Chapter 9
"...this is wrong, all wrong. Really, very wrong" chase stood up, looking about and backed away.
Their brain had just shut down. Shut down and pulled them into a panic room, of sorts.
No, this couldn't happen now.
Well, it has but, they need to be awake. And they weren't awake. The body was just, autopiloting.
No thought behind the eyes.
"Chase, love you're stressed. Come on, sit next to me"
"...any other day, I'd happily take that invite, Steven. But my body - my brain - I can't be here, in a safe space, locked from the landfill that's reality right now.
Reality is, you and Marc are missing." Chase breathed out, "and I need to stop fighting against khonshu. To- to work with him" chase glanced to Steven, a small smile on their face, "I'll find you. I promise."
___
Chase tuned back in to a debrief happening, eyes turning away from the window and scanning the area in a small panic before realizing it was at stark tower.
They then relaxed and ran a hand over their face.
"Nice to see you back with us, miss knight." Sam nodded out
"...yeah." chase let a small nod out, swallowing thickly, "yeah sorry about that, back there"
"We all have days like that" Sam waved it off.
"Mhm. I know that look" bucky stated and chase blinked in surprise
"Yeah I'm not into y'know. Group therapy" chase quickly cut bucky off, stood up and held their head, "oh okay, hi headache." And they sat down again.
Ant man was instantly by their side with and chase stared at him.
"....if you're trying to get my number, I only date dorks that are British or cute girls." Sam and bucky snickered at that statement, "sorry can we- get back on track, please?" Sam coughed
"Sure thing."
___
Chase fell onto their bed with a groan, covered their face with a pillow and groaned again.
"Depressed one" ah. Khonshu.
"Go away" chase grumbled out, removing the pillow from their face and scowled at the moon god.
"I'm not leaving anytime soon"
"Okay then. Let's do a deal. You tell me what I need to know. And we, work together. As you said, I was going to be the only one willing to let you be my temporary god."
"...do I have a choice to negotiate the terms?"
"No. No it's either my terms, or no chase." Khonshu paused. And chase had a small yet smug smile on their face.
"Fine. I accept your terms. Depressed bug"
"That's a new name." Chase murmured out, "details. Where is Marc being held."
"Here in new York" khonshu started, "but it is hard to place where he is in this city."
"Okay. Why did it take you an entire year to come back?"
"This avatar had trapped me. Not by binding me to Marc. By other means which is…unexplainable, even to me."
"And it took you an entire year?"
"It used all my strength to get out of that bind, I must admit."
"Who's this avatar. Did you see her face without the mask on?"
"Unfortunately not."
"But Marc is definitely in new York, somewhere?"
"Yes. As she said, six foot below"
"Whatever that means" chase uttered out, "but we have the scales. What's so important about scales?"
"I can answer that little cub! The scales were Anubis' personal set. If he so wanted to, he could bind a human soul to him, to perform tasks from where he was." Menhit explained, "I've seen him use that skill countless times. But, he only did it to those who were…rejected and refused to let Ammit eat"
"Tch. Ammit" khonshu huffed out
"And that was to help with mundane tasks?" Chase asked
"Correct! It was never supposed to be used for evil."
"So. Without the scales, they can't bind souls to them"
"Or control the souls binded to the scales" khonshu added.
"Huh…useful information. See, khonshu? This is how it's supposed to be. Open information" chase drawled out, looking over to the pigeon.
"Shut up"
"Real mature pigeon brain" chase retorted with, sat up then walked out to where Layla was sitting
"Sup."
"Chase, how are you?" Chase sat beside Layla and shrugged
"Confused, disoriented. Tired. Really, really tired."
"Heard any more voices?"
"No. Just the usual squawk of a moon god and Menhit. Other than that, they've quietened down - which is good.
Think my brain tried to tell me to shut up, go on autopilot for a while."
"Yeah brains like to do that" Layla hummed out, giving a small pat to Chases head, "I don't trust this Nyx person."
"Yeah I'm…beginning to have my suspicions too. She turned up with her face smacked in. Said she was attacked the night before.
Ugh I know how to pick them don't I"
"But, it's a good thing. If she is this new avatar, you can just waltz into her place and look about" chase stared at Layla like she was crazy.
"You're crazy"
"I married Marc. Someone has to be" Layla snorted out.
"I suppose. You and Marc seem to be getting along better" chase pointed out
"We are. It's different…having Marc be open with me about a lot of stuff. We're working through half of it but, there's a level of trust there." Chase smiled
"That's good."
"Steven seems to really like you" Layla pointed out and chase choked on their own breath.
"W-we're just friends! That's it! Nothing else, I think" chase scratched their cheek slightly in confusion.
"Oh chase. Steven and I talk. He gushes about you every time we meet" Layla giggled out.
"No. No stop shut up not listening-" a laugh escaped Layla
"It's true. A week after your birthday, Steven and I had met up and he just, spoke. All about you and how happy you looked when you looked at your star. I've seen you. You still look at it even now"
"You're lying. No way" chase stated, crossing their arms
"Still doesn't detract from the fact that he likes you" Layla poked their side and a small giggle escaped chase before they sighed.
"We're still a long way from getting Marc and Steven back." Chase stated, Rolling their head over to where khonshu was perched, "and I need to work together with khonshu more."
"I guess, back to stark tower?" Layla asked
"Unfortunately. I'm not sure how long cctv footage is stored for but, I'm sure we can sweet talk Bruce, or pepper into letting us into the footage archives."
"Oooh look at you, talking all fancy" chase snorted, then waved a hand in dismissal at Layla's comment.
"I did go to university, for an art degree but- I'm smart when I want to be" chase pointed out, grabbing their phone and flicked through their messages, then saw one from Nyx.
They couldn't deal with that tonight. They'll respond tomorrow because, they just want to spend time with Layla. To just talk with her.
"Hey. Do you think Miss knight fits me?" Chase asked
"I mean, why wouldn't it?"
"It's…it's weird. Having people refer to me as miss" chase scrunched their nose up at that.
"But, it fits you. The hero. The moon hero Miss knight." A laugh escaped chase at that
"You really think so?"
"Yes. Hey. Why don't we go to the midnight mission tomorrow? Might do you some good to help people"
"Mmm…okay. Yeah sure why not" chase hummed out, swiping the half empty carton of Chinese and began stuffing their face, "now I know why Marc stayed here. This Chinese is good"
___
The next morning, the pair were back at stark tower. Chase heading over to the lab to search for Bruce, but bumping into an intern instead.
"Oh- sorry i- have you seen, Dr banner?"
"No I haven't. Can I help at all?"
"Your name would be nice" chase said, a small smile coming to their face
"Oh- oh! Sorry- peter. Peter Parker." Peter held their hand out and chase shook it
"Nice to meet you, peter. How good are you with archived footage?" Chase asked, tilting their head slightly with curiosity
"Pretty- pretty good. Why?"
"We need to access footage from last year. We have a theory that Marc - my friend, went missing and that the kidnapper was caught on camera"
"Oh- oh I'm sure we can find something! Let's go have a look" peter was a kind kid. Very kind kid, very smart too.
No wonder he got an internship here.
But, all chase and Layla could do was wait until they found something on the archived footage.