Dr. Holt had been with shield for 20 years not in the field but in a place he believed he could best help out. He was a psychiatrist with experience in addiction biological forensic and military practices. He had three other degrees in human behavior studies bio chemistry and three others that made him invaluable to shield in their high risk areas. That and he has practiced 4 different martial arts and once put captain America on his ass during a self defense course and was allowed to leave the group after five minutes. This whole package was hidden in a small 5 foot 6 body of 50 year old man with grey hair and black half framed glasses that seemed too big for his small face. He wore a black suit with a green and red striped square his jacket was always undone he seemed to always find this place to hot. On his waist a collapsible baton the only weapon he ever carried in these halls and it had yet to leave its holster. On his feet was black and white saddle shoes perfectly polished.
Dr. Holt was walking down a hallway lined with shield agents all of them smiling and nodding when he walked passed. Every person down here knew who he was and respected what he did he talked with and got into the minds on the most evil men the world had ever seen. He had talked with dr. Doom and made him laugh had calmed villains down when they were about to kill guards. He even made the red skull sit in silence and think of his sins little good it did but he was quite for three days. Dr Octopus even respected his intelligence and was always his first call when he got caught. He was the only one to calm Cletus Cassidy long enough to write a profile on him. He even spent days with Norman Osborne, nuke and massacre among many others all the time keeping them from killing him. His only hope is to one day talk with Thanos the mad titan just to see what he could find out.
He was now on his way to an interview room one he had been in before one he had designed himself. He placed his hand on a pad a second later the thick metal door slid open revealing a white room with fake stone tile looking floor and dark wood wainscoting. In the center of the room were two comfortable chairs one with thick plush black leather and sat bolted to a metal square. Across from it was a second chair same black leather except this one had a small black orb on a stick next to it. He sat in the chair with the ball and waited a few minutes watching the second door that was across from the one he entered.
The door slowly opened walking in first was a shield agent in full shield uniform he stood to the side and nodded to the doctor. Next a man in an orange jumpsuit slowly walked in on each wrist was a solid metal band same on each ankle. These were the latest cuffs shield used they allowed for natural movement but would restrict a criminal if he made any aggressive movements. The man had light brown hair and green eyes he gave a small smile to the doctor as he walked in followed by a second shield agent he was lead over to the open chair and he sat down the agents then left the room without another word.
Dr. Holt tapped the black orb next to him and a set of green holographic controls appeared in front of him, "Hello Layton I will set the cuffs to our usual setting that should give you all the freedom to move within the square."
Layton nodded, "You really don't have to in all the times we have talked I have never shown you any aggression."
"I know but you do have a history and it is policy. You have been in jail for 20 years now, arriving my first year here after you were captured by Ironman when you tried to steal an alpha isotope device."
"Yes he did stop me."
"What were your plans with the device it says here you were attaching it to a spray gun."
"I was going to use it to rob banks and the like."
"You even had a name it was Alpha Death."
"You already know these answers why do we always go over it each time."
"It is a process Layton, now tell me how he stopped you."
"He shot the tank of compressed gasses on my back it exploded and I was sent fly knocking myself out on the ceiling of the room we were in."
"You once called it one of the most shameful moments in your life. Care to tell me why?"
"Because I lost so easily he hit the tank and it was over in 3 seconds I didn't even get a chance to fight."
"I see," Dr. Holt tapped a few buttons on the control pad, "Now you were up for parole 4 times now, tell me why you were not let out."
"Because I beat a guard the first time, attacked a fellow inmate the second time, was found making a bomb the third time and this last time I pissed on the head of Maria Hill when she was here for an inspection." Layton kind of smiled and laughed at the last one.
"You could have been out so many times some people say you are purposely staying here. In all the break outs you just stayed here in your cell."
"I knew I would not get out I have no superpowers so I would not be able to fight through the crowd so I would be on the tail end of the escape and get taken down by the reaction force. I was not the only one who just stayed in his cell."
"Yes I know now tell me Layton what have you been doing all these years."
"Reading and listening."
"What have you been reading?"
"Books lots and lots of book I became friends with the guy who delivers them so he would get me any book I wanted. Mostly text books, published thesis, dictionaries even books on philosophy and religion."
"And you understood them? Your file says you never entered middle school and you went to work in a mine at the age of 14. I also know that when you entered here you had no idea what you had stolen you took it so a man could turn you into a villain."
"You are correct at first I did not understand any of it but time locked in a cell with nothing else you begin to learn especially when you are the last in line and always get the dictionary or half burnt encyclopedia."
"So you have been studying that is a good thing are you thinking of getting an education when you finally are ready to leave."
"No you see I am already a lot smarter than most of the people teaching out there."
"And why do you say that?"
"Simple I have sat here and listened. I found early off in my time here that these men like nothing more than to talk and talk and talk all about their plans. I have sat in cells next to some of the greatest minds this world has known and when you show a bit of interest and a bit of intelligence they speak. They like nothing more than showing how much they are superior to you especially the late doctor octavious he taught me a lot between insults and speeches of his vast intellect. It took a lot of work but over these 20 years I created my own text book one I would go back to again and again learning simply learning over and over what I was told."
"And where do you keep this text book?"
Layton tapped his head, "Right here."
"I know you think yourself smart now but the human mind amazing as it is would not remember things to any accuracy to be called a text book. Yes you could recall facts but they would always be tainted skewed by our feelings and the memories of others who have told us these facts."
"Yes I know I read that in a book once well not just any book the one you wrote in your seventh year working in a home for the broken gifted minds."
"The mind shatters even for the most brilliant."
"Yes that one it was a good read and in it I found a case study of a man whose mind had become so full it literally burnt itself out. I found it charming how now he had to be reminded which end of the spoon to eat with when before he was giving lectures and advice to those we call the intellectual elite today including Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Hank Mccoy and even Dr. Doom. One I read of him I began to do research on him I gave up my first chance of parole to learn what I did."
"You did?"
"Yes I attacked the guard for the man in the library did you know that guard would go down there and have a bit of fun with the man. Poor guy some days he could not sit so I made sure that guard was sent away and he found all the info I needed."
Dr. Holt hit a button and a table of light appeared in front of him and he began write on it, "I guess we do not always pick the best staff."
"No you do not. Now as I was saying I learnt that his mind was wired in a way that it took in everything and filed it perfectly away. You see most people with eidetic memory can only store things in a select way and recall them in certain ways. Well this man he could not stop remembering every sight every sound every smell even the way things felt he could not stop. All this just kept storing up inside him until he burnt out." Layton made an explosion with his hands.
"Yes I know this, what does it have to do with you?"
"Nothing I thought it did but it didn't it just gave me the confidence to trust my mind and who I was. Plus I thought it was time for you to find out why I stayed the first time."
"You have finally decided to be more open I am happy about that Layton."
"I figured it was about time to be open with my choices. Now then I began to listen to all those people you put beside me and even got private lessons from Dr. McCoy on genetics you see he thought he was helping a fellow inmate get ready to try and get an education when he was free. He was easier to manipulate a few compliments and then a few put downs of myself and he was hooked. I spent time learning all I could before he freed and I was left to study on my own once more."
"So this should bring us to the time you attacked the other prisoner."
"Yes that time it was for the new man in charge of the books it seems the prisoner I attacked double crossed the man and got him caught."
"Do you regret taking that mans ability to walk and use his left arm?"
"Not at all, he deserved it he also liked to play with little kids. So much evil in this world and so little of it are brought to light. Now this new guy gave me books filled with theories, thesis and data from the experiments of villains and heroes he even knew how to get files from A.I.M. and all those other fun organizations. You apparently just have to know what books to order and in what sequence from certain publishers. It is how they keep files moving and out of the hands of authorities it is quite clever and unless you know what to look for and order you never know."
Dr. Holt was writing quickly flipping virtual pages, "What did you do with this new resource?"
"I talked to the people who wrote them when I could and those who would know what they did wrong if I could. It was amazing what you can do and find out when pushing a broom the guards do not care if you talk to the man in the cell you are cleaning in front of. I remember once I spent two weeks going between Octavious, the wizard and the leader just to figure out nanotech and how it worked."
"Seems like an odd group to go to and that they would not help each other."
"No they wouldn't but they would help me a poor simpleton with the ability to get them info they needed each would escape a week later with the help of the others not knowing they were working together."
"Are you saying you helped in a mass escape?"
"No I just told them what I saw what they did with the info was their business."
Layton tapped a piece of virtual paper and sent it to the warden of the prison, "So what about the bomb?"
"Oh that, that is funny you see it was a distraction and wasn't really a bomb just some stuff I put together to look like one. In reality I was just cover for two guards to beat a prisoner who was responsible for killing ones child and the others mother. Again shield missed another huge flag and let these men in."
"And what did you get for doing this?"
Layton began to pound his stomach and chest a second he heaved hard then spat out a metal pill. The pill blinked red than a large holo screen appeared on the wall covered in text and numbers, "I got my own personal shield issue holo pill."
Dr. Holt got up pulling a piece of cloth from his pocket he walked over to the pill and picked it up shaking his head as he wrapped it up and put it in his pocket, "Guess I have some more fun facts for our warden. Now why are you telling me about this?"
"I will get to that doctor there is still more to my story. It took me the next five years to come to this point and to tell you of my last three months. You see I pissed on her head not for anybody else it was my first act of prolonging my chance at parole that was my own."
"Why would you want to prolong your own time for no gain?"
"There was a gain I got to piss on the head of shield I won lots of credit from my fellow inmates." He leaned back in his chair, "Any other questions?"
"Yes tell me your next step."
"For that we must go back two years I got my privileges back and could enter the work shop again. There I had to do a lot of trading to get what I needed I was lucky enough that I had learned 29 different languages and before you say that is impossible just remember that most languages share roots so it is not hard to figure them out. I also can speak and read 5 dead languages that was boring month between prison librarians. Most people are happier to trade in their native language or just have somebody who can act as translator for them. It took me a while but I got all the parts and tools I needed to build my first robot. He was quite simple he had one purpose build another robot like him half the size and pass on that programming."
"Who did you get to program it? I know you have no access to computers in here."
"Yes but a few others do and with a few simple bribes like say my desert and a few tools from the workshop you can get them to talk to a person on the outside who can do such thing then it is just a matter of putting the chip into the machine."
"So now you have your robot what next?"
"I wait. I wait a year it can only work during certain hours as not to be detected which also meant I had to work around the power being shut off. I ended up trading a screwdriver to the master for a sample of his blood." He leaned in, "You see I read in a thesis of Dr. Banners that blood of a gamma irradiated person still carries high traces of gamma particles. That got me thinking and with a simple mechanism I created a gamma blood battery. One that could run my robot for decades on a drop and I had 10 ml of it imagine what I could run on that."
Dr. Holt sent off another letter, "So what do these ever shrinking robots do?"
"They let me escape about a month ago."
"But you are still here," Dr. Holt laughed, "So now I have to say what told me is fiction."
Layton stood up, "I built nanobots Dr. Holt each the size of the tip of a pin so now I have to say good bye it seems it is my turn at the teller. So I leave you with a letter." With that Layton's body crumbled into a pile of dust a rolled up piece of paper resting on top of the pile of dust.
Dr. Holt stood up hitting the black orb next to him hard sirens went off and the two guards rushed in. Dr. Holt looked to them, "Layton is gone! Check his cell check everything! And get me the Warden!" Dr. Holt walked up to the pile of dust calming himself down he picked up the paper and unrolled out seeing it was filled with text he began to read.
"Dear if you are reading this it means I have escaped and now I am sure you have hundreds of questions but you and I both know I cannot answer all of them for I only have this letter to explain what has happened. After I pissed on the head of Maria hill I was sent to solitary confinement for a month. It was in this time that I my new nanobots got to work they scrapped the metal off the walls and created millions of themselves enough to create a new me as well as a fake wall for me to hide behind when my time in the cell was up. So when the guards came to take me to my cell they took my duplicate and left me behind in the open room. Now what happens now is all written before the fact so let me explain the rest of my plan. I will leave my confines the nanobots shaping me into a new person a new shield agent that will be able to walk around freely. I will use this new person to leave the jail and make my way back to the city. There I steal one of these new smart phones and use it to control my nanobot self in more elaborate detail. Eating, drinking, and talking even going to see you that will probably be my favorite part. Now what I will be doing out in the world is quite fun I will be recreating myself into a new man these nanobots are quite amazing I had no idea I would be able to control them like this I will have to pay the programmer a visit later and thank him. But back to my plan I will then enter a bank hold it up take all the money I can then leave I will do this three times. I will never be caught they will never be connected because each time I will look different when I hold it up and then when I walk down the street. Now I am running out of space and I want to thank you our monthly chats these past 20 years were the only thing I truly enjoyed in that place so good bye Dr. Holt maybe one day I will see you again but you will never see me again."
Dr. Holt smiled a bit then laughed, "20 years...20 years and I not once put this together." He put the letter in his pocket, "I guess I am not as good as I thought."
A young Hispanic man with blue hair ran out of a bank a black backpack on his back dressed in a grey hoodie and grey sweats. He ran a block as sirens began to sound in the distance as the banks alarms went off. The boy duct into an alley and a second later out walked an old man in a brown suite jacket with black and grey hair and stood 4 inches taller than the Hispanic youth. In his hand was a black brief case a smile on his face.