Chapter 15: Scuffles and ScaresSummary:Hulk vs Daisy and Kara comes to a head! But does everything go to plan, or do some things surprise everyone involved?
Notes:Obligatory disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, DC, or any characters that come from other works.
I also want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement, and RhinoMouse for the inspiration their world of "Retirement Ended Up Super" provided.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextMarch 3rd, 2009, MCU
Daisy Johnson, Peechi -Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary India
Honestly, Daisy begins to regret her bold proclamation of a spar almost immediately. Don't get her wrong, it's not because she doesn't want to spar anymore or anything like that, it's just that the Hulk is so damn excited that Kara trying to carry Bruce for any longer than a second causes his eyes to turn green and the Hulk starting to try and break out. So instead of just flying deep into the Wildlife Sanctuary like she had planned to, they are stuck hiking there with the occasional one second flights to get around any natural obstructions.
It takes a couple hours to get deep enough, but eventually in the very early hours of the morning, while the sky is still grey, they finally arrive at the place that Daisy had scouted out ahead of time. Nested up against the side of a hill too large to just be called a hill, but too small to be called a mountain (there is probably some nerd term for it that Kara knows, but Daisy sure doesn't) is a section of rocky ravines with dense forest and other very-large hills that butt up right against it. This way, even if the fight is larger than Daisy is expecting, no one else will witness it and any damage can hopefully be covered as being a collapse in the rock wall.
Finally there, Daisy sets down her bag, and takes out her suit except for the mask, alongside a pair of incredibly stretchy pants to give to Dr. Banner. Taking the pants, Dr. Banner lets out the hundredth resigned sigh of the hour and asks the same question yet again.
"Are you sure you want to do this? We can still just head back." Although the wincing from a headache and slightly green tint to his eyes lets Daisy know that not everyone in Bruce's body agrees with the offer to stand down.
"And as we have been saying the whole way here, yes we're sure. We need to show you that the Hulk can be handled if the worst happens in LA, but more than that we need to get you two working together to stop the worst from happening at all." Daisy tries to sound understanding of his stress, but the heat is already increasing and she is about to put on a tight and not very breathable suit after a couple hours of hiking through a forest. Normally she would just use her powers to keep cool, but she can't take the risk of straining herself even a little beforehand in case it's the difference between victory and defeat.
After just a little more grumbling, the man goes around a rocky corner to change as well as give Daisy the privacy to change as well. Once everyone is ready, they take their positions nearly 20 yards apart, with Kara right next to her side, even placing herself a little ahead of Daisy to protect her from the start.
Honestly, she loves this woman a whole lot and every day it's the little things that warm her heart. How often was Daisy put in the front lines, while here Kara is taking that role to protect her and she doesn't even appear to be consciously making that decision.
Focus. Flirt and admire later, get ready to fight now.
Daisy can see Bruce's eyes are now just a solid green ever since getting changed, although he does seem to still be maintaining control over the rest of the transformation, which is incredibly commendable.
"I don't know what you both can do, but if the worst happens please get out of here. I don't want to have killed a couple teenagers. Please." Bruce's pleading voice comes out, even as he begins to release his control, allowing the green show through his skin as he enlarges in size. Kara honestly seems a bit distracted by analyzing the transformation for the first time in person, Daisy can hear her muttering under her breath about Kara 'hearing' more mass being added to his form somehow.
Nerd.
…
Cute nerd.
"Won't be needed, but I promise I'm not looking to die or lose Kara today." Daisy responds back, with Kara snapping out of her scientific musings with her spine straightening out and her fists coming up in preparation.
Finally, the bell for the start of their match is heralded with an eardrum shattering roar, coming out of the green monster now towering ahead of them. Before Daisy can even tell he is tensing, the hulk makes a leap forward and sends his fist crashing down towards Kara with all of his strength going into taking out what he thinks is the bigger threat at the start of the fight.
Moments Later
Kara Danvers
Kara was not expecting the massive form of the Hulk to move nearly that fast. While it is obvious it is not superspeed, as it was made in a single leap and downward slamming punch motion, the Hulk is still able to move incredibly fast just by consequence of putting all of his strength into the move.
Luckily, Kara does have superspeed, and while she doesn't have time to fully dodge due to the spontaneity of the attack, she is able to easily lift her arms up to guard her head and brace her whole body to absorb the blow.
That being said, even with all of the training from Daisy about how to properly block and absorb hits rather than just relying on her natural resistances, it is still an entirely new thing to truly put that to the test. And oh gosh does the Hulk hit like a truck!
Actually… A truck probably wouldn't have made her arms go numb from the force of the blow, nor would it have caused her legs to get buried into the ground up to her knees despite being able to keep her braced stance. Thankfully since it was a leaping smash, the Hulk was not properly braced to transfer his full strength, so being airborne was the difference for Kara being able to stay in the fight vs being laid out in the first moment.
The Hulk obviously thought he was going to be able to take her out of the fight with that one blow, and is shocked by the results as his eyes widen in surprise. Not that Kara gives him the opportunity to truly appreciate the moment, as Kara works through the numbness and moves her hands around the fist that was still against her guard and uses her strength and rotates at the waist in order to use the Hulk's size against him and send him flying over her shoulder and smashing into the ground on his back to the side of where Daisy is.
Daisy had noticed Kara's move from their training as soon as she had started the shoulder throw, and was already moving to follow up with her own attack. Just as the Hulk started to move his free hand to try and throw Kara off of him, instead he was hit in the side of his torso with a double forward punch from Daisy, supported by twin blasts of vibrations channeling straight into the Hulk's skeleton. The blast sends the Hulk skidding across the ground, bouncing along the exposed stone of the ravine for dozens and dozens of yards. Not even the Hulk getting his hands on the ground can stop his momentum despite leaving deep gouges in the ground, leaving him to only stop as he hits the side of the cliff face over 50 yards away.
"Keep moving, don't let him pin us down, and try to attack from a distance or hit and run style as much as possible." Daisy quickly orders before using her blasts, to send herself flying towards the treeline to their side.
The Hulk, already recovering with his crushed rib cage popping back into shape before her eyes, stands up with a truly feral grin on his face, and goes after the one who just did the most damage to him, following Daisy into the trees of the forest.
Seeing the monster chasing after her mate, as well as the speed of his recovery leaves Kara with no hesitation or restraint in her actions. Using her fists to crack the ground as far away from her body as she can reach, she flies up carrying a boulder nearly four times the size of her held up by where her legs sunk into the ground from the Hulk's opening attack. Flying forward at full speed, but with less control than normal from the lack of leg mobility, Kara flips at the last second just as she comes upon the Hulk still racing forward. The flip lets her send the stone around her legs into a brutal drop kick to the back of his head, smashing the stone and freeing her legs.
As the Hulk goes flying head over heels from her blow, Kara is already gaining height and sending blasts of her laser vision at him. Obviously not a sustained burst as she doesn't want to kill or maim him, but instead she does her best to try to sever his tendons to leave him paralyzed on the ground.
Unfortunately she does not correctly estimate how durable the Hulk is and only manages to burn through his skin and slightly through the flesh below, but not quite making it to the tendons underneath. Before she can adjust her power output the Hulk manages to recover and immediately leaps away and in the direction she can hear Daisy.
Before Kara can panic for more than a couple seconds about how the Hulk somehow managed to leap straight towards her mate, she can already hear the low pitch ringing as Daisy's power builds up. Using a move borrowed from Prince Zuko in ATLA, although obviously with vibration strikes rather than fire, Daisy sends a brutal concentrated blast of her built up power with a sidekick straight at the Hulk's center of mass. While Daisy's power level is limited by her young body and bones, the larger bones in her legs Daisy are able to send much higher concentration of strikes from there even when compared to the benefits the gauntlets provide.
Daisy obviously set a trap, and was making enough noise for the Hulk to know where she was to leap straight at her. The result is that just as fast as the Hulk leapt away from Kara, he is suddenly flying back straight at her.
Well if her mate is going to send her an easy opportunity like this, then who is she to pass up the opening?
As the Hulk flies through the air towards her, his back is completely exposed as he was facing the other way, Kara leaps off the side of the nearest tree and gains as much speed as she can in the short amount of time before she collides with the Hulk.
Kara had straightened herself as much as possible, with her hands brought to a solid double fisted point right in front of her, which come into contact with the base of the Hulk's spine resulting in a horrible cracking sound as the bone shatters.
Since the Hulk had not been idle while flying back, and was already attempting to twist in order to catch a tree to try and stop his flight, the Hulk doesn't go flying straight back at Daisy like Kara had intended, but instead goes flying off to the side and over Kara's shoulder as her own momentum carries her forward.
As Kara turns around, kills her speed, and stops by perching her feet on the side of a tree, Daisy lands right next to her as they both look through the line of collapsed trees that the hulk tore down with his flight over to where he landed. They can clearly see the Hulk looking back at them, seemingly desperately trying to get back up and on his feet to fight, but the broken spine leaves everything below the waist paralyzed for the time being.
As they continue to watch his struggle, not making a move but also not taking their eyes off of him, they see the desperation give way to confusion on the Hulk's face. While Kara finds herself confused at his confusion, Daisy seems to understand his thinking and responds.
"We told you this was just a friendly spar, and not a death match. Why wouldn't we let you recover before continuing?"
The confusion gives way to skepticism, but as the Hulk's spine repairs itself, neither Kara nor Daisy make a move even when the Hulk fully collects himself and stands up. The skepticism gives way to an amused expression, complete with a snort at the both of them.
And for the first time, Kara hears more than just roars and growls from the green being.
"Hulk smash tiny heroes, make regret giving Hulk time. But Hulk no destroy new tiny friends, so Hulk can beat again." As the Hulk begins to prepare for their second round, picking up two torn up trees and using his hands to clear off all the excess branches, to use as massive clubs against them, Daisy decides to respond in kind.
"Ha! And when tiny heroes beat you, you only fight to kill bad people or our enemies. No more innocents or people who aren't even a threat to you. But as friends we can certainly spar from time to time to keep kicking your oversized green butt."
Dear Rao does Daisy REALLY have to brag and taunt the giant rage monster? But her worries seem unfounded as the Hulk just bursts out laughing.
"HAHAHA! Hulk say fine, cause Hulk no lose." And with that, the fight is back on from some unseen signal that hits them all at the same time, with all three of them meeting each other in a clash in the middle, as trees all around them are ripped from the ground by the force of their attacks.
Some Time Later
Bruce Banner
This… has possibly been the strangest day of Bruce Banner's life. Against all of his good sense, he agreed to the wager with the 'spar' that the two teenage girls had proposed against the Hulk, mainly because he thought either they would back out, run away once the Hulk got serious, or because if he had said no Hulk may have tried his damnedest to take the wheel while they were still in the city limits.
Then the fight began, and not only did the two girls not act as he expected in any way… they actually were kicking the Hulk's ass! Oh sure, the Hulk was doing a great job at holding his own, and was constantly coming incredibly close to landing devastating attacks against either of the girls, but in the end Daisy and Kara were doing a tremendous job of covering each other to ensure they never received more than a glancing blow or small cuts from debris.
That's not even mentioning that the Hulk actually had an honest to god conversation with Daisy after the first couple minutes. The Hulk had only said a few words before, but now talked in a few sentences! Although the Hulk's grammar certainly left much to be desired.
At the very start of his 'curse' whenever Bruce turned into the Hulk, trying to recall what happened was like trying to remember a particularly bad dream from the night before. Very hard and incredibly fleeting, with maybe a major point or two in perfect clarity. Ever since the fight against Abomination, it has felt much more like he was looking through a glass wall, with many imperfections in the glass obscuring and distorting everything, while he pounded his fist against the wall trying to shout out orders to keep the Hulk on track.
But today, after he saw proof that he didn't need to hold the Hulk back during this fight… Bruce just sat back from the glass and watched events unfold. And as time went on, the glass gained greater and greater clarity, while thinning out to the point that it looked like a solid hit could cause the whole wall to come crashing down.
It was at this point that Bruce realized the glass wall was controlled by the Hulk, and once he realized that Bruce wasn't going to take control and end his fun, the Hulk let him have a better view and more power in their relationship.
It was an incredible show of trust… and it only made Bruce think whether or not the Hulk lives behind a similar distorted glass wall for 99% of the time when Bruce is in control.
It feels humbling to be given that trust, when Bruce has not given it in return.
Since the short break for the Hulk to heal the spine injury, and for the short conversation to take place, the battle has gone on for what has felt like another half hour but could honestly be anywhere from a couple minutes to an hour or two as far as Bruce truly knows.
And the whole time, Bruce hasn't felt the unending tidal wave of anger coming from the Hulk, but instead just excitement and joy. Bruce has never actually been an angry man, or at least one to lash out in his anger, so the Hulk's anger always felt foreign to him. But the excitement and joy the Hulk is feeling right now? That feels just like a breakthrough in the lab, or like a particularly good day with Betty. It seems to harmonize with Bruce's own feelings, connecting them even more than just sharing a body.
Bruce is snapped back to the fight at hand as the Hulk almost lands a solid hit again, but instead manages to just grapple the cape of Kara, only for the girl to quickly hit a release latch and detach the cape into his hands.
As the participants take a second to catch their breath and reassess the change in situation between the three of them with yet another close call, Bruce notices another first in his life. The Hulk is panting… the hulk is getting tired from all of the fighting and healing his body is having to do to stay in the fight!
While Bruce knew of Supergirl beforehand, Daisy is just as impressive if not obviously less powerful but more experienced. These two girls are frankly ridiculous by any metric as they could have won this fight a few dozen times so far if that was what they wanted.
Can he… can he really go home? Is it possible if he sticks with these two?
"Ah… ah… ah. I think… we're all getting towards the end of our ropes with this spar. So we probably don't have that long left, especially if we don't want the locals coming upon us." Daisy says between panted breathes, while small amounts of blood trickle down from small cuts all across her body where the Hulk's attacks have sent enough debris flying to cut through to the flesh underneath. "So what do you say, big guy, for this last bout if someone goes down long enough that the others need to wait on them, then they are out?"
It's a bit of an unfair agreement, as so far the Hulk has been the only one to go down for any amount of time. But as the Hulk looks at the cape still wrapped in his hand, he takes a moment to wrap it around his hand almost like boxer's tape, before nodding at Daisy.
But before the fight can resume, Daisy holds up a hand. "One more thing though. Ah… ah… I want this to be a proper two on two. So Bruce, if you can hear me in there, do whatever you can to help the Hulk out."
Before either the Hulk or Bruce can dwell on that request, Daisy is launching herself forward with a blast of her powers. In an almost mirror of the very start of the fight, coming down at the Hulk with a descending right hook.
Unlike the start however, the Hulk meets the attack with his own, causing both Daisy and the Hulk to be pushed back a few yards. As Hulk starts to go forward to try and get in a follow-up before she can recover, Bruce can feel himself shouting without even giving the action any thought.
"No! Behind you!"
Seeming to hear him, the Hulk quickly turns around to find Kara right there ready to deliver a punch to the back of the Hulk's head. While the warning let him see the attack coming, it wasn't enough to truly avoid it and the Hulk is smashed across the jaw by a punch that even Bruce can feel in his teeth.
Unnoticed by Bruce, the glass wall continues to thin.
Taking the opportunity, Hulk blindly lashes out with his hand and manages to grab the leg of Kara before she is able to retreat. Instincts in the Hulk flaring at the danger behind him, he uses Kara as a projectile and throws her into the path that Daisy was taking to come and set her free. Unfortunately, both girls are able to use their powers in a brilliant tandem to catch each other and recover, instead of smashing together like the Hulk intended.
Is this the kind of teamwork Daisy expects from us? No… it's more like that's what we need if we want even a chance at winning.
Unnoticed by Bruce, the glass wall continues to thin.
"Smash the ground with both hands as hard as you can!" Bruce yells out, thinking on his feet about everything he has noticed in the fight so far from the two girls. While Bruce can feel the confusion from Hulk, the Hulk hesitates just a fraction of a second before going forward with his suggestion.
The hard stone, near to the start of their sparring location, cracks and shatters and shoots up in a cloud of dust and rocks and stones. Whatever Daisy's exact powers are, she can seemingly tell where objects and people are at all times. But what if a bunch of new objects suddenly appear and cover and obscure the area where you are? Can that buy even a fraction of a second of cover and confusion from sensory overload?
Bruce thinks so, and this time without words, sends his thoughts to the Hulk about what to do next as speaking would lose whatever little time they bought.
Unnoticed by Bruce, the glass wall continues to thin.
The Hulk jumps to the side, before dashing forward appearing out of the dust cloud right next to Kara. Daisy, a split second too late in tracking their movements, is facing the wrong way. While every instinct in the Hulk says to smash, Bruce is enough to convince him to stay with the plan. Instead of attacking, the Hulk brings his hands together in an incredibly powerful double handed smash. It would have been devastating if Kara was close enough to be right where the Hulks hands would meet.
But Kara is just a couple steps further, and those couple steps would have allowed Kara to brace or Daisy to catch up. So instead, both of the Hulks hands meet each other, and release an almost sonic boom of sound as the Hulks hands clap together so powerfully that the bones in his palm crack and fingers break.
Unnoticed by Bruce, the glass wall continues to thin… and is now gone.
The noise, louder than anything Bruce has encountered before, sends Kara reeling as blood flows from both of her burst ear drums. While Daisy, finally facing where the Hulk has leapt to, erects a barrier of her powers to save herself from being disabled in the same way.
The Hulk takes on a bloodthirsty grin as he sees his opponent clutching both of her ears, with her body completely unguarded. He raises his still healing hand, going for the knockout hit straight to the side of the head. But then, for the first time ever, the Hulk feels his body being taken over as Bruce redirects the first of the Hulk at the true target of the attack this whole time.
Daisy, who saw the attack coming and was desperately moving forward to erect a barrier between the Hulk and Kara in time, found the fist heading straight towards her instead in a feint attack she didn't see coming. With her powers protecting Kara, Daisy is left unprotected.
They can do it, they can win!!!
But wait… Bruce got caught up in the moment, in the rush of the fight. He has seen Kara block dozens of direct hits from the Hulk, but Daisy always used her powers to protect herself.
Surely she is tough enough and can tank at least one hit as well… right?
" NO! DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!!" Bruce and the Hulk both hear yelled from their side, as suddenly their world erupts in shared pain.
Same Time
Kara Danvers
Her mate is going to die, her mate is going to die, HER MATE IS GOING TO DIE RIGHT BEFORE HER EYES TRYING TO SAVE HER! Kara barely notices how she suddenly burns through all of the solar energy she has stored up, as her body moves faster than she ever has before. Faster than her enemies have moved before. Faster than her cousin has moved before. Faster than Barry Allen ever moved when he visited her universe.
She needs to protect her mate, so she does, it's as simple as that. She lets out a cry, yelling despite being unable to hear from the blood rushing to her still healing ear drums, the words lost to her as she barely understands her actions.
When the world rushes back to her, Kara finds her hand stretched out flat, moving forward with more speed and power than she thought possible, as it bursts through the elbow of the arm of the Hulk that was going to kill her mate. In a spray of blood and bone, the Hulk's arm shatters as her hand emerges through the other side, causing the Hulk's hand to divert just enough from hitting her mate straight in the head, and instead is a glancing blow to the shoulder.
It still results in a terrible cracking noise that causes Kara's heart to drop, but the arm and shoulder stay attached even if it is obviously dislocated and broken. Kara withdraws her hand from the elbow of the enemy that almost turned her into a widow, completely forgetting them in favor of taking a step to look over her mate. But as Kara steps forward, the lack of energy immediately catches up to her, and she feels her vision begin to fade as the world spins, and her legs give out.
As her vision slowly fades, she can see the look of determination on her mate's face to end this fight. Daisy leaps up, her body even with the head of the being… who were they fighting again?... the being that is yelling out in pain, as she sends a roundhouse kick backed by every ounce of vibration that her body can handle, and just a little bit more as Kara's x-ray vision can see the bones in her mate's leg crack under the strain, straight into the temple of the bastard who almost took Daisy from her.
The being goes flying back with a thunderous crack, the only reason it doesn't go flying for miles is that the cliff face was there to catch it. Although the impact immediately causes hundreds of tons of rocks to suddenly begin cascading down, shifting and falling as the structure of the cliff deals with suddenly having an enormous beast sized hole punched through it.
Kara blacks out before she reaches the ground feeling arms catch her just before impact, for how long she is out she can't tell but it can't have been long, as she is still on the brink of unconsciousness. She finds herself laying on a section of grass, bathing in sunlight, right next to the changed topography of the land as an enormous rock slide ends just a few feet to her side. Her head lays on a soft bit of flesh, the slight vibrations of which tell her her head is resting in her mate's lap.
To the other side, she can see the being… the Hulk she remembers, also laid out defeated beside them. In its last moment of consciousness she hears it speak to them in obvious pain and exhaustion.
"You… win… tiny heroes…. And friends." As the Hulk passes out with a smile on his face, his body begins to shrink in size.
Kara can't remember why that calms her down, but she knows her mate is safe now. So she slips into unconsciousness herself just a moment later, to the feeling of vibrating fingers running through her hair.
In March of 2009 the Peechi -Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary in India experienced unexplained tectonic and topographical activity in the early morning. Lasting for nearly an hour, in a remote and well hidden part of the wildlife preserve crashes, collapses, and quakes could be felt and heard for miles away. Luckily, employees of the Sanctuary decided to hold back until the activity stopped before exploring the area, and once the area had turned silent for nearly an hour teams were sent out to investigate.
Everyone sent out had truly no idea what to expect. Did an old cave system collapse? Was this a sign that the Indian Tectonic plate was actually splitting apart and would cause earthquakes through the middle of India? Was it a crashed satellite or military aircraft that was missed in the early morning hours, that was in danger of harming the local wildlife?
The answer surveyors got in the end… was just more confusion. Trees were uprooted, a cliff face was completely collapsed, trails of fauna were torn down as if something large had rolled through the area, and boulders bigger than could possibly be lifted were torn out of the ground and found uphill from where they originated. For nearly a year following the incident the Sanctuary was kept tightly locked down in case that whatever had caused this incident was still around… but nothing else ever came. The only suspicious activity was an anonymous US donation of nearly 25 million US dollars to the reserve with no name, reason, or note in any way attached. Thanks to the donation, the reserve was able to flourish despite losing normal patron donations from the lack of visitors causing attempts for mining or land developments wanting to shrink the border of the preserve.
Finally, at least some answers came when the public unmasking of Daisy Johnson as Quake came about, as a second donation of another $5 million occurred, with an apology letter, but no specific details as to what was being apologized for. With the advantage of hindsight, and declassified SHIELD documents, we are able to see that Bruce Banner was in the area until the time of the incident when he disappeared from all surveillance methods. Then just 5 days later, he announced his return to America and Employment in Kara Danvers' House El Revolutionary Origins as a Department lead.
His return brought a wave of new controversy and political discussions, but as Bruce Banner was officially cleared of all charges before he entered the country again, he was able to live his life in relative peace and isolation until the opening of the HERO HQ in downtown LA, when he became a much more public figure, and then again with the reappearance of the Hulk at the Battle of New York City.
With this move, a lot more attention was brought onto Kara Danvers and HERO in general, as the third employee happened to be one of the most famous AND infamous scientists in the world at the time. For so long HERO was known for the collaboration with Stark Industries and the construction of their HQ, but literally nothing else. From this point, came a rush of both applications as well as interviews and offers of positions for the company. Even if it would still be some time before the HQ building was finished, pre-hires were given opportunities for home-research, conference attendance, networking, additional education and professional skills training, as well as living stipends guaranteed until the building's grand opening.
But I am getting ahead of myself there, the biggest controversial hire (even more than Bruce Banner) actually came from the scandal of another company soon after Dr. Banner's hiring. When the disgraced CEO of one of the biggest up and coming research companies suddenly faced public scrutiny for dangerous and forced human trials on the homeless, the lead scientists/ patent owner below him was quickly bought up and rehired by Dr. Danvers despite the public stain and controversy. Many conspiracy theorists pointed at the suspicious circumstances that led to the CEO being found…
Excerpt from 'The Hidden HEROes of the Modern Age; Two Superheroes Hidden War' By Amira Ahmed .
Notes:Author's Endnote: Well… dangers of being a first time writer is that I end up accidentally spending nearly 5k words on a 'friendly spar' just because I was having fun and wanted to add more drama… Oh well! Hope you enjoyed it, and hope I did the characters justice! I gave the Hulk an upgrade in strength to start with, but then I also gave him a new upgrade in a better relationship with Bruce (this is NOT this same thing as Endgame Hulk fyi). Did I also give Kara a boost by having her essentially have hysterical strength in a moment of need? Yup! But that was only needed because Hulk's fighting style completely changed because of Bruce, while Bruce didn't actually have a good idea of the power levels of everyone involved like Hulk did to avoid injury. Two masters of combat are less likely to cause injuries than a master and a beginner.
Next chapter the story continues with two important missions! The first one is the mission hinted at in the excerpt at the end here. Any idea who I'm talking about? While the second mission is one that Daisy has been saying is very important and has been getting ready for for a while.
See you all next week!
Chapter 16: Hauntings and HorrorsSummary:Daisy makes her moves on the next couple of missions she has planned. One corrupt CEO and one highly trained assassin... well technically two highly trained assassins, but only one is the target.
Notes:Trigger Warning; Brief mentions of suicide as an idea in this chapter.
Obligatory disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, DC, or any characters that come from other works.
I also want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement, and RhinoMouse for the inspiration their world of "Retirement Ended Up Super" provided.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextApril 1, 2009, MCU
Aldrich Killian, A.I.M. HQ
As he made his way to his office late in the night, coming from the secured lab in the basements, Aldrich Killian could just feel the sigh he let out transform almost into a growl of frustration by the end. Today had been nothing but failures, and not only that, but the failures were getting worse. What was once just a slight fever in his test subjects, was quickly becoming a burning inferno as their blood literally boils them to death.
Yet from the high failures, come high successes as well. Limbs regrown, eyesight corrected, birth defects vanished, illnesses burned away, and so many more benefits as well. Maya Hansen continued to work the formula, adjusting everything about it from the injection type, to dosage, to administration schedules. Luckily she did not care how many lab rats were sacrificed in the name of progress, so she kept up her high morale… and luckily he had been able to keep the other subjects he had been working with some of her assistants on a secret so far.
But none of her assistants were the genius and primary inventor like Maya were, so he may soon need to find ways to either convince her that working with alternative test subjects is worth it, or simply find a way to force her to accept the change.
Today though, Maya seemed to be a bit more curious about his extra lab, asking more questions than normal. As well as shooting him glances every now and then. Did she have suspicions of what he was doing? Or maybe she just thought he was possibly working to cut her out of her invention, which he was most certainly not doing.
Something to think on when he isn't the last one in the building aside from security, but he needs to log the updates in his secure drive before heading back home.
As nears his corner office, the large frosted pane glass windows that give him the privacy from both the inside and outside of the building to work, are illuminated a dull blue, leaving him confused. He is certain that he didn't leave his computer on, as he always makes sure to lock it up when he is stepping away for even a moment, but that is the only thing it could possibly be in his office.
Sure enough, as he opens his office door, WITHOUT having to unlock it with his key, he can see his computer monitor bathing the room in its light.
Aldrich's heart begins to race. Who the fuck has been in his office? How long were they in here and what were they doing? Did… did they get into his personal drive?
It's that last thought that stops him from calling security, as most of the security isn't in the know about what his private lab has been doing, so using his phone to call for help may just expose him even more. So Aldrich goes with his gut, and rushes forward to the other side of his desk to see what is going on with his computer.
Luckily, the screen is just open to his lock screen, so maybe someone from the cleaning crew got a key they weren't supposed to have access to and woke his computer up while working?
Just as his mind begins to settle, thinking up a number of rational explanations, his computer suddenly comes alive as his password is filled out before his eyes with no input from the keyboard. Attempting to stop whatever is happening is useless as both his mouse and keyboard seem unresponsive to his input, and are instead obeying whomever else has control.
As his computer opens to his desktop, he watches as the cursor moves to open a word document, before typing out a message seemingly to him.
ENJOY THE SHOW OF YOUR FUTURE, KILLIAN
Thinking this is about to be some WarGames conversation back and forth, Aldrich goes to respond, but instead his desktop… rewinds for lack of a better word. The words untype, the program unopened (and not the actual closing animation), and the screen moves back in time to the point where it had just unlocked before moving forward again. But instead of pulling up a document again, instead it logs into his email.
Nearly 30 seconds pass of inconspicuous email scrolling, acting and responding to emails as if he were the one logged in and in control, pass before Aldrich realizes he is wasting time. Going to hit the power button on his tower, when he goes to hit the button, the computer doesn't respond at all to his input. Even holding it down to force a shutdown does nothing as well. Moving around, he goes to pull the plug on the whole thing, only to find a lock made to secure power cables to appliances installed on his computer's power cord that was NOT there before, leaving him unable to cut the power at the computer.
Moving around, he goes to the floor socket that the whole thing is plugged into, but attempting to lift the cover proves useless. Looking closer in the dim light still coming from his screen as his computer continues to be haunted, he thinks he can almost see hints of some superglue or other adhesive keeping the lid shut.
Standing up, Aldrich begins to try and remember to the best of his abilities where the nearest breaker panel would be, to try and cut power to his whole office instead, when a loud ding comes from his computer, causing him to nearly jump from the sudden breaking of the quiet.
Moving back to standing behind his chair, he notices a new email has just come in with the subject line 'From your friend in the force'. As if reading his mind, the cursor moves to the email slowly, as if as scared as he is about what the email will entail.
When the email finally opens, Aldrich can feel his blood freeze, his eyes go wide, then his heart rate spikes so hard all noise is drowned out for a few seconds. The email reads as if Aldrich has a mole on the police force that has been helping him abduct the homeless people he has been using to test Extremis on, which he most certainly DOES NOT. It then goes on to let him know that 'his source' is doing him one last favor by letting him know someone the media and police have gotten evidence of everything he has been doing by that hacker group SPEAR.
Both the articles of his experiments, as well as warrants for his arrest will be dropping first thing tomorrow, and he has no time left, and his movements are probably already being monitored by the cops.
Forgetting himself for a minute, Aldrich leaps forward to start deleting everything in his email, begins purging his backup drive with the information on all of his experiments, and setting his whole computer to wipe. Just as he is starting to get to the point of wiping his backup drive, Aldrich remembers he hasn't been in control of the mouse and keyboard at all this whole time, so what has changed? As he pauses however, the tasks he had set out to do continue on uninhabited by his sudden awareness.
Is… is someone perfectly copying my computer activities so well that I didn't notice I wasn't even in control? Fucking how and why?!?
Aldrich pulls up the security feed on his cell phone, and looks at the exterior cameras, and sure enough, despite the email being a complete set-up there is what could very well be an unmarked police car just down the road from his own car, waiting for him to exit.
He is surrounded, he is outplayed, and he has no way forward. Aldrich decides to go get his last ditch emergency go-bag from the hidden floor safe in the corner of his office. Luckily this doesn't seem to have been tampered with in any way, so slinging the bag over his shoulder, Aldrich palms a slim black case containing his secret weapon.
Just as Aldrich is about to go back and check on what the hacker is doing to his computer, the base suddenly sparks, and the whole room plunges into darkness as the monitor goes blank.
Seems like the frame job is over, which means my time has run out as well.
Needing to get out safely, Aldrich pulls his phone back out and goes to call the security guards on duty that ARE aware of his misdealings. Afterall, if he goes down then so do they.
Only… when the call connects, instead of hearing the voice of one of his trusted employees, he instead hears a deep electronic chuckling ringing at full volume in his ears.
"Ha ha ha ha ha. I'm sorry Killian, but tonight is between you and me. Can't have anyone else coming butting in." Says the electronic voice, that has a vague feminine ring to it, before the line clicks dead.
Who the fuck could that be?! A family member of someone he experimented on? While Aldrich has people he wants to get revenge on, he doesn't think he is really on anyone else's radar!
Wait… Maya was acting off today. I just thought it was general business suspicion, but could this be her?! I don't think she has any hacking abilities, but has she gone crawling back to Stark?!
The more he thought of it, the more it made sense. Especially since all of those files his 'Police Source' sent him had made it very clear that Maya knew nothing about the human experiments he had been conducting. While true, it was also suspicious about how clear the evidence was about that.
Hoping that he had figured it out, Aldrich closed out of the now useless phone app, and pulled back up the security feed hoping to find any sign of Maya in the building where she could be controlling this from.
Yet, he suddenly finds that he loses control of even that, as instead of the cameras switching to Maya's lab, it instead switches to… the camera on the roof of the building?
What? There's nothing up there?
As he finishes the thought, the access door to the roof suddenly opens, showing a view of someone walking out and moving forward at a sedate walking pace.
And somehow, the person on the camera right now, is himself?!
No, wait, not exactly him. While everything matches including his clothes, this version doesn't have the go-bag he currently has around his shoulder. Giving more evidence to the idea that the safe wasn't discovered by Maya or any accomplices she has.
As he watches an imposter of himself continue to walk forward, Aldrich notices something else off about the camera feed. The timestamp… it is 5 minutes LATER than the current time.
'Enjoy the show of your future, Killian' is what the message said. Is this what they meant?
Without missing even a single step, or hesitating for even a moment, Aldrich can only watch in horror as his supposed future self walks straight off the edge of the building's roof and presumably to his death below. Trying to switch to a camera showing the exterior at ground level is useless, as his phone suddenly goes dark except for a purple electronic smiley face, looking at him in mocking amusement.
While Maya's people may have done enormous amounts of research about him, they apparently didn't know who he was at his core. Aldrich Killian is a fighter. Aldrich Killian isn't a loser. Aldrich Killian would never kill himself when he has any hope of fighting for something more.
Aldrich breaks out into a full forward sprint forward, going to ram open the door to the stairwells so he can begin running down and out of the building, only to stop dead as the door doesn't even budge, leaving Aldrich gasping for air on the ground from having the wind knocked out of him.
Once he finally is able to breathe again, he stands up and looks through the slim glass window of the stairwell only to see a large metal wedge is braced at the bottom of the door to act as a doorstop, preventing the door from swinging open.
As he grits his teeth, and begins to think of another way forward, all of the lights, from the hallway lights to even the emergency exit signs that should light up in exactly this kind of situation go out.
All except for one.
The indicator above the elevator remains lit on 1, but soon begins to climb. Higher and higher, up and up, someone is coming for him and they are just floors away.
Opening the slim black case, Aldrich prepares its contents for the fight of his life. Whomever Maya sent up is here to kill him, and he isn't going to make it easy on them.
10 floors away.
5 floors away.
3…
2…
1…
Just as Aldrich prepares his weapon, the door opens to show him… absolutely nothing.
The elevator is empty.
Slowly but surely, Aldrich moves forward, peeking in as much as he can, ready to either flee backwards in case he is right that this is an ambush still. Yet, nothing.
The elevator is truly empty.
And now that he thinks about it, the elevator doors have also been staying open for the longest amount of time.
Suddenly the fear and terror that had been coursing through his veins is replaced by fury, indignation, and pure loathing. Stepping into the elevator, the doors close and the button for the top floor that contains the roof access lights up and the elevator begins to ascend.
That fucking bitch! I have worked with her for years. I get her all the funding she needs, I risk everything to prove her right, and I even begin to push her work forward by conducting human trials and she dares think she can just tell me to kill myself. I hope it's her waiting up there for me, I'm going to tear her apart piece by piece for looking down on me like this.
Slinging off his go-bag in the elevator, Aldrich uses the now empty metal case to bash in the camera in the corner of the elevator. Keeping his secret weapon stashed but ready to go in his pocket, Aldrich prepares for whatever is going to be on the other side of the elevator door.
After the elevator ride that is remarkably slow for only a few floors between his office and the top, the doors finally open. Yet Aldrich finds himself having a repeat performance, where there is nothing on the other side once again.
That said, this time the only light is from the elevator itself as well as the single light at the end of the hallway that leads to the final flight of stairs up to the roof.
Attempting to push any of the elevator buttons is useless, just like he expected, and 30 seconds into trying every button the elevator suddenly loses all power plunging him into darkness and making him nearly jump out of his skin.
Now he is at the end of a long dark hallway, with only one light at the end of the tunnel.
He's never known Maya to ever be this poetic; walking towards the light and all. This definitely feels more like Stark's doing, if he is right about who Maya's hacker partner is.
Walking forward slowly but surely, Aldrich does his best to be ready for anything, keeping his ears peeled for any noise, or the sign of someone coming out of any of the office doors and closets he is passing.
That makes it all the more shocking when suddenly he can see his own shadow being cast from a deep purple glow coming from behind him. Turning around so fast, that he nearly trips and even goes so far as to have to bend down on one knee to stand upright, he sees the figure somehow just standing in the middle of the hallway.
That purple smiley face is back, and this time it is glowing out of some kind of full face glass mask. The lack of lighting on the figure makes it hard to determine any more details of the person, but he can certainly see that they are wearing what is possibly a leather jacket based on the sleeves, and has a pistol level and pointed right at his chest.
As he continues to try and collect himself, even backing up a couple steps, the figure just stands there. Motionless, aside from the slight adjustments to keep the gun level at his chest.
After a few seconds of silence, Aldrich finally collects himself enough to talk. "I didn't-" only to immediately need to clear his voice to clear out the fearful timber and rasp to his voice before continuing. "I didn't expect Maya to put on this whole show. If she were going to take me down, I would have expected her to either go running for help from the police or Stark, or at most staging a lab accident with an exploding plant. But hiring some crazy assassin to take me out? Never."
Because there is no way the figure in front of him is Maya like he was expecting, nor is it Stark in his weaponized suit. They are almost obviously female from the hair that he can see peaking around the mask, and much too short to be Maya.
The figure doesn't respond with words, just tilting its head to the side in question.
"Tch. No matter. But Maya didn't tell you everything, because she didn't know everything." The head titles the other way this time. "I had a special version of Extremis ready to go for the most dire times, and this is most certainly that. It's a full on combat enhancer, and even I don't know how well it will work, but I am not going to let that fake video footage be true, and there's no way you can shoot me if you want it too look like a suicide. So let me go, and I'll double what you are being paid, or be ready for a fight."
This actually gets more of a response, starting with the same electronic horrible laugh mocking him.
"Ha ha. I think I'll take my chances with the fight then. Maya is the brains, you're just the money and the lack of morals. Anything you made without her is probably jack shit."
And well, Killian was never one to back down from a challenge, and he had already resolved for this outcome long ago. Pushing down on the plunger that he has kept hidden in his pocket, with the needle already pierced into his thigh, Killian injects the strongest variant of Extremis that his secret lab has so far.
Throwing away the syringe, he stands up and prepares for whatever is to come, feeling the burn start to spread through his body as he can feel all the strength-
Killian drops to the floor like dead weight, not even able to brace himself a little. As he lays crumpled on the floor, head turned towards the figure, he finds himself unable to move any voluntary muscles besides his eyes. Not a twitch from his legs as he tries to stand. Not a lift of a finger as he tries to grab onto the woman approaching him to stop them. Unable even to lean back as suddenly his vision is filled with the intense glow of the mocking smiley face, as the monster crouches down to look down at him.
"If your enemy isn't an idiot but doesn't have a problem with you powering up, that either means you're outclassed or it's a trap. In this case, it was both. I found your go-bag, and replaced the solution with an orange dyed paralytic to fool you into thinking it hadn't been touched. I found all your dirty secrets idiot, how could I miss the giant floor safe barely hidden in your office."
Despite his best efforts, Killian is unable to even spit any of the insults or profanity he wants to at the woman. He is helpless at her feet. More pathetic than he has been, even when waiting on the cold night on the roof for Tony Stark to come meet him.
He hates this woman more than he hates Stark, but there's nothing he can do about it.
"I somewhat respected you, for being the very first human trial of Extremis when you got so desperate to try and improve yourself. If you're going to be an evil scientist, at least be your own lab rat and all. But then you found you had to keep injecting it to stay stable, and after seeing the government's desperation for a super soldier serum you moved on to human trials on the homeless much faster than I expected. That's my fault for not keeping a closer eye on you. But I am here to make things right, and with your suicide tonight, Maya will be able to continue to work on Extremis in legal and safe ways moving forward, once she has a better boss funding her that is."
Despite his breathing being unaffected by the paralytic itself, the way Killian has been crumpled on the ground has left him slowly losing breath as the demon in front of him lays out the destruction of his life's work. As he nears passing out from the lack of enough air, his vision swimming with darkness despite the LED mask so close, he hears one last thing.
"Goodbye Killian. You'll be nothing more than a small black mark in Extremis' history in the end."
And with that, Killian never wakes up again. His body is soon seen tumbling down from the rooftop by the undercover police unit outside, at the exact same timestamp that security cameras show Aldrich Killian committing suicide in disgrace.
A few days later.
…
"I think you need a new hobby. You've gotten too much experience with cooking, that it doesn't engage you enough anymore."
Daisy has the AUDACITY to look offended at Kara's response to the full story of what happened at the AIM HQ.
"What do you mean? I dealt with a bad guy that night, and it WAS April fools day!"
"Daisy… I love you, but that was the most supervilliany thing you have ever done in your life. And that includes when you declared war on a government agency to the world on TV back in National City."
Daisy goes to respond, with probably some excuse or justification about the man deserving it. Which… looking at the news stories about the victims saved from the labs, she might not be WRONG about but… Kara cuts her off all the same.
"You just as easily could have snuck up behind him and injected him yourself. He didn't even have the fire superpowers that later versions of Extremis gave him. And instead you turned his whole office into a giant house of horrors for him. I love you… but PLEASE find a new hobby. Something nice and innocent. I beg of you."
And Daisy can only hold out so long under the power of her puppy dog eyes.
Now just to help her mate find a new hobby…
"Can you stop stealing all of the cool genius scientists out in the world?! At least leave me one or two, even when I go through all the leg work, like getting Bruce the pardon."
"Sorry old man! You snooze, you lose!"
If people knew this was how the world's richest and most powerful man, and the world's most powerful (part) human superspy talk to each other at board game nights, Kara is pretty sure spy agencies all over the world would die in shame to be constantly losing to them.
May 17, 2009, MCU
Natasha Romanoff, Near Odesa Ukraine
Natasha Romanoff, better known as her codename The Black Widow, was not having a good day today. Things at Shield have slowly been getting more and more tense, and she hasn't been able to uncover why exactly, other than it having to do something with that new group SPEAR. While she is no longer on probation after being turned, and is instead a full agent, no spy agency lets everyone know everything.
But what Natasha does know is that Fury has been getting even less sleep, and seeming to be even more overworked than normal. Especially after whatever happened to May and Coulson in Bahrain a few months ago. Since then, Coulson has been flying all over the country trying to track something down for Fury, but seeming to have no luck so far. Meanwhile Agent May clenches her jaw in obvious frustration anytime someone calls her 'The Calvary' because of the official story for that mission.
The fact that May does nothing to stop the official story or try to put an end to that nickname tells Natasha that the official mission report is a bunch of nonsense that May unfortunately has to sell.
But despite the rising stress of her closest coworkers, Natasha at least is able to be proud of her work. She is working towards truly balancing out as much of the red in her ledger as she can, and she feels good about that.
Part of her signing condition with Fury had been that he would keep his sources looking for Yelena, but to do nothing if he ever found her. Unfortunately ever since she destroyed the Red Room there has been not a single appearance of her sister anywhere.
But her sister is well trained, so not being found at all means that she is out there free and safe from everything in the world. Natasha will balance the blood in both of their pasts to make up for it, so Yelena can continue to live whatever unsuspecting life she is right now.
But all of that has led her to her current mission, in escorting an Iranian Nuclear scientist out of the country and back to America eventually. As the foremost expert, taking him away will set the Iranian's nuclear program back at least a decade. Even more if he is able to provide them with details of sites and facilities to provide targets for America to strike at.
If she can stop a nuclear war, then maybe it was all worth it, even at least a little bit.
But reality often comes crashing down on her when she begins to gain back any sense of optimism, just like her car is currently crashing down the side of a cliff.
Just as she was rounding a corner, suddenly her tires were shot out from under her, causing the car to suddenly veer to the side. The guard rails that should have been able to hold them back, had their support beams explode by what was most likely remote triggered charges, resulting in their sudden freefall.
Luckily, it is a Shield issued vehicle, and Natasha is trained on how to take impacts correctly, even if the scientist is out cold in the back seat. Cutting herself loose, Natasha knows she only has a couple minutes before their attacker most likely repels down the ledge to either confirm the kill or finish the job. So she needs to move, and she needs to move now.
Grabbing her charge, she throws his arm over her shoulder to begin dragging him away from the wreckage. Just as she gets out though, she can hear some very heavy impacts of a pair of feet landing just a dozen yards away from her. Turning to keep her body between the arrival and the scientist, Natasha sees the boogeyman of the assassination world standing before her.
Black combat suit. Black mask. Brown hair. Finally, and most importantly, the completely metal arm adorned with the red soviet star.
The boogeyman must be every bit as unbelievable as is said, because she can't even see any repelling gear that he used to come down here so much more quickly than she expected.
She has no time to truly analyze HOW he arrived, as he is very unfortunately here, and already turning towards her with his rifle coming to bear. Natasha has just enough time to tuck the scientist even further behind her to ensure that-
Suddenly the Winter Soldier aborts his movements, and instead raises his metal arm to guard his flank as a wave of force seems to appear from nowhere, smashing into his side. While his arm seems to protect his upper body well, his legs were left unprotected, causing his feet to fly out from under him and sending him sliding further down the slope.
Expecting a third side to this fight to now enter the fray, Natasha prepares herself for the new target to only be shocked yet again. When the figure wearing black combat suit, vibrant purple hair, and a very cool face mask complete with led smiley face, comes rocketing by, only to continue on in the same direction as the Winter Soldier. Stopping for only a half a second to look in her direction, and utter a single word.
"Sup!"
Left alone again with the unconscious scientist, as the sounds of combat begin to pick up down the hill and into the woods, Natasha is left wondering if she died in the car crash and this is the start of whatever hell or purgatory comes next.
That would certainly make much more sense to her anyways.
Notes:Author's Endnote: Just a couple days ago, I thought back to how much we would talk in Rhino's discord about how scary Quake must have been to Cadmus in Retirement. So I decided to go full genre switch, and have the perspective for this scene change and make it into a horror/ thriller movie! Haha. It was a lot of fun. And finally we get to the winter soldier mission, which will open up a lot more options for Daisy moving forward!
Most people saw it coming that it was Maya/ AIM I was hinting at in the last chapter, so congrats on that! And Daisy officially stops the plotline to a whole movie, in one day. She would have done it before he killed anyone, but Killian's schedule ended up moving up because of the commotion around the super soldier serum and hulk battle that Daisy caused in this timeline. Butterflies work against you sometimes, but she was still able to catch it fairly early.
Hope you enjoy it, and I'll see you next week!