Chapter 29: Some Idiot Blew My House Down
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted from the basement entrance below.
Ryan and David, crouched behind cover at the stairwell corner, watched in shock as a figure came flying backwards from the lower level, crashing into the concrete wall in a shower of debris and smoke.
It was Frank, who had just charged in with his assault rifle blazing.
"Son of a bitch! You brought an RPG into a residential neighborhood?!" Frank scrambled to his feet, shaking off concrete dust. He was about to charge back into the fray when several small cylindrical objects came bouncing down the stairs.
Clink... clink... clink...
"Shit—"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The moment the grenades detonated, Ryan grabbed David and dove for cover behind their makeshift laboratory equipment.
Even with his enhanced reflexes, Ryan couldn't avoid all the shrapnel. Hot metal fragments tore through his shirt and left burning cuts across his back, while David remained mercifully unharmed behind their cover.
"Goddammit, Frank! Are you sure these are NSA agents?!"
Frank spat blood and checked his rifle. "How the hell should I know?!"
He pulled two smoke grenades from his tactical vest and hurled them down the stairwell with practiced precision.
Days after moving into their hideout, the front entrance was already demolished. RPGs and fragmentation grenades were being used like this was Fallujah, not Hell's Kitchen. Rage burned up Ryan's spine as he grabbed two pistols and followed Frank into the expanding cloud of smoke.
Unfamiliar with firearms, Ryan fumbled with the safety mechanism and magazine release before finally getting his weapon ready. He held his fire until he was practically face-to-face with the first hostile.
BANG!
With Ryan's enhanced physiology, the pistol's recoil felt like a gentle push.
His target wore tactical goggles and a gas mask—definitely not standard federal agent gear. This looked more like private military contractors.
But Ryan didn't have time for tactical analysis. He pressed the muzzle against the man's faceplate and squeezed the trigger twice.
A red laser sight swept toward Ryan's position, but instead of retreating, he ducked low and charged toward the infrared beam's source.
BANG!
He shoulder-checked the gunman, sending him sprawling, then straddled his chest and emptied the magazine at point-blank range.
Splat!
Crimson spray painted the wall behind them as the contractor's body went limp.
"Die, you bastard!"
His magazine now empty, Ryan had killed another man but exposed his position in the process. Another laser sight found him immediately.
Ryan hurled the empty pistol with superhuman force.
CRACK!
The weapon's grip connected with the shooter's forehead, dropping him instantly.
Meanwhile, Frank's gunfire was constant and methodical—he was in his element, moving through the smoke like death incarnate.
As the smoke gradually cleared, only Ryan and Frank remained standing among the carnage in the basement.
Frank gave Ryan an approving thumbs-up, then moved to the exit and cautiously peered outside.
CRACK!
A spark lit up the doorframe inches from Frank's head, and he jerked back faster than a startled turtle.
"Sniper! We've got overwatch covering the exit!" Frank pressed his back against the wall, breathing heavily.
Ryan picked up two enemy weapons and spent several seconds figuring out their operation. "This is a basement level. There's no secondary exit."
Though he'd never handled military hardware before, he'd seen enough action movies to understand the basics. Most firearms only had a few controls—safety, trigger, magazine release. Simple trial and error revealed their functions quickly enough.
Frank crouched down, searching through a dead contractor's tactical gear. "These aren't NSA. This looks like private military—probably Anvil or a similar outfit."
"Hired guns?"
"Essentially. PMCs usually handle corporate security and overseas contracts, but domestic operations are rare. Someone with serious money wants us dead."
Ryan rolled his eyes. "Great. We're the mission now." He checked his appropriated assault rifle. "So what's the play?"
Even with their superhuman enhancements, neither Ryan nor Frank was bulletproof. They needed strategy, not just superior firepower.
Frank's gaze settled on the twisted steel door that had been blown clear across the room. "Grab your body armor. We're going to carry that door out together as mobile cover. Stay close to the walls, match my rhythm, and watch for my signals."
Frank's tactical thinking was sound. What they needed now was to escape the kill box and find positions with better sightlines for a counterattack.
Ryan nodded. No wonder Captain America always carried that vibranium shield—mobile cover was invaluable in firefights.
CLANG! CLANG!
The moment they hauled the improvised shield through the doorway, sniper fire immediately peppered their cover. Fortunately, the reinforced steel was thick enough to stop rifle rounds.
"Follow me to the intersection!" Frank shouted over the gunfire.
Frank took point while Ryan provided rear security, occasionally blind-firing over their makeshift shield to keep the contractors' heads down.
Frank's marksmanship was military-precise. Ryan's shooting was more "spray and pray."
PING! PING! PING!
Sparks showered from their steel barrier as bullets struck harmlessly. The impacts barely registered through their enhanced strength.
They reached the street intersection within seconds. Frank let the door crash to the pavement and pointed at the tall building across the street. "Hold this position. I'm taking out the sniper on the roof!"
Before Ryan could respond, Frank was already moving.
Using urban combat techniques perfected in Iraq and Afghanistan, Frank used parked cars for concealment while systematically eliminating contractors positioned at street level.
Ryan wasn't idle either, spraying suppressive fire to keep enemy heads down while Frank maneuvered.
Taking advantage of the covering fire, Frank had already ghosted into the building across the street.
"Everyone who destroyed my lab dies tonight!"
With his ammunition exhausted, Ryan kicked open the door of a neighboring hardware store and dove inside just as a grenade detonated where he'd been standing.
BOOM!
The shop's windows exploded in a shower of glass.
Meanwhile, across the street, Frank had reached the rooftop.
In a one-on-one engagement, the sniper stood no chance against the Punisher. Frank took over the elevated position and began picking off contractors below with surgical precision.
Pop... pop... pop...
One shot, one kill.
The remaining contractors reacted professionally, taking cover and returning fire at Frank's muzzle flashes.
But while they focused on the rooftop threat, they exposed their backs to Ryan.
CRASH!
A figure exploded through a second-floor window and dropped onto the street below, wielding a fire axe like some prehistoric berserker.
The blade cleaved down in a crimson arc.
Ryan's enhanced vision locked onto his next target.
A fire axe might not have one-tenth the lethality of a firearm, but its psychological impact was a hundred times greater. The visceral terror of facing someone who could split you in half with medieval brutality was overwhelming.
"RAAHHH!"
Ryan leaped over a parked car in a single bound—easily clearing eight feet of height and distance. The contractor hiding behind it turned to run but caught Ryan's axe between his shoulder blades.
Ryan's berserker assault from street level disrupted the contractors' defensive positions, allowing Frank to continue his methodical execution from above.
In less than sixty seconds, more than a dozen bodies littered the Hell's Kitchen street.
Although Ryan's battle fury gradually subsided, cold anger still burned in his chest. If he hadn't kept backup samples of his genetic research and enhancement serums, months of painstaking work would have been destroyed. Some bastard had tried to steal everything he'd built, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
The gunfire stopped. David cautiously emerged from the ruined basement, carrying Ryan's emergency research case.
Author's Note:
A brief clarification about time travel mechanics in this story:
According to the established rules, time travel requires three components:
A quantum tunnel device 2. Pym Particles 3. A time-space GPS bracelet
Ryan's time displacement events all satisfy these conditions. Additionally, Pym Particles are extremely limited, so temporal manipulation isn't possible at will.
This is intended to be a different kind of Marvel story that respects established MCU physics while exploring new possibilities.
End of Chapter 29
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