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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ғᴏᴜʀ: ɴᴏᴡ ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ sᴏᴍᴇ ᴘʀᴏɢʀᴇss

❝ ᴍᴜsᴛ ʙᴇ ɴɪᴄᴇ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴄᴏɴғɪᴅᴇɴᴛ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ.❞

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"DALLON, WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO THE HONORS?"

The holographic face of the techie lit up at Brendon's offer, and he gave a huge grin and enthusiastic nod in response.

"Hell yeah! Okay, so..." Dallon rubbed his hands together before furiously typing on his keyboard, once again delivering virtual pockets of information to his colleagues on the other side, "First up on the hit list is Jack of Hearts. He was involved in a scuffle with Corporation a few years ago after they killed his father for his invention – 'Zero Fluid' – during which he was accidently doused with it and developed superpowers."

"Who're they sending after him?" Dean queried, pursing his lips and tilting his head down as he took a stand in front of the hologram.

A photograph of a bulky man clad in a green suit gripping onto some form of a hang-glider appeared next to Dallon's face.

"Night Flyer. He's a hit man slash mercenary who is also in a weird symbiotic relationship with his hang-glider. I know; that was my reaction, too," Dallon informed as he saw the men's faces contort in disgust, "Anyway, he's a kind of... I guess you could call him a 'realistic humanoid artificial assassin'."

Roman let out a low whistle and folded his arms as he tossed a taunting smirk at Dallon. "Wow, Weekes. You come up with that all by yourself?"

A snigger was traded between The Hounds while Dallon simply gave a sarcastic laugh in response before bringing things back to the important topic.

"Jack lives in New Jersey, so travelling won't be an issue," Dallon informed, relaxing back into his swivel-chair and twirling a pen in his right hand, gesturing with the left, "Which is a really good thing, 'cause you only have eight hours in which to prepare for this. K, bye."

The holographic representation of Dallon disappeared before anyone had a chance to respond to his last comment, leaving five out of the six men groaning in protest.

"Okay, so what now? Anyone have any plans they wanna share?" Spalding arched his brows and leaned with his palms flat on the tabletop, focusing on The Architect with a hopeful expression, "Rollins?"

"We hardly know anything about this Night Flyer guy," Seth scrunched his face and held his hands up, taking a few steps back to indicate that he didn't have any brilliant plans to share at present, "I'm gonna need a little more time to come up with something that could work."

"Yeah but time is not something we have," Brendon interjected with slight agitation, squinting his eyes as he ran a hand through his hair. After a few moments of contemplative silence hovering over the room, the agent paced the length of the room so that he was in front of all of his allies before offering a solution. "Look, if we're gonna do this – if we're gonna infiltrate all of these missions – we need to have a solid game plan. Like I said, time is not on our side, here, so we can't afford to lose any of it by outlining plan after plan after plan. We need to create one and then just run with it."

"A master plan," Roman put a name to Brendon's thought, nodding before frowning slightly, "Won't it make us predictable, though? Corporation could pick up on our attack pattern."

"It's always a possibility," Brendon admitted, straightening up and half-heartedly gesturing at the middle of the room with his hand, "But Weekes is going to make sure we're invisible until I tell him otherwise. That'll at least buy us some time and throw them off trail a little bit. Besides, there's only three extractions listed at the moment – I rate we can run through it with no problems."

Brendon began walking over to the armoury on the other side of the open-plan control floor. Spalding's eyes tracked the agent in an awe-filled gaze as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Must be nice to be that confident all the time," the doctor mumbled to Aaron, sure that no one else could hear him.

"Has its moments," Brendon replied coolly, starling the doctor a little.

Spalding sharply turned his head to toss his best friend an incredulous look and slowly mouthed the word 'superhero'. Aaron smiled gently.

"So," Dean cocked his head up at Brendon when he returned, carrying a hoard of different weapons and gear, "What's the plan of attack, boss?"

A tiny grunt moved past Brendon's lips as he heaved the equipment onto the table that the group was huddled around. He shrugged before answering The Lunatic's question.

"Simple..."

✧ ✧ ✧

Approximately eight hours later. Jack's apartment, New Jersey.

"Hounds," Brendon's voiced crackled through the comms, reaching the ears of the three agents as they stalked down the alleyway next to the apartment block, "I need you in position."

"We've got you covered," Roman responded, keeping his tone as hushed and body as hunched as possible so as to remain hidden from any potential Corporation back-ups.

"Good. On my signal."

Brendon beckoned for Aaron to follow him as he crept along the shadowy rooftop of the building on the east side of Jack's apartment, ducking low in order to avoid any bright lights that might shine down and expose him to the occupants of all the surrounding buildings.

Aaron trailed closely behind the agent, not at all used to the inconspicuous nature under which Brendon so naturally acted; Machine Man was anything but inconspicuous. The hero stole a hasty glance in the direction of one of the adjacent streets, adjusting his binocular vision so that he could spot his best friend stationed in a car a few blocks away.

Dallon had hooked up the car's system to all of the cameras that had a view of Jack's apartment block to allow Spalding an all-access view to anything and everything that might happen; he was to alert the group as soon as Night Flyer appeared.

Almost precisely as the clock struck eight 'o clock, the unmistakable silhouette of a hang-glider appeared on the screen in front of Spalding. The doctor perked up immediately, pushing his glasses back on the ridge of his nose as he fumbled with the receiver, curse words spilling from his lips as he struggled to get a grip on it.

"Brendon," Spalding panted, eventually getting a proper hold on it, "He's here. Just landed in the parking lot of the north-most building. He's heading for the entrance."

"I see him," Brendon confirmed, ducking behind a nearby air conditioning system; Aaron followed suit, "Let me know if he brought any groupies with him."

"Will do."

There was a click as Spalding placed the receiver back in its place and Brendon lifted his gaze to keep it steady on the approaching Corporation agent.

"Rollins," he called, "you're up."

"On it," came The Architect's response; his fellow Hounds parted slightly to give him way to do his run-up.

Seth took a few steps backwards, gaining a respectable distance between himself and the side of the building before sprinting forward. Using his ninja-like skillset, he used his gloved hands to grip onto the grooves of the bricked wall and began scaling it at remarkable speed.

Once he reached the fire escape halfway between the second and third floor, he launched himself off of the wall and extended his arms out to grip the edge of the steel ledge. His face twisted and a small grunt escaped his throat as he hung for a second in order to regain his equilibrium; then, the muscles in his arms bulged as he pulled himself up and onto the escape.

His breathing was slightly ragged, but the mask covering his mouth muffled the sound so that it wasn't even audible. Looking down, he made a series of hand gestures at Dean and Roman, who nodded in response before hurrying off to carry out their obligation.

Paying careful attention not to be too loud and draw the attention of any neighbours, Seth started working on loosening the window of the bathroom he was on the outside of.

"Urie, I'm in," he informed not a minute later, keeping his voice low as he carefully stuck one boot clad foot inside of the bathroom, getting a secure footing in the bathtub. "Ambrose and Reigns just left."

The Architect let out a breath as he climbed out of the tub, opened the bathroom door and made his way into the living room area of the apartment, double and then triple-checking to make sure he was alone in the residence.

He pressed one finger to the comm in his ear. "We're good to go."

"Good, 'cause he just entered the building," Brendon informed, watching Night Flyer as he stepped through the revolving front door. "I'm on my way."

The agent sucked in a deep breath as he recreated Seth's actions from earlier – backtracking until he gained a respectable distance between himself and the edge of the roof.

"You're planning on jumping across?" Aaron quizzed, sheer disbelief in his tone, as he surveyed Brendon's movements.

Brendon nodded as if it were obvious. "It's not that far. I've jumped bigger gaps before."

"Of course you have," Aaron mumbled with a sigh before shaking his head to gather himself and activate his propellers, and walked towards the edge. He turned back to Brendon. "Are you sure you don't want some hel-"

Aaron swallowed the rest of his sentence as his eyes caught sight of Brendon's body soaring through the air – he landed on the fire escape with a thud a couple seconds later.

Machine Man chuckled incredulously before launching himself across the way, using his propellers to hover through the night air before eventually touching down next to the agent, who was working on opening the window.

The impact of Aaron's metal anatomy coming into contact with the steel structure created a clang of a notable volume, alerting the occupants of the apartment to the left of the escape. One of them stuck their head out of the window to investigate, but Brendon shoved Aaron through the newly opened window before ducking through it himself.

"Try to be a little softer next time, yeah?" Brendon deadpanned, forcing a smile and blithely patting Aaron on the shoulder as they started on their way down the hallway.

"You should try being made entirely of metal sometime. See how you like it," the robot retorted, rolling his eyes as he picked up his pace to match his companion's.

The pair rounded a corner into the section separating the west and east wings of the apartment block – a sizeable area furnished with quaint sofas and end table settings.

Jack's apartment was three doors down the hallway to the right of them and the two hurried over, Brendon rapping his knuckles against the wood in three short successions.

The door opened a mere second later and Seth shooed Brendon and Aaron inside.

No words were uttered between the three men as they scurried into their previously designated positions. Seth turned off the lights, leaving only the main bedroom's one on, and settled into a crouch behind the sofa.

"You know that this is probably the worst plan we've ever come up with, right?" The Architect sighed, voice low, "I mean, there's literally a hundred ways this could go wrong."

"I prefer to focus on the one way it can go right," Brendon's response emanated through the comms as he took his spot in the shadows of the archway between the living room and the rest of the apartment.

"I hear him," Aaron piped up, closing his eyes so that he could focus his amplified hearing on the careful footsteps approaching down the hallway on the other side of the front door.

"Masks secure," Brendon reminded, checking to make sure that his own one was sufficiently tightened around his mouth.

The masks were a traditional part of The Hound's combat uniform, and were a godsend. They were multifunctional – serving as protection from all gases and other toxins, providing anonymity to whomever wore it, and establishing connections to all S.H.I.E.L.D networks.

They proved to be extremely useful now more than ever, because when the thin metal tubing slipped under the front door and began expelling halothane vapour all throughout the apartment, the three men were safe from the effects.

For a long moment, there was no sound, no movements from any of the individuals on either side of the door; then there was a rattle of the doorknob, and the door swayed open with a creak.

As soon as Night Flyer carefully shut the door and stepped into the middle of the living room, Seth was on him. With a grunt, The Architect leapt over the back of the sofa and clotheslined the villain to the ground in one suave movement, delivering a punch to his jaw for good measure.

Flyer was understandably caught off guard by the sudden attack and fumbled around as he attempted to gather himself enough to fight back. He haphazardly swung his arms about, trying to catch Seth somehow.

But the Hound was much too fast, even for the mutant, and Night Flyer ended up flat on the floor taking hit after hit to his face. Somehow, the mutant was able to steady his mind enough to dodge the next punch from Seth and catch him with a strike to the gut, causing the agent to grind his teeth and hunch over in pain; Flyer took the opportunity to wring his hands around Seth's neck, roughly swinging the Hound off of his own body and tossing him onto the floor next to him.

Now with the upper hand, Flyer settled his knees on either side of Seth's broad abdomen, smirking as he continued to apply pressure to the agent's neck. Seth's hands immediately flew to Flyer's forearms as he tried desperately to break the strangulation hold. But before the mutant could do any real damage, he was yanked up and into the air by one of Aaron's mechanical arms, yelping in surprise as he watched his feet leave the floor.

Aaron flicked his arm to the left and sent the Corporation employee soaring through the air and landing at the foot of one of the sofas, allowing Seth to pick himself up. The Hound's brow furrowed as he coughed and rubbed at his neck, trying to recover from his near asphyxiation while simultaneously rushing over to aid Machine Man.

Aaron delivered a stunning supersonic blast to the chest of the mutant, causing him to growl in pain as his legs buckled underneath him and the blast rendered him temporarily paralysed.

With the enemy now neutralised, Brendon emerged from his spot in the shadows, removing his silenced-gun from the holster around his thigh, as well as a syringe from the left pocket of his black cargo pants. He took determined steps towards his target and removed the mask from his face.

"Because I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you choose." Brendon's forehead creased ever so slightly as he looked down and cocked the gun. Lifting his head to deliver an icy glare, he held both the gun and the syringe up for the mutant to see. "What'll it be, princess?"

"Fuck off," Night Flyer spat, voice gruff as he tried to get over the numbness in his legs.

"Bullet it is, then."

The stifled noise of the bullet exiting the gun chamber barely sounded throughout the room, and was followed by a much more noticeable thud as Night Flyer's lifeless body hit the carpeted floor.

Seth made haste of looting the mutant's body, fishing out any and all tech that Corporation could track and unforgivingly crushing it with his foot; he gathered the broken pieces to discard later. Meanwhile, Aaron rushed over to the window facing the alley Seth had previously waited in, opening it and calling for Roman and Dean over the comm.

Brendon worked on cleaning up the bullet wound in Flyer's forehead in an attempt to minimize the amount of blood spilling onto the apartment floor. Despite the fact that he managed to stop the blood flow from Flyer's head, the immediate vicinity of the eggshell carpet was littered with blood spatter. Usually, he wouldn't have cared, but this wasn't the assailant's apartment – it was Jack's.

Cursing under his breath, the agent hurried over to the kitchen and yanked open the cabinet under the sink, looking for anything that contained hydrogen peroxide.

"Urie," Seth called out, huffing as he dragged the deadweight of Night Flyer over to the open window Aaron was at, "Reigns and Ambrose are here. We need to move."

"Yeah, yeah," Brendon nervously chewed on his lip as he continued scanning the contents of the cabinet. His eyes landed on a quarter-filled bottle of Clorox, and he hurriedly grabbed it, knocking over a few other bottles in the process but not caring as he sprinted over to the affected area. "The two of you get him and yourselves out; I just need a minute to clean this shit up."

Seth nodded even though Brendon wasn't looking at him, before gesturing to Aaron to help hoist Flyer up and out of the window. Dean and Roman were stationed in the alley below, feet planted shoulder-width apart and arms outstretched as they prepared to catch the falling body. Between the two of them, they were able to catch it with minimal effort and once they had a grasp on it, they moved to the van they had parked adjacent to some dumpsters.

"Got him?" Dean questioned.

"Yeah," Roman nodded and cocked his head at the van, "Get the door."

Dean let go of Flyer's feet and opened the door, helping Roman to get the dead mutant inside before hopping in himself.

Roman looked back and caught sight of Seth climbing his way down to safety, and Aaron using his propellers to lower himself down. The two of them sprinted over to the van, too, and scrambled into the back with Dean and the corpse.

"Where's Urie?" Roman quizzed, worry started to seep into the psyche of the Samoan. "He needs to get out. Jack entered the building the same time Ambrose and I got back to the alley. Urie," Roman pressed a finger to his comm and instinctively rushed forward again, "you need to get out. Now!"

"I know, I know," Brendon answered sneeringly, gritting his teeth as he scrub scrub scrubbed the carpet, ridding it of the fowl red that had unwillingly been painted on it. He made a mental note to use the injection on the others, to avoid wasting precious time on clean up that could've so easily been avoided.

He seriously needed to re-evaluate his attachment to guns.

The jiggle of the front door's doorknob caused Brendon to jump up immediately, fingers fumbling to screw the cap back on the bottle as he ran to shove it back into the cabinet and close the door.

A creak signalled that the door was opening now, and Brendon didn't have time to think about his escape plan. All he could do was run.

And throw himself out of the window.

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