Chapter Text
It was a bad idea before it even was an idea. Driving drunk was one thing, but porting inebriated was on a whole ‘nother level.
Ash’s day had consisted of a gray coloured laziness, doing a few strokes here and there on her current project - a landscape of a world in darkness, where only glowing silver eyes defined the lives living in it. It had been a mix of a book she read recently and a nightmare from the previous night, one of many that had inspired her creative processes. The Gallery was at the moment in between collections, so there was no pressing date on the project to be finished. This was Ash doing art because it was art, and not because it was work. A thing she hadn’t been able to do for a long while.
Matt’s day, on the other hand, was brightly hectic and he came storming into her apartment late afternoon, only giving the jingles of the keys unlocking the door as a warning before his presence invaded her tranquil space. A second walk-through of an apartment’s inhabitants had led to a witness stepping forward and actually giving the duo a lead on their current investigation, or more like Matt’s, Ash had only helped out once or twice during her late routine. A woman had been murdered in broad daylight in a park, close enough for that apartment building to be a possible vantagepoint of the crime. The few the police had talked to hadn’t witnessed anything, they had only heard the scream - confirming the time of death.
Maybe this was a darker thing to admit to not being as pressing, but ever since taking down The Circle, a sense of nothingness had crept into Ash’s life. There was no spike in crime-rate, no infamous killer on the loose to stop, no imminent danger from the holy or pounding beacon of darkness to smother. It was just calm - gray. A quiet fog that nulled the edges of the world. So people and small victories became the big parts in her everyday life, and this collection of evidence counted as one of them. The information itself wasn’t anything pressing and needed to be analyzed first to actually lead to a decent plan of action, so the two had decided an evening at the local bar was as good a plan as any.
Now, Ash severely regretted her intake of alcohol for the evening - both for her mind's sake and her wallet’s. After growing half-immortal from consuming the majority of a deity, getting drunk wasn’t easy and it definitely wasn’t cheap. With shaky legs and arms slung around each other for support, Matt and her had decided that a cab was too much effort to hail and they would just port home. Why pay for something that takes forty minutes when being there in ten seconds is free? By that reasoning and that “it would take less energy if I did it twice in smaller rounds than both of us in one big”, Ash had, with a pull in her gut and the wave of a palm, expanded a shadow by a dumpster and pushed Matt through. The only thing telling her that the blonde made it was the confirming feeling of his shadow falling down next to Frankie´s, who was hopefully fast asleep in the couple’s bed. Last time they had done something like this, both of them had gotten a smack on the head from the man’s girlfriend and a death-threat. Ash couldn’t speak for the blonde, but herself had a hard time to get death to stick, and so she took a sure step into the same shadow with her apartment next door in mind.
After “strengthening her connection to the divine” as Matt put it, taking control over the shadows’ way of will had been made from unscrewing a stubborn waterbottle’s cork to turning on the tap. It was more of melting their will’s together then reigning the shadows’ in - now they actually listened to her. Well… usually. There were instances, such as this, when they grabbed onto her in the looming-dark between and dragged her with all their might, shouting unsynchronized in whisper of, “purpose”. None of these times had the action been welcomed by the woman, and neither was this one as she was spit out from a darkened ceiling into a never ending pipe of concrete.
The dizziness of the fall and the alcohol made her vision spin and the vast tallness of the pipe double. Her shoulder had hit a line of twisted metal that threaded through the pipe’s center, and the thought of being shrunk and stuffed into a wired cable came into mind. She tried sitting up, slowly so as to not throw up the contents of her stomach on herself, then gripping the cold surface of the ground beneath her to ground herself. It was of metal and her fingers grasped the forms of bolts and electric cables. With an ache through her shoulders and spine, she gripped the cable, her hand unable to reach around it, and stood up with its support. The pipe wasn’t all dark; a line of dimmed white light stretched along its length. It almost reminded her of that one elevator in Star Wars where… she looked down and noticed the gap between the surface she stood on and the wall… and the hatch under her chuck. Somehow the shadows had deemed this world’s darkness in need and had spit her out in an elevator shaft - drunk for that matter. Fucking great.
Deciding any other place was better than this, Ash twisted the handle of the hatch and dropped down into the cylinder-shaped beige interior. The light was brighter and warmer but there weren’t any buttons to press. Just as she was about to start peeling the doors open with her bare hands, the closed entrance turned to an exit, opening up to a square room with a similar interior.
And to the sound of fighting.
Ash shook her head to clear her blurry vision and blew a dark strand out of her mouth, while walking (stumbling) towards the noise. A short-haired platinum blonde, suited in dark green gear, was fighting a man Ash thought to be too patriotic to her taste, losing to the man in navy with a kick that sent her flying off him and into a wall. He followed her, a round shield ready in hand as a weapon of offence as the blonde rose up with a knife in hand and launched back at him. Ash, with her hazy perception of reality and no context to the situation what-so-ever, stayed near the edge of the room to observe the conflict. The two exchanged hits until the woman was vaulted over the navy guy’s shoulder, only for her to latch onto his back, making him stop her incoming blade with a grip around her wrist. With a strike from the shield, Mr America sent her knife flying out of her palm, forcing the woman to change tactics and jump off him; attempting a go at his legs with a swipe of one of her own. The guy evaded with a step back and returned a few hits at the next knife-attack, grabbing the woman by the arm as she spun around him and threw her into a pile of crates. At the slow speed of her rising, the man was only a few steps before her when a third party knocked him too into a pile of crates. The masked person’s entry had almost made Ash jump in surprise when they strided right past her position by a pillar beside the entrance, still unnoticed by the rest in the room. The blonde, now crouched on the grated floor, pulled a thin baton from her back as she stared at the newcomer in familiarity, “What are you doing?”
The person’s mask retracted, showing the half scarred face of a woman who answered, “A job,” then lunged at the now recovered man, starting a shield on shield fight. Both the answer and the fight made time for the blonde to stand up, attentive enough to hear the scuffle of paper under Ash’s shoe and turn around towards her.
“Who are you?” The question echoed between their locked eyes but not enough to gain attention from the brawling pair, until the previously shielded woman came flying into Ash, knocking them both to the ground. Ash tried standing, blocking an elbow to the face as the other did the same. Taking that as a sign of resistance, the masked woman turned to her, throwing a quick at Ash’s temple, who was only able to evade thanks to sensing the movement of her opponent’s shadow. “There you are.” Both of their attentions were grabbed at the blonde’s mumbled words, turning like the remaining two towards the newest new-comer. “Another one,” Ash mused at the same time as the man with the shield asked in annoyance, “Now, what?”
“Oh, get over yourself.” The British accented woman who had appeared out of nowhere made a dash towards the man, the guy raising the shield in preparation for the impact, one that never came as the second masked woman for the day faded through him and bee-lined for the woman Ash had locked herself in a stalemate with. Blondie tried to shock the intangible woman with something, which only phased through her and attached to the man instead. With a kick to the knee, Ash freed herself before the incoming impact, ducking as sword was swiped her way in the fight. Fighting both women with her fists, Ash packed a punch into the one with the sword and shield, who got knocked to the ground a few feet away. She tried a series of kicks at the other, though one phased through her opponent, who kneed her in the head in return, spitting, “Stay out of my way.”
Ash’s vision blurred even more, and with no one attacking her at the moment, she took her time to straighten her sight out, rising to one knee then rolling away as gunshots were made in her direction, pulling her back into the heat of it. A knife slid across the floor in Ash’s direction, who slid onto her knees and grabbed it in the pass by, throwing it at the shield/sword/bow lady who had shot at her. Her mind didn’t follow quick enough as the knife was thrown again at the ghost lady, finally landing in the man’s hand who positioned it at the throat of the blonde as she was pinned down, electricity streaming into him via her armguards. Ash registered the approaching shadow behind her but was too sluggish to move out of the way as an arm snaked around her throat, choking her. Her hands gripped it and shoved it off with ease, turning around in time to see the body collapse to the floor as a bang sounded. The ghost lady took off her helmet and pranced with pride in her step to the body, looking down at her kill.
One bang and they had gone from five to four.
The blonde continued to struggle under the man until the sound of coughing and vomiting was heard behind Ash, turning the heads of the four alive in the direction.
Nevermind.
It was distracting enough for the blonde to gain advantage to stand, a gun (like everyone else but Ash) pointed at an opponent. At the sight of the ghost lady’s gun pointed in her face, Ash raised her hands in a mock surrender, eyebrow lifted with a small smirk. A last cough was heard as they all turned to see a man in a matching set of softer clothes tumbled out on the floor from a pile of crates, eyes staring wide in caution at them.
“Is she actually dead?” he muttered in disbelief at the sight of the fallen woman, not taking in the guns until he had stood up. Realising his position, he turned tail towards the exit, only to have the arch’s vault doors fall down before him - trapping him with Ash and the rest as the other entrances also closed. With a frightened expression he turned back towards them, receiving the ends of the other’s gun on him.
“Oh, no.” He held up his hands like Ash had done except with meaning behind it, eyes switching from one to the other in search of reassurance not returned. Ash could do little but raise her eyebrow in question at him as his glance passed over her’s, then sticking on her mundane brown leather jacket and jeans, unlike the rest's choice of clothing. He swallowed.
“I-I,” he stuttered out until a crack in his voice stopped him when trying to explain his involvement in the situation. “I’m Bob.” The words seem to echo in the chamber as if it didn’t believe them either.
“Who are you?” The ghost lady questioned. He just said it Einstein.
“I-I I’m Bob. I told you-. Yeah, um… Bob.”
“Jesus Christ, stop saying Bob.” Okay, so they got Jesus, and the tech seems similar in advancement, hopefully nothing else differs so much.
“Who sent you, Bob?” The use of his name irritated Mr America even further, while the man in question looked over confused at the words.
“Nobody! Why would I be sent? Were you all–you were all sent?” A confused silence spread through the group, as Ash shrugged in answer as the guy continued trying to seem as non-threatening as possible.
“I’m confused,” the blonde uttered and Ash couldn’t stop herself from tiredly humming in agreement.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what’s going on here, and you're all exhausting and my job is done, so–” Ghost lady started, lowering her gun a bit.
“Woah, woah. You see, my job is to keep an eye on you, so you are not going anywhere.” The blonde retorted, taking a step towards her admitted target and receiving a gun from the man.
“Keeping an eye on her, huh? That’s a halfway decent cover-up for someone stealing assets from oxe (O.X.E.?).”
“I’m not stealing, she’s…-stealing,” Blondie trailed off; after a moment of thinking, loosening her finger from the trigger and bringing her hands up.
“Okay, it’s clear we’ve all worked with Valentina in some sort of shadow ops capacity.” The statement made the other two lower their guns as well, a look of similar realisation happening on the other woman’s face. Ash herself was about to object but refrained to it as the slower thinking man asked before her, “Yeah, so?”
“Valentina put all of O.X.E’s secrets in this vault. That includes us.” Okay, all of them were sent here to get killed, maybe this was a sign from kosmos after all. Either that or Ash would be stuck here with their bodies.
“Because we are all liabilities no one would miss.” Ghost lady concluded, making Mr America scoff at her,
“Well speak for yourself.”
“We are the evidence, and this is the shredder! She wants us gone” Blondie exclaimed, clearly having come further along the realisation of their situation.
“Your theory is flawed,” he butted in, and Ash just groaned.
“I’m too drunk for this shit.” Their bickering drowned her words.
“The infamous Ghost,” the guy started listing, which finally gave Ash at least some context. “-Shield reject on the run from, what, fifteen nations?” As soon as the interest in listening came, it blew out as a reverberating humming came from man to the side. Catching her eyes looking his way, he only looked back shortly before turning to the floor at Ash’s indifferent stare. All of the other’s were sent here to kill each other, set up by the same person called Valentina, but the man in front of her didn’t fit into that, so who was he?
“Now, who are you?” At first, Ash’s drunken mind played the words as her own voice, until she realised it was the ghost lady’s, and who was looking straight at her just like everyone else.
“I’m dru- Ash. I’m Ash.” At her quick change in words, Mr America face palmed with a sigh.
“Great, another unknown variable with a stutter,” he falsely assumed. “How’d you get in?”
“The elevator.” The straight answer made the blonde woman raise an eyebrow and the guy to sigh into his hand.
“And you?” He turned to the brunette in his pajamas.
“I don’t know.” All of them now looking at the guy cowering in fear; none of them calling out his words to be a lie.
“Terrific answer,” Navy snarked before dismissing him by turning towards the women in the room. “Alright, um, tie yourselves up.”
“Wooow…No.” Ghost sassed in reply, “and goodbye.” With long strides, she purposely made her way towards the vault door where she faded out of sight. A few seconds passed in observation of her action until she reappeared together with a high-pitched screeching echoing through their ears. Everyone followed her suit and covered their ears, unable to unblock the worst of the noise. A few seconds passed before it finally stopped, Ghost stumbling back from the premises of the door in confusion.
“Oh,” Bob groaned, uncovering his ears after everyone else did, “You guys hear that?”
Ash, with her minor enhancements that unluckily included strong hearing, groaned out from her crouched position on the floor, “Fucking loud and clear.”
The other guy didn't seem to take it too well either, who threw back spitefully, “No, Bob. We’re deaf.”
In the coming silence, everyone seemed to pull back into their own thoughts while assessing their situation. Everything seemed to be pretty cut and dry for Ash, who instead looked over the other properly, taking in their build and gear. Her eyes landed last at the gray-dressed brunette where the vibrating stream of darkness seemed to pulse from. It was… odd, feeling it as it searched its way to her and merged with her arcane connection to the intangible matter. Still, something felt… wrong with him, -well, mentally and emotionally was crystal clear; soul-wise not as much.
As the others had scattered out into the room to think, Bob had deemed it safe enough, now when any guns weren’t pointed at him, to come closer into the center of the room.
“Hi.” His words pulled Ash out of her head, only now noticing her being the last one to move from her spot. With the same questioning indifference, she looked over the man once more.
“Hi.” She returned eventually.
“I’m Bob.”
“I heard… I’m Ash.
“I heard.” The repeating words made Ash slip out a grin, one the guy hesitantly returned, growing more confident in it by the second until it stutterly diminished when Ash’s own did. After a while, he tried, “You don’t seem like the others.” The slow tilt of her head made him take a step back even with their already good-enough distance, while shaking his hands dismissively, “I-I didn’t mean–I guess you fight like the others but, well, they look like they’ll kill you yet you–I don’t mean you’ll not kill me…No, wait!”
“I get it.” Her dulled down words, made him stop in his rambling and return back to looking at her. “Truth be told, I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”
“You don’t?” The hesitancy in the words bordered on curiosity.
“Nope.” A silence stretched out as he thought over the words.
“So you’re like me then? Appearing here with no memory.” Ash tilted her head at him again, not believing the last sentence of his words. Even with a hyper perceptiveness, he gave her the feeling he had at least an inkling of what he was doing here - unlike her. Even in a mess like this was she the most unknowing. At her silent monitoring, his gaze caved away bit by bit like his resolve, “You know, I only remember some small stu-”
A blaring alarm, painting the room in blinking red lights startled him out of place.
“What was that?” Navy asked, Ash deciphering a hint of worry in his tone.
“Doesn’t sound like a shredder. It’s an incinerator,” Blondie proclaimed, as Ash made her way towards the others with Bob a few hesitant steps on her heels. “Two minutes, then Valentina's slate is wiped clean.” Ash then noticed the bright red timer, counting down second by second.
“We don’t know that for sure, could be for anything, could be for when they pick me up.” Oh, please, the ego of this man.
“John, you don’t feel the temperature rising? You know, clothes getting a little warm?” At the statement, he rolled his shoulders to adjust his suit against the change in temperature.
“...Kay, it’s an incinerator.”
“Oh boy, that is no way to go.” Mood.
“How would you like to die today, Bob?”
“Please, just shut the fuck up with the commentary already.” Ash gritted out, clenching her jaw. As someone who was constantly cold, the rising warmth was pleasant at first until it wasn’t.
“Okay, Ghost Lady,” Blondie commanded, taking the reins of the operation to get themselves the hell out of there.
“Ava,” Ghost unhelpfully corrected.
“Sure, whatever, I don’t care. We need to get you through the walls so you can open the door.”
“She tried that already,” John also unhelpfully corrected.
“I know she did, but we haven’t tried shutting down the sound barrier.” Her words seemed to finally click amongst the others as well.
“They built it just for her… there’s gotta be an independent power source.”
“That was the best thing you’ve said yet,” Ash commented, everyone else tuning in on the sass against the man who scoffed, then turned to search for the generator. The rest of them followed his example, Bob continuing to trail after Ash.
“What exactly are we looking for?” Watching along the beams of the roof as John passed them.
“We’re looking for not stupid questions, Bob.” The man’s retort to John went unnoticed by even Ash as her attention was snagged by the Blonde’s eureka.
“I think I found it!” Everyone circled her, trying to figure out the wiring when John trailed in last, shouting a ‘on your left’ before slamming the edge of his shield into the electrical board. Ghost bee-lined once more for the door, speeding up in vibration until she faded and walked through the door - no sound of sirens followed. Moment after moment passed; the groups pounding pulses rising in the waiting. The counter continued going down by the second. 30 seconds. 27 seconds. 24 seconds.
“You think she’s coming back?” Bob asked, voicing everyone’s common thought and gaining no answer. The imminent doom only striked Ash then and there, as if her mind finally catched up to the alcohol. The people around her were going to die any second, and she would be burnt to a crisp, left to slowly regenerate in pain for who knows how long. Suddenly her pulse was also racing against the other’s. A hand gripped hers and Ash looked over to the blonde who had raised her shin and closed her eyes in acceptance. Ash squeezed her hand back, the thought of the young woman dying by her side without knowing her name came crashing down on her.
In the last seconds of the countdown, an alarm sounded.
The door bolted open. With the blonde’s hand in hers, Ash acted immediately by slinging the woman’s body forwards, then turning to push Bob to sprint in front of her own as the fire erupted from the ceiling and exploded them forward with its pressure, fire licking up Ash’s back before crashing her head first into the wall.