New Identity ~ MCU/SWCW Story

Chapter 11 ~ All Secrets Have Their Revelations

Dang, I never thought that I would get to this point. Honestly, I feel like I've been procrastinating. I'm pretty sure most of you saw what's about to happen coming.

    "Beth, again?" Ashley groaned as she sunk into one of the seats in a, once again, empty meeting room. Bethany wasn't picking up her phone at all. It seemed as though she had been wiped off the face of the planet. Knowing the drill, the teenager pulled out her homework from her backpack and got to work on it, but she was done in a matter of no time. Thirty minutes had passed, and, much to Ashley's dismay, Bethany was still a no-show.

    The icy-haired girl checked her watch and frowned when she realized it was half-past five. She was supposed to be doing a conditioning session in their apartment at six, something that Bethany really hated when she missed, but there was no way that she was going to make it in time if she just stood around waiting. According to the brunette, missing just a single workout could set her back in her progress exponentially.

    Ashley mentally calculated the distance between the studio facility and their apartment complex. If she left right now, she would probably be arriving just a tad late for her self-taught session. So, with a careless shrug, she swung her bag up onto her shoulder and started briskly walking out of the meeting room and out the building. She was met by a gush of warm, late-summer air and the sound of traffic, both of which she had grown accustomed to. Despite her unknown origin, this city was her home. There was no convincing her otherwise.

    The teenager waved a greeting to a couple of familiar faces walking on the other side of the road. Once they caught sight of their waving classmate, they mirrored her positivity and returned the gesture with wide grins. Ashley turned to continue her walk home, however, a small, nagging feeling began bubbling up inside her. She couldn't really understand what it was trying to tell her, but this by no means meant that she was listening to it any less. Ashley could already tell that this was one of those feeling that her inhuman senses gave her, so she immediately channeled all of her attention to it.

    She still couldn't tell if the energy she was getting from it was positive or negative, but she began to catch on to something. Whatever feeling it was, she had felt it before. It was painstakingly familiar. She was going continue absentmindedly making her way back to her and Beth's apartment, but something practically shouted at her to turn right and into a deserted ally.

    "You know, this is the part where the protagonist gets kidnapped or murdered," Ashley duly noted to herself as she pressed herself up against a wall that was right next to the entry of the alley. Just for peace of mind, the teenager placed her hand on the discretely hidden pocketknife that she had wedged between her hip and the waistband of her jeans, then cautiously proceeded forward.

    Just as she had predicted, the second that she rounded the corner, something painfully solid came into hard contact with the side of her head. It narrowly missed her temple, but that didn't spare Ashley much relief. It took a couple of moments for her vision to be partially operable and for her to realize what was going on, but she was soon on her toes and turned to face her attackers. Both were buff men dressed in black, sleek, clothes, so it sent Ashley off the edge a bit. However, she knew that hesitation was not tolerated in a fight that you wanted to win, so she immediately sprang into action.

    Ashley whipped her pocketknife out of her waistband and flipped the switch, then charged the man on her right. He was the one to throw the first punch, but she effortlessly caught it with her left hand and kept his wrist in a death grip. She attempted to the slash on the underside of his forearm, but he forced the knife out of her hand. She frowned at this and let go of his arm to only grab a hold of his ankle. She twisted it to the point that he fell to the ground, then turned around to go up against her other opponent. She was the one to make the first move this time by revving herself up and delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to the man's side. He grunted and doubled over in pain, but the man in black quickly bounced back and threw a punch at her face. She tried to sidestep, but his knuckles ended up grazing the side of her cheekbone. Ashley tentatively raised a finger to touch the abrasion on her skin, then gave the man a "you really didn't want to do that" look.