Against My Will 8

“…blackest night…”

Rollins stopped what he was doing, one hand on the gurney.

It had taken a bit — longer than he liked — but the med team had gotten Subject Jade off his feet and into a wheelchair simply to get him through the long narrow hallway and onto the gurney waiting for him.

Straps were drawn as tight as they could go across a narrow chest and waist, the kid’s head hanging down as one of the medics worked at securing the IV pole to the chair. Another checked the line along his arm and the three remaining troopers had done the professional thing and gone back to acting like the last five minutes didn’t matter.

He didn’t blame them, either.

You didn’t need to be Level Seven to know some of the things SHIELD kept secret, and there was plenty lying around you could piece together even as a Level Two or Three. Things like all the alien scum running around the planet with all their plans for Earth, that was definitely up there.

So, nobody really had much to say when they got just a little too rigorous in questioning the alien. Fury and Banner certainly hadn’t been quick to hand out reprimands so that told everybody else where the line was.

“…escape…”

Rollins’s hand closed around Jade’s shoulder and jerked him back against the chair, instinct and panic overriding protocol as he heard those two syllables. “What was that?”

Jade was quiet for a moment, those green eyes hidden somewhere under that curtain of black curls. “…my sight…”

The SHIELD operative frowned deeper, the medic beside him glancing up as Rollins kept his hand on the subject. “Sir…?”

“Hold on.” Rollins brushed him off, attention fixed on Jade as the subject swallowed a mouthful of nothing and kept moving his lips.
“…blackest night…”

He’d heard that before.

Not tonight either.

At least, not just tonight.

Somewhere between the blood draws and bullshit, Rollins had heard those exact words in this room. It might have been two days ago, a week, or even two.

It didn’t really matter.

“No evil…” Jade kept going, even with his voice barely strong enough to carry. “…shall escape my sight.”

Same words every time, even in a rambling looping order.

There was quiet again, the subject’s breath coming shallow enough that Rollins had to wonder if he’d passed out again.

Then those lips moved.

“…brightest day…”

All over from the beginning.

“What the hell?”

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

“STUPID!”

The sound Captain America’s arm made was loud enough Janet heard it over everything else entirely; Hulk’s yell, Tony’s thrusters, even her own beating heart— none of them quite matched up to the ugly snap of bone giving way under that massive gray fist.

“Cap!”

A red-gold blur bashed Banner from the side before Janet could even move, Iron Man coming in low enough and fast enough to light the pavement with sparks. A single shoulder slammed Hulk beneath the ribs as Tony’s hand whined. Blue-white washed bright over the street, Banner losing his grip and throwing Steve clear.

Not done, Tony drove the gray monster hard another couple dozen feet through emptied cars abandoned mid-traffic.

“Arrgghh!” Cap landed shoulder-first oe one of those abandoned cars, an overturned sedan protesting nearly as much as he did. The shield fell free of one arm completely, while the other was tucked up against his body in a way that had Janet grimacing as she shrunk and darted toward him

“Steve!” She landed full-size, reaching out to help the man—

“I’m fine.” 

—man that waved her off with a quiet grunt.

“You’re not fine at a…” Janet glanced down as something metallic skipped across the pavement, a metal needle sitting there bent. The rest hit the ground a second later, the size-changing super-soldier staring at the entirety of the thing — bent needle of the hardest metal on earth sitting in rainwater next to crushed plastic casing.

That was definitely a problem.

“Tony!”

Iron Man threw himself backward a second too late as Hulk’s backhand grazed him, the blow enough to swat him out of the air. Red-gold-and-gray armor crossed an entire street lengthwise before the billionaire managed to catch himself on sputtering thrusters.

“What?” He came down to one knee, helmet opening just enough for his face to show through and meet rain. “What is it, Janet?”

“How much power do you have?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Percent?”

“No, donuts.” The faceplate sealed shut as Tony took off to the sky. “Use those PhDs, why don’t you?”

Mouth open, Janet looked over the rest of them and found nothing to make the situation look better in the slightest. Especially not as she saw Steve Rogers unable to understand what a broken arm was, the man already reaching for his shield with his good one.

“Steve…”

He picked it up.

“Steve, your arm is broken.”

She flew in front of him, wings beating the rain as she held her hands up. “That usually means stop.”

“Not in any language I speak, Janet.” That said, Captain America rolled his good shoulder and ran right past her.

Banner chose that moment to turn away from Stark’s strafing blasts, attention falling squarely on the man in blue as Steve rushed back into the fight. A single throw of the shield caught the gray monster in the face, the thing ricocheting off a wall and a car to return right to Steve.

A second later, Cap sent it flying again, metal ringing Banner’s skull as he held his head. A beer-bottle sized finger pointed out. “HULK THOUGHT YOU DIFFERENT!”

Another throw of the shield caught the monster-man off-guard, Iron Man and Captain America double-teaming Hulk before he could get his bearings. “HULK THOUGHT CAP LIKED BANNER!”

The shield returned to him, caught deftly with that good hand. “I do!”

Apparently, that was the wrong answer. “LIAR!”

Janet barely saw Hulk even take a step, but the gray muscleman crossed the street without the in-between seeming to be much of a problem at all.

Steve got the shield up a split second before the first grab reached him, those gray fingers closing around vibranium instead of his throat. Hulk didn’t let that stop him, driving Captain America backward in a single charge through the side of a parked van.

Sheet metal protested for all of a second before folding around the man out of time, windows splitting and bursting free of their frames before Hulk tore him free again.

“YOU’RE JUST LIKE THE REST!”

Steve kicked off the wreckage and drove both boots forward, a flying dropkick aimed square at Banner’s open face.

It bought him a good three feet.

Unfortunately, that was far from enough.

An oversized hand closed around that star-spangled torso, Hulk lifting him up until his boots were hanging.

“Hulk!” The grunt came out choked as that gray grip tightened. “Bruce, you need to listen to me—!”

“NO!”

Another squeeze had Steve’s face tighten, bones groaning.

“HULK KNOW WHAT CAP THINK!” Hulk pulled the man closer, both their noses almost level as the ogre roared in Steve’s face. “YOU THINK BANNER UGLY!”

“What?” Steve blinked back. “What are y-”

“YOU THINK BANNER PIECE OF CRAP!”

“I never said—”

“HULK SMASH YOUR SKULL OPEN AND SUCK OUT YOLK!”

There was a half-second where even Steve stopped struggling.

Tony broke it with energy blasts, one blast after another hammering gray flesh between Hulk’s expansive shoulder blades. “How bout we don’t do that, Doc?”

Hulk roared under a hard shot of blue to the back of the head, grip loosening just enough for the captured captain to wrench one shoulder free.

“Don’t count me out!” Janet darted forward, still small and still speedy; her own small blasts shooting from her hands enough to be a distraction as she threw everything she had into it. 

With another grunt, Cap twisted against the grip he was still stuck in, shield-wielding hand bashing at a pained Hulk’s face.

Tony dropped in with a particularly heavy blast, those precious reserves be damned, enough power in his hands to send the Hulk through the side of a city bus. All that did was seem to make him angrier as somewhere inside that ruined bus, Hulk roared loud enough to send a shudder through every piece of glass left on the block.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

“…worship evil…”

Rollins was done with this.

“Stop!”

Jade didn’t.

“…might…”

Rollins stopped the wheelchair with a hard grip, stopping the medic before he could move the subject any further.

“…worship evil’s might…”

“Sir…” One of his men looked over, eyebrow high. “I don’t think he even knows where he is.”

“Yeah…” A hand took Jade by the jaw, the SHIELD operative flinching enough at how cold and clammy the subject’s skin felt. “Look at me when I’m talkin’ to you.”

Rollins pulled the subject’s face upward and froze where he stood.

For the first time since he entered the cell, the kid’s eyes were exposed; both of them green.

Green and glowing.

“What…” Rollin’s grip loosened just a bit as he stared at the shape sitting inside them, dead center of those eyes. Thin and horizontal, two lines sat centered over and under a simple circle and stared right back at him; a symbol Rollins knew well enough.

That strange ring and weird lantern sitting in the lab, the whole point of this whole research project — the same fucking symbol.

Exact same.

The subject raised his head the rest of the way as Rollins stumbled back, hands down and twitching for his weapon. 

Those glowing eyes fixed on the SHIELD operative, the room suddenly going a bright green as something small, shiny and green tore through glass like a bullet.

“…beware my power…”