Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Avery finally had the bastard who had been a part of the organization that had experimented on his mother in his grasp.

He had already hated the man before he had learned about this due to the mutagenic experiments he was performing on people, but the connection to his mother made this personal.

He could feel his fingers sinking into Layton's neck.

His flesh and muscles were soft and offered almost no resistance against Avery. Just by clenching his fists, he could crush the doctor's neck.

It would be easy, and he really wanted to do it.

Doctor Layton Sarelett was not someone that deserved to live. Even if he was forced to endure the worst torture imaginable, it likely still would not be comparable to what his victims had been forced to endure.

As he was unable to breathe, the man who considered himself to be an intellectual started flailing around break free from Avery's grip.

Naturally, Doctor Sarelett had no chance of getting away.

It was evident that he had received some augmentation treatments, but they were mostly to prolong his life and enhance his bodily functions. He was only a bit stronger than the average person, and that not anywhere close to enough to let him stand up to Avery.

'Delia's getting away right now. I need to be done with this quickly so that I can catch up to her.' Avery thought as he squeezed tighter.

The only reason he did not just immediately snap the man's neck was because he could feel Cerise's eyes on him.

Avery could tell she wanted him to spare Layton so that he could be interrogated. Though she showed no signs of getting in his way either.

Ultimately, the decision on what to do with Doctor Sarelett was being left up to Avery.

"Damn it!" He shouted as he threw the man onto the ground.

Avery bit had put quite a bit of force into the throw, so Layton broke a few bones when eh hit the hard floor.

Still, he was alive, and though he really did not want to let him stay that way, Avery knew logically that he could not kill the man just yet.

There was information that they needed to get from him.

Most pressingly was his process for mutating people and the locations of any other labs he had set up.

Even if the man was dead, it would not stop the work that he had already done. Some assistant of other expert could pick up right were he left off. The entire experiment needed to be pulled up by the roots so that it could not be started up again.

Doctor Sarelett tried pleading with Avery, saying how important his work was, but Avery was not really listening.

It took everything in his power to control his anger and not kill the horrid researcher here and now.

"Just shut up and go to sleep already." Avery growled as he kicked the man in the chin.

The blow did indeed knock Layton unconscious and shattered his jaw as well. The injury was not fatal though, so Avery paid it no mind.

He then turned towards Cerise who was already making her way over to him. The three monsters she had been fighting were sliced into pieces and left bleeding all over the floor.

"I truthfully thought you were going to kill him there. I'm glad that you did not though There's still a lot we need to get out of him."

"I know. That's the only reason he is still alive. But he's never making it back to the Dramid Alliance. I'll make sure of that." Avery said authoritatively.

He was making sure that Cerise understood his stance on the matter.

"Of course. I had the exact same intentions. He's too dangerous to be left alive."

Avery felt relieved that they were on the same page. He was not certain what he would have done if they were in opposition with each other.

"Can you handle everything here? I'm going to go after Delia. Letting her escape would be a mistake.

"I agree. But are you sure that you want to go alone? Last time she lured you into a trap." Cerise asked, concern evident in her expression.

"No, I willingly walked into a trap knowing that you would be around to bail me out. There's a difference. This time I won't allow myself to get caught."

Cerise shrugged but did not offer any other protest to Avery going after Delia alone.

With everything else being dealt with, Avery pulled out his terminal and checked where the trackers on Delia were.

Usurpingly, most of them were stationary, obviously having been ditched nearby.

However, there were still three that were on the move.

Except, each of the beacons was heading in different directions.

'Just what I would expect from her. But she couldn't have gotten too far yet. Let's see if I can't find her.'

Avery focused on expanding his extrasensory perception in the directions of each of the moving trackers.

He soon found the first one having been thrown onto a coveter belt connecting two of the warehouses.

The next had been stuck onto a drone that was flying rapidly towards the nearest hangar.

That left only the third, and not usurpingly, it was also no longer with Delia.

This turned out to be the terminal that she had been using which was now riding along with a heap of trash after being dropped into a chute leading to the station's waste management systems.

'Not unexpected, but I was hoping that this would be easy. I guess that I'll just have to track her down the hard way.' Avery thought, rushing in the direction that Delia had run away in.

…

"This has all gone to complete sh*t." Delilah grumbled as she tossed away the clothing she had been wearing.

It had all been provided by Avery, so naturally she did not trust a single article in the slightest. Even the underwear had to go.

After that, she made sure to place a few of the trackers in places that would keep them moving and hopefully draw away anyone trying to track her.

Luckily, she had the forethought to have extra clothing prepared and she swiftly put it on and kept running.

The moment that Cerise Gunvald had shown up, she knew that everything had fallen apart.

She had accounted for many variables, but that woman's presence was not one of them.

Delilah had gone out of her way to make sure that war broke out between the Dramid Alliance and Zatis Consortium mostly just to distract Cerise. Normally, as one of the strongest and most successful officers in the Alliance Police, she should have been busy fighting on the frontlines.

Yet, the blasted commander had somehow swapped places with an android and smuggled herself aboard Avery's carrier ship without any of Delilah's informants learning about it.

Had Delilah not been able to confirm the woman's position, she never would have initiated the plan to capture Avery here.

She would have waited for longer until after he was finished with the current assignment and no longer under Gunvald's purview.

But she had been tricked. A blind spot in her information network since she had no one within Cerise's inner circle. Something she planned to rectify later.

'This is what I get for being hasty. It seemed like such a chance to accomplish all of my goals at one time, but I was too greedy. A lesson to be learned for the future.' Delilah thought as she followed the predetermined escape route she had already prepared in advance.

There was at least a bit of a silver lining in all of this though.

Layton was almost certain to end up dead now, and that meant she would not have to repay the last favor she owed him.

He was certainly useful, and she would miss being able to call on his expertise. Still, he had recently made himself more a nuisance than a benefit, so Delilah was happy to wash her hands of him.

Having made enemies of Avery and Cerise was not exactly the best outcome, but she knew how to keep herself hidden. They had far more important things to worry about than her. There was a war going on after all.

Plus, she had set everything up to extract a great deal of the Odium Syndicate's accumulated wealth. Overall, she considered this endeavor to have ended positively.

All she needed to do now was make her way to the stealth ship she had waiting for her and make her way to her nearest safehouse where she could lie low for a while.

At least, that's how things should have gone.

Yet just before she reached the airlock where her vessel was waiting, she found Avery standing in her path. It was as if he had popped up out of nowhere like some sort of specter.