on my earth. She's ahead of her time.

She has stunning red hair and very piercing eyes.

"Hello sir?" She approaches me with confidence.

"Hi?" I say, I let the uncertainty in my voice show.

"I'm Lui Murcusio! I'm a fashion designer." She introduces herself.

"I'm Lucien Danvers." I shrug.

"Lucien? That's french right?" She asks intrigued. If I was anyone else, I would assume that she's flirting with me. But I'm not. She's suspicious.

"Yeah, my mom's side is french. It means Light." I tell her.

"Are you looking for a job?" She asks.

I look surprised.

"Don't tell me you're a part-time psychic too." I say.

She smiles. I smile.

"Well, Mr. Danvers. I happen to have a job offer for you." She says as she looks in my eyes.

What does she want?

"Do I need to do a job interview?" I say to her surprise. "I'll stop you right there, I'm really bad at job interviews."

She laughs. "I'll take you're word for it."

I see an agent behind her. He looks like doesn't know who he's looking for exactly but his eyes strayed on me longer than he should have. He's good, but I'm even better.

"Do you have a card? I've already done a job interview for the day and Ice-cream is next on my list." I say to her.

She smiles and digs into her purse. She pulls out a white card and puts her lips on it. A pink mark the shape of her lips was left on the card.

"I'm looking forward to working with you Mr. Danvers" She says.

I smile and cross the street. The agent crosses the street.

I've been found out. But that's okay. Blending in is my specialty. Kind of. Killing is my specialty. But I'm pretty good at blending in too.

[A/N: daoistxuanlong has brought to my attention, that I need to use another Russian Spy Agency instead of the KGB because them bois disbanded. So I'll be using GRU. GRU isn't that important, just think of it as a part of HYDRA. Side note, should I just use HYDRA instead of the GRU]

But after all this where do I go? The GRU clearly cut me off and compromised my location.

I take a right after crossing the street. So does the agent.

He's not very good at what he does.

I walk towards a group of people holding signs.

"We want better pay!" A man in a tank top yells

The group of people behind him echos him.

I guess these are the perks of being a main character. The plot armor is strong here.

I step towards the protesters and begin to match their energy.

"We want it now!" The man shouts.

The crowd says it back. I join them.

This is my plan. Go deep into the crowd. Have the agent follow me. Lose the agent. And go back to the place I was walking away from.

『Milestone Quest – Escape the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Reward: 10 V-Coin and 15 Experience Points.』

A blue transparent screen popped up.

Milestone quest? I really did get a system.

I hovered my eyes towards the "currency".

How do I get v coins?

『In order to obtain V-Coins, there are a multitude of ways. Completing personal milestones by setting goals. I, the Guardian-1 will weigh these goals and given the appropriate reward. Another way is completing quests, these could be as mediocre as doing daily chores to something grandiose that improves your quality of life. Another easily way of obtain V-Coins is by literally selling raw, processed or used materials, resources and assets. In a sense, you could go around absorbing items for virtual cash.』

Wow. Do you accept flesh?

『Flesh isn't valuable』

There goes my get-rich-easy method.

I stand in the middle of the crowd and the agent isn't anywhere near me. He's at the outer edge of the direction I was going in.

I loop around and go back to Time Square.

I go the opposite way they expect me to go.

『10 V-Coin added to balance. 15 Experience Points added to balance』

I go to Starbucks.

The Agent's wallet from before had a few hundred dollars in cash.

I open the door of the cafe and went to the barista to order. Surprisingly, there isn't anyone in line. Suspicious yes but not enough to make me leave.

There is a total of nine people excluding the workers.

"Hi, can I get a...cappuccino?" I say to the head barista.

"What size?" She asks pointing to the cups.

"Grande." I say quickly.

"How many pumps of-"

"Surprise me."

I quickly interrupt the woman. Me standing in the line alone draws too much attention than me in a seat..

"I can't d-"

"Just do it. It looks like you have pretty good tastes." I say.

She rolls her eyes. It seems like I wasn't the first person who tried to flirt with her today.

"What's your name?" She asks.

"Daniel." I say as I pick my seat.

I choose a seat that gives me a view of the whole cafe. The exits, and the people.

I use the time I'm waiting for my drink to review my options. The GRU has cut me off and in extension, HYDRA has cut me off. The U.S. is aware of my presence. I'm truly alone today.

But that's okay. I'm trained to operate alone. I'm trained to survive.

But I don't have a mission. Doesn't that mean I can chill out? It's been forever since I did something for myself. I also got the system. How's that working? Stats was it?

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

『Virtual Status Screen | Mutant Addition | MK I 』

『Designation』

Nikolai Belova

『Biological Age 』

Twenty six

『Physical Age 』

Sixteen

『Physical Gender』

Male

『Race 』

Homo-Superior

『Affiliations』

Independent

『Abilities』

Mutant Physiology: 1 of 5.

Spy-Craft: 19 of 30.

Hand to hand: 16 of 40.

Marksmen: 10 of 20.

Pianist: 4 of 6.

Russian: 2 of 2.

English: 2 of 2.

Italian: 2 of 2.

Mandarin: 3 of 3.

Latin: 3 of 3.

French: 2 of 2.

German: 2 of 2.

Spanish: 2 of 2.

『EXP』

15/100

『Inventory』

『Virtual Shop』

『V-Coins』

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・.

Wow. Wait? Mutant? I'm a mutant? This thing's bugged. Sure the Soviets tampered with my body and mind but there is no way they can turn me to a mutant.

Twenty Six? Do I look like I'm Twenty Six? This thing's definitely bugged.

"Daniel!" The cute barista calls.

I stand up and get my drink. She hands me a straw.

She looks at me.

She wants me to try the drink.

I take a long sip and close my eyes. After a few seconds I opened them.

"I knew I could count on you."

She smiles. I smile.

I glance at the cookie jar and I see a reflection. Seven SUVs surrounded the entrance.

How did I miss that? So much for being unpredictable.

A black bald man walks towards me. An eye-patch covering one eye.

"Mr. Belova. Stand down."