Here are my book covers for now. I have several designs but couldn't really decide on the best one so I randomly selected these two.

© Copyright 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, screen shooting, screen grabbing, recording or otherwise) in part or whole without the express written permission of the author. Contact dapollux@gmail.com.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, past or present is entirely coincidental.

Hi guys, welcome to my new work. Hope you will have fun going through this journey with me.
Now where do I start with Penance? Penance has been a character in my mind for close to fifteen years now if not more than. I had envisioned him as a comic book character. Well I use to draw comic books in my days in primary five and six. That is why you will notice Penance having some extra human enhancements that may look like super powers.


To understand how Penance is, just envisioned the fusion of Frank Castle, the Punisher in Marvel comics with Slade Wilson, Deathstroke of the DC comics. I chose Punisher for Penance's motivation and Deathstroke for his enhancements. As PENANCE has similar enchantments as that of Deathstroke. But for his appearance, you will have to imaging Spider-Man in his black Alien suit (which turned out to be Venom later) without the spider icon on the chest of course. Or a less known comic character called Backlash, formally of Image comics. So that is all I can say for now about Penance appearance and costume.


I intend to change my writing style a bit with this work. You guys are used to my straight forward direct method of writing. Well I want to make a slight modification here and try a style of writing I totally hate in novels. A forward and backwards kind of flashbacks. Let me see how it will work here. If it doesn't, well I may just dump it at the middle of the story.
I also intend to try a little bit of more characterization here and narratives than action but if you crave action, this story promises not to disappoint.
I hope you guys get to love Penance as you have loved Marvel and Jarael.

tunjilomo:
Happy New Year, Apollux.

Same to you

Season's greetings guys. It's been a while. I just wanted to show you all my next project that will be premiering any day from now (hopefully before the New Year, if things goes according to plan ). Here are some of the back covers I have made for it. Hope you like them. Let me get your feed back on them.

So here it ends, for part two that is and it has been a milk run. Unfortunately it happened on the day I got to hear the news of the passing away of one of comic books best icon: Rest In Peace Stan Lee.
Well I had fun while it lasted; the grueling type. This story is more than a hundred pages longer than the first one. I Thank you guys for patiently bearing with me.
Now a warm special thank you to all those who followed me. Also to those who took the time to comment... And ahem, my ghost readers.
Well comments, criticism, suggestions, advice and ahem insults are welcome. Hopefully my new work will kick off next week. Yet to decide which to start with though.

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EPILOGUE


Beyond the edge of known space, further away from the out laying planets of human colonized worlds is a region of the spiral arm of the milky way galaxy aptly name the unknown regions . Despite the growth and advancement in space travel by man and the multitude of worlds colonized, more than 99.9 percent of that galactic sector of human colonize space virtually remained unknown. While the rest of the milky way, one out of millions of other galaxies in the universe, is never believed will be explored by man in the fear foreseeable future. The unknown regions covering a vast area of this part of the milky way sector comprising swaths of thousands upon thousands even millions parsecs of empty space had remained unknown, unexplored and uncrossed since the beginning of the universe until today, or so it was believed and assumed.


A rift tore open the space in a part of the unknown regions with a jagged shape of white light having multicolored edge. Stepping through the rift is a massive space vessel the size of a human super dreadnought ship, all angular parts with protrusions that appeared to be weapon ports. The built and design of the vessel didn’t look like anything the human mind or hands would have fashioned or crafted. As the vessel stepped out of the rift, the tear in space slowly slid back together closing up. The massive space vessel locked on to a target at an extreme distance that is several light years away, a colonized human planet that was further than all other colonized worlds . As the vessel acquired the target, it changed course and headed for it.


THE END?


DEFINITELY NOT. MEET US FOR THE CONCLUDING PART ON


MARVEL CHRONICLES 3 : FIRST CONTACT

Yawning again, Marvel snapped his fingers as if he just recalled something. “Isn’t that similar to the same lines used by the terrorist group, the Colonies Liberation Front? “
“Just because they are tagged terrorists doesn’t make them one or means they are wrong. “


“You are the politician, so I concede that one. “ Marvel looked at the senator with a steady gaze then turned the sides of his lips into a snide smile. That was when the senator realized that Marvel had been toying with him all this while, none of what was been said he took seriously. He calmly had been wasting the senator’s time to let him know that no help was coming, there will be no back ups or the cavalry charging in to save him. He was on his own. “Time’s up senator. “
Putting his high breath into control. “So you are here to kill me then? A f.ucking* assassination? “


Marvel shrugged without saying anything except just lifting his hands up sideways as sign of helplessness.
With a move so fast, the senator’s arm dipped under his desk and came up with a strange handgun. “Well too late for you. You missed your chance when you came in and didn’t shoot me first. “
Marvel just sat there without making any move except clasping his hands together on his stomach as if he has no care in the world.

“You are mistaken if you think I’m a soft livered politician. I grew up in the streets of the worst parts on earth. I walked my way from the dregs to prominence. So I’m sorry to inform you that I can’t let you take me in or kill me. “
When the bounty hunter said nothing more, he continued. “I feel you think the body armor on you will protect you from my gun, it won’t. This is a needle gun, the bullets in it are made of needle sized polished steel with points thin enough to penetrate the seams of your armor and they are tipped with poison, all I need is one shot, a simple graze and you are dead. Any last words before the great Marvel checks out of this world? “


“Nope but I got to admit that was… “ and in a flashed Marvel crashed on the ground by pushing the chair he was on backwards as he noticed the senator’s hand on the gun tightened suddenly. With silent puff, poisoned tipped needles were shot out of the gun’s muzzle. They passed over Marvel as he tumbled back but his hand clutched at the side holster pulling out the M2000. Rolling to the right edge of the desk giving him an unobstructed view to the senator as he continued to pump out needles after needles pulling on his gun’s trigger.
With a light caress of the M2000’s trigger, Marvel shot at the standing senator. The bullets in the M2000 were explosive rounds as they hit the senator on the chest, they exploded. Tiny bits of explosion erupted on the senator’s upper torso, ripping it apart in a spray of bloody rains and dissected parts. What was left standing was the two legs and rugged half of the stomach blowing up a fountain of blood before falling on the ground twitching.


Marvel turned away from the half corpse, holstering his hand gun, picking up his TEC 5 and the penetrator, before turning and walking out the door. After stepping out of the house and walking a while, he brought out his detonator, with the active switch pressed, all the explosives he had planted around the building went up at once in a massive display of explosion that caused the house to shatter and seem to crumble on itself with debris raining down as it blew up a massive eruption of dust into the dark night sky ,with the smaller fragments of rubble flung ahead some pelting the standing bounty hunter.
“Like I said, it will be a milk run. “ He whispered as he walked into the night.

“Nope it doesn’t. I don’t even care if you wipe out the whole of planet earth. “ Marvel eyed the decanter again but decided against it. “I have a problem with you guys not knowing when to stop your killing spree and may end up adding me to your list. Now that’s my problem right there. “
The senator took the decanter instead and poured himself a generous amount on the cup, took a short sip and put the cup back on the table.


“You should know Marvel that what the mega corporations are fighting for is for the proper independence of the colony worlds. Earth has too much control and power. That has led to the president, through the CSC and Earthwatch Agency exerting dictatorial control over those worlds. We are fighting for equality and equal treatment and representation in our commonwealth. “
“Spare me the propaganda, it’s boring and has become stale. I’m never into politics anyway and there’s not a single politician I like. “


“This is not about politics, but real problems. “ the senator level of desperation spiked as he fell into the grip of his litany. “It’s about survival for the colonies, growth, security, a right to self determination and cultural identity. “

“I’m not here to arrest you and I am definitely not a representative of Earthwatch at this time. So you have no rights. “ Marvel countered, giving the protesting senator a level look.
“You can’t intimate me with your idle veiled threats. I’m still a senator, I stand for the interests of the good people who voted me in. So I demand you cease from your useless antics. You have already caused enough damages and killed innocent lives. “


“Shut the mess up you filth. Your self righteous façade gives me a pounding headache. “ Marvel’s voice was rigged with bitterness. “It’s people like you that has turned the job of governance into an act where the leaders steal from those they lead. You lord it over others, thinking those who voted you into power only exist to fulfill your every whimsical desires. You were involved in plots to murder millions of innocent people. As dark and gruesome as that might be, it’s not why I’m here for you. It’s just a job I get paid to do. “


The senator then decided to change his approach seeing that Marvel won’t budge as his sanctimonious act is failing to make an impression. “So tell me how much will it cost to let me go? You don’t have to do anything. Just allow me walk through that door unharmed. Don’t worry about the cover-up of my escaping you, I will take care of everything. All I need is just make a call and all will be well. Name your price and it’s yours. I can pay you any figure you can name. More than any amount the Earthwatch Agency can ever have access to. What do you say? “


“Not buying.“
“Why not? Money is power, power is control and control is everything. “
“Well for one thing my taking you out is now person. Initially I took this job as a professional undertaking. It all turned personal to me when you set it up for Cedric to kill me. I take any attempt on my life very personal. “


That dampened the mood of Nathan Goodwill slightly but he decided to try harder. “Don’t tell me you’re doing this out of a patriotic sense of duty. You are a bounty hunter who gets paid to hunt people. I know a little about you, there’s no lost love between you and the earth government. “
“Damn I ain’t stupid Nathan, ‘course I’m doing it for the money. “ Marvel chuckled.
“Alright let me ask you this question in all honesty, do you feel the mega corporations are wrong? “


The bounty hunter seem to take a while to go through the question in his mind. “I don’t give a mess who the hell is right or wrong. You might as well be on the side of the angels and I will still kick your butt. “
“But you just accused me of being part of a plot to murder millions of innocent people. That must have felt wrong to you. “

“Ah shooting at people and blowing things up is surely a tasty affair, mind if I get something to drink? “ he said and reached for the decanter on the desk’s top , poured some of the liquid into the glass cup and drank it all. “Hmmmmn good stuff. Now this is real whiskey, it costs a fortune in the open market, that’s if you can still get one. “
Initially the senator was scared, later shocked. As those waned off he started getting angry at the boldness of this young man who had caused him the loss of almost everything as he stood watching the intruder quaffed down his drink.


“You, it’s you. The one called Marvel. An obnoxious and self glorifying bounty hunter. “ Goodwill pointed at him accusingly. “Do you know what you have done? What you have caused? I don’t know who put you up to this but you definitely won’t get away with it. “
Marvel yawned, covering his open mouth with his fist, saying nothing. He reached for the drink again and poured himself another swallow.


“I am an earth senator, you have no right to intrude on my person and privacy. “ His fist slammed on the desk as he twisted his lips in disgust and grimace. “I’m a representative of the people, dully elected and I fight for their interest. Everything I do is for the good of the people. “
Marvel was waving his index finger left to right instead as if on a counting act.
“Are you not going to say anything? What the hell is the meaning of that you are doing? “


“Oh just waiting for something. “ Marvel replied.
“And what is it? “
Just then a massive distant explosion sounded, that shook the whole building.
“That, “ Marvel said pointing at the ceiling , as he pulled his legs down from the top of the desk. “Well that, if you desire to know, is your getaway flyer being blown to bits. “


Marvel had gone to locate where the flyer is, when he found it, he used all the PlastiNitrate explosives with him on it, since he had wanted to use it on the cars but didn’t, the flyer looked like a better alternative. He had attached them to the body and activated the timer which just ran down.
“Who do you think you are? Are you being a tool of the Agency now? “ the senator was getting back a semblance of his self confidence as after the first few moments he was still alive. “You have nothing on me, you have no evidence to tie me with, so you can’t arrest me. Even if you have something on me, to arrest me, I still have my rights to an attorney. “

bqlekan sighted. Its been a while, you are welcome. And nice to join me as I tey to wrap up this story today

He collapsed wearily on the long backed chair in his top office in the building. A wide real oak wood desk was before him. The room was arranged in an old fashion setting, with polished wooden panels lining the walls along side shelves of printed books that are extremely hard to find as books had become extinct when cutting down wood became a crime around four centuries back. Any existing books now can only be seen at very few museums.


Books are rare find and extremely valuable or expensive, same with the process of perpetually preserving them. The rows of shelves in this room with books on them are more than the sum total of what some museums can boast of having.


Trying again to punch the buttons on the data console before him, he noticed his hand was shaking and the fingers couldn’t stay steady enough to type in the correct buttons. His throat was parched after several attempts at drinking failed to calm his nerve. A decanter, containing an expensive amber colored liquid laid abandoned on the table with an empty glass cup. He had arranged all his remaining security guards to stand at the entrance of the corridor leading to reception of this office hoping they can finally stop this menace right there.


His body had jerked at the sudden sounds of gun fires. It continued nonstop until a muffled explosion stopped it all at once. The senator sat in silent apprehension for what seemed like hours but were just minutes, when another loud explosion sounded much closer, as the entrance to his office was an open one , he saw the hardened door of the short reception passage to this room blown across, trailed by smoke, fire and bits of debris. After that he heard slow steps sounds as they crunched on the scattered debris on the ground.


A figure in black stepped out of the smoke. He was holding a deadly looking rifle which he hang over his shoulder behind his head. Another gun with a short stubby muzzle was on a sling cross drown from left to right dangling at his waist. His body was wrapped around with combat webbing bugged down with clips and grenades hooked on it. The man on black calmly walked into the office, with a casual look around head to the desk before him, slide back one of the two wooden chairs before it, sat down heavily on it, dropped both guns on the table, muzzles facing Nathan as he brought both of his booted feet on the table one after the other, crossed.

When Geneva didn’t get blown up at the stipulated time, it was obvious that Cedric has failed which should have been highly unlikely considering that he was a well equipped agent fit for the task. Well there would be time to sort that out later he had thought back them not realizing that the Doomsday clock might start ticking his way soon. This happened when shortly his security access to the classified information that every member of the Senate Arms Committee is privy to was blocked. When he called Earthwatch Agency to find out what happened, he was given a flimsy excuse of a problem with the mainframe.


Well his fear further spiked when he noticed he was now a subject of long distanced passive surveillance. Then the hammer really came down when every attempts to make calls or communicate with anyone failed. It doesn’t matter what he tried using, a table top vid phone or a hand held one. Even typed messages could not go, whether with a general or secured communication device, it doesn’t work not even when he had borrowed a hand held vid phone from a total stranger. That is when he knew the noose was getting tighter around him.


If this was the president’s way of getting at him, it wouldn’t work because he can’t be tied to anything, his tracks are squeaky clean. He had ran to this hide out to stay out of notice till he will have opportunity to get a call through to any of his loyalist in the senate, that will put an immediate end to all these. But he never counted on being hunted down like this. Someone or some people had come after him here. He was aware of the attacks only when he heard the first explosion. When he had checked his security monitors , nothing was showing amiss. It was after checking all other defensive set up in this house did he realized that none of them is truly working.


They have been remotely hacked and taken down. No one can have that kind of high level security access to do that unless Earthwatch. But this is not how Earthwatch works, they would have come to arrest him by firstly announcing their intentions but this is something different, this is like a planned assassination. And he can’t know anything about who or the people carrying it out as all his surveillance equipment are down. And to make matters worse, his escape mode has also been blocked. All the doors leading to his hidden flyer that can at least get him off planet are locked. Who the hell is this that’s coming after him? All he just need is to get a call out. With impotent rage threatening to over cloud his mind, he tried one last time to make a call, it didn’t work.

Soon a third source of power revealed itself to him and that is information. Information is a tool of power and control, it gives you an absolute weapon to gain leverage and leverage is control and control is power. Information as power can be no more truer than possessing information that the government holds as secret. With the power of information, comes the concept of keeping secrets and hiding potentially powerful and dangerous information as state secrets. This had led him to the angle of exploring intelligence and secret service agencies. It was this that had thrown him into the dark world of espionage.


It was a delicious experience to him. He discovered volumes upon volumes of information that will put most people in his power. That has began his massive campaign of blackmail that had cowered a lot of his colleagues before him, giving him the leverage and control in the senate house. This had brought him the second time to the attention of more power colonist mega corporations. They had approached him and dropped their proposals. They shared a vision that surpasses anything he has ever dreamed if. They were visions that will grant him the ultimate power. They will support his move to the top of the senate while he smooth things out for them in the earth government side. It was a mutually beneficial symbiosis which in the end made him an influential member of the Senate Arms committee. All their plans was going well and on schedule until a series of little problems started raising their ugly heads.


Started with the two brilliant doctors who were heading their researches, which unknown to them, their work is linked in a way to the Alpha project. It was prudent then that it wasn’t revealed to them. Then the problem has escalated when a bounty hunter was hired to deal with it. The whole thing had blown up into the debacle at Nuterra. Well it wasn’t that bad and some if the leaks were plugged and the plans were moving ahead despite the demise of Nicolas. But Earthwatch Agency, that stubborn pest had raised its ugly head and using the bounty hunter from the previous matter, had come at them again.


Though the mega corporations and him have several plans that always keep them ahead of the earth government, still things might have turned out for the worse. His last communication with Dalmar has been about an impending attack of a hastily arranged task force on their secret base in the Iron Belt Cluster. He had promised to create an interference here on earth, demanding an injunction then proposing to raise an anti task force team to go stop the attack. But things usually happens slow in the senate. Despite rallying his loyalist, it was taking too long a time to form a quorum.


Besides that, he suspected the president might be playing a secret game. As a member of the Senate Arms committee, there was no way that task force could have been set up without him knowing. That was the first thing the ticked him that something might be wrong. Earthwatch might have suspected that there is a leak in the earth government, maybe among the Senate Arms Committee itself so they now hides their plans. This was the first time the mega corporations found themselves out maneuvered by the earth government and he, as their inside man was kept out of the loop. His worry went higher when his calls to the base in Iron Belt Cluster were not going through. Though his apprehension lessen a little when Cedric called him that he was on his way to earth to carry out one of their contingency plans. He was informed in advance so he and those with him can avoid that plenary session when the city of Geneva will be turned to a radioactive slab. He had taken a sudden sick leave and was not compelled to be at the meeting same with others with him.

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴
Nathan Goodwill has never been this scared in all of his life. For the first time, since past his childhood days, he knew the frustrating powerlessness of watching an inevitable and certain doom looming and been incapable of doing nothing about it, not even able to flee. From his early teenage days, Goodwill has known about power and what it means to anyone who wields it. His father had served in the military and that was the first place the junior Goodwill has seen the effect of powerr. He had seen strong and physically imposing men bow to the whims of lesser men because of power.


Sane men has been made to go and face certain death just because they were ordered to. Military officers who leads armed soldiers were conditioned to obey the commands of powerless civilians who they can decimate in the blink of an eye because the civilians were in power. This was the root of Nathan’s hunger to be a politician. The path to politics has been a rough one for him. He has had to beg, cajoled, kiss asses, grovel, lie, cheat, blackmail in all his bid to accomplish his political dream .


During the climb to the present height of his political career, he had also discovered earlier on that one major ingredient need to be successful in politics is money, lots of money. The quest for money to run a successful political campaign had pushed him into some of the darkest part of his life’s past. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon, but he had stolen several ones to fund his quest for power, political power.


The past behind him is littered with dark deeds that he had done his best to sweep under layers of dirt along with those who might threaten him with it. Then his dream has come to fruition as he landed his first political appointment. From there he had climbed the slippery ladder, filled with traps and pitfalls to the esteemed height of being a senator on earth’s Global Senate. That was the culmination of all his dreams. Shortly after that, he started feeling dissatisfied as the power he felt he can control as a senator wasn’t there. Being a senator means you get to spend lots of the time arguing with lazy and selfish people who can take for ever making up their mind to decide a single matter.


There were lots of meetings, deliberations, lobbying, even for the simplest of request but nothing of actual control. He was almost giving up, though the potential to control power as a senator exists but it just wasn’t there. Money was another means to gain more power over his fellow senators but his didn’t possess an inexhaustible coffer. This all changed when a chanced meeting brought him in contact with a mega corporation from the colonies. It has to do with passing a bill for the legalizing of a certain mining right on a planet.


When Nathan was approached, he saw the opportunity and used it. Money came to him in droves and he had delivered, as it didn’t take him long enough to convince his blind and greedy colleagues to agree with him after lining their pockets generously. That was the beginning of his dealings with the colonist mega corporations, he saw them as an avenue for endless supply of credits and credits will grant him more control over other senators which will give him greater influence in the senate and garner more loyalists to his side.


Total power wasn’t his yet but he was getting there. Being the executive president of the earth government might look attractive on the outside, but true power rests with the earth senate who can veto the president on all things. That was why senator Goodwill had focused on being a force at the floor of the senate house than seeking for an executive position, because true power rests with the senate.

Recalling the instructions Hardwire had tried to impact on him back then, he saw the control indicators on the sling grenade. You can set it for a right or left hand roll. There is a setting for not two but three alternate turning of right, left and right or vice-versa in whatever order. Well he will have to try a single left turning then. But he recalled dropping this grenade on the table after Hardwire introduced it seeing no need for it. Hardwire must have smuggled it into his combat bag while dumping some of his weapons into it.


Earlier in the car, Marvel had overlooked it, assuming it to be one of his flash bang grenade, because they have similar make. Good boy Hardwire always turn out to be. If he had come in with his spy drone, there might have been a chance to take the shooters out but that can’t happen now.


Activating the slingshot grenade setting it for two seconds delay and putting it on a left side sling he tossed it. So if they want to play hard, Marvel had come prepared to play harder. He saw the blur as the dangerous egg winged left while still on the air as he threw it then vanished at the corner. Sudden shouts of alarm followed it which caused the steady din of the gun fire sounds to falter a little and then it exploded. As the explosion hit the corridor, Marvel imagined a deep techni rock subbass rhythm sounding in his mind.


The extra large grenade contains more frag fillings, with tungsten shrapnel. As it exploded, all these were turned to super heated killing fragments scything through flesh and bones, eviscerated body parts dropped with red wet thuds on the corridor. The attackers were all packed together at the enclosed space without any form of cover so nothing will obstruct their field of fire. Well they were all left exposed to the deadly killing rain of the slingshot grenade.


Marvel took his time to slowly get up, whistling in accompaniment to the subbass rhythm in his head. Turning the corner he was greeted by a gory sight. Severed limbs, shredded guts and spilled entrails mingled with dipping blood stained both walls and the floor. The pungent smell of fresh blood, burnt flesh and smoke whiffed by his nose . There was no one even twitching, he doubt if there’s any one single body left of more than half a dozen people on the floor with a complete body parts still intact .


When you look at it , humans are mostly made of water. Instead of going ahead to meet the senator who most probably is covering in a hole ahead he decided he need to do something first. Just in front of the parting of the corridor, a place that looked like a plain wall hid something interesting.
“Alright Hardwire, open it up. “ He spoke to his comm and shortly after the plain wall slid apart showing a small door like an access path with a stairway heading up. This was one of the escape point the senator would have used to get to his flyer, the second is in his other office were he presently is. Both doors were remotely locked by Hardwire. Marvel stepped into the door way and it closed back into a blank wall.

Marvel pulled back a bit more as he considered his predicament. Definitely a wall to wall welcoming committee of well armed mercs with guns possed and itchy fingers on triggers blasting away with careless abandon now block his path . A firestorm of lead rain gauntlet he won’t survive if he steps into. The blistering sounds of the fire continued without a pause whatsoever. Muzzle of guns blowing out hot leads all seeking his flesh, waiting to wallow in his blood and smear his name on them. Marvel dropped the light bag with him, shifting through the remaining contents for an appropriate weapon to use.


Frag grenade won’t work as the intensity of the fire is making it impossible for him to get close enough to toss any, same goes for his use of the TEC 5, both attempts at their use is suicide. Just then Marvel came up with an odd shaped grenade. He didn’t recall bringing this to earth while leaving the Max Neo. It was one of the result of Hardwire’s tinkering with explosive weapons. He had nicknamed it slingshot grenade. Hardwire had asked him a question before showing him the odd explosive


“What will you do boss, if you are pinned down by fire from enemies lurking at corners without a straight line of sight? “ Hardwire had asked condescendingly with his index fingers demonstrating. “Mind you , it’s extremely rare to throw a grenade at a winding corner and expect full impact, and to use an RPG launcher you will have to risk exposure to weapons fire. "


“See I have faced odds like that in the past and survived them. Will do that when it presents itself in the future. “ Marvel had responded when Hardwire had continued to pester him for a reply.
“Not good enough boss, you have to always be prepared for everything. “ Hardwire had brought out the odd shaped contraption. It was in the shape of a frag grenade but bigger, the size of two human fists. “Ta-dah, I call it the slingshot grenade, you can throw it round corners. “

He was about moving ahead to the stairways leading to the third floor when he noticed that the glasses indicated to points of body heat beyond the door the recently deceased mercs came from. The door was slightly ajar as Marvel stopped to peep through. It led into a corridor of four doors each on both sides and a fifth door ahead which was locked. From what he can detect through his glasses, the targets were standing prone on both sides of the door, waiting to catch him in a cross fire if he comes in that way.


Well, he is coming in but not in the way they expected. Abandoning the penetrator for now, he grabbed the TEC 5, it still has two rockets in its round clip. Pointing it at the door, he fired. The missile hit the door then blew apart. The door looked wooden but was actually light metal overlaid with wood.


The explosion tore the door off its hinges throwing it further into the room beyond, which was another wide one that looked like an office. The sudden explosion caught the two ambushers in a shockwave that caused them to lurch stumbling on unsteady legs. With quick rush Marvel got in to noticed that one of them had his face ripped off his head, as it shook with what might appear like unbelief, while the second was bent on hands and knees, his ears spitting blood. Without a second thought, Marvel took them out with two short burst from his rifle.


The third floor was his final target and a quick check confirmed that the senator is still in the building, trapped by Hardwire’s hacking sealing every door leading to his getaway flyer. But that was not all. Seems the rest of the mercs are all waiting, gathered at a point before the senator. And that is a part he must go through to get to the him. Getting to the third floor, no door barred his way, it was just an open corridor leading to a junction of two passages going left and right. The left is supposed to be his target.


He discovered that except a single heat signature that was hanging far back, the others were packed together at a single point. That definitely is not good. As if to confirm, as he got close to the parting of the junction, a sudden hailstorm of bullets rained vertically on the passageway. The sounds of the gunfire deafening within the confined space. Marvel suspected that the light behind him might have thrown his shadow ahead of him to appear before the pathway and the jittery fingers on triggers couldn’t wait for him to appear before they fired. The gunfire continued on a steady beat, bullets chewing away huge chunks of duracrete walls and tearing out potions of the doors on each sides. Ping pong sounds followed as some of the bullets ricochet on more hardened surfaces. Chips of stones, woods and soft metals scattered all around him some smacking harmlessly on him

Taking a while to check the other heat signatures that indicate potential enemies and their locations within the compound, he detected that most of the ones on perimeter duties were down, the rest were too far away to come at the main entrance. The display on his glasses show them heading to the house from the northern part which is just adjacent the cliff edge area of the energy fence at the backside of the house which presupposes that there might be another door at the back.


Well he will deal with them when it’s time. He turned back and headed down the passage way the door he was on leads to checking for targets again in the house by looking for the heat signatures. They were scattered at most areas around the house. Well Marvel wasn’t intending to keep them waiting for long. As he opened the door, the end of the passage showed a line of staircase leading up at regular intervals and branching at each floors of the house. Marvel moved hurriedly up the steps, taking them two stairs at a time.


The house is a big one with too many rooms and passages for him to comb thoroughly, that is why the locking on to the heat signatures displaying before his glasses will be very helpful, at least in leading him to his target. Another check, shows the senator is still somewhere above him, three floors up and between him and the target are several red dots indicating hurdles, in the form of armed and probably angry mercs all determined to take him out. Getting to the first floor, a quick verification on the signatures again shows no hostiles on this floor.


Considering how big this house is, apart from the armed men, there were no signs of domestic helps or other civilian households in it. The senator had lost his family, a wife and a son on a tragic cruiser accident around the orbit of Venus some years ago caused by sudden unanticipated solar flare that crippled the vehicle’s navicom system and it crashed into an ore train loaded in orbit and waiting to be hauled. The crashed caused an explosion that killed everyone on board. So the senator has no immediate family members to speak of.


There have been some mistresses but from record, none of them has been brought to this place. That means this whole house is virtually empty when the senator is not around. The glasses pointed at some targets spilling out of the door to the second floor into the staircase. With a quick look up, Marvel could see them and also hear as their heels l hammered on the floor. They were trying to look down and locate him as they have no way of pinpointing him directly without aids from the inactive motion sensors.


Marvel stopped moving and slid back into the cover of the stairs over his head. Taking careful look at the material the staircase is made of, he noticed they were of thick polished real wood. Taking a note of the targets as they appeared as red points on his glasses, he lifted the penetrator with muzzle facing above him. He caress the trigger and armor piercing bullets punctured through the thick woods to strike at the targets above. The bullets spilling from the muzzle of the rifle have hyper velocity capacity that blew them through the barriers without slowing their speed considerably.


He allowed the gun to go on full auto, as he wasn’t sure of accuracy at this time, just blast every thing within the target radius. As the clip ran dry, four thuds of bodies dropping assured him he was successful. Ejecting the spent clip, he smacked in new one as he continued up the steps. At the foot of the second floor, he saw the bodies of his would be attackers sprawled on different death shapes, all blasted full of holes and leaking out their life fluids in bright red pools.

correctguy101:
If I fail to comment my reserve and continue reserving my comment. Make I nak3d baff for baffroom.

Apollox eh, Apollox eh
Your light will never go dim, your legs will never lead you to temptation wey no good. Na only better temptations you go dey get. The oil wey dey your head no go finish, instead many people go anoint you with more oil.

From Memoirs of Blood and Steel to Marvel Chronicles 1 and now 2, I was just seeing a great movie in my minds' eye.
You need make these into epubs and ebooks and make money from them. If you don't know how tell me, there are people I read their works on here that I can mention or try to reach out to so they can put you through.

Amazon go pay you blasts for these works aswia.

Ok sounds good.

bigbauer:
just so you know, i am still following this story, i may not comment as often as i want, but i read each update, almost as soon as it drops.

Meanwhile, check my signature.

Yeah it's been a while you commented. Glad you have stayed till almost the end of this story. Though I have finished typing it late last night, might finish updating it by Monday or Tuesday. And will probably go for a long break of... A week, to rest my fingers, catch up on the books I left reading, do a little research on my next job, that I'm having a problem deciding which.
1. MARVEL CHRONICLES 3
2. PENANCE
3. WELCOME TO THE AFTERLIFE (a different story but set in the world of Marvel Chronicles)
I have the same problem with all three of them. I have their major plots set already... The problem is just... To start.

Running ahead Marvel choose the left door to go in through but stopped after just a step in. He already saw heat signatures of guards running towards the entrance of the house on his glasses, so he wanted to be prepared for them. He has just two rockets left in the present clip of the TEC 5, so he dropped it hanging while filling his hand with the penetrator. Checking the tiny digital readout on the gun shows him the clip is still about eighty percent full, so that will still carry him for what he has in mind.


He hid himself behind the edge of the door and was studying the heat signatures as they approached the damaged entrance. Just then low crouching sounds came from the door as feet stepped on the debris scattered on the tilled floor. Marvel turned quickly his gun poking out the door’s edge first. With a quick peek Marvel counted about half a dozen armed mercs entering the door, looking around with surprises on their faces. One of them was tapping vigorously on the comm headgear with him but his squeeze his face into a grimace showing the frustration that his messages were not getting through.


Marvel held fast to the rifle as he pulled the trigger. The gun’s setting was on full auto. The bullets blew two of the mercs backwards knocking them against the wall before others could realize what was happening. But their professionalism took over and the rest dispersed, dropping to the floor to escape the flying bullets that had taken out two of them.


The firing mechanism on the penetrator clicked to an empty chamber as the clip ran dry. The sound was awfully loud after the noise produced by the quick gun fire. The mercs couldn’t return fire because the auto fire from Marvel got them pinned and lying prone flat on the floor. But as the gun ran dry, they quickly guessed what has happened and were getting up preparing to return fire. Marvel wasn’t taken unaware by the suddenness of his gun going dry, he two hands were already on his combat webbing pulling out frag grenades, he tossed them over by the door and with the same move ejected the spent clip, searching for a fresh one before the grenades went off.


Sudden yell of fear and surprised followed after the two explosive eggs landed as the mercs realized what just dropped before them. The two grenades exploded almost at once. The closest merc was blasted over his legs leaving the floor while others got bathed with lethal dosages of hot shrapnel slicing through flesh, bones and armored covering. Marvel already has the new clip loaded on his primary weapon muzzle up as he stepped cautiously out of his cover to see the effects of the grenades blasts. One body was thrown out the door heavily bleeding unmoving, with a certain death pose.


Two had punctured lacerations on their heads, one has his skull completely sliced open and the other had his neck cut open and twisted at an ungodly angle, both are dead. The last one was twisting with pains on the ground, an arm and leg cut cleanly through. Marvel raised his rifle, centered on the head and gave him a single shot of mercy to take him out of his misery.

He already saw the heat signatures of three men in the building before charging in that was why he diverted his move away from a straight forward rush. The door opened into a wide sitting room with three wide settee, ivory colored around an oval shaped table with beautifully crafted legs. There were three doors leading into the sitting room with three big glass chandeliers with lights within them hanging over the high ceiling. The settee has been overturned and made into temporary makeshift coverings and the three shooters were hiding behind them.


Marvel’s sudden move surprised them and they quickly adjusted their aims turning their rifles to the place Marvel landed in. Surprising enough the guns all fired bullets and not lazer. Marvel was already off his landing posture and running when the bullets hammered behind him. The shooters were not close to each other which would have made using the TEC 5 to take them out easier. Well why not, he has more than enough ammo loaded to take them out. Still running, he turned the rocket gun on one of the shooters who when he saw what was pointed at him, jumped up from he cover to flee.


Too late though as the rocket was launched and slammed into the cover he was on, blowing it apart and flinging him with a roll that shoved him and knocked him heavily against the dense duracrete wall behind him. Marvel changed his direction, dropped to the ground and rolled the opposite way he had come from. His dropping moved him away from the part of the oncoming fire from the other two left. Their shots went over his head and back. He lifted the TEC 5 as he forward rolled releasing another rocket at the second shooter.


He didn’t have the time to flee like his other colleague instead was still shooting when the rocket blew through the settee exploding and ripping him in half by the waist. His two legs were torn apart from his shredded torso. Blood and entrails mixed with the fire of the explosion. The third shooter was already up and running for the door behind him when another rocket from the TEC 5 trailed him. The rocket hit the right girder of the door at the head height level. The explosion was like the sun exploding on his face. His head blew apart like a balloon puncture with a needle. Skull bones, gray matter and blood were thrown away from the jagged stump of the neck. The moving body jerked to a stopped as if it hit a solid wall then fell to the floor.

He pulled his mind from admiring his handiwork as he realized that the perimeter patrolling guards will be coming this way and out here there’s hardly any cover, the best place for a defensive stand is in the house. Heading that way he got in contact with Hardwire, requesting that the points where each body signatures of the mercs guarding the house are shown on his glasses as thumbnails.
“Where’s Goodwill? “
“He is still in the house but his body signature shows him moving up. “ Hardwire responded after tapping on some keys.


“Damn he is about to make a run for it. “ Marvel huffed as he spoke while running. “See if you can jam the control of that landing platform so it won’t open when he plans taking the flyer out. “
“I can’t do that boss, “ Hardwire’s voice came on the ear piece. “The control to that platform is an isolated one and can only be activated in that flyer, so I can hack it. “
Marvel cursed under his breath. “Alright, lock every door leading to the place the flyer is kept. Make sure you box him in on every side. “


Marvel didn’t pay attention to Hardwire’s acknowledged reply as he was already before the entrance to the house. His TEC 5 was still cradled in his hand and it still had seven rockets loaded in it as the exploding fusion cells on the cars had made him use less rockets than he planned using before. Well the more the merrier. He locked target on the door and pulled back on the TEC 5’s trigger. The rocket headed on target passing under the awning and between the marble colonnade pillars, then hit the door. As the rocket exploded, pieces of real wood, metal and duracrete blew out.


Another rocket followed, blasting the awning and the marble pillars apart and destroying the mini guns hidden within them. Low burning flames scattered at the new entrance to the house were still spewing thick smoke when Marvel dashed through it but dove down quickly and rolled to the left. Rapid fire pelted the damaged walls surrounding the destroyed door, blackened by the burning fire and smoke, where Marvel would have been standing had he not dove out of the way.

Yeah this is Marvel back in his element, doing what he knows how to do best. I want to end this story by at least giving us a closing action package... MARVEL STYLE.

The first security guard staggered up to his feet, he was obviously reeling under the shock of the blast and sound wave of the near explosion, the other one was definitely dead. Marvel didn’t have the time to raise the penetrator to take him out, so he lifted the TEC 5 instead. Well an overkill is better than been shot at. The muzzle pointed at the staggering man, Marvel pulled the trigger. The rocked hit the guard dead center and exploded. The target was literarily blown to pieces of bits of fleshy parts with showers of red blood rains.


Running quickly, Marvel faced his left part at this point, looking at the open garage with the exotic cars. Anyway stealth wasn’t how he planned doing this job, he came in here prepared for a full time blitz and seeing he has already started with the guard shack, why stop there. Taking a look at those cars, they definitely had cost the senator more than a fortune to acquire, he really will be pained by their loss. What the hell, Marvel thought grimly, he was here to bring down the house anyway, he might as well continue blowing things up.


Giving himself enough safe distance, he brought the TEC 5 into target acquisition of the garage. He still has ten rockets left in this clip, more than enough for what he has in mind for those vehicles. His first target was the pleasure yacht. With a touch of his index on the trigger, the rocket projectile hit the yacht dead center, blowing through the light armor covering on it and exploding inside it. The yacht appeared like it was ripped apart from the middle by a gigantic arm of exploding flames.


His next target were the two exotic limos. Two rocket warheads ploughed into them and they blew up one after the other. Their metallic body shredded from their chassis and the antigravity rings beneath them tossed far away. Marvel was about to adjust his aim for the other air cars when the destroyed pleasure yacht blew up again.


The fusion cells must have been heated up by the increase in temperature caused by the fire and it got critical. The new explosion dwarfed all other three before it as long tongues of flames shot up into the night sky blowing through the plastiglass canopy, tearing it apart and the rest melting from the heat. The other cars started to explode one after the other, as the limos’ fusion cells exploded too engulfing the packed cars in roaring flames , the heat in turn ignited their fusion cell as well. Marvel stood awhile as he watched the fire work display of brilliant fireball shooting out on all sides with brightness dwarfing the lights surrounding the compound.

He was of a taller height, with a headgear affixed with two goggles that might have been night vision type but was pulled to the top of his head. His chins were bare of any hair except a well crafted mustache on his upper lip. His lazer rifle was on a sling hung by his shoulder across by the left to dangle at the other side. His reaction to the sudden appearance was to quickly reach for the rifle by his side. But Marvel was fast as he fired, too fast.


As the merc turned his head downwards to locate his rifle, the first bullet directed at him missed his head just by a few millimeters. But the penetrator’s setting was in semi-auto, so as long as Marvel continued to squeeze the trigger, bullets will continue to blow out of the gun’s muzzle. The next bullets hit the target. The next one struck the top of his forehead as it drilled a clean hole from it to the back of the skull’s top taking away the head cover with it. The next bullet hit smack center on the clean cut mustache, creating a jagged hole the crushed all his upper gum, scattering the teeth, then blowing blood, bones and brain tissues out of the back of the head. He did a sudden body roll that threw him down on the floor.


Marvel didn’t wait to check his downed foes, he knew nobody can survive a head shot like that, his attention was focused on the guard shack he had noticed while getting in. The gun sounds had definitely been heard around the compound, the nearest coordinated defense will be coming from that place. And if they take the time to go through their security monitors and not seeing the source of the shooting, they may begin suspect that something external had taken over their surveillance system.


Marvel raced to the guard house and was just in time to notice some one coming out of the door, rifle posed to fire, taking careful look around. His mouth was moving as if speaking to someone. He came out of the door of the guard post and another armed man followed him, his gun raised to cover the first one. Marvel dropped the penetrator as it dangled on the string bringing up the TEC 5. It was already loaded and ready to fire.


Marvel targeted the shack at extreme range and pulled the trigger. With a low puff sound, a rocket round shot out of the RPG gun’s muzzle and flashed to the target. The first security merc out of the shack must has seen something as he dove to the ground his mouth shaped in form off a shout. What ever he might have been saying seem to have been lost to his colleague, as he was still trying to seen what he was warned against when the rocket hit the shack and exploded.


The shack shattered under the blast of a fireball that knocked the standing guard off his feet and flung him like a rag doll. What ever structure the shack must has been built with disinterested under the impact of the rocket, and the spot was burning furiously spewing dark smoke into the night sky.

“Acknowledged, “ Marvel replied and hastened his work. After planting the explosive, he activated it, linked with an electronic signal slaved to the detonator with him and also to Hardwire’s data console just incase he is unable to detonate the bombs here, Hardwire can do that remotely from where he is. The combat bag was much lighter now, having loosed must of its weight. Marvel hanged it around him making sure the TEC 5,was free for quick draw and won’t be barred by the bag getting in the way. Picking up his penetrator rifle, he headed the way the two security were coming from.
His sudden appearance will give him the advantage of surprise for a few seconds. His safety was off and the gun was on semiauto blast settings.


He waited for them at a blind edge of the house so the security mercs won’t see him ahead of time. With a quick move Marvel jumped out of hiding into the patrolling path of them. Both took the sudden appearance of Marvel differently. One of them was of average height, holding what appeared to he a snub nosed double barreled rifle. His head was bald and the bright light around gleamed on his pate. His face was surrounded by a black beard and mustache. His reaction to the sudden appearance was one of shock as his step froze for a second.


Marvel’s rifle already had him in sight with a slight push of his trigger finger, the penetrator spat armor piercing bullet. They struck him at his center mass , tearing apart the common torso armor he had on, blowing through the chest, lungs and bones then blasting them out behind him. He was knocked off his feet backwards by the force of the three bullet smacking him. The sound of the gun fire was loud in the quiet night. But Marvel didn’t want to get bothered by that now, he moved quickly to face the second man.

“Hardwire are you seeing the view from my glasses?” Getting an affirmation, he continued. “Deactivate the pressure sensors and the mines. I intent making a run to the house, so plot me a course that will keep me clear of the patrolling security till I get close to the house. Then blind me to those hovering surveillance drones and the micro spy cams all over this place. “


Having said that Marvel double timed, taking quick dash of running speed across the landscape. The areas painted red on his glasses turned green as Hardwire deactivated the pressure sensors but the areas where the surface to air lazer cannons were buried he avoided. The surroundings were almost bare without any cover except some few trees with wide spaces between them to serve as effective concealment against prying eyes. Hopefully Marvel’s combat black body armor will provide him the cover he needs from human eyes that will be observing from long distances.


With the direction Hardwire l has plotted for him, the chances of him stumbling on an armed patrolling guard are slim. Just then Marvel got within few yards of the house without any incident, by the left hand side he saw the garage outside the house. Between the space of the garage and the compound, further backwards is a guard shack that Marvel knew houses the security surveillance control area. If any alarm will be raised, that will be the first area it will be coming from. Well that is not Marvel’s objective now he will deal with it later.


“Are the mini guns on those colonnades before the house entrance deactivated? “
“Sure boss. “ Hardwire replied.
Marvel got to the wall of the house, he already know where the pillars on which the whole structures of the building rest having spent time to go through the simulated building plans while still in the car. He went down on one knee, dropped the bag he wrought with him, putting aside the rifle for now, he pulled out the HE PlastiNitrate explosives, attached it to a wall of the house where a pillar is located. He attached the explosive with a plastic adhesive. That done, he picked up the bag and his rifle, ran to the next pillar point. He intends to bring down the building right on the senator’s head.
He was almost through planting an explosive on the fifth pillar when the micro comm unit in his ear crackled. “Boss you got two heat signatures heading your way. “

He ran into the night as soon as Hardwire acknowledged. The air was thick with humidity as it had showered slightly earlier that night. The tarmac road still retained little of the rapidly drying water. The road leading to the entrance of his target were brightly lit with lights on both sides, despite the trees lining the them. He moved away from the road to the lawn by the right side, his boots digging deep into the soft soil, treading the grasses and stepping on water poodles that have gathered on the uneven parts of the ground. His movement was quick aiming for the gate, the sky overhead was dark with multitudes of clouds streaming at fast paces obscuring stars with their passing.


The moon was not up tonight, so Marvel will need extra enhancement to see through the darkness of poor light. As the brightly lit road cast deep shadows of the trees by them to the sides away from the road. He already anticipated this, so he came along with HD starlight glasses that he pulled over his eyes. The glasses drew the surrounding lights to create a view that was as clear as late evening.


The bounty hunter was already hearing the low hum of the lazer grid energy fence surrounding the compound long before he got to the eastern perimeter of the fence. It drowned the tiny other sounds of small night creatures chirping all the while he was trekking to this place. Soon he was standing before the amber colored energy barrier of the fence twelve feet from top to bottom crisscrossed with zigzag patterns of red lazer light. There was no way the senator can power this energy fence with the power generated for this town. Energy alone consumed by this fence is equivalent to what a town five times the size of this one will use. So there is a possibility that the house generates its own power. He will keep that tiny detail in mind.


Taping the comm link on his ear, Marvel asked. “Hardwire I’m somewhere at the eastern part of the fence, can you locate me? “ When he got a positive response, gave out an instruction. “ Hack in to the security system for the fence and create an entrance for me. “
Just then part of the energy grid fence divided between two poles and Marvel ran into the compound his penetrator up and seeking for targets. Just then, the breach on the energy fence closed behind him. His HD Starlite glasses took on a new display superimposed on the night sight .


As he stepped away from the energy fence his boots crunched on the well keep low lawn that seem to cover every inch of the acres around except the few places where cobblestones were used to pave roads or the small spaces occupied by the few trees planted around. The night sight over his eyes started pinpointing parts of the lawn before him in red. He knew what that meant. Those are places rigged with pressure sensors which are placed over explosive smart antipersonnel mines.