dynamics, 8
What with the soon approaching mission to take down the Manufacturer and the consequent knowledge that they might all be out of town for more than just a day or two, Peter and Harry had agreed to have their weekly walk on Friday afternoon instead, once both of them were finished with their exams. A little bit of time to just hang out and chat before they had to suit up and head out. Daisy had managed to get access to a small jet that was already waiting inside the Playground, and everything was pretty much ready to go - including sufficient doses of the anti-diviner inoculation, which worked.
The thing was, it was all a lot to do during exam week. Peter was truly looking forward to this mission being over and done with so that he could properly rest. He was supposed to start training Teddy this Sunday if he got back in time, but Peter was honestly considering just pushing that back one more week and apologising. Plus, he knew Teddy would understand. Peter just needed a little time to catch up on sleep and do a bit of self care. Maybe even get out of the city for a few hours to somewhere nice that he could work on his photography skills.
They were about three minutes into their walk when Harry suddenly stopped and turned to face Peter head-on, breaking him out of his longing thoughts towards having time to rest. "So are you and Harley dating now?"
Peter raised an eyebrow. That had come out of nowhere. And it had certainly brought him right to attention. "What? No?"
"But you do have a thing for him," Harry said, his intonation only making it sound half-like a question. "You look at him like he hung the moon or something."
"No, of course-" Peter started, and then stopped. His brain did that sometimes - especially in casual settings, Peter didn't like lying. It made his brain itch and push back. And that was exactly what it had started doing just then. "Uh... give me a moment?"
He needed a moment. As soon as he'd started to deny what Harry said, the words felt wrong in his mouth, the mental pushback growing sharply out of nowhere. But he didn't have feelings for Harley, did he? They were best friends, sure, and Peter was so incredibly fond of Harley. And yeah, they were really close, and Peter was always amazed by Harley and his kindness and his resolve and his clever ideas. And sure, Harley was a good looking guy. If Peter was asked if he though Harley was physically attractive, of course he'd say yes. Harley was very cute. But...
Peter always felt warm and comfortable around Harley. His day usually got easier in his friend's presence, in a way that was heightened compared to with the others. Harley made him feel safe. And- shit, that was exactly how it had been with MJ before he realised that he had feelings for her. He felt warm, safe and comfortable around her and his mood always lightened and lifted in a way that was qualitatively different to any feelings Ned elicited. And... it had been like that with Ned too, back when Peter had a brief crush on him.
Just imagining the way he had fallen asleep with his head against Harley's chest, and Harley's hands messing with his hair, made Peter's heart race. It had been intimate as all hell. And, sure, he and Harley were best friends and they were close like that. But now that Peter was actually thinking about it, he was having all these reactions. He was pretty damn sure he was blushing, and was rather thankful that Harry had yet to pull out his phone and snag a picture as 'evidence'. It was just... thinking about Harley like that - in the context of a crush - felt so right.
Well shit.
But that wasn't it, that wasn't all Peter's mind wanted to race its way through. Because the more he thought about it, the more he realised how Harley looked at him. He'd stare at Peter when he thought Peter couldn't tell, and Harley's mood visibly lifted around Peter too. Sometimes he'd say something kind of intimate and sweet, and then get embarrassed about it. And then there was the picnic last week. That picnic was damning evidence. Had Peter really been that oblivious? That moment where Harley had said "for you? Absolutely." That was... yeah, that was pretty much a confession in and of itself.
"Oh, fuck," Peter exclaimed aloud as his face flooded with heat. "Shit, Harry, you're right."
Harry chuckled. "Did you just realise now?"
Peter nodded awkwardly. "Uh... yeah. And you know what else I just realised? I'm pretty sure it's mutual. I know that Harley wouldn't try and sneakily take me on a date without asking me first, but that picnic he and I went on might as well have been one even if he hadn't meant it like that. And he... yeah, he looks at me that kind of way too, doesn't he? Fuck. It's mutual, isn't it?"
"It is," Harry agreed easily. "I mean, I'm pretty sure it is from the way he acts around you. Hence why I thought you guys were dating and just hadn't told anyone yet. That said, Gwen and I both thought you were dating that first physics class, so..."
"Oh man, I think I might've had a crush on him since then, if not earlier," Peter admitted, realising that the particular kind of warmth did in fact run that far back in his memories. Harley had always just... had an effect on him. A really, really pleasant one that made Peter's mind reel at this new realisation. The amount of want he felt was kind of absurd. "Dude, I am so gone for him. How the hell did I not realise?"
Harry shrugged. "Trauma from whatever happened with that memory thing? General obliviousness? Any number of other things?"
"Well when you put it like that, yeah," Peter relented, and sighed. "Losing your girlfriend because her memories of you were magically erased could probably do that, and I don't think I've been in a place where I could realise something like this."
"Checks out," Harry agreed, and the duo started walking again. "So, gonna do anything about it? Your chances are obviously very good."
Peter hummed, the heat persisting on his face and perhaps even growing a little more. The thought of telling Harley how he felt and asking for a romantic relationship was... intense. Maybe even a little scary, given his history of having the people closest to him torn away. But... he really wanted to. He wanted that with Harley, so damn much. Probably. "I don't know, maybe? I definitely need a little while to just- to process this. Because holy shit, Harry, I am so into him."
"Yes, you really are," Harry teased, and jabbed a forceless fist into his shoulder. "As sweet as it is, I've watched you both pine for each other long enough. To think that you didn't even realise? Wow, dude, maybe I should have brought this up sooner. Well, I think you should go for it. When you're ready, you know? You two would be really, really good together. You have a friendship like Gwen and I do, with the addition of the whole crush thing, of course. And hey, if you need to keep yourself busy in the meantime, we have that big mission, in like... what, an hour and a half? I can't believe that you, Harley and Gwen actually pulled off a successful treatment to protect us all from those crystals. That's like... a fucking game changer."
Peter laughed, and felt the full force of appreciation for Harry changing the subject. He needed time to think about this new realisation, but he needed a break from it first. "Yeah, I guess it is, huh? I mean, it's not perfect. It's still going to hurt if any of us get hit - hence the filters added to all of our suits as well. But the Diviner metal can't maim or kill us while the treatment is active, and there are enough doses to last each of us a whole week."
"Plus, if the Manufacturer manages to get away and becomes a broader threat you could pass on the files for this treatment to Oscorp and Stark Industries to be able to mass produce it," Harry exclaimed. "I'm just a tech guy, I don't know how you lot do shit like this."
"Eh, I don't know if mass produce is exactly accurate. With a sufficiently advanced lab you could probably mass produce a weaker replica of the drug that wouldn't work as well, but we need terrigen crystals with the diviner metal to make the proper version. Still, you're right. Hopefully we get the bastard on the raid, though," Peter rambled. "Especially because we also don't know what the long term effects of repeated use of a drug like this are. Using it just a few times should be fine because the drug eventually gets metabolised by the kidneys and removed along with your urine, but there's still a possibility that too much could fuck up your skin or your immune system. The idea is to need it as little as possible, but acknowledge that it can be a life-saving drug and that in itself is important."
"So how would you feel about overseeing Oscorp's ethics committees?" Harry joked - or, at least Peter thought he was joking. "In all seriousness, this is really fucking impressive. And hey, you can get back to your fun little crisis once we're done kicking ass down in Maryland."
Peter groaned, and blushed some more. "Fuck, I've been oblivious."
Everyone was suited up and ready. Harry had brought over the plentiful batch of inoculation doses that were able to be made thanks to the entire case of terrigen crystals from the night Gwen went through terrigenisis and Daisy showed up. Everyone now had enough to get them through a few days in case the mission went to shit, so it was just a matter of getting the jet up in the air, touching down at the Prettyboy reserve and hoping that the plan didn't go too askew. Everybody's suit had been upgraded to have access to Harley's AI, Darlene - which would help everyone keep on track. In theory, it was going to support cross-team communication as well, but part of the plan involved everyone switching off their comms once they got close so that there was less chance of the line getting hacked and compromising the whole thing.
Peter couldn't help but feel a touch of edginess as he walked up the ramp onto the jet; it reminded him a little too much of stowing away on the alien spacecraft to help Mr. Stark and Doctor Strange, of fighting Thanos and his army again five years later, and of taking on Mysterio in London. But this was going to be different... right? This was far more organised. There was a plan, a backup plan, and a backup plan for the backup plan. The team was actually coordinated, and they had taken necessary precautions against the primary threat - a likely abundant supply of diviner-infused terrigen crystals. It would be okay.
Everyone else was already strapped in and ready to go. Daisy and Riri were up in the cockpit - the jet was supposed to fly itself, but between the two of them they had enough experience to take over if needed. On the left side of the cabin - if that was even the right word for it - were Harry and Gwen, with the former resting against the latter's shoulder. On the right side was Harley, and two vacant seats next to him. Peter moved over and sat himself down, trying to push thoughts of his earlier conversation with Harry away; because now really wasn't the time.
"Is it naive of me to say I'm a little excited?" Harley asked as Peter strapped himself in. "I mean I know this is even more dangerous than the usual patrols and all that, but it's like... a real mission. You know?"
Peter chuckled a little. "Yeah, I get what you mean. I was like that back when I was just starting out. Just don't lose sight of the reality here - our enemies will try to kill us."
Harley sighed. "Jeez, when you say it like that... but you're right. Actually, there's something I wanted-"
"Everyone strapped in and ready?" Daisy called out from the front, cutting Harley off.
"We're all good back here," Peter confirmed.
"Alright. We'll be arriving on site in a little over an hour. Cailan's already there keeping an eye on things and finding us a spot to land. If you need any rest, get it now," Daisy instructed, and turned back to the flight controls. There was a slight rumbling that made it through into the jet from the entire roof of the Playground sliding open up above, and the jet lifted off the ground. It was going to be stealthed for the entire trip, so there wasn't much concern of any bystanders seeing the plane leave.
Peter turned back to Harley. "You were about to say something?"
I hope it's not the same thing I want to talk to you about soon, he thought to himself as he spoke. Now's really not the time.
"Um, yeah," Harley confirmed. "It's, well... I know this isn't an easy topic for you, but it's about Pepper and Morgan actually. Can I?"
Oh. Peter definitely hadn't been expecting that. And... he wasn't sure where this conversation would go next, but Peter was pretty sure he could handle it. If anything, it would be a distraction from Peter's mission nerves. "Sure."
Harley took in a breath, and exhaled slowly. "I was wonderin' if you wanted to come with me to the Lakehouse for Thanksgivin'. Obviously I get it if you'd rather not, but we could - or I could, if you'd rather not - tell Pepper about some of the stuff she's forgotten. I just... I think it'd be nice."
"Oh." Peter paused, taking in what Harley had just said. The jet rattled a bit - it wasn't a top of the line vehicle and it was a pretty windy day. Across from him and Harley, both Harry and Gwen were now asleep. Peter's mind... wasn't screaming, or even particularly uncomfortable. "Can I think about it?"
"Course," Harley assured him. "Ma and Xander will be comin' too, and I thought it'd be nice to introduce them both to you properly."
Damn if that didn't make Peter want to turn and confess his recently realised feelings to Harley there and then - but no, there was time for that later. Just... the fact that Harley wanted his family to meet Peter made him feel a certain way, and had Peter working to stave off a blush.
"I do wanna give Xander a fistbump," Peter joked to stave everything else off. "Give me some time to think it through. I mean... yeah, I don't know what my answer is. But first let's kick some enemy ass and have some proper time to recuperate from exams. Then I'll give it a proper think, okay?"
"Deal," Harley agreed with a smile, and then bumped his shoulder against Peter's with what little mobility he had while strapped into the seat.
"Remember the plan," Daisy said with a firmness to her voice that was usually reserved for the toughest of training session. Without even knowing Melinda May personally, Peter had an inkling that Daisy was trying to emulate the woman. He knew this was especially high-stakes for her; Daisy had already recounted some of her experience working to stop her own mother from wiping out humans on a horrifyingly genocidal scale - and the Manufacturer was just a reminder of that past. "There are seven of us, including Cailan who's already taken position near one of the entrances. Six entrances to block off, and each of us will head in by one of them. Riri is staying above ground to keep guard. We work our way inwards according to the map, with two primary goals. Shut down the Manufacturer, and look for the diviners."
"You'll be on your own as soon as you're inside," Riri jumped in to pick up where Daisy had left off. "Plant the locking device on your entrance and switch off your comms. Only reactivate comms in case of emergency."
Peter watched as Harley raised his hand. "If I can just remind y'all of my little contribution? The versions of Darlene each of you've been provided with is an offline copy. She won't give you any new information, just keep you on track as you navigate the base."
"Gotcha," Gwen affirmed, looking rather appreciative of the reminders. After waking up from their nap, they had been... shaky. Anxious, probably. At Peter's guess, Gwen just wanted to make sure that she did things right. He was confident they would, what with how well Gwen has been taking on board every single lesson to be learned about being a vigilante. "Though I guess I won't be able to hear her while I'm moving fast, huh?"
Harley grinned. "Actually, you will. I configured a sensor in your suit to read the levels of electrical activity as a trigger to speed up Darlene's speech. And some better processing units so she can keep up."
"Oh damn," Gwen exclaimed. "Fuck yeah! So, time to get this show on the road?"
Daisy nodded, and holstered two ICERs. "You all have two minutes to get to your entrances, and then we go in at the same time on my signal. Good luck out there, guys."
"Yup, good luck," Peter echoed as he left the jet and took off at a run towards his own allocated entrance. "You've all got the training you need for this. Honestly, training-wise you're way better off than I was when I started out and got recruited to fight Cap in Germany."
"Reassuring," Harry teased. "Weren't you like, fourteen when that happened?"
"Yup," Peter confirmed. His entrance was one of the closer ones, hidden under some fake roots placed to look like they were extending from a rather large tree - and that tree was now in sight. "My entrance has been located, I see one guard on lookout. I'll give you guys a moment to find yours before I go take them down."
"I'm at mine," Harley said about twenty seconds later.
"Geez, you guys are slow - I've been at mine the whole time," Gwen teased.
"Ready to go," Cailan reported. Peter hadn't even met Cailain yet, only heard their voice over a phone call once.
"I'm also ready, and there's a guard at mine too," Harry whispered.
"I'm at my entrance. Three guards, shouldn't be an issue. Everyone other that me, Gwen and Cailan, administer your inoculations now, and start moving," Daisy directed. Peter slipped a dose of the drug out of a secure, padded pouch in his suit and quickly administered it. A moment later, he leapt forward and loosed some webbing from the shooters on his wrists. Once the web made its mark on the guard, he flicked his wrist inward with enough force to spin the guard until they were thoroughly wrapped and bound in web. A quick shot to their mouth for good measure - leaving their nose unobstructed to breath - and the job was done.
"Everyone in position?" Daisy asked, and recieved a series of affirmatives. "Okay. See you all down there. Let's lock this place up and take these baddies down."
From another pouch, Peter procured a small circular device Harley had designed, and slapped it onto the exterior of the base entrance - which meant he had twenty seconds to get inside before an electromagnetic lock branched out and shut the door by force, only to be opened later with an activation code built into the copies of Darlene. Fortunately, this also meant that Peter and the others didn't need to worry about leaving the original locks on the doors intact. With that in mind, Peter wrenched the door open and dropped inside. There was a ten metre drop from the hatch down to solid ground, which was barely anything to Peter. He ignored the ladder.
No alarms sounded, so any alerts set up for forceful breaches into the base had to be silent if they existed at all. As he landed, Peter realised one thing quickly - and from personal experience instead of just guesswork from what Daisy's drone had picked up - this base was really well reinforced. Looking around at the materials of the walls, hearing the way the floor sounded when he landed - all of that indicated a strong design.
He didn't have to hold back and worry about caving the place in.
With that in mind, Peter quietly set off down the entrance hallway. His job was to thin the herd of enemies - which meant finding them and knocking them all out or otherwise incapacitating them. He wanted to be mindful that down here they weren't as likely to get medical treatment with any reasonable speed, so any major use of strength was reserved for enhanced enemies.
"Positioned on your left is the first barrack room," Darlene reminded him, so Peter stopped to assess what he was about to deal with.
Listening carefully, Peter counted five different breathing patterns. Three awake, two asleep. Ideally he wanted to take them down silently if he could, without alerting anyone else nearby in the base. His own stubbornness to not use one of the suits Mr Stark made for him meant that his suit was only bullet-resistant rather than completely bullet-proof, and he definitely preferred to not get shot at. Maybe, just maybe meeting with Pepper might make him feel more comfortable to use one of the better suits.
Later, Peter told himself yet again and very carefully slipped the door open. He didn't hear any indication that he'd been caught, so he slipped inside and got a better look. The three who were awake were busy playing cards at a table in the centre of the room. They were armed, but with cards in their hands it'd take a moment later to pick up their guns and fire. Peter could use that. In fact...
Quickly, he crawled up onto the ceiling until he was right above them, got into an upside down crouch and readied his web shooters. With the splitter setting active, it only took a second to land webs across each of their mouth, and then a couple more to have them bound to the table - which left him free to quickly restrain the other two to their beds and move on.
"More barracks up ahead on your left and right," Darlene informed Peter. He sighed, and repeated the whole process again. There wasn't exactly a plan for what happened after this operation was over, when it came to this criminal group. Chances were they'd be too busy trying to not get taken out by rival groups to do any real harm, once their main weapon and income source was removed. For now, he really was just tying them all down so they couldn't get in the way. After the second room, Peter had the thought to remove all their weapons and web them up so they couldn't be used if anyone got free, but he decided not to waste time going back to web up the firearms he'd missed.
"Straight ahead, you will find the infirmary. It is suspected that Doctor Wilton will be present there."
Okay, Peter reassured himself. You can do this. Time to go deal with the gas lady. No problem, right?
It wasn't that Riri expected guard duty to be easy. Nah, she knew better than that. She knew that an organised group like this that had worked their way up towards the top of the criminal food chain without even having a group name was going to have some real solid defenses in place, and there was every chance a powered individual could end up trying to break the locks on the outside. This Manufacturer was an Inhuman, and had multiple inhuman followers. Snow White had picked up talk of multiple Inhuman fighters with their powers activated in the group, but no indication of how many or what their abilities work.
Watching an entire bunch of trees get felled to the ground by some kind of glowing blade, however, was not something Riri could have planned for. Tracking the source of the blade was easy enough, given how it'd moved in a straight line. Almost directly south-east. Almost fifty metres away, stood a short black-haired white girl with braids, a green and a red eye, and an outstretched hand. If not for her visor's ability to zoom in on visuals, Riri might not have seen her over the tree trunk she was now standing behind. And all that power had come from her? Yeah, shit, this guard duty was not gonna be easy at all.
Wait, is that an actual child? Riri's mind blared, seeing the girl's short stature and frankly immature features. Yup, that is a child.
"Hiiiiii!" the girl called out, and waved as though she didn't have a care in the world about the fact she'd just felled almost a dozen trees. "I'm Aoife! I dunno who you are, but you shouldn't be here! I'm gonna kill you now, okay?"
What the fuck, Riri thought to herself as she assessed her options. Flying straight towards this 'Aoife' to bring the fight right to her wasn't a great option, now that she'd done the math on just how fast that blade had moved - plus, Riri wasn't too keen on actually hurting the kid. Despite the alarming ease with which this Aoife brought up murder, she was still a kid. Anyway, running the quick calculation in her head, Riri was well aware that the blade had to have travelled a little over fifteen metres per second. Avoidable, yes, but not something Riri wanted to face head on without a plan. The tree cover wasn't the most useful against someone with an ability like that, and Riri wanted to keep damages to the reservation to a minimum if she could. Draw the girl out to an open space, then? The lake wasn't far, and had some shallow areas and unforested little snippets of land that the girl might be willing to stand on - making baiting her there a possibility. Better than the other options, then.
"As if I'd let you!" Riri taunted, and lifted up into the air. She needed to get Aoife to that small patch of land connecting to the entrance to Frog Hollow Cove. There wasn't much space, but if she could somehow convince Aoife that it was enough room to stand on while firing out at Riri - who would of course be flying over the water - it was enough.
Aoife laughed. "You're funny! Yat-Sen would be so upset if I let you live, and he's like... a cool grandpa! A really old cool grandpa! I don't wanna disappoint him!"
Riri rolled her eyes. Ideally, she'd take care of this without seriously harming the kid, annoying though she may be. A blade of wind came hurtling towards her. She spun over it, and kept going - trying not to wince when several more trees fell to the ground behind her. Not far now. She just had to do a whole bunch of ducking, weaving and turning as Aoife hurled blade after blade of what had to be nothing more than wind after her. Once she was there, she could go on the offensive - fell a handful of trees behind Aoife to hinder any chances the girl had at escaping, and then attack.
Harry looked around himself, and swore. He'd ended up in a large training hall which had promptly been locked down with heavy steel doors once he was inside. The enemies knew they were here somehow - probably some kind of silent alarm, or someone had escaped from one of the others to alert security. Now he was in a room full of what appeared to be mercenaries - fortunately none of whom were armed with guns of any kind. That said, he didn't like the shape of the grin on the dude right in the middle of the room. Or his posture. It all reeked of a dangerous kind of confidence, and something violent underneath. Unlike all of the others dressed up in military-esque gear, this man wore formalwear with a heavy brown tailcoat, had a monocle over one eye and burns splashed across his olive-skinned face. He looked way out of place, and that only made Harry more concerned.
Then there was the fact that nobody had attacked yet, which was... odd. Harry was kind of just prepared to throw people around a little until they gave up or passed out without actually hurting them, and then move on - or just keep them busy. The real fighting wasn't his cup of tea, even if he had signed on to help. That was why he'd been allocated to the entrance nearest this training hall. The hope was that he could keep an entire group of enemies occupied without having to dish out much violence himself.
"Well well well," the unnerving man in the middle uttered, his arms spread out wide. He had a thick... Spanish accent? No, Portuguese. Harry recognised it from the similarity to a few of his dad's Portuguese employees. "Well well well well well, what do we have here? A child playing at magic, perhaps? Oh yes, I've heard of you - Witchboy! A practitioner of magic, he who does almost no harm! Look at him! Applaud, bow, behold his sanctimonious superiority!"
It only took a mere glance around the room to see that the mercenaries here were uncomfortable - and most of that discomfort was directed towards the man in the middle. Harry would even dare say some of them looked afraid. Even his own hair stood on end around the guy, a hunch radiating through his mind that this man was bad news. Really, it was just pattern matching all of the information available to him.
"I hardly think it's sanctimonious to not want people to get killed," Harry retorted, to see if he could draw something out of the guy; to understand what was going on, to know what he could do, to figure out why all the others in the room were afraid of him. "I dunno what the hell your deal is, though. Care to share?"
The man pointed at himself. "Me? Me? Oho! Why, I'd love to tell you, maybe even put on a little show! I am the great Gustavo Alves, the ever tantalising Toxin, at your service." As Gustavo bowed, Harry caught the sight of something seeping out from his fingers. Something green, almost like a gas, except a little more fluid and cohesive. "Now, shall we play a little game?"
Some of the mercs, especially those closest to Gustavo, cowered away.
"I'd like to call this game: See if our wonder boy here can keep everyone alive! Aha! Ahahaha!"
Harley's entrance so far had been perhaps a little too smooth. Sure, people had attacked him with guns and fists, but they were... a little easy to take care of. His aim was good enough to avoid anyone's vitals with his repulsor blasts, and the amplified strength from his suit combine with Harley's last month or so of training made close range fighters simple to toss off. Some of them had started tossing terrigen crystals at him, too, but the combination of the inoculation and his suit's filter proved sufficient to render them ineffective. And... well, Harley's job right now was to just power his way through the base and take care of any enemies in sight. He was doing exactly that, without issue. He just... well, not only did Harley not want to get overconfident, he just expected it to be harder. There were powered enemies around, right?
It really didn't matter what was used against him, an Iron Suit proved too technologically superior for them to even make a dent. It was getting a little boring.
"I would advise looking up," Darlene suddenly suggested while Harley was busy grabbing and throwing what had to be the twentieth bastard who'd charged at him and tried to tackle him to the ground. With a sigh, Harley looked up.
They then saw a person with their body hanging across a bar of metal scaffolding, looking bored. A scruff of pink hair fell over tired eyes, standing out in comparison to all-black clothing. With almost comically long and baggy sleeves, the person raised a hand to their mouth and yawned.
"What time is it?" they mumbled, looking around and taking several seconds to register the number of unconscious bodies lining the halls and spilling across doorways. "Hmm. That's a problem, huh?"
Harley squinted, and raised an eyebrow. "I gotta say, you'd probably be better off goin' back to sleep."
The individual shrugged. "Nah. Doc Wilzy says my meds should be working for the narcolepsy now. I guess I like sleeping, but I probably have to take care of you first. Howsabout you let me win and then I can take another nap?"
"Can't do that, sorry," Harley responded to an apparent enemy who was... incredibly unfazed by what was going on around them. "I mean, you guys are the bad guys and I'm here to stop you, so."
The enemy hummed. "Yeah, we are, aren't we? Playing the long game, and all. Yatsy said there were people trying to stop us from the big grand plan. Inhumans like us, even. Are you an Inhuman?"
"I'm not gonna answer that," Harley sighed. He... didn't exactly know what to make of this person. He didn't have a name for them either, so decided to mentally refer to them as Sleepy.
"Huh, okay," Sleepy yawned, and dropped down from the metal scaffolding. They landed flawlessly on both feet, and started stretching side to side. "I guess I'll stop you now."
Harley shrugged, and pointed a blaster at them. Sleepy yawned. Their eyes flashed bright blue for just a moment, and Harley's suit powered down.
Throughout Gwen's time training with the others, they'd recruited help from those more experienced than them with physics to answer one particular question: was there a precise safe voltage that Gwen could use to render someone unconscious without doing any permanent damage. The general consensus was 'not exactly', because there were just far too many variables to consider if avoiding permanent harm was a requirement. So Gwen had spent the past week learning about tasers and training to replicate the same kind of shocks that they administered - with the aim being paralysis and just hoping for the best on the enemy's part. When it came to patrols, it was easy enough to call over an ambulance if someone Gwen had taken down didn't appear to be doing too hot.
If Gwen wasn't as fast as she was, range might have been an issue. But, well, Gwen was really fast. Getting in close and slapping her hand against someone's body to buzz them out of a fight wasn't too much of an issue against simpler opponents. Big groups were a little trickier, but still manageable. Which meant that upon infiltration into the enemy base, one of Gwen's two jobs was just to zap lots of enemies out of the fight. The other one was to search for the supply of terrigen crystals and diviners. Even if everyone was theoretically looking for them, Gwen was especially capable of doing fast recon work.
Her first minute inside the enemy base had been spent speeding in and out of rooms and tasering every single enemy down on sight. Essentially, they were clearing a path backwards in case they needed somewhere to escape to. After that, it was a matter of speeding ahead through the base and searching while the others fought their way inwards. Once they arrived, Gwen would flag some help down - ideally Peter - and seal up all of the terrigen crystals and secure the diviners to remove them from the enemy's hands. At least, that had been the plan.
Right now, Gwen's face hurt. Especially their nose. They could already feel blood beginning to flow out of it from how hard they'd smacked the ground when they tripped, which was a pain. Next time, Gwen was bringing absorbant nose plugs - or maybe even just tampons - to shove up her nose if something like this happened. It wasn't like they tripped often, but it sucked when it happened. It sucked extra hard when Gwen heard anyone laugh at her for falling. But this wasn't just anyone - no, Gwen recognised this voice.
They recognised it from a particular enemy Gwen had managed to take down last time while everyone else was struggling.
"Oh, you poor dear," Black Cat taunted. Gwen turned to face her as they got up from the ground. The thief now had an even more fancy-looking suit with more prominent white stripes and trims to contrast with the black. And a tighter fit around her chest, showing off even more boob. And yeah, maybe Gwen thought that was kinda hot, but now wasn't the time to be a lesbian mess. This was the enemy. A particularly annoying one, too. "Nice to see your face on the ground again. What was it... Zapdash? Definitely an interesting name."
"Fuck you," Gwen spat. "I've dealt with you before, I can deal with you again."
Black Cat laughed. "Is that so? Let's see if you're still confident after I show you what happens when someone like me gets her wonderfully convenient Inhuman powers trained."
Yat-Sen must have been confident, sitting around in such a well reinforced base that let Daisy have free reign to use her powers. Daisy was well aware that he knew she was coming for him, so... hanging around here? Something wasn't right. Something was off, and even as Daisy blasted enemy after enemy out of the way as she stormed a path all the way to where the ex-Afterlife resident's 'office' was, her gut told her that she needed to be more prepared for bad things. Considering this was an instinct that had been trained through her years in SHIELD and her years after, she wasn't too keen to ignore it.
Her twin ICERs were handy; even if they didn't pack much punch, they were faster than Daisy's vibrations. They gave her the freedom of an extra split second of time to make judgement calls about how and where to move, and put down any unenhanced foe without much issue. She could see the difference between the various mercenaries and thugs that tried to get in her way, as well as the similarities. The ones who had been paid to be here had different equipment and weaponry on them - the more experienced ones wore what they individually preferred. They were also the most fearless, the ones Daisy had to be swifter in taking out. The thugs who directly followed Yat-Sen all used whatever standard issue supplies Yat-Sen and Wilton and whoever else was a part of the power structure here had acquired for them. Some of them were scared, like they didn't want to be here. Even when there was fear, though, the mercenaries who were afraid still hesitated less. They probably needed the money. Daisy was glad to have to kill none of them, and injure as few as possible. She saved her quakes for the big groups that came all at once. Tried not to bounce their bullets back at them, but didn't always succeed.
But she didn't have time to worry about the collateral now; she could let herself feel the loss later. Right now, the priority was to get to Yat-Sen. She had already put the pieces together. She knew what he was after. He wasn't just trying to profit off distributing terrigen crystals. No, the distribution was moving in a pattern that was far too strategic for that. His shipments were mostly hitting places that had been less affected by the Inhuman Outbreak in 2016. Places that weren't as familiar with what the effects of the crystals meant. And it couldn't have been an end-game move, either. He had to know that relevant organisations would catch on. Mack would figure out what was happening on his own soon, and so would Damage Control.
According to Peter, the crew in Boston that had been taken care of over a month ago had been planning to take down big name heroes using the 'basilisk eggs'. Daisy's best guess was that Yat-Sen was trying to clear big players off the field, and perhaps also put people through terrigenisis and swoop in to collect them. She'd heard talk of people turning, and when Daisy had tried to track them down to help, some of them were already gone. Maybe they were here right now, among the powered fighters Yat-Sen had in his ranks. Probably.
Daisy made it through the winding network of paths in record time, taking what couldn't have been more than ten minutes to get from her entrance to her destination. Between her vibrations, her ICERs and a little bit of hand to hand combat for any of the more skilled opponents who managed to make it close enough, Daisy had dispatched every single enemy in her path. Now, it was time to deal with Yat-Sen, and put a stop to his plans before they could go any further. Steeling herself with a deep breath, Daisy prepared for whatever was to come and blasted down the door to Yat-Sen's office.
...It was Yat-Sen's office, right?
"Daisy, how I've longed to see you again," said Jiaying, Daisy's mother - who was very much supposed to be dead.