2 Prologue

Friday, April 6, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It was a beautiful Friday night, with a clear and starry sky over the city and many people who had spent the whole week working decided to have fun today. Some went to restaurants with their family, others decided to spend the night having fun at home and some went to the busy clubs in the city.

Despite all this, there are always those people who still work even when everyone is having fun like waiters, cooks, musicians, policemen and others. Fortunately, there is still this working class of people who give up their fun to guarantee that of others, which is the case of our protagonist.

One of the many skyscrapers in the city was still under construction, a person fully dressed in military tactical armor was crouched on the ground while easily holding a Barrett M82A1M Rifle. Through the telescopic sight, he watched a party with several people that was taking place on the terrace of a building about 200 meters away from the place where the man was looking for his murder target, Pedro Alcântara.

That man is Nikolai Ivanovich a S.H.I.E.L.D. special agent who was currently on a field mission to test his newest equipment designed by his team's engineer in conjunction with several technology experts, a highly advanced combat tactical armor developed with the best SHIELD's technology has to offer.

Nikolai's armor is completely black with metal parts in the most important areas like the chest, shoulders, forearms, shins and back. The armor's joints are made of a synthetic polymer known as Kevlar, which allows it to maintain flexibility for close combat without losing protection. The entire armor has compartments where Nikolai's equipment can be stored such as firearms, grenades, melee weapons and other things.

It wasn't some billion-dollar high-tech suit like Tony Stark's, but it was cheap and could be mass-produced for ordinary SHIELD field agents. Even though Nikolai was one of the least common people in the world, he was the best option to test the equipment since if something happened during the tests he would be the person with the highest chance of survival.

"Special Agent Ivanovich, how is the situation?" A beautiful female voice sounded through the communicator in Nikolai's helmet. The voice belonged to Shen Mei, a SHIELD agent of Chinese origin who works in the communications area and partnered with Nikolai during some solo missions.

She is the leader of the Ghost Unit team that Nikolai is part of, along with two other members who stay in the back since their capabilities are not fighters but scientists. They didn't come on this mission with Shen Mei and Nikolai since it was a simple solo mission, so there was no need for the two of them outside the lab these days.

Shen Mei's role was to assist Nikolai during the mission, as it was the organization's rule that all agents must work in pairs even if it is a field mission where only one individual is needed. In the case of Nikolai's current mission, Shen Mei's function boiled down to passing on essential information to him and ensuring its extraction in case things get out of hand.

"Everything is fine. I have the target in my sights." Nikolai said to Shen Mei with his strong voice. He already had the target in his sights and all he had to do was pull the trigger for Pedro Alcântara's head to explode.

"Remember: While your mission is to assassinate the target, we also need to gather combat data about the new armor. This requirement was included because the Deputy Director believes you are capable of completing the mission without any problems." Shen Mei said to Nikolai, who just grunted in agreement.

Nikolai's mission was to assassinate Pedro Alcântara, an arms dealer who uses Stark Industries' technology and designs. Despite Stark Industries having stopped the manufacture and marketing of highly advanced weapons, they still had factories scattered around the world with the designs of weapons that people like Pedro wasted no time in taking control of and continuing to manufacture. He then began to make a fortune selling the products on the black market and this ended up catching the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., who sent Nikolai to eliminate Pedro.

It was a simple mission for Nikolai, since he already had the target in his sights and could easily kill him. And it was exactly because it was a simple mission that Nikolai was in charge of testing the new equipment, since there was no more qualified agent than him at the moment to do something like that due to his special capabilities.

Nikolai then rose from his crouched position and 'folded' his rifle to store it safely in a compartment that was on the back of his armor, and this was one of the differentiators of the new armor technology called retractable weapons. All of Nikolai's equipment was modified to be 'collapsible', so they would be portable and could be attached to the armor to be removed whenever he wanted. With this new armor, SHIELD agents would basically be walking arsenals and would easily have any necessary equipment.

Nikolai looked in the general direction of the building Pedro was in with his enhanced vision and noticed the window of a room on the lower floors that had no one inside, the perfect place to sneak in unnoticed. Unfortunately, Nikolai would have to go through another building before reaching the window, which luckily was lower than the building he was in, so he wouldn't have to go up.

Nikolai was on the top floor of the building under construction next to his target, the building he had to cross was 7 meters away from his current position and it would be a 10-meter free fall before reaching him. He then went as far as possible to the opposite ledge from where he was going to jump and told Shen Mei through the communicator, "I'm ready to start testing the armor."

"Okay, I'm going to turn on the camera attached to your helmet and I'll be watching everything you do. I am also writing down the results of the exams to send to superiors, we have to do everything right because this exam is important." When Shen Mei connected to Nikolai's helmet camera, the first thing she saw was that he was standing a few meters from the edge of the building, quickly understanding Nikolai's objective, she asked: "Okay. Are you sure you want to jump from this height? It's a lot higher than you're used to.

"No problem." Nikolai just said that before starting to run at full speed toward the edge of the building, making Shen Mei hold her breath in agony as she looked through the cameras. Coming to the edge of the building, he jumped as high as he could, reaching 3 meters in height before landing hard towards the building that was an intersection between the previous one and his target.

"Are you well?" Shen Mei asked when Nikolai fell to his knees on the floor of the building's roof leaving a small spider web-shaped crater, after a free fall from 13 meters high that would have been enough to cripple or kill an ordinary person. Fortunately Nikolai was far from an ordinary person.

Nikolai got up as if a free fall from that height was nothing for him – which it was – and told Shen Mei that she was waiting for her answer: "I'm fine. The armor worked properly. An ordinary SHIELD agent would only feel a shudder upon contact with the ground, but would not suffer even a slight injury."

"Despite knowing your physical capabilities, what you just did was irresponsible. I hope that doesn't happen again." Shen Mei said that, but she knew that Nikolai would not listen to her lecture and would continue to do dangerous things. She then turned her attention to the work she had in hand and asked Nikolai, "The jump test was a success. Any visible armor damage that should be reported?"

Nikolai thoroughly checked the entire structure of the armor such as boots, gauntlets and other things and found nothing that could compromise its use. He then communicated his observations to Shen Mei through his communicator: "I didn't find anything, but I might have missed something, so you'd better take a look when I get to the lab."

"Fine. Fitz will take a look at the armor when we get to the Helicarrier." Shen Mei said as she typed her report on the armor's capabilities using her opinion based on what she's seen so far. She then said again through the communicator to Nikolai, "Alright. Let's continue the mission."

Nikolai turned his gaze to the window he had to go through to gain access to his target's building, which was currently in the penthouse. The building he was in now was six stories below his target, but he was at the height of the window Nikolai wanted to use to enter with only one floor to spare.

Nikolai could jump again towards the window breaking it and entering without problems, but this mission was additionally intended to test the capabilities of the new armor that SHIELD engineers developed, so he had to do things the way an ordinary agent would do... pendency. He then decided to communicate his next steps to Shen Mei and said: "I'm going to test the harpoon to enter through the window of the building."

"All good. When it's ready, we have time as apparently Pedro doesn't plan on leaving the party anytime soon." Shen Mei said while sending Nikolai photos that her target posted on his social networks where he was hugging two very attractive women, he was clearly drunk. "This guy is so drunk, it's quite possible he'll die of alcohol intoxication before we get to him."

"It wouldn't be a bad idea…" Nikolai said thinking that his life would be a lot easier if things were like that, but he knew he wasn't so lucky. He then focused his attention on his current objective which consisted of testing the functioning of the harpoon gun that was in the armor's gauntlet.

Nikolai raised his right arm towards the wall that was next to the window he wanted to enter, his gauntlet twisted oddly and a strange hook appeared on the upper part of his wrist. He aimed correctly and pressed the button corresponding to the hook, which flew and hooked on the wall in a way that seemed to be safe.

"Well… seems to work." Shen Mei commented as she watched all of Nikolai's actions through her computer screen. He then checked the hook's strength and resistance by giving it a light tug to see if it would hold his weight, and Nikolai was pleased when he realized it wasn't going to go down easily.

"It's tough. I'm going up now." Nikolai then pressed the hook button again, which pulled him up with great speed causing him to hit his face against the wall very hard. Fortunately, the hook didn't let go, causing him to fall from the thirty-fifth floor of a building, a fall of approximately 125 meters, despite Nikolai having superior physical capabilities, he was in no mood to check if he would survive a fall from that height.

"Are you well?" Shen Mei asked, realizing that the grappling hook pulled Nikolai with a speed and force much greater than specified in the notes she received from Fitz, and that could have been a big problem if it was another agent testing the armor.

"Everything is fine. I just didn't expect that speed." Nikolai said as he opened the bedroom window and went inside, taking the hook from the wall and putting it back inside the gauntlet. He then gave his candid opinion on how hard and fast the hook pulled him towards Shen Mei: "The tension applied to the rope could be a big problem for common agents, as it would be enough to break someone's arm."

"All good. I will put this observation in the report." Shen Mei said, already taking down everything Nikolai said and giving her own opinion about the hook. She then looked at her computer screen again and realized that the environment Nikolai was currently in was perfect for testing one of the suit's main functions. "This place is perfect. Activate 'Detective' mode so we can analyze your capabilities."

The place Nikolai was currently in was a common hotel room whose only difference was that it was totally dark with just the moonlight coming through the window, which despite helping a lot was not enough for Nikolai to see details of the place. After all, he couldn't see in the dark despite his enhanced eyesight.

Nikolai didn't know exactly what the room looked like, but that changed when he pressed a small button on the side of the helmet which activated it and he entered the suit's 'Detective' mode. His vision completely changed to something in black and white, showing everything around him in detail from the common items on top of the desk to the things hidden inside the drawer.

In this mode, everything within a 10-meter radius was easily visible even in the dark, even objects or people behind a physical structure. Nikolai looked around and could easily see people walking down the Hotel corridor, and even a few couples in the rooms adjacent to the one he was currently in.

"This is amazing. A truly revolutionary technology." Shen Mei commented as she saw through the camera attached to Nikolai's helmet, which showed exactly what he was seeing. She knew that this was not the only function of this mode, so she gave instructions to it saying: "Focus your attention on a specific object in the room for a few seconds, according to the notes I received something interesting will happen."

Nikolai then looked at a hairbrush that was on top of the desk and focused his attention for a few seconds as suggested by Shen Mei, and what he saw left him speechless. An interface appeared in Nikolai's vision with complete information about the origin of the object, from the materials that compose it, where these materials were manufactured, the route it took to reach the hands of the person who bought it and even who was the person who bought it and took it to the Hotel.

And that wasn't all, if Nikolai wanted he would have access to all possible information about the person who bought this hairbrush. He then looked at other objects in the room and analyzed various information related to their manufacture and the people who bought it, and this left Nikolai extremely impressed.

"This is amazing. Now our work will be 50% faster and more efficient, we won't have to waste time investigating things before taking action." Nikolai said that to Shen Mei and she absolutely agreed with him, the work of field agents would be much faster with this technology. Nikolai then asked a question that Shen Mei answered without any problems: "How does this work?"

"According to Fitz's notes, the armor is connected to SHIELD's servers and that's why the information is so accurate." Shen Mei replied calmly, everyone knows SHIELD has eyes and ears everywhere in the world as long as a device with internet access is nearby. And since they live in the age of technology, there is hardly any place on the planet without such a device.

"Okay, enough being impressed. We have work to do." Shen Mei said, pulling Nikolai's attention out of 'Detective' mode to the mission at hand. She then said in her serious voice, which despite being sexy was still frightening: "I need access to the internal cameras to determine the best route for you to reach Pedro Alcântara, who is in the penthouse."

Nikolai didn't need Shen Mei to give the order again and quickly did as she asked. He raised his left arm which had another gauntlet, and on it this time instead of a hooked weapon was something else. A micro wrist computer, which he used to easily hack into the Hotel's system and grant Shen Mei access to the internal security cameras.

"Right. You are on the thirty-fifth floor and your target is in the penthouse on the fortieth floor." Shen Mei said while uploading the security camera footage to Nikolai's 'Detective' mode interface, that she found she could do that now as she read Fitz's notes. "The thirty-ninth floor is fully manned with armed guards, but the other three floors are clear. Unfortunately, they are covered with civilians."

Nikolai looked at the footage from the security cameras that confirmed everything Shen Mei said and it left him disconcerted, after all, there were dozens of innocent civilians between him and her target. There was no possibility for him to reach the thirty-eighth floor without attracting attention, and he further confirmed this when he re-activated 'Detective' mode and realized that there were many people within 10 meters of him in any direction.

When Nikolai was about to try his luck scaling the building from the outside to the penthouse, Shen Mei's voice rang in his ears saying something that left him perplexed: "It seems that there is one more function that the suit hides, and I believe that you will like this one in particular. Just press the eagle symbol on your chest."

Nikolai did as he was told and something happened that left him impressed and in awe, starting from the SHIELD logo on the chest of the armor everything started to change in a way that Nikolai knows all too well. He looked at his gauntlets and saw them change as if there were several mirrors in his hands, and suddenly everything was transparent and Nikolai was completely invisible.

"Wow. That was really amazing, did Fitz manage to adapt the Helicarrier's camouflage to a smaller, more portable version?" Nikolai didn't even need Shen Mei's confirmation on this, as he was seeing everything work out with his own eyes.

"Yes. He was primarily responsible for creating the 'Detective' mode and adapting the camouflage system." Shen Mei said and Nikolai could easily hear the pride and happiness in his voice and it cheered him up. Despite being a woman who doesn't show many feelings, after so much time together and several missions Nikolai could easily understand Shen Mei's mood. And she was obviously proud of her team members' accomplishments.

"Okay, you know what to do. Head to the thirty-ninth floor and neutralize the guards." Shen Mei said and Nikolai soon started to move. He used 'Detective' mode to wait until the hallway was clear of civilians and left the room without drawing attention, not least because people would notice a door opening by itself.

Nikolai also needed to remember that he wasn't invisible, he was camouflaged. Anyone looking in his direction long enough would notice a discrepancy between his surroundings and his silhouette so he needed to move quickly. And that's exactly what Nikolai did with ease, drawing no attention as he made his way across the floor by floor to the stairs leading to the thirty-ninth.

Nikolai took the stairs just to avoid getting into trouble, as there were so many civilians using the elevator. The only problem with the stairs was that they were at the ends of each floor, so he still had to pass through a bunch of people to use the stairs.

When Nikolai finally reached the staircase leading to the thirty-ninth floor, his first enemy appeared. There was a guard preventing everyone from going up to the next floor, so Nikolai needed to neutralize him. Thankfully there weren't any civilians in that area, as there was no reason for them to hang around the staircase if they couldn't climb it.

Nikolai, still in his stealth mode, glanced at the guard, who was distracted by his cell phone and not taking his duty as a lookout seriously. He then asked Shen Mei a question that would determine his actions from now on: "We still need combat data from the armor, correct?"

"Yes." Shen Mei answered easily, already imagining the reason for this question.

"How long would it take exactly for the target to be able to flee the scene?" Nikolai asked and patiently waited for Shen Mei's answer, which didn't take long and even put a smile on his face that couldn't be seen due to the helmet.

"The moment someone from the penthouse noticed some kind of commotion, they would call a helicopter to pick him up. Based on that information you have about three and a half minutes before Pedro Alcântara manages to get away."

Nikolai then activated 'Detective' mode and looked up to review his options. In addition to the guard on the staircase, there were 20 more on the thirty-ninth floor, heavily armed, and on the roof there were 10 more guards among 15 civilians, all of whom were women.

Nikolai would need to quickly eliminate the guards on the thirty-ninth floor, break into the penthouse and eliminate the other ten while ensuring the safety of the fifteen women on the premises. All this in three minutes and thirty seconds before a helicopter arrives and takes its target away, something extremely difficult for a common agent to do.

"All good. Three minutes is more than enough." Nikolai said confidently as he prepared to fight, positioning himself in the guard's blind spot on the staircase which wasn't too difficult since he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.

"You know that if you fail, the onus is on me, correct?" Shen Mei asked in her usual tone, she wasn't mad or bothered by Nikolai's confidence. She just made it clear that if he failed in the mission and she took the blame, Shen Mei would punish him for it.

"Have I failed you before?" Nikolai asked in a joking tone, but Shen Mei didn't answer for the simple reason that she didn't need to. He'd never really failed her, and today wouldn't be the first time that had happened.

"I will prepare the extraction." Shen Mei said it simply and Nikolai smiled at that, enjoying the trust she always placed in him. Nikolai then quickly knocked the guard down on the staircase with a heavy blow to the neck that knocked him unconscious, finally clearing the passage to the thirty-ninth floor.