Once and for All ( Part III )

Agent Phil Coulson

A loud crack filled the air as Phil fell back against a wall, his cheek burning in pain. What really hurt was look in Audrey's face.

"You let me think you were dead!" Audrey yelled, her eyes glaring even as tears poured down her cheeks and she lowered her hand. Phil looked away from her. "I went to your funeral, I..." Audrey shuddered, staring at Phil as though she didn't know if she was going to slap him again or not. "Why? Couldn't you even call me? Just let me know that you were alive?"

Phil opened his mouth but found himself unable to respond. "..."

Tony nudged him with his elbow. Phil looked at the billionaire, who raised an eyebrow at him.

The billionaire, cellist, and spy were standing in Phil's office on the Bus, the massive cargo plane Coulson's team used as a mobile headquarters.

"I did die," Phil finally said weakly. "I was brought back through an experimental project."

"...How long ago?" Audrey asked.

"What?" Phil said, confused.

"How long ago were you 'brought back'?" Audrey said angrily.

"...August," Phil said softly. "I've been awake since August."

"Five months," Audrey shook her head, more tears falling down her cheeks as her fists shook. "You were alive for five months and you just... you just let me think you were dead."

"Audrey," Phil stepped forward with his hands out. She slapped them away, shaking her head.

"No. Don't touch me... I need time to think," her voice was shaky.

Phil gave Tony a helpless look. Tony shook his head, clearly at a loss. Phil turned back to Audrey. "Okay... we have some rooms on the plane. I have teams watching your apartment, but it's safest if you stay with us."

She nodded, still not looking at Phil. A deep pain filled him at the sight of the woman he loved unable to look at him. He walked to his desk and pushed a button. "Simmons? Can you come to my office?"

The door opened fast enough that Phil had to guess Simmons had been extremely close by. The British scientist gave everyone in the room a bright smile as she entered. "Hello, sir! How can I help?"

Phil took a moment to thank god for the bright smile gifted to Jemma Simmons when Audrey seemed to relax at the sight of it. "Can you show Aud-... Ms. Nathan to a room? She'll be staying with us for a bit."

"Of course, sir!" Simmons smiled at Audrey, guiding her out of the room. Audrey looked back at Phil. They met eyes. Then the door closed.

"...That could have gone worse," Tony said in a light tone. "Speaking as a guy who's hurt the feelings of a few women before."

"A few?" Phil said spitefully, uncaring of how petty he sounded for a moment.

"I've lived a full life," Tony said without a hint of shame.

"Focus on our work," Phil's voice was heavy but determined. "What happened with your armor? I thought your suit was made to fight Daniels?"

"It was," Tony said with a grimace. "Based what SHIELD and HYDRA tests showed, and with Bruce and Fitz helping me with the Gamma/Quantum Power reserve, I was able to pour enough energy into my shots to shut him down. But Jack Frost surprised the hell out of me," Tony admitted, speaking about Donnie. "The Darkforce suit wasn't designed to take such fast temperature drops. Plus, I thought the kid's powers were based on touch? Since when could he shoot snowstorms at people?"

"Nothing on record said he could at least. Something HYDRA did to him?" Phil mused. "We'll look into it. As for those combined attacks they did-"

"I have scans in the armor. All I can say is that it kinda makes sense that the two powers that remove light and heat work so well together," Tony said. "I'll go over it with Geek Squad, see what we can do. As for Donnie, Rhodey and I fought a guy with a suit that used heat-based weapons a while back, called himself the 'Melter'."

"Why do the bad guys always pick such dumb names?" Phil mused, though his heart wasn't in it. Tony smiled quickly but continued as though he hadn't spoken.

"I've got some specs on the armor the guy used. If we work it out, I think we can upgrade our armor to counter Jack Frost the next time around. How far are the others?"

"They're en route over Wyoming. Should be here soon," Phil grabbed some files on his desk and went to walk out of the room, Tony following.

"And in the meantime, what about Audrey?" Tony asked.

"...the priority is tracking down and stopping Daniels," a part of Phil was screaming at him to go to Audrey, to explain, to yell back at her, to say or do something. "I'll talk to her when it's done. In the meantime, Natasha took the others to Audrey's apartment. HYDRA is watching the apartment, so they'll take care of that," Phil shook his head.

Natasha Romanov/Black Widow

Natasha giggled inanely as she walked down the street. "Jennifer, you aren't serious!"

Melinda May giggled just as inanely while they walked together. "Oh sweetie, I'm always serious about sex!"

"Ah," Bobbi, with a scandalized look on her face, slapped May's shoulder. "Jennifer! You're so bad!"

The three spies were dressed in casual clothes, the sort older women often wore when out with their girlfriends. They were walking down a sidewalk in front of an apartment building, acting more like the stereotypical image of high school cheerleaders than anything.

They walked past a blue van parked at the entrance, still giggling. The man and woman in the front of the van eyed the three momentarily, then dismissed them. Natasha, May, and Bobbi strode into the building's doors.

Instantly, all three women stopped laughing.

"One van," Natasha mused. "They aren't putting a lot of resources into the perimeter."

"I hate these clothes," May growled, looking down at herself. Bobbi and Natasha shared a smile at that.

"How do you think we should play this?" Bobbi asked the others.

"...Take out the van first?" Natasha suggested. When the others nodded, she turned back with them to go towards the doors. "Jarvis, nail their comms," The second the apartment doors opened, they were giggling once more.

The man and woman in the van glanced at them, confused as the group walked up.

"Excuse me?" Natasha asked, leaning in to speak with the female driver through the window. Bobbi walked around to the back of the van. "How long have you worked for HYDRA?"

The female driver and male passenger exploded into motion. The driver pulled out a knife and stabbed at Natasha's throat. Natasha leaned aside and grabbed the drivers arm as it passed, pulling her in before twisting her arm and stabbing the driver in the shoulder with her own knife, the woman barely letting out a scream before Natasha grabbed her hair and slammed the woman's head into the steering wheel with brutal force.

The passenger had hopped out of the car, trying to help his ally, only for May to kick the door, slamming it into him and sending him to the ground. The man rolled and faced May, punching at her. May blocked the first punch on her forearm, parried another punch, then kicked the man's knee, shattering the cap and sending him to his knees. The man shouted in pain and reached for his sidearm but May moved forward with a flying knee to the face, knocking him out.

The back doors of the van opened to eject two men carrying submachine guns. Bobbi was waiting. With a snap of her fingers, catoms flowed from under her shirt to enter her palms, forming solid batons. When the two men aimed at her, she smacked their guns aside, then kicked one in the gut, sending him back into the van. The other man raised his gun again. Before his finger could tighten on the trigger, Bobbi had swung a baton into his forehead with brutal force. As he went down, his ally rose up to aim at Bobbi, who threw her other baton at him, knocking him out as well.

"Four down," Natasha said calmly. "Let's go in and find some more."

Twirling her batons, Bobbi stepped towards the doors, Natasha and May following.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

When we arrived in Portland we landed the Defiant near the Bus, at an airfield set aside for our operations there. Bucky joined Cap, Clint, and Frank Castle while Rhodey, Bruce, and I joined the others to get a debrief. That's where we heard about Donnie, from Coulson and Tony as Fitz and Simmons sat nearby.

I didn't know what to think of that. I hadn't encountered the super-villain known as Blizzard much in the comics. I think maybe he'd been partnered with a speedster or something? Or was that Aqueduct? Either way, Donnie hadn't been a kid or brainwashed.

"Can we do anything for him?" Rhodey asked when Coulson finished explaining things, looking at Tony and me.

"Hell yeah," I said confidently. "All we have to do is knock him out and put him into the Exorcism Machine."

"First, we aren't calling it that," Tony said. "It's dumb, and you're dumb for thinking of it," I mock-glared at him, getting a smirk in return. "But yeah, even if they did improve the process, we should be able to help him. It's just a matter of finding him. As for Daniels, he was stronger than expected, but the Darkforce Armor can still beat him."

"But that might not be how things play out," Coulson said. "Hill says Jarvis and X are about to find HYDRA's true base. The Avengers and BRIDGE will need to be there once it's found."

"What, we're leaving?" Fitz asked, surprised. Coulson looked over at him, the agent's arms crossed.

"Not all of us. Hill told me she's leaving Dial and Tony to help us. Both of them can run after the others once everything is done with," he said simply, his arms tightening slightly on themselves. "Everyone else is to head out to assault the base."

"We're all you need," I said, looking at Tony. "...We might need to go ahead with Project: Azmuth."

Tony, Bruce, Fitz, and Simmons stared at me.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked. "You said-"

"I know," I said with a frown. "But it's worth a try. As long as we're careful, nothing should go wrong. No hammering or anything."

"Didn't you only want to do that in case of, you know," Fitz waved his hand, struggling to find the words.

"An apocalypse?" Simmons added, Fitz snapping his fingers and pointing at her as agreement.

"Wait, what?" Rhodey looked around. "What the hell are we talking about here?"

"It's not that bad," I said with a sigh.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't apocalypses pretty damn bad?" Coulson asked me. I shifted uncomfortably under the attention. "Tony, what are they talking about?"

"Trying to access the alien to unlock aliens on purpose," Tony said, eyeing the Omnitrix.

"Is that possible?" Rhodey asked, moving forward to look at my watch as well.

"Yes and no," I said with a sigh. "The watch was made by a guy whose whole species make our greatest scientists look like toddlers, hell, toddlers of monkeys at the worst. And this guy was a genius among those geniuses, with an intellect beyond that. Hacking the watch is practically impossible without being smart enough, so I always kept the idea of unlocking all the aliens on her on my own on the backburner. But I only want to unlock two aliens. One to counter Donnie and/or Daniels, the other for the fight with HYDRA."

"In that case, why not aim for that superpowered one you told us about? Alien X? You were kinda vague about what he can do except 'badass of badass badasses," Tony said, quoting me exactly.

"...Alien X is not something I'd reach for. First, it takes time to master it, if it's possible at all for me," After all, who said Bellicus and Serena wouldn't just ignore me in a fit of anger? "Second, there are only a few things that would make me use it. HYDRA isn't anywhere on that list. If every bit of power HYDRA ever got together in one person, empowered beyond anything in existence, Alien X would still wipe it out."

Tony shrugged at that statement, apparently not super invested in the idea, while everyone else looked either wide-eyed or like they were wondering if I was exaggerating. Instead, Tony looked at Phil. "You're in charge, Phil. What do we do?"

"...What's the worst that can happen?" Phil asked me seriously.

I opened my mouth then closed it, choosing to say nothing. I figured it was safe to at least study the watch, figure out how to manipulate it, but the Omnitrix did have a self-destruct. A universe destroying one. I was pretty sure, based on my own experience and the show itself, the Omnitrix wouldn't simply destroy the universe unless really pressed or damaged a great deal, but I didn't know for sure. Phil eyed me for a moment, reading my hesitance before speaking.

"Tony, work on your armor. Dial, I don't want you doing anything with that watch. If you can't even tell me the risk, that means you aren't sure," he said simply. I nodded slowly, sighing. "In the meantime, we'll work on tracking Daniels and Gill. Fitz-Simmons, Bruce, you both will work to find them. Understood?"

I nodded but was still thinking. I couldn't activate Project Azmuth on my own but I could at least try to mess with the watch on my own. Ben had accidentally discovered the Master Control program as a 10-year-old child. None of my work with the watch had done anything before but maybe, with a bit of work and time, I could find one of the powers of the watch on my own. Even a new random alien was beneficial in most cases.

"What are you going to do to your armor?" Bruce asked Tony.

"Well, there was this guy who went by 'The Melter' a few years back," Tony said with a grin.

"Oh yeah," Rhodey said, cocking his head. "I remember when I beat that guy."

Tony blinked. "Uh, excuse me? I beat that guy."

"What, did you get a concussion? I won the bet!"

"Rhodey, don't be jealous that you couldn't handle the guy," Tony walked away, Rhodey following him as Bruce ran to join them.

"Who the hell is the Melter!?" Bruce called after the bickering duo, leaving the rest of us to watch the three friends leave.

Donald 'Donnie' Gill/Blizzard

In a Quinjet cloaked in the airfield at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, Donnie Gill watched with no emotions as Marcus Daniels yelled at a HYDRA commander dressed in black camo gear. Donnie stood to the side as they snarled at each other.

"We are not leaving!" Marcus screamed.

The HYDRA commander snarled. "We have no choice! The Avengers are here, and BRIDGE is more advanced than we expected! We can't fight them."

Daniels threw his hands up and turned away, frustrated. "Strucker promised me Audrey! He promised me, if I worked for HYDRA, I could get her. Now I have the chance to kill the man who kept me from her, to get her back, and you want to run?"

"I wanted to do this quietly and professionally from the start, but you insisted on making a big show of it. Now?" The commander got in Daniels' face. "It. Is. Impossible."

Daniels turned to look at Donnie. "We have me and we have Blizzard. That is more than-"

"How inflated is your ego?" The HYDRA commander asked, stunned. "It's the Avengers. Worse, it's the Avengers with new members. Strucker only wants to fight them when we have a full force. Maybe if you were joined by the others, but right now we-"

He stopped, reaching for his ear. After a moment of listening, the HYDRA commander shook his head. "Our teams at Ms. Nathan's apartments were taken out. We have no eyes there anymore. We're pulling out. I'm not risking my people for your crazy obsession with this woman."

A blast of black energy slammed into the commander, sending him flying until he hit the wall behind him. The commander tried to rise, only for Marcus to grab his face.

"No... not crazy," Marcus said, watching as the commander's face paled, blackness flowing through his veins as his life force was sucked out. "I'm in love... although I suppose, everyone who's in love is a little crazy."

Daniels tossed aside the commander's lifeless body, looking over at Donnie. "How about you?"

Donnie finally moved, stepping forward. "I was told to follow your orders implicitly. My compliance will be rewarded."

Daniels smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, it will. And my orders are to kill every other HYDRA soldier here. If they won't help, I've got no use for them. I think it's about time we consider going independent."

Donnie turned to go towards the door, Daniels following.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

I twisted at the Omnitrix, working at the menu in the lounge on the Bus. I'd spent so much time with the thing, but I still had no idea how to use the more advanced functions. There was just so much. I'd tried to use voice commands, switched between aliens quickly, tapped and manipulated the menu of aliens, but nothing. If I could unlock aliens, well... then I'd be unstoppable.

I was aiming for Heatblast, NRG, or Big Chill. Aliens who could no-sell Blizzard. Swampfire could do it with some trouble but his plant nature made it possible to freeze those sections, break them off, and constantly regenerating would be taxing over time. He'd be my go-to in the fight if I had no choice, and he was a damn good choice anyway, but if I could unlock an alien that could more easily counter Donnie, it would be worth it.

"Hey," I looked up to see Steve enter the room, giving me a smile. "What are you doing?"

"Messing with my watch," I admitted, putting it away.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Steve asked with a frown.

"Nah, it's like messing with your universal remote until you figure it out, just the Omnitrix is a lot more complicated," Plus, it was only really dangerous if I took a screwdriver to it or smashed it into stuff. Ben had been a good kid but damn if he wasn't an impulsive one. "How about you?"

"Getting ready to leave," Steve said. "You and Tony are going to be the only Avengers on this mission soon."

"We'll catch up later," I said simply.

Steve nodded, smiling. For a moment, there was an awkward silence.

"Was that it?" I asked nervously. When imagining myself standing in front of one of my heroes, I'd somehow never thought I'd find things awkward.

"No, it's just... Hard to believe. We're almost done. HYDRA is almost finished," Steve shook his head. "It's a weird feeling."

"Yeah... I think we're going to win too," I admitted. "I mean, we've become pretty strong, as a group."

"I think so too," Steve said. "But we can't relax. Even if HYDRA is beaten, we'll still be needed."

For a moment, just a moment, he looked... strange. Like a combination of tired and lost. As though he was... afraid. I had no idea what he was afraid of though. Afraid of HYDRA? Afraid of any threats after? What the hell could Captain America, the most badass patriot in history, be afraid of?

Before I could say anything he coughed, turning away. "See you after you're done, Mahmoud."

"Yeah, leave some HYDRA for me and Tony, okay?" Steve didn't answer, leaving me to think.

I knew he was capable of fear. He was human, in the end. But he was also brave. People made jokes about him getting his powers from steroids back on my world, but that wasn't fair. Steve was exceptional for his strength of character and strong beliefs even before he'd been injected. Anybody who had spoken to Bucky would know it, and I was willing to be Peggy would back him up on that. Red Skull, Loki, Winter Soldier, Galactus, Thanos, no matter who it was, I'd never believed for one moment that Steve would have given up against them, even without the serum enhancement. He would fight no matter what, whether as a ninety-pound weakling or a two hundred plus pound super soldier.

So, with all that bravery, what did he fear? I sat there by myself, confused.

Pepper Potts/Rescue

In the Avengers Tower, in her personal office, Pepper Potts was staring at a news report on a flat-screen TV situated on a wall near her desk in shock.

The woman on the screen with blonde hair and a fake smile Pepper recognized was on WHiH world news, talking about someone new in New York City. The issue was that Pepper Potts was very familiar with the person they were discussing.

"With all the news on the Avengers and their new recruits, it seems the newly named BRIDGE has forgotten to introduce us to a new face on the scene," the woman said with that perky fake smile. Beside her, a graphic appeared showing a being in purple armor. "Seen alongside Dial and Iron Man as they go on patrol, the new armored 'hero'," one could practically hear the quote marks. "Has been making a name on the scene. Given the name 'Rescue' based on conversations overheard by those who have encountered her, she has gained a mixed reputation among those who have seen her."

Footage played of Pepper, Tony, and Mahmoud, the first two in their suits and the last in his Astrodactyl form, flying through the city they all called home.

"Jarvis," Pepper asked. "How many stations are running this story?"

"Not many, ma'am. Due to the anonymous nature of your flights, more focus has been put into reports on BRIDGE and the Avengers in recent days. But people have noticed."

"There has been speculation," the woman on the screen said. "That this woman is one of Tony Stark's recent... paramours. Someone he has chosen to bring with him on his patrols, though the reason for Mr. Stark bringing her on patrols can only be speculated on," Pepper narrowed her eyes at the very obvious insinuation. "This speculation is due to Rescue's actions, or rather, her lack of actions. Despite joining Dial and Iron Man on patrols, she has never been seen engaging in any heroic activities."

An older man wearing a black shirt with red hair appeared. "Yeah, I've seen her a few times, but she only ever flies around, doesn't do much else. She might be new, just scared of fighting."

"I think she's spoiled or something," an Indian woman wearing a sundress said with a frown. "She just follows them around and doesn't do anything. I've seen other heroes fighting on Instagram and stuff, but no one ever mentions her."

"This is why women should not be superheroes!" A young man with shaved hair yelled angrily. "She just can't handle it! I mean, have you even seen Black Widow fight? No! She just lets the real heroes do her job for her while looking pretty!"

More people appeared with similar complaints, Pepper staring incomprehensibly at the screen, trying to understand what was happening.

Selfish? Cowardly? Granted, she was going to dismiss the last with ease as baseless (Seriously, there were dozens of hours of footage of Natasha fighting nowadays...), but all this hatred was so odd to her, even accounting for this possibly being biased reporting. She just liked flying. She felt closer to Tony while doing it and... it was so wonderful. Flying through the air, diving through the streets, floating among clouds. She wouldn't trade that experience for anything. Did people really believe that having a flying suit of armor automatically made her obligated to start risking her life? That was like saying anyone who bought a helicopter should join search and rescue or something!

Pepper leaned back in her seat to listen, frowning. The new report switched back to the blonde woman. "With speculation on who this armored figure is, one can only wonder what she is thinking behind that faceless mask. One thing for sure, Tony Stark likely has something to explain Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, his current girlfriend, about the new woman in his life," The smile on the blonde woman's face became genuine, though that didn't make it nice. "I'm Christine Everhart and as always, thanks for watching News Front."

The TV was shut off. Pepper, holding the remote, stared at the screen. People were calling her a coward. And Christine Everhart, a woman she hadn't seen in years, was more willing to believe the Tony was cheating on her, rather that she was the woman in armor.

Pepper rested a hand to her cheek, thinking silently to herself. She wasn't a fighter, not like Tony. She still had nightmares of when she'd killed Killian (Tony was insistent on the pun when talking about that). She'd rarely even fired her armors repulsors, mostly doing it as a test. She just wasn't the type of person to get into that sort of thing.

...By all accounts, she shouldn't have cared about what Christine Everhart of all people was saying about her, let alone what others were saying.

Except that similar thoughts had filled her at times. Watching Mahmoud and Tony take out muggers, thieves, mobsters, even a would-be rapist once, she'd felt a certain disquiet as she floated in the background watching. Watching them save people, help men, women, and children of New York first hand. She'd never understood what it meant to be a superhero, no really, until she saw them saving people firsthand. She loved Tony, and on some level, she understood why he did what he did. But most superhero fights she'd seen before that had seemed more like a bigger and louder version of schoolyard fights than anything. Every person to personally come after Tony had an issue with Tony in particular. She'd never really seen Tony simply go out and save people for the sake of saving them, not on a consistent basis anyway. It was eyeopening, seeing him in action like that.

And now, Pepper didn't know what to think. She just... she wasn't someone to beat up people, no matter how bad they were. Should she even be thinking about this? Why was she so affected by it?

Memories came to her, of Tony battling monsters while she watched from the sidelines. The thought consumed her even as she went back to work.

Skye

"You want to upgrade my armor?" Skye asked, confused. She, Fitz, and Simmons were standing together in a lab around a suit of Iron Man armor. Or Iron Woman, in this case.

"Yes!" Fitz said excitedly.

The Avengers and most of the BRIDGE personnel had said their goodbyes already, taking off to prepare for their next operation, leaving Coulson's team, a small group of BRIDGE Elites to defend Audrey, Tony, and Mahmoud.

"We think we can add the Melter tech to your armor," Fitz said with a grin. "When Horgan made his armor, the power source was able to create heat rays of incredible power thanks to his improvements. If we modify it further, we can develop a way for armor and weapons to withstand immense cold like what," Fitz faltered for a moment. "Like, um, like what Donnie can do."

Skye looked at him. Simmons stepped forward and put a hand to his arm. "Fitz, Donnie isn't your fault."

"Yeah, I know, I just," Fitz took a deep shuddering breath. "Just tired of my friends being in HYDRA. Willing or otherwise."

Skye didn't say anything to that. She was able to acknowledge that she wasn't on the same page as Fitz when it came to one of their friends being in HYDRA. "So, uh, the armor? How long would it take to do that?"

Fitz looked up at Skye and swallowed. "It, uh, a couple of hours, maybe? Tony is doing the same with his armor. We just wanted to do the same to yours in case you ended up being needed."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Skye agreed. She thought, for a moment, about Mahmoud, and his constant insistence on her being safe. She shook her head, dismissing him from her mind with some difficulty. "Well, go ahead and do it if you want."

"Yes!" Fitz cheered loudly, startling both women. "Oh, sorry, sorry, it's just, Jury Rigg's technology is so fascinating. I'll get started," With a vibrant energy to him, Fitz ran out of the room. "Tony! She said yes!"

"Awesome!" Tony's voice said from the distance.

Simmons and Skye shared a look before the two of them started giggling at that. "It is exciting though, isn't it?" Simmons said, still giggling. "All the new technology and people we're dealing with? Working with the Avengers!"

"Yeah, if anyone had told me I'd be doing this before I met Coulson..." Skye trailed off with a smile. "Things have been pretty crazy around here though."

"Excuse me?" the two of them turned to see a new face enter. Well, two faces. One was Audrey. She was looking at them nervously as she walked into the Bus' lab. Behind her was someone Skye and Simmons had only seen during the briefing, one of the BRIDGE Elites. Frank, something? He'd been assigned to watch over Audrey for the duration of the mission, as apparently, Steve liked the man. To his credit, Frank followed the order with incredible enthusiasm once Steve had given him the order.

Skye had to hold back a smile for a second. Steve. She was on a first name basis with superheroes and even Dial was- She cut that thought off.

"I was wondering if Phil was around?" Audrey asked. She frowned for a moment. "We have to talk."

"Well, he might be with Tony on the Defiant?" Simmons supplied with a gentle smile.

"'Defiant?'" Audrey asked, confused.

"It's an experimental Quinjet," Skye said. Granted, the Defiant was more like a fully functioning starfighter but that was a complicated thing to explain. She looked at the guy behind Audrey. "Uh, do you-"

"Yeah, I've got it," the guy met eyes with her. Skye winced. Damn. This guy was... intense. She thought Ward was good at eyeing people, but this guy was something else. It was like his eyes only had one setting for everything, maximum glare. Maybe he smiled with his friends or something but Skye found that hard to believe. She looked away very quickly. The guy turned back to Audrey.,"Ms. Nathan?"

"Thank you, Frank," Audrey said with a smile that the guy returned. The two left, leaving Skye and Simmons alone again.

"I guess all we can do now is wait, right?" Skye asked Simmons.

"Yes, I suppose so," Simmons said with a sigh. "It's a bit nerve-wracking, to be honest. I'd rather they simply attacked and got it over with."

SHRAKA-KOOM!

An explosion in the distance startled both women, who looked at each other.

"Okay, you asked for that," Skye said numbly.

"I should have remembered Murphy's Law," Simmons agreed, sounding disappointed in herself. Like Hermoine failing a test, as opposed to someone who had tempted fate.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

I was still messing with my watch when that explosion sound came from the distance. Thankfully my instincts had been getting a workout, so I was already up and moving before I realized. I ran to the cargo bay and ran down the stairs, looking at the Omnitrix briefly before tapping my chest instead. My armor 'grew' over my form, wrapping me in its comforting weight.

At the bottom of the stairs, Skye and Simmons were running out of the lab to head out as well. Skye gave me a worried glance. "Where did that come from?!"

"Jarvis, X?" I asked.

"Northern airfield," Jarvis answered. "A cargo plane similar in design to the Bus was destroyed."

Wait, only similar?

I ran out to see the Defiant nearby, Tony getting into his Darkforce Armor with Fitz, Audrey, and Frank standing next to him. Frank's own armor snapped into place around him as I ran to join them. Phil came out of the Defiant.

"It's him," Phil said simply. "But there are no HYDRA in the area. BRIDGE intelligence apparently just found out about three destroyed Quinjets that were discovered with a whole lot of frozen and lifeless bodies around them near the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Donnie and Daniels signatures. We don't know if they're HYDRA yet, but it's a good bet."

"That place with Howard Hughes plane?" I asked as Skye and Simmons joined us as well. "Why would Daniels and Donnie kill the people helping them?"

"Because they were going to stop," Frank Castle said thoughtfully. We all stopped to listen to him. "HYDRA knows the Avengers are here and they've been focused on using guerrilla tactics to keep us from hammering them. They'd retreat. Hell, I'd retreat to. If Daniels is obsessed as we thought," he glanced at Audrey, who was looking around at us, scared. "He must have had a problem with that. Killed them and ran here half-cocked. Explains why that cargo plane was destroyed. The idiot didn't know anything about his target and attacked the first thing that might be it. This is basically a self-driven rampage."

The irony of Frank Castle commenting on self-driven rampages...

"We can use that. Saves us the trouble of tracking him and Donnie down at least," Phil said firmly as May came over. "May, take Audrey and the rest to the Helicarrier on the Bus. Dial, Tony, you two will engage them. Punisher, choose a team."

"I'm staying," Skye said. I opened my mouth, then closed it, choosing not to say anything.

"Okay," Phil said calmly. "Tony, did you manage to-"

"The Melter upgrade is in," Tony said, his faceplate snapping down. "Let's do this."

I looked down at the Omnitrix. I hadn't been able to unlock anything new, so I'd probably stick with Swampfire to counter Donnie and Feedback for Daniels, though granted, I had no idea if Feedback's power would work on negative energy. How the hell could energy even be negative!? "Okay. Let's go."

Tony stepped towards me. "Clench up, kid," he said while grabbing me under my arms. He took off into the sky while carrying me, heading for the explosion. Flying over a hanger, I activated my thermal vision. I immediately saw the cargo plane that was burning in the distance. Walking towards us across the land that separated one runway from another, causing the green grass to wither away and die or freeze solid, were two figures that seemed to absorb the world around them. They weren't even a cold blue, they were more like... dark spots in my vision shaped like people.

"Down there," I said, letting the comms send my words to him directly rather than trying to yell over the wind.

"Dropping you down there," Tony confirmed. He shot over the tarmac and let me go. I dropped down and activated my jumpjets, landing on the ground in front of the two. Tony slammed into the tarmac next to me in a classic three-point landing position. We stood side by side moments later.

Daniels and Donnie eyed us and stopped about twenty feet away.

"Any chance we can convince you guys to give up? Rather not scratch up the suit" Tony asked, his voice hard despite the joke.

Blackout smirked, the tall man shaking his head. "You're keeping her from me. Nothing you say will change my mind. I will save Audrey."

"'Save' the woman you're stalking," I mused. "Yeah, you're way off the reservation."

A black beam slammed into my chest, sending me flying. I grunted at the impact, eyes wide at the feeling of spinning through the air. "SHI-OOF!"

I landed on the ground and rolled for several feet before coming to a stop.

"I'm in love with her!" Daniels yelled in the distance. "Not stalking her!"

"The two aren't mutually exclusive, you asshole," I said under my breath. I rolled to rise only to blink when I felt a strange sensation from my arm. When I looked at the Omnitrix, it was flashing green. Later, I'd wonder how. Did Daniels somehow activate it? Was it me messing with it? Did Darkforce blasts have some sort of interaction with the Omnitrix that I couldn't have predicted? Or had I simply bumped into it in the right way during my roll?

Whatever the reason was, I began to transform in a flash of green light.

I rose up in height by at least three feet. My skin changed texture, becoming more rough, like brown cloth. It also began to split at points as my muscles and bone faded, leaving nothing but the cloth-like material. A green glow came from between the gaps. My head grew a large helmet-like structure like that an ancient Pharoah would have worn, while a kilt-like garment similar to an Egyptian 'shendyt' came across my waist. I stood tall and stared out with glowing green eyes.

"Snare-Oh!"

Transformed, I looked down at myself and grunted, my voice sounding almost like like I'd been filtered by a ghost voice app. "Snare-Oh, instead of Big Chill or Heatblast. Against an ice villain. Well, guess this had to happen at least once."

Daniels and Donnie stared at me in shock. Well, Daniels did. Donnie blasted at me with ice. I dodged around it by turning into scraps of bandages and floating through the air to dive around the cold attack, moving forward to reform in front of him. I extended my arms forward and turned them into dozens of reaching tendrils, wrapping Donnie in my bandages, only for him to freeze my appendages near instantly and break out from the now super brittle cloth. Another ice attack froze my chest from neck to navel. I 'released' my chest and let it fall to the ground as I grew another one.

"I've got Donnie!" I yelled at Iron Man. "You get lover boy!"

"On it!" Tony yelled, speeding forward in his black and gold armor to shoot at Daniels with bright white light.

"I'll kill you!" Daniels snarled, a black burst of power leaving his hands to fly at Tony, who spun away from the attack to blast Daniels. Daniels, apparently having learned to respect Tony's attack earlier, ducked down and began to run, Tony and Daniels trading shots at high speed as pure shadow seemed to seep out of the latter.

"I'll try not to hurt you," I told Donnie, shifting forms to duck under another beam of cold. He stomped on the ground, releasing a blast wave of cold around him. I blocked it by shapeshifting my right arm into a shield. The arm froze and shattered. I grunted. "Well, not too much at least. Can't have you hurting me either."

I ran towards him, turning into scraps of cloth-like flesh to fly in the air. With experience from Goop and Upgrade, I was able to adjust quickly to Snare-Oh's brand of shapeshifting. It was different in a lot of ways, being a giant bandage monster. I felt so... strange. Like I wasn't alive anymore. Which kind of made sense but it was as though my body was filled with some undercurrent of energy. Something I'd only felt once when I'd become Frankenstrike. Combined with the whole 'bandage' thing, I was feeling some weird combination of powerful and inhuman as I flowed through the air as simple bandages and reformed as a giant mummy with glowing green eyes.

I punched at Donnie, but he surprised me. He raised his hands and the air in front of him was suddenly made of ice, the frozen shield protecting him from my punch. When I pulled back my knuckles, they were chipped and frosted. I ignored that in favor of punching again, shattering the shields and my knuckles and sending Donnie backward. He rolled clumsily to his feet and hit me with more cold frost, getting my legs. I got rid of those and floated to reform next to him, coming down with a double hammer blow that was blocked by another bunch of ice as he rolled away.

"Kid, just let me help you!" I yelled in my ghost voice. "Jus-mmmfff!" A blast of ice to my head shut me up. Then he formed a sword made of ice and chopped my arms off.

Seriously! Donnie was not that powerful in his files! Curse inaccurate paperwork!

I reformed in an instant and glowered at him. Looked like the fight was more even than I was expecting. Fine. Let's get serious.