Gift of Desire

The Avengers tower was unusually quiet today, the majority of the Avengers have been requested to train a small branch of heroes ran by S.H.I.E.L.D in the UK. The only remaining members in the Avengers Tower is Jacob Stark and Chris Connors, left in New York to be a first defense in case of emergencies. The two of them were talking in Jacob's equipment room which was a mess of tools and scrap at the moment. Jacob had been developing a special armor for future battles while Chris was chilling on his tablet keeping Jacob company.

Jacob was standing in his average civilian clothing with his Toxin belt laying on the table next to him, his symbiotic goo that formed his suit was softly swirling in it's vial on the belt's buckle. Jacob tossed equipment around as he worked on his armor.

Chris silently worked on a design of a new suit on his tablet, after a few minutes he lowered the tablet and sat back frustrated after many failed attempts.

"Need a little help with your suit?" Jacob turned around and looked at his friend.

"No, I probably don't even need another useless suit, but thanks the offer" Chris said

All of the monitors in the room including Chris's tablet have a pop-up interrupting the conversation, the pop-up says “Incoming call from Director Alex Cross”

Jacob lifted his head and tapped a button on the wall, all of the monitors displayed Alex Cross' face.

"Long time no see, Cross. What do you need?" Jacob asked as Chris lifted his head and walked behind him.

“Morning remaining Avengers. I know you're short staffed at the moment but I have a small job that I want you two to do, it shouldn't be too hard and you're in the area.” Alex puts down his papers onto a desk and looks into the camera to talk directly to them “We recently were able to gather intelligence on HYDRA that couldn't have come at a moment too soon. Through various encrypted messages, HYDRA has been contacting an assassin named The Timekeeper who we've never even heard of. Looking through the messages, he's responsible for a large amount of political assassinations from Turkish Presidents to Latverian Diplomats. While we knew about the killings, we never linked them together due to how uniquely he kills, never the same way twice. He's done things as mundane as stabbing people behind closed doors to as extravagant as bombing public figures on live TV. The reason we haven't caught him is HYDRA had various people who got caught admit to his crimes, it's easy to convince a man who's murdered dozens to admit to just one more. Based on the emails, he's never missed the time he's been tasked with killing a man, even down to the minute and even more shocking is that these emails date back as far as ninety years ago. The latest email has him making a hit in New York City at 2:30, the same time the New York City Mayor is supposed to be having a press meeting where she'll be making a stance on the civil rights war in Symkaria. I'm sending you over the files now, do what you do best and save the day Avengers.” the transmission ends and the file immediately starts downloading on the Stark computer systems in the tower.

"We'll be there and make sure the Mayor gets out of there safe. We'll head out now and see if we can find anything based on this killer." Jacob replied, he tilted his head towards Chris and waited for him to add anything to the conversation.

"No rest for the wicked, you can count on us" Chris sighed. He looked out at the city through the window before getting prepared for the mission.

At 2 PM, Chris and Jacob arrive at Time Square where an audience surrounds a podium where the mayor will be speaking in half an hour. The audience is so large that you could hardly make out anything other than civilians all around. A large variety of ideas pop into your head, he could be in the crowd among you, he could be behind the stage with the mayor as we speak. He may be on top of buildings in the skyline or he could be a while away planning to attack from a far. As far as you know, he may not even have started setting up, your mind is racing with possibilities.

"Our best bet is probably splitting up at two different ends, if anything happens we regroup and don't let him escape. What do you think we should do?" Chris asked quietly trying not to be too loud and draw too much attention to himself while pushing down his sunglasses to get a slightly better view.

"Agreed, you head off that way, I'll go around the other way, let's try to get as close to the mayor as we can." Jacob replied, he tipped his baseball cap and walked away from Chris, his shades covered his eyes and his symbiote formed a black hoodie, concealing his Toxin belt.

The duo splits off, near Chris is the opening for staff to go backstage but it's blocked by two bodyguards who require a pass to get in. Jacob on the other hand while looking for a way to the mayor gets stopped suddenly by reporters for the local news. "We are here live with the people of New York, sir what do you feel about the civil rights war in Symkaria?"

Chris took off his hoodie and sunglasses in front of the guards. "You know why I'm here" Chris told the them.

Using quick thinking, Jacob didn't sweat from the reporters walking up to him. Taking advantage if the disguise he used, Jacob slightly lowered his voice and looked into the reporter's eyes.

"I think it's great, people have a right to fight and live for their own purposes." He spoke into the mic, but didn't stay for long. "Excuse me real quick." He said before the reporter could as any more questions, he slipped into the crowd and the reporter left him alone.

One of the bodyguards looks at Chris, acknowledges who he is and the bodyguards face slowly transforms to rock "We've got superpowers covered, move along unless you have a pass"

Chris rolled his eyes and attempted to push through the bodyguards "I'm here with the government, step aside."

The reporter could be heard in the background "Well there you have it, we have a passionate crowd here that's pro-revolution". Jacob wanders off to find a fenced off area that would also lead to backstage if the fence wasn't there. What was possibly alarming was that the fence has a few links cut so someone could slip through

The bodyguard put his hand to Chris's chest to block him "If you have any ID for that, we'll gladly move aside"

Taking a quick glance around to see if anyone would notice him, Jacob quickly slipped through the fence but the fence cut at his jacket, tearing the symbiote slightly. His Toxin belt was revealed slightly before the symbiote repaired the patch, and a civilian in the crowd noticed him through the fence, they also saw his belt.

"Hey, it's Jacob Stark!" A civilian shouted, causing some people to look. Jacob was already out of view by the time most people turned around, but few saw him rush backstage.

"Sorry but the life of the mayor is a bit more important than you guys waking up with a headache" Chris said as he quickly rushed one of the bodyguards and punched him dead in the face, he launched himself off of one foot to the side of the other guard and kicked him in the chin knocking them both out and grabbed them both taking them inside, putting them down out of sight from the public.

2:15 PM

Jacob gets into the back where he sees the mayor practicing a speech but some bodyguards rush to him "Who let this guy in here? Sir, you'll have to leave and wait outside with everyone else"

An intern shrieks across the room from Jacob, the intern is shrieking due to seeing Chris dragging two unconscious bodies. The some more guards rush to Chris after hearing the shriek

"You should probably go check out those shrieks, sirs" Jacob pointed in the opposite direction. "I have a pass by the way.

The guards don't move an inch "Our buddies got that, we'll need you to step out first"