9 – MODOK – February 6, 2015
Aspen should have been prepared for what awaited them downstairs, but she wasn't a match for twenty A.I.M. agents with guns and a giant living computer that somehow had psionic powers. They had entered the dark room at the end of the hall, Aspen trying to reach out with her senses, but the power dampener was pressing down on her making it impossible to concentrate. Her teammates didn't seem to be feeling what she was, but perhaps that was because their abilities were not mental like hers. Then Julian attempted to use his powers to light the room. He frowned down at his hands, face pale in the dim light of Zane's cell phone.
"Your powers won't work," Aspen said. She tried to concentrate on the room without her powers. It felt open and wide, the air cool around her. The quiet whirring of equipment was the only discernable sound. Aspen held her breath, listening hard. There it was. The quiet shuffle of feet, the brush of fabric, the tapping of fingers on triggers. "We're not alone," she breathed. "This was a bad idea."
"We're not leaving without Lily," Corbin hissed at her. "This isn't your team, you can go back at any time, but we don't leave our team behind."
"I didn't say I was going anywhere," Aspen said. "But there are people with guns somewhere in this room."
"How do you know that?" Julian asked. "Are you powers not affected?"
"It's called training," Aspen told him.
"Very good," came a nasally voice from somewhere across the room. Aspen tensed and then winced as bright lights flooded the room a moment later. The lights were strained directly at them, and Aspen couldn't see past their brightness. Her retinas burned. Then the lights dimmed somewhat and though they were still scorched into her eyes, Aspen could see the rest of the room. Ten agents lined either side of the room, guns aimed straight at Aspen and the Elite.
"I told you this was a trap," she said.
"Lily." Corbin's voice turned her attention to the person standing at the back of the room. It was indeed Lily but there was something wrong. She was suited up in something similar to what they'd seen in the schematics upstairs. She stared straight ahead and seemed not to see them at all. Behind her was a giant computer screen. Aspen did a double take. The screen was a face. It leered down at them in a ghastly expression.
"Hello," it said. "I was waiting for you to come."
Aspen stared. "How could you possibly know we were coming?" she asked finally, addressing the computer screen.
"It doesn't matter how I know. It matters that I knew, and I was ready. If you would be so kind as to put on the special suits I made for you…" Vacuum hose arms reached out from the computer, and Aspen took a step back. To her surprise the others stepped forward at his command.
"What are you doing?" she asked, snagging Julian's sleeve. He ignored her, pulling away. They walked straight toward the three arms holding the three suits similar to Lily's. She didn't dare try to stop them as they geared up leaving her standing alone.
"I can't control your mind," the computer said, it's digital face screwing up in frustration. "Why can't I control you?"
"You can't control me because I'm immune to mind control," Aspen told it. "No one controls me."
"Then perhaps I'll test out my new soldiers' skills on you," the computer said. "Inhumans, attack her!"
Aspen tensed as the Elite turned to face her. Their eyes were emotionless and as she watched them, Lily disappeared. Aspen ducked a second before Lily's arms reached out to grab her from behind. Something warm flashed past Aspen's face and one of Julian's fireballs hit the wall behind them. She saw Zane looking at her and remembered his powers. She lunged at him, slamming him into the floor and knocking a fist into his head before he could act. "Sorry," she said before leaping away from Julian's next round of fireballs. There was a groaning of metal and part of the pipework above them crumpled and fell straight toward Aspen. She dove out of the way, hitting the cement floor hard. Dazed, it took a moment for her to scramble to her feet. Something hit her hard in the chest, driving her back into the floor. Lily knelt over her, knee digging into Aspen's stomach.
"You need to fight this," Aspen told her. "He's controlling you!"
Lily's eyes were blank. Aspen grabbed her wrists and threw her off. Julian sent another fireball at her head, and Aspen leapt aside. This time the fireball hit the computer where it fizzled against the screen.
"Careful!" it whined, face contorted in pain. Aspen wondered if it could feel pain or if it just had a flair for the over dramatics. Either way an idea was forming in her head. She stood in front of the screen, out of reach of the tentacle like arms.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Your aim is a little off!" Julian rounded on her, sending off a shot of fire. Aspen dropped and the fire hit the screen straight on. This time it cracked.
"Stop!" the computer screamed. Julian and the others dropped their hands and stood still. "Restrain her!" it ordered. Lily appeared right behind Aspen, tugging her arms behind her. Aspen struggled, but the girl was gripping her too hard. Corbin strode up to her and raised a fist. When he brought it down on her head, she saw stars. Lily dropped her to the floor. Aspen wasn't fully unconscious, but she shut her eyes and pretended to be out. Anything to save her head from another bashing.
"Good, good. This is working out better than expected. Now I just need the rest of your friends."
Aspen's mind was working. Amber and Callie would eventually find them. It was only a matter of time. With the dampener interfering, Amber wouldn't be able to use her powers to cut off the computer's energy. Aspen needed to do something to warn them, but she had no way of contacting them. She wouldn't make it across the room. The minutes stretched on until the computer said, "Ah, the others have arrived. Now my team will be complete."
Now as Aspen lay on the floor as the computer who called itself Modok ordered the Elite after her team and the remaining inhumans, Aspen pulled her knife from her pocket. She needed to make sure that Modok couldn't assert his mind control over Amber and Callie. The others moved to attack Aspen's teammates while Amber and Callie stood looking powerless. Aspen could see the frustration on Amber's face. The Elite relied on their powers while the Avengers were trained in combat. Aspen could do without her abilities. As Modok screeched commands to the Elite under his control, Aspen moved toward the screen. The A.I.M. agents were all facing the fight, guns at their sides. A computer needed a power source. If she could cut the source then she could sever the mind control and put Modok out of commission. Perhaps not permanently but long enough to free the Elite. She was hoping it would take out the power dampener as well. Corbin's power could render the A.I.M. agents' weapons useless.
She didn't even have time to wonder just what Steve, Natasha, and Clint were doing here. Were Tony and Thor with them too? Had one of them followed her after all?
Several cords ran from the computer into the wall, and Aspen moved toward them, her knife clenched in determined hands. A blast of fire hit the wall a few inches away from Aspen's face. She ducked down, but it was just an errant blast of fire meant for Clint. The Avengers were defending themselves and trying as hard as they could not to hurt the Elite. The Elite, however, were raining down an attack on the three Avengers with no qualms about hurting them – at least in their mind-controlled state. Clint ducked and weaved as Julian pursued him with fire. Natasha had Lily pinned down, and Steve intervened as Corbin charged Natasha. She turned back to the cords. Reaching up, she began to saw at the closest one. She felt the tiniest jolt of electricity as the knife severed the cord. Nothing else happened so she grabbed the next cord and began to cut through it. Somehow Modok felt that because the second the knife slipped through the wiring, he screeched. One of his tentacle like arms reached for her, and Aspen felt metal clamp around her middle. She grabbed the last cord as he tried to drag her away, but her fingers slipped off of it.
"Clint!" she shouted. "Shoot the cord!"
Whatever Clint was doing, he must have stopped to shoot because the next second an arrow sliced straight through the last cord. The arm went slack and the computer screen dimmed until it was blank. Aspen fell to the floor in a heap.
"Aspen!" she heard Steve's voice and felt his arms around her a second later, pulling her to her feet. "Are you all right?"
"Just a bit battered." Aspen turned to see if the mind controlled Elite were back to themselves. Natasha was still holding down Lily who looked surprised and disoriented. Zane was still unconscious, Julian was looking horrified, and Corbin was clenching his fists. A second later all the guns in the room crumpled. The A.I.M. agents cried out as their weapons were rendered useless. One of them dashed toward the computer as if to try to restart it, but Clint sent an arrow his way and a net burst from the end, trapping the agent where he stood.
"We accept your surrender," Clint told the rest of the agents. No one argued.
…
"Some mess your friends made back there," Tony said as Clint piloted the Avenjet back to Avengers Tower.
"It wasn't their fault. It was a trap," Aspen said. "Someone knew they were coming. Which brings me to the question of how you came to be there," she added, looking around at her team. "This was supposed to be my mission but you came crashing in to save the day. I'll be lucky if any of the Elite talk to me again. They probably think I called you in."
"They did," Tony said. "At least electric girl said as much. After she fried my suit. Anyway, taking down an A.I.M. base wasn't your mission. Your mission was to infiltrate these guys and make sure they were on the level. I'm not so sure I'm convinced they are."
Aspen sent him a glare. "Why?"
"Like you said, someone knew they were coming. Who else would have known other than their own teammates?"
"You're suggesting someone in the Elite tipped off A.I.M.?" Aspen asked.
"They had those suits ready made," Natasha put in. "A.I.M. has known about these guys for awhile now."
"Had anyone ever heard of Modok before?" Steve asked. Everyone shook their heads. "What he did – if he was even a person at any point – it was similar to Zola. He'd basically had his mind preserved in a computer."
"He definitely thought and spoke like a real person," Aspen said. "He seemed to be in charge."
"He did say his other body had been damaged. Did he mean his real body?" Steve pondered.
"I have a feeling he's not gone," Aspen said. "Not if he can switch bodies through technological devices."
"How could he control minds anyway? He had those kids completely under his control."
"I'm not sure I like the idea of mind-controlling computers one bit," Clint said. "Thank your mom again for that serum."
"Seems A.I.M. has been up to more than we thought," Tony said.
"You knew that they were here?" Aspen asked.
"Natasha has been spying on them for awhile. That's why we were there tonight. Not to spy on you."
Aspen turned her eyes on Natasha as the redheaded spy spoke. "I knew they were building something, but I didn't know what. I overheard that they were getting a shipment of weapons in tonight and thought it was time we moved in. We had no idea the Elite were on the same mission."
"Well, admittedly you guys did save us. Without their powers they had no idea what to do with themselves."
"Is there a thank you hidden under all that?" Tony asked, lifting an eyebrow.
Aspen fixed him with a look. "You completely showed them up and made them feel like a bunch of amateurs," Aspen told him.
"That's exactly what they are," Tony defended.
"No one wants to hear that to their face. Especially from Tony Stark."
"Well, what was I supposed to tell them? Good effort? Here's a ribbon for trying?"
"Hey," Steve interrupted. "That's not helping." His blue eyes switched between the two of them, and Aspen sighed and backed down.
"You're right. Sorry, Tony. I just want to believe that they're good kids. I do think they are. Tonight was a disaster, but we got the bad guys in the end and nobody got really hurt." Lily had been pretty shaken and though Julian and the others had masked it better, Aspen had seen a definite crack in their confidence. It didn't help that there was a possibility of a mole in their group. Aspen couldn't imagine not trusting her own teammates.
"They might not run like an oiled machine, but they're not the villains. I'll give them that," Tony said.
"How generous of you," Aspen said dryly. "They just need a little guidance. A mentor."
"You?" Tony asked.
"Maybe. Or all of us. Shouldn't we be role models?"
"If you want to spend your time training newbies, be my guest. I have other things to worry about right now," Tony said. "Like what happened to that weapons shipment? We searched the entire building and there were no weapons save the ones already there."
"The Elite took them," Aspen said. "Corbin was going to use his ability to destroy them."
"And what was his ability exactly?" Tony asked.
"He can basically crumple things like metal into tiny balls."
"Like what he did with the guns," Clint interjected.
"Exactly."
"How do we know he'll do it?" Tony asked. "How do we know they're not keeping the weapons for themselves?"
"Because they don't use weapons. They are weapons. Those kids don't know the first thing about fighting. You should have seen Amber's face when she couldn't use her powers. They don't know how to use weapons, just their powers. I can make sure they do destroy them if you don't trust them," she added.
"Good idea."
"Let's just give them the time they need to recover," Steve said, pushing into the conversation before Aspen and Tony could start up another argument. "Their team took a hit. No one just gets over having their mind controlled."
"Fine, we wait," Tony conceded. "But if I get one whiff of those weapons, we're going in."
"I swear I didn't know you were there tonight," Steve said as he and Aspen alighted from the jet back at the tower.
"I know. How could you?"
"I trust you, and I think you did the best you could tonight. You saved those kids from being turned into A.I.M. weapons."
"With a little help. You know it's funny, just this morning we were staging an argument just so I could get their attention because they were this aloof, mysterious group and I felt like I had to prove something to them, but tonight… Tonight I realized how much more experienced I am. Even more than Amber and Julian who have had their powers longer than me. It wasn't just about powers. I don't rely on my powers to get me through a mission. I know I have to rely on instinct and skill too. They're not soldiers or spies, they're just a bunch of kids with superpowers who think they have a greater mission in life. They need to learn that there are threats out there that go beyond any power they might possess. Fortunately for them they do work together as a team and there's so much potential there. They just need someone to guide them. I'm not sure they trust or respect me enough to let me mentor them…"
"I think you helped save them tonight and that counts for something."
"You don't think they've completely lost their trust in me?"
"You're the one who figured out how to break the mind control. They'll remember that," Steve told her.
It was past midnight when they finally fell into bed, exhausted by the day's events. Aspen curled into Steve's side, still achy and raw from the attack. Aspen felt like she could sleep for a week, but she knew this wasn't over. There were still missing pieces and loose threads, and she was too curious not to pick at them.