Chapter 23 – From Where!?

1st POV Makenzie

(AN: Someone recommended I try this format for the chapters. Let me know what you think.)

Sitting down at the head of the meeting table I briefly surveyed the room I was in. No windows, good circulation, and the walls didn't look reinforced.

All in all, it looked like they really did plan to talk with me instead of trying to put me in a cell.

Which is good explaining that we were on the same side after breaking out of the cell would have been much harder.

Stupid SHIELD I can't believe they wanted me to wait even longer just for them to consider approaching Solider.

How much free time do they think I have?

I had hacked into their surveillance today to see if they would finally discuss how to approach me only to find these fuckers weren't even close to making such plans.

Of course, I had planned around such a decision on their part.

Without Fury here personally the agents will follow the book and after Rumlow's death the book says to pretend you don't exist and gather information (run and hide).

It seems Coulson and Barton both have a long way to go before they can perform as well as they will in the future.

I should try and use this opportunity to force their growth. The sooner they reach their potential the better.

The question is how? Fighting won't help them much; I mean sure the more experience you have the better but at this point what needs to be trained isn't their fighting abilities but their ability to make decisions in high-risk situations.

I need to show them that following the book isn't always going to be the answer and that they should trust in their own judgements at times.

So, I need to put them in a high-risk situation with variables that won't allow them to follow their regular rules.

Hmmm, I think I've got something in mind, but it will take a lot of preparation I won't be able to afford any mistakes should something go wrong but it's the perfect opportunity to jumpstart not just their progress but all the major characters progress by at least a couple years.

Unfortunately, the operation itself would take a few years before its ready so I'll look for another smaller opportunity in the meanwhile.

"So, you said that we need to talk? What did you want to talk about?"

Coulson's voice broke me from my thoughts, and I took a quick stock of everyone at the table and realized all the agents were extremely tense with their dominant hands constantly twitching towards where they kept their guns.

Whoops I guess I got lost in my thoughts. I've noticed that lately I seem to be having some trouble keeping myself on track.

My mind will constantly drift, and I'll make and scrap dozens of plans hourly.

I might need to have Mercy run a diagnostic on me even if we only have a few instruments in my base right now.

"I've noticed your pathetic attempts at tracking me and Reyes.

After hacking into your poorly defended system, I've concluded that utilizing the manpower your organization has could be beneficial and sense we both seek the same thing, Reye's death thus I've decided that pursuing a temporary alliance is in both of our interests."

Hah, yeah right as if anyone here but Barton will be anything more than cannon fodder.

But don't worry no one will die since I'm playing both sides.

Well, no one but the HYDRA agents that occupy one half of the room were in anyway.

"Reyes? Is that his name?" Coulson spoke up after a moment of silence.

Clearly, he wanted to try and buy himself some time to consider allying with me.

Well, that's fine with me after all he knows as well as I that if he wants to play any part in Reaper's death that he needs me much more then I need him.

In my opinion this is one of SHIELD's biggest flaws. They're always on the lookout for new problems but if they just took a minute and stepped back, they'd have long found out just how corrupt their organization is.

They spent too much time trying to be the glue that held the world together and now they can't even tell that the glue has been diluted and all their "new cases" aren't anything new at all.

HYDRA has SHIELD running around in circles and honestly, I'm surprised they haven't just taken over directly.

My guess is they're either waiting till they have more of the world security council on their side or Zola is insisting that they wait for project "Insight" to finish.

"That's right. Before he took up the moniker Reaper, he was a military officer who went by Gaberial Reyes.

We both served in the same unit. It wasn't until years later after growing sick of all the corruption in the world that he decided to take things into his own hands, forsaking his code of honor for a code of violence."

Honestly, now that I have all of his memories it's hard-to-find fault in Reyes actions.

He wanted justice for the innocent, and he worked hard as a police officer, solider, and member of OverWatch to make it happen.

But none of his or the team's actions ever made a difference. Then Doomfist came along and affirmed all of his thoughts.

And how was he supposed to refute them when even OverWatch a global taskforce for good, never seemed to actually solve problems.

"There's never been a Gaberial Reyes in any known armed forces.

The United States and Russia are the only known countries to have succeeded in making Super Soldiers.

I find it hard to believe I've never heard of either you or Reyes. Also, no country on the planet has such sophisticated Military movements. Where did you two come from?"

Ah. Coulson finally getting to the important question are you. I'm sure you have your suspicions, but I might as well confirm it. First though let's get rid of the rabble shall we.

"I'm not surprised you haven't heard of us but before we continue this conversation, I believe it would be prudent that only you and your most trusted men hear this next part. Organizations like yours normally have levels, right?"

I could visibly see the stress marks that had begun to appear on Coulson's face. I had all but confirmed his theory with my words and he knew that Fury wouldn't tolerate such information getting let out.

"Excluding Barton everyone else is to leave and prepare to move locations. Only grab the fundamentals leave everything else behind."

It took about 2 minutes for the grumbling agents to exit the room. Most of them glared in my direction, their earlier fear seemingly forgotten.

I'd have to remind them that I'm not one of their agents but that can wait. With only Coulson, Barton, and myself in the room I allowed myself to relax slightly.

I was still on guard but without the HYDRA agents in the room the chances of a suicide bombing have significantly decreased.

Standing slowly to keep Coulson and Barton calm I walked over to their projector before inserting a USB.

Soon after the video of myself as Genji appearing in the warehouse began to play. I let the video play in full and allowed myself to feel pride in my performance before turning back to face Coulson.

I had gone over my reveal hundreds of times, but I've yet to find a version I felt was good enough. So, I'll try to keep it mellow and vague.

"3 months ago, my planet was destroyed.

We had been struggling against an unknown enemy for years but in the end, we failed to stop them.

In a final desperate attempt to stop them from ever destroying another planet we created a weapon capable of destroying our planet.

After the weapons launch, I don't remember much of what happened, I only remember a feeling of weightlessness and the next thing I knew I was dumped out in an alleyway on a world that looked like my own but I've long since confirmed that this isn't mind world at any point in time."

"I thought I was the only survivor but then I saw the footage from the police station, and I knew I had to do something to stop Reyes.

He was a cancer to my world; I won't give him the time to dig his claws into yours." Keeping a serious expression on my face internally I was laughing my ass off.

Their expressions were priceless. The fact they tried to hide them only made it better. Coulson's Eyebrows had shot up nearly past his hairline and he was trying to drag them back down using his facial muscles making it look like he was trying to hold in a sneeze.

While Barton had the classic mouth hanging open and eyes popping out in shock. I should do things like this more often.

Standing up I started to make my way to the door. Neither Coulson nor Barton had the power to make decisions regarding me anymore they'd need to report to Fury before they could give me a response.

Mercy will come under suspicion now, but it all works out in my favor. I've set up enough protections to keep Mercy safe even if Natasha receives the order to kill her right now.

And this will only make SHIELD more cautious of her. The only downside is that the work needed to make any of my heroes a real identity that would fool SHIELD just increased exponentially.

But that's not a big concern, I only need to find a Mutant with memory related abilities, and I'll be good to go from there.

On a side note, Echo is probably the strongest hero I have. Mercy had gotten access to some of her data so she could help run maintenance and she's OP.

Imagine a sentinel with futuristic AI level intelligence that can adapt multiple abilities at once and then store those abilities to use at a later date.

And she doesn't just copy powers she copies everything, if I meet Tony Stark as Echo, I could replace him the next day and Jarvis wouldn't have any idea.

The only thing I wasn't sure of was magic. I'd need to test if Echo could copy magic and even if she can it might be best to avoid it. From what I remember magic in marvel is granted by higher beings.

I don't need God's knowing I can use their power without permission.

So yeah, if I find a Mutant or mutate with the power, I need then I'm all good to make any of my heroes into Earth born and raised citizens.

My next priority is trying to unlock at least one more hero before taking over Kingpins empire.

Everything is going surprisingly well considering the universe I'm in... Yeah, I'll prepare another 3 emergency plans when I get back. Yeah 3 should be good.

AN: Sorry for the shorter chapter all the events I have planned next deserve their own chapter so I don't want to throw the start of an event at the end of the chapter just to make you wait another week to find out what happens and by then I might change my mind as well.

Let me know what you think of the spaced format. It was recommended in a comment, so I decided I'd give it a try in this chapter.

Lastly, I've been playing with the idea of HYDRA itself being split into multiple factions within SHIELD. I'm not sure how many I want (but not more than 3) but since I added Mutants to the situation and with HYDRA having to be more careful in their interactions with the council and SHIELD always watching I think it's a fair possibility for the group to be fractured. For now, I have a few ideas let me know what you think

A group solely dedicated to obeying Armin Zola

A group under Alexander Pierce seeking to rule the world through force

A group that has evolved past Red Skulls domination method and instead seeks to rule the world democratically and give its people true freedom.

Finally, a smaller group within all the factions that is controlled by a Mutant. I'm thinking of Emma Frost from Hell's Club but let me know if you have any suggestions on who should be the mastermind.