Chapter 146
One week later.
"Looks even bigger in real life," Rin said, squinting as he looked at the skyscraper Ulysses Klaue had turned into his fortress.
"Wouldn't be any fun if it was easy to break into," I said.
Every inch of the building was covered in state-of-the-art security and weapon technology, some so advanced that they weren't even on the market yet.
Madripoor was the Singapore of the MCU, and it was where the worst turned to when the world rejected them. Here, they couldn't be extradited, arrested, or judged, but they did abide by a basic rule—everything was permitted as long as you kept the peace.
Don't, and the city's most powerful players will descend and annihilate you.
Rin and I were about to break their cardinal rule spectacularly. Luckily, I hit like a fucking truck now, and Rin was not far behind.
"How do you gentlemen want to play this?" Natasha asked. Fury had asked her to babysit us, and she was only too happy to oblige. Reading her mind, I knew she intended to test me somehow, and I was happy to let it happen.
Anything to get the soldiers I needed.
"I say we go through the front door," Rin said, smashing his fist together. He wore a set of modified gauntlets I'd made for him. They were covered in Impact and protection runes.
"What? Tired of losing every spar?" I teased, and he made a face.
"It's not a fair fight and you know it," he protested. "You're always changing things up."
"And you can absorb energy, I don't see the problem."
"Do you always bicker like this?" Natasha interjected.
"Pretty much," I said with a shrug. To be honest, I, too, was itching for a good fight, but Klaue's men weren't going to provide it unless we ran into something interesting up there.
"You know I could just phase up there and demand Klaue unlock the safe where the Vibranium is stored. It'll save us a lot of time."
"Why not just do both?" Natasha suggested. "We split up and meet in the middle. You go high, and he goes low."
I raised a brow. "And you planning to stick down here or come up with me?"
"I think I'll stick with the kid," she said. "I don't know much about Rin. I'd like to change that. Besides, I'd at least, be able to back him up in a fight."
That was only half the truth. She was trying to divide us and tap Rin for information. He was young, hormonal, and not very bright, in her opinion. He was an easy target. If she got him talking, Natasha bet she could get him to open up about a weakness, plan, or ulterior motive she could exploit if it came down to it.
It was a shame none of my weakpoints were actually weak. As for the big picture plans; no one except Jean was privy to them.
It'd still be amusing to watch her stumble all the same. I even had a 'weakness' lined up for her to discover.
"Fair enough," I said, summoning a pair of Bracers covered in protection runes. She caught them easily.
"This don't exactly go with what I'm wearing," she said. We were all dressed in streetwear.
"Rin seems to be rocking his well enough." His metal gauntlet looked especially out of place with his black V-neck long-sleeved shirt and loose pants.
She threw me a stare that communicated just how unflattering she found that comparison.
"It's for your protection," I explained. "Just believe you're safe and you will be."
"It this another one of your strange magic armors."
"That's technically a Bracer," I said with an obnoxious smile and waved. "Rin will fill you in on the rest, and oh let him take point. You're a world-class agent, Nat, but you're still very squishy. Let him take the heat, he can handle it."
Before she could complain, I activated Angel Evade and turned intangible.
"He does that sometimes," Rin said sheepishly, obviously feeling the need to explain my behavior.
'She's going to try and get in your head,' I sent to Rin telepathically. 'Don't let her.' 'Thankfully, the kid didn't flinch and tip her off. He was used to my mental intrusions by now. And just like Jean did, I kept a mental tether to him for his good.
He needed to be able to access me whenever especially if we were on a mission. I won't see him hurt again.
'Copy that, boss,' Rin sent back with a smirk.
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised," Natasha sighed. "Dante has always been…odd. So, it's your mission. How do you want to start?"
Rin blinked.
"We…ugh…go through the front door I guess."
I chuckled at the exchange as I scanned the high rise and started to prep myself.
First, I triggered Density Decrease which granted me a passive 40% speed buff in exchange for lowering my weight by a third and nerfing my strength by 20%.
Next, I activated Gust at full capacity and leaped, which threw me about 10 floors into the air.
I was going to the thirtieth floor, so it was not quite enough. My legs glowed red as I channeled my newest Unified skill, Advanced Burst.
(R)Advanced Burst (Adept)
Release demonic energy in a concentrated Burst. Energy discharged can be slowly released, spread out or focused, and charged for a greater effect or released quickly. Five instances of Burst can be stacked concurrently before release.
Cost and damage depend on charge time.
The skill combined the best parts of Burst and Focused Shot into a powerful pseudo-manipulation skill. The skill held onto what made Burst and Focused shot so powerful while shoring up on their weaknesses.
I let off two instances of a mid-sized Burst, each costing about 20DE. The air cracked, and suddenly, I was looking through the window of the 30th floor.
Angel Evade faded and Ophion shot out, weight augmented greatly by Density Shift. It impacted with a boom, digging through the bomb-proof window of Klaue's penthouse.
The claws didn't get far in, but it was just enough leverage to quickly shift direction and yank myself toward the glass.
Eryx covered my fist just before I impacted the glass, carrying four small-sized bursts funneled into the knuckles of the gauntlet.
I Quintipled the weight of the glove just before the impact to make it more devastating.
The punch landed squarely at the center of the claw marks Ophion had made earlier, exploiting the weakness.
The glass imploded with a resounding crash, and the destruction rippled outward, destroying the windows of the two floors above and below.
I dove through the devastation with no small measure of satisfaction and landed in a corridor covered in vibranium, strange markings, and sealed-off compartments. I heard a loud hiss and a wall dropped, sealing off the broken window.
---
Rin's POV
"Woah," Natasha exclaimed as a Reddish purplish Shield manifested before her. It was covered in strange, complicated patterning and words that burned your eyes when you looked at them too long.
"Finally," I said, pushing off the wall.
"How is any of this possible?" she asked, and I shrugged.
"Dunno. The boss is the blacksmithing genius. Ask him. All I know is that he comes up with this ultra-cool stuff and he just hands them to me to break."
"You're not the least bit curious?"
"Why would I be? The boss is never wrong and he looks out for us. Why would I rock the boat?"
Natasha blinked, clearly off-balanced by my words. Dante had told me about Natasha's backstory. She had a past very much like mine and had been rescued by a friend who later became his partner.
She knew the value of somebody who was in your corner unconditionally.
I hoped Dante's relationship would reach the level Natasha and Clint had, but for now, I was just the screw-up kid he'd been dragging around since the day he met me.
I'd hoped beating him would change his mind, but given how quickly he grows. I doubt I'd be catching up anytime soon.
The alternative was impressing him, and this was my opportunity to do just that.
"You might want to keep those Shields up. Things are about to get serious."
I started out with a stride that quickly shifted to a jog and a full sprint. Several yells went off in the building, and I heard a mechanical whirl. The double doors that led into the building swung close as multiple turrets emerged from the garden's ground, uprooting soil and shifting aside seemingly fixed stone statues and fixtures.
"Find cover!" I yelled at Natasha, but she was already moving before I spoke, sliding behind a huge statue of Klaue. He was smirking, one leg firmly planted on a chunk of ore that I assumed was supposed to represent Vibranium.
I bet the Wakandans weren't laughing.
I pulled out my new and improved revolver from my side holster. It was covered in glowing Red Runes and pointed at the turrets.
I pulled the trigger, and I felt the recoil in my stomach. A super-heated glowing red bullet speared through the metal containment of the machine gun pelting my flickering shield. The gun sputtered. A second bullet destroyed it entirely, and I shifted to my next targets and repeated myself; all the while, my shield rapidly weakened.
After taking out the third turret, Natasha peeked her head out and fired a few shots from her energy pistol at two turrets, taking them out. And I destroyed the final Turret by lobbing a demon-energy grenade at it.
The explosion bathed me and the environment around in shrapnel, and I spied Natasha's shield out suddenly.
"Are you okay back there?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, standing up. "Just saving my energy."
"Don't need to," I said as we approached the building's door. I cocked my fist back as I charged up the energy and swung. The lock holding the doors close shattered as they flapped inwards.
"The Shields are pretty durable. They can withstand anything they can throw at us."
The ground floor was deserted, and half of the lights were dim.
"Are you sure about that?" she asked, and a moment later, I heard an elevator ding. It eased open, and a large humanoid creature muscled out. It was over 10 feet tall, with long twisted horns and thick red skin.
His hands were longer than his legs and packed to bursting with muscles. They were thicker than Natasha's and my head combined, and his hind legs were twice as large.
"Oh hell."
--
I slowly turned around in the inscription-lit corridor of the floor I was trapped in, amazed. I threw a light punch into the steel wall and listened as they hummed with a resonating song.
Their nature was obvious without the test, but I had to check them to be sure. To any other invading force, they would've meant checkmate, but I was not exactly normal.
The inscriptions lining the walls, though, had me concerned.
They answered a question I'd had for the longest time, a question even Isha didn't have answers to. Klaue had never been successfully robbed, even though he'd been sitting on a ton of Vibranium for a decade.
Everybody that went after him was never heard from again. The runes on the walls explained why.
I saw an entwining set of three.
The first was designed to dampen teleportation. I recognized it from the wards Yao set up in the libraries of Kamar-Taj. The second was identical to the sets I saw in Isha's prison cell. It was designed to neutralize demonic powers.
However, these only dampen them. I could still feel the thrum of my telepathy. I'll, however, admit it was fainter than before.
"Ah…a visitor!" A cracked South African voice boomed through the walls. "It's been a while since I've had one of those?"
"I'm guessing it has something to do with your reputation," I said.
"It seemed like a great idea at the time, but it's a bit of a curse really. No one has tried stealing from me in years. Usually, mysterious deaths are a siren call to us unsavory types."
"Vibranium layered on top inscriptions," I hummed. "I'm impressed. You've got a sorcerer on staff?"
"A freelancer," he confessed. "She's a wily one. More likely to split you in half than honor a deal, but her work is second to none. It helps if you're a good lay.
I grinned. "Sounds like there's a story there?"
"You're oddly calm for somebody who is about to die," he said.
"I've been in tighter spots."
"Are you sure about that?" He snickered. "Tougher blokes than you have come into my home and tried to rob me. What makes you think you're better."
"Because I'm built different," I let out a ridiculous internal laugh as soon as I said it, but it had the desired effect.
"Built different?" Klaue sounded almost offended. "Well, we'll see, won't we?"
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