No Mercy

"Live feeds from C.C.T.Vs are online," Adam notifies straightly over the comm. "Transferring them to your personal H.U.D. Connecting to N.Y.P.D dispatch radio. I shall update you if anything comes up, sir. In the mean time, I recommend checking these following homeless shelters and poorer areas in the borough. They're where the kidnaps are usually happened."

With a nod, Wilhelm makes his way across the roofs, heading towards the designated locations that are reported with missing children. At the same instant, he catches sight of the police patrolling. He pays them no mind. Good people doing their job; no reason to bother them. Even though, the same cannot be said with the sporadic muggings and all. Put a tranquilizer dart on their neck and send an anonymous tip to the police and let them handle the rest. Simple.

Overall, the night appears quiet. But Wilhelm knows it is anything but. Except for Bones since he is, well, doing the whole 'evil must be punished' inside his head like usual—goodness' sake, keeping the spirit in check is distracting—the man in the armored suit can practically sense the buried tenseness, the ever-so evident wariness within every resident living in this neighborhood that he is nearing. Not to mention the subtleness in reinforcing the doors and windows.

It seems he is developing an ability to sense... emotions of sort without the need to transform. Yeah, very overpowered and equally useful when it comes to interrogation and detecting lies. But it is still a work-in-progress, not as powerful as Bones to be able to detect Agent Romanoff from the distance of at least one kilometer. That being said, it is the one of many signs Bones' power are merging with him, slowly but surely.

This development puts a mixed feeling in Wilhelm. On one hand, growing more powerful is a boon to deal with undoubtedly more future threats; Doom most likely will demand a rematch. But on the other hand, what if he gets out of control, or someone manages to mind-control him? Perhaps, what if that humanity he has worked so hard for to regain shatters someday?

Bones told him many things about being the God's Vengeance. One of them is the fact that the only thing keeping Spirits of Vengeance like him in check is their vessel and their humanity. Without it, Bones would go on a rampage and destroy everything, the entire planet if needed, for the name of cleansing sins. The thought terrifies him. He and Adam has been devising a contingency for himself ever since; and the A.I is currently working on it as he is working on his own case.

Wilhelm has no wish to turn New York into another Kaliningrad of his world, let alone this planet.

"Nothing out of the ordinary at the moment," Wilhelm muses with his filtered voice, "but that is just on the surface... Still, another child is gone missing during those two days working on the suit. There is a high chance that is going to happen tonight. That being said..."

Wilhelm turns to a certain Calida, who is tilting her head innocently, as he deadpans. "Just what the bloody hell are you doing here?"

The now-white-haired girl tilts her head to the other direction. "I was bored."

"So, you decided to follow me?" She nods, eliciting a sigh from Wilhelm. "Christ. What am I... ever going to do with you? You know what? Do what you want. What is the worst that can happen?"

Wilhelm knows he should not tempt with fate. But he has to say it. Meanwhile, Calida has a minute, but gratified smile. He is well-aware how much she prefers to go outside and explore the city instead feeling cooped up inside the house. Yet—she opted to stay indoors, by his side these two days when he and Adam has been working on the suit.

Well, Calida can handle herself perfectly fine. He has nothing to fear for her life, for now. The only thing that bugs him is her choosing this child-like form and fighting with him. That idea does not sit right with him, he made it clear. Then again, she can still kill him 9 out of 10 times, so...

...Christ. He might never get used to this.

"I know you can handle yourself. But do stay close to me," Wilhelm issues. "I do not like seeing you get hurt, especially now that we are after a bunch of potentially dangerous people. Also, change your hair into another color. White is too bright for the night."

Bobbing her head, Calida alters her wool-white hair into midnight-black. The girl also makes a quick change to the piercing blue eyes, turning them into a dark red, red like blood. Satisfied, Calida and Adam start hopping from roof to roof, watching for anything out of ordinary and stopping some few more petty crimes here and there along their way. He has to stop Calida from slicing up several poor bastards who cannot keep it in their pants.

It is not long until something occurs. "Will, I sense something..." Calida speaks all of a sudden, with Wilhelm turns to her. "A cry. I hear a cry... a child's."

'I too sense it, partner... We must make haste...!'

Nodding at Calida, the girl holds Wilhelm's hand and instantly wraps themselves to a different roof. He groans, feeling the same nasty ear-ringing akin to travelling through a portal, but quickly brushes it off. Wilhelm and Calida take covers on the roof, watching closely as several men who managed to subdue and knock out a kid out cold and are now dragging him into a car.

Calida materializes her sword. However, before she could do anything, Wilhelm grabs her wrist and shakes his hand. She stares at him in confusion, and more importantly in disbelief.

"Not now. We need to know if there is more to it," Wilhelm reasons quietly. "We cannot risk letting our enemies know we are on their tail at the moment. For all we know, this could be a random case, or something related to the recent kidnappings and/or the group Elizabeth mentioned."

Calida slightly grimaces, certainly does not like the sound of it. Although, she understands. She sighs and dematerializes her sword.

"Adam, pin the car. Follow and see where it leads to."

"The vehicle is pinned, sir. Adding it to your mini-map."

A red dot appears in Wilhelm's map on the H.U.D. The men close the door as they head inside the vehicle. Not turning on the lights, they silently drive off, oblivious to the two pairs of eyes secretively shadowing them. Calida makes the task easier by taking herself and Wilhelm to the air, unbothered by the combine weight of the man and his armor. Not surprising to him, but the man does find this sight to be quite comical from the point of view of a normal person.

A dozen of minutes later, the car passes through a landfill, and stops at the shore where Hutchinson River meets Turtle Cove. Wilhelm raises a brow, puzzled. Soon the car drives straight into the water, making him blink several times.

"Right. That should rule out a normal kidnapping case." The dot is still visible on the map. From it, the car is heading to... "Hart Island, huh?"

Abduction and cemetery. Wilhelm has an idea or two where this will be going, and that he is going to absolutely hate this particular night a lot.

The car emerges from the water and pulls to the shore. A man, who is dressing in a guard's uniform and armed to his teeth—way more than a simple guard should—approaches and flashes his flashlight at the running vehicle as it seemingly expels some water from the tires. The guard nods, turning off the light and speaking into his comm on his ear, confirming the identity of the passengers within the vehicle. It starts moving again, going along the gravel road towards the abandoned buildings.

They stop the car before one particular building, a barn. The front doors are being guarded by two guards; both of whom are clothing similar to the squad of black-op operators he came across several times during his time active in Eastern Germany and Poland, covered from top to bottom and leaves no room for any kind of facial identification. The guards stay still as the doors open, allowing the car to head inside before closing. The sound of engine stops, and everything turns silent. Only the winds and the melodies of the trees moving in it, and the waves crashing into the land remain.

Moments later, a wire rope wraps the neck of one guard, making him drop his assault gun and clutch the rope, as he wheezes and gasps for air. He let out a muffled cry, as he is dragged upwards in one instant. The other, realizing what is going on too late, has his neck bound by a scaled tale. He gasps, drops his gun and goes limp; his unconscious body is lifted to the air.

Wilhelm and Calida lay the knocked-out-cold bodies on the top of the barn, binding them with ropes and gagging them in case they wake up. Calida teleports to the ground and picks up the guns before she gets back up, prompting Wilhelm to use Hellfire to burn the weapons out of existence.

Wilhelm scans the barn, inside and outside. "The car is not here, must have gone underground. The doors and windows are reinforced. Forcefully break in and the whole island will come to us. Cameras and presence detectors are inside. And traps too. Quite fortified, but not enough. Adam?"

"The alert system and traps are neutralized, sir."

"They will notice these two do not answer soon," Wilhelm says, looking to Calida. "Come. We need to know who we are dealing with here and save the children in the process."

The duo drops off the roof and lands quietly on the ground. Wilhelm opens the barn doors, with he and Calida enter, prompt the man to close them. The interior is dark and barren; nothing but a few stacks of hay laying around, hiding the traps for the intruders; turret guns and all.

Quickly scanning with his sight, Wilhelm spots a near-invisible gap on the hard ground. Calida puts her arm out, and her sword appears. She inserts the gap with the tip of the blade, effortlessly prying the trap door big enough for a sedan to open. A lift, heading downwards; a dim light at the end and a roof a certain car come into their sight.

Wilhelm takes out a pellet from his belt and throws it to the barn's ceiling. Calida looks at him, then the said pellet, curious. "Plan B, in case we have to go in with guns blazing."

The girl makes a sound. Wilhelm begins descending, slowly sliding on the wall surface with both his armored fingers and boots gluing to the surface, all the while Calida simply floats down. As the two close to the light, Wilhelm stops with Calida follows suit. Distant chatters and footsteps fill the room just ahead of them; some mentioning 'this batch is ready'.

The words sound way too ominous to his liking.

"Stay here. And take this." Wilhelm pulls out a comm from his belt and hands it to Calida, who puts it on her ear. "You hearing me all right? Good. I will see what is going on first."

Calida bobs her head. Wilhelm heaves a sigh. Before long, his armored suit gradually renders itself unseen by the naked eyes, perfectly blending to its surrounding environment. Reaching the end, he drops next to the car, careful not to make any noticeable noise. With his suit's invisibility, he strides into the room—no, the hall, dodging others in the way.

Upon witnessing what is going on, Wilhelm starts feeling his blood pressure rising up. Memories of a past that he buried deep within his heart resurfaces, causing him to clench his fists in order to calm himself down, but to no avail. Children—white, black, yellow, so on—chained to their beds, gagged, with tubes all over their body; some sort of fluid is being injected into them from the IV bags.

Some tries to scream, only to be muffled by their gags, thrashing violently on the beds. Some appears peaceful, yet their eyes empty. And some are unresponsive after being injected. A few people in the white coats shake their heads at the latter group and gestures to the guards, who instantly unlock the binds on the unresponsive children and pick them up... before throwing them into a room. An arm rolls out of the said room, only to be kicked back in soon after.

Then, from the corner of his eyes, a familiar child is put to a bed, as a guard starts binding him with several men in white coats approaching him.

Wilhelm will be damned if he ever let anything happen to him.

Simultaneously, a woman bumps into him. She yelps, drawing attentions to herself, as she trips. Her glasses fall to the ground. She picks up, silently cursing, and looks up, only to turn silence as a huge shadow is casted over her. Her blood runs cold as a pair of glowing blue eyes stare straight into her, with a boot slowly raising up and above her face.

Wilhelm brings his foot down, crushing her head into tiny pieces of bones and flesh. Her blood starts splattering across the floor, gushing out nonstop from the headless body. The said body twitches, for a moment, before turning motionless.

He turns his attention to the rest, who are all stunned and horrified at the gory sight.

"What is the matter? Scared?" Wilhelm chuckles. His tone grows deep and sinister, sends chills down the spines of everyone present in the hall. "You should not be. For it is the other guy in me that you all should be afraid of."

Before everybody realizes it, all the children disappear before their very eyes.

Then, an unholy screech, piercing everyone's ears, with scorching flames emerging from the neck of the armored suit and enveloping the helmet. Then, all hell let loose.

"YOUR SENTENCES WILL BE DEATH."

The guards all open fire at him simultaneously, ensuing screams. However, some are cut down right in their spots, as a blur of black dashes across them. Calida's sword meets their fleshes, seeking their bones and tearing them apart with little to no resistance. Body parts and heads start flying, bringing the chaos to another notch.

A guard tries to shoot Calida down, yet none of the bullets find her. However, a shadow looms over him as his skin feels searing. He snaps backwards, only to come to face a wide-open metallic mouth coming straight at his face. He screams as razor-sharp teeth dig into his skull, before the entire front of his face is ripped off, exposing his brain and the inside of his mouth; blood pouring out nonstop.

Some pale at the gory execution, but still open fire. Wilhelm snaps to them, as the now skull-shaped helmet opens its newly-made mouth wide, screeching once more. Wilhelm rushes, plunging his hand through a guard's chest and crushing his heart. He switches to another, claws her throat and rips out the windpipe. Blood splatters across the helmet and sizzles upon contacting the flames. Another uses the butt of his gun to strike his face, which does nothing but pisses Wilhelm off more. The ignorant fool is thrown across the room with his neck snapped perfectly 180 degrees.

A guard attempts for a cheap shot. Which Calida thwarts the attempt and cleaves him into half. The man sends her an appreciative nod without looking at the girl. Wilhelm unsheathes his gun, firing a Hellfire-infused bullet to the man in white coat who is trying to escape. He screams and drops dead with a burnt hole on his back.

"Others should be here soon," Wilhelm states simply. "Take care of them. Be careful."

Calida nods, knowing what to do as she wraps herself away from the hall.

At the same time, other guards within the island notice the commotion, as they converge all of their force to the barn. However, as soon as they enter, the pellet beeps once, then boom. The explosion burns and kills everybody near the building, while some who stay further are knocked to the ground. As they get up, Calida appears before them with her blood-soaked sword in her hand. Both her eyes glow menacingly red in the darkness of the night.

"You shall not pass."

And she disappears and reappears in an instant, swinging her blade and marking the beginning of a bloodbath.

Wilhelm cackles sinisterly as he unleashes rain of bullets at his enemies, slaughters every sick bastard that experiment on these innocent children and throw them away when they are no longer useful; a bullet here, a bullet there; none of them are spared. That said, he leaves some alone, allows them to take cover and hide from this mess. For he is aware some are not here willingly. Their states of mind and their emotions say it all. Keeping Bones from outright murdering them is a pain in the ass.

The Spirit of Vengeance sees thing in black and white. He has to keep it grey.

Soon, everything turns quiet as the bullet hell stops, aside some whimpering and sobbing. The ones that are still alive all cower at the sight of Wilhelm's burning gaze, fearing they will be next. However, they blink as he ignores and walks past them, much to their confusion and relief. Wilhelm makes his way to a set of computers at the end of the hall, with one aged-looking man taking cover behind the desk. He tries to put a bullet in Wilhelm's head as the latter nears him, only for Wilhelm to swat the handgun away and claw his face, lifting him up to the air.

The man suddenly tenses his mouth, his tongue moving to a lower tooth. Wilhelm takes notices and pulls the said tooth out with his fingers in one swift motion, making him cry in pain.

"Cyanide pill," Wilhelm muses. "Suicide, huh? Too bad."

"Y-You are making... a big mistake, Ghost—Argghhh!" He wheezes. "We're changing the world and making it... a b-better place to live in! You're destroying... e-everything!"

"Your soul is stained with the blood of the innocents." Wilhelm growls, forcing him to look into both his eyes. "Look into my eyes, sinner! Feel their pains and their sufferings!"

The man screams at the top of his lungs, feeling his eyes burning. Before long, they transform into a pair of charcoal-like balls as he goes quiet. Wilhelm let go of his neck. He drops to the ground, with a cringing thud, sounding seemingly choking with an empty stare.

"K-Kill... kill me... K-Kill me..."

"No..." Wilhelm hisses, as he and his armored suit return normal once more, sighing. "I have a plan for you, doctor. A plan for you and your... HYDRA."

A kick to the head, and Wilhelm knocks the doctor out cold. He heaves a heavy sigh, clutching his head as he leans into the desk, processing the information he got along the Penance Stare.

"Note to self, Penance Stare... and Forced Memory Extraction do not go along very well..." Wilhelm groans, shaking his head. "Fuck me sideways. They are making an army of super soldiers. But... for what reasons?"

"That doesn't sound good. What should we do then, sir?"

"...Contact Nick Fury and tell him we just busted a HYDRA's experiment lair here."

"On it, sir."

Wilhelm breathes out. Calida appears before him with her sword nowhere in sight. A trace of blood splatter across her cheek. Which Wilhelm sighs and wipes it off with his thumb.

"Letting a child do the dirty work. Oh, how far you have fallen, Wilhelm Herrmann," he grumbles.

"Technically, I am not a child."

"I know, I know," Wilhelm says defeatedly. "It is just... You know, forget it. Everything is taken care of up there, I suppose. And the children?"

"I hid them in an empty building. Don't worry, I put detection magic on them. Anybody steps near them and I will teleport to them instantly. Although, a few didn't make it. I'm sorry, Will."

Wilhelm hangs his head, before putting a hand on her head. "It is all right. You did well. And I am sorry you had to, well, do all that."

"I'm fine, Will." Calida smiles softly, wagging her tail. "You allow me stay by your side and treat me with nothing but kindness. I'm grateful you let me follow you too, even though you didn't have to... I knew this kind of thing happens eventually, and I accepted it. Don't be sorry."

Wilhelm sighs again. "All right. Just... do not fight with your current form next time, okay?"

Calida simply nods while enjoying the sensation on top of her head.

The surviving men and women in white coats hesitantly approach the duo, gulping and shrinking when their gazes meet. A man brave enough to stand in the front, evening his breath.

"Wh-What's gonna happen to us?" he asks, uncertain.

"...All of this, none of you are willing, yes?"

A collective of head-shaking confirms the inquiry.

"How did you know...?" another asks.

"Let us just say I have developed a sixth-sense for this kind of stuffs," Wilhelm says vaguely, eliciting confused looks. "Nah, I can see all of you are on the F.B.I posted missing list. Either way, my friend just contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. You should be as truthful as possible to them about everything."

"Sir, Nick Fury is sending his agents to our location."

"Well done. We should get to the ground level and wait for them."

=

"You're a pain in my ass, you know that, Mr. Ghost?"

"Ah, Ms. Romanoff! Looking as sensual as the first time we met! Though, you should smile more, if you do not want wrinkles. You know what I mean?"

"Oh, I know what you mean, all right."

Agent Romanoff sends a glare at Wilhelm, before sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose. Going off the map for two days, and now he reappears with a huge bang; quite literally. Residents reported an explosion going off on Hart Island. Which only got the police's attention at first, until Nick Fury's own secured and encrypted line got hacked, with the location of a HYDRA's small base.

Right now, her colleagues are tending the kidnapped children while questioning several ex-scientists who worked for HYDRA, effectively securing the entire island. And of course... the bodies. It is one thing to look at the bodies of the children who did not survive the Super Soldier Serum, and another when she got here and looked at the mauled and mangled corpses across the island.

Even for somebody as experienced as her, the sight did make her feel slightly sick. And do not make her talk about what she found down there. It is unlike anything she has seen before in her career.

"You're too... God," she comments. "Was that all really necessary?"

"...They kidnapped and experimented on children."

"I know. It's... nothing. It is nothing." Agent Romanoff breathes deeply. "In any case, where's that... doctor anyway? Did you damage him to the point we can't recognize?"

"Nah. He is still alive. Barely, but still alive." She swears she could picture the wide smirk behind the blood-stained helmet. "You can have him. My work with the cocksucker is done."

Agent Romanoff does not like Wilhelm's last statement, and the filtered and distorted voice does not help making her feel better. At the same time, an agent hurried gets to her; her face is blanched, as though she just saw a ghost. Romanoff's feeling about this worsens.

"Y-You should see this, Agent Romanoff..."

Hesitantly, she takes the tablet from the agent, and widens her eyes. On the screen is the doctor, no doubt. And he is... crucified at the main entrance of Fordham Plaza, half-naked with no coat or shirt, bloodied and bruised. Words are crudely carved on his upper body, by a knife no doubt, saying 'I kidnapped your children'.

Agent Romanoff looks up, about to demand an answer when she realizes he is no longer in front of her. Her grip on the tablet slightly shakes before it tightens. Soon, she realizes something else.

"...He is being put on display," she comprehends. "The Ghost wants to spook HYDRA, wants them to know he's gonna kill every last one of them, and that none of them would be able to stop him."

"H-How do you know? And... why went such length for such a thing?"

"Because that's how I'd terrify my enemies and tell them I'm hot on their trails. As for why—"

A paper lands on the tablet, with words written on it, catching Romanoff's attention.

"—looks like they made it personal."

=