079

Misiones Province

In the deepest part of the Argentinean jungle, it was possible to find traces and footprints of modern mankind. Although it was not impossible, it was a bit strange, these traces were hidden and unless you knew what you were looking for, it was almost impossible to discover them.

Those who could follow these hidden traces would come to a considerably large area that would cause their eyes to reflect astonishment and suspicion. This because one would find a large camp with large and small buildings.

Such structures were camouflaged with the surrounding vegetation in a way that could only be described as perfect, this perfect camouflage prevented the strange camp from being seen from the air and the only way to know about its existence would be through a ground exploration.

The strangeness did not end there, as one could also observe a long airstrip that currently had three cargo planes on it, each of them of great magnitude, all three were separated from each other by a considerable distance.

Lastly, and what would undoubtedly make any suspicions that one had about the camp increase by a thousand times more, was the sight of numerous people with chains on both their arms and feet walking slowly but steadily towards the cargo planes.

These people were of various genders and ages, however, there was something more remarkable and this was that some of them looked extremely strange, to say that they looked like something out of fairy tales or fantasy books would not be an exaggeration.

There were those that looked beautiful, others that could only be categorized as hideous and others that just looked normal. All of them had a black colored collar around their neck, this collar had a slight yellow glow that seemed to be protected by a small circle.

The chained people were being watched in a careful manner by uniformed men and women, their eyes had a strong feeling of disgust and in some cases even repulsion as they looked at the chained people.

Every time one of the chained people slowed their steps or made an irregular movement, the uniformed men and women would attack them both physically and verbally before dragging them to one of the cargo planes.

The whole situation was observed by a black-haired woman, her features were not particularly remarkable, perhaps the only thing worthy of mention would be the hidden madness that could be seen in her eyes. Her clothing was similar to those of the uniformed people, along with the addition of two pistols on each of her legs thanks to two holsters.

Because of the position she was in and the cautious treatment of the other men and women in uniform around her, it was easy to deduce that she might have a higher position in the hierarchy than all the other people.

Although they did not show it in a direct or obvious way, if one paid enough attention to the body language of the uniformed people, one would realize that the predominant feeling when seeing her or dealing with her was fear.

After what could be considered a short time, all of the chained people had been placed into the cargo planes, which were just waiting for authorization to take off.

The black-haired woman was at one of the ends of the airstrip, near the first cargo plane, her face showed a certain feeling of irritation and impatience, a dangerous aura surrounded her and no person wanted to get close to her.

Suddenly a man, possibly of African-American origin, began to approach the place where the woman was, that man seemed to have come out of nowhere.

As soon as the woman looked at him, a trace of anger crossed her eyes, "Where is the damn rat?" she asked immediately, her tone of voice was full of irritation.

"She managed to escape" he could only say two words before he was interrupted by the woman.

"You let her escape!" this time the woman screamed at the man's words, this because she could not control her temper. Her body moved to face her partner.

"Kimura" the man called, "You must calm down" he told her simply, while other people did not dare to speak or face the woman in front of him, he had none of those problems.

"I remind you that the rat as you call her was able to defeat you in combat and if it had not been for your enhancements and our arrival she would have taken your life" his tone of voice was casual as he reminded the woman about how she had been defeated and almost killed.

The sound of grinding her teeth was the only response the woman could give, showing her strong anger at the words the man had mentioned.

"Nor should you forget that she was able to fight and defeat the remaining sentinels you had under your command, the display of skills and powers she showed is not something to be taken slightly" he continued saying, caring very little about the woman's condition.

"Right now Kyle is tracking her, and it will be a matter of time before he finds her, she is wounded, tired and in hostile territory, she will be caught soon however the delivery of the cargo must not be delayed" saying that he kept quiet for a few seconds.

"That is why you must get on the plane and make the delivery, the main mission was, is and will be to deliver the cargo, on the other hand, Kyle and I will be in charge of tracking and eliminating the intruder" he explained and proceeded to wait for the woman's response.

"This will not be something they will be pleased to hear" the woman named Kimura mumbled through her teeth.

"Nothing is to their liking" the man replied, his casual tone of voice never changing, as if the situation he found himself in was an everyday occurrence.

A tense silence formed between the two people until Kimura spoke, "Listen to me well Kestrel" she began to say, "You better eliminate the rat and don't try anything strange, otherwise I will hunt you down and make sure you get the fate you should have always had" a clear threat left her lips.

"Of course, you will try" the man called Kestrel replied in an ambiguous manner, however someone with sharp eyes could see that he didn't even take the threat seriously.

After that Kimura turned around and started heading towards one of the planes, minutes later the three cargo planes took off and after a few seconds these disappeared, possibly thanks to a camouflage system.

The facilities that had previously had a considerable number of people in them had been completely abandoned, as for Kestrel, he simply disappeared as if his presence in that place was just a simple illusion.

…

Elizabeth Braddock was currently having one of the worst headaches she had experienced in a long time, she hadn't originally thought of entering into a direct confrontation, after all she would be at a clear disadvantage if she started one.

In the end and as life sucks things won't always go as one wished and thanks to that fact a simple reconnaissance mission became extremely complicated, and now she found herself on the verge of unconsciousness in a bloody unknown jungle.

Her thoughts were completely cut off when her sharp ears heard the footsteps of someone approaching her position in an extremely fast manner, Betsy only brought her gaze towards the direction of the sound.

In her current situation it didn't matter what kind of decision she made it was highly possible that she would be caught, whether she tried to run away or return to confront them didn't really matter.

After a few seconds a blond man of considerable height came out of the vegetation of the jungle, despite having revealed his presence he did not approach Betsy, he only observed her patiently and cautiously.

Its physical features were somewhat wild, similar to those of an animal, and its behavior was similar to that of a predator when it was hunting its prey.

Despite the situation, Betsy had no sense of fear or urgency in her, instead there was an unflappable calm in her beautiful blue eyes, because although the situation was bad it wasn't the worst she had ever been in.

"Poison, right?" asked Betsy, because she had been discovered she had to engage in combat with a black-haired woman who had probably been enhanced through various processes and experiments.

Even so, the woman did not represent much of a threat, but she managed to give her a slight cut on the arm with a combat knife, from that moment on she began to get weaker and using her powers became somewhat more difficult than usual.

The man didn't respond in any way, though that's something she already expected, Betsy just shrugged, though the action caused her a slight pain, anyway, silence was a pretty much valid answer.

"So" she began to speak again, "What's the feeling of hunting your own kind?" she asked bluntly.

This time the man had some surprise in his eyes before he hid it completely, "It's not personal, I just follow the orders that are given to me" after a few seconds of debating with himself he spoke.

Betsy nodded at the answer she got, "Good soldier follows orders, I can understand that" she commented, it was as if she didn't care about the situation she was in.

After finishing that sentence Betsy did not stop talking, "However that fact will not prevent that you and all your companions will be eliminated" were clear words that left the lips of the beautiful woman and more than a warning or threat it was as if she was saying an undeniable fact.

A somewhat mocking smile was present on the blond man's face which showed how his canines were extremely pronounced, "You will have no such chance" he replied, although he admitted that he was not the equal of the woman in front of him, that only applied if she could fight with all her power.

The woman's reaction was different from what he expected, as she only showed a slight smile. The next second, he felt how his instincts warned him of a danger coming from behind him, without thinking he turned around and the nails of his hands became sharp claws.

The blond man was ready to attack whatever tried to fight him, but before he could even understand what was happening he felt a strong sensation of oppression in his neck, as well as the sensation of being lifted in the air.

His eyes widened in surprise as he saw his attacker and understood what had happened, his great agility and speed together with his high reaction capacity had been completely useless.

…

Norman watched with little interest the man who was currently trying to free himself from his grip, which caused him to increase the force with which he was holding him, causing small creaking noises from the bones in the man's neck to begin to be heard.

If Osborn remembered correctly and had made a correct deduction, the man whose life he currently held in the palm of his hand must have been a mutant known as Wild Child.

If his deduction turned out to be correct, then at least he now knew that there was a high possibility that the Weapon Plus program also existed in this universe. In addition to all the branches, it might have had.

Just thinking about what that implied, Norman had a slight headache, however for the moment he put those thoughts aside.

Osborn took his gaze to the woman for whom he had come in the first place to a fucking unknown jungle, he could notice several wounds on her body, although not to the degree of being fatal, what caught his attention was that she seemed to be in an extremely weakened state.

Both pairs of eyes made direct contact with each other, and words spoken in a non-verbal manner were communicated between them. Braddock could only nod her head at Norman's unspoken question.

After getting Betsy's affirmation, Norman's vision returned to Wild Child and with a single thought the hand holding the man's neck began to steadily raise its temperature thanks to Extremis. It wasn't long before screams of pain began to be heard.

Wild Child's eyes had total panic present as he was unable to free himself from the man's grip in any way, plus he could feel how his regeneration was not as fast as the damage he was taking.

It was not the first time he had suffered from burns, but it was certainly the first time he had felt that they were a direct danger to his life, however, no matter how hard he struggled, it was impossible for him to free himself.

After some seconds Norman dropped the dead body of Wild Child to the jungle ground, after thinking about it for a moment Osborn took the blade he had in his waist and with a clean cut he managed to separate the man's head from the rest of his body.

This was because he did not want to risk that the regeneration he possessed would be able to heal his wounds, so the most logical option was to make sure that such a scenario would not happen.

After ending the man's life, Norman approached the purple haired woman, who only looked at him with a faint smile on her lovely face.

"At this point I'm questioning whether you are stupid or just have too much confidence in me" were the first words that left the lips of Osborn.

Betsy didn't seem irritated by Osborn's words, "I knew you'd come" she replied.

Once Norman was close to Betsy he leaned his body to take her in his arms, he had already deduced that it was highly possible that she had been poisoned, otherwise he doubted that anyone would be capable enough to prevent her from escaping if she proposed to do it.

At Norman's action, the woman showed no displeasure or discomfort, "You knew because of your visions?" Betsy listened while she made herself comfortable in Osborn's arms.

Unlike the answer Norman was expecting, Betsy just shook her head, "You can think it was because of my female instinct" she replied with a soft smile.

Norman just shook his head at the answer he received, after that small exchange of words between them the figures of both Osborn and Braddock disappeared completely.

…

Antarctica.

It was an area of the earth that could be considered as abandoned, a place where human life was not impossible, but difficult, a place that always remained in an extremely cold temperature and its long surface was always painted in white.

In a hidden area of Antarctica one could find a large expanse of green fields full of fauna and vegetation, where one could see things that should have been impossible to see, such as dinosaurs that should have been extinct long ago.

From time to time it was also possible to notice human settlements and of all of them there was one that stood out above all, this because such a settlement would be no worse than some of the best cities that existed in the world.

However, currently such a city was in a very deplorable state, buildings, and house in flames or completely destroyed, numerous people with diverse physical characteristics had wounds on their bodies and tears in their eyes.

In a building that had marks of damage and possibly explosives, but still standing were two men, the inside of such a building was strange, as most people would have the feeling of being inside an oval structure.

The first of the two men was dressed in a blue colored suit along with a red colored tie, the man currently had some sort of helmet-like device on his head.

The other man had a somewhat peculiar outfit, as it consisted of purple pants along with a long-sleeved red shirt, a cape of the same color as his pants and finally and perhaps most notably he had a helmet that was possibly metallic on his head.

In his eyes a growing anger and rage could be noticed, but at the same time a slight sparkle of hope could also be observed as he looked at his friend, "Charles" he called out as soon as he saw how the blue-suited man removed the helmet from his head.

The response he received was a look of pain and a slight denial, "I couldn't find them" Charles told him, his tone of voice filled with pain and anguish.

The metal helmeted man didn't react for a few seconds, but the next instant the building they were in began to shake and the next second a loud gnashing of teeth reached Charles' ears, and he just watched his old friend's reaction.

"Erik" he called in an attempt to start a conversation to reassure him.

The man named Erik paid no attention to Charles and simply turned around ready to leave the building, "Where are you going?" despite being ignored, Charles continued.

"I mentioned to you that if your way didn't work then I'll do it in my way" he stated simply, but his tone of voice was extremely somber.

"Erik, please come to your senses, what you want to do is insane!" Charles exclaimed loudly at the attitude adopted by Erik.

Charles' words seemed to have touched a nerve because Erik immediately turned to face him, "Come to my senses?" he asked neutrally, "They attacked our home Charles, they took our brothers and sisters, and we weren't there to protect them!" matching the tone employed by his friend Erik mentioned angrily.

"THEY TAKE MY CHILDREN!" at this point the whole building seemed to be crumbling, and certain areas were deformed "What I will do will only be the result of their own actions" were his last words.

"There is no reason that can justify their actions, but equally there is no reason to try to justify what you want-" he began to say, but was interrupted outright.

"I am not trying to justify my actions Charles" Erik mumbled, "I will do whatever it takes to bring back our people!" after those words a silence fell between the two men.

After a few seconds Charles shook his head, "You know I cannot consent to what you are thinking of doing, I have turned a blind eye on countless occasions, but this is not something I can ignore" he told him, in his tone of voice there was an unmatched regret that was matched by his seriousness.

Erik only looked at Charles one more time before closing his eyes, when he opened them again there was only total indifference on his face, "Then my old friend I can only say that it was a pleasure to have your friendship for so many years" were his words, similar to those of a farewell.

Charles did not respond to his friend's words, inside his body there was a great feeling of loss and regret, but like Erik he could not turn back in his thinking. He could only go forward and face the consequences of his actions.

In the next second all he could hear was a kind of beeping sound followed by intense pain, and finally he was on the ground unable to move. It took him a few seconds to figure out what happened, and when he did, a sad smile formed on his face as he watched Erik walk out of the building without looking back.