Blood, Claws, and Scars

Things go wrong (fast)

A/N

The earlier chapters are currently my least favorite but still, gotta meet that characters!

(ALSO MULTIVERSE AND CROSSOVER SHENANIGANS LATER! IF YOU CAN FIND THE REFERENCES TO OTHER SHOWS/MEDIA IN LATER CHAPTERS YOU GET A COOKIE!)

————————————

All she wanted...

...was a FREAKING CORN DOG!!

Cris stood outside, waiting, and waiting, and waiting. She and a friend had been waiting to get their food for over 15 minutes in the blistering New York sun.

The heat didn't bother Cris as much, but her friend's complaining was almost a worse fate, she just hoped Liz didn't draw too much attention...

...Cris also hoped the fact she wasn't sweating in the 93 degree weather would go unnoticed.

Unfortunately, luck had other plans.

Screams echoed from a few blocks down, where smoke began to rise from a burning building.  The smell of ash and burning brick hit the pair's noses barely a minute later.

Normally, Cris quite liked the smell of charcoal, but not when it was mixed with the scent of burning flesh and the screams of terrified civilians.

She quickly grabbed Liz's arm (much to the latter's displeasure) and dragged her to a nearby alleyway.

"But we can hel-" "NO!" Cris cut Liz off,

"It's too dangerous, and we can't jeopardize the team over this. This world has more than enough heros to take care of that."

Liz scoffed, "Yeah right, they're probably too busy with aliens and supervillains to deal with something like that. BESIDES, it's our job to help people too right?"

"Yeah, in worlds where people like SHIELD don't exist."

"So... nowhere?"

"Exactly."

Liz rolls her eyes and raises her eyebrows, "wanna still take a peek? Might see something interesting."

Cris sighed in defeat, "FINE, but don't get involved. This city is crawling with SHEILD hero's and shady villains and security cameras..."

"Pfft, like that's a problem for you."

Cris frowns at Liz but follows her as they join a crowd of tourists bustling to get their first look at a real-life superhero.

Just as Cris predicted, heros were on the scene. A giant man with a large horn was breaking down walls of the building, a girl commanded squirrels to find survivors trapped in the burning rooms, a large sand  monster was putting out flames, and three more dressed in spider-themed spandex battled with a man with robotic tentacles.

Cris couldn't make this stuff up if she wanted to, and she STILL didn't have her food.

Once again, luck appeared to not be on their side. Cris wished there was a legitimate forecast or something for stuff like that.

She finishes her last thought as she suddenly feels a large, callused hand grab her shoulder and jerk her up into the air.

Cris turns her head to see another villain, wearing various animal skins and wielding several different gadgets, holding her captive as the tentacle guy taunts the spider people.

She kinda saw Liz's point about fighting them now.

Thankfully, backup arrived in the form of two more spiders (seriously, how many of them were there???) and a bright green and gold magic ninja. (wow, if I had a nickel for every time I saw one of those)

Cris suddenly realized her situation wasn't as great as it seemed. If the heros saved her then she'd probably be on SHEILD's radar or on the news (which would cause more problems if pictures are involved).

But if the villains won, then Liz would probably get into the fight or Cris would be a hostage.

Yeah, not great odds.

Cris went limp in the villain's arm as the heros battled, but thankfully the man who's grabbed her had lost interest, more focused on his incoming enemies.

She took advantage of this and made a bolt for the crowd, quickly pulling her hood up to conceal her face.

She made it about five steps before a metal tentacle wrapped around her waist (in a kidnapping kind of way) and jerked her back into the fight, a sharp needle being held against her throat. The tentacle guy called out to the spiders, taunting them again while holding the squirming girl close to the instrument.

Cris didn't even want to think about what was in said needle.

She also didn't want to get any more involved in this fight, but now she was truly stuck.

If the needle didn't puncture her skin, or the contents didn't affect her, then she'd be under suspicion. If Cris broke free then she'd most likely fall a few hundred feet down the building and land on debris.

That make it even harder to explain her survival if she could do so without transfo-

Her thought was broken off as one of the spiders lunged at tentacle guy from behind, successfully making him drop her...

...

...he dropped her...

...

"Oh shi-"