Chapter 8

Inside the building we run into two guards immediately. I take one and Nat gets the other, bringing my total up to 12. After taking out the guards we dragged them to the side and hid them.

"Ok Nat, What's the plan?"

"We need to go quickly. The element of surprise is on our side for the moment. Keep your head on a swivel and stay focused."

"Got it."

With that we head deeper into the building. As we get further in we can hear crying, it sounds like children. "I don't like this Nat."

"Me either." She checks her gun. "Make em pay."

I nod and we rush in. The only thought in our heads is to save these people as fast as we can. It only took us a couple seconds to reach the main holding area for to "product" but to me it felt like hours. All I could think of is my past life and how it was always a fear of mine to have my kids taken.

When we see the cages of people I froze. The inhuman actions that have taken place here fill me with rage. Children and women were locked in cages, all tightly packed together. They had no room to sit or move. Kids were crying and the women that were locked with them looked like they had given up on life. Dirt, shit and piss covered all of them and the smell was horrible.

In that moment I snapped. I saw the people that were guarding their "merchandise" and moved faster than I ever had before. The knuckles in my hands made short work of the 7 guards. Each hit landed hard and I aimed for the head. The heads exploded like ripe watermelons. Blood and gore covering me as I moved. I might as well had been a speedster to these guys. I killed them all in less than 4 seconds.

After the last goon I stood there breathing heavily. "Zach. Are you ok?" Nat came up and grabbed my hand, concern in her eyes.

I sighed. "No Nat. I'm not. This shit really bothers me."

"Yea... I can see that." She looks around. "Just focus on the fact that you save all these people."

"Yea. That helps." I hug her close. "Thanks Nat."

"Yea... uhm could you stop? Not that I don't like the hug but you're covered in gore."

I chuckle and leave to let the prisoners out. Nat looked around and found some paperwork in an office that was off to the side. "What ya find Nat?" I asked while helping a little girl get clean.

"These bastards have another 2 warehouses just like this. I'm gonna call Fury and let him know. We need to hit them fast and with just the two of us we won't be able to finish this mission."

"Alright. Let's head out."

The cops had already arrived and checked our credentials. We showed the special badges that SHIELD gave us and leave. In the car I check my updates.

Status: You have killed 19 disgusting villains and gained 1900 exp!

Ding!

Status: You have gained 2 levels!

I then open my stats sheet to see where I want to put those points.

Stats

Name: Zachary Brown

Age: 18

Level: 5

Exp: 750/800

STR: 25

DEX: 24

AGI: 23

DUR: 22

VIT: 31

INT: 21

WIS: 21

Stat points: 17

I decide to bring my Str and Dex up to 31 then dump the last 4 points into Dur.

Ding!

System: You have passed a threshold in Str. Your Super Strength has improved!

Improved perk:

Super strength: Your strength is now Str times 200.

Nice. With this we should be able to take out the other warehouse fast. Lucky for us the site we were going to was only about 10 min away.

This time the number of guards outside totaled 15 and I sped through killing 10 of them. Inside we followed the same plan as before. Going slow and quiet we enter the warehouse. The same scene greeted us here. More women and children living in disgusting conditions. The rage I felt earlier was not as prominent this time. Seeing it once has not made me numb but I am able to control myself better.

I again speed through faster than the last time and kill all the guards here. My focus made me take turns faster than before. There were 10 in total and honestly, I am a little upset. I'm not upset about killing such trash, I'm upset that they got such quick clean deaths. You can't feel the pain of your deeds if your head explodes after all.

Once everything was over Nat and I just sit down and wait. All the captives are free and safe so now we need to just decompress. To take my mind off of what just happened I decide to check my system. I got 2000 exp and another two levels. I sat and pondered what I want to do with my stats for a while.

I was brought out of my inner thoughts by a little girl and boy that we had rescued.

"Hey mister?" The little girl asks me.

I immediately give her my full attention. "What can I do for you sweetheart?"

"Are we safe now?"

I almost break down and cry right there. "Yes dear. They're all gone now."

She nods her head in a serious manner. "Good. So..." She trails off.

"Go ahead. You can ask me anything."

"Well... this is my brother and... we were in an orphanage. Do we have to go back?"

Wow... How shitty. No parents and then this? I mean I can only imagine the trauma. "I don't know honey... but I'm sure we could help find a loving family for you."

She looks a little sad at this. "Ok sir."

"Call me Zach."

"Yes sir." She says. Damn she's just adorable. Then she turns back to me. "Thank you for saving us Zach!" She now has a big smile on her face and heads over to the police that showed up.

Nat turns to me. "SHIELD just texted me. We can leave, we will just debrief at home."

"Ok lets go."

I get up and head out. It was odd as we left. The hostages kept thanking us as we walked by. I can't say I didn't like it but at the same time the circumstances did not make me feel good. After we get to the car Nat starts it up and we head back up to New York.

The drive back was uneventful and we made decent time. Neither of us talked on the drive back. We switched places driving again and reached New York right before night fall. We headed straight to HQ and debrief quickly. It took maybe 30 min to finish up.

After all that we head back to our apartments and go to sleep.

The next day I wake up and go back to my normal routine. I need some sense of normalcy after that. I hadn't added any stat points yet as I wanted to build up a little buffer of stat points from doing more missions. Lucky, or unlucky depending how you look at it, Nat and I were benched for a week unless something important came up.

The week dragged on for me. I would get up early and head to HQ to train. I made continuous improvement in my fighting skills and was at the point that I was on equal footing with Nat. I also started learning a new language. I decided to start with Russian, always wanted to learn that language. I also upgraded my apartment from the bonus for doing the mission. That bonus netted me a whopping 50 grand and I gotta say, my place is pretty swanky.

New couch, TV, bed as well as a premium espresso machine. The espresso machine had Nat coming over every morning. Speaking of Nat, we had grown closer after the mission we went on. Something about dangerous and traumatic events really brings people together. Well not that dangerous for me but still traumatic.

Another new thing was that I had maxed out all the machines at HQ when it came to working out. Unfortunately for me the max weight that all the machines can hold aren't even half of what I can do now. I don't even break a sweat anymore!

After the week passed Fury set us up for another mission here in New York. Apparently, the mafia is still alive and well here and they like to distribute drugs. Like a lot of drugs and to minors too. Kids that would be ruining their lives in the fastest way possible.

The OP wasn't very hard and I had Nat be my lookout. I wasn't in the mood to take things carefully so after we figured out where their base of operations was I zipped in and knocked everyone out. After everyone, about 35 people, was incapacitated I had to pause for a minute. I mean these guys were doing one of my big no no's, so why didn't I kill them? I think it's because there were no kids there being hurt. Yea... now that I think about it that makes sense.

This netted me another 3500 exp and one level. Yea just one. See my exp is doubling every level so now that I am level 8 I need 6400 exp to get to level 9. I can already see that the trudge to become strong will be long and annoying.

The next week I was another boring wait before going on another mission. My life is starting to feel like ground hogs' day. Every day was working out, studying and waiting. I was ready for the main story to start already. I just had to keep telling myself that good things come to those who wait.

The missions kept coming and I kept gaining in levels. None of what I was doing was hard. Every mission was filled with low level thugs with no powers. So that was nice.

It is now May 2010 and some things have change and Tony has already been taken. I gotta say SHIELD has been going crazy trying to find him. I however bought enough stocks in STARK enterprises that when he comes back I will never worry about money again.

While SHIELD was focused on Tony we had no missions since he was priority numero uno. This led to me being super bored. I had gained 75000 exp and was now level 11. I sat on my couch and pulled my stats up thinking about what I wanted to do with the stat points I had.

Stats

Name: Zachary Brown

Age: 18

Level: 11

Exp: 30850/51200

STR: 31

DEX: 31

AGI: 23

DUR: 26

VIT: 31

INT: 21

WIS: 21

Stat points: 42

I am not too worried at the moment of having my mind messed with so I will bring my Agi and Dur up to 31 and go from there.

Ding!

System: You have passed a threshold in Agi and Dur. Your Speedster and Bullet Proof has improved!

Improved perks:

Bullet Proof: You are as bullet proof as a howitzer tank.

Speedster: You now have a top speed of 20xAgi.

I figure I should bring my Vit to the next tier as well.

Ding!

System: You have passed a threshold in Vit. Your Healing Factor has improved!

Improved perk:

Healing Factor x 16: Your body heals at a rate 16 times faster than a normal human.

I feel as if soon I will hit something amazing once I get to the next tier of Vit. I also figure that I should increase my Str to the next tier and dump the rest in Dur. I am after all a fist fighter, so it makes sense. Don't want to be caught lacking when shit goes down.

Ding!

System: You have passed a threshold in Str. Your Super Strength has improved!

Improved perk:

Super strength: Your strength is now Str times 400.

I clench my fist and can literally feel the air escaping from my fist, crating a mini boom from the pressure. With this I feel ready to face off with the first main villain in the MCU. I will not be sitting any fight out if I can help it.