"Here, your breastplate, you're welcome," Anita, wearing a Mark Two suit, came over and put his armour, damaged in a recent fight, on the table in front of August.
"Why did you put your company's logo on my breastplate? - The mercenary said irritably, picking up the restored breastplate.
"Stark Industries has ceased production of weapons, but we will continue to produce elements of armoured personal protection. Body armour, helmets and the like. You're going to be a walking advert," Anita said, smiling wryly.
"Are you out of your mind, Stark? What am I talking about? You've been crazy for a long time.
"Now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now. With my company logo on your armour, people will be less likely to look at you. You look like a typical villain, have you seen what they say about you on the internet?
"I'm afraid to imagine," Augustus attached the breastplate to his suit and returned to his seat. Stark "ate" with the eyes of her mysterious bodyguard for a while longer and continued working on her new costume.
Seated on the favourite poufy in the workshop, Augustus shifted his gaze to the timer in the corner. The system's countdown continued to slowly go by. Not knowing what would happen after that countdown was frightening. It wasn't like a normal time assignment. The system, when it issued countdown-to-start assignments - continued to operate normally and certainly didn't shut down.
"That's how I knew I should have stayed out of this America! But I should have been greedy and played the hero, now I've got to deal with this shit!"
Shutting down the system had no effect on the strength he had gained. August felt the same power in his body, and his regeneration was working properly. Except that he could no longer display his stats and abilities panel. The system also stopped issuing quests, and quests were the only source of acquiring new abilities. As long as the system wasn't working, August couldn't get the Viper's remaining powers.
Ignorance breeds fear, and fear is the worst poison to the human mind.
The first day the system shut down, Augustus panicked. For him, the system shutdown came as a surprise. The panic didn't last long, two words popped into his head - "sharpen your blades". They instantly cooled the mercenary's head and he realised that the first fight was just the beginning and he had to prepare for the next one. Until Obadiah was finished, Stark would always be in danger, and so Augustus himself would be attacked.
"Fearlessness and preparation, get rid of fear and prepare thoroughly," the mercenary said to himself as he laid out the bullets and grenades on the table. August had learnt from the mistakes of the last battle and prepared for a new clash with Scorpia and Shocker.
A huge set of grenades and poisons of various kinds, bursting cartridges and incendiary cartridges based on white phosphorus. The latter was especially hard to get, but thanks to Anita's help, August got ammunition made of this substance. White phosphorus was banned by the Geneva Convention. In an explosion, phosphorus particles are heated to 1,300 degrees centigrade. They burn through people and equipment. In addition to the thermal shock factor, white phosphorus vapours have a poisoning factor. If you inhale them, you get nausea and then acute heart failure.
Poisons were needed for blades, Augustus remembered piercing Shocker with his sword, and she had returned to battle after being wounded a short time later. Had a mixture of deadly poisons on his blade and all that would be left of Shocker would be a corpse. The burst and phosphorus rounds would have worked perfectly against Scorpia. She relied too much on her superhuman strength and armoured suit in combat. One phosphorus bullet to the stomach and Scorpius is goodbye. Her suit could hardly withstand the temperature of burning phosphorus, and it would simply burn through the villain.Stark only provided August with one magazine of white phosphorus ammunition. She refused to provide more; she was already hard-pressed to get even one magazine.
Augustus had "honed his blades" for the new battle and was ready for it. The phosphorus rounds gave the man confidence. Few men could withstand a direct hit from a phosphorus bullet, and with the accuracy of a mercenary, hitting an enemy was easy. The only thing left was the armour.
Defstroke's original armour was good against bullets and cold weapons. It wasn't capable of much more than that. Scorpia's tail had demonstrated that perfectly. Upgrading the armour somehow was not an option for Augustus.
Stark was now absorbed in creating her own costume and would hardly agree to be distracted by updating the armour for her mercenary. And asking Anita was not profitable, not at all.
She wouldn't create something on the level of a Mark Two or Mark Three for nothing. Each of her suits was augmented with an artificial intelligence that only she could control. At her first word, an iron suit created by her would shut down or even turn against its wearer. Information gathering or surveillance wasn't even worth mentioning. August checked the breastplate he had received from the girl several times before finally putting it on. And the mercenary didn't need the lower quality armour compared to the Mark Two. Defstroke's armour was of just that quality. It was better than any other armour, but worse than Stark's suits.
"As soon as Stark's contract is up, we need to get the hell out of this madhouse. How I miss you, my native Afghanistan..."
"Miss Stark, Miss Obadiah's car has arrived at the villa," the cold artificial intelligence said, displaying a black limousine.
"'Let her in Joanna,' Anita distracted herself from her work and turned to Augustus. - Help me take off my suit and go up to the first floor.
Stark was friends with her head. After slight hints from the mercenary, she easily connected the attack in company with Obadiah. There was no direct evidence, but a slight seed of suspicion had already been sown. She didn't trust her and certainly wouldn't show her the major project she was actively working on.
"Anita are you alright? - Obadiah approached Stark worriedly. - I'm investigating that attack right now, someone specifically wanted to harm you and take out some of our shareholders. You need to worry about your security, the attack could happen again. The average Afghan gunman is no good for security, I can send you a team of professionals.
"August as a bodyguard suits me fine.
"Anita, don't talk rubbish. Look at him, he's a common thug with little thought in defence of anyone. If he was a professional, he'd be watching all the ins and outs of the company and the attack wouldn't have happened.
"I didn't see your "professionals" doing anything to help during the attack. The best I could see was their guts," August said caustically, standing behind Stark. - The "stupid" Afghan gunner had to take control of the situation.
"You! What right do you have to open your mouth!
"Enough, Stacey, you heard August and I agree with what he said. I don't need any bodyguards.
"I see your point, Anita," Obadiah snorted, glaring at the mercenary's mask. - But I would still advise you to hire a professional team of bodyguards.
"I'll keep that in mind.
Stacey glanced around the ground floor and, unable to find anything to hold on to, left the villa.
...
"Did you find anything on the Stark mercenary? - Obadiah asked on the phone on her way to her office.
"No information could be found on the mercenary named "August". He's completely clean.
"Do you have a face, a face? What am I paying you so much money for?!?! - Stacey angrily dropped the call as she entered her office. She was immediately struck by a certain irregularity in the interior of the room. The woman walked over to her computer and saw an open desktop. - Who was here!?
Obadiah ran out of the office in a panic and on the ground floor, she spotted Pepper nervously rushing somewhere. The puzzle was complete, Potts couldn't be left out or it would all come to an end at once.
"Alpha team, take Ms Pepper into custody. I authorise the use of any weapons," Obadiah said calmly into the other phone. She quickly got her emotions in order, if she had to play hardball, she would play hardball.
Somewhere in the city, a car rushing along the street roads hit something and its wheels burst. The hard to control vehicle went off the road at full speed and crashed into the nearest building, demolishing a glass bus stop.
Three black minivans pulled up beside the hit car. Armed men in black with special equipment jumped out. They quickly opened the doors of the crashed car and pulled out the bloody driver and loaded him into their minivan.
The cars moved off in different directions and disappeared into the city traffic.
***
All chapters are already available at:
patreon.com/posts/124888009