143 Chapter 143: Public Enemy Number One.

Author: I'm back. Give me powerstones!

Definition of public enemy number one:

The nation's most wanted criminal.

The most dangerous threat to society.

And right now, Ryan is on a path to become one.

…

"(ehem!)... Because…It needs to be done," Tarot replied to Captain America and the Avengers who were confronting him.

Barton nocked a few arrows and aimed at Tarot's lethal places. The arrowhead was built to take down Tony's suit, which he hypothesized would work similarly for Tarot as he used an advanced exoskeleton armor.

Natasha was ready with her widow's bite and positioned herself at the back of the group. She would move at the perfect opportunity to deliver a critical blow.

"Why? You said you wanted to be a hero?" Tony asked. He was extremely disappointed in Tarot. He had planned to clear Tarot's name before, but now, he couldn't do so anymore. Tarot truly was ..a murderer.

"I am a savior. But I am no hero. I follow a different path from you guys," Tarot replied casually.

"Enough talking,Tarot you're under arrest," Barton said in anger.

Tarot turned to him slowly and muttered in a mocking tone.

"Is that bravery or arrogance that puts the steel in your voice?"

"It's justice!" Barton's hand shook in anger, but he didn't fire his arrows as he didn't receive Captain's orders yet.

"Really, even after what they have done?" Tarot said, unbothered by the hostility of the archer.

"What was it? What exactly have they done for you to make them pay with their lives?" Natasha asked, with her voice slowly becoming sterner. She tried to peer underneath Tarot's mask, to understand his motive.

Tarot swiped a card from his deck of cards and threw it into the air.

'Attack!' Barton saw Tarot's actionand changed his arrow direction to aim for the card instantly. He released his arrow, hitting the card, which made it explode in the air.

However, to Barton's annoyance, he just helped Tarot release the things inside the card.

Heaps of paper of mission reports fell from the air, raining around the area where the avengers were standing.

"Now, can you truly say what I did… wasn't justice?"

The papers were Hydra's mission report under the name of SHIELD. Country destabilization, political assassinations, illegal weapon smugglings, contract murders, and many more crimes. All those, done by the same agents he had killed.

Steve picked up a piece of paper and read it. His heart pained when he saw that the organization that Peggy founded had fallen from its true purpose. He always had his suspicions toward SHIELD, but he stayed because that was her legacy.

"Even if this is true, why did you have to kill them?" Natasha asked with a hint of sadness inside her voice. She had done some of the crimes in her early days before getting into SHIELD. So will he come for her too?

"The weed has to be pruned for the orchid to thrive."

Tarot's sentence showed the Avenger his determination. They also know that he won't stop, until all the 'weeds' are gone.

SHIELD has been the indisputable organization that hides in the shadows, claiming to protect the world and have absolute power in legal matters. They have an enemy that was hidden even deeper than them, so Ryan will ensure that SHIELD could get a fighting chance by shining light on the matter. If Fury wasn't stupid, he would realize who the enemy is.

"So you're the gardener?" Tony asked as he readied himself. It seemed that Tarot couldn't be convinced to surrender.

"I am."

"Despite your crimes?" Natasha asked.

"Measure my crimes against what SHIELD had done, and I am a Saint," Tarot showed a halo emoji on his face.

"Even if the whole world is to be against you?" Steve asked.

"Well…Every path worth fighting for has its adversity. And I am tough enough to endure it."

"Let's see about that," Tony aimed his palm repulsor toward Tarot and shot a plasma beam towards him.

A card flew up from Tarot's deck and blocked the attack. Tarot turned to face Tony. At the same time, Natasha moved stealthily behind Tarot's back for a sneak attack.

"Well you are tough," Tony said playfully. Captain America signaled Barton before he sprinted and tried to hit Tarot with his shield.

Barton, receiving the signal, fired a few arrows to distract Tarot to give Steve an opening for his attack.

"(sigh!) I wanted to talk a little more," Tarot said as he swayed to the side and dodged the arrows that passed by his card. He purposely showed weakness to the team, so that they could improve from the battle.

"We can talk a lot more when you're in prison buddy," Tony aimed his repulsor and shot to ensure that the captain managed to pass through Tarot's absolute card shield. He calculated the perfect moment after he saw through the card's defense limitations.

Steve swung the edge of his shield to hit Tarot's head. Tarot dodged it easily, but Steve's other hand hit his abdomen. A shockwave passed through Tarot's gut as he was pushed back from the sheer force of the attack.

Natasha who had stationed herself behind Tarot grabbed him and injected the widow's bite into his neck, causing an enormous amount of electrical charge to flow through Tarot's armor.

Afterward, Tarot's armor seemed to become lifeless, and he fell to the ground.

"Well, that was easy," Barton said mockingly. He truly thought that this was going to be a bitter battle as Tarot's previous fight against Rhino showed the enemy's might.

"Wait, something is wrong," Tony said urgently as his scan showed an error message.

"BRAVO!! BR-A-VO!"

The Avengers heard a clapping sound from behind them. When they turned, their eyes widened to see another Tarot whistling and applauding them for their performance.

"What the-" Natasha looked toward the Tarot on the ground, and saw that the figure turned into a clay sculpture and melted away.

"Your fate today states that, you might meet the wrong person," Tarot took out the wheel of destiny card and read it for them.

Tarot pulled out a card labeled <STRENGTH>, causing the Avengers to be vigilant. But the card turned into particles of light and got absorbed in his body instead of attacking them.

Suddenly, Tarot sprinted with extreme speed toward Hawkeye and threw a punch towards his head. Hawkeye knew that he couldn't aim when the target was so close to him, so instead, he shot an arrow into the sky directly on top of him.

The force of Ryan' punch slammed Barton to the ground, injuring him a little and making him unconscious. The arrow that flew upward lost its momentum quickly as it was charged very lightly, and it fell in the direction it was shot at using gravity.

"CLINT!"

Captain America threw his vibranium shield toward Tarot, but he caught it mid air and held it above his head.

*BOOM*

A small explosion with a radius of one-meter took place atop the shield. The arrow was aimed to fall directly on top of Tarot and would have exploded without even injuring Hawkeye if Captain America had not interfered.

"You guys should learn to cooperate more."

Tarot held the shield in his hand, posing as Captain America.

"How is it? Does this suit me?"

"Unfortunately for you, it doesn't," Tony said as he shot out multiple shoulder missiles toward Tarot.

"I see, you can take it then," Tarot threw the shield toward Tony, intercepting and exploding the missiles coming in his direction.

Steve activated the shield retraction mechanism, and the shield changed its direction slightly, avoiding Tony who was about to be hit.

Tarot strength had exceeded the limit of the retraction mechanism, so Steve couldn't do anything else other than change the shield's direction a little bit. The shield fell 500 meters away from them and was picked up by someone en route.

"Tarot, you don't have to do this. We can do it together, using proper laws."

Steve tried to convince the man while closing in on Tarot. He went with Natasha for a close combat battle.

"Pfft! laws. You make me laugh, laws were made by the people in power to avoid responsibility for their actions. Even if I did use the law, do you really think someone will be held accountable?"

Tarot caught Natasha's fist and threw her towards Steve. Tony tried to grapple Tarot into submission, but a card labeled <FOOL> was thrown directly at him.

"Tony…TONY!" Steve said as Tony was spinning around chasing imaginary butterflies on the battlefield.

The Avengers were losing, but then, their backup arrived.

…

Avenger Tower.

"Let's go, Bruce. We can't let them fight on their own," Kai convinced Bruce to come along with him.

"How should we go there? Do we still have a jet?" Bruce said, regretting his decision not to come earlier on. In his defense, he didn't know that they were going for a battle at that time.

"Don't worry, we have me," Kai said as he summoned his wings.

"Wait…you still have it? No, wait!" Bruce's questions were avoided skilfully by Kai as he grabbed Bruce like a hawk and flew in the air at supersonic speed. He created a wind vacuum around himself and Bruce, so that he wouldn't suffer from the flight.

"This is unscientific!!!" Bruce yelled as he felt the thrill of flying in the air.

SHIELD Headquarters.

Fury was observing the battle from a stealth drone, located 300 meters in the air. When Tony located Tarot, he did as well.

He noted down Tarot's weaknesses and his chaotic good tendency among other things.

"Sir, we arrived at the base," A STRIKE team agent reported to Fury through the communication line.

500 meters from where Tarot was fighting the Avengers, a battalion of fully geared agents were approaching the superheroes.

"Duck!"

Suddenly a random agent threw himself on Agent Sitwell, who was commanding the battalion, grappling him to the ground. Soon as they laid down, Captain America's shield flew toward their position and past where there head was a moment ago

"Damn it, I almost got beheaded," Sitwell muttered angrily. He wasn't supposed to be in the battle, just commanding the battle from afar, but he almost became the first casualty.

"Activate the energy weapons!" Sitwell ordered as the battle was in sight.

Natasha had got a cut at the side of her forehead, and Steve had been kicked further away. Barton finally gained consciousness after getting knocked out from the previous punch. Tony was still chasing butterflies.

Tanks and armored trucks appeared in front of the fighting superheroes.

"Ohh they came," Tarot said jokingly as he saw the massive number of SHIELD and army soldiers coming toward him. Captain America got a sudden realization as to why Tarot was just playing with them instead of killing them like he did the agents.

"RUN! YOU'RE HIS TARGET!" Steve yelled at the agents coming toward them, but it was too late.

Tarot appeared in the air, directly in front of the battalion.

"He…can fly?" Sitwell muttered in fear after seeing the sight in front of him.

Unlike Tony who used a repulsor jet, Tarot's flight was more smooth as if…he was born with it. Ryan had carved the flight runes inside his armor instead of using technology to give a more mysterious feeling.

"You guys had been uncontrollable, with no one to give you…Judgement!" Tarot took out the judgement card, making Steve widen his eyes. However, that wasn't only it.

"Show your crime to the world, and let fate decide your ephemeral life," Tarot took out the world card.

"SHOOT HIM!!"

By Sitwell's orders, tank missiles, energy cannons, and more rained on Tarot, causing him to be blasted into the ruins of the base. However, the card was unstoppable after it was activated.

The two cards glowed together, and a transparent circular dome appeared with the cards as its center.

"URK- '' The agent was crushed inside the dome as the gravity there kept increasing exponentially. The ones with greater sins were crushed harder than the ones with light sins. Blood came out from their eyes and ears as their bodies were pushed to the ground.

Suddenly, a massive red beam appeared and shot the cards, causing them to overload and deactivate.

'Damn it!..Don't mess with my mind…' Tony huffed as his incineration beam was in a cool down. Smoke came out from his gauntlets as the temperature was too high. He had to use the maximum output to cancel out the cards from killing all of those agents.

When he was under the card's effect, Tony felt stupid but free. There was no overthinking, no anxiety, no PTSD, no childhood trauma, no responsibility, no hidden depression, no reaching for his father's acknowledgment that he will never have or the mysophobia that he always had in his life. For once, he was truly happy with himself.

The fool card carried the effect of – an innocent soul before its fall into matter, untainted by contact with society and all its ills. Tarot had allowed Tony to remember the feeling as if he was a child again.

Tony looked toward Tarot with a complicated expression underneath his Iron helmet.

"Aww man, now I have to do it the hard way," Tarot said in dissatisfaction as he stood up from the debris, and brushed off the dust from his purple suit.

"No. You're not going to do anything, not while we are here," Steve took back his vibranium shield from the agents and stood in front of the battalion, protecting all of them.

The scene might have caused immense respect even from an enemy – if the ones Steve was protecting weren't Hydra members.

"Nice statement cap," A familiar voice was heard in the Avenger's communication line and two more members arrived at the scene.

Banner quickly turned into the Hulk, while Kai took out his sword and stood next to the captain. Natasha, Barton, and Tony also stood side by side with the captain as they faced the Destiny that was in front of them.

"HULK SMASH!" Hulk ran forward to fight Tarot, but his massive fists were stopped by the tower card.

"Reverse!" Tarot said, causing a kinetic energy explosion directly on Hulk's face and making the monster fall on a tank, crushing the top half of it. Hulk huffed his nose and tried again, but the same thing happened again.

The agents followed suit and shot at Tarot from multiple angles, but Tarot took out a new card, <The Chariot>

The card also got absorbed inside Tarot, causing his speed to increase exponentially. He avoided the arrows, and the energy guns, and even managed to knock out several agents, but Captain America's superhuman instincts coupled with his shield blocked him from killing them.

"Captain, your orders?" Kai asked while he helped Natasha wipe off the blood from her forehead. Natasha looked at him with glassy eyes, but any conversation needed to wait until the battle was over.

Tarot dodged Hulk's fist because the distraction caused by the agents managed to allow Hulk to bypass the card. However, Hulk was punched repeatedly without being able to counter attack due to Tarot's speed which made him angrier.

The beast couldn't handle Tarot's speed and was being beaten up instead. Kai closed his distance to Tarot and swung his sword towards him. Tarot gripped the sword blade with his hand, stopping it in its tracks.

At the same time, Kai and Tarot were having a telepathic conversation.

Kai: Are you sure this will work? Why does it seem like you're doing this without thinking?

Tarot: I am sure~

Kai: Okay then, don't forget to pull your punches.

Tarot hit Kai's abdomen with his knees, causing him to (fake) gag.

After which, the Avengers and the agent's worked together, and they finally managed to deal some damage to Tarot.

After a long battle, both parties were now tied.

The Avengers were injured, and so were the agents.

Tarot had multiple cracks on his LED screen and was out of cards.

Steve noticed this and yelled out, "He doesn't have any more skills!"

"Then it's over, Tarot!" Tony said as he shot out his palm repulsor multiple times, only stopping when he heard someone laughing.

"HAHAHAHA," Tarot laughed maniacally as he stood tall. Even surrounded, he didn't show any signs of backing down.

"Avengers, I expected more from you guys. Your sense of blind self-righteousness will one day unleash chaos onto the world," Tarot said as he took out multiple cards and held them all in his hand.

Tony and Steve widened their eyes after seeing the number of cards. "Take cover!" Steve yelled. Kai stood next to Natasha and covered her using his body.

Tarot threw the card into the air, and it fell all over the battlefield, causing everybody to duck in anticipation of a big explosion, but it never did

"Wait, what happened?" Tony said as he scanned the cards and found that they were just normal cards. Tarot had used these cards to distract them and disappear from the battlefield.

"Damn it, he escaped!" Barton yelled in anger. After this, who knew when they would be able to track the guy again?

…

Ryan appeared back inside his base after picking up Barnes. His cracked LED smoothly fixed itself as he controlled the nano-particles of his suit.

If he wanted to, he could have easily killed all of those heroes and agents. But that was not his purpose.

"That's the problem with heroes, really. Their only purpose in life is to thwart others. They make no plan and develop no strategies. They react instead of act."

"Without Villains, heroes will stagnate. Without heroes, villains will be running the world. Heroes have morals. Villains have work ethics."

The reason Ryan became a villain is to bring the Avenger closer together. They are now too scattered and too comfortable with their current combat capabilities. Bringing Hydra down is a bonus.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Barnes asked, extremely confused as to why Tarot started monologue-ing.

"Nothing~ Also Bucky, we needed to stop for a while for at least a month," Tarot said.

"Why?" Bucky asked with curiosity. If someone else asked him to stop, he would get mad and become hostile, but Tarot's method was even more brutal so he just followed his plan.

"Because it won't be fun to break their hope if we didn't give them time to enjoy it~"

"You really have a screw loose in your head."

…

"Guys, we need to talk," Steve gathered them to talk after the Avengers returned to the tower.

Steve talked about the importance of a training session, and how to coordinate their attacks together. Tony agreed with Steve as he too felt the same way.

"However, if you do that, you won't be able to do your mission in SHIELD," Natasha said with concern. If Captain breaks his relationship with SHIELD, what should she do next?

Avengers or Shield, what should she choose?

"Anyway, we see that Tarot wasn't unbeatable. He is crazy strong though," Tony said to ease the atmosphere.

"Yeah… next time, we will make sure he won't escape," Barton said.

"Okay. Anyone injured please follow me to the medical room," Kai suddenly clapped his hand to get the group's attention and gave them an order they couldn't refuse.

"I wasn't injured," Tony replied quickly.

"Me too," Bruce replied.

"Me neither," Steve said, confused as to why they were not more injured in the hard battle.

Only Natasha and Barton have injuries. Of which, Barton's was done fairly quickly, leaving Kai alone with Natasha inside the medical room.

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