Revamped!

[None of you probably care about this, but I changed Iqadi and Merida on the fancast (on my profile) because I picture my babies in my head as if they were a movie]. [2020: Pretty sure it's changed again since this note].


Chapter 86: The Contingency Plan Part Six

Stark Towers - 22:41 PM

Angela pulls her hair back before leaving it to fall. Her hands rest on her hips as she turns to look at who's left. Daniel, James, and Iqadi face her, waiting for orders so they could have some grasp and control of the situation.

"Given that our location is known," Angela starts, "we're splitting up again. It'll make it harder for whoever has Iqadi's plans to take us all out at once. Don't go too far from one another and in the case that you do go down, go down with a bang so that we'd know where you are."

Daniel nods. "Smart. We can't dispel whatever this is so we have to work with what we have and not against it."

"We have no other options," Angela admits.

"If you find whoever has my plans, don't hesitate to kill them," Iqadi states. "I don't care who it is or their reasons."

The guilt that was once in her eyes has now been covered with a cold slate of fury. A part of that is warming to the team since it means that Iqadi is finally up to fighting standards and can handle this.

They split. Angela stays with Merida and Xavier while the others go separate ways. Despite the danger of the conditions around them, they felt a bit safe. It was nice to share the same feeling for a moment, even if that feeling was extreme terror.

-o-

James locates himself in the guest floor at Stark Towers. The walls and furniture are in perfect condition. Not only does James walk on eggshells to avoid being detected but to keep the floor looking pristine. He takes a breath as he checks all around him, thinking how much he wants his parents to hug him and tell him that everything will be alright even if they're lying.

He takes a peek in the guest bedroom to see anything suspicious. James takes a few steps inside and doesn't turn on the light. He can't risk lighting his fists either. Thanks to the moonlight, he's still able to see. The room looks like a classic bedroom but one thing sticks out to him as odd.

The curtains.

If there's one thing that his mother taught him, it's how to buy good quality items. If there's one thing he knows about Emily, it's that she would never put cheap-looking curtains in her posh tower, especially on the guest floor.

James smirks at that obvious trap. "You thought you could fool me."

James backs out of the room and continues down the floor. He begins to hear footsteps that aren't his approach him from behind. James doesn't act upon it but remains cautious. He counts to three, shrinking on the last digit as something flies over him. Once he's in the air, James sees the mysterious figure behind this. He wears all black, having his face covered with a mask of some sorts and oddly enough, a cape.

"James Pym…" the man mutters. "Son of Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, inheritor of the Pym Particles, size-changing abilities, flight when small, and bioelectricity blasts."

James is taken aback for a moment at the sudden synopsis of his life. "So, you've read my file."

James grows to his regular size and launches himself towards the man. He knocks the man over and starts blasting non-stop. To James's surprise, with every blast comes a glow from the man's cape. James tries to blast at the man again but his hand attaches to the cape like a magnet to metal. The same happens to his other hand when he tries to fire with that. James shrinks in an attempt to escape his restraints but as he decreases in size, the cape wraps around him tightly, forcing him to grow back to his normal size so it won't suffocate him.

The man laughs as he stands above James trying to wriggle out of his straitjacket. James tries to fire his way out and the cape flows.

"You know that will kill you," the man says. "That cape is designed to absorb your bioelectricity blasts and emit them back at you. The more you struggle and send the energy back to yourself, you'll eventually burn out and burn yourself."

"Fucking feedback loops." James huffs. "If dying means that you'll leave me alone, then I'll take my chances."

The man scoffs as he begins to walk away. James grunts another scream as he tries again to blast himself out. In the chance that he burns himself out, which he does; at least his friends will know that one of them will be next. So he lights up his hands and screams as loud as he can.

-o-

Daniel freezes as he hears James's screams. He closes the fridge and quickly drinks a glass of water. It's been a long day for him, especially after removing a bullet from Xavier. And then he learned that Iqadi made the virus that separated him and his Hulk.

That's the part that got him thinking: Iqadi said that those were contingency plans for Wakanda and they had the potential to kill them. When he had his Hulk taken out of him, he still had time to figure out what to do. Then, he thinks about today: Merida would eventually die without the intake of fluids or food, Xavier would've died if he was left to bleed out, and Apollo and Emily could fly to their deaths. All these plans were made on chance with a leeway of time, he realizes.

"Figure it out yet?"

Daniel jumps a little as he turns around and sees the man behind him. He isn't sure whether or not to move, but this is the man who knocked out three of his friends and sent the other two flying for their lives.

"Your gamma gene is fascinating," the man comments. "It's remarkable how Princess Iqadi could create many ideas on how to get rid of your Hulk when nobody else could. It's remarkable how she could create something to kill you."

"My temper alone could kill someone," Daniel responds.

"Oh, believe me I know. Why don't you have a drink and settle down?"

Instantly, Daniel glances over at the glass of water he drank out of and knows that he's already been hit. Stark Towers was once their haven but it's been rigged this whole time.

He has to fight back.

Daniel makes his eyes flash green purposely to get his Hulk out for this. To his surprise, the room starts to sway back and forth and he holds out his arms in a futile attempt to keep his balance. He tries to get his Hulk out to help him stay up, but his Hulk purposely stays inside. Daniel tries to keep his eyes open but they inevitably close as he falls over. The man catches him and places him on the ground to ease his fall and limit the noise. Before Daniel loses all his strength and hits the floor, he grabs his glass and throws it at the man.

Not only was it a direct attack but at least Daniel made a noise to show that he was down.

-o-

After hearing James's scream and a glass shatter, Angela kneels beside Merida and Xavier. Her heart rate is accelerating and her hands are shaking. The more of her friends that go down, the closer it is to her being next.

"I need help on who the bad guy is," Angela whispers to Xavier and Merida, despite her knowing that she won't get an answer. "Sure, Iqadi made the plans but the difference between the good guys and the bad guys is that the bad guys are the ones who actually shoot at us, not the ones who make the gun."

Angela grabs Merida's bow and unclips the quiver from Merida's waist to fasten it onto her own. She doesn't know how to use it like Merida but she can manage it. Angela loads the bow and is about to go forth to kill whoever is taking them all out, but a text message from her phone stops her the moment she enters the next room. Angela looks down at it and sees a text message from SHIELD.

Agent Mike Tapper: Where the hell is your team?! The mission site was empty and your comms have no signal.

This confuses Angela even more. SHIELD has been attempting to contact them so that means that they're not against her team, right? This should convince her but she still isn't persuaded. While distracted, she gets knocked to the ground.

Angela looks up and sees him, not expecting to see just a basic looking man in a simple getup. She fires arrows which he dodges. Then, Angela resorts to using the bow. She whacks him and he falls back. Angela uses that to her advantage and kicks him to the ground. He falls on his back and Angela holds him down with a knee to her neck. She punches his face repeatedly and stops when he starts laughing.

"What do you find funny?" Angela grits her teeth.

"Oh, dear," the man responds, "you gave me just what I wanted."

Angela is confused until she sees him with an arrow in his hand. Then, she realizes that she has been wearing Merida's quiver. Angela backs away, thinking that she would be stabbed, but instead, he breaks the arrowhead in his fist and a blue mist breaks free.

Angela immediately tries to cover her nose and mouth but it's too late. The mist enters her system and she drops Merida's bow. Angela tries to call Daniel or James or Iqadi, whoever's left, but her breath catches in her throat.

Angela wonders if it's something like the mist that separated Daniel and his Hulk, if her organs will burst out. The room starts to swirl in front of her, blurring and refocusing in a disorienting fashion. She starts to shake. Her muscles give out as she collapses to the floor. An icy sensation spreads through her torso, causing her body to cave in on itsellf. She places a hand on her head and clenches her teeth as chills wrack her body, shaking her to the core.

Hypothermia. She's being frozen to death like her father when he crashed the plane.

She feels the freezing cold spread throughout her body. Her skin isn't broken but it feels cracked. The feeling shocks her and it's all she could do. She pants, trying to hold her chest. Her lungs feel like ice already. She can't breathe.

Angela's thinking back to The Academy as her brain rattles. She closes her eyes, squeezing them shut, and tries to think of the lecture about hypothermia. She tries not to shake because it's bad but her body just does it on its own. She should minimize exposed skin but she can't move and isn't sure if it'd work since she's freezing from the inside out.

She already lost coordination. Her breathing is already slowed down and she can feel her heart going next.

But she doesn't. Instead, she feels herself getting warmer and tired. She can't help it. Her body is giving up. Angela opens her eyes and sees Xavier, a bloodless Xavier, rubbing his arms against her.

"You're warming up, take off your windbreaker to help you breathe," he encourages.

Angela can't believe her eyes but, despite being near death, her mind is in two places at once: this hallucination of her twin and The Academy.

Freezing to death feels like going to sleep, she learned, people tend to feel warm and would want to remove layers to cool off. The final stages of hypothermia is a paradoxical undressing. You would've lost all rationality because your nerves would be shutting down. You'd think you're cooling off but you're freezing to death.

"Look at me, Angela…" her fake twin whispers to her as her eyes shut.

-o-

Third strike and now she's the only one left.

Iqadi runs through the hallways, every scream from her friends echoing in her mind. She wants to help them, all of them, but she can't bring herself to move. She's hardly breathing. She's so scared and has to keep swallowing the urge to puke up bile. She feels like her heart is trying to burst out from the inside of her.

This must be what complete and utter fear feels like and she hates it.

Iqadi stops running due to her inability to breathe. She chokes out a cry, trying to think of a plan on the spot. She knows her plans and how they work so she doesn't know why her mind is drawing a blank.

"Princess…"

Iqadi looks up and her tears fall as she looks at the man behind this all. She stands up straight, facing him. Her mind is telling her to attack him and choke the life out of him, but her feet are stuck to the floor.

"Are you threatening me?" Iqadi asks.

The man laughs a little as he starts to walk closer to him. "No, I'm just creating a situation where you'll compromise yourself."

Iqadi tilts her head a little. "Now that you have gotten rid of my friends, what happens now?"

"How about you find out?"

He holds out a hand for her. Iqadi looks at his offer and hesitates. Accepting his hand could be dangerous for her - actually, it will be dangerous for her. But as long as her friends are safe here, it doesn't matter what happens to her. She will finish this, no matter the cost or danger.

Iqadi takes his hand.