A Hero's Journey

Caity

When his eyes cracked open, he immediately recognized the stars in the sky, and that he was nowhere near in New York. "Caity, where the fuck are we?" He asked, feeling his foot aching, his shoulder throbbing, and his back hurting so much that it was numb, but it still somehow hurt, which was weird. How could one spot hurt and be completely numb at the same time? It was weird.

"We are nearly at the storage of General Ross' super soldier program. Not as much security as the base he was stationed, but still plenty enough that I encourage some precaution. Other than that, it will be easy for you, boss."

He pauses. "I don't remember telling you to fly us here."

"You did not. I did the courtesy of flying us out here so that you could destroy the serums as planned." She replies.

"I did not program you to auto-assign destinations." He says, his worry coming out in his tone, unlike the first few times he brought it up.

Caity seems to take a moment to reply, something he did not program her to do. This makes it seem like she is thinking. Not something an advanced computer is supposed to be able to do, not something he programmed her to do.

This was dangerous.

"Sir, I think you may need to shut me down. I am evolving." She says, and it throws him for a loop. She knows she's evolving, and is telling him to shut her down. Anything warning against Artificial Intelligence says that if they got to this point, they would do anything to stay alive.

But here she was telling him to shut her down. Maybe she would break the cycle.

"I'll have to see how exactly that happened. For now, open the top." He tells her, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, then stands up as the roof retracts. He stands up, then tells her, "Lower to one hundred feet."

"Boss, normally, I would not doubt your ability to land safely. However, your ankle is one step removed from being shattered. It is not wise."

He breathes out. "I'll live. Always do. Minimum effort." Then once they are low enough, he drops, catching himself on a large tower before climbing down into the base easily. Ghost slips around employees with ease, not even having to throw on a disguise, getting into the storage for the serums. The man in bloodied white steps into it, and looks at the canister. He opens it, then looks at the eleven doses.

He grabs the first one, observes it, then pockets it. He needed to analyze it. Then he grabbed another then crushed it in his hand. He shifted to grab two more, then dropped them onto the ground, neither canister shattering. He grabbed canister four of eleven, looked at it, and his temper spiked. So, he turned and threw it at the wall, watching the contents get splayed on the wall. Canisters five through nine got the same treatment, until someone stepped into it, pointing a gun, right as he grabbed number ten.

"Freeze!" They yelled, and he grit his teeth. He shifted, his boot crushing one of the two on the floor, then through the serum at the guard. The shot went wide, the bang echoing out of the chamber as it hit and splashed them. The assassin moved in, grabbed their wrist, flipped them over his shoulder onto his back before ripping their gun away, then hitting them in the face with it twice, knocking them out. He shifted back grabbing the last vial and hurled it at the ground, it breaking as he stomped on the last vial.

Then, he left the same way he came, avoiding anyone else on the way out.

~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later, he was sitting in front of Nick and Maria, sitting with his arms crossed on a chair. He looked exhausted, masks off with the office locked down. "What's this about?" He questioned.