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the-suicidal-lizard · 3 years ago

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Chapter 6: Mother (Baffy)

Chapter 6/11: Mother.

Previous Chapter, Next Chapter.

An alarm sound echoed the metal and very futuristic looking room.

"Intruder alert." Came an automated voice, echoing the room.

DJ fell on his back, and Kate fell on top of him, her fall cushioned.

Bugs fell on his back, and Daffy fell on top of him, his fall also cushioned. Bugs' arms wrapped around Daffy's waist softly, and massaged his hips, "you okay, doc?"

"Yeah, you?" Daffy checked, his eyes soft, looking over Bugs' body.

"I'm fine," Bugs assured. He pressed his forehead to Daffy's, careful and soft.

Something big and green, with multiple eyes ran at them, and they screamed, Daffy clinging to Bugs, as it jumped at them. A claw came down and grabbed it.

A bunch of people ran out, weapons raised, and DJ and Kate raised their arms.

"Easy." DJ said, eyes wide.

Bugs tucked Daffy behind him, and the duck raised his arms in surrender, watching at the weird thing was dropped into a jar, and the lid had holes poked into it.

"Okay, buster!" Called Daffy, walking forward with confidence, and Bugs held himself back from grabbing the duck. "Where's Damian Drake and that big diamond?" One of the men jabbed their stick forward, and watched as Daffy turned into a black puddle with eyes. "Cleanup on aisle three."

Bugs' eyes widened, "Daffy!" He rushed over, locking eyes with the puddle in worry.

"Can I be of service?" Asked a robot, waddling over to the group. "I am monitored to respond to the name Robbie."

A woman in white poked her head out from behind the robot, and waved her test tube, "hi, D.J.!" She walked over and told the men, "at ease. I'm Mother." She shook DJ's hand.

Daffy said, voice bubbly and underwater like, "I'm fine Bugs... I can't feel my flippers."

"You don't have any flippers, Daff." Bugs dragged his fingers over the puddle, and licked it, grimacing. "You're cute doc, but you don't taste nice."

"You wasn't saying that the night before I left." Daffy joked, yet sounded smug, and relished the blush that formed on Bugs' white, fluffy cheeks.

"Yeah, like the car said that we would be meeting you." DJ said, eyes blank, "how do you know my name?"

"D.J., I've known you since you were this big." Mother said, fingers close together, about the size of a rubber. "That's not really possible, is it? Must have been a photo." Mother said in realisation, as DJ and Kate gave her a confused look. She waved a hand, "let me just take care of this, and we'll..." She pulled out a turkey baster, and sucked up the black puddle that was Daffy.

"Give it to me straight," Daffy said, his eyes looking to her. "How bad is it?"

"So, shall we?" Mother asked, walking away. DJ and Kate followed, while Bugs messed with one of the contraptions. "So little to do, so much time."

Kate raised a hand, "woah, woah! You're going to put him back, right?" She asked, worried.

Bugs followed them, and said, "yeah, I can't have lunches with duck soup."

"We do have the facilities to reconstitute the body." Assured Mother, leading the group past the jars of aliens. "The mind though, will remain a gooey mess."

"So, about my father?" Asked DJ, confused as he looked at the aliens.

"All in due time." Promised Mother, walking to a thin aliens and ushered the men in white away. "Lovely. Yes. Blow."

"All right, break it up, fellas." Bugs said, standing on the ledge behind Kate, DJ and Mother. "Nice coats. White is the new black, you know."

"Yes." Mother began to tickle the aliens feet, and it began laughing, and Kate stared in shock. "Look."

"So this is Area 51, right?" Asked Bugs, leaning on the railing, keeping a close eye on his duck.

"No." Mother said.

"The secret military base where they keep the aliens?" Asked Bugs, arms out.

"No!" Mother snapped, covering the alien with a silver sheet, and looked to Bugs. "Area 51 is actually a paranoid fantasy we concocted to hide the true identity of this facility."

Bugs rested his cheek on the palm of his hand, bored.

"Which is?" DJ asked.

"Area 52." Mother said, and Bugs gave a confused look. "But don't quote me on that!" She walked off.

"Oh, right." Bugs said, sarcastically. "Area 52." He raised two fingers, and when DJ and Kate walked past him, he held up a sign with a baseball and a nail.

"So, Mother—" Started DJ.

Mother cut him off and gave an easy hand wave, "call me 'Mom.'"

"Mom, what is it that you do here exactly, anyway?" He asked.

"Creation, transubstantiation, destruction."

"It's stressful. All kinds of things. They're already here. You're next." A man said, black and white, as he was led away from them and DJ tucked Kate behind him.

They moved into another room full of equipment, and test tubes, and Mother gave Daffy over to Robert the Robot.

"So, here we are in the I-can't-tell-you-what room. Robert, can you take care of that, please?"

"Yes, madam." Robert took him, and walked off.

Bugs followed, "say doc, when you bring Daffy back, could you make him 20% funnier?"

"I heard that!" Called Daffy.

Bugs stayed with Daffy, and watched as a man worked, "it'll be okay Daff."

"Sure..."

"It will, I promise!" Bugs assured, watching as the man worked, and glanced over to his companions to see Mother put on a video message.

"Greetings, Damian Drake. If you are watching this, you are aware that the world is in grave danger. The ACME Corporation is in hot pursuit of the Blue Monkey diamond... a supernatural gem with the ability to turn people into monkeys... and then back again. It is the ACME chairman's goal to turn the population... into monkey slaves to manufacture shoddy ACME goods... and then change them back to people to buy the stuff."

Daffy popped back into a duck, no longer a puddle, dazed and eyes hazy, "unbelievable!"

Bugs took Daffy's hand gently, and looked him over, "you alright, doc?"

"'M fine." Daffy mumbled, his head feeling like goo.

"Unbelievable, you may say. Your mission is this; Find it, destroy it, save humanity. And remember, no one wants to be turned into a monkey."

Bugs watched DJ and Kate, but looked back to Daffy, and brushed his cheeks, "well, your good looks are still the same."

"Am I really that unfunny?" Daffy asked with a slouch, shoulders sagging in defeat.

Bugs' eyes widened, "of course not, love cup! You're the only one who makes me laugh, it's one of the reasons I like you."

Daffy smiled softly, his eyes sparkling, "really?"

"Really... Daffy, I—"

There was a loud clang, and they turned to see DJ with a phone, and his hand connected to a metal stool and they rushed over.

"GPS with mapping software, tip calculator, Gameboy." Mother said.

"Gameboy?" Asked Daffy, head poked out from behind Kate. A laser came out, and ran over his neck, his head falling to the ground.

"High-powered laser." Mother said.

"Polycarbonate rappelling line with jet-propelled micro grappling hook." Mother said, as Daffy crawled on the floor, looking for his head. "Nose hair trimmer. You always want to look your best."

"Get over here, you idiot." Daffy snapped, his head at Bugs' feet, as his body crawled about. "No, cold. Cold. Warm, warmer."

Bugs, who was highly amused, kicked Daffy's head away from him and grinned.

Daffy yelled, and his head smashed into glass.

"Permit me, madam." Said Robert, walking over with pants.

"Robert, darling. Excellent choice." Smiled Mother taking them.

Bugs whistled, "swank pants!"

"And comfortable, too." Assured Mother, "plus, liquid hydrogen rocket pockets, here and here."

Daffy, who had found his head, took the pants, "and stitching, nuclear-powered crotch pad..."

Bugs saw a button, and pressed it, and watched Daffy and the pants fly up into the air.

"He'll be down in a moment." Mother assured with a smile.

"Mother, just one last question." DJ said, and brought out the playing card. "What's the deal with this card?"

"That is the window into what lies behind her smile." Mother said, squinting at the card.

"What?!" They all yelled - Daffy and Bugs being the loudest.

"I'm sorry, our intelligence people feel a need to code everything in a riddle." Mother apologised, shaking her head, "they get some kind of perverse pleasure out of it. I think it's corporate."

A door opened, and light shone in, as growling filled the area, and everyone looked over. Aliens surrounded the area, tentacles, eyes and robots.

Daffy looked up in fear, teeth clenched and Bugs' face dropped, his thumb jabbing to the danger, "looks like we got company."

They looked at them. There was ones with snapping jaws, and others with wet brains, and ones that flashed, and other with helmets.

"Yipes!" Yelped Daffy, and Bugs clung to his side. "Illegal aliens!"

"Exterminate them!"

"Darn. I knew this day would come." Mother said, eyes glaring and she walked off to a button, and put her thumb to the black one. It opened up, and she pressed the red button.

The room began flashing red, and a loud alarm went off. "Emergency shutdown activated!"

Everyone began running out in fear.

"Force-barrier seal in 30 seconds!"

"Exterminate." It shot lasers at Kate and DJ who dodged.

"The playing card, please." Marvin the Martian said, hand out and gun ready.

Daffy snatched the card from DJ's hand, "I'll take that!" He ran off, down the hall, "out of my way!" Marvin ran after him, and Daffy laughed. "Hero coming through!"

Bugs watched, his eyes wide in worry about Daffy, hoping the duck didn't get too hurt.

"There is no escape."

An alien smashed the table, and another growled, and slowly, they came in closer. A brain jumped at DJ, and he screamed as he tried to fight it off.

"You pesky fowl!" Shouted Marvin, chasing Daffy who laughed, running between two robot alien's from what looked like Doctor Who, and Marvin was shot at, turning the alien to dust.

Bugs saw an alien, and opened it's microwave like stomach, and shoved a packet of popcorn in, and watched as it's helmet filled up with the salted treat, "isn't it about time to enjoy a frosty, cold soda at the concession stand?" He asked, leaning on the glass, sipping his soda.

DJ threw the brain into glass, and watched it explode.

"Exterminate!"

DJ and Kate hid behind a stand, as Daffy stood to the slowly shrinking, rippling air, that showed the sandy desert they had just come in from, "get the lead out. Bus is leaving!"

Marvin shuffled over, solidifying and shot, "halt or be fricasseed!"

The four rushed over to the rippling, and jumped through, just before it closed up, and they landed in the sand roughly, Bugs skidding in the sand.

Kate panted, "well, that was fun."

Daffy smirked cockily, and held up the playing card, "looking for this?"

Bugs smiled at Daffy, and walked over, tapping his chin, "now, what did she mean by a window?"

Daffy watched him, carefully checking him over and Bugs looked back to him softly.

DJ looked down at the card, "the window into what lies behind her smile." He stared at the queen carefully, "that's the Mona Lisa."

"Which is in the Louvre." Said Kate.

"Which is in Paris." DJ said.

Kate hissed, and took a deep breath.

Daffy placed his hands on his hips, "so, just how are we supposed to get to Paris?"

"Like this." Bugs said, grabbing a corner and pulling it back like pulling off a sheet, and he winked to Daffy.

#baffy #baffy au #daffy duck #bugs bunny #daffy x bugs #looney tunes #looney tunes back in action #baffy back in action #warner bros #gay #i ship this #chapter 6

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yandere-sins · 4 years ago

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The Fox Wedding - Prologue I

Summary: You are to marry the fox spirit Kita Shinsuke after you accidentally agreed to become his wife by signing the deed to your new home. A contract is a contract, he says, but is there more to this marriage than you know? Will you be whisked away by one of the foxy twins instead, or have to marry Kita after all? Can you be with a creature that only seems tender on the surface, or will you try to run even if it might cost you your life? Choose your route carefully, you never know what these foxes are up to!

Characters: Kitsune!Kita Shinsuke, Kitsune!Miya Atsumu, Kitsune!Miya Osamu, Kitsune!Suna Rintarou, afab!Reader

Rating: Explicit Warnings for this chapter: Yandere, Kidnapping, Forced/Unhealthy Relationships

a/n: Welcome to my new series! I’ve been carrying the starts of this idea around for a while now, but while I was doing commissions it really began to spread it’s roots, so here we are! You can, of course, read every chapter that will come out, or choose your ‘route’ from the ones available after they are all finished (; Please mind the specific warnings for each chapter, as they will vary. Here’s the prologue, please enjoy and leave me a comment what you thought about it! ♥

There was no use in screaming and crying, only a few annoyed sighs you heard from the guard on top of the staircase leading outside. No matter how hard you banged on the bars, yelled for someone to release you, or sobbed into your hands, no one came to your aid, having decided to let you have your ‘temper tantrum’ down here alone. What an inhuman way to keep you, in a moldy, make-shift cell, underground, with only a bucket for your needs and a - stolen - bottle of water.

“If we’re lucky, you’ll lose a few pounds before the wedding,” they said, bringing their long kimono sleeves to their faces to hide the ill-willed smirks behind them. But that was the least terrible thing the foxes appearing as human women had done to you so far.

Walking back from the bars to the small window, you stepped onto the single chair in your cell to look outside. Occasionally, you heard voices echoing from the buildings around you. The wind swayed the tall grasses covering every inch of the small village, aside from that, everything seemed abandoned. Roofs you could see had holes, there were no streets with cars or rails with trains nearby. The only thing you knew was there were the animals. The bugs in the grass, the deers in the forest, and the foxes in the village.

Crouching off the chair, you sat down, deflated, scared, cold. Not even your pullover could keep you warm, and you shivered, rubbing your hands against each other and blowing air on them in an attempt to warm up. But it was an effort in vain, you just tried to trick your mind into doing anything. Anything, besides freaking out.

You had every right to be unnerved. It wasn’t every day that some strange man with perky fox ears and a fluffy tail swaying left to right appeared in front of you, announcing you were to become his wife. Actually, the chances of that to happen were so low, you couldn’t even speak of it as a common occurrence at all. He introduced himself, but no matter how hard you tried to remember, the name ‘Kita Shinsuke’ wasn’t one you were familiar with. As absurd as it sounded, you really tried to use logic on a person that was beyond any kind of human reason in the first place.

For the first few seconds, you thought you had actually made a promise to marry this man. Perhaps by accident, maybe drunk? But the longer you thought about it, the clearer you realized that there was no such thing as accidentally accepting a marriage proposal. However, by that time, you had already let him into your newly bought home, served him tea, and questioned his announcement.

“It’s in the contract,” he had explained, softly, no immediate expression on his face. You couldn’t tell if his voice sounded upset or amused. Everything about him was so relaxed and indifferent, he made the situation seem almost laughable easy. “You agreed to be my wife when you bought the land.”

That was ridiculous. Even you knew there had been no such agreement, and yet, you still tried to find your contract, unable to discern it from all the other documents you hadn’t yet sorted in after just moving into this house two days ago. Much to your surprise, it had been Kita who helped you find what you were looking for, all the other papers seemingly flying out of his hand’s way as he reached by you to grab the contract from them. The old, parchment-like deed of ownership in his hand made you realize for the first time how odd the features of this man were. Fingers as pristine as a child, yet, with sharp, pointy claws instead of nails on them. Not to count the ears and tail that moved accordingly to his doings.

It also made you realize for the first time how deep in trouble you were as you read over the deed again.

In a matter of seconds, your life had changed around completely. You saw darkness in front of your eyes every time you tried to focus, your mind becoming dizzy from realizing your name underneath the additional marriage condition listed on the deed. Next thing you knew, he caught you with one arm, and you held on to the soft fabric of his kimono, scared you might lose conscience with your heart both setting out and raising your blood pressure way too fast. But that was only just the beginning of your troubles.

You barely remembered everything that happened until you eventually ended up in this cell. Just a lot of denial and refusal, people storming your house and dragging you out. You could still feel their long fingers and sharp claws pressing into your skin, your wrists and digging into your shoulders, and how their mouths formed grins too wide to be human. Screaming and kicking, you didn’t make it easy for them, but with your house so secluded from everyone else’s, you doubted anyone could hear you.

Moving to Japan, starting over, and live the best life you could imagine for yourself, that had been your dream. Now, more than ever, and in a scenario you couldn’t even have imagined in your worst nightmares, it was taking a turn for the worse.

“Kita-san,” you greeted him, your lips shaking as you held back more tears. Looking at him, it was almost unbearable to see him so calm in your distraught presence. “I want to leave--”

“You’re cold,” he noted, unfazed by the words you were about to mutter. Hugging yourself a bit tighter, you couldn’t deny what he was saying. The bars - as sturdy and metal as they seemed when you rattled them before - twisted and turned as his hand approached them, creating a gap big enough for him to step through. Only now, in the dim light of a candle he was holding, did you see the fur blanket over his arm, which he brought to you. Though you dodged away, Kita was unfazed by your fear, letting the cover fall from his arm and draping it over your shoulder no matter if you wanted him to or not. Admittedly, you were glad to receive a little something to warm up, gripping it with your hands quickly to pull it tighter around you.

Only when you were done shivering, you noticed his hand hadn’t vanished, picking at the part around your neck. With a flinch, you felt his cold fingers dig beneath your hair, pulling it out from under the fur and adjusting the neck properly. It was uncomfortable to have him touch you so casually, perhaps more like a parent would than a stranger who called himself your fiance, but you had to admit it was warmer this way.

“Do you want to marry?” you asked him quietly, a bold question perhaps, but what else was there to talk about? His hand halted, laying down on your shoulder gently, yet you felt almost as if this was a simplified neck hold like you’d do with a cat or dog if they misbehaved. “There’s no use questioning what we want or not. We have a contract, and you signed it. That’s why we are marrying.”

There was a logic to the way he was speaking, yet his words haunted you. Contract here, contract there, what did it matter when this was about marriage? An act of love and partnership? Was this what people called ‘settling for someone’? He couldn’t be seriously wanting to go through with marrying a total stranger just because of a contract, right?

“But I don’t love you! I don’t even know you!” Turning to him, you regretted searching for eye contact with this man, his eyes being just as unnerving as his whole demeanor. Especially now that they seemed to be lit even without the candlelight reflecting in them. Almost as scary was the deep breath that he took after you said what was on your tongue for too long, and you turned away again, not expecting an answer from him. Shrugging off the blanket, you mumbled, “I don’t want to marry you…”

Before it could leave your shoulder, Kita caught it, placing it back where he thought it belonged, and proceeded to make sure it sat right again. This time, the tugs on your hair were a bit rougher, and one of his fingers even scratched you, which you noted briefly with a whine. Kita rounded you, hand falling from your shoulder to the front of your neck, driving up your throat with its claws until it reached your chin, and lifting it, he made you look back into his eyes, despite the tears collecting in yours falling from your cheeks and wetting his hand too.

“My family wants us to marry, and I care about my family.”

He dragged his hand up your cheek, wiping the tears collecting in your eye with his thumb before leaning down to give your forehead a short kiss. “And now you’re my family too, so I care about you. Keep the fur on, I don’t want my wife to be sick on our wedding day, and then sleep until you’re woken up.”

“How can you care for me if you don’t even know me?” you sobbed, lowering your eyes, unable to keep looking at him.

“Who said I don’t?”

Ears peaking up, you held your breath, trying to listen if he said anything more. But Kita didn’t care to explain until you finally looked up again, expecting an explanation that you feared he wouldn’t give you. “The ways of the gods are unfathomable, but that doesn’t mean everything that happens is without reason. We met before, [Name], even if I’m afraid you don’t remember.”

For a split second, and perhaps, for the first time that you met him, you saw his brows furrow slightly as he said the last words, his hand falling from your face, as he turned towards the exit, his feet not making any sounds as he stepped away from you. “What do you mean?” you mumbled after him, his back now illuminated by the white moonlight coming through your cell’s window.

“Who are you?” you kept asking, standing up, barely able to hold on to the fur as you chased after him. However, the moment he stepped through the opening in the bars, they closed rapidly, keeping you from following him outside. All you could do was grip the cold iron with your hands, as Kita turned around briefly. “What are you?” You wished he’d answer you, at least now, at least before this whole ordeal was about to go down. Answer all questions, or even just one, so you could tame those raging feelings of confusion and fear inside of you.

But instead, he merely put his free hand next to yours, fingers laying down on your wrist for a moment before they patted down your arm, telling you to let go of the bars. Instead, he caught your hand, bringing it up to his lips and kissing the cold knuckles tenderly.

The candlelight vanished as a cold draft filled the air, coming from above the stairs. “Kita-sama?” an unknown voice asked, and you shied away as all you heard was a short growl in return. However, he held your hand tightly in his, not letting go even when the door seemed to fall shut quickly.

“I’m your husband,” were his last words before he finally let go of you, taking his quiet, barely noticeable leave.

Even when you assumed he was gone, you couldn’t find a calm second to collect your thoughts, the questions and lost answers working you up endlessly. You wished for some clarity, a miracle, or preferable even - an explanation.

But your night was far from over, even if there might be even more questions than answers awaiting you.

➤ [Move forward to Prologue II]

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16woodsequ · 4 years ago

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Can you tell us headcannons/scenes from fic ideas you have had but have gave up on?

I do have a few ideas for fics that I either thought about writing but changed my mind, or have, but didn’t ever really plan on writing. This is mostly because the ideas are very angsty and while I like thinking about them, I think they might be super depressing to write.

Hallucinations

One idea I like playing around with is the idea that Steve started to hallucinate Bucky after he came out of the ice. I probably won’t write this fic, because I am not sure if visual hallucinations commonly work by having just one person following someone around and talking to them. I don’t know enough about having hallucinations to feel comfortable using it as a means of telling a story.

But anyway, if you remember my rant about the cabin SHIELD sends Steve to, I imagine that he started hallucinating Bucky either during or after that. Of course, he wouldn’t tell anyone about it because he would be worried about getting labelled as crazy and sent back to somewhere like the cabin or worse.

I think the hallucination of Bucky would be a personification of Steve’s own thoughts and feelings, so at times Bucky would be comforting and friendly. But other times he could be cruel and blame Steve for letting him die (because Steve blames himself,) or point out all his flaws.

Since I headcanon that Steve knows about the bugs in his apartment, he wouldn’t be able to risk talking to Bucky except when alone outside, or in the bathroom. (Which Bucky would take full advantage off.)

I don’t think he would hallucinate Bucky constantly, but Bucky would show up regularly. I think the first time Bucky showed up, Steve was doing something like cooking, and he hears Bucky’s voice saying ‘I’d like some of that’, and he responds without thinking—before his whole body freezes and he realises what has just happened.

Steve knows that hallucinations are not normal, and that he isn’t okay. But he doesn’t want to tell anyone, and part of him guiltily doesn’t want the hallucinations to stop (something that Bucky calls him out on sometimes, because again, he is basically Steve’s own thoughts, which would be hard to deal with sometimes.)

Bucky doesn’t show up while Steve is on missions, which is important because otherwise Steve would definitely be a liability. Also, it is important, because eventually Steve is going to be fighting the Winter Soldier, and the mask is going to come off, and Steve is going to get a shock of a lifetime.

I imagine that after Hill brings Steve and the others to see Fury, Steve locks himself in the bathroom for a while and rants with hallucination-Bucky, trying to figure out if what he saw was actually real. Since Steve has been hallucinating Bucky for a while, he isn’t sure if he can trust his senses. But he argues that he has never seen Bucky during a fight like that, and why would he hallucinate Bucky’s face on someone like that? He has always seen Bucky as his 40s-self, so why would he see someone with long hair and a metal arm?

(Bucky argues that Steve hasn’t eaten or slept properly for several days, and could just be crazier than usual, and if he is wrong, he could be putting everyone in danger. And, isn’t the fact that he is busy talking to himself in the bathroom alone, a sign that he isn’t really stable? The man didn’t even know who Bucky was, how can Steve claim that he is Bucky?)

In the end, Steve decides that he can’t risk not believing that the Winter Soldier is Bucky, and he decides to treat him like it is Bucky, until he is proven otherwise.

I’m not sure if the hallucinations would stop after Steve finds Bucky, and Steve may or may not finally tell Sam about his hallucinations while they are searching for Bucky.

Some more angsty stories I probably won’t write have to do with self-harm and suicidal tendencies/attempts by Steve, so I’ll put that under the cut line.

Suicidal tendencies

I do have a general headcanon that Steve was suicidal back in the 30s-40s. I imagine it was soon after his Ma died. Steve would have grown up being told he was a burden from one source or another, and he probably felt guilty that he wasn’t able to get his mother more care during her illness.

I can see him getting very depressed and listless after her death, especially if he is in-between jobs, and can’t seem to get another one. I headcanon he lived with Bucky, and Bucky would be working to try to pay the rent, and Steve would start to think it would just be better if he weren’t there taken up money and resources.

I think it would take some time before Steve actually decides that he should kill himself, but the idea would slowly grow more and more intrusive. Eventually he would convince himself that everybody would be better off if he were dead. (Especially since, with his illnesses, he has probably been told he is going to die young anyways. Might as well get is over with.)

For this, I headcanon that he planned to jump off the Brooklyn bridge. I’ve looked at pictures, and heard stories, so I think it is possible for him to do that. On the day that he planned it, he waited for Bucky to go to work, and then he put away all his things in the apartment, and wrote a note for Bucky to leave on the table. In the note, he mentions where his body will probably be found.

He goes out, and first stops by Mrs. Barnes to say goodbye to her (although she doesn’t know that.) It starts raining as he begins walking down to the Brooklyn bridge. I don’t know how far it would be from where he lived, but he wouldn’t really be concerned about the distance.

Meanwhile, Bucky happens to come home early. At first he is confused by Steve not being home, but then he sees the note on the table, and reads it with growing horror. Since Steve mentioned where he was going, Bucky dashes out of the house, hoping against hope that he isn’t too late.

It is pouring rain by now, and there is almost nobody on the bridge because of the weather. Steve is right by the railing when Bucky gets there, and he’s kind of out of it since he isn’t in a good place right now. Bucky ends up tackling him and Steve is shocked to see him.

Bucky is, of course, terrified and angry, and he yells at Steve because he is so scared. Steve just breaks down and they eventually make it home. I don’t think suicide was really talked about a lot back then, so neither of them would really know what to do, and it would probably sit between them like an elephant in the room for a while.

Eventually the tension would snap and Steve would probably yell about why he is better off dead, and Bucky would yell back how wrong he is about that. I can imagine Steve saying something like “You know I’ll be dead by thirty anyways. You know what the doctor says.”

And then Bucky grabs his shoulders desperately and just goes. “No! No. They keep sayin’ that, and you always prove them wrong. Who cares what they say? You gotta prove ‘em wrong. You’re going to live till your one hundred, ya hear? Promise me.”

And then Steve would stare wide-eyed at him, and stutter out a promise.

Steve wouldn’t try to kill himself again in the 40s, but that promise would become important after he wakes up from the ice.

When Steve wakes up in the ice, I imagine his depression hit even worse, and it was even harder for him to resist his intrusive, suicidal thoughts. And, when he wakes up from the ice, he is technically 94 years old. So he resigns himself to leaving six more years. He decides he can live six more years before he kills himself. He doesn’t know if he ages anyways, and the thought of living like this forever is horrifying, but he can do six years. He can keep his promise to Bucky and last six more years.

Of course, intrusive thoughts are very hard to resist, so I imagine Steve got close to making another attempt in the two years after he woke up, but he was either interrupted or managed to talk himself down.

And then, eventually he finds Bucky again, and that focus helps push away the thoughts for the time being.

I always imagine though, that while in Wakanda, Bucky remembers Steve trying to kill himself when they were younger, and he confronts Steve about it. That is when they are finally able to have an open conversation about what Steve felt, and what Bucky felt, and where each of them are mentally now.

Self-harm

This was a fic that I actually planned to write. I have a WIP that was going to introduce this eventually.

The idea was that after Steve woke up from the ice, he slowly began to self-harm to deal with all his anxious, repressed emotions. It would start out small—digging his nails into his fists, and arms to try to focus/calm down etc—before eventually it would evolve to cutting.

Steve is very careful to hide it, and his super healing helps. I headcanoned that he used a pocketknife that Bucky gave him during the war (one of the only things of his that he has, besides his compass). He always keeps it on him, and he develops a sort of anxious tick were he unconsciously brushes his hand over his pocket when he is feeling stressed, just to reassure himself that the knife is there if he needs it.

He knows that self-harm isn’t healthy, but he avoids thinking about it. He justifies the fact that he heals quickly, and doesn’t scar. It hardly matters, right?

I usually headcanon that Sam finds out about the self-harm while they are tracking down Bucky. Once Sam finds out, Steve does try to work on quitting, but it is a two steps forward, one step back process for him. He starts carrying around elastic bands in his gear belt so that he can use those when he has an urge.

Usually I don’t have any of the other Avengers find out—although Steve might tell Bucky once they get to Wakanda. Once Infinity War came out, I headcanoned that Steve really wanted to keep from self-harming after Sam and Bucky died, because he knew they would want him to, so he asked Natasha to hang onto his knife for him. She didn’t know why he asked that, but she could tell it was important.

When I first thought about writing this story, it appealed to me because I wanted to write a self-harm story that should the slow progression Steve’s self-harm took.

The main reason I don’t think I will write this story anymore is because it will probably be depressing for a long time. In order to do the slow-burn right, we’d have to follow Steve’s headspace for a while, so it would be a long time before he got any help. I still like this idea, but I probably won’t write it.

I hope you enjoyed those fic ideas! Hopefully it wasn’t too depressing. If you want to chat with me more about this ideas, feel free!

Headcanon masterpost

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ashthewaterghoul · 3 years ago

Text

“What if Qui-Gon Survived”

Chapter 12

The three of them anxiously awaited their arrival to Geonosis, the two droids were incapable of the emotions organic beings feel. When they entered the planet’s atmosphere, Anakin flew the ship low, as to not trigger any mountain top sensors.

“Land over there.” Qui-Gon pointed to an exhaust chamber in the ground.

When they landed, the droids were ordered to stay on the ship, Padme, Anakin and Qui-Gon each took a comms device to communicate the droids if needed. Padme lowered the ships ramp and exited onto the platform, the two Jedi didn’t follow her.

“Aren’t you coming?” She said.

Anakin was staring at his Master, who was staring at, seemingly, nothing.

“We are not alone.” He said, “We must be quiet and careful, as not to wake the locals.”

“Locals?” Padme said, Anakin pointed at the walls, where sleeping Geonosians could be found.

Qui-Gon quietly made his way down the ramp, Anakin followed him. They all slowly, but quietly made their way through the corridor, they reached the end of the corridor and were greeted by a metal door, which Anakin opened with the Force. Ahead of them was a small platform, clearly meant for the bugs to used for take off and landing. All three scanned for way though the hustle and bustle of the droid foundry before them. Qui-Gon could see a maintenance walkway through the rails and assembly lines.

“Over there!” He pointed.

“How will we get down there?” Padme wondered aloud.

Qui-Gon looked at Anakin, speaking an invisible language.

“Wait, really?” Anakin asked, an excited grin growing on his face.

“Yes, I have every faith you shall catch me and the Senator.”

“I’m sorry, catch me?”

With a slight look at his Master, he handed over his lightsaber,

“I don’t want to repeat Kashyyyk.”

“Fair enough.” Qui-Gon said, attaching the saber to the other side of his belt.

Anakin took a few steps back into the corridor, took a few deep breaths, and ran through the doorway.

“Anakin!” Padme yelled, reaching out for him. Qui-Gon simply laid a hand on her shoulder, smirked and tilted his head towards the droid foundry. Padme was astonished to see Anakin jumping over the assembly lines until he landed on the maintenance walkway.

“Master Jinn, I don’t know if you forgot, but I cannot use the force.”

“Of course I remember, m’lady. That’s why Anakin is going to catch you!” He replied with a warm smile. He then pushed his hands out in front of him, levitating Padme into the air. He carefully manoeuvred her through the foundry and got her to e just a few metres above Anakin.

“Ready when you are Master!” Anakin shouted, focusing on his Master and his . . .

“Now!” Qui-Gon announced, pulling his hands away. Padme fell down and landed in Anakin’s arms, the two were staring deeply at each other, their faces inches apart.

“Have you forgotten me?” Qui-Gon shouted. Anakin and Padme’s faces went as red as a lightsaber as Anakin put Padme down.

“Sorry Master!”

Qui-Gon nodded at his padawan and waited for it to be reciprocated, when it was, the Jedi copied what his padawan did moments prior. He stopped at the last rail, that fall would be too much for his old bones. He could see that Anakin was ready for what was to come. He jumped and, thankfully, found himself caught in mid-air, he was gently lowered to the the ground by his padawan.

“Well done Anakin,” he placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder, “I’d say that’s the best one yet.”

A bashful expression came over Anakin’s face, “Thank you, Master.”

“We need to go.” Padme interjected, having noticed a large amount of the natives had been awakened by their visitors, they were coming out of the hatch and swarming towards them. The three ran through the labyrinth of walkways, dodging the bugs. Qui-Gon made some hand gestures to indicate for them to split up, Anakin reluctantly agreed. At the next fork in the pathways, Anakin went right with Padme, and Qui-Gon went left.

Qui-Gon’s path took him to a sudden incline, he used to force to get over it, the bugs couldn’t adjust their flight path and speed quick enough and crashed into the the ramp. He could see that Anakin and Padme faced no incline or decline on their path, but could see the Mandalorian that killed the bounty hunter from that night on Coruscant, it seemed so long ago, yet it had only been a few days.

“At least he has his-”Qui-Gon stopped himself mid sentence as he looked at his belt, “lightsaber.” He finished.

But it was too late, the Mandalorian had already caught them. Anakin caught his Master’s sorrowful eyes, and seemed to say through the Force: “We’ll be fine, go!” Qui-Gon reluctantly agreed, it would seem that some of their traits had rubbed off on each other throughout the years.

Jinn spotted a small alcove that he could hide in until the Geonosians had gone. He crammed himself in and grabbed his comm link.

“R2? R2, can you read me?”

The comm replied with a string of beeps.

“I need you to pass on a message to Master Windu. Tell him that the Geonosians have a factory of Trade Federation droids, they are being mass produced. And tell them that they have Anakin and Padme as well. I fear they may need to get here sooner rather then later. Send them my exact co-ordinates as well, you can get them through this transmission frequency.”

C-3P0’s vocal circuits were now in use, “Master Jinn, are you sure we should stay on the ship? What if we are forgotten here?”

“Who could forget about you, Threepio?”

“Well, the human brain can get quite forgetful in older age, sir.”

Qui-Gon sighed and said, “Just transmit the message Artoo!” He silenced the comm and put it back on his belt. His hand knocking against Anakin’s lightsaber, “I shall give it to him my myself.” Qui-Gon vowed silently.

You can view all chapters here

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papipopsicle · 4 years ago

Text

GHOSTBUSTERS

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Reader

Summary: In which Y/N keeps bumping into various Avengers on missions, sometimes to their benefit and others not so much. As Bucky finally decides to go back into the field, he comes face to face with a ghost from his past life.

Song: Death Valley by Fall Out Boy

Warnings: swearing, general lack of morals

Words: 2.4K

feedback is always appreciated

"You sure about this, Buck?" Steve asked, willing his reassuring nature onto the stoic man sat next to him. They were eight minutes from the drop sight in south Ecuador and only Gamora was joining them on the mission.

There was no way in hell he planned on backing out now.

James Buchanan Barnes no longer held the mantle of the Winter Soldier, but ever since Shuri, Princess of Wakanda, extracted the programming in his brain, he remembered everything. At first it was like puzzle pieces, fleeting memories and nightmares that he couldn't quite put together. But the last fifty years slowly found its way back. And the twenty before that of torture too.

Every bullet.

Every last breath.

Every tortured soul he killed for Hydra. And the lives he was forced to steal, forced to work along side with.

Wanda found out rather quickly his mind wasn't a happy place to venture into. She cried herself to sleep that night.

It took a long time for Bucky to realise his body was no longer a weapon, and longer to even begin trusting his prosthetic limb off the battlefield.

This was only a minimal risk mission; a group of young inhumans had been wreaking havoc for the past few weeks, Friday had been tracking them and noticed they were meeting a large arms dealer in Amazula tonight. Fairly simple. The enhanced individuals would be handed over to Agent Johnson's task-force while any weaponry will be confiscated by the CIA under Tony Stark's surveillance. All the trio had to do was detain the inhumans. Easy.

"Sure," Bucky responded slowly and shrugged his shoulders, "about time I got off my ass, right?"

"You can wait here if you don't feel up to it." The Zehoberei woman replied while picking at her nailbeds, voice dripping with sarcastic sympathy. Admittedly, she enjoyed the presence of these two no nonsense men, but their friendship made them worry too much and she didn't have the patience for it.

Gamora released the hangar door and without waiting for the super soldiers to respond, she jumped. Steve rushed to the edge and rolled his eyes as she landed perfectly a hundred feet below them. Once the quinjet had actually landed, the three stealthily made it to the warehouse unnoticed.

"Eyes on the kids, all five are headed down the north corridor." Bucky stated plainly over the communication device hidden in his right ear, still unable to comprehend how a pair of goggles allowed him to see through steel walls. He stayed crouched down low in the overhead railings, his large figure hidden with ease from any surveillance equipment.

Only a few seconds could passed before his ears were assaulted by a string of curse words from the alien woman, even more surprised that Steve hadn't reprimanded her for the foul language.

"Gamora?" The Captain questioned, launching out of his position in pursuit of his endangered teammate. When he arrived though, the scene before him made his eyes hurt from rolling them so hard, a simple "Not you again." fumbling from his lips.

Bucky calmed at the annoyed tone, having scrambled out of his hiding space with surprisingly the same amount of stealth. His heart was erratic, thinking it was a code red, but his steps slowed to a jog as soon as he registered they weren't in any kind of peril.

Y/N grinned up at the man in his usual navy stealth suit, watching his irritated expression tauntingly, "You missed me really, Rogers."

She'd arrived after Gamora, finding the kids tied to a post by the green woman with illuminated ropes. The mercenary began undoing their bounds, but was soon interrupted by their capturer and eliminated the threat with great skill.

Y/N stabbed Gamora in her thigh, her copper dagger dripping with blood as she twirled it between her fingertips.

Bucky rounded the corner and entered the open warehouse, finding his friend jogging over to the scene several feet ahead. Steve began assessing Gamora's wound and was quickly shoved off by the warrior, who simply stood and wiped her leg down as if it was dust and not blood.

Bucky stood frozen. It felt all too surreal - the flicker of orange hair, the bright teal suit which was anything but stealthy, and the familiar scarred tissue surrounding her magnificent hazel eyes. She was anything but a ghost, though he felt a soul step through his being.

"Buck? A little help?" Steve pushed, watching his friend move towards the group of teens without taking his eyes off of the annoying mercenary. He'd met her on numerous missions throughout the past couple of years, mostly getting in the way of things and a handful of times even aiding them.

"Buck?" Y/N mocked in the Captains authoritative tone, "What kind of name is that? What's it short for? Buckbert?"

Bucky blinked, forgetting all about the young inhumans, "Buchanan, actually."

"James? What in the fuck are you doing here?!" Y/N recognised his voice instantly, the gravelly pitch unrivalled by anyone else on this planet. She stopped fiddling with the electrified rope and spun on her heel, finding the first Winter Soldier mere meters from where she stood.

The mercenary slid her blade back into its sheath on her hip, sprinting over to her former partner and before anyone knew what was happening, her body enveloped his. Y/N squeezed him so tightly he thought is eyes may just bug out, but with Steve and Gamora's astonished expressions watching him, he returned the embrace. It was familiar, and Bucky didn't know whether that should be a good thing or a bad one.

"I'm sorry, actually I'm not. Care to explain how you know the asshole who just put a hole in my leg?" The Zehoberei woman seethed, checking the detainees were still detained before marching over to the pair.

"Yeah, not that this reunion isn't..." Steve trailed off, motioning towards the two still embracing. Bucky eye rolled his friend, letting the mercenary drop from his body but keeping his arm around her, "whatever it is, but why is it a reunion in the first place? Please don't tell me you two used to-"

"Fuck?" Y/N scoffs at the insinuation, knowing she'd hit the nail on its head when Captain America turned the same colour as his shield, "In his dreams, maybe."

"Y/N used to work for Hydra every now and again." The super soldier intervened, watching her wounded eye twitch from the corner of his vision, "Even when she wasn't, she'd follow my missions and find work in the same countries."

"Until I stepped in one day when his handler was being especially dickish and got myself this as a memento." She signalled to her paled scar with a sad smile, "I'd lost you for a while there, but it's good to have you back, James."

Steve couldn't believe how casual their conversation was, but instead of finding the answers he so desperately wanted, he had a role to play, "Is she going to be an issue?" Is all he could ask.

Y/N frowned at his no nonsense attitude, he usually threw a couple sarcastic remarks for her to bat back before getting on track with his mission. She looked up at Bucky with the same expression, arms crossed and eyes rolling as she begrudgingly shook her head. If it wasn't for her old acquaintance, the mercenary would've figured out a small way to annoy America's golden boy.

"Not this time, at least." The metal armed man reassured his childhood friend, who was getting the group of inhumans ready for the inhibitor pod on the quinjet. Gamora was busy glaring Y/N down, throwing her own blade up into the air a few times before charging at the human woman with no fear.

"What the-" Y/N screamed as the alien's dagger became the only thing her eyes could see, and without any other option, she climbed Bucky like a tree. Her torso hugging his face and her legs wrapped around his neck, "I'm sorry, pretty green lady!"

The super soldier, slightly unsure of what was happening, unarmed his teammate and shook Y/N off his shoulders. She fell to the grass with a small thud, quickly getting to her feet and backing away from the seething warrior.

"Let me stab her, it's only fair!" Gamora demanded, struggling in Bucky's vibranium grip. At this point, Steve had already transported the enhanced teens onto the quinjet and had come back to inspect and take inventory of the weaponry, only to find this scene playing out in front of him.

"I said I'm sorry!" She definitely wasn't, and although she didn't know the green woman, she knew it wouldn't end well if her apathy shone through. While Bucky held her back, Y/N knew this was her chance to dip out. After all, she was only here as a favour for a friend, it certainly wasn't worth getting injured over. But, against all better judgement and knowledge of stabby people, the mercenary decided to stay for a while longer.

"See, she's apologised, she didn't mean it." Bucky reasoned, pleading eyebrows raised at Gamora. His body didn't know whether to go into shock or revert to the way it used to react around Y/N, and got stuck between the two. He remembered so much of her; her squeaky laugh and scrunched nose at her own sardonic jokes, the dark chestnut hair lying under her luminous wig, her soft lips kissing his at the end of a mission. It came rushing back like blood to a sleepy limb.

"Alright, alright." Steve interjected, not wanting to escalate the situation, "Let's not forget why we're here." He eyed the merc specifically.

"Pffft," She batted her hand towards him passively, no longer in imminent danger as the green woman stood with her arms crossed, "you can have this one, Golden Boy. Something else has taken my interest."

Y/N made a mental note to buy Wade something to apologise for not getting the guns and ammunition he wanted. He wouldn't really care, probably moved onto some other enemy already. Steve began closing the crates of various weaponry, not caring for the young merc until he heard her voice ring, "Mind if I hitch a ride with you guys, if you're heading back to New York."

"Sure." Bucky insisted.

"We aren't-." Steve objected, glaring over at his best friend before amending his words, "Fine. Just don't mess with anything."

Gamora found the woman intriguing, so laid back yet clearly on a dark path. If they'd met under different circumstances, she would've welcomed another strong and calculating female into her life suffocated by testosterone. But the Zehoberei warrior's leg still seeped with blood, aching with each step, so she wasn't ready to give in so quickly.

They all made the walk back onto the quinjet fairly quickly, passing by the white pod which inhibited each of their powers without causing them any harm. Y/N had never been on such a technical aircraft before, amazed by all the lights and buttons. But Steve swatted her hand away before she could find out what they did, "Sit down and stay out of trouble."

"So, you been doing okay, James? Back in the real world, I mean." Y/N slumped down on the seat next to Bucky's frame. She unhooked her tactical belt and slid off the bright ginger wig, slinging it on the metal cabinet beside her.

Bucky eyed her up, finding her raised scarred brow oddly endearing, "Not at first, a lots changed since the forties." He nudged her shoulder as a sad look appeared on her face, "I'm alive though, been going to therapy. This is my first field mission, actually."

"Looks like my bad timing's paid off this time, then." Y/N looked up at him sincerely, finding familiar icy eyes staring into her own. He had changed so much, and not at all in the same breath. She'd never seen a smile on his lips before, usually covered by a mask during missions, yet it suited him so beautifully. He'd brushed his shoulder length hair behind his ear, watching his jaw clench and relax.

They chatted back and fourth about the past few years, no boundaries or judgements held in the space between them. Y/N actually did research about a customers background before accepting their offer, targeting her homicidal rage towards sex traffickers whenever she got the chance. She still held no permanent home, currently residing in an abandoned apartment a dozen blocks away. The super soldier offered that she could stay with him if she ever wanted, used to her company and lax attitude.

"Thanks James, I'll keep that in mind." She hopped down from the hangar's opening, marvelling at the acres of land surrounding the Avengers facility. Steve and Gamora had left a while ago, briefing Agent Johnson on the inhumans. So it was just the two of them, a warm wind flowing through their hair. Y/N stepped behind him, tying his hair half up in a pony tail to stop it from getting in his eyes.

"Thanks, Y/N/N." He beamed down at her, "It's been good having you around again, hopefully it doesn't take a bunch of rebel inhumans for us to see each other again."

"It better not." She smirked, a fuzzy feeling sitting in her stomach as her nickname left his lips like a melody, "Now since this little mission was a success on your part, I feel it's only fair we honour our tradition. Especially since it's been your first in a long time."

Bucky didn't even want to waste time responding with words, his cool metal hand finding it's way to her neck pulling her closer. Their eyes both fluttered shut, Y/N pulled herself up onto her tiptoes just as he leant down enough to bridge the gap. Her body shuddered all over as she felt him return the kiss and his free hand grip her waist ever so tightly.

Bucky broke away first, noticing the lust blown look in his little mercenary’s eyes as she blinked innocently up at him. After a beat, she hid her head in his chest, only for him to kiss the top of her head. “Don’t be a stranger, Y/N/N.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Y/N giggled, pulling away just enough to look up at the tall super soldier, “I can honestly say it would be my pleasure to fuck with Tony Stark and his band of merry men.”

“Invite me on your next job so we can do that again.”

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heartofsnark · 3 years ago

Text

Can You Feel The Sun? (Chapter Six): Do I Sink or Do I Float Now?

Notes: Still posting my little backlog of chapters!~ In this one we get Maelstrom, along with some Vik and Misty interactions that were really fun to write of course heavy on our precious boy Jackie too.

Word Count: 9004

Chapter Warnings: Canon typical violence, cursing, installation of cyberware.

If you haven’t yet, you can read the previous chapter here!~

With a tightness in her chest and a heavy sigh, V answers Dex’s call. She’ll play it by ear and maybe wait until they’re in person to drop the news about Evelyn. The client really had to drag her into this bullshit, didn’t she?

“How're things lookin', Miss. V?”

“Client had a recording that helped us out, Konpeki Plaza.”

“Beautiful. T-Bug already called, said she's workin' her magic. And the Flathead?”

“On it now and quick question, how are we getting into Konpeki?”

“Through the front door, how else? I'm no leadhead. Ain't gonna leave no trace for them to follow 'cause we gonna do this clean an' on the hush-hush,” Dex confirms her beliefs, she needs cyberware, something.

“Got it, on my way to get the Flathead, now.”

“T-Bug says no chance at the chip without that bot. To work, then, Miss V.”

He hangs up and V leaves Lizzie’s bar, night air cold on her exposed skin. She’ll swing by her apartment, drop by Vik’s, and then meet up with Jackie at All Foods. V makes a beeline to her car, starting a call and patching a call to Jackie through the radio speaker.

“Jackie,” she signs one handed as she drives, “Met the client. Her name's Parker. Evelyn Parker.”

“OK. Whatcha waitin' for? Gimme the deets. Who is she? What's she like?”

“Shady as fuck. Doll, I think, fucks Yorinobu Arasaka and now she wants to fuck him over.”

“Don’t seem that odd.”

“She’s...off, Jackie. Hiding something, big, I just. Don’t trust her, don’t think she’s a bad person, just… not to be trusted.”

“Yeah, sounds like nerves talkin' to me. Makes everyone seem suspect. Stress can kill you, y'know.”

“Yeah, yeah, so you tell me.”

“What about Militech?”

“I met with the corpo.”

“V… “

“Hear me out, woman gave me hell and a spiked chip, wanted me to pay on Militech’s dime but the chip would have fried Maelstrom and left us cleaning up the mess.”

“Of course, I told you, V.”

“But, I managed to crack it. Maelstrom plays nice, I got a clean ten grand off of Maelstrom. Chrome snorters pull bullshit; we fuck them and send a middle finger to Militech while we’re at it. We can talk it out more when we meet.”

“Alright, waitin' for ya at All Foods, ya know. Not gettin' any younger.”

“Well, grab something to eat, going to be a while longer.”

“Chingada madre, V, what now?”

“Konpeki Plaza, hotel we got to get into. They have a no weapon policy and way Dex talks that the only way in, is through the front door. “

“And?”

“And, if shit goes sideways, I don’t want to be caught with my pants down, in a gunfight without a weapon. Need cyberware, something they can’t confiscate, so I’ll be ready for worst case scenario. So, I’m grabbing my savings and making a trip to see Vik.”

“Stress stress, all you do is stress, but I’m glad you’re finally spending your fucking money. What you trying to get?”

“You’ll see when we meet up, who knows, might end up using it on some Maelstrommers.”

“Hehe, see you soon, V.”

V hangs up and parks outside her megabuilding, sliding her mask off and into her bag before running in. She keeps her head down and doesn’t talk as she rushes to just get her stash of cash out from under the bed. Willing the elevator to move faster and annoyed when she presses her hand to the intercom to unlock her door and it takes a second too long for the lock to validate her SID chip. She opens the under bed compartment, finding her money stash next to her toy stash. Then it’s back out to her car and driving out to Vik’s.

She parks in the same place Jackie did that morning, keeping her head down as she wades through the crowd, trying not to stare at the strippers in the club window across from Misty’s store and avoiding eye contact with Gary; the slightly crazy homeless man who likes to yell about conspiracies. V peeks into Misty’s shop and smiles when she sees the woman at the little register and desk. Her face lit by the cyan neon sign advertising her prices for chakra readings.

“Hey, V.” Misty smiles at her, she’s the cutest little thing, granted she’s a bit taller than V. A short airy chin length bob of bleached hair, heavy black makeup, and big green eyes.

“Hey, Misty,” V signs as she walks in, her choker translator already turned on

“Heard you and Jackie have a new job.” There’s a hint of something sad to her voice, a pain to her eyes.

“You don’t seem excited.”

“Just...worried; bigger jobs, bigger risks.”

“I know, I’ll do my best to watch out for him, promise.”

“I know you will, V.”

“You’ll have to read our cards when you get the chance.” Its become a tradition, the little peek into the future easing some of Misty’s nerves.

“Please, Jackie’s heart chakra was a little out of whack and his aura needs tending. Keep him away from mean reds, if you can.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Speaking of which…”

“Oh no.”

“You need to let me adjust your chakras, V!~”

“Yeah… I don’t know about that one…”

“Your crown and throat chakras are so messy, heart chakra too actually, you’re just spiritually kind of a wreck, V.”

“You can tell that just by looking at me.”

“I could tell after my first conversation with you.”

“Funny, I’ll think about it. For now, I got to see Vik.”

“He’s in the clinic, go on in.”

V gives Misty a pat on the shoulder as she walks around and goes out the back door of the older woman’s store into the alleyway behind it. A soft meow rings out, just before the stairs that go down to Vik’s is a little sphinx cat with big golden eyes. The merc crouches down and scritches it’s back, smiling at the cutie, softly meowing back at it. Its such a cute kitty. One more little pat and she separates herself from the cat and goes down the stairs to Vik’s clinic. She’s not sure how Vik can stand to stay in the dank basement level clinic all day, but she’s thankful he’s always easy to find when she needs him. Through the little metal gateway door she can already see him at a workbench, watching a boxing match on a small TV.

“Viky! How’s my favorite ripper?” She greets him as she walks through, grinning as the older man spins his chair to look at her.

The ripper’s eyes drop down for a second seeing the box she has held to her stomach with one arm. He smiles softly, the expression forming wrinkles around his eyes. He’s an older man, dark hair just starting to thin on the back of his head. Tattooed forearms with memories of his boxing days and tinted glasses on his nose.

“Good to see you too, V. It's been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure today?”

“Got a new gig, new fixer, sure Jackie’s already talked your ear off about it.”

“Dexter Deshawn… Known quantity, from the Afterlife. No denying you're movin' up…” Vik tells her but there’s a drag in his voice, V is starting to get the distinct impression that no one is as excited for this as her and Jackie are. Hell, she’s not even as excited as Jackie, Evelyn’s offer still heavy on her mind.

“Something you’re not telling me?”

“Keep your guard up, that's all. I've heard some things about Dex. He's not as "chill" as he makes himself out to be.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she nods, Dex doesn’t seem to shady at the moment, but she trusts Vik’s opinion, “as for right now, plan is for me and Jackie to get into a hotel, pretend we’re guests. Hotel’s got a strict no guns policy, so… need a weapon they can’t take off of me.”

“That so? You finally caving and getting the projectile launcher?”

“No, I was thinking Mantis Blades, actually. Quieter, if shit goes off the rails it’d be better to have something that doesn’t tell everyone where we are.”

“And you get to add two more blades to your collection,” Vik teases, knowing her affinity for swords, knives, and daggers over firearms.

“Hey, doesn’t hurt to stick to what I know, besides with shit getting real… need better tech.”

“Well alright,” Vik stands and kicks away his wheeled seat, walking towards his work station, and getting the injector, “but lemme guess- hasn’t paid you yet.”

“No, but, I brought what I got. I know it’s not enough but, if you’re fine with me paying so much now and the rest later, I-”

Vik puts a hand up and stops her from pushing the little box of cash at him, a soft smile on his face. Jackie likes to say Vik has a soft spot for her, sometimes she doubts it but when he gives her that soft almost kind fatherly look, she can’t help but think Jackie might be right.

“Keep it.”

“No, don’t be ridiculous, I should at least give you something upfront, I-”

“We'll work something out later. Right now I'm just out to make sure you get back in one piece. Keep that back for now and we can figure it out once you get paid, alright?”

“Got no idea what I did to deserve you, Vik.”

“Who knows?” He laughs and shoots an injection into his forearm, to help steady and loosen up his organic hand, flexing the fingers on his ripper glove, “go ahead and get comfy.”

V nods and puts her cash stash in her bag before climbing up into the doctor’s chair, taking a deep breath. Even with Vik, the only doctor she trusts, she always finds herself nervous in his chair. She’s slowly grown more accustomed to the importance of cyberware and tech in Night City, but it still just feels overwhelming at times to think of carving out pieces of herself for it. V is fairly sure other than monks she’s one of the only people past the age of eighteen who doesn’t have optics, kids carving their eyes out as soon as a doc is willing to do it. This is important, she needs to be prepared for the worst case scenario, but she is about to have a significant portion of her arms removed to be replaced with swords. The gravity of that still sits heavy on her chest.

“Jack in and lay those major league arms down for me.”

Vik pulls up two tables on each side of the chair and V lays her arms down for him, trying to steady her breathing. Her eyes linger on the brand on her left wrist, the one that marked her place within her nomad clan. She wonders if that part of her arm will be taken off, skin removed with synthetic Real Skin stuff. He sits in his little wheeled stool, looking over her scans.

“Looks like you’ve actually been taking your meds.”

“Got an alarm on my phone now, nearly forgot just this morning,” she switches to spoken English, though her hands twitch to sign, she doesn’t want to move them just in case.

“Whatever helps, last thing you need is your body trying to kill itself.”

“But it's so good at that.”

“Oh I know it is,” he pushes himself to get to the other side of the table, pushing a sharp injection into her arm just below her elbow, “a bit of anesthetic.” Then he pushes her sleeve up higher, so he can reach her bicep, another shot.

“What’s that one?”

“Anti-anxiety, though judging by the wide eyed look on your face, it’s gonna take a second to kick in.”

“Oh, yeah… sorry.”

“It's okay, know this ain’t your thing. Most arm cyberware is fairly invasive, but I got some tricks up my sleeve. Do my best to give you the tech you need and leave as much ‘ganic material intact as I can.”

“I know, I trust you.”

Slowly, her body numbs. The strong anesthetic spreads into her blood and impacting every inch of her. Her breathing feels more stable and her heart rate seems to slow back to normal, a sense of calm coming over her. Vik is a good man, she knows that, he’d never do anything that isn’t needed and wouldn’t ever try to hurt her. He starts to roll out the tech to carve her arms open and put blades inside.

She closes her eyes and lays her head back, because she doesn’t want to see, it will just freak her out more. Put her trust in fate and more importantly Vik to take care of it. V feels nothing, only soft whirrs of tech.

“Feel anything?”

“Never do. Ask me that every time, you know. Not as if things are gonna be any different today.”

“Sure thing, kid, I mean not like there's any risk of a stroke or paralysis. But... heh, what do I know? I'm just a doctor.”

“Okay, okay, I getcha.”

“You got your contacts with you?”

“Yeah, in my bag.”

“Once we get your blades in, I’ll take a look at them, think we can bump them up with some Kiroshi tech.”

“You’re the best, Vik.”

“So, I’ve heard.”

“Oh, nearly forgot, you’ll get a kick out of this. Coach Fred in my building wants me to do some fights.”

“Does he now?”

“Mmhmm, really tried to sell it too, he believes in me. Dude, I’m fucking five feet tall, but okay.”

“Well,” Vik chuckles, “to be fair, you may be small, but I’ve seen you take down guys twice your size.”

“That’s merc work, Vik; don’t think they’d let me stab my opponent in the ring.”

“That is usually frowned upon.”

They make small talk as he works, the chatter easing her nerves, the little traces of anxiety the medicine can’t touch. Vik tries to convince her she could hold her own in a boxing fight, though unlike Coach Fred, it feels less like a sales pitch coming from Vik. From him it feels more like a dad trying to convince their kid they’ll be good at soccer if they just get out there and try it.

“Alright, we’re done, kid. Take a look.”

V takes a deep breath and does just that, Looking down at arms that still seem to be very much her own but with silver detailing from her knuckles to her elbows. They look nice, the Mantis Blades and Projectile Launcher are the better looking arm cyberware options in her opinion. Like accents, little detailing, rather than making arms look more tech than flesh. It’s her nails still, painted her favorite bright blue, she can still see her freckles. And when she twists her forearms she finds her brand still there.

“Wow, really did save as much skin as you could.”

“Mmhmm, still you, just a few added touches. The blades act on intention and reflex, stand up and give it a try. Just don’t cut anything I need.”

V gets out of the chair, taking a few steps to the most cleared off portion of the room. Vik scoots himself back on the stool. Just what she’d need, to finally get cyberware beyond the basics and end up accidentally gutting her favorite ripper. With the thought and a tensing of her forearms, the blades extend out.

“Woah.”

She marvels at it, the way her flesh has opened up, can see the metal compartment almost where the blades were stored and hidden inside. Carefully, she retracts the blade in one arm to touch the other. Curiously she touches where the skin meets metal, nerves in the flesh still, but when she touches inside of the compartment she feels nothing. She presses down into the steel and when she does so hard enough, she can feel it start to put pressure on real organic tissue. She pulls her fingers away and retracts the blade; extending and pulling them back a few times, getting the feel for them.

“Take it you’re a fan?”

“Its so cool.”

“Still wish you got the Launcher instead?”

“Maybe a little bit,” she tests out signing, thankful the metal additions don’t interfere with her ability to do it, “I’m good with knives and katanas, so having a cannon in my arm would add a bit of variety.”

“Maybe your next job.”

“You can take them out and do that?”

“Mmhmm, now-a-days even the military grade stuff is designed to be adaptable, you can rip ‘em out and change it up whenever you see fit. So, you can have whatever new tech you want when you want it.”

“The innovations of consumerism, huh?”

“Something like that,” he laughs, “hand me your contacts and I’ll upgrade them for you.”

She does just that, watching him take the contacts and put them in a device. While he tinkers with those, V keeps playing with her new toys. Making sure she knows exactly what will and won’t trigger the blades. Flexing alone won’t extend them, folding and twisting her forearms. It requires the intention too, linked to she assumes her neural plants and cyberdeck. Which means she should be able to hug someone without decapitating them, a skill she does occasionally enjoy having. Even if Jackie says her hugs are half ass. Got to hug people like you’ll never see them again, because in Night City that might be the case; according to him.

“All done, test them out,” Vik hands her back the contact case and she carefully places them in. The interface lights up for a moment, adjusting to the new tech. She looks around, her vision a bit clearer.

“Image looks clearer.”

“Installed threat detection and weak spot detection tech too. Anyone who isn’t known to you, who the soft picks up as an enemy sees you, it’ll highlight them and tell you what their weak points are.”

“That’s awesome, I don’t know what to say Vik, this is incredible.”

“Figured, if you needed the blade for some hotel, you’d probably have to ditch the mask. So, it doesn't hurt to bump up the contacts.”

“Yeah...oh…guess your right, can’t play corp hotel guest in a mask, can I…”

“Just now realizing that?”

“Maybe… but more importantly. The blades, the contacts. I don’t know what to say, Vik, I…”

“Say you’ll take this and remember the dosage. Two whiffs now and another two in an hour,” he hands her a medicine inhalant, “mild stim. Should boost neurotransmission in the short term and muffle some of the side effects while the implant takes.”

“Thanks Vik, seriously, I owe you big. You sure you don’t want some cash up front? I really don’t mind, I-”

“Won’t hear it. Go on, kid. Show 'em what you're made of,” he grins at her, rolling back over to his desk, “And once you hit the big leagues, don't forget where you came from.”

A part of her wonders if it’s meant as a joke or a serious concern, knowing how much he seemed to worry about her getting a job from Dex. No matter if she hits the major leagues, Vik will always be her go to ripper. She comes up behind him where he’s gone back to watching TV and throws an arm around his neck in a sort of hug, squeezing him close. The kind of hug Jackie would mock, but full scale embraces are still...weird.

“Couldn’t if I tried, Vik, thanks again.”

“No problem, kiddo,” he pats her hand where it sits on his chest, “grab your candy and get going.”

V giggles, and pats his shoulder as she pulls away. She wonders if any of his other patients end up grabbing candy from the bowl on his desk. If Vik does the same joke with anyone else now that she kicked it off, a part of her hopes not. She grabs a handful of honeyed candies, popping one in her mouth as she leaves his clinic through the metal gate. The cat is still there when she gets back out to street level, she gives it a few more scratches, then takes the pathway back through Misty’s shop.

“Vik take care of you?” The bleached blonde greets V as she comes in.

“Sure did, I got swords in my arms.”

That gets a giggle out of her, V showing off the indentations and designs of the Mantis Blades. Misty runs her fingers along them, smiling at the merc.

“Very nice, take it you’re off to meet Jackie, now?” There’s still some worry in Misty’s eyes, a sadness to her tone.

“Yeah, got to get a combat bot. Shouldn’t take too long, Maelstrom isn’t anything we haven’t handled before. You know that.”

“I do, I do,” Misty fiddles her fingers together, “its not them I’m worried about, it’s just this whole… thing with Dex and this heist. Just got a bad feeling. The bigger your jobs get, the more risks, you know. I’m sorry...sure you don’t want to hear me whine.”

“Hey, hey,” V touches Misty’s shoulder, “its not whining. You love Jackie, it’s only natural to be worried.”

“Thanks, Jackie thinks this job will set us up for life, that he’ll finally be able to take care of me like I deserve… “

“And what do you think?”

“That is dreams are gonna get him killed one day and he doesn’t seem to care…”

“He cares, he does. He just...thinks the risk is worth it, that if he does this he can build a better future.”

“I know, just can’t shake the feeling he’s flying too close to the sun, I guess,” Misty says, wrapping her arms around herself. V knows that anxiety well and can’t say she even has the best feeling about this job. But, this is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“Hey, want to go ahead and do that tarot reading? Might make you feel better, see what the fates got in store.”

“Yeah,” Misty smiles softly, “I’d like that.”

Misty grabs her deck, the one V and Jackie picked out for her, as the merc comes around to the other side of the table. Jackie and V will be with each other the whole time, so if V’s future comes up clean, it means he can’t be too bad off. If nothing else, it offers a little distraction from anxiety and it won’t kill Jackie to wait just another ten or so minutes.

“If my future’s clean, Jackie’s won’t be too bad. Guy’s always had better luck than me, anyway.”

“I think he’d say otherwise,” Misty laughs, shuffling the cards, “now, focus on the recent past and what you expect in the future.”

First card down, a man walking towards a cliff with a dog trotting along after him.

“The Fool, that’d be you.”

“So the cards think I’m an idiot, cool,” V rolls her eye, not missing the shadow of a smile across Misty’s lips.

“The Fool symbolizes the beginning of a journey. You brim with enthusiasm, yet remain unaware of both your capabilities and the threats you face.”

“So...the cards think I'm an idiot.”

“Just a little bit,” Misty teases, laying down the next card, “The Wheel of Fortune,. The danger is greater than you think. It will come suddenly, without warning. Conflict is unavoidable.”

“Fair enough.”

Another card down, this one upside down.

“The reversed Chariot reveals that such danger is tied to your love of risk. Do not aim too high, V.”

“I’m short, got nowhere else to aim.”

Misty looks up at V under her brow, despite the hint of a smile, the meaning is clear. This is serious and V should take it with some level of seriousness. But, if she’s honest, V’s just happy to see Misty smiling at all.

“And finally, The Magician… interesting.”

“Why’s that?”

“You may meet someone fascinating, someone charismatic. Maybe even someone you will grow to love?”

“Ew.”

Misty laughs as V makes a face at the word love and how Misty dragged the word out; the implication clear and gross. Why the fuck is fate concerned with V’s romantic life when she’s about to pull off a heist on Ara-fucking-Saka.

“You can’t ‘ew’ fate, V!” Misty scolds her between giggles, smile now wide and bright.

“I can when fate is being fucking gross.”

“Love isn’t gross, V. It's beautiful.”

“Ew.”

“Get out of my shop,” Misty laughs and rolls her eyes, putting the cards back in her deck.

“Talk to you, later.”

Misty waves her off and V leaves out, content that she lightened Misty’s mood if only for a moment. She avoids eye contact with Gary as she makes a beeline back to her car, putting her new contacts back in the case and that in her bag. As useful as they are, she’ll use her mask for the Maelstrom job. For the usual reasons; enjoying her anonymity and well, people tend to take her a bit more seriously when they can’t see her baby face.

V pulls up outside of All Foods, an abandoned food plant that Maelstrom has turned into their newest HQ. Jackie is already parked sitting on his arch, poor guy has been waiting on her for entirely too long. She puts her mask back on and hops out, walking up towards him, seeing his posture brighten up when he spots her walking down the street.

“About time, V. Mi madre always said patience pays off, but christ.”

“Sorry, a lot of shit to take care of. Most prepwork we’ve ever had to put in.”

“Well, fill me in.”

“Ran through the BD with the client and T-Bug, know where the chip is and where we’re trying to get too. But we need the bot from Maelstrom to nuke the hotel’s subnet and make sure we don’t catch lead from a turret. Dex paid them for it, but we got no idea if they’re going to honor that.”

“He paid up front, hijole.”

“Yep, I met up with the Militech rep too. Gave me the spiked chip, but I reworked it. Got a chip with clean eddies on it and a newly...adjusted… chip that will spike Maelstrom and Militech.”

“So, what’s the play?”

“Doubt they’re going to just honor the original buy, but if they play nice, figured we return the favor. Give them the clean eddies and call it done.”

“But Maelstrom don’t play nice. Gang world ain't too complicated, Might's right, the strong survive. Either you fuck others, or you get fucked.”

“Then we fuck them over right back, they want to play dirty, give them the spiked chip and take what we want. Spike chips in my left pocket, clean one in the right,” she pats her pockets, “so if you see me get the chip from the left, get ready.”

“Understood and the new chrome?”

“Mantis Blades, like I said, hotels got a no iron policy and if shit goes wrong, I want to be ready. And, hell, if Maelstrom plays dirty, I might get a little practice tonight.”

“How the hell you swing those?”

“Vik, gave me chrome on credit, again. Too nice for his own good, I swear.”

“Pff,” Jackie laughs, “only when it comes to you, chica.”

“Don’t know why.”

“Told ya, he says you got a good heart. Probably give you a second one for free just for that.”

“Enough, enough; lets get this taken care of.”

“Into the borgbeasts den, then.”

“Onward.” With that Jackie climbs off his bike, leading the way and she follows behind.

“I hate these 'borg fuckers. Just had to be them…”

“Gang like any other,” V tells him.

Night has fallen over the city, lit by streetlamps and fires in a trash can. Northside all but abandoned, one of the only places where the night isn’t colored by neon citylights. They walk past trash and shrapnel, towards the door. An intercom button on the wall.

“Take the Valentinos. They follow God and the Santa Madre. Honor means something to 'em. You know what they want, how they get it, and what pisses 'em the fuck off. With Maelstrom, you just never know.”

“Think you might be a touch bias?”

“Heh, maybe, go on, let 'em know we're here.”

With the V presses the intercom button waiting for it to ring, a few moment pass before a low growl of a voice finally responds.

“Hm, don't know you.”

“Dex sent us.” V is increasingly thankful his name is easy enough to quickly finger spell. If they keep working with him, she may have to come up with a name sign though.

“Main room. We been waiting,” the Malestom member tells her and the front doors slide open.

The first room is dark with only a fluorescent light and the red glow of active turrets within it. There’s a distinct stink of mildew, rot, and mold. The stench of it choking V as she steps in after Jackie.

“Cozy place. Could use a few plants, though,” Jackie makes a snide remark, as his heavy steps ring through the room, tech lines the walls and is stacked up on shelves, “Oh yeah. They look damn well prepared.”

“Food factory turned into a fucking armory, lovely.”

“Gear from the Jacked convoy, gotta be… Must've been all over it like maggots on dead meat.”

“Everything’s marked Militech,” she confirms as they take a corner and walk down a short flight of stairs.

“Psycho borgs chromed out with military-grade hardware worth millions... Should be fun.”

“Yeah, a real party.”

They take a turn past a cluster of steel lockers, grime coated, with old abandoned anti-contamination suits still inside. Another turn past a neon red lit elevator shaft, the old factory is a mechanical maze. No doubt a reason why the chrome gang picked it; walls covered in their graffiti. They walk up another staircase; mines on every step, deactivating before them.

“Anti-personnel mine,” V comments, “directional shrapnel spitter.”

“Subtle…”

Around a corner, through another passageway, and up another flight of stairs. Each step echoes, the entire place dark except for blips colored by red and the odd white fluorescents. Jackie stops when the steps lead to a door. Nodding his head at it, giving V the go ahead to open it. She rolls up the shutter door and is suddenly blinded with bright stark white light, chill curling around her and creeping through her thin cropped top. It makes sense, the former meat packaging plant needing a room to stay cold.

“Stay cool… They’re just tryin’ to spook us,” Jackie tells her as she steps forward.

Bright yellow forms patterns across the metal floor, spot lights, and stacks of crates marked Militech. Security cameras and she sees the first glimpse of Maelstrom members since they’ve stepped into the plant. One sitting on a crate, armed and watching with their signature red glowing optics. Another on a platform over seeing them.

“Get in the elevator, fuckin’ sheep,” the Maelstrommer barks at them.

“Thought those cabrones only swiped a couple crates, not a whole fuckin’ semi,” Jackie comments under his breath as they walk past the crates and to the end of the room. Double doors open up to a freight elevator.

“This is going to be a hoot, ain’t it?” The doors to the elevator close and it starts it’s journey upwards.

“It’s all right, keep chilled, V. Remember, we're on their turf.”

“Yeah, because I’m the one who loses their chill.”

“I’m always chill-”

The elevator comes to a stop before Jackie can finish his though, the door on the other end opening and a Maelstrom member staring at them. He has the red glowing spider like optics and little mechanical dreads on the back of his head. What’s visible of his arms and chest is a mishmash of scar tissue and metal. Over his shoulders, she can see two other gang members. One holding a shotgun and the other plugged into a netrunner chair, glowing under the light of red screens.

“What do you want?” He’s the guy who spoke to them over the intercom.

“Got a bot we need, model MT0D12, Flat Head. Our fixer already paid for it, we’re just here to pick it up.”

“Hmm, names Dum-Dum,” he points to the side with his gun and starts to move back into the room, “Now, couch. Plant it.”

She walks into the room, and it seems like this could go well. They’ve been mostly chill, gruff sure, but nothing bad. In the center of the room just before a large roll up garage door is a table and two torn up red leather couches. Another Maelstrom member sits on the table. She doesn’t hesitate, sitting down on the couch closest to her, looking at the bright vending machine the gangers have graffitied over. Dum-Dum puts one foot up on the other couch and follows his line of sight to Jackie, who moves a little slower, his arms crossed as he moves next to the other couch and only stands.

“Ahh, well, shit. Goes for you too,” Dum-Dum tells him and she expects Jackie to listen, he said himself this is their turf and they should keep try to stay chill.

“I'll stand.”

Or… he’ll let his pride get the better of him and refuse. Its hard to read the emotions on a Maelstrom member's face, so chromed you can tell what the hell is going on. But the shift in volume is telling enough.

“This so fuckin' hard? Fuckin' ass on the fuckin' couch!”

“Make me,” Jackie says, voice low as he gets into Dum-Dum’s face. As much as he can while being nearly a head taller than the Maelstrom member.

“Thought you'd never ask. Sit your ass down 'fore I plant a bullet in your skull.’

“Jackie,” she signs with one hand and pats his shoulder, catching his attention, “think it’d be best to just sit down, keep everything chill, remember?”

“This ain't gonna end well but… shit…” And with that Jackie finally sits down, sinking into graffiti covered red leather.

“Well, all right,” Dum-Dum gets a drug inhalant from his pocket, sitting down on the table in front of V and offering it to her, “Come on, gotta lighten up. Take a hit.”

The inhalant is red and purple; if she had to guess, Black Lace. An upper that’s high is said to feel reminiscent of manic Cyberpsychosis. Corps used to feed it to their troops by the gallon, cuts off pain receptors and made everyday men into unstoppable killing machines.

“Appreciate the offer, but weed’s the hardest shit I touch,” V dismisses the offer as politely as she can. She knows it’d endear her to them, maybe, but… drugs aren’t really her thing. And when it is, she prefers mellow to mania.

Dum-Dum huffs the inhalant, dipping his head back and smoke billowing from his nose. Then exhaling a steady stream of it. She can see Jackie cringing and trying not to breath in the aftermath of Dum-Dum’s high.

“Whatever you say, straight edged princess.”

The member sitting next to Dum-Dum moves as nother brings out a large Militech case, black with a yellow lock. It’s put down on the table with a heavy thud.

“Here we go. The Flathead, model MT0D12.”

“Need to see it.” She’s not going go off of good faith, assuming it’s all there and works.

“Suit yourself.”

He opens the case and she sees the spider like bot inside, it's almost cute, Dum-Dum shakes the control shard at them as he talks.

“Fuckin' tricked out this thing. Dynamic, thermo-optic camo armor.”

He puts the control shard into a slot at the base of his skull, all but the middle of his optic eyes going dim as the bot comes to life within the crate. It stands at attention, moves it’s head and shimmies it’s legs. Just a cute mechanical spider; why did they make military combat tech cute?

“Full cognitive immersion with a Raven controller.”

The bot goes invisible which is impressive, but V’s eye is drawn elsewhere. A steady creak and she sees the garage door behind Dum-Dum is starting to roll up. Screens and the back of a leather chair, a man sitting down visible. She can’t truly tell, but if she had to wager a guess, Royce.

“Pimped out, prototype actuators made of titanium-vanadium-Kevlar composite.”

Dum-Dum continues to sell them on the bot as the door fully opens behind him, the chair turning and her seeing that she was right. Royce, the newest Maelstrom leader looking into the deal with the same glowing red optics, though his set so far back in his skull he’s missing gray matter.

“'N' watch this,” Dum-Dum says he sends the bot to move around the base, “Fully integrated link, too, so when the spider starts crawlin' up walls, danglin' from ceilings…” He starts to sound sick, his stomach churning as he sees the view of the bot.

“Could lose your lunch?” V can’t help but tease, Royce is up now, one hand on the garage door. Like he’s waiting, ready to pounce the second he hears something he don’t like. Those red optic staring V down.

“So, what you think?” Dum-Dum asks as he returns the bot to its case.

“Exactly what we’re after, we’ll take it.”

“Preem, sure, yeah,” Dum-Dum puts the control shard back in the case, “let’s see your cred.”

“Brick already got paid for it.”

A metal boom rings out, those words snapping Royce into action as he punches his fist against the door. Stomping forward and Dum-Dum jumps, rushing off the table as Royce marches towards V.

“Brick got it…heh,” the red shine of metal, a gun pressed to her head, “I don't see any fuckin' Brick around here, do you?!”

“Fuck Brick then, lets cut a new deal,” she doesn’t hesitate, refuses to flinch or show fear.

He presses the gun in tighter, leaning down into her face, the red optic nearly blinding. So close she can see the scars around the tech and just deeply imbedded they truly are, He lets out a low hum as he leans in, testing her and she doesn’t pull away, doesn’t break eye contact. Then he pulls back.

“Hah! Now that's good business sense! All right, you want the Flathead? I better see some eddies.”

She reaches into her left pocket. She would have done this clean, would have paid and been on her way. But Royce wanted a fight, wanted to put iron to her head and try to shake her down. So, she’ll burn his whole goddamn operation to the ground.

“Got them right here,” she hands him the credchip.

“Just like that? Without battin' a fuckin' eye?! Hahah!”

“Need the bot, just take the cash and hand it over, no trouble needed.”

“Look at this fuckin' girl scout! You know all your knots, got all your badges?! Hahaha!”

“Hilarious, you want the money or not?”

“Y'know, ya never did say who sent you, never did say who you're workin' for?”

“Yes, yes I fucking did, Dex.”

“Dexter DeShawn… The lard ass who punching-animal-fucked half of Pacifica? Mean he ain't dead?”

“Swear to god, I’m going to blow my own brains out before you can! You want my fucking money or you want to bore me to death?”

“Fine,” he starts to grab the chip when there’s a shake in metal, a rumble and an alarm starts to blare. Walls of the factory shake, the faint sound of gunfire.

“What the…? Shit Militech!” Dum-Dum yells out, they must have known the corp was on their tail.

“Rusty fucking cunt,” Royce curses and the Maelstrom members start to rush out and V moves; grabbing the Flathead case and stuffing it into her backpack as soon as eyes aren’t on them.

“Shit, Militech got antsy” Jackie tells her over the alarm.

“Who gives a shit, we got-”

“Hey!” Dum-Dum yells back at them, from a higher platform, and for a moment she thinks he’s going to fight them for the bot, “lets get the fuck out of here, follow me.”

Her and Jackie exchange a look, V just shrugging, if he wants to help out why not. V quickly climbs up the yellow ladder up to the platform, following behind Dum-Dum, Jackie not far behind her. Dum-Dum opens a door and it opens into what a room with consoles and the stench of meat hanging in the air.

“Ay, huele feo, this meat! Ack.. I can taste it,” Jackie sounds like he’s on the verge of puking his guts up.

“Production line, besides, thought you liked meat?”

“We'll ride the line. Flip it on.”

V follows behind Dum-Dum, climbing up a set of crates and onto a scaffolding. The production line is blocked, unmoving in years she’d assume. But on a console is a large red button lined with yellow, she punches it and metal sheets moves from the way, production line whirring to life as red lights color the metal passageways. Dum-Dum jumps across the small gap and climbs down the ladder.

“Hey, Doo Dum or whatever your name is, why you even helpin' us??” Jackie asks as V jumps the little gap and platforms but skips the ladder, jumping down the short distance.

“I'm not. Helpin' myself. Soon as the shootin' starts, I got two walkin' bullet sponges with me. Sponges who'll shoot back.”

The three walk through the narrow corridor, production line billow steam at them as the pathway opens up to another raised section of scaffolding, a section of it missing and allowing them to drop through and down onto another that surrounds a large hangar, gunfire rings out. Malestrom and Militech soldiers screaming at one another.

“C’mon let’s go!”

“You say come on one more time!”

Dum-Dum rushes down the platform and into the thick of it, quick to fight alongside his fellow Maelstrommers. And god, she’s not a fan of the gang, but watching soldiers with military grade armor and equipment trying to shoot down the group of mini-borgs… Maybe she just hates corps that fucking much. They could sneak out, let Maelstrom and Militech tear each other part, run with the bot and the eddies.

“That whackjobs got no chance,” Jackie says, “maybe we give ‘em a hand.”

“Lets.”

And she jumps the banister of the platform, landing clean onto a Militech soldier’s back and extends her Mantis Blades. They slice cleanthrough his neck and he goes limp underneath her, bleeding onto the production floor. V is up the next instant, running full charge into another man’s chest, knocking him off his center of gravity, landing on his chest and stabbing her blade through his heart before he can throw her off. Back on her feet and fighting in the next moment.

There is no stealth here, no technique or strategy, just kill or be killed. She moves quick, swinging a blade up to slice a soldier navel to throat. Bringing a blade clean down into another’s shoulder. Takes another’s legs out and they slice clean off, the tactical armored clothes like butter to the Mantis Blades.

A Militech boot lands square on her chest before she can slice through them, the kick knocks the air from her lungs, staggering her backwards Her head collides with a metal door, Mantis Blades retracting as she hits the ground. The Miltech worker points his gun at her. But before his finger can pull that trigger, a machete is brought down into the junction between his shoulder and neck, ripped back out in a spurt of blood. The man goes down, Jackie behind him.

“Got you, chica.” He says, pulling her up, a layer of blood has started to stick to both of them. And as she gets to her feet, she catches a glimpse through the window in the door. Bright red lights of servers, a large computer.

She looks past Jackie into the room, a large swath of Militech agents taken down. Maelstrom still battling the few left in the area. She doesn’t know what will be waiting for her when she breaks through, Meredith’s promise of seeing her soon if V pulled anything like this.

“C’mon,” V opens the door and quickly yanks Jackie into the server room.

“The hell are you doing?”

“Want to check something, bargaining chip, just in case,”

Blood coated fingers swipe open the computer screen, pulling up the messages and files Maelstrom has saved. A message named Transports- LOA catches her eye, any Nomad worth their salt knows LOA is used by corps who intentionally “lose” their cargo. She opens it, the message from Anthony Gilchrist telling one of the gang members how to get their hands on the convoy. Meredith has her mole. V jacks into the console and downloads the fill to her neural implants.

“What’s up?”

“Militech rep wanted to find her mole. She tries to get payback, I got intel,” V jacks out of the terminal, “lets go.”

They rush out of the server room and throw themselves back into the fray, slicing through Militech soldiers, as if they were never gone. V goring a soldier with both blades as Jackie blows the brains out of the last one.

Dum-Dum leads them through the rest of the plant, turns and curves and stairways, a maze of metal. The three cutting their way through Militech soldiers one body after the other, clearing the room after room. Until they open a door at the top of a stair case, showing what may have once been a massive garage portion of the plant.

“I’ll melt your fuckin’ skin off!” Royce screams and laughs from inside a Militech armored exoskeleton, using it to fire off a massive gun that bursts flames around the feet of the soldiers. They shoot and fire at Royce along with a large automated robot

“We gotta help him!” Dum-Dum yells out, rushing into the fray to help his boss, Royce cackling as the soldier try to shoot him.

“He's fuckin' happy! That's almost contagious!” Jackie laughs, him and V jumping in to help.

Dum-Dum, Jackie, and V focus on the soldiers; trying to get their fire off of Royce, so he can focus on the heavy duty robot blasting back at him. Pure reflex as bullets fly, blades slash, and body after body falls down at their feet. Chaos, adrenaline; Royce’s manic cackling making them want to laugh too. Last bit if human soldiers down, Its all on taking down the hulking robot that, it’s armored outside burned and damaged, but not destroyed by the heavy fire Royce blasts it with. V sheaths her blades within her arms, getting her gun from it’s holster and firing round after round into the tech. Jackie and Dum-Dum do the same; five guns, it sputters and sparks, one finally piercing the core of its circuits. The heap of metal collapsing.

“Khe. The hell're you still doin' here...?” Royce scoffs when he sees Jackie and V are still there.

“Helping, apparently,” V signs in response, she doesn’t expect much in the way of gratitude. But a little acknowledgement that her and Jackie did a lot of heavy lifting here would be nice.

“Take your fuckin’ bot and go.”

She was going to anyway, not caring about nor needing his permission to steal what they need, but the fact that he’s giving it to them is not lost on V. Maybe it’s his own odd way of showing gratitude for helping tear through Militech soldiers. Or maybe he’s just too tired to give a fuck.

“I'll walk 'em out,” Dum-Dum offers.

“You here to kick our asses out”

“Huh? No. Wanted to let you know I like your style,” he points them down a hallway, a door marked exit, “here you go.”

“Can’t fucking believe that guy,” Jackie grumbles as him and V start out the towards the exit.

“What is your problem with him? First the couch and now this?”

“Don’t like the fucker’s tone,” Jackie says opening the exit door, “guy rubbed my dick the wrong way.”

“Well, maybe you should stop letting random dudes rub your dick,” V teases him for his choice of words as they finally get a breath of fresh air, well, as fresh as Night City air gets.

“Fuck- oh shit.”

“Oh fuck.”

Outside the All Foods gateway is Meredith Stout, surrounded by Militech marked vans and a handful of guards. They block the only exit, standing between the mercs and their vehicles. Meredith’s eyes land squarely on V; lips pulling back in a sneer, eyes brimming with contempt.

“That the Militech bitch?”

“Un-fucking-fortunately.”

“You.” Meredith all but snarls, glaring V down as the mercs walk closer, standing before the corpo.

“Me.”

“Hmm, bet you didn’t expect to see me here, did you? Thought you could fuck me over, kill your tail and you could just do whatever you wanted?”

“You gave me a spiked chip, were going to leave me cleaning up Militech’s mess. You tried to fuck me over first.”

“And somewhere at the start someone fucked the corp, but in the end the corp always wins. Try as hard as you want, all you’ve done is proven I got nothing to lose by getting rid of you.”

“Oh but you do,” V’s word make Meredith’s eyebrow raise, “I mean, if you want to know who your mole is.”

“You know?”

“Yeah, Maelstrom was so busy trying to fight off your men, didn’t even notice me looking through their computer. Got the file on me, could send it to you, but if you’re just going to kill me, not much point.”

“Send the file and I’ll let you go.”

“And how do I know you won’t blow my brains out the second it goes through?”

“You don’t, but you do know I’ll kill you if you don’t send it.”

V rolls her eyes and her mask interface lights up as she sends the data to Meredith; the corpo woman’s eyes glowing a bright blue light as it transfers.

“I fucking knew it,” Meredith blurts out, “Gilchrist you sack of shit.”

“We good?”

“I got what I needed… you know, this was pretty clever of you.”

“Was it?”

“Throw me off, get me to attack the plant, get Maelstrom on your side, but get the info to keep Militech happy too. Bet you’re ten thousand eddies richer and got your bot, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Mind like that, maybe a couple years down the line, you could be standing where I am.”

And V’s stomach churns, her actions being compared to corporate skullduggery and backstabbing. V did what she had to and in the end she didn’t side with the corp. She bites the inside of her lip and she glares through her mask at the corporate cunt.

“Think I’d rather ride a sandpaper dildo, actually.”

Meredith scoffs, “let them through.”

The sea of Militech soldier parts; the two mercs allowed to walk through. Jackie all but collapses, leaning against his motorcycle, there’s still blood sticking to his hands. She’s still coated in a heavy layer herself.

“Not going to lie, wasn’t sure we’d make it out of that one. But, hey; no begging, no debt, eddies in a pocket and we got the bot. That’s the way to do biz, V.”

“We make a good team, plus I’m starting to think we’re just really lucky.”

“Ain't you a ray of sunshine. But, V, it ain't a matter of luck. You decide, chica. Remember that, part of why I love this town. The city of endless opportunity. And brotherly hate. But if you got the cojones and know how to use ‘em, you can do damn near anything.”

“Or die trying.”

“Even then you go out with a bang! And the street'll talk, the street'll remember. Win-win.”

“Rather the street talk about me while I’m alive to hear it, but maybe that’s just me; so what next?”

“Call up Dex, let him know we got his bot for him.”

V does just that, pulling up Dex’s contact and calling him, patching the call into Jackie’s too. Her friend’s optics glowing as the holophone rings. Dex answering after just a moment, puffing away on a cigar in the video panel.

“How're things lookin’, Miss V?”

“Managed to grab the bot.”

“And how’d it go? Run into any trouble? And what about the Militech angle, Bug told me you hacked some sort of cred chip?”

“Course there was trouble, but ended up not even needing the chip. Was ready to spike Maelstrom, when Militech got antsy. While they were ripping each other’s throats out, we got the bot and an extra ten thousand eddies for our trouble.”

“You got some balls, Miss V.”

“So, what now?”

“Now, we get to work on doing the job I hired you for- grabbing that biochip. Get some sleep, you and Jackster. Because tomorrow, we start prepping for the real heist. Have a car picking you up in the morning.”

With that, the fixer hangs up, Jackie and V exchanging looks.

“What you think he’s got in store for us?”

“I don’t know, we’re gonna have to play corpo to get into that hotel, should be interesting.”

“Either way, I’m off for the night,” Jackie says, climbing onto his arch, “hasta luego, V.”

She waves him off, watching him drive off down the streets of Night City. Her body and mind feel tired, limbs heavy and still caked with blood. But, she’s not sure how well she’ll sleep tonight. Nerves and excitement, there’s no telling what tomorrow will hold.

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #silverv #johnny silverhand #female v #jackie welles #misty olszewski #viktor vector #meredith stout #aidan becker #aidan v becker

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commenter2 · 4 years ago

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New Rift Apart trailer breakdown

We finally got a new trailer for Rift Apart and it is filled with TONS of new info about the story and gameplay. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p_gg9UW9k4

Like I promised here is a breakdown.

Like some people were theorizing, the trailer opens with what I think will be the opening cutscene of the game as Ratchet and Clank, and probably Qwark given the balloon and holograms, are being celebrated at a parade to thank them for saving the universe time and time again. We then see Ratchet and Clank presented with the Dimensionator which I bet the people of the parade gave to them (after Clank and others fixed it) so that Ratchet could go visit the Lombaxes in there dimension if he wanted to as part of universe's appreciation. However to there shock Dr. Nefarious (whos mech was hiding in a Dr. Nefarious balloon which is clever and funny) takes it.

The next big cutscene I think takes place at the end of the gameplay demo we got in August as Nefarious’s mech is damaged here, likely as a result of crashing after the Dimensionator blew up. Here Nefarious opens a portal to the dimension where he always wins and Ratchet and Clank get sucked into it, though I bet the end up somewhere else first. Ratchet calls out to Clank and is shocked to discover another Lombax and we see that Clank lost his arm somehow and he meets the female Lombax. An interesting note here is that Clank lost his right arm, just like the female Lombax did, which is intriguing and a relief as I was nervous that Ratchet was going to lose his own arm during the adventure like she di if it turns out she is just a female version of him. I wonder if Clank gets a replacement arm and because of it being made of materials from an alternate dimension, he gets his new interdimensional powers ?

After all this time we FINALLY learn the female Lombaxes name which is………Rivet ! I’m still kind of meh about the name but I bet I’ll learn to love it.

Were quickly given two bits of gameplay info here, one is that Clank WILL be teaming up with Rivet just like he does with Ratchet and we get a new gameplay mechanic obviously inspired by Insomniac Games’s Spider-Man as with the aid of the gravity boots Rivet (and likely Ratchet) can run on metallic walls. We also see that Rivet also has a swingshot AND a rift tether and can use it on yellow rifts.

Speaking of rifts if you look closely at that swinghsot scene, there seems to be a blue rift ! I wonder if they can only be accessed by Clank or after doing a hacking puzzle like I mentioned before ?

We then get a few scenes of some of the levels that Rivet and Clank will be able to go to in the game, one looks like AU Sargasso, one looks like a shipyard with a building with a Mr. Zurkon statue on it, a market on AU Torren IV, and some kind of asteroid field.

That last one is the most interesting as after Rivet hits a crystal it with her hammer, she and Clank seem to go to a new dimension. Maybe unlike Ratchet she has to use them to travel the omniverse ? Another idea is that this is an example of Clank’s interdimesional powers as the area that Rivet and Clank appear in does have some similarities to that weird area they were in before hitting the crystal. Maybe there in some sort of space between dimensions and hitting specific crystals can take them to specific dimensions ?

We then hear and later see a female robot surprised to see Emperor Nefarious return, followed by our Nefarious lying about being the emperor. I wonder if she’s the AU Nefarious equivalent of Lawrence ? By the way where is Lawrence ? This is interesting as it seems that the real Emperor Nefarious is gone, meaning he will probably be introduced later on in the game and when he does he will have something big planned.

We then get a scene that reminds me of a scene from ACIT as Ratchet sneaks up on Nefarious and after seeing a troubled Clank (which makes him sad) he accidently reveals himself, surprising Nefarious and we get a funny scene of Ratchet shushing him and hitting Nefarious across the face. I wonder if just like in that scene from ACIT this will cause Nefarious to get another crack on his dome and eye, but this time on the other side of his face XD

After a scene of a ship flying on Torren IV, we then hear Rivet talking about how Ratchet and Clank’s Nefarious is just like hers and is also surprised to see another Lombax. A quick note, I believe that segment of her gameplay from earlier in the trailer is the gameplay that leads to Rivet and Clank back to her base of sorts. We then see Ratchet take a Nefarious ship, likely the same one I mentioned earlier. Could this confirm that there will be space battles and if so could we ride Aphelion ?

While a battle take place on Torren IV while the giant robot shoots down a ship, just like in his bio card from twitter we hear Clank says that every dimension could be lost if they don’t get the Dimensionator back. During that screenshot of the shot ship going down, there is a statue of someone on the bottom right corner who I think could be a new character. He could be an AU character as he kinda looks like captain slag on a Vorselon like body.

We then see that the robot will go after Rivet and Clank (who is still missing his arm) as it is about to stop them while on the rails. This kinda reminds me of that Kerchu guardian boss fight from TOD which mean its seems like this will be a multi step boss fight which I love. I also feel like Torren IV is the place in the game’s story where Ratchet and Clank reunite and where Ratchet meets Rivet.

The next few scenes happen quite quickly but there are some interesting things here.

HOVERBOOTS CONFIMRED ! It also seems that he acquires them while Clank is still with Rivet.

Some new gameplay as unlike Ratchet , when Rivet dashes to the side we see her make several hologram versions of herself which actually seems to draw fire from the enemies ! We also see her wielding a new pistol weapon of sorts. Maybe it could be a modified or V5 Burst Pistol ?

There is a scene of Rivet ALONE riding a bug as she chases a bug shaped ship.

We see Ratchet AND Clank on Ardolis, specifically a remake of that room we break into in the caves to get to the Lombax artifact in TOD, blasting robot pirates with a machine gun weapon. This scene seems to confirm that maybe at certain points during the game Clank will switch between partnering up with Ratchet and Rivet. That or they are together because this is early in the game and like in the August gameplay they get separated when they get on that ship being attacked by that squid.

A Clank less Ratchet uses a grenade launcher of sorts at an enemy. Instead of exploding though the ball seems to move around pretty fast, striking the enemy multiple times.

The trailer ends with that bug shaped ship from earlier crashing and Rivet about to hit the driver with her hammer. I think that will be another multi step boss fight as a part of the ship was missing.

An awesome trailer for sure but thanks to VTNVIVI there is more info about Rift Apart. Thanks to him I found a link to PlayStation blog filled with new info: https://blog.playstation.com/2021/04/26/meet-rivet-the-mysterious-new-protagonist-in-ratchet--clank-rift-apart/

One minor thing stated here is that the level ruled by Emperor Nefarious is called Nefarious City, which I’m surprised we didn’t call it that before, oh well.

Its confirmed that Mark Mothersbaug composed the music. He was behind the music of Crash and Jak and Daxter which is interesting. Speaking of music you can actually listen to some of the soundtrack on the PS Blog, one of which is called “Ride Though the Omniverse” which on a minor note confirms that there calling this an omniverse instead of a multiverse, just like in ACIT.

We get to see the 5 armor sets that comes with preordering the game digitally. Its confirmed that they are cosmetic and you can “mix-and-match” sets of armors. Though theses armors are cosmetic I still think the Carbonox armor will work like regular armor and reduce damage.

This trailer was very needed but guess what were getting more Rift Apart news ! We will be getting 15 minutes of new gameplay at the next PlayStations State of Play which is this Thursday the 29th at 2pm Pacific/5pm Eastern ! I'll probably be busy around that time but do expect a breakdown of it later this week.

With that said what were your thoughts on the trailer and the blog news ? What was your favorite moment from the trailer ?

Did you notice anything that I missed and what theorizes do you have about Rift Apart ?

#ratchet & clank #ratchet and clank #insomniac games #rivet #dr. nefarious #ratchet and clank: rift apart #ratchet & clank: rift apart #playstation 5

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ericsonclan · 3 years ago

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The Words I Always Wanted to Say

Summary

Overall Word Count

Chapter 1: The day of the proposals arrives with neither member of the couple suspecting what's in store.

Aasim had felt like puking all day. It wasn’t the sort of mood he’d hoped to be in on the day of his proposal, but he knew deep inside that postponing it wouldn’t make him feel any better. He’d already rescheduled three times and each day that was supposed to be the day had brought the same queasiness. His nerves would get to him no matter what. He simply had to power through.

Still, if he waited a bit longer then maybe he could rethink the whole picnic aspect of the proposal and spare his stomach the struggle…. No. Clementine would kill Aasim if he told her he was moving back his plans again. She’d already given him enough grief about the ring he’d held onto for a year. If he rescheduled for a fourth time, Clem wouldn’t need to throw Aasim to the walkers. She’d bite off his head herself.

Walking toward the front of the courtyard, Aasim spotted the object of his affections, his one true love. Ruby was making conversation with Clementine, something about the weather and what they should do about the vegetable garden if things got too stormy. Clementine spotted Aasim coming their way and excused herself, giving Aasim a knowing look before walking off. She and Omar were going hunting today.

Ruby noticed Aasim coming toward her a moment later. Turning toward him with a smile, she started to speak just as he did.

“Do you-” Both of them paused, waiting for the other to speak but the silence lasted a moment too long and they both started again. “I wanted to ask-” They stopped again, chuckling at their timing.

“You go first,” Ruby said, waiting patiently.

Aasim cleared his throat, swallowing the lump in it before he spoke again. “I was thinking today would be lovely for a picnic. Are you free?”

Ruby’s brows furrowed slightly. “Well, actually, I had some work I needed to finish up in the greenhouse,”

“I can wait,” Aasim leaned back against the picnic table, trying his best to look casual.

“Actually, it could take a while. Maybe you’d like to join me?” A small smile played on Ruby’s lips.

“…No. We need to do the picnic. Now,”

“But you just said you could wait,”

“I-I lied!” Aasim could feel his face heating up. This was a terrible start. Maybe he should abort today’s proposal after all.

Just as Ruby was about to say something further though, Prisha’s hand appeared on Ruby’s shoulder. “It’s alright, Ruby. I can make sure everything is sorted out in the greenhouse. It’ll be ready for you once you’re done with your picnic,” She looked meaningfully into the redhead’s eyes till Ruby sighed and nodded.

“Alright. It can wait a bit longer, I guess,” Turning back to Aasim, she slipped her warm hand into his. “Now whereabouts did you say this picnic was?”

“If you’ll just follow me…” Aasim turned toward the admin building, his breathing gradually returning to normal. His heart however still beat a frantic staccato within his chest. As they walked, he looked down at his love. “I’m sorry if I was forceful back there. It wasn’t my intention,”

“I know,” Ruby gave her boyfriend’s hand a small squeeze, a soft smile on her face. “It’s sweet of you to put a surprise together for me. My plans can wait,”

“As soon as our picnic is done, I can head over to the greenhouse with you and help finish up whatever work needs to be done,”

“That’d be heavenly,” The sparkle in Ruby’s eyes set Aasim’s heart fluttering. He knew how much the greenhouse meant to her. And time spent together after the proposal, just the two of them, sharing kisses over the planters full of turnips and tubers, would be the perfect ending to what Aasim hoped would be a truly magical day.

Ascending the staircase within the admin building, the pair made their way to the headmaster’s office. Ruby looked round in mild confusion. “Are we grabbing snacks from here and then heading out?”

“Actually, I had a special spot in mind for our picnic today,” Aasim nodded toward the double doors that led out to the balcony. Ruby quirked an eyebrow then headed over to the closed doors. Opening them slowly, she gasped when she saw the spread set out before them.

A faded gingham picnic blanket held the treasure trove of treats Aasim had amassed in the last few weeks. A multi-tiered tea tray constructed out of welded pieces of scrap metal held a multitude of tiny sandwiches. Each was composed out of a pair of old saltines with various fillings in the center from sliced spam to stewed rabbit Omar had prepped in the fashion of pulled pork to garden veggie sandwiches with all manner of fresh vegetables nestled between the stale crackers. Beside the tea tray lay their three teapots, each chipped and broken but still retaining their original dignity and grace. The varied aromas drifting from them told Ruby they each held a different blend of tea. Their finest set of china was also stacked neatly to the side, ready for fine dining. A cracked porcelain container held a good portion of the sparse supply of sugar the group had stowed away accompanied by a small jar Ruby knew to be the last of their honey. A huge bouquet composed of various wildflowers gave the finishing touch to the romantic display.

“Oh, Aasim…” Ruby was at a loss for words as she took everything in.

Silently, Aasim wrapped his arms round Ruby and gently kissed her cheek as he hugged her from behind. “I wanted to put together a surprise worthy of you,”

“This is all too much! Why, if we use up the last of the sugar-”

“Then I’ll trade for more. Don’t worry, my dove. I always find a way,” Loosening his embrace, Aasim sat upon the picnic blanket and motioned for Ruby to do the same.

The two of them settled in for a decadent lunch, both of them eating their fill as the world went by around them, the clouds drifting lazily across the warm, sunny sky as the day went on. As Aasim poured another cup of chamomile tea for Ruby, he found himself lost for a moment in her bright blue eyes. He really could stay like this forever with her. And that’s exactly what this proposal meant: a promise of forever. Not just for things to stay the same but for them to build a future together. Feeling the panic rise within once more, Aasim did his best to keep his composure.

“Something bugging ya, Pookie?” Ruby looked at Aasim over the rim of her teacup as she took a sip.

“It’s nothing, my love,” Aasim paused for a moment, looking out at the courtyard below. Willy was on watch with AJ beside him. Both boys were chatting excitedly, clearly intrigued by something just beyond the walls. Likely a funny looking walker knowing those two. Louis and Violet were at the picnic benches, Louis mending a pair of pants while Violet worked on one of the rabbit hides she was in the process of tanning. Prisha had just emerged from the cellar with a box full of metal pipes balanced in her good arm, likely continuing her seemingly endless quest to restore the school’s plumbing. Turning back to Ruby, Aasim grinned. “Do you know why I chose the balcony for our picnic today?”

“The view?” Ruby mused, glancing through the repair section of the railing down at their friends below.

“That was certainly a factor, but not entirely the full reason. I wanted us to have our lunch up here in order to celebrate all we’ve accomplished. From up here you can see it all: the greenhouse, the vegetable garden, the paddock for Molly, Milky Way and Comet. Even a few years ago, we didn’t have any of those things. It shows how far we’ve come, and I think a primary factor in our success is each other. Together, you and I truly can accomplish anything, even returning a former wilderness to civilization,”

Ruby nodded, admiring their work along with Aasim. “We certainly have accomplished a lot these past few years. And that’s thanks in no small part to you. I don’t think anybody could compete with your work ethic, ‘Sim, not even me,”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Aasim turned back to Ruby, his eyes on her. “Perhaps it isn’t the most romantic thing to say, but one of the things that first drew me to you was seeing how hard you worked. Every day, rain or shine, without fail. At first I thought it was simply a matter of pride, as it is with me. But the longer I observed you, the more I realized why you really work so hard. It’s out of love. You work so that those you love can have better lives and I can’t think of anything nobler than that,”

“Sounds like you were watching me for quite some time,” Ruby looked down at the picnic blanket, her cheeks ruddier than usual. “Now that I think about it, I never asked you what the moment was that made you realize you were falling for me,”

“I don’t think it was any one moment. For a long time, I saw my admiration of you simply as mutual respect. But as the years went on, my feelings gradually shifted into something more. Seeing you grow from the girl who stole my pencil case on my first day at Ericson into such a beautiful, fiery woman of integrity and valor, I can’t remember when I crossed that line from liking to loving you. But I do know this, Ruby O’Donnel. I have loved you for a long, long time,”

Reaching into his pocket, Aasim pulled out the wedding ring. He’d spent the last few weeks polishing it night after night till it glowed with its original radiance once more. It was far too large for Ruby’s finger, likely a man’s ring before, but the beauty of the symbol was there nonetheless. Shifting so that he knelt with one knee forward just as he’d always seen it done in books and long-lost movies, Aasim held up the ring in both hands. “Ruby, my love, will you marry me?”

Ruby was quiet for a second. Then another. Aasim could feel his heart pounding in his ears as he held his pose wondering if someway, somehow, this had been the wrong move to make. Finally, Ruby broke the silence. “I want to show you something. Come with me,”

She could tell Aasim was nervous. Hell, she would be too if he’d left her high and dry after asking the question first. Ruby felt a twinge of guilt at leaving him so perplexed just for the sake of her pride, but she couldn’t say yes just yet. There was something she needed to do first, the very thing she’d been planning in the greenhouse before Aasim sprung the surprise picnic upon her. It wasn’t far to the greenhouse. Once they were there, he’d see why she’d brought him.

The courtyard was empty as they walked through it and the area surrounding the greenhouse too. Aasim looked more and more nervous with each step he took but followed Ruby willingly, obliging her when she opened the greenhouse door for him and motioned for Aasim to enter first. As soon as he did, Aasim let out a reverent gasp.

The entire greenhouse was aglow with candlelight. Mason jars of purple, red and green covered every inch of the space, lined up along the shelves, on the edges of planters, tucked along the sides of the walkways and even a few suspended above them. Some strands of twinkle lights also ran along the bases of the planters, bartered in a recent trade Aasim had been a part of. Flower petals were scattered over the ground, all leading to a central point before their feet. The petals there formed a simple message: I love you.

“Do you like it?” Ruby whispered, causing Aasim to turn round.

“Ruby, I… it’s glorious,” Aasim’s voice caught a bit, his eyes watering lightly.

“Now that you’ve seen it, I bet you’ve figured out why I wanted to go so badly to the greenhouse earlier today. And why I didn’t want to say yes just yet. Cause first I want to say my piece,” Clearing her throat, Ruby pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper from her pocket and began to read. “My love, I can’t remember the first time my eyes turned in your direction in that special way. I’d always thought you were cute, but considering that our early days started with me being more than a bit of a bully to ya, I never thought anything would come of that. Then the world fell apart and we were both so busy surviving I didn’t even let myself believe love was anywhere in my future.

But somewhere along the way, deep within my heart of hearts, I think I always wanted it to be you. Truth be told, our first kiss might have happened a couple days sooner if you’d just asked more politely. I’m happy with the way things ended up though. I’ll never forget our first kiss and I’ll never stop thanking the good Lord you came back to me that day.

This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while. More than a while, probably from the very start. But I had all sorts of silly thoughts in my head that you had to be the one to propose first or it wouldn’t be proper. That was all a load of horse apples though. So, I put all this together to ask you a question, a question I hope you’ll answer the way I’ve been dreaming. Aasim…” Ruby paused, fishing something out of her pocket. Lifting it up, she revealed a tiny, glittery pink ring, so small it would probably only fit on Aasim’s pinky. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes! Yes!” Before either of them could say anything further, Aasim cupped Ruby’s face and pressed his lips to hers in a deep kiss. That kiss turned to another then another till finally Aasim pulled back and took the ring Ruby had offered. Slipping it as far down as it would go onto his pinky, Aasim held his hand out to admire it.

“Darn, it’s an even worse fit than I thought,” Ruby mumbled. “I’ve been searching all over God’s green earth for a proper ring of some sort and all I could scrounge up was this dress up ring I had from way back before the school even fell,”

“I love it,” Reaching toward the table behind her, Aasim grabbed a length of twine and the gardening shears and snipped off a portion of it. Slipping the ring onto the twine, he tied it around his neck, letting the ring rest just below the zipper on his hoodie. “Honestly, mine is probably an awful fit too. It’s embarrassing really,”

“Are you kidding? You propose with a bona fide gold ring while I use a cereal box prize and you’re acting as if it’s the same thing?” Ruby shook her head, taking the twine and scissors from him and cutting her own piece. Gingerly taking the ring from Aasim, Ruby looped it though the twine then tied it round her neck where it lay snugly just below the collar of her shirt.

The two of them smiled at each other, lost in the happiness of the moment before chuckles escaped their lips.

“I can’t believe it,” Aasim murmured, shaking his head. “For both of us to choose the exact same day… what are the odds? When you didn’t answer my proposal and brought me down to the greenhouse instead, I wasn’t sure what to expect, perhaps a rejection, but certainly not this.”

“Now that’s the silliest thing I ever heard!” Ruby exclaimed, lightly whacking her betrothed on the arm. “As if I’d ever say no to you! I just didn’t want you to steal my thunder!” Her eyes turned to the greenhouse, admiring the décor. “Thank goodness Prisha knew the last few pieces of the plan to get this greenhouse gussied up. I don’t know what would have happened without her help,”

“Prisha knew? She and Willy were the ones who made that tea tray for the picnic! She was in on both plans,” Aasim looked toward the door. “Was she the only one who helped you set this up?”

“Well, Louis was involved too. He was the first one I told about the proposal,”

“And if Louis knew then Clementine knew. Clem was the first one I confided in about the ring,”

The couple shared a look. How far did the others’ involvement go? The courtyard had suddenly been empty as they were heading toward the greenhouse. Was it still empty now? Hand in hand, the pair opened the door and stepped outside.

The courtyard was no longer empty after all. In fact, everyone was there. The others stood round one of the picnic tables, chattering excitedly. As soon as they saw Aasim and Ruby though, they suddenly went quiet. That was until AJ stepped forward.

“Happy wedding!” he shouted, tossing a handful of tinsel into the air. Willy joined him, throwing his own handful and blowing enthusiastically on an old kazoo.

“Boys, remember, it’s ‘happy engagement,’” Prisha corrected gently before her eyes returned to the happy pair. “Congratulations, you two. We couldn’t be happier for you,”

“It’s like I’m giving away my own children,” Louis commented, wiping a mock tear from his eye. “They grow up so fast,”

Clementine shook her head good-naturedly, taking Louis’ hand in hers. “Congratulations, both of you. Seeing as we all knew both your plans, we’ve been working on a little surprise of our own,”

“It’s PANCAKE DAY!” Willy shouted, jumping around ecstatically. Omar lifted up a plate of pancakes that had been hidden on the picnic benches, Violet holding a second plate. Both of them smiled at the happy couple.

Aasim and Ruby shared a smile of their own then stepped forward, joining the group for the celebratory feast. The day hadn’t gone how either of them had expected, yet it had blossomed into something more beautiful than they’d ever dreamed. As Ruby sat down at the picnic table, Aasim’s hand in hers, her family surrounding her, her cheeks glowed with excitement. “Let’s get to planning some weddings!”

#twdg #fanfic #rusim #twdg aasim #twdg ruby #twdgs4

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valeriethepussycats · 4 years ago

Text

Assemble

Chapter 3

Pairing- Loki x Reader x Steve (one side)

Warning- cursing

Your thoughts and other characters are in italics.

Flashback Bold

The next day. Y/n is standing outside a gym trying to keep her powers under control but but it’s hard when your surrounded by people.

What’s in my fridge right now?....Do I have any milk?

I think I’m pregnant with my brother in-law baby’s

How come you never read about a psychic

winning the lottery?

Am I Ashy? I hope I’m not Ashy.

Why is Batman a superhero when he brutally Beats up bad guys for saying hello.

When I get home I’m watching A Bug’s Life.

Calming down the voices she finally walks inside the gym and see Captain America. He’s beats the punching bag harder, like physically hurting it will repress the memories.

Hydra base, Captain America is running through a forest, didging mortar shells, gunfire and Tesseract energy blasts.

“There's not enough time! I gotta put her in the water!” Steve’s Voice echoed.

In the present, Steve's punches become harder and more violent.

Steve places the compass he has, featuring a picture of Peggy Carter, on the dash as the plane plummets towards the ice.

The present, punches become voilent and agressive.

“You won't be alone.” Peggy declared.

Red skull picked up the Tesseract, and vanishes.

In the present, Steve is beathing the bag with everything he has, destroying it and beating his fists.

“Oh my god!”

Steve is lying on a table, half frozen, and still partially trapped in a slab of ice. Two SHIELD scientists run equipment over him, checking for his vitals. Something flickers...

“This guy is still alive!”

Y/n gets pulled out of Steve’s mind. “Wow. That one way to come backwards to the world.

“You punch any harder your fist is gonna go though it.“

Steve stops punching the bag and turns around and see Y/n. “Agent Munroe ma’am. Phil told me that you were coming.”

“Y/n. Just call me Y/n.” She said with a smile.

Steve starts to punch the bag again. “It's nice to meet.”

“Likewise. So how do you feel?” Y/n asked showing concern for a man she just met.

Y/n walks up to a punching bag next to Steve and, starts playfully punching it.

“Like I belong in a different time.....all of this is so strange. Flat screen TVs, cars that run on electricity.....” Steve trailed off.

“It’s understandable but look at the bright side you can have food deliver to your house.” Y/n said with a fond look.

Steve looks at Y/n confused.

“Pizza. Chinese food... Oh men we have to make some stops before we go to Shield.” Y/n proclaimed.

“We don’t have time to make stops. They need us this is important.” Steve protested.”You’re right they do. But you need to experience this first and I know you're hungry.” Y/n insisted.

Steve sigh defeat. “Ok fine but only for an hour two at it’s tops.”

“Yes! You dont know it yet but This the start of an beautiful friendship.” Y/n said With a sincere smile as her and Steve walk out the gym.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Inside the Quinjet, Steve is sitting down with a tablet, watching the footage of the Hulk's attack on the Army at Culver University.

“We're about forty minutes out from base, sir.” One of the pilots said

Agent Coulson stands up from his seat and wipe his face with a napkin.

Francis’s pizza is so good.

Y/n chuckles as Coulson and walks over to her and Steve.

“So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?” Steve asked.

“A lot of people were. I was assign to stop some of them. You were the world's first superhero.” Y/n replied.

“Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula.” Coulson informed Steve.

The Hulk roars with fury as he slams a jeep apart.

“Didn't really go his way, did it?” Steve queried.

“Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking” Coulson explained.

Steve looks confused.

Y/n leans over and whispers. “He's a smart person.”

“I gotta say, it’s an honor to meet you, officially.” Steve smiles at Coulson as he continues. “I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping.” Steve looks down then a Y/n. He stands up, closes his laptop and walks to the side with Coulson following. “I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board.”

“Smooth. Real smooth Coulson.” Y/n lied.

“Well, I hope I'm the man for the job.” Steve remarked.

“Of course you are you’ve done amazing things in the past. You’re the perfect person for this job.” Y/n said sincerely and with a small smile.

“Ya Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input.” Coulson told Steve.

“The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?” Steve supposed.

“With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned.” Coulson stated.

As Steve takes in Coulson's sentiment. The Quinjet lands down a massive battleship known as the Helicarrier. It has two runways. One with direct access to a hangar at the rear is aligned along the spine of the vessel. Y/n walks up to Phill.

“Does the name Ororo Munroe mean anything to you?” Y/n questioned.

“No. Does it suppose to.” Coulson lied.

“No I guess not.” Y/n remarked not hiding her disappointment.

Agent Coulson, Y/n, and Steve walk down the ramp, meeting up with Natasha.

“Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers.” Coulson said introducing the two.

“Ma’am?” Steve replied.

“Hi.” She looks at Coulson. “They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace.”

“Nat” Y/n said happily. “I didn’t know you were going to be here Coulson doesn’t tell me anything.” Y/n hugs Natasha then they both look at Coulson like ‘explain.’

“See you there.” Coulson said walks away, leaving Steve and Y/n with Natasha, the pair walking towards the railing of the Helicarrier.

“It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?” Natasha wondered.

“Trading cards?” Steve asked confused.

“They’re vintage, he's very proud.” Y/n disclosed.

Bruce Banner is seen walking around the ship, trying to stay out of the way while people walk in his way.

“Dr. Banner.” Steve called out.

The three walk up to each other and shake hands.

“Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming.” Bruce began. “You must be agent Munroe.”

“You can call me Y/n it’s nice to finally meet you.” Y/n replied.

“Thanks.” Bruce said in a casual tone.

“Word is you can find the cube.” Steve Inclined.

“Is that the only word on me?” Bruce questioned.

“Only word I care about.” Steve answered.

Bruce takes in the sentiment. “It must be strange for you, all of this.”

Steve looks off to where a group of men in training are running, remembering his days in the army. “Well, this is actually kind of familiar.”

“Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath.” Natasha disclosed.

The Helicarrier starts to shake as it prepares to take "sail". Others abord strap down planes and Quinjets in preparation.

“Is this a submarine?” Steve asked Y/n.

“Really? They wanted me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?” Bruce Said with sarcasm.

“No no it not a submerged.” Y/n answered.

The two both move closer to the edge of the Helicarrier. Four huge lift fans mounted on the sides starts to lift into the air as the ship takes flight. Steve watches in awe while Bruce just smiles.

“Oh, no. This is much worse.” Bruce said with mock astonishment.

The doors part and we enter the bridge of the ship. A flurry of activity, dozens of agents sit in front of their viewscreens. Agent Hill shouts instructions to leave. The camera turns to Nick Fury who is at the command chair.

“We're at lock, sir.” Agent Hill disclosed.

“Good. Let's vanish.” Nick answered.

The Helicarrier rises high into the heavens. Suddenly the entire ship is covered in reflecting mirrors, which then camouflages in the sky. Steve, Y/n and Banner walk through the glorious, gleaming bridge

“Gentlemen.” Nick started.

Steve gives Fury 10 bucks, referring to his earlier statement about never being surprised again. “And agent Munroe what a Surprise I thought you were in Sydney.”

“Well I got tired of helping Umm Marlin look for Nemo.” Y/n said with fire.

Fury walks over Banner and extends his hand. Banner, reluctantly shakes it.] Doctor, thank you for coming.

“Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?” Bruce asked.

“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear.” Nick replied.

“Where are you with that?” Bruce asked.

Nick Fury turns to Agent Coulson to explain, while Natasha eyes an image of Clint Barton on a computer screen.

“We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us.” Agent Coulson explained.

“That's still not gonna find them in time.” Natasha mumbled.

“Couldn’t we use spectrometers to speed up the process?” Y/n said pondering out loud.

“Yes that could work. How many spectrometers do you have access to?” Bruce voiced.

“How many are there?” Nick asked Bruce.

“Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?” Bruce said with determination

“Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please.” Nick order.

Natasha nods and walks off, leading Banner down the hall. “You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys.”

Y/n goes to leave as well but gets stop by the sound of Nick Fury.

“Agent Munroe my office.” Nick announced.

“No offense but I don’t think you want that right now.” Y/n said fire.

“My office now.” Nick hissed ordered

Y/n and Nick walks to his office in silence. Y/n is barely holding back her anger and this Conversation with Director Fury is not going to help but she needs to get this off her chest or she’ll explode. Director Fury opens the door to his office and Motion for Y/n to walk in. She walks past him into the room and sit down in the chair in front of his desk. Director Fury closes the door and looks at Y/n.

“What are you doing here?” Nick asked.

“I’m here to help.” Y/n declared.

“You were supposed to be in Sydney.” Nick pointed out

“How do you know I was supposed to be in Sydney I haven’t called to do a check in.” Y/n teased.

I wonder if he’s going to tell me that he has a Tracking Device on me.

“Agent Coulson told me of your whereabouts.” Nick answered.

“Hmm I bet he did.” Y/n replied.

”Your assistance is no longer required we can we can handle it from here head home.” Nick ordered.

“Are you kidding me.” Y/n shouted. As she shot up from her seat. “I’m the only one here that knows anything remotely about Loki and you’re gonna bench me.”

”And how would you know that.” Nick questioned.

“re.....search.” Y/n lied.

Nick gives Y/n ‘the I’m not believing you’ look.

“Ok fine I was there ok I fought The Destroyer.” Y/n confessed.

“I already knew I was just waiting on you to tell me.” Nick replied.

“Of course you knew why wouldn’t you know.” Y/n said dryly.

“I’m not saying you’re not best the person for the job I’m saying it’s not safe with your condition.” Nick remarked.

“My cond- what is my condition?”

“It is not....it’s not safe for the people on this Helicarrier if you don’t have control your powers.”

“You want to talk about safety of the people, was you trying to keep me safe by not telling me my mother is alive or keeping me away from Gambit.” Y/n Stated.

The anger she felt roll off of her like a wave which made the room begin to shake.

“Y/n I didn’t tell you because-“

“You are afraid another November 18 is gonna happen.....ye have little faith. I want Gambit here now and if you can’t get him here I want a number. I’m not talking those stupid pills anymore.” Y/n declared as she throws the pill bottle in trash. “And I’m going to stay here and help and you’re going to allow it.” Y/n finished as she walks out of the room not waiting for his response.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Back in the underground lab, Loki is looking Looking through all the Shield Agent portfolios until he comes across one in particular. Agent Munroe’s portfolio. As Loki opens portfolios to read it he finds every page in there to be blank.

“Agent Barton a word.” Loki called.

Clint walks over to Loki like a puppet with strings.

“What do you know of Agent Munroe?” Loki asked.

“She is a powerful mutant that can control the weather and read minds.” Clint answered.

“Read minds hmm that will be all.” Loki said smirking.

Erik and several scientists work around the CMS device. Clint walks in, holding a tablet.

“Put it over there!” Erik told Clint. “Where did you find all these people?”

“Shield has not shortage of enemies, Doctor.” Clint Stated as he holds up a screen showing information on Iridium. “Is this the stuff you need?”

“Yeah, iridium. It's found in meteorites, it forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get hold of.” Erik explained.

“Especially if Shield knows you need it.” Clint Mumbled

“Well, I didn't know!” Erik said gruffly. Then he Sees Loki walking in. “Hey! The Tesseract is showing me so much. It's more than just knowledge, it's... truth.”

“I know. What did it show you, Agent Barton?” Loki wondered.

“My next target.” Clint voiced

“Tell me what you need.” Loki replied.

“I'll need a distraction.” Clint said grabbing his bow. “And an eyeball.”

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

That night in the Helicarrier bridge. As they are waiting to locate Loki using satellite facial recognition, Coulson is standing with Steve.

“I mean, if it's not too much trouble.”Coulson suggested

“No, no. It's fine.” Steve reassured Coulson.

“It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but...”

“We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent.” Agent Jasper Sitwell announced.

“Location?” Coulson asked.

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding.” Agent Jasper Sitwell answered.

“Captain, you're up.” Nick disclosed.

Steve nods and walks off the bridge. Walking down the hallway he passes Y/n.

“We found Loki he’s In Germany.” Steve informed Y/n as he’s walking down the hallway.

“Radio silence and now he’s making appearance that’s not strange at all.....You got this Cap now go show him who’s he’s Messing with.” Y/n sincerely with a smile.

“Yes ma’am.” Steve said with a fond look and a head nod.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Outside the Stuttgart Museum, it’s night. Loki is standing in front of the museum, dressed in 21st Century attire with his scepter disguised as a cane. He walks up to the entrance of the gala.

A lavished gala with an orchestra playing is interrupted as the head doctor walks up to the mic.

Inside Helicarrier where Steve's locker is. Steve walks into the locker room. As he approaches to the steel cabinet, the doors already reveal the updated Captain America uniform, along with the famous shield. He stands in silence.

Outside the museum. German guards stand in their positions. One of them is standing on tip of the roof, scoping. He then hears a sound. He looks down. One of his guards is shot with an arrow. He raises his gun. He is shot dead by an arrow. Falls down. Barton and his crew arrive at the doors of the locked science building. Barton looks at the retinal scanner.

He pulls out a Shield eye scanner instrument. Inside the gala, Loki looks from above the museum and descends down to where the head doctor is. As he makes it down and near the stage, he flips his cane the other end. The guard there notices him, pulls out his gun, but Loki clubs his head in. Chaos erupts. Guests begin to leave the museum. Loki grabs the doctor and flips him over onto a marble table of the mythological creatures bilchsteim. Loki pulls out an optical torture device. He plunges down the doctor's eye. The doctor twists in pain.

Outside the museum.

Suddenly from Barton's instrument, a holographic eye of the head doctor appears and the image of the doctor appears on screen. The doors to the facility open. Barton walks in and finds in a cabinet, a glass thermos with a cylinder of iridium. As the crowd runs away, Loki slowly walks out and materializes in his gold armor and helmet. The police arrive and with no hesitation, he blasts the cars, flipping them over and over.

“Kneel before me.” Loki voiced but crowd ignores him. Three more Loki's appear, surrounding and blocking the crowd from escaping. “I said KNEEL!” Loki yelled. While the crowd quietly kneels, Loki embraces out his arms with a wide smile

“Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.” Loki declared.

As the words resonate to the kneeling crowd, an elder German man refuses to kneel and stands, heroic. “Not to men like you.”

“There are no men like me.” Loki specified.

“There are always men like you.” Elder German Man remarked.

“Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example.” As Loki is about to execute the man with his scepter as the light glows blue. Right as the energy beam shoots out, Captain America arrives, diving in just in time to block the blast with his shield, and knocking down Loki.

“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.” Captain America explained

Loki Standing up. “The soldier. A man out of time.”

“I'm not the one who's out of time.” Captain America replied.

From above Captain America, the Quinjet arrives. A machine gun is pointed towards Loki, while Natasha speaks from inside the aircraft.

“Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.”

Like greased lightning, Loki sends a blast of blue at the Quinjet. Natasha maneuvers it just in time, giving Cap the time to throw his shield at Loki. They both began to duke it out. Loki flings Cap to the ground, and then Cap throws his shield, but Loki swats it away. As Cap is knocked down by Loki, the scepter is pointed to Cap's helmet.

“Kneel.” Loki ordered.

“Not today!” Cap flips and knocks him out with his leg. Loki grabs him and flips him over]

“This guy's all over the place.” Natasha mumbled.

Suddenly AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill" overdrives to the Quinjets speakers.

“Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?” Tony Stark wondered. Both Cap and Loki look up at the sky. Tony flies over in his Iron Man suit and blasts Loki right back to the ground. Iron Man touches down. He stands up and pulls out every piece of weaponry the suit has. “Make your move, Reindeer Games.”

Loki puts up his hands and surrenders. His armour materializes away

“Good move.” Tony said in a level tone.

“Mr. Stark.”

“Captain.”

Part 4

#loki x reader #loki x black!reader #steve x reader #steve x black!reader #thor x reader #avengers x reader #marvel x reader

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primroseprime2019 · 4 years ago

Text

Darkness Rising- Part Two

"Of all the Energon deposits we have located while you were away, Lord Megatron, this one, by far, is the most significant," Starscream boasted to Megatron.

"The drones have been mining without pause during your absence," Echo said, "and have massed quite the stockpile."

"You there! Fetch me a sample," Starscream said. "Starscream, now that I have returned, I shall issue the commands," Megatron said firmly.

"Of course Lord Megatron," Starscream said quickly, "then as your humble servants, shall we ready the space bridge to bring forth the Decepticon army you surely have gathered during your three years in space?"

"My army will come," Megatron said, "my time away has yielded a more... intriguing means of materializing them." He pulled out a bright purple shard, "the solidified form of the matter the Ancient Texts refer to as the Blood of Unicron."

"Unicron the Destroyer?" Echo said, surprised. "But it is said that his blood is the anti-spark," Starscream said.

"Plucked from Cosmic Shores. Gaze upon Dark energon," Megatron said.

"Legend tells that it holds the power to... revive the dead," Echo said with a frown. "We require a cadaver to be certain," Megatron said and he turned to Starscream and Echo, "are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?"

"Eheh, that won't be necessary, my liege," Starscream said quickly while Echo shook her helm. "If I may, Lord Megatron," Starscream said. He gestured to the body of Cliffjumper as Decepticon drones brought it over on an electronic stretcher.

"Consider it a welcome home present," Starscream said.

◊◊◊◊

"And since you know of our existence, I fear that as of last night, the Decepticons know of yours," Optimus said.

"Got it. We see any strange vehicles, call 9-1-1," Jack said, "can we go now?" "It's not that simple Jack," Paige said quietly.

"Are you insane?" Miko hissed at Jack, "I'm living a dream here in Botswana! And I will not allow you or anyone else to shatter it."

"It is best that you four remain under our watch," Optimus said, much to Miko's excitement and Jack's dismay, "until we can learn more of our enemies' intentions."

"Optimus, with all due respect, the human children are in as much danger here as anywhere," Ratchet said.

"Children?" Jack repeated, offended as Miko, Raf and Paige gave Ratchet offended looks.

"They have no protective shell," Ratchet went on, "if they go underfoot, they will go... squish." He stomped his pede forward to prove a point and the action made Jack and Raf flinch back. Paige chuckled softly.

"Then for the time being, Ratchet, we must watch where we step," Optimus said. Ratchet looked at Paige, "and what is so funny?"

"You wouldn't step on us," Paige said, pointing at the medic, "you're too grouchy to do so." "Excuse me!?" Ratchet exclaimed, making Miko and Raf laugh at the look on the medic's faceplates.

Their laughter was cut short by a loud beeping noise. "What's that?" Jack asked.

"Proximity sensor," Bumblebee said. "Proximity sensor," Raf said, "someone's up top."

Ratchet went to see who it was. "It's Agent Fowler," he said as he saw the helicopter on the roof. Paige looked to Optimus confused, "I thought we were the only humans who knew about you guys."

"Special Agent Fowler is our designated liaison to the outside world," Optimus said, "as he tends to visit when there are... issues. It may be best if you do not meet with him at this time."

Raf and Miko ran to a hiding spot with Jack and Paige following. The elevator opened as Agent Fowler stormed out of it, looking rather peeved. "7 wrecks, 34 fender-benders, a 3-hour traffic jam! And a particular note: numerous reports of a speeding motorcycle of unknown make and a custom black and yellow muscle car!"

Arcee and Bumblebee looked at each other. Paige peeked around the corner before she quickly pulled back, nearly bumping into Jack.

"So anything you'd like to get off your tin chest, Prime?" Agent Fowler demanded. "We have the situation under control, Agent Fowler." Optimus said calmly.

"They're back, aren't they?" Fowler asked. "If you are referring to the Decepticons, we doubt they ever left," Primrose said, "your planet is much too valuable."

"Then it's time to wake up the Pentagon," Fowler said. "Hear me, Agent Fowler," Optimus said sternly, "we are your best- possibly, your only- defense against the Decepticon threat."

"Says you," Fowler huffed. "Hey squishy!" Bulkhead snapped, "did anyone get splattered on that freeway? Team Prime knows when to use force." The Wrecker grabbed a tool and with that, he crushed it, "and how much to use."

"Bulkhead, I needed that!" Ratchet said angrily. "Enough," Optimus said firmly before he looked back at Agent Fowler, "military involvement will only result in catastrophe. Perhaps you can condone widespread human casualties, Agent Fowler. I, however, cannot."

"Then do us both a favor, Prime, and handle this under the radar or I will," Agent Fowler said as he walked back into the elevator and it closed behind him. "Pretty big bearings for a human," Bulkhead huffed.

"Agent Fowler is concerned for his world, Bulkhead," Firestorm said, "as he should be."

◊◊◊◊

"Let us see if the power born from darkness can ignite the spark," Megatron said before he slammed the dark energon shard into Cliffjumper's chestplates.

The red Autobot started to shake as his body started to glow bright purple. When he opened his optics, they weren't sky blue anymore. They were a light amethyst purple and the undead Autobot let out a strangled growl.

He struggled to get free of the metallic straps that were holding him down. The Vehicons nearby aimed their blasters at the undead Autobot when he broke free of his bonds and ran at one of the nearby troops.

He tackled one and started to beat it without mercy.

"Master! That's your plan? Bring Autobots back from the dead to attack us!?" Starscream gasped. "That is no longer an Autobot," Megatron said, "just a mindless beast. It's only instinct is to destroy anything in its path."

The undead Cliffjumper roared and charged at Megatron. Starscream ran to get out of the way as Echo stayed put.

Megatron unsheathed his sword and in mere seconds, he sliced the undead Autobot in half. The Autobot staggered forward before it fell into two pieces and into the mine below.

"There, Starscream, lies the indestructible seed for my army. The ultimate weapon," Megatron said. The upper half of Cliffjumper was clinging to the edge before Megatron kicked it away, sending it falling down onto a lower platform. "Once I learn to control it," he said.

Echo stared down at the platform below with fear and disdain while Starscream smirked.

◊◊◊◊

At the Autobot base, the monitors started to go off. "Blasted earth tech!" Ratchet snapped at the air, "Cliffjumper's life signal popped back online!"

"Who's Cliffjumper?" Miko asked. "How is that possible?" Firestorm asked, shocked.

"It isn't. Another bug; the system's full of them," Ratchet said. "If there's any chance that Cliff's alive," Arcee said, looking to Optimus hopefully.

"Ratchet, prepare sickbay," Optimus said, "we may need it." "Hey!" Miko called out, and the Prime looked back at her.

"What can we do?" She asked eagerly. "Remain with Ratchet," the Prime said.

"Aw," Miko groaned in disappointment, as did Ratchet. The ground bridge opened. "Autobots, roll out," Optimus said as he and the others transformed into their vehicle forms and drove through the bridge. "Be careful," Paige said to herself as she leaned on the railing.

"What just happened?" Jack asked, shocked. "I transported them to the designated coordinates via the ground bridge," Ratchet said.

"What's a ground bridge?" Raf asked, earning a heavy, irritated sigh from the medic.

"A scaled down version of space bridge technology," Ratchet said. "You're stuck here," Jack said, "on Earth."

"With the likes of you, yes," Ratchet said, "but I constructed the ground bridge to enable travel from here to anywhere on your planet."

"Whoa. Does it work for humans?" Raf asked. "Naturally," Ratchet said, rather proudly.

"You mean I could just shoot on over there and visit my parents in Tokyo?" Miko asked the medic. "Within moments," Ratchet said, "in fact, allow me to send you there immediately. All four of you."

"Watch it Ratchet," Miko said sassily. "Sorry we don't fit your standards to the point where we're not like you," Paige said as she looked away. Ratchet frowned, "I never said that."

"You don't need to say it. Your tone shows it," Paige said bitterly. Ignoring the pang of hurt in his spark, Ratchet sighed deeply and he turned back to the monitors.

◊◊◊◊

The ground bridge opened in the Decepticon mine. The Autobots walked out of it. "Energon mine," Bulkhead observed.

"Judging by its scale," Firestorm said, "the Decepticons have been tunneling here for some time." The Autobots hid behind some rocks. The drones continued to mine the energon, not knowing that the Autobots were there.

"Let's find Cliffjumper," Optimus said and the Autobots approached the Decepticon drones. As soon as they did, the drones saw them and started to fire. A drone came towards them with a drill but Bulkhead smashed it.

Arcee and Primrose shot at the drones.

◊◊◊◊

"What is this anyway?" Miko asked as she went to touch a piece of machinery. "Broken. Don't touch," Ratchet said. Miko reached to touch another piece until Ratchet said, "don't touch that either."

"Is there anything we can touch?" Jack asked. Ratchet looked at him before a sound came from the screen. Ratchet looked to see alerts coming up on the screen. "How come you guys are using human computers?" Raf asked.

"It certainly isn't by choice," Ratchet huffed, "it was handed down from previous tenants when we inherited this former missile silo. I make modifications as I see fit." He let out an irritated sigh when more alerts popped up on the screen.

"I think I can fix that," Raf said as he went to pick up his backpack. "Really?" Ratchet scoffed, "you know this is complex technology, don't you? I mean it isn't a child's toy."

"Now try," Raf said once he finished typing into the system. Ratchet looked at the screen as the alerts disappeared in a flash. He looked back at Raf, surprised.

◊◊◊◊

At the Decepticon mine, the Autobots had fought a few more drones before they all transformed into their vehicle forms and drove through the mine. "Maximum overdrive," Optimus advised. The other Autobots sped up at their leader's advice and once they got to their next destination, they transformed into their bipedal forms and hid behind some crates.

Bulkhead whistled in admiration, "quite the operation." Unfortunately, the drones heard him and started to fire at the Autobots.

"You just had to whistle!" Firestorm said to Bulkhead as he fired back at the drones.

◊◊◊◊

"Blood of Unicron, how might I fathom of the depths of your mystery? Become worthy of wielding your astonishing power?" Megatron said to himself as he stood in front of a glass tank that had the dark energon inside.

"Lord Megatron, the Autobots have been detected in the mines," Starscream said as he appeared on a small screen. "Optimus?" Megatron said.

"Indeed," the Seeker nodded. "I need more time to prepare an appropriate reception for my old friend. Ready the ship for departure," Megatron said.

"But the energon I've mined- the Autobots will seize it!" Starscream exclaimed. "Then blow the mines," Megatron snapped.

◊◊◊◊

The Autobots shot at the drones. Something caught Arcee's optic and she looked closer. She saw Cliff's body. "It's Cliff! I have a visual," she said.

"We'll cover you," Primrose said, "go!" Arcee vaulted herself over the boxes she had been using for cover and transformed, racing up a ramp and launching herself high into the ring supports of the lift. She grabbed a beam and landed the ring attached to it. She ran around the ring and launched herself off a different beam, grabbing a thinner ring and swinging herself on top of it. She jumped off that ring onto the lower lip of the platform Cliffjumper was on. She pulled herself over the edge of the platform to him.

Acree gasped at Cliff's half-bodied form leaking energon. She shielded herself from incoming blasts from two drones on a higher platform. The section of platform Cliffjumper was on started to fall. "Cliff!" She yelled. She jumped to his falling body and caught his servo. She pulled him partly up, struggling from the bad leverage, his weight, and the fact that the Cons were still shooting at her.

Optimus and Primrose fired on them and took them out. Arcee shielded her face from some falling rocks. She then looked down at Cliffjumper. "Let's get you home partner." She said but to her shock, when Cliff looked up at her, he started growling at her. Arcee recoiled and he struggled against her, ending up tearing her grip from his servo. She continued reaching for him as he fell down the shaft.

"No!" Primrose shouted. Optimus looked to Arcee who let out a breath of defeat. A laugh got their attention. It was Starscream.

"Prime!" He snapped, "I'd stick around but I'm squeamish." With that, the Seeker dropped an explosive charge at the bottom of the mine before he leapt off the platform, transformed into his aerial form and took off.

"The joint's gonna blow!" Bulkhead shouted. "Autobots, roll out!" Optimus ordered.

Arcee jumped down from the platform as she and the others transformed into their vehicle forms and sped down the mine just as the bomb went off and it exploded, igniting the energon around it and sending a fireball many hundreds of feet in the air over the mine shaft. The explosion was gaining on the Autobots fast.

"Ratchet, bridge us back! Use the arrival coordinates now!" Optimus ordered. The ground bridge opened in front of them. Each Autobot drove into the bridge and into the base. Optimus drove into the base just before the bridge closed, the Prim transforming into his bipedal form and he stopped himself from skidding into the others.

"Whoa," Jack, Miko, Raf and Paige gasped in astonishment. "Cutting it a bit close," Ratchet said, "how about Cliffjumper?"

The Autobots looked away. Miko ran over to the railing, "what was that explosion? Was there a fight? Can I come with next time!?"

"Miko!" Paige hissed. Arcee gave a low growl, "look." "H-hey," Jack said quickly, nervously as he placed his hand on Miko's shoulder, "Miko, let's go see what the Bots hide in their sock drawers."

"Seriously?" Miko asked, raising an eyebrow as she and the boy walked away from the railing.

"Arcee, what did you see?" Optimus asked. Arcee wrapped her arms around herself as she looked away.

"Not Cliff," she said, "at least... not anymore. He was mutated- butchered. S-something from those Con experiments during War." Her optics nearly rolled to the back of her helm and she fell back, leaning on a nearby crate for support.

"Are you okay?" Bumblebee asked, worriedly as he came over to her. "I'm fine, just... dizzy," Arcee said.

"Robots who get dizzy?" Miko said. "Robots with emotions," Raf said. "Robots... who can die," Paige said.

Arcee sat on the crate as Ratchet scanned her. The scan turned red before the medic saw something. "What is this?" He asked as he saw purple substance on Arcee's servo.

"Don't know," Arcee said wearily, "Cliff was covered in it. Leaking it." Ratchet lightly scraped the substance off of Arcee's servo, "go take a decontamination bath. Now."

Firestorm helped Arcee up and the two went over to the decontamination showers.

"Optimus, I hate to interrupt but... no bars," Jack said, holding his phone.

"A security precaution," Optimus said, "the silo walls isolate all radio waves."

"Well if I don't call my mom, like now, I'm pretty sure the cops are going to be out looking for me," Jack said. "Have you broken a law?" Optimus asked.

"It's curfew Optimus," Paige said with a small smile, "it's after 10:00 P.M. and my parents will be worried."

"I better get home too," Raf sighed, "or I'll be grounded for a year." "Earth customs," Optimus said, "I hadn't considered. But the issue of your safety remains." He looked to Bulkhead, "Bulkhead, accompany Miko home."

"Awesome! My host parents will freak!" Miko said excitedly. "And maintain covert surveillance in vehicle form," Optimus said.

"Curbside duty," Bulkhead chuckled, "got it." This earned a groan of disappointment from Miko.

"Bumblebee, you'll watch over Raf," Optimus said. Bumblebee looked to Raf who smiled at him.

Optimus turned to Ratchet, "Ratchet-" "Busy," the medic said, his back to the others. Arcee walked out of the decontamination shower.

"Arcee, you'll accompany Jack," Optimus said. Jack tensed up a little.

Arcee sighed, "still dizzy." Paige giggled, earning a smile from Arcee.

"You're fine, says your physician," Ratchet said. Arcee let out a heavy sigh. Optimus looked to Paige, "Paige, I will accompany you home."

Paige looked up at Optimus and gave a small nod. She fiddled with diamond-shaped necklace that had a red ruby inside of it. The Prime transformed into his vehicle form and she walked over to him. When she climbed into the passenger side of his vehicle form, she closed the door and he drove out of the base and into the streets of Jasper, Nevada.

◊◊◊◊

"Arcee, I'm really sorry for your loss," Jack started tentatively.

"What could you possibly know about loss?" Arcee asked coldly.

"What? You think you're the only one with problems?" Jack retorted, which caused Arcee to transform and to glare at Jack very hard.

"I'm not sure girl trouble counts," Arcee shot back dangerously.

"I'm pretty sure my girl troubles started the night I met you!" Jack scoffed before they saw another car roll up onto the driveway.

"'Cons!" Arcee gasped as she activated her blasters.

"No! Mum!" Jack corrected as he ran out to stall her for as long as he could. Arcee blinked before she transformed back into her vehicle form.

"Jack?" June Darby said as she climbed out of the car.

"Mum! Don't freak! I can explain!" Jack promised his mother.

"Can you?" June asked before approaching the motorcycle, "Jackson Darby, we talked about this." "I know. And-."

"You don't know!" June cut her son off, "I worry about you enough when you're not here. Now I have to worry about you driving a motorcycle?"

"I'm 16! I can't be driving a ten-speed forever!" Jack retorted. "How did you afford this?" June demanded.

"It's used," Jack said, "it's abused, really. Needs a ton of repairs, but the point is I may have been a kid when I bought this, but I'm not anymore. You always tell me to make responsible choices. Well I chose her. And I'll be responsible! I promise."

"Her?" June asked with a slight smile, "I didn't think you'd be bringing girls home just yet." "I'd like to think she brought me," Jack said with a sheepish smile.

"Well I'm glad you finally have a reason to wear your helmet every single time you ride," June said with a soft sigh, "you will take me for a spin every once in a while?"

"We'll see," Jack said as he and his mom went into the house, "she's kinda temperamental."

◊◊◊◊

"Optimus," Paige said as she walked over to the Peterbilt, "you up?"

"I am awake," the Prime said, "is something wrong?" "No," Paige said, "I just can't sleep." She climbed into the Prime's vehicle form and leaned back against the seat.

"My parents are sleep," she said. "I see," Optimus hummed. The silence returned for a few moments.

"I'm sorry about Cliffjumper," Paige said, gripping the hems of her sweater sleeves, "I know- I feel like he and Arcee were partners- they were more than that. And to have that taken away from her... she's hurting." "Paige," Optimus said softly and he was alerted by the soft cries and whimpers.

She was crying. Paige was crying. Guilt and worry filled Optimus' spark. "You're all going through this war... all this pain," Paige whimpered, "I'm sorry I can't do anything. I'm sorry I'm so useless... I'm sorry I'm a nobody-"

"Stop that," Optimus said firmly, "you are not useless. You are not nothing. You are more than that. You are something more. You are strong just like the other children. I know it."

Paige looked at Optimus' steering wheel and she felt the Prime's seatbelt tighten a little in the form of a hug. Paige smiled weakly and she slowly fell asleep to the Prime's warmth.

◊◊◊◊

At the Darby residence, Arcee was revving her engine loudly. Jack opened the door, "shh! Are you crazy? You'll wake my mom!"

"Grab your helmet. It's go time," Arcee said. Jack groaned, "it's Saturday."

"You can watch cartoons back at base with Bumblebee and Primrose," Arcee said.

"Cartoons? I'm sixteen," Jack said with a tired frown. "And Paige is older than you," Arcee said, "leave a note for your mom. She worries."

"You think I don't know that?" Jack asked as he went back inside.

◊◊◊◊

Megatron was still standing before the Dark Energon, studying it, when Starscream entered the room. "I don't think you need worry about further Autobot interference, Master. Not with Optimus gone." Starscream reported arrogantly.

"And what evidence do you possess of this fact?" Megatron challenged.

"I destroyed the mine. As you instructed." Starscream reminded Megatron, who turned and didn't look convinced.

"Optimus is not so easily destroyed." The Decepticon leader stated. "We have millennia worth of battles behind us to prove it." He turned back to studying the Dark Energon.

"Maybe you should take a break, My Lord." Starscream advised. "I worry that too much contact with the Dark Energon might allow its properties to... adversely affect you."

"Or perhaps, Starscream, I have not permitted myself contact enough!" Megatron said before he ripped a shard from the large cluster of Dark Energon and held it up.

"Wait! Lord Megatron, no! Not your spark chamber! You do not know what it will do!" Starscream protested as he realized what his master was planning to do with the shard.

Megatron took no heed of Starscream's warning and stabbed himself directly in the spark chamber. He hunched over in pain, then straitened as a type of seizure overtook him. He screamed as his energon was transformed into Dark Energon and his eyes turned purple.

◊◊◊◊

Ratchet was analyzing the components of the purple substance he had scraped off of Arcee when it began having an ill effect on the femme. It confounded him. Not in all his years as a medic had he seen anything like this. He couldn't even recognize what it was.

"Hmm...the base elements of this...goo are like nothing I've ever encountered." He said to himself as he went over the data his computers had managed to provide. "It must be extremely concentrated to have affected Arcee so rapidly. Unfortunately, complete results are slow-coming without the use of proper diagnostic tools. Thank you very much, Bulkhead." Ratchet rambled as he removed the slide from the hard-drive.

As he did, he unknowingly spilt some of the substance onto the diagnostic tool that Bulkhead broke when Agent Fowler was there. It seeped its way into the very wiring of the machinery and glowed a bright purple for a brief moment before moaning and groaning and standing on its newly acquired legs. But Ratchet didn't notice. With its only instinct to destroy everything in its path, the revived machinery approached the nearest object to destroy.

#fanfiction #transformers prime #my ocs #self insert #the girl among the gods

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