CH 12: Albert's Past

"You have got big words for a kid Marcus. But somehow I believe you." Saying so, Barnes grabbed Marcus' outstretched hand for a handshake.

"I am glad that you agreed, Uncle James."

"Young Master, would you mind if I asked, how did you know all that about Sergeant Barnes? I mean, that type of data isn't even available on the internet, right?"

"Now that you asked, Albert, I also feel the need to know about this. Marcus, how did you know all about me?"

"Well, I would say that I have a nifty little power other than being a super genius. I can see the past of people but it also has limitations, first that it doesn't work on everyone and second that it doesn't show me everything, just glimpses."

Marcus had thought of this answer quite long ago, for moments like these.

"So, Young master, are you a mutant?"

"Would you hate me if I told you yes, grandpa Albert?" Marcus was ready to erase Albert's memory the moment he noticed something wrong, and it wasn't because Marcus didn't trust him instead it was because Marcus didn't want Albert to hate him.

"Why would you think so, young master? I do not care whether you are a mutant or not, I have always loved you and will keep doing so. Don't even think that I would abandon you over anything."

And Albert was indeed saying the truth, Marcus had read his thoughts to confirm that. In fact, seeing the boundless love that Albert held for him, Marcus was embarrassed at the fact that he had decided to not trust him and instead peek into his mind.

"I am sorry for doubting you, grandpa Albert," Marcus said embarrassedly

"I don't know if you wanted my opinion on this or not but, I have worked with mutants before. It was during my time as a Howling Commando, but I guess you probably knew that, due to your power and all. All I wanted to say was, I don't care if you are a mutant or not, you're the guy who saved me and I am always indebted to you."

"Thanks, Uncle James, but hey, you don't have to be indebted to me. I did what I thought was right, so don't be like that."

While saying so, Marcus also felt a little guilty about Barnes, 'I am sorry about the seed of loyalty I planted, but I couldn't trust you if I didn't. What happens if HYDRA reactivated you using the code? So, that seed was just a failsafe, both for you and me. I hope you don't blame me for this in the future.'

"On another note, grandpa Albert, we still don't know about your past. From the way you handled guns when you taught me, it felt like you were a pro in the past. And my powers don't work on you, so would you mind sharing it with us in the meantime?"

"And now, I am interested as well." Barnes quipped from the side.

Albert sighed as if recalling something bad, "Very well, if the young master wants to know it. I will start with the time when I enlisted in the Marine Corps."

Albert relaxed a little and let his mind wander in the crevices of his memories and little by little he recalled the time he enlisted.

"It was just after World War II, although I wanted to enlist before that my parents didn't allow me because I wasn't 18 at the time.

But as soon as I turned 18, I volunteered to be drafted into the Marines. At the time the military was all the hype, but I decided to be a little different, so I joined the Marines in 1946.

From there on I fought in many different wars, until one day, I finally had enough and decided to retire after 20 years in service.

I fought in the Vietnam war for 11 years before I retired. But returning home wasn't as peaceful as I thought it would be, I couldn't sit and do normal things, I craved that battlefield, for the smell of gunpowder in the air and the thrill of charging amidst a bullet storm.

It was at that time, I heard of a mercenary group recruiting war veterans, I couldn't control the urge to Join them and I gave in.

After a few years of working together, we had formed an unbreakable bond.

One day, we took a simple escort mission. The mission was to escort a man for a day. We had heard that he was quite influential and rich, so we took the mission without thinking much about it, in hopes of making some good money.

But that was where we were wrong, on our way to the destination, our convoy was ambushed by a few unarmed civilians. It was during the 70s and at the time we didn't know about Mutants and neither did the world.

We were trying to shoo them off when suddenly, one of them ran straight at us. Thinking that they were civilians, we were neither alert nor maintaining our distances.

The person who ran towards us reached my teammate who was nearest to him and punched him in the gut. But instead of the usual sight of a person gagging, we saw a bloody hand that had pierced my teammate and came out of his back.

Alan died right there. We were stunned but our instincts kicked in at the right moment and we fired our guns at the man who had killed Alan. Instead, the man just used Alan's body to protect himself and rushed toward us again.

And when we were distracted by the rushing man, the girl that was with them, jumped from the side, her sharp tail was cocked up high like a scorpion, and we thought we were surely going to die.

When suddenly, a blinding flash emanated from behind us, and the girl was hit with some kind of energy and fell down along with the man who was rushing towards us.

The gunfire had stopped too because our magazines were empty.

It was at this moment that the third man revealed himself. He was a young man with long hair up to his shoulders and a pair of devilish red eyes.

Looking at those eyes felt like getting sucked into a whirlpool, I couldn't look away from those eyes even when I tried to.

But suddenly, a blinding flash of light emanated from behind us and the man was forced to close his eyes and thus releasing us from his charm.

" You haven't changed a bit, Robert. You still care about these inferior humans. Why do you not see that these creatures are inferior to us and shouldn't rule the world, instead it should be us Mutants who should be at the top. But I don't care about you anymore Robert, I have orders from the higher-ups to eliminate you, we had enough of your meddlings. You either join us or you die, but I suppose you have already made your choices clear."

This was what he said, although, in the heat of the moment, I didn't understand him much. One thing I understood, it was our employer who protected us, and our attackers wanted to kill him.

Then Robert spoke, "I care about Humans and Mutants equally and that's why I want them to live together. Don't forget that mutants are born from humans, they are not inferior to us. But unfortunately for you Joseph, today is not the day I die."

After saying that, his figure blitzed and he was near Joseph instantly, and then he proceeded to rain down punches. The speed of those punches left after images in the air and in just a few seconds, the man named Joseph was down for the count.

By now, the two other perpetrators were back on their feet, "Hold him for a few seconds." Robert said and pointed towards the man who had killed Alan.

I and my other two teammates laid down suppressing fire on the man and Robert blitzed at his next target, the girl with the tail. He took her out in just a few seconds like Joseph.

Meanwhile, our bullets didn't do anything to the man except stop him in his path for a few seconds due to sheer annoyance.

But that was enough for Robert, he blitzed again and appeared beside the man, he started with his normal routine of raining down afterimage punches, but this time his punches didn't affect the man in the slightest.

Instead, the man was able to counterattack and nearly hit him, but Robert was able to dodge due to his immense speed and retreated.

He turned towards us and told us to retreat as far as possible and also to cover our eyes. We didn't question him, maybe due to the sheer scope of what was happening or maybe because he had saved us, and we retreated far back while Robert kept the man occupied.

After we were far away, the intensity of light near the battle area increased exponentially, so much so, that even covering our eyes didn't help much. We decided to lay down and turn away from the source.

At the time of our ambush, it was night, but the amount of light emanating made it seem the sunniest day.

After that, I don't know what happened to the man or the other two, but when the light died down and we returned, Robert had aged. Yes, he had aged physically. When before he looked like a man in his 30s, now he looked like he was in his 50s.

That night, we completed our mission of escorting Robert to his destination and we all decided to quit being mercenaries.

I didn't have anywhere to go, my teammates had families, and even the young Alan had a wife waiting for him back home, for whom I had decided to give my cut of the pay. I never met her, so I don't know if she was grateful or spat on the money which took her husband's life, but I couldn't do anything else either.

I didn't have any family, no wife or child to care for and my parents had died long ago, while I was busy fighting wars. I blamed myself for that because I, their only son, couldn't be there for them in their last moments on Earth. And that feeling had stopped me from making a family, I feared the same thing, that I wouldn't be there for them when they would need me.

Finally, I decided to contact Robert and work for him because he was the one who had saved me, and I felt like I needed to repay him.

Robert accepted me gladly and he knew why I wanted to work for him, but instead of making me his bodyguard or anything involving combat, he had me trained as a Butler to work at his mansion where he lived with his newly born son, Thomas Hunt, your father, young master.

I was accepted into the family easily, and we were living happily, but that didn't last long. Your grandfather Robert was in some kind of accident which took his life while Master Thomas was only in his 20s.

The authorities weren't able to determine what caused the said accident, but my instincts told me it was something related to what had happened on the day he saved us.

Later, Your father married your mother and they had you as their child. But your Father and Mother were also involved in a freak accident that took their lives.

Young Master, it isn't that I hate mutants, quite the opposite, Master Robert taught me that one can't judge a whole race just for the evils of a few. We see human terrorists every day but does that means there are no good humans on Earth?

I am just scared of the fact that you being a mutant might bring you in the same circle as Master Robert and might cause you to lose your life.

And I also feel like somebody is plotting against our family because it isn't a coincidence that your grandfather and father both died in an accident."