CH 14: Do or Die

"WHAT only two people were able to take out my whole battalion in 10 minutes? HOW?"

"Chief, from the video feeds we just saw, they are wearing some kind of advanced Armor. We haven't seen anyone wearing an Armor like that except for Marcus Hunt. Sir, I think it's him. He was able to find our base somehow. I don't know how, because we took every precaution on our part."

"You idiot, those drivers that you picked up, did you check each of them for any kind of trackers?"

"We did, sir but we were unable to find anything. Sir, do you think it's the winter soldier? Did he say something?"

"No, I don't think so. The higher-ups said that he was completely brainwashed and didn't remember much besides his mission. Anyways, they are on the second floor already. Seal the facility and lock them on the second floor, don't let them reach here."

"Alright, sir. It's done."

Back to the duo…

"Hey uncle James, do you think these doors can hold us?"

"Seeing your confidence, I guess you have a workaround."

"It's not working around as it's just barging through, just watch."

Marcus lifted his right hand and powered up his high-density laser. The Laser pierced through the thick metal door with ease and then Marcus made a circular cut-out on the door.

He then grabbed the piece of door he had cut and pulled it out, leaving a circular hole in the middle.

"There you go, all in a day's work. Let's reach them quickly before they decide to format their systems, we need all the information we can get."

Marcus and Barnes ran downstairs and after a few seconds, they reached the last floor, where they were greeted by another team of soldiers with heavy machinery and armor.

Seeing the familiar scene in front of them, they both smiled and looked at each other before nodding. After which, Marcus disabled his stealth mode and brought his suit to full power.

And Barnes pulled out his final weapon, the Denel NTW 20. An anti-material rifle designed to stop lightly armored vehicles, which was overkill to use as an anti-personnel rifle, but Barnes didn't care.

He used the advanced targeting system of the armor to line up a few soldiers and fired a shot. Blood and Guts flew in the air and splashed at the nearby soldiers as the bullet pierced through all three men effortlessly.

"DISPERSE, DISPERSE. DO NOT CLUSTER TOGETHER. I REPEAT, DO NOT BE CLUSTERED. ATTACK THE ENEMY FROM ALL SIDES." The enemy chief screamed and ordered his soldiers.

"Damn! Uncle James, don't you think that's a bit overkill? Well not that I am complaining."

Seeing his performance, Marcus decided to leave the battlefield to Barnes and flew toward the main objective, the server room. A scan revealed that the staff was doing something in the server room which, according to Marcus' guess, meant that they were trying to erase some confidential information.

And Marcus couldn't let that happen, so he used Mind Scramble to make them dizzy and then unconscious.

He reached the server room after a few seconds of flight and jammed his USB containing a part of No.3 inside the main computer to download the information.

But just as Marcus was getting happy about his success, his suit's monitor notified him of an incoming threat. Marcus turned around to see a soldier, sporting an RPG on his shoulder and aiming at him.

Marcus was scared, not for his life but for the precious information he would lose if the RPG hit the server room he was in.

So without wasting any time, Marcus fired a photon blast from his gauntlet at the man. Unfortunately for Marcus, he was a tad bit late. The blast hit the man and knocked him unconscious but the rocket had been fired and was coming towards him.

At that time, only one idea came to Marcus, tank the blast outside the server room. And he instantly acted on it. Without delay, he activated his thrusters at full power and flew out to meet the rocket head on.

This time, he was fortunate, and his speed made him meet the rocket just outside the server room. Marcus didn't receive any injuries except for mild discomfort from the sudden acceleration and deceleration.

He looked back at the intact server room and heaved a sigh of relief. "Damn! You fuckers nearly got me there. Looks like I need to stop having fun and get really serious."

"No.3, activate ultimate combat mode and bring out the tracking missiles. Identify the enemy personnel and eliminate them."

After the orders were issued, the shoulder and back panels of his suit opened and several rows of micro missiles came out.

No.3 identified the enemies in a second and the rows of missiles were fired, one after another. The enemies didn't have time to react before they were hit by the micro missiles and had their internal organs turned into mush due to the concussive forces generated by them.

"And you called my attack an overkill. Look at yourself first, kid."

"Uncle James, the only thing left now is to interrogate their leader. My scan is showing me that he is hiding over there, in that room."

Marcus pointed towards a room at the far corner of the facility.

Marcus and Barnes made their way to the office where the leader was hidden. Seeing them making their way toward him, the leader took out an energy pistol from his desk drawer and aimed it towards the door.

Marcus could see his movements through the thermal feed in his helmet.

He smirked and confidently swaggered through the door.

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Click* *Click* *Click*

Five energy bullets were fired toward Marcus, all of the bullet's that he shot just froze in the air in front of him and dissipated afterward.

"You choose to fight until the end, Huh?"

Marcus deliberately used a voice changer to make his childish voice sound deep and hoarse.

"You cut one head, two more will take its place. HAIL HYDR-"

The man froze mid-sentence as his mouth couldn't close or move anymore, it felt like it was clamped down by something.

"Oh no no! You aren't dying so easily. Let's see your dirty secrets, shall we?"

Marcus had used his telekinesis to stop the man from taking his life using the cyanide pill in his molars after that he used telepathy to extract the information he needed about HYDRA and their reasons for wanting to kill him.

Turns out, Marcus had completely forgotten about Arnim Zola and his algorithm of predicting the threats for HYDRA. Apparently, the algorithm had predicted him to be a massive threat in the future and instead of the usual join us or die, he was on the must-kill list of HYDRA.

The leader of the base didn't know why Marcus was on the must-kill list and only the higher-ups probably knew the reason behind it.

But Marcus knew one thing, that HYDRA would keep coming after him unless they are completely destroyed.

"Oh sweet! So it's either do or die for me, well no worries, I choose to end HYDRA for good. You say if I cut off one head, two more will take its place but what happens if I cut all of them?"

Marcus then proceeded to crush the man's brain inside his head using his telekinesis.

Blood flowed out of his orifices as he dropped down lifelessly.

"Kids these days are scary!"

"C'mon now Uncle James, I am only scary for my enemies. Now let's rescue my bodyguards and get out of here, and before that…"

Marcus picked up the energy pistol from desk and said, "No.3 Scan the weapon and prepare a blueprint."

"Scanning…Scanning…Scan complete. Blueprint Ready."

"Nice, now let's get the USB and get out of here."

Marcus took the USB from the server room and headed back upstairs after making some gestures toward the camera.

At the SHIELD headquarters, the Next morning…

Alexander Pierce was watching the camera footage of the base that had been destroyed last night.

The video ended with the Armored man lifting his fist towards the camera and rotating another fist beside it as the middle finger of the first one slowly popped up.

Pierce turned towards the agent who presented him with the video, "Did you really need to leave that in?"

The agent stammered as he said, "Sir, I thought you wouldn't want a tampered video."

Pierce sighed as he asked another question, "I believe you have identified the assailant."

"Sir, The last transmissions that came from the base seemed to suggest that it was Marcus Hunt as he was the only one known to be able to make such Armor."

"I know that, I am talking about the other person who's with him."

The agent lowered his head and said, "I am sorry sir, but we couldn't. But I personally think it could be one of his bodyguards."

"Hmm, that seems plausible. So, have you found Hunt's tracks yet?"

"We couldn't, sir."

"What about the winter soldier? Any information about him?"

"...Negative, sir."

"So, are you here to only give me bad news today, or do you have any good ones?"

"I have good news too, sir. Norman Osborn was able to successfully remake the Oz serum, although it still causes madness, but I believe that can be negated through brainwashing of our subjects. Although the tests are still underway, in a week or two we will have a batch of super-soldiers at our disposal."

"That's a good news. Forget about the winter soldier, concentrate your efforts on searching for Marcus Hunt, find him as soon as possible. It won't be long before SHIELD notices our movement and at that time we will be forced to stop."