xxxxxparentage // daredevil
xxxxxoutfit // xxxxxxdialogue // BB141E
J A C Kx M U R D O C K
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"Wait...woah. Do you have some kind of death wish Sparky?"
His brows kneaded together. Did she not realize taking out the guards was not only mandatory, but the best way to stay alive? Doing nothing would be a death wish.
"Obviously not," he countered. "But if we don't defeat them now, then...what are you doing?"
She snatched Jack's hands away from the chair and pushed him backwards, angling his shoulders and hands as though he were a department store mannequin. What on earth was Wren Wilson up to now?
"Are you on crack or something?" he scoffed. Whatever she was doing, it was wasting time.
"I may have set the alarm off, but you failed to kill your half," she said.
"Yes, I know I'm a dummy. Is that your justification for moving me around like one?"
"Don't move!" she ordered, unsheathing her glinting katanas. Once she strided closer to the door, his puzzled brain finally pieced together the hazardous feat she was about to undertake.
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"Wait...woah. Do you have some kind of death wish Sparky?"
His brows kneaded together. Did she not realize taking out the guards was not only mandatory, but the best way to stay alive? Doing nothing would be a death wish.
"Obviously not," he countered. "But if we don't defeat them now, then...what are you doing?"
She snatched Jack's hands away from the chair and pushed him backwards, angling his shoulders and hands as though he were a department store mannequin. What on earth was Wren Wilson up to now?
"Are you on crack or something?" he scoffed. Whatever she was doing, it was wasting time.
"I may have set the alarm off, but you failed to kill your half," she said.
"Yes, I know I'm a dummy. Is that your justification for moving me around like one?"
"Don't move!" she ordered, unsheathing her glinting katanas. Once she strided closer to the door, his puzzled brain finally pieced together the hazardous feat she was about to undertake.
"Okay, stop! You're insane!" he barked, breaking out of his position. Like he didn't already know Wren Wilson was the craziest beyotch in the academy. "You don't have to do this by yourself! Fifty fifty, remember? It's too dangerous to-"
The warning glance she shot was enough to shut him up. "If you move, you'll probably die," Wren stated. "So, just trust my mad genius once... Ok?"
He didn't like what she was doing. How could she force him to stand still when she didn't know for sure the swarm of enemies would overwhelm him? This scheme was worse than entering a boxing match with one broken arm. It was entirely impractical and made him feel like an ass. What if her nutty plan went wrong somewhere? He couldn't stand there and watch her perish. Or worse...
But it was something about her tone, her choice of words, that reassured him she knew what she was doing. And although she was unpredictable, Wren always had a grounded motive. She was reckless, but she wasn't stupid.
Jack sighed, returning back to the position his partner had placed him in. "Okay. But for the love of god...Please," he gritted, "Don't. Mess. This. Up."
And with that, she punted the metal chair into oblivion and speared her swords through two soldiers' faces like they were fish. Then a hailstorm of bullets cracked, and while Wren used her body as a human-ammo-shield, Jack employed his trusty senses to dodge stray shots. After headbutting another poor devil, she pivoted in place, holding up her index finger towards him. It was sharp, but not as sharp as the bullet holes which pierced her suit. The more he stared at them, the more he regretted agreeing to her plan.
"Wait, WREN -" he instinctively took a step forward.
"Be right back. Don't move." The door slammed.
Realizing there was nothing he could do to stop her, Jack released a worried groan and once again, returned to his former position.
While listening to the muffled sounds beyond the door, he tracked her position using radar sense. "Punch. Dodge. Slice." he muttered along with her movements, as if she could actually hear his directions. It was like silently coaching a newbie in the ring. When she stayed still instead of ducking, he heard a loud thud. "Ouch! That is no way to treat a lady!"
Frantically, he avoided some ricochet bullets that escaped through the door's fissures. Then it completely swung open, as in being knocked off its own hinges open. A decapitated body fell on top of it. Seeing Wren, he quickly rose his hands in the position she had placed them in before. "Heads up!" she cried, pun intended.
By god, he did not think she would mean that literally.
I am living in a freaking Tarantino movie he repeated to himself while realizing the head's features were Lanky Icicle Man's. If only he had stayed by that tank, he wouldn't have felt the steel wrath of Wren's blade. "Well don't just stand there! Open it!" she cried, continuing to swipe her katana back and forth like a painter who only used red. All she needed was a yellow track suit, and she was Beatrix Kiddo.
After pressing the head to the glass, the retinal scanner tolled a loud ding and the three-foot thick door slowly shifted open, allowing Jack to snatch the envelope from the mainframe. "Put it in your suit, quickly." Wren instructed. Hoping the manila wouldn't so much as crinkle underneath his padding, Jack unzipped the front of his costume and tucked the prized item into his chest, smoothing the paper out for good measure. He could hear the far-off rumpus of more footfall only a few stories above them. The group of soldiers, yet again, were heading down in their direction. And there were more of them.
"Get ready," Wren said, digging her hands into her utility belt. He turned to face her, noticing an alarming amount of crimson dripping from her suit. Of course, he couldn't exactly see such crimson, since his eyes didn't process the color, but the smell of blood was dreadfully pungent. Turns out that red she had painted with was her own - simulated soldiers had no need for bleeding.
"Let me handle this wave," he pleaded, putting a hand on her soldier. "You've done enough. You need to save your strength!"
But Wren had another cheeky trick up her sleeve, or rather, in her belt. She pulled out a grenade. An actual grenade. For some reason, he wasn't surprised.
The rest of the fight happened so fast, it dulled the intensity of his senses. As the soldiers flooded in, she tossed the unpinned grenade and slammed the door behind them. Then she held him against the wall with her arms as glass and bodies and rubble flew. He ground his teeth together, trying to remain in place against the booming explosion. Thanks to Wren's protection, no shrapnel pierced his suit.
Again, his ears rang. There was a certain morbid silence about the room, as well as a miasma of charred flesh and sawdust. But despite all of the grotesque sights and sounds and smells, Jack couldn't help but let out a cry of joy.
"WOO! That was amazing. Blood-pumping. I haven't felt that level of anxiety since-"
It was then he noticed the shards of glass embedded into Wren, some of them the size of knives.
"Shit...Goddamit. Okay," he exhaled, hoping she wouldn't faint on him. "I'm really sorry if this hurts..."
He quickly dislodged the large pieces from her side, back, and calf. There was nothing he could do about the smaller shards. But they were part of the simulation, so maybe if they hurried, the glass fragments would disappear. "Alright. Now it's my turn to help you." he said while placing her arm over his shoulders, guiding the limping girl through the maze of dead and groaning soldiers. Through the doorway, a strange-looking plastic card lay face-down on the ground. He leaned over for a moment, picking up the blue curiosity and seeing the word schlüsselkarte printed on its bottom. It took a good minute for him to realize it fit neatly through a slot next to a conveniently-placed elevator. Wait, there was a freaking elevator this whole time? Jesus, if only he had known that before...
Once the doors opened, he punched the ground floor button and made sure Wren was safely inside. "Geez," he mused to himself while the metal contraption rose. "I don't think I've had to complete a test this trippy since...well, since Xavier's." He thought of Phoebe, as well as the rest of his classmates. Were they done with their simulations already? Hopefully so. He needed someone who could remove the tiny pieces of glass from Wren's suit if they remained past the opening to the simulation. Stark went for realism in all his tests, and only the mentors knew how real he made them.
The elevator stopped, and the door opened to the same hallway Jack had fought through mere minutes ago. The soldiers on the floor were all unconscious or barely awake, save for one. "Sie verrotten Kinder! Du wirst für dieses Chaos bezahlen!" shouted a broken-legged guard, trying to crawl forward. "'Scuse us, jackass." Jack replied, propelling the heel of his boot into the man's forehead. He finally slept with the rest of his friends. The two students exited into the frosty air, heading in the direction of the forest. No need to head through the front door, what with all the triplines and heavy artillery and other shit Stark had placed there.
The artificial sun began to rise as they slogged through the snow. Birds were chirping, the wind was softly humming - everything was right in the world. Jack kept checking Wren every so often, making sure she had enough strength to move forward. He had carried her into this simulation, and now, in a sense, he was carrying her out. "Hey," he muttered. The usual snarky undertones of his voice had dropped. "I know I make it clear that you get on my nerves sometimes and I'm not particularly sweet as pie in your presence, but...thank you. For what you did back there. Not only do I appreciate it, but that was...amazing. Seriously. Like, Mycroft even suggested not blowing up the facility in any way and you used a grenade, and the envelope's still fine! It was just...."
He chuckled, but then stopped, clearing his throat instead. Too much...
"I'm sorry. I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I'm just...blabbering like an idiot..."
Jack didn't even pay attention to Mycroft's announcement as he passed through the doorframe out of the simulation. His only concern was to make sure Wren was okay. "BEEP BEEEEEP, OUT OF THE WAY, EARLY BIRDS!" he yelled to Caitria, Petra, Ross, and Ja'zmyn, who were all resting at the end of the hallway in the lounge area. "Injured trooper girl coming through..."
He rushed Wren to one of the available chairs, crouching down beside her once she popped a squat. Jack removed his horned helmet, as well as the envelope from inside his zipped suit. "You okay?" he asked his partner, turning to his buddy Ross once she made her status known. "Yo, Mirror Master! Come over here!" he motioned him. "You know glass better than anyone...you see any pieces stuck inside Wrenpool, here?" It was then he remembered cold-as-ice Petra Maximoff had the power of telekinesis. If tiny shards were still stuck in Wren, perhaps she would be willing to remove them...
xxxxxparentage // wonder woman
xxxxxoutfit // xxxxxxxdialogue // EAC117
P H O E B Ex P R I N C E
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Eventually, T'Chioke made it to the watchtower. His absence had given her enough time to pry open all the secrets hidden inside the Hydra base. Thanks to the maps, diagrams, and lists hidden inside the manila envelope, she now had an extensive knowledge of everything they faced. She flashed her partner a gentle smile, snorting as he nodded his head in approval towards the unconscious soldier. "He should be out for a while," she assured the prince. "He told me the mainframe in the basement is kept behind a thick, as well as bulletproof, glass door. There's also a retinal scanner. This little thing right here..." She retrieved a blue diagram of the door from her manila folder, circling her finger around a microscopic system inside the glass. "I know the claws in your suit are crafted from vibranium. They should be able to tear through the glass, but if not, we'd need to knock out a guard and use their eye to disable the lock. Actually, it might be a cleaner, less noisy method. Up to you what you'd want to do."
Nearing the table, T'Chioke told Phoebe about the elevator system and how they could either ride the elevator, disabling the camera inside, or travel down its shaft. Both options came with pros and cons. She nodded, creasing her lips into a straight line. Then the daughter of Wonder Woman grabbed a map of the ground floor and slid it to the tabletop's center.
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Eventually, T'Chioke made it to the watchtower. His absence had given her enough time to pry open all the secrets hidden inside the Hydra base. Thanks to the maps, diagrams, and lists hidden inside the manila envelope, she now had an extensive knowledge of everything they faced. She flashed her partner a gentle smile, snorting as he nodded his head in approval towards the unconscious soldier. "He should be out for a while," she assured the prince. "He told me the mainframe in the basement is kept behind a thick, as well as bulletproof, glass door. There's also a retinal scanner. This little thing right here..." She retrieved a blue diagram of the door from her manila folder, circling her finger around a microscopic system inside the glass. "I know the claws in your suit are crafted from vibranium. They should be able to tear through the glass, but if not, we'd need to knock out a guard and use their eye to disable the lock. Actually, it might be a cleaner, less noisy method. Up to you what you'd want to do."
Nearing the table, T'Chioke told Phoebe about the elevator system and how they could either ride the elevator, disabling the camera inside, or travel down its shaft. Both options came with pros and cons. She nodded, creasing her lips into a straight line. Then the daughter of Wonder Woman grabbed a map of the ground floor and slid it to the tabletop's center.
"Climbing down the shaft would be a good idea. However, if the elevator moves up below us, we'll be forced off track. If it moves down above us, we'll be crushed. Believe it or not, there is an easier way. Ah good, you've got two." She pointed to the key cards T'Chioke still had in his possession. "Those key cards do a lot more than just work the elevators. They can actually turn off alarms and camera systems in one of these control rooms..." She pointed to a small space across from the ground floor elevator. "We know the base has fourty floors: twenty above, including the ground floor, and twenty below. There are four control rooms in the Hydra base, one for every ten floors. One guard works in each control room, and they monitor their own ten floors. We don't have to worry about the control rooms on the rooftop or the eleventh floor, since we aren't traveling that high. We just need to hijack the control rooms on the ground floor, as well as the control room on sub-level eleven."
She shifted through her folder again, pulling out another blue diagram. It was a map of each floor's maze-like ventilation system. "Here's what we're going to do. We'll approach the entrance you found, then I'll climb through the vent until I'm above the ground floor control room. I'll get the drop on the guard in the room and turn off the camera systems and alarms using the key card. In the meantime, you secure the control room from the outside. That way, no soldiers go in or out. Use your invisibility so no one sees you." She started shoving each map and list back into the folder, save for the diagram of the ventilation system. "Then we'll ride the elevator to sub-level ten, take the stairs down one flight to sub-level eleven, and do the same thing over again. We'll go to the basement, get the envelope by whatever means possible, and then ride all the way up to the ground floor. We leave the base, walk through the forest, and voila: simulation complete." She closed the folder with a hard thud, looking at him with a know-it-all grin. "The only problem we may face are guards stopping the elevator to get to other floors, but we'll deal with that when or if it even happens. We'll probably have to knock them unconscious and hide their limp bodies somewhere so we don't raise suspicion. Other than that little hitch, we should be fine."
She cracked her knuckles while gazing down at the ventilation system diagram, trying to cram its shape inside her memory so she wouldn't drop into an incorrect room. "Ready when you are. Although I really hope I don't forget this-"
Then she remembered.
"Oh my god, I almost forgot!" she sputtered while retrieving Jack's cellphone from her pocket. Fortunately, she knew his four-digit password and took a picture of the map using the phone's camera. Then she turned the screen towards her face and motioned for T'Chioke to come closer. She gave a goofy, unamused expression and tapped the screen with her thumb. Then Phoebe put the phone down on the table, looking at the facetious selfie with glee. In an instant, it became Jack's new background.
"Sorry, it's, uh...it's an inside joke," she explained to T'Chioke, who was probably very confused. "Nasty habit of Jack Murdock: he takes embarrassing photos of people when they're not looking. Keep an eye out for him. He's worse than the paparazzi. Something you're familiar with, I'm sure?" Phoebe chuckled, placing the phone back in her pocket and getting her shield, sword, and lasso ready. "Okay. Lead the way, Prince of Wakanda."
She let him guide her across the base, and thanks to his efforts near the pillar, they didn't encounter any conscious guards. Her finger pointed up once they reached the first vent. "There it is. Hand me one of the key cards, then boost me up." Once he did as she instructed, Phoebe quickly crawled through the vent, pulling out Jack's phone and using her photo as a guide so as to not lose the way. Finally, she reached the control room, removed the metal sheet over the vent's opening (super strength came in handy during tight moments like this), then pounced on the single guard in a silent takedown. If everything was going according to plan, T'Chioke was outside, watching the door. She swiped the keycard through two slots, shutting down the camera and alarm systems from floors one through sub-level ten. If intruders spotted them, they wouldn't be able to alert the rest of Super-Scary-Simulated-Hydra-Base of the partners' presence.
Then, looking at the unconscious man on the ground, Phoebe concocted a glorious idea. She locked the door from the inside. "One minute. Just give me a sec." she lowly called to T'Chioke, crossing over to the grounded man. Her hands quickly unbuttoned his shirt and pants. She took the articles of clothing and draped them over her own body, tucking her dark hair into the soldier's cap. Now, her and T'Chioke both had invisibility: he had his suit, and she was disguised as a Hydra soldier.
Phoebe stepped out of the control room, modeling her new uniform for T'Chioke. "It's uncomfortable as hell, but it'll make life easier. I won't have to crawl through anymore vents while disguised like this. Just keep watch while I walk through the front door of the next control room." She called the elevator and stepped through once it opened, punching the button for sub-level eleven. "I know we said sub-level ten before, but since I'm dressed like this, just turn invisible once we reach the floor. That way the cameras won't see you."
Taking out the next control room was just as easy. Again, Phoebe shut off the alarms, cameras, and even found a slot to disarm the sirens inside the mainframe. Then she sauntered back to the elevator, punching the basement's button. As she waited next to T'Chioke, she pressed her new shirt to her nostrils, grimacing from the horrid smell.
"Blech. That guy really needs to learn how to do his laundry..."
Then the elevator began to slow near sub-level fifteen. Phoebe gasped, hiding her sword and lasso behind her back. "Okay, T'Chioke," she rushed, "Just turn invisible and stay silent. Don't do anything unless they grow hostile. I've got this." Finally, the elevator stopped, and two laughing Hydra guards stepped on. They pressed the button for sub-level eighteen. There was nothing Phoebe despised more than lazy people who couldn't walk down three flights of stairs.
One guard eyed her up and down, paying close attention to the shield she tried to conceal. She knew Themysciran, Ancient and Modern Greek, Spanish and French, but Phoebe couldn't speak a lick of German. The man nodded. "Hallo, err...Wilhelm."
Wilhelm? Oh right. Wilhelm Wicki: the name embroidered onto the front pocket of her shirt.
She nodded in recognition of his presence. There was a wave of embarrassing silence until the soldier asked, "Ist das ein alter griechischer Schild, den du dort hast?"
His eyes trained to her shield. Racking her brain for what to do next, she blurted out the first German word she knew.
"JA."
He nodded. Kind of awkwardly, but not in a way that rose suspicion. He waved her goodbye once him and his partner reached sub -level eighteen. The elevator continued to lower once they left. God, that was close.
Finally, Phoebe and T'Chioke made it to the basement and entered the room where the monolithic mainframe stood. "Alright. See if you can pierce through the glass with your claws. If not, we can go find a soldier to knock out or something. Or we can skip the claws and go straight to the soldier. Up to you." Phoebe idly leaned against the door into the small space, crossing her arms and taking a deep breath. She didn't realize how tired she was. Maybe it was just from the jump of adrenaline that now returned to a normal pace. The stealth route, although safer, took a mental toll.
"Hey, this may be overstepping the boundaries of our acquaintanceship," she murmured, filling the silence, "but I've always been curious...what's it like to rule a nation?"