CHAPTER 68

[Draul St. Cross POV]

It was the third week of November before I got the location of where I was looking for.

Lake Alkali. 

I had been scrolling past pictures of different lakes that had dams near them before I got to it. 

It wasn't that I was able to find the resemblance between it and that of the movie, but rather the name that jogged my memory of it. 

The moment I got the lead, I was tempted to call Fury and see if they had anything on that base but I stopped such thoughts. 

Fury already had his plate full with the council as both parties were watching each other like hawks so I didn't want anything that would rattle who wasn't involved and have them make it a whole new level of mess. 

I told Bucky and Steve and had them get ready because we would be leaving in a few days and given that this was an apocalyptic-level threat, I had Steve contact Logan to see if he would want to help. 

The three of us alone would not be able to defeat the Sentinels, which was more true if they had been upgraded, and that was also not mentioning the numbers we were to face. 

The best way to defeat the Sentinels would be to use the Master Mold to shut them down, which was easier said than done. 

It was also for this reason that he didn't want to call Fury. Humans wouldn't be able to do anything to the Sentinels, so having guns, military and spy training was useless against them which exempted the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and the Widow sisters. It would have also exempted Bucky and Steve but they were super soldiers – the 'super' obviously stood for something. 

This fight was going to be very hard. 

Hopefully Stryker did not have the time to create many of them but who was I kidding? Since when has anything ever gone my way since I arrived at this world? And while I wouldn't want to jinx it by saying it couldn't get worse, I really hoped it wouldn't get worst… I just realized that I jinxed it regardless. 

I didn't know who else to call except for the X-Men since this was as much their problems as it was mine. Hell, it was everyone's problem but most wouldn't care because of… well ignorance. 

"What are you working on?" Clint walked inside my workspace with a towel around his neck which gave me the assumption that he had been working out with the other resident soldiers. 

"Not much of a work is being done other than thinking myself to mental closedown." I sighed as I leaned back into the chair. 

"The Sentinels?"

"The Sentinels."

"They are that strong huh?" He asked as he took a seat on one of the chairs  while facing me. 

"Very. I don't know what would happen if we were to fail. To be honest, we'll be going in severely undermanned." This was giving me even more problems than HYDRA ever did. 

There was a reason the Sentinels had me this spooked. I knew for a fact that the only reason we were able to win was that those Sentinels were old models, like 20th century old. I also didn't miss the fact that Magneto could control them, albeit with some difficulty, but the problem was that those were the OLD model. He wouldn't be able to do that with the new ones, that I was sure of.

It was also the reason I tried looking for Stryker when we were back in Russia, hoping he was holed up somewhere but unfortunately he wasn't, or maybe I just didn't find him but my bets were on the former. 

It was only the thoughts of fighting those Sentinels that kept me from going to Lake Alkali and separating his head from his body. 

"Oh man. What the hell is this world turning into? And it hasn't even been a whole year yet." Clint whined which made me chuckle. "If there is nothing for you to do here, then it's better to take a break now and cool off your head. Do something else other sitting in here all day." Clint advised me before he got up and left the room. 

"Take a break huh? Sounds like a good idea." I muttered to myself and left the room. 

… 

I walked through the streets of New York with a cap on my head along with a black tee and camo shorts. I hadn't been able to do this recently because of Trask and his Sentinels being out there. 

It was almost like a pattern now. 

It would take me a few months, actually just one, to rest before I was thrown into one of the dipshits of this universe so I had grown to enjoy these little things. 

I didn't take my car since it would make the whole thing redundant as I didn't have anywhere in particular to go and I'd rather not stress myself at the wheels. 

It had taken me two hours of walking in zigzag lines before I found myself in front of a place I remembered, Charlie's bar. 

This place filled me with a sense of nostalgia. It was like I could look down the road and see my younger self walking towards the bar, ready to make a small buck and live his life in peace but that wasn't me anymore. 

I wasn't filled with great ambitions nor did I have a glorious dream to fulfill, none of that I had. There was not a wish I wanted grant, nor was there a belief I had with unwavering hope. At the end of the day, I was just me. Nothing more, nothing less. 

I was still the same man who came here every evening and went to the gym in the morning but what was different about me was the experience and the powers I had. 

People change, true. But what was truer was that they hardly do. 

I was still the same person I was, maybe a little different, both money and power hadn't changed me yet. And while I knew money never would, I wasn't so sure about power. 

I pushed open the doors to the bar and stepped in. All I received was a few glances before everyone minded their business and the reason for that was the way I was dressed. With the muscles and get-up I had on which looked military, I looked like a taller and more kickass version of John Cena. 

I walked to the bar and took a stool as I thought about what to order. 

"Can I get you something mister?" I was brought out of my thoughts as I heard a familiar voice. I turned my head only to see Natasha, or was It Natalia, working the bar. 

"Your order, sir?" She asked again with clear professionalism in her tone which just made me rub my temples. "Whiskey. On the rocks."

"Coming right up!" She said with a small smile on her face before she turned to pour the drinks. 

I threw away any thoughts of why she was working here out of my mind since it was definitely a coincidence that she did. 

Natasha passed me my drink, "Leave the bottle", and went to attend to the other customers, some of whom were just trying to flirt with her… scratch that, most. 

I sat on the chair as I continued chugging on my brown serum until I felt a presence in front of me. "What?"

"Nothing. Just figured you could use a talk since you looked like you got something on your mind." She said a disarming smile on her face which made me call bullshit. 

"How you figured?" I refilled the glass and took another sip. 

"It's been less than fifteen minutes and that bottle is halfway gone. Plus you looked absent-minded." She said with a shrug. 

I looked at the bottle and found out that what she said was true.

'Blasted high tolerance.'

If I was a normal person then that amount would have knocked me over and out. 

"Yeah trust me, you don't wanna know." I said while I continued sipping my liquor. 

"Try me." She said before ticking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. I frowned at her actions, did she want some kind of information from me or was she just flirting? I just shrugged when I realized that I didn't care for both if it was any of what she was doing. 

"… I'm trying to stop a global racial genocide… or is it globacide?" I said absentmindedly. I turned to look at her and she had an indescribable stoic yet disbelieving expression on her face before she just took the bottle, poured herself a drink, chugged it down and left to attend to other customers. Talk about being rude. 

I just shrugged and continued my liquid ritual. 

"Good riddance."

…

I ended up staying at the bar for more than three hours because they had a game on and the joyous atmosphere was something I missed a lot so I just sat at a table with some other guys and just enjoyed myself as the hours rolled by. 

I was ten minutes out of the bar before I heard a call for me. "Wait up!" I turned to see Natasha walking towards me. 

"And here I thought you were waiting for my shift to finish?" She said before sending me a wink. 

"Is there any reason why I would want to do that?" The moment she got to me, I started walking. 

"Maybe not, but most people would." She said. 

"Right. But I'm not most people am I?"

"Are you saying you are different?" She asked with an amused smile but I shook my head. 

"No, I'm the same. Deep down everyone is, but the difference would be that I don't need anything from you. Not even this conversation." I didn't have anything against Natasha, but then again I didn't have anything for her. It was just plain neutrality. 

She fell silent as I said that even her expression lost the smile she had and with it gone came calmness as if all the smile and sunny personality were all a lie – which it was. 

"Why did you save us?" She asked, likely referring to the girls from the Red Room. 

"Was that the reason for all the chumminess? You could have just asked, you know?" I wasn't that scary that she couldn't ask a simple question was I? 

She looked at me for a while before she said. "First of all, it is called flirting, at least that's what they call it nowadays. As for the second… Well that's just for me to know."

I snorted at that and kept quiet until she asked again. "So?"

"No particular reason." Her eyes narrowed at that and I could tell she didn't believe me one bit. "It wasn't a mission if that is what you are wondering, nor did I receive some cry for help like some angel would. I had just fought the Sentinels and because the dude behind it got away and Magneto also got way so I was kinda pissed until I remembered 'Hey! There's some big bad organization that targets children here in Russia. How about I take my frustrations out on them?', and then that happened?"

She looked at me for a while, trying to catch any hint of a lie which she didn't and I doubt she could if I really was lying, before she let out a breath and asked me again, but with a different context. 

"So?"

"So there was no profound reason behind my actions other than the fact that I was butt hurt. So don't go try looking for one. This isn't a Disney story." It is, but she didn't need to know that, no one did, and definitely not Disney since they exist in this world too. 

'Wait! If Disney owns Marvel and they are still in this world, does that mean they legally own everything and everyone in the entire Marvel multiverse?'

She let out a deep breath of foggy air since it was getting colder by the day before she looked up to the sky. "So the person who saved me and my sister, the person who I should feel grateful to…"

"Did it because he was pissed that he couldn't use Magneto's helmet to make a better cowl for Captain America. No biggies… It was just another day in Moscow after all." I said and gave her a smile. 

Although she was one tough cookie, she was still just 20 years old with three years, or maybe less, of being the Black Widow under her belt. While she was definitely the Black Widow from the MCU, she was still younger than her decades old counterpart from canon. 

She laughed for a while before she turned to me and said, this time with a genuine smile on her face, "I know I've said this a few times before, but for what you did for me and my sister, thank you."

"No problem. But a word of advice for the future – don't tag your supposed benefactors. It's kind of a deal breaker if they found out." I said to her, but contrary to my expectations she just shrugged off the accusation like a fish in water. 

"A girl's gotta make sure y'know." She gave a wink. 

"Damned redheads." We both laughed at that. 

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Read ahead at patreon.com/Draul_TheOminous.