22 22. Escape

'.....'= Thoughts 

"....."= Conversations 

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Harry's heart sank as he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the smoldering wreckage of the helicopter he had brought down with his exploding kunai. The sight made him sick to his stomach, knowing that innocent people had likely been killed and injured as a result of his actions. As he continued to speed away on his bike, a sense of guilt and remorse washed over him.

"I didn't mean for this to happen," Harry muttered to himself, his voice barely audible over the roar of the engine. "I never wanted to hurt innocent people. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The weight of the consequences of his actions bore down on him heavily, and Harry struggled to push them aside as he concentrated on evading his pursuers. Despite his best efforts to distance himself from the chaos he had caused, the guilt lingered, gnawing at his insides like a relentless enemy.

Harry was not some goody two shoes or like the naive protagonists of some novels he had read in his previous life. He definitely won't feel anything regarding killing the people who were after his life in the first place, just like the agents he had killed a few weeks ago.

But hurting innocent people who didn't do anything wrong to him didn't sit well with him.

'I have to keep moving,' Harry told himself, trying to stay focused on the task at hand. 'I can't let myself get caught up in this. I need to find a way to get this tracker out of me and clear my name. I never asked for any of this to happen.

Harry kept driving forward while mulling over the chaos he had caused. For now no one seemed to be following him, but he still sped forward.

During the chase he had figured out that the SHIELD had definitely put something in his body which helped them in tracking him.

However there seemed to be some sort of limitation to that tracker. If he was far enough the tracker didn't seem to work or it would only give an approximate location of him. So Harry was trying his best to move away from Harlem.

The road stretched out before him, the cityscape giving way to open highways and sprawling countryside. Harry continued to push forward, the wind whipping past him as he raced forward.

The thoughts of people shouting and dying came to Harry's mind again, haunting him as he pushed further away from the city. The image of the helicopter crashing, the sound of the explosion, it all replayed in his mind like a horrifying movie. Harry's heart ached with guilt as he realized that it was his actions that had led to such a tragic outcome.

Maybe he could have chosen a different way to stop his pursuers, he mused. Maybe he could have found a way to disable the helicopter without causing such destruction. But in the heat of the moment, with adrenaline coursing through his veins, he had acted without thinking of the consequences.

The guilt gnawed at him, threatening to consume him from the inside out. He had tried to shirk his fault, to distance himself from the consequences of his actions, but deep down he knew that he couldn't run from it.

As he raced down the open highway, Harry made a decision. He couldn't continue to be a hypocrite, pretending that he was blameless in all of this.

As the city faded into the distance behind him, Harry's resolve only grew stronger.

'Wait a minute, haven't I already escaped. Then why didn't I receive any reward and a notification of the quest completion,' A sudden thought flooded his mind.

Just as Harry had that thought, a deafening bang echoed through the air. The next thing he knew, he was hurtling through the air, his body slamming against the unforgiving pavement. He sprawled across the road, sliding to a stop after a few seconds.

Pain shot through every inch of his being, and for a moment, he was too stunned to comprehend what had just happened. Blood dripped from a gash on his head, and his clothes were torn and stained with blood. His vision was hazy, and his ears were ringing, making it difficult to focus on anything.

If not for his strong physique from the training he had done for a few weeks, he would have been seriously injured due to the speed at which he was driving his bike.

As he struggled to push himself upright, Harry's eyes landed on his bike. The back tire of the bike was completely destroyed.

And then, as if things couldn't get any worse, a figure in red armor descended from the sky, stopping just above where Harry was thrown off from the bike.

The man's presence was imposing, his armor gleaming in the sunlight as he looked down at Harry,"Running away after committing a crime is wrong, didn't your mom tell you," he spoke with authority, his voice ringing in Harry's ears.

"How did you track me?" Harry asked as he stood up while trying to think about his next actions.

He checked his chakra reserves which had regenerated a bit since earlier. Now he had about half of his chakra reserves to use.

Glancing at Tony flying in the air equipped with his Iron Man Armor, Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to escape without a fight. With Tony's speed, it wouldn't be much of a problem for him to catch him.

If he started fighting Tony now and even if he defeated him, he would be totally vulnerable when SHIELD agents arrived.

Tony would definitely have informed SHIELD about Harry's location and those guys would be making their way towards them.

Harry guessed that SHIELD must have requested Tony's help in catching him, as Tony and Harry didn't have any enmity between them.

This was the only possible conclusion he could come to as after going through the previous Harry's memories, he knew that they had never interacted before and were completely strangers to each other.

'Shit, I should have stopped this guy from coming to Harlem in the first place,' Harry groaned, realizing he had a perfect chance to do so.

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