Chronicles of the Night
When we last left off, Felix and the Black Widow captured Dr. Ivan Petrovitch after a brief battle with some personal bodyguards of his. Meanwhile Lisa is coping with personal issues she is having with staying at the Triskileon. But now that the Doctor is under captivity by Captain Ivan, what will he have him do? What will he have his new super-soldiers do? And will Joseph and Lisa be able to cope with this?
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel comics, I do own my characters and the plot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Understanding
"Has he responded to anything yet?" Captain Ivan demanded of one of two soldiers standing at attention outside of a door.
"Not yet sir." The man said.
"Shall I go in and see I can't get anything out of him?" Felix offered. Felix was currently not wearing a coat, but was now fully visible in his new uniform. It was mostly a black bodysuit with patches of red on the shoulders and shins. It looked decently well padded for warmth, yet Felix could move as freely as ever, and this time the gloves covered most of his fingers minus the very tips of them, and he had sandal like boots that had room for his toes to poke out. White fur trimmings at the collar, wrists, and waist finished the outfit.
"No… I'll convince him myself.." Captain Ivan growled. "I'll get him to build our weapon one way or another myself." The Captain walked towards the door and before opening it he turned to look at Natasha and Felix one last time. "You two are dismissed! Train, grab your rations, I don't care as long as you stay in the base and out of restricted areas." He said before slamming the door behind him.
"Of course Captain." Natasha said, even though the Captain wouldn't hear her behind the door. Felix walked beside Natasha as they went down the hallway, not saying a word to one another
"It's getting late here… are Joseph and Lisa are doing alright?" Felix wondered as he and Natasha continued down the hall.
Meanwhile…
Tony and Joseph were in the lounge together, Tony of course holding a glass of some drink or another. They were on either side of the table between the couches, and Joseph was showing Tony his sketches of his equipment.
"The suit's strong and all, but I'm left wide open the moment the force-field loses power. And it also becomes less effective once the gloves run out of power for energy blasts too." Joseph said.
"Well… you've got pretty efficient way of firing energy blasts… but still your lack of a decent power source is the main problem here." Tony said.
"Well how do you solve your power problems?" Joseph asked. "I mean your armor is way more tricked out than mine. Heavy, durable, tremendous strength, powerful energy blasts, sonic weapons, force-fields, great flying abilities, how do you manage to power all of that?"
"Ha! The Iron-man armor has multiple ways of getting power. It converts nearly any kind of energy, solar, electric, all kinds to power itself… I'll even tell you that there are a few satellites in orbit that can send down waves of energy to help enhance its capabilities." Tony bragged drunkenly.
"Jeez… I know how to convert solar energy… but every time I drew up plans it always added more bulk than I could manage." Joseph said, starting to feel down on himself.
"Well, you're a capable tech yourself… keep at it and I'm sure you'll think of something." Tony said. "There's a way around everything from my experience."
"Yeah… maybe." Joseph said, although his face was clearly doubtful. "Man… Tony Stark is much more of a technical genius than I'll ever be… heck I'll bet that there are geniuses all over the world that are better techs than I am." He thought.
Meanwhile…
"!!!" Lisa awoke with a start from the sound of someone hitting the dresser, at this time her eyes were just starting to turn purple.
"Oh jeez… sorry." A young male's voice said.
"No… no it's alright." Lisa said, not turning to look at the man at first. She slowly turned her head to look at him and saw a man in what appeared to be his mid or late twenties, and he was in a normal soldier's uniform, however Lisa could detect a scent of garlic on him wrapped around his neck. "You… weren't here before were you?" She asked.
"No, this is my first time in this room." The man said, setting down an ice bucket that had a fresh packet of blood, O negative, in it and a new bowl and spoon before picking up the old ones.
"…" Lisa's ears perked a little bit before she said anything. "And you're not… afraid of me?" Lisa asked, she didn't detect the usual change in heartbeat.
"Hm? Nah…" The soldier said. "My fourteen year old daughter back home, last year we learned she was a mutant. We were all scared at first but, we were there for her and we helped her get control of her powers, it could have been a lot worse. I'll admit I might be a bit paranoid what other people could think of her but… she's my daughter and I care for her."
"That's nice." Lisa said, knowing what it was like to be feared.
"We just hope she doesn't turn out to be anything like our prisoner down… oops!" The man abruptly stopped himself.
"What?" Lisa asked.
"Nothing…" The man said.
"He's hiding something." Lisa thought. "I wonder if… no I shouldn't…" Lisa thought. "But…"
Meanwhile…
"Jeez… this late at night and they're this rowdy?" Felix asked Natasha. True to Felix's words, it was late, the clock in the mess hall has long been broken, but it the darkness from outside was all that Felix needed.
"Bah… they're men." Natasha scoffed. Natasha and Felix were watching a bunch of off-duty soldiers getting together in a circle, sending two guys in to the circle, and then watching those two guys slug it out.
"Hey I'm a man too you know." Felix said with some slight offence.
"The way I see it you're still a child." Natasha said, continuing to insult Felix.
"Hssssss…" Felix hissed in an offended manner. "I wonder why the doctor won't build this weapon."
"That old man has been hidebound in his way of thinking since I've met him." Natasha sighed.
"Wait… how come you didn't mention that you knew this guy?" Felix asked.
"If I had… would it have made any difference?" Natasha asked.
"Well it would have shed a bit more light on what he…" Felix started to say when he was interrupted by the Captain bursting in to the mess hall. The fighting soldiers stopped immediately and stood at attention while Felix and Natasha kept sitting where they were.
"You two!" The Captain pointed at Natasha and Felix.
"Yes sir." They said, finally standing up at attention.
"I have a new assignment for you… Hell-claw, Black Widow, you are to receive transport from his base in one hour, prepare for a trip."
"Yes Captain." Felix and Natasha responded before turning to leave the mess hall.
Meanwhile…
"Hmmmmmm…" Joseph was in a fairly dark room, surrounded by tables and benches that had a large number of tools, and his equipment. Joseph had a large apron on and goggles on his head, and he was currently leaning over a large sheet of paper that had an elaborate sketch of his equipment and complicated notes on the circuitry and parts. "No no no." Joseph grabbed that sketch and crumpled it up and threw it on to the floor with the rest of the crumpled up pieces of paper.
"Hey, mind if I interrupt?"
"Hm?" Joseph turned around to see Janet walking through the door. "Oh hello." Joseph said, changing his frustrated expression to a polite one immediately. "Janet… do you mind me asking why you're here?"
"Oh I'm just checking on you before I left to grab lunch with Steve." She replied. "You've been about as locked up in your room as Lisa."
"Yeah well… I was just trying to figure out a way of improving the armor." Joseph said.
"Well… don't overwork yourself okay?" Janet told him.
"I'll try not to." Joseph said. "Do you know if Lisa's doing alright? I haven't talked to her yet today."
"I heard that she was talking with one of the soldiers earlier." Janet said.
"That's good." Joseph sighed in relief.
"You really care for her a lot don't you?" Janet asked.
"Well… yeah… I am her legal guardian now and… ah the kid's grown on me a lot since we met." He replied. "She's like the daughter I never had."
"Didn't you ever see anybody before?"
"There was one girl back in high school…" Joseph said sadly. "Excuse me… I've got work to do." He said, suddenly dodging the topic.
"Oh… alright then." Janet said. She turned and walked out of the room, leaving Joseph to his work.
"…" Joseph pulled out another large white sheet of paper and began sketching his equipment again with slight alterations to the design. "Forget about her Joseph… we both knew it couldn't work out."
Flashback…
"Pat!" Joseph called out. He ran up to meet up with a Caucasian girl in a blue mini-skirt.
"Oh… Hi Joseph." Pat greeted politely.
"Hey." Joseph had a rather medium build back then and he had black, flat-top, hair. "What are you doing after school today?"
"Well…"
"I mean we've got that big project coming up and I was thinking that we could…"
"Joseph before you get too excited, we need to talk."
"What is it?"
"Joseph… you're smart and cute and all, but Joseph you're just way out of my league here."
"I'm sorry?"
"You know so much about machines that it's scary and you always overwhelm me with this kind of stuff." She said.
"Wait, what are you saying?" Joseph asked.
"…"
"If you want to say it just tell me." He told her.
"Joseph, I think we should see other people." Pat finally said.
"…"
"Bye Joseph." Pat said before walking away.
"…" Joseph kept staring at her as she walked away before he sighed, and put his hands in his pockets, picking up his pace steadily until he was in the hallway, then he made a beeline for the boy's room.
End of flashback…
"Then she went and saw another guy the next day… I never saw anyone again after that… I just stayed focused on grades and trying to put myself above the class, but I always felt like I couldn't measure up to anyone." Joseph thought, stopping with his sketch and looking at it.
Meanwhile…
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…" Felix yawned, stepping out of a jeep and in to some woods. "Finally here eh?"
"Yes, it's a few meters that way." Natasha said, pointing further in to the woods ahead of them.
"Okay… so get in… get something the doctor needs, and get out within the space of one hour. No problem." Felix said.
"Correct." The Black Widow said. Felix shed the coat he was wearing and leapt through the trees, Natasha keeping to the ground and running through the woods.
A few meters ahead, they approached what appeared to be an abandoned factory. "What exactly is it that the doctor wants from this dump?" Felix asked.
"Some kind of generator that he made here a long time ago." Natasha answered.
"Fine, let's go look for it." Felix said. He hopped down and walked beside Natasha in to the factory. The moment they entered the door, the hallway inside of it split. Felix walked one direction while Natasha walked the other.
The smell of rusted metal was very strong, Felix could hardly stand the scent as he walked down the hallway. "Hmmmmm…" Felix tried to ignore the scent as he whiffed the air for any different scents, so far nothing. "This is getting annoying, first we had to kidnap the old man and now we're doing his shopping for him." Felix sighed. "I don't even know what kind of weapon this is yet."
Felix kept walking down the hallway, completely silent and attentive to his surroundings. Felix stopped walking abruptly, he then dived forward, landed on his hands, sprang backwards, flipped through the air, landed on his hands and appeared to grab something with his feet.
"Whoa!" A green scaled creature faded in to sight as Felix grabbed his head with his feet, Felix then picked the creature up and slammed it head first in to the ground behind Felix. "Oooooooggggg…"
"Camouflage hardly works when you smell like you need a bath." Felix told the guy. The man had green scaly skin which seemed more heavily armored on the top of his head and on his arms.
"What kind of a stunt was that?" The man asked.
"Wait… you don't have a Russian accent?" Felix asked, picking the man up from under the chin.
"No… I was kidnapped from my home in New York." He explained.
"I see…" Felix said. "Well sorry but that doesn't change things." Felix said, now lifting the man up more forcefully. "I need to know where I can find some generator and I don't have time to mess around."
"Urk… no… I may not have liked the guys here… but I still found some friends here… I won't say anything." The scaly mutant replied. "Ack…"
"I told you… I don't have time to mess around." Felix said, now slightly digging his claws in to the face of the mutant as he held him.
Elsewhere in the factory…
"Gah… it's already morning." Natasha grumbled as she entered a room that had numerous desks where old chemicals were left sitting. "Hmmmm…" Natasha slowly made her way to the door on the opposite side of the room, taking in everything the room had to offer to make sure she didn't miss anything.
Scratch…
"Hm?" Natasha thought she heard something as she placed her hand on the doorknob. She turned her attention back to the doorknob and began to turn it.
Scratch…
BANG
Natasha fired her gun to the side and nearly hit a figure that jumped out of the way. "It isn't polite to be sneaking up on people." Natasha said.
"Grrrrrrrrrrr…" The figure looked like a humanoid red wolf, snarling at Natasha.
"Come on then… you just might be entertaining." Natasha said, holding out two guns.
Meanwhile…
At the Triskileon, two guys were sitting at numerous monitors that showed various parts of the base on them. They were watching the nearly empty hallways. "It's about time to go home for us isn't it?" One guy asked.
"Yeah just about before the next shift arrives." The other responded. The monitors suddenly cut off. "Hey what the heck!?"
"General Fury! General? Hello General? You there?" The man said in to the intercom button. "The power in the room's been cut."
"How'd that happen?"
"I don't know." While these two were arguing, a small rat scurried out from under the monitors unnoticed, and slowly vanished in to a puff of mist.
Elsewhere in the base…
There was a massive cube shaped room, in fact you could barely make out the floor. High above that floor there was a large plastic cube suspended by the ceiling, inside the cube was a bed with a normal mattress, two chairs, and a table with chess set, everything except for said mattress was plastic. The cube's only occupant was a man with white hair and white prisoner's clothing, and the only thing he was doing was playing a game of chess by himself.
"Checkmate." The man said. The man's focused and intelligent blue eyes looked up at one of the holes in the cube for air and noticed some mist leaking in through it. "So Fury… have you decided to carry out my execution like this?" The man waited. "No response…" He noted. The mist soon joined together and Lisa kneeled on the floor, panting and gasping for breath. If the man was surprised at all, it was only slightly.
"So… thirsty…" Lisa gasped. She reached in to the sleeve of her nightgown and pulled out a vaccine hidden there. She injected herself and soon her blood red eyes turned blue. Lisa stood up, in her pink nightgown, barefoot and undone hair standing in front of one of the most powerful and dangerous mutants in the world. "You're Magneto?"
"Correct." The man responded. "And you are?"
"…" Lisa wasn't sure if she really should answer Magneto's question. "That needle isn't magnetic, so I wouldn't try anything." She said.
"I know." Magneto answered. "Now I believe that it is still proper manners to give your name child."
"Lisa." Lisa answered.
"And… why are you here?" Magneto asked.
"I… wanted to talk." Lisa said.
"…" Magneto looked at her for a minute. "You're not really a mutant are you?"
"No. But I'm certainly not human either." Lisa responded.
"Very well, do you know how to play chess?" Magneto asked.
"Y…yes." Lisa answered, pulling up a chair. She moved the pawn in front of the knight on the right side of the board first.
"Does this have something to do with humans?" Magneto asked, saying 'humans' with disgust moving the pawn in front of the queen, Lisa responded to that move after moving the pawn in front of the king.
"Yes…" Lisa said. "It's strange, the two I know aren't afraid but… others are terrified of me."
"And you don't know why? It's simple." Magneto said. At this point Magneto took a pawn and a knight of Lisa's at the cost of a bishop. "Because with evolution, the humans know that their time as the dominant species is over."
"Hm?" Lisa was curious to what he meant.
"Compared to mutants and whatever you call yourself, humans are nothing more than insects and though they won't admit it, they know it. Deep down inside of them." Magneto said.
"But… no, not everyone is afraid of that. It just isn't possible." Lisa said, recalling her conversation with the soldier who brought her blood.
"You're right, it isn't possible for every human to be afraid of that. But they know it nontheless." Magneto said. "They are hidebound in their belief of themselves as the dominant species that it is something incomprehensible for them to think otherwise, and yet they are aware of it."
"So…" Lisa tried to put together what Magneto was saying.
"They are conflicted." Magneto said. "Tell me something, what became of the dinosaurs?" Magneto asked.
"They, they're extinct." Lisa said.
"Yes but unlike the dinosaurs, humans have the intelligence to realize that their time is near." Magneto said. "And so they channel their fear in to rage and hatred to lash out at Mutants in order to try and fight this process."
"But… you still killed too many." Lisa said. "That doesn't give you the right to spill innocent blood." Lisa said.
"Innocent? I'm sure you've seen what the humans have done to our kind. I fail to see the innocence you're referring to." Magneto said.
"Repaying blood with blood doesn't solve everything." Lisa said.
"When you grow older, I'm sure you'll see." Megneto told Lisa. "Checkmate."
"…" True to what Magneto said, he had her king in a no escape situation. That's when the door to the plastic prison opened and two soldiers came in via an extendable bridge. "Uh-oh…"
"Lisa Braveheart… you have a lot of explaining to do." One of the soldiers told her.
"…" Lisa just quietly went with the soldiers, being led down the bridge. She thought over what Magneto said, it made her wonder who understood about mutants and vampires and whatever else was feared entirely if there was anyone. She really wondered.
Meanwhile…
"This room?" Felix asked his hostage, who he was still holding from under the chin. "And don't forget, I can tell when you're lying."
"Yes…" His hostage groaned. The room Felix inquired about was a large storage room with many shelves that were filled with seemingly broken devices and boxes stuffed with papers.
"… good." Felix said. He let go of his hostage, who had to catch his breath at this point. "Now then… what does this thing look like?" Felix wondered out loud. "Hold on… there's another heartbeat in here."
"RAH!!!"
"Whoa!" Felix dived out of the way of a shelf that nearly toppled on top of him.
"Yo Anole! You okay over there?"
"Yeah… he's all yours though, he's pretty tough." Felix's former prisoner said before camouflaging himself. Felix could hear his footsteps slip away.
"No problem." Felix saw a massive, bald man that had an upper body that was disproportionally large and muscular compared to his lower body. The only thing the man was wearing were tight pants an even tighter tanktop.
"Let me guess, super-human strength? Please I've taken guys bigger than you." Felix scoffed.
"That's only half of it buddy." The man said. "RAH!" The man charged forward.
"I always wanted to try the rodeo!" Felix said, he jumped up, landed on the guys shoulders as if he were mounted on a horse. "Yee-haw!"
"Get off of me!" The guy skidded to a halt, knocking over another shelf before stopping. He tried to grab Felix, who jumped off too quickly for him to catch.
"What? Over already?" Felix asked as he double kicked the man in the chest and sprang off of his chest. "What? That should have knocked you over."
"Ha ha!" The man dived at Felix and nearly slammed his fists on top of Felix had Felix not dived out of the way.
"Heh… rule of fighting, weaken your opponent before going in for the last blow." Felix told himself, revealing his claws.
Elsewhere in the factory…
"Was that all? How pathetic." Black Widow scoffed as she looked at the mutant she just shot. The mutant was lying on its back, still in wolf form, and its chest full of bleeding bullet holes.
"No!!! I don't believe this!"
"…" Black Widow wheeled around and fired her gun at the source of the noise.
"AH!" Anole faded in to sight clutching his shoulder, now bleeding. "You shot me!"
"You made too much noise." Black Widow told him, holding the gun to his head. "Truly idiotic, even if your comrade is dead, you should have remained quiet instead of letting me know where you were."
"…" Anole just looked at the gun in fear, feeling as though he jumped out of the frying pan right in to the fire.
"Judging from the marks on your face you already met my comrade here." Natasha said. "Bah… the fact that he let you go shows you how much stronger he needs to get." She said. "Where is he?"
"U-up-upstairs." Anole stuttered.
"Thank you." Black Widow said before shooting him in the head. She put the gun away and walked through the door Anole came through.
Back upstairs…
"Heh… heh…"
"Come on… I thought you'd be tougher than this." Felix taunted, his claws having small traces of blood on them as he looked at the man, who had numerous cuts on his body.
"I am tough! RAAAAAAAHHH!!!" The man bull-rushed him again.
"Love all." Felix said. As the man charged him, Felix rolled to the side, swiping his hand at his leg, scratching it.
"AH!" The man cried.
"Fifteen love." Felix said, jumping past the man's back, spinning and swiping one of his feet by his back followed immediately by another swipe of his hand, leaving two more scratch marks.
"RAH!" The man wheeled around to try and hit him.
"Thirty love." Felix said, hopping up to the man's shoulder, swiping his claws at his face, and then revealing his toe claws as he jumped off of his shoulder, leaving behind more claw marks.
"SHUT UP!!!" The man shouted furiously, swinging his arm at Felix again. Felix simply jumped over that arm, letting his toe claws scratch that arm as it passed underneath him.
"Forty love." Felix immediately ducked in towards the man right before being crushed underneath a massive fist. "Match point!" Felix jumped up to the man's face, swiped both his hands outward to leave two more scratches, and then he kicked him in the face as hard as he could with his feet.
"Ooooooooooooggggg…" The man finally fell over, covered in cuts, sweat, and droplets of blood.
"Compared to the super villains at home, this guy was a piece of cake." Felix thought.
"Nicely done."
"And where were you when I could have used a hand?" Felix asked.
"Cleaning up some trash." Natasha answered. "So the battery is in this room?" Natasha asked.
"Yeah, according to that Anole guy, and he wasn't lying." Felix answered, rooting through the shelves.
"Good, once we get back, we need to rest up and then hit training immediately." Natasha said.
"Oh whoopee…" Felix sighed. As he and Natasha rooted through the shelves, Felix took glances back at the guy he just defeated, and he recalled Anole's words to him. "He found friends here eh? Far from home… kind of like me. Joseph, Lisa, I'll get back soon, no matter what."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew… delays are no fun for anybody, but here's the chapter. Let me know what you think.
