• Chapter One •
Daisy flicked one of the switches on the Zephyr, showing Daniel how to turn on the engine cooling system.
"Fascinating. So you can just, push a button, and it cools all by itself?" Sousa asked incredulously.
"I mean, it's a little more complicated than that, but yeah." Daisy replied, "Now show me how to turn the ship into stealth mode."
Daniel obeyed, and with great efficiency, the ship was cloaked and completely silent.
Daisy smiled broadly, "You're catching on so quickly! Good work, Danny Boy."
Daniel returned the smile and winked, "It's only because I have a great teacher, Quake."
"Oh, get a room guys!" came Kora's disgusted voice from the command centre behind the cockpit.
"Sorry, I'll try to be less encouraging to my student." Daisy sarcastically responded. She turned back to Daniel, "One more thing before we finish up for the day. How do you go about starting this thing up, and getting it in the air?"
Sousa nodded and faithfully ran through the process of starting up the Zephyr, with Daisy occasionally humming in approval. When he'd finished Daisy gave him an encouraging nod, "Absolutely perfect. When we land on Zontar to refuel tomorrow, I'll let you do the takeoff."
Daniel raised his hand in a mock salute, "Thank you for this great offer madam."
"Anytime, soldier."
"What did I just say??" Kora yelled, trying hard not to laugh.
The next morning Daisy gently went to wake up Kora, to do their daily Tai Chi and hand-to-hand combat training.
Once her sister had got dressed and walked into the gym, Daisy chuckled at the sight of early-morning-and-not-quite-awake-yet Kora. She thought May must have had a similar enjoyment back when they first started training together. Hell, she probably looked worse. Brushing thoughts of May aside, Daisy cleared her throat, and motioned for Kora to stand with her.
For the next hour, they practiced Tai Chi in a comfortable silence, with Daisy occasionally correcting Kora's stance.
"I think that's enough for today. Here, have some water and then we'll begin sparring, what do you think?" Daisy turned to look at her sister and handed her a water bottle.
An hour of sparring later, Daisy and Kora arrived in the kitchen just in time for Daniel to be putting breakfast on the table.
"Good morning, ladies! How did you go?" he asked.
"We did well thank you." Daisy smiled, "Kora's learning so fast, much faster than I did when I first started!"
Kora blushed. She wasn't used to positive reinforcement, which Daisy had decided was a healthy way of helping her sister.
"What about you?" Kora asked.
"Oh my morning was good, I couldn't find my ring and panicked but then realised I'd placed it in my top drawer, safe and sound."
"I'm glad you found it, I spent days looking for a good wedding ring, Danny Boy." Daisy chuckled, and the other two joined in.
Having landed and refueled, Daisy suggested that they go sightseeing. They weren't officially on mission so they had some time to spare.
"Oh! Let's go check out the Zontarii Waterfalls!" Daisy suggested excitedly.
Daniel smiled broadly. He loved it when Daisy got excited, and he was glad Kora was happy too.
Daisy pointed at the giant waterfall and grabbed Kora's hand to take her closer, to get a better look, and Daniel followed behind, laughing with joy at his wife and sister-in-law having fun.
He pulled up beside them and leant on the wall.
Daisy turned around, smiling, and beckoned for him to join them at the railing.
She shines when she smiles, Daniel thought to himself, and he faithfully obeyed, stepping forward to be next to Daisy.
"Turn around, slowly, with your hands up." growled a low, harsh voice from behind them.
They all obeyed, and faced the offender.
He was tall, strong, scaly and wore a musty, red outfit, laced with black. He was holding some form of alien pistol, that was giving forth a menacing red glow.
"Now," he growled again, "hand over all your valuables and money. You first!" he pointed to Kora.
Kora looked to Daisy and silently asked for help. She didnt really want to cause a scene and she was still getting used to her powers. She didn't want to lose control.
Daisy bit her lip and stepped forward, "Look, sir, we're just tourists. We don't carry valuables with us, and we haven't enough money worth stealing."
This just angered him, and he punched Daisy in the stomach, with enough force to send her flying backwards into the wall. She landed with a heavy crash to the ground. She groaned and coughed, but otherwise remained still.
Daniel started to move to her, but the man pointed his gun at Kora's head, "One more step and she's dead. Now, I won't say it again. Hand over your money and valuables."
Daisy was only barely conscious at this point, but she had a plan. She sent two subtle vibrations to Kora, who grinned. That was the signal.
Kora gathered energy into her palm and slammed the man in the face with it, burning the left side of his face, and she leapt out of the way, dodging his wayward gunfire.
Daniel stepped forward to help Kora take down the attempted thief, but she merely waved him over to Daisy. He turned around, and ran to his wife's side.
"Hey, hey, are you okay?"
Daisy nodded weakly, "A little dizzy, but I'm all right. Can you help me up?"
"Of course!" Daniel said as he stood up, taking her hand and lifting her up slowly, as to not make her dizzier.
"Okay," he said, "hold onto the wall and regain your bearings, I'm going to go help Kora."
He turned and ran off to help.
Daisy blinked rapidly and breathed deeply. You got this, she told herself, quake the bastard to oblivion. She joined in the fight.
Unfortunately, their adversary was rather strong, as Daisy had just had the displeasure of learning earlier. However, he was not a match for the very well trained agents. Realising he was beaten, he turned and fled.
Later, Daisy would curse herself for letting her guard down so soon, but as soon as he seemed to be running away, she turned to Kora to check if she was okay. She didnt see that the attempted thief had pulled his gun again.
He fired.
The power of the blast alone knocked her down, but she was drowning. She couldn't breathe.
Lincoln was in front of her, he was angry. He was blaming her for his death. Then Yo-Yo was there, saying those terrible words, "We didn't pick you!" over and over again. Fitz was digging into her neck again. Casius was murdering Ben in cold blood.
She was screaming for them to stop, but the voices grew louder.
Jiaying joined in all the yelling and was talking about how she never loved Daisy, and wanted Kora more than she could ever want Daisy.
It was all too much, and Daisy collapsed.
"Oh no, no no no." Daniel cried softly, falling to his knees beside her. He put his head to her chest and sighed in relief. "She's alive."
Kora frowned and shook her head, "She's pale, is she cold?"
Daniel felt her forehead and turned back to Kora and shook his head.
Kora moved forward to touch Daisy herself.
Something was very definitely wrong. The energy radiating off Daisy wasn't right. She closed her eyes and felt up and down her sister's arm, searching for the problem.
"There's foreign energy in her." she concluded.
Daniel tilted his head, "Wh-what does that mean? Is she okay? Can we fix it?"
Kora nodded, "I can get it out. She'll be fine. You will have to stand back, though."
Daniel wanted nothing more than to stay by his wife's side, but he knew better than to question her, so he stepped aside.
Kora laid her hands on Daisy's shoulders, and slowly but surely pulled the red energy out of her sister, who writhed in silent pain. Kora gathered all the enegry together in her hands, and dispersed it into the atmosphere.
Daisy's eyes shot open and she darted her head around, searching for the voices, but they were gone.
"Daniel," she croaked weakly, "Daniel, he made me see my worst moments."
Sousa frow creased deeply with worry, and he enveloped her in a hug.
She sobbed quietly into his shoulder and motioned for Kora to join in the hug.
Daniel pulled back and looked her directly in the eyes, "No more fights until youve healed." he said firmly.
Daisy would have argued, but she really wouldn't mind a good, long rest. She nodded weakly and tried to stand.
Kora noticed her sister's wobbly legs and held out her arm for much needed support. Kora looked to Daniel, who nodded in affirmation, understanding the silent request.
Daniel swept Daisy up into his arms, "Don't worry, I got you." he soothed, "I'll get you to the healing chamber soon.
Once Sousa had safely put Daisy in the chamber and set it to the correct settings, he went to the cockpit and took the seat next to Kora.
"Is Daisy okay?" she asked, tentatively fiddling with the large cut on her cheek.
"I stayed with her until she fell asleep. Today hit her pretty hard." Daniel said sadly, but then he noticed the cuts on Kora's face, "Hey, that was a pretty rough fight, are you okay?" when she nodded absent-mindedly, he motioned for her to follow him, "Come on, I'll patch you up."
Kora followed him, her mind a million miles away. She'd never encountered an energy force like that. It wasn't warm, like hers, it was angry.
"Kora." Daniel put his hand on her shoulder, "Kora, look at me. What's wrong?"
Kora shrugged and tried to brush it off, "It's nothing, I'm just... I'm just tired, is all."
Daniel frowned, "Now ive known you long enough to tell when you're lying. What's the matter."
Seeing there was no way out of this, she sighed, "The energy force. It was burning with rage, and sorrow, guilt, envy, and fright. All those powerful emotions together must have overwhelmed Daisy. Somehow, he's turned emotions into a weapon, or, even worse-"
"Someone else has and he just got his hands on them." Daniel finished.
Kora nodded solemnly.
"You get some sleep Daniel, I'll keep watch over Daisy for a few hours."
Daniel considered protesting, but he knew he wouldn't be any use to Daisy if he was walking around like a zombie after no sleep.
He nodded, "Okay, but wake me if anything happens."
A Year Ago
Just before Quake released her power, Malick put up a wall of energy, shielding himself from the impact, but he was still thrown into space.
He was now floating about in nothing, millions and millions of miles from home, with less than an hour's worth of oxygen. He'd created an air bubble, but the air was running out
He felt a sudden chill enter his chest.
And he could breathe.
And he knew.
Hive had found the vessel. Not weak, like Grant Ward. But a Malick. One who was stronger than all the others.
This was the one to keep alive.
This one could help him.
"We want the same goal." Malick breathed.
"We will take down the Destroyer of Worlds."
Daisy woke with a gasp.
Could it have been real? But it was so long ago, and how could Hive have survived? She thought, frightened of the answer.
"Hey, it's okay, you're okay. You're home and safe." Kora said reassuringly.
"Kora, I-"
"Do you want me to get Daniel? I'll be right back." Kora stood up and walked to the door.
"Kora, I think he survived."
Kora stopped dead in her tracks.
She didn't have to ask who.