A/N: Everything except Ida and Jax belong to Marvel.

Co-written with riboflavinb2. Also available on

Tell me what you think of 'Silverfin' as her hero name. I wanted something that sounded legit.

Throw me some feedback if you've got a sec! Thanks for reading :)

Ch. 4- Shit Goes Sideways

Jax was washing her hands when the screaming started.

Instinct had all her muscles tensing for attack. But she stopped and took a breath, forcing herself to calm down.

Chill out Jax, someone probably just spilled some chemicals or something. Or maybe Ida's intern Jimmy was having another meltdown. Either way, no need to go in guns blazing. You're home, you're not out in the field.

But... just in case...

Jax slipped a throwing knife out of her boot and tucked it into her sleeve, then made her way back to the lab.

"Hey, everyone okay in here?" she stepped inside. "What's with all the scr-" She choked on the rest of her sentence as she saw the man standing next to Ida, recognizing his face before her brain could process anything else. Her blood ran cold, and the world faded away.

Novak.

The blustering sands in Morocco. A rainy bridge over the Seine.

Impossible.

A feral grin. Eyes like the devil.

No. He couldn't be here. There's no way.

Then he looked at her.

"IDA!" The cry tore from her throat as she raced towards them. "Get away from him!"

Her body moved on pure instinct— hurling the blade up her sleeve with practiced accuracy as she ran at him. The knife sunk into Novak's shoulder and he stumbled, immediately pulling a gun out of his coat. But before he got the chance to use it Jax tackled him at full speed with a roar.

They crashed to the ground, Novak's gun clattering away. Rolling with the momentum, Jax yanked the KA-BAR from the back of her waistband and rushed him. He dodged every swipe of her blade then swiveled, catching her arm in a lock and slamming her wrist against a cabinet until the knife fell from her hand.

Jax and Novak exchanged blows back and forth, doing their usual dance of being way too evenly matched. It continued to escalate until they got stuck in a momentary deadlock, but Jax got the upper hand by kneeing him in the stomach— right where she'd ripped him open last year. Novak doubled over and she struck him in the face with a side-fist, then propelled him back with a powerful front kick. She kept on him, forcing him to retreat with a barrage of strikes, all of which he just barely managed to dodge or block in time.

It wasn't until Jax had backed Novak into a table that she realized he was slower than usual, sloppy even. He had one of his eyes squeezed shut, and the left half of his face had turned red and was starting to swell. Something was wrong, and it was throwing him off his game.

Just when Jax thought she might have him beat, Novak caught her punch and swung her around, using her own momentum to throw her across the table. Jax's body scattered everything atop the lab station, crashing into all the beakers and tubes before she rolled off and hit the ground.

She choked out a painful groan. Her clothes were soaked with chemicals and bits of glass were cutting into her skin. But she had to move, she had to get up. Ida was still in danger. Novak was going to kill her!

Jax was about to pull another throwing knife out of her boot when she spotted Novak's gun lying a few feet away, and immediately grabbed it. She launched to her feet and took aim.

In the split second that she squeezed the trigger, Novak dove behind a nearby counter. But Jax kept her gun trained on the man's hiding spot— waiting, listening, trying to anticipate his next move.

Suddenly the lab doors burst open as a security guard ran in. "What the sam hell is going on in here?"

Novak moved before Jax could even shout in warning. A blur shot through the air, and the knife— her knife— that Novak had yanked from his own shoulder was now protruding from the security guard's stomach.

Ida's scream erupted from across the room where she was still standing, frozen to the spot. Jax looked over at her, worried that she might be hurt, but there was only her best friend's horrified expression.

In the second that Jax looked away, Novak was already halfway to the door. She fired off three more shots but they merely nipped at his heels as he fled into the aquarium.

Goddammit!

Jax hurried over to Ida, broken glass crunching loudly under her boots. "Are you hurt?!" Blood rushed through her ears. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. "I said are you hurt?!"

Ida was faintly aware of eyes staring at her eyes, of a voice yelling at her. She wasn't sure what was going on. She felt like she was underwater — everything moved more slowly and sounds barely carried through the air. She was underwater, and she couldn't breathe.

Ida felt her arm burning. Like skin was peeling off. The sudden pain reminded her where she was, what had just happened.

Jax had attacked (expertly, she might add) a man that just stabbed Robert the security guard in the stomach. She had spilled ammonium hydroxide on the man's face and her own arm, and now it had started to slough off layers of skin. Her eyes grew wide in understanding — reality snapped to focus. Her friend's question finally reached her ears.

"You need to wash your hands. Right now!" Ida blurted. She didn't respond to Jax's question, but whether she was okay or not wasn't important at the moment. "You have a high concentration of ammonium hydroxide on your hands, and you need to wash them before it burns!"

Ida ignored the burning of her own arm and rushed past Jax towards the security guard. She needed to help him. Assess the injury. Apply pressure to the wound, working around the knife without moving it. Call 911. Assure him that he would be okay and that help would be on the way.

On the way to Robert, she grabbed two large towels from a cabinet that were typically there for divers. She yanked out her cell phone and dialed 911.

"911, What's your emergency?"

Ida dropped to her knees beside Robert. He was sitting upright and clutching his stomach where the knife was jutting out from.

"A man has been stabbed at the Brooklyn Aquarium. We are in the lab room in the back. I'm tending to the wound now."

Ida smiled weakly at Robert, who just looked back at her in shock. She took one of the towels and laid it around the knife wound, and then she applied pressure with the palm of her hand.

"Where is the assailant? Are you safe?" the operator asked.

"On foot, running from us." She answered, suddenly realizing that Jax wasn't in the room anymore. "The stab wound is on the righthand side of his abdomen. The knife is still in, and I'm applying pressure to the wound. He is still conscious."

"I've dispatched authorities and an ambulance. Help is on the way."

"Thank you." She gave the operator her phone number, but then had to hang up so she could focus on Robert's wound.

Ida didn't concern herself with whatever Jax might be doing. She honestly didn't think she could even begin to process all that right now. She did, however, need to make sure Robert was doing okay.

"Robert, stay calm. You're going to be alright. Help is coming."

Robert nodded, sweat pouring down his face.

Ida just continued to keep pressure on the wound.

The fact that Ida was yelling at her about her own possible injuries proved to Jax that Ida wasn't hurt. That, and Jax had already inspected her friend from top to bottom about five times— deeming her unharmed— before Ida had ever even snapped out of her stupor. It was the only reason she hadn't blown a gasket when Ida didn't answer her.

But Jax was far from calm. The rage and panic she felt set everything on fire.

He was here. He was actually here. Not in front of Silverfin, but in front of Jax Foster.

But any and all official documents listed Jackie Foster as a sales representative for BlueLine Pharmaceuticals. There was absolutely nothing to suggest that she was anything but a normal twenty-seven-year-old living in New York City. She even had fake social media accounts for God's sake! How could her name have not only been leaked, but leaked to the one person who wanted her dead probably more than anybody else on the planet?

And he'd gone after Ida.

Fuck. Fucking fuck of a fuck. This can't be happening.

Stop it, Jax — calm down. Now is not the time to freak out. She could worry about the rest of it later, right now she needed to focus. Novak was here, and she had to catch him.

Novak was prideful, arrogant even, but he wasn't stupid. She knew that he realized he couldn't beat her in his current condition— chemically burned, stabbed, and on her home turf no less. At their best they were evenly matched, a fact that she had begrudgingly come to accept over their many encounters throughout the years. And he hadn't survived to become one of the world's most infamous mercenaries without knowing when to cut his losses and retreat.

Sprinting past all of the exhibits, Jax kept a finger hovering over the trigger, on the off chance that Novak or any other potential enemies tried to catch her by surprise.

The dark, tank-lit hallways finally opened to reveal the main lobby. It would have looked like any other day, except that there was something going on in the center of the room where a number of aquarium-goers were gathered. Getting closer, Jax could see George and one of Ida's younger lab lackeys kneeling by an older couple on the floor.

After scanning the room for any threats, any signs of Novak, Jax slipped her gun into the back of her waistband so that it was hidden from view. People always panicked at the sight of a gun, and nothing was more stupid or more dangerous than a group of scared and confused civilians. Jax was definitely not in the headspace to coddle civies right now.

"What happened?" Jax barked as she approached them.

George jumped, hand reaching for his security baton until he saw that it was her. "Oh, Jax, I didn't recognize your voice. Well, a strange man just ran through here and knocked this couple over before running out the front door." George motioned to the elderly man and woman that the group of people were helping to their feet. "Didn't even stop to apologize! The nerve of some people nowadays."

Jax's jaw tightened. "Huge dude? Short dark hair, blue jacket, something wrong with his eye and shoulder?"

"Um, yeah actually. How did you know?"

Damn.

Ignoring him, Jax stepped off to the side and whipped out her phone, pressing the speed-dial for SHIELD Command.

"Hello." The automated voice said. "The number you have reached—"

"Code 0-7-9." Jax interrupted. "Foster: Level 8."

"Authorization?" the voice inquired.

"Mike Alpha Kilo Oscar, 5-1-3 Bravo."

"Authorization confirmed." A tone chimed and then a live person picked up. "Report."

Jax gave a quick debrief of everything that had just occurred.

"Alright, Agent Foster, a team is en route to your location now."

"Acknowledged. I'll keep the area secure until they arrive."

Jax hung up and tucked the phone back into her pocket, then went over and grabbed George by the elbow, tugging him away from the other civilians.

"George, I'm going to need you to listen to me carefully and calmly." She said in a hushed tone. "Robert's been stabbed, back in the main lab. Ida is with him, trying to help as best she can. She's already called 911, so an ambulance will be here in probably ten minutes, as well as authorities."

George gaped at her like one of Ida's fish.

Jax shook him by the arm. "Keep it together, man. Things are about to become a nuthouse in here, and people will be looking to you for direction."

George closed his mouth. It must have finally clicked that what she was saying was indeed actually happening and that he— the only other security guard on duty— was now responsible for a very serious situation.

Jax looked him dead in the eye, keeping her voice steady. "First, make an announcement over the PA, calmly, for all visitors and employees to immediately come to the lobby. Tell them it's an evacuation drill or a tank leak or something, whatever won't freak them out. Then I want you to lock down the lobby; nobody in or out except for EMS. Can you do that?"

George looked like was was about to nod, then faltered. "But that's not our protocols for an incident like this."

Jax ground her teeth in frustration — this was so not her area of expertise. "I know it's not, but do it anyway."

"But I have to follow the security protocols set by the aquarium-."

Jax whipped her SHIELD badge out from its hiding spot in the back of her bra and shoved it into George's face. "Do you see this? It says I'm a federal agent, which means that if I tell you to screw your protocols and do what I say, then that's what you're going to do!"

Jax felt the tiniest twinge of guilt for being such an asshole to George and pulling the federal agent card on him, but right now nothing else mattered except for catching up to Novak.

George's expression was caught between surprise at her revelation and disgruntled by her attitude. "Fine," he finally replied.

She nodded, stuffing her SHIELD badge into her back pocket. "I'll be back in the lab with Ida and Robert. Radio me over Robert's walkie if there's any problems."

With that, Jax made her way back to the lab, her mind torn between thoughts about the fact that her greatest foe had just attempted to kill her best friend, and that after all this time Ida had finally discovered her secret— in pretty much the worst way possible.

Oh man. Ida was so gonna kill her.