4 CH 4: A Meeting with General Ross

Just from seeing the way Albert handled the gun, Marcus guessed that Albert is at least a trained marksman. Because no Amateur could handle a gun in such a swift and smooth way, especially not a normal 75-year-old.

Marcus guessed that Albert might have had a military background before coming to work for the Hunt family.

"Ok, but help me get out of this Armor first. It's easy to get in by myself but a little harder to come out."

After helping Marcus with the Armor, they both went to the range that was also in the backyard. Albert taught Marcus how to hold the gun, aim it, and shoot.

In a few hours, Marcus could easily remember the different weights, recoil, and magazine sizes of different weapons. Although he didn't become a master marksman or anything, he was far better than beginners just because he could calculate the bullet trajectory based on the parameters he had remembered.

Although it was still quite slow and he could not dump a full magazine on the center dot like Deadshot or any veteran marksman. But on the other hand, Albert was quite impressed with Marcus' progress.

"Grandpa Albert, I think this is enough for today, let's go and test the durability of the Armor I made."

"Alright then."

Marcus with the help of one of his bodyguards picked up the nearly 200kg Armor and propped it up on a custom-made stand for the Armor.

Now the only thing left was to fire some bullets and see how it held up.

Marcus and Albert took turns in shooting different parts of the Armor, the chest area could easily hold up to the 5.56mm NATO rounds used by the military with minimum scratches and dents. 7.62mm NATO rounds did cause dents but not more than that.

The ballistic-fibre could do the same, 5.56mm rounds were easily stopped by it and even the 7.62mm could not penetrate it.

But the most important thing was, that the Armor could take a hit from a .50 bmg sniper round and protect the wearer from death. Although that single hit would effectively destroy the exoskeleton, it was enough to protect the user from certain death.

Marcus was happy with the product, he had recorded all the different testing videos he did with the Armor.

After that, he changed to scratched and dented plates and after some paint job, the Armor was back being new.

Now the only thing left was to schedule a meeting with General Ross, for which Marcus had asked Albert.

"Young Master, I have scheduled the meeting you asked for. General Ross has decided to meet you tomorrow, here in the Mansion. You were right about showing him your testing videos, that was quick to catch his interest."

"Thanks, grandpa Albert. And you know what, I have been busy for so many days, so why not let's have a little fun. Do you remember the Video game that was newly released?"

"Hmm…, Oh you are talking about that game. It was called… Ah, I forgot the name." Albert sighed

"Don't worry about little things so much grandpa Albert, it was called "Call of Duty 2". It supports multiplayer too, come let's play for a while."

"But I don't know how to play these video games."

"Don't worry, I will teach you and you will be doing good in no time."

The Next Day…

"Well…Kid, First of all, I am very impressed with your genius to come up with something like this. But you know, having extra strength, speed and protection won't do much in the face of a bomb or tank. That's why, in my opinion, you need to give me something more than that to convince me. After all, why buy this Armor at one million dollars a piece, just for it to be blown up on the battlefield by a tank, or get blasted in a carpet bombing?"

General Ross leaned back and puffed his Cigar waiting for an answer. His eyes stared directly at Marcus, who was sitting opposite on the opposite side of the table.

"You are right about that, General. I thought about those issues myself before going ahead with the design of this Armor. So my solution is, that this Armor is not made to be used on the frontlines, not exactly at least. This Armor excels in supporting its user in everything they do, and it has some of the best camouflage from different devices capable of detecting different kinds of radiations."

Marcus clicked on the table and different images related to the schematics and functions of the images popped up on it.

"So it shows its worth best while performing infiltration missions. But the main thing is, this Armor's usage limit is imagination. For example, the exoskeleton helps with carrying and using even the Denel NTW-20 like a rifle, you can fire it while standing and experience no recoil, while the camera helps you identify your targets even when they are camouflaged. The exoskeleton can be detached quickly in case of damage or malfunction but you still have the Marc-fibre and the helmet on your body for protection and spot targets, and the other things the helmet could do."

Marcus didn't stop there, but instead, he decided to hammer the iron while it was hot.

"But the main thing is, this suit alone turns a person into a super-soldier, the likes of Captain America. No drugs or human experiments are needed, just an Armor with far better durability than any Super-Soldier could have, paired with a state-of-the-art helmet system. And all of that for 5 million dollars apiece. Are you convinced now, General?"

General Ross could only maintain his stoic expression due to his years of experience of having seen even the impossible happen. But he was still shocked on the inside, not just because of the Armor's functionalities and its uses but also at the genius of the child in front of him.

And that genius didn't only pertain to the inventions but also to the amount of business genius he had, to know what to speak to convince someone easily.

Because for General Ross, the word Super-soldier was the straw that broke the camel's back. At first, he wanted to haggle a little to get a lower price but knowing that the Armor alone could give him the super-soldier army he so desired, and he didn't have to fund the super-soldier project being led by the Oscorp Industries anymore, made him forget about the price.

"Very well Marcus. Let's sign the contract for 100 pieces of M.U.S.H.A Armor. How long before you can provide it though, seeing you still don't have a factory or an assembly system for the Armor?"

"Well, you don't have to worry about that. Albert helped me with the idea of clearing a few of our, not so profitable, factories and renovating them for the production of the Marc-fibre and the Armor. So, it would take around 3-4 months to renovate the factories and start production. Another 4 months to get your orders ready. So 8 months in total."

General Ross released a puff of smoke and said, "Alright, I don't have a problem with that, but all said and done, I want to see the prototype and if it holds up to your statements. Also, you wouldn't mind if I take the prototype to the base for further testing, would you?"

Marcus had a guess for why General Ross wanted to take the Armor to his base for "further testing". But he didn't mind, after all, he knew they couldn't reverse engineer the product as quickly as he could make new and better ones. So he didn't mind playing along.

"Oh yeah, I don't mind that, it's just you have to wait a week to take away the prototype. I have a presentation in a few days and a press conference. I am going to announce the changes that are going to take place in the Hunt Industries sector of development. General Ross, I would like to ask you to accompany us to the press conference, after all, we still need to announce our transaction to the press anyway. So why don't we do it together?"

"Ok then, we have a deal, Mr. Marcus. Now let's check out your prototype."

Marcus gladly took the hand extended forward by General Ross and gave him a handshake. Which raised an eyebrow for General Ross, because Marcus had a pretty strong grip for a 15-year-old, and he was also not that short, nearly up to his nose, around 5' 8".

General Ross nodded and Marcus guided him towards his backyard.