Chapter Thirty Four

Kay and Felicia slipped out of the room as the fight erupted. Felicia stuck close to her side, "I remember the party you know."

Kay looked at her, "then..."

"I know how you beat that thing," she said quietly as they walked quickly. She looked back nervously over her shoulder but kept on following quickly. "I saw those terrible things you wear."

"Probably shouldn't say that too loud," Kay said softly as the moved through the halls. "How did you end up here?"

"Fisk tipped him off that someone went to go see my Dad."

"Ugh...Fisk," Kayura cursed. She realized that the man may have had a more integral role in the situation than she realized.

"Um...there's a vault at the end of this hall," she said sweetly and stopped to point.

Kayura looked back at the blonde who was standing still at the end of the hallway. She came back and looked down the hall, "artifacts."

Felicia nodded.

Kay decided to head down with Felicia following close behind and ever so meekly. The door wasn't locked strangely enough and Kayura opened what looked a museum of artifacts across the world. Some she felt were dangerous, others were just simple objects. At the very end there was something bright and golden cased in glass. The staff looked as brand new as the day it was forged. Felicia asked, "what is it?"

"The Ancient's staff," she said as she touched the glass.

There was a snarl and the two girls looked to see the Rhino standing on the other side of the door way. Felicia squeaked, "there's a door behind us."

Kay smashed the glass with a kick just as the Rhino charged, knocking through the wall. Kay grabbed the staff and felt the power buzz through her hands. She smirked but still knew she couldn't use it to its full potential but she was able to jump at the Rhino and send him crashing into wall with a good whack to the head. She ran after Felicia as the beast got to his feet and started charging them, shattering the rest of the cases.

They ran through the back door and Felicia yanked Kay to the side letting the Rhino run through the rails the protected the suspended walkway and falling fifty feet. Kay looked over the edge and looked at Felicia, "you're clever."

She smiled nervously, "yeah, well, I take after my Dad in a lot of ways."

"I can see."

Kay looked around and saw a suspended item in the middle of the all the suspended walkways. A golden mirror the size of captain's shield hung lightly above them. She gulped, "the mirror. We have to get that before Allistair realizes that's the most powerful thing in this building."

"I can't do that sort of scaling," Felicia said.

Kayura handed her the staff, "I can."

Felicia watched as the small woman balanced on the railing, "are you really Stark's sister?"

"Yes," Kayura lied after a significant pause as she grabbed onto the support wires and scaled them to the ceiling. It was a long way down as she balanced on the thin lines. She could see Rhino getting back up. The man snarled and charged a supporting pole. She cursed as everything shook and she lost her balance. She barely gripped the line with one hand. Felicia yelled her name as the man set up to charge again, and Kay realized her desperation for the mirror had tripped her up. She looked at the girl, "you know the way out, get out."

"But," Felicia yelled as everything shook again.

"Look we're tough! Besides Junko would be very upset if anything happened to you."

Felicia nodded and took off with the staff, at least Kay had one dangerous item safely outside of Allistair's hands. She reached up with the other as the line shook again, and she managed to pull herself up. There was a loud bang and Kay's vision went swimming as she felt her right side burn. Her eyes caught a guard with a shot gun as she lost her balance. She felt the line slip from her grip and Rhino caught her by the neck.

Allistair rolled up, "I see you had your sights on the mirror."

Kay felt the warm blood down her arm and back, "it's really pretty..."

Rhino grunted and squeezed. She could feel the Oni burning for her to use it but she didn't dare reach for it, and Allistair smiled, "what is your interest in it? Hm?"

"I want it for a wedding present," she managed to snap.

"Oh yes, Captain America, I'm sure he'll come charging in sooner or later," he said. "I wonder if it's easier to break a super heroes heart or just the hero? Now you're going to tell what my father was so interested in back in Japan. Certain he had found something better than the tesseract."

Kayura laughed, "are you insane? There is nothing stronger than Asgardian tech."

"Then you know that the artifacts are actually tech."

"Kuso," she cursed.

Allistair grinned ear to ear, "be gentle, Rhino."

Kayura closed her eyes as the Rhino slammed her into the wall and dropped her. She felt every cell scream and the oni burned again. She realized that if she got hurt too badly that the armor was going to summon itself. She reminded herself that partial truths were just as good as lies, "fine...I'll tell you what it is."

"Good," he said.

She panted heavily, "there was a professor who was disappeared years ago, her name was Mia Koji."

He seemed to recognize the name.

"She had a collection of these items that were stolen..."

He nodded, "and you were hired to get them back, eh? And your comrades?"

"People I made friends with in the shadows."

He smiled, "well...since you got rid of my test subject. How about I nominate you?"

She grunted as Rhino grabbed her by the short hair and she hoped that Steve had decided to the worrisome man he usually was. She blacked out momentarily as Rhino dragged her along, and when she woke she saw the foggy green light again. She tried to raise up but she was strapped down, she saw Hoshi and Raleigh were holding Dais who had big wound to his side. Sekh looked like he had been banged on the head and Kale's arm was twisted the wrong way. She had seen them worse though, and wasn't too worried about her beat up warlords. She saw Allistair nearby as she rolled her head to one side, how long had she been out? She realized she was on the gurney that she rescued Felicia from.

Allistair turned to look at her, "I see Rhino didn't kill you. You must be pretty stubborn."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"My father was an obsessive man, he collected all of these rare artifacts and left me no reason as to why. Even Fisk thought they were only for aesthetic purposes, but you see they emit something very similar to the Tesseract. Professor Erskine worked with these sorts of radiations when he formed the super soldier serum. My father spent years trying to recreate that serum with Herbert Landon, and these two beasts are the result of that," he said looking at Scorpion and Rion. "Obedient but not very bright but they were just soldiers to begin with."

"What happened to your father," Kayura decided to ask.

Allistair paused quietly for a moment, "he was injured at Oscorp when one of his test subjects became...a monster. I told Mr. Hashiba that he had passed but he actually didn't die. He's here in a cryo state."

Kayura gulped as he wheeled over, and she asked, "so...I'm lost. Why all of this?"

"I made an update to Landon's formula, that mirror has special qualities like the Tesseract? Yes?"

Kay just stayed quiet.

"It sort of gives off radiation, I don't need you tell you it's special."

She just kept quiet and watched him as he pulled a cart over that had all sorts of needles and operating equipment. She smiled, "sharp objects don't really scare me."

He snorted a little, "the thing about the original serum is that amplifies what a person really is or it should. So a bad man becomes evil, and a good man becomes a god. Whatever this is, it isn't the super soldier serum that Captain has. It has interesting side affects, it sort of diminishes the temporal lobe. Which is impulse control. So what happens if I give a pretty girl like you a dose of the updated version?"

Kay smiled, "I rip out your throat?"

He chuckled, "your idle threats are amusing."

She saw him grab a small glass vile that he inserted a needle into it and she said, "I might actually turn into an Ogre."

"That'll be entertaining."

"You're a nutcase."

"Thank you."

She decided another question, "why are you testing it, what is your end goal? To fix your dad?"

He smirked, "clever girl."

"Rowen had an interesting obsession with vibranium," he said. Kay caught Hoshi's eyes grow wide with his answer and he continued, "I stumbled upon a project of his called Inferno. Preposterous armors but with a little tweaking I created the super soldier suit that Scorpion is wearing."

Kay glanced at the man and then back at him, "one part serum, one part armor."

"Precisely," he said as he reached for something in a different vile that had small golden shards in it. He injected the serum into it, "except, I'm going to see what this is going to do."

She gulped as she saw the serum turn blood red, "well, its my color at least."

"That's the spirit."

Allistair didn't notice as they talked she had slipped her foot out of the straps, she landed a kick just as he held up the needle. It pierced his neck, and she crashed to the ground, still strapped to the gurney. The fall loosened the straps and she kicked free as Scorpion and Rhino turned on her. She cursed as they charged and she slid between them. There was a large bang and shake, and she smiled, "the cavalry is here."

She could never get over how Steve looked so godly in his full uniform and shield. Her heart almost stopped as she saw him walk through the smoke, by his side was Ryo and Sage. Although, she was unsure how exactly they blew the door until she saw Leah and Cye with the guns. He helped her up, seeing her covered in blood. She said, "I'm okay. Did you see Felicia?"

"She's fine," said Cye. "That girl has gusto."

Steve saw the two beasts as they helped the man back up into his wheelchair who seemed to be twitching as he removed the needle from his neck. Steve asked, "mystically inspired bad guy."

Kayura nodded, "bent on perfecting a super soldier serum."

"Oh."

She was so glad he was experienced with this sort of thing. She felt her knees go week and fell to them as Allistair managed to stammer, "get them!"

Rhino started to stampede and Sage grabbed Kay away as they slid out of the beast's way. He asked, "where are the others?"

"I'm fine, Dais is hurt bad though over their in the holding cell," she hissed as Leah zapped scorpion and a wall started to come down.

Kay saw Allistair roll through the door trying to to escape, "you free them, I go after the bastard."

"But you've been shot," he insisted as he grabbed her wrist.

"I'm walking, its fine," she hissed back. "Ryo, with me!"

The dark haired man nodded and missed barely being skewered by Scorpion. Ryo ran after her as she dodged under falling debris. She could feel the Oni burning in her pocket as Ryo hot footed it after her. He asked, "are all of their bad guys this weird?"

Kay responded, "yes, and damn that bastard rolls fast!"

Ryo and Kay slid into the destroyed vault. She looked around at the artifacts as they quietly stepped through and saw Allistair. He had lowered the mirror to his height and he was reaching for it. He was slowly twitching, as he held the mirror. Kay said, "Allistair, that thing is dangerous."

He looked at her with glowing green eyes and Ryo said, "humans don't do that."

"I know that much," she hissed. "I sort of kicked an experimental super soldier serum into him..."

"Oh great..."

He slowly smiled at her, there was something darker about the way he spoke, "this thing freaks you out."

"Please, Allistair, you don't want to go down this road," she said softly as she started to approach him. "Give me the mirror and we can figure this out okay? Tony can..."

"Don't you dare mention Stark," he hissed and his flashed.

She nodded, "please, you don't know what you're messing with. Look what happened to Socovia when humans used mystical tech to enhance their own..."

"You think I care what happens to people," he growled and she could see veins being to rise against his skin. He twitched nervously and she saw him laugh as he pushed himself out of his wheelchair and rose up. She could see his muscles ripping and fluxing under his shirt and it began to pull apart.

Ryo asked as she started to step back, "this armor thing is not going to work, Kay."