#algorithm grabbed me and threw me away

[oversizedsunhats]

I keep dreaming about them

[minniesmutt]

❄︎ ━━━━━━ 𝐰𝐚𝐱 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲

❄︎ ━━━ PAIRING: HYUNJIN X READER ❄︎ ━━━ CW: SWITCH!HYUNJIN, SWITCH!READER, WAX PLAY, ORAL (F. REC), FINGERING, RIDING, PET NAMES (BABY, HUN,), AFTERCARE, IMPLIED SECOND ROUND, UNPROTECTED SEX, CREAMPIE  ❄︎ ━━━ WC: 1.8K ❄︎ ━━━ NOTE: ❄︎ ━━━ 18+ work!! minors and ageless/blank blogs DNI! you will be blocked, put an indicator on your blog somewhere that you are 18+ before interacting with this work/blog

     One Google search ruined all his algorithms. Just scrolling through sites, trying to get off at night and came across Wax Play. 

     Hyunjin never thought about it before but something told him to just watch it. So he clicked the video and two hours later he had found and purchased wax play candles. How he was going to bring it up to Y/n, he had no clue. 

     Both of them were home when the package came. Y/n ended up opening the door and grabbed the package. Bringing into the kitchen where he was trying to find food for lunch. 

     “What’d you order?” Y/n asked as she set the box labeled “FRAGILE” on the counter. 

     Hyunjin closed their fridge and looked at the box. Suddenly, he remembered he had never brought his newfound kink to her. 

     “Candles…” Hyunjin said

     “We have a closet full of candles?” Y/n said

     The couple just kind of stared at each other for a moment. “What kind of candles did you buy, Hyunjin.”

     “Body-safe candles.” the dancer answered

     “I’m not mad. But please elaborate.”

     “I was trying to get off last week when we were away for the concert and I fell down a rabbit hole and I wanna try wax play,” he summed it up as best he could.

     “You could have brought it up before the candles came,” Y/n told him as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

     “I know. I was trying to figure out how to bring it up then it slipped my mind.”

     “There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘Hey babe. I wanna try something new.’”

     “I just wasn't sure since it’s a little more intense than what we usually do.”

     “When have I ever said no to experimenting?”

     “Never. And that’s why I love you.”

     Hyunjin cupped her face and gently pecked her lips.

     “So who is getting candle wax on them?” Y/n asked

     “Think it be pretty hot for you to drip it on me while you ride me.” Y/n saw his eyes shift to more lust-filled ones. 

     “Yeah?”

     “Yeah.”

     Hyunjin pulled her back in for another kiss. One hand moved down to hold her neck as she kissed him back. Lips moved together as he turned them and pressed her against their fridge. He tilted her head and moved his lips down to her neck. 

     “Still need to open the candles, baby,” Y/n reminded him

     “In a second love,” Hyunjin said

     “Getting ahead of yourself,” Y/n giggled as he pulled away.

     Grabbing their kitchen scissors and opening the box. He ordered two of them and placed both on the counter. Y/n grabbed one and looked at the back of it as Hyunjin stood behind her, slowly grinding his erection into her ass. 

     “Let's try it out,” Hyunjin muttered into the back of her head. 

     Y/n grabbed one of his wrists and dragged him down the hall to their bedroom with the candle in one hand. Hyunjin smiled and licked his lips. Tossing his t-shirt off when she let go to light the candle. Hyunjin came up behind her and pulled her shirt up as she set the lighter down. 

     “Gonna let me eat you out while we wait for that to melt,” Hyunjin smiled, gently moving her till she was lying on their bed

     “I’ll never say no to that.”

     Y/n smiled and pulled him to her lips again. Hyunjin groaned into the kiss. He grabbed the hem of her sweats and pulled them down with her undergarment as well. Y/n brought her legs up to help him a bit. 

     Hyunjin tossed the fabric across the mattress. He tore his lips away from her, took her shirt off, and threw it away. Kissing his way down her body as she tangled his fingers into his long hair. His hands opened her legs up and laid them on his shoulders as he got down, kneeling on the ground and pulling her to the edge. 

     “So pretty,” Hyunjin said to himself before licking up from her entrance to her clit. 

     Y/n let out a soft moan as he started sucking on her clit. Tongue getting to work flicking and licking up her sex. Enjoying every taste of her. He could never get tired of her. No matter how many times he ate her out or tasted her off his fingers. 

     Hyunjin moaned into her as his tongue dipped inside her. Licking all over her walls before slipping his tongue out and replacing it with his fingers. Y/n let out another moan and tightened her grip on his hair.

     His lips kissed the valley between her clit and entrance before wrapping around her clit again. Fingers pumping in and out of her and getting coated with her essence. 

     Y/n rocked her hips against him till he picked up his thrusting speed and added a third finger. His other hand crawled up her body to knead one of her breasts. His long fingers reached inside her and curled up into her walls. Coaxing her towards her high. 

     Y/n let out another moan as she clamped down on his fingers. “Almost there baby,” Hyunjin smiled and pressed his tongue flat against her clit. 

     “Yes,” Y/n moaned just as her high hit her. Legs clamping down on his head in reaction. Hyunjin pulled his fingers out of her and pushed his tongue inside. Licking her clean as she rode her high out. 

     “Taste so good,” Hyunjin moaned as he pulled his tongue out once she had finished. Kissing his way up till he landed on her lips again. 

     Y/n wrapped her arms around his shoulders and started pulling his shirt up to get it off of him. Hyunjin chuckled at her before pulling away and stripping himself of his clothing. Y/n sat up and checked on the candle. A decent pool of wax had formed around the wick. 

     Hyunjin sat behind her and pulled her on top of him. “Love watching you on top of me,” Hyunjin smiled as he grabbed her hips

     “You love anything about me, hun,” Y/n retorted as she slid over his cock. 

     “Can you blame me? You’re perfect baby,” Hyunjin replied as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her. 

     Y/n cupped his face and pulled him into another kiss. Hyunjin moaned into her mouth as her tongue poked his lips. He happily let her inside and twisted his tongue with hers. His hands moved to her hips and lifted her slightly.

     Y/n reached behind her and positioned his tip at her entrance. Slowly sinking onto him as he whined into her mouth. He helped her move down till he was fully inside of her. Both sat there for a moment before Y/n pushed him back down onto the mattress and pinned his hands next to his head. 

     “Keep them there for me baby,” Y/n smiled as she sat up. Gently rolling herself against him, hands on his waist.

     “So warm,” the male moaned, grabbing the pillow under him. 

     Y/n smiled and clenched around him just to tease him before leaning over to their nightstand. Slipping his cock out of her just to the tip so she could grab the candle. She sat back down on him and watched as his eyes followed the candle with a small moan slipping out of him. 

     “Ready baby?” Y/n asked him

     “Yeah. Drip it on me.”

     Y/n gently tilted the candle, watching the wax slide onto the side before a small drop fell onto her boyfriend’s chest. Hyunjin jolted slightly as it made contact with his skin, bucking a bit up into her.

     “Feel good?” Y/n asked, rolling her hips against him

     “Yes,” Hyunjin whined, “Again, please.”

     Y/n stilled herself on top of him and moved the candle over a bit. Letting another drop of wax hit his skin. Then another and another. Slowly dripping down from the candle, drop by drop hitting his chest and letting it trail down to his stomach. Every drop of the wax that hit his skin had him twitching and gripping the pillow under his head.

     “Oh fuck,” Hyunjin whined as Y/n watched his stomach twitch as the warm wax dripped on him

     She could also feel his dick starting to twitch inside her. Occasionally he bucked his hips up when it hit him in a more sensitive area of his skin he didn’t know about. 

     “Fuck me, please baby. I need to cum,” Hyunjin whined as another drop hit him close to his belly button

     “Don’t wanna cum for me like this baby? Feels like you just might,” Y/n teased

     “Please, baby. Want you bouncing on my dick.”

     Y/n let a few more drops hit him before she put the candle upright and back on their nightstand. She sat back and looked over her work before leaning over him and placing her hands next to his head. Hyunjin looked up at his girlfriend. Y/n could see just how fucked out he was already. 

     She slowly raised her hips and sat back on him. He kept a slow pace until he started begging again. Y/n kissed his pretty plump lips before she sat up, running her hands along his chest and using him as a place to rest her hands for leverage. Picking her pace up. 

     His hips met hers more and more the closer he got to his high. His hands tightened on the pillow as he twitched inside her.

     “Gonna cum. So close,” Hyunjin whined

     “Gonna fill me up, baby?”

     “Yes! Let me fill you up, please baby.”

     “Go on baby.”

     Y/n picked up her speed, slamming down onto him as his high got closer and closer. She heard his little whimpers before she felt his warm seed hitting her walls. Slowly down her pace as she clenched around him, milking him till the end of his high. Sitting down on him again and let him calm down. Rubbing his sides till he had calmed down. “How are you feeling baby?” Y/n asked him

     “So good,” Hyunjin breathed out and he let go of his pillow and grabbed her hips.

     “I’ll get something to get the wax off, okay?” Y/n said as she leaned down and kissed his lips.

     “Okay,” Hyunjin agreed. He whined as she slowly got off of him. 

     Y/n walked out of their room for a few minutes before she came back and sat next to him. Gently scraping off the hardened wax with a plastic knife.

     “I didn’t even think of how to get it off,” Hyunjin laughed

     “If you weren’t so eager, you would have seen the company gave you a little card on aftercare after playing,” Y/n told him

     “Pretty and smart,” Hyunjin smiled and wrapped an arm around her.

     Y/n finished getting the wax off of him and gently rubbed over the spots the wax once laid.

     “Can I try it on you?” Hyunjin asked

     “Give yourself a few minutes to rest and then you can.”

❄︎ ━━━━━━ M.LIST    TIP JAR

❄︎ ━━━ please support writers by reblogging and/or leaving feedback

© 2024 MINNIESMUTT. DO NOT COPY, REPUBLISH OR TRANSLATE MY WORK ANYWHERE

[lightning-wyvern]

~ spice pop

toge inumaki x male reader | fluff, slightlysuggestive, jjk x mha crossover content fire/fireball, ice, cursing (cuss words AND inumaki), fighting, physical contact, displays of physical affection, "caviar" (fuck but inumaki says it), a kiss at the end, intense gojo slander and reader plot armor notes this is for a request an anon sent me a while ago :') the plot armor is because i hate gojo get out if you dont like it. im also lowkey bad at writing non-angsty teasing scenes?? tf?? wc 1,122 please reblog fanfictions when you read one you like! likes do not help writers' algorithms!

inumaki yawned, sitting down next to megumi with a small box of cream collon in his hand. he smiled, watching you squaring off with yuji.

"i just realized he's gonna kick yuji's ass." megumi said, resting his elbows on his knees and putting his chin in his hands.

"yeah, i heard m/n's been getting better with his ice attacks." inumaki agreed, grinning as you threw a giant ice ball at yuji--right on time.

"his fireballs have been getting bigger too, i took the brunt of one the other night," nobara added in, plopping down next to megumi.

"what the hell did you do that made m/n throw a ball of fire at you?!" megumi asked, "do i even want to know?"

"nope." she giggled. "but i love to yap. we were out at some random party and i stole his food from him. i used like half a bottle of shampoo that night, there was so much damn ash in my hair."

you rolled to the left, dodging a punch yuji had thrown. you grabbed his wrist and directed your body heat into the palm of your hand, driving your foot into his chest and shoving him off. he slid backward a few feet on a floor of ice you had created, but he was able to keep himself steady.

"that hurt, dude." he pouted, flicking his wrist; he had a little bit of a first degree burn now. oops.

"hey, body heat is less easy to control than the literal air." you defended yourself with a returning pout.

"that makes sense, suuure." yuji rolled his eyes.

"fool." said sukuna simply, "you could have dodged that." yuji groaned, slapping a hand to his cheek to silence his burdensome little intruder.

this fight wasn't over; you had a few minutes left before break time. yuji was distracted, so you used the opportunity to huck a fireball at his feet. of course, yuji being who he was, he didn't see it until it hit the ice an inch away from his toes. it exploded, knocking him backward a bit more than a few feet. he rolled and jumped up, dusting himself off.

"ugh, you win." yuji pouted again.

"that's not how this works, gojo hasn't let us off for a break. i still get to bully you for a bit longer."

yuji groaned.

you grinned, willing the air around you to heat up until the ice on the ground melted and the grass dried.

"break time, kids! go on!" gojo yelled, having appeared out of nowhere less than a foot behind you--as was custom of the little fuck.

"gojo, technically i'm older than you."

"yes, technically. but i'm still the boss of you nonetheless." he grinned.

you kicked him in the stomach, deciding to bully him back. you willed the rocks under his feet to heat up and explode without warning, sending him tumbling backward a good ten feet. he got up anyways because he was a fucking cockroach, dusting himself off.

"go on," he said like a bossy pest, doing stupid little shooing motions with his hands.

"wave those hands at me one more time and i'll bite them off like a dog, sensei. with all due respect." you spat the last four words, turning around and kicking up some pebbles as you followed yuji over to the stairs leading into the yard.

"you really aren't something to be messed with, m/n." nobara said with a grin, she and megumi scooting over so you could sit next to inumaki.

"you're only say're only saying that because i burned your hair into a bob the other night, kugisaki." you said pointedly.

"whatever," she said, rolling her eyes. she got up and turned around to go into the cafeteria, and megumi and yuji followed her, leaving you and inumaki alone on the steps together.

"you really are a great fighter, m/n," inumaki said quietly, smiling. his hand strayed up to the necklace around his neck, his fingers toying with the charm.

"thanks," you replied, "it's not as hard to control the fire anymore. my fireballs are getting bigger and hotter."

you smiled, scooting a little closer to inumaki and letting the silence kind of just take over the moment for a while.

"i saw you watching me earlier, while i was practicing with yuji." you said after a while, "i was kinda curious, why?"

inumaki grinned, blushing and hiding his face in his scarf. you giggled and shoved his shoulder lightly, grinning as your face turned pink as well.

"aww, toge, tell me what's up!" you wrapped your arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer. he smiled, scooting into your embrace.

"well, honestly..." he started, "i have a little bit of a crush on you. i haven't said anything mostly because of my cursed speech, 'cus gojo says sometimes i have to give this necklace a break? i'm not entirely sure how it works, but i don't wanna break it and lose my free speech. but i do like you, and honestly it's a little more than a small crush. especially when i'm watching you fight--it makes my feelings do things, it shows how strong you are."

you smiled, choosing to think for a second before responding.

"i like you too," you replied, "i dunno when it started, but i do. i like how quiet you are, even with that necklace. to me it's always shown that you like to use words carefully, even with your cursed speech. i like that."

inumaki smiled softly, scooting closer to you. you let him, and the two of you sat that way for a while, watching the sky dampen from blue to grey as a light snow storm came in.

at some point, your brain made the decision for you before you'd thought of it. your hand moved off inumaki's shoulder and cupped his face, turning his head so he was looking at you.

"toge, i kinda wanna kiss you..." you admitted, your face turning pink in a way that had almost nothing to do with the cold weather.

inumaki's eyes widened and his own cheeks turned rose-colored, but he grinned and gladly took the opportunity. he leaned over and connected his lips with yours. his arm snuck up behind your back and wrapped lightly around your neck, pulling you just a little bit closer. your other hand locked with the one he had around you, and you separated yourself reluctantly to catch a breath. inumaki grinned, hugging you tightly.

"i'm not gonna lie, that took more courage than talking to megumi." he said into your shoulder.

"talking to me takes courage?" interrupted megumi, "why?"

you and inumaki both started laughing, leaning on your knees for support.

© lightning-wyvern.

[sentimental-idiot25]

Sakura raced out of her room and made her way to the door of her apartment. The consistent ringing of the doorbell for the past 15 seconds was loud enough to wake up her two roommates, Ino and Hinata, who were both fast asleep in their own rooms. Granted it was 3am— any reasonable person would be asleep at this hour.

“Shit, shit, shit,” she whispered under her breath, conscious of the fact that her roommates could wake up at any moment and be caught in the same fright as her. 

She looked through the door’s peephole and saw the familiar figure standing outside, swaying back and forth with his head bowed. But he was far too recognizable for Sakura to mistake him for anyone else. 

Her eyes widened with worry as she unlocked and opened the door. 

“Oh my god are you—“ Sakura’s concern halted as she noticed his inability to remain still, the red glow beaming from his face, and the grin he couldn’t hold down, “Are you drunk?” She spoke louder than intended as her brows furrowed and the look of concern disappeared from her face. Now replaced with utter bewilderment. 

Sasuke, slurring his speech, raised his hand adjacent to his face and twirled his wrist, “Soooo what if I —happened to be?” Clearly drunk.

“Were you crying?” She squinted trying to get a better look at his face. 

He wiped his face with his hands, “Noooo, not me” Clearly lying. But Sakura was too confused with the situation at hand to press further at this moment. 

Sakura peeked her head out the door and tried to check if he was alone or how he exactly got here. Not seeing any car driving away, she deduced that he didn’t ride-share here, “Did you walk here? In the middle of the night? Sasuke that’s so dangerous—“

Sasuke threw his hands up into the air, “Psssh! What do you take me for? Some idiot? Of course I didn’t walk!”

“Oh thank god,” Sakura put her hand to her chest as she sighed with relief. 

Sasuke dropped his arms down, hitting his thighs with a loud slap, “I drove here,” He pointed to the ground. 

“Oh my god,” Sakura took a hold of his wrist and dragged him inside. Once they made it to the couch she sat him down. She walked over to the kitchen to grab him water to sober him up. It was clear he was well past the stage of being tipsy and was proper drunk. “Why are you here anyways?” Sakura asked genuinely as she handed him the water. 

Sasuke moved the water being offered to him and pointed at Sakura, accusatorially, and said, “I only came here cause you don’t love me!” He looked at her with wide eyes. 

Sakura’s eyes widened as she put down the glass of water on the coffee table and covered Sasuke’s mouth, “Shhh! Are you crazy? My roommates are asleep,” Trying to maintain a low level, but angered, whisper, “Will you be quiet now?” Sasuke nodded rapidly as Sakura moved her hand away from his face. 

“You don’t cherish me,” He spoke as he tapped her nose, “So ta-da, I’m here,” he spoke as he did jazz hands next to his face.

“What?” Utter confusion could be detected from her tone and facial expressions. 

“I—well, I just needed to know. Can you blame a guy for wanting to know?” He shrugged with exaggeration flowing through his body language. 

Entertaining his drunkened state, Sakura inquired further, “And how did you get to this conclusion?” 

“I went to a trusted website and through the help of an algorithm, it calculated all of the data from our—“ He gestured between the two of them, “Whatever we have, and it gave me a percentage: 42%… Meaning, you don’t love me,” He whispered the last statement with narrowed eyes and a finger pointing to Sakura as if she had committed the crime of the millennia. 

“And what was this so great, mankind changing, earth shattering website and algorithm called?” Sakura spoke, knowing that what Sasuke was spouting was bullshit. 

Sasuke dropped his hand and his accusatory face. He shut his eyes tight and put his hands out, “Buzzfeed quizzes, but that’s besides the point—

Sakura raised her brows “Uh huh,” 

“It said 42%! That’s even less than half!” He raised his voice again as Sakura covered it immediately. Shushing him in the process. 

She whispered at an even lower level, “And do you think that’s accurate?” Clearly trying to point out, even to a very drunk Sasuke, just how absurd he was.

Sasuke removed Sakura’s hand from his mouth, “You tell me woman,” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. Revealing to Sakura a screenshot with the results. She made sure to notice the time it was taken. He took the quiz a mere ten minutes before arriving here. 

“Oh my god, really?” She asked him, disbelief laced in her words

“Don’t you ‘oh my god’ me,” He spoke mocking her voice.

“Well how can I not when you’re acting this ridiculous,” Her own voice being louder and intended. 

Sasuke put his finger against Sakura’s lips, “Shhh, your roommates are asleep,” His voice, far from a whisper as well. 

Sakura backed her head away from his touch, “Why did you come here anyways?”

Sasuke leaned back against the couch and pouted, “I don’t like that it’s 42%” He crossed his arms as he let out a huff of air. 

Sighed as she handed him the glass of water, “Sasuke, it’s just a stupid quiz, it means nothing,” 

“Fine then you take a quiz that proves how much you’re in love with me!” His eyes locked with hers, a playful glint not hiding carefully within his eyes. 

Tired from his constant loud outbursts, Sakura took Sasuke’s hand and took him to her room, explaining to him on the way how he is too loud and the room will be the only shot she has at not waking up her roommates. 

She sat Sasuke down at the edge of her bed, as he subsequently fell back and laid down, making himself comfortable. She opened up her laptop as she took a seat next to him on the bed, “I will take the damn quiz if it means that you will give this up. And once we see how stupid it is, I will call you an Uber and you will go home. Deal?” 

“Whatever you say…pretty lady,” He looked up at her with admiration in his eyes. Sakura just rolled her eyes and went on to look up a Buzzfeed quiz. 

He shot straight up and ruffled around to see how Sakura answered. Sakura moved the screen out of his sight as he pouted.

A few minutes passed by as Sakura clicked the last answer to the quiz, “Just finished it,” She said as the screen was loading the results. 

“What did it say?” Sasuke asked with a grin 

Sakura shrugged as she looked at the score, “Same as yours. Apparently I do love you 42%”

Sasuke grin widened, “Bullshit,” he called, “You turn pink when you lie, and right down your hair and face are the same color. What did you get?”

Sakura closed her laptop on her lap, “I’m just embarrassed cause this is ridiculous and— Hey!” She yelped out as Sasuke managed to snatch the laptop away from her. 

The same second he opened it, Sakura was able to reach over to shut it again. But it was too late. 

Sasuke grinned as his smile overtook his entire face, “89% huh?” 

“Oh shut up,” Sakura stood up and yanked the laptop from Sasuke’s lap

Sasuke stood up and began to taunt her, “Ooh you looooove me,” He said as drew a heart in the air with his index fingers. 

Sakura scoffed, “Ugh, no I don’t,”

Sasuke took ahold of her hands, “No no you looooove me,”

Sakura instantly retracted her hands, “It’s a meaningless quiz and you—“

“Cmon Haruno. You know you love me,” He taunted her further. 

“Oh, shut up,” She crossed her arms and the pink blush across her face began to intensify further, “I’m so tempted to give you one more shot so you blackout and I don’t have to deal with you anymore,” 

“Doesn’t hide the fact that you loooooove me,” 

“I regret answering the door now,” She shook her head as she looked away from him.

“But you’d do it again,” He paused with a smirk. 

Sakura smiled as she scoffed and looked down to the ground, slowly nodding, “Yeah…I’d do it again,” 

[grumpygreenwitch]

Machina Ex Machina 30-31

As always, if you enjoy the writing, please like and reblog. There’s no algorithms here; my publicity is you. And if you’d like to buy me a Ko-fi, I certainly won’t complain.

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THIRTY

The virus shrieked, a hundred voices made one, but it sounded muffled to MAR as he summoned up the armor he’d never thought he’d need. His enemy detonated into a whirling spiral, and he didn’t need to touch the edges to know they’d be lethally sharp. He gave ground; past the virus he could see GAM snatching Gungnir away.

He basked momentarily in the silence within his armor as he waited for his enemy’s first movement. MAR had been, once upon a time, a very simple program for Musical Algorithmic Recognition. He saw patterns within music, no matter the kind. For a long time filing away such patterns, storing like with like in his libraries, was all he’d done.

But then he’d learned about dancing.

And then he’d learned about fencing.

And then he’d lost track of time for a little while, a few decacycles perhaps, as his programming learned to put everything together. He’d never used his little experiment against a real opponent, of course. Parnassus had always kept him safe. He’d certainly never expected to have to alpha-test it against an enemy that would see him and his world burn if he failed.

Well, he’d simply have to not fail.

The virus struck. He parried, one talon flew off and the rest tried to grab at his blade. He brought the other blade up and took the virus’ arm at the elbow. On his screen, reacting to the pattern of attack-and-counterattack, his programming flew through his music library. Music filled MAR’s helm, his mind, his very voxels. It launched him forward, blades leading, extensions of the music and of himself. He struck once, twice, the virus caught the third attack; he shifted to a different piece of music in the flicker of a pixel, and the blades struck again, once, twice, three times. Again a parry, again a different song, and again a hit -

The virus recoiled as MAR’s blades came at it, blurs that hacked and bit into its substance, nearly impossible to fend off. It hadn’t been lying, when it had said that its opponents were predictable. They were fast, yes, and strong, absolutely. But there were only so many ways one could use a shield for offense, and most of them didn’t work on the virus. The lance was new and destructive in its own right, but it had quickly begun to perceive the patterns of attack and defense of its wielder; the red program was mainly handicapped by its interest in protecting the ship, his ship.

But the master of Parnassus -

The virus sent a great wave of its substance at MAR to try and buy itself some room. Abruptly, the two lightblades cut a wedge out of it that left the white-armored program just enough room to avoid the attack and press his own counterattack.

And there it was. He’d changed his pattern yet again. How? How was he doing that, fighting and moving one way first, then abruptly attacking in an entirely different fashion, as if he were a completely different program? So elegant one moment, using only the tips of his weapons, and hacking away as if they were bludgeons the next.

One blade caught the virus just under the chin, and although it threw itself back, the blade slid through the first layer of voxels, up, past the nonexistent nose and across one eye. Static filled the virus’ perceptions, and the world went white-hot, ice-black, its mind filling with static for a moment. In desperation, knowing all its enemies would absolutely make use of that moment of weakness, it ate nearly the entire platform, and they all went crashing down onto a broad catwalk below it.

It clutched at its face. The pain and the static would not fade. “Y-you. Y-y-y-y. You w-”

MAR had rolled to his feet as soon as he fell, though everything stung more or less unpleasantly from the impact. GAM was still covering Gungnir, but Pevir’s SysAdmin was on his feet. He slammed one fist into his open palm; a circuit triggered, and his baton, which had fallen with them, suddenly flew to his hand.

“Nice trick,” GAM murmured.

“Thanks.” Gungnir activated his lance. “It’s right, you know.”

“We can fix that.”

The virus merely howled wordlessly at all of them, rage and confusion and madness. A dozen voices spat out half-formed, unfinished epithets. It suddenly split up into several columns, faceless, featureless, which launched themselves at its opponents in feral, wild assaults of limbs, tendrils, thorns and blades – any and every shape it had learned to use to harm.

The three programs scattered, but more and more columns kept appearing out of the mass of the virus, and if there’d been little room to maneuver before, there was even less anymore. As they threatened to become separated, Gungnir suddenly threw his lance at GAM. It turned into a baton mid-air, and the Sentry caught it readily, activating the lightblade on it rather than the lance and slashing at the base of the nearest column. It struck at him, but slammed instead into the shields Pevir’s SysAdmin had deployed from his own armor.

Its attention faltered; MAR stepped into that moment of inattention and cut two of the columns off at the base.

It seethed and twisted, a chaos of fury. “You’re all-all-all- you’re – I w-w I-will -”

“Moll!” the Drakkar’s broadcast system boomed all around them with a man’s voice, young and tired, alien in its lack of undertone. GAM had only ever heard something like it once.

You contrary little shit!

Only one program in the immense warship had ever heard a User’s voice before and known it for what it was.

“Moll, what are you doing, stop! Stop!”

The virus froze. So did every simulacra, every infected program. Far below the Drakkar, on the sea freighter carrying the rest of the virus’ army, even the ship’s immense turbines lost all power.

It was so abrupt, so completely unexpected, that the Drakkar’s own crew froze as well, and for a moment complete silence reigned in the entire carrier.

“Moll. Can you hear me? Please, tell me you can still hear me.”

The virus cocked its head. The rest of the columns collapsed into the substance of it, unmoving. It reached up a taloned hand, as if trying to touch the source of the voice. It spoke, in a clear, tiny whisper full of confusion. “Kane?”

“Moll, it’s me. You’ve got to stop. You’re decaying, Moll. Remember our tests? You’ve got to stop. You’ve got to let us help you before -”

The virus’ substance exploded like a Bit going into its sharpest stellation possible. Barbs flew in every direction, stabbing at the broadcast system’s soundbars, strangling the unknown male voice into squalls and squawks and broken words. For a moment that tiny voice screamed in terror, and then the virus screeched in all its broken voices.

“Th-that.” It put itself together on the walkway, seething in a way entirely too reminiscent of a storm upon the Sea of Simulation. “That is en-en-en-enough. Enough of that,” it declared, its broken voice gone dark and full of new menace.

“I agree,” Fortis declared, and barreled into it so hard they both went flying off the catwalk.

A bridge activated across the docking channel just in time to catch them both. Fortis turned into a wheel and bounded off of the virus, who’d been beneath him when they’d landed, and who, by the churning mess of its substance, had not taken well to the experience. It liked it even less when GAM thundered down from on high, the blade of Gungnir’s lance leading, burying itself so deep into the virus’ substance that the tip peeked out from under the bridge. Crimson energy flashed and fried a vast blot into the virus’ circuitry.

“GAM, move!” Adas shouted into his line.

The Sentry yanked the lance free; both he and it went flying when Gungnir crashed into him and sent him rolling off to one side. The bridge abruptly disappeared from under the virus. Unable to recover quickly from so much damage, and still reeling from whatever the User’s voice had done to it, it plummeted with a wail and vanished into the dark.

THIRTY ONE

“Where were you?!” Gungnir, breathing hard next to Fortis, demanded to know as he picked himself up.

“Putting myself back together,” the wall admitted sheepishly as he shifted to a low shape so he could give his SysAdmin something to lean on. “That thing hits harder that most mobile artillery.”

GAM rolled to his feet next to the two of them and looked up from their small island of quiet. Bereft of the guidance of their creator, the simulacra had been all but wiped out or thrown off the carrier’s deck. Everywhere the Pevirians were picking themselves and one another up, sorting out injuries and casualties.From beyond the windows of the command center, Vidi waved at the Sentry. He threw an arm up in response and sighed into the privacy of his helmet.

“Drakkar CommCon to SysAdmin,” a prim voice demanded attention on Gungnir’s line.

He looked up, and snorted amusement. “Go for SysAdmin, CommCon.”

“You’ve a call, sir,” Adas informed him with utmost politeness. “Re-routing communication.”

“Re-rout- what?”

“Hello, my friend.”

Pevir’s SysAdmin drew himself up sharply, his wavelength changing so sharply that every program around him took notice. “OM.”

Om’s SysAdmin, for once, didn’t sound like he was drowning in sea of static. His voice was solid and strong, with a faint tinge of amusement. “Still online?”

“I’m hard to derezz. I learned that from you.”

“Good. How far are you from Om?”

Gungnir hesitated. “A micro, maybe, if we push it. I was going to ask Flow -”

“Is the damage critical?”

“I don’t like that question. I don’t like what it implies. Hold on.” Gungnir bumped his fist lightly against Fortis and tipped his chin at GAM. He turned momentarily to the programs nearest him. “Injured take priority. Prep a bomber and escort, let’s see if we can catch this thing out to sea.”

He stalked for an elevator, the other two programs following. “OM, just because we’re in one piece doesn’t mea- ”

“But you can fly?”

“We’ll fly faster if we stop for repairs at Flow!” The elevator opened and Gungnir paused in chagrin; he’d forgotten the platform leading to the command center wasn’t there anymore.

“Gungnir, it’s going to follow you wherever you go,” OM told him with implacable calm.

“Because of the Gridborn, I know, I know,” the SysAdmin said in exasperation. GAM stretched his arm out past him and hit the controls. The elevator dropped them a level. The doors opened to reveal the broad catwalk and MAR, down on one knee, head bowed and breathing hard. Still, when the Sentry got close enough to offer him a hand, the master of Parnassus took it and got to his feet, his armor disappearing and leaving him back on his flowing coat and elegant white melange of circuitry.

“That’s only half of it, but yes.”

“Hold on.” Gungnir made a face and looked up at the staircase leading up to the command center. The last two steps had vanished, and a good third of it was shedding voxels in slow, haphazard little spats. “Fortis, can you reach?”

The Gridborn looked up. He stretched up, latched onto the remains of the staircase, and reshaped himself into a ladder. Gungnir practically flew up the rungs. GAM and MAR were just beginning the climb when they heard an aggravated, “Why’s this lock broken?!”

GAM looked down; MAR shrugged sheepishly. “They do have a bad habit of roaming away into trouble,” he pointed out reasonably. “I can fix it!” he shouted up at Gungnir. “Navi!”

“Don’t they ever,” GAM agreed in resignation.

Half a dozen trails of light shot up over the floors, walls and catwalks of the carrier. Navi, unlike Bits, depended on a pathway, on solid and real access to wherever they needed to go. It didn’t matter to them if that access was upside down along a ceiling, as long as the ceiling actually existed. “Would you open that door, please?” MAR directed the first one to reach him.

“Why break it in the first place?” Gungnir peered down at him, but before MAR could reply the Navi shot up along Fortis’ length and dashed into the broken lock. “Never mind, I’ll take it.” He charged into the command center just as the station shields were pulling back. “OM! What do you mean half of it?”

OM’s voice resonated in the whole command center. “That’s the way it was explained to me and, unfortunately, it makes sense. You’ve got to get to Om as fast as you can. No stops, no detours.”

“I have wounded, OM! I have damage, the Drakkar’s missing chunks of hull and decking and for once we have Flow’s permission for docking and repairs -!”

“No stops, no detours, Gungnir.”

Gungnir came to a stop next to the navigator’s station, and looked at the many screens showing the audio. There was no visual. He worked one hand restlessly. “Are you pulling rank, OM?”

The command center went dead quiet. GAM and MAR came to a startled stop. Adas turned slowly to stare at Pevir’s SysAdmin. Even Vidi, who’d been ready to rush off to GAM’s side, paused.

“Do I have to?” OM asked evenly.

Gungnir tapped his baton against his side. “Way. Left turn. Engines on full. Straight run to Om. Commcon, inform Flow accordingly.”

“Yes, sir.” Wayfarer and Adas both acknowledged, even though the GO4 was just as shocked and confused as the rest of the non-Pevirians. Everyone on board felt not just the turn of the immense carrier, but also the burst of acceleration the engines began to output.

“It’s hurt, it’s limping, and a quick bomber run might end our problems right here, right now, OM,” Gungnir gritted out.

“It won’t. And you might just give it a bomber.”

“I’m trusting you on this, first-gen.”

“Have I ever lied to you?” There was dry amusement in the other SysAdmin’s voice.

“You know, between you and present company,” Gungnir scowled over one shoulder at the Sentry, “I’m beginning to wish someone would!”

“Do you want more interesting news?” OM asked cheerfully.

“No!”

“You get them anyways. You’ve got a Halcyonite Firewall with you. I need an audio ID from him.”

Every eye in the room turned to GAM. The Sentry went perfectly still, a flawless statue in black and violet, impossible to read. He might have been angry, disappointed, glad, anything behind the dark faceplate. No one could know he was stunned speechless.

“Why?” The defiant single word came not from him, but from Vidi, who slipped under the helm before Way could keep her there, and rushed over to GAM, standing next to him and doing her best to look fierce while surrounded by programs who were all taller, bigger or both.

“Because we might just have found his User.”

[sambinnie]

1. Solstice again. Creeping from the still house into cool air, then a run to smooth waters where even the dogs and their walkers haven’t yet rambled. We swim in almost-silence for a while, like steady kayaks, with a chiffchaff serenading us and the last of the willow fluff dusting the surface of the water, fish occasionally glopping upwards to grab a passing insect.

Home to pick a posy for the table. I must not fall asleep as soon as I sit down. I fall asleep instantly.

2. This spring has been wonderful. Besides the puffs from the willows along the river, the chestnut trees drip sap onto the pavements so our shoes click with every pace, and the ducklings, goslings and cygnets gather around their beady-eyed parents. Dragonflies and damselflies drone over the river. Huge poppies have grown in the chaos of the garden, I assume where I threw the seeds from pavement poppies last summer, and bees roll around among the stamens like playing puppies. I drive past the supermarket and see several people tending to a horse in the neighbouring scrubland.  

3. Have you finished Succession yet? This final series has been my favourite yet, for possibly obvious reasons — my stress levels were lower than my enjoyment levels for the very first time, so I could fully savour exactly how brilliant every single aspect is. Cast, crew, production, script — everything is perfect, and yet how hard to communicate why a programme about the world’s worst people is not just watchable but probably the best TV this year. This Vanity Fair clip with the director of the scene on Connor’s wedding boat is excellent and describes so well how TV like this is a kind of alchemy.

4. A brief sojourn to a foreign city, where the cathedral left me chilled but a record store was so exactly like the ones from my teens that I welled up and had to be pulled away. How do smells cut through all barriers and transform us so completely to our previous selves? I wanted to stay for hours and flick through every single album, and end up buying four, two I’d love immediately and two I’d hate, but would stick with because albums are never cheap, and the two that were harder work would become my favourites and stick deep in my brain forever. I thought myself too cool to be a Feeder fan at the time, but watching this video now I want to weep at how normal we all looked then, how clunky and average and awkward, how anyone who grew up in the 90s would recognise those bedrooms, that wallpaper, those lampshades, and how humans are so dumb to grieve things we didn’t even want at the time. 

But sometimes, for brief moments, like when you are standing at the stove making lemon and courgette risotto and listening to Head Like a Hole at full volume, your teen self and the adult self you thought you might be meld perfectly and all is well with the world. 

5. We read this book in bookclub recently, and I was struck at how we all struggled to verbalise our feelings about it. Was it good? Bad? Confusing? Funny? Unsettling? It was all and none, the live example of imagining a colour you’d never seen before. I was reminded of these two videos the algorithms had fed me, on Outsider Music and how audiences misunderstood the film of American Psycho when it first came out. Weirdness is so challenging, so aching and unsettling and new to brains which generally thrive on conformity and predictability. In the latter video, the film’s director Mary Herron says, ‘I have to always remind myself, sometimes I don’t get it, you know, when I first see something… particularly if it’s unfamiliar, it can be quite… there’s something uncomfortable or disturbing or it seems boring or like it does’t work, and it’s also because you’re just not attuned to it yet and it’s just sometimes you take time.’ Like those albums as a teen, the best, weirdest, most brain-engaging stuff often takes much longer to chew, but it’s almost always worth it.

6. (We also watched Mustang, which I recommend to literally everyone, although it does nothing to disprove my theory that all good woman- and girl-based films are secretly also horror films. But it’s brilliant, so please watch it if you haven’t already.)

7. I intend to make this tonight for the Solstice feast’s dessert. Happy summer, pals.

[majorpepperidge]

Bayverse Leo and Ray meeting

Ough fuck I tried writing, it’s not proofed and very amateur but hey, give it a look if you wanna

Leonardo had heard it said once that New York ‘is the city that doesn’t sleep’, and honestly; he couldn’t agree more. While major threats like Shredder and Krang haven’t reared their ugly heads in about 2 years, crimes still happened. People still needed help. That wasn’t even mentioning how the Foot Clan was still gathering on the fringes, biding their time, gaining power with Karai at the helm. Being the leader of his brothers, Leo often thought of these things, of how it can all be dealt with while keeping his family safe. It was a delicate balance, and one he strove to master and maintain every day. But there was no denying, underneath all his strategy and mastery of self-

He knew it was a very lonely life.

They’d made their decision before, sticking to the shadows and not letting themselves be known to the world. But after such an event as the attempted Technodrome assembly, there was no denying people…knew. To a degree. Though Leo, admittedly, didn’t understand the specifics of ‘algorithms’ and ‘search statistics’ that Donnie spoke of, he understood that people had begun paying attention. Talking about their existence. The most frequent theory was ‘aliens’, as most things humans don’t understand often get labeled as. The thought did bring a small smirk to Leo’s lips, they were green, after all. On solitary missions like this, he did let his mind wander a bit. When it was just him, he didn’t have to try and keep his brothers(Mikey) focused, keep the chatter to a minimum. It was almost like meditation for him, though the din from the streets below as he leapt from building to building kept him from falling into too deep a trance. “Look, I don’t have anything! I’m not worth the effort, so just–” The panicked voice rang in his ears and brought him to a sudden halt, head whipping around to find the source. His training brought him back to focus, as he spied into a darkened street what he was looking for. A woman, apprehended by…Foot Clan? Leo’s teeth clenched. It could just be a shakedown. It could be that she had something they wanted. But, what did it matter? He wasn’t about to let it happen. But just as he was about to leap down to the rescue…the girl ran. Ran and screamed curses and threw what she could behind her to hinder her pursuers. It was almost admirable, if not, quite frankly, a worthless effort. Leo quickly followed along from the rooftops, the Foot below closing the gap on their target with ease despite whatever flimsy obstacles were thrown in their path. Still, the girl ran. Until, she couldn’t. She fell, a loud cry ripped from her throat while she frantically grabbed at her left knee. But this didn’t diminish her fight, as she crawled toward a dumpster and latched onto it, throwing debris around it back at the Foot. “I don’t even know what the hell you want! Get the fuck away from me!!! I swear I’ll bite your fuckin face off!!” The Foot were clearly unphased, moving toward their target, drawing blunt weapons and saying nothing. The air was tense, and the lack of reliable light made the girl even more panicked as they approached. Her fate, whatever it was, seemed all but sealed. Shutting her eyes, she braced for pain. But she never heard the air split with weapons being swung at her, what she heard instead was a loud landing from above, and fine metal being drawn. Still, she feared worse was coming, so she kept her eyes screwed shut, but no pain came. At least, not to her. As the sound of struggle played around her, the girl slowly opened her eyes, squinting in the dark at what little she could see. It was pretty one-sided, with whoever leapt to her rescue handling the Foot with ease. Her breath slowed, barely, as the fighting ended, and Leo glanced over his shoulder at her. It was dark enough that he was mostly hidden, which allowed him some safety to look the girl over. She seemed cognizant, looking back at him with…awe? Leo turned to face her proper, but still stuck to the shadowy part of the alley, watching her shakily pull herself up, using the dumpster as leverage. Once she put weight on her left leg though, she yelped loudly, and Leo, without thinking, grabbed her forearm to keep her from falling. “Sst…thanks.” The girl murmured, regaining her footing before seeing the large hand wrapped easily around her arm. “Oh…” She spoke softly, and Leo quickly retracted his arm, mentally cursing himself. “No no, it’s okay! I’m sorry! I just…you’re one of them, aren’t you?” Snapping out of his internal lecture, Leo’s attention was brought back to reality. The girl’s face betrayed no resentment, no disgust. It was still simply awestruck, thankful, and almost hopeful. 

“One of them?” He asked after the long pause, and he couldn’t help but notice how she lit up when he spoke. It…Leo wasn’t sure what to think, but he couldn’t help some small part of him feeling hopeful himself. “O-one of the ones who saved this city from that weird alien ship! I wasn’t living here, but I heard about it! And about everything since! And those fuckin Foot losers, you still fight ‘em too!” The girl’s voice was shaky, clearly she was still running on adrenaline from her encounter, and she suddenly seemed to realize where they still were. “Ah…shit. This alley sucks. Geez. Uhm…c-can we talk somewhere else? Or not!! If you’re busy, y’know, saving people…I get it.” She trailed off, adjusting her leaning posture on the wall. Leo paused in thought again. “Can you make it home on that leg?” He asked, stepping forward slightly, letting more of himself to be seen. “Ohwowyou’rebig. I MEAN, shit, no. I can’t keep any weight on it when it’s like this.” Her initial blurt did manage to get Leo to breathe a short laugh out his nose. He noticed that, while she was a grown woman, she was shorter than most humans he’s seen, and he was keenly aware how big he and his brothers were. 

Extending a hand, Leo spoke. “If you’re alright with it, I can carry you somewhere closer, or safer.” “Oh! Wow, yeah that’d be cool. So…we can talk? I’m Ray, by the way. Ray Hyllard. N-not that it matters, you’re probably gonna like…use alien mind-wipe on me so I forget most of this.” “I…can’t do that, no. I’m not an alien.” “You’re not?” Leo shook his head, again this alien assumption was at least a little amusing. He gingerly lifted Ray in a one-armed carry, leaving his other arm free for climbing. Ray, for her part, grunted in minor pain from her bad knee being moved, but was otherwise in quiet admiration of his strength, her arms clung around his neck as Leo swiftly scaled the nearest building. 

“So, what direction am I heading in?” Tilting his head toward her, Ray blinked out of her stupor. “Uhhh….fuck, wait, lemme check my phone.” She patted her pockets, fishing out her phone and breathing a loud thank you that it miraculously got out of the whole ordeal unscathed. Leo took this pause to study her again. He noticed the scar under her left eye, but otherwise, looked unassuming. Unlikely she was a Foot Clan plant, he concluded. And she seemed to be taking being held by a giant mutant turtle rather well. That small, hopeful part of him suddenly felt so much bigger in his mind. Even more so when Ray’s attention turned back to him, and he noticed how dark of a blue her eyes were, like the deep ocean, and he felt his heart wrench in inexplicable longing. “It’s not that far, thankfully. My home, I mean. I-if you can only take me so far that’s fine! I’ll manage somehow! I don’t wanna be a burden.” She always seemed quick to waive herself off as something he wanted to get rid of, Leo noted. “Helping someone home is never a burden.” He assured her. “Just tell me where I need to go.” Ray’s eyes went big again, and she dipped her head in thanks. “Thanks…uh, here, just follow–”

She listed off directions, and Leo followed them. He went somewhat slower than usual, not taking risky maneuvers while towing around his injured charge. The longer travel lent time for Ray to ask him more questions, to which he patiently replied.

 “So…you’re…a turtle?” “Mutant turtle, yes.” “Oh!! Oh!!! Like those other guys!! The pig and the rhino!!!” “Something like that, though I like to think we’re better looking.”

Internally, he knew his brothers would get on his case about…all of this. How his father would, while trusting his judgment, lightly chide him for such a risk. But, he was the leader, he was the eldest, he made his decision and he’ll stick by it. Has this bullheaded approach gotten him in trouble before? Maybe. And yet, as he approached Ray’s apartment window (thankfully by the fire escape so he could stand and help her unlatch said window), he couldn’t help but feel he could trust this girl. 

And, let’s be honest, watching her limp and stumble to the couch just made Leo feel bad and he squeezed through the window after her, guiding her to the couch himself. After getting her laid down and comfortable, he knelt on the ground beside her, knowing he had to have The Responsible Leader talk with her. 

“Look. I don’t regret saving you, or helping you home. But my family and I…we need to keep hidden as much as we can. You can’t–” “Tell anyone?” Ray finished for him, and Leo sighed, nodding. “Yeah. I know people online have…reports on sightings, which I’m guessing is how you weren’t so shocked.” “Well, that and being so tweaked out on adrenaline that I just accept things at face value. I’ll have a panic attack later, don’t worry.” Ray spoke, waving her hand, before realizing Leo was just looking at her with concern. “Oh! I mean…it’s fine! I can handle it! You should get back to your family…uh….” “Leonardo.” He finally introduced himself, with a small bow of respect. “Leonardo…it suits you.” Leo wasn’t sure why, but just that little remark made him glow with pride. “But, hey, I’ll be okay, I promise.” She pat his shoulder lightly in reassurance. “And I won’t tell anyone. I don’t want to betray your trust. I mean, fuck’s sake, you saved my life! What kinda ungrateful person would I be if I didn’t at least do this for you?” Her speech was so animated, she ended up shifting too much and hissing in pain at the movement of her leg. “Agh…okay. Before you go, can you grab me my tube of Voltaren? It’s in the bathroom.” Wordlessly nodding, Leo stood and fetched said medication cream. He studied his surroundings as he did, noting how much of it was simple, but there was little touches of eccentricity. Prints of various movies, shows, games, a shelf of figures and comics…his eyes lingered on that for a while. He thought of the discarded, dirty comics he and his brothers read in their youth and how the heroes in them always inspired him.

“You read comics?” Ray spoke out to him, noticing how he paused before the shelf. Almost bashfully, Leo turned away, handing her the tube of cream. “I…used to. I guess I still do. I have a wall of old comic pages.” “What, really?! That sounds so cool!” She lit up again at him, uncapping the cream and lightly applying small dollops to her knee and rubbing. “I can only decorate so much in a rented place, y’know. I’d love to like…personalize more. I can only buy so many shelves for display.” She laughed, and Leo couldn’t help but chuckle a bit himself. Ray just so easily spoke with him, it was almost surreal. Like he’d wake up at any moment back in the lair, with only his brothers to speak to. 

His face fell as he spiraled into his thoughts again, and Ray noticed. Concern wrinkled her brow as she watched him lost in his own mind, before she lightened up again. “Hey! Take some comics home.” “Huh?” Leo blinked, attention brought back to the girl. “Yeah! Why not? Think of it as a reward, for helping.” “I…I can’t just take them from you…” Leo trailed, looking awkward as he lightly paced in one place. 

“Then…just borrow them. Bring ‘em back when you’re done. Gives you a reason to come and check on me and make sure I’m ‘behaving’, right?” She airquoted for emphasis. Leo hummed, looking between her and the shelf. “You know, I do trust your word.” He stepped toward the shelf, picking out a few random issues. “But I suppose I won’t turn down your generous offer.” He looked back over at her with a smile, and Ray  beamed back. “Nice. Do you, like, have a phone or–” “I do. I’ll take your number.” He didn’t take his phone out, but knew he’d remember her number. He would also give it to Donnie, for security’s sake, but withheld that info. The number was exchanged, and Ray gave a firm nod of approval of the comics he’d tucked under his arm. After a quiet checkover of her condition, and assurance that yes, she’d manage through whatever panic attack may hit, Leo headed back toward the window to exit.

“Thank you! Again. For everything, Leonardo.” “Leo is fine.” “Leo, then. See you again soon?”

He paused at the window. Now was the point of no return. He could change his mind now, cut ties, leave it at that. But did he want to?

“You can bet on it.”

[swan-of-sunrise]

The Winter Soldier (Chapter Six)

Summary: (Y/N) and the others successfully abduct a high-level Hydra operative, who provides them with information on Hydra’s bone-chilling plan.

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings/Disclaimers: Brief description of a panic attack

A/N: Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Six (Previous Chapter)

“How in the hell did you come up with this plan?”

(Y/N) and Natasha were using binoculars to stare out the window of an abandoned apartment at a small courtyard situated between a tall building and a crowded outdoor café, where Sam was currently sitting and enjoying an iced tea; Steve was sitting in Sam’s car and parked around the corner, at the ready just in case the plan didn’t work. Once (Y/N) told the others her plan to abduct Sitwell and they’d taken a quick trip to Fort Meade for the EXO-7 Falcon pack, Natasha had hacked into the Hydra operative’s digital planner; she discovered in his itinerary that he’d be in a meeting with Senator Stern all morning in the building across the street, and then she’d managed to remotely clone Director Pierce’s cell phone.

Glancing away from her binoculars, (Y/N) flashed Natasha a bright smile. “It wasn’t that hard; part of it’s from a scene in my novel, actually. This is how Amelia – she’s the main character, by the way – tricks an enemy agent into giving her important information on her case.” She pulled the laser pointer integral to their plan out of her pocket and twirled it around her fingers. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“You’re in the wrong line of work, (Y/L/N). You’d make a good spy.”

(Y/N) chuckled bashfully and turned back to her binoculars. “Thanks, but I think I’ll stick to writing. Less of a risk of being shot at, you know.”

“Well, not many writers would just up and volunteer to try and take down a covert terrorist organization.” Although she said it in an off-hand manner, (Y/N) could tell that Natasha was genuinely curious about her off-the-cuff decision.

“I’m not usually an impulsive person, but what I said earlier was true: I have no right to do any less than what the three of you are doing. I won’t sit by and watch as Hydra destroys everything we know, especially knowing that there are ways I could help stop them. Besides, Sam and I are a team, have been for over a year now. I can’t let my best friend put himself in danger without being by his side.” (Y/N) rolled her eyes at herself and gave the spy an embarrassed smile. “But please don’t tell him I said that, Nat, it would only inflate his already-enormous ego.”

“Secret’s safe with me, hot-shot.” Natasha paused for a moment. “You remind me a lot of Rogers. To tell you the truth, I think that’s half the reason why he let you onto the team.”

(Y/N) frowned at her comment, her eyes still looking through her binoculars. “What’s the other half-?” Just then, a group of men walked out of the building across the street. “Wait, is that Sitwell?”

Natasha looked through her own binoculars and nodded. “Yeah, the bald guy with the glasses.” She quickly set down the binoculars and typed out a quick text on her phone. “Time to see if your plan works, 007.”

Through the binoculars, (Y/N) saw Sam glance down at his phone and dial a number from his seat at the café. The group of men headed towards the parking lot, leaving Sitwell alone on the building’s steps. (Y/N) smiled to herself as she watched him pull out his phone and press it to his ear; he became skittish as he listened to Sam talk. Watching Sitwell’s lips, she carefully aimed her laser pointer and pressed the button just as he asked, “And why would I do that?”

She let out a triumphant laugh when Sitwell glanced at the red light on his tie and looked around in fear before hanging up the phone and walking towards Sam. “Yes!” She punched the air and put down her laser pointer and binoculars. “Dynamite with a laser beam!”

“‘Killer Queen,’ yeah?” Natasha grinned and nodded appreciatively. “Steve was right, you’ve got a great taste in music. C’mon, we’d better head down to the car…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fifteen minutes later, Steve was throwing Sitwell across the rooftop of an apartment building; Natasha strode confidently after him, and (Y/N) tried her best to hide her unease as she trailed behind them. Although she’d thoroughly researched torture methods for her novel, she wasn’t quite sure she could stomach seeing them performed in real life. Stay calm, Captain America wouldn’t do those things to someone else, she thought to herself, fiddling with the edge of her grey leather jacket, although he did mention that they might do that one thing if Sitwell doesn’t talk. She looked up from her combat boots in time to see Steve say, “Tell me about Zola’s algorithm.”

“Never heard of it.”

“What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?”

“I was throwing up, I get seasick.” Steve grabbed Sitwell roughly by the collar and forced him to the edge of the rooftop, but the man only smiled condescendingly up at the super-soldier. “Is this little display meant to insinuate that you’re gonna throw me off the roof? Because that’s not really your style, Rogers.”

(Y/N) couldn’t see Steve’s face, but she assumed that he was smiling as he smoothed out the crumpled lapels of Sitwell’s jacket. “You’re right. It’s not. It’s hers.” After quickly stepping aside, Steve watched calmly as Natasha kicked Sitwell directly in the chest and he toppled off the roof, screaming the whole way down. Despite (Y/N) knowing what their plan was, she still felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably as the man’s screams grew fainter the longer he fell; she’d never mentioned her extreme fear of heights to any of them, but in that moment she wished she had.

Natasha turned to Steve. “Oh wait, what about that girl from Accounting, Laura…?”

“Lilian. Lip piercing, right?”

“Yeah, she’s cute.”

Steve shook his head and looked down. “Yeah, I’m not ready for that.”

(Y/N)’s confusion and slight jealousy at their conversation shifted to awe as Sam suddenly flew up and threw Sitwell back onto the roof while he landed gracefully on his feet. (Y/N) rolled her eyes in amusement as her best friend flashed her a wink, his wings quickly folding back into his pack as he approached them.

Sitwell, no longer composed and condescending, was shaking with fear on the rooftop as he held his hands up. “Zola’s algorithm is a program for choosing Insight’s targets!”

“What targets?” (Y/N) asked, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.

To her surprise, Sitwell sneered. “And who the hell are you? The personal assistant?”

Steve grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and squeezed until he began wincing. “What targets?”

“You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, a first-time novelist writing about the Cold War in D.C…” Everyone’s eyes snapped to (Y/N)’s, and she could feel the blood leaving her face as she fully registered his words. “Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who’s a threat to Hydra! Now, or in the future.”

Natasha, her face grim, drew closer to Sitwell. “The future? How could it know?”

“How could it not? The twenty-first century is a digital book. Zola taught Hydra how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola’s algorithm evaluates people’s past to predict their future.”

“And what then?”

Sitwell rubbed his temple agitatedly. “Oh my God, Pierce is gonna kill me.”

Steve shook him again. “What then?”

“…then the Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time.”

A heavy silence hung over the group as they all absorbed what Sitwell had said; millions of people around the world are going to be killed by Hydra if we don’t stop them, (Y/N) realized in horror. She tried to avoid thinking about it, but she couldn’t help but replay Sitwell’s words over and over in her head: A first-time novelist writing about the Cold War in D.C., a first-time novelist writing about the Cold War in D.C., a first-time novelist writing about the Cold War in D.C…

“Okay, time to head out.” After yanking Sitwell roughly to his feet, Steve turned to Natasha and Sam. “You two mind escorting him back to the car?”

“’Course not, Cap,” Natasha smirked as she and Sam grabbed Sitwell’s arms and dragged him towards the rooftop doorway, Sam throwing a concerned glance at (Y/N) as he went.

“You okay, (Y/N)?”

As Steve’s words left his mouth, (Y/N) registered the ringing in her ears and that she was taking rapid and shallow breaths; her heart hammered in her chest and through her clouded vision, she could barely make out Steve’s worried face right before her. “Can’t…can’t breathe…”

“Okay, it’s okay, um, here,” Stepping forward, he reached for her hand but stopped himself short. “Is it okay if I hold your hand?” (Y/N) gave a short nod and he took her hand, gently placing her palm against his chest so she could feel his strong heartbeat. “You’re okay, just try and slow your heartbeat to match mine. Can you do that for me? Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, like this.” He began doing the breathing exercise, and she shakily began copying him. “You’re doing great, (Y/N), just keep breathing.” To her surprise, he stopped the breathing exercise and began quietly humming a familiar tune; it was so faint beneath the dim ringing in her ears that she could’ve dismissed it as her mind tricking her if not for the feeling of reverberation in his chest. (Y/N) gradually felt her body responding positively; her breathing began to even out and as her heartbeat returned to normal, her vision cleared and the ringing faded away into nothing.

Once his humming came to an end, she looked up at him with an insecure smile. “‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,’ The Platters. Thank you. I-I don’t know what came over me, I was fine until…well, you know. All at once, everything suddenly became very…real for me.”

Steve nodded solemnly. “No one will think any less of you if you decide to go home. You’ll be safer, and-”

“No, no way.” She firmly shook her head, her mouth set in a determined line. “I’m staying. Just because I found out I’m a possible Insight target and had a panic attack doesn’t mean that I’m suddenly okay with sitting back while Hydra plans to kill millions; if anything, I’m even more invested in this fight than I was before.” She felt the corners of her mouth lift into a smirk. “If you’re trying to get rid of me, Rogers, then you’re going to have to try a little harder than that.”

When she finally stopped talking, she registered something akin to admiration in Steve’s small smile, and she willed herself not to blush. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few more moments, and that’s when (Y/N) realized that one of Steve’s hands was still resting on her waist and the other was gently holding her hand against his chest, his thumb absentmindedly rubbing small circles over her knuckles.

Steve seemed to realize the same thing because a moment later, he quickly let go of her and took a couple of steps back. With a pinkish tint to his cheeks, he glanced toward the rooftop doorway and replied, “Well, if you’re sure that you’re okay then let’s go. We’ve got a launch to stop.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I’ve created a Spotify playlist inspired by this series, and I’ll be updating it every time I upload a new chapter. Enjoy! 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BenknAqQQnOWY8NmSa23V

Tagging: @mrs-obrien @lahoete @awkward117​ @cminr​ @momc95​ @awkwardnesshabitat​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @khuang3​ @supersouthy​ @benakenalove​ @brooke0297​ @hufflepeople​ @becausewelie​​ @outoftheregular @supreme-tantrum​

Chapter Seven

“The Winter Soldier” Masterlist

[whiskeyworen]

Speluncaphobia...?

So my friends turned me on to this 4-player game called Deep Rock Galactic and... I’m enjoying it. It’s MUCH better with friends, of course, but it’s a hilarious game. You’re a dwarf miner in space, mining a shattered rock of a world for various ores, as well as ingredients for new kinds of booze. And you work for, as usual, a shit-tier company that basically throws you to the horrible digging monstrosities and is like “Well, if you survive the next five minutes, I’ll be pleased. You might even earn a round at the bar later. You’re paying of course.” Four classes: Gunner, Scout, Engineer, and Digger. Each one specializes in a different way. Gunner is basically the Heavy. Scout has an assault rifle, double barrel shotty, a grappling hook, and a flare gun. Engie has a combat shotty, a grenade launcher, a turret to deploy, and a platform gun. Digger has... I forget. But the special is twin drill arms that can mow through the walls like wet cardboard. And a flamethrower. So we all took a role, since the others had played before, and I got Engie. Not bad. I don’t mind it. The zones of the world, after they’re unlocked, rotate something like every hour or half hour, so you’ve always got a good variety of zones, and not just ‘We’re getting Nuketown again.’ repetitiveness. The actual maps seem to be fractal and procedurally generated for the most part? I can’t really confirm it, but it SEEMS like the level self-generates based on an algorithm, and then just expands upon it if you keep going by adding chambers and random crap. No matter what, when you go into the deeps of the planet, you’re gonna be running into creepy crawly, TOOTHY things. You’re expected to shoot them. Some of them are fast. Others spit acid. Others exhale toxin or ice, or fire. Some grab you from the air and carry you off Smoker L4D style. And once in a while there’s a big, BIG bastard that shows up to just ruin the day. He’s killable, but it takes so much time and he hits so hard... LoL. I’ve seen beautiful things so far. Caves of reflective ice, with frozen lakes you skid on. Red crystal caves with bismuth outgrowths everywhere. A grotto in the middle of the planet, filled with plants and sticky stuff, and a delightful non-hostile monster called a Silicate Harvester which looks like the Reefback Leviathan a bit, only much smaller, that I rode on for ten minutes while it scoured the area for tasty dirt. I’ve seen horrors. Parts of mines filled with purple tendrils and pulsating orange ‘organs’. Giant rolly-poly beetles that are fast as hell and annoying to damage. The Aforementioned Big Ass Bastard bug. And the absolute SWARMS of toothy bitey, Ripper-crossed-with-Termagaunt bugs called the Swarm. And worst of all... the Egg-hunting mission. You go down into a mine, and have to find those horrible, tendril-and-organ corrupted places. Look for a spot with a pulsing glow...and mine into it. Inside is a green, veiny ovoid. It’s a frickin’ egg the size of a watermelon. And you have to take between 5 and 10 back. When you pick up an egg... The PLANET seems to rebel. Normally when the Swarm wakes up or is agitated, you can hear them roar in the distance. The bigger the bug, the bigger the roar. All of it sounding like classic Ghidorah. But when you grab an egg... the world around you shudders violently, the air itself warps with the volume and violence of the roar. It’s like whatever you pulled the egg from is a VERY large creature spread through the crust of the planet, and it is NOT happy at all. And when it’s not happy... the SWARM is not happy. They come in droves. There’s an old saying from the Aliens franchise, which also transfers over to WH40k, and now to Deep Rock Galactic; “If you can hear the shifting, hissing, clicking of mandibles and claws and chitin in the distance, and you still haven’t seen what’s causing it... there’s more bugs coming than you have ammo to deal with them.” Never. Ever. Grab more than one egg at once. Because the Swarms stack. I think that’s enough gushing for now. Go find that game and play it with friends. Play it with the dumbasses who make snarky comments. Be silly. Do dumb shit. That’s the beauty of this game; it’s not super serious unless you make it. I literally used my Engie’s platform gun to make temporary walls to keep the Swarm’s biggest beasts at bay while my Digger friend dug our way as fast as he could to the escape pod. Then I threw a L.U.R.E. mine out, which projected a floss-dancing Dwarf for the bugs to focus on, while we shut the pod door and got away. Fantastic game.

[squishmallow36]

Keeper of the Lost Prepositions - Nineteen

Word count: 2.6k

Tw: it's all pretty canon-typical

Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @ichor-on-my-hands @kamikothe1and0lny @nyxpixels @snowflakewolves @poppinspop @crystallinewalker @uni-seahorse-572 @tiergan-andrin-alenefar @books-over-boys @florida-llama-46 @when-wax-wings-melt @k00laidcrush @bowlcut-boyfriends @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizznee @jamesdeangf

On Ao3 or below the cut!

    Just before Fitz leaps away, Grizel turns to me and shakes her head before mouthing ‘teenagers’ disapprovingly. But I know normal teenagers don’t have to deal with half the stuff we do, so it’s not really accurate to blame the entire species.

    I’m pretty sure she was referring to Fitz being all ‘oh heck I fell asleep at someone else’s house, so I have to sneak back home immediately. No one can ever know.’

    What if he somehow figured out that I have a mildly humongous crush on him? 

    Calm down. I doubt he knows anything about humans being queer, let alone the possibility that an elf could be. 

    Or goblins, for that matter.

    The probability that that’s the problem is tiny, I tell myself.

    Wait—he visited humans for nearly a decade. In that time, he could have learned so much about them that I can’t even begin to imagine. 

    No, that doesn’t sound like him.

    He doesn’t recognize any of the human references I make, and, well, we’ve always been taught that the humans betrayed us in Atlantis, and I’m pretty sure the Vackers took that as an excuse to think of themselves as better than humans. 

    And if the elves are better, then why should they bother learning about the humans? It’s not like you’re missing out on a significant population with their own customs. Even if they do divide themselves into like two hundred different chunks, most of which are further divided into smaller chunks. 

    After I manage to convince myself sufficiently that I’m not going to be forced out of the closet anytime tonight, I grab my laptop again, still not tired even though it’s around one-thirty in the morning. I went to bed at three last night, so I guess it makes sense. 

    I play another forty-five-ish minutes of Portal before deciding that I should probably try to get some sleep. 

    There aren’t any hits on the facial recognition algorithm for the next six days, but on the seventh, I’m woken up at maybe seven by the sound of the triplets smashing something. I don’t even care at this point.

    I say maybe seven because all I know is it feels way too early, and I think the fuzzy blob that is my clock sorta looks like a seven. 

    I flip over in my bed, determined to fall back asleep, when I hear Rex yell, “I’m not crying, you’re crying!” before I feel him shake the house, pounding up the stairs to hide in his room and slam his door. I don’t want to know how I can feel that.

    I blink the sleep from my eyes and manage to sit on the side of my bed. 

    I wander downstairs and then up to Rex’s room as fast as I can manage, head still full of groggy cotton.

    I scold Lex and Bex half-heartedly as I see them running around downstairs.

    As I’m climbing up the stairs, I think I really should figure out how to install a gerbil tube between our rooms. 

    On second thought, that’s just another opportunity to prank me. Probably shouldn’t do that.

    I open up Rex’s door—he didn’t bother to lock it, not that it would be a problem even if he did—and he’s taken some pointers from some Disney movies. By that, I mean he threw himself facedown on his bed. 

    Still standing in the doorway, just in case he tries to attack me because I scared him or whatever, softly, I say, “Hey, Rex.”

    My brain is brilliant, eh?

    He mumbles something into the bed, but I’m pretty sure I heard ‘Bex’. I’m also fairly certain that I don’t want to know what he said. 

    Knowing that the triplets completely and totally idolise Keefe, I figure that Rex’ll respond to Keefe’s method of dealing with problems. 

    “I know my voice hasn’t dropped that much, but calling me Bex is a little insulting.” I say, somewhere between softly smiling and smirking as I sit on the bed next to him.

    He turns his head slightly to look at me, and his eyes are less red and puffy than I expect.

    “Were Lex and Bex teasing you about not manifesting yet?” I ask, rescuing Harry the Jackalope from the foot of the bed, and also more than a little proud of myself for remembering to add ‘yet’ this early in the morning.

    I place Harry on Rex’s back as he nods into his pillow. He turns towards me more fully before asking, “How do you manage to remain so positive? I know it’s not your problem, so I doubt you think about it twenty-four/seven, but, like, the longer it takes, the more I wonder if I’ll be...I’ll be like Dad.”

    Well, Exile.

    First, I have to lie through my teeth because of Keefe.

    And second, stupid, beautiful Wonderboy made me notice that Rex says ‘about’ the same way I do. Guess it is a Dizznee thing.

    “You have to remember that not all three of you do everything together. Bex started walking days before you and Lex. And think of the possibilities if your ability is taking a little longer because it’s going to be even cooler than Lex’s, Bex’s, or even mine.”

    It’s the same thing I’ve told him three or four times now, but sometimes it just feels good to hear someone else say what you’re trying to tell yourself in real time instead of a memory.

    Harry somersaults backwards as Rex wraps his arms around me, burying his face into my side instead of his pillow. 

    “How could there be a cooler ability than yours?” I think I manage to decode from his muffled question.

    “Rex,” I begin, and I feel him nod. “Do you think you could scooch over? I’m barely hanging on here.”

    He pauses for a second, and then backs up toward the opposite side of the bed, dragging me with him.

    “Seriously, though. How could there be a cooler ability than Technopathy?” Rex asks again, pulling away slightly to make sure I heard him.

    “I think the fact that Sophie has five super-rare abilities is cooler than my one,” I argue.

    “Yeah, but can she rob an ATM in a human city? Or make a device to get backup? Or break down force fields? Or hack into literally anything?”

    “I can make a much longer list of what she can do that I can’t,” I warn.

    “I could add more things to your list, too.”

    “And I doubt she hasn’t almost killed someone because of a technical issue. Or built an ability restrictor.” I shudder inwardly at the reminder.

    “Why do you keep telling yourself that you’re not good enough?” Rex asks, and I stop for a second. If there’s one thing you can count on the triplets to do, it’s be completely honest. Especially Bex, but she’s usually the mean one.

    “My ability might be cool from the outside, but most of what I can do could be achieved by anyone. Even humans have gotten pretty good at tech in recent years,” I explain.

    Rex considers for a second before asking, softer than a whisper, “Do you think you could teach me?” and the only thing that made me not think I imagined it was the barely-contained hope and excitement in his eyes. 

    The same eyes that stare back at me in the mirror every day. 

    “Sure. You want me to bring stuff in here, or do you want to go to my room?”

    “We’re doing this now?” he asks, not sure if he missed something.

    “No time like the present.” I am already awake. Might as well use it before I pass out again. 

    “I’ll go to your room. It’s easier for you that way. But can we get some breakfast while we’re downstairs?”

    “I thought it would be time for your second breakfast by now.” 

    It’s a little after eight by this point, or, as I like to call it, still way too freaking early to be awake.

    I grab some of Fitz’s blitzenberry muffins from the kitchen, knowing that they’re one of Rex’s—okay, and my—favourites. Who am I kidding? Anything with sugar is approved for triplet consumption.

    In my room, I grab two of my human computers, and give one to Rex. Looking back, I realise that’s not the best decision, even though it was number three, so it’s already survived Wonderboy fixing it.

    “Technology is divided into two large subcategories, software and hardware. I’m not really sure how to show you hardware, so we get to start with software. Hardware is the actual physical components and software is the code that makes them work. Don’t ask me why they’re called that. I wasn’t really paying attention that day.”

    He smiles at that, and we sit on my bean bags.

    “First test: see if you can open it. This will either be wildly amusing or I can throw it in Wonderboy’s face, so I win either way.” I think about adding an evil laugh at the end, but I take too long debating, so it would have been awkward. As in extra awkward. 

    Everything is some level of awkward when dealing with me.

    I open my laptop, and he takes note of how I did it because he figures out the latch a second later. 

    “It wants a password,” Rex says.

    I held out my hands because it’s too hard to spell ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!’ and I have it programmed into my muscle memory, so I don’t even know it consciously at this point.

    “Sorry. Forgot the passwords. But at least you passed your initiation.”

    I hand it back to him, trying to connect my wireless mouse to my laptop, when he asks, “Why is there a little arrow thing moving on the screen?”

    That makes sense now. 

    I walk him through the terminology of the computer, threatening a quiz at the end to make sure he pays attention through the entire lesson. 

    And also I keep slipping into what he dubs ‘technopathese’ which he describes as getting into a rant with a whole bunch of techy words that don’t even sound like words anymore. 

    I make sure to keep an eye on my Imparter the entire day, just in case Biana hails me again. 

    After the computer quiz, which was easy by my standards, I take him to a human coding website called Scratch that lets you drag and drop blocks to write code, which is where I would have liked to start, but no. Lady Iskra is all traditional so I started full-on writing code. With very little information on syntax. I learned how to make a ‘Hello world!’ print statement and then told that my instincts would figure out the rest. 

    Apparently it’s how she was taught. 

    I should create a drag-and-drop version of that first language I learned. 

    I show Rex around the Scratch workspace, but halfway through, we need more food. 

    His exact words are, “Being a Technopath makes me hungry.” He stands up, and yells, “Yo necesito más comida!” as he barreled into the kitchen. I don’t know or think I want to know why he knows any Spanish. Or why I knew it was in Spanish specifically.

    Anyway, it was funnier than you would expect. 

    Not entirely sure why on that, either.

    When he comes back, he says, “I’ve gotten an idea.”

    He pauses as he settles back into his beanbag before continuing, “You said that I could learn a lot of your ability without having to manifest, yes? So how could someone dispute it if I get really good at tech? We could call it my ability…”

    All the blood drains out of my face, which...didn’t really make a difference in my skin tone. The one time I’m glad I’m so pale. 

    I grasp for words that would let down that hope building in his eyes without completely destroying it.

    I sigh. “Rex, you remember Timkin Heks, right?” 

    He’s a bit confused at my change in subject, but still nods, although I can tell that he wants to insult Stina to oblivion. Or maybe that’s me.

    “He was banished for faking having a special ability. Exilium is…” I shake my head, remembering those skill lessons.   

    “I’m sure it’s better now that Foster told Councillor Oralie to fix it, but it’s still...I don’t want you banished, okay?” 

    He nods, drawing his legs up into his chest. 

    “Now, that doesn’t mean that you won’t manifest as a Technopath. Maybe lessons are exactly what you need to trigger it. Have you ever thought about that?”

    I wrap my arm around his shoulders as Rex shakes his head.

    He leans into me as I say, “If you don’t have a special ability by Level Four, I’ll ask the Forklenator to see if he can make it happen. Like how he made Marella’s pyrokinesis manifest.”

    “Okay,” he squeaks, and I really wish I could have a better outlook for his future. He’s probably calculating how many days he’ll have to wait before then.

    Before he’s officially Talentless. 

    My first laptop buzzes a few seconds later, and when I ignore it, I’m pretty sure it gets more insistent the second time it buzzes. 

    “Give me a second,” I tell Rex as I stand up.

    “It actually worked…” I whisper to the computer as I look at the image it took. 

    “What’s up?” Rex asks.

    “I set up a facial recognition algorithm through security cameras connected to Watchward Heath looking for Alvar, and it actually came back with a match. I don’t know how long he’ll stay there, so I have to go run and get Fitz.” 

    “I doubt you want to bring me along,” Rex says, and I’m a little busy at the moment figuring out how to keep Fitz from murdering his brother and shoving a bunch of different gadgets into my pockets to realize that means he wants to come.

    I give him an extra panic switch before saying, “Assemble the Foster squad for me, will you? If this goes badly, we’re going to need the cavalry. Just don’t tell the Black Swan, including Mom. Or the council. The coordinates of the camera are in the bottom left corner of the screen.”

    “Dex,” Rex says.

    “Yeah,” I reply, whipping around.

    He wraps his arms around me in a hug and mumbles, “If you die, I just want you to know that I love you.”

    I smile. “I’m not going to die. But, I love you too.”

    He peels his arms away from me as I tell Lovise, “I know this is a bad idea.”

   “Bad doesn’t even begin to describe how much trouble you’re going to be in. And I’m with Rex. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

   I find a stashed red leaping crystal as I am almost-running to the leapmaster, and I know it leads fairly close to the location.

    “How do you even know where that is?” Lovise asks, stalking after me.

    Not bothering to explain, “Everglen,” I call to the Leapmaster. 

    Biana gave me an Everglen crystal months ago, and I finally installed it a few weeks ago when I was bored. 

    As the light carries us away, I’m actually more worried that Fitz hates me than the possibility of walking into a Neverseen trap, so that’s nice. But at least he’ll push all of that away for a chance at his brother. 

[jatphantomsimagines]

Before Us (3) | Luke Patterson

Synopsis: In 1995, Sunset Curve was set to play The Orpheum. 25 years later they wake up in a whole new world and Luke finds somebody he once used to know.

Authors Note: So, if you hadn’t already guessed it there’s a big surprise at the end of this chapter but nothing is set in stone, remember that

PREVIOUS | NEXT

__/—–\__

The first thing Riley noticed upon waking up was the millions of text messages and audio recordings Julie had sent her throughout the night. Around 10:30 they started, coming one after the other, and finally they started dipping off around 1 in the morning. 

Riley read over the last text sent at around quarter to 3 and she knew the other girl would probably have gotten no sleep the night before. She couldn’t help but feel happy and excited, having listened to the song Julie was working on all night long. 

She fired off a text message to Julie letting her know she would see her at school in the music room first thing. Immediately, Riley jumped out of bed and started rushing around her room to get ready for school. 

She threw on a pair of black ripped jeans, paired with an old band tee and her moms green bomber jacket. Throwing her hair up in a messy bun, she grabbed her school bag and ran down the stairs to head out the door, stopping at the familiar sound of sizzling coming from the kitchen. 

“Dad?” Riley questioned, taking a few steps from the entrance hall and peeking her head into the room. A tuft of black hair stood up straight from her dad’s head, sleep still evident in the way his clothes rumpled on his frame. 

“Honey.” He turned around, a smile on his face and spatula in hand. “I’m making breakfast before I go to work, want anything?” 

Riley stared a little while longer, looking at what she assumed was to be a pancake now burning in the pan her father had left unsupervised. 

“Don’t let the batter burn, and I’m okay thanks. I’m off to school!” She called out quickly making smooching sounds that her father quickly returned before the door shut closed behind her. 

The walk to school was quick enough, the girl almost sprinting in excitement because of what Julie had texted her. Riley was pumped, knowing that Julie was going to march into the classroom and perform no matter what. She was going to take charge and make things happen. 

Within moments she was running up to the school, heading in the direction of the music room where she spotted Julie and Flynn. 

“Hey so are we doing this thing or not?” 

“Or not? Everyone’s at the spirit assembly.” Julie piped up. 

“Absolutely not, I don’t think so.” Riley started. The refusal evident in her tone that she would not be accepting this for what it was. “It looks to me like we’re crashing the party.”

Riley grinned widely before grabbing both of Julie’s and Flynn’s hands. Laughter echoed through the halls as the girls were dragged behind Riley. They burst into the gymnasium only to find Carrie in the middle of the room, lights, music, outfits. 

“Look who decided to spend all of daddy’s money paying for costumes and Katy Perry’s choreographer.” Flynn piped up as they entered. Riley couldn’t help but snicker, seeing the stark pink on Carrie’s head and thinking she looked like a giant dancing panic button. 

The girl continued to perform in front of them and Riley felt her stomach turn slightly. She had never liked Carrie, especially not when they used to hang out together. It was Carrie who had decided that she was better than the rest of them, leaving them behind and adapting the snarky personality Riley had grown to hate. 

She couldn’t bother watching anymore, groaning loudly. The sound rang clearly through the room as the music finished, eyes turning to her quickly. Riley covered her mouth, letting the principal and Mrs. Harrison take over the student's attention. 

They began to talk, dismissing the crowd and quickly Riley ushered Julie on stage. She moved quickly, sneaking over and creeping away from her. Flynn had already dipped, wanting to get a good spot, while Riley stayed off to the side. 

It was time. Julie was now stood on stage, making her way over to the piano and slowly taking a seat. Julie’s fingers lightly pressed against the keys, chords being played and music flying through the room. Julie’s vocals softly accompanied the music and Riley cheered lightly. 

A smile overtook her face as she listened to her best friend. She could see the way Julie’s own smile brightened and she started to enjoy herself more on stage. It was when the chorus started that the boys appeared. In a flash of light, they came from nowhere, and now there were three boys on stage, all looking to be around their age. 

Riley’s eyes scanned over them, landing on the boy with brown hair, tucked under a bright orange beanie. Something about him seemed so familiar and Riley found her eyes locked on him. 

Julie finished singing and Riley watched as the boy moved towards his own microphone, a smile lighting up his own face. As he began singing, Riley felt a pull in her chest, her heart thumping rapidly. 

“I feel something around me now, so unclear, lifting me out.” The words sounded so different from him, his voice washing over her. There was something so comforting and familiar about his voice, Riley swearing she must have heard it before. The song continued and Riley could tell from the dip in the instruments that they were reaching the bridge. 

Riley’s eyes moved from where they had drifted to Julie and suddenly they were locked with a pair of bright brown eyes. A smirk graced his lips as he continued to sing to her, causing everything else around Riley to slowly fade away. 

Julie’s voice broke them out of their daze, Riley shaking her head slightly. She cheered loudly as the song finished, hoping that Julie would be able to hear her over everyone else. The music faded out and another flash of light appeared, the boys disappearing as suddenly as they had come. 

The entire gym erupted into whispers, everybody wondering what on earth had just happened as Julie stood in front of them all. 

“Hey, where’d the rest of the band go?” The student working on lights began to walk on stage towards Julie, asking the question everyone was thinking. 

“Wait, were those holograms?” One of the girls questioned. Julie turned once again towards the crowd, her eyes going wide as she began to speak. 

“Yes! Yes, they were holograms. I plugged it into the ceiling projector before the show. I’d explain it, but it involves algorithms and science stuff.”

Around her, the crowd erupted into cheers, everybody applauding for Julie as she stayed on stage. As much as Riley wanted to believe her best friend, she couldn’t. There was no possible way that the boys hadn’t been real. The way her eyes had remained locked with the one wearing the beanie was not something that could be faked like that. 

The principal began to usher everyone out and Riley stayed where she was, waiting for Julie to finish talking with them. As she got lost in her thoughts, Flynn came over and bumped shoulders. 

“Can you believe that?” She asked. 

“Julie was amazing, like usual. But she’s lying.” 

“I know. We need to figure out what’s going on.” Flynn took Riley’s hand in her own walking over to meet Julie who was coming towards them. 

“Wow. You did it.” Flynn stated. 

“Thanks to you guys.” Julie conceded. Riley scoffed lightly, causing worry to flash behind Julie’s eyes. “Hey, you okay?”

“When did you start playing with a hologram band, Molina?” Riley asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Flynn looked impatiently towards Julie and the girl knew she wasn’t going to be able to tell her friends the truth. There was no way they would believe her. 

“Oh, it was just one song. We’re not a band. They’re a band, a hologram band.” 

“So why have you been keeping those cute boys a secret?” Flynn asked, finally asking the question that was really bugging her. 

“There’s a reason for that. It’s just… really crazy.” 

“Well we’re all about crazy here so tell us.” Riley said, not letting up with her gaze. Julie was beginning to show signs of being uncomfortable and Riley sighed. She began doubting the way her and Flynn were acting towards Julie, wondering if they were pushing her a little too much too soon. 

It wasn’t fair to say that what Julie had done to them was any better. She had lied to both of them, not letting them know about what she had been planning all along, and that she had even known a band. 

“Anyways, who’s excited that I’m back in the music program?” Julie questioned, Riley having missed the entire explanation while she was trapped in her own head. She could tell by the look on Flynn’s face that whatever Julie had said wasn’t believable. 

“Jules, are you lying to us?” Flynn asked. Julie sighed, the smile finally leaving her lips. 

“Yes.” She admitted. 

“Since when do we lie to each other?” She cried out in exasperation. 

“Flynn, Riley, I’m sorry.” Riley could tell that Julie was genuinely sorry, not wanting to have to tell them lies. Whatever was the real reason for Julie hiding the boys was obviously something that was bugging her as well. 

“I’m sorry? That’s all you’ve got?” Flynn waited for a moment and when neither of the girls spoke up she finally stormed out, heading towards the gymnasium doors.

Riley and Julie both called out her name, following behind after her. Riley had managed to get out a half a second faster than the other and was able to make it past the crowd walking by while Julie got trapped. 

“I’ve got it!” She called down the hall, giving Julie a thumbs up and heading to where she had last seen Flynn. Students weaved through the halls blocking her path, and she pushed by them with some trouble. It seemed no matter how close Riley got to Flynn the girl was always gone again. 

She sighed, after losing Flynn for the third time and deciding that she would just have to text her and make sure she was okay later that night. She probably needed to blow off some steam alone anyways. While Julie and Riley clung to each other for comfort, Flynn usually dealt with her things alone first. 

It was only when she was done working through it herself that she would let the other girls get close to her and help her out. Although Riley didn’t like the idea of Flynn being angry alone, she knew the girl preferred her space and so she respected that. 

She headed back in the direction of the gymnasium, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets as she always did. The hallways had died down considerably and Riley found herself easily searching out the sound of Julie’s voice. 

It was the other three voices that made Riley halt in her footsteps. She recognized the voice of the boy who had sung on stage. Something about the pure joy and happiness in his voice made Riley feel a way she hadn’t before. Her heart thumped in her chest, picking up her feet and continuing to walk towards the group. 

“Julie!” She called as she rounded the corner, successfully gaining the group's attention. “You guys were great up there.” 

She knew Julie had been lying, there had been no way those boys had been holograms. She wasn’t sure how they had managed to get up on the stage with Julie but she was sure she would figure it out. Riley could see the boys clearly, looking over the one with jet black hair and smiling at him, slowly turning to the blonde and giving him a small wave. 

The one wearing the beanie looked at her, something clicking in his head and before he could stop himself he let the name slip from his lips. 

“Johanna?” 

Riley paused, not expecting to hear the name of her mother come from this complete stranger. She was sure it was just a coincidence. Of course he thought she was someone else. He probably just had a friend who looked like her. And happened to share the name of her deceased parent. 

Odd. But a coincidence. 

“I’m sorry, I think you may have me confused with someone else. My name is Riley.” She outstretched her hand to him, which was when Julie spoke up. 

“Wait, you can see him?”

-

Before Us Tags:

@vicesvsvirtuesfanfic​ @dpaccione​ @ashleyleblancx

[okitodorokidoki]

a28+34 | miyuki kazuya

pairing - miyuki kazuya x fem!reader genre - angst, fluff wc - 2121 ao3    -    author’s note at bottom

PROMPTS 28 “I care about you.” 34 “Please don’t do this.”

Looking back on your relationship with Miyuki, there were a lot of moments that were questioned by people on the outside. Moments that the two of you knew were teasing or joking were blown out of proportion by people who may have overheard, either from the two of you or someone else. Your relationship always felt like it was on a seesaw, the two of you on each end with the occasional hijacker dragging you down before the other was ready.

You lasted an entire year before you felt like you had to take a step back. You couldn’t even consider it a break in your relationship, it was really just a “I have a lot going on in my head right now and I would appreciate if I could just take a moment to myself to relax.” When that was over, you came to him with your sorted thoughts and talked things through. Miyuki had never seemed like the kind to be a good communicator in a relationship, but he seemed to realize that if he wanted the joy of tormenting someone, he had to take the responsibility of not chasing them away.

Now, on your final year in college, it finally felt like things were getting to be too much. You’d gotten through the high school fan girls, the injuries, the late nights, the bad rumors, the days with no updates outside of catching him in the hallways. But now, as you read the article written about how he was a prospective pick across the country, you finally felt like something was trying to take him from you. It had been smooth sailing, knowing that the two of you wouldn’t be torn apart by anything petty going on around you. But now, seeing a real-life decision he would have to make- one that would positively effect his life for years to come- you could feel the weight pressing down on your chest.

He was supposed to come by your dorm for movie night, but part of you wanted to text him to cancel. You knew it was childish, getting upset that he was such a good player that he was desired across the country, but that didn’t change the fact that you were upset. Looking over at your phone, resting innocently on your nightstand, you weighed your options for a moment, before remembering your occasional movie nights were some of the only times the two of you had alone together.

Closing the magazine, you picked up your phone and set the cause of your turmoil down. You were going to feel upset, and you were going to have movie night. One of those things couldn’t take a rain-check, so you figured you’d have to take a nice shower and shove your emotions down.

-

You dried your hair as you sat on the foot of your bed, waiting for Kazuya to show up. There were maybe five minutes left before you chose what movie you wanted to watch without him. Youtube was playing on your phone beside you, a random playlist of videos that always made you laugh when you weren’t feeling too hot.

The knock on the door was barely audible from under your towel, and your sheets nearly brought you to the ground as you stood too quickly. A brief litany of curses slipped as you rushed to the door, opening it to see you boyfriend.

“Miss me?” He asked with his usual grin.

You snorted and tugged him in by his t-shirt, watching his grin quickly disappear to give you a kiss.

“If I said yes, your head wouldn’t fit through the doorway.”

He snickered and followed you inside, locking the door behind him. “You didn’t pick out a movie without me, did you?”

“Yes. It’s a real tear-jerker, you won’t ever see love the same again.”

“Oh, porn?”

You grabbed a throw pillow as you passed the couch and tossed it expertly behind your shoulder. His snickering persisted through the solid ‘thump’ of it making contact, so you took a moment to curse his catcher’s instinct.

“You said you saw one you wanted to watch last time, right?” You asked, getting comfortable on your bed.

“Yeah, I added it to your watch later list.” He shut your bedroom door before shrugging off his jacket and hanging it on the back of your door.

“You better not have ruined my algorithm.”

“You don’t think that docu-series you watched at 3am instead of studying did enough damage?” He climbed on the bed, and settled in next to you, casually throwing an arm over your pillows for you to lean back into him.

“No, because that was exactly what I want to watch more of.”

It wasn’t long before the movie he’d chosen caught your eye, and you dimmed your bedside light before snuggling securely into his side as it began.

“This isn’t going to make me cry, is it?” You asked.

“Everything makes you cry.”

Your hand shot out, but he grabbed your wrist before your fingers could pinch into his side. “Ah-ah! This is sweet boyfriend-girlfriend time, no place for your meanery!”

“Kazuya, that’s not even a word, you bas-” his hand released your wrist to pinch your lips shut.

You glared up at him and he grinned, leaning in for a quick peck to your squished lips. Letting out a huff, you scrunched your nose at him before turning back to the tv. The introductory scene hadn’t even finished before you were adjusting, feeling a mild pinch in your lower spine from laying on your back.

“Aw, baby wanna cuddle?” Kazuya teased, holding you closer.

“Don’t be an ass,” you mumbled as he pressed a kiss to your head.

Another five minutes of movie passed, Kazuya’s hand rubbing your arm making you feel all warm and fuzzy, skin tingling pleasantly under his touch. The plot had begun, and you were already setting up three different endings in your head for the cheesy romance they were spinning.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” The main lead said to his girlfriend. “If I stay here with you for the rest of my life, what will I even become?”

That definitely threw a wrench into all three of your predictions.

“You said you loved me! That you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me!” She cried back. “Does your stupid job really mean more to you than I do?”

“You know that isn’t fair! I’m not leaving you, I’m just trying to move on with my life! Maybe you should do the same!”

The lame, admittedly unrealistic dialogue on screen felt like it was aiming to punch you in the gut. Everything you were thinking of before your shower came back, and you felt like you were manually keeping yourself breathing. Everything felt weighed down once more, and the hand gently caressing you was beginning to feel like it was burning. You suddenly raised your arm, throwing Kazuya’s off of you as you sat up.

“Babe?” He asked, starting to sit up with a concerned expression.

“I didn’t get drinks. Or snacks.” You got off your bed as casually as possible, trying to remember how to open a door like a human being so you could escape to the kitchen with little to no suspicion.

You opened your fridge, and leaned into the chill. It was a bit too much around your ears where your hair was just a little damp, but it felt like you needed it. You took a few deep breaths to steady yourself before grabbing a drink from the fridge, gently closing it once more as you set your find on the counter. You glanced back down the hallway, your door was undisturbed from where you left it, cracked open just a bit.

You leaned against the counter, head bowing as you collected your thoughts. On a normal day, you’d just start telling Kazuya how bad the dialogue was, or how you would have framed the scene differently, but today all you could think of was how that scene would push its way into your life.

How would Kazuya start the conversation? You felt like he wouldn’t come in guns blazing yelling that it was his life, and he could do whatever he wanted. You hoped he knew that you would never try to drag him down or hold him back, that you would love and support him no matter how much it hurt to see him go. You put your hand over your face as you felt your eyes burning, willing your emotions to calm down before you started to look like you’d been crying. A slight touch at your back had you leaping, a ragged gasp tearing from your throat. You turned, eyes wide to see Kazuya standing there with an upset expression.

“Ah- sorry,” you said, turning back to making drinks. “Just got a bit of a headache.”

“Baby...” you froze as Kazuya’s arm slid around you, coaxing you closer. “Please don’t do this.”

You took a breath, prepared to find another cover-up, but nothing would come out. You melted into him, turning your head to press your forehead against his collarbone as his arms wrapped around you.

“I’m sorry,” he said, chin bumping your head. “I was honestly waiting for you to say something like ‘this dialogue is so forced’ or ‘if he loved her he’d talk with her and wouldn’t need to yell.’ I didn’t think you would be hurt.”

“I’m… I’m scared, Kazuya.” His arms tightened around you at your words. “I care about you. I’ve cared about you since we were in high school, and I knew nothing would ever happen to us because we were always there. Even when we couldn’t see each other, we were at least both on campus. But if you-”

Your voice cracked, and you pressed a hand to your mouth to stop yourself from crying. This wasn’t something you wanted to cry over. This was his future, you were happy for him, you would stand by him through everything. But you wouldn’t be standing by him. You probably wouldn’t even be able to make it to most of his games anymore, at least not for a while. One of his arms slid up to hold your head to his chest, and he started to sway slightly as you listened to his heartbeat.

“I want to move forward in life,” he said. “And I want to do it with you. I don’t care how far apart we are, we’ve made it through this much shit already. Besides, I hear doing it over facetime is-”

You throat constricted on a mix between a choke and a sob, Kazuya patting your back and laughing.

“Better?” He asked.

You nodded, turning your body to properly wrap your arms around him.

“I love you,” he said. “Don’t you ever forget it. I know I’m an ass, but do you think I’d pull my punches if I didn’t love you?”

“You pull your punches because you know I’ll make you cry, pretty boy,” You mumbled into his chest.

“Yes, yes, my ferocious little girlfriend knows all of my weaknesses.” He pressed another kiss to your head. “Now can she get us drinks so we can stay hydrated while we tear this movie apart limb by limb?”

You snorted, and pulled away wiping your nose pathetically with your sleeve.

“Can she also change her shirt before we cuddle again?”

“You’ve got more snot on you than I do, pretty boy!”

“Ah, your cutting words! How will I ever recover?”

You gave his arm a half-hearted swat as he turned to your pantry for snacks.

“But seriously,” he said over his shoulder. “Even if I get drafted halfway across the world, I’m tossing you in my duffel bag and taking you with me. There’s no way I’d survive all these self-centered pitchers if I can’t rest my head on my girlfriend’s thighs and let me woes escape me.”

“Don’t ruin the moment, Kazuya. You were almost being sweet.”

He stuck his tongue out at you, and you returned the gesture. Some things really hadn’t changed since high school, but as you curled back up to his side in your bed, tearing the characterization of the main lead to shreds, you realized that even if some things went away, they’d only make way for new ones.

“So, I know you didn’t seem to positive the first time I brought it up, but seriously, facetime can be an incredibly efficient method of-”

“Keep it up and you won’t get any methods.”

He snickered, placing another kiss to your head.

a/n: this has been sitting in my drafts for over a month because I lost my banners 😭😭 I thought I’d come back to it when I found them but I completely forgot until now with everything going on. I've also never done an author's note on here before but I’ve felt weirdly,,, muted on my own blog so I hope you don’t mind I start doing them! I still like having nothing but the info at the top though so unfortunately I’m hiding myself at the End </3

[grumpygreenwitch]

The Witches and Wizards Job 26-27-28

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TWENTY SIX

"Dresden, you alive?"

The wizard gave Nate a vaguely offended look as the mastermind trotted briskly down the spiral stairs. Harry was freshly showered and shaved, his hair still damp; there were faint shadows under his eyes and he was moving gingerly, but he was up. "Bacon will bring anyone to life," he declared smartly, taking the place that had been reserved for him at the table. There was every sort of breakfast goodie readily available, including fresh coffee from a brand-new French press on the counter.

Eliot finished cleaning up from a bout of stress-cooking, and sat at the table at about the same time Nate did. "How are we doing this?"

"What are we doing?" Hardison added. "I'm still not sure what the con is. Or the mark."

"The mark is the man in black," Nate declared as he sipped on some coffee, grimaced, and began to load it up with sugar until Sophie took the pot away from him. "He's trying to get his hooks in on Fedorov. I'm sure no one here needs to be told why that's a bad idea, after everything we've seen with Dresden."

"You do not want organized crime and magic mingling. You'll never dig them out, and you'll never win a fight against them again," the wizard confirmed.

"So, we need to show the man in black that Fedorov, that Boston, is not up for grabs. That this is a cookie jar that will take his fingers off if he keeps reaching into it. We're gonna do that by hitting him where it hurts - his public image as an unbeatable force of magic, a master manipulator. We're taking the portrait back."

"In front of a dozen supernatural creatures?!"

"Unless you can invite a few more," the mastermind suggested casually, leaving the wizard gaping at him. "Now, the fact he had an invitation on him means this is not his party, he's a guest at it. So this is probably a variation of a Zanzibar Market, with multiple items being sold. The sheer amount of information we can't access hints that this involves mostly, er, Dresden's sort of people. I would like to know who all the players are, but I'll take whatever we can get. Dresden, can those invitations be reasonably counterfeited?"

Harry shrugged. "Yeah. Other than the tracker it's just fancy paper and ink. Pretty writing. The guest list is the problem."

"The list is the least of our problems," Nate corrected him. "Do you know why there was a crumpled envelope matching one of those invitations in his pocket?" Nate pointed a piece of buttered toast at the bank of screens. "The Christie's man threw it at him."

"He was less than thrilled to be so openly invited to bid on stolen goods," Sophie pointed out with the most delicate undertone of scorn. "The British will buy such items, of course, but they don't like to be reminded of how they've been acquired to begin with. It tarnishes the image of rightful ownership."

"Now, the man in black knows Parker, Eliot, you, Dresden, and me. That means we only have two people for this con. Sophie's going with Fedorov. Get a feel for the guests, see if you can pull a Kennedy Half-Dollar on them."

"Ooo, I do so love a good Half-Dollar game," the grifter declared giddily.

"No unnecessary risks, Sophie." She pouted at him and hid behind her coffee cup. "Parker, Hardison." Nate laced his hands before his face. "The portrait." The table exploded into exclamations, everyone demanding information. "Stop!" the mastermind all but shouted. "Yes, it's probably going to be very publicly displayed. That's the point. It has to disappear in front of everyone there."

Parker suddenly brightened up. "You want us to play his own trick back on him."

"Mm," Nate nodded, and the thief's expression filled with wicked glee. "Hardison, he knows Parker, so you're going in as the new Christie's representative, you'll be Parker's inside man. Dresden."

The wizard looked startled. "Me?"

"Yes. Aside from helping Sophie pass as one of the guests, you're going too."

"I'm - You -" The wizard nearly choked on his orange juice. "You want me, me, to walk into this thing without an invitation."

"Yes."

"They'll recognize me."

"That's the point." Nate pointed a finger. "Eliot's going with you."

"I am?" The hitter sounded dubious.

The mastermind nodded. "He already knows you work with Dresden. And you, you keep bungling whatever it is the man in black's doing, Dresden. I don't need you to do anything, though I do want you to try a few things. I just need you to be there."

Harry paused. "You want his eyes on me," he said slowly as the mastermind's plan came together in his own mind. "Away from what's actually going to be happening. I'm the decoy. You're playing to his paranoia."

"He does seem to be very paranoid, from all Fedorov told us last night."

"And Eliot?"

"You keep getting hurt," Nate said firmly. "That needs to stop."

"Oh, that's been tried," the wizard said wryly. "But alright, give it your best shot." Hesitantly, he added, " Can I suggest a couple of things?"

"Go."

"The ladies from yesterday morning are coming by today to pick up their coats. If their friend's coming with them, you might want to hire him as extra muscle for the auction."

"An outsider?" Sophie protested.

"He won't care what you're doing. You - He's not - You keep thinking of these people as human. They're not. In some cases, like the vampire, like the imp, their motivations run kinda parallel, yes. In this case, if I'm right, they don't. He'll only care that you helped a friend. He'll absolutely care that you're chasing the man in black out of Boston. And he will very much care if you promise him a good chance at a fight."

"You're vouching for someone sight unseen, Dresden," Nate examined the wizard very levelly.

Harry struggled with himself momentarily. "I guess I am."

The mastermind mulled on that for a long moment. "Alright. You and Eliot sort that out. Anything else?"

"Yes. The spider's coming by later to drop off payment. I want to tack a couple of his wife's dresses on it." He glanced at Sophie, then at Parker. "No one's going to be wearing anything that comes even close at that party. Just in case Parker has to join us on the floor, you know?"

Parker gasped in delight. "Is it a magic dress?" When Dresden wouldn't commit to a yes-or-no answer, she snapped at him. "Harry!"

"It's made with magic. It's not magic itself."

She pondered that. "I'll take it."

"And what can you do for me, Harry?" Sophie asked with a smile.

The wizard flustered. "I don't know. I've been wracking my brains for it. Obviously a Veil's the answer, but you're going to be surrounded by some very powerful creatures. The pins would go up in smoke if they so much as breathe in your direction. I can't think of any thing that would hold up under the kind of Veil I'd have to craft for you. It's a lot of energy, it's like Hardison's screens. I'd need something old, something that won't break under the strain."

The table was silent for a long moment, until Sophie spoke once again. "What about a crystal?" she purred. "A crystal with flawless lines. Completely natural, as old as the world. Without a single fracture, without a single imperfection. Unbreakable under pressure."

"I… guess that might work?"

Parker gasped suddenly.

"Parker, can I borrow it?" Sophie asked eagerly.

"Are you going to make my diamond magic?!" she asked Harry with far too much enthusiasm.

"…. Yes?" he offered tentatively.

"Finally!" she cried out, slamming her hands on the table and launching herself away.

TWENTY SEVEN

There was a lot to do before we even got around to the auction. For starters, there was the security around the house, which was purely physical, very modern, and apparently well able to function even with so many magical heavy-hitters around. Hardison and Parker had gone on about it, but as far as I could tell they weren't speaking English. It sounded like it; it just wasn't.

"It's alright," Eliot had assured me quietly while we snuck away to wait for the selkies. "It makes sense to them. That's what matters."

"I still don't know what you people do."

The hitter chuckled low and tipped his chin to the door of the pub. "Get things back for people."

The two selkies came escorted by their friend. As soon as I saw them, I knew I'd been right.

Eliot rose automatically to his feet, his expression hard. "Why'd I just get goosebumps, Harry?"

"Because he's not human," I reminded him. The man was shorter that nearly everyone there but the daughter, his skin copper and indigo ink under a t-shirt and bermuda shorts that barely fit. He wore thin beach flip-flops and was built like the proverbial brickhouse under a layer of comfortable insulation. His eyes were black, and he had a permanent grin that only widened when Sannah snatched her coat from Eliot's hands with a strangled little cry, clinging to it with a white-knuckled grip.

Her mother was far more contained, maybe because she'd probably not believed us when we'd send word that we had both skins. Her fingers plucked gently at the dappled coat and she murmured something rigidly self-controlled in her own language.

Eliot replied in the same tongue, translating for my sake. "It's no problem, ma'am. We're just glad you're gonna be alright, both of you." He dipped his head at both of them, but his smile was brief and didn't show teeth. He was a very quick learner.

She nodded to that, moving to her feet carefully, her daughter by her side. "We go now." Without another word she turned away.

The daughter looked us both up and down. "Guess not all of you suck," she muttered. She shoulder-bumped the man who'd brought them there, who bumped her back amicably, staggering her, and both women walked away.

"What now, Harry?" Eliot asked quietly.

"They'll walk down to the sea and leave." It was the man who replied, a barely perceivable accent to his English. "It's a long time coming." He eyed us both, though he at least did me the courtesy not to linger. "You've done a good thing here. I'm not used to humans doing that."

"You're exceptionally… settled," I pointed out.

To my utter surprise, he laughed. "I like it up here!" he declared cheerfully, grinning at us. His teeth were very white. "It's warm most of the time. The food's good, even when it's bad. No competition. Them, well." He shrugged, glancing at the door. "Some things are just wrong, wizard. If I could have smelled it, I would have hunted down her coat for her a long time ago."

"They're not the only wrong thing in the city right now."

His whole face scrunched up in a grimace. "No. The stink of that one is everywhere, like poison in the water. Maybe I should go home, too. At least for a while. Unless…" He looked at both of us, and his grin turned lopsided and mischievous. "Tell me, wizard. Are you and the human doing something about that, too?"

"We might be," Eliot admitted. "What's it to you?"

The man squared off with him, his face mere inches from Eliot's. I saw the hitter frown minutely, sniffing. I suspected I knew what he was smelling. Salt. Depth. Blood. He didn't budge an inch, but neither did he so much as tense a muscle.

The man laughed in delight and stepped back. "I would wish you luck! It's bound to be a wild ride."

"Ride might have a ticket with your name on it," I suggested when Eliot blinked, confused into speechlessness.

His brows shot up. "Mine? Who told you my name, wizard?"

"Your smell. Your eyes." I considered. "Your lack of shoes."

He groaned and looked down. "Does this ticket require shoes?"

"Yes. But," I assured him, "it's bound to be one hell of a fight."

He got the bright, beaming look of a kid being told he's going to Disneyland. We were told to call him Nick. It fit him about as well as the t-shirt, but I wasn't about to argue with my good luck. He promised to come back when it was time to get ready for the auction and he didn't ask a single question, leaving Eliot even more befuddled.

"Harry, that one," he looked at me levelly while we were going back to the loft. "He eats people, doesn't he."

"And seals, too."

Eliot's mouth worked around too many words, none of which he wanted to put out into the world, not really. "He's… Should I be worried?"

"No. The instruction manual on this one's pretty simple: if there's a fight, get out of his way."

The meeting with the spider went quicker. He came in with his suitcases trailing behind him, and he looked as anxious to be done with us as we were to be done with him. He handed Hardison a brand-new smartphone. "Standard setup, it should be able to do all the things a human phone does." He handed me the two hangers, covered in plain black bags. "I picked two she should not miss. They are not her best, but I hope they are sufficient."

I peeked past the neckline of one of the bags and saw a flash of delicate pink, the color of fresh salmon. "They'll do."

"A pleasure doing business with you," Hardison was doing that thing, where he sounded vaguely British, friendly and threatening at the same time. I had no idea how he was pulling it off, and I would have loved to get him to teach me the trick. The hacker offered his hand.

The spider hesitated, but eventually took it. "Please excuse me. Humans, when I am not in control, they make me nervous."

"Entirely understandable," Hardison replied, and that was wholly Ford he was channeling at that moment, so mild, so potentially lethal. The spider couldn't get out of the pub fast enough.

"You did that on purpose," I told him.

"Hell yeah I did," he agreed with a grin that I couldn't help but return. "I ain't nobody's burger."

I lost track of time while I worked after that. Parker came to get me at the safehouse. Both the window and the garden door had been replaced, and she had some dry-cleaning and a paper bag for me. "Can I see it?" she asked before I could even say 'hello'.

"It's not gonna look any different, you realize."

She scoffed at me and, honestly, what did I know. If someone had told me one day I'd be holding a cut pink diamond the size of one of my knuckles, let alone working a spell into it, I'd have laughed at them while I looked for a quick exit, which is what you should always do when confronted with crazy.

But the Rosalind diamond was exactly that. I know crap-all about gemstones, let's begin there, but I didn't need a formal education to recognize the absolute beauty of the stone. Hell, I didn't need an informal one to know it was one of a kind. Even when I'd looked at it with true sight I'd found no imperfections, no flaws, nothing that might snag or leak or botch the spell I meant to embed into it. Old as the world and completely without fault.

I didn't ask how Parker had gotten it. I may not be a quick learner, but I do learn. Parker offered me the paper bag; it smelled like roasted turkey. "Trade you."

I dismissed my circle and brought the piece of raw silk to the workbench. To be fair, if not because I also had access to some ingredients I would've never been able to afford on my own, I'm not sure I would have attempted the Veil. I uncovered the diamond. In the light of the candles it shone like a fallen star, filling the basement with light.

"You changed it!" Parker exclaimed at once.

I nearly dropped the sandwich she'd brought me. "I did?"

"Yes." She picked it up, silk and all. "It's brighter. It's…" She frowned in puzzlement at the gem. "It's more alive. It speaks louder."

"Uh…"

"It's a thing," she assured me distractedly. "Are you done?"

I pointed out my sandwich.

"Oh, right." She pulled a can out of a pocket and set it next to me.

"Are you nothing but pockets?" I asked her teasingly.

"No. I'm also lockpicks and a taser," she shot right back with that wicked grin, and I nearly choked on the drink. "Is the magic gonna stay in the diamond?"

"Uh, yes and no. It's a nice Veil, probably the best, the strongest I've ever made. And the diamond can hold a lot of energy, much more than I expected. But, the more you use it…"

"The quicker the battery's gonna run out." She sighed, her disappointment obvious.

"You really… You don't care if it's dangerous, or nice, or random, you just like it, don't you? Magic."

"Well, yeah. It makes things make sense."

"It's… Wh- I'm - What?"

"Yeah. Even if you don't understand what's going on, even if it's bad, there's a reason. There's a why. It may be a bad why, but it's a why, you know." She stared at her hands. "Sometimes if you're a kid even a bad reason is worth having. It's better than no reason at all."

"Not everything in the world can be fixed by magic, Parker."

"No, obviously not, or you wouldn't be all beat up," she replied tartly.

"Hey!" I worked on my sandwich some more. "You know, there's a piece of magic you do get to keep forever." Seeing her face light up made everything absolutely worth it. "The dress."

"The dress?"

"The dress."

TWENTY EIGHT

The night of the auction fell warm and breezy, the scent of the Bay a mantle over the city, the Charles lending a kiss of coolness to the river's vicinity. It almost felt like summer in Chicago, except for the salt in the wind and the constant buzz of magic drip-drip-dripping into me. I'd run myself empty preparing everything for the job, and it hadn't made a lick of difference in the long run. I couldn't imagine being a wizard and living permanently in Boston; the city could burn you alive without even trying with its siren's song of unending power.

The auction was taking place in Charlestown, in a gracious manor house tucked out of sight and out of mind among the many newer luxury apartment blocks springing up like mushrooms all over one of the oldest, and wealthiest, of Boston's neighborhoods. The owner, from what any of us had been able to find out, was human. I figured he might be a thrall, either vampiric or fey, but no, the man was just plain ol' human, wealthy and oblivious, like so many could be. In under fifteen minutes Hardison had lined up the family's sins, and while his son had pinged Leverage's radar by dint of being associated with pelt-collecting lawyers, his daughter had hit mine. Or rather, the company she kept while she peddled the family's properties like some sort of supernatural AirB'n'B. While my own field of expertise was limited to the Red Court, and my overall knowledge of the Jade Court was nonexistent, Amethyst Roughan's boyfriend was a known quantity: he was White Court.

"Does she know what she's doing?" Nate had asked.

"Yes and no." I explained. "She knows it's sketchy. She knows it's weird. But depending on how long the vamp's had contact with her, and how much toxin he's doled out, she doesn't care anymore. He's had years with her. At this point all she wants is him. In a biblical fashion."

The mastermind's brows shot up at that. "So she'll side with him."

"Yes. But she's also easy to take out of the game. Hell, you stuff her in a closet and lock the door, and there you have it."

Nate snorted laughter at that. "You sound almost thrilled, Dresden. Glad to have a problem with an easy solution?"

"You have no idea."

And then we had to sort ourselves out according to Ford's plan. Parker took off early. Hardison was doing something to the U-Haul van, I wasn't sure what. Eliot went down to deal with Nick when our improvised bodyguard arrived, and Ford was doing something with Fedorov, -

It crashed into me then, the realization that I had really agreed to do this. That I was going to crash into a party full of deadly monsters. Again. That a counterfeit invitation was going to be involved. Again. That good people were going to be on the line, again.

And all at once I couldn't breathe, no matter how hard I tried. I splashed cold water on my face, for all the good it did. The aftershave was still burning on the nicks the leshy's claws had left on my cheeks, but the rest of me felt colder than ice. I curled my hands into fists and they were still shaking, I couldn't get them to stop, I couldn't -

"Harry." Sophie's hands were warm on mine.

"I can't do this." I sounded like a dying cat, and not the funny cartoon kind.

She made me look at her. Not long enough to trigger a Soulgaze, but I felt it there, lurking far too close. "This isn't just nerves, is it?"

"I've walked into worse traps." I still couldn't catch my breath, it was rattling around in my chest, making funny noises. "I've lost people who walked in with me, expecting me to keep them safe. I don't - I'm not worried about me -"

"Harry," she repeated, her tone a little harder. "We are worried about you. Don't you get it? We aren't walking in with you; you're walking in with us."

"That doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything. You may be going in as Harry Dresden, Professional Wizard, but you aren't the shield and the sword, Harry. You're the pretty princess. The distraction. Listen to me: you wouldn't even have to be a wizard for this, it's just very useful to the con that you are, do you understand?"

God, I wanted to believe her, I did. And the funniest part of it all is that some part of me did believe her. She took the little decorative pin I was supposed to put on my shirt from my hands. They were still shaking, but it wasn't as bad, at least, and I focused on them, on trying to get them to stop.

"We're none of us alone tonight, Harry. Not us, not you. I know you're used to being alone, I was a solo operator for a very long time. It takes time to get used to being part of a team, and time's the one thing we haven't been able to give you. But if you have our backs, and I know you do, we will have yours."

"How do you know I will?"

"Harry, it's you," she replied dryly. "I don't think you know how not to have someone's back.

I did laugh at that. It wasn't much, it sounded terribly rusty even to my own ears, but she'd caught me by surprise and the truth doesn't always hurt. Sometimes it just tickles your funny bone.

And then I made the mistake of looking up, thinking she'd have looked to make sure she didn't stab me with the pin thing.

The darkness was warm and velvety, and it was full of mirrors.

Some were big, the size of a person. Some were slivers, no bigger than one of my fingers. Some stuck close at hand to one another, piece by piece assembling a larger whole. Sophie was there, at the center of it all, but I couldn't see her, couldn't see the truth of her, mirrors whirling sedately between her and me, obscuring the truth of her. She directed them all with little gestures and grand sweeps of her hand, as if they were books she were organizing into a vast, endless library. Some parts of her were reflective, as if she'd once been nothing but a mirror herself. But for the most part she was real, solid, as confident and beautiful as the woman in the loft with me.

Then the image of her gasped and flicked her fingers at me, and she broke the Soulgaze before I could.

I staggered back, more out of shock that she'd done that than anything else. I could still feel the warmth of her, the sheer and enveloping caring. Sophie Deveraux had a thousand faces at her disposal, and a thousand more ready to be created, and in the midst of it all she still knew herself, knew who she was with the sort of awareness even some immortals couldn't manage.

And who she was truly cared. Cared for her family, her friends. Me.

"Oh, Harry." Before I could even begin to feel guilt or shame about what she might have seen in me, she'd hugged me tight. Not gonna lie, I've fantasized a time or three over a gorgeous woman getting so close to me. At the moment, that fantasy was the last thing in my mind. Then she pulled away and said the words I least expected. "You're a good man, Harry Dresden."

She couldn't have taken the breath out of me any more thoroughly if she'd punched me. "I'm glad…" My throat felt funny, my voice didn't want to work. I cleared it up so I could sound as manly as I damn well was. "I'm glad one of us believes that."

"One of us absolutely does," she told me, perfectly balanced between stern and playful, and put her hand out. I gave her the ear clip, though my hands weren't shaking anymore, thank goodness. "Let's work on the other, shall we."

[weclassygirl]

𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐭.𝟒

Word count: +3k

Pairing: neil x reader (tenet)

Warnings: not much, some bullet wounds

Author’s note: welcome to the last part of the miniseries! idk why but i feel like this part is quite dull, the reason for that is cause i didn’t want to meddle much with the inversion here so that it stays somewhat logical to what i had in mind. hope you enjoy it nonetheless. take care love! <3

Previous part (x)

Gif credits (x) 

“You don’t trust them.” you say right off the bat, your future self scoffs at you and with every passing second you begin to notice how much you're different from her. She's much more serious, you can feel that something happened to her in the future. To you. 

"Of course not." she responds with a sly smirk. You tilt your head at her answer. 

"Then why do you work for them?" you hear Neil ask her from beside you. You see that he’s sceptical about her even after you told him she was telling the truth. 

"I didn't have a choice in that matter." she tells you, her voice soft and angry at the same time. She seems like she wants to say more but chooses not too. You feel that, she’s you after all. You decide to ask a question that’s been bugging you since the moment you laid your eyes on her.

“What happened?” your voice as quiet as a whisper. She knows what you mean and hangs her head down. She sighs and looks up at you, your own eyes staring back at you. 

"I got lost on a mission once, they found me, offered me a job. I was already in the business and didn’t have anywhere to go so I thought that I wouldn’t be good for anything else… but didn't know that not all of them are good." she tells you, her voice carries through the space between you. Neil listens by your side, waiting patiently for her next words. "They started looking for the algorithm a few months ago and they circled back to that site. They knew I was there, that I had it, they just needed to know where it was exactly." she finishes with a whisper. You can see that that memory doesn’t belong to any pleasant ones. She almost feels… guilty about it. As if she was the one that gave them the algorithm on the silver platter. 

"So we'll be probably expecting them there." Neil acknowledges and you briefly look in his direction.

"Yeah." she says and the tranquility fills up the air. Before any of you try to say something to fill up the silence hanging in the room you hear a knock at the door. Neil’s hand goes immediately to his gun and so does your future selves. You look towards the door and walk up to them and look through the peephole. Ives is outside. 

You turn to Neil and mouth to him that he’s standing in front of the door. He urges your other version to hide and comes up to you. Neil opens  the door and you look towards the living room, seeing that your future self is still there, out in the open. Before you get a chance to shield her from Ives’ sight he already points his gun at her. She does as well. 

You stand between them and raise your arms up. “Don’t shoot!” you tell Ives. His grip on the gun doesn’t loosen up. His eyes sharp, trained on your other self standing behind you. 

“What the hell?” he questions. Your future self tenses up at his voice, her hand gripping the gun tighter. “She’s-”

“Her. From the future.” Neil informs Ives from behind him. You step in closer and put your hand on his gun, lowering it down. He’s reluctant at first but gives in, but he does not let his guard down. You turn to your other self and nod at her to lower her gun too. She does so without questioning. 

"You better have a damn good explanation for this." you turn to Ives, anger building up in his eyes. All of you sit down and explain the situation. Your future self, Tenet, the algorithm. Ives listens carefully, side glancing your future self from time to time. As you and Neil finish explaining he leans back and sighs. He runs his hand down his face and finally turns to the other you. 

"So… you know what will happen." Ives states. Your other self stares at him, her features not changing. She still keeps that cold composure you've now used to seeing. 

"Briefly. I just hope that I can change it so that my future, the future world doesn't end up like how it did for me." she only explains. Ives only nods and stands up from his seat. 

"We'll go to the site tomorrow. Briefing at dawn, so be there." he orders and turns to leave the room. 

"What about her?" you ask. "How will we explain this situation to the rest?" he turns to you from his place in front of the door. 

"We don't. She probably already knows where the algorithm is so she'll be with you on the team." he only says. Neil shakes his head from beside you, all of you see that action.

"I don't think it's a good idea." you hear Neil say. "What if they touch by accident? We can't risk it." 

"Then what do you propose?" Ives wonders. Neil looks between you two and sets his eyes on you. 

"I'll go with (Name), you'll go with her future self. You can keep an eye on her too since you  seem that you don't trust her." Ives thinks for a moment, his eyes traveling from Neil to the both of you. He sighs in defeat.

"Fine. We won't go in separate teams so find her some blue patch so that we know it's her." he says and leaves the room, your eyes following his figure. 

"What if others question why she has a blue patch?" you ask suddenly. Neil only shrugs. 

"We can always tell that we ran out of the red ones. Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright." he reassures you, you nod at him. Your future self watches both of you intently, a small smirk appearing on her face but quickly vanishes. 

"Do you really know where it is exactly?" Neil asks her. She hums in confirmation and goes over to the couch. She spreads out on it and covers herself up with a blanket. 

"You guys should rest. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow." she only tells you before she closes her eyes, her breathing slowing down as she falls asleep. Neil and you go to your rooms and do the same, you reassure him that she won't do anything that would endanger them. You see that she really means well, you know her. She's you after all. 

The next day all of you get ready to leave the hotel to go to the site. It's dawn when you arrive at the spot far away from the designated place. The algorithm was spotted at the edge of Ukraine in a small abandoned village. The whole site is covered in dust, the team is wearing the red patches on their arms and you keep a blue one in your pocket to give to your other self later. Ives goes over the briefing, telling that all of you will go as one team, already expecting the enemy on the grounds. 

After the meeting you go to the other tent where your other self is hidden. Neil gives her the blue patch you gave him, not risking accidentally touching. Ives joins you a few moments later. 

"Ready?" he asks. You look between the two and nod, all four of you put on the masks and leave the tent to join the others. All of them already try to spot the enemy but see none. They decide to move. 

After the few first steps the shots fly under your feet. All of you split into various teams and fire at the enemy.  You hide behind the wall when some bullets come in your direction, Neil hides on the other side. He looks towards the field and quickly ducks as the opponent attacks. You nod at him, silently telling that you'll cover him. He moves from behind the wall and runs through the field, you peak out from your cover and shoot at the men in white gear. When the area is cleared you run up to Neil and look around. 

You see others running and firing at the enemy. In the distance you see a small blue patch on a person's arm. Your future self runs alongside Ives through the field. They seem to be working with each other like a well oiled machine and it makes you wonder if she worked with Ives before. You hear an explosion in the background and briefly look behind you. One of the men threw a grenade at the building and some of its parts fell onto your team. You have an urge to go there and help them but know you have to follow the mission plan. Before you move from your spot you see people coming up from the fallen debris. 

Neil and you run to the clearing, far away from the battle ground. It's quiet here, no one in sight. Both of you move slowly, aiming the guns in every direction as you step closer to the hole. As you near it you feel a piercing pain in your leg and hear Neil yelling too, feeling the pain in his arm. You fall onto the ground and aim in the direction from where the bullet came but the person responsible is already next to you, punching you even further onto the ground. Neil moves to aim his gun at him but he kicks it out of his hand and punches in the face. You try to get up and see a faint figure coming up from behind the man in white. 

Your future self aiming her rifle at you. 

You stare at her with wide eyes as she stands next to the man. She looks at you, the gun pointed directly at you. The man tells her to shoot and she straightens up. You close your eyes and hear a single shot. Your body is shaking but you don't feel any pain aside from the one in your leg. You look up and see the man in white dead on the ground, a bullet hole in his mask and blood covering it from the inside. 

You gasp momentarily and try to stand up, she comes up to you to help you but steps back, remembering the unwritten rule. Neil comes up to you to help you lean on him, you do so for a moment before seeing Ives in the distance. He has an angry expression on his face, directed at your future self. 

“Save your breath, you can scream and try to kill me later. Let’s just get this algorithm out of here before more of them come here.” she tells all of you. Ives wants to bite back but only sighs and nods. All of you lean over the whole and start to dig from every side, after a few moments you get to the metal box. You take it out and open it to see nine metal elements connected to each other. You look at each other and all go to grab the algorithm but Ives is faster. 

As he stands up he holds the gun pointed at your future self. “I believe this is the time where I scream and try to kill you.” he tells her and you step in closer. “Don’t even think of taking another step (Name) or I’ll pull that trigger.” he warns you and you stay still. 

“What will happen now? After we hide the algorithm.” he asks her. 

She looks at him and raises her chin up. “If you give it to my past self then everything will go as it did in my future and eventually now.” she explains. She turns to you and Neil before switching her attention back to Ives. “I can’t hide the algorithm, ‘cause then they’ll know where it will be. Where it was this whole time.” 

Ives seems to be thinking it over and starts splitting up the parts of the algorithm in half. He props up one on his shoulder and gives the second half to Neil. “Hide it well or I’ll hunt you down.” he orders and Neil chuckles. Ives nods at him and starts walking away to the rest of the team, already ordering them to retreat. 

Your future self steps closer to the both of you. “I guess this is goodbye.”

“You’re leaving already?” you question her. She nods. “Where will you go?”

She shrugs and looks around. “My timeline. To see how it changed and probably fix it. Now that the algorithm is in safer hands, I’m positive it will be easier to fix it.” she informs the both of you. “And try and stop Tenet and get rid of all the people that try to change the time flow.” 

You want to come up to her and hug her goodbye, but know that it may be too dangerous. You gasp as she is the one pulling you into a hug. You freeze at first, fearing the worst but return the hug as you see that nothing wrong happens. Both of you cling to each other for a while before pulling apart. She smiles at you and laughs, you join her, a wide smile on your face. 

“Take care, alright?” she tells you, you look towards Neil and then back to her.

“I think I’ll be fine. You, well, me, seems to turn out pretty good.” 

She smiles and turns to Neil briefly. They don’t say anything but it looks as if they know what they want to say to each other. Your future self begins to walk away and you follow her figure as she disappears behind the buildings. 

You go back to Neil and look at the algorithm in his hands. “How long will you take it to hide it?”

“I don’t know. Few weeks? Months maybe?” he responds. They stand in the clearing not speaking up. Everyone already left, but you’re pretty sure that Ives will send some kind of chopper to pick you up. There’s one question that still lingers in the back of your head. 

“Why did you choose me?” he smiles at her question. Sometimes he forgets that you don't know.

“I thought you already figured it out.” he exclaims. You tilt your head at him trying to figure out what he means. You think for a moment before acknowledging it. 

“We know each other already, don’t we?” he only smiles and looks down at his feet. 

“You told me to find you. To find you at the beginning.” you look at him with wide eyes and start to laugh. Somewhere, deep inside you, you knew that this wasn’t his first meeting with you. You wonder if he was testing you on that, as if the whole meeting was a test from the start. A test set by yourself. 

“Did you know that my future version would get lost?” you question further. He seems confused and squints his eyes at the sun peaking through the clouds. 

“That scenario never happened to me. I think she was from a different timeline, one where some things looked the same as here, but actions and consequences changed.” he explains and you nod in understanding. You step closer to him, your leg still bleeding and look at the algorithm in his arms. The metal contraptions shining in the faint light of the sun.

You hear a faint sound of the engine and see a chopper coming out from behind the building. Both of you look at each other and Neil wears a sad smile on his face. 

“I need to go, Ives probably already left to hide his part of the algorithm.” he says to you. You step closer to him and wrap your arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He returns the hug, clinging to you as if his life depended on it, his arm wrapped around you as the other is still bleeding. He pulls away and begins to turn into the direction of the chopper but you pull him back to you and place a soft kiss on his lips. 

The kiss is delicate, as if it’s a fleeting moment between you two that almost feels like a goodbye. You deepen the kiss lightly and Neil leans in even closer, cupping your jaw lightly. Both of you pull away and smile at each other. 

“What was that for?” he asks. 

“In case something goes wrong and I won’t be able to do that again.” you tell him, your eyes starting to gather faint tears. The thought itself that he might not return to you freightens you. Over the last few weeks you’ve gotten closer to him. You admired him and he you. For him it was like falling in love with you all over again and each moment felt more blissful than the last. 

He takes your face in his hands and this time he kisses you, but holds on a little bit longer. He pulls away and wipes a small tear that fell onto your cheek. You smile at him and let him go. He crosses the field to get to the chopper, clutching to his arm, when he enters it he gives you one last look before the door closes. Your eyes follow the chopper flying above the ground and disappearing in the distance. 

You hear a honk of a car behind you and turn to see Wheeler behind the wheels. She urges you to get in so that she can take you to the airport. You limp up into the car and for the rest of the drive a faint smile doesn’t leave your lips. You feel deep inside that this is just the beginning of your connection to this hidden reality of the world. To time inversion, to Neil. After all, you did tell him to find you in the beginning, somehow you’re really glad that your future version did. 

[borkthemork]

Comfort - Kaiju AU Fanfic

Summary: Connie wanted a moment to study at the Temple, and found a friend to pass the time.

Fanfic based off @reverse-monster-buddies!

Word Count: 2,696.

Reblogs are appreciated!

Ao3 Link

-----

Connie Maheswaran had work to do, a lot of it. It was the reason why she had counted her fingers on the bus, watched the horizon awaken through the windows, fog covering the corners of the panes. The morning was early, the skies painted in auburn amidst the blotched white clouds, and the silhouette of the town was prominent, the hallmark of it — the lighthouse on the massive green cliff — was a clear indicator that she was in the right place. The vehicle rumbled, shifting the backpack seated beside her a little. She had planned to stay in Beach City for a few hours. It felt weird to stay at home when the Maheswaran residence didn’t have anyone to occupy it except for her. Knowing her parents, they wouldn’t mind her being out and about on such a gorgeous day, welcomed by warm rays, beach sand between her toes, the secrets of this specific town hers and hers alone.

The rolled landscape from the glass started to slow down, and with it, Connie grabbed her backpack. The engine rumbled to a stutter as the town grew closer until, finally, they halted at the familiar stop.

The bus driver looked at her from his seat. He had a groomed mustache, hair grayed at the scalp, potbelly noticeable even with how far she was from the front. “Typical stop right, little lady?”

“Yep, right here.”

He nodded. Hisss went the door as it flung itself open. She stood up, grabbing her backpack before she forgot about it.

“Stay safe. Don’t want your parents to worry about ya’.”

“I’ll be careful, thank you, Mister Moriarty!”

He gave her a warm smile. “No problem Connie, have a great day.”

When Connie touched the ground she watched the bus drive off, seeing it recede into the size of a pinprick with the growing distance, and then into nothing when the first hillock swallowed its shape. Her eyes started to follow the horizon. She kneeled down to rummage through her belongings. Her laptop was nestled alongside the tied cables, a few thin textbooks bunched in with an Unfamiliar Familiar book. Everything looked to be in order, not a single item out of place. Connie zipped it back up. It was going to be a long day.

Connie made her way to Beach City. She held tightly to her backpack straps, not wanting to let go of the study materials inside. The buildings were covered in waking shadows, the streetlights beginning to flicker off with the rise of the sun. Connie didn’t have many friends in this town. She had always remained reclusive during her study sessions, where she read her books on the shores away from the bustling boardwalk or the shops nearby, hoping to be invisible from many who would possibly judge her or ask her questions. Lately, she had found herself leaning towards more secretive locations, away from the prying eyes of teenagers and adults, and she strode her way to the cliffside, following the crags that lined the beach.

There was the chain-link fence that lined from the ocean to the growing cliff face. On it were two signs, the typical ‘Keep Off Beach’ one would find authorized by police and the peculiar wooden plank with ‘Please’ written in thick black paint. She lugged her backpack over the fence and started to climb. Hidden below the lighthouse, away from the prying eyes of the Beach City residences, there was an opening into the cliffside. The entrance was bordered by delicate stone hands of a statued goddess, eyes void as it surveyed the ocean nearby. Crystals jutted from the rocks, a crystalline warp pad at the center of all this, the door encrusted with a bold yellow star — each gem on the tips of it signifying higher deities that humanity was probably not ready to behold. And somehow these beings, with more technological and physical advancement than the human race, allowed her into their ranks, to relax in their residence as if she was a hearty neighbor.

Connie spotted a few figures at one of the warp steps. A green gem with tufts of white hair was playing around with a twig in her hand. She noted the bundle of purple that wriggled and spun around the Crystal Gem with a yip. Spikes flowed down its back and head, eyes purple in a sea of inky black as it played around, following the direction of the gem’s hand.

“You want it, girl?” The gem cooed and watched the pup bark in glee, wagging its tail furiously. “You want to beat this poor stick up?”

An enthusiastic bark.

“Then here you go!”

She threw the stick out towards the beach, making eye-contact with Connie for a second while the beast sped past her. “Connie, hey!”

Connie walked over to them. “Hey, didn’t know I’d see you guys today.”

She noticed the purple creature come barreling back, its head whipping up at the sight of her. It dropped its stick and gave a joyous bark, bounding over to her without a moment's notice, licking her pant leg with the broad of its tongue.

Connie smiled and pet the corrupted gem’s head, feeling the critter’s scales at her fingertips. She knew who this was, no doubt about it. “Hey Kai, nice to see you!”

Kai nuzzled into her palm. She didn’t change one bit the last time Connie saw her — still happy and hyper as always.

“Connie, I didn’t expect you, at all,” Nephrite said. “Isn’t it six a.m. for you humans?”

“Were you expecting something more punctual?”

“A lil’.” Nephrite stood up from the steps and brushed the dirt off her jacket. For all Connie knew, Nephrite’s attire must’ve had a journey on its own from the scratches and loose ends from it; it wasn’t even hers, but something she found on her previous adventures. “But you’re Connie, you’re always going to surprise us somehow.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Like the time you found me reading behind the fence?”

“Yeah. You had a ‘follow the law’ aura goin’ on with you when I first found you. Didn’t expect to see you breaking one.”

“I wanted peace and quiet, so all I followed was my logic. The fence wasn’t even a certified one, so no law-breaking here.”

Nephrite snorted and ruffled her hair. “Attagirl.”

In their laughter, Connie peered at the cheeseburger backpack on Nephrite’s shoulders, noting how clunky and bulked it was. She raised an eyebrow. “Another mission?”

“A personal one,” she reassured. “Just need to check out something in The Great North.”

Connie went starry-eyed. “Oh! Like corrupted gem business?”

“Ehhh.” The gem shrugged. “Kinda. It’s dangerous though, Kai doesn’t like it when I go on this stuff without her.”

Kai whimpered in kind.

“See? Worries about me a lot. Been trying to get her to sleep or stay but she won’t budge.”

Connie smiled a little. With the current assignments she had, the idea of staying at the beach sounded better than being alone. Kai was like a puppy with the way she leaped at people and took comfort in the silence with them. Connie didn’t mind the idea of being next to her for a couple of hours. “I wouldn’t mind looking after her while you're gone.”

Nephrite’s fists tightened around her pack straps. “You’re serious?”

“Serious.”

She rubbed her chin for a second. “Alright then, I trust you. Kai’s food is in the fridge — just don’t feed her too many donuts or   a stomach ache.”

“Wait, I thought you guys didn’t like to eat?”

“Some do. Amethyst does.” Nephrite shrugged. “Kai too apparently.”

After a few goodbyes, Connie and Kai watched the form of Nephrite dissipate in a pillar of light before it all died down back to sunrise yellow. Kai whined at the base of the warp pad, clawing at the facets in wait. Connie sat down near the steps and propped the laptop onto her lap. She clicked her tongue as the computer started up, smiling over at the small gem, who had her head cocked towards her in curiosity.

“Come here, girl. You like head scratches, right?”

The whine transformed into a happy yip.

Connie giggled. “Then come here!”

The hour went by without a hitch. Connie found herself relaxed into a studious rhythm, fingers occupied to the scales of her companion, who crooned next to her as Kai faded in and out from her naps. Connie would’ve found it relaxing if it weren’t for the algebra that plagued her screen, and how no matter how much she used the calculator extension — which promised accurate results, which was a big fucking lie! — the input stopped her with a huge ‘INVALID ANSWER’ box with each impatient mouse click. At this point she might as well throw the tech at a wall; she would have had a higher probability of it surviving than the garbage algorithm doing its work correctly.

Connie halted at the pressure at her leg.

She looked over to find Kai awake, pawing at her pants with wide, gleaming eyes. “Hey girl, you okay?”

Kai gave her a small bark.

“Are you antsy? Anxious? What’s on your mind right now?”

The gem kept her eyes on her and continued to bark at her for a few seconds before settling her head at the dip of the girl’s lap. Connie smiled to herself. Must be excited, but she didn’t know for sure.

“I guess you’re hyper. Don’t worry, I won’t be leaving for a while. I’ve been…”

Connie grimaced at her laptop screen. Even with the online assignments, a great deal of them had been hard to peruse and handle. She wasn’t the type to ditch or procrastinate, but the current circumstances of home left her to toil with the current workload, internet help limited to only her, a few website tutorials, and the math textbook.

“...Dealing with a lot of things, so you’ll have me three hours tops.”

Kai whined.

“Aw, I’m sorry girl, but three hours should be enough.”

Kai whined more.

“Hmm.” Connie frowned. “Are you sad about me leaving or is it something else?”

A bark.

��Oh jeez uh. One bark for leaving and two barks for something else.”

Two barks.

Wow. That actually worked. Connie placed the laptop aside and gazed at the puppy in front of her, who cocked her head again. “You’re smart, so I’m going to find a way to talk to you. I want to know why you’re upset.”

Kai kept going though. She started to bark more at her and nestled her head into Connie’s lap with a whimper. Connie had no clue why she was upset. Or even why Kai continued to act like this. Was this even a sign of being upset or is there something else entirely that she was missing?

Connie straightened her back. Kai still rested her head, now wagging her tail at her, Connie hearing it thump against the ground with dull thuds.

“Bark three times if you understand what I’m saying.”

Three barks.

“Bark twice if you’re upset and bark once if you aren't."

A single bark.

“One bark if it concerns the gems and two barks if it concerns me.”

Two.

Connie bit her lip. “So you’re worried about me.” She said it more to herself than anything, but the pup still responded in kind with an elated yip.

“You think I’m upset?”

Kai gazed at her, and yet it was enough for Connie to realize what was happening. The gem can feel how tense she was even with the relaxing crash of the waves, how her mind was scrambled with thoughts and too occupied to even focus on one thing. Kai whined and pressed her snout to her leg.

Connie rubbed her arm. “Okay, so you do.” She smiled softly at Kai, rubbing the gem’s head a bit. “It’s just me being frustrated over homework. You’d think first semester would be a breeze but I had the honor to get the work-extensive teachers,  like, come on.”

She groaned, tensing up at how Kai whimpered next to her, swishing her tail more.

“What’s it like to be a corrupted gem, girl?”

A yip.

“I know you’re hyper all the time but it must be lonely from what Neph told me…”

Nephrite told Connie numerous times of corruption, of the bubbles detained and held in the core part of the Temple. She was never given a tour to the structure’s underbelly but Connie had heard of how frantic and scatter-minded prior gems became because of the war. Sensible warriors have worn down into flight-or-fight, and not one of them were able to be fixed and returned back to normal stasis. The idea of it made Connie’s skin crawl. If it was the same for the contained gems, then it must’ve been the same with Kai, who had proven to be smart like any other attentive being, but still brought to primal tendencies like a scared animal.

“It must be lonely to be in a world of strangers. It must be hard to even make friends.”

A confused yip.

The first time Nephrite told her of Kai, one detail stood out to her when it came to the way; the pup waddled around and growled at everything with incisors leaking of pink fluid, like the world was about to get her in any way she took. Nephrite spent hours trying to befriend and reassure the little creature that she was safe, and Connie couldn’t help but ponder how lonely Kai would’ve been if it weren’t for Nephrite’s compassion. If the gem didn't defend Kai against the remainder of the Crystal Gems then there was a huge chance they would've packed her back into a bubble, in a chamber that is full of her kind but yet so hollow and empty.

“You have freedom but you’re still trapped.”

Kai gazed at her, beady eyes taking in her face, at how she must’ve known how there was heat in corner of her eyes. Connie didn’t know why it was happening, all she knew was that she was thinking too much.

“And you’re limited no matter how much you try to make it better.”

She rubbed her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, this is getting to me. I’m supposed to be doing homework and here I am, crying about nothing.”

She hated crying. The feeling of it brought shame and left her disheveled in the aftermath every time, and it was hard to breathe when it happened. It struck hard even when she held her tongue and carried on, when she had a place to let go when her parents weren’t there to see her.

But the wet snout pressed to the base of her lap made her come back. Through the blur of her vision, Kai’s eyes were still fixed on her, big and round, a little yip building in her throat. Connie wiped the tears away. She was going to worry Kai too, and she didn’t want that.

“Sorry, I’m—”

What surprised her was the pressure that pounced on her and left her being tackled by the tiny gem, who was now licking at the excess salt, made her giggle at the onslaught against her face.

“Wait, haha stop!”

Another excited yip.

Kai lapped at her face, laughter filling the air as she endured the slobber on her nose. She felt lighter, a weight off her when the creature took great care at her tears. She’s going to have to get cleaned up later, but that’s okay. She needed a moment to breathe, to get away from the stress of daily life and the loneliness that accompanied it. Kai knew this, sensed it on her person, and took care to make her smile as a result.

When they settled down, Connie gave the creature a small boop on the muzzle. "I love you, Kai."

Kai responded like kind, pressing their snout to hers.

Connie embraced her in a tight hug and placed a kiss onto the gem's tiny forehead, the other licking her affectionately. Maybe...maybe it’s okay to not work on homework for a while. She needed a break.

[name-me-regret]

If The World Was Ending 14/?

If The World Was Ending Chapter Fourteen: A Lethal Side

Read on AO3.

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

“Some things I just cannot change Are you waiting for me to show you the way out? This love has a lethal side I would take the bullet, ah

You feel just like you're wasting a lifetime on me Just give into the feeling we got something real, yeah 'Cause every love song needs somebody to sing

So let me show you I'm what you need before you run away...

Can't hear what those people say Telling you that you're crazy believing in me now And if we march on the front line I would take the bullet...”

~ Runaway - James Carter

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

‘Because you’re exhausting!’

The words had been playing on repeat in his mind for the past hour, and it didn’t look like it would stop any time soon. Buck felt, not for the first time, that he had made a mistake for filing that lawsuit. That was especially true since it had solved nothing. His friends, his family, had pulled away further. That was none more true than Eddie, who had started to pull away from him even before the lawsuit. Now, he was sure he had completely lost him.

Buck cleared his throat, wiping hastily at his eyes. He decided that he needed to clear his mind, and that it was time to fall back on his usual coping method. So, he stopped briefly at his loft to get changed into his hiking gear. He’d added to the collection in the last two years that he had been with the 118, especially since he was trained in rescue and knew what was needed in case of an emergency.

He’d been part of a lot of hikes, so he knew that things that might seem like overkill, were essential. That meant his headlamp since it was almost sunset, and made sure he checked the batteries on it and brought extra ones just in case. He also made sure he had his LifeStraw Water Filter that he’d recently purchased, since he’d taken to hiking a lot during his recent shifts as the Fire Marshal.

The man sent a text to Maddie telling her he was going for a hike at Griffith Park, which would be open until 9pm, so he had plenty of time for a few hours to go on the hiking trail. When he arrived at the park almost 40 minutes later the sun was almost completely setting, he grabbed his backpack with his supplies but first slipped on his hydration backpack, which was small enough to fit on his front, against his chest. He had enough water for at least a two to three hour hike.

He was twenty minutes into his hike, not having seen anyone on the dark trail this whole time, when his playlist cut off as his phone started to beep furiously. “JARVIS?” Buck asked as he detached his phone from the strap of his backpack.

‘Sir will be with you shortly, Mr. Buckley,’ JARVIS told him. Buck knew that J was an AI, but he had always been pretty expressive. However, he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard him sound as strained as he did now.

“What? Why? What’s going on, J?”

The AI was silent before he started to speak again. ‘Sir was attacked two hours ago by an assailant that I’ve been able to identify as the Winter Soldier.’

This alarmed Buck and he lifted his head, looking for the armor but the dark sky was empty thus far. “Is Tony hurt? Why are you bringing him here?”

‘Sir didn’t have a combat ready armor with him at the time and though he managed to evade capture, he suffered a head injury that’s rendered him unconscious.’

“Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?” Buck demanded. “He could have a concussion!”

‘My protocols are to bring him to the closest person he trusts, and since his healthcare proxy is currently in D.C., you were the closest person to his location.’

Buck ran a hand through his hair, his cap getting knocked off in the process, but not that he noticed in that moment. “Alright… alright,” he muttered. He turned back and started to run back the way he had come, and was glad he hadn’t gone too far down the trail. He reached his Jeep in less than ten minutes, glad that he had kept to his training regiment after he’d started his light duty. After all, lying around doing nothing was more detrimental to his health.

He heard the repulsors then and he lifted his head to see the armor coming in from the west. That meant he had been in Malibu when he’d been attacked. The armor touched down more gently than he would have thought, but then again, JARVIS was the one flying it. It also appeared to be an incomplete armor, so that’s likely why he’d been mostly unprotected from the attack.

“Alright, open her up J,” he told the AI. When he did, Buck was ready to catch Tony as the unconscious man tumbled out. He’d opened his passenger side door ahead of time and easily lifted him and put him inside. “Tony, hey,” he said as he rubbed his sternum and patted his cheek to get him to wake up.

Tony moaned weakly and his eyelashes fluttered but didn’t open. The was blood caked on the side of his head from where he’d been hit and Buck didn’t have time to wonder what exactly it had been. Tony whimpered when he shifted him up further in the seat, making Buck wince.

“Sorry, sorry, but I need you to wake up.” Finally, his eyes opened and Buck couldn’t help grin at him. “There you are.”

“Ev?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He took his headlamp off as an idea occurred to him, and used that to shine in his eyes. He flinched at the light and that wasn’t a good sign, especially since his pupils were dilated. When the man suddenly leaned out the open door and threw up, narrowly missing Buck’s hiking boots, he knew that he had a concussion, and needed to get him to the hospital to make sure it wasn’t anything worse.

That’s when he noticed the blood at his side and when he lifted his shirt, Buck saw that he’d torn his stitches. “Shit,” he hissed. He reached under his seat for his first aid kit, being thankful for his sister’s paranoia after the truck bombing. He quickly patched the wound, since he didn’t have the supplies to restitch it there and then he buckled him in and ran around to the driver’s side. Buck was relieved when he pulled up his maps amp and saw that there was a medical center less than ten minutes away. As he drove, he had JARVIS call the hospital.

“Tony? Are you awake?” The man groaned. “Do you know where you are?”

“M’in y’r Je’p?” Tony slurred. That didn’t sound good.

“Can you remember what happened?” Buck pressed, needing to see how bad the concussion was.

“Dunno… g’t hit?”

“Do you remember what hit you?”

Tony was silent for too long that Buck reached over and shook him, and sighed in relief when the man flinched. “No… no,” he said, shaking his head but moaned in pain at the movement. “Hurts.”

“I know, but I got you, Tony,” he reassured him. He looked behind him when he saw the blue lights and a cop car, which then pulled along side and then he motioned for Buck to follow him. It seemed JARVIS had also contacted the police department for an escort. Buck gave a thumbs up and followed the black and white cruiser.

As soon as they pulled into the ER, a few nurses and a doctor rushed out with a gurney. Buck told them about the head injury and the torn stitches as they loaded Tony onto the gurney. The cop told him that he’d be guarding Tony as per the instructions of someone named JARVIS. Then he was left alone, not knowing what to do except look at the hospital doors for a few moments before the siren of an arriving ambulance snapped him out of it. He closed the passenger side door of his Jeep and then got back in to find a parking space.

He was lucky to find one, even if it was further away than he would have liked. However, before he could leave the Jeep, JARVIS spoke up again. ‘Mr. Buckley, sir is being tracked.’

“What? By who?”

‘The Winter Soldier.’

“Who is that?” Buck asked a bit hysterically. He didn’t know what was going on. All he knew was that someone had hurt Tony and now they were likely coming to finish the job.

’He is an assassin that’s been sent by HYDRA.’

“Hydra? What is Hydra?”

‘HYDRA is an authoritarian paramilitary subversive terrorist organization bent on world domination. It was very active during World War 2 but with the efforts of Captain America and the Howling Commandos, they were able to destroy it.’

“I’m sensing a but,” Buck groaned where he’d laid his head against the steering wheel. This was spiraling into very dangerous territory, and Buck felt that he was barely keeping his head above water.

‘It seems to have survived and infiltrated SHIELD. Sir discovered this several days ago, as well as a plan to use an algorithm created by a HYDRA scientist to identify people that posed a threat to them and thus be able to eliminate them.’

“He stopped them and then they came after him?” Buck hazarded a guess. He took in several shaky breaths, trying not to have a panic attack right that moment. He was a first responder, a fire fighter that was used to running into a burning building, but this was more Athena’s area. Only, he couldn’t call her, couldn’t call anyone for help.

It was in that moment that Buck truly felt alone. He was alone in this.

‘Yes, that is correct.’

Buck contemplated on what he should do now, wondering if he should go inside, or call the police to warn them. It was just, would they believe him at all? Buck seriously doubted it. He was worried, because right now Tony was unprotected. “What do I do, J? I’m just a firefighter... or rather, I was.” He sighed and ran a hand through his blonde hair. “I can’t help him.”

‘There is a way, Mr. Buckley.’

The man’s head lifted in surprise. “What? How? What do I have to do?” He’d already lost his family at the 118 and didn’t want to also lose Tony. If there was something that he could do, then he would.

‘The Rescue Protocol.’

Buck frowned. “What’s that?”

‘Sir designed armor to your measurements and called it the Rescue armor.’

“What?!”

Before he could ask more, he heard the sound of repulsors once again and rolled down his window as he stuck his head out of it. He saw the suit coming from the east, which he found was weird. “Where is it coming from, J?”

‘Sir designed it and had it built at his lab in New York, because that lab had the equipment for it. He activated the protocol almost three hours ago, but since it was on the other side of the country, it is only now arriving.’

Buck stumbled out of the Jeep and saw not one armor, but two of them. “Wait, that’s two armors.”

‘It is War Machine, Mr. Buckley.’

“Holy shit,” Buck gasped, not believing that he was about to see Rhodes after all these years.

The two armors touched down and the face plate lifted on the War Machine armor. “Evan Buckley, is that you?” the man asked incredulously. The War Machine armor gave Rhodes about four inches, so they were about the same height.

“Rhodes, hey man,” Buck greeted him weakly. As he turned to what JARVIS had dubbed the Rescue armor, he saw that it would likely give him four inches as well. That explained why the Rescue armor looked taller. It was also colored the same blue as his LAFD uniform.

Rhodes pointed at the other armor. “Is it safe to assume this is for you to use?”

Buck ran a hand down his face as he nodded. “I don’t- I don’t know the first thing about how to use it. I kinda just found out literally a minute before you got here.”

“Lucky for you, FRIDAY informed me about the situation going on with Tony, so you might not have to use it.”

“Who’s-?”

‘Colonel Rhodes, incoming from the west,’ JARVIS interrupts them suddenly, voice urgent.

The Rescue armor is opening and Buck yelps as it lunges at him and incases him. He staggers back as the HUD turns on, breathing heavily and an alarm is suddenly beeping. Buck is stunned as his Jeep suddenly explodes in a ball of fire as it is flung to the side and into another car. The instincts he learned from his time in the SEALs kick in as he jumps away, rolling with the momentum, and is shocked at how easy the armor moves around him.

“Evan!” Buck hears Rhodes panicked voice and his vision is suddenly filled with a man with long hair wielding a grenade launcher, which is aimed right at him. He jerks to the side to avoid the grenade, which sails dangerously close to his face and it hits another vehicle that also explodes.

‘Mr. Buckley, may I suggest leaving the area before the hospital takes damage,’ JARVIS tells him.

“How do I do that?!” He yelps as the repulsors at his feet suddenly turn on and he waves his arms around wildly as he starts to lift off the ground, which makes the take off shaky and almost flies into another car.

‘Keep your hands at your side, Mr. Buckley,’ the AI instructs.

Buck quickly does that and the armor shoots into the sky, and it’s only because he’s jumped from a helo into the ocean during the BUD/S training that he doesn’t scream. Of course, he hadn’t made it much longer after passing Hell Week, because he hadn’t been able to turn off his emotions. So, he was very terrified in that moment. Especially when he saw a motorcycle following them with the long haired man on it, and did he have a fucking metal arm?!

“Evan, this way,” he hears Rhodes call. He follows JARVIS’s instructions as he angles his body to follow the man and almost whoops when he’s able to do it without veering too much off course. “We need to get away from the city before we engage.” They’re heading toward the Hollywood Hills, more than likely where there are very little houses.

Buck is totally onboard with that, since the last thing he wants is for someone to get hurt. He tries not to think too closely about what engage actually means, and that he was going to actively attack someone. And shit, he’s thinking about it now.

Then an alarm starts to blare through the speakers and with J’s warning, Buck twists in midair to avoid being hit as their pursuer shoots at them, which sends him into a sudden barrel roll that has him giving a choked off scream. He some how manages to regain control of the —his?— armor and gasps when he sees that the grenade had missed him, but managed to hit a building. Buck becomes alarmed when he sees that it was a house on the edge of where the hills start.

“Shit!” Buck exclaims as he turns, forgetting his fear and even that he’s way out of his element. There are people in danger and he can’t just do nothing. “JARVIS, is there some kind of fire suppressant system in the suit?” He sees as the AI selects the systems but curses when he sees its aimed for it to be used in case the suit is on fire or sparks. “I need something to stop the fire!”

‘There is a water gun on the shoulder,’ JARVIS tells him. Of course he had seen it, which resembled the one that Rhodes had on the War Machine armor, but he had assumed it was a weapon. ‘If you land in the pool beside the house, there are compartments that will open to suck into the suit and that will be directed to the water gun.’

Buck grinned despite himself, because he hadn’t been expecting that. “Wow, I thought it was a gun!”

‘That’s why Sir called it the Rescue armor. He designed it especially for you.’

And Buck could see that now. He hadn’t designed it like a weapon the way he had for Rhodes’s War Machine armor, but like a tool used to rescue people for Buck. Because that is what Buck did, he was a firefighter and he rescued people, and now the name Rescue for the armor made sense. “Alright then, J. Let’s see what this thing can do.” He had the AI connect him to Rhodes and told him that he needed to keep the assassin off his back while he went to put out the fire and see if there had been anyone inside the house.

“Roger,” Rhodes tells him. The War Machine turns and heads toward where the motorcycles is still following them. It also appears as if there are two police cars and one police motorcycle following the man. Whether they were alerted because he was breaking laws to catch up to them or because someone saw him shooting the grenade launcher is unclear, but that doesn’t matter at the moment.

“J, is there like some kind of autopilot on this thing? I don’t think I can land softly enough not to damage the pool.” Buck asked as they fly toward the house. He grins when the AI takes control of the suit and they land. JARVIS relinquishes control almost immediately after and he grins when he sees that the water can also come out of the hands by three individual tubes that can open up at the palms. It’s a good thing the pool is fairly large, and the gallons in it are likely enough to extinguish the flames. If not, there is another pool next door he can use.

“Aright, let her rip, J,” he tells the AI. He braces for the pressure to hit, use to doing it when he handles the hose as a firefighter, but it seems that he doesn’t need to as the suit is immovable. The water leaves the gun and the palms of the armor, and he aims at the worse of the flames. He cuts off the flow when the flames frizzle out, but makes sure there is enough left inside the suit in case there is more fire inside. There is a hole on one side of the house, and he rushes in like he usually does. “LAFD! Is anyone in here?” Buck shouts, forgetting that he isn’t a firefighter with the department anymore.

There is smoke and ash from the destroyed wall in the air and he kicks a few chucks away as he goes further inside. “Hello! Is someone in here?” His voice sounds mechanical and almost resembles what Tony’s does whenever he speaks while in the suit.

That’s when the suit’s HUD displays a scan of the house and it detects three heat signatures. Even then, he keeps calling and soon he hears a voice calling for help. The first person is a man in his early fifties which is the owner, judging by the information that JARVIS is displaying, and that he lives there with his younger wife and fifteen-year-old son. He brings the man out even as he protests. “I’m going to get them out,” he tells him with certainty.

He finds the wife next in a bathroom, a woman in her early forties who is unconscious from a hit to the head. Buck needs to secure her neck and substitutes a towel gently but tightly around her neck, making sure its not enough to strangle her. He then sees a bathrobe and uses the tie of it to secure the towel in place. Now that the neck is secure in case she has a spinal or neck injury, he carries her out.

“Evan, are you clear?” Rhodes calls over the coms, hearing the strain in his voice.

“Almost, Rhodes. I got one more victim inside the house. Give me ten minutes.”

“You got five,” he gasped. Buck jerks his head up as he hears an explosion, but sighs in relief when he sees War Machine still in the air.

“Copy!” Buck yells as he runs back into the house. JARVIS had pulled up the information, so he knows the name of the young man. “Jake! Jake, are you there?” He hears the house groan and knows the explosion caused the whole structure to be unstable, but he doesn’t want to leave until he has the teenager. Buck heads to where the heat signature is coming from, glad there isn’t any more fire, but there are sparks and if the gas line was damaged it could get really dangerous really fast. So he hurries. “Jake!”

He comes upon a room for a teenage girl and decides that he obviously isn’t there. Then he sees movement and turns. “Jake?” he calls as he rushes in. He finds a teenage girl huddled in the corner, confused by her presence there and wondering if he’ll have enough time to find Jake, but knows he can’t leave her there.

“It’s Jenny,” she whimpers as the house shudders.

Buck is confused. “What?”

“That... that’s not my name. It’s Jenny.” She cries out as the house shakes again. “J-Ja... that’s not my name!”

He realizes what she means almost immediately and nods as he kneels. “Alright, Jenny,” he soothes. He holds out his armored hand. “Take my hand, sweetheart. I’ll get you out, alright?”

Her eyes, bluer than even his own, dart up to his face. Then she nods and takes it. Buck lifts her up and carries her out. He deposits her into her father’s waiting’s arms who sobs a thanks for getting his daughter out, and Buck takes a moment to smile.

“Evan!”

“Shit!” he curses when he sees another grenade coming their way and instinctively lifts his hands and lets the water go with all the pressure the suit has, from the water gun as well. It must be more like a water cannon, because it knocks the grenade out of its course, and it hits the house. Buck turns and shields the family from the debris as it seems to hit another support beam and the whole structure comes down.

When he makes sure the family of three is okay, he goes a few steps away and his second take off is more smooth than the first one. He sees the lights of the emergency crews as he goes, and now that he knows the family is safe, he decides to concentrate on the fight that’s coming. Buck had never been a violent person, had never seen combat during his SEAL training, but he also knows that he can’t stand by while this assassin wrecks havoc and harms more people.

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Athena had gotten a call from one the police officers in East Hollywood. While she wasn’t able to put any kind of official alert on her family or the 118’s vehicles or homes, they each knew the names of the people closest to them. When one of them was involved is an accident or any kind of incident. Mostly it was her kids, Michael and Bobby. Oh, and Buck, of course. It was because that kid was always getting into trouble, and because despite what Bobby said, Buck was his son. He was his son even while he was suing Bobby and the man was mad at him.

So, when the East Hollywood police were contacted by Iron Man’s associate to be an escort and given the license plate of Buck’s Jeep (which he’d just gotten back from the body shop), Athena had found out about it twenty minutes later. Naturally, she told Bobby, who was off shift and both of them raced over toward Kaiser Permanente regardless that they couldn’t contact Buck due to the lawsuit.

They were horrified when they found that area around the hospital parking lot cordoned off by police. Athena got off to try to find out something, telling Bobby to circle around and she’d call him when she knew something. She was able to pass through the police line easily enough, and even if she wanted to go immediately to the hospital and find out about Buck, something drew her to the scene.

There were several vehicles that had been on fire, which meant the another fire station, mainly station 6, were on the scene. There was a lot of destruction, like a bomb had gone off, and as she walked closer to the scene to try and see what was happening, she stepped on something.

The woman frowned and bent down to pick it up, seeing it was a California license plate, covered in soot and half burned. She wiped at the numbers, the curiosity getting the better of her. The moment she did, the sob felt like it was punched out of her.

It was Buck’s license plate.-

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~