Chapter 17: Priority Alpha Final Part.

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(General P.O.V)

Fury's grave tone convinced Thor to stay back and at least listen to what the other man had to say.

Though he hated politics, Midgard was still under his protection.

Thor could put his pride to the side when it came to safeguarding the lives of innocents.

Fury wasted no time.

"As you are all aware, The Cabal were defeated and taken down by this kid."

An image of Billy appeared on the screen.

"How is he by the way? He never came in when the rest were getting cured of the gamma virus."

Banner asked from his seat, in between Falcon and Hawkeye.

Fury frowned.

"Troublesome. Hill tried to approach him but he blew her off and flew away."

"Wow. I'm surprised someone said no to SHIELD."

Falcon cut in.

"My people are out looking for him."

Fury assured, seeking to move past that particular subject.

"No need. I know where he is."

Tony said with a slightly mocking smile.

Fury brushed away the obvious dig at SHIELD's inability to stay ahead of Stark.

"Back to the matter at hand, we found something after accessing Iron Skull's suit of armor. Communications with Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker."

Hawkeye sat up straighter.

"A well known activist. Head of many charity programs all across Europe and Asia."

"Guess we know what he gets up to in his spare time. Anyone in 'communications' with Skull is bad news."

Tony remarked.

"Strucker has been hiding his affiliations with Hydra well. The information we came across, however, paints him as more than just a high ranking figure under Iron Skull. We've linked him to at least dozens of felonies and terrorism. He led one of Hydra's cells. Occupying the same position as...

"Alexander Pierce."

Cap guessed.

"Exactly." Fury nodded.

"Widow?"

Black Widow stepped up.

"Strucker managed to steal the scepter from under Shield's nose 2 years ago."

She waved a hand across the holographic screen.

2 photographs appeared before them.

One showed an older man dressed in a navy blue suit and another showed a middle aged man with a rifle in his hands.

"Strucker and his second in command, List. They have been using the Scepter's powers to experiment on many human volunteers in an off the books HYDRA Research Base hidden in Sokovia."

"Let me guess, they hope to create super soldiers. An army that will serve Hydra."

Cap sighed, gripping the edges of the table tightly enough to leave impressions.

"Bad guys have a hard on for world domination. Their goals never seem to vary that much."

Barton shook his head.

"We need the Scepter back. And any research material you can find."

Fury informed them.

"Research material? Why? So that Shield can create it's own version of enhanced soldiers?"

Tony questioned, narrowing his eyes.

Fury held his gaze unflinchingly.

"Remember what I said, Stark. Shield doesn't work like the Avengers. My hands are tied on some things."

"No, I agree with Tony. If you're sending us in, then it's a rescue and destroy mission. Shield can't be trusted with whatever Hydra has been working on."

Cap informed Fury, making it abundantly clear there wouldn't be a compromise.

Fury's jaw tightened.

"And the Avengers can?"

Then Tony said something that he would come to regret.

"Of course. Unlike you, we don't seek to control the world, we Avenge it."

(Billy's P.O.V)

4 days.

That's how long it took till I was healed enough to start moving.

Let alone practice my more physically intensive abilities.

These 4 days would have been boring and long if I hadn't had something to occupy my time with.

I spent the mornings working on my mind scape.

A few things had become apparent though. The method I used was flawed. It didn't allow any flexibility or creativity.

It would have been sufficient for any normal person and it brought with it a few benefits.

clarity and reinforced memory being chief among them.

But to me, it felt limiting. I didn't simply want a skill that would help me remember things.

No, I wanted security measures, increased control, free and malleable thinking.

The last was mostly because of two skills I stumbled upon once I tore down the initial mind palace I had begun working on.

The two skills were, Cold focus and Overclock.

The first allowed me to enter a state of complete concentration. I couldn't get distracted. Either by pain or emotions. Everything was muted.

It would come in handy when I needed complete focus on something.

The second skill, Overclock allowed me to speed up my thinking.

And I was well on the way to creating mind partitions where I could focus on many strings of thought at the same time.

Infact...

I dove into my mind, appearing in a verdant green land that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

The land gave way to an ocean on the left and a mountain range on the right.

A small village-town was constructed along the shore with high walls meant to stop any invading force.

The town was separated into different sectors all leading up to a large medieval castle, complete with huge crossbows, energy canons and other forms of armament on top of the castle walls.

Mental apparitions moved through the town like normal people, dressed in a variety of clothing.

Most of it matched the same medieval setting as the town.

Mental apparitions were the basis of mind partitions. They were just creations devoid of will that programed to act how you would expect villagers to act.

I flew over the town, admiring the apparitions I had set to expand my mind-scape.

Most would assume that my memories were stored in castle.

A particularly smart telepath might guess they were stored in one of the many unimpressive houses in the lowest sectors of the town.

They would all be wrong.

I flew past the town and stopped in mid-air above the ocean.

My memories were actually contained in the infinite drops of water in the ocean.

This was my library of memories. A sea without limits.

I blinked my eyes open in the real world, floating off my bed and towards the fridge.

Opening it, I couldn't help but curse.

I had ran out of food. To be specific, my stash of instant noodles.

To be honest, it was supposed to have ran out 2 days ago, if it weren't for a few unexpected guests.

My classmates had decided to check on me after I had missed school for 3 consecutive days.

Peter and Ned had arrived at my apartment with Peter carrying a dish of his Aunt's signature casserole.

Upon enquiring why I hadn't come in the past three days, I cited an injury, telling them I'd slipped on the stairs while coming down.

The overall deplorable state of the apartment complex assured they believed me.

But still, they had been concerned.

Something that had both annoyed and made me grateful.

Annoyed because I was sure the school had policies about giving out people's addresses( I was sure Peter has snuck in and just stolen it) and grateful because now I had something I could eat for two days!

The gesture was touching though and we ended up playing a couple of DnD rounds before they left.

I didn't have the heart to tell them I wouldn't be coming back. The plan was to graduate early and begin working on ensuring I survived Thanos arrival.

It was currently 2015...I didn't have a lot of time.

That aside, I couldn't rely on Pete's goodwill for food, so tonight I had decided to go out.

It was time to introduce Shazam! to the outside world.

The plan was to kick a few bad guy butt, then help myself to their ahem...ill gotten goods.

Drug dealers always carried cash right? I mean all of fiction supported the thought so...

*******

I cleaned up and left the apartment, moving straight towards the abandoned factory that I had made my training yard.

My mind was occupied by a couple of things besides the fact that tonight would be my official debut.

There was the matter of having a superhero costume. I couldn't go out to fight crime in a hoodie and jeans...

Or could I?

I stopped in mid-air to think over the idea that had just sprouted in my mind.

I didn't have the necessary funds to get something effective like Kevlar and any other tough material that would protect me.

Good thing that I had my Psionic shield to protect me from bullets and piercing damage.

Better yet, I could repurpose Atuma's cape and use a leather jacket I had, to make something passable in the eyes of the public.

There was a pair of common hiking boots back in my apartment, that could take the place of durable foot-ware before the superspeed kicked in.

For now my costume didn't have to be anything fancy. Spiderman went out in a red hoodie back when he was starting out after all.

I continued on my journey, happy with the feeling of progress. My debut would mark a milestone for me. I had been in Marvel for two weeks now.

And in those two weeks, I'd come across vampires, one of my favorite superheroes and even fought Supervillains.

Not a bad start.

I arrived at the abandoned factory and slipped in unnoticed.

Once inside, I turned on Cold Focus. My entire mind and body was focused on training.

The training regiment usually begun with me working on my multitasking skill.

I had to juggle different things with Telekinesis in a randomized pattern without letting them clash into each other.

Moving around marbles had stopped being a major challenge so I leveled up to basically juggling around heavy objects like a tank filled with water, long and huge chains and the rusted machinery.

This was much harder and I could already feel a strain as I controlled the huge chain to swim in the air around my body.

*******

"ETA 5 minutes, to drop point."

Black Widow informed the others.

"Thats our cue goldilocks, Wings."

Iron Man told Thor and Falcon.

"Don't call me wings."

Falcon grumbled as the Quinjet's hanger doors opened.

A cold gust of wind blew in.

"Tony, remember rescue...and destroy. Besides the Scepter, everything else goes up in flames."

Captain America reminded Iron Man.

The tech hero said nothing, merely turning on his boot engines and flying away.

"Meet you on the ground friends!"

Thor swung his hammer and flew out as well.

"Suddenly, I feel underdressed for this."

Falcon complained before jumping out of the Quinjet and into the frigid air of Sokovia.