~Broken Family~

Unibrow

Harley was putting together a pretty crappy rescue.

He'd jumped up as soon as he saw Gwen stumbling into the bathrooms, opening his watch and accessing her tracker. It showed three different locations: her phone was still at the table, her Stark watch was back at the Roberts, but the earings were still intact.

"FRIDAY, where is she?" he had demanded, opening his watch.

"Accessing route..." FRIDAY had answered. Harley had held his breath. "Seventy-five meters to your left."

"What?"

He had taken a breath and tried to relax. She probably just wasn't feeling well. Plus, Sophie was right by the punch table. No need to freak out.

"Sleeping Beauty protocol has just been activated," FRIDAY had alerted, freaking him out all over again. He jumped up, grabbing his usual forearm crutch Tony had allowed him to go back to yesterday, and ran over to Sophie.

"Gwen just passed out," he said as low as he could. Sophie froze, spilling punch down the front of a kid's shirt.

"What?"

Harley wet his lips, glancing in the direction of the bathrooms. He saw Clay speedwalking over there, head down. Maybe he'd seen Gwen and was worried about her, too.

"Well, I saw her kind of sway, and then she dropped her punch cup on the ground. She went to the locker room, then FRIDAY told me the Sleeping Beauty protocol had been activated. It goes off when one of FRIDAY's users passes out."

Sophie didn't waste another second. She was already wearing combat boots, and she tore off her dress to reveal a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform underneath. She unhooked something from her belt and spoke into it before jogging over to the bathrooms.

"Wait---!" Harley called, limping after her as fast as he could.

Sophie halted outside the door to the locker room, then turned around to look at Harley, who was right on her tail. "Wait here," she ordered.

"What? Why?"

"Maybe she just didn't feel well because she saw you. Trust me, seeing ex-boyfriends does not kindle feelings of happiness."

"What?" Outrage filled him, and he suddenly desired to punch something. "Sophie, I didn't even---"

"Plus," she pointed to the sign outside the door, "this is a women's locker room."

Harley felt his face turn red. "Right."

Sophie stepped in without another word.

Suddenly alone after all the panic, Harley glanced down at his watch. He saw Gwen's dot moving from the locker room to another area. It was still inside the building.

"Sophie!" he called. "Gwen's moving..."

No response.

Slowly, he pushed open the door. Sophie had a gun raised already and was advancing towards a different door at the opposite end that had a sign for a pool on it. She glanced at him with a somewhat annoyed expression, then pressed a finger to her lips.

Harley flicked on his watch and clicked the panic button, which would alert Tony and get a suit to his location. With another press of a button, a repulsor and armor popped out and folded over his right hand from the watch, shimmering a darker red than Tony's regular suits. Tony was sure to get a notification now.

He held up his hand, illuminating the rest of the dark room, and slowly dropped his crutch to the floor, creeping after Sophie.

Sophie craned her neck to peer out the glass door, and, apparently not seeing anything, she opened the door and stepped out. Harley followed her, heart pounding in his chest.