Chapter 7: Whispered Shields
S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters — New York Field Division. 8:47 AM.
Agent Sharon Carter adjusted her blazer as she scrolled through the encrypted StarkTech recovery logs on her tablet. Still no leads. Still no trace. Whoever hit the warehouse had left no fingerprints, no IDs, no surveillance trail.
Except...
She paused, rewinding a frame from the leaked camera footage.
A shadow.
Moving faster than the camera could keep up. Deliberate. Surgical. Efficient.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
Across the city, Adam adjusted the straps of a black gauntlet prototype on his right forearm. The lights flickered, powered by a salvaged arc cell modified to run on scavenged Stark micro-capacitors.
[Prototype Creation In Progress]
Project: Reflex Response Module (RRM Mk I)
Function: Enhanced Reaction Speed & Muscle Feedback
Base Inspiration: Spider-Sense mimicry
Resource Drain: 18% of Arc Battery
Progress: 87%
Sparks hissed as he soldered a coil into place, wiping sweat from his brow.
[Self-Directed Focus Detected]Reward: +1 IntelligenceTalent
Fragment: Reflex Engineering (6%)
The system hummed in his mind, a gentle companion now. Always listening. Always tallying.
He flexed his fingers inside the gauntlet.and yelled " I AN INEVITABLE" haha
There was a slight hum, then—
Ping.
A bottle cap flew at him from the side.
He caught it without looking.
Adam grinned.
"Now we're talking."
Hours later, dressed in clean streetwear and a heavy coat, Adam walked among the crowds of Midtown Manhattan. But today, he wasn't looking to disappear.
He was fishing.
The emotional kind.
At Bryant Park, a group of college students crowded around a chess table. A smug finance bro in a tailored suit sat on one side, trash-talking as he steamrolled challenger after challenger.
Adam smiled to himself and stepped forward.
"Mind if I try?"
The man looked up, eyeing his thrift-store hoodie and scuffed shoes.
"You sure you know how the pieces move, buddy?"
[Minor Disdain Detected – Finance Bro]Reward: +$100
Adam sat across with a lazy smile. "More than you, probably."
Ten minutes later, the bro was sweating.
Fifteen minutes later, he was speechless.
Twenty?
Checkmate.
The crowd cheered.
[Major Embarrassment Detected – Finance Bro]
Reward: +$500
Talent Fragment: Strategic Thinking (8%)
[Minor Admiration Detected – Crowd]
Reward: +1 Charisma
[Medium Intrigue Detected – Student on Internship with Stark Industries]
Reward: +1 Intelligence, Talent Fragment: Miniaturized Tech Design (4%)
Back in the shadows, SHIELD was watching.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Surveillance Lab – 10:23 PM
Sharon Carter dropped her coffee as she watched the chess match replayed on a slow loop.
"Pause there."
She zoomed in on the guy in the hoodie. Eyewitness data matched a man named Adam Kane. No birth record before 2007. Fake ID flagged once by a dormant Hydra database.
Someone very clever had covered their tracks. But not perfectly.
Sharon leaned back, narrowing her eyes.
"Why are you showing up at the edge of every anomaly this week?"
[Minor Intrigue Detected – Sharon Carter]
Reward: +$250
Emotional Tag Initiated: "Unknown Player"
That night, Adam sat in his dim apartment, his new gauntlet resting on the table.
Stats, slowly rising. Emotional anchors, forming. Talent fragments collecting like scattered puzzle pieces.
And now SHIELD was sniffing at his heels.
"Perfect,a women agent and not a man thats the dream" he murmured.
"They'll be the ones to bring me to the bigger game.plus some flirtation i hope i can do that i never tried before"adam got nervis for the wrong reson
He pulled open his notebook again.
[Current Stats:]
Strength: 13
Intelligence: 17
Stamina: 9
Charisma: 11
Luck: 0 (Progress: 3/10)
[System Reminder: Luck can now be gained through compound emotion events involving Named Characters.]
[Talent Fragments:]
Astrophysics – 12%
Cooking – 1%
Emotional Insight – Basic
Streetwise – Basic
Negotiation – 7%
Intimidation – 4%
Advanced Engineering (3%)
Urban Combat (4%)
Lie Detection Resistance – 6%
Prototype Design (5%)
Miniaturized Tech Design (4%)
Strategic Thinking (8%)
Reflex Engineering (6%)