Silver Sable sat at Smokie's, eyes fixed on locked on the door as her fingers tapped the table. Every coming customer shuddered under her cold, murderous gaze. Many turned around, lacking the courage to step inside. Of course, some brave souls called her out on her unnecessary hostility. She silenced them by placing a cold sniper rifle on the table.
As Symkaria's Sovereign, she operated beyond most laws here. A stunt like this might earn a warning, maybe a fine. Even if it didn't, frankly, she couldn't care about it at the moment.
4 PM.
Ninety two minutes past her assigned meeting with RedEye. The man himself had yet to arrive or send an update via text. She paid him upfront on professional trust. Now, she looked like a fool. Her Wild Pack—her nation—looked like a fool.
She clenched her fist. "I will carve into his bones the ruthlessness of my Wild Pack."
Without hesitation, she dialed the one man who could track RedEye within seconds.
"Phil Coulson speaking."
"I handed you that abomination in Symkaria. Do you still remember that?"
"...Yes, I do."
"You must also remember my words from that time then."
There was a brief pause from the other side. "'You will owe me the Wild Pack a favor for this.'"
"Correct," she said with a satisfied nod. "I'm cashing half of it now. I need every detail on a merc in Manhattan. Codename RedEye. Black eyes, black hair, around six in height, and a sharp face."
"...Did he dump—"
"One more word, and I will make sure Symkaria never cooperates with your organization in the future," Silver Sable warned. "Send me the intel ASAP."
"Using the favor on a low-level merc," Phil's response came, skeptical and somewhat annoyed. "It doesn't seem like a smart move, Sovereign of Symkaria."
"I will still keep half the favor in my pocket."
This wasn't about her and RedEye anymore. She had to send a clear message that Symkaria and her Wild Packs were not to be played for fools under any circumstances.
"Is this because of your new client? He doesn't seem like the nicest guy to cooperate with."
"Again, it's not your concern," she said flatly before ending the call.
She stared at her tablet until it finally pinged.
'Dante. He wasn't seen leaving his apartment today.'
She brushed a strand of her hair back and picked up her rifle before heading out.
***
The cold rage she'd held in her chest vanished the moment she broke into Dante's apartment. The target of her vengeance lay motionless on the floor, shirtless, and his jeans a bunch of rags clinging to his legs. His breathing was so shallow he might as well have been dead.
"What the hell…"
She crouched beside him and reached out carefully to check his pulse, only to jerk back. His skin burned with heat far beyond fever. The intense heat had melted most of his clothes into tattered, barely recognizable rags.
"A Mutant awakening…?"
Her hand hovered over her phone to summon her team immediately; her rational mind quickly shook off that impulse. None of her mercenaries had any knowledge about mutants. She, however, possessed at least some knowledge passed down through her heritage and her father's teachings about mutants.
Technically speaking, this marked her second time encountering a mutant in the flesh, and she genuinely wished she hadn't been forced to witness the first one. Green Moon, that grotesque abomination who had once run rampant through Symkaria's outskirts. He was barely any stronger than average humans, and his power was an ugly third eye on his chest, capable of shooting psionic beams. The impact was barely stronger than a nerf gun. Useless—absolutely and utterly useless was the only way to accurately describe Green Moon's pathetic abilities.
Although she wasn't a mutant expert, Dante's powers seemed to be on an entirely different level judging from the ruckus he caused in his unconscious state. Any power related to extreme heat or flames would be made useful in combat.
'I should kill him.'
Save him from the inevitable trouble of being hunted and save the world from a potential supervillain. A clean solution made even easier by the fact that this man had no family to speak of. However, it wasn't a choice Silvija Sablinova would make. He hadn't hurt her. Rather, the laptop on the couch and the bundled files stacked on top of it showed his diligence in accomplishing his work.
'I can walk away, not be a part of this.'
Her intel sat right there waiting for her to collect it, and absolutely nothing would stop her from leaving with both the laptop and the files. Nothing except her own morals and her... greed. Where others saw endless future troubles and complications, Silver Sable's eye recognized an opportunity. The opportunity to increase her Wild Pack's overall firepower while simultaneously scoring a skilled intel operative.
She rubbed the back of her head before muttering aloud, "How exactly do I help him then? Water might work, I suppose."
Scanning the apartment quickly, she located a bucket and filled it to the brim with cold water before dumping it over his overheated body. Steam immediately hissed upward as the water made contact with his burning skin, vaporizing almost instantly.
"Oh come on."
She repeated the process again and again. Five trips, five buckets, and nearly hundred litre water to settle him back in a reasonable temperature. Now his body seemed pleasantly warm to the touch rather than dangerously scorching, which she took as a positive sign of improvement.
She carried him to the bed and tucked him under a blanket.
'Now what do I do?'
She'd fought warlords, mercenaries, and many other dangerous monsters lurking in Symkaria, yet this particular situation represented new territory that her training hadn't fully prepared her to handle.
'One thing is certain. I can't let SHIELD discover his existence.'
As the Sovereign of Symkaria, she possessed enough power and influence to protect him from almost everyone. The one glaring exception to that rule was SHIELD. The super-organization had an insatiable hunger for acquiring and controlling mutants from the information her Wild Pack had acquired. They wouldn't strike openly, but would instead quietly extract him from right under her watchful eyes. They had the skilled agents and resources to do so.
She planted a small surveillance camera in the corner of the bedroom where it would capture everything, then returned to the living room and dropped down onto the couch. Her sharp nose caught a feminine scent that didn't belong to either her or Dante, but she couldn't particularly care about it.
'Not the worst place to live.'
The apartment wasn't particularly large, but he had clearly taken excellent care of it recently, and judging by the sheer quantity of shiny new purchases scattered throughout the space, she could easily calculate exactly how much of her fifty thousand dollars Dante had enthusiastically spent upgrading his living conditions.
'He is different from what my Security Consultant told me.'
Alcoholic, depressed, and suicidal—those had been the exact terms her street-level informant had used to describe RedEye's mental state and lifestyle; none had turned out to be even remotely accurate. No alcohol bottles or smell around the apartment. No obvious signs of depression in him during their brief face-to-face meeting at the restaurant. As for the suicidal claims, she simply couldn't comprehend how any genuinely suicidal person would spend this much money and effort upgrading their lifestyle and investing in their own comfort and future.
Growing bored with speculation, she decided to read through Dante's meticulously prepared files in detail.
"Not bad."
She grabbed his laptop and connected it directly to the surveillance camera feed, leaving a small window open in the corner of the screen so she'd be immediately informed of any abnormal changes in his condition. Afterward, she carefully examined his intelligence work and found herself genuinely impressed by both the thoroughness and the presentation quality.
'There are too many underground powers in this area.'
Norman Osborn and his Oscorp Corporation represented her current contract and her primary concern. The real threat, though, came from these numerous underground powers because any rival organization with sufficient resources could easily hire them to sabotage or steal Oscorp's operations.
'Two active Maggia families, several dangerous gangs and crews… and the Hand, a global cult with history dating back to the 1800s and before.'
She suddenly understood why Oscorp had offered her such an unexpectedly generous contract for what should've been relatively straightforward security work. They were being pinched from multiple sides simultaneously, with everyone eyeing apparently wanting whatever secrets Oscorp's research facility was hiding behind its walls.
A small smile curved her lips. "Easy jobs aren't for my Wild Pack."
She glanced at the small video window showing Dante sleeping peacefully in the bedroom. Her primary objective of protecting Oscorp's interests would become significantly easier with another superpowered individual fighting at her side, provided his abilities lived up to her hopes. She still felt her ace was stronger than him.
Time passed slowly as she alternated between watching the city through the window and occasionally communicating via encrypted messages with her mercenary team to ensure they continued their regular patrols around the research facility's perimeter.
Around 5:30 PM, her stomach rumbled loudly to remind her that she hadn't consumed a single bite of food since early morning. She'd originally planned to share a meal with RedEye at their scheduled meeting as a courtesy gesture between comrades. Her plan had completely fallen apart when he never showed up at the restaurant.
She rose from the couch and moved into the kitchen, where nearly everything appeared to have been purchased brand new quite recently. Even the shiny refrigerator looked fully stocked with a wide variety of fresh supplies.
'Chicken, turkey, bacon, more chicken, steak… this man is obsessed with meat.'
She couldn't help but smile in amusement. His single-minded protein focus might also explain his impressively muscular physique, which she'd noticed immediately during their first meeting.
'He honestly could've made a career in supermodeling.'
She found herself craving chicken as well today, so she chose to prepare a relatively simple but flavorful chicken dish learned from a distant German relative.
"He better appreciate my work."