Warning: Description of violence might cause discomfort
No one was expecting the next day to bring the drama it did.
"Sir," Jarvis said urgently as the Avengers, Pepper, and Devin sat around the table for breakfast, "The Bastards of Evil have been sighted in Central Park."
"Everyone suit up!"
Everyone minus Pepper met outside and ran, or flew, as fast as they could towards the park. When they got there, they found three of the Bastards there, including their mysterious leader.
"I knew you would come," their leader spoke in a confident, dark voice, "I ran all the possibilities."
"Surrender, now," Tony ordered, raising his arms in preparation for a fight. The rest of the Avengers arrived shortly thereafter.
"Surrender? You are less intelligent than I figured you were."
"Wait!"
Everyone turned to see Devin step between Iron Man and the leader of the Bastards of Evil.
"Aftershock! Danielle! Remember who you are," he pleaded, "And Ember, Jason, you were my best friend! Don't you remember me?"
The Avengers noted that Aftershock seemed to hesitate. She took a step forward before halting at the leader's order.
The leader sneered and suddenly he floated back down to the ground. Closing his eyes and focused his energy on the rogue boy. Suddenly Devin screamed. It was a blood-curdling shriek, almost like the call of a banshee. The Avengers watched in horror as the boy's skin seemed to stretch. It grew red as suddenly a horrible ripping was heard and blood splattered everywhere. Devin's body literally was ripped in two.
"That is what happens to those who oppose me."
"Who the hell are you," Eliza screamed.
"I am Superior."
"At what," Tony spat.
"Everything."
In a single instant, they were gone. All that remained were the bloody remains of what had been Devin Touhy. Eliza nearly vomited at the sickly, metallic taste that hung in the air. She turned away, unable to view the mess any longer.
As police showed up at the scene, Steve went to go talk to them. The other Avengers withdrew to the side and formed a little circle. They had just witnessed one of the most horrific moments of their entire lives. The Battle of New York had been bad, but nothing was as disgusting as seeing someone brutally ripped apart not ten feet from them.
"Can we go home now," Eliza asked, her stomach still unsettled.
"I'll head back with you," Clint said, "Anyone else coming?"
"I'll wait for Steve," Bruce said, "The rest of you head home."
So Tony, Natasha, Eliza, and Clint walked slowly and silently back to the Tower. No one said anything as they all were having to sort through what they had just witnessed.
Natasha was going over what they knew in her mind. At least they could put a name to a face. Superior. What a name. They knew that the three minion orphans were named Devin, Jason, and Danielle. They also knew that telling Danielle her name had had some kind of effect on her, though it wasn't permanent. That meant that Devin might have been on the right track.
Soon, Steve and Bruce arrived home at the Tower and went upstairs to join the team in the Avengers Lounge. No one was talking, and the TV was on but the volume was low. No one seemed to be watching it.
"I think I have an idea of where we go next," Natasha finally said.
They turned to look at her expectantly.
"At least I noticed that Devin's attempt to talk to Aftershock had some sort of effect on Superior's hold over her. I think we need to find out more about those two, Jason and Danielle. We need to find their records."
Steve nodded, "You're right. You need to find out where they're from. Clint, can you call Fury and have him dig up what he can in SHIELD's databanks."
Clint shot up and made his way over to computer. He placed a video call over a SHIELD frequency and updated Fury as to what had happened in Central Park and what they planned on doing about it.
"I'll send you any information we uncover," Fury nodded, "Good work."
As Clint shut the transmission off, he rolled his eyes. Yeah, they'd done a great job. They'd allowed the enemy to kill one of their allies in cold blood. Great.
When Clint turned back he asked where Eliza had gone.
They all glanced around. No one knew.
Eliza scrambled through the vents to the little spot she'd found some days ago. She was still having trouble sleeping at night and so when she needed something to do, she explored the Tower via the air ducts. Jarvis kept her company (yes, she knew that sounded weird, but she had started up a report with the AI). On one of her trips through the vent, she had discovered an alcove. It was decently large, about as wide as Eliza was tall. It wasn't too far from her room either, and it had enough space to put a pillow and some blankets. Eliza had put several fluffy blankets on the floor to keep it from being cold, and she wrapped herself up in another one. She lay down with her head on her pillow, her mind flying a mile a minute as it tried to process the events of the past hour.
"Are you alright, Ms. White," Jarvis asked her.
Eliza flashed a small smile, "Yeah, J, I'm good. Thanks for asking."
"Of course. If there is anything I can do to assist, do not hesitate to ask."
Eliza nodded though she knew the AI couldn't see her. Trust Jarvis, the non-human, to ask her if she was alright.
Was she alright? She didn't know. She'd seen a lot of death in her short life, but nothing quite like earlier. She hadn't even particularly liked Devin. But the way he was killed, it wasn't right. Eliza was a bit surprised it affected her like this. She didn't think she had much of a conscience left after all her years on the streets. But obviously she was still human. Or… Asgardian/Vaniri… Whatever.
Then of course there was talk of finding the orphanage that Devin, Danielle, and Jason had grown up in. That hit way to close to home. Like, way to close. The pit of her stomach had dropped when Natasha outlined her plan. Not only because of the mention of an orphanage, but also because she felt a sense of foreboding. Once they located the orphanage, as she was sure SHIELD would, someone would have to go there and get the information. Somehow, she knew she would be one of those people. And the mere thought of such a trip almost gave her a panic attack.
