Red pt.3

-James POV-

"Fuck! That's the last of them." Victor said huffing violently as he looked around at over fifty dead people. The freezing cold temperature turned every breath into a thick cloud of vapor.

"You can come out now!" I said into the radio to Sameer, as I crashed on the ground.

This was it, this was the last enemy base we had to raid, holding in Maru's or should I say Ares' secret formula of bombs. Obviously, it took way longer than expected, according to the initial plan we were supposed to just visit three countries. Destroy the formulae and the remaining bombs in their hands and move on with our lives. But who in the world would have thought that one of the locations, Ares' would drop the formulae to would be an international crime syndicate.

That not only managed to transfer the formulae all over the world but also used it to start a civil war, just so they could get their way. The mocking smile, of Ares, always flashed across my face whenever I saw what he had managed to do the world, even after he was long gone.

Things went smoothly for the most part, with all the major government of the world agreeing to not use the inhumane bomb as it was labeled poisonous. I knew my brother had a major part in this, using his connection but overall the situation calmed down a lot. It would obviously be naive to assume that the powerful countries would just put the bomb away, of course, they were going to keep their research on it and it wasn't long before they evolved it into something more dangerous.

Luckily Howard who had apparently been dead to the world was thankfully able to come up with a solution to help the people with this looming threat. Medicine, if you will. He invented a counter weapon against the bomb which neutralized the acidic nature of it, making it completely harmless.

It wasn't going to stop the threat right away, but with the booming industry and technology in the market day by day, it won't be long before Ares' weapon would be completely useless against Howard's. Alongside, Ouroboros and The Irregulars had let the world know that they would be fighting against any and all countries that dared use the weapon. A weapon that martyr Steve Trevor alongside the dead us, lost their lives trying to prevent the horrors it could cause.

With the unknown group's power and influence of Howard and Ouroboros, most countries weren't willingly going to underestimate them that easily. And with their recent show of strength in stopping the civil war in different countries, even the United States themselves were wary of their own ally.

As for the super-soldier part, Howard had quickly figured out the formula it took to create it. The formula used by the German soldiers that day was different than the formula that was spread around the world. Expensive and rare ingredients aside, the formula was defective as it lacked the key ingredient, which was Are's divine powers.

Although it wasn't the end of it, the formula after creating gave the user similar super soldier power but with the lack of control and within just two minutes, they'd lose their strength alongside their lives. Most of the time they'd turn to their own friends for a fight so the formula was useless. According to Howard the use of the formula was a lost cause unless someone begins taking ideas from it, but that was shifted to future concerns.

And now here we were in some weird deserted part of Russia. A place where you could literally drown in snow. The organized crime syndicate finally ended with its final base being taken down by us.

I turned towards Victor as he nodded back at me. Getting up we began descending to where Sameer was waiting for us.

"Is it over?" He asked with a hidden excitement on his face, unlike us, over the five years Sameer had aged to the point where you see wrinkles appearing on his face that was covered with scars. But unlike five years ago, he had managed to get himself a strong build which I concluded was mostly due to him almost always running away from most fights.

He looked worn out but the brightness in his eyes couldn't be hidden. There were many times where I couldn't help but applaud my brother's vision as Sameer had always turned out to be a trump card for us. He was a good man with a bright talent, so I hoped Howard would treat him the best way possible. So he could die a happy old man and forget all the shit we've seen over these years.

"There you go making that face again." Sameer chuckled as he patted my soldiers, "Don't worry, I won't be dying so soon without getting the rewards I deserve. I'll suck your brother's money dry."

"Talking of sucking, I heard there's a good brothel in the town we just passed through." Victor grinned with his arms over Sameer and my shoulder, as I gave him a questioning look, "What? I picked up the language in our time here. The guards were talking about it before I ripped their head open."

"And let me guess, everything you know in Russia somehow correlates to women and brothels?"

"Bingo!" Victor laughed as he turned back to the base, "And now for my favorite part! Who's going to press the button this time?"

"You do it since you're literally holding the remote." I rolled my eyes, Sameer nodded too as we got behind Victor.

"Here goes nothing!" Victor grinned pressing the button as they all flinched a little but nothing happened. "Is it a dud?"

Victor turned to me as I shrugged, "Maybe we forgot to change the batteries? Or we could be too out of range?"

"I thought I changed it just a couple of hours ago," Victor said frustratingly pressing the remote again and again until he let his anger got the best of him, as he threw the remote on the ground. "Dammit!"

"I'll change the battery and see." Sameer picked up the remote as he kept his hand over the button, "Hey wouldn't it be funny if it worked----now?"

As Sameer was kidding around he pressed the button and there it was, the base exploded into pieces with smoke and flame rising way up into the air. Victor looked clearly bitter as he tried to ignore it in a childish way as I couldn't help but laugh out.

"So this it, huh?" Victor said trying to change the conversation, "What will you two do from now on?"

"Have my ears checked, first." Sameer said snapping his fingers near his ears, "One more of this explosion and I am going deaf for sure."

"I am being serious." Victor said, "Why don't you stay with me? I mean you could still get your rewards, so why not live your life to the fullest here. And don't you dare lie to me that you aren't addicted to fighting yet."

Maybe living with us caused Sameer to break during our time together. Because the man had always found a way to get extreme during the battles. If there was an award for the best assist in a battle it would surely go to him.

"What are you going to do?" He asked instead of answering,

"This is where I wanted to be." Victor shrugged, "Maybe a place that doesn't snow like hell, but this is the country I have been aiming for. I'll run around for a while and then settle after I decide on a place with good booze and women."

Sameer turned to me as I shrugged, "I'll be heading to China for now, and then maybe Japan, I am not too sure."

"Just don't get someone pregnant, Howard would be mad if you did so without his knowing." Victor joked,

"Same goes for you, in fact, it mainly goes to you," I said, "I am not the one fucking around everywhere I go, and even if I do decide to settle down I'll have Howard know."

"Why is having a child a problem?"

"According to Howard, our babies have a high chance of turning out like us. And in case someone gets wind of it they will most likely steal our baby and raise it to be a weapon. Or worse, the child would be experimented on until they die." I explained, "It's reasonable so we can't even fight back against that argument."

"And if you do want to have a child?"

"Then we'll go to Howard, where he'll help us raise our child. If normal in a normal way and if mutant in the most possible normal way."

"You guys are really... weird." Sameer laughed, "I realize why Mr. Howard treats you guys like his children. I mean you're the same as those couples who conceive a child young and can't handle them, so they'd turn to their parents where they'd dump their child into their parent's hands and go around fucking again."

"You don't have to put it like that." Victor sneered, "And that's also one of the reasons, I am never having a child either. You still haven't told us what you're going to do now?"

"Mr. Howard has asked me to return to New York, so that's what I am going to do." Sameer said, "If he thinks I am capable, I'd probably go around on a few missions again and if not I'll retire and settle down. Find a beautiful girl, marry, have children which I wouldn't dump on Mr. Howard, and live a decent life till the end."

"You didn't have to say the last part," I said making a bitter face, "So how do we celebrate our final moment then? After all, this might be the last time all three of us gather."

"Since you put it like that, I want to do it one last time, like we always do." Sameer said, "Booze and Women!"

"To the brothel then?"

"To the brothel, it is."

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A/N:- Next is the final POV of Steve and we'll return to normal chapters after this.