"Last night, a robbery turned deadly when four men pulled guns on a bank clerk at the 4th Street Bank. Witnesses reported seeing a flash of blue light followed by several explosions coming from the lobby of the bank. Miraculously, no one was injured except for the four men who were identified as the robbers. As of right now, SHIELD agents are on the scene, assessing the damage that many believe to be products of the actions of a superhero."
I turned from the TV and took a sip of my tea. Damn. Nineteen times now. I sighed and pulled open a search tab on the computer. The library was super quiet, which really wasn't a surprise considering it was eight on a Thursday night. I looked around anyway, before typing in six letters and hovering over the enter button. The black letters spelling out SHIELD stared back at me. I pulled up a stopwatch on the computer, and pressed start before pressing enter. Instantly, multiple hits popped up about last night's robbery. I selected the one on SHIELD's agency, opening up a programming window. The circle in the top left corner twirled around, the time taking it to load excruciating. I looked at the watch. 19 seconds had passed. The IT department detected the breach at twenty- five seconds, and alerted the teams at 60. In two minutes, a team of agents would arrive at the library. I shook my head and started typing. Pulling up redacted files, I began searching in the adolescent files. Mary Sue Poots. Sorry you have that name, kid. I closed the document and opened a new one, searching for the one with the right name on it. The document loaded, and I glanced at the clock again, blood pounding in my ears. Dammit, seventy five seconds gone. I needed to finish. Finally, the page loaded. I stared at the name at the top. Mark Harker. My dad. I closed my eyes, feeling the hurt course through my body again.
An alert shook me out of my stupor, and I looked at the computer screen. 100 seconds. I cursed and started printing the document. The blacked out lines on the redacted pages smelled like fresh ink and deceit; but I couldn't stop to read them. I could already hear the sirens coming closer. A SHIELD sign popped up on the screen as I wiped the keyboard clean. I grabbed my bag and the freshly printed pages and ran to the emergency escape, barely clearing the door before the SHIELD agents busted through the main entrance.
I pulled on my blue knit cap and zipped up my jacket, the frigid November air chilling my skin. Another SHIELD car sped past, lights ablaze and siren wailing. I smirked through my jacket and stuffed my hands in my pockets, hiding the papers. A helicopter circled overhead, and I looked back to the library. There were at least seven cars, too much for a regular SHIELD response. Confused, I looked up at the helicopter. It looked like it was getting closer to me, rather than closer to the library. I frowned, before a spike dropped into my stomach. Nerves shot, I pulled out my cell phone and checked the screen. My heart pounding, I took one look at the screen and smashed it. The fizzled image of a SHIELD trace shuddered before going black. I looked around, senses heightened. Already I could feel my body responding to the danger; I had to get away.
I started running, dropping my bag and sprinting away from the library. My stuff didn't matter anymore; my life did. The helicopter searchlight scanned back and forth in front of me, and I took a hard right, crashing through the trees and brush. Behind me I could hear the agents yelling to stop, they weren't afraid to shoot, and to not make it worse. I ran faster, not stopping, barely breathing. My heart in my ears, my stomach in my throat, adrenaline rushed through my body. The light focused on me, just as I crashed through the tree line and into the open park. I looked behind me, and saw a few dozen agents flying down the hill towards me. I whipped my head back around and slammed on the brakes, a blockade of SHIELD agents standing in my path. I turned left, desperate to get away. I continued to slip away from them, and I praised my powers.
I felt myself being lifted up and slammed into the ground. I coughed and turned over, pain already ebbing away. I looked up, and saw a girl who looked my age standing in front of me. She was dressed in black, weird braces on her arms, a determined look on her face. I narrowed my eyes and pushed myself up, facing off with her.
"My name is Daisy Johnson, I'm an agent of SHIELD. You have to come with us." She said in an authoritative voice. I scoffed as the other agents surrounded us. "Like hell I will. You don't know who you're dealing with, Daisy." She scowled, clenching her fists. "You don't know who you're dealing with." I stepped up to her, meeting her glare with my own. "Why don't we find out who's dealing with who?" I smirked.
She shot out her hands and slammed a wave of force into me. I flew back, back flipping and landing in a runner's position. I brought my head up and pushed off, running full speed into her. It caught her off guard, and we both went twenty feet back. She landed a good punch or two in the air, and we hit the ground hard before rolling away. Daisy brought up her hands for another push, and I brought up my hands for a deflection. I felt the energy fly to my palms and I struck, diverting her power away. A shocked look on her face, she froze, and I pulled my hands back and delivered a pulse of energy in her direction. The bolt crackled from my hands towards her, where she barely dodged it. One of the agents yelled something, and Daisy Johnson yelled back. I sent another bolt flying towards her, which she dodged and then sent a wave of force at me. It caught me off guard, and I dove to the side. As I rose, a sharp pain pulsed into my neck, making me drop to my knees. I reached up with my left hand and yanked a small purple and silver bullet out of my neck. I turned to the person who shot it- a middle aged asian woman- and crushed the bullet in my hand. A look of confusion and horror on the agents faces, I rose up. "Ow." I scowled, starting towards her.
A punch flying across my face brought me back to the battle at hand. I blinked. There were two women? I realized another person had joined the fight. She was small, but dressed like Johnson. I clenched my fists and started towards them, as they started towards me. The new chick blasted forward, and in slow motion I saw her sprinting faster than the speed of light at me. I ducked as she threw a punch, blocking Johnson's kick at the same time. We traded punches and kicks. I landed two on the speedy chick and one on Johnson. Speedy Gonzales landed a kick in my stomach; Johnson punched my kidney. I elbowed her in the face and kicked speedy's legs out from under her. Johnson and I traded power moves. I felt blood start coming down my face and a sting on the side of my head. I was losing. They found a rhythm and started hitting me over and over again. I dodged and blocked, barely getting in anything.
A hard kick came flying towards my head, and another one at my knees. No time to react, they hit me hard and I flew back a few feet. For the second time in ten minutes, I rolled over and coughed, spitting out blood. I smiled and cracked my neck, wiping my face and slowly standing. They stared at me, bewilderment on their faces. I shook my head and grinned. "Time for the party to start!" Focusing the energy, I powered up and erupted in a flash of blue light.
My ears grew slightly pointed. I felt my teeth get sharp, small fangs tipping my teeth. Strength returned to my body; power coursed through my veins, making me feel invincible. I looked up through the blue haze, focusing on the two women in front of me. They backed away, terrified. I looked around, SHIELD agents pointing guns at me. I smiled and shot energy at them all. Bullets rained down on me; they bounced off harmlessly, not breaking the skin. I destroyed their cars, their helicopter, their ATVs. They were running everywhere, screaming and yelling. I looked at Johnson, who stared at me in terror. I smirked at her, before realizing she was looking at something behind me. I frowned and looked over my shoulder.
A fiery demon stood there. I turned and faced it, narrowing my eyes. It looked back at me, gripping the chain in it's hands. I clenched my fists, electricity crackling across my body. Not waiting for it to hit first, I threw my hands out, energy slamming into it's body. It went back, but threw it's chain to loop around my wrist. I followed it's path, hitting hard into it. As we got up, I threw a punch powered by electricity into it's face. I looked in shock as it turned back towards me, the crack in it's skull repairing itself. I stared at it's head, not noticing the fist aimed for my own. An explosion shot across my eyes, followed by dizziness and darkness clouding over my vision. As I hit the ground, the last thing I saw was the demon's fire extinguishing. The last thing I thought, dreamily, was how the hell did I go down in one punch?