SarcasticRaven- Thank you so much! That really means a lot to me :3
miller330- I will, I will, I promise!
Kiki Wei- Aww thank you! I'm sure your just as good at writing, maybe even better. It just take practice!
Kai-Aala- Yes you do! Please enjoy it!
Tir-Na-nOg-Niamh- asdfghjkl; dont die on me SKJfhkjrngk;av
ohvafltn- I promise, here you are! :D
I've broken the whole fight up into a few different chapters. I believe there should be one more after this, maybe two more of the huge battle.
Please Enjoy.
*~VIGOR~*
SCHWARZLOSE LABORATORIES
Berlin, Germany
January 7th
12:00 AM
Natasha couldn't help but admire the strategic planning of the underground laboratory. The Lab Rats were actually more of a challenge getting past than usual, their tactics less idiotic and more thought out. They had worked for hours getting into the city of Berlin and actually towards the base of the German madman's lair. The scientists had poured in from all the other labs he had stationed all over Europe, their beefy lackeys fighting like brainwashed savages. Natasha had trouble keeping up sometimes. Thor only remarked that he had fought tougher. It was always easier for a god. The main problem was that they had to battle at top speeds and get to the base quickly. They were on a frantic rush to get into city with not only Ashlyn's life on the line, but the world as they knew it.
According to Bargs (ugh she couldn't stand that whimpering coward), Schwarzlose was put out and enraged by the fact that the serum was a failure. The nuclear stash he had threatened Fury with was actually very much real and dangerous.
The plan for him was to fill the missiles with a special gas that attacked the DNA of humans and encouraged mutations whether unsuccessful and harming to self-boosting and effective. Planted inside the gas were molecules of what he called cerebrum jurisdiction. The two interlaced gasses would not only activate the changes but would affect a human's brains and make them susceptible to being completely and utterly under control of the doctor.
He was a genius. A brilliant, deranged, and foul mastermind.
"Why do these freaks always want to take over?" Clint asked his wife as they fought together. With the two of them it was an intricate dance of springing, leaping, flipping, kicking, and punching. Back to back, front to front, side to side, hand in hand or boosting one another up and around. Natasha waited till Clint had whacked a Lab Rat unconscious before answering.
"They think they deserve it," Natasha replied, rolling her eyes as she shot a Lab Rat in the shoulder and knocked his feet out from under him.
"Duck!" Clint instructed. Natasha swung herself under his bow as he shot, taking out another barbarian who tried to hit her husband while he had his weapon drawn. He thanked her and said, "It's all tragic sob stories with these people."
"Let's just hope that his is the last threat. I'm getting real tired of these fools who think that they can just waltz in with their special technology and threaten my planet."
"You're planet? Oooh, feeling a little possessive are we?"
Natasha made a face at Clint, jabbing a Lab Rat in the face over his shoulder and kicking back her foot to hit another in the face. The archer spun on his toes to smack a ruffian right in the throat with his foot.
"It's like they're on steroids!"
"I wouldn't be surprised," Natasha commented. "This is an evil doctor we're talking about."
The two of them followed Cap down the street once it was clear, turning quickly down another side road. The Russian watched as the blonde Finlander held out her hand and clenched her fingers together, crushing the remaining Lab Rat's metal helmets into their skulls.
"Yuck. Doesn't anyone think it's the tiniest bit scary how she can do that?" Stark questioned over the com as him and the winged Nikolai landed next to the group. Nikolai folded in his massive wings and grinned at Nae. Nae gave Tony a smirk over her shoulder.
"You're just scared of her turning on you and your metal suit," Hawkeye teased back.
At the end of the road stood a small, worn down, and abandoned shack with a heavy metal door. Blaze focused and sent a pulse of energy at the door, blasting it off its hinges and melting it halfway down.
"Yet you do not find that frighting?" Ozymandias raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, well I trust Vivacity a lot more than Titan, our native rock," Tony responded.
"That was your first mistake," Blaze claimed.
"Focus." Steve broke up the raillery with a stern look. "We've got to get in, rescue Ashlyn, and shut down the weapons before Schwarzlose gets them in operating condition. Let's go."
And then as Natasha followed Steve into the shack and down a flight of stairs, Lab Rats swamped the scene and all hell broke loose.
12:10 AM
Ashlyn no longer yearned for the black curtain of relief that lingered lovingly behind her eyelids. As she began to rise back into consciousness the vanished senses that she had been vaguely aware of before and durning the isolation chamber came back to her. Outside the tube she was imprisoned in, Ashlyn could pick up on the chirping, faint beeps of machinery, the spraying of bullets, a powerful, wet pounding in her chest, and the scurrying of feet. Up and out of her dazed state she rose, shoving away the terribleness the darkness had provided and forcing back the very same inky black that had cradled her in a false sense of security. As she opened her eyes, the seer fully realized that she was underwater when her sticky contacts washed right out of her eyes.
The female breathed deep as she realized she was not in pain and her limbs were no longer made of rubber. It was a strange sensation, a weird one of power Ashlyn had never felt before. She had always been the one who was left behind in gym class, the one who was picked last for the team, and hid in the back durning dodgeball. The brunette gulped slightly and began testing out all of her appendages and limbs. She wiggled her toes and twisted her ankles, bending her knees and rotating her hips, arching her back as well. Once she had rolled her shoulders and flexed her arms and fingers, Ashlyn raised a hand to feel a sealed, water-tight oxygen mask that was suction cupped over her mouth and nose. Ashlyn closed her eyes again when she couldn't detect anything more than the shadowy limbo of the tank.
Longing for freedom, Ashlyn felt a surge of power in her arm and she thrusted her hand up to punch the top of the tank. There was a groaning and she felt her hand mold into the metal. She then found the bottom of the tank and pushed off, kicking the top of the watery casket.
Little did she know, two Lab Rats were standing guard outside of her tank. They watched as a dent in the shape of a handprint was pushed up into the metal of the isolation chamber. One of the Germans neared the tube in awe, leaping back in surprise when the lid was suddenly blasted off the top and flipped back, the hinges breaking and clattering to the floor.
Ashlyn gripped the sides, pulling herself out into the blinding light as she got to her feet. She was sent sprawling with the rush of water as she accidentally tipped the prison over. There was a scream and someone fled from the room, Ashlyn listening to their running footsteps taking off down the hall. Her ears also detected the breathing of another in the room. She put her hands on the ground, breaking out of her slumped figure as she got to her feet. The seer was drenched to the bone, her soaked brunette hair clinging to her body and scattering water droplets all over the floor as they rolled down her back. As if on instinct, her hand shot out and there was the sickening crack of a breaking jaw, the other Lab Rat crumpling to the floor in an unconscious heap.
The brunette tugged at the ties that bound the oxygen mask to her face, snapping them in half easily as if they were wet paper. Once the tight mask popped off and her eyes adjusted to the light, Ashlyn blinked in shock as she fully took in the room around her. It was unlike ever seeing before. She had been absolutely blind her whole life, stumbling through the world without a clue what it really looked like. As Ashlyn's eyes flickered up and around she could see every crack in the wall, every chip in the ceiling, every notch in the metal door. When she peered closely, miniscule dust motes orbited like satellites around the lights above, tiny prisms of rainbow colors flashing if she looked the right way. She looked down at the man and was able to spot the rise and fall of his chest and pick up on the faint thump of his heart beat. How had she knocked him out like that? People were arguing to her left, children screaming above her, on her floor, and below her. Bullets roared along with voices, footsteps hammering all about.
'My knife.' Ashlyn took off on that thought as her brain fought to remember the room she had been in. Hopefully her stuff would still be there. As she sprinted down the hall, breaking open doors as she went, her legs thrummed with strength. Her muscles coiled and sprung and her bones felt stronger and sturdier than before. Her breaths came easily and filled her lungs without her needing to gulp desperately for air.
Ashlyn kicked open the door to the all white room once she saw it through a window. There on the table by the leg restraints was her vest. The brunette reached up hopefully into the back of it, letting out a sigh of precious relief when her hand came back around the hilt of the beautiful and lethal present. When she caught herself in the glint of the polished knife, she nearly dropped the weapon. The girl then took that moment to turn and look at herself in the reflection of the mirrored glass on the inside of the room.
The seer still looked exactly the same as before in her face (although her new keen eyes could pick up on a slimming in her face so it was less rounded than before) and shape but her body had changed. The woman had never been heavy but her abdomen was much smoother than beforeand when she flexed she could see a six pack pop out of her skin. Ashlyn took a shallow breath in a mixture of horror, shock, and awe. Her arms were toned and muscles noticeable. She looked down and saw her new leg muscles straining against her wet jeans, her calves and thighs strong. It looked like her body had shot up an inch or two, maybe even three. When she flexed her hands and squeezed the knife she could see the muscles in her arm pop out to be well defined. She still had a petite, hour glass figure but she was much more toned. She only hoped it wasn't in an unattractive way.
Ashlyn jumped and crossed her arm in front of her, knife at the ready when a flash of red, gold, and orange appeared in the doorway.
"Holy cow, Ash! Have you been working out?" Blaze asked. Tony gave her a wolf whistle. Ashlyn's whole face broke out in a smile and she lower her weapon.
"Blaze! Tony!" She stepped to run to them, but then she gasped and wrapped her arms back around herself when she realized her only covering was her bra.
Tony laughed like a madman. "Geesh. How do you like your eggs in the morning, baby?"
"U-Unfertilized, thank you!" Ashlyn shot back, embarrassed.
"Yup, it's her," Stark replied with a nod and a laugh, his mask flicking up to grin at his friend. "God, I missed you so much, Ashie."
"'It's her'? What d-do you mean?"
"We'll talk later," Blaze acknowledged. The teen then reached into her back pack and threw something at the dripping wet seer.
"Put it on," Tony advised. "We'll talk in a moment."
"I'll make sure he doesn't look," Blaze assured the still furiously blushing Ashlyn. Tony wriggled his eyebrows and sighed, turning around and covering his face as he did so.
Ashlyn did as she was told, prying off her jeans and staring down at her legs in awe. They were longer and defiantly more muscled when she flexed. The fiery redhead was in a rush though, laying out the clothing on the table while the brunette got out of her pants.
"We're did you get that?" Ashlyn asked, nodding toward's Blaze's outfit. The teen was wearing a black romper with shorts. A flame design blazed up the side and her sleeve were cut off. On her hands were fingerless red driving gloves with padding on the knuckles.
"S.H.I.E.L.D."
"And me!" Tony blurted out.
"And Stark," Blaze tsked. "We figured if I'm going to be fighting with the Avengers and play hero, I might as well look the part. The other three have new outfits too."
"What do you mean?" Ashlyn questioned as she was shoved into the clothes.
"Let's just say Stark should maybe go into the fashion industry. He would have a good shot at making it somewhere."
Ironman let out a groan. Blaze zipped Ashlyn up, looking at her as she did so.
"Can you get your hair out of your face?"
Ashlyn nodded, more that willing to oblige. She was ecstatic that she was back with her friends, her hands trembling in anticipation and heart longing to see Steve again. As Blaze clipped a black utility belt around Ashlyn's waist and put her knife in the holder, Ashlyn took a band from Blaze and tied off her wet hair, letting it fall down her back in a dutch braid.
"One more thing," Blaze said, grabbing one last article of clothing off the table and placing it on Ashlyn's face. As she secured it in the back, Ashlyn got a good look at herself.
The seer was dressed in a dark blue, long sleeved catsuit-not a tight fitting one that Natasha wore like a second skin, but a loose enough one that still showed off Ashlyn's curves and new muscles (she still wasn't sure if she was fully comfortable in it). It had a collar that Blaze had popped for that moment in time, comfortable black shoes that easily gripped the slippery tile, and a black belt with an assortment of gadgets with it all the way from her StarkPhone in one pocket, a GPA in the next, holster for her knife, and a taser and pistol in another. On her face was a simple black mask that molded neatly to her face that covered up a good portion of her forehead and ran to her cheeks under her eyes. It reminded her of the black masks that the super family in the movie The Incredibles would wear.
Ashlyn ogled at herself for a moment longer before Blaze popped a bluetooth in her ear and told Tony to turn around.
"Wow, kiddo," Tony said with another whistle. "You look great. It's as if you were born to be a super hero."
Ashlyn then took that moment to fling herself into his arms. To her surprise, Tony hugged her back just as much as she did.
"God, I missed you," Stark repeated. "I'm glad you're safe even if you're a little brawny."
Ashlyn's eyebrows came together and caused a wrinkle under her mask. Now that she was safe in her friend's arms, her eyes started to water as she remembered her pain and the isolation tank. "I-I-It was more than t-terrible."
"I know, I'm sorry," Tony responded. Blaze patted her back.
"I hate to be the one to break up this circle o' love but we really have to go. Save the sediment for later. We've got a world to save," Blaze told them. Tony and Ashlyn broke apart awkwardly and Ashlyn's fear flared up.
"I don't know how to fight!" Ashlyn tried to explain. "I mean, I can't be-"
"Shhh. You'll be fine. You're all..." Tony gestured up and down her body. "Buff now." He caught the look on Ashlyn's face and quickly added, "In a good way! Not like the burly macho woman-man-things. Ew they give me the creeps with their body's pumped full of testosterone steroids and deep voices and no curves or boobs-"
"Tony!" Ashlyn couldn't help but laugh. He always knew how to cheer her up.
"C'mon, we have to go." Blaze ushered them out the door and pointed down the hall. "I'll get on the com. Tony, you should lead the way."
Ashlyn rushed after Ironman as Blaze ran behind in the back, chattering in fast Norwegian as she jogged. Tony blasted door after door open as he lead, his metal feet pounding on the tile. Then he suddenly shot a hole through the ceiling and called, "Be right back!"
Once Tony disappeared up through the entrance to the next floor her had created, Ashlyn wasn't fully sure what to do.
"Keep going!" Blaze shouted. Ashlyn nodded and continued running but she skidded to a halt when the doors in front of her flew open. Several Lab Rats flooded into the room, and she recognized the faint heart beat of the leader as the man who ran away from her room. He screamed something in German, pointing to Ashlyn.
"They don't want you to escape," Blaze murmured in translation. She stood side by side with Ashlyn, her skin radiating heat as she powered up. "Schwarzlose knows you've survived. They're on orders to keep you here."
"Well," Ashlyn began, sounding much more confident than she was feeling, "then we've run into a serious disagreement."
"Hit the ground!" Blaze commanded and she let a ring of fire rip through the hall, quicker than Ashlyn could blink and louder than any gun she had ever heard. It tore into the walls, denting the metal and crunching into the tile. The men up front screamed as they caught on fire while the luckier ones in the back surged forward.
Ashlyn was surprised to find her reflexes heightened as well. She leaped up from the floor and kicked one guy right in the crotch and her body bent to miss a punch and grab from another Lab Rat. As Ashlyn ducked, twirled, and slid to dodge each jab and kick sent at her, memories she tried desperately to bury out of sight from her memory for years finally cascaded up from their coffin and to the front of her brain.
The truth was, Ashlyn did know how to fight. Most of the time, she just tried to forget she did. When she was in high school, she got beat up really badly by a group of buffoons. Ashlyn had been tripped on the way to her table durning lunch, and instead of the food spilling on the floor, Whitney's attempt to humiliate the brunette backfired. It took her days to pick the macaroni out of her hair and a few spins through the washing machine to get the pudding out of her shirt. It took weeks to rid herself of the smell of cafeteria food on her skin. So behind the school Whitney ordered her boyfriend and a few of his friends to "teach Ashlyn a lesson". When Ashlyn finally staggered home, her father cleaned her up and gave her lessons in kickboxing. She had picked it up quickly, but she didn't show it. At the time, she hid it with weak punches and kicks to the bag. Ashlyn kept it hidden from her father and the rest of the school that she knew how to fight. And every time she came home from school with a new bruise or bloodied lip, her father pounded the lessons harder into her skull.
Ashlyn was no pro. Her photographic memory ensured she knew how to protect herself.
When she recognized one of the men as one of the two beefy Lab Rats that helped Schwarzlose torture her, Ashlyn went all out. The Lab Rat went to grab her hair but Ashlyn's newly enhanced reflexes ducked and she caught the punch. She gritted her teeth, twisted his arm, and popped it out of socket. She then used her strength to grab both of his arms and flip him up and over her head where he crashed into the tile and did not get up.
The next man who approached received a spinning roundhouse kick to the face. Blood squirted and gushed like a torrent from his broken nose. Ashlyn punched him several times in the gut and he too crumpled. A woman Lab Rat did manage to yank at Ashlyn's hair, but Ashlyn's pried her hands off of her head effortlessly and grabbed the woman's head, pushing her down and thrusting her knee up at the same time. The woman's skull collided with her kneecap and she was immediately knocked unconscious. Ashlyn shoved her out of the way, receiving a punch to the face. Momentarily dazed but not hurt, Ashlyn's hand shot out and she shoved the Lab Rat's head into the hard wall with a gruesome crunch.
Most of the fighting was instinct. It seemed with her new strength, stamina, and reflexes, new fighting skill came with.
Ashlyn turned to find Blaze making quick work of the Lab Rats she was fighting. None of them seemed to want to touch her for she had turned the temperature of her skin up, letting the fire inside of her rest just below her skin. The first one who had touched her screamed and pulled away, his hand violently blistering.
Once there was no more Lab Rats in the room, Blaze and Ashlyn stared at one another in disbelief. Ashlyn had never seen Blaze fight. When she did, she didn't care who got hurt or died. She was fighting for her life. Blaze had never seen Ashlyn fight (that Ashlyn was positive of). Ashlyn had told her numerous times that she could not, yet here she was in all her changed glory, duking it out as if she had been fighting for years.
At that moment, Stark landed back on their floor through the hole. He looked around himself at the bodies on the ground and the two girls who were catching their breaths and he swore loudly.
"Let's go," Blaze uttered and she lead the trio out of the hall.
~Illumini