Industrious: Engineering Marvels - Chapter 26

“This is going too well,” I called out to Bucky as we stormed through the base.

“Don't be a jinx!” He shouted back.

“I thought you were on my side!” I replied, drawing an arrow from my quiver in a smooth motion and firing it down a long hallway, the head planting itself through the eyepiece of those anonymizing gas masks. The soldier staggered back, dead before he hit the ground a moment later. “Steve's the hopeless optimist, right!?”

“That's while he's in charge!” Bucky barked, turning and aiming his shotgun into a room before unloading on whatever – whoever – he saw. “If something goes wrong right now, I have to deal with it!”

“Ha!” I grinned, picking out another flashbang arrow and lining up the shot carefully-

The metal tip of the arrow hit solid concrete at the end of the corridor, reflected, and burst into a fury of noise and light.

“Jesus, you're good at that,” Bucky shook his head in amazement.

“Bring a bow to a gunfight and you've gotta' have serious skills,” I shrugged off the compliment, but my lips tilted up in a smirk as we moved forward in the wake of the blinding and deafening explosive, the rest of the squad right behind us.

“Don't wanna go too deep!” Bucky called out as we hit another choke point, bullets flying out from where the dark concrete hall merged into a t-shaped intersection. “Cap's coming.”

“We stall too long and they fortify,” I shot back, drumming my fingers against an explosive tag, but shrugging it off and picking up a conventional grenade instead.

“We move too fast and they could get behind us before Steve meets up; cut us in half,” Bucky shook his head and blind-fired around the corner.

I frowned, then nodded as I made a decision and turned to look Bucky in the eye. “You're the boss, we hold. I'll make a door if it comes to it.”

One of my chakra tags was in-hand now, ready to activate should I need it.

Bucky held up a hand to stall our line of men and gave them the signal to hold. Immediately, the squad began switching out magazines and reloading rifles. Others checked their gear and took quick swigs of water or alcohol as Bucky and I kept up an exchange of fire with the opposing forces so no one got brave enough to try and counterattack properly.

Pulling out a mirror, I carefully extended it on a small metal pole.

I scowled.

“They're setting the corridor to blow,” I informed Bucky, then cursed as another volley of fire rang out, pulling my mirror back.

Barnes cursed as well, turning to me. “What was that about a door?”

“You see Steve yet?” I asked in reply.

This time, it appeared that fate or whatever was on my side as the sound of a shield impacting a body rang out from behind us. Spinning, guns were raised in alarm, then lowered as Steve led his small squad up from behind us, stepping over the slumped body.

“You guys missed one,” Logan pointed out, slipping a pistol out of his holster and unloading two shots into the soldier's body.

Nina grimaced and looked away from the casual violence and death.

“Sloppy,” Victor agreed, grunting the word.

“So what's the situation?” Steve asked, implicitly moving to take back command.

“We were holding to wait for you so you didn't get cut off and to reload,” Bucky replied. “Hydra's setting up the next area to blow, though. Ray says he's got a way through.”

Steve turned an expectant gaze on me, and I held up a small piece of paper with a sealing glyph on it. “Just waiting on you slowpokes.”

“Well, we're all here, now,” Bucky stated, turning back to me. “How about that door, Ray?”

“Coming right up,” I nodded.

I rolled up a sleeve and slapped the tag on the corresponding ink I'd placed on my own skin. Another change I'd made to my loadout was a series of 'receptor seals' to better moderate the energy I was shoving into my chakra system using these things. I also hoped that the secondary functions of the receptor seals would bleed over any excess energy into healing chakra, though I hadn't had time to exhaustively test that function.

The principle was easy enough to understand, though. Instead of simply tossing a bucket of current into a circuit like I had – stupidly – been doing until now, I'd placed a seal on each of my four limbs and neck that would serve to properly modulate the amount of 'current' that was seeping into my body at any given time. That amount, it has to be said, would be very small given the fragile nature of my chakra network, but along with the receptor seals, I'd added a kind of bracing on strategic places all over my body.

If I wasn't a master contortionist thanks to my other skills, the ones on my back would have been particularly difficult.

Primary chakra points, a few of the larger secondary clusters, and most importantly my gates were all now better supported my a network of seals that would both help take the strain off my body and soul as well as use the residual energy – again, hopefully – to speed up the healing process.

It was something I should have done from the very beginning, but I'd been too enthralled with the idea of affecting real change at such a crucial point in history that mimicked my real world. Everyone had wanted a piece of my time when I wasn't on the battlefield-

Which was another stupid course of action on my part.

But I was...

I remembered being, at least... a soldier.

Satsuki's parting gift had set in more than I liked to admit, changing me from someone who was more comfortable sitting out conflict to someone who made their home on blood-soaked fields as much as in the forge I'd always preferred.

It wasn't something I liked thinking about, truthfully.

For all that my ego was relatively malleable and I wasn't prone to existential crises...

Uchiha were. Their ocular blood-limit came with engineered points of failure as activation codes for higher levels of strength. And it was Uchiha Satsuki who had dreamed up a version of me that would better be able to serve in the shinobi forces. It made too much sense that there was probably some small part of her within that dream that I'd unintentionally consumed when I'd merged with my illusory doppelganger. The entire process had changed me, that was undeniable, and one of those changes was an unwillingness to confront those very changes themselves.

I breathed in, centering myself.

Now wasn't the best time to have this particular epiphany, but I could return to the topic later when there was time.

Strength flowed through me with the energy of the chakra tag, the power feeling as though it was a quenching rain on a raw, hot, cracked desert as cool relief seeped into my very soul. The crest of the flood was lesser, the high of my power nothing like what I'd reached fighting the vampire weeks ago, but...

It was more contained.

More controlled.

More controllable.

There was also the added benefit that my body didn't feel as thought it was about to buckle under the strain of that selfsame power. It was energy, yes, but it didn't make me feel like I'd just dropped combat stimulants. There was no jittery near-pain as muscles twitched and fought random stimuli.

I felt... good.

My moment of luxuriating in the soothing power of becoming more whole faded, and I opened my eyes.

Back on the clock, soldier.

My hands began flashing through a series of signs, fingers contorting in ways other people would find painful, if not downright torturous.

“Earth Style: Liquid Stone Form,” I stated, ending the formula for the technique and pressing my palms against the concrete next to the hallway.

Uttered oaths to deities, curses, and shocked inhalations from the rest of the Commandos rang out as the stone indeed ran like liquid, rearranging itself to my desires as a new tunnel opened up that bypassed the now-trapped hallway.

Thankfully, that neither burned all of the juice running through my system, nor did it exhaust the full reserves in the tag.

Instead, I was left feeling a bit weaker than when I'd put it on... but still a great deal stronger and more energetic than I had been normally.

“Goddamn,” Dino muttered.

“See, told ya' the kid's magic,” Dougan snorted.

“Enough standing around, let's go,” Steve barked, raising his shield and leading the charge.

“Follow Cap!” Bucky cried, raising his own oversized rifle.

The squad cheered and ran past me as I took a moment to collapse my bow and pull my sword from its sheath... and take a quick drink from my canteen.

Regardless of my superhuman status, I was still human at the end of the day, after all.

What followed was a massacre, no two ways about it.

The ambush that the Hydra grunts had set up, in their defense, was pretty foolproof. They'd fallen back to a chokepoint specifically designed to funnel invading soldiers to their death without any possible way around it. Any normal force working with conventional weapons and tactics would have been forced into the narrow space, blown up, and the ones that survived buried under tons of rubble after the initial blast.

Backtracking would have been almost as bad, since it would have given the enemy even more time to prepare and reconstitute their forces. Which was the ultimate weakness of our group. We were a small, mobile, and lightly-armed double-strength squad without any real logistical chain of supply or reinforcement. We had what we had and that was it.

Our primary strengths, on the other hand, were stealth, surprise, and the disproportionate damage even small packs of explosives could do to infrastructure and concentrated formations. Once the surprise of our initial attack wore off and the base began to properly mount a defense, things became incredibly dangerous for our unit.

Which was why we desperately needed to keep up the momentum after our initial push.

“This branch is clear!” Jim called out.

“So is this one!” Dougan yelled back.

The two had each taken a pair of soldiers with them and formed small fire teams that had swept the barracks of the base while our main group continued to push further into the base.

“Whoa! Hold!” Steve called out suddenly, one fist upright as he looked around a corner.

“What's wrong?” Nina asked, taking a deep breath and pausing. “I smell blood.”

“We did just... ah, kill a lot of people,” Nick muttered, a rifle in his hands and his camera hanging from his neck.

Logan snorted noisily, stilling. “Not that, punk. Up ahead.”

“Which doesn't make sense,” Bucky replied, shouldering his rifle again. “Since we haven't been there, yet.”

“But we've got bodies anyway,” Steve confirmed.

I hummed, swinging my sword in a smooth motion to sweep the blood from its blade. Pulling the wakizashi from its sheath, I stepped up next to Steve. “You and me take point, Cap?”

Steve paused, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Dino, you and Dougan hold position here in case we need back. Bucky, take Logan and Vic and keep pushing.”

The dark-haired man opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut before nodding. “Roger that, Cap. Be careful.”

Turning to go, he paused to meet my eyes, the only exposed part of my face in my hooded balaclava. We exchanged a mutual understanding in that moment. Bucky momentarily surrendering the mantle of boy scout babysitter to me.

“Keep an eye for anyone trying to be clever and sneak up on us from the way we came,” I advised Dougan as Steve and I stepped past them. The rest of the men – and Nina – hurried off ahead.

“What do you think?” Steve asked me in a low tone as we stepped over the corpses.

I flicked a glance towards the downed bodies of the Hydra soldiers. “Whoever took them out was using a blade, not a gun. That kind of limits our list of potential suspects.”

“Someone like you?” Steve asked curiously, giving me a raised eyebrow.

The thought that there was 'someone like me' was both amusing and alarming. “Probably not as good as me, for all that's probably indulging in a little pride. But... they were killed with stabbing motions. See those wounds? Sharp, thin blade. Something like a stiletto... or maybe a sai?”

“What's a sai?” Steve asked.

I opened my mouth to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles joke that he wouldn't get when Steve's shield snapped up to block a hurled piece of glinting metal.

Raising up my own blade in an immediate action with the smaller one moving in tighter to guard myself. The thrown object that had deflected off Steve's shield had dug itself into the nearby wall, the aging concrete apparently no match for an expertly-wielded blade.

“That, Steve,” I muttered. “That's a sai,” I gave a quick nod towards the oriental weapon.

“Indeed, it is. My apologies for assuming you were hostile.”

Both Cap and I turned to see another figure stepping out through an open doorway. The figure was small and cut a feminine build that was only barely discernible through the dark green hooded cloak they wore. A white mask that looked like a bare skull over their face drew attention away from the various blades and weapons attached to the woman's body I could glimpse through the parting of her cloak. I took especially close note of the pistol grip I caught sight of on her hip... with a likely mate on the other side.

“If we're not going to fight, we should exchange names. A bit rude not to,” Steve tried.

“I go by Taskmaster,” she replied, a trace of humor in her tone. “And I hardly need to ask you to identify yourself, Captain Rogers. Or do you prefer America?”

Steve huffed a partially-faked laugh. “I usually go by Steve, actually. And this is Ray.”

“If we're using our funny-mask names, you can call me Snake Eyes,” I quipped. “Mind if I ask what a woman like you is doing in a place like this?”

The question had layers to it, but she wouldn't know that.

Couldn't know that, really.

Well... unless time travel, and I hoped not.

The woman looked to be wearing gear that was period-appropriate, at least, for all that such a thing mattered in this world. She could entirely be carrying a ray gun and simply have lifted it off of Hydra here in the nineteen-forties. Still, 'Taskmaster' was a name I was familiar enough with. A natural martial artist and omnidisciplinary master of weapons. A relatively low-tier combatant on the superhuman scale for the setting, but a dangerous one nonetheless...

…though I had thought the character was male.

Eh, it's not like I'm going to raise a stink over a genderbent identity. It matters a lot more if she's going to try to kill us than if she's got a penis or a vagina.

“Charmed to meet you,” she replied, her voice echoing slightly behind her mask but the underlying toneless quality of the words implying a lack of care regardless. “If you'll excuse me, I need to retrieve more information from this outpost.”

“If you're fighting Hydra, we could help,” Steve offered, stopping her in her tracks as she made to move further down the hallway.

My shoulders slumped as I sighed, just a bit. Steve... dammit.

“Without even knowing my own aims and goals? That seems like an oversight in a potential ally,” Taskmaster noted.

“Playing Devil's Advocate here, but we are allied with the Soviets right now-” I carefully didn't react as tension crept up her spine at the words leaving my mouth. “-and I doubt you're quite as bad as them, so beyond whatever Cap here thinks... we could at least exchange contact information?”

“I very much doubt you'd have any useful information, 'Snake Eyes,' even if you are hitting Hydra bases,” she replied, a trace of sarcasm in her voice as she walked away.

“How about the secret society you work for?” I asked, making her jerk and still. “Do you think they would be interested?”

Steve turned a curious look on me with narrowed eyes, even as I could feel the tension in the corridor ratchet up.

“Perhaps you are better-informed than I'd thought, especially for someone that I have no dossier on myself,” Taskmaster stated, staring at us. “Which would normally indicate you're no one of consequence.”

She was right that I knew more than I had any right to, but...

I was actually winging it completely here, though. Still, the guess had been an easy one to make, simply due to the world we were in. Like with the Hellfire Club, this world was awash in conspiracies, secret societies, and immortals pulling mystic strings behind the curtains.

Simply put, Taskmaster was almost certainly in the employ of either one of those or, instead, just a simple mercenary.

Let's see... another leap of faith, then? Why not...

“You're here to retrieve something that Hydra stole, aren't you?” Again, another easy guess. Hydra was the kind of organization that pissed off virtually everyone in their attempt to out-Nazi the Nazis.

Taskmaster stared at me, then nodded slowly. “Perhaps... we can work together.”

Because you now think I know things I shouldn't about you and your employers, and you're going to interrogate me on how that can be and what my sources are, right?

“Ray...” Steve prompted, trailing off intently.

I rolled my eyes and sheathed my wakizashi before reaching out to grab the sai still embedded in the concrete. Yanking it free, I gave it a lazy toss in Taskmaster's direction. “Don't worry about it Steve. If she's working for who I think she's working for... well, at least they're not Communists.”

Again... that tension. Ties to the Russians? Maybe the White Army? Or Russian Nobility?

Or, hell, she could be Ukrainian or Polish for all that it really mattered. Having a grudge against the Soviets didn't really mean all that much given how many groups and people they'd pissed off. Or brutally massacred.

Still, it was a clue.

And if she really was working for a secret society... well, Tsarist Russia had been littered with the things. In this world, you probably weren't able to turn over a fucking rock without a few of them scurrying around, either neophyte and mundane or legitimately ancient and magical.

“Have you already gotten everything you need at this base?” I asked, my guard still up as she sheathed her sai.

There was a pause as she visibly contemplated the answer she would give, then shook her head. “No. There was a small, faceted spherical gem that was being held here. Red in color. I was instructed to bring it back.”

“Haven't seen anything like that,” Steve stated, reaching up to rub at his chin. “Any idea where they might have been keeping it? Maybe in a safe somewhere, if it's valuable?”

Taskmaster scoffed and I shook my head with a thoughtful hum as I looked up towards the corner of the hallway. Just like the castle, the base had been modernized to suit the needs of the modern mad scientist and military equipment. “I'd bet good money on the gem being used as a power source-”

Taskmaster drew a startled breath and one of her hands went for a weapon under her cloak.

“-which means we need to follow those wires,” I stated, gesturing with my katana towards the large conduit running through the corridor.

“Then let's do that,” Steve nodded, giving me another significant look.

Man, he's either going to be pissed at me or think it's the funniest thing ever when I tell him I'm just bullshitting my way through all of this on stupid movie logic.

There was always a secret society behind things and the shiny rock was always a secret source of unlimited power.

That was just how things worked.

Once Steve called in Dino and Dougan, who were warily following along on our quest to help our new friend in the mask, we started moving again.

“We're going to have a talk about stuff when we get a chance, Ray,” Steve warned me in an undertone as we ran, the green-cloaked woman leading our smaller squad.

“I figured,” I nodded, Taskmaster stopping in front of a door and giving it a firm kick.

She cursed when it refused to yield and knelt to remove a series of small tools from her belt, then stilled at my approach. “Excuse me.”

Even if the energy flowing through me was ebbing now, I still had more than enough for something like this.

My blade swung, slicing through the seam between the door and the wall in a precision cut.

It swung open.

“At least you know how to swing it,” Taskmaster commented as she pushed through to the other room.

“Never hold a tool you don't know how to use,” I riposted, then almost ran into the woman as she stopped suddenly. “Wha-”

“-the fuck?” Dougan asked, stepping up to stare with the rest of us.

The small corridor had ended up leading us to an immense open space that looked like some sort of aircraft hanger. All around, people in Hydra uniforms were running about, urgently carrying machinery and equipment as they desperately attempted to finish…

(This - But Nore Swastikas)

“Steve.” I called bluntly, my disbelief warring with my irritation and frustration as we looked at the giant mechanical figure lying prone on the hanger floor.

“Yeah, Ray?” He asked, his voice faint.

“You think holy water will work on giant robots?” I asked, my tone deadpan.

Steve gave me a disappointed look at that, shaking his head as someone finally looked up long enough to notice our motley band up on the catwalk and shouted.

I sighed, sheathed my katana, and grabbed for my bow. “I'm glad I chose violence today, because we're going to need a lot of it if they get that thing moving.”

~~~

Pretty close to on-time with this one.

Sorry it wasn't out yesterday, but... well, one of my family's dogs died. I needed to take a minute for myself and get out of the house.

At any rate, next chapter is a giant robot fight, so look forward to that.

I'll have the polls for May up in a few hours, likely after I get a little rest.