032

Indeterminate Location.

A blond man possibly in his early 40s was in an all-white room or rather office while he was in full concentration on the information he had on his computer.

However, the sound of the door opening snapped him out of it.

A woman probably 36-38 years old with brown hair was the one responsible for entering an improper manner.

"Maya what are you doing here?" asked the man calmly as he watched the woman and another slightly younger man enter his office.

"Listen to me Killian what was you thinking when you used Bill as a freaking human bomb!?" she asked quickly and a hint of disbelief was in his voice.

"I've been waiting for two days for your answers to this situation, but I never got them so tell me what the hell were you thinking using Extremis in a public area!" she exclaimed letting out the pent-up fury she had built up in the few days since her job had been used as a weapon.

"Eric wait outside the door" Killian pointed to the man who had arrived with Maya who only nodded before leaving the room and closing the door.

After Eric left the room Killian got up from his seat and positioned himself in front of the brown woman, "You see Maya in life there are usually cases where sacrifices are necessary, unfortunately the situation required that we had to make one" he began to explain, but was soon interrupted.

"What situation necessitates that you sacrifice a person?" holding back from shouting again at the man's words Maya managed to say.

"The military wanted to withdraw the funds they had been giving as they consider Extremis to be a waste of time and money" Killian confessed which generated a bit of surprise in the woman as she didn't know about that fact.

"On the other hand Oscorp managed to develop a serum with regenerative capabilities similar to Extremis and the most important thing about it is that it is a functional serum of the three experimental subjects in which it has been used have been able to regenerate their lost limbs" he continued saying: "And none of them have shown any complication or adverse reaction to the serum" he finished saying and the office became silent.

Maya's mind was working quickly as she tried to find an answer to Killian's actions however when she had one she refused to believe it, "You used Extremis to try in an effort to eliminate the competition?" she asked somewhat somberly.

"I tried however it didn't happen as I had hoped" without even thinking about lying Killian replied.

Maya's face darkened a little at the moment she heard such a direct answer from her boss-partner, but before she could even say anything to express her disagreement and disappointment at his actions the light in the office went out.

The door was opened by Eric, "What's going on?" asked Killian with a hint of irritation.

" I don't know, I cannot get in touch with the electrical area, or even the others" he explained in a quick manner.

Before one of the three of them could say anything a loud sound was heard: "BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM" the sound of an explosion made them immediately alert.

…

Norman looked at the dark sky with the moon and stars at their brightest, he was on his way to the headquarters of A.I.M. which was located on Plum Island and because of that he could only access it by sea or air.

Once on land, along with Walter and Bucky and several of the men Ducard had under his command, they decided to put their plan into action.

The first step was to leave them blind and without communication, what was going to happen was not to be known until it was too late otherwise it could become a big problem.

Both things were easily solved thanks to the skills of Ducard's men who managed to cut the power supply, but Norman wasn't sure why they would use explosives on the antennas.

"Really? An explosion?" he asked Ducard when the recognizable sound reached his ears and those of everyone on the island.

"It's a way to make sure they can't communicate with anyone on the outside" Ducard explained without caring too much, "Besides the only escape routes have been surrounded by my men, there's no way they'll escape even if we make a little noise" he finished by saying before starting to give commands to various people he had under his command.

Norman just shook his head at the attitude of his mentor: "Walter" called the Osborn: "You know what is your mission and that of Barnes, carry it out as you deem necessary" he pointed carefully.

After saying those words Norman took a kind of suitcase that he had hanging on his back and placed it on the floor before opening it and showing a kind of somewhat robust and strange rifle which he handed to Bucky.

"In case you encounter difficulties this will serve you well, but you only have 5 shots before the power runs out" he explained carefully, "Shoot for the heart if you come across a difficult person to deal with by the conventional way" he added and Bucky just nodded before both he and Walter began to leave the group.

"Still with your fascination with firearms?" the recognizable voice was heard by way of question and Norman seemed to detect a slight tone of disapproval.

"That gun you just saw is a lot more powerful than you think" he commented casually, after all the ammunition if it could be called that way was provided thanks to a miniature Arc reactor which in short made the weapon able to fire uni-beam like those in Iron-Man's armor.

"Someday that technology you're so proud of will end up failing you at the worst time," commented Ducard.

"And you will end up dead for underestimating it" Norman fearlessly faced his mentor.

Ducard only smiled at Osborn's words: "We'll see who is right in the future" was all he said before he started to go with his men to clean the island.

Norman gave no importance to Ducard's words and simply started to move after all he too had work to do.

…

"Things were much simpler when I worked for Fisk" with a rancorous tone Walter Hardy complained about the current situation he was in, but still, his typing movements were fast.

Currently, both Walter and Bucky were in the main research lab where all the information and even samples of Extremis were stored, that had been the mission Norman had given them.

"I thought if Norman hadn't rescued you then you would be dead" was the reply he received from his newest co-worker.

"I would be, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the jobs I did for Fisk were less dangerous than the ones I do for Norman" he commented quickly without even taking his eyes off the computer screen.

"Then just quit" commented the former Winter Soldier which earned a laugh from Walter.

"If I get to do that I doubt I can keep my life Norman is a good man, but he is also someone ruthless, before I even think about resigning I must generate enough accomplishments and trust, so he won't murder me" with sincerity Walter spoke, as he truly believed what he just said.

A few minutes passed in relative silence before one of the two spoke again, "Done!" he exclaimed happily:

"Now only the sample is left and our mission will be over" this time it was Bucky's turn to say something: "Let's go" he prompted Walter to move.

As they walked down one of the corridors both men began to hear footsteps heading in their direction, a nod of Bucky's head was all Walter needed before he took some distance and hide where he could.

Bucky for his part only used one of the walls as cover as he peeked out a bit to see how many men were coming in his direction, to his luck there were only two that he could easily take out.

Tightening his grip on his weapon and visualizing what he was about to do, it only took him a few seconds before he stepped out of cover and fired, the sound of a burst was heard and the two men fell dead.

"We have to hurry more of them may be on their way" commented Bucky in a serious manner, his mission was not to fight it was simply to take all the information related to Extremis.

Walter as he came out of his improvised hiding place just looked at Bucky and the two men he had just killed, he soon shook his head there was no point in thinking about it, it was only good that he was on their side.

…

Norman for his part was trying to locate Killian although thanks to the information Walter managed to obtain he had the route he would take in case of an accident in the laboratory or the facilities, so it was likely that he would follow the same route at this time.

In the course of his search he could see the efficiency and lethality that the men under Ducard's command had in their movements.

So far, he had not encountered a person who had Extremis in his body although with the deaths, they had caused by testing the serum it was possible that they did not even have it under their control.

It didn't take Osborn long to spot a small group of two people who were quietly escaping, two men one of whom he recognized as Aldrich Killian, but there was no sign of Maya Hansen.

Norman gave little importance to that fact anyway no one could escape from the island, so sooner or later someone would run into her and possibly kill her.

Stopping to think about it, Norman only prepared to attack.

Quickly and stealthily he approached the man accompanying Killian, as he was the straggler of the two.

His sword in his right hand while a kind of glove showed in his left hand, from one moment to another Norman used his teleportation to be right behind the man.

Finally and without any hesitation he made a thrust aimed at the man's heart while he brought his left hand to the man's head and placed it in such a way that the glove covered most of it.

Eric couldn't react as he felt something pierce his heart and some sort of metal glove was placed on his head, the last thing he heard was some sort of high-pitched sound and then there was only silence.

When Killian heard a strange sound behind him almost immediately he turned around only to see Eric's lifeless body at the feet of a man completely dressed in black.