#the man's just a hack who caught the eye of a Higher Power! that's all!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

starlitmark · 10 months

Text

Summary: The morning of the takeover, you and Jongho need to find some fun in all the madness. Pairing: Jongho x fem!reader Genre: smut, fluff, very little angst Tropes: established relationship au, anarchy au(?) Rating: R 18+ Warnings: mentions of anarchy, reader has codename Raven, worrying, pet names, mentions of violence, mentions of implied death, mentions of hacking Smut Warnings: unprotected sex, exhibitionism, teasing, kissing, clothed sex, strength kink, dirty talk, marking, creampie Word Count: 2,907 Note: for the Outlaw Collab hosted by @cultofdionysusnet Note 2: huge huge thank you to @mejuii for beta reading this <3

You felt like you were practically vibrating in your skin. Tonight is the night the outlaws plan to overthrow the academy. Being a part of the whole operation was risky already, but the position you play in the job causes even more risks to come about. Not only are you, Raven of the cyber intelligence team, but you’re also undercover as one of the staff members in the academy. If you were to ever get caught, who knows what would happen to you?

Currently, you’re in your office grading ‘your’ students’ work. You’re not at all focused on the papers in front of you. The subject isn’t interesting in the slightest. Your mind is anywhere but on grading right now. With a frustrated groan, you throw your pen off to the side and push the stack of papers to the corner of your desk. There are no cameras in your office; the higher powers of the academy trust you to be loyal to them. You often use this incorrect trust to your advantage. Still, you’d rather be safe than sorry. You peek out the window of your office door to check for anyone else around. When you see no one, you still opt to pull the blinds down on the off chance an officer is still patrolling the halls at this hour of the morning.

You pull your laptop out from a locked drawer and place it in front of you. You dig through files upon files of information you’ve dug up on this place, the staff, anything you can really. The thought of contacting Syberhawk crosses your mind. You know it’s very likely that she’s likely spending the last few hours of peace locked away with Seonghwa while she can. You can’t even blame her. You’d love to be doing the same with Jongho, but one, you have no idea where he is at the moment. And two, you have a horrible knot in your stomach that you missed something. You could very likely lead Seonghwa into a suicide mission if you don’t give him all of the information properly.

The door to your office pops open quietly. You do the first thing that comes to mind and slam the lid of your laptop down. When you see the bill of a security officer’s hat, you don’t know whether to panic more or not. Then when the man steps in fully, he shuts the door softly.

“It’s just me, little bird.” your boyfriend’s voice fills your ears.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding, “Thank god. I thought I was about to get caught.”

He rounds the desk and leans down to place a kiss against the top of your head. He takes off the cap and runs his fingers through his hair as he places the hat on the stack of papers. Slowly, you open your laptop again and start scanning through everything. You can feel Jongho’s eyes on you. You’re choosing to ignore them right now. Jongho squeezes your shoulder lightly, making you turn to look up at him standing beside you.

“You’re overthinking it all, and I know it.”

“Can you just double-check these classified documents I found? I’m so scared I missed something…”

Your boyfriend leans down, leaning against his hand on the desk, “Did you talk to Syberhawk about everything?”

“No, but I’ll send it her way still so she can check it too. She’s probably asleep or busy right now, but the thought is there.”

Jongho chuckles with a light smirk on his lips, “Yeah, probably. No one’s as crazy as you to stay awake preparing for the biggest mission of all time.”

“Shut up,” you tease back, “You don’t see anything I missed, right?” he shakes his head, “Okay, so, where are you coming from?”

“Nightowl’s customs shop.” he states.

It’s been a few days since you’ve seen Nightowl. She’s been hauling ass to get everything ready for tonight. In reality, though, you don’t see her often as it is. She’s in her shop while you’re stuck here posed as a teacher. You do know that Yunho has been hanging out there more often, which piques your interest.

“Was Yunho there this time?”

“Why are you asking about him specifically?” your boyfriend questions.

“Jealous?” you tease.

“No,” he chuckles back, “Just curious, my little bird.”

“The two of them have a weird tension between them.” “Well, it got fucking weirder. When I left, the energy in the shop was all kinds of all over the place.”

You nod and look back at your screen. Jongho isn’t letting you get lost in your mind again as you stare at the device in front of you. He holds your chin between his thumb and first finger and turns your head back toward him. The rush of love and something else shoots through you as you look at him. He’s still leaning against your desk as he holds your chin. The sight of that alone makes you want to melt in his hands. Then, you add the uniform on top of that, and you’re done for. An absolute mess for your boyfriend.

“Something else is on your mind. You can’t hide those things from me. As good of an actress as you are, you can’t hide things from me.” he reminds you with a light giggle.

“I’m worried.” you sigh.

“About tonight?”

You nod, “I’ll be at the safehouse with the rest of the technology and cyber intelligence team and…”

“And I’ll be out in the field.” he finishes your sentence for you, “Little bird, this isn’t any different from any other mission. You’re always in our earpieces, and I’m always out in the field with the others.”

“This is different though, Jongho…” you sigh again.

“How so?”

His eyes drip with sincerity and care for you. Your eyes flit across his face as you try to formulate your words mentally. His hand moves to hold your cheek, thumb gently caressing your cheekbone.

“It’s just… this one is so much more dangerous than the others.”

“Yeah,” he chuckles again, “and the one where I nearly blew my leg up wasn’t.”

“You know what I mean. There’s so much more on the line this time.”

“I do. I know you’re worried, but we’re always beyond careful with everything. You and Syberhawk are at the safe house, keeping an eye on everything from a safe distance. I’d much rather you be at the safehouse and away from the physical danger than with me and in immediate physical danger.”

“You know damn well I could run circles around you.” you tease, “I joined this resistance before you and got a whole lot more training because of that.”

“Watch it, pretty. Remember which one of us sits in front of a computer almost all day and which of us is doing hand-to-hand combat.”

You giggle lightly, “That’s fine by me.”

“Seriously though, if you’re still worried about me being in direct danger, you know Sparrow is the person to talk to. She’s letting Joong go out there too. I’m sure Syberhawk is worried sick, too. Hwa is putting everything on the line for this. He’s the bait… talk to them about it all if you really need it.” he speaks softly.

You nod and let out a shaky sigh, “You ready to go tell Seonghwa what we know?”

“Now?”

“Now. If we don’t go now, we won’t go at all.”

You lock your computer and put it in your bag before pushing your chair out. The moment you stand up, you feel Jongho’s arm wrap around your waist. He pulls you to his chest and kisses you until you’re breathless. Normally, especially here, Jongho isn’t one for physical intimacy. You practically melt into the kiss. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you start to deepen the kiss. Just as you’re about to progress things further, Jongho pulls back and smirks at you.

“We best be off then.”

“Asshole.” you huff.

“As you said, if we don’t go now, we won’t go at all. Come on, let’s get walking.” he states, jerking his head toward the door.

“Walking?”

“Do you want them to hear the bike? It’s not a long walk to the meeting point with Hwa.”

You look down at your outfit, “you expect me to walk in the stiff, formal outfit? I’m wearing fucking heels, Jongho.” you whine.

Jongho tosses a bag at you. Luckily, you catch it, “I know you too well. Once we’re out of the building, get changed, I’ll cover you, okay?”

“Where did you even hide this bag? I didn’t see you holding one when you came in.”

“Behind your plant over here, little bird. I left it there after you whined about having to walk in your undercover outfit last time.”

You navigate your way through the halls. You’re both still wearing the uniforms that disguise you as staff of the academy, making things much easier to slip under the radar. There aren’t many people in the halls at this hour of the morning. The two people you do cross paths with simply assume that Jongho is another security guard that’s walking you (presumed to be a teacher) somewhere. You exit the building via a door in one of the few blind spots this massive campus has. Luckily, the other side of the doorway happens to be a blind spot. Instantly you throw the bag of clothing at your boyfriend. You hastily start unbuttoning the uncomfortable blouse the uniform requires.

“Damn, couldn’t wait another minute?” Jongho teases.

“Shut up and help me get this shit off. I can’t stand it.” you sigh.

You see something shift in your boyfriend’s eyes, but he still reaches into the bag and pulls out the tight-fitting black tank top inside. His eyes wander across your nearly bare top half, trying hard not to fuck you stupid right then and there. It’s been a while since you and your boyfriend got to be intimate with each other. With the hecticness of planning everything that’s about to come to a head tonight, along with keeping your covers, neither of you can remember the last time you got more than a small peck.

You’re slipping off the knee-length pencil skirt with one hand outstretched to get too ripped black jeans from Jongho. When you look at him, you see the dark swirls of lust stronger in his gaze. You smirk before standing upright and holding eye contact with him.

“Don’t get any ideas there.” you chuckle, “Hwa’s probably been waiting for us forever.”

Jongho steps closer and cups your cheek in his hand. The other rests against your bare hip, holding you in place. You feel the cool bricks of the building against the back of your legs and through the fabric of your underwear. Your heart is pounding out of your chest in the best way possible.

“Forever can spare a few more minutes. Don’t you think, little bird?” he nearly whispers.

“I- I think it can.” you match his tone.

He doesn’t waste another moment. His lips are on yours. The feeling of his plush lips on yours sends a rush of arousal through your body. The cool sting of the breeze cuts through you, but it only serves to make you more desperate to have Jongho surrounding every fiber of your being. His kisses trail down your throat, leaving small red marks on your skin in his wake. Your fingers fiddle with the button of his tactile pants for a few moments before popping it open. Jongho chuckles against your lips slightly before letting his other hand grip your hip tighter.

“Forever may have a few more minutes, but we better hurry along before that person who’s been waiting forever starts to worry.”

“Seonghwa is such a mother hen. He’ll be fine. Now, are you ready for me, or should I prep you a bit?”

“If you don’t get inside me in the next minute, you’ll be sleeping in the lounge for a week.”

“That sounds like an empty threat, little bird.” he singsongs.

Despite the teasing banter, he allows you to unzip his pants fully and bury your hand inside, wrapping your hand around his hard cock. His hand that was previously holding your face slides down to grab your thigh, squeezing the plush skin in his hand. You push the material of his pants and briefs down just enough to release his member from its constraints. Jongho hikes your thigh up on his hip before his other hand hooks around your panties to pull them aside.

You feel the blunt head of his cock pressing against your dripping entrance. It takes everything in you not to beg him to put it inside you already. The last thing you need is to be caught in this extremely compromising situation. As he pushes into you inch by inch, you busy yourself with kissing along his throat, nipping at the skin in hopes that would stop you from moaning too loudly. Soon enough, he bottoms out inside you and lets out a small groan of appreciation.

“Fuck, it’s been too long since I’ve been buried in this soaking cunt.” he muses, “Can’t wait for this fucking mission to be done so I can stay inside you all the time.”

“Jongho, please,” you pant, “Fuck me properly.”

He recaptures your lips as he repositions his stance. At first, you’re so lost in the kiss to process anything besides the slow thrusts into you. Then you process his hand that had remained on your hip and move to hold your other thigh before lifting you off the ground entirely. Jongho begins thrusting into you as if it’s the last time he’ll ever get to fuck you. The sudden shift in his thrust nearly knocks the air out of you. The harsh texture of the bricks against your skin is bound to leave marks, but you couldn’t care less about that. You toss your head back against the cold stone and let a broken moan escape your lips.

“Shh, we can’t get caught, baby.” he teases, though a groan escapes his lips moments after he speaks, “I’m not gonna last long, little bird. It’s been too long since I’ve gotten to be inside you.”

“Jongho, please, fuck me hard. Need you to cum inside me so badly.”

“You’re getting off on me holding you against this wall, aren’t you?”

“You’re so strong, and you’re holding me up like I weigh nothing. It’s so fucking hot.” you whine.

Somehow his already bruising pace grows harsher, and you feel your ass hitting against the now-warm bricks behind you with each thrust. You bury your face in your boyfriend’s shoulder, hoping to hide the squeaky broken moans you let out. Jongho lets an endless stream of filthy pretty words escape his lips as his pace begins to grow erratic. You feel the tightly wound chord of your orgasm snap, and your walls flutter around him as you ride out your high. The way you squeeze him triggers his own orgasm, and his cum floods your walls. His thrusts start to slow before he stops fully. He stays inside you as you both catch your breath. Gently, Jongho lowers your legs back to the ground and doesn’t let go of you until you’re fully stable on your legs again. You tug your panties back into place, not caring about the fact that you have Jongho’s cum dripping out of you onto the fabric.

“You don’t want to clean up?” your boyfriend questions.

“What could I possibly clean up with?” you ask with a slight chuckle.

“Your ‘uniform’, maybe?” “I will not be getting cum stains on that thing.” you say with a playfully disgusted tone.

“It was an offer.” he laughs back.

Jongho tucks himself back into the uniform pants and hands you the jeans you were meant to put on to start with. You scoff and start slipping on the dark clothing. You struggle for a few moments as you fight to get your chunky boots on your feet while standing. The action causes your boyfriend to chuckle at you again and give you an adoring smile. He takes it upon himself to put the academy uniform into the back that previously held your personal clothing.

“How obvious is it that we just fucked?” you question as you toss your hair back into a ponytail.

“Well, judging by your neck alone… very.”

“Jongho! You-” you stop yourself, “You’re actually not much better.”

“So we’re about to go see one of our closest friends while it’s painfully obvious that we just fucked.”

“Well… we really don’t have a choice. The sun is rising. Let’s get to Seonghwa before he really panics, or we get caught on academy grounds while I clearly look like an outsider.” you huff.

Jongho pecks your cheek lightly and entangles your fingers with his, “We better get going, for real this time.”

You smile at him and start running toward the gate that leads to the outside world. You’re absolutely terrified about tonight, but you just have to trust that all the pieces of the puzzle are in place. You trust your boyfriend and the group you’re both a part of. Now all you can do is tell Seonghwa what you know and give him the best advice you can with the said information.

Networks: @cultofdionysusnet @k-vanity @kwritersworld

Tag List: @sanjoongie @jaehunnyy @ericssmile @anyamaris

#Operation Outlaw: Before the Boom #jongho smut #cultofdionysusnet #kwritersworldnet #kvanity #ateez fanfic #ateez x reader #ateez smut #jongho fanfic #jongho x reader

298 notes · View notes

peterbarnes · 3 years

Text

Dating Peter Parker Would Include…

Masterlist

-you two have been best friends since you were kids

- in kindergarten, a boy had pushed peter onto the ground and started laughing at him

- You went over to them and told the boy that he wasn’t being nice, and when he didn’t listen, you punched him in the face :)

- Peter just stared at you in awe from the ground

- “I-I’m P-Parker- Peter! I mean Peter”

- “I’m [Y/N], wanna be friends?”

-Crushing on each other secretly for years

- May and Ned being the captains of this ship

- Being best friends with MJ and Ned

-Your first kiss happening spontaneously

- You were over at his house one night and you caught Peter staring at you while you did your homework

- next thing you knew he smashed his lips onto yours

- it was intense and heated at first, but then it was as if the two of you melted, the kiss becoming gentle and intimate

- at which point May walked in on

- “fucking FINALLY! Use protection kids”

- Walking into school holding hands the next day

-And everyone’s like “about freaking time”

- Not even Flash dares to come between you two

- Peter will protect you at all cost

- Flash will throw a ball at him in P.E and Peter won’t move

- But the SECOND Flash throws a ball at you, Peter’s spidey reflexes kick in and he catches the ball without looking

- Flash is like 0.0

- Always having to maintain some sort of physical contact

- It could be as innocent as Peter’s arm wrapped around your shoulder

- Or something a little less innocent ;)

- When Peter becomes Spider-man you immediately notice something’s off

- He starts cancelling dates

- Which leads to your first fight

- “I don’t have to be with you every second of every day!!”

- “But you could at least put a little effort into our relationship!!

- Guilty!Peter

- Him showing up at your front door with large teddy bear, a box of chocolates, and a dozen roses

- His eyes were red and puffy as if he’d been crying

- Which he had been

- You rush into his arms, making him drop his stuff

- He tells you he’s Spider-man

- “I know”

- “wHaT?”

- Being the most supportive partner

- Saying your first ‘I love you’s’ accidently on the phone

- “Bye, love you”

- “Love you, too”

- “What?”

- You get kidnapped once

-It wasn’t fun

- Vulture took you to his lair to see if he could find out who Spider-man was

- He would carve things into your skin and hit you, trying to get you to talk

- Peter panicking and helping Ned hack into the S.H.I.E.L.D database so he could find you

- After one glance at your current, beaten state, all Peter saw was red

- “Karen, activate instant kill mode”

- Peter trying to breaking up with you to protect you

- “Yeah, no”

- Being Tony Stark approved

- The billionare loves you

-“You hurt them, I’ll kill you”

-“Mr. Stark shouldn’t this conversation be the other way around?”

- “No”

- spending countless nights holding him after tony dies

- him only opening up to you

- cursing whatever higher power out there for hurting your boy

- there’s a lot of ups and downs

- But at the end of the day, you’re just two kids in love

#peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker fanfic #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x oc #peter parker x you #peter parker x y/n #peter parker imagine #tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland imagine #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fanfic #spider man no way home #spiderman #spiderman nwh #spiderman no way home #no way home #what if

319 notes · View notes

solalunar-eclipse · 3 years

Text

45.06°N, 1.656°E

Summary: Rouge deserves more cool.

Word count: about 4200 words

Author’s Note: Hopefully my writing abilities haven’t deteriorated too much over the hiatus- but either way, please enjoy! (Side note: this is technically set after Scars You Can’t See, but it isn’t vital to read that if you haven’t already)

...

It was truly a beautiful day outside in Empire City. Puffy clouds drifted across a rich blue sky, a light breeze pushing them along as the sun shone down brightly- just enough to bring the temperature up to a comfortable range. Its rays shimmered upon one of the many tall, silvery buildings that this city was known for, threatening to leave a temporary mark on the vision of anyone who looked at it for too long. This particular building advertised itself as an insurance company’s headquarters, and it looked perfectly in place amongst all the other skyscrapers in the city.

The activities going on inside, however, were anything but ‘in place’.

Near the very top of the towering structure, a bat sat in front of a wall-sized computer screen, her black-gloved fingers flying across the keyboard. Firewalls and security systems fell like sandcastles swept out by the tide- no corner of this building was safe when she was in control. Identity checks meant nothing to her, passwords were a breeze, and two-factor authentication? A joke.

Rouge smiled in satisfaction, taking a break to stretch out her fingers now that she was successfully through the various measures designed to keep hackers like her out of these computers. With a click of the mouse and a few keys tapped, the various sums of money the people who worked here had stolen began to make their way back to their rightful owners’ bank accounts.

After all, this building didn’t actually house an insurance company. That was just a cover story for the real business here- draining the cash out of innocent people’s funds. Rouge had been determined to stop this as soon as she’d learned about it before any more people got hurt (when she stole it was usually from rich people who could afford to have one of many diamonds go missing- this was just cruel!), and now she’d successfully completed about half the job. Just returning the money wasn’t quite enough, of course- this scheme had been running for over a year now, and it was about time someone put a stop to it for good.

That was where her friends came in.

While she manned the cameras, Shadow and Omega were grabbing plenty of physical evidence from the various offices throughout the building- more than enough to incriminate everyone who worked here. Rouge’s job was mostly to ensure that they could get what they needed without any serious trouble. It might be a difficult task, considering that Omega was set on blowing up most of the tech stored here...but she was prepared to deal with that.

The bat leaned back in her chair, catching a quick glimpse of herself in the window as she did so. Ever since they’d left G.U.N., a great perk (in addition to the lack of association with a corrupt military organization, obviously) was that they could wear whatever they wanted on the job. Before, Rouge had really been pushing it on ‘formality’ with her jumpsuit alone, and even then she hadn’t been allowed to wear anything else while on the job for the sake of ‘consistency’.

Now, in a drastic change from her usual style, she wore a tight black leather jumpsuit over a purple shirt, complete with white gloves and high-heeled boots. The latter two had neon blue accents, too, providing a burst of color as well as an actual light source to see by- perfect for dark missions.

Shadow and Omega hadn’t been allowed any personal effects re: clothing before due to the fact that a few too many supervisors saw them as weapons and not people. Rouge had of course argued against this, but there was only so much one person could do.

Now, though, the bat had insisted that both of her friends get more clothing- ‘if nothing else then to stick it to them’ were her exact words- and they had both taken to it quite well after an initial period of hesitancy. Omega in particular had been quite devastated (and then promptly offended) upon discovering that no leather jackets were currently produced in his specific size. Eventually, however, he was placated with the offer of a fedora, claiming it made him look ‘VERY MYSTERIOUS’. He had now taken to collecting hats as well as weaponry.

Shadow could fit into a leather jacket, on the other hand, and consequently owned about five of them, three of which he’d bought within the same week. Today he wore one with red stitching, and while he hadn’t had anything to say about it, Rouge had caught him admiring it in the mirror before the mission (at which point he scowled, blushed green to his ears, and teleported away).

Right now, though, he and Omega were quietly discussing which documents to take and which ones to leave behind. It would raise suspicions far too quickly if the criminals inhabiting this building came back to discover a completely bare office, after all, so they only took several receipts of major transactions as well as a list of the bank account numbers that had been hacked- and some future targets as well.

(Was this whole thing illegal? Kind of. Did anyone really mind so long as they were helping others? Not really. After all, Tails was totally not old enough to fly a plane, but at this point the government had basically thrown up their hands and said ‘whatever I guess’, so it was fine.)

“ROUGE.” Omega said suddenly, making the bat stop her musing and drop her feet from the desk. “THIS IS IMPORTANT.”

“Yeah, hon? What is it?” she asked, ready to deal with any problems that might arise.

“MY HAT KEEPS FALLING OFF. I REQUIRE SOME SORT OF METHOD TO KEEP IT ON.”

The bat sighed and gave a relieved laugh as Shadow hissed, “Omega! This is a serious mission!”

“It’s alright, Shadow. Omega, we’ll find some double-sided tape or something when we get home, alright?”

The robot paused for a moment, thinking. “THIS IS ACCEPTABLE.”

As Rouge watched, they gathered up the rest of the items and began to move towards the lobby. Today was an off day for the ‘business’, so most of the hallways would be empty. The secretary out front would take his usual break to go get lunch in two minutes as well, giving them a clear chance to escape.

And of course that was when everything went wrong.

It turned out that leaving G.U.N. (while the right idea) wasn’t without its occasional disadvantages. If they’d still been part of the military organization, then they would’ve had the resources to figure out that these criminals were more than a little paranoid, so their security system ran diagnostics every hour on the dot. When it discovered the hacking, it locked Rouge’s access to any other computer terminal and then restricted every single application on that one computer.

These people weren’t exactly beginners when it came to computers, after all.

The bat jumped out of her chair the second her computer glitched and froze, panicked. “Guys. Guys, get out of here right now.” she said urgently into her microphone. “I can bust out a window but you two have to go right now-”

She froze as, on the screen, multiple armed guards and two gigantic mechs dropped down onto the ground level and pointed their guns at Shadow and Omega. The robot moved to cover the hybrid’s back as Shadow pulled his favorite katana sword out of its scabbard.

Rouge refused to sit and watch another minute, kicking the door off its hinges hard enough to slam it against the opposite wall and tearing down the hallway to save her teammates.

Shadow and Omega fought well in the meantime, managing to take out one of the mechs and several guards too. Occasionally, Shadow even curled up and was promptly fired out of his friend’s cannon at top speed, turning into a deadly projectile all by himself.

Eventually, though, one of the guards got too smart and pulled out a stun gun, shocking Omega long enough to put the robot temporarily out of commission. Shadow spun around to defend his friend, using the Chaos Emerald he’d brought along to deliver a devastating blow- but he had nobody to watch his back now, and it barely took a minute before the mech found an opening to slam him into the wall as he dealt with the guards.

Shadow dropped to the ground weakly, temporarily unconscious. Omega was still struggling to get his systems back online.

Rouge, meanwhile, was furious.

The bat rushed to the balcony overlooking the lobby from the third floor, her teeth bared as she watched the mech move into position, prepared to bring its giant fist down on Shadow’s unmoving body. Flipping over the railing, she free-fell the three stories to the ground, slamming both heels into the marble and leaving a long crack across the floor. She snatched up the Emerald from the tile where it had fallen out of Shadow’s quills, holding it tightly in her hand.

“Leave him alone. Now.” she snarled.

When the mech pilot gave her nothing more than a cursory glance, raising the steel fist higher, Rouge charged.

An ultrasonic shriek exploded from her lungs, making every other human in the room double over and clutch their ears. At the exact same time, the glass in the extra-tall windows of the lobby vibrated, cracked, and then shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Rouge didn’t see any of that. Rouge didn’t care about any of that. All she could see was the hedgehog she’d come to care about so much about to be crushed by someone who barely even knew his name.

She jumped up and whirled around in the air, the power of her wings suddenly (strangely) strong enough to send the mech swaying backwards slightly, before lashing out with a kick that dented the chestplate of the thing and hit it hard enough to-

-and Rouge’s eyes widened-

-to send it flying through the shattered windows and down the street that the building faced, so far that it became nothing more than a speck in the horizon.

This was, incidentally, a mech that weighed over two tons.

Omega, near the other end of the room, silently thanked every inventor that had ever lived (aside from Eggman) that he had powered back on in time to see this.

Rouge, however, didn’t spare more than a second to think about it, instead dropping to her knees to check on Shadow. The moment she pressed the Chaos Emerald back into his hand, the hybrid’s eyes began to open slowly.

“Ugh….what happened…?”

“That moron of a pilot smacked you into a wall, hon. Are you gonna be okay?” Rouge asked, scanning his face for any sign of a concussion.

Shadow blinked twice, then suddenly sat bolt upright, his eyes wide. “...Rouge? Are you sure you’re alright?”

The bat frowned, confused, looking over herself. “Yeah, hon, I’m….”

She froze.

While Rouge had seen many strange things in her time, the sight of her lower legs and feet glowing bright purple was certainly a first.

As she jumped back from Shadow in surprise, she let go of the Chaos Emerald in his hand, making the aura surrounding her fade. “What...what was that?”

“YOU WERE SO COOL. THAT IS WHAT THAT WAS.” Omega declared, hauling himself to his feet and walking over. “YOU BEGAN TO GLOW AND KICKED THAT INFERIOR CREATION SEVERAL MILES AWAY. THE ONLY REGRET IN THIS SCENARIO IS THAT YOU WERE UNABLE TO CONTINUE DESTROYING YOUR ENEMIES, AS THERE WAS ONLY ONE OF THEM.”

Shadow looked up at her in surprise and- was that a little bit of awe? “I should have known you’d be able to use Chaos powers!” he said, shaking his head as he got to his feet. “Incredible...it’s no wonder you’re so resilient in battle.”

Rouge pointedly ignored the light flush on her face from all of this praise. “Well, we’ve got what we came for, so there. We’ll leave all of this evidence-” and clearly she wasn’t just talking about the papers- “for that new organization the government’s setting up. What’s it called again?”

Omega shrugged- an odd motion with his bulky shoulders. “THEY’RE STILL DECIDING. HOPEFULLY IT TURNS OUT TO BE SOMETHING COOL.”

“Well, whatever their name is, it’s their job now to deal with all this.” Rouge said, gesturing around at the general mess.

At that moment, the secretary returned with his food, only to stop dead in his tracks and stare at the three members of Team Dark amongst the wreckage of two gigantic robots and a lot of broken glass.

The bat ‘s face split into a wide, wicked grin, pointing directly at him. “And you’ll be the one to explain it to them!”

(It took one extremely short chase to retrieve the man- who foolishly thought he could lose Shadow and Rouge in the alleyways- before he was tied to one of the disgustingly ostentatious pillars by Omega. The team then went home and spent the next two hours watching Rouge glow and then break things…mostly things she meant to hit.)

…

Several days later, her team and Sonic's crew (plus Amy Rose) were in a different city, dealing with the usual biweekly Eggman attack. This one seemed, unfortunately, to not have most of the weak spots that usually came into play when fighting one of his giant robots, as both the power source and the mad scientist in question were heavily guarded.

However, after a particularly well-timed attack from Omega, Amy, and Knuckles all at once, Rouge spotted a panel that was currently rather dented and bent open with some wiring spilling out, and knew exactly what to do.

“Shadow! Omega! Cover me!” she shouted, leaping into the air and soaring towards the robot.

Immediately, she saw several smaller robots explode in her periphery, having fallen victim to the deadly lasers and Chaos Spears that her friends used. Her focus was on one thing and one thing only, though- making it up to that panel.

The moment Rouge latched on, she pulled open the panel the rest of the way and began to rewire the machine at an impressive pace. While she might not be the same kind of tech expert as Tails, who built devices and wrote code most people with a PhD couldn’t understand if they tried, one thing she certainly knew was how to make computers do what she wanted.

Eventually, though, Eggman caught on to what she was doing and tried to swat her off his mech with its two giant metal fists. “What do you think you’re doing down there with my robot?” he shouted, swinging at her wildly.

Suddenly, one of the fists in question promptly vanished, replaced by a smoking hole and a bunch of wires where a functioning steel hand was supposed to be. Rouge, startled, looked around for what could possibly have caused this- and promptly relaxed upon seeing Omega retracting his biggest laser cannon (which was glowing red-hot) back into his chassis with a glare up at his creator.

Thankfully, he’d also provided just the distraction she needed to rewire the last few parts, at which point she jumped off just as the robot began to spin wildly...and then its entire midsection exploded, launching the command center with Eggman still inside a good fifty feet into the air.

The bat landed on the ground to cheers from her friends and took a dramatic bow. Omega clapped a hand on her shoulder in a friendly way (which meant he only knocked the wind out of her and didn’t shove her several feet deep into the asphalt) as Shadow looked on with his arms folded, but still clearly proud.

“Wow, Rouge!” Tails exclaimed, his eyes wide and smile wider. “I didn’t realize you knew your way around that kind of tech that well- you should totally stop by my lab sometime!”

The bat shrugged. “It comes with the job, that’s all.” she insisted, but internally she was more than a little surprised- it still didn’t quite come naturally to her to consider that people would be impressed by what she did. All G.U.N. had ever told her was that she’d done ‘as well as was expected’, which made it seem like her skills were just average. Seeing someone who she’d mostly considered an acquaintance telling her how incredible her skills were when to her it was just ‘something I can do’ was...pretty nice, actually.

Rouge offered him a quick grin as the other three heroes came rushing up to her in varying states of surprise and excitement. “I just might take you up on that offer sometime.”

…

A week after that, Team Dark was spending time at the Station Square mall together- a common occurrence for them. It had good clothes, tolerable food, and most importantly lots of jewelry stores. They were here today because Rouge’s favorite was having a sale, and she refused to miss out on any opportunity to shop for gems.

After about an hour of looking around in the store (most of which was spent attempting to prevent Rouge from emptying said store and/or sneaking things out from inside locked cases), the three finally left with about four tiny bags of jewelry, which Omega wore hooked over his fingers. “THIS SEEMS WASTEFUL, BUT ALSO AMUSING.” he’d commented, at which point the bat riding on his shoulder gasped in mock outrage and began to vehemently defend the store’s choices.

They hadn’t gone more than a few steps, though, before she heard some gasps and squeals somewhere off to the left. She sighed. Some people seemed to have this odd hero-worship thing around Shadow, but the attention only made him feel awkward, so it looked like she’d have to play guard as usual here. Drifting down from her perch as the three young women approached, she said, “Alright, ladies, what are you here for?”

The bravest of the three moved forward, clutching something in her hands. “Uh…”

Rouge prepared herself to say no on behalf of her friend, to hear complaints like ‘why can’t we talk to Shadow?? You suck”, but then-

“...can you sign this poster, please?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t— wait, what?”

The bat stared at the poster, her eyes wide. A picture of herself looked right back at her, a smirk spread across her printed self’s face as jewels dripped from the hand not resting on her hip.

The photo was rather outdated now, having been taken not long after the ARK disaster. Post-crisis, Sonic had insisted that everyone (except for Eggman, since he’d caused that whole mess in the first place) get recognition for trying to save the planet together...and that included her.

Rouge and Sonic had both been wearing Shadow’s inhibitor rings during that photo shoot. It was their way of making sure that even though he wasn’t with them any longer, even though nobody would really remember who he was, he’d still live on in some little way without a big announcement.

She took the poster quickly, shaking off old memories, and gave them a genuine smile- rare for strangers. “Of course, hon!” she said, taking the offered pen and signing her name with a flourish and a little heart.

The one who’d asked promptly squealed and clutched at the poster, a big grin on her face. “Oh wow, thank you sooo much!” she gushed. “You know, you’re, like, my hero, right? Everyone always just, like, says that you can’t look good and be a real hero at the same time, you’re either a sell-out or too serious...but, you’re, like, both?? And that’s just so, y’know, empowering? To see someone looking fabulous and being a hero, but like not taking any nasty comments about it?”

Both her friends agreed eagerly, and Rouge found herself blushing just a little at all this praise. “If either of you have anything else, I could write something on those too,” she offered, still feeling a little bit bewildered at the moment.

This earned her two simultaneous squeals of “Really?!” followed by a lot of frantic searching for paper. Rouge was more than happy to sign her name there too, even adding a little message to each of them- and to the poster for good measure. As the three fans cheered, snapped a quick selfie with her (which was something she so wasn’t used to either), and then rushed off with a “thank you so much!!” Rouge found herself still smiling as she turned to walk back to her friends.

Shadow and Omega had moved a little ways away during all of the fuss, and now they were sporting similarly pleased expressions with more than a little bit of smugness mixed in. “SEE?” Omega asked, and Rouge could tell he’d be smirking if he were able to do so. “WE HAVE TOLD YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN THAT YOU ARE EXCEPTIONALLY COOL. YOU DIDN’T BELIEVE US THEN, THOUGH….DO YOU NOW?” He stopped there and somehow promptly assumed an even stronger I-told-you-so air than before.

“Maybe you’ll even get your own fanclub before long...oh, wait. Look what I just found.” Shadow added, tossing his phone over to her. Only the faintest of smirks was visible on his face (they were in public, after all) as Rouge stared at the screen proclaiming the current website to be “The Official Rouge Fansite (anyone feel free to join!!)”.

The bat found herself blushing to her ears, flattered and surprised by all of the support she hadn’t known existed until now.

Omega picked her up and set her on his shoulder, turning his head to look up at his friend. “COOL PEOPLE LIKE YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO WALK PLACES.”

“And-” Shadow added, slinging the bags she’d acquired at the store over her shoulder. “-cool people like you shouldn’t have to carry anything either.”

Rouge wondered briefly if her grin might strain her face if it grew much wider. Leaping down for a moment, she hovered in the air just long enough to ruffle the quills on top of Shadow’s head before perching back on Omega’s shoulder and patting the robot fondly. “You two dorks are the best.” she said warmly.

Shadow huffed and began to walk on ahead, clearly embarrassed. “DORK.” Omega called after the hedgehog, his eyes brightening by about fifteen percent in good humor.

“She called you one too, you know.” Shadow replied without looking back.

“YES, BUT YOUR DORKINESS IS MORE OBVIOUS.” Omega declared, by now shouting across several stores as Rouge tried to stifle a laugh.

“If you don’t catch up and stop talking I’ll hide all the hats in your favorite store and you’ll never find them.” the hybrid growled.

Rouge promptly discovered that Omega, despite weighing a thousand pounds, could in fact move quite quickly when threatened with the loss of a chance to add to his new clothing collection. The robot fired all of his boosters at once, sending them flying down that particular wing of the mall and nearly slamming into a wall in the process.

After a spirited chase that lasted over five minutes (along with lots of shouts of “get him, Omega!” and jumping off balconies and general taunting), the group was promptly escorted out of the mall without a chance to enjoy the store they’d started the ‘fight’ over in the first place.

Rouge watched her two friends sulk for a minute before smirking suddenly.

“Guess what?” she asked, stepping back to look at both of them.

When she had their attention, she pulled out a nice new summer outfit with a laugh…from that same place.

“You didn’t.” Shadow said, staring at the clothing.

“OH, SHE DID.”

Rouge then proceeded to pull both a cool hat in all gold and a nice blue bomber jacket out from behind her back as well, her smile widening even more. “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you two at all. Or forgotten to pay, either.” she added quickly with a sigh. She soon shifted to watching with delight, though, as Shadow’s eyes widened considerably and Omega’s head whirled to fixate on her hand.

“HAND IT OVER.” he ordered, holding out his clawed, metallic fingers insistently.

“Well...since you asked so rudely...no.” Rouge replied, before leaping into the sky with a grin.

“What?” Shadow gasped.

The robot’s eyes narrowed. “DON’T YOU DARE.”

Rouge flew higher at that. “Oh, but I do dare.” She wheeled around and began to fly off at top speed, snickering at the sound of indignant shouts behind her. Soon enough, she heard the swish-swish of Shadow’s skates and the clanking of Omega not far behind.

They might be able to catch her eventually, she mused, soaring through a gap between buildings- she wasn’t that fast, really. It wouldn’t be easy for them at all, though.

After all, Rouge was just as powerful as they were, in her own way.

#shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e 123 omega #45.06°N 1.656°E #the title is based on rouge's theme from the mad space level in sa2!#i thought the title and the song were cool so why not #also if you want to *follow* the coordinates...you might find a surprise #hehe #by the way! as you might have notice i tried writing omega's dialogue in all caps this time #*noticed #is that better or worse? feel free to let me know!#and yes in the first scene rouge is wearing her 'elite agent' outfit from sonic forces speed battle :)#the fedora idea is from khi's fanart for sycs because i love that art SO MUCH #yes there are lots of clothes in this but honestly team dark seems like the type to be stylish i think #it's rouge's influence #(also how do people end fics well i need advice)#(it just never works quite right...)#anyway! as always thanks for reading!#:D #sol's fanfiction

40 notes · View notes

mearcatsreturns · 3 years

Note

15 for Abby/Luka

For reasons ;)

Under a cut because it's long.

July 2003

To: Luka Kovac <“[email protected]”>

From: Abby Lockhart <“[email protected]”>

Subject: I’m drowning and praying ghosts are real

Dear Luka,

Something about knowing that I’ll never talk to you again is just unbearable. I’ll never laugh at your malapropisms, look into your beautiful eyes, feel your strong hands holding mine, or make love to you again. There won’t be any more jokes about jam and cheese on toast, or you teasing me for my weak but constant supply of coffee. I’ll never hear your amazing, deranged laughter after you prank someone again. No more of your hugs—which are somehow the best hugs in the world. Because you’re gone.

It’s been three days since we got the call telling us you died thousands of miles from home, whether that’s here in Chicago or in Croatia. I didn’t know your dad’s name, Luka. We needed to call him, and I didn’t know. How did I not know? And now I can’t. I mean, L’Alliance told us his name, but the fact that I’ll never learn pieces of your history, of the wonderful man you are, FROM you...how am I supposed to go on and live my life?

For years, I’ve thought medicine was my great thwarted love. I’ve wanted to be a doctor for so long, and I thought I was bitter about having to let go of that dream. Now I wonder. I let obstacles get in the way of pursuing medicine, and it’s made me...well, it’s part of why I was so unhappy. But that makes me think about how I also let obstacles get in the way of us. I was happy with you, you know, until I let fear and my mother and Carter get in the way. God, I wish I could do that over again. We could have had everything, and if I hadn’t gotten in my own way, I’d be happy. I think maybe I could have made you happy, too.

It’s funny. I knew things with Carter weren’t working, and he implied you were part of it. I said it wasn’t, but then five minutes later, I found out you were—are—dead. And I realized you were the reason, or one of the big ones. As soon as Chuny told me, I knew I loved you and had loved you for years. Yeah. Great timing, isn’t it? I keep thinking that maybe I could have kept you from going if I had known or if I had told you. I didn’t want you to go when I thought you were my very attractive friend and ex that I still was fond of. Knowing that I love you—how do I move past that? Knowing that I lost you, first to my stupidity and then to death?

I just...I miss you, and I don’t when I’ll stop, or how to. Susan caught me crying on my last shift, and I didn’t even know what to say. I feel like I’ve been crying or standing still, brittle and stuck in time, since I heard the news. I can’t, Luka. I know I have to keep on moving, and I thought maybe writing you would help. I know you’ll never see this, never have a chance to respond. But the idea that some fragments of your soul linger and can maybe sense...I don’t know. That I’m writing? What I’m feeling? Jesus, this is crazy.

All my love,

Abby

Abby angrily swipes the tears from her eyes. God, what’s the point of writing this? He’ll never see hsi email or her again. Just...without Luka, how can the world be anything but grim and sad and pointless?

She laughs mirthlessly. Maybe it doesn’t matter. No, she knows it doesn’t. Because Abby knows the futility of it, aches with the meaninglessness, she presses send without another thought.

&&&

Three days after that, a miracle occurs. Luka, the Lazarus of this new millennium, comes back from the dead. He’s never been dead, and maybe, Abby thinks, there’s a God above after all. So many people wish for this exact boon, and she—they, the world—gets it. Some higher power believes this planet is a better place with Luka Kovac in it, and Abby is ecstatic.

Until she remembers the email and that they can’t be unsent.

It’s fine. She’ll be fine. Luka is coming back, apparently with a French nurse. Maybe he’ll just delete it without reading it. Maybe it didn’t go through—how does email work for the dead, and how quickly is all that processed?

Abby shakes her head. It doesn’t matter; Luka is alive and returning to them. She can handle a little awkwardness in the face of the sheer joy of knowing the world is a brighter, kinder place. He’s coming back, and that’s what’s important.

&&&

August 2003

It takes Luka almost a week after returning to Chicago to convince Kerry and the other staff to let him go back to his apartment. Even so, they only agree when Gillian assures them she’ll see to his every need.

Abby winces when she hears that, and it makes something flutter in Luka’s chest. Which probably isn’t good for his malaria, but the hope...that is.

It’s another two days of lying in bed before he has the energy to ask Gillian to bring him his laptop. At this point, it’s been months since he’s checked his email, and Luka grimaces at the undoubtedly horrible state of his inbox. He briefly considers never checking again and just getting a new one, but he knows his father struggled to add him to his contacts once already. To expect it of him again would be absurd.

With a sigh, Luka opens his email. It’s just as bad as he feared. He snorts at the myriad messages about Viagra, Nigerian princes, and Russian brides, deleting them without thought. He saves a couple from his dad. He slowly whittles down his inbox, but he freezes when he gets to one email in particular, sent about a month ago.

It’s from Abby, during the time everyone thought he was dead.

Luka considers calling and asking her if someone hacked her email or is sending spam from her account, but the subject line...it looks real. And Abby’s been odd around him lately, seeming both deliriously happy to see him and awkwardly nervous.

His heart pounds, and he clicks to open it. If this is a spammer, they’re probably about to get whatever they want.

&&&

Abby pours herself another coffee, internally swearing as she prepares for the last two hours of her shift. Deciding to go back to school is great; having to coordinate all the details is less thrilling and leaves her tired and cranky.

Frank ducks his head into the lounge, beady eyes narrowing on her. “Hey, Abby. The Croat is on the phone for you. Line 2. Try to get back out there as fast as you can, Weaver’s yelling at the med students about IVs.”

“Okay, Frank,” Abby says, though she flushes and her palms start to sweat. It’s fine. She can always hide the panic and butterflies in her stomach with sarcasm. It has yet to fail her.

Frank gives her one last suspicious look, then nods and heads back to Admit.

Abby takes a deep breath, then picks up the phone. “Hey, Luka?”

“It’s me. Glad I could reach you. How are you?” He sounds...ugh. So good. And eager and happy, and her heart could leap right out of her chest.

“Doing all right. I just have a couple hours left on this shift, and it hasn’t been too awful today. Only one MVA. How about you? You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Recovering. Listen, did you want to come over for dinner?”

“Please tell me you’re not trying to cook.”

“What? I’m a good cook, even if you don’t appreciate wonderful, traditional Croatian dishes,” he says with a chuckle.

“Luka, you just got out of the hospital five days ago. You still need to be resting.”

“Abby, don’t worry so much. I was just kidding. I have some sandwiches from Manny’s, and Anna sent me home with lots of matzo ball soup too.”

Abby bites her lip. Of course she wants to go. But the prospect of spending the evening with Gillian cooing over Luka, knowing that she shares a bed with him, is decidedly less appealing. And there’s the email she sent, which Luka hasn’t acknowledged. He might well have deleted it, or he’s giving her a gracious out.

Her conscience twinges as soon as she thinks about bailing, though. Didn’t she promise herself she wouldn’t take life for granted anymore? She’ll go back to med school, she’ll have dinner with Luka when he asks.

“Abby?”

She starts, realizing she needs to respond. “Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I can do that. I can be there an hour after my shift, if that’s okay.”

“Sounds great. Looking forward to seeing you.”

“Me too.” He has no idea how much, even if she wishes she knew for sure that he’d deleted the email.

&&&

Abby rings Luka’s doorbell three and a half hours later. She’d meant to come straight from work, but after a patient vomited on her, she decided to head home, shower, and splurge on a taxi to Luka’s. The poor man is recovering from being deathly ill and doesn’t need County’s fumes making things worse.

There’s the sound of the deadbolt sliding, and Luka answers the door, grinning happily at her. “Good, you made it! Come on in!”

“I did. Sorry it took me longer than expected.” Abby steps into his apartment, looking around. It’s been such a long time since she’s been here, and she notes the subtle changes in the art and decor.

“No worries. I know how it goes.” He places a hand at the small of her back, guiding her inside.

Abby stiffens for a second at how his touch burns even through the layers of her shirt and light jacket, but she relaxes, enjoying the feel while she waits for Gillian to appear and end the fleeting joy.

Luka is unfazed. “Now, of course we can just eat the sandwiches, but if you want to heat up the matzo ball soup, you can. Since you don’t want me standing,” he says with a wink.

Abby smiles back, shaking her head. “Oh, I see how it is. Make the woman who worked all day do more household work when she gets ho—wait, where’s Gillian? Isn’t she supposed to be taking care of you?”

“She’s not here,” he says simply.

Going to the fridge and taking out the containers of soup, Abby places them in the microwave. Is Gillian out for the evening, or is she gone gone? “Shouldn’t you be with her? Or her here with you, whatever.”

Luka is quiet for a long minute, and Abby wonders if he intends to answer. Finally, he breaks the silence. “I asked her to leave.”

Abby’s pulse speeds up. “What? Why?”

Luka takes a deep breath, clearly ready to respond, and—

The microwave dings, and they both jump. Exchanging a sheepish look, they laugh.

“Look, let’s get some food, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Abby dishes up their soup and sandwiches, preparing trays so they can sit on the couch. Luka turns on the television, and Abby’s heart rate comes back under control. They sit together in companionable silence while they eat and watch Thom and Jai and the rest of the Fab 5 whip some hapless lawyer’s life into order. When they finish their meal, Abby cleans up, taking the trays back to the kitchen.

She heads back to the couch at the opposite end from Luka, not daring to get closer when she really has no idea what’s going on.

Luka clears his throat and mutes the TV. “So, yeah. I asked Gillian to leave.”

“Oh. So, um, did you break up?”

“She was never my girlfriend, really. She has a boyfriend back in Montreal, they just…” Luka shrugs and runs a hand through his hair.

Abby is more lost than ever. “Ah.”

Taking a deep breath, Luka continues, finally looking over at her. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful she helped me get here and took care of me, but we were never serious.”

Something starts to tug at Abby’s heart, squeezing and twisting and kicking to get free. Is it...hope? “Well, I’m glad she got you here safe, but you should have someone staying with you while you recover, Luka. Malaria is dangerous.”

He gives her a look. “I know how dangerous malaria is. I’m getting better. And besides, it wouldn’t have been fair for me to ask her to stay when things are over because I’m in love with someone else.”

Her heart leaps into her throat. “Someone else?” she squeaks.

Luka nods, swallowing. “Yeah. And I have a reason to think she might be in love with me too.” He slides over to her side of the couch, reaching for her hand.

Abby meets his eyes—those beautiful green eyes that are the best color in the world—and squeezes his hand, incapable of words. Does he mean…?

With his other hand, Luka reaches up and cups her cheek, running his thumb along the subtle arch of her cheekbone. “Abby, if you’ve changed your mind since you sent that email, please tell me to shut up.”

That stupid, ridiculous email might be the best thing she’s ever done in her life. She leans into his hand, licking her lips as she shakes her head slightly. “I haven’t changed my mind. I didn’t mean for you to see it and hoped I could learn how to hack computers and delete it but—”

Luka cuts her off. “I would never forgive you if you managed to delete it. You wouldn’t believe how much faster I healed after that.”

Abby leans forward, sliding into Luka’s waiting arms. “Then maybe I’ll write you some more emails.”

“Emails aren’t what I want right now,” Luka says.

Funny, Abby doesn’t either. Then his lips brush hers, and all her worries and fears fade away. She knows she has to tell him about med school and he needs to finish recuperating, but when Luka deepens their kiss and pulls her closer, Abby ceases to think at all.

She has Luka back, and now they have each other again.

#er #nbc er #er ff #luby #luby ff #abby lockhart #luka kovac #<3 #my fanfic

28 notes · View notes

rinharu-purple · 3 years

Text

Lucien: MLQC’s Mastermind

Yes, I said that Lucien is the creepiest LI in my opinion, and I wouldn’t choose him in a million, billion years. BUT, Lucien is by far the one person, who is pulling the strings and is the driving force of the MLQC universe. He is the only person who acquires all the information from all sides and is connected to every important actor in the story. Therefore, Lucien has become the second LI I’ve started to follow more attentively. Mind that the ranking ist 1) Gavin 2) Gavin 3) Gavin 4) Lucien ;)

In my manifesto, why Gavin is MC’s choice, I’ve already mentioned briefly, that Lucien has the strongest EVOL among all the characters but is also the strongest character (it’s not the MC or the Black Queen, let’s not fool ourselves)

The Machiavellian

Before we talk about Lucien’s part in the MLQC universe, we should first look at him as person and observe the elements that make up his personality.

In the game, all our guys have their personal priorities. Gavin and Kiro are on the front line, fighting for peace and prosperity, Victor, well...I don’t think that he cares for anything else besides MC, maybe his position. But with Lucien, his priority is not a person or a concept, but rather a philosophy. Lucien wants to see the next step in human evolution and is determined to take any measures necessary to see it to it’s end. Other guys can not stand oblivious to other things that come up their way in achieving their goals but Lucien only has his eyes on the prize and to him nothing else matters, no one else matters and no ethics matter.

Machiavellianism denotes cunningness and claims, that those dark triads use whatever means necessary to gain power. If we consider the choices Lucien has made throughout the story so far, we can clearly find his manipulative ways in getting other actors to the positions of his conjecture. He lies to MC and hides his personality as Ares, penetrates Black Swan to use their facilities, but also uses LFG’s resources for his R&D projects all the while concealing his true nature.

Another trait of a Machiavellian, is that he is charismatic and friendly, all the while displaying no emotions. I think, there can be two possible reasons as to why Lucien has limited display of emotions. The first possible explanation has something to do with his parents passing and the trauma he suffered afterwards. Among all LIs Lucien is the one with the most loveless childhood and teenage years, the most important years in developing one’s psychological traits and during those years Lucien received alongside with Kiro the most blows. That resulted in him losing the connection to his emotions as a defense mechanism.

Another possibility might be him losing the connection to his emotions as a result of a chemical reaction in his brain due to excessive testing Black Swan objected him to. Lucien’s EVOL was created in a lab and he was the first man-made Evolver. Lucien is called various times a psychopath, because he shows signs of psychopathy such as lack of remorse, empathy or compassion. It is said that that kind of behavior might occur due to a misconnection between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala. Considering the fact that Lucien’s parents were killed right in front of him and that he was both physically and psychologically abused for the coming years, this might have led him to experience an imbalance in his chemical balance. One might argue, that his altruistic actions in the orphanage are an evidence for his compassion, I think it is yet another disguise for his unethical ways of reaching his goals.

The Orchestrator

In all honesty no one is actively seeking alliances and keeps tabs on other’s actions for their agenda like Lucien does. Maybe Commander Leto but he mostly fails in drawing others to his side, because he is not able to speak in their pendants’ language or resonate with their perspective. Lucien, on the other hand, is gifted with an extraordinary ability to observe his surroundings and companions, making it very easy for him to talk to them in their terms and desires. Lucien doesn’t show much empathy, UNLESS, it contributes to his cause, in that case he can perfectly put himself in other’s shoes and plays them in such a meticulous way, that they join him willingly.

That is how Lucien directs MC successfully in entering the Black Cabin or in understanding the evolution core.

Lucien is not exactly a piece on a chess board, but is a player, who knows all the pieces very well, knows the rules of the game, has observed many games and took notes of how they all has turned out and therefore knows what kind of a game he is going to play. Just watch closely. how he co-operates with Kiro and the Black Queen. He knows that Kiro is using Black Swan for his goals, much like he does, so he uses his hacking abilities to access to information. The Black Queen is the initiator of everything in S1, so he makes sure to stay close to her. He knows that Victor is searching for MC and trying to understand the Evol gene, there he has an investor.

The Cool, Calm and Collected Type

in the MLQC universe, everyone loses their composure at one point or another, because...who wouldn’t? Time and space warps constantly and people are also changing their stances depending on the time-space constellation they find themselves in.

MC loses her cool almost on a daily basis, Gavin was in a constant haywire in the Daybreak era, Victor literally threw people into black holes in CH11 and freaked out as he saw the Black Queen for the first time and Kiro walks around in a bipolar state. So, everybody is pretty unstable due to understandable conditions but we never see Lucien lose his cool and this is one of his best qualities.

Here is the thing about Lucien. This guy is always at least one step ahead of everyone and he achieves this by two simple rules:

1) Acquire all possible information

2) Observe everyone and everything at all times

Why am I saying this? It lies in the basis of anxiety and angst. We humans tend to feel uncomfortable in the face of an uncertain situation, meaning in the wake of the unknown. MC is constantly anxious, because she doesn’t know what is going on, why is everyone after her, why is she blessed with the unconditional affection of 5 equally attractive men? (ehm, but not quite equally ehm *Gavin* hihi, sorry, Gavin-stan gotta Gavin-stan ^_^). Anyway you get the picture. Gavin went haywire in CH22 because he was pushed in a tight spot and therefore had angst. Same goes for Victor in CH11 his mind went blank as he saw history repeating itself and then in CH18 when he saw with his own eyes what could the girl of his dreams might become.

We don’t see Lucien in such deadlock situation though do we, and I think it is mainly because he is always prepared for every possibility and he can calculate them meticulously, because he possesses the largest chunk of information and also keeps tabs on everyone and everything that’s going on. So, when a crisis occurs he doesn’t freak out, sure he gets surprised at times, because the outcome of a a certain situation is the possibility, which he calculated to be no higher than 1% and yet there it is. But since he’s already took this into consideration, he has a plan. Combine this with his knowledge about the persons and organizations involved in the matter, then you have a calm Lucien, who is in control of the situation. Thus, he is calm. You can actually also bind this behavior of Lucien with that of a predator, whose movement are languid, is non-reactive and doesn’t mind turning his back to his opponents, since he doesn’t perceive them as a threat.

If this wasn’t enough, Lucien manages to joggle all of this without exposing himself. Even in the last stage of the play he never gets caught. Unless he willingly exposes himself, as in the case of revealing Ares to MC. MLQC actors can usually see through each other and use their weaknesses to meet their own ends. MC is obviously Gavin, Kiro and Victor’s weakness and their opponents can see this pretty easily. IT’s not quite the same with Lucien though and he doesn’t let himself be blackmailed or threatened by any weakness. He always keeps his cards close to his chest.

Considering the fact that Lucin is the least outstanding LI, this is pretty impressive. So I guess this makes him the embodiment of the phrase “still waters run deep”.

The Renaissance Man

Lucien is a man of science and aesthetics. Explaining phenomenons with associations and loading them with philosophical substance. He doesn’t necessarily perceive things bluntly as they are, but interprets them in a meaningful way. The way he associates MC with a butterfly, how he wants to entrap her in ajar, so she wouldn’t get away, alas taking the only resource of color in his life away. Not only that, but he can also break down the matters at hand to its fragments and can therefore work his way up from there. He is blessed with a strong deduction ability, so he can connect the dots easily, come to a conclusion and act accordingly. No doubt that the other guys have very good deduction abilities, but because Lucien always has a bit of an information more than them, he can find the solutions just a little bit faster in my opinion.

Reading is a necessity for his guy much like eating and drinking, Which is why we see him reframing events in the context of a certain story he’d read at some point in his life. With time, I will add here some of his quotes about certain situations to explain what I mean. Or even better, if you have some, that are evident in you opinion, you could add them in the comments. I really enjoy reading/hearing Lucien’s philosophical, scientific explanations to certain moments in MC’s life. They are always to the point and helpful.

-------------

So this is my very first analysis on Lucien and I have to admit, I still have so many material to check on him, so if anything is missing please bear with me here :)

I was watching Joe’s Twitch while I wrote this, so there are many spelling, grammar mistakes, which will be corrected gradually.

This post will get better and better, scout promise!

#mlqc #mlqc lucien #mlqc simon #mlqc xumo #mlqc xu mo #mr. love queen's choice #I had to rewrite a large part of this because my PC #broke down #so this post will be edited around a 100 times #Im sorry

47 notes · View notes

foreverlostindreams · 3 years

Text

So many questions

“Tony that's not what happened!” Why was he the only one pointing that out again? They all would be free to go, so much faster, if he wasn’t the only one correcting all the crazy exaggerations the man was making. “Oh come on old man, why do you have to be so boring?” Tony wasted no time shooting back, while turning around to him “We spend nearly a week following every step of the plan Fury and his little friends here developed and now I can’t point out its flaws for two minut - what's that on your arm? Did you get a tattoo to fit in with the young kids?” Talk about turning around the conversation, if he didn’t expect some kind of distraction from the man, he would have gotten a whiplash. “Tony, can we just get this over with?” “Who is changing topics now?” “What are you even talking about?” “Your arm! You think I’m joking?” he gripped sayed arm and held it up into his view and everyone else's looks followed. Just in that moment new scribbles started appearing on his skin “Oh you just turned a lot less boring, star spangled banner” Tony concluded.

A few more inappropriate comments from Tony, questions from everyone and an intermission from Bruce, who led him away to deescalate the whole situation. Steve was storming a few steps ahead of the doctor right to his lab. “I was born nearly a hundred years ago, I should not be here. How can a soulmate connection start now?” he asked his most pressing question“Soulmates links cannot be concluded under any kind of logic, Captain. Some people have it, some don’t. Sometimes they show up early, sometimes later in life, sometimes it never does. And it might have started earlier for you as well, a lot of people draw and scribble a lot on their skin in childhood and teenage years. Hoping of course that they would get a reaction, if this was a person fitting your age now, not counting your - um time-out, that would have been approximately fifteen to five years ago, when you were - hm unable to notice it or return that favour.” Banner concluded. “But I shouldn't be alive! That person would have lived without a soulmate!” Steve seemed furious at that thought as Bruce noticed not without smiling a little. “Like I said, not everybody has a soulmate Captain. There were a lot more in your time but now, less and less people in each generation have one. Science is still trying to find out reasons for that, but not having one doesn’t mean people lead an unhappy life. Your person probably still believes themself one of those people.” he pointed out. “Let's also not get started on the discussion of what higher power or fate could be behind this, that would explain knowing you would wake up again in time, to be a part of this person's life.”

“So what is the Text?” Banner asked, when they were finally in the lab “Kiyosaki, rdpd, 2014” Steve read aloud, not grasping any kind of meaning from it “Jarvis?” “Rdpd is most commonly used as an abbreviation for the book Rich dad, poor dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki advised as lecture in most colleges for courses of finances.” “So a college student” Barner concluded “if we assume that he or she must be in a lecture right now, we can cross off all colleges that do not teach a fitting course or are in a fitting time zone. How many would that be, Jarvis?” “There are 5300 Colleges in the United states, in your chosen parameters are 1134 of those.” Steve's head was swimming, was this how he was supposed to find out about his soulmate? He could still just reply with a pen on his skin and hope to not scare off the person on the other end. But as Banner had mentioned, he had been quiet for years, what if his person had built a good life for themselves without him? Had he a right to just barge in? Being his soulmate would come with a lot of safety problems and needed changes for that person, would he want that?

Banner noticed his wandering mind. “If you want, I can continue searching without you.” he offered “If we find something, I will write it down for you and put it in an envelope. Then you can decide when you want to know. But Shield would need to know, there are certain protocols and measures for every soulmate of shield agents, if they know about us or not.” “Are there more out there, who don’t know, their soulmate is not answering, because he or she is a special agent?” “Unfortunately, yes. Like I said, I am not the biggest believer in fate, but I do believe, since soulmates exist, you would not be connected to somebody unable to handle you and your life. And making that decision for the both of you is quite the choice.” He very quickly noticed that he stuck his finger directly where it hurts and paddled back “Still, it is your life and your soulmate Captain, I am just a scientist, not a guru for the best life decisions. I mean, I turn green every once in a while.”

“Captain, Mr. Stark is calling a spontaneous meeting right now” Friday alerted him about a week of him wrecking his brain about the decision without a conclusion later. “Do we have a mission?” he asked, looking up from his sketches, ready to take off in seconds, only to relax when the AI denied. “It seems Mr. Stark has a visitor, he is excited to introduce to everyone.” Steve knew what was going on, before he even stood up, the white envelope Bruce handed him four days ago burned in the back of his mind and his anger boiled up the whole way to Tony's favourite of the meeting rooms in the compound.

“You had no right!” he pressed out in between his teeth the second he saw the man, trying to calm his need to scream at him. “I know you people who are as old as dirt feel like you have time, but you don’t so I was doing you a favor really capsicle.” he answered totally unbothered by his anger as always. “I would like to take this moment to say ‘ I had nothing to do with this, he hacked my user’ “ Bruce piped up and threw Steve a look full of apologie and pity. Nats look on the other hand was on Tony the whole time and made pretty clear that she as well had not known about this beforehand and was also not in favor with his doing. “Well we always knew he was an ass, but who would have thought, he was this overreaching.” she commented, voice full of poison. “Oh come on, as if you all were not interested who on earth could be the perfect match for our golden boy here.” he argued back “Being curious has nothing to do with what you did!” Even Pepper argued for Steve's side and while Tony threw his hands dramatically in the air, Steve realised something else.

“So you all have seen her already” “Finally you're focussing on the important things here, capsicle. Your soulmate is quite the view and from what her grades can say about intelligence, she -” “Will. You. Shut. Up!” Pepper finally hit him. “This has nothing to do with you or your opinions, you shouldn’t even be here.” and as if speaking those words out loud made her realise, she repeated “We all shouldn’t in fact.” She straintend her jacket, threw her soulmate another angry look and was back to business, hurrying everyone along, before Steve could vocalise his gratitude.

Finally alone he took a couple of deep breaths, before he felt like mostly himself again only to realise, he didn’t even know with what explanation Tony invited her here. Did she know, or was it all hidden behind some kind of white lie? How was he supposed to go about this? How not to offend her if she knew and he seemed to taken aback and how not to overwhelm her, if she didn’t know? When he entered the room it was without a plan, but knowing letting her wait any longer would definitely be insulting.

When their eyes met, he could not stop himself from agreeing with Tony, she was quite beautiful. “Hi, I’m Steve.” he clumsily started. “I’m sorry you had to wait - and also for anything else my friends or colleagues might have said to you.” he added after a second thought. She grinned back at him “I’m Y/N and don’t worry, I know the type. If my friends would have managed to figure out it was you, they would have stormed in here years ago.” Steve felt floored at her ease with the whole situation. “We are quite well equipped against intrusion” he heard himself say, before his mind even caught up. She laughed at that. “Against equipped fighters maybe, but the ways determined college students find? I don’t think anyone can plan for all those random and stupid ideas.” Steve felt himself starting to grin back at her, without really planning to. She was amazing. “Would you like to go to dinner with me? I fear we have quite a few cameras in here and a lot of noisy people.” he proposed, somewhere in the back of his mind still trying to figure out how to best keep her safe, while all the rest of him just seemed too busy admiring her. “I would love to. I have heard quite a few stories about you, that I need clarification on and even more questions.” And for the first time, Steve couldn’t wait to answer all of them and ask even more himself.

#steve rogers #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x fem #steve rogers soulmate #soulmate au #avergers soulmate au #steve rogers one shot #tony stark #bruce banner #pepper potts #first meeting

11 notes · View notes

missfangirll · 3 years

Text

The Light of the Universe

Fandom: Guardian Rating: General Relationship: Shen Wei / Kunlun Tags: Fluff, First Meetings, Falling In Love, Love at First Sight, Ye Olde Haixing Era Words: 1448 Summary: The day Shen Wei meets Kunlun for the first time.

Read on AO3

There are a lot of fics from Zhao Yunlan's perspective, how he perceived their first meeting in the past, so I figured I'd let Shen Wei remember how he fell in love. :)

----

Every day you play with the light of the universe. Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water, You are more than this bright face that I hold tightly as a bunch of flowers, every day, between my hands. (Pablo Neruda, from: Every Day)

----

For Zhao Yunlan, it had started with a handshake in the morning sun in the university yard.

For Shen Wei, it had started on a muddy battlefield under a bleak sky with a knife to his shoulder.

Zhao Yunlan had asked him once, much later, when they already had reached steady ground in their relationship, if he had fallen in love that first night on the cliff, that night that had held a lollipop, a name, a promise.

He had nodded then and smiled, because it had been the moment he had realised with utter clarity that he was, in fact, in love with Kunlun, but the actual process of falling in love had begun much, much earlier.

It had begun, Shen Wei remembered, some weeks before that, on a cold, windy day that had crushed their hopes for an early spring.

----

“If we gather our most talented spies,” he said to Ma Gui, “I can lead them unseen over the pass and down the other side. Before they perceive our presence, we will be upon them.” He glanced at the other generals. He didn't like speaking his mind out loud and avoided it if possible, but this was important. “We need to move quickly if we want to trap them.” Gazing imploringly at the others, he tried to look more confident than he felt. All the information they had gathered suggested an enemy camp a day’s walk upstream, a scouting base, not heavily defended. If they could get to it before the Rebels sent reinforcements, it would give them control over the mountain passes between the two camps, an advantage they sorely needed.

Ma Gui looked at him, calculating, and Shen Wei felt himself straighten up slightly under that unyielding gaze. It wasn't his first command, far from it, but he rarely proclaimed his own strategies, being rather content with following others’ orders. But they hadn't been able to celebrate a victory for months now, and he felt desperate enough to try something like this on his own.

Finally, Ma Gui nodded his approval. “Alright,” he sighed, “there is much to be won with this endeavour, I grant you that, but…” He trailed off to look at Shen Wei again. “You must know that this still holds great danger. If you are caught…” He didn't have to finish that sentence. They all knew what the Rebel army did with prisoners, especially high-ranking ones. Shen Wei swallowed and squared his shoulders. “I will not fail.”

----

It could have worked. That was all he could think of later, as they crouched behind large boulders, taking cover from the arrows and flashes of dark energy thrown their way, trying to answer with attacks of their own.

It could have worked.

They had silently made their way to the mountain pass, and Shen Wei had felt a surge of pride for his unit. Ma Gui had chosen the ones most skilled in reconnaissance, all able to tread lightly and merge into shadows when needed. They weren’t necessarily the best fighters, at least not in open battle, but this mission had called for speed and stealth, not strength.

Thus, as soon as he had realised they had walked into an ambush, seeing the dark figures approaching from the trees, he had immediately called for them to take cover, rather than to openly attack. His thoughts racing, he looked over his unit. Seventeen Dixingren, all with powers beneficial to their original mission: shaping earth, suppressing sound, diverting light. One skin changer, two with the ability to create a shield. Also, six Yashou, all of them from Fu Yu’s flower tribe. None of them made for close combat, he realised with a pang in his heart.

----

It was the most desperate fight Shen Wei had ever seen or been in. After the enemy had surrounded them, effectively trapping them in the pass, he had been forced to give up their position and retreat to higher ground. The plateau above them didn't give them any more protection, but it was easier to defend and he intended to hold out as long as possible. They had lost three of their own almost immediately after he’d called for the retreat. Another one, a Yashou a few years younger than him, had been too slow for the black arrow that suddenly pierced his throat. Shen Wei had with a strange clarity noticed the white feathers at the end, as time slowed down and he watched the boy grip his neck and fall down without a sound.

After this, he stopped thinking. All he could see in front of him was the boy’s face as he clutched the arrow with a confused gaze, his knees giving out under him. If this was to be his last fight, he would make their sacrifice worth it.

Later, he couldn't recall many details of that fight. At some point, he must have summoned his glaive, frantically trying to push back the attackers to give his own people some room to regroup.

As one of the shields flickered and then vanished, he didn't have to turn around to know what had happened. It had been the dark blue one, the one that had held for more than three hours, its creator, a tiny woman with fiery red hair and an equally fiery gaze, another victim of his misjudgements. Gritting his teeth, he changed the glaive into a sword, disarming and beheading an opponent in one smooth motion. His robes a dark cloud around him, he whirled from one enemy to the next, hacking and slicing without finesse or grace, just desperately trying to hold them off.

A blinding pain in his shoulder almost let him drop the sword. He’d had suffered a lot of minor injuries over the last hours, and none of them was severe enough to really hinder him, but that last one had struck his sword arm. Groaning, he switched the blade to his left hand and swung around to incapacitate the attacker behind him. Taking a moment, he tried to reach the handle, but had to stop as a sharp pain pressed all air out of his lungs and made his eyes water. As he looked around, he had to grit his teeth as not to cry out in despair: His unit was severely diminished – he counted only eight still standing – and as one of of the attackers broke away from the rest and approached him, he shivered involuntarily at the man’s appearance. He was a giant, easily two heads above Shen Wei, and with arms almost as thick as a man’s thigh. Shen Wei schooled his face into what he hoped was a neutral expression – he had lost his mask somewhere on the battlefield before – and turned to face the new opponent, his sword still in his left hand.

Just as the man reached the plateau and turned to Shen Wei, he thought he had heard someone shout his name. Ignoring it, he dodged the first blow and moved to swing his sword at the other’s neck, as a loud, sharp noise interrupted the battle. Everyone suddenly froze, but Shen Wei kept his eyes on the attacker, who had made a half-turn as if to look for the source. Then, without another sound, he collapsed like a felled tree and didn't move.

In the following silence, Shen Wei heard a voice, but the words didn't make much sense to him.

“Yeah, you fucker, get away from my boyfriend!”

After a second of terrified silence, the remaining rebels moved as one, hastily backing down the mountain. Shen Wei’s own unit didn't seem any less shocked, but significantly more exhausted, so they just stood where they were and gaped. Finally, Shen Wei turned around as well to make out the owner of the voice who had apparently saved all of them.

Slightly uphill, between the tall grass, he could make out a figure lying on their stomach. Short brown hair framing a mustached face, but when his gaze met the other’s eyes, his breath caught. Even from that distance, he could see their soft honey-brown color and how they lit up seeing him. The man rose slightly to his elbows and grinned at him. Shen Wei felt his heart stop for a moment and almost stumbled backwards. The stranger laughed, as if he had noticed his predicament and waved cheekily, still directing that blinding smile at Shen Wei. Hesitating, Shen Wei raised a hand to wave back.

Later, much later, he would realise the significance of that meeting, but all he could see in this moment was the stranger’s smile that had made his heart flutter and his breath catch.

#镇魂 guardian #guardian #guardian fic #shen wei #zhao yunlan #weilan #fluff #ye olde haixing #my writing

22 notes · View notes

vicecityhq · 3 years

Photo

██████████████]99% LOADING...SUSPECT INTO THE APD DATABASE...

WITNESS(ES) SAY HE REMINDS THEM OF: flickering neon lights, the sound of static, retro video games. With a slight resemblance to HAN JISUNG of/the STRAY KIDS.

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW ENTIRE FILE.

FULL FILE:

Last Name, First Name: Nam Jaejin ALIAS: Crypto Realm of birth(if earth, nationality): Earth Age: 21 Date of Birth: January 31st, 2000 Gender: Male Preferred Pronouns: He/him, they/them Species: Cyborg Occupation: Bookkeeper of the Howlers, university student, hacker Sexual Orientation: Pansexual

VISUAL FILE:

Skin Color: Tan Eye color: Brown, with a blue/purple tint at times Scars: Surgery scars where his enhancements have been added; in his right arm and chest area. Piercings: Right eyebrow, both earlobes Tattoos: When he is not actively using his enhancements, the mechanical arm silhouette on his right arm resembles a tattoo. (x) Hair color: Currently black with white highlights. Abnormalities: Added technological right arm and metallic elements to the right side of his chest. these enhancements affect most of his body/internal system as well (namely his lungs). he has human brains, but they are affected by the technorganic physiology as well. Horns/ wings/ etc: none Transformed form: His technological arm mostly looks like a tattoo to someone who doesn’t know any better. While actively using his abilities, his right arm and chest begin to glow with a blue/purple light and resemble more of a robotic arm/chest. This glow might affect his eyes as well.

PERSONAL FILE:

RELIGIOUS BELIEF: Raised Catholic, later turned atheist SINS: greed / gluttony / sloth / lust / pride / envy / wrath VIRTUES: chastity / charity / diligence / humility / kindness / patience / justice KNOWN LANGUAGES: Korean (native, dialectal at times), English (mostly fluent), Latin (basics) SECRETS: He has been behind a lot of major hackings towards the government/other significant parties during the last few years. Jaejin will usually attempt to blend in with “normal” humans and civilians, trying to hide both his cyborg-ness as well as his gang affiliation. SAVVIES: Technology, computer science, hacking, mathematics, video games, planning Powers & Abilities: Technorganic physiology, technology manipulation Traits: + quick-witted - aloof Aesthetics: Flickering neon lights, the sound of static, retro video games

BACKGROUND CHECK:

Date of Birth: January 31st, 2000

Date of Death: -

Crime Record: Multiple hackings against many different significant figures/parties, as well as countless smaller hackings. Involvement in gang activities, mostly relating to fundings. He hasn’t been found guilty for any of these crimes yet, but he is also aware that his record might not stay clean forever.

Background/Biography:

Born to a wealthy upper-class family in Busan during a cold January, Jaejin was, at first, anything like most kids. He had a younger sister. He had loving parents (albeit ones who had their expectations raised sky-high from the very beginning). And he had a few people around him he could even call friends. The kid was a little shy, a little nerdy, but nothing short of pure and kind towards the ones he cared about. His childhood was a little uneventful, but a happy one regardless.

Jaejin was nearing the age of ten when the unfortunate accident occurred. It was a dark October evening, heavy rain making it nearly impossible to see clearly. Jaejin was returning home from a friend’s house, hurrying down the street as the rain continued to increase. The kid decided to cross the street, thinking of the Nintendo Gameboy console waiting for him at home. The sound of brakes screeching against the wet asphalt made him halt where he stood. It was all blinding light and the loud howling of a truck’s horn before everything went black.

Jaejin barely survived the hit, perhaps by some miracle. What didn’t survive was the majority of his right arm. Most of his chest was looking quite vile too, having endured a hit that no human tissue really could. Some of his organs, namely his lungs, were damaged nearly beyond repair. He was barely breathing, only making it with the help of the beeping machines of the hospital. Jaejin’s parents, shocked and shaken up by the whole thing, quickly began to pull strings and search for methods for him to make it. It was a question of any means at that point. A decision that they would perhaps come to regret later.

The boy was taken to a private clinic that specialized in cybernetic surgeries. It was supposed to be just about repairing the parts of him that no longer worked as well as life required. But Jaejin’s surgeon was a charismatic man of science, and was able to convince the higher class family that some small enhancements to his body wouldn’t hurt. The Nam family was eminently very unaware of the lengths that some cybernetic surgeons went in the name of science and test-runs. So when Jaejin awoke some twenty hours later, he was no longer the same boy at all.

It wasn’t evident, at first. But over the years it became apparent that something had shifted after the surgery. The once very warm boy became aloof, often struggling to empathize with people. In turn he became intelligent in a way he necessarily wasn’t before. Jaejin's emotions weren’t completely shut-off by any means. He felt things, sometimes even strongly, but not always in the way others expected him to. And the boy was ashamed and alone with his thoughts. It wasn’t until years later, during his high school years, that Jaejin discovered the things that he was actually capable of. Accessing and controlling different technological components became something Jaejin got kicks out of, a different kind of excitement filling him for the first time after the enhancement surgery. And so what if hacking things was illegal? It enabled Jaejin to have control and power. It enabled him to have pride in himself.

After high school, once Jaejin had already enrolled in university to study computer engineering, an acquaintance approached him after a mathematics class. Even at first glance the young man could tell that the things he was about to be told were not something he could tell anyone else. He was asked to follow the man to a place he would later know to be the Howler’s headquarters. His skills and savvies were something they took interest in. And though Jaejin was nothing short of unsure about the offer, he figured he could stay around for a while. Even if only to help the gang with their poor money management skills out of pure curiosity.

So that was what Jaejin became – a gifted, witty student by day, and a hacker and gang member by night. He had gone by the codename Crypto even before affiliating himself with the Howlers, so it was natural that he also used that alias in his gang endeavors. Jaejin, having taken distance from his family a long time ago, was surprisingly willing to be included in a gang of all things. Maybe it was the things the gang did and provided him with that gave him a sort of thrill and excitement otherwise lacking in his life. Or maybe being a part of a group made him feel a little bit more human again.

INTERVIEW QUESTION (para sample): “Just run us through what happened that night”. - Officer

Jaejin was, for the lack of a better word, in quite a robotic state.

Again, it wasn’t that the man didn't feel anything at the question. Sure he did: he felt annoyance at the fact that he had to be sitting there, in the police station, when he could be tackling his microcomputer architecture project due in a few days. But Jin also knew that it wasn’t really the typical emotion to be feeling while being questioned by an officer. Especially not if you were innocent (and he was, technically speaking).

“It all happened so fast”, he said instead. He was trying to summon some feelings of shock and maybe even sorrow. Jaejin knew those to be the typical feelings of a civilian witnessing a gunfight, after all. Except in this case it was more of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time, not so much the fact that he hadn’t seen it before. It had been people from the Howlers, though; a fight against some other gang members (for reasons the man frankly didn’t know). And Jaejin had just happened to be there as the police cars arrived with sirens howling.

He wasn’t going to say any of that though. Jaejin wasn’t about to snitch on his gang members, not if he had nothing to fear. And as far as he knew, none of the scouts involved had actually been caught. The police had nothing on the situation. So he continued to speak in a manner that, in hindsight, was probably too calm for someone who didn’t know anything. This might come and bite him back at some point. “All I know that there were people in black, many of them. I didn’t really see their faces, probably a gang or something. Suddenly there was a loud noise of gunfire and that’s the part where I ran to the back of the warehouse.” Out of nowhere, Jaejin felt actual emotions surging to the surface. “I was... afraid”, he whispers in a small voice, “I didn’t want to get hurt. To die.”

Except it wasn’t really his own life he was afraid for. Jaejin found himself back in the situation, the same emotions rushing through him. He was afraid for them. For his own gang members. For better or for worse, the people who accepted him when no one else had. For the first time in a long time, Jaejin was afraid of losing someone (not that he would admit it out loud, though).

#vcaccepted #vchowler #han jisung #stray kids #krp #finally got another bot boy ;-;#@david

3 notes · View notes

saokpe · 4 years

Text

HDLW Sibling Week 2020 - Day 2: Pillow Fort

More siblings! I’ve always wanted to write a political drama, glad I was able to fit it in. Enjoy!

@hdlwsiblingweek2020

Comfortable Negotiations

The synchronized steps, bouncing across the overwhelmingly muffled walls of the McDuck Manor, follow the figures of an arrogantly joyful Louie Duck and a stoically serious Huey Duck. Their trenches lead them to one of the few areas of the house yet to fall victim to the rampant colonialism these shrewd visionaries spear head, a solitary wooden desk, two equally simple chairs stationed on both sides. They take their seats.

“Hubert Duck, President of Pillowvile.” The hoodie wearing triplet acknowledges.

“Llewellyn Duck, holder of the title of Current and Forever After Ruler of Cushion Island.” Huey responds. “How have you and your partner’s endeavours fared following your sudden departure from Pillowvile? A severing I did very little to oppose, might I add.”

“Yes, very little.” Louie’s previous smile turns into an almost sarcastic imitation of thoughtfulness. “Well it seems that my business partner’s ingenuity and my business savviness has brought us quite a bit of success, as clear when you compare our charts here.” The confidence oozing duck raises both his arms to reveal two staunchly different pieces of cardboard. Both demonstrated crudely drawn line charts, one with an elegant example of calligraphy spelling out Cushion Island while the other, spelling Pillowvile, could be described as anything but. The former diagram demonstrated a staunch uptick following a point labelled “When we got smarter and left Pillowvile.” The former followed a similar pattern, the line taking a steep dive after a period called “Our smarter halves leave Pillowvile.”

“Uhm…” The self-appointed president of Pillowvile attempts to assess the borderline illegible data. “Very… interesting. But, you can’t run a country like a business dear sibling of mine, way more goes into it.”

“Yet you’ve called ME to discuss negotiations.”

Huey bites his lip, the concise retort robbing him of his high ground. “Well, I wanted to talk to both of Cushion Island’s political powers, yet I see only one.”

“You seem one partner short as well.” Louie correctly assesses.

“Dewford had other businesses to attend to.”

“I’m sure he does.” A grin carves itself forcefully onto a self-assured Louie. “So what did you want to discuss?”

“Well I thought-”

“Pfft- Sorry I just can’t keep it a secret!” The previously reserved negotiator bursts, his body slamming and rolling as his lung expands into a chuckle, “We caught Dewey sneaking through our blueprints, Webby’s currently trying to get a confession from him. I was supposed to lead you on for a cooler reveal but it’s just TOO funny!” He continues between his glee infused snorts.

“Oh…” Huey attempts to speak, left paralyzed in his brothers all consuming laughter.

“You better start talking unless you want to go on another trip into Mr. Cuddles’s play place!” A high pitched demand pierces.

Dewey hung from a collection of patched together blankets, one end tied tightly on his ankle and the other on the insurmountably tall ceiling of this pillow comprised room. Poorly lit and suffocatingly warm and dry, the restrained friend cackles and hacks, coughing wildly as the rope pulled tighter on his body. His feathers filled with lint and tangled plushies, all courtesy of the deep and dark alleyways of the play place. A pool of dolls and toys which hide their bloodlust in their disarmingly soft fur.

“NO! NO! PLEASE, I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO MR. CUDDLES ANYMORE!” The prisoner whines wildly.

“Are you sure? Cause he sure wants to talk to you!” Webby, her expression contorted with malice, drops her prey closer to the pit.

“I’LL TALK, I’LL TALK, PLEASE JUST DON’T DROP ME ANY CLOSER!”

For a second the tensed and thick air is complemented with horrid silence. But slowly and surely the rope is reeled back higher.

“Man I’m good at this job.” Webby congratulates herself.

In between his terrified gasps for air, Dewey is able to speak, “I don’t remember exactly what I came here to do, but if you give me my phone I can read off what Huey wanted me to do.”

“Hmm…” The prison guard contemplates the statement a bit longer. “Yeah that seems believable. Here you go.” The girl chipperly walks to the hanging duck, allowing him to clutch the device before retreating.

“Thanks.” Still hanging upside down, Dewford lets the bright light of his electronic’s screen envelop him, slamming his finger across it until opening the previous chat log he had shared with Huey. He scans through it, reading the last message. “Did u find the weak point? Waiting for your signal” Dewey sighs as the options placed before him thin out. Without thinking, the cornered duck types as fast and haphazardly as someone could, sending the following message: “THE STRINGS BEEN TIED, DO IT, DO IT!” Just as his thumb forces send, his body clutches, his eyes slamming shut waiting for the sudden impacts and his inevitable fall into the pit. Instead, the shime of a new message received echoes.

“What was that?” Webby notices, a particular doll turning in her hand, causing the tied duck to flinch.

Panic stabs through the already hindered operative, his eyes darting to the message which oh so terribly inconvenienced him. “You’re still inside, the plan was for you to escape.”

“It looks like you DO want to spend more time with Mr. Cuddles!” The threat curses with the power of a million witches.

“DO IT NOW, JUST DO IT NOW!” The message sends in the moment of panic, his finger pushing over the final button just as it’s stolen from his hand by a ravenous Webbigail.

A moment of anticipation follows as the messages are read back to Webby’s unknowing eyes. Them widening in horror as the realization washes her.

“You deal with him Mr. Cuddles! I have to go!” She hardly finishes her sentences as her feet trail off.

“NO! DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HIM!”

A notification rings across Huey’s phone, his body still stunned from the sudden reveal his youngest triplet cast over him.

“I mean, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to replicate Cushion Island, it’s perhaps the most perfect pillow fort ever created.” Another, of the plentiful, boasts Louie has thrown in the last couple minutes. “I mean look at it.” He directs attention behind him, walls upon walls of multi-colored furniture and cushions hoard the view. The wooden walls that previously housed now rest infected by the stuffing of these misused decorations.

During the monologue, Huey lends a peek at the message Dewey had left for him. Dread befalls the brother, all of his soul used to avoid any sorrow. “You’re the bravest man I know, Dewford.” He whispers.

“What was that?”

Hubert readies his left arm, an arm which had yet to be seen by anyone since arrival. He sighs. “You say that Cushion Island is perfect?”

“As perfect as they come… why?” The creeping suspicion the question arises prevents any hubris.

“I ask because you and Webby actually left your blueprints back in Pillowville, and I wouldn’t really call it perfect.”

The snarky response Louie had planned catches itself at his throat, a worried gulp tossing it back under.

“There was a little design flaw I doubt you knew about in your infrastructure. Poor Webby had a tall order building the whole pillow fort by herself. Especially when you left such a glaring issue in the foundation. All of Cushion Island is being supported by a single sofa cushion.” Huey raises his right hand, revealing a beautifully drawn blueprint, a red circle signalling the sad truth that, yes, one cushion balanced the whole country wide fort. “You’re a shrewd businessman, sure, but when it comes to ruling a country…” Huey finally raises the elusive left hand, clutched between his fingers was the end of an elongated piece of string. “-you need a little bit more.”

A combination of shock and hatred form in the previously egocentric Llewellyn, that manic gaze following the string which, as he feared, led directly into his beautiful Cushion Island. Additionally, as he stares bitterly to the entrance of his magnum opus, the distant figure of his business partner runs frantically towards him. Her arms flail as she attempts to catch the attention of Louie, who already knew it was too late.

“FOR PILLOWVILLE!” Huey screeches as he pulls the string, the movement creating an orchestra of falling pillows and walls. Destruction as far as the eye could see, pain resonating in the echoing screams of those that lived in its warm housing. A domino effect of crumbling dreams and desires. As the final blanket floats over, Louie crumbles to his knees.

Pity does enter the victor’s heart, his body moving in satisfied strides towards his grovelling competitor. Huey lays his hand over his fallen brethren. “May this be a warning to all others who dare defy the power of Pillowville.”

Louie stares back towards him before solemnly returning his view to the ground that used to house his home. “I spent my whole allowance building that.”

“In war we all lose.”

Huey’s illustrious Pilloville was soon discredited and destroyed as punishment for its president’s multiple breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

His second in command, Dewey Duck, was eventually found retreating in the remains of Cushion Island, hiding in the rubble. When asked on the matter, the former ruler informed our reporter that he was fleeing from one “Mr. Cuddles.” This figure has yet to be found.

When asked about the demolition of what he had previously called “the love of his life,” Louie inquired “The what?”

Webbigail, the labeled business partner of Llewellyn Duck, has since been spotted waterboarding various stuffed animals. Some theorize she is training for something bigger.

#HDLW #ducktales #Huey Duck #Dewey Duck #Louie Duck #Webby Vanderquack #hdlw sibling week 2020

36 notes · View notes

haru-sen · 4 years

Text

Angst!AU

First off, thanks to the anon ask that sparked me actually writing this out. It’s been a rough week. But this was fun. Second, it’s a draft and details may change when I actually get around the writing the fic.

The Jesse on Route 66 chapter takes place a little before this.

“He’s four hundred meters out. The vehicle is heavily shielded. I have not detected an escort.” Zee’s drone floated beside your hovercycle. “But this is still ill-advised.”

You shrugged, idling on the low rooftop, taking cover in the shadow of a massive viewscreen advertising a new fantasy drama. The actors were pretty, but the fight choreography looked too stilted. If you were at home, you would probably be bullied into watching it. If anyone still wanted to be in the same room as you.

“You can request backup.”

“Don’t need it,” you said, mapping the trajectory of the armored car. If it was just the one vehicle, Zee was enough. You just had to get her through the physical barrier of hardened shielding. She could penetrate the firewalls on her own. And more importantly, Zee was the only one not mad at you right now.

“They would come.”

You frowned. It was really unlike Zee to harp on this shit. “It’s not necessary.”

“Neither is going after Cian Barrett on your own.”

“I’m not on my own, I have you,” you said, not taking your eyes off the car. In this moment, you could almost forget that she wasn’t Athena. You could forget that Athena wasn't really Athena any more. You could forget that Blackwatch was nothing more than a memory of scandal. You could forget...so you did. That part of your brain wasn’t necessary for this job.

It was like slipping into your old armor. It was like coming home. The world faded away. There was you, Zee’s drone, and Barrett’s car. Everything else was secondary.

There were no identifying marks on your bike or your armor. The form-fitting suit was all matte black and shielded for direct combat. The helm, styled after a motorcycle helmet, covered your features entirely. Not your usual outfit, but your “Keres” identity had political links. Best to be incognito for now.

The sun was just beginning to dip, and the traffic was heavy. Zee would be able to jam the emergency transmissions, but there would be a lot of witnesses. There would be calls to emergency services. You were running this operation in broad daylight, and you couldn’t summon the urge to care.

“This is very reckless,” Zee said.

“Yeah, but Hong Kong is our territory,” you said, gritting your teeth behind your helmet. “Are you saying we can’t do this in our own backyard?”

“...It’s the only reason I’m agreeing to it,” Zee said primly. “But this is our backyard. Try not to shit where we eat.”

You chuckled, a little surprised by her use of profanity. “It’s nothing you can’t handle.” He was three hundred meters out. The overlay on the inside of your helmet fed you more statistics. The vehicle’s armoring class was higher than you expected, but it had side windows. Windows were always a structural weak point. You waited for Barrett’s car to reach the next intersection.

On cue, the light shifted to red, stopping the car in front of him. There was a slight reverberation as Zee tethered her drone to your bike.

You shifted gears, and then suddenly you were dropping forward, accelerating even as you fell.

Barrett’s car was a thick monstrosity, black and purple, custom-made by Vishkar: hard light kinetic shields, front and rear turrets, a Farraday cage overlay to prevent hacking. All of that was geared to stop bombs, guns, or cyberattacks. None of it would stop you.

You leaned into the turn, holding yourself at 45 degrees off the ground, the bike still accelerating as you slipped into traffic. You pulled yourself upright so you could slide between stopped cars. You took the innermost lane hovering on the border of oncoming traffic.

Barrett’s stopped car was just ahead.

“Cut it,” Zee said.

You released the controls, letting her take over as you drew the spike. Eight inches of hardened omnium, the point already starting to glow with heat. It was a simple tool, perfect for shorting out Farraday cages and breaking glass. Feet jammed in the stirrups, you rested your left arm across your chest, the spike in your metal hand. Powering up the prostheses and the tool took half a second. And as you passed Barrett’s car your arm snapped sideways, driving the metal into the glass with inhuman force.

You pierced a thick line through layers of glass, polymer shielding, and then tore through the metal frame, breaking the continuous line of the circuits. Now there would be a hole in the hard light armoring and the Farraday cage. In seconds, the spike grew too hot to hold, so you let it go, swinging yourself off the bike. You just had to carve the hole. Zee would open the way.

“I’m in,” Zee said, as the locks popped.

Grinning savagely behind your helmet, you yanked the door open, even as someone within emptied their gun at you. You jerked back behind the door, getting a glimpse of an omnic bodyguard switching weapons.

“Zee?”

“Working on it,” she snapped.

If you’d been alone, you could have used an EMP, but if you’d been alone, you wouldn't be able to pull the data from his devices. And that was more important than simply killing Barrett. Not that you planned on sparing him. Not after what Sakai had let slip. It had taken a lot of work, but in the end, you’d gotten what you needed from what was left of- You winced inwardly. You didn’t need to think about that right now.

You drew your gun, angled it, and fired into the car at where the bodyguard had been sitting. You heard the shots connect, metal rending metal.

“Watch where you’re shooting,” Zee snapped.

You were never in any danger of hitting her, but if your bullets made it out of the vehicle... You gritted your teeth. A ricochet probably wouldn’t kill a civilian. You swung around the door, gun raised.

The omnic was a smoking wreck. An armored woman lay bleeding on the ground.

An older, dignified “gentleman” in a suit, Barrett was pressed against the partition, his own weapon raised at you. But his hands shook violently. There was blood on his face and in his gray hair, but you didn’t see any serious wounds.

“Where is she?” You snarled.

“I don’t know whom you’re talking about!” Barrett shouted defiantly, words blending together in his thick brogue.

“I think you do,” you sneered, taking aim at his knees.

“Incoming!” Zee shouted as light flared in your peripheral vision.

Three things happened at once. The delivery van in a neighboring lane opened up, half a dozen armored Talon troopers pouring out. And then a sunburst struck the front of Barrett’s car. You dove to the side, taking cover behind the rear bumper of the vehicle, and then a wave of force rolled you under the next car as an explosion rocked Barrett’s vehicle-though it didn’t come apart. All around you, car windows shattered from the concussive blast.

“Is that-?” You winced, dragging yourself out from underneath a jeep.

“No, not one of ours,” Zee said sharply. “You need to get out, now.”

“KA-BOOOOM!” The voice was male, the accent distinctly Australian. You blinked as you watched a heavily singed blonde man kick Barrett’s front tire. “Hahaha! You’re blowing up! And this tire is blowing out!”

You staggered to your feet, ears ringing. There were armored Talon troopers sprawled across the asphalt. And twenty yards away, Cian Barrett was rabbiting down the crowded streets.

“Fuck,” you snarled.

“Move!” Zee shouted in your helmet more forcefully than you’d heard in a long time. You ducked low, running past prone troopers.

“How did you miss them?” You hissed.

“-I don’t know,” Zee said, her voice distant in your hear. “Transmitting this back to base.”

“I think they’ll see it on the news,” you huffed.

There was a ping in your helmet as someone tried to call you. You ignored it.

“There’s no way they know about Sakai,” you growled. Because the only people who knew what you’d done to Sakai and how you made her talk, well, they were on your side, even if they weren’t very happy with you right now.

“This isn’t for you,” Zee said, even as a Talon trooper raised her gun at you. “Drop!”

You dove forward, rolling through a brackish puddle, splashing foul liquid everywhere. It was good thing you were wearing a helmet.

“Come here.” A chain shot over your head, a massive hook sinking into the woman’s armor, and suddenly she was airborne. You turned your head, watching as a massive man in a gas mask yanked her to him.

“What the hell?”

“Junker mercenaries,” Zee said. “They’re here for Barrett too. Avoid them.”

“Lucky, you butthead! I know you can hear me! I know this tech can withstand bigger explosions, even if Hong Kong can’t! What the hell is going on?” A very familiar, very angry voice shouted over the comms. Someone had hacked your settings, not hard considering it was her hardware to begin with.

“Busy!” You shouted, trying to catch sight of Barrett. In the distance you saw an older European man rounding a corner-

“Yeah, well so am I! I have the fucking Minister of State Security on hold! Auntie has shorted out the power grid in a six block radius. Oksana is trying to take out any peripheral electrical surveillance. What in the ten hells do you think you’re doing?”

You flinched. “I was going after Barrett. But I’m not the only one.” You hesitated. “We didn’t know about the backup. Or the Aussies.” You didn’t say whether or not you would have still made the move if you had known. Better not to go there.

There was a moment of distracted silence. She was verifying your claim. “I see that...OK. Look, you need to get out of there. Those Australians can take the fall. You don’t need to get caught up in it any more then you already are.”

“Barrett has information I need,” you said tightly, vaulting over a low wall as you dodged down an alley, running parallel to the street you saw Barrett turn down.

There was a heavy sigh. Because they all knew what you would do to get that information.

“Give me some more time, Lucky. We can find them too. You don’t need to cut the answers out of every single Talon agent you dislike.”

“It’s therapy,” you hissed, swearing as dirt and garbage erupted behind you. A concussive blast nearly knocked you off balance. “You’re always telling me I need more of that.”

“This bomb’s for you!” The Junker cackled, rapidly closing the distance.

You swung around, raising your gun.

The Junker blew past you, literally hoisted by his own petard. He just waved, winking at you as he rocketed through the air.

Behind him, three more Talon troopers surged forward.

So many targets, but it wasn’t a hard decision.

The visor of your helmet overlaid the shot trajectories, even as you raised your gun in your left hand. Three T-Zone hits, three corpses toppling. The skill was unnatural as fuck, but you wouldn’t argue with the results.

You turned back to see the Junker, with his goddamn peg-leg, meters ahead of you. He squinted at you for a moment.

You surged forward.

“Oh good, I had no idea where he went!” The Junker chuckled as you passed him. In that moment, he tossed something in front of you, even as you jerked to the side, narrowly missing a steel-jawed trap.

“Aww, c’mon,” he groaned.

You just shook your head and kept moving. You were very tempted to shoot him, but if Talon was here for him and the big guy, then you might be better off letting him live. The old you might have been more concerned about the chaos. But Cian Barrett was getting away. And that was unacceptable.

“Zee, I’ve lost visual contact. Do you-”

“He’s two blocks north,” another voice chimed in. “You can cut though that alley up ahead and jump the fence.”

You inhaled sharply. After what you had done to Sakai, you didn’t think she’d speak to you for another year or two. And maybe you deserved that. “Thanks,” you said after a moment.

“Yes, well, be more careful,” she said quietly. “I’m mad at you, but I’ll be even madder if you die before we can talk about it.”

Dying might easier. But you were smart enough not to say that out loud. “I’ll be home tonight,” you said. “If I can wing it.”

“Kara misses you,” she said hesitantly, in a way that might mean someone other than Karalika missed you. Which made you smile in spite of the situation. Karalika probably did miss you, but she’d be fine. Everyone else spoiled her.

“Yeah, and if you make a bigger mess of this, I’m going to feed her sweet bean paste till she shits all over your room! Picture it! Bean shits everywhere!” Your “boss” shouted over the comms. “You’ll be mopping the goddamn ceilings for days!”

If that happened, maybe you’d stay in Hong Kong a little longer. You turned down the alley, still hearing the peg-legged Junker hopping along behind you. The fence was three meters high but you leapt onto a closed dumpster, pushed off a support pole, and flung yourself over the chain links. You dropped down with a heavy thud and picked back up.

“Zee, you have my ride ready?”

“In a minute,” she said, sounding distracted. It should not have come as a surprise, she was balancing a larger workload now.

With the explosions nearby, the crowds were thinning. You scanned the street- And there he was! A few blocks up, Barret shoved a street vendor and tried to duck into a shop.

You moved quickly through the press, following him into the little electronics stand.

Sweaty and disheveled, he slumped against a headphones display, panting. He was not doing a very good job of hiding. You glanced sharply at the shopkeeper who ducked into a back room.

Raising your gun in your right hand, you seized him by the collar. He flailed vainly against the metal.

“Wait! No! My people will pay handsomely for safety!”

You held up him by the throat, watching him twitch and shake, fear in those pale gray eyes. Your helmet was opaque. He would not see anything but his own distorted reflection. “Your money means nothing. I want information.”

“I-I-” He stammered.

“Widowmaker,” you snapped. “Where are they storing her?”

He shook his head frantically. “I don’t know!”

“Agent Sakai seemed to think you did,” you growled.

“That was a month ago! I don’t keep close tabs on all combat assets.”

“Bullshit! Where the hell is she?!” You squeezed tighter, rage making your arms shake.

“I don’t have a fucking clue!” He shouted back. “They keep the freaks with O’Deorain. Widowmaker, Sigma, Reap-”

Glass smashed as a giant hook hurtled through the storefront. You spun, holding up Barrett as your shield. That thick chain wrapped around his waist.

Maniacal laughter sounded, far too close. It made your blood run cold. The giant Junker was huge, and only wearing bits of armor, with lots of visible flesh. The piggy tattoo on his bulging stomach said “Wild Hog Power.” Barrett screamed as “Wild Hog Power” reeled him in.

It really wouldn’t do for Barrett to be ransomed. He was Moira’s financial advisor, and one more nail in her treacherous coffin. You slapped your gun back into your left hand, letting your helm’s targeting software direct your shot.

A neat red hole burst in Barrett’s skull. Much neater than Sakai had been. But Sakai had been personal.

“Wild Hog Power” shook Barrett like a doll, the corpse flopped around, neck flopping at an extreme angle. “Wild Hog Power” was breathing hard, hunched over Barrett. Bestial and berserking, this one was less human than most. He looked up then, clocking you instantly. He began spinning his chain.

Your insides shriveled, an atavistic reaction. This was a very dangerous place to be. “Zee-”

“Go out back!”

You jumped the counter, narrowly dodging that damn hook. More gunfire blew over your head, and you rapidly crawled out the back exit, finding your hoverbike waiting.

“Thanks!” You hissed, even as you hopped aboard, staying low. “Chances of extraction?”

“Not any time soon,” your boss huffed angrily. “I’m busy doing damage control. Looks like there was a lot of it- mostly property, but also quite a few civilians with shrapnel injuries. Hospitals will be overcrowded. We’re offering additional support to the locals. You can lay low for now.”

“Understood,” you said. Your safehouse not too far off. Checking your mirrors, you saw the Junker pair standing together in your dust, watching you make your escape.

You went radio silent. You were sore, but you’d gotten off lighter than you deserved, given the amount of mayhem you’d helped instigate.

Your safehouse was well-stocked and decorated to someone else’s taste. It was filled with Pachimari paraphernalia, though there were all kinds of stuffed animals on the couch. Kittens, hamsters, even a piggy. You shuddered slightly. “Wild Hog Power” had taken Barrett mid-sentence, but you’d already known about Reaper. Sakai had spilled everything in end, both figuratively and literally.

You showered first, setting aside your battered gear for repairs. Then you changed into sweats. You considered external healing, but there was no need. As long as you got a good meal, you’d be back in fighting shape after dinner.

The kitchen was full of novelty appliances and decorated in an alarming shade of pink enamel: the fridge, stove, sink, cupboards, everything. You’d been here a week and you still weren’t used to it. But it wasn’t all terrible, there was a bubble tea maker, and you fiddled with that – doing it from scratch wasn’t hard. But the machine took a few minutes to set up. You started the rice cooker too.

You had filled the fridge yourself, with fresh groceries and a beautiful raspberry chocolate cake covered in ganache. You were still working on improving your recipe for fish head curry. The freezer was packed with dimsum. Idly, you began heating up a pan of oil. Your body needed a lot of calories post-combat and cooking gave you some time to meditate.

The Talon troopers had not stepped in to save Barrett from you. Talon had not been waiting for you. They’d only come out when the Junkers were in range. So Talon had been expecting those Junkers. Your helm had captured enough footage that you could research the men. Zee had forwarded a large file to you.

The demolitionist was a man named Jameson Fawkes. He was a caricature of all the shitty, fried, explosion-happy maniacs you’d met through the years. Nwazue had been painstakingly responsible. Hell, Vo had been a pain in the ass, but- You exhaled slowly. Vo hadn’t been so bad. Not really. You stared at the fridge. She would have loved that cake.

“Wild Hog Power” was a man named Mako Rutledge. There wasn’t a lot of information about him. But you knew “incredibly dangerous” when you saw it. Both men had accumulated massive bounties and were wanted in several countries. You’d be surprised if they made it out of Hong Kong alive.

But that wasn’t your problem, you didn’t need to go borrowing more trouble. You had more than enough.

Your problem was how to save Widowmaker, especially since she didn’t especially want to be saved.

Your problem was that you knew exactly who was wearing that stupid skull mask and calling himself Reaper. But you didn’t know why, and that was just as awful. You had theories, of course, but even the best case scenario made you sick to your stomach.

Your problems all stemmed from the past, the sort of unresolved bullshit that only worsened over time. Jesse had been trying to get in contact with you, but you’d been putting him off. You still weren’t sure if you wanted to see him now, no matter what kind of intel he offered.

But you would, eventually. Not because he’d been your friend. Not because you were ready to forgive him. Not because you missed him. But because you needed every advantage you could get in this war.

“Lucky, you need to see this.” Zee’s cultured voice came on over the sound system. A security monitor flicked on. You stared incredulously as the two Junkers traipsed up the stairs and through the halls on the building, clearly looking for someone. They were still several floors below you. You had no idea how they’d tracked you here.

You could run. You knew this city pretty well. There might not be fighting. There might be more collateral damage. It was hard to say.

You could fight. The building was not unoccupied. It would not survive. There would be more collateral damage.

You could try diplomacy. But you weren’t entirely sure if those men were capable of rational thought. The Junkers were insane. Look what they had done to their own country. You certainly didn’t want to invite them in but...

But the enemy of your enemy was useful to know.

You went back upstairs to change clothes.

It only took them a few minutes to reach your door. But you were ready. You had changed into a simple black jumpsuit. It was short sleeved and with a flattering cut, the fabric draped elegantly. You put on makeup, just enough to be a polished hostess. You didn’t play a honeytrap any more. Not if you could help it. Your only jewelry was a thick white band around your left wrist. It had a pearlescent glow against your dark metal arm. You took a deep breath, checking the cameras and finding them loitering outside your door, Fawkes fiddling with a goddamn mine, Rutledge blocking the entire hall.

You opened the door, and stared coolly at Fawkes, wondering if he would really detonate the bomb right here. He better not.

“Eh?” Fawkes gaped at you, clearly shocked that you’d just opened the door.

“What are you doing?” You sighed, one hand on your cheek. You sounded more like an exasperated teacher than a security operative. That was intentional.

“Err...nuffink.” He shoved the mine behind his back like a child. Up close, he was younger than you first thought, though life had not been kind to him. He was scorched and sooty, patches of hair missing, his clothing near rags. It didn’t look like he cared.

Behind him, Rutledge regarded you silently, possibly surprised that you had answered the door without attacking, possibly trying to identify you as the woman on the bike. But with the mask in place it was too hard to tell.

“You were-” Fawkes jabbed his finger at you accusingly.

“Yes, I was there,” you said.

There was another awkward moment of silence as they tried to process your declaration. Honesty was certainly the best policy, when it got you a tactical advantage.

You regarded them politely. “Well then, are you going to come in for dinner?”

There was another long stretch of silence as the men looked at each other trying to figure out if you were being sarcastic.

Rutledge tilted his head back, and you realized he was sniffing the air.

Fawkes blinked rapidly. “I don’t like prawns.”

“Are you allergic?” You asked, stepping back to let them come in.

He glanced back at Rutledge, panic on his face. This was not how he pictured the encounter going. You didn’t think most people he met invited him inside for a meal.

“No,” Rutledge said. His voice was low and dangerous.

“No, just don’t like’em,” Fawkes fidgeted, and then shoved the mine down his pants.

You nodded. “There are slippers if you want,” you gestured to the shoe rack by the door. It was good manners to take off one’s shoes, though you weren’t going to press the matter with them. You walked back to kitchen, not looking to see if they used them. You walked down the hall, half expecting a bullet or a hook in the back. You fiddled with your bracelet, trying to keep your stance relaxed.

There was a crashing noise, and you flinched, before looking over your shoulder, to see Fawkes trying to shove the broken shoe rack into some semblance of its previous shape. Rutledge was holding up a very large pair of Pachimari slippers. They would have fit Reinhardt. You had no idea if they would fit him, but your support staff stocked a broad range of sizes.

There was a distinct rhythm as Fawke’s leg clicked against the wood. But it sounded like he was wearing a single slipper. Maybe one of those furniture leg felts would work on the peg-leg. You had not considered that. He followed you from the foyer into the kitchen. You went to the freezer and pulled out the rest of the dimsum. You could steam the dumplings, sticky rice packets, and bao, and maybe you’d have enough for Rutledge.

“Whatcha making then?” Fawkes asked, looking around the kitchen in wonder. He sniffed the air a few times, his eyes bright. He had terrible posture, shoulders hunched as he eyed the stove with distrust.

“Fishhead curry and dimsum.” The curry was still simmering. “Would you like something to drink?” Coffee in the jittery demolitionist would be unwise. Alcohol might be worse. You checked the bubble tea machine. “I have milk tea with boba.”

“I would kill for some!” He nodded vigorously, rubbing his hands together.

“Sugar?” You asked, your metal fingers twitching as you poured.

“Half!” He did not have an indoor voice.

The machine dispensed bubbles, tea, and sweetener according to his order. You offered him a cup with a metal straw.

Squealing, he took the drink from you and then Rutledge reappeared. Without a word, he snatched the cup out of Fawkes’ hands, popped off the lid, and sniffed. Then he looked at you.

You poured yourself a cup and took a drink. Using poison had definitely occurred to you, but with Rutledge’s clearly altered biology, there were too many variables. The tea was a little too sweet, but the tapioca bubbles were the perfect texture.

“Come on, pig face! If it ain’t poisoned, give it here!” Fawkes grabbed for the cup. Rutledge let him take it back, apparently not bothered by the name calling.

“Would you like some?” You asked, taking another drink. You had beer, but you purposefully did not want them drunk. You didn’t need them rowdier.

“Full sweetened,” Rutledge said after a moment.

You nodded and made him a cup as well. You gestured to the round table. “Please, have a seat.” The chairs would probably hold. Your boss got a kick out of making equipment way more durable than it needed to be, just for fun.

Fawkes straddled a chair, slurping his drink and watching you intently like a feral animal.

Rutledge carefully sat down, adjusting his mask so he could drink.

“Fancy pad,” Fawkes said, clearing his throat while he looked around.

“A friend’s place, I’m only visiting,” you said, not exactly lying. You stirred the curry. It was fragrant with spice and coconut milk, but needed to thicken a little more. You checked the steamer, finding the shrimp dumplings and the soup dumplings to be ready. You placed the metal steamer tray on a mat on the table and gestured to the cupboard. “Bowls and plates are up there. Chopsticks and silverware are in that drawer.” You returned to the stove. The oil was hot enough for the deep fried taro pouches. You tossed them into the oil, watching them sizzle.

“Ooooh,” Fawkes was suddenly over your shoulder. “Wozzat?”

“Fried taro, with ground pork filling.” You paused, glancing over at Rutledge. He was eyeing the steamer tray of dumplings. He had not gotten up for plates or silverware. “The yellow and kind of translucent ones have shrimp,” you told Fawkes, gesturing at the food on the table. “But the round white ones are pork.”

“Eww,” Fawkes scowled at you. “I don’t like prawns. Buggy little bastards taste like shite and are filled with-”

“You don’t have to eat them,” you said firmly. “But where I grew up, there wasn’t food to waste.”

Fawkes squinted at you. “But here you are in this fancy city pad-”

You flipped the fried taro with cooking chopsticks.

“-Stealing work from honest Junkers, and acting like-”

You had to maneuver around him to get a plate for the taro. He was getting worked up. You glanced briefly at your left wrist, wondering if you had made a mistake.

“Get out of the way,” Rutledge barked. “Can’t you see that she’s busy?”

You raised a brow, a little surprised by that reaction.

Fawkes was too. He blinked inquisitively at his partner.

“Be useful: set the table,” Rutledge said gruffly.

Fawkes snapped to attention then, skittering over to the cupboard to grab plates and utensils. You turned back to the roiling oil and began fishing golden brown taro cakes out of the pot. You filled the plate, and set it down on the table. They were steaming hot and would burn your mouth. Rutledge sat there stoically, watching your every move. He had not touched the food. In the corner of your eye, you saw Fawkes gracelessly slapping a handful of silverware onto a stack of plates.

You set the rice cooker on the table and checked the steamer trays. The sticky rice and bao were done. And the fish head curry was a deep orange color, with pieces of okra, taro, and eggplant cooked soft in the sauce. You would have liked to simmer the sauce a little longer, but you couldn’t help the timing. You turned around to see Fawkes seated with two forks and a bowl. It looked like you had two spoons, a bowl, and a plate, and Rutledge had two plates and pair of chopsticks.

You brought the pot of curry to the table, and then went back to retrieve more utensils and rice bowls. You set them in the middle of the table, and started scooping rice. You passed the bowls around, noting that still none of the food had been touched. Paranoia or manners?

Fawkes straddled his chair, surveying the table greedily.

But Rutledge looked at you expectantly.

“I am not religious,” you said, unsure if he wanted you to bless the meal. “But I do not offer the courtesy of my kitchen to my enemies.”

He nodded. “I am Roadhog. That’s Junkrat.”

Professional names then. “I am known as Keres.”

“Hooley dooley, Carrie, you got some fancy grub,” Fawkes, who was Junkrat, reached forward and grabbed a taro dumpling with his hands. “Hot! Hot! Hot!” He bounced it in his hand while you served yourself some curry. Junkrat seemed like a more fitting name.

Roadhog used his hands as well, carefully snatching dumplings and other appetizers, but setting them down on his plate. He wasn’t eating directly from the communal dishes, and you appreciated the courtesy.

You raised a brow as Junkrat grabbed his own share of curry and began squirting Sriracha into it.

“You might taste it first,” you said, because you had been liberal with the spices and the peppers.

“I eat gunpowder for breakfast, Carrie!” He jabbed his fork at you, eyes blazing. “Don’t need no drongo telling me how to eat a fish head!”

You chuckled. “All right.” You sipped your tea watching keenly as Junkrat shoveled a spoonful into his mouth, grinning triumphantly at you. It took a few seconds, but as he swallowed, his face began to redden, his cheek twitching. Sriracha really wasn’t that hot. But the peppers you’d used were pretty potent.

Roadhog spooned half the curry onto his plate, splitting the fish head and taking the larger portion of that as well.

They were two different kinds of dangerous. Junkrat needed to be balanced – too much stimuli and he flew into a manic episode. Too little and he stirred up trouble to keep himself from being bored. Roadhog was a pressure cooker, holding it in until he hit critical mass. Keeping them both calm took different strategies.

Doing so was less difficult than it sounded. You were used to dealing with dangerous difficult people. After all, back in Zurich you’d been so good with-

You stopped, mid-bite. Yes, that’s exactly what the Junkers reminded you of. Your goddamn Blackwatch hardcases. Fuck. The wheels of memory ground out another realization: Hell, when you’d first joined up, your manners were only marginally better than Junkrat’s. That was such a long time ago...

The blonde man was still chattering about how the fish curry wasn’t that hot, while he piled more rice into his bowl and shoveled it down his throat. Then he loudly drained his cup, still protesting that he had no trouble with spices.

Roadhog noticed your hesitation and slowed his eating.

You took a drink and went back to your curry. It could have used a little more tamarind. The coconut milk mellowed the sharpness a little more than you expected.

“Well, as long as you find it acceptable,” you told Junkrat when he finished his rant about his tolerance for spicy food. “I’m still working on the recipe, so I understand if you think it’s lacking.”

He blinked. “Oh, no. ‘S good.” He slurped down another bite and gave you a thumbs up.

“I’m glad,” you said.

“Meant to say, that’s some arm you got there,” Junkrat chirped, knocking on your metal limb with his own prostheses. “How’d you lose it? Shark? Salty? Hamster?” He mimed biting motions with his hands.

“Terrorist attack,” you said, taking another bite of curry, though in that moment you only tasted ash.

“Bomb?” Junkrat asked.

“Yeah,” you said, though it had not been that straight forward.

“Who?” He asked eagerly.

“Talon.” You took a sip of your tea, the sweetness bracing you.

“Oh yeah, they’re absolute drongos,” Junkrat cackled. “Keep inviting us around, like we want to join their stupid club with their dumb scrap metal lackeys.”

“So they’re trying to recruit you?” You asked.

“Mebbe,” Junkrat gave you a sly look. “Mebbe they’re after me treasure.”

You laughed a little too hard at that.

“You don’t believe me?” He puffed up then, smacking his bare chest. “Me and Pig Face are rich! We could eat like this every day if we wanted to!” Madness flared in those eyes.

Under the table, you rested your bracelet against your knee.

“Shut up, idiot,” Roadhog grumbled.

“She’s laughing-” Junkrat’s head snapped to the side, reminding you of a mongoose about to strike.

“You told a joke,” Roadhog’s voice was dangerously low. “Sometimes people laugh at your jokes.”

Junkrat crossed his arms, looking sullen.

Children with their delicate egos. You gave a wry smile. “I thought it was a pirate reference.” You tapped your knee.

“Oh,” Junkrat looked at you sideways. “Of course it was!” He laughed a little too loudly. “I really had you two going! This is a dinner party, Roadhog! You gotta be personable. And I am nothing if not a courteous house guest!”

Even with the mask on, even if you’d never seen his face, you could feel Roadhog’s exasperation loud and clear.

“They were really invested in grabbing you today,” you said. “But there are a lot of cells in Talon,” you said. They pulled off heists and robberies, though it was usually for things other than money: tech, hostages, an unsavory means to an end... “I can’t claim to know what their intentions are.”

“Of course they want us to work for them! You saw us out there! Regular professionals! We were on a roll!” He grinned at Roadhog, jabbing him with a bony elbow. “Eh? Eh?”

“Stop that,” Roadhog growled, picking up his plate to drink down the curry sauce.

“But you did steal our kill though. He was worth more alive,” Junkrat said, narrowing his eyes at you.

“Sorry, personal business,” you said with a shrug. “I lost more than an arm to those bastards.” And given what you had learned from their dossiers, you probably could have left Barrett with them, confident that he wouldn't survive the experience. They had no love of “suits.” But you hadn’t known that back in that little electronics shop.

“Yeah, I get it,” Junkrat heaved a dramatic sigh. “There are some things money can’t buy.” He grinned at Roadhog. “But if that’s the case, you should still try the proper application of high powered explosives!”

You laughed softly, in spite of the situation. He was a crude, vicious, and dangerous child. Maybe he reminded you a little of Vo, of Fitzpatrick, of Távio, and others. Maybe you were just getting old. “I know it’s effective, but I don’t have your talent in that field. Never picked up the knack for anything beyond the basics.”

“I could show you a trick or two,” Junkrat flashed you what had to be his idea of charming smile. Somewhere between a leer and the awkward smile of a student portrait, he showed far too many teeth. And he waggled his eyebrows at you.

You were far too old for this shit. But you put on hand over your mouth, trying to smother your snickers.

Junkrat grinned at Roadhog, nudging him with his elbow. “Suppose she fancies me? She did invite us in for this real intimate dinner. Ladies don’t just roll out that hospitality for anyone.”

Roadhog just shook his head.

“Unless she’s interested in you,” Junkrat murmured a low shocked voice. “Hooley dooley, mate! You don’t think-”

“No, you don’t think,” Roadhog said setting his plate down. “This is business.”

Junkrat blinked. “But dinner-”

“Friendly business,” you said. “A simple “getting to know you” sort of event. Though let me emphasize, I don’t share food with my enemies.”

“Not government,” Roadhog said, utensils set at straight on his plate, indicating he was done. “Not Talon.” He looked around. “Corporate security? PMC?”

“Sort of,” you said.

Junkrat scowled. “We don’t work for suits.”

“I represent the Peaceful Life Society,” you said.

Junkrat snorted. “That’s a silly name.”

“I’m still not sure if it was meant to be ironic,” you said, sipping your tea. “But yes, it is.”

“Triad business?” Roadhog crossed his arms.

“It could be,” you said. “We can talk business. We can talk about cake. There is no pressure. I’m not here to try to strong arm you.”

“You wanna hire us, Carrie?” Junkrat asked.

“I have work, if you’re interested. I have cake, if you aren’t.”

“But we can only pick one?” Junkrat frowned.

“No. We can just start with dessert,” you said and got up. You brought the cake out of the fridge. And when you turned around, Junkrat was hovering over your shoulder, flitting back and forth, staring at the cake.

“Look at that, Roadhog. Just look at that beauty. Just covered in chocolate, a goddamn mudslide of chocolate. It’s gonna be too sweet,” he moaned. “It looks pretty, but they overdid it-”

“It’s dark chocolate,” you said, a little indignantly.

“And all that coating is gonna be gummy pasty sugar shit-”

“It’s not fondant,” you scowled, genuinely offended by the thought.

“It can’t be as good as it looks, there’s no fucking way!” He wailed, clearly more interested in being dramatic than listening to a word you said.

You glanced over at Roadhog feeling a growing respect for his levels of patience. “Would you like a slice?”

He nodded.

You almost asked if he wanted Junkrat’s slice, but decided to be the mature adult here. You set the cake on the counter and cut two large slices for you and Roadhog, and one small one for Dramarat. Against your better judgment, you made coffee to go with it, possibly making it half-caf because your guests were so excitable.

“Let’s go in there. I don’t feel like clearing the table right now.” You handed each man their own plate and fork, and poured yourself some black coffee. You took a seat in a single chair, while the Junkers took the couch.

Junkrat poked at the plushies, giggling to himself as he tossed the pig at Roadhog, nearly missing the other man’s plate.

“Watch it!” Roadhog snapped.

You set your drink down on the glass coffee table and took a bite of the cake. There was a generous spread of tart raspberry liquer filling between each layer of chocolate cake. Smooth chocolate ganache replaced the frosting, with fresh raspberries adorning the top of the cake. It was rich with just the right amount of sweetness. Gabriel would have-

You did not finish that thought. It would have sat badly with your curry. Instead, you set the plate down and took a deep swig of coffee. When you looked up, Roadhog was delicately eating his slice while Junkrat was still staring forlornly at his own piece.

“How is it really?” Junkrat tried to whisper, but he was about as good at it as Reinhardt.

“Find out for yourself. Idiot.”

“I’m not like you. I can’t just eat anything. I’m a connoisseur!”

Roadhog just shook his head in disgust.

Junkrat begrudgingly took a bite, grimacing the entire time. Uncertainly pinched his already pointy features. He chewed, slowly relaxing as he tasted the cake. The transformation was nearly instantaneous. He went from pissing and moaning to an open mouthed quiet awe. He stared reverently at his slice and then shoved the rest into his mouth.

You sipped your coffee.

“Hooley dooley that’s good shit,” he murmured, mouth full of crumbs. “Can I have more? Before pig face eats it all?!”

You still couldn’t see much of Roadhog’s face, but you could feel the heat of the glare directed at Junkrat.

“You both can have the rest. I’m pretty full,” you said, picking up your plate. There was three quarters of a cake left. Maybe they could take it to go.

“Are you sure?” Junkrat squinted at you. And then hopped up, bouncing into the kitchen with glee.

...Oh, maybe you should not have given him that much sugar.

But then Roadhog was on his feet, lumbering into the kitchen with heavy steps.

“Hey, back off! This is mine! Carrie said I could have it!”

“Fifty-fifty,” Roadhog said, pushing Junkrat out of the way. He lifted the knife and made a sharp cut.

“That looks more like sixty-forty!”

“Get your eyes checked,” Roadhog said, taking a slightly bigger piece.

“Come on, don’t be such a pig!” Junkrat jumped, trying to snatch the cake out of Roadhog’s hands.

“We can always get more cake,” you said.

“...Really?” Junkrat perked up.

“Yeah, I don’t mind going for more dessert,” you said, even though the bakery was closed. If they pushed, you could get ice cream or something.

“Oh,” Junkrat grabbed the remaining portion. “I guess that’s OK then.” The importance of the distraction was to get them to disengage. You did not want them coming to blows in the apartment safehouse. Both men returned to the living room, Roadhog taking the far corner of the couch. Junkrat sat closer to you, eating happily while he poked at the plushies with chocolate-smeared fingers.

“Didn’t figure you for the stuffed animals type,” Junkrat said, turning over a pirate Pachimari in his lap. He bounced it a few times, then looked around rapidly, then tried to act casual slinging it to the side.

“I didn’t decorate,” you said with a shrug. “But they are really cute.”

“I guess they are,” Junkrat jammed his hands into his pockets. “If you like that kind of thing.”

Roadhog coughed.

“I mean, I don’t,” Junkrat sputtered. “I’m a man of sophistication and means. I just know that they don’t make the pirate one back home. They were limited edition,” Junkrat said, staring longingly at the pile of plush.

You sighed. This location was going to be metaphorically burned after this encounter. You could make some good will offerings. “My friend won’t mind if you take some.” You paused. “If you had someone back home whom you thought might like one.”

“Oh.” Junkrat perked up. “Really? Because I think Little...James might like one. Just some neighborhood kid,” he added quickly.

Roadhog just sat very still.

“And his little sister...Jamie might want one too,” Junkrat grinned.

“Go for it,” you said sincerely. “Think of them as...party favors.” You glanced at Roadhog who just sat there eating his cake.

“Carrie, you throw the best dinner parties!” Junkrat squeezed an armful of plush, some of them squeaked. “If more people did it like you, dinner parties wouldn’t be so goddamn boring!”

“Thank you,” you said. “I try.”

“But I don’t know about working for your Triad buddies. We’re free agents! We don’t like being tied down!” Junkrat looked up from the plushes, expression grim.

“I understand,” you said. “If you’re fighting Talon though, I’d like to collaborate some time. Or at least not get blown up or shredded by the two of you in combat. I’d extend the same courtesy, of course.”

“Carrie, you’re a nice lady who owes us some more cake. I would never-” Junkrat pressed his hands to his chest. “Never ever ever.”

“That’s a relief,” you said. You hadn’t expected them to onboard today. This was just first contact. You could cultivate the ties over time.

“Truce,” Roadhog said. The cake was gone, but there was no trace of it on his fingers, lap, or mask.

“Truce,” you said with a smile.

Junkrat had stuffed his bag full of toys, though you didn’t miss the piggy tucked on Roadhog’s hip, almost completely hidden by the chain. Junkrat was snoring now, draped across Roadhog’s back. He

“If you’re interested,” you said, offering him your card. “We can talk about it over cake.”

Roadhog grunted, accepting it. Those massive hands delicately placing it in a pocket. He paused, looking down at the bracelet your left wrist. He snorted.

“Hardlight projector?”

“Yes,” you said.

He nodded. “Military grade?”

“Of course.” Because you could be friendly and well-armed. Always hope for peace, but prepare for killing the shit out of your enemies.

Roadhog stared at it for another few seconds, clearly contemplating the other way this encounter could have gone. “Thank you for the meal,” he said, ducking to go through the door.

“I had fun,” you told him. “We should do it again some time.”

You sat on the roof, admiring the brilliance of the skyline. A shuttle would pick you up soon. A local cleaning service would take care of the facilities. The Junkers had come and gone with minimal damage. Cian Barrett was dead. Zee had access to his files. Not a bad day’s work.

Zee’s drone hovered by your shoulder. “You still have a way with delinquents,” she said.

“Takes one to know one.” You fiddled with the bracelet. It wasn’t your best weapon, but you could use it well in close quarters. “You can take the girl out of the bar-”

“That is such a crass statement with racist overtones,” Zee said, her tone frosty.

“Sorry, you’re right. I don’t need to be repeating that shit,” you said. You tilted your head back. You’d spent a couple months in Phuket before you had found Sakai. You’d picked up some of the lingo, the ways to blend in. You’d need to shed those habits sooner rather than later. “How are things back home?” You asked.

“Settling.”

“That could mean any number of things.”

“You know Feng was never mad about what you did. She was worried about you. She still is.”

“I know.” You toyed with the a large bulldog plush that had somehow been left behind by the Junkers. If Oksana didn’t want it, maybe Karalika would. “But Oksana...”

“She needed time to come to terms with what she saw you do. She’ll get past it. She adores you too much. This was an eye-opening experience about our line of work. Her father has always sheltered her.”

“Her father-” You scowled.

“Will get over himself when she calms down. He exaggerates all faults. Honestly, all of you are so overwrought and emotional. Presenting the On Sing Serial Drama: tune in next week for more shocking events and emotional fallout in a real time comedy of errors,” she said in biting tones. “Foolish children. These things take time. You have to account for that, Lucky. Stop being so impatient.”

You smiled wryly. “Thanks, Auntie. You really do know best.”

“I know, and while you are acknowledging my wisdom and experience, let’s talk about what’s going on with you. You really need to talk to another professional about what’s going on in your life,” she told you primly. “Don’t give me the “oh, who’s going to understand the psychological effects of brainwashing, and faked deaths, international conspiracies” speech. That’s cult of exceptionalism foolishness. Conspiracies aren’t what’s sending you to therapy, it’s your manner of handling the stress. Psychologists understand complications, betrayals, PTSD. That is what you are asking for help with, untangling your feelings and yourself. This isn’t about politics or tech. Your situation may be unique, but your reactions? Textbook.”

You winced. “You broke me down faster than I did Sakai.”

“Yes, well unlike you, I’m not playing around, or trying to draw out the suffering,” she said. “And unlike the others, I don’t care what you did to her. She earned it. But I do care what it implies about your mental state, and how it affects the rest of the family.”

“I went too far,” you agreed after a moment. “I’m not sorry. Not yet. But I know I went too far.” Maybe not far enough to join Talon as a double agent, commit atrocities to win their trust, and then finally exact your brutal revenge. And that was the best case scenario in a certain Reaper’s case.

“Make sure you tell that to everyone else. Ask for their help in keeping you honest. It will go a long way in earning you some grace.”

“Yes, Auntie,” you said with a heavy sigh. You stared out over the city. The night was warm. “I still have one question. How did they locate me so quickly?” You gave the drone a sharp side eye.

“You need allies. They have survival skills,” she said, telling you everything you needed to know.

“With friends like you, I definitely need more allies to watch my back,” you scowled, though you couldn’t muster any real ferocity.

“I had full faith in you,” she said solemnly. “And total control of the discretely placed turrets.”

You just shook your head. “Auntie-”

“You cannot slaughter your way through this, Lucky. Not if you want to protect the others. Do you think Oksana is ready for this war? Are you willing to risk it?” She didn’t give you a chance to respond. She already knew your answer. “No, you need to be smart and use diplomatic methods too.”

“You’re not wrong, but I think I just used up all my diplomacy,” you said dryly.

“You should probably work get it back soon,” she said. “Jesse McCree has just arrived in Shanghai. He has...information. And he’s insisting that he tells it to you in person.”

****

Yes, you should know all the ally characters referenced, except Karalika. I’m fine spoiling in the comments if you want to guess.

My week was stressful. 10-11 hour shifts, a sick cat, cat had teeth extracted Friday and is high out of his mind (or had a stroke? I don’t know.) I’ve had force feed him a feed a few times this weekend. He keeps falling off things and walking into walls. He’s not using the litter box. I am super tired.

#Angst AU #Drabble #In Alio Loco #Roadhog #Junkrat #I lied-this is a way bigger than a drabble

20 notes · View notes

whatcouldgowrong-ohthat · 4 years

Text

We Do This to Live Ch. 5

Chapter Five

Summary: On Earth-198742, there are no heroes. There’s humans. There’s mutants. There are even some that fall somewhere between. But when Boliver Trask manages to get the Sentinel program signed, it’s up to a thief and her brilliant sister to find those that still believe in something more - something good. And maybe, along the way, they’ll get the chance to save mutant kind.

Pairings: Rogue x Remy, Marie x Shuri (eventually), Geneva x Bucky (eventually)

Word Count: 3475 words

Warnings: Violence? Cussing? That sort of thing?

Masterlist to OCs - Masterlist to Other Works

Previous Chapter

---

“Y’the only t’ief crazy ‘nough t’steal more than is asked o’ya.”

Geneva shrugged from her spot on Marie’s bed. She had come home only a handful of hours ago and while she knew she should rest, her powers were matching her emotions. A constant hum was in the back of her ears and her nerves felt particularly prickly. Until she found out what all of this new information meant, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. “T’anks for takin’ a look.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Marie was impressed that in the last twenty-four hours, Geneva had not only caught Jean-Luc up on everything that had happened, but she’d duplicated the contents of the flash drive. It was sneaky…underhanded…and absolutely something Marie was proud of. “Don’t t’ank moi yet.” She clicked on a file. Lab results, videos, photos – everything one could ever hope to find – popped up over the multiple screens. Marie raised a brow, finding a particularly interesting piece of information. “This project was terminated ‘cause the mutant escaped.”

Geneva bit her lip, taking in the x-rays that showed a metal skeleton. A shiver ran down her spine. “What was his name?”

Marie glanced back at the redhead. She knew Geneva had always been hesitant to learn about more of her kind, but it seemed like she was shedding that fear as she got older. “Uh…” She looked back at the information, eyes flitting from each piece of the puzzle until she pulled up the patient’s name. There was a small photo with it. “James Logan Howlett.” Shock washed over her as she told Geneva, “He was military. Part o’that Cap’n America’s Howling Commandos.” A couple lines further down and she realized why this guy was so important. “His mutation was enhanced healin’. No way o’knowin’ ‘ow old the homme really is.”

The familiar creak of her bed let Marie know that Geneva had moved, no doubt standing behind her. The two stared at the sleeping face. A patient used for experimentation and yet…he looked so peaceful in that single image. Who knew what drugs were in his system?

“Ca va,” Geneva muttered, resting her arms on the back of Marie’s chair. “What else?”

Marie exited out of the Weapon X file. “T’ought y’said there were five files.” She glanced at Geneva. “There’s only four.”

“One o’them needed voice recognition t’even move the damn t’ing,” Geneva admitted, running a hand through her hair. “Was called the Sentinel Program.”

Marie’s nose scrunched. “Weird.” She clicked on the Avenger file. Scrolling through the files, her eyes widened. “Oh, mon dieu.”

“What?”

“Shush.” Marie kept scrolling, utterly amazed at the amount of information Geneva had gotten her hands on. ��Gen, y’managed t’get the file on all the Avengers and what happened to ‘em. Not the bullshit the media gave us. The real story.”

“Sonovabitch…” Geneva’s eyes sparked a little brighter, excitement coursing through her at the idea of such important information. And she was the one who found it.

A knock came from the door, earning two sets of curious eyes as it opened. Rogue peeked her head inside, leaning against the doorframe. If she had opened it even half a second earlier, she would have caught sight of all the information the pair had been looking at.

Instead, she saw the inner workings of Essex Industries.

Closing her eyes, Rogue took a slow breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Marie…”

“Technically not a government organization.” The excuse tumbled from Marie’s lips effortlessly, as if well practiced and thought out.

They had a deal. Marie could hack away to her heart’s content – but she had to stay out of government business. It wasn’t that Rogue and Remy weren’t proud of her capabilities. They just didn’t want to bring unwanted attention their way.

Rogue forced her shoulders to relax as she looked at the girls. “Just be careful.”

Marie threw a thumb’s up her way as Rogue stepped inside. Geneva, ruffling the tween’s hair, looked at her mom. “Somethin’ up, Mama?”

“Your grandfather told Rem and I how your first mission went. Wanted to congratulate ya.”

Geneva grinned, her powers shimmering under her cheekbones. “Merci.”

Rogue chuckled as she sat on the foot of Marie’s bed. “He also told us how Marie helped.”

Marie tensed, looking over her shoulder. It wasn’t a secret that Geneva and Marie hadn’t been seeing eye to eye. If she didn’t know better, Rogue would comment about how much she loved to see them spending time together once again.

But Rogue was a very smart woman. She knew to keep her mouth shut. At least regarding their mended friendship.

“I wanted to talk to you two ‘bout that,” Rogue told them, bouncing her leg as Marie spun in her chair. “Your dad knows that you’re talented, Gen. We’re not doubtin’ that,” she assured her daughter. Just like she had been at Geneva’s age, the teenager was still self-conscious about her own talents. “But where ya might not think everythin’ through, Marie does.”

Marie shrugged. “What’s your point? ‘M a phone call away. She’ll be fine.”

“We don’t want it to have to be a phone call, Marie.” Rogue sighed, looking between the girls before settling her gaze back on Marie. “I know bein’ a part of the Guild isn’t what ya want. And I don’t blame ya at all. This won’t require you to do anythin’ you don’t already. But when Geneva goes on assignments, we’d like it if ya worked together. Someone needs to have Gen’s back and know what to look for.”

Silence fell in the room. Rogue knew it was a hard sell and understood why. With what had happened to Henri, Marie didn’t trust Jean-Luc or the Guilds. She hardly trusted her uncle, Remy.

But…

“I don’t want anyt’in’ t’happen t’Gen. If my ‘elp can benefit ‘er then…” Marie shrugged. “Ca va. ‘M in.”

Rogue looked at her daughter. Geneva simply shrugged. “Sounds like fun t’moi.”

That night, the two were in Geneva’s small house. Her projector illuminated a blank wall, showing them the videos she had stolen.

There was Dr. Strange’s arrest. The Eye of Agamotto had been glowing so brightly against his chest, refusing to leave its owner. They took his cloak though, no matter how feisty it had tried to be.

Charles Xavier’s students being arrested, despite their age. The school being shut down. Xavier being injected with so many needles, so much medicine, that he looked like a husk of the brilliant telepath he had been.

There was a clip of Natasha standing trial, being asked questions she refused to answer.

Another with Stark in the same predicament except…he spoke too much. His confidence screamed arrogance to those deciding his fate. They couldn’t trust him.

Both walked out in cuffs.

Geneva remembered learning about them in school. Photos of the infamous Black Widow and Ironman, teachings of how they were traitors to humans.

“We should show this to Pere ‘n’ Mama,” she whispered, absentmindedly drawing circles on her inner knee.

Marie looked back at her. Her cousin, the mutant, looked so terrified. Curled against the wall as if everything she had been taught was a lie. The media had told so many stories about the evils of mutant-kind. Of the Avengers. It was easy to lose track of what you were supposed to believe. Marie remembered a time where Geneva refused to believe heroes even existed. As far as she knew, the redhead still clung to that belief. To her, the only ones that were good were her own parents.

“We can’t, Genny,” Marie told her, smiling at the annoyance that flashed across her face. It was better than the fear. “Y’pere wouldn’t let y’go on more missions. Y’know that.” Pausing the clips, Marie turned to face her entirely. Geneva’s eyes, staring so intently at the pale images, finally looked at Marie. “’M gonna be helpin’ now. Y’know that too. This way, we can keep learnin’ the truth. If we get enough, we can stop SHIELD.” She took Geneva’s hand in her own, not bothered by the slight shock that tingled her palm. “We gonna do this toget’er. Y’not alone.”

Geneva blinked, her eyes finding their hands. “’M not a hero, petite. Not tryin’ t’be one eit’er.”

Marie nodded. “I know.” She gently squeezed her hand. “And y’don’t ‘ave t’be. Just gotta promise that we do this together. Just us.”

Bringing Marie in to help Geneva provided an almost-guarantee that their daughter was going to be safe. Where Geneva didn’t naturally over-think, Marie did. She knew the security guards’ schedules. She anticipated changes whether they occurred or not. While Geneva was smart in her abilities, there were cracks that Marie managed to fill in.

They worked well together. Naturally performing like a well-oiled machine.

Knowing and seeing that, Jean-Luc sent Geneva on more missions. Bigger and higher stakes that made stealing a few files look like nothing. Not that Jean-Luc believed so. A single promise to Marie had Geneva gathering as much information as she could, sidelining it and keeping it under wraps from the man in charge of it all.

He had no idea that any inkling of HYDRA existed.

Or that he kept sending her in the middle of it.

“This ‘as t’be the stupidest idea,” Geneva muttered, knowing Marie was listening on the comm.

“Jeez, tell moi ‘ow y’really feel.”

Geneva snorted as she stepped into the service elevator, janitorial clothes hanging loosely off her figure. Her hair, tucked behind her ears and hidden well under the company hat, was kept out of sight and mind. It was a fair enough disguise. People were leaving to go home at about this hour. It meant less disturbances. On paper? It totally made sense.

In person? Dressing as a janitor to slip in and out of Pym Technologies? It was slightly more terrifying. A single ding came from above and she stepped out. Just ahead, two workers were hanging a new sign.

Trask Industries.

Nodding to the boys, she kept walking until she came across the janitorial closet. The ID card deftly slipped between her fingers as she asked, subtle accent perfectly intact, “Didn’t think to tell me Trask bought this place?”

Silence.

Geneva opened the door as she asked, “Marie?”

“I didn’t know.”

She hesitated, barely able to gather any sense before she was tugging that blasted janitorial cart out of the closet and down the hall. Her nerves were going haywire as she trudged along. This hadn’t been a part of the plan. Breaking into Pym’s was one thing, but Trask? Alexander Pierce’s best friend?

“Breathe, Genny. It’s gonna be okay.”

Geneva snorted. “Easy for you to say.” She visibly relaxed when that sign was finally out of sight. From here, she could at least pretend it didn’t exist. She could act as if she wasn’t walking into a warzone entirely unprepared.

The doors opened with a hiss. She slipped inside, the doors closing behind her. Metal walls surrounded her, long labs stretching here and there. A quick glance to the last specialist was enough for Geneva to focus on taking out the trash.

“T’ink this is the most I’ve seen y’clean after someone else.”

Geneva wanted to snap at that, but she knew better. Each table had a small trash can next to it and by the time she had gotten to the fourth, the dweeby scientist was finally leaving. She set the bin down. As she looked up, a loose strand of hair fell free. She was alone.

Well, sort of.

“What’s the passcode,” she asked as she walked to the back of the room. There was a second door made of heavy metal. A keypad too. On the other side, something that might help them with sneaking just a little bit more. Geneva glanced through the window. No doubt it was thick glass. Probably bullet-proof.

“135081965.”

The keypad beeped with every input, followed by a much longer one as the door unlocked itself. “Any tricks I should know ‘bout?”

“Shouldn’t be, non. The glass’ll be thick, but y’powers should be able to handle that.”

Geneva chuckled as she took the hat off, shoving it in one of her many pockets. “Should bein’ th’key word, right,” she muttered, almost closing the door before stepping further inside.

The room was massive, bigger than the one before. It made no sense to her. The glass bubble, thick glass secured by metal, was the only thing in the room. And its contents were the smallest thing she’d ever seen.

“There’s no way that’s an actual suit.” Geneva circled the glass.

“It’s called the Yellow Jacket.”

Geneva looked up, bright eyes sparking a little brighter. But... Who the hell? There was no one in the room. “Marie? T’ought y’said no tricks.”

“I got nothin’.”

“Oh! Sorry. Uh…give me a second.”

Geneva’s jaw ticked, fingers crackling with electricity. A static filled the air and prickled her skin before a figure appeared in front of her. A red suit, silver helmet and red lenses, and…was he just small?

“I’m Ant-man.”

“What’s happenin’, Genny?”

Geneva didn’t say anything to Marie. This was the first time she had ever really crossed paths with someone that wasn’t…normal. “I – I’m Geneva.”

“Gen, what’s goin’ on?”

He tilted his head. “That’s your alter-ego name?”

Geneva’s brow furrowed. She shook her head. “Not exactly.”

“Oh!” He pressed a button and Geneva curled her fist. She couldn’t help it. It was simply instinct. But seeing the helmet disappear, she was met with a…surprisingly kind face. Well, there was no way the guy was a thief or assassin. “I’m Scott.”

Definitely not an assassin.

“Geneva, be careful. You don’t – “

“Guessing we’re after the same thing?” He pointed to the suit between them. Something so small and so protected. Just how powerful was the thing?

Geneva took the comm out of her ear. She could hardly think with that thing in her ear. Shoving it in her pocket, she dropped the fake accent and told Scott, “’Fraid y’not the one that’s goin’ t’walk away with it.”

Scott huffed. “Look, we’re both thieves, right?”

She shrugged. “Eh. Maybe not on the same level.”

And with that – the lights flickered off.

Geneva’s eyes lit up, glowing in the new darkness. She recognized the whizz that came from Scott’s helmet, but paid him little attention. He wasn’t where her focus was needed. Fingers brushing against the glass, she watched it tremble.

But before it could shatter – something small and heavy hit her stomach.

Geneva’s back slammed into the wall. Fluorescents shattered above as Scott reappeared. Now – between her and her prize.

A hand pressed to her abdomen, she asked, “Were y’just petite?”

“Did you do that?” Scott’s hand pointed to the ceiling.

It seemed to dawn on them at the same time. Maybe this wasn’t going to be an easy assignment for either of them.

Geneva dropped low. Her staff extended. Swiping at his legs, she smirked when he landed on his ass.

Scott groaned. “You’re not a normal janitor, are you?”

“What clued y’in?” Her eyes sparked a little brighter and her staff lit up, crackling with her powers.

She swung for his head. He rolled, shrinking down to an impossibly small size. Geneva hopped to her feet. “Where the fuck…?” She looked around, desperate to catch sight of any sort of movement.

Something.

Anything.

She felt the tug at her wrist. A twist and jerk forced her hand behind her back. Pinned between her shoulders. Geneva hissed. She stumbled towards the wall, her hand pressing against the metal before her jaw could.

“Sonova…” She growled. Electricity shimmered over her hair, flying towards the lights. They burned ever so bright.

“Ah, fuck!”

There he was.

Her power surged through her pinned arm and –

ZzZzAP

Scott flew through the air. She spun, watching a small dent appear in the metal protecting the yellowjacket’s case. He grew in size, twitching here and there. The sparks of electricity still dancing on his suit zapped through the air, seeping once more into her skin.

Her veins and scars lit up as she threw a punch. There was too much going wrong with this assignment. She needed to wrap it up. Marie’s warning now long forgotten, Geneva aimed for his head. He dropped, vanishing once more as her fist, and her powers, shattered the metal and glass.

An alarm rang.

Scott reappeared behind her as the door swung shut. Locked.

With no way out.

“Ya sonova – “ Geneva turned towards him, eyes wide and panicked as Scott’s helmet vanished.

“I didn’t do it! You did!”

“Y’coulda let moi hit ya!”

Scott huffed, crossing his arms as if waiting for her to realize how ridiculous that sounded.

“I know ‘ow it sounds and ‘m not takin’ it back.” She turned away from him. Pressing a hand to the door, she focused on her abilities.

That was when the room’s light went red.

“Whoa.”

Geneva looked over her shoulder. Scott’s attention was still focused on her, staring at her appearance. “What?”

“Well, when the lights went red, it…” He pointed to her skin.

Geneva followed his gaze. Her skin, once glowing brilliantly, looked as normal as it possibly could. Her brow furrowed. The familiar buzz in her ears…the tingle to her skin…Those things she had grown so used to…

It was all gone.

She stumbled then, exhaustion tugging at the corners of her eyes. Scott stepped forward, offering her a hand. “Hey, careful.” He helped her lean against the wall, oblivious to the gas that was appearing through skinny vents. “Are you okay?”

Geneva blinked slowly, looking around. Her comm link. She needed – Her eyes drifted to the gas. Squeezing his hand, she nodded towards it. Their fight forgotten, survival seemed far more important. “’M powers make moi so…”

“It’s okay. I understand. You’re a little battery, aren’t you?” It was a lighthearted joke, something to make her laugh and hopefully wake her up a bit. He glanced at the gas, noticing how it started to fill the room. His helmet appeared, a barrier for him though he couldn’t do anything for her.

“Y’should…” She coughed, resting her head against the wall. “Go. S’meone is bound t’show up and there’s…” Another cough, this time followed by a yawn. “No point in us both getting’ caught.”

“You were ready to kick my ass a minute ago.”

Geneva shrugged, offering a weak smile. She saw his eyes through those weird red lenses. He was concerned and she appreciated it. “That was a minute ago. Sil vous plait, go.”

Another minute passed. A part of Scott didn’t want to leave her. It seemed inhumane. If this was still Hank’s building, he might consider it, but the whole reason he was here was because of Trask. The man was changing everything. He had a plan. He had power. And he had had enough of both to push Hank out of his own company.

But if he stayed…what would happen to Cassie?

“I’m sorry. I – “

She shook her head, pushing his hand away. It was then he noticed how green her eyes were. Like pretty jewels. “Don’t. Jus’ go.”

Scott took a step back, shrinking just in time for the door to open. He stumbled back, feet brushing against the vent just as the door opened. Geneva seemed to be drifting between consciousness and sleep, eyes barely able to stay open. With one last apology, Scott stepped through the vent, making his escape.

Geneva allowed herself to smile, relieved that at least both of them wouldn’t be caught. Competition was one thing, but prison? No, she wouldn’t wish that on anyone. She looked up, nodding slightly as masked guards came in. And right behind them, someone much smaller stepped inside.

Trask.

She grinned. “Y’lot shorter than I ‘magined.”

“And you,” he told her, voice muffled by his own mask. “Were almost smarter than I anticipated.”

Marie sat in her chair, curled up to look as small as possible. The shouting down the hall did nothing to ease the tears slipping down her cheeks. Sniffling, she wiped her nose on her sleeve and looked to the News.

“After apprehending a mutant thief, Boliver Trask has looked to SHIELD in hopes of fast-tracking his newest creation. With long-time friend Alexander Pierce holding office as Secretary of SHIELD, it appears this mutant’s actions were all that was needed to fast track what they are now calling the Sentinel Program. SHIELD officials have plans to introduce these creations to our larger cities first and - ”

She turned the screen off. Head hitting the chair behind her, Marie listened to Remy and Rogue screaming at each other. Shouting blame. Shouting worries.

Another sniffle as Marie stared at the ceiling.

What was going to happen to them now?

Permanent Tags:

@butcherofblackwater

#marvel au #xmen au #mutant ofc #marvel ofc #xmen ofc #original female characters #geneva lebeau #marie lebeau #oc x canon #canon x canon #oc x cc

10 notes · View notes

starcityhq · 4 years

Photo

WHAT: The Avenging League finalizes a plan to move against NOVA. This time, the X-Men join them.

WHO: Batman, Captain America, Cyclops, Wonder Woman, Superman, Iron Man, Loki, Bucky Barnes, Emma Frost, Blue Beetle, Iceman, Zatara, Batwoman, Gambit, Moxie, Signal, Black Widow, Supergirl, Flash (Barry Allen), Flash (Wally West), Spiderman, Nightcrawler, Huntress, Hawkeye, Bruce Banner, Rogue, Human Torch, Zatanna, Beast Boy, Green Arrow, Speed, Cable, Nightstar, Polaris, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Honey Badger, Raptor, Oracle, Batgirl, Stinger, Wiccan, Scarlet Witch, and Red Robin.

WHEN: August 30th, 2020.

BATMAN: The meeting was called in light of new information received from Tony Stark, a man Bruce could take or leave, given the choice, but it provided them with enough to make a move. In the recent weeks he knew some of the burden had fallen on Steve's shoulders. There were other things going on within his own family that needed to be addressed and taken care of, but he didn't even know where to start. Damian and Dick's absence from the large table was strange, discomforting, and his expression was more grim than usual.

Also notable was the addition of the X-Men. He'd never worked with them before in this capacity, but he knew what they were capable of. Over the years, he'd built up a mutual respect with Scott Summers and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Emma Frost, but the others he was much less familiar with. Scott was already in the know.

"The X-Men have joined us because we have a plan. One that will involve every person in this room." No greeting and no small talk. He wanted to get straight to the point.

CYCLOPS: Scott didn't conduct things in quite the same removed fashion that Bruce usually addressed people, but they weren't there for greetings and small talk. If there had ever been a time for that, it was long since passed. "All of us in this room have a part to play in eradicating a threat that is becoming so ingrained and systemic in our world, that if we fail to address it now we may not get another chance. The X-Men," he glanced briefly toward the faces who had accompanied him there from District X, "will do it standing beside the League. Whatever ills mutants have faced alone in the past, we don't need to face NOVA alone. We can't."

"Several weeks ago, a NOVA detention facility was destroyed outside the city." His gaze flickered briefly to Lorna, masked entirely by his visor, "There are others like it. Mutants, metahumans, and other enemies of NOVA are being held there illegally. I won't go into detail about the things being done to them in captivity. Whatever your imagination tells you, it's likely worse. We need them removed, the facilities shut down and reduced to be non-operational. My X-Men and I will assist the League in making sure this is done. Many of you have asked me when we would make our move, what I was waiting for. Here it is."

He had the information that Tony would be presenting and he already knew what part he meant his people to play. X-Force had been reconvened for a reason. They could handle the unknown and the half-known. "Iron Man has uncovered something disturbing that we can't ignore. Our X-Force team will be going alongside members of the League to investigate. We expect resistance. Beyond that..." he spread his hands, "be ready."

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Steve looked first at Bruce and then at Scott, wondering what it was like to lead large groups with little to no inclination to speak to the members like people and to just regurgitate information. He just... had never functioned that way. Maybe it was because he wasn't some kind of super genius, or maybe it was because he had gotten his start in the army rather than alone or at fifteen on a team of child soldiers assembled with little to no prior training before they were flung out into the world. He was used to talking to people as just another person. As someone who had to connect and convey urgency. "I think a little bit of context is necessary here," he said simply. While they could all just cut to the chase, he was sure it would eliminate questions to fill people in on what the hell they were talking about.

"As you all know, several months ago we had our first meeting of the Avenging League, wherein teams were assigned and objectives were given. X-Men, to fill you in, we have been working on NOVA on five fronts. Bruce and Scott are referring to the findings from some of those teams. The patrol team, meanwhile, has been discrediting NOVA and diffusing violent patrols on the streets whenever possible. I'll leave Bruce to explain the findings, but suffice it to say that our more technical side of things, particularly Oracle and Red Robin, have been working on hacking in to NOVA's systems for all those months as well. However, as Bruce said, it was Tony who discovered something urgent enough to call us all to order."

He glanced at several members seated around the massive table before continuing, "Last meeting, we were interrupted by Robin coming in with what we now know to be a prototype of one of NOVA's inhibitors, the effects of which were what caused the city-wide loss of powers during the Joker's crime spree. Tony, Bruce Banner, and formerly Princess Shuri had done work on figuring out what we were dealing with and Tony came to me last week with a... disturbing hypothesis on how they managed to pull all of it off. That's a big part of why we're here. It's time to start acting, as Scott has said."

He knew that the X-Men hadn't necessarily carried the same ideas as the League or the Avengers in the past, but he wanted to make it perfectly clear that they were allies this time around. "The X-Men and their X-Force will be invaluable help in dealing with this. For all intents and purposes, we're all on the same team. Scott, Bruce, and I are going to make sure the efforts are evenly divided to get the job done, but we need to deal with this threat quickly and efficiently. This is what we've been waiting for. I'm gonna pass the floor to Tony to explain further what we're dealing with. Tone?" He looked to his friend, knowing he could definitely articulate things more clearly.(edited)

IRON MAN: Cyclops wasn't as dry as Batman, but it was a close call. Tony didn't exactly mind, because he wasn't in the mood to listen to a bunch of small talk when he was eager and ready to share what he knew with the rest of the league. He'd never been the best at teamwork or collaboration, but he'd come a long way from where he started. By now, he was smart enough to realize that there were plenty of capable people working around him, even if they weren't on the same team, and he was especially impressed by those working the digital side of things. They were also the only team he had regular communication with.

He was out of his seat before Steve finished talking. Pressing a button illuminated a blue, 3-D model of the city above the center of the table. "Caught some footage from my suit during a flyover." It didn't occur to him to explain that this happened only because Hulk had split the concrete. He breezed by that point, instead changing the view so the ground lit up in yellow criss-crossing lines. "There's a whole grid system underneath the city. The inhibitors are all underground." He pointed at each intersecting line. "We're talking far. The grid goes as far down as a mile areas with a higher elevation. It was lucky for us that the portion I caught was high enough to be unearthed at all. There are thousands of them, all connected, which means they likely have the same power source."

Changing the view, he rotated the city so they were looking at it from above. The yellow color was brighter along the water. "I also picked up an area, near the harbor, that is giving off much stronger radiation. Energy. Much too strong to be just an inhibitor. My hypothesis is that they have an underwater facility. Connecting underground tunnels that gave them the ability to set up this entire grid without any of us being the wiser. They did it all right under our nose."

ORACLE: Babs sure did have a time not cutting over people, eyes mostly just focused on Tony once she heard that he had things to share. It wasn't that she was uncaring about the X-Men, quite the opposite. She was happy they were here, but she wanted to know the news more than anything else. She almost smirked as Tony rose from his chair, sensing the same impatience in him. Keen eyes inspect the model before them, even rising from her chair and leaning forward silently to get a full look. At the news of the same power source though, she smirked. That's something they can deal with, even if it was underwater.

"Well, that big of an energy reading means that they're leaving a nice bread crumb trail for me," she'd already had her laptop out at this point, and she goes from looking at the model to typing quickly, though doesn't break her thought process, "Give me time and I can get a rough estimate of where the power source specifically should be. A layout will take more time, their systems are tricky but not impossible. Any entrance would help in that department." Unlike most everyone else, she could start her work right away.

BLUE BEETLE: Teddy had been working on the same team as Tony so far, so the news he was sharing wasn’t a surprise. He’d never been the most confident when it came to situations like this, usually his input was ignored or not even asked for. But he had been given a job as part of the Tech group and had some less than thrilling news to share. “We’ll likely need one. In fact any way we could try and get a head of this would be smart.” Ted said, his voice quieter than his usual boisterous nature as he rose to his feet. “See, Tony charged me with working a kind of Faraday Cage, something we could use to block any kind of electromagnetic fields. It would stop the pulses their technology sends out and render it useless in the affect it has on anyone with enhanced abilities.” He explained. “Ideally this could’ve been equipped on someone like Stinger,” he nodded at Cassie, “But it’s just not feasible.”

“Despite having a great deal of experience in this area,” his damn backpack could fly off and produce one, “Every prototype I’ve been able to create just isn’t strong enough to effect the web they’ve already weaved.” He adjusted his goggles, a little nervously and continued, “I could eventually make something strong enough to neutralise it but I’d need time, weeks, maybe even months to make a finished, reliable piece of tech that I’d be confident in risking someone going in with.” Ted wasn’t about to put someone’s life at risked with a rushed piece of equipment. “And… given who we’re dealing with, I don’t think we have that much time to waste.” ICEMAN: As Teddy returned to his seat Bobby spoke up from the other side of the room “We don’t.” His voice certain. Bobby’s bottom jaw jutted forwards a little bit, as though thinking hard on what he was going to say (a rare thing for him) “I dunno all the work you’ve been doing. But I’ve been doing recon on behalf of the X-Men. I’ve gotten a look deep inside NOVA’s workings and the shit they’re doing to people… to children-“ he cut off and swallowed, going quiet while the temperature around him dropped by several degrees, his emotions getting the better of him like they almost always did. He cleared his throat, “We don’t have months. We don’t have weeks. We don’t even have days.” He looked around at the other faces in the room. “They need to be stopped and they need to be stopped now. Whatever it takes. Go in guns blazing get the damn media involved if helps.” He shook his head slightly, running a hand through his hair, obviously agitated.

ZATARA: “That won’t help.” Zach hadn’t gone into this affair planning to say a thing, he was new to the group, one of the younger members and probably disliked by several of the others in the room. But he could offer one insight the rest of them probably lacked. “That one article the paper got out the first time hurt them some and the fallout of that was NOVA coming down hard on the political powers in the city. I’m pretty close to the Mayor and his wife so believe me when I say they’ve got their claws embedded deep into the politics and the papers. Even if we went public with this information, gave it over to reputable journalists anyway? They’d have a hell of a time getting it out in any official way and even if they did NOVA has the influence to spin it any way they like. Doesn’t help that that Nabel woman’s got enough PR skills to make my agents jealous.” He added wryly. “We’re on our own here.”

FLASH: "We need an opening." Barry spoke up from another part of the room. He had been biting his tongue - trying to contain his natural urge to meet-and-greet with all of the new faces that were there since their last official meeting. "We have been making steady process, but without an opening to exploit we aren't going to be getting anywhere. Inhibitor networks miles underground or inside mountains... that isn't an issue. Normally, speedsters like myself or Wally could just phase ourselves through the ground to get to them. It's tricky phasing downwards instead of forwards, but it could be done. Underwater, however? We can run on top of the water - but not through it." He shook his head. "Zach and---I don't know your name, sorry; I'm not the one with the files on everyone--" Barry grins playfully and shoots a look a Bruce before clearing his throat and continuing. "They're right though. We don't have the time to plan things out any long than this meeting. We need to come up with a course of action and we need to do so in a speedy manner."

SUPERMAN: The sheer number of people in that room would have been enough to give anyone hope, surely. Had there ever been a larger, better equipped, more motivated group ready to take action? He couldn't recall one. He knew little of the X-Men, though he'd been into District X a handful of times, but they seemed as eager and prepared to make their move as the League. Moreso, maybe. Their struggles had gone on long before NOVA was in the picture.

He opened his mouth to say something to that effect, but Zach's mention of the papers turned his attention elsewhere. "NOVA doesn't have their hands in everything. The Gazette has been standing against them for months. We do have a voice, and we're using it when we can. Taking direct action against NOVA is only one step. We need the people on our side, and we've been working since the day the League reformed to make sure that's happening. The Gazette is doing it with us. But even without that..." he made a broad gesture with one hand around the room that had seemed so large but with all the teams present was nearing capacity, "are we really that few?"

"For those of us heading underwater who can't manage it naturally, I have plenty of confidence that our tech team can compensate. Anyone here taken scuba lessons?" The grin he wore wasn't at all because he wasn't taking it seriously. He was. He knew everything they stood to lose, everything that inaction had cost them and so many other people, but when he looked around that room he knew that it would finally be dealt with. It was worth smiling about.

NIGHTCRAWLER: Kurt had stationed himself in a proper vantage point in the room - nestled quite comfortably up in one corner near the ceiling; hands and feet clinging him to the walls with ease. There were so many people, it was astounding when you got them all together in one room. It really opened his eyes to just how many people were working to help keep the people of this City safe and to help rid them of the NOVA situation that plagued them all. The mutant recognized only a handful of non-mutants; most by reputation and name alone and others by former relations - such as the faces of several Avengers team members. The man couldn't help but frown as Bobby spoke from another part of the room. He wanted to comfort him - seeing his expression change as his emotions took hold of him - but there was a time and place for that and this wasn't one of them. Once 'Superman' had finished speaking about his confidence in the teams they had assembled, Kurt took the opportunity to speak - keeping his pace slow so his accent wouldn't make it too hard to understand him.

"I personally haf followed efery story ze Gazette has put out regarding mutant relations or ze situation ve haf vis NOVA. Zey are expertly written and judging from ze online forums of various chat groups sroughout ze city, zere is a large amount of support backing ze ideologies zey are composed of." He explained. "I cannot speak so much on tactical advice as I can on my own matters - I am a teleporter; ze X-Men's 'Nightcrawler' and vherefer ve need to get into; I am my Bamfs are at your disposal." He gave a nod of respect to their 'leaders'.

RED ROBIN: Tim listened, knowing better than to get involved until he had more information. "Babs and I have nailed down the coordinates of the detention facilities outside the city like the one Magneto attacked. We have all those official locations." It had taken months to crack their system, but once they had, it had come easily.

He moved his spot to settle next to Babs, pulling out his own machine to begin working with her. "We'll help however we can, including zeroing in on a signal for this new underwater facility." He didn't have too much more to add. He had been so busy with nailing down things about Dick's assault that he hadn't focused on the League as much as he should, but now that he was close to cracking that, too, he could put much more effort in.

BRUCE BANNER: Bruce was momentarily grateful for Tony's focus on certain details while completely ignoring others. It wasn't as if everyone in that room wouldn't have known what happened, what Hulk had done, and Bruce did struggle to compartmentalize it enough to accept something good coming of it. It had though, at least in this case. Minimal injuries, maximum and unexpected information. Not that he was going to take any kind of credit for smashing holes in the ground.

"What you're looking for is similar to gamma radiation, but it's not..." he spread his hands, and looked between Barbara and Tim, "it's not like anything I've seen before. If you find the focal point, wherever that's strongest, that's where we'll need to be."

SUPERGIRL: Kara squirmed in her seat at the mention of the media. Both Lois and Clark worked for the Gazette and had been producing articles shining the light on NOVA's terrible actions. Even though she knew what they knew, it didn't prepare her to hear the details from both Scott and Bobby. Wincing, she looked down at her hands. "How long?" She directed the question at Bruce, Steve, and Scott. "Before we make a move, I mean." They said there was a plan. It didn't seem likely, given the circumstances, that they would sit around longer than they had to.

NIGHTSTAR: M'gann paid close attention. This was her first official hero meeting and she intended to remember every detail of it. Down to the cookies Supergirl had brought. There were far more heroes than she'd expected, many of them familiar faces. She took great comfort in that.

"I might be of some use in finding these underground facilities. My telepathy extends out like a globe. It would be easier if I had a specific person to track." An exact telepathic signature. "But people being kept underground is unusual. I should be able to sense them without too much trouble." The rest of what she could do, the team leaders already knew.

HONEY BADGER: This is the first time Gabby has ever seen so many different people in the same room that were like her! It was kind of amazing if she was being honest with herself but this is a serious meeting. This wasn’t the first time Gabby had been in one but it was the first time when it was for something good. She took a handful of cookies — four of them laid out on a napkin in front of her as her feet kicked back and forth while listening to everyone else speak first.

“We have to help everyone in those facilities, I agree with Bobby. We should be doing everything that it takes. I know what it’s like to be poked and prodded at in places exactly like where NOVA is operating. I’m willing to take the risk so we don’t leave those people in there because they might not have much time.” She crushes a piece of the cookie she broke off in her hand so crumbs fall into her lap. Gabby tries to collect herself, looking over at her family for a moment then back to everyone else in the room. “I don’t care what someone has done, treating anyone like an experiment isn’t okay.”

She takes a quick bite of whatever is left of the sweet in her hand, trying to calm herself down. “I’m sorry. I’m just really passionate about this sort of thing. I just want the world to better for everyone — Mutants, Meta-Humans, and animals too. Whatever plan we come up with, I want to be part of it.” Her mind trying to ignore flashbacks to her upbringing.

POLARIS: Lorna couldn't help the guarded look she wore, arms crossed firmly across her chest as she peers around. Sure, one could argue that she had reason to trust those around them now, but she only trusted those she knew. Her eyes dart between the people talking tech, and if Bobby hadn't burst out she would have. Still, she takes a breath. It's quite difficult in the moment, not to snap, not to break in, but hearing the sentiment of brute force makes her shake her head as people speak. She choses her words carefully, more than aware that it's possible others here may know she was with Magneto, more than the couple that did. Still, she wasn't about to shy away from saying her thoughts, and if it came up, then it came up.

"If Magneto showed us one thing, it's that brute strength will backfire on us. The short term saving mutants will be a success, yes, but at this point the long-term repercussions could be catastrophic. Think a mob of civilians descending on District X-- people we don't want to fight." her eyes go to Gabby and Bobby, but land on the man who spoke just before him, "My powers work with the Earth's magnetic fields, and metal. Is there something that I could help with? I know how to create electromagnetic pulses. I... can feel what they have. The web, and I could feel an underground facility if I had time," her eyes turn to Tony Stark, trying to explain, "If you can help me narrow down any materials they're using in construction I may be able to get a better sense, too.... but it may involve concentrating in a very obvious area... like in the air above it. Not sure if that's helpful. " she shrugs with a sigh, turning to her teammates particularly. Normally ready to go in guns blazing with NOVA, she's trying to take a moment.

"If we repeat what happened, we'll have more fallout to deal with. The brief amount of time that it takes to get a layout and a plan together is worth it. Unless we want to be grouped with Magneto some more."

ROGUE: Anna stiffened, her gloved hands folded on the table, but she didn't say anything at first. She hadn't been involved in what happened at the first facility, or fully supportive of the move in the first place, but that was exactly why she'd stayed out of it. Her gaze went to Wanda, as if to see if she were at all affected by the topic of her father being raised at the table.

Normally she was all for going in hard and strong. All the tech talk wasn't her style and she didn't really know what any of them were talking about, so it wasn't something she could offer help on. "Dunno if that's such a good idea, sugah," she said to Lorna under her breath, but she was looking at Scott. Erik had worked with the X-Men plenty of times in the past, but she couldn't imagine him willing to take orders from a group that included so many non-mutants.

MOXIE: She was told to keep her words concise and professional. This was not a time to mince friendly words with others, though she could barely contain her excitement to be a part of something greater than anything she had ever seen in her life.

“Well, first of all,” she started, standing from her seat when it was her turn to speak, blueprints in hand. “Thank youse for bringing me on board. I ain’t much of a hero myself but if I’ve been invited here, that must mean I’m bringing something to the table, right?“

Without another moment’s pause she presented one of the blueprints, unfurling it on the table. She would gesture a hand towards the different aspects of her design as she spoke.

“Sorry it’s on this silly little blue paper. I like to keep things old fashioned, ya know? Feel free to pass it around to the higher ups over there. I understand youse need extra support under the water. I myself did some digging on the currents here. They’re not any more pleasant to the kinda waters I’ve experienced back home. Taking that into consideration with my daddy’s notes on the conditions of the water he had left before he passed, I’ve been working on some deflector technology that could be attached to anyone’s suits, which could provide extra support while you’re lookin’ for these facilities. I used my Heart of Gold as a reference, but because some of it is influenced by magic and I’m not magic at all, I substituted that with a modified magnetic wave field that serves a similar purpose to “Nyx’s Blessing,” which will deflect any projectiles coming towards you on land or underwater, in this case. It’s activated by your heartbeat and breathing patterns so if you sense something is wrong, it’ll give you a small barrier to protect you.”

An anxious grin followed, swallowing the forming lump in her throat.

“But y’know, if that’s not suitable, I’ve got other plans I’m willing to share with the technology team to provide my experience on the kinda conditions and obstacles we’ll have to look out for if we’re going underwater. I have access to all my daddy’s old notes. Seeing as he was an Atlantean, I’m sure the materials would still be useful and their technology is more advanced, from what he told me.”

BLACK WIDOW: Natasha sat by Logan rather than James this go around. It wasn’t all that often that the X-Men and the Avengers were in the same room together and it wasn’t for some fight. So she was pleased that she could actually settle beside her friend. Since the incident with the inhibitors and leaving Clint, they had been meeting up semi-regularly just to drink and talk. Not much beyond that. Now here they were about to take down NOVA. She bit her lip as she listened, taking in the influx of information. “Wanda and Billy could help those of us who need help with the breathing underwater issue, right?” She had, in fact, taken scuba lessons, but it didn’t seem pertinent to bring it up.

She was also aware of the heightened emotions in the room and she ignored them for the most part. This was a mission briefing. “I’m sure that Cap, Batman, and Cyclops have a plan, and I’m sure it won’t include mass destruction of the facilities and every living thing inside that doesn’t ping for mutant, meta, or enhanced.” If it did, she’d still do what she was told, but it would still shock her. Cap didn’t work like that and neither did Batman. She didn’t speak for Cyclops. The X-Men had done their share of death. Not that she blamed them. Sometimes it was the best way to go about things. “Let’s give them a minute to tell us what we need to be focusing on. A lot of us have been running recon, so we’re aware of what’s going on on the inside. I’m sure that’s why we’re here.”

She listened to the new girl speak, blinking at how she sounded like she was from an mafia movie about Capone. She’d been around in the 20s, but she didn’t remember it. Surprising. “It seems like a good idea,” she said. “So we aren’t completely relying on powers in case the inhibitors pop.

ZATANNA: "I've enchanted charms to grant glamours and certain physical protections before. I wouldn't even need to be near them or concentrating on the spell. Water breathing wouldn't be much of a problem. But," As much as she hated to admit any shortcomings, Zatanna obviously had the foresight to plan in situations like this. Recalling her very similar conversation with Barry, the corners of her mouth turned down a smidge. "They haven't been tested near inhibitors. And relying on them underwater isn't exactly the safest test run."

Zee shifted her weight from one foot to the other, glancing at Bruce, at Clark, at Diana, at the rest of the most familiar faces. It felt less like failure directing her statements to people who already knew. "I can provide heavy combat power until the second they decide to turn on the inhibitors. If we beat them to it, though, I can portal a good number of the people trapped there out."

GREEN ARROW: Oliver Queen had finally managed to return to Star City after well over a year's absence, and what he was met with was...worse than it had been. NOVA and The Justice--The Avenging League (he still needed to get used to that) were locked in an all out war, and it held Star City, HIS city, in a stranglehold. He wouldn't have it. Not at all. So, he jumped right back in, with briefings from both Clark and Bruce, and was finally back in the meeting. There were...a lot of personalities in the room. Some he knew well. Many he'd never even seen before. It was refreshing, in an odd way. Gave him hope that they may just pull this shit all off.

As he listened to the people talking, he couldn't help but feel like people were just...rattling stuff off. It felt structureless, like a city hall town meeting instead of a game plan. But, he was sure that Bruce had a plan. Bruce had a detailed plan for how he ate breakfast in the morning. "Alright, everyone," Oliver spoke up, putting his feet off the table he currently had them resting on. "I'm sure they know exactly what all of us are supposed to be doing. Just give the big guys a chance to speak. You all know what I can do, just point me and my bow in the direction of the bastards who are ruining my home."

BATWOMAN: This was a ridiculous amount of people. Kate was used to flying solo and only occasionally pairing up with maybe a handful of other heroes and heroines at most. Even as a part of the old Justice League, she had never really had to worry about dealing with the entirety of their membership. Here in Star City, however, under this - Avenging League - and now with the addition of the X-Men from District X, it was honestly a little overwhelming. Yet, she outwardly showed little expression - her jaw locked into a sharp frown and her body poised with a rigidness that mimicked Bruce's own. She listened to each person in turn as they spoke up, taking in the words they sad - no matter how heartfelt or generic the information they held seemed to be. Everyone has a part to play, no matter how small, and the only way they were going to deal with this NOVA group was by putting everything together into one solid plan.

To that end, the woman leaned forward - the brilliant red of her cowl's attached wig draping over her shoulders as she waited for Oliver to finish what he had to say. "Look," She began - her tone low and just slightly off-pitch thanks to the slight modulation tech incorporated into her cowl. "I'm rather new to everything going on here in Star City, so I've had to play catch up in an extremely short amount of time." She prefaced. "We need to look at this from a more tactical perspective. Yes, we each have bits and pieces of information to share, but we should be focusing our efforts on the biggest problem at hand - how do you assail an underwater fortification with possible inhibitor technology in place? We still don't know if they actually have inhibitors in place around the power core or not, right? All our planning and preparations aren't going to do a damn bit of good if only a tiny fraction of us can even make a stand." Kate finished her statement with a sigh. "We need plans - and we need contingencies for that plan; and more for those."

HUMAN TORCH: “Whatever the plan is, I’d like to officially unassign myself from computer duty and underwater mystery investigations.” Johnny wasn’t the “come up with a plan” guy. He was the “ball of fire and great hair” guy, and lately he’d only been the latter. Peter wasn’t going to go off the rails, and if he was tucked behind a screen with Oracle and Red Robin then it wasn’t like he was going to cause another scene. Johnny didn’t need to be there, and he definitely had no place in the ocean. That left the other thing. He was pretty sure in all the many many words that had been spoken, somebody had said a team would be going after the other NOVA detention centers. He wanted a spot. With a small shrug, he leaned back in his chair. “That’s all I got.”(edited)

SPEED: His first impression had been that everyone talks so much. it was almost enough for Tommy to try hiding under the table to sleep until it would be over. Although the only aspect that keeps him actually paying attention is the fact they’re talking about a topic familiar to him. His fingers grip onto the armrest of his chair as they vibrate just enough to disintegrate them into ash while everyone talks. You just might miss it if you weren’t paying attention but at least Tommy didn’t blow anything up.

He spent his entire childhood in and out of detention centers. It wasn’t until his powers came in that they slapped an inhibitor collar around his neck and threw him in a high security prison. He knows what if’s like to be treated like an animal and experimented on everyday.

“You should always plan on scum like that having inhibitor technology built into everything. They’re prepared even if it doesn’t appear like they are. It could be in every wall they build.” His voice finally fills the room as he leans forward, memories of his own torture playing on repeat in his mind. It doesn’t stop him from getting a word in though. He doesn’t have much else to add because Tommy knows they wouldn’t like hearing what he would like to do. If it were up to him every facility would be vaporized with the scientists with it.

BATGIRL: Stephanie had five cookies left, but none of them were chocolate chip, and suddenly that was the one she actually wanted. Her gaze darted over to the plate once or twice as she pondered whether or not it was worth calling attention to herself just for another cookie. Ultimately, the answer was yes.

But she was quick. It was just a coincidence that she got back to her seat just as it suddenly seemed to be her turn. Was she supposed to say something? Her gaze darted to Bruce, Tim, and Cass - in that order - but then she shrugged. "...Sounds good to me. Anything that's not circling the same city block twelve times in one night." Patrol was getting a little repetitive, even though she enjoyed making the embarrassing NOVA tweets and TikToks. The one trending right now was one showing an agent reaching for his weapon only to discover that it'd been replaced with a very large churro.

HUNTRESS: Helena knew this was serious talk, and she was taking it seriously, but she had never been one for good posture, or for being a leader, for that matter. She was more than comfortable listening to the plans form around her, her foot slung up on the edge of her seat, chin propped against her knee, messing with the hoop in her conch piercing. She was paying close attention, even if it didn't appear that way. It was a strategy she used often: if no one took her seriously or thought she wasn't paying attention, they'd let slip information they'd otherwise hide.

So she was prepared when the discussion rolled around and it seemed to be her turn to talk, and sat up straighter, dropping her hand from her ear. "I'm with Green Arrow. Give me a direction to point some arrows, and I'm good. If you need to keep someone in my ear for on-the-fly instructions, my only request is that it's Oracle, Blue Beetle, or Red Robin," she dropped a wink in their direction. She knew enough to know that they'd most likely describe her as the 'problem child' of the Birds and want to keep track of her so she didn't take things into her own hands if things started to go south."Beyond that, I just wanna take these fuckers down." She shrugged. "However you want to use me to do it, I'm willing to do. But uh... I do agree with Bat-chick over there," she nodded towards the redhead, "We need some contingency plans. Something tells me NOVA isn't gonna have just one line of defense." With that, she sat back again, hand moving almost subconsciously back to the earring, twisting it back and forth.

HAWKEYE: Kate had technically led people before. She didn’t love it. It hadn’t even actually been on purpose. Regardless, it had happened (somehow) and given her a newfound appreciation for what it was like to be at the head of the metaphorical (or in this case very big and literal) table. She could just sit there and take direction, but...

“I don’t mean to pop the power bubble or anything, but I’m pretty sure that we shouldn’t be relying on anybody’s extra abilities to get or find or detect anything. It’s you guys,” she made a vague gesture at a random assortment of her fellow League-ers who were more than just baseline human, “that they’re trying to get rid of. This is just a shot in the dark,” except it wasn’t really, “but I’m guessing that means it’s probably also you guys that they’re prepared for. If they’ve got a super secret lair under the ocean, we should probably count on getting in the old fashioned way. Isn’t that like, somebody’s job? Your job, probably?” The final remark was directed toward Tony Stark at the front, though it probably didn’t rest squarely on his shoulders.

SCARLET WITCH: Wanda sat listening for the most part. She wasn't passive, per se, but she certainly wasn't going to interrupt. However, she didn't particularly appreciate the insinuation that she and the others in this room--mutant, meta, or enhanced--were not capable of infiltrating without their abilities. "If I'm not mistaken, mutants are not useless even with the inhibitors. All of the Avengers have been trained to fight by Captain America. As I understand it, so have the X-Men by Cyclops. While it is wise not to rely solely on our powers, we don't know what NOVA will do. Regardless, I'm sure it will be taken into account that powers may be lost." It made her uncomfortable to be seated in the same room as the X-Men discussing the loss of powers, but it was what it was. She was who she was. "As it is, however, we shouldn't do nothing with them on the chance NOVA will see fit to remove them again. We should use what we have while we have it."

She didn't even entertain the notion of grouping with Magneto and frankly couldn't help the look she shot Lorna in spite of herself. Fortunately, Anna spoke before that and she kept her tongue. Whether their reasons were the same was hardly the point. What did matter was that they surely didn't think her father was the right fulcrum for these plans. Rather than commenting, however, she instead turned her attention to the newcomer. She was old world, much like Steve and Bucky, but what she said did make sense. "A failsafe, as it were," she agreed, nodding to Gladys. "It makes sense. If it can be pulled off quickly enough." She glanced to Tony on reflex. He was, after all, the tech genius she was most familiar with. As Tommy spoke, Wanda could sense his discomfort with the scientists. She felt her jaw tense. Of course her child was uneasy. Without a thought, one long-fingered hand reached out to catch her son's, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She wanted to provide a quiet strength for him, and a grounding one. After all, he was always poised to bounce off the walls. And when he was uncomfortable, she knew it would be worse. He'd want to run off the extra energy.

MARVEL GIRL: Prior to the initial start of the meeting, Jean had caught sight of some faces, familiar and unfamiliar. There was hardly any time for any mingling, as it was serious business. But still, she made the effort to ensure her son was sitting right next to her. She had reached over and patted the top of his hand, leaning down to kiss his cheek before taking her seat.

There had been quite the amount of opinions, both formidable and perhaps, a bit disconcerting. She exhaled quietly right after Wanda had finished speaking and she stood from her chair to address the crowd.

“I for one, agree with Wanda,” she said, gesturing her sentiments towards the woman, “Though I myself have been out of commission for quite some time, I wouldn’t dismiss the idea that us mutants can’t continue to fight back even with the Inhibitors in play.”

She turned her gaze briefly towards Scott. She had worked with him for many years as well as most of the X-Men in the room. Though he was not perfect, he was someone she admired and to know that he was putting in his efforts on behalf of the X-Men was worth praising. “Scott is a formidable leader. He is very capable of consolidating our strategies as well as an excellent negotiator. If need be, I would like to echo his sentiments on dispersing us to work in tandem with the rest of the League.

The young lady with the underwater devices does have a point about observing the currents of the water, provided it is confirmed they do have an underwater facility. It would be far too dangerous to go in there unless we know what exactly is in there. If it’s deep enough, they could be using the darkness of the water as a disguise to hide various traps and mines. Not to mention water currents can be as aggressive underneath than just on the surface. If that’s the case, perhaps if there is someone willing to scan the area by sonars, we needn’t worry about losing any additional numbers in our rankings. As for the various ground teams, I would take advantage of those who are able to easily detect things by smell, such as my colleague, Logan and his daughters, who have an enhanced sense of smell. Surely, even if certain chemicals didn’t have a particular smell on the surface, I’m sure it could still be detected. If not, if there are any samples of such Inhibitors obtained, I’d recommend anyone with a strong knowledge of chemistry observe the ingredients to see if they react to certain elements such as fire or magic.”

Her gaze flickered in Logan’s direction, pursing her lips. “But of course, that is all pre-planning as I wouldn’t want anyone to be put at risk in those stages alone. I think it’s important to find out exactly what we’re dealing with other than the threat of a potential underwater facility. NOVA surely has information on some of us and may be more than prepared and if we don’t have the contingency plan, things will surely turn sour.”

WOLVERINE: This wasn't the first time Logan had worked with the Avengers and he'd been much less reticent than the others to attend the meeting, despite not always being the most reliable team player. The so-called Justice League he didn't know much of anything about. He wasn't exactly eager to end up on a team with a bunch of strangers, but it wasn't his call to make. There were a lot of things he could say about Scott, was perfectly willing to say about Scott, even, but he was here because he believed in his leadership. That was the whole point.

Everyone was just talking so damn much.

Seated between Natasha and Gabby made it a little harder to show that annoyance. He'd met Gabby recently, it took adjusting to, but he was already letting himself get involved in her training. He didn't doubt she was fully capable of holding a position on the team, but he hadn't seen her in action, not like he'd seen Laura or Daken, and she was different. Even Laura he didn't completely want on the X-Force.

He watched Jean as she spoke, giving a slight nod, and realized suddenly it was time for him to say something. Instead he made a nondescript hand motion. "I like the cookies. Next."

BUCKY BARNES: “The odds of figuring out exactly what’s in there ahead of time are probably zilch,” Bucky pointed out. He wouldn’t be heading to that facility, regardless, as the recon team had been working for months to be ready to take down the remaining detention centers. They were as ready as they were going to be for that, though. It wasn’t the thing that needed discussing. “Nothing is ever that easy. But given what we know about NOVA, whatever they’ve got isn’t something any of us want them to keep having.” He shifted in his seat and lifted his left hand as he looked to the three up front. ”However you get in, just make sure you’re ready not to leave anything behind. That’s what you need to do the old fashioned way.” Besides, an underwater explosion, by nature, was more easily contained.

LOKI: Loki nodded at Bucky’s assessment. He didn’t particularly understand the issue with mutants versus non, and he wasn’t at all uncomfortable to be sitting in a room with both. He considered for a moment. He had been trying to find out more about the inhibitors, but it was a slow process. June headed that up and he could get too deep in her science because of how territorial she was. Still... if they had some time, perhaps Loki could get Jihl to talk to him about it. He had had dinner in her office a few times and he could tell she was warming to him even more. He could get information about the facility maybe, if not the actual inhibitors.

“I should hope that the Media isn’t corrupt any longer,” he remarked. Though he would have been able to tell if Lois was a liar. “As for what goes on with NOVA, many of us are aware. Is that not why we’re here?”

He looked over to Batman and Captain America. “Your inside man,” he pointed out, knowing it was prudent to keep his name out of people’s heads specifically but aware that they had discussed the concept itself in the past. “Could he or she not try to tease out some information on this facility?”

SIGNAL: This was the first chance he'd had to really see everyone together. The past couple weeks had just been weird. Duke didn't really know how to process everything yet. He gave a short clap at the end of Gladys' presentation, grinning at her, and leaned over to whisper, "good job." Even though he hadn't seen the finished product until now, he still knew how long and hard she'd worked on it. She was clearly proving to be a good asset to the team. He was glad Bruce had trusted him enough to give her that chance, even though that undoubtedly meant he had a file on her now. That had been the only reason he'd hesitated in getting her involved.

"I don't think anyone in here would be useless without their powers," he offered mildly. With Bruce's rigorous training, he knew he would be able to keep up with the others. His abilities were completely separate from that. Judging from how competent Steve and Scott had proved to be as leaders, he had no reason to think they wouldn't have trained their teams similarly, or at least prepared them for that possibility in light of recent events. "I think the point she was trying to make was that plans shouldn't have us rely on enhancements if there is a chance of them being taken away."

CABLE: War never changes.

Nathan learned that lesson a long time ago. He rose up against Lord Apocalypse once, a vicious dictator from two thousand years into the future. He doesn’t know how to feel about the likelihood of him trying to rise up into power again but that isn’t what this meeting is about. The point of these thoughts is that Nathan has led armies before —and worked alongside others to strategize the best plan of action to take.

He might not be a leader anymore but maybe some mannerisms never really leave you. His messiah complex still deeply embedded into his actions. However, Nathan just wants to try helping out not just his fellow Mutants but anyone they needs his help. He has always fought for everyone and it was important to come together now.

He felt honored to be part of the meeting but maybe being part of the X-Men and X-Force meant playing his part by offering his expertise. It makes Nathan happy to have guaranteed a chair next to his mother — sitting up straight while everyone is talking their piece. He was even taking notes and scribbling in his own ideas between the lines. His attention focused on every gesture and expression while everyone spoke. It finally comes down to his turn so Nathan does what he happens to do best — public speaking.

His chair is pushed back silently, only a slight squeak before Cable is on his feet. Everyone else might have spoken while sitting down but that’s never how he addressed his associates in an environment like this. One hand made of flesh and bone pressed against the table while the cybernetic one is on his hip.

“If any of our efforts are going to work we have to unite as one. Some of us have never worked with each other but we’re here to change that. We don’t have much time but what we can’t afford to do is rush in without a plan.“ His left eye glowing yellow while speaking as wisps of energy flow out of it. “While I’m always in favor of using our abilities to our advantage, I agree with the others that we have to put into consideration that NOVA will develop creative ways to prevent us from using them. We can’t rely on just that if we’re going to succeed but you’re all brilliant so I trust that you know this already.” He’s not always this serious but Nathan takes meetings like this seriously and always will. “If there’s a chance that we can make this world a better one for all of us then who would turn it down? We’re taking these facilities down either with our enhancements or without them.” Nathan could do both — he’s an expert marksman after all and also pretty good with a sword too.

Deep breath. “Nobody is useless without their powers but maybe that’s not what they’d expect out of us. I look forward to investigating as part of X-Force. We should keep in mind that communication and cooperation will be a must going forward. This is about freeing those people and reuniting children with their parents. I take it very personally when families are ripped apart, maybe more than most but this isn’t about my personal feelings right now when there’s so much at risk. We know what NOVA is capable of but we can’t eliminate the potential for the unexpected. It won’t be easy but taking down any threat is always going to have it’s challenges. If we work together I know that we can come out on top in the end. This won’t be without bumps and bruises along the way but I have faith in us.” He takes a moment to look around the room.

“That’s all I got unless anyone wants to hear my potential tactics after we’re done here.” Nathan slowly sits down in his chair and his eye stops glowing finally. His gaze looks at who was next with a nod of his head as if to signal that it was their turn.

STINGER: Though Cassie took in every word that people said, she was otherwise slightly occupied. She was suddenly keenly aware of Tommy's presence, wanted to go something when he spoke, but the helmet and Stinger costume meant he didn't know who she was. Well, what she was about to say was going to be a dead giveaway in combination with the (very clear, very purposeful) Wasp designs in her costume. Still, she'd keep her cool in this moment, and find him the moment they finished. "Those of us with tech or no powers may be able to get inside, but it's still risky. As long as I have the suit, the pym particles will keep working for me, and I should be able to get small enough to avoid security sensors." no doubt, since the bank, Cassie hadn't gone anywhere without her suit stored somewhere on her person, terrified of being caught powerless again. Still, the suggestion was gentle as she even began to find flaws in it after a moment. Her helmet turns to the head of the table instead, trying not to stare at Tommy.

BEAST BOY: Gar sat quietly, looking from person to person as they spoke. He wasn't even sure he should be here, really. He hadn't taken on any real hero role (animal rescues didn't count) since he left the Titans, so to be at the table with everyone here was... wild. Still, he can't dent the way his heart tugs towards the people lamenting what NOVA could really do. He knew he'd be among the first to be picked out himself, but too much violence in response wasn't the answer. They needed a plan, and he's go with it, but for now he sat quietly, awaiting to see what those he was used to following would say.

FLASH: Contrary to his normal demeanour, Wally had elected to keep his mouth shut unless absolutely necessary. Seeing all the unfamiliar faces sat around the table had made him painfully aware of how long he'd been out of the game, and how much their world had changed since he'd taken his sabbatical from hero work. The experience was giving him flashbacks to when he was first introduced to the Teen Titans: young and naive, suddenly seeing a whole new world that he was suddenly a part of. AS the presentation started he reached down and gave M'ann's hand a squeeze, glad that she'd saved him a seat. The comfort didn't manage to stop the nervous machine-gun tempo of his heart as the reality of the situation seeped in. He was here, in costume, with Barry, and Megs, and Bats. Swap out M'gann for Dick and it was almost like the old days. Including a really ostentatious, expensive and largely impractical secret facility for the bad guys.

He leaned forward on the table, resting his chin on steepled fingers in thought. "Barry's right, our powers really don't gel with water all that well. We're still pretty fast, but the heat build up we generate evaporates all the water around us. So not exactly subtle. Get us close enough however..." He shrugged, knowing full well how difficult that would be. But who knows, maybe there was someone here whose powers could get them to a wall of a facility that was god knows how deep beneath the ocean. "There's not a lot of things that we can't phase through, and we probably have enough brain cells between us to unlock the doors." He became aware that he was breaking his no-talking rule by a significant amount. "You know, if possible. Not saying we have to, just thinking out loud."

BATMAN: Everyone deserved a chance to speak. For that reason Bruce was silent, his gaze shifting to each person as they said their piece, and he didn't once move to interject. The suggestions for contingencies were acknowledged with a slight nod. He never did anything without thorough planning. That included back-up plans and back-up plans for those back-up plans. Even if he hadn't been a vigilante for as long as others at this table, he knew nothing ever went according to plan.

Once it came back around to him, he was quick to make one thing clear, even though he'd stated it in no uncertain terms at the very start of the meeting: "A plan is already in place." This was a league and he knew that meant collaboration, but responsibility fell on the leaders' shoulders when it was all said and done. "What Iceman has said is correct. We do not have weeks. There is no time to test and redesign shields that could effectively protect against the inhibitors. We do not even know if it can be done. As Bruce Banner said, this radiation is nothing like what we've seen before." Although others had suggested using their powers to find the inhibitors, it was Lorna he addressed. He knew she'd attacked the NOVA facility from a distance with Erik, but that was before the inhibitors had been upgraded. At that point they had only affected mutants. "You will not be able to use your powers. Even when the inhibitors are shut off, they give off enough radioactive energy to effectively cloak themselves to metahuman, mutant, or alien abilities. We will not be able to rely on enhancements, which is why I would encourage everyone to brush up on their training. That is why," he directed his next statement to Gladys, "your deflector technology will be helpful. Red Robin, Oracle, and Spider-Man will be on the comms. They make up the first team. There will be three more. We've split them based on your individual abilities and where you're best suited to help. The first team is charged with detecting and infiltrating the underwater facility. Superman, Iron Man, Dr. Banner, Blue Beetle, Moxie, Cyborg, Tempest, Flash." He looked at Wally to indicate which Flash. "Wiccan, Scarlet Witch, Nightstar, Wolverine, Gambit, Polaris, Cable, and Raptor. Red Robin will be on your team's comms and help direct you, along with Moxie's technology. The second team will be large. There are multiple facilities involved. From my understanding, Cyclops will further split you up. This group will include Supergirl, Speed, Human Torch, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Zatara, Flash." Barry this time. "Black Widow, Rogue, Stinger, Black Bat, Captain America, Sergeant Barnes, Cyclops, Ms. Frost, Huntress, Marvel Girl, and Honey Badger. Oracle will be with you on the comms." He sighed. "As you know, we are unable to leave the city vulnerable. The final team will remain here - prepared, willing, and able to respond to any location at any given time. I will be on that team, along with Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Batwoman, Loki, Batgirl, Signal, Black Canary, Hawkeye, and Beast Boy. Spider-Man will be assisting us on the comms. The city will need us to be visible in the case that something goes wrong."

CYCLOPS: “It’s not lost on us how much is at stake here,” Scott began, looking toward Bobby, Nathan, and the others who had accompanied him there. It was the kind of fight that they’d been intimate with for most of their lives, a ceaseless monster of a thing that grew a new head every time one was removed, but it was a fight they could never give up on. By extension, it was one he never stopped planning for. A major reason he’d allied them with the League was the expectation that they could not lean too heavily on the abilities that came naturally for them, and that no amount of training could entirely prepare for that. They needed other resources, technology, and just sheer numbers - all things that the League and its members could provide. “We have to go into this with the intention and plan to use everything available to us. When it comes to NOVA, consider any powers you have to be a liability, not an advantage, and in any situation where we might rely on them we’ll have a second option.” And given the way both Scott and Bruce thought, probably a third and fourth one, too.” “X-Force will be going with the first team to the underwater facility. All of you are in this room with the exception of Kid Omega, and the assignment will be relayed to him as necessary.” There were enough dissenting voices and disruptions without including Quentin when it wasn’t required. “For the facilities outside the city, we have every reason to believe they’re structured similarly to the one taken down a few months ago. That mission didn’t end as we expected,” thanks to Erik and Lorna, which he didn’t point out, “but it let us know what to expect inside. Three six person teams will infiltrate these bases, liberate the people that NOVA is holding captive within them, and render the buildings unusable. We are not there to take the lives of the agents. This is a non-lethal mission, and anyone unwilling to abide by that rule...” he lifted a hand toward the door, “remove yourself. We can’t allow anyone to jeopardize this operation, the lives of your teammates, or the freedom of NOVA’s prisoners because you’d rather exact justice a different way. Is this clear?” He continued on, willing to address opposing opinions once they’d covered the basics of what he meant to occur. “You’ll be given your team assignments once this meeting has adjourned, and in the short window of time between this and when we take action, we’ll spend most of it training. Many of you in this room don’t know one another and trust doesn’t always come easily, but we’re all going to have to find it. We have a way into these facilities that we expect to work, a way to skirt around the inhibitors and get one person inside each of them to shut the system down and give the other team members a window. This has to happen simultaneously, or close to it, at all three locations. We don’t want NOVA to have time to compensate or react, if we can help it, and to do that we have to give them as little warning as possible. Execution in the beginning has to be as flawless as we can make it.” And for the X-Men in the room, they’d know Scott’s standards for that were particularly high. “That means working together and doing your part, but believing in the rest of us to do ours, too. I know this may seem like a situation where there’s too many cooks in the kitchen, but if we move in tandem and follow the plans that are being laid out, we can win here. We all know what’s at stake if we don’t.”

“That said...with most of the X-Men out of District X, the people on the other side of the wall are counting heavily on the League members remaining in the city to keep NOVA in check. We have our own defenses in place, but it’s a responsibility I normally take on myself. I’m taking...an enormous leap of faith.”

He nodded toward Steve, then. “Captain America, Emma, and I will be heading out to these detention centers with you and training with you to do it. We plan to be there every step of the way. X-Force, you’ve been told who you’ll have on your side, and you’ll hear more from Iron Man how you’ll be getting into the facility. Your mission is less predictable. I have faith in you all to complete it.“

CAPTAIN AMERICA: A while back, I said that some of you could train with Wanda and Dick on how to figure things out without the use of your powers. My team has been specifically trained in hand to hand as well as with their powers and it's been invaluable in times like these." They didn't have time anymore to recommend training. He could only hope people had taken Dick and Wanda up on the offer that had been made at the first meeting. He wasn't sure how Scott trained his people, but he didn't ask right now. They had already placed emphasis on being sure to be ready to use them as a last resort.

He waited to see if anyone left on the non-lethal stipulation, hoping they didn't lose anyone. He was glad when his team and the X-Men proved them all right by not leaving before he continued on. "Avengers, we've done things like this before. You know how goes. Tony's got briefings on the detention facilities, like Scott said. With any luck and a lot of strategy, we'll be able to get in, do what we need to do, and get out without much fuss and this'll be a huge hit against NOVA. We can manage this kind of thing without bloodshed. I know we're capable of that."

He glanced to some of the people around the table before adding, "If you see anything while you're on this mission that could be useful in the future, I absolutely suggest you take note of it. Maps, plans, et cetera. That's not the main focus of the mission, but you'd be amazed what kinds of things you can run across." That had been how he had managed so many years ago to help take down HYDRA. Just one glance at a map when he was on a rescue mission for Bucky. It had been invaluable.

IRON MAN: It had taken an enormous amount of effort to sit there and wait until everyone finished talking. Tony had to force himself not to interrupt at least half a dozen times, particularly to explain the pointlessness of using abilities to locate devices that canceled out abilities, but even he recognized that not everyone in the room was up to date on the technology. It had undergone a massive enhancement once it was upgraded to include mutants. He managed to relax when that was explained, at least as much as he could relax with frayed patience. "The silver lining is that there's a lot of gray area between alive and dead, for those of you not morally reticent."

Nodding, he stole a quick glance around the table at those named to be in their group. A click of a button displayed a 3-D map of a NOVA facility that had been provided to him prior to the meeting. "All of their above ground facilities are laid out the exact same way. Guess NOVA doesn't budget for style. As Cyclops pointed out, my team, the one that's going underwater: we're at a disadvantage. I have a plan, but it'll be touch and go. We don't know that the layout will match this. We have to rely on constant and consistent communication with each other and, more importantly, Robin. Right? ...No. You're one of them though, I know that - wait, don't tell me." He snapped his fingers. "Red Robin. We'll go over the details later." Unlike the other team, they weren't fortunate enough to have actual 3D blueprints. Most of their information would be reliant on Gladys and Tim and what they would pull from their respective technologies. For Steve's sake, he was attempting to trust that everyone knew what they were doing - but seeing firsthand how the bat cult offered some comfort.

CYCLOPS: “You have your assignments,” Scott interjected after Tony. “Those of you heading to the detention centers, convene with me and I’ll split our teams. Use what little time we have wisely, find a way to trust the people you’re going in with. Whatever differences we’ve had, leave them at the door for now. We’ve got too many people counting on us.”

He glanced toward Steve and Bruce to see if they had any parting words, and for his part ended on a simple, “Good luck to all of us.”

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Steve nodded as Scott spoke, pleased by how well this had gone. "Remember that it takes teamwork for an undertaking like this one, but it's what we've been working towards for months now. This is the first step in finally getting these guys outta here. Familiarize yourselves with one another as much as you can. Trust that we'll have each other's backs." He shook his head. "The last thing we want is for a man to get left behind if we can help it, and we want to get the people suffering out of harm's way. But this is what we do best."

With a little playful grin, he added, "I'd say 'Avengers assemble', but we're so much bigger than that this time around. Just like this is so much bigger than any one team." He looked around at every face around the table before speaking up. "Heroes," he said in that authoritative tone, because that's what they were. First and foremost, beyond teams, beyond friendships, and their grievances of the past between one another. They were sworn to protect, to save those who could not save themselves. And perhaps there wasn't need for pomp and circumstance for them. So he spoke to them like a man speaking to his equals, fist curling in front of him to assert the point. "Let's get it done."

#starcevent #starcplotdrop #starcadmin #dc rp #marvel rp

9 notes · View notes

uzumaki-rebellion · 4 years

Text

“Wet Sugar” [Part 16 of 30]

Summary: Erik and Yani cope with being apart...

NSFW. Mature Audience Only. Smut.

youtube

"Had we met at a different time we'd be perfect for each other, Now we're spending all our time, in this world come together, My heart is aching, from all the love you're giving, We're not faking, is this the life we're living?

I'm not perfect, but I'm perfect for you, Now I'm right on time, I'm not perfect, but I'm perfect for you, I feel right on time…"

Grace Jones – "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect For You)"

Klaue spends a whole day blowing things up with his arm.

Boulders. Old Trucks. An unused structure on his property. Giant trees.

If he wasn't blowing things up, he was using the sonic canon to terrorize his South African crew by blowing up large chunks of earth in front of their vehicles when they drove around his property. The man was hellbent on destroying things.

He asked about St. Thomas and the compound. Erik informed him that Leona was on vacation with family and that Yani was housekeeping in her place. A few days a week. He said that so Klaue wouldn't trip when Erik checked live feeds of the exterior of Our Lady's Manor. Yani knew to maneuver around with the baby so that Sydette never appeared on the streaming video feed. The few times he was with Klaue when he checked the feed, Yani was seen cleaning the pool or patio, allowing Kendall and crew to come through for landscaping, and also toting laundry back and forth to the apartment under the front house. No sign of Sydette. Yani wore her typical sweatpants and t-shirts. Occasionally a beanie or baseball cap.

Erik did his best not to look too interested in Yani when they watched the feed. He felt a rush of emotion in his chest the moment his eyes saw her dragging the pool net through the water. She had on headphones and was preoccupied with her work. He wondered if Sydette was asleep in her room, or if Yani took her to Leona's. He wanted to call her. Listen to Yani's voice make that melodic sound when she called him Killmonger. He wanted to face chat with Sydette and hear her call him Baba. He now knew why so many of his merc cohorts stayed away from having long term companions. It was too hard having a family and doing the work.

Linda looked very relaxed being around Klaue.

Erik didn't suspect anything between her and Klaue, but he could tell that the man let her get in real close to him. It felt like she had slipped into the role of a consigliere, not quite at the level Erik was with Klaue, but pretty damn close.

Huntsman didn't like her at all. Perhaps it stung seeing two uppity negroes having so much influence over Klaue instead of him, a guy who worked for the man for over twenty years. Erik saw Huntsman's eyes take on the look of a tiger ready to pounce whenever Linda spoke to Klaue.

Next on Klaue's agenda was for Erik to start fashioning weapons using vibranium to enhance their power. Erik didn't ask about it, but he suspected Klaue wanted new firepower to protect them when they finally made that excursion into Wakanda.

Over a dull meal of overcooked beef, Klaue told Linda about vibranium, actually allowing her to see a small sample. Erik ran his tongue over his vibram tattoo again while listening to Klaue speak of his father's homeland. The conversation was only between Klaue, Linda, Erik, and Limbano.

"If this stuff is so powerful, I'm surprised the U.S. hasn't found an excuse to go in and extract it," Linda said.

"Not everyone knows about it," Erik said.

"How did you find out about it?"

"Like anything else, being out in the world. Paying attention. Running into folks who had it."

"Killmonger is waiting on the motherlode so he can retire and disappear," Klaue said lifting up a glass of whiskey.

Linda's eyes swept over Erik's face.

"Where would you retire to?"

"I'll figure that out once I get that big payday."

"Island life seems to agree with you," Klaue said.

"I like the slow pace."

Erik tried to focus on the meal, but his mind kept wandering to Yani. What was she doing? Was she thinking of him as much as he was thinking of her?

He couldn't sleep without her curled up on his body at night. He took a few pills to help him, but even then, the sleep was uneven and not restful at all. He missed morning loving from her. He missed the afternoons curled on her lap as she stroked his dick and he sucked on her nipples. He missed her face-riding him at night, making his cheeks and mouth wet, missed flipping her over and sinking balls deep in her pussy, feeling that tight grip she put on him every time. He missed her so much that it was hard to shake the ache of loss that he carried around him like a cloud. Nighttime was the worst for him after long days with Klaue and the other men…and Linda.

Being in bed alone was a nightmare.

He did his best not to soil his sheets with semen, but his fantasies of Yani had him fisting himself in the early morning and late at night. He had to hold a pillow to his lips to stifle his shouts when he ejaculated. His mouth was chock full of nasty expletives as he imagined being back with his woman, her big legs curved around his ass as he pumped into her. He released a good many hard nuts into his hand, his thick and voluminous loads spilling all over his fingers and soaking through the fistfuls of tissue he held to try and catch his semen. Taking care of her, tending to her every need…that was all he wanted to do. All that weight she had put on that made her family think she was pregnant made him happy. Rutting into her from the back was heaven, staring at the spread of her bigger ass and thicker thighs made him so hard. Sex just got better and better, and filling up her pussy every day was a necessity.

She was the one who would wake up first every morning. Her hands would clutch his waist tight while she peppered his chest with kisses before she pulled herself up and kissed his lips. Crawling on top of him was a ritual, her kisses bringing him back from the land of peaceful sleep. Neither one of them cared about morning breath. She would offer him her breasts, and he would suck until she was moaning and squirming on his waist. Pulling her up higher, he would make her sit on his face so he could kiss her folds before making her turn around and sink on his dick. The snug feel of her around his morning erection would almost have him crying every sunrise. Shit was that good. Sublime.

But now he was in South Africa, sitting at a mediocre meal caught between a sociopath, a sycophant, and a talented hacker who wanted to be in his bed again.

Not having Yani made him grouchy and short-tempered. And being around Linda was tough. His doggish nature could stir up the longer he stayed there. He wanted to be faithful to Yani. His mind told him he could. He promised her he could be a one-woman man. But those fuckboi tendencies were hovering close with his need for Yani's body. He caught himself staring at some South African beauties on a food run, his eyes automatically zeroing in on heavy backsides that made his physical desires jump to his mind and his dick to thicken unexpectedly.

The thing that soured him most while being away was remembering the times he spent lying on the couch or the bed watching tv with Yani and Sydette next to him. Sweet Pea would be hugged up against Yani's chest and Erik would have his head resting on Yani's stomach and lap. Yani would stroke his locs with one hand and stroke the baby's curls with the other. She comforted them both until they knocked out lying on her.

Walking around the beach with Sweet Pea, swimming with his girls in the sea, eating good food with them, and laughing at every new delight Sydette showed them was the only thing he cared about. After a week of being with Klaue, Erik began to feel anxious. He had to take his meds heavily again. His days were active with looking over similar weapons that were going to be shipped to him secretly on a chartered yacht out of Florida to the Our Lady's Manor private boat dock. As time passed, Erik became aware that Klaue planned to keep him there longer than the week he had planned for. He told Yani seven to ten days, and by day ten, he was stressed that his woman was thinking the worst. And there was no way to contact her. Klaue's place was secured tight, even his cell phone that was given to him by Klaue was locked up and the burner phone he was given was checked every day for security hacks. He couldn't make any calls out or even use his own laptop. It was kept with his cell in a secure lock up on the property.

Day twelve.

Erik woke up fretful. His face stayed tight at breakfast when Klaue told him they were going to meet with some arms dealers out of Pretoria. Linda was busy working on bypassing some weapons systems for Klaue, and even she was feeling cramped and bored being in Joburg. He stayed careful around her when they drank together at night with Klaue.

Once good liquor got into his system, Erik tended to loosen up, but he didn't want to loosen up too much. Conversations with Linda let him know that she was also concerned about some of the men around Klaue.

"Do you worry about being around them?" he asked.

Linda gazed out at the sunset over a grouping of large boulders.

"No…not really. I can hold my own. But Klaue…he needs to streamline his operations. Too many components are moving around and I feel like he's going to get caught."

"You thinking of leaving?"

"No. The money is too good. I'm looking for that big payola too. Once that happens, I'm out."

Her smile was wide. Pretty teeth. Pretty lips.

"But you could get caught—"

"So could you."

"Yeah…"

"Where is your head at Killmonger?"

"What?"

"You are so far away most of the time."

"Got a lot going on. Tryna get these weapons together."

"Why do you fuck with him?"

"The pay, just like you—"

"No. You don't need him for that. You could easily go off on your own. You're smarter than him—"

"He's better connected—"

"But you could be. I can't quite figure you out."

"Nothing to figure out—"

Her hand inched up his arm and touched his face. He pulled away from her even though the warmth from her fingers was nice on his skin. Linda stood up from the chairs they were perched on. Her hands hovered around her stomach.

"You look tense. I feel it too," she said.

Erik's eyes danced away from hers. It was time to call it a night and turn in early. He stood up and when his legs buckled, he knew that he had a little too much to drink.

"Easy," she said, reaching out to help him balance.

"I'm good."

He moved away from her and headed back into the house.

A long shower helped him relax and when he crawled into his bed, his fingers rested on his flaccid penis. He reached for a book and adjusted the lamp on the nightstand. He checked for the Glock he kept under his pillow.

"Killmonger?"

The fuck?

Linda crept into his room and crawled onto his bed.

"Whatchu doin'? Nah, get up."

Her arm slung around his neck and she pressed her lips on his mouth. He could taste the whiskey on her breath, her soft lips prying his lips open. He pushed her back.

"This isn't happening, okay? I'm not feeling you like that-"

Linda ignored him and pulled off her nightgown, her breasts pushing into his chest as she tugged on his hair.

"Stop!"

His grip on her shoulders startled her.

"You need it like I do. We're good together," she whispered, her eyes bright.

His dick thickened and he felt disappointed with himself like his erection had cheated on Yani without him.

"Don't you want this pussy?"

Linda leaned back on his bed, her nude body wide open for him. Her pink folds glistened and he felt his body react to what he saw. Her fingers opened up her labia.

"Killmonger…"

Erik leaped away from the bed. His erection pointed at her.

"I can't…"

Linda sat up and watched his eyes. She stepped off of his bed and sauntered over to him. She grabbed his hand and placed his fingers on her slippery warmth.

Fuck. Her pussy was so wet. His balls throbbed.

"Make me cum…please. You make me feel so good."

She touched his length, and before she could stroke him fully, Erik pushed her back. He padded over to his bedroom door and opened it for her.

"I need you to go."

Her eyes shifted, the desire turning into irritation. Anger. Embarrassment.

She grabbed her gown and put it back on.

"Let's just chalk this up to the brown liquor," she said.

"No hard feelings, girl. I'm just not in the headspace."

Her eyes dropped down to look at his length.

"Stress release could help. We could get those good endorphins. Hmmm, I see those dimples."

"I need sleep."

She nodded.

"Another time."

She slinked out of his room. He shut the door. Locked it.

Looking down at his dick he felt homesick. He needed his woman.

Linda's slick was still on his fingers. He stroked his dick. She had her legs spread and he could've taken all of her. Stretched that pink pussy wide open.

But his woman was back at Our Lady's Manor, scared shitless worrying about him. He couldn't talk to her. Text her. See her.

Fingers twisting around the head of his dick, Erik felt helpless for her, could see her face with that fearful look on it.

"I'm sorry, baby," he gasped.

His thoughts went to the last time he was with her, holding her tight, and he felt his skin tingle with the memory.

Semen spilled from his slit in long desperate spurts all over the carpet.

Gunshots.

From outside the house.

Erik threw on some clothes and grabbed his Glock. Peeking out of the second-floor window, he saw Klaue's security team scurrying about and returning gunfire into the dark.

Fuck.

A raid.

###

It was hard to eat.

Yani ate what she could because her baby girl was still breastfeeding, and she did her best to stay hydrated and nourished, but after two weeks of not hearing from Erik, she was at her wit's end.

No one would tell her if anything happened to him. That's what he told her. There was no one she could call.

She cried every morning and night and spent more time at her Aunt's house during the day to keep her mind off of him. But then she would worry that he would try to contact her in some kind of way at the compound, so she checked for the mail every day and kept her social media feed open all day.

He was dead.

He had to be.

Something horrible had happened. Klaue got him mixed up in some bullshit and her man was dead. Stole time from her by taking Erik away. It wasn't fair.

"Come out with us."

Twyla sat next to her in their Aunt's kitchen. Sydette ran around the apartment. The little girl was super fast, her balance so much better as she mastered walking. Yani could hardly keep up. The girl was sliding down from her bed most mornings and running into Yani and Erik's room looking for him. Calling out "Baba" every time someone walked into a room anywhere.

Twyla wanted her to go clubbing. Get out and dance. Yani shook her head, fighting back tears.

"You don't know for sure if anything happened. Those men have a code we know nothing about," Twyla said.

"He said seven to ten days. It's nearly three weeks—"

"Stop crying. Come out with me and have a nice time. Get your mind free. Shake your ass. Get dressed up pretty, gyal."

Sydette ran full speed into Yani's leg.

"Ow, Sweet Pea…be careful, love."

Twyla slid an envelope to her with Chez's child support.

His threats of taking her to court came to fruition. They had a family court date in a few days. He was asking for fifty/fifty custody. Yani didn't think he would get it, but when the official papers arrived at her Aunt's house, it did make her nervous.

"Lemme show you something, cuz."

Twyla left the kitchen and Yani heard her in her bedroom looking for something. When she returned, she held out two wigs. Expensive ones.

"We'll dress up sexy-sexy and switch up our looks and act like stars, yeah? Which one you like, long, or short?"

Yani liked the shorter bob and took it from Twyla's hands.

"Beach party. A little liquor, a little weed…Auntie will watch Sydette. She wants you out of the house and having fun too."

Twyla touched Yani's cheek.

"You young. I know you have deep feelings for that big nigga…ah see, I got you to laugh. But he told you the truth about his life. He would want you to live it up. Sydette needs her Mama to live it up. Life is still happening around you. Whatever fate has for him has happened. And I know he loves you. We all see it. You so happy…"

Twyla's lips trembled and Yani gripped her wrist as her cousin wiped her eyes.

"No matter what, you still have the compound to yourself, and he has left you money to take care of you and your baby. Make him happy. Have some fun for him. Please?"

"Okay."

"Yes!"

Yani spent the day with Twyla looking for an outfit. Beach parties were pretty simple. Swimsuits, wrap skirts, pool lounge wear…things that showed skin and body.

Three weeks of tears and a tense stomach brewing ulcers needed to be undone. It would be good to be around people again.

She and Twyla took a cab to the beach party and they received stares. Twyla's curly halo of wig hair looked amazing with her magenta bikini top and matching wrap skirt. Yani was draped in a sheer red beach lounger with a red bikini bottom. No bikini top for her. Letting her nipples show, she felt risqué. The dark wig made her feel mysterious as if she were a brand new person. She wore gold and crystal trimmed heels and regretted not putting on flats instead. The beach party was set up at a popular bar that had a patio in the back that spilled out onto a nice beach area. Music was loud, drinks flowed, and Yani felt a slight moment of panic when she walked to the back of the bar to join the large crowd of party people. She almost bolted back to the cab. She had no idea where Erik was or how he was, and she felt guilty dressing up all sexy and not staying in their house waiting for him.

Twyla nudged her forward and they found a couple of their mutual friends waiting for them. A joint was quickly passed around and Yani snagged a puff to cut the edge in her nerves. She didn't partake often, but her lungs welcomed the quality. Twyla bought them shots of whiskey and she downed two back to back.

Within an hour, Yani had loosened up and found herself dancing, swaying her hips and swinging her borrowed hair.

"You should let your hair go dark again," Twyla said.

Another hour passed and Yani was laughing and talking up a storm with friends. Every now and then her heart would touch upon Erik, and she'd feel a moment of sorrow, but Twyla was right. He would want her to keep living, keep enjoying her youth, and take time out for herself.

Resting out on the beach deck, Yani watched dancers and listened to the good music, enjoying the rich vibe.

"Yani."

She pushed the hair from her eyes and turned to the sound of the voice.

His lean body looked a little more muscular and he had grown some facial hair that made him look more mature.

Zachary.

"Hey," she said.

She took a quick sip from the Tequila Sunrise she drank.

"I wasn't sure if it was you or not…the hair…"

"Oh…yeah. Just tryin' a new look for the night."

"I like it."

His eyes took in her outfit.

"You look great."

"Thanks. You too."

Her eyes went back to staring at the dancing on the beach.

"I know I haven't apologized for leaving you that night—"

"Forget about it. It was a wild night. Things turned out how they were supposed to."

He nodded.

"Congratulations on graduating," she said.

"Thank you. I hear you start nursing school this fall. That's great."

"Thanks."

The awkwardness made Yani smile.

Up until that night at Rush, a night that seemed so long ago, Yani hadn't thought too much of Zachary. The last she heard through the grapevine was that he had broken up with a girl from Jamaica who attended university on the island with him. A proper girl for his parents.

"You want another drink?"

"Sure. I'll have another Tequila Sunrise."

Yani handed him her glass and he left her side to replace it.

"Was that Zachary?"

Twyla eased up next to her.

"Yeah."

"Damn. He looks good."

"Yeah, he does."

"Mmmmm…checking him out I see—"

"No…"

"Nothing wrong with it. He was your man at one time."

"Not really."

"You wanted him to be."

She was right. Zachary was the boyfriend she wanted. Good family. Finishing school. Going places. Not a life of hand to mouth or paycheck to paycheck.

"Hi Twyla," he said handing Yani her drink.

"Zachary. How are you?"

"Good."

Twyla gave Yani a sly look and left them alone.

Yani sipped on her new drink and they both watched the dancing. By the time Twyla swung around to check on her again with their other friends, she and Zachary had relaxed enough to talk about old times and even get past Chez and that night. They drank more until Zachary reached for her hand.

"Let's dance," he said.

Yani froze.

She felt good getting past the terrible night. She felt good being able to catch up with Zachary. She didn't feel good about dancing because she sensed old feelings coming over her. The liquor had her loose, and the weed from earlier was still in her system, and it was making her feel soft and clingy. She felt herself tearing up.

"Yani…you okay?"

Zachary's concerned eyes and voice made water fall from her lids.

"I've just been going through a lot lately."

He took her hand and held it.

"Do you want to sit down and talk about it?"

She shook her head. His eyes stayed on her.

"Is it Chez?"

"No…I just…I was seeing someone and I think we broke up—"

"You think you broke up?"

"Yeah. I think I was ghosted. We haven't talked in weeks. And I don't know what's happening—"

"Let's just dance. Music is too good to be standing here."

He tugged on her hand pulling her toward the patio dance floor.

"I can't…"

Her mouth was saying no, but her legs carried her out to the center of the floor with him. His hands slipped around her waist and they swayed together. She shook hair from her face and Zachary twirled her around and it made her laugh out loud.

"See, we can both still have fun even though we were both dumped," he said.

"Why did your girl dump you?"

"She hated my parents."

Yani cackled.

"What?"

"Your parents are mean, Zachary. Your mom hated me—"

"She didn't hate you, she actually liked you."

"For true? I never saw that."

"My father was the problem. My mother has never been one to cross mi Dad."

"I thought your mother hated me because I was a single mom."

"No. She liked Sydette. How is Sweet Pea? She big now, yeah?"

"Running around—"

"What? Already?"

"Yeah. She fast too. So fast."

"That I'd like to see."

Yani's eyes went to his chest. The music was hot, bodies around them were hot and sweaty and pressing close to them, crowding them.

His hands pulled her in tighter and it felt strange to have new arms around her, to be pressed up against a man again after three weeks of being alone. Yani laid her head against his chest and tried to ignore the rapid beating of her heart.

Her man was out there lost or dead and she was dancing with a sort of ex. Worse still was the sense of comfort that being held was making her feel. Like she was protected again. Her chest shuddered and her eyes welled up again. She longed to be held in strong arms once more. She longed to be wrapped up in warmth. And love.

She had been close to falling in love with Zachary. She liked him a lot. He made her feel safe until Chez attacked him. And he ran from her. Could she really blame him? Zachary was not a fighter. No shame in not being a roughneck. He did his best to protect her with four men jumping him.

Her eyes glanced up into his face.

He had done that. Put himself out there for her that night. But then Killmonger….

Killmonger.

Like some Captain America flying in to save the day, Killmonger took care of business, and in the process, Zachary felt emasculated. Useless. A failure. Killmonger was a killer, accustomed to whooping ass on a moment's notice. Her poor Zachary was just a Uni student trying to win her heart.

Her Zacahary.

"Yani, don't cry."

She hurt all over.

"Come on, let's get off of this floor," he said.

Zachary guided her down to the beach and away from the crowd of people. She wiped at her eyes but couldn't stop the bawling coming from her mouth.

"It'll be alright, I promise…"

Zachary held her as she cried in his arms. She felt out of control.

"I want to go home."

"I can take you home."

Zachary walked with her to find Twyla and when her cousin saw her face, she was ready to leave too.

"No, stay here and have fun. Zachary is giving me a ride."

"I'll catch a ride with Bea and them. You sure you'll be okay going to the compound?" Twyla asked.

"I need to be there."

"I'll bring Sydette back in the morning.

"Thanks."

Zachary held her hand gently as they left the bar and walked to his car. She left the window down to catch a breeze and dry her tears.

He was silent as he drove her. He played soft music in the car and glanced at her every now and then.

"I didn't mean to cut your night so short," she said.

"It's okay. I just came out to clear my head. I had no set time to leave."

"Will your friends be mad you left?"

"They found women to occupy their time. No one is thinking of me."

Yani laughed.

"What if you wanted to hook up with someone?"

"I sort of did," he said.

Yani stared at him.

"I don't mean like that."

They rode up into the hills in silence and when she guided him to the compound gates, she felt a lot better.

"Thank you for the ride," she said.

Zachary looked around.

"This is where you work?"

"Yeah."

"You're alone here?"

"It's really safe. Don't worry."

He stepped out of the car with her as she walked up to the retina scanner.

"I can stay here with you if you want…I mean, if you want to talk."

"I'm good, Zachary. Thank you."

She raised her head up and kissed him on his cheek. His eyes swept down to her lips when she eased back from him.

"You're beautiful, Yani. Forgive me for being a coward."

"Yuh no coward. Shit just happens, man. That's all."

She rubbed his shoulder affectionately.

"I'm going in," she said.

"Call me anytime. We can go eat, talk…whatever, y'know? Friends?"

"Sure."

For a moment, Yani felt easy and free. Most of the evening ended up that way.

"Thank you for helping me forget some things for a little while, Zachary."

His handsome face gave her another warm smile. His gentle eyes twinkled.

Yani stepped closer to him and reached her hand up to cradle his neck. Her lips were tentative on his, just a gentle pressing together. His hands reached around her waist and she let her body lean into his, just to feel male warmth again. When he tried to slip her some tongue, she broke their contact.

"Goodnight," she said.

She waited for him to climb back into his car before she scanned her eye and entered the compound. Kicking off her heels, she carried her shoes and her tired body down to the main house. She would sleep so good tonight. Sydette wouldn't be back until the next day, so some real solid sleep for sure.

The moon was waxing and Yani decided to go down to the cove and watch the moonlight dance on the water.

Solitude.

The soothing sound of soft waves crashing. Balmy air. Peace.

The tears came again. She should've let Zachary in. She needed the distraction, but now all she could think about was Killmonger and that cold lonely bed that awaited her.

The walk up the path felt long and arduous, the sand under her feet cushioning the ache she felt from the heels she wore out dancing. Dragging herself up the wrap-around porch steps it took her a moment to notice that there were lights on inside. Her stomach dropped and she felt a sour taste in her mouth. She had shut everything off before she left—

Her feet ran before her brain could stop her, sticking her face up to the retina scanner, and bolting into the house. Scanning the space and, hoping beyond hope…

But no.

She was alone. It was just the light timers. She forgot about them. Falling to the floor in the living room, she was about to weep and have a lonesome pity party when she heard the soft patter of water.

Picking herself up off of the floor, Yani crept in silence to the master bedroom. The lights were on and there was noise in the bathroom.

Steam filled the master bathroom and Yani couldn't stop the lump in her throat.

"Killmonger."

She opened the shower door.

His naked wet body faced her.

Turning off the shower he stepped out dripping water on the floor.

"I'm not dreaming, right?"

"C'mere girl."

Her mind was feeling loopy, but his lips kissed her forehead. Yani's right hand shot out and covered her mouth and she squeezed her eyes shut.

His arms wrapped around her.

Safe.

Secure.

###

Erik entered the compound a little after nine.

She wasn't there.

He checked every inch of the place, called her on the intercom system, and scanned security feeds. She was out with the baby. He was tempted to call her on her cell, but then he checked her social media feed. Nothing new since he left. He jumped over to Kendall's TL and only saw his typical memes and links to his music. It was Twyla's feed that gave him the info he needed. Close-ups of her and Yani wearing wigs with the hashtag #GirlsNight. For a moment he thought of going out to the spot where they were, but his emotions were all over the place being back in the place of peace. He needed time to acclimate.

He rested for a bit on their bed, the scent of her still on the pillows. Assuming she would be out for most of the night, he unpacked, ate a quick sandwich, and started to undress for bed. Security sensors warned him that a car had approached the compound entrance.

Erik turned on the camera feeds from the bedroom and watched Yani step out of a car with a man.

Zachary.

They spoke for a bit and then Yani…

She kissed him.

Erik watched her fingers hold the back of Zachary's neck, saw the man wrap his arms around her waist, and his heart grew hard. His jaw clenched.

Yani took off her heels as she walked into the compound. She wiped her eyes and Erik could tell she had been crying earlier. Her face looked haunted.

Shutting off the viewers on the bedroom wall, Erik went to take a shower.

She was a good girl. His girl. His woman. He had been away far longer than he told her he would be. She went out with Twyla and probably ran into Zachary. If they were fucking, she wouldn't bring him there.

Thoughts battled in his mind trying to figure out what he could say to her. He didn't want to scare her and made sure he put some house lights on so that she would be aware that he was home.

Water ran down his back and the steam enveloped everything. His muscles relaxed and when he heard her voice, he exhaled hard. She opened the shower and he stepped out to face her at last. Yani shook so hard in his arms. Her wet tears mixed with the wetness on his chest, and he felt his own tears fall.

"Told you I was coming back."

"You took too long, Killmonger."

She slapped his chest with her hands and he lifted her up and carried back into the bedroom. Yani's arms flung around his neck and she squeezed him so tight he thought she would never let him go. Lips joined together, their first kiss on his return was sweeter than the first time he ever kissed her.

He set her down next to the bed but they clung to one another.

"Where's my baby girl?"

"Auntie's. Twyla will bring her back in the morning."

Erik kissed the side of her neck and her hands felt on his arms.

"You not hurt?" she asked.

"I'm fine—"

"What's that?"

She touched a long healing wound on his left side where he had been cut with a knife from the South African raid.

"A scratch."

Her lips still trembled. He touched the hair on the wig she wore.

"Disguising yourself from me?"

"Twyla. Beach party."

"You have fun?"

"Yeah."

He stepped back and looked at the dress she had on.

"This what they wear at the club now?"

"Told you it was a beach party. You no like?"

"I like anything you have on."

He lifted up her chin and kissed her again.

"Sit," he said plopping down on the bed.

He threaded his fingers with hers and held her hand on his thigh.

"I'm sorry…I scared you. I had to stay longer."

"I thought—"

"You don't have to say it."

"I can't do that again. Not knowing almost killed me."

"I'm here—"

"It was hard. For me and the baby. Every time we go somewhere she thinks you're coming to get her, and I had to tell her I don't know where you are—"

She covered her face with her hands and he pulled her in close.

"I won't be going anywhere any time soon. I have a lot of work ahead of me. Good news though…"

Her eyes raised up to meet his.

"What good news?"

"Klaue's not coming back here until November—"

"What?!"

"We can be together longer—"

She jumped on him so fast that he fell back from the momentum of her body.

"I still have to fulfill some jobs before then, some quick trips to the states and the states only, but…I can stay here."

She lavished his face with kisses and he ran his fingers up and down her back.

"This thing is kinda thin, ain't it?"

"Shut up."

"I missed you so much, baby."

"Me too.

###

The sun kissed her face and Erik just watched Yani sleep next to him.

He was still nude and she was too after showering from the night before. His sleep was sporadic. He often woke up thinking he was still in South Africa, and his body jerked hard only to realize he was back where he was supposed to be. Yani slept through every waking moment, and he was grateful that she could rest. She had carried a huge weight on her spirit while he was gone. All he wanted to do now was ease her back into comfort.

He only watched her all night, his hands pious on her even though his blood thrummed hot in his body for her physically. Her revealing dress was too much for his eyes, but he contained himself, eager to hold her and feel her heart beating on his chest.

Touching the waves in her hair, Erik ran his finger along her cheek and down her neck.

"Do you know how much I love you?"

Her deep breathing made him happy. How much rest had she lost worrying about him?

Pressing his lips to her forehead, he felt her stir and awaken.

"Morning," he said.

"Morning."

She kissed him back and he moved closer to her, their kisses deepening. Her tongue probed his mouth and he let her lead the reunion of their lips. Her sighs comforted him as her soft kisses primed him for more.

His fingers drifted down to her swollen breasts. Her nipples were already hard before he even touched them, and her eyes were dreamy staring up at him. Lowering his face, he latched onto a nipple and let nature do the rest. Yani's eyes watched him lap up her milk, his tongue moving between both nipples. He squeezed them to watch milk dribble down her chest before flattening his tongue to lick every inch of her breasts.

"Kill—"

Yani's mewling voice made his dick twitch. She opened her legs for him and he moved down her torso to lick between her legs.

The sun warmed his back as his face became smothered by Yani's thighs wrapping around his head.

"Go easy on me, girl."

"Come here."

He lifted up from her apex and hovered above her. Her fingers gripped his manhood and he groaned from the anticipation of entering her after all this time. When he sunk into her completely, he thought his heart would stop. Tight wet heat engulfed his shaft and when she squeezed him, his head dropped down to her neck.

Her waist swiveled and he matched her pace. Lifting up on his elbows, his eyes gazed into hers. His mouth fell open and stayed that way as he stroked her walls.

"You so good…"

The words tumbled out as his ass cheeks clenched while pumping into her slowly. He needed to be in her deeper and pushed her legs so far back that her ankles were almost by her ears. He locked her in place but kept his eyes on her. Her wet heat made him lose his breath and he couldn't even talk shit to her. His fists pressed down by her sides and his strong thighs smashed down harder on hers.

"Daddy—"

"Hold on, girl…don't cum yet…please… not yet…you doing so good baby…"

His eyes bore down on her face. She had stopped moving because he was stroking her so fierce.

"Ah fuck, Yani!"

He swelled inside of her and gasped at the hard spurts that his body shot into her. Her arms shot out and grabbed for his shoulders as her pelvis bucked into his.

"Damn…you squeezing my shit!" he shouted.

"Fill this pussy up…please…"

Her eyes rolled back and Erik collapsed on her.

Gulping for air, they both clutched onto one another. The smell of her, the taste of her, the feel of her…his heart rattled against her chest as sweat drenched them both.

"You try to kill me every time," he said.

The security system gave a new alert. Someone was at the front gate.

"Twyla. She has Sydette."

Erik threw on some jeans and a shirt and padded up to the entrance.

"Open Gate," he called out and the main gate rolled open.

Twyla stood with Sydette in her arms.

"You're here," Twyla said, her face looking surprised. She grinned.

"Sweet Pea!" Erik said.

Sydette heard his voice and her whole body wiggled. Twyla put her down and the baby ran to him.

Erik scooped her up and held her high in the air, her little orange dress blowing around her legs.

"Look at you running!"

"Baba!"

Erik felt his chest swell. She didn't forget him. He pulled her down onto his hip.

"Yani's still resting," he said.

"Uh huh…"

"Yeah. I got back in late."

"Mmmhmm."

"Thank you for bringing her."

Twyla handed Erik Sydette's baby bag and sauntered back to her Aunt's car.

"Glad you're back, Killmonger. They both missed you a lot."

He nodded.

"Tell Yani hey for me. Enjoy your rest time."

"I will."

"Baba home!"

Sydette patted his face and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah, Sweet Pea. Baba's home. Baba's home."

Erik turned to take Sydette back to Yani, but he heard the sound of another car pulling up. Turning to look, he was surprised to see Zachary stepping out. Zachary's face looked just as perplexed to see Erik too. Holding Yani's baby.

"Yani here?"

"She's sleep."

Erik kept his voice neutral. He shifted Sydette in his arms and stood firm.

"I just came to check on her—"

"What are you doing here, Zachary?"

Yani padded over barefoot in a tank top and jeans.

"Came to see how you were doing. You had a rough night."

"She's good now," Erik said.

Yani's eyes darted between the two of them. Her eyes seemed to be pleading with him to be cool.

"I'm fine, Zachary. Thanks for checking on me. I appreciate it."

"My offer still stands. Call me if you want to go eat or anything?"

Erik glared at Zachary and then his eyes sought out Yani's. She wouldn't look at him.

"Bye Zachary," she said.

Zachary's bold eyes looked Erik up and down before he slipped behind the wheel of his car and drove off. The compound gate rolled shut.

Yani's eyes finally glanced his way. Sheepish. Guilty even.

He had been willing to let what he saw the previous night slide between them because he had been gone for so long and it looked innocent.

But now…

"It's not what you think," she said.

"Tell me what I'm thinkin' then."

"Baba!"

Sydette tried to make his face look at her and he did.

Let it go.

Erik nibbled on Sydette's fingers.

"I'll make breakfast," he said.

Relief came across Yani's face.

He put Sydette down and they all walked back down to the main house. He laughed watching Sydette run in front of him.

"Slow down," Yani said.

"Ooh!" Sydette squealed.

Jerome sat in the walkway blocking again.

"Ju-wome, move!" Sydette waved her hands at him.

They ended up walking around the iguana. Jerome would never change.

Entering their temporary home, Erik watched Yani open windows as Sydette ran to pick up her rag doll to show him. It was new. He picked it up and made a fuss over it, and Sweet Pea clapped her hands and he handed it back to her. The sway in Yani's hips caught his eye and he felt heat in his chest. Zachary coming back bugged the hell out of him. Especially when it was Yani who initiated the kiss with him.

He couldn't let it go.

"What that nigga come back for?"

###

Chp. 17 Here

Tag List:

@fd-writes @soufcakmistress @cherrystainedlipsbaby @tclaybon @thadelightfulone

@allhailqueennel @bartierbakarimobisson @cpwtwot @shookmcgookqueen @yoyolovesbucky

@raysunshine78 @the-illllest @terrablaze514 @l-auteuse @amirra88 @jimizwidow @janelledarling

@chaneajoyyy @sweetestdream92 @purple-apricots @blackpinup22 @hennessystevens-udaku

@scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade @bugngiz @stariamrry @honeytoffee @meilintheempressofdreams

@tyees @eye-raq @writerbee-ffs

#wet sugar #killmonger #killmonger fanfiction #erik stevens #n'jadaka #klaue #black panther #black panther fanfiction #killmonger smut #marvel cinematic universe

76 notes · View notes

purple-comet-hurricane · 4 years

Photo

also here’s chiyoko’s full ref sheet lol lore under the cut but tbh i’m still relatively new to fate so this is me pulling shit out of my ass and still trying to keep chiyoko’s old original lore from her Old Days(tm)

Chiyoko Hagiwara was born into a family of three. She was the middle child, with an older brother named Masahiro, and a younger sister named Tsukasa. Chiyoko’s father, Ryosuke, was the Oyabun of a powerful syndicate in the Yakuza. His wife, Akira (nee Kiyabu), was the daughter of an equally powerful syndicate, the two married in order to combine the forces of Akira's syndicate into Ryosuke's. Many believe that's all the two were. Powerful leaders of the criminal underworld. However there were many things that many didn't know about the Hagiwara family. In truth, aside from the criminal background, they had dabbled in magic. Ryosuke wouldn't say he was a Mage per say, but he was quite well aware of their existence. If anything, Akira was the one who acted as a Mage. The two were a power couple in more ways than one, seeing eye to eye in terms of magecraft and crime. Chiyoko lived her life as the heir to their craft, being taught by Akira personally everything she needed to know to be a Mage, while her brother was being groomed to succeed his father as the heir to their father's empire. While at first Chiyoko was fine with these events, she soon grew jealous of her brother. While her mother was quite proud of Chiyoko and the fact that she was such a gifted learner- her father was more focused on her brother and his acts as a criminal heir. Why was it that Masahiro got to be heir and only she was taught magic? Why couldn't she have both?

It was only a matter of time before Ryosuke and Akira were found out, perhaps by a rivaling clan or Mage family, but Chiyoko ended up waking up to gunfire and shouting. Their home was being attacked. Before Masahiro could do anything, he was taken by whatever assailants there, leaving Chiyoko alone with her little sister and a young girl named Ai who was supposed to act as Masahiro's subordinate once he ascended his father. The three were left alone at a very young age, no older than twelve. In fear of being found out, Chiyoko made the call to run away and hide. It was hard for three young girls to survive on the street. But Ai was specifically trained by Ryosuke and Chiyoko was a fast learner. By the time Chiyoko was fifteen, she decided she was going to be the one to succeed her father. She found the remnants of what was acting as the Hagiwara clan and confronted the acting oyabun, demanding that she take position. Of course they laughed at her, who thought of a woman, no less a child, was going to run such a crime organization?

This infuriated Chiyoko that they would look down on her like that, so she challenged the grown man to a fight, which she won almost seamlessly. Begrudgingly, the man let her take position and quickly Chiyoko started rebuilding what was once her father’s empire. At first the men mocked her, not taking her seriously at all. However they quickly found out she wasn’t fucking around as she effortlessly took out rivaling clans, conducted trades, manned heists, and overall shot the Hagiwara clan back to it’s infamy. In fact they were even climbing higher than before with Chiyoko becoming well known as their Oyabun. Kinue became Chiyoko’s right hand gal under the name of Ai Suzumiya and was Chiyoko’s personal assassin. Hiroshi became Chiyoko’s main interrogator, and Tsukasa was just considered the Oyabun’s little sister. Chiyoko was very famous for her cruel demeanor and heartless act when it came to her job. She was feared, anyone who heard her name cowered. She was truly a force to be reckoned with. However she stood at 4′11″ and the moment someone finds that out they immediately laugh at her.

However they are also quickly dead.

With the money Chiyoko was raking in quickly, she bought a huge mansion for her, her sister, and her two closest subordinates to live in, with an extra room to spare. However below the mansion is where the true magic happens. There was a large hatch that opened to a descending staircase that led to a large empty cellar with a metal chair in the middle that screwed to the floor and a dim light hanging above it. In the corner there’s a tarp and on the other side there’s loads of duffle bags. Next to the chair there’s a metal bench with medical tools lining it. This was Chiyoko’s interrogation room which she fondly regarded as ‘The Cellar’. At the very back of the cellar there’s a door that opens to a hallway that is lined with cells that Chiyoko keeps her ‘prisoners’, or people she plans to interrogate or keep for ransom. At the other end there's a door that leads to a large meeting area, with a large table. At one end there’s a large black throne that only Chiyoko sits in. Anyone who dares sits in it will be punished accordingly. There’s a large whiteboard on the left side and a projector screwed to the ceiling. At the back of the room on the right side there’s a large vault door that opens to Chiyoko’s gun vault. Which has every single gun that can be acquired legally or illegally. As well as various ammo, clips, throwables, combustible, anything that can be used as a weapon, anything created as a weapon, Chiyoko has it. The only exception is she doesn’t have a nuke (but she sure wished she did). On the other side from the vault door there’s a thin door that blends into the back, when opened it shows a small computer desk and chair with six monitors, 2 for each well, left, right and center. As well as pictures and newspaper clippings of possible rival yakuza activity. Each monitor is hacked into a street camera that Chiyoko can use to spy on people. On the right side wall there’s a large portrait of Chiyoko that is actually the cover to Chiyoko’s money vault. When opened and accessed, Chiyoko has millions of dollars just sitting there. Only she knows the code

Chiyoko, despite acting as the head of the Hagiwara family, didn't sit back and watch her subordinates work like most. She preferred to work in the field. Aside from her men who would do the dirty work, she herself would sometimes dabble in it. Bank Heists, Arms deals, hell, even the occasional spy job. She had to learn to conceal her identity, because as high profile as she was she'd be instantly recognized by anyone who'd consider her a rival.

By the time Chiyoko hit this high in her infamy she’s around twenty-one years old. She may at first seem like a total professional, but she proves to be anything but that. Of course she’s professional when required but when she doesn’t need to be, she believes herself to be top of the food chain. And in a way, she is. Her wealth and infamy strikes fear in even the toughest of criminals. She is constantly drinking the finest booze and occasionally smoking unnecessarily expensive cigarettes imported from Egypt. She has the biggest ego and is very hard to break down. Nothing phases her, whenever someone tries to intimidate her, she just smirks and totally blasts the other person out of the water. Nothing gets past her. Chiyoko is also a grade A sleaze. She’s very confident in her body and knows that she’s eye candy, so she uses it to her advantage most of the time.

One day Ai gave Chiyoko a gift, a ring that she once wore all the time. Chiyoko always questioned what it was and what the symbols on it meant, but a gift was a gift and it being from Ai was enough for Chiyoko. Chiyoko for most of her life focused more on the syndicate than she did Magecraft, however that didn't mean Chiyoko didn't at least keep up with her studies just a bit- she found old books and lessons from her mother. Some things were still out of her reach but one that really caught her eye was something about a thing called the 'Holy Grail War' or summoning a Heroic Spirit, things like that.

On a whim one day in the spare room of her home, she attempted a summoning circle. She didn't expect it to work, but the ring on her finger began to glow, accidentally opening and a piece of old golden armor out onto the circle, and before she even knew it a man glad in Gold appeared. Chiyoko's eyes widened as she stepped back, enamored by the sight. What--- Is... This a Servant? Looking at her left hand a red symbol began manifesting on the back of her hand. One in the shape of a crown. Panicking, she reached for a glove in her pocket and shoved her hand in it. This was crazy, what was happening. Her eyes met with the red irises of the other man.

His voice was filled with the pride of a king, a gaze that looked down on all as if they were nothing but ants.

"Who dares summon me, mongrel."

#fgo oc #fate oc #mastersona #chiyoko hagiwara #jeice draws shit #plz be gentle with me i'm just trying to have fun asdahsjdhgasd

4 notes · View notes

nixalegos · 4 years

Text

With Good Intentions

AUTHORS NOTE: I put a read more, as this story blurb has alot of squick in it, and it’s also likely my LONGEST story to boot, and nobody wants their dashboard cluttered up. Body horror, death, all that. Darker then usual for me, maybe not for most of you, but wanted to give the heads up anyway.

Somewhere in Jade Forest

“Never had to knock to be let in before, why is the whole town locked up and boarded?” He asked as he was finally let inside. “Oh, we’ve got troubles.” The barkeep said with his warbling tone, the Jinyu who owned the joint coming to double lock the door behind the familiar warlock. “One of the gatherers came back running, saying a dark ripple was spiralling in an open field, not less than half a day away.” They explained. “A dark portal? Is that why the call came out for the willing to get to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms? Are void portals forming on Pandaria? What of the Shado-Pan, surely you called for their help.” The hooded elf said as he pulled back a chair at the bars slightly damp counter. “Oh sure, sure, the mayor did...but they didn’t say when they’d be able to help.” Nix considered, the Shado-Pan were notoriously curt and dismissive of outsiders, and not without reason...and if a general call for -anyone- to come aid the Golden Fields...it was likely Pandarias shadowy defenders were already out-manned and unable to respond to something as petty as a small village way out on the coast. The hooded man looked at the Jinyu who for the first time since he met them, nervously washed and cleaned a glass, over and over. Such expressions had only recently been seen, the fear of the Sha manifesting from such negative emotions more than enough reason to suppress such displays in the past. “We’re just a fishing village..” “Tell you what, I’ll go check it out, make sure nothing crawled out, see if I can’t close it.” “You will?!” The jinyu replied, hope in their tone. “Sure, and in exchange, you have an order of that fried calamari waiting for me, alright?”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh hells, thats a larger portal then I expected.” Nix said outloud. “I’m measuring seven by six, and it’s stable.” He said as he clamped the spyglass shut to look over to where his Shivarra was still cloaked by magic. “But no cultists, no monsters...no ritual implements. Thoughts?” “Reality is weaker than you imagined, and whatever is going on in this Valley you were suppose to head to is a dire situation that is starting to spill out as far as out here, like ripples in water.” He grumbled and looked back they way they’d come, to the lush rich healthy greens that gave the forest its name. Then back towards the portal. “I keep my bargains.” “You should abandon such foolishness.” Nix considered the demons chastisement, then looked back again. “What better way to cause havoc then opening a second front with only civilians in your way? If a single void creature crawls out via this hole who knows what ruin they’ll bring after finding it. No. I’m shutting it down.” He said with an air of finality. “How, you said it was stable?” The demon said as it strode after its master. “I’m going to go in and sabotage whatever is keeping it open on the other side. There’s nothing out here powering it.” “You are not one of the Faithful, you’ll go mad.” The demon stated. Nix scoffed. “Still think the Big S had the right idea huh? Protected you from the nightmares? Weird to think we actually share an enemy.” “My first coven sisters died being dragged into such a portal, I am not following suit to die along a mortal fool I want to gut myself.” The demoness snarled with contempt dripping in its voice. “I can’t summon Negatrax to hold this end. Anyone else who stumbles on this portal with a Voidlord standing guard might do something stupid. You at least can’t be seen and the portal is still more a curiosity than a threat, and Vilynn would throw herself to follow me, which does me little good if the portals set to close behind me.” He explained. “So what is your plan?” The demon countered. “I jump in, destabilize it just on the other side. If it starts to close early, you reach in, and pull me out.” “And if there is the might of the Void on the other side?” “Then I leap out and we warn the village to evacuate.” Nix looked over himself, gauntleted hands roaming over his gear, double and triple checking his armaments. “Ok. Here goes nothing.” He stepped forward.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere....Other

He was expecting shadows. Nightmares. Monsters. What he wasn’t expecting was stone walls that seemingly reached higher than the sky. He wheeled around..only to be met with another wall boxing him in. There was no portal to jump out by. “Oh fuck me.” He swore to himself as he realized he just how much trouble he might be in. He raised his hands, fingers curling as he sought to cast his own magics back to the real world. And nothing happened. He reached for his emergency teleporter. It wouldn’t turn on. His dimension rippers too bore no power. Even his hearthstone lacked its normal cooling blue glow. He was stuck. He turned around and slowly, carefully made his way down that seemingly unending corridor.

Hours passed. Even his pocket watch, the first gadget he’d built and been proud of had frozen still. He tried to keep time by counting in his head. He soon realized that the hall bore an end, but it was a maze, an oubliette, lefts and rights and over again.

Hours turned to days by his best guess, and it wasn’t until hunger drove him so that he made due with lichen that clung to those too high walls, and fetid water that pooled in low spots on the stone floors to soothe his thirst. He gagged, his body tried to hurl it back up, but it clung and slid into his gullet like lead. But it wasn’t enough after the week mark.

Even starving, he walked, he was half tempted to chew some of his own flesh clean off, if it meant keeping the hunger down long enough to get out. Something had to be keeping him here, something had to be aware enough to keep his magics and means from working.

That was when the torture started. Light filled his vision. Colors that were -wrong- somehow. Colors the warlock had never seen before, never considered possible danced and strobed and cavorted inside his eyes, penetrating his thoughts, and as he discovered as he tried to sleep, his dreams. His hands covered his eyes and it did nothing. He slammed his head against the wall for unconsciousness and it did nothing, even as he felt his blood running down his face still those foul colors were all around him, forcing him to walking by feeling the closest wall for support. ‘Do you remember how many of our Eyes you blinded?’ A voice just like Nix’s said in his mind. The warlock, throat too dry to scream gave a dry hack, and he fell to the stone floor as his vision returned after days of being flooded with light. He sputtered and tried to push himself up, tried to blink the memory of those awful distortions away.

The sound of a hundred hundred goblin designed cannons went off next to his head when he realized he couldn’t cry, leaving him falling back onto the stone floor. ‘Do you remember the words you silenced from the mouths of our Speakers?’ That voice said, louder now. Loud discordant sounds flared and whizzed and banged in staccato misrhythm. Worse was when they stopped, and snarls and chattering sounds of claws scraped along the floor behind him, half starved warlock limping his way faster despite how tired he was. He didn’t want to stop and let the sounds catch up to him, knowing in his heart it was worse then moving forward. Time passed, and Nix shuffled his way onto stone colder than the crispest mountaintop. The air so frigid his breath spooled out in white waves, and his lungs hurt from trying to take it in. Only to stumble into a literal oven. Despite the fact the stone corridor never changed, showed no heat distortions, he knew his flesh was cracking from the temperature. ‘Do you remember how many of our hands you broke?’ The voice taunted now.

“I’ll kill you.” The warlock whispered between cracked and bleeding lips, still going forward despite the effort.

A day, or a month had passed. It was impossible to tell when he stumbled upon the others. A woman holding two bundles in her arms stood with her back to him. Despite knowing it was a trick. Despite knowing it would hurt him he reached up, tried to call out, to hail them.

The woman turned around, both it, and the ‘children’ it held were faceless. Nix stopped then, paralyzed on his journey for the first time at the otherness they radiated. A sickening parody of something that itched in the back of his mind, like Deja Vu. The children melded into piles of bloodied jelly and teeth as the thing pretending to be a woman glowed from the center of her forehead, red hot. Its skin turning to ash around the new thumb sized hole in its head, flaking away and floating towards him. He tried to lift his arms up to cover his face, but his gauntlets were too heavy for him now to react in time. He could only meekly sputter to keep the remains off his lips and chin. ‘Yes, kill is all you do isn’t it.’ The voice said again. ‘It’s all you ever wanted to do.’ The stone floor and high walls suddenly weren’t. He was free falling, his ash covered limbs splayed helplessly. Even the dark was wrong, the inky blackness he was streaking down was off color, echos of that first torture glimpsed in that midnight that he prayed was delusions brought on by adrenaline, the oily rainbow caught in a storm drain. ‘If you do not serve us, then we will hollow you out...and let the new you crawl out.’ That voice boomed in mocking parody of Nix’s own. He was falling faster now. Dust perhaps, slapped and strung across his paper thin skin to leave dots of his blood trailing behind him. His robes slowly, grew tattered, flecked, ripped by the micro impacts of invisible objects too tiny to possibly see. If they even existed. ‘We will give you purpose.’ The voice Nix couldn’t tell was his own head or not said as he landed in water. He knew he tried to scream as his legs broke upon impact the pain had been so great. ‘We will fill you with vision’. The escaping content of his lungs was the only screen he had from a sickening gaunt face staring back from those liquid depths. Its eyes a frenzied red, but its face...was the same one Nix had seen in every mirror, but drained, withered and thin. A mockup of flesh and skin that clung cheaply to the bone under it, but not mistakable for anyone else. ‘We will give share our words with you to speak’. A tendril of mightnight the color of oil slithered up and pried the warlocks mouth open, its tip gripping his tongue. He felt pincers cut his frenulum and insect like legs crawled along the inside of his mouth from that oily tentacle. He wanted to thrash. He wanted to fight back. Some instinctive animal part of him tried. Other whip thin shadows now raced up to join the first, hideous abominations of tendril and eyeless piranha and beetles, coiled and bit into his flesh. Each one nibbling and devouring in tiny all too painful bites from sphincter like mouths with too many teeth. ‘You cannot fathom how long we have waited for this’ The voice spoke so loudly in his mind he couldn’t think straight. ‘You’ve barely touched what eternity feels like’. Nix’s eyes widened in horror as he tasted meat upon his tongue as one tendril burrowed into his stomach with a sickening glee that wasn’t his own. He was being fed the taste of his own entrails, and the enjoyment the tendrils had for it. He couldn’t even weep nor drown properly as that gaunt face floated closer, more flush with stolen vitality. You will soon be me, don’t struggle. It’s not as if a single soul would have ever come to rescue -you-.’ That self same voice said smugly. He lacked the strength to even bite down on the crawling horror filling his mouth, no last biting remarks, no threats. He felt himself convulsing from the pain the bites and their psychic torment was inflicting, that sick gooey rush of pleasure from his own flesh. He was going to die here, alone, forgotten at best… And at worst another monster to be killed on the other side. A strong hand gripped him by the shoulder, narrowly by chance alone not grabbing where a tendril dug in, hauled with infernal strength. The gaunt face contorted in sheer rage and bellowed “NOOOOOOO” as Nix was dragged out. The shivarra grunted as she retched her...screaming, convulsing, sweating master from the closing portal to the glades lush floor, the shadowy edges of manifested darkness swallowing upon itself shut. Only to look and see he was throwing up what looked like coffee grounds...and a thin line of blood from his nose. Every one of his gadgets blaring in warning, discharging and failing and then she realized as Azeroth faded from their perception, his grip on her the only link she had to Azeroth, that she was back in the Nether…what had happened? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Jade Forests northern climbs was rustled with a cool breeze and the occasional falling leaf. The corpse, clad in dark purple robes laid there undisturbed until pin pricks of light started to show in the sky. The corpse coughed, sputtered, and wretch on itself as what was dead by foresight of magic alone brought it back to the world of the living. He tried to scream as he awoke, but could do little more then empty the contents of his stomach onto himself, and collapse on his side into the pile of dried long dead grass that encircled him. He spat his mouth clear of backwashed acid, and reached for his stomach...where he was whole, even his robes, despite their foulness, was still intact. The man lay there, and tentatively checked the rest of his body between breaths. He rolled over back onto his back and sat up, looking at the nearby corpse of dead trees near the glades edge that met the dead circle he sat in. He reached up and snapped, a flicker of will behind it as hellish fire lit between forefinger and thumb, and was just as quickly dismissed. His tools, intact, but mostly useless. Everything that had boasted a battery was drained. The warlock came to lay back down, grip the dead grass and leaves between his fingers and idly tossed a small handful of them up. He wanted to cry, to scream in rage, to burn everything around him to cinders and soot...but he needed to know. So he dragged himself, half pushing with solid legs up til he back was against the tree, and called upon his only witness to ask a single question. “How long…” He asked as soon as his summon went off. “What do you mean how long, you didn’t go anywhere.” The demon replied. “Didn’t...go?” The warlock asked as his blood ran cold and his stomach dropped. “You leapt in, the portal started to close, I pulled you out. Three, maybe four seconds. Then you seemingly suffered a heart attack, a stroke, and suffering from hypothermia and you died? What happened in there?” The warlocks reply was a half mad laugh, that broke into sobs as he slid onto his side. “Well, get up, you’ve your calamari to collect.” The demon said exasperated. The warlock threw up again in reply. He didn’t leave the glade until the morning light.

#nixalegos

14 notes · View notes