It was probably the most advanced program Daisy had ever written. Everywhere she went, the stolen tablet in her pocket patched into each local network it found, scanning for searches relating to superpowers, Inhumans, and anything else that might indicate a local transformation.
She was in Boston by an unrelated twist of fate, having had to switch trains to shake her tail two cities back. Daisy had no plans in the city beyond lying low, so when the pocket monitor beeped, she pulled it out immediately.
1 flag detected.
2 blocks N, 3 E.
Authorities not involved.
One flag meant suspect search terms, but no impending disaster. Nonetheless, Daisy checked over her shoulder and turned, heading back the way she came.
The building was a warehouse. Daisy drew to a stop a few yards from the chain link fence, frowning. It looked like it was abandoned.
The monitor was pretty good, even if she did say so herself, but she didn't have all the kinks ironed out. Specifically, the current model could only patch into wifi networks. Wifi networks which had no business being in disused warehouses. Especially not ones that might have looked utterly at home in some modern horror movie, complete with flocks of birds swooping overhead.
A few years ago, her first assumption might have been smuggling. Drug dealers, probably. Generally something she should steer clear of. But Daisy had been an agent for months, knew how they though. She saw a spy's touch in the location, from the high windows all shut save for those that would be utterly impractical from an intruder to reach, down to the barely-visible tripwire strung between fenceposts. Eyes narrowed in focus, Daisy sent a faint vibration to ping the tripwire, keeping herself tucked fully out of sight, and waited.
What.
It took all Daisy's willpower not to make a noise when Captain freaking America stepped out of the building, gun up. Allright, he was in overlarge plain clothes and he had dyed his hair a mousy brown, but please. She'd spent enough time in Phil Coulson's office to recognise his hero. His hero, who was currently scanning the area for an intruder. For her.
Screw it. Daisy stepped out from her hiding place, hands up. If he did try to shoot her, the bullet wouldn't make it far. No need to antagonise the national icon, even if she was currently looking down the barrel of his handgun.
"Captain Rogers," she said coolly. "I'm Daisy Johnson. I'm here to help."
The gun didn't move. "How did you find us?"
"I've had a lot of practice."
"That's not an answer."
Daisy sighed. "I'm guessing the rest of the, uh, 'renegade avengers' are in there. Or whatever the papers are calling them this week. And something's happened to one of them. Let me guess, someone ate a fish oil pill?"
"Cod fillet." Cap lowered his gun a little, apparently assured by her nonchalance. "You can help him?"
Cod fillet. It must be spreading fast, now.
Daisy nodded. Cap stepped aside slightly.
"You can come in. Alone."
"I came here alone," she replied, and the words almost don't hurt. She lowers her hands, still listening for the tell-tale vibration of a spinning bullet, and walks into the building with her head held high.
There were pieces of chrysalis scattered across the floor of the compound, barely distinguishable from the general rubble to the human eye. To Daisy, they sang with the same humming note as terrigen crystals, high and pure. Cap stopped and turned to look at her. frowning.
"You see something?"
"Yeah." Daisy bent to pick up a chunk the size of her fist. "This stuff grew over him, right? Then he burst out?"
Cap's shoulders relaxed slightly. "That's right."
He held up a hand to halt her approach, and turned to knock out a pattern on the metal door behind him. Beyond it, Daisy felt four heartbeats. The other Avengers.
"You find anything?" asked a man's voice. Unfamiliar.
"Yeah," Cap called back. There was no indication that either man intended to open the door any time soon. "There's a woman with me. Says she can help Sam."
Sam. Sam Wilson, Falcon, superhero, Inhuman. Daisy drew in a breath that stuttered slightly, prayed that Captain America hadn't heard. One of my people. And he needs me. She didn't want to think about what kind of help she could give if his gift was- well. One of the ones people wished they had kept the receipt for.
"We're coming in." Rogers turned back, pulling her from distraction. "I'm vouching for you. Don't make me look like an idiot in front of my men?"
The smile he gave her was a little too fierce. She smiled back. The door clicked open.
Inside, Daisy's attention fell instantly upon the pallet where Sam lay, the heels of his hands pressed against his temples, back propped up against a wall. She registered the other Avengers- Lang, crouched by Sam's side, Barton by the door, Maximoff by the window. Blocking the exits as Cap followed her in. Ignoring them, Daisy dropped to her knees opposite Lang.
"Sam?" she called gently. "Sam, can you hear me?"
Brown eyes snapped open. "I can hear you fine, Wanda, it's everything else that's the problem!" He blinked, startled. "And you're not Wanda."
"No." She gave him her most reassuring smile. "My name's Daisy, I'm here to help."
He glared over her shoulder at Rogers. "You found a shrink?"
"She found us," Rogers said.
Daisy nodded. "I'm not a doctor. Didn't even finish high school. So, Sam, what makes you think you need a shrink?"
Sam glared at her.
"He's hearing voices," Lang said. Sam turned the look on him, but he shrugged it off. "She says she can help. You got any better ideas?"
"Yeah, you-"
"None of that," Daisy interrupted sharply. It was never a good idea for new Inhumans to lose their temper, anything could happen. "Did these voices start as soon as you came out of the chrysalis?"
Sam blinked at her. "The what?"
"The, uh, rock thing. Could you hear voices as soon as you came out of it?"
"You know what that was?"
"I'll tell you everything you want to know later," Daisy promised. "But first, we need to sort you out. When did the voices start?"
He frowned. "I could hear them right away, but they were quiet. No, they were far away. Then they just... kept getting louder."
A bird cawed outside. Sam flinched.
Daisy frowned, and then began to focus intently on the lyrics of a half-remembered song. "What can you hear right now?"
"Uh." Same tilted his head. "There's one really close, he keeps asking why I won't talk to him. Then there's two arguing, one of them stole the other one's food. And then someone flirting, then- I can hear more, but I can't make out what they're saying."
"Well, you're not a mind-reader." Before Sam could respond, the bird cawed again, and he cut himself off with a sharp shake of his head. Daisy frowned. "Could one of you open the window, please?"
Maximoff glanced at Rogers, who must have given the go-ahead, because she pulled the window open. A red hawk swooped in, making the girl jump aside, and landed on a case near Sam. Lang stood quickly, moving to shoo the bird away.
"No, don't," Daisy said. She turned back to Sam. "Did the first voice get any louder?"
He started. "How did you know?"
"Ask it to come closer," she suggested.
"Why?"
"Trust me."
Sam shrugged. "Could you come a little closer?"
The hawk took to the air and swooped down to land on Sam's shoulder. Daisy grinned.
"What the actual fuck," Barton said in a flat monotone. Lang stammered. Maximoff stared, wide-eyed. Daisy didn't turn to see how Rogers was reacting.
"Congratulations, Sam Wilson," she said. "You can talk to birds."
The hawk cawed. Wilson stared at it.
Daisy took Sam up to the roof. The other Avengers followed her, though whether through interest or mistrust she couldn't have said.
As soon as they reached clean air, the birds she had seen earlier fell, as one, to perch upon the roof's low walls. Sam's gaze darted from one to another, the hawk still perched upon his shoulder like Long John Silver's parrot.
Daisy takes his arm and pulled him down, sitting in the centre of the roof. "Try not to panic, Sam."
"You listen to a flock of birds chatter about their day, then tell me not to panic," Sam snapped.
Daisy shrugged. "I caused an earthquake that destroyed a city. Terrigenesis can suck."
"You said that before," Rogers interrupted.
"Yes," Daisy said, keeping her voice level. "That's what we call the transformation."
Sam met her gaze. "Transformation into what?"
"We call ourselves Inhumans." Daisy steadied herself as a few of the birds took to the air. "Try to keep calm, Sam."
"They're just so loud," he said, cringing.
She nodded. "Why don't you ask a few of them to leave?"
"You think they'll listen?" Barton asked, coming into her field of view.
Daisy shrugged. "The hawk did."
"Quiet," Sam interjected. They both fell silent. So did the birds. "Uh, I appreciate you all coming out to… visit. But I don't need your help. You can, uh, go back to what you were doing."
He had his eyes screwed tight shut. When he began to slowly open them a few seconds later, there was only the hawk and a few scattered pigeons left.
"Did they say anything before they left?" Daisy asked, leaning forwards.
"Not really."
"Sorry, is anyone going to explain why Wilson can talk to birds now? Or is that just a normal thing for us superhero types?" demanded Lang.
"Can't you talk to ants?" Maximoff asked flatly.
Lang shrugged. "I have a special helmet for that. I can't do it now."
"You can talk to ants?" Daisy asked, grinning. "That's really cool! What's that like?"
"I'll be honest with you, they don't usually have much to say." Lang plopped himself down to one side.
"I'm starting to think the birds have a little too much to say," Sam grumbled. The hawk on his shoulder flapped its wings in offense, and he reached up to pet its head automatically. "Not you, Red, you're great."
Rogers groaned behind her. "Again, Wilson?"
"I'm calling him Redwing II."
Daisy chuckled. It was… really good, to see an Inhuman settling so easily into their gift.
"If the birds are gone, shall we go back in for that explanation?" Barton offered.
She shook her head. "No, we should stay up here. I think it's good for you to be around them, rather than keeping yourself at a distance."
"Then I think it's time you started talking," Sam insisted. Then- "No, not you, Red."
"All right, how about while I talk, you try to practise talking to me without the birds thinking you mean them." Daisy tried to inject the right note of confidence in her voice. "Where do you want me to start?"
"What-" Sam broke off, frowning, as the hawk leaned forwards in response to his voice. "Daisy , what's an Inhuman?"
She nodded, grinning. "Good work. Inhuman is what we call ourselves."
The other Avengers filter into her field of vision, taking seats on the cold concrete roof. Sam frowns. "And who's we, Daisy?"
"A small portion of the population possess a dormant alien gene," she explained. "For most of your life it does nothing, but it can be activated by a material call Terrigen. When a latent Inhuman comes into contact with Terrigen, they go into a chrysalid state and emerge with a gift. In your case, that was the ability to talk to birds."
"And yours was making earthquakes- no, not you." Sam shot a look at his hawk. It bowed its head apologetically.
"Well, technically, I can control vibrations." Daisy shrugged. Saying it aloud brought a tugging grin to her lips.
"You're saying Sam's part-alien?" Rogers asked. "How long has this been going on?"
Maximoff nodded. "Should we not know about this?"
Daisy considered asking Sam to relay the questions, but he was still getting his practise in. "It's not like you're thinking. All your ancestors were human."
"If all my ancestors were human- Daisy, I'm talking to Daisy- how can I have a gene that isn't?" Sam demanded.
"Thousands of years ago," Daisy began, slipping into her storyteller voice. "Giant blue creatures came to Earth in search of weapons. The Kree. They created the Inhumans by injecting their DNA into test subjects, to serve as their army."
"You were created- as weapons?" Maximoff asked slowly.
Daisy nodded. "But the Kree have been gone for a long time."
Sam looked uneasy. "I don't see how talking to birds could make me-"
"You're not a weapon," Daisy said, when he cut himself off. "None of us are."
"And how many of you are there?" Steve asked, watching as Sam's hawk nuzzled its head against his shoulder. Daisy hesitated.
"I don't remember Sam getting into contact with anything weird," Lang said.
She hoped she didn't look too grateful for his interjection. "It will have been in the cod fillet you ate. Atlantic cod?"
"I've been eating fish my whole life," Sam pointed out. "Daisy, I'm talking to Daisy."
Daisy eyed the hawk. "Do you think the problem is Redwing not recognising when you're talking to me, or are you projecting somehow?"
The bird apparently took offense, and started climbing into Sam's shirt. "I think it's safe to say he might be a bit clingy."
Daisy ended up retreating back into the warehouse with Sam a couple of hours after the other Avengers. She had thrown every idea at Sam for expanding and controlling his gift, not willing to give him a spare second for the shock to set in.
Barton, Rogers, and Maximoff were still in the room where she had met Sam, sitting on a few empty crates for a game of cards.
"Where's Scott?" Sam asked, sliding into the circle between Rogers and Barton. Daisy hovered awkwardly behind him.
"He is getting dinner. Should I deal you in?"
Sam nodded, and accepted a hand of cards that fluttered over to him with a curl of red glimmer. Daisy watched, with her lip caught between her teeth. Sam played in the next turn, slapping his cards down before looking up at her. "You wanna play?"
A fresh hand of cards floated up before she could respond. Daisy glanced down at Maximoff, startled, and caught a nervous grin and wary eyes behind the haze of red. Daisy caught the cards out of the air unhesitatingly and crouched down to join in the game.
After two hands, she noticed a tiny flicker of red in the deck and glanced up, surprised. Maximoff kept a straight face.
Wait.
Next round, Daisy put aside her nerves and watched the cards instead of the players' faces. Saw the edges of Rogers' hand blur a little as he reached to take a new card. What might have been the flash of a mirror under Barton's sleeve. A haze of red, again.
Sam hadn't lost a hand yet.
On a hunch, Daisy glanced up. Redwing was perched in the shadows above her. Sam's gaze just a touch distant. As Barton played his card, Daisy pulled her features into a vision of studied interest. Rogers reached forward to take his own from the pile and-
His fingers blurred. Daisy's eyes narrowed. He fumbled the pack.
"Damn!" Cards scattered under Rogers' fingers. Sam reached forwards to help him gather them up and, with a cheerful grin, offered him one that hadn't been upturned.
Steve accepted it with good enough grace. The first time.
"We can't stay here for good, you know," Clint said.
Steve half-turned to him. "Yes?"
They were sitting on the roof wall, watching Sam practise. He was blindfolded, with Johnson standing behind him and explaining. Ahead of them, Scott and Wanda were readying themselves with a pile of tennis balls. Redwing perched on Sam's shoulder. The winds curled around them and whipped up through the treetops in a queue of defensive ribbons lashing out at the day's stolid heat.
"We gonna bring her with us?" Clint elaborated.
"Do you trust her?" Steve asked, still watching the others. "She's helping Sam."
Johnson backed away quickly as the first tennis balls began to fly towards Sam, laughing. Clint shrugged. "I don't think she's lied to us, Cap. And Wanda says she doesn't think we're in any danger from her."
"But you're not sure," Steve said, frowning. Clint could be brash and downright difficult to get on with at times, but he was a good judge of character. "Why?"
"I think she was an agent. Maybe SHIELD, maybe not. I don't recognise her."
Steve's shoulders stiffened. "Not H-"
He broke off as she approached them, skirting carefully around the battlefield. Sam was a little more bruised than he had been that morning, but even as Steve watched, he could see improvement.
"He's getting good," Daisy said, leaning on one shoulder against the wall so she could see him.
"Remind me why I'm not allowed to help throw things at him?" Clint asked, tossing a brick from one hand to the other.
Steve laughed. Distracted, Sam turned towards him, and stepped right into the path of Scott's throw.
"Sorry!" Steve called.
"Oh, I bet you are." Sam held up a hand for the throwers to pause as he recalibrated himself. "Damn bird doesn't know left from right."
Redwing cawed. Sam apologised.
There was a slight huff and Daisy- shorter than either Steve or Clint- pushed herself up onto the wall to watch. Steve caught Clint's eye.
"Is this what you do?" he asked, conversationally.
She tilted her head. "Well, the tennis ball thing is new."
"You don't say." Steve shrugged, and ploughed on. "I mean, we're in hiding. Don't you have a day job to get back to?"
There. A small flinch rippled over Johnson's shoulders, just noticeable to Steve's enhanced eyes.
"It fell through," she said. Her fingertips drummed lightly against her thigh. Steve wondered for half a moment, if the rhythm felt different to her, with her odd powers, but put the question to one side.
"What did you do?" he asked instead.
Sharp brown eyes flicked up to meet his. Assessed him, for a moment, and then flicked to Barton. A leaf drifted slowly past them on the breeze.
"I was a SHIELD agent," she admitted.
Steve nodded, saying nothing.
"Until recently?" Clint asked, leaning forwards. "Or… until?"
She sucked in a breath through her teeth, pulling her jacket higher on her shoulders. "Until a couple weeks back."
Steve frowned. "I thought SHIELD had been disbanded after the- information leak."
"No, you didn't," Johnson said flatly. "You've been in contact with Fury since then. He sent you a helicarrier."
"He told us that he had some contacts who might have access to ex-SHIELD resources," Clint said, watching Steve with a raptor's patient gaze.
Steve frowned, debating exactly how much to say. "When Fury told me he was stepping down, I assumed that the public information about SHIELD's disbandment was accurate. Clint?"
"I figured they'd gone deep-cover," Clint said. "I knew that there was still a network, but I didn't hear anything about active missions, but I wouldn't have."
"Right." Steve had known, already, that Natasha had had to distance herself from SHIELD after the leak. Between their friendship and a growing family, it wasn't hard to imagine that Clint had joined her. "I take it that Fury's ex-SHIELD resources were…"
"Current SHIELD resources?" Johnson offered. She shrugged. "The helicarrier was. I don't know how much contact you've had with him, really."
"Not too much," Steve ceded. "Most of our communication was one-way."
Apparently annoyed with watching Sam be pelted, Redwing II swooped down at Scott, who dove for cover as Wanda laughed. Sam tugged off his blindfold, making no attempts to bring the bird to task.
Johnson laughed along with them, despite a somber shadow across her features. The other three jogged over when Sam called for a break. Wanda scooped up the water bottle from under Steve's feet.
"What are you guys talking about?" Scott asked, swerving out of the way of Redwing's path down to Sam's shoulder. "Damn it, Sam, would you tell the bird I'm sorry already."
"You know, I'm not sure if I can. What do you think, Daisy?" Sam frowned. "Daisy?"
"We were talking about SHIELD," Clint explained, when Daisy looked away as if to gather her thoughts. "Agent Johnson's intel is a little more up-to-date than ours."
"Agent?" Wanda asked, an odd note in her voice. Steve brushed a hand over her arm.
Daisy shook her head. "Not any more," she explained. "I left."
Steve held up a hand to stem Scott's response, sensing that she hadn't finished. "Yeah?"
"Starting to feel like I am doing a lot of explaining myself lately," Daisy grumbled. "Yeah. I had a… traumatic experience."
Sam frowned. "Terrigenesis?"
"No," Daisy said, quickly. "Not that. I carried on as an agent after I learnt to control my powers. I was actually building a team of Inhumans to fight with SHIELD."
Steve tuned out the next question from Scott. She didn't sound as if any of this were guarded information, her only hesitation coming before a phrase crafted carefully into an emotionless passive. The conversation pulled back to safer shores, discussing different powers and their use on missions until the word he had skated around so cautiously earlier bubbled up.
"What does HYDRA have to do with this?" he demanded. She jumped a little. Too loud. Steve sometimes forgot, even now, that he was more intimidating than he remembered himself as being.
"HYDRA," she said, with words picked as cautiously as roses in a vase, "Knew about Inhumans well before the rest of us did. They even worshipped one. And. He-"
Sam caught her arm gently. "Daisy?"
"He killed the last head of HYDRA," she finished in a level tone, well at odds with the stammering a second ago. Met Steve's gaze. "HYDRA are gone for good."
"Worshipped?" Wanda asked, sounding a little choked. Steve couldn't bring himself to say anything, to turn the conversation back to safer roads. "I thought HYDRA were- scientists. Experimentors."
Johnson shrugged. "So did most of HYDRA."
"So Sam's not in any danger from them?" Scott asked. Steve looked up at him, stiffening. The worry that always buzzed in the tip of his spine when Wanda was on a mission flared down into his chest. The thought hadn't occurred to him.
"Not from HYDRA," Johnson said. She turned back to Sam. "I already told you about the Watchdogs."
"The what?" Wanda demanded, sharply. Red spun around her wrists for a moment and then died down.
"Sam?" Steve asked.
"It's fine," Sam insisted.
Steve fixed him with a flat look. "Sam."
"I'm not in any more danger than I was when we started this, Cap," Sam insisted.
Steve glanced from Sam, to the bird, to Agent Johnson. "Watchdogs?"
"Anti-Inhuman terrorists. They've already managed a few killings, but they've only made the news for property damage. You might not have heard about them." She folded her arms defensively. "I'm dealing with it."
For half a heartbeat, although she couldn't be more than a few year younger than Steve, Daisy looked agonizingly small. He shook his head. "No."
She bristled. "I'll stick around as long as Sam needs me."
"That's not what I meant." Steve glanced past her, at his team. "You're not doing this alone. This is what the Avengers are for ."
Daisy smiled- small and rueful. "We'll see."
"I'm in position," Ant-Man reported over comms.
"On three," Steve said, gesturing Clint into position. "One, two, three."
Hawkeye fired a rappling arrow. Ant-Man struck, and the building went dark. Cap reached for the wire, wrapped an arm around Hawkeye's waist and swung them both out into the air and forwards.
A small hand landed on Sam's shoulder. "It's the waiting that sucks, right?"
"Yeah." He looked back into Daisy's worried brown eyes. "You're not tempted to go in with them?"
"Then who'd watch your back?"
Sam laughed.
"I can't find him. Sam?" Wanda's voice buzzed in his helmet.
Sam breathed. Threw Redwing out into the air, and looked out through the bird's eyes.
Colour. Bricks. Humans screaming. The world righted itself with a metallic screech, and Sam opened his eyes. "I have eyes on the east wing. Heading west now."
Daisy scrambled back to give him space to lift off, and he hurled himself to the air in the opposite direction to the hawk. The world jarred and split between human-hawk, window-window, human-hawk. Soldiers, storage room, darkened office-
"Redwing got him!" Sam called rattling off directions into his comm link.
"I'm close," Ant-Man replied. "I'm gonna kick him out the window, Sam!"
Sam curved wildly at the corner, swept past Redwing and seized the arms dealer out of the air. Hit the roof rolling, and yanked his brain back into his human head.
The arms dealer caught the moment of distraction and struck hard. Sam slammed into the terrace, kicked upwards. The dealer twisted aside and ran for the building entrance. Sam pushed himself up into a sprint, just a hair too slow. The door swung open- and the dealer was hurled aside into a wall.
Daisy Johnson approached, hand outstretched.
Sam scowled. "You couldn't have done that before he nailed me in the balls?"
"You looked like you had it handled," she replied, with a sharp little smile.
The dealer squirmed as Sam manhandles him into cuffs, but makes no further attempt at escaping.
"So, what's your plan for this guy?"
"Cops," Sam shrugged, petted Redwing's head as he preened. "People need to know the Avengers are still out there, still fighting. What's a better sign than a gift-wrapped illegal arms dealer?"
Daisy nodded thoughtfully. "Someone tip you off?"
Sam squinted at her.
She shrugged. "Clint's not a subtle as he thinks he is."
There was a smooth gust of air as Scarlet Witch landed on the roof before Sam could reply, Ant-Man lunging to full-size as he leapt from her shoulder.
Sam patted Scott's shoulder. "Nice work, Ant-Man."
"Thanks, man." Scott's jaw clicks shut before he can start to run his mouth, eyeing the captive. He looked a little skittish.
Right. First mission, really.
"Cap and Hawkeye have cleanup handled," Wanda said, for Daisy's benefit. "Shall we take him down to the station?"
Sam nodded, passing the prisoner into her custody, and positioning himself between them and Ant-Man. Daisy fell in behind them, guarding the rear.
Naturally, the police station was further away from this skeevy corner of town than it had any right to be. Still in full costume, they met up with Cap and Hawkeye, joining them to slink through the city's alleys and darkened parks, with Wanda going ahead of them to bespell any stranger who might be wandering the street in these early hours of the dawn.
When the police station was in sight, they halted.
Cap turned to Sam. "Okay, Sam, lose the bird."
Redwing squawked.
"No, he's right, we don't want people knowing about you," Sam insisted, shaking his head. "You can come straight back. And, uh, you might want to hang back, too."
Daisy rolled her eyes. "I figured that, thanks. And, uh, you have blood on your bow."
"Thanks." Clint wiped it clean on his chest absently. "Probably not a great photo op."
Scott hissed, giving his own suit a rapid once-over. "Shit, my kid's gonna see this!"
Cap's shoulder sagged in disbelief, under their burden of now-unconscious arms dealer. "This isn't just about publicity. We're bringing in a threat to the people."
"And making the front page," Clint said. "If I'm coming out of retirement again, I wanna do it with style."
"Let's just get this over with."
The first rays of sunlight struck the grey flagstones, Captain America approached the gates. The prisoner over his shoulder had gone slack against the strength of his grip. The other Avengers fanned out behind him, the metals of their suits glinting in the pallid dawn. Gently, Cap rested the arms dealer on the flagstones and turned to face the policemen scrambling out through the doors. Passers-by pulled out their phones to capture the moment.
He began to speak.
Daisy watched, her lip caught between her teeth. She could lead, she knew she could lead. And as much as she disliked the spotlight, she had given presentations and briefings at SHIELD. But when Steve Rogers opened his mouth, even the wind seemed to still to listen. There was barely a movement in all the crowd. A child reached up to take her father's hand. New arrivals halted and reached for their phones. Somebody climbed up onto a railing to get a better look, something glinting in his hand.
Daisy was moving before the sight could fully register, screaming a warning. Too late, there was a bullet whistling through the air towards Wanda- red gas swirled up to immobilise the shooter, missed the bullet, Daisy's arm shot up-
Scarlet Witch did not fall to the ground dead. The bullet hung in midair, and then clattered to the ground as Daisy lowered her hand. Sam shouldered away through the crowd to retrieve their attacker from his misty prison.
Wanda turned to Daisy, eyes wide and shocky. "I missed it."
"Well, you got the guy." Daisy gave her a shaky smile. "We all have off days."
"So, I'll be handing these two over into your custody," Steve said, turning back to the cop who had approached him. "Let's clear out."
Sam dumped the shooter and took to the air with a vast gust of updraft, one arm wrapped around Clint's torso. Wanda scooped up Cap and followed him, her hands still shaking.
"You ready?" Ant-Man asked, landing neatly on Daisy's shoulder. She glanced over at the crowd, dozens of cameras blinking back at her. Too late to turn back now.
"Hold on tight," she murmured. Flashed a grin at the cameras. And launched into the air after the team.
The next day, the headlines read-
QUAKE JOINS ROGUE AVENGERS
"How," demanded Phil Coulson, "Did the press get to this before we did?"
Mack shrugged. "They were on site, while we were chasing ghosts in Wisconsin?"
"We knew she wouldn't be easy to find. Daisy doesn't get seen unless she wants to." Phil rapped his fingers against the wall of the van in a solid, soothing rhythm.
Mack raised an eyebrow. "You think she wanted this? It's not her style."
"Saving people at any cost?" Phil asked. "Blowing her cover to protect people?"
Mack gave in gracefully. Daisy's grinning face filled the tablet under his fingers, the Avengers visible in the sky behind her.
The enticing smell of pizza did nothing to lure Daisy away from her computer. Sam took another bite, watching her cautiously from the corner of his eye. Opposite him, he could see Scott doing the same.
Wanda plopped down beside him, grabbing the last slice of mushroom before Steve reached the circle.
"C'mon," he complained. "I hate pepperoni."
"Sam and Clint are literally the only ones who eat pepperoni," Scott said through a mouthful. "I voted for one more cheese."
Steve glared at him. "What happened to the popeye?"
"There's still plenty of chicken!" Clint defended. "And veggie lovers!"
"Hey, Daisy! Captain America's gonna eat your pizza!" Sam yelled over his shoulder hopefully.
Steve froze in the act of reaching for a slice of the chicken pizza, as every Avenger turned their gaze on Daisy. As if roused from a deep sleep, she blinked unseeingly at them.
"Huh?"
Steve picked up the thread gamely. "These guys ate all the good pizza while we were setting up the perimeter."
"Pizza?" Daisy repeated, frowning.
"Yes, pizza." Scott nodded. "Cheese, tomato, bread, unnecessary toppings…?"
"Fuck you, Lang," Clint muttered, clutching at the pepperoni box.
"We got you a chicken?" Wanda offered before they could get further into it again.
Daisy put her computer aside slowly and moved to join the circle. Redwing dropped down from the rafters and landed on her thigh, taking in the pile of cardboard and napkins. She accepted the chicken pizza from Sam, and offered it back to Steve.
"You're good," he said. The previously untouched veggie lovers sat half-demolished in his lap.
Daisy shrugged and took a slice, watching curiously as Redwing examined the chunks of fried chicken.
The tension began to subside as Clint and Scott resumed their argument. Wanda and Steve took up extensive negotiations over the last quarter of cheese. Sam reached over without particularly paying attention to stop Redwing from filching any of Daisy's meat.
"You're getting good at that," she said.
Sam started. "Uh, thanks."
"No, you are," Daisy insisted, leaning forwards earnestly. "You couldn't have done that a month ago."
Redwing chirped. Clint twirled an arrow between his fingers. Sam didn't look at Daisy.
"What were you looking at, Johnson?" he asked.
She blinked. "Huh?"
"You've been out of it for hours. You're still acting weird."
"Well, you know," Daisy demurred, shaking her head with a brittle laugh. "Never look at the comments section if you want to retain your faith in humanity."
"I thought you lived in the comments section," Scott joked.
Daisy cringed. "Yeah, I know, I'm just overreacting."
"No you're not." Scott leaned forwards, further into Daisy's field of view. "Whatever they're saying about you, it's bullshit. You know that."
"Course I know that." Daisy gave them a dazzling grin. "I ever tell you I go to interrogate one of these trolls once?"
Sam met Scott's gaze for half a second, and shook his head. Too fast.
Clint took the bait. "What happened?"
Juggling the bird, the box, and the ever-growing threat of Captain America stealing her dinner, Daisy launched into the story.
Hours later, Daisy pulled the laptop back open. Scott and Clint had headed outside to double-check security, whilst Steve and Wanda had caught Sam's attention with a fresh game of poker. Daisy tucked herself in between her backpack and the corner, and picked up where she had left off.
Death threats hadn't phased her since she was in high school.
The volume of them was new, admittedly. Every scumbag lurking in the darker half of the internet seemed to have reared their ugly heads at the sight of her photo, illuminated by the first rays of dawn, on a backdrop of superheroes against a rose-tinted sky. Most of the articles still focused on her, even days after the fact.
Way to ruin the Avengers' big comeback.
They weren't outright negative articles for the most part. One or two even had a good word to say about her- mostly bloggers and no-name thinkpieces. The overwhelming majority were more interested in whether her inclusion was a political statement on the part of Captain America. A few speculated that she might be controlling his mind- Daisy hit the back button with rather more force than strictly necessary.
The comments, by contrast, seemed unanimous in their hatred of the new face on the front page. Daisy combed through them with narrowed eyes but little else of an emotional response. Passed death threats and incomprehensibly misguided biology lectures. Outright laughed at the ones questioning her allegiance to America. Was a colour scheme all it took to convince these people?
There.
One of the positive comments caught her eye. She clicked onto the user and scanned over their interactions over the last couple of weeks.
Two distinct themes over the last few months. Articles on Inhumans, and articles on science.
Daisy almost flinched at the obviousness, and opened a fresh dummy account.
"Is it worth it?"
Daisy came perilously close to blasting Scott off her shoulder, but managed to keep it together.
"What the hell, Scott?" she snapped. "Aren't you meant to be outside?"
He chuckled unrepentantly. "Clint's got it covered. I was worried about you."
"So you suited up so you could spy on me?" she demanded.
"Hey, you're a superspy. I'm just a thief. How else was I gonna see what you were up to?"
Daisy scooped Scott up and set him gently on the floor so he could size back up. Then she shoved him, hard. "You didn't have to see what I was up to!"
"Sure I did." He sat down opposite her. "We're all worried about you, Daisy."
She shook her head. "Why would you be?"
"Because you're our friend, and you're upset? I don't fight Clint off a pizza he wants for just anyone, you know. I could've lost a finger!"
Daisy tried to laugh through the shards of glass in her chest. "I can handle it."
"You don't have to, though."
"Yeah. I do." Daisy looked past him, to the poker game. Redwing had been resigned to Sam's shoulder to keep him from cheating, nuzzling his head gently against Sam's neck. Wanda was watching him fondly, even as Steve mocked them. "There are so many Inhumans, and they're not safe. I should have left as soon as Sam was ready."
Scott shook his head. "What makes you think you have to leave at all?"
"I have a job to do, Scott. And the press hate me, you don't need that." Daisy gestured impatiently at the computer screen.
He mimicked the gesture sourly. "All that tells me is you're an Avenger. And okay, maybe you're a lot cooler than me, because I was all over the chance to be a hero, but- that's not a bad thing, Daisy. We've got your back. You think you've got bad press? You should see what people say about Sam for siding with Cap. I remember how the papers talked when Scarlet Witch joined. God knows what they're saying about me."
Want pulsed, hot and hard, in Daisy's throat. "I can't," she insisted. "There are Inhumans out there- people like this girl- who need help. Same as Sam did. And it's my fault there's noone to help them."
"That's not true."
"You don't know that."
"I know you!" Scott hesitated. "I mean, I don't, not really. I've only known you a couple weeks, and we haven't talked much, or anything. And honestly I kinda wish we'd talked more, but you were busy with Same, and also you have incredible superpowers which, wow, cool, but also kind of intimidating-"
"Scott."
He sighed. "What I mean is, you don't seem to me like you would ever do anything that would put innocent people in danger."
"You don't have a clue what I did."
"I stole a ton of money and attacked an Avenger. Clint used to be an assassin. Wanda worked for HYDRA. We're all in this mess because we took Steve's side over the UN's. I'd tell you what Sam's done wrong, but honestly, I think he might actually be perfect. He probably carries spiders out of the house and everything. Even if he is a dick."
That time, she laughed, even if the sound was ragged and brittle. "What are you trying to do, Scott? Convince me to stay? My people need help. I have to go."
Scott looked genuinely thrown. "You're a superhero. Of course you're going."
Her heart sank. Every time. For half a second, she thought-
"But we're coming with you." Scott met Daisy's gaze as she looked up. "I mean, I sure am. I bet Sam will, too. And I don't think any of the others would turn down a chance to help people."
"But-" She fell silent as Scott stood up, following him across the room, her heart thumping in her skull.
"Guys, I think we should switch it up. Quit waiting for Black Widow to leave us breadcrumbs. Daisy has a mission for us."
Steve set down his cards. "Daisy?"
"I. I've been keeping an eye on, you know, Inhuman presence. Online. And there's this girl, I think the Watchdogs might be onto her. I was going to go. Protect her." Why couldn't she seem to string six words together.
"You were gonna just leave?" Sam demanded. Redwing chirred miserably.
Daisy felt herself flush. "I didn't think-"
"She thought we wouldn't want her bad press," Scott supplied before she could trip over her own tongue any further. "Us."
Wanda laughed. Sam's frown lightened a little.
Steve reached forwards to clap a hand down on Daisy's shoulder. "Tell us where to go, Quake. This sounds like a job for the Avengers."
Something burnt at the back of Daisy's eyes. She nodded.
Clint slipped back in through the door, sipping at his drink. "Wait, what?"
Okay, so the kidnapping was kind of a downer on Kamala's day. When she got home, she was probably going to cry into ice cream. Maybe shut herself in her room and live vicariously through fanfic for a week or two.
But right now? Right now, Kamala was on top of the world. She pressed herself up against the wall of her little glass cube, mouth gaping inelegantly.
She should be using the distraction to find a way out, but she'd tried that. There wasn't so much as the tiniest chink in the glass to squeeze through, and it was too strong for her to shatter even with all the force she could grow up with. So, yeah, she wasn't getting out until someone let her out. The thing to cling to was that that might be the superheroes rather than the watchdogs.
And, okay, maybe she was a little distracted watching the superheroes. Who wouldn't be? Kamala had felt hope shrike through her heart the second the walls began to shake. And then fragile anticipation had blossomed into hot, screaming delight as Captain America kicked down the door, with Scarlet Witch behind him. He took out the first man while she ripped guns away and cast them back at the door. Ant-Man grew up from nowhere, tapping frantically at a wall panel to open the next door, and there she was.
Quake.
Quake ignored the melee growing around her, and made straight for the containment cube with Ant-Man watching her back. Kamala schooled her features. Be cool.
"Quake," she said in a voice of rigid shock. "Oh my god I love you."
No, no, no, no, not cool at all!
Ant-Man laughed. To Kamala's relief, Quake didn't, instead turning her attention to the touchscreen on the side of the unit.
"Any idea what the code is?" she asked, meeting Kamala's eyes.
Kamala's heart stuttered. "Two high up, one low down, two in the middle, one down. I don't know which though."
"That's really good, well done." Quake slid her fingertips smoothly across the screen as Kamala's heart juddered. There was almost definitely still a battle going on behind her, but Kamala wouldn't have noticed if they had been teleported into the middle of the Chitauri invasion. Quake was rescuing her.
The door popped open. "Come on," Quake said. "Follow me."
"Wait," Kamala said. She didn't want to be rescued by Quake. It would do if it had to, but- "I can do better."
Focus. Kamala half-closed her eyes. Let her arms and legs swell to gargantuan proportions. And smacked the armed goons aside. Payback time.
And, wow, that felt good. The Watchdogs slammed into the wall, slumping. Her palm grew even wider, and she carefully pushed up on the ceiling, lifting the roof slowly off from over their heads. Falcon swept to a halt in the vicinity of her wrist, staring. Legs as high as skyscrapers, Kamala stepped delicately out of the wrecked building and snatched up the rest of the Watchdogs so that Hawkeye could tie them up, as he rushed down from his perch with a length of wiry rope.
She shrank back down as the Avengers stepped out of the wreckage. Glanced helplessly from Captain America to Quake. "Was that okay? You didn't need the building, did you?"
Cap choked. "No. We didn't, uh, need the building."
"That was incredible," Quake said, stepping forwards, all warm eyes and mischievous grin. "You're incredible."
"How did they even catch you?" Falcon demanded, landing with a warm gust of wind.
"I was in bed," Kamala said. Then, in a much smaller voice, "Is my brother okay? I saw my parents, but I didn't see Aamir. Did they get him?"
"No," Hawkeye said. "Don't worry, kid, your family are fine."
Quake stepped forwards, and clapped a hand down on her shoulder. "Let's get you back to them, huh?"
Not quite trusting her voice any more, Kamala nodded and allowed herself to be shepherded back to the Avengers' transport. Then, shock knocked quite out of her by the sight, she gawked.
"You came in a minivan?"
When Daisy flopped down on the couch of the safehouse with a lapful of tupperwared biryani, Scott had already turned on the news.
"I was so scared," Kamala's mother was saying earnestly. "Why would they take my daughter? I didn't even know she was Inhuman, I just woke up and she was gone."
"The Avengers saved me," Kamala interrupted as Scott moved up to the next news station. And again on the next, and the next, and the next. Even the ones that usually thought the Avengers were a public menace were letting her get a word in before they ripped into them.
Daisy became aware of her inelegant staring when Clint made an almost indecent noise of delight.
"Food from a kitchen," he groaned.
"I know, right?" Sam said. "Next hideout we're getting a burner. I miss home cooked."
Wanda peered down at her own food and took a bite. "Takeout is dead to me."
Daisy laughed. "What was it you and Kamala were talking about in the back?"
"Shrinking," Scott said. "She had some pretty great ideas, actually. There's me thinking Hank Pym knew everything. And you, of course."
She blinked. "Me?"
"Well, yeah, the kid worships you," he said, as if it were obvious, attention pinned on his food.
"Did you not realise?" Steve asked, laughing. "She had a poster of you on her wall!"
"Ten bucks says if we go back tomorrow she'll have built herself a little shrine."
"Sam! Don't be a dick, I think it's cute," Wanda said, leaning over to slap at his arm. Redwing pecked at her irritably.
"Oh it's cute when they're kids." Sam slouched back into the couch, smirking at Daisy. "Wait til she's twenty and a fully fledged stalker."
"Sam!" A pillow floated up and flopped itself into Sam's face, sending his hawk squawking and fluttering up into the air.
Daisy bit her lip, and glanced back at the television. At the girl's smiling, eager face. Wait til she's twenty, huh?
Maybe this hero thing would last that long.
The happy bubble lasted almost a full two months. Precisely forty-three days later, Daisy's tablet bleeped up at her, and the Avengers clustered around it, eager for action.
"Don't tell me we have to go back to New Jersey," Steve whined.
Daisy laughed, tapped open the alert. Cut herself off in mid-breath.
Reached for her phone in a sudden hush of stony silence.
"Hello?"
"Tell me that isn't you running around New Jersey in multi-coloured spandex."
Kamala spluttered. "Oh, wow, Quake, wow, you're- of course. That is definitely not me running around New Jersey in multi-coloured spandex."
Daisy could hear a rough, male voice laughing at Kamala in the background. "Kamala. You're sixteen."
"I'm the same age as Spider-Man!"
"That isn't important! Do your parents know what you're doing?"
"Will you take fifty-fifty on that one?"
"Kamala!" This was not what Daisy had signed up for. She really had to learn a lesson about keeping a closer eye on people she had rescued, since apparently a phone number, regular check-ins, and a panic button were nowhere near enough to keep a young Inhuman out of trouble.
Behind her, she could hear a brief struggle as Steve attempted to gag Sam before he could whisper 'shrine!' in her ear.
Daisy shot one sharp glare at him, and then returned to the phone to finish her job.