#like yeah hes a cool alien hero but when push comes to shove... everyones too afraid to get close

[redrobin-detective]

One of Us

“Yo, anyone hear from Tennyson, lately?” Tyler asked his friends, fiddling on his phone as they waited for class to start. “It’s been like, a week. What’s his face on the news is always going on about things the little menace blew up.”

“Don’t listen to Harangue, he’s a biased old grouch,” Aria said with an eyeroll. “Jimmy Jones’ blog is the place to keep track of Ben 10 and, according to him, Ben and the Plumbers are on a deep space mission. It’s gotta be big, they took almost all their heavy hitters with them.”

“Deep space,” Miguel sighed, resting his head on his desk. “Some dudes have all the luck. Do you even know what I’d do to go into space, even for like 5 minutes? We have aliens in Bellwood but I want to see different planets, new cultures.”

“Or change your shape and form any time you want,” Aria pouted. “I bet he’s kicking butt right now while we’re waiting for homeroom.”

“Certainly was more interesting when Tennyson was here,” Tyler snorted looking over at the vacant seat. “Dude’s lucky he can skip out of school and stuff. It was cool the few weeks he was here after being outed before he went full online.”

“He’s a fulltime superhero,” Aria scolded, adjusting their glasses as the bell rang. “He doesn’t have the time for normal school hours plus villains kept interrupting class to get a piece of him. Seeing the action up close and personal...” They made a face, “okay yeah I miss it too but it seriously wasn’t safe for anyone.”

“Probably got tired of the constant adoration,” Miguel grumbled. He glanced up at the clock, “also Mrs. O’Hara is late, what’s up with that?”

“Probably waiting for her tea to finish steeping,” Tyler said absentminded, going back to his phone. “Ugh seriously, where is Tennyson? The news is so boring without him.”

The sound of a commotion in the hallway stopped the trio’s conversation, along with everyone else’s. They waited, curious for what all the raised voices were about. The door opened and Ben Tennyson staggered in. He gave a lopsided smile and leaned against the doorframe like it was the only thing holding him up.

“Sorry ‘m late,” he slurred, drifting a bit as he made his way over to his empty desk and practically fell into it. “Traffic was hell this morning.”

“Uh that’s not the only thing that looks like hell,” Tyler whistled softly. Ben 10, hero of the universe, looked like a train had run him over then backed up for good measure. His hair was sticking in all directions and his left cheek had a nasty bruise with a several stitched up cuts going down through part of his lip to his chin. His left arm was in a sling and wrapped securely with gauze but the ends of his fingers peeking out were limp, purple and mottled. He wore a hospital gown underneath his iconic green jacket paired with pink sweatpants. Ben’s eyes were vacant, his pupils blown wide as he stared at everything and nothing.

“Holy shit what happened to him,” someone whispered.

“I thought he didn’t go here anymore?” Another added.

“Christ, I know he’s like a hero or whatever but isn’t someone watching out for him?”

“Mr. Tennyson,” Mrs. O’Hara boomed, hustling in with a stern expression but she seemed nervous and unsure of what to do. “You are in no state to be here right now, young man. I’ve contacted your grandfather and someone is coming to take you home or possibly to a hospital.” Her expression faltered, “are you- are you alright, sweetie? Can I do anything?”

“Oh yeah,” Ben drawled, leaning himself over on top of the desk. “Totally fine and ready to learn. If I don’t keep my grades up they’ll kick me off the soccer team.”

“Ben, buddy,” Eugene said slowly, turning in his seat to look at his former friend. “You haven’t been on the team in months. School wouldn’t let you play with your whole hero thing going on,” Eugene grimaced. “Remember?”

“Course I remember,” Ben said, his voice clear for the moment. “So glad you and the other guys backed me up at the time.” Eugene winced while Ben just moaned and grabbed at his head with his one working hand. “Ugh what hit me? My head hurts like crazy.”

“Probably some mega big and scary alien dude,” Tyler noted dryly, “you’re like super concussed, Tennyson.”

“M’yeah probably,” Ben mumbled laying his head on the desk with a gentle thump. “Don’t mind me, carry on, I’ll read over the notes later.”

“Ben, I don’t think you’re supposed to sleep with a concussion,” Miguel said, reaching over to ever so gently jostling Ben’s good shoulder. The other teen gasped and jolted away from Miguel’s hand with wide, fearful eyes. His right hand slammed instinctively down where his watch was hidden beneath layers of gauze.

“Ow, goddammit, mother-” Ben groaned, leaning over his injured arm as he panted, trembling with pain and terror. “Don’t touch me, please don’t touch me! Everyone keep away from me or I’ll-!”

“Alright, yeah man sorry ‘bout that,” Miguel squeaked, throwing his hands up in surrender. A few of the chairs around Ben screeched as they scooted away, giving the teen hero some space but also separating him even more from his classmates.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Brittney whispered to Nikole as they watched the confident hero they both had pictures cut in the shapes of hearts taped inside their lockers shiver and shake. “Should we do something?”

“Excuse me,” a rough voice asked. They turned to find a tall alien with blue fur standing awkwardly in the doorway. He himself looked worse for wear, with part of his fur singed and his lower arms covered in bandages. His eyes locked immediately on the shaking teen. “I represent Magister Tennyson. My name is Rook and I am Ben’s Plumber partner. I will be taking him back to HQ for treatment.”

He strode forward confidently and sighed as he leaned down and assessed his partner. “Can you walk?” He waited a beat before sighing, “no, that would not help matters. Forgive me, I am going to pick you up now. Don’t fight me.”

With telegraphed movements, he gently scooped Ben into his arms who tensed up but didn’t move. “I am not sure whether to be impressed or infuriated that you got past our security in your condition,” Rook said almost fondly as he carried the teen who looked pitifully small in his arms.

“Imma a hero,” Ben ground out as he squeezed his eyes shut at the movement. “It’s what I do.”

“Your only job right now is to rest,” Rook explained wearily. “You saved 5 galaxies the other day, a break is deserved.” He paused to nod his head at Mrs. O’Hara. “I apologize for the interruption, we will be on our way. Thank you for caring for him. Do not worry, Ben is tough. He will be back to normal in a few days.” That said, Ben and the alien were gone.

“Holy shit,” someone said quietly from the middle of the silent classroom. 

“What a joke,” Spencer grumbled, “we haven’t done anything to take care of him.” He turned to glare at Eugene, “Ben’s right, we just let the school kick him off the team. I don’t think any of us have reached out to him after he stopped coming in. He’s one of our own and we abandoned him.”

“Is he really,” Eugene frowned, “is he really one of us? Because that? That wasn’t normal and, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any part of it.”

“Children!” Mrs. O’Hara announced, clapping her hands loudly to gain their attention. “I know that was, very unsettling for us to see but we’re already ten minutes into the period and I have things to go over. I do think it would be nice if we all signed a get well card to wish Ben a speedy recovery. Let him know we’re thinking of him even when he isn’t here. Now, moving on, Fall Fest is just days away and we need to get our final preps in order.”

Three days later, aliens who looks like a mix between squids and parrots invaded the high school’s Fall Fest. The attack had barely started when Ben 10 swooped in and saved the day. 

As he powered down, he glanced over at his classmates hiding behind various overturned booths. His face was free of marks, his left arm was out of the sling and his eyes clearheaded. The only evidence of his injury earlier in the week was his obvious discomfort. Without a word, he loaded the would be villains into the back of a Plumber’s van and left.

There was no point in sticking around, he wasn’t one of them. Not anymore. 

[popculturebuffet]

Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: “Morpholomew” (American Dragon Long): Stop Trying to Make Am Drag a Thing (Commisson Done For WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a brand new retrospective/story arc/thing from yours truly, comissoned directly by WeirdKev27. If you’d like to comission your own review or set of reviews like this one, it’s 5 bucks. Just contact me via my ask box or direct messages on this very blog or my discord technicolormuk#6550.

With Shadow Into Light in the books, Kev decided he wanted to comission something not duck related and a bit smaller as a buffer before the next big arc, ALL of three arcs from season 2 of Ducktales, and decided to go with something he suggested to be a while back as a possible future retrospective: The Lilo and Stitch Crossover episodes! 

That’s right for the next three weeks, with TWO reviews this week since I had a spot open up and Kev paid for this one in full and way in advance, we’ll be taking a trip to Hawaii to visit everyone’s faviorte little girl, her best friend/pet/killing machine as they try to find homes for his 625 cousins. 

I loved Lilo and Stitch when I was a kid: Disney admitely got their hooks in me on that one with their cool prequel comics in disney adventures. These comics set up the movie, showing Jumba creating Stitch and the events leading up to both getting captured. The movie did not disapoint with cool character designs, a drop dead gorgeous recreation of Hawaii, and a really heartfelt, heartbreaking and heartpumping story of loss, family, and ving rahmes voicing one of the few heroic child services workers i’ve seen in a medium, a refreshing change of pace. The film is a masterpiece and I really do need to watch it again sometime. 

Given the series was a huge hit and that thsi was before the big lull in the late 2000′s and early 2010′s where Disney refused to make any tv shows based on their movies, a series followed, given a lead in by the direct to video movie Stitch.

The movie set up the basic premise; 624 capsules containing Jumba’s previous experiments, cousins as Stitch calls them, ended up raining over Kauai, awakening when dropped into water or any other liquid. Lilo and Stitch, with help from Jumba, his live in boyfriend Pleakley, her tought but fair sister Nani, and her boyfriend David, who dosen’t show up as much as i’d like but is my boy so he gets a mention here. But anyways our heroes try to reform the various engines of distructoin who all have unique powers and find them their one place they truly belong. 

So yes the show was a Mons-type show clearly captalizing off pokemon.. but the slice of life setting as opposed to the shonen style of most shows following in pokemon’s wake, gave it it’s own unique feel: while our heroes did fight, it was more about shenanigans, adventures and what not with these unique creatures and the purpose is very heartflet: Lilo simply wants to give these guys the same kind of love and support she’s given Stitch and a chance to do good. 

Opposing them is Gantu, the shark bounty hunter from the first film who, now out of a job, is working for Dr. Hamstervile, an imprisoned sceintest and a character I really don’t like that much as he’s not funny or a genuine threat or both and feels like a waste of time. Thankfully he’s not the focus and Gantu is instead partnered with 625, my faviorite Lilo and Stitch character. 625, as the name suggests, is stitch’s immediate prototype.. but unlike Stitch is too lazy and peaceful to be a real threat and isn’t even really a villian despite being on Gantu’s side. He’s busy making samwitches, his calling to the point when he gets a name in the finale movie it’s naturally Ruben, and snarking at gantu. He’s sadly not in this one but hopefully it’s JUST this one. 

As you can tell I liked this show a LOT at the time. I haven’t watched it since, mostly because disney scarely replayed it after it’s run, but it was vibrant, fun and intresting and a nicely laidback and creative take. The fact I came into the franchise with the comics and thus 625, who was introduced there in fact, and had a hunger to know more about the other experiments certainly helped. It was great fun. 

But while I grew up with the show and the four shows it teamed up with, i’ve never seen these episodes before these reviews. I wondered why for years as I caught the tail end of the kim possible one and saw images ocasionally, but never saw them. 

Turns out it’s because in general Season 2 got screwed over. While Season 1 was pushed out the door fast and aired at a rapid pace Season 2.. was portioned out over several years, and the Recess crossover one, the last one aired and the last one i’ll be covering never even got to Disney channel, only airing on ABC kids, DIsney’s saturday morning block at the time I rarely watched. I did watch it’s predecessor one saturday morning though. Good stuff. 

Since I couldn’t find any making of stuff for why these episodes happened, my best guess is DIsney wanted some cross promotion, and the shows used were chosen because they were the most popular at the time and honestly all 4 represent some of disney’s best, with Recess being in heavy reruns at the time, hence i’ts conclusion despite the show being finished before Lilo And Stitch the movie came out, let alone the series. 

So yeah i’m taking this ride for the first time.. but I was happy to. While Kev pays for a lot of my work, I still have to accept the idea.. and this was a great one. It allows me to cover 5 amazing series and gage how much people would want to see reviews of said series on this blog in one fell swoop.

So to kick us off we have American Dragon: Jake Long, a series I waited forever to come to Disney + as I loved it at the time, badly need to rewatch it (Been busy ), and find it genuinely great: It’s a great teen superhero story about the magical protector of new york, with a charming lead, a great setting and horrifcally great villians in the violently racist magic creature hunting huntsclan.. and their top agent who happens to be jake’s love intrest Rose. It’s really excellent and i’m glad it’s now widely avaliable for all to see. I will say ahead that all four shows in this crossover arc are excellent, and were fine choices for this. 

So what happens when an action comedy about a hip hop teenage dragon meets a slice of life show about aliens? Find out under the cut. 

So we open at a fancy hotel where Lilo’s bringing lunch to her sister Nani when she runs into.. Keoni Jameson. 

The second I remembered this kid all the hate just came flooding back, coursing through my veigns. Just pure liquid hatred for this little perosnalitiless little punk. Keoni is Lilo’s crush and local “stupid white audience stand in”. He has no real personality other than “generic cool kid” and “likes skating”, and just sucks the air out of the room anytime he’s in an episode. Keoni is part of a recurring problem in cartoons across the ages, one that’s slowly going away: the bland love intrest. Intorducing a character whose only traits are being cool for the lead to fawn over with usually no intent of either getting the two togehter or just ending it. IT’s annoying, it was in a good chunk of my childhood, I wish it’d stop. I cannot tell you how many shows used this trope. There were exceptions, American Dragon Jake Long actually used it well by not only making Rose a fleshed out character..  but making her jake’s nemisis in their other lives, and thus making things increidbly difficult on both once the truth comes out, with Jake grappling with if he can trust her or not and Rose grappling with the slow relization eveyrthing she was taught her whole life was wrong.

And again I have seen GOOD storylines using this as a tool: Dipper and Wendy ended with her having been aware teh whole time, but simply not knowing how to let him down given the age gap, and Regular Show rebounded the best from it: it turned the stop and start relatoinshpi of Mordecai and Margret’s relationship into a character flaw for him, openly explored it.. and ended up having him work past it and actually date her for a bit. Before she moved away, he got an even better love interest, then they destoryed the relationship in the worst way posisble and I wil lbe getting to that at some point. Some point. 

So yeah even at the time it was done better, hindsight haas only made it worse and it made watching the first few minutes tough because I had to keep pasuing because I hate him so damn much. He just adds NOTHING to the show and is a blank yanwing void from which no good came out of and I was terrified he’d be in the rest of the episode. Thankfully while he drives the plot he’s only in this scene.. but it’s still one more scene than both 625 and Pleakly got. yeah both are missing, as is nani. 

I did uncover one fun fact that made things a bit easier though: The crew ALSO hated Keoni. No really. Disney forced the character on them as they wanted an audience surrogate, and this abomination is what popped out. They DID NOT want him here and likely only used him as mcuh as they did because Disney forced it on them. And Disney would NOT learn from this as Star Vs got saddled with Alphonso and Ferguson soley because of network mandate. The two aren’t TERRIBLE characters but they aren’t great and feel as tacked on as they were. And part of this does fall on the crew: you CAN twist a stupid mandate like this to work well: Joe Murray was asked to add “A female character with a hook”, as in some sort of dumb gimmick to Rocko. He used those words, meant to create a superfical girl power cardboard cutout.. and created the wonderful Dr. Hutchenson, a bright cheery doctor, the series best sidecharacter.. and someone with a hook hand. But I won’t go too hard on them: they probably didn’t have as much room to manuver and the fact Keoni was sitll being shoved into episodes in season 2 tells me they likely had a set number of episodes he had to show up. I’m suprised they didn’t demand they have characters ask “Where’s Keonie?” any time he wasn’t in an episode. He was unecessary and it comes across with a massive chunk of unforutnate implications: that they didn’t think a series with a mostly hawaiann cast would work, that they wanted at least one other “nice” white character to offset myrtle instead of having the only major white character be a bully and antagonist, and that they thought tehir mostly white audience coudln’t enjoy a series without a white character, which as someone who was in the target demo at the time, I call bullshit on. As I said I hated him then, I hate him now and his involvement is the worst aspect of this episode. 

So after Lilo fawns over him for a bit we find out this chonk of wood’s purpose in the episode: to set up the plot. There’s a massive Skate Competition coming to town with the prize being a really cool skateboard.  This plot point itself.. I don’t mind. Jake is a skater, it’s part of his character and one of the things he loves doing in what minsicule spare time he has. And while it was a common trope at the time having a character skateboard really dosen’t harm most works. We’ve gotten great characters like Jake, Jackie Lynn Thomas, Branwen and Ronnie Anne Santiago out of it, and it feels like natural parts of the character, and frankly An Extremley Goofy Movie wouldn’t be NEARLY as awesome without having skateboarding bizzarley attached to the plot via the college x-games. Granted somtimes you get Rocket Power out of the deal but that’s the price you pay for the good stuff. I only regret it’s involved because Keoni has to be there and I had to pause multiple times to get through his scene. He’s just a sampler platter of terrible decisions made in 2000′s cartoons and he irritates me more than this guy. 

And anyone whose read my Loud House reviews can tell you that is a high bar to clear. 

So naturally Lilo wants to enter the Hawiann X-Games to get the board for Keoni. Though I will give the writers credit for having Stitch voice their thoughts and the audiences thoughts by having him take Keoni’s picture and throw it in the garbage. Where he belongs. 

Lilo’s not great at it as they practice.. and said practice naturally ends up waking up a new experiment, 316.. who i’m just going to go ahead and call Morpholomew. Stitch eventually catches him though like many of the experiments he’s not actively malevelolent and is easy enough to get home. 

Jumba gets to his schitck of breaking down what the experiment of the week does: In this case Morpholomew is  a shapeshifter though he has a VERY intresting twist on those powers: while he can naturally morph himself into anything he’s seen or has a picture of, he can do the same to anyone he touches. It dosen’t effect their voices, but otherwise it’s a perfect recreation. 

So Lilo instead of finding him a home right away.. decides to wait until after the compettition because we need him for the plot. 

So at the Skateboard Competittion Lilo tries to enter, but finds she’s too young.. but since she has a picture of Keoni, which is a nice way to use her photo hobby from the movie for plot reasons and thus dosen’t feel like an ass pull. Why Keoni’s not in town to skate is as his dad left because it’d be too crowded.. even though the event is at the resort he owns. 

So while Lilo commits identtity theft, our guest star appears. He’s cool, he’s hot like a frozen son, he’s young and fast he’s the chosen one, people i’m not braggin, i’ts the American Dragon. Jake is here for two reasons: the first is that Grandpa Long got reports of magical creatures out in the open, so naturally they need to look into that. It’s a clever way to get him, along with Grandpa, Fu, Trixie and Spud, over to Hawaii. The Dragon Council would defintely be suspcious hearing about this, and my guess to why they hadn’t sent another dragon over is they simply dont’ have one on the islands. As for why the Huntsclan didn’t get involved in any way, it’s simply too public for them.  With the magical community in new york, they don’t have to worry about exposure because neither side wants it, so neither side can out the other. Here with a bunch of creatures out in the open it runs the risk of the Hunstclan being dragged into the light.. and given the populace dosne’t care about the “magical creatures” alongside them, it would make them look like the monsters they are. 

Spud and Trixie tagging along also makes sense besides “they needed them for the plot”: While they’d obviously want to come to Hawaii, the skate competition is likely Jake’s cover for why he’s there, as well as one for why it’s just him and grandpa going with a couple of his friends so they don’t have to deal with manuvering around jake’s dad. That sad them never TELLING jake’s Dad is it’s own can of worms as it feels cruel, made things harder for jake and there was no real reason not to. At worst he’d want Jake to stop for his own saftey but given ther’es an active threat in  the huntsclan for the first season and a half, NOT helping people would be the right thing and I feel he’s a sensible enough man to understand eventually. 

And it’s stuff like this that already makes this crossover really work for me: they don’t really have to strain to get Jake over there or tell the audience heavily, the blanks fill in themslves. Or I am but that’s because it’s my job and I love doin it. 

So everyone goes off to their corners; Jake to do a few practice runs, Foo Dog to bet on his friend because of course, Trixie and Spud to go to the beach (even though Spud’s terrified of sharks so I question why Trixie needs him for this), and in a delightfully adorable subplot, finds a lady to woo: local fruit stand vendoer and crankly old lady Mrs. Hasagawa. 

I am here for this subplot: While Grandpa not focusing on the mission is weird for him that’s the entire point.. and their just really cute together. He’s smitten with her entirely because he sees her chewing out one of the people running the contest for making her sign too small. And he performs one hell of a romantic gesture by, while everyone’s back is turned, using his dragon fire to make an add for her on the skate ramp itself, and they have a lovely montage of their time together.. which also weirdly includes grandpa using his dragon fire on stage inf ront of everyone which makes no sense for his charcter but is so cute and does feature david I really don’t care. The writers of Lilo and Stitch probably weren’t deeply familiar with the show and likely just wanted a fun gag. Could be wrong there but it’s cute. He continues to act grossly out of character by trying to avoid going home at the end.. but again I find it simply because he’s in love, they have genuine chemstiry and I like to think they stayed in touch and he retired out there at some point once Jake was old enough to handle things himself. This may not be a ship I expected to support going in but I will die for it going out. 

So back to the main plot, Lilo uses Keoni’s body to imitate him which... she’s only loosely called out on and realizes is bad by the end only because she gets stuck in another body. And that’s not even getting into the fact she BREAKS UP WITH KEONI’S GIRLFRIEND. Yes really.. she just does that to get her out of the way. She comes around and realizes she was wrong and tries to fix it which would be fine.. if hte episode didn’t try to cop it out by revealing “Oh she’s not his girlfriend, she’s just someone who keeps telling people that”. It just feels lazy and dumb and a way to keep Lilo’s crush on Keoni for reasons I DO. NOT. GET. But the identity theft is just brushed aside by everyone: Keoni never finds out, and Jake just brushes it off. The real issue is more her trying to bribe keoni into likng her which while something kids need to learn is not the only thing she did wrong here. It feels like they didn’t think all the implications out here and it hampers the episode

Speaking of which as Gantu captures Jake, he sees him transform into dragon mode and assumes he’s the experiment, Jake’s charactization is pretty shallow.  And why yes it DOES feel weird writing sentences about a character with the same name thank you for asking. I wasn’t expecting a deep character piece or anything: This is a guest spot, the writers here are not the same normal ones for American Dragon. That’s fine. The problem.. is that they clearly did not get Jake. Grandpa being partly out of character is half the joke, Trixie actually gets a really nice moment towards the end, and Spud.. is eh. But out of them Jake just feels like a basic character description: He likes hip hop, he likes skateboards, he calls himself Am Drag despite that sounding like a good name for a drag act but a terrible name to shorten your title, he fights.. that’s it. 

While jake is all of that in the main series, he’s also a kind young man who while sometimes irresponsible does the right thing when the chips are down.  He’s someone weighed down by a responsiblity he didn’t ask for, often makes his life more difficult and often finds himself in trouble because his mother and grandfather won’t bother to tell his dad he’s a dragon. Yes that part still bothers me, and I don’t see why we couldn’t just have a superhero show where both parents know. But regardless this just dosen’t feel like Jake , like they just watched the intro and that was it. Jake feels more like a plot device in his own crossover. 

That being said there is some good stuff: The minute Jake realizes some Sci Fi stuff is going on instead of hte normal magic stuff he tells him “The am drag’s show isn’t about sci fi” a nice meta bit and then breaks out. Meanwhile Lilo takes on his form.. and ends up stuck after badly botching her run again, as Gantu finds the real shapeshifter. 

We get the best stretch of the episode from here though: Lilo awkardly tries to play jake and like jake we get a nice meta nod to how diffrent their show is as she’s worried about his belief in magical creatures.. and is startled out of her charade when Foo Dog talks, a really nice bit especially since it’s tame compared to the weirdness he deals with. Spud and Trixie have questions... only for Jake to show up and his agressive behavior leads to the best bit of the episode: Jake Vs Stitch. The catlyst is understandable: jake has no idea why Lilo’s taken his identity and Sttich is just protecting his best friend from harm. The animation is fluid, the fight is fun and quick and uses both’s powers stellarl. Whle “two heroes get into a misunderstanding and then fight” is a well worn cliche at this point, it’s moments like this that show why: you get to see two heroes who in this case never have interacted before or sense, duke it out, why each is special and it’s fun to watch. 

Lilo breaks it up, and admits to the whole thing.. including the whole give Keani the board stuff. While Jake and Spud, being awkard with girls and a loveable moron don’t see the problem with that Trixie gets a moment to shine. As far as I can remember she really didn’t get much on the show proper so it was a nice suprise to see her mentor lilo her, telling her trying to give someone gifts to love you is not okay, she should just be herself all that good stuff. It’s a nice character stuff and tha’ts the kind of character interaction this episode needed more of. 

With the misunderstandings washed away our heroes team up and storm gantu’s ship leading to another great sequence as Stitch rides on Jake’s back while the two keep him busy and Lilo gets turned back, Trixie complimenting her dress “Thanks I have 10 just like it at home”. It’s such a sweet and genuine moment” They head back out and gantu semeingly grabs morpholmew from where they hide.. only to find out when he gets back it’s spud, our adorable little blob monster transforming Gantu into a bunny and our heroes leaving. How does Gantu get out of being a bunny?

But it’s a nice enough gag. So we end the episode. We get another nice gag as grandpa had himself and his lady transformed to try and avoid going home, and Jake is fine with having lost out on the board what matters is he made a friend. Sadly we did not get a followup in ADJL., but spud does name our experiment, Morpholomew. 

We end on Morph getting his home: a costume shop where he gets paid in fried chicken, he was shown to enjoy it throughtout the episode and changes people into things. It’s a nice little button to the episode and one of the funnest parts of the show was figuring out where the experiment would end up at the end. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is a really mixed bag. There is some good character interactions, two tremendous fight scens and Trixie gets a chance to shine for once if only for a scene or two, and the clashing genres end up making for some great jokes> The shows do go well together as while Lilo and Stitch is more laid back both have slice of life elements. And hasgawa X Grandpa is just oto cute for words. 

The episode is held back by Jake and Lilo’s lackluster characterizatons: Jake is simply the theme song as a character, which in theory is awesome because that theme song slaps but in practice is pretty lame, and Lilo is selfish and irresponsible even for her in a way that dosen’t feel at all convincing. It drags down what’s otherwise a fun crossover and Morpholomew is truly a unique and wonderful experiment. Still if you like either show it’s worth a watch even if you have to suffer through Keoni for it. It’s worth it.. I just wish it was better and hopefully the next 3 will keep the good parts but take out the bad. Granted this was produced last so I could be wrong, but here’s hoping.  Oh this episode also featured Miranda Cosgrove as the girl who claims to be Keoni’s girlfriend. This is also Keoni’s last episode meaning I do NOT have to worry about accidently running into him. Thank fucking christ. 

Next Time On American Dragon Jake Long: Jake’s dad drags him and his friends on a camping trip and Jake ends up encountering the Jersey Devil. Now all they need is a sexy lady devil cake to lure it out... what it worked for the Cake Boss. And yes that happened, Allison Pregler did an episode on that episode. Check it out. 

Next Time On Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: It’s the family, the family, proud familllyyy as the Prouds take a vacation at Peakly and Jumbas bed but not breakfast and we get some kind of squirrel demon for our experiment of the week. We also get Wizard Kelly appearing...

See you at the next rainbow. 

[gh0stiegirlie]

synopsis: all it took was one glance at the hotheaded boy at the U.A. exam, and you were smitten. for deku, it was a single act of kindness that instigated his immediate attraction to uraraka. several months into school, best friends y/n and deku are left heartbroken when. uraraka and bakugou start a relationship. when you and deku find yourselves confiding in each other, a question arises; is this love, or loneliness? are you two better just as friends?

length: 4k words

a/n: i editted this shit to the gods, man. i hope you all enjoy! also, i can describe this chapter in one word: angst, angst, and more angst.

<- pt. 1                                                                                                 pt.3 ->

Across the campus, Bakugou and Uraraka experience a similar feeling.

It’s their first night together, and they’re spending it cuddling in Urarakas room. As much as Bakugou enjoys her physical praises, from the way she gently traces her fingers along the curves of his biceps to how she nuzzles against his chest for his warmth; her soft, delicate form feels foreign in his arms. 

Most girls love the protection of their boyfriends’ embrace, but Uraraka feels suffocated. Yet here she is, wrapped up like the perfect little present in Bakugou’s arms.

With the weeks that pass, the couples irritations and questions only grow.

You and Izuku hold hands, loosely. You only hold hands for the experience of touching another, and to perpetuate the class consciences that you are the “most wholesome couple in all U.A.”

Although your thoughts are far from 'wholesome'. You feel guilty of a heinous crime, though you're roaming free. Because here you are, hugging, cuddling, kissing Izuku, but thinking about Bakugou. And here’s Izuku buying you lunch, dropping you off at class and occasionally carrying your books around campus, wishing you were Uraraka.

Uraraka experiences persistent headaches because of Bakugous yelling. All he does is talk about being a hero, or complain about Deku. Everything is fucking Deku Deku Deku. In her head, Izuku clouds Bakugou. Her thoughts of Deku encompass her mind even when she’s with Bakugou. Every time she passes you and Izuku tenderly holding hands in the hall, her heart tightens. While Bakugou tugs her around like a dog on a leash, Deku grasps you with all the pride in the world, a radiant smile on his face. Two things about Bakugou; He never discloses his emotions, and he's never gentle.

Bakugou spends all his days avoiding landmines. Uraraka is so fragile, he's afraid one day he’ll squeeze her hand so tight she’ll shatter. Anything and everything he does either offends, hurts, embarrasses, or irritates her. He’s going crazy with all the rules and expectations Uraraka forces him to meet. He’s like putty in her hands, and she’s trying to mold him into a different person.

Uraraka only enjoys being with Bakugou when they’re taking out their frustrations through make-out sessions.

Y/n only enjoys being with Deku when they’re using eachothers lips as a way to escape their isolation.

For a while, their bonds remain relatively stable. But as time goes on, the weak foundations their relationships were built on begin to crumble.

You and Izuku arrive at the common area after an intense sparring match, which you lost against Kirishima. You courteously accepted your defeat, though Izuku remains pissy about it. 

“I just-- I can’t believe you lost!” he expresses, refusing to accept your failure.

“I know! I work so hard, and I’ve never lost a match before! I don’t understand… ” You fix your gaze on the floor, not wanting to meet Izuku’s disappointed eyes. "I guess it’s good I lost today, because now I know exactly what I need to work on! I had no idea my mind can't pierce solid surfaces." It's honestly cool Kirishima's hardening quirk kept your thoughts from breaking into his mind. Now you know to practice sending your thoughts to another person through a wall. "I guess if I never lost, I would end up an egotistical maniac… Like Bakugou!” you joke with a soft chuckle.

“Yeah! You just have to work harder!” Izuku agrees. 

You appreciate his positivity. While his attitude is always upbeat with others, his comments to you are always nasty.

“Maybe you haven’t been working hard enough, but I know you can do better! Everyone does! " he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. "So when you lose, it’s embarrassing...” 

You rip your hand away from Deku. “What? Who’s it embarrassing for? You?” you question accusingly.

“Y-Yuh-Yes!” he sputters, “When you lose, it makes others think I'm a loser too! And if I want to be the number one hero, I can't have people thinking that!”

You bite the inside of your cheek as you think. He considers you to be this bright and shiny object he can brag about at show and tell. Now, you’re losing your polish. You’re collecting a little bit of dust and a few scrapes, and he's losing interest. Already, Deku wants to move on to the next object that catches his eye. 

Not only that, but he craves whatever looks good on headlines. He desires magazine covers to display "number one hero marries highschool sweetheart!" He wants "unbeatable hero couple foil supervillain 100!". Apparently "Deku is never going to be the top hero because his girlfriend lost one fight her freshman year at U.A.!" is the article he's currently imagining. 

“I’m not just some gold medal you can show off to others, Izuku. And I'm especially not some perfect little prize you can wrap up in a cute little bow. I’m human. That means sometimes I win, and sometimes I fuck up.” you retort calmly, trying to keep your cool. 

“We’re called the golden girl and boy for a reason. We’re supposed to grow up being the perfect, powerful couple,” he reaches for your hand, but you flinch away. 

“It doesn’t really seem like we are, does it?! Our whole ‘golden couple’ label is complete bullshit!” you bicker. “We, as people, aren’t perfect. We never will be. No one ever will be!" You laugh humorlessly. "And our relationship sure as hell isn’t.” 

Deku closes his eyes with a sigh. “We--We just have to try. I’m doing my part to work as hard as I can to get better. I’m not going to suffer because I'm carrying your losses on my back. I'm not letting you get in the way of my dream to be the number one hero.” 

You get it. Because he's praised for his powerful physical quirk, he thinks he's better than you. Because he's physical quirk always leaves him battered, he thinks he's suffered more than you. Because he can go to the gym every day, get ripped and show off his muscular calves with every kick, he thinks he works harder than you.

After months of petty arguments, Izuku has finally found a way to make you snap.“Oh shut up, Izuku! You know I've worked my entire fucking life for where I am now! I've told you stories from my past I've never so much as mentioned to others! How I went home crying from middle school every damn day because of migraines! How everyone there considered me some kind of--of alien, some freak because I'm able to get inside people's heads! How I was bullied for practicing my power because kids considered it a quirk more suited for a villain! It was hard, but I managed to ignore all that crap and kept working! And I still work hard. Every. Single. Fucking. Day." You take a ragged breath, unphased by Izuku's shocked expression. Good. He should be shocked. He should feel bad. Because he's crossed a fucking line. "And how come it’s only bad when I lose when you’ve lost plenty of times, Izuku?! ” You pointedly stick your finger at him and poke his chest with it. “Remember how you practically failed the entrance exam?! How about when Todorki beat the crap out of you at the Sports Festival!” you yell. With every point, you shove your finger into Izuku's chest. Eventually, you push him against a wall. “Don’t try and act like you’re above me because you have a powerful external quirk.” You shut your eyes and when you open them, they’re glowing e/c. “Because my mental quirk can fuck someone up just as bad as any of your stupid punches.” You warn, before whirling around. “I’m going to my room, Izuku. Come with me if you want.” 

Of course, he follows you like a lost puppy.

Every pitbull is an adorable, loveable puppy before it grows up into a vicious hound. You thought you could fall in love Deku, you really did. But you were capable of loving the Deku whom Izuku pretended to be. The innocent Deku you approached on the first day of school, after noticing he was acting as flustered as you felt. The thoughtful Deku who wanted nothing more than a friend to run to the vending machine with between classes. The friendly Deku who you invited over to movie night, who buried his head into his blanket in embarrassment every time two characters did it on screen, and cried every time someone died. 

You could've fallen in love with your best friend.

Either he's changed, or since you're his girlfriend, he can’t hide who he truly is anymore. You know how he will do anything to have the public opinion in his favor. You know he will sacrifice anything during his climb to Number One Hero, even if it’s crushing you. 

You wordlessly walk side by side to your dorm, but as you near the dorm hallway, some bitch interrupts your silence.

“Why do you always have to yell, Bakugou!?” Uraraka yells from inside Bakugou’s room, which is coincidentally a few dorms down the hall from yours. You and Izuku turn into the hallway in time to witness Uraraka barge out of Bakugous room. She rubs her temples in frustration. When she notices the two of you outside your room, she eases her body language and lowers her voice to sweetly ask, “Can you just calm down, babe?”

“Don’t order me around! I’m being perfectly calm and rational!!” Bakugou shouts in response. “You’re the one who needs to calm down! You’re worked up over nothing! This is how I am, and I’m not going to change for some shitty woman!” he storms over to Uraraka, oblivious to the fact you and Izuku are watching this play out. That, or he just doesn’t give a shit.

Uraraka gasps. “I’m your girlfriend, you can’t call me that!” she chides. “This is exactly what I don’t like about you! You’re so aggressive all the time!” She fusses, like a child having a tantrum. Her bangs dance around her head as she stomps away from Bakugou, but he grabs her wrist to keep her in place. "Let me go! Being around you gives me headaches.”

“We should probably go~” Izuku whispers, attempting to open your door.

You slap his hand away. “I wanna see what happens,” you whisper back.

Izuku nervously glances between you and the arguing couple. “You’re so nosy! Come on, we’re leaving.” he decides, but you try to stay put. He then simply uses his quirk to overpower you and drag you inside, though even through four sets of rooms and a closed door, you can hear their argument.

“Being around you gives me headaches! All you do is nag about that nerds shitty girlfriend, and how shitty I am!” Bakugou explains. His insult doesn’t hurt you as much as you expect it to, because you can hear it. To someone who hasn’t listened intently to his screams and threats for the past few months, his voice appears as crass as always. But you hear the desperation in his voice. All he wants is for Uraraka to read between the lines and hear what he truly is saying, but no matter how hard he tries, she doesn’t. And it’s hurting him. He’s frustrated and in pain, because all she wants is for him to change every aspect of himself. Can she not see that? “Getting a girlfriend isn’t a part of being a hero, and it’s not something I need to pick up on my way to the top. I’m doing this because I can stand you. But I don’t need a damn girlfriend, especially when all mine does is make me feel like crap.” He’s describing his feelings in his own Bakugou way, but she doesn’t understand his language. And by the way he worded this last sentence, it sounds like he’s starting to give up. 

“If you don’t need me, then why are we dating!”

At this point, you’re sick of hearing their bullshit. You leave your room to yell at the couple and hopefully get them to shut the fuck up.

Izuku tries to hold you back. “Leave it alone!” he hisses, but you leave anyway.

“Uraraka, can you shut the hell up?” you jeer. This is the third time this week she’s made your fucking ears bleed with her screeching. Bakugou leans on the all and snickers, convinced someone has taken his side. But oh, if the boy who broke your heart thinks he’s safe from your candor, he’s wrong. You jut your chin at him. “And Bakugou, go find a wall to punch.” You turn towards your door. “Go work this shit out in couples counseling or something. 'Cuz you guys need fuckin therapy.” 

Bakugou snorts, enraging Uraraka. First, you steal Deku, and now Bakugou’s laughing at your jokes? Not happening.

“Leave us alone, Y/n!” she huffs, her pink cheeks now red with irritation. You flip her off before slamming your door shut. Bakugou’s eyes gawk at your closed door, unsure if he loves you or hates you. Either way, your remarks emit a small, impressed ‘huh’ from him. 

From that point on, Bakogous thoughts of you revolve around one question; Who knew the golden girl was such a badass?

After months of sleepless nights (due to overthinking Izuku's daily insults and listening to Bakugou and Uraraka’s endless arguments), your first year of U.A. nears its end. On one hand, you’re excited to take some time for your mental health. On the other, you’re going to miss kicking ass in weekly training (especially Izukus), and then following those brawls with Class 1-A movie night (which Izuku always spent touching you as minimally as possible, either because you ‘barely won’ or because you defeated him). Bakugou can't wait to get the hell away from Uraraka and her endless spew of horseshit. She doesn't know how to do anything but make crap float and talk shit about him or Izuku’s girl. She always goes on and on about how exhausting his yelling is, but listening to her nonstop yabbering makes spending summer locked away, either in a gym or in his kitchen, sound like heaven on earth. 

With only a month of school left, Izuku waits outside your dorm for you to finish getting ready for the day, growing anxious as the minutes’ tick closer to the first bell.

A few doors down, Uraraka impatiently taps her shoe on the ground as she waits for Bakugou.

If there’s one thing you and Bakugou have in common, it’s your impunctuality. 

“Hey! Sorry that took so long! I kept fucking up my eyeliner,” You exit your room and blow a stray piece of bangs out of your eye to check out your wings on your phone screen. “Nice,” You shove your phone into your bag, satisfied.

“Babe, you don’t need to spend so much time on makeup!” Izuku cups your cheeks with his hands, but focuses on your eyeliner instead of your eyes with a slight grimace on his face. “You’re beautiful without it,” 

He says it politely, but you know this a backhanded compliment. He hates that you wear makeup, even though its the barebones that simply consists of mascara, eyebrows, and eyeliner. He prefers ‘natural’ girls, even though there is no way Urarakas cheeks are naturally that pink. You push his hands off your face. “I know Zuzu, thank you. But I like it.” You hold his hands tightly before dropping them.

Uraraka cringes as the sight of her boyfriend. “Katsuki!” she whines. Even though the whole point of the uniform is to signify everyone's equality, Bakugou loves wearing it in a way that screams “I’m the main character and better than you!” 

His baggy pants sag to expose his shitty job of tucking in his shirt, and ball around the combat boots he refuses to take off. Per usual, he leaves his buttons undone and doesn’t bother wearing the staple red tie.

“How come you’re late but still look like a mess?” Uraraka complains. She reaches out her hand to arrange his askew vest, but he pulls away from her. 

“I’m fine.” he aggressively grabs her hand and begins to pull her towards class. “Let’s go,”

Uraraka spots Izuku watching and stops Bakugou dead in his tracks. 

By planting a giant kiss on his face. 

“Eugh. Get a room!” You grouse, rolling your eyes at the repulsive sight. But Uraraka keeps it going by practically shoving him against the wall. “You might as well pull down his pants and suck him off while you’re at it!”

Bakugou pulls away from Uraraka to snicker at your comment. 

Hearing Bakugou snigger at a joke you made… It gives your heart a reason to beat for the first time in months. You proudly slip your fingers into Deku’s and glide away, Bakugous eyes following you entire time.

The halls are nearly empty, only a few irresponsible students straggling to class or hovering around their lockers.

“So, do you want to be partners for the Aizawa project?” Izuku questions, like either of you have any other friends to partner up with. He hauls you along as he speedwalks to class.

“Yeah! I wonder what it is.” You move at a steady pace, knowing there's plenty of time to enjoy a pleasant walk to class together before the bell rings. 

“I don’t know! Mirio and the other third years wouldn’t tell me!” Deku whines, tugging at your hand to bring you up to speed. “Y/n, hurry upppp! We’re going to be late!” 

“Dude, you’re gonna rip my arm off!" you moan, rubbing your forearm.

“Shhh,” he hushes. 

Although you expect this attitude by now, it still pisses you off. If Deku expects you to deal with him treating you like garbage, he's wrong.

"You'll be sorry the next time you do that," you mumble, but he pretends not to hear, instead using his quirk to squeeze your hand in reply. Hard.

You barely wince.

“Now let’s go into class!” Izuku intertwines your fingers, straightens himself up, and tells you to put on a smile. He doesn’t do this because wants to hold your hand or genuinely cares about you, but because he enjoys the dramatic chorus of cheers you two always receive as you enter the classroom. If there’s anything Deku likes about your relationship, it’s how he gets to show you off like a trophy. His trophy. 

You enter class, and Mina immediately screams about how cute and perfect you two are together.

The golden boy and golden girl are dating. Honestly, who wouldn’t love that?

Bakugou doesn’t. He scoffs and turns away while everyone else encourages your shit show. Uraraka claps stiffly.

The corners of your mouth sink the instant the class’s attention shifts to some dumb pun Kaminari made. Bakugou is the only one to notice your smile fall when you reach your desk. He notices how you lean your head against the palm of your hand to stare out the window instead of at your boyfriend. You look… Tired. Like you’re tired of this act while Izuku relishes in the praise. Currently, he’s making a show to Uraraka of all the cute dates he’s taken you on while you create a show inside your head. A show where you and Bakugou are the ones going on cute days. Izuku uses his conversation with Uraraka as a way to silently convince her he’s better than Bakugou (and she’s falling for it), while you are just silent.

You shift uncomfortably in your seat, the eerie feeling of someone watching you sending your mind racing. When you turn to discover Bakugou is the one studying you, your face turns dark red and you immediately look away. The blush only fades once Aizawa starts talking.

“Class, today I will assign your partners for the quirk assessment.”

“Assign?!” The whole class screams in unison horror.

“Why are you assigning partners?!” Mina cries out, dramatically fainting across her desk. 

“Yeah! That’s not fair!” Kaminari adds on furiously.

“Nuh-no it’s not!” Mineta defends Aizawa’s decision, but internally drools over the idea of being paired with a girl.

“Settle down,” Aizawa silences the class with a single wave of his hand. “I understand you want to choose your partners, but in this assessment we want you to study the quirk of another person. Most likely, you all already know about your closest friends quirks. I want to pair you with someone new so you have to learn about a quirk you know nothing about.” he explains, to which the class to a reluctant conscientious that it's a good idea.

He clears his throat. “So, Mineta and Hagakure”

Mineta shrugs as if to say “good enough”, while Hagakure groans in disgust. 

You tune out the list, only listening for Izuku and Bakugou. As more names leave Aizawa’s lips and Izuku is already paired with Kirishima and Uraraka with Momo, you start to wonder who your partner will be. Who else hasn’t been mentioned? Damn, if only you had paid attention.

Finally, Aizawa reaches the last set of names. That’s when it hits you.

Aizawa hasn’t said Bakugou’s name.

“And…”

There’s no way.  This can’t be possible—

“Y/n and Bakugou.” Aizawa sighs. “You will have a presentation due on each other’s quirks next week. Get to work” he explains before zipping himself into his sleeping bag and flopping to the floor. 

You remain glued to your seat, completely frozen in shock. 

You already have a feeling this project isn’t going to end well. 

“Hey! Y/n!” Uraraka calls out from across the class, before squeezing through people to get to you. She pushes out her lip, clasps her hands together, and widens her eyes till the twinkle. “Do you think I can be with Bakugou, please? We’re kinda dating!” she exclaims as if it wasn’t obvious by how they were literally making out in front of you this morning. 

Without a second thought, you reply. “No.” You walk over to Bakugou and sit on his desk. “Sorry. I don’t want to bother Aizawa” you shrug nonchalantly, angering Uraraka to no end. But you know she’s too kind to say anything, and merely smiles to distract you from the steam spewing from her ears. 

“Okay! That’s fine!” she skips over to Bakugou and kisses his cheek. “Have fun babe,” she whispers before walking away with clenched fists. 

You think it’s interesting Bakugou didn’t say a single thing during the whole interaction. 

Does he want to be partners with you?

Or are you just the better option compared to his girlfriend?

Either answer is a good one, you suppose.

“Tch. Follow me, extra. We’re going outside.” Bakugou leaves his seat and shoves his hands deep into his pockets before lumbering away, leaving you to catch up. 

“Hey-- Wait up!” You call out. Bakugou huffs and leans against the doorframe. “Why are we going outside?”

Bakugou quirks an eyebrow at you with a smirk, igniting explosions from his palm. “It’ll be easier to learn about your quirk if I’m trying to blast you to hell.” 

“What?! No! I’m not fighting you!” you retaliate, stepping back into the classroom. You’re not in the mood to get your ass kicked by Bakugou, as hot as that sounds. 

“No wonder you’re dating Deku, you’re a coward too!” Bakugou taunts, his outburst washing a wave of silence across the classroom. You manage to keep your body relaxed and expression unperturbed, though fury rages within you. You will not let his intimidation frighten you. You refuse to be the reason he wears his sneer of satisfaction, that sickening smile that appears every time he successfully threatens or demolishes an opponent. 

You stare at the ground as dozens of eyes burn into your back, eagerly awaiting your response. 

Then, you do something you never thought was possible.

You raise one of your fists and punch Bakugou’s pretty face. 

“It’s on, Bakugou.” You spit. Before he reacts, you sprint down the hall towards the training grounds. 

[superfem-imagines]

Vigilant Love

Cat Grant x Vigilante that saves her gets injured and is later revealed to be her SO? I'm sorry for being so oddly specific.

I hope you like it anon, this was fun to write

Warnings: hostage situation, blood, gunshot wound, brief violence, hospital (?)

Feigning an annoyed sigh, Cat sent a scathing glare at the men standing in her office. “You’re either brave or stupid to come here, Supergirl will come.”

The leading man, tall and broad with a mask over his mouth, chuckled. “Now Kitty, you and I both know our hero is a little busy right now.” Gesturing to the news feed with his gun, the man shook his head. The monitor showed Supergirl going head to head against a big blue alien, bony spikes adorning it’s shoulders.

Despite being worried for her own well being, Cat pretends otherwise, putting on a mask of cool indifference.

    ------

Standing in the elevator with a bag of food in hand, you scroll on your phone, stopping to watch the feed of Supergirl fighting. At the elevators ding you exit, though the sight in front of you brings you to an abrupt stop. A pair of masked men stand in Cat’s office, two more standing over the hudling employees.

Dropping behind a desk, you peak past the side into the fishbowl office. Cat’s looking up at the men, glaring over her glasses. With the men all distracted, you leave the food and sprint into the stairwell, unbuttoning your shirt to reveal a textured suit underneath.

Crouched on your knees, you peak through the air vent to the men below. Quietly removing the grate, you drop silently behind the man, gesturing to the employees to be quiet. Reaching towards the man, you hesitate. Pulling your hands back you cover your eyes, encouraging them to look away. Once everyone had averted their gaze, you reached out and hit the side of the man’s neck on the Vagus nerve, catching and lowering his body to the ground. 

Taking out the other one in the bullpen, you led all the employees to the stairwell so they could safely leave. Once the room was empty, you opened the door to Cat’s office, hands on your hips. 

“Hello boys,” grinning as they spun around, you glanced at Cat. “Might want to, uh” You tilted your head to her desk, nodding to yourself once she was underneath. “Now, put your weapons down.” Shaking your head condescendingly, you block the smaller man when he swung a knife at you. Jerking him by the arm, you slammed your head into his, sending him crumpling to the ground.

A loud bang went off followed by a piercing pain in your thigh. Looking down, you see the blood spreading from the wound. 

“You kidding me, man?” You threw your hands up, glaring at him. “Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of this suit?” Before he could say anything you were in front of him, disarming him and knocking his knee out from under him. You stood over him, gun aimed at his head. “Ms. Grant?” You called, seeing the woman stand in your periphery. “Can I use an extension cord or something to tie him up please?”

You continue to glare at the man as Cat unplugs a cord and brings it to you. Directing the man to lay on the ground with his hands behind him, you tuck the gun away and start to tie him up. Grinning, you jerked on the too tight cord. “Alright scumbag, stand up.” At this point security had made their way into the bullpen, the silent alarm having called them up.

Pushing the man towards one of the guards, you turn to Cat. “Ms. Grant, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m perfectly fine (s/h/n). You don’t seem to be, however.” Cat raised an eyebrow pointedly, looking at your leg.

“Yeah, it’s just a graze. I should be going though, will you be okay here?”

“Go do what you do, (s/h/n). Save some kittens or something.” Smiling at the wave and dismissal she gave you, you jumped into the opened vent and left.

    ----

Clamping the leather belt between your teeth, you pour some alcohol onto the open wound. Digging your fingers into your thigh, you feel around for the bullet, pulling it out and dropping it onto the bathroom floor.

Taking a pull from the bottle, you pour some more on your leg and take the heated metal from the sink. Wiping away the alcohol and blood, you start to cauterize the wound. Finally done, you lean back against the tub, covered in blood and sweat. Wiping at your forehead, you hold the bullet to the light. 

Sighing you strip out of your remaining clothes and start the shower. In the middle of wrapping your thigh, there was a knock at your door. Finishing off the bandage, you throw on some sweats and head to the door. Opening it to the sight of a tired looking Cat.

“Cat? You okay?” You open up the door wider to let her in, warily watching her strip off her coat and heels. 

“Some men came into the office today, they weren’t demanding anything though.” You hum as you grab the wine glasses and a bottle of Cat’s Merlot. Pouring the wine into the glasses, you move to join her on the couch. “Luckily (y/s/n) showed up, Supergirl was busy with that alien downtown.”

You murmur a quiet fortunately into your wine glass, draping an arm over Cat as she moved into you. You let out a sharp gasp as Cat braced herself on your thigh, hand right on the cauterized wound.

“Y/N?” Cat looked at you with concern, pulling back to look at you. “You okay?”

“Uh- yeah! I accidentally hurt myself earlier, broke a glass and cut my leg.” You gave Cat what looked like a casual smile, failing if her expression was anything to go by. You bit your lip as she studied you, looking at your leg with her gears visibly turning.

“Let me see.” Before you could protest Cat gave you a stern look, causing you to sigh and stand up. You dropped your gaze to the ground as your pants hit the floor, wincing at the gasp Cat let out. “Did you not do anything about it? It’s almost bled through.”

Realizing Cat was right, you dashed to the bathroom, grabbing some scissors on the way. Stepping into the still damp tub, you cut off the bandage and grimace at the reopened wound. Hearing Cat enter the bathroom, you ignore her gasp and quickly rewrap the cut. 

“Your her,” you toss Cat an apologetic look before quickly looking away.

“I’m sorry for not telling you, but can you yell at me later? I’d rather not cauterize this again, that shit hurts.” You breathe a sigh of relief when Cat tells you to put on some shorts while she grabs your car keys.

Leg wrapped and pain relievers in your system, you glance over at Cat. Sighing, you sit up and turn to her. “Cat,” the older woman doesn’t look away from her phone, studiously ignoring you. “Cat, talk to me please.”

Shoving her phone in her purse, Cat turns to you with a glare. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were her?”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” you murmur, fiddling with the hospital blanket. 

“I found out cause you had a bullet in your leg Y/n! I’m worried anyways.” Cat crossed her arms and glared at you, watching you fidget. Cat sighed and moved over to your bed, taking your hand. “I don’t like seeing you hurt. I’m not mad that you didn’t tell me, I’m upset with how I found out.”

You scooted over and opened your arms up to the blonde, giving her a sheepish smile. Cat shook her head but slid into the bed with you, tucking her head into your neck.

“Think Catco can get an exclusive?” Cat quipped, pinching your side.

[controloffandoms]

Tension (P.P./S.M.)

Prompt: I rewatched Endgame and it has given me so many ideas…

Pairing: Peter Parker x Banner!Reader, Bruce Banner x daughter!reader, Tony Stark x niece!reader

Words: 3712

Warnings: Endgame spoilers (kinda), I feel like Endgame is a warning in and of itself, cursing, violence, hurt reader

Notes: I’m sorry….I’m just so sorry...I have too many ideas flowing through my head at one time.

You knew going into space was a bad idea. You followed Peter Parker because you couldn’t let him just go do something stupid on his own. Now though, you were regretting it. You coughed, wiping the blood that came to your lips away. You got up again, getting back into the fight. “Quill, don’t,” you shouted as you saw what he was about to do. He was going to mess this whole thing up.

You reached him too late, Thanos woke. You pulled the foolish man out of the way, so that he wouldn’t get hit by Thanos again. In the process, you were thrown away from the group. Then he was gone. You growled getting up and making your way to Peter Quill. “What the hell was that,” you shouted, shoving him backwards. “We had him!”

“(Y/N), you need to calm down. You don’t want to hurt him,” Tony called, but you ignored him. You could have stopped Thanos, but Quill messed it all up. It was his fault.

Before you could go to shove him again, Peter pulled you away. He turned you to face him, hands on your shoulders. “This was all part of Dr. Strange’s vision. Any other way and we would lose.”

You ran a hand down your face but nodded. “Should have stayed on Earth. I bet he’s there now. I still need to beat his ass,” you stated. 

“I don’t think your father would let you anywhere near Thanos,” Tony supplied. 

“Yeah, well he wouldn’t have a choice. Hulk seems to be absent for the moment.” 

You wanted to continue the chat, but something felt different. Peter seemed to sense it as well. You both walked over to Tony. “Mr. Stark? I don’t feel so good. I don’t know what’s happening…I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go. Sir, please? Please, I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go. I’m sorry.” You watched as your best friend turned to dust. 

“Peter,” you whispered, staring at the spot where he use to stand. “Uncle Tony?” He turned to you, tears in his eyes. “What’s happening? We didn’t lose, we couldn’t have lost,” you teared up. You watched as your own form began to shimmer and turn to dust. “Uncle Tony, please! I-I-my dad! Tell him I love him...I love you too.” 

________________

“I found her, she’s over here,” you winced at the voice. Why was it so loud? 

Everything came back to you as quick as the snap of your fingers. You sat up, gasping. “Peter?! Uncle Tony?!” Slowly your vision stabilized enough that you could make out Peter’s form. You grasped at him, pulling him close. You remembered him turning to dust and not being able to do anything about it. “You’re alive,” you whispered. 

“Sorry to break up the reunion, but we need to get a move on. The others need us. It’s been five years and the others are already waging war with Thanos,” Dr. Strange stated. He opened a portal that lead you to the Wakandan battle field. Seeing as you didn’t see everyone there, you guessed that these were the Avengers that were turned to ash after the snap.

You watched Dr. Strange as he seemed to be waiting for a signal to bring us all back to the present. You looked at Peter who was tinkering with his suit. He turned to you. “Stay safe when we get out there,” he stated. 

“Always. You do the same.” 

“Forever.” It was custom every battle you went in to make this promise to each other. You both had superhuman abilities, you were both able to understand one another better than anyone. The fact that you had similar abilities and were just about the same age made it easy for you two to bond. 

The next portal opened, and you all rushed out. You immediately spotted Thanos. “The purple raisin is mine,” you called, bounding towards him. 

It took only two jumps to get to Thanos. You threw him away from Tony and Steve. “Would have thought that you would have had us back out by a year of being gone,” you called over your shoulder, sending them a smirk as you drop kicked Thanos while he was dusting himself off. 

You used a move Natasha had taught you to throw Thanos to the ground while getting the gauntlet off of him. “I’ll take this.” You tossed it to T’Challa as he passed. He nodded in thanks, making his way away from Thanos. You tossed Thanos over your shoulder, slamming him into the ground. “That’s for making me watch my best friend die.” You sent all of your force into the punch to his face, “that’s for taking me away from my family for five years.” You sent him into a rock, leaving him breathless. “For being an asshole.” You roundhouse kicked him in the side, sending him flying, “for being a thorn in our sides.” 

Your next attack was blocked and he advanced on you. He threw you back into the rock that he had been pinned against, sending you right through it. “I don’t have time to play your games,” he stated. He grabbed you, sending you flying through the air, taking the breath out of your body. He landed on your back, causing you to gasp in pain. Next, he brought your arm up, breaking it in half. You mumbled curses as he was thrown off you. 

You moved just in time for an alien to land where you had been lying. You growled as it turned its sights on you. You grabbed it with your good arm, flinging it into the ship it had been pouring from. You smirked as it died on impact. 

You ripped a piece of your shirt, grabbing a branch that you’d found in the debris, and made a makeshift splint for your arm. You tied it off, ready to get back in the fight. You ran back in, spotting Peter with the gauntlet. You pushed yourself faster, taking out an alien that was gunning for him. “How’s you end up with the gauntlet?”

“Uh, Black Panther was stuck, so I grabbed it? What happened to your arm?”

“Uh, Thanos.” 

You and Peter traveled together, you keeping the aliens from reaching your best friend. You stopped in shock at the missiles coming towards you, you wouldn’t let Peter die. You jumped on him, covering him with your body, gauntlet pressed between the both of you. When your ears stopped ringing, you moved off of your best friend. 

“Don’t do that again! You could have gotten yourself killed,” Peter exclaimed. 

“Gotta protect the gauntlet, and you were holding it,” you stated, willing your blush to stay off your face. 

You were both brought out of your trance by someone clearing their throat. “Got something for me?” 

“I’m-I’m Peter Parker...this is (Y/N) Banner...uh, here,” he tossed her the gauntlet. 

She smiled, “thanks Peter, (Y/N) good job.”

“Uh, how are you going to get through all that,” you asked. 

“With help,” was her response. It was amazing as all of the women joined the woman in front of you. There was even a lady on a Pegasus. You and Peter watched in awe as they took off. 

“That was-” you started.

“So cool,” Peter finished. 

You nodded, helping him up when you stood. You both decided to stick together, taking down more and more aliens. Finally you’d both cleared a path. You both were tired, bodies aching, but you knew you both had to keep going. You and Peter jogged side by side. You stopped when you saw Tony with the stones on his armor. “Uncle Tony, no!” 

You rushed to get to him, but he’d already snapped his fingers. You dropped down beside him...you hadn’t even seen him since you’d been brought out of the portal. You wrapped your arms around him, tears falling. “Hey kid...glad you made it back.”

“Why? We-We could have figured another-another way.” He reached up and wiped your tears. 

“It was all in the plan.” 

You shook your head, moving to the side to let Peter see Tony...your uncle was going to die...all because of that purple jackass. He hadn’t turned to ash yet. “You fucking jackass,” you shouted, launching at Thanos. You and him tumbled away from Tony and the others that had gathered. You sent punch after punch into his face. You brought your arms up, planning on banging them down on his chest, but as you went to follow through, he turned to ash. All you hit was rock. 

You sat in the same spot, staring at what use to be Thanos. It wasn’t fair. You turned to look over your shoulder. You could tell by the faces of everyone that Tony was gone. You turned back around, tears stinging your eyes and the cuts on your face. You got up slowly, chest heaving as if you had just run a marathon. You knew who else’s fault it was that Tony was dead. 

You spotted him just out of the crowd of heroes gathered. “This is all your fault,” you screamed, grabbing the man and throwing him. It seemed to surprise him. “You knew all along! You told Tony that this was the only way, but we could have found another!” You sent a punch to his face.

Dr. Strange didn’t do anything to dissuade you. He took every hit you gave him. It wasn’t until you were being lifted away from Dr. Strange that everything fell into place. You favorite uncle...the person you could tell everything to, was dead. You struggled against the person holding you, just wanting to curl in on yourself. 

You got out of the person’s grasp, collapsing to the ground. You brought your knees up to your chest, burying your face in them. Everything hurts: your head, your arm, your muscles, your back ...your heart. You wanted nothing more than to smash everything you could see, but you couldn’t will yourself to move. 

Hands on your knees made you tense, but you didn’t move away. You thought that if you ignored them long enough, they would go away...but they didn’t. “Sweetheart,” you knew that voice anywhere. 

“Daddy,” you cried, jumping towards him, burying your face in his neck. His arms wrapped around you securely and he let you cry into his shirt. You felt another hand on your back, rubbing soothingly. You knew it was Peter, he was always there to comfort you.

“I’m here. We’re here.”

________________

Four Months Later

You rolled your eyes at Peter’s antics. “Instead of giving the villain time to work out a plan by telling jokes, why don’t we take care of the villain,” you asked, jumping in and punching the villain unconscious.

“That wasn’t very nice. We were actually having a conversation.” You shook your head. Your face was only covered by a half-mask that was situated to cover the top half of your face. 

“Honestly, Spidey, that’s why you come home with so many bruises.”

Peter scoffed, landing next to you and webbing up your prisoner. You both would be taking him to Nick Fury’s holding cells in the tri carrier. “You know that we all adore the both of you, but could you keep your bickering to a minimum over the open line,” your father’s voice flowed through the com link. 

“No one asked you to listen in,” you quipped. 

“I’m your father, I can and will ground you.”

“We’re going to take this wannabe villain to Fury now,” you responded, leading the way with Peter laughing behind you. “Oh stop your laughing. If May knew about how you ‘talked’ with the villains that could easily hurt you, you’d be getting a grounding yourself.”

“But May doesn’t know and you aren’t going to tell her.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” 

He stepped in front of you, lifting his mask to show you the smirk on his lips and the sparkles in his eyes. “Because you love me and wouldn’t want May cutting our time together in half.” 

“Whoever said I loved you, Spider-boy? I certainly never said that.” 

“Right, how could I forget,” he asked, leaning in closer. “It’s not like we’re anything but friends,” he whispered. You almost whined when he pulled away. The tension between you two had been growing ever since you both almost kissed two months ago. Long story short, a villain got the best of both of you and you both had ended landing on one another with Peter only centimeters from your face. 

Ever since then, you both had either avoided the subject or teased the other. Your eyes narrowed at Peter. You rolled your eyes, tossing the villain to him. “Tricarrier took off. I can’t reach it, but you can if you hurry up and attach your web to it.”

______________

Two Days Later

You were screwed. You were supposed to be at dinner with your father, Peter and Aunt May, Pepper and Morgan, and anyone else who could make it, over an hour ago. You knew accepting Fury’s offer would end up screwing you in the end. You’d ended up in another country tracking four big bads, according to SHIELD profiles. 

When you’d finally managed to track them down, you’d had your ass handed to you...not once, not twice, but five times. Finally-FINALLY-you had been able to outsmart the four assholes and get them into containment cells on the tricarrier. With you being in a different country, you didn’t realize the time difference or what time it would be when you finally got back to New York.

You’d stopped at home to clean up, not wanting to particularly explain why you were a bloody mess. As you stood outside the Avenger’s compound, you winced. This wasn’t going to be pleasant. You decided to suck it up, it would only be worse the longer you waited. 

You entered the compound, immediately seeing Thor. You knew that soon everyone would know that you had arrived because Thor was not one to talk quietly. “Ah, Lady (Y/N), you have finally arrived,” his voice boomed. “I believe there is still some food left.” 

You mentally face palmed as you nodded. Your father, quickly followed by Peter, came into view. You had wanted to say something along the lines of ‘don’t freak out’ but your best friend spoke before you could. “What the hell happened to you,” he was instantly by your side, looking you over. That brought your father closer and more attention from everyone else in the compound. 

“I’m okay,” you stated, not that anyone listened to you.

You were bombarded by questions about what happened. Why were you late? Who gave you the cuts and bruises? Where had you been all day? The list went on and on. It was finally when you saw tears in Morgan’s eyes that you rose your voice above everyone else’s. “OKAY! You’re scaring Morgan. I’ll answer all your questions but I need you all to shut up and let me sit down, okay?”

You hid your limp as you walked over to Morgan, picking her up and giving her a huge hug. No matter how much your body ached, you wanted to make Morgan feel safe and comforted. She held on tightly to you, “are you okay, (Y/N/N)?” 

“I’m better now that I’ve had a hug from you! Your hugs make everything better!” You gave her a wide smile that she returned, hugging you tighter. 

“Morgan, honey, why don’t you and I go fix (Y/N) some food?” Pepper didn’t want Morgan to hear the details of what had happened to you today. You didn’t want her to hear it either.

“But my hugs are making (Y/N/N) better,” Morgan pouted.

“Tell you what, you go help your mom with the food and then you and I can have a movie night and you can give me as many hugs as you want. How does that sound,” you asked the little ball of light. 

“Okay!” She clapped her hands, giving you another bone crushing hug, before following her mother.

You watched to make sure she was out of earshot before you sighed, sinking into the couch cushions. Everything hurt. Your ribs, arms, back, legs, muscles, head...everything. “Explanation please,” Peter finally spoke. 

“Sorry for being late. I was out of the country,” you stated, eyes closed. 

“Out of the country,” your dad’s voice was low and pointed.

“I was out and about today, doing my usual patrol route to make sure no one was getting mugged or another villain had popped up and Nick Fury finds me. He says he has a mission that would only last part of the day and that I should be back in time for dinner. It was just one guy that had eluded SHIELD Agents because he had some sort of powers. I asked him what I would get in return and he said that I could name my price after it was done.”

You opened your eyes to see all eyes trained on you with unreadable expressions on their faces. “It was one guy, I thought that it would be me tracking the guy, take him down, ask Fury for something like a car and that would be the end of it. He forgot to mention that the guy was in Asia hiding out. I spent four hours tracking him down but when I found him, he wasn’t alone. His friends had powers too.”

You pinched the bridge of your nose as you remembered the events of today before shaking your head. “I informed Fury of the fact that his one person mission had turned into a four course meal. Fury immediately went to work identifying the other three while I came up with a plan to take them down. Needless to say, it didn’t work. I tracked them down five times, finally getting the upper hand the fifth time and taking them to Fury’s containment cells.”

“By the time we got here I was already late for dinner. I thought it would raise more questions if I came in with blood on my clothes and all over my face, so I stopped at home. Took almost an hour to get cleaned up. I also thought I would worry someone if I called at the time I got home because I was a little out of it...time zones plus getting your ass kicked tend to do that to a person.” You closed your eyes again as you finished, willing your headache to go away.

It was silent for a while, which you appreciated. Your head was pounding. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going on a mission,” your father asked.

“Would you have told me it was okay to go? Or would you have come to find me and drag me back home?”

“Well considering you look like-”

“But you wouldn’t have known that at the time. Can we not argue over this right now?”

“What did you get in return for your serviced, Lady (Y/N),” Thor finally asked.

A smirk slowly engulfed your face. “I am the proud owner of a slightly used SHIELD facility. Haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it yet, but I figured I could do something with it.”

You opened your eyes, meeting Peter’s shocked orbs. “He just gave you a SHIELD facility?”

“I explained that I got beat half to hell because of his misinformation and that I could and would use it against him in the future if he didn’t give me a facility.”

_________________

You looked down at Morgan who was cuddled into you. She’d fallen asleep halfway through the first movie you both had decided on. Peter turned the television off, walking over to the couch you all had been seated on and picked Morgan up. “I’ll put her to bed. Stay here,” he stated.

You watched him walk off with Morgan. He was so good with her, it was amazing. You bit back your groan as you stood up. You folded the blankets you had used and took the empty popcorn bowl to the kitchen, sitting it in the sink. You limped slowly back to the room to grab the cups you guys had used. Once they were in the kitchen, you began your walk back to the movie room. 

Peter stood with his arms crossed once you walked back in. “I told you to stay where you were. You’re hurt.” He walked over to you, standing in front of you. “You’re limping, your bruises are darker...I don’t want you to keep hurting yourself.”

“Peter-”

“I tried contacting you all day, but I just assumed that you were hanging out with some friends or your phone was on silent. When you were late for dinner, I kept trying to contact you and I was going out of my mind with worry. I thought someone had gotten you. I thought that maybe you’d been killed. I don’t know what I would do without you. You can’t just leave and not tell anyone.”

“Peter-”

“I don’t want to live without you. I can’t lose you. Losing Mr. Stark was hard enough...I honestly don’t think I could live if you died. I need you like I need air to breathe. I love you and I know you feel the same. I’m tired of pretending otherwise. I feel like if I don’t make it clear now, I won’t be able to until you’re on your deathbed. I love you (Y/N) Banner, more than I’ve ever loved anyone before.”

You stared into his misty eyes. You didn’t know how much you’d hurt him with your action. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It won't happen again. I love you, Peter Parker...more than I can put into words.”

He rested his forehead against yours, placing his hands on your cheeks. “Never again,” he whispered. You nodded and his lips crashed to yours. You sighed into the kiss. It was everything you imagined and more. He barely separated from your lips, “I love you.”

“Love you too.” 

Forever Tags

@miraclesoflove @nocturnalherb16

People that might wanna know what’s up....

@avengersss-assembleee @reddiefreddieee @chxsingwaterfalls @mersuperwholocked-lowlife @gracearchives

[starryeyed-char]

Like A Star

It's the two year anniversary of Voltron, and so naturally I have to post something! And the whole thing is actually on tumblr again (though it’ll be on AO3 too, as usual). Season six comes out soon, and I wanted this to go up before that, so here you guys go! Just a heads up; I never cry writing angst, but I cried writing this. No happy endings here. So before you yell at me, I did try and warn you (even though all of you probably skipped over this anyway).

This is my personal take on Lance's whole 'let's go down swinging' philosophy, how I think he’d want to go out, and how I think Keith would react, since it’s a Keith-perspective(ish) piece that still focuses on Lance. I'm not sure if anything like this has been done before, and it probably has knowing how much people in this fandom put Lance through, but this is my take on that. I had the small idea of the title and how it would go and it just kind of... turned into this.

I’ve been wanting to post this for a while, but haven’t because it’s a bit... different than what I usually do. Still, I hope you enjoy, and I always like hearing your thoughts!

“How do you want to die?”

The question came out of nowhere, startling Keith out of his thoughts. He was even more shocked that Lance had asked this, of all people. Lance, who was smiling or laughing more often than not, asking about death?

Keith wouldn't have believed it, if they weren't the only two people standing on the bridge, looking at the star map.

“What...?” he asked intelligently, unsure what else to say. Lance huffed a short laugh.

“How do you want to die?” he repeated. He looked over at Keith this time, and met his eyes. “It's a simple question, really.”

“I... I don't know,” Keith stammered. “I've never really... given it much thought.” And he hadn't. Keith never stopped to consider that death was even a possibility. Because it wasn't an option— they were going to win.

Heroes always won.

Lance hummed thoughtfully. “Well, we're kind of fighting an alien war, but sure. Death could never touch the mighty Keith. His mullet is feared in every corner of the universe!” He broke off into laughter, and Keith shoved him lightly, forcing a smile.

“Have you?” Keith asked, genuinely curious. “Thought about it, I mean.”

“Well, yeah,” Lance said, as if it were obvious. As if the very idea of him dying wasn't... impossible. “Of course I have.”

But death could never touch Lance either. Not someone so... radiant, like Lance was in everything he did. Apparently, he didn't see it like that.

“So... how do you want to die, then?”

“Well, when I was little I wanted the end to come on a beach,” Lance began, eyes suddenly a million miles away. Keith didn't miss them snagging on a particular part of the star map. “I had all these dramatic ways cooked up in my head. Maybe I'd drown after getting swept away by a riptide, or I'd get attacked by a shark while surfing. Something really cool like that.”

Keith failed to see how dying could in any way be cool, but he didn't interrupt him.

“And then when I got older... I don't know. I've always had a big family, so I guess I wanted one in the future some day, for myself. A lot of kids, even grandkids, all that nonsense,” Lance told him, with a small smile. “Seems kinda unrealistic now, but... anyway. I think the best way to go would be surrounded by family, by people you care about, people you love, who remind you of the life you lived. You know?”

Keith didn't know, didn't understand, but he nodded along anyway.

“But now that we're here... defenders of the whole freaking universe...” Lance trailed off, sighed, then smiled again. There was something almost bitter in it. “I've had to reevaluate my plans a bit.”

“How so?”

“I want to die like a star,” Lance said, and his voice had suddenly gone so soft that Keith didn't know what to say in response.

“What, like, a movie star? Why does that not surprise me?” Keith tried for humor. The laugh died before it made its way out of his mouth.

Lance glanced at him briefly, then kept going, the words spilling out of his mouth faster and faster as he went on. As if he'd been wanting to say them for a while.

“No, like— an actual star. Shining. Like a big, supernova explosion,” Lance continued. “I want my death to mean something. I've come to terms with the fact that I'll probably die out here, but I don't want to be someone that's just... gone. I want my death to be something everyone else will remember.”

He paused to look at Keith again, who could do nothing but stare at him.

Lance brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “I know. It's pretty selfish of me, isn't it?”

Keith shook his head immediately, because Lance wasn't selfish at all. Anything but, really. He just didn't know why it'd taken him so long to notice.

“How...” Keith had never been good at putting his thoughts into words, but he had to try anyway. “How can you just... assume that you're going to die out here?”

You can't die, you can't leave. It's impossible.

“It seems a little unrealistic that we'd all make it out of this unscathed,” Lance pointed out, and since when was he the logical one? “And if any of us was going to be the one to bite it, it'd totally be me, right? You have to realize that.”

Before Keith could even comprehend the meaning of those words, Lance stood up. He patted Keith on the shoulder as he headed for the door, and waved goodbye over his shoulder.

“Let me know when you figure it out! I've always had you pegged for either being too reckless or sacrificing yourself in some grand hero gesture. Sound about right?”

Keith stared after him, looking at Lance like he'd never seen him before.

Months went by, and that conversation was pushed to the back of Keith's mind. He chalked it up to Lance messing with him, and everything else continued as normal.

And then it happened.

The battle was a difficult one, and one they were clearly losing. The Galra fleets just kept coming, seemingly no end to the amount of soldiers they had to fight. A few of the bigger factions after  Zarkon fell had apparently teamed up, and attacked them all at once. They wound up splitting apart Voltron just to take care of them all.

It happened because Shiro and Matt had gone on a separate assignment on a podship a few days prior. Keith was, by chance, back from his latest mission with the Blade, and so had wound up having to pilot the black lion to counter the ambush.

Something he hadn't had to do in a while.

Keith was stupid. Reckless. He forgot that his connection to Black was still weak; he hadn't spent anywhere near enough time piloting the lion to really master it.

So he got in too close to the ship, and his lion froze up. Some sort of tractor beam, it must've been.

Keith was trapped.

And then the Galra began charging their ion cannon.

“Keith, get out of there!” Allura shouted. She was the first one to notice.

“I can't! It's a tractor beam— I can't control the lion! Black won't move!”

“You cannot let that blast hit you!” Pidge insisted. “If it does, it might— you might not make it!”

Keith grit his teeth, pulling desperately at the controls, but it was no use. They'd never been able to escape a tractor beam before without Voltron, or an outside force physically pushing them out of the way. He was stuck.

Stuck, right in the line of fire of something that had nearly destroyed the castle, even with it's massive size and powerful shields.

He wouldn't stand a chance.

“Can we— what can we do? We can get to him, right? We could take out the ship first?” Hunk was clearly growing frantic.

“I... I don't know if there's anything you can do,” Keith said softly.

“The Galra have us completely split up!” Allura reminded them. “We can't possibly work around all these ships and get there in time. There must be another way. Keith, can you try harder to focus on bonding with your lion? If she feels you're in danger, she should protect you!”

He was already trying to concentrate as hard as he possibly could, but nothing was working.

“This is exactly what the Galra wanted to happen,” Pidge realized. He could hear her voice shaking. “Keith— I'm trying to— I'm sorry, I—”

“It's okay,” Keith said, and was surprised to find that he meant it. “It might be too late for me to get completely out of the way, anyway.”

It was strange. Something in Keith's mind registered that this was the end, but an odd sort of calm settled over him.

Lance did say I'd die being reckless.

The thought sparked a chain reaction, and suddenly Keith's mind was reeling.

Lance hadn't said anything, even though the others were still shouting into the coms, even Coran. He looked over to where he'd last seen the red lion taking down a battle cruiser, but it was nowhere to be seen.

He... he would've liked to maybe hear Lance's stupid voice one more time, before he died. He would've liked to...

“Guys,” Keith said suddenly, feeling the need to say something to express at least some of what he felt. These guys were as good as family to him, after all. “Thank you, for always being there for me. All of you, I—”

“Oh, no you don't!” Lance's angry voice cut him off, and while Keith would normally be irritated by such a tone directed at him, now he couldn't find it in himself to feel anything but fond. “You are not dying like this!”

“Lance, I don't really think we have a choice. My lion won't move.”

There was a pause, and for a moment Keith could hear nothing save for the ion canon continuing to charge up. Then, “Mine will.”

It finally clicked in Keith's head, and he turned with horror to see the red lion barreling towards him, at full speed.

The red lion is the fastest, and most agile. It requires a skilled pilot who relies more on instincts than skill alone.

Lance maneuvered easily around the ships, ignoring the shots they took at him and heading straight for Keith.

Maybe the most reckless lion and the most reckless pilot really did go together well, after all.

None of the others would've made it in time, but that didn't matter.

Because what Lance was doing... this plan was suicidal. The red lion had the least amount of armor, and Keith would know. She may have been fast, but she took a lot of damage. Lance didn't seem to care about any harm befalling himself.

But... he'd said that Keith would be the one to make the grand hero gesture.

“No, no, Lance, you can't, you'll just get us both killed, for once in your life don't get in the way—”

“Sorry, Samurai,” Lance said, and god damn it, how could he sound so happy? “I can never resist getting in your way.”

The red lion slammed into him at the exact time the ion canon fired, and the momentum was enough to send Keith clear of the blast. He opened his eyes after his lion stilled again post-impact, and—

Lance hadn't been so lucky.

The light of the blast was like a million stars. It was too bright, too blinding.

Supernova.

“I want to die like a star.”

The words replayed in Keith's head, only to be drowned out by the screaming. So many voices, screaming. His own throat felt raw.

Lance was too, at first, the sound unlike anything Keith had ever heard from him before.

But when Lance's voice died with the light of the ion canon, leaving nothing but a silent, dark-eyed lion suspended broken in the emptiness, it was even worse.

“LANCE?!” Hunk was the first to call out, the one word already betraying his sheer panic. “LANCE!”

“You... he wouldn't... Lance can't be...” Pidge's voice shook before dying into nothing more than a whisper they could barely hear. “I can't lose any more of my family.”

Me neither.

He knew Pidge thought of Lance like a brother, and while he didn't know exactly what Lance was to him, he knew he couldn't lose it.

“Lance! Answer us! Say something!” That was Allura, trying to stay strong. Her voice broke on the last word anyway.

The coms gave them nothing but static.

“Lance,” Keith whispered. “Lance, please.”

Lance didn't respond. But Black did.

Perhaps the tractor beam was entirely out of range, or perhaps his apparent distress at Lance's current predicament was enough to make her open her mouth.

Whichever it was, Keith wasted no time in jet-packing over to Lance's lion, and Red immediately let him in. He knew she still cared for him.

Maybe that's why she let Lance put himself in so much danger, because it would've been Keith instead.

Another thing that made Red and Lance so annoyingly similar; they both threw caution to the wind to save Keith, on numerous occasions.

And Keith had... he'd missed both of them, while with the Blade. Terribly.

He could sense Red's sadness and regret as he explored their old bond. Almost like she was... mourning.

The thought did nothing to calm his nerves.

And when he got inside the lion...

Red. Much, much too much red.

Blood was everywhere.

Lance had been knocked to the floor, and was lying in a puddle of it. Keith couldn't figure out the source, but the sheer amount of it was enough to chill him to his core.

He was on his knees beside Lance in a second, and pulling him into his lap. The slight rise and fall of Lance's chest didn't give him any comfort, not with the strangled sound of his breathing.

The pulse Keith found on his wrist was too slow. Too soft.

He looked back to Lance's face, and fresh tears rolled down his cheeks when he saw that the other was awake. Pained, glossy, ocean blue eyes met Keith's.

“L... Lance.” Keith's voice desperately clung onto the word.

“Hey, man,” Lance replied, and somehow found the courage to smile. “Why're you crying?”

“Why... Why am I— Lance, you're... you're...”

You're dying. He couldn't even bring himself to say it. That would make it real.

“I know, I know, but you don't have to be sad.” Lance coughed, and a small trail of blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. “This is just how I wanted to go, after all.”

Keith shook his head, grasping for something, anything. "You... you can't die here. You just pushed me out of the way, that's not... this isn't good enough. This is reckless, this is how you said I would die, remember? You need to get that big, supernova ending, right? Like a star? It's not supposed to be my fault, I—” he stopped, choked off by a sob. “It can't be my fault.”

“It's not your fault,” Lance said, voice firm despite the pain he was feeling. “And... thats not quite what I... what I meant. I mean, d-don't get me wrong, the... explosion was n-n-nice, b-but I meant... I meant... being cr-cradled in your a-arms.”

Keith didn't understand. “...What? No. You... you wanted to go out with something meaningful, right? That's not—”

“Of course I d-do,” Lance cut him off. "And this... it is. But before... before th-that, do you... do you r-remember what I said?”

Keith blinked, the tears spilling out of his eyes. “Of course I remember.” How could he forget? “You... you said that back on Earth, you wanted to die with your family, people you care about. People you—” And Keith stopped, eyes blown wide. “No.”

“People I love,” Lance finished for him, smiling shakily. “Y-Yeah.”

“No,” Keith said again, shaking his head. “No, no, no, you can't— Lance, you can't, I—”

“Give the Galra hell from me, okay, Keith?” Lance asked.

And he was dying. Dying in Keith's arms, even if he didn't want to admit it. “Okay,” he whispered.

“And you g-guys will... you'll remember me, r-right?”

Keith's grip on him tightened, ever so slightly. He could feel another lion tugging them towards the castle, but he knew they wouldn't make it in time. “Right. Of... of course we will. I won't let anyone in this entire universe forget.”

“You'll tell... m-my family? And th-the team, too... that I l-loved them?”

“Yes,” Keith told him, pressing their foreheads together. “I promise.” And then, because he'd wanted to for so long, because he never had and he never would again, Keith kissed him. Pressed their lips together, soft and sweet and much, much too short, and then drew away, face wet with both of their tears.

Lance sighed, a soft smile ghosting over his features. “Frente al amor y la muerte no sirve de nada ser fuerte. And Keith?”

“I'm here.”

“Thank y-you. For... everything.” Lance's eyes slipped shut. “Puedo ver a las estrellas.” All the breath left him. He didn't draw in another.

Keith buried his face in the crook of Lance's neck, and sobbed.

[bluboothalassophile]

This Weird Awesome Modern World!

@impulse-goblin, Not shippy, but kind of different. And to everyone I think you’ll enjoy the tidbits of pop culture being added into the Hopes for a Bastard Universe! =)

~~~*~*~*~~~

Sabrina sat in a quaint café, the news was playing the latest exploits of Supergirl saving Metropolis and she sipped her pumpkin spice latte reading over her latest issue of Veronica. It was nice in San Francisco as she listened to her iPod; Josie and the Pussy Cats. San Francisco was cool, but not for her, she’d head for the airport in about two hours to go home to Salem.

“Excuse me,” a rich voice had her looking up to a tall, dark athletic man about her age. “Is this seat taken?” he had sparkling green eyes.

“No, you can have it,” she smiled as she moved her magazine and stared at him.

“World is filled with freaks,” some man grumbled.

“I like a freaky world,” Sabrina stated as she flipped through the magazine pages.

“Really?” the young man across from her asked skeptically.

“Certainly,” she shrugged. “Five hundred years ago freaks were burned at the stakes, people hated different. Now different; magic, metas, aliens, while another form of extraordinary also are normal, accepting. The world changed, and I like to think for the better.”

“So you’re pro heroes?” the young man mused.

“Well, I’m pro-peace. I think people, like the Atlanteans, Amazons, the aliens, the Justice League they’re the embodiment of an excellence and acceptance the average world strives for.”

“They opened the world to dark threats, they’re the reason we need those freaks to save us!” the man sneered.

“I like the freaks,” Sabrina reiterated. “And I think my aunts would love the freaks too, if your narrow minded kind hadn’t burned them in Salem. During those narrowminded trials your kind forced, so shut it about the freaks that save our natural world,” she ordered.

“So you’re a witch?” the young man mused.

“Half witch,” she corrected him as she smiled and sipped her latte.

“I’m Zachary Zatara,” he smiled as he offered his hand and her jaw dropped then.

“A Zatara!? Of THE Zataras!?” she sputtered.

“Yeah,” he reluctantly smiled.

“Oh Salem! If Salem was here…!” she laughed. “The Zataras of the Witches Council?” she mused.

“Yeah, my dad…” he grimaced.

“You’re… You’re royalty!” she sputtered. “And you sentenced my best friend and teacher to being a cat for a hundred years.”

“Seriously!?” he blinked. “Animal transfiguration for that long could have dire consequences! My father would never…!” Zachary started.

“I’m not mad about it, I find it hilarious,” she countered.

“Oh…” he looked sheepish.

“I’m Sabrina, Sabrina from the Spellmans Clan,” she offered him a hand then, he took it and gently kissed her knuckles.

“I’m charmed,” he smiled. “Your family’s break throughs in magic are legendary.”

“It’s nothing,” she said shoving Veronica in the bag and smiling at him. “I’m a huge fan of your sister, but I heard all Zataras are impressive. Isn’t you’re uncle Dr. Fate?”

“That’s… nothing,” he shrugged.

“Well all magic is impressive I guess,” she mused. “Though Salem would disagree. But he got himself turned into a cat, so I don’t think his opinion in that matter is welcomed.”

“I’m surprised,” Zachary said.

“What are you doing in San Francisco?”

“Titans,” he said.

“Really!? I have a few questions about the magic users there!” she plopped her chin on her had then. “Like who’s the most powerful magic wielder you’ve met?”

“Raven,” he answered.

“Really, the creepy shadow one?” Sabrina cringed. She always thought that girl was creepy.

“Actually, Raven’s extremely powerful, push comes to shove I think her power outclasses that of a Nephilim, so, the creepy Titan probably holds power over the realities we live in,” Zach smiled.

“Huh, that’s a scary thought.”

“What about you?”

“Well I had come out here to look at schools,” she sighed.

“Really?”

“Yeah, but I’m thinking I’ll stay with Collumbia, best writing school in the country, so I’ll go there,” she shrugged.

“That’s cool!”

“What about you?”

“I’m thinking I’ll join the Titans, follow in my cousin and uncle’s footsteps,” he sighed bitterly.

“Well, that’s admirable, but I think you should do what you want, make your own path, you got the magic to do whatever you want, and a name that can get you anywhere in our community,” Sabrina said thoughtfully.

“That’s easier said than done, I’m not the magical prodigy my cousin is,” he sighed.

“Magic is magic, how you utilize it is what makes you powerful, then you’ll grow and gather that strength and power,” she said.

“True, but I just feel useless in comparison,” he shrugged.

“Well, I think you’re great, I heard about St. Paul’s Cathedral, that takes talent for no mortal to have noticed the repairs,” she admitted.

“How’d you know about that?”

“Are you kidding, your magical signature is all over it! I must admit, it’s impressive,” she smiled.

The young man blushed a bit. “Is your family still in Salem?”

“Yeah.”

“Would… Would you mind if I don’t know, we hung out? Sabrina Spellman?” he smiled a bit.

“I’d love that,” she giggled. “You seem pretty cool,” she admitted.

“Am I the only one that thinks magic being out in the open is odd?”

“No, but thankfully, with it in the open, things like witches license aren’t so convoluted,” she sighed honestly.

“Mortals are so weird about magic, but with metas and aliens here; why should we hide too? I suppose, it’s just the natural order of things,” Zach sighed.

“It helps when we have big blue putting his best foot forward, helps the world change,” Sabrina admitted.

“That is true,” he mused. For the next hour she chatted with the pretty boy before she noticed the time.

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” she sighed.

“Where too?”

“I have a connecting flight in Riverdale to Boston,” she admitted.

“Have a safe flight.”

“I don’t have a broom permit, so the mortal way we go,” she chuckled.

“Brooms are terrible ways to get around, and uncomfortable,” Zach cringed.

“Salem knows a guy, makes awesome brooms, if you want I can hook you up?” she offered.

“Maybe, I don’t like flying,” he admitted.

“Understandable. Oh, here’s my number, I’d love to keep in touch as well as meet up,” Sabrina smiled.

“Thanks,” he smiled.

“You’re sweet, I like you,” she waved him off as she walked into the street, called her Lyft ride and headed for the airport. She had talked to a Zatara! And he was amazing! She giggled a bit.

This weird world was awesome.

[altonadventures]

ALTON ADVENTURES BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

So...because its Friday and I usually update AA on Fridays, I figured it was time to make my big announcement! 

And that is...that Alton Adventures is changing. A little bit. 

Am I rebooted the comic again? No haha! Once I get back to it it shall continue as normal but some characters may look a bit different going forward. 

Who may those characters be?

Sir Gareth Nemesis 

Why is he changing? 

Sir Nemesis’ change is actually less drastic than one may think. For starters, he needed a design rehaul. I wanted his armor to be more simple, easier to draw but with still details that could tie him to Nemesis (the green eye, the arms, the light pink details instead of inconsistent tentacles). I also had an issue where his hair was too close to his skin color, so to combat this I turned him into a ginger! His eye color also changed from gold to green, another thing to visually tie him more to Nemesis. 

So yes, I changed Sir Nem’s design because I was unhappy with it. His armor was never drawn consistently ever, I was constantly changing the tone of his hair and his skin so that was inconsistent. I want my designs to be more consistent and polished going forward.

What else is different? Well, you can probably tell he looks much more serious, like in older pictures I drew of him. Why is that? Well, I was kind of..honestly tired of his role as the “dad character tm” that he kind of turned out to be. It almost undermined his true characterization and turned him into a typical over the top exaggerated hero character. And I started to realize how much I missed his original concept. A battle hardened solider that was filled with regret and remorse, who heavily sympathizes with the plight of the alien he’s locked in combat with. He’s still much a father however, as he has a biological son and adopts an alien who mimics his likeness (hence another reason he’s a ginger now as his Nemesis daughter always was one). He’s just returned to his roots as a character. Because I felt that characterization was a unique one for the Nemesis ride. And it was an idea I really loved. Sir Nemesis actually WAS one of my favorite characters...I wanted his role to be much larger than it is in the comics. I don’t blame anyone for him becoming a joke, I did initially kind of fuel the fire for it, I’m just hoping that its not to late to get back to the Sir Nemesis I originally wanted to write. And of course, all my characters are still meme and joke worthy. I just want to tackle much more serious issues with my comic and show the more serious side of some of my characters and don’t want there entire existence to be a joke Mr.S can’t have too many folks 1 uping him in the laughs department!  I guess to note with this change that his original voice claim has also been solidified as well. It’s a more somber and serious tone that I feel fits him as a character. 

Final Notes 

Sir Nemesis is a character that I have a lot of thought put into. His backstory is tragic, emotional, and his character is complex and he’s not the perfect hero people might image him as. I plan for his Arc to follow the Fireworks arc in the comic, as well as I am planning to start some more text heavy short stories about how the Secret Weapons became Secret Weapons (which I will likely call Secret Weapon Short Stories hehe) and will be writing his first. Also a very important thing i must address. Yes, the eye on his chest moves. (I have a gif but it doesn’t want to work on this post Ill have it up later ><)

Erica Annabelle Cloud 

ooof okay this is a huge one. Confession time. Erica was always my least favorite character. Why? She just had...no character. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with her, her design felt phoned in and there because I needed an Air/Galatica character, (yes, she is changing as her Galatica stage too). She was just. not well thought out. She had a dual identity but I think a lot of people didn’t pick up on that? She felt like a Rita 2.0 as just a nice and friendly optimistic person and literally had 0 backstory. Originally she was supposed to have had some sort of accident that turned her into Galatica and she had memory loss and forgotten about when she was Air, yeah it was a mess. That eventually just turned into Nebula Corona being a character she made up (bc her one trait was that she was into space and wrote a lot) that she played as when her rides themeing changed. 

She was just..barely a character and her design was abysmal (Her Galatica suit was okay but her Air outfit was an afterthought) She needed a massive visual upgrade. A sleeker flight suit that makes more sense (I used a ref or two for this design!) A different face shape to help her stand out more, my signature they wear glasses they have dot eyes look. Long, wispy, flowing hair to resemble those trails planes make. A bit more lanky and tall. And let me tell you I LOVE her design now. It looks so much more unique and you can just SEE she has so much more character now!  As for her characterization im going full into her being a nerd. A very tech nerd at that! She designed her suit to help her fly at her best, and eventually will be the one that designs and builds all her Galatica tech! Her Galatica design hasn’t been done yet, mostly bc I wanted to focus on her current comic canon design, but not much would change I feel with her upgrade anyways! She is effectively the brains of the group, and the others often turn to her for plans of attack when dealing with a situation, or innovative solutions to problems! I have yet to get a voice claim for her, but im sure one will come to me soon enough! 

Final Notes

Erica/Nebula was a character I struggled to connect with. Everyone else had Airs that were either super plot important, or just much more cool and creative in general. I felt, that with my Air/Galatica she was just there, and I wanted her to be more. So a full character rehaul was done with her and it makes me so happy. She feels much more fleshed out, better designed, and I’m super excited to do more stuff with her, and hopefully you will all see her much more now that I’m a lot happier with her as a character! <3 

Welp that's the end of the updates....wait. Hold on. I have something written here. What could this be? Oh! I remember now! 

Black Hole, AkA Beatrix, will be joining the MAIN CAST of Alton Adventures! 

When I drew my Black Hole design, I knew she was something special. She stands out compared to a lot of my characters, and her design SCREAMS main character. While the biggest main roles will still be held by Mr. S and Rita, I wanted to add another non SW coaster to the main crew, and because Canonically Corkscrew is MIA, Black Hole seemed like a fitting addition to the main crew! As she isn’t human, a species literally only referred to as Black Holes, I thought making her a main character and giving her a big arc would help flesh out the reality of non humans in Alton Adventures! Her powers and design and character and personality are just too fun to shove her into the background. I feel that adding her to the main cast gives them not only another character to support them, but a closer friend! You will all see her much more in the future for certain! 

Well that's about it! In terms of comic updates themselves...its still going to be hiatus as long as I’m being swamped with school work. I hope you all understand. I’ll try to squeeze in updates over the breaks I have IF im not working on assignments for class. As I also said, I wanna do short stories as well, to expand the world and explain it better, as a comic will only develop the world so quickly and lots of you have tons of questions! I also wanna do something animated at some point, that’s my dream. I’ve ALSO mentioned to some people about merch, likely going for making stickers first since that's simple. I got an excited reaction for that so I’ll come up with designs for them soon! I just wanna do a lot with Alton Adventures, because I know how much it means to people, and of course it means so much. Goodness I really need to actually get to this park, I look quiet silly constantly gushing over a themepark I’ve never been to all the time XP  That all aside I thank you all for sticking by me. I promise that even if I don’t do comic updates as frequently during the school year, I’ll still work to push out as much AA content I can outside of that! I’m always open to suggestions to what you guys want to see! ALSO, working on a big google doc spreadsheet with info on all the characters I’ll be posting when its more completed! So be on the lookout for that! 

Again thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me through this, Your support makes me feel nothing but proud of what I’ve created. These characters may have been created out of something some may consider silly or odd, but the only thing that matters to me if that I can make at least someone happy with what I create. 

Patreon (note that patrons got to see all of this content as it was being worked on!) l Ko-fi

[lurkz]

Family is a Badger and an Eagle... err... a Snake

So... really, really late with this but oh well. Danvers sisters week Day #3 - Nerd sisters

Summary:  Alex really didn't see the fuss about a book about a boy wizard. At least, not until she acquired a new sister with a different perspective.

Also posted to “Sisters Are Better Than Reindeer”

Alex received the first book for her tenth birthday from some family member or another that she hardly ever saw. Certainly one that didn’t know her very well, in Alex’s opinion. Otherwise they would have given her a book about astronomy or physics or even history rather than some fiction book about a kid wizard. She dutifully read it, though, if only so she would understand what the other kids at school were talking about. Mostly she just thought Hermione made the most sense and didn’t need those silly boys mucking up her life.

When her mother asked if she wanted the second one the following year, Alex declined.

The kids at school kept going on about the books like they were the best things ever. Alex begged to differ. She was positive that Carl Sagan was an infinitely better reading choice.

She had to admit, she was mildly intrigued when she heard that Hermione got to slap someone in the later books. And that there was apparently a werewolf. But not enough to ask for the rest of them. Besides, The Elegant Universe came out the same year and Alex was too busy learning about string theory.

Then she suddenly got a new sister. And not just any sister. An alien sister who had just lost her entire world and whose powers regularly left her overwhelmed and who couldn’t quite seem to figure out how to fit in at school. And on the one hand that was so cool and on the other hand it was not at all what Alex had in mind when she said she wanted a sister.

Kara was hiding in their room, as she had taken to doing every day since starting at Midvale Junior High. Alex had just received stitches four days before and Kara had started wearing new glasses. Ever since that incident, Kara had spoken even less at home, especially not to Alex, having apparently decided that Alex must hate her.

Alex sighed, looking down at the book in her hands. Given it had only been read once, it was still in pristine shape. She still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about this alien that had, almost literally, crashed into her life but she couldn’t just… leave her and let her hurt. And, well, Alex knew she liked new books when she was upset so maybe Kara would too. Taking a deep breath, she knocked softly. “Kara?”

There was silence then a very hesitant “Yeah?”

“Can I come in?”

“…Okay.”

Slowly Alex pushed open the door, trying not to make too much noise in case Kara didn’t have her glasses on. Kara was sitting on the floor by her bed and looked up when the door opened, glasses firmly in place. “Hi.”

Alex smiled slightly. “Hi. Can I sit with you?”

Kara nodded slowly, brow crinkling just a little in obvious confusion.

Alex sat down carefully so as not to jostle Kara. “I um, I know you think I’m mad.” Kara’s eyes opened wide. “But I’m not,” she hastened to add. “I mean, I was. But, uh, not anymore. And um, well, I don’t really know what you like to do when you’re upset but books cheer me up and uh… here.” She practically shoved the copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at Kara. “It’s fiction, um, not real, but I thought maybe you’d like it. And a lot of the kids at school… they like it. So maybe if you read it you could, uh, you’d have something to talk to them about.”

Kara was still gazing at her with wide eyes and Alex shifted uncomfortably. Really, they hardly knew each other but this was what sisters did. Right? Right.

When Kara didn’t speak Alex shrugged awkwardly and stood back up. “Well, uh, yeah. I just wanted to say I wasn’t mad. The scar is actually going to be kind of cool. And um, to give you that. So… let me know what you think.” She nodded. “Right. I’ll… get out of your hair, Kara.”

She had just reached for the door to close it behind her when Kara finally spoke again. “Alex?”

Half turning, she cocked her head slightly. “Yeah?”

Kara smiled tentatively. “Thank you. For not being mad. And for the book.”

Alex smiled back, just as tentative. “You’re welcome. I… I hope you like it.”

Kara did like it. Loved it in fact. Their mom picked up the next four on the way home from work the next day. In just a few days Kara had devoured them all and plopped herself next to a studying Alex with a curious and concerned look on her face.

Alex glanced over curiously before returning her attention to her book. “What’s up, Kara? I’m trying to study.”

“Aren’t you a week ahead?”

Alex sighed but smiled ruefully. She looked up again, turning in the chair to face her sister. “Yeah, I am. What’s up?” Things had smoothed out a lot between them over the past several days and Kara had quickly seemed to grasp that Alex’s ideal situation was to be well ahead in all her classes. They hadn’t exactly started sharing a lot about themselves but Kara had at least stopped hiding away and appeared to have accepted that Alex wasn’t mad. Mostly Kara would just do her homework and then read her books in the same room while Alex studied ever further ahead in her classes, the most advanced ones the school would allow her to take at her age.

Kara’s brow furrowed slightly and she now looked a little upset, as if whatever she wanted to ask was bothering her more and more the longer she dwelled on it. Alex cocked her head slightly, studying her younger sister in concern. “Kara?”

“Why does Harry always have to go back to the Dursleys?” Kara blurted out.

“Um...” Alex scrambled for an answer, grateful for her good memory so she could even remember who the Dursleys were. “Because they’re his family I suppose.”

“But they’re so mean! And Harry is so upset! Why does he have to go with them instead of someone else? It’s not right!”

Alex grabbed Kara’s hands which had started to flail a little. “Whoa, whoa. Calm down. What do you mean it’s not right?”

“Because he just lost Sirius and everyone was so mean to him and now he doesn’t even get to stay with people he likes and—”

Alex was lost but she tried desperately to calm Kara down. She really didn’t need a superpowered panic attack right now. Last time that had happened they had lost a chair and two throw pillows to abrupt heat vision. “Hey, hey. Just breathe. It’s ok, Kara. It’s ok. There you go.” Slowly Kara’s breathing regulated. Alex studied her thoughtfully, setting aside the confusing ramble for a moment. “You really liked those books, huh?”

Kara looked at her in surprise, momentarily distracted from whatever had upset her. “Well, of course! Don’t you?”

Alex shrugged slightly and asked, avoiding the question, “What makes you like them so much?”

Kara looked at her suspiciously for a moment, clearly not missing that Alex had refused the answer. But she didn’t call Alex out on it, at least for the moment. “Harry reminds me of me,” she stated simply. “Losing everything. Being left with the Dursleys without a choice. Not fitting in.”

Alex stiffened. Sure, she may have only read the one book and that years ago but she did remember the Dursleys and Harry’s situation. They—she—hadn’t been that bad to Kara had she? Carefully she tried to extract her hands from Kara’s. “Oh. I see.” She couldn’t entirely keep the edge out of her voice. Sure, things hadn’t been sunshine and roses but surely it wasn’t that bad. But maybe it was from Kara’s perspective. Maybe she was as horrible an older sister as Dudley was a cousin.

But Kara was rambling again, not even seeming to have noticed Alex’s reaction. “Obviously it’s not exactly the same. I didn’t have to go live with someone like the Dursleys for one. But see? Harry finds a family at Hogwarts when he didn’t think he would and I found one here when I didn’t think I would. And he doesn’t fit in all the way even at Hogwarts and I don’t either. But he managed to find friends and a family and his godfather and be a hero! And it just…” She trailed off, seeming to run out of steam. It was the most Alex had heard Kara speak about what it was like coming to Earth and moving in with the Danvers family. “It reminds me of me and that maybe I can do that too eventually,” she finally added.

Alex sat back a little in surprise. From that point of view she definitely could see why Kara loved the books so much. “Oh. That… that makes sense.” Alex cast about for something else to say. “What was your favorite part?”

Kara shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Maybe the part where he finds Sirius. But that’s also sad because he doesn’t get to go stay with him. I also really liked the part where his friends come with him to the Ministry even though it was dangerous and he tried to stop them.”

Alex tried to act like she had a clue what Kara was talking about but Kara seemed to still remember Alex’s evasiveness prior and cocked her head slightly. “What’s your favorite part, Alex?” she asked abruptly.

“Oh… um… well, the parts you just said are really good… I, uh…”

Kara smiled a little sadly. “You haven’t read them have you?”

“I… well, no. I read the first one but… no, not the others.”

“Oh.” Kara was silent for several seconds. “Then why did you give me the first one to read? Why not one of the things you like?”

Alex shrugged a little. “I didn’t know that you wanted to read about string theory for fun and relaxation. Besides, like I said, now you have something you can talk to some of the kids at school about. Help you fit in. Maybe find your Hermione and Ron or something. We don’t have to like all the same things.”

Kara seemed to consider this before nodding. “Ok. Thanks, Alex.”

Alex smiled. “No problem, Kara.”

Alex studied the colorful covers arranged neatly on Kara’s bookshelf in their shared room. Kara had continued to love and read (and reread) the Harry Potter books over the years though she’d never really talked about them much with Alex after that initial attempt. Alex did know that Kara had found some friends at school who liked the books. Part of why Alex’s—now ex—friend Josie considered Kara an unpopular dork. But now it was winter break her senior year, Alex was already accepted into Stanford and, well, after recent events she found herself wanting to actually get closer to Kara rather than sticking with the status quo of “siblings who generally like each other.”

Alex was fairly confident Kara wouldn’t mind her borrowing Kara’s copies. They had loaned each other books before after all. Mentally making a note to still be careful with the books, Alex grabbed the first one and settled on to her bed to start reading. Maybe with Kara’s perspective she’d enjoy the books more this time around.

Alex was right. Rereading the books with the insight into Kara’s perspective on them made them far more enjoyable. She doubted she’d ever really adore them the way Kara did but she could see why so many people were obsessed with the books. And, she conceded, they were very good. She still firmly believed Hermione was the best but had found herself engrossed in the story of Harry and how he handled the increasing stakes, particularly in the later books.

Once finished she plopped herself on the couch next to her sister with a sly smile. Their mom was at work, her last day before the holidays, and Kara looked at Alex askance. “Hey, Kara.”

“Hey, Alex.” Kara’s tone was confused. “What’s up?”

“I was just curious… do you think Snape is really evil? I mean, he killed Dumbledore and all but…”

Kara blinked. “What? Wait… you read them??”

“Yeah, well… you really like them so… I thought I’d give them another chance. They’re good.” Alex smiled.

Kara paused as if processing before her face broke out into a wide grin. And then she was off, asking a million questions about Alex’s opinions. “Who’s your favorite character? I bet it’s Hermione, huh? I really like Remus. And of course Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Oh! I bet you really like McGonagall, too, huh? She seems like such a good teacher! It’s too bad Harry couldn’t have been raised by her!

What did you think about Sirius? It was so sad when he died, wasn’t it? What about the Half-Blood Prince? Did you realize it was Snape? Do you think he’s actually evil? He did help Harry a lot but he’s also so mean! And what he did to Remus! But maybe he’s just mean but still a ‘good guy’? Oh! And what about Harry and the snake! Do you think Harry might be a horcrux too? Or is it just because of the scar like Dumbledore said? I think Dumbledore should have been training Harry in occlumency don’t you? Snape was the worst choice!”

Alex laughed. “Whoa, Kara slow down. Yes, Hermione is my favorite. Now if you could repeat questions two through one million…”

Kara blushed and dropped her head slightly, smile dimming. “Sorry, Alex.”

Alex frowned. “No, hey, it’s fine, Kara. I just didn’t catch all the questions. I’m happy to talk about the books with you; that’s why I told you I’d read them. I can’t guarantee I’m as enthusiastic about them as you but I liked them.”

Kara grinned again. “We have to watch the movies! And the next one comes out this summer! So does the last book!”

Alex chuckled. “Sure, Kara. We can do that.” She settled more comfortably on the couch. “So, what were the rest of your questions?”

Kara’s grin seemed to brighten if that was even possible as she delightedly launched back into her questions, albeit at a more reasonable pace. By the time Eliza arrived home, she found both girls ensconced in the couch, good naturedly debating the changes made from the book to the movie version of Sorcerer’s Stone.

When Alex received a handmade scarf in Ravenclaw colors from Kara for her birthday, she smiled and wore it proudly, if only because her sister had made it. When the seventh book came out, Alex went to the midnight release with Kara only slightly begrudgingly, wearing her scarf (at Kara’s insistence). Alex didn’t necessarily mind picking up their copies of the book at midnight—one regular and one deluxe edition—but she also hoped they didn’t have to spend forever at the bookstore. While Kara was certainly going to stay up all night reading her copy, Alex just wanted to get some sleep and read it the next day. But Kara was so excited and Alex had a hard time telling her no, especially after how much closer they had become over the past six months.

Only a couple weeks later, Alex was sighing and shifting her weight in boredom next to a nearly vibrating Kara as they waited for the midnight showing of the fifth movie. Alex figured it was the least she could do since she would be leaving for college in just over a month and Kara would have to go back to Midvale High for her junior year. Things may have gotten slightly better for her sister but Alex knew Midvale High wasn’t exactly Kara’s favorite place. Even if Kara had gotten much better about human interaction, small towns weren’t exactly known for moving forward or forgetting first impressions. So here she was, standing in line at eleven pm waiting for theater doors to open. At least book 5 was one of her favorites, though not quite as much as book 4. And, she had to admit, she was curious how they would handle Umbridge and the DA.

Over the years it became one of her and Kara’s go-to topics of conversation. Happily rehashing old theories and newly noticed details. Alex had laughed but took the Pottermore quiz as soon as it was available at Kara’s insistence, protests of working on her thesis falling on deaf ears. Seeing Kara glow upon realizing that her instinct that Alex would be a Ravenclaw was right made it worth it. Even if Alex had to ignore the niggling voice that told her it had been far too easy to game that quiz to make sure it would place her where she knew would make Kara happiest but… not necessarily where was most accurate.

When Kara happily bestowed an official Ravenclaw scarf on Alex one year for Christmas, Alex had just grinned a little and returned the favor with a Hufflepuff scarf and replica of Harry’s wand. It was Alex who took the new Pottermore quiz first, grinning a little to herself upon being resorted into Slytherin. Kara was outraged until Alex had pointed out that Kara, of all people, should have realized Alex was a Slytherin upon the revelation of the DEO and Alex’s actual job. Kara huffed but conceded, still seeming a bit put out that her sister was “evil.” Kara, naturally, was promptly returned to Hufflepuff.

“So what about everyone else?”

Alex rolled her head on the back of the couch so she could see Kara better. “What about them for what?”

“Houses!”

Alex blinked, momentarily confused. One minute they were watching Homeland the next Kara was talking about houses. “Like Hogwarts?”

“No like HGTV,” Kara deadpanned. Alex rolled her eyes with a smirk; she had taught Kara sarcasm well. “Yes, like Hogwarts.”

Alex chuckled. “Ok, ok. What’s the house for ‘hides under tables?’” she asked innocently.

Kara narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Why? For who—for Winn? Alex! That’s mean!”

“And yet accurate.”

“Alex!”

Alex laughed, taking a bite of ice cream. “Fine. Winn is a Ravenclaw, obviously.”

“Like you.”

Alex arched an eyebrow. “Pottermore was quite clear I’m a Slytherin.”

“You can’t possibly want to be a Slytherin!”

Alex shrugged. “Why not? It’s fitting.”

“No it’s—”

“Kara. I spent two years lying to you and everyone else about what I did in order to protect you. And I would do it again. Whatever it takes to keep you safe. It fits.”

Kara huffed. “Fine. So, Winn’s a Ravenclaw. I agree.”

“So glad.” Alex smirked, snagging another bite of ice cream, making sure to get a large chunk of brownie, before her sister could swipe the carton. “Besides,” Alex grinned slyly, “Cat Grant is definitely a Slytherin also.”

“What? No she—” Kara paused then huffed again. “Ok, fine, yes she is.”

Alex laughed. “Not all Slytherins are evil.”

“Yeah, yeah. What about J’onn?”

“What do you think?”

Kara studied the ice cream thoughtfully for a long moment. “You know him better than I do.”

Alex nodded. “True.” She considered the question. “Hufflepuff I think. Maybe a Gryffindor. But I think a Puff ultimately.”

Kara grinned, nudging Alex with her toes. “Like me. Now we’re even.”

Alex nudged back with a smile. “True. James?”

Kara blushed and looked back down at the ice cream. “Oh, um.”

“You know him better than I do.”

“Clark knows him best,” Kara pointed out unnecessarily.

“Clark’s not here.” Alex nudged her sister again, grinning. “But feel free to take any statements he’s made into account.”

“Ok fine, fine. Hufflepuff.”

“Aww like you? Convenient,” Alex teased. Kara made as if to grab one of the throw pillows and Alex laughed. “Ok, I’ll stop teasing about your crush.”

“So that’s what, three Hufflepuffs? We win!”

Alex rolled her eyes but laughed. “And two Slytherins. Winn is all by his lonesome I guess.”

“He can hang out with the Hufflepuffs.”

“What? No! Slytherin gets him so the numbers are even!

“You can’t just claim him!”

“You just did.” Alex grinned smugly as Kara opened her mouth to respond then closed it.

“That’s… that’s…”

“The exact same thing? Mmhmm.”

This time Kara did hit Alex with the pillow, laughing. “Ok, fine. Slytherin can borrow Winn.”

“Oh you’re so gracious.”

“What about Clark?”

Alex exchanged a look with Kara as they both said “Gryffindor” before laughing. Kara continued, still chuckling, “Yeah, Gryffindor for sure. Lois?”

Alex shrugged. “Ravenclaw with Winn I bet.”

Kara pondered that before nodding. A passion for knowing what was true definitely fit her cousin’s investigative reporter girlfriend quite well. “So Winn’s not alone, I guess.”

Alex chuckled. “Guess not. Clark is though.”

Kara waved a hand with a grin. “He’ll be fine. He would just hang out with James and Lois anyway. Hufflepuffs still win.”

Alex rolled her eyes and settled back into the couch. “Sure, Kara. Whatever makes you happy.”

Kara lightly whapped her with the pillow again before cuddling into Alex’s side. “Yep.”

Alex laughed softly and draped her arm around her sister. “I think we missed half the episode.”

“So hit rewind.”

“You have the remote.” Said item immediately landed in her lap. Alex rolled her eyes again. “Oh, my mistake, I have the remote.” She felt Kara nod against her side and grinned, knowing her baby sister was also grinning. Gently squeezing Kara’s shoulders, Alex picked up the remote so they could properly watch their episode.

Despite the occasional good-natured rant about Alex being a Slytherin, Kara immediately bestowed a silver and green scarf upon Alex for her birthday. And she seemed to take a perverse sort of pleasure in being able to use it as a good-natured insult whenever Alex did something Kara didn’t approve of. That summer, Kara surprised Alex with tickets, courtesy of Cat Grant’s reputation, for Cursed Child and both sisters gleefully donned house scarves and flew Supergirl-express to London to watch it. And when Winn tried to tease her about it, a swift glare and quiet threat made him spin back around and never bring up the topic again (except to give Alex a wand remote control for her tv as a gag gift that Christmas. No one needed to know that Alex occasionally entertained herself by actually using it).

[octoberwren]

If it’s words you seek (I’ll Remember You)

Summary: Darcy Lewis is many things, avoidance expert, current holder of the Hydra Survivor Cup and not to boast but she's at an expert level with self defense in sarcasm and shiny wit.

What she's absolutely not is Steve Rogers Soulmate, she doesn't give a flying monkey what the universe is trying to tell her with the gifts she's recently acquired, i.e Reading His Mind and other tricks that have to do with The Good Captain.

Her and Steve? Pffft, that's never gonna happen.

I’m back for the Steve X Darcy fandom. Yay? Seriously though all of you have been so lovely that I had to write some more. And achievement (or disaster waiting to happen?) It’s my second mult-chapter in years. So super nervous. I got this odd idea and I had to run with it. I’m a lover of angst and a good slow burn so buckle your seatbelts kids, it’s about to get rough.

As always thank you for your continued support in my writing, your guys comments always give me a confidence boost, so this is a really for you. You guys inspire me

A heads up though, Darcy has been in the hands of Hydra for 3 years so there will be mentions of that, incase it’s not your cup of tea, also naughty language galore.

Onwards then! Much love Dolls, I love ya to bits! Thanks for reading! Also if you want me to tag you for this story please let me know! I love things like that.

I’m tagging @shieldshockfanfic because admin got me into this downward spiral and I’m handing over any blame. 

(I own nothing, marvel owns me.)

You can also read it on Ao3 if that pleases you!

Chapter one: Fairy Tales are for Chumps.

It’s been three years and spare change since Darcy went missing.

Today she’s been found.

…Sort of, she’s been found adjacent, found-ish,

The heroes didn’t exactly storm the castle to find her. (Those things only happen in Fairy Tales and if Darcy has learned anything from captivity it’s that Fairy Tales are for chumps.)

So being rescued is slightly exaggerating, she’s actually really lost, and not to be dramatic or anything, but she also feels like she’s going to die, on account of some bullet wounds and some broken ribs that are calling her an asshole.

She’s also trying like super duper hard to not go into shock and or hysterics, because the streets are so loud it’s overwhelming, she hasn’t heard this much noise is so long and it’s frankly grating on her last nerve that hasn’t been shot at, she’d say she’s sort of missing her cell right about now, but then Darcy would be a lying liar that lied, it’s heavily implied though.

Good thing the New Yorkers are giving her a wide berth to work with as she’s stumbling and clasping to shop windows and walls. But that’s probably more to do with her hospital gown being blood drenched and her dirty bare feet, than any amount of politeness they have for her. They look at her with wide unbelieving eyes, she must have looked liked the dead walking and not in an awesome costume kind of way, in a scarred for life kind of way.

She feels scarred for life, so there’s that.

Honestly, the city has seen aliens coming out of thin air to bring the world to an early apocalypse, but she’s the weird one? Yeah, okay assholes. Thanks for the help.

Darcy knows that Jane isn’t in the Avengers tower she’s seen it, but fuck knows where the compound is, her ‘gift’ hasn’t exactly given her any information she could use. It would have been a big help if the man’s eyes she saw out of, looked at an address to- Thor forbid- help her. But no, she’s just been an unwilling exhibitionist all these years.

Her grip slips and she hits her knees hard, falling into an alley and apparently garbage, if the smell is anything to go by. She’s laughing so hard, that her ribs are screaming at her to cut that shit out, but she declines to comment.

Because wouldn’t this be the cherry that tops the fucking cake on her crap-tastic day, not only is she sure blood loss is really a factor now, but she’s nowhere near close to finding her best friend, she’s a big girl and Darcy will freely admit that she desperately needs a hug right now.

After everything that happened, after everything she had done…

This is how it all ends, thrown out like trash, she tries to get up, she really does because she wants to see Jane, are her and Thor married yet, has she invented more crazy things? Darcy wants to know all that and infinitely more, so she tries getting up one more time, using all the willpower and stubbornness that had helped her survive this long. But when her knees buckle and her breath catches across her lungs, she feels the black despair wash over her.

Darcy isn’t laughing now, she’s far beyond that, she’s sobbing, ugly tears that her mother would be ashamed of, Darcy dear, no one likes an ugly crier, how do you think your Soulmate will feel if he found that out?

Her mother’s words ring in her mud feeling mind and it only leads her to think of her actual soulmate, because she’s sure he wouldn’t care how she looked like when she cried, not because he loved her exactly the way she was, no, that would be far too easy, and the universe liked to kick her in the balls.

He didn’t remember her, let alone know what she looked like while she cried, so suck it Mom.

Darcy knew he couldn’t know her face from a crowd because she saw it, fate was a bitch and so was Hydra. All those pain induced experiments didn’t make her a weapon, it made her the number one expert on their most wanted; Captain America.

She looked through the world with his eyes, she felt his emotions, and Hydra thrilled that they knew before he did, Steve Rogers had a soulmate and he didn’t even remember her, they never let her forget that little nugget, that more than all the torture almost killed her, that she was lost among the many faces of everyone he had met.

Darcy saw the moment the girl with a toothy smile and hand delivered coffee slipped his mind, she felt the moment she vanished like smoke as another world ending situation weighed on his shoulders.

Darcy’s blood was pooling around her, just another gory site in the alley, and she had the fleeting thought of Steve and how wide his eyes would go if she had ever said a word to him. Oh she knew what his words were, they were tattooed on the skin above her heart. It was enough for her to know fate got it wrong. So she never said a thing, Darcy just loved him for afar, trying to make his life just a little bit better.

She was bit bitter, a wet laugh escaped her, along with more blood staining her lips, how she was still producing more red to this mes, Darcy had no clue.

Her only dying regret was that she couldn’t extinguish the love she had for him, even now, she hoped that he would run into the light and smile at her for the first and last time, because she was a sappy fool.

But no one came, she was all alone as she fell listlessly to the side, her last conscious thought was that Fairy Tales were honestly the very, very worst.

She wished it was like in the books, waking up after a harrowing experience in a hospital would have been nice or at least a qualified doctor would be at the top of her list, call her a snob.

But no, she didn’t even get the good drugs, what she got was all the fucking pain, that had her bolting up while Clint-fucking-asshole-Barton, dug a bullet out of her leg while Natasha-I’m-not-calling-her-a-name-she-could-kill-me-Romanov, shoved a cloth into Darcy’s mouth and pushed her back down. Also, she was in a moving vehicle, so the cloth was probably a good idea seeing as she was trying not to throw up.

“Mmmffffffkkk!”She was cussing though, it helped with the burning agony and no up chuck problem.

The Black Widow on the other hand looked cool as a cucumber and just stared at her calmly while Darcy screamed like a banshee, her voice was indifferent when she said, “Darcy, you have to stay calm or we might hit an artery.” like this was a normal day.

It probably, totally, was to her, Darcy on the other hand ignored the pain for a split second to look at the Avenger like she was bat shit insane.

Natasha just smirked, which didn’t exactly help Darcy with thinking she wasn’t two bullets short of a clip.

“Got it.” Barton’s deep voice sounded like it came from under water, “Next up, the chest.” and thankfully Darcy lost consciousnesses after that.

The second-less painful-time she woke up it was in a bed and if she didn’t feel like absolute shit, she might have appreciated the softness of it. But she did feel like shit so, call her ungrateful.

“You’re awake.” An unknown feminine voice came from her left and Darcy’s heart spiked with adrenalin and a unhealthy dose of fear ran through her, too late to stop it, too late to try to calm down to stop the-

“What do you mean you brought someone in? That’s against protocol and you know it Romanov. Bringing in a stranger puts all our lives at risk.” So much anger and frustration, Darcy drowned in it, and underneath it all worry as Steve stared at Natasha, who lifted an eyebrow that had made lesser men piss their pants, she couldn’t see it but Darcy was fairly certain The Captain only frowned harder at the action.

“She’s not a stranger,” Natasha said slowly, as if she was talking to a moron, “it’s Darcy, Steve. Darcy Lewis who doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.”

But Darcy could feel Steve’s unyielding mind, it had been one of the things she had always adored about Steve. He always stood up for what he believed, no matter the consequence, he did what was right, she just never thought in a billion years that she would be considered wrong in his head. Well no that wasn’t true, wasn’t that why she never said a word to him, the very reason she never said his words? She knew, deep down, he’d hate what he saw. Give her a prize then, looks like Darcy hit the nail on her coffin.

“You know that for sure do you? Alright, so where has she been for who knows how long?” Steve said in an accusing tone and Darcy wanted out, she wanted to leave this fucked up vision, she wanted out of his head right the fuck now.

She could feel the pressure of trying to break free, her brain felt to tight, but she wasn’t giving up. It didn’t matter that it never worked before, she’d make it work, Darcy was screaming inside his head to let her go, but just like every time before, Steve didn’t even flinch.

“It’s been three years Steve and by the look of her I’d say she was captured.” Natasha was a smart woman, and with her words came a red haze of rage that Darcy only felt a few times being linked to Steve.

“Yeah and you know what else happened three years ago Natasha?” He didn’t let her respond, he cut her off while he gritted out through clenched teeth and black swirling anger, “Hydra. So that can only mean one of two things. Either she’s been compromised or she’s been a sleeper agent all along. So forgive me if I don’t trust her, there are kids here, I won’t risk it.”

Her mind snapped free with those cutting words, while the woman who had started all this was bending over her trying to inject her with something. Whatever it was Darcy was not going to find out. She pushed the doctor out of her way and the other woman gasped and tumbled down, she had a momentary feeling of guilt but it was overshadowed by the panic and fear swimming in her veins.

She jumped out of the bed and made a run for it, Darcy didn’t care that her body protested the movement, she gave no flying monkey fucks that she could feels stitches popping and blood dripping down her skin. She needed to put as much distance between herself and that self-righteous jackass, no matter how her body paid the price. She had been through worse.

She slammed the door open and ended up in a hallway, fifty-fifty shot, the left showed more doors and a bigger possibility of getting caught, the right had a clear shot of the kitchen, which Thor willing had a back door.

Left it was then, may the odds ever be in her favour.

They were not, of course they weren’t. The universe, her? Pfft. Those odds were never going to be in her favour.

Darcy stopped dead as she entered the kitchen only to see two kids drawing at the dinner table, past them she spotted a large window and next to that was the holy grail, a front door.

The boy who looked around seven dropped his crayon with a wide mouth, the girl who looked younger pointed at her in fascinated horror, Darcy was 99% positive she was offended by the crazy ladies wild looking hair.

“Hey,” Darcy croaked trying to seem less threatening, but by the squeaking of their chairs as they moved backwards, far away from her, she felt like she may have failed, miserably.

“I’m just ganna,” she pointed to the door while moving slowly around them, still trying not to frighten small children, “If you could keep this just between us, that would be awesome sauce.” The boy nodded so fast his blonde hair shook at the action, while his sister (Darcy was guessing they were related or Steve and Natasha had opened up a daycare, which was amusing to think about actually,) kicked him under the table while shaking her head in the negative, vehemently.

Whelp, so much for a united front, “Cute picture, I like dragons.” She was still moving at a snail's pace and Darcy was really getting jittery, but the little boy smiled so brightly at her compliment, showing all gums and two missing teeth, that she almost didn’t care that she was a hair breadth away from getting caught. She sorta melted inside, and it was such a pure feeling, it made her feel warm and a little happy, an emotion that was sorely lacking in her life.

She almost considered sitting her butt down with the children and drawing a picture, she would have done it years ago, but the girl stretched her mouth open, and all Darcy’s warm feelings vanished.

“Uncle Steve!” The girl screeched like an opera singer, but Darcy was already running and swearing, “The lady said a bad words, swear jar, swear jar!”

Damn little Gremlins.

She finally made it to the door and pushed it open, the wood of the front porch banged against her feet and Darcy jumped the stairs leading to freedom, she absorbed the impact when she landed on the ground even when it sent a shock waves across her legs and her bullet wound was not thanking her as she ran through the yard.

But this was it, she was free from stupid damn soulmates and tattling children, she could taste the rest of her life, without worry, screw the pain of a few injuries.

The silhouette that jumped from a fucking tree almost had her wishing she didn’t leave her stolen gun behind in the flaming building that was her prison, but Bucky Barnes would live another day as she barely dodged him.

Not fast enough for a second guy to launch himself from the bushes (what the ever loving shit were they doing? Playing hide and seek?) and grab her elbow forcefully pulling her to a screeching halt.  

“You got her Sam?” An eerie familiar voice said from behind her and it had been forever that Darcy had heard that deep voice live and in stereo and not bouncing around in her head that it had her paralysed, her muscles locked up and her spine straightened.

“Yeah I got her, man” Sam answered while keeping a tight grip on her and it was weird that she actually knew these men, but they knew diddly squat about her.

Sam liked tomato sauce but not tomato’s, he secretly listened to Taylor Swift when he thought Steve wasn’t looking but Steve was a snarky man after her heart and videotaped him for blackmail on chores. He was loyal, fierce and would walk besides Steve even when it landed him in hell.

Bucky liked his coffee black first thing in the morning but drank it the rest of the day with way too much sugar and cream to be healthy, even for a super soldier. He kept a list like Steve did, but instead of pop culture to keep up with, it was a list of names and next of kin of the the people he had been brainwashed to kill. He kept an eye on all of the families, making sure they were safe and Steve felt a sense of deep guilt and pride every time he saw that red leather bound notebook.

And Steve, she practically knew it all, she was the Wiki of Steve Rogers and a little of the dark web. Darcy knew he still feared the cold even though he thought it was illogical. He had a vinyl that he would listen to on the day he went into the water, he’d think of Peggy and wonder why it wasn’t her that was his Soulmate. He’d wait for a girl that would never come and look at the sentence across his chest with hope and confusion. Both of their words convinced Darcy that fate had a nasty sense of humour, it’s also made her know deep in her bones that they weren’t Meant To Be.

So yeah, Darcy knew things, to much things for her own good, if she knew nothing it might take the sting out of them looking at her with suspicion and anger. As it was, it felt like a scalpel running across her skin.

Blue crashed against blue as she looked into Steve’s eyes, she flinched when he took a step closer to her and he narrowed his eyes in response to her movement, “Why did you run?”

Instinct had her shutting her jaw and avoiding eye contact, muscle memory, Sam squeezed her arm in response to her silence, and she turned to glare at him. “Let me go, I don’t like being touched.”

He scoffed, “Yeah I don’t think so Lady, you’re a flight risk and The Captain asked you a question.”

“The Captain,” Darcy snarled his title so viciously that Sam’s eyes widened, “can kiss my ass. Let me go now, while I’m still asking nicely.”

“This is you playing nice? Sweetheart, I think you might not understand what that word means.”Bucky drawled out the words sounding smooth but when Darcy turned to glare at him next his hand was holding his gun that was strapped to his thigh, an intimidating move not lost on her. Her Hydra guards used to do the same thing when she got out of line, and thinking of Bucky in the same thought as them sent a shiver down her spine.

The Captain and the Winter Soldier didn’t miss the the action but she hid it like she normally did, with a bucket full of snark, “I haven’t kneed him in the balls yet, so yeah, this is me playing nice. Call me sweetheart one more time and that threat might become his reality.”

“Why do I get the punishment, he said it.” Her captor said in a whine, sounding not at all threatening, but Darcy knew better, they were one wrong action or word away from hauling her ass back inside.

“You’re closer.”

“Enough Miss Lewis. Play times over, why did you run if you’re supposed to be on our side?” Took Steve long enough, she thought his jaw was going to crack with the way he had been clenching it this whole time.

Still she refused to say anything, not to him, never to him. He may be stubborn but Darcy Lewis was no quitter, gym class had never and would never count.

“I don’t think she likes you, Steve.” Bucky, smirk in place turned to say to his best friend, but Steve didn’t respond he took another step into her personal space and just like last time she froze.

He opened his mouth to demand more questions maybe, but at the final moment hesitated as his eyes glanced down and then his lips thinned and his whole demeanour shifted to grim mode.

Which rude, a lot of people loved the girls, she didn’t know whether to blush or slap him, Darcy was leaning more to violence really, when Steve spoke, “You’re bleeding, again”

Oh, right, she wasn’t going to say anything, but yeah she was in quite a lot of pain.

“I’ll bring her back inside to Helen.” And even Darcy could hear the excitement in Sam’s voice when he spoke.

But the panic returned to her full force, she couldn’t go back in that house again, not when Steve despised her, not when she knew she couldn’t actually talk to him.

Sue her for wanting the guy to like her without the universe trying to shove it down their throats or for him to trust her without having to say his damn soul mark out loud.

“No,” She said the words to Steve but aimed them at Bucky over the Captain's huge shoulders, she was a pro at avoidance by now, “I will not go back in there,You want to hear my story so you can trust me? Fine, but spoiler alert, it doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s about a lab assistant that was forgotten.” Darcy could see Steve’s shoulders tense at her last words but she went on heedlessly, still looking into Bucky’s eyes.

“She loved working with hero’s, she loved making a difference even if it was something as shallow as giving out coffee and trying to help the geniuses with their important work. It made her small world seem larger that it actually was, she felt appreciated, but one day she knew how wrong she was. Hydra came and took her away while she was in Captain America’s office, leaving the all important, shallow coffee to spill on his hard drive, so they wouldn’t be able to extract information from it. They took her and tortured her, because now she became that information she destroyed. They pored placebo into her veins and said it was poison, they poked and burnt at her skin and then poured what was left of her into a cell that was cold and wet. Only to do it again and again and again”

“Miss Lewis-” Steve tried to interrupt her, his voice the softest she’s ever heard it, the deep timber was never that quiet or worried when it was directed at her, she also didn’t notice Sam’s grip leave her as he took in a shuddering breath.

Darcy was to lost in the memories, she was too busy drowning in them, her voice rising with the beat of her sore heart, she wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings, “I never broke, I never told them anything even when-” and here Darcy stumbled to a stop and a gasp ripped from her, because she could swear to high heaven that she was innocent and maybe for a year she was.

But then they got into her head, they saw what she saw and the Avengers paid dearly for her gift. Steve suffered the worst because of her and by the time she was lucid enough to figure out what was happening it was too late. His team had been broken.

Darcy was guilty.

After-the final plan was to use her as bait to kill Captain America, the leader, and see the team fall even more and Darcy couldn’t, she couldn’t- “I killed them, I couldn’t, they wanted to and I couldn’t let them!”

Somewhere in the back of her head she felt warning signs flash brightly but she was to exhausted to care, she just wanted to lay on the ground and not come up for air for a good long while.

“Darcy I need you to look at me,” That was the last thing she wanted, she just wanted to sleep, why couldn’t he understand that?

Skin touched skin and all other thoughts ripped from her mind, she felt everything Darcy was swimming in emotions, but they weren’t her own, she knew what this was, she could feel the familiar touch of Steve’s mind, but it never happened like this before.

His guilt, his worry, but underneath it all a tinge of fear and surprise and overriding that was confusion, because looking up into his blue eyes, Darcy knew that the jig was up.

For almost three years she had being unwillingly peeking into his mind and it now looked like Steve was riding the Darcy Lewis feels train.

She had shitty luck, because she knew the only emotion in her now marked her as a traitor.

Love it? Hate it? wish i stopped while the gettin was good? Oh well, Thanks for reading any ways!

[popculturebuffet]

Legend of the Three Cablleros: Pyra-Mid Life Crisis Review “Get Back, Ya MonkeyBatDonkeyRat”

Saludos Amigos! After four days of working on intensly exausting and through projects, my best of the year list and second Scott Pilgrim review, it’s nice to get back to some fun hyjinks with my boys. And boy oh boy.. did I get that. This one was a fun one.. not the best so far and we’ll get to it’s flaws as we go but damn if it wasn’t hilarous and insanely weird. 

So let’s get right to it, on with the show.  We pick up where we left off, Leopold, Felldrake’s mummified monkeybatdonkeyrat, as the boys come to refer to him, is carrying donald off and after a game of “What the fuck is this thing” And Jose understandably asking Xandra what the fuck is that, they try freeing him wiht Xandra successfully shooting him down... before the boys nearly kill donald with spikes and other pointy things before using Panchito’s hat to catch him. 

So Leopold returns to his master, and Feldrake reveals his plan for the episode: Their going to egypt. Okay so FELDRAKE is the reason Ancient Egypt is so evil. Huh, you learn something every day.  Meanwhile the boys try to hide because well.. Donald just got kidnapped and they’ve been at this one day. After some meh shenanigans, Xandra reveals her world map, where she can fast travel to any location with a “spark point”. Oh boy that means we’ll be getting  Zoey’s Infinite Playlist Crossover any day now... but while we ait for that, and we get a nice bit of the boys comparing the map to a GPS and Xandra for once being the one whose totally lost with the girls just nodding for her to accept it. But she can also track felldrake with it. You may be wondering “Wait why and how” but I thought of that: Because the original cabs mission once freeing Xandra was undoing Feldrake’s damage, she likely set up the atlas to track traces of his magic, and any flare ups in case he somehow returned.

So our heroes are off to egypt, though while the girls are staying behind, they give Donald the magic mirror from last episode so they can call them if they need them. HOnestly.. a pretty clever setup and a way to let April, May and June help without having to shove them into every episode. And being a fan of Ducktales, having it feel organic that a character isn’t going and still finding things for them to do is just.. it’s nice okay. Seriously Frank why didn’t you watch this. You still have hte better show so far but come on. 

My griping about another show aside our boys are off to Egypt.. anddddd in the middle of the desert.... wait so Xandra set up fast travel world wide to alls orts of leylines and stuff.. but the best she could do in freaking egypt.. was in the middle of one of the many stretches of uninhabitable desert. 

I mean I get it for some locations but this is freaking Egypt.. why isn’t the pyramid their going to the fast travel point. Start making sense making sense! Anyways so Feldrake gets an easy lead because Xandra took her stupid pills when picking this spot while Xandra and the cabs sweat it out, eventually arriving after them. We also get a really great bit where Panchito and Jose give the camels their water, and then Donald naturally needs some. I”m.. i’m not giogn to questoin where theyg ot suplies or anything, again the bigger issue of “why was your mystical fast travel point in the middle of nowhere” still stands. I mean at least say it was the best she could do or it screwed up or something. Not just “whoops guess we gotta somehow get camels to get the pyramids. “ Sheldgoose and Feldrake are ahead of them, and while obviously I can’t cover EVERY single bit.. there is a TON of good banter this episode, as Kevin Micheal Richardson shows a humerous side to feldrake, constnatnly insulting Sheldgoose, rightfully so, and just in genereal being throughly hilarious. Which given I was expecting him to be a pretty 1 dimensional bad guy, It was a nice suprise. My faviorite being when they fall on a skeleton “You are useless.. not you Carla, I like you... liked you”. The point is our villians are ahead and our heroes have to get past Leopold. Xandra suggests strategy.. but Donald’s already ahead to do a Donald and yell at it, wanting revenge. Before Donald can die horribly, Xandra simply blinds him and they run inside, accidently triggering all the traps and taking out leopold. Leopold finds his master.. just in time for the Cabs to find a control room.. 

Oh.. the what has not even begun as a button Panchito presses.. sends a rocket off to the MOON. 

Yup their going there. As Feldrake explains to sheldgoose, rapidly as he dosent have the patience for it but to Sheldgoose’s credit he picks up on all of it, the pyramid is a ship, aliens built the pyramids in this universe, they  mysteriously vanished but left a city full of robot soldiers on t he moon, hence why we’re going there. 

Yeah this is GLORIOUSLY weird stuff, our heroes having to go into space to fight an army of astro-mummies and ancient robots copotped by an ancient sorcerer. Yes.. yes just.. gimmie. This is insane in the best ways. WHat’s not is that the boys can’t work the ship together as they approach the dark side of the moon... huh I wonder why the moonlanders left all this here. Questions for later.  Oh .. and theirs an astro mummy on board, forcing Panchito to reveal he’s a famous luchador and he and xandra hold him off while Jose and Donald TRY to pilot the ship but can’t translate the manual and just make things worse. Thankfully he remembers the mirror and asks the girls for help, so they put the instruction manal through a translator. 

So with our heroes subuding the mummy and having instructoins they finally encounter feldrake and sheldgoose, whose in a cool looking hood with a mask and is naturally baffled to find his idiot neighbors who screwed him over are on this spaceship with him, while Panchito asks to donald’s reply. “You ever been to a party where everyone knows everyone but you? “ “Every day of my life”. PFFT.  But the whole group notices their about to crash so the bad gys use the escape part which Xandra condems as cowardly.. before admitting that was her plan too. Thankfully the girls come through, and they land.. I mean kinda.. Donald insists on landing, but their alive so better than Jose expected.  So on the moon.. wait let me cue the approraite music. 

There we go. Scrooge is on the other side though, long story. Point is our boys disembark sharing the astromummy suit and Xandra says they need to work as a team. The.. where did this moral come from? No seriously their incompitent sure, ti’s part of their charm.. but this dosen’t reallyc ome up till the last act. Them not working together. Sure they push a lot of random buttons but this seems like they pulled a teamwork moral out of their ass, especailly since them learning to work together is a GOOD idea, it’s a classic trope for a reason teams take time to get the rythum right, it’s just sorta shohorned into an otherwise unrealted space adventure. But they soon find the bad guys have taken over a giant super robot, and have the army preparing to blast off for earth. Uh-Oh. While Xandra prepares to stand and fight the boys.. flee. 

And while this is played off as their usualy incompetence... their the right ones this time. Xandra is thor with hawkeye , the good one from the comics, aim. She is VERY powerful.. but as it bears out even she can’t take down a whole army. She can fight them well enougha nd destroys man, in a very awesome sequence reminscent of Claude from Fire Emblem three houses, been playing that lately good game, but... she’s one person. And the boys are three normal guys with no combat training in a clunky robot suit. What’d you EXPECT them to be able to do? They made the right call.. as while they ran off they also found a giant robot of their own so we get an evil sorecer versus donald duck, panchito and jose, both in giant robots on the fucking moon. 

Look at times i’m a simple man. But if you can’t enjoy donald duck and his two best friends fighting an evil sorecerer, his descedant voiced by Wayne Knight, and a donkey bat rat, with both parties in giant robots .. I don’t get you and enver will. Our heroes end up finally working together smoothly with each boy taking a leg and donald? “I’ll take the fists!”.. bad...ass. And he does and despite a tense fight our heroes win, destroy the ships and donald FUCKING UPERCUTS FELDRAKE’S MECH’S HEAD OFF AND SENDS THEM INTO SPACE. Our heroes won, relfect ont heir teamwork because apparnelty that’s the lesson and Feldrake and Sheldgoose head home, with Feldrake pointing out that those idiots being next door means their just an easier target for him. 

Fianl Thoughts; This was a fun episode. While the teamwork thing is kinda.. shoved in there everything else is just a brisque, fun and rediclous adventure episode. And this is from someone who dosen’t like the ancient aliens idea for the pyramid as it has racisim at it’s core.. but works here because clearly their just being rediclous. I didn’t even get to the flight attendant or half the jokes. This is just a really fun, charming, delightfully cheese episode. And sometimes.. that’s all you need. Unitl the next rainbow, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.