Chapter Nine: The Fucking Winter Soldier!
Luke Blake POV:
Luke rode from the private airport to their destination, with Chris driving the black 2022 Mercedes GL rental.
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"But this young man possesses no significant trait, Luke. Are you certain he's the one?" Crystal tilted her head in confusion in that adorable way she does when she's confused. "I cannot see how pPicking up a street rat is wise. It is illogical and foolish — bound, even, to come back to bite you later."
As his assistant argued her point, Luke merely yawned, relaxing into the seat he sat in, before answering his executive assistant. "He is the one, and yes, I am certain of it. OMNIS was ordered by the Boss to find him, and is the most powerful computer and A.I on the planet," he said. "And Reynolds isn't a street rat. He's just… broken, but he's also destined to become the Sentry."
"How do you intend to control him, Luke, last I checked, the Sentry has 2 personnas: Itself and Void," Crystal brought up, causing Luke to sigh, evidently tired of hearing his sister talk — or, maybe, he was just tired. He was the most lazy of all his siblings — lazy, chill, with a preference of peace and quiet, so one can never truly know the internal workings of his mind — not even he himself can always figure out his own inner workings.
It probably didn't help that Luke was what one would call a "Jack of all trades, but master of none," as he was decent in pretty much everyone of the Master's Captain Comet powers, but a master in none, except, maybe, telepathy and precognition. Still, the flexibility with the class allowed Luke to contend well with his brothers and sister clones, pretty much fulfilling the second part of the saying: "but oftentimes better than a master of one."
'The Master really put the most lethargic out of all his clones in charge as his most bothersome of duties, to run all his businesses and make all his public appearances,' he thought privately, yawning a second time outwardly. 'Master really has a dark sense of humour, huh? Or maybe, there's a lesson somewhere in all this?'
'I doubt it,' Luke shrugged inwardly. 'It's still a drag, though, but I'll do my duty, regardless. Then, maybe, afterwards, I can be rewarded with a long rest."
[A/N: Hahaha, yeah, good luck w/that! Lol!]
"—And he isn't exactly what I would call a stable and balanced individual," Crystal yapped. "How do you intend to keep him under the Master's influence?"
"By making him indebted to us before he takes the serum— in a way that could make him more stable of mind when he gets it, possibly eradicating the Void itself," Luke answered. "Should the possibility of the Void's arrival become concrete, I have Plan B."
"You don't mean—" Crystal gasped in surprise.
"You inherited the Master's blessing of summoning and creating powerful A.I systems. I inherited the Master's ability to balance out all things, only I can only balance them. I can't alter that balance directly too much, tip it myself too much, or balance out forces too much more powerful than myself, like gods," Luke admitted. "With this Perk, I can, at the very least, learn control over his body to +15% in Reynolds' favor."
"That should suffice — At least, until Lewis returns — If he hadn't by then, that is." Crystal murmured, "Still, do you truly intend to purchase custody of him from his father? Isn't that…morally ambiguous?"
"From his 'abusive, mostly absent father'? Yes, yes I do," Luke answered, looking out the window, as the slums of Sarasota Springs, FL rushed by. "And don't think of it as purchasing. Think of it as investing into the boy's future.
"And it's not my will to have this done—It's the Master's. I would not question his mind's schemes, plots and plans. He's greater than even us at our highest peak of potential."
"Your assessment is accurate," agreed Crystal, who adjusted her glasses as they drove on. Then, they stopped at a barely held together two-story building. "Looks like we have arrived."
Chris honked once, the sound echoing in the run-down neighborhood. The echo barely reverberated off the surrounding houses (which were equally beaten up) when a balding, 30-something year old version of Bob's father wobbled over to the black Mercedes, dragging a shell-shocked, 17-year-old Lewis Pullman behind him, much to the disdain of Chris and Luke, who quickly decided to school their expressions. Crystal remained unemotional the entire time.
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'Wasn't she concerned earlier? Or was she just curious before?' Luke thought privately, before internally shaking his head. 'I don't actually care enough to find out, actually. She's a living computer essentially—her thinking is almost as complex as the Master's. I'll get a migraine trying to uncover its processing method.'
Chris rolled down the window, after Luke handed Chris a briefcase.
"You got the money?" Reynolds' sperm donor asked.
"You'll find it to your satisfaction, no doubt," Chris handed the briefcase to the father, who, after checking it, shoved little Reynolds forward.
Chris exited the car, opening the leftside backdoor, urging little Reynolds, who was crying at this point, into the car. "I don't want to go! This is my home!"
"Get in the car, brat," his dad kicked Robert in the side, causing him to fall over. "I've been paid a good sum to get rid of you today, yer hear? I'm not 'ave you ruinnin' everythin' for me at ter last minute like how yer did with your mother's death. Now get!"
'Robert,' Luke psychically reached out, shocking the boy, who, looking around in confusion at the sound of a voice, rubbed his head. 'In the car. I'm telepathic. Yes, I'm real. And I promise I won't hurt you. I intend to make your life easier, more stable. You'll have a home, safety, and stability. You'll want for nothing. I promise this to you. All you need to do is get in and you'll leave this godforsaken awful place and never need to return. Do you want that?'
"I…" Robert began, in contemplation, then, flinching, he noticed his father was physically frozen, like a statue, mid attempt at kicking him yet again. 'How?'
'I mentally froze him. He'll never hurt you again,' Luke projected his thoughts. "Now, do you want to join me, Robert?" he asked aloud.
Robert looked at his statue of a dad, back at his house then at Luke three times, before rushing into the backseat.
Without even saying any words, Chris closed the door, climbed into the driver's seat before driving off.
For a minute, it was silent. No one said a word. Chris drove, Crystal typed away at her tablet and Luke relaxed into the seat.
"Who are you?" Robert asked. "Why are you helping me?"
"My name is Lewis Blake. As of today, you are my adopted son," Luke smiled kindly. "As for why… Well, let's just say… you are a special boy, Bobby, one destined for greatness. And, to prove my sincerity, I have a gift. Here, lean closer."
Perplexed, Robert leaned in closer, allowing Luke's pointer and middle fingers on both hands to his temples. "What are you—?"
Luke closed his eyes in focus, imposing his psychic powers on the young man's mind, cleansing it of his own schizophrenic and various addictions that was beginning to alter the boy's brain chemicals. He could only lower the anxiety, depression and negative effects of the boy's own trauma, as completely removing them involved completely erasing the root causes of those memories, and, while Luke could do that quite easily, he didn't want to take the off chance of it to remove Bobby's chances of his mind and body accepting the serum, when he did take it.
Thankfully, he was able to remove the weight of non-core memories — the ones the weighed down on Bobby the most with the least important to personality and individualism: A few of his more violent encounters with his abusive father (Not all of them), some unpleasant memories of his mother, high and middle school bullies he never needed to remember his encounters with, all the most humiliating memories, the rejections and any drug-seeking incidents, as well as any legal trouble he remembered.
And after this, he placed a hand on Bobby's chest, using his cellular level biological manipulation to cleanse the body of harmful toxins and chemicals it had accumulated during his prior use of drugs. He strengthened and solidified the boy's bones, enhancing his natural muscles into peak athlete grade.
By the time he finished, Bobby was a near-peak state human boy, on par with the likes of trained warriors, assassins and Olympic athletes. Luke also imprinted usage memory on how to do some things on the boy's body and mind, including intermediate-level parkour tactics and techniques, dance moves, the ability to woo girls as well as some intermediate hand-to-hand combat moves.
When Luke finished, pulling away, Robert was eyeing him like he was his savior — there was even a tear of joy in his eye, as he stared at Luke.
"You—T-thank you," Bob cried.
"No problem, kid. I—" Luke began, when he suddenly had a vision of a raven haired man in black, tactical gear; a strange gun in hand and numerous other guns, gadgets and weaponry on his body. He saw their black Mercedes GL flip over and, as he looked out the window, upside down, the man holding a rocket launcher and then... the blast of the explosion knocking out Luke, along with Chris and Crystal, leaving Bob dead. "Oh, dear, that doesn't seem ideal. What a bother."
"What doesn't seem ideal?" Bobby asked, curious. "What's a bother?"
"Something that has yet to occur. Chris? Crystal? Get ready," Luke said, as he willed a telekinetic shield to enshroud Bobby like armour and willed the boy to go to sleep, just as a man in black walked into the middle of on-going traffic. "Christopher, now!"
Then, just as their car flipped, Chris punched a hole off the entire left side door, taking off the car's entire left side, and Luke, securing Bobby in his arms in the one millionth of a second, used the car's side to surf the street road, causing sparks to fly in his wake.
When he got to his feet, he looked up to see Chris and Crystal engaging combat with… "The fucking Winter Soldier," Luke muttered. 'Fucking Obadiah!'
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Crystal transformed her arms into seismic "cannons," blasting at the Winter Soldier, disorientating the assassin, while Chris got up close and personal with him, exchanging blows like the trained combatants they really were. And, even disoriented and double-teamed, the Winter Soldier held his own against them, moving like a master of combat amongst disciples.
'The Master could use him,' Luke mentally ordered his siblings. 'Don't kill him. I'll try getting into his head.'
Luke willed himself into the super soldier's head, bypassing psychic firewalls and mental failsafes with ease, before finding his orders: "Find and eliminate Lewis Blake. Leave no witnesses."
'Of course, Obadiah plays dirty,' Luke mentally, privately, thought. 'Fine. This is still a gift, though. I'll give orders of my own. FREEZE.'
And, in the outside world, Luke opened his eyes to see the Winter Soldier frozen, pre-trigger to a gun at Chris' head. (It wouldn't have worked anyway.) With technopathic binding tentacles attempting to bind the super soldier (courtesy of Crystal) — he was frozen, like a statue. And, with a simple wave of his hand, all of them — Luke, Bobby, Bucky, Chris and Crystal — were teleported to Luke's downtown New York penthouse in Hell's Kitchen.
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All the while, a certain clone of Lewis Blake, Lucas Blake, had successfully infiltrated, robbed and exited Valentina and Professor Cornelius Worth's lab in Western Pennsylvania — The Golden Sentry Serum had been taken, its details and notes taken, the computers wiped and all within a single night.
As Lucas discreetly flew back to New York, telekinetically projecting himself across the night sky, he wondered how his sister and brothers were doing. He hoped they succeeded in their missions as he had succeeded in his.
He had no idea just how successful his siblings had actually been…