Chapter 20: Ambush

Chapter 20: Ambush

Chapter 20: Ambush

[Robert “Bobby” Drake - Iceman. Affiliated with the X-Men]

Hooh, an X-Men huh?

Benjamin raised a brow at that.

Captain Holt looked at his resume and asked.

“It says here you can turn into and control Ice. Can you demonstrate?”

“Sure thing pops.”

“...Pops?”

Captain Holt’s face slightly twitched at that.

Robert ignored him and activated his ability.

All of a sudden, the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees.

The next moment, Robert’s skin, hair, and clothes became a hue of whitish blue like an ice sculpture.

“Tada!”

“...Alright, that’s good enough. Power down.”

“Roger!”

Robert did an exaggerated salute and powered down.

Benjamin turned to Captain Holt.

“Well, I suppose he’s in. Though he needs some behavioral training.”

“I’ll leave it to you then.”

Benjamin chuckled as he thought this was probably what that Professor X wanted him to do...what a bother...

Still, he’ll definitely make great use of this guy in the meantime...

An evil smile slowly formed in his mind but he still kept a straight face.

Robert suddenly felt an unknown chill even though he wasn’t supposed to feel cold...

“Alright, thanks Robert, we will contact you later.”

“You can call me Bobby too.”

“Bobby then. Call the next one in.”

What followed next was a bunch of...nobodies.

It seems these guys are just here for the fun and didn’t actually have powers...

Benjamin and Captain Holt shooed them away and even detained some of the ridiculous ones for disrupting police work.

Suddenly, the room lights went off for a second.

Immediately after, four people stood in front of them as soon as the lights went on.

Seeing these four, Benjamin stared at one of them with half-closed eyes.

“...You do know there’s a door right there right? Was it really necessary to shut the lights, go in, then turn on the lights again for the drama? Daredevil.”

“See, I told you we can just go in.”

An African American bald man with robust body wearing a yellow shirt said in exasperation.

[Luke Cage - Power Man.]

“Daredevil said it’s necessary to enter with style.”

A blonde-haired man wearing a yellow mask and a green suit that shows his dragon tattoo-ed chest said.

[Daniel Rand - Iron Fist.]

“Ugh, boys, can you stop being so embarrassing?”

A black-haired beauty wearing...well, normal clothes and a black scarf said while her palm touched her face.

[Jessica Jones - Jewel.]

“...I cut the lights since I didn’t want to get seen entering the building.”

The familiar man in a devil suit sighed.

[Matthew Murdock - Daredevil.]

Benjamin didn’t continue bantering with them and asked.

“Since you’re all here, I assume that you guys want to join the EPD?”

“That’s right. I simply do not want to waste my time trying to run from the cops every single time I needed to catch a criminal.”

Daredevil nodded.

Well, as expected of the EPD, the ‘legal’ way for vigilantes to work.

Benjamin had already expected this and didn’t have a problem with it as long as they exercise restraint and caution.

“I’m sure you already know this but once you join, even if you don’t want your identities to be known, you must still exercise restraint. This means no killing and no torture. If there’s intel that you need, bring the guy to me and I can find it out for you without needing to break them.”

“How?”

Luke asked.

“Well, let’s just say that I have my ways.”

If HUD Contacts fails, he can always turn to magic. It should be easy to gain intel without the need for torture.

Daredevil and the rest looked at each other.

“Wade fucking Wilson. I see you found a way to hide that testicle face of yours.”

Deadpool turned and saw Francis. The man responsible for turning him into a mutant and damaging his handsome face.

DP: You mean extremely handsome face.

AN: ...

“Well well well. If it isn’t Hugh fucking Jackman’s evil twin brother.”

“...I don’t look like Hugh Jackman though? But thanks for the compliment.”

“What do you mean? You’re both annoying to look at! Enough talking! More fighting!”

AN: Aaand cut! Next scene!

DP: Hey! We’re just about to get to the fight scene!

AN: Everyone can watch the movie Deadpool. Let’s move on to the story.

DP: But this wasn’t in the movie!?

AN: Back to the novel!

Time passed and soon, work hours were over.

When Benjamin left the precinct, he saw Jessica’s familiar figure leaning on the side.

“Hey Capt. You good to go?”

“...It feels weird to get called Captain...”

Jessica laughed at that.

“Haha! You better get used to it!”

“Ugh, at least don’t call me that outside of work...”

“Alright. Ben it is then.”

“Shall I call you Jess then?”

“Sure.”

The two of them talked as they walked and found a small hidden ramen shop in a nearby alley to eat dinner.

Benjamin knew Jessica wasn’t that well off in money so he didn’t force her to go to a big restaurant.

What’s important is the ambiance.

It was these types of hidden stalls that often have the most delicious and cheap food after all.

They both laughed and chat through the whole time and even drank some soju to liven the mood.

Just as they were about to sink into a very ambiguous mood, Benjamin frowned as he started to notice something.

The customers...were slowly getting cleared out!

Even the cook and other employees were leaving...

Jessica also sobered up when she saw Benjamin’s serious look and noticed the surroundings getting quiet.

Benjamin didn’t say anything and waited for the civilians to leave before downing another shot.

“Are you going to show yourself or what?”

“Heh. Should I say, as expected of the currently renowned Captain Freed? You noticed us so soon.”

From the shadows, a figure of a woman slowly walked out.

She wore a tight sleeveless and backless green suit with a sort of scaly texture to it like a snake’s. Her long dark green hair covered one of her eyes as it fell onto her shoulders.

At her waist was a whip and gun attached.

Benjamin frowned when he read her details.

[Ophelia Sarkissian - Viper. Affiliated with HYDRA.]

Viper. A master of the whip and poison.

What a troublesome enemy...is what anyone would normally think.

This time, Benjamin no longer hesitated and quickly bought the Poison Immunity in the Store.

[Bought Poison Immunity x1]

Instantly using it, Benjamin sighed in relief in his mind.

Although he wasn’t afraid of getting poisoned as he can still heal, he didn’t want to risk being so sure that it would absolutely have no effect.

At the very least, he won’t feel pain or any other effect on him once the poison is applied unlike simply relying on his super healing where he would still feel every bit of it.

It was a pain to lose 20k worth of MP but...

[Main Quest: HYDRA Ambush!]

[HYDRA has been made aware of your existence and wishes to nip you while you’re still developing. Even if Zola’s algorithm says you won’t be a threat, Viper thinks it’s best to kill you to be absolutely sure. Defeat Viper and escape from the ambush!]

[Rewards: 50000 MP, 10 Free Gacha Draw, Unknown Ability]

[This quest has no penalty as there is no point if host fails. Failure means the host will die in the hands of HYDRA.]

Benjamin grinned.

There’s actually an additional reward aside from MC and Free Gacha Draw!

He was looking forward to it.

As for there being no failure condition...well, this is obvious. Failing means that he dies and there won’t be a point in still sending failure penalties to him.

Still...Benjamin wasn’t worried.

He was confident that he won’t fail.