Chapter 8
"Ow- ow Steven careful- ow-" although the black market deal had successfully been disrupted, chase got a broken leg and arm in the process.
That also meant having Steven help them about for the moment.
"Sorry- sorry don't mean to hurt ya-"
"I can feel khonshu gloating right now" chase grumbled out, wincing and hissing out in pain
"Ignore the old pigeon. Sorry I'll need to-"
"Yeah put me down." Chase wrapped their good arm around Steven's shoulder and leaned against him, biting their lip in absolute pain. A second later, chase was back in his arms and being carried to the sofa
"Want anything to eat? I have cereal?" A soft laugh left chase
"I'm fine. Just want some Steven cuddles"
___
Chase blinked, looked about and sank in their seat. It's a good thing that khonsu explained how the suit works during days. (The powers are vastly weaker as opposed to night. But you can still use it which was good enough.)
Layla noticed, gave them a small nudge and checked to see if they were okay.
"You okay?"
"Spaced out." Chase replied, still looking about the place, "what're we doing here?"
"They called the favour in" Layla explained and a small nod left chase.
Chase focused and looked at the room.
There was
Barnes
Clint
Spider man
Banner
Ant man
And the new captain america, Sam Wilson.
Not a lot of them left anymore.
Banner was the first to speak.
"The fallout from the snap, even now is felt. Smugglers are using this to bring in new weapons, alien or otherwise.
And a tip off told us that there was unknown technology in the latest smuggle attempt." Folders. Who uses folders anymore? Stupid.
Chase picked the folder up, flicking through it, then paused.
"Hang on, theres Egyptian artefacts in this load. The scales of Anubis too."
"And my statuette" khonshu huffed out. Chase blanked him.
"Two birds with one stone." Layla mused out.
"Little cub. We must get those scales." Menhit urged.
"When's the off loading taking place?" Chase asked, a determined glint in their eyes.
"Tonight" barnes stated.
"Perfect."
___
The fact that it wasn't a full moon tonight, made chase a little sad.
Currently, they were rocking on their feet, away from the small group and scanned the surroundings.
Then ant man decided to annoy them
"Heeey hiii sooo"
"Oh dear God there's an idiot" khonshu rumbled out.
"Yes?"
"Have you- done all this before" ant man waved to the scene on the ground.
"Small scale. Defeated a giant crocodile lady though"
"Oh that's awesome" Ant man stated
"Yeah. S'pose it is" chase let a small shrug out and glanced over to Layla, who gave them a reassuring smile.
Everyone was nervous. This was a big smuggler ring tonight. One of the big ones.
Chase walked to the edge of the building, narrowing their eyes at an open shipping container and found the scales.
" Found you "
"Little cub, do not get the scales alone." Menhit urged
"Leave them. They will manage" khonshu drawled out, "besides, I'm curious to see what they will do" chase let the mask fall from their face and glowered towards the gods.
"Shut up . You guys are like a devil and angel on my shoulder. Only real " chase turned their attention to the ground and jumped back
"Hey, hey the avatar's here. She must be the buyer" the mask went over chase's face, alerting the others and before chase could jump, Layla grabbed her arm.
"Don't do anything reckless, chase."
"I can't let her get away again, Layla. We may not have another shot ." Chase pulled their arm away and jumped, letting the cape flitter out into it's crescent shape and glided over to where the girl was.
Then sent a downward kick straight to her head.
"Hey remember me?" Chase stepped back and the girl stood up, wiping blood from her lip
"Oh of course I do. Look, you even brought friends" the girl chuckled out, sending a punch to chase who blocked and retaliated with their own, ducked and sent a punch to a smugglers throat that had sneaked up on them.
"What are you trying to achieve, here? All I want is to help , to use Anubis' powers for the good of the world"
"The good- you're creating undead. How is that any good?" Chase blocked, grabbed the girls leg and threw her into a storage container.
"For my army. To lead an undead world? Oh, maybe take over the gods chambers too. Who knows really" the girl coughed, stood up and sent a dagger to chase.
They didn't dodge that one. Actually it hurt .
And then the shooting started.
"Oh- oh my god what- no wonder Steven let Marc front again this is ridiculous " chase ripped the dagger from their chest, turned and then threw it into the head of a smuggler, the body hit the ground and chase turned their attention back to the girl.
Who smacked them over the head with the scales .
"Ow- ow- oh wow thats a solid piece of metal-" and that's going to leave a bruise.
The girl swung the scales at chase, who ducked and kicked one of the girls knees.
The girl let a pained yell out, hobbled back and chase grabbed the scales from them.
"Layla! Catch!" Chase threw the scales over to Layla who caught them and the friends gave a thumbs up. Then turned around and smacked the girl across the face, the mask unlodging slightly
"I would say to crush their windpipe, depressed worm, but we need them and the information they hold" khonshu rumbled out.
"She won't talk, khonshu" chase replied with
"Khonshu khonshu khonshu . If you hadn't fled , I would've had the most powerful weapon to date." The girl giggled out and chase slammed them up against the container.
"Where is he." The girl hit the bridge of chase's nose with her head, chase stumbled back, rubbed their nose in pain and sent a leg to the girl who caught it, and threw chase into the side of a different container. The metal box moving slightly and Chases hand stuck a thumbs up to say they were alright.
Ant man was the first to help chase out the dented container.
"Thanks, man." Chase patted his shoulder, dusted the dust from their suit off and sent a crescent dagger to the girl who dodged it, but only slightly .
"Chase is going in for the kill, hey, hey someone help me!" Layla called out, gathering the attention of both ant man and spiderman.
Layla threw the last remaining smuggler to the ground and the trio headed over to chase, Layla grabbing their arm and ant man grabbing chase's waist to hold them back
"Get- off- me!"
"You're not Marc. You don't have to kill them, chase" layla pleaded with them
"Friends right, man" ant man stated, "not worth it at all."
"Miss knight? Is it really worth it?" Chase's eyes widened
The spider was a kid. A kid .
"Chase we have the scales. We can go ." Layla urged and Chases mask fell.
"...what and- and leave her to take another avatar? To use as her mightiest weapon?" Chase argued
"She won't ."
"Augh…well- this fight was nice and although I'd love to see it to the end, I actually have a date tomorrow so. Bye losers" a screen of black fog, and she was gone.
And chase sagged in their friends hold.
The two groups got what they wanted. Layla and chase, the scales. The avengers.
The vibranium.
Spiderman slid over to chase and nudged their arm.
"You okay miss knight?"
"I would correct you but…I won't. And. No. No I'm not" chase rubbed the temples of their head, a heavy sigh leaving them, "I don't fight. I'm not a merc."
"Hey, you looked amazing! Uh- not the- the whole trying to kill that girl thing but, but with all the other stuff you looked awesome!" Chase cracked a smile.
"Thanks, you okay kid? That was a lot of guns. Think I had most of them on me actually"
"Oh- oh I'm fine miss knight. Miss scarab actually helped if there was any guns."
"Are you always this polite?" Chase asked.
"...yes?" A chuckle escaped chase and stood up, then looked towards khonshu.
"Okay khonshu. Let's talk." Chase crossed their arms and khonshu materialised in front of chase
"I did not tell you. Because if I had, you would have been vastly unprepared for the fight"
"But you know where he is?"
"I do. It would be unwise for the girl to move him now" khonshu stated, tilting his head slightly.
"So- so what. You were training me ? To what? Kill? To become Jake? Or Marc? Or-or a replacement to use whenever Marc isn't available? What's the purpose here khonshu!" Chase raised their voice, arms lifting up slightly, "because if you are then, then I don't wanna do this. I want to go home and to do my job, that I love ."
"It was to prepare you for the girl."
"No. No no I see what you're tryna do" chase lifted a hand, waved and walked about in a small circle, "I said I'm not a killer. I don't kill . I'm not your fist for vengeance, that's Marc. The fact that you witheld information that could've helped us!"
"And if I hadn't you would have died . Young chase. I do not wish for you to have a fractured mind. Moreso than you already have but you are the only one I could turn to for help. The bug would have refused to be my avatar straight away"
"Yeah because you get into peoples minds and twist . That is what you do."
There was a memory surfacing up.
Chase frowned. Why was it surfacing up now ?
"Miss knight?" Spiderman inched over to chase and chase looked to the kid in a small state of confusion.
"What- I don't feel good" was all that chase said before falling unconscious.
"Sorry little cub, but you need to rest." Menhit rumbled out.
___
The thing is. Memories were fickle. And difficult. Difficult to remember, fickle because they could slip from your very grasp.
Chase…didn't know how they got here, to Greece. They were in new York not that long ago and now, they were sitting by the pool in sunny Greece and squeezing a taweret plush.
"Hey, kid. You feeling okay? You blanked me" chase jumped, turned their head and Marc was there, sitting beside them.
"I- uh…I think so? I just had a really…really weird dream"
"Yeah? What was it?"
"Nah you'll laugh"
"Try me kid"
"I was khonshu's temporary avatar. You were missing and me and bird brain didn't get on that much" chase shrugged out, then rested their head on Marc's shoulder, "am I going crazy? Feel like I'm going crazy" chase grumbled out, and then felt the warm yet familiar presence of Steven.
"If you're crazy, me and Marc are full blown bonkers, innit? Three nuts sticking together." That made chase snort and smacked Steven with their taweret plush
"Moron."
"But I made you laugh didn't I?"
"Tiny bit" chase admitted.
"Good enough for ol' Steven."
"With a V" chase added.
They listened to their dad talk for hours upon hours about psychology and the brain.
And they guess some involuntary lectures stuck.
They know that the brain is the computer that runs the body. And that sometimes, it creates different systems or files or antiviruses. That's how their dad explained it.
The brain was a wonderful, yet scary thing. It can hold all this knowledge, memories. Names and skills but…so weak and vulnerable too. A trauma like…like a virus crash could damage it irreversibly.
"...no no I'm not supposed to be here" chase realised, eyes widening at the realisation and looked about.
This was wrong. All wrong.
Or to put it into other terms.
The brain will shut down and use it's own system to protect you.