Soon we were in Trish’s apartment. I stayed in Big Chill form, my cloak wrapped around myself, and sat next to Maria on Trish’s couch. Sam stood behind us with his arms crossed. Luke and Jessica sat across from us while Trish grabbed some drinks from the kitchen. I think she was doing it just to get rid of nervousness.
“Here’s um, coffee, water, beer, some soda…” Trish brought the tray over. “I didn’t know what to bring.”
“It’s fine,” I said, taking the cup of coffee.
“Careful, it’s still boiling-!” she stopped to stare in awe as I chugged down the hot coffee, sighing happily as it went down. Not quite as delicious as steel, but pretty good.
“You get used to it,” Sam told Trish, smirking.
“Jessica Jones,” Maria said, eyeing her. “According to reports from my agents, you have superhuman strength, speed, and some very limited flight ability. You’ve done a good job hiding those though. In the old days, SHIELD would have been ashamed that they never tracked you.”
“Yeah well, that’s me, subtle and mysterious,” Jessica snarked.
Trish let out a nervous laugh.
“Luke Cage, aka Carl Lucas,” Luke, who had been smiling, froze when Maria said his real name. “After escaping Seagate with superhuman abilities, you managed to disappear entirely. You must have known quite the hacker to be able to pull off some of that.”
“...Something like that,” Luke stared at her with hard eyes, his right fist closing just a bit.
“I’m not here to arrest either of you,” Maria said. “Anyone tell you guys that you’re overly paranoid? And I have my own spy organization,” I grinned. “I’m here to ask you what your plans are, among other things. It would have been easier to do if it wasn’t for you two running every time someone finds you.”
“Like when Tony ‘fucking’ Stark showed up at our last place,” Jessica asked pointedly.
“Tony does stuff like that all the time,” I said with a shrug. “Oh, by the way, Sam do you have the…”
“Right, right,” Sam reached into a pocket and pulled out a note, which he passed to Luke.
“What’s this?” Luke asked.
“Tony passed this to me. And he got it from Pops,” Sam explained.
Luke opened the note. Then he chuckled. “Listen to the nice superheroes. They tip well.”
“He sounds awesome,” I said with a grin.
“He is awesome,” Luke grinned back at me, slipping the note away. “Well, Miss Hill, what exactly do you want?”
“Proof that you two are as heroic as you seemed to be when you stopped Barracuda,” Maria reached out and took a beer bottle off the tray, sipping at it. Jessica grabbed one as well and chugged it in mere seconds, reaching for another. “BRIDGE took it upon themselves to make sure all the damages for that incident are covered. But beyond that, the last thing we want is to have you both running around and getting in fights without accountability.”
“We tend to avoid getting in fights,” Luke said. “Even Jessica.”
Jessica gave him a vicious glare. “Oh really, we’re going there? You’ve stopped two muggings since we got here.”
Luke coughed. Maria smiled. “Really now?”
The large man smiled slowly. “I couldn’t just standby, you know?”
“You two are cute,” I said with an insectoid smile.
“I know, right?” Trish said nearby.
The five of us looked at her. She froze like a deer in headlights. “S-Sorry.”
Sam spoke next. “Best case scenario, we’d love to have you guys work for BRIDGE.”
“You want us to join your spandex brigade?” Jessica leaned back on the couch and rested her arm back. “Cause I’m not showing off my cameltoe so you can get your rocks off.”
Sam, being a former soldier, had heard worse, so he didn’t even flinch. “If you don’t want to become Avengers, fine.”
“One guy, Daredevil, works out of Hell’s Kitchen. He’s a friend of ours. We give him logistical support, hide his identity from the public, and make sure his bases are covered legally,” I explained.
Trish walked forward to add more extremely hot coffee to my cup. “Wait, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is real?”
“Oh right, you’re a reporter. Yeah, he’s real. Tracks down a lot of drug dealers, sex traffickers, and muggers. We’ve worked together before, and he’s done some work for the police,” I admitted freely.
“What if I don’t want to run around saving every kitten out of a tree?” Jessica asked.
“...Then you just don’t,” Maria narrowed her eyes. “But you also can’t just go around assaulting people with superhuman strength when you feel like it. I have no problem with self-defense, to a certain point, but the last thing we need is you breaking people's arms. You get the same rights any responsible gun owner gets.”
Luke coughed. “And if I want to help?” Jessica looked at him like he’d betrayed her. He ignored her. “If I want a, I don’t know what to call it, a superhero license. So that if I do help someone, I won’t get arrested for being a bulletproof black man?”
Sam and I shared a look with Luke. While lots of people had been great, the two of us still got a lot of hate for our race. Sam had been called nine flavors of slurs, and I’d been accused of supporting terrorism multiple times. And that was just the blatant racism and stereotyping.
“I can’t control how people in the street treat you,” Maria admitted. “That’s not something anyone can do. But I’m the Director of BRIDGE. I’m working to make sure this new world we live in is safe. For everyone,” Maria rested her chin in her palm. “You want to protect people? We can provide legality, resources, and lawyers.”
“We know you were innocent,” I explained. “Of the crime that got you sent to Seagate. We’ve got our agents figuring out who framed you, but in the meantime, you should be clear. Whether you become a hero or not.”
“But that’s the gist,” Sam said. “You want to become heroes? Great. We’ll help you out. Want to stay out of it? Fine, then you need to follow the law.”
“And who’s to say you aren’t just going to force us to take on missions and shit? I mean, are we going to have a monthly quota?” Jessica asked.
“No one is forcing you to do anything except follow the general rules of society,” Maria looked like she was becoming very exasperated with Jessica. So was everyone else except Trish.
Personally, I thought she was funny. But then, I had my own suspicions on why she was like this…
“We’re still figuring things out,” Sam explained. “We only have one vigilante so far, and he’s been going out every night. But the rule has been that three nights a week patrolling the city is enough as long as you consent to treat the people you capture humanely.”
“Which means no killing if you can avoid it, no matter how scummy or monstrous the criminal,” I said darkly, my breath coming out just a bit frostier than normal.
“I’m not worried about that,” Luke said with a sigh. “Pops has been telling me that I should start helping people for a while now.”
“Oh please,” Jessica rolled her eyes as she spoke. “You’ve been looking for an excuse to do that since we fought that gold-toothed asshole.”
Luke was apparently unfazed by the tiny brunette’s attitude. He chuckled in a deep baritone. “Maybe I was. Damn good excuse right in front of me.”
Jessica looked between Maria and Luke, ruby lips twisted in annoyance. Finally, she let out a small ‘fuck’.
“Fine. I’m in too,” Jessica sighed. “Just to keep this idiot alive.”
Luke looked at her, worried. “I appreciate it, but you don’t have to if you don’t-”
“Shut the fuck up, Luke,” I grinned at the fact she sounded reluctant, bitchy, fond, and determined all at once. “You had my back. I have yours. Got it?”
Luke smirked at that before looking at Maria. “What do we need to do?”
“Undergo some tests, for one. Nothing invasive, just some basics so we have some understanding of your abilities and weaknesses. The last thing we need is either of you getting injured without a doctor on hand to help.”
“I can’t really get injured-” Luke was about to say.
“Don’t,” I cut him off. “I’ve been every flavor of bulletproof, intangible, liquid, and all other kinds of ‘impossible to hurt.’ And I’ve been beaten up in all of them. Take the tests so that if/when you get hurt we can help you heal.”
“...I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke said, giving me an odd look.
“There’s more,” Maria said. “See, I need you to sign paperwork. A lot of paperwork.”
“Fuck me,” Jessica rolled her eyes.
I chuckled, puffs of frosty air coming from my mouth. That’s when I noticed Trish.
She didn’t see me looking at her. I think that’s why I could read her enviousness so easily. It was in the way she eyed Jessica and Luke for a long moment. Sam stepped around to talk to Luke, and Maria said something about armor.
And Trish kept eyeing her adopted sister. I tried, for a moment, to look at things from her point of view. My superpowered sister, talking to the Avengers while I watched from the sidelines. In my world, Patsy Walker was a superhuman badass. Here, she was a former child star with a radio show that hated the name ‘Patsy’.
I wanted to comment on that but held my tongue. Enviousness is normal. Everyone has it. Hell, I used to have it all the time when Steve or Thor would take their shirts off to reveal the pectorals and abs of a superhuman. But hard work and a good diet combined with constant fights got me the same abs now. And, if destiny had its part, Trish Walker might one day become Hellcat. Just a matter of time.
------
June 1, 2014
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE
Days after signing Luke Cage and Jessica Jones on, Maria walked through the Avengers Tower with Fury on one side of her and Victoria Hand on the other. The trio passed by Dial, Creel, and Fantasma, sharing a nod with them. As much as Maria would have liked to see what they were up to, she had business to attend to. Victoria was speaking quickly.
“Deathlok managed to disable the nuclear device, and Davida took down the tank. Quicksilver seduced the diplomat's wife however, so I still have to run damage control there,” Victoria said in the voice of a woman who had lost all hope. Behind her glasses was nothing but exhaustion.
“Have Quicksilver report in on everything in triplica-”
“He already did,” Victoria said. “That’s the worst part. His speed makes it so any busywork I give him doesn’t last long. He’s gaining a real discipline problem. He’s good, damn good. But he knows it, and it’s making him arrogant and selfish. He’s starting to believe he can handle anything thrown at him.”
Maria shook her head. “He’s your responsibility, Victoria. But if you are having a problem with him being arrogant…” she looked at Fury, whose eye twisted with amusement. “The Avengers have been doing some new training. It might be just the thing to change that attitude of Pietro’s.”
“Are you sure about that?” Victoria asked with some skepticism.
“Trust me. They’ve all been running each other through the wringer recently. We’ll work out the details later. How is the rest of the team?”
“Excellent,” Victoria smirked confidently. “Ghost has been a huge asset to us since we found a way to safely help her with pain. Davida and her girls are incredible force multipliers, and Deathlok is taking well to the upgrades he’s been getting. They’re a good team, Maria, and we’ve been doing good work.”
Maria nodded with some satisfaction. “That’s good to hear. When you get the chance, I have a mission I’d like you to take on. A new problem. It seems Hammer Industries has more information than we thought. I’d like your team to start investigating them.”
“Understood. Send me the file and I’ll get started.”
Maria looked over at Fury. “Now. The Raft. What’s it’s current situation?”
The Raft, a large prison that had been getting built in secret in an undisclosed ocean of the Earth. Made to be able to sink underwater when needed, the prison had only been getting built when the HYDRA uprising began. Afterward, Maria had poured significant resources into getting it completed. With the aid of Tony Stark consulting, the prison had finally been completed and filled to half-capacity.
The trio entered Maria’s office on the Avenger’s Tower. She circled her desk and sat down, steepling her hands together. Fury tapped on her desk, bringing up a holo-screen. “So far? No escapes. All the idiots have been locked in their prisons.”
“Who is locked up in there?” Victoria asked. “I have trouble remembering after all this time.”
Fury chuckled. “As of now? A laundry list of HYDRA morons, Rio demons and monsters that managed to survive right hooks from the Hulk and Iron Man, and the last prisoners from the Fridge that HYDRA didn’t let loose. Including the ones your team caught.”
That was actually a large part of what Victoria’s team did. Running about the world capturing escapees of places like the Fridge after the chaos of SHIELD rebuilding into BRIDGE. They’d started with John Horton, a man who had replaced his hands with lion paws. When they found him, he was trying to graft the wings of a bird to his back. According to Victoria, he’d screamed in fear when Deathlock and Marian Pouncy had come down on him like a pile of bricks.
“Does that include the Abomination and Aberration?” Victoria asked.
“Of course,” Maria leaned back and switched her screen over to a video of the prisoners in question.
Aberration, AKA Rana Phillips, was in her monstrous form, sitting on a bed with a book in hand. Her cell was fairly nice, with a small bookshelf, a tv, and some posters. She’d hung up a Green Day poster above her bed, and an Avengers one over her desk. Maria noted that the Avengers poster was untouched. Funny. She would have thought it would have darts in it, maybe some ink markings.
“Didn’t you remove her privileges?” Victoria asked. “After her old XO was assassinated?”
“We wanted to, for a bit,” Fury said. “But the fact is, we have no idea who killed him. The bastard was a torturer, rapist, and overall son of a bitch. We have no proof HYDRA did it on her behalf. And Rana has been a model prisoner. She’s been taking therapy, learning skills, writing to her family, interacting well with the guards and prisoners. Unless she’s such a good liar even Natasha can’t see it, we’ve got someone on the path to redemption.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
On the screen, a pair of long metal arms came from the door to the cell, carrying a metal tray of food. Rana watched the arms stretch out and took the food tray, digging in immediately while reading.
“On the other hand, we have Blonsky,” another image popped up. The image was much less comfortable.
The massive man was snarling, screaming, while wrapped in metal bonds. His arms, legs, chest, and head had enough metal wrapped around them that even his large body was dwarfed by the bonds that held him. He was yelling something that could barely be heard under the snarls he was also emitting.
“He killed three men the first time we tried to move him. Those bonds of his were developed by Tony, Bruce, and Fitz, made to siphon gamma radiation while adjusting constantly to his strength.”
“Can those be used to hold the Hulk?” Victoria asked.
Maria didn’t hold the question against her. Victoria’s job was to suggest answers to worst case scenarios. For all that the Hulk had become an asset and ally rather than a threat. “No. The Hulk’s power levels have increased recently. As Dial put it, ‘the angrier he gets, the stronger he gets.’ But the Abomination, with his set amount of strength? We can hold him.”
“And we’ll have to,” Fury pointed at him. “Emil Blonsky has been yelling about he’s going to kill us all, make us pay, that ‘Banner will rue the- blah, blah, blah.’ I swear, he’s starting to repeat himself.”
Maria grinned at the utterly bored look on Fury’s face.
“What about the Centipede soldiers, or the gamma-HYDRA agents?” Victoria asked.
“Well, the Centipede soldiers have been stripped of their cybernetics. We replaced them with much more benign prosthetics. And the gamma-irradiated HYDRA agents we captured have been either placed in similar bonds to Abominations or given a cell like Rana’s, based on their temperament.”
“As for Karl Lykos, the despot Sauron from the Savage Land, I’ve got him on the helicarrier,” Fury said. “He’s a weird one…”
------
Earlier that day
Nick Fury/Agent of BRIDGE
A set of doors to the brig of the Enterprise slid open in front of Fury. He stepped through and began walking past the cells. Most of them were empty. One had a mercenary from Japan who had been contracted to try and assassinate Sam Wilson, only to get picked up from the airport by their agents. Another had a scientist who had been trying to sell a virus that could infect any system and send the information to the country of choice.
The most interesting, however, were the prisoners in the back. Who were talking across the hall from each other.
“WAAAGH!”
“A primitive solution indeed my friend, but a most exciting one. How do you account for the lack of a power source?”
“WAAAGH!”
“Have you realized potatoes make a better source of energy than those? If you’re forced to use plant matter of course.”
“...WAAAGH!”
“A most passionate response!”
Fury walked up between both cells and looked between them.
In one was a green goblin. About three and a half feet tall, with dark brown eyes, long pointy ears, and hair pulled back into a bun on his head. The creature was found in the aftermath of the Rio Incident, one of a few strange creatures. Tony and Galina, the Crimson Dynamo, had captured a number of the goblins, who had been imprisoned since. They’d made painstaking attempts to try and communicate with the little guys, who had seemed eager to talk while gabbling amongst each other in excitement over every little thing. The one contained in the Enterprise was the most communicative.
And he’d apparently found a friend.
Karl Lykos blinked at the sight of Fury. The brown-skinned man had been brought over on a quinjet days ago. He was kept in a cell developed specifically to stop energy drainers like him, used by SHIELD and advanced further by Leopold Fitz as a test of his poly-tectic adaptive materials project to make containment cells for superhumans that could be flown anywhere or added to any quinjet or vessel when needed.
As of yet, Karl hadn’t tested his cell. He’d been quite the novel prisoner. The walls of his cell were covered in papers, with theories, mathematical equations, and random notes. His only request other than paper to write on was that his letters were sent out.
He sent letters to only two people. Dozens to a woman named Tanya Anderson, someone identified as a childhood friend and crush of Lykos before he became Sauron. After some initial awkwardness between them, the two had begun tentative attempts at getting to know each other once again. BRIDGE read all their letters to each other extensively, but thus far it was like reading the letters of teenagers with a crush on each other they couldn’t admit to.
He sent a letter, only one, to a man by the name of Charles Xavier. Charles Xavier was a genius-level intellect, who had phds in many things, one of which was in genetics. He’d shared some radical theories decades ago on the possibility of human mutations before disappearing off the map to his mansion, where he opened up a boarding school. Utterly boring, really.
Notably, the message was simply a calm letter informing Charles he had been missing for some time and had returned, and to get in touch with him in ‘the usual way’. After that, nothing. They kept an eye on Charles Xavier, but none of the agents spying on him found any evidence. One had blacked out in the middle of his investigation, but that agent had admitted to losing sleep for several nights before that.
Whatever the case, Karl Lykos smiled up at Fury. “Ah, my dear Mr. Fury! I must say, I’m a little jealous of your name.”
“Are you?” Fury asked, meeting eye with Lykos’.
“Oh yes! Fury!” Lykos stood, holding his fists up dramatically. “The power, the symbolism of such a name. Why must I do this? Fury,” Lykos paced through his small cell. “Who is after me? Fury. Who stands before me, with stoicism in his stance and duty in his very footsteps!?”
Lykos spun to look at him, eyes filled with glee. “FURY. Ah, to have a last name such as yours!”
“I could always adopt you into the family, if you’re that eager,” Fury said with some amusement.
“You’re jesting, I’m sure, but I do think I might take that offer one day,” Lykos said with a grin. “You caught me in the midst of a bit of scientific debate with my fellow prisoner. Now I understand why reprobates call prison ‘college’.”
“The goblin,” Fury looked over at the man in question. “You can speak to him?”
“Somewhat. I have a bit of practice translating languages with odd guttural tones to them thanks to my rather less hospitable half. My little fellow intellectual speaks as much with his body language as you and I do with our tongues and throats! Most fascinating is that he understands us perfectly. Says he learned from fighting humans in his own world.”
“WAAAGH!” the goblin said in agreement.
“We’ve had trouble communicating with him and his friends… Could use a translator,” Fury said slowly.
“Oho! Are we beginning negotiations then?” Lykos smiled. For a moment, underneath the jovial tones, Fury could see the conqueror that had been hiding beneath that. “Where should we start?”
“Well, first off by making it clear these aren’t ‘negotiations’,” Fury smirked. “I like you Lykos. You’ve got a hell of dramatic soul.”
“Why thank you.”
“But as much as I’d love for some of the help we can get from you, this is me deigning to come down and see about getting something for the trouble of giving you room and board. We can survive without it. But it would make things a hell of a lot easier Maybe, if I’m feeling generous, I’ll throw something nice in for you.”
“Ah, the hardline stance then! Quite right of you to do so. I am, after all, a very dangerous man,” Lykos said sadly. “What then, are the terms?”
“We’d like to know more about the Savage Land. The locations, species, and languages that our boots on the ground might not know about it. We want to know what made the Saur-Lords what they were, where they came from-”
“Are you unfamiliar with the concept of courtship? For shame, my dear Fury! Would you like some advice?”
Fury chuckled. “You think I need help with that?”
Lykos looked Fury up and down before laughing. “No, I suppose not. I will share whatever you like freely. May I ask, if you would please do three things then?”
“Depends. But hit me.”
“I would like, first of all, to have a lab of my own. Only a few things, and I do not mind if I am under supervision while I am in it. I will freely share all my results. But I am a scientist, Mr. Fury. I need work or my mind will begin to rust, to shift into becoming naught but a brain fit for the that of a high school teacher. Or a politician.”
Fury grinned.
“Ah, see! Humor! I knew I liked you,” Lykos said with a smile of his own before he continued. “I would also like to speak to my peers. Fellow scientists such as that young man there,” Lykos pointed across at the goblin. “I don’t mind translating for him, if need be.”
“Waaagh,” the goblin said.
“He doesn’t mind either.”
“Huh. Tempting. Mighty tempting, all of that. But then there’s the third thing. What will that be?” Fury asked calmly.
“Mahmoud. I wish to speak with him. Face to face,” Lykos said that with some sadness.
------
Maria Hill/Director of BRIDGE
“What does he want to talk to Dial about?” Maria asked.
“He wouldn’t say. Just that he wanted to talk,” Fury said. “I suggest we don’t let him. Lykos isn’t just a genius scientist. He’s a man who had enough power to hold off three Avengers. Dial was one of them. For all we know, he’s feeling like he wants revenge.”
“Then we surround him with guns while they meet,” Maria said. “In the end, Dial will decide. In the meantime, I have something else I’d like to talk about. AIM. They’re becoming something of interest to us.”
Victoria nodded. “We have information on them from our contacts in the US army.”
“Yes, we do. And it’s worrisome. They’re getting technology from thin air. Making huge leaps in things we shouldn’t be hearing about for decades. I don’t mean to sound selfish, but I like it better when we have that sort of tech.”
“We’ll get on it,” Victoria said immediately. Fury only nodded.
Always good to have a dependable pair of people to point at your problems.
Now, one more thing.
“What’s this I hear about South American cartels arming up to take out a superhuman threat we can’t track?”
------
Ulik the Troll
“COME YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARDS! COME TRY AND KILL ME!” Ulik yelled in joy as he smashed down another wall. An army of Los Zetas soldiers ran through city streets, screaming and yelling at each other to get back.
Los Zetas was formed by commandos of the Mexican Army, who had deserted to eventually create one of the most powerful cartels in the world, using their combination of technology and paramilitary tactics learned from Israeli and US special forces to essentially own massive parts of the drug trade. They were known to engage in beheadings, torture, and rape. They were killers, thieves, and human traffickers. But for all those evils, they were not cowards. They fought like soldiers, with discipline and fury.
When Ulik smashed through a wall, a hail of bullets landed on his face. After discovering that they couldn’t pierce his skin with their assault rifles, they instead tried to blind and deafen him. When Ulik jumped at them, a well-placed grenade hit diverted him so he killed three men instead of ten.
They were brave fighters, as well as criminals.
And Ulik LOVED that about them!
Ulik grabbed one Los Zetas member around the neck, lifting him up and meeting eyes with him. “I just want you to know. You’re doing a good job. I am very proud of- oh, you died,” Ulik blinked at the criminal. “Well, you still did a good job.”
The loud sound of metal on concrete resounded through the area. Then, a loud engine. Before all the soldiers disappeared, running into the shadows of the city. Ulik tossed the dead man in his hand aside to look around curiously.
“What’s that noise? My friends, where did you go!?” Ulik called out around him. For a moment, he felt a deep sadness in his heart. Had they run away? Found cowardice beneath their courage? Not a shameful decision when considering the skill Ulik had as a warrior.
But looking around at the empty street, Ulik felt only depression. He had gained such respect for those murderous scoundrels. And he thought they respected him the same way-
There. A metal vehicle, like the cars Ulik had become familiar with. But covered in armor, with enough steel to turn it into a turtle. No, a tank, they were called. A weapon of war. That was the difference between
All of a sudden, the depression was gone. Replaced by excitement.
“MY FRIENDS! What new joy have you brought me!?”
The rock troll spread his arms out. “Come! Let us trade blows once again!”
“Dispara a ese cabrón!” someone inside the tank yelled.
Ulik laughed boisterously. Then the tank roared. “YES! GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHO-!”
The cannon roared. Ulik was sent flying back into a market stall. He laughed as he crushed the wall behind him, went through a cashier stand, flipped over, and finally smashed into a butcher shop. Meat landed on Ulik’s chest, a hunk of pork ribs. “Oh. Oh, my friends, you are incredible.”
Ulik grabbed the hunk of raw rib off his chest and shoved it into his mouth, bone grinding under his teeth. “Hmm… Needs spice.”
He rose up and noticed a canister of chili sauce on a shelf nearby. He rose up and grabbed the canister, ripping it open to pour over the ribs. “Ah. Great fights, delicious pork, and enough hot sauce to burn the tongue of even a troll of my constitution. Mexico is truly the best place in the cosmos!”
Chewing on bone, flesh, and sauce, Ulik leaped out of the supermarket to continue his reign of terror on the cartels of South America.