I died scrolling Marvel fanfic.
No heroics. No tragic backstory.
Just a sharp pop in my chest, my mouse slipping from my hand, and darkness.
No tunnel. No montage.
Cut to:
Cold metal.
Restraints.
The smell of disinfectant and burned circuits.
I forced my eyes open.
Grey ceiling. Strip lights. Cables.
IV lines in my arms.
Straps at my wrists, ankles, chest, throat.
Hospital chic, but make it horror.
Movement in the corner of my vision made me turn my head.
Lab coats. Monitors. Armed guards behind glass.
And on the far wall, staring at me like a bad joke:
A skull with octopus tentacles.
HYDRA.
Yeah.
I reincarnated into Marvel as a f*cking lab rat.
My heart monitor spiked.
"Subject is conscious," the man in the lab coat said, accent sharp enough to cut. "Fascinating. The serum uptake was barely thirty percent."
"Barely enough to keep him from snapping in half," the woman beside him muttered. "Muscular microtears everywhere. If we push this one, he breaks."
The man snorted.
"Expendable assets do not require longevity, Doctor Weiss. If Subject X-13 can follow basic orders and kill on command, that is sufficient."
Expendable. Asset.
A pulse of rage flickered through me.
And something answered.
A soft chiming noise dinged inside my skull, like someone had dropped a notification straight into my brain.
A blue screen blinked into existence in front of my eyes, half-transparent over the lab.
[CRISIS SYSTEM v1.0 – ONLINE]
User: Ethan Cross (Subject X-13)
Status: [STABILIZING...] ⚠️
GLOBAL STABILITY: 73%
PROJECTED COLLAPSE EVENT: 4y 11m 29d 23h 15m ⏳
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: SURVIVE. ADAPT. ESCALATE.
My breath caught.
A System.
An actual, honest-to-god System, hovering in my vision like every sleepless night I'd wasted on webnovels had been a tutorial.
Another box flicked into place with a sharp, satisfying DING.
[TUTORIAL MISSION #001 – GET OFF THE TABLE]
Objectives:
• Escape current restraints
• Avoid immediate termination
Rewards:
• +1 random Physical Attribute
• Unlock: [STAT MENU]
I stared at the glowing text.
Then at the restraints.
Then at the HYDRA logo.
Okay. Options.
Either I was hallucinating in a hospital, or I'd just spawned in a Marvel SI fanfic.
I knew which one had better odds.
The female scientist—Doctor Weiss, apparently—glanced at my heart monitor.
"Heart rate climbing. He's going into panic. We should sedate him before the neural pathways destabilize."
She turned, grabbed a syringe filled with something clear, and started toward me.
Yeah, no.
"Hold still, Subject X-13," she said. "Your fear response is interfering with—"
"Quick question," I croaked.
Both of them froze.
My throat felt like sandpaper, but sarcasm was apparently muscle memory.
"Do… expendable assets… get dental?"
She blinked.
The man's mouth flattened. "Sedate him."
The needle came closer.
My System pinged again, harder this time—like a slap.
[ALERT: SEDATION PROTOCOL DETECTED]
Projected Outcome: 99.7% chance of restraint reinforcement and memory tampering.
Recommended Action: IMMEDIATE RESISTANCE
Temporary Buff Available:
[ADRENAL SURGE I]
+30% STR / +30% AGI for 30s
Side effect: Minor muscular damage
Activate? [Y/N]
Yes.
Heat slammed through my veins.
The world sharpened. Edges went hard, colours too bright. The restraints that had felt like steel suddenly felt like… steel with a little give.
Doctor Weiss's hand descended toward my arm.
I twisted.
The strap at my right wrist groaned.
She yelped as my hand tore free and clamped around her wrist instead.
The lab coat guy swore. Behind the glass, a guard grabbed his rifle.
Alarms burst to life, red lights strobing.
"Schießen! Schießen!" someone yelled.
I yanked.
The chest strap snapped. My body surged sideways, dragging the doctor off balance. We crashed off the table in a mess of IV lines and pain.
A bullet cracked, heat kissing my ear.
Glass spiderwebbed above us.
"Stop shooting, you idiots!" the lab coat shouted. "You'll hit the equipment!"
[TUTORIAL MISSION #001 – GET OFF THE TABLE]
Progress: 73%
Sub-Objective Added:
• Acquire weapon or tool
My gaze snapped to a dropped syringe glinting on the floor.
Thanks, System.
I let go of Weiss, lunged for it, and rolled toward the approaching scientist. He didn't expect resistance; his eyes were on the console, not on the half-naked experiment swinging a needle.
I drove the syringe into his thigh and slammed the plunger.
He choked, staggered, and folded like a lawn chair.
"One down," I muttered.
Weiss had backed up against a counter, staring at me over the rim of her glasses, eyes blown wide.
I ignored her for a second and focused on the nearest guard.
He'd made it through the door before the emergency shutters slammed. Now he was in the room with me, rifle raised, finger tightening on the trigger.
I moved.
Not pretty. Not graceful. Just desperate.
The buff made my limbs obey like someone had turned gravity down. I slammed into him before he could fully aim, shoulder driving into his chest. The shot went wild, pulverizing a monitor instead of my skull.
We crashed into a equipment rack. Metal screamed.
Up close, I could see his eyes through the tinted visor. Wide. Surprised.
"Hi," I said, headbutting him square in the mask. "Employee complaint."
Something cracked. My skull rang like a church bell, but his grip slackened. I ripped the rifle free and smashed the butt into his helmet.
He went limp.
I staggered back, panting. The Adrenal Surge buff ticked down in the corner of my vision:
[ADRENAL SURGE I – 03… 02… 01…]
It hit zero.
Pain flooded back into my muscles like molten lead. My knees tried to buckle.
[TUTORIAL MISSION #001 – GET OFF THE TABLE]
Status: COMPLETED ✅
Rewards:
• +1 STR
• Unlock: [STAT MENU]
Another window popped up.
[STAT MENU – LEVEL 1]
STR: 9 → 10
AGI: 8
END: 7
INT: 10
CHA: 9
LCK: 5
Available Points: 0
I stared at my stats, then at the unconscious guard at my feet.
"Great," I wheezed. "I'm a slightly above-average accountant with anger issues."
Weiss flinched.
She still hadn't run.
Interesting.
I slung the rifle, forcing my legs to lock and my breathing to slow. Red lights strobed. The door shutter groaned under impacts from the other side.
They'd be through soon.
I turned to the doctor.
Up close, she looked less "evil mad scientist" and more "haven't slept since the Obama administration". Dark circles under her eyes, lab coat hanging off one shoulder, fingers white-knuckled around the tablet she'd grabbed.
"What's your name?" I asked.
She blinked. "What?"
"Name," I repeated. "Or do they just call you 'supporting character'?"
Her jaw clenched.
"Sara," she said finally. "Dr. Sara Weiss."
[SIDE MISSION #002 – RECRUITMENT DRIVE I]
Target: Sara Weiss
Objectives:
• Convince target to defect from HYDRA
• Escape facility together
Rewards:
• Ally acquired [Support Tier]
• Unlock: [ALLY MENU]
• +5% XP gain on missions with allies
My lips twitched.
Of course.
"Alright, Sara," I said. "Two options."
I pointed the rifle at the floor, not at her. Big difference.
"Option one: you jab yourself with something nice and pretend I surprised you. When they breach that door, you go back to being the good little HYDRA scientist and hope they don't decide you're a 'liability' for letting the asset get loose."
Her gaze flicked to the unconscious man, then to the buckled restraints hanging from the table, then to the skull emblem on the wall.
Colour drained from her face.
"Option two," I continued. "You help me get out, and we both stop being somebody else's property."
"They'll kill me," she whispered.
"They'll kill you anyway," I said. "I'm your 'Get Out of HYDRA Free' card. Expires in—"
I glanced at the door shutter.
A dent popped into the metal, like someone had hit it with a battering ram.
"—like sixty seconds."
She stared at the door.
Another impact. The shutter creaked.
Someone on the other side was strong.
Sara's knuckles went white on the tablet. Her eyes narrowed.
"No more pawns," she said softly.
Then she moved.
She sprinted to a console, fingers flying over the holographic keys.
"Security is rerouting to this floor," she said, voice tightening into professional focus. "I can unlock maintenance tunnels two levels down and loop camera feeds for… thirty seconds, maybe."
My System chimed.
[SIDE MISSION #002 – RECRUITMENT DRIVE I]
Status: IN PROGRESS ✅
"That's all I need," I said.
I staggered over to the guard and stripped him of mags, sidearm, and a utility belt full of toys. My muscles screamed, but adrenaline and System breadcrumbs kept me moving.
Another boom hit the door.
Metal warped inwards.
A fist-sized hole appeared in the shutter, edges crumpling.
A gloved hand gripped the metal and peeled it back like a soda can.
Through the widening gap, I saw a flash of black tactical gear, a metal arm, and a red star.
Oh.
Oh, that's bad.
"Um," I said. "Sara?"
She didn't look up. "Ten more seconds. Almost there."
The System went nuts.
[WARNING: THREAT LEVEL SPIKE] ⚠️
Detected: [WINTER SOLDIER] – Tier 3 Elite Enhanced
Projected Survival Chance (Static): 3%
New Objective Available:
[CRISIS RESPONSE #001 – OUTRUN THE WINTER SOLDIER]
Objectives:
• Reach maintenance tunnel access before interception
• Avoid direct combat
Time Limit: 03:00
Rewards:
• Passive Skill: [Escapist's Gambit I] – +10% escape chance when outnumbered
• +1 AGI
• Crisis Timer Stability +0.5%
Accept? [Y/N]
I didn't even think.
YES.
A countdown appeared in the corner of my vision.
[02:59… 02:58… 02:57…]
The shutter shrieked as more of it was peeled away.
"Tunnel access is open!" Sara shouted. "Back wall, left side—panel with yellow stripe!"
I rushed to her, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her away from the console just as a bullet tore through the terminal she'd been standing in front of.
We sprinted to the back wall.
A section of it hissed and slid aside, revealing a cramped maintenance shaft and a ladder disappearing down into darkness.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
A figure stepped through the torn shutter.
Mask. Goggles. Combat gear. Metal arm gleaming under the red emergency lights.
The Winter Soldier turned his head, slow and mechanical, and fixed on me.
My System pinged once more.
[THREAT LOCKED: WINTER SOLDIER]
Auto-tracking enabled.
"Down," I said.
I shoved Sara into the shaft and swung in after her as bullets slammed into the wall where we'd been standing.
The hatch slammed closed above us.
Darkness swallowed us.
Only the faint glow of my HUD and the blinking red numbers remained.
[02:41… 02:40… 02:39…]
I tightened my grip on the ladder, muscles burning, and started to climb.
Tick tock, lab rat.
Time to see if I could beat the script.