A Lullaby For Gods Chapter 48

Ahh, this took way too long to edit. I had to rewrite a lot and reword so many things, and I think I also ate too much sugar while editing this because there were chocolate-dipped oreos on sale in the area. 

Anyway, enjoy!

XLVIII. Don't Stop Me Now

There are only three words for what happens in the next several minutes:

Chaos.  

Green.

Screaming.

For Tony Stark, of course, it's what the fuck. He lets the world know this is his choice of three words, as he says them out loud while he tries to pick himself off from the ground, Steve doing the same beside him, while across the room, the door has been kicked open by soldiers armed to the teeth like they're storming a military base instead of a kid's hospital room.

Said kid is unconscious on the floor, along with the other one who looks like Davesprite  and the other kid that he was carrying. That one is John, if he remembers what he's read from the Safehouse files and what Pepper had told him correctly. Tony doesn't have enough time to check if the three of them are breathing, because there's too many things to take in all at once.  

There's everyone else in the room trying to move, to get up; there's the soldiers yelling at them to stay down and to not move while they file into the already-crowded room as best as they can, reaching for anyone within range; there's the dog barking; there's Phil Coulson by the door - when had he come back from the Caribbean? - and there's -

A cat's hiss, a loud scream, a surprised yell, and then a flash of green light and an empty space where Cecil's brother had been earlier.  

Tony blinks. Everyone in the room freezes for the split second it takes them to realize that someone has just disappeared right in front of them.

"Jade!"

There's another flash of green light, not even second later from when Tony hears Luke yell, and then another right by where Cecil is, right by the doorway. There's a gunshot - an agent's reflexes on a hair trigger despite having his gun trained on a teenager - and Tony can only make a strangled sound at the back of his throat, faintly aware of a third flash of green light from the corner of his peripheral (from Luke, he thinks), before Jade suddenly disappears from where she's crouched over Cecil, right as the bullet breaks through the floor tile and stays there.  

Jade is gone. So is Cecil.

The crowded room doesn't still, not this time, because there's another flash of green (and this time he definitely sees it's Luke - two people who can teleport, holy fuck) and suddenly the old lady from earlier and the man with the glasses are both gone.  

Tony snaps into Avenger mode as everyone else gets moving. People from outside of the room have definitely heard the gunshot, as Tony hears faint screams and a lot of panicked shouting, and he notices Coulson stepping out of the room while motioning for as many agents to get inside, already saying, "Please remain calm, sir."

God, they really brought the cavalry for a teenager's hospital room. What on earth was going on?

In the room, Eridan launches himself at an agent reaching to grab his arm. His hands slam onto the man's shoulders so he can haul his legs up to wrap around them, rip off the agent's helmet and start pummeling him with it. When someone moves to knock him off their colleague's shoulders, Kanaya's a blur of brightness that tackles them out of the way, Rose quickly covering for her, knitting needles in hand.

Karkat drops to the floor, growling, sickle in hand, and dives towards Dave's direction so he can grab him and John to safety. Roxy and her glasses disappear into thin air and reappear right in front of Karkat - not quite teleportation due to the half-minute delay - sword in hand in order to ward off anyone trying to approach. Davesprite bodyslams into the cluster of agents by the doorway, suddenly corporeal, his wings pushing them over and toppling them into the hallway.

Steve grabs the dog from where it's barking while Tony grabs Cecil's I.V. pole. It's not like anyone's using it anyway.

They're both a little cornered, but it's mostly because the agents are just as hesitant to arrest them - they're both Avengers, for crying out loud - as they are about hitting them since they're supposed to be on the same side.  

"Sir," one of the agents says.  

There's a flash of green light right in front of them, and Tony instinctively raises his arms to cover his eyes, only catching a glimpse of Jade as she reaches for the dog in Steve's arms.  

"Get the girl!"

Steve quickly pushes the dog into her arms and pulls her to his side, while stepping forward, effectively switching places with her. The agents manage to grab him, but with the time he's bought, Jade has already teleported away in another flash.  

"Sorry, Cap," Tony hears someone say.

"Well, sorry for this too, I guess," he mutters, and swings the I.V. pole at the nearest agent trying to get Steve's arms behind his back.

The I.V. bag bursts on the agent's helmet, and Tony gives them another whack. They stagger, and he kicks them behind the knees, making them buckle down. He sees a swing coming from another agent and immediately ducks, taking the pole with him before swinging it out at his attacker's feet, putting all his strength into it. The agent gets knocked onto the ground, taking a few of the others with them.

"Go, go, go!"  

That's Roxy's voice, and Tony, from where he's in the process of getting up,  can only see Davesprite's wings which are now being held and restrained by multiple people. The kid suddenly goes incorporeal, causing the soldiers to lose their balance at the sudden lack of wings to hold onto, and then Davesprite just shoots up and through the ceiling.

"Somebody get air support."

Air support - fuck.

Tony gets to his feet and then ducks down again as Luke reappears and kicks someone in the side, sending them flying across the room, barely missing Tony by a few inches. As he rises again, he sees Karkat as he hops over fallen, unconscious bodies, to get to Luke, Dave in his arms; he's trying to keep John upright, leaning the boy on his shoulder.  

Luke grabs them all and in another flash, they're gone.  

"Thank god we have two people who can teleport," Tony says, vaulting over some of the knocked out agents to whack someone away from him. The ones near the doorway are already being evacuated. In the hallway, someone calls, "Medic!" followed by an ambush of footsteps.

Not all of them are from medics.

There's a loud buzzing sound, and Tony hears Kanaya yell, "Eridan!" just as back-up storm into the room, taser guns in hand. One of them shoots Eridan with it, the needles catching him easily, and he convulses as he gets shocked.

Tony throws the I.V. pole like a javelin at the agent, and it hits them - sloppily, it still collides with them and distracts them enough so Rose can fire what looks like a miniature star  at them, snapping her wrist out with a murderous look on her face.

There's a bright flash of light, and the agent slams into the wall with enough force that the surface dents, cracks spiderwebbing across it from the impact point. that has dark red staining it. Tony shuts his eyes at the sudden brightness, and when he opens them again, he can see the agent, their outfit scorched and melded, smoke coming off of them. When he breathes in, he thinks he can smell a bit of burnt meat.

Shit.

It's getting more violent than anticipated.

Steve rushes over to Eridan, even as agents from the hallway are quicker to get inside and start grabbing the kid's arms, mission over shock even when one of their colleagues has just been fried right in front of them.  

"Sir, stand down."

Tony moves, intent on pushing people off from him, but he sees the spark of the taser gun aimed in his direction for only a split second and then everything hurts.  

"Fuck!"

A flash of green from behind his eyelids. Good, good. That's either Jade or Luke, and they can just get everyone out of here one by one and then they can reconvene. Another flash. Someone's out.  

Tony feels hands on his arms, and then he's rolled onto his back (when had he fallen?) and his hands are being cuffed behind him.

"Really?" he slurs out, still disoriented. "They're just going to teleport us out of here."

There's another buzzing sound and a cry of pain from Steve. Damn, they're tasing even him.  

The hands cuffing him and holding him down suddenly disappear. He quickly moves so he can use his head to push himself onto his knees, and then someone's grabbing his arms and pulling him up, helping him move. Roxy.

The buzzing sound is there again; he sees someone shoot, but there's a flash of green light behind him. He ducks and tries to move so he doesn't get hit again. The barbs from earlier are still on his arm and he's not keen on getting another set. There's no sound of a body hitting tile. Roxy's out.

He gets to his feet, shaky but alright. If he can just grab the wires of the taser gun that's hooked on him, he can avoid getting shocked again.

By the doorway, Coulson is back. He's talking into his phone.  

"Hey, Phil," Tony says, grinning. It's not like any of them have any way to stop teleportation, anyway. Maybe it's a good thing no one has managed to synthesize it yet, because then no one can stop it.  

Coulson just nods to him, but keeps talking into the phone.  

He pouts, making it as childish as possible on purpose. Unfortunately, one of the people from behind him that Roxy's knocked over has gotten to their feet and grabbed his taser gun. They pull the trigger.

Tony falls to his knees; he thinks he probably looks like a wriggling fish, muscles reacting to the pulse of electricity.

"Fuck," he hisses, trying to look up at Phil without making it obvious that everything really hurts right now. "Long time no see and that's how you greet us?"

Last he'd heard, the man had a lead on something Safehouse-related, and had moved away to the Caribbean to do some research. There hadn't been news from him since, at least, until now.

Granted, Tony hasn't been keeping up with S.H.I.E.L.D. aside from Avenger duties, given the new circumstances.

"I'll admit this wasn't what I expected to see when I came back, Mr. Stark," he says, finally getting away from his phone. He ends the call and pockets the thing, before smiling that calm smile of his.  

On the floor, Eridan is starting to thrash. As Rose's shot at the previous agent has melted and snapped the wires of the taser gun that had gotten him earlier, someone else fires and hits Eridan's side, the boy convulsing again upon contact. Steve is being restrained beside him.

An agent steps towards Tony. Tony starts to scoot backwards as much as he can.  

Tony hears: "Sir. I don't want to have to tase you again."

"Mr. Stark," Phil says, disapproving.

"S.H.I.E.L.D's arresting kids now, huh?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D is taking threats to national security into custody," Phil says.

"That's what I said, you just said it wordier."

Coulson sighs. He grins.

"How are they threats?" he asks.

Phil gestures to the room. A few agents step into the room to hold Eridan down before he starts moving again, while others check fallen agents for their vitals.

"Okay, point, but self-defense isn't necessarily a threat to national security," he says.

The man takes a few seconds to step into the room properly this time, making sure to avoid stepping onto any of the unconscious bodies, the ones that still haven't been taken out to be checked by the medics. The one Rose launched into the wall is still. Very still.  

"I suppose there's a lot you don't know, then," Phil says.  

Tony frowns. "I think I could say the same thing to you."

There's the flash of green Tony's waiting for, finally, and he grins, hope rising, as Jade reaches for where Eridan is trying to wriggle free from everyone holding him down. She'll get him out, and then there's just him and Steve, and even if she doesn't manage to get them out, they'll find a way. They're Avengers, they can take care of themselves.

Except Jade doesn't quite reach Eridan. She freezes, frowns, and then slowly stands up properly, just staring down at the ground but not quite seeing it.

"Jade?" Steve asks. His concern is making it easier for him to be held in place.

Tony sees the green sparks from her fingers and thinks, okay, alright, it's fine, maybe she's just feeling a little off, but Jade still does nothing.

And then she does. She disappears, and comes back, holding Cecil like a ragdoll, one hand on the back of the collar of his shirt, so the boy is choking, thrashing around and trying to breathing, mouthing, "Jade. Jade!" but not able to speak.

She drops him onto the floor and he holds out his arms to catch himself, but since his arms are injured, the pain makes his elbows buckle, and he collapses onto the floor with a cry, still bleeding from his injuries.  

Tony blanches.  

Jade disappears again, and comes back with Rose and Kanaya, throwing them both down. Kanaya growls, crawling over to shield Rose even when she's barely sat up, but thankfully Jade doesn't pay them any mind. She just disappears again.

"What the fuck is going on?"Eridan yells, only to be silenced with the butt of a rifle to his jaw.  

Jade's back, this time with her brother. At least she has the decency to put him down gently before rushing off again to wherever.  

He's still unconscious, but he's breathing, albeit weakly.

"For fuck's sake, get a medic!" Tony shouts, raising his head. "He needs medical attention!"

Steve has stilled, looking shocked, staring at the body of John, who thankfully is quickly  checked for injuries. Cecil is as well, and so are Rose and Kanaya.

Kanaya strikes.  

"Tase her!"

Kanaya's nails gouge past an agent's mask, drawing blood,  just as the taser's needles latch onto her. Rose screams, horrified, and she's quickly knocked down and held to be cuffed.  

Jade comes back with Dave. He's conscious, but barely, and he's quickly taken from her grasp by someone, to be cuffed and forced to kneel as well.

Tony can only watch as the room empties of unconscious agents and more of Jade's friends; she's bringing back everyone who was teleported out. Agents are quick to apprehend them, and whenever they squirm, they get tased and piled on.  

From the doorway, Phil Coulson watches, grimacing slightly. He's clearly uncomfortable with the situation - who wouldn't be, they're kids, after all - but it's work. It's his job. It's S.H.I.E.L.D. and it's for the safety of everyone, or so he believes.

Roxy thrashes the most when she's finally brought in, kicking and screaming until Jade pushes her onto the floor.

She rubs her neck, as she'd also been held by the back of her shirt's collar, croaking out, "Jade - "

But she's restrained, just like everyone else.  

Jade blips out. Tony's hefted up and told to move. He doesn't, instead he catalogues everyone in the room to make sure they're alright. They're not.  

Cecil is crying, arms bloody and bound. Eridan is weakly breathing, mouth bleeding violet from when he'd been smacked with the rifle. Kanaya and Rose are pinned down by a good dozen soldiers. John has long been brought outside, hopefully for medical treatment away from a hazard zone. The man from earlier and the old woman are also bound, both looking terrified out of their minds.  

Karkat is brought back next, already screaming threats, but then he falters when he sees Dave, barely awake, restrained. When Jade lets him go, he immediately tries to crawl for him, only to be pulled back by an agent who quickly takes her place.

Dave looks up.

"...Karkat?" he manages, "What the fuck..."

Jade's gone again. Rose sobs at the sight of her brother awake, looking like she wants to reach out for him.

"This is a mess," Tony hears Coulson say, turning to the side to massage his forehead for a moment.   

Damn right it's a mess. A disturbing one, considering they're all treating children like terrorists.  

Luke arrives gasping for air, as Jade has held him by his throat. It's the first time Tony notices that her nails are actually sharp, enough that they're digging into his skin and drawing blood.  

Her skin looks strangely grayer.

Rose screams again.  

Dave's eyes widen, lucidity forced out from shock. "Jade, no!"

The boy grits his teeth and moves his shoulders back, taking advantage of the fact that there's less people holding him down, but he's quickly kneed in the back and falls to the floor, breath knocked out of him.  

His outburst has caused a chain reaction; Rose yells for Jade to drop Luke, and Roxy squirms again, pleading for Dave to be let go because he's clearly still recovering from prior injuries. Kanaya hisses, glowing brightly, when someone tries to tell Rose to quiet, and Eridan starts kicking furiously, hoping to get anyone he can hit. Steve is yelling for everyone to stop.

Even from where they're huddled, the old woman says, "That's enough, they're children - " but she's quickly told to stay down too, and the man from earlier immediately comes to her defense; he's forcefully shoved back to the floor.  

And Tony watches.  

In fact, Tony can only watch, because when he tries to get free, to reach anyone and try to help, he gets the trigger pulled on him again and his knees hit the floor with an impact that he feels more than the electric shock.

The cacophony rings in his ears,  that he suddenly feels like the room is too small, and everything is going so wrong.  

Luke is bleeding, now actively trying to pry Jade's hand off his neck, because she's managed to lift him off the floor and hold him up while choking him. Blood stains her nails, while a few droplets run down her hand and onto the floor.  

"Jade, let him go!" Rose.  

"Jade, that's Loki." (What?) "That's Loki. Let him go!" Dave. His head is turned so he's fully facing the floor. He lets out an enraged, frustrated cry.  

"They're kids, just stop hurting them."

"For fuck's sake."

"Jade, you're going to kill him!"

Luke - or...Loki, but Tony's going to think about that later, if there's a later - is flashing green. At first, Tony thinks he might explode, but then he realizes that he's trying to teleport away, but Jade keeps pulling him back and holding him in place.  

His eyelids are fluttering, his lungs losing air, and the green flashes are slowing. If she continues to choke him like that, he might actually sustain brain damage.

Tony grits his teeth, presses his forehead to the floor, and tries to get up.

He needs to move.

Another shock. Hands on him. He needs to move, needs to help. Everything is so loud; the noise itself sounds desperate to Tony and it chafes, burns, and makes him want to curl up and cry because helplessness is not a feeling he would ever like to get used to, and has not wanted to get used to since Afghanistan.  

"Mr. Stark, please stay down."

Across the room, he sees Dave manage to lurch forward, but is too slow on getting to his feet.  

So he doesn't. Instead he takes in a deep breath, puts all of his strength into his legs, and twists, kicking up and hitting the agent holding him down in the jaw. Not wanting to get tased again before he can do anything, he forces himself to land on his knees, take a step forward, and lunge.

Several things happen at once.

Tony barrels into Jade's side, headbutting her in the ribs, and the impact knocks her onto the ground and loosens her hold on Luke. The man falls to the ground, but is too disoriented to move, instead hungrily taking in air, his body's instinct to survive the only thing at the forefront of his mind. Jade drops like a rock, crashing into the nearby wall.  

Dave hits the floor, and tries to get to Luke, but only manages to crawl a few inches forwards before he's pinned down again. He screams in pain as his arm is held down the wrong way. Karkat moves, one shoulder forward in an attempt to get to him, but he's also restrained.  

And Karkat breaks.  

"Stop it!"

It's not like anything Tony's ever seen before.  

There's a lot of blood all over the room - from Cecil before, when he'd collapsed and that blood-tongue from earlier had dissolved; from John as he'd been bleeding from his head; from Eridan whose mouth is swollen and whose blood is still dripping down his chin; from the soldier Rose had knocked into the wall and the one Kanaya had scratched; from Luke's neck, gouged by Jade's nails.  

All that suddenly moves, reaching out towards Karkat as a singular point, and then just as all of it meets, it suddenly springs out, aiming for the floor and to the soldiers holding Karkat and Dave down.  

The aim hits true. The blood, whatever's happened to it, strikes the agents with enough force to rip through them, branches of long, thin, discolored blood impaling them in the shoulders, in the stomachs, in the arms.  

In the distraction, Karkat crawls for Dave, who groans in pain. He tries to move, but Karkat reaches him first, immediately collapsing beside him in relief.

Tony stares at the morbid little tree of blood in the room. It's solid. Completely solid enough to go through people.  

"Oh my god," the old woman from earlier breathes, shaky.  

Karkat doesn't seem to care, instead trying to sit up, as Dave is moving.  

"Dave," he says, weakly at first. Then, "Dave, I swear to god, you better be okay."

"I've had better days," Dave croaks out, and rolls onto his side, letting out a breath. "I'm not complaining, though."

Karkat lets out a tired laugh, hunching in on himself.  

Dave raises his head to take in the scene in front of him, the one everyone's still staring at. "...Jegus grist."  

Even Coulson is staring. The little blood tree in the room is thin, but it's holding up well. The agents are still impaled on it, although their shock is wearing off now and they're all trying to move away, trying not to cry out as they do.

Tony sits up, slowly. Across him, Jade rises, growling at him. Her head is bleeding a little.

"Shit," he says.

Thankfully, her attention is on Luke, holding a hand out towards him just as he tries to teleport away. Coulson motions to his direction and he's immediately restrained, taking three blows of a gun's butt to the head so he's knocked out. When he motions to Karkat and Dave, the tree suddenly moves again, collapsing in on itself towards its fork, and then rising in a dome over Karkat and Dave, until they're completely hidden from view.

Silence.

Coulson clicks his tongue.

Tony grins, unable to help himself even when people are grabbing him again. "What now, huh?" he says, tongue sluggish. He might have bitten it when he'd hit Jade.

"Cordon this area off," he says, calling down the hallway. "We'll dig them out of there if we have to. Get medic, get back-up, and prepare for transport."

"You can't be serious," Tony says. "They are kids. Several of them are injured!"

"We have medbays at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Coulson says. He motions to the dome where Karkat and Dave are in, and then to Jade, who's walking over to the windows and looking out. "You've seen what these kids can do, and you'll know what they've already done. They're dangerous."

"Because you forced our hand," Rose says. She's pulled up, and she gets to her feet; her eyes are red and puffy but she looks livid. "You can't expect us to just stand down when we're being treated like animals."

Coulson pauses and then turns to the soldier by the wall. Tony's sure their head has been crushed in, from how dented their helmet is.  

Rose just spits onto the floor while she's dragged out the room.

"The bird is still outside," Jade suddenly says.  

There's hesitation in Coulson's expression. Tony takes note. Interesting.  

"Can you take him down?" Coulson says, "Detain him, I mean."

"He's a sprite, he can phase through anything," she says.  

"Is there a way to get him to be solid?"

Jade turns, appears to think it over, and shrugs. "Bait."

"Will you need help with that?"

"I got it, don't worry," she says, and reaches a hand out, a rifle suddenly in her hands. "Just make sure you have a cage small enough for him."

She grins, and disappears in a flash of light. Coulson visibly relaxes.  

"Phil," Tony tries again. "You know this is wrong."

Coulson's already leaving, letting the soldiers bring everyone out one by one.  

Tony can't see his face, but at the very least, he sounds shaken.  

"I'm sorry, Tony," he says, "This is work."

-

She does get Davesprite.

Tony and the others are blindfolded before they're driven off. He's too tired to keep up with the snark while he's being patted down, and when the blindfolds are finally removed, Tony's already inside a five by five cell painted in white with one glass wall leading out to the hallway. There's a few holes near the top of the glass wall, too high for him to reach, and he thinks about animals in shoe boxes, holes poked into the cardboard with a pencil to allow them to breathe.  

Fitting. It's what he feels like, at the moment. So much for being an Avenger, when he's getting about the same treatment as every prisoner they've had here.

He sees a few of the kids when they're being led to their own cells. They're all blindfolded too.

He tries to knock on the glass, slamming his palms flat on the surface until he can't feel anything but his skin burning from the impact, but none of the agents would even turn to him. The kids do, heads snapping up at the noise, but they're just pushed forward.

Tony ends up sitting by the glass wall, trying to get anyone to talk to him, at all, because at least if they talk, he has a chance to charm them all out of here

Even Davesprite is blindfolded as he passes by. Jade's with him. She walks down the hallway with an agent but doesn't walk back out.

Hours later, he sees Karkat and Dave being brought to their cells, finally dug out of the dome Karkat had somehow created earlier - and that was an interesting thing to think about, the ability to manipulate blood and change its properties on a whim. Maybe Karkat can break them all out of here if they all bit their pinky fingers or something.  

But Karkat looks exhausted. Dave looks like he had a medbay visit, but that might just be this prison's uniform. White laboratory experiment scrubs.

Cecil and John are the last he sees pass by, both conscious and patched up. John has bandages wrapped around his head, and he looks horrified as he glances around the cells, pausing for too long to stare, and Cecil gently puts a hand on his arm to remind him that they can't dally right now.

Tony thinks he's broken the skin of his lower lip from chewing down on it, as he lets everything replay in his mind.

They have to get out. There's too much at stake, and he's not sure S.H.I.E.L.D. even knows this.  

There's still the fact that Cecil and Dave need help with the bloodleech, and with both of  them being on lockdown, maybe even separated from Karkat, there's a chance they might not make it. There's also the situation with Feferi Peixes, since they still have to get her out, and those other two kids - the ones on the news - who were detained, but they're all here...

Save maybe for the dog, the cat, the fucking glasses, and Kevin - yeah, come to think of it, he hasn't seen Kevin here - they're all useless until they can find a way out.

Hopefully that'll be easy.

Luke can still teleport outside. As soon as he's regained his strength, maybe he can break them all out of here and they can find out what's wrong with Jade, rescue Feferi and bounce.  

There's a knock on the glass wall of his cell. He looks up from where he's been sitting by it, staring at the floor deep in thought.

It's Coulson.

"Come to tell me I get parole for being an Avenger?"

He doesn't hear him, clearly, most likely because of the glass, so he raises his voice and says it again.

"No," the man says. He looks weary. Which isn't something he does a lot, so Tony can tell even when he looks like he always does, if just a little subdued. "Although the Director's going to see you and Cap later for explanations. I just came to deliver a message."

"Is it that I'm getting parole for being an Avenger?"

Coulson gives him a flat look.

He shrugs. Might as well still hit him with humor despite the situation.

"I'm here to tell you that all attempts to escape will end in the death of Jade Harley."

Tony freezes.  

"...what?"

Coulson sighs and looks away. "She has access to her weaponry in her cell. She's the only one allowed to."

"What the fuck do you mean you're going to kill a teenager if we try to escape?!"

He's on his feet now, stalking over to where Coulson is. If a glass wall weren't separating them both, he would have decked the man right there.

"I mean that if none of you stay put," he says, "She's going to pay the price more than she already has."

"That's your brilliant idea, huh, Phil." He clenches and unclenches his fists, trying to push down the urge to ram one of them straight through the glass. He's angry. No, he's livid, because this is too far. This is too much, and for S.H.I.E.L.D. to go this far is sickening and disturbing.

"It wasn't my idea," Phil says. He genuinely looks offended.  

"Then whose was it," Tony asks flatly.

He hesitates, and then turns away. "I can't tell you that."

"Was it Nick's?"

"Goodbye, Tony," he says, walking off. Tony stares at his retreating form, until he disappears from his line of sight.

Tony stares at the spot where he stood, for about a solid minute.

And then he pulls his arm back and slams his fist into the glass wall, knuckles splitting through his skin at the impact, bone fractures crawling their way under the skin and muscle of his hand. The wall doesn't even crack, because it's bulletproof glass, and that just makes Tony want to punch it again.

The noise seems to startle the occupant of the cell across him. He ignores them - it's probably a random villain they apprehended, and he's not in the mood for mind games right now - and instead goes to where his bed is to kick the frame. Pain bursts in his foot, and he kicks again, and again, his shoe getting battered the more he kicks at the bedframe. He takes the pillow and throws it at the glass wall; the blood from his hand, as he realizes a second later that he's using the broken one to grab it, stains the fabric,. His floor is a mess too, red droplets all over the white surface.

The person across the cell stirs again, flinching; Tony just moves to sit on his bed, putting his face in his hands. One of his cheeks feel the warm slather of his blood.

This is wrong.

All of this is wrong. This is not supposed to happen this way. This is not supposed to be the organization he was working for, and yet.  

And yet.

He raises his head, after a long, long silence. The pain in his hand is starting to get to him. He needs to get it patched up. Once his anger and the adrenaline die down, this is going to hurt like a bitch.

The person in the cell across him moves, sitting forward in a way that he registers is concern.

The first thing he notices are the horns. Similar to Karkat's and Kanaya's, but they're longer, and they curve outwards. The second thing is the fins, which look like Eridan's.

Feferi Peixes' eyes are fuchsia pink, and they're looking at him in confusion and fear.

Tony blinks.

"Oh my god."

-

Phil Coulson sighs as he walks out of the Director's office.  

When he asked for backup, he hadn't expected the Jade girl to suddenly turn on all of her friends, to the point of nearly killing one of them, and he certainly hadn't expected her to ask for everyone outside of Steve and Tony (and that was a strange request; strange enough to catch his attention) to be gathered in a room and to be told that if they tried to escape, she would shoot herself.  

It was...disturbing, to say the least, and there was definitely a bit of mind control involved there since he can't really think of any reason for the girl to suddenly just act like that.

How did that even work?

Unethical. And uncalled for, but it had been a successful operation, despite the initial chaos, and their backup had delivered everyone to them in one piece.  

He wonders how Clint would react if he knew what was going on. He's on a mission right now in Belgium; Phil doesn't know if he's been involved with the Safehouse case, but this was sure to strike him as something too far. Even Phil himself knew it.

Still, what's done is done and no harm has been dealt with yet.

He looks at his watch. It's been a long day. Hell, a long month, all in all, from meeting Dirk Strider by accident, to organizing a capture of him and his friend due to provided intel.

And then he had to organize the capture of everyone involved with the Safehouse after their backup got them evidence that the whole group was responsible for the attack at the hospital - the violence with Cecil and Dave had just been the result of infighting.  

He hadn't expected to deal with Tony and Steve's charges in the same day (and that had been a surprise to learn; he hadn't even been sure to believe the report when it came, seeing as it had a little too much glitter, and Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were involved - they were S.H.I.E.L.D's, they had to have their reasons), but maybe it was for a best. At least the whole thing hasn't been dragged out.

Guess there was a waiting game on the next one, then.  

He straightens his tie. He needs a drink.

-

Kevin is screaming when he's suddenly dropped onto the floor of the bunker's living room.  

Sapphrel squeaks, Ruben drops his drink and James instinctively moves an arm out in front of them in order to shield them from whatever's arrived, but it's just Kevin.

And his brother's cat.

James relaxes.

"Kevin?" Sapphrel stands, immediately going for their friend. They help him to his feet. He's shaking. "What's going on, are you okay?"

"No," the boy immediately says. The cat saunters away from him and onto the couch, where it proceeds to clean its paws. "I think we nearly got shot at."

"What?"  

Sapphrel guides Kevin to the couch to let him sit. Ruben goes to the kitchen, most likely for a drink of water.  

"What happened?" James asks, gathering up the chess pieces on the floor from where he and the others were playing  on a three-person board.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. happened," Kevin says.

Oh.  

Right, he'd heard about that organization a few times before. They were the ones kidnapping mutants.  

He presses his lips to a thin line. Not good.  

Ruben comes back with a glass of water for Kevin. The boy downs it in one go and sets it on the coffee table.  

"We were - we were talking, because Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were there and they brought these kids with them and I think the others know them?" Kevin is motioning with his hands, the movements frantic. Sapphrel shares a look with Ruben, concerned and confused. "I thought a few of them were familiar too, like I've seen them before, but I can't remember where. The bird, especially, I've definitely seen him. I-I mean he looked like Dave, but I'm sure I've seen him."  

His breaths are too short.  

"Slow down," James says, slowly approaching him, hoping he's not too strung up to be spooked right now. He thankfully is calm enough for James to kneel in front of him. "Deep breaths, Kevin."

Kevin nods, trying his best. He gets it under control in a few minutes.

"I'm not too sure, about where I've seen them before, I mean," he continues, when he's calmed down. "I'm still...give me a moment to get my thoughts together, but we were talking and suddenly Cecil got possessed again, a-and Dave too - "

"Again," James says, remembering the hospital and being drenched in the darkness, being slammed into a wall, and then ushered out of the hospital by John.  

Kevin gives him another nod. "Again," he says, "Dave too."

Beside him, Sapphrel puts their head in their hands.

"What happened after?" James asks.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived," Kevin says. "They knew, somehow. They knew that we were all there, and they were armed."

"Why were - they know half the Safehouse crew are teenagers, right?" Ruben puts a hand on Sapphrel's shoulder and squeezes gently.

"I think they were just prepared for the worst, and then Khoshekh..." He trails off and looks to his brother's cat, still cleaning his paws from the couch. He doesn't look up, even as everyone's attention turns to him. Kevin sounds unsure as he continues. "He just...got me out of there."

"It wasn't Lu - Loki?" James asks. "Or Jade?"

Kevin shakes his head. "It was Khoshekh," he says, "Neither of them were near me."

James looks at Ruben, who looks at Sapphrel.

"Did you know he could do that?" Sapphrel asks.

"No," Kevin says. "I just thought he was some regular cat my brother picked up - I mean, as normal as we can be, but."

As if recognizing that he's the topic of discussion, Khoshekh lifts his head to stare at everyone. With the light reflecting, the cat looks like its eyes are glowing.

That glow suddenly engulfs it, and it's gone in a flash of green. Everyone stares at the spot where it once was, and no one gets a word in before he's back, a dog in tow. James recognizes it from the Safehouse.  

Milko, he thinks. The chalk-eater.

He disappears again, and reappears with another dog, a rather excitable Corgi with no tail. And then he's gone again, and then back again, with another dog. He does this, again and again, flashing in and out of the room, coming back each time with another dog, until the area slowly gets crowded.  

Fenrir bounds into the room a few minutes into it, no doubt alerted by the new scents of other dogs in the house. The puppy - now a lot bigger than he was before when James first got him - runs over to James, pushing his snout into his hand as a greeting, and James absentmindedly starts patting his head, all while watching Khoshekh zap dogs into the bunker.

Then, when it finally looks like he's stopped, as he climbs onto the arm rest of the couch and looks over the army of four-legged fluffballs he's amassed, he suddenly disappears again.

And comes back with one more dog, this one looking more raggled than the others. James thinks this one is named Winston.

Kevin swallows thickly and turns to the others.

"I definitely didn't know he was like this."