40: Bet

  " you believe it?! I leave them alone for a moment, and they pletely disappear!" Hrumbled with some irritation. Saying the man had been eager to see what John could now do with his new abilities would be an uatement.

  For that reason, wheuro the b and couldn't find them anywhere no matter how much he searched, an immense disappoi hit him.

  "Perhaps I help you look for them, Mr. Stark." At the offer, Howard sighed, shook his head, and then patted Isaa the shoulder.

  "Nah, they'll e back. Something must've happened. I don’t think they’d start runnis without an expert stist like me present to help… right?"

  Isaac wasly sure how to respond—or if he should even respond. Was this what they called a rhetorical question? Although the android had been "living" among humans for some time now, his syid still struggled to fully grasp the plexities of true human thought, leaving him uain about how to act at times.

  For the most part, he stuck by Howard's side, just as el John had instructed. When he wasn’t doing that, he could be found in his room reading books or helping other members of the base with minor tasks—something Howard had allowed him to do to help him "adjust to life," whatever that meant.

  "Anyway, while they return, it’s better if we focus on other matters. I’d like to move up your checkup. I think I finally uand how the internal meisms that allow your body to move with as much flexibility as a human’s work. If everything goes well, I should be able to start building you rept parts before the year is over."

  Though Howard hadn’t dedicated as much time to analyzing Dr. Horton’s research, that didn’t mean he hadn’t been making progress in his spare moments. In fact, if not for the o lead the iigations into the monsters created by Hydra, the man would’ve preferred to devote more time to studying the android.

  The deeper he delved and the more he learhe more he uood how incredible the person who developed such teology had been—especially given the limitations of the time, which Howard had previously thought would hinder any signifit stific breakthroughs.

  In fact, the more time passed, the more Howard realized just how pessimistic he’d been without knowing it. He used to believe his era strained him, that his mind and the achievements he could reach were shackled by not having been born in the "right" time.

  Now, he knew he had been wrong.

  "I'm gd to hear that," Isaac replied, though the thought of needing to ge his own parts didn’t feel very pleasant. He hoped to never be damaged enough to reach that point.

  The two walked through the base, occasionally crossing paths with other members of the staff. It was calm and strangely rexing to watch how everyone moved with purpose, with a task. It stirred something unfamiliar within Isaaething he identified as envy, thanks to the descriptions he had read in some of his books.

  He didn’t know why such a feeling had surfaced. He already had a purpose, a task, and a pce. Like everyone else, he fulfilled his duties at S.W.O.R.D. as instructed.

  So why did he feel like he could do more?

  His eyes blinked. Without realizing it, he had bee lost in thought—something that should have been impossible but had started happening more frequently as his mind grew increasingly plex.

  He and Howard finally arrived at the man’s main boratory, where his routine checkups were ducted to ensure his systems were operating in optimal dition. Without needing to be told, Isaac began to undress—it wasn’t as though he had anything to hide. Despite his external appearance, he didn’t actually have any kind of funal reproductive ans.

  "Eh, every time I see that, I ’t help but feel bad for you, buddy… Maybe I could fix that ter," Howard said, gng awkwardly at Isaac’s lower body, almost whispering the st part to himself.

  Isaac, of course, heard him—his auditory system was far sharper than that of ordinary humans—but refrained from enting. He didn’t uand what there was to fix. After all, he wasn’t human, and al desires didn’t seem like something he could ever experience.

  Just as he prepared to remove part of his syic skin, a faint tremor—barely perceptible to an ordinary human—made him pause for a moment.

  Was it a replica of the earlier tremor?

  That assumption was quickly dismissed when, immediately after, more and more tremors, each stroha, began arriving in rapid succession until a deafening arm flooded the pce.

  Howard froze for a sed before his eyes widened pletely, and he dropped the tools he had taken for the checkup.

  Then, the sound of gunfire and screams reached them, and for the first time in his life, ion like no other coursed through Isaac at the same time the fire began to emerge from his skin.

  .

  .

  Ja wiped the bead of sweat rolling down her forehead as she tried to catch her breath, her specially designed suit ging a bit too unfortably to her body. Maybe she’d have to see if the material could be switched to something less leather-like.

  Grabbing a nearby teen filled with water, she took a long sip before sighing and looking at the dozen or so obstacles ahead of her.

  When John agreed to take her to the front, he didn’t just leave her waiting—he helped her start training to use her abilities. It had been tough at first since she had never been a big fan of exercise, but once she got used to it enough, she realized how rewarding it was. Oher hand, her body seemed to recover its energy faster than before—perhaps feeding on the Pym particles geed withihe expnation still eluded her, but what was certain was that something within her had ged, more than she had initially thought.

  This allowed her to train much lohan the average person, something John took full advantage of to “torture” her with different exercises that ditioned her body until her physical dition reached a level she never expected to achieve in such a short time.

  Abs. She was even starting to get abs!

  Of course, things hadn’t been easy. Even if her body recovered quickly, it only meant she had to endure more suffering than others in a shorter amount of time.

  Ja hought she had so much mental endurail she found herself able to keep standing, even when her entire body begged her not to.

  Before all this, she had doubted herself—her own abilities and her capacity to face challenges. Now, she had no doubt that if her father’s wish had e true and she had taken his pce, she would have thrived despite everything and carved out her own spa the stifiunity, even as a woman.

  Well, maybe that was still an option. After all, the war wouldn’t st forever—everyone could feel it. Germany was weakening, and the Allied forces were more determihao win. There were many factors tributing to this, but it all came down to how the world now perceived the Third Reiot just because of the tration camps, a revetion that had been on everyone’s lips when their existence was made public, but also because of the inhuman abominations Hydra had created at the expense of its prisoners.

  Saying that people abhorred such acts would be an uatement. Some had even begun shouting that demons had emerged from hell, that Hitler was the Antichrist who had allowed their arrival in the world, and that John was some kind of messiah chosen by God to stop him—or something along those lines.

  Of course, ah adequate knowledge would know that the monsters were nothing more than the product of sce used incorrectly. But the world was still full of overly superstitious people who preferred “simpler” expnations for things they couldn’t uand.

  Even if public perception was somewhat distorted, the truth was that this had begun to cause fractures even among the Germans.

  There was talk of riots ireets, protests, and increasingly severe internal flicts. Ja hadn’t paid too much attention to the news, but she knew enough to see that Germany might end up colpsing once Hydra—its greatest military power at the moment—fell.

  With that and with Italy now mostly siding with the Allies, only the Japanese Empire remained as the most signifit enemy left.

  Once Johroyed Hydra and the Allies finished liberating all of Western Europe, it was expected that the Japanese Empire would be hit with the full force of God—or at least, that was eople whispered. No one expected them to lose, even if Germany had the “devil” on its side.

  Ja had even heard from her father—during one of the rare times they spoke over the radio—that a new kind of on, like no other ever seen before, was in its final tests and would undoubtedly ehe end of the war.

  She tried to learn more, but it seemed that was all her father was willing to share, and they hadn’t spoken since.

  She was curious and thought that John would undoubtedly know something, so she asked him. But the man had only smiled at her without saying much. Well, he did say something, but it was a bit fusing.

  “The biggest firecracker in the world. What does that even mean?” Maybe some kind of bomb? But what kind of bomb could possibly be enough to end a war like this? Ja couldn’t imagi, so she decided to stop thinking about it.

  Instead, she focused on preparing to tackle the obstacle course that John, along with Raven and Professor Pym, had created for her. It was desigo test not only her physical abilities but also her powers.

  So far, her best time had been 3 minutes and 25 seds. John wanted her to do it in two minutes.

  At first, Ja doubted whether she could reach that goal. Now, it wasn’t a question of whether she could but how long it would take her to do it.

  ‘If I keep improving at my current pace, I should be able to improve my record by at least a minute before the week is over.’ That was good, but they were probably leaving for Pond soon, and Ja didn’t want to go without at least achieving the expected time. She o push herself much harder.

  With that resolution in mind, she leaned into a runner’s stance, ready tain. Of course, it was at that moment that the ground decided to start shaking. Abruptly, something seemed to explode, and part of the ceiling above her began to colpse.

  Ja’s eyes widened as she saw the debris falling toward her, and without thinking, her body began to shrink. Theire room was engulfed in clouds of dust.

  .

  .

  “What?!” Hank almost shouted in arm as his chair began rog untrolbly. Looking up from his desk, he could barely process the meaning of the deafening arm that began flooding the base.

  ‘An attack?!’ A hundred questions formed in his mind in an instant, but he dismissed them just as quickly. Standing up, his gaze swept across his b for a moment before his eyes nded on the tainers st the Pym particles.

  Without a sed thought, he started running toward them, ready to secure them—and, if necessary, destroy them along with everything else in the room.

  It might seem excessive, but Hank knew how valuable his work was and wasn’t willing to risk it falling into the wrong hands. He trusted that John would stop the atta the base, but if an enemy mao reach him before that happened, he knew he wouldn’t have many options.

  ‘It’s just a final precaution,’ he thought as he grabbed a transport cart and began loading the tainers onto it before returning to his main workstation to make a few adjustments to them.

  With any luck, John would end this quickly, and he could get back to his research.

  Of course, Hank didn’t know that John wasn’t at the base—or anywhere near it.

  As the sound of screams and guensified to the point where it could be heard even through the b’s insution, Hank couldn’t help but frown more deeply as he began gathering anythihought might be useful.

  He wasn’t a soldier, but he was a stist—and one in his own boratory. If the Nazis thought he was pletely defenseless, then he would prove them entirely wrong.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be used like this,” he growled as he grabbed one of the test prototypes he’d been w on—a version of his particle emitter reduced in size to be almost like a small handheld pistol.

  This had not been its inal form. Hank had built it to the size of nearly half a car, but thanks to the Pym particles, he had been able to reduce its size without having to think about everything that would have meant if he had do the ventional way, saving him a lot of time and costs.

  eg one of the Pym particle taio it through a long steel hose, Hank held it with both hands and proceeded to aim at his chair, firing a test shot. The red beam traveled to its target in an instant, causing it to shrink until it disappeared from his sight—and probably from existence as well.

  He still couldn’t fully trol the power output, reason why the device was still a prototype. Anything struck by the beam would tinue shrinking to sizes even he couldn’t yet calcute.

  ‘If I hit someoh this, I’ll definitely kill them—or worse.’ The thought didn’t bring him good feelings, but since he decided to join the military—or rather, S.W.O.R.D.—he knew his hands wouldn’t stay forever.

  Lig his dry lips, Hank sat o the Pym particle tainers while the sound of arms, gunfire, and screams tio echo. His hands poioward the b’s only door, deg to push aside any doubts until the decisive moment arrived.

  Not once did the thought of abandoning the b cross his mind.

  Of course, waiting was agonizing, even more so when the sound of nearby guopped, along with the screams, that either meant something good, or on the trary, it meant something bad.

  'The el should’ve put ao this by nht?' It was hard not to expect it, knowing the man’s capabilities. No matter what kind of attack Hydra had unched, Hank didn’t think it would be enough to aplish anything truly damaging with him here.

  Maybe he’d evehe el walk through the door the sed, asking if everything was alright.

  That hopeful thought crumbled in an instant when the reinforced doors shattered as if they were made of thin aluminum, and a blood-covered figure crawled through on all fours.

  At the sight of such a horrifying creature Hank froze, fetting to pull the trigger on his particle emitter.

  Hydra's monsters—he had heard of them and had even seen some of the bodies that had been brought to the base for study. He thought he had gotteo the sight, but having ht in front of him, fully alive and moving, was enough to make him paralyzed with an inexplicable sense of dread—a dread that grew even stronger when he saw the halved body of a soldier held in its long, bony hands.

  The creature, which didn’t appear to have eyes, she air like a dog, its deformed face turning in his dire after a moment. That was when Hank snapped out of his stupor and raised the "on" in his hands.

  The shot was quick. Hank might have hesitated longer if his target had been human, but against a monster, any thoughts of mercy vanished from his mind. He khey were nothing more than mindless creatures, simple puppets Hydra used in their battles.

  Unfortunately for him, his shot missed. The creature twisted its body, sensing the dahrough its beastly instincts, and in a blur of motion, it closed almost half the distaween them in a siep.

  “Shit!” Hank’s eyes widened in panid without hesitation, he kept firing again and again. His aim was barely det but not good enough to nd a hit. However, he mao force the beast to retreat, dodging the barrage of shots and giving him just a moment to think.

  'I’m not going to hit it.' The realization was instant. He wasn’t a super soldier, he wasn’t even a soldier, and therefore, he didn’t have the reflexes or the accuracy of one.

  He also didn’t have an infinite supply of shots. The Pym particle tank ected to his "on" would run out sooner or ter, but even before that happened, he could feel the beast would reach him first.

  Was he going to die here?

  No! He still had so much to do—a researplete, a world to ge!

  He couldn’t let it all end in this pce.

  Thinking about all his theories and that possible great discovery he had retly made, Hank ched his teeth and decided he was going to pce a bet. Maybe he would be wrong and die, but if he didn’t, then he would still have a ce, and a ce was better than nothing.

  With his eyes pletely bloodshot, Hank looked at the mohat was less than a meter away from reag him, and without hesitating any longer, he dropped his on and grabbed one of the tainers at his side. Then he released the safety on its lid, causing it to unlock abruptly, and in a blinding fsh of yellow light, all the Pym particles stored inside were untrolbly released throughout the pce.

  There was a silence, and the very space seemed to tremble as everything touched by the Pym particles began to shrink until it disappeared in the instant, causing a sudden vacuum to appear in the pce. And soon, the air from the surroundings began to be pulled into the boratory to fill the 'gaps.'

  Like an implosion, the boratory was cleared from top to bottom until only a silent, dark, empty room remained, with no sign of life within it.

  .

  .

  .

  Note:

  End of the chapter. I’d like to read your ents.

  By the way, for the pces where I couldn't respond to the ents and people are asking where John is, it might be a bit fusing since I don’t usually use very explicit timestamps (my mistake). But everything we're seeing right noened in the "past" retive to chapter (37), where John speaks with the a one.

  In other words, during his journey into spad his several minutes of versation with her, Warsaw and SWORD were attacked almost simultaneously.

  (I think the portal opening at the SWORD base—before John’s versation with the a one even began—is a good indicator. But I should have been more explicit to avoid fusion, and I apologize for that.)

  I know there are still other questions, but I don’t want to over-expin outside the chapters, as everything will bee clear withiory over time. I just wao crify this for those who are still a bit fused.

  As ara, I’ll give you a friendly remio never, ever eat mushrooms. God knows I love them, but I’ve decided not to eat them anymore since I had them for dinner yesterday and ended up spending almost the whole night trapped ihroretting ever being born.

  I don’t know what happened, but I don’t want it to happen again, hahaha.

  Finally, remember that if you want to support me, you do sh my Patreon ( patreon.maCruzader )