Chapter 17: Of art and explosions
The brush moved a slight amount to the right, leaving a small streak of light brown. I commanded it to dip into blue to mix a darker shade for the shadow. Satisfied, I went back to the painting to start giving the tree more dimension.
My back hurt because I had been standing hunched over for an unhealthy amount of time now. I couldn´t stop now, though. I narrowed my eyes in concentration.
Simultaneously, my wards alerted me to a visitor and I heard the someone opening my door. I ignored that, knowing it could only be Domi and continued.
Domi was the one sorcerer, I knew, that didn´t just portal into other´s apartments. He insisted on going through the door like, you know, normal people. I gave him a key, so he wouldn´t scare me half to death each time by ringing the bell.
"Hey, man. How is it- "
He stopped halfway through his greeting. After a slight pause, he gently closed the door and the rustling of clothes were heard from his corner.
I proceeded with my tree branches.
I nearly flinched when he spoke up next to me.
"What are you doing?", he asked in a deceptively light tone that told me he was thinking I was doing something funny again.
"Painting.", I said, my eyes never leaving the canvas.
He hummed like a father would when his daughter proudly explained to him that that blob of pink over there clearly was a unicorn.
"Two meters away from your easel? You are aware that your tongue is sticking out, right?"
I sighed. Giving up one getting the branches to look like I wanted them to, I righted myself and groaned in pain. My poor back.
"Well, I wanted to paint to relax, but then while painting I felt like I wasn´t being productive so I got the idea that I could train at the same time.", I explained to Domi while stretching.
"Uhu.", Domi grunted noncommittedly.
"I don´t practice magic enough – well, unless it´s runes or portals – and I thought, hey, why not some remote distance painting!"
"Ah, of course."
Domi nodded along while I was gesturing to underline my story.
"So, water color was out, the positioning would have been way to awkward, you know, with the water and all that."
Again, Domi nodded while making agreeable noises.
"That´s how I landed on acrylics! It´s a bit hard to get the details, because of the distance and I sometimes can´t see how far the brush went, but overall it´s actually really good for my process!", I exclaimed excitedly.
"Ah, really?"
"Yeah! You know, contracting more on how the big picture looks, no obsessing about details no one but me can see.", I finished. I crossed my arms and studied the piece. It still needed some work but my landscape was coming along nicely.
"Well, it is nice to see you so excited, my friend.", Domi said with a bemused smile. "It is not a half-bad way of working on your precision. Just make sure you don´t break your back over it."
"Yeah, yeah.", I waved his concern away as I sent him a curious look. "What brings you over?"
Domi sent me a warm smile.
"I felt like some cooking. Care to join me in the kitchen?"
"Sure.", I chirped, automatically in a good mood because that meant all the leftovers would be mine. I followed behind my friend and fellow cooking enthusiast when I had an idea.
"Oh, Domi, you know what we could do? We could use this as an exercise and cook without touching anything!"
I was excited by the idea, but Domi looked mildly horrified when he turned around at the doorway to the kitchen.
"Al, dodging flying knives is not my idea of an enjoyable afternoon."
"Ah, come on! What could go wrong?"
To my dismay, Domi had me do the chopping and slicing per hand. Spoilsport.
While practicing sorcery was fun, the ongoing press circus wasn´t. I had known that beforehand, but still. I can complain a bit here and there. Even less fun (but arguably just as important) was the political side.
Of course, no change in the world of politics comes fast, so when the press work was starting to wind down, our lawyer team was only starting to make headway. Again, I was used as a representative. At least this time, all the answers and speeches were (mostly) prepared by people who knew what they were doing and I just had to memorize it.
After the whole coming-out-as-part-alien-thing the PR-team was a bit sterner with me. The media hadn´t really picked up on that, probably because it didn´t fit into their narrative. Still, the poor media-relations rep had been nearly in tears when she asked me to please not pull something like that again.
The big presentations were surprisingly the most enjoyable part. Much worse was the work behind the scenes. Fund raisers, parties, dinner invitations – all to meet and convince the "important" people. It made feel slimy, but I did call myself pragmatic for a reason. We needed as much support as possible, especially with a certain "Thunderfuck" Ross still in the woodworks, lurking about.
And Hydra, let´s not forget Hydra.
Although, we did have a plan for those bastards. You see, building up sympathy for mutants is made a whole lot easier when the public learns that the worst mutant haters are Nazis. And not just any Nazis, the same Nazi organization that their big American hero and idol, Captain America, supposedly defeated in the 1940ties. No one wants to be on the same side as the comically evil cliché Nazis. Well, that was the hope at least.
For that goal, we had been collecting any evidence we had on Hydra. It wasn´t as easy as one would have hoped. Sure, we had knowledge on a bunch of shady stuff, stuff we knew Hydra was involved with, but nothing we could actually get to stick. Not to mention, the most conclusive evidence was hard to get in a way that didn´t make inadmissible in court.
It wasn´t like we could just drop a bundle of info off at the CIA head quarters either. While my meta-knowledge gave me a heads-up about Shield, I didn´t know how far Hydra infiltrated the other agencies. It made me, and consequently everyone else on the planning committee, hyper paranoid.
Our tentative plan was to collect a lot of the evidence from the Hydra hideouts and combine it with personal victim accounts, distributing that to the press, painting the picture of some horrible secret organization experimenting on mutants to gain power and then leak all of Shieldra´s data bank á la Black Widow, just two years earlier.
The last part would rely entirely on me though. I said (with some confidence) that I would be able to do that. I got some questioning looks, but I had built up some goodwill, they trusted me – maybe a bit too much.
Because my idea on how to get to the data was just to break into Shield HQ, run around until Ree finds access to the data bank (if need be I would kidnap Pierce) and then filter and dump it on the internet. I could barely remember that part of CA: The Wintersoldier, but if Black Widow could hack it, Ree could too.
When it came to the filter, that part came solely from all the fanfics I had read. Back when I watched the movie, I hadn´t thought much about the Shield agents out in the field and their families. It was only when I read about again and again that the problem there seemed obvious. Therefore I spent a whole afternoon with Ree, going through what would be censored and what wouldn´t. Ree wasn´t actually aware enough to discern relative innocence from the guilty on her own.
All in all, I was busy. Very busy.
So busy that I nearly missed it when Scott Lang put himself in the papers for "stealing" from Viscorp. Kinda dumb, the way he landed himself in prison, but I admired his spirit. Feeling generous, I hired him a good lawyer and paid his legal fees. Shortly after I stopped to think about if I had just accidentally butterflied Antman out of existence. In the end I just shrugged. I would keep an eye out for … *five minutes of intense googling later* -Darren Cross in a couple of years and hope for the best.
Months went by with work and preparations. It was in the middle of August when our little Docu-series was ready to be sent out. Media relations had worked out a deal with multiple news stations that jumped at the chance to run the big next story.
Hydra would be all over next week's headlines, in everything but name. I gave it another week and then I would break into Shieldra HQ. Maybe that was cutting it close, I didn´t know if I would be successful at the first try and we didn´t want the story to go cold again. Still, on the other hand there was good chance that Shieldra would notice a breach sooner or later and I didn´t want them to be prepared.
That left me with a good week of downtime before I would have to do anything. So, I decided to go shopping. My art supplies were running low anyway.
Thanks to my newly won popularity, going out into the public had been an utter nightmare for me ever since the battle, mainly because of how publicized my face was with our media campaign.
Oh sure, I wasn´t getting mopped, this was still New York after all and people often just didn´t give a shit. But for a socially anxious person like me even getting thanked by my baker for my part in protecting NYC in the invasion was nerve wracking. Or all the times people asked for selfies with them. Or autographs. And I really can´t muster up a smile for a photo when I feel bewildered or awkward, it always comes out like a grimace.
Needless to say, I did a lot of portaling to avoid unnecessary interactions. Sometimes, avoidance is key.
That was the reason I went out to shop on a Tuesday at 9 in the morning. Of course, the streets weren´t empty, but at least everyone seemed to be too busy to bother with me.
My first stop was Macy´s, mainly because I had heard so much about it. I was immediately disappointed when it was closed, it would only open at 10. I stood there for a second, feeling stupid. I should have looked that up.
With a sigh I turned around and wandered down the street in the general direction of the Empire State Building. Now that I took the time to look around, there weren't a lot of shops open yet. Only the typical bakeries and coffee shops. I shrugged as if to say "why not" and entered a Starbucks.
The great coffee rush seemed to be over, but there was still quite a line. I was somewhat glad for the wait time though. I hadn´t been in a Starbucks for ages and had to take a look at the menu first. After ordering a drink that I couldn´t really identify, only just remembering that Venti was the large size, I stood around waiting as far away possible from other while still in hearing range of the barista.
I was in an oddly good mood for how fast my morning went off plan when a young man approached me in my corner at the window. At first I put on my automatic customer service smile, but it froze when I got a good look at his face.
He seemed nervous, not in a I´m-walking-up-to-a-famous-person-way, but in a something-bad-is-happening-way. His eyes were wide open, his nostrils flaring, his mouth pressed into a thin white line. He was wrenching his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, a hoodie it was way too warm for even this early in the day.
"Hey-", he started when he reached me. His eyes were looking everywhere but at me and his voice was breaking.
"Are you, are you Bluelight?", he asked, finally glancing at my face.
I looked back, narrowing my eyes. The hairs at the back of my neck were standing up, but I couldn't tell why.
"Yes? That is what people call me.", I answered hesitantly.
A mix of determination and resignation flashed across his face. Just then my name was called and I automatically turned my head towards the barista who had my drink. In that moment of distraction, I heard the boy say: "I am sorry."
The next couple of seconds felt like minutes to me.
My head snapped back around in time to catch the boy´s eyes starting to glow a whitish orange, the color spreading like liquid fire through his veins.
My mind went to AIM immediately, barely forming a coherent thought as I did what felt most natural after my hours and hours of training. Putting up a green glowing shield. I had just enough time to think to put it around the boy and not myself.
Not a second later, he exploded. The shield tanked most of the ensuing wave of energy, but it wasn´t enough to contain it.
I was thrown back against the windowfront, crashing other a high table and a couple of chairs. The glass cracked but didn´t break. For a moment I just laid on the table, blinking and out of it.
I shook my head and groaned as the sound returned. I groaned in pain while standing up. The rune protections I had started to weave into all my clothes in the last year had helped a lot, but they weren´t anywhere near my most powerful ones and I could fell that at the moment.
It seemed like I had gotten the worst of it. A lot of the furniture was overturned and some of the people closer to me seemed have gotten thrown back too. The barista and several over were ducking under the counter and some of the tables. There were some screams, both of panic and pain.
My own mind was still half in shock, but I put that on the backburner. Knowing that Ree had already called the emergency services, I concentrated on the there and then.
"Everyone, please stay calm, the authorities are on their way. Please take care not to injure yourself and others further!", I called out while I could fell my suit washing over me.
I scanned my surroundings for any other threads, tense even when nothing happened while I helped the people in the shop.
Most were just in shock, but a couple had broken bones. With one woman I was worried about her spine, so I secured her on a green gurney with a little application of magic and a neck brace. I brought her to the trauma center of the closest hospital personally.
It didn´t take long before the police, the fire department and ambulances arrived. My next hour was filled with questions and coordinating, first with the police and then with Shield agents. Predictably, the later didn´t really help with feeling safe.
Another hour later, I sat down across from Fury in a slightly rundown restaurant that seemed almost empty, no doubt staffed by agents. In front of Fury stood a cup of plain black coffee that didn´t look like it had been touched.
I waved away the waiter without even turning and produced a cup of hot chocolate out of nowhere. My thoughts were as grim as Fury looked as I watched the street.
"I assume it wasn´t a coincidence that you were there.", Fury more so stated then asked.
I followed another passing car with my eyes and nodded.
"He came up to me and asked me who I was to be sure.", I said and finally turned towards the director of Shield. By the minute worsening of his frown I could tell that that bothered him as much as it did me.
"He was nervous, even apologized. He didn´t do this of his own volition.", I added. He wasn´t surprised and I hadn´t expected him to be.
"So, who wants you dead?", asked Fury.
I flinched a bit at his blunt question. I clicked my tongue.
"Isn´t that the question."
Already, the boy´s face was branded into my memory. Thanks to the optimization of my body through the ring, I would never forget the look on his face right before he killed himself.
"Do you know who he is?", I asked, trying not to get too lost in my thoughts.
Fury shook his head. When I raised my eyebrow, he elaborated.
"He wore his hoodie up from as far as we could track him. The camera in the shop didn´t get good angle when he finally took it off. Otherwise there isn´t a whole lot to identify him by."
I grimaced. Then I pulled out a piece of paper and my set of sketching supplies. Fury watched me without comment as I drew for 10 minutes.
"Here.", I said and pushed it over. Fury nodded at me.
"You suspect someone.", Fury stated.
Indeed, I did.
Of course, AIM would be everyone's first guess. The boy looked too close to the movie version of Extremis for them not be involved somehow. You could even argue that as a close associate of Tony Stark, I would be on Killian´s shit-list. Which I probably was.
But this wasn´t Killian. I couldn´t see his reasoning here. And the boy did not look like the army veterans Killian liked to use as test subjects.
All of that led me to thinking that Hydra was behind this. I was most definitely on top of their shit-list.
Now, I wasn´t totally stupid, I had expected some form of attack against me ever since I outed my identity. I had been spray-painting my symbol on Hydra buildings after raids, for gods sake. Of course, they would be after me. That was why my whole apartment building was so well protected.
I had thought they would send the Wintersoldier after me, something I would have welcomed. Ree had been automatically scanning my surroundings for Bucky for months now. I assumed my new fame won me some protection from Shieldra´s methods, but that it ultimately wouldn´t save me.
This new development unnerved me. I might be able to protect myself, but Hydra could still wreak havoc around me. They must have gotten wind off our plan to put their experimentation on mutants on full blast.
I took the time to study Fury through narrowed eyes.
If Hyrda was trying to make new problems, maybe it was time to make new allies.