So, inspiration struck me unexpectedly and I wrote a story for the challenge over the weekend. It's set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not too long after Avengers: Endgame and as things stand, WandaVision though you don't need to know anything about that show to understand the story. I hope it works also for those of you not too familiar with the MCU. To The Rescue She was sitting alone in Tony’s office in their Upstate house, staring into the dark outside its window, the cup of tea she had brewed herself earlier long forgotten after having asked his elaborate computer system hooked into a globe-spanning web of satellites to scan for anything out of the ordinary one more time. There had to be something. She just couldn‘t stop. How many times had she asked him to stop? And now she herself was incapable of it. She chuckled at the irony. But that battle had been something else. So much adrenaline. The joy of flying, the feeling of empowerment that came from her high-powered suit and the knowledge that she could shoot actual death-rays from her hands – she knew that in the cold, harsh light of reason that suit was a weapon of mass destruction she had no legitimate right to possess or to wield. Her only claim to it was that Tony had given it to her as a birthday present. He had always refused to provide the military with suits like that but he had given one to her. She didn’t like the death associated with battle, especially that one particular death. At first she had been doing as well as could be expected. Soon, though, she had become more and more obsessed with reliving the exhilirating feeling she had experienced during the fight. So she had started down the path of the superhero lifestyle, chasing it. Her first endeavours had been harmless – rescuing a neighbour from the nearby lake after their boat had capsized, helping after a major car crash on the Interstate. It had felt good but it wasn’t what she was after. Her main problem was that not much was happening so by now her superhero-ing had devolved into chasing criminals. There had been a couple of downright interventions to get her to stop. The police explaining to her that it really wasn’t her job to chase criminals. Friends calling her reckless for taking her daughter Morgan flying with her. Outlining the size and expertise of her legal department had gotten the police off her back. SWORD she had basically bribed by providing them with cheap weapons tech. And her friends… well… she had just ignored them. Deep down, she knew they were right, that she was playing with fire, and that she was probably only doing it to avoid her grief over Tony’s death. She knew all that and it didn’t change a thing. The scan returned nothing. She sighed. Dimly remembering that she had a multi-national company to run in the morning she decided she might just as well go to bed. Just as she got up her phone rang – the non-business, semi-private one. Odd at this time of night. The number calling wasn‘t in her contacts, either. “Hello,” she answered tentatively. “Good evening, Miss Potts, it‘s Detective Gomez – we met a couple of weeks ago when I cautioned you… uh... well, you know…” Their voice trailed off. A sigh. “It looks like we could need your... um... expertise.” “Oh. Um, sure.” Less than half an hour later, she landed in a largely abandoned industrial area, just outside of a police perimeter. Behind it a warehouse which had seen better days. In front of it a group of police officers, most of them in uniform. Detective Gomez stepped towards her, an amused expression on their face, yet with slight hesitation. Which gave her some time to transform her smug grin into a more neutral expression before she opened her helmet’s visor. “Somehow, I didn’t expect you to arrive like that.” Gomez said. “Oh, right.” In the excitement she had forgotten that she could also just take a car. “I get it.” The Detective said, smiling. “Before we continue – our legal department has come up with a way for us to do this legally. Basically, you’d be a consultant on this case.” “A consultant?” “Yeah, and… you need to sign this.” They held out a clipboard and a pen. “Fine.” For the first time in her life she signed something without reading it. A small voice in her head chastised her for being stupid but she pushed it away. “So, what’s the case?” “A suspect – armed and dangerous – trapped in there, “ Gomez explained, pointing to the warehouse. “We've surrounded it so he can’t escape but someone’s gotta bring him in.” “Sounds pretty standard.” “Yeah, but the suspect is not. And that’s where you come in.” She nodded. “Got it.” The Detective gently stopped her. “Be careful. This isn’t your ordinary petty criminal.” She gave them a look that she hoped would convey, “You realise I fought Thanos and his armies, right?” which seemed to work. A few moments later, she entered the building through a broken window on the first floor her suit had picked out as the best entry point. Below her, the ground floor was shrouded in darkness. Strange. Why couldn’t she see anything? She fiddled with the suit’s night vision. The next second, everything turned painfully bright as she was hit by an energy blast that smashed her into the wall behind her. And there it was – the thing she had been chasing for so long, that feeling of being so very alive. The metallic laughter she heard was her own, she realised, relayed through the speakers in her suit. “I’m not that easy to kill, pal!” she quipped as she darted towards the opposite wall. Underneath, the darkness remained impenetrable, like a veil. Another energy blast hit the wall behind her. This time she answered back with one of her own. She opted for a chaotic flight pattern she hoped was good enough to evade any more hits. “Listen, I got bad news for you. You’re surrounded. So, we can do this the hard way or the easy way.” This time, the blast missed her by a wide margin. It was the one she had needed to extrapolate its point of origin. She fired, heard a cry, dove down in a circle, crossed below the darkness, stopped about a metre above ground, both her hands outstretched just in case and found herself staring at the back of a person – a man? – whose shape she couldn’t quite make out. It seemed to be constantly changing. His blaster lay on the ground beside him, a molten heap of metal. In his left hand he held a golden staff whose tip was glowing red. “Careful with that.” she said and started to circle around him slowly. Though his weapons were of alien origin, the man – she had decided to go with that – seemed human enough. However, his face was concealed behind a black mask and green-glowing goggles so she couldn’t say for sure. Everything about him was continually shifting. Staring at him for too long made her queasy. “Oh, you‘re a different iron.. person than I expected.” he said in a deep, raspy voice. “Iron.. Woman?” “It‘s Rescue.” she answered, gesturing at the word printed on the suit – its name which had become her alias in the media and among the public after her first few sorties. “What happened to the other guy?” “You don’t know?” She just couldn‘t bring herself to say that he was dead. “Have you been living under a rock?” She hoped the banter would hide the slight shakiness in her voice well enough. “Who are you?” she asked to gain time while cycling through the non-lethal options her suit offered - which turned out to be few. Now that they were talking it seemed wrong to kill him. “Doesn’t matter.” “Look, I don’t want to kill you. So, how about you drop that thing?” A growl. “Never!” Seizing the opportunity, she swooped down to grab the staff but missed narrowly. Something – the staff? – connected with her suit and a wave of disorientation washed over her. She hit the ground hard and tumbled several times before she finally came to a screeching halt. “Ow, what the hell?” From the corner of her eyes she spotted the man running away from her, already nearing an exit, staff still in hand and pointing it forward. “Oh no, you don’t!!” she yelled too loudly, fired up the the rockets in her boots and flew right at him, slamming him into the wall. If he had been an ordinary human that manoeuvre would have seriously injured him but he was already up again while she was still on the ground, struggling to get up. She saw him scramble towards the staff he had dropped in the crash. With considerable effort she managed to lift her arm and shoot it. The shockwave of its explosion slammed her into a column. When she opened her eyes again a few moments later the man was gone. “Are you okay?” she heard Gomez’ panicky voice in her ear. “We saw an explosion inside!” “Did you get the guy? Must have used the eastern exit.” “No, noone has come out.” She had her suit scan the floor for any organic remains. Thankfully, it didn’t return anything. “But… he must have. He can’t just have disappeared.” Or maybe he could have? Slowly, she got up, feeling every bruise on her body – she definetely would remember that fight for a while – and walked over to the remains of the staff. Amid burst and partially molten pieces of golden-hued metal lay something that looked like a red gem. With a sinking feeling she picked it up. Even through her metal glove she could feel its power. “But that’s impossible...” she whispered to herself as she watched it glowing in her hand. And yet, there was no doubt in her mind about its nature. What she held in her hand was an Infinity Stone – the reality stone. Oh fuck.
I always enjoy seeing a followup on characters that had huge (but unused) potential in the shows/movies. Thank you!