Chapter 19 - Target On Hawkeye
The team was taking turns looking out for Kate while she was at Bishop Publishing, playing bodyguard on a rotation ever since she'd started getting threats, and this time around, it was Chance's turn. He was sitting close by and watching out the window, smirking to himself as Kate turned her glasses in her hands. They were just clear glass, but she had been so entertained by the reading glasses that seemed to be on every single desk or flat surface in her suite and her office now that she was fifty that she had started to absently play with them anyway.
With the new year over, it was back to work for Bishop Publishing, and Kate was already looking over some press images for her spring lineup and waved Chance over. "Hey, I've been staring at this for forty years. I need fresh eyes and an opinion…"
Chance smirked as he headed over to look over Kate's shoulder at the press pictures. Her designers always did a good job with the book covers, so they all looked good, and he really wasn't sure what he was looking for. "Okay…"
"Do you think the fiction releases look too similar? I'm worried my designers might be getting predictable."
Chance frowned and looked a bit closer at the images before he shook his head. "I mean, a lot of them are part of a series, right? So… gotta stick with it?" He shrugged. "I dunno. Charlie would be the better twin to ask about book stuff. It looks fine to me."
Kate nodded, turning the glasses over in circles in her hand. "I may just ask her," she said, then put the glasses down at last and stretched. "Maybe I just need to take a break, huh?"
"Hey, you're the boss. I'm just here to make sure no one tries to stab you or something," Chance pointed out with a small smirk.
Kate chuckled at that and waved her hand to indicate that Chance should follow her. "Come on. I need fresh coffee anyway."
Chance grinned at that and held the door open for her to head out, though they had barely gotten through the doorway before both of them were thrown off their feet in a huge explosion of a fireball. Seconds later, the fire alarms were all going off at once.
They were both stunned by the blast, but they had the wherewithal at least to reach for their panic buttons, and as soon as they both had a chance to get their feet underneath them, Chance got to his feet and ran to help Kate up as well.
Kate's eyes were wide. "We have to get everyone out," she said. "Now."
Chance nodded, taking the lead as the two of them ducked farther into the building, where a lot of Kate's employees were terrified out of their minds. The fire was already spreading through the building, and they could see the smoke in the hallways — though some of that turned blue when Kaleb and Kurt showed up in response to the panic buttons.
"Great — grab someone and get them out to the street," Chance called out when he saw the Wagners and the bamfs. "We'll track down anyone who might be trapped."
Kurt and Kaleb looked very alike in their focus as they quickly teleported off, with the bamfs helping to find the employees in the fire, checking the bathrooms as well as the that time, they had plenty of backup as the Avengers arrived to help get the civilians out and keep the fire from spreading, though just when it looked like the fire was starting to get under control, there was a sudden burst of fire, with no warning whatsoever, that blew out all of the windows in the building.
The Avengers could see flames pouring out of the windows as well, and the fire seemed to be burning brighter still before they saw another burst that seemed to be almost reaching out, trying to catch the buildings around it.
Whatever this was, it didn't behave like an ordinary fire.
"Who's still inside?" Steve called out, holding his arm up against the brightness of the flames.
"We checked all the offices and the bathrooms," Kaleb breathed out, his gaze on the building. It was clear that Bishop Publishing wasn't going to survive the fire, and the onlookers could hear the building creaking.
"Kate would know best," Kurt said, looking around — and suddenly realizing that Kate was not with the others that had gotten out of the building. He turned suddenly a much paler blue and turned to the bamfs, hissing out at them in German to find Kate, not that they needed prompting to disappear quickly.
When the bamfs did find Kate and Chance, they started to chatter anxiously at each other. It looked like the two of them had gotten caught up in that second huge explosion. Both of them were badly burned, but Kate was still breathing, at least. Likely because Chance had shielded her when the explosion went off.
The bamfs were wringing their hands over the state of their friends as one of them listened to see if they could find a heartbeat on Chance and got more upset when he couldn't. But before they could teleport off, they heard someone approaching — and a couple of them stayed behind to see who had hurt their purple friend so badly while the others simply teleported Kate and Chance straight to the medical wing in Westchester.
The bamfs started to growl when they recognized the girl standing in the middle of the flames. She'd been one of the idiots in the Alpha Flight team that had tried to kidnap Chance — and who the bamfs had dropped on a deserted island. The flames were surrounding her and seemed to be getting stronger with each breath, in and out, with long tendrils on the exhale.
But there was something else, too. She was wearing purple, a Superior Rising tattoo on her arm, and she clearly planned to take the whole building down, targeting the structure of the building with her explosions.
It didn't look like she had any real control over the flames — which meant that when the bamfs teleported out and told Kurt where Kate was and told Kaleb what was going on so he could tell the Avengers while Kurt was clearly headed to catch up to Kate — Kaleb had barely started to tell Steve what was going on when there was a bigger explosion than any of the ones before it, enough to knock all the Avengers back… and take down the building with it.
The shockwave stunned them all into momentary inaction before Tony flew right into the smoke cloud that was still coming up from the wreckage even before the firemen could start putting water to it — with the sole purpose of scanning what was left of the building for any survivors.
And there were a few that hadn't gotten out in time. While Tony worked, the rest of the group started moving debris where he'd pointed them, and while they found a few unconscious employees, there was one guy who most definitely did not work for Kate half-trapped under a section of fallen wall.
James and Cody shared a look when they saw the purple sticking out and headed over to start digging, since Tony had said that one was alive still. "Well, if this doesn't pin those idiots as terrorists, I don't know what will," James muttered to Cody as they worked to move the wall.
"Think this is the biggest public hit they've made too," Cody said, shaking his head as he shifted his shoulder until the wall and lifted another part of it telekinetically until it was shifted enough to get to the trapped Superior Rising guy.
James smirked at Cody's work and took advantage, yanking the guy out while Cody held up the wall. "Bet you can open the pickle jar too, huh?" James had to tease.
"Oh no, that's well beyond me," Cody said dryly.
James chuckled at that and started to check the guy for weapons as Cody dropped the wall and then began first aid on their survivor. But he wasn't too far into it before the guy started to rouse. He took one look at James and gasped, making a quick attempt to get back and away, though that wasn't going to happen with both Cody and James right there with a hand on him.
James narrowed his eyes and let out a little growl. "Oh wait. I know this moron." He hit the comm to ask for some restraints. "Known criminal, guys."
Cody narrowed his eyes and looked a little closer before he swore too. Just when you think the old Alpha Flight idiots are off the radar. I thought he and his sister were in SHIELD custody.
Apparently not, James projected back to him. We should file a complaint with our uncle.
Clearly, Cody agreed. "Tony, are you sure there's only one survivor here? This guy usually sticks with his sister," he said aloud.
"Nothing on my scanners," Tony said, and James got up with a little nod.
"I'll take a look, but it's going to be hard to find her with all the toasted building," James admitted before he started slowly spiraling out. "Tony, the 'bomb' was probably a mutant pain from Canada."
"Purple-shirted terrorists," Cody supplied as well.
"Ex-Alpha Flight," James finished for him.
Tony swore as he kept up his scan, though while he was working, Cody focused on peeking into Mark's head, narrowing his eyes as he tore through the guy's thoughts. "The goal was massive casualties, not just Kate," he told the Avengers as he looked through it. "As many humans as they could… and make it so no one wants to support Kate's business anymore or work for her."
"Well, it looks like they got about a dozen," Tony said. "And unless you find whatserface alive, she's one of them."
Cody frowned and dove a little deeper into Mark's mind. "James, go east of your position. She was headed to the central supports."
"On it," he replied, though when he turned, he still moved exceedingly carefully. It took him a little while, but by the time he got to the spot that had the most melted I-beams, Tony had joined him and was helping to find the center of the blast — which was, of course, where they found the severely charred remains of the fireball girl. "Got her. She's gone. Looks mildly better than I did after I went a round with your sister."
"Alright. I'll get what I can out of her brother," Cody said after a long pause, taking Mark back away from the destruction so he could do a little more in-depth searching.
It had been years since Kate had felt this sensation, but it didn't make it any less strange having done it before — especially since this time, she more quickly realized what must have happened when she felt the light sort of sensation where she had just been running with Chance to find her employees.
When she opened her eyes, though, she had to break into a smile when she was very nearly tackled in a hug by Kitty.
"Holy — woah, hey, give me a second to adjust — what the heck — hi, Kitty," Kate said, finally catching up enough to hug Kitty just as hard right back.
"Hey, stranger," Kitty said, beaming at her. "What are you doing here?"
"Um, apparently getting blown up, I think," Kate said, making a face as she stepped back to look Kitty over. It had been a long time since she'd seen her, and she couldn't help but grin. "It's good to see you. Even if, you know, no offense, I really don't want to be here."
"Yeah, you need to get back," Kitty agreed.
"No kidding," Kate said. "I have a grandson I want to meet." She stepped back to smile at Kitty. "Everyone misses you, you know."
"It goes both ways," Kitty promised.
"Have you been able to see your kids being amazing?" Kate asked with a smile. "Your son's running the Guardians, and your daughter is just like you."
She was smiling as she nodded her head. "As if there was ever any doubt," she said. "I've been watching the whole family. And they're all doing so well."
"They really are, aren't they?" Kate said, smiling widely.
"Don't worry about this fire nonsense," Kitty said, giving Kate one more hug while they were at it. "But you do need to get back before that sweet Elf drops dead from a broken heart."
Kate nodded her fervent agreement. "Yeah, I'm so not ready to leave him," she said. She thumbed over her shoulder. "I'd love to stay and chat, but…"
"Go on — we're watching, I promise," Kitty said, but then, she paused. "Oh, and tell Logan he can stop. He doesn't need to do what he's set on." She shrugged lightly. "Which, I know, is like … probably not … going to have much effect. But STILL. Tell him to knock it off."
"I will try very hard," Kate promised. "Maybe — maybe — 'knock it off' will have more weight coming from the other side. We'll see."
"Hasn't really worked before," Kitty said. "But it's always worth a shot."
Kate nodded and then very quickly rushed forward to wrap Kitty up in one more hug. "That's from all of us," she said, making sure to hug her as tight as she could.
Kitty tightened her grip for a moment, really snuggling in with a smile. "Love you too."
"I'd say 'see you soon' but I don't want to? So… see you much later," Kate said with a smile.
"Not too soon, Hawkeye." Kitty said, pointing a finger at her in warning. "But in the cosmic sense … yeah."
Kate smiled at that and then closed her eyes again, concentrating on home and Kurt and trying to find her way back to where she had just been.
In Westchester, the medical wing was a flurry of activity as Tyler and Hank as well tried to get Kate back. For as badly as the explosion had burned her, she had also inhaled plenty of smoke and flames, and with the damage done, she'd stopped breathing by the time the bamfs got her there.
And Tyler wouldn't be able to do anything for her until she wasn't, well, dead — though he wasn't going to put it that way to Kurt, not when Kurt arrived just moments after the bamfs brought Kate and looked as though his entire world was crashing down around his ears. But he did tell Hank in a very low tone what was wrong: he couldn't heal a body that wasn't alive, so they had to get her heart going again before he could work his magic.
K had made her way to the lab, looking ready to pitch in with whatever she could, sure to tell Tyler what was happening. "Logan is taking a little group to go pitch in; Scott is monitoring everything. What can I do?"
"Stay with Kurt," Tyler said without looking up from intubating Kate, while Hank was loading up a shot of adrenaline as well.
K glanced over to Kurt and made her way over, quick to wrap him up in her arms and push him back so Tyler had room to work. "As soon as they're out of the way, I'll let you go, I promise."
Kurt grasped onto K's arm, though he didn't move his gaze away from Kate. It was bad enough seeing her in such a state, but seeing the expressions on the Doctors McCoy wasn't helping him at all, either. He was all but holding his breath — which wasn't helping matters, either, as he had to hold onto K's shoulder with his other hand just to stay upright.
By the time the leads were all set up and the monitors showed the lack of a heartbeat, though, Kurt had positively crumpled. K kept him far enough back to be out of the way of the doctors' efforts, but the sort of muffled, choked sound Kurt made definitely had them doubling down on their work.
The moment they did finally get a heartbeat, Tyler didn't hesitate to grab Kate's hand and immediately get to work healing everything he could, focusing on the worst of it first, and as soon as her vitals leveled out even a little bit, that was it for Kurt; he was so relieved he just partway buried his face in K's shoulder, not even able to hold himself up and somehow even worse than the last time she'd done this exact thing for him.
K shushed him as best she could and held him tight, whispering that it was going to be fine until he started to relax a little bit; then, she started to give him little updates on what Tyler was up to and the faces Hank was making. "She'll be on her way with a twinkie in no time," she told him softly. "And Logan and I will keep the kids out of trouble for you."
Kurt let out a small breath and nodded against her shoulder, though he didn't get up for a long while either, not until he felt like he had better control of his own faculties, anyway.
When he did sit down by Kate, helped a lot by K to get him there, Tyler was already leaning back tiredly. She still looked burned, and her clothes were smoky, but it was more like a sunburn than anything else, and Tyler had managed to fix most of the damage before he needed the break.
K stayed beside Kurt with a hand on his shoulder until Kate did finally open her eyes and smile softly up at Kurt. Her voice was hoarse from the intubation as she said, "Hey, you."
"Hello, liebchen," Kurt said, his voice hoarse as well, though for an entirely different reason before he simply wrapped her up in a hug, tucking her head underneath his chin before he planted a kiss on top of her head.
As it turned out, the Avengers managed to find all of the missing people that had been lost in the blast before the fire was entirely out — which was going to help tremendously in identifying them. But Steve took one look at the mess James had made of himself digging through the charred up rubble and sent him off with his father with a "close enough to your day on."
He took the time to get cleaned up and changed into at least some old clothes that he kept in his locker before he headed upstairs, barefoot and a little worn out, if he was being honest. But he didn't actually get very far before he was nearly tackled off of his feet by a very upset fuzzy blue elfling.
"You can just say hello sometimes," James said as he caught Kari up and didn't let her feet touch the ground.
Kari ignored him and all but buried her face into his shoulder. "I saw — on the news — I came right here," she gasped out, clearly a mess.
"The girl that did it is dead," James told her.
She held onto him tighter. "I called Kaleb… he said Mom got hurt," she whispered.
"She's doing alright," James said. "I heard the call from Hank. She's mostly healed up with your dad."
Kari let her shoulders drop in relief and simply sagged against him. "Oh… oh good," she said. "I … I was in town with Lucas when we saw the news… I didn't know anything…"
He let out a sigh and took a moment to look around them. "Come on; I'll take you to medical. I'm sure she's still there. And if she's not, they can fill you in."
"Please," Kari breathed out, not letting him go as he helped her down to the lab, though when she saw the way her parents were curled around each other, she hung back with James, her eyes brimming with tears before she let out a little sniff and leaned into him.
"See?" James said quietly, keeping one arm around her shoulders. "She'll be fine. We caught who did it. SHIELD and the feds are all over it."
Kari nodded and looked honestly tired as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "Were you there?" she asked quietly. "For… any of it?"
"Yeah, I was," James said. "Avengers got there before the building blew. There were a few bursts before it really went up."
"Did anyone else get hurt?" Kari asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.
James nodded slowly. "Yeah, a few. There were some fatalities too."
Kari looked positively devastated. "Oh no," she whispered. "That's… some of those people are like family to my mom, and I really like the ones I got to work with too." She sat down heavily, and James sat with her, not about to leave her alone when she was so obviously upset.
"We did what we could," James said. "And we got all of them cleared before the fire was out. Still working on that part, I'm sure."
"Yeah, the news was covering that," Kari whispered. "Who did it?"
He drew in a slow breath and watched her for a moment. "It was a Superior Rising hit. Your mom wasn't even the prime objective. They just wanted to kill or maim as many as possible."
Her eyes narrowed, and she drew up her shoulders. "I hate them so much," she said, her tail switching behind her.
"Yeah, I've had that same feeling for a long while," James agreed.
She shook her head, still looking upset. "I just… ugh."
"Hey, come on," James said before he got her to shift how she was sitting so he could pull her into a better hug and just hold her there. "It could have been a lot worse. She got out — and Chance too. Most of the employees are alright."
Kari nodded and simply doubled down on the hug, not ready to move when she was obviously still emotional — though she frowned when she heard the door open and the unmistakable "what the hell" from Lucas when he saw the two of them curled into each other.
She got up very quickly and rushed over to Lucas to wrap him into a hug too, though he was almost glaring down at her with an accusatory look, pushing her back by the shoulders. "So this is why you left me behind?" he asked, his eyes narrowed. "You'd rather be with him?"
"She wanted the story on her mother," James said. "And since I came in with the news off the scene, yeah. She needed to hear that much."
"It looked to me like you were doing more than relaying news," Lucas said, switching from pushing Kari back to pulling her tight to him.
"Yeah, I was consoling my best friend," James said as calmly as he could.
"I needed a hug, Lucas," Kari tried to explain. "It didn't really matter who it was. My mom almost died."
Lucas looked down at her for a moment before he pulled her into a hug with her head under his chin, though he was looking toward James. "You must let me be there for you, Kari. I don't want you to be alone."
"I'm sorry; I wasn't thinking. I just reacted," Kari said, then stood on her toes to kiss him. "You're sweet to be so protective."
James raised an eyebrow at the whole scene and let his voice drop lower. "I'm sure you're welcome to stick around as long as you like, but you might want to keep it down while there are people healing. Scott's waiting for me," he said before he stepped around them and headed upstairs to find Scott and let him know as much as the Avengers had figured out from the scene before he grabbed something to eat and holed up.
Kari frowned after James for just a moment before Lucas ran a hand through her hair and brought her attention back to him. "Kari," he said, shaking his head, "you need to let me be there for these things."
She let her shoulders drop and simply buried herself into him as tightly as she could. "I really hope nothing like this happens again, but… you're right," she said. "Next time, I'll bring you along for emotional support."
"Good," he said before he pulled her into a long kiss.