Author's Notes: I made some minor changes to the ending of my last chapter due to complaints about what a number of readers said, so check that out if you want to, and certain details are meant to be foreshadowing and the likes. But I can't please everyone's reaction to details, you win some and lose some.
Markus hated being knocked out, because usually that means something stupid or insane was about to happen to him. The first obvious example that he could think of was the fucking Sierra Madre Affair perpetuated by Crazy Eli, that saw him gain a bomb collar strapped to his fucking neck and then having to break into an old pre-war Casino. The second time led to him being knocked out by an old pre-war science facility that saw him lose his spine, heart, and brain, and being the errand boy for a bunch of clearly psychotic and out of their mind, old as fuck, crazy scientists.
So yeah, he really did not appreciate being knocked out for a third time, and when he woke up, he found himself locked in some storage room, all tied up with Chika next to him and all tied up as well. "You okay there?" Markus spoke up, as Chika looked up in surprise and saw Chika smiling in relief.
"Markus, you're okay!" She said in relief before she spoke in a much quieter tone, so Markus did so as well. As she tried to move but was too far tied up to be able to do so. "I'm so happy that you're okay, I thought your heart stopped or something like that." She said in concern to him, as Markus looked confused.
"My heart stopped or something?" Markus questioned, as far as he was aware, all that happened to him was that he got electrocuted for a bit and got knocked the fuck out. Kind of embarrassing all things considered, especially with what he went through. But he wasn't prideful like some dumbasses, who think that just because they think they're top dogs, they're automatically invincible. "As far as I'm aware I got shocked until I got knocked out." He then pointed out.
"Tasers and the likes are illegal in Japan Markus." Chika pointed out as he blinked at that. "Even worse, I'm pretty sure they're were illegally modified to deliver more damage as well. Not to mention I don't think they're just normal thugs…I'm pretty sure they're mercenaries of some kind." She said as Markus's eyes sharpened at that.
"How sure are you about that?" He asked with some hint of worry, Mercenaries usually vary in quality, you can have a bunch of idiots waving guns around and call themselves mercs, or you can have a band of highly experienced and skilled ex-soldiers calling shots around. Also depending on what he was facing, getting Chika and himself out of here safely was going to get more complicated.
"My family does a lot in political work Markus, so I know the signs, furthermore, underneath their clothes, they all had body armor, some recognizable, and some that I never seen before. And you know full well, body armor is illegal in Japan. So those two factors, with how efficiently they moved plus some mention about a bounty on me, means we're dealing probably dealing with some skilled people, Markus." Chika said sadly.
"Well shit." Markus muttered and cursed, that means, these people weren't actually green as grass. And he looked around and to his nonexistent surprise, they removed his bag, phone, and shoes, among other things from searching his body no doubt about it. So, he literally had nothing on him...seemingly. "Looks like getting out of here is going to be a bit complicated." He muttered as he put the mercs on the same threat levels as those BOS Assassins. He might be overestimating them since they don't seem to be packing any heat…that was visible, but that could be just for public display.
"How are we going to get out of here Markus?" Chika said. "And besides, you're hurt and…" She trailed off as Markus grunted and snapped the rope bonds holding him together. "…What are you made of Markus?" She asked both in shock and awe at what she saw.
"I assume you're not asking for the scientific answer, otherwise we will be here for a bit." Markus grunted as he internally winced from feeling stiff all over, and trying to shake out the jitters. One bright side is that he was augmented that being held by rope wasn't going to hold him down for long.
"I'm being serious Markus." Chika said seriously. "I saw you tank all those taser shots, the amount of tasers you got should have been lethal. And I saw what some of those mercs did a practical demonstration with those tasers and I saw the target smoking, how are you even still standing?" She questioned.
Markus paused at that, well now, that explained how he got knocked the fuck out, the tasers were far more powerful than he expected. "I'm built differently, and I developed some neat pain resistance in my life, but I think we can ask those questions later for when we get out of this place." He pointed out to her, as he helped her up so she was no longer lying flat on the ground.
"That's not going to be easy." Chika said, as she slowly got into a sitting position. "We're deep inside enemy territory, and neither of us knows anything about the enemy or how many there are. And between the two of us, only you're the one capable of fighting the mercs off." She said in worry and a bit of fear.
"If that's the case, I will try to find a way to get us out of here." Markus assured Chika. "On the bright side, removing my shoes might help." Markus muttered to himself as he took a few practice steps and shook up his body for a bit. And then he started feeling the door for anything that might be used as a brace and felt nothing, at least from what he can tell.
Then he put his ears to the ground for anything and heard no vibrations or anything of the likes that indicate someone was standing guard outside. Good thing he had Followers Chalk teach him how to hunt and that Joshua had some good hunting skill himself. Feeling the lock, he noticed it was naturally locked, so digging into his pockets, he dug up some paper clips and dug into the inside of his jumpsuit where he held a pin.
So carefully taking his pin and clip, he started working on undoing the lock and paused every few moments to make sure nobody was outside as best as he could. Before he then heard the satisfying click of the door no longer being locked. Nodding at his success, he put his ear against the door and then the floor one last time to hear for anyone.
Not hearing anything, he took a deep breath and slowly opened the door and peeked around a bit, and saw some armed guards standing by, but looking bored and occasionally looking around and barely even turning back to the door. This was something that he could take advantage of, so quickly moving out and closing the door behind him so nobody could notice anything was off. Markus started sneaking around the place he was in and taking in a clear look of everything he saw so he had a better idea of what he was dealing with and how to get out.
Taking stock of what he saw, he saw that a number of them were armed with batons and taser weapons, no guns for the most part. He would have been curious as to why that was, but hearing that Chika was from a family of politicians, he could make a few good guesses. After all, if Chika tried to escape, she would be worthless as a hostage if she was dead. And in some cases, if actual damage was shown on her, there's no telling how some people would react in such a situation.
Trying to go out guns blazing would be stupid, since he didn't have guns to begin with, and that would put the hostage at risk. Trying to take them all out, one by one wasn't going to be smart either since they would obviously notice that their numbers were going down as well. Trying to fight them all in melee would be stupid, because regardless of how augmented someone becomes, enough shots will kill anyone.
So, he needed to cause a distraction of some kind, which means he needs tools to work with. Something he does not have as he was stripped of his equipment, meaning he was going to have to find something to work with. He also had to move quick since he didn't know how long he had until one of the guards come back to run a check on Chika and himself and throw everyone into high alert on his missing person.
Then he saw something he could work, a janitor's closet, sneaking in he got inside and started looking at the cleaning chemicals and smirked a bit. Cleaning Chemicals can be used in a variety of ways, including banned chemical weapons of some kind and voila he found something very useful already to use. Bleach, and there was some rubbing alcohol in another part, some rubber gloves, eye protection, and even masks, how thoughtful.
Then he saw something called Lysol, he then examined the chemical list, took that, saw that the janitor also left some vinegar for some reason in this closet. But then he remembered that Vinegar can also be used as a cleaner of some kind, and took that as well since he knows several uses for it and had plenty of stuff to work with now.
Keeping a mask, eye protection, and gloves was the first step for him, since they can be dangerous. Then he hid the chemicals in a place so he can get them out again and returned to the room that Chika was in to tell her about his plan. Then he quietly took the spare of the gloves, masks, and eyewear protection and sneaked back into the room where Chika looked up and was surprised to see him. "Markus, what are you wearing?" She asked.
"Oh, you know, protection and stuff, got my hands on some bleach, Lysol, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and a few other chemicals." Markus said as Chika paled at what she heard come out of Markus's mouth. Which was good since this was going to be easier for him now, I can imagine you now have an idea about what it is I am going to do, lass." Markus said as Chika nodded in fear, and he also made sure to lock the door to make sure nobody got suspicious of how the door was left unlocked.
"I hope you know what you're doing, you could kill us if you're not careful." She said with a weak laugh.
"Don't worry I know what I am doing, besides, it's not like a lot of options are open for us either way." Markus said as Chika nodded reluctantly, as he paused and put his ear to the ground and heard footsteps. "Someone's coming." He warned as Chika got back and he hid the protection kit in a random spot and quickly pretended to be knocked out and locked up.
Soon the door handle was jiggling and then someone walked in with Markus pretending to knocked out as he listened as best as he could. "Well, well, well, Chika Fujiwara, the daughter of the Fujiwara Family, I assume you know what this is all about, as you are a smart girl." The one seemingly in charge spoke up.
"I'm a hostage for you, to use against my family for money or leverage." Chika said in a scared tone, but managed to speak properly as Markus suddenly heard chuckling and clapping.
"Smart girl." The one in charge praised. "But as you can imagine, it would be very bad for certain folks to have their own work interfered by your family." He said to her. "It's a bit bad for business as you see, and we have nothing against you or your family, it's just business really." He said apologetically.
"If it was nothing against me, I would really like it if you let me go, and my friend." Chika said.
"Ah if only it was that simple." The one who spoke up said mockingly. "You make such a good hostage and if you act out, well…" He trailed off as Markus made sure not to flinch or react when he heard a familiar clicking noise. "Someone has to pay the price." He pointed out.
"…I will be a good hostage." Chika said meekly and in fear. "Please don't hurt my friend any more than you already have." She pleaded.
"Good girl." The in charge said mockingly as he clicked the safety on. "Now stay here an don't cause any trouble, and with the exception of your friend, no one is going to have to go through anymore of these issues." He said as he left and locked the door once they got out.
Once the door was locked and the footsteps got further away, Markus opened his eyes and got up. "Alright we need to get out of here." Markus said as he put on his protection. "They're going to be sending out a demand and use your capture as proof and force your family to give in to their demands." Markus said.
"They have my voice." Chika nodded. "A recorder on one of their phones caught it. "So that means we don't have a lot of chances to actually escape right now." She then said sullenly.
"Then that means they're going to be busy making the hostage video or audio, or what not, which means this is our best chance to escape." Markus said calmly as he put on the gloves and the likes. "This may suck but it is our best shot." He said to her as Chika nodded so with a quick application of Markus's strength, he tore of Chika's bonds, and she soon started to layer herself as best as she can.
"Stay here, you will know when my plan will begin, just remember, stay hidden, and wait for my return." Markus said as Chika nodded, he was going by a bit fast and was running on a plan that was being worked on as he speaks. But there was nothing else that he can do but adapt as best as he could. Besides, when it came to improvising, there was very few people able to match him.
So, sneaking back out again, Markus quickly recovered the chemicals he found and then started sneaking around the place to find a spot to use the chemicals he found them in. As Markus snuck around, he took note of the building and structure he was in, judging from what he can tell so far, he was in some kind of warehouse of sorts. And the sounds of horns and bird, plus the occasional water sounds told he might be in some kind of port.
Meaning he had no bloody idea where he was in relation to everywhere else, hopefully Chika knew the way. As Markus stuck to the shadows and cover, he saw armed men walking around, and now that some of them were no longer wearing heavy clothes or whatever. He could see that a number of them were wearing some kind of body armor. Though the white chest plate armor was a bit weird in design, he had to admit.
Then he kept on moving until he found an unused room, and snuck his way in there. The moment he got inside, he used the bucket he got from the janitor's closet and started pouring and mixing chemicals in there like a witch would with her cauldron. Adding certain types of chemicals and the likes and then seeing the bubbling effect one he finished stirring and mixing it up.
Seeing the bubbling effect, that he caused, he nodded and busted open a vent and felt the powerful air flow and then dumped the bucket's content inside as the chemical mixture reacted strongly and then waited for the inevitable to happen. Soon he heard panic and screaming, as well as coughing and collapsing as people started to struggle to move and an alarm went off.
Waiting by the door, he heard someone coughing and wheezing badly and then entered the room as soon as he could, which Markus, then locked and then went behind the wheezing merc and grabbed him by the neck and snapped it in half. As he gently put down the body, he started digging around, and picked up the heavier coat the guy was wearing, as well as the vest armor he was wearing as well.
Putting those on himself, and taking the taser gun, which Markus noted looked a bit modified to an extent. He prepared himself and walked out with his hand holding firmly onto the baton. Thankfully for himself, he did have some augmentations that made him better resist poisons, combined with the makeshift mask he had, he could endure it for a bit.
As Markus walked out, he saw people were too busy panicking and worrying, and soon he struck one merc straight in the throat and collapsed it as he choked to death. Feeling only a few things, the only thing of note he grabbed was a knife of sorts and another coat. Then he passed by a merc that collapsed to the ground wheezing from the stairs, he drew his blade and stab him in the head, and to his own luck, picked up a pistol, with several spare magazines.
And Markus rinsed and repeated this process several times over, until he got to the room Chika was in and she was looking a bit pale, but okay. Markus looked around and saw now ventilation in this particular room, which probably explained why they put her here, had to make sure she couldn't escape.
"Hey." Markus said as Chika waved and he threw her some body armor and coats. "Put those on, they will be your main form of protection." He said as Chika nodded and did just that as Markus took out the building's fire escape plans that he looted from one of the mercs and noted where they were and saw a clear exit. Once Chika put on her protection, including some pants that Markus looted from a merc. They got out.
As the alarm ringed and people were in a panic to try and get out, Markus kept Chika's head down and made sure to avoid any unnecessary combat, while he could use his gun to fight if need be. It was again, foolish to try and start a fight with a hostage in play. Besides, he wasn't here to kill them, he was only here to get Chika out.
As soon as they reached a fire exit, and got out and Markus blocked the door, they took off as much of their chemical contaminated clothes as they could. As Chika let out a sigh of relief of being outside, Markus motioned her to stay quiet and stay behind him they quietly snuck out as much as they could. While there were a number of mercs that got outside, they were too busy suffering from medical complications to do anything.
As Markus and Chika made their way to one of the cars that were parked outside in the parking lot, a gunshot was heard and Markus quickly pushed down Chika behind a car as a dent was heard on a car. Markus drew his gun and quickly looked up for a moment before ducking back as the one facing him was the apparent leader of the group and he had a mask of sorts on his face aiming a gun at him and Chika.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." The man said to them. "Hand over the girl, and you won't die, refusal to do so will see your body thrown into the waters." The merc leader warned.
"Is that so?" Markus called out as he checked his gun's condition and the likes and the number of bullets he had. "How do I know you intend to keep your word?" He pointed out as he readied his gun for combat.
"You don't, but mark my words, this is your only opportunity." He retorted back.
"If that's the case, then I think I know what my answer is then." Markus said calmly before he took a deep breath and slid to the left from behind the car and opened fire.
That caused the Merc boss to get into cover and started opening fire as well as Markus and the Merc tried to gun each other down. As Markus went back behind cover, Chika yelped at the sudden explosion of violence. "Chika, listen to me." He said as he raised his arm to blind fire. "I need you to get further behind and get into safety better." He said to her as Chika nodded and crawled her way further back to safety.
Then he went back into shooting as he tried to shoot down the Merc boss, but he was smarter and stuck to cover and only came out when he had to come out. So, Markus moved to get a better angle to shoot at him and rolled over to another car and fired at the Merc boss waiting for an opportunity to shoot him. Markus ducked down as the Merc boss fired at the car's side view mirror that his head was nearby and ducked down and avoided getting hit.
Seeing the shattered mirror on the ground though, Markus picked up the largest piece and tilted it up a bit to see behind him from the safety of the car and as the Merc boss was moving, he could see exactly where his footsteps was taking him and soon saw the exact location where he would stop soon. So, getting up at the same time as the Merc boss did, Markus fired first straight into the arm holding the pistol, holding the gun and making the Merc boss drop it.
Then he fired several more shots into the chest as the gun went empty as he drew another clip and reloaded it. And kept on firing until he shot the throat causing the Merc boss to drop. Swapping out the clip with a full one, Markus kept his gun up waiting for potential reinforcements and then looked down to see the enemy Merc boss dead with blood coming out of his throat.
Carefully examining the body, and moving the pistol away from the Merc boss, he knelt down and laid one hand down and felt no heartbeat anymore. Confirming that he was dead, he searched the man's belongings and picked up some more ammo clips and then picked up a set of keys, which he assumed were car keys. Clicked on one button and heard a beep from a car and nodded at that.
Shoving the keys into his pockets, he picked up both guns and threw it into the water and then picked up the body, which was a bit heavier than it looked and dumped it into the water as well. Then he removed whatever clothes that didn't belong to him and dumped them into the water as well. He wasn't exactly going to keep those guns, it was a way for the cops to track him down, especially since forensic science is far more advanced here.
Besides, just because he no longer carries his weapons out publicly and was cut off from the vast majority of his weapons, doesn't mean he didn't have some of them. He was carrying some when he got teleported to this world after all.
"Chika, time to go." Markus said as he quickly figured out which car to take. "Also, I sadly need you to drive." He said as Chika looked at him in complete bafflement.
"Why do I have to drive!?" She nearly cried out. "You're the adult, aren't you?" She pointed out to him.
"Rather simple, I am only bare footed right now." He said pointing to his lack of boots and socks. "Had to discard them after we got out of the chemical gas." He pointed out to her as Chika nodded reluctantly at that. "Also, pretty sure I can't drive with only my bare feet as it is." He added in. 'Not to mention I can't actually drive or know how to.' He thought.
"This isn't ideal." Chika sighed, as she took driver's seat. "But getting kidnapped was not ideal to begin with." She said as she took driver's seat as Markus took shotgun seat and kept an eye out for any potential hostiles, but it seems the vast majority of them were too concerned with actually living to care.
He also noted that he found his shoes, so kudos for not going barefooted, but still elected to not tell Chika so she can drive for him. He also made a reminder to himself to look up on how to drive cars and the likes, going everywhere by foot wasn't going to cut it if he spent more and more time outside of the Chinese District. Which seems to be an increasingly greater possibility the more and more he thought about it lately.
"Sometimes we're dealt a bad hand." Markus said as Chika started up the car and Markus kept up an eye in case some other merc managed to catch them. But none of them came out yet, something that seem to be giving Markus an odd feeling as Chika drove them off, wondering why no Merc was coming out to stop them. The chemicals he mixed up shouldn't be that much cause for panic and to make them lose sight of their job, he assumed.
But why did he had a bad feeling that there was something else going on that he didn't know about? That was one thought that plagued Markus's head as Chika drove off.
As Markus and Chika drove off and there was a moment of pause, something came out of the water bubbling and if Markus and Chika were there. They would have been surprised, and in Chika's case, horrified to see that the man that Markus shot in the throat was somehow still alive and active and coming out of the waters like it was nothing, despite the throat injury.
As the man got out of the water and poured some excess water out, he looked to the hiding spot he used and simply walked there and knelt down and reached behind a tire where a phone was hidden alongside a spare pair of car keys for a different car and a detonator of some kind. As he picked up the phone, he activated and dialed a number and waited until someone answered him.
"Yes, hello." The man spoke into. "No, we did not succeed in keeping onto the girl, she managed to escape our grasp." He answered calmly despite the hole in his throat.
"…"
"Yes, I know you are understandably upset about that; however, we did come to a breakthrough in another case that I believed warranted greater attention." He spoke back to the voice.
"…"
"I am talking about the case with the Idol, I have found out who it is, and having just fought with him recently plus a few other interesting bits of info does tell me exactly how he managed to become a thorn in our plan." The man said.
"…"
"Very then let me explain it." He said as he started off.
(Flashback Begin)
The Merc frowned as they finally managed to knock out the man that was with their target. He was…way too unnaturally tough to have resisted being tasered like over six times. Especially since those tasers were illegally modified and brought from underground connections, made as a theoretical for more…dangerous foes.
As the men tied up the man, the Merc took the man's bag with them and then got into same car as he commanded his men to bring the duo to the warehouse where they were going to keep the hostage. And looking inside the bag gave the Merc nothing to work with or deal with. And every so often the man started to stir a bit, forcing one of them to keep him knocked out.
The Merc couldn't help but frown at that, that was an unnatural level of endurance for a normal human being to have, the number of people to have that kind of pain resistance and then start to stir so quickly were extremely uncommon. Something was telling him that the man was not normal by any means.
He then decided to nick some blood off the man through a small cut here and there and kept the sample on his person with none of the men being the more aware.
Once they got to the warehouse, the Merc dug into the man's pockets and found his phone. Normally being able to access a smart phone was a difficult task with them being password locked or face id needed. But they happened to have the face of the man, and so pointing to the man's face, the Merc gained access to his data and phone.
As he was looking for details, he soon found a name that caught his interest, Hoshino, only a family name, and no given name. That name might not have meant much to anyone, but he wasn't just anyone. Excusing himself to another room to run reports as an excuse, he went to a room with a private laptop and locked the room so he had privacy.
He then hooked up the phone to his laptop and ran several programs over it and then found the most recent calls, one that took place exactly at the same time an incident was going on. Now he had a name for the man, Markus Redgrave, and more importantly, he was the reason why Hoshino Ai is still alive.
Knowing that, he then took out the sample of blood and started up another smaller feature on his laptop and pulled out some other tech kits and dropped the sample of blood into the compartment and started examining it. Which would take some time, so he decided to check up on the hostage.
Moments after he finished talking to Chika and getting into his room and locked it up again, the chemical alarms went off. And he frowned as that was not normal and now the chemicals were in his room in fumes. As panic spread, he was about to leave but heard a ding and then look to his laptop and narrowed his eyes at the result before him.
AUGMENTED HUMAN CONFIRMED, FEV TRACE DETECTED.
(Flashback End.)
"…!"
"That is correct." The Merc nodded in affirmation. "They are more connected than we thought, and it seems our operation may be at risk." He said calmly. "Seems we are not the only ones here after all."
"…"
"Of course." The Merc confirmed with a nod. "Wiping all traces out now." He said as he ended the call and then pressed the detonator and soon the warehouse was set ablaze as he contacted a number on the phone. "Clean up." He commanded as the number was rang and soon received a number of affirmations and soon gunshots, snapped necks, and screams of pain, shock, and betrayal was heard. "Sound off." He then said as the noises got silenced.
Soon all that was heard was the clicks on every Monitor's call and the Merc nodded and ended the call and headed for a car that was more normal looking and got inside and started off as the Merc drove off. Evidence needs to be erased and properly disposed of, a new enemy is confirmed.