Avenging
Book 2: Chapter 2
Jumpin' Einstein Flash
You can contact me at
tsommer
My works are stored at
and a03
As always I do not own the rights to the numerous characters or series within.
Yep, it's the next part. We're dealing a little more with individual characters for a change of pace. This time we're hanging with Hawkeye and Daredevil and some of the antics happening around them.
And to let you know what's to come, this chapter features the return of:
Members of Hydra's Super Villain Squad: Letha, Titania, and the master of oratory acumen, Monster Ape.
And a new surprise or two.
So it's on with the show.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ukyou Kuonji found herself in a bit of a quandary due to having a blind boyfriend. It wasn't the blindness itself that was the issue -hell, with Mousse's radar sense he was more aware of his surroundings than she was- no, the difficulty was that said blindness limited some of the activities they could enjoy together. Anything visually based was nearly impossible. While he had no issue with doing things she could take pleasure in due to her vision that he could not -since he wanted her to have a good time- she didn't want to enjoy something more than him. She wanted them to be on even footing when it came to doing an activity together.
Movies and television were out. Ditto with sporting events. Sightseeing was totally useless. They had done amusement parks, which he enjoyed partially because of the other sounds and smells which assailed his senses, but still they weren't on the same level since so much of the park was visual. They were so many limitations due to the senses discrepancy.
There were some things they could enjoy. Musical concerts absolutely qualified. They had delighted in those and together had listened to a wide variety of types of music. Swimming worked out since his radar sense didn't function very well underwater and his senses were limited in the same way hers were, except when it came to sound. Dancing with him was divine. She had always liked the idea of dancing with someone, though had few opportunities to indulge in it due to her life choices. Neither of them had been good at first (since he had been a loner and never had anyone to dance with at all). They had taken a number of dance classes together until they excelled at a number of styles. From tangos to swing and everything in-between. If they kept at it she could envision them becoming competitive dancers, though they never would since publicity was the last thing someone with a secret identity wanted in their civilian guise.
But now Ukyou was out of ideas, and she wanted to do more with him than those handful of activities. She had thought food might work out, since that was all about the flavor of the cuisine, but he was a finicky eater due to his enhanced sense of taste. He could tell what all the ingredients were, what types of preservatives and chemicals were used, and if anything else was added to the food. If there was anything off about the dish, like it hadn't been prepared correctly or something other issue, even to the smallest degree he could tell, and it reduced his enjoyment of it. He was actually big into fresh, natural ingredients, (which all of her okonomiyaki was, so he did love that) so they were limited in where and what they could eat to maximize enjoyment. While 'kick the crap out of the supervillain' was something they engaged in, that was more like work. When it came to enjoying each other's company afterwards, well the problem with wounds was when you rubbed them against each other, physical forms of recreation tended to be more painful than enjoyable. Making out with a busted lip was not fun, unless you had a thing for tasting blood while kissing.
Ukyou wracked her mind for something new for them to do, but her quiver was coming up empty. It was a terrible feeling for an archer.
So she was in a bit of a foul mood as the two of them went about on their date, walking around town with no precise destination in mind, basking on each other's company. She kept her eyes open in case she came across some new activity they could enjoy together. They didn't always have to do something big when they were going out, but she rather liked that part of the dating experience. Being active and doing things you would never want to do on your own, only with someone special, and most importantly of all: sharing the experience. It made the moments feel more important, memories worth recalling.
They conversed as they walked around. Ukyou decided to broach the subject of his blindness. In their earliest days she been hesitant to ever bring it up, or even use words like 'seeing' at all. It got to the point where it became obvious she was behaving like she was walking on eggshells when talking about visual things in even a roundabout manner. It got bad enough Mousse finally had a talk with her about it and emphasized she could say whatever she wanted any way she wanted. He had come to terms with his lack of vision a long time ago and her being uncomfortable made him uncomfortable, and thanks to his enhanced senses he could always tell. It had taken a bit of time and practice, but now she was comfortable enough to say, "It's like the blind leading the blind," and not feel like she'd uttered a gross insult.
"So if you got your vision back, any idea what you'd do for a living? I assume you'd still want to be a lawyer, or would you take up painting or something like that?" Ukyou asked.
"I'd look into your lovely eyes to see if they are really brown like you claim." They laughed. Once it died off he continued. "Honestly, it's occurred to me getting my sight back might not be the best thing in the world."
She stopped, astonished. That was the inverse of his attitude since before they dated. "Why? You used to be able to see and said you missed it."
"I still do," Mousse assured her. "But I don't think I could still be in my other identity. Thinking about it, I can't see actual vision and my radar sense working together. I'd become confused. It would be like receiving two overlapping similar flows of information. Try imagining playing two different songs at the same time and sorting out which is which understandably while its playing. Now imagine doing it all day long, every single day."
She did. "That would be bad."
"Exactly. Maybe I'd lose the radar sense if I got my vision back, since I'm pretty sure it somehow formed because I was blind. But even then I'd lose my ability to sense everything around me, which I've gotten so used to that's 'normal' for me. I might be able to make out every detail in front of me, but I'd be ignorant to everything not in my immediate line of sight. I'd be exchanging one form of blindness for another. Also, while intellectually I know I could be a hero with only normal vision like you or Cap, I think I'm better off knowing someone's trying to get the drop on me from behind and making them fail miserably. Think about how many times someone's taken you out from a blind spot."
Ukyou had to admit, that was about half the time she met defeat. Not that she wanted to be blind even if she received radar sense in exchange. But she could understand his point.
"Honestly, given a choice, I think I'd rather be exactly as I am."
"That works for me. I love you just the way you are." She put her arm around him and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"I love you too," he seconded. "As long as you don't start singing, 'I Love You Just The Way You Are'."
Ukyou pulled away and looked at him in shock. "Are you insulting my singing? I'll have you know I have the voice of an angel."
"That's gargling broken glass."
"Just for that I'll sing for you now."
"Don't make me wish I was deaf, too."
"Ha! It doesn't matter what you say. You'll never leave me no matter how terribly I sing. I know you love me."
"I've heard you sing. Let me assure you, love only goes so far, Baby."
And the pair laughed uproariously enough to attract the attention of those around them.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
One street over, two women wearing grey trenchcoats, wide-brimmed hats bent low to cover their faces, and bright shiny boots poking out the bottom of their apparel were waiting on a sidewalk close to an intersection. Pretty much everyone looked at them curiously but said nothing since asking questions of strangely dressed people acting weirdly rarely led to anything good. The situation appeared so weird it was almost like the women were baiting someone into asking what they were doing. Strange people trying to bait total strangers into conversation even more rarely led to anything good. Sometimes it led to the person asking the questions disappearing. Sometime their bodies turned up in some remote location, and in various pieces. Since people weren't Erector sets, this was not a good thing.
The pair were so weird, almost no one was paying attention to the guy in the incredibly realistic ape costume, wearing an old-style sandwich board advertisement for a movie called, 'Apeocalypse Now,' who stood nearby.
The older of the women, Titania of the Grapplers, current member of Hydra's 'Supervillain Squad', spoke to her partner. "I don't think it's too much to ask for. I'm a normal woman. All I want is a nice guy in my life."
Letha, the more able, junior member of their partnership, said, "You should ask out Yoshi from the engineering branch. I've talked with him a number of times. He's a nice guy."
"You're kidding?" Titania scoffed. "He's at best a '5', and that's in good lighting. Any guy that wants to date me better be at least a 7."
"Oh. How about Carlton Vincenzo? He's a hand-to-hand combat specialist for new recruits. He's good-looking."
"Please. He's 5'7" at best. I've got a six-foot minimum."
"What about Markov in the motor pool? He's well over six feet tall. He used to play professional basketball in Europe before he blew out a knee."
"Do you know what those loser grease monkeys make? I pull down at least three times more than him."
"So when you say, 'nice guy', you mean one who's handsome, tall, and wealthy," Letha clarified.
"Of course."
Letha responded with, "I'd like to date a nice guy, too. One who has a pleasant demeanor and personality I enjoy. And he has to be single. I'm flexible on everything else."
Titania shot her a half-lidded stare. "You know, it's women like you who make it difficult for the rest of us. You fill men's heads with unrealistic expectations."
Letha gave an inward sigh. There were times the older woman reminded Kai of her mother, and that was not a good thing.
Thanks to the dredging up of her past, Kai was concerned with becoming openly ill-tempered and saying something she might regret later, (or worse, not regretting it). She turned the conversation to the reason they were waiting on a street corner with their working outfits underneath trenchcoats and getting plenty of stares. "I don't like going in blind on jobs like this. A.I.M. has the resources to pull a few weird surprises. Why can't it just be a normal gang? Maybe even S.H.I.E.L.D.? They're a shadow of their former selves when Fury was in charge. The Girl Scouts might prove just as difficult as them."
Titania shook her head. "Our spies only knew the courier is travelling this route with something valuable. That lack of intelligence is why they tapped the three of us to kick ass and steal bubblegum. And we're all out of… oh hell, that doesn't work for a promo."
A holdover from their earlier days as legitimate professional wrestlers was a propensity to pontificate excessively. That skill tended to be a plus when they went from rulebreakers in the ring to lawbreakers in real life. A degree of showmanship was expected in the supervillain set. It gave you additional street cred.
Titania looked at their simian companion. "I'm worried about Furball. He's standing out and we're supposed to be lying low and not attracting attention."
Letha became confused. She had assumed they were dressed suspiciously to deflect notice from their even more bizarre companion. Titania might have spent too many years in the ring to realize their idea of 'subtilty' was a far cry from the concept in the real world. Then again Titania thought a chair shot to the head was a way of getting someone's attention rather than assault with a deadly weapon.
At that moment their comms went off. All three looked at the information they had been sent.
"And there's your additional information," Titania said.
"What's a Computing Organism: Really Good Infiltrator?" Letha asked.
Titania shrugged. "Who knows? Evil scientist types always like creating weird stuff. Like Stilt Man walking around on giant hydraulic pylons. MODOK's giant head and tiny body. Platypuses."
"Those weren't created by evil scientists. Nature made them."
"Sure it did. And the Savage Land is a naturally occurring phenomenon, and not an attempt by Disney to secretly create a new type of amusement park. Only things went horribly wrong and they abandoned the project. And they didn't make that movie about amusement park dinosaurs running wild as a way of debunking whistle blowers."
Letha gave another inward sigh. She hated conspiracy theories. At least Mio hadn't babbled about shapeshifting Skrulls infiltrating society. That was the lowest dangling fruit of conspiracy types. So instead she focused on looking for the man in the picture they had been shown.
Xxxxxxxxxx
"We might have a problem," Mousse informed Ukyou.
"Oh?"
"You see that guy in the ape costume wearing what I assume is some kind of sign."
"Yes. He's plugging some cheap Planet of the Apes knock off. I swear the movie industry wouldn't recognize an original idea if it was an explosive arrow jammed up their collective butts."
"That's not a costume."
"Hmm. You think it's some plan by the production company to use trained apes instead of CGI? Maybe I should go see that one. I prefer practical effects."
"It's more likely a supervillain surprise." Mousse informed her.
That was a disappointing, but more realistic, explanation Ukyou conceded. She looked around, "I've spotted a couple of women trying hard to look conspicuous. Or they're really terrible with inconspicuous. Unfortunately it's not Whiplash and Blacklash. Five meters to our seven."
Mousse stretched his senses out in that direction. "Judging by their heartbeats they're superior athletes, like us."
"This seems like a trouble situation. Let's slip away, change, then come back and flush them out. Supervillains tend to panic when Avengers confront them." And with good reason. A horrible beating would follow if they were stupid and didn't surrender as soon as the heroes appeared.
By nature supervillains gravitated toward gross stupidity.
Before they could take a step Mousse quietly intoned, "We're going to be too late. All of their heartbeats just changed. Whatever they were waiting around for is about to begin."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The man was foreign. Tall and dark-skinned with a large afro and a tiny beard that formed a point jutting out from his jaw. His attire was quite normal and blended in with everyone on the street. He had a blue backpack on his shoulders and a large metal briefcase in hand.
Just as he finished crossing the street two woman threw off their trenchcoats and hats. They wore skin-tight wrestling outfits: the one with dark hair sported blue, and purple for the blonde, who appeared to be a few years younger than the other. Both dropped into combat stances.
That convinced everyone in sight to run for cover. Enough battles between brightly dressed individuals had resulted in sufficient property damage to kill any desire to see if these were the real super-powered deal, or wannabe's that couldn't punch out a Phys ed instructor.
Abdul Hakim tensed up. He knew taking a contract with A.I.M. might mean a fight with dangerous individuals, which was why he had been able to charge them top dinero for the courier job. He had sort of hoped it would be, 'Better to have a fighter we don't need than need a fighter we don't have,' but luck wasn't always with you. Assuming you weren't Senor Suerte.
The one in blue said, "Okay, Stiletto. Drop the case and walk away. This doesn't have to end with you in traction."
He felt like throwing the case down in frustration. "Damn it! Everyone gets us confused!"
"What do you mean?" the blonde asked.
"Stiletto's my partner. Someone put my picture under his entry on wiki and now everyone thinks I'm him. I've written them explaining the misinformation, but the lousy bastards won't get back to me on correcting the entry."
"So who are you?" Titania asked.
"I'm Discus." And in one lightning fast motion he dropped the case, reached to the backpack, and came up with a pair of discuses which he threw so fast they might as well have been weightless frisbees.
They weren't. Rather they were depleted uranium cores surrounded in a light lead sheath, just enough that radioactivity wasn't an issue. Discus planned on having kids someday and he'd rather they have the standard number of chromosomes in them.
The weapons weren't aimed at the women, but rather their larger companion, Monster Ape, who had been using Titania's banter with the courier to ditch the sandwich board advertisement and quietly maneuver himself into position to leap upon the man. His superior simian strength would lay someone of normal human abilities low in seconds.
Discus had enough skill and experience to note the move and had been waiting. Both discs connected, one in the head and one in the stomach. Between the pair it was sufficient to render the man-turned-beast insensate and reduced Discus' opponents to two.
As the Grapplers saw Monster Ape go down, the weapons, rather than flying off, suddenly changed their flight paths as though they were being flown by tiny pilots inside them. They arced back to Discus who caught them in his hands, ready to use them again.
"How did you do that? Telekinesis?" Titania asked.
"Nope. I just ain't Captain Japan, and I can only carry so many of these babies around. Part of A.I.M.'s payment was giving me a homing device to make them come back to me. That's going to really cut down on my overhead. It's a pain in the ass when one of these bounce off someone's skull and ends up skidding down a sewer grate and I have to replace them. There's not exactly a huge market for trick discuses and they're expensive to make."
"Hydra doesn't give us cool stuff. All we have is this." And with a quick hand signal Letha went into action, running forward then sliding low, attempting to drop Discus by taking out his legs.
The courier proved athletic in his own right by jumping over the girl, which it turned out had been the plan. It set him up for the second part of their paired attack. Titania only delayed long enough for her partner to draw his attention before she went high with a dropkick that landed solidly on Discus' jaw and sent him sprawling backward.
Rather than following up, Letha prioritized the mission by grabbing the case, which Titania would have approved of. If anything she would have felt slighted at the idea she *needed* Letha's help against an opponent of normal physical abilities. Aside from that both knew the Imperial Hydra would not be happy if they failed without trying their hardest to accomplish the mission. While their leader didn't execute people out of hand for failure, if the root cause was incompetence, that was another story. There was always some kind of bioweapon or experimental device designed for fatality that was in the testing phase for efficacy and they needed human lab rats for it.
Letha kept running as Titania pressed her advantage. She bolted around a street corner and headed to the prearranged drop off with their own courier who would take the case back to headquarters. He was more low profile than three gaudily dressed supervillains and thus more likely to get the case there with little fanfare.
She only made it partway down the street when a bolo arrow wrapped itself around her ankles, causing her to fall face first to the pavement and the case to go skidding from her hand. She turned onto her back and saw the Avengers, Hawkeye and Daredevil, warily approach. The archer had another arrow nocked in his bow, though it wasn't drawn taut since Letha was incapacitated.
"I wanted to use the bolos." Daredevil said.
"You used them last time. It was my turn."
"No, you used them last."
"Nope, you used them against that Scorcher guy."
"He burned through them. That shouldn't count."
"The attack counts. Making it stick is up to you." Despite the banter, the pair had been positioning themselves on opposite sides of their opponent. Now Hawkeye drew the arrow in the bow back and said, "All right, you're going to—"
Which was the last thing he said. Letha had a large degree of skill in slipping out of holds and bonds. As the pair approached, she worked her ankles, while appearing to stare helplessly, until the bonds had loosened. Once Hawkeye was close enough, Lethal went into a handstand, which threw the Avenger off. Letha kicked the bolos free and did several acrobatic flipping handsprings toward Hawkeye. The archer recovered from the surprise and fired the arrow, which missed Letha's darting form. The villainess ended her gymnastics routine by landing on Hawkeye's head.
"You bitch!" Daredevil shouted in rage. From his loose sleeves two billy clubs shot forth. She evaded one and took the other on her arm, which made her wince in pain. He moved in as two more appeared in his hands and he swung for her. She ducked his first swing with his right, then caught the left wrist as it came in low and disarmed him. Keeping a hold of the wrist, she flipped him onto his back. He proved an able fighter himself by lashing out with a foot and connecting with her body, but she endured it and ended up on top of him. They struggled until she managed to slide around to his back, which was when she really went to work.
Daredevil found legs around his body, pinning his arms to his torso and reducing his ability to use his hidden weapons technique down to almost nothing. He then found her arms around his head and under his neck in such a way that blood ceased going to his brain.
Panicked, he stood up, intent on falling backward with her between him and the street and hoping it was enough to knock her out, or at least loosen the hold. He had just become upright when he sensed the man come into view from the same street Letha had arrived from. It was obvious from his breathing and the way he moved he had just been in a brutal fight. But what really caught the hero's senses was the round object he held in his hand. That was not normal and boded ill. He just knew it.
Reality backed up thought as the disc was hurled at Daredevil. As if that wasn't bad enough, blades extended from the edge of the disc in mid-flight. His brain realized it was coming for his immobilized head, and the only consolation he registered was that since Letha's head was almost directly behind his it would be taken off as well.
That was *not* an even trade off.
Just as the disc was about to decapitate the blind adventurer, an explosive arrow met it with predictable results. Daredevil ears roared and he was showered in shrapnel with some of it piercing his mask and flesh beneath. But better that than the alternative clean cut through his entire neck.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Hawkeye breathed a sigh of relief as she prevented her beau from losing his head. Two entire Daredevils might be twice the fun, but one in two pieces, not so much.
Focusing on the man who dared try the unthinkable, and would pay for it, she noted he was unusual. He was dressed normally, though he looked like he'd been through a pretty rough fight with torn clothing, a bit of blood on them, and an eye that was already swelling shut. But the real kicker was the flying disc with the blades. Either he didn't have the budget for a costume, or this was a plainclothes supervillain, which when she thought about it was a great way to get the drop on someone.
As she put another explosive arrow in her bowstring, he threw another discus. This one met the same fate as its predecessor. With the mouth cut out of her mask, Hawkeye let the villain see her smirk. "Let's find out who has the most ammo, shall we?"
Three volleys later, she had her answer as Discus held his hands up and announced, "I surrender."
With a break in the action, Hawkeye chanced a look at her boyfriend, only to see him on the ground, unconscious as Letha detached herself from his back and started to return to her feet.
"You bitch!" Hawkeye fired a stunner arrow at Letha. The Hydra agent was still trying to regain a vertical base and had no time to dodge as it struck her squarely in the head. The shaft lived up to its purpose by knocking her out.
So angry was Hawkeye she put two more stunners into other parts of Letha's body. The villainess was going to be feeling those for a while. Blunt force trauma was too good for the bitch, but the archer couldn't put one of her standard, sharp arrows into her fallen foe, even if she was fantasizing about turning her into a human pincushion. Maybe a glue arrow in the hair though. Without Hawkeye's solvent, she'd have to cut the hair off. Going around like some Buddhist monk might be enough to assuage the archer's anger.
Hawkeye had just pulled out the arrow in question when a voice behind her shouted, "Idakaya Bomb Bar!" And she was clotheslined from behind. That was lights out for her.
A worn down Titania stood over her fallen foe. "That's what you get for picking on Kai when she's unconscious. Normally I would leave it at this, but since you like cheap shots on fallen opponents so much, let's see if my Mortuary Slam sends you to the hospital or the morgue. I'm leaning toward the latter."
Perhaps that was what would have happened save for the disc that met Titania's head, knocking her unconscious as well.
Discus admired his handiwork. That woman was tough. Not only had she worked him over pretty well, but he thought she'd have been unconscious for a while after he won their duel. He supposed the mistake was understandable. Once she'd been neutralized he had tried to catch up with the package rather than examine how badly Titania was hurt. Then Hawkeye had won their little contest with his superior ammo. Discus had thrown in the towel and kept one last disc in reserve since he saw no point in expending his only remaining weapon in a futile attack, hoping there would be an opening to use it. And it turned out there was.
He looked at his fallen foe as he walked over to the case. "That's the problem with you wrestlers. You think everything's a work when the real world is a shoot."
And that was when five hundred pounds of irate ape plowed into him from behind, knocking Discus out as well.
Monster Ape surveyed his surroundings. As he was the only one still standing, that made him the winner. Ironic since he had been the first one knocked out of the fight, only to have it drag on long enough to recover and left him on top by the end. He was momentarily tempted to beat on his chest (since he couldn't talk verbally, and it was fun since he was an ape), but considering the last three people who thought they had won the fight had been taken down from behind after declaring it, he wasn't taking any chances by tempting fate. He'd stay silent, pick up the case, grab his fallen comrades, then head to the rendezvous point.
Just as his hand fell on the handle, a glue arrow splattered all over the case's base, covering it and the pavement it was in contact with. Monster Ape looked over to see a semi-conscious Hawkeye fumbling for another arrow and failing. Simultaneously he attempted to lift the case up, only to have it remain attached to the ground.
At the same moment Monster Ape became aware of sirens heading his way. Lots of them and nearby. A protracted fight with the authorities was both frowned upon and unlikely to result in victory. There were no teams of agents backing them up since this hadn't been a major operation. While the Imperial Hydra had wanted whatever it was A.I.M. had created, keeping it out of the scientific organization's hands would have to suffice. Since there were so few supervillains in Hydra, and the operation wasn't an outright failure, they'd get cut some slack.
Monster Ape scooped his partners up, hurled them both over the same shoulder, then made off by leaping from building to building just as a police car rolled up to the scene.
Xxxxxx
Daredevil and Hawkeye talked with the authorities regarding what they had witnessed. Discus was the only one arrested, and while there were APBs on the other trio (with the police referring to them as "King Kong with Two Fay Wray's") , neither was hopeful they'd be caught. They reeked of the types that always had an escape plan.
As the interview ended one of the officers tried picking up the case, but found it stuck to the ground. "What's with this?"
Daredevil started to answer, "It's-."
"-A new set of experimental arrowheads of mine," Hawkeye provided. "They tried making off with them, but we stopped that from happening. I'll take it back."
The police officer was less than enamored at the suggestion. "Technically that's evidence. We really should take it with us and inventory it."
"I see," Hawkeye said amicably. "Of course, you have to do your job. Be careful with them. They're experimental and some are a bit volatile. They could explode if not handled properly."
"Oh." The officer became less enthused.
"There's a radioactive one, so make sure you use lots of lead shielding. If you end up sterilized, you didn't use enough."
"Yeah." Now he was pale.
"Shoot! I forgot to label the viral one. It's bio-hazardous so-."
"Go ahead and take it," the officer insisted. "If you can't trust an Avenger, who can you trust?"
"Who indeed," Daredevil said from off to the side.
Hawkeye applied the solvent to glue arrow, picked up the case, and the pair walked off with it. Once out of earshot of the police, Daredevil spoke. "Is there a reason you lied to the authorities back there?"
"Since a bunch of supervillains were fighting over that case, it's almost certainly important. Maybe enough to booby trap it. I doubt the police are equipped to handle something that potentially sophisticated. At Avengers Mansion we have a safe room and Iron Rose's brilliance to open it without setting off the trap," Hawkeye explained.
"So you're doing this to protect others?"
"Of course."
"And not primarily because you want to find out what's inside?"
"Now would I do that?" she asked with a level of innocence that would put a newborn lamb to shame.
"Technically that's not an answer."
"You make it sound like I'd be evasive with a boyfriend who's a living lie detector."
"A girl has to keep her secrets?" he suggested.
"Damn right."
And Daredevil could tell that was the truth.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
In Avengers Mansion, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Bucky, and a Hulkless Ryouga watched through a video monitor as Iron Rose stood in their safe room examining the case that had been brought to their attention. She had spent the better part of a half hour carefully examining the item with every sensor in her arsenal.
"So what's the verdict?" Hawkeye had taken point on the matter, eagerness at discovering the nature of the contents overwhelming her. She was nearly as bad as Wasp wanting to take on a supervillain. Both Ranma and Mousse noted she was bouncing back and forth on her feet like a human metronome.
Iron Rose opened her communicator. "There is no type of trap I can detect. It seems to be a simple number sequence needed to open the electronic lock. I've already hacked it. I'm reading electronic equipment of some kind, but very low power. I don't see how it can be a threat. I don't think they regarded the contents as being all that important. All they sent was one low-powered operative to escort it. Had it been something dangerous, they would have sent it through more secure means and with far more resources to protect it. I'm inclined to open it."
"Do it!" Hawkeye all but shouted.
Iron Rose entered the number sequence and the locks audibly snapped back. The armored Avenger slowly opened the case, peeking inside. After a moment she gave a loud, "Eh?" and opened it so the others could see the contents.
"What is it?" Daredevil asked, since having no idea of what a computer screen showed was one of the disadvantages that came with blindness.
"It's a dog." Hawkeye's voice contained bafflement. The kind that indicated one's emotional state could go in any direction.
"It's a corgi," Ryouga provided.
"Clearly we're dealing with a ring of villainous dognappers. Perhaps they are led by Overboss DeVille. I hear she's quite cruel," Bucky quipped.
The dog had been motionless, as though sedated, which it probably had been since it was stored in the small case the entire time. But once released from its confines it slowly began to awaken.
"I'm not getting any type of bio-hazard indications on the monitors. No bacteria or virus. No fleas either." Iron Rose stood off to the side, watching.
"Maybe it's a werewolf?" Hawkeye suggested hopefully, since if this was all for nothing she'd look like a complete idiot.
"Werecorgis: the cutest lycanthropes around. You'll love it when they lick you to death." Now Bucky was practically laughing.
"There has to be something important about it," Daredevil insisted, mostly because his girlfriend was clearly embarrassed over bringing this to the gang's attention. "They wouldn't have been fighting over a simple dog."
"Maybe Fido can tell us." Bucky broadcast a loud, "Hey, Mutt, you want to let us in on what your big secret is?"
The dog, now fully awakened, barked once in a tone which only enhanced its cuteness.
"Is Timmy trapped down a well?" Bucky continued.
The dog cocked his head curiously.
"Is Kang faking his death?"
The dog cocked his head in the other direction.
"Are you hungry and want some of Sasuke's leftover meatloaf?"
The dog barked eagerly and repeatedly at that.
"Curious." Iron Rose said. "He almost seems to understand what you're saying. Let me try." She caught the dog's attention. "One bark for yes and two for no. Is two plus two five?"
Two barks.
"Is it a googolplex?"
Two barks.
"Is it meatloaf?"
For a moment the dog cocked its head curiously, then let out two barks.
"Is it four?"
One bark.
Bucky cut in. "Am I the hottest Avenger?"
The dog barked twice.
"Clearly it doesn't understand a word we're saying."
"Would you knock it off? This is serious," Iron Rose chided, then went through an array of questions which the dog answered correctly when it could and didn't bark at all if it couldn't be answered with a yes, no, or if the information was beyond his understanding.
After a physical examination which determined he was for all intents and purposes a normal animal and not secretly some kind of bomb, robot or alien lifeform impersonating a dog, Iron Rose said, "It's demonstrating a high level of intelligence. A pity he can't articulate words. I can see an intelligent dog being important enough to send with one guard somewhere, but not important enough to watch carefully. We're coming out. It's stuffy in here."
The door opened and the dog trotted out with Iron Rose at her side. She ordered Sasuke to bring the leftover meatloaf to the main monitor room. Everyone arrived at the same time, and the Avengers discussed what to do as the dog eagerly ate the offered food.
Hawkeye was in better spirits since nabbing the canine wasn't a total bust. "So what do we do with our exceptionally intelligent dog?"
Iron Rose considered that. "Since it is contraband involved in a crime, it should be turned over to the authorities with what we've discovered about it. I suspect once they learn it is intelligent, they'll want to examine him and see what makes him tick."
"You mean like dissecting him?" Daredevil asked.
"Probably eventually." Iron Rose admitted.
The dog stopped eating and gave a yip of alarm.
Bucky intervened. "Hey, while I might have given the mutt a hard time, I don't want to see the poor guy cut open."
"If we give up a dog to be dissected, I don't see how we could be considered good guys," Ryouga seconded. He had a soft spot for small animals considering he turned into one. At least until his piglet form got angry and did its own version of Hulking out. Then 'Mean Green Porcine Machine' seemed more appropriate.
Daredevil and Hawkeye agreed.
"Very well. I see no harm in keeping him," Iron Rose said. "Who's looking for a pet dog?"
Reluctantly, everyone declined for a variety of reasons.
"Maybe he could be an Avengers mascot or something," Daredevil suggested.
Iron Rose shrugged in the armor. "He could remain at the mansion. Sasuke could take care of him. He gets a bit lonely working here alone and could use the company." She turned to the dog. "Would you like to stay here with us, or seek your fortunes out in the world on your own?"
The dog looked hesitant.
"It's supposed to be yes or no," Ryouga reminded her.
"Right. Would you like to stay here?"
One bark.
"It's settled then," Iron Rose said. "I'll have Sasuke make arrangements for proper accommodations for you. And it occurs to me you don't have a name yet." She turned to the others. "Any suggestions?"
"Fido," "Rover," "Rex," and "Rabies," were volunteered. Kodachi was impressed by the most unoriginal collection of dog names she had ever heard. Except for the last, which was Bucky's. They hadn't even repeated any of them, which was a form of remarkable.
It was time to pull rank, even if there weren't any since they were an assemblage of equals. "Since he displays extraordinary brilliance for a dog, we'll name him 'Einstein'."
"Yeah, let's shorten that to, 'Ein'." Bucky suggested. "You okay with that?" she asked the dog.
One bark.
"It's settled. Enjoy your new home, Ein" Iron Rose informed him.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It was hours later, after the Avengers departed and Sasuke had returned from the pet store, having purchased all of the things a dog would need for its new home, that the newly dubbed Ein felt at ease. While highly intelligent, he still thought like a dog. A.I.M. had treated him pretty well. The scientists involved in his bioengineering had liked dogs and it showed in their care of him, but they weren't as warm and friendly as this lot. They'd make a good pack to spend time with.
Once alone, Ein spent the better part of his time familiarizing himself with the layout of his new home. After he had every detail of the mansion recorded in his head, he went back to the main meeting room and walked over to one of the chairs. Luckily it had wheels. He was able to move it next to a computer keyboard, then hopped up on the chair and began using his paws to interface with the computer. His intelligence boost had included an instinctive desire to use computers and remember everything in them; he had been designed with a compulsion for that sort of infiltration and information collection. Luckily A.I.M. hadn't implanted an organic transmitter in him so he'd automatically send out whatever he learned. They didn't have the tech at the biolab he had been created in, which was why they were transporting him to a facility that did. Instead everything he learned about the Avengers, which could have been fatally informative had it fallen into the wrong hands, stayed in his head for personal use. Likewise he could move his paws much faster than any human could manage and had the ability to recall everything perfectly since his memory capacity had been enhanced. It was another addition to his infiltration design.
There were safety protocols on the Avenger's computers but hacking them wasn't an issue for his intellect. Once inside the system he studied everything he could. Eventually he stumbled upon a heavily encrypted file under the title: Jocasta. Since his curiosity regarding computers wasn't all that different from Ukyou's and briefcases bad people fought over, he kept at it until he cracked the encryption. It took him a while to realize it was an A.I. program that was intended to be a majordomo for their headquarters but had never been enabled even after it was finished.
And it was at that exact moment that Ein realized he needed a walkie. He logged off the computer and went to find Sasuke. He hoped the little human had been trained well enough to understand what a walkie was, otherwise an 'accident' might occur, and Sasuke would be less pleased than if he had taken Ein outside to conduct business.
As Ein trotted out of the room, he was unaware of several computer monitors turning on by themselves.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mousse stopped by Ucchans for his date with his girlfriend. It was after business hours and she said they'd be staying in for the evening. It was a bit surprising since she wasn't big on hanging out at her apartment above the restaurant. It was small and since she worked under the same roof she slept at, she preferred going outside rather than feeling like a prisoner being forced to stay most of her life surrounded by the same four walls.
He knocked on the door to announce his presence. He had already sensed hers as he walked up to it. She didn't bother meeting him, and instead told him to come inside. Opening the door, he could smell the cleaning agents hanging in the air from her wiping down the okonomiyaki eatery. Early on he'd helped a few times, and while she was grateful, she felt embarrassed having someone cleaning up, like she couldn't handle the family business on her own. Once he got the message he tried to time his arrivals so she had just finished when he showed up.
"Hey there." Ukyou walked over and they kissed. He would have been fine with doing that for a while, but she broke it off and told him to come upstairs as she had a surprise for him.
He did so and she ushered him into the bedroom. She then told him to hop on the bed.
That made his heart skip a beat. And he knew it had since he could hear it. "Oh? You mean…?"
She laughed. "No, not that. Something a little less physically active."
That was both a relief and a disappointment. This was all new territory for him, so he wasn't sure what should occur when. He was sort of hoping Ukyou would know, but it was just as' first time' for her as well. The truth was they were both winging it. So far so good, though.
Mousse put the matter behind him and focused on what was in front of him in the here and now instead. He slid into bed, sitting up next to the headboard. He liked her having a real bed. He had only slept on futons most of his life. He lived in a place smaller than hers, and not because he was sharing it with a business.
He sensed her playing around with her sound system. They would listen to music together at times, though they usually attended live performances when they could. Perhaps she was tired and wanted to stay in and do it. He hoped she wasn't too tired to make out. Their relationship had passed that point a while back, and boy was it fun.
"So how is your English?" she asked.
[How now brown cow. The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains. Shall I regale you with the tale of how a lad named Peter Piper adored picking pickled peppers?]
"Ha, ha," she said dryly. "Quit being a show-off, Mr. Linguistics. Anyway that's good. These are in English. Sometimes things are lost in translation and hearing them in their original tongue is for the best. A lot of them are pretty old, but I listened to a few and they seem fun." And with that she finished what she was doing and hopped into bed next to him. They sat close enough to be brushing against one another.
A voice came from the speakers. It wasn't music, but an introduction to a program of some kind. It was explained that it was a radio drama involving a detective. Mousse sat there and listened as the actors read their lines that told the tale, complete with sound effects. It didn't take him long to understand this was far more enjoyable than when he listened to things on the television. Even when it was verbally descriptive, there was something missing since the information being delivered was always visual to some degree: it was the medium after all. But this, this was different. It was totally geared toward the ears; no sight need apply. To one with his limitations, it was perfect. And it would be the same for Ukyou as well, since she could enjoy it to the same degree he would.
He placed his arm across her shoulders, and she snuggled closer as they listened to a wise-cracking detective named Diamond and his difficulties in tracking down criminals while keeping his clients alive.
It was the stuff perfect evenings were made of.
Xxxxxxxxxx
[End Chapter]
And there we have a little insight into the lives of a few our heroes and their relationships with one another. And a cute dog, who doesn't love a cute dog? And I'm willing to bet you thought that throwaway line in Omake 1 with Not Ultron was just a throwaway line.
And if you didn't catch the foreshadowing, "Computer Organism: Really Good Infiltrator,' was an acronym for corgi. See? I'm clever. I'm just like a bioengineered corgi. Only not so hot with computers.
And listening to the old radio shows while driving around is pretty fun. There's tons of it out there. I recommend starting with 'Three Skeleton Key' with Vincent Price or any episode of The Shadow with Orson Wells.
Excelsior.
