Chapter 86: Revenge Tour (pt.3)

Chapter 86: Revenge Tour (pt.3)

2014

Canada, Appalachian Mountains

HYDRA Preparatory AcademyThis chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Courtyard

A Few Moments Earlier

(Brock POV)

Approaching the imposing gates of HYDRA Preparatory Academy, I could feel the tension building in the air.

Beside me, Ava and Zeru also prepared themselves for what lay ahead.

I took a step forward, my muscles tensing beneath my armor, ready to smash through the gates with my formidable strength, when Zeru put his hand on my arm, signaling me to wait.

"Hold on, Boss," Zeru said, his mechanical voice tinged with excitement. "I've been meaning to show you what this suit can really do."

Curiosity piqued, I took a step back, watching as Zeru activated one of the advanced bio-mechanical weapons integrated into his suit.

Raising his arms towards the thick gate, I watched on in interest as the metal on his palms began to liquefy and fuse together, expanding into the long barrel of what looked like a railgun.

Purple energy crackled through the air as the weapon hummed with power and a beam of destructive force shot forth, obliterating the gates in a spectacular display of power.

*Boom!!*

Metal shrieked and sparks flew as the gates crumbled before us, reducing it to nothing more than twisted wreckage.

"Damn," I whistled, impressed by Zeru's growing repertoire of weaponry.

The kid had come a long way since I first met him. His abilities were definitely worth the time to cultivate.

With the path cleared, we moved forward, stepping over the wreckage of the shattered gates as the dust settled.

I surveyed the scene around us, my eyes falling upon three figures emerging from the school's entrance. My gaze swept over them, taking in their appearance and assessing them for any potential threats.

The first two were unfamiliar faces, but their weapons caught my attention.

One of them carried a massive sparking Warhammer, crackling with raw white electricity, while the other wielded a shield similar to Captain America's, but thicker and more mechanical in nature.

HYDRA's attempts at recreating the iconic heroes were evident.

And then I saw him, unmistakable even with his horrific cybernetic enhancements.

John Garrett, my old combat instructor at this very school, now a twisted version of his former self. His once-familiar face had been marred by cybernetics, rendering him almost unrecognizable. Wires and circuitry snaked across his scarred flesh, blending with his remaining organic tissue and creating a disturbing image.

Recalling the grueling training sessions and the harsh lessons he had drilled into me, I couldn't help but feel a pang of pity at the sight. Garrett had been an influential figure in my life, guiding me through the early years when I was still weak.

But now, he had become a mere puppet of HYDRA, transformed into a living weapon.

I pushed my emotions aside and focused on the situation at hand. Assessing the three charging figures, I quickly determined that these three men didn't pose much of a threat to my group.

From what I could see, they weren't even a match for me, let alone our combined skills.

"Ava, Zeru," I called out, my voice steady and commanding, "I'll take the cyborg. You two handle the others."

Ava nodded at my command, the eyes of her visor glowing with an affirmative response as she unsheathed the two sleek deadly blades from her wristbands.

"Aww, I wanted the Cybrog," Zeru said as he adjusted his stance, his suit emitting a low hum. "Could you save me a few of his parts? I want to study them later."

"We'll see," I said, sounding like a father dealing with a kid who wanted a toy.

Ava, utilizing her agility and lethal precision, levitated towards the bulky man wielding the sparking Warhammer. Phasing out of sight just before they made contact.

Zeru activated the thrusters in his suit, propelling him forward with a burst of speed. He closed the distance between himself and the Shield wielder, his exo-suit humming with purple energy.

As those two went off, I turned my attention to my old instructor, now reduced to a shell of his former self.

Charging forward, I closed the gap between us in an instant, launching a powerful crimson fist aimed at his cybernetic torso.

*Clang!*

My armored fist struck his torso with blinding speed. The force behind it sent him hurtling backward and crashing into a nearby school wall with a resounding clang of metal on metal.

As Garrett struggled to regain his footing, I couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment, witnessing how the man who had once trained me, honed my skills, and pushed me to my limits, was now barely putting up a fight.

He groaned in pain as he struggled to rise from the impact and I moved swiftly, closing in on him before he could fully recover.

Standing over him, I gazed down at his battered form, a mixture of disdain and contempt welling up within me.

"You've really let yourself go, Garrett," I taunted, a shred of pity creeping into my voice. "Is this the best HYDRA could do? A broken-down cyborg?"

"Don't talk like you fucking know me, Bastard!" Garrett growled, a mix of rage and humiliation in his orange mechanical eyes as he attempted to retaliate.

Raising his cybernetic arm, he unleashed a small barrage of energy blasts toward me, but they were no match for my armor, dissipating harmlessly off the dark plates as they made contact.

"Damn, Hydra must be struggling," I mused aloud, as I glanced down at my unmarked armor and back up at him. "Even the kid's blasts aren't that weak..."

Garrett looked up at me, his cybernetic eyes glowing with a hint of fear as he saw his attack do nothing to me.

"W-who...who are you?" He asked through gritted teeth.

I smirked at his question as I again closed the distance between us.

"Don't tell me you really don't recognize me anymore, Coach," I stated mockingly as I crouched down so that we were at eye level. "And here I thought I was your favorite student."

Garrett growled in frustration, his cybernetic fist charging up with energy once again as he attempt to raise it towards my faceplate, but I deflected it easily with a casual swipe of my arm, slapping his cybernetic fist away like an annoying fly.

The force behind my deflection was enough to cause his fragile limb to crumble under the sheer strength of my strike, leaving him even more defenseless.

"Are you gonna put up a fight? Or just sit there and bleed?" I questioned with a hint of disappointment. "You used to be better than this. What happened to the fierce warrior who trained us to be killers? Is this all you've become?"

Garrett's eyes widened, his fear growing more palpable by the second. It was clear that my presence, coupled with the display of my skills, had shattered whatever delusions of grandeur he might have had.

With a swift and fluid motion, I closed the few inches of distance between us and delivered a devastating kick strike to Garrett's midsection.

I approached them cautiously, the echoes of my footsteps reverberating through the room. Their presence served as a grim reminder of the brutality of our battle against Hydra.

"Now, gentlemen," I began, my voice dripping with menace. "I have some questions, and I suggest you start talking if you want to avoid further pain."

But my words fell on deaf ears. Their responses were nonsensical, mere echoes of pain and confusion.

Frustration gnawed at the edges of my consciousness.

These soldiers were nothing more than broken shells, their minds shattered by the chaos of battle and the weight of their injuries. Extracting information from them in their current state seemed pointless.

But Garrett, still heavily sparking and weak, struggled to sit up, his eyes darting between Zeru and me.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. I could see the frustration and helplessness etched on his face.

Zeru, focused and methodical, walked over to the old cyborg and crouched down beside him. The glow of his visor intensified as he activated a scanning feature in his suit, assessing the extent of the cybernetic modifications that had been forced upon Garrett.

"Boss, I could just hack into this one's brain and extract the information we need," Zeru suggested, his voice laced with a hint of excitement. "But it won't be a pleasant experience for him. The neural implants HYDRA has embedded in his new brain are designed to resist any attempts at tampering, so it might break him completely."

Garrett's eyes widened, his expression pleading as he looked at me.

"No, p-please," he begged, his voice filled with desperation. "I've already been through enough pain...I can't take any more."

I turned my gaze away from Garrett, dismissing his pleas as if they were nothing more than background noise.

"Let me know when you're done, Zeru," I said, my voice cold and detached. "We need to find out what happened here."

Zeru nodded, his focus fully on the task at hand.

He began the intricate process of hacking into Garrett's cybernetic implants, his fingers flying across a holographic interface projected from his suit.

The room filled with the hum of technological activity and Garret's agonizing screams, as Zeru delved into Garrett's head, searching for the information we needed.

As I walked away from the scene, leaving Garrett to his fate, I couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. The man I had once admired and respected as a mentor now lay broken and defeated. But I knew that extracting the information from him was crucial, and no amount of sentimentality could change that.

Ava rejoined us, her footsteps barely making a sound as she entered the room.

Her visor concealed her expression, but her body language spoke of readiness and alertness.

"Any sign of other HYDRA operatives?" I asked, my voice low.

Ava shook her head. "The building is deserted. No sign of anyone else. It's like they cleared out in a hurry."

I nodded, processing the information.

The emptiness of the school raised more questions than it answered. What had HYDRA done with all the students, and why had they abandoned their own facility?

As Zeru continued his work, his expression focused and determined, I turned my attention to the wounded HYDRA soldiers lying on the floor off to the side.

Despite their defeat, they still posed a potential threat, their loyalty to HYDRA unwavering.

"Kill them," I instructed Ava, gesturing toward the unconscious soldiers.

Ava nodded, her blades glinting in the dim light as she moved to carry out my orders without hesitation.

With swift and precise movements, she swiftly ended the suffering of the incapacitated soldiers, severing their vital arteries with calculated strikes. Blood pooled around their lifeless bodies, staining the cold floor of the room.

Their bodies fell limp to the ground, joining the defeated form of Garrett, who continued to endure the excruciating pain of Zeru's interrogation.

As I watched Ava complete her task, a heavy silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of Zeru's focused work and Garrett's tortured cries.

Zeru's voice broke the silence, drawing my attention away from the grim scene.

"Boss, I've got what we need," He announced, his mechanical voice tinged with excitement. " Seems like HYDRA discontinued the school program here a few years ago. They've transferred all the students to a top-secret HYDRA Research Base in Sokovia."

"Sokovia?" I repeated, a flicker of recognition crossing my mind.

Zeru nodded, his next words confirming my suspicion. "From his memories, it looks like the two high-ranking faculty members, Dr. Whithall and General Hale, took the students there to use them as subjects in their weapons research. It's a high-security facility."

A sense of irritation surged through me at hearing those names.

Dr. Whitehall and General Hale were the targets of this mission, and if they were in Sokovia, then that's where we needed to be.

"So, they took the students to Sokovia to use them as guinea pigs and turn them into weapons.," I muttered, my voice filled with disdain.

Zeru nodded, his face serious behind the helmet. "Exactly. It seems HYDRA had bigger plans for the students than just training them. They want to make them into their own personal superhuman army."

"Did you get the exact location of this base?" I asked.

Zeru shook his head.

"Not precisely," He admitted. "But I was able to get a few rough coordinates that should make finding it much easier for us."

"Let's go," I said firmly, my voice leaving no room for doubt. "We're heading to Sokovia."

Ava and Zeru nodded in agreement, their determination evident in their glowing eyes.

As the three of us left the school building and started to make our way through the courtyard, a thought flashed through my mind, as if something was left unfinished.

I paused, turning back to face the decimated courtyard of the HYDRA Preparatory Academy, the place that had once been a training ground for young soldiers. A sinister smile crept across my face, and I unhinged the skeletal mouth of my faceplate, revealing the furnace of destructive energy contained within.

With a guttural howl, a torrent of crimson energy surged forth from my mouth, forming a concentrated beam of raw power.

Without a second thought, I swung the beam around in a wide arc, unleashing a devastating onslaught that encompassed the entire school grounds. The destructive energy tore through the thick stone bricks of the building, reducing them to rubble and ash.

The beam tore through walls and structures, leaving nothing but devastation in its wake. The sound of crumbling concrete and metal echoed through the air as the school was reduced to ruins.

The once imposing HYDRA Preparatory Academy was now nothing more than a pile of scorched debris, a symbol of the destruction we had brought upon it.

Satisfied with the obliteration of HYDRA's presence in this place, I closed the skeletal mouth of my faceplate, sealing away the destructive power.

As the echoes of destruction faded, the three of us turned away from the smoldering remains of the school and walked away from the scene, the setting sun casting long shadows as it dipped below the horizon.

************

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