100: Chapter 100 Stryker's Shadow Emerges

"Where did they go?"

This question had followed Yan Zheng for the forty-minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, through three dark alleys in Hells Kitchen, and back to the Underground Room of the Antique Shop.

October 15th, 7:40 PM.

Yan Zheng tossed his canvas bag onto the workbench. The binoculars rolled out, the Zeiss lens barrel spinning half a turn on the wooden tabletop before stopping against the edge of the pen tray.

He didn't change his clothes, sitting directly down at the terminal. He still wore his jacket, unzipped, with a dark sweat stain visible on the collar of the white shirt underneath.

The system panel opened, and the image retrieval module was activated.

Yan Zheng closed his eyes, concentrating his Mental Power to reconstruct the hexagonal symbol he'd seen through the binoculars onto his mental canvas: six equal-length sides, with a forward-facing eyeball in the center, silver-gray pupils, and three concentric rings in the iris.

The image formed and was pushed into the retrieval queue.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘͈ ꒳ ˘͈)

"Mr. System, please cross-reference this symbol with the batch of S.H.I.E.L.D. files that Fury gave me."

"Keyword scope: Military special operations units, Mutant-related projects, from the year 2000 to the present."

The retrieval progress bar ran from left to right, not very quickly. Although that batch of files from Fury had been heavily redacted, the remaining fragments still contained a significant amount of information.

While waiting, Yan Zheng made himself a cup of tea. He tossed a black tea bag into an enamel mug and poured water in before it had boiled—barely eighty degrees—resulting in a pale brew.

He stood at the workbench sipping the tea, his eyes fixed on the progress bar.

Seven minutes later, the panel popped up with the results.

[Image matching complete. Match rate: 94%.]

[Symbol affiliation: Project Purity.]

[Nature: Non-public project group under the United States Army Special Operations Command. Established: June 2008. Nominal function: Domestic Mutant threat assessment and emergency response.]

[Commander: William Stryker, Army Colonel.]

Yan Zheng's teacup paused at his lips, the steam from the rim hitting the tip of his nose.

"Stryker."

He rolled the name around on his tongue.

He placed the enamel mug back on the tabletop and tapped his fingers on the cabinet three times.

"Mr. System, pull up this person's file."

The panel flipped to the next page, and the second screen of information unfolded.

[William Stryker, male, 56 years old. Army Colonel, former head of the Weapon X program. Core resume: Led Mutant militarization experiments from 1998 to 2005, codenamed Weapon X. Achievements included multiple sub-projects such as the X-23 project. The Weapon X program was nominally terminated in 2005 due to funding audits, and the core team was disbanded, but residual branches continued to operate under names like E.S.S. In 2008, Stryker regained funding as a Military advisor for the Mutant Registration Act and established Project Purity.]

Yan Zheng leaned back in his chair, the temple arms of his gold-rimmed glasses pressing against his temples. He pushed up the bridge of his glasses with his middle finger, distributing the weight to both sides.

"The boss of Weapon X."

"The superior of E.S.S."

"I raided his outpost in August and took his X-23 fragment."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ≖ ‸ ≖˵)

"Now he's opened a new shop, changed the sign, and is still in the same business."

He took a scalpel out of his pocket, the blade reflecting a line of white light under the lighting of the Underground Room. He drew a line on a piece of white paper on the table with the tip of the blade.

E.S.S.

Purity.

He drew an arrow in the middle and labeled it with a name above the arrow: Stryker.

"E.S.S. is the terminal, Project Purity is the main line, and Stryker is the main switch."

He drew a circle next to the word "Purity" and put a question mark inside it.

"The three Mutants taken from Midtown today—the armored vehicle headed west, out of the city."

"Stryker's experimental Base is not in New York City, it's on the outskirts. In the direction of New Jersey, or even further."

There was a supplementary note on the panel, in a smaller font size with a gray border.

[Supplementary intelligence (Source: Remnants of redacted S.H.I.E.L.D. files).]

[Excerpt from Stryker's personal creed: Mutants are not an evolution of humanity; they are a disease of humanity. Weaponizing the disease is the first step; eradicating the disease is the ultimate goal.]

[Behavioral model assessment: Extreme anti-Mutant. Standard operating procedure: Utilize political tools to obtain legal hunting authorization, and within the legal framework, collect Mutants on a large scale for experimentation. The Registration Act is his current core political tool.]

Yan Zheng read this passage twice.

The scalpel drew a larger circle next to the question mark on the white paper.

"Using the Registration Act to obtain legal hunting authorization."

"Registration is the fishing net, Project Purity is the fishhook, and the experimental Base is the fishpond."

"Once a Mutant is registered, it's clear who has powers and who doesn't. The federal database is Stryker's shopping list."

He stood up and walked to the strategic map on the wall, his eyes scanning the markings for the Red Hook District and the Mutant community in The Bronx.

He put an 'X' over the location of the E.S.S. outpost in the Red Hook District, the one he had blown up in August.

"I raided one of his small warehouses, but he has a big one."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ✧ ⌓ ✧)

He turned and walked back to the workbench, flipped the route map he had just drawn over to the back, and listed a line of text in the blank space.

Stryker's experimental Base = Large-scale material depot.

Stockpile estimate: Dozens to over a hundred Mutant test subjects.

Quality estimate: Intermediate to advanced (Enhanced Mutants that have undergone weaponization).

By the time the scalpel spun for the third time, the curve of Yan Zheng's mouth was clear in the light.

"Ten times bigger than the E.S.S. outpost."

"Inside the freezer aren't scattered petri dishes, but batches of complete test subjects."

"Every single one has been personally modified by Mr. Stryker, with their genetic stability and power intensity pre-screened."

"This Colonel has done the preliminary processing for me."

The smile faded.

The scalpel stopped spinning, the tip pointing down, gently poking the center of the large circle on the white paper.

"But I can't eat this right now."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ≖ ⌓ ≖˵)

He brought up the Legion roster panel to review it.

Knight, four control slots. Brute, three control slots. Frost Archer, two. Thunder Guard, three. Acid Walker, two. No. 8 Skeleton Soldier, one. A total of fifteen control slots, fully loaded.

Total Mental Power of fifteen, dual-line control just unlocked, zero combat experience.

"Project Purity is a Military establishment, not a gang den."

"The number of garrisoned troops is unknown, the weaponry is unknown, and the countermeasures against Mutant test subjects are unknown."

"Those twelve people in Midtown today only took eleven seconds to suppress Chromium with an EMP. If there are fifty squads with that kind of setup in the Base..."

He closed the panel and sat back down.

The tea had gone cold. He took a sip, the astringency traveling from the root of his tongue downward.

"A head-on attack is suicide."

"But leaving it alone won't work either."

"Stryker's Base is getting new shipments every day. For every extra day they are locked up, the materials inside are consumed a little more. The genetic quality of Mutants damaged by experiments will continue to decline."

Yan Zheng flipped the white paper back to the front and wrote a line of small text next to Stryker's name.

Need a third party to pick the lock.

"Mr. Fury wants me to be a cleaner in the Mutant civil war."

"So, can I get someone else to kick the door down for Mr. Stryker's Base first?"

He placed his pen back in the tray and leaned back in his chair, the back of his head resting against the cold metal chair frame.

"The Brotherhood, X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D."

"All three parties have reasons to be at odds with Stryker."

"I just need to find the right timing and walk in after the door has been kicked open."

He put the scalpel back into his pocket; the sensation of metal touching fabric was light.

Yan Zheng stared at the cold white fluorescent tube on the ceiling for ten seconds; the flickering of the tube jumped a few times on the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses.

"But before that."

He sat up straight, brought up the system panel again, and switched to the page with the photos taken in Midtown today.

He zoomed in on the chest area of the photo where Chromium was forced to his knees by the EMP.

"Mr. Chromium."

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ✧ ᗜ ✧˵)

"Although your Metal Manipulation is crude, the genetic foundation is good."

"The ability lineage of Magneto, even the lowest-tier branch, is the number one category on my list of bridging materials."

"You've been captured by Project Purity, and in all likelihood, you're being sent to Stryker's Base."

He marked Chromium's photo in red and saved it to an independent file.

"When I come to get you, I hope Mr. Stryker hasn't taken you apart too much."