Disclaimer: I own nothing that has to do with Steven Universe or any other cartoon shows.

Same Night: Steven's Apartment Building

Inside: Hallway

Steven and Mabel stand by Steven's apartment door in the hallway. They encounter Steven's neighbor, Kate, as she leaves her apartment to do her laundry.

Mabel taps Steven's arm, making him look at her, and she gestures to Kate with her eyes, mouthing, 'ask her out, make a move'. Steven looks at Kate, and he hesitates for a second before speaking up and telling Kate, as she looks back up, smiling and about to leave, "Hey. If you want-if you want, you're welcome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement."

Kate raises her eyebrows, surprised, asking, "Oh, yeah? What's it cost?" Steven hesitates, not knowing what to say, so Mabel helps out.

Mabel says to Kate with a smile, "A cup of coffee?"

Kate apologetically smiles and politely declines, "Thank you, but um... I already have a load in downstairs, and, uh... you really don't want my scrubs in your machine." Steven and Mabel continue to smile, even though Steven is getting turned down. Kate whispers the last sentence, "I just finished a rotation in the infectious diseases ward, so..." She trails off, basically saying no.

Steven nods with a smile, "Ah." He tells Kate jokingly, "Well, we'll keep our distance." Kate nods with a smile.

Mabel mumbles sarcastically as Kate turns to leave, not hearing what she said, "Hopefully not too far." Steven hears what Mabel said, but says nothing, and turns to open his apartment door.

Kate stops and turns to Steven, saying, "Oh, and I think you left your stereo on."

Steven turns to Kate, pretending to remember, "Oh. Right. Thank you."

Kate smiles, "Yeah." She turns around to the stairs. Steven and Mabel share a quiet look. They watch Kate go down the stairs out of sight before they turn towards Steven's apartment door in suspicion. They turn their heads and hear 1940s classical music before they share a cautious look. Mabel taps her watch, and it transforms into a thin Iron Woman glove.

Inside: Steven's Apartment

Steven opens the side window where the fire escape is and quietly climbs through, entering his apartment. Mabel follows and climbs through the window quietly.

Steven looks around and back at Mabel, who looks through his open bookshelf. She sees a book she recommended to Steven and gasps in surprise. But Steven comes up behind her, quickly covers her mouth with one hand, and holds her waist in the other.

Mabel looks at Steven to her right, and he lets go of her waist to hold his finger to his lips, silently telling her to be quiet. She nods. He hesitates for a split second as he looks at her before letting go of her, and moves forward, and quickly grabs his shield for protection while another song starts.

Mabel holds her Iron Woman gloved hand up and follows Steven as he quietly and slowly walks forward with his back against the wall. She looks around the corner and finds Rick sitting on his couch chair in the dark.

Steven looks at his record player, which is on with Rick, lying back comfortably in the chair, looking at him as he enjoys the music. Steven relaxes as he sees that it's Rick.

Steven leans against the wall casually, looking down and telling Rick, annoyed that he's in his apartment uninvited, "I don't remember giving you a key." Mabel looks at Steven, confused, and nods to the corner. She steps out and looks at Rick, surprised as he sits up, grunting in pain.

Rick questions Steven, "You really think I'd need one?" He leans his elbows on his knees, "My wife kicked me out." Mabel taps her Iron Woman glove, and it detaches from her hand. She transforms it back into a watch as she relaxes and realizes there's no danger.

Steven looks at Rick, "I didn't know you were married."

Rick moves his head as if saying, 'fair enough', "A lot of things you don't know about me."

Steven moves out of the corner wall and walks forward as Mabel crosses her arms. A bit annoyed, Steven says, "I know, Rick. That's the problem." Steven turns on the light switch on the wall by Rick.

Steven and Mabel's eyes widened as they noticed Rick's injuries for the first time since they had noticed him there. Rick calmly held his hand up, indicating to them to be silent. He reaches up towards the lamp but looked at Mabel and gestured to the couch with his eye. She followed and saw Marcy lying injured on the couch.

Mabel's eyes widen at Marcy's unconscious body while Rick turns off the light with his iPhone in his hand. Steven watches, confused, as Rick types something on his phone and turns it to show Mabel and Steven, saying, 'EARS EVERYWHERE'. Steven's eyes widened a bit in realization, slowly looking around his apartment with a quiet, annoyed sigh.

Mabel slowly walks over and kneels down beside Marcy, checking her over worriedly. Rick tells Steven, "I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash." He types in another text and shows it to Steven, then slowly to Mabel, saying, 'SHIELD COMPROMISED'.

Mabel looks at Rick from beside Marcy, "Who else knows about your wife?"

Rick types in another text, showing Mabel, then Steven as he gets up from his seat, 'You and me' Rick answers Mabel, "Just..." He walks a few steps towards Steven, "My friends."

Steven looks at Rick, "Is that what we are?"

Rick nods to Steven as he answers, "That's up to you." Suddenly, Rick was shot three times in the chest through his back, "Ahh!" The shots came from the wall behind him.

Mabel quickly covers Marcy's head when the shots come, and Steven looks at Rick, shocked. Rick collapses to the floor, dropping the phone. Steven quickly looks out the window for the shooter as he grabs Rick's arm and quickly drags him to the hallway he came through, Rick groaning in pain.

Steven goes to leave and check on Mabel, but before he gets too, Rick grabs his wrist. Steven looks at him, and Rick let go of his wrist, revealing the flash drive in his hand.

Mabel lowers herself from the couch and crawls towards Steven and Rick. She stands up to Steven's side and looks down at Rick as he coughs out to Steven and Mabel, "Don't trust anyone."

Suddenly, someone bangs on Steven's door. Steven looks in that direction before looking back at Rick, who passes out. Mabel taps her watch again. Her Iron Woman glove attaches to her hand. She kneels down and aims it towards the living room, where Marcy is, looking out for the shooter or any other dangers around. Steven hears someone breaking into his apartment and hears his neighbor calling out to him.

Kate calls out, "Captain Universe?" Steven hides behind the wall, looking out the corner, and sees Kate walking in, holding a gun up. Kate looks at Steven, lowers her gun a bit, and gently tells him, "Captain, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD's Special Service."

Steven looks at Kate, confused, "Kate?"

Kate cautiously walks closer, "I'm assigned to protect you."

Mabel lowers her hand and looks over her shoulder to Kate with narrowed eyes, demanding, "On whose orders?"

Kate rounds the corner and gasps when she sees Rick lying unconscious and injured on the ground, not looking at Mabel as she answers, nodding to Rick as she stares at him, "His." She kneels down beside Rick, checking his pulse on his neck, then quickly grabs her walkie-talkie out of her scrub shirt pocket and contacts SHIELD through her radio, "Foxtrot is down. He's unresponsive." Mabel looks at Kate and cut her off.

Mabel quickly tells Kate, "Hawkeye is also unresponsive." She's talking about Marcy.

Kate looks at Mabel and nods in understanding, then demands on her walkie, "I need EMTs."

The SHIELD agent dispatcher asks on the radio, "Do you have a 20 on the shooter?"

Steven looks out the window through which he and Mabel came earlier, faintly notices the shooter, stands up and turns to leave. As he glares out the window, Steven tells Kate, "Tell him I'm in pursuit."

Outside: Building

Steven smashes through his window with his shield, curling into a ball as he flies across to the building beside him.

Inside: Building

Steven smashes through the window of the next building, falls, and breaks a table, but quickly rolls up to a stand and runs through the building hallway, looking up at the glass section of the ceiling to the roof. He chases after the assassin, who is on the roof and is a different, mysterious, masked figure.

Steven smashes through a locked, breaking through it like nothing.

Steven turns to the right, jumping up and kicking off the wall to the table against another wall, then jumps off and continues running.

Steven holds up his shield and smashes through a set of glass doors, then another set of wooden doors as he runs quickly across the office floor.

Steven comes around to a corner, doesn't slow down fast enough, and bumps into the wall with his shield, making a circular dent in the drywall. He grunts but continues to run forward, holding up his shield and smashing through another set of doors, running down the hallway.

Steven speeds up, sees a window at the end of the hallway, and sees the assassin jump down from the top roof, somersaulting up and continuing to run.

Outside: Roof

Steven smashes through the window, landing down and somersaulting up, standing, and quickly throws his shield at the mysterious masked figure who is running quickly towards the edge, revealing to have a feminine figure.

As the flying shield approaches the mysterious female masked figure, the assassin stops and quickly turns halfway, catching Steven's shield with her right hand with one swift move. This surprises Steven, revealing silver around her fingers, meaning that she has a metal hand/arm.

The masked female figure, who has black paint around her eyes, glares at Steven before swinging the shield and throwing it back at Steven. Steven catches it and slides back from the force/strength of the throw and catch. Steven looks up to see the mysterious female masked figure gone.

Steven runs to the edge, looking down to the street, seeing that the assassin has disappeared after she jumps down the building and runs, disappearing. Steven pants, disappointed, as he looks around.

Minutes Later: Outside

Hospital

Pacifica and Tulip Olsen, aka Black Widow, arrive at the hospital in Pacifica's car. They get out of the car and quickly head inside.

Inside: Hospital

Pacifica and Tulip ran down the hallway and Pacifica pushes the doors open where Steven, Mabel are standing by a glass window, watching the doctors operate on Rick while Marcy was sitting down in a wheelchair, after being treated for her head and wrist along with her bruised ribs from the last crash (From Previous Chapter 9).

Tulip runs up beside Steven on his left, as Mabel turns around to Pacifica, and they share a hug. Pacifica's relieved that Mabel is okay. They pull away from the hug and turn towards the window. Mabel stands on Steven's right, Pacifica stands on Mabel's right, and Tulip stands on Marcy's right, all watching Rick being operated on.