CHAPTER 71
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[Alex Walker POV]
I stared in shock as Copycat's husk of a body lay on the ground. I had no idea what had happened or how it had happened; one second, I was about to fight her, the next she transformed into me, and then, she died. It was all so fast, so sudden, and so... frightening that I didn't know what to think.
What struck me the most was not just the way she died but her screams for mercy. They were screams of pure and utter fear.
By the time I managed to come out of my state of shock, the camp, once filled with soldiers and others, was empty, with dozens of red dots fading away on the mini-map.
And the truth was, I had no energy to pursue them, emotionally speaking.
[Quest Completed: The Hunt for Project
Rewards: Weapon X research DATA, Abraham Cornelius Super Soldier Research DATA, 25.000.000EXP
By killing Stryker and not capturing some X-Subjects, some rewards have been eliminated.
]
With an ironic laugh, I sighed, sitting down on the ground.
It made sense; I had killed Stryker and eliminated almost everyone I was supposed to capture.
With an exhausted sigh, I opened a portal to Fury's office, just noticing that my magic was no longer being blocked. "I guess the witches decided to live to fight another day," I commented.
Fury, upon seeing me enter his office, smiled, "I wasn't expecting you today."
"I finished doing what you asked me to do," I said, getting straight to the point.
Fury, being who he was, read the underlying subtext of my expression. "I'll take care of cleaning this up." the super spy declared.
"Ok," I replied, opening a portal to my house; I needed a bath and a nap to erase some of what I experienced today.
Killing people was already usual for me, torturing the same. But how Copycat died, to see her vomit her whole being, her organs, her bones, her... everything, I wasn't totally prepared for that.
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After a hot bath and a two-hour nap, I got ready to pick up Natasha and Emily from school as I had promised them a week ago.
"Daddy!" Emily said, getting into the car with a smile, followed by Natasha.
"Mr. Walker." Natasha greeted me with considerably less enthusiasm compared to Emily.
"How was your day, girls?" I asked as they put on their seatbelts.
"Well, I got an A+ on my math test," Emily replied proudly, showing off her test.
"Congratulations!" I smile at her, giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"My day was, uh, pretty normal," Natasha said with just the hint of a smile.
"Well, since you both had a normal day full of routine, who wants ice cream to celebrate?" I smiled, glancing sideways at Natasha as I started the car to leave the school.
"YES!!!" Emily replied, basically screaming.
"I wouldn't mind." Natasha smiled, looking at Emily.
"Ok... so, Gelato, here we come!" I declared enthusiastically.
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After a delicious ice cream-filled afternoon, Natasha and Emily went to their respective after-school classes, Emily with The Ancient One, or bald granny as she calls her, and Natasha with a pair of former SHIELD agents I had hired to teach her how to fight.
Which left me alone, with not much to do; Hank was managing the company, the girls were busy, and I didn't want to do dungeons at the moment.
"I guess I can stick to my super soldier serum project for the time being," I said to myself as I sank into my five thousand dollar couch. "I should stop spending on Italian stuff; they are too comfortable."
Using all my willpower to get up from the couch, I walked to my lab, pulling out the data I had gained from my last mission out of my inventory.
Abraham Cornelius Super Soldier DATA.
Maybe with that, I would be able to finish deciphering the formula.
Or maybe nothing would happen, the chances were unpredictable, but for my own sake, I would not stop until I succeeded, I mean... Russia succeeded, Hydra succeeded... it would be sad if I was the only one that didn't.
Absorbing the data I had obtained. So many of the questions and problems I had had so far with the formula came to an end.
But even so, the formula was still not clear, but now, unlike before, I could see more of the picture, the image, the painting of the formula in its splendor.
I had to admit, Abraham Cornelius was a genius. His research had saved me a couple of years on my side, to the point that I could almost taste the complete formula; I could feel it brushing against my fingertips.
And to think that a single scientist managed to create this complex formula, one I was still struggling to decode, but he simply created during such a sad technological time, and during the WW2 to add salt to the injury, geniuses like him were one in a billion.
"Well, time not to sleep to see if I make progress on anything," I said with a renewed enthusiasm. With this leap of information, I felt I was closer to my goal.
"Meow?" Goose meowed, startling me a little.
"What are you doing here?" I said, grabbing the cat off the floor, "You ate my back door again, didn't you?"
Goose purred, looking proud that she had eaten my back door.
"Goose, that's bad; I've already changed forty-seven doors this month," I said with a laugh.
Goose simply purred louder, looking even more proud than before, as if smiling at the number of doors she had devoured this month only, in the end, alien or not, a cat was a cat.
"Let's go before you start throwing up door pommels on my lab." I chuckled, walking out of the lab with Goose on my arms, who continued to purr at my touch.
Maybe I could try and feed her more tuna; perhaps if I doubled her rations of premium exported tuna, she would stop eating my lab doors; who am I kidding? She just hates my lab is the only room in the house that is always closed, and cats have a thing for closed rooms; they just can't accept them being closed.