A/N: Sorry about that long wait- life just SMACKED a bitch with the fattest workload and I've finally got some free time enough to finish this chapter which is just full of information and setting up the general problem for the next arc. Sorry again that this took so long :/
Chapter Song: Arsonist's Lullaby by Hozier
Headcanon of the Chapter: Danielle is a Hufflepuff and Jack is a Gryffindor - which is kinda ironic because I'm a Slytherclaw, lmao.
It was freezing... And- well, cold.
Danielle couldn't feel much outside of cold, uncomfortable, sore, and aggravated as she made her way from Brooklyn to Queens. She didn't have any cash on her, so taxis were out of the picture. And her phone was wet and broken after her fall into the river. All she really had was her Metro card and that only took her so far. So, the young soaking wet from head-to-toe teen was left to walk the five blocks it took to get to the Parkers' apartment.
She got a few odd glances her way as she walked down the sidewalks of New York. She didn't blame them. She couldn't imagine how disheveled and crazy she looked to them, but she didn't really care. She had somewhere she needed to be and people she needed to warn.
Eventually, the brunette made it to the door. Her hand was shaking as she raised it up to knock. Once she had, she immediately went back to hugging her middle with both arms to try and keep warm. She felt that if she let go, the shivers wracking her body would cause her to fall to her knees.
It felt like minutes passed before the door finally opened to reveal May Parker. Her eyes flashed in recognition and joy when she saw who it was, but the feeling briefly passed when she noticed Danielle's appearance. "Oh my God!" She gasped.
"May, who is it?!" Danielle heard Peter's voice in the background.
"It's Danielle!" May called back over her shoulder as she flung the door open and beckoned the poor girl inside. "Come on, hurry. Get in here before you freeze to death."
Danielle hadn't noticed Peter walking into the living room until he was a few feet away from them. "I don't want to talk to her-" he had began to protest when his eyes fell onto her shriveled up figure shaking beside his aunt as she shut the door behind her. "Jesus– Elle, what happened?" He asked, his voice coated with worry as he quickly moved to be by her side. His hand touched her pale hand and he almost drew it away at how cold to the touch she was. She was always naturally cold, but not like this. "My God..."
"I'll go get some towels and blankets for her from the closet," May said in a hurry as she started off down the hallway. "You sit her down so she doesn't fall over!" She called as she left to go grab what she said she would.
Peter gently wrapped an arm around her middle and guided her towards the couch where he carefully helped her take a seat. Peter made a move to scoot away and give her her space when a cold hand suddenly shot out and latched onto his wrist, holding it in place. "S-s-stay," a soft chattering voice whimpered from Danielle's blue lips.
"Okay," he nodded as he moved back towards her. She was freezing, but he pushed through as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, allowing her to snuggle closer into his chest between his arms. He felt her relax under his touch, but she was still shaking and the sound of her teeth chattering was still heard over the white noise of the nightly news starting to play on the TV.
A few minutes passed before May returned to the living room with a pile of thick blankets and a few towels in her arms. She dropped them down onto the other end of the couch and quickly began to wrap them around the poor girl. "Goodness gracious, Danielle, what did you get yourself into? You're colder than the inside of our freezer!" She scolded the teenage girl. She paused from wrapping blankets around the brunette momentarily to press the back of her hand to her forehead. She felt like a walking ice-cube. She felt frozen. "Okay- that's it. I'm putting on a pot of hot tea for you to drink. Peter, go turn up the heat to help warm her up before she dies of hypothermia."
"Got it." Peter looked reluctant to leave his partner's side, but he did as he was told while his aunt started working her way around the small kitchen a few yards away.
For only a few minutes, Danielle was left alone with her thoughts, sitting in the Parkers' living room cold, soaking wet, and still shell-shocked about what happened only a half-hour earlier. Before she could even begin to process anything that had occurred at the bridge, she had already began to feel the soreness in her body from being thrown through concrete walls, falling through floors, and being choked within an inch of her life. Slowly, the brunette raised her free hand to press it against her throat. She winced at the pain that shot through her neck at the contact. She didn't even want to know how bad it looked, but she doubted either May or Peter could see through the tendrils of wet hair covering it like a curtain.
Eventually, Peter returned from the hallway, yet another towel in his hands. "Here," he gently placed it in her hands for her to take. "I figured you'd want to try and dry your hair."
Danielle nodded stiffly as she used it to pull her hair up into a towel-bun above her head. "Thanks..." her voice came out in a hoarse whisper.
Peter sighed and nodded in response. And as Danielle had began to tighten the towel on her head, Peter was finally able to get a good look at her neck... more specifically the giant bruise that had been hidden earlier. "Holy- Elle, what the hell happened? Who did this to you?"
"I..." Her teeth chattered loudly as she let the towel fall limp from her hair back onto her shoulders in attempt to cover up her throat again. "I don't know... He had a gas mask on.. he controlled fire with his hands... my powers..." She coughed and winced at the pain. "My powers... they weren't- the weren't working-" More painful coughing, her hand coming up to her throat as she tried to sooth the burning pain on her neck. "He wouldn't... let... go..."
Peter's jaw tightened and Danielle thought she saw a flash of pure fury and hatred in his eyes as he carefully took his hand beneath her chin and lifted it upwards towards him so he could get a better look at her wound. At what the mystery pyromaniac did to her. "Does it hurt?"
She gave him a stiff nod, her chin still held up by her partner's fingers as she did so.
Peter's jaw clenched and relaxed as he fought the urge to look away at the painful sight. Eventually, he let go of her chin with a heavy sigh. "Who was he?"
Danielle turned her head away from him. At first, he figured she was probably either too exhausted to answer or too pissed at him to bother after their argument a few hours ago. But then he saw her shaking hand slowly emerge from beneath the towels to point to where her eyes were glued to the TV screen a few feet away. He barely heard her hoarse whisper over the sounds of the news nearby. "... him."
On the screen was a projection of a very blurry photo of a dark figure dressed in all black standing outside a burnt down building, a gas mask over his face as plumes of smoke encased his form on the television. This was him. The guy that tried to kill Elle. But... why? How?
"We have to call Mr. Stark."
Sometime later, Danielle's shaking had died down and May Parker was adamant on her drinking the large mug of hot tea she'd placed (more like shoved) in her hands while her nephew was in the hallway pacing back and forth, his phone pressed against his ear. As she sipped on her tea, Danielle tried to listen in on the conversation, but it was kind of hard to make out through Peter's fast-paced talking.
"No, no, no, no, no- Happy! Happy, listen-" He paused for a moment, Danielle assumed the Stark Industries head of security was saying something he clearly didn't like. "I need to talk to Mr. Stark!... No, you don't understand, we can't go there, this guy knows-! Happy- Happy, please- he knows who she is!" Danielle flinched slightly at his outburst and shook it off as she kept an ear out for the pause after his words. Eventually, she heard Peter break the silence. "Alright, we'll be there. Just... please hurry," he replied in a hushed voice before she heard the beep of the clal ending.
Peter hesitated in the hallway for a moment and when he eventually decided to come back to the living room, May piped up from the kitchen, "What did Happy say?" Danielle made an effort to glance up at her partner from over her mug of tea she held to her mouth, silently wondering the same thing.
The teenage boy shoved his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath. "Uh, he said he'd call Mr. Stark and Miss Sable." He glanced up to gauge Elle's reaction, her face void of any other emotion aside from exhaustion so far. "He's on his way here now with a security detail. Said something about meeting Miss Sable back at the Penthouse so she could get us to the Compound, but... he thinks it's risky because-"
"Because if he knows who I am, he knows where I live..." Danielle finished for him in a raspy whisper. "... go to school... hang out..." Her half-lidded eyes meet Peter's again at the realization of her words, he seems to understand as well because he's pulling his phone out again at the speed of light to make a few more calls. While he's back in the hallway talking on the phone some more, Danielle can't help but feel the guilt build up in her chest. This was it, wasn't it? That underlying fear she'd always pushed away: that one day all of this secret double life would catch up with her other life and now the people she cared about were going to be the ones paying the price for a crime she committed.
I want your body in a ball of flames.
Just like Brock Rumlow...
Rumlow.
God, she hadn't heard that name uttered for what felt like years, when in reality it had been only a few months ago. Months. Months since she'd killed him. The memory of the tingling sensation she felt all throughout her body as her powers wrapped around his body licked with an explosion she struggled to contain. The sound of his screams echoing in her nightmares still long after the explosion Wanda had caused by tossing the ball of flesh and fire into the building up above. The one domino that led to the Avengers' downfall that summer.
Brock Rumlow.
The man that had turned her mother into an assassin- a killer- then put a bullet through her skull when she wouldn't kill Steve on a warehouse rooftop. Danielle hadn't heard her death, only the single shot that rang through the air. She thought she'd heard screams too, but that may have just been her imagination playing sick tricks on her.
Brock Rumlow.
Who could've possibly wanted revenge on her for killing that monster? He deserved it, didn't he? He had killed her mom, right? Right...?
That point was still a little blurry for her. She still remembers how believable he was the moments before his death where he told her that he hadn't killed her, but wished he had. Had he been tricking her then? Was he just buying himself time?
Danielle groaned, forcing herself to push aside all these questions that were hurting her head and just decided to focus on keeping herself awake. May had told her she suspected she had a concussion and the last thing she needed to do was sleep, but the one thing she wanted to do was just that. To push aside all these questions without definite answers running rampant within her brain. She just needed a second to catch her breath.
"Elle."
Apparently she couldn't even have that.
She looked up through her tendrils of hair covering her face to see Peter returning from the hallway. Having hung up his phone, it seemed he had news. And by the anxious look on his face, it was urgent.
"We've gotta go. Now," he exclaimed as he quickly snatched up a spare jacket from a pile of laundry near by. "Happy's down the street. He's taking us straight to some meet up spot, but we have to go now."
Danielle immediately set her mug of tea down, her entire body groaned in protest as she attempted to stand up, the towels falling from off her shoulder and lap. She had nearly regained her balance when her knees abruptly gave out. She fully expected her face to hit the edge of the coffee table in front of her, but instead she felt a firm grasp around her waist pull her up and into the arms of the boy beside her. "Mm," she moaned from the swift movements, but was able to regain her footing with the help of her partner that had somehow managed to move halfway across the room in the millisecond it took to catch her before she fell.
Once he felt she was able to stand on her own, he held up his Midtown hoodie he'd grabbed moments ago and held it up behind her back for her to slip on over her still damp clothing. "Come on," he whispered to her as she slipped on the jacket carefully, wincing with each movement until the over-sized jacket enveloped her petite frame.
A few feet away, May hung back, unsure of what she was supposed to do right now with her vigilante teenage nephew and his injured partner getting ready to run off to some secret Avengers Compound. Was she supposed to come with? "Peter, what- where are you two going?"
"May, you have to stay here," Peter told her as he lead Danielle closer to the door.
"I- Excuse me? What do you mean 'stay here?'" She exploded. "I cannot just stay here while you run off to do God knows what!"
"May, you have to trust me!"
"I am the adult here-!"
"And I'm trying to keep her safe!" Peter retorted, his grip on Danielle's arms tightening ever so slightly to prove his point.
May paused for a moment. Maybe it was the slight tremor in his voice, or the look of pure terror in her nephew's eyes, or even just the way he was protectively holding Danielle so close to him that made her slowly take a step back and nod. She trusted him. She trusted them.
Peter gave her a nod back in return, the gratification in his eyes as he took Elle by the arm and started to lead her out of the apartment to get downstairs. Danielle had nearly tripped a few times going down the stairwell, even managing to stumble into a few walls along the way. She probably wouldn't have made it all the way down to the sidewalk out front if Peter hadn't practically carried her the entire time. They eventually made it and they didn't have to wait long either because the minute their feet hit the pavement outside, a large caravan of black vehicles with dark tent pulled up along the curb.
"Is that them?" Danielle groaned against Peter's chest as he held her upright.
Her question was answered for her when the middle car door's driver side door opened and out walked the Stark Industries Head of Security. He looked anxious and hard-set, and when his eyes fell on Danielle practically hanging onto Peter, his senses went on high-alert times ten. "Get her in the car," he ordered the teenage boy beside her, Peter moving to guide Danielle into the backseat of the car just as Happy opened the door for them.
After helping Danielle inside, Peter quickly turned back to Happy. "What about my Aunt May?"
"I've got guys on her right now, a few more heading to watch your school and your friends as we speak," Happy assured him, as well as Danielle as Peter climbed in right behind her. "Now let's go. We've got nine minutes to go," he called before slamming the door behind them.
Danielle ran a hand down her face and glanced up at Peter with a confused look plastered on her face. "Nine minutes to what?"
At the speed at which Happy was driving, they ended up making it to some helicopter pad at the edge of the Hudson within minutes. As soon as the caravan of vehicles pulled onto the pad, Danielle could spot the dark silhouette of the helicopter slowly coming down to land a few yards away from where the cars had parked.
Danielle barely had time to take her seatbelt from the time that the car stopped to when Happy was already around the side to open the door for them. The brunette was able to pull herself out of the backseat, but Peter still insisted on keeping his arm around her waist just in case her legs gave out again.
It all happened so fast. One minute she was climbing out of the back of car, then all she heard was roaring winds, the loud hum of the turbines on the helicopter, and the harsh sensation of her damp hair being blown in every which direction. She could barely hear whatever Happy and Peter were shouting at each other from over her head. All she knew was that they were leaving- now, before the pyromaniac decided to come back and finish the job.
Just as soon as the chopper touched down on the pad, the pilot's door swung open and a familiar flash of white peeked her head out. "Let's go!" Sable shouted out to them from over the sound of the chopper.
Happy threw an arm over both teens, ducking their heads down as he lead them towards the helicopter cabin doors. They swung open and Danielle stumbled a bit trying to climb in, Peter and Happy right behind her as she did. "Strap in," he shouted at the pair from across the small aisle between the two rows of seats, Peter and Danielle on one side, Happy on the other, and Rae strapping back into her spot inside the cockpit. The pair quickly obliged, throwing on the straps behind them just as the chopper jerked upwards and lifted off the ground.
The ride was rushed and a little bumpy. Danielle probably would've been more terrified of Rae's flying if she wasn't so exhausted and sore. She had to catch herself leaning her head on Peter's shoulder and drifting off. She had to remind herself about the concussion over and over again until she decided to just look out the window and see how many lights she could see down below. Eventually, they reached the Compound. Rae's landing a little rougher than her take off, but Danielle's eyes were already on the crowd of people walking out from the building to meet them.
Just like when the car had stopped, Danielle was rushed out of the helicopter in a rush. Hands were on her and it was difficult to pinpoint who was saying what. Words were mixed with the ringing in her ears from the helicopter turbines still going on.
"Dani."
It was Jack.
She was in his arms within moments that his voice reached her ears. Peter's arm that had been around her waist holding her up was no replaced by her brother's as he eased her further away from the helicopter pad and into another crowd of people waiting at the Compound entrance.
"Wait, where's she going?" Danielle heard Peter call from close behind her, his voice get farther away the more she walked with Jack. Danielle wanted to stop and ask the same thing and why Peter wasn't coming, but she was just too weak to fight against her brother's grip.
Jack led her inside, the crowd of lab coats opening up to her and soon she found herself being lifted up by several hands onto some kind of white bed. "Jack..." she muttered as she felt her shoulder being pushed down, laying her flat on her back.
"Ssh, don't talk," a new female voice hushed her from somewhere to her left. Where was Jack? Where was Peter? "The swelling on her neck is already going down, but we should probably get that wrapped up just in case."
"What about her powers?" Peter.
Danielle tried to sit up when she heard his voice, but a hand came out to hold her down again. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, searching for him in the bright light that seemed to be blinding her, but she couldn't see anything.
"What about her powers?" A raspy male voice piped up.
"She said something about them not working."
There was a tense silence among the people around her before she heard Jack mutter something, "Where's Foster?"
Within minutes, Danielle found herself no longer in the bed laid on her back and was now sitting in a stiff leather chair. People in white lab coats working around her. She was numb and sore and tired and exhausted. She was still unable to go to sleep. She did what she was asked without question, tilting her head, holding out her arm, opening her mouth, following the light. Every often she'd feel a pinch from the IV they stuck in her elbow crease, another from her upper arm where they drew blood. When all the medical crap was finished (at least she'd hoped it was) Dr. Foster, Dr. Selvig and the rest of their team were quick to take Dr. Cho's team's place by her side. They'd already started to place small wires to her head when she started becoming aware of her surroundings again.
"Danielle?" A voice called out to her. It sounded far away, muffled by water or distance. "Danielle?" The brunette tried to focus, pinpoint the voice and try to get clarity on her surroundings.
Slowly, her vision became less blurred and her hearing came back to her. In front of her, she could see a group of people... they were all familiar. Jane, Selvig, a few of thier scientist she'd seen before but didn't know the name of, even Darcy stood nearby in the corner. Something Danielle picked up on quickly was how tense everyone was, how worried they all looked. That's how she knew this was bad.
"What's happening?" She winced. The stinging from her sore throat stopping her from raising her voice any louder than a whisper.
Jane stepped forward, clipboard in hand and some kind of machine by her side that seemed to be connected to the wires attached to her head. "We're going to run a few tests on your abilities," she explained.
When Danielle gave her a look that expressed her confusion, Darcy chimed in from the corner, "Peter said you'd told him that your powers weren't working when, uh..." She made a gesture to her throat, which earned her a glare from Jane.
"Darcy," she hissed at her 'intern.'
"Sorry," she grimaced apologetically.
"It's alright," Danielle assured both women. "What am I... what am I going to do?"
"Well, kind of what you did last time," Dr. Selvig explained as he pulled out a small metal cube and placed it on a table in front of her. "Try moving it across the surface." Danielle turned her attention to the cube in front of her and did what she always did when she wanted to use her powers, she focused. "Now, don't strain yourself too much. If you can't move it-" His words were cut off when the cube suddenly shot off the edge of the table and hit the wall behind his head with a loud smack.
Danielle gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. That had never happened like that before. She put little effort into moving something so small, just as she always had. Yet, somehow the reaction she had gotten was... forceful. "I- I'm sorry. I don't know how- I wasn't trying that hard," she tried to explain to the scientists.
"It's okay," Jane quickly assured her before turning her attention towards the machine beside her. Danielle watched the range of emotions that crossed her features until she eventually settled on a look of awe. "Woah... Erik, come take a look at this."
Danielle watched as the scientists all spread out, a few glancing at screens on their tablets in their hands. Selvig and Darcy rushed over to glance at whatever was sending Jane into shock. It seemed to make even Selvig look impressed, his eyebrows furrowing and the creases in his forehead deepened. Darcy, however, just looked a little lost. "What are those flashes supposed to be?"
"Flashes?" Danielle glanced between her, Jane, and Dr. Selvig, her growing anxiety about what was on that screen that was making them look so concerned.
No one answered her for a couple of minutes as they were busy analyzing whatever she'd just done. Eventually, Dr. Selvig put her worries to rest when he answered her. "We documented your brain activity, set the machine to a certain frequency that can pick up your powers, just like last time," he explained.
"And?"
Jane and Selvig shared a knowing look with one another before Jane turned back to her, a tablet in hand as she walked towards her. "Well, you remember what your brain looked like the first time, right?"
The teen shrugged. "Vaguely."
Dr. Foster took a tentative step towards her, she leaned forward to extend her tablet towards the teen for her to see what was on the screen. "Here is the first test after what happened in Germany," she explained as Danielle examined the black and white image of her brain, a single flash of gold and yellow light streak across the front part. "And here... is this test just now." Jane swiped on the screen to reveal another black and white image of her brain, only this one had multiple skewed streaks of gold scattered across it, like an explosion of light inside of her head.
Danielle's mouth went dry. "What does... what does that mean?"
Dr. Selvig took a step forward, his forehead creased in concentration. "When you were fighting that man... what exactly happened with your powers?"
"They just..." she trailed off, thinking back on the horrifying moments where she felt helpless, afraid... "It was like they were just turned off like a switch. I don't know how... or why."
"Interesting," the astrophysicist muttered beneath his breath.
"What?" Both Danielle and Darcy asked simultaneously.
"Perhaps... perhaps this new reaction was only momentary."
Darcy scrunched her face in confusion and a few feet away, Danielle couldn't help but do the same as she glanced between Selvig and Jane, searching to see if anyone had a clue about what he was talking about.
She watched as Dr. Selvig suddenly walked across the room to pick up the discarded metal cube she'd thrown earlier and set it down on the table in front of her once more. "Try again," he instructed before walking back behind the machine. "Use the same amount of force you did the last time."
Jane came up behind him, trying to see what he was doing at the machine, what he was trying to accomplish. "Where are you going with this?"
"I'm testing a theory," he replied. "Danielle..." He glanced up at her and nodded, giving her the go ahead.
Danielle sighed before turning back to the cube. She narrowed her eyes and focused, just like she had last time. Same amount of pressure applied as the last time, same amount of power. Only this time, instead of shooting across the room and crashing against the wall, the cube slid across the table and stopped just before it got to the edge.
The stiffness in Selvig's body seemed to fade away when the results of her test seemed to appear on the screen in front of him. Jane tilted her head ever so slightly as she peered at it from over his shoulder.
"Huh," Dr. Foster huffed.
Danielle grew concerned. Had she... done something wrong? "What?"
Darcy then took that moment to walk over and peer over Jane's shoulder at the screen. "It's... back to normal again," she stated. "Why is it back to normal? What does that mean?"
When no one immediately answered, Danielle leaned forward in her seat to try and get Selvig and Jane's attention. "What theory were you trying to prove?"
Selvig pursed his lips together, taking the tablet from Jane beside him and walking towards the teen as he spoke. "You'd compared your powers being turned off like a switch, but after the first test with the cube... I think perhaps it is more like a dam that had contained the raging waters that are your abilities. So, when it was held back, all that pint up energy came bursting out the moment it was released. Thus, the reaction you'd had before when moving the cube. But after... it's back to just a flowing river again," he explained, his arm extending to show her the image on the tablet he had.
The image was similar to the very first image she'd seen. Once again, it was black and white and only a singular streak of gold just like before. Back to normal.
"How... how could someone do that? Dampen my abilities? Hold them back?" Danielle asked fearfully. How far could this maniac go? How was someone able to do such a thing? Get rid of her powers? It was... dangerous... deadly...
"The only thing I can think of is perhaps someone who with abilities that originated from the same source..." Selvig explained as he took back the tablet.
Danielle felt her stomach drop as the words left her mouth like a curse. "The Scepter..."
"The Mind Stone," Jane clarified.
Danielle slowly began to pull off the sensors and wires from her head, her hands shaking as she dropped them to the floor. The fear and confusion really setting in now about who that mad man on the bridge was and how he could do what he did.
"Can you think of anyone, Danielle?"
She shook her head. "No... everyone else in Strucker's program died."
"Maybe there was someone before you that survived and you just didn't know-"
Jane tried to reason with her, but Danielle cut her off swiftly. "No!"
The light above them flickered and she thought she saw Darcy flinch ever so slightly.
She gave them an apologetic look before clearing her throat and trying again. "No. There couldn't have been, because..." her voice cracked for just a moment before she cleared her throat and continued. "Jack and I were the first ones to be put through those trials with the Scepter... And Wanda, Jack and I were the only survivors when Sokovia happened. Everyone else either withered away during the trials or were killed by Strucker and his people... We saw it all."
There was a darkness to her voice as she recalled her memories there in that Hell. So cold, desolate, unfeeling. Sometimes she wondered how she ever managed to survive those years of literal Hell on Earth. She'd suppressed most of those memories of that place, but one thing she couldn't erase was the death. All of that death.
"There were no other survivors. None."
The people in the room seemed to drop the subject, but Danielle could feel their pity remaining even after they'd let it go. It was so suffocating, all she could do was disappear and try and take a breath.
"What's taking them so long?" Peter asked to no one in particular as he continued to pace back and forth in what seemed to be some kind of large open living room type area. He'd only been to the Compound once just after he and Elle had taken down Toomes, so he hadn't exactly been given the full tour, especially not of this part of the Compound. It didn't feel as though he was standing in a super top secret Avengers base, but more like he was in the common room of a futuristic college dormitory.
"Considering that they're currently running a complex number of tests to analyze the inner working of Miss Harper's brain and extraterrestrial abilities that lie within, I would assume it would take a substantial amount of time to complete," a British monotone voice answered him from the small couch a few feet away.
Peter turned to glance at the magenta-skinned (was that even skin?) Android. He found himself trying to process this entire interaction: the Android that was created by the killer robot that tried to end the world two years ago that had a crazy space gem in his forehead that shot lasers was talking to him about his partner's space abilities that were suddenly being controlled by a psychopath that could shoot fire from his hands...
"Right..."
Jesus, when did his life turn into some kind of crazy sci-fi movie? Maybe he should write a book or something...
"Just take a breather, kid." Tony told him from where he stood in the kitchen, pouring himself his third coffee since Peter had got there an hour and a half ago. "Get some water, eat something, take a seat- your pacing is raising my blood pressure by the minute." Peter watched him clench his jaw before downing half the shot of straight espresso and pouring the rest into his coffee cup. It seemed everyone had a way with coping with what had happened.
"Leave Sticky Fingers alone, Stark," Miss Sable muttered to the billionaire as she brushed past him in the large kitchen to get to the liquor cabinet. Peter had noticed she'd been slipping in and out all night, making herself scarce after she'd piloted the helicopter to get them here. She'd leave the room for ten to twenty minutes at a time with one liquor bottle in her hands and return again to get a new one. Yet, somehow, she didn't seem to show any signs of being drunk or even a little bit tipsy. Maybe it had to do with her own enhancements that he'd only gotten a glimpse of a few weeks ago at the Penthouse. He wondered if he could get drunk... Probably not with Miss Potts there.
The strawberry blonde was still in her work clothes, her heels clicking everywhere she walked and Happy always a few steps behind. She, like Miss Sable, had been walking in and out, but instead of coming in for liquor, she was coming in with updates on the phone calls to people she'd been making throughout the night.
Peter always knew when she was walking in because he heard her long before she even reached the room. Sure enough, he turned just as she entered the room, the sound of her phone beeping as she ended a call acting as an indication that she had another update. "Peter, sweetie, have you eaten at all?"
He grimaced a little at how even at the Avengers Compound he was being treated like a little kid, but he decided just to flatter her. "Uh, yeah, my Aunt May and I had dinner before... before Elle showed up." He swallowed the lump in his throat before clearing his throat. "Did you- were you able to check in on my aunt?"
"Yeah," Happy answered for her. "We've got a security detail on her, the school, and the two friends you'd mentioned: Leeds and Jones."
"Thank you, Miss Potts," Peter nodded towards her in gratitude before turning to her Head of Security. "Happy."
"Don't mention it," he replied. "How's Dani looking?"
"No word from the Nerds down in the Science Department yet," Statix- or, Jack (Peter still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he was Danielle's older brother) called from where he was sprawled out on the couch across from the Android- Vision, Peter recalled someone mentioning his name was.
"You gotta stop calling them 'the Nerds,' Harper," a brunette woman in an all-black pantsuit walked in, a tablet in hand and a large earpiece peeking out just beneath her pinned back hair.
"Maria," Miss Potts greeted her. "Any news?"
"On our new Enhanced? Not really, which is what's stumping me. No sightings, no new news, not a word or a peep about any previous sightings of this Pyromaniac," Maria replied, her fingers tapping away at her tablet screen. "But, the media has given him a name."
Peter heard Tony scoff from his place in the kitchen. "Of course they did," he heard him mutter before taking a long sip of his coffee. Miss Sable beside him not bothering to hide her alcoholic tendencies as she took a similar sip straight from the bottle of liquor.
"What is it?" Colonel Rhodes, who had been seated across the living room, prompted from his spot on the cushioned seat.
"Arson," Maria replied.
Peter clenched his fists at the name. It wasn't his real name, Peter knew there was a real person beneath that mask. A coward. A killer that he was going to reign Hell on the minute he found out who he really was. Just like he had Toomes. Only this was different. Toomes had only threatened to go after Elle, this madman- Arson- went directly after her. Almost succeeded in killing one of his closest friends, his partner...
"He's gonna come back for her."
The words came out of his mouth before he himself even had time to process them. But they were true, and everyone in that room knew it. He would be back to finish what he'd started. Peter's mind wandered to the cuts on Elle's face, the burns all along her arms and legs, and the dark bruises around her frail neck.
"That he is..." Tony's voice broke him out of his blind rage for a moment. "That's why security's going to be doubled, on both of them."
Happy nodded. "On it, Boss."
"And no more patrolling either until this psycho is caught."
Peter's head snapped towards his mentor. "Wait- what? Mr. Stark-"
"No arguing, Parker. No patrols or I'll confiscate the suit again," he gave him a pointed glare from over the edge of his mug as he walked closer to the group settling in the middle of the room.
"Same goes to you, Danielle," Jack abruptly leaned forward in his seat and glanced over his shoulder at the dark corner of the room behind them. All eyes turned in that direction and found that, sure enough, the petite brunette had been hiding away in the shadows undetected until she slowly stepped out into the light.
Peter winced at the sight of her neck wrapped up in gauze, but he could tell she had been trying to cover it up with her frizzled and almost completely dry hair. "Elle," the name slipped past his lips in a hoarse whisper.
"And what happens if he attacks again?" Danielle prompted the group, her voice hoarse. But, Peter figured her low voice was better than her chattering teeth and having to latch onto him to stand up. "He's seen my face, he knows who I am... And Dr. Selvig thinks that whoever it is may have been apart of Strucker's program. Someone who got their powers from the Mind Stone just like us."
Jack's face scrunched up in confusion at her words. "Why does he think that?"
"Because he was able to dampen my powers with some kind of ability he possessed. He came to the conclusion that the only thing powerful enough to do something like that would be the connection with the Scepter..."
Colonel Rhodes turned his head around to face her. "He had more than one ability?"
"Just like Miss Harper," Vision noted.
"But he couldn't have been apart of Strucker's little experiment. That's impossible," Jack exclaimed. "Wanda, Dani and I were the only survivors after Ultron... There has to be another explanation."
"Rumlow."
Everyone turned back to Danielle again when she'd uttered the name.
"He mentioned Rumlow..."
"Wait, you actually talked to the maniac?" Rhodes asked.
"He'd... he'd mentioned it in passing while he was... choking me." Danielle's hand shot up to her throat as she caressed it gently as if to ease the pain the memory itself brought on.
"So... he has fire powers, the ability to turn off Danielle's powers, and he knows Rumlow," Jack listed off with a look of disgust. "Who the hell is this guy?"
There was a loud slam on the kitchen counter and everyone turned to see Tony slamming down his coffee mug onto the counter. "I don't know, but when we find him..." Peter watched his fists clench. He'd only ever seen him this angry once before right after the Ferry Incident. This was bad...
Tony swiftly turned on the pair of teens. "Until this is clear up, neither of you are going to an extracurriculars," he stated, his finger pointing between the two. "No Spider-Eris outings, no soccer, no Decathlon- hell, I shouldn't even be letting either of you go back to the city."
"But you are...?" Danielle raised a skeptical eyebrow at the billionaire.
He clenched his jaw and let out a deep breath. "I am," he muttered, his voice laced with the already lingering regret he knew he'd have with this decision later down the road. "But only because we don't know who or what this manic is, but we know what his end goal is."
"Danielle's head on a spit above a burning fire," Jack stood up from his seat abruptly. "Yeah, great plan, Tony. We're serving her right up to him if we send them back!"
"We have no other way to find this guy!" The genius snapped. "He's an unknown variable and the only concrete piece of the equation we have is her!" He gestured directly towards Danielle. "We keep her here, he'll only wait it out, and something tells me this guy has a hell of a lot of patience from the way he's basically nonexistent on any known database. We have to send her back eventually and he'll just attack her either way."
"So you're going to use her as bait instead of waiting it out to try and find him ourselves?" Jack prompted.
"You come up with a better idea and get back to me on it," Tony snapped back at him. Peter watched as hurt flashed across Jack's expression.
He clenched and unclenched his jaw angrily. "You're going to get her killed."
"Not if we're ten steps ahead of him," Miss Sable entered the living room and the conversation. "We keep that detail Happy was talking about on them at all times. Plus, add a few extra hands down in the Big Apple... Us. The Avengers."
"I'd hardly consider you as one of us," Jack muttered beneath his breath.
Sable whipped her head to him, her eyes narrowing into a glare. Peter watched as a silver flash emerged then vanished from her irises. "Bite me, Statix," she snapped back, earning a small smack on her arm by Miss Potts.
"Guys," Rhodes interjected. "That's a great idea and all, but we can't just drop everything and head to New York. Some of us still have duties with the UN and the Accords. We've got shit to do that requires us here."
"Then we break up the workload," Tony suggests. "Rhodey, you and Vision can take up the responsibility of having to babysit the Accords Committee. Happy, focus on around the clock security detail on the two. And the rest of us will be in two places at once, on the ground and in the air looking for this bastard before he can even make it to Danielle. We all in agreement?"
The group of adults all looked amongst each other. No one really said anything, but the resolve in their eyes made the understanding known.
"Good. Happy, bring the cars around."
"What- we're going back tonight?" Peter quickly interjected into the conversation for the first time since Elle came back. "Don't you think she should at least stay here for a little bit while she... I don't know- heals?"
"Miss Harper has an advanced form of regenerative abilities," Vision chimed in from behind him. "Dr. Cho projects she'll be fully healed by next week."
Peter spun back around to face Danielle. He expected her to be against it all; going back and using her as bait. But instead, when he looked at her, she seemed eager... Eager to go back to the city knowing full-well a pyromaniac was on the loose and looking for her and she was just going to dangle herself in front of him...
"Elle-" he opened his mouth to argue, but she took a step forward and placed a hand on his arm, silencing him immediately.
"There's no point in fighting them on this... They've already made up their minds. So have I," she jerked her head in the direction of the adults are gathering around a few feet away, their eyes and screens and their mouths moving a million miles an hour as they solidified their plan for her.
Just then, Miss Sable began to walk towards the pair, her phone pressed to her ear as she told them in passing, "We're leaving in ten. Let's go." The teens watched the white-haired woman walk off out of the lounge and down the hall. Neither made the move to follow after her immediately.
Danielle turned to Peter and squeezed his arm slightly. "Go, I'll be right behind you."
Peter glanced between where Miss Sable had gone and his partner, conflicted feelings bubbling within his core as he debated whether or not to follow and just go along with this or fight the group of literal Avengers a few yards away on a decision neither of them had a say in.
"Peter," her voice brought him back to the present where she was already pushing him towards the door, making the decision for him. "Go."
He eventually gave in, willing his feet to move forward to walk out the door. He hesitated momentarily, pausing in the doorway to take one last glance at her and all her injuries laid out before his eyes.
She gave him one last nod of encouragement before watching him leave the room.
"Hey," Jack was quick to move in now that her dorky partner was gone. She somehow got the hint that from the short amount of time the two had been together that he already wasn't too fond of Peter.
Her brother tentatively put his hands on her shoulders, being sure not to put too much pressure on her burns, bruises and cuts. Danielle glanced up at him and gave him a half-smile in an attempt to try and comfort him. She could tell he, just like Peter, was also having a bit of trouble with this plan to protect her. "You promise me you'll stay out of trouble, right?" She nodded. "And that you'll be sure to do everything Happy tells you to while we're away?" She nodded again.
His jaw clenches before he wraps her into a firm hug. She feels his lips press against the top of her head. She imagines he's smelling all the ash, soot, and Hudson river water from earlier in the day, but lets him have this one moment. "Please be safe..."
"I will," she whispers against his chest just before he releases her. He takes one last look at his kid sister as he watches her back away towards the door. It's then, as she's starting to leave, that she sees the pure amount of fear in her brother's eyes as he watches her go and realizes just how serious this is. Just how worried he is for her.
He must've picked up on her own fear when he called out to her, "It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna catch this son of a bitch before he gets the chance."
She gives him a stiff nod. Danielle then turns on her heel and walks out.
It isn't hard to navigate her way down to the garage. Happy, Rae, Peter, and the security detail are already waiting on them. They leave in five separate cars back to New York City. Happy is the one driving the car Peter and Danielle end up taking back together.
The drive is silent and tense.
Happy doesn't put on any music and neither Danielle or Peter make a peep. Peter's eyes are out the car window as he watches the endless woods pass him by, while Danielle's gaze is up on the stars above them. And the less stars she sees, the closer to the city she knows they're getting. The closer to Him...
She knew how much danger she was putting herself in by coming back. Or maybe she was as safe as she could be with these new security guards and Rae, Jack, and Tony hovering wherever they would be throughout the city. But, somehow, she couldn't help but be eager to get back, to see him again. She wanted answers. She wanted answers to all the frantic questions that just kept popping up inside her head every time she closed her eyes or felt one of her new bruises, or had trouble breathing due to the injury around her neck. She needed answers. She needed them more than she needed safety right now.
Eventually, as the city skyline came into view outside the window, the emotions shifted within the car. A new threat loomed on the horizon for the pair of vigilantes and they would face it the way they had with Toomes... together.
A/N: The way I took my sweet time writing this... Hope y'all like it. Sorry if it's not to your liking, I haven't written in a while since updating due to just how busy I've been. I can't promise I'll be updating quicker, but I can tell you guys that I have mapped out the rest of this story and I can tell you that it's probably going to be ending in about 30-33 more chapters after this one and WILL have a sequel ;) Do with that information what you will.
Reviews:
PrettyRecklessLaura: Sorry for the wait, girl! And honestly... me too ;)
zikashigaku: LMAO imagine if it was Bucky. Wonder how that conversation would play out. And honestly, I wish I could include the Fantastic Four in this story. Johnny Storm was definitely one of my first ever crushes. Here's a little bit more background into 'Arson' tho, so.. enjoy.
Luxo11: Oop, someone's pressed. There's definitely a difference between constructive criticism and straight bashing. And, yes, I understand there are aspects of the story that could use some revision, but keep in mind I starting writing this story when I was in HIGH SCHOOL. Cut a bitch a break.
PondLake: Ohmygoodness... the awkward kiss? I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about ;) or do I...? And honestly, Smithereens would be such a dope song for Petielle (aw). And thank you for your support. Much appreciated :)
