บท 2179: 47
Chapter 47: The Great Boogaloo, The Kidnapping of Darcy #2Notes:
All hail the pharmacy and allergy meds.
Chapter Text
Wanda used her powers to pick up the dirty dishes. "I could call out from work?"
"Honey you have your own life. I know you are invested in this, but you still need to keep up with your life. And that means making coffee and studying." May Parker chided gently. The woman reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Now if you brought some coffee back with you after your shift I'm sure we'd all be grateful."
She bit at her lower lip. It was...she could hear and feel how genuine the woman was. Her powers were growing, she was picking up more and more without trying. It made being around May Parker oddly comforting. Her kindness and love, unquestionably real. "I can feel their fear, sorrow, doubts, all of it. And I know how it is to lose a home to war. I need to help how I can. Even if it's just washing dishes."
"You'll burn out. No matter how important your work is, if you don't care for yourself you'll burn out. And if you burn out you'll do less good than if you'd just given yourself some time and kindness." May wrapped an arm around her and began to pull her away from the Avengers gym where the Asgardian children had just finished lunch.
Wanda looked at the kids. "I can take a leave of absence."
"No you won't. You can help with dinner tonight. But till then you're going to go live your life for yourself. Nobody needs an empath and telepath to get as close to cracking as Daisy was when I first met her."
She suddenly picked up an image of Daisy from May. Bruises, shattered arm bones, curled in on herself like a wounded animal, the pain practically tangible even to May. Wanda swallowed. "OK. Vanilla latte?"
"If you'd be so kind." May wafted fondness.
Wanda chewed on the eraser of her pencil. "Did you know group punishment is a war crime?"
"Excuse me?" Amanda looked up from where she was studying her statistics homework.
She kept her voice low, they were in a library afterall. "According to the Geneva Conventions "No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible."
"Well damn, nobody told my elementary school teachers that. Or they were unrepentant psychopaths. But then the cost of survival." Amanda replied seriously, though her mood sparkled with amusement despite her general boredom.
Wanda hummed. "The library was a good idea."
"Hey, you've got stuff going on in your life." Amanda offered out their contraband bag of chocolate. "But you still got to study, and honestly my grades could use the boost too."
She looked down at her work. "What do you think of aliens?"
"Ok….new topic but I'll bite." Amanda cocked her head to the side slightly. "I think they're dangerous. I mean if I think too hard about it I'll end up rocking back and forth in my shower hyperventilating?"
Wanda raised a brow. "But you have a poster of Thor?"
"I mean he's awesome. But we're kinda bugs to them right? I mean if he wanted to he could just electrocute us all. Act of god, annihilation of us simple folk. It's why we need the Avengers isn't it? They make us feel safe. Cause like they're there to protect us. But...what happens if one of them changes their mind?"
She cocked her head to one side, various jittering half finished thoughts and feelings flickering across her friend's mind. "That's why you like Spiderman and Quake. They feel human to you, even if Quake is part alien."
"Well yeah?" Amanda felt confusion. "Don't you feel the same? I mean they're our heros, they're ours." Her eyes narrowed. "If they hadn't of broken up. I mean they lived together!"
Wanda's voice was dry. "She could just be on a mission for SHIELD."
"Why not say anything then? She just comes out as bi, then Spiderman has Stark hanging off of him." Amanda scoffed. "I mean she called him the best man she knew and then he's cheating on her!"
She wondered when hearing about the latest emotional turmoil over her girlfriend and her girlfriend's brother became comforting and amusing? Wanda hated to admit it was a relief to be back in the normal world. Of course May Parker had been right. Woman's affection was more than she deserved. "You're still subscribed to Spiderman's social media."
"What can I say, I still hold out hope he'll come to his senses and win Quake back." Amanda sighed before perking up. "Also he's live streaming his patrol today. Like seeing what his perspective of swinging around New York looks like is amazing."
Wanda hadn't realized Peter was doing that today...made sense though. His acrobatics were impressive and probably the only thing he could do without being lynched for being a cheating bastard at the moment. Besides, he mostly just swung around and did tricks. "Where's he swinging around today?"
"I don't know." Amanda picked up her phone and pulled up the channel, clicking it on.
Wanda stared at the footage. "I've got to go, watch my books."
////
Pepper video conferenced in from the DC SI office. "The last of the Asgardian refugees we're sheltering in our LA facilities arrived last night."
-"SHIELD has protocols for settling alien refugees quietly."- Hill spoke up from her office in New York. -"The problem is the numbers."-
Dr Foster cleared her throat from the lab she'd been half living in. -"Darcy and I confirmed that Asgard doesn't exist. It's uninhabited debri. Everything we've sent has come back with conclusive images. It's going to be a new asteroid field. Nothing salvageable, at least not with our current capabilities."-
"So we have to hope Thor and the rest of Asgard survived somewhere." Pepper forced the horror at an entire world destroyed to the side. Especially one far more powerful than Earth. "We have to assume the refugees are here permanently."
Tony looked hungover and sleep deprived in the video of him from Norway. -"Sif and I have a meeting with the Prime Minister tonight. With my winning personality and her...unflinching optimism it should be a snap."-
Pepper really should have gone instead of Tony, but she needed to be in DC for when the news got out that SI was protecting thousands of vulnerable Asgardian civilians. "Rhodey is there?"
-"Your lack of faith is appalling."- Tony smirked that stupidly attractive smirk that made her want to stab him and kiss him at the same time. -"But the babysitter is here and ready to ruin the fun."-
Hill's voice was dry. -"Small mercies. In regards to Hydra, Director Mace has most of his forces chasing down the remnants that served General Hale. Steve and Natasha landed in England and are discussing how to prepare for the Confederacy arriving with Wakanda."-
-"I'm sorry, how is the country of sheep herders going to help in the fight against aliens? Seems a bit desperate to me."- Tony cut in. -"Hammer's failures are futuristic impossibilities compared to any peasant army Wakanda can make."-
Hill's eyes were sharp, clearly she was getting as much sleep as the rest of them. Which was to say almost none. -"We need any allies we can get. And their new King T'Challa has promised to bring an end to their isolationist policies. And need I remind you we have a humanitarian crisis, an imminent alien invasion, the legal rights of enhanced still being legislated, a SHIELD team in the future who apparently need to stop an apocalypse, and Hydra, a brewing gang war, and that's the threats that are imminent. We have fifty others that if we don't address now will turn into equally large issues in a matter of months."-
"We're aware of the scope of the danger facing us." Pepper cut in before Tony could rise to the challenge. It helped to know making light of danger was how he coped with it. "Is SHIELD having success in securing known inhumans so they can't be kidnapped by the Confederacy?"
Hill looked like she wanted to sigh or just do something showing her exhaustion. Instead she replied promptly. -"For what it's worth they're trying. Without Hydra attempting to hand them over it's the more publicly visible ones in the most danger."-
-"I'm sure SHIELD's effort will be comforting to the inhumans who get grabbed."- Tony's voice was biting.
Pepper opened her mouth to redirect the conversation to how to track alien ships that might have portal technology or speed capabilities that would make any warning almost impossible. She was interrupted by her office door being slammed open and Morse striding in. "Morse?"
"We have to move, unknown armed individuals just breached the lobby." Morse grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to her feet and dragged her out of the office.
Pepper flicked her wrist, her bracelet transforming into a taser. "Darcy thought it'd be a good peace offering." She explained at Morse's surprised expression.
Morse nodded. "Smart, stay behind me." And then she was leading her straight for the nearest panic room.
As they came around the corner they both stopped as they spotted the approaching men. Pepper sucked in a breath and braced herself.
Morse slid out two metal batons from...somewhere. And then kept striding towards the attackers.
What followed was...a disproportional, brief, one-sided, and incredibly violent series of actions. The dull thuds of Morse's batons slamming into flesh filled the hallway. The last attacker slid down the wall with a wheeze of pain. Morse looked...disappointed there weren't more men to beat senseless. "Come on."
"Work time resentments building up?" Pepper asked while carefully stepping over an unconscious body.
Morse just smirked. "What can I say, retirement from field work doesn't agree with me."
"You don't say." Pepper's nose scrunched up as she saw the AIM logo on one man's shoulder patch. Of course, one of the fifty other problems they didn't have time for. "At least we can finish the conference from the safe room."
////
Darcy decided she was sick of being kidnapped. Or well attempts of kidnapping. She tased a goon with a yelp while Hunter punched another one in the face. "I knew the rent prices for this building were too low!"
"Complain about the trap using cheap lab space for rent after we escape." Hunter bit out shooting another goon in the knee. "Come on! Get to the bloody car!"
She tased a goon while blowing some hair out of her face. "That's easier said than done! I'm not a badass if you haven't noticed."
"Move!" Hunter's hand grabbed her shoulder and shoved her towards the stairs.
Darcy stumbled. "I'm going, I'm going!" She skidded to a halt at the sight of more goons. "Never mind."
"Fuck!" Hunter reloaded his gun. "Tase anyone who gets past me."
Her eyes widened, huh, they'd sent a lot more people this time. "I don't have that many taser rounds!"
"Well kick some of them in the dick." Hunter snapped while shooting. "GET BACK!"
Darcy braced herself while raising her taser. Right. Well, at least they weren't shooting at them? So kidnapping attempt not murder. She could survive that.
One of the goons, that was almost to them, stopped, blue veins spreading across his skin, and then he dropped.
Hunter grabbed a guy and slammed him into the wall. "We've got company."
"I can see that!" Darcy snapped while tasing a guy.
And then Darcy spotted their help. "Holy shit."
"Sup!" Daisy replied, shooting another goon while choking out a different one. Weird leather jacket reaching down to nearly her knees, grey wraps around her forearms, dirty patched up clothing, Quake mask, but so painfully clearly Daisy. "Long time no see."
Darcy ducked out of the way of a goon and then tased another. "THREE FUCKING MONTHS!"
"I was kind of held up." Daisy laughed while flipping a man over her shoulder, and then shooting four more.
Hunter gave an amused scoff while knocking down the last of the goons. "Good to see ya Johnson."
"Thanks for sending Fitz." Daisy holstered her gun.
Darcy rolled her eyes. "Fuck that." And then lunged at her sister, hugging her as tightly as she possibly could. "Thank Thor you're back."
"I've missed you too." Daisy hugged her back almost painfully tight. She smelled different, very dusty. "Come on, these idiots broke a ton of people out of jail."
Darcy refused to fully let go of her sister. "When did you get back?"
"Uh...six hours ago? I might have stolen a quinjet to get back here." Daisy's lips twitched upwards at that admittance.
Darcy's eyes narrowed, something was wrong. Really wrong. "Daisy...are you bleeding somewhere?"
"No, just tired." Daisy squeezed her arm.
She couldn't help the awful wrongness of this. "What's code purplenurbles?"
"Terminators and the Matrix. We drank way too much bubble gum vodka." Daisy raised a brow as if to say 'really, you think I'm an imposter'.
Darcy let out a sigh of relief. "Well that's good to know."
"Wait, we're doing identity checks? Are there life like robots again?" Hunter looked back and forth between them.
Darcy shook her head. "No, just...what happened in the future?"
"Jailbreak, more AIM goons." Daisy waived at the stairwell from which there was the thudding of footsteps.
Darcy winced. "Right, interrogating later."
"Come on." Daisy firmly pulled Darcy between her and Hunter. "If we get to the street we have more options."
Darcy nodded and focused on not tripping over her own feet as they moved for the elevator. "So future, how bad we talking?"
"I identify with Spartucus more than I ever wanted to." Daisy replied as she shot over her shoulder at a goon bursting out of the door.
Her mouth tightened, trauma, it was trauma she was reading as wrong. Fuck. "The rest of the team made it back?"
"Yeah we all made it back. Director Mace can handle it. They have a better chance of avoiding the future without me." Daisy's manner was uncomfortably grim. "Hey, no lemons or blue aliens. I have a good feeling about this elevator."
"Really?" Hunter stared at Daisy in disbelief while slamming the close elevator button. "SHIELD has the weirdest shit happen." He raised his gun firing into the hall as the doors closed.
Daisy loaded a new clip of dendrotoxin into her gun. "Can't argue that."
"So uh...what's the plan?" Darcy asked as the elevator descended.
Daisy bumped their shoulders together. "We steal a ride for you, and you get back to the tower. I'll help with the jailbreak."
"Uh, I'm not the one who got kidnapped. You're not going out there." Darcy glared at her sister. "Don't be stupid."
Hunter grumbled under his breath. "No, you're the one they're trying to kidnap now. Fucking Starks."
"I resent that." Darcy whacked him. "New plan, that doesn't involve you racing off to fight whoever or whatever is out there serving as the distraction for the Great Boogaloo, The Kidnapping of Me, Take Two."
Daisy had a half grin as the elevator door opened. "I've missed you, remind me to tell you about the evil alien makeup, I have thoughts. For now we need to find a car."
There was a ding and then Daisy strode out, gun held high shooting the goons in the lobby. She kicked the locked front door open and then turned, grinning over her shoulder. "Keep up."
"Only you Johnson." Hunter chuckled as he hauled her out of the elevator and out after Daisy.
Darcy only stumbled slightly, honestly did no one respect that civilians couldn't fight their way out of things looking fabulous? And fuck Daisy just marching about like nothing was weird and she hadn't just fucking appeared by like some bizzare magic. Even if Daisy had designed their communication channels, and would have picked up on Darcy's emergency beacon if she'd been connected. And honestly no this was exactly what Darcy should have expected. Maybe it was because it wasn't even more dramatic she was feeling something was off?
As she came out through the door she winced in some minor sympathy as Daisy throat punched a guy, kneed him in the dick so hard he lifted three inches off the ground, and then elbowed him in the back of the head, sending him crashing to the ground. "That looked like it hurt."
"Hunter how do you feel about a bike?" Daisy called over her shoulder while flipping someone into the sidewalk at a...painful looking angle.
Hunter shot a guy in a tac suit. "Bike is sounding real good right about now."
"I don't know about you, but peddling out of danger doesn't fill me with confidence!" Darcy yelped while tasing a guy coming out of one of the six fucking vans blocking the road, and clearly filled up with douchecannoos here to kidnap innocent scientists.
Daisy bent backwards, nearly in half, bullets passing harmlessly past her before returning fire and dropping five guys. She reloaded. "Go, I've got this."
"Got it." Hunter pulled Darcy towards a motorcycle parked between a prius and a coop. It was only mildly concerning how fast he had the thing hotwired. He swung a leg over. "Hop on Stark."
Darcy winced, looking back at her sister who was...beating the absolute shit out of some thugs. It was actually making her feel bad for the AIM goons. Right, Daisy would be fine. She could help more if she could get on comms. "Daisy, I swear to Thor if you go anywhere other than straight home after this I'll wring your neck myself!"
"Go!" Daisy laughed, her eyes alight with glee at fighting. She had a man's head trapped under her arm, using his own gun to shoot his comrades as his arms pinwheeled.
She nodded and climbed on the bike behind Hunter. He hit the throttle and they squealed off. It was as they were about to go around the corner, away from the chaos on the street that Darcy looked back one last time. Which is when it hit her. "She's not using her powers."
Darcy's arms tightened around Hunter to keep herself from doing something stupid. Like trying to make them go back. Because if Daisy wasn't using her powers something was really, really wrong. It didn't matter that she knew Daisy was basically a less elegant Black Widow trainee. Or that her sister was clearly kicking the asses of the goons. She had to hope. Because she'd just get in the way. God damn it.
////
Peter webbed and then hung a man from a light post. "Yuri! Darcy's becon just went off."
"Go, I've got this." Pietro skidded to a halt next to him.
Yuri glanced between the two of them. "Listen to Speedy here."
"Wanda should be here soon." Pietro added. "If we find where ever Rhino's gotten to she can fuck him up."
Peter let out a relieved huff. "Thank you." He sprayed a web and then lept, trusting his weight to it, as he swung himself towards the building Darcy had been looking into.
As he arched through the air he sprayed webbed nets at several escaped prisoners. It was supposed to be a brief, easy day before all the alien stuff happened. Good excuse to get some good PR before just...whatever doom and gloom everyone was panicking over. And he'd been excited about the live stream of his swinging around today. He called it 'spiderpro' in his head. It didn't even register he hadn't stopped the video when the jailbreak had started. To be fair he was rather distracted.
Slinging himself over a building he rushed, head first over a thirty story financial building. As he crested over the top he took in the area in front of the building Darcy had been walking through today.
The road was chaos.
There were six vans in the street, men in black tactical gear in various stages of unloading. It looked like nearly fifty guys were there. A surprising number of them slumped in various positions, the familiar blue dendrotoxin veins showing. Absolutely kicking goon ass was a figure in a lot of leather. Something seemed familiar about them. Maybe Darcy had a new bodyguard?
He was arching towards the fight, when there was a great crashing sound from up the street. Peter looked up as he landed on the roof of a van. "Ah...well that's a naughty Rhino." Peter absently webbed a group of goons and then shot off towards the orange jumpsuit dressed Russian giant of a man throwing cars.
As he whizzed past he noticed Matrix looking guys slipping out of an alleyway. Was that guy blue? He didn't have time to notice more, Rhino had just chucked a car at him.
"HEY! Rhino!" Peter caught a car with his feet, arms shooting out and shooting webs to buildings on either side of the building. He attached his ends of the web to the car, and then flipped over the top of it. "Does your mother know what you're up to?"
The man turned, his breath audible. "Ah, the tiny spider is here. This time I will squash you."
"That's not very nice." Peter was deeply relieved to see the lack of armor and giant horn. Still a giant terrifying enhanced dude. Less risk of impalement.
He aimed and shot a web straight in the center of Rhino's chest. Peter was moving fast as he used it to shoot himself straight for the man, only low. With his free hand he sprayed a dendrotoxin web straight into the man's face before zipping between his legs.
Sliding out behind the man, he webbed Rhino's right calf, releasing his hold of the web attached to Rhino's chest he swapped to dendrotoxin cartridges in that wrist.
"Have you considered therapy?" Peter quipped while using his momentum into a swing around the man's legs, turning the webline into a snare. As he swung around Rhino, he started using his other hand to empty out as many dendrotoxin webs as he could in seconds.
Rhino's arm swung out, snapping the dragline. "HOLD STILL!"
"That seems kinda stupid." Peter landed feet first on the side of a car, and then was pushing back off, a web hitting Rhino's other calf, and swinging himself around the other ways. As he swung he kept releasing more webbing at the man's legs.
Rhino fought against the growing webs around his legs. He roared, overbalanced, and came crashing into the ground. The asphalt shook with the weight of the man, cracks spreading out from him.
Peter backflipped from his position, somersaulting through the air and landing on top of the man. He slammed his fists into either side of Rhino's neck, the tiny dendrotoxin spines burying themselves into the man's neck.
Pulling back he panted. "Huh, bigger they are harder they fall was serious then." His head snapped around to where he'd left a bodyguard having to hold off the AIM guys there to grab Darcy. He blinked. Sure the person had clearly been kicking ass but...well they had just whacked the last of them in the head with a fire extinguisher. Just lumps of injured, unconscious...hopefully not dead, goons.
But standing there, unconscious goons laying around them, dirty leather jacket, weird dirty layered clothing but still clearly and unmistakably was Daisy. She looked like some kind of avenging agent from the movies or something.
Peter couldn't help the pained gut punch of a sound that was wrenched out of his chest. He forgot his webs, that he could swing faster, he didn't care. He just took off at a dead sprint for his sister. It barely felt like his feet were hitting the ground. He couldn't wait, just launching himself forward.
She was firm and real as she caught him, the shock of him slamming into her reverberating between the two of them. He didn't even notice the sobbing sound he made as he hugged her, his powers sticking his arms around her. "You're back!"
"Missed you too." She murmured, hugging him back.
Peter felt like he could breathe for the first time in months. An awful tight, sick feeling in his chest released, sheer relief rushing through him. It was like all the worry, stress, just all of it just vanished. So it was rude when his spidersense blared at him.
Daisy reacted first, twisting both of them out of the way of a hurtling metal net. "Run!"
"NOT HAPPENING!" He hung onto her shoulder webbing at the Matrix looking elf dude. Frankly that was sloppy forgetting about the third group on the ground. He yanked, sending the guy spinning head over heels into the ground.
Daisy moved, shooting another one in the face, only the alien was already moving, the bullet uselessly passing through the air where his head had just been. She then slammed her gun straight into his face, dropping him like a rock. "What the actual hell is happening!"
"Alien's crashing a jailbreak to distract from an attempt at kidnapping Darcy." Peter didn't let go of Daisy as he spun, heel kicking a blue alien in the face. "Fun times ya' know!"
She grabbed his arm, using his weight to swing her elbow into another alien's face. As she landed from the movement, she reached up catching a metal projectile heading straight for his head.
It lit up orange, Peter's spidersense wasn't just blaring, it was screaming now.
"Mother fucker!" Daisy swore while dropping the device and hauling him in protectively, and then they were gone.
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