Sorry for the lateness! (Bowing head to all of you) It's been about 4 days late then I intended, so sorry. The reason is that I don't write much in the last 2 weeks due to how tired I become after work. I have a new schedule, so I hope I can make use of the time I have with it.
Hope you enjoy this chapter!
One Month Later, Manhattan
Near the well-known landmark of New York, Time Square, eating in an outside section of a pizza place, a young Japanese man carrying a couple bags and young Japanese women with a cheerful expression sit down on one of the tables after ordering a couple slices of pizza. The young man is Shinji Ikari and he's in semi-date with a girl named Mana Kirishima. The young man is attracted to the young women, but this last month since they've met.
"The pizza here is really good.", compliments Mana as she happily eats her pizza, "Can you make your own, Shinji?"
"I really can, but I don't know where to get better ingredients for it.", answers Shinji as he takes a sip of his drink.
"I would like to taste it someday. Your food always tastes good!", casually compliments Mana as Shinji blushes a bit.
"Thank you, Mana.", thanked Shinji, feeling a little better about his day.
The breeze of wind turns furious as the napkins on their table flew off the table to the ground.
"Well that came out of nowhere.", sighs Mana as she quickly leaves her seat, "Don't worry, I got it."
She walks to the scattered napkins and bends over to pick them. As she does this, Shinji notices her backside and blushes a bit, before trying to turn away. He eyes however, would take glances at her backside, as he feels a couple of urges.
"What am I doing.", thought an embarrassed Shinji, "Do I really think about those kinds of things before?"
Shinji feels a bit ashamed, but can't keep his eyes off of her. When Mana gets up, Shinji turns away, hoping she didn't notice him.
"Shinji-kun?", says Mana in Japanese with a confused look and tone as she sees Shinji looking away.
"S-sorry.", quietly apologies Shinji as he turns to Mana.
"Did something happened?", asks Mana who walks over to Shinji and leans over the table.
Shinji sees Mana's cleavage and almost turns away, before realizing it might cause Mana to realize where Shinji looking at. He turns his eyes to her face, blushing a bit looking at her pretty face. He doesn't want Mana to know that he inappropriately looks at Mana, thinking that he might disgust her. He doesn't want to be rejected by her.
"Sorry, Mana-san", apologies Shinji in Japanese, "it just that, well…"
He doesn't know what to say next, as he freezes mid-sentence. Saying that she looked pretty is what he wants to say, because that all he's thinking of, but he couldn't say it. Is it because he's he isn't use to this? Or maybe he's afraid of what would happen I he did? Either way, Shinji has to answer something, and what he answers is…
go
"I'm happy.", answers Shinji as Mana looks a little surprised.
"I'm really happy that… I have somebody to be with outside of my work.", continues Shinji as he remembered something Blake told him days ago, "I'm happy, being with you."
Five Days Ago
Several feet above the clouds, a small stealth plane flies over a certain European country on a cold winter night. Inside the plane are only three people including the pilot on the plane. The other two, Shinji and Blake, are wearing black suits and black helmets as they prepare to skydive undetected near an army base. Their mission is to confirm if a Hydra operative working close with a military official. The word came from a SHIELD spy within Hydra, confirming that a certain official from a big country is working with a certain fraction within Hydra, but that all the information they have. The two just need to confirm any suspicion.
"Sooo…", Blake starts saying after a few minutes of silence, "You've been hanging out with Mana a lot."
Shinji looks at Blake, who has a goofy smirk on his face, meaning he might start asking embarrassing questions.
"So have you guys got busy, because you were gone the whole might last night or was it-"
"Will you stop asking me that please?", asks Shinji, who might sound like a silent angry demand.
Blake looks a little surprised by Shinji's response before he starts calmly specking, "Sorry, I didn't know you would be this mad about teasing you. It was just me being stupid."
"Then… sorry for sounding like I was mad.", apologies Shinji as he finishes dressing up and sits down on the hanger seat, holding his helmet, "It just too personal."
"I've let you stay in my apartment for the last two years and known you better than anybody here. How personal is it on that fact that you're seeing someone?", questions Blake as Shinji doesn't respond for a couple of seconds.
"I don't know if I'm "seeing" her. We talk in our phones sometimes and hang out, but…", pauses Shinji as he takes a deep breath, "she talks about her friends, but I never seen any them. I'm okay with that, it's her life, but… I don't much about her."
"She never talks about herself?", wonders Blake as Shinji shakes his head.
"She mentions her family and friends, but never talks about them. She told me she came from the Chiba area of Japan, but never anything precise. I don't even know the name of her job.", says Shinji as he sounds more and more depressed, "But I'm happy around her. She's kind, funny, and makes me smile. She teases me too, but I really don't mind. She always smiling around me… and I like it."
Blake looks surprised as he watches Shinji smiling so softly and warmly. He never seen him smile like that. He usually has an emotionless look on his face, as if nothing bothering him and only shows emotion on his face depending on the situation. Blake feels like somethings wrong and doesn't feel right, but… he has no right to interfere in Shinji's life, at least directly.
"You really like this girl.", comments Blake as Shinji blushes a bit.
"I… think so.", says Shinji, a little unsure as he never experienced these things, "But… I want to be a little more closer to her."
Blake stood there for a second, not saying anything before smiling, "You mean close to her pants right?"
"Hey-!", shouts an annoyed Shinji as Blake laughs.
"Sorry, bad joke.", says Blake as he stops laughing, "But seriously, you really like that girl."
Shinji nods in agreement as Blake sighs a bit before continuing, "Well in that case, ask her out on an actual date."
"I don't think I can do that.", said Shinji as he looks away a bit.
"If you don't, she'll end up with someone else, meaning you lose her affection and your time with her.", Blake explains, sounding like it's coming from experienced, "If don't do it soon, you'll lose a lot of things. She not going to waste her time with somebody who can't even ask her to a date."
"I see.", nods Shinji.
"I'll give some advice after we finish this mission.", announces Blake as Shinji gets and put his helmet on.
"Roger.", nods Shinji as he puts a parachute on.
Now
"Mana-san… what I'm trying to say is…", pauses Shinji as he shallows a bit of saliva from his mouth as focuses his eyes on Mana, "are you going with somebody?"
"Not right now.", answers Mana, who's confused on where this came from, "Why?"
"In that case…", Shinji starts to say, before stopping to take a breath, "I really… you know-"
"Are you asking me out?", asks Mana as a little energy is in her voice.
Shinji looks the other way, feeling like he's regretting taking this chance as he cannot hear Mana's tone of energy. He also feels like he's following Blake's expectations to pull through with this, not through his own will. In the end, he relying on everyone's expectations rather than his own.
"I understand if you don't want to. I'm really not that great.", says Shinji making a fake, awkward smile, "I bet you want somebody better. You deserve one."
What happened next was something Shinji would like to happen, but didn't think would as Mana kisses him on his lips. It wasn't deep and lasted about a second, but when Mana lets go, she holds Shinji's cheek with her hand.
"You need to stop telling yourself you're no good, Shinji-kun. If you do, you'll really end up becoming a no good adult.", scold Mana with a friendly smile.
"Y-yeah.", Shinji calls out, as he still a little shocked by the sudden kiss.
"Also, that kiss means yes, since I have a feeling you never gone out with anybody.", Mana laughs softly as Shinji blushes a bit.
"I really have not.", admits Shinji as he can barely look at Mana.
"In that case, I, Mana Kirishima, will have the honor of being Shinji's first.", announces Mana before adding, "Date! Your first date. Not your first "first."
"Y-yes!", agrees Shinji "I get what your meaning."
"It getting pretty late, so we'll call it a night.", says Mana as she kisses Shinji in the cheek, "When you have an idea on where to go for the date, call me."
"Of course.", says a smiling Shinji as Mana leaves the restaurant.
What can't escape his face after Mana left is a smile. He actually did it. The fact she said yes makes him feel like he can do more now, he also imagines what would happen if she said no. Shinji shakes his, thinking to himself that it didn't happen before his phone rings. He looks at the caller and it says "Sam Blainewood". Shinji looks frustrated as it was Blake's "work phone", meaning he's has to report to the Helicarrier.
"What's happening?", softly asks a quiet Shinji as Blake hears his tone, but ignores it.
"You have a bodyguard mission. You are escort Dr. Kursunada to Japan.", informs Blake as Shinji seems surprised that he escorting somebody to a different country, but returns to his quiet tone.
"Understood. If you sent somebody, then I'll be there shortly.", says Shinji as he can feel Blake grinning from his phone.
"Taken care of.", says Blake as Shinji looks at the street and sees a pure black van next to the restaurant.
Later
Above the city of Manhattan, is the Helicarrier, underneath the clouds and clear from the eyes of the civilians due to its cloaking machine. Coming to the hanger doors, is a flying van coming in to the hanger as it lands inside the Helicarrier. Shinji gets out of the car in his civilian clothes as he walks past the various SHIELD agents and technicians. After a bit of walking, he finds himself in a conference room with Deputy Director Dugan, Blake, and Dr. Kursunada as the guards let him in the door.
"Shinji.", says Dugan who's holding a file on his hand and tosses them at the side of the table Shinji walking to, "I'll explain everything that on these papers."
Shinji sits down and looks inside to see it was a design for a new suit. His first thought is that he might have to test this before SHIELD start mass producing it, until he saw that it was too complex for mass production.
"Agent Ikari, for a while now, there were talks among the top about if we're relying too much on outside help.", explains Dugan, referring to the superheroes, "There is paranoia that we don't do something about that, enemies will prey on that weakness and that SHIELD will lose power once our soldiers losses their purpose, which I disagree."
"The point is Shinji, is that there I someone we like for you to meet.", interrupts Blake so that emotions won't start flaring up.
The door opens and comes in is a young man with blond hair and thin glasses. He too busy looking at a tablet, but extends his hand to Shinji who shakes it. His hand is cold and bony, meaning he doesn't go out much and doesn't look at people much in the eye, yet tries to remain friendly.
"His name is Carlton Westley. He's a head assistant in Weapons and Development and the designer for the battle suit-"
"The ACS Type Zero.", interrupts Carlton as he grabs the file, "I've always wanted to meet the rumored "Untouchable Man", but I never thought that help design a custom battle suit for him."
"Custom suit? Why are you giving me a combat suit?", asks Shinji.
"Because we believe that if there's anybody who can represent SHIELD in the world with superhuman, other than Widow, is you, a superhuman SHIELD agent.", explains Dr. Kursunada, as Shinji looks at the man he supposed to guard to Japan, "By the way, I also have a hand in the specs of the suit, seeing as I'm the one who inspects your abilities."
Shinji doesn't like the way he pronounce that, but it was fine.
However, he had one thing to say…
"Blake would have been better.", says Shinji as Blake looks surprised on how quickly Shinji praised him and/or self-decapitated himself.
"Agent Saunders was a candidate, heck he even tested the prototype of the suit", informs Carlton as Shinji doesn't look that surprised considering he once found Blake laying on the ground of their house after coming home from an hour of work, "but it was concluded that he's more of long range and command type and we are trying the suit on someone's whose style is more.. close range."
"Then what about-"
"The other two won't work.", interrupts Blake as he knew what Shinji is going to say, "Melissa is our electronic support and you know why "he" can't do it. This automatically leaves you."
"I see. In that case I have no choice.", says Shinji as it couldn't be helped.
"The suit is incredible. It was its own self-supporting power generator for the weapons we're giving you as well a new IOS provided by Stark Industries…", explains Carlton, who starts rambling on about the suit.
"Calm down.", says Dugan as he gives Shinji another file, "This is details on your bodyguard assignment as well as the man the doctor is supposed to meet."
Shinji looks at the file and starts by reading the name and the photo of a professor in Tokyo. After reading his name, Shinji's mind goes blank as something about this man causes Shinji's stomach to twist. He doesn't know why but he felt familiar.
Later
A military plane leaves the Helicarrier, in it is Shinji along with the doctor. That about 8 hours. After completing some paperwork for their next mission, Blake's mind wanders to Brianna as he sits in his empty room with nothing but a bed, table with a laptop on top, and television set.
He stares at the white walls in front of the laptop, thinking about the time when Brianna announced she was pregnant… and how he left her after that to the army. There was only one person that supported her the most outside her family and that wasn't him. Even so, he takes out his phone and looks at a picture which looked like it was taken in an old flip phone.
It was a picture of him, when he had hair reaching to his neck, with dead fish eyes liking away from the phone, and trying to smile as best as he can. Hugging him from behind, is a younger looking girl, with a cheerful smile, looking at the phone. He thought about that day is was taken, as hours after, he made her a woman. Nowadays, their relationship can be considered harsh, she gained a bit of weight, and she barely smiles at him. He regrets it, the thing he said to her, the choices he made, the life he taken from her.
"Donald, it should have been me.", silently says Blake as he turns off his phone.
Suddenly, the sirens roar loudly as Blake gets off his seat and exit his room. The hallway lights are blinking yellow, meaning they are being attacked. Blake heads to where Dugan is at, running in the yellow lighted hallway.
"What's going on?", thought Blake as certain events took place in within the last couple of minutes.
Ukraine, Underground
"All lights are clear to go. Making finally preparations to the missile."
The underground base in the Ukraine is small, yet undetectable. The propose for this base is give Hydra scouts a place to hide as well secret meetings. Today, a high ranking member is using it to launch a missile towards the Helicarrier.
The technicians are working on the ground level, using their computers, checking surveillance, and scrambling nearby radars. The one of the top floor, looking down on them and on the screen where he intends to show the world what one can call, The All-Knowing.
"Commander", calls out Varvana as she walks to Iscariot's right side, "B-Project is loaded inside. You may commence the operation."
"I thanked you.", says Iscariot as he places his hand on Varvana's shoulder for moment before facing the rest of Hydra, "We will now commence Operation Berserker! This is will determine if everybody in this room is worthy of baring the fruit of knowledge and achieve what no other could do! Shall we succeed, we will implant our achievement to all of the minds of all inside of Hydra and the world and show the might of mind within the snake!"
Standing proud and frim, Iscariot looks at the time and a radar showing where the Helicarrier might be.
"Commence launch now!"
10 Minutes Later, Helicarrier
It was quiet in the command area of the Helicarrier as Fury watches all the activity appearing on all the screens, looking for anything to look into. He also knows that the Helicarrier isn't invincible, so he's also expecting an attack on the Helicarrier any day now, but he didn't expect what they were sending in.
"Director! We have an alert from Ukraine that a ballistic missile has been launched from their mountain area ten minutes ago!", alerts the operator as Fury stands up.
"Where is it heading!? And why did we just get this now!?", yells Fury, anger on the lack of timing.
"Their communications around the area of the missile launch are down. Their satellite barely gotten hold of it!", explains the operator as Fury starts calming down.
"Where is it heading!?", asks Fury as the operators gain a picture from a satellite.
"The… atmosphere.", says the operator, a little surprised on the path it's taking.
"We can't shoot it down with from that distance on the chances that will miss. We have no choice but to wait for it to stop and finds it trajectory and fire our own there.", thinks Fury as he now has to observes its movements.
After about 10 minutes of waiting, the satellites detect the missile releasing a aeroshell out of itself as the shell starts its reentry to the atmosphere. This means it wasn't
"A shell is detected from the missile!", informs the operators.
"So it was a rocket.", Fury tells himself as Dugan enters the bridge.
"Sir!", salutes Dugan as Fury puts him at ease.
"Wait for orders Dugan. Depending on how this plays out.", says Fury as he stares at the screen, "Trajectory, now!"
"Sir, it's heading… towards us.", says a flabbergasted operator as Fury leans forward.
"Right at us?", questions Fury as the operator nods.
"It's making a beeline straight at us. If it's coordinates and point of impact are correct, it right around our area.", explains the operator as Fury glares at the screen.
"If we try to dodge, it will it the city below us.", softly says Fury, who puts his game face on "Put this ship on red alert! I want all weapons targeting that thing coming at us! Leave nothing unfinished! Blow eve n the smallest metal! Make sure it doesn't hit the ground!"
"Opening all missile launchers now!"
"All agents report to your stations! Prepare for impact!"
"Turrets warming up. Preparing for lock on."
"Fighter planes on standby."
"Preparing the sonic cannon for firing."
"All helicopters waiting for orders."
Fury waits for the moment their weapons can lock on to the shell coming down towards them. The moment one of them locks on, it was immediately fired as missile gets a direct hit on the shell. Metal pieces of the shell starts falling down after the explosion as the turrets fire on anything big enough to even kill a person.
"Direct hit. Shell is-", an operator tries to say, before seeing something coming out of the shell, "A unknown just came out of the shell!"
"What!?", shouts Fury as he sees a metal sphere moving towards the Helicarrier, "Shoot it down!"
The missiles and turrets fires upon the sphere as it barely dodges some of the missiles, before the turrets managed to hit it.
"Unknown been hit!", shouts the operator as he watches the cloud of smoke, before he sees something with wings coming out, "Sir, something else came out of the sphere!"
"Is it one of those damn Russian toys!?", shouts an angry Fury as the screen shows something on a glider coming towards the hanger, "Get some boys down to the hanger! Equip some of them with sonic rifles! Keep firing at that thing!"
The glider flies at high speed towards the hanger, barely dodging the fire power of the various weapons of SHIELD. The fighter jets can't fire at the glider, as it was too close to the Helicarrier. Not only that, the hanger door is only starting to close after realizing the jets and at this rate, the glider will reach the inside of the hanger.
Luckily, one of the fighter jets decided to get risky and flies straight at the glider, hitting it with its machine guns before forcing deject. The glider starts losing speed, but tries to maintains its position and continues flying towards the hanger door. Before it could however, the hanger shut itself as the glider is moments away from impact.
"Hanger door closed, sir.", says the operator as Nick felt at ease for a second, before everything an explosion is heard as well as everybody feeling a vibration.
"What the hell!?", yells Fury as the alarm went off.
"How did-!?", one operator says out aloud as Fury catches it.
"What happened?", asks Fury as the operator looks at him with a shocked expression.
"Something blown a hole on the hanger door. The glider is destroyed, but whatever is in it survived.", informs the operator, causing Fury's one eye to widen.
Hanger
At least three squads of SHIELD agents surround a clouds of smoke coming from the broken glider. It landed between the aisles of jets, with one of its wings going through a door of a carrier. The three squads aim their guns at a figure coming out of the smoke. When it came out of the smoke, it wasn't even humanoid. It a large metal beast, walking liking a four legged animal. The head had no eyes and a wide mouth, as well as it's paws looking like hands.
It looks at the squad aiming its guns at him, as the squad can see muscles coming out the metal. It lets out a scream as it pounces on one of the squad members.
A couple of minutes later, Blake, leading a squad of SHIELD agents, including Melissa comes into the hanger. What they found is a scene filled with blood and bullets. Bodies of SHIELD agents crushed to death, along with those who were torn from body part to body part. At that moment, Blake knew he wasn't facing an assassin, but something inhuman.
"Melissa!", calls out Blake as he sees her having difficultly digesting the scene.
She snaps back when he said her name and takes deep breath, "Sorry."
"Don't worry about them now.", softly says Blake as he turns to the rest of the squad, "Not now. Right now, we have to survive and find whatever did this and think of a plan. Don't think about the dead now."
The low level agents nod as Blake was about to give an order. Before he could, some came lunging at the group. Blake manages to catch it in the corner of his eye and drops to the ground as the beast misses. Pushing himself off the ground, Blake pulls two handguns out from the back of his belt and gave the orders to the men.
"Keep you distance! Melissa contact the boss!", orders Blake as he fired upon the metal monster.
The beast dodges Blake's bullets as it goes for him again. However, the squad members fire upon the beast, forcing it to retreat behind a helicopter. As the members aim their guns at the helicopter, waiting for it to come out. What happen next is an amount of force from behind the helicopter launching it off the ground at the agents.
Most managed to get out of the way, but one unfortunate agent is torn right through by the metal beast as the agents react by shooting at it. It starts dodging all over the floor as nether of the agents couldn't get a bullet in… except one. A bullet to the right manages to stop the beast as it looks at the direction of Blake, who's holding a rifle, targeting the beast.
"Surprised, you four legged bastard.", softly says Blake with a bit of a smirk on his face.
The metal beast's face faces Blake as he then looks up and lets out a violet scream. The agents hold their ears as Blake fights it and aims his gun at the beast. The moment it stops and lower its head, the air around it blows away from it, as Blake felt a slight breeze coming from it. Suddenly, the door to the left opens with several agents, being led by Sub Director Dum Dum Dugan, armed with sonic rifles, gamma cannons, and almost every SHIELD's high tech weapons that ever been created.
"Get your group out of the way!", shouts Dugan to Blake who signals for his squad to get away.
Everyone starts running away, with some helping the men who are down. The weapons wield by the Dugan's group fire upon the metal beast, which doesn't even move from its spot as a large scale explosion takeout most of the vehicles around the beast as well. By a miracle, everyone survived, but some might not be able to move for a while.
Dugan signal for his men to surround the area with their weapons ready to fire on the chance that it might have worked, although most believe they could have at least injured it. They were confident on it, except one who saw something the moment the first weapon hit.
"Was that-!?", thought Blake, who immediately thought of Shinji, "It couldn't be!"
By the time the smoke clears, appear from smoke cloud to smoke cloud is the beast, unharmed. While this shocked most of the agents here, the rest deal with these kinds of things before, as Dugan prepared something called a neural harpoon and other heavy weapons against this. But Blake knew that this guy is different because of what he can use.
"Run, Sub-Commander! It has a-", warns Blake as heads turns to Blake, which the beast took advantage of as it charges towards Dugan's group.
Blake sees the metal monstrosity coming at Dugan, and starts to draw his guns, but realizes it was useless. As Blake finishes his sentence.
"He has an A.T. Field!"
7 Hours Earlier
The private jet they've taken took them to Kyoto, Japan, where Shinji and Dr. Kursunada spend the last 30 minutes going to Kyoto University, where they'll visit the science division of the facility. This is the second time Shinji been to Japan from what he remembers clearly. It was during a mission involving magic and had to involve Dr. Strange in the end, although Shinji never met the man.
From what Dr. Kursunada told Shinji, the professor they're meeting is an expert whose part of a dying subject. The reason for it is due to lack of interest on the subject, due the rising interest in DNA study as a result of the rise of superhumans. In a world where wonders are right before their eyes, most people want to know what they see, instead of what they can't see.
Dr. Kursunada never told Shinji why he wants to meet this professor, but it somehow involves the armor him and Carlton are giving to Shinji. As Shinji approaches a room where Dr. Kursunada is knocking into, Shinji looks up to the top of door, where a sign says the professor's name and his subject he teaches.
"Metaphysical Biology Lab.", softly says Shinji, trying to the get the kanjis right due to his recent lack of usage, "The teacher is name is Fuyu-"
The door opens as Shinji sees the professor whose face is familiar. He's an aging man with bony features, with a slightly pointy nose. He's wearing lab coat and a somewhat calm atmosphere around him as Dr. Kursunada walks up to him and offers his hand.
"I've always wanted to meet you and your work…", greets Dr. Kursunada, as Shinji stares at the aging professor whose accepts Dr. Kursunada's hand, "Professor Fuyutsuki."
A familiar face from a different world, a familiar power wields it's fangs, and the unexpected attack will reveal a familiar name. Next Time.
Hoped you enjoy this chapter! If you have any questions, feel free to private message me. For those who use the guest reviews, I will answer the guest reviews and update the power grid soon.
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