87 A Little Conversation with Joel

"Come here, boy." 

Mavros rushed towards me and started nuzzling my leg.

I picked him up and took out a collar that I had asked Lennon to design. And I had worked on it too using my biokinesis. 

As I placed the collar on him, his body shrunk and he turned from a panther to a black cat.

Perfect. 

"Now, you can walk with me in public." 

With that, I picked him up and placed the newly transformed cat over my shoulder as I walked out of my room.

In the dining hall, Joel was enjoying his breakfast. Mother was on a trip… a much needed one— away from all the trouble. 

"So, who is the new guy?" Joel asked.

"That's Felix… Well, Mavros." I answered, making him raise an eyebrow.

"That's a cat." He deadpanned. 

"Yeah. Mavros is a cat." I replied with a smirk.

"I meant that Mavros is a panther… a wild cat." He looked at me in both amusement and annoyance.

I didn't answer but instead pointed at the collar that Mavros was wearing.

"What is that?"

I grinned. "A piece of tech that could cause a massive commotion."

"Like the rest of the tech that you release doesn't..." He rolled his eyes and continued to eat his cereal.

"Well, it's developed by my personal science team. It's kind of a camouflage device. It tricks both the eye and the mind as well as electronic devices like cameras." I explained, surprising him.

He looked at me sceptically. 

Over the past few days, I had to reveal a few things to Joel as I knew in the future… if there were any people that deserved to know some of the truth… Joel would be at the top of the list. 

I haven't explained about my powers. It is something that I can never reveal to anyone… and even if I did, the truth that I will reveal will be very limited. It will be only a fraction of the actual truth.

Joel knows that I have connections with both the light and dark side. The underworld's connection with me… I revealed that a while back and he also knows that I have quite a few 'special' people working under me.

That was the reason as to why he was surprised but wasn't freaking out.

"If you don't trust me…" I slowly removed the collar from Mavros— revealing his true form. 

This made Joel pause in his place and stare at me. "You are right. If this piece of tech is revealed to the public… there will be chaos."

I knew how my knowledge and technology could affect the entire world… in both good and bad ways. But I wasn't worried about that for now as I had no plans of revealing anything. At least not before I was sure it wouldn't harm me.

"So." He sighed. "When… do we move with our plans?" 

Plans… Hydra. 

I smiled. "Tomorrow." 

"You sure?" He asked and I nodded.

"Yeah. I have an entire squad ready. And to clean up the trash and erase our tracks… I will call Peggy and give her the location— once we eradicate the main leaders." I said. "Currently, there are not many strong or politically powerful people in Hydra. So we have to strike now or once they regain their power… it will be difficult."

Joel nodded. "Thank you." He said. "And thank you for believing me."

He told me the truth about his family's link with Hydra.

His parents were part of a secret project that worked on creating a variant of the Super Soldier serum. And to a point they succeeded. 

They created a serum that had similar abilities but much weaker. But they realised Hydra's plan of using the serum for world domination.

So, they injected Joel with the serum. The serum was weaker and slower than the Super Soldier serum so it took a long time for it to show its effects. His parents wanted to destroy the serum but knew that their son would be in danger in the future… so they used it on him as a safety measure. 

He didn't know anything about the mind blocking but upon further research… which I did using his blood and matching it with the super-soldier serum. It turned out be an easy explanation.

Instead of giving major physical strength, it gave Joel a very strong mental buff. It protects him from telepathic abilities. 

How am I so sure about everything? Well, powers of Sentry gave me an immense boost to my mind reading… thanks to which, I can now read his mind. 

His basic DNA is normal and according to Essex, Joel's parents did a great job in masking the changes made by the serum. As Joel's blood appears to be normal unless it is tested specifically for any sort of link with the super-soldier serum.

Then, it shows a lot of similarities.

"Peggy is not going to be happy about this." Joel warned. "If you really want to do this then you will have to be careful, or it will be… troublesome."

He wasn't wrong. 

"Don't worry about it." I smirked. "I am good at covering my tracks."

Joel sighed. "And Marcel… Sorry for not telling you the truth earlier."

I laughed. "It's alright. We all have our secrets. Your one was quite big… and revealing it recklessly would have caused a lot of trouble."

It was specifically true since I cannot reveal the truth about me to him or anyone.

"Anyways…" Joel smirked. "How are things going with Peggy."

I leaned back on my chair. "Fine… I guess."

He raised an eyebrow at my answer. "Elaborate."

"I don't know." I sighed. "I don't know, Joel. Yes, I like her. But it's an odd feeling… and I don't think I am ready for a relationship."

He finished eating and pushed the bowl away.

"Yeah… Romance is a weird thing." He said and smiled. "But we are not kids anymore, Marcel. We are grown-asses."

He isn't wrong.

"She is smart, pretty, confident and popular." He said. "It's a wonder that she is still single."

"Yeah…"

He looked at me. "Do you know why I am saying this?" 

"Yeah." I looked up. "Someone else might take her away."

I know this. Emilia said the same… 

"Yes." He smiled. "That's why you need to make a move now."

I looked at him and smiled. "Maybe you are right. I will talk with her about this… soon."

Once, I have dealt with Hydra… I will.

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[[A/N: Read Advanced Chapters on: Pat reon.com/ToothlessS

Volume 1 is completed on Pat reon and canon basically started.

Next chap will be the end of Hydra on WN.

Marvel Facts: (1) I almost forgot about this but thanks to one of my discord buddies, I remembered something that I would have loved to forget.

—During a long-term relationship between Black Widow and Tony Stark, she released an intimate recording of the two as part of her ongoing efforts to dismantle her former allies. This resulted in having Iron Man caught up in a sex tape scandal.

(2) Once when Old Man Logan and Spidy swapped bodies, Logan tried to have sex with MJ.