Chapters 41-45

Chapters 41-45

"So, you think he bought it?" Tony asked me.

"I'm not sure," I replied. "I could tell that he was highly interested in the parts about exploring other celestial bodies. His hatred for you was palpable though." If anything was going to tank the deal, it was that.

"Really?" Tony asked. "He didn't seem to hate me that much. I mean, all I did was leave him on a roof for one night during a party. It's not my fault the guy could absolutely not read the room and see I was with a woman."

"Weren't you always with a woman back then?" I said with a laugh.

Tony laughed as well. "I suppose you're right. I probably could have heard the guy out at least. Obviously, I should have because he somehow created his own company a few years later. And now it's leading the field in genetics. I don't know why he approached me though... I was an arms dealer specializing in robotics, not genetics," Tony explained. I always found that a bit strange as well. Tony is a genius, but he doesn't specialize in genetics. Then again, for some never-specified reason, Tony is a huge celebrity in this world. As an arms dealer, that always struck me as strange. I couldn't name one arms dealer back in my old life, let alone imagine one being more famous than the Kardashians. And that was before he publicly outed himself as Iron Man. "He was probably just a big fan of yours, and then you went and crushed his dreams..."

"Well then... let's hope I don't accidentally go and create my own Stain then..."

"Was that a My Hero Academia reference?" I asked with some surprise.

"Ha! Yeah, it was. I'm surprised you know what that even is. Does the other Earth have anime as well? Now that I think about it, you never really mentioned to us what the other Earth is like," he said. "I was just assuming it was basically a mirror copy of our own."

"It pretty much is. Surprisingly, history is almost exactly the same as well. I don't really have any idea why that is. That's a mystery for another time, I suppose," I said, to which Tony nodded. We continued to have speculative small talk for the next few minutes before Aldrich's secretary returned and told us to head back into the room.

We entered the room to find that the man's bodyguards were no longer standing next to him. Did he think we were going to attack him the first time? He hadn't even started that fake Mandarin nonsense yet, so it wasn't like we had any actual reason to.

"Tony and Miss Layla, thank you for waiting while I made my decision," Aldrich said as we walked over and took our seats across from him. "After that short deliberation, I've come to the unfortunate decision that I will not be able to help the two of you," Killian said with a fake frown. It seemed that his amnesty with Stark had won out over his greed. He wasn't going to get us that formula.

"Is that so?" I asked with a grimace. I guess we were going with plan B then. I'm sure Natasha would have fun robbing this place blind at least... I'd offer to help, but I'm not exactly one for subtlety.

"Are you sure we can't change your mind, Killian? Come on, man, just think about it! Space! The final frontier! Stark Industries and AIM leading the charge onto other planets!" Tony explained with genuine enthusiasm. Of course, the serum was actually for saving humanity, but that didn't discount the fact that we would actually be going to space as well. He had mentioned to me that he had already started preparing suits that could function out of the atmosphere. He had asked me if Angels could survive out there unassisted. I honestly wasn't sure. I did breathe instinctively, but that could just be my leftover instincts as a human. I found that when I intentionally held my breath, I didn't seem to struggle with the lack of air.

Aldrich shook his head. "Yes, I'm afraid that that's just how it is. You see, AIM has recently gotten a new investing partner, and well... they don't exactly like you two very much. Especially you, Layla. You've really gone and upset them it seems. What a shame..."

I tensed up when I heard that. What was he talking about? I get lots of people hating Tony, but they didn't like me as well? I felt my hackles raise as heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from the other side of the office. I stood up and immediately deployed my wings as a lightspear formed in my hand. My instincts were telling me a fight was coming.

"Whoa, Layla! What's going on!?" Tony exclaimed with wide eyes. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a metallic suitcase that I tossed to him. He caught it easily with a bit of surprise. It was his portable Iron Man suit. We'd stored it in my inventory so it wouldn't look like he was walking around with his super weapon at all times.

I didn't immediately answer Tony's question. "Who did you sell us out to?" I turned and leveled a glare at Aldrich Killian. In response, the man just gave us a smile and laughed.

"Sorry, babe, but this is just business after all. Wish we could have gotten to know each other better though." Aldrich added with a fake sigh as he blatantly checked me out and looked me up and down. I wanted to summon a lightspear and stab him right then and there. My time for that would be coming soon enough I supposed. The doors to his office were kicked in and a large man wearing a black face mask entered the doorway.

At this point, Tony was still in the process of his Iron Man suit forming over his body. His current generation suit still took at least 15 seconds to fully assemble itself over him. The man who had just kicked in the doorway wasn't going to give him the time to finish as he leveled what looked like a grenade launcher at Tony and me!

My eyes narrowed when I took in the most distinctive feature of the intruder. He had a bright silver metal arm! It was the Winter Soldier. At the same time, I could feel the temperature in the room rapidly increase. A rapid glance behind me showed that Aldrich was completely wrapped in flames as he was lunging for Tony! At the same time, the Winter Soldier rapidly fired his entire clip of grenades at us!

[Emergency Quest Issued! - Defeat the Winter Soldier and AIM!]

XXX

I quickly used 200 MP and rapidly threw up a Lightshield in front and behind us. It was just in time as an instant later, grenades slammed into one shield, and Aldrich hit the other. The latter let out some choice expletives as his sneak attack on tony was thwarted.

"What the fuck?" Tony exclaimed in shock at seeing Aldrich turn into a flaming humanoid and try to jump him. "What the hell did you do to yourself, Killian? Did you turn yourself into a mutant!?"

Tony's confusion was justifiable. Seeing it up close, Extremis made Aldrich look like a flaming zombie. I should have briefed Tony on the full capabilities of Extremis beforehand, but I had no reasonable explanation as to how I knew about it in the first place.

"This is the future of warfare, Tony! This is the power of Extremis and the results of my genius!" Aldrich replied even as he never stopped slamming his fists into my Lightshield. He wasn't strong enough to break it anytime soon though. I also only needed to hold it a few more seconds. Just enough time for Tony's Iron Man armor to have fully finished forming around him.

Aldrich, seeing that he had lost the moment of surprise, chose to take a step backward on the other end of the room. The Winter Soldier hadn't made any other moves after emptying the clip of grenades at us.

With our momentary pause in combat, I turned to Iron Man. "Which one do you want?" I asked.

"I'll take Killian. I guess there's been a personal vendetta between us all this time, so I might as well settle it." With that said, his repulsors launched him toward his flaming opponent.

"Don't kill him! We need him alive for his formula!" I exclaimed before Iron Man ended up blasting Killian into the floor and right through it!

I turned to my own opponent, the Winter Soldier. "Well then, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" I honestly wasn't worried; at most, he was just slightly stronger than Captain. And now he was out of grenade launcher ammo as well. Not that those would have even taken that much HP off me if they hit. I started slowly walking toward Hydra's greatest assassin as he took a fighting stance.

[Your confidence is great and all, but you might want to check again with your observe skill.]

The system notification gave me a slight pause, and I did just that.

[Winter Soldier - Level 15 → Hydra's greatest assassin has recently received a powerful upgrade as the latent super serum inside him combined with an added Extremis formula.]

Oh... well, isn't that something? He's still only level 15 though. I can take him– "Holy shit!" I exclaimed in surprise as the Winter Soldier apparently grew tired of waiting for my slow approach and charged forward. He was fast! His strength stat must be at least double my own! His metallic fist came rushing towards my face, and I quickly ducked down to avoid it. A small Lightspear formed in my right hand, and I tried to stab him as his fist went wide.

With some insane Muay Thai move, he used his opposite knee and elbow and caught my lightspear between them! The sizzling heat the Light weapon emitted didn't seem to bother him at all. The Extremis formula made him largely immune, it seemed.

"...Okay, that was pretty cool" I admitted out loud as he locked down my conjured weapon.

He rapidly spun around and delivered a powerful kick to my sternum that sent me flying backward.

[-30 HP]

I ended up slamming into and right through the flimsy drywall. Dust and drywall flew everywhere as I was flung all the way back into the reception room.

"Kyyaaaaahh!" Killian's secretary screamed. She was crouched down, hiding behind one of the couches. "What the fuck is going on!?" She screamed at me. "I heard explosions!"

"...Your boss is a Nazi sympathizer and a secret supervillain. You should probably find a new job," I said plainly as I stood up and brushed the chunks of drywall out of my wings and hair.

"I knew I should have listened to my parents and gotten that safe insurance job!" She exclaimed as she ran away down the hallway. That was good timing too because a few seconds later, I had to jump out of the way as an actual fireball flew into the reception room. There was a fiery explosion and all the nearby furniture immediately caught fire. The smoke alarms went off a second later and water started spraying down and soaking me as the fire alarms went off...

"Well this is just perfect." I said as I glanced down at my soaked outfit. Of course I had chosen to wear a white business shirt for this meeting that was now completely see through... at least I was wearing a bra underneath despite not needing it with my physiology.

From the recently created large hole in the wall, the Winter Soldier emerged. His body was glowing red. A clear sign of Extremis and that he had thrown that fireball. Because of course he could also do that... Good thing it was me fighting him... Captain America would have been so screwed with this guy's upgrades.

[You never know, stats aren't everything after all. All gamer's know that skill plays just as big a role.]

"Fallen Angel, Layla. I have orders to either capture or kill you. Come quietly and serve Hydra as our weapon." The Winter Soldier spoke for the first time. His voice was lacking emotion and almost monotone.

"I'm going to have to pass on that one." I replied. I mean really... join us or die? Does that ever work?

[Quite a bit actually...]

'You're probably right about that system, but there's no way I'd ever consider joining Hydra.' I thought. Their plans for global domination were as ludicrous as they were cartoonishly evil.

"So be it." The Soldier's red glow intensified. His combat outfit, despite being military-grade, was starting to smoke and catch fire. He rushed at me again, but this time I was ready for his speed. I quickly cast a Lightshield in front of me that he slammed into. There was a burst of flames as his momentum was halted. He actually managed to put cracks in my Lightshield!

Before he could recover himself, I quickly dropped the shield before I stabbed forward with both my hands. Each one holding a freshly conjured Lightspear. He managed to dodge one of them, but the second caught him in his stomach. I'd have been hesitant to stab him before, knowing that he was basically a mind-controlled slave. With Extremis, however, I knew he could take the hit and still be fine. I was actually wondering how I was going to put him down for real without taking out his head or something.

My spear pierced through his stomach and plunged out the other side. He grunted in pain for an instant before reeling his arm back and smashing me in the head. My head whipped back with the blow as I stumbled backward and released my hold on the lightspear.

[-50 HP]

Fuck, that hurt! This was going to be annoying unless I could find a way to knock him out.

My dagger simultaneously burrowed into his leg as his kick broke my wrist and arm – well, it would have if I didn't have a gamer's body. Instead, all I lost was HP I could afford to spare. If there was one stat I wasn't lacking, it was Vigor. The next few moments got pretty crazy. Neither of us could back down as we engaged each other in a close-quarters death match. He was delivering powerful body blows against me with fists and feet while I was continuously stabbing him. From an outside perspective, this must have looked like a pointless bout of two immortals going at it.

"C'mon, just run out of energy already and go down!" I yelled at him in irritation as I slammed another dagger into his sternum. In return, he cracked me over the head with a punch that had me seeing stars for a second.

[-50HP! Warning! HP at 1000/3100]

That notification made me a bit nervous, but finally, to my pleasant surprise, he let out a cough of pain. His burning orange skin receded, and he coughed out blood from his mouth. He stumbled forward for a moment and tried to make a final grab at me. I punched him right in the face with my full strength, and he collapsed backward to the floor. I beat him! Now I had to figure out what to actually do with him...

"Hey, good work there, Layla. I filmed that whole fight, and it was awesome. It's probably gonna rack up a ton of views on YouTube. The whole world always thought the Winter Soldier was a myth. Now they'll know he was actually real and was finally taken down," Iron Man said as he walked up to me. His fight had ended before mine did, and instead of stepping in to help, he sat back and watched... I gave him a mild glare that expressed my feelings about that.

"Woah, you looked like you had him handled. Besides, if you really wanted me to step in, you would have called out for help... which you didn't," he said to me. I supposed he was right. Getting into a slug match like that was surprisingly fun.

"He's famous?" I asked. I didn't think a lot of people knew about him.

"Oh yeah, a whole bunch of conspiracy theorists think he's the boogeyman of the world. And I guess they're right?" He said questioningly. "They believe a whole bunch of the world's craziest assassinations were pulled off by this guy. They always claim he was the one who really killed Kennedy." He said with a laugh.

"...Huh... You know, he probably did."

XXX

[You have completed your mission! You have leveled up! You have received the reward: Perfected Extremis Formula! The Perfected formula is a combination of the super-soldier serum and AIM's Extremis formula.]

Nice! I could either take the formula myself or save it for someone else. I was considering the latter because I didn't exactly need the formula. With Gamer's Body and Twilight Healing, I could already heal from any injury, and the boost to strength wasn't anything groundbreaking for me. If I gave this to someone like Natasha, though, she'd be a force to be reckoned with.

[Congratulations! Angelic Mastery has reached level 3! Light Manipulation has reached level 4! You now have access to Angelic Teleportation and can survive in a vacuum environment indefinitely. Light Magic now costs even less MP to cast!]

That would be incredibly useful for me in the future! Especially for when I'd start venturing out into space! Light Magic being even cheaper was also a big powerup. I was hoping Lightshields cost a lot less now. They were what really drained my MP the most. It made sense though, considering an average Lightshield was basically the size of 25 to 30 Lightspears lined up together.

I checked my current stats to see where I was sitting. One thing I'd figured out was that I grew an extra pair of wings whenever my total MP doubled. For example, I started with 100 MP, but as soon as it hit 200, I became a four-winged Fallen. At 400 MP, I gained another pair of wings. From that, I deduced that at 800 MP, I would gain another pair.

[Name: Layla of the Fallen]

[Title: Angel of Hope]

[Level: 5]

[HP: 3100]

[MP: 560]

[Vigor: 110]

[Strength: 20]

[Intelligence: 56]

[Luck: 20]

[Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 3, Acting 2, Light Manipulation 4, HP→MP Conversion]

[Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner]

[Drawbacks: Sin of Lust]

[Available Free Stat Points: 10]

Even if I dumped my 10 free stat points into Intelligence, I'd still be only at 660, which was a ways off. Ever since figuring out that Strength also included things like agility and speed, I'd decided not to neglect that stat either. The Winter Soldier's strength stat was at least at 40. He was almost twice as fast as me. I decided to split my free stat points between the two, bringing Strength up to 25 and Intelligence up to 61.

'Hey, System. How exactly do I go about using angelic teleportation?' I asked in my head. The advantage of Angelic Teleportation over the sling ring was that, like apparating, it was instantaneous and could be used mid-combat. Even the best masters of the mystic arts still required a few seconds of concentration to use their sling rings. Doctor Strange had sort of used them in his fights, but it was borderline gimmicky and really only worked because of the plot.

[You simply think about where you want to go and will yourself there. Keep in mind, the further the distance, the more MP will be required. If you use all your MP, you will draw on your HP due to your HP→MP Conversion skill. Don't teleport too far and accidentally give yourself a game over.]

I chuckled at the system's warning. I'd be sure to practice my jumps and make sure to figure out the distance to MP ratio.

"Hey, Layla. You done spacing out over there? What do you want to do with these guys?" Tony asked me as he pointed to the downed Winter Soldier and Aldrich Killian. Everyone else was either dead or had run off. "Also, just so you know... a whole bunch of police are coming to storm this building." Iron Man's faceplate lifted up to reveal Tony's face. He looked a bit worried.

"What's the problem with that?" I asked.

"We kind of just had a full-on battle that involved the deaths of multiple war veterans." Tony explained. "It's not going to be a good publicity look for us. We killed US war heroes... on US soil. Even if they were joining Hydra they hadn't joined yet. The police are absolutely going to try and take us into custody and throw the book at us. Well mostly me actually. You–they'll probably have no idea how to deal with." Tony explained to me. "They might use this as an excuse to try and take my suit from me though." He looked a bit worried.

"Well, shit..." I said. I had forgotten about this point in time. We were still technically in the middle of Iron Man 2 timewise. The US government was trying to take his suit so they could weaponize it. The only reason they didn't in the movies was because their lead man, Justin Hammer, harbored a terrorist that ended up siccing a bunch of murder bots on New York City. Now that Whiplash was dead, Tony wouldn't be able to beat him and 'save the day.'

"Can't we just call SHIELD to tell the police to back off?" I asked.

"SHIELD's kind of in the dog house in the US right now. They've lost a lot of their sway after Alexander Pierce ended up being a confirmed traitor. You know the guy was friends with Peggy Carter and my old man for decades... I never actually knew what SHIELD was, but I still saw the man from time to time at upper echelon social galas." Tony trailed off with a grimace. I wondered if Tony would ever make the connection that Pierce was probably the one to off his parents? It's possible Pierce even tried to subtly have Howard Stark join Hydra and was turned down. That would have led to Howard being 'silenced.'

"We'll just have to sneak out of here then," I said. 'This is where I really could use a stealth skill...' I thought with some expectation.

[I can't just give you a skill unless you're doing something involving it. If you want a stealth skill, go try and steal some things without getting caught.]

'Fine.' I supposed it couldn't be that convenient.

"Yeah. I guess we could try and sneak out of here. I can have Jarvis delete all the security footage." Tony suggested. "I can actually hear the sirens now though. We better leave fast." Tony was correct, the police sirens did sound close. And it sounded like there were a lot of them. There were a whole lot of explosions coming from this building a few minutes ago to be fair...

I had an idea. I pulled out my sling ring and hoped that with my intelligence now over 60, I could get that damn thing to work. "I'm going to try opening a portal a few blocks away from here," I explained. "I don't know how long I'll be able to hold it open for you, so run through with the soldier and Aldrich. I'll follow after."

Tony nodded and slung the two of them over his shoulders. I started going through the circular hand motions that had failed me numerous times in training. Thankfully though, they weren't failing me now. The portal was forming slowly and shakily, but it was forming. It took about 20 seconds, but I eventually made it large enough for him to pass through.

"Go now!" I shouted, and Tony bolted through with the pair. I jumped through the portal right after him. A split second later, the shaky thing collapsed. "Whoo! Teleportation! That's what I'm talking about!" I cheered out loud. We exited in a back alley a few blocks away from AIM's headquarters. I could still hear the sirens in the distance, but we were well out of their current police cordon perimeter.

Tony just gave me a deadpan look. "You're gonna have to work on that. You were barely able to open a portal a few blocks away and were supposed to be going to other planets at some point."

I pouted in response. "Now that I've gotten it to work in the first place, it shouldn't take long before I can start opening portals all over the world. Just you wait; pretty soon I'll have this ability mastered."

Tony nodded. "I'll hold you to it then. Happy is on his way with the limo. I'll throw the two Nazis in the trunk and make our inconspicuous getaway. I already have Jarvis establishing an alibi for us as we speak."

A few minutes later, Happy showed up with the limo. I healed the Winter Soldier up a bit before we tossed him in the back with Aldrich. I didn't want him dying from the final stab I hit him with. He was completely out of stamina to heal it.

"All right then," Tony said as he and I hopped in. "Next stop... huh? Where should we go?" He turned and asked me.

I took a second to ponder. "I guess we can head to the Sanctum. The Sorceress Supreme should be able to help the Winter Soldier break Hydra's mind control."

"The Winter Soldier is under mind control?" Tony asked.

"Yep, allow me to introduce you to Sergeant Bucky Barnes." I exclaimed and laughed at Tony's shocked look. As we drove to Bleeker Street I started explaining Bucky and Steve's story to Tony. I tried to make it as compelling and tragic as possible. In the event that Tony ever found out Bucky killed his parent's, maybe he'd hesitate and not immediately try to get revenge on the man. Was I being a bit manipulative here with my friend? Yes, but I knew if I didn't do this we'd end up in Civil War which was the last thing any of us needed.

[Acting has Leveled up to 3!]

XXX