I tried to write fast, but then again writer's block is a bit of a bitch.
This was so weird. Skye's whole day had been weird, from hacking into the Stark Tower mainframe from the inside, to meeting four pretty well-known vigilantes in the Avenger's living room. Like, how awesome was that?!
On top of all that, she had not only gotten to meet Spiderman, but talk to him, too. She found out some cool stuff, once she got over her whole, holy shit I'm talking to Spiderman thing she had going on.
Like his name was Peter, he was apparently still in high school, he didn't like spiders, and he had told her a story about how Tony Stark once drew a sharpie mustache on Bruce Banner while he was sleeping to see if it would stay when he turned into the Hulk. For science.
Skye liked him. She'd actually been looking into Spiderman for a while, ever since her days in Rising Tide. As a street-level vigilante, he had been drawing a lot of interest from online groups and SHIELD alike for months. Now she was listening to him over a wire, talking to his friend about homework of all things.
Yeah, definitely weird.
Then there was Daredevil, standing stock-still behind her. Funnily enough, she didn't find the man too intimidating, just a little unsettling. Like, she trusted him in the same way you trust three-inch glass separating you from the alligators at the zoo.
Apparently, despite his lack of headphones, he was listening in on Spidey's conversation as well, since he scoffed under his breath, "Homework."
Skye turned to him with a smile, "I know, right? Somehow, I never imagined the amazing Spiderman was stressing out about his grades."
"Well, you can't be a superhero all of the time." Daredevil wasn't looking at her, but Skye got the distinct impression he was staring.
"I know, but still, I would have thought his civilian side was worried about taxes or work or something. And… that sounded a lot less stupid in my head." She rolled her eyes to herself.
"I guess I can see where you're coming from. After all, who would expect a teenager to do what we do?"
"So you're saying you're not secretly still in middle school too?" Skye asked, her mouth cocked in a mocking half-grin.
"Oh, please, I don't have the voice of an elf." Daredevil smiled softly, "But when I first met the guy… well isn't it obvious? How young he is?"
"You knew?" Skye looked up at him, searching for some kind of expression on his half masked face.
"Well, duh, have you met the guy? As soon as we finished the first fight we were in, I noticed."
"Well, what did you do?" Skye leaned forward, her elbow pressing into the armrest of her chair.
The man paused for a moment, deep in thought. Then he simply stated, "He wanted to race. So we did. I won, by the way."
Skye blinked in surprise, "You raced him? You- Daredevil- had a race with Spiderman because he wanted to? Really?"
"You obviously don't know him that well." Daredevil shook his head ruefully, "That kid is like a puppy. So excited about everything, it would break your heart to shut him down. And, again, I won."
"I think this is my favorite conversation I've ever had."
Daredevil gave a bark of laughter, and Skye returned her attention to the coms with a smile. Superheroes are so cool. Speaking of, what happened to Spidey?
Skye listened closely to her head-set, but heard only static, where she should have been able to hear what the world's youngest vigilante was saying.
"Hey, Coulson? I think there's something wrong with Spiderman's comm, I can't get a signal from him."
Fitz turned in his own chair with a frown, "Let me take a look." He came to Skye's side and fiddled with some knobs, then inspected her headset. "Well, there's nothing wrong on our end. Do you think something happened to his ear-piece?"
"Could be." Ward nodded.
Daredevil's lips stretched into a disapproving line. "He could have run into trouble. Should we send in back up?"
Skye was pretty proud of her growing ability to read her team-mates. This is part of why she as able to pick up on the small crease between the eyebrows on May's otherwise un emotional face. "While this isn't really a good thing… Coulson, thoughts?"
He sighed in a way that made everyone in the van feel older. "While this is a concern, Spider-man is just acting as a distraction at this point. We need everyone available in case Ant-Man and Wasp find anything. Besides, interaction with Spidey at this time might blow his cover."
"So we just let him go without any fail-safe? If something happens up there, we won't have a clue. Hell, he could already be in trouble, and we'd have no way of knowing." Daredevil spat.
"Hey, there's no need to be so aggressive, we're all on the same side." Coulson said, keeping up his calm facade.
"Are you sure? Because what I'm hearing from you right now is, 'let the bait do his job.'"
Skye didn't know what came over her, but one moment she was watching an angry super-human vent at Coulson, and the next she had a comforting hand on his wrist. Daredevil tensed and went completely still beneath her touch. Then, to her surprise, he let out a shaky breath.
"Just try not to get the kid killed." he growled, then shook off Skye's hand and moved to the back of the van to sulk. Coulson gave her a look that very clearly said, 'Damn dramatic vigilantes.' Yet it was tinged with something else that Skye kinda wanted to say was pride. But probably wasn't. Because, you know, why would Phil be thinking that? You know what, just forget about the whole pride thing anyway. It doesn't even matter…
Ward leaned toward her and muttered, "Are you good?"
Skye nodded and returned her attention to the coms. If Peter couldn't be reached, she might as well patch in to the line Ant-Man and Wasp were on.
The next hour went relatively smoothly. Despite the occasional bickering, the others were pretty efficient as they moved through the floors. In fact, they weren't much use at all past the first two floors, when the insect-themed heroes seemed to be able to find their own way.
Coulson only had to speak up once after they got to the fourth floor, and even then it was just to stop an increasingly tedious argument about whether or not ants have feelings. Sky listened through it, and basically got the jist which was this; Ant-Man and Wasp are actual five-year-olds, and possibly live together. Also, Ant-Man was really attached to his bug friends.
Skye was about to express this thought to Daredevil, because it kinda fit with what they were saying earlier. However, when she turned in her seat she saw he was standing frozen, like a rabbit that thought it heard a threat in the underbrush. Skye didn't really know him well, but body language like that from anyone would be enough to set her on edge.
"Hey, Daredevil?" She started slowly, though he didn't respond, "Um, what's the deal, man?"
"Shh."
Skye raised her brows in surprise. "Excuse-"
"Shh."
Despite herself, Skye found herself shutting up. Who the hell did this guy think he was? She glanced over at Fitz-Simmons, who gave her identical looks of, "I have no idea.'
Then, in the span of a heartbeat, Daredevil was yelling "GET DOWN!" and tackling Skye and Ward to the ground. There was a loud crash, the scraping of metal, shattering glass. The whole world rocked and turned upside down, then Skye realised the van was rolling.
Daredevil was taking the brunt of the impact as they slammed against the ceiling, then the wall, then the floor, then the ceiling, then the row of equipment against another wall as they finally came to a stop. The crashing of the metal and crunching of glass turned to silence. It was unsettling, and Skye couldn't seem to get her bearings.
A cough came from the front of the van, and Fitz spluttered, "What the Hell was that?"
"Is everyone alright?" Daredevil groaned from under Sky and Ward. He'd had them pulled close to himself and rolled with the van to act as a sort-of cushion. While it was a nice gesture, Skye was now lying on top of a guy in a mask and clad in head to toe leather… So it was both nice and weird as heck.
"Um…" She rolled off of him and shakily turned to survey his injuries, "Yeah, thanks. What about you?"
His reply was muffled, and Skye could barely hear him over the coughing and movement now filling the sideways cabin, but she thought she heard him say, "Not my first crash, not my last." and, a moment later, "This is why I don't drive. Blindness be damned…"
Ward was on his feet first, followed immediately by May, who pulled Coulson to his feet. Fitz and Simmons were helping each other, though both were visibly shaken. Ward yanked Skye off of the ground, then moved to help Daredevil, who waved him off and stood on his own.
"What just happened?" Coulson asked, obviously directing the question at Daredevil.
The vigilante slid out his batons and took a defensive stance, "We were just attacked, and I think it's best if we have this conversation later."
Fitz paled at that, his face falling with fear, "Wait, what? Attacked? By who?"
Not paying Fitz any attention, Daredevil took off and burst out of the back of the van. May followed his lead, pulling Coulson along. Skye exchanged a look with Fitz-Simmons and Ward before tearing out of the van after the others.
And… okay, wow.
In her days before SHIELD, when Skye as with the Rising Tide, she had, of course, learned about all kinds of new enhanced individuals starting to pop up. There was one guy who could bite through any material, and this woman who had bio-luminescent blood (Which looked super cool, by the way.). However, she would have recognized these two even without her past experience, seeing as they were pretty famous as a part of what was shaping up to be 'Spiderman's Rogue Gallery'.
One was lumbering toward them and shaking his head to dislodge a car door from his horn. The other was already right in front of Daredevil, his sparking skin casting a yellow glow across the red-clad hero, making him appear to be on fire, just as his namesake would suggest.
Skye couldn't help the squeak she made at the sight, though whether it was from excitement or fear, she didn't know. Maybe both. Or maybe she was a mouse in a past life.
Of course, Skye had a hard time imagining herself in an outfit like Electro's in any life. Seriously, the yellow and green was hard enough to stomach, but his mask was downright ugly.
"Huh. That's funny. Rhino, didn't Goblin say the people in this van were a threat? It looks to me like a bunch of harmless civies." Electro jeered. His voice was hard to describe. It sounded like it was coming from far away, through a phone call with bad reception. His words crackled and fizzed, and sparks escaped his lips as he spoke.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Coulson asked, crossing his arms as though he wasn't just attacked by these two high-profile villains. "Are you getting over a cold or something? You don't sound too good, man."
Rhino boomed in laughter, before speaking to his associate, "HAH! He is right, you sound very badly! Like broken radio-" His russian accent was both easier to describe and to understand.
"Shut up you idiot!" Electro snapped, before facing Daredevil again. "And you, devil. What are you doing here? I thought you were busy micro-managing Hell's Kitchen."
He merely shrugged and said, "I've been told it's good to get some variety."
He then reared back his fist and decked Electro in the face.
Electro, of course, was not expecting that. It was with a bit of sadness that Skye noted that with both Ant-Man and Spidey gone, there was nobody childish enough to make the joke about how 'shocked' he looked in that moment.
Then she was too preoccupied with the two angry supervillains to care.
Electro sprang forward to retaliate against DD, his hands outstretched and shooting out bolts of electricity almost too fast to comprehend. Skye could do nothing but watch as Daredevil went low and leaped toward Electro, barely getting past the electricity without getting zapped. His baton connected with Electro's abdomen, causing the man to yowl in pain and swat at Daredevil's head, which was now unfortunately in reach.
Skye's attention was ripped away from their fight as Rhino began yelling and crashing toward her and the rest of her team. He didn't exactly charge, which is what Skye had been afraid he would do. No, he did something much better.
He picked up the battered surveillance van and threw it rigHT AT THEM, JESUS CHRI-!
Skye hit the dirt, and the van missed her head by inches, whipping the loose strands of her ponytail along with it in the gust it created. Luckily, Fitz-Simmons were already crouched behind a nearby dumpster, while the rest of the agents were, well, badasses. They were more than ready for Rhino by the time he lumbered over to them.
They didn't need powers to hold their own. Ward leapt into the air and took a hold of the horn Rhino had leveled at them while May and Coulson shot forward to the underside of the armor. Coulson pulled out a pistol and quickly emptied it of a round of bullets directed at the man within the armor. They didn't even make a dent in the thick metal. Coulson frowned and threw his pistol aside, instead opting to go at the suit with his taser-pen. May dropped and rolled to the side as Rhino's foot came forward, narrowly missing her left side.
Skye's heart dropped as she realised; there was no way they would be able to bring this guy down. But May, Ward, and Coulson could keep him busy until somebody could.
Skye ran over to Fitz-Simmons, who were still crouched by the dumpster. Out of everyone, they were probably the least qualified for hand-to-hand combat.
"Tell me you have some sort of black hole grenade or a lava gun that we can use!" She hissed to Fitz, who made a face at her.
"Really Skye? A lava gun? Did you get that idea from the Minions movie?"
"Are you saying you don't have one?"
"Of course not, I'm not a child!" Fitz rolled his eyes at her.
Simmons narrowed her eyes at him, "We went and saw that movie together, Leo-"
"Are we really having this conversation right now?!" Fitz said in exasperation. "Look, I may not have a lava gun, but I think I may have something that will help. But it's in a bag in the van."
Skye nodded, "Alright, I'll go get it. You stay here, and keep your heads down."
Without checking to see if they were going to listen to her, Skye turned and ran across the street, where the van had been tossed before. She thought back to her old van, the one where she had been living before joining SHIELD. That thing had been her baby as well as her home/base of operations, so she was really, really glad it didn't end up looking anything like this one. While it had been black at the beginning of the night, much of the paint was now gone- the silver and white of the metal beneath it now showing. It was crumpled in a way that made it look more like a discarded chip bag than a vehicle.
She could still hear the fighting going on behind her. Crackling electricity, grinding metal, grunts of effort. But she let the battle move to the back of her mind, in order to allow herself to focus on the task at hand.
'Find the bag, get it to Fitz, kick some ass, save the day.' she recited to herself, trying desperately to keep her cool. Easy.
Skye moved to the back of the van where, unsurprisingly, both doors were missing. "Alright, sweet. Easy access." she said to herself under her breath. Climbing over some equipment and furniture that had been displaced by being thrown around, she went over to the console where Fitz-Simmons had been working.
"Fitz said it was under his console, but then this thing got flipped, and tossed around like a dodgeball, and the console is technically built into the floor now, not the wall, but how many bags can there be in here? Not many, I hope."
Thinking out loud never hurt anybody before. So what if it seemed like she was talking to herself, it had been a long day, okay?
"Oh, wait, there's a backpack. Do you think he meant that or- no. No wait… yeah, it's probably this sketchy-looking one. Of course. Oh! It's heavy! Yeah, that must mean it's the right- AUGH!"
She wobbled and fell to her hands and knees as the van shifted once again. The familiar groan of creaking metal filled her ears, and the whole thing felt like it was being lifted into the air. Which it was. Crapcrapcrapcrap…
The floor rose to become the wall, and Skye rolled along with the van. She couldn't lose her bearings again, not this time. She had to get out of here. As almost an afterthought, she snatched up the heavy bag, which was about as long as a golf club, and threw the strap over her head.
The ground jostled as Rhino took a step, and raised the van even higher above his head. Skye crawled quickly over to the back of the van, scattering papers, bits of machinery, and glass shards. Looking down, she saw she had to be fifteen feet from the ground. Rhino took another step, making her fall to her stomach.
"Okay." Skye gripped the edge of the opening, and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She let out a slow, deliberate breath, opened her eyes once more, then murmured, "I got this. I'm the boss, I'm the boss, I'm tHE BOSS!"
With that she threw herself forward and out of the van, the bag tugged behind her loosely over her back. Fifteen feet. Into cracked, uneven concrete and asphalt. And fighting. She jumped not a moment too soon, as while she was still in the air, Rhino reared back and slammed the van down with a roar.
Her friends barely rolled out of the way in time.
*SNaP!*
The crack was followed by a scream of pain, ripped from Skye's own lips. Icy-hot pins and needles raced up her left leg, and a white haze filled her vision. Oh, God.
She blinked a few times, both to try and clear away the white haze and to blink back the tears welling at the base of her eyes. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, and her heart was stuttering in her chest. Something was very, very wrong. Oh, God.
Okay, Skye, focus.
It took all too long for her to get her thoughts together. It was like each time she tried to focus, to take hold of a rational idea, it would slip through her fingers like a minnow in shallow water, and escape her completely. Finally, though, she did manage to make a short list of important things.
1)Her leg was hurt. She probably hurt it when she fell. Did she fall? Wait, yes, yes she fell, and that's when she got hurt.
2)There was a fight going on around her. It had fallen into the background, but it was still there, on the edge of her attention span. It was like her brain was trying to draw attention to it, like it could be important, but she wasn't really listening to that just yet.
3)She had to get to Fitz-Simmons. All of the rest of her minnow-thoughts were flitting past, but this one was there, refusing to be scared away from her outreached hands. This was urgent. Her leg, the fight, everything else could be taken care of later. For whatever reason, this could not.
It wasn't a very long list, but it would have to do.
"Skye!" a voice rang out against the crashing around her, clear and panic-stricken.
She turned her unfocused gaze to the source, and saw Simmons moving from behind a dumpster, right toward her. Oh, good, she could help. No, wait. Thought number two!
"Get down!" Skye cried without thinking. Her voice was cracking, splintering, like the bone in her ankle. Not that she knew that. All she knew was Simmons was running onto a battlefield, and she had never been prepared for that.
Much to Skye's dismay, Simmons didn't get down, and instead covered the space between them and crouched beside her. "Don't worry, Skye, I'm gonna get you out of the way. You're gonna be okay."
She may have protested if not for the sudden pang in her leg as Simmons made to lift her. Simmons was a gentle, quiet soul. She was an amazing scientist and agent, but she wasn't exactly strong enough to lift Skye. Not without jostling her leg, anyway.
Skye simply gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut against the return of the white haze. She had to be strong. There were other people in danger, she had to think of them. She wouldn't cry.
In what felt like an eternity, Simmons returned to her previous spot behind the dumpster, having managed to rescue both Skye and the bag from the fray.
"Is she okay?" Fitz's eyes were wide as he took in Skye's pale complexion and shaking hands. He paled to match her when his gaze landed on her ankle.
Skye gritted her teeth and muttered with some difficulty, "I'm fine. Quick. The bag."
After a moment of panic, her words clicked and he nodded in understanding. Gingerly, he removed the bag from around her shoulder and beneath her, then sprung into action.
Unzipping the bag, he revealed that inside was…
"A plunger?!" Skye gasped viciously, "I did all of that for a plunger?"
"It's not a plunger!" Fitz defended himself, his scottish accent thickening with stress.
It sure looked like a plunger. A very fancy one, but the resemblance was there. Where the handle on a normal plunger would be, there was a metal shaft, with bronze and red wiring and buttons scattered haphazardly through it. The reason it looked so much like a plunger would be the rubber bulb on the end, which was basically like a ball cut in half and stuck on a stick. It was even the stereotypical reddish color that plungers always were in cartoons. An obvious difference would be the glass ball perched within the rubber bulb, about the size of a tennis ball, and not quite reaching the lip of the bulb.
"Are we gonna unclog Rhino?"
"This is an electron pulse amplifier. EPA for short. Though if I had gotten to name it like I wanted, it would be called Alex." As he said that, he shot a glare at Simmons before continuing, "If we can get this onto Rhino's armor somehow, then it will draw in all of the power in the area to energize it."
"I'm not sure I follow." Skye said in confusion, "You want to put that thing on Rhino and make him more powerful?"
"Okay, I know it sounds weird, but think of it. That suit must be taking a ton of electricity to power it. There have to be several power sources to keep it going. But you know it's run on electricity because there's no hum of a generator, and no exhaust."
"So the bad guys are environment friendly. I guess I should have expected that from somebody called rhino."
"Anyway, that means we can overload those circuits if we can get him to absorb enough energy." Fitz said.
Simmons jumped in, "I know you're the tech mogul, but to overload a suit of that size-"
"You would need to draw in roughly enough power to run a small town." Fitz nodded, "And I think I know just the guy."
Just like that, the pieces slid into place, and Skye could have sworn an actual light bulb flashed above her head. Of course. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"We're not gonna take this guy down by force. Even people with actual super-powers have trouble with that." Fitz said, "So it's this or we wait for the real heroes to get done inside."
Simmons clapped a hand on his shoulder, "We don't need to do that. We can do this, Fitz."
He flashed a small smile, then with that moved from behind the dumpster. Simmons turned to Skye, "Stay here, okay? You've done enough for one day." then she ran off after Fitz.
Yeah, Skye would just sit back and let everybody else fight a homicidal robo-russian… like Hell.
She couldn't suppress a grunt of pain as she sat herself up. Looking down at her leg, she blanched, and was really glad she was running on an empty stomach. Her foot was twisted in a weird direction, and there was a lump jutting out of her pants that looked suspiciously like a bone.
Okay. Maybe she would let the others fight the robo-russian on their own this time. Instead of even attempting to do anything with her foot, she scooted a few feet to the side to look around the side of the dumpster.
She saw Ward had gotten a better spot on top of Rhino, now clinging on for dear life on his back. May and Ward had resorted to basically running around waving their hands in the air to get his attention away from the other. Worst of all, it seemed to be working. For what this guy had in brawn, he totally lacked in the brains department.
Meanwhile, Daredevil was still going at it with Electro. Though… he didn't seem to be doing all that well. Not that Skye could blame him. He was literally fighting electricity.
Instead of going for a direct assault, DD had fallen into something like a series of lunges and dodges. Occasionally he would land a blow, hitting the other while his back was to him, and only when he was in flesh-form instead of when he was a human-shaped lightning bolt. Still, for every hit Daredevil landed, Electro got in three. Any other person would have fallen long ago from being electrocuted so many times. Daredevil was still standing, but he looked to be on the verge of collapse.
As if just thinking it had made it so, Electro surged forward (Heh. Surged.) and literally went through the devil of Hell's Kitchen. That must have been the straw that broke the camel's back, because when Daredevil fell, he didn't get up again.
Electro formed again above him and leaned over with a sneer. "So, double D, was this the variety you were looking for?"
Daredevil was panting heavily, but he mumbled in response.
"What was that? You're gonna have to speak up." Electro taunted.
"I said." Daredevil spat, "Say hi to Alex." Then he smiled.
Electro didn't even have time to say, "What?" before Fitz was jamming the rubber end of the EPA onto Rhino, where it stuck and whirred to life.
Coulson's tazer-pen shut down, and all of the street lamps, car lights, and buildings on the street went dark. The Rhino suit was the only functioning thing in the whole area. In the new darkness, the only source of light was now coming from Electro, who was sparking and sputtering as he resisted the force of the EPA.
After a moment, though, he was sucked in too, like a reverse comet. The last thing to go was his head, leaving an echoing scream to hang in the air.
Then Rhino was stumbling, the new power making his suit whir faster and faster, the circuits trying desperately to channel the energy they couldn't contain.
Then there was silence. Deep and ominous, as new York should never be. Dark and quiet…
Followed immediately by Fitz-Simmons cheering.
"Whoo! We did it!" Fitz shouted, high fiving Simmons who said, "Way to go, Leo!"
"Wait, what did you do?" Ward dropped from his perch. Without breaking an ankle. Lucky him.
"They used the plunger-thing to make Electro short-circuit Rhino." Daredevil explained as he limped over.
Fitz gave him a confused look, "How did you know that?"
"Come on, you spent more time explaining it than you did using it."
"Well that might be true, but you were all the way-"
"Shh."
Ward sighed, "Oh, not this again-"
Everyone else cut him off with a "SHH." I guess they were learning.
Nobody else could hear it, but Daredevil did. The *Thud**Whir**Thud**Whir*
Even in the darkness, they saw it first. The silhouette rising from the cracked and ruined road. They heard the sickening laugh and saw the raised arms and the glint of glasses.
Skye's heart stuttered in fear as she beheld Otto Octavius, rising out of the shadows once more.
Okay guys, I swear, I'm almost done with the cliff-hangers. I meant to resolve stuff in this chapter, but this whole thing here got a lot longer than I meant for it to, and I've been having trouble finding motivation to do anything lately, anyway. This isn't my best work, but I hope it'll do until I can update again.
On another note, we've reACHED OVER 200 FOLLOWS! I've been blown away by your responses, and it really means a lot to me that you guys like my story. I love all of your support so much, so thank you all!
(Also, have you seen the Defender's trailer? Awesome!)
So I guess that's all for now. I'll update as soon as I can, so until then,
Excelsior!
