Personally, this is my favorite chapter so far, and my favorite OC. Hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Reviewers:
TheImmortalWeapon: When I got into U.S.M, I looked into the Immortal weapons stories and what I know so far I totally love! From what I've read off the internet, my favorite, other than Danny, is between Tiger's Beautiful Daughter and Dog Brother #1! Also, glad you like the story so far!
Danny's pov
There was something odd about Runt. It wasn't just his eyes, but something else. I sighed, maybe I would find out later. For now, I had to focus on the task at hand, breaking out. I tuned back into the conversation.
"How have you lived down here for so long without food?" Sam asked. The others just looked at him with blank expressions.
"Bird man-" Runt was interrupted.
"Vulture," Pete corrected.
"Right, Vulture sends one of his students down every two days to give me food, and every night to give me water," Runt finished.
"They have kept you weak so you wouldn't escape. Which means that there is a way out, whether the cell has many weak points, or you would otherwise have the strength to break out," I said thoughtfully. The others nodded.
"Well, I've noticed that the glass isn't perfectly smooth in some areas," Runt offered.
"Fist, can you and Powerman break through?" Peter asked me. I placed my hand against the wall. I let my energy flow through the glass, I was the glass. I felt every imperfection, every miniscule crack until I found the weakest point.
"It could take a while," I said, taking my hand off. He nodded.
"Ok, here's the plan. When one of Vulture's team members comes to bring you water, Iron Fist and Powerman will break the glass. I need everyone to be fast and efficient. and get him or her cornered so I can web them up. Also, try not to attract attention, be quiet. Got it?" Peter looked at each of us in turn and we all nodded.
For the next two hours, the team chatted with Runt while I weakened the glass. Once I was done, I went over to Luke.
"Dwelling on what cannot be yet changed, harms the mind and changes nothing," I told him.
"You don't think he's hurting them do you?" His breathing was slightly irregular. He was crying.
"I know he isn't."
"How can you tell? This is the same person who has been training mutants, probably to get revenge on Doc Ock. And the same person who imprisoned this kid for like two years!" He whisper-yelled at me.
"Because what Vulture wants most, more than his memories, more than revenge, is a family," I sat with him and he looked at me with his head tilted.
"You don't mean..." He trailed off. I nodded.
Luke's pov
It was so weird. To think of villains as wanting the same things as regular people. But villains were regular people weren't they? They weren't just weak. They wanted recognition, power, happiness, just like everyone. But they just had different means of getting those things. How weird was it to think, that the kid who got shoved into a locker last week, other than Pete, might grow up a villain. While the person who shoved him in the first place could become a hero. And the perfect students, and jocks, and average kids, could be the greatest villains in history, or the ultimate heroes.
I was thinking all this as we heard footsteps. We tensed, it was time. Danny lit his fist and gestured to the point in the wall where I could just barely see tiny cracks. I nodded and moved closer. Somewhere nearby, a door opened.
"Time for your water!" A girly, high-pitched voice rang out. Then, a small girl came strolling in. We just stood in shock. She looked about nine or eight. She had dark brown hair in short pigtails and cream skin with rosy cheeks. She pressed the cup of water to Runt's glass wall and the cup actually phased right through it! Runt grabbed it, his arms shaking as if even the effort of holding a small cup was too much. He slurped the water up, pressed the cup against the wall and let it plop into the girls open hands. He collapsed back into a heap against the wall, exhausted.
Then the girl came over to our side. We stared at her. She was wearing a long sleeved, tight shirt with black and white horizontal stripes, and tights with black and white vertical stripes. It hurt my eyes to look at her too hard. The bottom half of her face was exposed and she had a black mask covering the rest, like a raccoon's face, but we could still see her eyes, which were the same color as Danny's.
"Hi! I'm Leaper!" I could see Pete trying not to laugh. We were all imagining the same thing.
Chibi Batroc the Leaper and Leaper are leaping together through a field of flowers.
Batroc: Leap, leap!
Leaper: Leap, leap!
They laugh and spin each other around in slow motion while flower petals slowly fall around them.
Pete started sniggering madly. She looked at him oddly. She was twirling something in her fingers, was that...a tail? Leaper had some sort of long lemur tail.
"Sorry I don't have water for you guys, Vulture said you aren't thirsty enough," She said cheerily.
"Hey you wanna play a hand game?" Ava asked in a patient talking-to-little-kids voice. We looked at her like she was crazy. Leaper nodded and they started playing pat-a-cake through the glass. Ava tossed her head in the direction of the weakened wall. Peter finally understood.
"Keep going with the plan," He whispered to Danny and I. Danny drew his fist back and I followed his lead.
"Ki-yah!" Danny yelled as we shattered the glass. Sam zipped out and blasted the ground hard enough to make Leaper fall over. Pete webbed her to the ground and used his webbing as a gag. She looked at him with her big eyes. Then she started laughing. She bit a hole through the gag and the webs holding her in place. For the first time, we saw tiny, razor sharp fangs in her mouth. Sam blasted her. She dodged and suddenly she was behind me.
"Surprise!" She squealed. She crawled up my back, threw off my sunglasses and stuck her finger in my eyes. I put my hands to my face. I felt her jump off me and Pete's webs pinned me to the ground. Now she was on Danny. He flung her off and now it was some sort of speed competition. She dodged all his attacks, and he kept her from getting behind him or on him. It was almost amusing, like they were dancing, until Sam tried to blast her and hit Danny instead. Ava dived at her but Leaper ran under her legs and kicked her into Pete.
"Aww,you want to play too, Mr. Helmet? Why didn't you say so?" She giggled and flipped onto Sam's back and covered his eyes.
"Aahh! Get this kid off!" He flew around blindly and ran into me just as I was getting up, and we ran into Danny, who I was now siting on. Pete tried to lasso him with webbing but ended up getting dragged behind him. Ava jumped on Sam's back to try to grab the kid just as they all rammed into a wall and fell on top of us. Leaper cartwheeled off of Sam and hopped onto the ground.
"That was fun! And I liked the hand game too! Maybe we could do it again next time! Toddles!" She pushed a button and a glass wall enclosed our tangled up bodies. We groaned as she skipped out of the room, giggling.
"Did I mention that Leaper was the most dangerous one?" An amused Runt asked. We groaned louder.
"Powerman, what do you always say?" Sam muttered.
"Sweet Christmas?" I said.
"Yeah, that," He got up and stretched, popping his back in the process and wincing.
"This might take a while. And if anyone says patience is a virtue I'm going to lose it," Pete shot a look at Danny who smiled apologetically.
"So, you guys have a backup plan?" Runt asked with laughter in his voice. We glared at him and Peter face-palmed. Yep, this was going to take a very long time.
Sort of a funny chapter just because I love Batroc the Leaper so I figured, why not make an Oc with he same "powers" as him. Anyway...
Wolf out...