Physical and Mental Conflict
Within the tourist shopping area of Santa Monica, people getting out from late night drinking, partying, and shopping roam the sidewalks and cross the streets, traveling to their next stop on their mental agenda. Even though midnight draws closer, people still move about on the well-lit streets, unaware of the person that moved past them. That one person was about to make their calm, cheerful night until a chaotic, fearful nightmare.
Angela, still under the influence of the book, treads in silence on a sidewalk, lined with mostly jewelry and electronic stores. She had her mission from Loki and she was going to succeed in doing it. She couldn't resist Loki's and the book's control because the book and its wielder took away all concept of self thought and perception that it deemed to be a threat to the book and its wielder. Angela could not save herself, like she had many times before in her own galaxy.
Angela mentally notes what each store has in its window when she walks past it. Once she gets to the other end of the block, she decides on which store she would enter into and walks around the corner and heads down the first alley that appears on her right. She may have been under another influence, but she still had her tactics and skills. Angela knew that just breaking into the front of a jewelry store would be a fool's idea of a great plan. Sneaking in through a backdoor, if there was one, would be more concealed from tourists' eyes.
After traversing halfway through the trash-littered alleyway, Angela spots a door on her right. Knowing that she is behind the building she had observed and wanted to enter, the corrupted Jedi quickly glances up and down the alley before using powers of the Dark Side to unlock the door, as if she had the key to the establishment.
Upon entering, Angela glances around the single room with her red, Sith eyes. The light from the main street filters through the store windows, giving some visibility to Angela as she worked her way over to the first case. A straight line of diamond rings in little red and blue boxes was in the first case Angela viewed. Quickly glancing outside and inside the case, Angela notes that there are pressure sensors on the case, let alone another lock. It's no trouble for Angela as she picks the lock again using her powers and then slowly lifts up the lid to the case while adding the perfect amount of pressure to the sensors, keeping the alarm from sounding off. This process continues for several more cases until Angela realizes that she wouldn't be able to carry all of the jewelry with just her bare hands. As fate would have it, the store also sold a variety of handbags and satchels. Taking a brown one and a black one, she takes each strap and pulls it over her head; and then, she shifts each satchel over to her sides, making the two straps cross her chest and keeping her hands free from holding them.
Finally, Angela had filled both satchels with a variety of jewelry. She had taken longer than she wanted to. She knew that the longer she stayed, the greater the risk of being spotted. Buckling the satchels shut, Angela leaves the store the way she came and walks out of the alley and continues down the sidewalk, as if she was a tourist just taking a shortcut through the block of shopping centers. She keeps from meeting anyone's gaze, so that they would not see her abnormal eye color. If they did, it would draw unwanted attention. Normally, she wouldn't care about her appearance, but she had a mission to finish and she planned on completing it without any significant interference.
The Avengers, including Logan and Trent, had split up once they reached Santa Monica. Each person had a ear piece which would allow for them to communicate with the rest of the group. Thor and Tony kept to the skies, each going in the direction opposite of one another. If they spotted Angela from the air, they would pinpoint and give directions to the others. Bruce walked on the beach, trying to see if Angela was walking on the sand, in the darkness. Steve was just outside of the main shopping district, glancing around him. Logan decides to head to the nearest ghetto, believing that she could have taken this route. Trent, as fate would have it, walked through the middle of the shopping district, slightly hoping that he could find Angela before anyone else from the group did; yet, he was also slightly hoping that he wouldn't find her first, because he knew if he couldn't talk Angela down and she were to fight him, he would lose; and it wouldn't be pretty.
Maneuvering in his Mark 42 suit, Tony flies over and soars above the sandy beach of Santa Monica, checking up on Bruce.
"Do you see anything from down there, Bruce?"
"I can barely see anything down here. If I do find Angela, I'll be in her face before I can tell it's her." Bruce, knowing he would have to be on top of Angela before he even saw her, studies every person that is walking on the beach, before even getting close to them.
"Just be cautious." Trent promptly says over their communications. "She's on edge and may attack if you get near her."
"How are you so certain?" Thor asks in his usual flair of speech.
"I can sense what she's feeling, which means I'm getting closer to her." Trent lets out a nervous breath. "Hopefully, she can't pick us out before we even see her."
Tony turns and flies towards the outskirts of the main shopping district, running Trent's words over and over through his head. Everyone else was doing it as well, hoping that they could find Angela, before she would leave the Santa Monica area without them noticing.
Angela, satchels still by her sides, continues walking nonchalantly away from the shops, setting her course to the camp in the woods, where Loki was waiting for her to return. She looks ahead to see some tree tops that were just barely visible above the buildings that were at least twenty stories high. A slight, devious smirk shows on Angela's face; but it quickly disappears upon Angela feeling a hand on her right shoulder. She stops dead in her tracks, shrugs the hand off of her shoulder and quickly spins around to face the person who had touched her.
She doesn't recognize him. His short, dark brown hair was standing straight on his head. He was slightly taller than her, wore the average denim jeans and blue, long-sleeved shirt like anyone else would, and possessed emerald green eyes. He looked average to her.
"Angela." The guy asks while looking into her blood red eyes. "What are you doing all the way out here?" he asks gently and sincerely.
Angela takes a step back from him. "And just who may you be and how do you know my name?"
Trent doesn't take a step towards her. He doesn't want her to feel intimidated to the point of her fleeing from or fighting him.
"You...you don't recognize me?"
"Why should I? You look the same as everyone else here. Now, before I turn to walk away from you and continue on my way, answer my questions I just asked you." Angela stares into Trent's eyes, which causes his voice to waver in firmness.
"Uh, well...my n-name is Trent." Angela continues to glare at him, while he continues to answer Angela's questions. "And the reason that I know your name is because...well...long story short, you have taught me the ways of the Jedi."
Angela glare is no longer one of study, but one of sudden anger. Trent sees and feels the anger flow through her, giving her a sudden spike in Dark Side energy that was already within and around her.
"First off, kid. I'm no Jedi. I both laugh at and loathe those hypocrites. Secondly, I know for a fact that I've never met someone that trembles before me so much." Angela steps forward to the point that she is mere inches from Trent's face. "You may not be outwardly showing it, but inwardly, you fear me."
With her red eyes, she looks into his green eyes and keeps her gaze there. "Tell me, Trent. Why are you so fearful of me? Is it because of the black streaks in my blonde hair that seep with the darkest of powers? Could it be the color of my eyes? Are they so red that they make you feel as though you are looking at your own spilled blood? Tell me, Trent. What is it that makes you feel so small and weak?"
Trent answers Angela weakly but honesty. "I fear this side of you that I have never seen. I'm not only frightened for my safety, but for yours as well."
Angela raises an eyebrow to this. "Why do you fear for my safety when you fear me?"
"Because I know who you really should be." Trent stars to reach for Angela's shoulder, hoping that he could convince her to come with him without having the Avengers appear within her sights and causing her to do something dangerous to herself and others. "This is not you, Angela." Trent is successful in laying a friendly hand on Angela's left shoulder.
"Really? And just who am I?"
"You are Angela, Jedi Knight of the New Jedi Order, Halva of the Force, and most importantly, the perfect mentor and closest friend of Trent Revan."
Glancing from Trent's gaze, Angela looks as though she truly believes what Trent is saying. When Angela looks back at him, he couldn't help but slightly smile at her, believing that he had actually gotten through to her, without the Avengers' getting involved.
However, Angela's calm, trusting look on her face suddenly vanishes and is replaced with one of the most malicious smirks that Trent had ever witnessed. Sensing that he is in danger Trent goes to remove his hand from Angela's shoulder. However, he is not quick enough. Bending the Dark Side energy to her will, Angela surrounds her entire body in Force lightning. The arcs of electricity jump and travel around her and Trent, since he was unable to remove his hand in time. While Angela has a slight barrier of Force energy that keeps the electricity from physically touching her. Trent does not. Some of the electricity travels to his whole entire body, from his hand on Angela's shoulder. His muscle involuntarily tense at the electrical arcs that touch and surround him. He screams in agony, unable to pull his hand away from her. Angela, with the same malicious smirk, stands motionless, enjoying the moments of beautiful agony that Trent experiences. But, Trent does not last as long as Angela would have liked. He soon loses consciousness and collapses onto the sidewalk.
Angela stops the Force lightning and looks around the area to see that everyone outside had seen what she had just did. Some people stood in silence, while other stood in groups and talked amongst themselves, while still maintaining eye contact with Angela. Most people, who has witnessed the event, fled away from the area, a couple of them screaming along the way. However, not one person dared to approach her or even utter any words to her out of fear, and Angela reveled in it.
Then, the situation changes. The people take their gaze off her and look up towards the sky, smiles replacing their terrorized faces and shouts of joy coming from their mouths.
"It's Iron Man!", "He'll stop her.", and other shouts come from the people watching Iron Man, as lands in the middle of the street and then removes his faceplate. He had to make sure that what he saw through the suit was really what had happened.
Sure enough, Tony saw Trent crumpled on the sidewalk, right next to Angela's feet. Stark then looks at Angela, who looked to be in her Halva state, except one item was not correct. Tony was just close enough to make out her eye color, which was no longer the calming blue that they normally are or in the Halva state. Instead, they were blood-red. He knew very well that they were the eyes of a Sith.
Stark doesn't move an inch towards her, even though he wanted to. Tony, and the others had heard Angela and Trent talking to each other. Even though Trent thought that he had switched off his ear piece before making direct contact with her, he had only switched off his receiver so that he could not hear anything that the other Avengers were saying. Stark, not knowing this, had given everyone the coordinates to Trent's position and had suggested to Trent to not engage her until they all got together and confronted her. It wouldn't have matter anyways, since Trent had planned on confronting Angela by himself, believing that all of them trying to talk to Angela at once would make her flee from them or attack them suddenly.
"Angela. There you are. We were wondering where you went."
This greeting from Tony makes Angela glare at him with extremely scrutiny. "We? Who are the people that make up this 'we'?"
Stark was slow to answer; but he answers her question by showing it to her. "Is everyone near my location?" Tony waits for everyone's answer. "Alright, come out and group with me in the street."
From around one corner came Steve, dressed in a stealth suit that he and Stark had made, carrying his shield on his back. From down the street walked Bruce, who had cut through mostly alleyways to reach Stark's location. And then, from the night sky, came Thor, who landed next to the group while holding his weapon, Mjölnir within his right hand. Everyone, that made up the 'we', was within Angela's sight.
Just as about Tony was going to start speaking to Angela again, she begins to chuckle at them. Then, slowly raising her left hand into the air, she lifts Trent's limp body off the ground and, with her right hand, she reaches to her side and ignites her lightsaber, pointing the very tip of the blade between Trent's closed eyes.
"You know, I really hate people that lie directly at my face. So, unless you want me to lobotomize this 'Trent Revan' that I had the pleasure of meeting a few moments ago, I suggest you show all of your people immediately."
This malicious statement from Angela causes everyone to mentally take a step back. Whether each Avenger had known Angela for nearly a year or a couple of days, neither one of them believed that Angela would ever take a life, even if she was outmatched and her life was threatened. They each decided to believe in the idea that Loki more than likely had something to do with Angela's change in character and thought.
Realizing that one of them was not with the group, Steve tries to contact him with his earpiece. "Logan, where are you at?"
"I'm in a position to take her down. That's where I'm at."
Steve shifts his eyes around the area where Angela stands, trying to spot Logan. "Stand down, Logan and group with us on the street. We don't want her to feel threatened by us."
"I'm tired of this dishonesty." Angela states, while reaching out with the Dark Side of the Force, grabbing hold of Logan and throwing him off the rooftop that Angela was standing under. With a flick of her wrist, Angela sends Logan flying from above her. He crashes onto the pavement, only a few feet from the Avengers, but he quickly picks himself off of the ground and walks slowly over to the group.
Remembering that she was levitating Trent's unconscious, limp body in her Force grasp, Angela also sends him flying directly towards the grouped Avengers. Since she threw Trent harder than Logan, Thor ends up catching him as soon as he is within his reach.
"I suggest, that since you have an unconscious man in your position, you should all leave to go to a medical facility and leave me be." Angela turns to head away from the Avengers, until she hears one of them speak back to her.
"Wait a minute, Angela."
Even though she could have kept walking, Angela turns back to face the man who addressed her.
Bruce, who was normally the silent type, walks a couple of feet towards Angela, but stops far enough away so as to not provoke Angela anymore than she already was. "Before you leave, wouldn't you like some free information?"
Angela slightly tilts her head in confusion at this, not only because of someone she didn't know was about to give her free information, but also because she couldn't sense, with the Force, what benefit he would receive out of it.
"Free information? What free information are you going to tell me, which will actually benefit me?"
Bruce takes in then lets out a deep breath before planting the seed, in Angela's mind, that would hopefully convince her that her current state of mind was not what it normally was.
"Well, to start off, I have a question for you." Bruce quickly prays that he has the right question for her. "Do you know who you are?"
Angela sneers at the question. "Of course I know who I am! Do you take me for a fool?!"
Bruce shakes his head. "No, no I don't take you for a fool. Actually, I believe you to be quite intelligent. The reason I ask you if you know your name is because I don't."
"Well, you're the first one that I've talked to today who doesn't know my name." Angela, with a slight grin on her face, answers the question in confidence. "My name is Angela."
Bruce keeps his poker face going, even though Angela's answer was the kind of answer he wanted to hear. "...Angela? Just Angela?"
"Yes. Just Angela."
"Angela, what is your last name?"
Angela opens her mouth to answer back, but her last name eludes her thoughts. "I...i-it doesn't matter what my last name is!"
Bruce slowly takes a couple of more steps forward towards Angela, while continuing to give her his "free information". "If your last name does not matter to you, does the mark on the back of your right hand not matter either?"
Angela brings her right hand up in front of her face. Sure enough, there was a symbol etched into her skin and it was glowing black in color. Something about the symbol on her hand just didn't click. She could not grasp any concept to think about how it got there. This caused to her to slowly lose it and she had several people to take it out on.
"What is this marking?! Did you put it there?!" Angela's anger builds with each word she shouts to Bruce, who starts to take a couple of steps back towards the group.
"No, Angela, I didn't put it there." Bruce motions to the rest of the group. "We didn't put it there. And, I'm certain that you didn't put it there either." Bruce tries to calm her down and turn her thinking in a different direction. Angela's reaction was starting to lead off in the direction he didn't want it to go. The direction was that Angela would flee or fight them, instead of calmly going with them to figure out why she had the etched symbol and why Loki might be behind this whole event.
Within seconds of Bruce's answer to her, Angela finally snaps. She lets her anger show by using the Force to send a gigantic gust of wind, towards the Avengers. All of them, except Stark, fly backwards, landing several yards away. Tony is able to fly against the gust of wind until it disappears.
"Leave me alone!" Angela shouts, as she runs from them and away from the area of Santa Monica. She runs as fast as she can, still carrying both satchels full of stolen jewelry. Not only was Angela enraged at what Bruce had spoken to her, but also, she had a slight fear about what the symbol was on the back of her hand. It made Angela question everything that she knew by asking, "what if?".
Seeing Angela take off from them, Tony flies towards her, hoping to cut in front of her. However, she hears him get closer and decides to react instantly. Focusing on her anger and fear, she blast Stark with a gust of wind, more immense than the previous one, once he was right above her. This causes Tony to soar straight up into the night sky and out of anyone's sight.
Next comes Logan, running full speed towards Angela, until Angela creates lightning and shoots the streaks of electricity from her finger tips. The bolts of lightning hit Logan, causing him to scream in pain; but, he slowly continues his advancement towards Angela. This makes Angela raise an eyebrow, as she decides to grip him with her powers and sends him flying through a showcase window of a nearby store.
Just after throwing Logan through the store window, Thor quickly flies in from behind and wraps his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides. She tries to physically break free from him, but fails to do so.
"Just yield and let us help you." The god of thunder says in her left ear, as he continues to have a firm grip around on her.
"How about 'nay'." Angela replies, mocking Thor's type of language. She then uses the air around her and performs a Force repulse, which makes Thor lose his grip and instantly fly backwards and land several hundred yards away. The repulse also cracks the ground around her and causes several nearby windows to blow out, even some of the buildings close to her had gained cracks that were very deep in the buildings' structures.
No longer having to deal with the god of thunder, Angela continues running down the sidewalk, heading out of the town. Even though her natural, dark side tendency would be to fight them all to the death, her mind was telling her otherwise. What Bruce had told her had made her question what exactly was up with the symbol on the back of her right hand. The symbol was familiar too her, yet she could not place it. With the thought still fresh in her head, Angela continues running towards her destination.
"I was right in thinking that this wouldn't be easy; but this is one time that I wish that I was wrong." Tony hovers above the area where the Avengers were, and tracks Angela's moving position with the suit. "Everyone listen up. If we are going to stop Angela and get her to come with us, we are going to work fast. Cap, you and Logan will run up-"
"We aren't going to go after her." Tony hears Trent through his earpiece. Instead of replying through the earpiece, Tony pilots his suit downwards and makes contact with the street, landing just a few feet from Trent, who had just regained consciousness from the blast of lightning he had received from Angela. Bruce, who had stayed with Trent to look after him, was still studying him over for any injuries.
Tony makes the face plate of his helmet open up. "You seem so certain that we aren't."
By this time, the other Avengers, including Logan, had grouped together again, all of them standing around Trent, who was sitting on the ground, and Bruce, who was kneeling besides him, still checking over Trent.
"You said it yourself. We know that this 'Loki' is most likely behind her acting this way. We know where he is and she's heading that way right now." Feeling well enough to stand, Trent does so very carefully, since he still feels groggy from being hit by the lightning. "I would say that we should head their next, but what's to stop him and Angela from attacking us? Not one of us could stop her. She's too powerful for any of us to take down without hurting her."
By this time, Tony's patience with Trent's attitude had been rubbed paper-thin. "You keep acting as though there isn't a chance to help her out, without having to deal with Loki just yet." Tony's voice intensifies as he tries to tell Trent otherwise. "Sure, she may be this Halva in the prophecy that you have mentioned; and sure, she managed to knock us around. But, that is because some of us didn't stick with the plan." Tony shoots a look at Logan, who was across from him.
Logan walks confidently up and gets right in Tony's face, and since his faceplate was up, Tony could feel Logan's breath on his bare face. "When you fight through several wars, live to be 182 years old, and still manage to look and feel in your prime, then you can tell me what my part in your plan is. As for this situation, I will not take orders from any of you." Logan turns his body around and looks at Steve, who wasn't letting on what he was thinking about Logan.
"Not even you, Captain. Don't take it too personally."
Placing his shield on his back and sliding off his helmet, Steve replies back to Logan's little comment. "I don't take it personally. What I do take personally is that Angela is still under Loki's influence. You and Stark bickering amongst yourselves isn't going to help her out."
Being a captain, Steve had led several groups in battle. Most of the time, it was his own unit, the Howling Commandos. They had a brotherly bond and an unbreakable confidence in each other, except that one day. That one day where they lost one of their own. Even though Steve still felt guilt over the ordeal, he still laid out plans and strategies to use in battle. He had still been successful in halting enemy forces and saving men's lives. He may have lost his childhood friend, but he knew that he was going to get Angela back, even if he had to do it without anyone else's assistance.
"Instead of just doing our own thing, we need to work as a team, like we did when the Chitauri invaded New York. I have a plan. It might just work if we actually work together and follow it through. So, what is it going to be?"
As Steve words fade away into silence, Thor's answer breaks away the silence. "Whatever tactic you have laid out, I shall follow it, Captain."
Tony was next. "You're battle plan for the Chitauri worked. So, I believe this one will too."
Logan was next to reply, but it wasn't by words. The sound of footsteps on pavement were slowing fading away from the group, which makes everyone look at Logan in confusion.
"Where are you walking off to?" Being still ticked off at Logan, for no good reason whatsoever, Tony asks him, his bitterness towards Logan showing through his question.
"I'm done here." Logan looks over his left shoulder. "Again, Captain, don't take it too personally. I only take orders from one person anymore, and that's me." Logan continues his departure from the group. "I'm pretty confident your plan will work , without me being involved in it, Captain." And, that was Logan's last say in the matter. He walks off into the darkness of night, without turning to look back at the Avengers.
As if Logan walking off didn't matter, Steve continues to talk to the group. "Like I said, we need to work as a team." He looks at Trent. " 'We' being everyone of us."
Trent nods . "Yeah. Actually, I'm confident, that the next time we confront her, we will be successful."
"Why do you say that?" Thor asks.
Trent looks to Bruce. "It's what Bruce said to Angela." Trent then talk to Banner. "When you mentioned to Angela the mark on her hand, her whole presence in the Force began to waver. I think she is starting to realize something isn't right about her situation."
Bruce replies back to Trent. "That may give us the advantage we need. But if it doesn't..."
"It must." Trent lowers his voice, but remains certain about his believe. "If it doesn't, we will not succeed in stopping Loki, let alone saving Angela."
FREAKING FINALLY I FINISHED THIS CHAPTER! So, yeah. I hope this was good. Only a couple of chapters left in this story. So...do you guys want a third story? I was thinking making the Guardians of the Galaxy appear in the next story...and Thanos too cause Infinity Gauntlet...yep. If you want it, just leave a review of some kind. Actually, leave on anyways cause extra long chapter and I kinda wanna see if anyone is still reading this.
~TheJediAvenger~