MCU/Worm OC Insert: Chapter 4

"Hey, Lisa." I greet as I sit in the dark, quietly adjusting the screws within the inner parts of my gauntlet with a screwdriver.

"This entire situation is FUCKED." the girl frowns. 

"Yeah?" I ask slowly.

"I genuinely have no idea how Stark Industries has allowed so many weapons to disappear like that! Hell, a lot of them come out through Brockton Bay! The E-Eighty-Eight boys being a large part of how they are smuggled out."

"You'd think that with our dock fucked people wouldn't be able to ship things out as easily." I comment.

"No. That really only affected the city's law-abiding citizens and the smaller gangs without many resources."

"Damn. we should really fix that one day so Brockton isn't as much of a shithole... oh well. Not our problem today." I shrug. "You got anything else?"

"We're looking at an organization called the Ten Rings. Following some money trails I'm beginning to believe that the mastermind behind the terrorist organization operate in America. I could probably track down the leaders but I don't think it's relevant right now."

She briefly chews on the end of a pen as she lounges in a beanbag we brought down into the bunker. "Though, it's a little strange. When I look into the ten rings, some of what I'm getting seems almost... contradictive..."

"What, like there's two organizations called the ten rings or something?" I suggest.

She pauses, eyes widening slightly a low whisper leaving her lips. "Yes... yes! That's exactly it!"

She taps away on her phone, eyes quickly skimming the screen. 

"If there's two..." She mutters under her breath. "People thought it was just legends..."

"Ah!" She hums. "It turns out that this mythical several hundred year old Chinese organization called the Ten Rings is ACTUALLY real, but a terrorist organization heard about it and made use of the name for menace!"

"So... we're dealing with terrorists and not Chinese super spies?"

"For now, yes." She nods once.

"Do they have any capes?" I question.

"It looks like we're dealing with..." She taps briefly. "Three and they're all pretty bad news. The first, Ordinance can duplicate any projectile he needs. Be it bullets, throwing knives, even grenades and missiles. But that's not all, he can also make some modifications to his ammunition, making it louder, quieter, making it explode, cut or curve. But the thing is that he himself must be the one to use it. Nobody else can."

"That sounds annoying." I frown.

"Next, there's Legion, who can 'mark' people, at which point they become connected, allowing them to share skills, senses, and knowledge. Doesn't sound that impressive, but if they have one person who's a master of a single martial art, suddenly everyone's got a mastery of that martial art."

"Finally, there's Sirocco, he seems to be the leader of this little camp. He can generate a field of sand which he can seemingly see through perfectly. People inside find themselves getting turned around giving the sandstorm a slight stranger effect while also increasing his speed. He can also generate these like... clones in the storm. Sort of like afterimages. They last about a second, performing one action, then they disappear after they finish, a second passes, or they are struck."

"It's speculated that these 'clones' follow the movements of Sirocco, it's been noted that he can create multiple, but they all tend to do the exact same move. No weapon is copied though so the clones are purely unarmed. Oh. One more thing. Legion's power seems to work on parahuman senses as well, so when he adds Sirocco to the network, suddenly all of their unpowered goons can perfectly see through the sandstorm which is, as you can guess, bad for anyone fighting them."

"So do we fight these guys or just try and sneak past?" I ask slowly.

"Tsk. that's tough. Their synergy would probably let them carve out a fair portion of Brockton Bay. Even with the Empire and Abb around. Ordinance is like a mini Oni-Lee and having any form of trump on board is a serious power multiplier. Especially one that can apply its effects to non-powered members."

"How many non-powered members are we looking at?" I question.

"A rough estimate... fifty to sixty. All outfitted with Stark-tech weapons. I haven't even asked the team if they're down to help yet. Should probably do that before we make any further plans."

"True." I mutter gazing at a metal plate across the workshop.

I hold up a hand.

BZZZEW-CLANG

There's an orange spot on the metal from where my repulsor laser struck, black scorch marks seems to ripple out from it.

A low hum leaves my lips as I do a few more edits.

"Hey, Lisa... would that kill someone if it hit?"

"Duh." She scoffs.

"Needs a bit more fine-tuning, then." I sigh as I connect the gauntlet to a nearby laptop and begin to shift around the code.

[Split]

"And that's the gist of it." Lisa finishes as we stand in the large room I had originally used to create the element 'Badassium'.

"A rescue? That's... not something that we tend to do." The skull-masked teen mutters. Grue.

"Well, boss' gone." Lisa shrugs. "I figured it'd be a good chance to branch out."

"I've got a question." The white masked form of Regent questions. "If we plan to steal the money anyways... why don't we just take it now? Why risk our lives?"

Tattletale's gaze briefly flickers to me before I speak up. "A few reasons... the pragmatic reason first. I have a thinker ability connected to Tony Stark. So I benefit from his continued survival as he builds more and more things. He can't exactly make anything that impressive while locked in a cave with a bunch of scraps."

"Second..."

I reach up to my mask and slowly take it off, my voice no longer modulating as I gaze over each of the other Undersiders. "Tony Stark is my father... and while I hold no love for him, hell, I even doubt he knows I exist, but this experience has changed him for the better... when he get out of there- which is likely as he's secretly building power armor- he's going to pull out of weapon manufacturing. He's going to actively attempt to be a better person and, well, I kind of want to see what he builds with this new lease on life."

"Touching." The teen rolls his eyes.

"In addition to the roughly forty-one million we each stand to make from this, I've told you all I'm a trump and I'll also be paying each of you a weak power each." I supply. 

That seems to catch their attention.

"Weak power? Why not a strong power?" Regent asks slowly.

"They're not really that weak." Tattletale begins. "He's got some useful stuff."

"Can you give powers... to dogs?" Bitch looks over me, her gaze piercing through me through the eyeholes of her mask.

"Maybe? I've never tried."

"Hm. Then see." She states as she gestures to the dog sitting beside her.

"Alright." I mutter as I crouch down offering a hand to the Rottweiler.

"Brutus. Shake." She orders causing the dog to look over and slowly raise its paw and place it in my hand.

"Hmm... oh wow. I can, actually." I whisper, eyes widening slightly.

I stand up slowly and step back. "I'll give each of you the power before we start, but you'd need to decide what you want beforehand. Lisa and I compiled a list."

I sit a stack of papers on the table. "That's all the effects I can grant."

"Bitch can't read." Lisa whispers to me.

"Well, Bitch, if you want a power for your dog, I've got one I can think of. It's called 'Sharp teeth'. It hardens your teeth and mouth to about the strength of titanium, in addition you can change how your teeth look. Say for instance..."

I bring a hand to my mouth, I can feel my very self changing. I give the group a- literal- shark-like grin. "My teeth are also as sharp as razors like this."

My teeth return to normal- now being slightly whiter than they were originally- as my third power slot returns to being empty.

"Hm. Yes. That." The blunt girl declares. "That's good."

"I will note, that this power might make the mouth stronger... strong enough to chew on metal or stone in fact, it doesn't protect the rest of the body."

"Ah... internal bleeding..." She blinks slowly. "My dogs are well trained enough... they don't chew on stuff... for no reason..."

I can see the others slowly flicking through the list, eyes widening every now and then.

"Woah woah woah... you can make me Jesus?" I can hear Regent question. "You can make me BETTER Jesus?! All he could do was turn water into wine! You're telling me I could turn water into Coca Cola?!"

"..."

"Thought occurs... Lisa we could make an absolute killing via bootlegging with that power." I announce, looking towards the blonde.

"Huh." She blinks. "I'll put that on the 'list'.

"I WANT this." Regent declares. I assume he's smiling but it's kind of hard to tell through the mask.

"Well, now you have a reason to save Tony Stark." I shrug.

[Split]

"Hey hey. You're the six I'm looking for, right?" There's a small flash in the parking garage as a man in a blue postman's outfit appears.

The dogs beside bitch growl for a moment before she calms them with a hand wave.

"That'd be us." Tattletale begins.

I can see a small frown appear on the teleporter's lips. "You know... I don't really... help... villains."

"Villain is a bit of a... stretch." I cut in. "You're not helping them... you're helping me. They're just hired muscle."

I step forwards. "The name's Wrench."

"Ah... you're that guy who hacked into that one medical institution." He observes.

"That I am." I smile. "So. Any reservations working for me and my hired muscle of..."

I gesture to Tattletale. "The Truther."

She gives me a flat glare.

To Grue. "Tenebrae."

"Damn. That's actually pretty good." He mutters under his breath.

To Regent. "Soda Jesus."

"Heh! Hell yeah!"

To Bitch. "Female Dog."

Her bulldog mask continues to stare piercingly.

Finally to Rogue. "And... uh... Scoundrel?"

The girl looks away, a frown on her lips.

"Of course, having no relation at all to the likes to Tattletale, Grue, Regent, Bitch, and Rogue of the Undersiders." I finish.

"Ah... I see..." The postman notes. "Hm. It's dark in here. I can really only see you right now and you're not a villain, just a rogue like myself. Besides. Even if the Undersiders were here. It's not like they're the Empire or the ABB. They keep their crimes much less messy."

"But. If I'm teleporting you over... the dogs will each count as a person as well, bringing up your total to about eight hundred thousand."

"So stingy." I sigh as I pull out my phone. "Whatever. Here. I transferred over the first payment. You'll get the second after we're done."

He slowly pulls out his phone and gazes at the screen. "Alright. It's gone through. Are you sure about the drop location? It's kind of in the middle of nowhere."

"Positive. I'll send you another set of coordinates after we're through." 

"Alright. I'm going to teleport you all now. Just a warning, this will feel like you're being squeezed through a straw."

[Split]

"Huh." I hum. "Not as bad as I'd originally thought it would be."

I turn, ignoring how the others stagger around and look a little sick. "Thanks for the lift, Strider. I'll send you new coordinates in an hour or two."

"As long as it's under three." The man states. "I've got another reservation."

"Gotcha." I note, looking to my five compatriots. "We should be done by then."

"I see... well, I'm going to Paris!" Strider notes as he just simply... disappears.

"Teleporters are bullshit." I scoff under my breath.

"I don't want to hear it tinker-thinker-trump." Lisa grumbles under her breath.

"Ah, right. On the topic of Tinkering. Lisa. Here."

I reach into my bag and pull out a fairly techy looking silencer.

"You can make silencers? I thought you were shields and hacking?" The girl questions in disbelief.

"I prefer the term... noise shield."

Even through her domino mask I can see the unimpressed look she gives me. "That's complete and total nonsense."

"Yes." I nod once. "But it works."

She draws her handgun, unscrewing the silencer already on it and replacing it with my own.

"How quiet is this?" She asks, her lips turned downwards.

"The projectile hitting the target is the loudest part. Otherwise, it's sort of just a weak slap... if you use subsonic rounds, that is. Speaking of which, here. Subsonic rounds."

"Anything for the rest of the class?" Regent pipes in.

"You've all got shields that can shrug off fifty calibers... you'll be fine." I reply.

"Is it because I'm not pretty enough?" He continues. "I'll pick up that genderbend power just for you~"

My mask projects a flat '-.-' stare.

"So." I move on. "We've covered the plan several times... we all know what we're supposed to do?"

"You hide away in a cave while the rest of us fight capes?" Lisa frowns.

"Exactly!" I clap my hands. "But, of course, once they realize they're under attack... they'll more than likely try to end the lives of their prisoners sooooo. Better safe than sorry, am I right? Everything is pointless if Tony Stark catches a bullet, am I right?"

"How will you even get in there?" Grue questions. "Are you just going to run in?"

"Tell me... have you seen the movie... the predator?"

"Uh... no?"

My body-shield shimmers briefly before the light bends, leaving me completely invisible.

"Huh." Lisa hums under her breath. "Alright. You fuck off. We'll start once the camp seems to panic."

"Gotcha." I nod slowly- not that they can see it- and simply wander off into the darkness.

[Split]

He doesn't know how much longer he can keep this up.

Those bastards are getting more and more impatient.

They've got powers as well. Annoying bullshit powers.

It's what took down the squad of soldiers transporting him.

A sandstorm rolled in and then the Humvees started exploding.

A man strides in, kicking the door open and letting out shouts in a language he is only beginning to understand.

He looks to the doctor that had been keeping him alive and also translating for him.

"They know about that thing in your chest, he is asking about it." Yensen states.

"Tell him that I couldn't work while being chained to a battery, the active current might have blown this place sky-high-" he stops, eyes widening.

The gun flips from the man's hands as he clutches his throat, the air itself seems to ripple as a low voice echoes out, modulated and seemingly run through a few filters to make it sound echo-y and tech-y.

Suddenly, fading into reality is a dark clad figure in a hooded leather jacket, a studded face mask covers the lower half of their face as two glowing dots peer out from their hood. Some sort of visor.

He looks to Yensen.

"He told him to shut up or he'd turn him inside out." The doctor and fellow prisoner whispers.

The new figure turns, hurling the man backwards and raising a hand.

Bweee-BZZZRT

A beam of light seems to streak from his palm, colliding with the terrorist's chest and sending him flying even further, out the door he had originally come in through.

The new person slowly rotates their wrist and clenches their hand slowly, Tony can hear the whirring of gears and mechanical parts some sort of gauntlet or prosthetic hand... one that looks... really familiar.

The person turns, looking over the two prisoners. "Heya. I'm Wrench. Nice to meet'cha."

He steps forwards, crouches down and places some sort of device on the floor, he can see glowing blue lights shining out through a small window in the side.

The air ripples, a see-through barrier of energy springing up and molding to the contours of the cave.

It seems to creep along the walls and ceilings, eventually coming down on their other side.

A proverbial sandstorm rushes down the tunnel and strikes the curtain of energy, stopping dead in its tracks.

"So what now?" He asks slowly. "You're here. You found us. Now what?"

"I wait." Wrench declares, hopping up and taking a seat on a nearby table.

"..." Tony is silent for a moment. "You're not alone... are you?"

The mask changes to a '^.^' but he doesn't reply. "A better question is... what should we do with... this."

He gazes downwards towards the table, finger tapping idly on one of his weapon blueprints.

A chill travels down Tony's spine.

He knows.

He's a tinker. Probably a pretty good one if he could figure out what he was making from the smallest snippets of blueprints he left on the stray pages.

"Our exit strategy won't let us transport this all with us... so... we either leave it... or I could destroy it all now. Your call."

"What about your backup? Can't you just capture everyone and airlift this out?"

"Ah. Issue with that. I'm not a big fan of the government."

"You're a villain." Tony frowns.

"I prefer the term... Rogue." Wrench pinches his fingers together. "Though I have hired villains to help break you out, yes."

"So, I'm trading one rocky cage for another?" The weapons manufacturer growls.

"Tony Tony Tony." The villain waves off. "You seem to misunderstand something. I don't want your weapons... I want your money."

"So, this is all some elaborate scheme to ransom me?" Tony sighs.

Admittedly... that's a better situation than the one he was in before.

"Oh, frankly I didn't need to save you to steal your money. I'm a hacker tinker. I'm here to firstly be nice... and for personal reasons. Then you need to consider the fact that playing with the PRT is a bit of a balancing act. Some people deal drugs, others kidnap and sell people into sexual slavery. Others rob a bank occasionally for fun or steal from other villains, keeping civilian casualties to a minimum. As a result... the level of... force the PRT will enforce upon said villains has some level of..."

He moves his hand back and forth. "Sway to it. You wouldn't drop a nuke on a rabbit. Nor would you call upon Alexandria or the others in the Big Three to kick the ass of some random hacker tinker stealing money from billionaires. That's more of a... rape and kill a ward level of violence and escalation. That's serious. A billionaire being stolen from after being saved is kind of comedic."

The sandstorm seems to have faded while he was speaking. Now he can see numerous people lurking in the hallway, shooting weapons at the shield. It ripples and shakes under the assault, some even throw grenades at it, but the wall stands firm.

"Oh good. Tattletale managed to take down Sirocco. That probably means the others are done with Legion and Ordinance as well. Such a shame. They had such cool powers. Legion and Ordinance in particular. They could have done so much more with their lives."

Wrench raises a hand.

Bweee-BZZZRT-BRRT-CRRRRZ

He fires three times in quick succession, his laser seems to pass cleanly through the hard-light shield and strike the three terrorists dead center of the chest, hurling them off their feet.

No... it was more like... the instantly before the laser hit it, the shield opened a hole.

That level of timing... that's seriously impressive. Tony will begrudgingly admit that.

It seems he's less of a 'hacker' tinker and more of a... software tinker?

A small part of him wants to compare notes, he bets whatever internal HUD that guy has in his mask is probably a masterpiece.

Tony's attention turns towards the entrance to the room as he hears loud footsteps.

An absolutely massive monstrous head seems to poke its way into the door.

"Bitch. It's just us in here." 

A woman in a bulldog mask steps around the corner in the next moment. She seems to look at the transparent wall, placing a hand on it.

She stumbles slightly as it abruptly fades.

She looks around, slowly, eyes eventually hovering on Tony and Yensen.

The large monsters shrink, becoming simple dogs as she lets out a scoff and steps into the room.

"Soda Jesus is here!" A male declares as some renaissance guy in a white mask appears.

"Looking to rebrand?" Wrench smirks. "I bet I could build you a suit of armor made of soda cans if you want."

"I might take you up on that." The other person huffs. 

A trio enters the room next, the first a taller figure in a black skull mask, the next two are women in domino masks, one blonde and the other brown haired with white bangs.

"How was the fight?"

"Easy." The blonde replies as Wrench steps over and picks up the shield generator.

"Alright then. Let's get out of here, then. Since you haven't said anything, I'm going to just leave your suit be for now. Meh. You can hire some people to come get it once you get back. You've hidden it well enough." Wrench seemingly texts someone.

with a flash, a man appears, wearing a blue postman's outfit.

Tony is mildly surprised by his sudden appearance. "Strider?!"

Strider seems to pause and turn, blinking twice through his goggles. "Tony Stark?! You're alive! That's great! You were always one of my more frequent customers."

The man finds himself smiling. The errant teleporter is one of his favored forms of transportation. "How much would I have to pay you to transport something that weighs about half a ton to my garage?"

"Standard rate. From here it'd be about three million."

"You two can talk about that later. I'm not covering that." Wrench cuts in. "Do you have the location?"

"I do. Are you ready?" Strider nods slowly.

"I'm good. Anyone else have something they need to do?" Wrench asks.

A chorus of denials reach their ears.

"Hm. I see." Strider begins. "Man. It's good that it's still dark in here."

With that... they teleport.

Tony is hit by the humidity almost instantly. He can smell the salty air of the sea, the crashing of waves.

They reappear in front of a large building that has a built in giftshop and posters.

Their sudden appearance seems to instantly attract attention, people let out shouts of surprise.

"You. With the food." The technical villain begins, walking away, barely even stumbling after being teleported. "Stay there."

Tony can see some pimply teen standing there rooted in shock, he shakes slightly.

"That's my order." Wrench announces as he grabs a wallet and pulls out some money.

He takes the bag of food. "Here. A fifty. Keep the change for the trouble."

The teen looks down at his hand in shock.

"off you trot." The villain shoos him away with a handwave and turns around, walking back to the group.

"And... here the second Payment. One million." Wrench states while looking at Strider before turning to the other five... and two dogs. "As for the rest of the Brockton brigade of mischief and misery, perhaps you should skedaddle? I'll catch up." 

He turns to the inventor himself as the villain group pick themselves up and quickly make themselves scarce, holding out the bag as Strider disappears with a flash. "Here. This is yours."

"Wh-"

"If I was captured by Terrorists... and all I had to eat for more than a month was like termites and shit. The first thing I would want when I got back home... would be an American Cheeseburger."

Holy shit that actually sounds so damned good right about now.

Wrench places his hand on Tony's shoulder as the man takes the fast food bag, some place called 'Fugly Bobs' so not any mainstream fast-food place. "Now. I'm gonna let you down easily with this. Here. A phone where I compiled everything you need to know about your kidnapping. From the people who orchestrated it to the people who did it and where each and every little penny of the hit money went."

He looks down at the basic phone, it doesn't even have a protective case. It looks brand new.

"Also. I stole two hundred and fifty million dollars from you."

"Meh." Tony shrugs. "A bit steep for a ransom, but whatever. You seem like a nice kid. Might as well help that college fund of yours. Though be aware that I'll be coming for you after this."

"Tony Tony Tony." Wrench shakes his head with a sigh. "It's not a ransom."

His masks' eyes flatten. '-.-' "It's late child support. If you don't want your bastard son to rob you, wear a condom next time asshole."

"What-"

"Bye!"

"Hold on a second- what?!" A red blur zooms into the scene, but the tinker disappears under his cloak.

Child... Support?

S-Son?