Chapter 54: CHAPTER 52

[Draul St. Cross POV]

I tried to find out where Trask was from the network but my limited skills wasn’t able to ping his location.

If I were to force my way through, I would catch the attention of multiple parties since I know Trask wasn’t working alone. 

The lack of a satellite was also an impediment on my more extensive vocation. I was tempted to ask Fury for his location but that would just be a clash of ideas and like a wise man once said, ‘it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission’. 

I had a lead however, Trask wasn’t in the States currently. The last trail I could find was a plane ticket to Moscow three weeks ago. 

It was pretty old but it was the only thing I got. Regardless of its authenticity, I couldn’t just pack up and chase the trail to Moscow. I still had things to do here like the release of the apps which were happening tomorrow, I still haven’t heard of how the talk between Bucky and Rogers went. 

I would wait for a week or two for the release to settle and make sure Marky wouldn’t get stumped along the way which I doubted he would, also have a word with Fury about something I really should’ve done a while back and also see if I can cancel any therapy appointment with Bucky I might have. 

I was in the midst of thinking when my phone rang signifying that Fury was calling since he was the only one who called with the burner phone. He or Coulson. 

I picked it up and answered. “What’s up Nick?”

“Say, what exactly are doing now?” Fury asked. 

I took a moment to arrange my thoughts since I don’t think it will be a good idea to tell Fury What I’m about to do. “… I found an HYDRA trail and I don’t like where it’s headed one bit.” I kept it veiled since I knew Fury wouldn’t dig too much if it’s about HYDRA. 

And exactly like I thought, Fury didn’t ask for the details but the tone in which he replied gave me the wrong signals. “How about I help you out a bit and you help me with a little pickle I’ve got on my hands.” He said. 

Oh this was better. I could use this favor to have Fury track Trask’s recent whereabouts for me. “I don’t see any problem with that. Sure why not?”

“Good! They’ll drop by your house in the evening.”

“Sure no prob- What do you mean ‘they'? Who’s they?”

“Talk to you later.” He cut the call before I could ask him what he meant. For some reason, I felt I would not like what he was aiming at so I threw the thought out of my mind and focused on whatever information I could find apart from Trask. 

It was only now that I knew how out of touch I was with this world ever since my ‘Kill HYDRA crusade’. It wasn’t my fault since I didn’t have the luxury to focus on other things since HYDRA was still hot on my ass at that point. 

Even if I resolve myself to know about other factions of power present, it didn’t mean that I was going to try and get in touch with them. Just a precaution to keep me afloat the river of ignorance. 

With the SENTINEL project out of the way, I tried to find any other important thing I could find going on between HYDRA and their associates. 

There were a few morally unacceptable cases and projects HYDRA was involved in, which was all that surprising since they were HYDRA but whether or not the projects were still on, someone had to make sure they weren’t. 

I sighed as I closed the page and went offline, choosing to take a break from all these headache inducing secrets. 

I looked at the time and found out that it was already 7:38pm, which meant I was on the net for more than 5 hours. As if to tell me I made a wrong choice of getting out too early, I heard the engine of car pulling up to my driveway. 

‘Right, Fury said some people were coming. I wonder who they are. They-… Jesus, let me be wrong.’

I was ready to send whoever it was that Fury sent me packing back to whence they came if I didn’t see the need of playing host since my schedule was already packed with the recent Trask mission so I didn’t want someone interrupting me on my probably last vacation in a long while before I tracked down Trask. 

But out of nowhere, I predicted who was most likely the people Fury would send to me and the conclusion did not amuse me. 

I went outside to see if my fears were unwarranted but unfortunately they were. 

Steve Rogers and Bucky were walking towards me with Bucky having a helpless smile on his face. 

‘Helpless my evolutionary ass.’

“Y’know when Fury said he had a pickle, this wasn’t what I thought he had in mind.” I said to Bucky as the both of them came in front of me. 

“Hi, my name is Steve Rogers. It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. St. Cross.” Steve said as he held out a hand for a shake which I did. 

‘God! That straightness is unnerving. He really is wound up his ass with that vibranium shield of his.’

“I would say the same for me but we all know I’d be lying.” I said after letting go of his hand and leading them inside. 

“So what the hell am I looking at? If I knew Fury would be sending me the ex-HYDRA zombie and the original Frozen, I wouldn’t have bothered asking for his help.” I asked as we all took a seat. 

“Deal with it quacks. Steve here wanted to do something about HYDRA immediately after he woke up, and Fury thought since you were the leading expert in HYDRA extermination it wouldn’t hurt for you to bring him up to speed.” Bucky said which prompted me to raise an eyebrow at Steve. 

I already knew Steve might react like this since he was shown to have a serious beef with HYDRA – well everyone who knew about them would – but Steve’s was on a whole different level. Probably since they were the main enemy he fought when he was alive. 

“You know he just woke up today right?” I asked Bucky who at my question displayed that helpless smile of his but before he could answer Steve did. 

“I am well aware of my situation, but as someone who also suffered at their hands then you should understand why I’m doing this.” Steve said to me with a burning look of conviction which I found uncomfortable. 

Hmm? 

“Right?? Well, I’m not someone who would spit on a man’s convictions so we are cool on that front but I just wanted to ask; how do you deal with the cold?” I would have laughed at the irony if it were under normal circumstances but unfortunately I was pretty serious although Steve looked confused at that line of question. 

“Allow me to simplify. Have you ever been to Moscow?” 

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He had a look of realization on his face as he answered with a negative ‘No’. 

“Well then two weeks from now is your lucky day since we’ll be taking a trip to Moscow.” I informed them. 

“What’s happening in Moscow?” Bucky asked. 

“I found an HYDRA trail leading to one Bolivar Trask who is working on something called the SENTINEL project.” I explained to them the outlines of what I found without getting into the specifics since I only knew the specifics of the project because of what I use to read when I was a child. 

“So we are leaving in two weeks then to track down this Trask guy. While not leave immediately before our only trail runs cold.” Steve asked. He was calm even after hearing we won’t be leaving until two weeks later when I thought he would be rearing for some action. 

‘Looks like I’m the only one who does that.’

“Because I have some things to take care of. Well more things, now that both of you are here. Hopefully I will be able to come across another lead before our take off.” I replied with a shrug. “Fortunately that also gives me enough time to work on those old bones of yours.” I lied. I was only interested in seeing how strong Captain America was. I had no doubt that I could kill him easily if we ever fought, but I wanted to see how strong he was in relative to me. 

‘I wonder why he didn’t die when he faced off against Thanos in Endgame. Right! Plot.’

Simply put, the directors of the movie, or in this case Stan Lee or is it Jack Kirby?... Didn’t want him to die in the hands of Thanos. If it wasn’t because of that universal cosmic decree then Cap wouldn’t have survived the first confrontation. 

There’s also that bullshit about how none of the main characters died or were killed during the battle, except for the unclassified mobs. The only exceptions were Natasha and Stark and those two willingly sacrificed themselves so they don’t count. But I’m sure if something like that were to happen in this universe then either Thanos wins or more than half of the Avengers are taken down with him. 

Hell, for all I don’t know, this might be one of those universes where Thanos won the Infinity saga and reigned supreme. 

‘Complications.’

“But we can do that tomorrow, so just take the night off and get your first normal sleep in 50 years.” I rose from the chair as I went to my room to crash leaving the two friends on their lonesome. 

… 

The next day… 

“Huff, huff.” I was standing in front of a weary Steve Rogers as he huffed and puffed in exhaustion. 

“How the hell can you do that?” Steve asked me in astonishment. 

The reason for that was simple: I was going all Batman on his defrosted American ass. While I might not be a master of over a 100+ martial arts style, doesn’t mean I didn’t rank high in any hand-to-hand fight l found myself in. 

Simple things like fighting and learning were easier to adapt to rather than unnatural things like energy manipulation. 

Not to brag but if someone were to fight me in hand combat then they’ll just be punching themselves in the face. While they would first have the upper hand due to me not knowing the fighting style they were using, continuous fighting would only work in my favor. 

The above have been proven true and tested, except if I were to be fighting people like Rhas Al Ghul or Deathstroke and Batman. No thank you. 

These were not people you fuck with just because you have a nifty trick like adaptation. I mean who the hell spartan kicks the Flash and goes on to beat the entire Justice League while almost killing Green Lantern? Deathstroke, that’s who. 

Like seriously, while the Marvel-verse has it’s own danger with reality warpers, calamity brewers, cosmic trippers and multiversal blippers, the DC universe was just a fuck fest of men beating Demons and Gods’ ass on a daily. 

So yeah, your skill set and power level hardly means jackshit in that dumpster of a universe. I mean take Constantine for example… See where I’m going? 

‘Be happy for the little things huh?’

I look at Steve who was getting ready for another go in the makeshift Mortal Kombat-themed arena I made which was just a ring of fire surrounding us that heaved as if it breathed in correspondence to every breath I took. 

My manipulation of fire was coming along swiftly and didn’t end with just making flying weapons. Take the fire for example; with every intake of breath I took, the ring of fire would rise up, only to go back to its previous state when I exhale. And this was me not actively using my own energy to do it but rather a simple breath. 

“C’mon I can do this all day.” I said with a huge smile on my face. 

“I know.” He whined which only made the smile become huge, threatening to split my lips. 

Steve attacked me, shield in hand, whole I held my frozen axe and parried the flying shield which just spun and went back to Steve’s hands. The mechanics of that shield did not follow the laws of physics, I’m sure of that. 

Fighting hand-to-hand with Steve was just me beating his ass since I was better than him in every way so we settled for using our weapons. 

Steve was good with a shield, like really good, which went without saying since his entire persona was based on him as a shield wielding star-spangled hero. 

We fought for a while, with me going easy on him while Bucky sat outside the arena with a bag of chips as he watched Steve get his ass handed to him. 

“Bucky get in here!” I called out to him and laughed as his face contorted into an uncomfortable frown. 

He grumbled for a while before picking his gun and some sharp weapons and jumping through the flames as he shot me straight to the mouth, which I thankfully dodged. 

“Oh it's on!”

And like that I proceeded to whoop the out-of-time asses of two old young-looking men. 

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