Electrify - Volume 1 Chapter 12

A month passed by with me still at the Kamartaj and not much has happened. Peter did say something about the dare devil but I think that he was exaggerating, I mean no one in their right mind would do that. Oh, right. I live in a world of comics, of course he did. The file Peter sent over were good and I was able to figure out his identity. Matt Murdock, attorney at law. He does good work, pro Bono in most of the cases. His first big fish was the one I was very interested in. The man had an weird accent and walked like he owned the place, but that was not all, he didn’t freaking exist. No records, no holding, no criminal activity, nothing. I sent peter to do a bit of digging and found out why Matt was waging a war against the Russians. Drugs, boat load of drugs, literally. Enough to taint every teen in the Kitchen. Peter stopped what he could but he was more of a whole New York kind of guy. So, he approached Matt and tried to talk. ‘Tried’ being the key word here. As soon as, Peter even tried to insinuate that he knew Matt’s identity, Matt lost it and duked it out with Peter. Normally, this would be no problem because I have seen Peter bench 8 tons, the problem occurred when Peter dislocated Matt’s arm and he still came at Peter like a mad man.

Let’s, just say, Peter idea of a super hero team up was shelved. Even, though I told him we teamed up before he ignored me.

At Kamartaj, things were running smoothly and Alice was no longer my teacher, that title went to Kaecilius. He was not the relaxed teacher like Alice, he was intense and dedicated his entire time to find my weak points and mock me. If I approached him for guidance he would turn me away or told me to read a book. Ancient One even asked him to be more accommodating but he basically ignored what she said. Thankfully, the subject in question was Runes and Inscriptions. The Runic Arts were basically a form of enchantment where we used words and symbols to a desired effect. Inscription was the same but with a different name. Seriously, that’s what the ancient one said. I was a knowledge intensive art and required many years of memorization. Thankfully, that usually translated to weeks in my case but this time it was different. There were nearly, 40 millions books and 15 million scrolls, not to mention the actual practice was the thing that took time. When I asked Alice if she read all the books, she simply laughed and shoed me away.

The reason, I was interested in runes was simple, better protection. If I have and enchanted object that formed a barrier between me and the threat, that would prove to be rather helpful. Not to mention, all the possibilities of a new form of offensive maneuver. The possibilities were literally endless. So, I was knee deep in books for most of my time now a days. When, I was not reading about Runes, I was learning a new spell. The fist of the damned. Despite the ominous name, the spell was a very good offensive spell. It required the caster to coat their hands in a layer of energy which would amplify the force of a punch by the amount of energy supplied to the spell. There was a catch though, the spell would be forever engraved on your soul and in will never be released. It was an intent based spell, so I didn’t really need to worry about the collateral damage but if I touch anything with fist with an intent to kill, the victim will feel an amplified amount of pain. The spell got its name from the screams of the victims. It was a no brainer not to learn such a spell, especially since close combat was my bread and butter.

“Master Maxwell, perhaps you should take a break. You have gone through, quite a number of books. Giving your mind a rest is also a part of a sorcerers duty.” The Ancient One said.

“Sorry, I got carried away.” I said and waved my hand and the books returned to their spot.

No telekinesis, the library was enchanted to collect books.

“May I ask the reason for you interest in Runes.” She asked.

“I am pretty sure you already know.” I replied.

“That may be, but hearing you say it will confirm my suspicion.” She said with a smile.

“I want to create a weapon for myself.” I said and summoned the sword Tony gave me.

“That is indeed a fine blade. Hah, it seems that Mr. Starks sense of humor is quite nerdy.” She said as she ran her fingers through the inscription.

“It is a fine blade but it feels off to me. Something, doesn’t feel right about it.” I said and handed her the sword.

She swung it once and sighed. She then brought it closer to her face and turned it on. She admired the blue glow and shook her head once more.

“How ever it may look, this sword was not designed to cut. It was designed to prove a point and it does just that. Eitri, will go into a rage if I show this to him.” She said and handed it back. “We do have a few blades of our own. However, they all have developed a sense of pride. If they don’t want to be held, they will fail you at your time of need or worse. Once, you are ready, I will take you there.” She said and left.

What she said raised even more questions but that is how every conversation with her went. You go in with a question and you come out with more questions. Though, she was right about one thing, I do need a break. I sat on the floor and meditated for a while before opening a portal to New York. I stood on the top of the Empire State Building and looked at the city. I heard police sirens, and not much else. Sometimes, I even wondered why I bothered to go out. I flew around the city and checked out the Shield assignments. Most of it revolved around the Mafia, and a few volatile individuals. I sighed and shut it down. On the way, I beat up a few muggers and dealers.

Once, I got to the Shield HQ, There was another surprise, I had suspected that Shield would try to recruit more Mutants but they didn’t. Despite, there being a number of confirmed mutants. It didn’t make sense. I decided to call Xavier’s school.

“Hello, I need to speak to Xavier.” I said and heard a sigh.

“OK. Mr. Electro.” I her a sassy teen voice.

“Hello, Electro. What can I do for you today?” Xavier said.

“How many students did you take from NY in the last month?” I asked.

“around 9. Why?” He asked.

“There are 14 on my list here. Tell me the names.” I said and an alarm went off in my head.

Xavier, named all of his recruits and I got the name of the one that he didn’t take. TACT being as amazing as he was, already had the addresses and the whereabouts of the kids, except for one. A girl name Louis Dawson. Suspected of having the ability to see through stuff. She had been missing for a while. There was even a police report regarding this. I called Xavier back.

“Xavier, she has been taken by someone. Get on that machine and give me a location.” I said.

“Yes, I will, but I need you to take someone from my team on the rescue.” He said and I unintentionally let out a lightning bolt.

“I will not stop them from coming. Now, the location.” I yelled and hung up.

The lightning I released was just hanging in the air not doing anything so I called it back and put on the suit. I even strapped the sword to my back. I went to the roof and waited for a while.

“Electro, hurry. They are hurting her.” He said and gave me the address.

He was saying something about a jet but I was already going super sonic to New Jersey. The location was at an abandoned storage unit in the outskirts. I landed on the roof and sensed for the electrical signatures. 10 armed guards, 3 kids, and 2 guys eating dinner. They stored the kids in a room that was accessible from the outer wall, so I turned the blade on and quietly cut out a nice hole. Once, inside I saw something that made boil in rage. The X ray girl’s eyes were missing, the boy had a tail and the other girl’s tentacle like hair were missing. All of them looked like they had been starved. They were kept in a cage without any clothes. They were also some dried s.e.m.e.n on all of their thighs.

As much as I wanted to help these kids first, I turned to the door and kicked with all my strength. The door along with a few portions of wall were blown away. I waited for a few moments before stepping out. They all were here, 2 people in suits and the goons. My electric sight was back on and I saw that all of them were scared, I saw the first man in the suit. He was about to reach for his gun, I knew this because I saw the nerves light up. I released 10 bolts of lightning, strong enough to cause severe burns but not enough to kill. The guards were out even before they hit the ground. One of the suited men fell to his knees while the other one pointed a gun at me. I walked slowly and watched him shoot 2 clips at me. I saw how he realized how badly f.u.c.k.i.e.d he was, and finally I saw him try to shoot himself with his other gun. I let him shoot himself but before the bullet could reach him I grabbed it.

“Now, where are the rest of their bodies.” I said in a clear voice.

“They are in the other room, the man asked us to do this. He wanted muties parts. I don’t know who he is.” He said and finally pissed himself.

“Hmm, I could believe you, but I don’t want to.” I circled around the man and looked at the other one.

“I swear, he is telling the truth.” He screamed as tears flowed from his eyes.

“Stand up and show me, where they are.” I said and they both took me to the freezer room.

I looked at the organs and checked to see if they were viable and thankfully they were. I also found a computer which recorded the operation, the victims were sedated but not enough. They were always conscious but not enough to move. Their were many angle of shots, one particular camera showed the panic, and pain in the eyes of the kid as they felt parts of them cut off. They were filming gore p.o.r.n. I collected all they data and deleted everything. I turned around and saw they these two asshole were sweating bullets. I unsheathed my sword and activated it.

“Now, I give you two choices. One, I will find out every person you hold dear and slowly roast them to death.” I stopped and produced and arc that circled around them. “Two, you take this sword and cut you arms off and get me every person you gave this to, anyone involved.”

I didn’t say anything after that but I handed to first guy the sword. Using my hand I began to closed my fingers. The first man was decisive and swung down the sword and cleanly severed his arm. He fell down in pain and got knocked out. The other one made half way through his arm before he was out cold. I woke him up with a zap of current and made him do it again before knocking him out myself.

When it was done, I expected to feel nauseated but I couldn’t find it in me to give a single shit about these subhuman pieces of shits. I picked up a few IVs and a few bags of glucose and saline and hooked the kids up to them after I clothed them up. I finally gave them a full sedative to put them under.

“Fury, we have a situation at my location.” I said.

“oh, yes. I would love to hear about how you caused 2 sonic booms on my building.” He said.

“Mutant Child Gore P.o.r.n and illegal organ harvest Ring.” I said as I enunciated every word slowly.

“Did you get them?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Don’t kill them. Are the kids safe?” He asked.

“The ring has been running for 6 years. I got here today.” I said and heard his breathing change.

“Mother F.u.c.ker. How many kids?”

“Don’t know. I need 3 priority, medic choppers with critical care and what is the worst transportation of sc.u.m bags? Yeah, get me that.” I said and hung up.

“You know that I can sense you right?” I said.

“Master Maxwell. I wasn’t trying to hide.” Ancient One said. “I do not envy your job.”

“How long have you been alive?” I asked.

“Far, too long.” She said, her voice devoid of any emotion.

“How do you keep up with this?” I asked.

“Maxwell, there are far worse things out there. Ones who dwell on those dark moments will grow to hate humanity. Ones who dwell on the brighter side will do everything to never look the other way.” She said.

“Is there a lesson to learned here?” I asked.

“No, but may you find solace in the fact that you stopped another child from being harmed by these vile creatures.” She said and wrote the word for nightmares on their foreheads.

She nodded at me then disappeared. The X men arrived a few minutes later and the Shield choppers arrived a few minutes after that. I had to stop nearly all the people from killing the sc.u.mbags. Xavier let the Shield take the kids and the sc.u.m were in turn handed over to the Xmen for deeper probing. Heck, Fury only asked for the detailed report and told Xavier to kill them after. With that done I decided to go home.

“Sweetie, how have you been?” Mom said and hugged.

“Fine. How have you been?” I asked as we headed to kitchen.

“I has been nice. We did miss you a lot.” She said and offered me a cup of coffee.

“I missed you too.” I said and took the coffee.

We spook about her job at the boutique and the awful customers who worked everyone into the ground or how her boyfriend burned the house down trying to make a pan cake. I wasn’t able to share my life with her and I think she knew that I had been keeping things from her. She didn’t ask and I knew I couldn’t tell her. I liked the calm and common problems her life had, no dead bodies or demons but it made me feel as though there was a divide between us now and every time we spoke, it got wider. Despite that, I enjoyed these conversations very much, I almost made me forget the nightmare I came from.

I left a note the next morning as I left my home. I went to the Queens safe house and got suited up. I checked the phone and found the files Xavier had sent over. The culprit was a lot of companies, AIM, RAND, LIFE, ROXXON, and Oscorp. The evidence provided was the man had seen it once in a file that the delivery man had and he had never seen the man since. Xavier didn’t kill them after he extracted the information, he simply held them as prisoners. I didn’t mind at all, but I had a feeling Xavier had an agenda.

I began looking at the said companies and found that all of them were involved in criminal activities. AIM and RAND were being used by criminal organizations, ROXXON was running human trails for their drugs, and Oscorp was constantly berated for suspected corporate sabotage. My suspicion was on a ROXXON but neither the government nor the Shield had any dirt on ROXXON, we had a lot of stuff on AIM but that all changed with the change of personnel at he helm.

AIM HQ was out in California, while ROXXON was based in NY. I began to change a few maintenance schedules and camera locations to monitor all the know ROXON shipment routes and warehouses along with all their offices. However, companies like ROXXON usually had thousands of subsidiary companies and shell companies through which they channel their money. I had to find out exactly how many companies were under ROXXON and monitor all their locations without raisin any suspicion. The reworking of the traffic camera network took me half a month. It paid of the very next day, I found out a human testing site where they hired the homeless and ran tests on them. I broke in there but found out that every person here was volunteering themselves and they all got a very clear breakdown about the side effects of these drugs. Which meant that legally they were covered.

“Electro, I heard that you were moving around quite a few cameras around the city. Care to explain.” Fury said over the phone.

“I suspect that the ROXXON Corp was responsible for the incident 2 weeks ago.” I said and I heard him sigh.

“So, you used Shield resources to hack into NYPD and decided to monitor the situation on your own.” He said.

“Yes, and I already found a promising lead. I just over the file.” I said and waited for him to hang up.

“I better be good, or I will loose my goddamn mind.” He yelled and hung up.

Few minutes later, Fury sent a message “Its good.” and sent over all the chemical tracing they had on ROXXON. It was finally becoming clear why they were so involved with this. The chemicals required to make the synthetic heroin and the protein that made the mutants, the X gene marker. It was a key to reducing the effect on the liver, so that it doesn’t filter out the heroin. The formula it self would have to designed by an expert biochemist and the process would have to be monitored to ensure that the product doesn’t become lethal. There was another facet to this group, an accountant who managed all the funds going in and out. Then, there would be an enforcer. I suspected that there were 5 or 6 people heading this. The hand was obviously an enforcer, the one who kept things in line. Then the producer, who maintained the flow of drugs. A salesman, who was spread out all over the Hells Kitchen. The accountant who managed the funds and a Boss who lead them all. Peter had already messed with the Russians who were the salesmen in this scenario. I got close to the Hand. The supplier, the accountant and the boss were the final pieces.

“Peter, I sent over a file, try to get the Blind man involved.” I sent the audio message alongside the observations and theories.

Although, I wanted to stay and put them down myself, I didn’t want to push my mystical studies to far. I opened a portal to Kamartaj and went straight to the library. I didn’t loose myself in the books like I did last time. I kept records of the events and even took on some assignments to keep Fury off my back. Apparently, there were reports of glowing people with the ability to breathe fire along with a missing Tony stark. The Mandarin had bombed his house despite my warning, at this point I could only shake my head and sigh. Ignoring the ego maniac, I found a few reports near the AIM company, there was a video from Happy Hogan’s phone that showed Miss Potts standing on a table with what looks to a very healthy Aldrich Killian, far too healthy for my liking. There were many words in the audio that raised questions, Extremis, hidden in the DNA, the f.u.c.k does that mean. One thing that was clear was the message, Killian had definitely found a way to enhance human physique.

I sling ringed to a secure location near the AIM building and flew out of sight till I was at the top of the building. I waited for quite some time before I had mapped out all the guard patterns. I couldn’t have used the air vents because they were filtered and I would have been too much of an hassle any way. I avoided the patrols and avoided the cameras until I reached the main server. I plugged in my phone and had TACT upload everything on a secure location. I was about to leave but when I was close to a lab, I felt something. The human I was feeling was hot, not in s.e.xy way but hot as in melting the ground they stood on hot. I could feel that they were moving on a treadmill but they were going far beyond the Olympic level. I was feeling the shift in they bioelectricity when they up and exploded. I was about to rush in their but my senses told me that the human was literally vaporized in that explosion. The walls in that room were lined with a feet of titanium, which mean that the people in charge knew that the person in their would blow up. I stood still and concentrated harder, their were other few people who put they exercise equipment back in the room and bought in another person. They injected the person with something before I felt in happen all over again. Only, this time the woman didn’t exploded even after 2 hour of intense training even by my standards. They bough in another guards and killed the woman with a shot to the head. Thankfully, I didn’t need to stick around any longer, they were out of people to experiment on and they had cleared the area for my use. I opened a portal in that room and drained the entire room dry of electricity. That caused a cascade effect and took out all the power of the building. I found a safe full of vials and vials of Extremis and took everything. The Runic Arts had allowed me a access to an infinite storage bag. I kept everything, by that I mean all the computers, drives and even security tapes. I had TACT destroy all their research and since, Maya Hansen was dead, they couldn’t start it from scratch. Then I disappeared back to Kamartaj.