CH 6: LOYALTY IS NEEDED

"Jude, what do you think our mission would be this time?" The person who asked this question was wearing a black tank top and sported braided hair.

His name was Michael and his powers allowed him to turn his forearms into sharp swords. Those swords could also be expanded to make do as a shield.

As for Jude, he was the leader of the Black Flame mercenaries and as the name suggested, his powers allowed him to conjure black flames, although the limitation being he couldn't conjure any flame away from his body the flame would stop burning once he stopped touching the thing.

But his black flames were far more powerful than normal flames and didn't emanate any heat at all.

The other members of the Black flame mercenaries were, Rose the Seducer, John the Sniper, and Hammond the Tank.

Rose could emit pheromones which served different functions, paralyzing a person, making them unconscious and the one she was named after, Seducing a person. Essentially, she could make a person simp for her, but it was temporary and didn't last long.

John had eagle vision, he could easily see targets up to 2 km away clearly. As for being a sniper, he was just a veteran marksman.

Hammond had the power to manipulate the density of his fat, meaning he could make them dense enough to easily stop even AP rounds. But it also required him to eat too much. That's why even now, he was eating a pizza as well as a cake.

"I don't know Michael, maybe the usual, taking out a target or maybe something new, who knows. Anyways, it's nearly time for our employer to meet us."

Michael pressed his walkie-talkie and said, "John, do you see anybody?"

John, who was perched up on an abandoned building nearby, replied, "I think I do, it's a humanoid but they are wearing Armor. I don't think I have seen anything like it, but be careful, we don't know if he is a threat or not."

John's words made every member of the team a little more attentive, even the foodie Hammond stopped eating and stood in front of the team, Michael also did the same.

John's voice rang again, "200 meters and approaching…wait…I think he saw me."

"Huh, how?" Jude was a little amazed, John being a sniper, knew where and how to hide, nobody could just spot him easily, but the Armored man did it.

"He waved towards me, I think he is trying to inform us that he isn't a threat." John was still informing the team about the different actions of the Armored man.

Slowly, a silhouette appeared in front of the Black Flame Mercenaries, meanwhile, John had also climbed down from his perch and joined his team. Nobody wanted aggression so they didn't have their weapons out, just Hammond and Michael standing in the front with John and Ruby in the back. Jude was in the middle of his team.

Seeing their position, Marcus could easily guess how they would attack. The Fat man and the blade guy would probably move first in hopes of closing the distance while shielding their leader and meanwhile John and Ruby would distract the attacker with their ranged attacks. That would probably give Jude enough time to reach the target and touch them.

But that wasn't the only thing Marcus did, he also simulated the battle in his brain and easily came up with a way to defeat them. But that wasn't his goal from the start, instead "Don't worry, I am not hostile. This Armor is just for protection and also to hide my identity. I decided to meet you guys here for the same reason. Now, onto my request. I have a picture and an address here, I need you to go to Russia, get him to give up the blueprints of Arc Reactor, you can probably use his father for that, and then kill them both."

Judging from the modulated voice alone, Jude guessed that the man in front of them was pretty serious about hiding his identity. But he didn't care, he got his task and that was enough for him. But suddenly, he felt a little sluggish, but before he could make anything of it, he was back to normal, just with an extra subconscious thought in his mind, something made the guy in front of him quite trustworthy, he didn't know what it was but he trusted the Armored Man's word.

Unbeknownst to Jude, his whole team had the same thought, which also made them ignore the sluggishness they felt a moment ago.

Yes, Marcus had planted the seed of loyalty in their subconscious, and it would slowly bore fruit, given time. And that was also the main reason he wanted to meet the mercenaries in person. He couldn't ask Albert to do his dirty work, could he? He knew about this world better than most and he also knew how to use that knowledge, but he couldn't do it without being called a villain and getting attacked by all the heroes. That's why he decided to use his skills to cultivate his army.

Marcus returned home hidden from the sights of the guards around his mansion. He quickly entered his lab and discarded the Armor and went to his room to have a good night's rest.

Marcus had planted the seed of loyalty in all his bodyguards. If a situation arose, they wouldn't even bat an eye to sacrificing themselves for him.

Marcus had also thought of planting the seed of loyalty in Albert's mind but when he read through it, he only found the unlimited love and loyalty Albert had for him, which made Marcus discard the idea, and instead he decided to make Albert stronger too.

For the next two weeks, Marcus focused on his KI control and finally managed to reach 10%. Now, he could use his KI for enhanced defense and attack. Coating his fists and legs with KI nearly doubled his attack power and speed. He could also tank more damage if he covered his body with it. Coupled with observation haki, Marcus was now a well-rounded fighter who could easily destroy a world-class MMA heavyweight.

The next day, Marcus finally heard from Jude, who confirmed that the work was done and they had acquired the blueprints and were on their way back.

The news cheered up Marcus, who decided to celebrate by starting his work on the ATMOS (Advanced Tactical Mobile Operations Suit).

The blueprints were delivered the next day and Marcus paid the Mercenaries their due, by now, the loyalty seed had also sprouted and the Mercenaries had asked Marcus to take them under his wing.

Marcus agrees and assigned their first task to be… keep being mercenaries until he called them.

The parts for the Armor and the Arc Reactor were easy to acquire, all ordered in the name of Hunt Industries.

The next two months were spent designing the ATMOS, Marcus had added back, leg, and palm thrusters for the suit to fly and maneuver. And many different functions including mechanical camouflage and EMP resistance were added. The suit's weapons consisted of Ion thrusters, tracking bullets, micro-tracking missiles, and much more.

Still, Marcus didn't have enough time or knowledge to create the new element to make the Arc Reactor more efficient, and he had to use palladium instead. But unlike Tony, his Reactor was outside the body and thus Marcus was easily able to install resistant coatings for protection.

After spending much time learning how to balance mid-air, Marcus was finally ready for his upcoming heist.

He stored a part of No. 2 inside his custom-made USB and then sneaked out of his mansion in the middle of the night. After reaching a safe place with nobody around him, Marcus deployed his thrusters, and finally, for the first time in his life, Marcus flew.

Flying through the night sky was an exhilarating experience, one which couldn't be experienced in airplanes. Marcus flew, twisted, and turned mid-air.

Sometimes he turned off his thrusters and dived down and then suddenly turned them on to fly back up.

After flying around meaninglessly for a while, Marcus decided to head towards the Oscorp Tower. And after a few minutes of flight, he was hovering over it.

He slowly descended and turned off the thruster a few feet above the ground and did the iconic superhero landing above Oscorp Tower.