#hit you with my car and you dove in and ripped the roof off my car and saved me when we met. pelase just tell me the truth you’re my friend

[ziracona]

“Clark! I came as soon as I heard. Are you alright?”

“Yeah I feel just great. Why don’t we go out to the parking lot, and you can hit me with your car.”

*screaming*

[the-iceni-bitch]

Cut With a Dull Knife

Pairing: Mr. Freezy x hit woman!reader (Bobby and kitten)

Words: ~2.8k

Summary: Your latest job with Bobby gives you a scare, it may be time to make some changes.

Warnings: explicit language, violence, minor character death, some gore, soft!dark characters, angst, teasing of some future characters and shenanigans, no minors due to the AU

A/N: They’re back!!!! And they’re soft for each other. There’s some teasers for some fun upcoming stuff in the epilogue that y’all are welcome to come scream at me about 😉

I am no longer doing taglists so if you want to stay up to date on all the latest filth, follow my sideblog @the-iceni-library and turn on notifications!

You didn’t like this. No one had come out of the building yet and it was making you nervous. Bobby had insisted you go through with it, though, even though you had seen at least three more assholes than you had anticipated walking into that warehouse. He didn’t give a fuck, though, so keyed up from your stupid game with that fucking cop that he was getting reckless. Plus, Merks was pretty much saying that if you two didn’t start working with this asshole, you weren’t getting jobs from him any more, and and he could fuck things up for you with the other families too.

The first shot jolted you out of your thoughts with a start, a soft curse leaving your lips before you grabbed the shotgun and your 1911 from the backseat and dove out of the car. Some moron came charging out of the warehouse while holding a bloody wound in his arm, snarling when he saw you and hefting his revolver. You shot him in the face before he had a chance to do anything else, breathing deeply and crouching behind the car when someone started shooting at you from the roof.

Merks fucking set you up. You knew that cunt had a bug up his ass about you, but you never thought he would’ve actually tried to take you out, especially not with his favorite fucking hit man right there with you, who was notoriously protective of you. Thought the man would’ve at least had the sense to get you alone. Bobby must’ve done something to fall out of his good graces.

There was a pause in the shooting and you took the chance to pick the sniper off the roof, charging towards the warehouse to see what kind of mess Bobby had made in there.

Then the window blew out, and everything seemed to slow down.

You froze when you looked up and saw Bobby and some asshole with a knife tumbling out of the window that was thirty feet up, your heart dropping into your stomach when you saw his hand slip and the blade slid in between his ribs. There was a ringing in your ears when you started sprinting towards where they were going to hit the ground, and you might have been screaming his name but it was impossible to tell.

The two of them landed with a sickening thud right when you reached them, the way Bobby was laying absolutely still sending panic coursing through your veins as your heart tried to pound its way out of your chest. Some rage filled, feral sound ripped from your throat when you saw the bastard who stabbed Bobby try to sit up as he pulled out the knife, smashing the butt of the shotgun into his face so hard you could hear his nose break when he tried to stab him again. All you could focus on was the way it didn’t look like Bobby’s chest was moving, continuously slamming the gun into his assailant’s face even after he’d stopped moving while your vision went red and blurry until he didn’t even look like a person any more.

It took a few moments but you managed to rip yourself away from the mutilated body and dropped to the ground with a wretched heave of your chest, crawling towards where Bobby still hadn’t moved and cradling his head in your arms as you fought against the wave of emotions that was threatening to overtake you. But then he was coughing blood all over your blouse and you let out a sob of relief, pressing your lips all over his face as his eyes fluttered open and trying to regulate your breathing while he groaned with pain.

“You stupid fucking bastard.” You tore off your jacket and pressed it to the wound in his side, tearing a few shreds of fabric from the dead man’s shirt to fashion a makeshift bandage before smashing your lips to his again. “I told you not to go in.”

“Kitten, we can talk about this later.” He clenched his jaw when you hauled him to his feet and started dragging him back towards the car. “There’s a fire in there and the whole place is gonna go up once it hits the gas they’re storing. I should also probably see a doctor.”

“Shit, I know.” You winced at his grunt when you shoved him into the car, slamming the door closed and rushing to the driver’s side so you could peel out. “Don’t pass out, Bobby, I’m fucking serious.”

“‘M gonna try not to.” The fact that he wasn’t swearing up a storm and back talking you was freaking you out, your eyes constantly wandering over to him as you sped towards the clinic. “Hurry.”

By sheer luck you didn’t come across any cops as you drove through the city, despite the overwhelming number of sirens you could hear, most of them probably headed towards the warehouse and the massive fire you kept catching glimpses of in your rear view mirror. Bobby managed to stay awake the whole time, but his face was completely drained of color by the time you pulled up to the clinic’s back door. The relief you felt at arriving so quickly was gone though when you found the door locked.

“Open the fuck up!” You pounded on the door with the hand that wasn’t keeping Bobby upright, slapping him when his eyes started to roll back in his head. “Now!”

“We can’t do anything for you.” You swore when you heard the voice through the door. “Go to a hospital!”

“That’s all the way across town!” You rattled the handle and snarled when it still didn’t give, your breath hitching when you felt Bobby sag in your grip. “Open this fucking door, or I’m breaking it down!”

“Get out of here, I have a gun!”

“Yeah? Me too!” You drew back and pulled your handgun out of where it was tucked into the waist of your pants. “Hope you know how to use yours!”

You shot the lock out and kicked the door open, frowning at the stunned looking goon that met you before swatting the revolver out of his hand and punching him in the throat. You put a bullet in his neck before walking back to where the doctor was cowering behind his treatment table, pointing your gun at his nurse when she tried to scurry away and tutting at him when he almost made a run for it.

“What the fuck’s with the muscle, doc?” You were furious, chewing on your lip as you glared at him and smashed the gun into the nurse’s face when she tried to bolt past you, panting with the effort of keeping Bobby upright while he groaned and tucked his face into your shoulder. “Who told you not to let us in? Was it fucking Merks?”

“Please, he threatened to kill me and my family.” The doctor put his hands up while you glared at him, his eyes darting to where his nurse was sobbing on the floor and cradling her bloody nose. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“You had a fucking choice, you made the wrong one.” You pulled Bobby over to the exam table and heaved him onto it, pointing your gun at the nurse again when she struggled to regain her feet. “If you were gonna side with that fucker, shoulda had him leave you with more than one guy, because now you’ve got a mess to clean up in your lobby. Now, do your fucking job and patch him up, or I’m gonna cut this pretty thing’s face off in front of you then ship pieces of her to your family, along with those pictures I have of you fucking her in your office. I will fucking ruin your life until you’ll wish you were dead if you don’t fix him, now.”

He took too long thinking things over so you grabbed the scalpel and slashed her across the face, keeping your gun trained on him with a slightly shaky grip while Bobby let out a shuddering groan. You kept the blade on the nurse’s face while you watched him look Bobby over, shooting her short, dirty looks whenever she let out a sob. Why couldn’t she just shut the fuck up?

“He’s got broken ribs and a pneumothorax, plus I’m pretty sure that leg is fractured.” You frowned at the doctor when he started detailing Bobby’s injuries. “Plus this wound probably needs surgical intervention.”

“No surgery.” You shook your head when he made like he was going to argue. “I don’t fucking trust you with a knife. Stitch him up, drain his chest with a needle, and put a splint on his leg, I’m taking him home. And if you try any shit, I’m gonna kill this bitch. Shut up!”

“If you’re not going to let me operate, he needs a transfusion.” The doctor eyed the gun warily as he let out a shaky breath. “One of us needs to go get the blood.”

“Fuck. Bobby, baby, hey.” You let out a small choked sound when he sat up with a rattling breath, resting your forehead against his and kissing his cheeks while you wrapped his fingers around the gun. “Shoot this fucker if he tries any shit, ok? And stay awake, baby, please.”

He just grunted and hefted the gun towards the doctor while you dragged the nurse out of the room, sparing a glance over your shoulder at him before you were heading down the hall. You tapped your foot irritably while she got the blood from the fridge, shoving her back towards the treatment room once she found the O negative and running a hand over your face in frustration while she kept sniffling.

Bobby was still conscious by the time you made it back, but just barely, dropping the arm that was holding the gun and sagging back against the table with an exhausted groan when you came to stand next to him. It was all you could do to hold it together as you watched the doctor and nurse work, grabbing Bobby’s hand and squeezing it ever time he let out a pained sound while you kept the gun trained on them with your other hand.

Several hours later and they were finally finished, Bobby bandaged up but looking only marginally better as you helped him to his feet and started to move him back to the car. The doctor wouldn’t get off your ass, though.

“You can’t just leave!” He grimaced as he stepped over the dead body you’d left, running after you again when you got the clinic door open. “What about my family? You have to protect us.”

“I don’t have to do shit.” You managed to get Bobby into the front seat and slammed the door closed. “It’s not my problem. Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with the mob if you’re so fucking worried about your family.”

“But…” He shrank back when you turned and snarled at him, his eyes flicking to where you were still holding the gun with a painfully tight grip.

“Listen to me, I do not give a single fuck about you to your family or your pretty little nurse, but I’m gonna give you some advice.” You were exhausted, you needed to get out of there and if you had to shoot one more person today you were going to scream. “Go home, now, pack up your family, get out of the country. Do not call anyone to let them know what you’re doing, cut off all contact with your little nurse, just drive to fucking Canada. You might make it.”

“Tha… thank you.”

You slammed your door closed in his face and drove away, your eyes drifting over to Bobby every time you came to a light and your breath hitching whenever you watched him take a deep breath. As soon as you got home you were pretty sure you were going to have a breakdown, your hand reaching over the gear shift to grip his as you kept driving and a small smile teasing your lips when he gave you a squeeze.

Bobby leaned heavily on you when you helped him out of the car, rubbing his face in your hair and groaning softly as you hauled him towards his bedroom. He didn’t let go of you once you got him into the bed, pulling you next to him and winding his arms around you as he brushed his lips over your throat while you let out another shaky breath.

“You were worried about me, kitten.” Bobby purred when you wrapped your arms around his neck and started kissing him all over his face, pulling you closer and digging his fingers into your waist as you curled your body as close to his as possible.

“I’m the only one who gets to kill you, Bobby.” You growled into his mouth when his hands slid down to squeeze your hips, biting his lips and swallowing his groan when you curled your tongue against his. “Anyone else tries and I’m gonna feed them to their fucking families.”

“Why would you do that kitten, huh?” He smiled softly when you made a small noise of distress, rubbing his nose over yours as he gazed into your eyes.

“You’re gonna make me say it?” You huffed when he just shrugged at you, tracing his beard with your fingers while he flicked his tongue against yours.

“I said it, it’s your turn, kitten.” He nuzzled into your cheek and let out a low hum. “Hey, c’mon baby, I love you.”

“Fuck you, Bobby.” You pouted a little when he just chuckled at you, tucking your face into his shoulder and sighing when he kissed the top of your head. “I love you, you fucking bastard. And if you ever do something like that to me again, I am going to kill you.”

“I know kitten.” He sagged back in the bed while you let out a deep sigh. “You done playing with that fucking cop, now?”

“Yeah, pig was getting boring anyway.” You ran your hand over his stomach as you kissed his neck. “Breaking his heart is gonna be fun though. I also gotta figure out how I’m gonna fucking kill Merks.”

“I thought I was supposed to be the impulsive one, kitten.” He chuckled darkly while his fingers traced your spine. “You can’t just go shoot one of the fucking bosses in the head on a whim.”

“Oh, I’m gonna plan it out, I’m not a damn idiot.”

You rolled your neck on your shoulders as the bearded man showed you towards the back office of the club, shoving your hands in your pockets. Bobby was still at home recuperating, so you had to take this meeting on your own. You’d heard good things about these assholes, though, not as mired down in the fucking old boys club traditions that the current regime seemed to be obsessed with.

“Hey, it’s good to see you again.” You took the hand the man behind the desk offered you with a small smile, nodding at the man standing at the bar in the corner as you sank into the seat that was facing away from the door. “You had a chance to think over our offer, then?”

“I did.” You accepted the vodka he handed you and took a sip. “You’re gonna have to offer us more if you want us to start working for you exclusively.”

“Money’s not an issue, you two are supposed to be the best, and if we can cut into those dinosaurs’ operations, even better.” He sipped on his bourbon as he stared at you. “You have any other requirements? We believe in keeping our employees happy.”

“Just one, Mr. Fowler.” You drained the glass and set it on the desk, pulling out your knife and flipping it through your fingers absentmindedly. “I get to kill Leo Merks myself.”

“Honey, you can call me Nick. Lloyd, what d’you think?” He called to the man standing behind him who was lighting a cigar at you, his mustached lip curled in a sinister grin you couldn’t help but return. “Wanna cause a little chaos?”

[the-witches-you-couldnt-burn]

Living with what you’ve done

Uhhhhh

UHHHHHHH WHAT

Ok so I started writing the 100 special but then I got to 120!?! Wtf when did this happen?

Though I would like to thank each follower personally I have social anxiety and would rather not randomly message strangers following me. Here is my public thank you!

Idk what I did while writing this but it seems I managed to copy-paste the beginning four seperate times. This brought the word count up to 5.9k but it is now edited and brought down to 2.3k

Inspired by my friend @deltaxxk who loves angst and told me I have to write a follower special

Other prompts used: One, Two

Also! There are movie references within this fic, if you get them all you get a virtual lollipop 🍭

Ao3

Disclaimer: THIS FIC IS MAJORLY ANGSTY PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF ANY OF THE WARNINGS WILL TRIGGER YOU

Warings: blood, fire, death (+graphic descriptions of dying), injuries, grief, human trafficking and mentions of psychopathy

———————

“Robin we’re out of time! We must leave, we’re out of time!” Her yo-yo strained with tension as she swung into a goon, sending their body flying away from her team.

They had gotten a lead on a meta trafficking ring that involved some of the Gotham elite’s children disappearing. The lead brought them to the dock, GothDrill’s warehouse sat just off to the right. Its fluorescent lights signifying signs of life, Marinette knew most weren’t there willingly.

“Make more time!” He snapped back. Ladybug fumble slightly before regaining her footing, she wasn’t expecting the coldness in his tone.

She jumped back into the fray and watched from the corner of her eye Damian take on four goons by himself. She stifled a sigh before punching the man in front of her square on his jaw, ‘must he always prove himself when he has already?’ Damian edged himself closer to the garage doorway of the shed before disappearing into the building.

Focus her attention back on the battle around her, she saw Red Hood downed under a steel beam. She rushed over, and with her enhanced miraculous strength to lift the offending metal. He groaned with pain, the beam had pinned his legs, forcing him to lay stomach down. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, supporting the majority of his weight to get him to his feet. Pain throbbed in his left leg and they stumbled onto the dock to hide behind down GothDrill crates.

Ripping the seams of his pant leg, she revealed a dark purple bruise that was rapidly spreading. She also discovered the beam had broken his femur and shattered his kneecap, how he wasn’t screaming in pain was beyond her. Pink light danced between her fingers before drifting down to his wound. Jason bit his hand to prevent any cries from leaving his mouth. He didn’t want another confrontation in his state.

The sound reached her before the light did. Jason panted as he looked up to see what distracted her from his healing. Reflections of orange and yellows dancing across her cerulean eyes. “Damian.” She whispered frozen stock still.

Something within her very core snapped and cardinal urges overtook her common sense. Shooting up like a bullet she sprinted towards the blazing inferno, her ears numb to the world around her.

Inside was worse than the burning exterior. She could see where the explosion originated from, big barrels of flammable chemicals blazed white with heat. The smoke and burning chemical gases penetrated her airways, coughs racked her chest.

She could see flames running up the walls and the lit barrels but the rest was black. The smoke was a blanket of darkness that wrapped around her.

And then she heard it. The screaming.

Multiple voices, so raw with pain, masculine and feminine, old and young. Running towards it she hoped to spot Damian but luck wasn’t on her side. Instead she found the trafficked civilians, their bodies red with burns with their hair and clothes set ablaze.

She ran full speed at the wall nearby, shattering the melted bolts. The fire blazed brighter at the new source of oxygen. She directed the victims out, the dove towards the water. The goons had fled during the initial explosion leaving the Batfam free to help.

She looked down at the bodies of those who didn’t survive. Some were burned beyond recognition, she kept looking, scouring for Damian.

She heard Red Robin calling her name, she looked up to see the scaffolding holding the roof breaking apart and falling to where she stood. She felt her body tackled out of the way and another thunderous crash hit the floor.

She was dragged outside and placed into the care of a newly arrived ambulance. Her eyes, red from the smoke and ash, looked out the back door of the vehicle. Firefighters and police had arrived on scene along with news reporters and the public. Families of the trafficked were reunited with their lost love ones and others mourned their deceased. Red Robin stood there, watching her.

“You can’t just follow me into fire.” She croaked to him, her oxygen mask muffling her.

The whites of his black cowl narrowed and his fists clenched. “Then don't run into fire,” he growled at her before walking off.

Her body moved without thinking, removing her oxygen mask against the protests of the paramedics. Ladybug reassured them she’ll be alright and that they should help the others who were more injured than she. She walked back towards the building but the black-clad figure of Batman stopped her stride.

“You’re not using your cure.” He stated. Her eyes widened, the cure could save his missing son, save the trafficked from their injuries and deaths. Who was he to deny the will of a god’s favoured?

Using the cure in Gotham was always straining and the Batfam knew that. On multiple smaller occasions, she was prevented from using it due to the amount of damage and crime being reverse causing serious health concerns they observed in Marinette. But she never thought it would also be denied on an occasion like this.

“I have to! Robin cou—“

“No, you could die.” He cut her off, her foggy mind becoming more enraged.

“And he could live!”

Without a reply he injected her neck with a sedative, her body collapsed from the drugs and exhaustion. The world going dark around her.

+++++++++++++

Three days after

Her blaring phone distracted her from her dissociative state. She was staring lifelessly at her TV, she could say what happened in the show even if her life depended on it. She scrambled to her phone, Dick’s name lit up the screen.

She accepted the call, answer with a hoarse “hello?”

“Marinette? Are you able to make it over we have some things to tell you.”

Her breath caught in her throat. Pressing her phone to her ear with her shoulder she ran around her apartment, grabbing her keys, shoes and jacket. Rushing out the door she rapidly fired questions at him, “What is it? Did you find him? Is he there?” All of which were answered with silence.

“It’s best that we discuss this when you get to the manor.” And with that, he hung up. The click seemed to echo in her car, even though she knew it didn’t. Driving towards the outskirts of Gotham where Wayne manor resided, she felt a spark of hope rekindle in her chest. Although Dick didn’t give her much to go on she still hoped they found him and everything could go back to how it was.

Fate wasn’t merciful to the naive it seems.

Her world shattered around her as she saw the crisped cape on the table. The smell of burnt blood permeated the room. Her eyes stayed locked onto the cloth as she spoke, “But this is only his cape, not his body. He still could be alive somewhere! He is injured and hurt and we have to find him!”

No one spoke. Their eyes flicked to one another.

Jason limped in her direction, his crutch clicking against the stone flooring. He placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, his eyes brimming with unshed emotions. “The cape was found with the body, everything else was unsalvageable except the cape.”

A silent “we’ve found him, just not how we wanted,” resounded throughout her being.

She glared at Bruce, “He could be alive if you didn’t stop me! I could have saved him!” She lashed out, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“And we would have been having this exact conversation with Damian about why we didn’t stop you. The best outcome for this situation was you living.”

“No the best outcome was both of us being given a chance at survival” Marinette screamed at him, his face was emotionless. How could he be so uncaring to the fact of his youngest son dying?

Running out of the Batcave and manor she gasped at the cold night air. A sob escaped her mouth. Her head banged against her steering wheel, tears dripping onto her pyjama pants. There was no way she’d be able to sleep tonight.

++++++++++++

Twelve days after

Fire danced in her peripheral. A medley of bright oranges and golden yellows. She remembered the times when the two of them would watch the sunset in silence, sipping on hot chocolate and green tea. This blazing inferno was different. Its colours more violent and foreboding.

The screams. They were different from the ones she heard that night. They were his screams.

She saw her body encased within his burnt arms. Damian was little more than a burnt corpse, his eyes blazed green and his bone was replaced with metal pipes. The cure resurrected him but he was not wholly there anymore.

She awoke screaming. Not in control enough to remember she had neighbours; mentally pleading that they’d understand. They knew of his disappearance but not of his death. She was still heavily in denial.

She isolated herself away from everyone, afraid she would hurt anyone else that got close. She couldn’t stop wanting to hurt Bruce for making her unable to use her cure or the goons for setting the place alight and killing her fiancé. She wanted to go scorched earth.

She snuggled into his pillowcase, his faint scent of honey was still present. She willed herself to fall back asleep, his scent surrounding her. His pillow, his shirt, his ring; but she was missing him.

++++++++

Two hundred and eighty-seven days after

Red trickled down her finger. It took her a moment to move the fabric away from the dripping blood source but managed to before it stained. It had been years since she had pricked her finger with a needle, but her subconscious must have needed to feel something; even if it was pain.

She looked around at her juvenile pink room. She had moved back into her parents six months after Damian’s death. Three months into her stay and she still had most of her belongings in boxes. The only decorations in the room were scattered commissions and a wooden blanket.

Looking down at the puddle of blood that was growing on her white desk she wonders if Damian bled before the fire cauterised his wounds. She had researched that burning to death was one of the most painful ways to die, it takes hours, each nerve ending burning. The burn victim usually passes out after a few minutes but she could imagine Damian desperately trying to put himself out, only to find more fire encompassing him.

His cape was bloody so she hopes he bled rather than burned. Or maybe he was crushed by the falling roof and killed instantly. She hoped he didn’t suffer for long.

Similar intrusive thoughts plagued her mind constantly but she kept her focus on her art to push through the days. Gazing down at the wound she found Tikki had held her and Wayzz had wiped the puddle with tissues.

Today she’ll live for them. Tomorrow she might live to try her father’s new recipe of cinnamon macarons. Last Tuesday she lived to hear Luka’s new song. Next month she might live just to pat the stray kitten that lives in the alley behind the Chinese restaurant two streets over.

++++++++++

Five hundred and twenty days after

She froze at the sight before her. Thinking it was another hallucination or she was having another nightmare. “You thought,” The glass in her hand cracked under her grip. Her brain couldn’t process what was happening. She hasn’t disassociated this much since the day he ‘died’.” That by faking your death, you could find out who you could rely on?”

“TT, yes. Now that I know everything can go back to the way it was.” She swigged her glass again, wishing it were whiskey instead of water. When they had met, Jon and his family had warned her that he was severely emotional constipated from his upbringing but this was in the psychopathic area of emotionless.

“No.”

“What?” His shock almost seems real. His eyes had widened and his body language was unsteady.

“No, we aren’t done talking about this! How ignorant do you have to be to think this won’t affect our relationship? Won’t affect me?”

“It wasn’t real. I’m here.” He stepped forward, arms rising to hug her. He never was one for physical contact. She pulled back, grabbing a steak knife and placing it between them. He told her he had set the place aflame. He found the lead for the trafficking ring. He planned it all. And now he was back, almost a year and a half later.

“That doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt! I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life! How selfish, how, how stupid do you have to be to not consider what it does to someone who cared about you?!”

“Cared?”

“Do I need to spell it out? We’re done. I don’t want to see you ever again,” She seethed. “You think everything can go back to how it was before? Well, it can’t. I spent months of my life mourning over a guy who wasn’t even dead. Who didn’t even care about me enough not to toy with my emotions. My life isn’t a game Damian!”

“I only did this because I thought—”

“I don’t care. Get out. Out of my house. Out of my life. Just get out.”

“I didn’t intend to hurt you, I just wanted to know.” Hot, rage-filled tears ran down her cheeks. She jabbed the knife at him, stopping inches before his chest. She had backed him down the stair and to the front door. Neither of her parents were home and he was more unpredictable than ever.

“I hope you can live with what you’ve done, le miel”

[jordanstrophe]

Be a Good Guest, part 8

CW: Whump, failed escape attempt (again...) kidnapping, electrocution, choking *inhales* intimate, possessive, creepy, protective, parental whumper, slapping, blindfold, restraining, shackles mentioned, manhandling, angst, so much angst with a seasoning of despair. No happy ending for this chapter at least :c

Masterlist

Walter was happy today, dancing and humming as he moved about the house with the radio playing a cheerful song. Gabriel didn’t even have the chain shackled to his leg today, he did still have the tracker in his neck of course, but if he pretended that it wasn't there, it almost felt like a normal ordinary morning.

“Good morning, little one!” He smiled. “Gmorning..” Gabriel gorged. He stood with his arms crossed while swaying on his feet, his eyes half open. He was hardly sleeping, the bed still felt foreign to him as he would just stare blankly at the ceiling. 

He was homesick. As lonely as his crammed apartment was back at home, he would rather be lonely, then here. He felt two arms slither around his waist from behind as he gasped with chills running up his spine. 

“Please don’t touch me!” He barked, jumping from his grasp and pinning himself against the wall.

“It was just a hug” He giggled, extending his arms out. Gabriel shook his head no as he refused to budge from his corner. Walter sighed as his arms fell crossed. “Are you still scared of me?” He asked.

He didn’t respond, his eyes just darted around the room to everywhere but his burning gaze. “Come now, Gabriel, It’s been a week. I’m doing everything I can to keep you happy, can’t you give it a little effort?” He asked, his voice growing impatient. “I just...I don’t want to stay here, please...” He begged. 

Walter’s face fell with sheer disappointment. He sighed as he slumped onto the piano bench, tapping his nail against the wood as an invitation for him to sit. Gabriel silently shook his head no once more, cringing and squeezing his eyes shut when he heard him abruptly stand up. He knew he was testing the waters a bit, but maybe he could pity himself out of this. He wouldn’t hurt him for something this mild, right?

*Slap*

His cheek burned as his whole body hit the fridge door. His lip that had just healed from the car crash splitting once again as blood smeared across the fridge. Gabriel took a shuttered breath as his hand gripped the door handle with his other hand on his red cheek. 

“Wh-what is wrong with you!?” Gabriel shrieked. “Are you crazy!?”

He regretted his words instantly as a hand wrapped around his throat, pinning him against the fridge as he fell silent. Walter rested his other arm over his head against the fridge as if he wasn’t already presenting enough dominance. He wasn’t squeezing his throat very tight at least, it was just enough to scare the daylight from him.

“I’m getting real tired of your constant disrespect, young man. You live under my roof, the least you can do is show an ounce of thankfulness for everything I do for you.” He hissed in his ear. Gabriel whined against his hand around his neck as he pressed his back against the fridge. The hand retracted as Walter’s fingers moved to wrap around his chin, tilting his head up until their eyes met.

“Tell me you’ll behave.” He raised an eyebrow.

“I-I’ll behave...” He whispered.

“Little louder.”

Gabriel’s eyes darted down, he was just doing this to be purely dominant now.

“Gabriel if you disobey me one more time I’m taking you to the basement.”

“I’ll behave!” He yelped.

“Good boy.” He smiled, his hand moving from his chin to lovingly caress his face as he slightly flinched. “Go sit down now, breakfast is almost done!” He smiled.

It was disgusting how he could change his mood in a flash. Gabriel’s legs felt numb as he struggled to walk to the table, slinking on the seat. He kept his wide eyes forward, too scared to move or even breathe too hard in fear of attracting anymore unwanted attention.

There was a clattering sound with a splash of water as Walter dropped a full cup of hot tea. “Drat!” He yelled, hissing and cursing under his breath as steam fumed off his soaking clothes. He grabbed his boiling wet robe and tossed it over the chair to get it off, before marching off to his room for a change of clothes. 

Gabriel sat wide eyes staring at the robe pocket opened just enough he could see the cluster of keys poking out.

Gabriel didn’t even think twice about the consequences as he reached into the pocket, grabbed the keys and bolted. They were much heavier than he expected, with about two dozen medieval looking keys hooked on a loop. His hands trembled as he fumbled with it, trying each one in the keyhole to the main door. The window, unfortunately, was out of the question, Walter made sure of that with metal bars after his pitiful first escape attempt.

He could hear Walter in the other room opening and slamming drawers, there wasn’t much time left. He was about halfway through and none of them had worked yet- 

*click*

One had finally fit as he bolted out the door. He still had a tracker in his neck, but all he had to do was outrun him, right? He felt his pulse beat through his body, his head pounding as he sprinted up the hill. He had been here before, but this time he was free of the chain dragging him down, the thing that screwed him over the first time. Finally, he made it to the road. He stood there, looking left, then right.

No cars… No one ever came here. He ran down the road, there wasn’t a soul in sight. He slowed to a stop as his lungs started burning, his hands on his knees as he gasped for air. He stopped when he thought he heard something… Chattering? Laughing? No, that was too good to be true. He took a deep breath and held it, trying to listen as he straightened up, spinning around trying to figure out where it could have come from. 

There it was again, a laugh. It was coming from the other side of the road near a trail. There must have been hikers! He bolted in the direction, following the cheery voices of what sounded like a small group of people having a laugh. He could see movement through the branches as his chest leapt with relief…

Finally, finally! He made it! There were people right there, just a few yards away!  “Heey!” He hollered, staggering through the woods. “PLEASE HELP ME!” He cried. He did it… He had made it out. 

His cries for help were interrupted by his own screams as a shock spiked through his body. What felt like thousands of needles stabbed through his neck forced him to plummet to the ground. After a couple of seconds, it stopped as he found himself lying in the dirt on his back, his hand held to his neck as he heaved for air. He scampered to his feet, before he could take a step, the full weight of someone tackled him from behind, pinning him to the ground on his chest with a hand tightly woven around his lips. 

His screams and crying were muffled as he fought back, digging his knees into the dirt trying to push the man off, who kept his arms and head pinned to the ground. He could hear the voices commenting the strange noise they heard in the woods, but brushing it off as some animal romping around. 

“But it sounded like a voice.”

“It’s just your imagination, or just another hiker, who cares?”

Tears swelled in his eyes as he was forced to watch the group walk by. He stayed pinned to the ground for several more minutes until they were long gone, the forest grew silent with their passing. The weight pressing against his back quickly became agonizing as his distressed noises were muffled. 

His hand retreated as he instantly shouted for help, electricity pulsed through his body again. His back arched off the ground in the man’s arms as he was held. “Gabriel, stop this right this instant!” Walter hissing in his ear after lifting off the trigger.

Gabriel went slack in his arms, his body still quivering. Walter got off him as he continued to lie still in the ground between his feet obediently. 

“Get up.” He ordered.

Gabriel blinked his eyes open, his tears mixing with the dirt on his face as he looked up with a pitiful expression. Walter only stared him down as he finally sighed in submission, slowly crawling to his feet. 

“Walk. Let's go.” He ordered. “You’re going to behave, and walk all the way home. Do you understand?” He growled. Gabriel flinched into a nod as he wobbled on his feet. Walter pointed to the direction of the cabin as Gabriel held his arms tightly to his chest as he shakily cowered past him. 

He was forced to walk in front, as Walter loomed behind him making sure he stayed in check. He lost his footing at one point and fell to the ground, only to be roughly grabbed and ripped to his feet. 

The cheerful music was still playing when he was shoved into the cabin. His hair was roughly grabbed as Walter dragged him along, ripping the basement door open. 

“W-wait..” He rasped. 

He was ignored as he was thrown onto an old wooden chair. Cuffs and shackles already built into it clamped over his wrists, ankles and neck tightly. He could still hear the happy music playing on upstairs.

“Wait! P-please!” Gabriel begged, tears dripping down his face as a blindfold was secured over his eyes. “Please don’t! You don’t have to do this!” He sobbed. He felt a hand rest in his hair, gently petting him. 

“Yes I do, little dove. Because you made me. This is for your own good.” He planted a kiss in his hair. “Since you want to be cut loose like a wild animal so badly, you can stay here, where it’s safe until you learn what’s good for you. That I’m good for you.” 

Gabriel heard his footsteps stomping up the stairs as the basement door slammed, muffling the joyful music playing like some sick fever dream.

“PLEASE! Don’t leave me here, I’m begging you!” He sobbed, his voice cracking. 

His cries were ignored as the house fell silent. He only saw darkness, as all he could do was listen to his panicked breath.

@alien-octopus @yesthisiswhump  @lave-whump @whumpasaurus101 @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @hamiltonwhumpdump @just-another-whumper @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @approach-me-and-ill-cry   @whump-it @kixngiggles @as-a-matter-of-whump

ʕっ• ᴥ • ʔっ  Thank you for reading! (and I’m sorry)

[shinsoussimp]

a/n: i’ve had this idea in my mind for days now so i finally decided to write it. i’m really happy with how this turned out, it might be one of my favorite things i’ve ever written :D

TW: su!c!de attempt, please do not read if this may trigger you

I’ll never leave you

it was all too much. you couldn’t take it anymore. 

like a fountain filling up with water. more and more water being added every second. but at some point it’ll overflow. 

-----

the view from the top of the tall building filled with random offices was beautiful, you’d have to admit. a wave of calm rushed over you as you looked down, seeing how far away the ground was. maybe this was extreme. a permanent answer to a temporary problem. or even selfish. but you couldn’t handle the pain anymore. you sat on the edge swinging you feet over and letting you chin rest in your hand. in your head this was your best option. you had nothing waiting for you, no one waiting for you. 

except for kuugo.

your mind drifted to the happy times you’d spent with him. but he’d be better off without you. everyone would be. you just burdened him with all of your problems. he has his own agency, he’s a busy man. yet he has to deal with you. this would benefit him, you thought. he would have more time to spend on his work, and you don’t have to be in pain anymore, it’s a win win. right?

you still wanted to hear his voice one last time though. you pulled your phone out of your pocket and brought up his contact. tears pricked your eyes as your finger hovered over the call button. you wanted to say ‘i love you’ one last time to him, then you could do it. you didn’t want to worry him thought so you thought it would be best to make the call quick. you wiped a couple stray tears as you brought your phone up to your ear.

-----

kuugo felt a faint vibration against his leg, prompting him to pull his phone out of his pocket to check what was the matter. he saw your name across the screen and he smiled softly to himself. he knew everything you’d gone through and he cared about you so much, so he vowed to himself that he would never miss a call from you if he could help it. that’s why even now, in the middle of a meeting between a few hero agencies, he mumbles a low ‘excuse me’ before walking over to an empty corner to take the call. 

“hey, kid.” he says into the phone shoving his free hand into his pocket.

“kuugo..” you tried to hide the emotion in your voice but it was still weak, cracking a bit as you spoke. 

“what’s wrong? is everything okay?” he says with concern apparent in his voice, catching the attention of a few pro heros sitting at the table.

“i love you so much. i hope you know that.” even with tears streaming down your face and gasps for air that gave away how hard you were crying, you couldn’t help but smile as those words left your lips. but kuugo was not smiling. quite the opposite. a chill runs up his spine and his hand, once in his pocket, pulls at his tie as he tries to keep calm.

“hey, hey. little one, talk to me. what’s going on?” 

“you’ve done so much for me, i’m sorry for wasting so much of your time but i want you to know that i’ve cherished every moment we’ve spent together.” you felt as if the world was collapsing in on you and you were going to escape. but your last words needed to be with him.

“you’re scaring me. where are you?” he knew about these darker thoughts you had so as you spoke with him, he put the pieces together, and that only made him more frantic, his voice even shaking a bit, “kid you need to tell me where you are.” he was speaking much louder as he paced back and forth in the room, not even acknowledging the fact that the meeting had stopped and everyone had turned to watch him.

“it’s okay. it’ll be okay. i love you with all my heart kuugo.” you closed your eyes and hang up the phone, ignoring his protests coming from the other side of the line. you set your phone back down next to you as you looked back down at the ground. finally you would have peace.

-----

kuugo’s frozen with the phone still held up to his face, in shock and not knowing what to do. best jeanist and hawks stand up and call his name a few time, trying to get him to snap out of it.

“y-y/n..” he mumbled. he couldn’t stop the anger that was bubbling inside of him. why wasn’t he with you? how are you going to do it? how can he stop you? his phone fell out of his hand and he turned around to punch a large hole into the wall before he started pacing again.

“what about him? is he okay?” endeavor asks as he too stood up from his chair, leading most of the other heros to do the same.

“i-i need to find him.” he stammers as his pacing pickes up speed. he can’t lose you. he can’t handle that. 

“don’t you have each other’s phone locations? i know i have to track this fucker.” aizawa says, motioning to present mic. kuugo stops in his tracks as the realization hit him. aizawa was right, he still had a chance. he could find you. he dove towards his phone sitting back against his heels once he grabbed it and started searching frantically. 

“he’s at the akasaka building!” if it was possible, any and all color would drain out of his face as he realized how tall that building is, “he’s gonna jump.” the other heros gasp as the words leave his mouth. he jumps up and bursts out the door ready to sprint all the way to your location before hawks’ hand stops him. he turns around ready to sock him in the face for trying to hold him back before he sees midnight standing behind hawks holding up a set of car keys.

“you won’t get there in time if you run.” she smiles softly, her usual seductive aura is no where to be found, just genuine concern in her voice. 

“let’s go get your man.” hawks says, puffing his chest out. 

-----

midnight sped down the road, swerving in between cars and honking at anyone she deemed was driving too slow.

“jesus, do you even know how to drive?!” hawks shouts as he holds onto the seat in front of him for dear life. kuugo sits in silence, his leg bouncing up and down as he watched the world zoom past him. this didn’t even feel real at this point. he didn’t know if you were okay, if you had already done it or if he still had time. he prayed he still had time.

-----

you stepped off the edge for a second, wanting to take off the expensive watch kuugo got you, not wanting to damage it. as you stepped back up you realized just how beat down and lost you were. you had just been going through the motions, feeling empty inside. adrenaline was rushing through your veins, so much so that the ringing in your ears got louder and louder to the point where you could barely hear anything. you closed your eyes as your head fell back and your arms opened up wide, accepting the cool breeze that moved through the material of your clothing as you took one more deep breath.

-----

the car screeched to a stop and kuugo jumped out, his blood running cold when he saw you standing at the top of the building. you were too high up to be able to hear him so he rushed inside the building trying to make his way to you as fast as he could. midnight and hawks watched you carefully, feeling it would be best if kuugo went alone. they didn’t want to overwhelm you even more.

he ran up the stairs as quick as his body would let him, deciding that the elevator would be too slow with it stopping on random floors. he had no time to waste. after what felt like hours of going up flight after flight of stairs, he finally saw a door with ‘roof access’ printed across it. he flung the door open and right as he did, he watched the love of his life fall over the edge. 

he fell to his knees, his whole body feeling numb. he saw you for a split second, he thought he made it in time, but then you were gone. he couldn’t stop his animal instincts as deep moans and cries ripped through his chest. he had never felt such strong sadness before to the point where he made the sounds most whales do when they’re sad, but now he couldn’t help it. he felt like he had just lost his entire world.

-----

just when all had seemed lost, with kuugo hunched over with his face in his hands, he hears a whistling sound. he looks up to see hawks, with his wings flapping swiftly, and you in his arms. hawks lowered himself onto the roof, now standing before kuugo as the latter tried to process if this was real life or if he had passed out and was dreaming. hawks set you down and kuugo slowly stood up, walking towards you. he reached out and let his thumb run across your tear stained cheek. this was real.

“i’ll give you two some privacy..” hawks says before patting kuugo on the back and flying back down to where midnight stood by the car. kuugo’s eyes roamed your face as his other hand came up to cup the other side of your face. he steps closer to you and softly bumps his nose against your forehead.

“why..?” he whispers. and that one word causes you to breakdown. he wraps his arms around you tightly as you hug his waist in return. he sits back down again, pulling you down with him so you were laying in his lap.

“i’m s-sorry kuugo..” you grip his shirt as you bury your face into his chest. he holds your head, softly petting your hair to help calm you down. 

“please... please don’t leave me, kid. i can’t live without you. please..” he hugs you tighter and burying his face into the top of your head. he memorized your touch, your voice, even your smell because he was so close to losing you. it felt like a miracle that he was able to hold you in his arms at that moment. 

“i-i won’t.. i’m s-sorry. it just hurts so much.”

“i know, i know. i’m here though. i’ll protect you from anything. you have to come to me when you feel these feelings. we can work through them together, okay? you said on the phone you wasted my time, y/n any time spent with you is never a waste for me. it’s a gift.” you couldn’t help but cry even more, his words making you feel so much comfort and warmth that you never wanted to let go of him. 

“trust that i’m saying the truth right now because,” he pulled back and softly lifted your chin up with his fingers, “i need you. you’re my everything...” you quickly wipe the tears still streaming down your face before pressing soft kisses to kuugo’s nose and cheeks. you held your nose to his, just looking into his eyes for a second before wrapping your arms around his neck and shoving your face into his shoulder. he wrapped your legs around his waist and stood up, easily carrying you because you just fit so perfectly in his arms. he kept his hands on your back as he walked, still moving them up and down slowly to comfort you. 

“my baby boy...” he said softly as he kicked open the roof access door, “ let’s go home.”

[lots-of-little-pink-clouds]

The Princess Who Will Never Wake Chapter 3

Summary: Lettow finds out about Aila.

Characters: Mainly Lettow for this chapter. Lots of Aila/Lettow angst.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28724877/chapters/71200482

Notes: ... I, uh, totally didn't forget about Riga. I swear, I didn't! (Rip Riga, we hardly knew you) She's here now, so it doesn't matter!

Anyways, I thought about ending it with Lettow in the caves holding Aila's ashes, but that felt too rushed. Then I thought about ending it with someone else's POV or the aftermath of when Lettow returned to Tucson, but I figured this would work better. This particular story is about Lettow, after all.

I wanted to give him some sort of closure by physically going to Aila's tomb and then set up stuff for later, why he stayed and what not. In this case, he'll be actively looking for her killer by using his resources as Prince (which is how he discovers Julian was involved). Unfortunately, it can't be his top priority, no matter how much he wants it to be (Princes are very busy running their cities and he's also focused on maintaining his image within the Camarilla).

I hope I did it justice.

June 7th 2009

Aila's resting place was not far from the city, a two-hour drive at most. It would have been wiser to leave the next night instead of risking the sunrise. Dove would have been more than willing to accommodate him and readjust his schedule. As it was, Lettow barely managed to hide his car in a safe location and sink into the earth before daylight came. Yet despite the overwhelming urge to sleep, thoughts of I need to hurry and I hope I'm not too late and Please, please, please flitter across his mind, keeping him awake long after the sun rises.

The heat of the Arizona sands eventually lull him into a doze. Fragments of memories and turquoise-scattered dreams wake him again and again and again, their familiarity comforting and haunting.

Lettow fully wakes as soon as the sun sets, hands shaking, undead heart thumping, and so, so hungry. Rising out of the ground, he finds Riga waiting for him. She perches on the roof of his car with her head cocked judgementally.

"I apologize for leaving you behind, my friend," he says. "I was in a hurry." He grabs treats from the glove compartment and feeds his eagle companion. She accepts the peace offering, nipping at his fingers. "Now come. There is someplace I need to be."

Lettow gets back into his car and drives, Riga flying overhead as he throttles down the deserted road.

Eventually, he arrives at his destination.

Aila chose a series of caves just outside Tucson to be her resting place. It was only within the last twenty years or so that humans built a warehouse above it. The original builders evidently knew of the caverns below their investment, as they decided to capitalize on the additional storage space. Luckily, they didn't go deeper.

Lettow acquired it as soon as he became Prince, but never used it for anything. Instead, the warehouse sat abandoned, a silent tomb for its lone resident who should have remained undisturbed.

Until now.

The first thing he notices are the faint car tracks in the sand. If Lettow hadn't been looking for something, he probably wouldn't have seen it. If he'd been a night later, the tracks might have been gone entirely, covered by dust kicked up by a desert breeze. Dread pools in his gut as he gets out of his car and makes his way closer. Riga settles on the roof of the warehouse to keep watch.

The entrance to the warehouse was pried open. He jogs over and places a hand on the rusted metal door. Bent and misshapen. No claw marks though. A crowbar?

He slips inside. The moon shines through the warehouse's windows, hitting steel beams that cast long shadows across the wide, open room. He creeps along the warehouse floor to the backwall. Embedded into it are a series of doors. Lettow skips the men's and women's restrooms, the two offices, and the lounge, and stops in front of the door at the far end. Opening it, he descends into the warehouse's basement.

Lettow lets vitae pool in his mouth. He pushes past the ravenous hunger, focusing and thinking I have to keep moving, I have to find her. His Sight helps him navigate past old storage containers and further down into the dark cavernous depths of the warehouse.

He knows this path like the back of his hand. He remembers when he helped carry her coffin - more of a large crate, really, less suspicious that way - as far down into the caves as they could possibly go. He travels down it again and again in his dreams, hoping beyond hope that one day, Aila will wake at the end of them. But she never does.

Why did she leave me?

Why wasn't I enough?

Am I not worth living for?

The thoughts cling to him like a shroud and he falters. He closes his eyes, pauses, takes a deep breath to calm himself.

She's fine, he thinks. She has to be.

Lettow continues down the path, hunger gnawing at his mind and desperation in his step.

He nearly trips over the crate as he turns the next corner. A loud and hollow Thunk! echoes throughout the caves. Lettow's hands grasps the edge of the opened wooden box to regain his balance when the realization hits him.

No...

He looks into the crate.

Nothing.

Nothing except ashes.

He pushes himself backwards, falling to the ground, frantically looking around the area for something, anything to indicate she was alive.

"Aila!" he cries.

His voice is the only one he hears.

"AILA!"

Lettow crawls back towards the crate. He reaches inside with shaking hands. Gently, he scoops up some of the ashes. For a long time, he stares at them, so long that his Sight fades away, leaving him alone in the darkness.

Then, he holds them close to his chest and cries silently.

Lettow doesn't know how long he sits there. Eventually he pushes himself to his feet. He forces himself to let go, to carefully place Aila's ashes back into the crate and make his way up to the surface. He returns with a bucket from his car. Reverently, he transfers Aila's remains into it. Once he's certain he left nothing behind, he carries her out of her tomb.

Riga awaits him, flying down from the warehouse roof to perch on his shoulder. She croons and nuzzles the side of his head. Lettow reaches up and runs his fingers through her feathers.

With his eagle at his side, Lettow walks away from the warehouse and out into the desert. The moon hangs high above, illuminating his path. He climbs to the top of a sand dune and stares out over the vast expanse towards the eastern horizon.

A memory comes to him: him and Aila, wandering through a similar desert halfway across the world.

"Do you remember that time, Aila?"

He gently places the bucket onto the ground beside him. Looking out into the distance, Lettow shoves his hands into his pants pockets, the white fabric below his knees stained with Beau's dried blood.

"It feels like a lifetime ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was looking forward to eternity with you. But fate had other plans."

He swallows.

"I'm sorry," Lettow whispers. "I'm sorry I wasn't enough for you. And I'm sorry I couldn't stop this from happening. I promise you, Aila. I'll find who did this."

And then what?

What would he do once he was face-to-face with her killer?

He doesn't know.

Lettow wrenches his gaze away from the horizon. Kneeling, he scoops up some of Aila's ashes. He closes his eyes, takes a shaky breath, and lets go. The desert breeze carries her far, far away.

He hopes she'll eventually make it back to her homeland.

Once all of her ashes are gone from the bucket, Lettow returns to his car. Riga hops off his shoulder and onto the roof as he collapses into the driver's seat. Closing the door, he starts the engine.

His phone buzzes.

Lettow grabs the mobile device from the passenger's seat and checks his messages. Several missed calls and unread texts. He sighs heavily.

A Prince's job is never done.

[goldenponcho]

A Cruise Fit for a King Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of my Scarlemagne fic. 

Next Chapter | Chapter 1

“Ya see anything, Jamack?!”

The amphibian sighed with a shake of his head, “I really hate to say it, kid, but there’s no matching a frog’s eyes to a jaguar’s. If you’re not seeing anything, there’s no way I am.”

Kipo snarled, resisting the urge to go full mute, and taking the reigns, guided their dragonfly down to the ship below. They were still a good twenty feet above the deck when she dismounted, landing on four paws before completely demuting.

 “This makes no sense! I know Scarlemagne’s still out there; there’s no way he could have drifted this far already!”

 Wolf leapt onto the boat from the waves below as the narwhal she had been riding dove down to patrol the ocean floor for the twelfth time that day.

 “Anything?”

 Wolf glanced from beneath curly hair with a slow shake of her head.

 Kipo exhaled unsteadily, and sunk to sit on the step behind her, “This can’t be right!”

 Her gaze drifted over her friends, Benson and Dave’s usually happy, encouraging faces awash with hopelessness, Wolf’s determined eyes now avoiding her’s. Her parents, both with tears already welling in their eyes.

 “He can’t have…” Kipo pressed the heel of her palm to her eye.

 Song sat next to her daughter followed by Lio, each embracing her from either side.

 “Scarlemagne is still out there, mom! I know he’s still out there all alone AGAIN, and I can’t help him!”

 “I know, honey. I know,” she brushed the hair from Kipo’s eyes, “We’re not gonna give up yet. We promise.”

 “That’s right,” Lio gave his daughter’s shoulder a squeeze, “He IS family. If he’s out there, we’ll find him.”

 ~*~*~*~

 Hugo had managed to wedge himself into the floor of the back seat, both front seats leaned back and his star blanket draped between them to shade himself from the blistering heat. He had been adrift for three days now, and while he was aware that a mandrill could go quite some time without food or water, the lavish lifestyle he had previously treated himself to certainly didn’t make the drastic shift any more pleasant, even after months of living in a cage.

 He had pried a cup holder lining from the center console to set out in case it happened to rain, but ocean water, he quickly found, would not be an option. He couldn’t even be comforted by the playing of his piano. The pressing of a key resulted in a dull, stunted DONK, hardly a sound suitable for his usual concertos.

 Hugo shuddered with a groan, holding his aching, growling stomach, then sighed dramatically, “Is this really how the great Scarlemagne is to exit this life? At least being left to be cast in molten gold would have been more dignified.”

 The thought had crossed his mind to make a meal of his dear, deceased pet, but he found himself unable to bring himself to it. The opportunity was long past for that he was sure, sitting out to bake in the sun for three days would not have done nice things to the flesh left behind.

 Whether it was the hunger, the heat, or the boredom, Hugo burst from beneath the seats, sending them forward into the piano with a loud BA-TWANG as he leapt onto the backs of them. “If I don’t get some form of sustenance RIGHT-NOW, a am going to LOSE MY-”

 He was cut off by a splash from just in front of him, and he jolted back to some semblance of sane thinking to peer into the water. Nibbling at the damp feathers of his flamingo were many decently sized fish. Koi, by the looks of them, each with two dorsal fins, six pectorals, and eyes lining all the way down each side.

 Hugo raised a brow, “Did I just accidentally pray?” he shrugged with a mumble, “Well I suppose I see why the ancient humans did it so much, it’s quite cathartic…”

 He was about to grab for one before he halted. Even his former self, bent on absolute authority over both mute and human kind would never have considered devouring a sentient mute. And now, even a creature with similar intelligence to Mondu felt like pushing it. So peaking over the windshield, he cleared his throat.

 “Excuse me! You fishes there!” he cupped his hands around his mouth, “CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!!”

 Seeing the lack of reaction, he began cautiously making his way over the windshield, “Ok…last opportunity to speak up!”

 A couple darted around at the vibrations of him having shaken the floating vehicle, but they quickly came to settle again to nibble on the carcass before them.

 Hugo gritted his teeth, “Well���nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose…” he loomed above the feeding school, wriggling fingers above them and locking eyes on one to snatch up as quickly as possible.

 “AHAH!!”

 He had been so intent on lashing out with as much speed as possible, he hadn’t thought about keeping his balance, and before he knew it, he was underwater, salt stinging both nose and eyes.

 “ACH! BLECH!! PFF!!” he sputtered, as he reached the surface of the water, shaking his mane with a fit of coughing.

 Eyes and nose burning, he made to swim toward the car before he felt a sharp pinch at his side and shrieked. Then another at his ankle, then another at the back of his neck, and soon he was surrounded by tiny biting mouths.

 “ACH! Cut that OUT!!,” he scrambled to escape the nibble attack he had found himself under, and eventually, he managed to haul himself back into the cab.

 He quickly found that rubbing his eyes made the stinging worse, so he settled on fluttering them in an attempt to rid them of the salt. As the burning began to subside, and he could open his eyes properly, he glanced at his foot.

 “Oh! It seems someone was a bit of an eager beaver!” He reached to remove the flopping fish that had a grip of the pointed heal of his shoe, and held it up to face level. “Alright, flopsy, one last chance to beg for your life!”

 He was answered with yet a second face full of seawater as the little fish unleashed a stream from its mouth with an impressive amount of force. With an insulted gasp, Hugo shook the fish spittle from his person before baring his teeth over his prey with a snarl to take a bite. But before fangs could make contact with scales, a piercing scream sent daggers through his eardrums, and he dropped his prey to cover them.

 The fish flopped erratically in the passengers seat before falling to the floor, all the while emitting the high pitched squeal, and soon, the surrounding fish had joined in.

 “RRRGH!” Hugo grabbed the slippery nuisance by the tail and raised it over his head, “SHUT! UP!”

 He reared back to throw it, but was nearly knocked off his feet as something massive jostled the car. He caught himself against the door, losing the little fish over the side. As he followed his retreating prey with his eyes, he noticed that the water in the distance seemed unusually dark, and it only took a second after that dark water had started to draw closer for him to realize that these tiny fish weren’t his only company.

 Two tall, orange and white dorsal fins cut through the waves, rushing his way at ramming speed.

 “NononoNONOO!!” Hugo hunkered down in the floorboards just as the biggest koi fish he had ever seen in his life leapt over him, a row of black eyes along its side staring him down as it passed over him.

 “Oh, dear,” was all he could squeak out before finally regaining use of his legs and scrambling to find something to defend himself with. He opened the glovebox only for a pile of pink, flamingo shaped air fresheners to spill out over the floor.

 “Well, now I know where those went…”

 He jerked his head around as the multi-eyed creature turned back his way with a screech he could swear caused him to temporarily lose hearing in his left ear, and with eyes darting back to scan for a weapon, his gaze landed on the gear shift. Grabbing it, he braced a foot against the dash and pulled with all his strength. From the corner of his eye, he could see the orange fins of the mega koi slice through the surface, and pink sweat poured from the struggling mandrill’s forehead.

 “OOOOOOO!!!!” He braced for impact, then felt himself topple backwards as the metal bar ripped from its socket. When his back hit the back seat, he was face to gleaming, black eye with the mega koi.

 The gargantuan fish wriggled it’s head closer, toothless jaw snapping in an attempt to snap him up whole, and Hugo shuffled to reach for the broken lever at his side.

 “I suppose you would be dear ol’ mum, then…” He gripped his weapon tight. He only had one shot.

 The gapping maw opened once. Twice. And on the third opening, Hugo shoved the jagged metal bar into the roof of its mouth. His ears rang at the roaring shriek that assaulted his ears again, and he attempted to move along with the thrashing head as it clamped onto his arm, threatening to snap it.

 It took only seven seconds for the monstrous creature to go limp, but it seemed a lot longer when one’s arm was trapped in a large fish’s mouth. Hugo pried the heavy jaws open and freed his now saliva covered arm with a grimace, dislodging his makeshift weapon.

 “My sincerest apologies, mumsy, but if anyone will be eating today, it’s going to be me.”

 He stood in the seat, a little wobbly at first, and examined his quarry. This would last him a good while if he could preserve the meat well. Perhaps the dash would get hot enough to cook some. But he wasn’t about to wait for that now.

 “Ugh…the smell of the sea really does revolt me…” he glanced down at the gear shift, and wiped it with his sleeve, “…but I’m afraid it’s going to be mega koi tartare for maaany meals to come…”

[maxineswritingcenter]

Cinderella AU! Part 6

Previously on Supernatural: Reader is being held at the hands of 3 evil witches. The Winchesters come to town just before a meeting of the coven. The head witch has a plan that could kill reader. With the help of Rowena, she could finally be free. Or will she?

----------

“Try to kill me, huh? Rowena, you’ve lost your touch.” Druscilla, looking disheveled, stood in the doorway with Drizella and Anastasia flanking her. Rowena stepped forward to begin a spell but Druscilla did something that broke me. Druscilla lifted her arm and from the trees next to the building, branches shot out and impaled Rowena back into the wall. She was dead before she hit the wall. Before I could react to her, Druscilla lifted her other arm, shooting out a powerful blast that blew me back across the parking lot and landing in the windshield of a car. I squeezed my eyes shut. The fear I felt made my whole body seize up, this is where I died. I felt helpless and alone at the hands the three woman that had made my life hell. Druscilla came up to my side, grabbing the necklace and ripping it from my neck. 

“You are nothing. And you will always be nothing. After tonight, you will be nothing more that a scorch mark in the asphalt.” 

That’s when I felt it. The rage. But this time it was truly my own. Anastasia watched as I suffered, pretending to be on my side. Drizella tortured and tormented me. And Druscilla, who looked at me now like I was nothing, took my mother, my father, and now she’s taken the only person who has ever believed in me, treated me like I belonged. My heart beat was so loud in my ears that I could hear anything anymore, only the sound of my own pain. 

Druscilla held out her hand and opened her mouth to begin a spell, I looked away from her and to the building, there were doves roosting in the roof top, watching. Waiting. 

“I forgive you, Druscilla. You and your daughters.: I said, catching her off guard.

“But I can never forget.” I closed my fists, and like angels descending from heaven to smite the wicked, the doves flew down from the roof top, attack Drizella and Anastasia. Pecking and clawing at their faces. Their screamed pierced my ears but the horror that should have filled my body wasn’t there. Druscilla screamed, running to her daughters, trying any counter spells that she knew, but they didn’t work. Druscilla watched her daughters die, their eyes plucked and pulled from their heads. As their life left, I felt a surge of power course through me, like a part of me was returned. Like Druscilla, Drizella and Anastasia had been feeding off of my magic.

Druscilla was on her knees, holding Drizella’s corpse in her arms, glaring back at me as I made my way out of the windshield and back to my feet.

“How dare you-” Driscilla went to stand on her feet to attack. 

“Stay down.” My voice was no longer my own. The power that was coursing through my body made my voice echo through the night. Druscilla was being forced back to her knees, an invisible force holding her down. I pulled the burner phone Rowena had given me earlier out of my pocket, flippinf it open, I pressed three buttons. 

“Who are you calling? The police? When they see what you’ve done to my daughters, you will be the one going behind bars.” 

“Speak the truth.” I said just before the 911 operator answered asking what the emergency was. 

Druscilla began to speak, only this time her words were no longer laced with poison and lies, she spoke the truth, “I, Druscilla Tremaine, confess for the murders of my husband, his ex wife, and the seventeen missing hikers. I drained their bodies of their blood and bathed in it. You will find evidence of such in my house. Their bodies are buried in my backyard. I can no longer live with my guilt as I have killed my daughters for their part in the killings and now I will take my own life along with the lives of those who are inside meeting house on Dryar road. You will never find the remains of my stepdaughter, I threw her body into the river by the falls.” Druscilla looked at me in horror at her new words, her voice never wavering, “I am evil.” She paused, hearing the operator trying to speak over her, “The devil will punish me for my crimes because this mortal plane could not punish me to the degree to which I deserve.” I hung up the phone. 

In Druscilla’s hand, a knife materialized and wouldn’t leave her grip. I looked at her in the eyes as she slit her own throat. She couldn’t hurt me anymore. 

The sound of groaning broke me out of my trace. Rowena had made her way to my side, looking down at the state of herself. 

“I really liked this dress.” She sighed, looking down at Druscilla’s body, “Horrid bitch.” I stared at her in shock, my mouth wide. 

“Close yer mouth, dear. I’m not leaving this plane any time soon.” She smiled, lightly closing my mouth with her hand under my chin. 

“Rowena!” A deep voice called from the building that was beginning to go down in the flames. The hunters had left the building and were standing in the parking lot and staring at the two of us. In the distance, sirens grew closer. 

“Time to go, dear.” Rowena took my hand and was leading me into the woods, I could see the hunters staring at the dead witches on the ground, then back to us as we fled. The man with the green eyes watched as I left, a small smile on his face. 

-

Dean and Sam hurried to the impala after watching Rowena and the mystery girl run off into the woods. 

Dean heard Sam gasp and looked at him, “What?”

Sam pointed at the windshield of the impala, or more accurately, the lack of windshield. Glass was everywhere inside the interior of the classic car. 

“Son of a bitch!” Dean shouted into the night, cursing as they both got into the car, brushing any glass off their seats to sit and speeding away before the police and fire department made it onto the scene. 

- 

6 Months Later 

After the events that took place, an investigation finally took place. The bodies of the hikers were found in the back of the house, drained of blood, just like they were described. My parents were exhumed and it was found that they were poisoned. Druscilla Tremaine was found guilty postmortem for the deaths of the hikers, my parents, her daughters, and me. The local police department has been dragging the river with no results. The lot was bulldozed over, any part left from my old life was gone now. And I think that was for the best. Lucifer was taken to the local animal shelter where their behavioral trainers are baffled at how big of a douche he is. After the media got a hold of the news, there was a candlelight vigil at the empty lot where my home once stood. There were pictures of my mother, father and me surrounded by flowers and stuffed toys and little notes praying that we had found peace. It was odd that I was dead to the world. I could never show my face again in this tiny town, but I was used to that. 

In the months since then, Rowena and I had found a cottage in the woods a few states over. It was a stereotype for sure, but there was something appealing about living in the wood, being taught magic by a couple hundred years old Scottish witch whose son was the King of Hell, just causal things. 

Rowena also told me more about the hunters that were at the party were referred to by the supernatural community as The Winchesters, a name that strikes fear. Sam Winchester was the boy with the demon blood who was supposed to bring about the apocalypse. But Rowena says: “Would you believe that boy has the more precious puppy dog eyes?”

Then there was Dean. Dean was the more intimidating of the two according to Rowena. But I never had that experience with him, not even from the start. He had those green eyes that stared right through my shield and into the deepest part of my soul that day they came to my door dressed as Mormons. The day I attacked his brother, he should have shot me on site. But he hesitated. Sam and Dean saved me from the hex bag and they wanted to keep me safe. Dean wanted to keep me safe. 

It would be a lie if I didn’t think he was attractive. It would also be a lie if I didn’t think about the way we danced in the meeting house every night before I went to bed. Even practicing spells could never feel that magical.  His hands were soft and warm and his cocky smile when he would flirt, it made me smile just thinking about it. 

“If you could be a dear an’ stop fantasizin’ about Dean Winchester an’ make sure the pasta doesn't boil over, a’would really appreciate it.” Rowena’s voice brought me out of my thoughts and back to the stove top in front of me where the pot of bowtie pasta was near boiling over. I cursed and moved the pot to a different burner and turned the original burner off. 

“And just a little heads up, the Winchesters will be arriving in about, hmmm, five minutes.” Rowena’s words made my heart jump into my throat. 

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” I panicked and ran into my bedroom off the kitchen in a desperate attempt to find anything nice to wear and to make myself look presentable. 

“If you’ll recall, I told you that Fergus was bringing them here to discuss a matter of spellwork and payment. You just nodded along thinking of ole green eyes.” I could hear the smile in her voice. 

I was just getting finished brushing my hair when I heard the rumble of an old car out the window. 

“Son of a bitch.” I made my way back out to the living room area where the three new occupants stood. 

Rowena smiled as I entered, “Fergus, I don’t believe you’ve met my newest pupil, (Y/N).” At his name, the King of Hell chuckled to himself before looking me over. 

“I’ve heard a few things about the girl, Mother. And again, I insist you call me Crowley.” I only nodded, “Where’s the booze?” He asked before taking it upon himself to find the alcohol himself. 

“Dean, you’re good in the kitchen, why don’t you help finish up the pasta. Samuel and I need to discuss the spell.” She made her way back into her study, Sam following behind him after giving Dean a nod. 

Instead of the awkward silence that I knew was going to follow I just came out with what I was thinking. 

“I’m really sorry about... ya know, attacking your brother that one time...And thank you for... not killing me.” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. 

“Hey, it’s in the past.” He said, “Now what are we making?” 

- 

Later after dinner and been served and eaten, Crowley was passed out of the couch and Rowena was still explaining the spell to Sam. Dean and I were out of the porch, talking about our lives and how crappy our childhoods were. We had come to the conversation about the night I had last seen him, where the town’s coven had been destroyed in a matter of hours. 

“I didn’t even recognize you until I saw the scar.” He said, recalling the scar on my arm that served as a reminder. Not of what she had done to me, but my survival. 

“I wondered if you would if you were done flirting.” I smirked. He grinned and took a swig of his beer. 

“Can you blame me?” Realization dawned on his face and he dug inside his jacket pocket, “Speaking of.” He pulled a chain from his pocket. It was the necklace I had worn that night, the blue goldstone that had given me power before I could take my own back. 

“Where did you find this?” I asked, watching him place it in my hands. 

“Found it on the floor of my car. Must have fallen off when you landed in my windshield.” 

My breathe was caught in my throat. Rowena said that Dean and his car were like two in the same, he loved that car. I glanced at the black beauty out of the corner of my eye, she looked that same as when she was driven off the lot. 

“I’m so so sorry, I had no idea-” Dean laughed, making my cheeks hotter than hell. 

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve fixed her up from worse.” That just left us staring at each other, not knowing what to say but left in this comfortable silence. He had his half smile that just told me that everything was going to be alright.  I closed my eyes for a moment, a vision of our future filling the picture. He was the man who would keep me safe. He was the man who would love me. Take me on adventures around the country. There would be fights and heartache. But at the end of the day we would have each other. How did I know? 

Well like they say, if the shoe fits: wear it. 

---------------------------

Finished with another Disney series! I’m leaving this one up to the imagination. Mostly because I have killed off any opportunity to follow the sequels. 

Thank you to everyone for reading, liking, and commenting! 

A new survey will be posted shorty to pick the next story for this series.

General Tag

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Cinderella Tag:

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[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch16: Till The End Of The Line

Summary: The launch is growing ever nearer and in a desperate attempt to stop it before it is too late, the renegade group are intercepted by the Winter Soldier. When he is unmasked, Steve finds himself face to face with someone he presumed dead a LONG time ago, his childhood friend, Bucky Barnes. Only Bucky has no idea who he is... Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Violence, bad language words, and some angst.

A/N: This was updated on 18th Sept 2020 to include a little more action at the beginning and a bit of creative license as to how the fight between Steve and Buck on the helicarrier went down, with the addition of Katie being there. Originally I deleted this part, but I found it...and thought it was actually pretty good...so here it is.

Open for tags- ping me an ask

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks," Sitwell continued to talk and try to plead his case as they drove down the freeway, heading back towards the Triskellion.

"So why don't you try sticking a cork in it," Sam finally snapped.

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here," Nat said sticking her head between the two front seats from where she was sat in the middle seat next to Sitwell, Katie on her other side behind Steve's seat.

"We can use him to bypass the DNA scans…” Steve said, clearly having already thought it through. “That way we can access the Helicarriers directly, "What?! Are you crazy?! That is a terrible, terrible idea-" Sitwell began to protest but was cut off, his screams dying as he was pulled out of the car and thrown into oncoming traffic just as a sixteen-wheeler was going past. Katie let out a scream as Sam yelled “Shit” and there was a shot fired, a bullet ripping into the seat where Katie had been sat seconds before, Natasha pulling her to the side.

"Move!" Natasha yelled at Steve as she clambered through the middle of the two seat and onto his lap pulling him down away from the next bullet which was meant for him. Steve pulled on the handbrake and the person on the roof dropped down onto the street.  All 4 of them in the car watched as he rolled and rolled and used his metal arm to slow his momentum before standing up. He was tall, well built, long dark hair whipping around his masked face.

“It’s him…” Natasha said, her voice almost a whisper, “The Winter Soldier.”

Katie aimed her gun through the windscreen, taking aim, when they were violently hit from behind causing Katie’s usual dead shot to ricochet off the side of the man’s arm instead of his head. The car behind pushed them closer and closer to him until he was able to leap back onto the roof, as Nat searched for her gun and Katie aimed hers upwards. Suddenly, a metal hand smashed through the windshield and pulled out the steering wheel from Sam’s hand.

"Shit!" Sam yelled again.  Natasha, after having found her gun, started shooting at him but the Winter Soldier jumped onto the jeep behind their car that had started erratically pushing theirs along the road.

“Katie…!” Steve yelled, gesturing for me to climb into the front. "Hang on!”

She scrambled over the central gap between the front seats as Steve broke open the door with his shield pushed up against it, holding onto them all as best he could as the car began to flip. They dropped from the car onto the door as well as the shield and slid roughly along the street. Sam lost his grip and slipped away but luckily he only tumbled a few metres away mostly unharmed.

The three of them that remained hanging onto the shield quickly stood once they had come to a complete stop, the jeep that had caused the crash stopping as well, men all fully armed climbing out and one of them handing the Winter Soldier a grenade launcher, which he immediately used. Steve pushed Katie and Natasha out of the way and took the full force of the grenade with his shield which sent him flying over the bridge, just as the Winter Soldier reloaded and began firing at the rest of them.

They quickly dove for cover behind a car and together moved along the bridge, car by car, Natasha and Katie shooting back at the soldiers with their hand guns. Katie tossed one of my spare pistols to Sam who caught it, and started firing as well. This was working at keeping them at bay reasonably well, until they were forced to the edge of the bridge and the Winter Soldier shot another grenade at them.

There was nothing for it, they had to jump. Nat had her anchor so she leapt off, grabbing Katie’s hand as she shot up at the concrete of the bridge. They landed a bit heavier than normal, Katie rolling a few feet over the contract but she was soon back on her feet and running behind Natasha under the bridge.  Nat skidded to a halt as they reached the other end, the shadow of the Winter Soldier visible on the ground in front of them. They shared a quick glance and with a nod they split up, Katie veering left, Natasha veering right. With a deep breath, Katie stepped out from the shelter of the bridge, took aim and shot her gun up at the Soldier and she saw his head jerk back, and then he removed his glasses. She had hit where she had aimed but it hadn’t done as much damage as she had hoped.

Ducking back under the bridge she carried on running and at this point she could hear machine gun firing and paused as she turned to see the fire trained onto a bus. Steve emerged from the end of it, rolling and picking up his shield and adding to the fray, Sam was firing at hostiles as well from his vantage point above.

“Go, I got this…”He yelled and Steve set off running once more.

Katie turned and looked across the way, the Winter Soldier was stalking between cars, presumably looking for them. She shadowed him, remaining a good distance away, as he rolled something under a car. Next thing she knew, there was an explosion and Nat had vaulted onto his back, attempting to tackle him that way. Katie sprinted towards her, and then slid across the floor, kicking at the back of his knee, making him stumble slightly but nothing more. She jumped up just as he flipped Natasha over onto her back and aimed a shot at him causing him to leap off somewhere to his right. Katie spun round, her gun aimed ready, looking for him but he was nowhere to be seen.

She started to sprint over towards Natasha, yelling at the screaming members of the public to get out of the way as she went, when she felt a searing pain in her shoulder. She gave a scream of pain, stumbled, and dropped to her knees putting a hand to the wound someone had just shot clean through. She backed up against a car, breathing hard looking around again when a thump from behind her had her turning to see that the Winter Soldier had hopped onto the hood of the car behind the one she was leaning on, gun aimed straight at her head.

Steve had heard that scream and he spun round to see Katie was pressed up against a car, her hand up against her left shoulder, her eyes fearful. As he turned to sprint towards her, the the Winter Soldier hopped up onto the car behind, taking aim with his gun Steve launched his shield with a loud grunt and  It knocked the metal armed man off the car, but with practiced ease the assassin landed on his feet and made to shoot again but Steve was right there, on him, launching a knee to his chest. The Winter Soldier stumbled slightly, before he cocked his head to one side, threw his gun away and advanced on Steve. The two began to fight, furiously, Steve blocking the swipes the assassin took at him with a dagger, slamming him into cars with his shield. 

Toe to toe they went, the fight was furious. Each landing blows which would under normal circumstances dispatched an opponent but here, they were pretty equally matched. The man was just as strong as Steve and The Captain realised that he had to be enhanced.

As the fight was raging between the two men, Natasha reached Katie’s side and dropped to her knees, ripping off her jacket and covered the wound with it in an attempt to stem the blood flow. "Alright, c'mon." She said wrapping her arm over her shoulders. "Get up."

She helped Katie to her feet, and the injured woman looked back in time to see the Winter Soldier launch himself at Steve. Steve managed to grab him under his chin, propelling him straight over the top of him in a huge arc, causing his mask to clatter to the ground right before the dark haired man landed gracefully on his feet. Steve stood up, waiting to see the face of the man who was causing them so much goddamned trouble, but when the guy turned round, he felt his heart stop.

Katie frowned as she watched as Steve stood stock still, staring at the now unmasked Winter Soldier who looked oddly familiar. It took her a moment but then she realised, he was familiar because she’d seen him in photos. His hair was longer, and he looked a little more ragged round the edges, but it was him.

Steve took a deep breath, his heart stopping as he looked into the man’s grey eyes.

“Bucky?” he gasped, frowning.

“Who the hell’s Bucky?” the man said. Steve paused, it sounded like him. It looked like him. It was him, but in the same way it wasn’t. What had Hydra done? The Soldier seemed to be thinking about something, before he shook his head slightly and aimed at Steve with his last remaining gun, but before he could shoot Sam swooped down, his wings once again attached to his back, and kicked him away but he didn’t stay down for long.

Katie looked around, and noticed that there was an RPG on the floor, she nodded towards it and Natasha picked it up, and aimed a well fired grenade over Steve’s head, forcing him to duck. It exploded where the Winter Soldier had stood, bringing the fight to an end.

Steve turned and looked and Katie slumped against the van, struggling to stay on her feet. It was then that black vans and jeeps surrounded them, and the former STRIKE teams piled out.

"Drop the Shield, Captain! Get down on your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!" Rumlow shouted out the orders. Steve did as he was told and placed his shield on the ground while holding his hands up defensively, not once taking his eyes off Katie, as she screamed in pain as a hand sharply grabbed her shoulder, pressing down on the injury. She was hauled forwards, stumbling, her hands roughly snapped in cuffs in front of her.

Steve started to struggle but a gun was pressed into the back of his head causing him to stop. He didn’t listen to what they were saying, he was too busy trying to make sure Katie was ok, and then there was Bucky. As he stood up and was shoved forward, he was directed towards an SUV, followed by Nat and Sam. He turned to see Katie fall as she was shoved forwards before being wrenched roughly back to her feet by Rumlow who grabbed her arm harshly and grinned as he leant down, his mouth inches from her ear.

“Of all the times I dreamed of getting you in handcuffs…” he said, loud enough for Steve to here. The soldier let out a growl in his throat as Katie bared her teeth at Rumlow.

“Fuck you.” she spat.

“Oh darling, if only…”

“I warned you what would happen if you touched my girl again…” Steve snarled as with a huge wrench he snapped the cuffs that were pinning his arms behind his back and kicked out at the soldier that was stood at the side of the SUV. He advanced towards Rumlow. who almost lazily pulled a pistol from his belt and held the barrel against Katie’s head.

“One more move Rogers and I’ll blow her pretty little head off.”

Steve stopped dead, swallowing, his eyes blazing as he looked at Katie, her face was contorted in pain from the shot in her shoulder. She fixed her eyes on his, and he took a deep breath and looked back at Rumlow. 

“In the van...”  Rumlow instructed. 

And Steve knew he had no choice. With a last look at his girl he turned, bowing his head slightly. Once inside a pair of masked agents shoved him down, one giving him a harsh dig to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him as they clamped his feet in strong shackles to the side of the van, clamping his hands together in equally strong restraints in his lap.

Rumlow just laughed and threw Katie into the SUV, unceremoniously. She staggered to a seat as the doors swung shut behind them, the van starting and beginning to move only moments later.

Steve’s heart was in his mouth as he saw the extent to which his girl was hurt, the left side of her denim jacket was soaked with blood. She lay her head back against the seat and took a deep breath letting out a moan. It hurt. A lot. 

“Katie…” Steve he said, making sure his voice was calm “Come on, talk to me, sweetheart.”

“You know…” she said, opening one eye. “I’m going to get one of my childhood friends shoot you, see how you like it…”

Steve took a deep breath, glad she was still able to make jokes, but also comforted by the fact she’d recognised Bucky too, and he wasn’t going totally crazy.

“Childhood friend?” Sam asked “You mean that dude, Robocop? You know him?”

“Bucky…” Katie whispered, looking at Sam “Steve’s Riley…”

“He was my best friend. One of the Commandos.” Steve said softly, looking at his feet.

 “What?”  Natasha questioned. “It can’t be…”

"It was him," Steve said "And he looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How is that even possible?" Sam asked in disbelief. "That was like, seventy years ago."

"Zola," Steve immediately answered. "Bucky's unit was captured back in 43'. Zola experimented on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him and..."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Katie said gently as she grit her teeth through the pain in her shoulder. She was starting to feel a little light headed.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

He heard Katie taking a deep breath through her nose, and suddenly he was jerked back to the here and now. She needed help.

"We need a doctor here," Sam’s voice sounded out, beating him to it as she rest her head back against the seat. She was starting to feel really sleepy. Really sleepy.

“I think I need to sleep…” she muttered, softly and Steve instantly leaned forward, speaking in his Captain’s voice in a hope it would jerk her out of it.

“Stay awake. Eyes on me, doll”

"If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out here in the truck...” Sam cut off and Steve turned to see why, watching with an open mouth when he saw the guard on the left whip out an electric rod, before flipping it and electrocuting the other guard before kicking and knocking them unconscious.

"That thing was squeezing my brain," Maria Hill complained as she pried the helmet off.

“Nice of you to show up…” Katie groaned, “We only called you like what, 12 hours ago…”

“Who's this guy?" Hill asked, ignoring Katie and nodding to Sam.

"Sam Wilson." Steve quickly introduced him, happy to see a friendly face. "Sam this is Maria. She's on our side." He added and Sam nods accepting Steve's word as Hill took out a set of keys and began to unlock their restraints.

Steve was by Katie’s side as soon as he was free. Her arms were released and she moved, crying out in pain.

“It’s ok…” he said as the truck stopped. “We’ll get you fixed up honey, I promise.”

"We gotta' get moving, Cap." Hill said, moving to the middle of the van. “Stand back”

What the device was he had no idea, but he didn’t care. It lazered through the SUV floor with ease and he turned to see Katie had now passed out. Giving a groan of frustration, he gently picked her up, and Maria dropped herself out of the SUV, then Natasha, then Sam who Steve passed his girl to gently. Once he was out, they rolled to the side, dodged down an alley and into another waiting SUV. Sam gently placed Katie on one of the seats, Hill passing Steve a spare jacket so that he could place it over the wound, applying pressure.

“Lay her flat…” Sam said, as the SUV sped forward “it’ll help stop the flow…”

With Sam’s help they managed to manoeuvre Katie so she was lay with her head on Steve’s lap. She murmured something and with his spare hand he gently carded his fingers through her hair.

“We’re not far out Cap.” Maria said, looking at him “Bout 20 mins or so. I’ll call ahead to medical, make sure they’re prepped”

He nodded and leaned back, lost in his thoughts. Bucky, Katie, Bucky, Katie… like a mantra it kept repeating in his head. Sam and Natasha were busy asking Maria questions, and he vaguely caught her answers-there was a secret SHIELD base outside town, no Hydra didn’t know, yes she was sure, yes she knew about insight and yes it needed to be stopped.

After what felt like the longest 20 minutes of Steve’s life they drew up to a stop outside what looked like a huge dam of sorts built into the side of a hill, and Steve stood up, easily picking Katie up into his arms, following Maria’s direction. They entered the large concrete doors into a brightly lit corridor and Maria shouted to someone who was running towards them dressed in a white coat.

"GSW. She's lost at least a pint!" Maria was shouting.

"Maybe two," Sam added.

He felt Katie stir in his arms and he glanced down to see her blinking, her eyes screwed against the light.

 “Where…” she grimaced slightly at the pain both in her head and her shoulder. Fuck, she had no idea where she was or what had happened, other than she had clearly passed out.

“We’re safe.” Steve said, pressing his lips to her forehead, relieved to hear her voice even if she did sound like she was in agony. 

"Let me take her," the doctor called out.

“No,” Steve said firmly, his grip on Katie tightening slightly “Show me where to put her.”

"They’ll want to see him first" Maria said to the doctor who nodded and gestured for Steve to follow him.

“Who?” Katie asked, blinking.

No one answered and they were led to a room at the back of the facility where Hill pushed aside the plastic divider to where a very much alive Nick Fury was sat up in a bed.

Steve felt his mouth drop open as Fury remarked. "About damn time."

The doctor came in behind them and gestured for Steve to place Katie into a seat so he could start working on her wound. He did so gently, his hand sliding into her hair once more as he placed a kiss onto the crown of her head, not moving far from her, his hand gently resting on her good shoulder.

“This is gonna sting a bit Miss Stark…” the doctor said, and she nodded, hissing as he injected the local into the wound, and her spare hand reached up to grip Steve’s.

“You ok?” he crouched down and she turned to look at him.

“Marvellous.” she said, sarcastically “This is the best day of my life.”          

He chuckled, as long as she was being snarky she was ok. “You’ll be fine, won’t she doc?”

The doctor nodded. “I know it doesn’t feel like it but this is quite superficial.” he held up the bullet he had removed. “It hasn’t gone in too deep. You’ve just lost a fair bit of blood but I’m not too concerned, unlike him”

He gestured at Fury and Katie turned to look at him as Steve stood up doing the same.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache." Fury spoke.

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," The doctor added.

"Let's not forget that," Fury chuckled. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha spoke to Fury. Her voice not accusing but hurt, "Your heart stopped."

"Tetrodotoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, but we found a use for it." Fury replied

“Ok you’re done.” The doctor said and Steve turned back to see Katie who was now plugged up to a bag of blood. “Bit of rest and I’ll check your levels later.”

“Thanks…” she said, turning back to Fury.

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Hill informed Steve eyed her, remembering how defeated she had looked at the hospital when they announced Fury's 'death'. Either she hadn't known at the time, or she was a damn good actor.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead. Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust," the Director admitted.

*******

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility," Fury scoffed while throwing a picture of Alexander Pierce to the middle of the table they were all sat round once they had all finished telling each other what had happened at the various stages of the day. "See, it’s stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"We have to stop the launch," declared Steve.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore." Fury added with a huff of a laugh, even though there was nothing funny about the situation at all.

“Ok so what do we do?” Katie cut in, “How do we stop it?”

Hill glanced at Fury before she leaned forward in her seat to grab the case which had been sitting on the table. She clicked the locks, opened up the top and spun it round to show them what was inside- 3 equally sized chips with similar designs of code etched into them.

"Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized," Agent Hill explained, opening up a laptop. She turned it around to allow them to see a simulated concept video of what she was saying. "We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own. One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational, a whole lot of people are gonna die."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is Hydra. We have to get past them, insert these server blades. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left-" Fury started but he was cut off by Steve who harshly interrupted.

"We're not salvaging anything.” He said shaking his head slowly, and he meant it. “We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down SHIELD"

"SHIELD had nothing to do with this." Fury tried to defend his organization but there was a derisive snort which cut him short. Everyone turned in the direction from which it had been issued.

“Sorry, did I do that out loud?” Katie said, sitting up slightly.

“You gave me this mission.” Steve said, turning back to Nick, shaking his head “This is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised. You said so yourself. Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed," Fury said waving around him as if it was somehow enough.

"How many paid the price before you did?" Steve snapped, voice still hard, as his mind turned to Bucky. 

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes." Fury sighed sitting back in his seat.

"Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalised that, too?” Steve’s tone was icy. He knew the director hadn’t been involved in whatever Hydra had done but he couldn’t help but feel angry. He took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was softer but still as stern “SHIELD, Hydra…” he shook his head gently “it all goes."

"He's right," Hill finally spoke, sadness tinged her voice.

Director Fury looked at every single person in the room. He made specific eye contact with Katie who raised her eyebrows, defiantly. Natasha didn’t react at all, which in itself was enough. Then finally he looked to Sam, clearly curious as to what he thought about the whole thing.

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower," Sam vouched. Steve couldn’t help but smirk slightly.

"Well..." Fury leaned back and let out a sigh as he looked Steve in the eye. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

Whilst Steve was glad, he took no pleasure in what they were about to do. SHIELD along with Katie had been his anchor after waking up and bringing the security agency to its knees made him quite sad, especially after Peggy, Howard and Chester had been its founders. Nevertheless it was the right thing to do and for the next few hours they sat discussing and eventually had the bones of a plan in which each person had a different role to play. Natasha would be posing as one of the World Security Council members, using a Photostatic Veil to bypass the security measures, joined by Fury. And, as Hill had somehow retrieved Katie’s Nova suit from her car (Katie didn’t even bother asking how) her, Steve and Sam would be the ones going from helicarrier to helicarrier with the chips and switching out the old ones with the new ones. Maria would be on the ground, making sure all was going to plan.

“We’re going to have to come up with another way to disable the encryption.” Nat said, looking at Fury as he took a sip from a bottle of water. “Pierce will have erased all of your clearance from the Triskelion system”

“Not all of it.” Hill said with a wry smile

“What do you mean?” Katie frowned, taking the chocolate bar Steve handed to her with a smile. The doctor was happy with her blood levels but told her to keep her sugar and energy levels high, as such, Steve was ensuring she ate enough by consistently passing her snacks from the pile that Hill had dumped in the middle of the table for everyone to munch on until pizzas arrived.

Fury looked at her, then to Hill, before he reached up and flipped up his eyepatch revealing his badly scarred right eye.

“I build safety switches into most things these days.” He said dryly. “There’s a scan of this eye hidden on an old database, a seemingly un-active one from the 90s... “

“So if we can access that database remotely, we can pull that scan across onto the active one and bingo.” Katie grinned, swallowing her bite of the Snickers.

“We don’t have the capacity to do that from here.” Natasha sighed,

“No, but JARVIS can" Katie said

“Alright.” Steve said, drawing himself up to full height “We only have..." he checked the clock on the wall. "6 hours until the launch." Steve nodded at the people who were watching him from their spots at the table. "Everyone, I suggest we get to it.”

There was a flurry of movement accompanied with the scraping of chairs as people pushed themselves away from the table, ready to put their wheels of the plan into motion.

****

“Hey JARVIS…” Katie said as she accessed the AI on one of the laptops

“Miss Stark…” JARVIS greeted.

“I got another favour to ask. I need access to SHIELD's old clearance scans from 1995. We're talking the high-ups, the OG's."

"Dare I ask why?" and Katie rolled her eyes at his response. Fucking Tony.

"Because." she answered simply in the hope it would stop him from questioning her. It did.

“It might take me a little while.”

“Fast as you can J.” she said, “We’re up against it here.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to contact Mr Stark?” he asked

“No, I don’t”

It took 30 minutes. Thanking JARVIS, Katie started to scroll through the database to get the name she wanted. She quickly scanned the information. The database was full of former SHIELD security clearances. Some had moved on to other places - CIA, FBI, etc. Others had to get new clearances when they moved up in the world of SHIELD, few had just simply died and left their clearances behind.

The one she was looking for was still alive, although HYDRA and Pierce thought otherwise. Fury had hidden an alternative retina scan under the name Carol Danvers. She had no idea if that was a significant name to him or just something random, but she didn’t really care. She pulled the access pass and sent it to the main database so they could use it when they got to the Triskelion without going through the backway again.

Taking a deep breath before standing up, she glanced down at the laptop before closing it and heading off to find Steve.

The soldier was outside, desperate for some fresh air, lost in his thoughts. He should have gone back for Bucky. He survived the fall, but Steve had left him. Left him to the clutches of HYDRA, who had brainwashed him into becoming their assassin. He ran his hand over his face and leaned against the railing, watching as the first tendrils of daylight broke over the horizon.

As always he was aware of her presence before she spoke, so he wasn’t surprised when she asked if he was ok, and turned to face her, letting out a sight.

 “Not really…” he said, honest to a fault.

“You know, this is the right thing to do…” she said, as she slid between him and the barricade of the bridge so that her lower back was pressed against the rails.

“I know.” both his hands dropped to her hips. “I really wish you’d sit this one out”

“I can’t sit it out Steve. You know that.” she said “this is personal for me too. Besides, you need me.”

He understood. And there was no point trying to make her stay behind, she was probably the only person on the planet that could rival him for stubbornness. And she was right, they did need her.

“He’s going to be there.” Katie said gently, breaking the silence.

“I know.”

“Whoever he used to be, the guy he is now… I don’t think he’s the kind you can save, Steve. He’s the kind we need to stop.”

“I have to try” Steve said, eventually looking at her, pleading with her to understand “I can’t just give up on him.

She did understand, she understood perfectly well, and could only imagine what he was feeling at seeing his best friend, the man he had known all through his childhood, manipulated in such a way.

"We can never give up on those we care about, we can only try our best." she said.  “Just...remember that he's not the same person he was seventy years ago."

He raised his eyebrows up slightly.

"Neither am I." he responded matter of factly. She held eye contact with him for a moment, but she knew there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise; Bucky was his best friend. He loved him and wasn't about to let Hydra take him away again and eventually she gave a soft smile.

“I know.” she said gently, just before he pressed his lips to hers. She kissed him back, eagerly, the kiss grew deeper and his hands crept from her hips up to her hair, pulling her closer as he pressed against her, trapping her completely against the barrier.

Eventually, reluctantly, he pulled away laying his forehead against hers 

“I love you.” he said softly

“I love you too.” she replied

He looked over her shoulder at the rising sun and took a slight step back. “Tell the rest of ‘em to suit up, it’s time.”

In the meantime, he had his own suit to get. One which he’d been wearing the last time he took those fuckers down. And he was hoping, albeit probably in vain, that if he did encounter the Winter Soldier, it would jolt Buck’s memory about who he was.

“You gonna wear that?” she said, gesturing to his chinos and jacket, her eyebrow raised.

Steve looked at her with a smirk. "If you're gonna' win a war, you've gotta wear a uniform. He dropped a kiss to her head and took off at a run.

Katie smiled as she watched him knowing exactly where he was going.

*****

“Comms on 6…” Hill said as Steve, Sam and Katie jumped down from the SUV on the side of the Potomac to the Triskelion, not far from where the control operations were. Katie was holding the case that contained her suit in her right hand. She’d confessed to Sam that she’d only flown in it a few times, but Sam wasn’t too concerned and neither was Steve. Sam had promised to fly with her in tandem, and Steve trusted the man completely despite only having known him a number of days.

“Rogers, Hill…” Fury spoke in their ears “I’ll open ours as soon as it is safe to do so…” he paused. “Good luck.” They silently and quickly made their way down the side of the Potomac. The first task was to disrupt the comms and security surrounding the Launch Bunker so that no one would know they were arriving. A simple EMP did that.

And then, just as Steve was about to kick the door in to the main room, it opened.

The techy on the other side simply stared as he was confronted with the 4 of them. His eyes flickered first to Steve, then to the Katie and Mara who had their guns trained on him.

"Excuse us," Steve shot the tech a pointed look. He immediately held his hands up and stepped aside to let them enter with a nervous, slightly scared look on his face.

They stepped inside, looking around at the remaining 8 or so people in the bunker, all of whom immediately raised their hands.

“You got exactly 10 seconds to get the hell outta here…” Sam said, looking around. They didn’t need telling twice, several of them tripping over in their scramble to the door.

“Bit dramatic don’t you think?” Katie teased, as Sam shrugged, a grin spreading across his face as she dropped her case to the floor. Steve gently pushed past her towards the desk.

“Which one is it?” Steve was looking for the coms button which would project his voice around the Triskellion. Maria pointed to one of the buttons and mics on the desk in front of her, where she was sat, tapping at the computer.

Steve looked at Katie and licked his lips, somewhat nervously. He had given speeches before, but none like this.

“If there’s anyone that can make people understand it’s you.” Katie encouraged, and he nodded, taking a deep breath, before pushing the button, his voice suddenly amplifying as it filled every speaker in the building.

"Attention, all SHIELD agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. SHIELD is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The STRIKE and Insight crew are Hydra as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there.” he took a pause before he continued “If you launch those Helicarriers today, Hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not,"

He finished and took a deep breath as Katie smiled at him and Sam looked up.

"Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?" he quipped.

Steve looked at him, trying to keep his face straight, before he turned to Maria who smiled, nodding at the screen.

“Alright, I’m in…” she said, before reaching into the briefcase and handing each of them one of the new targeting chips. “Get in, switch them over, get out.”

They all nodded and Katie bent over, pressing her fingers onto the security pad on the case containing her suit. As it sprang open she stepped forward, the metal pieces connecting and flowing over her body, the dark navy and gold suit forming around her before the face plate slid down.

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen…” Sam muttered, and Steve smiled. He’d only seen her in it once before when she had been running a test flight. Katie turned to Sam and although he couldn’t see her face, Steve knew from her tone she was grinning.

“You aint seen nothing yet Sammy…”

The three of them made their way around the banks of the river towards the triskelion, Sam and Steve running, Katie flying behind them at a low height. Suddenly, feeling the vibrations under his feet Steve skidded to a halt, Sam doing the same. Katie landed behind them, and looked down.

“What’s that?” she asked as the floor vibrated below them, retracting her face plate. ”JARVIS, gimme a scan…”

“Below the Potomac river is a hangar…” JARVIS said, his voice sounding in Steve’s ear too.  “And it looks like the doors are activated.” No sooner had he finished than Maria’s voice came over the comms "They're initiating the launch"

“Clearly your speech rattled them enough to bring it forward…” Katie said as the 3 of them headed to where the ground was opening and the Hellicarriers were launching.

“Hey Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam questioned as he ran.

"If they're shooting at you they're bad." Steve answered. Sam extended his wings and flew off after the highest Hellicarrier, while Steve jumped down onto the launching bay beginning to fight, Katie flying behind him, doing her best to clear out as many agents as she could

"Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about," Sam suddenly reported.

"You alright?" Katie asked.

"Not dead yet," Sam answered

Together Katie and Steve fought their way across the bay, clearing as much of a path for Steve as possible, before Katie spiralled through the air and up towards the one she had been designated. Dodging fire easily as she went thanks to JARVIS’ evasion techniques, she landed with a clang on the deck.

“I’m in…” she said, before a barrage of bullets ricoched off her back. She turned, cocked my head to one side before she smirked.

“Hi fellas…” she said, firing up her repulsor beams and sending them their way, before shooting upwards once more towards the central control column.

"Falcon, status?" Maria demanded.

"Engaging," Sam reported, before a moment later "Alright, I'm in…oh,shit!” he cursed.

"Eight minutes," Maria warned

"Working on it," Steve’s reply was punctuated by a grunt.

When Katie’s carrier was clear, which didn’t take too long, there were nowhere near as many agents on this than there was on the other, she landed by the control panel and stepped out of her suit, chip in hand. Punching in the code Maria had given them, she swapped out the targeting disk and grinned as he pushed everything back into place.

"Alpha locked," she reported, stepping back into my suit.

"Falcon, where are you now?" Maria asked anxiously.

"I had to take a detour!" Sam’s voice was loud. Katie took off, bursting through one of the glass windows of the Alpha carrier to see Sam spiralling through the air, being shot at by Hydra missiles. She surged forward, shooting randomly, turning their attention to her as she twirled down towards the glass dome surrounding the next helicarrier before at the last moment going into a vertical climb upwards, meaning the beams hit the glass creating an entrance for Sam.

“Oh, honey you fly better than me!" Sam happily exclaimed and Katie chuckled as he dropped into the hole. A moment or two later he spoke again “Bravo locked," and he shot back out into the bright sky.

"Alright, that's two down. How's it coming, Cap?" Maria questioned

"Still working on it!" Steve repeated. And he was. He had no idea how he managed to end up on the damned carrier with the most agents on it but they just kept coming and coming, like a never ending swarm of ants. He kicked out, taking another one down with a huge roundhouse kick and felt a bite of frustration as Hill urged him on.

"Better step it up Cap." she said, then there was the sound of 2 gun shots before she spoke again “6 minutes”

It was then that Steve realised he was blocked in. Agents behind him and a quinjet was aiming at him from ahead. He had no alternative but to dive off the edge of the hellicarrier.

"Hey, Sam, Sweetheart…I'm gonna need a ride," Steve said easily as he fell through the air.

"Roger! Let me know when you're ready!" Sam answered easily.

"I just did!" he said, his voice remarkably calm for a man who was currently freefalling at a fast pace. Suddenly his arms were tugging upwards, and he was deposited back on the tarmac, Sam landing besides him.

"You know, you're a lot heavier than you look," Sam grunted and Katie laughed, firing at an agent that was left before she dropped down with a clang.

"Yeah, well, I had a big breakfast." Steve responded cheekily.

Sam was about to respond when suddenly a blur of black and silver flew out from behind a crate and tackled Steve off the edge of the helicarrier.

“Steve!” Katie yelled, immediately launching to go after him but something grabbed at her foot, crunching down.

“Right thruster is compromised…” JARVIS said, as whatever had gripped her suddenly let go and she looped in the air, trying to gain her balance with only one thruster. As she spun to look at her assailant she caught a glimpse of a metal arm grabbing at Sam’s wings, throwing him backwards.

Sam managed to stop his backwards momentum and started to shoot at him in response. Katie joined in with her repulsors and one of the weapon guns from her shoulder, the two of them forcing the Winter Solider to retreat.

“Steve…” she yelled into her comms, flying off the side unsteadily with the one boot working “JARVIS run scan…” “Captain Rogers is there by the port side…” he said, and to her relief she saw his heat signature pulling himself up at the side of the carrier. She turned, expecting to see Sam behind her but instead she saw the Winter Soldier charging forward and kicking him off the Helicarrier. Sam began to plummet, one of his wings not working so Katie dove after him, grabbed his arm and managed to land the pair of them, albeit rather un gracefully, on the roof of the Triskelion.

“Thanks…” he mumbled dusting himself off as Katie retracted my face plate

"Steve, are you okay?" Katie asked earnestly.

"I'm alright. I'm still on the helicarrier." Steve responded. "Where are you?"

“Triskellion roof.” She spoke.

"I'm grounded, the suit's down. Sorry, Cap." Sam sighed.

“Katie?”

“One of my thrusters is out.” she sighed, “I’m running on half capacity…but I can get up to you if I need to.”

"It’s okay, I've got it." Steve said “I’ll call if I need you.”

“Half capacity?” Sam looked at her.

“Have to channel double the power to the non-fucked boot!” she shrugged, holding it up “Or I fall…means everything else gets compromised.” “Huh…” “Tony’s working on it…” she muttered as they looked up at the 3 hellicarriers, her eyes falling on the one Steve was currently on. “He’s gonna come face to face with him…”

“Yeah…” Sam sighed “Maybe he can make him remember who he was.” “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”  Katie observed, glancing at the Sam. He shrugged.

"Falcon, Nova…" Hill called through the comms.

"Yeah?" Katie paused, talking as she still remained with her eyes locked on Sam’s.

"Rumlow's headed for the council."

"I’m on it." Sam responded, unzipping his vest and nodding to Katie. “You stay here, he might need you.”

“Roger, oh and Sam…” she called after him. He turned to her, jogging backward “Give Rumlow a kick in the balls for me, really hard.” Sam saluted, grinning, before he turned on his heels.

“Steve…”  Katie spoke in her coms, getting nothing but static.

“I can’t reach him.” Hill said, “And Charlie is still not locked. We're running out of time."

"I'm on it." Katie responded, taking off in the direction of the carrier.

“40% power… “ JARVIS instructed.

“Thanks J, can you run a heat scan, locate Captain Rogers…”

“Located… he is in the central area, near the control room…” JARVIS said, showing her the thermal image of 2 men going toe to toe, her stomach sinking. She surged forwards and flew through the glass of the control room just as Steve and the Winter Soldier fell over the edge of the platform they were fighting on.

They both landed hard but The Winter Soldier got up first, standing over Steve, metal arm gearing up to deliver another blow, but as he went to connect with Steve's face Katie blasted at him, landing in between him and Steve, sending him sprawling backwards.

“Katie…” Steve said, getting to his feet.

“Get to the control panel.” she yelled as the Winter Soldier came charging back at her “We don’t have much time…” As the metal armed assassin lunged at her she shot upwards, flipping in the air and sailing behind him, firing at his back. He flew forward but jumped immediately to his feet and fired his gun at her, the bullets bouncing off her suit. They continued this twisted dance until she got a little too close, and his metal arm gripped tight around her left gauntlet, the squeal of metal on metal rang out as he began to crush down with his fingers.

“Shit…” Katie mumbled, “JARVIS… full power.” “But Miss Stark…”

“Do it!” She fired the suped-up repulsor beams and it caused the winter soldier to fall hard backwards. As she wound up for another shot, she had just sent it his way only to see him pick up Steve’s shield using it to block her ray. It rebounded it straight at her, hitting the suit square in the chest and sending her straight through the glass windows of the carrier into the sky.

It took her a while to right herself, but eventually she flew back inside just as the solider stabbed Steve in the shoulder. Steve yelled, and head butted the man three times, which forced him to let go. As Steve turned to pull the knife from his shoulder Bucky made a grab for the targeting chip and Katie fired at him again, knocking him into one of the metal beams at the back of the carrier, his head making a horrible noise as it connected before he fell face down. Steve wasted no chance in grabbing the discarded chip and heading up to the control panel as she stood between him and the Winter Soldier.

“Systems are seriously compromised…” JARVIS told her. “If you continue using your repulsors the way you are, I fear you won’t have enough power to make it down…” “We’ll worry about that later J.” she said, as she looked up watching Steve

"One minute." Maria Hill spoke and she had barely finished when Katie heard the sound of a gunshot. She turned to see The Winter Soldier getting to his feet looking dazed but his metal arm held his gun aimed up at the control panel where Steve was still climbing. Clearly he was still out of it enough to miss, even a second time as another gunshot went off and Steve let out a yell, gripping at his thigh.

"Thirty seconds!" Maria said urgently.

As the assassin position himself and steady his gun taking aim, Katie flew forward, knocking into him just as he fired. The Winter Soldier landed on his back before Katie stood over him, one foot on his chest, in a last ditch attempt to buy Steve a bit more time. He grabbed at the leg of her suit, pulling it from under her and she crashed to the floor, the man’s metal armed rained blow after blow down on her suit, the glass eye holes cracking.

“Suit integrity is at 50% and falling…”JARVIS said and she did the only thing she could do. She fired her thruster causing her to shoot out from under his hold, colliding with a steel piece of the structure which send her ricocheting out of the side of the hellicarrier.

"Charlie locked." she heard Steve's strained voice as she continued to fall through the air, struggling to fire her boot back up again.

"Okay, get out of there." Maria spoke as Katie continued to plummet, JARVIS also speaking to her saying he was trying to stabilise her tumbling.

"Fire now." Steve demanded.

“NO!” Katie yelled as he boot suddenly kicked to life about 12 foot above the Potomac. She could hear Maria trying to argue too. But Steve wasn’t having any of it.

"Do it now." Steve yelled.

Maria’s sigh was heavy on the comms link but she did as she was told pushing the button that started the helicarriers firing at one another. The ships began to tear each other apart and as more shots hit the one that they were on the inside began to break apart.

“Steve… STEVE!” Katie yelled hovering unsteadily, only being able to use the one thruster. She instructed Jarvis to channel more power into it to keep her upright and then Sam’s frantic voice sounded in her ear.

"Please tell me there's someone in the air!" 

"Sam! Where are you?" Nat’s voice sounded and Katie took a deep breath.

"Forty first floor!" He yelled as he got closer to the window. "Northwest corner!"

"Stay where you are!" Nat instructed as Katie swooped up to find him.

"Not an option!"

Her scanners picked him up and Katie spotted the helicopter Fury was flying a few floors below where it was supposed to be. She flew as fast as she could to grab Sam as he jumped out of the window of the collapsing building, catching him and tossing him into the helicopter flying in herself.

"Forty first floor!" Sam yelled as Katie retracted her helmet "Forty first!"

"It's not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building!" Fury yelled back.

"Hill, where's Steve?" Natasha asked. "You got a location on Rogers?"

“He was on Charlie…” Katie said, looking over, swallowing. “That’s the one that hit the building…”

*****

On the carrier Steve had tried to make him remember, just one final time, remember who he was. It didn’t work. The man with Bucky’s face tackled him to the floor and he landed on his back against a fallen bar, head dangling off the edge. He was anchored by the assassin’s legs around his waist and the tight hold of his uniform with his flesh hand. The man looked at him, hatred etched in every line on his face and it broke Steve's heart. What had HYDRA done to him to make him this way? They had turned his friend, his brother, against him and there was nothing he could do but try and remind him of his life before. And then came the blows from the metal arm, raining down on his face.

With every punch that landed, along with the agony, memories flashed across Steve's line of sight – some of them to do with Bucky, bailing him out of a fight in an alley behind a movie theatre. Punch. A Thanksgiving with the Barnes family. Punch. Games of cards in the army camp. Punch. But the ones that came more vividly were of his girl. The way her face scrunched up when she laughed. Punch. The black dress she wore on their first date. Punch. The way they lay tangled in one another after making love, her hand threading through his hair. Punch. The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention - like he was the best thing that ever happened to her.

He loved her. He loved her so much it hurt.

"You're my mission!" Bucky screamed out. Steve’s vision was blurry, his face was throbbing in pain; he was beaten, he knew that. But he just wanted Bucky to know how much he meant to him.

"Then finish it." Steve gasped out, pausing in an effort to get his breath back, "Cause I'm with you, till the end of the line."

He could've sworn he saw something in the man’s face shift. His eyes became wider, like he was panicking at the phrase. The metal fist was raised up high, but didn't move from its position. His chest rose and fell rapidly as his eyes softened, just slightly, and the metal arm lowered out of the wind-up. But before he could do anything else, a massive piece of steel from the helicarrier broke off. It crashed against the beam that Steve was up against. And then he was falling, as Bucky managed to hang on to the beam with his metal arm, a sick, twisted reversal of the incident seventy years ago when Steve had watched as Bucky fell into the snowy canyon below.

He plunged into the icy water of the Potomac, the light gradually growing darker, and darker as he sank further into the depth. It was a peaceful way to die, he supposed, after the brutality of the fight. And as his vision went, the last thing he saw was his girl’s face and the fact he was leaving her behind broke him just that little bit more.

I love you Doll, I love you.

*****

Katie engaged her helmet again and took off from the helicopter, flying alongside it for a short while as it circled the outside of the hellicarrier.

“JARVIS, you got anything?” she said, surging forward, but as she spoke her scanners locked onto Steve, where he was lay on the floor of the carrier, the Winter Soldier raining blows upon blows down at him, and he wasn't fighting back.

“What have we got left in the tank?” she asked desperately.

“25% power.”

“Should be enough…” she said, spiralling upwards towards them “Put everything we have into my thrusters.”

“Miss Stark…”

“Just do it…” she yelled.

She felt the power surge as she shot upwards but as she went, her scanners trained on them both, Steve she was hit by something falling from above and was sent crashing down through the floor of the carrier and then her repulsors cut out.

“Emergency back-up power…” JARVIS spoke as her suit fired up again, giving her just enough time to level out before she went head first into the Potomac. She weaved her way through the falling debris under the surface avoiding it before she shot upwards again, but there was no sign of Steve or the Winter Soldier.

“Miss Stark you need to land…”

“Yeah I know…” she said her voice cracking slightly “But I have to find Steve…”

In desperation she circled around the river, “Any sign?” she asked into the coms.

“Nothing.” Hill said “His suit doesn’t have a tracker…”

“Come on…” she mumbled, hovering in mid-air, her suit stuttering slightly. “JARVIS hit the scans again.”

“Running…” he muttered and she watched before the display locked onto him. He was quarter of a mile or so out from the Triskellion…and the Winter Soldier was pulling him out of the water onto the river bank.

With her last bit of remaining power she flew to them, landing behind the Winter Soldier. He immediately spun round but this time Katie saw fear in his eyes. They weren’t steely or dead like they had been before, instead they sparkled with emotion. For that reason she took a deep breath and stepped out of her suit, hands held up in a conciliatory manner.

“Bucky…” she spoke gently, glancing behind him to where Steve lay motionless on the bank. She bit back the panic in her throat at the site of him hurt and unconscious before she focussed on the man in front of her.

“Who are you?” his voice was deep and he looked at her. This was good, he wasn’t attacking. Taking a shaky breath she took one step forward and he instantly grew defensive and she stopped, shaking her head.

“It’s ok, my name’s Katie…I’m Steve’s girlfriend. You know Steve, right?”

His chest heaved, his eyes widened and for a split second she thought he was going to come towards her. Instead he stood to the side letting her get a full view of her man before nodding towards her.

"Get help." He said to her gruffly before turning and running.

“I’ve got him…” Katie spoke into her coms as she scrambled over to Steve, stumbling as she ran “South West bank, clearing in the trees…look for the sign…”

At that she shouted to JARVIS  “Supernova Protocol…” before she dropped to her knees next to Steve, hearing her suit shoot upwards before it exploded with a bang. Her heart stopped for a second as she looked down at her man, letting out a sob as she noticed his chest was rising and falling slowly, the only sign he was alive. His face was badly beaten, his right eye almost completely closed. There was the knife wound on his shoulder, several deep cuts to his face, but it was the gunshot wound to the middle of his abdomen that worried her most. It was bleeding heavily. She pressed one hand to the wound to stem, her other stroking his battered face…

*****

Steve realised he wasn’t dead. He felt like it, god the pain, but there was a familiar voice, a familiar touch, one heavy on his abdomen, the other stroking his sore, battered face.

“Shh…its’ ok” she said. It was her. He tried to speak but she shushed him, “Baby I’m here.”

“Katie…” he opened his eyes, looking at her, those beautiful green eyes, and he realised he wasn’t ready to go. He didn’t want to go, not when she was here. The thought of leaving her behind, when they had so much to look forward to, a future, made him start to panic.

“You’re going to be fine…” she said. He believed her, but man he was so tired, and the pain. His eyes shut.

******

Katie sat back, hand still pressed to the wound and looked across the Potomac. Pieces of the helicarrier were still falling, splashing into the river. She had no idea how long she waited, it can’t have actually been that long, but it felt like ages as she simply sat, hand clamped over Steve’s abdomen, listening to the sirens ringing loud through the air as emergency responders got closer. In an odd way, it was all proof they had won. But at what cost? 

She heard footsteps behind her and instantly wheeled to see Fury stood barking orders to 4 men following him with a stretcher, but she couldn’t really hear him. She stood up, moved back, in somewhat of a daze, to allow them access to Steve but once he was loaded onto the gurney she moved back to his side, taking his hand.

They emerged from the bank, and another medic made to drop a blanket round her, but she shrugged him off, her hand still round Steve’s until she had to let go as they loaded him into the ambulance which was parked in the clearing near the chopper.

“He’s gonna be fine…” Sam said as he appeared besides her, dropping an arm round her shoulders as she watched them anchor the stretcher in place. The paramedic inside the ambulance gestured to her, and she climbed in without so much as a glance back.

Tags

@the-omni-princess

@momobaby227

@geekofmanythings 16

[somedayonbroadway]

hii, if you don’t mind- do you think you could write that one (iconic) car chase for the big hero 6 au? thanks!

One of the best scenes.

Car Chase!

Charlie peaked out from behind the storage unit he cowered behind. He closed his eyes, trying to think.

He knew he’d wanted to find the man in the mask. But he hadn’t truly thought through what he’d do when he accomplished that.

From what he could gather, the man hadn’t seen him yet. That was good. The boy could vaguely hear a voice in his head, telling him to run. It sounded vaguely like Jack’s. Gripping at his chest, Charlie tried to keep his heart from breaking out.

He had to focus on the man. He had to figure out what this man wanted.

This man had started the fire. This man was the reason that Charlie’s only constant in life was dead.

Still unsure of the man’s intentions, the boy turned back to the robot beside him. “Okay, Baymax, time ta use those upgrades!” he encouraged quietly.

The big machine blinked and raised up its arms in a defensive position. And Charlie turned to make his way out to face the man in the mask.

That is, before a blinding light caused a spike of panic to shred through his veins. He covered his eyes, ready for some kind of fight, until he heard the sound of a car door opening.

“Charlie?”

“Oh no…” the kid groaned. Not them. Not this. Not now. “You guys can’t be here! You have to go!”

The four of them stepped out of the car together. “Kid, what are you doing out here?” Spot was at the least, looking down at him with worried eyes. Race stood behind him and Katherine and Albert stood calmly by the car.

“No! Nothin’! I’m not doin’ nothin’! Could ya just-“

It was hard to miss the way Race squinted starts the robot behind him. It was even harder to miss the hurt in his eyes when he realized what it was. “Is that Baymax?” He stepped around Charlie to get a closer look at Jack’s last creation. Charlie watched as he took his hands out of the pockets of his leather jacket. Those blue eyes looked over at him, almost angrily.

Charlie just shook his head. “Yes, but-“

“What did you do to him, Crutch?” the older boy asked, crossing his arms over his chest and waiting for some kind of explanation.

But Baymax spoke before Crutchie could come up with any response. “I also know ka-rah-teh,” he stated, moving his arms around in front of himself, as if to prove it.

Squeezing his eyes shut in embarrassment and feeling the stress gripping at him, Charlie whirled around, away from the disappointed gaze of Racetrack Higgins. “You guys need to go!”

He found that Katherine was standing right in front of him, leaning down to put a hand on his shoulder and glaring at Race for a moment. When she looked down at him, Charlie sighed. “Don’t push us away, Charlie… we’re here for you… that’s why Baymax called us…”

Charlie went to respond, but was once again cut off. “Those who have suffered a loss, require support from friends and loved ones-“

“Okay, but I-“

“Who would like to share their feelings, first?”

It was almost comical how fast Albert’s hand shut up. “Ooh! I’ll go!” he shouted, stepping even closer to Charlie and smiling around at the group with a wave. He always was the one that made everyone laugh. But the teen was not in the mood. “Hi! My name is Albert and it has been thirty days since my last- holy mother of Megadon!”

A commotion broke out above them. What sounded like a hissing of snakes turned out to be Charlie’s own invention gone mad. A storage unit was lifted from its place on top of another.

And there stood the masked man.

“Am I the only one seeing this?” Albert asked.

Katherine was quick. She grabbed her phone and snapped a picture.

That was when the masked man shook his head, freezing for only a moment, before that large metal container was thrown down at them.

Spot let out a cry and ducked down, waiting for the weight of the thing to crush him. But he gasped when he was able to open his eyes. Turning to his left he found Baymax on his back on the ground, lifting the metal compartment up over their heads. “Oh my God!”

“Spot get outta there!”

Race sounded panicked.

Charlie barely had time to make sure he was still breathing before he was slung over someone’s shoulder. “No!” It was Spot. They were headed back towards the car. “Baymax, get him!”

“Cheese it, kid! We gotta go!”

Spot set Charlie down by the door, expecting him to get in. But the boy had other ideas, moving to run back towards the man, only to be grabbed around the waist and shoved into the backseat and have the door slammed on him. “No! What’re ta doin’?!”

“Savin’ your life!” Race informed from the passenger seat, slamming his own door just as Spot put the car into reverse. “Go, Spot!”

“Baymax can handle that guy!” Charlie tried to defend, only for his statement to be proven wrong a split second later when a loud crash sounded from the top of the car. They all had to duck to avoid the collapsing roof of the cheep car Spot was driving.

Katherine shook her head. “Go!” she demanded, wrapping an arm around the kid and holding him close to her in attempts to stop his fussing.

It wasn’t working.

The car was set in reverse and Spot slammed down on the gas pedal.

Race fished in his pocket for his box of cigs. He lit one quickly, hardly even thinking about it. But Spot reached over to try and snatch it. “No smokin’ in my car!”

The younger boy leaned just out of his reach. “You ain’t tellin’ me not ta smoke right now!” he spat, shoving Spot’s hand away and turning in his seat to face Jack’s little brother. “Charlie! Explanation! Now!” he demanded.

Frantically, Charlie tried to put it all together himself. “Those are my microbots!” he came up with, pointing at the things that were shifting and rushing around the man in the mask who was now following them. “He started the fire! I don’t know who he is!” The microbots came rushing towards them. Charlie looked up quick. “Baymax! Palm heel strike!”

Baymax followed the order, effectively stopping the microbots for a moment and getting the car turned around with one hit.

But that only seemed to enrage the man all the more. He was gaining.

“Turn left!” Race instructed, catching sight of their attacker in the rear view mirror.

Spot shoved at him, but did what he was told.

Albert turned to look out the back window. He watched the man expertly follow them, using the microbots as transportation. They were fast. “That mask… the black suit…” he noted out loud. “We’re under attack from a super villain, people!” he exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward to press his palms up against the window. “I mean… how cool is that! I mean… scary, obviously! But how cool?!”

Race rolled his eyes. And turned back to face out the front window just in time to feel the car speeding to a halt. He gasped. “Why are we stopped?” he asked breathlessly.

“Lights red!” Spot explained, gesturing ahead of them. He looked frantic. And Race took another puff of smoke into his lungs, irritated

“There are no red lights in a car chase!” he screamed.

“There’s cameras! I’ll get a ticket-“

“Is that really your biggest concern right now-“

“Just go!” Katherine yelled from the backseat, watching as the man reached out towards them with the microbots, almost touching them, before the car sped off again.

Trying desperately to keep control of the car on the wet streets, Spot dared to ask the question they were all thinking. Except maybe Albert. “Why is he tryin’ ta kill us?!”

Scoffing a little, Race rolled his eyes. “Oh gee, I don’t know, let’s ask him… um, sir, why’re you tryin’ ta kill us?” he mocked.

Charlie tried to ignore it. Race had been so bitter. Ever since Jack died it was like all the sarcasm and standoffish behavior had taken over his once fun and playful manner.

He couldn’t think about it right now. He could only let Albert lean forward in excitement. “It’s classic supervillain! We’ve seen too much!”

“Are you really putting your blinker on?!”

“I’m indicating my turns! It’s the law! It’s force of habit!” Spot defended, making a sharp right.

But Race wasn’t having it. “Oh, Jesus Christ,” he growled, cracking the window and throwing his cigarette onto the street. Then he was reached to push on the bar beneath Spot’s seat and the older boy went sliding backwards with a shocked cry.

“Race!”

Race slammed down on the gas and glared out at the man who had managed to make his way in front of them. His blue eyes narrowed with determination as he sharply turned right just before the reached him.

Everyone in the backseat screamed.

The young man drove faster than he ever had before, maneuvering the car onto the sidewalk to try to avoid the machinery that had been turned against them. He turned down an alley way and scared some birds and somehow managed to go even faster.

The man found them again, trying to build a wall to make them stop. But Race thought quick. He switched gears and slid sideways into what looked like a sort of ramp that the microbots has created halfway to their goal and let the car jump into the air and onto a bridge behind it.

Charlie ripped himself from Katherine grasp. “Stop the car! Baymax can handle this-“ he tried to say, just before the car door was ripped off by his own invention and he was falling towards the fast moving, solid ground beneath them.

A hand tightened in the back of his sweatshirt. It stopped him just before his skull collided with the street. Before he could speak, he was lifted back into the car, set in the passenger seat and a hand was securing the seatbelt around him. Charlie looked up and gave Baymax a sheepish smile.

“Always buckle up before you begin driving,” the robot encouraged.

No one even flinched.

And Race kept going.

“Race,” Charlie heard Spot warn. He looked up. The train tracks were up ahead. There was a train coming. “Race,” the man wanted again, more urgently. But Race was not listening. “Race!”

They dove over the tracks, colliding with the ground on the other side just as the train took off behind them, almost crushing them. And Race was not phased.

Charlie tried to catch his breath. But he looked over to his right. And there was the man in the mask, staring right back at him.

“Did we lose him?” Katherine asked, gripping at Albert’s arm a little too tightly.

And just as Charlie might have answered, the hiss of his microbots came around them. “Watch out!” Spot warned.

Race tried to turn and avoid them, but they were creating a tunnel around them, attempting to box them in, to crush them. And the tunnel was getting smaller and smaller. “We’re not gonna make it!” Albert cried.

“We’re gonna make it,” Katheine countered, watching Race try desperately to make the car go faster.

It was closing in around them. Katherine and Albert fought back and forth until Race broke out at the last second, sending the car back down onto the pavement. “We made it!” Spot assured, only for Race to gasp when he looked out the window.

He slammed on the breaks. But it was too late.

The car was submerged in water before anyone could blink.

It filled up fast. The water. The car. Charlie couldn’t breathe. He pulled at his seatbelt. It was stuck. He looked over at his brother’s friends who were struggling to get out too.

But when Charlie looked over to his right, he found Baymax’s armor falling to the floor.

Charlie grabbed Race arm. And he pointed up to his brother last possession.

They all latched onto him.

And then they were rising to the surface.

The air hit Charlie fast as he began coughing for air. It was freezing.

But Katherine let out a laugh. “I told you we’d make it!” she stated, reaching over to clasp Race on the back as they all gripping onto Baymax for dear life.

No one else could bring themselves to be that giddy about the situation.

“We should get outta here…” Charlie suggested, looking over at Race who just lay his head down on Baymax’s stomach.

But Albert was the only one to respond, a small smile spreading onto his face.

“I know a place…”

————————————————

That was fun.

Here are more ideas about my Big Hero 6 AU! I hope you guys enjoy!

Much love! Lemme know what other scenes you guys wanna see!

[phoenixfeatherquill]

To Catch A Swan (14/22)

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Neal fell asleep in a car.

He liked the yellow bug.  It was a little ostentatious and it was probably foolish to steal it—a white sedan was probably a little less obvious.  But he couldn’t help it.  It reminded him too much of those Herbie films.  There was a homeless shelter in Denver that had zero movies in the rec area, save those movies, so he’d watched them all during a particularly nasty blizzard. He didn’t have fond memories of Colorado, but he liked those movies.  (The remake was crap.)

He hadn’t been long in Portland.  In fact, it was supposed to be his last night there.  No cash for a motel, shelters were packed, so he slept in his car, parked in a little alley to avoid cops.  He actually liked crashing in his car.  It was a little cramped, sure, but there was something soothing about falling asleep to the sound of rain on his roof.  It reminded him of better times.  

So it was quite the shock when he awoke to someone breaking in.  

The sound of the metal sliding through the window was what woke him.  He watched in utter shock as the thief easily unlocked the door and got inside.  

She was the most beautiful thief he’d ever seen.  Golden hair caught up in a messy ponytail, dark hipster glasses (clever, to avoid detection in Portland), a small smile that indicated she’d done this before.  She withdrew a screwdriver, a large rock, and started the transmission.  He watched her start to drive off before finally announcing his presence.

“Impressive. But really, you could’ve just asked for the keys.”

He dangled them for emphasis and she yelped.  The squeal of shock only made her more adorable.  He rested his chin on his fist and observed her.  She didn’t seem to know how to react to this situation (it was new for him too), so she remained silent.

Neal gave a little wave of approval.  “Just drive, it’s fine.”

“I just stole your car, your life could be in danger!” She’d snapped, perhaps trying to regain her earlier confidence.

“Neal Cassidy,” He introduced himself.  

“Yeah, I’m not telling you my name,” She’d fairly snarled and her irritation only made him more amused.

“I don’t need it to have you arrested when the robbery’s in progress,” He chuckled a little.  

She set her chin.  “Emma Swan.”

Emma Swan.  A good name, and he told her so.  

“So do you just live in here or are you just waiting for the car to be stolen?” Emma Swan asked sarcastically.

“Why don’t I tell you over drinks?” He suggested amiably.  

She turned to look at him over her shoulder in shock.  “Excuse me?!”

“Eyes on the road!” Neal pointed at the stop sign Emma blew past.  The sound of irate Portland drivers filled their ears. She straightened a little, probably embarrassed.

“I am not having drinks with you, you might be a pervert,” She informed him.  

“I might be a pervert,” Neal acknowledged. “But you’re definitely a car thief.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“You didn’t, actually,” Neal felt it relevant to point out.  She huffed a little at this but both of them stiffened in fear when the heard the siren behind them.  Emma swore a little.

Neal groaned and raked his fingers through his hair.  “That’s why I said eyes on the road…”

He could see her eyes flick around and he knew from experience she was judging whether or not it was worth it to make a run for it.  But there didn’t seem any good places to run to so Emma put on an artificial smile as she nervously awaited the officer.  Neal, however, immediately snatched the screwdriver out of the ignition and replaced it with the keys.  

“License and registration?” The officer’s bored and patronizing tone towards Emma’s bright greeting gave Neal an idea.

“Terribly sorry, officer, but this is actually my car. I’m…I’m trying to, uh, teach my girlfriend how to drive stick.” He gave the officer a sheepish grin, one he’d perfected over years of conning authority figures.

“She’s got a lot to learn,” The cop said coldly.

“Yeah, I know, but you know…women.” Neal gave a helpless shrug.  

Emma gave him the dirtiest look.  But he knew what he was doing.  He read the cop the moment he’d walked over and looked Emma all over, condescension fairly dripping from his uniform.  

“All right, I hear you. It’s a warning. This time.” The cop gave Emma a stern, paternal look before returning back to his car.  Neal thanked him grandly and popped out of the backseat to join Emma in the front.  

“What are you, some sort of misogynist?!” Emma demanded as he clambered into the passenger seat.  

“You’re welcome,” Neal glanced over his shoulder as the cop drove off. “Oh, go. We got lucky.”

“We?” Emma stared hard at him and he grinned at her mischievously. “This isn’t your car either, is it? I stole a stolen car?!”

Her outrage was palpable and hilarious.  He beamed unrepentantly and cocked his head.

“Now how about that drink?”

It had hit him like lightning.  It wasn’t merely attraction or companionship.  It was something far greater, something he hadn’t understood at 23. His father—before he became the Dark One—had always spoken sadly of love, had seemed almost wary of it.  As the Dark One, he’d been mocking towards it.  Though even he had apparently been caught up in its magic, with this mysterious Belle character…but no one had prepared Neal for it. He’d fallen in love at first sight with Emma Swan.  

She had been understandably apprehensive of him, but charmed too.  She expected him to take her to a dive, somewhere they wouldn’t check her ID.  He took her out for cocoa instead and brought her to one of his favorite spots—a deserted amusement park.  He’d never forget the utter delight on her face when he turned the lights of the carousel on.  It was at that moment he wanted to do nothing but make her eyes sparkle like that for the rest of his life.

They’d sat together on that carousel and talked.  She’d asked him his story and he was tempted to say, “Which one?” He’d lived so many lives across the years he sometimes wasn’t even sure who he was anymore.  

She’d asked about his past and he’d admitted to her his problems with his father. He had shoved his fear and hatred for Rumplestiltskin in a dark place in his heart; it was unbelievable that he was sharing it all with her now, even confessing how he missed having a home.  

Their gaze had met and for the first time in a long time, Neal felt like he had a home.  Wherever Emma was…was home.  

And that night in the sheriff’s office, when she kissed him, something in his heart settled and Neal felt like coming home again.  

Everything in his mind went blank.  There was only Emma, only how right it felt for her to be in his arms once more, the feel of her soft lips against his, the tangle of her golden curls in his fingers.  This was right, this was real, this was home, and he was never going to let it go again…

The phone rang.  They were abruptly ripped back into reality and Emma dove for the phone like a drowning woman would grab a life preserver.  Panting a little, she answered the phone.

“Hello?”

Neal watched her, his fingers twitching.  She glanced at him, the color in her cheeks rising.  

“Yeah, fine. I’m…I’m going to get her. And then I’ll question her. Yes, I’ll let her know you’ll be present. Okay. See you then.”

She hung up the phone.  She stared at her desk like it would reveal her fortune and Neal cleared her throat. She straightened and looked at him.

“That was Regina. She wants to be present when I question Mary Margaret.”

He nodded.  They stared at each other, unable to vocalize what had been lost.  The moment was broken.  Neal desperately wanted to snatch it back.  But did he have any right to?  

Emma crossed her arms over her chest.  “I’m…I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Neal broke in immediately. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She laughed harshly.  “I kissed you.”

“Yeah, well, I kissed you back.”

There was another long pause while Neal pondered what to do next.  Emma wiped her chin absently and Neal tried to reclaim his frazzled mind.  

“I should—I should go,” He said finally. “Get some sleep. You should too. I’ll…I’ll call you tomorrow morning, okay?”

She nodded but did not meet his gaze.  He quickly strode out of her office as fast as he possibly could.  

Running away again, coward?

Neal ignored the hateful thought.  He thought vaguely that perhaps he ought to do as he’d told Emma, go back to the cabin and sleep.  But he had more important business.  He turned the corner and heaved a sigh of relief.

The light in Mr. Gold’s pawnshop was still on.  He strode forward and banged on the door.  

Sweat beaded his forehead.  He exhaled again when he heard the slow footsteps of his father approach the door and open it.  Gold said nothing about the lateness of the hour, Neal’s frazzled appearance.  

“Mary Margaret needs your help,” Neal said without preamble.  

Gold leaned against his cane.  “Oh?”

“It’s—it’s Regina. I’m sure of it. Regina is setting her up, framing her for the murder of Kathryn Nolan. You have to help her. Mary Margaret needs a good lawyer and fast.”

Neal felt dizzy.  He was actually asking his father for help.  Was he insane?  Whenever his father helped him, people died!  But the heat from Emma’s kiss, his fear for what would happen next, everything scrambled his mind.  

“I was already intending on offering my services,” Gold said smoothly. “Pro bono, of course. I know what I charge her for rent, after all.”

Neal stilled.  “You were going to—why? What do you get out of it?”

Gold said nothing.  He watched him and picked up a silver chalice.  He polished it carefully and Neal watched the methodical movements in frustration.  

“What are you trying to do?”

For some reason, the question cast a shadow across Gold’s face.  It disappeared as quickly as it appeared, but Neal, who was an expert at his father’s expressions, felt very cold.  All of this was a chess match to his father. He was placing different pieces on the board, arranging his surroundings until the moment he would strike.  To trap a queen—but which queen?  

Neal turned and walked out of his father’s shop.

                                                                       XXXX

Neal did not call Emma.  Instead, the two of them gave each other a very wide berth as Emma conducted her investigation.  He trusted that she would call him if she needed any help.  But he needed to figure out what exactly Gold was up to.  

What did Gold want?  The obvious answer was power.  But didn’t he have power here in Storybrooke?  Aside from occasionally going toe to toe with Regina, but overtaking her didn’t seem to be a priority of his.  But if he remembered who he was…what else would he want?

The answer struck Neal like lightning as he entered Granny’s diner. Gold would want magic.  

But this world had no magic.  So how on earth could he—

Neal stiffened when he noticed August talking to Henry at the counter. He marched over and snatched August’s shoulder.

   “What did I tell you about talking to my son?” He growled.  

August sighed dramatically.  “Always so suspicious! I was just offering Henry a little friendly advice.”

“Dad, he believes in the book!” Henry said excitedly. “He could help with Operation Cobra!”

“He can help by getting the hell out of here,” Neal said very softly, in a tone uncomfortably reminiscent of Gold’s.  August well remembered Neal’s fists and hastily made his exit.  

Nolan took the newly unoccupied seat.  “Henry, I want you stay away from that guy.”

“But Dad!” Henry complained. “We need all the help we can get. And he’s right. He said we need proof to help Miss Blanchard and we do.”

“Emma is working on finding proof,” Neal nodded at Granny in thanks as she filled him a mug of coffee. “We have to trust her on that.”

“Yeah, well, we found a big knife in Miss Blanchard’s heating vent,” Henry informed him loftily. “And my mom obviously planted it there. So we’re finding proof in the other direction.”

“Does Emma believe the knife belonged to Mary Margaret?”

“Of course not!”

“Then trust her to find the truth. That’s something Emma’s really good at,” Neal took a long sip of coffee. “In the meantime—I mean it, Henry. Stay away from August. He’s not a good guy and he could get you into trouble.”

Henry sized his father up.  “How do you know him?”

Neal hesitated.  He didn’t want to keep secrets from his son.  Rumplestiltskin lived in secrets and darkness; Neal wanted his relationship with Henry open and honest.  But how could he tell his son such a thing?  That August had played upon his insecurities, frightened him with his warnings of Emma’s destiny and the Enchanted Forest—and had convinced him to leave her?  Could Henry ever forgive such weakness?  

“Look,” Neal put his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “I just want you to trust me on this one, okay? Stay away from him. Promise me?”  

Henry’s brow furrowed and Neal was strongly reminded of Emma.  After a long moment, Henry nodded.  

“I just want to help prove that Miss Blanchard’s innocent,” He sighed and pushed his now cold hot cocoa away.

“I know it’s frustrating,” Neal acknowledged and ruffled Henry’s hair. “But trust me, kid. Emma knows what she’s doing. And I’m looking into it too. If Regina is setting her up—”

Henry’s eyes lit up.  “I’ve got it!” He crowed.

Before Neal could ask what he was talking about, his son hugged him fiercely and dashed out of the diner as fast as his short legs could carry him.  

                                                        XXXX

Neal wasn’t able to catch his son the day after, to find out what exactly had inspired his outburst.  But he learned that Mary Margaret had accepted Gold’s help and her arraignment was scheduled for the following morning.  At the very least, Neal had confidence in his father’s talents.  He would keep Mary Margaret from being arrested. Not everyone could nearly beat a man to death and persuade (or blackmail) a judge to ignore the matter.  

The rest of the day was quiet but very busy.  Jefferson nearly overwhelmed him with odd jobs the entire day, so much so, that by the end of the evening, Neal almost decided to crash at Granny’s inn rather than make the long trek home.  It was still freezing and nothing seemed more unpleasant than a cold, windy walk back to the cabin.  It hadn’t been the first time he’d crashed at Granny’s.  And he could check in at the sheriff’s office first thing in the morning. Maybe bring Emma some coffee…

But he still hadn’t talked to her about that kiss.  Did she even want to see him?  

Finally, Neal decided to walk home.  He needed the time to figure out if it was even worth broaching the topic of the kiss.  Emma was completely immersed in Mary Margaret’s case—as well she should be. It wasn’t really time to talk about the nature of their relationship.  He should leave it alone.  He knew better than to push Emma.  No one could deny she had walls—many she’d built because of him—but breaking them down forcefully would only wreck her further.  

He’d nearly reached the cabin on Jefferson’s land when he noticed something odd.

There were lights on in Jefferson’s house.  

At any other moment, this would not have concerned Neal.  Jefferson was something of a night owl and Neal had gotten used to his odd employer taking walks at 3AM, occasionally skulking around the gardens in the middle of the night, or even having an all night nightcap, which he often invited Neal to join in.  But Jefferson had specifically told him that he would be out of town tonight and it was doubly urgent that Neal complete all of the errands by that evening.  

Why would Jefferson have lied to him about being out of town?  It made no difference to Neal.  They weren’t exactly friends.  Neal didn’t care what Jefferson did or didn’t do.  

Unless…had he dumped all of those errands on Neal to keep him away from the house?

  The idea was paranoid.  But Neal couldn’t seem to escape the niggling feeling that something was off.  And he’d learned at this point in his life it was best to trust his instincts.  The last time he hadn’t, Graham had ended up dead.  

Jefferson was always extending invitations for drinks.  He would go up, have a glass of beer with him, see if anything was amiss, and head back home.  No problem.  

Neal cast one more longing look towards his cabin and shut out the yearnings for his nice, warm bed.  He trudged up the hill towards Jefferson’s front door and raised his hand to knock. He then thought better of it and tried the handle.  

To his surprise and unease, it yielded immediately.  

He stepped inside.  “Jefferson? You here?”

The house was eerily quiet.  It had always been far too big a place for one person and Neal had repeatedly told him so.  Jefferson always smiled an odd little smile and agreed.  

“Hey,” Neal called out again. “It’s Neal. Everything okay? I thought you were going out of town tonight.”

He continued to walk down the hallway.  He thought he heard something, a scraping noise, metal against stone. He followed the sound and turned a corner—and nearly ran into Emma and Mary Margaret.

“Emma?!” Neal said thunderstruck. “What are you doing here?”

“Neal, thank God!” Relief broke over Emma’s face. “We have to get out of here. Right now. He’s crazy! He tied Mary Margaret up!”

“Keep your voices down!” Mary Margaret implored. “He’ll hear us!”

“Neal, quick, we have to—”

They were interrupted by the click of a pistol cocking.  

“Sorry, Neal,” Jefferson said ruefully aiming the gun towards them. “I really didn’t want you to be here for this.”

                                                     XXXX

“What the hell is going on?! What the hell are you doing?”

Jefferson clucked sympathetically and pointed the gun at all of them.  “You should’ve stayed in Storybrooke tonight, Neal.”

“Put the damn gun down!” Neal moved bodily in front of Emma and Mary Margaret.

“I’m afraid that just isn’t possible,” Jefferson sighed. “Emma. Tie Spot back up, please.”

Neal calculated his odds.  He was likely to get shot if he rushed Jefferson but there was a chance he’d only hit Neal, and the scuffle would give Emma and Mary Margaret a chance to escape. But before he could make a move, Emma placed a hand on his shoulder.  

He looked at her and she shook her head.  After so long, how could she read him so well?

“Single file, please,” Jefferson said in a bored voice. “Forward march.”

They slowly walked into a small, dark room, where a trembling Mary Margaret returned to her seat.  Emma whispered something to her and tied her wrists and replacing the gag.  She then turned to Jefferson.

“Your telescope,” She accused. “You’ve been watching me.”

“You’ve what?!” Neal thundered.

“It points towards the Sheriff’s office,” Emma’s eyes never left Jefferson’s face. “Why?”

“I need you to do something for me,” Jefferson replied quietly. “Neal—if you make any move towards me, I swear, I will blow Miss Swan’s head off. Let’s go.”

He must have noticed Neal’s fingers twitching.  Boiling hot rage coursed through Neal’s veins and he said in a low voice.

“Is this why you hired me? To get close to Emma?”

Jefferson didn’t answer.  He nudged them out of the room, indifferent to Mary Margaret’s screams, and prodded them forward.  He took them to a small room Neal had never seen before, lined with top hats.  

“Sit down, Neal,” Jefferson ordered. “Hand me that cell phone in your pocket. And keep quiet.”  Neal obeyed, regretfully.  

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” Emma burst out. “But if you hurt my friend, I swear I’ll make you regret it.”

“Hurt her? I’m saving her life.” Jefferson said softly, walking towards her not unlike a lion stalks its prey.  

“How do you figure that?” Emma demanded.    

“Don’t play stupid. We all know what happens when people try to leave Storybrooke.”

And in that moment, it hit Neal like a ton of bricks.  Jefferson knew.  He knew everything.  He knew about the curse, he knew who he was, where he came from…did he know about Neal?! Did he know who his father was?!

“The curse is keeping us all trapped,” Jefferson murmured. “All except you two.”

“Have you been reading Henry’s book?” Emma said perplexed.

“Henry and his book of stories,” Jefferson mused. “The ones that Emma chooses to ignore—but Neal pays very close attention to. Ever wonder why?”

Neal’s fists clenched.  Emma glanced at Neal in bewilderment.  

“For the last twenty-eight years,” Jefferson began to circle the room, like a vulture, keeping the pistol aimed high. “I’ve been stuck in this house. Day after day, always the same. Until one night, you two roll into town, the clock ticks, and things start to change. You see…I know what you refuse to acknowledge, Emma. You’re special. You brought something precious to Storybrooke—magic.”

“You’re insane,” Emma said flatly.

“Interesting,” Jefferson bared his teeth. “Perhaps you’re the one who’s mad. After all, what’s crazier than seeing and not believing? Ask Neal. He knows.”

Without waiting for this, however, Jefferson took Emma by the shoulders and sat her down at the table across from Neal.  The table was littered with sewing supplies, pins and pincushions, scissors of all sizes, scraps of fabric.  

Jefferson bent and rested his chin on Emma’s head, staring at Neal blankly. “She’s the only one that can do it, Neal,” His voice was barely above a whisper. “She’s going to get it to work.”

And in that moment, Neal realized who he was.

The Mad Hatter.  

“The hats…” Neal sucked in his breath.  Magic hats that could open a portal.  

“The tea!” Emma exclaimed. “Your psychotic behavior. You think you’re the Mad Hatter.”

Jefferson clearly did not like to be called that.  “My name is Jefferson.”

“Okay,” Emma set down the piece of fabric and took a deep breath. “You’ve clearly glommed onto our kid Henry’s thing. They’re just stories. The Mad Hatter is in Alice in Wonderland—a book. A book I actually read!”

“Stories…” Jefferson smiled a little. “Stories. Tell me, Neal. What do you think of these stories? In high school, you studied the Civil War, yes? You learned that in perchance a book? And what are storybooks based on? Imagination? Where does that come from? Neal—where do you come from?!”

“Jefferson,” Neal said in a low voice. “You can’t—you—”

“This is it!” Emma gestured around her. “This is the real world.”

“A real world,” Jefferson corrected.  He leaned towards her, across the table. “How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one? There are infinite more. You have to open your mind. They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands. Each just as real as the last. All have their own rules. Some have magic, some don’t. And some need magic. Like this one. And that’s where you come in.”

Jefferson pointed the blade of the scissors towards Emma while keeping the pistol firmly trained on Neal. “You, Spot, and Neal are not leaving here until you make my hat. Until you get it to work.”

The scissors clattered as he dropped them in front of Emma.  Both she and Neal jumped at the noise.  Jefferson smirked a little at their tenseness and spun around towards Neal.  

“I truly did not want you involved,” He said apologetically. “Believe that, at least. I know who you’re hiding from. And I know why. But I have to get my daughter back.”

“What?” The color drained from Neal’s face.

“The curse,” Jefferson told him. “He did this to find you, you know. To make all of us feel what he felt. Like everyone else, what I love has been ripped from me. Look.”

He gestured for Emma to go to the telescope.  She peered through but Neal remained rooted to the spot.  He did this to find you, you know.  To make all of us feel what he felt.

 “Her name is Grace,” The pain in Jefferson’s voice was palpable. “Here it’s Paige. But it’s Grace. My Grace. Do you have any idea what it’s like to watch her day in and day out, happy, with a new family? With a new father?”

“You think she’s your daughter?” Emma asked.

“I don’t think, I know. I remember. She has no idea who I am. Our life together, where we come from. I do. That’s my curse.”  Jefferson turned towards Neal.  He reached a shaking hand out and ran his fingers through Neal’s curls.

“Do you understand now?” Jefferson asked quietly. “Do you understand what he’s done to me? To all of us?”

“What—what who’s done?!” Emma asked, her eyes flitting between Jefferson and Neal nervously.

“Jefferson,” Neal’s mouth was dry. “I—I’m so sorry. I didn’t—I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want him to find me. I never did. I just—”

“I know,” Jefferson nodded frantically. “I know. You and I are the same, Neal. We will do whatever it takes to get our family back.”

“That’s why you want me to make the hat.”

They both turned to look at Emma.  Her expression was vulnerable.

“You just want to take Grace home,” She exhaled slowly. “To your world.”

Jefferson stared at her.  “You believe?”

“If what you say is true, that woman in the other room is my mother. And I want to believe that more than anything in the world. So maybe you’re right. Maybe I need to open myself up more. Maybe, if I want magic, I have to start believing.” Emma stepped towards Jefferson.  

“So you’re—you’re going to help me? You can get it to work?” Jefferson was half-begging.  His voice trembled and Neal’s heart broke for him.  

This was all because of him.  The curse, Storybrooke, all of it—all of it had been done because Rumplestiltskin was trying to hunt him down.

It was all his fault.

Emma swallowed hard.  “I can try.”

He backed away and turned to grab the hat Emma had haphazardly stitched together. But as he did so, Emma seized the telescope and knocked him unconscious.  He fell to the floor instantly.

“Crazy son of a bitch!” Emma burst out and snatched the gun. “Neal, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine,” Neal stood up and embraced her. “Are you? Did he do anything to you?”

“He drugged me, but that’s it. You got here before anything else could happen. C’mon, we’ve gotta get out of here!” She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him along with her, but Neal stopped short.

“You get Mary Margaret out of here,” Neal told her. “I’ll keep an eye on the Mad Hatter here. Then come back here and arrest this asshole.”

“You sure?” Emma handed him the gun.

“Don’t worry about it,” Neal said grimly. “I’d like to have a few words with him in any case.”  

Emma nodded curtly.  “Here. Time him up.”  She handed him scraps of fabric that would do as light ropes.  Neal bent down and tied Jefferson’s wrists together tightly.  The Mad Hatter’s eyes flickered slightly and Neal kicked him in the gut for good measure.

“I won’t be gone more than fifteen minutes,” Emma promised. “I have to get Mary Margaret back to her cell before her arraignment.”

“I got him,” Neal said, still staring at Jefferson’s unconscious form. “Go.”

“Neal…” Emma hesitated. “I just—about what happened the other night—”

He gave her a half-smile.  “You know, I was all worried about bringing it up with you because you had so much going on. And now you’re bringing it up right after you’ve been drugged and tied up?”

“Okay, fair enough,” Emma coughed. “Raincheck?”

“Raincheck. Get out of here.”

                                                           XXXX

When Jefferson awoke, he was tied to a chair facing Neal, a gun pointed directly at his head.  

“Let’s review,” Neal said in a dangerous voice. “You hired me so you could keep a close watch on Emma and figure out her movements. You drugged the mother of my child and tied her up. You terrorized her mother and tied her up. And you tried to force her to send you back to the Enchanted Forest. Am I missing anything?”

Jefferson spat a wad of blood on the ground. “Neal…”

“Trust me, I sympathize,” The dangerous glint in Neal’s gaze faded slightly. “I get the desire to get your kid back at any cost. But you cross a goddamn line when you endanger my family.”

“You have to let me go,” Jefferson pleaded. “Before she gets back.”

Neal laughed harshly.  “Oh yeah? And why the hell should I do that?”

“Because I know where Belle is.”

[the-iceni-bitch]

Sweeter Than This

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem!spy!Reader

Words: Mobile again ☹️

Summary: You almost miss your first Valentine’s Day with Bucky, but you have a plan to make it up to him.

Warnings: explicit language, explicit sexual content (unprotected vaginal sex, oral sex(f receiving), salad tossing, unprotected anal sex, use of butt plug), violence (standard canon stuff), SMUT, 18+ ONLY!!!!

A/N: Happy V-Day y’all! Here’s the next entry in my Holidays With Bucky series (with so Sam sprinkled in) and it’s a fun one! Unfortunately, the power is out at my place right now due to snow and because my city sucks at preparations I’m probably not going to have power until at least Monday, so we’ll see if I’m able to deliver on my other promised Valentine’s treats for you all.

Check out my masterlist and join my taglist if you want!

Bucky hated clubs so much.

The loud music, the overcrowding, the overpriced drinks. He was absolutely miserable.

It didn’t help that Sam was bouncing around like an idiot, enjoying the atmosphere with a stupid grin on his face. Would it kill the man to act like a professional for once?

They’d followed the target to the Cross Club here in Prague after four days of surveillance with nothing to show for it, and now they were watching him talk to some new player in a VIP booth. God he hoped this would be over soon.

“What?” Buck shouted over the music. Sam had said something, but even with his super soldier hearing, he couldn’t make it out over the thumping bass.

“I said, is Y/N pissed you’re missing Valentines Day?” Sam yelled, his hips still moving in time to the music.

Bucky did some quick mental math and cursed under his breath. He hadn’t seen you in almost 3 weeks. You had to head back to the States for some stupid debrief with Sharon and the big bosses while he and Sam kept chasing leads on Zemo here in Europe. He hadn’t even realized it was Valentines Day.

“Shit, he’s moving.” Sam said, tapping Buck on the shoulder as the mark stood up and moved towards the dance floor.

“Fuck, can’t we go around?” Bucky whined, starting to follow after Sam towards the crowd.

“Y’know, when your girlfriend’s not around, you’re such an old man.” Sam teased. “We don’t wanna lose him, so pull the stick out of your ass and try to look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

Buck just rolled his eyes and trailed after him, doing his best to avoid the writhing, sweaty bodies that kept trying to grind against him. Sam was right, it was a lot easier to enjoy these types of ops when you were with him.

He didn’t know how they managed to keep eyes on the target as he moved through the crowd, but they saw him head out one of the exits and were following after him within a few minutes.

“Hey, Wilson? Where the fuck is he?” Buck hissed as he opened the door to an empty alley.

“Shit, hold on, let me pull up Redwing.”

“I still can’t believe you named that fucking thing.” Buck said exasperatedly.

Sam didn’t have a chance to reply before a motorcycle ripped past the two of them.

“Was that him?” Bucky yelled as he whipped his head after it. “Motherfucker!”

“Calm down, I got it.” Sam said, summoning his wings.

“Oh, I guess I’ll just run after him then? I told you we should’ve brought a car!”

“I could carry you.” Sam said teasingly, giving Bucky a stupid grin.

“Oh fuck you.” Buck said, flipping Sam off as he chuckled at him. “Shit!”

The two of them dove out of the way as a Lexus tore into the alley, stopping just short of hitting them.

“Hey assholes! Happy Valentine’s Day!!!” You shouted as you rolled down the window, a massive grin splitting your face.

“Baby!? What’re you doing here?!?” Bucky asked, beaming back at you.

“I had to get the fuck out of D.C. There was no way I’d miss our first Valentine’s Day! Besides, I missed the field! Now get in, I managed to tag his bike but I don’t want him to get out of range.”

“Shotgun!” Sam called with a grin on his face, making you laugh.

“What?!? Fuck you Wilson! You’re gonna make me sit in the back when this is the first time I’ve seen my girl in weeks?” Bucky said in disbelief.

“Sorry Barnes, you should’ve called it!”

“Yeah babe, you really should’ve called it.” You teased as he crawled into the back of the vehicle with a scowl.

“I can’t believe you’re taking his side.” He pouted at you as Sam climbed after him, bringing the back of his seat up to crash against Buck’s knees.

“There’s no sides, honey, it’s shotgun rules.” You said as you peeled out of the alleyway.

“Whatever, could you move your seat up Wilson?”

“Nope.” Sam said grinning over his shoulder before cursing under his breath and bracing one hand against the ceiling as you swerved around a slow moving van. “Jesus, Y/N! Maybe take it a little slower, we’re still in the city.”

You just snorted before taking a sharp turn at an inadvisable speed, barely tapping on the brakes and sending Bucky sliding across the backseat.

“Put your seatbelts on, idiots.” You scolded as the two of them tried to find something to grab onto.

“Honey, pedestrian, pedestrian, Pedestrian!!!” Buck screamed as he buckled himself in, screwing his eyes closed.

“Yeah, I see them.” You said as you took another turn at the last second, barely missing the man who was crossing the street.

“Oh my god! This is how I’m going to die.” Sam said, his knuckles white on the dashboard as you flew up a hill, the car actually suspending in midair for a beat before crashing back to the street with a jolt. “Stuck in a car with a crazy woman and her 100 year old boyfriend.”

“You’re so fucking dramatic.” You said with an eye roll, glancing at him sideways. “It’s like you’ve never been in a high speed chase before.”

“Eyes on the road!” Bucky shouted at you as an unsuspecting couple started to step off the curb directly into your path.

You hopped onto the walkway behind them to avoid the brake lights in front of you and your two passengers started letting out a steady stream of curses as you weaved between pedestrians and carts.

“Just relax you two, we’ve almost got him.” You said exasperatedly, somehow speeding up even more.

You rounded another corner and the bike popped into view, speeding out of the city at a breakneck speed.

“Shit, gun!” Sam screamed as the biker turned around, hefting an AK-47 and pointing it directly at the windshield.

He and Bucky ducked, hands covering their heads. They flinched as they heard a series of pops, then straightened up slowly when they realized the windshield was still intact.

“Yeah, it’s bulletproof.” You said with a grin as you kept the car steady with one hand, reaching under your seat to grab something. You handed a giant pistol to Sam. “There should be a rifle under the backseat, baby.”

“And what exactly do you want us to do with these?” Sam asked warily as Bucky drew out the rifle and nodded appreciatively.

“Shoot at him.” You said, following the bike around a sharp turn that had the boys bracing themselves.

“Fuck that! If you think I’m sticking half my body out of a window while you’re driving like this you’re insane!” Sam said in disbelief. “Besides the car is bulletproof.

“Yeah, well the tires aren’t, and if he hits one of those while I’m driving this fast, we’re all gonna get shredded.”

Bucky shook his head before rolling down his window and pulling his upper body out of the car, bringing the rifle up to return fire.

“You are both fucking crazy!” Sam said, rolling his own window down and shoving his shoulders out, bringing up his pistol.

The biker turned his focus to Bucky while Sam covered him, and you took the opportunity to speed up.

“What’re you doing, babe?” Bucky shouted into the car as you started to get closer to the bike.

“I’m gonna ram him.” You yelled back. “Keep covering me!”

“Umm, isn’t he supposed to lead us to Zemo? Shit!” Sam yelled, a bullet whizzing by his ear.

“I don’t think he’s leading us anywhere Sammy.”

“Well, we could still get information out of him!”

“Yeah, these guys have proven to be pretty impervious to interrogations, Wilson.” Buck said, gripping the roof of the car with his vibranium hand as you followed the bike around another curve.

“I really just need his phone!” You yelled as you closed the distance even further, now only 25 feet from the back tire of the bike. “You might want to get back inside.”

Sam yanked his upper body back into the vehicle with a curse and Buck slid back inside easily as you pressed the gas pedal to the floor. You hit the bike in a few seconds and sent it and the rider rolling over the car with a thud. As soon as it was clear you slammed on the brakes, sending the vehicle spinning out.

“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod....” Sam was screaming as the car whipped around over and over, his eyes screwed shut and his hand braced against the roof of the vehicle while his foot braced against the dashboard.

Bucky just clenched his jaw and ripped his vibranium fingers through the back door to hold himself in place, shaking his head at Wilson.

The vehicle finally came to a stop about 200 feet away from where the bike had crashed. Sam wrenched his door open and dove out of the car, bending over and vomiting at the side of the road.

“You ok there Sammy?” You asked, rising from the driver’s seat gracefully and looking at your friend with concern as Bucky almost climbed over the front seat with a wince and joined you.

“Oh, what are you wearing?” He groaned as he finally got a good look at you. “Are you trying to kill me?”

It was a skin tight, patent leather pink dress that was pushing your tits together and up in an absolutely delicious way. The skirt barely covered your ass and he was sure there was no way you could bend over in it without flashing whoever was nearby.

“I told you, baby, it’s Valentines Day.” You sad with a grin as you stepped closer to him.

He moved to wrap his arms around you but you stepped away at the last second, moving back towards where the bike crashed with a light laugh as he let out a frustrated huff.

“What is wrong with you two?!” Sam said as he started to follow after you. “Your girlfriend almost kills me and all you want to do is jump her as soon as it’s over.”

“I mean, did you see that dress?” Bucky said teasingly as he joined your friend, walking a little faster to catch up with you.

“Got the phone!!” You said triumphantly as you straightened back up from your inspection of the dead body. “And it’s still in ok shape! I’m gonna call this in real quick and then we can head back.”

“No! I’m not going anywhere if you’re driving!” Sam said, shaking his head vehemently. “Gimme the keys.”

“C’mon Sammy!” You said with an eye roll.

“You do not get to call me Sammy right now, you psycho!” He said, snatching the keys out of your outstretched hand as you laughed at him. “And neither of you gets to sit shotgun! You sit in the back and think about what you’ve done.”

“Jesus, fine dad.” You said as you slid into the back seat, Bucky chuckling as he slid in after you and slammed the door closed.

Sam pulled the car forward a few feet, turning the wheel sharply before throwing it in reverse and spinning it in the opposite direction as he backed up.

“Uh, Sammy?” You said as he repeated the process. “Maybe just crank the wheel all the way and pull a little further forward?”

“Yeah, it’s not called a 13 point turn, Wilson.”

“Both of you shut the fuck up!! I’m not taking driving advice from you!” He shouted over his shoulder as he did the exact same thing and you lost it, laughing hysterically.

“Oh my god, there’s like 15 feet of road that you’re not using!” You said breathlessly as you cracked up Bucky grinning as he watched you fold over in laughter.

“I cannot believe the shit I have to put up with.” He muttered as he finally straightened out the vehicle and drove back towards the city, doing his best to ignore your dying laughter.

Bucky was beaming at you as you settled down, leaning back against the seat as you wiped tears from your eyes. You smiled back at him and gave him a wink.

“Did I tell you how much I love that dress?” He said as he scooted closer to you, his eyes raking over your chest before sinking lower to gaze at your thighs.

“No.” You said teasingly, biting your lip at him and leaning towards him just a little bit.

“Cuz I fucking love that dress.” He growled at you as he wrapped his hands around your waist and drew you closer, nuzzling himself into your neck.

You gave a soft sigh as he ran his teeth over your throat, flinging one leg over his lap as he moved his vibranium hand from your waist to cup your ass. He moved his mouth up to the hinge of your jaw as he pressed you into him.

“Shit, Bucky.” You moaned as he pulled you onto his lap, his hands running over your thighs to tuck under your skirt as he sucked a bruise against your neck. “I swear to god, if you ruin this dress...”

“Oh, what the fuck guys?!” Sam said as he peeked at you through the rear view mirror. “I’m two feet away from you! It’s like you’re a couple of teenagers.”

“Sorry Sammy!” You whined before letting out a gasp as Bucky nuzzled himself between your tits at the same time he bucked his hips up into you, grinding his hardening cock against you.

“Oh, I do not get paid enough for this shit.” Sam groaned as he pulled the car into the parking lot of the hotel and jolted it to a halt. “I cannot believe I have to put up with you horny idiots.”

“Bye Sam!” You called after him as he slammed the door closed, waving a dismissive hand at you as he started to head back to his room. “Mmm, Bucky!”

He drew the straps of your dress down over your arms and wrapped his lips around one of your nipples as you arched your back into his face.

“Jesus Christ, I fucking missed you.” He groaned before moving his mouth up to yours, sucking your bottom lip between his teeth as he laid you down across the backseat.

“Yeah? What’d you miss baby?” You murmured against his lips, wrapping your legs around him and ripping his shirt over his head.

“Missed the way you smell.” He murmured against your neck as he nuzzled into your hair. “Missed these fucking perfect tits and how well they fit in my hands.” He whispered into your ear as he brought his hands up to palm your breasts, making you whine.

“Fuck, baby. You’re making me so wet.” You said breathlessly as a fresh rush of arousal leaked out of you, your fingers moving to work at undoing his fly.

“Good.” He growled against your collarbone as his he dipped one hand under your ass and pressed you into his hard on. “Cuz I missed that pussy the fucking most.”

“Shit.” You hissed as his vibranium hand ripped off your panties in one quick motion before his hands moved to shove your dress up around your waist. “Don’t you dare fucking rip this dress, Barnes!”

“I’m being careful.” He said with a chuckle before lining himself up. He teased his tip against your entrance before slowly sinking into you, grinning as he watched your eyes roll back in your skull as your lids fluttered, a moan escaping from your lips.

He drew himself out halfway, really taking his time as he felt himself drag against every inch of the warm channel between your legs, then slammed his hips forward with enough force that you had to brace your hand against the door to keep your head from cracking against it. You had to bite your lip to keep from screaming as you came immediately, your back arching up off the seat as your pussy spasmed and fluttered around his cock.

“Fuck, sweetheart, you miss me too?” Bucky said with a grin as he kept fucking into you, watching your chest heave as you started to come down from your first orgasm. He hooked one hand under your knee and drew it up to your waist, spreading you apart even further.

“Shit, yes!” You moaned as his dick thrust even deeper into you, hitting a new spot that had you seeing stars. “Missed this cock so fucking much.”

“Yeah? You miss feeling me in this tight little pussy?” He said as he felt you clench around him, your hips meeting his thrusts desperately.

“Fuck, Bucky! My pussy needs you so bad. Need your big cock inside me all the time.” You let out a gasp as he brought his vibranium hand between the two of you to strum at your clit. You wrapped your hand around his wrist to keep him in place as you tossed your head back. “Need to feel you stretch me and split me open, baby.”

“Jesus, keep talking.” He murmured as he collapsed on top of you, burying his face in your neck as he started moving his hips even faster. “Love hearing you use that filthy mouth of yours.”

“Yeah, babe? You wanna hear me talk about how much this pussy needs your big cock?” Your grinned when he let out a groan against your neck. “My pussy would get so fucking wet every time I thought about that dick. Nobody fucks me like you do. Oh god, right there!”

“Damn, honey. You’re squeezing me so good. You gonna cum again?”

You just nodded before a sob ripped through your chest, your knuckles turning white as your grip on his vibranium wrist tightening and a wave a pleasure crashed over you. Your legs squeezed his hips as you thumped your fist against the door, your torso rolling underneath Bucky as your cunt clamped down on him, making him twitch.

You felt his hips stuttering as you writhed underneath him, and with just a few thrusts he was filling you up, panting against your neck as he sank on top of you, pressing his full weight into you as he came down.

“Oh my god, happy fucking Valentine’s Day.” He moaned into your hair.

“Shit, I still need to give you your present, baby!!” You said with a grin as you ran your hands over his shoulders.

“I don’t need a present, sweetheart.” He said lazily before peppering soft kisses over your throat.

“Oh, I really think you’re gonna want to open this one.” You sighed, wriggling a little underneath him.

You grabbed his flesh hand and drew it between your legs slowly, dragging it over your sex until his fingers brushed against the jewel that was nestled between your ass cheeks. He sat up with a jolt when he realized what you were suggesting, making you laugh excitedly as he gave you a massive grin.

“Oh my god, Y/N, I’ve been waiting for this.” He said as he flipped you over, smacking your ass as you giggled at him. He spread your cheeks apart and groaned when he got a look at the pink jewel of the plug you had inserted earlier in the day.

He gripped the plug and drew it out of you slowly, biting his lower lip as he watched you pussy clench at the sensation. His breath came out in a hiss once it was free, your pretty hole gaping and fluttering at the loss as you moaned underneath him, pressing your ass back into his palms.

“Fuck, I’m gonna make you feel so good.”

He didn’t give you a chance to respond before he was yanking your hips back and up, tossing your thighs over his shoulders. You let out a shriek when he ran his tongue over your cunt in a heavy stripe before dragging the flat of the thick muscle over your asshole.

“Fuck, oh my god!” You screamed, trying to find something to brace yourself against as he ran the tip of his tongue around your rim, teasing you and making both of your holes throb with need.

He kept teasing you with his tongue for what felt like hours, alternating between heavy drags that ran over your entire sex and tiny kitten licks that were turning you into a begging, whimpering mess, a steady stream of slick leaking out of your swollen pussy.

“Gotta make sure you’re good and ready for me, gorgeous.” He murmured, giving you a momentary reprieve before he shoved his tongue inside your puckered hole.

The sound you made was otherworldly, halfway between a moan and a cry. He almost came just from the pure wantonness of it, and he felt his cock twitching against your chest as he started to tongue-fuck you. You pressed your cheek to the leather of the seat as he took you apart, mewling like an idiot as he stretched you open, his thick muscle probing you as deep as he could.

“Bucky...” you mumbled before another orgasm shook you, your cunt fluttering around nothing as a wave of bliss traveled up your spine from deep in your core and making you whine as drool leaked from the corner of your mouth.

He pulled his face away from you suddenly and unwrapped his arms from around your thighs. Your muscles were jelly as he lowered your hips, your eyelids drooping as you moaned at the loss of him. Once he finally had you laid back down, he took a second to gaze at you.

He loved how fucked out you got. Your limbs were splayed out at random angles as your back rose and fell with deep breaths, the curves of your breasts just peeking out from where they were pressed against the seat. He brushed your hair away from your face to see you grinning up at him, your cheeks streaked with tears and mascara and your lipstick smeared all over your mouth and chin as you looked at him with lust blown pupils.

“We’re still not done.” He said softly before wrapping his hand around your throat and yanking you up until your back was flush against his chest, making you gasp. He brought his other hand between you to wrap around his cock and dragged it through the slick that had soaked your ruined pussy before teasing his tip against the rim of your tightest hole. “I think you’re ready for me.”

He didn’t wait for you to answer before shoving his hips forward and spearing into you. Your body tried to jolt forward at the intrusion but his palm on your throat kept you in place, holding you still as he bottomed out.

“Jesus Christ, you feel amazing.” He muttered into your hair, his fingers vibrating over your throat as you let out a whine.

He pressed down against your jugular as he started to move his hips, dragging in and out of you at a deliciously slow pace that had you keening. You were losing yourself in the new sensation of having him fill your tightest channel, his thick cock stretching you more than you’d ever been before. Your head dropped back on his shoulder as he started to move faster, the slick leaking from your pussy making it easier for him to slide in and out of you.

“Fuck, I love your body. You treat me so good baby.” He murmured against the shell of your ear. “Wanna fill all your your pretty holes and pump you full of my cum. Wish I could be inside you all the time, pretty girl.”

Your pussy was fluttering around nothing as his soft praises filled your ears, and when he dropped his hand to the apex of your thighs you almost came immediately with a cry.

“You didn’t think I forgot about this pretty pussy, did you baby?” He whispered as his metal fingers spread you apart, teasing over your entrance as his flesh hand increased the pressure on your airway and his hips picked up the pace. “You want me to fuck you with my fingers while my cock’s in your ass, honey?”

“Fuck, Bucky, I want you to spank it.” You moaned as he continued to tease you, your brain starting to shut down as the mixture of sensations overwhelmed you.

He let out a feral growl against the curve of your neck before wrapping his lips around your earlobe. “Shit, you gonna cum if I spank it?” He hissed in your ear as he kept his fingers running over your sex.

“Yeah, I’m gonna fucking cum! Need you to spank my pussy, Bucky, please.”

His teeth nipped at the hollow behind your ear at the same time he smacked your cunt and you let out a shriek as your body vibrated against him. Your thighs quivered with strain as your pussy spasmed uncontrollably, your asshole strangling Bucky’s cock as you shook in your bliss, his hand around your neck the only thing keeping you upright.

“Fuuuuck.” He hissed against your neck as his hips chased his own release. “I wanna fuck all your holes while I cum, sweetheart, get ready.”

You only had a second before he was shoving three fingers into your pussy at the same time he put two fingers in your mouth, choking you as he shoved them down your throat before you were able to relax. He groaned when you started sucking on him, swirling your tongue around his digits while his vibranium fingers curled inside of you against that sweet spot that made your eyes roll back in your skull.

He felt you clench around him everywhere and let out a groan into your hair, his cock twitching inside you as you both neared your ends.

He ground his palm against your clit and you were finished, sobbing around his fingers as you squirted your release all over his hands, his thighs, and the seat in what was the biggest orgasm of your life. Your body tried to lift itself off the seat as you came, your vision whiting out as your muscles stopped working and Bucky let you collapse forward as he finished.

Another few thrusts of his stuttering hips and he let out a wordless roar as he came inside you, filling you completely with his spend until it was leaking out around his cock. He collapsed on top of you as his body rolled on a wave of pleasure, his breath hitching in his chest.

The two of you laid there tangled with each other for what felt like hours. You were so utterly spent that the passage of time no longer held any meaning, and you completely forgot where you were.

“Holy fuck.” Bucky muttered after a while, still unable to move anything except his face, which he nuzzled into your hair.

“Yeah.” You muttered into the seat cushions, your brain finally resetting.

“I mean, holy fuck.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Yeah.” You said again, wiggling your toes look experimentally as your body started to come back down.

“I’ve never cum that hard before in my life.” He muttered as he drew his hands over your arms until they were pressing into your shoulders, moving your hair aside so he could pepper kisses all over your neck.

“Me either.” You whispered, turning your head over your shoulder so you could press your lips to his softly.

He pulled away once he was able, giving you a sloppy grin as he managed to sit up, pulling out of you gingerly and groaning at the sight of his cum leaking out of you. You twisted until you were able to sit up yourself, leaning back against the car door as you beamed back at him.

“Best fucking Valentine’s Day ever.” He muttered, drawing you onto his lap to kiss you deeply, and wondering if it would be too tacky to tell you he loved you after the first time you let him fuck your ass.

Tags!!!!!

@buckysnumberonegirl @slothspaghettiwrites @captain-asguard @starlightcrystalline @harrysthiccthighss @quxxnxfhxll @bonkywobble @chrisevanscardigan @chubbybuckydumpling @StanAllStarks @blackestpinkworld @fistmebuckyskywalker @wandering-spiritash @khadineberry @muzzyandbusy @slytheriin2002 @isysen @WanderingAlice00 @kaleeelizabeth58 @tlcwrites @angrybirdcr @unsaltedalmonds @amerikakapitanyy @lizette50 @daughterofthenight117 @obsessivereaderchick @drabblewithfrannybarnes @stargazingfangirl18 @jack-skellingtons-stuff @chrissquares @msmarvelwrites

[snarky-badger]

SO, I also have two requests, one for each of the marvel boys: for Ultron, I find his voice so soothing, so maybe have something about his voice being the only thing that can get his human to sleep at night? And as for the symbiote. I don't know how much you know about the Carnage symbiote, but I'd like to see Venom's reaction to his morsel hosting it considering how much he hates Carnage and his overt violence. You need more info on Carnage, poke me, I have a lot of ideas. Heck, I might write 1

Answered the first part over here

PG for Violence and mentions of Gore.

Okay, so Carnage. My knowledge goes from his ‘creation’ through ‘Maximum Carnage’ then bounces around a bit.

EDIT - This thing was like pulling teeth for some reason! I kinda merged Movie and Comic in this, writing as if Carnage was like Movie!Venom. Sorry. The characters, they don’t listen O.o

EDIT THE SECOND - I realized that this isn’t quite what you were asking for. I’m sorry. This is where the story took me. If you want me to try again, maybe not as a reader-insert but from Eddie/Venom’s POV I can try again. Lemme know.

Everything had gone batshit crazy so fast.

It had just been a date. A simple, go out, have dinner, ice cream for dessert date. Then some crazy red-headed guy had appeared, cackling about having finally found his ‘daddy’ and things had just gotten weirder from there.

Eddie had shoved you behind a parked car, Venom quickly taking over, an enraged roar leaving him as he’d thrown himself at… Gods, it was another symbiote. Red like blood where Venom was inky blackness. It shared the crazy man’s voice, only slightly deeper, a little more crazed.

You’d watched, from the dubious safety of the lee of a car, as the two fought. Venom was brute strength and otherworldly speed, the other symbiote ferocity and insanity rolled into one. It kept pausing in the fight to grab various bystanders and rip them apart, laughing manically all the while, making quips and jokes about murdering and ‘carnage’.

‘Carnage’. Oh. Oh no. You knew this crazy fucker. Had read about him, had been warned by Eddie and Venom that if he were to ever show up to just run. 

Yeah. Okay. Running. You could do that.

Knowing that Venom could take care of himself - it wasn’t as if you were anything but a hindrance in a fight - you started to dart from shadow to shadow, slinking away from the battle. Screams and the wail of police sirens sounded around you as you ducked into an alleyway in time to avoid a thrown car, covering your mouth with your hands to muffle a scream when the flying Mazda slammed into another parked car, the cries of fright from the occupant within rising above the chaos.

Okay, you couldn’t fight, but you could help.

Panting, trying to keep a hold of the panic rising in you, you darted over to the people trapped in their car, grabbing the handle, trying to convince warped metal to open. The woman inside was freaking out, and you knew that she wouldn’t be able to hear you over the sounds of the fight, the screams and the sirens, so you didn’t try to tell her what you were doing as you ran around to the passenger door.

It wasn’t as warped, and you managed to wrench it open, leaning in. Saw red out of the corner of your eye, and threw yourself into the car to avoid a grab from a clawed hand. Heard Venom roar, gunshots, and joined the woman in huddling in fear as Carnage was tackled off of the roof of the car.

The woman next to you was curled up, whimpering, and you fought with the seatbelt button before wrenching it loose, freeing her. “Run!” you screamed into her face, grabbing her arm and pulling her out the passenger door with you, steadying her and then shoving her towards an alleyway.

Beyond the car, the way you’d run from, was chaos. Blood spatter was everywhere, cars overturned, crushed, bits and pieces of buildings and dead bodies littered the street, stunned and terrified people stumbled around, trying to revive others who were mortally wounded.

Screaming from behind you had you moving on autopilot, running for a store and darting in through the open door. You dove behind a display, crouching low, hands over your head, shuddering, trying not to make any noise.

A body flew through the window, Venom crashing to the ground and sliding deeper into the store. Red spikes were jutting from his chest, pale eyes narrowed in pain, and you met his gaze for a moment, saw the horror on his face, before he hauled himself to his feet, pulling the spikes from his chest. They disintegrated as they fell to the floor, and you saw Venom take a deep breath before he lunged through the shattered window, throwing himself back into the fight.

Obviously staying where you were wasn’t an option.

Gulping, you risked a glance, then scrambled out into the street when the view was clear, turning to sprint towards a quartet of police cars nearby. One of the officers grabbed you as you ran by, spinning you into him as he threw the two of you to the ground, and you screamed as another flying car sailed over.

There was a dismayed “AW! I missed!” followed by maniacal laughter, and you shuddered. Crazy fucker.

“Lady, stay down.”

“The fuck do you think I’ve been doing?” You hissed at the cop. “You guys have been hunting Venom for weeks, where’s all the fancy sonic shit you’ve been using on him?”

“SWAT is five minutes out.”

“We don’t have five minutes!” you growled, ducking reflexively when another cop screamed out ‘incoming’. You flattened yourself to the pavement as a hailstorm of red spikes came flying. Most of them hit and sunk into the cars around you, three made it past to hit various policemen. One was dead before the hit the ground, another took a spike in the leg, the third in the shoulder.

Cursing, you whipped your belt off and crawled over to the cop that had a spike in his thigh, using the faux leather belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. The cop bit his lip enough to draw blood at the pain, but nodded to you in thanks, and you tried to muster up a smile, failing miserably.

That failed smile turned into a shriek as red tendrils lashed around your torso, the ground falling away as you were plucked up.

“Hey, hey, HEY! Don’t undo all my work, lady! He’s supposed to be dead!”

Another shriek left you as Carnage sent a knife-edged tendril into the cop’s chest, plucking out his heart when it pulled back. The still beating organ made you want to puke, and you twisted in Carnage’s hold, trying to wriggle free of the symbiote mass that was curled around you.

“Aw. You don’t appreciate my work either, huh? Everyone’s a critic! Right, Pops?” The last was a laugh directed at Venom, who had frozen when he’d caught sight of you in Carnage’s grip. “Too softhearted, daddy! Always worrying about these meatbags. Though…”

You grimaced as Carnage leaned into you, pale eyes, different than Venom’s, more sharply defined, narrowing a little, as he actually sniffed at you. “HEY! Well, whaddya know? Dad went native!” Carnage laughed, high pitched, unhinged. “Thought you smelled familiar! So, toots, you’re the meatbag ol’ pop’s flustered about, huh? Got a name sweet cheeks?”

You glanced past him, at the SWAT truck that screeched into view, and the guns that they were carrying as a dozen heavily armed men piled out of the truck. Grinned a little. “Fuck you, asshole.”

Those pale eyes narrowed a little, a knife edged tendril rising in front of your eyes. “You’ve got some spunk, kid. I’ll give you that. Wonder if you’ll still be as lippy once I pop out one of those pretty eyes and make you watch me chew on it?”

“FIRE!”

The shriek that left Carnage as the sonic wave hit him rattled your brains. His hold on you vanished and you dropped to the ground, landing on your hands and knees before you shoved yourself up and ran for cover.

Sonics sounded little worse than a high-pitched, nails on a chalkboard, noise to you, but to symbiotes - evidenced by Carnage’s writhing, screaming form - it was agonizing and potentially deadly. Watched from behind a dumpster as the man bonded to the alien contorted, seizing, arms flailing as he screamed in pain. The symbiote bubbled around him, tendrils trying desperately to hang onto it’s host, but the sound drove it back, away. You knew when it finally left the man, because his body stopped convulsing.

The alien tried to flee the sound, and you rose and turned to run when it headed towards you. Got, maybe, fifteen feet before blood red tendrils lashed around your ankle, tripping you. You kicked out as you fell, trying to use your other foot to scrape the thing off of you as the red symbiote crawled up your body. Felt thoughts, alien, bloody, hungry, murderous, start to ooze into your mind, and you screamed as it seeped through your clothes, through your skin and into you.

Venom found you kneeling in the alleyway, your hands gripping your head, rocking back and forth as you keened, a high-pitched whine. Your mind felt like it was on fire, alien thoughts trying to take over, thoughts of killing of slaughtering, of breaking open bodies open one by one like cracking open crab legs making bile rise in the back of your throat.

“MORSEL?”

“Oh God, get away,” you whimpered, eyes clenched shut, tears streaming down your face. “It found me, it’s inside me, I can’t stop it, it just wants to kill everything, Jesus, it’s insane. Get it out, get it out, get it out!!”

A black taloned hand reached out to touch you, and you slapped it away, because the symbiote in you saw that Venom’s guard was down and it screamed at you to take advantage, to get close and kill and rip the other symbiote away from it’s host and sink your teeth into a vulnerable throat and–

“No!” You shoved yourself to your feet and stumbled away. If the Carnage symbiote hadn’t been as weak as it was from the sonics it would have taken over completely, the red talons that formed over your fingers twitching as you fought for control.

Hissing, you curled your hands into fists, the claws slicing into your palms. Bit your lower lip to stop the fangs from forming. God, you could feel it writhe inside you angrily as it tried to take control, your entire body trembling as you fought to keep it from winning.

Your back hit the wall a moment later, and the symbiote in you focused your gaze on Venom, who was snarling as he pinned you to the brick.

“GET OUT OF HER! SHE’S OURS!”

Your hands jerked up to sink your newly formed, blood red, talons into his face, but you barely managed to clench the muscles in your arms, those claws twitching away. “V-Venom, get it out of me, oh, God, please, it’s crazy, all it wants is to kill everyone and it’s getting stronger, Venom please–”

“…perfect host…” left you in a lecherous purr, your voice gaining a psychotic, gleeful, tone. “So perfect. Might stay a while. Like it here. Like the ones that fight…”

“Goddamn it, shut the fuck up!” you screamed, banging your head back against the brick hard enough that it made you see stars.

“YOU CAN’T HAVE HER!” Venom snarled, his hands on your shoulders pressing hard, eyes narrowed into furious slits. “MORSEL! FIGHT MORSEL. WE’LL BRING YOU TO THE MRI!”

“No time! It’s– fuck!” You kicked Venom away with more strength than you’d ever had before, sending him flying backwards in time to avoid the talons that you’d swiped at his face. The alien inside you railed, screaming, setting your teeth on edge, like if you’d been chewing on aluminum foil. Every nerve ending felt like something was tugging on it, like you were a puppet, and you banged your head back against the brick again, the brief, unfocused, flit of time allowing you to scream - “Sonic gun! Get a fucking sonic gun!”

“NO!”

You opened your mouth to scream “Shut the fuck up, you fucking play-doh body snatcher!” except nothing came out. Tried to yell, to scream, except it felt like a vise was squeezing your throat. And when the words finally came, they weren’t yours.

“Ours now! All ours!”

Like hell! It tried to have you lunge at Venom, and you gathered enough control to have your leg buckle, throwing you into a pile of garbage. You couldn’t get your body to work as a whole, but you could fuck up pieces at a time. Felt the symbiote’s anger, felt it’s unhinged rage, and sent it the mental equivalent of a middle finger.

It screamed in your head, and you screamed right back, feeling it sink daggers into your thoughts, tearing, rending, trying to silence you, to wipe out everything that made you you, and you fought with everything you had, until the next scream came from outside.

The sonics ripped through you, and this time, your cry was vocal. It felt like every nerve ending was on fire, like the symbiote had sunk millions of tiny hooks into your very cells, and now that it was being driven out, it was taking all of them with it.

Every muscle convulsed, every bone felt like it was breaking, the symbiote’s shrieks of pain echoing in your skull until you couldn’t tell who was screaming louder, you or it.

There finally came a feeling like a great exhale, and suddenly you could breathe without screaming. You slumped to the dirty ground, entire body feeling like it had been smashed under one of those rollers that smoothed fresh pavement  onto the ground.

People rushed around you, shouting words that should of made sense but didn’t. Your blurry gaze focused on a group of them that ran to shove the red symbiote into a container, until someone shone a light into your eyes that made you grunt.

“Sarge! She’s alive!”

“Get her loaded up on the– Jesus Christ! Get the sonics!”

“GET OUT OF OUR WAY!”

Something grabbed you. The world tilted, the ground rushing away. Felt gravity take hold and groaned again as things swung, wind ruffling your hair before a hard landing jostled you.

“MORSEL?! MORSEL!”

You groaned, weakly, rolled your head on your neck until you could get your eyes gaze to focus on a black and white face. “V’em? Wha–” Everything jumped back into clarity, and you jerked your head up, almost bashing Venom in the face as your hands rose to clutch at your chest. “Is it gone?! Venom, is it–?!”

He stopped your shriek of terror by hugging you, tight, and you trembled as you threw your own arms around his neck, clinging to him. “GONE. CARNAGE IS GONE. CONTAINED, FOR NOW.”

You were hyperventilating a little, hiccuping for breath. “It’s crazy. It’s fucking, certifiably, crazy. I had in my brain and I feel dirty and gross and oh, God, let go I have to throw up.” You barely managed to wriggle free, stumbling over to the edge of the rooftop you were on and puking over the edge. Your entire body just wanted to make sure that everything that wasn’t you was gone, apparently, because you kept dry-heaving long after your stomach was empty.

Finally, shaking, you slumped to your knees on the flat roof, arms wrapping tight around yourself. Venom moved to kneel next to you, one large hand rising to gently brush his thumb across your cheek, and you closed your eyes as you leaned into the touch.

“I wanna go home,” you whispered, meeting Venom’s worried gaze as his hands settled on your shoulders again. “Take me home? I want a shower and then I need you to hold me for a while.”

He was unnaturally quiet as he nodded, gently picking you up and cradling you to his chest. Sirens still sounded in the area, people shouting, the wail of ambulances loud, more yells rising when Venom walked to the edge of the roof before leaping into the air.

The entire webslinging trip home was done in silence, Venom’s grip on you tight, as if he was afraid something would rip you out of his grasp.

You’d never been more happy to see your apartment building before.

Once inside, you shucked out of your clothes on the way to the bathroom, not even caring where they landed. Took a moment to wash your mouth out with Listerine before going to spin the taps of the shower on, putting it as hot as you could stand before getting in. Venom had followed you, still silent, and now he stood awkwardly outside the shower enclosure, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

“You’re not coming in?” you asked as you started to scrub at yourself with a soaped up loofah, trying to get the feeling of being tainted by crazy off your skin.

He shifted a little. “STILL WANT US?”

“Still want–?” You frowned, then shot a hand out and grabbed his nearest wrist, tugging his unresisting form under the spray of the water. “You are not Carnage. Don’t you– Venom! How could you even think that?!”

He huffed, hands automatically resting on your hips as he pulled you close. “HE’S OUR OFFSPRING. CAME FROM US.”

“He got fucked up by a psycho, is what happened. If he’d bonded with a host like Eddie, he’d be like you. A protector, not a…”

“MONSTER?”

Your eyes narrowed a little. “Now you listen to me, and listen good. You are not responsible for the evils of another. Your… ‘offspring’ got it’s head twisted up by a psychopath. Kasady is fucked in the head, like, majorly. He’s the one that infected your ‘offspring’ with darkness, not you. I have had it inside my head. There’s nothing in there that’s even remotely like you.”

He sighed, a great heave of breath, then leaned down to press his forehead to yours, pale eyes closing to mere slits. “SCARED US.”

You slid your hands up his arms until your were hugging him around the neck, pressing yourself up against him. “Scared me too,” you admitted softly, closing your eyes when he ducked his head to nuzzle at your shoulder, tendrils hesitantly reaching out to curl around your arms and legs, wrapping around your waist and hips.

A sigh left you as you leaned into him, relaxing, the nightmarish memories in your brain calming when Venom rumbled, like a great cat, and hugged you close, lifting you off your feet as he straightened.

“I dunno if I can sleep, but… wanna go sprawl on the couch and watch a movie? Or one of those nature shows you like?” you murmured a few minutes later, mustering up a smile when he nodded, licking at a trail of water along the side of your neck before meeting your gaze.

“OURS,” Venom rumbled, raising a hand to your face, talons gentle against your skin. “RIGHT?”

“Damn straight.”

[yespoetry]

Caitlin Scarano: There Is No Ending

I know we’re all sick of poems with deer but let me explain

 Last night: a forest of hospital beds

 I want to ask all these strangers: do you ever think every day you’re getting closer to your death or do you wake in the morning with hope crusted in the corner of your eyes, your teeth already grinning at the air?

 Grief is a very complex machine, it told me so itself, a matrix

that takes years

A.     to navigate

B.      from you like teeth

 Dear J, I have a few acres all to myself now, you should see them

 I’m sorry you had to turn so many stones

while I looked on at a careful distance

 The male human heart at age 36

Who knew, I guess

 It’s true that I didn’t mind the horses starving outside my window, as long as they

            came when called, as long as they were gentle with their teeth

            I mean, I had many apples going to rot, what else could I have done

 I read about how the water in Lake Superior is replaced every 191 years

 Remember the spot where I dove under and was rolled by a wave and for a moment I did not know what was up or down, what was past or present, you or⁠—

 That winter, the lake froze, trace lines of cracks in the ice colliding, the fractures in my body all met

 In another dream, you’re in front of me⁠—solid, tangible, with a dark beard and corduroy pants

I ask you about dying and he you say, Let’s go to this city I know

Then you disappear into a tangled forest and I follow, stumbling, ripped by thorns

 You’re always just out of reach, always just turning the next corner

 Remember those children we watched while we ate ice cream on that green bench in Sault Saint Marie? Silly

            that isn’t my favorite memory of you, not by far but it’s the one I keep

coming back to

 I took it so I should have wanted it

But the sugar made my teeth ache

 Every memory is two-sided, like that day we lay in the grass watching ships pass through the lochs

Distance is deceptive

It was sunny, the photos you took prove it

            But the wind⁠—

 Or the wind and the rain that day we met at the lighthouse, you wore a black sweater, I hadn’t seen you

            in years, you looked younger, time doing its mirror trick

 The scene draws us

We weren’t ghosts but we were

both adrift, though only one of us knew it

 When I reach the city you spoke of, it’s been abandoned for decades

 Every memory is two-sided, like the time you were driving and the Jeep hit

black ice and spun out

Like the time I was driving and my car died as we coasted down hill

 In a human dream, electric blue hydrozoan creatures blossom in the Superior’s deepest water

 Every memory is two-sided, and nothing is mine to claim

 I run these dirt trails near my house, I think of you, I touch my chest, count my breaths

One day I came upon this mother dear and two fawns, they were tiny, spotted, legs so ready to give out but they did not give out

 J, you should have seen them

  Generational, Domestic

 I drink from the cup that made me

before blood congeals across the top.

 Touch the muscles of your back

while you sleep. What does cruelty express?

 A fear so deep it creates its own

gravity, the world pours in around

 the rim. Despite how light clawed, it could not

get out⁠—not after, not from within. I live by a river

 and dream of living by another river. Throw my baby

teeth into it like coins in a well. Wish and watch

 water pass, think of how it bows and braids,

think of the circulatory system, nervous

 birds on loop. My niece appears in a dirt-stained

dress holding yellow zinnias as they blossom

 and rot, blossom and⁠—Does movement remind you

of death or escape? When you bite the inside

 of my thigh, what memory of violence 

unfurls like a seed? Generational, domestic. Your mother

 tells you she prays for us and I swallow

it whole like a duck egg. A blue mud wasp

 taps against my window, where its always

been. While we sleep, bindweed inches up

 the walls and ceiling. Coils around the lamps.

Tomorrow, we’ll eat the heads of morning.

 A Litany of Dreams You May Borrow

 The one where I pick sunlight off my skin like scales or sequins

 Or I have a boy’s torso and a jaw

that doesn’t lock when I start to laugh

 Any of the dreams with snakes or my mother trapped in a radiator vent

            because they spring from the same well

 My little sister and I are teenagers again, still speaking to each other, and she climbs a sugar maple and never comes back

 The ones where rain comes through the roof but not the ones where it is snowing in my room

 S. and I still live together but a gray horse circles the house, starving

No one names it

 My father is in a hospice bed, holding up his rot-dappled organs one by one

as offerings to me

 The cow pasture

where I’m in a wedding dress carrying a pitcher of his blood

 B. and I are back on the beach at night and she kisses me except this time ocean is made of milk and sweet

 No one invents sin so we sun ourselves on the rooftop

 Any dream of my grandfather⁠—that skull for a face, the parrot watching on, the white sheet and long fingernails

            In fact, you may keep them, convince yourself there is a lesson

 The dream where the brakes gave out

The dream where the brakes gave out

 His head is in my lap and the window is open even though it is January outside

 A war between nations of men takes place in my mother’s dining room

            My sisters and I watch from beneath a table

 Those you can leave: any dream where he says my name

aloud or his mouth is against my hair, any dream

where the dead forgive

 The first girl I loved asking Are you sure you don’t know me? until she disappears

 The whole room slants and I fall from the bed to the wall as if the house is trying to shake me from itself like a parasite

 The dream I had after S. found the knife I hid beneath the nightstand

 The one where I saw our sons using sticks as swords, their mouths yellow

and chose not to have them

 The first gentle boy from my childhood is back and we are in love

 When the church burns down and my sisters and I are blamed

 The one where what I love is not unwell, not in need at all, so I shrink to the size of a kitchen ant and crawl away

 My mother is my daughter and when she speaks, hummingbirds fill her mouth like arrows

 The one where I actually forgive him and he leans back then, rests his eyes, says

            There is no ending

  Alessandra sends me two pictures of her son eating his first strawberry

 while I’m home alone reading about central sleep apnea because this morning Calvin woke me up at 5AM by rubbing my back because (he said) I kept holding my breath and he is afraid (but doesn’t say) that I might stop breathing all together. On our jog today Cara told me that she’s going to try dating again and there isn’t much out there so she’s meeting a corporate lawyer all the way in Seattle for lunch on Thursday. Part of me is jealous—to get to meet strangers that you might have sex with or raise a puppy with is to feel very specifically alive right? The internet says I cannot suffocate in my sleep. I have this one memory of when I’m four or five and my father is sitting in the tub and I just let myself in to the bathroom and ask him how often he clipped his toenails and he laughs like kids are so fucking werid and says and said Maybe once a week? When we can’t stop worrying about each others deaths this is how I know we need each other. I can’t remember Alessandra’s baby’s name even though I met him once when we were in Portland. I don’t want children but one time on a long drive I imagined a three or four year old kid in the backseat of my Subaru asking me smart and weird kid questions and me giving honest answers and developing this whole lifelong relationship with a human like there is a way to never be lonely. I was startled by a sound but it wasn’t really a sound just a door closing in my body. I didn’t tell Calvin about it. Instead we talked about our little sisters and how we’re scared for them. The internet says my brain will panic and wake me up. I tell him I want him to confide in me but what do you say to I have a very real fear that the next time I hear about her it could be that she’s dead. I get it at least somewhat—what it means to see a boat drifting away from you. The last time I saw M she was more angry than any person I can remember it was like being beside a live wire I wasn’t sure if I could speak if I could even ask her if she was okay without making her not okay like the whole world is made of string and it can unravel if you say or even think the wrong thing. I don’t think there is a way to never be lonely. In the pictures the baby’s fingers are red and his laughing and sitting on a checkered picnic blanket and it looks like real summer in Wisconsin. I don’t really want to date strangers again. Everyone good I’ve found I still don’t know how I kept them. Some days I don’t want him to leave the house for fear of what might happen next. I remember when M and I were little she was hardly ever mad just withdrawn and we were there like two islands beside each other never really able to say what we meant or needed and now my mother calls me and she’s just painted the trim in the living room mountain air white and she starts to cry thinking about thirty years in the house where she raised us that she wants to sell and I say You haven't left yet and she says I’m already gone. Calvin just texts his sister now even though he knows he won’t get a response and I imagine those messages floating in a black void with stars because it all goes somewhere. I write back Don't you wish you could remember your first strawberry? The interest promises me I’ll take another breath.

 The mountain has no childhood to speak of

 and no child to soothe. Thought it might tell you something

of its formation, even though it does not remember.

 Or that there is no universally agreed upon definition

of a mountain. It would speak less about light

 and ascension and more about its insides. I have veins,

the mountain would say, a circulatory system of sorts

 but no organs. The mountain would predict your disappointment.

It would refuse your offer for a brain and a heart. Knowledge

 and loneliness, the mountain would explain, pass from sky

to water to stone. Mountain embodies strangeness, thus has no notion

 of strangeness. Mountain understands destination.

It has been desired. It knows you

 think it’s trapped; that it has never left and will never leave.

But, if we let it speak, it would tell you: I have touched

 every corner and crevice of this carved valley. Has seen so much

come and go⁠—loon, kingfisher, lynx. The people that

 tried to erase people. Mountain has hounded

wander. But will have nothing to say about hunger.

 If you sit with it long enough, mountain might admit, I am afraid

of dying. Of the slow wearing, the slow away. Wind and water.

 Mountain will teach you a word that means both companion

and destroyer. Though it does not sleep, mountain dreams,

 of being ripped out by the roots. Mountain wonders

if mountains bleed.

Caitlin Scarano is a poet based in northwest Washington. She holds a PhD in English (creative writing) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was selected as a participant in the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. Her debut collection of poems, Do Not Bring Him Water, was released in Fall 2017. Her work has appeared in Granta, Best New Poets, Best Small Fictions, Carve, and Colorado Review. You can find her at caitlinscarano.com

[meowloudly15]

Stranded: Day 9 - LINCH KING

First | Previous | Last

PERSONS TAKING NOTICE

The big grey guy was waiting behind the kitchen doors. “Hey, whatcha got in there?”

Peter B. instinctively put up his fists. Gwen had to push them back down.

“Just your typical stuff. Liver, hard cheese, barley duke sandwiches. Nothing unusual,” responded Noir.

What was a barley duke sandwich? Was Noir making stuff up or talking about real 1930s cuisine?

“Oh, that sounds good. Mind if I take a bite? I’m real hungry.”

The grey guy lifted the cover… and saw Ham, wearing nothing but his mask and holding an apple in his mouth.

The grey guy seemed more amused than anything. Hopefully, that was a good sign. “Ha ha ha! Look at this! They even got the mask on ‘im!”

“Heh heh, I know, right?” replied Gwen, trying to sound both more and less amused than she actually was.

“Well, I don’t eat pork.”

“You don’t deserve pork!” yelled Ham. Gwen scrambled to put the lid back over him.

The grey guy gave the Spider-Gang a last once-over, then gestured to the far door. “Right through there. Have fun.”

Gwen had to restrain herself from bolting to the nearest exit. She calmly walked out the door, pushing the Spider-Cart.

Peter B. sighed in relief and tore off his bow tie. “Ha, aren’t they dumb?”

“They are so dumb!”

Ham put his suit back on and threw the lid to the floor. It clattered loudly on the tile. “They’re all ¢*§¿~θ> morons.”

She still didn’t understand how he could pronounce that.

LINCH KING

The Spider-Gang clung to the ceiling and crawled along until they saw Kingpin enter a room. It had to contain the entrance to the elevator.

GUARD ON WATCH

Of course, two guards stood in front of the doorway. They were quickly disabled by some webbing.

The Spider-Gang walked in and examined the room. It looked like a big conference room, complete with a large desk and an even larger painting. The elevator was probably behind the painting. Gwen knew how these things worked.

Sp//dr scanned the room. Peni said, “The elevator’s behind that painting.”

Her suspicions were correct.

Noir looked at it. “What a beautiful painting. I love the use of purple.”

The painting was an ugly amber yellowish colour. It was definitely not the type of thing Gwen would want hanging in her conference room, or in any room, for that matter.

“Colour’s not his strong suit,” remarked Ham, thumbing at Noir.

“It’s purple!” Noir ripped apart the painting, revealing sleek aluminum elevator doors and a white call button. He bypassed the call button and tore open the doors. The Spider-Gang leaped down the shaft.

HOSTILE SITUATION

“Secondary ignition in five…”

Everybody landed at the bottom of the shaft and started to run.

“Four… three… two…”

They surmounted a catwalk and looked out upon the massive collider.

“One…”

The collider shot out giant bolts of energy from both ends. The beams were so orange they looked blue. They met in the middle and spouted excess energy to the sides. The room felt a little bit warmer than it had before. The sight was enthralling but terrifying.

Peter B. glitched out and dropped to a knee. So did the other spiders, except for Gwen.

“Peter, you don’t have to stay behind. I’ll do it.”

Peter B. regained his footing. “It’s okay. I’ve made up my mind.”

So had she. And Gwen would fight to her last breath to make sure that Peter B. got home to see his friends and his wife again.

The Spider-Gang swung to the roof of the collider. Actually, it might not have been the roof, because it’s hard to tell which way is up in a cylindrical chamber when you have gravity-defying adhesion.

Peter B. called to them, “I’ll put in the goober. Once you’re gone, I’ll blow it up. Good luck, guys.”

GUARDS ON WATCH

Uh-oh. Maybe the grey guy wasn’t as dumb as he looked.

“They know we’re here,” whispered Gwen.

OCTAGONS

Peter B. looked up as he reached to insert the goober drive – no, the flash drive. His arm was captured by a plastic pincer. He turned to see Doc Ock enter the chamber.

“Nice to see you again, Peter,” she said. A maniacal grin was plastered across her face.

The guards on the catwalk started shooting at the spiders. Gwen dove out of the way. She swung through the framework, dodging bullets.

ATOMIC DISJUNCTION.

Gwen tried to land on a crossbeam. She glitched out and fell, managing to right herself in time with a webline. It was a good thing that May had fixed her gloves.

She swung through the rafters and knocked down a couple of hired hands. She saw Scorpion charge in and attack Peni, so she headed over to assist.

Doc Ock, in the meantime, was busy throttling Peter B. “Any last words?”

“Can you give me a minute?” he choked out. “Got a pen?”

Gwen felt torn between the two heroes. There was too much going on all at once. She was about to swing over there and extract Peter B. when she saw one of Doc Ock’s tentacles punch her in the face.

Liv was being attacked by an invisible opponent.

Gwen’s eyes widened. Could it be Miles?

It was. Two weblines from out of nowhere adhered to the wall of the collider. Miles appeared and surged forward, punching Doc Ock square in the jaw. She dropped Peter B. Miles caught him with a webline and flung him to the collider roof.

“Wow, Miles! You’re doing it on command!”

“About time, right?”

The rest of the spiders cheered for Miles.

“He figured it out,” muttered Gwen. She smiled.

He had found hope. He had taken his hope and translated it into drive. He had taken his potential and turned it into energy. He had taken a leap of faith, and he had come out on top. At least, Gwen assumed that he had.

Also, he wore a sleek new costume. It was black with red highlights. A red spider emblem was spray-painted onto his chest.

Peter B. and Miles took off and rushed towards Doc Ock. She started ripping off ceiling tiles and hurling them at them.

Gwen redirected her attention to taking out the guards, but something caught her eye. The spot in between the two beams of energy from the collider was black now, and it was getting bigger. It exploded in a burst of colour and overwhelmed the control box.

She dodged the gunfire (there was still a lot of it) and claws while watching, enthralled, as the collider started to glitch out.

ATOMIC DISJUNCTION

Gwen glitched out again and narrowly missed being struck by a bullet. She was knocked sideways by one of Doc Ock’s pincers and hit a… hold on a second.

Holy cuss word.

LARGE-SCALE ATOMIC DISJUNCTION

There were BUILDINGS emerging from the collider beam. Skyscrapers, trains, cars, buses, deli kiosks, a snowman, a… was that a giant tube of lozenges?

LOZENGE BOMBARDMENT

Apparently it was. Gwen dodged and ducked through the midst of the chaos. She perched on the emitter nozzle thingy with Peter B. and Miles.

“Are you seeing this?” asked Peter B. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Neither could Gwen.

“It looks like our dimensions are coming to us!” she shouted back over the hubbub.

“It does look cool, right?”

It did. It was chaos, but it was a weirdly rhythmic sort of chaos. The buildings pulsed and swayed and retracted with a drum-like beat.

OCTAGONS

She dove out of the way as Doc Ock threw a bus at the trio.

Noir managed to easily take down the grey guy while yelling some sort of gibberish at him. Did he say something about a soft-boiled turtle, or did Gwen not hear him correctly? Noir flung a car at the grey guy to finish him off.

Meanwhile, Peni had a hard time fending off Scorpion. His stinger penetrated Sp//dr’s viewscreen. But before Scorpion could deal the final blow, an anvil fell on his head. An honest to goodness cartoon anvil, like something out of “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit”.

Gwen distinctly heard Ham say, “You got a problem with cartoons?” Then Ham went ham on Scorpion. He smacked him upside the cranium with a comically-oversized wooden mallet, among other things. Noir swung Scorpion around by his tail and threw him at Peni. She dealt the final blow with one of Sp//dr’s broken-off legs.

Meanwhile, Gwen was busy contending with Doc Ock. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t go down as easily as she had the first couple of times they fought. She webbed up a giant cassette tape (it had “Awesome Mix Vol. 3” scribbled on the front) and flung it at her.

ATOMIC DISJUNCTION

Doc Ock’s claws tore the cassette in half. She drove Gwen into a concrete wall.

She must have passed out, because the next thing she remembered was almost striking the collider beam but seeing Miles’ hand. She grabbed it.

“I like your suit.”

“Thanks. I made it myself.”

Miles shot a webline to Peter B., who flung the pair at Doc Ock.

“That was adorable, kids! Now, hold on tight!”

Gwen punched the mad scientist in the face first, followed by Miles, then Peter B. Miles and Gwen then teamed up to sock Doc Ock in the chin, knocking her over. They bumped fists.

OCTAGONS

But Liv managed to catch herself between two buildings. She propelled herself towards the trio, eyes aflame with malice.

“Buckle up, guys. This is gonna take a while,” Gwen warned.

Suddenly, Doc Ock was blindsided by a truck.

The trio stared at the place where she used to be.

“Never mind. Let’s end this.”

“I’ll go,” said Miles.

Peter B. retorted, “No, I’ll do it. I’m the one with the goo-”

MILES OF INTEREST

Miles held up the flash drive.

“You gotta be kidding me.”

“Don’t watch the mouth,” Miles said smugly. “Watch the hands.”

He took off, propelling himself upward with a webline, then letting go and falling in a graceful parabola below the edge of the emitter.

“Be careful!” Peter B. yelled after him.

Miles slipped through a gap between two buildings and shot out another webline. He swung in an arc and landed on the rotating part of the emitter. He leaped off. With one last webline-powered propulsion, he gained enough velocity to land on the roof of the collider.

Show-off.

“Hey, uh, we taught him that, right?” muttered Peter B.

“I didn’t. And you definitely didn’t.”

The pair swung to the access panel. So did Noir, Ham, and Peni, who rode on Noir’s shoulders. What had happened to Sp//dr?

Gwen noticed the wreck of a robot that used to be Sp//dr lying on the floor of the collider. That was not a good sign.

Miles inserted the goober and activated a control panel. “Guys! I got control of the beam! Get up here!”

LINCH KING

Kingpin roared in fury from his observation deck. He smashed a control panel with his giant fists.

What was he gonna do about it, huh? What could that enormous, black-suited circus freak do about his ruined collider? It wasn’t like he had superpowers.

The Spider-Gang joined Miles at the access hatch.

“I guess this is it,” Gwen remarked. Despite her inclination to avoid emotional attachments with others, she had to admit that she would miss these guys, especially Miles.

Peni looked distraught, but at least her spider was on her shoulder. “Well… nice to know we’re not alone, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got the portal open,” said Miles as he pulled off his mask. “You first, Peni.”

“Thank you, Miles. From both of us.”

Peni’s spider chirped happily. She let go of Noir and fell into the collider beam.

Peni was a sweet kid. A vicious little gremlin on the inside, perhaps, but sweet nonetheless.

Noir lowered his head. “I, uh, I… love you all.” He held up the Rubix Cube. “I’m taking this cube thing with me. I don’t understand it yet, but I will.” He gave a salute and fell into the collider beam.

Noir had a good heart, despite his dark exterior.

Ham pulled a wooden mallet from out of nowhere and handed it to Miles. “I want you to have this. It’ll fit in your pocket.” He sniffled and started to cry. “That’s all, folks.”

As Ham fell into the collider beam, Peter B. asked, “Is he legally allowed to say that?”

Ham was goofy, sure, but he was probably the wisest one of the whole Spider-Gang.

Peter B. was beaten up, worn out, and hung out to dry, but he had a tenacity about him, even when he didn’t want to continue. And he still had a youthful spark of optimism that was inspiring.

SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW

It was Gwen’s turn now, and she didn’t want to go. She wanted to stay and shut the whole thing down so that Peter B. could go home and Miles could leave and stay safe. But that wasn’t the whole reason. Why didn’t she want to go?

“Do I get to like the haircut now?” asked Miles.

Gwen pulled off her mask so she could look him in the eyes and show off her haircut, which she had grown increasingly fond of as time passed.

Of course. She wanted to stay so that she could hang out with Miles some more. She felt like she hadn’t spent enough time with him. But then again, was it because he reminded her of Peter? Was it because Miles was nice and kind and even funny in the same goofy sort of way?

But she couldn’t stay in this dimension. She would die. And, as Gwen suddenly realised, she had never been a ghost in the first place.

The reason why was because she had hope. As stupid as that sounded, it was true. She almost died in multiple situations but was saved by hope. Maybe it wasn’t her own belief, but it fueled her obstinance all the same. So she kept getting up, even when death threatened to drag her down, even when there was no hope at all. Gwen persisted. And she wasn’t going to stop persisting any time soon.

She liked the name “Ghost Spider”, though. She wanted to keep the name. It would serve as a reminder of what she had done and had failed to do. Her memories would subside into mist, but she didn’t want them to go away completely. Not anymore.

MILES OF INTEREST

Gwen looked at Miles. Suddenly, a bunch of puzzle pieces fell into place. The awkward shoulder touching moment… the attempt to comfort her on the bus… his leap to save her, even though she could very well have saved herself (probably)… the way he was looking at her right now, with a mix of tacked-on self-reassurance and awkward reticence.

Miles had a crush on her.

Of course, that meant she had to dissuade him.

“You know, I’m older than you. By fifteen months, but I think that’s pretty significant.”

“Well, Einstein said time was relative. Right?”

Gwen felt a sudden urge to reach over and hug Miles. She refrained from doing so, instead turning away and leaning against the collider wall.

Miles offered his hand for a handshake. “Friends?”

Gwen shook his hand. “Friends. See you around, Spiderman.”

Miles smiled broadly.

She had to go. She had hope that Peter B. would get home to his Em Jay. She had hope that Miles would succeed. She had hope that she would be a hero.

She took off, falling towards the beam of the collider.

INTERDIMENSIONAL TRANSPORTATION IMMINENT

First | Previous | Last

[reaper-barry-bluejeans]

Monsters Among Us

For the @blupjeansauboogaloo Day 4 - Free Day/Amnesty Lodge

 The hunt wasn't exactly going great. At least, that was what it seemed like with Lup's magic failing her again and Edward laying sprawled out on the ground with a head wound that left crimson blood matting his hair down to his head. Barry was struggling to hold a corporeal form as he fired a succession of shots at the creature that was charging blindly into the forest now. They would need to do something about his disguise. The watch he always wore to maintain a physical form and hide his nature as a resident of Sylvain lay shattered on the floor, smashed under the hoof of the creature somewhere through the course of the battle. Lydia kept her head down as she ran to her brother, kneeling beside him.

"He's breathing!"

"Thank fuck." Lup's voice was strained and she went to pick up Barry's watch, looking over at him as his grip on physical existence finally broke. "I think you need this, babe."

He snorted, the sound echoing oddly in the air as he kicked uselessly at the pistol laying on the ground beneath him.

"Yeah, but it's gonna do me a fat lot of good all smashed up."

Lup scooped up his gun and stared at it for a moment.

"Want me to hold onto this?"

He nodded a little, rubbing his head.

"Yeah. Yeah... And we're gonna need to go tell Mama we lost that thing again." He turned, looking to where Lydia was helping her brother to his feet. "He good to move back to the Lodge?"

Lydia nodded and flashed him a thumbs up. Edward looked like shit, but he could walk and that was what mattered right now. Lydia had an arm around his shoulders and was supporting most of his weight.

"I'll grab him a potion for this when we get back to the Lodge. The rest of you get to fill Mama in."

Half an hour later, they sat around a table with a hastily sketched map of Kepler, West Virginia, spread out between them. Barry still hadn't managed to get a new disguise charm and was hovering irritably beside Lup while flames danced between her fingers. Edward was still a bit pale but he held a bottle in one hand that contained a glowing purple liquid that he occasionally took a sip from. Lydia leaned over the table, scowling at the plan they'd concocted while she was going through her alchemical stores.

"You've got to be kidding me. Why am I the bait again?"

Barry gestured towards Edward.

"Because we know this blood-drinker's got a thing for... for familial blood ties and it already got a taste of your brother. Ergo, Lyds, you are absolutely prime material for Victim Number Two."

Lydia shot him a glare across the table and then gestured to his incorporeal form.

"Fat lot of good you're gonna be without your gun there, Bluejeans."

Lup reached over, gloving one hand in the raw essence of magic so she could rest it solidly on Barry's shoulder.

"Chill, babe. We've got this. It's gonna be fine. And if you really want to swap out, it's gotta a taste of my twin too, remember? But you need to be ready to kick this thing's ass before it gets me."

All of them winced, not a single member of the Pine Guard team liked the reminder that one of their number was out of commission and lying in the hospital at that very moment. Lydia nodded though, running her fingers over a vial she had set on the table earlier.

"I've got a plan for that. This should freeze it solid and then all we have to do is smash it."

The plan was pretty solid, all thing's considered. They had everything they needed to lure the creature to them, they knew where it would be. They just needed to do it. Lup paused while Lydia and Edward went to get the last of the equipment they would need and get the car ready and she looked at Barry.

"You doing okay, babe? You don't wanna sit this one out until you can be a solid boy again?"

He shook his head and floated closer, the cold air around him briefly fogging her glasses.

"I'm alright, Lup. And I don't wanna leave you guys alone on this one. Not after what it did to Taako. I... I just wanna make sure everyone comes home okay." His voice dropped to a whisper and he reached towards her, brushing his fingers over her cheek. "Folks from this side don't become ghosts if they die, remember?"

Lup wished she could lean into that touch and closed her eyes, letting herself pretend.

"I know, Bear. I know. We're all gonna be as careful as we can be." She booped his nose with a light touch of magic. "Come on, let's get a move on before those two decide we've abandoned them."

Barry chuckled quietly and followed after Lup as she headed for the front of the Lodge. 

Lydia was already in the driver's seat when they got out there, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel while Edward flipped through radio stations trying to find something worth listening to. Lup dropped into her usual seat and leaned back, hands behind her head. Barry hesitated for a moment and then floated into the car.

"It's equal odds I get left behind, just so you all know."

Edward shrugged.

"We know. And if you do, we'll handle this by ourselves. And you go get your watch fixed like you already should've."

Barry rolled his eyes at that but did his best to settle into the seat in a way that would keep his incorporeal form from phasing through the car when they pulled away. The plan of attack was pretty solid, the hardest part was just going to be tracking the creature so they could get their bait into the right place. At least, that was their concern before they heard the pounding sound behind them as they raced down the 92. Lup turned to look out the back window and swore under her breath.

"We got company, folks."

Lydia's gaze flicked briefly to the rearview mirror and she changed gears, accelerating as fast as she possibly could.

"Do we have a plan for this?" Edward's voice was shaky as he too looked back. "Because I swear that thing got bigger."

Barry frowned, turning and sticking his head up through the roof of the car. It was bigger, that was for certain, with talons that ripped up the asphalt of the highway. 

"I think... I think maybe it's been feeding?"

Edward ignored what Barry was saying, focused on making sure his pistol was loaded. Then he leaned out the window and took a pot shot at the creature. Lup watched as the bullet hit it and the creature almost reformed after the damage. She winced.

"We might have to go all 'by fire be purged' on this one, my dudes. Because guns sure aren't working."

Barry hesitated for a moment and then let his incorporeal form drop out of the car as he dove towards the creature.

"I should be able to slow it down, Lup. Just... Remember what I said before, okay? I'll be fine!"

Lup yelled, words lost in the rushing wind of the car's wake as the spirit of the Sylph known as Barry Bluejeans turned on the Abomination coming up hard behind them. Lightning that mimicked the magic he once held crackled over his form and he hoped that he could slow this thing down long enough that the others could get a plan together. That was all he could hope for, really. The Abomination hesitated when the lightning lashed towards it and Barry grinned slowly.

"Come and try me." 

Lydia slammed on the brakes, spinning the car so it skidded a few dozen feet further. She shot a glance back at Lup.

"You think magic's going to work? Then let's get this thing."

For her part, Lup already had her hand on the door latch and her other hand up and wreathed in flames. The moment the car came to a stop, she was out and running towards Barry, her heart pounding. She knew, objectively, that he was already dead and the dead couldn't be killed. Not like this, anyway. As long as he could feed on the essence of the hot springs, Barry Bluejeans would be just fine. Edward was on her heels, his pistol in his hands still. He cocked it, raised, and fired again, taking full advantage of the fact that he could shoot clear through Barry and hit the Abomination. Lydia was the last one moving, a bag slung over one shoulder as she fished through it for a specific potion she'd brewed. Somewhere in here was the answer, she was sure of that. Probably fire, if Lup's guess was right. Fire usually worked, anyway.

Lydia peeled off to the left, hugging the tree-line and hoping against hope that the Abomination wouldn't suddenly turn towards her. Edward had four shots left in his clip and he was taking a shot every chance he got, even if it only annoyed the Abomination. Lup was shaping a spell though, something big enough to hopefully destroy it. The Abomination dropped its head, shaking off the meager control Barry had managed to get and charged her, roaring. Once more, its claws shredded the asphalt as it bore down on her like a freight train. Barry shouted, turning and throwing up a hand as he tried to stop it. It was Edward that managed to knock Lup out of the way as he unloaded his last shot into the Abomination, catching it squarely in the center of the forehead. Even that didn't do much, but the disruption to her spell caused Lup's fire magic to explode outward. It caught everything in a wide path of destruction. Trees burst into flames on either side of the highway and Lydia dropped to her stomach to keep from being caught up in it. Edward grabbed Lup and pulled her down before the two of them could be incinerated and he swore, watching the Abomination scream. 

"Whatever the fuck that was? Do it again," he hissed. "But aim this time."

Lup was too shaken to snap back at him. She could see what she'd done. If that spell had been on the ground, there would have been a perfect circle of destruction. As it was? She'd nearly killed them. And now she could see Lydia up and moving again, her fingers wrapped around a vial. Lup stood, igniting her hands again while Edward scrambled to his feet and started trying to change out his clip. All she needed to do was take a few pot shots while Lydia snuck up and problem solved. 

And that was exactly what she did. A shot here and there and then Lydia was in place. She didn't even bother uncapping the vial, she just flung it at the Abomination and watched it shatter, acid and flames eating at the creature immediately. A moment later, they watched the figure of light as it vanished.

"Problem solved..." muttered Lydia.

Lup nodded a little, looking around.

"We should clean this up before the fuckin' park service notices, huh?"