Marvel: A Tale of Shadows

"We have eyes on Doctor Faustus." Captain America declared as he bashed his shield into a goon's face. While Wolverine sliced a gun into pieces.

Ahead of them, running into a large open area that they assumed was the hangar, was a balding red haired man who was tightly holding a bag that had papers peeking out of it. He was clearly giving orders to the goons and others as he desperately ran.

It had been maybe ten minutes since they regrouped and escaped out of the security room. They had made short work of the goons that came in, especially since they were no longer worried about being stealthy. Reaper had long since disappeared, apparently even Wolverine could not track him with his extraordinary sense of smell. Something about the explosion being laced with a chemical bucket-load that is messing with his sense of smell.

"He is running into the hanger," Captain America noted as he dodged a strike and threw his shield bouncing it off of multiple surfaces before making a line straight to the back of Doctor Faustus' head. But just before it hit its mark a person in black armor with red highlights and a red hydra symbol on his chest caught the shield and pushed the doctor out of the way.

"Capture him if you can. I am still searching through their system but someone organized it for me and I am finding files on forms of brainwashing they have done on stronger mutants, they date back to…. They date back to the eighties with several different forms." Iron Man sounded annoyed and angry as a moment later an announcement was sent out notifying that this particular Hydra branch practices brainwashing and mind control and to try to capture hostile mutants alive if possible.

But as much as he wanted to know what was going on he ignored it in favor of focusing on the new opponent in front of him as Doctor Faustus scrambled away, dropping several papers on the ground. While the red Hydra soldier dropped the shield.

Wolverine went to bypass the red Hydra soldier but the soldier was fast enough to reach out to him. Only for Captain America to distract him with a kick to the head that sent him staggering back but not knocking him out.

"Focus on me… big guy." He said hesitantly towards the end as he realized the soldier had a foot and a half height on him. "Okay then." He kicked up his shield, catching it with his arm.

The soldier threw a punch and the captain raised his shield causing a dinging to ring out as they made contact. Then he stomped on the soldier's foot and raised his shield, smashing the soldier in the face causing the soldier to back up and throw another punch which went wide. Which caught the captain in the arm causing it to go numb.

He backed up for a moment as feeling came back in his arm. Then he dodged a few punches and kicks until he saw an opening. The soldier had widened his stance in order to hit the captain. The captain threw his shield bouncing it off the ground, causing it to bounce up and hit the soldier in the jaw. Then as the shield was spinning in the air, the captain caught it after he jumped and brought it down the soldier's head causing a ringing noise to briefly echo as the soldier staggered back.

But the soldier prepared and got in stance only to collapse, knocked out cold. The nearby goons that were running to assist saw the scene and then turned tail to run. Meanwhile Wolverine was having a difficult time chasing the chubby doctor down as the goons kept getting in his way. When a ship previously hidden by a brown sheet revealed itself as it appeared to start up which occurred in conjunction with the two large helicopters starting up.

Wolverine growled as he attempted to cut open the doctor's back again he missed again but cut some cloth. Then he lost his footing and made a sound of surprise as he crashed into the floor. While the Doctor hopped onto the open door of the advanced hovercraft that Wolverine recognized as a Shield aircraft.

Doctor Faustus turned around happily declaring in a beet red face from running, "ha! Not Captain America nor this failure Wolverine were able to catch me. Perhaps we should not have hid if it would be this easy to out-do two specimens like yourselves."

Wolverine was momentarily distracted as he noticed a skull mask with a hood step behind Doctor Faustus and tilt his head. It looked almost like he was surprised or confused.

—-----------------

It genuinely caught Ethan off guard, it also caught both his parents off guard as his father looked back from his pilot seat while they gained attitude. While his mother made sure Ophelia was still out cold. Ethan was the only one that was not busy so he walked up to the clearly not so observant doctor that ran this facility and an entire branch of Hydra.

But all he could think about was that, Hydra should not be this deeply embedded if this is one of the heads of Hydra. Maybe he just picked the weakest branch to provoke and takedown.

"This will not be the last you see of me nor of Hydra. I will regrow my branch and become a mighty threat to you-" He had stopped mid sentence as they gained enough height and hovering not even a meter away was Iron Man. Doctor Faustus quickly cursed in gaelic.

"Out of super villain speeches I rate that at three out of ten. Now land and I won't have to-" This time Iron Man was interrupted as Doctor Faustus looked around to find the crew of aircraft for the first time and realized that they were not his people.

"Who are you!?!" He did not even have a chance as Ethan kicked Doctor Faustus into Iron Man's arms who caught him but struggled to hold him as the old man was confused and completely panicking, "don't drop me!"

"Will you stop-" This time Ethan interrupted as he threw a black puck towards Iron Man and as soon as it got close it flew straight to the arc reactor and stuck to it. "Son of a-" Then there was a noise and the armor went dark and dropped out of the sky.

He looked out the aircraft for a moment before he slid the door close and spoke in his altered electronic voice, "let's go! We have a timeframe to beat before Shield takes notice. We need to disappear before then."

His father nodded and turned forward as the aircraft sped up only causing a slight motion on the ship.

—--------------------

As his suit restarted and it flashed to life he let out a sigh as his entire body ached. Above him was Captain America and Rhody looking down at him. It took almost fifteen minutes for his system to restart.

"Do you think he is still out cold?" Captain America asked.

"I would say I am not." He sat up and saw by his feet a pool of blood and that it was probably Doctor Faustus because there was a blood trail where he was dragged away. "I hope he is not dead."

"He isn't Tony, his legs are mangled so badly I doubt he will walk again. What happened to you? You just dropped like a rock." Rhody stated as he looked over Tony's armor which had restarted and he stood up causing a black puck to fall to the ground.

Tony crouched and picked it up, "this did. The guy with the skull mask tossed it out and it gravitated towards my arc reactor like a magnet would to metal. He also kicked that… um… Doctor Faustus out of the aircraft."

"So… what is it?" Rhody asked, more curious what could decommission an Iron Man armor so easily. He knew for a fact that it was almost impossible to hack his systems meaning the usual method was physical subjugation. Except someone just used a device the size of a hockey puck to take him down.

"Hmm… single use." Tony noted as he scanned it and no energy signature came back. "I have to get it back to the lab but I believe it self-destructed upon use."

"I assume you already have an idea for a fix?" Rhody chuckled, getting a thumbs up in response.

"Let's go, I need to get ready before the reporters arrive. The faster we hit the news with this the more damage we will cause to Hydra." Tony walked away awkwardly as his flight systems were still down.

—----------------

They landed at the same area where they hijacked the truck. Their unmarked van was nearby. Fortunately the woodland cover gave them enough cover from the road. Especially since it was between morning and midday when the sunlight was increasing.

"Are you sure we can't-"

"For the last time, no. It is too high profile and it serves as proof to Fury. It was the only requirement that First Line had with assisting us. So hurry up and put those boxes in the van. Mother, have you removed the tracking device yet?" Ethan asked as he glanced at his mother who was removing the third electronic device she found in Ophelia's skin.

"I have one last one then I am done. What kind of brainwashing is she under?" She asked as she used the scalpel to cut open her leg to remove the last tracking device.

"She has a chip in her brain, there is a short range jammer in there. Use it to jam the signal until we can get her back to my apartment where I have a clean room set up for surgery." He explained as he collected the bloody plastic gloves and tracking devices from his mother before tossing the tracking devices off to the side and putting the gloves in a small hazard bag that was off to the side.

"Who is doing the surgery?" She asked as her husband finished putting in the boxes that they already checked for tracking devices. Ethan closed the van doors and climbed into the driver seat.

"You and me. You have experience as a doctor before becoming an assassin while I am a quick study. Unfortunately we do not have enough time to find an actual doctor with experience to help, nor could we trust them." He then handed back a digital tablet, "study up, I got the specs and location from their base."

He then started the van and pulled away as his father climbed into the passenger seat, "I feel like you get more and more demanding each year."