Dial (Ben10/Marvel Cinematic Universe SI)
- Thread starter DesertChocolate
- Start date
- Location
- Kansas
Hard to believe that this story has over a hundred chapters already. It feels like just yesterday that Dial was fighting Nazis as Swampfire.
Nope. She's stayed that way ever since she woke. Make of that what you will.
Man. It still blows my mind sometimes that I've gotten there. Now I wanna get to chapter 200, but I have no clue what the story will be like at that point.
- Location
- Kansas
Whatever it is it'll still be as awesome as it is now, possibly even more awesome. I have no doubt of that.
104
May 18, 2014
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
When I left the law firm of Nelson and Murdock (Even though I'm a full partner, we kept my name off to try and keep reporters at bay for a bit), a car was waiting for me outside, a big SUV with the BRIDGE logo on the side. The door opened for me as I stepped towards it, and I got in immediately.
Inside was the cute BRIDGE agent from earlier. What was her name again? Agent Toniver? No. It was-
"Agent Tolliver, right?" I asked her, crossing one leg over the other.
"Yes," she gave me a smile. She had long black hair, black skin, and was wearing a women's business suit. She was also positively tiny, only about five feet tall.
"I'm supposed to take you, one of our specialists, and an investigator to the bank."
"What, am I gonna take out a loan?" I quipped.
"Huh?" she blinked at that, looking confused, before laughing. She snorted a bit, looked mortified, then hurriedly continued speaking. "No, they uh, they want you to investigate a spree of bank robberies."
"Bank robberies?" I'm a smart gal, so I figured it out pretty quickly. "You guys think a superhuman is doing these? Or at least someone that needs my green ass to help with?"
She nodded, biting her lip slightly. "Yes. Here, I have the file," she reached into a bag by her side and pulled out a manila folder. A bit more traditional than I was expecting. BRIDGE sometimes seemed obsessed with holograms these days. I took the folder and opened it up. Huh. Real paper and everything.
"There have been two robberies so far. The first was the Queens Community Bank. Someone went in and ripped the ATMs out of the walls, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, yesterday, someone entered the Midtown Consolidated Bank and somehow pulled a vault door off a wall. Do you know how much force that takes?"
She sounded positively excited about that. I thought about that for a second, but she immediately started talking.
"The vault door was put in place back in the 1900s, so it weighs 45,000 pounds or 22.5 tons! It's pressure system applied 8 tons of pressure, and the whole thing was just ripped off the wall! I mean, the rebar-reinforced concrete cracked first, but that's still a massive amount of strength!"
She clenched her fists in front of her, eyes practically sparkling. "But there's no sign of any heavy machinery being moved into the bank! That means either a single person with the strength moved that much weight or someone created incredibly small and efficient technology that can do the same! It's incredible!"
I blinked at her. Damn. She was enthusiastic. I decided not to mention all the people that I had met recently who both probably had the strengths or the smarts to do the same thing. "Got it. So I'm going in case there's a fight."
"You and one more person," she pointed at the folder. I'd been looking at pictures of the banks, one a small street bank, the other a much bigger one. "We also have an investigator coming to help you both. Your role is frontline support. One of our specialists will be your back-up."
Okay, I'll be honest. The idea I needed back-up was annoying. I could punch through steel for crying out loud. Well, maybe the specialist was another Avenger.
It wasn't.
"Frank Castle," Tolliver tapped on the file.
------
May 20, 2014
"Hrrrrk!" Mahmoud suddenly choked on nothing, coughing out of nowhere.
"Mahmoud!" I got up to help him, but he held a hand out, waving me back as he hurriedly grabbed a glass of water from the sink and guzzled it down. I frowned. "Something wrong?"
He took a bit. Then he turned and gave me that look again. Like he was deciding how much to tell me.
I didn't like that look. It made me want to hit him.
Damn it, Mahmoud. What are you keeping from me?
I kept those thoughts off my face while he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, Frank's a good soldier. He just never struck me as someone who would be doing a bank robbery investigation," he coughed. "Well, not unless he was about to kill someone who did the robbery, I guess."
I blinked. "Okay, you really have a bad opinion of him if you think he'll just randomly kill someone like that. You didn't act like this when we were with him in Rio."
He coughed again, smiling at me. "Sorry Okay. Frank Castle and She-Hulk go into a bank with a BRIDGE agent. What happens next?"
"Actually, the funny thing about that," I watched as he went back to the stove, placing the egg omelet he'd made onto a plate and passing them to me. I took a bite and smiled. He'd put too much salt. Still pretty good. He started making another one while I took another bite and tasted some mushrooms he'd snuck, smiling a bit wider. "You didn't put shrimp in this again, did you?"
He chuckled, looking over at me. "No chance. 'She-Hulk hate seafood!' I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know to listen to you. For one thing, you're way too good at winning arguments."
"Top of my debate class," I took another bite and shook my head. "Anyways. We went to pick up Frank from his place."
------
May 18, 2014
I'd actually met Frank Castle a couple of times. In Rio, mostly. Hell, he was there when Dial turned into that monster of a creature he called Blight.
Frank had struck me as a crazy serious guy, one of those soldiers who were kinda born for it. Flattop haircut, rough-looking face, always kinda about to growl.
That day though, when he came out of his house, he was smiling, carrying a big duffel bag over his shoulder. Tolliver and I were standing just in front of his lawn, waiting for him as he came down towards us. He stopped smiling when he noticed me, immediately switching to a scowl.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Huh. Nice way to say hi, Frank," I said while blinking at him.
He didn't seem to care, just glaring at me. "You know my neighbors don't know about what I do, right? You just going to stand outside my house all green and shit?"
Okay, to be honest? I didn't think it would matter that much. The second he mentioned it though I felt dumb as hell. And before you laugh, Mahmoud, I was there when you walked around in Diamondhead form in the middle of Time Square.
"Uh, right," I winced. Damnit, why didn't I think of that? "Sorry. I'll go ahead and-"
"Dad!" a young voice called from the house. Two kids came running out of the house. A young girl and boy ran up together. The girl, a little older than the boy stopped to stare up at me, but the boy ran to wrap his dad in a hug.
The girl had long cinnamon brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a shirt with a picture of dinosaurs on it and a pair of blue jeans. The boy was a little younger, with the same color hair. They didn't look much like their dad. But they had the same eyebrows, if that makes sense.
Frank was surprised, and I could see him trying to pull back that anger. "Hey, hey," he tapped his son on the shoulders. "You're gonna end up cutting me in half if you hug me so tight."
The kid pulled back and grinned at his dad before noticing me. His jaw dropped as he stared up at me. "You're the Hulk's sister!"
"Cousin, actually," I grinned down at the kid. "How's it going?"
"Cooool," I gotta admit, seeing his wide eyes was pretty damn cool.
Frank, apparently realizing he was stuck for the moment, took one of his kids under each arm. "Yeah, so… These are my kids. Frank Jr. and Lisa."
He tried to hide it, but he sounded downright proud as he said that, his fingers clutching tightly at their arms.
The girl, Lisa struggled out of her dad's grip and walked up to me, looking up at me. She looked almost contemplative. "...You're an Avenger?"
"Some days. I'm also a lawyer when I'm not punching dinosaurs."
Clearly that was the wrong thing to say. She scowled at me. "You shouldn't hit dinosaurs!"
Oh my god. So cute!
"You're a fan of dinosaurs too?" I asked her, kneeling down to try not to loom over her so much. It didn't work, but she wasn't fazed.
"She's got about a dozen in her room," Frank grumbled. "And all over the house."
"I did too," man, did I ever. Bruce and I used to spend so much time playing with dinosaur toys. One of the coolest parts of being in Rio was seeing the big guys come to life. "I asked a friend of mine to get me one as a pet. He's going to a land of dinosaurs," I whispered conspiratorially to her.
"U-Um, that's classifie-" Tolliver stuttered behind me.
"Are you lying?" Lisa asked, narrowing tiny eyes at me.
"Not even a bit," I grinned down at her and patted her head gently. I was honestly surprised she let me. "Dinosaurs are still alive. And my friends are-" damn, couldn't say fighting them. "Researching them right now."
She stared at me for a second. I think she was trying to see if I was lying. Then her eyes widened. "Really!?"
"Really, really," I chuckled, looking up at Frank. "You the reason she's so paranoid?"
"She's got good instincts," he said with a shrug.
"Your dad's mean," I whispered to Lisa. She gave me a conspiratorial grin.
"Frankie, Lisa!" a woman came out of the house and walked over to them. She was an older version of Lisa, with her brown hair let flowing as she stepped out of the house and came over. Her face had some small wrinkles from smiling, and she looked positively radiant in a white sundress with blue flowers across it. She hesitated on seeing me, gaping at me, then looking at Frank.
"Frank, what-" she hesitated again.
"Jesus Christ," Frank mumbled to himself, shaking his head and looking at me. "See what you did?"
"Can I help it that I tend to stand out in a crowd?" I said with a smirk, cocking my hip. He rolled his eyes and waved at his wife to come closer. She came over with some trepidation, leaning into him as he hugged her close. Then they kissed.
"Ewwww," Frank Jr. leered, Lisa bumping him in the shoulder.
Frank and his wife grinned at each other as they separated before she looked over at Tolliver and I. Her smile faltered for just a second. "Hello? I'm Maria," to her credit, she held her hand out for us to shake really damn fast. I took it with a smile.
"Jen."
"Agent Tolliver."
After handshakes, Frank Jr. spoke up. "Dad, are you going on a mission?"
Frank and Maria froze. The kid sounded… well, he sounded worried. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell that he was scared of his dad.
"Buddy… see, buddy I-
"Have to sign some paperwork," I said quickly, stepping forward. I sighed dramatically. "Boring, I know. But whenever I'm not fighting monsters? I'm a lawyer. Your dad got some pretty sweet armor recently. Have you seen it?"
"Yeah!" Frank Jr.'s eyes lit up. "Dad looks so cool! With a skull on the chest and everything!"
The older Frank shuffled slightly, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Well, he's gonna be signing some stuff so he'll be able to use that stuff more often. And maybe, if he's lucky, he'll be able to play around with it while we're out there," I patted the kid's shoulder, grinning when he gave his dad a proud look. "We gotta go though."
"Yeah," Frank patted his son on the head, who grumbled as he pushed his dad's hand away playfully, then kissed his daughter on the head. Maria kissed him again, giving him a sad look so fast her kids didn't notice, before pulling her kids in.
"Come on guys, we better let daddy finish his paperwork," Maria said.
"Okay. Bye, Mrs. Hulk!" Lisa cheered, Frank Jr. waving as the pair ran inside.
"Mrs. Hulk?" What?
"Like that's worse than She-Hulk?" Frank, slinging his bag over his shoulder, passed by me while Tolliver hesitantly followed.
I'll be honest. Wasn't feeling optimistic about my teammate at the time.
------
We sat in silence in the car. Frank listened to Tolliver give her assessment in silence, finally nodding before he started rummaging in his bag. He'd come for battle. He was wearing the 'casual' uniform BRIDGE soldiers wore on assignment, a black sweater and black khakis with a small BRIDGE logo on both. He had a single handgun on his hip, but his bag also had a rifle carefully packed away in separate pieces. He wasn't putting them together or anything, just making sure he had all of them. Then he looked at me, noticing I was watching.
"What, you want one?"
I ain't one to leave an opening like that. "Nah, I bought two of my own," I flexed both my biceps with a grin.
He scoffed, though I could see him smirking a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, okay," he zipped up his bag. "I know you can handle yourself in a fight. But we ain't fucking detectives," he looked at Tolliver. "Hopefully your guy shows up."
"H-He will," Tolliver said. She looked pretty intimidated by Frank. "I'm supposed to drop you off and he'll meet you there afterward."
"Good," he leaned back in his chair. "So why am I here? You got Mrs. Hulk, you got your detective guy. Why me?"
"Your incredible charm and wit, maybe?" I teased.
"According to the director, we don't want any assets going out alone right now," she said. "HYDRA's remnants are still underground, but we don't want to have anyone get kidnapped by them again. So even though Miss Walters is superhuman, we don't want to take the chance that she could get sidelined by something that counters her."
I didn't like that. The idea that I needed protecting. I hadn't met much that could take me on these days.
"Yeah well, let's just get there and get this done, huh?" Frank looked out at New York City. "Promised I'd be home for dinner."
------
When we got to the bank, Tolliver couldn't leave fast enough. Once she was gone, Frank and I stood there awkwardly. Me, more than him.
The bank was surrounded by cop cars cordoning off the place with yellow tape, which meant there were also a lot of spectators and reporters. Then my eight-foot-tall ass showed up and everyone had something else to focus on.
People were staring at me. I could hear a couple calling out my name, and a few had their phones out to take pictures. I crossed my arms and looked out at them. Honestly, even after all this time, seeing how weird people acted about me was still strange. Matt and Foggy had gotten over it, none of the Avengers acted weird, even the staff in the Avengers Tower and BRIDGE members didn't really think I was a crazy sight anymore. But the average New Yorker still treated me like part-celebrity, part-freak.
"Hey, take off your shirt!" one douchebag shouted in the crowd.
There's always one idiot.
"Hey, can you get someone in charge?" I said to one of the police officers on duty.
"They're on their way, ma'am," the lady said, looking apologetic. "It'll just be a minute."
"HEY, TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!" the same idiot yelled.
The female cop and I shared a look. For just a moment, I felt angry. If I actually went and confronted the idiot, he'd probably scream about being abused or something. Logically I knew that hanging him on a lamppost by his underwear would end badly in terms of my reputation, but I was actively considering it.
Frank, standing next to me, growled and turned towards the guy. I held out a hand in front of him. "Let it go. We have actual things to deal with."
He glared at the idiot, who gave Frank a smarmy smile back, before turning away. Honestly, that's the problem with guys like that. They think they win just because the people they yell at aren't supposed to punch down to them.
I ignored him as he kept on yelling at us. Apparently unsatisfied with my lack of reaction, he tried to move forward.
A cop who'd been cordoning off the area shoved him back with some prejudice. "Back off! This is a crime scene, chucklehead."
"Come one ma-" the idiot tried to argue.
"You want to complain, you wanna get taken in for disturbing the scene?" the cop warned.
I didn't have time to hear what the idiot said before someone came towards us, an older woman in business suit wear. "Frank Castle, She-Hulk? I'm Detective Leslie Perez."
Frank took her hand gruffly. "Ma'am."
The black-haired woman gave me a look I was used to, one of surprise and awe, before shaking my hand as well. "I was told there would be three of you."
"Our BRIDGE investigator should be here soon," I said.
"Huh. Well, might as well take you in for now," she turned and walked into the bank, Frank and I following.
The inside of the bank was covered in paper and pens, chunks of shattered wood scattered about. Several officers dressed in jackets that said 'crime scene' on them were dotted about the room. The room was circular, with the various teller desks surrounding the center. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, oddly unharmed by the devastation underneath it, it's glass crystals glowing in the sunlight outside. A vault door sat near the left side of the room, pieces of bent rebar and concrete hanging off of it.
"Yeah, that's the reason you're here," Detective Perez said when she noticed my gaze. "The second we noticed that we tried to figure out what the hell could have done that. Then one of our guys noticed the handprints," she pointed at them. I walked over and kneeled down to take a look.
It looked like a human hand pressed into clay, squeezing hard. Except in steel three inches thick. "I'm guessing you didn't find fingerprints, huh?"
"Nope. Whoever the superperson was, they used gloves," Perez sighed. "Gotta say, I don't like living in a world where people can just toss a vault door like this. Uh, no offense."
"None taken," I said absently. Out of curiosity, I held my hand to the print. "Holy…"
It was bigger than mine. Just barely, but it was.
"The thing is… they also beat a security guard half to death," Perez shuddered. "His ribs, arms, legs… he's lucky to be alive. Looks like he was attacked by a damn gorilla… How much strength does someone need to do something like this?" Perez asked me. "I mean, are they stronger than you? Are they bulletproof? I mean… can we even stop them when we find them?"
I looked up at her. She bit her lip and turned to look at the vault, which was covered in yellow cards with numbers, the signs of someone taking evidence. People were avoiding the sight of the vault door.
I looked at Frank. He was nudging at a nearby chunk of wood with his boot, a disinterested look on his face. "Hey, Frank, you okay?" I asked, knowing his answer was just what I needed.
"Yeah, just bored," he said idly.
Perez blinked. "You're bored?"
I laughed. "Yeah. Frank isn't as impressed by all this stuff as most people are."
He looked at Perez and shrugged. "I'm a soldier. I don't really have the luxury to be impressed. Still, this place is a lot cleaner than I thought it would be."
"Clean?" I asked, nothing all the destruction.
"Yeah," he pointed at the vault, then motioned his hand to the door. "See. This shit got destroyed in a straight line. From the vault to where the door got thrown. But everything else is fine. Fuck, the bank doors aren't even cracked."
He was right. The wooden desks had been destroyed by the door as it smashed into them, but nothing else. That got me thinking.
"You know… a while back, I had to persecute a bank robber," I said thoughtfully. "He was cooperating, so he told me a lot about how he worked."
"Oh?" Perez said. "You think that will apply here? I mean, this guy, or girl, was superhuman, you think they'll do things the way regular robbers do?"
"Absolutely. Super or not, people are people. Stupid, smart, emotional people. We're dealing with a different scale here, but," I got up and walked over to Perez with a smile. "People are people. That's the best and worst part about superpowers."
"Yeah," she winced back from me once I got close enough. I was actually surprised by that. She swallowed and turned around. "I'll leave you folks to it."
She turned and walked off a bit faster than necessary.
"...Fuck," I whispered to myself, looking around. I turned to Frank-
------
May 20, 2014
The doorbell rang, interrupting my story. Mahmoud looked over at the door, getting up to get it. I stopped him.
"I got it, babe," I rose up and answered the door, and was met by the sight of one of my favorite blondes. "Thor?"
"Hail, Lady Jennifer," he said with that old-school charm. "May I and Natasha enter? We wished to speak with Mahmoud."
"Sure!" I blinked at him. "Wait, Nat?"
"I'm here," said a voice behind Thor. The tiny redhead stepped around Thor with that crazy amount of grace she always had. She gave me a sexy smirk. "How's it going, Jen?"
"Great!" I opened the door for them. Mahmoud perked up like a puppy when he saw them.
"Hey guys! What's up?"
"You're chipper this morning," Natasha gave him a smirk. "Oh. Yeah, I get it."
"...Get what?"
"You and Lady Jennifer have affirmed your relationship at last!" Thor said with a grin.
Mahmoud turned bright as a tomato. Even with his dusky brown skin, I could very clearly see it start in his cheeks and go down along his neck to his pecs. "I-I-I-What are you guys-"
"I mean, we were already in a relationship. But yeah, we banged," I shared a grin with Nat, who gave me another smirk as she smoothly sat at the counter and stole Mahmoud's food.
"Are you guys superheroes or high schoolers?" Mahmoud grumbled, still blushing.
"Relax," Thor clapped a hand on my embarrassed boyfriend's shoulder. "It's a natural and good thing."
He actually did relax, giving me a sheepish grin. "Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty great."
So damn cute.
"Still, I'm surprised you're alive," Natasha said idly. "Tony was betting on 'death by snu-snu'."
"...You guys bet on us having sex?" I tried to sound surprised.
"I bet money on Omnitrix kinks popping up," the super-agent grinned.
As soon as she said that, my eyes landed on the Omnitrix. So did Mahmoud and Thor's. We stared at the green glowing gauntlet before sharing a look. "Uh…"
"I mean, not for the first time/Not unless she asked," Dial and I said at the same time. Then we stared at each other.
I'll be honest, I'd been half-tempted, but I didn't know if he'd be open to it. It was weird, right? Right?
Oh god, was I blushing!?
"...Awkward," Thor whispered, while Nat chuckled under her breath. Thor raised his fist to his mouth and coughed. "What were you speaking about before we entered?"
I wasn't relieved at the change in subject. Not too much anyway. I sat down to eat while Mahmoud hurriedly went to get Thor some coffee.
"Jen, uh, was talking about the mission she had while I was getting chewed up and spat out by the Savage Land," he said. His back was turned to us. Which was why he didn't notice how much his little joke affected us.
Natasha stopped eating, her emerald eyes tracing across his back. I'd have gotten jealous at the sexy spy eyeing up my boyfriend if I didn't notice the way her eyes stopped on each scar he'd gained. I wonder if he even noticed the fact he had little ones threading up and down, with a large patch on his left shoulder blade that looked like a raised spider web.
Thor sighed sadly, sitting down heavily on his chair.
I got how they felt. When we'd been lying in bed, I'd found myself counting his scars. They'd felt interesting. Little smooth bumps on his skin. When he was talking about his fights, about that Stend asshole… hearing, in detail, how each one happened, hurt. He'd almost died. And I hadn't been there.
When you saw Dial in action, turning into a giant tiger man to lift cars, into a goo monster to slip through cracks, or a pterodactyl alien that could break the speed of sound, it was hard to remember Mahmoud, the normal human who could bleed. How could he be so strong and so vulnerable at the same time?
But then, I could relate now. The memory was still fresh in my mind.
When he turned back to us, he had coffee in hand for Thor, who took it with a smile. "So, you were in the bank?"
I blinked at how suddenly he just jumped back into things. "What, should I just keep going?"
"Of course!" Thor said happily. "I love a good story. Battles won and lost, great heros triumphing! Natasha never shares her stories," he gave her a sour look.
"Why should I? None of mine are as good as yours," she teased.
Thor paused. Once again, the big guy proved he was immune to sarcasm. "True, but I still want to hear some."
"...It's a good thing you're cute."
Nat, Thor, and I looked at Mahmoud. He shrugged. "What, it's true."
I grinned at him while Thor chuckled, patting Mahmoud's shoulder. "So, right. I might as well start the story from the beginning for you guys?"
"I have nowhere to be," Nat said.
"Well, it all started at the office…"
------
At the same time I was restarting my story, my phone was buzzing on the dresser in our bedroom. A bunch of notifications from a few different sources. Later I'd take a look at it and find out that while I was pretty happy about the state of the Avengers, some people had some different opinions. Polarizing opinions. I had to stop myself from going out and punching idiots after a few minutes of reading and watching the dumber stuff being said about us.
Like the frog said. It ain't easy being green.
------
Interlude: Social Media
"J. Jonah Jameson here, from the DailyBugle.net, to talk about the events of the last few months!" A bombastic man said far louder than needed. He was balding, the remains of flattop haircut starting to fade, wrinkles etched into his face. But when he spoke, it was with an energetic and aggressive manner, his wrinkles giving him the air of a dignified man who was used to righteous anger, for good or ill.
He was wearing a simple suit and sitting at a black desk, the screen behind him showing the bugle logo of his news organization.
"Ever since HYDRA revealed they've been infecting SHIELD like the parasites they are, and Captain America took them down, we've been living in a damn chaotic world, damn chaotic listeners! But lucky for you, JJ is here to break it all down for you with my unbiased report!" he leaned forward. "Now folks, I'm not gonna sugar coat it! Things aren't rosy in the world today! Anyone who claims we live in a better world today is lying to you! But things aren't all bad either. So let's start with the good."
A picture of Captain America came up next to him, the all-American standing on top of rubble, a wide smile on his face as he carried a child in his arms and helped an injured woman stand, an older man over his shoulder.
"First off, we've got the greatest damn hero in the world still standing up for us!" JJ pointed at the image. "In a world of freaks running around claiming to be heroes, Captain America is still the leader of the Avengers. Hell, his sidekick, Falcon," the image of Sam in flight over New York showed up next to Cap. "Is even leading their offshoot team. It's a damn good sign, to show that even when all the crazies are running around, we still have an honest American taking charge in the field!"
JJ's smile was temporary. "But then, we have to talk about that. About the freaks we've got in the world today. Starting with this guy."
An image of Dial showed up. The brown-skinned hero was scowling, dust and mud across his face, hunched over. A far less heroic image than the one shown of Captain America.
"Now, I love Cap. It's easy to tell why. But I have to question his judgment. Why does he trust this man?" Another image, this time of Dial in Blitzwolfer form, biting into a tri-horned demons shoulder like a vicious animal. "Dial, real name Mahmoud Schahed! He came out of nowhere with a watch that he claims holds aliens he can turn into. Inserts himself into the Avengers right when HYDRA makes them desperate for allies, then starts pulling in others to join in no less. Where do I even start!?"
JJ slammed a fist onto the desk. "First off, he's too damn powerful! This guy, kid really, shows up and what? He can turn into eleven different aliens that can each be an Avenger on their own? And does anyone remember this?"
An image of a helicarrier appeared. An Upgraded Helicarrier, completely black and covered in green lines like circuitry. It spun it's cannons in various directions and started firing. Green waves of energy split the skies, ripping apart HYDRA forces in moments.
"We're dealing with someone who can turn a helicarrier into a superweapon," JJ said, his voice foreboding in tone. "That's not the least of what he can do either."
JJ was replaced by footage. Four Arms sparring with the Hulk, their fists sending visible shockwaves through the air. Diamondhead slicing through tanks with blades of crystal. Big Chill moving through walls before blasting bursts of ice. Men getting beaten by an invisible force before Fasttrack appeared. Goop burning through a glass window with acid as a man screamed and ran away. Fasttrack blasting massive waves of blue light from his tendrils. Swampfire blasting fire. Rath laughing maniacally as he ripped into HYDRA soldiers, screaming out slurs and taunts. Jury Rigg with a sadistic smile on his face as he hefted a nightmarish gun that inflated the heads of demons like balloons until they couldn't move anymore. Wildmutt, covered in blood and snarling as it fought dire wolves from out of prehistory.
"Let's not forget his 'friends'," JJ said, positively incensed. "First, we've got Carl 'Crusher' Creel," the image of Creel appeared, midway in turning into steel. More images appeared, such as Creel in his boxing days. "A former thug and criminal! Known for being a mob enforcer of all things! And then what did he do!? Now I know what you want to say, listeners. 'But Jonah, Creel was reformed!"
He shook his head. "Don't be foolish. Creel was a criminal for a damn long time. Are we supposed to just trust that this career criminal has reformed!? Tell that to the victims who walk the streets of New York, fearing the name of 'Crusher' Creel!"
"And what about Russia!?" the image of the Winter Guard appeared, standing proud in the sunlight. "Now, I have no problem with fostering better relations between nations. Hell, I welcome it," he scowled. "But the Winter Guard is just the start of a new problem. Government superhero teams. Teams that will defend the nations of their own interests, first and foremost. Worse, teams that will do work for governments!"
"Say what you will about the Avengers, but when Rio needed help, they went," JJ soured further. "I'll even give credit to Dial. That kid saved lives out there, right alongside Captain America. I didn't see a single Winter Guard member fighting out there, saving people from the rubble."
He slammed a fist on the table. "So why the hell is one of them an Avenger!"
The image of Fantasma appeared, dressed in her purple uniform, floating on a platform of magic and glowing violet.
"A self-proclaimed witch," JJ scoffed, showing just what he thought of that. "Who we know nothing about! She has exactly one good deed to her name that we know about, and that was in service to her own country!? Let's break out a hypothetical. Let's say this 'witch'," he did some quote marks. "Has to help the Avengers. And Russia decides it's against their best interests. You know what she'll choose? Russia. Every Time."
JJ shrugged. "Now, if she proves me wrong, fantastic. But I doubt it."
He leaned back in his seat. "I could go further. Talk about how BRIDGE is coming very close to becoming the strongest damn army on Earth, with a bevy of superhumans under their control called 'Graveyarders' according to my sources. How all their soldiers are packed with tech that can rip through tanks… But I will say one thing."
He tapped a single finger on the table. "I am warning you. But I am also here to tell you, I have hope. I am worried that these are the signs of bad things to come. I am worried that governments will take cues from Russia and we'll have big government building secret teams of superhumans, black ops with superpowers, with all the wonderful actions that follow," he lost that excited tone to his voice. "The last few months have shown us we're vulnerable. How dangerous things have become. At any moment, the world can fall out from under us… But we're also protected.
"I may warn you about the possibility of Dial and others becoming threats, because it would be idiotic to just take them at face value! But Captain America, the very man who brought down HYDRA, trusts him. They went shopping damn it!"
A picture of Mahmoud and Steve side by side in Forbidden Planet appeared, the two grinning as they pointed at a comic book.
"If Dial is on the up and up, if we don't end up fighting a war against that insanely powerful alien, then we've got a hell of an ally on our side. If BRIDGE really has shed themselves of HYDRA, and Maria Hill isn't going to use her personal army to start shutting down democracy, then we'll have the world's most advanced soldiers ready to fight off any superpowers we had to fear!"
He calmed down very fast. "It's a big if, I know. But New Yorkers, Rio natives, and much more, know that 'if' is worth it. I'll take the Hulk over the damned Chitauri, I'll take Tony Stark over any demons, and I'll take Dial over robot monkeys."
"...And let's talk about that. Robot monkeys. Because while I will be keeping an eye on the freaks claiming to be helping us, let's not forget the freaks that are confirmed enemies!"
"HYDRA is still out there! Those monsters are still plotting to take away your, our, freedoms! We can't just sit and wait to do something about that! HYDRA needs to be eradicated," the last was said with vicious anger to it. "Then we have things like demons flying around, countries making their own superteams, even AIM is apparently on the rise. There are threats everywhere."
"And honestly, AIM?" he looked incredulous. "They just got accused of trying to kill Tony Stark, a leader of industry, and the PRESIDENT. And now, the United States Military is going to get back in bed with them again? I don't care if AIM starts making tech that blows everything we've got out of the water! Do not trust them!"
He slammed a fist on the table and growled. "We're about to cut to a commercial for crap nobody wants- What?" JJ stopped to look at someone off-screen. "The hell are you mouthing over there, Jared. No! No, I'm sticking with what I said, damnit! If they want to charge us out the ass so they can sell whatever garbage they want to trick the American people out of, then I'm damn well telling people about it! Except for that 'manscaping' trimmer, the wife likes that one."
------
Author's Note:
That's the chapter for now, along with something I promised a while ago. Looks at the way the world is responding to Dial.
The next chapters of Dial should be ending with things like that until we finish the She-Hulk arc. Which itself should be relatively short, if brutal when it comes to the ending. Should be fun.
I have a list of suggestions for portions of society I want to highlight, including young Kamala's view of the world, but if you guys have more, let me know.
In the meantime, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Even a dollar a month will help me to start writing this story full-time, and five-dollar patreons get to read these chapters four days ahead of time!
Next time, Jen and Frank start to realize just what they're dealing with, Nat steals Dial's food, and the FBI shows up. Kinda.
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
When I left the law firm of Nelson and Murdock (Even though I'm a full partner, we kept my name off to try and keep reporters at bay for a bit), a car was waiting for me outside, a big SUV with the BRIDGE logo on the side. The door opened for me as I stepped towards it, and I got in immediately.
Inside was the cute BRIDGE agent from earlier. What was her name again? Agent Toniver? No. It was-
"Agent Tolliver, right?" I asked her, crossing one leg over the other.
"Yes," she gave me a smile. She had long black hair, black skin, and was wearing a women's business suit. She was also positively tiny, only about five feet tall.
"I'm supposed to take you, one of our specialists, and an investigator to the bank."
"What, am I gonna take out a loan?" I quipped.
"Huh?" she blinked at that, looking confused, before laughing. She snorted a bit, looked mortified, then hurriedly continued speaking. "No, they uh, they want you to investigate a spree of bank robberies."
"Bank robberies?" I'm a smart gal, so I figured it out pretty quickly. "You guys think a superhuman is doing these? Or at least someone that needs my green ass to help with?"
She nodded, biting her lip slightly. "Yes. Here, I have the file," she reached into a bag by her side and pulled out a manila folder. A bit more traditional than I was expecting. BRIDGE sometimes seemed obsessed with holograms these days. I took the folder and opened it up. Huh. Real paper and everything.
"There have been two robberies so far. The first was the Queens Community Bank. Someone went in and ripped the ATMs out of the walls, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, yesterday, someone entered the Midtown Consolidated Bank and somehow pulled a vault door off a wall. Do you know how much force that takes?"
She sounded positively excited about that. I thought about that for a second, but she immediately started talking.
"The vault door was put in place back in the 1900s, so it weighs 45,000 pounds or 22.5 tons! It's pressure system applied 8 tons of pressure, and the whole thing was just ripped off the wall! I mean, the rebar-reinforced concrete cracked first, but that's still a massive amount of strength!"
She clenched her fists in front of her, eyes practically sparkling. "But there's no sign of any heavy machinery being moved into the bank! That means either a single person with the strength moved that much weight or someone created incredibly small and efficient technology that can do the same! It's incredible!"
I blinked at her. Damn. She was enthusiastic. I decided not to mention all the people that I had met recently who both probably had the strengths or the smarts to do the same thing. "Got it. So I'm going in case there's a fight."
"You and one more person," she pointed at the folder. I'd been looking at pictures of the banks, one a small street bank, the other a much bigger one. "We also have an investigator coming to help you both. Your role is frontline support. One of our specialists will be your back-up."
Okay, I'll be honest. The idea I needed back-up was annoying. I could punch through steel for crying out loud. Well, maybe the specialist was another Avenger.
It wasn't.
"Frank Castle," Tolliver tapped on the file.
------
May 20, 2014
"Hrrrrk!" Mahmoud suddenly choked on nothing, coughing out of nowhere.
"Mahmoud!" I got up to help him, but he held a hand out, waving me back as he hurriedly grabbed a glass of water from the sink and guzzled it down. I frowned. "Something wrong?"
He took a bit. Then he turned and gave me that look again. Like he was deciding how much to tell me.
I didn't like that look. It made me want to hit him.
Damn it, Mahmoud. What are you keeping from me?
I kept those thoughts off my face while he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, Frank's a good soldier. He just never struck me as someone who would be doing a bank robbery investigation," he coughed. "Well, not unless he was about to kill someone who did the robbery, I guess."
I blinked. "Okay, you really have a bad opinion of him if you think he'll just randomly kill someone like that. You didn't act like this when we were with him in Rio."
He coughed again, smiling at me. "Sorry Okay. Frank Castle and She-Hulk go into a bank with a BRIDGE agent. What happens next?"
"Actually, the funny thing about that," I watched as he went back to the stove, placing the egg omelet he'd made onto a plate and passing them to me. I took a bite and smiled. He'd put too much salt. Still pretty good. He started making another one while I took another bite and tasted some mushrooms he'd snuck, smiling a bit wider. "You didn't put shrimp in this again, did you?"
He chuckled, looking over at me. "No chance. 'She-Hulk hate seafood!' I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know to listen to you. For one thing, you're way too good at winning arguments."
"Top of my debate class," I took another bite and shook my head. "Anyways. We went to pick up Frank from his place."
------
May 18, 2014
I'd actually met Frank Castle a couple of times. In Rio, mostly. Hell, he was there when Dial turned into that monster of a creature he called Blight.
Frank had struck me as a crazy serious guy, one of those soldiers who were kinda born for it. Flattop haircut, rough-looking face, always kinda about to growl.
That day though, when he came out of his house, he was smiling, carrying a big duffel bag over his shoulder. Tolliver and I were standing just in front of his lawn, waiting for him as he came down towards us. He stopped smiling when he noticed me, immediately switching to a scowl.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Huh. Nice way to say hi, Frank," I said while blinking at him.
He didn't seem to care, just glaring at me. "You know my neighbors don't know about what I do, right? You just going to stand outside my house all green and shit?"
Okay, to be honest? I didn't think it would matter that much. The second he mentioned it though I felt dumb as hell. And before you laugh, Mahmoud, I was there when you walked around in Diamondhead form in the middle of Time Square.
"Uh, right," I winced. Damnit, why didn't I think of that? "Sorry. I'll go ahead and-"
"Dad!" a young voice called from the house. Two kids came running out of the house. A young girl and boy ran up together. The girl, a little older than the boy stopped to stare up at me, but the boy ran to wrap his dad in a hug.
The girl had long cinnamon brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a shirt with a picture of dinosaurs on it and a pair of blue jeans. The boy was a little younger, with the same color hair. They didn't look much like their dad. But they had the same eyebrows, if that makes sense.
Frank was surprised, and I could see him trying to pull back that anger. "Hey, hey," he tapped his son on the shoulders. "You're gonna end up cutting me in half if you hug me so tight."
The kid pulled back and grinned at his dad before noticing me. His jaw dropped as he stared up at me. "You're the Hulk's sister!"
"Cousin, actually," I grinned down at the kid. "How's it going?"
"Cooool," I gotta admit, seeing his wide eyes was pretty damn cool.
Frank, apparently realizing he was stuck for the moment, took one of his kids under each arm. "Yeah, so… These are my kids. Frank Jr. and Lisa."
He tried to hide it, but he sounded downright proud as he said that, his fingers clutching tightly at their arms.
The girl, Lisa struggled out of her dad's grip and walked up to me, looking up at me. She looked almost contemplative. "...You're an Avenger?"
"Some days. I'm also a lawyer when I'm not punching dinosaurs."
Clearly that was the wrong thing to say. She scowled at me. "You shouldn't hit dinosaurs!"
Oh my god. So cute!
"You're a fan of dinosaurs too?" I asked her, kneeling down to try not to loom over her so much. It didn't work, but she wasn't fazed.
"She's got about a dozen in her room," Frank grumbled. "And all over the house."
"I did too," man, did I ever. Bruce and I used to spend so much time playing with dinosaur toys. One of the coolest parts of being in Rio was seeing the big guys come to life. "I asked a friend of mine to get me one as a pet. He's going to a land of dinosaurs," I whispered conspiratorially to her.
"U-Um, that's classifie-" Tolliver stuttered behind me.
"Are you lying?" Lisa asked, narrowing tiny eyes at me.
"Not even a bit," I grinned down at her and patted her head gently. I was honestly surprised she let me. "Dinosaurs are still alive. And my friends are-" damn, couldn't say fighting them. "Researching them right now."
She stared at me for a second. I think she was trying to see if I was lying. Then her eyes widened. "Really!?"
"Really, really," I chuckled, looking up at Frank. "You the reason she's so paranoid?"
"She's got good instincts," he said with a shrug.
"Your dad's mean," I whispered to Lisa. She gave me a conspiratorial grin.
"Frankie, Lisa!" a woman came out of the house and walked over to them. She was an older version of Lisa, with her brown hair let flowing as she stepped out of the house and came over. Her face had some small wrinkles from smiling, and she looked positively radiant in a white sundress with blue flowers across it. She hesitated on seeing me, gaping at me, then looking at Frank.
"Frank, what-" she hesitated again.
"Jesus Christ," Frank mumbled to himself, shaking his head and looking at me. "See what you did?"
"Can I help it that I tend to stand out in a crowd?" I said with a smirk, cocking my hip. He rolled his eyes and waved at his wife to come closer. She came over with some trepidation, leaning into him as he hugged her close. Then they kissed.
"Ewwww," Frank Jr. leered, Lisa bumping him in the shoulder.
Frank and his wife grinned at each other as they separated before she looked over at Tolliver and I. Her smile faltered for just a second. "Hello? I'm Maria," to her credit, she held her hand out for us to shake really damn fast. I took it with a smile.
"Jen."
"Agent Tolliver."
After handshakes, Frank Jr. spoke up. "Dad, are you going on a mission?"
Frank and Maria froze. The kid sounded… well, he sounded worried. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell that he was scared of his dad.
"Buddy… see, buddy I-
"Have to sign some paperwork," I said quickly, stepping forward. I sighed dramatically. "Boring, I know. But whenever I'm not fighting monsters? I'm a lawyer. Your dad got some pretty sweet armor recently. Have you seen it?"
"Yeah!" Frank Jr.'s eyes lit up. "Dad looks so cool! With a skull on the chest and everything!"
The older Frank shuffled slightly, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Well, he's gonna be signing some stuff so he'll be able to use that stuff more often. And maybe, if he's lucky, he'll be able to play around with it while we're out there," I patted the kid's shoulder, grinning when he gave his dad a proud look. "We gotta go though."
"Yeah," Frank patted his son on the head, who grumbled as he pushed his dad's hand away playfully, then kissed his daughter on the head. Maria kissed him again, giving him a sad look so fast her kids didn't notice, before pulling her kids in.
"Come on guys, we better let daddy finish his paperwork," Maria said.
"Okay. Bye, Mrs. Hulk!" Lisa cheered, Frank Jr. waving as the pair ran inside.
"Mrs. Hulk?" What?
"Like that's worse than She-Hulk?" Frank, slinging his bag over his shoulder, passed by me while Tolliver hesitantly followed.
I'll be honest. Wasn't feeling optimistic about my teammate at the time.
------
We sat in silence in the car. Frank listened to Tolliver give her assessment in silence, finally nodding before he started rummaging in his bag. He'd come for battle. He was wearing the 'casual' uniform BRIDGE soldiers wore on assignment, a black sweater and black khakis with a small BRIDGE logo on both. He had a single handgun on his hip, but his bag also had a rifle carefully packed away in separate pieces. He wasn't putting them together or anything, just making sure he had all of them. Then he looked at me, noticing I was watching.
"What, you want one?"
I ain't one to leave an opening like that. "Nah, I bought two of my own," I flexed both my biceps with a grin.
He scoffed, though I could see him smirking a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, okay," he zipped up his bag. "I know you can handle yourself in a fight. But we ain't fucking detectives," he looked at Tolliver. "Hopefully your guy shows up."
"H-He will," Tolliver said. She looked pretty intimidated by Frank. "I'm supposed to drop you off and he'll meet you there afterward."
"Good," he leaned back in his chair. "So why am I here? You got Mrs. Hulk, you got your detective guy. Why me?"
"Your incredible charm and wit, maybe?" I teased.
"According to the director, we don't want any assets going out alone right now," she said. "HYDRA's remnants are still underground, but we don't want to have anyone get kidnapped by them again. So even though Miss Walters is superhuman, we don't want to take the chance that she could get sidelined by something that counters her."
I didn't like that. The idea that I needed protecting. I hadn't met much that could take me on these days.
"Yeah well, let's just get there and get this done, huh?" Frank looked out at New York City. "Promised I'd be home for dinner."
------
When we got to the bank, Tolliver couldn't leave fast enough. Once she was gone, Frank and I stood there awkwardly. Me, more than him.
The bank was surrounded by cop cars cordoning off the place with yellow tape, which meant there were also a lot of spectators and reporters. Then my eight-foot-tall ass showed up and everyone had something else to focus on.
People were staring at me. I could hear a couple calling out my name, and a few had their phones out to take pictures. I crossed my arms and looked out at them. Honestly, even after all this time, seeing how weird people acted about me was still strange. Matt and Foggy had gotten over it, none of the Avengers acted weird, even the staff in the Avengers Tower and BRIDGE members didn't really think I was a crazy sight anymore. But the average New Yorker still treated me like part-celebrity, part-freak.
"Hey, take off your shirt!" one douchebag shouted in the crowd.
There's always one idiot.
"Hey, can you get someone in charge?" I said to one of the police officers on duty.
"They're on their way, ma'am," the lady said, looking apologetic. "It'll just be a minute."
"HEY, TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!" the same idiot yelled.
The female cop and I shared a look. For just a moment, I felt angry. If I actually went and confronted the idiot, he'd probably scream about being abused or something. Logically I knew that hanging him on a lamppost by his underwear would end badly in terms of my reputation, but I was actively considering it.
Frank, standing next to me, growled and turned towards the guy. I held out a hand in front of him. "Let it go. We have actual things to deal with."
He glared at the idiot, who gave Frank a smarmy smile back, before turning away. Honestly, that's the problem with guys like that. They think they win just because the people they yell at aren't supposed to punch down to them.
I ignored him as he kept on yelling at us. Apparently unsatisfied with my lack of reaction, he tried to move forward.
A cop who'd been cordoning off the area shoved him back with some prejudice. "Back off! This is a crime scene, chucklehead."
"Come one ma-" the idiot tried to argue.
"You want to complain, you wanna get taken in for disturbing the scene?" the cop warned.
I didn't have time to hear what the idiot said before someone came towards us, an older woman in business suit wear. "Frank Castle, She-Hulk? I'm Detective Leslie Perez."
Frank took her hand gruffly. "Ma'am."
The black-haired woman gave me a look I was used to, one of surprise and awe, before shaking my hand as well. "I was told there would be three of you."
"Our BRIDGE investigator should be here soon," I said.
"Huh. Well, might as well take you in for now," she turned and walked into the bank, Frank and I following.
The inside of the bank was covered in paper and pens, chunks of shattered wood scattered about. Several officers dressed in jackets that said 'crime scene' on them were dotted about the room. The room was circular, with the various teller desks surrounding the center. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, oddly unharmed by the devastation underneath it, it's glass crystals glowing in the sunlight outside. A vault door sat near the left side of the room, pieces of bent rebar and concrete hanging off of it.
"Yeah, that's the reason you're here," Detective Perez said when she noticed my gaze. "The second we noticed that we tried to figure out what the hell could have done that. Then one of our guys noticed the handprints," she pointed at them. I walked over and kneeled down to take a look.
It looked like a human hand pressed into clay, squeezing hard. Except in steel three inches thick. "I'm guessing you didn't find fingerprints, huh?"
"Nope. Whoever the superperson was, they used gloves," Perez sighed. "Gotta say, I don't like living in a world where people can just toss a vault door like this. Uh, no offense."
"None taken," I said absently. Out of curiosity, I held my hand to the print. "Holy…"
It was bigger than mine. Just barely, but it was.
"The thing is… they also beat a security guard half to death," Perez shuddered. "His ribs, arms, legs… he's lucky to be alive. Looks like he was attacked by a damn gorilla… How much strength does someone need to do something like this?" Perez asked me. "I mean, are they stronger than you? Are they bulletproof? I mean… can we even stop them when we find them?"
I looked up at her. She bit her lip and turned to look at the vault, which was covered in yellow cards with numbers, the signs of someone taking evidence. People were avoiding the sight of the vault door.
I looked at Frank. He was nudging at a nearby chunk of wood with his boot, a disinterested look on his face. "Hey, Frank, you okay?" I asked, knowing his answer was just what I needed.
"Yeah, just bored," he said idly.
Perez blinked. "You're bored?"
I laughed. "Yeah. Frank isn't as impressed by all this stuff as most people are."
He looked at Perez and shrugged. "I'm a soldier. I don't really have the luxury to be impressed. Still, this place is a lot cleaner than I thought it would be."
"Clean?" I asked, nothing all the destruction.
"Yeah," he pointed at the vault, then motioned his hand to the door. "See. This shit got destroyed in a straight line. From the vault to where the door got thrown. But everything else is fine. Fuck, the bank doors aren't even cracked."
He was right. The wooden desks had been destroyed by the door as it smashed into them, but nothing else. That got me thinking.
"You know… a while back, I had to persecute a bank robber," I said thoughtfully. "He was cooperating, so he told me a lot about how he worked."
"Oh?" Perez said. "You think that will apply here? I mean, this guy, or girl, was superhuman, you think they'll do things the way regular robbers do?"
"Absolutely. Super or not, people are people. Stupid, smart, emotional people. We're dealing with a different scale here, but," I got up and walked over to Perez with a smile. "People are people. That's the best and worst part about superpowers."
"Yeah," she winced back from me once I got close enough. I was actually surprised by that. She swallowed and turned around. "I'll leave you folks to it."
She turned and walked off a bit faster than necessary.
"...Fuck," I whispered to myself, looking around. I turned to Frank-
------
May 20, 2014
The doorbell rang, interrupting my story. Mahmoud looked over at the door, getting up to get it. I stopped him.
"I got it, babe," I rose up and answered the door, and was met by the sight of one of my favorite blondes. "Thor?"
"Hail, Lady Jennifer," he said with that old-school charm. "May I and Natasha enter? We wished to speak with Mahmoud."
"Sure!" I blinked at him. "Wait, Nat?"
"I'm here," said a voice behind Thor. The tiny redhead stepped around Thor with that crazy amount of grace she always had. She gave me a sexy smirk. "How's it going, Jen?"
"Great!" I opened the door for them. Mahmoud perked up like a puppy when he saw them.
"Hey guys! What's up?"
"You're chipper this morning," Natasha gave him a smirk. "Oh. Yeah, I get it."
"...Get what?"
"You and Lady Jennifer have affirmed your relationship at last!" Thor said with a grin.
Mahmoud turned bright as a tomato. Even with his dusky brown skin, I could very clearly see it start in his cheeks and go down along his neck to his pecs. "I-I-I-What are you guys-"
"I mean, we were already in a relationship. But yeah, we banged," I shared a grin with Nat, who gave me another smirk as she smoothly sat at the counter and stole Mahmoud's food.
"Are you guys superheroes or high schoolers?" Mahmoud grumbled, still blushing.
"Relax," Thor clapped a hand on my embarrassed boyfriend's shoulder. "It's a natural and good thing."
He actually did relax, giving me a sheepish grin. "Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty great."
So damn cute.
"Still, I'm surprised you're alive," Natasha said idly. "Tony was betting on 'death by snu-snu'."
"...You guys bet on us having sex?" I tried to sound surprised.
"I bet money on Omnitrix kinks popping up," the super-agent grinned.
As soon as she said that, my eyes landed on the Omnitrix. So did Mahmoud and Thor's. We stared at the green glowing gauntlet before sharing a look. "Uh…"
"I mean, not for the first time/Not unless she asked," Dial and I said at the same time. Then we stared at each other.
I'll be honest, I'd been half-tempted, but I didn't know if he'd be open to it. It was weird, right? Right?
Oh god, was I blushing!?
"...Awkward," Thor whispered, while Nat chuckled under her breath. Thor raised his fist to his mouth and coughed. "What were you speaking about before we entered?"
I wasn't relieved at the change in subject. Not too much anyway. I sat down to eat while Mahmoud hurriedly went to get Thor some coffee.
"Jen, uh, was talking about the mission she had while I was getting chewed up and spat out by the Savage Land," he said. His back was turned to us. Which was why he didn't notice how much his little joke affected us.
Natasha stopped eating, her emerald eyes tracing across his back. I'd have gotten jealous at the sexy spy eyeing up my boyfriend if I didn't notice the way her eyes stopped on each scar he'd gained. I wonder if he even noticed the fact he had little ones threading up and down, with a large patch on his left shoulder blade that looked like a raised spider web.
Thor sighed sadly, sitting down heavily on his chair.
I got how they felt. When we'd been lying in bed, I'd found myself counting his scars. They'd felt interesting. Little smooth bumps on his skin. When he was talking about his fights, about that Stend asshole… hearing, in detail, how each one happened, hurt. He'd almost died. And I hadn't been there.
When you saw Dial in action, turning into a giant tiger man to lift cars, into a goo monster to slip through cracks, or a pterodactyl alien that could break the speed of sound, it was hard to remember Mahmoud, the normal human who could bleed. How could he be so strong and so vulnerable at the same time?
But then, I could relate now. The memory was still fresh in my mind.
When he turned back to us, he had coffee in hand for Thor, who took it with a smile. "So, you were in the bank?"
I blinked at how suddenly he just jumped back into things. "What, should I just keep going?"
"Of course!" Thor said happily. "I love a good story. Battles won and lost, great heros triumphing! Natasha never shares her stories," he gave her a sour look.
"Why should I? None of mine are as good as yours," she teased.
Thor paused. Once again, the big guy proved he was immune to sarcasm. "True, but I still want to hear some."
"...It's a good thing you're cute."
Nat, Thor, and I looked at Mahmoud. He shrugged. "What, it's true."
I grinned at him while Thor chuckled, patting Mahmoud's shoulder. "So, right. I might as well start the story from the beginning for you guys?"
"I have nowhere to be," Nat said.
"Well, it all started at the office…"
------
At the same time I was restarting my story, my phone was buzzing on the dresser in our bedroom. A bunch of notifications from a few different sources. Later I'd take a look at it and find out that while I was pretty happy about the state of the Avengers, some people had some different opinions. Polarizing opinions. I had to stop myself from going out and punching idiots after a few minutes of reading and watching the dumber stuff being said about us.
Like the frog said. It ain't easy being green.
------
Interlude: Social Media
"J. Jonah Jameson here, from the DailyBugle.net, to talk about the events of the last few months!" A bombastic man said far louder than needed. He was balding, the remains of flattop haircut starting to fade, wrinkles etched into his face. But when he spoke, it was with an energetic and aggressive manner, his wrinkles giving him the air of a dignified man who was used to righteous anger, for good or ill.
He was wearing a simple suit and sitting at a black desk, the screen behind him showing the bugle logo of his news organization.
"Ever since HYDRA revealed they've been infecting SHIELD like the parasites they are, and Captain America took them down, we've been living in a damn chaotic world, damn chaotic listeners! But lucky for you, JJ is here to break it all down for you with my unbiased report!" he leaned forward. "Now folks, I'm not gonna sugar coat it! Things aren't rosy in the world today! Anyone who claims we live in a better world today is lying to you! But things aren't all bad either. So let's start with the good."
A picture of Captain America came up next to him, the all-American standing on top of rubble, a wide smile on his face as he carried a child in his arms and helped an injured woman stand, an older man over his shoulder.
"First off, we've got the greatest damn hero in the world still standing up for us!" JJ pointed at the image. "In a world of freaks running around claiming to be heroes, Captain America is still the leader of the Avengers. Hell, his sidekick, Falcon," the image of Sam in flight over New York showed up next to Cap. "Is even leading their offshoot team. It's a damn good sign, to show that even when all the crazies are running around, we still have an honest American taking charge in the field!"
JJ's smile was temporary. "But then, we have to talk about that. About the freaks we've got in the world today. Starting with this guy."
An image of Dial showed up. The brown-skinned hero was scowling, dust and mud across his face, hunched over. A far less heroic image than the one shown of Captain America.
"Now, I love Cap. It's easy to tell why. But I have to question his judgment. Why does he trust this man?" Another image, this time of Dial in Blitzwolfer form, biting into a tri-horned demons shoulder like a vicious animal. "Dial, real name Mahmoud Schahed! He came out of nowhere with a watch that he claims holds aliens he can turn into. Inserts himself into the Avengers right when HYDRA makes them desperate for allies, then starts pulling in others to join in no less. Where do I even start!?"
JJ slammed a fist onto the desk. "First off, he's too damn powerful! This guy, kid really, shows up and what? He can turn into eleven different aliens that can each be an Avenger on their own? And does anyone remember this?"
An image of a helicarrier appeared. An Upgraded Helicarrier, completely black and covered in green lines like circuitry. It spun it's cannons in various directions and started firing. Green waves of energy split the skies, ripping apart HYDRA forces in moments.
"We're dealing with someone who can turn a helicarrier into a superweapon," JJ said, his voice foreboding in tone. "That's not the least of what he can do either."
JJ was replaced by footage. Four Arms sparring with the Hulk, their fists sending visible shockwaves through the air. Diamondhead slicing through tanks with blades of crystal. Big Chill moving through walls before blasting bursts of ice. Men getting beaten by an invisible force before Fasttrack appeared. Goop burning through a glass window with acid as a man screamed and ran away. Fasttrack blasting massive waves of blue light from his tendrils. Swampfire blasting fire. Rath laughing maniacally as he ripped into HYDRA soldiers, screaming out slurs and taunts. Jury Rigg with a sadistic smile on his face as he hefted a nightmarish gun that inflated the heads of demons like balloons until they couldn't move anymore. Wildmutt, covered in blood and snarling as it fought dire wolves from out of prehistory.
"Let's not forget his 'friends'," JJ said, positively incensed. "First, we've got Carl 'Crusher' Creel," the image of Creel appeared, midway in turning into steel. More images appeared, such as Creel in his boxing days. "A former thug and criminal! Known for being a mob enforcer of all things! And then what did he do!? Now I know what you want to say, listeners. 'But Jonah, Creel was reformed!"
He shook his head. "Don't be foolish. Creel was a criminal for a damn long time. Are we supposed to just trust that this career criminal has reformed!? Tell that to the victims who walk the streets of New York, fearing the name of 'Crusher' Creel!"
"And what about Russia!?" the image of the Winter Guard appeared, standing proud in the sunlight. "Now, I have no problem with fostering better relations between nations. Hell, I welcome it," he scowled. "But the Winter Guard is just the start of a new problem. Government superhero teams. Teams that will defend the nations of their own interests, first and foremost. Worse, teams that will do work for governments!"
"Say what you will about the Avengers, but when Rio needed help, they went," JJ soured further. "I'll even give credit to Dial. That kid saved lives out there, right alongside Captain America. I didn't see a single Winter Guard member fighting out there, saving people from the rubble."
He slammed a fist on the table. "So why the hell is one of them an Avenger!"
The image of Fantasma appeared, dressed in her purple uniform, floating on a platform of magic and glowing violet.
"A self-proclaimed witch," JJ scoffed, showing just what he thought of that. "Who we know nothing about! She has exactly one good deed to her name that we know about, and that was in service to her own country!? Let's break out a hypothetical. Let's say this 'witch'," he did some quote marks. "Has to help the Avengers. And Russia decides it's against their best interests. You know what she'll choose? Russia. Every Time."
JJ shrugged. "Now, if she proves me wrong, fantastic. But I doubt it."
He leaned back in his seat. "I could go further. Talk about how BRIDGE is coming very close to becoming the strongest damn army on Earth, with a bevy of superhumans under their control called 'Graveyarders' according to my sources. How all their soldiers are packed with tech that can rip through tanks… But I will say one thing."
He tapped a single finger on the table. "I am warning you. But I am also here to tell you, I have hope. I am worried that these are the signs of bad things to come. I am worried that governments will take cues from Russia and we'll have big government building secret teams of superhumans, black ops with superpowers, with all the wonderful actions that follow," he lost that excited tone to his voice. "The last few months have shown us we're vulnerable. How dangerous things have become. At any moment, the world can fall out from under us… But we're also protected.
"I may warn you about the possibility of Dial and others becoming threats, because it would be idiotic to just take them at face value! But Captain America, the very man who brought down HYDRA, trusts him. They went shopping damn it!"
A picture of Mahmoud and Steve side by side in Forbidden Planet appeared, the two grinning as they pointed at a comic book.
"If Dial is on the up and up, if we don't end up fighting a war against that insanely powerful alien, then we've got a hell of an ally on our side. If BRIDGE really has shed themselves of HYDRA, and Maria Hill isn't going to use her personal army to start shutting down democracy, then we'll have the world's most advanced soldiers ready to fight off any superpowers we had to fear!"
He calmed down very fast. "It's a big if, I know. But New Yorkers, Rio natives, and much more, know that 'if' is worth it. I'll take the Hulk over the damned Chitauri, I'll take Tony Stark over any demons, and I'll take Dial over robot monkeys."
"...And let's talk about that. Robot monkeys. Because while I will be keeping an eye on the freaks claiming to be helping us, let's not forget the freaks that are confirmed enemies!"
"HYDRA is still out there! Those monsters are still plotting to take away your, our, freedoms! We can't just sit and wait to do something about that! HYDRA needs to be eradicated," the last was said with vicious anger to it. "Then we have things like demons flying around, countries making their own superteams, even AIM is apparently on the rise. There are threats everywhere."
"And honestly, AIM?" he looked incredulous. "They just got accused of trying to kill Tony Stark, a leader of industry, and the PRESIDENT. And now, the United States Military is going to get back in bed with them again? I don't care if AIM starts making tech that blows everything we've got out of the water! Do not trust them!"
He slammed a fist on the table and growled. "We're about to cut to a commercial for crap nobody wants- What?" JJ stopped to look at someone off-screen. "The hell are you mouthing over there, Jared. No! No, I'm sticking with what I said, damnit! If they want to charge us out the ass so they can sell whatever garbage they want to trick the American people out of, then I'm damn well telling people about it! Except for that 'manscaping' trimmer, the wife likes that one."
------
Author's Note:
That's the chapter for now, along with something I promised a while ago. Looks at the way the world is responding to Dial.
The next chapters of Dial should be ending with things like that until we finish the She-Hulk arc. Which itself should be relatively short, if brutal when it comes to the ending. Should be fun.
I have a list of suggestions for portions of society I want to highlight, including young Kamala's view of the world, but if you guys have more, let me know.
In the meantime, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Even a dollar a month will help me to start writing this story full-time, and five-dollar patreons get to read these chapters four days ahead of time!
Next time, Jen and Frank start to realize just what they're dealing with, Nat steals Dial's food, and the FBI shows up. Kinda.
KillingYouNicely
I've seen things. They weren't really interesting.
- Location
- Australia
Man, I absolutely love J Jonah. When his bias against Spiderman gets in the way, he's just a humorous shouty-man. But when he gets past that and actually talks frankly? He's a pretty awesome reporter, and he's never afraid to say what needs to be said.
Go JJ.
Go JJ.
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...is it bad that I kinda like this version of Jameson? Anyone willing to badmouth advertisers has earned some points in my book.
- Location
- texas
He is based on the movies version, who when confronted by a supervillain looking for Peter Parker, risked his own life to lie through his teeth to protect him, rather than the comics version, who funded supervillains who then killed people, so no, i wouldn't say it's bad.
He may like money, but he's absolutely gonna rip you apart for the shady ways you try to get it, advertisers.
What, that well-meaning science organization!? Why, they're just the people trying to help the United States Military with their tech problems! Nothing shady at all!
Also slightly on the game version. I do love the movie version, though the MCU one is worse than most. He outed a teenager as a superhero to the world. What a dick move. I mean, I guess he thought Peter was a murderer, but that was still shady.
- Location
- Chile
Well, the tape could have ben sent to multiple place and he might have wanted to be the first to play it.
TimEd
Meteor maker
this is supposed to be Feedback I think?
Damnit, thought I fixed this.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Gotta say, I really like this version of JJ. Nothing he's saying is really unreasonable and even if he is paranoid about Dial and such, he's willing to at least be open to the concept that they might prove his paranoia wrong and tell his viewers as much.
105
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
Well, Nat and Thor, now that you're all caught up on the story, ya freeloaders. ("Another coffee, please." "Here you go, Thor.")
Frank and I got to talking about the scene.
"You said you had to prosecute a bank robber, right?" Frank looked up at me. "That guy give you any tips?"
"Well, what you said got me thinking. About this place being cleaner than you thought?" I looked around. "Normal bank robberies work off Occam's Razor. It means-"
His eyes widened. "Lex parsimoniae, right. Simplest solution is the best."
"Uh, yeah. Kinda didn't expect you to know about it."
He smirked. "What, you thought I was just some jarhead?"
"I once saw you take a knight in Rio out with a catom ax."
"And you're eight feet tall and green, I don't insult your intelligence."
Fair enough. "Well, in the case of a robbery, the question is, 'how do I get the goods without ending up in pain?' You go for the simplest way from there. So the first step is information. And the best way to do that easily in a bank is to just to act like a customer."
The rough soldier nodded, looking around the room full of cops. In my mind's eye, I could imagine the place as it was before. A clean and orderly bank, with tellers and customers. I imagined one of them walking around and carefully eyeing things.
"Sometimes though, it'll be someone on the inside," I could picture a teller carefully noting things down. "Either way, they'll keep track of things. Figure out the shifts of guards, the way police patrol the neighborhoods, work or come in late to find out how many people are likely to be around at night."
"Basically the same thing army intelligence should do."
I could hear a bit of annoyance in his tone. "Should, do?"
"Bad experience with a fuck up of an intelligence agent," Frank smirked. "Punched his eye out."
"And I'm supposed to be the scary one," I mused to myself. I looked around a bit more, still thinking. "They needed intel. Once they had it, they enter… where? From the back door? No… An employee entrance. Nobody said anything about any doors being broken down other than this bad boy. They must have found a way in. And then there's no reports on any camera catching them."
"A hacker, maybe?" Frank asked.
"Hacking isn't as easy as pop culture makes it out to be. Someone hacking the cameras would require a huge amount of skill. Banks can't allow themselves to be robbed. Not because of their money, that's insured. But if a bank gets robbed, it ruins their reputation. So cybersecurity has to be strong. That's just logical sense, especially for a big one like this," I waved around at the pretty place. "Hell, I think these desks are mahogany or something. At least, they were," I kicked one of the random pieces of wood, sending it scattering across the floor.
"Okay, they get the intel," Frank said. "They enter the bank, head straight to the vault, open it with super-strength, run out. Nothing super complex then. And no evidence other than we're looking for someone who's got bigger hands than you."
"Not that much bigger," I grumbled to myself.
"We got something!" someone said in the back. Frank and I turned to see someone waving from the back. Hurriedly we followed them, Perez joining us. Once we got there, the crime scene tech led us to an employee exit, Frank and I sharing a look at that. Outside, we walked down the street for a while before reaching a section where an officer was guarding one of the yellow lines. There, just on the ground near a dead tree, one of those planted on sidewalks to give a bit of life to the city, was half a bootprint.
It was pretty damn big. Bigger than my own feet. Of course, size wasn't any measure of strength. I mean, Fasttrack is a pretty normal sized alien, but he can lift a hell of a lot for his size. Still, this was pretty ridiculous.
"This is perfect," Perez said, kneeling down as the tech began preparing a mold. "We finally have something."
"Then you better tell me about it," we turned to see a woman standing there. She was about waist height to me, which made her a few inches shorter than Frank. She had long black hair, green eyes, and the looks of a supermodel. She knew it too. Even under her black jacket with the proud block letters displaying a familiar FBI, she wore a tight orange t-shirt that displayed her midriff, a tight black skirt that stopped at about mid-thigh, and a pair of black high heels, the tattoo of a chain around her left ankle. She looked like a high school student fantasy of an FBI agent. "Agent Ananastasia Rinaldi, FBI."
"...Ananastasia. Not Anastasia?" I asked hesitantly. Seriously, spellcheck hates that name. Has a red squiggle under it and everything.
She smirked, cocking her hip and placing a hand on it. "What, did I stutter?"
"What is the FBI doing here?" Perez said, sounding annoyed.
"Asking why you're letting this freak and her friend intrude on my investigation," she glared up at me. "We don't need some dumb strongwomen trampling around our evidence."
Okay. Bitch.
"It's not 'your' anything," I growled. "This is a BRIDGE case. Or you haven't seen the fact that someone who can toss around cars is involved in this? You planning on taking them down with a gun?"
"Oh? So you're just here as dumb muscle?" she chuckled. "That makes sense. In that case, why don't you let the professionals handle this, and we'll call you when someone needs to throw a punch."
"Not happening," Frank stepped up next to me, growling. "This isn't a debate. I haven't memorized the rules or anything, but as far as I know, any superhuman activity means BRIDGE has jurisdiction."
"Then prove it," Ananastasia sighed. "I mean, are you two even certified for this kind of thing?"
Damn it. She finally had a point. Frank and I weren't actually investigators or detectives or anything. Where the hell was that BRIDGE agent who was supposed to be helping us?
Perez looked between us awkwardly. "Maybe one of you better call your superiors so I can figure who exactly I'm supposed to kick out."
"Good idea," the smug FBI agent flipped her hair.
"I'll call command," Frank looked at Ananastasia (stupid damn name) like she was scum on his foot. "In the meantime, if you touch any evidence-"
"What, you'll pout at me?" she sighed, walking up to press a finger against his chest. "You're cute, but not that cute."
She ran that finger along his chest in one of the most blatant attempts at seduction I've ever seen. Perez and I shared a look of surprise. Frank, on the other hand, was unfazed.
"No. I'll break your fucking arm," Frank growled, slapping her hand away. He turned away without another look at her, raising his phone up to his ear.
She looked startled. Then pissed off. When she saw I noticed, she quickly hid it. "If I see a single green handprint in there, I'm going to be speaking to your superiors."
"If you talk to me like that again, I'm going to shove your heels up your ass."
Ananastasia didn't seem to know what to say to that, so she just huffed and turned away. Perez and I were left behind with the crime technician, who was desperately trying to ignore the world around her while making a mold of the bootprint.
"...As soon as we're done measuring dicks," Perez said, looking as annoyed as I was. "I'm gonna suggest you head to the hospital to talk to the security guard. He hasn't woken up yet, but-"
"It'll be worth a shot," I agreed immediately.
"Is she right?" Perez asked. "I mean, I know the FBI usually has sole jurisdiction among federal law enforcement agencies to investigate bank robberies, but BRIDGE should be able to take over when there's evidence of superhumans."
I crossed my arms and sighed. "I'm pretty damn sure that FBI chick doesn't have a leg to stand on. But it's more than possible someone up the ladder is trying to take the case from us, so we still have to make a stand. It's bullshit, but bullshit we have to shovel."
"I hate politics."
So does everyone in the universe.
------
May 20, 2014
Thor lowered his coffee and frowned. "Hmm. I have never had to encounter such a situation. Is it really so complicated?"
"I guess as the crown prince, ya never had to deal with that kind of stuff," Mahmoud said. "Either you had jurisdiction or you were too damn strong to stop."
Thor chuckled embarrassedly. "Well, I have always been asked for help. I never had to worry about this organization or that deciding I wasn't allowed to aid the people."
"Whatever the case, she had no right to interfere," Natasha leaned back in her chair, placing one leg over the other. "We do have some joint FBI and BRIDGE operations, but nothing close to a problem of jurisdiction ever pops up."
"Yeah," Mahmoud rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean, the FBI is usually damn good. I'm supposed to head to one of their profiling conferences actually. But they don't have guys who can punch superhumans out just yet. Which doesn't make them useless or anything."
"Of course," Natasha replied. "But it does mean that we're supposed to aid them. Imagine if the FBI had to hunt down a killer with an Omnitrix of their own."
Mahmoud gave her a look that told me he'd had that worry once or twice, a sad and morose look.
"What happened to the agent who was supposed to help you, anyways?" Natasha asked.
"Well, Frank found that out pretty quick," I got up. "Come on, I wanna grab a drink. I'll tell you the rest in the rec room."
------
May 18, 2014
When Frank came back after fifteen minutes on the phone, that Ananastasia chick had disappeared at some point. Which, seriously?
"She's just gone?" I asked Perez as we stood in front of the bank. "She decided to leave after demanding we prove we have jurisdiction?"
"That's what our officers say they saw her do," Perez looked as frustrated as I was.
"Well, what did BRIDGE have to say, anyway?" I asked Frank.
"That we have jurisdiction, and Ananastasia's superior is gonna give her a dressing down," he said simply.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Perez shook her head. "I'm so happy we could waste our time with all this then. First we have a robber stronger than fucking She-Hulk, now this..."
She turned and walked away fast, clenching a tanned fist as she did. I gaped at her.
"Stronger?" I growled. What the hell? Because this thief had bigger hands and feet!? Goddamnit, I could toss tanks, why was I feeling like I had to prove myself?
"Also, we aren't getting backup," Frank said with some frustration to his tone.
"What?" I asked.
"The BRIDGE investigator is working on another case, one that takes priority," he shook his head. "We're supposed to stand down for now."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah," Frank looked frustrated. "We aren't investigators, so we're just waiting on them to find someone else. We're to collect the evidence and coordinate with the NYPD if needed, but we're basically just going to sit around with our thumbs up our asses for now."
"...Who says we need someone else?" I asked. See, this is where I got reckless.
Frank cocked his head to the side, but didn't say anything. I spoke quickly.
"I mean, we aren't investigators, but we do have some evidence, right? And we know that a security guard was sent to the hospital. He's gotta know something. I mean, if he knows even the hair color of his attackers, that can be useful," I looked around. "Come on, Frank. You really wanna let this go?"
"We were told to," he scowled up at me. "Why the hell are you suddenly invested?"
I hesitated for a moment. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure why at first. But then, I had to remember just what kind of day I'd had.
Perez being so nervous around me as well as doubting my strength, that FBI bitch. After so many years of proving myself in every conversation, showing my father, my fellow lawyers, every criminal, cop, and client that I was more than just a mousy girl, that I was strong and smart enough to take on anything that came my way, I'd gotten used to proving myself.
When I became my bodacious green self, I hadn't needed to do that anymore. All the Avengers were respectful of me, Matt and Foggy treated me like what I was. A sexy, smart, super-strong lawyer.
But now, in the streets of New York, I was feeling that same urge I once had. People didn't think I could step up. Ananastasia didn't think I was smart enough. Perez thought that the robber was stronger than me. I was feeling the burn anyone does when a challenge pops up. The burn to beat something.
Yeah, see. I knew you three would understand.
Frank looked more annoyed than anything. "Ms. Walters, the only interrogations I've ever been involved in involved a lot more violence than you might like. What do you want us to do when we get to the hospital, ask nicely?"
"We aren't 'interrogating' anyone, remember? This guy got beat to hell, and we're gonna beat up the people that did it to him. You don't have to convince him to tell us anything. We go in, ask him some questions, go out."
He glared up at me for a long moment. He looked left, then right. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Why not?"
"Yes!" I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, having to bend over to do it, and grinned at my sour ally. "You won't regret this, Frankie."
"Get off of me," he growled.
"Ah, don't be so grumpy. This will be fun!"
------
"I take back everything. This sucks," I said as I stared out at a sea of reporters in front of the hospital.
"I already regret this," Frank growled, glaring daggers at a young man shoving a microphone against the window. We were sitting in a taxi, slowly rolling along while people were shouting at us. Dozens of flashes were going off all around, cameras getting thousands of pictures. Seriously, I was literally just sitting in a cab, what were they hoping for?
The taxi driver, an older Haitian man in his forties, looked back at me. He had a cool accent, a 43CX almost smooth. "Ms. Walters, I'm really honored to drive you and everything, but these people aren't letting me go any further."
"It's fine," I grinned at the guy and got a bashful smile back. "Thanks for everything, Samuel."
"Call me Sammy, Miss," he said with a kind smile. Then he looked around. "...Will you be needing a ride after, Miss? I can pull the car around back?"
"You sure about that?" I asked.
"Of course, Ms. Walters," his smile became a bit softer. "You Avengers have been protecting us. I don't mind driving ya."
I tell ya, that made me feel warm inside. I nodded at him, then looked at Frank. "Okay. We run for the entrance?"
"Yeah," he said, shaking his head. "Damnit, I miss being able to shoot things that annoyed me."
We shoved open the car doors. I tried to be gentle, but I still ended up sending a few people flying back.
As soon as I stood out of the car, I towered over the crowd. For half a second, they finally quieted down. Then they started shouting questions.
"Jennifer! Who's that guy that was in the car with you, a new boyfriend!?"
"Any truth to the rumours that you'll be modeling in Victoria's Secret next week!?"
"Are you dating Brad Pitt!?"
"What's your favorite pizza!?"
"How was breakfast!?"
"Why aren't there nude photos of you online!?"
"What's your favorite movie!?"
I pushed through as gently as I could. Some guys tried to get in my way. I picked up two men and placed them gently aside while speaking. "I'm here for a job. Just get out of the way."
The sheer amount of people ended up slowing me down. When I finally reached the entrance, Frank was there with some of the hospital's security guards. They stopped the reporters from entering at the doors, shoving them back. "How the hell did they know I was here!?" I yelled, annoyed as hell by now.
"If it wasn't for the stupid questions they were asking, I'd think someone knew we came for the security guard," Frank said.
That… was a good point. No one seemed to know that I was here for an actual mission. Just that I was on my way here. Actually, there were a lot of paparazzi at the hospital too. More than should be here considering I didn't even know I would be at the hospital until about thirty minutes ago.
Before I could think any further on that, a nurse came up to us. He was a short man in blue scrubs, with large forearms and a tight beard. "Ms. She-Hulk? You're here to speak to Mr. Romero?"
"Yeah," I said immediately, recognizing the last name of the security guard. "Is he awake?"
"He just did," the nurse turned and started walking quickly. "He was pretty beat up, but the guy is damn tough. He's ready to answer any questions you guys have. Honestly, I think he's half-ready to just go out and beat people up himself."
"My kinda guy," Frank said with a smirk.
"As long as he's good to talk," I said as we strode down the hallway. We entered an elevator and stood there for a bit. The nurse kept looking up at me as we waited. I looked back at him, curious.
"Sorry, it's just… never seen a superhuman before," he said nervously. "You're really tall."
I smirked. He blushed, and looked relieved when the door snapped open, rushing out.
Frank and I followed, heading down the hallway together. We passed a man in a doctor's coat and finally got to the end of the hall a little after that. As we came close, a loud pitched whining sound could be heard. I was confused as to what it was at first. The nurse, on the other hand, cursed and ran forward. At the end of the hall, two police officers were standing nearby in horror as some nurses and a female doctor were working around a man dying on his bed.
"Code Blue!" someone yelled.
"What the hell happened!?" the nurse shouted as he ran in.
"We don't know, he just started coding!" the doctor shouted as his patient was dying.
They got to work around the man on the bed, desperately trying to save him as Frank and I watched. I stared at them for a moment, thoughts swirling through my head.
Our one witness dying before we could get to him. Paparazzi outside, gathered early. Like someone had been…
"Oh no," my eyes widened in horror. "Someone did this."
"What do you mean?" Frank asked, looking up at me. Even as he asked, I saw him come to the same realization.
"They were trying to keep us from finding them," I looked around. Nobody was looking guilty. Except… What the hell was a doctor doing going for an elevator when someone was dying?
"Come on!" I shouted at Frank, rushing for the elevator as fast as I could. I kicked my shoes off to sprint as fast as I could. The elevator was already closed. I didn't let that stop me.
I stopped in front of the doors and slipped my fingers in between them, shoving the metal doors apart with a loud whining sound. I could see the elevator going down below me. Without hesitating, I leaped down the dark shaft, wrapping a hand around one of the metal cables. I could feel the metal wire trying to scrape the skin off my palm, but thankfully I was too tough for that. I fell towards the elevator below as it came to a stop and quickly squeezed down on the cable in my hand, braking myself just over the elevator. I landed a bit heavily on the elevator, the whole thing shaking under my bare feet.
"Fuck!" someone shouted from inside. I leaned over and grabbed the door on top of it, pulling hard. The metal crumpled like paper under my fingers. I ripped it off more easily than I expected, stumbling back onto my ass with a yelp.
"Holy fuck!" someone shouted again. The doors for the elevator dinged open under me.
"No, no, NO!" I got up and leaped down into the elevator car as the fake doctor rushed out. I leaped forward and grabbed his coat, only for him to slip it off and keep running as I stumbled. "You son of a-!"
I ran after him as he sprinted for the doors. I smashed through the hospital doors in a shower of glass. He screamed.
And someone came out of the skies to kick me in the stomach. I gasped in pain, the booted foot shoving me back.
Pain filled me like nothing I've felt since I first went green. I went bouncing across the hospital floor, flipping over and over, until I crashed into a wall behind me.
"W-What just-" I gasped, coughing as I grabbed at my stomach. I looked up at the doors. A redheaded giant with long hair was spinning around to run away as well, disappearing around the corner.
"Walters!" Frank shouted as he came from the stairs. "You good!?"
"No," I snarled, snapping to my feet and rushing forward. I ran outside and spun my head left and right. Nothing. They were gone.
"Goddamn it!" I roared, more glass shattering behind me, and slammed a foot into the ground. Some car alarms began to sound while the ground shook, a series of cracks under my feet. I breathed hard, glaring at nothing while people screamed.
"...Walters," I spun around. Frank was there, holding a pistol in his hand. He was staring at me like he was deciding whether to point it at me or not. "...Come on. We'll track them down."
Still panting, I looked around. Some paparazzi were headed towards us, confused by the ruckus. I turned and walked inside, trying to hold my anger back. But it was getting harder and harder.
Mr. Romero had died. And I wasn't even able to stop the people who'd done it.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my StarkRigg phone.
"Who you calling?" Frank asked as people started coming over curiously.
"A friend," I waited for barely a moment before the line picked up.
"Hello, Ms. Walters," a British accent said. "How may I be of assistance?"
"Jarvis," I looked behind me. "I'm gonna need you to help me track someone done. Might need to hack some cameras."
"Simply inform me of where I should start," he said smoothly.
------
May 20, 2014
"Red-haired giant?" Mahmoud asked calmly as we finally reached the rec room. He went to the bar and grabbed a bottle of vodka, tossing it to Thor, who grinned at him while Mahmoud went to the fridge and started pulling out ice cream.
"Pass me a bowl of rocky road?" Mahmoud gave me a grin and a nod, looking over at Nat, who shook her head. "And yeah. That was all I saw at the time though, just a nine-foot tall redhead. The bitch suckerpunched me," hard to hide just how much that still pissed me off. "Later I learned her name."
"Mary. Mary MacPherran. And it turns out, she had a lot on her mind at the time."
------
May 18, 2014
Mary MacPherran
Mary ran into the car and looked back at the hospital. "Go, go, go damnit!"
The driver smashed down on the accelerator, spinning off. She looked out of the back of the car window and had enough time to see that green bitch coming running back out of the doors before they disappeared around the corner.
"That bitch is alive!?" the idiot next to her shouted. He was wearing a doctor's coat and looked absolutely freaked out.
"She's an Avenger you idiot, of course one hit didn't take her out!" Mary shouted angrily, smacking him in the face with a casual wave. He screamed in pain as his nose broke. "Why the hell did you let her look at you?"
Blood poured from his nose. "You fuckin-!"
"What?" Mary grabbed his shirt and pulled him close. "I fucking… what?"
He stared at her, tears in his eyes. The driver said nothing, focusing as hard as he could on the road.
God, that was delicious. The fear in his eyes as blood poured from his nose. Mary pulled him closer, pressing her other hand to his neck. She forgot her anger. Instead, she began to squeeze. A sense of ecstasy filled her when his eyes widened. She could feel him begin to struggle.
She brought him closer, pressing his forehead to hers and breathing deeply. He coughed, a bit of blood landing on her face. "Why did you let yourself get seen? You made me do this."
You made me do this. She'd heard people say that to her all her life. Her step-father first.
Saying it now, as a weak pathetic person clutched and pulled at her arms, crying silently, her hand squeezing, made her feel so perfect. She finally had power.
She let him go. He breathed in, gasping. Then she clenched her hands hard. She felt flesh give way under her hands, felt something rip. He tried to say something, but the blood had begun to pour over her fingers.
That feeling was something she clenched to. The power over someone else's life. She slowly pushed him back as he died.
"I'll burn the car when we get home," the driver whispered.
"Good," Mary leaned forward in her seat and pressed herself to the back of the driver's. She brought her right hand around to press an index finger against his chest. For a moment, she hesitated. The driver was cute, but she'd never gotten used to flirting with people.
Then, the thought struck her. If he refused, why would that matter? She could do whatever she wanted.
She smiled. Just like her stepfather would. "Come to my room when you're done."
The driver nodded quickly, swallowing. Mary smiled and ran a finger along his chest, knowing she could rip him apart in seconds.
Knowing that an Avenger was after them made her feel much less confident, but killing the man had her on top of the world once again.
------
Interlude: Kids
Queens
Peter Parker/Nothing Yet
"Okay, put that piece there!" Ned said loudly. Peter leaned over and gently put in the lego piece, Ned holding two others apart to let it fit. If either of them had been doing this alone, they would have had some trouble with it, but together, Peter was able to get the job done.
When the piece finally clicked in, Ned and Peter shared a sigh of relief before grinning at each other.
Ned Leeds and Peter Parker. Friends for life. Ned Leeds was a slightly overweight young man with dark tanned skin, who's smile tended to spread across his entire face. Peter, on the other hand, was almost painfully thin and pale. When he smiled, it was usually very nervously, as though someone would wipe it off his face at any moment.
Peter leaned back in his seat. They were sitting in Peter's room after school, working together on their latest project. A Lego model of the Firehouse from Ghostbusters. The two thirteen year olds had had to save for months together to get the box, but they were having a lot of fun putting it together.
"It looks great!" Ned grinned at Peter. "I can't believe we're almost finished."
Peter grinned right back at his friend, leaning back further, only to yelp when he almost fell backwards. He'd never had the best sense of balance. "Yeah. We should probably decide how we'll carry it to your house."
"You sure man?" Ned said nervously. "I mean, it's already here, we can just leave it?"
Peter shook his head. "It's okay. I want you to have it. I don't have a place to put it anyways."
That was true. Peter's room was sadly a bit sparse, looking more like an unlived in college dorm room than something a teenage boy would live in. Besides, Peter felt a little guilty taking the Firehouse from Ned when his best friend had paid so much for it.
(Peter ignored the fact that he'd paid as much as Ned had.)
"Well, thank you, man," Ned said with a smile. Then his phone beeped a notification. Grabbing it, he raised it up before laughing. "Ha! Look!"
He showed it to Peter by tapping the screen, a blue beam coming from a section of the phone. The new StarkRigg phones had the ability to pop up holograms of whatever their screens were showing. The feature took a lot of power from the phone, but it was so useful nobody minded.
The hologram was a picture of Tony Stark rolling his eyes sarcastically at Chernobog. On the image was a caption saying 'yeah, he's not evil at AAAAAALLLLL'. The dark god was roaring maniacally.
Peter laughed. As much as the Russian government had tried to highlight that the Winter Guard was a force of good, they couldn't hide Chernobog. Not when the literal dark god had access to the internet.
"Look at this one!" The next picture had the caption 'When People Rant About Demons Online'. It showed Chernobog sitting on a throne with a tub of popcorn, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Are you following him?" Peter asked Ned incredulously.
"Yeah, he's really funny!" Ned said with a grin. "He says he's going on a trip to visit America soon. He wants Netflix to do a documentary on it."
"Seriously?" Peter said incredulously.
"Oh, here's your favorite again!" Ned turned the phone to show Tony Stark in his armor with Dial, in Diamondhead form, Thor, and the Hulk, the four laughing together as bullets bounced off of them. 'When you and the homies have bulletproof opinions.'
"Well, he's really cool," Peter mumbled, getting a grin from Ned. Honestly, that was just part of why Peter admired Tony Stark so much. Peter could still remember being a kid, standing in front of a giant one-eyed robot. He'd been wearing an Iron Man mask and glove. He was so scared. All he could think to do was to use his toy glove to shoot it. It was dumb. The glove was just a toy. The robot had pointed a gun at him. He closed his eyes.
For a moment, when he heard a repulsor blast, Peter had the crazy thought that his glove had worked. His eyes snapped open.
The robot was gone. And Iron Man stood there. Tall and proud, his red and gold suit almost glowing in the light. Peter, for the rest of his life, would remember the sight of Iron Man's blue eyes looking down at him.
"Nice work, kid."
Then he took off into the sky.
After that, how could Peter not think Iron Man was the coolest hero ever?
"Hey boys," a man came up to the door, smiling down at them. A warm feeling came over Peter when he saw the man. "I think it's about time I drove Ned home, don't you?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Parker," Ned said with a smile.
"Uncle Ben, can you help us carry this?" Peter asked.
The man stepped in to look over the Firehouse. He had thick brown hair similar in color to Peter's, and light blue eyes, a short beard about his chin. He gently picked it up in strong hands, looking it over carefully. "Yeah, I think we can carry it out, Petey."
Uncle Ben smiled at Peter Parker. To Peter, that meant the entire world.
------
Jersey City
Kamala Khan/Nothing Yet
"Kamala! Dinner!"
Kamala winced in front of her computer. The young girl was reading a fanfic on freakingcool.com, a website for nerds like her. She'd only recently gotten into it, and was quickly becoming obsessed with the stories on there.
Though she had to hide some of the guilty pleasure stories from her parents. She was only 12 after all, they'd freak if they found out that this site had shipping stories. Er, the sexy kind of shipping, not the literal one.
She giggled just a bit at the latest story she was reading, a funny one where the Avengers were dropped into a magical world and fought against demons. She'd spent some time playing with her best friend, Bruno, where they'd play out that exact scenario!
It was so much fun! She played She-Hulk and he would play Captain America, and they'd beat up demons. Or aliens. Or HYDRA. A couple of times though, she'd play Dial.
She-Hulk was her favorite Avenger. A tall, powerful, pretty woman, who was always confident and spoke her mind, and just did whatever she wanted.
But Dial was… well, he was Muslim. Like her. He spoke about it sometimes, real casually. He was pretty cool too. He could turn into all sorts of different aliens and fight bad guys all over New York! He was someone who looked like he could be her brother, who was also a world famous superhero.
She wanted to be like She-Hulk and Dial and Black Widow. She wanted to be an Avenger.
Which was why it sucked that her parents wanted her to be a good wife.
"Dinner time, beta," a Pakistani woman walked into Kamala's room. She was in her early thirties, an older version of Kamala, with the same long black hair and bright chocolate eyes set into light brown skin, some small wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. Kamala had her back turned to her, so she missed the warm smile her mother had as she stared for a moment at her young daughter.
By the time her daughter had turned around, her mother was frowning just a bit. "Beta, that doesn't look like your homework."
This gentle admonishment was met by a wince from Kamala. "I'm only reading a bit! I'll do my homework soon!"
"After dinner," Muneeba Khan told her daughter, getting a groan from her.
"Okay, ammu… can I visit Bruno later? We're supposed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together!"
"Beta, it's almost night time," when Kamala pouted cutely at her mother, Muneeba hesitated. "You can call him on my phone and watch it with him on the photo-call."
"You mean video-chat," Kamala corrected immediately, before grinning and rushing towards her mother, hugging tight around the waist. "Thank you, ammu!"
Muneeba smiled down at her daughter as she rushed away. She turned to look about the room.
Recently, Kamala had become obsessed with the Avengers. So it was no surprise that she had bought a lot of action figures. They were placed haphazardly all about the floor, on the bed, and in the closet. On the table was a figure of She-Hulk, her fist raised in a pumping motion, placed prominently in the room Muneeba pursed her lips thoughtfully.
She wasn't sure how to feel about her daughters obsession. She was a good, smart girl, if a very energetic one. Maybe she would grow out of it?
Then she noticed one of the figures. Dial. In his human form, wearing green and black armor, resting on his back with legs and arms spread awkwardly.
Dial hadn't realized it, but he had a mixed reputation in the Muslim community. He proclaimed his religion, but no one ever saw him go to prayer. He openly dated a non-muslim woman and had been seen partying with men and women who had been drinking.
Yet, he did not drink himself. He was well known for his work as a superhero, had been seen literally killing evil jinn and protecting people across the world. He was a complicated subject all around.
Muneeba hesitated before finally closing the door. When she got downstairs, she took a look at her family. Yusuf, tired from work, smiled at his daughter as she excitedly talked about her latest obsession. Her son, praying piously before the meal would begin, his beard just barely coming in. Yusuf noticed her standing there, and looked up, his eyes warm. Even after all these years, he still made her smile.
The mother and wife joined her family for dinner, and all was right with the world.
------
Montana
Humberto Lopez/Nothing Yet
In the desert of Montana, in the early morning, Humberto Lopez played with the small rock he'd found, looking it over, his blue eyes full of wonder. It was shiny and red, looking almost like a jewel. "Mom, look!"
He ran over to his mother, who was patiently brushed at a fossil embedded in the dirt. She had dirt all across her face and arms, her jeans dusted a light brown. She looked up at her son, the ten-year-old waving the red rock in his hands happily. "Look what I found!"
"Oh?" she looked up from the stones and leaned back to sit on her heels. Her son passed her the red stone, which she gave an interested look. "Wow, that's really cool, mi vida! Where did you find it?"
"In the dirt over there!" he pointed at a random section of earth. "There was a black light, and then I found it on the floor!"
His mother frowned at the rock, then at where Humberto was pointed. "A black light? Mi vida, light can't be black."
He blinked at her. "Well, that's what I saw."
She looked a little skeptical, but finally smiled and handed him the jewel. "Well, it's a heck of a find. You might have a real talent for this," her smile became a bit teasing. "You sure you want to do this forever though? Hang out with your mom and dad in a bunch of old rocks?"
He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded. "Yeah! Dinosaurs are awesome, mom."
She chuckled. "Sweetie, you know that paleontologists can find more than dinosaur bones, don't you?"
Humberto scowled, the way all children did when they thought an adult was saying something unreasonable. "But dinosaurs are-"
"You know Megaladons are sharks the size of a small bus?" his mother said, passing him back the stone.
"...I guess those are cool," he said reluctantly.
As his mother laughed, neither noticed the red stone glow for just a moment. Soon, it would awaken.
In the distance, an old woman with fur across her body watched the mother and son work together. She raised her staff and disappeared in a flash of black light.
------
Author's Note: Okay, so that's the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it.
One sad thing about tacking on the interludes at the end is that I don't get to hear as much about peoples thoughts on the main story. It's fine, I'd just like to know what people think of Jen's current mission. Which should, if all goes well, end in punches.
Oh, and if anyone is confused as to who the characters are. Peter and Kamala are fairly obvious. Humberto Lopez is the future Reptil, a hero who can transform portions of his body into Dinosaur parts, like giving himself raptor legs when he wants to run or kick harder, or parts of his arm into anklyo shell for defense. And yes, he's ten. There is a reason for that.
Mary MacPherson is the second Titania. The first, Davida, already showed up in this story. There will be a conversation about that, obviously, but she is one of the parallels to Jen. The two have a lot in common.
As for the ages of the various characters, this is once again me deviating from the Marvel comics. Considering the way the MCU is shaping, Kamala might have been a 4 to 5 year old child in 2014, considering that their present-day is 2024. But I decided to make her 12 in my Dialverse.
But the important thing over all is that Jen is coming to the end of her story. Next chapter, the fight of her life begins in the past, while an impromptu patrol begins in the present, and enemies prepare for the future.
On another note, I hope you all are staying safe. I've been keeping healthy thus far, and I hope you guys are okay. Love you all. Like, in an intense, scary way.
Meantime, please consider supporting me on Patreon to get early access to chapters, as well as some new documents I'm going to be posting links to. They'll be the notes of this story, things like character designs, wiki style notes, and diagrams and such. Still editing them, but it's been fun thus far!
Later guys!
Well, Nat and Thor, now that you're all caught up on the story, ya freeloaders. ("Another coffee, please." "Here you go, Thor.")
Frank and I got to talking about the scene.
"You said you had to prosecute a bank robber, right?" Frank looked up at me. "That guy give you any tips?"
"Well, what you said got me thinking. About this place being cleaner than you thought?" I looked around. "Normal bank robberies work off Occam's Razor. It means-"
His eyes widened. "Lex parsimoniae, right. Simplest solution is the best."
"Uh, yeah. Kinda didn't expect you to know about it."
He smirked. "What, you thought I was just some jarhead?"
"I once saw you take a knight in Rio out with a catom ax."
"And you're eight feet tall and green, I don't insult your intelligence."
Fair enough. "Well, in the case of a robbery, the question is, 'how do I get the goods without ending up in pain?' You go for the simplest way from there. So the first step is information. And the best way to do that easily in a bank is to just to act like a customer."
The rough soldier nodded, looking around the room full of cops. In my mind's eye, I could imagine the place as it was before. A clean and orderly bank, with tellers and customers. I imagined one of them walking around and carefully eyeing things.
"Sometimes though, it'll be someone on the inside," I could picture a teller carefully noting things down. "Either way, they'll keep track of things. Figure out the shifts of guards, the way police patrol the neighborhoods, work or come in late to find out how many people are likely to be around at night."
"Basically the same thing army intelligence should do."
I could hear a bit of annoyance in his tone. "Should, do?"
"Bad experience with a fuck up of an intelligence agent," Frank smirked. "Punched his eye out."
"And I'm supposed to be the scary one," I mused to myself. I looked around a bit more, still thinking. "They needed intel. Once they had it, they enter… where? From the back door? No… An employee entrance. Nobody said anything about any doors being broken down other than this bad boy. They must have found a way in. And then there's no reports on any camera catching them."
"A hacker, maybe?" Frank asked.
"Hacking isn't as easy as pop culture makes it out to be. Someone hacking the cameras would require a huge amount of skill. Banks can't allow themselves to be robbed. Not because of their money, that's insured. But if a bank gets robbed, it ruins their reputation. So cybersecurity has to be strong. That's just logical sense, especially for a big one like this," I waved around at the pretty place. "Hell, I think these desks are mahogany or something. At least, they were," I kicked one of the random pieces of wood, sending it scattering across the floor.
"Okay, they get the intel," Frank said. "They enter the bank, head straight to the vault, open it with super-strength, run out. Nothing super complex then. And no evidence other than we're looking for someone who's got bigger hands than you."
"Not that much bigger," I grumbled to myself.
"We got something!" someone said in the back. Frank and I turned to see someone waving from the back. Hurriedly we followed them, Perez joining us. Once we got there, the crime scene tech led us to an employee exit, Frank and I sharing a look at that. Outside, we walked down the street for a while before reaching a section where an officer was guarding one of the yellow lines. There, just on the ground near a dead tree, one of those planted on sidewalks to give a bit of life to the city, was half a bootprint.
It was pretty damn big. Bigger than my own feet. Of course, size wasn't any measure of strength. I mean, Fasttrack is a pretty normal sized alien, but he can lift a hell of a lot for his size. Still, this was pretty ridiculous.
"This is perfect," Perez said, kneeling down as the tech began preparing a mold. "We finally have something."
"Then you better tell me about it," we turned to see a woman standing there. She was about waist height to me, which made her a few inches shorter than Frank. She had long black hair, green eyes, and the looks of a supermodel. She knew it too. Even under her black jacket with the proud block letters displaying a familiar FBI, she wore a tight orange t-shirt that displayed her midriff, a tight black skirt that stopped at about mid-thigh, and a pair of black high heels, the tattoo of a chain around her left ankle. She looked like a high school student fantasy of an FBI agent. "Agent Ananastasia Rinaldi, FBI."
"...Ananastasia. Not Anastasia?" I asked hesitantly. Seriously, spellcheck hates that name. Has a red squiggle under it and everything.
She smirked, cocking her hip and placing a hand on it. "What, did I stutter?"
"What is the FBI doing here?" Perez said, sounding annoyed.
"Asking why you're letting this freak and her friend intrude on my investigation," she glared up at me. "We don't need some dumb strongwomen trampling around our evidence."
Okay. Bitch.
"It's not 'your' anything," I growled. "This is a BRIDGE case. Or you haven't seen the fact that someone who can toss around cars is involved in this? You planning on taking them down with a gun?"
"Oh? So you're just here as dumb muscle?" she chuckled. "That makes sense. In that case, why don't you let the professionals handle this, and we'll call you when someone needs to throw a punch."
"Not happening," Frank stepped up next to me, growling. "This isn't a debate. I haven't memorized the rules or anything, but as far as I know, any superhuman activity means BRIDGE has jurisdiction."
"Then prove it," Ananastasia sighed. "I mean, are you two even certified for this kind of thing?"
Damn it. She finally had a point. Frank and I weren't actually investigators or detectives or anything. Where the hell was that BRIDGE agent who was supposed to be helping us?
Perez looked between us awkwardly. "Maybe one of you better call your superiors so I can figure who exactly I'm supposed to kick out."
"Good idea," the smug FBI agent flipped her hair.
"I'll call command," Frank looked at Ananastasia (stupid damn name) like she was scum on his foot. "In the meantime, if you touch any evidence-"
"What, you'll pout at me?" she sighed, walking up to press a finger against his chest. "You're cute, but not that cute."
She ran that finger along his chest in one of the most blatant attempts at seduction I've ever seen. Perez and I shared a look of surprise. Frank, on the other hand, was unfazed.
"No. I'll break your fucking arm," Frank growled, slapping her hand away. He turned away without another look at her, raising his phone up to his ear.
She looked startled. Then pissed off. When she saw I noticed, she quickly hid it. "If I see a single green handprint in there, I'm going to be speaking to your superiors."
"If you talk to me like that again, I'm going to shove your heels up your ass."
Ananastasia didn't seem to know what to say to that, so she just huffed and turned away. Perez and I were left behind with the crime technician, who was desperately trying to ignore the world around her while making a mold of the bootprint.
"...As soon as we're done measuring dicks," Perez said, looking as annoyed as I was. "I'm gonna suggest you head to the hospital to talk to the security guard. He hasn't woken up yet, but-"
"It'll be worth a shot," I agreed immediately.
"Is she right?" Perez asked. "I mean, I know the FBI usually has sole jurisdiction among federal law enforcement agencies to investigate bank robberies, but BRIDGE should be able to take over when there's evidence of superhumans."
I crossed my arms and sighed. "I'm pretty damn sure that FBI chick doesn't have a leg to stand on. But it's more than possible someone up the ladder is trying to take the case from us, so we still have to make a stand. It's bullshit, but bullshit we have to shovel."
"I hate politics."
So does everyone in the universe.
------
May 20, 2014
Thor lowered his coffee and frowned. "Hmm. I have never had to encounter such a situation. Is it really so complicated?"
"I guess as the crown prince, ya never had to deal with that kind of stuff," Mahmoud said. "Either you had jurisdiction or you were too damn strong to stop."
Thor chuckled embarrassedly. "Well, I have always been asked for help. I never had to worry about this organization or that deciding I wasn't allowed to aid the people."
"Whatever the case, she had no right to interfere," Natasha leaned back in her chair, placing one leg over the other. "We do have some joint FBI and BRIDGE operations, but nothing close to a problem of jurisdiction ever pops up."
"Yeah," Mahmoud rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean, the FBI is usually damn good. I'm supposed to head to one of their profiling conferences actually. But they don't have guys who can punch superhumans out just yet. Which doesn't make them useless or anything."
"Of course," Natasha replied. "But it does mean that we're supposed to aid them. Imagine if the FBI had to hunt down a killer with an Omnitrix of their own."
Mahmoud gave her a look that told me he'd had that worry once or twice, a sad and morose look.
"What happened to the agent who was supposed to help you, anyways?" Natasha asked.
"Well, Frank found that out pretty quick," I got up. "Come on, I wanna grab a drink. I'll tell you the rest in the rec room."
------
May 18, 2014
When Frank came back after fifteen minutes on the phone, that Ananastasia chick had disappeared at some point. Which, seriously?
"She's just gone?" I asked Perez as we stood in front of the bank. "She decided to leave after demanding we prove we have jurisdiction?"
"That's what our officers say they saw her do," Perez looked as frustrated as I was.
"Well, what did BRIDGE have to say, anyway?" I asked Frank.
"That we have jurisdiction, and Ananastasia's superior is gonna give her a dressing down," he said simply.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Perez shook her head. "I'm so happy we could waste our time with all this then. First we have a robber stronger than fucking She-Hulk, now this..."
She turned and walked away fast, clenching a tanned fist as she did. I gaped at her.
"Stronger?" I growled. What the hell? Because this thief had bigger hands and feet!? Goddamnit, I could toss tanks, why was I feeling like I had to prove myself?
"Also, we aren't getting backup," Frank said with some frustration to his tone.
"What?" I asked.
"The BRIDGE investigator is working on another case, one that takes priority," he shook his head. "We're supposed to stand down for now."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah," Frank looked frustrated. "We aren't investigators, so we're just waiting on them to find someone else. We're to collect the evidence and coordinate with the NYPD if needed, but we're basically just going to sit around with our thumbs up our asses for now."
"...Who says we need someone else?" I asked. See, this is where I got reckless.
Frank cocked his head to the side, but didn't say anything. I spoke quickly.
"I mean, we aren't investigators, but we do have some evidence, right? And we know that a security guard was sent to the hospital. He's gotta know something. I mean, if he knows even the hair color of his attackers, that can be useful," I looked around. "Come on, Frank. You really wanna let this go?"
"We were told to," he scowled up at me. "Why the hell are you suddenly invested?"
I hesitated for a moment. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure why at first. But then, I had to remember just what kind of day I'd had.
Perez being so nervous around me as well as doubting my strength, that FBI bitch. After so many years of proving myself in every conversation, showing my father, my fellow lawyers, every criminal, cop, and client that I was more than just a mousy girl, that I was strong and smart enough to take on anything that came my way, I'd gotten used to proving myself.
When I became my bodacious green self, I hadn't needed to do that anymore. All the Avengers were respectful of me, Matt and Foggy treated me like what I was. A sexy, smart, super-strong lawyer.
But now, in the streets of New York, I was feeling that same urge I once had. People didn't think I could step up. Ananastasia didn't think I was smart enough. Perez thought that the robber was stronger than me. I was feeling the burn anyone does when a challenge pops up. The burn to beat something.
Yeah, see. I knew you three would understand.
Frank looked more annoyed than anything. "Ms. Walters, the only interrogations I've ever been involved in involved a lot more violence than you might like. What do you want us to do when we get to the hospital, ask nicely?"
"We aren't 'interrogating' anyone, remember? This guy got beat to hell, and we're gonna beat up the people that did it to him. You don't have to convince him to tell us anything. We go in, ask him some questions, go out."
He glared up at me for a long moment. He looked left, then right. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Why not?"
"Yes!" I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, having to bend over to do it, and grinned at my sour ally. "You won't regret this, Frankie."
"Get off of me," he growled.
"Ah, don't be so grumpy. This will be fun!"
------
"I take back everything. This sucks," I said as I stared out at a sea of reporters in front of the hospital.
"I already regret this," Frank growled, glaring daggers at a young man shoving a microphone against the window. We were sitting in a taxi, slowly rolling along while people were shouting at us. Dozens of flashes were going off all around, cameras getting thousands of pictures. Seriously, I was literally just sitting in a cab, what were they hoping for?
The taxi driver, an older Haitian man in his forties, looked back at me. He had a cool accent, a 43CX almost smooth. "Ms. Walters, I'm really honored to drive you and everything, but these people aren't letting me go any further."
"It's fine," I grinned at the guy and got a bashful smile back. "Thanks for everything, Samuel."
"Call me Sammy, Miss," he said with a kind smile. Then he looked around. "...Will you be needing a ride after, Miss? I can pull the car around back?"
"You sure about that?" I asked.
"Of course, Ms. Walters," his smile became a bit softer. "You Avengers have been protecting us. I don't mind driving ya."
I tell ya, that made me feel warm inside. I nodded at him, then looked at Frank. "Okay. We run for the entrance?"
"Yeah," he said, shaking his head. "Damnit, I miss being able to shoot things that annoyed me."
We shoved open the car doors. I tried to be gentle, but I still ended up sending a few people flying back.
As soon as I stood out of the car, I towered over the crowd. For half a second, they finally quieted down. Then they started shouting questions.
"Jennifer! Who's that guy that was in the car with you, a new boyfriend!?"
"Any truth to the rumours that you'll be modeling in Victoria's Secret next week!?"
"Are you dating Brad Pitt!?"
"What's your favorite pizza!?"
"How was breakfast!?"
"Why aren't there nude photos of you online!?"
"What's your favorite movie!?"
I pushed through as gently as I could. Some guys tried to get in my way. I picked up two men and placed them gently aside while speaking. "I'm here for a job. Just get out of the way."
The sheer amount of people ended up slowing me down. When I finally reached the entrance, Frank was there with some of the hospital's security guards. They stopped the reporters from entering at the doors, shoving them back. "How the hell did they know I was here!?" I yelled, annoyed as hell by now.
"If it wasn't for the stupid questions they were asking, I'd think someone knew we came for the security guard," Frank said.
That… was a good point. No one seemed to know that I was here for an actual mission. Just that I was on my way here. Actually, there were a lot of paparazzi at the hospital too. More than should be here considering I didn't even know I would be at the hospital until about thirty minutes ago.
Before I could think any further on that, a nurse came up to us. He was a short man in blue scrubs, with large forearms and a tight beard. "Ms. She-Hulk? You're here to speak to Mr. Romero?"
"Yeah," I said immediately, recognizing the last name of the security guard. "Is he awake?"
"He just did," the nurse turned and started walking quickly. "He was pretty beat up, but the guy is damn tough. He's ready to answer any questions you guys have. Honestly, I think he's half-ready to just go out and beat people up himself."
"My kinda guy," Frank said with a smirk.
"As long as he's good to talk," I said as we strode down the hallway. We entered an elevator and stood there for a bit. The nurse kept looking up at me as we waited. I looked back at him, curious.
"Sorry, it's just… never seen a superhuman before," he said nervously. "You're really tall."
I smirked. He blushed, and looked relieved when the door snapped open, rushing out.
Frank and I followed, heading down the hallway together. We passed a man in a doctor's coat and finally got to the end of the hall a little after that. As we came close, a loud pitched whining sound could be heard. I was confused as to what it was at first. The nurse, on the other hand, cursed and ran forward. At the end of the hall, two police officers were standing nearby in horror as some nurses and a female doctor were working around a man dying on his bed.
"Code Blue!" someone yelled.
"What the hell happened!?" the nurse shouted as he ran in.
"We don't know, he just started coding!" the doctor shouted as his patient was dying.
They got to work around the man on the bed, desperately trying to save him as Frank and I watched. I stared at them for a moment, thoughts swirling through my head.
Our one witness dying before we could get to him. Paparazzi outside, gathered early. Like someone had been…
"Oh no," my eyes widened in horror. "Someone did this."
"What do you mean?" Frank asked, looking up at me. Even as he asked, I saw him come to the same realization.
"They were trying to keep us from finding them," I looked around. Nobody was looking guilty. Except… What the hell was a doctor doing going for an elevator when someone was dying?
"Come on!" I shouted at Frank, rushing for the elevator as fast as I could. I kicked my shoes off to sprint as fast as I could. The elevator was already closed. I didn't let that stop me.
I stopped in front of the doors and slipped my fingers in between them, shoving the metal doors apart with a loud whining sound. I could see the elevator going down below me. Without hesitating, I leaped down the dark shaft, wrapping a hand around one of the metal cables. I could feel the metal wire trying to scrape the skin off my palm, but thankfully I was too tough for that. I fell towards the elevator below as it came to a stop and quickly squeezed down on the cable in my hand, braking myself just over the elevator. I landed a bit heavily on the elevator, the whole thing shaking under my bare feet.
"Fuck!" someone shouted from inside. I leaned over and grabbed the door on top of it, pulling hard. The metal crumpled like paper under my fingers. I ripped it off more easily than I expected, stumbling back onto my ass with a yelp.
"Holy fuck!" someone shouted again. The doors for the elevator dinged open under me.
"No, no, NO!" I got up and leaped down into the elevator car as the fake doctor rushed out. I leaped forward and grabbed his coat, only for him to slip it off and keep running as I stumbled. "You son of a-!"
I ran after him as he sprinted for the doors. I smashed through the hospital doors in a shower of glass. He screamed.
And someone came out of the skies to kick me in the stomach. I gasped in pain, the booted foot shoving me back.
Pain filled me like nothing I've felt since I first went green. I went bouncing across the hospital floor, flipping over and over, until I crashed into a wall behind me.
"W-What just-" I gasped, coughing as I grabbed at my stomach. I looked up at the doors. A redheaded giant with long hair was spinning around to run away as well, disappearing around the corner.
"Walters!" Frank shouted as he came from the stairs. "You good!?"
"No," I snarled, snapping to my feet and rushing forward. I ran outside and spun my head left and right. Nothing. They were gone.
"Goddamn it!" I roared, more glass shattering behind me, and slammed a foot into the ground. Some car alarms began to sound while the ground shook, a series of cracks under my feet. I breathed hard, glaring at nothing while people screamed.
"...Walters," I spun around. Frank was there, holding a pistol in his hand. He was staring at me like he was deciding whether to point it at me or not. "...Come on. We'll track them down."
Still panting, I looked around. Some paparazzi were headed towards us, confused by the ruckus. I turned and walked inside, trying to hold my anger back. But it was getting harder and harder.
Mr. Romero had died. And I wasn't even able to stop the people who'd done it.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my StarkRigg phone.
"Who you calling?" Frank asked as people started coming over curiously.
"A friend," I waited for barely a moment before the line picked up.
"Hello, Ms. Walters," a British accent said. "How may I be of assistance?"
"Jarvis," I looked behind me. "I'm gonna need you to help me track someone done. Might need to hack some cameras."
"Simply inform me of where I should start," he said smoothly.
------
May 20, 2014
"Red-haired giant?" Mahmoud asked calmly as we finally reached the rec room. He went to the bar and grabbed a bottle of vodka, tossing it to Thor, who grinned at him while Mahmoud went to the fridge and started pulling out ice cream.
"Pass me a bowl of rocky road?" Mahmoud gave me a grin and a nod, looking over at Nat, who shook her head. "And yeah. That was all I saw at the time though, just a nine-foot tall redhead. The bitch suckerpunched me," hard to hide just how much that still pissed me off. "Later I learned her name."
"Mary. Mary MacPherran. And it turns out, she had a lot on her mind at the time."
------
May 18, 2014
Mary MacPherran
Mary ran into the car and looked back at the hospital. "Go, go, go damnit!"
The driver smashed down on the accelerator, spinning off. She looked out of the back of the car window and had enough time to see that green bitch coming running back out of the doors before they disappeared around the corner.
"That bitch is alive!?" the idiot next to her shouted. He was wearing a doctor's coat and looked absolutely freaked out.
"She's an Avenger you idiot, of course one hit didn't take her out!" Mary shouted angrily, smacking him in the face with a casual wave. He screamed in pain as his nose broke. "Why the hell did you let her look at you?"
Blood poured from his nose. "You fuckin-!"
"What?" Mary grabbed his shirt and pulled him close. "I fucking… what?"
He stared at her, tears in his eyes. The driver said nothing, focusing as hard as he could on the road.
God, that was delicious. The fear in his eyes as blood poured from his nose. Mary pulled him closer, pressing her other hand to his neck. She forgot her anger. Instead, she began to squeeze. A sense of ecstasy filled her when his eyes widened. She could feel him begin to struggle.
She brought him closer, pressing his forehead to hers and breathing deeply. He coughed, a bit of blood landing on her face. "Why did you let yourself get seen? You made me do this."
You made me do this. She'd heard people say that to her all her life. Her step-father first.
Saying it now, as a weak pathetic person clutched and pulled at her arms, crying silently, her hand squeezing, made her feel so perfect. She finally had power.
She let him go. He breathed in, gasping. Then she clenched her hands hard. She felt flesh give way under her hands, felt something rip. He tried to say something, but the blood had begun to pour over her fingers.
That feeling was something she clenched to. The power over someone else's life. She slowly pushed him back as he died.
"I'll burn the car when we get home," the driver whispered.
"Good," Mary leaned forward in her seat and pressed herself to the back of the driver's. She brought her right hand around to press an index finger against his chest. For a moment, she hesitated. The driver was cute, but she'd never gotten used to flirting with people.
Then, the thought struck her. If he refused, why would that matter? She could do whatever she wanted.
She smiled. Just like her stepfather would. "Come to my room when you're done."
The driver nodded quickly, swallowing. Mary smiled and ran a finger along his chest, knowing she could rip him apart in seconds.
Knowing that an Avenger was after them made her feel much less confident, but killing the man had her on top of the world once again.
------
Interlude: Kids
Queens
Peter Parker/Nothing Yet
"Okay, put that piece there!" Ned said loudly. Peter leaned over and gently put in the lego piece, Ned holding two others apart to let it fit. If either of them had been doing this alone, they would have had some trouble with it, but together, Peter was able to get the job done.
When the piece finally clicked in, Ned and Peter shared a sigh of relief before grinning at each other.
Ned Leeds and Peter Parker. Friends for life. Ned Leeds was a slightly overweight young man with dark tanned skin, who's smile tended to spread across his entire face. Peter, on the other hand, was almost painfully thin and pale. When he smiled, it was usually very nervously, as though someone would wipe it off his face at any moment.
Peter leaned back in his seat. They were sitting in Peter's room after school, working together on their latest project. A Lego model of the Firehouse from Ghostbusters. The two thirteen year olds had had to save for months together to get the box, but they were having a lot of fun putting it together.
"It looks great!" Ned grinned at Peter. "I can't believe we're almost finished."
Peter grinned right back at his friend, leaning back further, only to yelp when he almost fell backwards. He'd never had the best sense of balance. "Yeah. We should probably decide how we'll carry it to your house."
"You sure man?" Ned said nervously. "I mean, it's already here, we can just leave it?"
Peter shook his head. "It's okay. I want you to have it. I don't have a place to put it anyways."
That was true. Peter's room was sadly a bit sparse, looking more like an unlived in college dorm room than something a teenage boy would live in. Besides, Peter felt a little guilty taking the Firehouse from Ned when his best friend had paid so much for it.
(Peter ignored the fact that he'd paid as much as Ned had.)
"Well, thank you, man," Ned said with a smile. Then his phone beeped a notification. Grabbing it, he raised it up before laughing. "Ha! Look!"
He showed it to Peter by tapping the screen, a blue beam coming from a section of the phone. The new StarkRigg phones had the ability to pop up holograms of whatever their screens were showing. The feature took a lot of power from the phone, but it was so useful nobody minded.
The hologram was a picture of Tony Stark rolling his eyes sarcastically at Chernobog. On the image was a caption saying 'yeah, he's not evil at AAAAAALLLLL'. The dark god was roaring maniacally.
Peter laughed. As much as the Russian government had tried to highlight that the Winter Guard was a force of good, they couldn't hide Chernobog. Not when the literal dark god had access to the internet.
"Look at this one!" The next picture had the caption 'When People Rant About Demons Online'. It showed Chernobog sitting on a throne with a tub of popcorn, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Are you following him?" Peter asked Ned incredulously.
"Yeah, he's really funny!" Ned said with a grin. "He says he's going on a trip to visit America soon. He wants Netflix to do a documentary on it."
"Seriously?" Peter said incredulously.
"Oh, here's your favorite again!" Ned turned the phone to show Tony Stark in his armor with Dial, in Diamondhead form, Thor, and the Hulk, the four laughing together as bullets bounced off of them. 'When you and the homies have bulletproof opinions.'
"Well, he's really cool," Peter mumbled, getting a grin from Ned. Honestly, that was just part of why Peter admired Tony Stark so much. Peter could still remember being a kid, standing in front of a giant one-eyed robot. He'd been wearing an Iron Man mask and glove. He was so scared. All he could think to do was to use his toy glove to shoot it. It was dumb. The glove was just a toy. The robot had pointed a gun at him. He closed his eyes.
For a moment, when he heard a repulsor blast, Peter had the crazy thought that his glove had worked. His eyes snapped open.
The robot was gone. And Iron Man stood there. Tall and proud, his red and gold suit almost glowing in the light. Peter, for the rest of his life, would remember the sight of Iron Man's blue eyes looking down at him.
"Nice work, kid."
Then he took off into the sky.
After that, how could Peter not think Iron Man was the coolest hero ever?
"Hey boys," a man came up to the door, smiling down at them. A warm feeling came over Peter when he saw the man. "I think it's about time I drove Ned home, don't you?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Parker," Ned said with a smile.
"Uncle Ben, can you help us carry this?" Peter asked.
The man stepped in to look over the Firehouse. He had thick brown hair similar in color to Peter's, and light blue eyes, a short beard about his chin. He gently picked it up in strong hands, looking it over carefully. "Yeah, I think we can carry it out, Petey."
Uncle Ben smiled at Peter Parker. To Peter, that meant the entire world.
------
Jersey City
Kamala Khan/Nothing Yet
"Kamala! Dinner!"
Kamala winced in front of her computer. The young girl was reading a fanfic on freakingcool.com, a website for nerds like her. She'd only recently gotten into it, and was quickly becoming obsessed with the stories on there.
Though she had to hide some of the guilty pleasure stories from her parents. She was only 12 after all, they'd freak if they found out that this site had shipping stories. Er, the sexy kind of shipping, not the literal one.
She giggled just a bit at the latest story she was reading, a funny one where the Avengers were dropped into a magical world and fought against demons. She'd spent some time playing with her best friend, Bruno, where they'd play out that exact scenario!
It was so much fun! She played She-Hulk and he would play Captain America, and they'd beat up demons. Or aliens. Or HYDRA. A couple of times though, she'd play Dial.
She-Hulk was her favorite Avenger. A tall, powerful, pretty woman, who was always confident and spoke her mind, and just did whatever she wanted.
But Dial was… well, he was Muslim. Like her. He spoke about it sometimes, real casually. He was pretty cool too. He could turn into all sorts of different aliens and fight bad guys all over New York! He was someone who looked like he could be her brother, who was also a world famous superhero.
She wanted to be like She-Hulk and Dial and Black Widow. She wanted to be an Avenger.
Which was why it sucked that her parents wanted her to be a good wife.
"Dinner time, beta," a Pakistani woman walked into Kamala's room. She was in her early thirties, an older version of Kamala, with the same long black hair and bright chocolate eyes set into light brown skin, some small wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. Kamala had her back turned to her, so she missed the warm smile her mother had as she stared for a moment at her young daughter.
By the time her daughter had turned around, her mother was frowning just a bit. "Beta, that doesn't look like your homework."
This gentle admonishment was met by a wince from Kamala. "I'm only reading a bit! I'll do my homework soon!"
"After dinner," Muneeba Khan told her daughter, getting a groan from her.
"Okay, ammu… can I visit Bruno later? We're supposed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together!"
"Beta, it's almost night time," when Kamala pouted cutely at her mother, Muneeba hesitated. "You can call him on my phone and watch it with him on the photo-call."
"You mean video-chat," Kamala corrected immediately, before grinning and rushing towards her mother, hugging tight around the waist. "Thank you, ammu!"
Muneeba smiled down at her daughter as she rushed away. She turned to look about the room.
Recently, Kamala had become obsessed with the Avengers. So it was no surprise that she had bought a lot of action figures. They were placed haphazardly all about the floor, on the bed, and in the closet. On the table was a figure of She-Hulk, her fist raised in a pumping motion, placed prominently in the room Muneeba pursed her lips thoughtfully.
She wasn't sure how to feel about her daughters obsession. She was a good, smart girl, if a very energetic one. Maybe she would grow out of it?
Then she noticed one of the figures. Dial. In his human form, wearing green and black armor, resting on his back with legs and arms spread awkwardly.
Dial hadn't realized it, but he had a mixed reputation in the Muslim community. He proclaimed his religion, but no one ever saw him go to prayer. He openly dated a non-muslim woman and had been seen partying with men and women who had been drinking.
Yet, he did not drink himself. He was well known for his work as a superhero, had been seen literally killing evil jinn and protecting people across the world. He was a complicated subject all around.
Muneeba hesitated before finally closing the door. When she got downstairs, she took a look at her family. Yusuf, tired from work, smiled at his daughter as she excitedly talked about her latest obsession. Her son, praying piously before the meal would begin, his beard just barely coming in. Yusuf noticed her standing there, and looked up, his eyes warm. Even after all these years, he still made her smile.
The mother and wife joined her family for dinner, and all was right with the world.
------
Montana
Humberto Lopez/Nothing Yet
In the desert of Montana, in the early morning, Humberto Lopez played with the small rock he'd found, looking it over, his blue eyes full of wonder. It was shiny and red, looking almost like a jewel. "Mom, look!"
He ran over to his mother, who was patiently brushed at a fossil embedded in the dirt. She had dirt all across her face and arms, her jeans dusted a light brown. She looked up at her son, the ten-year-old waving the red rock in his hands happily. "Look what I found!"
"Oh?" she looked up from the stones and leaned back to sit on her heels. Her son passed her the red stone, which she gave an interested look. "Wow, that's really cool, mi vida! Where did you find it?"
"In the dirt over there!" he pointed at a random section of earth. "There was a black light, and then I found it on the floor!"
His mother frowned at the rock, then at where Humberto was pointed. "A black light? Mi vida, light can't be black."
He blinked at her. "Well, that's what I saw."
She looked a little skeptical, but finally smiled and handed him the jewel. "Well, it's a heck of a find. You might have a real talent for this," her smile became a bit teasing. "You sure you want to do this forever though? Hang out with your mom and dad in a bunch of old rocks?"
He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then nodded. "Yeah! Dinosaurs are awesome, mom."
She chuckled. "Sweetie, you know that paleontologists can find more than dinosaur bones, don't you?"
Humberto scowled, the way all children did when they thought an adult was saying something unreasonable. "But dinosaurs are-"
"You know Megaladons are sharks the size of a small bus?" his mother said, passing him back the stone.
"...I guess those are cool," he said reluctantly.
As his mother laughed, neither noticed the red stone glow for just a moment. Soon, it would awaken.
In the distance, an old woman with fur across her body watched the mother and son work together. She raised her staff and disappeared in a flash of black light.
------
Author's Note: Okay, so that's the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it.
One sad thing about tacking on the interludes at the end is that I don't get to hear as much about peoples thoughts on the main story. It's fine, I'd just like to know what people think of Jen's current mission. Which should, if all goes well, end in punches.
Oh, and if anyone is confused as to who the characters are. Peter and Kamala are fairly obvious. Humberto Lopez is the future Reptil, a hero who can transform portions of his body into Dinosaur parts, like giving himself raptor legs when he wants to run or kick harder, or parts of his arm into anklyo shell for defense. And yes, he's ten. There is a reason for that.
Mary MacPherson is the second Titania. The first, Davida, already showed up in this story. There will be a conversation about that, obviously, but she is one of the parallels to Jen. The two have a lot in common.
As for the ages of the various characters, this is once again me deviating from the Marvel comics. Considering the way the MCU is shaping, Kamala might have been a 4 to 5 year old child in 2014, considering that their present-day is 2024. But I decided to make her 12 in my Dialverse.
But the important thing over all is that Jen is coming to the end of her story. Next chapter, the fight of her life begins in the past, while an impromptu patrol begins in the present, and enemies prepare for the future.
On another note, I hope you all are staying safe. I've been keeping healthy thus far, and I hope you guys are okay. Love you all. Like, in an intense, scary way.
Meantime, please consider supporting me on Patreon to get early access to chapters, as well as some new documents I'm going to be posting links to. They'll be the notes of this story, things like character designs, wiki style notes, and diagrams and such. Still editing them, but it's been fun thus far!
Later guys!
You should google search her
robopanda
My avatar is the original Avatar!
- Location
- The Northern Air Temple
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Aw, that's cute, Dial's being memed.
Yep, Dial would totally see Uncle Ben as Toby Maguire.
Good to see Dial's unintentional fan demographic admiring him, even if he isn't her number one hero.
- Location
- Australia
I should google more characters you name. Thx for the advice.
- Location
- Kazakhstan
Mahmoud's half-assed religiousness was bothering me as well. Was it addressed in story and I just don't remember it?
That aside I love your story so far. My favourite part is how you are expanding mcu while keeping it, I don't know, grounded? Not too complicated? It feels natural and organic.
That aside I love your story so far. My favourite part is how you are expanding mcu while keeping it, I don't know, grounded? Not too complicated? It feels natural and organic.
I don't think it was addressed? It just hasn't come up until now, which I'm fairly sure makes sense given that, off the top of my head, not many of Marvel's characters are particularly religious.
No reason to really mention it, to be honest. He still prays whenever he's not getting beat up, but saying things like that in story hasn't really been a priority for me, ya know?
KillingYouNicely
I've seen things. They weren't really interesting.
- Location
- Australia
Honestly, that's a pretty good way to handle it - religious stuff is best when it's private and honest. It isn't part of his superhero story, it's just something he does in the day to day behind the page, like brushing his teeth and getting dressed.
It also makes for an interesting contrast when characters like Muneeba actually mention it, as if they expect it to be a big, public thing like quite a lot of real people do. Because those are two different ways of thinking, both of them are real, but the dissonance between them highlights them both.
106
May 20, 2014
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
"Wait, how did you find out that she killed that guy in the car?" Mahmoud asked.
"That's kinda spoilery," I grinned at him. "Come on, you do that stuff all the time whenever you get to do storytime."
He sipped at his milkshake thoughtfully before speaking. "Well, yeah, but I'm supposed to be all dramatic. I am a writer after all."
"You are?" Thor asked, looking genuinely surprised.
"Wha-Yes!" Mahmoud said, offended. "I talk about it all the time!"
"No, you don't," Natasha replied. When he gave her a shocked look, she shrugged. "You talk about it sometimes, but you never exactly make a thing of it."
He looked at me. I gave him a little chuckle. "Sorry, sweetie. You never really sit down and type stories. I mean, you do a lot of stuff for research, but…"
Mahmoud sipped at his drink again. He looked even more thoughtful now.
Thor chugged his drink before burping. "So! You have found your opponent, yes? When do we get to the part when you slay her in righteous combat."
"Slay her," I blinked. "Yeesh, what am I, a vampire hunter?"
"Don't even joke about that," Dial and Thor said seriously in unison.
Nat and I blinked together, sharing a look.
"Okay… we'll just unpack that later, I guess," I said slowly. "So yeah, Mary MacPherran. My first nemesis. I didn't know it yet though. What I did know was that I'd messed up… Edgar Romero didn't have any family. But he had friends. People who missed him. All he was doing was his job. And he got beat to hell. I was only a few feet from him when he died. I let the guy who killed him walk right past me, I-"
I felt a bit of pain in my right fist. When I looked down at it, I was surprised to see my fist was so tight it was starting to hurt. I slowly unclenched it.
"...So anyways. I called Jarvis and we headed to a library for some privacy."
------
May 18, 2014
"What you got for us, Jarvis?" I asked while striding back and forth in front of a holographic screen. Frank's BRIDGE-issued smartphone rested on the table, projecting the image of Jarvis standing in the Avengers Tower. I honestly had no idea if he was actually standing in the tower or just sending us a virtual image he'd made, but it was good to see the robot butler.
"On assessment of the case, I have compiled a file. I believe I have found the man you are looking for," Jarvis popped up another hologram, this one showing a case-file. "Named John Critic."
"That's him," I snarled, staring at the face of the guy I'd chased. Even without him looking like he was seconds from pissing in fear, I recognized him.
"Then I have fortunate news. I have footage of him from both locations," Jarvis' mouth blinked on and off with every word.
"How?" Frank asked. "I thought they disabled the cameras in the bank and the hospital."
"Yes. But not the traffic cameras around both locations," Jarvis showed footage of streets at night, zooming in on one particular street. "I've found footage the night of the robbery with a car containing the suspect in question. However, I lose as he comes closer to Hell's Kitchen. There is a surprising lack of surveillance in that part of the city."
"Yeah, cause nobody likes being spied on," Frank growled, glaring at the holographic scene as one particular car was outlined in blue. "You can just access any camera in the city?"
"Not unless asked by an Avenger or similarly ranked individual," Jarvis said. "For now, this is the last known location I can track the suspect to."
Jarvis showed a random street in Hell's Kitchen, which the highlighted car drove along before disappearing around a corner. "When compared to the footage of Mr. Critic's later drive, I may have a general location for him. However, more specific information would require further surveillance."
"Well, he's dead either way," Frank said.
I snapped my head to look at him, surprised. He shrugged. "Come on, Walters. These guys already killed a security guard, and they know you saw the guy. I doubt they'll kill the superhuman if they wanna keep robbing places, but this guy is some two-bit criminal. He's dead and dumped."
Damn. He was right. But even so, this guy, John Critic, was a lead we could use.
"Jarvis, show me his known associates," I asked calmly. He brought up another screen. "In fact, can you compile everything we've got on him? I want to read it personally."
"Yes, Ms. Walters," Jarvis said, his holographic screens quickly shuffling and rearranging.
"What are you thinking?" Frank asked.
"This guy has friends, enemies, favorite hangouts," I explained. "If we can find something even slightly related to this place, we've got him."
Frank looked over the holograms for a moment. Then he sighed and turned around. "I'll call Maria on another phone and tell her I might be out late…"
I felt immediate guilt when he said that. I'd gotten so obsessed with the mission that I'd forgotten that Frank had people waiting for him. "Oh. Well, if you want, you can use my phone, since I'm using yours for all this holograph stuff."
Frank took it from my hand with a nod before walking away, tapping at the keypad.
I watched him go before turning to the screens in front of me. "Okay. Jarvis, pull up the location that we lost our guy, and let's start narrowing things down."
Even as I worked, I knew there was one puzzle missing. These thieves knew way too much. How had they known about the security guard's location? The only ones who should have were involved in the case. For that matter, how did those paparazzi know where I'd be going?
Were those two connected? If so, how?
------
Mary MacPherran
Mary sighed, rolling her shoulders as she left her room. Her little romp with the driver had been short, but fun. He was still lying on her bed, passed out. She'd gotten a little rough.
She stopped outside her door to look around. They were based in a small warehouse, rented from one of the local powers of New York, someone who was scary enough that no one even wanted to say his name. It gave them a nice place to do their work from. She'd taken a crappy office as her temporary bedroom. A few feet away from that was a table in the center of the warehouse, with a whiteboard on wheels nearby. On it was a blueprint of a bank. Some ashes were still resting on the table from the last plan.
Mary walked up to the billboard and looked at it carefully. She ignored the man standing nearby, drinking coffee.
"Mary," the man said, looking at her shakily.
"Sam," Mary said levely.
"Is uh… is Rajesh alive in there?" Sam said, referring to the driver.
"Of course he is!" Mary spun to face him, offended.
Sam winced back. "S-Sorry! I just… he was screaming. And after John-"
"I killed John because he would have got us caught," Mary snarled. Her massive arms crossed over each other. Despite his fear, Sam instinctively watched the effect that motion had on her chest, only to wince. Mary took pleasure in that. First, at the confirmation, he found her attractive. Second, the fact he was scared of her. There was power in that. Being sexy and scary.
"And Rajesh is fine. We were just having fun," Mary purred, rubbing her arms.
"Glad to hear it," Mary and Sam turned to see a woman walk out of the shadows. The 'click-click-click' of heels followed each step, sculpted calves practically glistening in the light.
Sam swallowed. Both women were attractive, in their own ways. Mary, for all her incredible size and muscle, was sculpted like a fourteen-year-old's fantasy barbarian woman, her tanned skin, flowing red hair, and curvy features giving her an exotic look.
The other woman, while not as unique, was just as beautiful. With long black hair, a tight orange top that highlighted how perfectly shaped her breasts and abdomen were, a short skirt and high heels that showed off her legs, and the face of an angel, well…
Sam was in hell. Two beautiful women and both of them were as scary as fuck killers.
"Ana," Mary said softly, smiling down at her best friend. The elegant woman smiled back up at her, placing a black jacket onto the table. A jacket with the letters 'FBI' written across the back. "Are you okay?"
"Perfectly fine, dear. Unlike John, apparently," Ananastasia looked over at Sam. "Have you already gotten rid of the body?"
Sam swallowed. "Yeah. He's in acid now. I'll dump him into the harbor after."
"Good," Ananastasia smirked. "One more job. One more, and Mary and I will leave you forever Sam. And you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams."
Mary smiled at that thought. Ever since she'd woken up in an empty hospital with the strength of a goddess, she'd reveled in her power. She'd fought and fucked as much as she wanted, and found nothing but happiness in that. After years as a mousy and ugly redhead who got pushed around by everyone, her new life was a dream.
And Ana was part of that. Ever since they met, Ana had been the one teaching how to use her new power. Ana was supposed to arrest her for the death of her stepfather. Instead, she saw something special in Mary. In little Mary MacPherson.
Together, they'd begun to build something great. Ana used her FBI connections to find a group of idiots to use. Sam, a hacker, Rajesh, a getaway driver, and John, a petty thug who could get things done when Mary and Ana didn't want to be seen.
Then they did a test run, using Mary's strength to rob a chump change bank for some small amount of cash, using Sam's skill as a hacker to keep the camera's off, before hitting one of their actual targets. Ana even had files from an FBI agent who had evaluated the banks' security weeks ago! Combined with John doing some surveillance as a customer, they'd gotten things down right. Now they only had one more.
Then they'd leave New York. Leave to somewhere sunny, where the men were pretty and the sand was soft, rich for the rest of their lives. Freedom, absolute and endless.
Looking down at Ana, Mary saw her hopes.
Ana tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But we have one problem… An Avenger, and a BRIDGE agent. They're onto us."
"You think they'll be a problem?" Sam asked nervously.
Ana spun and slapped Sam in the face, sending him stumbling back in pain. "Of course they will be, you absolute buffoon," Ana said calmly.
"You-" Sam began to shout. Then he noticed Mary step forward, and quickly shut his mouth.
Ana smirked. "She-Hulk… she's supposed to be as strong as her cousin. And BRIDGE has been getting a rep. If I didn't let the paparazzi know where she was going, those two would have caught us much sooner. We barely got away as is," she sighed. "Honestly, Mary, I wish you'd killed that guard from the start."
It was like a shot to the chest. "A-Ana, I didn't… I mean-"
"We wouldn't have been in this situation," Ana shook her head sadly. "Mary, you're amazing. But you need to live up to that potential. If you keep disappointing me, I don't know how we'll get this all done."
Mary stared at Ana, uncomprehending for a moment before she shook her head. "It won't happen again, I promise!"
"How can you promise that?" Ana's words might as well have been a knife carving into her. "An Avenger is after us, dear. Someone who fights demons for a living. Can you beat her?"
"Yes!" Rage filled Mary, pointed towards that green bitch from earlier. "I'll kill her! I promise! T-Then we'll be free! I promise…"
Please. Please don't leave. Mary couldn't stand to be alone again. Even with her new power, nothing could be worse than that.
"I understand," Ana's eyes were filled with warmth. "Then we'll be fine… You handle the Avenger. And I'll handle the agent."
Fresh worry filled Mary. "Are you sure?"
"Oh, sweetie," Ana chuckled, brushing back her hair. "He's a man. I know men. Isn't that right, Sam?"
Sam hesitated before nodding. "Y-Yeah."
"Wave a little bit of booty in their direction, let them think you belong to them, and you own them," Ana smiled savagely. "And if not, a bullet to the forehead works just as well. We take care of these two, and we'll head off into the great wide world."
Mary smiled nervously. Yes. Yes. They'd rob this last bank, kill Sam and Rajesh, and leave forever. Together.
It never occurred to Mary. That someone so willing to betray people might want to betray her as well.
------
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
I read file after file, working through them. Anytime I had something promising, I would slide it into one of the other screens. It was slow work, even with Jarvis helping. But I was beginning to understand John Critic.
He was a thug, yeah. But one who was good at his job. He had been caught twice, once as a teenager for beating up a man for petty cash, and again as an adult for robbing a convenience store. Since then though, he'd managed to dodge the law. Strangely high-class lawyers (Who I made sure to remember the names of) had helped him avoid a couple of convictions, but overall any cases he was involved in were more rumor than anything.
But he did have a rep. And a reputation meant information.
I already had a list of possible candidates for people I could see him working with. No redheaded giants, but that was the problem with superpowers nowadays. You could never predict how they would change people. Hell, I was living proof of that. I looked nothing like mousy little Jennifer anymore. Jen was a green bombshell now, not a pale imitation.
It might be the same with this redhead giant. They could have been changed recently, which made finding out who they used to be just that much harder.
Frank came back. He was looking a little… well, depressed. I grimaced before tapping at the holoscreen, dismissing one of the documents and turning to look at him.
"You okay, Frank?"
He looked at me with a very grim face, chuckling without any humor. "What, Walters, you wanna be my therapist?"
"I doubt I have enough time in the day for that," he grunted non-committedly. "But seriously, you all right? Tell Mama Shulkie what's wrong," I tried to tease, but it ended up coming out a bit harsh.
For some reason, I think that was better than being nice. Frank grunted again, before shaking his head. "It's my boy. He's… young. So he knows why I do what I do. But now that I'm spending time with the kid, it's like it's still not enough. Lisa, she's smart. She knows I can't always be there. But he's still asking me why I can't be there all the time…"
I felt guiltier. Not just because I was the one who'd insisted we keep at this, but also because a bit of relief hit me. I knew something about what he was talking about.
"...You know my cousin?" I asked Frank.
"Every human being on Earth knows your cousin," he snarked.
"Smartass," I crossed my arms and shook my head. "Well, before he became the strongest thing in the world, before he was the world's smartest scientist on radiation, he was a kid. We used to hang out together a lot as kids. We'd have a lot of fun together. Pair of giant nerds," I chuckled. "Can you believe we sometimes just had contests on who could memorize more random facts?"
"This story coming to a point?"
"Awww, Frank, that's what I love about you, your kindness and empathy," he reluctantly smiled at that. "The point is, that I loved Bruce. My dad, my mom, and his mom, all loved him. The only one who didn't was his own dad… He called Bruce a monster. Every time Bruce showed how smart he was, David Banner was there with a fist to remind him he was hated."
Frank's smile faded.
"I wasn't there for the first beatings. But I still remember the bruises on his arms. On his mom's face. The marks where he 'fell'. The only time I ever saw it, my dad was there. Well, my dad doesn't fuck around," I clenched a fist. "My dad was a two hundred pound army vet who became a sheriff. David Banner was an alcoholic scientist. He never showed up around me again until he died."
I grinned savagely. "He probably died still worrying my dad would make good on his threats. I hope he did."
I looked Frank in the eyes. "David Banner was there. Almost every day. He was a constant presence in his kid's life. I think that was the worst part, for Bruce. For the rest of his life, even after David died, I think Bruce still worries he'll show up."
"Your kids, your wife. They don't see as much as they wish. But when you're there, they love you for it. It does matter that you're there for your kids, but it matters even more what you do for them."
A little chuckle escaped me. "But I know you don't like long speeches. So to keep it short. Quantity really is shit compared to quality."
I looked Frank in the eye. I have to admit, I felt a little nervous. "You're doing fine, Frank. And we'll get you home soon. I promise."
"..." Frank sighed, looking away from me and eyeing the holograms instead. "Okay. Yeah, okay. What do you got on our guy?"
Man, Frank is really bad at communicating. I gave him a bone and turned to look at the screens. "Well, Jarvis has helped me narrow down a few things. John Critic wasn't exactly a high class guy. We have records of his friends and family, as well as some people he worked with. He's a Hell's Kitchen native, like my buddy Matt."
I took a moment to wish that I'd known they were headed to Hell's Kitchen. Matt's super-senses would have been great at the time. Now though, too much time had passed, as far as I know. Maybe I should have called him in anyways, but then Jarvis caught my attention.
"Ms. Walters, I believe I've found our culprit using your parameters."
"You did?" I asked, staring at all the floating blue screens.
"Yes. John Critic was known to frequent a certain bar," he showed me the bar, a random hole in the wall with some bikes parked in front. "Thanks to you pointing out that he wouldn't have changed his eating habits, I have managed to find footage of him entering the bar. From there, I worked backward."
"Yes!" I pumped a fist and gave Frank a grin. "Nice thing about bad guys, they love routines."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll remember that next time I go hunting for criminals in New York. Calm down, Jolly Green," Frank said with a dismissive wave.
Jarvis continued. "From there, I was able to find two more places. One was a convenience store nearby that caught him on his cameras. I used that to narrow the search further. Do you remember, Ms. Walters, that you narrowed down his list of allies for me?"
"Yeah," I shook my head. "He had a real nice list of idiots in his past. But I figured out who he'd most likely work with. If he's the thug, and the redhead is the literal safecracker, then getaway drivers, tech experts, fences. I tried to cover as many people he knew as possible that could help with the kinds of heists we're dealing with."
And that led me to this," he showed the next image.
A gas station. Where one of John's friends was filling up a shitty van. "Which one is that?"
"Rajesh Patel," Jarvis said. "An accomplished driver, who was caught as an accomplice on several jobs. He's currently out on parole. And, from there, the pattern has emerged."
Jarvis started laying out the map, showing the area Rajesh went with a blue line, and the line John followed with a red line, with them meeting in several places. "They began meeting recently with a man named Sam Dane, a hacker with some expertise. Not a friend of either of them, but someone capable of blacking out the camera's in both banks and the hospital."
"So we have our boys. Do we know where they're coming from?" I asked.
Jarvis showed a warehouse by the docks. Which, honestly, felt a little cliche. "I believe, based on the patterns of movement all three have done, this location is the most likely. I will send it to Mr. Castle's phone."
"Thanks, Jarvis," I looked over at Frank. "You ready to rumble?"
"Depends, you still remember how to throw a punch?" Frank teased. "Or are you too used to sitting behind a desk and talking to clients now?"
"Hey, I can be a lawyer and a badass, Frank," we both turned and walked out, Frank picking up his phone. "I swear to kick ass, the whole ass, and nothing but the ass, so help me God."
"Amen. Let's go get my guns."
------
We showed up outside the warehouse in our Sunday best. I was wearing a purple and white muscle shirt and blue jeans, both tailored for me. Frank, on the other hand, was wearing BRIDGE tac-gear, made for urban combat. We were met by our backup.
You guys know as well as I do that we couldn't just go in with Frank and I. BRIDGE doesn't work like that. They sent us two agents, both dressed in the same urban gear, informed the correct authorities that we were working a case so any loud noises were just us taking down a superhuman suspect, and all-around covered our bases legally.
It's a harsh truth of the current justice system that superhuman cases get to skip over certain legalities. It's kind of like having definitive proof that a biological weapon or nuclear bomb is in the middle of a city. A lot of corners get cut to take care of the problem.
"You look happy," I said to Frank as he checked over his gun.
"Hn," he grunted. After a moment, he clenched his rifle to his chest, apparently happy with it. "I'm just happy we can finally fight someone. I'm not made for all this detective shit."
I felt that. This whole adventure had been frustrating. Sure, it was great that we managed to figure things out so far, but I really preferred the actual lawyer stuff, depending on good cops to find evidence I could use to build a case.
"Sir, ma'am," one of the two soldiers, a young woman wearing Catom armor that made her head look like a sci-fi soldier out of a movie, said to me. "We're ready to roll."
"Good," Frank said to her, raising his gun. "We've got a superhuman involved in this mission. Assume brute strength and durability. Walter's is our backup, but if you have to take them, don't waste time with ICER's. Hit them with the heavy shit, run while you do it. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," the man and woman said in unison.
Frank nodded. His own helmet snapped over his face. Over it's faceplate, blending in so well it couldn't be seen unless you were up close, was the symbol of a skull. "Let's go."
I turned and grinned at the warehouse. "All right. Let's go kick some ass!"
------
"Nobody is here!?"
Wow. That was just... massively disappointing.
The warehouse we were in was obviously the base of operations of the robbers. There were coffee cups laying about, some foldaway chairs, a car parked in the back room, a rumpled bed in a back room, and some blueprints placed carefully on some whiteboards.
"Looks like they just left," the male BRIDGE soldier said… Okay, I'll be honest, his name was Frank. Frank Simmons. Considering I had one friend named Simmons already, and a Frank that was already on the same team, the name 'male BRIDGE soldier' would have to do.
Sally… Damnit. Sorry. Just… okay.
Well, the other Sally was staring at the blueprints. "Are these the banks they robbed?"
Frank and I took a look. As soon as I realized what I was seeing, I turned and started walking, Frank following. "They're heading to another bank!"
"Get the NYPD on the horn, let them know what's going on!" Frank barked. "They're in Midtown Manhattan, near Madison Square Garden, move!"
"Isn't there a fight there tonight!?" Sally shouted as the male BRIDGE soldier followed close behind.
"Oh, there's going to be a fight," I said to myself angrily.
Boy, was that ever prophetic or what?
------
Mary MacPherson
"GRAAAGH!" biceps and abs clenched as one as Mary ripped the vault door off the wall. Behind her, Sam was waiting nervously. Concrete and steel gave up before a superior force, buckling under her fingers before squealing and crunching. With a heave, she twisted around to finally pull the door out, tossing it behind her. Sam yelped and ducked back as dozens of tons of metal flew over his head.
"Come on!" Mary yelled at Sam, rushing into the vault. She ignored the money, which Sam started placing in the big black bags over his shoulder. Instead, she went for the safety deposit boxes, ripping the doors off them in big handfuls and grabbing whatever was inside.
The pair quickly started working, grabbing as fast as they could. After around nine minutes, Mary's earpiece buzzed.
"Mary, it's Ana," Ananastasia said over the earpiece she'd given them, some FBI tech Ana had stolen. "I think there's some trouble coming. Police scanners are calling for an evacuation around the bank. Grab everything and get out, I'll try to intercep-"
KRAKABOOM!
Mary and Sam spun around to face the door to the vault. A tall green figure crashed through the windows in a spray of glass, the moon shining bright behind her. Mary and Sam stared as the green giant landed in the center of the bank. She was massive. Almost as big as Mary, with deep green skin over taught muscle that could be seen under her purple and white swimsuit. The giant woman stood high and grinned.
"Hiya, bad guys. You ready to rumble?"
Mary stared at her for a moment. Then she stepped forward. "Keep working, Sam."
The woman grinned and walked forward to stand across from her. They stopped about ten feet apart, looking each other up and down.
"So you're the She-Hulk, huh?" Mary smirked down at her. "You're shorter than I imagined."
"I've got a petite and cute figure," Jen smirked up at her. "Who are you supposed to be?"
Mary puffed her chest proudly, tapping her chest with her fist. Finally! After all this time, she could tell someone her codename! "I'm Mary MacPherson! The Mighty Titania! The strongest woman in the world!"
"...Okay. Out of all the names you just said, only one of those is gonna go uncontested," Jen's fist clenched. "I'll let Davida worry about the first one."
Mary blinked. And a green fist was slamming into her cheek. Pain blossomed out from her right cheek as she screamed, sent flipping backwards into the vault, slamming into the back of it. Safety deposit boxes were crushed under her. She looked up at Jen, who was grinning with an outstretched fist.
"Holy shit!" Sam shouted, clutching batches of cash to his chest like they were a teddy bear.
"Not so great when someone sucker punches you, huh!?"
"YOU BIMBO BITCH!"
Mary scrambled to her feet and leaped forward, smashing into She-Hulk like a train. They crashed into a teller's stand, turning it to splinters, She-Hulk landing on her back, where Mary grabbed her opponent's hair. With vicious strength, she used her grip to slam the back of She-Hulk's head into the ground. She did it over and over, cratering the marble under her head. She-Hulk screamed, a bloodcurdling sound that echoed in the dark bank lobby, and punched Mary in the face. Mary roared back and elbowed her in the chin.
Jen grabbed Mary by the hair, turned her head, and punched her in the face, over and over with incredible speed, until Mary was forced back.
Both women scrambled to their feet and faced each other.
"I'm gonna kill you, you damn green bimbo!"
"Promises, promises, cuddles," She-Hulk wiped her lips and grinned. "How about you come and let Shulkie show you what she can really do?"
That was it. They met in the center, and the floor beneath them began to shake. Fists slammed into skin, stones cracked beneath their feet, and their clothes began to shred as bruises grew only to heal in seconds. The battle was just beginning.
------
Interlude: Villains
Lyle Getz/Leader(?) of AIM
Lyle was sitting in his office at his computer, trying to understand what was happening. He stared at the screen before him, trepidation on his face.
It had changed. The folder had changed once again. And he had no idea how.
No. He had an idea of who was behind this. The Benefactor. That was the name he'd given to the mysterious person who had left the files that had saved AIM, allowing them to create the incredible inventions that let them rebuild.
And now, a folder on MRE's had been replaced with more files on nanomachines. The Benefactor was making it clear that he wanted AIM to complete that project. Lyle got up quickly, walking out of his office with a scowl on his face.
It was a long walk to his destination. On the way there, someone in a lab coat and carrying a tablet came out of an office and almost bumped into him.
"Dr. Getz!" he was a young man, one of the newer medical personnel that had been hired. Lyle couldn't remember his name, just that he was a doctor. "I have a report on Case-243 and Case-244."
"Our guests?" Lyle blinked, intrigued. "Have they woken from their coma?"
The doctor nodded. "The woman has. She's speaking an odd language however. We're attempting to find a translator. Here, look."
He took the tablet and passed it to Lyle. On it was a live stream of a camera inside the medical wing. There was a woman with red hair and beautiful features shouting at a doctor. She looked quite healthy.
"Keep me updated," Lyle said with a smile. "I want to know where the old man and the woman came from. Maybe we can finally get something for our troubles."
"You don't know where they came from?" the doctor looked stunned. "Where did you find them?"
"Classified," Lyle said without skipping a beat.
Extremely classified. If anyone found out that AIM was responsible for Rio, it wouldn't go their way no matter how many US Senators would speak on their behalf. They'd already supplied several advanced forms of weaponry such as their energy weapons, the Microwave Emitting Beam System, or MEBS.
But no matter how shiny the weapon, AIM was on eggshells right now. Their former leader kidnapped the president. This was worse. So much worse. People still talked about the Rio Timequake. The numbers were still coming in, but thousands had died in the initial quake. More had died to the monsters, the disease, the falling buildings. Even with the Avengers, BRIDGE, and the armies and emergency support of several nations, not everyone could be saved.
So Lyle would bury the secret deep. AIM would not fall. Not again. The timequake may have been a horrific mistake, but he would find a way past it.
"Keep me updated," Lyle passed the tablet back to the doctor. "I want to know everything about them as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir," the doctor said nervously. "Um, I heard there was one patient who-"
"He was a violent maniac, who killed some of our best men," Lyle said firmly. "He's currently running around the Canadian forests and evading our efforts. I have teams hunting him down for now. That's all you need to know."
"Shouldn't we-"
Lyle stopped in his tracks and glared at the doctor. "Get back to work. Now."
"Y-Yes sir," the doctor rushed off while Lyle continued on, hiding his frustration.
That damn wildman was still out there. Teams of trained soldiers were trying to find him, only to be taken out piecemeal by the most primitive traps and tactics. And the maniac was learning! He was getting better at fighting them!
Lyle shook his head. No matter. For now, he had one other problem. The Benefactor wanted results on the nanomachines. He wasn't sure why, but that mysterious figure was the only thing holding AIM together now. Even if it was one of his inventions that caused the incident.
As soon as Lyle got to his destination, he slammed the doors open.
"Eep!" Monica Rappaccini screamed in shock. She spun to look at Lyle, amazed. "Lyle? What the hell are you-"
"Bring in a test subject, now."
She stared at him, seemingly ready to argue. He looked at her. She shut up and nodded. "O-Okay. Who should be first?"
"The volunteer," Lyle looked around.
The room they stood in was full of computers and scientists. All of them were staring at him, shocked. The second his eyes landed on them, they looked away.
"Lyle, we don't know if these machines are ready," Monica said hesitantly. "If they go out of control, then-"
"Bring. Him. In," Lyle said.
"...All right," Monica nodded to a man standing near a phone. He rushed to make the call.
------
"Lyle," Monica said later. The beautiful brunette was watching nervously as a man was set up inside a chair. Two metal arms were set up on either side of him, each ending in a syringe full of a yellow glowing substance. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Stop dancing around the subject. Say it."
"You want to insert nanomachines into a human being, you idiot," Monica snarled, losing her false nervousness. Lyle smirked. Honestly, Monica acting so docile had been uncomfortable. Better the bitch he knew. "Nanomachines! The nightmare scenario of all technology, something labs across the country are still working on. Even those catoms BRIDGE use are nothing compared to this. And you want to insert them into a person!?"
Lyle's smirk got a little bigger. "No. I don't."
Monica stared at him, looking befuddled. "What?"
"I don't want to. In fact, if I could, I would wait another year before we started clinical trials. On rats."
"Then why-"
"The Benefactor. Our friend has been insistent. Sending us file after file, even changing files within our computers, all with one thing. Nanomachines, nanomachines, nanomachines," Lyle shook his head. "It's almost childish. All the genius of Tony Stark and half the maturity, which is saying something."
"This is just because you want to please your new best friend?" Monica asked sarcastically.
"Because I want to please the person who is supplying us with technology that dwarfs anything we could have conceived of before," Lyle turned to look at her. For a moment, all he felt was disappointment. All that genius, beauty, and drive, wasted on a woman like Monica. He pushed aside his pity. "Our projects are getting funding, the US government is looking to us to help them in their little war against superhumans. I won't sacrifice that. Not for anything."
He looked back at the scientists gathered around the volunteer. One of them turned and gave him a thumbs up. Lyle nodded.
The scientists quickly rushed away from the volunteer, who was now strapped in his chair and looking nervous. Lyle walked forward to speak into a microphone, his voice echoing. "Mike, you ready?"
"Y-Yeah!" the volunteer said.
"Good. Beginning test."
Lyle's abrupt words were met with panic. "W-Wait, alread-"
Lyle pressed a button. The syringes entered into Mike. He shouted in surprise, then sighed in relief. Lyle knew what was happening. First, the anesthetics were being injected, putting him to sleep. Then, as the volunteers eyes closed and he finally passed out, the nanites began to enter his bloodstream. Lyle looked over at one screen, monitoring the nanites progress.
"We're aiming for something very specific," Lyle whispered as Monica watched. "If the nanomachines can turn Mike into something close to what we want, then we're on our way."
"Why did he volunteer anyways? Doesn't he know how dangerous this is?" Monica asked curiously.
"He thinks he's going to become Captain America," Lyle shook his head. "I tried to explain, but he-"
"AAAAAAGGGGHHH!" Mike began to scream, his eyes snapping open. "A-AAGGHHH! NO, PLEASE GOD, N-AAAAUUUU!" his voice cracked. So did his spine.
"His heart rate is skyrocketing!" Someone shouted.
"Bring up the field!" Lyle barked.
A yellow energy field snapped into place as Mike screamed again. Then he exploded in white and gold light, blinding them all.
"Gah!" Lyle rubbed his eyes, trying to get the spots out of his vision. "Someone get me a visual! Mike! You alive!?"
"I told you this was a mistake!" Monica shouted as she staggered back.
"O-One second!" one of the scientists shouted.
A distorted scream came from the forcefield. The light dimmed, then brightened again. A sound like whispers clawed at the edges of Lyle's hearing. A low growl echoed, then turned into a scream again. A sound like a hand splashing into sewage and pollution came from the forcefield.
A hand slammed into the yellow field. The hand was very normal.
So were the other three that landed next to it. They clenched and unclenched. Another cry resounded. The hands grew larger, smaller, cracked, turned into tentacled limbs, before becoming hand-like again.
Then they went back into the light. And slowly, the screams faded.
"...Holy shit," a woman in the room whispered.
"Nothing holy about it," Monica said.
"Mike!" Lyle barked.
"I'm here."
That voice. It was like a blade slithering along the earlobes. Lyle ignored the feeling that voice caused. Science was taking place, there was no place for fear.
"Mike? Are you okay?"
The light dimmed. Lyle, Monica, and the scientists around them stared at the figure standing in the field.
He was taller now. No. He was floating above the floor. His legs were gone, replaced from the waist down with long thin tentacles that waved lightly in the air, as though they were gently providing propulsion. His body had become thinner, tight with muscle, his skin a pale pink color. Long spindly arms stretched from his back, eight of them. As Lyle watched, the top two arms, near his shoulder blades, twitched and shifted. They'd turned into something similar in shape to a scorpions stinger at the ends. In fact, six of the arms looked more like organic tools or weapons. No. They looked like medical equipment, only two in the middle looking somewhat human. His original arms were replaced with smooth stumps at his shoulders. Like a flying man-spider hybrid.
Mike, or the being that had once been Mike, looked over at Lyle.
"Fascinating," Lyle whispered. Mike's human mouth was now a pink jaw, like that of a demon. His face had a shiny insectoid look to it. A single eye stared at them. An eye shaped like the letter 'Y', glowing with the same golden light that had emitted when Mike transformed. "Mike… How do you feel?"
Mike's new mouth opened. Closed. Then, slowly, with a sound like crackling paper, it began to smile.
"I feel… fantastic."
Lyle crossed his arms. Tests would have to start. But the nanomachines had been injected, and created something new. They were beginning something new. And Lyle was ready to dive into the deep end.
Monica, meanwhile, stared in fear at the new life they had created.
------
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
von Strucker walked through the halls of his Syberian base, clenching and unclenching his fist as he strode through the cold, dark concrete hallways. Every once in a while, he would pass an open doorway. Many of the rooms in this place were empty. HYDRA was finding it hard to rebuild, and he no longer had the numbers he once did. He looked behind himself.
On his left stood Laura. The Blood Diamond. The teenage girl was staring at him, her gaze fixed on his back. The poor girl was so throurily mind controlled that she barely understood anything but orders. He'd told her to watch his back, and she took it literally.
On his right stood one of his new acquisitions. It had taken time. But he'd finally woken the Winter Soldiers.
This base held many secrets of HYDRA. But the best was his Winter Soldiers. Men and women loyal to HYDRA. The elite assassins of HYDRA, with the highest kill counts in the organization's history, and enhanced with Howard Stark's perfected Super-Soldier Serum. Created to overpower even Bucky Barnes, himself a trained super-soldier, they were each a force to be reckoned with. Left sleeping in Cryostatis Chambers in Siberia.
Until von Stucker arrived. Now, after careful application of various brainwashing methods, he had finally woken them. And now, HYDRA had five more super-soldiers.
Josef was the man's name, a tall and strongly built man, dressed in dark green armor. He was imposing, powerful.
And far weaker than Laura.
He had to smile at that. The gross truth of the modern age was that a simple experiment could turn the most innocuous of people into the world's deadliest beings. Laura, with her long black hair and petite build, looked more like a high school track star than anything.
A gross truth.
The room they finally entered was large and open, if just as cold as everywhere else. Thankfully it was lit by bright lights. A robot was humming to himself in front of a strange cauldron full of a bubbling fluid. As they walked in, the robot within turned to look at them. The red light on the head of the robot blinked. In the center of it's chest, a screen depicting the face of Arnim Zola gazed upon them.
"Ah, Herr Strucker!" Zola said from his new robotic home. "It seems you have arrived at a rather important part of my new process!"
"Already?" von Strucker was honestly surprised.
"Yes. I must thank your young bodyguard!" Zola pointed at Laura with his left hand. Eerily, his right hand continued to stir his cauldron with precise movements. "Or, I suppose, her 'father'."
"You know how I feel about you calling him that," von Strucker's surprise turned to annoyance.
Zola smirked on his screen. "Herr Strucker, it is the simple truth. The relationship between HYDRA and those we fight has always been complicated."
He stared at Zola for a moment.
The uploaded HYDRA scientist had become… odd. No surprise, considering he had come from a backup of the original Zola. Some of the changes were beneficial. Zola was constantly working, researching, aiding them in the endeavors they had been working for at a pace that dwarfed what he'd once done when he lived in a basement.
Though it probably helped that he had hands now.
Despite his new productiveness, there were problems. Zola had become much more manic. More creative, but also much less constrained, saying and doing things von Strucker had never seen him do.
Such as his strange obsession with family.
"I don't want to have this debate again," von Strucker said. "This foolishness about 'brothers' and 'fathers'-"
"Is necessary," Zola chuckled. "X and I, Laura and Dial. Even HYDRA and BRIDGE. Brothers, fathers, all of us connected by spirituality."
Then Zola pulled out the object he'd been stirring the cauldron with. At the end was a canister that was now empty. "And we can learn from that. Oh yes, we can learn."
Von Strucker hummed. Then he looked at Laura. "Blood Diamond. What will you do if you ever meet Dial?"
"Kill him," Laura said blankly.
"Do you consider him a father, for donating the crystals in your body?"
She shook her head blankly.
"Hm," von Strucker looked at Zola. "It seems you are the only one who has this strange new mindset."
"Genius, as you know, is never appreciated in it's time, Herr Strucker," Zola poked at the liquid in his cauldron. For a moment, the liquid solidified until it was almost gelatinous. A shape like a face formed in it. Then it returned to liquid. "Very nice… The inspiration of this new world has been such a welcome surprise."
"Hm," von Strucker couldn't hide his pleasure. This new creation would be an excellent addition to their forces… The forces that were currently in hiding, chased by every nation on Earth.
Enough. von Strucker walked away from Zola without another word. Zola didn't notice, focused on his creation.
Continuing towards his next destination, von Strucker considered his options. His army was growing, slowly. But as of now, his assets were not enough for full-scale war against his enemies. He needed an army that could defend him against BRIDGE and the Avengers.
The worst was Dial and Iron Man. He had ways to combat every other Avenger, different soldiers or pieces of technology. Thor could be beaten with subterfuge. The Hulk could be countered with gamma enhanced soldiers of his own. But Dial and Iron Man were too adaptable. For different reasons.
Dial was constantly getting new forms, each with abilities that ranged from outlandish to horrifying. There was a team of scientists, soldiers, and two Winter Soldiers working on every single alien Dial had, trying to find a counter to them all. Frankenstrike, Big Chill, Diamondhead, Wildmutt, they were all dangerous for so many reasons. But von Strucker did not fear them as he did two other aliens. Jury Rigg and Upgrade.
For the exact same reasons he feared Tony Stark in fact. There were other geniuses in the world, of course. That new team of Russian heroes had Crimson Dynamo, some reports of a young genius leading a team in Japan, various scientists, engineers, and others across the world. But not a single one had as much growth as Tony and Dial did.
They just kept making more and more insane technology. Tony Stark's was stable and continuously growing in power, Jury Rigg broke the laws of known physics, and Upgrade powered them both up.
He needed an edge. Something out of left field. Not just more of the same. Laura was one of those wild cards. Zola's creation was another.
This was the last.
Strucker entered a room guarded by six men. They watched him carefully as he entered.
Josef growled at them, looking around, while Laura simply followed Strucker.
Inside, stood the Phase Harmonic Teleporter, otherwise known as the Fishhook. It had been left untouched for some time. Not because it was broken, but because almost all the places Strucker would have wanted to infiltrate were defended by a device that sent teleporters bouncing back with changed genitals and polka-dot skin.
(Damned red goblin.)
But von Strucker had made his choice to use it now. To meet his last possible chance to change the game.
A guard walked up to von Strucker, lifting a wrapped object in his hands to present to the leader of HYDRA. He took the long object in one hand. Another guard passed him his gauntlet. It had undergone some upgrades as time passed, becoming a solid red metal piece of armor. All in the service of holding the unholdable.
Strucker nodded to Laura and Josef. The two stood on the sides of the teleportation device, grabbing a handle each. Strucker turned several parts of the machine, aiming it for a certain set of coordinates. Then he grabbed the lever. As one, Stucker, Laura, and Josef lifted the levers. The machine shook under their grips, rumbling like an ancient beast. They lowered the levers. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.
------
They reappeared in a black space. Strucker didn't look around. He knew what he would find. Blue alien symbols floated in the air around them. Laura and Josef stood by his side, waiting for their moment.
"Strucker," a man stepped out of the shadows. He was tall, with the appearance of an older black man, his head shaved smooth. He wore a long black coat that reached down to his ankles.
"Qovas," Strucker said with narrowed eyes.
"We are here. As you requested," the alien looked to his sides.
Five others stepped out of the shadows. Strucker looked across them. The Confederacy. The six leaders of six factions, all working together for a common cause.
"Now Strucker. Speak, and tell us why you have been so foolish as to demand our presence. And to bring two more of your worthless species before us..." Qovas said imperiously. He was the leader of the Remorath, a species of powerful aliens with blades in their arms, beyond human power, and the ability to shut down technology around them.
The others didn't matter. Only what Strucker wanted from them.
"Do you have something for us?" a blue-skinned man, with white makeup shaped in the shape of an arrow going down his forehead, and black makeup around his eyes. He stepped forward eagerly, looking between Laura and Josef. "One of the Inhumans I requested, possibly?"
"Not as of yet," Strucker replied. "Though Laura," Strucker looked at her. "May be of interest to you."
The blue-skinned man's eyes widened with greed. He was a member of the Kree, a man by the name of Taryan. Strucker noted his eagerness quietly as he clutched the wrapped object in his hands.
"Then state your case," Qovas growled. "I know you Terran's have some love for wasting time, but ours is valuable. Or should I kill one of your men to remind you of that?"
"...Have any of you heard of the Omnitrix?"
No one spoke.
"This question is of vital import," Strucker hissed, his cold eyes looking across them. "The Omnitrix. A wrist device of immense power. Alien, in origin."
"If it had worth," the only woman of the group, Estella, said while scoffing, her bright green eyes crinkling in her dark brown face. "We would know of it."
"Yes… If you had as much power as you claimed," Strucker pointed out.
"What are you attempting to imply, human?" Qovas stepped forward while snarling.
"I'm implying that you are liars," Strucker said simply. "That you have used your advanced technology to bully weaker minds awed by shiny pieces of metal, claiming you have the power to save us while secretly forcing us to give up our greatest secrets before running off to let us die."
Two of the men looked at each other. Qovas snarled.
"How dare yo-!" the Remorath began to yell.
"If he speaks again, Laura, I want you to cut his right arm off," Strucker said.
Laura didn't reply.
"It seems you've forgotten your place," one of the men, who had dark green skin, said in an almost bored tone.
"No. I've simply begun to step into it," Strucker shrugged. "But then, it's been a rough few months, and I've had enough of pontificating blowhards who are nowhere near as powerful as they claim."
"Enough!" Qovas shouted, swinging his arms down. Two long silver blades sprouted from his fists as he stabbed forward with supernatural speed.
A flash of blue green passed. Qovas gaped down at Laura. Then he looked at his right arm. Laying in two pieces on the floor, rolling back and forth as blood poured out the cuts.. He stumbled back, looking at Laura. She glared back at him. A pair of long crystal blades were sprouting from her fists.
Qovas swung his left hand at her with desperate speed, the claw there shining in the dim light.
Laura's left arm sprouted a crystal shield along her forearm, blocking the blade with ease.
"Take his leg," Stucker said.
Laura ducked and sliced Qovas' left leg off.
He screamed in a pain and horror, falling to the ground.
"Inhuman," Taryan whispered.
"No," Strucker corrected. "She is a product of human science. Proof you all have no idea what you're talking about."
"You think you'll get away with this!?" the green-skinned man shouted.
Stucker smirked, stepping forward. Qovas, growling in pain, lashed out at him on the floor.
The long object in Strucker's hand glowed blue, then fired a single bolt of blue light, ripping Qovas' chest open. The wrapping ripped apart, revealing Loki's scepter.
"No," Estella whispered, staring at the dead Qovas.
"I need something from you," Strucker said with a smile as he stepped close to Taryan. The Kree man stared at him in horror. Holding the scepter high in a red gloved hand, he smiled. Josef and Laura leaped forward past Taryan, and the screams began. "You may be useless in unlocking the secrets of the Omnitrix. But I still have a use for you."
He pressed the tip of the scepter to Taryan's chest. The Kree gasped. And Strucker's smile widened while the scepter glowed an unearthly blue.
-------
Stend
In the jungle of the Savage Lands, in the city of the Saur-Lords, Stend lay in a bed. His body was wrapped in bandages, soaked in blood, makeshift casts wrapped around his limbs.
He didn't care. All he did was stare up at the ceiling. His first demand upon waking had been simple. Carve a symbol on the ceiling above him. One he could stare at for hours. So he could remember. So that the pain had something he could connect to.
The symbol of a green hourglass set in a black symbol.
"Dial…" Stend whispered to himself. "Dial. Dial. Dial. Dial. Dial."
It would continue like this for hours. He slept. He ate. He healed. And he planned.
"Dial. Dial. Dial."
------
Author's Note: So, couple things. First, Jen and Mary are about to beat the SHIT out of each other. Seriously, it's gonna be stupid brutal. But Frank is gonna have his own fights to contend with, don't worry about that.
Then, we've got the interlude. Namely, AIM and HYDRA arming.
I'm doing my best to avoid that whole HYDRA arc thing, when I took a long ass time focusing on just the bad guys. So here are two simple moments, right after a hero is about to fight.
If anyone needs explaining of anything, well, in an attempt to help out, here are some wiki links about the HYDRA stuff.
Loki's Scepter, AKA the Mind Stone holder.
Confederacy and their People.
The Phase Harmonic Teleportation Device, AKA the Fishhook.
The Winter Soldiers. Oh, and Josef.
And lastly, the actresses for Mary MacPherson and Ananastasia Rinaldi
Mary MacPherson and Rachelle Carter (Cosplaying as Poison Ivy to have the red hair)
Ananastasia Rinaldi and Megan Fox
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
"Wait, how did you find out that she killed that guy in the car?" Mahmoud asked.
"That's kinda spoilery," I grinned at him. "Come on, you do that stuff all the time whenever you get to do storytime."
He sipped at his milkshake thoughtfully before speaking. "Well, yeah, but I'm supposed to be all dramatic. I am a writer after all."
"You are?" Thor asked, looking genuinely surprised.
"Wha-Yes!" Mahmoud said, offended. "I talk about it all the time!"
"No, you don't," Natasha replied. When he gave her a shocked look, she shrugged. "You talk about it sometimes, but you never exactly make a thing of it."
He looked at me. I gave him a little chuckle. "Sorry, sweetie. You never really sit down and type stories. I mean, you do a lot of stuff for research, but…"
Mahmoud sipped at his drink again. He looked even more thoughtful now.
Thor chugged his drink before burping. "So! You have found your opponent, yes? When do we get to the part when you slay her in righteous combat."
"Slay her," I blinked. "Yeesh, what am I, a vampire hunter?"
"Don't even joke about that," Dial and Thor said seriously in unison.
Nat and I blinked together, sharing a look.
"Okay… we'll just unpack that later, I guess," I said slowly. "So yeah, Mary MacPherran. My first nemesis. I didn't know it yet though. What I did know was that I'd messed up… Edgar Romero didn't have any family. But he had friends. People who missed him. All he was doing was his job. And he got beat to hell. I was only a few feet from him when he died. I let the guy who killed him walk right past me, I-"
I felt a bit of pain in my right fist. When I looked down at it, I was surprised to see my fist was so tight it was starting to hurt. I slowly unclenched it.
"...So anyways. I called Jarvis and we headed to a library for some privacy."
------
May 18, 2014
"What you got for us, Jarvis?" I asked while striding back and forth in front of a holographic screen. Frank's BRIDGE-issued smartphone rested on the table, projecting the image of Jarvis standing in the Avengers Tower. I honestly had no idea if he was actually standing in the tower or just sending us a virtual image he'd made, but it was good to see the robot butler.
"On assessment of the case, I have compiled a file. I believe I have found the man you are looking for," Jarvis popped up another hologram, this one showing a case-file. "Named John Critic."
"That's him," I snarled, staring at the face of the guy I'd chased. Even without him looking like he was seconds from pissing in fear, I recognized him.
"Then I have fortunate news. I have footage of him from both locations," Jarvis' mouth blinked on and off with every word.
"How?" Frank asked. "I thought they disabled the cameras in the bank and the hospital."
"Yes. But not the traffic cameras around both locations," Jarvis showed footage of streets at night, zooming in on one particular street. "I've found footage the night of the robbery with a car containing the suspect in question. However, I lose as he comes closer to Hell's Kitchen. There is a surprising lack of surveillance in that part of the city."
"Yeah, cause nobody likes being spied on," Frank growled, glaring at the holographic scene as one particular car was outlined in blue. "You can just access any camera in the city?"
"Not unless asked by an Avenger or similarly ranked individual," Jarvis said. "For now, this is the last known location I can track the suspect to."
Jarvis showed a random street in Hell's Kitchen, which the highlighted car drove along before disappearing around a corner. "When compared to the footage of Mr. Critic's later drive, I may have a general location for him. However, more specific information would require further surveillance."
"Well, he's dead either way," Frank said.
I snapped my head to look at him, surprised. He shrugged. "Come on, Walters. These guys already killed a security guard, and they know you saw the guy. I doubt they'll kill the superhuman if they wanna keep robbing places, but this guy is some two-bit criminal. He's dead and dumped."
Damn. He was right. But even so, this guy, John Critic, was a lead we could use.
"Jarvis, show me his known associates," I asked calmly. He brought up another screen. "In fact, can you compile everything we've got on him? I want to read it personally."
"Yes, Ms. Walters," Jarvis said, his holographic screens quickly shuffling and rearranging.
"What are you thinking?" Frank asked.
"This guy has friends, enemies, favorite hangouts," I explained. "If we can find something even slightly related to this place, we've got him."
Frank looked over the holograms for a moment. Then he sighed and turned around. "I'll call Maria on another phone and tell her I might be out late…"
I felt immediate guilt when he said that. I'd gotten so obsessed with the mission that I'd forgotten that Frank had people waiting for him. "Oh. Well, if you want, you can use my phone, since I'm using yours for all this holograph stuff."
Frank took it from my hand with a nod before walking away, tapping at the keypad.
I watched him go before turning to the screens in front of me. "Okay. Jarvis, pull up the location that we lost our guy, and let's start narrowing things down."
Even as I worked, I knew there was one puzzle missing. These thieves knew way too much. How had they known about the security guard's location? The only ones who should have were involved in the case. For that matter, how did those paparazzi know where I'd be going?
Were those two connected? If so, how?
------
Mary MacPherran
Mary sighed, rolling her shoulders as she left her room. Her little romp with the driver had been short, but fun. He was still lying on her bed, passed out. She'd gotten a little rough.
She stopped outside her door to look around. They were based in a small warehouse, rented from one of the local powers of New York, someone who was scary enough that no one even wanted to say his name. It gave them a nice place to do their work from. She'd taken a crappy office as her temporary bedroom. A few feet away from that was a table in the center of the warehouse, with a whiteboard on wheels nearby. On it was a blueprint of a bank. Some ashes were still resting on the table from the last plan.
Mary walked up to the billboard and looked at it carefully. She ignored the man standing nearby, drinking coffee.
"Mary," the man said, looking at her shakily.
"Sam," Mary said levely.
"Is uh… is Rajesh alive in there?" Sam said, referring to the driver.
"Of course he is!" Mary spun to face him, offended.
Sam winced back. "S-Sorry! I just… he was screaming. And after John-"
"I killed John because he would have got us caught," Mary snarled. Her massive arms crossed over each other. Despite his fear, Sam instinctively watched the effect that motion had on her chest, only to wince. Mary took pleasure in that. First, at the confirmation, he found her attractive. Second, the fact he was scared of her. There was power in that. Being sexy and scary.
"And Rajesh is fine. We were just having fun," Mary purred, rubbing her arms.
"Glad to hear it," Mary and Sam turned to see a woman walk out of the shadows. The 'click-click-click' of heels followed each step, sculpted calves practically glistening in the light.
Sam swallowed. Both women were attractive, in their own ways. Mary, for all her incredible size and muscle, was sculpted like a fourteen-year-old's fantasy barbarian woman, her tanned skin, flowing red hair, and curvy features giving her an exotic look.
The other woman, while not as unique, was just as beautiful. With long black hair, a tight orange top that highlighted how perfectly shaped her breasts and abdomen were, a short skirt and high heels that showed off her legs, and the face of an angel, well…
Sam was in hell. Two beautiful women and both of them were as scary as fuck killers.
"Ana," Mary said softly, smiling down at her best friend. The elegant woman smiled back up at her, placing a black jacket onto the table. A jacket with the letters 'FBI' written across the back. "Are you okay?"
"Perfectly fine, dear. Unlike John, apparently," Ananastasia looked over at Sam. "Have you already gotten rid of the body?"
Sam swallowed. "Yeah. He's in acid now. I'll dump him into the harbor after."
"Good," Ananastasia smirked. "One more job. One more, and Mary and I will leave you forever Sam. And you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams."
Mary smiled at that thought. Ever since she'd woken up in an empty hospital with the strength of a goddess, she'd reveled in her power. She'd fought and fucked as much as she wanted, and found nothing but happiness in that. After years as a mousy and ugly redhead who got pushed around by everyone, her new life was a dream.
And Ana was part of that. Ever since they met, Ana had been the one teaching how to use her new power. Ana was supposed to arrest her for the death of her stepfather. Instead, she saw something special in Mary. In little Mary MacPherson.
Together, they'd begun to build something great. Ana used her FBI connections to find a group of idiots to use. Sam, a hacker, Rajesh, a getaway driver, and John, a petty thug who could get things done when Mary and Ana didn't want to be seen.
Then they did a test run, using Mary's strength to rob a chump change bank for some small amount of cash, using Sam's skill as a hacker to keep the camera's off, before hitting one of their actual targets. Ana even had files from an FBI agent who had evaluated the banks' security weeks ago! Combined with John doing some surveillance as a customer, they'd gotten things down right. Now they only had one more.
Then they'd leave New York. Leave to somewhere sunny, where the men were pretty and the sand was soft, rich for the rest of their lives. Freedom, absolute and endless.
Looking down at Ana, Mary saw her hopes.
Ana tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But we have one problem… An Avenger, and a BRIDGE agent. They're onto us."
"You think they'll be a problem?" Sam asked nervously.
Ana spun and slapped Sam in the face, sending him stumbling back in pain. "Of course they will be, you absolute buffoon," Ana said calmly.
"You-" Sam began to shout. Then he noticed Mary step forward, and quickly shut his mouth.
Ana smirked. "She-Hulk… she's supposed to be as strong as her cousin. And BRIDGE has been getting a rep. If I didn't let the paparazzi know where she was going, those two would have caught us much sooner. We barely got away as is," she sighed. "Honestly, Mary, I wish you'd killed that guard from the start."
It was like a shot to the chest. "A-Ana, I didn't… I mean-"
"We wouldn't have been in this situation," Ana shook her head sadly. "Mary, you're amazing. But you need to live up to that potential. If you keep disappointing me, I don't know how we'll get this all done."
Mary stared at Ana, uncomprehending for a moment before she shook her head. "It won't happen again, I promise!"
"How can you promise that?" Ana's words might as well have been a knife carving into her. "An Avenger is after us, dear. Someone who fights demons for a living. Can you beat her?"
"Yes!" Rage filled Mary, pointed towards that green bitch from earlier. "I'll kill her! I promise! T-Then we'll be free! I promise…"
Please. Please don't leave. Mary couldn't stand to be alone again. Even with her new power, nothing could be worse than that.
"I understand," Ana's eyes were filled with warmth. "Then we'll be fine… You handle the Avenger. And I'll handle the agent."
Fresh worry filled Mary. "Are you sure?"
"Oh, sweetie," Ana chuckled, brushing back her hair. "He's a man. I know men. Isn't that right, Sam?"
Sam hesitated before nodding. "Y-Yeah."
"Wave a little bit of booty in their direction, let them think you belong to them, and you own them," Ana smiled savagely. "And if not, a bullet to the forehead works just as well. We take care of these two, and we'll head off into the great wide world."
Mary smiled nervously. Yes. Yes. They'd rob this last bank, kill Sam and Rajesh, and leave forever. Together.
It never occurred to Mary. That someone so willing to betray people might want to betray her as well.
------
Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
I read file after file, working through them. Anytime I had something promising, I would slide it into one of the other screens. It was slow work, even with Jarvis helping. But I was beginning to understand John Critic.
He was a thug, yeah. But one who was good at his job. He had been caught twice, once as a teenager for beating up a man for petty cash, and again as an adult for robbing a convenience store. Since then though, he'd managed to dodge the law. Strangely high-class lawyers (Who I made sure to remember the names of) had helped him avoid a couple of convictions, but overall any cases he was involved in were more rumor than anything.
But he did have a rep. And a reputation meant information.
I already had a list of possible candidates for people I could see him working with. No redheaded giants, but that was the problem with superpowers nowadays. You could never predict how they would change people. Hell, I was living proof of that. I looked nothing like mousy little Jennifer anymore. Jen was a green bombshell now, not a pale imitation.
It might be the same with this redhead giant. They could have been changed recently, which made finding out who they used to be just that much harder.
Frank came back. He was looking a little… well, depressed. I grimaced before tapping at the holoscreen, dismissing one of the documents and turning to look at him.
"You okay, Frank?"
He looked at me with a very grim face, chuckling without any humor. "What, Walters, you wanna be my therapist?"
"I doubt I have enough time in the day for that," he grunted non-committedly. "But seriously, you all right? Tell Mama Shulkie what's wrong," I tried to tease, but it ended up coming out a bit harsh.
For some reason, I think that was better than being nice. Frank grunted again, before shaking his head. "It's my boy. He's… young. So he knows why I do what I do. But now that I'm spending time with the kid, it's like it's still not enough. Lisa, she's smart. She knows I can't always be there. But he's still asking me why I can't be there all the time…"
I felt guiltier. Not just because I was the one who'd insisted we keep at this, but also because a bit of relief hit me. I knew something about what he was talking about.
"...You know my cousin?" I asked Frank.
"Every human being on Earth knows your cousin," he snarked.
"Smartass," I crossed my arms and shook my head. "Well, before he became the strongest thing in the world, before he was the world's smartest scientist on radiation, he was a kid. We used to hang out together a lot as kids. We'd have a lot of fun together. Pair of giant nerds," I chuckled. "Can you believe we sometimes just had contests on who could memorize more random facts?"
"This story coming to a point?"
"Awww, Frank, that's what I love about you, your kindness and empathy," he reluctantly smiled at that. "The point is, that I loved Bruce. My dad, my mom, and his mom, all loved him. The only one who didn't was his own dad… He called Bruce a monster. Every time Bruce showed how smart he was, David Banner was there with a fist to remind him he was hated."
Frank's smile faded.
"I wasn't there for the first beatings. But I still remember the bruises on his arms. On his mom's face. The marks where he 'fell'. The only time I ever saw it, my dad was there. Well, my dad doesn't fuck around," I clenched a fist. "My dad was a two hundred pound army vet who became a sheriff. David Banner was an alcoholic scientist. He never showed up around me again until he died."
I grinned savagely. "He probably died still worrying my dad would make good on his threats. I hope he did."
I looked Frank in the eyes. "David Banner was there. Almost every day. He was a constant presence in his kid's life. I think that was the worst part, for Bruce. For the rest of his life, even after David died, I think Bruce still worries he'll show up."
"Your kids, your wife. They don't see as much as they wish. But when you're there, they love you for it. It does matter that you're there for your kids, but it matters even more what you do for them."
A little chuckle escaped me. "But I know you don't like long speeches. So to keep it short. Quantity really is shit compared to quality."
I looked Frank in the eye. I have to admit, I felt a little nervous. "You're doing fine, Frank. And we'll get you home soon. I promise."
"..." Frank sighed, looking away from me and eyeing the holograms instead. "Okay. Yeah, okay. What do you got on our guy?"
Man, Frank is really bad at communicating. I gave him a bone and turned to look at the screens. "Well, Jarvis has helped me narrow down a few things. John Critic wasn't exactly a high class guy. We have records of his friends and family, as well as some people he worked with. He's a Hell's Kitchen native, like my buddy Matt."
I took a moment to wish that I'd known they were headed to Hell's Kitchen. Matt's super-senses would have been great at the time. Now though, too much time had passed, as far as I know. Maybe I should have called him in anyways, but then Jarvis caught my attention.
"Ms. Walters, I believe I've found our culprit using your parameters."
"You did?" I asked, staring at all the floating blue screens.
"Yes. John Critic was known to frequent a certain bar," he showed me the bar, a random hole in the wall with some bikes parked in front. "Thanks to you pointing out that he wouldn't have changed his eating habits, I have managed to find footage of him entering the bar. From there, I worked backward."
"Yes!" I pumped a fist and gave Frank a grin. "Nice thing about bad guys, they love routines."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll remember that next time I go hunting for criminals in New York. Calm down, Jolly Green," Frank said with a dismissive wave.
Jarvis continued. "From there, I was able to find two more places. One was a convenience store nearby that caught him on his cameras. I used that to narrow the search further. Do you remember, Ms. Walters, that you narrowed down his list of allies for me?"
"Yeah," I shook my head. "He had a real nice list of idiots in his past. But I figured out who he'd most likely work with. If he's the thug, and the redhead is the literal safecracker, then getaway drivers, tech experts, fences. I tried to cover as many people he knew as possible that could help with the kinds of heists we're dealing with."
And that led me to this," he showed the next image.
A gas station. Where one of John's friends was filling up a shitty van. "Which one is that?"
"Rajesh Patel," Jarvis said. "An accomplished driver, who was caught as an accomplice on several jobs. He's currently out on parole. And, from there, the pattern has emerged."
Jarvis started laying out the map, showing the area Rajesh went with a blue line, and the line John followed with a red line, with them meeting in several places. "They began meeting recently with a man named Sam Dane, a hacker with some expertise. Not a friend of either of them, but someone capable of blacking out the camera's in both banks and the hospital."
"So we have our boys. Do we know where they're coming from?" I asked.
Jarvis showed a warehouse by the docks. Which, honestly, felt a little cliche. "I believe, based on the patterns of movement all three have done, this location is the most likely. I will send it to Mr. Castle's phone."
"Thanks, Jarvis," I looked over at Frank. "You ready to rumble?"
"Depends, you still remember how to throw a punch?" Frank teased. "Or are you too used to sitting behind a desk and talking to clients now?"
"Hey, I can be a lawyer and a badass, Frank," we both turned and walked out, Frank picking up his phone. "I swear to kick ass, the whole ass, and nothing but the ass, so help me God."
"Amen. Let's go get my guns."
------
We showed up outside the warehouse in our Sunday best. I was wearing a purple and white muscle shirt and blue jeans, both tailored for me. Frank, on the other hand, was wearing BRIDGE tac-gear, made for urban combat. We were met by our backup.
You guys know as well as I do that we couldn't just go in with Frank and I. BRIDGE doesn't work like that. They sent us two agents, both dressed in the same urban gear, informed the correct authorities that we were working a case so any loud noises were just us taking down a superhuman suspect, and all-around covered our bases legally.
It's a harsh truth of the current justice system that superhuman cases get to skip over certain legalities. It's kind of like having definitive proof that a biological weapon or nuclear bomb is in the middle of a city. A lot of corners get cut to take care of the problem.
"You look happy," I said to Frank as he checked over his gun.
"Hn," he grunted. After a moment, he clenched his rifle to his chest, apparently happy with it. "I'm just happy we can finally fight someone. I'm not made for all this detective shit."
I felt that. This whole adventure had been frustrating. Sure, it was great that we managed to figure things out so far, but I really preferred the actual lawyer stuff, depending on good cops to find evidence I could use to build a case.
"Sir, ma'am," one of the two soldiers, a young woman wearing Catom armor that made her head look like a sci-fi soldier out of a movie, said to me. "We're ready to roll."
"Good," Frank said to her, raising his gun. "We've got a superhuman involved in this mission. Assume brute strength and durability. Walter's is our backup, but if you have to take them, don't waste time with ICER's. Hit them with the heavy shit, run while you do it. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," the man and woman said in unison.
Frank nodded. His own helmet snapped over his face. Over it's faceplate, blending in so well it couldn't be seen unless you were up close, was the symbol of a skull. "Let's go."
I turned and grinned at the warehouse. "All right. Let's go kick some ass!"
------
"Nobody is here!?"
Wow. That was just... massively disappointing.
The warehouse we were in was obviously the base of operations of the robbers. There were coffee cups laying about, some foldaway chairs, a car parked in the back room, a rumpled bed in a back room, and some blueprints placed carefully on some whiteboards.
"Looks like they just left," the male BRIDGE soldier said… Okay, I'll be honest, his name was Frank. Frank Simmons. Considering I had one friend named Simmons already, and a Frank that was already on the same team, the name 'male BRIDGE soldier' would have to do.
Sally… Damnit. Sorry. Just… okay.
Well, the other Sally was staring at the blueprints. "Are these the banks they robbed?"
Frank and I took a look. As soon as I realized what I was seeing, I turned and started walking, Frank following. "They're heading to another bank!"
"Get the NYPD on the horn, let them know what's going on!" Frank barked. "They're in Midtown Manhattan, near Madison Square Garden, move!"
"Isn't there a fight there tonight!?" Sally shouted as the male BRIDGE soldier followed close behind.
"Oh, there's going to be a fight," I said to myself angrily.
Boy, was that ever prophetic or what?
------
Mary MacPherson
"GRAAAGH!" biceps and abs clenched as one as Mary ripped the vault door off the wall. Behind her, Sam was waiting nervously. Concrete and steel gave up before a superior force, buckling under her fingers before squealing and crunching. With a heave, she twisted around to finally pull the door out, tossing it behind her. Sam yelped and ducked back as dozens of tons of metal flew over his head.
"Come on!" Mary yelled at Sam, rushing into the vault. She ignored the money, which Sam started placing in the big black bags over his shoulder. Instead, she went for the safety deposit boxes, ripping the doors off them in big handfuls and grabbing whatever was inside.
The pair quickly started working, grabbing as fast as they could. After around nine minutes, Mary's earpiece buzzed.
"Mary, it's Ana," Ananastasia said over the earpiece she'd given them, some FBI tech Ana had stolen. "I think there's some trouble coming. Police scanners are calling for an evacuation around the bank. Grab everything and get out, I'll try to intercep-"
KRAKABOOM!
Mary and Sam spun around to face the door to the vault. A tall green figure crashed through the windows in a spray of glass, the moon shining bright behind her. Mary and Sam stared as the green giant landed in the center of the bank. She was massive. Almost as big as Mary, with deep green skin over taught muscle that could be seen under her purple and white swimsuit. The giant woman stood high and grinned.
"Hiya, bad guys. You ready to rumble?"
Mary stared at her for a moment. Then she stepped forward. "Keep working, Sam."
The woman grinned and walked forward to stand across from her. They stopped about ten feet apart, looking each other up and down.
"So you're the She-Hulk, huh?" Mary smirked down at her. "You're shorter than I imagined."
"I've got a petite and cute figure," Jen smirked up at her. "Who are you supposed to be?"
Mary puffed her chest proudly, tapping her chest with her fist. Finally! After all this time, she could tell someone her codename! "I'm Mary MacPherson! The Mighty Titania! The strongest woman in the world!"
"...Okay. Out of all the names you just said, only one of those is gonna go uncontested," Jen's fist clenched. "I'll let Davida worry about the first one."
Mary blinked. And a green fist was slamming into her cheek. Pain blossomed out from her right cheek as she screamed, sent flipping backwards into the vault, slamming into the back of it. Safety deposit boxes were crushed under her. She looked up at Jen, who was grinning with an outstretched fist.
"Holy shit!" Sam shouted, clutching batches of cash to his chest like they were a teddy bear.
"Not so great when someone sucker punches you, huh!?"
"YOU BIMBO BITCH!"
Mary scrambled to her feet and leaped forward, smashing into She-Hulk like a train. They crashed into a teller's stand, turning it to splinters, She-Hulk landing on her back, where Mary grabbed her opponent's hair. With vicious strength, she used her grip to slam the back of She-Hulk's head into the ground. She did it over and over, cratering the marble under her head. She-Hulk screamed, a bloodcurdling sound that echoed in the dark bank lobby, and punched Mary in the face. Mary roared back and elbowed her in the chin.
Jen grabbed Mary by the hair, turned her head, and punched her in the face, over and over with incredible speed, until Mary was forced back.
Both women scrambled to their feet and faced each other.
"I'm gonna kill you, you damn green bimbo!"
"Promises, promises, cuddles," She-Hulk wiped her lips and grinned. "How about you come and let Shulkie show you what she can really do?"
That was it. They met in the center, and the floor beneath them began to shake. Fists slammed into skin, stones cracked beneath their feet, and their clothes began to shred as bruises grew only to heal in seconds. The battle was just beginning.
------
Interlude: Villains
Lyle Getz/Leader(?) of AIM
Lyle was sitting in his office at his computer, trying to understand what was happening. He stared at the screen before him, trepidation on his face.
It had changed. The folder had changed once again. And he had no idea how.
No. He had an idea of who was behind this. The Benefactor. That was the name he'd given to the mysterious person who had left the files that had saved AIM, allowing them to create the incredible inventions that let them rebuild.
And now, a folder on MRE's had been replaced with more files on nanomachines. The Benefactor was making it clear that he wanted AIM to complete that project. Lyle got up quickly, walking out of his office with a scowl on his face.
It was a long walk to his destination. On the way there, someone in a lab coat and carrying a tablet came out of an office and almost bumped into him.
"Dr. Getz!" he was a young man, one of the newer medical personnel that had been hired. Lyle couldn't remember his name, just that he was a doctor. "I have a report on Case-243 and Case-244."
"Our guests?" Lyle blinked, intrigued. "Have they woken from their coma?"
The doctor nodded. "The woman has. She's speaking an odd language however. We're attempting to find a translator. Here, look."
He took the tablet and passed it to Lyle. On it was a live stream of a camera inside the medical wing. There was a woman with red hair and beautiful features shouting at a doctor. She looked quite healthy.
"Keep me updated," Lyle said with a smile. "I want to know where the old man and the woman came from. Maybe we can finally get something for our troubles."
"You don't know where they came from?" the doctor looked stunned. "Where did you find them?"
"Classified," Lyle said without skipping a beat.
Extremely classified. If anyone found out that AIM was responsible for Rio, it wouldn't go their way no matter how many US Senators would speak on their behalf. They'd already supplied several advanced forms of weaponry such as their energy weapons, the Microwave Emitting Beam System, or MEBS.
But no matter how shiny the weapon, AIM was on eggshells right now. Their former leader kidnapped the president. This was worse. So much worse. People still talked about the Rio Timequake. The numbers were still coming in, but thousands had died in the initial quake. More had died to the monsters, the disease, the falling buildings. Even with the Avengers, BRIDGE, and the armies and emergency support of several nations, not everyone could be saved.
So Lyle would bury the secret deep. AIM would not fall. Not again. The timequake may have been a horrific mistake, but he would find a way past it.
"Keep me updated," Lyle passed the tablet back to the doctor. "I want to know everything about them as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir," the doctor said nervously. "Um, I heard there was one patient who-"
"He was a violent maniac, who killed some of our best men," Lyle said firmly. "He's currently running around the Canadian forests and evading our efforts. I have teams hunting him down for now. That's all you need to know."
"Shouldn't we-"
Lyle stopped in his tracks and glared at the doctor. "Get back to work. Now."
"Y-Yes sir," the doctor rushed off while Lyle continued on, hiding his frustration.
That damn wildman was still out there. Teams of trained soldiers were trying to find him, only to be taken out piecemeal by the most primitive traps and tactics. And the maniac was learning! He was getting better at fighting them!
Lyle shook his head. No matter. For now, he had one other problem. The Benefactor wanted results on the nanomachines. He wasn't sure why, but that mysterious figure was the only thing holding AIM together now. Even if it was one of his inventions that caused the incident.
As soon as Lyle got to his destination, he slammed the doors open.
"Eep!" Monica Rappaccini screamed in shock. She spun to look at Lyle, amazed. "Lyle? What the hell are you-"
"Bring in a test subject, now."
She stared at him, seemingly ready to argue. He looked at her. She shut up and nodded. "O-Okay. Who should be first?"
"The volunteer," Lyle looked around.
The room they stood in was full of computers and scientists. All of them were staring at him, shocked. The second his eyes landed on them, they looked away.
"Lyle, we don't know if these machines are ready," Monica said hesitantly. "If they go out of control, then-"
"Bring. Him. In," Lyle said.
"...All right," Monica nodded to a man standing near a phone. He rushed to make the call.
------
"Lyle," Monica said later. The beautiful brunette was watching nervously as a man was set up inside a chair. Two metal arms were set up on either side of him, each ending in a syringe full of a yellow glowing substance. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Stop dancing around the subject. Say it."
"You want to insert nanomachines into a human being, you idiot," Monica snarled, losing her false nervousness. Lyle smirked. Honestly, Monica acting so docile had been uncomfortable. Better the bitch he knew. "Nanomachines! The nightmare scenario of all technology, something labs across the country are still working on. Even those catoms BRIDGE use are nothing compared to this. And you want to insert them into a person!?"
Lyle's smirk got a little bigger. "No. I don't."
Monica stared at him, looking befuddled. "What?"
"I don't want to. In fact, if I could, I would wait another year before we started clinical trials. On rats."
"Then why-"
"The Benefactor. Our friend has been insistent. Sending us file after file, even changing files within our computers, all with one thing. Nanomachines, nanomachines, nanomachines," Lyle shook his head. "It's almost childish. All the genius of Tony Stark and half the maturity, which is saying something."
"This is just because you want to please your new best friend?" Monica asked sarcastically.
"Because I want to please the person who is supplying us with technology that dwarfs anything we could have conceived of before," Lyle turned to look at her. For a moment, all he felt was disappointment. All that genius, beauty, and drive, wasted on a woman like Monica. He pushed aside his pity. "Our projects are getting funding, the US government is looking to us to help them in their little war against superhumans. I won't sacrifice that. Not for anything."
He looked back at the scientists gathered around the volunteer. One of them turned and gave him a thumbs up. Lyle nodded.
The scientists quickly rushed away from the volunteer, who was now strapped in his chair and looking nervous. Lyle walked forward to speak into a microphone, his voice echoing. "Mike, you ready?"
"Y-Yeah!" the volunteer said.
"Good. Beginning test."
Lyle's abrupt words were met with panic. "W-Wait, alread-"
Lyle pressed a button. The syringes entered into Mike. He shouted in surprise, then sighed in relief. Lyle knew what was happening. First, the anesthetics were being injected, putting him to sleep. Then, as the volunteers eyes closed and he finally passed out, the nanites began to enter his bloodstream. Lyle looked over at one screen, monitoring the nanites progress.
"We're aiming for something very specific," Lyle whispered as Monica watched. "If the nanomachines can turn Mike into something close to what we want, then we're on our way."
"Why did he volunteer anyways? Doesn't he know how dangerous this is?" Monica asked curiously.
"He thinks he's going to become Captain America," Lyle shook his head. "I tried to explain, but he-"
"AAAAAAGGGGHHH!" Mike began to scream, his eyes snapping open. "A-AAGGHHH! NO, PLEASE GOD, N-AAAAUUUU!" his voice cracked. So did his spine.
"His heart rate is skyrocketing!" Someone shouted.
"Bring up the field!" Lyle barked.
A yellow energy field snapped into place as Mike screamed again. Then he exploded in white and gold light, blinding them all.
"Gah!" Lyle rubbed his eyes, trying to get the spots out of his vision. "Someone get me a visual! Mike! You alive!?"
"I told you this was a mistake!" Monica shouted as she staggered back.
"O-One second!" one of the scientists shouted.
A distorted scream came from the forcefield. The light dimmed, then brightened again. A sound like whispers clawed at the edges of Lyle's hearing. A low growl echoed, then turned into a scream again. A sound like a hand splashing into sewage and pollution came from the forcefield.
A hand slammed into the yellow field. The hand was very normal.
So were the other three that landed next to it. They clenched and unclenched. Another cry resounded. The hands grew larger, smaller, cracked, turned into tentacled limbs, before becoming hand-like again.
Then they went back into the light. And slowly, the screams faded.
"...Holy shit," a woman in the room whispered.
"Nothing holy about it," Monica said.
"Mike!" Lyle barked.
"I'm here."
That voice. It was like a blade slithering along the earlobes. Lyle ignored the feeling that voice caused. Science was taking place, there was no place for fear.
"Mike? Are you okay?"
The light dimmed. Lyle, Monica, and the scientists around them stared at the figure standing in the field.
He was taller now. No. He was floating above the floor. His legs were gone, replaced from the waist down with long thin tentacles that waved lightly in the air, as though they were gently providing propulsion. His body had become thinner, tight with muscle, his skin a pale pink color. Long spindly arms stretched from his back, eight of them. As Lyle watched, the top two arms, near his shoulder blades, twitched and shifted. They'd turned into something similar in shape to a scorpions stinger at the ends. In fact, six of the arms looked more like organic tools or weapons. No. They looked like medical equipment, only two in the middle looking somewhat human. His original arms were replaced with smooth stumps at his shoulders. Like a flying man-spider hybrid.
Mike, or the being that had once been Mike, looked over at Lyle.
"Fascinating," Lyle whispered. Mike's human mouth was now a pink jaw, like that of a demon. His face had a shiny insectoid look to it. A single eye stared at them. An eye shaped like the letter 'Y', glowing with the same golden light that had emitted when Mike transformed. "Mike… How do you feel?"
Mike's new mouth opened. Closed. Then, slowly, with a sound like crackling paper, it began to smile.
"I feel… fantastic."
Lyle crossed his arms. Tests would have to start. But the nanomachines had been injected, and created something new. They were beginning something new. And Lyle was ready to dive into the deep end.
Monica, meanwhile, stared in fear at the new life they had created.
------
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
von Strucker walked through the halls of his Syberian base, clenching and unclenching his fist as he strode through the cold, dark concrete hallways. Every once in a while, he would pass an open doorway. Many of the rooms in this place were empty. HYDRA was finding it hard to rebuild, and he no longer had the numbers he once did. He looked behind himself.
On his left stood Laura. The Blood Diamond. The teenage girl was staring at him, her gaze fixed on his back. The poor girl was so throurily mind controlled that she barely understood anything but orders. He'd told her to watch his back, and she took it literally.
On his right stood one of his new acquisitions. It had taken time. But he'd finally woken the Winter Soldiers.
This base held many secrets of HYDRA. But the best was his Winter Soldiers. Men and women loyal to HYDRA. The elite assassins of HYDRA, with the highest kill counts in the organization's history, and enhanced with Howard Stark's perfected Super-Soldier Serum. Created to overpower even Bucky Barnes, himself a trained super-soldier, they were each a force to be reckoned with. Left sleeping in Cryostatis Chambers in Siberia.
Until von Stucker arrived. Now, after careful application of various brainwashing methods, he had finally woken them. And now, HYDRA had five more super-soldiers.
Josef was the man's name, a tall and strongly built man, dressed in dark green armor. He was imposing, powerful.
And far weaker than Laura.
He had to smile at that. The gross truth of the modern age was that a simple experiment could turn the most innocuous of people into the world's deadliest beings. Laura, with her long black hair and petite build, looked more like a high school track star than anything.
A gross truth.
The room they finally entered was large and open, if just as cold as everywhere else. Thankfully it was lit by bright lights. A robot was humming to himself in front of a strange cauldron full of a bubbling fluid. As they walked in, the robot within turned to look at them. The red light on the head of the robot blinked. In the center of it's chest, a screen depicting the face of Arnim Zola gazed upon them.
"Ah, Herr Strucker!" Zola said from his new robotic home. "It seems you have arrived at a rather important part of my new process!"
"Already?" von Strucker was honestly surprised.
"Yes. I must thank your young bodyguard!" Zola pointed at Laura with his left hand. Eerily, his right hand continued to stir his cauldron with precise movements. "Or, I suppose, her 'father'."
"You know how I feel about you calling him that," von Strucker's surprise turned to annoyance.
Zola smirked on his screen. "Herr Strucker, it is the simple truth. The relationship between HYDRA and those we fight has always been complicated."
He stared at Zola for a moment.
The uploaded HYDRA scientist had become… odd. No surprise, considering he had come from a backup of the original Zola. Some of the changes were beneficial. Zola was constantly working, researching, aiding them in the endeavors they had been working for at a pace that dwarfed what he'd once done when he lived in a basement.
Though it probably helped that he had hands now.
Despite his new productiveness, there were problems. Zola had become much more manic. More creative, but also much less constrained, saying and doing things von Strucker had never seen him do.
Such as his strange obsession with family.
"I don't want to have this debate again," von Strucker said. "This foolishness about 'brothers' and 'fathers'-"
"Is necessary," Zola chuckled. "X and I, Laura and Dial. Even HYDRA and BRIDGE. Brothers, fathers, all of us connected by spirituality."
Then Zola pulled out the object he'd been stirring the cauldron with. At the end was a canister that was now empty. "And we can learn from that. Oh yes, we can learn."
Von Strucker hummed. Then he looked at Laura. "Blood Diamond. What will you do if you ever meet Dial?"
"Kill him," Laura said blankly.
"Do you consider him a father, for donating the crystals in your body?"
She shook her head blankly.
"Hm," von Strucker looked at Zola. "It seems you are the only one who has this strange new mindset."
"Genius, as you know, is never appreciated in it's time, Herr Strucker," Zola poked at the liquid in his cauldron. For a moment, the liquid solidified until it was almost gelatinous. A shape like a face formed in it. Then it returned to liquid. "Very nice… The inspiration of this new world has been such a welcome surprise."
"Hm," von Strucker couldn't hide his pleasure. This new creation would be an excellent addition to their forces… The forces that were currently in hiding, chased by every nation on Earth.
Enough. von Strucker walked away from Zola without another word. Zola didn't notice, focused on his creation.
Continuing towards his next destination, von Strucker considered his options. His army was growing, slowly. But as of now, his assets were not enough for full-scale war against his enemies. He needed an army that could defend him against BRIDGE and the Avengers.
The worst was Dial and Iron Man. He had ways to combat every other Avenger, different soldiers or pieces of technology. Thor could be beaten with subterfuge. The Hulk could be countered with gamma enhanced soldiers of his own. But Dial and Iron Man were too adaptable. For different reasons.
Dial was constantly getting new forms, each with abilities that ranged from outlandish to horrifying. There was a team of scientists, soldiers, and two Winter Soldiers working on every single alien Dial had, trying to find a counter to them all. Frankenstrike, Big Chill, Diamondhead, Wildmutt, they were all dangerous for so many reasons. But von Strucker did not fear them as he did two other aliens. Jury Rigg and Upgrade.
For the exact same reasons he feared Tony Stark in fact. There were other geniuses in the world, of course. That new team of Russian heroes had Crimson Dynamo, some reports of a young genius leading a team in Japan, various scientists, engineers, and others across the world. But not a single one had as much growth as Tony and Dial did.
They just kept making more and more insane technology. Tony Stark's was stable and continuously growing in power, Jury Rigg broke the laws of known physics, and Upgrade powered them both up.
He needed an edge. Something out of left field. Not just more of the same. Laura was one of those wild cards. Zola's creation was another.
This was the last.
Strucker entered a room guarded by six men. They watched him carefully as he entered.
Josef growled at them, looking around, while Laura simply followed Strucker.
Inside, stood the Phase Harmonic Teleporter, otherwise known as the Fishhook. It had been left untouched for some time. Not because it was broken, but because almost all the places Strucker would have wanted to infiltrate were defended by a device that sent teleporters bouncing back with changed genitals and polka-dot skin.
(Damned red goblin.)
But von Strucker had made his choice to use it now. To meet his last possible chance to change the game.
A guard walked up to von Strucker, lifting a wrapped object in his hands to present to the leader of HYDRA. He took the long object in one hand. Another guard passed him his gauntlet. It had undergone some upgrades as time passed, becoming a solid red metal piece of armor. All in the service of holding the unholdable.
Strucker nodded to Laura and Josef. The two stood on the sides of the teleportation device, grabbing a handle each. Strucker turned several parts of the machine, aiming it for a certain set of coordinates. Then he grabbed the lever. As one, Stucker, Laura, and Josef lifted the levers. The machine shook under their grips, rumbling like an ancient beast. They lowered the levers. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.
------
They reappeared in a black space. Strucker didn't look around. He knew what he would find. Blue alien symbols floated in the air around them. Laura and Josef stood by his side, waiting for their moment.
"Strucker," a man stepped out of the shadows. He was tall, with the appearance of an older black man, his head shaved smooth. He wore a long black coat that reached down to his ankles.
"Qovas," Strucker said with narrowed eyes.
"We are here. As you requested," the alien looked to his sides.
Five others stepped out of the shadows. Strucker looked across them. The Confederacy. The six leaders of six factions, all working together for a common cause.
"Now Strucker. Speak, and tell us why you have been so foolish as to demand our presence. And to bring two more of your worthless species before us..." Qovas said imperiously. He was the leader of the Remorath, a species of powerful aliens with blades in their arms, beyond human power, and the ability to shut down technology around them.
The others didn't matter. Only what Strucker wanted from them.
"Do you have something for us?" a blue-skinned man, with white makeup shaped in the shape of an arrow going down his forehead, and black makeup around his eyes. He stepped forward eagerly, looking between Laura and Josef. "One of the Inhumans I requested, possibly?"
"Not as of yet," Strucker replied. "Though Laura," Strucker looked at her. "May be of interest to you."
The blue-skinned man's eyes widened with greed. He was a member of the Kree, a man by the name of Taryan. Strucker noted his eagerness quietly as he clutched the wrapped object in his hands.
"Then state your case," Qovas growled. "I know you Terran's have some love for wasting time, but ours is valuable. Or should I kill one of your men to remind you of that?"
"...Have any of you heard of the Omnitrix?"
No one spoke.
"This question is of vital import," Strucker hissed, his cold eyes looking across them. "The Omnitrix. A wrist device of immense power. Alien, in origin."
"If it had worth," the only woman of the group, Estella, said while scoffing, her bright green eyes crinkling in her dark brown face. "We would know of it."
"Yes… If you had as much power as you claimed," Strucker pointed out.
"What are you attempting to imply, human?" Qovas stepped forward while snarling.
"I'm implying that you are liars," Strucker said simply. "That you have used your advanced technology to bully weaker minds awed by shiny pieces of metal, claiming you have the power to save us while secretly forcing us to give up our greatest secrets before running off to let us die."
Two of the men looked at each other. Qovas snarled.
"How dare yo-!" the Remorath began to yell.
"If he speaks again, Laura, I want you to cut his right arm off," Strucker said.
Laura didn't reply.
"It seems you've forgotten your place," one of the men, who had dark green skin, said in an almost bored tone.
"No. I've simply begun to step into it," Strucker shrugged. "But then, it's been a rough few months, and I've had enough of pontificating blowhards who are nowhere near as powerful as they claim."
"Enough!" Qovas shouted, swinging his arms down. Two long silver blades sprouted from his fists as he stabbed forward with supernatural speed.
A flash of blue green passed. Qovas gaped down at Laura. Then he looked at his right arm. Laying in two pieces on the floor, rolling back and forth as blood poured out the cuts.. He stumbled back, looking at Laura. She glared back at him. A pair of long crystal blades were sprouting from her fists.
Qovas swung his left hand at her with desperate speed, the claw there shining in the dim light.
Laura's left arm sprouted a crystal shield along her forearm, blocking the blade with ease.
"Take his leg," Stucker said.
Laura ducked and sliced Qovas' left leg off.
He screamed in a pain and horror, falling to the ground.
"Inhuman," Taryan whispered.
"No," Strucker corrected. "She is a product of human science. Proof you all have no idea what you're talking about."
"You think you'll get away with this!?" the green-skinned man shouted.
Stucker smirked, stepping forward. Qovas, growling in pain, lashed out at him on the floor.
The long object in Strucker's hand glowed blue, then fired a single bolt of blue light, ripping Qovas' chest open. The wrapping ripped apart, revealing Loki's scepter.
"No," Estella whispered, staring at the dead Qovas.
"I need something from you," Strucker said with a smile as he stepped close to Taryan. The Kree man stared at him in horror. Holding the scepter high in a red gloved hand, he smiled. Josef and Laura leaped forward past Taryan, and the screams began. "You may be useless in unlocking the secrets of the Omnitrix. But I still have a use for you."
He pressed the tip of the scepter to Taryan's chest. The Kree gasped. And Strucker's smile widened while the scepter glowed an unearthly blue.
-------
Stend
In the jungle of the Savage Lands, in the city of the Saur-Lords, Stend lay in a bed. His body was wrapped in bandages, soaked in blood, makeshift casts wrapped around his limbs.
He didn't care. All he did was stare up at the ceiling. His first demand upon waking had been simple. Carve a symbol on the ceiling above him. One he could stare at for hours. So he could remember. So that the pain had something he could connect to.
The symbol of a green hourglass set in a black symbol.
"Dial…" Stend whispered to himself. "Dial. Dial. Dial. Dial. Dial."
It would continue like this for hours. He slept. He ate. He healed. And he planned.
"Dial. Dial. Dial."
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Author's Note: So, couple things. First, Jen and Mary are about to beat the SHIT out of each other. Seriously, it's gonna be stupid brutal. But Frank is gonna have his own fights to contend with, don't worry about that.
Then, we've got the interlude. Namely, AIM and HYDRA arming.
I'm doing my best to avoid that whole HYDRA arc thing, when I took a long ass time focusing on just the bad guys. So here are two simple moments, right after a hero is about to fight.
If anyone needs explaining of anything, well, in an attempt to help out, here are some wiki links about the HYDRA stuff.
Loki's Scepter, AKA the Mind Stone holder.
Confederacy and their People.
The Phase Harmonic Teleportation Device, AKA the Fishhook.
The Winter Soldiers. Oh, and Josef.
And lastly, the actresses for Mary MacPherson and Ananastasia Rinaldi
Mary MacPherson and Rachelle Carter (Cosplaying as Poison Ivy to have the red hair)
Ananastasia Rinaldi and Megan Fox
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