I wrote this chapter while waiting for my doctor's appointment.
Happy 400k words to this story, making this my biggest story yet.
Chapter 212: Pins & Knees Part Two
Half a Romance Present
Merida takes a sharp turn on their quinjet as she rapidly fires at the helicarrier. She knows she isn't doing much damage but more so a hindrance. She's basically a pestering fly to the human face. Annoying and irritating.
"How about a classic move?" Merida suggests. "Hammer of the Gods?"
A classic technique they always used to play paintball. A full-force offence.
Apollo summons his axe excitedly. "I was waiting."
Merida pushes a few buttons on the panel above and turns around as their dock opens. Iqadi's Panther suit pixilates on her face, her eyes solidifying to their stormy shade of white. She looks at Apollo who smiles before they leap out to the sound of thunder. The wind picks up and they fly through the sky as lightning crackles.
Merida steadies their quinjet for the sudden change in weather. She watches as her team flies in front of her. Apollo continues building the storm with his axe as Iqadi fires lightning from her fingertips.
Merida looks to the side and sees Emily firing into the neighbouring quinjet with her arm reactor blast as she sends mini-missiles. James circles nearby, a small ball of yellow sparking those around him. Sigyn's magic fills the sky on the other side.
It's a beautiful fusion of silvers, greys, whites, oranges, golds, and green. Merida's breathless as she watches them all blend in fire and clouds.
Out of everything she's ever seen on missions and her time at the Academy, this is the most beautiful. No sunrise or sunset could compare.
"Rogers twins and Daniel," Merida says into her earpiece, "we're so fucking lame for not having a contribution to the light show. Any of you got some illegal fireworks stowed on board? Wait…"
The thought dawns on her as she fiddles with her quiver. Merida puts her quinjet on autopilot as she loads her bow with a fireworks arrow. One of her favourite arrows if she had to pick.
She stands far enough from the dock so she doesn't get sucked out by air pressure but close enough so she could make the shot. Merida crouches as she holds her bow horizontally, aiming just above the highest skyline of the helicarrier and quinjet.
"Happy early or late 4th of July," she mutters before letting it fly.
-o-
Electric Blonde
Emily watches the lights and explosion from underneath James. Her suit's AI gives her small green squares on where the rest of her team is, even James who's just above her until he circles and is flying underneath her on his back so he's facing her.
The display of their powers resembles a roaring Phoenix in the sky. She's in complete awestruck until the fireworks make her laugh.
Then the clouds darken so she's glad James flew under her and her suit of armour.
"Got quite the show for what might be your last mission as a SHIELD agent," Emily tells him.
"You were smart just to be a consultant," James responds.
Emily smirks. "I'm always the smart one, what do you mean?"
Iqadi: Hail forms in the cloud layer where it's freezing.
Apollo: I'm not that cold up here.
Iqadi: I could freeze you if I please.
Emily laughs again because earpiece conversations are the best thing to overhear covertly (although they had to know since they were all wearing earpieces). She's heard the most random things on missions with her friends ranging from that kind of conversation to when they could leave (she'd be the one asking the latter).
"Meteorology 101 with Princess Iqadi," James states.
Emily's suit gives her a weather reading that changed abruptly to tell her to take cover in big and bold red letters. "Oh, now we're getting a storm. Ready for some Engineering with Dr. Stark-Banner, Dr. Pym?"
"Impress me," James says.
Emily looks out ahead. "Come on, Matriarch! Time for your debut!"
The suit that Emily was showing Xavier earlier swoops in above her, flying parallel to her. It's the same colour scheme of silver and purple, but with a little Matriarch signature in Emily's cursive on the helmet's jawline.
Emily's proud of her creation. It's basically her child. She started drafting blueprints way back when she was doing her Ph.D. thesis in Japan as a little side project, continued them on her honeymoon after a little diamond chase, and started building and testing when they returned.
"Who is that?" James asks.
"Meet The Matriarch," Emily introduces, "I pilot her off-site. Not only am I safer, but she can harbour more weapons."
They watch as The Matriarch flies ahead of them, blasting through the helicarrier as a way for them to fly inside and take it out of the sky from within.
They land on the floor and The Matriarch turns off the blaring alarms remotely before Emily sends her off to clear the place.
"Call me impressed," James stares as he grows back to his normal size beside Emily. "I like the name."
"Betty did call me the Matriarch of the Avengers' kids because I was born first," Emily explains proudly. "Sigyn's birthday is before mine but fuck her because I was here first."
Sigyn: Well, fuck you too. Fucking Matriarch ...
Emily scans the helicarrier for any life and doesn't get a reading until Angela flies in from behind on a SHIELD-standard jet pack. She parks beside him and Emily can't help but think she could make a better one in her sleep, but if it gets an agent from A to B then it's probably good enough.
"Parked our bird on deck," Angela states.
"Someone's going to steal it," Emily says.
"That's the plan."
"I have the Matriarch in on the other end performing a remote shutdown. Once she's done, she'll work on getting the other birds out of the sky. I'm getting readings that we still have people on board who are not happy with us."
-o-
United Shades of Green
Xavier awkwardly rolls on the landing pad of his team's helicarrier and the Hulk laughs as he lands beside him, pulling him up without being careful.
Sigyn: You did say he was the muscle.
"Why can't you go back to hating each other?" Xavier grumbles back through a plastered smile just as the men on board the helicarrier show up with their gunfire.
Xavier charges with the shield up and kicks over one man, stumbling when the helicarrier suddenly lurches back. He gets up but ducks when another extremist flips over him. Xavier somersaults forwards and back on his feet. When the man kicks up, Xavier bashes his shield forwards before grabbing the other one's back. Xavier jabs his knee into him repeatedly as another one grabs him from behind.
He should get a number on how many men are on board.
Xavier reaches behind him and grips the man's arms before throwing him over his head. Xavier kicks forwards and spins, pinning another man to the ground as the Hulk leaps over him.
A quinjet enters Xavier's line of vision from above and he raises his shield to cover his whole body as gunfire pours against it. The clink of metal fills his ears as he hears the Hulk roar and leaps off the helicarrier. He only knows that happened since the gunfire stops. Xavier slowly peeks above his shield and sees the Hulk steering the nose of the quinjet downwards.
The men on the inside start firing at the Hulk and manning the controls of the quinjet. They scream orders until they hear magical laughter from behind. They turn around and see Sigyn, who just invited herself on board, laughing and clapping her hands.
"Windows and target are bulletproof," she says, holding a hand to the side of her mouth as if whispering a secret.
She raises her palms when guns are pointed at her. The Hulk is still outside the quinjet trying to tear it to pieces.
"Also bulletproof," Sigyn winks when talking about herself.
Sigyn blasts her magic through the jet and the Hulk flies back to the helicarrier pad. She smiles and her eyes glow green as she hears Xavier laughing through her earpiece and the Hulk cussing her out. That was definitely Daniel more than The Angry Green One.
Hulk: I hate her.
Xavier: And we're back.
Sigyn scoffs as she snaps her fingers and the men on board fall through portals back to the quinjet for those two to deal with. She hears them land as she sits in the pilot's seat, puts on the headphones she isn't sure how to use, and holds on to the controls of a quinjet she doesn't know how to fly. She can manage a spaceship on Asgard so this can't be that different.
-o-
Electric Blonde
Angela catches a grenade thrown at her and whips it back from where it came like a baseball. The punch she then throws gets ducked so Angela spins to the other side. She holds up her forearm in time to block a kick as she backs up.
James flies by her, blasting people and shifting sizes to throw them off. He grows big and lands on his side to punch something in. Emily circles with her suit, firing repulsors from above. Her eyes flicker to a message from the Matriarch and she smiles.
"Matriarch did a sweep and we're good," Emily announces.
Xavier: Let's pack it up.
James shrinks back to his normal size and runs beside Angela who's smiling at him.
"I don't fly, guys, those are your skills," Angela tells them.
James blasts through a window and sees the Hulk jump off the neighbouring helicarrier onto theirs. He pulls a Pym disc from his pocket and attaches it to Emily's repulsor beam to blast at the other helicarrier so it shrinks.
-o-
United Shades of Green
Xavier abandoned ship — or helicarrier — seconds before it shrank and crashed landed on the outside Sigyn's quinjet. He stabbed his shield through the exterior to avoid flying off since she couldn't fly this bird. He remembers her telling him about the spaceships on Asgard all while Thor was behind her shaking his head and making exploding gestures.
Xavier looks through the window and sees Sigyn sitting cross-legged in the pilot's seat. She looks up at him and waves with a bright smile.
"Open up!" Xavier yells at her.
Sigyn swirls a finger above her and Xavier falls through a portal into their quinjet.
Sigyn spins the pilot chair around to face him. "Hi, honey."
"Is it on autopilot?" Xavier asks, walking over and flipping it on. "Never mind. Iqadi was right it does wear off."
Iqadi: Told you so.
I'm happy to announce that SA will be coming back next week.