Detroit.

Starfox had never been. Living Lightning had sent him a video message when he’d come out of the closet (whatever that meant) and had stumbled upon the Great Lakes Avengers. He didn’t have anything nice to say about the city, and he was from the hood (whatever that meant), so it must have been terrible. That was before it was destroyed. Well, no; apparently the city had been slowly destroyed for decades upon decades, with abandoned neighborhoods and developments stretching on for miles and rotting and spreading like an infected wound. It was called, in English, ‘Urban Decay.’

These enemies they were facing – well, not Starfox and not Agent Hummingbird, as they were to deal with the civilians to try to get information about them – they were terrifying, horrific geniuses and no one knew how far they would go. They were already killing innocents left and right; the local police force, outmanned and outgunned on the most peaceful of days, called in the New York City-based heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with them as a supernatural threat. Their M.O. was construction of machines of destruction, and their motives were completely unknown.

The redhead wished that there were more Avengers coming along. In fact, he was technicallythe only Avenger sent for this operation, but these two maniacs had picked a very bad time (or, perhaps, the best time) to go crazy. At least Eros’s unique abilities would be of particular use, since he wasn’t sure what he could do about the technorganic machines he’d seen. If one were to build an army of robots made of abandoned parts, Detroit was the place to do it. If one were to tear apart innocent people in painful, torturous gore, Detroit was the home of the destitute, who the rest of the country would forget about after a click of the tongue. The Titan knew this only from the view he had flying over this giant, smoking urban carcass.

He knew that if this had been New York or Los Angeles, it wouldn’t have gotten this far. They would have been stopped sooner. He was reminded of Monica, and her home of New Orleans, and a hurricane – he’d missed it – it had a lovely name, Katrina? He bit the insides of his cheeks at the imperfections of all sentient beings and looked to the human Agent Hummingbird as the Quinjet descended. He’d never actually worked with the Agent, only having spoken with her in the halls of the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ when visiting for some reason or another. He was under the impression that she was a hacker or computer technician of some sort. Maybe she was supposed to find a way to stop the machinery using, oh, electromagnetic pulses or something? The camp would make a good base of operations.

He didn’t notice how uncomfortable he was until he was already standing up to exit the vehicle. The Quinjet’s engines powered down, the mighty roar turning into a purr into a moan into a whisper with impressive speed.  Light blue eyes peered out into a desolate lot and into a silence so profound it sounded like someone had put reality on mute. He dared to check, for a split-second, for the emotions, and just as he expected it was a blaring cacophony of terror and anguish and pain, collected and concentrated inside the large structure before them. The empath winced and gathered his calming essence in his mind; a pleasure that would be subtle enough partly to avoid cognitive dissonance and partly so that its area of effect would be greater. His physical appearance to the victims inside would also help because of the association – a placebo effect of sorts.

for agent-hummingbird

For once, Jock was early, but only because he mixed up the time he was supposed to meet Grace. He had thought he was late, like really late. He had rushed to the coffee shop where they were going to meet, only to find he was an hour early. He felt like an idiot but it was better than being an hour late.

He ordered himself a coffee and took a seat in the corner towards the back of the shop. He tried to just sit and watch the world go by but he was too restless for that.

In all honesty, he was nervous about seeing Grace again. Except the last time he saw her, she wasn't called Grace. 

The pair had known of each other for some time now, crossing paths on the information highways as they hacked and broke into things that weren't meant for them. Jock had lost track of her since she had changed her name a few times so to get a message from her, asking him to meet her, was a little surprising.

Characters

Shae Wiley

Grace Hummingbird

Sharon Carter

Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence

The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south-east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile and Rossini, thus it is known as the Temple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell'Itale Glorie).

Known only to authorised personnel, there is a secret entrance to an underground facility where an Italian party meets to discuss a variety of illegal activities though perhaps the most important of which the ability to rid themselves of those who oppose them. One of the women in the murder case was the assistant to a CEO of a powerful company with whom the group had an animosity toward, thus putting them in suspicion of the double homicide.

Kate sat silently in her seat on the Quinjet, flicking through the files on the tablet sitting on her lap, brow furrowed in false concentration. The silence set her on edge, and she was far more nervous than she should be for a mission like this. It was simple, really, the only people standing in their way were a couple of truck driver's at the most, but still, her heart threatened to burst from her chest with it's hummingbird beats. Was she ready for a mission after being away for so long? Was she ready for a mission like this?

She could still feel the fingers on her thighs, prodding and claiming flesh that wasn't theirs to take, hear the taunting whispers in her ear, each memory bringing a fresh wave of rage inside her chest. While she'd never been as stoic and stormy as what seemed to be every other person working for S.H.I.E.L.D., she knew better than to mix sentiment with missions, and even she could see the millions of ways this whole thing could blow up in her face.

She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind in an attempt to focus on the matter at hand, scanning each file as they flicked across the screen. The information they'd been provided with was dodgy at best, only the bare bones of the matter presented to them. This mission was different to what she knew, and planning and deliberating and contemplating was most certainly not part of her expertise. "You'd think S.H.I.E.L.D. would be able to put together better reports," she mumbled to herself.

She cleared her throat, perhaps a little more dramatically than the situation called for, if only to fill the deafening silence. "So." She fought the urge to roll her eyes. Good going, Kate. She took a breath, sitting up a little straighter in an attempt broadcast the confidence she knew she didn't posses. "First thing's first. We need to figure out which road they're taking, because, obviously, these files aren't worth squat." She was surprised at the authority in her voice, pleasantly or otherwise. "There are a few roads going from up North into Angeles city, but my best guess is that they're taking the La Union Expressway. It's new, but it's as bad as roads go, so they've got their empty, abandoned stretch right there."

[20:34:57 – ETA TO DELIVERY SITE 5 HOURS 25 MINUTES]

A nondescript, older model freight truck of European origin (like so many others in the country) clattered along the La Union Expressway, kicking up dirt that had been washed into the cracked, ridged surface of freshly paved (yet poorly constructed) highway. Two men sat in the cab of the truck, detached from the rest of the vehicle and whatever cargo they were carrying in the back. It was dark, the night sky awash with pinprick stars and the dusty remnants of newborn planets that swirled about in the Milky Way galaxy, sadly visible only to the more remote regions on the blue planet, now. The men were uninterested in the cosmic beauty, instead focused on the road ahead, their ears attuned to the rattling metal freight compartment behind them.

The shipment was worth a lot of money. Not necessarily to them, they were merely hired hands, but any complications or lateness on their part would most surely result in their execution. Swift and brutal, their boss. He would meet them in Angeles City, their destination, to oversee the transaction. There was no other entity on Earth like Angeles City, a city built up on the dependence of another nation and that nation’s freedom fighters dependence on their own subsequent vices; the grids of its rectilinear logic had been decided by the people that moved and lived inside it. Built on the ashes of a volcanic eruption and shaped by the sin that dwelled between the half-constructed condos, colonial hotels, and elaborate churches, the city was truly a different breed. The people that lived there were tough- hardened by the yearly typhoons that moved in from the east, the constant awareness of the volcanic mountain that loomed over the metropolis, and the ever-present threat of violent gangs and the kidnappings that they endorsed.

[21:26:21 – ETA TO DELIVERY SITE 4 HOURS 34 MINUTES]

As they neared the city, its high-pressure sodium lamps glittering in the distance and encroaching on the universe’s magnificence above. Electricity and telephone wires began appearing in larger numbers, crisscrossing over the asphalt and slashing across the sky like thick black pen strokes. Somewhere along the line, the conveniences of the modern world had become more important than the beauty of the land. The man in the passenger seat turned, speaking in a rapid-fire mix of Filipino and English, indicating the approaching petrol station and his need to stop. They could use some fuel after nearly five hours on the road and almost just as many left in their trip. The truck was eased off of the highway onto a packed dirt byway that lead to the fuel station, the motor rumbling and sputtering in protest at the change in velocity. They stopped, the man in the passenger seat hopping out and stretching for a moment before heading toward the desolate-looking outhouses that lined the edge of the dirt parking lot. 

The driver got out as well, lingering near the door momentarily as he unintelligently lit a cigarette. After a few puffs, he meandered to the rear of the vehicle, hopping up on the ledge that was longer to aid in loading and unloading. He fumbled for a moment with the lock with the cigarette bobbing between his lips, the reddish glow of the ember the only light illuminating his sagging features. In one swift movement he flung the truck’s tailgate open, only for whatever was inside to collective flinch away from the sound. Forty children stared, eyes reddened and swollen and glittering in the darkness. Silence, only the smallest of whimpers coming from the back, where the younger children were shielded by the ones older (although the difference in age was nearly negligible). He leered at them, catching the cigarette between his yellowed teeth as his lips stretched taught into a vicious smile. After a quick head count, he slammed the door shut again, catching the lock and checking it twice before meeting his partner at the front of the truck, crossing paths through the high beams as they switched sides.

As the truck sputtered up again and rumbled from the petrol station without anyone to confirm that they’d even been there, only the red, incessant blinking of a tracking device’s light could be seen as the vehicle continued on its ill-fated trek. 

[21:54:32 ETA TO DELIVERY SITE 4 HOURS 12 MINUTES]

Since discovering how easily HAMMER swooped in and took over the SHIELD agents, Viper has been playing around with the idea of doing something similar. She’s especially had her eye on a Blonde who does an excellent job of keeping HYDRA hackers out of the HAMMER systems.