Pulling the strings(chapter 72)

previously in chapter 70

At her words, the former agent and his men turned to find a tall, well-built white man standing behind them, his presence imposing and silent. Panic set in as both the seller and the buyer opened fire, bullets flying through the dimly lit space. The mysterious man did not flinch as the bullets struck him, seeming to absorb the impacts with an unnatural resilience.

In the chaos, the well built man retrieved the file from the desk Without a moment's hesitation, he then ran towards the large glass window at the far end of the warehouse. With a powerful leap, he crashed through the window, the sound of shattering glass echoing through the space. The figure plummeted the twenty-five feet to the ground below, landing gracefully and disappearing into the shadows before anyone could react. May, Triplett, and Skye watched the scene unfold in shock. "We need to move," May ordered, her voice breaking the stunned silence.

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Chapter 71

Henry observed the entire event and thought, "So this was Carl Creel." He pondered for a bit. "Looks like I will have another prisoner soon," he mused, trying to recall any information on Carl Creel. "Oh right, I actually had him on a priority list. He was on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s index for the gifted. He was then crossed off as terminated, but since it was John Garrett who oversaw the termination, I guess that answers itself," he pondered. Suddenly, Kai gave him a notification.

"Sir, it seems like S.H.I.E.L.D. wants another meeting," Kai informed him, causing Henry to smirk a bit. "Guess they are finally ready to ask me for help," he said. He wasn't surprised because he knew they would call. The reason was that both Fitz and Simmons were thrown off the Playground, which was the plane that Coulson's team always used. Inside a med pod, Fitz got injured and received some brain damage while they were trying to escape the pod. meanwhile terry was snapping at henry, saying, "You're no savior, just another part of their problem."

"Sir, they are requesting a time and a date," Kai informed him. Henry replied, "Give them the date of today, two hours from now." Kai asked, "What location?" to which Henry replied, "It doesn't matter. I won't be meeting them anyway. What do they think I am, their private alchemist or something?" he asked. Since their last transaction, Coulson's team had planted a tracking device on him, which he had quickly discovered and got rid of. He hadn't forgotten it, and he was going to make them pay now, double.

"Anyway, I need the blood of Carl Creel," he thought as he got up. "Time to find him and extract some blood. I will try to create a functioned item with the same power. It's quite a nice power, actually," Henry was quite fond of Carl Creel's powers—the ability to transform your body into any substance. Any transformation and transmutation subject was intriguing to an alchemist.

-scene change-

In the middle of the night, a van sat parked in a low-traffic area, its dark silhouette blending seamlessly with the shadows. Inside, a man leaned back against the interior wall, his features illuminated by the faint glow of a nearby streetlamp filtering through the small window. This man was Carl Creel, the Absorbing Man. At the moment, he was in the midst of absorbing a piece of wood, his skin taking on its grainy, rough texture as he relaxed, eyes half-lidded in a state that seemed almost euphoric.

"Guess absorbing material feels like being high, huh?" a voice sounded suddenly beside him, shattering the tranquility.

Startled, Creel's eyes snapped open, and he swung a powerful punch towards the source of the voice, a steel punch. Henry, dressed in his Equalizer costume, deflected the punch with a swift, practiced motion. "Carl Creel," Henry continued calmly, "you know, I usually would have just kidnapped you, but apparently your destiny is quite significant, and now I have to care about it, if i want my plans to succeed, i am going to need to let go of some of you"

Before Creel could transform again, Henry swiftly stabbed him with a needle. Creel's immediate reaction was to absorb the metal from the needle, his body quickly shifting to match its properties. However, Henry had anticipated this. The needle was not made of any valuable or dangerous material like the Destroyer metal, that would be stupid since carl would just take the property of the metal. but contained a specially concocted poison derived from the Terrigen Mist, designed to destabilize genetic mutations, particularly in superpowered beings.

Creel's body began to convulse, the transformation halted as the poison took effect. His muscles twitched uncontrollably, and he fell to the floor of the van, a shaking mess. Henry watched dispassionately as Creel writhed in pain, then efficiently extracted several vials of his blood.

"Now, count yourself lucky, Carl," Henry said, holding up the vials. "I'm gonna need you." He paused for a moment, a smirk playing on his lips. "Well, not really, but I will find you."

Henry stood up, stepping over Creel's trembling form. "Don't worry, that will wear off in fifty minutes. As for the pain and paralysis, suck it up, Absorbing Man." With that, Henry exited the van, leaving Creel to endure the excruciating effects of the poison. 

Back in his hideout, Henry sorted the vials of blood he took from Creel.

[Name: Absorbing Replication Blood Essence] 

[Grade: 5th] 

[Description: Extracted from Carl Creel, who possessed the ability to duplicate at will the physical properties of anything he touched or that touched him. This essence contains the power of Absorbing Replication, capturing the unique qualities of his ability.] 

[Effects: +150% absorption efficiency, +150% replication accuracy, +150% durability, +150% adaptability, +150% power enhancement] 

[Deterioration-Rate: 0%]

"I can isolate the absorption efficiency or the replication effect. Each has its own uses, especially the adaptability," he pondered as he looked at Creel's van. Much to Henry's amusement, Creel had not only stolen something from the army right under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s noses, but both Creel's and the army's objective was an obelisk, which Henry actually knew the purpose of. "It's quite pointless. All it does is petrify humans and reveal a crystal when an Inhuman touches it, that can unlock their powers" he thought disinterestedly. Then an idea popped into his mind. "Since I have an eye on Creel, all he needs to do is lead me to his Hydra boss, and I can have a chat with him," he mused. "And since I don't want the item, three parties do: Raina and the man she is working for, Hydra, and S.H.I.E.L.D. I can sell it to them or make them fight for it," he concluded. With that in mind, Henry stood up.

He then transplanted the mutated plants he had, which were eleven in total. Of course, he created all 11 perfected terrariums. "Good, now I just need to move them and everything I have to Project Safe/mobile House when it's done," he smiled. He then watched Creel sitting on a bench with his back to another man as he placed a metal suitcase down.

"Well, let's do this, shall we? Let's throw this into a curveball," he mused as he got ready, quickly arriving at the scene, which he had been to before. He simply teleported. "She should be here in a minute," he thought as he stepped out of an alleyway where a couple of people were panicking. He purposefully bumped into someone familiar. "Hello," he said with a smile. The person who stole the obelisk was, of course, Raina, who was working for someone Henry knew to be important to the next couple of events or chapters, as he liked to call it.

"Oh, Henry," Raina was, of course, shocked to see Henry as he slowly took the case out of her hands. "That thing is quite dangerous. Don't you think someone stronger should handle it?" he asked with a smile. Raina quickly got over her shock and said, "Of course, lead the way," with a forced smile as she gestured for Henry to move forward, which he chuckled at. "So that you can shoot me in the back with that pistol?" he asked as he drew closer. "Of course not," she answered, acting quite shy, making Henry scoff. "You know, I gotta ask: Were you disappointed when Garrett turned out to be not so clairvoyant?" he asked as he pulled her to the side of the building and leaned against the wall.

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A/N: Well, another chapter. Hope you guys like it. Anyway, since Henry now has knowledge of the future, or at least snippets of it, he is going to use it to pull the strings in a direction that yields him the most benefits. Most of the time, this aligns with the MCU storyline, which means that he has to let go of some big fish like Carl to catch an even bigger fish. For example, making sure the Inhuman outbreak happens when it benefits him the most.