Chapter 56: Arc 2: Chapter 12: Preparations & Partner

It was dusk as Merlin drove the car back to his house in Hell's Kitchen.

He spent some time changing the broken window of Fury's car, even changed the car lock, refueled the car, and did full maintenance.

Right now, this Ford Mustang 500 looked brand new.

Driving a tough car like this felt nothing like when he was driving Lola, but after losing Lola for over 2 years, Merlin had finally gotten a car of his own.

This made Merlin very happy.

As he returned to his nearly empty home, Merlin sat in the dark by himself, he did not choose to open the lights; instead, he lit up a cigar and began recollecting all that had happened in the past few days.

Parachuting with Barton in the night sky, infiltrating Sokovia, chasing the cunning Natasha on the streets, as well as him knocking out Natasha in the alleyway, along with the dozens of killers killed by the mana explosion. 

And the things Natasha had told him...

About Fury, about wizards, about those secrets. The daily life of an agent is truly spectacular.

And now, that is his life.

Merlin sits on the chair and lets the darkness surround him.

After adapting and learning how to use the evil powers inside him, he came to begin liking the darkness and conflict with the light.

This was not a good sign, it represented that his will was being offset. But every time Merlin was surrounded by the darkness, he felt at peace like he had truly returned home.

In the peace of mind brought by the darkness, Merlin began to contemplate the mission he was about to do.

Before he joined the academy, Fury had told him to search multiple streets in New York upon his official onboarding. He needed to create an 'Irregular Watch List' using Merlin's senses towards dark beings.

It's not as hard as it sounds, Merlin simply has to drive around the many alleyways of New York, then he'll find about 70% of the irregulars hiding in the city.

But it wasn't as simple as it seemed to be.

Back when Merlin first had his second sight, he understood one thing about irregularities, especially dark beings. When you can see them, so can they, and dark beings are known to be bad-tempered and vengeful.

And now Merlin needed to pull them out of their hiding spots one by one.

Those guys probably won't be cooperating with Merlin's work willingly.

After being enhanced by the Super-Soldier serum, Merlin could store and use more dark mana, even turn into black fog by himself, so he could deal with those weaker, third-rate dark beings. But Merlin was less certain against stronger irregulars, especially inheritors of Great Demons, or even dark creatures disguised as humans.

He can guarantee his safety, but once he spooks them, things'll become troublesome. As he thought about this, he suddenly felt the urge to strengthen himself.

But he can't do it internally.

Until he finds a wizard who's truly studied black magic, Merlin has no plans to further grow his dark powers.

So he had to deal with the problem he faced using external factors.

Merlin stands up and takes off his jacket, hanging from his casual shirt was a black gun holster. He takes out his gun and the gun he bought from the arms dealer Yuri, places them on the table, and takes out all the ammunition from his backpack.

Merlin looked at the weapons and ammunition in front of him and felt like he was having a headache.

"It's practically suicide bringing these to fight those sons of demons."

Merlin complains, he felt the need to acquire better firepower to protect himself.

After contemplating, Merlin stands up, stands on the chair, reaches to the ceiling light, and takes something out of it.

It was a black phone.

Different from the uncommon 600g brick phone Fury uses, the one he had was lightweight, weighing 350g at most.

Merlin opens the cover of the phone slightly clumsily, on the blue screen was a phone number. It was the personal number of Alfred, the butler of Wayne Manor; he had sent this super-advanced phone to Merlin.

The old butler he never met before worried that Merlin would expose his relations with the Wayne Family, so he specially sent over an encrypted phone that's supposedly untraceable and untrackable.

Merlin enters a number from his memory; moments later, a man's accented voice resounds from the phone:

"Hello, who is this?"

"Is this Yuri Orlov?"

Merlin said in a low tone:

"I'm Fury's friend, I rode your ship a few days back."

"Oh, I remember. What is your business with me?"

Yuri was a truly shrewd businessman, he asked not of Merlin's name and got straight to the point. Merlin says:

"I need some powerful and not-so-expensive weapons for self-defense, and I'm currently in New York, do you do deliveries?"

"New York is it? Where exactly?"

"Hell's Kitchen 7th Street."

"Hell's Kitchen? Okay! No problem, I coincidentally have a friend there, for Fury's sake, I'll give you another 20% discount, but my friend, next time will be real business."

Yuri agrees straightforwardly, and like last time, he is also gifted a box of grenades.

This time, Merlin did not reject.

After ending the call, Merlin finally has some sense of security.

He looks at the time, it was 8-pm. He contemplates and leaves the house, then, following the sound of an engine starting, Merlin drives out of his home.

He was going to go pick up Erik, and have dinner with his cousin and brother-in-law.

Just think of it as a celebration of his first successful mission.

---

 On the next morning, at 8-am, Merlin who had just finished his morning jog sees a black pickup truck parked right outside his house, there was a young black man leaning against the truck while smoking, seemingly waiting for Merlin to come back.

He was tall and slim, from his looks, he seemed to look around his 20s.

Yet from the way he smoked and his poor fashion sense, the black man must've been around the neighborhood for quite some time now.

"Hey, buddy, what're you doing here?"

Merlin with his fitness vest approaches the black man, the pressure his muscles exerted made him take a step back.

He looks at Merlin, points at the house in front of him, and says:

"Are you Boss Yuri's friend?"

"Yes, I am."

Merlin nods, now he knows what the mn in front of him was here for.

Last night, Yuri had told him that there would be someone in Hell's Kitchen to deliver his order and receive the payment; this should be that somebody.

"I'm here to deliver some things on behalf of Boss Yuri."

The young black man points at his pickup truck with a toady expression; there was a box at the back of the pickup truck that looked like it was carrying furniture.

But he knows what was in that box, from his many years of experience in the neighborhood, the muscular man in front of him was someone he could not meddle with.

"Alright."

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Merlin nods, he reaches out and grabs the box, then he carries it into his house.

The young black man was astonished by what he saw.

The box was full of dangerous metal objects that made its total weight at least 100 pounds, he even prepared a trolley for him...now he saw Merlin carry it into his house as if he was actually carrying a box of furniture.

Bloody hell, how much strength does this guy have? Is he even human?

As Merlin walked out of the house with a wallet in hand, he counts $900 and hands them to the young blck man.

As the man took the money, Merlin noticed a flash of awe in his eyes, he stood in front of Merlin as if he was standing in front of some remarkable person.

"What's your name?"

Merlin suddenly asks, which he responds immediately:

"I'm Tuck."

As he speaks, he takes out a shabby namecard and hands it to Merlin with both hands, then he says:

"I'm not as resourceful as Boss Yuri, but I know Hell's Kitchen, if you ever need something, or find someone, or even need similar 'self-defensive goods', you can call me."

"Mmm, Tuck, I'll keep that in mind."

Merlin takes the namecard and sees the enthusiastic young black man off.

The black man who left drove his car as he contemplated Merlin's identity.

As he grew up in Hell's Kitchen, he had a good eye for people. He was certain that Merlin was someone of big background, just because even someone like his boss Yuri Orlov, had set up this deal directly by contacting him.

The things in the box are at most $5000, it's not much in the eyes of Boss Yuri.

Yet Boss Yuri paid attention to such an insignificant deal, so as his lackey, Tuck realized something. Even the resourceful Boss Yuri valued Merlin with such importance, it meant that having good connections with him was not a bad investment.

This was the survival wisdom of a small fry like Tuck, it's not superb, but it's practical.

Merlin had noticed the awe Tuck had shown, but he was uninterested; he was more interested of the contents in the box.

There were 3 layers in the box, each layer separated by plastic.

On the very top was a brand new black-colored Assault Rifle that can be equipped with a grenade launcher, Tuck had thoughtfully added 3 ammo clips and 10 boxed grenades.

On the center of the box was a light sniper rifle, with it were 3 different scopes for different scenarios, 2 ammo clips, and 50 AP rounds.

Lastly was a box of hand grenades Yuri had gifted him, these insignificant looking green things were real toys of war, unless in a critical situation, Merlin would never use these in the city.

Also in the box were 2 briefcases used for storing weapons, Merlin places the weapons he just acquired into the briefcase and throws in some grenades. He places these things into the mezzanine of his car trunk, and keeps the silver gun beneath his seat, leaving only the gun he received as an agent.

The panic of having little firepower calmed as soon as he did these.

As he prepared to go outside for a walk, the doorbell is rung, Merlin uses his dark senses and finds a regular-looking young man standing outside his door.

An Indian young man with a backpack that looked like an international student was standing outside his door.

He had frameless glasses, he had an anxious expression, and the what attracted his attention, was his hair.

He had very little of it.

So little that it didn't look like a hairstyle a young man of his age should have.

As Merlin opened the door, the young man instinctively straightened his back and says in a serious yet anxious tone:

"Officer Merlin! 2nd year of the SHIELD academy Jasper Sitwell reporting for duty! I'm here to assist you..."

"Alright! Alright!"

The anxious young man was using a loud tone as he spoke, so Merlin subconsciously stops him.

Merlin thought of himself as a rookie, though he never would've anticipated that Fury would assign him another rookie.

Even more of a rookie than him!

"Talk inside."

Merlin pulls Sitwell into the room, the furniture he ordered have yet to arrive, so he could only let him sit on the chair and pour him a cup of water.

As Sitwell observes his surroundings, Merlin was leaning against the wall and observing him. What he felt from this young man was what he felt from the young ones from the academy, anticipation for their work, self anxiety, and an urge to present themselves.

Mmm, this guy must be a rookie who had just graduated from the academy, or maybe he has yet to do that and was sent to him as a 'trainee' by Fury.

"No need to be so nervous, Sitwell."

Merlin says to Sitwell, which the latter stands up and tells Merlin:

"Yes, sir, I..."

"Don't call me sir, call me Merlin."

Merlin presses Sitwell back onto the chair and tells him:

"I'm just a level 1 agent, you need not be so nervous. First, let's talk about the mission we're going to do, what did Fury tell you about said mission?"

"Officer Victoria Hand told me about the mission."

Sitwell sees Merlin's peaceful face and relaxes his nervousness, he takes a sip of water and tells Merlin:

"Officer Hand told me, that you're going to do a major review of the underworld in New York, and I'll assist you in completing said review; she said I wasn't needed out on the field, and that my only mission is to help you conclude data and categorize them, then help you upload the data."

"Mmm, that's pretty much it. Anything else?"

Merlin knew from Sitwell's words that Fury did not tell many about his mission, instead he used the term 'Reviewing Underground Powers' as a cover, this made Merlin let out a breath.

The young man in front of him was a real normal person, there's a high chance that he'll be dead as soon as he comes in contact with supernatural incidents.

Hearing Merlin's follow-up question, the yet-to-graduate-academy agent Sitwell scratches his sparse hair and says in slight embarassment:

"Officer Hand said that I could graduate from the academy earlier and be directly enlisted into SHIELD once I get your approval."

"Mmm, good, it seems that you know your job."

Merlin likes the young man with a clear goal in front of him, he follows Fury's example and pats on Silvey's shoulder, then he says:

"Then let's arrange our work schedule. Every Monday, I will give you the names and pictures of some targets I've collected, you will be responsible for gathering information on their social connections and background; on Saturday, you will give me the data you've categorized for me to review, you rest every Sunday, then the cycle repeats every week."

"This is a long-term mission, according to my estimations, it may take multiple months, even a year for us to be finished. Mmm, let me think, how about this, we do this for 2 months, and if you perform well enough, I'll recommend you to agent Hand! Any problems?"

"No! Sir!"

Sitwell tells Merlin with confidence:

"I'll do my best! Also, sir, where will I work?"

"For safety and convenience...live in the garage for now."

 

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