Deadpool Syndrome - Marvel's Folly

Chapter 30 - Just One Mistake Is All It Could Take

***GWEN***

I almost regret volunteering to stay behind and guard the lab.

Almost.

At least I get to stick with the most science-minded people in Asgard right now. (No offense, Peter. None taken, Gwen.) And with one of the Lokis - Sierra's I think, because Sierra's sticking with us. She's still got a sword and shield on hand, but not long after half our little party leaves the situation room, she crosses over to a closet and swaps them out for a bow and arrow.

"Goodbye Wonder Woman," I say, unable to resist a grin - and almost unable to stop myself fumbling one of the webshooters as I attach it to my hoodie cuff. "Hello Katniss."

"Haha, thanks!" Sierra slings her quiver over her shoulder and holds the bow vertically as she joins me by the room's one and only window. "Pretty spot-on with the Katniss thing," she says. "These arrows, they're incendiary."

"I'm gonna love seeing them in action, aren't I?"

"You know it."

"Don't make me be your fire extinguisher," Loki deadpans.

"I thought you liked that job," Sierra says.

Loki pouts at her. "Have you any idea how much ice it takes to put those arrows out? Stupid exotic chemicals whose names I can't even begin to pronounce. I'd hate to imagine how much they've poisoned the ecosystem."

"Which is why I only use them in case of emergency," Sierra says firmly. "This qualifies."

"So don't let me stop you," Loki comments. "Even though it's my home you're abusing."

"When do we see the enemy coming in?" I ask, craning my neck. "We don't have to look for the whites of their eyes, do we?"

"Assuming their eyes have whites," Loki says. "They could be Dark Elves coming in their camouflaged ships."

"Aren't you sick of Dark Elves by now?" I ask.

"Absolutely," says Sierra.

"Most definitely," says Loki.

"Fuck 'em," say Skye and Daisy simultaneously.

"But if they were camouflaged," asks Riddle, "wouldn't we not be able to see them even on radar?"

"You'd be surprised," Loki says. "Asgardian radar covers a wider spectrum of frequencies. Including some lower than what humans are aware of."

"Then how do we see them?" I ask. "Oh wait...the computer would translate it for us or something...and my God, I'm turning into Peter, I'm babbling!"

"Babble away," says Simmons.

"It's good for the soul," Fitz chimes in. "Better than these toxic chemicals we're working with."

"Hey!" Daisy cries, glaring at Fitz - and Simmons too. "That's my blood you're talking about!"

"Not anymore, it's not," Fitz says, holding up a beaker full of dark red fluid, then pouring it out. A viscous, tarlike black solid remains on the bottom.

My stomach turns just looking at the stuff. "Gross."

"What is that?" Sierra asks, sticking out her tongue as she expresses her own disgust.

"A surprisingly large concentration of dormant Hive spores," says Simmons. "If I'm not mistaken."

"You're not," Fitz says gravely.

"That was in my blood?" Daisy reaches for the cotton ball taped to a vein on her arm. "That was...oh my God!"

"You must've been more infected than you thought, Daisy Duke," Skye says cheerfully. Cheerfully, but through slightly gritted teeth. "Jesus, Hive, if this is what you're gonna do with my body..."

"It's a fucking violation, I know." Daisy clenches her fists. "Seriously, at this point, I'm just trying to make sure it never happens to you."

"But then you'd die 'cause you erased your timeline or something, wouldn't you?" asks Skye.

"You know what they say about time," says Riddle. He switches to a British accent. "'It's a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...stuff.'"

Sierra clears her throat, and Loki crosses to a panel next to the window. He presses a button, and the window opens, letting in a bit of wind for a second or two. Then she stands on the edge, poised like a female Hawkeye, incendiary arrows ready to launch.

At Riddle's desktop, alarms ring. I turn around to see one small cluster of white detach from the larger one on the edge of the screen. There's a ship coming in, and with the naked eye, we can't see it.

Until I tilt my head and I catch a tiny, tiny shimmer somewhere high above this one domed building that looks like it caught the Bifrost in Istanbul.

There it is.

And here I am, about to make a decision even Peter might kill me for.

I reach out to Sierra and gently lower her arm. "What are you doing?" she asks, blinking rapidly at me.

"Don't fire," I say. "I got this."

"You got what?" Loki asks, the words sounding so strange coming from his mouth that I almost burst out laughing.

"Just get back," I tell Sierra as I step back a few feet myself. I'm taking a running start before I leap out the window and launch a webline from my right wrist, ignoring the cries from behind me.

The webline sticks to the invisible ship about fifty feet in front of me. Forty. Thirty. Twenty-five. I grab hold. Upper body strength, don't fail me now.

I land on the side of the camouflaged ship - at least, I assume it's a ship. The surface shimmers under my feet. Oh God, why am I looking down?

Hmm. You know what? I think I'm somehow too adrenaline-rushed to feel my usual fear of heights.

I'm pretty sure that's not possible...but then again, I could be embracing fight over flight.

Reckless, remember?

I climb up to the point where my webline touches the ship, then fire another. How far up am I going to go? As far as I need to.

And I have to get this done, whatever I've got in mind (my brain hasn't yet caught up to my body, not even close), before this damn ship reaches the situation room.

Seriously, Peter, if you kill me for this, I'll thank you. I'd almost rather not live to regret my stupidity.