Chaos Chapter 12: Old Enemies, New Faces:
Wanda was reading while waiting for Stiles to come home. Pietro was in the living room watching American television. Ever since Stiles had introduced his brother to Game Of Thrones, the speedster had been hooked on the medieval show. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was past three. Stiles should have been home two hours ago.
There was a knock at the door and Wanda got up to answer it. On the other side of the door was Scott McCall holding his lacrosse gear. "Scott what are you doing here?" Wanda asked. Scott said "Didn't Stiles tell you he was going to get a game of lacrosse going with the Pack?, it was kinda last minute thing but he said he was going to ask you to come".
Wanda was confused now. "But Stiles isn't home yet, in fact he was supposed to be here two hours ago" she told Scott. Scott pulled out his phone and tried to ring John. "Who are you ringing?" Pietro asked having now walked into the hallway.
"Stiles's Dad, Stiles said he was going to get lunch with him, He's the only one I can call seeing as how Stiles hasn't answered me yet" Scott explained but there was no answer. Worried now, Scott tried the station and thankfully somebody answered. "Hello, can I speak to the Sheriff please, its about his son Stiles, tell him its Scott McCall" Scott said to the person on the other end.
"Sorry kid, the Sheriff went out to lunch with his kid about a few hours back and I haven't seen him since" the person said. "T... Thanks" Scott said hanging up the phone. Scott told Wanda and Pietro of the situation "It's probably nothing but still..." Wanda thought before sending out mental feelers for Stiles's mind.
She felt it but for some reason it appeared to be getting further and further away. One thing that registered with Wanda was the fact that Stiles must be unconscious as there was no images from Stiles point of view, only darkness. Wanda tried to hold the connection but it got harder and harder to do so the farther away Stiles got. It was the equivalent of trying to hold vapor in one's hand.
"I can barely feel him, he's unconscious and it feels like he is being... taken away far beyond where my powers can reach" Wanda told them. Scott dialed his phone again waiting for an answer. Derek picked up after a few rings.
"What is it Scott?" Derek asked. "It's Stiles and John, Derek I think they're missing" Scott told him. The line was silent before Derek said "Pack meeting at my place, now". A few minutes later the whole Pack was assembled in Derek's loft. "What's going on Derek?" Isaac asked his Alpha.
"Half an hour ago, Scott called and told me that Stiles and his father were missing and that no one had seen them in hours" Derek told the Pack. "And you think something bad happened to them" Boyd concluded. Derek nodded. "But that's crazy, Stiles has superpowers, how could someone get the drop on him?" Erica asked.
"We are still human, Enhanced though we are we can still be killed and hurt through the normal methods, as well as that we have only recently gained our abilities so even now we are still getting a handle on them" Pietro explained. "What can we do?" Boyd asked.
"Scott said that the last place that anyone saw them was when they were heading out for lunch to a diner nearby the station, Seeing as how they were only taken recently the scent should still be fresh" Derek explained. The Pack nodded in understanding and they took off for the diner that Scott mentioned. Once they got there they roamed up and down the streets for clues.
"Derek" Scott called from the alleyway. The Pack and the twins converged towards Scott's voice. When they got to Scott, they saw him holding the remains of John Stilinski's phone. Derek took the phone and sniffed it trying to catch the scent. He tracked the smell which was leading out to the highway.
"It's going to be difficult to track the scent on the highway, the noise and smell will make it difficult to pick up a trail" Derek said. "If you can give a general direction that we can drive towards, I might be able to hone in on Stiles's mental presence the closer we get" Wanda said to Derek. Derek nodded and went to retrieve his car.
Meanwhile
Stiles woke up with a sore headache. He tried to move but his legs and arms were bound to a chair. He took in his surroundings and noted that he was in a dimly lit grey room with no windows. "Where the hell am I?" thought Stiles. The door to his "cell" opened and the man who Stiles knew to be George Wentworth walked in.
"Wentworth what the hell is going on? Where the hell am I? Where's my Dad?" Stiles asked. Ward raised a hand and said "Silence kid, first off my name is Grant Ward, second off you will do as I say or else you'll bury your last living parent". Stiles groaned and bit back the retort he had planned and simply asked "What do you want from me?".
Ward said "Simple really, I lost something very important to me and that something can only be brought back to me with your powers". Stiles listened while getting ready to attack. "Sorry can't help you buddy besides that something won't be half as important when I raise this building to the ground with this" Stiles growled.
Stiles let loose his powers only to discover that they weren't working. "What the hell did you do to me?" Stiles growled. Ward walked over and untied Stiles and then lifted up Stiles's arms to show that they were encased in metallic glowing wristbands.
"Just a little present to make sure our encounter goes smoothly" Ward said. Stiles focused on the wristbands and tried to will them off but they wouldn't budge. "No use trying kid and just in case your getting any fancy ideas about trying to run or refusing to do what I tell you, you should take a look at this" Ward told Stiles, taking out his phone and showing him a live video.
The video showed John waking up tied down to a chair like Stiles was. On John's neck was a metallic collar with blinking red lights on it. "Now, you're probably wondering what's on your Dad's neck, to answer that question, the object you see is a bomb collar, if I trigger the button, most of your Dad will be blown up and incinerated, so tell me Stiles are you ready to listen to me now?" Ward explained to Stiles who was looking at the screen horror stricken.
"Please I'll do whatever you want, just let my Dad go" Stiles pleaded with Ward. Ward smirked and said "Now that's the sort of attitude I'm looking for, get up and follow me kid, do as I say and you and your Dad can walk out of here unharmed". Stiles followed the ex-SHIELD agent out of the room.
Out in the hallway there where two guards stationed, each of them holding guns. Ward led Stiles down to what appeared to be a morgue and gestured for the guards to leave them. "So whats this thing you want me to find?" Stiles asked the led Stiles over to one of the morgue's holders and pulled out the body of dead young woman with black hair, tanned skin and a scarred face. "What the...?" Stiles wondered.
Ward stood in front of Stiles and said "This is Kara Palamas, she was my girlfriend before SHIELD killed her but with your power, she will live again because you are going to bring her back to life".
"But my powers can't bring people back to life, they can only heal people" Stiles told him. "Not according to the reports from Sokovia, apparently you brought Maximoff back to life, I'm sure you can do the same for Kara" Ward told him.
Stiles shook his head and said "That's because Pietro was on the brink of death and it nearly killed me to do so". Ward's face grew angry and said "Maybe I haven't made myself clear Mr. Stilinski, either you bring back Kara or the last thing you'll see before you die will be your father's body painting the walls of his cell, do you understand me?".
Stiles gulped in fear and nodded his head. "Good, now that we have that unpleasantness over with we can get to work, I'm going to switch off your inhibitors and if you try anything funny, know that my associates have a remote control trigger just like the one I have in my hand and they will push the detonate button if I am harmed" Ward explained.
Stiles glared at Ward and growled "Fine, give me some space then, I'll need it for this to work". Ward raised his hands in a placating gesture and stepped back to the end of the room, keeping his eyes fixed on Stiles. Stiles looked down at the woman's body and sighed feeling regret for what he was about to do.
He held up his wrists for Ward to see and motioned for him to switch of the inhibitors. Ward did so and Stiles felt his powers return. Stiles raised his hands over the woman and let the familiar violet energy flow.
Highway
The Pack was driving along the road in Scott's mother's car, following Derek in his Camaro. Derek had his head hanging outside the window sniffing the air while Isacc drove. Wanda was in the back seat casting her mind out for Stiles's mental signature.
They eventually drove to an abandoned district that was one town over. She gasped as felt that familiar spark again. "He's nearby, keep going" she ordered. Isaac nodded and he sped up the car. Derek picked up the scent again and it lead to a back road which Derek indicated Isaac to follow. The two vehicles pulled off the road and went down the trail.
Derek heard the sounds of men in the distance so he indicated for the group to stop. The group pulled over and got out of their cars. "Whats wrong Derek, why are we stopping?" Scott asked. "I can hear men in the distance, listen" Derek ordered. The Pack raised their ears and the sound of conversation reached them.
"Did the boss say what we were supposed to be looking out for?" one man asked. "I don't know, he just said to be on the lookout for anything suspicious and if someone comes along, shoot them first ask questions later" the second man replied. "I'll go and check the situation out, we'll decide what to do then" Derek told them. The group nodded and Derek proceeded towards the voices.
Derek located them standing just outside the backdoor of an old abandoned hospital. Derek concentrated and let his senses tell him what he needed to know. There appeared to be twenty humans, all of them armed with guns and most of the men appeared to be inside. Derek retreated and went back to his Pack.
"I found the place, it appears to be and old hospital with..." Derek trailed off as he saw his Pack and the Maximoffs with their hands in the air surrounded by people holding high-tech guns. A man with blue yes, medium build and was balding stepped forward and said to Derek "Mr Hale, my name is Director Phil Coulson with SHIELD, I believe you need our assistance".
"Wait a minute, I thought that group was broken up after that huge incident in Washington occurred with the Heli-Carriers" Erica said. Phil nodded and replied "It was, now we're a private covert operation trying to rebuild all the damage that HYDRA has caused".
Derek crossed his arms and glared at the older man. "How do we know that you didn't have something to do with this anyway? Why are you even here?" Derek asked, growling slightly. The man appeared unfazed by Derek's glare and words.
Phil said "The man who has your friend and his father, his name is Grant Ward, he was once a member of SHIELD but when the organization fell, he was revealed to be a HYDRA mole, currently he is trying to build HYDRA up from the ground, we've been tracking his movements since then".
Derek still didn't relax his posture and asked "Ok, say I believe you, what does he want with Stiles, does he want to brainwash him? Turn him back into a killing machine". The Maximoffs tried to suppress their fear as they thought about what this man might be doing to their brother and Derek's words weren't helping to calm them down.
"Sir if I may?" one woman asked Phil. The woman had light brown hair, brown eyes and appeared to be of Asian descent. "My name is Agent Daisy Johnson and to answer your question, a few weeks ago, Ward's lover Kara Palamas was killed, we believe that Ward believes that since Mr Stilinski brought Mr Maximoff here back to life, he can do the same for Palamas" Daisy explained.
The group was stunned and Derek asked Phil "What do we do?"
Stiles pushed and pushed the energy but it just resisted his efforts. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't bring Kara back to life. "My powers can only manipulate whats already there, there is no life essence for me to manipulate or return to the body" thought Stiles. He looked over at Ward who was watching the whole process with rapt attention.
Stiles knew that Ward was going to get impatient pretty fast and tried to think of a way to fool Ward into thinking he had brought his girlfriend back to life. He then remembered something from Mr Harris's class. He could hear the asshole going on about it now.
"Well class, I'm probably wasting this tidbit of information on your hormone driven minds but the chemicals you're working on today are used to preserve brain dead patients. Seeing as how there is such a demand for viable organ's the chemicals that you are all using could save someone's life" Mr Harris droned on.
Stiles said to Scott "Well it'd be a waste to use them on this guy, I doubt he has a human soul, let alone viable organs, besides who'd want a piece of Harris inside them". Scott laughed slightly in response.
Unfortunately, Harris heard what Stiles said."Well Mr Stilinski, you might wanna watch what you say because after all these chemicals could keep you alive if I bludgeon your head, pretty sure everyone would thank me for doing the world a favor by ridding it of the sound of your voice, but I'm sure we can talk more in detention after school" Mr Harris told him.
"That's it, I can get the body to live again by giving it all it's functions back" Stiles thought. Gripped with new determination, Stiles refocused his efforts and concentrated on the body itself and not the essence.
He first healed the damage the body sustained by healing the gunshots, the rigor mortis and the blood loss. He even healed the scars on the woman's face. Now came the hard part, getting the body to function on it's own. He placed his hands on the womans head and pushed the energy into her brain.
There appeared to be nothing doing until Stiles felt a spark.
Stiles pushed more energy and the sparks multiplied and the brain activated. Stiles let his energy flow through the body, restarting the organs and the blood flow. The woman's eyes opened but Stiles noticed that they lacked that shine of life. Confident that the woman's body could function on it's own, Stiles gave the body one last jolt of energy before collapsing in exhaustion.
Ward walked over to Stiles and asked "Did it work?". Stiles nodded his head and indicated Kara's body. Ward examined Kara's body looking for any signs of deceit and asked "Why isn't she up and moving?, what the hell is wrong with her?" Ward growled seizing the teenager by the arms and hoisting him up into the air.
Seized by desperation, Stiles willed the body to wake up. To his surprise, the woman sat up and looked at the pair. Ward dropped Stiles to attend to the woman. "Kara, baby, you're alive, how are you feeling?" Ward asking grasping the woman's face. Stiles told the woman what to say while silently sending a small spark of power towards his inhibitors which knocked them off.
"I'm ok Grant, I can't believe I'm back" Kara said without any hint of emotion. Ward knew something was amiss due to Kara's lack of tone and asked "Baby are you feeling alright?". Stiles saw the remote control detonator that was attached to Grant's hip along with his comms device. Making up his mind he said "Kara's dead bitch, get over it".
Stiles severed the connection he had with the body which caused the woman to flop lifelessly on the table again. Acting quickly Stiles threw a small bolt of energy at Ward which made all his electronic devices short-circuit and explode. Ward cursed, trying to now get the flaming devices of his person and prevent them from burning him alive.
Stiles blasted Ward with energy making the man fly back into a wall. Stiles took off out of the morgue. Out in the hallway he spotted the guards who had escorted him. Not breaking pace Stiles did the same maneuver that he had used on Ward by making their devices explode and their guns dismantle.
Stiles rushed down the hallways and tried to make sense of where he was going. He listened for any signs of life. He heard the sounds of men coming towards him so he ducked into a room to his left. He waited until the two men were right beside the door and then loosed off two bolts of energy which knocked the two men unconscious. Stiles ran over to them and dismantled their guns and electronic devices.
He pulled one of the men into the room he was hiding in, shutting the door behind him. He waved his hand oer the soldier letting loose a small haze of energy which woke the man up. Just as the man woke up, Stiles borrowing a trick from his experience with the Kanima, paralyzed the mans body from the neck down.
"What the hell are you doing kid" the guard demanded. "Where is my Dad, douchebag?" Stiles growled. "Screw you kid, I ain't telling you anything" the soldier shot back. Stiles let his eyes glow violet and his hand filled with crackling energy.
"Listen up and listen well, if you don't tell me where my Dad is within the next five minutes, I'll leave you permanently paralyzed for the rest of your life and somehow I don't think Ward offers you guys free medical care in your employment contract, so whats it gonna be?" Stiles said moving his hand behind the mans back, letting the man feel the tendrils of energy that where caressing his spinal area.
The man's eyes widened in fear before he said "The guy's in an old O.R. Room one level down in the basement, three doors to the right when you get off the stairs". "How do I know you're telling the truth?" Stiles asked the man. "Please kid, I'm only in this gig for the cash, that's all" The man told Stiles.
"Well if I were you I'd find a better job" Stiles replied, rendering the man unconscious with another energy bolt. Stiles got up and proceeded in the direction the man told him. He came across a few guards along the way but they were easily dispatched. Finally Stiles reached the area where his father was being kept.
Stiles saw that there were eight guards down the hallway covering the door his father was in. Stiles looked at the ceiling, placed his hand on the wall and willed his power to crawl up towards the ceiling and over the guards heads, the tiny spider-cracks of energy unnoticeable except for the the dimly glowing light that accompanied them. Stiles then sent the ceiling crashing down over their heads.
Most of the guards were pinned under the rubble while the remaining few started shooting randomly in all directions. While they were shooting, Stiles placed his hand on the ground letting his power flow under the guards feet. The ground dissolved and soldiers sunk into the ground up to their necks. Stiles solidified the ground again trapping them in place after which he ran forward, despite the men shouting at him, towards his father's cell door.
He opened the door and was thankfully fast enough to throw up a transparent violet bubble which dissolved the gunshots that were fired at him. Stiles looked into the room and saw three men guarding his father and one of them held the detonator. The man in question reached for the object and Stiles threw his energy shield out throwing the men back and slamming them into the walls of the cell.
Stiles heard a blinking noise of what appeared to be a timer counting down. He saw his father's collar blinking red. Acting quickly Stiles took the collar off his father and threw it into the hallway. He closed the door behind him just as the collar exploded.
Satisfied that they were both safe, Stiles placed his hands on his father's shoulders and healed the man off his injuries. John groggily came to and looked around in bewilderment. "Stiles, what the hell is going on" he asked his son. "Long story short, your deputy is an asshole named Grant Ward, who brought us here because he wanted me to use my powers to bring his dead girlfriend back to life" Stiles answered him.
"Whaa...?" John said confused. "Yeah, I'll explain it to you on the way out, here lets get you out of that chair" Stiles said and began to undo his father's binds. Stiles heard a gunshot and his back exploded in agony as a bullet punctured his lung. Stiles slumped to the ground and raised his head just in time to see a boot hit him straight in the face, breaking his nose.
Stiles tried to focus his powers but the hits kept on coming. "ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS ONE THING, I WOULD HAVE LET YOU WALK OUT OF HERE BUT NOW YOU'VE GONE AND MESSED THINGS UP" Ward shouted, punctuating each word which a blow. He threw Stiles out into the corridor with John watching on in horror.
Wanda grew alarmed as she felt Stiles's pain and brief lapses of consciousness. "We have to get in there now, Ward is killing Stiles" she said. This immediately got the team moving and the group moved towards the complex. Spotting armed guards, Pietro shot forwards and disarmed them. Wanda threw her hands out and hexed the weaponless guards into a wall.
The group progressed on again entering the abandoned hospital. "Split up and search the compound, Skye, I mean... Daisy you're with Hale, Lahey, Hunter, Reyes and Mr Maximoff, Daisy you're team will take the bottom, May you're with me, Ms Maximoff, Boyd and McCall, we'll take the top, everyone got it". The team nodded and took of in their ordered directions.
Meanwhile, John struggled in his binds, inch by inch prying them loose as he listened to the dull thuds and grunts of pain of Ward beating his son to death. He finally got one hand free and used it to untie his other hand.
Once he had freed himself he grabbed a gun from one of the unconscious guards in his cell and headed out to corridor. Ward, by now had his hands wrapped around Stiles's throat and was choking him to death. "You know I never liked kids even when I was a kid, could never stand the constant whining and defiance, before kill you I'm gonna make sure you know the price for not doing what you're told brat" he said calmly as if he weren't strangling a young teenager.
Ward heard a noise and glanced up and saw John creeping towards him with a gun. Ward immediately jumped to his feet just in time to dodge the bullet that John fired. Ward quickly bull rushed the sheriff, tackling him to the ground and wrestling the gun from his hands.
The sheriff tried to fight but he was no match for the younger ex-Specialist and was soon held in a standing headlock with a gun pressed to his temple. Ward turned them around to face Stiles who was trying to raise himself off the floor despite the severe injuries and blood loss he had sustained.
Ward, knowing that he had Stiles attention said "Like I said kid, you are going to see what happens to does who don't play by the rules, After all I did promise you that you're father would die if you didn't comply and I always keep my promises".
Many things occurred to Stiles in that second, one them was that he was going to die soon if he didn't heal his injuries, two his father was going to die if he didn't stop Ward, three he had gradually mustered enough power to heal himself, four unless he used that power to heal himself he'd die, five if he used his power to save his dad he would pass out and render himself unable to heal.
"It's amazing that despite the fact that I've been shot and brutally beaten, I can still think clearly" Stiles thought to himself. He made his decision. He shot his remaining energy towards the ground beneath Ward and John's feet which made it blow up and blast the two men away from each other, thankfully only minorly hurting John. Stiles smiled before giving in to the wave of blackness that was starting consume his vision.
Daisy's team raised there heads at the sound of a gunshot. Immediately Pietro sped off towards the sound. He arrived in the hallway just in time to see Stiles blast at a man holding a gun to John's head. John flew towards Pietro and the speedster luckily caught him and set him down on his feet.
Pietro looked down the corridor and saw Stiles lying on the ground completely motionless, with a pool of blood spreading out from his body. Pietro and John ran over to Stiles's body and tried to rouse him. "Stiles wake up, come on brother you've got to wake up" Pietro cried, tears starting to appear in his eyes.
John checked for a pulse and thanked God when he found a small but weak, unsteady one. Daisy's team, rushed in and took in the scene with horror filled eyes at the sight of the horrifically beaten teenager. "We need to get him to a hospital, NOW!" Daisy ordered breaking everyone out of their shock.
Pietro didn't need any further instructions and picked Stiles's up bridal style. He shot up the stairs and out of the hospital, back towards Beacon Hills.