AIM was officially disbanded a week ago. But of course that only drove them to shift attention to the criminal half of the organization. Yesterday we got an anonymous tip-off. Apparently her name is Doctor Borjigin, and she knows when she's on the losing team when one of their facilities is raided by multiple superhuman operatives.
Several bullets deflect off my back, and I draw my own gun and turn to shoot the soldier. A glow like lava fills the hole in his head, and the flesh melts back into place.
I run to him and grab his head by either side, funneling as much heat energy as I can inside. The glow burning through his skin from the inside grows brighter and he starts to scream. There's a bright flash and I'm knocked backwards by the blast. When my eyes readjust, I see a smoking headless corpse fall to the ground.
Nat offers me a hand getting to my feet, and I take it. She looks at the body, "You know before you showed up, bullets usually worked."
I walk over to pick up and reholster my fallen pistol, "They usually still do."
Clint comes on comms, "I found Killian. He's in the north wing of the lab. Thunderer, is the doc clear?"
Phil confirms, "Doctor Borjigin is safely in custody. All units assemble near the north wing. Avatar and Black Widow, secure the exit while War Machine and I bring in Killian. Hawkeye, pick off anyone who gets out."
'Assemble'? That word hasn't become significant yet, has it? I can't remember if I've said that around Phil yet in some context or not.
Nat and I hop into the nearest enemy jeep and she hotwires it within two seconds. I shoot a few people who run to try and stop us. We circle around the building until we find a metal door on the north side. Nat takes out a small explosive and plants it on the lock.
She asks on comms, "Everyone ready to breach?"
Rhodes says, "We were waiting on you guys."
Phil starts counting, "Breach in 3, 2, "
Nat detonates the explosive and the doors come off their hinges. We step over them and into the cloud of a smoke grenade, guns drawn. Nat takes out two combatants before I even see them. The third gets back up, and I empty my clip into his skull. He doesn't get up from that. I guess the healing must have its limits.
I put in a new clip, "Looks like bullets work after all."
I hear a thunderclap coming from somewhere else in the building.
Clint comes on comms, "Be alert. Killian pulled a big scary lever. We may be in for a tougher day than we thought."
Uh oh. Self-destruct? We don't have a technician with us. Nat could probably defuse a bomb, I think. I guess this is why they had Stark in the movies.
I ask, "Thunderer, War Machine. Do you need help taking down Killian?"
Rhodes answers and I can hear the same explosion doubled through the comms and the walls, "Negative, Avatar. Keep the perimeter secure. We don't want anyone getting out with a copy of the Extremis formula."
And then I see the giant glowing yellow eyes through the fog in front of us. And then it breathes, and the smoke is instantly blown aside.
A grizzly bear the size of a small car prowls through the corridor towards us. The orange light of Extremis shines from its eyes and jaws. How did we not hear this thing coming?
"Well shit." I get on comms, "I think I know what that lever did. Killian released his lab rats."
Clint grunts over comms and I hear wolves barking, "Yeah, I got that."
I lean slightly towards Nat and whisper, "Why isn't it attacking us?"
The bear sniffs the air and snarls. Its eyes narrow at us.
Never mind.
As soon as it's moving we both open fire. But guns of this caliber wouldn't even take down a regular grizzly. It reaches us and takes a swipe. I jump back a step, and Nat flips over its claw onto its back.
She grabs its fur with one hand and reloads one-handed before firing point-blank into the top of its skull. It rears as high as it can within the confines of the hallway to shake her off, claws swiping erratically.
While it's on two paws I aim lower, filling each back leg with four bullets. It roars at me, and a plume of fire fills the hallway around me just after I throw my hands up in a wedge shield. I drop my gun when it superheats in my hand.
The bear drops back onto four paws, and I take two steps back to stay out of its reach. I pop open one of my hardcase water pockets and spill it over one of its front paws, and then freeze it. The ice is already steaming, but it gives Nat the time she needs to unload another full clip into the creature's brain, and it finally falls.
Nat climbs off the front of its head, takes a deep breath, reloads again, and empties that into it too.
I give her a humorous eyebrow, "I think you got it."
She reloads again, "Better safe than sorry."
I shrug, "You can have my ammo. I think the grizzly melted my gun." I don't care too much. It wasn't the first gun SHIELD gave me. That gun is the one I keep in my room, although I think Jack has it right now.
I hand her a few spare mags from my belt and she takes them, "Thanks."
Clint comes on comms, "I need backup. I've been pinned up a tree by a pack of Extremis wolves, and they're starting to burn it down."
Nat runs out the way we came in, "On my way."
A few seconds pass broken only by the sounds of thunder and explosions. The only two conventional exits are this door and the bay window where I'm assuming Clint spotted Killian. So as long as I hold this door no-one can get out.
My head bends back at an impact to my mask. Ow. I need to look into some neck support later. I get up again and the soldier who shot me drops their weapon and puts their hands up. Seriously? One bullet and you're done? Is it because of the creepy mask?
I'm not actually sure what to do here. My gun is useless, partially melted out of shape on the floor. He's surrendering, so it feels wrong to fry him.
And then the hallway implodes into splinters as something crashes through, demolishing every wall on its way and probably crushing my hostage. I run out of the building as fast as I can and turn to see what it is.
An elephant that just broke out of the building trumpets a stream of what looks like napalm into the sky.
I get on comms, "Guys. Killian has an oliphaunt!"
Nat tells me, "You're getting no help from us. The wolves are herding us like cattle."
Am I gonna have to fight this thing by myself? Shit. Where do I even start?
Phil calls in, "Killian is secure. War Machine and I are free to handle the fire-breathing elephant."
I ask, already knowing they don't, "Do you need my help?"
"Go help Hawkeye and Black Widow."
Then Fury's voice cuts in, "Thunderer, War Machine. Try not to kill it. It's the only herbivore we've encountered, so it might be less hostile. If you can subdue it for research we might be able to figure out what exactly Killian's been feeding these people."
"That might be difficult, but I'll see what I can do."
I'm running towards Clint's last known position, "Director, while you're here, Jemma Simmons can help the team working with Extremis."
"I appreciate the intel, Avatar, but she's already on the team." Ah. Makes sense.
I can hear the barking now. I slow down and get on comms, "Hawkeye, what's your position?"
No response. If I had gone with the Heads Up Display version of the mask his position would just be on my compass. But since I didn't do that, I have no way of finding him unless he speaks up.
I hear a rustling in the bushes and turn around. I really hope I'm not being hunted by flaming wolves right now. I hope they didn't eat Clint.
I see something moving on the trunk of a nearby tree and blast it with fire. A piece of the bark peels off and then glides like a paper airplane down into the bushes somewhere else.
An Extremis wolf runs over to the bushes and starts growling at them. It doesn't even notice me. It's too busy barking at whatever that is in the bush. I slowly approach it from behind, and then extend my hands and start pushing heat into its body. It whimpers and starts to run away, only to explode before it can get quite out of sight.
I look back to the bush, and start to pull aside one of the larger leaves so I can look inside.
The leaf comes off and crawls up my arm. I squeal and fall on my butt trying to get away.
The lizard changes to the same midnight blue shade as my uniform, with a dark red stripe down its back where my arrow is.
You're a freaky looking thing. It's about as long as my handspan, minus the tips. Maybe eighteen centimeters. It has six legs, with webbing like a bat running from each of them to the torso. Its head looks like it unfolds like that one dinosaur from Jurassic Park.
A lizard that glides like a flying squirrel. A lizard that both glides and camouflages? Does that exist? That's a stupid question, I'm looking at it.
I stiffen as it crawls up onto my shoulder and faces forward. It's searching the area around us for threats, as if I'm not one.
I guess if it was going to attack me it would have already. I carefully start walking again and get back on comms, "Hawkeye? What's your situation?"
I hear his voice behind me and shriek, twirling around and getting in my Firebending stance.
He and Nat give me a second to realize how stupid I'm being, "Didn't mean to startle you." He strings an arrow and points it at the lizard on my shoulder, "Do you need me to take care of your friend there?"
It hisses, and a plume of fire sets the tip of Clint's arrow alight.
I look at it, and it looks back at me. Huh.
I shake my head, "No. Thanks."
It's hard to judge reptilian facial expressions, but it almost looks protective.
He questions, "You sure? That seemed pretty aggressive."
I nod, "Yeah, I'm sure. I think... it was trying to protect me. It thought you were threatening me."
Nat asks, "How can you tell?"
I shake my head, kind of freaked out by the feeling myself, "I'm not sure. Maybe because I protected it from a wolf a minute ago?"
What the fuck is wrong with me? There's a tiny dragon on my shoulder and I'm not trying to get rid of it? I'm scared. But somehow something makes me think that fear is unwarranted. Why do I think that? The more I think about it the more I know that there is no reason. At least no conscious reason.
Nat calls the rest of our team, "Thunderer? War Machine? Do you need any assistance with the elephant?"
Rhodes answers, "It's dreaming about lady fire elephants on top of what used to be Killian's lab. It and the doc might be the only research left intact from this site though. I think we're done here."
Clint nods, "Alright, copy that."
The lizard crawls down onto my hand. I turn palm up to make a little platform, and it curls around and starts chewing on its own tail. The tail glows with Extremis and grows just as fast as it can eat.
I realize that they'll want to study it, dissect it. And only a moment after I realize that I can't let that happen. I tell Clint and Natasha, "They're not taking him."
"Her." I look at Clint. He points, "The dewlap is too small to be a guy."
I ask, "You know what this thing is?"
He shrugs, "Not exactly. I've never seen one with six legs before. But the circus used to bring a few trained ones on tour. They're called gliding dragons."
He's never talked about the circus before. I didn't even know if that part of his backstory applied. I guess he's starting to trust me. That's a good feeling.
Nat asks me, "You're gonna keep that thing? You know you can't let her go free with Extremis in her system."
I nod, "I guess so."
She stops chewing on her tail, and curls up in my hand, going to sleep. Fuck. She's too cute to let die now.
I ask, "What's that thing called when a snake eats its own tail?"
Nat answers, "An ouroboros."
I nod, "Yeah, right. That. I'll name her Ouroboros. Or, Bo for short."
Clint shakes his head and starts walking in the direction of the former AIM lab, "You're the one that has to explain to Coulson. And you get to clean up after her."
Nat falls in line behind him, "Good thing you can put out fires with your mind, right?"
